17. The Scratchers have heavy bodies, short wings, stout legs and large tails. They are social birds and feed upon nuts, berries, buds and grains. They comprise doves, pigeons, pheasants, wild-turkeys, peacocks, guineafowls, the domestic cock, grouse, prairie chicken, ptarmigans, partridges and quails.

18. Runners are birds of great size with long necks and legs and dwarf wings. The ostrich, rhea and cassowary belong to the runners. The ostrich is so swift a runner that no animal can overtake it. It is from six to eight feet high and its eggs weigh three pounds. The great bustard is the largest bird of Europe.

19. The Waders have very long necks and live near the water or upon marshes. Cranes, herons, bitterns, storks, curlews, flamingos, plovers, turnstones, avosets, snipes, rails and coots are of this class. The ibis is a wader and is very fond of crawfish, which, in dry weather, burrows three or four feet, just deep enough to reach the damp earth. The ibis approaches the hole of the crawfish, drops in pieces of earth, and then retires a step or so. The crawfish removes the earth, but as soon as it comes to the entrance of its burrow, the ibis seizes it.

20. Swimmers have webbed toes. They swim well and most of them dive freely. They comprise ducks, swans, geese, teals, petrels, gulls, pelicans, cormorants, albatrosses, loons, auks and puffins. The eider duck is an expert diver and goes down eight or ten fathoms. Eider-down is obtained from the nest of this bird, the birds having plucked the down from their breasts to place around their eggs.

Of

What is a bird? Describe the body of a bird? how many sections does the wing consist? What are quills? -coverts? Describe a feather. Describe the foot of a bird. How does a bird make its feathers waterproof? How long do birds live? Name seven birds which are types of the seven classes (eagle, woodpecker, swallow, chicken, ostrich, crane and duck). How do these birds differ.

Dictation.

O happy country life! pure like its air;
Free from the rage of pride, the pangs of care.
Here happy souls lie bathed in soft content,

And are at once secure and innocent.

SIR GEORGE MCKENZIE (1636-1679).

XXVIII. HOHENLINDEN.

I.

On Linden, when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

II.

But Linden saw another sight,
When the drum beat at dead of night,
Commanding fires of death to light
The darkness of her scenery.

III.

By torch and trumpet fast arrayed,
Each horseman drew his battle-blade,
And furious every charger neighed,
To join the dreadful revelry.

IV.

Then shook the hills with thunder riven,
Then rushed the steed to battle driven,
And louder than the bolts of heaven
Far flashed the red artillery.

V.

But redder yet that light shall glow
On Linden's hills of stainèd snow,
And bloodier yet the torrent flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

VI.

'Tis morn, but scarce yon level sun Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun, Where furious Frank and fiery Hun Shout in their sulphurous canopy.

By whom was the battle of Hohenlinden fought? When was it fought? Where is Hohenlinden?

Dictation.

O'er wayward childhood wouldst thou hold firm rule
And sun thee in the light of happy faces?

Love, Hope and Patience, these must be thy graces,
And in thine own heart let them first keep school.
For as old Atlas on his shoulder places
Heaven's starry globe, and there sustains it, so
Do these upbear the little world below

Of education-Patience, Love and Hope.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834).

XXIX. THE BATTLE OF BALAKLAVA.

1. Never did the painter's eye rest on a more beautiful scene than I beheld from the ridge. The fleecy vapors still hung around the mountain-tops and mingled with the ascending volumes of smoke. The patch of sea sparkled in the rays of the morning sun, but its light was eclipsed by the flashes which gleamed from the masses of armed men below.

2. Looking to the left towards the gorge, we beheld six compact masses of Russian infantry, which had just debouched from the mountain-passes near the Tchernaya, and were slowly advancing with solemn stateliness up the valley. Immediately in their front was a regular line of artillery at least twenty pieces strong. Two batteries of light guns were already a mile in advance of them and were playing with energy on the redoubts from which feeble puffs of smoke came at long intervals. Behind these guns, in front of the infantry, were enormous bodies of cavalry.