other side of the hill. Now he evidently perceived us, and redoubled his warnings, swooping round and circling directly over us. In a few seconds all was over. Away went the hinds. Last of all uprose the stag himself, slowly and leisurely; at first looking round him proudly, as if disdaining to take alarm from so slight a cause, and at the same moment revealing his grand proportions and his magnificent spreading antlers. Then, having apparently made up his mind in which direction to retreat, he trotted up the side of the corrie in the track of the fugitive hinds. Presently we saw the whole herd slacken their pace, and one by one disappear over the hill; until, at last, "the monarch of the glen" himself loomed in the dark profile on the sky-line, and then vanished from our sight.

SUMMARY.-A party of sportsmen went out to shoot deer. They tried to approach the animals without being seen by them. In a beautiful glen they saw a large stag lying down, and several hinds grazing near. The sportsmen might have been able to get near the stag had not a large raven appeared, and by his loud croaking warned the deer of their danger in time for them to make their escape.

WORD LESSON.

Corrie, a narrow glen. Stag, or red-deer, a large species of deer, generally of a reddish brown colour on the upper parts of the body, and white beneath. The male is called stag or hart; the female, hind; and the young one has the name of fawn. The antlers or horns of the stag are large and much branched. Raven, a bird of the crow tribe, known by its large size, its plumage being of a bluish black colour, and its tail roundish at the end. The flesh of the raven is eaten by the inhabitants of Greenland, and the skin, with the feathers on, is a warm under-garment. Birch, a forest tree easily known by the smooth appearance and silvery colour of its bark, its small leaves, and slender flexible branches. Its wood is used by turners and wheel-wrights. The charcoal made from the birch is much esteemed. The twigs of the tree are made into brooms. Burn, a small stream, or brook.

BIRDS. Many birds are identical in species from pole to pole, ranging, too, over both hemispheres. Such are chiefly birds of prey, waders, and sea-fowl. For the rest, those remarkable for brilliant plumage are characteristic of tropical countries, as the flamingo, peacock, parrots, humming-birds. So are some of the largest known, as the ostrich of sandy Africa and the cassowary of South-eastern Asia. The condor of the Andes can scarcely be called tropical, as it chooses

great altitudes, and ranges to Magellan's Straits. The song-birds belong mostly to the temperate regions of Africa and Europe; the gallinaceous to Western Asia, though now widely acclimatized.

REPTILES. Of all reptiles frogs have the widest range, reaching from near the arctic circle to 50 degs. south latitude, and gaining their greatest perfection in Java. The largest and ugliest toad is that of Surinam; and there are species in Brazil and Carolina 10 or 12 inches long. Without exception, American reptiles are distinct from those of the Old World, and the Australian from the Asiatic, of which few are like the African or European. The most gigantic and powerful serpents are the boa of the tropical forests in South America, and pythons representing them in Africa. Many snakes of India, Egypt, Africa, North America, and Australia, are poisonous, but limited in their range; the common viper is that which has the widest, extending over most of the cool latitudes of Europe and Asia.

The crocodiles of the large rivers of Africa and Asia are represented by the alligator of America, the gavial of India, and an Australian species. Lizards represent this family in Southern Europe and Asia, but appear sparingly towards the north.

The East Indies exhibit large and beautiful landtortoises, and there is a species in the Galapagos Islands weighing more than a quarter of a ton; but those of Europe are small. America is the country of river tortoises; but there are large and voracious fresh-water turtles in the Nile, the Ganges, and the

Euphrates. The sea-turtles used as food belong to the tropical waters of the western hemispheres, but those prized for the shell chiefly to the eastern.

Reptiles of whatever kind are almost unknown in the islands of the Pacific, Tierra del Fuego, the Falklands, and Ireland.

The abundance of insect life within the tropics is inconceivable to those who have had no personal experience of the fact. In Brazil, Guinea, and the Indian Archipelago, it displays the greatest variety of form, as well as size, activity, and brilliancy of colour.

MARINE FAUNA-HORIZONTAL DISTRIBUTION.The seas of the torrid zone exhibit the greatest variety of genera, kinds, and species; those of colder latitudes are characterized by immense numbers of individuals, with little variety of kind. Also the shells and fishes of the tropics display brilliant colours in comparison

with those of the Arctic Regions. The sperm whale keeps to the Pacific Ocean, and the right whale to the cold waters of high latitudes, where the seal and walrus, unknown in the torrid zone, occur in thousands.

The sharks have their head-quarters within the tropics; the tunny is located in the mild waters of the Mediterranean; but the cod, ling, herring, salmon, with others which we prize as food, attain perfection only in the colder seas. The coral insect builds only

in the warmest.

BATHYMETRICAL DISTRIBUTION,-Every depth of ocean, as well as every horizontal climate, has its characteristic inhabitants. The littoral zone of our own seas has such shell-fish as periwinkles, mussels, limpets, cockles; the laminarium exhibits star-fishes, sea-urchins, and the like; in the coralline, the ordinary shore shells disappear, and clams, trumpet-shells, &c., are found; in the coral zone there are