IN painted plumes superbly dress'd, By many a billow toss'd; Poll gains at length the British shore, Belinda's maids are soon preferr'd To teach him now and then a word, But 't is her own important charge, And make him quite a wit. "Sweet Poll!" his doating mistress cries, 'Sweet Poll!" the mimic bird replies, And calls aloud for sack. She next instructs him in the kiss ; 'Tis now a little one, like Miss : And now a hearty smack. At first he aims at what he hears; Just catches at the sound But soon articulates aloud, Much to the amazement of the crowd, A querulous old woman's voice Belinda and her bird! 't is rare To meet with such a well-match'd pair, Each character in every part Sustain'd with so much grace and art, And both in unison. When children first begin to spell, And stammer out a syllable, We think them tedious creatures; But difficulties soon abate, When birds are to be taught to prate, THE STORMY PETREL. THE lark sings for joy on his own loved land, In the furrow'd fields, by the breezes fann'd ; And so revel we, In the furrow'd sea, As joyous and glad as the lark can be. On the placid breast of the inland lake The wild duck delights her pastime to take; The wild ocean waves, His wing in the foaming billow he laves. The halcyon loves, in the noontide beam, In the summer breeze, But we go angling in the stormiest seas. No song-note have we, but a piping cry, That blends with the storm, when the winds rise When the land-birds wail We sport in the gale, And merrily over the ocean we sail. [high; During the severe gales in November, 1836, a Stormy Petrel was driven inland, and took shelter in a pigsty, in Wellington, Salop, where it was made captive, and remained for some time in the possession of the editor of this little work. It afforded him no little amusement while skimming on the surface of a tub of water; and, strange to say, was remarkably tame. Circumstances, however, rendered it necessary that it should be destroyed, in order to be preserved, and it (notwithstanding the length of time it had been out of its "element wild") fully verified the fact of its being easily converted into a lamp by the natives of the Feroe Islands, by the immense quantity of oil (for so small a creature) which was discharged from its bill after it was killed. THE NIGHTINGALE. BEAUTIFUL Nightingale, who shall portray |