On a proud swelling cliff that o'erhangs the white billows,
Which rise, in the night-storm, on Schuylkill's fierce flood,
Her bosom half bare, and her head bound with willows,
A nymph of the waters in pensiveness stood.

While she gazed on the stream, as it hied toward the ocean,
She followed each light passing surge with a sigh,
Her bosom it heaved with grief's wildest commotion,
And the big tear of sorrow impearled her moist eye.

"Ah! why," she exclaimed, in an accent so moving,
"Why fated the ocean to feed from my urn!
Where squadrons piratic are lawlessly roving,
Their business to capture, to ravage, to burn!

Where War's giant arm, with his pike, sword, and thunder,
Wastes life's crimson gore till he gluts every wave,
Then sternly exults in his pillage and plunder,
And laughs at the groans of the great and the brave.

Where Columbia's bold sons, as with canvas proud swelling,
They sweep through each climate, and traverse each coast,
From where Summer eternal emblazons his dwelling,
To where Winter frowns fierce from his mansion of frost,
Though their brows with the peace-bearing olive are shaded,
Still, still are they doomed to feel Discord's dire scourge,
Their forms in the damp, vaulted dungeon all faded,
Or their bodies whelmed lifeless beneath the green surge.

O! that henceforth my urn might withhold her small treasure,
And contribute no more to swell Ocean's full flood,
Where war is grown pastime, destruction a pleasure,
Till the deep's sateless monsters are sicken'd with blood.
Rise! rise flickering Phœbus, with aspect indignant,
Thy fieryest beams shed abroad o'er yon plain!
Join thy rays, thirsty Sirius, thou orb so malignant!
And drink up my waves ere they reach the wide main."

Thus said, with a quick bursting glory surrounded,
As mild and as bright as the moon's silver beam,
From the cliff's lofty summit she fearlessly bounded,
And sunk from my sight in the soft flowing stream.

C.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

LINES written by the late Mrs. Elizabeth Ferguson, upon hearing that Herschel had called the planet he had discovered Georgium Sidus, in honour of the present King of Great-Britain.

WHETHER the optic's piercing eye,

Has introduced to view,

A distant planet in the sky,

Bright, wonderful, and new?

Or, whether we are nearer thrown

To the great fount of light,

And from that source, each mist be flown,

That wrapt that star in night?

A star is seen, which Britons hail,

With royal George's name,

That if his earthly glories fail,

The skies may blaze his fame.

But soon in our own land, some youth,

Whom genius shall inspire,

With skill in astronomic truth,

Shall proudly thus inquire:

"What mortal great, of this poor earth,

Gave this new star his name?

Another GEORGE* of greater worth,

Does this high honour claim."

Not so to Britain's royal George

The planet we resign,

We hail OUR GEORGE, a new-born Sun,

Whose beams make planets shine.

Græme Park, January 6, 1787.

* George Washington.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

LINES written upon a Drop of Rain which descended as the author was entering the under aisle of the chapel consecrated to the dead.

SOFT was the drop, and seemed to flow

From heaven-as if an angel's eye,

Gazing upon this form of wo,

Had melted to its murmured sigh.

Cold was the tear, and cold it fell,

Where neither hope nor life shall warm,
Since sepulchred his graces dwell
Who gave to life and hope their charm.

REGION OF TEARS! thy echoing aisle
No strains but grief has ever known,
Fearful, it freezes Nature's smile;
And looks on misery alone.

Why does the desperate mourner call
On thee, in many an accent wild?
Deaf is thy cold and clammy wall,

Dead as the feelings of her child.

Yet the sweet seraph Peace is here,

Lost to the world, she dwells with thee,
And gives from heaven an angel's tear,
To shed its pitying dew on me.

Spirit of him my soul adored,

Say, was that drop of mercy thine,
Beloved in life, in death deplored,
When shall thy bosom's rest be mine?

S. M.

CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

Ansrver to the queries in our last relative to the cowpen-finch of North America.

TO ALEXANDER WILSON.

SIR,

ON perusing The Port Folio of the last month, I discovered your advertisement respecting information wanted of the cow-bird, or, as Catesby has been pleased to beautify the name, cowpen-finch. Having been educated in one of the most fertile counties on the eastern shore of Maryland, and being particularly attached to the studies of nature, when leisure moments occured, I have more particularly indulged myself in the beautiful, but difficult study of Ornithology; when this was my disposition, it could not be suppposed that this peculiar bird could have escaped my observation; when especially my neighbourhood afforded thousands of them. The bird in question is about the size of the Baltimore bird. The female is of a mixture of pale black and brown, with a pale reflection of drab lines from the head down her neck and breast. The male is much darker in colour-of a beautiful variegation of black and violet, tinged with a beautiful gloss. I have marked this bird as very singularly dependent on others of a less and harmless kind for the raising of their young. Yes, sir, my search and inquiries have been in vain in search of their nests, but instead thereof, I have always found eggs deposited in the nests of the innocent sparrow, the yellow bird, the goldfinch, and I have also found them in hollow posts, in the nests of blue birds. The eggs are about the size of the blue bird's; but more of a globular form, very much speckled with the colour of the English mocking-bird's.

It has been my particular observation, that if the cow-bird deposited her egg (she never lays but one in a nest) before the sparrow had at least one of her own, the latter has invariably forsook the nest. This is worthy your notice; but when the sparrow has laid part of hers, she seems to act opposite to the partridge, careless of the intrusion of any other bird in increasing the number of eggs. It has never come to my knowledge of the young cow-bird casting the young of other birds from their nests. If there are cases of the real young of those birds being expelled from the nests of their own parents, the causes have been as follow, which have come under my own observation: The cow-bird's egg is generally larger than the eggs of the birds whose nests it is in, which causes its obtaining the centre of the nest, and from this position it debars the bird from sitting so close to her own, by which cause

they are the last hatched, and from the cow-bird being hatched first, it again obtains the centre and best situation in the nest; hence, from being hatched first, and from their more than proportionate growth, they are always more able to maintain their position, and if the cavity is not sufficiently large, the poor weak sparrow is often thrust entirely

out.

I have always noticed that those birds that have adopted the cowbird as their young, have taken, in every respect, as much care for its safety, and have exhibited the same symptoms of affection and interestedness as for their own young.

I could give you a much fuller and further account of the singularities of this remarkable bird, which have come under my own observation, had I my note book at hand, but at this moment neither time nor convenience will permit me to refer to it. I may, when leisure permits, make a further communication on this bird, as I know no man to whom I would more freely give every information respecting the object of his desires, and no one who is deserving greater honours for diffusing the knowledge and beauties of this part of animated nature; but more particularly for dressing and adorning these beauties of our own happy land.

I am Sir,

With every consideration of respect,
Yours sincerely,

Baltimore, Aug. 12.

MYRTILLO.

THE writer of the above will please to accept my thankful acknowledgments. I regret, however, that he did not substitute his real signature, that I might know to whom I am indebted for the favour. The facts he has stated are interesting; for, in the history of the feathered tribes, as in every other department of history, facts are the most essential materials wanted. We can have theory enough from the mere closet naturalist; but to procure the forms, we must submit to the drudgery of ransacking, examining, and exploring, with unwearied perseverance, the great stores of living nature, for ourselves.

of a less and harmles kind," exactly corresponds with my own The remark of Myrtillo, that the cow-bird is "dependent on others

obser

vations. The birds in whose nests I have found her eggs, being, without exception, of this character. Among these known foster parents may be enumerated, the Maryland yellowthroat, the red-eyed flycatcher, the golden crowned thrush, the yellowbird, and the bluebird: all birds of a mild and affectionate disposition, qualities very requisite in a nurse. That these will, however, forsake their newly formed nest,