forth on that pilgrimage to the land of fulfilled desire, for which their wailing voices seem always yearning through the long, dark, stormy, winter nights.

pyxidatus), perhaps the most delicately beautiful of all the moor's children; it grows in little clumps, each tiny stem, about half an inch high, supporting an exquisitely carved greyish-white cup, sometimes empty, as though waiting for the falling dew, but oftener covered with a brilliant red seal, as though filled with precious wine and kept safely closed for the divine lips of some goddess.

Over the moor are scattered numerous disused gravel-pits, and their unequal, jagged holes give a grateful sense of light and golden color to the heather around them; on the lips of some of these pits grow little clusters of deep-blue gentians Gentiana pneumonanthe), looking like Veritable fairies' grail-cups and sacred patches of Italian sky; while others are chalices are these little moss goblets, with literally crowded with the beautiful willow their gleaming crimson capsules shining herb (Epilobium angustifolium). Tall out like tiny coral beads from the deep and slender, this plant rises in the spring-brown of the dripping bog. time like a cluster of emerald spears, Then, hard by, grows the dashing Lanwhich turn into rosy flower-sceptres in cashire asphodel (Narthecium ossifrathe summer, while in the autumn its pink-gum), diffusing a faint, subtle perfume, as ish purple seed-pods strung on the spears it lifts up its golden cluster of bright of spring give a rich dash of color to the flowers, with their feathery centres, and faint yellowish bent grasses often sur- proudly scans the surrounding heather, as rounding it. though expecting shortly to develop into a pine-tree at least.

Looking across from the hill at this willow herb in its summer glory, its clusters of brilliant flowers rising above the bracken and grass, we understand, with a new sense of gladness, the old Hebrew poet, when, in the joy of some such revelation as this, he spoke of the wilderness blossoming like the rose.

This plant is one of the fairest and yet commonest of our flowers, and appears quite conscious of its own importance; the patches of moorland where it flourishes look, on a breezy day, as though covered with flying golden flames, as the wind bows their proud yellow heads, and then lets them spring back again; but now, taking one last glance at it, we will turn off the moor for a spell, and, with snatches of old Omar Khayyum running

As we slowly wind our way down into the valleys between these rolling hills, we hear a tiny silver trickle at our feet, a mere shadow of the stream-song we shall find again murmuring through the mead-in our mind, ows and woods of the land of birds beyond the heather; and looking down,

above the fine white sand strewn broadcast over the moor (another memory of the ancient sea), behold the honey-colored bog-water glides along, marked by patches of dull gold grass, and the gleaming, jewellike leaves of the sundew (Drocera rotundifolia).

A perfect marvel of beauty is this tiny sundew! Its greenish-yellow petals covered with glittering crimson hairs, and these again holding the diamond-like drop of moisture which attracts and absorbs flies and other hapless insects; for, beautiful as it is, and innocent as it looks, with its slender spike of white flowers, like miniature lilies-of-the-valley, rising above its gleaming leaves, the sundew is one of the few British representatives of the carnivorous plants, and you may constantly see gnats, small flies, and other minute insects, imprisoned by the crimson hairs, and in process of absorption to feed this lovely but dangerous little plant.

Here, too, close to the sundew, we find the white-cupped lichen (Scyphophorus

With me along some Strip of Herbage strown
That just divides the desert from the sown,

Where name of Slave and Sultán scarce is
known,
And pity Sultán Mahmud on his Throne.

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou
Beside me singing, in the Wilderness
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
leave the tiny bog-river with all its treas-
ures, and seek a somewhat larger stream,
which, rising far away in the distant hills,
whose purple heads outline the horizon,
runs quietly through many small villages,
each half hidden beneath clustering trees,
singing now and again as it dances over
pebbles or other obstacles, flowing noise-
lessly onwards through lush green mead.
ows, where it grows golden with the
shining blossoms of the marsh_marigold
(Caltha palustris) or blue with forget-me-
nots, but at last widening into a little pool,
with tall, flowering grasses bending over
to peer into it, and alders fringing its
banks; this pool is brimful of the deli
cate mauve-white blossoms, and graceful,,

Above the glimmering water-way
And little sunbeams flit at play
Where large-eyed kine bend low to drink,

O'er lady-ferns hard by the brink;
These flowers blue as yonder skies,
Seemed smiling at me with your eyes.
Beyond, the grey-green grasses wave
And flickering shadows softly pave
Their tasselled heads to every breeze,

much-cut foliage of the water-violet (Hot | drooping fronds of the lady-fern (Asple
tonia palustris), and is the only spot for nium filix fœmina), great trails of honey.
miles round where it is found.
suckle cling to the hawthorn bushes, while
The water is deliciously cool here, and above, in the thick leafage, thrushes and
always in a sort of half-twilight; but, peer- blackbirds are singing rapturously, pour-
ing down through the thick, leafy screen, ing forth their jubilant music like a shower
we can see the fragile water-violets float- of golden rain. Taking off shoes and
ing dreamily on the placid surface, until stockings, and slinging them over our
we unconsciously grow silent and breath- shoulders, we step into this marvellous
less, as though listening for the spirit of green water, and pace slowly through it,
this magic pool to arise from amidst the gathering, as we go, a knot of forget-me-
delicate flowers and quiet water, and re-nots for some one waiting for us at home,
veal some blessed mystery to us.
in the bird's nest, amid the pines, and let-
But the stream leaves this spot full of ting our thoughts of her smile weave them-
spells and glamor, and again creeps si-selves into rough verse:—
lently through daisied meadows, bordered
by plants too numerous to mention, though
full of interest. Here flourishes the curi-
ous clinging bur-marigold (Bidens cernua)
and its brother, the three-cleft Bidens
(Bidens tripartita), the heavily fragrant
and showy buck-bean (Menyanthes trifo-
liata), with its reddish-white flowers, and
the homely but useful Scrophularia
aquatica, whose leaves, bruised and
scalded, form a safe and swiftly healing
application for all kinds of burns and
wounds; its alert-looking, small red blos-
soms make it easily recognizable. Here
also we find tall spikes of meadow-sweet
(Spiræa ulmaria) and the showy, rose-
colored, flowering-rush (Butomus um-
bellatus), and myriad other beautiful or
fragrant plants; but at last, close to a vil-
lage, a sleepy-looking little place, whose
quaint thatched roofs are golden with
lichen, and bear great patches of the stiff,
cactus-like house-leek (Sempervivum_tec-
torum), believed in as a symbol of luck or
a charm against evil by the country peo-
ple, who would as soon think of trans-
planting parsley roots as moving their
patch of house-leek, for every countryman
knows all good fortune leaves the unhappy
person who is foolish enough to let his
parsley patch be dug up, close to this lit-
tle village the stream turns off at a sharp
angle, and, for a quarter of a mile or more,
fills a
narrow lane, one of the village's
short cuts between two important roads.

This water-way is a veritable fairyland; above the hawthorns, nuts, and alders, fringing the high banks, tower chestnuts, oaks, ashes, and sycamores, stretching their profuse branches across the lane to each other, until the glimmering water underneath takes the cool green color of their leaves, while broken spaces here and there are brimmed with sunshine.

At the water's edge, and far up the banks, the ground is blue with forget-menots, half hidden in places by immense

Grey waters with green phantom trees; While thrush-song from o'erarching boughs, Falls like a crown on upturned brows.

The world afar, with strife and stress,

To reach some bitter end unknown,
Amid this mystic blessedness

Seems but a darker shadow thrown

By waving grass, or whispering tree,
Which sunbeams pierce in mockery.

EVELYN Pyne.

From Longman's Magazine. DANCING IN NATURE.

THE theory, with regard to birds, is that in the love season, when the males are excited and engage in courtship, the females do not fall to the strongest and most active, nor to those that are first in the field; but that they are endowed with a faculty corresponding to the aesthetic feeling or taste in man, and deliberately select males for their superiority in some æsthetic quality, such as graceful or fantastic motions, melody of voice, brilliancy of color, or perfection of ornaments. Doubtless all birds were originally plain colored, without ornaments and without melody, and it is assumed that so it would always have been but for the action of this principle, which, like natural selection, has gone on accumulating countless small variations, tending to give a greater lustre to the species in each case, and resulting in all that we most admire in the animal world—the rupicola's flame-colored man

tle, the peacock's crest and starry train, when feeding time is over. The birds of the joyous melody of the lark, and the a flock, while winging their way to the pretty or fantastic dancing performances roosting-place, all at once seem possessed of birds. My experience is that mammals | with frenzy, simultaneously dashing downand birds, with few exceptions-proba- wards with amazing violence, doubling. bly there are really no exceptions-pos- about in the most eccentric manner, and sess the habit of indulging frequently in when close to the surface rising again to more or less regular or set performances, repeat the action, all the while making the with or without sound, or composed of air palpitate for miles around with their sound exclusively; and that these per- hard, metallic cries. Other ibises, also. formances, which in many animals are only birds of other genera, have similar aërial. discordant cries and choruses, and un-performances. couth, irregular motions, in the more The displays of most ducks known to aërial, graceful, and melodious kinds take me take the form of mock fights on the immeasurably higher, more complex, and water; one exception is the handsome and more beautiful forms. Among the mam-loquacious whistling widgeon of La Plata, malians the instinct appears almost uni- which has a pretty aërial performance. A versal; but their displays are, as a rule, dozen or twenty birds rise up until they less admirable than those seen in birds. appear like small specks in the sky, and There are some kinds, it is true, like the sometimes disappear from sight altogethsquirrels and monkeys, of arboreal habits, er; and at that great altitude they continue. almost birdlike in their restless energy hovering in one spot, often for an hour or and in the swiftness and certitude of their longer, alternately closing and separating, motions, in which the slightest impulse the fine, bright, whistling notes and flourcan be instantly expressed in graceful or ishes of the male curiously harmonizing fantastic action; others, like the Chinchil- with the grave, measured notes of the felide family, have greatly developed vocal male; and every time they close they slap organs, and resemble birds in loquacity; each other on the wings so smartly that the but mammals generally, compared with sound can be distinctly heard, like applaudbirds, are slow and heavy, and not so read-ing hand-claps, even after the birds have ily moved to exhibitions of the kind I am discussing.

ceased to be visible. The rails, active, sprightly birds with powerful and varied The terrestrial dances, often very elab. voices, are great performers; but owing to orate, of heavy birds, like those of the the nature of the ground they inhabit and gallinaceous kind, are represented in the to their shy, suspicious character, it is not. more volatile species by performances in easy to observe their antics. The finest of the air, and these are very much more the Platan rails is the ypecaha, a beautiful, beautiful; while a very large number of active bird about the size of the fowl. A birds-hawks, vultures, swifts, swallows, number of ypecahas have their assemnightjars, storks, ibises, spoonbills, and bling-place on a small area of smooth, gulls circle about in the air, singly or level ground, just above the water, and in flocks. Sometimes, in serene weather, hemmed in by dense rush-beds. First one they rise to a vast altitude, and float about bird among the rushes emits a powerful in one spot for an hour or longer at a cry, thrice repeated; and this is a note of stretch, showing a faint bird-cloud in the invitation, quickly responded to by other blue, that does not change its form nor birds from all sides as they hurriedly regrow lighter and denser like a flock of pair to the usual place. In a few moments starlings; but in the seeming confusion they appear, to the number of a dozen or there is perfect order, and amidst many twenty, bursting from the rushes and runhundreds each swift or slow gliding figure ning into the open space, and instantly keeps its proper distance with such exac- beginning the performance. This is a tretitude that no two ever touch, even with mendous screaming concert. The screams the extremity of the long wings, flapping they utter have a certain resemblance toor motionless; such a multitude, and such the human voice, exerted to its utmost miraculous precision in the endless curv-pitch and expression of extreme terror, ing motions of all the members of it, that frenzy, and despair. A long, piercing the spectator can lie for an hour on his shriek, astonishing for its vehemence and back without weariness watching this mys- power, is succeeded by a lower note, as tic cloud-dance in the empyrean. The if in the first the creature had well-nigh black-faced ibis of Patagonia, a bird nearly exhausted itself; this double scream is reas large as a turkey, indulges in a curious peated several times, and followed by other mad performance, usually in the evening sounds, resembling, as they rise and fall,

to his own ground and mate, to receive a visitor himself later on.

half-smothered cries of pain and moans of the other two, with puffed-out plumage
anguish. Suddenly the unearthly shrieks and standing exactly abreast, stoop for-
are renewed in all their power. While ward and downward until the tips of their
screaming the birds rush from side to beaks touch the ground, and, sinking their
side, as if possessed with madness, the rhythmical voices to a murmur, remain for
wings spread and vibrating, the long beak some time in this posture. The perform-
wide open and raised vertically. This ex-ance is then over and the visitor goes back
hibition lasts three or four minutes, after
which the assembly peacefully breaks up.
The singular wattled, wing-spurred, and In the Passerine order, not the least
long-toed jacana has a remarkable per- remarkable displays are witnessed in birds
formance, which seems specially designed that are not accounted songsters, as they
to bring out the concealed beauty of the do not possess the highly developed vocal
silky, greenish-golden wing quills. The organ confined to the sub-order Oscines.
birds go singly or in pairs, and a dozen or The tyrant-birds, which represent in South
fifteen individuals may be found in a America the fly-catchers of the Old World,
marshy place feeding within sight of each all have displays of some kind; in a vast
other. Occasionally, in response to a note majority of cases these are simply joyous,
of invitation, they all in a moment leave excited duets between male and female,
off feeding and fly to one spot, and, forming composed of impetuous and more or less
a close cluster, and emitting short, excited, confused notes and screams, accompanied
rapidly repeated notes, display their with beating of wings and other gestures.
wings, like beautiful flags grouped closely In some species choruses take the place
together; some hold the wings up verti- of duets, while in others entirely different
cally and motionless; others half open and forms of display have been developed. In
vibrating rapidly, while still others wave one group
Cnipolegus the male in-
them up and down with a slow, measured dulges in solitary antics, while the silent,
motion. In the ypecaha and jacana dis-modest-colored female keeps in hiding.
plays both sexes take part. Á stranger Thus, the male of Cnipolegus Hudsoni, an
performance is that of the spur-winged intensely black-plumaged species with a
lapwing of the same region - a species concealed white wing-band, takes his stand
resembling the lapwing of Europe, but a on a dead twig on the summit of a bush.
third larger, brighter colored, and armed At intervals he leaves his perch, display--
with spurs.
The lapwing display, called ing the intense white on the quills, and
by the natives its "dance," or "serious producing, as the wings are thrown open
dance"
-by which they mean square and shut alternately, the effect of succes-
dance-requires three birds for its per- sive flashes of light. Then suddenly the
formance, and is, so far as I know, unique bird begins revolving in the air about its
in this respect. The birds are so fond of perch, like a moth wheeling round and
it that they indulge in it all the year round, close to the flame of a candle, emitting a
and at frequent intervals during the day, series of sharp clicks and making a loud
also on moonlight nights. If a person humming with the wings.
While per-
watches any two birds for some time forming this aërial waltz the black and
for they live in pairs- he will see another white on the quills mix, the wings appear-
lapwing, one of a neighboring couple, rise ing like a grey mist encircling the body.
up and fly to them, leaving his own mate The fantastic dance over, the bird drops
to guard their chosen ground; and instead suddenly on to its perch again; and, until
of resenting this visit as an unwarranted moved to another display, remains as stiff
intrusion on their domain, as they would and motionless as a bird carved out of jet
certainly resent the approach of almost
any other bird, they welcome it with notes
and signs of pleasure. Advancing to the
visitor, they place themselves behind it;
then all three, keeping step, begin a rapid
march, uttering resonant drumming notes
in time with their movements; the notes
of the pair behind being emitted in a
stream, like a drum-roll, while the leader
utters loud single notes at regular inter-
vals. The march ceases; the leader ele-
vates his wings and stands ercct and
motionless, still uttering loud notes; while

From The Speaker.. SCIENTIFIC CONSERVATISM.

BY JAMES BRYCE.

FIFTY, forty, even thirty years ago, the large majority of men of science, as well as of men of letters, were Liberals in politics. To-day, although the majority of men of letters may still be of the same way of thinking, the balance among men

of science inclines the other way. Most | educational reforms, no less than in mainof them have contracted conservative hab-taining theological tests. Men of science its of mind, and although few give much were interested in those reforms, and parattention to politics, they generally place ticularly in securing a due place for scientheir votes and their influence at the dis- tific studies in university curricula, as posal of Tory candidates. What is the well as in getting rid of subscriptions to cause of this change? Partisans on either dogmatic formularies. In clerical quarside will readily explain it. Tories will ters, and in all quarters subject to clerical say that it is because men of science have influences, the chemist, the physiologist, grown wiser than their predecessors; and perhaps most of all the geologist, Radicals, that it is because they are com- labored under the suspicion of seeking to paratively cold of temper, unsympathetic undermine the authority of Scripture, of or unimaginative, and therefore unable to being the product and exponent of new move with the people. There must, how- and pernicious tendencies. He and his ever, be some better reply to this ques- studies were discouraged. In the unition, which, like many others that we versities he was long regarded as an interdaily hear put, has received no adequate loper, whose aim was the extinction of answer. I am not going to seek an answer classical as well as theological learning. in the investigation of any particular polit- It was natural that, being thus forced into ical question, such as that of Irish Home opposition to the powers that be, he Rule, for the tendency to Conservatism should feel himself drawn towards the we have to examine was palpable before political party which was ready to help the great schism of 1886; nor to consider him, even though he cared very little for the point with reference to any particular their special political tenets. persons-not even to such illustrious All this has now changed. Science has men of science as Dr. Huxley, or Sir asserted its position in the world and in William Thomson, or Sir George Stokes, the universities; and, so far from being much less with reference to the vagaries content with equality, has by the mouths of Professor Tyndall, whom no one, ex-of some energetic devotees demanded cept perhaps an Orangeman or a Primrose Dame, takes seriously, and who has the temperament rather of a popular lecturer than of a lover of truth and student of nature. Nor do I forget that there are many eminent men of science in the Liberal ranks, though (as already observed) fewer than in the opposite camp. Three explanations of the phenomenon may be suggested. The first is that the whilom Liberalism of men of science was largely due to temporary causes, which have now passed away. So far as their political opinions were built on these temporary foundations, the removal of the foundations has shaken the structure. Forty years ago the Established Church was the common enemy both of political Liberalism and of natural science. She feared science under the impression, now to a great extent dispelled, that science was the foe of religion; and as she deemed science and Liberalism to be allies fighting against her, so men of science took Liberalism to be their ally, which indeed it was, in resisting the hostility which the clerical powers generally showed to the advancement of science. This hostility was specially active in the universities and other places of teaching. In those days nearly all the authorities and higher teachers in such places were clergymen. They were actively engaged in resisting

no

primacy. Divines have begun to discover that geology is compatible with the Book of Genesis; it is no longer an offence, except in Ulster and the Southern States of America, for even a clergyman to hold what is called the Darwinian theory of the origin of man. Theological tests have disappeared from places of learning and education; tutors and professors are now nearly all laymen. Scientific men longer need the help of the Liberal party, and no longer fear the hostility of the Tory party. The alliance which subsisted between them and Liberalism is now seen to have been a temporary and almost accidental alliance, so far as they were concerned. Many of them were never political Liberals by principle and conviction; and as the reasons for the old alliance have disappeared, they fall under the influence of the ordinary motives which determine the adherence to one or other party of persons whose interest in politics is a secondary interest, ready to be gov erned by considerations of personal interest or social sympathy.

The mention of these motives leads us to the second explanation that may be suggested for the phenomenon we are considering. In times of political stagnation, and especially under oligarchic or des potic governments, the educated class is apt to be progressive, perhaps even dis