THE INDICATOR. THERE is a bird in the interior of Africa, whose habits would rather seem to belong to the interior of Fairy-land; but they have been well authenticated. It indicates to honey-hunters, where the nests of wild bees are to be found. It calls them with a cheerful cry, which they answer; and on finding itself recognized, flies and hovers over a hollow tree containing the honey. While they are occupied in collecting it, the bird goes to a little distance, where he observes all that passes; and the hunters, when they have helped themselves, take care to leave him his portion of the food.--This is the CUCULUS INDICATOR of Linnæus, otherwise called the Moroc, Bee Cuckoo, or Honey Bird. There he arriving, round about doth flie, CHAPTER XLI. A word or two more on Sticks. A CORRESPONDENT, writing to us on this subject, says:—“In my day I have indulged an extravagant fancy for canes and sticks; but, like the children of the fashionable world, I have, in running the round, grown tired of all my favorites, except one of a plain and useful sort. Conceive my mortification in finding this my last prop not included in your catalogue of sticks most in use; especially since it has become, among us men of sticks, the description most approved. The present day, which is one of mimicry, boasts scarcely any protection in the very stick I allude to; and yet, because it is so unpresuming in its appearance, and so cheap, the gentlemen of a day' will not condescend to use it. We, Sir, who make a stick our constant companion (notwithstanding our motives may be misunderstood), value the tough, the useful, the highly picturesque 'Ash Plant." Its still and gentlemanly color; its peculiar property of bending round the shoulders of a man, without breaking (in the event of our using it that way); the economy of the thing, as economy is the order of the day (at least in minor concerns); its being the best substitute for the old-fashioned horse-whip in a morningride, and now so generally used in lieu of the long hunting-whip in the sports of the chase; answering every purpose for gates, &c., without offering any temptation to do the work of a whipper-in; all this, and much more, might be said of the neglected Ground Ash." We must cry mercy on the estimable stick here referred to, and indeed on several other sorts of wood, unjustly omitted in our former article. We also neglected to notice those ingenious and pregnant walking-sticks, which contain swords, inkstands, garden-seats, &c., and sometimes surprise us with playing a tune. As the ancient poets wrote stories of gods visiting people in human shapes, in order to teach a considerate behavior to strangers; so an abstract regard ought to be shown to all sticks, inasmuch as the irreverent spectator may not know what sort of staff he is encountering. If he does not take care, a man may beat him and "write him down an ass" with the same accomplished implement; or sit down upon it before his face, where there is no chair to be had; or follow up his chastisement with a victorious tune on the flute. As to the ash, to which we would do especial honor, for the sake of our injured, yet at the same time polite and forgiving, Correspondent, we have the satisfaction of stating that it hath been reputed the very next wood, in point of utility, to the oak; and hath been famous, time immemorial, for its staffian qualities. Infinite are the spears with which it has supplied the warlike, the sticks it has put into the hands of a less sanguinary courage, the poles it has furnished for hops, vines, &c., and the arbors which it has run up for lov ers. The Greek name for it was Melia, or the Honied; from a juice or manna which it drops, and which has been much used in medicine and dyeing. There are, or were, about forty years back, when Count Ginnani wrote his History of the Ravenna Pine Forest, large ash woods in Tuscany, which used to be |