* * * * *

HATCHING.

The following singular fact was first brought into public notice by Mr. Yarrel; and will be found in his papers in the second volume of the Zoological Journal.  The fact alluded to is, that there is attached to the upper mandible of all young birds about to be hatched a horny appendage, by which they are enabled more effectually to make perforations in the shell, and contribute to their own liberation.  This sharp prominence, to use the words of Mr. Yarrel, becomes opposed to the shell at various points, in a line extending throughout its whole circumference, about one third below the larger end of the egg; and a series of perforations more or less numerous are thus effected by the increasing strength of the chick, weakening the shell in a direction opposed to the muscular power of the bird; it is thus ultimately enabled, by its own efforts, to break the walls of its prison.  In the common fowl, this horny appendage falls off in a day or two after the chick is hatched; in the pigeon it sometimes remains on the beak ten or twelve days; this arises, doubtless, from the young pigeons being fed by the parent bird for some time after their being hatched; and thus there is no occasion for the young using the beak for picking up its food.—­Ibid.

* * * * *

MAN.—­A FRAGMENT.

                      Man is a monster,
  The fool of passion and the slave of sin. 
  No laws can curb him when the will consents
  To an unlawful deed.

CYMBELINE.

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

* * * * *

THE CHOSEN ONE.

  “Here’s a long line of beauties—­see! 
    Ay, and as varied as they’re many—­
  Say, can I guess the one would be
    Your choice among them all—­if any?”

  “I doubt it,—­for I hold as dust
    Charms many praise beyond all measure—­
  While gems they treat as lightly, must
    Combine to form my chosen treasure.”

  “Will this do?”—­“No;—­that hair of gold,
    That brow of snow, that eye of splendour,
  Cannot redeem the mien so cold,
    The air so stiff, so quite un-tender.”

  “This then?”—­“Far worse! Can lips like these
    Thus smile as though they asked the kiss?—­
  Thinks she that e’en such eyes can please,
    Beaming—­there is no word—­like this?”

  “Look on that singer at the harp,
    Of her you cannot speak thus—­ah, no!”
  —­“Her! why she’s formed of flat and sharp—­
    I doubt not she’s a fine soprano!”

  “The next?”—­“What, she who lowers her eyes
    From sheer mock-modesty—­so pert,
  So doubtful-mannered?—­I despise
    Her, and all like her—­she’s a Flirt!