long ridge or keel?

Because muscles are attached to it, to facilitate their flight.

Why is the plumage of aquatic birds kept dry?

Because the small feathers next the bird fall over each other like the
tiles of a roof, and thus throw off the water.

* * * * *

FESTIVALS, GAMES, AND AMUSEMENTS.

BY HORATIO SMITH, ESQ.

(_National Library_--Vol. v.)

The readers of _The Mirror_ will doubtless expect in its pages some
notice of the present work; although it belongs to a Series, which as
yet possesses but few attractions for our attention. The title of the
volume before us, and the name of its author, however, led us to expect
better things; and sorry are we to have little but disappointment to
report to the reader.

Mr. Smith sets out by telling us, in his _Preface_, that he has
only been able to produce a _mediocre_ book, and at once shows that
his task has been by no means a grateful one. He talks of compilation
and selection as if they were the very drudgery of literature, although
in the present instance he has executed both so indifferently. He speaks
of _condensing_ into "one little volume," whereas the plan adopted
by him has but little of the labour of condensation, his book being
little but slice upon slice, like preserved fruit, instead of being
thoroughly mixed and reduced like jelly. With Strutt's Sports and
Pastimes, and Ellis's Edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities before him,
he might have produced a volume of exhaustless interest and value, set
with hundreds of foot-note references, which he has made but few and far
between. Nay, with the example of Brand before him (for we see that he
is occasionally quoted), it is difficult to conceive how Mr. Smith could
overlook so important a point as the distinct acknowledgment of his
authorities.

A slight analysis of Mr. Smith's volume will show the reader that our
animadversions are not uncalled for.--Thus, upwards of one hundred pages
are devoted to the Festival Games and Amusements of the Jews, Greeks,
and Romans, meanly as Mr. Smith talks of "learned lore and antiquarian
pedantry." Then follow twenty-two pages on, not of, Modern Festivals,
&c.: from thence we quote two pages on the amusements of Londoners:--

"In addition to peculiar and extensive privileges of hunting, hawking,
and fishing, the Londoners had large portions of ground allotted to them
in the vicinity of the city, for such pastimes as were best c