, and from flock to flock, the new habit spread,
imitation taking instant advantage of this new source of food. When to-day
we walk along the shore and see flocks of gulls playing ducks and drakes
with the unfortunate shell-fish, give them not too much credit, but think
of some bird which in the long ago first learned the lesson, whether by
chance or, as I have suggested, by observing the victims of the waves.

* * * * *

No scientific facts are these, but merely a logical reasoning deduced from
the habits and traits of the birds as we know them to-day; a theory to
hold in mind while we watch for its confirmation in the beginning of other
new and analogous habits.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
William Wordsworth.

WE GO A-SPONGING

When a good compound microscope becomes as common an object in our homes
as is a clock or a piano, we may be certain that the succeeding generation
will grow up with a much broader view of life and a far greater
realisation of the beauties of the natural world. To most of us a glance
through a microscope is almost as unusual a sight as the panorama from a
balloon. While many of the implements of a scientist arouse enthusiasm
only in himself, in the case of the revelations of this instrument, the
average person, whatever his profession, cannot fail to be interested.

Many volumes have been written on the microscopic life of ponds and
fields, and in a short essay only a hint of the delights of this
fascinating study can be given.

Any primer of Natural History will tell us that our bath sponges are the
fibrous skeletons of aquatic animals which in