HUMMING BIRDS.

EDITORIAL.

NEARLY three hundred species of this beautiful bird have been collected in the Zoological Gardens of England. The splendor of plumage, which characterizes this class, has given rise to the error that they are natives of the eastern continent. As a matter of fact, however, they exist only on the western continent and the adjacent islands. The form is, therefore, essentially American.

One beautiful species of this bird is well known in the United States. Passing from its winter quarters in Mexico, it ranges through all the region to the borders of Canada. The most brilliant species known migrates from another portion of Mexico, through California, to Nootka Sound. Others migrate from Bolivia, and sweep the whole length of South America to Terra del Fuego.

Though these birds come from a warm climate, they are capable of sustaining an intense degree of cold. They have been seen around the blossoms of the Fuchsia, at Terra del Fuego, while the snow covered the ground. There is a species which inhabit the snow-lined regions of Chimborazo and Cotopaxi.

It has been erroneously believed that humming birds feed entirely upon honey. Although they do occasionally take both honey and pollen, the real object of their search in blossoms is the insects which inhabit them, insects so small as to escape detection by the naked eye.

The species represented in the engraving, called Docimastes ensifer, lives on insects which hide in the blossoms of Brugmansia. To enable the bird to penetrate the depth of this long tubular flower, there is a remarkable adaptation of beak to the proposed design.

The jewel-like splendor, which glitters in every direction, upon the head, the throat, the breast, the back, and the tail, of these delicate creatures, must be supplied by the imagination, since an engraving, though in the most perfect style of art, can only exhibit what is remarkable in form.

DR. JOHNSON says, that in proportion as we consult our ease, we part from happiness.

CASCADE DES PELERINES.

BY DR. CHEEVER.

THERE is a water-fall in Chamouny, which no traveller should omit going to see, though I believe many do, called the "Cascade des Pelerines." It is one of the most curious and beautiful scenes in Switzerland. A torrent issues from the Glacier des Pelerines, high up the mountain, above the Glacier du Bossons, and descends, by a succession of leaps, in a deep gorge, from precipice to precipice, almost in one continual cataract. But it is all the while merely gathering force, and preparing for its last magnificent deep plunge and recoil of beauty. Springing in one round and condensed column out of the gorge, over a perpendicular cliff, it strikes at its fall, with its whole body of water, into a sort of vertical rock basin, which one would suppose, from its prodigious velocity and weight, would split into a thousand pieces; but the whole cataract, thus arrested at once, suddenly rebounds in a parabolic arch, at least sixty feet into the air, and then, having made this splendid airy curvature, falls, with great noise and beauty, into the natural channel below. It is beyond measure beautiful. It is like the fall of Divine grace into chosen hearts, that send it forth again for the world's refreshment, in something such a shower and spray of loveliness, to go winding its life-giving course afterwards, as still waters in green pastures.

The force of the recoil, from the plunge of so large a body of water, at such a height, is so great, that large stones, thrown into the stream above the fall, may be heard amidst the din, striking into the basin, and then are instantly seen careering in the arch of the flashing waters.

The same is the case with bushes and pieces of wood, which the boys are always active in throwing in, for the curiosity of visitors, who stand below, and see each object invariably carried aloft with the cataract, in its rebounding atmospheric gambols. When the sun is in the right position, the rainbows play about the fall, like the glancing of supernatural wings, as if angels were taking a showerbath. If you have "the head and legs of a chamois," as my guide

said to me, you may climb entirely above this magnificent scene, and look out over the cliff, right down into the point where the cataract shoots like the lightning, to be again shot back in ten thousand branching jets of diamonds.

MY HOME AMONG THE FLOWERS.

BY MISS F. PEABODY.

My dwelling is not in the busy mart,
Mid the din of noise and riot;
'Tis not in the thronging city street,
Devoid of peace and quiet.

'Tis not in mouldering towers and halls
Of the palace reared for ages,

Whose ivied turrets and massive walls

Have stood where the war-shock rages.

My dwelling does not its shadow cast

O'er some island far at sea,

Where mermaids rise through the sparkling wave
To chant their melody.

But I dwell in a vale where green velvet turf

Is balm to the limbs of the sleeper,

And sweet-scented air softly plays through the trees,

To lighten the heart of the weeper.

And my rural home is delightful indeed,

By the shade of cedars befriended,

Whose richly dyed plumes gently wave in the breeze

Where the beauties of nature are blended.

The lily reclines in the shade of this vale,

And the bright roses blush in its bowers;
While all things combine to enliven my home,
My home in the midst of wild flowers.

As a general rule, it will be found that when we have a choice to make, the decision least agreeable to our inclinations is most conducive to our welfare.

PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY.

EDITORIAL.

HISTORY informs us of a law in Iceland to this effect: "Whenever a minor commits a crime, the parents are immediately arrested, and unless they can prove, to the satisfaction of the magistrate, that they have afforded to the child all needed opportunities of instruction, the penalty of the crime is visited on them, and the child is placed under instruction."

When reading this enactment, a train of most interesting and solemn reflections was suggested, on the responsibility, most fearful responsibility, of every parent, not only of every mother, but of every father and mother. When a child is born to them, a creature is committed to their care for education. No other persons but the parents are supposed to have the interest in the child which is possessed by them. Others may have a general concern for the welfare of the young immortal, but the particular interest in such welfare, reason, revelation and civil enactment, ordinarily confine to the bosoms of the parents. Such particular interest the entire condition. of the child requires; for, at first, there is complete helplessness, and as soon as the intellectual and moral powers are developed, even faintly, there are waywardness and ignorance. Means for the correction of these uniform tendencies of human nature are to be applied as soon as witnessed, and they are to be continued until their beneficial effects appear, in the removal of inclinations to do wrong, and in the storing of the mind with useful knowledge. To apply these remedial means, the particular absorbing interest in the object which demands them must be in existence, which interest is in the parents, if in any individuals. If there be not this particular interest, all means required by the best good of the child will be neglected, and the consequence may be, and usually is, the young immortal will grow up in ignorance, and with vicious inclinations unsubdued, to corrupt and destroy in all parts of society where life may be passed. Because such is the effect of neglect on the part of parents to educate their children, the enactment, with which we commenced this article, doubtless had its origin, and is both wise and just. As a general thing, children pursue the course for which parental care trains them. This is supposed to be the fact by Scripture; for this