separate in this manner, particularly the Red-winged Starling, among whom thousands of old males may be found with few or no young or females along with them.

Stragglers from these immense armies settle in almost every part of the country, particularly among the beech woods, and in the pine and hemloch woods of the eastern and northern parts of the continent. Pennant informs us that they breed near Moose fort at Hudson's bay, in N. lat. 51°, and I myself have seen the remains of a large breeding place as far south as the country of the Choctaws, in lat. 32o. In the former of these places they are said to remain until December; from which circumstance it is evident that they are not regular in their migrations like many other species, but rove about, as scarcity of food urges them. Every spring, however, as well as autumn, more or less of them are seen in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia; but it is only once in several years that they appear in such formidable bodies, as have been described; and this commonly when the snows are heavy to the north, the winter here more than usually mild, and acorns, &c. abundant.

The Passenger Pigeon is sixteen inches long, and twentyfour inches in extent; bill, black; nostril covered by a high rounding protuberance; eye, brilliant, fiery orange; orbit, or space surrounding it, purplish flesh coloured skin; head, upper part of the neck, and chin, a fine slate blue, lightest on the chin; throat, breast, and sides, as far as the thighs, a reddish hazel; lower part of the neck and sides of the same resplendent changeable gold, green and purple crimson, the last most predominant; the ground colour, slate; the plumage of this part is of a peculiar structure, ragged at the ends; belly and vent, white; lower part of the breast fading into a pale vinaceous red; thighs, the same; legs and feet, lake, seamed with white; back, rump, and tail coverts, dark slate spotted on the shoulders with a few scattered marks of black; the scapulars tinged with brown; greater coverts, light slate, primaries and secondaries, dull black, the former tipt and edged with brownish white; tail, long, and greatly cuneiform, all the feathers tapering towards the point, the two middle ones plain deep black, the other five, on each side, hoary white, lightest near the tips, deepening into bluish near the bases, where each is crossed on the inner vane with a broad spot of black, and nearer the root with another of ferruginous; primaries, edged with white; bastard wing, black. The female is about half an inch shorter, and an inch less in extent; breast, cinerous brown; upper part of the neck inSEPTEMBER, 1826.-No. 287.-24

clining to ash; the spot of changeable gold green and care mine, much less, and not so brilliant; tail coverts, brownish slate; naked orbits slate coloured; in all other respects like the male in colour, but less vivid, and more tinged with brown; the eye not so brilliant an orange. In both, the tail has only twelve feathers.

THE BARBER OF GOTTINGEN.

[From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.]

ONE night about ten o'clock, as the barber of Gottingen college was preparing to go to rest, after having scraped the chins of upwards of a dozen of students, the door of his shop opened briskly, and a short, burly, thick set man made his appearance. He seemed to be about fifty years of age. In stature he did not rise above five feet, but this was amply compensated by a paunch which would have done honour to a burgomaster. His face, his legs, and, in truth, his whole frame gave equal tokens of enbonpoint; and spoke in eloquent terms of good living and freedom from care. This worthy personage had on a broad brimmed glazed hat, a brown frock coat, and brown small clothes, with copper buckles at the knees. His hair, which was curly, and as black as pitch, descended behind and at each side, underneath the rim of his hat. His whiskers were thick and bushy; and his beard appeared to be of at least four days' growth.

The salutation which he made on entering the sanctum sanctorum of the barber, was more remarkable for freedom than for politeness. He pushed the door roughly aside, and strutted into the middle of the room, placing his hands jockeywise into his coat pockets, and whistling aloud.

"Can you shave me, I say?" was his first address to the astonished tonsor.

"Sir?" said the latter, with a stare of surprise, as he turned round and encountered the eye of this new arriver.

"I say, can you shave me?" thundered out the latter with increased loudness.

The barber was a tall, meagre, spindle shanked figure of a man, somewhat up in years, and not remarkable for an extraor dinary share of courage. He had, however, too high an opinion of himself-being no less than peruke maker to the professors of Gottingen-to stand tamely by, and be bearded in his own house. His indignation got the better of a feeling

of dread, which in spite of himself, began to creep over him; and he heard the demand of his visiter with rather an unusual share of resolution.

"You ask me if I can shave you, sir," said he, ceasing from the operation of strapping a razor, in which he was engaged, “I can shave any man that ever wore a beard; and I see no reason why you should be more difficult to shave than other people, unless, peradventure, your chin is stuck over with bristles like hedge hog, or some such animal."

"Well, then, why don't you shave me?" returned the other, throwing himself upon a chair, pitching his hat carelessly to one side, and stretching out his short plump legs as far as they would go. "Come along, my old boy; now I am ready for you." So saying, he unloosed his neck cloth, laid it down, and grasped and rubbed his neck and chin with both hands with an appearance of peculiar satisfaction. But the college barber was in no mood of mind to relish such freedoms. He stuck his Dutch spectacles upon the tip of his long skinny nose, projected forward his peering chin in a sarcastic, sneering manner, and eyed the stranger with a look any thing but favourable. At last he broke silence

"I said, sir, that I could shave any man but --."

"But what?" said the other, aroused by the gravity of his tone, and turning around upon him.

"But it is not my pleasure to shave you."-And he commenced strapping his razor as before, without taking any farther notice of his neighbour. The latter seemed astounded at what he heard. He, in fact, doubted the evidence of his ears, and gazed upon the Barber with a look of curious astonishment. His curiosity, however, soon gave way to anger; and this was indicated by a most portentous heaving about the chest, and an increased flushing of his rubicund face. His cheeks were at length blown out and distended with genuine rage, till they acquired something of the rotundity and proportions of a good large pumpkin.

"Not shave me!" ejaculated he, emptying his lungs and cheeks at once of the volume of air accumulated within them. The rushing out of this hurricane of wrath was tremendous. -The barber trembled from top to toe when he heard it; but he uttered not a word.

"Not shave me!" He was silent as before.

"Not shave me!" repeated the little man a third time, louder than ever, and starting from his seat with a bound perfectly remarkable for his corpulency. The shaver got alarmed, and well he might; for the other stood fronting him

-his arms a kimbo-his eyes flashing fire; and all his attitudes indicative of some hostility. The strap was dropped, and the razor quietly deposited upon the mantelpiece.

"Do you mean to do me an injury in my own house?" said the barber, with all the courage he could muster.

"Donner and Blitzen! Who talks of injuring you? I wish you to scrape my beard. Is there any thing extraordinary in that?"

"I can shave no man after ten o'clock," replied the barber. "Besides, my business is solely confined to the professors and students of the university. I am strictly forbidden to operate on the face or head of any other person, by the most learned Dr. Dedimus Dunderhead and the Senatus Academicus.

"Doctor Dedimus Dunderhead!" observed the other with a contemptuous sneer. "And who the devil may he be?"

"He is the Provost of the University, and Professor of Moral Philosophy thereunto," answered the barber; not a little scandalized at hearing that learned man spoken of in such terms.

Ay-and a pretty dunderheaded fellow he must be to give any such orders. However, I am not going to waste my time here all night. All that I have got to tell you is this, that if you wont shave me, I shall shave you." And, suiting the action to the word, he reached up his hand, got hold of the barber by the nose, and placed him, by sheer force, upon the chair which he himself had just left. The suddenness of this action deprived the other for a moment of his senses. He sat gazing, with a mixture of rage and amazement, at the author of the audacious deed; nor was it till he felt the brush, loaded with cold soap suds, thumping upon his cheeks, and heard the stranger laughing aloud, that he reflected upon his situation. His first impulse was to start up, but he was instantly pushed down by the brawny arm of the little man. He then turned his head from side to side to avoid the assaults, but this did not mend the matter: his face was reached by the brush, and brow, nose, cheeks, and ears besplattered with saponaceous effusion. Nor when he attempted to bawl out, were his efforts more successful: the indefatigable operator filled his mouth with lather, and laid on with greater energy than ever. With one hand grasping him by the throat, and the other armed with the shaving brush, the fat man continued at his occupation, laughing heartily, and enjoying, with the most turbulent mirth, the scene before him. At last the barber managed with great difficulty to get out some words,

and cried strenuously for mercy, promising, by heaven and earth, to shave his oppressor when and where he thought proper, whatever Doctor Dedimus Dunderhead and the Senatus Academicus might say to the contrary.

This declaration procured him a release. He rose up trembling from the grasp of the stranger, and having his face more thoroughly bedizened with his own peculiar liquid, than any face, handsome or ugly, which ever came under his hands. His first care was to free it of those ignominious marks of good will by means of a towel, while the author of this outrage threw himself upon the chair, almost convulsed with laughter.

As the astonished shaver prepared his utensils for the operation about to be performed, though in a different manner, upon his opponent, he had some leisure to recover from the shock into which he was thrown. Indignation was still a prominent feeling in his mind; but this was subordinate to other emotions; and the dread of his sufferings being repeated, together with the appearance of the stranger, who had now resumed his seat, and was whistling impatiently, made him hasten his preparations with unusual speed. Having arranged every thing, that is to say, having prepared a razor, mixed up a quantity of foaming lather, and stuck a towel under the chin of his customer, he was about to commence, when the latter thundered out, "avaunt!" The barber gave way like a scared poacher, retreated some steps, and gazed at the other with ill suppressed alarm.

"Perhaps you mean to cut my throat!" said the stranger, in a loud voice.

"My business is to shave beards, and not to cut throats," rejoined the affrighted shaver, with all humility.

"Very like!-very like; but I don't choose to take you at your word: so have a care. If you cut my throat, I will blow your brains out, that's all." And placing his hand in one of the large pockets of his frock-coat, he brought out a horseman's pistol, cocked it deliberately, and placed it on a chair which stood beside him. "Now proceed," continued he, "and remember, if you so much as scratch a pimple on my chin, or leave a single hair unshorn, I shall send a bullet through your numscull."

The appearance of this terrible weapon augmented, as may well be supposed, the barber's alarm. His hand shook like an aspen leaf, and he kept laying on the suds ten times longer than he ever did on any former occasion. He was terrified to lay his razor on the chin of so dangerous a subject, and re