The water-vessels to their cages should be of por- WILD ANIMALS IN THEIR HAUNTS. celain, and attached on the outside of the cage, the interior of which ought to be at least a foot in height, eight inches in length, and about the same in breadth-that is, for one bird.

As soon as young birds are able to feed themselves (about three weeks old), will be the proper time to commence teaching and training them. Those which are to be taught to pipe or whistle an air, should be placed in separate cages, hung in a darkened room, unless the cages are covered; but the material for this purpose should not be so stout as to exclude the air as well as light. The tune must be correctly and clearly whistled to them, or played on a bird-organ, at intervals of two hours, repeating the tune at each interval five or six times. The morning and evening are the most favourable parts of the day for giving the lessons. While under tuition, they should be regularly but sparingly fed. Some are more quick at learning than others, and should he removed from the schoolroom as they are perfect in tune. With care and attention these birds may be taught almost anything; for the canary is a very apt scholar, and much pleasure will be derived in teaching it. In the strains of those bred in England, the notes of the lark predominate; but there is no bird whose song is more delightful to hear than the canary that has had a nightingale for its instructor.

Many a high tribute has the poet paid to this che

rished bird. One writes

THE COMMON ANTELOPE. THIS gentle and social creature is most familiar in Southern Africa, where vast herds of antelopes gather, yet where, strange to say, every species keeps apart, -the natives of the plains separate from those of the forests, and these again distinct from the antelopes of the plains and marshes; every site retains the species peculiar to it. The general mode of life of all the species is social-they love to con gregate together; anything like loneliness appears to be abhorrent to them. Providential, then, is the arrangement, that creatures of such habits are mild and inc ffensive; for very fearful would be the result, if the vast herds of antelopes were animated by the fierce instincts of the lion or the tiger. A traveller in Southern Africa thus describes the herds visible on

one of the immense plains of that region:

"At this high level we entered upon a very extensive, open plain, abounding to an incredible degree in wild animals; among which were several large herds of quakkas, and many wilde-beests or gnues; but the springbucks were far the most numerous, and, like flocks of sheep, completely covered several parts of the plain Their uncertain movements rendered it impossible to estimate their number, but I believe, if I were to guess it at two thousand, I should still be within the truth. This is one of the most beautiful of the antelopes of Southern Africa; and it is certainly one of the most numerous. The plain afforded no other object to fix the attention; and even if it had presented many, I should not readily have ceased admiring these elegant animals, or have been diverted from watching their manners. It was only occasionally that they took those remarkable A GOOD RULE.- A man, who is very rich now, leaps, which have been the origin of the name; but when was very poor when he was a boy. When asked grazing, or moving at leisure, they walked or trotted how he got his riches, he replied: "My father taught like other antelopes, or as the common deer. When me never to play till my work was finished, and pursued, or hastening their pace, they frequently took never to spend my money till I had earned it. If I an extraordinary bound, rising with curved or elevated had but an hour's work in the day, I must do that backs high into the air, generally to the height of eight the first thing, and in half an hour. After this I was feet, and appearing as if about to take flight. Some of allowed to play; and I then could play with much the herds moved by us almost within musket-shot, and more pleasure than if I had the thought of an un-number cleared it by one of those flying leaps. As the I observed that in crossing the beaten road, the greater finished task before my mind. I early formed the road was quite smooth and level with the plain, there habit of doing everything in time, and it soon became was no necessity for their leaping over it; but it seemed perfectly easy to do so. It is to this I owe my pros- that the fear of a snare, or a natural disposition to regard perity." Let every boy who reads this, go and do man as an enemy, induced them to mistrust even the likewise. ground which he had trodden."

"

Each day I listen'd to thy varied song,
Pleased with the labours of thy little tongue:
Sweet was thy song when morning shed its ray;
Sweet was thy song when evening closed the day."

Another writer says:—

rest.

instances accompanying the flocks of sheep and goats to pasture, and returning as regularly and quietly as the "Such facts demonstrate how easy it would be, with a little care and management, to enlarge the list of domesticated animals, by adding to them many species of such a are at present considered the most shy and impracticable."

OUR HISTORIC TREASURY.

PRINTING AND ITS INVENTORS.
(Continued from page 20.)

"It is scarcely possible for a person passing over some of the extensive tracts of the interior, and admiring that elegant antelope the springbok, thinly scattered over the plains, and bounding in playful innocence, to figure to himself that these ornaments of the desert can often be come as destructive as the locusts themselves. The incredible numbers which sometimes pour in from the north, during protracted droughts, distress the farmer inconceivably. Any attempt at numerical computation would be vain; and by trying to come near the truth, the writer would subject himself, in the eyes of those who have no knowledge of the contrary, to a suspicion, that he was availing himself of a traveller's assumed privilege. Yet it is well known in the interior, that on the approach of the Trek-bokken (as these migratory swarms are called) the grazier makes up his mind to look for pasture for his flocks elsewhere, and considers himself entirely dispossessed of his lands until heavy rains fall. Every attempt to save the cultivated fields, if they be not enclosed by high and thick hedges, proves abortive. Heaps of dry manure (the fuel of the Sneeuwbergen and other parts) are placed close to each other round the fields, and set on fire in the evening, so as to cause a dense smoke, by which it is hoped the antelopes will be deterred from their inroads; but the dawn of day exposes the inefficacy of the precaution, by showing the lands, which appeared proud of their promising verdure the evening before, covered with thousands, and reaped level with the ground. Instances have been known of some of those prodigious droves passing through flocks of sheep, and numbers of the lat-thusiasm for the memory of the first printer with ter, carried along with the torrent, being lost to the metal types,-the first printer of the Bible. owners, and becoming a prey to the wild beasts. As long as these droughts last, their in oads and depredations continue; and the havock committed upon them is of course great, as they constitute the food of all classes;

but no sooner do the rains fail than they disappear

WELL may the city of Mentz be proud of having printed the first Bible-the highest point reached by John Guttenberg, who, after that, was highly honoured by the great of his fatherland; he enjoyed the privilege of nobility, and had a pension bestowed on him. He died in 1468, and was interred in the church of Recollets, at Mentz.

Twenty years ago, a fine statue of John Guttenberg, by the great sculptor, Thorwalsden, was opened in the city honoured by his genius, in the presence of at least fifteen thousand strangers, who vied with the people of Mentz in their en

One great improvement in metal types was made by Peter Schoeffer, servant of Faust, who perceiving his master's design, and being himselt ardently desirous to improve the art, found "To the above description of the migratory swarms of out (by the good providence of God) the method sprin boks I have ittle to add from my own observa- of cutting the characters in a matrix, that the tion. I once passed through a most astonishing multitude scattered over the grassy plains near the Little Fish River. I could not, for my own part, profess to estimate their number with any degree of accuracy; but they literally whitened, or rather speckled, the face of the country as far as the eye could reach over those farstretching plains; and a gentleman, better acquainted than myself with such senes, who was riding with me, affirmed that we could not have fewer of these animals, at one time, under our eye, than twenty-five or thirty

thousand.

letters might each be singly cast, instead of being cut. He privately cut matrices for the whole alphabet; and when he showed his master the letters cast from these matrices, Faust was so pleased with the contrivance, that he promised Peter to give him his only daughter Christina in marriage-a promise which he soon performed. But there were as many difficulties at first with these letters, as there had been before with wooden ones, the metal being too soft to support the force of the impression; but this defect was easily remedied, by mixing the metal with a substance which sufficiently hardened it." This new improvement was of course guarded with the utmost care-under oaths of secresy-but Providence had decided that the time was come for the bursting of the barriers. In 1462, Mentz was taken and sacked by Archbishop Adolphus (a singular task for an Archbishop, you will say), and the workmen employed by Guttenberg, Faust, and Schoeffer were dispersed

you, dear mamma,) and said:

While

into different countries, and by them the invention | to you last week; and on looking at a clock, I found I was publicly divulged. That same year, a new could not do so without being too late for school. edition of the Latin Bible had been produced with I hesitated what to do, I saw a gentleman coming on, cast metal types, at so great an expense to the and I accosted him, (for I was anxious not to disappoint producers, that 4,000 florins were spent on it before the third quire of four sheets was printed. Previous to this, Guttenberg never used any but wooden or cut metal types.

Faust now went to Paris, taking with him a large number of Bibles, and began to sell them as manuscripts, at manuscript prices. At first he obtained five hundred or six hundred crowns each, the sums usually charged by the scribes who copied the Bible, for you have not forgotten that all books were written with pen and ink before the invention of printing, which was as yet unknown in France, as it was in England. In a short time, Faust lowered the price of his Bibles, and came down from six hundred to sixty crowns. The Parisians were puzzled, and still more so when Faust's Bibles were to be bought for thirty crowns, and as many of them were to be had as people chose to buy. The uniformity of the copies (impossible if performed by hand) excited great wonder, and Faust was charged with producing Bibles by magic. His lodgings were searched, and a great number of Bibles were seized. The red ink with which they were embellished was said to be his blood; it was the opinion of the authorities that he was in league with the devil; he was cast into prison, and most probably would have suffered death as a magician, but that he saved himse f by revealing the secret of the art. Here you have the origin of that wild legend "The Devil and Dr. Faustus." It is supposed that Faust died of the plague in Paris, in 1466.

INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF A BLUE-COAT
SCHOOL-BOY.

A FRIEND to the Boys' & GIRLS' COMPANION writes, "that among many cherished reminiscences of her early life, is the following one, which has always been deeply impressed upon her memory." She then goes on to say, that being engaged to spend a day with a most particular friend, the lady of Doctor Yeatman, of Clifton, she found her reading a letter from her son, a scholar in the Blue-Coat School, Christchurch, London; and that from this letter she made the annexed copy :

MY DEAR MAMMA,-You will, I am sure, be much surprised at seeing the enclosed card, and more so when I tell you it was given me by the celebrated man whose name it bears. This is how it happened.

I was going to the post-office with the letter I wrote

"I beg your pardon, sir, but will you have the kindness to post this letter for me? for I am afraid, if I go on to the office with it, I shall be too late for school, and The gentleman looked astonished at my request, and

that I am anxious to avoid.'

said:

"What, my boy, do you trust your letters to strangers?" 'Oh, no. sir; but I am quite sure you are a gentleman!

He then took my letter, and saying, "It is necessary his hand into his pocket and gave me the enclosed card, you should know to whom you have entrusted it," put on which you will see the distinguished name of the HONBLE. WM PITT,

(who was then prime minister of England); and patting
me on the head, he said, “Remember, never trust your
letters to strangers.
I remain,

Dear Mamma,

EDMUND CHARLTERS YEATMAN. gentle reproof given to Master Yeatman by the We hope our young readers will bear in mind the great statesman; and remember, that in entrusting your letters to strangers you might not be so fortunate as him in finding an honest man.

LOVE.

BY MARY BENNETT.

GOD hath given me store of love:
All the things that breathe and move,
I love, I love.

I love the earth, I love the sky;
The sweets that bloom, the sweets that die,
I love, I love.

I love the trees, songs, birds, and flowers;
The summer and the winter hours,
I love, I love.

I love the fairies and the moon;
The balmy eve, the sunny noon,
I love, I love.

I love the sun; the brave, free blast;
Repose, and thoughts of trouble past,
I love, I love.

I love the rich, I love the poor;
The tatter'd beggar at my door,
I love, I love.

I love the friends of love and truth;
Childhood, old age, and merry youth,
love, I love.

I love the good, the great, the free;
In all things I some charm can see;
But, most of all whoe'er loves me,
I love, I love.

"The next day the little boy borrowed an old basket of his mother, and when he went to the whether old or young; and the one which we are THE wallet is a very useful article to every lady, wood he had the great delight to catch two field-presenting in the illustration will be found extremely fares. He then put them in the basket, and tying pretty when worked. an old handkerchief over it, he took them to the schoolmaster's house. Just as he arrived at the door, he saw the two little boys who had been setting the trap, and with some alarm he asked them if they had caught any birds. They answered in the negative; and the boy, his heart beating with joy, gained admittance into the schoolmaster's presence. In a few words he told how he had seen the boys setting the trap, and how he had caught the birds to bring them as a present to the master.