blessings, do not forget to pray earnestly, both for the temporal and spiritual emancipation of these your unhappy fellowcreatures. Pray that their bodies may be delivered from their earthly bondage, and their souls introduced into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

As the conversation now turned upon different subjects, we will, with these observations, take leave of our youthful readers. S. S. S.

WINTER WALKS.—No. IV.

THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN.

THOUGH at the period when we visited the Regent's Park it was not then winter, I have continued to append the same title to my paper for the sake of uniformity. The first time I saw this beautiful specimen of landscape-gardening was in the end of the autumn of last year. To a native of the metropolis, I know, it does not possess half the charms of the other Parks; because it is only of comparatively recent formation; and is altogether incapable of exciting those interesting associations connected with early life, with which the heart of the citizen is embued, as he recollects when Pa' first took him in his hand to see the swans on the Serpentine, or the deer in the park— the carriages in the Mall, or the pedestrians in the beautiful walks of Kensington. To the stranger also, especially the English classic, it wants the associations in which memory and imagination so much delight, as they recal the thought of Addison, or Johnson,-Pope, or Goldsmith; or those other elegant wits, lighter moralists, and playful satirists of their age, who often perambulated the Birdcage Walk, or the Green Park, or like birds among the branches sought the inspiration of the muse under the shades of Kensington, or viewing the modes and fashions of the age in—THE Park—“ held up the mirror unto nature" in the Spectator, Tatler, or Rambler of the day.

These local feelings apart, nothing can exceed the beauty of the Regent's the disposition of the ground-the grouping of the trees-the clear and cooling stream which flows through it-the imposing, though unclassic style of the architecture,

terraces, and statues, by which it is nearly surrounded. Above all, the beautiful outline of the adjacent heights of Hampstead and Highgate which close in the view, and on which the eye expatiates with unwearied delight.

My young friends having a desire to see the Zoological Garden, I carried them there one morning while the foliage was [yet on the trees, and the cattle were feeding in the fields. The day was fair and full of sun light, and the sky of the intense blue common to a bright day in the end of October; so that the cupolas and spires, and other architectural ornaments, were seen to as much perfection in the clear ethereal atmosphere as if they had lifted up their heads in the land beyond the Ganges.

The collection in the Zoological Garden is yet in its infancy, and therefore contains no great variety either of birds or animals, but a few of rare occurrence either in museums or menageries are found here and attracted our attention, living specimens of them in this country being hitherto unknown. Of this kind were two gigantic birds, the Cameleopards of bipeds in point of size, and in appearance resembling as nearly as possible the Dromedary or Camel of the East. From this similarity of outward form their name is probably derived― the Emeu, or Dromeceius Novæ Hollandiæ, from which it appears they are natives of New Holland. This bird when walking with its head declined has exactly the appearance of a dromedary or camel when she stoops to receive her burden.

It is probable that this bird is a species of the ostrich, or at least belonging to some similar genera; and the conjecture is confirmed by the name given by the natives of Africa and Arabia to the ostrich itself, which they denominate the Camel-bird. These circumstances led us to talk of that wondrous creature, which, shy and timid in the extreme, flees from the abodes of men to hide herself in the deepest recesses of the Sahara; preferring dreary wastes, scanty food, barren and desolate solitudes, to all that might refresh or nourish her in other situations, so that she may escape the presence of man. How would she feel in the midst of a great city! how sad the watches of the night-how doubly grievous the garish eye of day. Since she made her nest amid the splendid

palaces of Babylon, how seldom has she, or any of her kind, found themselves in the hapless captivity of such a city as this! Ah! how often is the christian also placed in circumstances as unpropitious to his peace-as uncongenial to his nature-to his habits, and to the manner of his life! " I will make a mourning like the ostrich," saith the prophet.

We next walked towards the place where two beautiful animals were partly at liberty, at least they had the range of their prison; these were the male and female Lama of Peru; the latter appeared peculiarly gentle, meek, and soft in its character. They were the first of the species I had seen, and I know not to what class to assign them; from the elegance and beauty of their form they appeared to assimilate with the antelope. Two splendid leopards next attracted our attention. Restless, impatient, and unhappy, their eyes sparkling with indignation, and an intolerable sense of the misery of their imprisonment. At first view the boys mistook them for tigers, and inquired if these were the animals who were " fierce without provocation, and cruel without necessity." On the contrary, though impatient of their confinement, and indignant at the restraint in which they were kept, they appeared rather gentle than ferocious, and we heard that one of them had even allowed some of the visiters in the garden to stroke his head. Their movements were exceedingly rapid even in their cage, neither of them remaining still for a single moment, but turning from side to side, and from end to end of their prison, faster than the eye could follow them, and with the velocity of lightning. The beautiful spots on this animal reminded us of the prophet's pathetic appeal to the impotence of human effort, or human resolution with all its energy, if unaided, to regenerate itself, or to make that good which in its own fallen nature is "evil and only evil." "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye do good, that are accustomed to do evil." Thereby more highly exalting the power and might, and intense love of our great Redeemer, by whose blood and righteousness and spirit, the scarlet of our evil deeds is made as snow, and the crimson spots of our iniquities washed whiter than the wool. From the same prophet's description of this animal it would appear that he is

indeed exceedingly fierce, also cunning and voracious, where he classes him with the lion and the wolf-" A lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities, every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces."

But the chief raree-show of the place, which attracts the greatest crowd of strangers, and which is more to the taste of John Bull and his family than the more erudite study of subjects of natural history; is a deep tank, in the centre of which is a pole, the den and perch of three unshapely bears. The awkward efforts of these enormous and unhappy animals to gain the summit of the pole-not the north pole-and thence receive from the extended cane of some liberal visiter the offering of a piece of gingerbread, are at best humiliating to both parties; so we passed from this scene to the view of parrots of every hue, which like old ladies in full dress-suits of gros de Naples, red, blue, and yellow, seemed to be conversing with each other on the gossip of the day, or from their apparent importance, on the news of the court. Crows, herons, owls, eagles, falcons, and hawks were here seen in abundance. A magnificent vulture stood flapping his tremendous wings within the narrow precincts of his cage, which when spread out would doubtless have measured seven feet horizontally. Some eagles of great size and power were also seen, expressing in their melancholy eyes all the sadness and desolation of spirit with which their "durance vile" impressed them One of these beautiful ereatures occasionally raised her flagging wing as if she would have soared aloft to her native rock, or to the erag of the rock, and recalled to my remembrance the highly poetical language of the finest passage in natural history extant in the world, inspired by the Creator himself when He challenged the pensive patriarch to answer him, "Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off-her young ones also suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is she."

The sleepy owl seemed the only creature at home in this melancholy Newgate of unhappy bipeds. The vulture's eye

was dim with sorrow, and the hawk's eye was closed with grief. The expression of all the living creatures we saw this day, but especially of the birds, was that of the poor starling "I cannot get out."

As we stood before the range of cages in which the eagles were confined, I repeated to the boys part of that beautiful passage of holy writ called Moses' song, where among the other many mercies which he recapitulates, he describes Jehovah's tender care of Israel in the wilderness. "He found him in a desert land, and in a waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, there was no strange god with him." How affecting the similitudes, the epithets of tenderness, protection, and love, by which the Saviour humbles himself to portray his relations to the children of men! How inimitably beautiful are all the cares, affection, and instruction of maternal fondness here exhibited, though drawn only from the instincts of a bird! And on the other hand, where the child of God is compared to the eagle, "how glorious, how royal his dignity among men! Renewing his strength and beauty after spiritual decay, he is unweariedly carried by Jesus on wings of faith, of love, and holy desire;he mounts up towards God, the munition of rocks, from whence he overlooks all the clouds and storms of this lower world," gazes on the sun, the source of light and joy, with undazzled vision; or if afraid, hides himself in the cleft of the rock, and waits till the glory passes by. There, safe in the secret place of the Most High, he abides under the shadow of the Almighty!

Thus it is not only in the beauty, symmetry, colour, sweet voices, or habits of inferior creatures, that we behold the glory of the Creator; but their very presence may to a well regulated mind excite emotions of gratitude, raise a hymn of praise, or bring into the bosom of the mourner some motive for strong consolation. They ought also to urge us on in the path of duty. The following beautiful verses from an American Album will best express what I mean, and shew how sweet