day of the year. Crows even, and vultures, as well as aquatic birds,
detach the shell-fish from the rocks, and mount with them into the air:
shells thus carried are said to be frequently found on the very summit
even of the Table Mountain. In one cavern at the point of Mussel Bay,"
he adds, "I disturbed some thousands of birds, and found as many
thousands of living shell-fish scattered on the surface of a heap of
shells, that for aught I know, would have filled as many thousand
wagons." The story, therefore, of the ancient philosopher whose bald
pate one of these unlucky birds mistook for a stone, and dropped a
shell upon it, thereby killing at once both, is not so tramontane as
to stumble all belief.

Land shells furnish a few birds with part of their sustenance, and the
principal of these are two well known songsters, the blackbird and the
thrush. They,

----"whose notes
Nice finger'd Art must emulate in vain."

depend in great measure, when winter has destroyed their summer food,
on the more common species of Helices (snails.) These they break very
dexterously by reiterated strokes against some stone; and it is not
uncommon to find a great quantity of fragments of shells together, as
if brought to one particulur stone for this very purpose.--_Loudon's
Magazine_.

Notes of a Reader

* * * * *

SUSSEX COTTAGES.

We have been delighted with the following admirable sketch of English
comfort from the pen of Mr. Cobbett:

"I never had, that I recollect, a more pleasant journey or ride, than
this into Sussex. The weather was pleasant, the elder-trees in full
bloom, and they make a fine show; the woods just in their greatest
beauty; the grass-fields generally uncut; and the little gardens of the
labourers full of flowers; the roses and honeysuckles perfuming the air
at every cottage-door. Throughout all England these cottages and gardens
are the most interesting objects that the country presents, and they are
particularly so in Kent and Sussex. This part of these counties have the
great blessing of numerous woods: these furnish fuel, nice sweet fuel,
for the heating of ovens and for all other purposes: they afford
materials for the making of pretty pigsties, hurdles, and dead fences of
various sorts; they afford materials for making little cow-sheds; for
the sticking of peas and beans in the gardens; and for giving to every
thing a neat and substan