src="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@23742@23742-h@images@i-047.jpg" alt="MOUND MAKING MEGAPODE." title="" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}img"/> MOUND MAKING MEGAPODE.

Besides these birds Mr. Brown presented Charley with a glass case containing a number of different kinds of Humming Birds stuffed so as to look alive and some of them perched on artificial trees, and others attached to concealed wires, so as to appear as if they were flying. (See frontispiece.) This case of Humming Birds was the chief ornament of the Museum; greatly was Charley's delight at being its possessor.

Mr. Wilson, the great ornithologist, says, "I have seen the humming bird, for half an hour at a time, darting at those little groups of insects that dance in the air, on a fine summer evening, retiring to an adjoining twig to rest, and renewing the attack with a dexterity that set all other fly-catchers at defiance." Their feet are small and slender, but having long claws, and, in consequence they seldom alight upon the ground, but perch easily on branches, from which also they generally suspend themselves when sleeping, with their heads downwards. Their tail is broad. Their nests, about an inch in diameter, and as much in breadth, are very compactly formed, the outer coat of grey lichen, and lined with the fine down plucked from the stalks of the fern and other herbs, and are fixed to the side of a branch or the moss-grown side of a tree so artificially, that they appear, when viewed from below, mere mossy knots, or accidental protuberances. They are bold and pugnacious, two males seldom meeting on the same bush or flower without a battle; and the intrepidity of the female, when defending her young, is not less remarkable. They attack the eyes of the larger birds, when their needle-like bill is truly a formidable weapon; and it is affirmed, that if they perceive a man climbing the tree where their nests are, they fly at his face, and strike him also in the eyes. Most of the species lay only two eggs, and some of them only one. They have been tamed—a female, with her nest and eggs, brought from Jamaica to England, was fed with honey and water on the passage, and the young ones, when hatched, readily took honey from the lips of the lady to whom they were presented, and one, at least, survived two months after their arrival.

HOW CHARLEY ARRANGED HIS MUSEUM.

After uncle Brown had gone home, Charley determined he would begin to be industrious at once. So he went up to his room, and began to arrange his shelves, which his father had put up for the purpose. As he put each one in its place, he examined it very carefully, and tried to recall every thing his uncle had told him about it, so that it might be fixed fast and clear in his memory, for he wished to tell his father and mother and his favorite playmates the wonderful things he had heard. He looked sharp too, to find in them other curious things, which his uncle Brown hadn't mentioned, that he might ask him about them when he came out again, or hunt them up in the books his uncle was to bring him.

As fast, as he put up a bird or shell, he wrote down, on a slip of stout paper, in a large, neat hand (for he was quite a nice penman) the place and name of the bird, or animal, that once lived in the shell, and where was its native place, and fastened it with tacks above it.

Though he worked very steadily, it occupied all his spare time, out of school, for several days.

Next he asked his father to get him a good sized blank book to make a catalogue of his Museum, which his father did very willingly. Then Charley wrote down in this the name and the native place of each of his birds, and under this he recorded all his uncle told him about them. He left besides, under each name, a page or two blank, so that he might have room to set down whatever else he might find out about them.

All this took his spare hours for several days more, and after finishing his labels on his Museum and his Catalogue, he felt quite proud of their orderly and neat appearance and he had good reason to feel satisfied for they made a very pretty show. Then he invited his father and mother to walk up and see what he had done, for he had before requested them not to come up, till he got ready for them. They were both very much pleased with all his doings, and praised him a good deal. They said, they hoped that he would be as neat and orderly in all he did, as he had been here, for it would help him very much in his studies or in his business matters. They told him there was a good saying, which he had better write down and put up over his little desk, so that he could often see it, "A place for every thing, and every thing in its place." They said, too, it was an excellent plan to write down, as he had in his catalogue, all the particulars he knew about anything, for he could understand and remember them better, when they had once been all put on paper.

STUFFED SKINS.

"Now, Charley," said Mr. Brown at his next visit, "I've got some new curiosities for your Museum; that is, stuffed animals. You know I told you, about your birds, that the skin was taken off carefully and filled out plumply with some dry, soft substance. Just so it is with these animals."

ERMINE IN HIS SUMMER DRESS.

Here, first, look at this Ermine, which, for a very long while, has been so famous for its beautiful fur, that kings and nobles have paid a high price for it to trim their robes, This fur in summer is dark colored, but in winter it is an elegant white, except on the tip of the tail, where it is jet black.

The Ermine lives in the northern parts of the Old and New Worlds, and it preys on hares and rabbits and almost every other creature it is strong enough to master.

I will tell you a story about the Ermine. Mr. Sturgis, of Boston, was formerly engaged in trading with the natives on the north west-coast of America, for furs.

The natives had no currency. But the skin of the Ermine, found in limited numbers upon the northern part of the continent, was held in such universal estimation, and of such uniform value, among many tribes, that it in a measure supplied the place of currency. The skin of this little slender animal is from eight to twelve inches in length, perfectly white, except the tip of