The heat of the season, unless patiently endured, has a tendency to
inflame the mind, and render it irritable. On some infants its effects
are visible in their restlessness and peevishness. Parents, and those
who have the care of childhood, must now watch themselves as well as
their offspring.
A father’s voice in threat’ning tone
The storm of rage revealing,
His flashing eye and angry frown,
Would rouse a kindred feeling.
But where’s the child his sigh can hear,
When grief his heart is rending?
And who unmov’d can see the tear,
A parent’s cheek descending.
Oh, yes! a child may brave the heat,
A father’s rage confessing,
But, ah! how sweet his smile to meet,
And, oh! how dear his blessing!
Then let me shun with shrinking fear,
The thought of not conceding,
I could not bear affection’s tear,
When parent’s lips were pleading.
_The Cross Bill._ (_Loxia curvi rostra._)
In July, 1821, at West Felton, in Shropshire, this rare and beautiful
bird was seen, in a flight of about eighteen or twenty, alighting on the
tops of pine trees and larch; the cone of which it opens with adroit
neatness, holding it in one claw, like a parrot, and picking out the
seeds. They were of various colours, brown, green, yellow, and crimson,
and some entirely of the most lovely rose colour; hanging and climbing
in fanciful attitudes, and much resembling a group of small paroquets.
Their unusual note, somewhat like the quick chirp of linnets, but much
louder, first attracted attention. The observer had repeated
opportunities of viewing them to the greatest advantage, by means of a
small telescope. They also eat excrescent knobs, or the insects formed
therein by the _cynips_, at the ends of the young spruce branches. These
birds are natives of Germany and the Pyrenees, and are very rarely seen
in England. It was remarked, that the same mandible of the bill crossed
on the right side in some birds, and on the left in others.[209]
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