Hannah said, "I have a very valuable commodity in my load, so I scarcely feel the weight."

"O!" cries Bridget, "what a precious thing that must be ! How I should like to lighten my burden with it too! Pray, tell me what it is called."

Hannah answered, precious

"The commodity which makes all hardships light is, Patience. Remember, Bridget, that, 'Patience makes all burdens light.'"

THE WOOD-PIGEON.

HE Wood-pigeon, or Ringdove, so called from the white feathers which form a portion of a ring round its neck, is the largest wild pigeon known in this country, and, indeed, in Europe. It is a constant resident in the warm and temperate districts of the Continent, as well as in all the wooded and enclosed parts of the British Islands; but it is less

numerous in the high northern regions, where it appears only as a visitor during the summer. In this country this kind of pigeon is also called

the Cushat and the Queest, the latter name having reference to the tone of sadness which pervades its note; the term being perhaps derived from, or allied to, the Latin word, questus, which signifies a lamentation or complaint.

Doves were sacred among the priests of antiquity. They drew the car, it is said, of the celestial Venus, and were the messengers of the will of the gods. It was a "dove' ever since sacred to peacethat brought the olive-leaf to the ark of Noah; and in the Christian world the Holy Spirit is often set forth under the mystic emblem of a "dove:" in St. Matthew's Gospel we read, "And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He" (both Jesus and John the Baptist) "saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him."

The feeling in favour of doves and pigeons in general is indicated further by the habits of the natives of some countries. A writer in the "Naturalist" says, "The common pigeon swarms in the city of St. Petersburg, and in the country; it is esteemed and

and fondling it."

The plaintive notes of the Wood-pigeon may be heard almost incessantly, through the months of March and April, in most of our thick woods and plantations, particularly those

they delight to build. The nest consists of a few sticks laid cross-wise, so loosely put together that the eggs or young may sometimes be distinguished through them. This structure is usually placed sixteen or

twenty feet above the ground, and it is sufficiently broad to afford room for both parents and their young. Two eggs are laid, which are oval and white, measuring one inch eight lines in length, by one inch two lines in breadth; these are hatched in sixteen or seventeen days.

The old birds feed during the spring and summer on green corn, young clover, grain of all sorts, with peas in particular; during autumn and winter they subsist on acorns, beech-nuts, berries, and turnip-leaves. In cold weather they fly in flocks, roosting at night on high trees of ash and oak in the retired parts of woods. Wood-pigeons are held in considerable estimation as an article of food, and one of the fowler's modes of obtaining them is to be in waiting for them under the trees upon which they come to roost. Like the pigeon tribe in general, they are birds of remarkable power of flight; and when on the wing may be recognised at a great distance. Much pains has been taken by different individuals to domesticate this kind of pigeon; but it generally happens that as soon as the young birds are able to fly, and have learned to

A line is one-tenth of an inch.

feed themselves, they take their departure for their natural haunts.

The Wood-pigeon is found as far south as the latitude of Madeira, and goes eastward to Sicily and Crete, and as far northward, in summer, as the southern parts of Siberia and Russia. It is met with also, in summer, in Denmark and Sweden, but not in Norway or Lapland. The whole length of the bird is seventeen inches. The female does not differ much in appearance from the male, except that she is a little smaller in size.

The Ring-dove, or Woodpigeon, is sometimes confounded with the Stock-dove, but the birds are really two different species, the latter having a disagreeable grunting note, quite unlike the musical "

of the Cushat. One of our best poets, however, puts the note of the one for the other when he says,

"While all the tuneful race, Smit by afflictive noon, disorder'd droop

Deep in the thicket; or, from bower

to bower, Responsive, force an interrupted strain;

The Stock-dove only through the forest cooes,