with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.' (Psalm ciii. 5); as does the prophet, also, when describing the renovating and quickening influences of the Spirit of God: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint,' Isaiah xl. 31. It has been supposed that there is an allusion to the moulting of the eagle in Micah's charge to the people to mourn deeply, because of the judgments of God: 'Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle,' (Micah i. 16); but we rather think that the allusion is to the natural baldness of some particular species of this bird, as that would be far more appropriate. The direction of the prophet is to a token of mourning, which was usually assumed by making bald the crown of the head; here, however, it was to be enlarged, extended, as the baldness of the eagle. Exactly answering to this idea is Mr. Bruce's description of the head of the 'golden eagle: the crown of his head was bare or bald; so was the front, where the bill and skull joined. The meaning of the prophet, therefore, seems to be, that the people were not to content themselves with shaving the crown of the head merely, as on ordinary occasions; but, under this special visitation of retributive justice, they were to extend the baldness over the entire head.

We have had frequent occasion to admire the intimate acquaintance which the writer of the book of Job displays with many parts of animated nature; his account of the eagle is characterised by great accuracy and beauty: chap. xxxix. 27–30.

To the last line in this passage, our Saviour seems to allude in Matt. xxiv. 28: 'Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together;' that is, wherever the Jewish people, who were morally and judicially dead, might be, there would the Roman armies, whose standard was an eagle, and whose strength and fierceness resembled that of the king of birds, in comparison with his fellows, pursue and devour them.

In Deut. xxxii. 11, there is a beautiful comparison of the care and paternal affection of the Deity for his people, with the natural tenderness of the eagle for its young.

The remarkable circumstance of bearing the young upon her wings, is alluded to in another part of scripture, (Exod. xix. 4); and many passages in the writings of ancient authors countenance the idea, that the eagle actually takes up her timid young ones, and bears them on her wings till they venture to fly. It is not to be supposed that she wafts her unfledged young through the voids of heaven, or to distant places; the meaning probably is, that she aids with her wings their feeble and imperfect attempts to fly, till, emboldened by her example, and their own success, they fearlessly commit themselves to the air. So did Jehovah, says Paxton, for his chosen people. When they were slumbering in Goshen, or groaning in despair of recovering their freedom, he sent his servant Moses to rouse them from their inglorious sloth, to assert their lib

erty, and to break their chains upon the heads of their oppressors. He carried them out of Egypt, and led them through the wilderness into their promised inheritance. He taught them to know their strength; he instructed them in the art of war; he led them to battle; and, by his almighty arm, routed their enemies.

It is remarkable that Cyrus, compared in Isaiah xlvi. 11, o an eagle (so the word translated 'ravenous bird' should be rendered), is by Xenophon said to have had an eagle for his ensign; using, without knowing it, the identical word of the prophet, with only a Greek termination to it. So exact is the correspondence betwixt the prophet and the historian, the prediction and the event.

In Lev. xi. 18, we read of the 'gier eagle' (Hebrew, RACHAM), though, being associated with water birds, it is doubtful whether any kind of eagle is intended.

There are two other species of the eagle or vulture, placed by Moses in his list of prohibited birds;-the Ossifrage and the Osprey, but they do not call for particular remark.

THIS bird, which is distinguished by the swiftness of its flight, is appropriately termed the flier, in the Hebrew scriptures. But the term is not confined to the individual species of bird properly called the hawk; it includes the various species of the falcon family, which is very numerous.

The hawk was highly venerated by the heathen, but it was pronounced unclean by the Jewish lawgiver; and was an abomination to the people of Israel. Its flesh was not to be eaten, nor its carcass touched with impunity. The reason of this law may probably be found in the dispositions and qualities of the bird; she is a bird of prey, and, by consequence, cruel in her temper, and gross in her manners. Her mode of living, too, may, perhaps, impart a disagreeable taste and flavor to the flesh, and render it, particularly in a warm climate,"improper for the table.

Most of the species of hawks are birds of passage, to which circumstance there is a reference in Job xxxix. 26:

Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom,

And stretch her wings towards the south?

That is, 'doth she know, through thy skill and wisdom, the precise period for taking flight, or migrating and stretching her wings towards a southern or warmer climate?' Her migration is not conducted by the wisdom and prudence of man; but by the superintending and upholding providence of God.

The KITE may with propriety be noticed here, as it belongs to the same family of birds; and the scriptural references to it not being of sufficient importance to require a lengthened account of its nature and habits. It is remarkable for the quickness of its sight, to which there is evidently an allusion in Job xxviii. 7, though the 'vulture' is inserted in our authorized version:

There is a path which no fowl knoweth,

And which the eye of the kite hath not seen.

The same word occurs in a plural form in Isaiah xiii. 22; chap. xxxiv. 14; and Jer. 1. 39; in all which places our translation reads 'wild beasts of the islands,' which Bochart understands of ' jackals ;' but by the several contexts, as Parkhurst remarks, and particularly the last, it may as well denote a kind of unclean birds.

THE sable color of this bird is fully recognised in its Hebrew appellation, which is taken from oreb, the evening. Bochart has well remarked, that the color of a crow or raven is not a dead, but a glossy shining black, like silk, and so is properly a mixture of darkness and splendor. Black appears to have been a color held in high estimation by the ancients; and black eyes and raven locks entered into their ideas of female loveliness. In conformity with this opinion is the declaration of the spouse, with reference to her beloved: 'His pendulous locks are as black as a raven,' Cant. v. 11.

The raven is found in every region of the world. Strong and hardy, it is uninfluenced by the changes of the weather; and when other birds seem numbed with the cold, or pining with famine, the raven is active and healthy, busily employed in prowling for prey, or sporting in the coldest atmosphere. An active and greedy plunderer, nothing comes amiss to him; whether his prey be living, or long dead, it is all the same, he falls to with a voracious appetite, and when he has gorged himself, flies to acquaint his fellows, that they may participate in the spoil.

Solomon appears to give a distinct character to some of the ravens in Palestine, when he says, 'The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it,' Prov. xxx. 17. In this

passage, says Paxton, the wise man may allude to a species of raven which prefers the valley for her habitation to the clefts of the rock; or he may, perhaps, refer to some sequestered valley in the land of promise, much frequented by these birds, which derived its name from that circumstance; or, as the rocky precipice where the raven loves to build her nest often overhangs the torrent (which the original word also signifies), and the lofty tree, which is equally acceptable, rises on its banks, the royal preacher might, by that phrase, merely intend the ravens which prefer such situations. Bochart conjectures, that the valley alluded to was Tophet, in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, which the prophet Jeremiah calls the valley of the dead bodies, because the dead bodies of criminals were cast into it, where they remained without burial, till they were devoured by flocks of ravens, which collected for that purpose from the circumjacent country. If this conjecture be right, the meaning of Solomon will be this: He who is guilty of so great a crime, shall be subjected to an infamous punishment; he shall be cast into the valley of dead bodies, and shall find no grave, but the devouring maw of the impure and voracious raven. The wise man insinuates, that the raven makes his first and keenest attack on the eye; which perfectly corresponds with his habits, for he always begins his banquet with that part of the body.

The earliest notice which we have of the raven in scripture, is in the account of the deluge, (Gen. viii. 7;) whence we learn, that on the decrease of the waters, Noah sent out this bold and adventurous bird, to ascertain the state of the surrounding country.

The remarkable occurrence in the history of Elijah (1 Kings xvii, 4-6,) has given rise to considerable discussion.

Let us suppose, for a moment, that Elijah was concealed in some rocky or mountainous spot, where passengers never strayed; and that here a number of voracious birds had built their nests on the trees which grew around it, or on projections of rocks, &c.: these flying every day to procure food for their young, the prophet avails himself of a part of what they brought, and while they, obeying the dictates of nature, designed only to provide for their offspring, Divine Providence directed them to provide, at the same time, for the wants of Elijah; so that what he gathered, whether from their nests, from what they dropped or brought to him, or occasionally from both means, was enough for his daily support. 'And the orebin furnished him bread, or flesh, in the morning, and bread, or flesh, in the evening. But there being a good many of them, Mr. Taylor inclines to think that some of them might furnish bread, and others flesh, at different times; so that a little from each made up his solitary but satisfactory meal. To such straits was the exiled prophet driven, and such was the dependence of this zealous man of God!

The objection which has been urged against the raven being employed on this errand of mercy, from its very gross and impure disposition, may be in some measure removed by considering that the