Or when the moon was overhead
Came two young lovers lately wed;
'I am half sick of shadows,' said
The Lady of Shalott.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.

A red-cross knight forever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,

That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

The gemmy bridle glitter'd free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily

As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazon'd baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armor rung,
Beside remote Shalott.

All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle leather,
The helmet and the helmet - feather
Burn'd like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.

As often thro' the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, trailing light,
Moves over still Shalott.

His broad, clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow'd

His coal-black curls as on he rode,

As he rode down to Camelot.

From the bank and from the river He flash'd into the crystal mirror, 'Tirra lirra,' by the river

Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro' the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
The curse is come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott.

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining

Over tower'd Camelot;

Down she came and found a boat

Beneath a willow left afloat,

And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seër in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance—
With a glassy countenance

Did she look at Camelot.

And at the closing of the day

She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white

That loosely flew to left and right-
The leaves upon her falling light-
Thro' the noises of the night

She floated down to Camelot :

And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darken'd wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.

For ere she reached upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.

Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame,
And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;

And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot:

But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, 'She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott.'

- Alfred Tennyson.

determined,

Most of our California birds belong to the order acWIL as the perching birds. Among the perchers are thrushes. row, and ouzels, all of them good singers; jays and crows, that try hard to sing, are also perchers. Woodpeckers birds are found the quail; among the waders, the crane; to the order of climbers. Among the scraping among the swimming birds, the duck: among the preying

belong

his the eagle.

in..

should be led, by means of living or mounted aided by pictures and books, to compare the red habits of these families. They should, Stories of birds in prose and poetry, thus

seeking not alone catalogues of facts, but the atmosphere and life of the birds in their finer essence.

As an aid in this sympathetic observation, read "Our Native Birds," by Henry Nehrling; "A Bird Lover in the West," by Olive Thorne Miller; "Wake Robin," by John Burroughs; "The Birds about Us," by Dr. C. C. Abbott; "Our Own Birds," by W. L. Baily; "Our Common Birds," by J. B. Grant.

For scientific information, Whitney's "Ornithology of California" will be found invaluable.

LESSON 46.-Both the cliff and barn swallows are well known in California, often building close together. Their eggs are white, spotted with reddish-brown.

LESSON 47.-The jays are among the numerous and conspicuous birds of California, and are of more than half a dozen kinds, all mockers of other birds.

The California jay is mostly of a bright blue color. Its neck is white streaked with blue, its breast dull white, its sides tinged with brown. Its eggs are dark green, with many brown spots. It is a great thief, stealing the eggs of other birds, and all sorts of garden fruit, and is said to eat small birds. It lives in trees, even close to town, and builds a strong nest of twigs, roots, and grass.

Steller's jay, with brownish-black head, and crest of greenish-blue feathers, is a bird that loves the conebearing woods.

The jay described in this lesson is an Eastern kind, much like the California jay.

LESSON 48.-Though the jay often hides acorns along river banks, the woodpecker is the bird most generally known in California as an acorn-hider.

California has eight kinds of woodpeckers-more than any other region of its size in the world. The California. woodpecker (el carpintero) is a noisy bird, clinging to the