THE NIGHT-JAR (_Caprimulgus Europæus_), ii., 72.
Chat Moss, and other out of the way moors.
THE COMMON PHEASANT (_Phasianus colchicus_), iii., 169.
[30: "A Year in a Lancashire Garden," p. 27.]
As he who southward sails, beholds each night, New constellations rise, all clear and fair; So, o'er the waters of the world, as we Reach the mid zone of life, or go beyond, Beauty and bounty still beset our course; New beauties wait upon us everywhere, New lights enlighten, and new worlds attract.
The immense value of the Manchester libraries to the student of Natural History has already been mentioned. Treasure-houses at all times, it is impossible to over-estimate the privileges they confer on rainy days. "Some days," says the poet, must needs be "dark and dreary." We have all, at some time or other, had our plans and projects baffled by the wet, and very disappointing it certainly is, when a nice party has been made up for an afternoon's pleasure in the country, to see the sky grow black and the drops begin to fall, with not a chance of its clearing up until too late to go. But the streets lead the way to as much pleasure, after another manner, as the field-paths. It is nothing but a thoughtless mistake which lauds the country at the expense of the town, crying out that God made the one, but that the other is the work of man. Each is complementary to the other; each, as with the sexes, affords pleasures which itself only can give; each is best in turn, and full of compensation, and whatever may be thought of the adjacent country, no town is more enjoyable to the intelligent, by virtue simply and sufficiently of its Free Libraries, than Manchester. With these inexpressibly precious stores at perfect command, the private property, virtually, of every man who takes interest in their contents, let none, then, ever deplore rain, or piercing winds, mud, snow, sleet, or any species of atmospheric hindrance to rural pleasure. More lies within the walls of our three great Free Libraries than a life-time is sufficient to consume. To the student of wild nature they are peculiarly valuable, since they supply interpretation of everything that can possibly come before him in the fields.