birds had the plumage of the cock bird upon the breast, and of the hen bird upon the back, and neither testes nor ovaries could be found on dissection. At the same meeting, Mr. Bartlett stated that a herring gull (Laurus argentatus) which was bred in the Society's Gardens, two years ago, was in the habit of passing the winter in the gardens, and absenting itself during the summer months, as it was supposed, for the purpose of breeding. EXTRAORDINARY ATTACK. A few days ago, as a gentleman was walking one evening, near Corscombe, near Beaminster, in a wood near to that place, he all of a sudden felt a sharp pang on the back of his leg; he turned round, and to his utter astonishment, saw a large badger. The brute succeeded in reaching his waist. The gentleman had nothing but a small walking stick with him at the time. The badger threw him down, and would eventually, without doubt, have succeeded in fixing his dangerous fangs in his throat, when his cries summoned the timely help of a labourer working in a field adoining the copse, who rescued him from his perilous position, much bruised and hurt. THE ELEPHANT'S REVENGE. When in 1858, Batty's collection of wild beasts visited Cambridge, amongst the visitors was a blacksmith, who feeling inclined to test the elephant's knowledge of good and evil, first placed a piece of bread within its reach, which soon disappeared; he then offered him a piece well dressed with mustard, which, on a slight examination, was rejected. The blacksmith departed for the time, but returned in about an hour with another present. The sagacious animal, however, was determined to repay with interest the trick which had been attempted to be played upon him, and gave the man a box on the ear with his trunk, which caused him to measure his length on the floor some yards distant from the spot where he had been standing, more to the amusement of the assembled company than his own comfort for days afterwards. THE PORCUPINE (Hystrix cristata). This singular animal is supposed by many authors to be originally of African descent, though found in several warm parts of Europe. It seems to have been known to Shakspeare, who has described some of its odd qualities. It is a burrowing, harmless creature, shewing no desire to assail man, notwithstanding its possession of formidable means of offence, as well as of protection, unless it is provoked. The quills cannot, as it is commonly supposed, be used as darts by the quadruped, when enraged; yet they are capable when incautiously handled, of inflicting severe wounds, and causing great pain to the injured part. The porcupine feeds entirely on vegetables, and its flesh is eaten, not only in Africa, but also in many parts of Europe, where its young are produced; nor can there be any proofs adduced against the wholesomeness of the table delicacy. The feet of the animal are strong; the fore pair having four toes each, as well as a rudimentary thumb; while each hind foot has five stout toes. It is not difficult to tame to a considerable degree, when the process is commenced at an early period of the creature's existence.-CAPTAIN J. R. A FELINE FISHER. A Stockport paper tells a story of a cat belonging to a householder in that town, which has been in the habit of regularly bringing home every morning a plump member of the finny tribe. At length a watch was set. Comfortably seating herself upon the banks of a well-stocked reservoir in the neigbourhood, pussy watched the movements of the fish until an opportunity offered for making a capture. Shortly, a goodly fish presented itself near the surface, when in pounced the cat, and almost instantly swam back to the bank with its prize, which was soon carried home as usual. It had long been suspected that the reservoir was plundered by a different species of poachers. THE BULLFINCH AND HIS CHARACTERISTICS. A very handsome, fascinating fellow is "Master Bully." Only look at his fine black hood, and his rich carmine breast! His twisting and bowing motions, too,-how infinitely amusing! He has a world of fun within him, and he lets it ooze out as he sits on some favourite twig. Should you approach him unobserved, his antics, within sight of his ladye-love (who doats on his performances for her own especial benefit), would send you home screaming with laughter. "A bird has no language!" Who says so? "Bully" has a whole alphabet to himself, and he has a band of music in every letter of it. Every letter, too, has a double meaning in it. Thus only can we describe our individual opinion of his character, habits, and feeling.-Kidd's Treatise on the Bulifinch, &c. ANSWERS TO QUERIES. GLOW-WORMS (p. 277).-The female glow-worm is a soft worm-like creature, while the male is an undoubted beetle, furnished with wings and wingcases, like most of the order. The female being by far the most luminous, is known to most persons, but the male would scarcely attract notice from any but an entomologist, and is so different in appearance from his spouse, that their relationship would hardly be suspected. The larva is luminous, and not much unlike the perfect female, but with yellow spots along the sides. I have frequently kept them for weeks in a glass bottle with a little earth and grass, and have reared both sexes from them without any further trouble. QUERIES. Magpie Superstition.-I heard the other evening a dispute in a company as to the proper way which our peasants consider almost as portentous of reading the auguries of the Magpie, a bird as the owl, only it brings sometimes a good omen, which the owl never does that I am aware of. One person in the company read the popular rhyme thus: I have hung the bottle at my bed-head, and by holding it close to the face of my watch, ascertained the hour of the night. They belong to a carnivorous group, but will live long without spe. cial feeding. The prevailing idea regarding the light, has been that it was due to a phosphoric substance, set glowing by the oxygen imbibed in respiration, but Kölliker has published some observations leading to the conclusion that the luminous organs are a nervous apparatus, put in action by whatever excites the nerves; chemical and mechanical experiments support this view.-right. G. GUYON. SEA ANEMONES (p. 277).-The stinging power of sea anemones is due to barbed wires or darts, which exist in myriads in the tentacles, &c., and especially in the white threads which many species eject when irritated; an acrid fluid is at the same time, infused into the wounds. The effect is deadly on small fish and other marine creatures, but very trifling on the human skin. There is an elaborate description of this apparatus in Cope's "Evenings at the Microscope." The sea anemones eject their young from the mouth, several at a time, minute, but fully formed, except that the tentacles are few in number; the little creatures immediately attach themselves to some object, and set up on their own account, being quite capable of getting their own living.-G. GUYON. BARLESTONE GRUBS (p. 277).-Several summers since I got, near the sea-coast of East Lothian, some large caterpillars, as large almost as some of the Death's Head Moths," that were of a black colour, with many markings of red throughout the whole body. At first I was inclined to hope they would live with me until they changed into the perfect state; but I found soon that I had not obtained the proper food of the species: so much to my sorrow, they all perished, as caterpillars. You should seek carefully the food of these creatures, for sometimes they will eat leaves once or twice, which are not precisely their natural food, and then reject them, leaving you in doubt what to do in this emergency. All entomologists have had this difficulty to contend with; the only way, therefore, is to take care, at the time of catching caterpillars, to secure also a portion of their proper food, commonly to be found in the neighbourhood of the spot, where larvæ are captured. My caterpillars were evidently those of a large phalana: they had each 16 feet, and were rather hairy all over the burly body.-CAPT. J. R. Microscopic Journal, vol. vi, p. 166. "One's (Magpie) grief, two's mirth, Three's a marriage, and four's a birth." Kyloe Cows.-Can any of your readers inform 99 She put out her horns like a Kyloe Cow; count of the means adopted for the training of A Piebald Horse.-The common people in our country say that if you see a piebald horse, and wish for something directly, you are sure to have it. Well, I saw one the other day, and wished for a pair of skates, and a chance to use them. The skates have not come yet, although the ice seems coming. Shall I get them, do you think? And if so, what will the sight of the horse have to do with it ?-A SUSSEX SCHOOLBOY. INSECTS. In order to understand anything of the subject we must indeed study the small as well as The rarest and the most majestic of animals the great; the common as well as the rare. cannot tell us more than the worm that we trample under foot, or the caterpillar that we diminish with the size; silk, the finest substance destroy as a nuisance. Nor does the utility with which we are clothed; carmine, the finest colour with which we can paint; and the very ink with which we write, are all the production of little insects.-MUDIE, British Naturalist. Insects of mysterious birth Sudden struck my wondering sight, Where the sunbeams cannot stray, CLARE, Recollections after a Ramble. THE CONSULTING PHYSICIAN. "I TRUST I have the honour of seeing your Ladyship well this morning, and that Lord Casserole has passed a tolerable night?" minces the fashionable apothecary, spruce Mr. Camomile, gliding with wellpractised and noiseless steps over the muffled carpet of Lady Casserole's drawingroom in Carlton Terrace; casting a significant glance towards the golden pendule on the chimney-piece, to mark the consciousness of being within five-eighths of a second of the minute of his appointment, which he could not presume to express. "A tolerable night?" cries Lady Casserole, with indignation. "Brown assures me that he did not sleep a wink!-- Since that last prescription of Sir Jacob's, he has in fact been going on progressively from bad to worse, restless, nervous, without appetite, and without ease." Camomile knits his brows into sympathy, and shakes his head, as if it had contained one of his own draughts. "In short, unless Sir Jacob Gemini, and Sir Richard Colchicum, can hit upon something new for him this morning, I must begin to think of calling in further advice." "Your Ladyship cannot be too much on the alert," insinuates the gentle Camomile, well aware that every change of men necessitating a change of measures, is for the advantage of his annual account; that a sudden transition from Belladonna and leeches, to quinine and pitch plasters, will be at least a couple of guineas in favour of his bill. "There is a Dr. Smith, of whom my friend, the Duchess, has been telling me wonders?" "A- Dr. Smith" hesitates the fashionable apothecary. "Dr. Hamilton Smith." "Dr. Hamilton Smith?"-Exactly! A highly respectable man,-lives in Hanover Square, and drives a pair of handsome bays, with a theory of his own upon digestion. He has written a pamphlet or two.A highly respectable practitioner." "Dr. Smith attends Lord Dansden's family, and the Lambton's, and Grevilles; in short, he is very highly spoken of. Suppose we call him in?" chicum. Good morning, Sir Richard, good morning!". "Good morning, Camomile.-Your Ladyship's most obedient.-What news to-day of my patient? "Nothing can be worse!-Lord Casserole neither eats, drinks, nor sleeps," replies her Ladyship drily. "Pulse low, appetite failing," appendixes Camomile. "Quite right. Just as we expected,"cries Sir Richard; "the effect of the last change of medicines. His lordship is going on as well as possible. We don't want him to eat, we don't want him to drink,-we don't want him to sleep. We only want him to recover." "But when I tell you, Sir Richard," "Tell me nothing, Madam, tell me nothing! Sir Jacob will be here in a minute; (just struck two by St. James's!) and then, with your leave, we will visit our patient." "But it is necessary you should know, Sir Richard," "All that is necessary for me to know, Madam, I can inquire of Lord Casserole's own man. Brown is always on the epot; and Very strange that Sir Jacob don't make his appearance." "Sir Jacob has just now a very arduous attendance on Lady Jemima Lullaby," insinuates Camomile. "She has several sick children; and will scarcely let our friend escape out of her nursery.' "Then he shouldn't make appointments in other people's drawing-rooms. I must be in the Regent's Park by half after two." "Then do you really think, Sir Richard, that I need undergo no immediate uneasiness on Lord Casserole's account? I should be sorry, you know, that people had reason to talk of my being seen every night at balls, or the Opera, if there were any immodiate danger." "Go where you like, ma'am. What good could you do by staying at home? Lord Casserole appears accustomed to the services of his own man." "And Brown is such a kind attentive creature!" "I would as soon have Brown sitting up with his Lordship, as sit up with him myself!" cries Camomile enthusiastically. "Why, really, but here is Sir Richard Colchicum's carriage," ejaculates the apothecary, brightening. "Most punctual man, Sir Richard Colchicum!-Just as the clock is striking. No one with whom I like better to attend, than Sir Richard Col-a Very strange that Sir Jacob can't keep his time!" cries Sir Richard, dragging out something resembling a clock, by something resembling a drag-chain. "I must be off in ten minutes." "I see by this morning's papers that the Duke of Lancashire is suffering from catarrh; and Sir Jacob is probably detained at Lancashire House," interposes | scarcely sleeps at all," observes the disconthe benignant Camomile. "Then, with your leave, Mr. Camomile, we will proceed at once to Lord Casserole's room, for my time is precious," growls Colchicum. "Certainly, certainly, Sir Richard. And whatever instructions you may think proper to leave, I shall be most happy to stay and report to Sir Jacob-Ha! I think I hear a carriage?" solate lady. "Exactly the condition of our poor friend the Dowager Lady Bronchia,' says Sir Jacob in a confidential aside to Camomile; turning round to Lady Casserole to add, "Her ladyship has swallowed only half a Naples biscuit soaked in punch jelly, since Sunday morning: and her companion, Miss Twaddle, assured me last night, that they had not been able to get the old lady to sleep, although she had read through to her, twice over, the whole last number of the Record.' Poor soul!" "It has stopped next door, at the General's. Sir Jacob is always so late!" cries Lady Casserole peevishly. "Really these Consultation-days make me quite nervous!" "Supposing we go up to Lord Casserole ; "Ah! there he is at last!" ejacu--I must be off in a minute," growls Sir lates Camomile. "I know his footman's Richard Colchicum. knock." "If my fellow were to make half as much noise, I would knock him down," says Colchicum. "My rule is, When you see straw in the street, ring!" "An excellent regulation." "Can't conceive how it can take a man all this time to make his way up one pair of stairs. I must be off in five minutes." My dear Sir, we must make allowances! Our friend Sir Jacob is not quite so young as he was," insinuates Camomile, with a knowing smile. "Sir Jacob Gemini!" announces the solemn butler, while a gorgeous footman throws open the door; and in glides, with serpent-like sinuosity, the most courtly of modern leeches. "Ten thousand, thousand pardons, my dear Lady Casserole! I must throw myself upon your Ladyship's kind forbearance, though I have been actually forced to tear away a button in escaping from the Duke of Lancashire, in order to keep my appointment here. Your Ladyship knows his Grace's little foible? Quite impossible to get off, when once he fastens himself upon you; Sir Richard, your kindness will, I am sure, excuse me.-Camomile, my good fellow, how are we going on up stairs?-How does poor dear Lord Casserole find himself, since I had last the pleasure of meeting you here?" 66 Why, I fear, not quite so well." "Ah! just what I was anticipating with Lady Jemima Lullaby; who, I do assure you, my dear Lady Casserole, takes the warmest interest in his Lordship's melancholy position. Not a day passes that she does not say to me, 'My dear Sir Jacob, what is your real opinion of poor dear Lord Casserole! Do you think him likely to go off suddenly, or not?'" "Lord Casserole eats very little, and "With all my heart!-Lady Casserole will, perhaps, do us the honour to accompany us.-If any thing could tend to animate the spirits of our poor patient, it would, doubtless, be a visit from her Ladyship! Must I show you the way, Sir Richard ?-Camomile, my good fellow, pray precede us, that we may not break in unannounced. Ha! little Fido,-good dog,down Fido, down, Sir! The handsomest spaniel in London;-a King Charles, of course? Lady Casserole, pray allow me to congratulate you, en passant, on this little bit of Dresden. Quite a bijou !-Rittener's, I presume? - Charming staircase! The Carlton Terrace houses boast the easiest staircases in town-and such a view! Sir Richard, have you ever noticed the Surrey hills from that window ?-Camomile, may we come in?" Well, Mr. Brown, how is Lord Casserole to-day?" inquires Sir Richard. "Bad as he can be, Sir; has not opened his lips these fourteen hours." "Will your Lordship give me leave to feel your pulse?" says Sir Jacob, extending his own hand with amenity, and taking out a Breguet watch at the same moment. "The Doctor is asking you, my Lord. to put out your arm," whispers Brown to the sick man. "Ugh! ugh! ough! ough! ough!" more moist, and his complexion brighter. He is going on better than I anticipated." By the way, what is this story about Sir Charles-Is he to get his peerage? They "Going on?-going off!"-murmurs say his wife has been interfering.-Women, poor Brown, as the scientific phalanx fol--always women?" lows Lady Casserole out of the sick man's chamber. "Thank God, I shall never be great or rich enough to be cursed with the attendance of a grand physician!" "You will find paper, and a standish, Sir Jacob, on the writing-table in the back drawing-room," says Lady Casserole, in a tone of plaintive sentimentality, after having escorted down stairs the three gentlemen in black. "I am sure poor Lord Casserole's case will receive every attention at your hands." "My dear Madam, you must not allow yourself to despond" whispers Sir Jacob in her Ladyship's ear, as he bows her out of the room; pressing her hand at the door, to enable her to deposit in his own a two guinea fee, in its wrapper of silver paper.Rely upon our giving his Lordship's state our most deliberate investigation." 66 Out sails Lady Casserole. The door closes gently after her.-And lo! the consultation commences. "I have not seen you this age, my dear Colchicum!" cries Sir Jacob, in an altered voice. "What have you been about?"— "Spending Easter, at my place in Buckinghamshire.". "And what did you do with His Royal Highness?" "Persuaded him he was well, and did not want me." "And with Lord Flamborough ?""Died last week." "And the rest of your patients?""Made them over to Camomile here; who gave me plenty to do on my return. Eh; Camomile ?-Ha! ha! ha!" "Ha ha ha ha! ha! ha!" "And how are the birds this season?" "Most abundant. That week's hard rain in the month of March did considerable harm in the low-lying lands; but my preserves are in capital order." "Would you like the shooting over the Duke of Lancashire's farms?-I am sure he would give you the invitation. Shall I ask him " "Thank you." "Anything doing in the House last night "Nothing particular,-only the leather tax. Sir Semi Colon made a tolerable speech." "That man is getting on. I am confidentially assured that the Queen thinks very well of him.” Ay! always women!-So Lady Sanctify is gone off at last!" "Lady Sanctify! with whom?-One of her pet saints?" "A Cornet in the Tenth!-a Jad of eighteen !" "I must not forget to tell that to Lady Rollick. It will do her more good than all my prescriptions.-Do you dine at the Club to-morrow?" "No. I can't stand Willis's wine.-I dine with a turtle party at Bleaden's." "Nothing like Bleaden's lime-punch, Sir Jacob, eh?" "I trust, gentlemen, I find your opinion tolerably favourable" sighs Lady Casserole, gently opening the drawing room door, and advancing towards the group beside the fire-place. "No cause for despondency that I can discover," cries Sir Richard, with admirable presence of mind. "After the maturest deliberation," adds Sir Jacob, "we see no motive for any immediate change of medicine. My friend, Sir Richard Colchicum and myself have decided that it will, perhaps, be as well to strengthen his Lordship's diet of chicken broth, with an occasional cup of beef tea; and every second night, previous to his Lordship's night-draught, an almond poultice must be administered about the region of the chest, an almond poultice, my dear madam, softened with rose-water; (Mr. Camomile has promised to be so obliging as to attend and see it properly prepared ;) and on Thursday next, with your Ladyship's permission, at the same hour, we shall have the honour of meeting here, to look in upon his Lordship again. I have the honour, my dear Lady Casserole, to wish you a good morning." "Lady Casserole, madam, good morning.", "Your Ladyship's most obedient," added the several leeches, each pocketing his fee. "I won't send to Dr. Hamilton Smith till after Thursday: this poultice may, perhaps, do wonders!" muses the Viscountess, as their carriages roll from the door. And the poultice did wonders. There was no farther occasion for change of drugs, or change of doctors. The Morning Post duly announced in its obituary-" Died on Thursday morning last, after a lingering illnecs, at his house in Carlton Terrace, the Right Honourable Viscount Casserole. deeply lamented by his family and friends." |