claimed a second time, and, I regret to add, was a third time turned out. On this occasion, the poor bird, probably finding that the place of refuge it had sought would not avail it in its hour of need, fled across the country pursued by the hawk, who struck it down and killed it. Timid, however, as most animals are and influenced by fear, it is astonishing how strongly affection operates over their greatest apprehension of danger. One of our travellers, I think it was Captain Welstead, mentions, that when he was in Syria, he and some of his party caught some young Gazelles, and having cut their throats, the carcases were suspended from the saddles of the different horsemen. In this situation they were followed the whole of the day by the bereaved and affectionate mothers, who forgot their own danger in their love for their offspring. The gazelle is well known to be one of the most timorous of animals; but here affection preponderated over the strongest impulses of its nature. Lieutenant Wood, also, in his very interesting account of his journey to discover the source of the river Oxus, mentions the following fact, shewing how strong the affection of animals is for their young under peculiar circumstances. His boat was moored on the shore of the Indus, where they disturbed a colony of Otters, which showed some resentment at the intrusion on their haunts. Two full-grown young ones were secured and put into a sack. Their cries brought the old otters around the boat during the whole of the night. The next day they ascended the river for at least ten miles; and yet, whenever the young otters made a wailing noise, the otters not only surrounded the boat, but even attempted to get into it. It was difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain whether the parents had followed the boat that distance, although it is most probable that this was the case. At all events, it shews the sympathy of these animals for those of their species, which were in distress, and their own fearlessness of danger in their endeavours to relieve them.' A Hare is one of the most timid of animals, and yet affection will overcome its fears. A friend of mine, in one of his walks, was attended by his dog, who caught a leveret. The mother, on hearing its cries, came up to the dog, stood close to it on its hind legs, and evidently tried to induce the dog to follow it, and to quit the young one. A person, on whose veracity I can depend, assured me that he had seen a hare beat off a stoat several times that had attacked one of its young. The gardener of a friend of mine, a Suffolk clergyman, once saw a rabbit, that had young, drive a weazel across a field, that had come to its nest, by drumming with its feet on the animal's back. While on the subject of Stoats, I may mention the following curious fact, related to me by Mr. G. Nightingale, of Kingston-on-Thames, and which shews the care animals will take, in order to place their young out of the reach of danger. Riding one day with a party of friends in Richmond Park, he observed a stoat run up an oak tree, and enter a hole in it at a height of about fifteen feet from the ground. Seeing two boys in search of birds' nests near the spot, he persuaded one of them to ascend the tree, and ascertain what was in the hole. On arriving at it, two old stoats bolted from it, and made their escape. After some hesitation, the boy thrust his hand into the hole, and drew out of it a full grown rabbit, the head only of which had been partly eaten. He then pulled out two young rabbits, each about half grown, and untouched, and afterwards, nine young stoats. When we consider what a very diminutive animal the stoat is, it is surprizing that two of them should have been able to drag a full-grown rabbit to a perpendicular height of fifteen feet. A large dead branch on the top of one of the old oak trees in the Home Park, Windsor, was recently sawn off. On measuring the height from the ground, it was found to be seventy feet. Some bees had built their waxen cells in the hollow part of the branch, and on removing the honey-combs, a Mouse jumped out from amongst them, having evidently contrived to ascend that distance, in order to feed on the honey, of which that animal is very fond. By what instinct the mouse was guided to the spot, it is difficult to guess. Mice sometimes commit much havoc in my bee-hives. Some to the hedge Nestling repair, and to the thicket some; THOMSON. It would appear to have escaped the notice of the naturalists, that there are two distinct varieties of Magpies to be found in this country, one of them being considerably smaller than the other. My attention was first called to this fact by an extensive dealer in birds at Windsor; and who appears to know more of their habits, from actual observation, and fondness for them, than any one I have happened to meet with. His success in rearing and taming the nightingale, black-cap, and other tender song birds, is extraordinary. The cuckoo thrives under his care from year to year; and landrails are quite in a state of domestication. His blackbirds, starlings, and thrushes, sing the notes of the nightingale; and his magpies, jays, and jackdaws, talk and whistle far better than any parrots I have yet heard. Much of his time has been passed in the haunts of warblers, for the purpose of capturing singing-birds, which he tames with wonderful rapidity. It was from this person' |