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;
Some to the rude protection of the thorn
Commit their feeble offspring.

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

that I received the information of the two varieties of magpies; and from the specimens he has shewn me, there seems to be little doubt of the fact. The smaller pie of the two invariably builds in bushes. Its weight is six ounces; the length from one tip of the wing to the other is nineteen inches; and it is sixteen inches from the end of the beak to that of the tail. It may be called the bush-magpie. The tree-magpie is very considerably larger, weighing very nearly nine ounces, and its plumage is more brilliant than that of the bush-magpie. It is altogether a powerful bird, and when compared with the other variety, the difference is very evident.

Since writing the above, I have ascertained the dimensions of a tree-magpie. Its weight is nine ounces, its breadth twenty-four inches, and its length eighteen inches; thus shewing a very considerable difference both in the weight and dimensions between it and the bush-magpie. The tail, however, of the latter seems longer in proportion than that of the other.

Much has been said respecting the two passages prepared by a magpie in the construction of the nest. I perfectly recollect, when a school-boy, in Leicestershire, in which county the hedges are of a considerable height, and in which numerous magpies' nests were to be found, observing the escape of the bird from the opposite side of the