MISCELLANY. Ill 



most abundant, as well as most interesting, of the Norwegian birds, — noted for 

 its sly cunning habits here, its altered demeanour there is the more remarkable. 

 It is upon the most familiar terms with the inhabitants, picking close about the 

 doors, and sometimes walking inside their houses. It abounds in the town of 

 Drontheim, making its nest upon the churches and warehouses. We saw as 

 many as a dozen of them at one time seated upon the grave-stones in the church- 

 yard. Few farm-houses are without several of them breeding under the eaves, 

 their nests supported by the spout. In some trees close to houses, their nests 

 were several feet in depth, the accumulation of years of undisturbed and quiet 

 possession." 



Besides affording us an example of the effect of human treatment in developing 

 the instincts of birds, there is a second application of this passage to Phrenology. 

 It will be observed that the writer of the passage alludes to the " sly cunning 

 habits " of the Magpie in this country, and then, by way of contrast, makes a 

 statement in proof of less timidity being manifested in Norway, without the 

 slightest mention of any habit evincing less shyness or cunning. It is obvious 

 rom this confounding of two very different feelings — cunning and timidity (Se- 

 cretiveness and Cautiousness) — that a good ornithologist, accustomed to observe 

 the habits of birds, will blunder in his explanation of them, unless in possession of 

 some analytical key to the mental faculties, such as is afforded by Phrenology 

 £and by it alone. — Ed. Nat.~\. We are surprised it should not at once have 

 occurred to Mr. Hewitson, that the domestic animal, of all others, most habi- 

 tually the inmate of our houses, is also the most sly and cunning of our tamed 

 animals : we mean the Cat. We are -disposed to believe that the slyness or 

 cunning of the Magpie aids the bird in appreciating the amount of danger, and 

 thus indirectly renders it venturesome where it is safe to venture. The Magpie 

 is an observant bird ; and its habits, which are usually denominated cunning or 

 sly, appear to spring from the feeling of Secretiveness combined with intellectual 

 observation — Individuality or Eventuality. — Phrenological Journal, Dec, 1838, 

 No. liv., Vol. XI., p. 67—8. 



Sayings and Doings of Skaters. — At this frigid season, — when we trust all 

 such of our readers as are not incapacitated by sickness or other misfortunes — 

 amongst which we shall class want of leisure — are enjoying the sports of the 

 ice, we shall be excused for introducing a few observations on that active 

 species of animal known as the skater. A thorough-bred skater is the 

 most miserable creature imaginable in a " black frost," or during the inflic- 

 tion of a week's fall of snow; insomuch that none but the initiated would 

 believe that the being now crawling, at Tortoise-pace, through the white 

 mantle overspreading the earth far and wide, could by any possibility quicken 

 his progression. And, probably, no more he could to-day. But on the mor- 

 row the thermometer sinks to 14°; then behold him, all activity, on the 



