MISCELLANY. 45 



bird.* A strange Cat one night during this third winter got into the office and 

 killed the old Robin and its two companions, whose remains were found by the 

 workmen on the following morning. The murderer was captured, and, it need 

 scarcely be added, put to death, being hung on the Mulberry-tree upon which 

 the favourite of the workmen had been first heard warbling its cheerful notes. — 

 C. Redding, Lichfield, Nov. 20, 1837. 



Query respecting the Prize-essays on the Turnip Fly. — If in your next 

 number you would inform a constant reader of your magazine how soon the prize 

 essays on the Turnip Fly — respecting which advertisements appeared in the 

 newspapers some time ago — should be sent in, and to whom, and whether there are 

 not to be more than one, I should feel very much obliged to you. As, for obvious 

 reasons, my name should not appear, I will subscribe myself — Philander. — 

 [Postmark Doncaster, and received Dec. 16, 1837.] — [We are not aware, but 

 have made inquiry in more than one quarter. In case any correspondent favours 

 us with a reply in a few days subsequent to publication, how shall we address 

 Philander ? — Ed.] 



Deaths from Eating Funguses. — On Saturday last three inquests were held 

 at Chippenham, on view of the bodies of R. Burroughs, two years and a half 

 old, who died on the 27th ult., his mother Mary Burroughs, aged thirty-two, 

 and her niece, Mary Ann Burroughs, aged four years and eight months, both 

 of whom died on the 29th ult. From the evidence of the different witnesses, 

 and the post mortem examination of the bodies, it appeared that the deaths of 

 all three were occasioned by their ignorantly eating some poisonous Funguses 

 resembling Mushrooms. The jury returned verdicts accordingly. — Cambridge 

 Chronicle, Sept., 1837. — [Were this part of the vegetable kingdom more accu- 

 rately studied, and were popular writers on Botany to furnish plain directions 

 for distinguishing the wholesome from the poisonous plants, the number of these 

 now too common accidents might be materially diminished. — Ed. Nat.~\ 



Female Ourang Outang. — Information was conveyed to the Zoological 

 Society in the latter part of last week, that a living female specimen of the 

 Ourang Outang, or wild man of the woods, had been landed at Plymouth, and 

 immediate steps were taken to secure so valuable a prize for the gardens. The 

 Ourang reached London on Saturday, and a bargain having been struck with the 

 sailor who had been so fortunate as to succeed in keeping her alive on the voyage 

 fron Borneo, she was in a few hours transferred to safe quarters in the Regent's 

 Park. Notwithstanding the confinement and fatigue of a five months' voyage, 



* That the bird was the same we have no doubt ; but we are at a loss to conceive how the 

 marking the plumage H ith printer's ink could ascertain the point, since the usual moult must have 

 taken place between the departure and return of the bird. — Ed. 



