44 MISCELLANY* 



seemed to rejoice like a conqueror ; after which he presently retired to his secret 

 hole. The bishop that had beheld the battle, called his fishermen to fetch his 

 nets, and by all means to get the Pike, that they might declare what had hap- 

 pened. And the Pike was drawn forth ; and both his eyes were eaten out, — at 

 which they began to wonder ; the fishermen wished them to forbear, and assured 

 them he was certain that Pikes were often so served." 



I can by no means agree with the bishop's opinion of the Frog's tearing out 

 the Pike's eyes. May we not suppose that the fish's eyes were either out or 

 approaching to blindness before the Frog got upon its back ? The fact of their 

 being frequently caught by fishermen with their eyes out seems to agree 

 Avith this. 



I can depend upon the veracity of the person who told me he saw the Frog 

 upon the back of a fish,* seated, as he said, upon the nape of the neck, the hind 

 legs clinging round the body, and the toes of the fore legs close to the gills. I 

 can imagine no other motive for this circumstance than its being the season of 

 impregnation. The Frog in question was a male, and had placed itself upon a 

 sickly fish, instead of upon an animal of its own kind. — W. H. Benshed, Maid- 

 stone, Nov. 6, 1837. 



Anecdote of a Kobin Redbreast. — I obtained the following fact, many years 

 ago, from the owner of the premises at Plymouth. Early in winter a Robin 

 was seen to frequent a Mulberry-tree close to the window of the late Mr. 

 Haydon'st printing-office in that place, where it sang very sweetly. The work- 

 men opened the window, and at length the bird flew in, and, being fed, did not 

 seem at all uneasy in its new situation. It sang almost daily, generally in the 

 morning and evening, wholly disregarding the operations of the workmen, and 

 apparently well satisfied with its new companions, until the following spring. 

 The window being opened at this season, it flew away, but, singular to say, 

 returned to the tree at the approach of winter, and was again received into the 

 office, where it took up its old station till the following March. Some of the 

 workmen would not believe that it was the same bird, and one of them, having 

 caught it, marked the breast feathers under the throat, with printing-ink. The 

 next spring came, and the bird took its departure as before, returning again, at 

 the end of September, to the old Mulberry-tree, with several other birds of its 

 kind. The window was quickly opened to the welcome old songster, when it 

 flew into the office, followed by two other birds, probably its young. It dis- 

 played greater familiarity than before, even perching on the caps of the men, and 

 there singing. It need not be remarked that it was ascertained to be the same 



* Mr. Benshed before stated, that he " should certainly have been very doubtful of the truth 

 of the man s story v had he not met with the above quotation from Isaac Walton.— Ed. 

 f The father of the well-known artist. — Ed. 



