904 ORNITHOLOGICAL AND OTHER NOTES. 



of one indifferently well. Let us not, however, despise the work ; but let us 

 reflect for a moment, that the same all-wise Being who guides the Oriole 

 Weaver of Senegal {Oriolus textor) in the construction of its exquisitely con- 

 trived nest, is likewise the Instructor of our Ringdove ; and then, perhaps, 

 the conviction will fasten itself upon us that, after all, this simple platform 

 of twigs may be even better suited to the requirements of the bird than a 

 more elaborately constructed nest would have been ; and that, defective as it 

 may have appeared to us, it is in reality the very best form of nest for this 

 particular tribe of birds that could have been devised. But to resume the 

 thread of my story : I was feasting my eyes on the two milk-white eggs, not 

 with the intention or even the desire of feasting upon them in a more sub- 

 stantial way on the following morning, or at any subsequent period ; nor yet 

 with the intention of transferring them to my cabinet, nor of crushing the 

 hopes of the fond expectant mother by appropriating them to my own use 

 in any way ; but simply admiring their beautiful oval shape, and the spotless 

 purity and glossiness of surface they displayed, and feeling moreover inter- 

 ested in them as being the first of the species I had met with that season, 

 when a piercing scream from a Rabbit struck my ear. Knowing, from ex- 

 perience, that this was the prelude to a tragedy about to be performed, I, 

 obeying a sudden impulse, slid down from my position in the tree, and 

 hastened with all possible expedition to the spot from whence the cry pro- 

 ceeded, which was only about seventy yards distant ; this, of course, was 

 only the woi'k of a few seconds, yet, short as was the interval, the fatal blow 

 had already been sti-uck, — the life of the Rabbit had already- ebbed away. 

 On coming up to the place, and obtaining a glimpse of what was going on, 

 " pop goes the Weasel" into his "stronghold" beneath the stump of a tree 

 near at hand ; he doubtless considering it advisable, under existing circum- 

 stances, as Menschikoif lately did at the battle of the Alma, to " beat a 

 hasty retreat," leaving his victim bleeding and lifeless; it had ceased to 

 struggle or to breathe ; blood was trickling from a slight puncture at the 

 back of the neck, yet was that puncture, though slight, made with such fatal 

 precision as to cause the death of the Rabbit almost momentarily; for it could 

 scarcely have been attacked prior to my ascending the tree, I having been 

 for some time in the immediate neighbourhood, and had any cry proceeded 

 ft'om it previously, as assuredly would have been the case if it had been pre- 

 viously attacked, I must have heard it. We now and then hear of a " prac- 

 titioner," to whose name the capitals, M. R. C. S are carefully appended, 

 destroying life in a wonderfully rapid manner, and that, too, at times when 

 least intending it ; but I question whether even the most skilful of surgeons 

 could outdo the humble " practitioner " before us, who, without any preten- 

 sion Avhatever to surgical knowledge, — without the slightest acquaintance 

 with anatomical subjects, was yet enabled, with unerring certainty, to hit 

 upon one of the principal arteries contained in the body operated upon, thus 



