220 EXTRACTS FROM CORRKSPONDENCE. 



tunnel near Grantham, we carried candles in our hands, and had to 

 stoop the whole way, and y^et in the very centre a gnat flew off the 

 damp walls, and fluttered round my light; in the same place also some 

 queer-looking fungi had established themselves, as representatives of the 

 vegetable world. While once at the very top of Snowdon, on a windy 

 and foggy day, I caught an ambitious specimen of the little green oak 

 moth, {Tortrix viridana,) on the pole planted on the summit. I have 

 often thought that a very interesting account might be written of the 

 change that animals make in their food at different times of the year. 

 Dogs, for instance, will eat grass, particularly in dry, hot weather; and I 

 have an old torn cat who has taken lately to the same sort of food — he 

 bites off a long blade, and eats it up from end to end like a rabbit. I 

 recollect also seeing a dainty Welsh hen last year, as I was walking from 

 Dolgelly to Barmouth, plucking off and devouring the ripe blackberries 

 within her reach on the roadside. I thought at the time she did it for 

 the sake of the grubs within, which, to my cost, I remember infested almost 

 every berry; but Pheasants will do the same, and I once kept some of the 

 golden species, which used to enjoy nothing so well as a ripe bunch of grapes. 



Some dogs are very fond of fruit, and will eat nuts and walnuts, 

 cracking them as cleverly as a Squirrel; and I once had a Spaniel which 

 used to eat all the gooseberries and currants within her reach, and woe to 

 the strawberry bed if she ever got to it. The currants she managed very 

 cleverly; being rather old and asthmatical, she soon found out that the 

 stalks were troublesome, so she used to draw the fruit off between her 

 teeth, and leave the stalks behind. But perhaps the most extraordinary 

 instance of this kind I have ever met with relates to a cat of mine which 

 has acquired a taste for rice pudding, and to make it more singular, instead 

 of licking it off the plate, like any common Cat, she uses her paw for a 

 fork, and feeds herself like a civilized being. 



Last week the following singular anecdote was related to me of a hare. 

 In the middle of the river about half a mile from here, there is an island 

 accessible from the mainland by only one bridge. A poacher's dog chased 

 a hare across this bridge on to the island, and the owner of the dog posted 

 himself on the bridge to make sure of his game; but pussy was not to 

 be caught in that tame way, for when she reached the opposite bank and 

 found there was no way to escape, she took a good spring and swam safely 

 across — a distance of about seventy yards. I heard also of another and 

 more singular instance of a hare taking to the water, not from fear, but 

 for her own amusement: — A friend of mine was going to a piece of water 

 to shoot a young Wild Duck, and on coming in sight of the pool, he 

 saw something floundering out in the middle; and as Otters frequent the 

 place, he fancied it must be one^ and prepared for a shot; but to his 



