CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 



Two Necks, Lad-lane, by the exhibition of a fine young Shark, seven feet long, 

 and 300lbs. weight. In the thickest part it was nearly four feet girth, and the 

 spread of its tail was above two feet. It was said to have been taken off Mar- 

 gate, on Tuesday, evidently by a hook with a good length of iron attached to it, 

 against which it seems in vain to have bit and gnashed its teeth. The front teeth 

 of the lower jaw, extending several rows back, are everywhere broken down by 

 the attempt to bite through its iron moorings. The young monster was in fine 

 condition. — Morning Herald, June 2. [We have heard no particulars to enable 

 us even to make a guess as to the species. — Ed.] 



A Piebald Rook. — Yesterday week was shot, in the rookery of Mr. Sawyek, 

 of Frampton, Lincolnshire, a young Rook, having a part of each wing white, its 

 bill white, each side of its head, and under its throat leading to its breast, and 

 above its bill, of a beautiful white ; one foot was white, as were all the claws, 

 and the other foot partly white. — June 5. 



A Live Rat embedded in Stone. — On Monday week, as two miners were 

 blasting a drift in a stratum of solid stone, called the scar limestone, at Alston 

 Moor, six fathoms below the surface, they shot into a small cavity of the rock, 

 out of which, to their surprise, sprung a full grown Rat. The miners endeavoured 

 to take the animal alive, but in their attempts to do so it was killed. How long 

 the Rat had been embedded in its living grave, and in what manner it had con- 

 trived to exist in such a situation, are questions that must be left to conjecture. 

 On examination, the stratum around the cavity was found to be perfectly solid 

 and close in every part. — Neiccastle Journal, June 10. 



Singular Propensity in a Cow. — On Thursday, May 4, a person, on his way 

 from Bishop's Castle to Shrewsbury, observed a Cow milking herself. She was 

 afterwards noticed sucking several other Cows ; and the owner, Mr. Cheaton, a 

 respectable farmer at Cothercoate, was informed of the fact. This disclosure ex- 

 plained to the dairy-maid the reason why the Cows, for several weeks past, had 

 rendered scarcely any milk except in the morning of each day. — Worcester Jour- 

 nal, May 11. 



New Silkworm. — At Maragnan and Rio Janeiro are several species of Bom- 

 bt/x, the caterpillars of which enclose themselves in a cocoon, after having spun a 

 thicker and stronger silk than that of the ordinary Silkworm. It has been tried 

 by Padre Mestre, and forms a very solid material. A species of Mulberry, the 

 fruit of which is small and inedible, grows near Rio Janeiro, which it is proposed 

 to cultivate for feeding the caterpillars. The subject is obviously of considerable 

 practical importance. — Ed. 



A Cat suckling a Rat. — We have lately somewhere read of a Cat suckling 

 two Kittens and a young Rat at the same time, at the Brewery of Messrs. 



