MISCELLANY. 325 



to pacify them ; but it was sufficiently obvious that the pins occasioned them no 

 kind of inconvenience. It may here be remarked, by the way, that the circum- 

 stance of so many Old-lady Moths being congregated in one small boat-house is 

 somewhat remarkable. 



To return once more to the fishes. That the Common Eel, considered so 

 great a delicacy for the table, feels when the cook is making fruitless attempts to 

 destroy its life, is not to be questioned ; and even the old excuse, that " they are 

 accustomed to it," will scarcely suffice to prevent our pitying their condition. 

 But, on the other hand, this same Eel must indeed be a devoted creature if, in 

 its protracted writhings, it feels as sensibly as an animal higher in the scale of 

 organization would do. Apparently, the slightest touch causes great pain to a 

 Worm, and we have often considered the part this poor animal is caused to play 

 in angling the most exceptionable feature of that pastime. But this writhing 

 may actually arise only from a desire to escape from confinement ; and, be this as 

 it may, those who stigmatise the angler or the entomologist as cruel, must bear 

 in mind the axiom of Anatomy, that nervous sensibility diminishes in proportion 

 as we descend in the scale of animal life. 



Therefore, although we are far, very far indeed, from countenancing the school- 

 boy's indecent propensity to twirl Cockchafers on a string, let his parents 

 cease to tell him, as heretofore, that the insect with the pin through its body feels 

 as intensely as the boy himself would do were a sword thrust through his hand. 



"We have introduced these few observations not so much with the view of 

 apologizing for the supposed cruelty of men often really benevolent, as in order 

 to correct a widely-spread popular error. — Ed. 



The Yellow Breasted Warbler (Sylvia hippolais). — It is somewhat singu- 

 lar that this species, which inhabits the gardens and hedge-rows of those portions 

 of the coasts of France and Holland immediately opposite our own, should not, 

 like the rest of its congeners, more diminitive in size, have occasionally strayed 

 across the Channel, and enlivened our glens and groves with its rich and charm- 

 ing song, which is far superior to that of either of the three other species of the 

 group. Those who have not had an opportunity of listening to the song of this 

 little tenant of the grove, can scarcely form an idea of its power and melody, in 

 which respects it is only equalled by those of the Blackcap and Nightingale. — 

 Gould's Birds of Europe. 



Singular Growth of the Teeth of a Babbit. — One of those curious cases 

 of lusus naturae to which quadrupeds as well as birds are liable — perhaps as 

 great a monstrosity or defect as a celebrated " naturalist " supposed had taken 

 place in the mandibles of the Crossbills — is now in the possession of my brother. 

 In the year 1826 he shot a Rabbit in which the singular form and extraordinary 

 length of the front teeth in both jaws would seem to have altogether incapa- 



No. 12, Vol. II. 2x 



