326 MISCELLANY. 



citated the animal from obtaining its natural food. Notwithstanding, the Rabbit 

 •was healthy, in good condition, and full-grown. 



The front teeth in the lower jaw, curving upwards, project considerably beyond 

 the upper teeth, and measure little short of an inch in length. The upper, as 

 soon as they leave the gum, begin to bend inward ; one does not much exceed 

 the usual length of those teeth, but the other, on reaching the lower jaw, turns 

 round, and, forming a complete circle, passes into the bone of the upper jaw, 

 and, running down it again, protrudes near the origin of the tooth. This tooth 

 measures the extraordinary length of nearly three inches. The bore of the 

 upper jaw is not broken or much mis-shapen by the passage of the tooth within 

 it, though certainly longer than is usually the case in the skull of a Rabbit. — 

 R. P. Alington, Swinhope House, Lincolnshire, July 15, 1837- 



The Fieldfare Thrush (Turdus pilaris) breeding in Scotland. — For 

 several years past Fieldfares have bred in Scotland, a circumstance, I believe, 

 altogether unheard of amongst old observers of Nature. In the spring of 1835, 

 while walking in the park of Mr. Scott, of Gala, in Selkirkshire, I was surprised 

 on seeing, so late in the season, a large flock of Fieldfares chattering from tree to 

 tree; when a gentleman who was with me, and who is remarkable for his acute 

 observations on the habits of birds, asked me if I had ever seen their nests ; 

 offering to show me several within a very short distance. I gladly availed my- 

 self of this opportunity of seeing what was to me a new object, but which my 

 friend had observed in that district for two or three years preceding. The nests 

 were all placed in the clefts of trees, often at a considerable height from the 

 ground, and very different from the situation spoken of by the poet who, in 

 describing the blanched bones of the battle field, makes the human skull a fitting 

 hollow for the Fieldfare's nest. 



