362 Miscellaneous. 



of Nat. Hist, for February last, p. 379, you are right in supposing 

 it to have been the Bottle-nosed Whale that was taken near Liver- 

 pool. It vv^as exhibited on the Cheshire coast, opposite Liverpool : 

 I went and saw it. It measured 25 feet long and 13 feet in girth ; 

 from the point of the nose to the pectoral fin 6 feet, pectoral fin 2 

 feet 5 inches, from the point of the nose to the eye 3 feet 9 inches. 

 From the origin of the dorsal fin to the end of the tail 9 feet ; width 

 of tail 6 feet, dorsal fin 20 inches ; from the eye to the gape 21 

 inches. It was caught at East Hoylake in four feet water, and 

 when first seen was throwing the water from the blow-hole two 

 roods high. The fishermen attempted to stick grappling irons into 

 ita sides, but they slid off; and when its assailants were about to 

 give up the chase, (by this time the tide was making fast, and the 

 whale was exerting itself to get away,) one of the prongs of the 

 grappUng irons slid along, and by chance caught in the blow-hole, 

 after which it blew no more water and died almost instantly without 

 a struggle. After being shown opposite Liverpool for a few days, 

 it was taken back to Hoylake, cut up, and boiled for oil. Its 

 stomach contained an immense quantity of cuttle-fish beaks, in fact 

 there was nothing else in it. There were two teeth in the lower 

 jaw, very conical in form, and very sharp-pointed. The part which 

 was above the socket resembles a cock's spur, but the lower half is 

 suddenly swelled out and hollow. They measure 1 inch 8 lines in 

 length; no part of them was observable above the gum, and it was 

 not till I cut for them that I saw them. The bones were purchased 

 by the Committee of the Royal Institution, and I intend having 

 them put up this summer. — Hexry Johnson, Royal Institution. 

 Liverpool, April 25, 1840." 



REMARKABLE CHANGE OF HABIT IN THE HARE. 



My dear Lord, — I send you the story of the Hares I told at 

 Florence-court ; Major Bingham is the proprietor alluded to, and my 

 father related the story in a Lecture for the Zoological Society ' On 

 the Instinct of Animals.' 



Most truly yours. 



To the Earl of Enniskillen. S. G. Otway. 



April 22, 1840. 



" A considerable landed proprietor has a large tract of sand hills 

 within the Mullet, wliich tract (open as it is to all the Atlantic 

 storms) has been found to have been greatly impaired by the intro- 

 duction of rabbits, who by their burrowing and disturbing the bent 



