The Zoologist — October, 1866. 435 



Dory" {Zeusfaber), — which is there known as the "golden haddock," 

 — and herrings are extensively taken at Loch Ranza. 



Edward R. Alston. 

 Stockbriggs, Lesmahagow, N. B., August 18, 1866. 



Preservation of Organic Matter hy Exclusion of Atmospheric Air. — On the 14tb 

 of August a workman brought me a large mass of old wall material, similar to that of 

 which the celebrated Roman wall of this town is built. The man was very much 

 excited, for there, slicking up in the mass, but firmly fixed in it leg downwards, was a 

 chicken's foot, looking as fresh and as perfect as though it had been that morning cut 

 off a recently-killed fowl. The man staled that the foot was found, just as it then 

 appeared, when the mass of old wall among which ihey were digging a foundation 

 near the town wall was broken up. With some slight misgivings I gave the man his 

 tip, and he went away rejoicing. As soon as he was gone I got my hammer and chisel, 

 and having cut away the mortar and stone, the fool dropped out of its hole, with about 

 an inch of the tarsal bone attached to it. Ii looked now very like a hoax to get beer- 

 raoney. I pulled up, however, a portion of the jagged skin at the broken end of the 

 tarsal bone, and I found not only that the bone was in a crumbling condition, but 

 that it was filled with a soft, white, oleaginous-feeling mass, which I at once recognized 

 as stearine, and then I knew that the chicken's leg had remained hundreds of years in 

 the position in which it was found, and yel bad retained ihe freshness of iis living 

 state: it is now shrivelling up and changing colour, and will, I dare say, very soon 

 assume a mummyfied character. This is a good illustration of the fact that organic 

 matter preserved from atmospheric air may be preserved for an indefinite time 

 uninjured and unchanged, as I demonstrated some years ago was the case with the 

 corn grain, which under similar circumstances will remain undecomposed, and con- 

 sequently vital, for any amount of time that the condiiions are observed. — Dr. C. R. 

 Bree {Colchester), in the ' Field' Newspaper of August 25, 1866. 



A Sagacious Dog. — A shepherd's dog, accustomed to take his master's meals to 

 him in ihe field in a lin kit wilh a lid, was on one occasion, when performing this 

 service, met and interrupted hy another dog. A quarrel ensued, and in the fray the 

 lid of ihe kit was knocked off. When the quarrel was over, the shepherd's dog resumed 

 his duty of conveying the kit to his master. His sagacily taught him that the idt and 

 the lid belonged to each other, but how to get them together and as one again he had 

 no idea of, so he took up the kit in his month and carried it a distance, and then went 

 back for the lid and carried that a considerable distance beyond the kit, and thus con- 

 tinued to carry each in turn until he reached his master. This occurred at Great 

 Bircham, in ihe county of Norfolk.— i?o6e>-< Tillyard ; Thorpe Hamlet, Nonvich. 



Female of the Roe-deer wilh Horns.— A few days ago, being anxious to inspect a 

 certain portion of the Black Forest, in the direction of Kippenheim, and also for the 

 express purpose of seeing how this sort of shooting was done, T accompanied a friend 

 at an early hour, and just before the heat of the suu had dried up the spangles of dew 

 upon the leaves and grass, I found myself in the centre of a deep belt of woodland 

 stretching away for miles on both sides of us. The first few notes on the little pipe 

 attracted the notice of a doe, who, wilh two fawns Irotting at her side, came up and 



