98 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



A LIVING- JAY WITH BOTH LEGS BROKEN 

 AND THE SKULL CRUSHED IN. 



I have just received the legs of a Jay — lately shot in 

 some preserved woods between Ross and Ledbury — both 

 broken but healed up again. The bird had evidently 

 been caught in a gin-trap, from which it had been taken 

 by the gamekeeper and cast down as dead. And, 

 besides the broken legs, a portion of its skull had been 

 crushed in, as if by the butt of the gamekeeper's gun or 

 the heel of his boot. AH this damage must have been 

 done to it months before, and yet the creature still lived, 

 and when shot was in good condition, flying about 

 among the trees as if it had never received injury ! The 

 stoat, taken some two years ago in Shropshire, which 

 had been several times trapped, leaving it only one leg, 

 might be quoted as a parallel case. But, no ; as regards 

 tenacity of life, I can believe anything of a member of 

 the family Mustelidce, especially after seeing, as I last 

 summer did, one of its smallest species, a weasel, do 

 battle with a large sheep dog for nearly an hour, before 

 it was finally conquered and killed ! 



THE WATS OP THE DORMOUSE. 



The account I have given below of the Dormouse, as to 

 its extracting nut kernels, has been confirmed by so accu- 

 rate an observer as Mr. Harrison Weir. He seems to 

 think, however, that the kernel is loose in the shell, and 

 the animal turns the nut about, so as to bring it in contact 



