790 Quadrupeds. 



commonly called king-crab, they fix the end of a tallow candle : 

 this is lighted, and the crab is thrust, by means of a stick, as far as 

 possible in the burrow of the rabbit ; it is then urged to penetrate 

 deeper by gently pulling a string attached to one of its legs, and the 

 rabbit, alarmed at the approach of the lighted candle, rushes to the 

 entrance of the burrow, and is secured in a net. 



Tlie Red Deer. Bones and large portions of horns have been found 

 in this immediate neighbourhood some few feet beneath the surface. 

 Appearances were such as to render it probable that the animal was 

 overwhelmed by a landslip. It must have been considerably above 

 the ordinary size attained by the red deer; but Professor Owen has 

 pronounced it, from examination of the bones, to have been speci- 

 fically identical. Loe also once possessed part of the antler of a red 

 deer, said to have been dug up in the UnderclifF. 



The common Porpoise occasionally passes close in shore in small 

 senilis, and now and then one is landed from the Shoreham mackarel 

 boats, and eagerly purchased by our fishermen as bait for their crab- 

 pots. 



Northern Rorqual. The skeleton of an animal of, I imagine, the 

 species thus designated by Professor Bell, is now exhibited at Black 

 Gang Chine. This whale was stranded in Alum Bay, April 5, 1842 : 

 it measured upwards of eighty feet in length. Another is said to have 

 shared the same fate a few years previously, near Hurst Castle. 



Bonchurch, Isle of Wight. C. A. BURY. 



Anecdotes of Foxes. While an old man was wandering by the side of one of the 

 largest tributaries of the Almand, he observed a badger moving leisurely along the 

 ledge of a rock on the opposite bank. After a little time a fox came up, and after 

 walking for some distance close in the rear of the poor badger, he leaped into the 

 water. Immediately afterwards came a pack of hounds, at full speed, in pursuit of the 

 fox, who by this time was far enough off, floating down the stream ; but the luckless 

 badger was instantly torn to pieces by the dogs. 



An instance of still greater sagacity in the fox occurred a few years ago, also in 

 this neighbourhood. As a farm-servant was preparing a small piece of land for the 

 reception of wheat, near to Pumpherston Mains, he was not a little surprised on seeing 

 a fox slowly running in the furrow immediately before the plough. While wondering 

 why the sly creature was so confident, he heard behind him the cry of the dogs ; and 

 turning round, he saw the whole pack at a dead stand near the other end of the field, 

 at the very spot where Reynard had entered the newly enclosed trench. The idea 

 struck him that the fox had taken this ingenious way of eluding pursuit, and through 

 deference to the sagacity of the animal, he allowed it to escape. — R. Dick Duncan ; 

 Vale of Almand, Mid Calder, October 29, 1844. 



