ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



Irish Bipeds, Feathered and Unfeathered.—~1 

 send you herewith a copy of the Cork Examiner, 

 bearing date February 25th. In it, headed as 

 above, is an attack upon your Journal by a 

 party signing himself " J. A. B." The letter is 

 of course too long for you to copy into your 

 Journal, but, at all events, you will take some 

 notice of it. It is evidently penned by an 

 Hibernian, who is a plain-spoken native, and 

 one who can see nothing, as the saying is, that 

 is beyond his nose. However, at heart, he does 

 not appear to be a bad fellow. Deal gently with 

 him.— S. W. 



[Several other correspondents have kindly 

 supplied us with a copy of the said Cork Ex- 

 aminer. The letter is indeed a long one, and the 

 writer evidently as ignorant of us as we are of 

 him. He quarrels with us for having said, at 

 page 43, that the reason why certain birds do 

 not visit Ireland is their dislike for such a " dis- 

 tracted" country, and the reason for their not 

 singing there, — ditto. Our remarks had reference 

 to a very interesting correspondence between a 

 gentleman residing in Ireland, and ourselves, 

 many months ago, when the habits of certain 

 birds were discussed seriatim. We will re-print 

 this correspondence in our next Journal. The 

 letters will tend to throw much light upon what 

 may now appear misty ; and we imagine they 

 will abundantly pacify our, at present, wrathful 

 disputant. We hope, ere long, to make him one 

 of our best friends. By the way, we have sent a 

 long letter of reply to the Cork Examiner ; so that 

 all friends who may reside in that neighborhood 

 may at once look out for it. Our letter, be it 

 observed, contains no part of, and has no re- 

 ference to, what will appear in this Journal.] 



Immense Speed of the Ostrich. — Seeing some 

 interesting remarks connected with the ostrich, 

 at pages 3 and 25 of your valuable Journal, I 

 beg to add some additional particulars of that 

 singular bird. If we can place any confidence 

 in travellers' tales, the ostrich is swifter than an 

 Arabian horse. When Mr. Adamson resided at 

 Pador, a French factory on the south side of the 

 river Niger, he says that two ostriches (which 

 had been about two years in the factory), afforded 

 him a sight of a truly extraordinary nature. 

 These gigantic birds, though young, were nearly 

 the full natural size. They were so tame, that 

 two little blacks mounted together on the back 

 of the larger of the two. No sooner did the 

 animal feel their Aveight, than he commenced 

 running as fast as possible, carrying them several 

 times round the village, nor was it possible to 

 stop him otherwise than by obstructing the pas- 

 sage. The sight, says Mr. Adamson, pleased 

 me so much, that I wished it to be repeated. He 

 then directed a full-sized negro to mount the 

 smaller animal, and the two little boys mounted 

 the other. The burden did not appear at all dis- 

 proportioned to their strength. At first they 

 started at a pretty sharp trot ; but, when they be- 

 came heated a little, they expanded their wings, 

 and moved with such fleetness, that they seemed 

 scarcely to touch the ground. Most people must 

 have seen, some time or other, a partridge run- 



ning; they must, consequently, be aware that no 

 man can keep up with it in speed. We may easily 

 imagine, that if the partridge had a longer step, 

 its speed would be consequently augmented. 

 The ostrich moves like the partridge, and has 

 this additional advantage ; and I am quite cer- 

 tain those I am speaking of would have dis- 

 tanced the fleetest race-horses that were ever bred 

 in England. It is true that they would not hold 

 out so long as a horse, but they would un- 

 doubtedly be able to go over the same space in 

 less time. I have frequently witnessed what I 

 am now speaking about, and this affords an idea 

 of the prodigious strength of the ostrich, and 

 shows how useful the animal might be made, had 

 we but the method of " breaking and managing 

 him, as we do the horse." — F. M., Abington. 



Pugnacity of the Robin. — A short time since, 

 whilst at my country residence at Broomfield, in 

 Somersetshire, I met with the following strange 

 occurrence:— Attached to a house just opening 

 into a pitched court-yard, is a room furnished 

 with two windows, one of which is grated and 

 open, and the other is glazed; through this open 

 window, robins and other small birds were in the 

 habit of passing into the room, which, being kept 

 generally undisturbed and the door locked, 

 afforded them an occasional refuge from the in- 

 clemency of the weather. At times you might 

 see two robins, one of them being within and the 

 other without the room, pecking at each other, 

 with the glazed window between them, and 

 seemingly much amused with their play. One 

 day I had occasion, in the summer time, to look 

 for something in this room, and, accompanied by 

 one of my sons, I unlocked the door with the 

 intention of entering, when two robins, which 

 were both within the apartment, being disturbed, 

 flew out through the open grated window, and 

 then making a circuit through the air, pitched 

 together on the ground of the court on which we 

 were standing, and at about ten yards' distance 

 from us. They then, apparently, commenced a 

 most furious fight with each other, and shortly 

 one of them fell on his back, stretched out his 

 legs, and seemed perfectly dead. The other in- 

 stantly seized him by the back of the head, and 

 dragged him several times round and round a circle 

 of about seven or eight feet in diameter. My son, 

 with a view to stop their savage amusement, was 

 about to spring forward, when I gently arrested 

 him, to see the issue. Much to my astonishment, 

 after being dragged a few rounds, the fallen and 

 apparently dead bird sprang up with a bound, 

 and his antagonist fell in his turn upon his back, 

 and stretched out both legs with consummate 

 adroitness, in all the mock rigidity of death ; when 

 his late seemingly dead opponent in like manner 

 seized him by the head, and after dragging him 

 a few rounds, they both sprang up and flew away. 

 I have seen strange sights in my life, in which 

 birds and beasts have been the actors, but none 

 equal to this* — A. C. 



A Husky Canary.*-! have a valuable canary. 

 He sang well until he moulted. He has since 

 remained silent. He breathes with difficulty, and 

 his feathers are irregular. His mouth is never 

 fairly closed; and his eyes are moist, as if from 



