8424 



Quadrupeds. 



It has been urged in favour of Natural History studies that they are 

 eminently conducive to health. This appears to me to be a great 

 fallacy. Three years practical out-of-doors work in Oolitic Geology 

 has helped considerably, in my case, to induce severe asthma. On 

 leaving England I found similar results awaited me. Not more 

 than two months spent in collecting the fresh-water mollusks of the in- 

 terior of the state of Ohio resulted in an attack of fever and ague ; and 

 I was told that collecting Unios in this very river cost Mr. Lea, the 

 brother of the well-known author of so many papers on American 

 Unionidae, his life. The botanist and the ornithologist have to in- 

 vestigate swamps, &c, at the risk not only of malaria, but of bronchial 

 complaints, &c, to which so many of our fellow-countrymen are already 

 predisposed. That these evils may, to some extent, be guarded 

 against is true, but the cause of Natural History can never have 

 anything to gain either by the suppression of facts or the distortion of 

 truth. 



J. F. Whiteaves. 



Anecdote of a Dog and a Hen. — A friend, who is an accurate observer of Nature, 

 has recently given me the particulars of a very curious attachment between a dog and 

 a hen, and kindly allows me to publish it. What he describes, took place at his own 

 residence near Shaftesbury, in Dorsetshire, and has been going on for the last twelve 

 months. The dog, which is a black and tan terrier, named " Figaro," is an old 

 acquaintance of my own, and lives (generally tied up) in a little yard where no other 

 animals are kept except a solitary hen, " Polly," and a cat. My friend writes, " It is 

 certainly amusing to see the confiding way in which our dog and hen carry things on. 

 When the dog is tied up, Polly sits half the day, at times, by his side, on one of the 

 logs upon which the kennel is put to keep it off the ground, and in rainy weather she 

 gets inside, and you see their two heads peering out of the box together. Also when 

 she wants to lay, unless she is closely watched to prevent it, she gets in quite behind 

 him, and he draws a little forward. Indeed whenever Figaro is seen with his two fore 

 paws hanging out of the door-way it is pretty certain that Polly has an egg within. 

 The eggs are, however, always perfectly safe under the dog's care ; he has never been 

 known to touch one of them, as some dogs will do." " I told you," he continues, " of 

 their feeding amicably together, but I did not mention that when it is a case of barley 

 meal or scraps and potatoes, if Figaro is getting on ahead too quickly, Polly pecks 

 him a gentle reminder on the nose that " ladies first" is good politeness — a hint which 

 he does not fail to regard. Our new cat, "Tom," was getting upon first-rate terms 

 with both when I left home, three weeks ago, and could already feed with them, 

 though somewhat upon sufferance, his approaches to the platter being dashed with a 

 touch of creepiness and tail-drooping. When I return I shall no doubt find him in 

 full enjoyment of recognition by the other Powers." — A. Rikey Hogan; 13, Westbourne 

 Square, London, W., December 26,1862. 



