MISCELLANEA. 479 
the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver; the range 
of the mountain is his pasture.'’—J ob. 
Porter’s Travels in Georgia , vol. ii, p. 460. 
The Magpie. 
He had been informed that a litter of foxes, nine in number, 
had been got possession of by some boys; but that a man had 
taken them away from them and replaced them. The circum¬ 
stance being mentioned to Mr. Hodgson, he determined upon 
watching the result, and laid himself under a hedge in view of 
the nine cubs. In about half an hour the vixen came to them, 
but was immediately attacked by two magpies, who, no doubt, 
had marked them for their prey. In about half an hour, the 
vixen having beaten off her assailants, returned to her cubs, and 
carried them away one by one to a plantation at a small distance 
from the spot. In the act of the parent fox there is nothing re* 
markable; but I was not prepared to hear such an account of a 
magpie. That he is a noisy, restless, and crafty bird, and one 
of the greatest thieves of the feathered tribe, I was well aware ; 
but I did not give him credit for the audacity of attacking so 
large, and in many cases so savage, an animal as a fox .—Arthur 
Warwick’s Spare Minutes . 
Shetland Ponies. 
They have a sort of little horses called Sheltics, than which no 
other are to be had, if not brought hither from other places. They 
are less in size than the Orkney horses, for some will be but nine, 
others ten handbreadths high; and they will be thought big 
horses if eleven; and, although so small, yet they are full of 
vigour and life. Some not so high as others often prove the 
strongest. There are some which an able man could lift up in 
his arms; yet they will carry him and a woman behind him eight 
miles forward and as many back. Summer or winter they never 
come into a house, but run upon the mountains, in some places 
like flocks; and if at any time in winter they are straightened for 
food, they will come from the hills when the ebb is in the sea, 
and eat the sea weed (as likewise do the sheep). Winter storms 
and scarcity of food brings them so low that they do not recover 
their strength till about St. John's mass-day, the 24th of June, 
when they are at their best. They will live to a considerable age, 
as twenty-six, twenty-eight, or thirty years. They will be good 
for riding at twenty-four ; especially they will be vigorous and 
