324 
MISCELLANY. 
The Cinereous Sea-eagle a Straggler in Yorkshire.— The Cinereous Sea* 
eagle ('Falco alhicillaJ, though unknown on our coast, has been a straggler into 
Yorkshire. An individual was shot at Heywra Park, belonging to Sir W. A. 
Ingilby, of Ripley Castle, in this county, and was presented by that gen¬ 
tleman to the Scarborough Museum.— Patrick Hawkridge, Scarborough^ Aug, 
7, 1837. 
Collection of Shells purchased, by the British Museum, of W. J. Bro- 
DERiP, Esq. —A grant of £1,575 has been voted by the House of Commons to 
enable the trustees of the British Museum to purchase the collection of shells 
belonging to W. J. Broderip, Esq., offered by him at the price of 1,500 guineas, 
and valued by Messrs. Turner and Sowerby at £1,640 25. Qd. Mr. Gray 
says:—“ The collection consists of nearly 3,000 specimens, and contains about 
200 species, or very distinct varieties, that are altogether wanting in the already 
extensive collection of the British Museum. Such is the beauty of the specimens, 
in consequence of the great attention paid by Mr. Broderip to the purchase of 
none but the finest that could be procured, and so remarkable are the deviations 
in form and colouring in the several series of the more variable species, that 
nearly every individual specimen of the remaining portion will also be valuable 
to our collection, either in replacing a much inferior specimen, or as rendering 
more complete the series which we already possess. The duplicates to be 
displaced will be few, and will, for the reasons above given, be taken in every 
instance from our present collection, and not from among the specimens in the 
new acquisition. A very large proportion of the species contained in this col¬ 
lection, and wanting in the British Museum, are among the rarest shells that 
are known to exist, and many are absolutely unique.— Magazine of Zoology and 
Botany^ No. ix., Aug. 1837. 
Comparative Insensibility of Fishes and Insects. —People are apt to 
reprobate the cruelty of the angler s sport, and that of the entomologist in trans¬ 
fixing a live insect on a pin. But in fact the organisation of these creatures is 
so low, that they really feel little, if at all, an injury which would cause terrific 
pain to a bird, a quadruped, or a man. It is well known that animals cannot 
eat when in pain; but the Pike will carry off a large hook and retain it in its 
stomach several months, apparently without suffering in the least from th^e 
intrusion^ Nay, they will chase other fish almost the moment they havo^ 
broken the fishing-line. As regards the insects, they bear worse matters yet 
more heroically. The other evening we entered a boat-house the sides and roof 
of which were covered with Old-lady Moths f Phaicena maura, Linn.).. We 
transfixed a number of these to the wall with pins, without their offering the 
slightest resistance. It is true that even a slight touch of their wings would 
immediately cause them to flutter with all their might, and then it was difficult 
