388 
MISCELLANY. 
when this breaking-up was about to take place. The signal for uproar was the 
rising of the minister in the pulpit to pronounce the blessing. As soon as he did 
so, they used to rush pell-mell to the door, barking and screeching for joy, to be 
let loose, and therefore not a word could be heard. At length the minister, 
honest man, bethought himself of a plan to get quit of these disturbances. He 
told the members of the congregation that it would be better for them all to keep 
their seats till the parting benediction was over, and then they would rise, and 
walk leisurely out. This was tried, and succeeded remarkably well. However, 
it happened one day that the minister of the parish was absent, and a stranger 
was in the pulpit, who, when he rose to pronounce the blessing after the last 
psalm, was surprised to see the congregation sitting, which is against all rule and 
custom. At last an old grey-haired shepherd called out to him,—“ On, just go 
on, Sir, go on; we are only sitting a wee bit to cheat the Dowgs ; but when you 
have done, well all rise, and go out quietly 
Pontia cardamines .—There is a specimen with a very large black spot in the 
British Museum ; and I have one nearly as good, and one with scarcely any black 
spot. Weaver has an hermaphrodite ! —William Harris, Stafford, March 4, 
1839. 
A Nice Point touching the Shinning or Eels.— On Monday, before the 
Worcestershire city magistrates, the agent for the Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals, brought up eight fish-women for cruelty to Eels, in skinning 
them before life was extinct. The witness said he saw the eight “ladies” cut 
the throats of their victims, and unmercifully and cruelly pull off their cuticles 
whilst writhing alive. Mrs. Cork, the most venerable of the fair defendants, 
became spokeswoman for the party. She declared that she had for three-and-fifty 
years skinned Eels in the same manner, and in the same market, and never before 
heard any person complain of it as cruel. (Laughter.) As for “ cuticles” (cast¬ 
ing a look of scorn at the agent), she declared that she had never skinned such a 
thing. (Increased laughter.) She exclaimed, “How are we to skin them ? ” 
The agent fcr the Society said, that “if the'defendants were to puncture the 
spinal marrow in the vertebrse about the region of the head, death would ensue.” 
Mrs. Cork stared wildly at the agent, and asked, what was a vertebrse ? Was 
it a fish, a jackass, or a devil? (Laughter.) The agent said it was a joint in 
the back-bone, which, if separated, would instantly deprive the fish of life. Mrs. 
Cork perked up a bit, and said she knew that was a lie, for she had many a 
time cut an Eel into a dozen pieces, and yet it wriggled about in the frying-pan! 
The defendants, who were discharged, one and all declared that they would get, 
as speedily as possible, a translation of the agent's words , and do as he recom¬ 
mended. 
Peregrine Falcon shot in Lancashire. —A beautiful specimen of that spe- 
