pair of swans had been inseparable companions for three years, during which time they had reared three broods of cygnets: last autumn the male was killed, and since that time the female has separated herself from all society with her own species; and though at the time I am writing (the end of March) the breeding season for swans is far advanced, she remains in the same state of seclusion, resisting the addresses of a male swan who has been making advances towards forming an acquaintance with her, either driving him away, or flying from him whenever he comes near her. How long she will continue in her present state of widowhood I know not, but at present it is quite evident that she has not forgotten her former partner.

This puts me in mind of a circumstance which lately happened at Chalk Farm, near Hampton. A man, set to watch a field of peas which had been much preyed upon by pigeons, shot an old cock pigeon who had long been an inhabitant of the farm. His mate, around whom he had for many a year cooed, and nourished from his own crop, and assisted in rearing numerous young ones, immediately settled on the ground by his side, and showed her grief in the most expressive manner. The labourer took up the dead bird and tied it to a short stake, thinking that it would frighten away the other depredators. In this situation however his partner did not forsake him, but continued, day after day, walking slowly

round the stick.

The kind-hearted wife of the

bailiff of the farm at last heard of the circumstance, and immediately went to afford what relief she could to the poor bird. She told me that, on arriving at the spot, she found the hen bird much exhausted, and that she had made a circular beaten track round the dead pigeon, making now and then a little spring towards him. On the removal of the dead bird, the hen returned to the dove-cot.

'Like to a pair of loving turtle-doves,

'That could not live asunder day or night.'-SHAKSPEARE.

The only instance I have met with in which the hen bird has not the chief care in hatching and bringing up the young is in the case of the emus at the farm belonging to the Zoological Society near Kingston. A pair of these birds have now five young ones the female at different times dropped nine eggs in various places in the pen in which she was confined. These were collected in one place by the male, who rolled them gently and carefully along with his beak. He then sat upon them himself, and continued to do so with the utmost assiduity for nine weeks, during which time the female never took his place, nor was he ever observed to leave the nest. When the young were hatched*, he alone took charge of them, and has continued to do so ever since, the female not appearing to notice

* There are now (June) five young emus alive, and appearing perfectly healthy.

them in any way. On reading this anecdote, many persons would suppose that the female emu was not possessed of that natural affection for its young

which other birds have. In order to rescue it from this supposition, I will mention that a female emu belonging to the Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick lately laid some eggs; and as there was no male bird, she collected them together herself and sat upon them.

'Well, it happened to one of the labouring men, in breaking the stones to make metal for the roads, that he broke a stone 'that was both large and remarkable; and in the heart of it, 'which was boss, there was found a living creature, that jumped 6 out the moment it saw the light of heaven.-It was just a yird toad.'-ANNALS OF THE PARISH.

I REMEMBER Some years ago getting up into a mulberry-tree, and finding in the fork of the two main branches a large toad almost embedded in the bark of the tree, which had grown over it so much that he was quite unable to extricate himself, and would probably in time be completely covered over with the bark. Indeed, as the tree increased in size, there seems to be no reason why the toad should not in process of time become embedded in the tree itself, as was the case with the end of an oak rail that had been inserted into an elm-tree, which stood close to a public footpath. This, being broken off and grown over, was, on the tree being felled and sawn in two, found nearly in the centre of it. The two circumstances together may explain the curious fact of toads having been found alive in the middle of trees, by showing that the bark having once covered them, the process of growth in the tree would annually convey the toad more nearly to the centre of it, as happened with the piece of oak-rail;

and by showing that toads, and probably other amphibia, can exist on the absorption of fluids by the skin alone. This is confirmed by the following fact. A gentleman informed me that he put a toad into a small flower-pot, and secured it so that no insect could penetrate into it, and then buried it in the ground at a sufficient depth to protect it from the influence of frost. At the end of twenty years he took it up, and found the toad increased in size, and apparently healthy. Dr. Townson, in his tracts on the respiration of the amphibia, proves, I think satisfactorily, from actual experiment, that, while those animals with whose economy we are best acquainted receive their principal supply of liquids by the mouth, the frog and salamander tribes take in theirs through the skin alone; all the aqueous fluid which they take in being absorbed by the skin, and all they reject being transpired through it. He found that a frog absorbed nearly its own weight of water in the short time of an hour and a half, and that, by being merely placed on blotting-paper well soaked with water; and it is believed that they never discharge it, except when they are disturbed or pursued, and then they only eject it to lighten their bodies, and facilitate their escape. That the moisture thus imbibed is sufficient to enable some of the amphibia to exist without any other food, there cannot I think be a reasonable doubt; and if this is admitted, the circumstance of toads being found