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Lieutenant Wood, also, in his very interesting account of his journey to discover the source of the river Oxus, mentions the following fact, shewing how strong under peculiar circumstances is the affection of animals for their young. His boat was moored on the shore of the Indus, where he disturbed a colony of Otters, which showed some resentment at the intrusion on their haunts. Two full-grown young ones were secured and put into a sack. Their cries brought the old Otters around the boat during the whole of the night. The next day he ascended the river for at least ten miles; and yet, whenever the young Otters made a wailing noise, the Otters not only surrounded the boat, but even attempted to get into it. It was difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain whether the parents had followed the boat that distance, although it is most probable that this was the case. At all events, it shews the sympathy of these animals for those of their species, which were in distress, and their own fearlessness of danger in their endeavours to relieve them.

A Hare is one of the most timid of animals, and yet affection will overcome its fears. A friend of mine, in one of his walks, was attended by his Dog, who caught a Leveret. The mother, on hearing its cries, came up to the Dog, stood close to it on its hind legs, and evidently tried to induce the Dog to follow it, and to quit the young one. A person, on whose veracity I can depend, assured me that he had seen a Hare beat off

a Stoat several times that had attacked one of its young. The gardener of a friend of mine, a Suffolk Clergyman, once saw a Rabbit, that had young, attack a weazel that had come to its nest, and drive it across a field, by drumming with its feet on the animal's back.

While on the subject of Stoats, I may mention the following curious fact, related to me by Mr. G. Nightingale, of Kingston-on-Thames, which shews the care animals will take, in order to place their young out of the reach of danger.

Riding one day with a party of friends in Richmond Park, he observed a Stoat run up an oak-tree, and enter a hole in it at a height of about fifteen feet from the ground. Seeing two boys in search of birds' nests near the spot, he persuaded one of them to ascend the tree, and ascertain what was in the hole. On his arriving at it, two old Stoats bolted from it, and made their escape. After some hesitation, the boy thrust his hand into the hole, and drew out of it a full grown Rabbit, the head only of which had been partly eaten. He then pulled out two young Rabbits, each about half grown, and untouched, and afterwards, nine young Stoats. When we consider what a very diminutive animal the Stoat is, it is surprizing that two of them should have been able to drag a full-grown Rabbit to a perpendicular height of fifteen feet.

A large dead branch on the top of one of the old Oak trees in the Home Park, Windsor, was recently

sawn off. On measuring the height from the ground, it was found to be seventy feet. Some Bees had built their waxen cells in the hollow part of the branch, and, on removing the honey-combs, a Mouse jumped out from amongst them, having evidently contrived to ascend that distance in order to feed on the honey, of which that animal is very fond. By what instinct the Mouse was guided to the spot, it is difficult to guess. Mice sometimes commit much havoc in my Bee-hives.

We might almost suppose that Shakspeare took his description of trees "o'ercome" with Mistletoe from those which may now be seen in the Home Park, Windsor. So completely has the Mistletoe taken possession of them, that they have become ragged, "forlorn and lean." Our great bard must have been a close observer of nature, for it is in summer more particularly that the baneful effects of this parasite on trees are conspicuous. It is then that the dead and decaying branches, which the Mistletoe has deprived of their usual nourishment, can be contrasted with those which shew more life and vigour. This is the case with the lime trees in "Datchet mead," a place so often mentioned in the "Merry Wives of Windsor." It is always pleasing to trace Shakspeare's knowledge of particular localities, and even to fancy that he formed his ideas from facts connected with them.

I have never yet met with any trees so much

infested with Mistletoe, as those I have referred to, and it is difficult to assign a reason why this should be the case. In winter the trees appear as if they were covered with Rook's nests, when seen from a short distance, and it is evident that they are rapidly decaying.

Persuaded, as I am, that every thing has been created for some good and benevolent purpose, I was not long in discovering what appeared to me to be the intended use of the Mistletoe, and if my supposition is correct, it affords another proof of the care of the Almighty for his creatures. The seeds. of this plant ripen very late, viz. between February and April, and birds do not willingly feed upon them as long as they can procure the berries of hawthorn, hollies, ivy and other winter food. No sooner, however, does a late frost set in, and the ground become covered with snow in the Spring, as is often the case, than birds flock to the Mistletoe, and find a ready resource thus left them when all others have failed. If its berries ripened early, and were a favourite food of birds, the benevolent design of the Great Creator would not have been as effective as it is by the present beautiful organization of the plant.

Having had my attention thus drawn to the Mistletoe, I have endeavoured to ascertain on what species of trees it has been found, and especially whether or not it has ever been met with on the Oak in this

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country, a fact of which many doubts have been expressed. I have had enquiries made on this subject in the Royal Forests and Parks, but I could never hear of any instance of its having been found on the Oak in any of them. Timber merchants have also assured me, that they had never seen it on an Oak. Last year, however, a part of the branch of an Oak tree was sent me from the neighbourhood of Godalming in Surrey, with the Mistletoe growing on it. Although it was not cut from the sacred tree with a golden sickle, as the Druids are said to have cut it, yet it served to prove what before was very doubtful. Since that time, two or three other instances have been communicated to me, and I now, therefore, fecl justified in adding it to the list of trees, on which the Mistletoe has been found growing.

A gentleman in Shropshire caused the seeds of the Mistletoe to germinate on the Oak, several of the Pine tribe, Cherry, common Laurel, Portugal Laurel, Holly, Lime, Elms, Horn-beam, Birch, Sycamore, Ash, Chesnut, Hazel, and Acacia, as well as the Apple, Pear, and White-thorn tribe. On these latter they continue to grow luxuriantly, but on the resinous trees they did germinate, but took little or no hold. On the gummy trees they throve a little better, and on the others better still, but on all, except on their usual "foster-nurses," the Apple and Pear tribe, they soon sickened and died.

It appears that the Mistletoe has been found more