5,775 feet above the level of the sea.

_Bird Catching_.

The golden-crested wren may be taken by striking the bough upon which it
is sitting, sharply, with a stone or stick. The timid bird immediately
drops to the ground, and generally dead. As their skins are tender,
those who want them for stuffing will find this preferable to using the
gun.--_Mag. Nat. Hist._

_Shower of Herrings in Ross-shire_.

In April last, as Major Forbes, of Fodderty, in Strathpfeffer, was
traversing a field on his farm, he found a considerable portion of the
ground covered with herring fry, of from three to four inches in length.
The fish were fresh and entire, and had no appearance of being dropped
by birds--a medium by which they must have been bruised and mutilated.
The only rational conjecture that can be formed of the circumstance is,
that the fish were transported thither in a water-spout--a phenomenon
that has before occurred in the same county. The Firth of Dengwall lies
at a distance of three miles from the place in question; but no
obstruction occurs between the field and the sea, the whole is a level
strath or plain, and water spouts have been known to travel even farther
than this.--_Inverness Courier._

_Spanish Asses_.

The Duke of Buckingham has, at his seat at Avington, a team of Spanish
asses, resembling the zebra in appearance, which are extremely
tractable, and take more freely to the collar than any of our native
species.

_Drawing Instrument_.

An ingenious invention of this description was recently exhibited at the
Royal Institution. A pencil and a small bead are so connected together
by means of a thread passing over pullies, that if a person, looking
through an eye-piece, will hold the pencil upon a sheet of paper, and
then, watching the bead, will move his hand, so that the bead shall
trace the lines of any object that is selected or looked at, he will
find that, whilst he has been doing this, he has also made a drawing of
the subject upon the paper; for the pencil and the bead describe exactly
the same lines, though upon different planes. Thus, a drawing is made,
without even looking at the paper, but solely at the object.

_White Cats_.

In a recent number we quoted from _Loudon's Gardener's Magazine_, that
"white cats with blue eyes are always deaf," of which extraordinary fact
there is the following confirmation in the _Magazine of Natural
History_, No. 2, likewise conducted by Mr. Loudon:--"Some year