The following account of the sepia media, a small species of cuttle-fish, is given by Mr. Donovan, in his “Excursion through South Wales:”—­“When first caught, the eyes, which are large and prominent, glistened with the lustre of the pearl, or rather of the emerald, whose luminous transparency they seemed to emulate.  The pupil is a fine black, and above each eye is a semilunar mark of the richest garnet.  The body, nearly transparent, or of a pellucid green, is glossed with all the variety of prismatic tints, and thickly dotted with brown.  At almost every effort of respiration, the little creature tossed its arms in apparent agony, and clung more firmly to the finger; while the dark-brown spots upon the body alternately faded and revived, diminishing in size till they were scarcely perceptible, and then appearing again as large as peas, crowding, and becoming confluent nearly all over the body.  At length, the animal being detained too long from its native element, became enfeebled, the colours faded, the spots decreased in size, and all its pristine beauty vanished with the last gasp of life.”

W.G.C.

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THE OSTRICH.

The Ostriches in the Gardens of the Zoological Society would be truly a noble pair, were it not for an unnatural curve in the neck of the male, in consequence, it is said, of its having formerly swallowed something more than usually bulky and hard of digestion.

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.

[Illustration]

RUSSIAN BURIAL GROUND.

Mr. James’s popular Journal of a Tour in Russia, &c., has supplied the above illustration of honours paid to the dead in that country.  The Cut represents one of the Cemeteries of the government of Tchernigoff.  Mr. James describes it as planted around with trees, and studded thick with wooden crosses, oratories, and other permanent marks of reverence.  The general appearance of piety with which these grounds are kept up, their sequestered situation apart from any town, the profound veneration with which they are saluted by the natives, added to the dark and sepulchral shade of the groves, lend them an interest with which the tinsel ornaments of more gorgeous cemeteries can in no degree compare.

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ANCESTORS.