"She does look weakly and sick, poor thing," said the mother with a sigh watching her out of sight, "but I don't believe in interfering between husband and wife. Mr. Britisher, indeed, gave me to understand from the first that the less he saw of his mother-in-law the better, remarking that if that class would only stay at home and manage their own household affairs fewer couples, he thought, would be parted. I considered that a rather broad hint, and in consequence have never visited them since they began housekeeping. He has only gone off in a huff, of course, and everything will come out all right, I am sure." Ere nightfall, however, motherly anxiety impelled her to fly over to her daughter's home. Alas, only desolation and ruin were there. At the foot of the tree lay the form of Mrs. B. Exposure, sorrow, and excitement had done their work. It was a lifeless form which met her tearful gaze. The fate of Mr. Britisher was never known. Rumor assigned his absence to matrimonial infelicity, but his more charitable neighbors, as they dropped a tear to his memory, pictured his mangled form a victim to the wanton cruelty or mischievous sport of some idle boy. A gentleman passing by one day saw the dismantled nest upon the ground and carelessly stirred it with his cane. "What is that, uncle?" queried a little maid of some five summers who walked by his side. "That, little one," came the answer slowly and impressively, "is an abandoned home." "An abandoned home," I repeated, as his words floated up to my window. "Aye, truly to the casual observer that is all it seems, but, oh, how little do they dream of the folly, the suffering, the sad, almost tragic ending of the wee feathered couple whom I saw build that humble home." [Illustration: FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES. 5-99 HYRAX. 3/4 Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1899, NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.] THE CONY. C. C. M. The specimen of this animal presented here (_Hyrax abyssinicus_) is the best-known of the species. It measures from ten to twelve inches in length; the fur consists of somewhat long, fine hairs, gray-brown at the base, lighter gray in the middle portions, merging into a dark-brown surmounted by a light-colored tip, the resulting general color of this combination being a mottled pale-gray.