"Many thousand boxes of birds," each box containing several, will have been "bagged by the keen sportsmen;" every single bird almost out of the several thousand bagged on "the quick report of the rifle." For, you see, the rifle could not, except very rarely, kill two birds with one bullet: so that a brace of grouse dropping to the "quick report of the rifle" would be a rare occurrence. Pop goes the rifle; down goes the bird, perhaps; but that is all, in general. As the keenest sportsmen, however, sometimes miss, and rifle balls have a longish range, the sporting on these moors must have been rather dangerous to unfeathered birds as well as to game. Six shots might "achieve;" but the seventh, at least, would, in all probability, "deceive," as the British melodramatist says in _Der Freischütz_. But we are ourselves firing wide of our mark, or digressing from the point: which is, that the above paragraph, copied from the _Stirling Journal_, is evidently the production of a lady. The sex of the writer is betrayed in the vague allusion to "the rifle." A masculine scribe, with that precision in reference to shooting that cannot be expected from the female mind, would have been more specific, and would have told us whether these wonderful Scotch rifles that brought down so many grouse were _Minié_ rifles or American revolvers. * * * * * A CIVIL CABMAN'S SAUCE. A Cabman was summoned before the LORD MAYOR-- The report in the _Times_ may be found-- For refusing to take in his carriage a fare, Which to do he was legally bound. The cab of defendant, complainant averred, That he saw, disengaged, on the stand; And to hire it proposed, but defendant demurred, And declined to accord the demand. But only to think, now, how gentle, how mild, How pleasant a Cabman can be! As he made the objection, he quietly smiled, And observed that he wanted his Tea. In the same airy strain and light jocular mood, Which we cannot too highly admire, Did the gentleman not, he politely pursued, That refreshment himself, too, require? But how shall we ever the sequel relate? This behaviour, so worthy of praise, Procured--it is really distressing to state-- Twenty Shillings--or else Fourteen Days! * * * * * EL VERDADERO DESCUBRIMIENTO D'IXIMAYA. POR DON VELASQUEZ CROCKER, UN INGENIO DE ESTA CORTE.