SHEEP-SHEARING BY MACHINERY.--A public trial of Mr. P. W. Wolseley's "Patent Sheep-Shearing Machine" was recently made in the presence of a number of gentlemen interested in sheep-breeding and wool-growing. The result--says _The Australasian_--was a complete success. The first test was upon a crossbred sheep with an average fleece. The animal was closely shorn in four and a half minutes. The second animal was shorn in the ordinary way, and then operated upon by the machine, with the result that, in addition to the cut of the old-fashioned shears, nine and a half ounces of wool were obtained. It is claimed for the invention that it works faster than hand labour, leaves no second cut, does not injure the skin in the slightest degree, and can be so regulated that the fleece can be removed of any length desired. A MONSTER TROUT.--A monster trout was captured the last week in July in the river Itchen, at Winchester, weighing 16 lbs. 2 ozs., and measuring 32 inches in length and 21 inches in circumference. The bait was a live minnow, and he was not landed till two hours after he was hooked. He had haunted the stream for years, was almost as well known in the city as Queen Anne's statue in the High Street, and had acquired quite a reputation for the number of rods he had broken, and the quantity of fishing tackle he had carried away. His captor was a labourer named Turpin, who disposed of him for £1 to a fishmonger, on whose slab it attracted almost as many visitors as a monarch lying in state. He was in splendid condition, and has now gone into the hands of a taxidermist for preservation. A RATHER curious episode in natural history occurred the other day on board the French steamboat _Abd-el-Kader_, during the passage from Marseilles to Algiers. Just as the vessel was about two hours out, the skies became quite black with swallows. It was then about six o'clock in the evening. The birds alighted in thousands on the sails, ropes, and yards of the _Abd-el-Kader_. After a perky survey of the deck from their eminences aloft, they descended coolly on deck, hopped about among the sailors and passengers, and eventually found their way into the cabins, both fore and aft. The birds were evidently fatigued, after a long flight, and allowed themselves to be caught by the people of the ship, who gave them a welcome reception, and provided them with food, which they enjoyed heartily. The little winged strangers remained all night on the vessel, and in the morning, at seven o'clock, the head look-out bird had, no doubt, sighted the Balearic Isles, for the whole flock made for land, after having spent a comfortable and refreshing night on board ship.