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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 10, 13 January 1868, Page 2

The following account of a visit to the collection of English birds about to be sent to NewZealand appears in the Field of October 19 ; — Mr Bills, the experienced and well-known bird fancier, invited a friend and myself to his store-rooms in Brighton, to see the birds, which were ranged around two large rooms in their travelling cages, containing from 2 to 20 birds in each, according to the different species. Ho furnished us with the following particulars of his enterprise, with the further information that the order emanated from the Otago Acclimatisation Society of New Zealand, and that Mr Thatcher, of Brighton, an old servant of the Society, lias been commissioned to carry out the order. The cages contained— blackbirds, 100; missel thrushes, 4; song thrushes, 100; starlings, 150 ; hedge accentors, 100; larks, 1 50 ; linnets, 150 ; robins, 50 ; house-sparrows, 150 ; goldfinches, 100 ; yellow-hammers, 12 ; and blackcaps, 2 ; partridges, pheasants, swans, &c., to be added in London, making up a complement of 1,50.0 birds. The quantity of seed, paste, corn, &c., laid in will cost upwards of £145. Special accomodation has been provided for this cargo on board the Warrior Queen, which sails on the 20i;h inst., and will be worthy a visit from any of our readers who may be thereabouts on that day. The voyage is expected to be accomplished in about 90 days. I consider it only due to Mr Bills to add that a better choice could not have been made to carry out the spirited and liberal order of the Society. His lifelong experience of the habits and wants of the feathered tribe, added to his steady character, are the best guarantee for a successful termination to what has hitherto been found a very difficult undertaking. The Aberdeen Herald relates the following anecdote : — 'l suppose the want of the Frenchman's language would be your greatest difficulty?' said a townsman the other day to a neighbor recently returned from the Paris Exhibition. * Oh, I dinna ken,' replied the tourist, ' they were just as bad wi' us.' A contemporary tells a funny story of a rifle corps in the Vale of Clyde who were exercising in a field, when a cow charged them, and they all ran off— that is, save one man, who, obedient to the rule, dropped on one knee, and 'prepared to receive cavalry.' At the first prick of the bayonet the cavalry retreated. The New York Herald recently contained the following advertisement : — ' To Pianoforte Makers.— A lady keeping a first-class school requiring a good piano is desirous of receiving a daughter of the above in exchange for the same.'

A new Anglican bishopric for China, the seat of which will be at Ningpo, "will be at once founded. The Rev. W. A. Russell, M.A., of Trinity College, Dublin, will be the bishop and he will be consecrated without delay. The Boston Advertiser says: — We took a new reporter on trial yesterday. He went out to hunt items, and after being away all day, returned with the following, whicli he said was the best he could do: — Yesterday we saw a sight that froze our muscles with horror. A hackman, driving down College-street at a rapid pace, came near running over a nurse and two children. There would have been one of the most heartrending catastrophes ever recorded had not the nurse, with wonderful forethought, left the children at home before she went out, and providentially stepped into a drug store just before the hack passed. Then, too,Jthe hackman, just before reaching the crossing, thought of something he had forgotten, and turning about drove in an opposite direction. Had it not been for this wonderful occurrence of favorable circumstances, a doting father, a loving mother, and affectionate brothers and sisters, would have been plunged into the deepest woe and most unutterable funeral expenses. The new reporter will be retained.