that a black
redstart had built her nest upon the collision spring; he very humanely
retained the carriage in its shed until its use was imperatively
demanded, and at last attached it to the train which ran to
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, a distance of nearly forty miles. It remained at
Frankfort for thirty-six hours, and was then brought back to Giessen, and
after one or two short journeys came back again to rest at Giessen, after
a period of four days. The young birds were by this time partly fledged,
and finding that the parent bird had not deserted her offspring, the
superintendent carefully removed the nest to a place of safety, whither
the parent soon followed. The young were, in process of time, full
fledged and left the nest to shift for themselves. It is evident that
one at least of the parent birds must have accompanied the nest in all
its journeys, for, putting aside the difficulty which must have been
experienced by the parents in watching for every carriage that arrived at
Giessen, the nestlings would have perished from hunger during their stay
at Frankfort, for everyone who has reared young birds is perfectly aware
that they need food every two hours. Moreover, the guard of the train
repeatedly saw a red-tailed bird flying about that part of the carriage
on which the nest was placed.

STOPPING A RUNAWAY COUPLE.

Captain Galton who some years ago was the government railway inspector,
in one of his reports relates the following singular circumstance. "A
girl who was in love with the engine-driver of a train, had engaged to
run away from her father's house in order to be married. She arranged to
leave by a train this man was driving. Her father and brother got
intelligence of her intended escape; and having missed catching her as
she got into the train, they contrived, whether with or without the
assistance of a porter is not very clear, to turn the train through
facing points, as it left the station, into a bog." The captain does not
pursue the subject further in his report, so that we are left in
ignorance as to the success of the plan for stopping a contemplated
runaway marriage.

A MADMAN IN A RAILWAY CARRIAGE.

We subjoin from the _Annual Register_ for 1864 an account of an alarming
occurrence which took place July 4th of that year:--"In one of the
third-class compartments of the express train leaving King's Cross
Station at 9.15 p.m., a tall and strongly-built man, dressed as a