UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 BIOLOGY 
 LIBRARY 
 
 G 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 DR. JOSEPH LECONTE, 
 
 GIFT OF MRS. LECONTE. 
 
ZOOLOGICAL 
 
 RECREATIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 W. J. BRODERIP, ESQ., F.R.S., &c. &c. 
 
 " He prayeth best, who loveth best 
 All things both great and small; 
 For the dear God who lov-L-th us 
 He made and loveth all." 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 FROM THE ENLARGED SECOND LONDON EDITION, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 LEA AND BLANCHARD. 
 
 1849. 
 

 , \ 
 
 BIOLOGY 
 
 UBRARY 
 
 G 
 
TO 
 
 RICHARD OWEN, M.D., 
 
 F.R.S., &c., &c., 
 
 HUNTERIAN PROFESSOR IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF 
 SURGEONS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 MY DEAR OWEN : 
 
 IN dedicating to you this little book, which would never 
 have appeared in its present form without your suggestion and 
 encouragement, I have only to hope that it will not be deemed 
 entirely unworthy of association with your name. 
 
 I am, 
 
 My dear Owen, 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 W. J. BRODERIP. 
 
 London, May, 1847. 
 
 L^. ' 
 
 186694 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE Papers here collected were commenced by the particular 
 desire of one whose name cannot be written without a renewal 
 of the regret, felt so deeply, by so many, for his untimely loss. 
 The brilliancy of Theodore Hook's wit, vivid but innocuous 
 as summer lightning, was only equalled by the goodness of his 
 heart, and when he sank, 
 
 " Like a bright exhalation in the evening," 
 
 he left a dark void, which those -who had the happiness of 
 enjoying his charming society, can never hope to see brightened 
 again. For his sparkling conversation flowed continually, and 
 without effort, like an exuberant Artesian well. There was no 
 straining for effect : all was easy springing from the gaiety of 
 a soul warmed by the presence of those whom he loved. 
 
 These pages appeared in the New Monthly Magazine under 
 his editorship. When the inimitable Thomas Hood another 
 irreparable loss succeeded the lamented Theodore, the " Recrea- 
 tions" were continued at his request ; and they were concluded, 
 when that periodical passed into the able hands of William 
 Harrison Ainsworth. 
 
 The "Recreations" have had the good fortune to receive 
 some marks of public approbation ; but the author, who sketched 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 them as a relief from more severe studies and duties, would 
 never have thought of reprinting them, had not the great 
 Comparative Anatomist named in the dedication, and other 
 scientific friends, urged their re-publication, under the impression 
 that when brought together, they might form a hand-book 
 which might cherish, or even awaken a love for Natural 
 History. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Singing Birds . . -. "k . . 13 
 
 Resident Singing Birds . v ."*> ... 23 
 
 Migratory Singing Birds . . . . . 38 
 
 The Cuckoo . . ,. . : * . . 77 
 
 Owls . . . . . . . .90 
 
 Parrots . . . . . . . .116 
 
 Turkeys . . . . . ^ ,* . . 126 
 
 Wild Swans .. .'. . . '^.' . ^O . 143 
 
 Tame Swans , . ", * , '. .< . 156 
 
 A Word to Anglers . "* * - ." ''^ 171 
 
 May . . ;- : - ' '" 176 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Dogs _,^ . . . . . % ,r^ 177 
 
 Cats -*T^ . . . .:'. 192 
 
 Apes and Monkeys . . . . . . 212 
 
 American Monkeys . . . . : ' . ' . . 226 
 
 Apes and Monkeys of the Old Continent . . , . . 235 
 
 Elephants . ^ . . , i^; . ;; % -. . 250 
 
 Dragons - i . . . . . . . 320 
 
 Sea-Dragons ; * . . *<>' .- 332 
 
 Ancient Amphibious and Terrestrial Dragons vif. ; < -v r :v- 344 
 
 Postscript . '., ^:- . ". *'>- # 9 - > 373 
 
ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 PART FIRST. BIRDS. 
 
 SINGING BIRDS. 
 
 " Anna-Marie, love, up is the sun, 
 Anna-Marie, love, morn is begun, 
 Mists are dispersing, love, birds singing free, 
 Up in the morning, love, Anna-Marie." 
 
 IYANHOE. 
 
 THE melody of birds finds its way to the heart of every one ; 
 but the cause that prompts the outpourings that make copse, rock, 
 and river, ring again on a fine spring morning is more a matter 
 of doubt with ornithologists than the uninitiated in zoological 
 mysteries might suppose. Much has been written on this subject, 
 but upon a consideration of the different opinions, aided by our 
 own observations, we are inclined to think that love and rivalry 
 are the two great stimulants, though we do not mean to deny 
 that a bird may sing from mere gaiety of heart arising from 
 finding itself in the haunts dear to it, and in the midst of plenty 
 of the food it likes ; to give vent, in short, to the buoyancy of 
 spirit arising from general pleasurable sensations. 
 
 In this country the season of reproduction is undoubtedly that 
 wherein 
 
 " The isle is full of pleasant noises, 
 Sounds?, and sweet airs that give delight." 
 
 And about ten weeks have been mentioned as the period during 
 which most of our wild birds are in song. That there are excep- 
 tions to this rule there is no doubt. We have heard a wild 
 thrush, one of the sweetest singers of his tribe, sing far into 
 September, but we watched narrowly, and never could find that he 
 had a mate. Then, again, we have the autumnal and even the 
 winter notes of the robin long after the breeding season ; and 
 
14 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 caged birds, if well fed and kept, will sing the greatest part of the 
 year. 
 
 Let us endeavour, before we proceed further, to give the reader 
 some idea of the natural musical instrument with which the loud 
 and complicated passages of song-birds are executed. The. larynx 
 is formed much after the fashion of some artificial wind-instru- 
 ments, and consists of two parts ; of these the first contains the 
 proper rima glottidis, at the upper end, while the bronchial, or 
 lower larynx, is furnished with another rima glottidis with tense 
 membranes. The lower apparatus may be compared to the reed 
 in a clarionet or hautboy, and the upper to the ventage or hole 
 of the instrument that utters the note. Besides all this, it has 
 been truly asserted that there is no part of a bird's structur^ 
 impervious to air; and, as M. Jacquemin observes, it is the 
 volume of air which birds can introduce into their bodies, and the 
 force with which they can expel it, that solve the problem how 
 so small a creature as a singing bird can be capable of sending 
 forth notes so loud, and of warbling so long and so prodigally, 
 without apparent fatigue. The muscles, whose province it is to 
 regulate this wonderful wind-instrument, are proportionally strong 
 and highly developed in the sex which is more peculiarly gifted 
 with musical power. Thus John Hunter, on dissecting a cock- 
 nightingale, a cock and hen blackbird, a cock linnet, and a cock 
 and hen chaffinch, found the muscles of the larynx to be stronger 
 in the nightingale than in any other bird of the same size ; and 
 in all the instances where he dissected both cock and hen, he 
 remarked that the same muscles were stronger in the cock. The 
 rivalry with which some of these feathered songsters will sing 
 against each other in captivity is well-known to bird-fanciers : and 
 Bechstein observes, speaking of the Thuringian Canary birds, 
 that there are some males which, especially in the pairing season, 
 sing with so much strength and ardour, that they burst the 
 delicate vessels of the lungs and die suddenly. 
 
 The Hon. Daines Barrington, who paid much attention to this 
 subject, remarks that some passages of the song in a few kinds of 
 birds correspond with the intervals of our musical scale ; but that 
 much the greater part of such a song is not capable of musical 
 notations. He attributes this to the following causes : First, 
 because the rapidity is often so great, and it is also so uncertain 
 where they may stop, that it is impossible to reduce the passages 
 to form a musical bar in any time whatsoever ; secondly, on 
 account of the pitch of most birds being considerably higher than 
 the most shrill notes of instruments of the greatest compass ; 
 &nd lastly, because the intervals used by birds are commonly so 
 minute that we cannot judge at all of them from the more gross 
 intervals into which our musical octave is divided. 
 
SINGING BIRDS. 15 
 
 But though, as the same author observes, we cannot attain the 
 more delicate and imperceptible intervals in the song of birds, yet 
 many of them are capable of whistling tunes with our more gross 
 intervals, as in the case of piping bullfinches and canary birds. 
 This faculty of learning the first notes that the bird is able to 
 distinguish, leads us to another interesting part of our subject ; 
 and we will now proceed to the experiments made by Daines 
 Barrington, showing that the varied songs which distinguish 
 different species of birds, are the consequence of the parental 
 notes which first meet their ears. 
 
 The learned author states, that to be certain that a nestling will 
 not have even the call of its species, it should be taken from the 
 est when only a day or two old ; because, though nestlings 
 cannot see till the seventh day, yet they can hear from the instant 
 they are hatched, and, probably from that circumstance, attend to 
 sounds more than they do afterwards, especially as the call of the 
 parents announces the arrival of their food. After stating the 
 trouble of breeding up a bird of this tender age, and admitting 
 that he himself never reared one, he goes on to speak of a linnet 
 and a goldfinch which he had seen, and which were taken from 
 their nests when only two or three days old, and to mention 
 some other curious instances of imitation in the following 
 terms: 
 
 "The first of these (the linnet) belonged to Mr. Matthews, 
 an apothecary at Kensington, which, from a want of other sounds 
 to imitate, almost articulated the words pretty boy, as well as some 
 other short sentences. I heard the bird myself repeat the words 
 pretty boy : and Mr. Matthews assured me, that he had neither 
 the note nor call of any bird whatsoever. This talking linnet 
 died last year, before which many people went from London to 
 hear him speak." 
 
 " The goldfinch I have before mentioned, was reared in the town 
 of Knighton, in Radnorshire, which I happened to hear as I was 
 walking by the house where it was kept. I thought, indeed, that 
 a wren was singing ; and I went into the house to inquire after it, 
 as that little bird seldom lives long in a cage. The people of the 
 house, however, told me that they had no bird but a goldfinch, 
 which they conceived to sing its own natural note as they called 
 it ; upon which I stayed a considerable time in the room, whilst 
 its notes were merely those of a wren, without the least mixture 
 of goldfinch. On further inquiries, I found that the bird had been 
 taken from the nest when only a day or two old, that it was hung 
 in a window which was opposite to a small garden, whence the 
 nestling had undoubtedly acquired the notes of the wren, without 
 having had any opportunity of learning even the call of a gold- 
 finch. These facts which 1 have stated seem to prove very deci- 
 
16 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 sively that birds have not any innate ideas of the notes which are 
 supposed to be peculiar to each species. But it will possibly be 
 asked, why, in a wild state, they adhere so steadily to the same 
 song, insomuch, that it is well known, before the bird is heard, 
 what notes you are to expect from him? This, however, arises 
 entirely from the nestling's attending only to the instruction of the 
 parent bird, whilst it disregards the notes of all others, which 
 may, perhaps, be singing around him. Young Canary birds are 
 frequently reared in a room where there are many other sorts, and 
 yet I have been informed that they only learn the song of the 
 parent cock. Every one knows that the common house-sparrow, 
 when in a wild state, never does any thing but chirp ; this does 
 not, however, arise from want of power in this bird to imitate 
 others, but because he only attends to the parental note." 
 
 Two points in this interesting description will be noted by the 
 observer, and the questions will occur how was the first bird of 
 each species taught, and is not the assertion touching the sparrow 
 somewhat bold ? 
 
 The difficulty surrounding the first is more apparent than real ; 
 for, if it be granted that species were created, all the distinctions 
 of voice and plumage follow of course ; and it will equally follow 
 that they have been regularly transmitted down to the present 
 period in such species as have not become extinct. With regard 
 to the second we shall permit Mr. Barrington to speak for himself, 
 for he has proved the fact : 
 
 "To prove this decisively, I took a common sparrow from the 
 nest, when it was fledged, and educated him under a linnet : the 
 bird, however, by accident, heard a goldfinch also, and his song 
 was, therefore, a mixture of the linnet and goldfinch." 
 
 The same experimentalist educated a young robin, under a very 
 fine nightingale, which, however, began already to be out of song, 
 and was perfectly mute in less than a fortnight : the scholar 
 afterwards sang three parts in four nightingale, and the rest of his 
 song was what the bird-catchers call "rubbish," or no particular 
 note whatever. 
 
 Bechstein observes that nearly all birds when young will learn 
 some strain whistled or played to them every day ; but those only 
 whose memory is retentive will abandon their natural song and 
 adopt fluently the air that has been taught them. In proof of 
 this position, he adduces the cases of the goldfinch and bullfinch, 
 stating that a young goldfinch will, indeed, learn some part of the 
 melody played to a bullfinch, but will never repeat the lesson so 
 perfectly as the latter, and that this difference is not caused by 
 the greater or less flexibility of the organ of the voice, but rather 
 by the superiority of the bullfinch's memory. 
 
 In the cultivation and management of the human voice, and to 
 
SIJS'GING BIRDS. 17 
 
 keep up its tone, and the power ef execution, we know how 
 necessary constant practice is ; and we find the same sort of 
 discipline resorted to both by caged birds, and those which pour 
 forth their " wood notes wild." 
 
 "It is remarkable," says Bechstein, "that birds which do not 
 sing all the year, such as the redbreast, siskin, and goldfinch, seem 
 obliged, after moulting, to learn to warble, as though they had 
 forgotten ; but I have seen enough to convince me that these 
 attempts are merely to render the larynx pliant, and are a kind of 
 chirping, the notes of which have but little relation to the proper 
 song ; for a slight attention will discover that the larynx becomes 
 gradually capable of giving the common warble. This method of 
 recovering the song does not, then, show deficiency of memory, 
 but liability to rigidity, occasioned by disuse of the larynx. The 
 chaffinch will exercise itself in this way some weeks before it 
 attains its former proficiency, and the nightingale practises as long 
 the strains of his beautiful song, before he gives it full, clear, and 
 in all its extent." 
 
 This "practising" is termed by our British bird-fanciers and 
 bird-catchers, " recording," a word, according to Daines Barring- 
 ton, probably derived from the musical instrument formerly used 
 in England, called a " recorder,"* which seems to have been a 
 species of flute, and was probably used to teach young birds to 
 pipe notes. The term " recording" is more particularly used by 
 the same fraternity, to distinguish the attempt of the nestling to 
 sing, and which may be compared to the babble of a child in its 
 imperfect endeavours to articulate. 
 
 "I have known," says Barrington, "instances of birds be- 
 ginning to record when they were not a month old. This first 
 'essay does not seem to have the least rudiments of the future 
 song; but as the bird grows older and stronger, one may begin to 
 perceive what the nestling is aiming at. Whilst the scholar is 
 thus endeavouring to form his song, when he is once sure of a 
 passage he commonly raises his tone, which he drops again when 
 he is not equal to what he is attempting ; just as a singer raises 
 his voice, when he not only recollects certain parts of a tune with, 
 precision, but knows that he can execute them. What the nest- 
 ling is not thus thoroughly master of, he hurries over, lowering 
 his tone, as if he did not wish to be heard, and could not yet 
 satisfy himself. A young bird commonly continues to record for 
 ten or eleven months, when he is able to execute every part of his 
 song, which afterwards continues fixed, and is scarcely ever al- 
 tered. When the bird is thus become perfect in his lesson, he is 
 
 * The passage in " Hamlet" will occur to every one. 
 
 2* 
 
18 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 said to sing his song round, or in all its varieties of passages, 
 which he connects together, and executes without a pause." 
 
 Barrington defines a bird's song to be a succession of three or 
 more different notes, which are continued without interruption 
 during the same interval with a musical bar of four crotchets in 
 an adagio movement, or whilst a pendulum swings four seconds. 
 Now- let us see what notes have been detected in the song. 
 Observers have marked F natural in woodlarks ; A in thrushes ; 
 c falling to A commonly in the cuckoo ; A natural in common 
 cocks ; B flat in a very large cock ; D in some owls ; B flat in 
 others. Thus we have A, B flat, c, D, and F, to which Barrington 
 adds G from his own observations on a nightingale, which lived 
 three years in a cage ; and he confirms the remarks of the observer 
 who furnished him with the list, and says he has frequently heard 
 from the same bird c and F. To prove the precision of the pitch 
 of these notes, the B flat of the spirinet by which he tried them 
 was perfectly in tune with the great bell of St. Paul's. E, then, is 
 the only note wanting to complete the scale ; but, as he says, the 
 six other notes afford sufficient data for making some conjectures 
 with regard to the key in which birds may be supposed to sing, 
 as these intervals can only be found in the key of F with a sharp 
 third, or that of o with a flat third ; and he supposed it to be the 
 plaintive flat third, that affecting tone which, in the simple ballad, 
 or " wild and sad" chorus, so comes home to our bosoms. 
 
 " Oft have I listened, and stood still 
 As it came softened up the hill 
 And deemed it the lament of men, 
 Who languished for their native glen." 
 
 Barrington pronounces in favour of the flat third, because he 
 agrees with Lucretius, that man first learnt musical notes from 
 birds, and because the cuckoo, whose " plain song" has been most 
 attended to, performs it in a flat third. He strengthens his 
 argument by showing that most of our simple compositions old 
 melodies such as " MorvaRhydland," and ancient music generally 
 are almost always in a flat third. The music of the Turks and 
 Chinese, he also adduces as having half of the airs in a minor 
 third, which is " adapted to simple movements such as may be 
 expected in countries where music hath not been long culti- 
 vated." 
 
 It will appear, however, from the following observations collected 
 by White, in his enchanting History of Selborne, that neither 
 cuckoos nor owls keep to one key. One musical friend informs 
 the natural historian that all the owls that are his near neighbours 
 hoot in sflat. But in the next letter to the author whom we have 
 so largely quoted, dated August 1, 1771, before the publication of 
 
SINGING BIRDS. 19 
 
 that zoologist's memoir on the singing of birds, in the Philosophi- 
 cal Transactions, bearing date 1773, White says that a friend re- 
 marks that many (most) of his owls hoot in B flat ; and that one 
 went almost half a note below A. He adds, that a neighbour with 
 a nice ear remarked that the owls about Selborne hooted in three X 
 different keys, namely, in G flat, or F sharp in B flat, and A flat. 
 " He heard two hooting to each other, the one in A flat, and the 
 other in B flat." The same person found that the note of the 
 cuckoo varied in different individuals ; for, about Selborne wood, 
 he observed, they were mostly in D ; he heard two sing together, 
 the one in D, the other in D sharp, "who made a disagreeable 
 concert ;" [one would think as much.] He afterwards heard one 
 in D sharp, and, about Woolmer forest, some in c. 
 
 It may seem a rather Milesian method of treating the subject 
 of singing birds, to dwell so long upon the notes of cocks, owls, 
 and cuckoos ; but we shall find that the distinctness and simpli- 
 city of intonation in these birds afford a much better chance of 
 accurately determining the key than the rapid gush of song of 
 the true warblers ; and it will be necessary, before we enter upon 
 the melodies of that exhilarating tribe, to draw the reader's atten- 
 tion to what may be called the conversational notes of birds. 
 
 Those which congregate in bushes keep up a constant twitter- 
 ing, as if to apprize each other of their presence ; and all have 
 notes expressive of alarm, or satisfaction, to say nothing of the 
 language of incubation. These powers may be particularly 
 remarked in the common poultry. The peculiar shrill cry with 
 which the bird of dawning, with uplifted eye, and head raised on 
 one side, to give the widest upward sweep to his vision, gives 
 warning of the horrible advent of the kite or sparrow-hawk ; the 
 note with which he gallantly calls his seraglio about him, to feast 
 on the barleycorn which he has found and saved for them ; the 
 exulting cackle of Dame Partlet giving notice that one more milk- 
 white egg is added to the careful henwife's treasure, a cackle that 
 is caught up from farm-yard to farm-yard, till the whole village is 
 in an uproar, must be familiar to every one : even the newly- 
 hatched chicken it is White, we believe, who makes the obser- 
 vation will seize a fly, if offered to it, \vith complacent twitter- 
 ings : but if a wasp be tendered, a note of aversion and distress is 
 the consequence. 
 
 The wild fowl, in their lofty aerial flights, keep up a constant 
 watch-note of communication with each other ; and far and wide 
 in the silence of night does their cry resound. The windpipes of 
 many of these are complete wind instruments ; that of the wild 
 swan takes a turn within the sternum somewhat after the fashion 
 of a French horn or bugle. May not these unearthly sound?, 
 heard from on high, 
 
20 , ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 " At the lone midnight hour, when bad spirits have power," 
 
 have assisted the legends of the ghostly huntsman, and his wild 
 chase in the air, sweeping overhead like the rush of withered 
 leaves ? 
 
 The call, as it is technically termed, of singing birds seem to 
 have an almost miraculous power over the race, as the bird- 
 catcher well knows. 
 
 " When the bird-catcher hath laid his nests, he disposes of his 
 call-birds at proper intervals. It must be owned that there is a 
 most malicious joy in these call-birds to bring the wild ones into 
 the same captivity, which may likewise be observed with regard 
 to the decoy ducks. Their sight and hearing infinitely excel those 
 of the bird-catcher. The instant that the wild birds are perceived, 
 notice is given by one to the rest of the call-birds (as it is by the 
 first hound that hits on the scent, to the rest of the pack), after 
 which follows the same sort of tumultuous ecstasy and joy. The 
 call-birds, while the bird is at a distance, do not sing as a bird 
 does in a chamber ; they invite the wild ones by what the bird- 
 catchers call short jerks, which, when the birds are good, may be 
 heard at a great distance. The ascendency by this call, or invita- 
 tion, is so great, that the wild bird is stopped in its course of 
 flight, and, if not already acquainted with the nets, lights boldly 
 within twenty yards of perhaps three or four bird-catchers, on a 
 spot which otherwise it would not have taken the least notice of. 
 Nay, it frequently happens that, if half a flock only are caught, 
 the remaining half will immediately afterwards light in the nets, 
 and share the same fate ; and should only one bird escape, that 
 bird will suffer itself to be pulled at till it is caught such a 
 fascinating power have the call-birds"* 
 
 We do not mean to detain the reader upon a bird-catching 
 expedition though it would be more full of interest than some 
 would think but he ought to know, before he goes on one, that 
 a bird acquainted with the nets is by the bird-catchers termed a 
 sharper ; him they endeavour to drive away, as they can have no 
 sport in his company. It is worthy of note, too, that even in their 
 captivity the natural instinct of the call-birds is in many points no 
 whit blunted ; for the moment they see a hawk, caged though 
 they be, they communicate the alarm to each other, by a plaintive 
 note, nor will they iheujerk or call, though the wild birds are 
 near.t 
 
 It is in the Insessorial order $ of birds that the songsters abound, 
 but there is one remarkable exception among the Raptorial order, 
 in that warbling African, Le Faucon Chantcur of Le Vaillant, 
 
 * Barrington on the small birds of flight. f Ibid. 
 
 t Insessores Perching birds. Falco musicus of Daudin. 
 
SINGING BIRDS. 21 
 
 perhaps the only known bird of prey Cuvier says the only known 
 one that sings agreeably. Its song is very sweet, but dangerous 
 as the lay of the Syrens, and 
 
 " Mocks the dead bones that lay scattered by." 
 
 Few spots are more musical with song-birds than these islands. 
 Not that the woods of America are mute but they want the 
 brilliant variety of ours ; and one of her sons, who has so well de- 
 served of the lovers of natural history in all countries, has endea- 
 voured to colonize the Transatlantic groves with the feathered 
 songsters of Britain. And yet they have that wonderful polyglot 
 the rnock-bird.* Him we have seen and heard in captivity, and 
 but Wilson has immortalized the bird with his graphic pen, and, 
 in all humility, we lay down ours. 
 
 "The ease, elegance, and rapidity of his movements, the ani- 
 mation of his eye, and the intelligence he displays in listening and 
 laying up lessons from almost every species of the feathered 
 creation within his hearing, are really surprising, and mark the 
 peculiarity of his genius. To these qualities we may add that of 
 a voice full, strong, and musical, and capable of almost every 
 modulation, from the clear mellow tones of the wood-thrush, to 
 the savage screams of the bald eagle. In measure and accent, he 
 faithfully follows his originals. In force and sweetness of expres- 
 sion, he greatly improves upon them. In his native groves, 
 mounted on the top of a tall bush or half-grown tree, in the dawn 
 of a dewy morning, while the woods are already vocal with a 
 multitude of warblers, his admirable song rises pre-eminent over 
 every competitor. Tha ear can listen to his music alone, to which 
 that of all the others seems a mere accompaniment. Neither is 
 this strain altogether imitative. His own native notes, which are 
 easily distinguishable by such as are well acquainted with those 
 of our various song birds, are bold and full, and varied seemingly 
 beyond all limits. They consist of short expressions of two, 
 three, or at the most five or six syllables; generally interspersed 
 with limitations, and all of them uttered with great emphasis and 
 rapidity; and continued, with undiminished ardour, for half an 
 hour or an hour at a time ; his expanded wings and tail, glisten- 
 ing with white, and the buoyant gaiety of his action, arresting the 
 eye, as his song most irresistibly does the ear. He sweeps round 
 with enthusiastic ecstasy he mounts and descends as his song 
 swells or dies away; and, as my friend Mr. Bartram has beauti 
 fully expressed it, "He bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow, 
 as if to recover or recall his very soul, expired in the last elevated 
 strain." While thus exerting himself, a bystander, destitute of 
 sight, would suppose that the whole feathered tribes had assembled 
 
 * Orpheus polyglottus. 
 
22 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 together on a trial of skill, each striving to produce the utmost 
 effect, so perfect are his imitations. He many times deceives the 
 sportsman, and sends him in search of birds that perhaps are not 
 within miles of him, but whose notes he exactly imitates ; even 
 birds themselves are frequently imposed on by this admirable mimic, 
 and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their mates, or dive with 
 precipitation into the depths of thickets, at the scream of what 
 they suppose to be the sparrow-hawk. The mocking-bird loses 
 little of the power and energy of his song by confinement. In 
 his domesticated state, when he commences his career of song, it 
 is impossible to stand by uninterested. He whistles for the dog ; 
 Cassar starts up, wags his tail, and runs to meet his master. He 
 squeaks out like a hurt chicken, and the hen hurries about with 
 hanging wings, and bristled feathers, clucking to protect its 
 injured brood. The barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat, 
 the creaking of a passing wheelbarrow, follow, with great truth 
 and rapidity. He repeats the tune taught him by his master, 
 though of considerable length, fully and faithfully. He runs over 
 the quiverings of the canary, and the clear whistlings of the 
 Virginia nightingale or red-bird, with such superior execution and 
 effect, that the mortified songsters feel their own inferiority, and 
 become altogether silent, while he seems to triumph in their 
 defeat by redoubling his exertions. ********* 
 Both in his native and domesticated state, during the solemn still- 
 ness of night, as soon as the moon rises in silent majesty, he begins 
 his delightful solo, and serenades us the livelong night with a full 
 display of his vocal powers, making the whole neighbourhood ring 
 with his inimitable medley." 
 
 But we must return to the singing birds of Britain, which may 
 be divided into two classes, the regular visiters and the residents. 
 Food is the principal motive that induces migration on the part of 
 the former, which, like Grisi, Tamburini, Rubini, and, though 
 last not least, Lablache, leave the more genial climes of the south 
 to shiver in the spring of our more austere shores, delighting our 
 ears, and revelling in the harvest made ready for them. But we 
 are not entirely dependent on these warbling strangers, for we 
 number among our residents many birds that in sweetness of tone, 
 if not in brilliancy of execution, rival their visiters. 
 
 What with the influenza and the cutting easterly winds, it has 
 been, Heaven knows, a bitter black season for us unfeathered 
 bipeds, but it has been worse than bitter for the birds. What a 
 month was the 
 
 " Month before the month of May!' 7 
 
 well did it justify the corresponding line, telling us that 
 " The spring comes slowly up this way." 
 
RESIDENT SINGING BIRDS. 23 
 
 The berries were almost all gone, the insects, wisely, came not 
 forth, and, in short, the supplies were all but stopped. Verily 
 there hath not been much disposition 
 
 " To forestal sweet Saint Valentine" 
 
 this year. But now, while we are writing, the redstart, which 
 seldom, it is true, appears among us before the middle of April, 
 and is often not seen till the end of that month, is running on 
 the grass plat, picking up its insect-food, and vibrating its tail at 
 the close of every run, its white cap and black gorget contrasting 
 strongly in the sunshine. It is a blessed change. The swallows 
 are come, and they do make a spring, if not a summer. 
 
 When we proceed to enumerate the different species of singing 
 birds, we shall inquire as to the time of year when each may be 
 considered, generally speaking, to be in full song. At present 
 we shall merely observe, that it depends in great measure both 
 upon the health and spirits of the individual, and the state of the 
 weather. Not that any of them, hardly, are to be heard in any 
 thing like full song in January, except very rarely. February, 
 March, and April, are more and more tunable, Often, in the 
 latter month, the chill gloomy morning, rendered more dreary by 
 a cutting easterly wind, clears away into a fine warm afternoon. 
 In such mornings, while Eurus predominates, every thing around 
 is silent with the exception of the murmur of the brook ; but the 
 wind changes, the clouds disperse, forth breaks the sun, the 
 insects swarm, the tuneful stream becomes alive with the rising 
 trouts, and the groves burst out into melody. 
 
 In May, " the mother of love," the year is more confirmed, and 
 every garden, orchard, and copse rivals the singing tree of the 
 Arabian story. Now it is that the full power of song is developed ; 
 witness the clear mellow pipe of that blackbird perched on the 
 tallest acacia in the garden, while his mate, with half-shut eyes, 
 and pressing her little ones to her bosorn, listens in security on 
 her nest in yonder hawthorn hedge spangled with its dewy May- 
 flower blossoms. 
 May, 1837. 
 
 SINGING BIRDSRESIDENTS. 
 
 " Within the bush, her covert nest 
 A little linnet fondly prest, 
 The dew sat chilly on her breast, 
 
 Sae early in the morning." BTJIINS. 
 
 No : every green thing has not been sacrificed to the Frost- 
 Genius. Nights, rivalling the Iron Nights of the Swedish 
 
24 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 calendar, have, indeed, done their work ; and it may be doubted 
 whether the horticulturist has had so much cause for lamentation 
 since the "Black Spring" of 1771. Numbers are mourning their 
 dead rhododendrons, azalias, and magnolias, and not a few have 
 to sigh over their withered bays, to say notning of laurustinuses 
 and roses : even the hardy holly has, in some places, perished in 
 its death-struggle with the weather. 
 
 The determined lingering of winter in the lap of spring seems 
 to have checked every effort of vegetable life, producing one of 
 the most backward seasons remembered. This has had its effect 
 upon the Singing Birds ; for, as the food of their nestlings 
 consists almost entirely of caterpillars and of insects generally 
 in the early stages of development, or of worms and slugs, all of 
 which depend upon plants for subsistence, their song, and incu- 
 bation there have been exceptions, doubtless are late this year. 
 We saw one instance of the ravenous eagerness with which the 
 half-starved creatures attacked and made prey of some of the first 
 flowers that dared to show themselves. On a fine sunny morning 
 after the first of the one or two comparatively warm nights that 
 came in March, the garden, which on the preceding day had 
 "made no sign," was bright with crocuses every one of which 
 the birds devoured or destroyed before noon. 
 
 Of all the British resident Song-birds, the Merulidse are the 
 most remarkable for the strength of their vocal powers, and the 
 first of this family that claims our attention, for it is a brumal as 
 well as an early, vernal songster, is a very curious bird, not 
 uncommon in some localities, but extremely rare in others, and 
 concerning which much of the marvellous has been written. If 
 we are to believe some authors, the Water-Ouzel, Water Black- 
 bird, or Dipper,* Der Wasserschwatzer of the Germans, Merle 
 d'eau of the French, and Tordo del agua of the Spaniards, delibe- 
 rately descends into the water, and walks about on the bottom of 
 the stream with the same ease and complacency as if it were 
 stepping on the dry land. Now, to say nothing of that ex- 
 tremely impracticable law of which We are reminded every hour of 
 the day, and more especially," when china falls," the structure of 
 the bird itself is not adapted for such a feat ; and though we have 
 no doubt of its subaqueous habits, which have food more than frolic 
 for their object, we are more than skeptical as to its pedestrian 
 performances in such a situation. Mr. Macgillivray, who writes 
 as none can write who have not beheld what they write about, 
 informs us that he has seen the Dipper moving under water in 
 situations where he could observe it with certainty, and he found 
 that its actions Were precisely similar to those of the Divers, 
 
 * Cinclus aquaticus Turdus Cinclus of Linnaeus. 
 
RESIDENT SINGING BIRDS. 25 
 
 Mergansers, and Cormorants, which he had often watched from an 
 eminence as they pursued the shoals of sand-eels along the shores 
 of the Hebrides. It, in fact, flew ; not merely employing the 
 wing from the carpal joint, but extending it considerably, and 
 availing itself of the whole expanse, just as it would have done if 
 it had been moving in the air. The general direction of the body 
 was obliquely downwards ; and great force was evidently used to 
 counteract buoyancy, the bird finding it difficult to keep itself at 
 the bottom. Mr. Macgillivray remarks that Colonel Montagu 
 well describes the appearance which it presents under such 
 circumstances ; and the former goes on to state that, in one or 
 two instances where he has been able to perceive it under water, 
 it appeared to tumble about in a very extraordinary manner, with 
 its head downwards, as if pecking something, and at the same 
 time great exertion of both wings and legs was used. The 
 bird was, we doubt not, at this time capturing the fresh-water 
 mollusca and insect-larvae which form its principal aliment. When 
 searching for food, the Dipper, according to Mr. Macgillivray, 
 does not proceed to great distances under water ; but, alighting 
 on some spot, sinks, and soon reappears in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood, when it either dives again, or rises on the wing to drop 
 somewhere else on the water, or to settle on an insulated stone in 
 the midst of the brook. The same ornithologist broadly, and, 
 as we believe, truly, states that the assertion of its walking below 
 the surface, which some persons have ventured, is neither made 
 good by observation nor countenanced by reason. Its short legs, 
 and long, curved claws, are, as he says, very ill adapted for running, 
 but admirably calculated for securing a steady footing on slippery 
 stones, whether above or beneath the surface of the water. 
 
 The sonorous song of this extraordinary bird startles the ear 
 as it comes mingled with the hoarse tones of the torrent, or the 
 rushing of the wintry waterfall, sometimes in the midst of a 
 snow-storm. Mr. Rennie, who remarks that it is one of the few 
 birds that are vocal so early in the year as the months of January 
 and February, heard it, on the llth of the latter month in a hard 
 frost, when the thermometer in the morning had been at 26, 
 sing incessantly in a powerful and elegant style, with much 
 variation in the notes, many of which were peculiar to itself, 
 intermingled with a little of the piping of the Woodlark. The 
 day was bright whilst it was singing, but it was freezing in the 
 shade ; and the sun, which had considerably passed the meridian, 
 was obscured from the songster by the lofty surrounding hills. 
 The same author declares that the Dipper consumes a consider- 
 able quantity of fishes' spawn, and, especially, of the ova of the 
 salmon. Bechstein, who also notices its winter music, alleges 
 that it sings, moreover, in the night. 
 3 
 
26 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 The nest is as curious as the bird that makes it. In shape it a 
 good deal resembles that of a Wren, having a dome or roof, but 
 it is not so deep. Externally it is formed of water-plants, or 
 closely-interwoven moss : within, there is a lining of dry leaves. 
 The access to the hollow chamber is through an aperture in the 
 side. It is often placed in some mossy bank overhanging the 
 stream, 
 
 u Where the lady-fern grows longest ;" 
 
 and has been detected under a projecting stone forming part of a 
 cascade, and behind a sheet of falling water. Through this 
 liquid glassy curtain the bird darted to its home. The eggs, 
 from four to six in number, are white, and pointed at the end ; 
 and, wherever the nest is placed, such care is taken by the old 
 birds to assimilate its hues to those of the locality, that, large as 
 it is, the most acute eye is often unable to detect it. There is an 
 excellent vignette of the Dipper's nest in Mr. YarreiFs delightful 
 "History of British Birds."* 
 
 This Water Blackbird is not uncommon in Scotland, nor in the 
 North and West of England. In Wales and Ireland it frequently 
 occurs. Mr. Yarrell mentions one which was seen at a water- 
 mill, near Wyrardisbury, on the Colne, about two or three 
 hundred yards above the place at which that river falls into the 
 Thames, just below Bell Weir, well known to the angler who 
 goes after the great trouts. The bird, he adds, has also been 
 seen on the Mole, near Esher, and in Essex ; but it is seldom 
 found in the counties near London. 
 
 Next in order comes the Missel Thrush,t la Draine of the 
 French, and Misteldrossel of the Germans. Perched on the top 
 of the yet leafless tree, he pours forth his loud and often- 
 repeated strain of melancholy, but musical cadences, 
 
 " While rocking winds are piping loud," 
 
 amid all the meteoric rudeness of February. The advent of the 
 storm is Hailed by him in notes of more than ordinary power; 
 and so remarkable is this habit, that it has obtained for the bird, 
 in many counties, the name of Storm Cock. Self-possessed and 
 daring, this, one of the largest of the British Thrushes, will 
 suffer hardly any animal to approach its haunts during the season 
 of incubation ; hence the Welch call him Pen y llwyn, the head or 
 master of the coppice ; for he will not tolerate the presence of 
 any thievish Magpie, .Jay, or Crow, but drives them from the 
 spot with loud cries. So pugnacious are both the sexes at this 
 period, that the hen bird has been known to fly at the face of 
 
 * 8vo. London, Van Vorst. f Turdus viscivorus. 
 
RESIDENT SINGING BIRDS. 
 
 27 
 
 man when he has disturbed her while sitting-. White acknow- 
 ledges the success with which the Missel Thrush frequently 
 repels the invader ; but he once saw in his garden at Selborne a 
 sad exception to the general rule. Several Magpies came down 
 in a body, determined to storm the nest of the poor Missel 
 Thrushes, who " defended their mansion with great vigour, and 
 fought resolutely pro aris etfocis; but numbers at last prevailed; 
 they tore the nest to pieces, and swallowed the young alive." 
 
 The -food of the Missel Thrush consists of slugs, worms, 
 insects, &c., with no small addition of berries, among which that 
 of the misseltoe (whence its name) is a decided favourite. The 
 nest, which is begun in April, is generally placed in the fork of a 
 tree, sometimes carefully concealed, but, at others, remarkably 
 exposed : it presents externally a mass of coarse stems of plants, 
 moss, withered grasses, and lichens. Within, it is stuccoed with 
 mud or clay, which is again lined with delicate dry grasses, on 
 which are laid four or five eggs more than an inch long, generally 
 of a greenish white spotted with ruddy brown, but the colour 
 occasionally varies to pinkish or reddish white, mottled with dark 
 red-brown hues. The bird, though plentiful nowhere, is not 
 uncommon anywhere in Britain, and is to be found in most of the 
 counties near the metropolis : we have seen and heard it fre- 
 quently at Fulham. 
 
 Brisson named the Song Thrush,* Throstle, or Mavis, the 
 Small Missel Thrush, and, indeed, it is very nearly a miniature 
 resemblance of the last-mentioned species. But this admirable 
 musician, to which the English and Germans have given a name 
 expressive of its melodious pipe, goes far beyond the Missel 
 Thrush, or, indeed, any of the tribe in Britain, in its vocal 
 powers. From early spring, throughout the summer months, 
 even until the autumn, this charming songster delights the rural 
 inhabitants of this island, more especially in the morning and 
 towards the close of day. It generally chooses the top of a high 
 tree for its station, and we have sometimes thought its music 
 most perfect after a genial shower on a fine warm spring evening, 
 when the young foliage was glittering with the rain-drops, and 
 not a breath of air disturbed the direct upward column of gray 
 smoke rising from the neighbouring cottage. 
 
 Like all powerful song-birds, this thrush often seems to arti- 
 culate words distinctly. We have heard one express, in the course 
 of its singing, sounds which fell on the ear as if it were repeating 
 the words "My dear- my pretty dear my pretty little dear." 
 These accents were not caught up by one listener alone, who 
 might, perhaps, have been deemed a little imaginative ; but all who 
 heard them were struck by the resemblance. 
 
 * Turdus musicus, Linn. The Germans call it Singdrossel. 
 
28 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 This charming species is widely spread, and has been traced 
 eastward as far as Smyrna and Trebizond. It was evidently one 
 of the birds that ministered to the absurd wantonness of the 
 Roman voluptuaries in their olios of brains and tongues of 
 singing birds. Even at the present day, as we learn from a 
 distinguished ornithologist of that country,* it is considered 
 among the Italians as " molto grato agli Epicurei." The luscious 
 grapes and figs on which it there feeds are said to impart a most 
 exquisite flavour to its flesh, which seems well appreciated by the 
 ex-maitred' hotel of Pascal Bruno's friend, the Prince Butera, when 
 the accomplished artist treats, with all the solemnity due to the 
 high importance of the subject, of his Grives a la broche, au 
 genievre,a.nd a laflamande.\ There is, it is true, no accounting for 
 tastes, and we would speak with all reverence for discriminating 
 palates ; but some may think that all taste, save that for the 
 pleasures of the table, must have vanished before the gourmand 
 can sit down with gratification to his dish of Song Thrushes. 
 
 The Throstle has been seen sitting on her eggs as early as 
 the third week in January. The first brood, however, rarely 
 makes its appearance before the beginning of April. The nest is 
 generally hidden in the midst of some tall bush ; green moss and 
 delicate roots form the outside; and within it is coated with a 
 thin smooth plastering, in which decayed wood is often an ingre- 
 dient, so well laid on as to hold water for some time. In this 
 cup-like receptacle the female deposits four or five eggs of a 
 beautiful pale blue, scantily spotted with black at the larger end. 
 It appears, from a contributor to Mr. Louden's "Magazine of 
 Natural History" where will be found many pleasant anecdotes of 
 animals and much interesting zoological information, that both 
 sexes participate in the duties of incubation. The author of the 
 memoir alluded to, who watched the progress of the nest, states 
 that, when all was finished, the cock took his share of the 
 hatching, but he did not sit so long as the hen, though he often 
 fed her while she was upon the nest. The young were out of the 
 shells, which the old ones carried orT, by the thirteenth day. 
 
 The " Ousel Cock" maybe thought too common to require 
 notice ; and yet some of our readers may not be aware that, 
 glorying in its prodigality of voice and revelling in its mimicry, it 
 has been known to crow like a cock and cackle like a hen. The 
 power and quality of tone of the blackbirdj is first-rate, and for 
 these he is justly more celebrated than for execution or variety of 
 notes. His clear, mellow, fluty pipe is first heard in the early 
 spring, and his song is continued far into the year,, till the time of 
 
 * The Prince of Canino and Musignano. 
 j- In " Le Cuisinier des Cuisiniers." 
 t Merula vulgaris Turdus Merula, Linn 
 
RESIDENT SINGING BIRDS. 29 
 
 moulting. He rejoices in the moist vernal weather, and is heard 
 to the greatest advantage when 
 
 "The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard, 
 By those who wander through the forest walks." 
 
 The thickest bush is generally selected for the nest, which is 
 matted externally with coarse roots, and strong, dry grass stalks 
 or bents, plastered and mixed internally with earth, so as to 
 form a kind of cob-wall. Fine grass stalks form the lining on 
 which repose the four, five, or even six light-blue eggs, most 
 frequently mottled with pale rufous brown, but sometimes spotless. 
 The first hatch takes place about the end of March or beginning 
 of April. This species, the Schwarzdrossel of the Germans, Merlo 
 of the Italians, and Merle of the French and Scotch, is widely and 
 abundantly diffused. It has been recorded by Temminck as far 
 eastward as the Morea, and Mr. Darwin noticed it as far west as 
 Terceira, one of the Azores : but this is no place for a lecture on 
 the geographical distribution of birds. Albinos are not very 
 uncommon. 
 
 The fruit consumed by the Blackbird and Song Thrush is well 
 repaid, not only by their music, but by the good they do to the 
 garden in destroying slugs and shell-snails. Besides their natural 
 notes, these Merulidae may be educated so as to sing an artificial 
 song, and even articulate. Dr. Latham relates that the tame 
 Blackbird may be taught to whistle tunes and to imitate the 
 human voice ; and Pliny tells us of the talking Thrush, " imitan- 
 tem sermones hominum," which was the pet of Claudius Caesar's 
 Agrippina. The Hon. Daines Barrington quotes another sentence 
 from the same chapter and book of Pliny to show that the young 
 Caesars had a Thrush, as well as Nightingales, eloquent in Latin 
 and Greek. The talking Thrush belonging to Agrippina we 
 admit ; but we suspect that the learned Thrush of the "Caesares 
 juvenes" was no more than a starling ; and, indeed, "sturnum" 
 is the word in the Leyden edition (1548). 
 
 The Larks, those brilliant vocalists, next claim our notice, and 
 with the Sky-Lark, or Lavrock* we begin. Fear not, reader ; 
 there is no description coming of the variety of the intense gushes, 
 the prodigal outpourings of this Ariel of song, as he mounts till 
 the eye can no longer follow him, though the ear still drinks his 
 wild music. We are not in a frame of mind for such attempts ; 
 we have just read those beautiful lines that close the most 
 soul-stirring of all biographies! lines describing, with all the 
 touching fervour of a holy poetry, the affecting incident that made 
 
 * Alauda arvensis. 
 
 f Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart, by J. G. Lockhart, Esq., 
 his literary executor. 
 3* 
 
30 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 its way to the hearts of the mourners when they laid in the earth 
 the daughter of the great and good Sir Walter 
 
 " The minstrel's darling child." 
 
 Who, after reading that mournful and thrilling page, will not 
 denounce the sacrilege of depriving the sky-lark of his liberty ? 
 
 Of all the unhallowed instances of bird-incarceration (not even 
 excepting the stupid cruelty of shutting up a Robin in an aviary), 
 the condemnation of the Sky-lark to perpetual imprisonment is 
 surely the most repugnant to every good feeling. The bird, 
 whilst his happy brethren are carolling far up in the sky, as if 
 they would storm heaven itself with their rush of song, just at the 
 joyous season 
 
 " When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear," 
 
 is doomed to pine in some dingy street. There, in a den with a 
 solid wooden roof, painted green outside, and white, glaring white, 
 within which, in bitter mockery, is called a tfAry-lark's cage, he 
 keeps winnowing his wretched wings, and beating his breast 
 against the wires, panting for one one only upward flight into 
 the free air. To delude him into the recollection that there are 
 such places as the fields, which he is beginning to forget, they cut 
 what they call a turf a turf dug up in the vicinity of this smoke- 
 canopied Babel of bricks, redolent of all its sooty abominations, 
 and bearing all the marks of the thousands of tons of fuel which 
 .are now suffered to escape up our chimneys, and fall down again 
 upon our noses and into our lungs, tons, which, when our coal- 
 mines begin to shrink alarmingly 'tis no laughing matter, the 
 time must come some future Arnott* will, perhaps too late, 
 enable the public to save, while he, at the same time, bestows upon 
 them the blessing of a pure atmosphere. Well, this abominable 
 lump of dirt is presented to the sky-lark as a refreshment for his 
 parched feet, longing for the fresh morning dews. Miserable as 
 the winged creature is, he feels that there is something resembling 
 grass under him ; and then the fond wretch looks upward and 
 warbles, and expects his mate. Is it possible to see and hear this 
 desecration of instinct unmoved ? and yet we endure it every 
 spring, and moreover, we have our Society for Preventing Cruelty 
 to Animals. 
 
 When free, the Sky-lark never sings on the ground : his notes 
 are first heard early in the year, and his song is continued far into 
 the summer. About the end of April or the beginning of May 
 the nest is placed snugly among the corn or herbage, and rests 
 
 * We by no means intend to insinuate that the present gifted philosopher 
 is unable to effect this ; we believe that he could ; but revolutions to be 
 stable should be gradual, or they are apt to end in smoke. 
 
RESIDENT SINGING BIRD8. 31 
 
 upon the earth. It is framed of the stalks of plants, with an inside 
 lining of fine dry grasses, and contains four or five greenish-white 
 eggs, spotted with brown. The first family is generally ready for 
 mounting into the air by the end of June ; and a second brood is 
 usually fully fledged in August. It is most persevering in the 
 great business of incubation ; and, if the early nests are taken, 
 will lay on till September. Such " philoprogenitiveness" may 
 account for the swarms that cover the face not only of this but 
 other countries in the autumn and winter, when the fatal -net 
 entangles hundreds at a time, and thousands fall a sacrifice to the 
 various engines which are at work to bring them to the poulterer's 
 stall. The duty paid on these victims at Leipsic amounted, when 
 Dr. Latham wrote, to twelve thousand crowns per annum, at a 
 grosch, or twopence halfpenny sterling, for every sixty larks. 
 The first impulse is to regret the sacrifice of so sweet a singer ; 
 but if these myriads were left unmolested, what would become of 
 the other species what would become of the Sky-larks themselves? 
 Still they must be seen on the board with regret ; pretty accom- 
 paniments though they be to claret when dressed a la broche, and 
 certainly consolatory when served la minute or en caisse. 
 
 The Wood-lark,* if it cannot compete with the Sky-lark in 
 variety of notes, must be allowed to surpass it in the rich and 
 melodious quality of its tone. It sometimes sings on a tree, but 
 its favourite position for. exerting its charming powers is in the 
 air, and it may be known to the eye of those whose ear, unac- 
 customed to distinguish the song of birds, woufd not detect the 
 difference, by its flight in widely-extended circles ; whereas the 
 Sky-lark keeps rising almost perpendicularly in a spiral direction, 
 till it is lost in the clear blue above. The Wood-lark, which is a 
 comparatively scarce bird with us, appears to be much more 
 enduring on the wing than the Sky-lark, and will sometimes 
 continue in the air, soaring to a great height, singing, still singing, 
 for an hour together. It begins to breed early in the season. 
 Colonel Montagu found the nest, which is not unlike that of the 
 Sky-lark, with eggs in it, on the fourth of April. A few fine hairs 
 are sometimes added to the lining, but the situation chosen for it, 
 though on the ground, is more frequently in wild and barren lands, 
 shielded by rank grass, a tuft of furze, or a stunted bush, than 
 in cultivated districts. The eggs, about four in number, are 
 brown, mottled with gray and ash-colour. Unlike the preceding 
 species, the Wood-lark does not assemble in flocks in the winter, 
 but would seem rather to keep together in families of from five to 
 seven. It is a very clear songster, and, in favourable weather, 
 will begin its melody soon after Christmas. 
 
 * Alauda arborca. 
 
32 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 The Pipits, or Tit-larks,* though in many points resembling the 
 true larks, differ so much in others that they have been generically 
 separated. The Meadow Pipit is the most common ; its nest is 
 placed on the ground, and the song, which is sweet but short, is 
 not commenced till the bird has attained a considerable elevation 
 in the air, whence, after hovering a little, it descends warbling till 
 it reaches the ground. In captivity, the Meadow Pipit is highly 
 valued by bird-fanciers for its song. 
 
 There is not much music among the Tit-mice,t though the 
 Long-tailed Tit,J in the spring, warbles a pleasing but low 
 melody near its bottle-shaped nest ; and, as the Buntings hardly 
 deserve the name of song-birds, we pass from them to the other 
 "finches of the grove." The song of the BullfinchH we do not 
 mean the low whistle which is its call-note is of a modest 
 softness and sweetness, but murmured in such an under tone as 
 to require a close proximity to the bush whence it proceeds to 
 make the ear aware of it. Its docility in learning to whistld 
 tunes in captivity is well known ; and those who have once pos- 
 sessed a musical pet of this description will know how to "share 
 Maria's grief for the loss of her favourite. Numbers of these 
 performers are imported annually from Germany, where there are 
 regular schools for teaching them.^[ The thick underwood, or a 
 low close-leaved tree, is most frequently selected for the nest, 
 which is made of small sticks, and lined with a few root fibres : 
 the four or five bluish-white eggs are spotted with pale orange- 
 brown. 
 
 The Greenfinch or Green Linnet,** though not gifted with 
 many natural notes, is prized in confinement for its facility in ac- 
 quiring those of other birds. It soon becomes familiar with its 
 mistress, and has been known to make free with the soft delicate 
 downy hair on the back of her snowy neck, probably prompted to 
 this rape of the lock by the instinct which urged the poor bird to 
 prepare materials for a nest which was never to be built. In a 
 state of nature, the thick hedge, close bush, or impervious ivy, 
 hides the nest of moss and wool, lined with fine hair and feathers, 
 which is seldom complete before the end of May or beginning of 
 June, and the four or five bluish-white eggs are speckled with 
 light orange-brown. 
 
 The common Brown Linnet'stt "lay of love," though not long, 
 
 * Anthus aquaticus Rock or Shore Pipit. Anthus pratensis Meadow 
 Pipit. f Parus Tomtits. 
 
 $ Parus caudatus. Emberiza. 
 
 li PyrrhuJa vulgaris. 
 
 K There are some of these academies in Hesse and Fulda, and at Walters- 
 hausen. ** Loxia Chloris, Linn. Fringilla Chloris, Temm. 
 
 \\ Fringilla cannabina, **., 
 
RESIDENT SINGING BIRDS. 33 
 
 is very sweet; this bird, from the changes in its plumage conse- 
 quent on the seasons, has lost its individuality with some authors, 
 and has been described, according to the state of its dress, as the 
 Linnet or Gray Linnet and the Greater Redpole. A bush of furze 
 is a favourite place for the nest, which is framed of interwoven 
 moss, grass, stalks, and wool, lined with hair and feathers ; the 
 eggs, amounting to four or five, are bluish white, mottled with 
 purple-red. 
 
 We now come to one of the most common of our English birds, 
 the Chaffinch,* whose song seems.as much neglected in England 
 as it is worshipped on the continent. Not that there are no in- 
 stances of its melody being prized with us, and indeed as much as 
 five guineas have been given for one with an uncommon note ; 
 but with the Thuringian, the admiration of the Chaffinch's song 
 becomes a passion. He will travel miles if he hear of the arrival 
 of a wild one with a good note from, a neighbouring country, and 
 will sell his cow to possess it. He has created a set of terms to 
 designate the eight different "songs" which his ear has detected, 
 and, when he obtains a bird that sings the best of these in perfec- 
 tion, hardly any price will tempt him to part with it. To pro- 
 cure a good Chaffinch, a common workman will deprive himself 
 almost of necessaries till he has saved the money which is to 
 make him happy by the possession of his favourite songster. The 
 Thuringian Fanatico carries his admiration to an excess that would 
 be incredible if Bechstein had not given the details with a most 
 amusing fidelity, describing at length all the songs, from the 
 Double Trill of the Hartz, the Reiterzong, and the Wine song, 
 to the Pithia or Trewethia. To his interesting and well-trans- 
 lated book we refer those who are curious in tracing such pheno- 
 mena of the human mind ; the passion for the rare varieties of the 
 Chaffinch's song appears to be, with reference to the ear, what 
 the Tulip mania was, and, indeed, in great measure, is, with re- 
 gard to the eye. 
 
 The nest of the Chaffinch in this country is a masterpiece of 
 art : in the fork of some ancient apple-tree, venerable with mosses 
 and lichens (which are carefully collected for the outside of the 
 symmetrical fabric so as to make it assimilate with surrounding 
 objects), this fine piece of workmanship of closely-interwoven 
 wool and moss is fixed : feathers and hair render the inside a 
 soft, warm, cozy bed for four or five bluish-white pink-tinged 
 eggs, which are variegated with spots and streaks of impurpled 
 red. The love-note of the cock Chaffinch is heard almost as soon 
 as that of the Blackbird ; for the species is very early in preparing 
 for the hopes of the year. 
 
 * Fringilla Ccelebs. 
 
34 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 The cUbonnaire Goldfinch* builds one of the most elegant nests 
 that our English Finches produce: moss, lichens, wool, and dry 
 grass, artistically intertwined, form the outside of the fabric, which 
 is generally hidden in a quiet orchard or secluded garden, where, 
 in the midst of some evergreen an arbutus perchance it is pro- 
 tected from the prying eye by the compact, leafy screen of the 
 well-grown, healthy shrub; the delicate down of willows, or 
 dwarf early-seeding plants, the choicest lamb's wool and the finest 
 hair, form the warm lining on which the bluish-white eggs, dotted 
 with a few rich brown spots, are deposited. The beautiful 
 plumage and sweetly-varied song of the Goldfinch make it a great 
 favourite; hence it is frequently consigned to captivity, and 
 taught to draw its water in a little fairy bucket, or to perform 
 many tricks, some of which have quite a theatrical air : a looking- 
 glass is frequently provided for it, and, from the solace which the 
 mirror affords to the bird, it has been supposed to be the vainest 
 of finches. Let us not, however, be too sure that all this ogling of 
 the reflected form is mere admiration of its own sweet person. 
 Pause, fair lady, before you pronounce this bird to be a little cox- 
 comb. The plumage of the sexes is very nearly similar, the hues 
 of the female being only rather less brilliant, and the prisoner 
 daily deludes himself that the mate which he is doomed never to 
 see is come to visit him. 
 
 Most affectionate in disposition, it seems absolutely necessary 
 to the Goldfinch's existence that he should have something to 
 love. The translator of Bechstein's little book above alluded to 
 
 informs us that Madame had one that never saw her depart 
 
 without making every effort to quit his cage and follow her : her 
 return was welcomed with every mark of delight ; she approached 
 a thousand winning gestures testified his pleasure ; she pre- 
 sented her finger, and it was caressed with low and joyous mur- 
 murs: "this attachment," continues the narrator, "was so exclu- 
 sive, that, if his mistress, to prove it, substituted another person's 
 finger for her own, he would peck it sharply, whilst one of his 
 mistress's, placed between two of this person's, would be imme- 
 diately distinguished and caressed. "t 
 
 The finches are, for the most part, granivorous ; it is not to be 
 supposed, however, that they do not occasionally feed on cater- 
 pillars, especially in the early part of the year: but seeds form 
 their staple, and some are of opinion that the Goldfinch never 
 touches insects ; but we now turn to a group of singing birds 
 whose nourishment is principally derived from those animals. 
 
 The Stone-chat;]: pours forth its varied and pretty song as it 
 
 * Carduelis communis Fringilla Carduelis, Linn. 
 
 f Cage Birds, &c., by J. M. Bcchstein, with notes by the translator ; small 
 8vo. London; Orr and Smith. t Saxicola rubicola. 
 
RESIDENT SINGING BIRDS. 35 
 
 hovers over the golden furze which contains its nest; and the 
 Pied Wagtail,* a resident in the southern counties of England, 
 warbles to its mate very early in the year from the cattle-shed or 
 the garden-wall, though it is more familiar to us as it runs along 
 the grass-plat or by the margin of the pond, capturing its insect- 
 food. The scarce Dartford Warbler,! like the Stone-chat, utters 
 its hurried trill on the open downs, generally while hovering over 
 the furze, in which it hides itself on the slightest alarm. The 
 familiar Hedge-sparrow:}: cheers us with its agreeable song at a 
 very early period of the year, when bird-music is scarce. 
 
 The notes of the Gold-crested Wren, the smallest of British 
 birds, can hardly be called a song, but they salute the ear in the 
 beginning of February, and the beautiful little bird, with its 
 elegant nest and pale-brown eggs, weighing nine or ten grains 
 each the bird weighs no more than eighty must not pass un- 
 noticed. A pair, which took possession of a fir-tree in Colonel 
 Montagu's garden, ceased their song as soon as the young were 
 hatched ; and, when they were about six days old, he took the 
 nest and placed it outside his study window. After the old birds 
 had become familiar with that situation, the basket was brought 
 within the window, and, afterwards, was conveyed to the opposite 
 side of the room. The male had regularly assisted in feeding 
 the young ones as long as they remained outside the window ; and, 
 though he attended the female afterwards to that barrier, he never 
 once entered the room, nor brought any food while the young 
 were in it. But the mother's affections were not to be so 
 checked: she would enter, and feed her infant brood at the table 
 where Colonel Montagu was sitting, and even while he held the 
 nest in his hand. One day he moved his head as she was sitting 
 on the edge of the nest which he held. She instantly retreated 
 so precipitately, that she mistook the closed for the open part of 
 the window, dashed herself against the glass, and lay apparently 
 breathless on the floor for some time. 
 
 Neither the fright nor the hurt could, however, overpower her 
 maternal yearnings. Colonel Montagu had the pleasure of seeing 
 her recover, and soon return, and she afterwards frequently fed 
 her nestlings while he held the nest in his hand. The little 
 mother's visits were generally repeated in the space of a minute 
 and a half, or two minutes, or, upon an average, thirty-six times 
 in an hour; and this continued for full sixteen hours in a day, 
 which would amount to seventy-two feeds daily for each, if equally 
 divided between the eight young ones, amounting in the whole to 
 five hundred and seventy-six. "From examination of the food," 
 
 * Motacilla alba. t Sylvia provincialis. J Accentor monularis. 
 
 Regulus cristatus. There are two species, viz., Kegulus aurocapillus 
 (Gold-crested Regulus), and Regulus ignicapillus (Fire-crested Regulus). 
 
36 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 says the Colonel, "which by accident now and then dropped into 
 the nest, I judged, from those weighed, that each feed was a 
 quarter of a grain upon an average, so that each young one was 
 supplied with eighteen grains weight in a day ; and, as the young 
 birds weighed about seventy-seven grains when they began to 
 perch, they consumed nearly their weight of food in four days at 
 that time. I could always perceive by the animation of the brood 
 when the old one was coming; probably some low note indicated 
 her approach, and, in an instant, every mouth was open to receive 
 the insect morsel." 
 
 When we made our annual pilgrimage last year to Mr. Wa- 
 terer's at Knapp Hill, we were attracted, even surrounded as 
 we were by that wilderness of sweets that assemblage of all 
 that is rich and delicate in colour, when the azalias and rhodo- 
 dendrons form one splendid mass of bloom, almost too beautiful 
 for this earth by one of these little birds that had her nest in a 
 yew hedge skirting one of the paths. An intelligent lad pointed 
 out the " procreant cradle," put in his hand, and took out one 
 of the young ones, then nearly fledged. After it had been 
 viewed and admired for it was very pretty, as most young birds 
 are not he replaced the tiny creature, and, to the inquiry 
 whether the parents would not forsake the nest if so disturbed, 
 he replied in the negative, adding that they were old acquaint- 
 ance, and " didn't mind," for he often took the young ones out 
 to " see how they got on." As soon as the nestling was returned 
 to its happy home, the parent, that had been watching the 
 proceedings from a neighbouring rhododendron gorgeous with 
 flowers, among which her small bright streak of a crest still 
 shone brilliantly, repaired to her family, and covered them with 
 her wings, as if nothing had happened. We trust that Mr. 
 W T aterer's noble collection has been spared by the ruthless season 
 which, even now, chills us as we write ; but we shall go to 
 Knapp Hill under the fear that his lovely and rare hybrids have 
 been sadly scathed. The air is pure and mild there, it is true ; 
 but his Americans 
 
 All unfit to bear the bitter cold," 
 
 must have had a severe trial, when hardy, indigenous plants have 
 suffered. 
 
 Although the Gold-crested Wren braves our severest winters, 
 it appears to be very susceptible of cold, as well as the common 
 Brown Wren of our hedges. The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert 
 informs us, that, in confinement, the least cold is fatal to them. 
 In a wild state, he says, they keep themselves Warm by constant 
 active motion in the day, and at night, secrete themselves in 
 places where the frost cannot reach them ; but he apprehends 
 
RESIDENT SINGING BIRDS. 37 
 
 that numbers perish in severe winters. He once caught half a 
 dozen Golden Wrens at the beginning of winter, and they lived 
 extremely well upon egg and meat, being exceedingly tame 
 " At roosting-time there was always a whimsical conflict 
 among them for inside places, as being the warmest, which ended, 
 of course, by the weakest going to the wall. The scene began 
 with a low whistling call among them to roost, and the two birds 
 on the extreme right and left, flew on the backs of those in the 
 centre, and squeezed themselves into the middle. A fresh couple 
 from the flanks immediately renewed the attack upon the centre, 
 and the conflict continued till the light began to fail them. A 
 severe frost in February killed all but one of them in one night, 
 though in a furnished drawing-room. The survivor was preserved 
 in a little cage, by burying it every night under the sofa cushions; 
 but. having been, one sharp morning, taken from under them 
 before the room was sufficiently warmed by the fire, though per- 
 fectly well when removed, it was dead in ten minutes." 
 
 The common Wren* is too often shot by the sportsman for the 
 sake of the tail-feathers ; these, when skilfully manipulated, 
 admirably represent the spider of February, March, and April, 
 when any thing like an insect is considered a bonne bouche by the 
 trout ; and, indeed, the deceit, if lightly cast by a nice hand on the 
 ripple, is sure to take fish, and good ones, too, " if," as old 
 Izaak hath it, " they be there." The bird may be followed up 
 and down the hedge-row till it will suffer itself to be taken by 
 the hand. Then borrow steal if you will two or three of the 
 precious feathers but let the little warbler go to enjoy its 
 liberty, and furnish "Wren's tails" for another year. 
 
 We must not forget the Redbreast, as we conclude this 
 imperfect sketch of Resident British Song Birds, already too 
 long. This, the familiar household bird, with its innocent con- 
 fidence, would, we might have hoped, bear a charmed life every- 
 where : but no. Sonnini tells us that it arrives in the Levant in 
 October, seldom passing into the open islands, but seeking the 
 luxuriant myrtle-groves of Scio, and those other isles which offer 
 shade and shelter. There the Greek bird-catcher takes them 
 by dozens in the snares to which, assured by the presence of their 
 murderer, they offer themselves ; and the same war is waged 
 against them, we are sorry to add, in other foreign countries, that 
 one more dish may be added to the luxury and profusion of the 
 table of Dives. With us this friendly bird is, and we trust ever 
 will.be, sacred. When every thing is fettered by frost 
 
 "When icicles hang by the wall, 
 
 And Dick the shepherd blows his nail" 
 
 * Troglodytes E\iyopaeus a Motacilla Troglodytes, Linn. 
 
38 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 even then the plaintive warbling of the Robin is heard ; as if to 
 remind man that, amidst all the apparent desolation, Nature is 
 not dead, but only sleeps, like the Beauty in the wood, to awake 
 with all her former charms renewed. 
 
 May, 1 838. 
 
 SINGING BIRDS. VISITERS. 
 
 " G)a<] moment is it when the throng 
 Of warblers in full concert strong, 
 Strive and not vainly strive to rout 
 The lagging shower, and force coy Phoebus out; 
 Met by the rainbow's form divine 
 Issuing from her cloudy shrine/' 
 
 woRDswonrii. 
 
 How different has the season been from that which frowned 
 in 1838 ? In the present year the honest ancient severity of 
 winter bringing to our comparatively open southern waters clouds 
 of hyperborean web-footed fowl, has been followed by a good 
 old-fashioned spring, with the hawthorn in bloom, and even 
 the oak-leaf out, near London, early in May such a spring 
 as we remember in our childhood, when the live-long day was 
 passed in the balmy open air. How tranquil was it to lie among 
 the high and thick sward, already hained tep for the scythe, 
 on the verge of the orchard, then one sheet of blossom, looking 
 askant at the insects in their gold-be -dropped and gorgeously- 
 emblazoned coats, climbing up the stalks of the herbage to 
 gain vantage for their flight, or gazing into the clear blue heaven 
 above in speculation whether the mote, all but invisible, were 
 the lark, whose carol, mellowed by distance, fell upon the ear, 
 while the little sister, near at hand 
 
 " As in the shining grass she sat conceal'J, 
 Sang to herself ;" 
 
 and then the importance with which we returned to the house, 
 big with the secret that we had discovered the nest of some 
 errant turkey or guinea-hen, which all the acuteness and ex- 
 perience of the dairy-maid had failed to detect. Those were 
 happy days : but this is prosing ; and we proceed to fulfil our 
 promise of passing rapidly in review those melodious visitors who 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 39 
 
 hasten from foreign lands to make the hedge-rows, orchards, and 
 gardens of these fortunate islands their nuptial bowers. 
 
 This is no place for physiological discussion, and our readers 
 may be assured that they are not about to be drawn into a 
 dissertation on the general organization of the feathered tribes ; 
 but there are few who have thought at all on the subject who 
 have not been struck with the provision against the entire loss of 
 progeny which would otherwise arise from the acts of those 
 who rob nests for profit or wantonness. The eggs abstracted 
 from the nests of the Phasianidse,* TetraonidseJ Plovers, and a 
 long list of others, are frequently replaced by the females, as long 
 as the number appears to be incomplete. The pilferings of the 
 schoolboy bear hard upon the constitutions of the Merulidse\ and 
 the smaller birds ; but, unless nature is quite exhausted by re- 
 peated robberies, the bereaved parents set about constructing a 
 new nest, finish it, and replenish it. How is this effected ? By 
 one of those beautiful adaptations which meet the zoologist at 
 every turn, and bring home to his heart the wisdom and benevo- 
 lence of the Creator. On the breast of the sitting hen is a plexus, 
 or net-work of blood-vessels, which are completely filled during 
 the time of incubation ; but, as long as there is a demand for 
 eggs, and the bird goes on laying, the blood is directed internally, 
 in order to secure the supply till the full complement is laid. 
 When that is accomplished, the blood is no longer sent inwards, 
 but is determined to the plexus on the breast ; and no doubt the 
 smooth and rounded surfaces of the eggs are soothing to the 
 heated bosom of the mother, making her apparently hard and 
 close confinement a labour of pleasure as well as love. 
 
 We shall have occasion in the course of this sketch to present 
 some striking instances which show that among other mental 
 powers yes, mental, for it is certain that birds are gifted with 
 something beyond mere instinct the songsters who visit us in 
 the season of love, joy, and hope, have very retentive memories. 
 Year after year, if they escape the ravages of the hawk, or of the 
 still more destructive gun, the same pair of visiters will return to 
 the identical nest in its cosy nook, if rude hands have not 
 destroyed the comfortable little home. By those who respect 
 their loves and domestic arrangements, our feathered summer 
 visiters are looked for as friends returning from a far country, and 
 their first appearance on some warm dewy spring morning at the 
 trellis of the cottage door, or the ivied window, or in the well- 
 known laburnum or lilac, is hailed by true lovers of nature with a 
 thrill of pleasure. The songsters themselves seem hardly less 
 
 * Pheasants, common fowls, &c. ( Grouse, partridges, &c 
 
 \ Blackbirds and thrushes. 
 
40 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 pleased when they find all right ; and while they warble right 
 merrily, peer down through the open window with their bright 
 little eyes, as who should say, " there you all are at breakfast in 
 your old places, good luck t'ye." 
 
 In passing our feathered friends in rapid review, we think it 
 better not to notice them in the order of their coming, but rather 
 according to their powers of song ; thus the Muscicapidae, or 
 fly-catchers, and the swallows, have no great pretensions to music, 
 though musical to a certain degree they are, and we will com- 
 mence with them. 
 
 The spotted fly-catcher (Muscicapa grisola) can hardly be said 
 to be a song-bird, for a chirping call-note forms his whole musical 
 stock ; but it is one of the most welcome and constant of our 
 migratory birds, and the untiring zeal with which it clears the 
 neighbourhood of small insects, such as gnats, make it a cherished 
 guest. Perched on the top of a stake, or a post, or an upper 
 gate-bar, or an outlying branch, the bird remains motionless, till 
 some luckless insect, humming his lay as carelessly as his brother 
 " water-fly," the dandy, hums the favourite air of the last new 
 opera, comes within his range : off darts the fly-catcher, finishing 
 the song and the life of the performer at the same instant, and 
 returns to his station to repeat the exterminating process through 
 the whole day. He is one of our latest visiters, seldom arriving 
 till late in May,* and his quiet hair-brown coat and his dull white 
 waistcoat, spotted and streaked with dark brown, are rarely seen 
 till the oak leaf has well burst the bud. As soon as the bird 
 arrives, it sets about the work of incubation. 
 
 " The fly-catcher," says the inimitable author of the " History 
 of Selborne," "is of all our summer birds the most mute and 
 the most familiar ; it also appears the last of any. It builds in a 
 vine or sweetbriar against the wall of a house, or in the hole of a 
 wall, or on the end of a beam or plate, and often close to the post 
 of a door, where people are going in and out all day long." 
 
 We observed a pair for several years, which built in a trellised 
 porch covered with woodbine and the white sweet-scented 
 clematis, undisturbed by the constant ingress and egress of the 
 inmates many of whom were children, or the early and late- 
 arrivals and departures of guests. Few places indeed come amiss 
 to this familiar bird as a locality for its nest. Thus a pair 
 rather improvident architects those built on the head of a garden 
 rake, which had been left near a cottage.t Two others made 
 their nest in a bird-cage, which was suspended, with the door 
 open, from a branch in a garden.^ Another pair chose the angle 
 
 * In White's Calendar, the earliest and latest periods noted, are May 10 
 and May 30: in Markwick's, April 29 and May 21. 
 
 f Magazine of JN T at. Hist. vol. i. $ Blackwall. 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 41 
 
 of a lamp-post in a street at Leeds, and there they reared their 
 young.* A nest with five eggs was found on the ornamental crown 
 of a lamp near Portland-place,t and this nest was seen by the well- 
 known author of " British Birds and British Fishes," on the top of 
 the lamp at the office of Woods and Forests, in Whitehall-place. 
 
 "Of three cup-shaped nests before me," says Mr. Yarrell, 
 "one is formed, on the outside, of old dark-coloured moss, mixed 
 with roots, the lining of grass stems, with only two or three 
 white feathers ; the second has the bottom and outside of fresh 
 green moss, lined with a few grass bents, long horse-hairs, and 
 several mottled feathers, frequently those of a turkey ; the third 
 is similar to the last in the outside, but lined with long horse- 
 hairs, wool, and feathers." 
 
 As a proof of the memory of this species, and something more, 
 we may mention a fact recorded by Thomas Andrew Knight, 
 Esq., the late lamented president of the Horticultural Society of 
 London. A pair built in his stove for many successive years. 
 Whenever the thermometer in the house was above 72, the bird 
 quitted her eggs ; but as soon as the mercury sunk below that 
 point, she resumed her seat upon them. The four or five eggs of 
 this interesting little bird are white, with a bluish tinge, spotted 
 with a faint red, and the worthy male is most assiduous in feeding 
 the female while she sits ; and that as late as nine o'clock at 
 night.J 
 
 * One word in favour of these poor little birds, which are too 
 often mercilessly shot as fruit-eaters. That they may be seen 
 about cherry and raspberry trees, when the fruit is ripe, there is 
 no doubt, but Mr. Yarrell observes correctly in our opinion- 
 that they seem rather to be induced to visit fruit-trees for the 
 sake of the flies which the luscious fruits attract, than for the 
 sake of the fruits themselves, since, he tells us, on examination of 
 the stomachs of fly-catchers killed under such circumstances, no 
 remains of fruit were found. 
 
 But whence conies this insect destroyer, so common on every 
 lawn, and in every garden ? From the arid regions of Africa, 
 where its range extends to the west, and even to the south, as far 
 as the Cape. 
 
 In the pied fly-catcher (Muscicapa atricapilla], a much more rare 
 visitant, we have the powers of song more developed. Its notes, 
 according to Mr. Blackwall, are varied and pleasing, and are 
 compared by Mr. Dovaston to those of the redstart. The male 
 of this pretty species, with his deep black back, and under cover- 
 ing of pure white, with which the forehead and wings are also 
 marked, is, together with its more sombre partner, comparatively 
 
 
 * Atkinsjn. Compendium of Ornithology. f Jesse. % White. 
 
 4* 
 
42 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 abundant near the charming lakes of Cumberland and Westmor- 
 land. Seven or eight eggs, of a uniform pale blue, are laid in a 
 rather inartificial nest of grass and roots, dead bents, and hair, 
 in holes of decayed trees, oaks principally. In feeding, it 
 resembles the common fly-catcher. The south of Europe, particu- 
 larly the countries that border the Mediterranean, abound with 
 this species. 
 
 In the Hirundinidse, or swallow family, we have another form 
 of insect-scourge. The attacks of the fly-catcher are desultory, 
 and may be compared to those of an enemy in ambush ; but the 
 swallows come upon the insect hosts in legions, charging and 
 dashing through their ranks with their open fly-traps of mouths. 
 The ranks close, as does a column of infantry or cavalry through 
 which the cannon has cut a lane ; but the winged foe wheels 
 round again, and as the "insect youth" dance in the sun, annihi- 
 lates hundreds. The survivors, like their brother mortals, pursue 
 their dance, and in the midst of life are in death. It may seem 
 strange at first sight to see the Hirundinidse mentioned as song- 
 sters ; but to say nothing of the exhilarating cry of the swift as 
 he darts round the steeple, or of the twitter of the window-swallow, 
 and the bank or sand-martin sounds which all assist in making 
 the air musical, and " aid the full concert" the chimney-swallow, 
 Hirundo rustica, can warble, softly indeed, but sweetly. 
 
 "The swallow," says White, "is a delicate songster, and in 
 soft sunny weather sings both perching and flying : on trees in a 
 kind of concert, and on chimney-tops." 
 
 This charming bird, the harbinger of spring, has been welcomed 
 in all countries, and will be so welcomed as long as the seasons 
 last. The poets of all ages have hailed his advent ; and our own 
 Davy, with whose deep philosophy the poetical temperament was 
 strongly mingled, has pronounced his history in a few bright and 
 true words : 
 
 " He lives a life of enjoyment amongst the loveliest forms of 
 nature : winter is unknown to him ; and he leaves the green 
 meadows of England in autumn for the myrtle and orange-groves 
 of Italy, and for the palms of Africa.* 
 
 The Hirundinidse which visit this country are, the species last 
 above mentioned, the martin (Hirundo urbica), the sand-martin 
 (Hirundo riparia), the common swift (Hirundo^ apus), and but 
 very rarely the alpine or white-bellied swift (Cypselus alpinus'). 
 The chimney-swallow makes his appearance amongst us earlier 
 or later, according to the mildness or severity of the season, but the 
 10th of April appears to be the general average of the time of its 
 arrival ; the earliest period noted by White is the 26th of March, 
 
 * Salmonia. -j- Cypselus of modern authors. 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 43 
 
 and the latest the 20th of April ; the 7th of April and the 27th of 
 that month, are the respective dates recorded by Markwick. The 
 old French quatrain thus celebrates his habits : 
 
 " Dans les maisons fait son nid I'Hirondelle, 
 Ou bien souvent dans quelq"ue cheminee: 
 Car & voler legerement est nee, 
 Tant qu'il n'y a oyseau plus leger qu'elle." 
 
 He who would hear the swallow sing must rise early, for the 
 bird is a matutinal songster, as Apuleius well knew. It would be 
 a waste of time to do more than hint at the exploded fables of 
 swallows retiring under water in the winter, though from time to 
 time some \vorthy goody or gaffer even now tries to revive them, 
 not without some recipients of the tale, so prone is the human mind 
 to catch at any thing wonderful, and so constantly does error again 
 rise to the surface ! but the evidence of the migration of the whole 
 family is now so complete and irresistible, that it amounts to abso- 
 lute proof. Again and again have they been seen crossing the 
 sea, sometimes dropping into it to take a marine bath, and then 
 pursuing their journey refreshed and exhilarated. 
 
 The martin with his pure white lower back and under parts, 
 most probably turns his neb northward, from Africa, at the same 
 time with the swallow, but his powers of wing cannot keep pace 
 with the extensive sail of the latter, and he generally arrives a few 
 days later. The earliest and latest periods recorded by White are 
 the 28th of March and the 1st of May, and those given by Mark- 
 wick are the 14th of April and the 18th of May. 
 
 The sand-martin arrives earlier than either of the other two 
 species. The earliest and latest dates recorded by White are the 
 21st of March and the 12th of April; Markwick's are the 8th of 
 April and the 16th of May. The average time of the arrival of 
 the common-swift is early in May ; but White saw it as early as 
 the 13th of April, and the latest time noticed by him is the 7th of 
 May. Markwick never saw it earlier than the 28th of April, and 
 the latest arrival observed by him was the 19th of that month. 
 
 The great alpine swift, which chooses the highest rocks and the 
 most towering cathedrals for his nesting-places, can only be con- 
 sidered as an accidental visiter to these islands, and does not 
 appear to have been seen here earlier than in June. 
 
 The architecture of the three first species of this family here 
 noticed, deserves attention. Early in the season the swallows and 
 house-martins may be seen on the ground in moist places, or near 
 the edges of ponds or puddles. They are then collectingthe clay 
 or mortar, which strengthened with straws and grass-stems to 
 keep it together in the case of the swallow is to form their 
 nest. One course or raise only, as the Devonians call it, is 
 
44 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 laid on at a time, and that is left to settle and dry before the 
 next is added, as men proceed in making a cob-wall ; and thus the 
 work proceeds, day after day, till the saucer-shaped nest of the 
 swallow and the hemispherical cob-house of the martin are com- 
 plete. 
 
 The sand-martin proceeds upon a different plan: he is a miner, 
 and excavates his dwelling in the sand-bank, as the ancient Egyp- 
 tian carved his temple out of the solid rock. Look at the bill of 
 this little bird. Though small, it is hard and sharp, and well our 
 sapper knows how to use it. Clinging to the face of the sand- 
 bank with its sharp little claws, and closing its bill, the bird works 
 away with its natural pickaxe, till the hard sand comes tumbling 
 down on all sides. Round he goes, now with his head up, now 
 down, till he has planned his circular cave as regularly almost as 
 compasses could do it; and yet he does not trace it out from a 
 fixed pointin the centre, but works from the circumference. When 
 he has well broken ground, he tunnels away as truly as Sir Isam- 
 bard himself, arid while the bird works into his excavation, he shifts 
 his position as the necessities of the case' require; now he stands 
 on the floor, now he clings to the roof with his back downwards, 
 and how carefully does he remove the rubbish from the upward, 
 inclined floor with his feet, taking care not to disturb its solidity. 
 But we must pause, and refer those who may be interested in the 
 operations of this industrious little bird to Mr. Rennie's excellent 
 description we can vouch for its accuracy in his Architecture 
 of Birds," a book in which every lover of nature will find amuse- 
 ment and instruction. 
 
 The nest of the common swift is a farrago of bits of rag, a 
 feather or two, dry grass-blades and stems, and fragments of straw ; 
 but these materials appear to be cemented or glued toget'her. 
 What this glue is composed of is not known, though some have sup- 
 posed it to be the saliva, or a mucous secretion of the bird itself. 
 
 The nests of the Chinese swallow, with which the brother of 
 the sun and moon enriches his soup when they are clean and fair, 
 and glues his bamboo-seat when they are dark and dirty, are said 
 to owe their glutinous quality to Ulvae, or sea-weeds, like our laver, 
 worked up by the builders. But the nest of the common swift, 
 which is deposited under the eaves of the old house or church, 
 in a hole in a steeple, or in some antiquated turret, has generally 
 a very compressed appearance, the result of the pressure of gene- 
 ration after generation there hatched and reared. 
 
 Here again we have strong evidence of the memory of birds. 
 Dr. Jenner proved by the most irrefragable evidence, that the 
 same pair of birds returned to the same nest year after year. 
 Theirs is a chequered life. When the sun shines bright, and all 
 the insect-world is stirring, the swifts are sporting in the brilliant 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 45 
 
 summer-light, and sailing in the air in all the luxury of enjoyment : 
 but let a windy, stormy time come where are they then ? Laid 
 up in solitude and darkness, hour after hour, in their gloomy 
 nesting-places, to climb into which their short feet are admirably 
 adapted, for ajl four of the toes are turned forward to aid them in 
 cre&ping into their narrow dormitories. 
 
 We cannot quit this family without adverting to a charge made 
 against some of the species abandonment of their young. This 
 has been proved against the swallow and the martin ; and the 
 swift has been suspected, whether justly or not we shall presently 
 inquire. 
 
 There is no <loubt that late broods of swallows have been left 
 by their vagrant parents to perish in their nests by the most dis- 
 tressing of deaths ; and as little that the martins are guilty of the 
 same desertion. Dr. Jenner has recorded the fact against a pair 
 of martins which hatched four broods in one year: the last hapless 
 brood came into existence early in October, and about the middle 
 of the month the old birds went off) and left their nestlings, then 
 about half-fledged, to die. They returned to the nest on the 
 17th of May, in the next year, and threw the skeletons out. 
 Mr. Blackwall* has put the frequent occurrence of this unparental 
 act beyond doubt. Among many other evidences, he has seen a 
 pair of house-martins, after taking possession of an old nest, draw 
 out the dried bodies of three nearly full-fledged nestlings, before 
 they established themselves therein. About the same time, and 
 near the same place, another pair endeavoured to get rid of the 
 dead bodies of the victims ; their efforts to dislodge the carcasses 
 were ineffectual, and they then closed up the aperture of the nest 
 with clay, thus converting it into a sepulchre. At first Mr. Black- 
 wall was disposed to attribute the untimely death of the nestlings 
 to the accidental destruction of one or both parents; but the 
 accumulated evidence forbade any other conclusion than that these 
 cases 6f protracted suffering and ultimate dissolution, were the 
 result of voluntary abandonment. May not the praises bestowed 
 of old upon the swallow for its piety in burying its dead, have taken 
 their origin from some such fact as one of those recorded by Mr. 
 Blackwall ? 
 
 But how are we to account for this perversion of the parental 
 feeling that all-absorbing affection for offspring which, in birds 
 especially, is paramount ? We find an answer in another law, 
 stronger even than parental affection, the law of self-preservation. 
 What were the unhappy parents to do? Beguiled by the sunny 
 skies of a fine autumn, they hoped to rear their broods; but with 
 the advancing season came churlish days and nipping frosts, de- 
 
 * Researches in Zoology. 
 
46 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 stroying their insect food, and making their case desperate. Go 
 they must, or perish likewise; and the love of life prevailed. 
 
 We have observed in the west of England, the extreme anxiety 
 of the parent birds to get a late brood out of the nest in time for 
 the general departure. Towards the end of September, 1840, a 
 pair of martins seemed at their wit's end to get their nestlings to 
 leave the nest over the porch of the dwelling-house. At last, 
 one Sunday evening, all the martins in the parish seemed to be 
 collected about the door, darting by the nest, wheeling in short 
 circles near it, and uttering a call-note as they passed the 
 aperture. It was as if the ,old martins had gone round to 
 their friends and said, "For any sake do come and help to 
 get these obstinate children out, or they will infallibly be left to 
 starve." 
 
 The experiment succeeded, for next morning the young were 
 gone. 
 
 In the case recorded by White, the male swift appears to have 
 been guilty of desertion, but the more affectionate mother staid 
 by her little ones .till they were able to accompany her to more 
 sunny climes. 
 
 "Our swifts, in general," says that delightful writer, "withdrew 
 this year about the first day of August, all save one pair, which 
 in two or three days was reduced to a single bird. The perseve- 
 rance of this individual made me suspect that the. strongest of mo- 
 tives, that of an attachment to her young, could alone occasion so 
 late a stay. I watched, therefore, till the 24th of August, and then 
 discovered that, under the eaves of the church, she attended upon 
 two young which were fledged, and now put out their white chins 
 from a crevice. These remained till the 27th, looking more alert 
 every day, and seeming to long to be on the wing. After this 
 day they were missing at once: nor could I ever observe them 
 with their dam coursing round the church in the act of learning 
 to fly, as the first broods evidently do. On the 31st I caused the 
 eaves to be searched, but we found in the nest only two callow, 
 dead swifts, on which a second nest had been formed. The fol- 
 lowing remarks on this unusual incident are obvious. The first is, 
 that though it may be disagreeable to swifts to remain beyond the 
 beginning of August, yet that they can subsist longer is unde- 
 niable. The second is, that this uncommon event, as it was 
 owing to the loss of the first brood, so it corroborates my forme i 
 remark, that swifts breed regularly but once."* 
 
 The purple martin of the United States (Hirundo purpurea} , 
 appears to be as great a favourite with our transatlantic brethren 
 as the swallows and martins are with us. 
 
 * Natural History of Selborne, vol. ii. 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 47 
 
 "I never," says the celebrated Wilson, "met with more than 
 one man who disliked the martins, and would not permit them to 
 settle about his house. This was a penurious, close-fisted German, 
 who hated them because, as he said, 'they ate his peas.' I told 
 him he must be mistaken, as I never knew an instance of martins 
 eating peas ; but he replied with coolness, that he had many times 
 seen them himself blaying near the hife, and going schnip schnap,' 
 by which it was understood that his bees had been the sufferers, 
 and the charge could not be denied." 
 
 We believe that all our species are guiltless of such depredation, 
 though Virgil, in his fourth Georgic, distinctly charges the swal- 
 low with the act. 
 
 Before we take leave of these innocent and useful little birds, 
 may we be pardoned for pleading in their favour against the wan- 
 ton and cruel sport if sport it must be called of swallow- 
 shooting ? We say nothing of the sudden deprivation of a life of 
 utility and enjoyment in the case of the bird shot, for the mere 
 amusement of any mischievous coxcomb who is master of a gun 
 though that .is something : it is to the agonizing and lingering 
 death to which this abominable practice condemns the nestlings 
 that we would point attention : and sure we are that there is no 
 manly heart that will not shrink with horror from knowingly 
 inflicting such suffering. 
 
 Another barbarous amusement more practised, we are happy 
 to say, in foreign countries than in our own is angling for the 
 hirundinidss from some lofty tower. The bait is a feather, at 
 which the unsuspecting victim dashes to secure it as a prize for 
 its nest. The tormentor we cannot call him sportsman every 
 now and then drops small bits of white paper by way of attraction, 
 as the punt-angler throws in his balls of clay and bran to collect 
 the fish. The swallow not unfrequently takes the trout-angler's 
 artificial fly, to the distress of the fisherman, and the destruction 
 of the unfortunate bird. 
 
 The migratory Merulidse which come to our coasts, are mostly 
 winter visiters ; but as the majority arrive at a period when they 
 are mute as songsters, they do not claim more than a passing 
 notice here. The rare White's thrush, of which the Earl of 
 Malmsbur}^ possesses so fine a specimen, was shot by his lordship 
 in January, on his estate at Heron Court, near Christ-church. 
 
 The field-fare and redwing are regular and annual winter visi- 
 tants. The nest of the former has indeed been found occasionally, 
 but very rarely, in England and Scotland. Norway, Sweden, 
 Russia, and Siberia, are their summer quarters; and they remain 
 throughout the year in Poland, Prussia, and Austria. Harsh as 
 is the call-note of the field-fare, the song is soft and melodious, 
 and the bird sings agreeably in confinement, to which it soon be- 
 
48 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 comes reconciled. Bechstein gives it a very different character, 
 for he says that its song is a mere harsh disagreeable warble. 
 
 The redwings have been seen and heard in Surrey, Essex, 
 and Yorkshire, as late as May, by Mr. Blyth and Mr. William- 
 son ; and in a cold backward season, they lingered in Hampshire, 
 according to White, till June. Nests have occasionally been 
 found in Middlesex and Surrey ; but these were evidently acci- 
 dental exceptions to the general rule. The Redwing's note, 
 heard in Norway, is characterised by Mr. Hewitson as delightfully 
 wild. Bechstein says its song is in no respect agreeable. Here, 
 again, " who shall decide when, &c." 
 
 The ring-ouzel, which visits us in April, sings sweetly, ac- 
 cording to Mr. Hewitson ; clearly and powerfully, though the 
 notes are few, according to Selby. This species is by no means 
 widely dispersed ; and the western and northern parts of our 
 island seem to be preferred. Over Ireland they are generally 
 distributed, according to Mr. Thompson. The nest, which is very 
 like that of the common blackbird, is most frequently placed near 
 the ground, or on it, sheltered by some stone or bush, and some- 
 times on the sides of heathy banks, without such shelter. 
 
 Here we may notice the elegant and beautiful rose-ouzel (Pastor 
 roseus), of rare occurrence in these islands. The song of this 
 species appears to be peculiar. A wounded bird shot from a flock 
 by a sportsman near Meiningen, in Suabia, was soon healed and 
 tamed by the kindness of M. von Wachter, the rector of Fricken- 
 hausen, and it began to sing. Bechstein relates that its warbling 
 consisted at first of only a few harsh sounds, pretty well connected ; 
 but this in time became more clear and smooth. A connoisseur 
 who had heard the bird without seeing it, thought he was listen- 
 ing to a concert of two starlings, two goldfinches, and perhaps a 
 siskin ; and when he saw that it was a single bird that made this 
 music, he could not conceive how it all came from the same throat. 
 One of these birds is now in the aviary of the Zoological Society 
 in the Regent's Park. 
 
 The flute-like notes of the golden-oriole (Oriolus galbula), the 
 Frenchman's Pere Loriot, has been heard in our orchards, but 
 very rarely. Bechstein states that its call-note, so familiar to the 
 Spaniard and Italian, and not unfamiliar to the Frenchman and 
 German, may be well expressed by the words "ye puhlo." The 
 translator of Bechstein's interesting book says, that the natural 
 song is very like the awkward attempts of a country boy with a 
 bad musical ear to whistle the notes of a missel-thrush. But it is 
 no bad mimic : for Bechstein saw two golden-orioles that were 
 reared from the nest, one of which, independently of the natural 
 song, whistled a minuet, and the other imitated the flourish of trum- 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 49 
 
 pets. One of his neighbours saw two at Berlin, both of which 
 whistled different airs. 
 
 Such accomplishments indicate a very correct ear ; and, indeed, 
 that organ is so nice in the oriole, that when the sportsman 
 endeavours to approach it, whistling its note, the slightest 
 mistake or false intonation warns the bird of the imposition, and 
 it instantly flies away. The nest, which usually contains four or 
 five white eggs, tinged with purple, and scantily spotted with 
 ash-gray and claret, is generally suspended in a fork at the end of 
 a bough ; and the French have a saying purporting that the dis- 
 covery of one bodes no good end to the finder. 
 
 But one regular visiter of the family Jlnthidx^ or pipit-larks, 
 comes to these islands, and that is the tree-pipit (<flnthusarbo- 
 reus),so often confounded with the meadow-pipit (Jlnthus praten- 
 sis), which is a resident. The tree-pipit arrives late in April, and 
 begins his pretty song on the top of a bush, or on a lofty branch 
 of an elm. Presently up he goes, rising somewhat after the 
 manner of a sky-lark, till he has ascended nearly as high again 
 as the station from which .he sprang; when, with outstretched 
 wings and expanded tail, he makes a half circle in his slow 
 descent, singing all the while, till he arrives at the spot from 
 which he started, or reaches the top of some neighbouring tree ; 
 and this he will constantly repeat for many times in succession, 
 if not disturbed. Mr. Yarrell saw these musical evolutions most 
 frequently during and after a warm May shower, and we have 
 watched the bird with the same success at the same periods ; and 
 it does make the heart glad to see him, and rejoice mhis gladness, 
 as he carols away with the bright sun shining on the emerald 
 leaves, from which the rain-drops hang like diamonds, whilst the 
 glorious rainbow tells of peace and good will to all creatures. 
 The nest, formed of moss, fibrous roots, and dry grass, lined with 
 grass stems, and sparingly with hairs, is usually placed on the 
 ground ; but Mr. Neville Wood once found one on the lowest 
 branch of a small thick bush. The four or five eggs vary in 
 colour in different nests, but the most usual tints are purple- 
 brown, or purple-red clouds or spots on a grayish white ground. 
 
 Richard's-pipit (Anthus Ricardi) was first noticed by Mr.. 
 Vigors, as an occasional visiter, and though the appearance of 
 others here has been recorded, they can only be considered as 
 stragglers. 
 
 Of the true larks (Jllaudidse), the only visiter, and that acci- 
 dentally, is the shore-lark (Jllauda alpestris). Its range from north 
 to south is great. Captain Sir James Ross, R.N., records one shot 
 near Felix Harbour, and Captain Philip Parker King brought it 
 from the Straits of Magellan ; or more correctly, Magalhaens. 
 The bird is a sweet singer, and Audubon, who found it 
 5 
 
50 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 " on the dismal shore 
 Of cold and pitiless Labrador; 
 Where under the -moon, upon mounts of frost 
 Full many a mariner's bones are tost," 
 
 graphically describes its zealous parental affection. 
 
 "Although in the course of our previous rambles along the 
 coast of Labrador," says that eloquent and accurate ornithologist, 
 ** and among the numberless islands that guard its shores, I had 
 already seen this lark while breeding, never before that day did I 
 so much enjoy its song, and never before I reached this singular 
 spot had I to add to my pleasures that of finding its nest. Here I 
 found the bird in the full perfection of plumage and song, and 
 here I had an opportunity of studying its habits, which I will now 
 endeavour to describe. 
 
 "The shore-lark breeds on the high and desolate tracts of 
 Labrador, in the vicinity of the sea. The face of the country 
 appears as if formed of one undulated expanse of granite, covered 
 with mosses and lichens, varying in size and colour, some green, 
 others as white as snow, and others again of every/ tint, and 
 disposed in large patches or tufts. It is on the latter that this 
 lark places her nest, which is disposed with so much care, while 
 the moss sjo resembles the bird in hue, that unless you almost 
 tread upon her as she sits, she seems to feel secure, and remains 
 unmoved. Should you, however, approach so near, she flutters 
 away, feigning lameness so cunningly, that none but one accus- 
 tomed to the sight can refrain from pursuing her. The male 
 immediately joins her in mimic wretchedness, uttering a note so 
 soft and plaintive that it requires a strong stimulus to force the 
 naturalist to rob the poor birds of their treasure. 
 
 " The nest around is imbedded in the moss to its edges, which 
 is composed of fine grasses, circularly disposed, and forming a bed 
 about two inches thick, with a lining of grouse feathers, and 
 those of other birds. In the beginning of July the eggs are 
 deposited. They are four or five in number, large, grayish, and 
 covered with numerous pale blue and brown spots. The young 
 leave the nest before they are able to fly, and follow their parents 
 over the moss, where they are fed about a week. They run 
 nimbly, emit a soft peep, and squat closely at the first appearance 
 of danger. If observed and pursued, they open their wings to 
 aid them in their escape, and separating make off with great 
 celerity. On such occasions it is difficult to secure more than 
 one of them, unless several persons be present, when each can 
 pursue a bird. The parents all this time are following the enemy 
 overhead, lamenting the danger to which their young are exposed. 
 In several instances the old bird followed us almost to our boat, 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 51 
 
 alighting occasionally on a projecting crag before us, and entreat- 
 ing us, as it were, to restore its offspring." 
 
 The harder billed or seed-eating singing-birds which pay us 
 visits, mostly come among us late in the autumn, or in winter, as 
 might be expected. 
 
 Of the Emberizidx, or buntings, we have the Lapland bunting, 
 the snow bunting, and the ortolan bunting. The Lapland bunt- 
 ing (Plectrophanes Lapponica), which is most lark -like both in 
 its plumage and in the length of the hind claw, has rarely indeed 
 but we -believe as many as four different times, been taken 
 in this country. There was one in the cabinet of the late 
 Mr. Vigors, bought at a market in London, and now in the 
 museum of the Zoological Society. Mr. Yarrell has one which 
 was caught near Brighton. Mr. Gould has recorded the capture 
 of one a few miles north of London, and that in the Manchester 
 Museum was taken near Preston, in Lancashire. The species is 
 a native of the Arctic regions and the north of Europe, and 
 Dr. Richardson notices it as breeding on the shores of the Arctic 
 Sea. Though the instances above stated are the only occasions 
 known to us on which this hyperborean bird has been captured in 
 these islands, it is far from improbable that many visit us, espe- 
 cially in severe winters, or that several are taken in the lark nets 
 without being detected by the captors and consumers : they have 
 been occasionally caught with larks in the neighbourhood of Ge- 
 neva. Bechstein says, " We should see them more frequently in 
 Germany, if the bird-catchers who take them in their lark's net 
 did not kill them both indifferently." The same author describes 
 the song of the Lapland bunting in captivity as very similar to 
 the linnet's ; and remarks that the female also warbles, but only 
 in the bullfincirs style. 
 
 The snow bunting, or snow flake (Plectrophanes glacialis), the 
 mountain bunting, and the tawny bunting, are all identical, the 
 variation of the plumage at different times and seasons having 
 been the cause which led authors to describe the bird, in its various 
 dresses, as. belonging to a distinct species. It breeds in the 
 northernmost of the American islands, and on all the shores of the 
 continent, from Chesterfield Inlet to Behring's Straits, according 
 to Dr. Richardson ; and Captain Lyon found its nest of dry grass, 
 carefully lined with a few feathers, and the hair of the deer, at 
 Southampton Island, singularly placed. 
 
 " Near the large grave," says Captain Lyon,, in his interesting 
 description of an Esquimaux burying-place, " was a third pile 
 of stones, covering the- body of a child, which was coiled up. A 
 snow bunting had found its way through the loose stones which 
 composed this little tomb, and its now forsaken, neatly-built nest 
 was found placed on the neck of the child. As the snow bunting 
 
52 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 has all the domestic virtues of our English redbreast, it has always 
 been considered by us as the robin of these dreary wilds ; and its 
 lively chirp and fearless confidence have rendered it respected by 
 the most hungry sportsman. I could not on this occasion view 
 its little nest, placed on the breast of infancy, without wishing 
 that I possessed the power of poetically expressing the feelings it 
 excited. Before going on board I placed boarding-pikes, men's 
 and women's knives, and other articles which might be useful to 
 the Esquimaux, on the huts and various piles of stones." 
 
 But if this familiar little bird was respected by the hungry 
 mariners, luxury spares it not in the midst of plenty. In Austria 
 they are caught and fattened with millet for the table of the 
 epicure, according to Pennant. Mr. William Proctor, the curator 
 of the Durham University Museum, informed Mr. Yarrell that 
 he found the nests in Iceland with eggs from four to six in number. 
 The male attended the female during incubation, and Mr. Proctor 
 often saw him when he was coming from the nest rise up in the 
 air and sing sweetly, with his wings and tail spread like the tree- 
 pipit.* Mr. Macgillivray thinks it very probable that this 
 pretty and varying species breeds on the higher Grampians, and 
 perhaps in considerable numbers, but we are not aware of any 
 instance of the nest having been found jn our islands. 
 
 The translator of Bechstein's book remarks that the ortolan 
 (Emberiza hortulana) is not found in Britain ; but Mr. Yarrell, in 
 his excellent work, has collected numerous evidences of its 
 appearance here, some of the instances having occurred a con- 
 siderable time since. 
 
 The bird is a regular summer visiter to the middle and north 
 of Europe, nor is it scarce in some of the German provinces, 
 where it arrives towards the end of April or the beginning of 
 May. Bechstein states that they are then met with in orchards, 
 amongst brambles, or in groves, where they build, particularly if 
 millet is cultivated in the neighbourhood. He adds, that during 
 the harvest they frequent the fields in families, and leave after 
 the oats are gathered in. It is therefore remarkable that we do 
 not see more of them. The absence of its favourite millet may 
 perhaps be the cause that the ortolan does not visit us in numbers ; 
 but we suspect that more come than are noticed, and that they 
 are taken by inaccurate observers for some other species. For 
 instance, the back of the ortolan is very similar to that of the cirl 
 bunting, so like, indeed, that Mr. Yarrell's admirably executed 
 front view of the bird was given, as he says, "to avoid repetition." 
 Mr. Hoy informed Mr. Yarrell that he found the nests placed in 
 slight hollows on the ground in corn-fields ; they were rathe. 
 
 * See Yarrell's British Birds." 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 53 
 
 more compact than the sky-lark's nest, but something similar. 
 The eggs, from four to six in number, were bluish white, speckled 
 and spotted with black.* This was on a part of the continent 
 (Mr. Yarrell does not specify it) further north than that referred 
 to by M. Vieillot, who states that it is most numerous in the 
 southern parts of France, where its arrival is nearly contempo- 
 raneous with that of the swallow, and rather before that of the quail. 
 
 Neither the elegant form and colouring of the ortolan, nor its 
 deep flute-like warbling, plead with success against the cravings 
 of tha,t all-devouring organ which has neither eyes nor ears. The 
 happy birds are decoyed into a snare, and hurried from the fresh 
 air and the blessed sun into a room lighted by lanterns, so that 
 the prisoners can no longer distinguish day from night. Here 
 they are abundantly supplied with oats, millet, and the crumb of 
 white bread spiced. The loss of liberty seems to be forgotten by 
 the devoted little gluttons in the more substantial enjoyments with 
 which they are surrounded, and they apply themselves so vigo- 
 rously and unweariedly to the good things set before them, that 
 they become delicious lumps of high-flavoured fat. When they 
 weigh about three ounces, their time is come ; but such is their 
 voracity, that if left to themselves, they would 'die of suffocation 
 from mere obesity. The cuisinier des cuisiniers describes the 
 victim, and pronounces its eulogy with a pregnant brevity. 
 
 44 L'ortolan est un petit oiseau, a-peu-pres de la grosseur d'une 
 mauviette. II est grisatre, et a le cou jaunatre, aussi bien que le 
 ventre. II n'est jamais si bon qu'en aout et en septembre. II 
 est tres delicat et se digere aisement." 
 
 But the voice of the cuckoo, heard from yon lofty tree, loud 
 and clear above the flood of melody poured from the hanging 
 copse below, warns us how much of our sketch remains untouched. 
 The finches an,d true warblers are still unnoticed, and we must 
 present them to such of our readers as may take an interest in 
 the subject. 
 
 * " British Birds." 
 June, 1841. 
 
 5* 
 
54 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 SINGING BIRDS. VISITERS. 
 
 " Sumer is icumen in, 
 
 Lhude sing cuccu ; '.., - 
 
 Groweth sed and bloweth med, 
 
 And springth the wde nu. 
 
 Sing cuccu. 
 
 Awe beteth after lamb, 
 
 Lhouth after calve cu, 
 
 Bulluc sterteth, 
 
 Bucke verteth, 
 
 Murie sing cuccu: 
 
 Cuccu, cuccu ; 
 
 Wei singes thu cuccu, 
 
 Ne swik thu naver nu." 
 
 VERY ANCIENT BALLAD. 
 
 THIS cuckoo-song is considered by those best qualified to 
 judge, to be the earliest ballad in the English language now 
 extant. Its date is about the latter years of the reign of Henry 
 III., and it affords a curious example of the alterations which our 
 tongue has undergone since that time ; whilst the descriptions, 
 which breathe of rural sights and sounds, show that nature has 
 suffered no change. For the benefit of those who are not Fellows 
 of the Society of Antiquaries, we subjoin the translation, which 
 does not pretend to preserve the rhythm. 
 
 Summer is come in, 
 
 Loud sings the cuckoo ; 
 
 The seed grows and the mead is in flower, 
 
 And the wood springs (or shoots) now. 
 
 Sing cuckoo, 
 
 The ewe bleats after the lamb, 
 
 The cow lows after the calf, 
 
 The bullock starts, 
 
 The buck verts (goes to harbour in the fern), 
 
 Merrily sings the cuckoo ; 
 
 Cuckoo, cuckoo ; 
 
 Well singest thou cuckoo, 
 
 Mayest thou never cease. 
 
 But before we inquire into the life, character, and behaviour 
 of the vocal vagrant in whose honour the antique rhymes of our 
 motto were composed, we must resume the thread which we 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 5- 
 
 dropped, and present, according to promise, the finches and true 
 warblers. 
 
 The Fringillidde or finches being hard-billed, and consequently 
 seed-eating birds, arrive in autumn and winter mostly. 
 
 The mountain-finch or brambling, descending from the north, 
 is spread over the whole European continent in winter, and there 
 is a solitary instance of a bird having been shot so late as the 6th 
 of May, near York ; but n0 evidence of their breeding in these 
 islands, either in a state of nature or captivity, exists. They have 
 been observed to feed greedily on the seeds of the knot-grass 
 (Polygonum aviculare), and have been considered useful in arrest- 
 ing the dissemination of that noxious weed. The bill of the male 
 in winter is yellowish-white, tipped with bluish black. The iris 
 of the eye is brown, and the crown of the head, the cheeks, the 
 ear-coverts, the nape, and the back, are dappled with brown and 
 black. The feathers of the smaller wing-coverts are tipped 
 with white, and as well as the scapulars, are of a rich fawn 
 colour. The greater wing-coverts are deep black, tipped with 
 fawn, and the quills are fylack. The rump and upper tail- 
 coverts are white, slightly mottled with black, arising from 
 the presence of a few feathers of the latter colour. The forked 
 tail is black, edged .with white, inclining to buff colour. The 
 chin, the throat, and the upper part of the breast and sides are of 
 the same rich fawn colour as the scapulars, smaller wing-coverts, 
 and the broad edges of the tertials. The lower parts are white. 
 The spring or nuptial dress varies from the winter plumage. In 
 the season of hope and joy, the rusty brown tips of the head and 
 neck feathers vanish, leaving the head and neck gear of a rich 
 velvety black, and the bill becomes of a lead-blue hue throughout. 
 In this state the bird remains till the autumnal moult again 
 clothes it in its winter covering. 
 
 M. Temmmck describes the bird under the name of Gros-bec 
 d' Ardennes, and it is probably the Elnson d'Jlrdenne of Belon, and 
 the old French authors. The ancient quatraia gives it a firm and 
 uncompromising character 
 
 " Pinson montain cest oyseau on appelle, 
 Pourre qu'es monts il vit communement. 
 Son coeur est tel que navre griefrieraent, 
 Ce nonobstant pinse, more], et rebelle." 
 
 And the brambling is remarkable for its boldness and hardihood 
 in confinement. Of the song, if it be gifted with any, nothing 
 appears to be known ; its call is a monotonous chirp. 
 
 As soon as the northern chills warn the siskin or aberdevine 
 (Fringilla spinus'), that it is time to quit the inhospitable regions 
 where winter has already begun its reign, the bird moves south- 
 
56 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 ward, and arrives in these islands in the autumn, abiding with us 
 from September to April, often in small flocks, but generally in 
 the company of linnets and redpoles, to feed on the seeds of the 
 alder, the birch, and the larch. The siskin has but rarely been 
 known to tarry in this country; but its nest has been noticed 
 twice in furze, some three feet from the ground, near Coombe 
 Wood, by Mr. Meyer, who informed Mr. Yarrell of the fact, of 
 which there could be no doubt, for the eggs were taken in both 
 cases, and placed under canaries which hatched them, and some 
 of the young siskins were reared. Nor are these the only instances 
 of the stay of the siskin during the breeding season. Sir William 
 Jardine, Mr. Drew of Paisley, a correspondent in the sixth volume 
 of "London's Magazine of Natural History," and Mr. Gardiner, 
 junior, of Dundee,* all record evidence of its producing young 
 in this country, and the last-named gentleman bred and reared the 
 species in confinement. He ascertained that the incubation lasted 
 fourteen days ; the young were fledged in fifteen days, and quitted 
 the nest at the end of the third week. 
 
 The plumage of this pretty species is so well known, that it 
 would be needless to describe it here. If any one is not acquainted 
 with it, he will find admirable descriptions and figures in Yar- 
 rell's British Birds," and "Gould's Birds of Europe." The song 
 is very sweet, though not loud ; and the Saxon stocking-weavers 
 fancy that they detect in it the noise made by the loom, which 
 makes the siskin a great favourite with them. Siskins are not 
 bad bird-mimics, and will give imitations of the tits, the chaffinch, 
 and the lark ; but their talents are unequal to repeating a musical 
 air. They are indefatigable singers and feeders, caring so little 
 for the loss of their liberty that they will eat as soon as they are 
 let out of the hand of the captor. Like the goldfinches, they are 
 taught to draw up tiny buckets, and perform other tricks, and are 
 always gay. When they are not eating, drinking or singing, 
 they are generally arranging their plumage, of which they take 
 great care. 
 
 Though it may be 
 
 " Wrong for the greenfinch to flirt with the siskin," 
 
 a liaison with a canary does not seem objectionable : for breeders 
 pair the siskin with that bird, and thus obtain spotted mules, 
 highly valued for their song, which is not too loud for a room. 
 
 The mealy redpole (Linota canescens), which is distinct from 
 the lesser or common redpole (Linota /manor), is an arctic bird, 
 with a very wide range over the North of America, Asia, and 
 Europe, and is found in Japan. It is only an occasional visiter to 
 
 '* Loudon's Magazine, vol. viii. 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 57 
 
 this country, principally in winter, though it has been shot as late 
 as May. Much cannot be said for its song ; but the male mealy 
 redpole in his spring dress, when his forehead and crown are blood- 
 red, his throat and lore black, and the front of his neck, breast, 
 and rump rosy, setting of! the pure white of his underdress, is a 
 very pretty bird. The seeds of forest-trees form the food of this 
 species. 
 
 The mountain-linnet (Linota montium), though only a winter 
 visiter in the south of England, breeds in the north of England 
 and Scotland, as well as in the northern and western Scotch islands, 
 annually. It is the Heather Hntee of Orkney and Shetland, and 
 may be known from the common linnet and the redpoles by its 
 longer tail, its reddish tawny throat, and the absence of red or. 
 the head or breast at any season, though the rump has a tinge 01' 
 red in summer. The song is described by Mr. Selby as pleasing, 
 though scarcely equal in compass to that of the common linnet. 
 
 The pine grosbeak (-Cory thus enucleator), can only be consi- 
 dered as an occasional visiter to any part of these .islands. The 
 species is especially abundant in the north of Europe and America, 
 and occurs in Lapland, Norway, Russia, Siberia, Sweden, and the 
 north of Germany. The pine forests are its favourite haunts, 
 though it will eat the buds and seeds of most trees, and occa- 
 sionally take an insect. 
 
 The male, when in full plumage, is a very handsome bird. 
 The bill is dark brown, tinged on the lower mandible with dark 
 red. The base of the upper mandible and the eyes are sur- 
 rounded by a narrow dusky black band. The iris is hazel, and 
 the whole of the head, the cheeks, the ear-coverts, and the 
 hinder part of the neck, are of a fine vermillion. The grayish- 
 black feathers of the back and scapulars are edged with red, 
 and those of the rump and upper tail-coverts still more broadly, 
 so that the colour of the head and neck is apparently continued. 
 The wing-coverts and quills are grayish-black, and both greater 
 and lesser wing-coverts have broad outer edges, and the tips 
 white with a red tinge. All the quills have a narrow outer edg- 
 ing of white, the first six of the primaries being partially tinged 
 with red. The slightly formed tail is uniform grayish-black. 
 When in their proper position, the feathers of the chin, throat, 
 breast, and sides make those parts appear of a fine vermillion 
 red ; but if they are lifted, they will be seen to be only edged 
 with that colour and gray at the base like the feathers of the 
 upper parts. The belly and under-tail coverts (the latter with 
 a white edging), are French-gray, and the wings and tail be- 
 neath slate-gray. The legs and toes are blackish brown, and the 
 claws, are black. The total length of this fine species is eight 
 inches. 
 
58 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 The nest, built of small sticks and lined with feathers, is gene- 
 rally placed on a low branch of a tree notJTar from the ground, and 
 contains four or five white eggs when the "laying is complete. The 
 song of the pine grosbeak is very melodious. Mr. Audubon states 
 that he once knew one of these sweet songsters, which in the 
 evening, as soon as the lamp was lighted in the room where its 
 cage was hung, would instantly tune its voice anew." The same 
 fascinating author states that they are caught under snow-shoee, 
 put up with a figure of four around the wood-cutters' camps in 
 the State of Maine, and that their flesh is said to be good eating. 
 A friend of his gives the following account of one in a state of 
 domestication : 
 
 "I received," said his friend, "a male in splendid plumage, 
 but so emaciated, that he seemed little else than a mass of feathers. 
 By cautious feeding, however, he soon regained his flesh, and 
 became so tame as to eat from myihand without the least appear- 
 ance of fear. To reconcile him gradually to confinement, he was 
 permitted to fly about my bed-room ; and, upon rising in the 
 morning, the first thing I did was to give him a small quantity of 
 seed. But three mornings in succession I happened to lie rather 
 later than usual, and each morning I was aroused by the bird 
 fluttering upon my shoulder, and calling for his usual allowance. 
 The third morning I allowed him to flutter about me some time 
 before showing any symptom of being awake: he no sooner ob- 
 served that his object was effected, than he retired to the window, 
 and waited patiently until I arose." 
 
 Surely there is more than instinct in such conduct; in such 
 actions have we not evidence of memory, association, and in- 
 ference? Mr. Audubon's friend goes on to say that, as the 
 spring approached, the bird used to whistle occasionally in the 
 morning, and that his notes were exceedingly rich and full. 
 The migratory instinct seems, however, to have prevailed in 
 full force; for the narrator adds, that when the pine grosbeaks 
 began to move to the north, the former familiarity of the bird 
 entirely disappeared. The instance of the night singing here 
 recorded, does not appear to stand alone ; for Bechstein observes, 
 that these birds (which are liked both on account of the ease 
 with which they are tamed, and of their agreeable song), will 
 sometimes sing in the night ; and he adds that, in captivity, they 
 keep their song throughout the year, whereas the wild birds only 
 sing in the spring. 
 
 Though there Was circumstantial evidence to show that the 
 common crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) had bred in this country ; 
 and though it had been seen in some places throughout the year, 
 Mr. Yarrell, whose industry in collecting facts is well known, was 
 not able, when he published his interesting account of the bird, 
 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 59 
 
 to find any instance in which the eggs or nestlings had been taken. 
 Notwithstanding the case of their being observed during twelve 
 months, the species, in the present state of. our knowledge, can 
 only be regarded in the light of an occasional visiter. It inhabits 
 Lapland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Siberia, Russia, Poland, 
 Germany, Switzerland, the AJps, and the Pyrenees in the Old 
 World, and visits Spain and Genoa. These countries may be 
 considered as its southern limit, generally speaking; but the 
 Prince of Canino notices it as very rare and accidental near Rome : 
 and adds, that it only appears in the hardest winters. In North 
 America for there now seems to be no doubt that the crossbill of 
 that country is identical with the European bird, Mr. Audubon 
 found it more abundant in Maine, and the British provinces of 
 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, than anywhere else, and he 
 met with it in the month of August in the great pine-forest of 
 Pennsylvania. In the Old World its haunts are in such 
 forests. 
 
 To this country they have generally come in large flocks. Mr. 
 Yarrell observes, that there are some curious records of their 
 appearance in the years 1254 and 1593. Of their visit in the 
 last-named year, he gives the following account from an old MS., 
 with a copy of which he was favoured by the Rev. L. B. Larking, 
 of Ryarsh Vicarage, near Maidstone- 
 
 " The year 1593 was a greate and exceeding yeere of apples ; 
 and there were greate plenty of strang birds that shewed them- 
 selves at the tyme the apples were full rype, who fedde upon the 
 kernels only of those apples, and haveinge a bill with one beake 
 wrythinge over the other, which would presently bore a greate 
 hole in the apple, and make way to the kernells ; they were of 
 the bignesse of a bullfinch, the henne right like the henne of the 
 bullfinch in colour: the cocke a very glorious bird, in a manner 
 al redde or yellowe on the brest, backe, and head. The oldest 
 man living never heard or reade of any such like bird ; and the 
 thinge most to bee noted was, that it seemed they came out of some 
 country not inhabited; for that they at the first would abide 
 shooting at them, either with pellet/bowe, or other engine, and 
 not remove till they were stricken downe ; moreover, they would 
 abide the throweing at them, in so much as diverse were stricken 
 downe and killed with often throwing at them with apples. They 
 came when the apples were rype, and went away when the apples 
 were cleane fallen. They were very good meate" as they are 
 considered to this day, especially at Vienna, where Mr. Gould saw 
 multitudes of them exposed for sale for the tablej, in company 
 indeed with swallows, martins, and other small birds, but looked 
 upon as far superior to all the rest. 
 
 In the years 1821, 1836, 1837, and 1838, these crossbills 
 
60 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 visited England in considerable force. In 1791 many were taken at 
 Bath. Mr. Yarrell remarks, that in 1828 they appeared at West- 
 moreland ; that in 1829 they were numerous* in Yorkshire ; and 
 that they have been, he might also say, plentiful in various parts 
 of England from the winter of 1835, to January, 1839 (when he 
 wrote his history of the species), probably induced, as he observes, 
 to remain longer in this country now than formerly, by the 
 greater abundance of fir plantations, to which they particularly re- 
 sort for their principal food in winter. In April, 1839, Mr. Charles- 
 worth exhibited at the meeting of the Zoological Society, the nest, 
 eggs and young, so long in vain sought for, from the neighbour- 
 hood of Farnham, in Surrey. Nests had before been seen near 
 Dartford, in Kent, and near Saffron Walden ; in the first case, on 
 a pine-tree : in the last, in an apple-tree. No eggs, however, were 
 laid in either case ; but, according to Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Saffron 
 Walden, a pair some years ago completed a nest in the aviary at 
 Audley-End, and the hen laid five eggs, but did not sit. The 
 specimens exhibited by Mr. Charlesworth, were accompanied by 
 notes relating to their discovery, by H. L. Long, Esq., who stated 
 that the nest was lodged close to the central stem of a Scotch fir, 
 about thirty inches below its highest point, at the base of the 
 shoots of the year 1837 : it was supported beneath by five or six 
 asceriding lateral branches of the tree, which so completely con- 
 cealed it, that it could have scarcely been perceptible from the 
 ground, and the retreat of the parent birds was only betrayed by 
 their occasional visits. Mr. Yarrell observed that the eggs very 
 nearly resembled those of the greenfinch, but that they were 
 larger, and had a smaller portion of red-colouring, and this not 
 confined to the larger end of the egg. It is not stated of what 
 the nest was composed ; but that built at Audley-End was of a 
 loose texture, not unlike that of the greenfinch, " though not 
 nearly so well, or so carefully built, and the eggs contained in it 
 were not unlike those of that bird, but larger.'' 
 
 The plumage varies greatly at different periods. The nestling 
 is dark green, with blackish longitudinal marks. The young 
 birds in June and July have the head, neck, and all the under 
 parts of the body streaked longitudinally with dusky brown, and 
 then resemble the hen siskin ; but the streaks in the male cross- 
 bills are much more distinct and bright than they are in the 
 females. In September, the colour of the males is more uniform, 
 and the stripes more diffused. At the first autumnal moult, some 
 change to red only, or yellow only, and others to red and yellow 
 mixed. 
 
 The young hens at the same period become greenish yellow on 
 the crown of the head, and on the whole of the under parts, 
 mixed with grayish-brown primrose-yellow, tinged with green, on 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 61 
 
 the rump and upper tail-coverts, and of the same colour as the 
 male on the wings, tail, and legs. 
 
 But the most curious part of the organization of the crossbills 
 is the structure of the beak, the mandibles of which cross each 
 other at the extremity from right to left, or from left to right. 
 BufFon, who is ever too ready to charge nature with a fault, 
 speaks of this structure as a deformity. A more admirable 
 instrument for the purpose it has to accomplish was never 
 invented. In the nestlings the mandibles do not cross at all, 
 because in that state their crossing would interfere with the 
 sure reception of the food brought to them by their parents ; 
 their bills, therefore, are straight, and the under mandible shuts 
 within the upper one. But as soon as the bird is arrived at an 
 age when it must provide for. itself, the mandibles cross to form 
 a fitting tool for splitting apples, and even almonds, and for 
 opening fir-cones. Mr. To\vnson kept some in captivity, and 
 had an opportunity of witnessing how perfectly the disposition of 
 the mandibles enables the bird to tear or wrench open what is 
 presented to it. His pets would often come on the table whilst 
 he was writing, and carry off his pencils, little chip-boxes in 
 which he occasionally kept insects, and other similar objects, 
 and tear them to pieces in a minute. Their mode of operation 
 was first to peck a little hole, into which they inserted their bill, 
 and then split or tore the object by a force exercised laterally. 
 When he treated them with almonds in their shells, they got at 
 the kernel in the same manner, namely, by first pecking a hole 
 in the shell, and then enlarging it by wrenching off pieces by 
 the lateral power. Mr. YarreJl mentions a pair kept by Mr. 
 Morgan, which were impatient and restless under confinement, 
 climbing over the wires of their cage with their beak and claws, 
 like parrots. One of their principal occupations was twisting 
 out the ends of the wires of their prison a feat which they per- 
 formed with ease and dexterity. Then there was a short, flat- 
 headed nail which confined some strong net-work, and was an 
 object on which they especially delighted to try their strength. 
 The male, who was the leader in every exploit, worked at this 
 nail till he drew it out of the wood ; not, however, without break- 
 .ing off the point of his bill in the experiment. At last their 
 patron, wearied out by their incessant destruction of cages, was 
 obliged to banish them. With this same formidable instrument 
 they can pick up the smallest seeds, a.nd shell hemp and similar 
 grains, notwithstanding Buffon's rash assertion to the contrary. 
 The beautiful disposition, of th.e mu,scles by which the beak is 
 worked, and the exquisitely-axiapted tongue, with its horny 
 scoop for the reception of the dislodged seed, directed, are 
 6 
 
62 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 figured and described in a masterly manner by Mr. Yarrell in 
 the " Zoological Journal," and in his " British Birds." 
 
 There is an odd superstition connected with these birds in 
 Thuringia, which makes the wood-cutters very careful of the 
 nests. The crossbills in captivity are subject to many diseases, 
 such as weak eyes, swelled and ulcerated feet, &c., arising 
 probably from the heat and accumulated vapours of the stove- 
 heated rooms where they are kept. The Thuringian mountaineer 
 believ.es that these wretched birds can take upon themselves any 
 diseases to which he is subject, and always keeps some near him. 
 He is satisfied that a bird whose upper mandible bends to the 
 right, has the power of transferring colds and rheumatisms from 
 man to itself; and if, the mandible turns to the left, he is equally 
 certain that the bird can render the same service to women. The 
 crossbill is often attacked with epilepsy, and the Thuringians 
 drink every day the water left by the bird as a specific against that 
 disease. 
 
 The parrot crossbill (Loxia pityopsittacus) which is much 
 larger than the common crossbill, and the white-winged cross- 
 bill (Loxia fafcirostra) are both occasionally seen in this 
 country. 
 
 Passing by those wagtails (Motacillse} that visit this country for 
 they have no song beyond call-notes we approach a family 
 modest and even sombre in .their attire, but in which the full 
 power of bird-music is developed. The Sylviadx, or warblers, 
 afford examples of almost every degree of song, from the often- 
 repeated double-note from which the chilFchaff takes its English 
 name, to the rich and varied melody of the black-cap and the dia- 
 pason of the nightingale. 
 
 The chiffchaff (Sylvia hippolais) is the smallest of the British 
 visiters, and we have received one in a cover, together with a 
 written half-sheet of paper, franked by the penny stamp, which 
 now affords such extensive communication on subjects of business 
 or pleasure. It is a welcome little bird; for it is one of the 
 earliest heralds of spring, generally arriving early in March ; it 
 has been heard in the very "beginning of February. Its snug nest 
 is generally made on or near the ground, sometimes in the ivy 
 that covers a wall, and is framed of dried grass, withered leaves, 
 and moss on the outside, with an abundant warm lining of 
 feathejrs, on which the six tiny white eggs scantily speckled with 
 dark purplish red, are deposited. This sprightly species lingers 
 long with us, and as he brings fine weather with him, so he 
 does not depart till the middle of October, after which the 
 winter generally comes rapidly upon us. Nay, so attached is the 
 bird to its summer quarters, that Colonel Montagu saw it in the 
 winters of 1806 and 1808 in the mild climate of Devonshire. In 
 
. -m 
 
 MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 63 
 
 a wild state it is of infinite service in gardens, the neighbourhood 
 of which it haunts, and is indefatigable in clearing the rose-trees 
 and honeysuckles of the aphides which so often disappoint the 
 hopes of the- florist. ' 
 
 Confinement does not seem to affect it painfully ; for one caught 
 by Mr. Sweet took to feeding directly, and learned to drink milk 
 out of a spoon. In three or four days it took a fly from his hand, 
 and would wing its way round the room after the person who 
 carried the spoonful of milk, of which beverage it was so fond, 
 that it would, perch .on the hand that - held the spoon, without 
 manifesting the least fear. Every, now and then it would rise to 
 the ceiling and bring down a fly every time. 
 
 At last the confiding little bird became so very tame, that it 
 would sit and sleep on Mr. Sweet's knee by the fire ; and when 
 the windows were open, it never attempted to fly out. Mr. 
 Sweet then ventured to entice k out into the garden, to see if it 
 would return. It was with difficulty that the bird was induced 
 to come out at the door by the lure of its favourite spoonful of 
 milk ; twice it returned inta the room: the third time it flew into 
 a little tree, from which it came and perched on Mr. Sweet's hand, 
 and drank milk out of the spoon : from thence it flew to the 
 ground on some chickweed, where it washed itself, and got into 
 a holly-bush to dry. 
 
 Here the instinct of migration seems to have overcome all the 
 domestic comforts which its kind-hearted master had provided for 
 it, and to which it had became 'so attached ; for, after the little 
 bird had got among the holly-leaves, Mr. Sweet could see it no 
 more, though he heard it call several times. 
 
 " I suppose," says he, "after it got quite dry, that it left the 
 country directly, as I could never see or hear it afterwards ; and 
 it was then the end of November, when all the others had left ior 
 some time."* 
 
 The willow-warbler, willow-wren, or hay-bird (Sylvia Tro- 
 chilus) generally arrives about the middle of April. The ear- 
 liest arrival noted in " White's Calendar" is the 19th of 
 March, and the latest is the 13th of April. Markwick's periods 
 are the 30th of March and the 16th of May, and he records 
 it as sitting on the 27th of May, and as last seen on the 23d of 
 October. 
 
 The nest, which is built on the ground, often in the bank pf a 
 hedge skirting a wood, is a curious piece of architecture. It is 
 oval or rounded, and made of moss and grass externally, so that 
 it is with difficulty detected among the long grass and herbage in 
 which it is generally concealed. It is lined with feathers, and the 
 
 * British Warblers." 
 
64 . ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 bird enters at the side. The six or seven eggs are generally 
 white, plentifully but minutely speckled with pale red: but they 
 have been found of a pure white. 
 
 Of the strong attachment of this lively bird to its nest a lady 
 gives a very striking account in the "Field Naturalist." 
 
 She was walking, ia the spring, through an orchard, when her 
 attention was attracted by something on the ground in the form 
 of a large ball composed of dried grass. She took it up and 
 found that it was the domed nest of the willow-wren. Regretting 
 her precipitation she restored it, as nearly as she could, to the 
 place where it had been found, but with small hope that the 
 owner would ever claim it again after such an attack. To her 
 agreeable surprise, the little occupier was next day proceeding 
 with its work. In a few days two eggs were laid, and the kind 
 lady now hoped, that her little friends were safe from harm; 
 when lo ! an invading army of splay-footed ducks marched 
 straight upon the nest (which was conspicuous, for the grass had 
 not grown high enough to hide it), and with their broad shovels 
 of bills spread the nest quite open, displaced the eggs, and left 
 the neat and snug little domicile a complete ruin. The lady now 
 almost despaired ; but having driven away the waddling intruders, 
 she did her best to restore the nest to something like its proper 
 form, and placed the eggs inside. Her perseverance was re- 
 warded ; for that same day she was astonished to find an 
 additional egg, and in about a week, four more. The birds sat, 
 and ultimately brought out seven young ones. It almost seems 
 as if this persecuted pair looked upon the lady as their guardian 
 angel, and that, confident in her protection, under the most 
 adverse circumstances, they were determined not to abandon 
 their nest. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell speaks of the song of the willow-warbler as being 
 soft and. pleasing, sometimes given from a high tree, and oc- 
 casionally while passing on the wing from place to place, but as 
 possessing but little variety. Mr. Sweet characterizes its 
 musical powers as of a much higher order; and says, that as it 
 is so fine a songster and almost continually in song, no little bird 
 can be more desirable in a cage with other birds ; its note, when 
 in full song, being so loud and shrill, that its voice is plainly 
 heard above the nightingale's, when both are in full power. 
 
 It is a great destroyer of aphides and other insects, and is too 
 frequently shot on the supposition that it devours fruit, which it 
 never eats. This useful and agreeable little warbler is courageous 
 withal ; and Mr. Sweet found that it soon became very familiar 
 in captivity. 
 
 The wood-warbler (Sylvia Sylvicola) is a loud, though a simple 
 songster, and, like the last species, sings from a lofty tree, and 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 65 
 
 as it flies. The nest is externally like that of the willow- 
 warbler, but it may be always distinguished by the entire absence 
 of feathers within, fine grass and hairs invariably forming the 
 lining of the domed nest of the wood-warbler. Like its con- 
 geners, it feeds on insects and their larvas, but never on fruit. 
 It comes late, seldom arriving till towards the end of April, 
 sings during the greater part of the summer, and leaves us in 
 September. 
 
 The blue-throated warbler, or blue-throated robin (Cyanecula 
 Suecicd), seldom deigns to visit us, though it is numerous as a 
 summer visiter on the continent of Europe, where its beauty and 
 voice do not save it from the cook ; in Alsace, particularly, it is 
 considered a great delicacy, arid numbers are immolated for the 
 table. 
 
 It were to be wished that this elegant and pleasing songster 
 would visit us more frequently : and as insects, earth worms, and 
 berries are its food, it seems singular that it does not favour 
 us regularly with its company ; for Russia and Siberia, as 
 well as Spain, France, Holland, Germany, and Prussia know 
 it well. 
 
 The redstarts now claim our attention, and the more common 
 but more beautiful species (Phcenicura ruticilla, Gould ; Ruticilla 
 phcenicura, Bonap.) first presents itself. The second week in 
 April, or thereabouts, generally brings it to our southern shores, 
 and by the third week it has penetrated to the north of England. 
 Its earliest appearance is noted by WJiite on the 8th of that month, 
 and its latest arrival on the 28th. Markwick records April the 
 5th as the earliest, states that it sings on the 25th of that 
 month, and adds, that it was last seen on the 20th of September. 
 
 'Tis a pretty bird, too well known to every schoolboy with his 
 " shining morning face" to require description: and though the 
 meadow, the orchard, and the. garden, are not unfrequently 
 chosen, its favourite haunts are ivied ruins. In such scenes its 
 soft song has seemed to us sweetest, as it sat upon some broad 
 stone among the wall-flowers, or on the top of the low tree that 
 had sprung up in what was once a room, where men and women 
 had lived, and children had played, pouring forth a lament over the 
 grass-grown hearthstone. He is an affectionate bird ; and while 
 his mate is on the nest, he is constantly on the watch, sure to 
 attract the eye and provoke danger by his smart plumage, and 
 singing indefatigably to solace her. He is in truth " the bird 
 of dawning ;" for he has been heard as early as three o'clock in 
 the morning, though he had not ceased his song till ten o'clock 
 on the previous night.* 
 
 * Yarrell. " British Bird?." 
 6* 
 
66 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 We are hardly justified in considering the black redstart 
 (Ruticilla Tithys] as a visiter. Some five or six stragglers (one 
 of them in Ireland) have been recorded in the autumn and 
 winter. 
 
 The habits of the whinchat or furzechat (Saxicola Bubetra), 
 are nearly allied to those of the resident stonechat, and the nest 
 and eggs are almost similar ; the eggs of the whinchat, indeed, 
 are bluish green, minutely speckled with obscure reddish brown, 
 whilst those of the stonechat are grayish blue, but speckled 
 with the same colour. The arrival of the bird takes place 
 about the middle of April, when it instantly repairs to its 
 favourite furze-commons, where it may be seen with the stone- 
 chat ; but in its musical powers, it far exceeds its companion. 
 
 Bechstein says, that its pleasing song. very much resembles 
 that of the goldfinch, but that what makes it more admired is, 
 that it is not only heard during the day, but also in the even- 
 ing, and sometimes during the night. According to him, the 
 poor bird acutely feels the loss of liberty ; for he tells us, that 
 however gay it may appear when free, it becomes sad and melan- 
 choly within doors, Mr. Sweet, however, who seems thoroughly 
 to have understood the treatment of the warblers in confinement, 
 had one of these birds (which exceeds the redstart, no mean 
 proficient, in mimicry), whose spirits were no jot abated by being 
 kept in the house. 
 
 " One that I bred from the nest by hand," says Mr. Sweet, 
 " learnt the song of the white-throat, the redstart, willow-wren, 
 nightingale, and also that of the missel-thrush which it 
 frequently heard singing in. a garden close by; of this latter 
 song it was so fond, that we were frequently obliged to put our 
 favourite out of the room, not being able to bear its loud notes ; 
 it was certainly the best bird I ever kept of any kind, singing 
 nearly the whole year through, and varying its song continually ; 
 the only fault was its strong voice. At last, our favourite was 
 turned out of its cage by a mischievous servant on a cold 
 winter's day when we were from home for about an hour, and 
 we could not entice it back ; it most probably died of the cold, or 
 took its flight to a warmer region. I scarcely entertain any 
 hopes of ever getting such another." 
 
 Worms, small snails, slugs, insects, and berries form the food 
 of the whinchat, on which it becomes very fat about August, 
 when the epicure is on the look out for them ; for though smaller 
 than the visiter that we must next notice, they equal it in 
 delicacy and flavour. 
 
 He who is fond of dancing as well as music, should keep the 
 wheatear (Vitiflora (Enanthe), which generally arrives here 
 rather early in the spring. White notes its first appearance 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 67 
 
 on the 18th of March, and its latest arrival as occurring on 
 the 30th of that month ; whilst Markwick saw it, one year, as 
 early as the 13th, and has recorded its arrival in another 
 year so late as the 23d of May. Mr. Sweet states the 
 general time of its corning to be about the middle of March, 
 and that of its departure to be about the end of September,' or 
 the beginning of October, though he once saw a pair in Hyde 
 Park as late as November. 
 
 "This," says-Mr. Sweet in continuation, "is a very interest- 
 ing bird in confinement, and is almost continually singing ; it 
 will also sing by night as well as by day, if there is a light in 
 the room where it is kept ; it has a very pleasant, variable, and 
 agreeable song, different from all other birds, which in confine- 
 ment it continues all the winter. When a pair of them are 
 kept together in a large cage or aviary, it is very amusing to 
 see them play with each other, flying up and down and spread- 
 ing their long wings in a curious manner, dancing and singing 
 at the same time. I have very little doubt but a young bird, 
 brought up from the nest, might be .taught to talk, as they are 
 very imitative." 
 
 This pretty warbler is too generally known on our downs and 
 sheep-walks, especially in trie south of England, to demand a 
 detailed account of its plumage. The rude nest' is" formed of bents, 
 bits of shred, feathers, and any other materials that it can find. 
 The four eggs are pale blue. The nest is generally sheltered by a 
 stone or clod, and is often placed in stone-quarries, gravel-pits, or 
 chalk-pits.- Sometimes it is so carefully hidden as to be beyond 
 the reach of either eye or- hand. 
 
 Mr. Knapp mentions a nest situated deep in the crevice of a 
 stone-quarry, so well masked by projecting fragments that it was 
 not to be observed till part of the rock was removed. 
 
 "Another hen-bird," says this interesting author and acute 
 observer, " had descended through the interstices of some rather 
 large, loose stones, as a mouse would have done, and ..then 
 proceeded laterally to a hollow space in a bank, against 
 which the stones were laid r and so deep had she penetrated, 
 that many of the stones had to be removed before we could 
 discover her treasure; as no appearance led to any suspicion 
 of a nest, it would never have been detected but for our watch- 
 fulness."* 
 
 St. James's day, the 25th of July, is a dark day in the wheat- 
 ear's calendar, for then the shepherds take the field against the 
 devoted birds, beginning on that day to lay their traps cut in the 
 turf and covered by a severed portion of the same, which are all 
 
 * " Journal of a Naturalist." 
 
68 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 in full play by the 1st of August. The slightest alarm, even the 
 shadow of the passing clouds that 
 
 ' ' " Imitate, on field and furrow, 
 
 Life's checkered scene of joy and sorrow," 
 
 will make the birds run under the shelter of the severed turf, 
 and into one of the two twisted horse-hair nooses there set. 
 The numbers captured annually are almost incredible. One 
 shepherd has been known to take eighty-four dozen in a day, 
 and Pennant has recorded that about 1840 dozen were annually 
 snared at Eastbourne. The inns of all the Sussex coast are then 
 redolent of these savoury victims, and, sooth to say, their fat and 
 flavour are superlative. 
 
 That extraordinary ventriloquist, the grasshopper-warbler 
 (Locustella Rayi Sylvia Locustella of authors), visits us from 
 the south, about the middle of April, and quits this country in 
 September. 
 
 "Nothing," says White in a letter to Pennant, dated 18th 
 April, 1768, "can be more amusing than the whisper of this little 
 bird, which seems to be close by, though at an hundred yards 
 distance ; and when close at your ear, is scajce any louder than 
 when a great way off. Had I not been a little acquainted with 
 insects, and known that the grasshopper kind .is not yet hatched, 
 I should have hardly believed but that it had been a locusta 
 whispering in the bushes. The country people laugh when you 
 tell them that it is the note of a bird. It is a most artful creature, 
 skulking in the thickest part of a bush ; and, will sing at a yard 
 distance, provided it be concealed. I was obliged to. get a person 
 to go on the other side of the hedge, where it haunted ; and then 
 it would run, creeping like a mouse before us, fora hundred yards 
 together, through the bottom of the thorns ; yet it would not 
 come into fair sight; but in a morning early, and when undis- 
 turbed, it sings on the top of a twig, gaping and shivering with 
 its wings." 
 
 The greenish brown, and other shades of brown which tinge 
 the plumage of this curious little bird are admirably adapted for 
 concealment ; and its nest, which is generally framed of coarse 
 dried grass, is as difficult to detect as itself, hidden as it generally 
 is under the furze, thorns, or matted coarse grass, in some ditch or 
 furrow. The fair white eggs, four or five, or even seven, in num- 
 ber, are carnation-freckled. In the height of summer, he chirps 
 all night. 
 
 Descend we now to the sedgy side of yon clear but sluggish 
 river, where the tall reeds make music as the wind sighs through 
 them; there sits the sedge-warbler (Calamodyta Phragmitis 
 Sylvia Phragmitis of the older authors) in his quiet brown coat, 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 69 
 
 "the delicate polyglott" as White aptly calls him, singing in- 
 cessantly night and day during the season- of love and incuba- 
 tion, and imitating with clear but hurrying execution now. a 
 sparrow, now a swallow, and anon, a skylark. The night is clear 
 and quiet, and, for a wonder, so is he ; but just throw a clod into 
 the willow-bush where he slumbers, and he starts from sleep 
 trilling away as gaily as ever.* He came in April and will depart 
 in September ; and if you want to find his rather deep and hair- 
 lined nest, framed of grass and bents, with its five or six pale 
 yellowish brown eggs, t mottled, and sometimes streaked with a 
 darker tint, you should look for.it near the ground at or near the 
 bottom of some patch of thick herbage, for it rarely is supported 
 by the reeds. 
 
 But we must be careful not to confound this polyglott with the 
 merry reed- warbler (Calamoherpe arundinacea Sylvia arundi- 
 nacea of authors), for merry he is, notwithstanding his pale brown 
 quakerly suit. If you cannot find its beautiful nest, turn to the 
 elegant vignette in Yarrell's book;t and there you will see it 
 supported on four reed-stems, formed of the seed-branches ,ef the 
 reeds and very long grass coiled horizontally round with a little 
 wool, including the four upright reeds in the substance. How 
 deep it is! but why ?- That the four op five greenish white, eggs, 
 with their ash-green and light-brown, freckles, may not be rolled 
 out by the blasts before which the waving reeds bend. Colonel 
 Montagu saw one of these birds retaining her seat on the 
 nest when every gust fojced it almost to the surface of the 
 water. 
 
 The song is varied and pleasing, though hurried like that of the 
 sedge-warbler, and is of better quality. Frequently have we heard 
 it when plying the rod on the banks of the Colne. It sings by 
 night as well as by day continually, and its loud music, often heard 
 clearest in the evening twilight or gray dawn, resembles the notes 
 and voices of several different birds. 
 
 Most of the true warblers sing concealed, and so, generally, does 
 the garden-warbler (Curruca hortensis Sylvia hortensis, of au- 
 thors) ; though it sometimes quits its bower of thick foliage to pour 
 forth its wild, but richly deep and mellow flute-like notes from the 
 top branches of a tree. Its attire is modest, consisting of various 
 shades of brown, the under plumage being of a whitish brown. 
 It is a pea and fruit-eater, and in the cherry, and currant, and 
 elder-berry season, its bill is always stained. 
 
 Towards the end of April or beginning of May, this exquisitely 
 modulating warbler arrives, and retires southward in the autumn. 
 The nest, formed of grass-bents and root-fibres, and a little wool 
 
 * See White's Selbourne." f British Birds/? 
 
 *V . ' 
 
70 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 and moss, is generally fixed in a low bush, or in rank herbage, and 
 has been found in the ivy of a wall : the four or five greenish-white 
 eggs are speckled, and. streaked with ash-green and light brown. 
 
 This, little as it seems to be attended to in this country, is the 
 true becqfico, so earnestly sought on the Continent for the tables 
 of the dainty; but it must be remembered that the terms becajico 
 and bec-figue are applied to any of the birds^of this race that are 
 fruit-eaters, when they are fat with their summer feed. Listen 
 to the Professor who gave to the world the Physiolo gie du Gout. 
 
 "Parmi. les petits oiseaux, le premier, par ordre d'excellence, 
 est sans contredit le bec-figue. II s'engraisse au moins autant 
 que le rouge-gorge, ou 1'ortolan, et la nature lui a donne en outre 
 une "amertume legere, et unparfum unique si exquis quails enga- 
 gent, remplisserit et beatifient toutes les puissances degustatrices. 
 Si un bec-figue etait de la grosseur (Vun faisan, on le paicrait 
 certainement a regal (Tun arpent de terre. 
 
 "C'est grand dommage que cet oiseau privilegie se voit si 
 rarement a Paris: il en arrive a la verite quelques-uns, mnis il 
 leur manque la graisse qui fait tout leur merite ; et on peut dire 
 qu'ils ressemblent a peine a ceux qu'on voit dans les departements 
 de Test ou du midi de la France." 
 
 This last is quite touching; and, after these tears, such as epi- 
 cures only shed, we are driven to confess that Paris, like all created 
 places and things, is not perfect. 
 
 The same cause, probably, prevents the celebrity of the bird 
 with us ; for it evidently owes its plumpness and delicious sapidity 
 to the figs, grapes, and other rich fruits of the south of Europe, 
 and thither should the devotee make his pilgrimage. 
 
 With what emotion does the philosophical gastronomer above 
 quoted relate the progress of such a pilgrim ! 
 
 " J'ai entendu parler a Belley, dans rna jeunesse,'du jesuite 
 Fabi, ne dans ce diocese, et du gout particulier qu'il avait pour 
 les bec-figues. 
 
 "Des qu'on en entendait crier, on disait : * Voila Jes bec-figues, 
 le pere Fabi est en route.' Effectivement, il ne manquait jamais 
 d'arriverle ler. Septembre avec un ami ; ils venaient s'en regaler 
 pendant tout le passage ; chacun se faisait un plaisir de les inviter ; 
 et ils partaient.vers le 25. 
 
 "Tant qu'il fut en France, il ne manqua jamais de faire son 
 voyage ornithophilique, et ne 1'interrompit que quand il fut.envoye 
 a Rome, ou il mourut penitencier en 1688/"* 
 
 The common whitethroat (Curruca cinerea'), whose gray coat is 
 
 * The " Professeur" adds, " Le pdre Fabi (Honore) etait un homme d'un 
 grand savoir ; il a fait divers ouvrages de thcologie et de physique, dans 1'un 
 desquels il cherche it prouver, qu'il avail decouvert la circulation du sang avant, 
 ou du moins aussitdt, qu'Harvey." 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 71 
 
 so well known to everybody, arrives in our thickets, hedge-rows, 
 and grassy lanes, towards the end of April. He is a bold songster, 
 and sings in right earnest. The heat of the day, when most other 
 birds are hushed, does not silence him. On he trills, his little 
 throat swelling again, only pausing to refresh himself with a few 
 aphides from the rose-tree or honeysuckle, and a fly when he can 
 get one. Mr. Sweet kept it in confinement, and says that nothing 
 can be more amusing; it is ftill of antics, flying and frisking 
 about, and erecting its crest, generally sirging all the time. He 
 kept one for eleven years, which, when he wrote, was in as good 
 health and as full song as ever ; and he declares that no song need 
 be louder, sweeter, or more varied. He describes the little bird 
 as being of the same temper as the nightingale, never suffering 
 itself to be outdone. It would sing against a nightingale which 
 Mr. Sweet had : when the nightingale raised its voice the white- 
 throat did the same, and tried its utmost to get above its great 
 rival. Sometimes in the midst of its song it would run up to the 
 nightingale, stretch out its neck, as if in defiance, and whistle as 
 loud as it could, staring the nightingale in the face. If the 
 nightingale attempted to peck it, away it started in an instant, 
 flying round the aviary and singing all the time. 
 
 Mr. Slaney, who was well aware of the whitethroat's habit of 
 singing in a sultry summer noon, gives the following instances of 
 the effect of association. 
 
 " Ft is singular how some well-known sounds even the song 
 of this little bird associated with remembrances of other scenes 
 and times, will awaken long trains of thought in the minds of 
 men. We remember a few years since, under circumstances of 
 some depression, alone in a sultry day (when walking between the 
 Hague and the village of Scheveling, on the bleak shores of 
 Holland) hearing unexpectedly the song of this Warbler of home, 
 and the note brought back in a moment, clear as a mirror, to the 
 mind's eye, cherished scenes across the water, and the forms and 
 voices of those who gave them value. And once at Rome, amid 
 the magnificent but melancholy ruins of the Colosseum, at noon, 
 when no cloud shadowed the deep blue sky, when all other voices 
 were silent, from the shrubs of that vast amphitheatre this English 
 warbler suddenly poured forth his song, awakening a thousand 
 recollections of the land of the free."* 
 
 There is a lesser whitethioat (Curruca garrulci) often called the 
 Babillard, that must not be passed without notice. He has some 
 clacking notes in his song which have given him the name of 
 the little miller among the Germans. Bechstein remarks that as 
 these notes are heard more distinctly than the others, they are 
 
 * " An Outline of the Smaller British Birds." By Robert A. Slaney, Esq., 
 M,P. 
 
72 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 erroneously thought to be his whole song; but he adds that the 
 rest, though certainly very weak, is so soft, so varied, so melodious, 
 that it surpasses other warblers, and that to enjoy the beauty of 
 its song, you should have it 'alone in a room, and then no other 
 singing bird is more agreeable. Both Mr. Sweet and Mr. Blyth 
 speak highly of it. One that the former bred from the nest 
 became so attached to the cage, that it could not be prevailed on 
 to quit it for any length of time. When the cage-door was set 
 open, it would generally come out quickly, and first alight on the 
 floor, and then mount to the top of its cage, and thence fly to other 
 cages in the room, and catch any flies within its reach. It would 
 fly up and take those insects out of the hand, or drink milk out of 
 a spoon with much relish, when invited. The least fright sent it 
 to its own cage, first to the top, thence- to the door, and then in. 
 Mr. Sweet often hung it out at the window perched on the top of 
 its cage, with the door open, but it would never attempt to go 
 away. If a fly, indeed, passed near it, it would start off and catch 
 it, and return with it to the top of the cage ; and, after remaining 
 there a considerable time, it would either return into the cage, or 
 fly in at the window, and perch x>n the cages of other birds. 
 
 This familiar warbler arrives in all April and departs early in 
 autumn. The nest, framed externally of coarse bents, and lined 
 with finer ones, root-fibres, and horsehair, is generally to be found 
 in low bushes, or among brambles, and contains four or five white 
 eggs, rather smaller than those of the common whitethroat, spotted 
 and speckled, but not closely, with grayish ash or light brown. 
 
 The blackcap (Curruca atricapilla) is by common consent ac- 
 knowledged to excel all the other warblers in the power, beauty, 
 and execution of its notes, excepting the queen of song ; and in 
 quality of tone it certainly is, in our opinion, inferior to the 
 nightingale. But the male is a most sweet singer ; nor is the 
 song of the female without attraction ; and it is but fair to state 
 that a very good judge* says that the blackcap rivals the nightin- 
 gale, and that many persons even give it the preference. 
 
 "If," remarks .Bechstein, "it has less volume, strength, and 
 expression, -it is more pure, easy, and flute-like in its tones, and 
 its song is more varied, smooth, and delicate. It sings also for a 
 much longer period, both when wild and in confinement, its song 
 being hardly suspended throughout the year by day, and prolonged, 
 like that of the nightingale, far into the night, though begun at 
 dawn." 
 
 White gives it a high character for its full, sweet, deep, loud, and 
 wild pipe. He adds that when it sits calmly and engages in song 
 in earnest, it expresses a great variety of soft and gentle modula- 
 tions, superior perhaps to those of any of our warblers, the night- 
 
 * Bechstein. 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 73 
 
 ingale excepted ; and he characterises its music as having such a 
 wild sweetness that it always brought to his mind the song of 
 Amiens in " As You Like it." With all this it is, in confinement, 
 most affectionate to its mistress or master. 
 
 A hedge or white-thorn bush generally conceals the nest, which 
 is framed of bents and dried herbage, lined with hair and root 
 fibres : it is most frequently placed near the ground that is, not 
 more than two or three feet above it ; but we have seen one in 
 the garden attached to a house where we have spent many pleasant 
 days, suspended in a festoon of ivy which had shot out from the 
 wall, and cliing to a neighbouring young tree some seven feet 
 from the ground** The pale greenish-white eggs are speckled or 
 mottled with ash and light-brown, and mostly have a few dark- 
 brown spots and streaks. 
 
 The arrival of the blackcap takes place in general about April, 
 and it returns southward in September. A later stay might pre- 
 vent it from falling a victim to the spit r for it is one of those unfor- 
 tunate birds that is doomed under the names of Becafico and Mac- 
 cheltcti " ogni qualvolta sieno grassi, ed in istato da far buona 
 figura sulla mensa," as the Prince of Canino remarks.! 
 
 The very name of the bird calls up the remembrance of such 
 a host of eulogists that an expressive silence would perhaps be 
 the best tribute to the powers of the nightingale ; and tame, in- 
 deed, is that Saxon appellation to its Greek name, which would 
 seem to imply that it is the very soul of song. It has been the 
 theme for poetry in all ages, from the earliest lyre to the exqui- 
 sitely-tuned harp that has immortalised the 
 
 " Bower of roses by Bendemeer's streams.' 
 
 Milton, all ear, has introduced it in his finest scenes, and it sings 
 the nuptial song of our first parents in one of his most beautiful 
 passages. Nor has the eloquence of prose been less warm in its 
 praise. Only turn to the elegant fervour with which Pliny dwells 
 on its miraculous power and execution ;J or to the honest, pious, 
 English admiration of Izaak Walton, not to advert to a crowd of 
 others, and what more can be said ? We shall, in all humility, 
 confine ourselves to a simple narrative, condensing as much of the 
 history of the bird as our space will admit. 
 
 The nightingale (Lusdnia Philomela Motacilla Luscinia, 
 Linn.) arrives in England somewhere about the middle of April. 
 The males, as in the case of the blackcap, come several days before 
 the females ; they are very easily caught, and the lynx-eyed, quick- 
 eared bird-catchers are immediately on the watch, so that they 
 
 * In Theodore Hook's garden at Fulham. Eheuf 
 
 f "Specchio Comparative." $ Nat, Hist, x. 29. 
 
 " Complete Angler," chap. i. 
 
74 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 may secure them before the arrival of their mates ; for it is a sad 
 truth that if a male nightingale be taken after his song has won 
 for him a partner, he hardly ever survives in a cage ; he dies 
 broken-hearted. 
 
 Plentiful as this warbler is in some localities, it is never found 
 in others. Nightingales are numerous in the neighbourhood of 
 London, and a Surrey bird is considered by connoisseurs to possess 
 a first-rate quality of voice. Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, 
 Somersetshire, and the eastern part of Devonshire enjoy it, but 
 Cornwall knows it not. Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and a great part 
 of Yorkshire possess it, but no record of its arrival in Lancashire 
 exists, though it has .been heard as high up as Carlisle. 
 
 The Welshman, it is said, never hears it in the principality, 
 though a poetical licence has made it vocal there ;* and yet we 
 have heard it, and never sweeter, in the Valley of Nightingales, 
 near Bristol. There is also a Welsh name for it Eos or Eaws.-\ 
 Neither Scotland nor Ireland are known to possess it. Patriotic 
 attempts have been in vain made to introduce it into Wales and 
 Scotland, but we never heard of any effort to naturalise it in Ire- 
 land ; and, indeed, the countrymen of MOORE may well spare it, 
 while they listen to the thrilling strains of their own impassioned 
 bard. 
 
 Russia, Siberia, Sweden, Spain, Provence and Italy, North 
 Africa, Egypt, Syria, Smyrna, and the Grecian Archipelago, are 
 made musical by it ; but neither the Channel islands, nor Brittany, 
 are visited by the bird, though France generally owns it, for what 
 says the old quatrain ? 
 
 " Le Kossignol, cles oyseaux Poutrepassse 
 Chante au prin-temps sans intermission, 
 Et nuict et jour avec invention 
 De chants divers, qui luy accroist la grace." 
 
 The general site of the nightingale's nest is on the ground ; 
 but we have found it in the fork of a low and young tree some 
 three feet from the earth ; and a very loosely formed nest it is, 
 made of the dead leaves of the oak and hornbeam, with a few 
 bents and bits of rushes, lined at the bottom with root-fibres so 
 loosely formed, indeed, that few have succeeded in taking up a 
 nightingale's nest whole, without first binding it round with string 
 or thread. Four or five olive-brown eggs are here deposited, and 
 in this rude cradle the most brilliant of song-birds is nursed. 
 
 But, besides its natural vocal powers, the nightingale, it ap- 
 pears, can be taught to speak. Moschus, Statius, and Pliny, 
 
 * Dyer, Grongar Hill. 
 
 f Since the publication of the first edition, information that the nightin- 
 gale has been heard in the county of Glamorgan, by experienced ears, has 
 been kindly forwarded to the author. 
 
MIGRATORY SINGING BIRDS. 75 
 
 attest this, and the latter mentions, "htscinias Grseco atque 
 Latino sermone dociles" belonging to the young Caesars.* We 
 mast confess that all the attempts to speak made by singing birds 
 heard by us, have been imperfect ; for though as in the case of 
 the celebrated talking canary, you might with a little aid from the 
 imagination make out "Pretty Queen" and other words, still the 
 speech, like that of the witch in "Thalaba," was song, and the 
 sound could hardly be termed more than an articulate whistle : 
 how different from the pronunciation of those anthropoglotts, the 
 parrots, so well exemplified in Campbell's pathetic tale ; they 
 speak in earnest : 
 
 " The captain spoke in Spanish speech, 
 In Spanish speech the bird replied." 
 
 Like other biped performers, nightingales vary much in their 
 powers of song. They have among them their Rubinis, Marios, 
 Tamburinis, and Lablaches, and also their Mopers, that sing at 
 intervals only, without connexion, and with long pausesi some 
 minutes between each strain. It is amusing to see when a man 
 mounts his hobby and happy is he who has one in his stable 
 how fat it will carry him, aye, and merrily too. Thus Bechstein 
 prints no less, than twenty-four lines of words some of them rare 
 sesquipe'dalities as expressive of the nightingale's song. 
 
 "Twenty-four different strains or couplets," says he, "maybe 
 reckoned in the song of a fine nightingale, without including its 
 delicate variations. This song is so articulate, so speaking, that 
 it may be very well written. The following is a trial which I 
 have made on that of a nightingale in my neighbourhood which 
 passes for a very capital singer," and off the good Bechstein goes 
 at score : 
 
 " Tiou, tiou, tiou, tiou,''t 
 &c. &c. &c. &c. 
 
 but we must introduce the reader to one or two of the words 
 representing the strains : 
 
 " Zozozozozozozozozozozozo, zirrhading. 
 Hezezezezezezezezezezezezezezezeze couar ho dze hoi. 
 Higaigaigaigaigaigaigai guiagaigaigai couior dzio dzio pi." 
 
 The British bird-fanciers have, also, a vocabulary of their own to 
 express the same sounds. 
 
 The Honourable Daines Barrington, who kept a very fine 
 nightingale for three years, attending particularly to its song, 
 remarks that the tone is more mellow than that of any other bird, 
 though at the same time, by a proper exertion of its musical 
 
 * Nat. Hist. x. 42. 
 
 f Aristophanes, in his " Birds," has the ramc syllables, Bekker's Edition, 
 line 237. 
 
76 
 
 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 powers, it can be excessively brilliant. When the bird sang its 
 song round, Mr. Barrington observed sixteen different beginnings 
 and closes, at the same time that the intermediate notes were 
 commonly varied in their succession with such judgment as to 
 produce a most pleasing variety. He also remarked that the 
 bird would sometimes continue without a pause not less than 
 twenty seconds ; and that whenever respiration became necessary, 
 it was taken with as much judgment as by an opera singer. He 
 also observed that his nightingale began softly, like the ancient 
 orators, reserving its breath to swell certain notes, which by this 
 mean^ had a most astonishing effect, eluding all verbal description. 
 He took down indeed certain passages, which may be reduced to 
 our musical intervals ; but though, he remarks, one may thus form 
 an idea of some of the notes used, yet it is impossible to give their 
 comparative durations in point of musical time, upon which the 
 whole effect must depend ; and, indeed, he once procured a very 
 capital flute-player to execute the notes which Kircher has en- 
 graved in his Musurgia as being used by the nightingale, when, 
 from not being able to settle their respective lengths, it was 
 hardly possible to observe any traces of the nightingale's song. 
 He adds, that he thinks he may venture to say that a nightingale 
 may be very clearly distinguished at more than half a mile, if the 
 evening be calm, and he suspects that it would be heard further 
 than a man. 
 
 The following is Mr. Harrington's table of the comparative merit 
 of singing birds, making twenty the point of perfection : 
 
 
 Mellow- 
 ness of 
 tone. 
 
 Sprightly 
 notes. 
 
 Plaintive 
 notes. 
 
 Cqinpass. 
 
 Execution. 
 
 Nightingale 
 Skylark .;.... 
 
 19 
 4 
 
 14 
 19 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 19 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 18 
 
 Woodlark 
 Titlark 
 
 18 
 12 
 
 4 
 12 
 
 17 
 12 
 
 12 
 12 
 
 8 
 12 
 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 12' 
 
 16 
 
 18 
 
 Goldfinch . . . . . 
 Chaffinch 
 
 4 
 4 
 4 
 
 19 
 12 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 4 
 
 12 
 8 
 4 
 
 12 
 8 
 6 
 
 Hedge-sparrow .... 
 Aberdavine or siskin . . 
 
 6 
 2 
 
 
 
 4 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 4 
 4 
 4 
 
 4 
 4 
 4 
 
 Thrush ... . . 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 Blackbird 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 Wren 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 Keed-sparrow .... 
 Blackcap, or the Norfolk 
 rnock nightingale . 
 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 12 
 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 14 
 
 2 
 14 
 
THE CUCKOO. 77 
 
 And here we conclude our imperfect sketch of the feathered 
 songsters who enliven us with their wood notes wild. In mute 
 July, all is, comparatively speaking, hushed ; and the concert 
 of birds may be said to be closed, till the returning year again 
 brightens our fields, 
 
 " Fields where the spring delays, 
 
 And fearlessly meets the ardour 
 Of the warm summer's gaze, 
 
 With but her tears to guard her. 
 
 " Islands so freshly fair, 
 
 That never hath bird come nigh them ; . 
 But from his course through air, 
 
 Hath been won downward by them." 
 
 THE CUCKOO. 
 
 " Don JLdriano de Jlrmado. Holla ! approach." 
 (Enter all for the song-.') 
 
 " This side is ffiems, winter. 
 
 This Ver, the spring : the one maintain'd by the owl, 
 The other by the cuckoo. 
 Ver begin." 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR LOST. 
 
 AND a sweet rural song it is a little piquante withal, as those 
 who are old enough to have heard Mrs. Jordan's arch intonation 
 of The word of fear in " As you Like it," whither it was trans- 
 planted for Rosalind's sake, will admit ; albeit, Shakspere thought 
 proper to quiz himself by making it the compilation of the most 
 exquisite Don's " two learned men," irreverently termed by .Biro?! 
 " the pedant" and " the hedge-priest." At the risk, however, of 
 being classed with those worthies, we must begin at the begin- 
 ning. 
 
 It has been doubted whether the cuckoo is the Shacaph or Sacaph 
 of Holy Writ. (Lev. xi. 16.) The Septuagint has not the Greek 
 name for the cuckoo (xojtt/|). The Tigurine or Zurich version 
 translates the word by Cuculus ;* but the Vulgate renders it Za- 
 rwra,t and the term employed by the seventy would seem to 
 sanction the latter word. ,.. 
 
 * Cuckoo. f Gull, or Sea-Maw. 
 
78 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Barker's Bible (1615), generally known as the "Breeches 
 Bible" (Gen. iii. 7), gives the sixteenth verse of Leviticus 
 thus : 
 
 " The ostrich al?o, and the night-crow, and the seamew, and 
 the hauke after his kinde :" but with the marginal note " or 
 cuckowe" referring to "seamew." 
 
 Scheuchzer, in his Physica Sacra (1732), figures the cuckoo in 
 his plate illustrative of the verse in question (Tab. 224), and 
 "cuckoo" is the word in the edition now read in our churches. 
 
 This bird is not, it is true, mentioned by Hasselquist among 
 those which he saw in the Holy Land, though he noticed the 
 nightingale amid the willows of Jordan, and the olive trees of 
 Judea ; but neither did he see the cuckoo in Egypt, whence Pro- 
 fessor Temminck received it ; and it is so widely spread, that there 
 is no reason for supposing that it is excluded from Syria. It is 
 well known in the Morea and the Grecian Archipelago, whence 
 it departs for Africa with the turtle-dove, arid is, in consequence, 
 called turtle-leader. The turtle-dove is named in Scripture again 
 and again. The beautiful passage in the Song of Solomon will 
 occur to every one 
 
 "11. For lo ! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 
 
 " 12. The flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing 
 of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. 
 
 "13. The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines 
 with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair 
 one, and come away !" 
 
 And Hasselquist saw the turtle (Columba Turiur) in the Holy 
 Land. 
 
 Mr. Strickland noticed the cuckoo at Smyrna, and Mr. Dickson 
 and Mr. Ross sent specimens of.it from Erzeroum to the Zoologi- 
 cal Society of London. It is spread over a great part of Asia, and 
 has been found in Japan and Java. 
 
 The disputed word, it will be observed, stands between the 
 night-crow or night-hawk, and the hawk, the owl being antece- 
 dent to the night-hawk in this catalogue of unclean birds. Now 
 it was one of the old legends that the cuckoo, at a certain period, 
 was turned into a hawk; and the evidence generally appears to 
 be in favour of the version at present m use. 
 
 If we turn from sacred to profane story, we shall find that 
 the cuckoo bore no common part in ancient fable. The king and 
 father of Gods and men himself did not disdain to take the form 
 of the bird when he was anxious to introduce himself to Juno. It 
 is well known how compendiously Saturn provided for his family ; 
 and the Future Glueen of Heaven seems to have very nearly shared 
 the fate of her brothers and sisters. She was, however, restored 
 to the world by means of a potion given to her ogre of a papa, in 
 
THE CUCKOO. 79 
 
 order to make him give up the indigestible stone which his better- 
 half had induced him to swallow instead of Jupiter. Poor bloom- 
 ing Juno was separated from the rest of the heavenly conclave, 
 and wandering to Mount Thornax in Argolis, there remained in 
 solitude. Jupiter, who was on the watch, raised the most pelt- 
 ing of pitiless storms, and, in the likeness of a cuckoo, flew, all 
 trembling and shivering from the bitter weather, to Juno's lap for 
 shelter. The kind-hearted goddess, pitying the bird's condition, 
 covered him with her robe. In an instant the bird was gone, and 
 the god resumed his shape. The sudden transformation, startling 
 as it was, did not throw the prudent young lady off her guard, 
 and they were afterwards married in due form. 
 
 But there is always somebody ready to give an ill-natured turn 
 to a story : accordingly the gossip ran, that when the drenched bird 
 flew to her for refuge, she shook it out of her peplum ; but when 
 'the god stood confessed, she accepted him. 
 
 However this may have been, never was such a wedding as they 
 had. Gods, man and womankind, beasts, and all creation 
 attended at the solemnization of the nuptials, with one exception. 
 Chelone plumply refused to come, and treated the whole affair 
 with ridicule and contempt. Poor young lady the world was in 
 its infancy then, or she would have known better than to contemn 
 the powerful, and would have escaped from figuring as a terrible 
 example to posterity. Mercury jus,t looked in, waved his caduceus 
 over her, and down sank the shapely maiden, 
 
 " As tall and as straight as the popular Tree" 
 
 into a tortoise. This was not pleasant, but worse remained behind ; 
 for she was condemned to perpetual silence, and, in her new form, 
 became the symbol of that unfeminine accomplishment. If any- 
 body should be hardy enough to doubt all this, we would merely 
 observe, that the mountain, after Jove's transformation, received 
 the name of Coccyx or Coccygia, being no longer known as 
 Thornax ; and that the Argives especially worshipped the goddess, 
 whose statue, seated on a throne, held a sceptre, upon the top of 
 which a cuckoo was seated. 
 
 This elevation does not seem to have been lost sight of by the 
 cuckoo, who began to think himself a very great bird ; and in his 
 pride of place, challenged the nightingale one fine April evening, 
 to a trial of song. The difficulty was to find a good judge; but 
 at last it was sagely remarked by an owl, that as the contention 
 resolved itself into a question of sounds, the creature with the 
 longest ears would best become the bench upon the occasion, and 
 the animal appointed to keep down the growth of thistles took 
 his seat accordingly. The cuckoo began and went on " cuckoo," 
 " cuckoo," for half-an-hour, during which the judge was observed 
 
80 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 to prick up his long ears with a knowing air, to be equalled only 
 by Harley when he enacts the translated Bottom. 
 
 As soon as his antagonist had finished, the nightingale poured 
 forth 
 
 " With fast, thick warble his delicious notes, 
 As he were fearful that an April night 
 Would be too short for him to utter forth 
 His love-chant, and disburden his full soul 
 Of all its music." 
 
 The judge had been nid-nid-nodding after the third or fourth strain, 
 and when the song was ended, he was awakened by a hoot from 
 the owl, who was somewhat scandalized by his dropping asleep, 
 though she did not wonder at it, and had hardly been able to 
 keep her own eyes open. He gravely observed that the nightin- 
 gale's voice was very loud, and that his song might be very fine 
 for any thing he knew; but he, for one, did not understand it, 
 and he should be glad to hear who did. No answer being given 
 beyond a hum of applause from his auditory, his worship decided 
 in favour of the cuckoo. The nightingale, who thought this rather 
 hard, lodged an appeal to Man, after a sneer or two from the 
 president, and, to the astonishment of his absolute wisdom, his 
 judgment was reversed. This was before the time of Midas, and 
 the decision of the court below was, no doubt, the case relied upon 
 by that Justice for his judgment in the celebrated suit of Pan 
 against Jlpollo. 
 
 Nor did the cuckoo fail to figure in the ancient pharmacopoeia. 
 Pliny tells us,* that if it be wrapped in a hare-skin and applied to 
 the patient, it will produce sleep, and Rodeletius notices its ashes 
 as good against disorders of the stomach. A somewhat unsavoury 
 decoction, into the ingredients of which we will not now enter, 
 but which could be procured only from the cuckoo, was held to 
 be a specific against the bite of a mad dog; and, according to the 
 Roman zoologist, the very sound of its voice, when assisted by 
 due ceremonies, produced a degree of domestic comfort, which, if 
 the ancient Italians were as much subject to pulicial persecution 
 as the moderns, must have been quite invaluable : that they were 
 not spared the company of the indefatigable insect voltigeurs, any 
 more than their descendants, is rendered highly probable by their 
 lack of linen. If, when the bird was first heard, the auditor 
 circumscribed his right foot, and dug up the earth on which it 
 rested, not a flea would be hatched wherever that earth was scat- 
 tered.! Nor did the ancient kitchens disdain it. On the contrary, 
 Aristotle states, that cuckoos are fattest and most highly-flavoured 
 
 * Natural History, xxi. 15. f Nat. Hist. xxr. 10. 
 
THE CUCKOO. 81 
 
 about the time of their laying ;* and Pliny declares that no bird 
 can compete with a young cuckoo, just able to fly, in the sweetness 
 of its flesh.t Aldrovandus remarks, that the Italians still bring it 
 to their tables ; but that the Germans reject it with loathing as 
 an unclean bird, on account of its habit of spitting, to the conside- 
 ration of which charge we now proceed. 
 
 The country people and their children still give the name of 
 "cuckoo-spittle" to the frothy nidus of Tettigonia spumaria, 
 which every one almost must have observed on plants in the spring. 
 The worst that now comes of this fable is, that when the 
 children surround a plant so embossed, one older and more 
 learned than the rest will clear away the froth to show the 
 admiring minors the inmate, gravely assuring them that it will 
 be a cuckoo-! But, no very long time ago, this "cuckoo-spittle" 
 had a very bad name, and constituted, under the name of " witches' 
 butter," one of the proofs, as the sages of the church and the law 
 then pronounced such absurdities to be, that consigned numbers of 
 women and children to the last penalties of the law at Mohra, in 
 Sweden, in the year 1670. 
 
 These unfortunates were better known as " The Witches of 
 Blockula;" that being the place of the infernal meeting, as was also 
 proved, to which the women and children aforesaid rode in the 
 dead of night upon men, and when they came to Blockula the 
 men were left reared against the wall asleep. But, besides this 
 human conveyance, they bestrode posts and goats, the backs of 
 the latter being elongated by an ingenious device for which we 
 refer the curious to the trial. Nothing stopped them ; they flew 
 through chimneys and windows, and never broke a pane nor 
 displaced a brick. Scenes were given in evidence as having 
 occurred at their diabolical festival, such as cannot be written, but 
 we may notice an infernal coup d'etat, whereby the Prince of 
 Darkness tested the fidelity of his followers by giving out that he 
 was dead : whereat there was great lamentation. Some of these 
 crack-brained women and children, worn out, no doubt, by the 
 cruel and abominable means then put in force for the purpose, 
 confessed among other things, that they had two spirits, one like 
 a raven, the other like a cat, and that these spirits fetched them 
 home butter and cheese, and bacon, and all sorts of grain, and 
 milk, and that sometimes these carriers filled themselves so full, 
 that they disgorged part of the plunder by the way, which rejec- 
 tamenta were found in several gardens where coleworts orew, and 
 not far from the houses of those witches, and were called " butter 
 of witches." 
 
 Dr. Hutchinson, after arguing that it is as plain as the day that 
 
 .- ''t. :J , 
 
 * Hist. Anim. vi. 7. f Ib. x. 9. 
 
82 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 such froth in meadows and gardens is not from witches and 
 spirits disgorging, "but from grasshoppers and other little in- 
 sects, that hatch their young ones sometimes in cottons, and 
 sometimes in froths, &c." adds, "and when I see Swedish judges, 
 and Dr. Horneck after them learn from, the rahble to call it 
 ' witches' butter,' and hang and burn their neighbours from such 
 evidence, I cannot but stand amazed, and am sorry so good a man 
 as Dr. Horneck was so far overseen, as to translate such a dan- 
 gerous history for our people to learn from." 
 
 Of the Blockula witches, seventy were condemned, and most of 
 them suffered death ; moreover, as in every deep, there is a lower 
 deep still, twenty children were whipped on the hands, thirty-six 
 ran the gauntlet, and fifteen were executed ! It is evident, from 
 the earnestness with which Dr. Hutchinson argues against these 
 monstrous indictments, that there was still (1720) much lurking 
 belief in witchcraft in these kingdoms. Even now we often find 
 evidence of its existence in the provinces, and whilst we write, the 
 enlightened public of 1841 liave been set a wondering at the 
 haunted house ,at Clewer, which, for a time, bade fair to rival 
 Mr. Mompesson's and his drummer, "The Daemon of Ted- 
 worth."* We had, according to the newspapers, the neighbour- 
 ing magistrates and the police, the chemists, and the sexton with 
 his soundingriron, all bent on discovering the inexplicable knock- 
 ing, which ceased on the departure of the tenants, who, of course, 
 cannot be expected to pay any rent. Not that we ever for a 
 moment supposed that any of these wise and skilful visitors 
 regarded the knockings as supernatural ; and if any whisperer 
 have hinted that some of them did shake their heads ominously, 
 we would comfort them by calling to their remembrance, that 
 Dr. Johnson went to hear the Cock-lane ghost, f and lost his 
 temper when the pertinacious Boswell pressed him upon the 
 point ; and that some of the clergy asked it questions, which it 
 answered by determinate "Yes" or " No" knocks. 
 
 We now come to a less gloomy part of the subject, and proceed 
 to inquire into the organization and natural habits of the cuckoo, 
 not without the hope of interesting our readers in the history of a 
 bird in which that almost universal and strongest affection in the 
 warm-blooded vertebrata the love for their offspring seems 
 nearly, if not entirely obliterated. 
 
 Aristotle refuted the fable that the cuckoo was, at a certain 
 period, changed into a hawk, a tale that most probably had its 
 origin in the striking change of plumage that takes place. Few 
 species of birds differ more from each other than does a young 
 cuckoo from the full-grown bird, which bears no small resem- 
 
 * 1661. f 
 
THE CUCKOO. 83 
 
 blance to the merlin, with " his pinion of glossy blue." The 
 Greek zoologist also noticed the fact that the female lays her eggs 
 in the nests of other birds. Pliny repeats both these observations, 
 and dilates upon the complacency with which the foster-parent 
 regards the well-fed bulk of her supposititious nestling, suffering 
 him to rob his wretched comates of their food, and them to be 
 destroyed in her sight, till at last, when her overgrown pet is 
 ready to fly, he finishes by making a meal of his nurse. After 
 this feat, he, as we have seen, becomes in his turn excellent 
 eating, according to Pliny. In allusion to this mode of showing 
 his gratitude, the Fool in "Lear," bitterly says, 
 
 " The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, 
 That it had its head bit off by its young." 
 
 And hence the French proverb, Ingrat comme un coucou. 
 
 The statement of Aristotle, that the *9jti/ builds its nest in 
 buildings and rocks, cannot be disputed (Hist. Jlnim. vi. 1.); but 
 it is evident that the bird mentioned in this part of his great 
 work, was not the common cuckoo ; for he distinctly says (ix. 39), 
 that the female cuckoo makes no nest, but, as we have reminded 
 the reader in the preceding page, deposits her eggs in the nests of 
 other birds (four of which he names), and leaves the bird in whose 
 nest her egg is deposited, to hatch it. Nor is it at all improbable 
 that the first passage here alluded to, was in great measure the 
 origin of the doubt imported into the natural history of the bird 
 at different modern periods. Thus Dr. Brookes writes : 
 
 " This bird is remarkable for laying its eggs in the nests of 
 other birds, such as hedge-sparrows, finches, and the like, for it 
 has no nest of its own. It first devours the eggs it finds in the 
 nest, and then begins to lay its own in their room, where they are 
 hatched by the silly Trird with a great deal of care, and it takes 
 the young cuckoo for its own offspring. However, though this 
 has been asserted by many naturalists, yet from our own expe- 
 rience we can affirm, that this bird hatches its own young, and 
 that its nest, like that of other birds, has something peculiar, 
 being made larger than that of a blackbird on the outer side, of 
 the same materials, namely, thorns, long grass, and clay ; and on 
 the inside it is covered warmly with wool and short hair from cows 
 and other animals."* 
 
 In our own time this story of the cuckoo making its own nest 
 has been revived, and sanctioned by no less an authority than 
 Dr. Fleming. But there can be little or no doubt, as Montagu 
 has shown, that the evidence on which this nest-making and feed- 
 
 * A Compleat System of Ornithology, or a Natural History of Birds, 8vo. 
 London, 1776. 
 
84 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 ing the young is asserted, is not to be trusted. The birds taken 
 for cuckoos were probably nightjars, or, as they are commonly 
 called, goatsuckers (Caprimulgus Europxus}. 
 
 Taking it then for granted that the female cuckoo does not 
 make any nest, the next point of inquiry is what nests she selects 
 for the purpose of continuing the species. Aristotle names those 
 of pigeons or doves, and of certain small birds probably one of 
 the warblers, the meadow-pipit, or perhaps the skylark, and the 
 greenfinch. Pliny says, that the nests of doves are principally 
 selected. In this country the eggs have been found in the nests of 
 the hedge-sparrow or hedge-warbler, the redbreast, the whitethroat, 
 the redstart, the willow- warbler, the pied- wagtail, the meadow- 
 pipit, the skylark, the yellow-bunting, the chaffinch, the green- 
 finch, the linnet, and the blackbird. On the continent of Europe, 
 the egg has been also found in the nests of the red-backed shrike 
 and of the thrush .; in this country a pair of red-backed shrikes have 
 been seen feeding a young cuckoo.* With us, the nests usually 
 selected are those of the lied ge-sparrow, the pied wagtail, and the 
 meadow-pipit. 
 
 The great disproportion between the little birds last named, and 
 the cuckoo, will at once strike the uninitiated ; but the egg of the 
 latter, which is of a pale reddish-gray colour is disproportionately 
 small. Dr. Tenner found that the largest of two cuckoos' eggs 
 weighed fifty-five grains, whilst the smallest weighed only forty- 
 three grains ; and Mr. Yarrell slates, that the largest of four 
 specimens in his collection only measures eleven lines and a half 
 in length, and eight lines and a half in breadth, the exact size of 
 that of the skylark, and yet, as he remarks, the comparative size 
 of the birds is as four to one. Now, if this egg of the cuckoo had 
 been proportioned to the size of the bird, the difference between 
 it, and the foster-mother's own egg, must have been obvious to 
 the touch as well as the sight: as it is, the foster-mother is riot 
 startled by the imposition. As soon as the young cuckoo is 
 hatched, the parental affection is awakened towards it, and blinds 
 the poor dupes that watch over it to every thing but the necessity 
 of providing for their enormous nestling, who takes special care 
 that he shall be the only object of their <r T c/>>. 
 
 The female cuckoo lays at long intervals ; six or eight days 
 elapse between the times of deposit, and Schlegel thinks that the 
 particular nature and effect of its food produces an enlargement of 
 the stomach, which appears to influence the development of the 
 eggs. 
 
 No difficulty would occur to prevent the direct deposit of the 
 
 * Hence, probably, the provincial name for this shrike, as in Herefordshire 
 for instance, where it is called " the Cuckoo's maid." 
 
THE CUCKOO. 85 
 
 egg in some of'the nests above mentioned ; but it has been stated 
 that the egg of a cuckoo has been found in the domed nest of a 
 wren, and in a wagtail's nest under the eaves of a cottage : in 
 these cases the cuckoo could not have sat upon the nest to deposit 
 the egg, and the inference is, that when the nest is of such a 
 nature, or so situated that it would not be possible for the cuckoo 
 to sit upon it, she drops the egg in from her bill. Le Vaillant had 
 strong evidence-to show that one of the African cuckoos did carry 
 her egg in her bill, in order to drop it into nests having a narrow 
 side entrance. That some birds do carry their eggs in their 
 mouths we have the testimony of Mr. Audubon, who says, that 
 when the American goatsucker discovers that its eggs have 
 been touched, it appears extremely dejected, and after a few 
 low notes and some gesticulations, all indicative of great dis- 
 tress, it takes an egg into its large mouth, and its mate does the 
 same, when they will fly off together skimming closely over the 
 ground. 
 
 The egg, however deposited, is, from the moment of its deposit, 
 abandoned by the cuckoo, and after a fortnight's incubation, it is 
 hatched. Very shortly after its birth, the young cuckoo is the 
 sole tenant of the nest. This was formerly accounted for in 
 various ways. Some declared that the foster-parents were so 
 enamoured of their Pantagruelof a nestling, that they killed their 
 own offspring, and gave them to the young giant to eat. Others 
 again asserted that the old cuckoo took advantage of the nurse's 
 absence to gobble up the real Simon Pures, and so leave room for 
 the intruder. Others again, as we have above noticed, believed 
 that as the young cuckoo gained strength, it swallowed the nest- 
 lings, and at last the nurse herself. 
 
 The truth is, that the eggs and true nestlings are, immediately 
 after its birth, got rid of by the young cuckoo, which has a 
 depression upon the middle of its broad back to assist it in the 
 summary ejectment of its fellow-lodgers. Insinuating itself under 
 the egg or nestling, the intruder gets it upon the hollow of its 
 back, and, if left to itself, never rests till it has shouldered and 
 jerked it out of the nest. Dr. Jenner, Colonel Montagu, and 
 many other accurate observers, have placed this wonderful and 
 early effort of instinct beyond doubt. In one case, two young 
 hedge-sparrows and a young cuckoo were hatched on the same 
 morning. In the evening the young cuckoo was sole tenant. 
 Colonel Montagu took the nest and bird, when the latter was five 
 days old, to his house, and put a young swallow, by way of ex- 
 periment, into the nest with it. The cuckoo frequently threw 
 the young swallow out for four or five days after. Sometimes, in- 
 deed, the cuckoo failed after much struggling, for the swallow was 
 strong and nearly full-feathered ; but after a short rest to recover 
 
86 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 its fatigue, the cuckoo renewed its efforts, and seemed contiriually 
 restless till it succeeded. At the end of the fifth day this dispo- 
 sition ceased, and the young cuckoo permitted the swallow to 
 remain unmolested in the nest. It is worthy of note, that when 
 the cuckoo is about twelve days old, the hollow on the back is 
 filled up, and its shape is that of nestlings in general. 
 
 Sometimes two eggs of the cuckoo are deposited in the same 
 npst, most probably by different individuals. If these are hatched, 
 then comes the tug of war. Dr. Jenner relates, that on the 
 27th of June, 1787, two cuckoos and a hedge-sparrow were 
 hatched in the same nest ; one hedge-sparrow's egg remained 
 unhatched. In a few hours after,.a severe contest began between 
 the cuckoos for the possession of the nest. The combatants 
 appeared alternately to have the advantage. Each carried the 
 other several times nearly to the top of the nest, ael then sank 
 down again under the pressure of his burden. At length, after 
 several struggles, the strongest cuckoo prevailed, turned out the 
 other, the young hedge-sparrow, and the unhatched eg-g, remained 
 sole possessor of the nest, and was brought up by the old hedge- 
 sparrows. 
 
 The cwckos) is thus the cause of keeping down the population of 
 the insectivorous birds, and; those whose nests are made the places 
 of deposit. Mr. Reanie calculates that it aarmally destroys about 
 3,500,000 of their eggs. , 
 
 It may be readily conceived what a busy time of it the poo? 
 dupes of foster-parents have in providing for the feathered Dando 
 that they have unconsciously brought iato existence. Cases are 
 on record where their compassionate neighbours are said to have 
 assisted them is providing for the overwhelming demands of their 
 big changeliag, 
 
 Two instances are given in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1806 
 of young cuckoos having been occasionally fed by large numbers 
 of birds of the same species as theiy foster-parents. One of these 
 nestlings, was, it is stated, supplied with nourishment by upwards 
 of twenty titlarks, and the other was waited upon by forty-eight 
 wagtails. Colonel Montagu and Mr. Eaton of York, doubt the 
 accuracy of these reports ; but Mr. Blackwall sees no occasion to 
 call the principal fact in question. The latter zoologist observes 
 that the young cuckoo is particularly clamorous when stimulated 
 by hunger ; and he finds a reason for the benevolence of the 
 contributing birds in their being unable to hear the distressed and 
 distressing cry for food, without being moved to succour the 
 hungry nestling. He gives several instances where birds of a 
 different species have brought food to deserted nestlings ; and he 
 therefore is of opinion that the article in the Gentleman's Magazine 
 is perfectly correct in asserting that young cuckoos are occa- 
 
THE CUCKOO. 87 
 
 sionally fed by a more than ordinary number of birds ; but 
 that it is erroneous to suppose that these numerous purveyors 
 are invariably of the same species as the foster-parents of the 
 cuckoos. , 
 
 But, according to observations made by Mr. J. E. Gray, of the 
 British Museum, natural affection would not appear to be entirely 
 extinguished in the breast of the cuckoo. He states that she 
 does not uniformly desert her offspring to the extent that has been 
 supposed ; but on the contrary, that she continues in the precincts 
 where the eggs are deposited, and in all probability takes the 
 young under her protection when they are sufficiently fledged to 
 leave the nest. This is as if the mother had put out her child to 
 nurse, but yet continued to watch over it. '" ,'^ 
 
 Strange- tales have been told relative to the food of the cuckoo. 
 The nursery song says 
 
 "The cuckoo is a fine bird, 
 
 He sings as he flies, 
 He brings us good tidings, 
 < He tells us no lies. 
 
 He sucks little birds' eggs 
 '\ _* To make his voice clear, 
 
 And when he sings cuckoo' 
 
 The summer is near." ,*. *, . 
 
 Dr. Brookes sets himself seriously to refute this story of the 
 eggs, and says, truly enough, that those cuckoos which have been 
 opened, have had caterpillars and other insects found in their 
 crops. Selby remarks that it is an opinion very commonly enter- 
 tained, that this bird sucks the other eggs in the nest where it 
 deposits its own ; but that there appears to be no reason for 
 supposing this to be the case, and that the belief has without 
 doubt arisen from the fact of the young cuckoo being so often 
 found sole tenant, after the expulsion of its co-partners. 
 
 Mr. Hoy, Mr. Salmon, and other observers of reputation, 
 however, testify that the adult cuckoo occasionally destroys 
 one or more of the eggs that she finds in the nest where 
 she deposits her own. Still there can be no doubt that the 
 cuckoo feeds principally, if not entirely upon insects. White 
 saw one hawking for dragon-flies (Libellulas) over a pond, and 
 the hairy larvae of some of the lepidopterous insects are especial 
 favourites. 
 
 It was formerly supposed that the hairs found on the inner 
 surface of the stomach of this bird were of spontaneous growth ; 
 and, indeed, very lately, Mr. Thompson was disposed so to con- 
 sider them : but Professor Owen found that these supposed gastric 
 hairs presented under the microscope the complex structure 
 
88 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 characteristic of those of the larva of the tiger-moth (Jlrctia 
 Caja] ; and proved to the satisfaction of Mr. Thompson that 
 they were altogether borrowed from that insect, the only species 
 taken from the stomach of the bird in various specimens from 
 different parts of the country, examined by Mr. Thompson in the 
 months of May and June, 1833. In the museum of the Royal 
 College of Surgeons in London (No. 534, Physiological Series) 
 are balls composed of fine hairs, from the stomach of a cuckoo ; 
 and John Hunter, the founder of ^that noble collection, observes, 
 in his Animal (Economy, that the' cuckoo in certain seasons lives 
 on caterpillars, some of which have hairs of a considerable length 
 on their bodies, and that the ends of these hairs are found sticking 
 in the horny coat of the stomach or gizzard, while the hairs them- 
 selves are laid flat on its surface ; not in every direction, which 
 would be the case if there was no regular motion, but all one way, 
 arising from a central point placed in the middle of the horny 
 part, the appearance on both sides of the gizzard evidently 
 corresponding. 
 
 The gallant chanticleer has been termed the shepherd's ctack ; 
 and the cuckoo may be called the husbandman's timekeeper. 
 Hesiod (Works and Days, 484), tells us that when the song of 
 the latter was heard amid the oak-leaves, it was late for ploughing, 
 though there was still good time, if it rained incessantly three 
 days and three nights ; and woe to the ancient Italian vine-dresser 
 whom the voice of the cuckoo surprised before he had finished 
 pruning his vine. Hence the irritating mockery with which the 
 wayfarer, loudly imitating the notes of the bird, assailed the 
 husbandman as he cultivated his vineyard, taunting him with his 
 sloth.* In this country the cuckoo arrives in April. The earliest 
 time noted by White is the 7th of that month, and the latest the 
 26th. Markwick's periods of arrival are April 15th, and May 3d, 
 and he records the bird as last heard on the 28th of June ; indeed 
 it has been observed that there is a remarkable coincidence 
 between the time of the bird's song and the season of the con- 
 tinuance of the mackerel in full roe ; that is, from about the 
 middle of April to the latter end of June. The notes of the male 
 have, however, been heard as late as the end of July. As the 
 season advances, the clearness of his two distinct notes is gradually 
 lost, till at last they are curtailed to an indistinct " gowk" whence 
 its provincial name. Aristotle has noticed the failure of its song, 
 and its broken notes before its departure.! 
 
 The male arrives here before the female : the voice of the latter 
 is totally unlike that of the 'male, and somewhat resembles the 
 
 * Hor. Sat. i. 7. Pliny, Nat. Hist, xviii. 26. 
 f Hist. Anira. ix. 49. 
 
THE CUCKOO. 89 
 
 voice of the gallinules and dabchicks. This attracts the other 
 sex, and she may often be seen attended by one or two beaux, 
 crying most vehemently as they follow in her train, occasion- 
 ally fighting with each other. The males seem to have favourite 
 trees where they repeat their song, for Pennant caught in a trap, 
 which he placed on a tree frequented by them, no fewer than five 
 of that sex in one season. As the cuckoo flies along he is often 
 mobbed by the little birds, 
 
 u Le coqu est de tous oyseaux hay, 
 Farce qu'au nid der autres il va pondre, 
 Par cest oyseau fault les amans semondre, 
 Qu'aucun mary par eux ne soil trahy." 
 
 The history of his advent to this country, and of his departure 
 from it, is comprised in these old English lines, of which there are 
 different versions : 
 
 " In April 
 Come he will, 
 In flow'ry May .. 
 He sings all day, 
 '. ' In leafy June 
 - . He changes his tune, 
 In bright July 
 He's ready to fly, 
 In August - . . r- 
 
 Go he must." 
 
 The young cuckoos do not leave us till September. Some 
 few late-hatched birds may be found during winter in hollow 
 trees, as observed by Agricola in his book, De Animanlibus Sub- 
 terraneis, or in the thickest tangles of a furze-bush, as asserted by 
 others ; yet these are but exceptions, for young cuckoos have 
 rarely been kept alive till the ensuing spring. Indeed, there can 
 be no doubt as to the fact of their migration": Mr. Swainson saw 
 them arrive at Sicily and Naples in the spring, and thence direct 
 their flight northward. One brought to Colonel Montagu in 
 July, just as it could fly, was by great care kept alive till the 14th 
 of December. This bird was very much afraid of strangers, but 
 suffered itself to be handled quietly by a young lady who had fed 
 it and been its kind benefactress, and it appeared to be comforted, 
 poor thing, by the warmth of her hand to its feet. - 
 
 Mr. Von Schauroth gives the species a very unamiable cha- 
 racter in captivity. He reared many, and tried to domesticate 
 one in particular, but it was never entirely tamed. Buffon, on 
 the contrary, states that he was acquainted with several persons 
 who had reared and tamed them, though he lost all he tried to 
 rear between autumn and winter. He relates that one knew his 
 8* 
 
90 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 master, came at his call, followed him in the chase, perched on 
 his gun, and, if it found a cherry-tree in its way, would fly to it, 
 and not return till it had eaten plentifully. Sometimes it would 
 not return to its master for the whole day, but would follow 
 him from tree to tree. The account of the relish with which 
 this cuckoo regaled upon the cherries is curious, with reference 
 to the old rhyme employed by nurses to teach a child its first 
 words. 
 
 *' Cuckoo, x , 
 
 f Cherry-tree ; 
 Lay an egg, 
 Bring it me ;" 
 
 and indeed few of these nursery jingles are without some founda- 
 tion. But, although the cuckoo may occasionally solace its palate 
 with cherries, insects certainly form the principal nourishment of 
 the species, as we have before observed. 
 
 And now farewell to our feathered vocal visitors 
 
 " Till green leaves come again." 
 August, 1841. 
 
 OWLS. 
 
 -"S 
 
 " Now the wasted brands do glow, 
 
 Whilst the scritch-owl, scritching loud, 
 Puts the wretch that lies in woe, 
 
 In remembrance of a shroud. 
 Now it is the time of night, 
 
 That the graves all gaping wide, 
 Every one lets forth his sprite, 
 
 In the church-way paths to glide.'' 
 
 ('> A MIDSUMMEH, SIGHT'S DRKAM. 
 
 THE lurking belief in the existence of supernatural agency has 
 been apparent in every age of which we have any record. Men, 
 whether civilized or uncivilized, seem always to have been pos- 
 sessed with a notion of spiritual manifestation ; and this notion 
 combined with the longing after immortality characteristic of 
 human nature, has either taken the holy form of sound religion 
 without whose aid no laws merely human could keep that strange 
 piece of work, man, within those bounds beyond which all would 
 become licence and confusion or has degenerated into the 
 
OWLS. 91 
 
 " Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, 
 Nocturnos lernures, portentaque Thessala " 
 
 that in some shape or other have darkened the page of history 
 with the terrors and the cruelties for none are more apt to be 
 cruel than frightened people of superstition. 
 
 When once this same evil principle has taken root in the mind, 
 its bitter fruit is soon seen in the horrors with which the most 
 ordinary accidents and the most common things, animate and in- 
 animate, become invested. It is not uninteresting to observe how 
 a harmless bird or innocent quadruped, when looked at through 
 the superstitious medium, is magnified into a being of high im- 
 portance, capable, in the opinion o the soul-stricken spectator, 
 of working weal or woe on his destinies ; nor is it unamusing to 
 trace down these fantasies in connection with the natural history 
 of such charmed creatures, though it by no means follows that 
 what amuses the writer must be pleasant to the reader. 
 
 There are few animals that have been more suspiciously regard- 
 ed than owls. Their retired habits, the desolate places that are 
 their favourite haunts, their hollow hootings, fearful shrrekings, ser- 
 pent-like hissings, and coffin-maker-like snappings, have helped 
 to give them a bad eminence, more than overbalancing all the 
 glory that Minerva and her own Athens could shed around them. 
 In the sacred volume, or rather in our translations of it, we find 
 the owl again and again associated with desolation. The thirty- 
 fourth chapter of Isaiah, in the version now read in our churches, 
 teems with instances : 
 
 "11. But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the 
 owl also and. the raven shall dwell in it : and he shall stretch out 
 upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. 
 
 *' 13. And thorns shall come up in 'her palaces, nettles and 
 brambles in the fortresses thereof : and it shall be an .habitation of 
 dragons, and a court of owls. 
 
 " 14. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the 
 wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow ; 
 the screech-owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place 
 of rest. 
 
 " 15. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and 
 hatch, and gather under her shadow : there shall the vultures also 
 be gathered, every one with her mate." 
 
 But there are not wanting those who do not admit any owl at 
 all into any of these verses, except the fourteenth, where the ori- 
 ginal word rendered in our bibles " Screech Owl," is Lilith; and 
 this, indeed, seems to be the better opinion. 
 
 In Barker's bible "Translated according to the Hebrew and 
 Greeke, and conferred with the best translations in divers lan- 
 guages : with most profitable annotations upon all the hard 
 
92 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 places, &c. &c. Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer 
 to the King's most excellent Maiestie, 1616," the word "owl" 
 does not occur at all in the thirteenth verse of this chapter, 
 where it is signified " that Idumea should be an horrible desola- 
 tion and barren wildernesse. 
 
 "11. But the pelicane and the hedgehog shall possesse it, and 
 the great owleand the raven shall dwell in it, and hee shall stretch 
 out upon it the line of vanitie, and the stones of emptinesse. 
 
 " 13. And it shall bring foorth thornes in the palaces thereof, 
 nettles and thistles in the strong holdes thereof, and it shall be 
 an habitation for dragons and a court for ostriches. 
 
 " 14. There shall meete also Ziim and Jim, and the Satyre 
 shall cry to his fellow, and the schrich-owle shall rest there, and 
 shall finde for her selfe a quiet dwelling. 
 
 " 15. There shall the owle make her nest, and lay, and hatch, 
 and gather them under her shadowe : there shall the vultures also 
 bee gathered, every one with her mate." 
 
 In the Septuagint, no word that can be fairly translated " owl" 
 is to be found in any of these verses. The Zurich version has 
 Bubo in the eleventh verse only ; for even the Lilith of the four- 
 teenth is translated Lamiam the (Nacht-frau, or night-hag), and 
 in the Vulgate we look in vain for the owl in this chapter. 
 Demons and onocentaurs, and shrieking spirits, satyrs, and vul- 
 tures, with kites and beavers, hedgehogs and pelicans, are the 
 principal personages that haunt the dismal scene in these versions. 
 In Scheuchzer's* plate illustrative of the verses quoted, there 
 are no less than five owls in the fore and middle grounds ; and 
 dragons are flying about the ruins. ' t j*4'# 
 
 If the saying, " You may know a man by the company he 
 keeps," be applicable to owls, the society in which they are 
 found in the verses and plate above noticed is not calculated to 
 enable them to give a very good account of themselves ; but bad 
 as their reputation may be in sacred history, in profane history 
 it appears to be considerably worse ; there, at least, no doubt 
 can exist in the great majority of instances as to the identity of 
 the culprits. 
 
 Virgil introduces one of these birds among the prodigies and 
 horrors that foreran the suicide of Dido : the whole passage is an 
 admirable model of the shadowy medium through which super- 
 natural terrors should be conveyed ; and in the following lines we 
 absolutely hear the death-song of the owl : 
 
 " Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo ^ 
 Ssepe queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces." 
 
 Again, in the twelfth book of the yEneid, one of the Dirae sent 
 * Physica Sacra, 1781. 
 
OWLS. 93 
 
 down by Jupiter to conclude the scene between yEneas and Tur- 
 nus takes the form of the bird, 
 
 " Quse quondam in bustis aut culminibus desertis, 
 iS'-octe sedens serum canit importuna per umbras. 
 Hanc versa in faciem Tumi se pestis oh ora 
 Fertque refertque sonans, clypeumque everberat alia " 
 
 till all manhood melted within the Rutulian like wax. His un- 
 happy sister Juturna no sooner hears and sees the fatal advent, 
 than she exclaims in despair, 
 
 lt ajatum verbera nosco 
 
 Letalemque sonum." 
 
 There can be little or no doubt that Canidia's Strix was a 
 species of this genus; nor need we be surprised that it should 
 find a fit place among the ingredients of her infernal magazine 
 
 " Et uncta turpis ova rarue sanguine, 
 Flumamque nocturnae strigis."* 
 
 Pliny, indeed, says, "Esse in maledictis jam antiquis strigem 
 convenit: sed quae sit avium, constare non arbitror :" allowing its 
 bad name, but not considering it certain what bird is meant. That 
 the portions of Canidia's laboratory above noticed, were usually 
 considered potent in a love-charm, appears from the fifth Elegy 
 of^Propertius (lib. 3). 
 
 " Ilium turgentis ranse portenta rubetse 
 
 Et lecta exsectis anguibus ossa trahunt, 
 Et strigis inventae per busta jicentia plum, 
 ^. iCinctaque funesto lanea vitta tofo." . r '.. 
 
 Again, in Ovid (Metam. lib. vii.),the bird is used^by wholesale 
 to make Medea's gruel thick and slab ; 
 
 " Et strigis infames ipsis cum carnibus alas." 
 
 Now we find these Strides just in the company where we should 
 expect owls to be in the-Thebaid of Statius, 
 
 " Monstra volant, dirse strident in nube volucres, 
 jVocturnsDque gemunt slriges, et feralia bubo 
 Damna canens." 
 
 And when we presently come nearer to our own times, we shall 
 endeavour to show that some of these passages at least must have 
 been present to the mind of "Rare Ben," and that'he, who was a 
 ripe scholar, accepted the Strix as a screech-owl. Indeed, the 
 description in Ovid's Fasti (lib. vi.), presenting us with the great 
 
 * Hor. Epod. Lib. Ode v. 
 
94 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 head, unmoved staring eyes, beak formed for rapine, and hooked 
 claws, suits no bird so well as an owl. 
 
 In the meantime we shall take the liberty of considering the 
 Strix as good an owl after its kind as the Bubo itself, and follow 
 out, with the patience of the reader, other evidence of its ex- 
 ceedingly wicked character. 
 
 The Striges appear to have been the terror of all mothers and 
 negligent nurses : 
 
 " Nocte volant, pucrosque petunt nutricis egentes ; 
 
 Et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis. 
 Carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris, 
 Et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent." 
 
 FASTI, LIB. vi. 
 
 In the case particularly alluded to by Ovid, the nurse, alarmed 
 by his cry, runs to the aid of the almost exhausted infant, who is 
 restored ; and the return, of the Striges is prevented by charms, 
 among which is the arbutus leaf. 
 
 According to that learned physician, Serenus Samonicus, female 
 children were also subject to their nocturnal attacks. 
 
 "The little owl and the great owl" are placed under the unclean 
 birds in our versions of the eleventh chapter of Leviticus (v. 17), 
 though some dispute the propriety of the translation. The 
 Severity do not so render the words, but the Zurich edition and the 
 Vulgate have each an owl (Bubo) in that verse. At any rate, 
 owls had a very unclean reputation, and the transformation of the 
 tell-tale Ascaiaphus is marked by a concentration of the bad quali- 
 ties of the form with which he was cursed ; 
 
 " Foedaque fit volucris venturi nuntta luctus 
 ^ Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen." 
 
 In the same spirit Queen Labe in her vengeance changed King 
 Beder into "a vile owl," a metamorphosis still less desirable than 
 his previous transformation into a white bird with a red bill and 
 feet, to which incarnation the Princess Giauhara had consigned 
 him. According to a provincial tradition, a baker's daughter was 
 turned into an owl for refusing bread to our Saviour. Shakspere 
 in "Hamlet," and Fletcher in "The Nice Valour," allude to the 
 tale : which if not invented by some Gloucestershire monk, with 
 a design "on the oven, was probably of Eastern origin. The body 
 of an owl was considered by Minerva a meet receptacle for the 
 spirit of the polluted Nyctimene. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that such a detested bird as the 
 Bubo should be conspicuous in Pliny's chapter De Inauspicalis 
 avibus :* " Bubo funebris et maxiine abominatus, publicis 
 
 * Nat. Hist. lib. x.c. xii. 
 
OWLS. 95 
 
 proscipue auspiciis, deserta incolit: nee tantum desolata, sed 
 diraetiam et inaccessa : noctis monstrum,nec cantu aliquo vocalis, 
 sed gemitu. Itaque in urbibus aut omnino in luce visus, dirum 
 ostentum est." 
 
 These be hard words, my masters, and though the Roman 
 naturalist softens them a little by assuring us that to his knowledge 
 the perching of the bird upon the houses of private individuals 
 had not been fatal to them, he does not the less forget to tell us 
 that Rome underwent lustration twice in consequence of its 
 abominable visitation ; and that on one of these occasions it had 
 penetrated to the cella of the Capitol ; Julius Obsequens in his 
 book "De Prodigiis" mentions one of these luckless birds which 
 was caught and burnt, and its ashes thrown into the Tiber. The 
 private visitations of the owl do not however appear to have been 
 thought so harmless by the generality as they were by Pliny, or 
 the offending birds would not have been nailed to the doors to 
 avert the calamity their presence threatened. 
 
 It was in the shape of an owl that the Thessalian witch loved 
 
 "To sail in the air 
 When the moon shone fair!" 
 
 How exquisitely is the scene described in one of the most enter- 
 taining romances that ever was written.* You see Fotis and 
 Lucius moving with stealthy pace towards the chink through 
 which, scarcely daring to breathe, he beholds Pamphile take from 
 the chest the box from which she anoints herself as she mutters 
 her charm, till Completely feathered and transformed into an owl 
 (Bubo'), she spurns the floor with a shriek, and flies forth with full 
 power of wing. Man is an imitative animal, and no sooner does 
 Lucius recover from his astonishment, than he is earnest with the 
 reluctant Fotis to assist him with a similar ceremonial, so that 
 in the form of a winged cupid, he may clasp her to his bosom. 
 She yields to his entreaties at last, and takes down the magic 
 chest, handing to him from it the precious pyx. Eagerly does 
 the ardent Lucius plunge his hand into the ointment, and 
 having besmeared himself most diligently, confidently does he 
 raise his arms and winnow the air in expectation of the sprouting 
 feathers: but alas for curiosity! Fotis in her trepidation had 
 made a slight mistake, and the discomfited Lucius, as his visage 
 and ears lengthen, and his smooth skin becomes a hairy hide, 
 whilst his hands and feet become solipede and quadrupedal, and 
 his heavy head is balanced by a length of tail, discovers in agony 
 that he has got into the wrong box. How does the distracted Fotis 
 beat her beauteous face and bewail herself, when she sees her 
 lover thus translated ! 
 
 * Apuleii Madaurensis Metamorph. 
 
96 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 It was not to be expected that the Germans would neglect to 
 associate this bird of evil omen with scenes of horror. It figures 
 in Faust and in Retzsch's admirable illustrations. What would 
 the incantation scene in the "Freischutz" be, either on the stage, 
 or in H. B.'s piquant cartoon, without the owl! 
 
 Nor have our poets been less apt to take up the dark ideas of 
 the ancients. Ben Jonson and Shakspere, among a host of others, 
 have irnmortalise4_,the evil principle embodied in this nocturnal 
 wanderer. 
 
 In "The Masque of Queens," a witch of the Canidian school* 
 thus chaunts: 
 
 " The screech-owl's eggs, and the feathers black, 
 The blood of the frog, and the bone in his back, 
 I have been getting ; and made of his skin 
 A purset, to keep Sir (Jranion in." 
 
 The third charm in the same masque runs thus : 
 
 " The owl is abroad, the bat and the toad, 
 
 And so is the cat-a-mountain ; 
 The ant and the mole sit both in a hole, 
 
 And the frog peeps out of the fountain. 
 The dogs they do bay, and the timbrels play, 
 
 The spindle is now a-turning; 
 The moon it is red, and the stars are fled, 
 
 But all the sky is a-burning.*' 
 
 Another witch boasts in the same masque. 
 
 " I went to the toad breeds under the wall, * 
 I charm'd him out, and he came at my call ; , 
 I scratched out the eyes of the owl before, 
 I tore the bat's wing, what would you have more." 
 
 Shakspere has introduced the bird into the most fearful scenes 
 of one of his most fearful tragedies. The "owlet's wing" is an 
 ingredient of the cauldron wherein the witches prepare their 
 charm. Its doleful cry pierces Lady Macbeth's ear whilst the 
 murder is doing : 
 
 "Hark! Peace! 
 
 It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bell-man, 
 Which gives the stern'st good-night he is about it :" 
 
 * It is evident that Jonson had the fifth Epode of Horace in his mind 
 throughout this witch scene. Another of his witches sinjs 
 
 " I from the jaws of a gardener's bitch, 
 Did snatch these bones, and then leap'd the ditch." 
 
 Here we have the 
 
 " Ossa ab ore rapta jejunse canis," 
 
 and in the third charm we trace the " Suburanso canes." The * plumam noc- 
 turn* strigis" we have already noticed. 
 
OWLS. 97 
 
 and immediately afterwards, when the murderer rushes in ex- 
 claiming, 
 
 " I've done the deed did'st thou not hear a noise 1" 
 she answers, 
 
 " I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry." 
 
 Richard the Third, when he is irritated by the ill-news showered 
 thick upon him, interrupts the third niessenger with, 
 
 " Out on ye, owls ! nothing but songs of death." 
 In Fletcher's song,, which begins, 
 
 " Hence all ye vain delights," 
 
 and not improbably, was the model from which Milton drew his 
 " 11 Penseroso," the owl is not forgotten : 
 
 " Fountain heads and pathless groves, 
 
 Places which pale passion loves, 
 
 Moonlight walks when all the fowls 
 
 Are warmly hous'd, save bats and owls, j 
 
 A midnight bell, a parting groan, 
 
 These are the sounds we feed upon ; 
 Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley, 
 Nothing's so dainty sweet, as lovely melancholy." 
 
 Poor Chatterton, in the spirit but not in the phraseology of the 
 age which he selected for the date of his beautiful but transparent 
 forgeries, thus writes in the " Mynstrelle's Songe" in his " ^Ella, 
 a tragycal enterlude," 
 
 ' Harke ! the ravenne fiappes hys wynge, 
 In the briered delle blowe ;. 
 Harke ! the dethe-owle loude dothe synge, 
 To the nyghte-mares as theie goe ; 
 
 Mie love ys dedde, 
 
 Gonne to hys deathe-bedde, 
 
 Al under the wy Howe-tree." 
 
 Gray introduces the complaint of the " moping owl" among 
 the solemn sounds which usher in his celebrated elegy ; and Scott 
 and Coleridge have associated it'with supernatural machinery. 
 
 When the Lady of Branksome sits 
 
 " In old Lord David's western tower," 
 
 and listens to the Spirit of the Flood as he calls on the Spirit of 
 the Fell, 
 
 "At the sullen, moaning sound 
 
 The ban-dogs bay and howl ; 
 And from the turrets round, 
 Loud whoops the startled owl, 
 
 9 
 
98 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 In the hall, both squire and knight, 
 
 Swore that a storm was near, 
 And looked forth to view the night, 
 
 But the night was still and clear!'' 
 
 The wild lay of " Christabel" opens with a chorus of owls : 
 
 ^''Tis the middle of the night by the castle clock, 
 And the owls have awakened the crowing cock ; 
 Tu-whit ! tu-whoo ! 
 And hark, again ! the crowing cock, 
 How drowsily it crew." 
 
 Nor has our inimitable Hogarth omitted the baleful bird in the 
 murder scene of his "Four Stages of Cruelty." 
 
 These great masters knew that the introduction of the owl 
 would help to make their images come home to the bosoms of the 
 people, who had from early times associated its presence with 
 melancholy, misfortune, and death. Every village possessed its 
 horrible story, never complete without an owl, which had either 
 stared in at the chamber-window of the dying, or answered the 
 passing bell from the house-top, or surely prognosticated the 
 speedy dissolution of the doomed by crossing his way, and 
 strenuously endeavouring to perch on the victim. 
 
 Such dark articles of belief are rapidly fading away before the 
 glare of gas, the rush of railroads and the' gallop of intellect; 
 they still, however, hold their sway in quiet nooks of quiet 
 counties, which used to have their shrew-ash and other charms, 
 to remedy the evils inflicted by beast or bird. 
 
 But what was a shrew-ash 3 
 
 The common shrew-mouse (Sorex araneus}, one of the most 
 harmless of animals, was considered to be a very pernicious 
 creature. Its bite was held to be venomous by the ancients ; and 
 our own ancestors believed, that if a shrew-mouse ran over the 
 limbs of man or beast, paralysis of those limbs was the con- 
 sequence.* The cure was supposed to be effected by drawing 
 twigs torn from a shrew-ash across the parts affected, and in order 
 to make a shrew-ash, a hole was bored in the trunk of an ash- 
 tree, and an unhappy shrew-mouse was plugged therein with 
 certain ceremonies, and so left to perish. Now it is known that 
 some owls feed on these little quadrupeds ; and what a concentra- 
 tion of diablerie must our ancestors have believed an owl to be after 
 a protracted shrew-diet ! 
 
 About the commencement of the present century, there lived 
 near a village which once boasted its shrew-ash and was not far 
 from one of the great towns in the west of England, an attorney 
 in considerable practice. He began with nothing, but was rich, 
 
 Hence, perhaps, the old malediction, " Bcshrew thee !" 
 
OWLS. 99 
 
 and beloved as rich attorneys generally are ; for it was averred 
 that he had been heard to swear that he would scrape a place 
 which is said to be paved with good intentions and is never men- 
 tioned to ears polite, but he would leave his only child, a daughter, 
 fifty thousand pounds : and. so he did. ', ' 
 
 Well, it came to his turn to die ; and you may be sure, there was 
 much talk at the "Jolly Ringers," where the village club was held, 
 about the alleged sworn determination of the yet unburied dead. 
 One honest farmer declared, that he knew, a month ago, that the 
 lawyer was not long for this world ; and being pressed for the 
 ground of his knowledge, informed the company, not without 
 hesitation, that the last time the deceased came from church, an 
 owl, as he passed along the darksome by-road, flew first across the 
 front of his coach, and then almost in at the coach-window, so 
 that the lawyer struck at it with his hat. The farmer said that 
 the shriek of the owl as it vanished through the overshadowing 
 trees still rang in his ears. 
 
 Every thing must have an end, and so had the sitting of the club 
 at the "Jolly Ringers'* which broke up for the .night and all 
 wended their way homewards. 
 
 The farmer's wife had swept up the hearth three times, and 
 nodded over her Bible a great many more, when she looked up and 
 saw that the clock pointed to one. She now began to be seriously 
 alarmed, for though it was some distance to the " Jolly Ringers," 
 her husband was regular in his habits put on her bonnet and 
 cloak, and with some difficulty aroused her neighbours, who went 
 forth with lanterns to seek for him. They took the way which led 
 across the fields from the public-house to his own, and had to go 
 over a foot-bridge that crossed a brook almost hidden by arbeles 
 and hazels, which lay between him and his home. 
 
 In the pathway, near the foot of the bridge on the far side, they 
 found the object of their search stretched apparently lifeless ; they 
 recovered him with some difficulty and bore him to his house, 
 where he long lay very ill. 
 
 On his restoration to health, if that could be called health which 
 was a state constantly liable to fits, to which he was never before 
 subject, he fora longtime evaded with shuddering the inquiries of 
 any one who led the conversation towards the cause of his first 
 seizure ; and it was not without evident suffering, that at length 
 he made a clean breast to a kind friend who had watched over 
 him during the worst periods of his illness. 
 
 The sick man declared that he was passing on his way in the 
 moonlight, thinking not at all of the main subject of conversation 
 at the club, but considering with what seed he should sow a small 
 croft of his, when he raised his eyes and saw Satan in his most 
 frightful shape, and the lawyer in his grave-clothes sitting up all 
 
100 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 pale and ghastly in his coffin, playing at dice upon the coffin-lid, 
 which was placed across the coffin between the players. This 
 horrible apparition was within a very few yards of him arid right 
 across his path, at the bridge-foot. He declared that he saw the 
 name of the deceased on the coffin-plate, and heard the dice rattle 
 in the bone box as the black gamester was about to cast, when all 
 his strength failed and he became senseless. 
 
 After this, the poor farmer did well enough, unless he happened 
 1o come .suddenly in sight of a bridge ; when he was almost sure 
 to suffer an attack. 
 
 The story got abroad, but was hushed up except at the club 
 where the decided opinion was that it was quite true, that the 
 stake for which the lawyer was playing was his own soul, and that 
 he was so well up to his points, that he must have risen the winner. 
 
 Some years afterwards, a youth who -had been early initiated 
 into all the village lore and something more, had left the well- 
 appointed house of a gentleman in this very neighbourhood, 
 known for his hospitality and scientific research, on an autumnal 
 night made beautiful by a glorious harvest moon. As he walked 
 across the fields in the path which the poor farmer, then gathered 
 to his fathers, had trod, he was musing over a learned discussion 
 about the pixies and nixies elves which some said even then 
 haunted thereabouts that had been the topic before his departure. 
 He looked up and saw by the uncertain light as it struggled 
 through the foliage, a black coffin-like mass upon tressels, just in 
 his way at the bridge-foot. All the old story rushed upon him, 
 his hair began'to lift up his hat, and a horrible shriek sent him to 
 the right about. 
 
 In truth, he took to his heels, and ran till he was out of breath, 
 never daring to s look behind him. As he stood panting with 
 beating heart, the "All's well," of the sentinels of a French 
 prison about half a mile distant, came through the night air like 
 music : he knew the welcome sound of the human voice, and was 
 reassured. Still he felt that he would rather face a battery than 
 thrat bridge : but what was he to do ? 
 
 It was late. He was ashamed to go back to the house that he 
 had left and to which he had come by the far-distant public road, 
 the more especially as he had been significantly cautioned, upon 
 his declaring his intention of returning by the field-way, to "have 
 a care of the bridge." So he took heart, faced about, and again 
 proceeded, till a short turn brought him in sight of the bridge. 
 There was the black object still. With the courage of despair he 
 rushed at it and found a carpenter's bench with some pitched 
 boards lying upon it, which the workmen had brought for the 
 repair of this infernal bridge. As he passed over it, an owl flew 
 away from an overhanging tree. 
 
OWLS. 101 
 
 Now here was a ghost-story spoiled. If the youth had but 
 fainted or gone mad and men have gone mad with terror the 
 worthy farmer's adventure might have been believed for another 
 thirty years at least. 
 
 If we turn to a race now fast dying out, we shall find that the 
 Virginian horned owl is not more welcome to the Red man than 
 the European species was to the ancient Roman. The superstitious 
 terror of the American Indian was, perhaps is, carried so far, that 
 any one who presumed to mimic its hootings became an object of 
 their high displeasure. Indeed the loud halloos with which it 
 makes the woods resound, so that travellers have been led astray, 
 taking its shouts for the voice of a man,* and the unearthly 
 sounds which it sends forth in the evening from the solitudes of 
 dark swamps covered with gigantic timber, sounds, according to 
 Wilson, that hardly seem to belong to this world, may well 
 inspire feelings of horror. 
 
 Dr. Richardson, in his " Fauna Boreali-Americana," gives a 
 striking instance of the effect produced by the wailings of this 
 species. Here it is in his own words. 
 
 " The Virginian horned owl is found in almost every quarter 
 of the United States, and occurs in all parts of the fur-countries 
 where the timber is of large size. Its loud and full nocturnal cry, 
 issuing from the gloomy recesses of the forest, bears some resem- 
 blance to the human voice uttered in a hollow sepulchral tone, 
 and has been frequently productive of alarm to the traveller, of 
 which an instance occurred within my own knowledge. A party 
 of Scottish Highlanders in the service of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany, happened in a winter journey to encamp after nightfall in a 
 dense clump of trees, whose dark tops and lofty stems, the growth 
 of centuries, gave a solemnity to the scene that strongly tended to 
 excite the superstitious feelings of the Highlanders. The effect 
 was heightened by the discovery of a tomb, which, with a natural 
 taste often exhibited by the Indians, had been placed in this 
 secluded spot. Our travellers having finished their supper, were 
 trimming their fire preparatory to retiring to rest, when the slow 
 and dismal notes of the horned owl fell on the ear with a startling 
 nearness. None of them being acquainted with the sound, they 
 at once concluded that so unearthly a voice must be the moaning 
 of the spirit of the departed, whose repose they supposed they had 
 disturbed, by inadvertently making a fire of some of the wood of 
 which his tomb had been constructed. They passed a tedious 
 night of fear, and with the first dawn of day, hastily quitted the 
 ill-omened spot." 
 
 The common consent of all nations seem to have been not very 
 complimentary to the owls. 
 
 * Lawson. 
 9* 
 
102 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 One word more. In the ancient pharmacopoeia, which, by the 
 way, savoured not a little of magic, the owl appears to have been 
 '* great medicine." Thus, the feet of the bubo, burnt with the 
 herb plumbago, were held to be a help against serpents. If the 
 heart of the bird was placed on the left breast of a sleeping beauty, 
 it made her tell all her secrets ; but the warrior who carried it, 
 was strengthened in battle. A bubo's egg and the blood of its 
 nestlings appear to have been as efficacious in preserving the hair 
 and making it curl, as 
 
 * Thy incomparable oil, Macassar." 
 
 Pliny, indeed, begs to know, who ever saw a bubo's egg, 
 inasmuch as the bird itself was a prodigy, and he further inquires 
 who could try it, especially upon his hair ? But he cannot deny 
 that the ashes of an owl's eye mixed into a collyrium gave clear- 
 ness to the sight, and that those of its head with ointment, were 
 good against disorders of the spleen. 
 
 And so much for fable. 
 
 This is the dark side of the picture. Those who care to see the 
 brighter side may find a more amiable and natural character of the 
 bird of wisdom in our next chapter. 
 
 But why is the owl dubbed the Bird of Wisdom ? 
 
 Because it is the only bird that looks straight forward. 
 
 O\VLS. 
 
 " The lark is but a bumpkin fowl, 
 
 He sleeps in his nest till morn ; 
 
 But my blessing upon the jolly owl 
 
 That all night blows his horn." 
 
 KENILWOHTH. 
 
 So doubtless thought and felt the Fly-by-night Club, who 
 bore on their seal-rings the owl for a device, with an appropriate 
 legend, and thereby hangs a tale. 
 
 It was widely whispered that the posy first adopted by these 
 minions of the moon was Nocte fugimus, but one of the jolly 
 companions, who had attended to his verbs with a little more 
 profit than his co-mates, hinted that those winged words might 
 convey a very unclub-like notion of their prowess when confronted 
 with the Charlies who then made night hideous, and suggested 
 
OWLS. 103 
 
 Node volamus, as more germane to the matter ; which motto was 
 engraved accordingly. 
 
 By the way, how the first verse of Master Goldthred's morsel 
 of melody reminds one of the old well-known glee 
 
 " Of all the brave birds that ever I see, 
 The owl is the wisest in his degree ; 
 For all the day long he sits in a tree, 
 But when the night comes away flies he ;" 
 
 or, as it has been classically rendered though we do not find it 
 in the Jlrundines Cami 
 
 " Ex omnibus avibus quos video 
 Sapientissimus est bubo ; 
 IVam sedet in arbore tola die, 
 At cum nox venit, volat ille." 
 
 Which ought to have been chanted perhaps it was as the 
 evening hymn of the volatile association aforesaid, as " Glorious 
 Apollo," commences the harmonies of the Glee Club ; but we 
 proceed, according to our pledge, to a consideration of the bright 
 side of the character of the " bonny, bonny owl." 
 
 And first, turn we to the pages of Aldrovandi. There we find, 
 in the second chapter of his eighth book, under the heading De 
 Bubone, and in the middle of the page, the word 
 
 DIGNITAS 
 
 in grand Roman capitals. And what word more appropriate? 
 what presence among the feathered bipeds is more dignified than 
 that of the great horned owl, Le Grand Due, as he is most ap- 
 propriately named in the kingdom of Clovis ? Who can look at 
 his feathered highness, as he sits solemn and sedate, without in- 
 quiring, 
 
 " What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight !" 
 
 A question to be presently answered. 
 
 Well is he termed the eagle-owl. If Jove assumed the shape 
 of the eagle, did not Juno select that of the eagle-owl for her 
 mutation ? For, as the learned Italian remarks, it was not 
 decorous that the Queen of Heaven should take on herself the 
 likeness of any small or vulgar bird, but rather that she should 
 be embodied in one whose reign by night was coequal with that 
 of the eagle by day one that, if some ancient narratives be true, 
 had not only occasionally resisted the royal bird, but contended 
 with him so stoutly, as to leave the conflict doubtful. 
 
 Then the art military with which his grand ducal chateau, on 
 some towering precipitous rock, is fortified against the only dan- 
 ger he fears the attacks of man for the brave bird 
 
104 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 " Dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun," 
 
 betokens deep design and counsel, and a lofty spirit withal. 
 
 " But he is a bird of evil omen according to your own showing in 
 your last." True, gentle reader, you who do me the honour to 
 remember the tediousness bestowed upon you but audi alteram 
 par tern; in plain English, there are two sides to a case. 
 
 When Agrippa, persecuted by Tiberius, was fast bound to a 
 tree awaiting his fa$e, did not the German augur, who stood 
 beside him languishing in the like bonds, cast his eyes upwards 
 and behold a horned owl perched in silence upon the branches, 
 and did not he comfort the discarded favourite with the assurance 
 that his chains should be loosened, and that he should escape to 
 become King of the Jews, and leave children who should enjoy 
 the kingdom after him adding, however, by way of a cooler, 
 that if, on the other hand, the bird still continued to hang over 
 his head next day, his fate was sealed, and his death might be 
 looked for within five days, and did not Agrippa escape from the 
 fatal tree in good time and become King of Judaea, and did not 
 his children reign after him ? Inquire of Josephus and others, so 
 please you, if you have any doubt. 
 
 Should this testimony be deemed to be somewhat inconclusive, 
 cutting both ways, as the lawyers say, no one will call in question 
 the fact, that the horned owl was held in high honour as a sacred 
 and fortunate bird by the Tartars, who wore its feathers in their 
 caps as a talisman to insure success, and why ? 
 
 It once happened that the Khan of Khans had taken refuge 
 from his enemies in a thicket. They followed with hot pursuit 
 and came straight upon his hiding-place ; but there sat a guardian 
 cherub in the shape of this noble bird, and they, believing that it 
 would never rest quiet if any man were hidden near, passed by 
 with unbloodied scimitars. In the silence of the ensuing night 
 the Khan made his way to his delighted followers, told them the 
 cause of his safety, and filled them with a reverential love for 
 the bird, that became national. The Khan had, on this occa- 
 sion, as much reason for saying, ".Long live the Grand Duke, 1 * 
 as the bird had, on another occasion, to cry, " Long live Sultan 
 Mahmoud." 
 
 Then, with regard to the race in general, if the Romans had 
 their eagle, the Athenians had their owl. Who shall deny that 
 the last-named biped was the bird of Minerva ? If any such 
 there be, let him go to the well-arranged British Museum, where 
 in the second room, allotted to Greek and Roman sculptures, he 
 will find a colossal head of the goddess with an owl standing 
 sentinel on each side of her helmet. Nor did the Romans 
 themselves disdain the OAV!, at least after the Acropolis was in- 
 
OWLS. 105 
 
 vaded by the statue of Augustus if ever one stood there.* On 
 the reverse of a coin of Trajan, a large owl sits on a column of 
 elegant proportions, rising from a plinth ; and on the reverse of 
 another of Hadrian, the bird, resting on a shield, is associated with 
 a peacock, and Rome's own eagle grasping a fulmen.t If we de- 
 scend to humble life, we find the owl depicted riding at its ease 
 on the frame carried by the man in the Fullonica at Pompeii : 
 whether to show that the establishment was under the protection 
 of the tutelary goddess of the loom, or introduced as the familiar 
 of the house, we leave the learned to determine. 
 
 With regard to our own legends, we have referred to that which 
 says that the owl was a baker's daughter ; but the nurseries of 
 our time made her the offspring of an Earl, transformed for dis- 
 obedience and condemned to cry, 
 
 Oh ! boo hoo my feet are cold-t 
 
 Nay, the north-country nurses, according to Nuttall, would 
 have it that she was no less than the daughter of Pharaoh, and 
 when they heard the owl hoot on a winter's night", would sing to 
 the admiring child, 
 
 Oh ! boo 06 
 
 I once was a king's daughter, and sat on my father's knee, 
 But now I'm a poor Hoolet and hide in a hollow tree. 
 
 But we must now introduce those whose owlogical education 
 has been imperfect to a nearer acquaintance with the organiza- 
 tion of this genus; and although this is no place for searching 
 physiological inquiry, we hope to be pardoned for sketching out 
 the adaptation of the form to the wants and enjoyments of the 
 creature. 
 
 He who delights in contrasts, need seek none more striking 
 among birds than that exhibited by a swan and an owl. The first 
 with a picturesque profile proudly crowning a neck so beautifully 
 long and graceful as to rivet the attention of the veriest Cymon of 
 a spectator ; the last with a great round head, looking almost as 
 if it were made for a hat, and a flat face, placed, apparently, upon 
 no neck at all. The long and flexible neck of the swan is ever 
 and anon elegantly dipped into the wave, as the spotless living 
 gondola glides over its surface, to crop the subaqueous herbage. 
 The disk-like face of the owl turns upon the short-neck' like a 
 pivot, to catch and concentrate every twilight ray and arrest every 
 sound, even that made by 
 
 * See Leake's " Topography of Athens." 
 
 f Consult the excellent " Descriptive Catalogue of a Cabinet of Roman Im- 
 perial large brass Medals," by Captain William Henry Smyth, H.N., &c. &c. 
 $ Consult Waterton. 
 
 
106 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor ; 
 
 and the bird, no doubt, derives some of its ill-omened repute from 
 the size of the organs of vision set in this concentrating facial 
 disk. Great staring, goggle, or saucer-eyes are popularly attri- 
 buted to goblins and demons, and are prominent features in a tale 
 of terror. One word upon the conformation of these organs, 
 which give fulness and breadth to the head, and impart to it 
 somewhat of an intellectual character. The eyeball is supported 
 by a lengthened, concave, bony ring, or chalice-like tube, consist- 
 ing of several staves or plates fitted to each other longitudinally. 
 The cornea is placed at the end of this tube, and so is carried out 
 beyond the feathers of the facial disk and head, whilst the whole 
 machinery can be adjusted at the volition of the animal with 
 greater nicety than that of any optical instrument made by human 
 hands, according to the quantity of light present, or the focus 
 required. In the typical owls, the eyes are set so completely in 
 front, that in order to see any thins: at their side or a little behind 
 them, they must turn the head entirely, and thus bring the whole 
 concentrating apparatus to bear upon the object. In the accipi- 
 trine or less typical owls, the hawk-owl, Surma funerea, for ex- 
 ample, which frequently hunts by day the head is smaller, and 
 the facial disk less perfect, so that the bird is better able to bear a 
 strong light. 
 
 The sense of hearing is most acute. The wide and moderately 
 deep outward meatus is guarded by an internal fold of skin, and 
 provided with a well-developed auricular circle of feathers which, 
 together, well officiate as an external concha to catch and convey 
 the slightest sound. The rustling of a straw, a dead leaf, or 
 withered herbage, may betray the "timorous beastie" that runs 
 below. With all this, the plumage is of the softest texture, and 
 is so contrived, that the action of flying shall not interfere with the 
 perfect effect of the auditory machinery, or operate as a warning 
 to the prey. The external edge of the primary quill-feathers is 
 serrated, so that less resistance is offered, and the flight is per- 
 formed noiselessly, in strong contrast with the whirring wing of 
 the partridge, whose heavy body is borne off with a startling sound 
 that brings the heart of the inexperienced sportsman into his 
 mouth, and often saves the game. Both bone and muscle are 
 kept down to the lowest point in the owl, to make it as light as 
 possible ; and thus framed arid feathered, the bird 
 
 Floats in the air like a downy balloon. 
 
 The family of owls known to modern zoologists by the some- 
 what disreputable name of Strigidx^ is very numerous and its 
 geographical distribution very extensive. In all lands from the 
 
OWLS. 107 
 
 Arctic circle to Port Famine, and perhaps to the south of that 
 ominous locality, owls are to he found. Any attempt to enume- 
 rate the species would be an infliction which we, at least, have 
 not the heart to administer. 
 
 An account of the British owls, including the visiters, will be as 
 much as the most resigned reader, who is not of the deepest orni- 
 thological blue, can bear ; and to these Strigidds we promise to 
 confine ourselves.* ' 
 
 We have not a regularly migratory owl among us except the 
 short-eared owl ( Strix brachyotus), and probably the little horned 
 owl (Scops}. The other true British Strigidsc are honest stay-at- 
 home people, and are quizzed accordingly. We will begin with 
 the residents, then take a look at the emigrants, and conclude 
 with the occasional visiters. 
 
 Of the residents, the typical barn-owl, white-owl, church-owl 
 gilli-howlet, screech-owl, Strix flammed, to mention only a few of 
 his names, first attracts our attention with his downy buff coat, 
 well powdered occasionally with black, white, and gray, and his 
 snowy waistcoat. Though he stays with us all the year, his race 
 is spread over a great part of the world, and they are to be found 
 settled all over temperate Europe, and as far south as the Cape 
 of Good Hope, not disdaining Japan and India, but eschewing 
 America. -a //-A 
 
 The habits of this species but White has so beautifully and 
 succinctly described them that we dare not venture on any 
 description of our own. 
 
 " We have had," says the charming author of "The Natural 
 History of Selborne" "ever since I can remember, a pair of 
 white owls that constantly breed under the eaves of this church. 
 As I have paid good attention to the manner of life of these birds 
 during the season of breeding, which lasts the summer through, 
 the following remarks may not, perhaps, be unacceptable. 
 
 "About an hour before sunset (for then the mice begin to run) 
 they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round the hedges 
 of meadows and small inclosures for them, which seem to be their 
 only food. In this irregular country we can stand on an eminence 
 and see them beat the fields over like a setting-dog, and often 
 
 * This resolution requires great self-control. There is hardly an owl in the 
 five quarters of the world for Australia must now be considered the fifth 
 about which much might not be written. That burrowing owl, JVochia cuni- 
 cularia, the chum of the bizcacha, is one among a host of transatlantic sub- 
 jects that force themselves upon our attention, clamorous for notice ; but the 
 borough-monger has never appeared among us, in feathered form at least, and 
 we must be firm. New Zealand has lately supplied us, amongst other orni- 
 thological monstrosities, with a bird which may be said to be half an owl and 
 half a parrot. (Strigops, Gray.) 
 
108 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 drop down in the grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with 
 my watch for an hour together, and have found that they return 
 to their nest, the one or the other of them, about once in five 
 minutes ; reflecting, at the same time, on the adroitness that every 
 animal is possessed of as far as regards the well-being of itself and 
 offspring. But a piece of address which they show when they 
 return loaded, should not, I think, be passed over in silence. As 
 they take their prey with their claws, so they carry it in their 
 claws to their nest ; but as the feet are necessary in their ascent 
 under the tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the 
 chancel, and shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, that 
 the feet may be at liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall as 
 they are rising under the eaves. 
 
 " White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot 
 at all ; all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the 
 wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore and hiss in a 
 tremendous manner ; and these menaces well answer the intention 
 of intimidating ; for I have known a whole village up in arms on 
 such occasions, imagining the churchyard to be full of goblins and 
 spectres. White owls also often scream horribly as they fly along ; 
 from this screaming probably arose the common people's imagi- 
 nary species of screech-owl, which they superstitiously think 
 attends the windows of dying persons." 
 
 White was seldom wrong, and we here see that he qualifies the 
 assertion touching the non-hooting of this species. The general 
 opinion of naturalists was, that the barn-owl was never known 
 to hoot, and so thought Montagu, a good observer. But Sir W. 
 Jardine shot one in the midst of its hooting solo, and he states 
 that hooting is their usual cry at night when undisturbed. Yarrell, 
 we think, comes nearest to the truth,when he states that this owl 
 screeches, but does not generally hoot. That it does hoot occa- 
 sionally there can be no doubt ; but the well-known nocturnal 
 concerts are, we believe, principally due to the performers men- 
 tioned by White. 
 
 The nest is generally formed, rudely enough, in some old 
 building, and the number of white eggs, somewhat more oval than 
 those of the brown or wood owl, is three or four. The young, 
 who stick to the nest a long time, as long indeed, as the old 
 ones will procure mice for them,-^-are at first covered with a white 
 down. Sometimes three different hatches of these animated, 
 important-looking powder-puffs are to be found in the same 
 cradle, and not unfrequently eggs are discovered along with 
 them. 
 
 This owl has a spice of the poacher about him, for he is a 
 night-fisher as well as a mouse-hunter, and has been seen to 
 plunge into a lake by moonlight, and bear away a perch to his 
 
OWLS. 109 
 
 nest. The claw of his middle toe is serrated, and perhaps helps 
 him on these slippery occasions. He and his have found a zealous 
 advocate in the warm-hearted proprietor of Walton Hall; and 
 every farmer ought to respect this eagle of the mice. 
 
 The tawny owl, ivy owl, or brown owl (Surnium allied), clad 
 in his russet coat, is a sylvan hermit with a dash of the poacher 
 about him too, a sort of feathered clerk of Copmanhurst, for 
 
 " He whoops out his song and he laughs at his jest," 
 
 living ostensibly on very simple food, but making free every now 
 and then with a young rabbit or mayhap a leveret, and occa- 
 sionally fastening upon the best that the stream or pond contains, 
 whether it swims on the surface of deep waters, or lies at the 
 bottom of shallow brooks, like the loach and the miller's thumb, 
 which last is better known to the Wykehamist schoolboy, who 
 goes after him with a fork instead of a trident, as a "Tom Cull." 
 The old birds have been seen to feed their young with these little 
 fishes alive and struggling from the stream : and brown owls have 
 been more than suspected of stealing gold and silver fish. 
 
 This is a truly nocturnal species, hiding itself by. day in the 
 darkness of deep forests, and never willingly venturing forth till 
 sunset ; for it bears the light worse than, the barn-owl. 
 
 Cowper has admirably sung the "sidling" and "ogling" of a 
 small-bird flirtation ; but he does not appear to have ever wit- 
 nessed the grand passion of an owl ; would that he had ! Such a 
 serious affair is only to be observed by the out-door naturalist, 
 who will bury himself for hours in the depths of the quiet woods 
 near some favourite owl-tree. 
 
 If he is so fortunate as to see the courtship on some warm, 
 gloomy, spring day, whose stillness is only broken by the pattering 
 of the shower, or the "minute drops" that fall from the moss- 
 grown trees, he will be well repaid for his watching, by the 
 solemnization. The Hudibrastic air with which the lover ap- 
 proaches, making lowly gesticulations, as if to 
 
 " Honour the shadow of the shoe-tie" 
 
 of the prim quaker-like figure, that receives all these humilities 
 with the demure, starched demeanour of one of Richardson's 
 heroines, only, now and then slowly turning her head towards the 
 worshipper, when she thinks she is not observed,, but instantly 
 turning it away when she thinks she is, and the occasional prud- 
 ish snap of her bill, when she is apprehensive" that he is going to 
 be rude make a scene truly edifying. 
 
 This is the species that makes the moonlight woods echo with 
 its hootings, when as "White remarks, its throat swells as big as a 
 hen's egg. Nor is it vocal in the night alone, for when in love, 
 10 
 
110 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 it will hoot in the middle of the 'day at least a South-Welsh owl 
 will. 
 
 Owls are not beloved by other birds, especially the smaller 
 ones, for the latter know well enough that the former will make 
 no scruple of gobbling up their young ones, and sometimes make 
 free with themselves; Sir W. Jardine found the remains of a 
 thrush in an individual of the species of which we are now treat- 
 ing. The German bird-catcher takes advantage of this antipathy, 
 particularly when he wants a few jays, and, according to Bech- 
 stein, he proceeds after the following fashion: 
 
 In the autumn he seeks in a wood for a tree standing alone, a 
 few yards from the others most frequented by birds, and on it 
 places his limed twigs. In order to lay his twigs effectively, he 
 so cuts off most of the branches as to form a kind of spiral stair- 
 case, beginning this operation some ten or a dozen feet from the 
 ground, and continuing it to within six feet of the top. The 
 branches being thus shortened to the length of five or six spans, 
 he builds a leafy hut of green branches large enough to conceal 
 as many of his companions as are selected to enjoy the farce about 
 to be enacted. On the top of his hut he sets up a live owl, or, if 
 he has none, the image of an owl made of clay, or, in default of 
 either, the skin of a hare so managed that motion may be given 
 to it. All being ready, and the twilight approaching, nothing is 
 wanting but his bird-call, made of a small stick with a notch cut 
 in it, and a little piece of the bark of the cherry-tree inserted, 
 another bit serving for the cover. With this he iiriitates the voice 
 of the owl, for whom the jays have as much affection as the popu- 
 lation of the Queen's Bench prison for the hapless gent, "one etc.," 
 who is caught within its royal precincts. 
 
 As soon as the jays hear the voice of their detested enemy 
 down they come screeching from all sides, whilst the repetition of 
 their cries by v the bird-catchers in the hut, causes them to assemble 
 in greater numbers. Entangled in the birdlime, crowded and 
 sticking together, and dragging each other down, the whole sur- 
 prised and peevish mass falls pell-mell in a fluttering, squalling 
 conglomeration into the hut, their weight carrying them 'through 
 its slight covering, and they are secured by the bird-catchers. 
 Nor are jays the only birds taken on these occasions; for -many 
 others, such as magpies, thrushes, wood-peckers, and even red- 
 breasts and tits, hearing the row, hasten to the assistance of their 
 allies the jays, and share their fate. 
 
 The eggs of the wood or brown owl, which is widely extended 
 over Europe, and has been found in Smyrna and Japan, are 
 generally deposited in the hole of a decayed tree: but the bird 
 sometimes takes possession of the deserted nest of a carrion crow, 
 or a magpie, and sometimes selects a hole in a rock. When the 
 
OWLS. Ill 
 
 large eggs, which are from three to four in number, white, and 
 nearly round, are laid in such holes, the bottom of them is 
 generally smoothed, where practicable, and a few slender sticks, 
 straws, or leaves of grass are placed over it. The downy young 
 are of a grayish white, and stay long in the nest, where they are 
 assiduously'fed by their parents. When they quit the nest they 
 perch on the neighbouring branches and are still catered for by 
 the old ones, till they are well able to provide for themselves. 
 
 Some of the owl-trees are haunted for years by these birds, and 
 contain the rejectamenta of many generations. White records the 
 grubbing up of " a -vast, hollow, pollard ash that had been the 
 mansion of owls for "centuries" and the mass of matter that was 
 discovered at the bottom. This proved to be^'a congeries of the 
 bones of mice (and perhaps of birds and bats) that had been 
 heaped together for ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops 
 of many generations of inhabitants. For owls cast up the" bones, 
 fur, and feathers of what they devour, after the manner of hawks." 
 White's informant told him that he believed there were bushels 
 of this kind of substance ; and this habit should be remembered 
 by those who keep owls in captivity, for if they are not given mice 
 in the fur, and birds in the feather, they are apt to die of decline, 
 for want of a proper cleansing of the stomach. White states that 
 he has known a brown owl live a full year without any water. 
 
 The Dominie Sampson style in which our learned feathered 
 friend bolts his, last dinner, and the gesticulations, in which he 
 indulges, are set forth in the ancient quatrain beneath the" effigy^ 
 of the Jlluco that adorns the Portraits cTOyseaux: 
 
 " Le Chat-huant, ou Hibou, <3e la teste ,' 
 Imite et fait les gestes d'un danseur. 
 Son gousier est tant large qu'il est seur 
 D'avaler vif un Rat, ou telle beste." 
 
 This owl is no great respecter of property, in captivity ~at least, 
 and will often hide things like the magpie and its congeners : we 
 can answer for the abstraction of an anodyne necklace by one ; 
 but this brings back another to our remembrance; that owl of 
 owls, Captain Face as he was named, and his being sent to sea in 
 the horse-pond on a duck's back, and the divings of the animated 
 bark when the captain in his terror stuck his claws into it, and 
 his submersion upon the instant, and his hooting astonishment as 
 he emerged, only to gripe harderand be again more deeply ducked, 
 till both were captured for fear of consequences and the captain 
 was unbound, shaking his feathers and staring at the perpetrators 
 with a vacant expression, as who should say, " what does all this 
 mean ?" These aquatic excursions were inflicted upon the captain 
 whenever he got a little seedy and moping, and they certainly did 
 him good. 
 
112 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 The long-eared owl, Otus vulgaris, Le Moyen Due and Hibou 
 cornu of the French, but to which the Italians give the somewhat 
 ominous name of Duco Cornuto, is a very beautiful bird, elegantly 
 dappled with black and dark brown on pale brown. He loves 
 the ivied tree and the thickest shades. Sir W. Jardine describes 
 him well : 
 
 "In a dull winter evening, he is frequently seen abroad before 
 sunset; and when disturbed during the day, the flight, though 
 sailing and buoyant, is bold and strong. He perches openly, and, 
 when approached, you can perceive his orange-coloured eyes 
 dilated, brilliant, and expressive, his long egrets raised and de- 
 pressed ; he is aware of being pursued, and a second flight is taken 
 before a very near approach can be gained." 
 
 This owl generally looks out for the deserted nest of some 
 carrion crow or squirrel, though it .will sometimes make a rude 
 one for itself. The oval white eggs are four or five in number, 
 and the young are covered with white down. Whilst they are 
 perchers they utter a plaintive evening cry ; but the adult birds 
 are said to be almost silent in this country. Rats and mice are 
 its principal four-footed prey, and it frequently steals upon the 
 hapless small birds as they roost in fancied security, and snaps 
 them up. It is widely spread over the world. All Europe pos- 
 sesses it, and it has been traced as far eastward as Astracan. 
 To the south it has been seen in Trebizond, Egypt, and Africa. 
 Our northern travellers and voyagers found it in high latitudes. 
 Dr. Richardson* states that it has been found in America as far 
 north as 60, and probably extends as high as the forests reach. 
 It is the J3mmiskoho (beaver owl) of the Cree Indians. The In- 
 dians brought to Dr. Richardson a nest which was in a bush, and 
 contained one egg; he adds that Mr. Drummond found a nest on 
 the ground with these eggs, and killed both the birds, and that 
 the above-mentioned eggs were smaller than those of the English 
 bird. 
 
 It is found in most of the United States. Nuttallt states that 
 it seldom, if ever, takes the trouble to construct a nest of its own, 
 seeking shelter amid ruins and hollows of trees, and resting con- 
 tent with the half-ruined nursery of the crow, the magpie, the 
 wild pigeon, or the buzzard, and even the tufted retreat of the 
 squirrel. 
 
 Wilson found one of these birds sitting on her eggs in the 
 .deserted nest of a Glua-bird (Nycticorax] in April, near Phila- 
 delphia, in the midst of the gloomy swamped forest to which 
 those herons resorted, and one of the quas had a nest in the 
 same tree with the owl. 
 
 * Fauna Boreali-Americana. 
 
 f Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada. 
 
OWLS. 113 
 
 Nuttall says that this owl makes a hollow mourning, expressed 
 by the words clou cloud incessantly repeated during the night, 
 so as to be troublesome, and that it is employed as a decoy. He 
 further remarks that it is almost a denizen of the world, being 
 found from Hudson's Bay to the West Indies, throughout Europe, 
 in Africa, Northern Asia, and probably China, in all which coun- 
 tries it appears to be resident. It is said to be the most common 
 owl in France. 
 
 " Le moyen Due, ou bien Hibou cornu, 
 Comme le Due par satyrique geste 
 Donne plaisir, et a comes en teste. 
 Aux monts d'Auvergne il eat assez cognu." 
 
 We now come to the only known regularly migrating British 
 owl; for though it is believed, and with reason, that the Scops, 
 so rare with us, is a regular visiter, the fact has not been ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 The short-eared owl (Brachyotus palustris) comes to us from 
 the north about October: but Sir W. Jardine has recorded the 
 breeding of some on the Scottish moors, where it is well known 
 to the grouse-shooter. The nest was a hole scraped in the ground. 
 In consequence of the general arrival of these birds in the southern 
 parts of Britain with the first fair October winds, they are called 
 woodcock-owls, an appellation branded on the memory of more 
 than one luckless would-be sportsman. 
 
 From some turnip-field hard by a plantation, or a tuft of rushes 
 close to a copse on a moist hill-side, up springs a russet-plumaged 
 bird and is in the cover in a moment. 
 
 The eager shooter "catches a glintse on 'in," as an old keeper 
 used to say, through the trees : bang goes the gun. 
 
 "That's the first cock of the .season !" exclaims he, exultingly. 
 
 Up comes John, who has been sent, ostensibly, to attend him, 
 but really, to take care of him. 
 
 "I'm sure he's down," pointing to the cover as many are apt 
 to say when they shoot at a cock, without being able to produce 
 the body. 
 
 Well let's look, sir where did a drop?" 
 
 " There just by that holly." 
 
 In they go, retriever and all.' 
 
 " There he lies," cries the delighted shot, loading his gun 
 triumphantly in measureless content; " dead as Harry the Eighth. 
 I knew he was down there just where I said he was, close by 
 that mossy stump can't you see?" 
 
 "Iss, sir, I sees well enough, but I don't like the looks 
 on 'in : his head's a trifle too big, and a do lie too flat on his 
 face." 
 10* 
 
114 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 "Pick up the cock, I say," rejoins our hero, somewhat nettled. 
 
 "I can't do that, sir," says John, lifting a fine specimen 
 of Otus palustriSj and holding it up to the blank-looking cockney, 
 amid the ill-suppressed laughter of those confounded fellows who 
 attend to mark not only the game, but the number of shots 
 that are missed, on their abominable notched sticks. 
 
 "Never mind, sir," adds the comforter John, "if t'ant a 
 cock, a did kip company wi' em ; and a's curous like, and 
 since you han't killed nothen else to-day, I'd bag un, if I was 
 you : he'll look uncommon well in a glass case." 
 
 This owl, again, is widely spread over the whole continent 
 of Europe, over India, and Africa. It has been found in America, 
 where it is the Tho-thos-cau-sew of the Cree Indians, as far 
 north as 67. In summer, it haunts Hudson's Bay, Labrador, 
 and Newfoundland. In winter, it goes as far south as Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 The scops-eared owl, or little horned owl, Scops Jlldrovandi, 
 Le Petit Due and Huette of the French, Zivetta and Chiu, of 
 the Italians, is a very pretty little bird, the tints, shadings, 
 and pencillings of whose plumage it is impossible to describe 
 Terbally. It is very rare in England, and generally considered 
 to be a summer visiter, retiring southward to the warmer parts 
 of Europe, and to Africa, before the cold weather sets in. 
 
 Mr. John Hogg states in his " Natural History of the Vicinity 
 of Stockton-on-Tees," that it breeds in Castle Eden Dene. In 
 France, where it is far from common, its arrival and departure 
 are looked for at the same time as the advent and disappearance 
 of the swallow. 
 
 Mr. Spence, the well-known coadjutor of the Rev. William 
 Kirby, gives an interesting account of its habits in " Loudon's 
 Magazine of Natural History:" 
 
 "This owl," says Mr. Spence, " which in summer is very 
 common in Italy, is remarkable for the constancy and regularity 
 with which it utters its peculiar note or cry. It does not merely 
 ' to the moon complain' occasionally, but keeps repeating its 
 plaintive and monotonous cry ' kew, kew' (whence its Florentine 
 name of Chiu, pronounced almost exactly like the English letter 
 Q,), in the regular intervals of alout two seconds, the livelong 
 night, and until one is used to it, nothing can well be more 
 wearisome. Towards the end of April, last year (1830), one 
 of these owls established itself in the large Jardin Anglais, 
 behind the house where we resided at Florence ; and, until 
 our departure for Switzerland in the beginning of June, I 
 recollect but one or two instances in which it was not constantly 
 to be heard, as if in spite to the nightingales which abounded 
 there, from nightfall to midnight (and probably much later), 
 
OWLS. 115 
 
 whenever I chanced to be in the back part of the house, or 
 took our friends to listen to it, and always with precisely the 
 same unwearied cry, and the intervals between each as regular 
 as the ticking of a pendulum. This species of owl, according 
 to Professor Savi's excellent Ornitologia Toscana, vol. i. p. 74, 
 is the only Italian species which migrates ; passing the winter 
 in Africa and Southern Asia, and the summer in the south 
 of Europe. It feeds wholly upon beetles, grasshoppers, and 
 other insects." 
 
 In the Portraits d'Oyseaux, the following quatrain appears 
 beneath the figure of this Little Duke : 
 
 " Une Huette est petit Due nommee, 
 
 Pour ressembler au grand Due, et moyen 
 Entierement. De vray elle n'a rien 
 De different, maist est ainsi formee." 
 
 This elegant miniature species closes the list of British owls, 
 properly so called, and we now proceed to a rapid sketch of 
 the occasional visiters. 
 
 The hawk-owl, Surniafunerea (American and English), which 
 as we have before observed, hunts by day, and, as might be 
 expected, has, like the snowy owl, the facial disk less perfect 
 than that of the nocturnal owls, can hardly be said to be 
 a voluntary visiter ; for the only instance recorded is the arrival 
 of one on board a ship off the coast of Cornwall, whence 
 it was afterwards landed and lived a short time in captivity ; 
 but the trim little owl, or passerine owl, Athene Noctua of the 
 Prince of Canino, Strix passerina of authors,, has been taken 
 several times ; and more rarely, another small spe'cies, Teng- 
 malm's owl, Nyctale Tengmalmi of the Prince of Canino, Strix 
 Tengmalmi of a'uthors. This elegantly marked owl is abundant 
 in North America, where it is the Cheepai-peethees,a.ud Cheepvme- 
 sees (death-bird) of the Cree Indians. 
 
 " When," says Dr. Richardson, " it accidentally wanders 
 abroad in the day, it is so much dazzled by the light of the 
 sun as to become stupid, and it may then be easily caught 
 by the hand. Its cry in the night is a single melancholy 
 note, repeated at intervals of a minute or two ; and it is one 
 of the superstitious practices of the Indians to whistle when 
 they hear it. If the bird be silent when thus challenged, the speedy 
 death of the inquirer is augured ; hence its Cree appellation of 
 death-bird." . 
 
 The great snowy owl, Nyctea Candida of the Prince of Canino, 
 Strix nyctea of authors, which is a mighty hunter, and adroit 
 fisher by day, in the northern and arctic regions at least, striking 
 at the hare in its course, and clutching his finny prey with one 
 
116 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 sudden stroke of his powerful foot as he sails over the water, or 
 watches patiently, perched on a stone in the shallows, with his 
 legs and feet defended from the cold by his thick feather-boots, 
 has occasionally been driven to our shores ; less frequently, 
 however, than the great horned owl, or eagle owl, Bubo maximus 
 of Sibbald, Strix Bubo of LinnaBus, the Grand Duke hereinbefore 
 celebrated. 
 
 But even his visits are so few and far between, that we are not 
 justified in inflicting upon our readers his natural history and the 
 feats that he does in the cold starlight when he leaves his lofty 
 abode, or those done to him by the old French falconers, who 
 turned him out with the appendage of a fox's tail, in order to 
 entrap the kite that was sure to fly after him, if there, was one in 
 the country, to observe what Mrs. Tabitha Bramble would have 
 called the " phinumenon," though the temptation thereunto be 
 strong. 
 
 So we are fain to conclude with the old quatrain of 1557, 
 lamenting at the same time that though the Italians named him 
 Duco and Dugo, they also called him Bufo (as Belon writes it, 
 though we much doubt whether he has not omitted an "f") 
 and what is worse, give him at the present day the appellation of 
 Gufo. 
 
 In truth he does appear to have earned for himself among them 
 and our mercurial near neighbours the character of a very funny 
 fellow, a character that we have often suspected from the accounts 
 of the ancient dance ycleped Bubo. There is but one step from 
 the sublime to the ridiculous : 
 
 " Le Due est (lit comme le conducteur 
 
 D'autres oyseaux, quand d'un lieu se remuent. 
 Comme Bouffons charigent de gesles, et muerit, 
 Ainsi est-il foiastre et plaisanteur." 
 
 PARROTS. 
 
 " pretty, pretty Poll." 
 
 " THE noble Philip Marnixius of St. Aldegond," quoth Clusius, 
 in his "Discourse," " had a parrot, whom I have oft heard laugh 
 like a man, when he was by the by-standers bidden so to do in 
 the French tongue, in these words *Riez, Perroquet, Riez yea, 
 
PARROTS. 117 
 
 which was more wonderful, it would presently add in the French 
 tongue, as if it had been endued with reason, but doubtless so 
 taught, O le grand sot qui mefaict rire, and was wont to repeat 
 these words twice or thrice."* Whether it maybe the lot of 
 our parrots to provoke a smile, or, like the Parakeet of Topaze 
 (which was hatched before the deluge, had been in the ark, had 
 seen much, and was sent for by Rustan to amuse him till he went 
 to sleep again), we shall be able to keep the reader awake, we 
 know not. At all events, we should be more than satisfied if we 
 were possessed of a tithe of its qualities for story-telling. " Sa 
 memoire," says Topaze to Rustan. in Le Blanc and Le Noir 
 what an opera that tale would make in these days of splendid 
 scenery " Sa memoire est fiddle, il conte simplement, sans 
 chercher a, montrer de 1'esprit a. tout propos, et sans- faire des 
 phrases." But, if we should, indeed, shower poppies with effect, 
 happy, in this world of care, will be the eyelids they weigh down. 
 Sancho, at least, in such a case, would have blessed us for our 
 invention. 
 
 Now, thinks the Poppy-expectant, for the old stones of Bluff 
 King Hal's Parrot, and in the exquisite spelling of Aldrovandi 
 "Gibe the Knabe a Grott," id est, adds the worthy, da nebu- 
 loni solidum. No neither shall we dwell on -Colonel Kelly's 
 parrot ; nor on the ill-used bird that, in consequence of having 
 told of what it ought not to have seen, was made to believe a 
 hand-mill, a watering-pot, and burnt rosin, a storm of thunder 
 and lightning as good as any that Mr. Crosse brings into his 
 house from 
 
 ' clouds 
 With heaven's artillery fraught." 
 
 Not that we have not a cfreat respect for the birds above hinted 
 at, and, indeed, for all of these Anthropoglotts, as the Greeks 
 called them, from the similitude of their fleshy tongues to that of 
 man, whether, like the Cardinal's parrot, they can say the 
 Apostle's creed or not ;t though we do not, perhaps, carry our 
 veneration quite so far as the learned Cardan, who was of opinion 
 that they meditated as well as spoke. Their fondness, their 
 jealousy, their hatred their exhibition of many of the passions 
 which make the human race happy or miserable, beloved or 
 
 * " Clusius, his Discourse and Account of Parrots." ffi7/w-A^'s Trans- 
 lation. 
 
 f A correspondent, after speaking of this book in terms the most gratify- 
 ing, but far beyond its merits, suggests that I may mention, as a pendant to 
 the cardinal's parrot, one that belonged to his sister-in-law in India, that used 
 to say his " Bismillah" like a good Mahommedan, every morning before he 
 had his breakfast. 
 
118 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 odious, would be enough to interest us: but they are, moreover, 
 a kind of link between the living and the dead between the 
 nations now upon earth and those mighty ones that have been 
 swept from it for ever. The same form, nay, the same identical 
 species of parakeet* that was caressed by Alexander, and nestled 
 in the bosom of Thais that sat on the ringer of Augustus,, and 
 fed from the lip of Octavia may now be the plaything of a 
 London beauty. 
 
 But of these ancients more anon. We will begin with the 
 parrots of the New World. Their habits, in a state of nature, are 
 well known ; and in none of the Psittacidse is the bill more highly 
 developed. This organ is not merely a powerful seed-and-fruit- 
 stone-cracker, to speak Benthamitically,but it is. also a scansorial 
 organ, as any one may perceive who will take the trouble to 
 observe these birds as they climb about their cages ; and in some 
 of the Maccaws it is enormous. The Patagonian Arara,t no less 
 than seventeen inches in length, of which the tail is nearly nine, 
 lives in the summer in the mountain-regions of Paraguay, Buenos 
 Ayres, Patagonia, and Chili, breeding in the holes of trees and 
 rocks; but the approach of autumn is the signal for their 
 gathering, and in desolating flights, these mountaineers 
 
 " Rush like a torrent down upon the vale," 
 
 stripping the gardens and laying waste the cultivated fields, 
 undeterred by the numbers which fall before the plundered 
 owners. Upon such occasions there seems to be a sympathy 
 among these birds that ensures their destruction : thus the 
 Carolina Arara,f which is found as high up as 42 degrees of nojth 
 latitude, and formerly was to be seen as far north-east as 
 
 " Wild Ontario's boundless lake," 
 
 feeds in great flocks crowded together. The gun of the enraged 
 husbandman cuts a terrible lane through them while they are 
 thus employed :, then comes a painful scene. "All the survivors 
 rise, shriek, fly round about for a few minutes, and again alight 
 on the very place of most imminent danger. The gun is kept at 
 work ; eight, or ten, or even twenty, are killed at every discharge. 
 The living birds, as if conscious of the death of their companions, 
 sweep over their bodies, screaming as loud as ever, but still return 
 to the stack to be shot at, until so few remain alive that the 
 farmer does not consider it worth his while, to spend more of his 
 ammunition. " 
 
 * Palaeornis Alexnndri. 
 
 j* Arara Patagonica of Lesson ; Psittacus Patagonicus of D'Azara. 
 
 $ Arara Carolinensls. Psittacus Carolinensis of Linnaeus. 
 
 Audubon, American Ornithological Biography, vol. i. p. 136. 
 

 PARROTS. 119 
 
 Here we have a striking example of the effect produced by 
 man, and,- in this case, by civilized man, upon the animal creation. 
 This species is fast diminishing before the colonist. Audubon 
 remarks that about five-and-twenty years ago, " They could be 
 procured as far up the tributary waters of the Ohio as the great 
 Kenhawa, the Scioto, the heads of 'the Miami, the mouth of the 
 Manimee at its junction with Lake Erie, on the Illinois river, and 
 sometimes as far north-east as Lake Ontario, and along trie 
 eastern districts as far as the boundary line between Virginia and 
 Maryland. At the present day, few are to be found higher than 
 Cincinnati, nor is it until you reach the mouth of the Ohio that 
 Parakeets are met with in considerable numbers. I should think 
 that along the Mississippi there is not now half the number that 
 existed fifteen years ago." These richly-plumed birds Audubon 
 says that a stack on which they alight looks as if a brilliantly- 
 coloured carpet had been thrown over it are eminently social ; 
 for it appears, in addition to the anecdote above given, that many 
 females lay their eggs together, the places of deposit being, as it is 
 in most of the family, the holes of decayed trees. We must give 
 one more picture of the habits of the Carolina Arara, drawn by 
 the same masterly hand that sketched tbe preceding death-scene, 
 because it will convey a good idea of the general. manners of the 
 American Parakeets : 
 
 " The flight of the Parakeet is rapid, straight, and continued 
 through the Forests, or over fields and rivers, and is accompanied 
 by inclinations of the body which enable the observer to see, 
 alternately their upper and under parts. They deviate from a 
 direct course only when impediments "occur, such as the trunks of 
 trees, or houses, in which case they glance aside in a very graceful 
 manner, merely as much as may be necessary. A general cry is 
 kept up by the party, and it is seldom that one of these birds is 
 on wing for ever so short a space without uttering its cry. On 
 reaching a spot which affords a supply of food, instead of 
 alighting at once, as man)" other birds ^p, the Parakeets take a 
 good survey of the neighbourhood, passing over it in circles of 
 great extent, first above the trees, and then gradually lowering 
 until they almost toucji the ground ; when, suddenly re-ascending, 
 they all settle on the tree that bears the fruit of which they are in 
 quest, or on any one close to the field in which they expect to 
 regale themselves. 
 
 "They are quite at ease on -trees or any kind of plant, moving 
 sideways, climbing or hanging in every imaginable posture, 
 assisting themselves very dexterously in all their motions with 
 their bills. They usually alight extremely close together. I have 
 seen branches of trees as completely covered by them as they 
 could possibly be. If approached before they begin their pluii- 
 
120 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 dering, they appear shy and distrustful, and often at a single cry 
 from one of them, the whole take wing, and probably may not 
 return to the same place that day. Should a person shoot at them 
 as they go, and wound an individual, its cries are sufficient to 
 bring back the whole flock, when the sportsman may kill as many 
 as he pleases. If the bird falls dead, they make a short round, 
 and then fly off. 
 
 " On the ground, these birds walk slowly and awkwardly, as if 
 their tail incommoded them. They do not even attempt to run 
 off when approached by the sportsman, should he come upon 
 them unawares ; but when he is seen at a distance, they lose no 
 time in trying to hide, or in scrambling up the trunk of the 
 nearest tree, in doing which they are greatly aided by their 
 bill. 
 
 " Their roosting place is in hollow trees, and the holes exca- 
 vated by the larger species of woodpeckers, as far as these can be 
 filled by them. At dusk, a flock of Parakeets may be seen 
 alighting against the trunk of a large sycamore, or any other tree, 
 when a considerable excavation exists within it. Immediately 
 below the entrance the birds all cling to the bark, and crawl into 
 the hole to pass the night. When such a hole does not prove 
 sufficient to hold the whole flock, those around the entrance hang 
 themselves on by their claws and the tip of the upper mandible, 
 and look as if hanging by the bill. I have frequently seen them 
 in such position by means of a glass, and am satisfied that the bill 
 is not the only support used in such cases."* 
 
 We must pass by the other American parakeets, and leave 
 unwillingly, such grand birds as the Great Green Maccaw,t the 
 Blue and Yellow Maccaw,J the Red and Blue Mac.caw, the 
 Hyacinthine Maccaw,|| and the Noble Parrot Maccaw,^[ gor- 
 geously magnificent though they be ; merely observing, that the 
 first named of these is found in the Andes as high as 3000 feet, 
 that it was considered an acceptable -gift when presented to the 
 Incas by their subjects^nd that when on its gregarious predatory 
 excursions a watch is kept on some high station the top of a tree 
 generally to warn the plunderers of the approach of danger, by a 
 loud and singular cry, on hearing which they immediately take 
 wing. 
 
 Nor is New Holland without its parakeets of varied forms and 
 habits, though small when compared with the American tribes. 
 The elegant Pale-headed Broad-tail, Platycercus palliceps ; the 
 
 * Audubon, Ornithological Biography, vol. i. p. 137. 
 
 -f- Macrocercus railitaris. Psittacus militaris of authors. 
 
 t Macrocercus Ararauna. Ibid. 
 
 II Macrocercus Hyacinthinus. 
 
 II Psittacara nobilis. Psittacara frontata,Vigors. Psittacus nobilis, Latham. 
 
PARROTS. 121 
 
 pretty Hobart Ground Parrot, Nanones venustus of Vigors and 
 Horsfield ; and the delicate Golden-eared or Crested Parakeet, 
 Nymphicus Novx HollandisR of Wagler, Leptolophus auricomis of 
 Swainson, are " beautiful exceedingly." Then there is the lovely 
 genus Trichoglossus.* Like the humming-birds, those Peris of 
 the feathered race, the food of these charming parakeets is, princi- 
 pally, the nectar of flowers nothing more gross -than the juices 
 of delicious fruits do they touch. A suctorial tongue of the most 
 exquisite workmanship fits them for this diet of the gods. Woe 
 to the unhappy captive whose mistress does not know this ; it 
 starves in the midst of apparent plenty. One of these wretched 
 ones, when a coloured drawing of a flower was presented to it, 
 applied its parched tongue to the paint and pasteboard ; and even 
 did this in the extremity of its distress, to the ruder image on a 
 piece of flowered chintz. 
 
 But hear the stern voice of ^Cato the Censor" ! conscript 
 fathers O ! unhappy Rome. On what times have we fallen, 
 when we behold these portents in the city men, Romans, 
 parading parrots on their fists, and women cherishing dogs !" 
 One of these portents must have been the Ring Parakeet, 
 Palseornis Alexandria alluded to above, and said to have been 
 brought from India to Europe by the followers of the victorious 
 Macedonian. The descriptions of both Greeks and Romans, to 
 say nothing of antique gems and paintings, leave no doubt that 
 this was one of the species at least ; and it should be remembered 
 that, till the time of Nero, "by whose searches (as Pliny wit- 
 nesseth) parrots were discovered elsewhere, viz. in Gagaude, an 
 island of ^Ethiopia ;" none but Indian parakeets (Palseornis) were 
 known at Rome. Highly were they prized, and, in spite of the 
 Censor, gorgeously were they lodged. Their cages were of gold, 
 and ivory, and tortoiseshell, and the houses and streets of Ihe 
 imperial city rang with the " Hail, Caesar !" of the occupants. If 
 the manes of the celebrated sparrow were appeased by the "melo- 
 dious tear" of Catullus, Ovid and Statius poured forth the elegy of 
 the imitative Indian bird, and Martial made it the medium of a 
 refined compliment, 
 
 . "Psittacus a vobis aliorum n'omina discarn, " 
 Hoc didici per me dicere Caesar, Ave!" 
 
 Though Constan,ine does not name the bird, Aldrovandi doubts 
 not that it was a parakeet that turned the heart of the Oriental 
 
 * Vigors. An Australian group taking the place of the Indian Lories 
 in New Holland. Some ornithologists call them Lories, Bothers Lori- 
 keets. 
 
 f Vigors. Psittacus torquatus, Macrourus Antiquorum of Aldrovandus, 
 Psittacus Alexandri of Linnaeus. 
 11 
 
122 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Emperor Basilius, by repeating, for his condemned and incarce- 
 rated son Leo, those lamentations which it had learned from the 
 sorrowing women; a son whom he again took to his bosom, 
 leaving him the empire as an inheritance. There were evidently 
 schools for these feathered scholars. ^Elian says, they were 
 .taught like boys, and Flirty states that ,they were corrected with 
 an iron ferule (ferreo radio) during their instruction. The same 
 method .of castigation is alluded to by Apuleius and Solinus. 
 
 Under the later Emperors, the parrot became one of the rarities 
 of their monstrous feasts ; for, though Heliogabalus fed his lions, 
 panthers, and other carnivora with parrots and pheasants, he took 
 care to have a grand dish of their heads for his own table. If he 
 had selected the bodies, it might have been better, for the flesh of 
 some of the species is said to be excellent ; and we suspect that 
 Little Pickle was not aware what a delicacy he might have been 
 serving up when he caused a parrot and bread-sauce to be laid 
 before the old gentleman. 
 
 Next to the affection, almost amounting to passion for youth, 
 especially of the softer sex, the friendship of the Indian parakeets 
 for doves is said to have been the most remarkable. We can 
 fancy the portico of the Xystus, in one of the elegant houses at 
 Pompeii, enlivened by'a group of the family, attended by their 
 fond and friendly birds. 
 
 To come to more-modern times ; there are instances of attach- 
 ment on the part of these birds that would shame other bipeds. 
 They seem most sensibly alive to the caresses of their beloved 
 mistress ; and their gesticulations expressive of rage and hatred 
 when a rival is noticed by her show what an indignant favourite 
 feels at an infidelity. One of these affectionate creatures would 
 never settle itself on its perch, however late it might be, till it was 
 taken out of its cage and replace,d with a kiss and a " good night." 
 
 The Parakeet of which the anecdote is told by Clusius, was 
 most probably the Red and Blue Maccaw, mentioned above. 
 
 "Among others," says that author, "I saw one of those great 
 ones in the house of the illustrious Lady, Mary of Bremen, 
 Dutchess of Croy and Areschot, of happy memory, before she 
 went out of Holland, the like whereto, for variety and elegancy 
 of colours, I do not remember to have ever seen. .For though 
 almost all the feathers covering the body were red, yet the feathers 
 of the tail (which were very long) were partly jed and partly 
 blue; butlhose on the back and wings parti-coloured of yellow, 
 red, and green, with a mixture also of blue. Its head about the 
 eyes was white and varied with waved black lines. I do not 
 remember the like parrot described in any other author. More- 
 over, lEis bird was so in love with Anna, the Dutchesse's niece, 
 now Countess of Meghen and Baronness of Grosbeke, that when- 
 
PARROTS. 123 
 
 ever she walked about the room it would follow her, and if it saw 
 any one touch her clothes would strike at him with its bill; so 
 that it seemed to be possessed with a spirit of jealous.ie."* 
 
 Of the short-tailed parrgts, or parrots properly so called (sub- 
 family PsiVtocma), there are species both in the new and old world. 
 The I 3 arrot of the Amazons,t commonly known as the Green Par- 
 rot, and celebrated for its conversational powers, will serve as an 
 example of the American true Parrots. Brilliant as are the talents 
 of this species, its African brother, the Gray Parrot,;}: does not yield 
 to it in -eloquence. The cardinal's bird that could repeat the 
 whole of the Apostle's creed, and for which, in the year. of God 
 1500, a hundred gold crowns were paid, is believed to have been 
 of this species ; and so was the bird of which M. de la Border de- 
 clares that it served as chaplain to a vessel, reciting the prayer to 
 the sailors, and afterwards repeating the rosary 
 
 " It was a Parrot of orders gray 
 
 Went forth to tell his beads." 
 " 
 
 The Gray Parrot will breed in .captivity undej favourable cir- 
 cumstances. Buffon speaks "of a pair in France that nestled in a 
 cask with "lots of sawdust'.' no bad representative of a hole in a 
 decayed tree and produced and brought up their young for five 
 or six successive years. Sticks were placed inside and outside of 
 the barrel, that the gentleman might ascend and descend to the 
 lady in the sawdust whenever he pleased. Nothing could be 
 more amiable than his conduct to, her; but it was absolutely 
 necessary to go booted into the room if the visitor wished to go 
 out of it with unwounded legs. Those who have felt the gripe 
 of a parrot's bill will easily understand that it was not likely that 
 any gentleman should enter the sanctuary in silk stockings a 
 second time. Father Labat also gives an account of a pair whose 
 loves were blessed with several broods in Paris. 
 
 An attempt has been made by some of the. parrots in the brilliant 
 collection of the Zoological Society of London to fulfil the great 
 law of nature. We saw one pair of the long-tailed division, very 
 fussy, and busy, and nestifying, and we, believe an egg or so made 
 its appearance; "but," as Dr. Johnson said on a more solemn 
 occasion, "nothing came of it." 
 
 * Clusius, his Discourse Willuglibifs Translation. 
 
 f Psittacus Amazonicus of anthors. 
 
 \ Psittacus erithacus of Linna3us. 
 
 Our recently lost George Coleman used to relate a circumstance connected 
 with this subject, curiously illustrative of the manners and gaieties of his 
 "youthful days." A Lady Reid, a celebrated ornithologist of that time, had, 
 amongst a multitude of birds, a cock maccaw, which, according to her Lady- 
 ship's account, arid to her infinite surprise, one day laid an egg ! The story, 
 told by her Ladyship with perfect gravity, and in the full persuasion of its 
 
124 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 That parrots will live to a very great age there is no doubt. Le 
 Vaillant saw one that had lived in captivity, or rather in a domes- 
 ticated state, for ninety-three years. "When he saw the ancient it 
 was in the last stage of all. It had been celebrated in its youth 
 for its vigour, its docile and amiable disposition, the alert air with 
 which it would fetch its master's slippers and call the servants, 
 above all, for its flashes of merriment ; and there it was, entirely 
 decrepit, lethargic, its sight and memory gone, lingering out 
 existence, and kept alive by biscuit soaked in Madeira wine. 
 Somewhere about the age of sixty it began to lose its memory, 
 and, instead of acquiring any new phrase, it forgot some of those 
 it had learnt, and began to talk a jumble of words. At the age 6f 
 sixty its moulting became irreguluf, the tail became yellow, and 
 afterwards no change of plumage took place. 
 
 We will now draw upon the same Le Vaillant for the manners 
 of another African species in a" state of nature. The Robust 
 Parrot (Pionus Le Vaillantii of Wagler, Psittacus robustus of 
 Latham) haunts the woods of the eastern part of the continent as 
 high as the thirty-second degree of latitude, in the breeding season 
 only, leaving them at the approach of the rainy season, after it has 
 brought up its young, for warmer skies. A hollow tree is, as 
 usual, the receptacle for the eggs, which are four in number, and 
 about the size of those of a pigeon : both parents share in the 
 pleasing care of incubation. The nestlings are naked when they 
 first quit the eggs, and are soon covered with a grayish down; 
 but their plumage is not complete till six weeks have elapsed, and 
 they keep to the nest a considerable time longer, during which 
 period they are fed from the crop of the old ones, like the pigeons. 
 When the periodical migration takes place, the flocks fly so high 
 that they are lost to the sight, though their call-notes still reach 
 the ear. The history of their day is not uninteresting. At dawn, 
 the whole flock of the district assembles, and with much noise 
 settles on one or .more dead trees: there they display their wings 
 to the first rays of the sun, whose rising they seem to hail. They 
 are then drying their plum-age charged with the night dews. As 
 soon as they are warmed and dried, they separate into small 
 
 truth, soon got about town. One day it reached the Cocoa-tree, where, 
 amongst others, Coleman and Francis North (afterwards fourth Earl of Guild- 
 ford) were dining, at about three o'clock, in May or June ; whence, upon 
 obtaining this marvellous information, Coleman, North, and a third I am 
 not sure that it was not the late accomplished and amiable Sir George Beau- 
 mont issued forth, and proceeded to the top of St. James's street, where, 
 haying made for themselves trumpets of twisted paper for the purpose, they 
 gave a flourish, and proclaimed aloud the astounding words " Cock maccaws 
 lay ejjgs!" and this was repeated in the front of White's; after which they 
 returned to finish their wine, their costume then being that which is now 
 confined to the Court or full dress parties. THEODORE E. HOOK. 
 
PARROTS. - 125 
 
 breakfast parties, and fl^in quest of their favourite cherry-like 
 fruit, the stones of whicft they crack, and regale on the kernel. 
 They like to linger over their breakfast, which continues till about 
 ten or eleven o'clock; and the different parties then go to take 
 their bath. The heat by this time is getting intense, and they 
 retire to the deepest shades pf the woods to take their siesta. 
 There they remain in profound repose, and all is so still, that the 
 traveller resting beneath a tree shall not hear a sound, though 
 legions of parrots crowd the branches above him. The report of 
 a gun instantly puts to flight the whole flock, screaming most 
 discordantly. 
 
 When undisturbed, and their period of rest is terminated, they 
 again disperse in small dinner parties, and, after the conclusion 
 of the evening repast, there is a general assembly of all the 
 flocks of the district, and a conversazione of considerable ani- 
 mation ; this ended, away they all fly to take their second bath ; 
 and there they may be seen on the margin of the limpid pool, 
 for no water that is not "clear as diamond-spark" will please 
 them, scattering the water-drops over their plumage with their 
 heads and wings, and playfully rolling over each other in all 
 the wantonness of an unchecked game of romps. This finished, 
 they again seek the leafless trees on which they sat at sun- 
 rise, and dress and preen their, feathers in its parting rays. 
 Then, as the shades of evening close around, they fly off in 
 pairs, each couple retiring to its own roosting-place, where they 
 repose till dawn. 
 
 There is a smaller race of short-tailed parrots (Jlgapornis) the 
 love-birds as they are called, from the affectionate attachment 
 which exists between the male and female. There certainly are 
 instances to the contrary, but the death of one is generally followed 
 by that of the other. A glass placed at right angles with the 
 perch has been used with success in reconciling the. survivor to 
 life, by the delusion produced by its own image. 
 
 The Lories,* in all their oriental richness, and the Cockatoos,! 
 with their lofty crests and docile disposition, form two very 
 interesting groups. The latter inhabit the woods of the Indian 
 islands principally. In the former, the bill is comparatively weak ; 
 in the latter it is strong and robust. Most of our readers will 
 remember the favourite cockatoo of George the Fourth ; the bird 
 was the very pink of politeness. 
 
 Other forms crowd upon us, but we are warned. Our eye has 
 just fallen on a pretty drawing from one of the Pompeian arabes- 
 ques, of a grasshopper in a car, driving a parakeet true ; we have 
 been .* speaking parrot" more than enough, and must refer 
 
 * Genus Lorius. . f Subfamily Plyctolophina, Vigors. . 
 
126 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 those of our readers who are not by this time in a balmy state of 
 oblivion, and who may wish to make their eyes acquainted with 
 the varieties of this beautiful family, to their portraits by Barraband 
 and by Lear, the Reynolds and the Lawrence of the Psiltacidse. 
 
 TURKEYS. 
 
 "- Man, cursed man, on turkeys preys, 
 
 And Christmas shortens all our days. 
 Sometimes with oysters we combine, 
 Sometimes assist the sav'ry chine. 
 From the low peasant 16 the lord 
 The turkey smokes on every board." 
 
 OAT'S FABLES. 
 
 MERCY on us ! turkey again ! We grant the infliction. All 
 the world has supped full of turkey. We are aware that the 
 martyr who reads these lines may have been very recently and 
 very intimately acquainted with the bird plain, roasted, boiled, 
 grilled,. devilled aux truffes et a la broche endaube as a galan- 
 tine, as a blanquette, and as a marinade ; that he has probably not 
 omitted to amuse himself with the cuisses et ailes a la sauce Robert, 
 and with the ailerons piques et glaces en haricots, enfricasste de 
 poulets, a la Sainte-Menehoulde, en chipolata ou a la financier e, and 
 en matelotte to say nothing of playing with the remains of the 
 goodly fowl served as a hachis a la reirie. One word more only 
 on this part of the subject, as advice for the future to neophytes : 
 it is given with all the oracular gravity that distinguishes a high 
 priest of Comus. " Q,uand il est gras et dans la nouveaute, on le 
 sert a la broche, pique ou barde. duand il est vieux, on ne 1'empJoie 
 que pour daube ou galantine a la gelee. La dinde est plus delicate 
 que le dindon." All this we devoutly admit to this amiable 
 dictation of Le Cuisinier des Cuisiniers we bow ; but when the 
 great gastronomer asserts ex cathedra, thai we owe this bird to the 
 Jesuits, qui Vont apporte de V Inde en Europe, we, with all hu- 
 imljty, but with modest firmness, demur to his natural history. 
 The eloquent and learned author of Tabella cibaria, though he 
 leaves their origin in doubt, says that turkeys were known in 
 Europe before the institution of Loyola's order. 
 
 But whence was the turkey imported into Britain into Europe 
 and thence spread over a great portion of the globe ? "Ceux 
 qui pensent que les Goes d'Inde n'ayent este cogneuz des anciens 
 
TURKEYS. 127 
 
 sont trompez. Car Varro, Columelle, et Pline monstrent evidem- 
 ment qu'ils estoyent de leur temps aussi communs es me.stairies Ro- 
 maines, qu'ils sont maintenant es nostres: lesquels ils nommoyent 
 de nom Grec Meleagrides et de nom Latin Gibberas, &c. Varro 
 dit en ceste sorte, Gibberse quas Meleagrides Grxci apellant, &c. 
 Ceste chose est conforme a ce que PJine en escrit au vingt-sixiesme 
 chapitre du dixiesme livre de Phistoire naturelle. Meleagrides 
 (dit-il) hoc est Gallinarum genus Gibberum variis sparsum plu- 
 mis, &c. Pourquoy il est facile a prouver que nostre Coc d'Inde 
 est Gibber a Gallina, ou Meleagris." These be bold words : they 
 come, too, from that father of ornithology, Pierre Belon du Mans, 
 and he -who \irrote them was a man who saw through more than 
 one fable that had passed current down to his time. Moreover, 
 Aldrovandi and others speak, if possible, still more- determinedly. 
 But, as we once heard an advocate compendiously say, when hard 
 pressed by a host of adverse cases, which were not very good 
 law they are all wrong together. Take our word for it, reader, 
 Apicius never tasted a turkey ; that excellent bird never graced 
 the Apollo chamber of Lucullus ; nor could all the wealth, nor all 
 the power of the Caesars have placed one on the Imperial board. 
 The Meleagris of the ancients was the guinea-hen of our poultry- 
 yards, " Simple Susan's" guinea-hen.- 
 
 If any one doubt this, let him read the description of Athenaeus, 
 and give us his attention for a few minutes. Taking Clitus 
 Milesius, a disciple of Aristotle, as his guide, Athenaeus notices 
 the small and naked head, the hard crest surmounting it like a 
 peg or nail, the small gills hanging from the cheeks, the peculiarly 
 spotted plumage, the spurless legs, and the similarity of the 
 sexes.* The descriptions of Varrot and Pliny;}: are equally con- 
 clusive. To go into a detail of all the worthies who drew their 
 pens upon each side of this question, which has caused so much 
 ink-shed, would be tedious; the notice of one or two will suffice, 
 "That these birds," says Willughby, "were the Meleagrides of 
 the ancients, as also their Gallinae Africanae, and Numidicae 
 guttatse, Aldrovandus takes much pains to prove. In England 
 they are called Turkeys, because they are thought to have been 
 first brought to us out of Turkey. " Ray knew better, and, in 
 his Synopsis, indicated the native country of the bird. But the 
 progress of a debate which has long been settled is not very en- 
 tertaining : and those who would wish to see the case well argued 
 are referred to Pennant, who, bringing much learning, and an 
 ample knowledge of natural history to the discussion, may be 
 considered as having given the coup de grace to the antiquarian 
 
 * Deipn. 655. f Lib. iii. c. 9. 
 
 * Hist. Mund. Lib, x. c. 62. Ornithology, p. 158. 
 
128 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 theory. Dairies Harrington was the last writer of any note who 
 supported that theory; and though he makes a tolerably good 
 fight, it is, after all, a paradoxical fight, and he seems to be ar- 
 guing for victory, not truth. The Indian bird mentioned by yElian 
 was most probably one of the peacocks. The question is now set 
 at rest. The turkey is one of the .many good things that we owe 
 to America. 
 
 In the *' Perfect Description of Virginia," a small pamphlet in 
 quarto (1649), "With the manner how the Emperor Nicho- 
 towance came to Sir William Berckley, attended with five petty 
 kings, to doe homage, and bring tribute to King CHARLES. With 
 his sotemne protestation, that the sun and moon should lose 
 their lights, before he (or his people in the country) should prove 
 disloyall, but ever to keepe faith and allegiance to King 
 CHARLES;" it is certified that they (the colonists) have "for 
 poultry, hens, turkeys, ducks, geese, without number ;" and in 
 the catalogue of "Beasts, Birds, Fish, and Trees" at the end of 
 the book, we find "Wilde turkies, some weighing sixtie pound 
 weight." The pamphlet was evidently written to encourage emi- 
 gration and loyalty, and the writer may have put the weight of 
 his turkeys rather high ; but that the wild turkey grows to a large 
 size there is no doubt. 
 
 Lawson set out on his voyage to Carolina in 1700. Soon after 
 starting from Charlestown we find the following paragraph: 
 
 "Tuesday morning we set towards the Congerees, leaving the 
 Indian guide Scipib," not Africanus, " drunk among the Santee 
 Indians," jolly fellow !-" We went ten miles out of our way 
 to head a great swamp, the freshes having filled them all with such 
 great quantities of water, that the usual paths were rendered im- 
 passible. We met in our way with an Indian hut, where we 
 were entertained with a fat boil'd goose, venison, raccoon, and 
 ground nuts. We made but little stay ; about noon we passed 
 by several large savannahs, wherein is curious ranges for cattle, 
 being green all the year ; they were plentifully stor'd with cranes, 
 geese, &c., and the adjacent woods with great flocks of turkeys." 
 We will follow the worthy Lawson into one of the natural turkey 
 preserves, as he will give the reader some idea of the localities of 
 these birds ; nor is the quaint language of the narrative unplea- 
 sant: r "Next morning very early, we waded thro' the savannah, 
 the path lying there ; and about ten o'clock came to a hunting 
 quarter of a great many Santees : they made us all welcome ; 
 showing a great deal of joy at our coming, giving us barba- 
 cu'd turkeys, bear's oil, and venison. Here we hired Santee 
 Jack (a good 1 hunter, and a well-humour'd fellow), to be our pilot 
 to the Congeree Indians ' r we gave him a Stroua-water-blew, to 
 make his wife an Indian petticoat, who went with her husband. 
 
TURKEYS. 129 
 
 After two hours' refreshment, we went on, and got that day about 
 twenty miles ; we lay by a small swift run of water, which was 
 pav'd at the bottom with a sort of stone much like to Tripoli, and 
 so light that I fancy'd it would precipitate in no stream but 
 where it naturally grew. The weather was very cold, the winds 
 holding northerly. We made ourselves as merry as we could, 
 having a good supper with the scraps of the venison we had given 
 us by the Indians, having killed three teal and a possum ; which 
 medley altogether made a curious ragoo. 
 
 "This day all of us had a mind to have rested, but the Indian 
 was much against it, alleging, that the place we lay at was not 
 good to hunt in, telling us, if we would go on, by noon he would 
 bring us to a more convenient place ; so we moved forwards, and 
 about twelve a clock came to the most amazing prospect I had seen 
 since I had been in Carolina ; we travelled by a swamp side, which 
 swamp I believe to be no less than twenty miles over, the other side 
 being as far as I could well discern, there appearing great ridges of 
 mountains, bearing from us W.N.W. One Alp, with a top like a 
 sugar-loaf, advanced its head abote all the rest very considerably ; 
 the day was very serene, which gave us the advantage of seeing 
 a long way ; these mountains were cloth'd all over with trees, 
 which seem'd to us to be very large timbers. 
 
 "At the sight of this fair prospect, we stay'd all night ; bur 
 Indian, going about half an hour before us, had provided three fat 
 turkeys e'er we got up to him. 
 
 " The swamp I now spoke of is not a miry bog, as others gene- 
 rally are, but you go down to it thro' a steep bank, at the foot of 
 which begins this valley, where you may go dry for perhaps 200 
 yards, then you meet with a small brook or run of water about 
 two or three feet deep, then dry land for such another space, so 
 another brook thus continuing. The land in this Percoarson, 
 or valley, being extraordinary rich, and the runs of water well 
 stor'd with fowl. It is the head of one of the branches of Santee 
 River ; but a farther discovery time would not permit : only one 
 thing is very remarkable, there growing all over the swamp, a 
 tall, lofty, bay -tree, but is not the same as in England, these being 
 in their verdure all the winter long ; which appears here when 
 you stand on the ridge (where our path lay), as if it were one 
 pleasant green field, and as even as the bowling-green to the eye of 
 the beholder, being hemm'd in on one side with these ledges of 
 vast high mountains. 
 
 "Viewing the land here, we found an extraordinary rich black 
 mould, and some of a copper colour, both sorts very good. The 
 land in some places is much burthen'd with iron-stone, here 
 being great store of it seemingly very good ; the eviling springs, 
 which are many in these parts, issuing out of the rocks. When 
 
130 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 we were all asleep, in the beginning of the night, we were awa- 
 ken'd with the dismall'st and most hideous noise that ever pierc'd 
 my ears : this sudden surprizal incapacitated us of guessing 
 what this threatning noise might proceed from ; but our Indian 
 pilot (who knew these parts very well) acquainted us, that it was 
 customary to hear such musick along that swamp-side, there being 
 endless numbers of panthers, tygers, wolves, and other beasts of 
 prey, which take this swamp for their abode in the day, coming in 
 whole droves to hunt the deer in the night, making this frightful 
 ditty 'till day appears, then all is .still as in other places. 
 
 "The next day it prov'd a small drisly rain, which is rare, 
 there happening not the tenth part of foggy-falling weather towards 
 these mountains, as visits those parts. Near the sea-board, the 
 Indian kill'd fifteen turkeys this day, there coming out of the 
 swamp (about sun-rising) flocks of these fowl, containing several 
 hundreds in a gang, who feed upon the acorns, it being most oak 
 that grow in these woods. . There are but ve-ry few pines in those 
 quarters. 
 
 "Early the next morning, we set forward for the Congeree 
 Indians, parting with -that delicious prospect. By the way, our 
 guide killed more turkeys, and two pol-cats, which he eat, esteem- 
 ing them before fat turkeys. Some of the turkeys which we 
 eat while we stay'd there, I believe, weigh'd no less than forty 
 pounds. 
 
 " The land we pass'd over this day, was most of it good, and 
 the worst passable. At night we kill'd a possum, being cloy'd 
 with turkeys, made a dish of that, which tasted much between 
 young pork and veal; their fat being as white as any I eyer 
 saw. 
 
 " Our Indian this day kill'd good store of provision with his 
 gun : he always shot with a single ball, missing but two shoots in 
 about forty, they being curious artists in managing a gun, to 
 make it carry either ball or shot true. When they have bought a 
 piece, and find it to shoot any ways crooked, they take the barrel 
 out of the stock, cutting a notch in a tree, wherein they set it 
 streight, sometimes shooting away above 100 loads of ammunition 
 before they bring the gun to shoot according to their mind. We 
 took up our quarters by a fish-pond side ; the pits in the woods 
 that stand full of water naturally breed fish in them, in great 
 quantities. We cook'd our supper, but having neither bread or 
 salt, our fat turkeys began to be loathsome to us, although we 
 were never wanting of a good appetite, yet a continuance of one 
 diet made us weary."* 
 
 * A History of Carolina, &c. By John Lawson, Gent , Surveyor- General 
 of North Carolina. London, 1714, small 4 to. p. 25, et seq. - 
 
TURKEYS. 131 
 
 Audubon says that the unsettled parts of the states of Ohio, 
 Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana, an immense extent of country to 
 the north-west of these districts, upon, the Mississippi and Mis- 
 souri, and the vast regions drained by these rivers from their con- 
 fluence to Louisiana, including the wooded parts of Arkansas, Ten- 
 nessee, and Alabama, are the most abundantly supplied with the 
 wild turkey. It is, he adds, less plentiful in Georgia and the 
 Carolinas, becomes still scarcer in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 
 and is now very rarely seen to the eastward of the last-mentioned 
 States. In the course of Jiis rambles through Long Island, the 
 State of New York, and the country around the lakes, he, did not 
 meet with a single individual, although he was informed that some 
 exist in those parts. They are still to be found along the whole 
 line of the Alleghany Mountains, where they have become so wary 
 as to be approached only with extreme difficulty, according to the 
 same author, who, when in the Great Pine Forest in 1829, found 
 a single feather that had been dropped from the tail of a female, 
 but saw no bird of the kind. - Farther eastward, he does not 
 think they are now to be found.* Not much more than a century 
 and a quarter has elapsed between the dates of these two accounts, 
 and yet we see how remarkably the area over which the species 
 was formerly spread, is already diminished. 
 
 The following graphic' description of the habits of the wild 
 turkey, by the enthusiastic American ornithologist, will be read 
 with interest: ~: 3T* 
 
 " The turkey is irregularly migratory, as well as irregularly 
 gregarious. With reference to the first of these circumstances, I 
 have to state that, whenever the mastf of one portion of the 
 country happens greatly to exceed that of another, the turkeys are 
 insensibly led towards that spot, by gradually meeting in their 
 haunts with more fruit the nearer they advance towards the place 
 where it is most plentiful. In this manner flock follows after 
 flock, until one district is entirely deserted, while another is, 
 as it were, overflowed by them. But as these migrations are 
 irregular, and extend over . a vast expanse of .country, it is 
 necessary that I should describe the manner in which they take 
 place. 
 
 "About the beginning of October, when scarcely any of the 
 seeds and fruits have yet fallen, from the trees, these birds assem- 
 ble in flocks and gradually move towards the rich bottom lands of 
 the Ohio and Mississippi. The males, or as they are more com- 
 monly called, the gobblers, associate in parties of from ten to a 
 
 * Ornithological Biography. London, 1831, 8vo. 
 
 f In America the term mast is not confined to the fruit of the beech, but is 
 used as a general name for all kinds of forest fruits, including even grapes and 
 berries. (Audubon.) 
 
132 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 hundred, and search for food apart from the females, while the 
 latter are seen either advancing singly, each with its brood of 
 young, then about two-thirds grown, or in connexion with other 
 families, forming parties often amounting to seventy or eighty 
 individuals, all intent on shunning the old cocks, which, even 
 when the young birds have 'attained this size, will fight with, and 
 often destroy them by repeated blows on the head. Old and 
 young, however, all move in the same course, and on foot, unless 
 their progress be interrupted by a river, or the hunter's dog force 
 them to take wing. When they come upon a river, they betake 
 themselves to the highest eminences, and there often remain a 
 whole day, or sometimes two, as if for the purpose of consulta- 
 tion. During this time the males are heard gobbling, calling, and 
 making much ado, and are seen strutting about, as if to raise 
 their courage to a pitch befitting the emergency. Even the 
 females and young assume something of .the same pompous 
 demeanour, spread out their tails, and run round each other, pur- 
 ring loudly, and performing extravagant leaps. At length, when 
 the weather appears settled, and all around is quiet, the whole 
 party mounts to the tops of the highest trees, whence, at a signal 
 consisting of a single duck, given by a leader, the flock takes 
 flight for the opposite shore. The old and fat birds easily get 
 over, even should the river be a mile in breadth ; but the younger 
 and less robust frequently fall into the water, not to be drowned, 
 however, as might be imagined. They bring their wings close 
 to their body, spread out their tail as a support, stretch forward 
 their neck, and striking out their legs with great vigour, proceed 
 rapidly towards the shore; on approaching which, sho-uld they 
 find it too steep for landing, they cease their exertions for a few 
 moments* float down the stream until they come to an accessible 
 part, and by a violent effort, generally extricate themselves from 
 the water. It is remarkable that, immediately after thus crossing 
 a large stream, they ramble about for some time as if bewildered. 
 In this state they fall an easy prey to the hunter. 
 
 " When the turkeys -arrive in parts where the mast is abundant, 
 they separate into smaller flocks, composed of birds of all ages 
 and both sexes promiscuously mingled, and devour all before 
 them. This happens about the middle of November. So gentle 
 do they sometimes become after these long journeys, that they 
 have been seen to approach the farm-houses, .associate with the 
 domestic fowls, and enter the stables and corn-fields in quest of 
 food. In this way, roaming about the forests and feeding chiefly 
 on mast, they pass the autumn and part of the winter."* 
 
 In February sweet St. Valentine '.the scene is changed. 
 
 * Ornithological Biography, vol. i., p. 2. 
 
TURKEYS. 133 
 
 " The females separate and fly from the males. The latter stre- 
 nuously pursue, and begin to gobble or to utter notes of. exulta- 
 tion. The sexes roost apart, but at no great distance from each 
 other. When the female utters a call-note, all the gobbler^ within 
 hearing return the sound, rolling note after note with as much 
 rapidity as if they intended to emit the last and the first toge- 
 ther, not with spread tail, as when fluttering round the females 
 on the ground, or practising on the branches of the trees on 
 which they have roosted for the night, but much in.the manner of 
 the domestic turkey when an unusual or unexpected noise elicits 
 its singular hubbub. If the call of the female comes from the 
 ground, all the males immediately fly towards the spot, and the 
 moment they reach it, whether the hen be in sight 'or not, spread 
 out and erect their tail, draw the head back on the shoulders, 
 depress their wings with a quivering motion, and strut pompously 
 about, emitting at the same time a succession of puffs from the 
 lungs, and stopping now and then to listen and look. But whe- 
 ther they spy the female or not, they continue to puff and strut, 
 moving with as much celerity as their ideas of ceremony seem to 
 admit. While thus occupied the males often encounter each 
 other, in which case desperate battles take place, ending in blood- 
 shed, and often in the loss of many lives, the weaker falling under 
 the repeated blows inflicted upon their heads by the stronger." * 
 
 This union of love and war-, this ominous conjunction of Mars 
 and Venus, seems to be a necessary condition of animal life. The 
 females calmly look on and await the event of the struggle which 
 is to be settled by the law of the strongest, who reaps the reward 
 of his prowess. Thus a sturdy progeny is secured, and Nature 
 does all in her power to prevent the species from dwindling. 
 
 In the delightful book last quoted there is a fun.d of turkey 
 entertainment for. any lover of natural history. There may he 
 read how hens associate, probably for the mutual safety, deposit 
 their eggs in the same nest, and rear their broods together, the 
 common nest being watched by ono of the females against the 
 crow, the raven, and the pole-cat ; how, to prevent the effects of 
 rainy weather, the m.other, like a skilful physician, plucks the buds 
 of the spice-wood 1 bu,sh and. gives them, to her young ; how they 
 are hunted with'the slow turkey-hound, and how they are caught 
 in pens ; a,n4 how, of the numerous enemies of the wild turkey, 
 the mast formidable, excepting man, are the lynx, the snowy owl, 
 and the Virginian owl. None but an eye-witness- could have 
 described the following attack and defence ;-~ 
 
 <>. When attacked by the two large species of owls above men- 
 Cloned, Ijhey often effect their escape in, a way which is somewhat 
 
 * Ornithological Biography, vol. i. p. 3. 
 12 
 
134 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 remarkable. As turkeys usually roost in flocks on naked branches 
 of trees, they are easily discovered by their enemies the owls, 
 which, on silent wing, approach and hover around them, for the 
 purpose of reconnoitring. This, however, is rarely done without 
 being discovered, and a single cluck from one of the turkeys 
 announces to the whole party the approach of the murderer. 
 They instantly start upon their legs, and watch the motions of the 
 owl, which, selecting one as its victim, comes down upon it like 
 an arrow, and would inevitably secure the turkey, did not the 
 latter at that moment lower its head, stoop, and spread its tail in 
 an inverted manner over its back, by which action the aggressor 
 is met by a smooth inclined plane, along which it glances without 
 hurting the turkey ; immediately after which the latter drops to 
 the ground, and thus escapes merely with the loss of a few 
 feathers."* 
 
 But who imported the bird into Europe, and ivhen was k intro- 
 duced ? -- t V -i 
 These are more difficult questions. 
 
 We do not find the turkey in the list of the goodly provision 
 made for the intronization of George Nevell, Archbishop, of York, 
 in the regin of Edward IV. ; nor does it appear in the " Regula- 
 .tions of the Household of the fifth EarJ of Northumberland begun 
 in 1512," but long before the date of the oldest of the books on 
 Virginia and Carolina above mentioned, the bird was common in 
 the farm-yards of Europe. 
 
 "Sebastian Cabot," or " Sebastian Gabato," a Genoese son, 
 born in Bristow, sett forth from that town, and made great disco- 
 veries, in the thirteenth year of Henry's VIL's reign, that is, iu 
 1498. Other calendars make the time 1499 or 1497. t But the 
 voyage ,was deemed unprofitable, and we find that the king, in 
 1500, probably stimulated by the success of the Spaniards and 
 Portuguese, granted letters patent to Richard Warde, John 
 Thomas, and John Fernandus, empowering them to make voyages 
 of discovery and conquest. Nothing, however, seems to have been 
 done ; and again letters paterit, A.D, 1502, were granted to the 
 same persons and others, containing a licence in the king's name 
 " to settle in places yet unknown, to take possession of lands, towns, 
 islands, castles, fortresses, &c. belonging to Gentiles and infidels," 
 &c. It is a matter of doubt whether any voyages were under- 
 taken in consequence of these lasi letters of licence. But though 
 Cabot's v.oyage was deemed unprofitable, his coast discoveries 
 were very extensive, and it is by no means impossible that the 
 
 * Ornithological Biography, i., p. 8. 
 
 } Sebastian, together with his two brothers, had been previously included 
 in a patent bearing date the 5th March, J49G, granted by Henry VII. to 
 his father John, for the discovery and conquest of unknown lands. 
 
TURKEYS. 135 
 
 turkey might have been introduced into England by his or some 
 of the subsequent expeditions. 
 
 As for the often-repeated couplet given by Baker 
 
 " Turkeys, carps, hoppes, piccarel, and beer, . ., * , , 
 
 Came into England all in one year " 
 
 that is about the fifteenth of Henry VIII. (1524), there is no 
 reliance to be placed upon it, as far at least as the fish is con- 
 cerned ; For Darne Juliana Barnes, or Berners, Prioress of Sopewell 
 Nunnery, mentions in the Boke of St. Alban's, printed bv 
 Wynkyn de Worde in 1496,* the carp as a " deyntous fisshe ;" 
 and the price of pike or pickerel was the subject of legal regula- 
 tion in the time of our first Edward. 
 
 Mexico was discovered by Grijalva in the year 1518, and we 
 soon after find a description of the turkey as one of the produc- 
 tions of the country by Gomara and Hernandez, the latter of 
 whom gives its Mexican name Huexolotl," and makes mention 
 of the wild birds as well as the tame. Oviedo, whose work was 
 published at Toledo in 1526, describes the turkey well, as a. kind 
 of peacock of'New Spain which had been carried over to the* 
 ' islands and the Spanish Main, and was about the houses of the 
 Christian inhabitants ; so that it is evident that, when Oviedo 
 wrote, the bird had been domesticated. Heresbach states that 
 they were brought into Germany about 1530, and Barnaby Googe 
 (1614) declares that "those outlandish birds called ginny-cocks 
 and turkey-cocks, before the yeare of our Lord 1530 were not 
 seen with us." But Barnaby had without doubt Heresbach's 
 book before him when he wrote ; and, indeed, the observations of 
 the German author may be traced throughout the pages of the 
 English writer on husbandry. 
 
 Pierre Gilles, in his additions to jElian (1535), gives a most 
 accurate description of the turkey, as being then in Europe. 
 Pierre had not at that time been farther from his native country 
 than Venice, and he says that he had seen it, and that it was 
 brought from the New World. 
 
 In 1541 we find a constitution of Archbishop Cranmer directing 
 that of such large fowls as cranes, swans, and turkey-cocks, there 
 should be but one dish; and we find the bird mentioned as no 
 great rarity at the inauguration dinner of the serjeants-at-law in 
 1555. The learned brothers had upon that occasion two turkeys 
 and four turkey chicks, charged at four shillings each, swans and 
 cranes being valued at ten shillings, and capons at half-a-crown. 
 Champier, who is supposed to have written his treatise " De Re 
 Cibaria" thirty years before it was published (the publication was 
 
 * The first edition is said to have been in 1481, at St. Alban's. "" r 
 
136 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 in 1560), notices them as having been brought but a few years 
 back from the newly-discovered Indian islands. Zanoni quotes a 
 sumptuary law of Venice, made in 1557, prescribing the tables at 
 which these birds might be served. The municipality of Amiens 
 presented, in, the year 1566, twelve turkeys to the king; and 
 Anderson, in his " History of Commerce," says that they were 
 first eaten jn France at his majesty's* marriage, in 1570. This 
 assertion of Anderson does not seem to rest on any foundation, and 
 we know that in, 1573, they, had become so common in England 
 that they formed part of the usual Christmas fare at a farmer's table. 
 Tujsser in his "Five Hundretji Points of Good Husbandry," re- 
 marks this, and also that they are ill-neighbours to peason and 
 hops. , Hakluyt, in 1582, mentions " turkey-cocks and hennes" 
 as having been brought into England about fifty years past. 
 
 Upon the whole evidence, a verdict may, in our opinion, be 
 given in favour of the Spaniards as the importers of this great 
 addition to our poultry-yards ; and we think that its introduction 
 into this country must have taken place about the year 1530, and 
 into other parts of Europe very nearly at the same time. Pennant, 
 indeed, says, " It was first seen in France in the reign of 
 Francis I., and in England in that of Henry VIII. By the date of 
 the reign of these monarchs the first birds of this kind must have, 
 been brought from Mexico, whose conquest was completed 
 A.D. \1521, the short-lived colony of the French in Florida not 
 being attempted before 1562, nor our more successful one in 
 Virginia till 1585, when both these monarchs were in their 
 graves." - 
 
 The weight to which this bird will attain has been stated to be 
 enormous : we have given some of these statements, and there 
 has been doubtless a good deal of exaggeration. But even now 
 the wild birds arrive at a great size. Mr. Audubon gives from 
 15lb. to 181b. as the average, and mentions one in the Louisville 
 market which weighed 36lb., and whose breast tuft was upwards 
 of a foot long. The length of the cock figured by Audubon was 
 four feet and an inch, and the expanse of the wings five feet eight 
 inches. The Prince of Musignano,t who has given a very inte- 
 resting account of the habits of the wild turkey, says that birds 
 of 301b. weight are not rare, arid that he had ascertained the 
 existence of some which weighed 401b. The average weight of 
 a wild hen appears to be about 91b. : but in the strawberry season, 
 when they are so fat as to burst with the fall after being shot, they 
 occasionally reach 131b. 
 
 But why is the bird called turkey or turky ?J Every one has 
 
 * Charles IX. 
 
 f Charles Lucien Bonaparte, now Prince of Cariino anil Musignano. 
 
 j In Lawson's time Coona was the name for a tuikey in the language of 
 
TURKEYS. 137 
 
 observed the changing hue of his wattle from red to blue when he 
 is excited. In the small edition of Belon (1557) there is a cut of 
 a triad of these birds, under the title of " Gallo d'India, Coq d'Inde" 
 (Dinde Dindon), and beneath is the following quatrain : 
 
 , Vte "". f ." " Quand a orgueuil ce coq au Paon approche, 
 Et fait sa queue en roue comnie luy, 
 Les Barbillons et creste d'iceluy 
 
 Sent de couleur a 1'azuree proche." v 
 
 This " azuree" is very like the Turquois or Turquoise Gem- 
 ma Turcica and is eminently characteristic of the bird. We do 
 not presume to give this as a solution, but merely mention the hint 
 for lack of a better. 
 
 Willughby and others notice the anger into which the turkey 
 is thrown by the display of any thing dyed of a red colour; but 
 that is not the only hue that provokes it, if we may believe a 
 catalogue of pictures printed in Germany for the special benefit of 
 the English; for there, we remember, was the following lot : "A 
 Turkish Cock inflamed to choler by a Blackzer Boy." Whether 
 the writer had ever heard or read of Garrick's performance in the 
 court-yard, with Sambo for audience, we know not: but from 
 other internal evidence we suspect that 'it was a bond fide cata- 
 logue, written undoubtedly in choice English. For instance, ano- 
 ther picture was thus announced " Nymphs bathing into a moun- 
 tainous landskip : Satyrs snooks about 'em." 
 
 But to return to our turkey. The author of " Tabella Cibaria" 
 proves it upon the bird that it is "so stupid or timorous that if 
 you Balance a bit of straw on his head, or draw a line of chalk on 
 the ground from his beak, he fancies himself so loaded or so 
 bound, that he will remain in the same position till hunger forces 
 him to move. We made the experiment." We never did ; but 
 we doubt it not, though we cannot accept it as proof of stupidity. 
 How much wit may be necessary to balance a straw may be 
 doubtful; but gallant chanticleer has never been charged either 
 with fear or folly, and yet you have only to take him from his 
 perch, place him on the table by candlelight, hold his beak down 
 to the table, and draw a line with chalk from it so as to catch his 
 eye, and there the bird will remain spell-bound, till a bystander 
 rubbing out the line, or diverting his attention from it, breaks the 
 charm. - Many a fowl have we thus fascinated in our boyish days. 
 
 the Tuskeruro Indians, and Yauta in that of the Waccons or Woccons. The 
 same author, speaking of the Indians, says, " They name the months very 
 agreeably, as one is the herring-month, another the strawberry-month, another 
 the mulberry-month. Others name them by the trees that blossom ; espe- 
 cially the dogwood-tree ; or they say, ' We will return when turkey-cocks gob- 
 ble,' that is in March and April." 
 12* 
 
138 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Whatever may be the character for stupidity that the turkey 
 has earned for itself in a domestic state, no such charge can be 
 established against it in its native woods, where its vigilance and 
 cunning are acknowledged by the hunters to their cost. Even in 
 the poultry-yard the attentions of the turkey-cock to the female 
 and the young", aye, and the courage with which he will defend 
 the brood from dogs and other intruders, have been noticed. He 
 has been -known to take the sole charge of the brood upon himself, 
 and to sit upon the eggs. The editor of the pretty and interesting 
 volume on Gallinaceous birds* says, " I once knew it take place 
 upon two addled eggs, which the hen had long persevered upon, 
 and upon which he (the turkey-cock) kept 'his place a fortnight." 
 This was certainly being paternal overmuch. 
 
 We must insert the following anecdote of the sagacity of a 
 half-reclaimed bird, from the pen of Audubon, by way of" 
 set-off. , 
 
 "While at Henderson, on the Ohio, I had, among many other 
 wild birds, a fine male turkey, which had been reared from its 
 earliest youth under my care, it having been caught by me when 
 probably not more than two or three days old. It became so tame 
 that it would follow any person who called it, and was the fa- 
 vourite of the little village. Yet it would never roost with the 
 tame turkeys, but regularly betook itself at night to the roef of 
 the house, where it remained until dawn. When two years old 
 it began to fly to the woods, where it remained for a considerable 
 part of the day, to return to the enclosure as night approached. 
 It continued this practice until the following spring, when I saw 
 it several times fly from its roosting-place to the top of a high 
 cotton-tree, on the bank of the Ohio, from which, after resting a 
 little, it would sail to the opposite shore, the river being there 
 nearly half a mile wide, and return towards night. One morning 
 I saw it fly off, at a very early hour, to the woods, in another 
 direction, and took no particular notice of the circumstance. 
 Several days elapsed, but the bird did not return. I was going 
 towards some lakes near Green River, to shoot, when, having 
 walked about five miles, I saw a fine large gobbler cross the path 
 before me, moving leisurely along. Turkeys being then in prime 
 condition for the table, I ordered my dog to chase it and put it up. 
 The animal went off with great rapidity, and, as it approached the 
 turkey, I saw, with surprise, that the latter paid little attention. 
 Juno was on the point of seizing it, when she suddenly stopped, 
 and turned her head towards me. I hastened to them, but you 
 may easily conceive my surprise when I saw my own favourite 
 bird, and discovered that it had recognised the dog, and would not 
 
 * Naturalist's Library Ornithology, vol. iii. 
 
TURKEYS. 139 
 
 fly from it ; although the sight of a strange dog would have 
 caused it to run off' at once. A friend of mine happening to be in 
 search of a wounded deer, took the bird on his saddle before him, 
 and carried it home for me. The following spring it was acci- 
 dentally shot, having been taken for a wild bird, and brought to 
 me on being recognised by the red riband which it had around its 
 neck. Pray, reader, by what word will you designate the recog- 
 nition made by my favourite turkey of a dog which had beea long 
 associated with it in the yard and grounds? Was it the result of 
 instinct or of reason an unconsciously revived impression, or the 
 act of ah intelligent mind?" Ji question to be asked. 
 
 But how many of our readers are there who have never seen 
 a wild turkey ; and of those who have not, how few may care to 
 read a technical description of the bird ! and yet to some it may 
 be interesting. The Prince of Musignano, in his " Continuation 
 of Wilson's North American Ornithology," was the first who gave 
 an authentic figure of the wild turkey ; and nearly at the same 
 time (about eleven years ago) M. Vieillot published one in his 
 "Galerie," from a specimen in the Paris Museum. But it is to 
 the magnificent work of Audubon, "The Birds of America," that 
 we owe a perfect representation of the male, the female, and the 
 young, upon a grand scale, and. with a minuteness of accuracy 
 that an ornithologist alone can appreciate, though every one must 
 be struck with the truth of the life-like portraits. We are aware 
 that, prior to the appearance of the above-mentioned works, there 
 were figures for instance, those introduced into a landscape in 
 the -account of De Laudoniere's Voyage to Florida, in De Bry's 
 Collection, and Brickell's, in his Natural History of North Caro- 
 lina but these are not only apocryphal, if they are to be consi- 
 dered as unadulterated representatives s of the wild bird, but too 
 imperfect to be available. 
 
 The following description, from the pen of the lamented 
 Mr. Bennett, appears to us to embody the best parts of all that 
 have appeared, and we accordingly select it. 
 
 " Those who have seen only the domesticated bird can form but 
 a faint idea of its beauty in a state of nature. WJien fully grown, 
 the male wild turkey- measures nearly four feet in length, and more 
 than five in the expanse of its wings. Its head, which is v.ery 
 small in proportion to its body, is covered with a naked, blueish 
 skin, which is continued over the upper half of its neck. On this 
 skin are placed a number of wart-like elevations, red on the upper 
 portion and whitish below, interspersed with a few scattered 
 blackish hairs. On the under part of the neck, the skin is flaccid 
 and membranous, and extends downwards, in the shape of large 
 wattles. From the base of the bill, at its junction with the fore- 
 head, rises a wrinkled, conical, fleshy protuberance, with a pencil 
 
140 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 of hairs at the tip. This protuberance, when the bird is at rest, 
 does not exceed an inch arid a half in length, but on any excite- 
 ment becomes elongated to such an extent as to cover the bill 
 entirely, and to depend below it for several inches. The lower 
 part of the neck, at its junction with the breast, is ornamented by 
 a singular tuft of black rigid hairs, separating themselves from 
 the feathers, and reaching as much as nine inches in length. The 
 feathers of the body are long and truncated, and generally speak- 
 ing may each he subdivided -into four parts. Their base is 
 formed by a light fuliginous down, which is followed by a^ dusky 
 portion. This again is succeeded by a broad shining metallic 
 band, changing to copper colour or bronze, to violet or purple, 
 according to the incidence of the light; while the tip is formed by 
 a narrow black velvety band, which last is wanting on the neck 
 and breast. From this disposition of the colours results a most 
 beautiful changeable metallic gloss over the whole body of the bird, 
 which is however less marked on the lower part of the back and 
 tail-coverts. 
 
 " The wings, which scarcely extend beyond the base of the 
 tail, are convex and rounded. They are furnished with twenty- 
 eight quill-feathers: the primaries are plain blackish, banded with 
 white, while the secondaries have the relative extent of these 
 markings so reversed that they maybe described as white banded 
 with blackish, and tinged, especially towards the back, with 
 brownish yellow. The tail measures more than fifteen inches in 
 length, is rounded at the extremity, and consists of eighteen broad 
 feathers, which, when expanded and elevated, assume the form of 
 a fan. It is brown, mottled, with black, and crossed by. numerous 
 narrow undulating lines of the same. Near the tip is a broad 
 black band, then follows a short mottled portion, and lastly a 
 broad dingy yellowish band. The feet are robust, have blunt 
 spurs about an inch in length, and are of a red colour, with 
 blackish margins to the scales, and claws of the same dusky hue. 
 The bill is reddish and horn-coloured at the tip ; and the irides 
 are dark brown. 
 
 . " The female is considerably smaller, not exceeding three feet 
 and a quarter in length. Her bill and legs are less robust, the 
 latter without any rudiment of a spur; and her irides similar to 
 those of the male. Her head and neck are less denuded, being 
 covered by short decomposed feathers of a dirty gray. Those of 
 the back of the neck have brownish tips, producing a longitudinal 
 band on that part. The caruncle on the forehead is short and 
 incapable of elongation; and the fasciculus on the breast is not 
 always present. .The prevailing tinge of the plumage is dusky 
 gray, each feather having a metallic band, and a grayish terminal 
 fringe. On the feathers of the neck, and under surface, the black 
 
TURKEYS. 141 
 
 band is for the most part obliterated. All the parts, without 
 exception, are duller than those of the male; less white exists on 
 the primary wing-feathers, and the secondaries are entirely desti- 
 tute of bands. The tail is similar in colour to that of the male. 
 
 " Until the naked membrane acquires .its tinge of red, it is not 
 easy to distinguish between the two sexes ; Jbut on the approach 
 of the first winter, the young males show a rudiment of the tuft 
 of hairs upon the breast, consisting at first of a mere tubercle : in 
 the second year, the tuft is about three inches long ; and in the 
 third the bird attains its adult form, although it certainly continues 
 to increase in size and beauty for several years. Females have 
 their full size and colouring at the end of four years : they then 
 possess the pectoral fascicle, four or five inches in length, but 
 much thinner than in the male. , This appendage is more fre- 
 quently observed, and is acquired at ah earlier period of life in the 
 wild than in the domestic female. 
 
 " The wild turkey has been found native from the north- 
 western territory of the United States to the Isthmus' of Panama. 
 Towards the north, Canada appears to be the limit of its range; 
 but from this country, as well as from the more densely peopled 
 parts of the American Union, where it was once extremely <abun- x 
 dant, it is gradually disappearing before the encroachments of the, 
 Lord of the Creation. To the west, the Rocky Mountains seem 
 to form a barrier that it has never passed, if, indeed, it has'reached 
 them ; but the wooded districts of the -western States are still 
 plentifully supplied with this valuable 'game, which there forms 
 an important part of the subsistence of the hunter and the traveller. 
 In the north-eastern States it is now become extremely rare 
 although it is still occasionally found hi the mountainous parts of 
 New Jersey and Pennsylvania; while in the south, Florida, 
 Georgia, and the Carolinas, where, three centuries ago, it was 
 most plentiful, have still a small supply." ; 
 
 The varied plumage of the bird in the domesticated state is 
 well known to every one; and in no species is that sure mark of 
 subjection to man more strongly seen. Every gradation of 
 colour, from its original bronze, passing into buff, and, in many 
 instances, into pure white, may be observed in these strutting 
 denizens of our farm-yards. 
 
 But handsome as is the wild turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo^ 
 which has been our theme, there is yet another wild American 
 species (Meleagris ocellattt], first described by Guvie.r, from a 
 bird, which was once English, 'but is now the property of the 
 French Government, far more beautiful. 
 
 The crew of a vessel who were cutting wood in .the Bay of 
 Honduras saw three of these noble birds, and succeeded in taking 
 one alive. It was sent to the late Sir Henry Halford ; but an 
 
142 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 accident, whilst it was yet on the Thames, deprived it of life, 
 and Sir Henry presented it to Mr. Bullock, whose museum, then 
 in the Egyptian Hall, was the place of deposit for the most valuable 
 subjects of~ Natural History. When that rich collection was 
 dispersed, this unique specimen was suffered to leave the country 
 with a multitude of other rarities, which are, even now, the stars 
 of foreign establishments. It was heart-breaking to see one fine 
 lot knocked down after another, and to learn that it was become 
 the property of our more enlightened and more liberal rivals, and 
 no longer to remain on English ground. M. Temminck has 
 given a good figure of it in the "Planches Coloriees;" and the 
 following is, in 'great part, from Sir William Jardine's description, 
 which was taken from that of Temminck. 
 
 In size it is nearly equal to the common turkey, but the tail is 
 not so ample. The bilhis of the same form, and the base with a 
 caruncle, which is apparently capable of the same dilatations and 
 contractions' with that of its congener. The head and two-thirds 
 of the neck are naked, and appear of -the same livid colour, but 
 without any trace of the fleshy tubercles on the lower part which 
 are so prominent a feature in the physiognomy of the common 
 turkey : the only appearance of any is five or six above each eye, 
 five upon the centre of the crown, and, upon the side of the neck, 
 six or seven, arranged in a line above each other, and at nearly 
 equal distances. Upon the breast there- was no trace of the tuft 
 of hair; but the plumage was somewhat damaged, and the 
 examination of other specimens must determine whether this 
 character is also present in the species under consideration. The 
 feathers are roun-ded at the ends ; those of the lower part of the 
 neck, the upper part of the back, the scapulars, and the lower 
 part, are of a metallic green or bronze hue, terminated by two 
 bands, one black, and that next the tip. of a golden bronze. On 
 the other parts of the back, the distribution of the colours is the 
 same ; but, towards the tail coverts, the tints become compara- 
 tively vivid, the bronzed hues changing into rich blue or emerald- 
 green, according to the incidence of the rays .of light, and the 
 band next the tip becoming broader and more golden. Upon the 
 rump, red becomes mingled with the tints, so as to remind the 
 observer of the throat of the ruby-crested humming-bird. A 
 band of deep velvety black separates the blue from this border, 
 and makes the brightness of the latter more striking. The hidden 
 part of each feather is gray, mottled with black: upon the .tail 
 and upper coverts this gray part becomes apparent, and the marks 
 take the form of subcircular bars, two of which surrounding the 
 blue band, give to each feather an ocellated appearance. From 
 the .arrangement of the tail-coverts and the lower feathers of the 
 rump there are four rows with these ocellated tips, where the gray 
 
WILD SWANS. 143 
 
 basal portion of the feathers is visible, combining very chastely 
 with the more vivid colour, and keeping down its lustre. The tail 
 is rounded, and consists of fourteen feathers. The lower, parts of 
 the body are banded with bronze, black, and green ; but they want 
 the brilliancy of the upper plumage. The quills and bastard-wing 
 are black, edged obliquely with white, which almost entirely 
 occupies the outer margin of the first. The outer webs of the 
 secondaries are of a pure white, the central bands not appearing 
 when the wings are closed : the uppermost are blotched in the 
 centre with black, lustrous with green; and this blotching, as 
 the feathers shorten, extends more over their surface, leaving the 
 edge only of the last white. The greater coverts are of a chestnut 
 colour ; and the feet and legs are of a fine lake, or purplish red. 
 We -have given this description, not without hope that it may 
 perchance meet the eye of some one who has the will as well as 
 the power to bring the magnificent bird to this country. What 
 has been done once may be done again; and we trust that, next 
 time, it will be done effectually. With the naturalized poultry 
 from Asia, Africa, and America before our eyes, there cannot exist 
 a doubt that the Ocellated Turkey will thrive with us. The 
 benefactor who conferred the domestic turkey upon Europe is 
 unknown. He who succeeds in naturalizing the ocellated turkey 
 will have the merit of introducing the most beautiful addition to 
 our parks -and homesteads to say nothing of -its utility since 
 the importation of the peacock; and, in these days of record, -his 
 name will not be forgotten. 
 
 February, 1837. 
 
 i */*' * v'" ''-'" 
 
 WILD SWANS. 
 
 "The swans on sweet St. Mary's lake 
 Float double, swan and shadow." 
 
 WORDSWORTH. V I 1 . 
 
 How simply and beautifully true to nature is this musical pic- 
 ture ! We behold the tranquil lake-scenery of the source of the 
 Yarrow as clearly as Ruysdael or Nasmyth the names may be 
 rningled could have impressed it on the eye of flesh. 
 
 Linnaeus has, somewhat profanely, placed the swan among the 
 rfnseres. Sacred to Apollo, it has "been celebrated as the bird of 
 
144 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 the muses in almost all languages from Homer and Callimachus, 
 whose charming lines make the notes of the swans that flew sing- 
 ing sweetly round Delos absolutely audible, to him who wrote 
 yesterday. In Retzsch's exquisite designs for "Pegasus im 
 Joch"* not the only ethereal creature doomed to drag on earth 
 the basest materials amid the barking of curs, and hissing of 
 geese the lake surrounding the lonely island whereon the altar 
 to Schiller is erected, is sacred to him and the swans alone. 
 Venus and her son claimed the bird as well as Apollo: 
 
 " See the chariof at hand here of Love, 
 
 Wherein my lady rideih ! 
 Each that draws is a swan or a dove, 
 
 And well the car Love guideth. 
 As she goes, all hearts do duty 
 
 Unto her beauty; 
 
 And enamour'd, do wish, so they might 
 .... But enjoy such a sight, 
 
 That they still were to run by her side, 
 
 Through swords, through seas, whither she would ride." 
 
 Well they might. 
 
 " Have you seen but a. bright lily grow 
 
 Before rude hands have touch'd it 1 
 Have you marked but the fall o' the snow 
 
 Before the soil has smutch'd it 1 
 Have you felt the wool of the bever ? 
 
 Or swan's down ever 1 
 , v, ' Or have srhe.lt o' the bud of ihe briar ] 
 
 Or the nard in the fire 1 
 Or have tasted the bag of the bee ? 
 O, so white ! 0, so soft ! O, so sweet is sheT'f 
 
 Rare Ben ! But we must be zoological. 
 
 Let us examine^ the" bony frame-work of a swan. What an 
 admirable piece. of animated ship-building it is! How the ribs 
 rise from the broad and keeled sternum to support the lengthened 
 pelvis and the broad back which form a goodly solid deck for the 
 young cygnets to rest on under the elevated, arched, and sail-like 
 wings of the parent ;J and how the twenty-five vertebras of the 
 neck rise into a noble ornamental prow, crowned with the grace- 
 ful head. How skilfully are the oary legs and feet fitted just 
 where their .strokes would be best brought to bear for the purpose 
 of putting the living galley in motion,! It is a work worthy of 
 the great artificer. 
 
 * Pegasus in harness. 
 
 f " Underwoods. A Celebration of Charis. Her Triumph." Horsley has 
 married these bright verses to rich harmony. 
 
 t See the " Fragment" headed " A word to Anglers," p. 172. 
 
WILD SWANS. 145 
 
 The species of this elegant genus are now well defined, and we 
 proceed to notice them. 
 
 1. The Elk, Hooper, or Whistling Swan, Cygnusferus of Lin- 
 nseus, Cygnus musicus of Bechstein. 
 
 This pure white-plumaged swan, with the exception of a slight 
 buff tinge on the upper part of the head, has' the anterior part of 
 the bill black and depressed, but it is squared at the base, and 
 yellow, which last hue is extended forward along each edge of the 
 upper mandible, beyond the opening of the nostrils, which are 
 black. Yellow also occupies the space between the base of the 
 upper mandible and the eye, and colours the posterior portion of 
 the lower mandible. There is no caruncle or "berry," as the 
 Swanherds call it. The iris of the eye is brown, and the feet are 
 black. 
 
 When a fine male hooper is stretched out, he will measure, 
 neck and all, about five feet, and the expanded wings eight feet 
 from tip to tip. The female is riot so large, and her neck is more 
 slender. It should be borne in mind, however, that the hoopers 
 vary much in weight. Colonel Hawker, in the winter of 1838, 
 killed them from thirteen to twenty-one pounds : they have been 
 known to weigh twenty-four. 
 
 Our islands only see the hooper as a winter visiter from the 
 north. Its summer retreats are Iceland, Scandinavia, and the 
 inhospitable regions within the arctic circle. . As they fly in 
 wedge-like figure, uttering their repeated cry of "hoop, hoop" in 
 concert, their united notes fall not unmusically on the ear of the 
 wayfarer below. 
 
 The Icelander, who hears in their loud clarions the knell of 
 winter, and hails the shining ae'rial band as the heralds of sum- 
 mer, compares their joint melody to the notes of a viol. 
 
 The wind-instrument which produces these sounds, is a curious 
 piece of animal mechanism. The cyliadrical tracheal tube passes 
 down the neck, and then descends between the forks of the merry- 
 thought to the level of the keel of the breast-bone, which is 
 double ; and this windpipe, after traversing nearly the whole 
 length of the keel between the two plates, is doubled back as it 
 were upon itself, and passing forwards, upwards, and backwards 
 again, ends in a vertical divaricating bone, whence two long 
 bronchial tubes diverge, each into their respective lobe of the lungs. 
 In short, our winged musician carries a French-horn in his chest, 
 but it is not. quite so melodious as Puzzi's. In the females and 
 young males; the windpipe is not inserted so deeply. 
 
 Like its congeners, the hooper feeds on water-plants and insects : 
 
 but the vegetable diet greatly prevails. Leaves, flags, rushes, and 
 
 other spoils of the marshy Flora form his ample nest ; and his 
 
 loves are generally blessed with six or seven whitish eggs, each 
 
 13 
 
146 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 some four inches and a half long, and about two inches and three- 
 quarters broad, washed with a yellowish green tinge. 
 
 The hooper breeds in captivity, soon becomes reconciled to a 
 state of half-domestication, and is now far from uncommon on our 
 ornamental sheets of water. He is a bird of high courage, and 
 fights stoutly pro aris etfocis. 
 
 On a glorious half-spring, half-summer morning, a little family 
 of newly-hatched cygnets were basking in their, grayish downy 
 coats on. the banks of one of the islands in the gardens of the 
 Zoological Society, drinking in the rays at every pore, with half- 
 closed eyes and outstretched legs, their delicately transparent 
 webs expanded to the genial sun. The parents complacently 
 rowed guard near them in all the enjoyment of honest family 
 pride ; and the happy little ones were so close to the deep water, 
 that their forms were reflected therein as in a mirror. Suddenly 
 a carrion crow made a. dash at one of the cygnets. The enraged 
 father seized the felon on the instant with his bill. In vain the 
 surprised crow struggled and buffeted to escape from the living 
 vice which firmly grasped him : the old hooper's blood was up, he 
 dragged his enemy into the water, and held him under it till he was 
 drowned. When the swan loosed his hold, an inanimate lump 
 of flesh and feathers floated to the surface, and as he spurned 
 the black mass for the last time, he looked in his snowy robe like 
 some good but indignant spirit trampling the evil one. 
 
 Colonel Hawker relates, that on one occasion when he knocked 
 down eight of these swans at one shot, the old male was only 
 winged, and when he found himself overtaken by the colonel's 
 skipper, Read, the brave bird turned round and made a regular 
 charge at him. 
 
 2. Mr. Yarrell first drew the attention of zoologists to Bewick's 
 Swan, Cygnus Bewickii, which had previously passed undistin- 
 guished from the hooper, from which, however, it differs in being 
 considerably smaller, as well as in other points. 
 
 This wild swan has also a convoluted trachea, which enters the 
 hollow keel of the sternum, but its disposition varies from that 
 observed in the hooper. When the windpipe, which is of equal 
 diameter throughout, arrives at the end of the keel, it gradually 
 inclines upwards and outwards, passing into a cavity of the 
 sternum destined for its reception, changes its direction from the 
 vertical to the horizontal, and when it reaches within half an inch 
 of the posterior edge, is reflected back, after describing a consider- 
 able curve, till it again arrives at the keel, which it once more 
 traverses in a line immediately above its first portion, and then 
 passes out under the merrythought: here turning first in an 
 upward, and afterwards in a backward direction, it enters the body, 
 in order to be attached to the lungs. 
 
WILD SWANS. 147 
 
 The sound produced from this convoluted pipe, in captivity, is- 
 a low, deep-toned whistle, repeated only once. Such a note was 
 uttered by those in the possession of Mr. Sinclaire, principally at 
 the migratory periods, March and September ; but Mr. John 
 Blackwall gives a very different account of the clangour of a wild 
 flock of twenty-nine/ as they were flying, in December, over 
 Crumpsall, not above fifty yards from the surface of .the earth. 
 " They flew in a line, taking a northerly direction ; and their loud 
 calls, for they were very clamorous when on the wing, might be 
 heard to a considerable distance." 
 
 An adult bird measures rather more than four feet in length, 
 and is pure white, with the -base of the bill orange yellow (lemon- 
 colour in a bird of the second winter). The iris is dark, and the 
 legs and feet are black. 
 
 This species, according to M. Temminck, breeds in Iceland in 
 the month of May. Captain Lyon describes the nest; if indeed 
 the bird noticed by him was a Cygnus Hewickii, and not one of the 
 American species, as built of moss-peat, and nearly six feet long, 
 by four feet and three-quarters wide. On the outside- it was two 
 feet in height, and the diameter of the cavity was a foot and a 
 half a roomy cradle. The eggs were brownish-white, slightly 
 clouded with a darker tint. Temminck states that the colour 
 of the eggs, which are six or- seven in number, is yellowish 
 brown. 
 
 When on the water, Bewick's Swan is more anserine in its ap- 
 pearance than the hooper ; but on land it shows itself to greater 
 advantage. It is a mild, inoffensive bird in disposition, living 
 amicably with the other water-fowl with which it may be asso- 
 ciated in captivity, and .never tyrannizing over such as are inferior 
 to it in size and strength. Mr. Blackwall tells a story, pregnant 
 with proof that it has warm feelings, and is capable of the 
 strongest attachment. 
 
 The twenty-nine, whose loud calls Mr. Blackwall noticed, 
 alighted, he tells us, on an extensive reservoir near Middleton, 
 belonging to Messrs. Burton and Sons, calico-printers. There 
 they were shot at, and one of them was so severely wounded in its 
 wing, that it was disabled. The stricken bird was left behind by 
 the herd, but it was not wholly abandoned ; -one faithful swan 
 continued to fly about the spot for hours after the 'rest had de- 
 parted, uttering almost incessantly its mournful cry. This was 
 on the 1.0th of December. Mr. Blackwall thus continues his 
 narrative : 
 
 "In consequence of the protracted disturbance caused by the 
 persevering efforts of Messrs. Burton's workmen to secure its 
 unfortunate companion, it was at last, however, compelled to 
 withdraw, and was not seen again till the 23d of March, when a 
 
148 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 swan, supposed to be the same individual, made its appearance in 
 the neighbourhood, flew several times round the reservoir in lofty 
 circles, and ultimately descended to the wounded bird, with which, 
 after a cordial greeting", it immediately paired. The newly-arrived 
 swan, which proved to be a male bird, soon became accustomed to 
 the presence of strangers ; and when I saw it on the 4th of April, 
 was even more familiar than its captive mate. As these birds 
 were strongly attached to each other, and seemed to be perfectly 
 reconciled to their situation, which, in many respects, was an 
 exceedingly favourable one, there was every reason to believe that 
 a brood would be obtained from them. This expectation, however, 
 was not destined to be realized. On the 13th of April, the male 
 swan, alarmed by some strange dogs which found their way to 
 the reservoir, took flight, and did not return ; and on the 5th of 
 September, in the same year, the female bird, whose injured wing 
 had recovered its original vigour, quitted the scene of its misfor- 
 tunes, and was seen no more." 
 
 Doubtless she joined her lover. in regions where calico-printers 
 and strange dogs are unknown ; and it looks as if he had said to 
 her, "There is no peace or comfort- to be had here, though the 
 people are kind after their fashion. I must be off, or I shall be 
 worried as fair game ; you'll soon be well, and know where to 
 find me." 
 
 3. Another species, the Polish Swan, Cygnus immutabilis, has 
 been added to .those previously ascertained by the acuteness of 
 Mr. Yarrell, who describes the adult bird as having the bill of a 
 reddish-orange ; the nail, lateral margins, and base of the upper 
 mandible, black; the black tubercle or berty at the base of 
 the bill, of small size, even in an ,old male ; the elongated 
 openings of the nostrils not reaching the black colour at the 
 base of the bill, on each side, but entfrely surrounded by the 
 orange-colour of that organ ; the irides of the eyes, brown ; the 
 head, neck, and the whole of the plumage, pure white ; the legs, 
 toes, and intervening membranes, slate-gray. 
 
 The same zoologist states the measurement of the Polish swan 
 to be fifty-seven inches from the point of the biJl to the end 
 of the tail ; and says, that the food and habits closely resemble 
 those of the mute swan, Cygnus olbr, whose organ of voice he 
 found that of Cygnus immutabilis to resemble. Considerable 
 differences, however, exist between the heads of the two species. 
 
 But whence the specific name immutabilis? Unlike those of 
 the other swans, the cygnet of this species is white, and no 
 change takes place in the colour of ,the plumage after- its sortie 
 from the egg-shell. 
 
 Mr. Yarrell remarks, that during the severe winter of 1838, 
 
WILD SWANS. 149 
 
 several herds* of this species were seen pursuing a southern 
 course along the line of our north-east coast from Scotland to the 
 mouth of the Thames, and several specimens were obtained. He 
 exhibited, at a meeting of the Zoological Society, one of four which 
 were shot on the Medway, near Snodland church, where a herd, 
 of thirty, and several smaller companies, were seen. 
 
 The swan, Cygnus o/or, is so interwoven with ancient lore, 
 especially that of our Own islands, that it deserves a chapter, and 
 shall have it. 
 
 We must now take leave of Europe for the present, and beg our 
 leaders to change the scene to America. 
 
 " Dissection," says Mr. Yarrell, " which proved the distinction 
 between the hooper and Bewick's swan, has also proved that the 
 true wild swans of North America are peculiar to that country, 
 and distinct from the two European swans." 
 
 4. Of the American swans, the largest it is larger than our 
 hooper is the Trumpeter Swan, or Hunter's Swan, Gygntis 
 buccinator, the Keetchee wapeeshew of the Cree Indians. 
 
 The bill of this species bears a close resemblance to that of the 
 hooper in form ; but that organ as well as the cere and legs, is 
 entirely black. The reddish-orange tinge of the forehead is, 
 generally, the only exception to the pure white of the plumage : 
 some specimens, indeed (younger birds probably), have the crown 
 and cheeks of a bright chestnut. The total length of the bird may 
 be stated as nearly seven feet. Seventy inches is given as the 
 total length of one, and twenty-six inches as that of its wing, by 
 Dr. Richardson. 
 
 Lawson in his "Natural History of Carolina" (1714), says : 
 
 " Of the swans we have two sorts ; the one we call Trompeters, 
 because of a sort of trompeting noise they make. These are the 
 largest sort we have, which come in great flocks in the winter, 
 and stay commonly in the fresh rivers till February, that the 
 spring comes on, when they go to the lakes to breed. A cygnet, 
 that is, a last year's swan, is accounted a delicate dish, as indeed 
 it is. They are known by their head and feathers, which are not 
 so white as old birds." 
 
 Dr. Richardson observes, that a fold of the windpipe in this 
 swan enters a protuberance on the dorsal or anterior aspect of the 
 sternum at its upper part, which is wanting both in Cy gnus f ems 
 and Cygnus Bewickii, in other respects the windpipe is, he says, 
 distributed through the sternum, nearly as it is in the latter of 
 these species. The curious reader will find this part of the 
 organization well described and figured in the seventeenth volume 
 of the "Transactions of the Linneean Society." 
 
 * Herd is the technical term for a flock of swans. 
 13* 
 
150 , ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Whatever associations the Icelanders may have combined with 
 the notes of the hooper, Hearne rejoiced not at those of the trum- 
 peter. " I have heard them," says he, " in serene evenings, after 
 sunset, make a noise not very unlike that of a French horn, but 
 entirely divested of every note that constituted melody, and often 
 been sorry that it did not forbode their death !" and } T et these 
 cacophonous Keetchee wapeeshews are the harbingers of the geese, 
 whose advent is anxiously watched for in the fur countries, and 
 hailed with exceedingly- great joy by the Indians of the wood and 
 swamp, whose summer, or rather spring manna, the geese are. 
 
 The trumpeter swans are stated by Dr. Richardson, to breed 
 as far south as latitude 61, but principally within the arctic circle. 
 Great flights of them come sweeping down the valley of the 
 Mississippi as the winter approaches, with their hoarse unearthly 
 music sounding like the horns of the wild chase in the air in the 
 Freischutz. 
 
 If this 'be the species which Hearne alludes to, and there can be 
 little or no doubt that it is, their rapidity when going down wind 
 must be excessive.' 
 
 "In a brisk gale," says he, "they cannot fly at a less rate 
 than a hundred miles an hour, but when flying across the wind or 
 against it they make but a slow progress, and are then a noble 
 shot." 
 
 Again, he declares that it is " frequently necessary to take sight 
 ten or twelve feet before their bills ;" but this was in the good old 
 slow flint and steel times, and long before the days of copper caps 
 and cartridges. When v however, a sportsman had knocked one 
 over, with what a thump a wild swan, when killed clean, comes 
 down ! he had something besides the satisfaction of the shot. 
 The bird itself is described by Hearne as "excellent eating, and 
 when roasted, is equal in flavour to young heifer-beef, and the 
 cygnets are very delicate," and then there were the quill-feathers 
 and the soft plumage. 
 
 Most of the swan-down which comforts whilst it adorns our fair 
 countrywomen, is the spoil of the trumpeter, from which the Hud- 
 son's Bay Company principally derive their importation of swan- 
 skins. 
 
 5. Dr. Sharpless has described the second species of swan 
 peculiar to America, in the "American Journal of Science and 
 Arts," where an account of it will be found under the name of 
 Cygnus Jlmericanus . Mr. Audubon subsequently gave a very 
 good description of it in the fifth volume of his highly interesting 
 "Ornithological Biography." 
 
 This evidently is the swan alluded to by Lawson in the following 
 passage : 
 
 " The sort of swans called hoopers are the least. They abide 
 
WILD SWANS. 151 
 
 more in the salt water, and are equally valuable for food with 
 the former. It is observable that neither of these have a black 
 piece of horny flesh down the head and bill as they have in 
 England." 
 
 Cygnus JJmericanus resembles Bewick's swan in some respects 
 internally as well as externally. The total length ascribed to it is 
 four feet six inches, and the weight is stated as twenty-one 
 pounds. Thus it almost equals the European hooper in size, and 
 has apparently been mistaken for it by authors generally. 
 
 Nuttall in his pleasant little book* makes the American swans 
 consist of the trumpeter, the wild, or whistling swan (Cygnus 
 ferns), and Bewick's swan. Dr. Richardson notices the trumpeter 
 and Bewick's swan only. 
 
 6. When Juvenal wrote the often quoted hundred and sixty- 
 fourth line of his bitter sixth satire, little did he or his readers 
 think that the time would come when a country would be disco- 
 vered occupying a space upon the.globe almost co-extensive with 
 the empire under which he flourished, where the swans would be 
 black instead of white, and where the rarity would be to find one 
 of the latter hue. -v 
 
 Witsen's letter to Dr.' Martin Lister, giving an account of the 
 transmission of this Plutonian swan to Europe, appears in the 
 " Philosophical Transactions," and a pair were brought alive to 
 Batavia in 1726, as Valentyn has related. Cook, Vancouver, 
 Phillip, White. Labillardiere, and D'Entrecasteaux, the latter, 
 during his search for the unfortunate La Perouse, all mention it, 
 and of these D'Entrecasteaux enters into a comparatively 
 particular description of this remarkable bird, no longer uncom- 
 mon, and breeding in captivity like its white congeners among 
 the 
 
 % " Penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos," 
 
 who now possess a much more ample share of that very world than 
 ever the Romans did. 
 
 So familiar is the black swan (Cygnus atratus'), that it hardly 
 becomes necessary to describe it, but as its white brethren have 
 been pourtrayed with the pen as well as our hand would permit, 
 some account of this species will be expected. 
 
 In form, the black swan is not unlike the white swans of Europe 
 and America, but in size it is somewhat less. The black 'plumage 
 is only relieved by the small portion of white which the primary 
 and some of the secondary quills show. 
 
 The bright red upper mandible is banded with white anteriorly, 
 and at its base, in the male, there is often a light tubercle, which 
 
 * " A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada." 
 2 vols. 8vo, Boston, 1831. 
 
152 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 is wanting in the female. The lower mandible is grayish white. 
 The legs and feet are of a dull ash colour. The cygnets, when 
 they are about a fortnight old, are clothed in a down which, above, 
 is of a dusky gray colour, but lighter on the under parts ; their 
 little bill, eyes, and feet are dusky black. 
 
 Lieutenant-colonel Collins, in his account of the English colony 
 in New South Wales, and of the voyage, &c., abstracted from the 
 journal of Mr. Bass (1802), states that the Norfolk, after leaving 
 Furneaux's islands, proceeded towards the north coast of Van 
 Diemen's Land, and on -the 1st of November anchored for a tide 
 at the largest of the " Swan Isles," two small islands so named by 
 Lieutenant Flinders, when he was there in the Francis, because 
 an European who belonged to Sydney Cove, had assured him that 
 he had met with vast numbers of breeding swans there. The 
 island at which the sloop anchored was low, sandy, and barren. 
 
 "Notwithstanding the information given by the European," 
 says Collins, " not a single swan was found upon the island, but 
 several geese were breeding there, and the sooty petrel possessed 
 the grassy parts; the swans of the sailor, in this instance there- 
 fore, turned out to be geese. This bird had been seen before upon 
 Preservation Island, and was either a Brent or a Barnacle goose, 
 or between the two. It had a long and slender neck, with a small 
 short head, and a rounded crown, a short, thick, arched bill, partly 
 covered with a pea-green membrane, which soon shrivelled up and 
 came away in the dried specimens. Its plumage was, for the most 
 part, of a dove colour, set with black spots. It had a deep, hoarse, 
 clanging, and, though a short, yet an inflected voice. In size, it 
 was rather less than our tame geese, and lived upon grass. The 
 flesh was excellent." 
 
 There can be no doubt that these birds were of the species since 
 described under the name of Ce'reopsis Novae Hollandix and which 
 have bred for some years in this country. There is, however, some 
 excuse for the sailor, for this New Holland goose is not without 
 something of a swanlike appearance. 
 
 The Norfolk afterwards proceeded to Port Dalrymple, and 
 Mr, Bass had an opportunity of observing a portion of the 
 country situated within an angle formed by two chains of moun- 
 tains, and, more especially, those parts which lay contiguous 
 to the river, which they examined up to the point where it 
 had become half fresh half salt ; although its breadth was from 
 half a mile to a mile and a half, and its depth eight or nine 
 fathoms. 'The few rocky shores of the river presented nothing 
 remarkable. The great gray kangaroo abounded in the open 
 forest, and the brushes were tenanted by the smaller black 
 kind, the wal-li-bah of the Port Jackson natives. The plumage 
 of the Psittcicid3K,neaT the settlement, is rich in colour and lustre, 
 
WILD SWANS. 153 
 
 but here the garb of the parrots, as if to be in keeping with the 
 gloomy colour of the swans, was remarkably sombre, and there 
 only wanted the melancholy toll of the bell-bird Dil Boong of 
 the natives, which seemed to be unknown in this spot joined to 
 the mournful aspect of the feathered bipeds, to make the funereal 
 scene complete. 
 
 Many water-birds swam or waded about the arms and coves of 
 the river; but the black swans alone were remarkable in point 
 of number. Mr. Bass once made a rough calculation of three 
 hundred swimming witriin the space of a quarter of a mile square ; 
 "ard heard the dying song of some scores (that ?ong so cele- 
 brated by the poets of former times, exactly resembled the 
 creaking of a rusty sign on a windy day). Not more than two- 
 thirds of any of the flocks which they fell in with could fly ; the 
 rest could do no more than flap along- upon the surface of the 
 water, being either moulting or not yet come to their full feather 
 and growth, which they require two years to attain. They swam 
 and flapped alternately, and went along surprisingly fast. It was 
 sometimes a long chase, but the boat generally tired them out. 
 When in danger, and speed makes no part of their escape, they 
 immerse their bodies so far, that the water makes a passage 
 between their neck and back, and in this position they would 
 frequently turn aside a heavy load of shot. They seemed to be 
 endowed with much sagacity ; in chase they soon learned the 
 weakest point of their pursuers, and, instead of swimming 
 directly from them, as they did at first, always endeavoured in the 
 most artful manner to gain the wind, which could only be pre- 
 vented by anticipating their movements, and by a dexterous man- 
 agement of the boat." 
 
 This last manoeuvre of the persecuted swans looks very like the 
 result of reflection, when contrasted with their actions before bitter 
 experience had taught them to put their wit to their enemies, and 
 may be added to the numerous instances on record, which prove 
 that the reasoning faculty, as well as instinct, is possessed by ani- 
 mals, at least to a certain extent. 
 
 " This swan," continues our author, "is said to feed upon fish, 
 frogs, and water-slugs; but in the gizzards of many, that at 
 different times, and in different places were examined by Mr. Bass, 
 nothing ever appeared but small water-plants, mostly a kind of 
 broad-leaved grass, and some little sand. To their affection for 
 their young, he had seen some lamentable sacrifices ; but of their 
 fierceness, at least when opposed to man, or the-ir great strength, 
 he had seen no instance." . , 
 
 A pair of these birds were with great care brought alive to 
 England in the Buffalo, which arrived at Spithead in May, 1801, 
 and were given by Lieut. William Kent to Earl St. Vincent, 
 
154 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 who presented them to Glueen Charlotte, by whom they were 
 sent to Frogmore. They were of different sexes ; but the female, 
 unfortunately, died in moulting, and the widower having reco- 
 vered, together with .his health, the complete use of his wings, 
 which had not been cut, availed himself of the liberty he enjoyed, 
 and was shot by a nobleman's gamekeeper as he was flying across 
 the Thames. 
 
 In Van Diemen's Land, New South Wales, and New Holland, 
 the black swans have generally been seen in herds of eight or nine, 
 floating quietly on some lake or pool. When flushed they go off 
 in a straight line, one behind the other; and when in full plu- 
 mage, or not detained by parental affection, are difficult of ap- 
 proach, seldom suffering the sportsman to come within gun-shot. 
 Their disposition seems to be mild, and they are no match for the 
 violent temper of the mute swan Cygnus olor, as those who may 
 think it worth while to look at our future sketch of that species 
 will find. , -* 
 
 Here then we must, for the present, take our leave, with an 
 admonition to those "gunners" or "punt-shooters" who go after 
 the wild fowl in England or America, by night, to take warning 
 from Jemmy Randall's shot, immortalized in the ancient Irish 
 ballad intituled 
 
 MALLY BANN. 
 1. 
 
 Jemmy Randall went a shooting, 
 
 A shooting ia the dark ; 
 But to his great misfortune, 
 
 He did not miss his mark. 
 
 2. 
 
 Hfs love's apron being about her, 
 
 He -took her for a swan ; 
 But alas ! and for ever, alas ! 
 
 It was sweet Mally Bann. 
 
 3. 
 
 When he came up unto her, 
 
 And found that slie was dead, 
 Great abundance of salt tears 
 
 For his darling he shed. 
 
 4. 
 
 He went home to his father 
 
 With his gun in his hand, 
 Crying, " Dear father, dear father, 
 
 I've shot Mally Bann." 
 
WILD SWANS. 155 
 
 5. 
 His father looked upon him 'J, 
 
 (His hair being gray) 
 Crying, -' Oh ! my dearest son, 
 
 You must not run away : 
 
 6. 
 
 " Stay at home in your own country- 
 Let your trial come on; 
 
 By the laws of sweet Ireland, 
 You shall never be undone." 
 
 7. 
 Within two or three months after, 
 
 'To- her uncle appeared she, 
 Crying, " Dear uncle, dear uncle, 
 
 Let Jemmy Kandall go free. %i - 
 
 8. 
 " For my apron being about rne, 
 
 He took me for a swan/' 
 But it's oh ! and for ever, alas ! 
 
 It was sweet Mally Bann.'. "., . 
 
 "When the fair maids in the city 
 
 Were assembled in a row, 
 She appeared among them 
 
 Like a mountain of snow. 
 
 '" '*-''; f . ~ 
 
 10. 
 All the maidens in the country 
 
 They held up their head", 
 When this beautiful, this lovely 
 This fair one was dead, &c. &c. 
 
 Eheu Mart old. 
 
156 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 TAME SWANS. 
 
 "I go to soft Elysian shades 
 
 x And bowers of kind repose; 
 
 Where never any storm invades, 
 JXor tempest ever blows. 
 
 " There in cool streams and shady woods 
 
 I'll sport the time away, 
 Or swimming down the crystal floods, 
 Among young halcyons play." 
 
 SJOXG OF THE DYING SWAX. 
 
 THOMAS BROWN*, doctor of physic, in the third book of his 
 "Pseudodoxia Epidemica," chapter xxvii., "compendiously treat- 
 ing of sundry tenents concerning other animals, which examined, 
 prove either false or dubious," thus writeth: 
 
 ."And first from great antiquity, and before the melody of the 
 syrens, the musical note. of swans hath been commended, and that 
 they sing most sweetly before their death. Thus we read in 
 Plato, that from the opinion of Met emp such o sis, or transmigration 
 of the souls of men into the bodies of beasts most suitable unto 
 their human condition, after his death, Orpheus the musician, 
 became a swan. Thus was it the bird of Apollo, the god of 
 musick by the Greeks, and the hieroglyphick of musick among 
 the Egyptians, from whom the Greeks derived the conception, 
 hath been the affirmation of many Latines, and hath not wanted 
 assertors almost from every nation." 
 
 After much learned discussion wherein, inter alia, he refutes 
 the story "delivered" by Aldrovandi "concerning the musick of 
 the swans on the river of Thames near London," and shows that 
 "the formation of the weazon" in those birds" is not peculiar to 
 them "but common also unto the Platea or Shovelard,a bird of no 
 musical throat," he alludes further to the confession of the Italian, 
 that the tracheal apparatus in the swans may be contrived to con- 
 tain "a larger stock of ayr, whereby being to feed on weeds at 
 the' bottom, they might the longer space detain their heads under 
 water." 
 
 But a still further objection occurs to the philosophical doctor 
 in "the known and open disadvantage" of a flat bill, "for no 
 latirostrous animals (whereof nevertheless there are no slender 
 
TAME SWAN'S. 157 
 
 numbers) were ever commended for their note, or accounted 
 among those animals which have been instructed to speak." And 
 he sums up his argument thus : 
 
 " When, therefore, we consider the dissention of authors, the 
 falsity of relations, the indisposition of the organs, and the irn- 
 musical note of all we ever beheld or heard of, if generally taken 
 and comprehending all swans, or of all places, we cannot assent 
 thereto. Surely he that is bit with a tarantula, shall never be 
 cured by this musick : and with the same hopes we expect to 
 hear the harmony of the spheres." 
 
 The latter certainly may be expected to regale our ears at about 
 the period when our much confiding friend, Mr. Simbledon Hope- 
 ful, receives his first dividend from the grand joint-stock company 
 for pickling pine-apples. 
 
 It is curious that ornithologists should term the swan of the 
 poets The Mute Swan, and it is by no means clear that the 
 ancients did not confound the more canorous and less graceful 
 species, the Hooper, with the tame or mute swan, the bird now 
 under consideration. Hoopers may be seen to this day on 
 " Cayster's flowery side," and we know that they " sang their last 
 and died" in the great holocaust when the sun's son was run away 
 with ; but the mute swan, Cygnus olor, does not appear to have 
 been ever noticed there. That the last-named species was the 
 musical swan of the ancients there can be no doubt. A cameo, 
 representing Leda and the swan, figured in the "Gemmae" of 
 Leonardus Augustinus from theOrsini collection, would extinguish 
 any doubt on that point. The Hooper carries its neck nearly up- 
 right as it floats and walks, looking stiff and awkward when com- 
 pared with the elegant bending carriage of Cygnus olor. When, 
 therefore, Aristotle is quoted as saying that swans are canorous, 
 especially at the end of life, and that they pass over the seas 
 singing, it is almost evident that there is a confusion of the 
 attributes of two species. However this may be, it is pretty 
 clear that TO MX.VIUV auv passed into a proverb for a dying 
 speech, and that often none of the most decorous. A Deipnoso- 
 phist in Athenreus tells a story from Chrysippus of a poor devil 
 led forth to death, who prayed the executioner to stay his hand a 
 little while, for that he had a great longing to die like the swans, 
 singing. The carwfex, who from experience knew what odd 
 fancies are apt to come into the minds of men when "small back 
 is gripping them," granted his prayer; when the condemned 
 poured forth such a torrent of invective upon all and sundry as, if 
 done into choice English, would not have disgraced the most cele- 
 brated of our Tyburn heroes ;-^no, not Abershaw himself, 
 
 " When the king and the law, and the thief had their own." 
 14 
 
158 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 To talk of the music of the mute swan, seems to be rather 
 Hibernian ; and, indeed, to apply that term to the notes uttered 
 by any of the swans, is to use a licence more than poetical, albeit, 
 as we have admitted in our last chapter, the clangour of some of 
 them sounds not unpleasantly, when softened by distance. Op- 
 pian makes them the birds of dawning, pouring 1 forth their song 
 upon the sea-shore before sunrise, when 
 
 " Lucifer had chas'd 
 The stars away, and fled himself at last." 
 
 But whether they sang early in the morning, or at the latest pos- 
 sible period of life, the mute swans are not condemned to the silent 
 system, as the name would imply. They may be heard in spring 
 and summer, murmuring rather than singing, with a soft, low voice, 
 plaintive withal, while complacently accompanying their young. 
 Colonel Hawker has printed a few bars of a domesticated wild 
 swan's melody, the notes being two, C, and the minor third (E flat); 
 and the gallant writer declares .that the musician kept working 
 his head, as if delighted with his own performance.* 
 
 The wind instrument of the mute swan is thus constructed. 
 
 The keel of the breast-bone is single, there being no cavity: 
 the windpipe comes down between the forks of the merry-thought, 
 and then curves upwards, and passes backwards to the bone of 
 divarication, whence its short tubes proceed to the lungs, 
 
 In this country the bird has long been considered of sufficient 
 importance to demand the special care of the legislature, and 
 stealing or spoiling its eggs was punishable by statute,! 
 
 By the old law, when a marked swan was stolen in an open 
 and common river, the purloined bird, if it could be obtained, and 
 if not, another swan, was hung up by the bill, and the thief was 
 compelled to hand over to the party robbed as much wheat as 
 would cover all the swan, the operation being effected by pouring 
 the grain on its head till it was entirely hidden. But stealing 
 marked and pinioned swans, or' even unmarked birds, if kept in 
 a moat, pond, or private river, and domesticated, is felony. The 
 taking of swans not so marked or kept is a misdemeanor only. 
 
 In England the swan is a royal bird, and by a statute of our 
 fourth Edward, no person other than the son of the king could 
 have a swan-mark, or "game of swans," unless he possessed a 
 freehold of the clear yearly value of five marks, 3/, 6s, Sd. of our 
 present money. The privilege of keeping a game of swans de* 
 ductus cygnorum, or, as it more rarely runs in the old law-Latin, 
 volatus cygnorum, is manifested by the grant of a Cygninota 
 or swan-mark, which is a freehold of inheritance, and may be 
 
 Instructions to young Sportsmen. f u. Hen. vii. c. 17. i. Jac. c. 27. 
 
TAME SWANS. 159 
 
 granted over. Le.land in his xi/*vsv ao-p*. or swan-song, shows 
 forth the royalty of the bird and figures a Cygneapompa, wherein 
 a crowned swan rows his state, surrounded by nine cygnets. 
 
 There appears to be a doubt whether the swan is a bird royal 
 in Scotland ; but although the proprietors of the 
 
 " Land of the mountain and the flood" 
 
 possess the right of fowling over their own grounds, swans, it 
 seems, unless specially granted, are reserved to the crown. 
 
 Nor was the cygninota the only privilege accorded by royalty: 
 there Avas also the delegation of the prerogative right of seizing, 
 within certain limits, all white swans not marked. In the palmy 
 days of the Roman Catholic Church such a privilege was vested 
 in the princely Abbot of Abbotsbury, whose district extended over 
 the estuary formed by Portland Island and the Chesil Bank, the 
 stern barrier to the fury of the waves rolling in from the Atlantic, 
 and the scene of many a shipwreck. When that church tottered 
 to its fall, this royal right was granted to the ancestor of the Earl 
 of JQchester, in whom it is at present vested, and although some- 
 what shorn of its ancient extent, it is still the largest swannery of 
 this description in the kingdom. A noble spectacle, even now, 
 is presented there ; for the swans are not crippled in the pinion, 
 and the sight of some eighty of these splendid birds, many of them 
 on the wing together, will not be readily forgotten by those who 
 have witnessed it. 
 
 There was, in old times, an officer called the royal swanherd, 
 magister deductus cygnorum, and that not with reference to the 
 Thames alone. Persons who executed this office of " master of 
 the king's swans" in the counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, 
 Northampton and Lincoln, as well as that of "supervisor and 
 appraiser" of all swans in any mere or water in Huntingdonshire, 
 may be traced in the parliament rolls. There was a swannery of 
 some extent at Clarendon in Wiltshire, as an appendage to that royal 
 palace or manor; and there was also one in the Isle of Purbeck. 
 
 Nor was the Isis unadorned, formerly, by these noble birds, for 
 in the sixteenth century, Oxford, Isidis vadum, Saxonice Ousford, 
 and Ousenford, boasted of a game of swans. " Her husband 
 Thame" bore and still bears upon his bosom the greatest numbers, 
 although they are- sadly reduced. The Q,ueen and the city com- 
 panies of the Dyers and Vintners are, at present, the largest 
 swan-owners on the Thames. When numbered in 1841 there 
 were two hundred and thirty-two belonging to the crown, one 
 hundred and five the property of the Dyers, and one hundred 
 of the Vintners. In the good old times the Vintners alone 
 reckoned five hundred as their share. 
 
 But the swan-mark ? 
 
160 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 This is cut upon the upper mandible, and consists of certain 
 figures denoting the ownership. Queen Victoria's mark and it 
 was that of the three last kings is composed of five open, rather 
 long, ovals pointed at each extremity. Two of these are placed 
 Avith the ends in a longitudinal direction on each side of the 
 "berry," and a little below it: the other three go across the bill 
 transversely, a little lower down. Mr. Yarrell, in his interesting 
 " British Birds," figures many of these cygninotse. Two cuts or 
 nicks in the form -of a V placed longitudinally on the bill, the open 
 part of the letter being towards the berry, form the Vintner's 
 mark, and from their swans with two nicks have been hatched 
 we speak with all due reverence for Mr. Kempe's doubts the 
 double-necked swans whose portraits grace our sign-boards.* 
 
 It is to review or repair these marks, and cut them upon the 
 bills of the young birds, that the markers of the royal swans, and 
 of those belonging to the companies above-mentioned, on the 
 first Monday in every August go a "swan-upping," or " swan- 
 hopping," according to the popular and corrupted term, when the 
 " swan-uppers" catch the swans, and take them up for inspection 
 and notation. 
 
 " What a great trust it is," says Howel, in his Londinopolis^ 
 "for the Lord Mayor to have the conservation of the noble river 
 of Thames, from Stanes Bridge till she disgorgeth herself into the 
 sea ? How stately is he attended when he goes to take a view of 
 the river, or a swan-hopping ? And lately, what a noble addition 
 was it for the Lord Mayor to have a park of deer of his own so 
 near the city, to find him sport and furnish him with venison? 
 What an honour is it for the Lord Mayor to be accounted the 
 first man of England upon the death of the sovereign prince ? As 
 when King James was invited to come and take the crown of 
 England, Robert Lee^ Lord Mayor of London, was the first man 
 who subscribed, and then the officers of the crown, with the chief 
 noblemen after him. The Recorder of London, also, is Primus 
 Consiliarius rfnglise, and is privileged to plead within the barre. 
 The Lord Mayors of London have been called sometime to sit at 
 the council-table, as Sir John Allen was in Henry the Eighth's 
 time, with others (which Allen gave that rich collar of gold which 
 
 * A kind and learned reviewer is of opinion that the " Swan with two necks" 
 originated from the elevation of the young cygnet's head and neck close behind 
 the neck of the parent, when the cygnet is carried on the parent's back, as 
 noticed in p. 144, and described in p. 172. But when the weary cygnets are 
 thus permitted to ride at ease, they are so small that their heads, when their 
 necks are outstretched, appear but little above the plumage of the back and 
 wings of the old bird. Grateful as the author is for the valuable praise of 
 the critic, truth and long observation compel him 1o retain the opinion 
 expressed in the text, fcJee r> The Quarterly Review" fjr December, 1847, 
 p. 136. 
 
TAME SWANS. 
 
 the Lord Mayors use to wear) and the aldermen his brethren 
 were used to be called barons." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Now touching the magnificence, gravity, and state of the 
 chief magistrate : neither the Pretor of Rome, nor the Prefect of 
 Milan ; neither the Proctors of St. Mark, in Venice, or their 
 Podestas in other cities ; neither the Provost of Paris, the Mark- 
 grave of Antwerp,, can compare with the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs 
 of London : if one go to the variety of their robes, sometimes 
 scarlet, richly fur'd, sometimes purple, sometimes violet and 
 puke. What a goodly spectacle it is to behold the Lord Mayor, 
 and the Companies attending him in so many dainty barges, when 
 he goes to be sworn in Westminster-Hall ; and what brave shews 
 there are attending him by land at his return ? What a plentiful 
 sumptuous dinner, consisting of so many huge tables, is provided 
 for him ? What a variety of domestic officers wait upon him 
 perpetually, whereof, with the Remembrancer, there are five of 
 them esquires by their places ? What a comely sight it is to see 
 the Lord Mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen, going in their robes upon 
 festivals to the cathedral church of St. Paul's, though they who 
 stand so well affected to the present government, say, that he 
 goeth. in now at the wrong endof the church : what a goodly sight 
 it is when he goeth upon Easter holidayes to the Spittle, with the 
 sword and cap of maintenance going before him ? How his robes 
 are fitted for the season, as from Michaelmas to Whitsontide, he 
 wears violet fur'd ; from Whitsontide to Michaelmas, scarlet 
 lined ; and for distinction among the aldermen, they who have 
 bin Lord Mayors, have their cloaks lined with changeable Taffata ; 
 but those that have not, with green Taffata ! What great places 
 of trust are committed to the Lord Mayor, as the keeping of the 
 great Bridge in repair, which hath such large revenues belonging 
 unto it, with a particular stately seal, which of old had the effigies 
 of Thomas of Beckett (a Londoner born) upon it, with this in- 
 scription in the name of the city 
 
 ' Me quse te peperi, ne cesses, Thoma, tueri/ 
 
 But the seal was altered in Henry the Eighth's reign." 
 
 Reverting to the legislative protection thrown round the swan, 
 it may be asked how came the bird to be held in such high esti- 
 mation by our ancestors ? It is pleasant to look upon, certainly 
 " beautiful exceedingly," no doubt and there was the old prestige 
 in its favour ; but still this will hardly account for its being hedged 
 in by penal statutes so closely, that it was only accessible by 
 royal grant or prescription : no ; the truth must be told ; the 
 cause lay deeper, in that omnipotent assimilating agent, the 
 stomach. 
 14* 
 
162 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Now the possession of a stomach per se is not distinctive 
 nay, the lowest Infusoria are endowed with a polygastric power, 
 to which the most accomplished alderman has not the slightest 
 pretension : the life of these Polygastria, indeed, is one perpetual 
 feast. But it is the cultivated and discriminating stomach that 
 distinguishes civilized man ; and one of his first legislative cares 
 has always been to protect his tit-bits. Nor is it matter of 
 wonder that the "flaming minister" who laid his offerings before 
 the gastric shrine, should have been considered, even in early 
 times, a personage of some consequence. Accordingly, we find 
 him a character of high repute among the polite Athenians, 
 although it must be admitted that the cook seems to have been a 
 slave of no high grade among the stern Romans. 
 
 The Larderarius, however, of the Normans was often a clergy- 
 man, and instances are on record of his leaving the larder 
 to assume the mitre. The Grans Queux were officers of dignity 
 in the palaces of princes, and so "it was in the golden days of 
 the monasteries, where they were always monks, and indeed 
 in old times there is reason for believing that the execution 
 of the office by ecclesiastics was not confined to those establish- 
 ments. In the affray at Oxford, in the year 1238, between the 
 retinue of the Pope's Legate, Cardinal Otto, and the students, 
 the cardinal's magister coquorum, and own brother, lost his life. 
 Poisoning was then rife in Europe generally, and this accounts 
 for the appointment of persons of rank to the culinary depart- 
 ment. Matthew Paris gives it as a reason for the tenure of the 
 office by so near a relation of the Cardinal "Ne procuraretur 
 aliquid venenorum quod nimis timebat legatus." Every thing 
 relating to diet was considered of great consequence by our 
 ancestors, and there is extant in Leland an order for a physician 
 to watch the young prince's wet-nurse at every meal, as inspector 
 of her meat and drink. 
 
 Our readers may not be unwilling to learn what an Oxford 
 row in the thirteenth century was like. A grand row it was, 
 as may be supposed, when it had for its initiative elements an 
 Irishman, a Welshman, and an Italian. The clerical scholars 
 sent to the abbey where the Legate was lodged a present 
 of viands and liquors for his use, before dinner. After dinner 
 they waited on him themselves for the purpose of saluting him 
 with all honour and reverence. Unfortunately a Transalpine 
 porter, more impudent than beseemed his station, holding the 
 gate ajar and shouting, " more Romano," cried somewhat petu- 
 lantly, "what d'ye want?" The scholars replied that they 
 wanted to see the Legate that they might salute him ; for they 
 thought, it seems, that they were to receive honour for honour. 
 The porter, however, treating them with a most provoking haut 
 
TAME SWANS. 163 
 
 en bas, not without abuse, flatly refused to admit them. Upon 
 which the scholars made some such a rush as their successors 
 made in better temper at the theatre when the hero of a hundred 
 fights was installed, and got in pell-mell. They were met by a body 
 of the Romans, who pummelled them with their fists, and bela- 
 boured them with sticks, not without repayment by the storming 
 party, and when the frayw r asat its height, and they were abusing 
 each other in university Latin, and choice lingua franca, plying 
 their staves by way of accompaniment, a poor Irishman, who 
 stood by the kitchen door, more mindful of his empty stomach 
 than the row he must have been very hungry begged for a 
 morsel of something good for God's sake. When the proud master 
 cook heard his prayer, which he probably did not understand, he 
 became so wrathful, what with the noise of the combat and the 
 heat of his post, that he dipped a ladle into the boiler where the 
 fat meats were simmering, and threw its contents into the peti- 
 tioner's face. 
 
 A fiery scholar from the principality saw the indignity. Up 
 rose his Welsh blood: he exclaimed, " Proh pudor /" Jlnglice 
 " What a shame !" and, bending his bow, which he had brought to 
 aid his fellow-students, drew it with such hearty will that he 
 sent a shaft right through the body of the chef, who fell dead. 
 The Legate, on hearing the shout that accompanied his brother's 
 fall, gat him up into the church-tower in his canonicals and also 
 in a parlous fear, and there locked himself in. At nightfall, and 
 when the tumult had somewhat subsided, he threw off his sacred 
 vestments, mounted his best horse, forded the river not without 
 peril, and fled to King Henry for shelter and redress, leaving the 
 enraged scholars seeking for him with expressions that left 
 little doubt what his fate would have been had he fallen into their 
 hands. They paid dearly for this outbreak: the most active 
 were brought to London, imprisoned, and most catawampously 
 anathematized : or as Matthew Paris has it, " anathemate inno- 
 dati." 
 
 But to return to our swans. From a very early date the bird 
 has held a high place at high feasts. It graced the board at the 
 nuptial dinner when Iphicrates married the King of Thrace's 
 daughter ; and; to come at once to our own country, greatly did 
 it shine forth at the ancient British festivals, when 
 
 " O'er capon, heron-shaw, and crane, 
 And princely peacock's gilded train, 
 And o'er the boar's head garnished brave, 
 And cygnet from St. Maiy's wave ; 
 O'er ptarmigan and venison 
 The priest had spoke his benison." 
 
 At the "intronazation" of George Nevell, Archbishop of York 
 
164 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 (to whom no less a person than Lord Willoughby was carver) 
 in Edward IV. 's reign, four hundred swans were among the 
 "goodly provision" made for the same; there were the same 
 number of " heron-shawes," and two hundred and four cranes, 
 the same number qf bitterns, and no less than a thousand 
 "egrittes," fit company for the hundred and four oxen, six 
 "wylde bulles," and thousand "muttons," to say nothing of 
 two thousand " pygges," ditto geese, ditto chickens, four thou- 
 sand pigeons, ditto "conyes," fifteen hundred hot pasties of 
 venison, four thousand cold ditto, " stagges, buck, and roes, 500 
 and mo.," and twelve "porposes and seals" among a profusion of 
 game (including two hundred " Fessauntes"), fish, and a wilder- 
 ness of sweets. 
 
 Grand were the doings, albeit upon a somewhat less scale, 
 at the marriage of Sir Gervas Clifton, of Clifton, in the county 
 of Nottingham, with Mary Nevile, third daughter of Sir John 
 Nevile, of Chevet, or Chete, in the county of York. The last- 
 named worthy knight seems to have been a careful economist, 
 notwithstanding his open-handed liberality and true old English 
 hospitality; for he appears to have personally superintended 
 the keeping of his household book on such occasions, if he 
 did not enter the items of the account with his own hand, both 
 on this happy occasion, and when Roger, eldest son, and after- 
 wards heir of Sir Thomas Rockley, of Rockley, in the parish 
 of Worsborough, Knight, married Elizabeth Nevile, Sir John's 
 eldest daughter. Every item, even to the bride's most indispen- 
 sable garment in the last case, is stated, with its price; and if our 
 space would allow a transcript of the whole, it would afford a 
 curious picture of the costume and manners of the period when 
 
 Bluff King Hal the stocking threw." 
 
 Sir John's account of the expense of the dinner at " The mar- 
 riage of my son-in-law, Gervas Clifton, and my daughter, Mary 
 Nevile, the 17th day of January, in the 21st year of the reigne 
 of our Soveraigne Lord King Henry the VHIth," includes 
 "Swans, each swan 2s., 12s." Three Hogsheads of Wine, 
 1 white, 1 red, and 1 claret, charged at 5/. 5s., moistened the 
 swans, the twcr oxen, two brawns, six calves, seven lambs, six 
 * withers' (wethers), " every wither 2s. 4rf.," ten pigs, "every one 
 5^/.," forty-six capons, and whole flights of wild fowl, &c. &c. &c., 
 that loaded the board at this marriage feast ; to say nothing of 
 the produce of eight quarters of barley-malt, " every quarter, 14s." 
 
 But the bride's dress ? 
 
 We care not to be particular, madam, and therefore will only 
 state that she wore " A Millen (Milan) Bonnit, dressed with 
 Agletts," which cost eleven shillings, a large sum in those day?, 
 
TAME SWANS. 165 
 
 when the price of an ox, was only II. 15s. The "Wedding-ring 
 of gold" is charged 12$. 4d. 
 
 At the marriage " of my son-in-law, Roger Rockley, and my 
 daughter, Elizabeth Nevile, the 14th of January" in the seven- 
 teenth year of the same King, we find in the " First course at 
 dinner." 
 
 1 Imprimis, Brawn with musterd, served alone with Malmsey. 
 
 * Item, Frurnety to pottage. 
 
 * Item, a Roe roasted for standert (a large or standing-dish.) 
 'Item, Peacocks, 2 of a dish.' 
 
 'Item, Swans, 2 of a dish," &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Among the pieces of resistance in the second course was " a 
 young Lamb whole roasted," and "For 'Night" there was 
 
 "First a Play, and straight after the Play a Mask, and when 
 the Mask was done then the Banckett, which was 1 10 dishes, and 
 all of meat ; and then all the Gentilmen and Ladys danced : and 
 this continued from the Sunday to the Saturday afternoon." 
 
 The Bride Elizabeth wore "a Bonnit of Black Velvet" which 
 cost fifteen shillings, and "a Frontlet for the same Bonnit" which 
 cost twelve shillings. 
 
 "For Frydays and Saturdays there was a splendid display of 
 Fish, but no fleshmeats ; and the following were 
 
 " Waiters at the said Marriage. 
 
 Storrers, Carver. 
 
 Mr. Henry Nevile, Server. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Drax, Cupbearer. 
 
 Mr. George Pashlew, for the Sewer-board end. 
 
 I !!" w.Tl! I Marshalls. 
 John Mitchill, 5 
 
 Robert Smallpage, for the Cupboard. 
 William Page, for the Celler. 
 William Barker, for the Ewer, 
 Robert Sike, the younger, and 
 John Hiperon, for Butterye." * v 
 
 " To wait in the Parlour. 
 Richard Thornton. 
 Edmund North. 
 Robert Sike, the elder. 
 William Longley. 
 Robert Live. 
 William-Cook. 
 Sir John Burton, steward. 
 My brother Stapleton's servant. 
 My son Rockley's servant to serve in the state." 
 
166 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 The same worthy knight's charges when Sheriff of Yorkshire, 
 in the 19th year of the same king at the Lent Assizes, and in the 
 20th year of his reign at Lammas Assizes, bear testimony to the 
 hospitality excercised by that officer in those days. Among the 
 other provisions, we find a charge at the former of these assizes, 
 for five hogsheads of wine, three claret, one white, and one red ; 
 the cost of which was 107. 16s. 4d. ; but, though there are 
 quantities of fish, no flesh appears in the account. 
 
 At the Lammas Assizes, neither flesh nor fowl was spared ; 
 nine quarters of wheat, twelve quarters of malt, five oxen, twenty- 
 four wettyers, six calves, sixty capons of Grease, charged at 25s., 
 as many other capons as cost 3/. 14s., twenty-four pigs, three 
 hogsheads of wine, and twenty-two swans, carry us a very little 
 way down the ample bill of fare. 
 
 It will naturally be inquired how the swan was presented on 
 these great occasions ? 
 
 There' is reason for concluding, that the Royal Bird was gene- 
 rally roasted, of which more anon ; but there were other ways of 
 serving it up. For instance, among the receipts of the master 
 cooks of Richard II., is the following, which we shall attempt to 
 reduce to the English of the present time. 
 
 " CHAUDRON FOR SWANS. 
 
 " Take the liver and the offal (that is the giblets) of the swans, 
 put it to seethe in good broth, take it up, take out the bones, and 
 1 hewe' the flesh small. Make a mixture of crust of bread and of 
 the blood of the swan sodden, and put thereto powder of cloves 
 and pepper, wine and salt, and seethe it, cast the flesh thereto 
 * hewed,' and * mess it forth' with the swan." 
 
 When served with this sauce, the dish was called " swann 
 with chaudron." 
 
 The bird also not unfrequently came to table " baked in a 
 pye ;" but its most usual appearance was a roast. 
 
 The Norwich method is to take three pounds of beef beaten 
 fine in a mortar, adding salt, pepper, mace, and that grand 
 culinary gift, an onion, and stuff the swan (which must not be 
 skinned) with it. The bird must be tied up tight to keep in 
 the juices, and a stiff' meal paste should be laid on the breast, 
 the other parts b^ing covered with whited brown paper ; about a 
 quarter of an hour before the swan " is enough," as the cooks 
 say, the paste must be taken offand'tbe breast browned. 
 
 It has been said, somewhat oracularly, that port wine should 
 never corne into a kitchen. If the word had been seldom, it 
 would have been more germane to the matter ; for there are 
 
TAME SWANS. 167 
 
 occasions, trust us, reader, when it cannot well be dispensed 
 with, and the gravy for the swan is one of them ; half a pint 
 of that wine added to good, strong, beef-gravy, should be poured 
 through the swan, which should be presented with hot currant 
 jelly. 
 
 A well-fatted cygnet thus cooked, if taken at the proper moment, 
 that is, not kept beyond November, after which time the bird 
 falls off in flesh, fat, and flavour, however well provided with 
 barley is a very delicious dish, and we have heard it compared, 
 not inaptly, to something between goose and hare. 
 
 The foregoing receipt, in printed verse, which will be found 
 in Mr. Yarrell's " British Birds," is usually sent with' each Nor- 
 wich bird. 
 
 The swan seems never to have appeared except on the tables 
 of <he great. Thus the Gild of the Holy Trinity at Luton, in 
 Bedfordshire, appear, from old records ranging from 19 Henry VIII. 
 to the beginning of Edward VI., to have lived well at their 
 anniversary feasts ; but we cannot find that they ascended beyond 
 "Geys," eighty-two of which geese, at a charge of M. Os. 7d. 
 were among the multitudinous dishes placed before the Gild at 
 'the feast in the nineteenth year of Henry VIII. 
 
 The swanherds call a male swan a Cob, and the female a Pen. 
 A fine old male will sometimes reach, when stretched out, five 
 feet in length, and will weigh some thirty pounds. The nail 
 at the termination of the bill, its edges on each side, its base, 
 the naked skin or lore up to the eye, the opening of the nos- 
 trils, and the tubercle or berry, are black. The re'st of the bill is 
 of a ruddy orange colour. The iris of the eye is brown ; the whole 
 of the plumage is of the purest white ; and the legs and .toes, with 
 their webs, are black. 
 
 The female is not so large as the male, and her tubercle is less, 
 her neck is not so thick, and she swims lower in the water than 
 her mate. 
 
 In a wild state, this species is found in Russia and Siberia, 
 and almost throughout Europe. In Germany, the cygnets that 
 have not been pinioned, migrate in autumn. Lithuania, Poland, 
 Eastern Prussia, Holland, France, Provence, and Italy, are all 
 recorded as its habitat in an unreclaimed condition ; and so are 
 the countries between the Black and Caspian Seas. In winter 
 .they have been seen in the Bay of Smyrna. 
 
 The swan's nest is a great mass of rushes, reeds, flags, and 
 .other Coarse water-side plants, pitched on the ground near the 
 water's ,e.dge, in some ait, for choice ; and on this stack of 
 herbage .the Pen deposits some six or seven eggs of a greenish 
 white, rather 4ull withal, and about four inches in length by two. 
 ix weeks rnusj; pass before the young cygnet breaks through 
 
168 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 its prison-walls into light and life ; and during the whole time of 
 incubation the male is most assiduous in his attendance, keeping 
 guard, and ready to do battle against all comers ; yet thinking no 
 scorn to take the mother's place occasionally on the eggs. 
 
 About July, the colour of the cygnets is dark lead-gray, ap- 
 proaching to sooty gray above, the neck and under parts of the 
 body not so dark, the bill lead-colour, and the line at the margin 
 of the base black. At the end of October, when they almost 
 equal their parents in size, the bill changes to light slate-gray, 
 with a tinge of green. The sooty-grayish brown prevails uni- 
 formly over the head, neck, and all the upper surface ; while the 
 lower surface of the body is uniformly of a lighter hue. The gray 
 colour vanishes almost entirely after the second autumn; and 
 when the cygnet has seen two years, the white robe is donned : in 
 the third year the swan celebrates his nuptials. 
 
 In their half-domesticated state, the young family keep with 
 their parents during the first winter ; but, on the return of spring, 
 the latter show their cygnets the cold shoulder ; and, if they will 
 not take the hint, fairly drive them away, and compel them to 
 seek their own food, which consists of the tender parts of aquatic 
 plants and roots, water insects, and now and then but only now 
 and then small fishes. 
 
 Aristotle noticed the pugnacity of the swan, saying, that it will 
 even fight the eagle not that the swan will begin the quarrel, 
 but he will not brook the attack of the Prince of the Birds of 
 Prey. In rivers they have their own districts ; and if one swan 
 trespasses on the domains of another, woe to the weaker vessel. 
 We have attempted to describe a bloodless encounter of this kind :* 
 but swan-fights do not always terminate so harmlessly. 
 
 It is on record, that black swans have more than once fallen 
 victims to the prowess of their white neighbours. On one occa- 
 sion, in the Regent's Park, two white swans set upon a black one, 
 and one of the white, seizing the black's neck in his bill, shook 
 Jiim so violently and fatally, that he died almost on the spot ; 
 whilst the 'conquerors rowed proudly up and down with arched 
 wings and feathers erect in all the pride of victory. 
 
 A friend, who was an early riser, had long noticed four swans 
 on the Serpentine river. When taking his morning walk in June, 
 1840, he missed one of them, and saw blood upon the wing of 
 one of the survivors. Upon inquiry, he found that the other 
 three had attacked the fourth, and killed him. The body of 
 the murdered swan was whealed as if it had been beaten with 
 sticks. 
 
 Long life, when it is not interrupted by violence, is the swan's 
 
 * See the Fragment" beaded " A Word to Anglers," p. 172. 
 
TAME SWANS. 169 
 
 portion. Willughby speaks of him as "a very long-lived fowl, 
 so that it is thought to attain the age of three hundred years ;" 
 "which" (saith Aldrovandus) "to me seems not likely. For my 
 part I could easily be induced to believe it : for that I have been 
 assured by credible persons, that a goose will live a hundred years 
 or more. But that a swan is much longer lived than a goose, if 
 it were not manifest in experience, yet there are many convincing 
 arguments to prove, viz.: that in the same kind it is bigger: that 
 it hath harder, firmer, and more solid flesh: that it sits longer on 
 its eggs before it hatches them. For, that I may invert Plinie's 
 words, those creatures live longest that are longest- born in the 
 womb. Now incubation answers to g-estation." 
 
 Whatever weight there may be in Willughby's. argument, there 
 can be no doubt a swan will live a very long time. Mr Yarrell says 
 that marked swans have been known to live fifty years ; but there 
 ^was one not very long ago, in the neighbourhood of'Shepperton, 
 though riot upon the Thames, over whose head more than double 
 that length of years was supposed to have passed. 
 : -The Morning Post of the Othrof July, 1840, had the following 
 notice : 
 
 -*' ' ' jr*."- * _*".>*-;< ' 
 
 " DEATH OF A CELEBRATED CHARACTER. 
 
 " The beginning of last week an exceedingly well-known cha- 
 racter departed this life, namely, OLD JACK, the gigantic and 
 venerable swan, with which the public have been so long acquainted 
 on the canal in the enclosure of St. James's Park, at the ad- 
 vanced age of seventy years. Old Jack was hatched some time 
 about the year 1770, on the piece of water attached to Old Buck- 
 ingham House, and for many years basked, in the sunshine of 
 royal favour, Queen Charlotte being extremely partial to him, and 
 frequently condescending to feed him herself. When the pleasure- 
 gardens in St. James's Park were laid out, Jack was removed 
 there, and his immense size, sociable disposition, and undaunted 
 courage, have often excited the admiration of the public. Jack's 
 strength and courage were, indeed, astonishing. Frequently has 
 he seized an unlucky dog who chanced to approach to the edge of 
 his watery domain by the neck .and drowned him ; and, on one 
 occasion, when a boy, about twelve years of age, had been teasing 
 him, Jack caught him by the leg' of his trousers, and dragged him 
 into the water up .to his knees. Jack, however* never acted on 
 the offensive, and, if not annoyed, was exceedingly tractable. 
 But the march of modern improvement affected poor Jack as much 
 as it has done thousands of more pretending bipeds. The Orni- 
 thological Society was formed, and a host of feathered foreigners 
 found their way on to the canal, with whom Jack had many fierce 
 15 
 
170 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 and furious encounters, and invariably came ofF successful. But 
 a legion of-Polish geese at length arrived, who commenced hos- 
 tilities with Jack. Despising every thing like even warfare, they 
 attacked him in a body, and pecked him so severely, that he drooped 
 for a few days and then died. The body of poor old Jack is to 
 be stuffe,d for one of the scientific museums." 
 
 Those who live near the banks of the Thames well know the 
 instinctive prescience with which swans will, before a flood, raise 
 their nests so as to save their 'eggs from being chilled by the 
 -water ; and we will conclude this chapter, already we fear too 
 long, with an account of one of these wonderful preparations, 
 clearly showing that to the incubating swan, 
 
 " Coming events cast their shadows before," 
 
 for which Mr. Yarrell was indebted to the kindness of Lord Bray- 
 brooke. 
 
 The scene of this true tale -was a small stream at Bishop's 
 Stortford. A female swan had seen some eighteen summers, had 
 reared many broods, and was become familiar to the neighbours, 
 who valued her highly. Once, while she was sitting on four or 
 five eggs, she was observed to be very busy, collecting weeds, 
 grasses, and other materials to raise her nest. " A farming man 
 was .ordered to take down half a load of haulm, with which she 
 most industriously raised her nest and eggs two feet and a half: 
 that very night there came down a tremendous fall of rain, which 
 flooded all the malt-shops, and did great damage. Man made no 
 preparation, the bird did. Instinct prevailed over reason: her 
 eggs were above', and only just above the water."* 
 
 * Brijish Birds. A .very interesting account of similar foresight in the 
 Beaver will he found in the JV>w Spirting Magazine, for July, 1840. The 
 Elbe, upon a particular occasion, had been higher than it had risen within the 
 memory of man ; bnt the event had been expected because the beavers had 
 been observed to build such unusually high dams, a sure sign of spring floods 
 in that river. 
 
A WORD TO ANGLERS. 171 
 
 A WORD TO ANGLERS. 
 
 Good luck to your fishing." 
 
 THE MONASTERY. 
 
 IF, as "Thomas Best, Gent., late of his Majesty's Drawing- 
 room in the Tower," saith, " Patience is highly necessary for every 
 one to- be endowed with who angles for carps, on account of 
 their sagacity and cunning," that virtue is still more-essential 
 as an endowment to the angler who goes after the great Thames 
 trouts. He must be content to spend much time in dropping 
 down from stream to weir, from pool to stream, and from stream 
 to weir again, and to burn all the skin off his face many times 
 before he has even a run : moreover, unless he wears gloyes 
 and no one handles his tools with mittens so well as he does with- 
 out he will have to present a pair of hands at the dining-table 
 only to be rivalled in their nut-brown hue by those of the gipsy 
 or the gravel-digger. But when he does get a nine or. ten 
 pounder into his well, the look-down upon the fish, after all the 
 hair-breadth hazards of losing him when hooked, is worth the 
 weariness of many blank days, and the production of those un- 
 presentable hands to boot. ',. 
 
 To be sure, it does sometimes happen, even to the best of 
 sportsmen, that, after the struggle is apparently over, and the fish 
 is close to the boat's side, something will give way, leaving the 
 unhappy Piscator with a straight, rod and suddenly slackened 
 line, and also with a sensation as if he had been suddenly de- 
 prived of his back-bone. / 
 
 But for a lover of nature, even when fortune -smiles not, this 
 kind of fishing has many charms: the bright river, the con-, 
 tinual change of scene, the rich beauty of the highly cultivated 
 and picturesque country through which it-flaws, arid the exhila- 
 rating freshness of the air as it comes laden with the perfume of 
 the new-mown hay, or of the honeysuckle blossoms from 
 
 " the cottage of thatch, 
 Where never physician has lifted the latch," 
 
 make mere existence a pleasure. 
 
 Then there is always something to be seen by one who has eyes 
 and knows how to use them. There are the wild flowers that 
 enamel the banks, the insects, the fish it requires a practised 
 eye to see them the birds. Here, a king-fisher shoots by like a 
 
172 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 meteor- there go, the summer-snipes the swift darts by close to 
 the boat, like 
 
 " An arrow from a Tartar's bow" 
 
 That back-water is positively carpeted with the green leaves and 
 snowy star-bloom of the water-lily and the nightingale hard by, 
 in shadiest covert hid, fairly sings down all the host of day-songs- 
 ters, though the blackbird and thrush make melody loud and 
 clear. 
 
 Qn one of these expeditions not long ago, we observed below 
 
 Lock, just as a thunder-storm was coming oh, a pair of 
 
 swans with seven young ones. There was evidently something 
 more than usual going on some sensation, as the French say, 
 among them. The young were collected between the parents, and 
 the whole party pushed up stream. At first we thought they 
 were nearing our punt, as we were dropping. down from trying the 
 weir, in the hope of bread ; but three of the young ones mounted 
 on the back of the female swan, who elevated her wings to receive 
 them, the brilliant whiteness of her plumage contrasting beauti- 
 fully with the gray down of the little creatures, and there was a 
 sacred appearance about the whole party. The cause was soon 
 manifest. 
 
 A magnificent swan, worthy of Leda herself, came ploughing 
 up the water, indignant at a trespass on. his domain. The family 
 hurried on ; and in their haste, one of the young slipt off its 
 mother's back. There was distress ! A weakling was left behind 
 in the wake of its father, and whilst it scrambled along, non 
 passibits sequis, uttered thrill cries as the enejtty advanced. Up 
 came the mighty bird, and then the father, evidently inferior to 
 the attacking swan in age, size, and strength, turned to meet him, 
 while the little family, huddled close to the mother, made haste 
 to escape up the river. Proud as the senior, the young father 
 threw back his neck between his arched wings, and confronted the 
 giant. This was unexpected ; they kept sailing backward and 
 forward abreast of each other, across the stream, like two war- 
 ships ; and the watchfulturns of their graceful necks and bodies, 
 as each tried to take the other at advantage, was a sight to see. 
 We thought at last that they would do battle ; .for each of the 
 rivals elevated himself on the water, and made show of combat to 
 the outrance. But, by this time, the family, under the guidance of 
 the affectionate mother, were safe, and the elder male swan seemed 
 to think that the better part of valour is discretion, and that he 
 had driven the intruders from his royalty. So they parted. The 
 young one went up to receive his reward from the mother of his 
 fami.ly, and the pld one rubbed his neck on his wings, and dived, 
 and dropped down stream again, evidently comforting himself that 
 he had given the trespasser a lesson. 
 
A WORD TO ANGLERS. 173 
 
 There was a dog belonging to the Lock-house. He, from 
 rience, seemed to know that all swans are bullies ; but still the 
 encounter was something for a dog at a lock-house, where any 
 thing" i3 an incident. And, indeed, this was so much more earnest 
 in show than the usual conflicts, that he moved down towards the 
 brink, though the rain was coming on. At first he sat upon his 
 tail; but, as the affair gave hope of becoming serious, he couched, 
 and when the birds lifted themselves, as in act to fight, dropped 
 his head on his outstretched fore-legs, with all the ecstasy of an 
 amateur. When, however, he found that it was no go, and that 
 the menaces ended as usual much in the same way as they have 
 done of late among the unfeathered bipeds, according to the new' 
 code of chivalry, he shook himself, like a sensible dog, and went 
 back to shelter. 
 
 On another occasion, after fishing many miles of water with 
 nothing but a few perch and jack in the well as the results, we 
 dropped down to Weir. 
 
 Wearied with my no-sport, I stretched my listless length on the 
 dry boarding that flanked the main weir, and watched with half- 
 shut eyes, through the tremulous aerial medium that often attends 
 a warm summer's day, the osiers on my left. The thundering of 
 the fall had, by degrees, something soothing in it, and I felt that 
 I was sinking fast into a doze, when I beheld a tall figure, in rusty 
 black, with a club-foot, swarthy sharp visage, and an eye that 
 positively glowed, looking down upon me. 
 
 "Ah!" said he, "no sport! Well, I, too, am a sportsman 
 and a very keen sportsman; but I "am getting old, and I cannot 
 walk the weirs now." 
 
 How he could ever have walked the weirs with that foot of his 
 seemed a mystery ; but the love of sport will carry people over 
 any thing. Finding I made no reply, the figure continued 
 
 " What would you give to have on your line that fish, whose 
 glittering side you saw but now, as he leaped frorn the river, till 
 his splash was heard above the nofse of the waters ? He that 
 was afterwards chasing the bleak on the shallow till his huge 
 shoulders and back-fin were fairly shown." 
 
 " Any thing," replied I ; for I had been watching this fish a 
 twelve or fourteen-pounder at least, strong on his feed, and 
 making the small fish skip into the air before him "any thing!" 
 
 "I do not want any thing very substantial," said he, meekly.. - 
 
 I looked up. 
 
 " You said awhile you would give any thins: ?" 
 
 "I did." '. :-"> - 
 
 " You will give it, then?" 
 
 "Certainly." 
 
 "Agreed."' 
 15* 
 
174 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 He produced a small but most brilliant fish such a one as I 
 had never seen, and I had seen many, a kind of miniature Opah 
 or King-fish and fixed it on the hooks of the trace most skilfully. . 
 
 "You don't repent ?" said he. 
 
 "No ; but I am to have that great fish on my line?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And land him?" 
 
 " The fish shall be landed." 
 
 "I shall want to send him to town. Can you meet me at the 
 cjmrch yonder with a basket ?" 
 
 "I don't go much to churches," said he; "people would stare 
 at me. so; but if you mean there" (as I pointed with my rod 
 towards the tower), "I. will see you in the churchyard." 
 
 I examined my splendid bait to see that it was all right. Neither 
 Wilder, Purdy, nor Goddard could have fixed it better. I tried 
 it in the still water, and it spun admirably. When I raised my 
 head to praise the baiter, he was gone. 
 
 I was anxious to try my bait ; and beckoned to the fisherman, 
 who was sitting on the other end of the long weir-beam by my 
 companion, as the latter w r as fishing between the two last spurs, 
 near the eddy in the corner. He came. 
 
 " Have you had a run?" said I. 
 
 "Yes," replied the fisherman; "but not from the big fish, 
 though the one as come at us was a solaker I put him at seven 
 or eight pounds." 
 
 "Where was it?" 
 
 "There, in the corner; he came out of the foam, and took us 
 in the wambling but the hooks drew." 
 
 "Then the fish are on the feed?" 
 
 "Yes; the sun has draw'd the baits up close to the weir, and 
 the fish are come up arter 'em. That great fish druv the baits 
 right out of the water but now, at the far side there, just by that 
 shrimple." 
 
 I showed him my bait fish. " Where did you get that ?" said 
 he; "and who put it on?" 
 
 " Did you not see the man in black who was talking to me ?" 
 
 "No : I sid no man in black. I sid a great dark-looking heron 
 fly away just beyond them osiers, and I wondered how he come 
 to let you be o nigh him ; you must ha' bin werry quiet." 
 
 I began to climb to the top of the weir-beam. "Is it any use 
 to try again, think you ?" 
 
 " It's a werry odd bait as ever I see," responded the fisherman ; 
 " but it's werry bright, and you may as well try the weir over 
 with it." 
 
 I stood on the weir-beam. 
 
 Now, no one who has not walked the Thames' weirs can tell 
 
A WORD TO ANGLERS. 175 
 
 what a task it is to walk them, till practice has made it easy. 
 
 Weir is one that affords as steady footing as any ; but to 
 
 stand on that narrow beam for the first time, whilst the ear is 
 stunned by the roar of the fall, and the eye reels as it is dazzled 
 with the raging white water of the boiling pool, fifteen feet below, 
 demands good nerves. To fish in such a position requires strong 
 ones. 
 
 My bait was, at one time, spinning far down in the pool thirty 
 yards off and at another, as I shortened my -line, which then 
 lay at my feet on the beam or hung down from it, and reversed 
 my rod, it was glittering close beneath me in 'the foam on the 
 apron. Suddenly I lost sight of it, and, at the same instant, there 
 was a snatch that I felt to my spinal chord. I had him ! I raised 
 my rod- in the twinkling of an eye, gave him. the butt, and up he 
 sprang in the broad sun-light, showing a side like a sow. 
 
 "Don't check him!" cried the fisherman, in a voice that was 
 heard above the river-thunder. Out ran the line! 'Who can be 
 collected at such a moment ? It coiled round my ancle, and down 
 I went headlong into the mad water below. 
 
 Strange as it may appear, my principal anxiety, as I struck out 
 into the pool to avoid being sucked back under the apron, was to 
 secure the fish, which I felt was still fast. This embarrassed me, 
 and, notwithstanding my efforts, I was drawn back into- the wel- 
 tering waves under the weir. I looked round, and there I 
 beheld that dreadful face glaring ghastly at me through the 
 smooth glassy sheet of the falling water; and I felt the long deadly 
 arms dragging me, feet foremost, under the apron. In the delirium 
 of despair I cried out, "You said I should land the fish." "I 
 said," shouted the horror, "that the fish should be landed, and 
 that I would see, you in the churchyard;" and he mercilessly 
 pulled me under. 
 
 "Lord! Lord! methought what pain it was to drown." The 
 long, cruel arms kept dragging me deeper and deeper. The 
 brightness became less and less. My agony was inexpressible. 
 Then came darkness, the blackness of darkness. Suddenly my 
 sensations were even pleasant, and I fancied that I was in a 
 delicious meadow. 
 
 A fearful change succeeded. I found myself in a well-known 
 burial vault, 
 
 " Girt by parent, brother, friend, 
 Long since number'd with the dead." 
 
 And there was that grim feature still claiming me, and the long 
 lean arms were stretched out to grapple me, and the grasp entered 
 into my soul. 1 turned to make one desperate effort at escape, 
 and, opening my eyes, I found myself still stretched on the dry 
 
176 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 boards. My companion was shaking me by the shoulder, and 
 inquiring, with something like' reproach, if I thought that was the 
 way to get the great fish into the well? 
 
 MAY. - 
 
 >:>. 
 
 ]. 
 
 Upon a bright and balmy day, 
 
 .The flow'rs around were springing'; 
 With hymns of love the .birds so gay 
 
 Set all the woods a-ringing. 
 The trouts did leap, the herds did low, 
 
 The Inerry lambs were playing ; 
 And in the hawthorn dell below, 
 
 A lassie fair was inayiug. 
 
 2. 
 
 The blackbird piped so loud and clear, 
 
 The thrush the air was filling, 
 Above a floating downy cloud, 
 
 The heaven-ward lark was trilling ; 
 And loudly did the cuckoo call, 
 
 As he his way was winging: 
 And yet I heard above, them all 
 
 That pretty lassie singing. 
 
 3. 
 Adown the vale a zephyr flew, 
 
 As if he would adore her ; 
 The hawthorn-bush above that grew,- 
 
 Dropp'd show'rs of ( spangles o'er her : 
 She ruis'd her head and shook her locks, 
 
 Her laujjhiqg eyes did glisten 
 Then sang again, till the very flocks 
 
 Stood quietly to listen. 
 
 4. 
 "Here are nodding cowslips meet 
 
 For my little brother-, 
 Primroses and violets sweet 
 
 For my own dear mother. 
 Seated on my father's knee 
 
 I shall hear his praises, 
 While he fondly makes for me; 
 
 A necklace of these daisies." 
 
 5. 
 I've Pasta heard and Bartleman, 
 
 Persiani and Rubini; , 
 Sontag, Grisi, Malibran, . 
 
 Lablache and Tamburini : 
 But though their voices rich and clear 
 
 Set all the town a-ringing, 
 Far sweeter fell upon mine ear 
 
 That little lassie's singing. 
 
PART SECOND. QUADRUPEDS, ETC. 
 
 DOGS. 
 
 " The little dogs and all, 
 Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart." 
 
 YES, dogs are honest creatures and the most delightful of four- 
 footed beings. The brain and nervous system may he more highly 
 developed in the Anthropoid apes, and even in some of the mon- 
 keys; but for affectionate, though humble companionship, nay 
 friendship ; for the amiable spirit that is on the watch to anticipate 
 every wish of his master for the most devoted attachment to 
 him, in prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness, an attach- 
 ment always continued unto death, and frequently failing not 
 even when the once warm hand that patted him is clay-cold ; 
 what we had almost said who can equal these charming fami- 
 liars ? Your dog will, to please you, do that which is positively 
 painful to him. Hungry though he he, he will leave his food for 
 you ; he will quit the strongest temptation for you ; he will lay 
 down his life for you. Truly spake he who, said, "Man is the 
 God of 'the -dog."' 
 
 'Of all the conquests over the brute creation that man has made, 
 the domestication of the dog may be regarded as the most com- 
 plete, if not the most useful : it is the only animal that has fol- 
 lowed him all over the earth. And to see how these noble animals 
 are treated by savages civilized as well as uncivilized ; kicked, 
 spurned, harnessed to heavy carriages, half-starved, cudgelled, 
 they still follow the greater brute that lords it over them, and if 
 he condescends to smile upon them how they bound in gladness ! 
 if he, by some inexplicable obliquity of good feeling, in a mo- 
 ment of forgetfulness caresses them, they are beside themselves 
 with joy. 
 
178 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 As a whole their lot seems to be the worst, if it is cast among 
 savage or imperfectly-civilized nations. When Lawson was among 
 the North-American Indians, he was present at a great feast 
 where was " store of loblolly and other medleys, made of Indian 
 grain, stewed peaches, bear venison, &c. ;" when all the viands 
 were brought in " the first figure began with kicking out all the 
 dogs, which are seemingly wolves made tame with starving and 
 beating ; they being the worst dog masters in the world;- so that 
 it is an infallible cure for sore eyes ever to see -an Indian's dog 
 fat." The tribe who exercised this summary calcitration on the 
 poor dogs, that had most probably contributed not a little to the 
 venison part of the entertainment, rejoiced in the appropriate name 
 of the Whacksaws or IVaxsaws ; and yet these same Indians 
 delighted in feeding up their horses till they were comparable to 
 nothing more aptly than an English prize-ox. Though much 
 advanced in the scale of, civilization, the Javanese, according to 
 Dr. Horsfield, seem to be little better dog-masters than the Wax- 
 saws ; for he remarks that the poor brutes, we mean the dogs, 
 are not cared for, and are ill-treated, so that their famishing con- 
 dition is disgusting to Europeans. This is the more extraordinary 
 as many of these dogs pursue the Java deer called the Kidang with 
 great ardour and courage. They are led in slips and loosed when 
 they come upon the scent. Away they go, and the hunters, who 
 follow more quietly, generally find the deer at bay and the hounds 
 going gallantly into him. This is no joke, for the male Kidang 
 makes a capital fight with his tusks, wounding his assailants 
 severely, often fatally. "The sportsmen," says the Doctor, 
 whose book is full of interesting passages, " uniformly are pro- 
 vided with remedies and applications, and by a simple suture 
 attempt to unite those wounds which are not immediately 
 fatal. In this operation they frequently succeed and preserve 
 their most valuable dogs." But even this small care appears to 
 be the exception to the rule. " The natives of Java, like other 
 Mahommedans, entertain prejudices unfavourable to dogs ; they 
 rarely treat them with kindness, or allow them to approach their 
 persons ; and it is only in -extraordinary instances, or when they 
 contribute to their amusement, that they feed or care for them." 
 To be sure, as a set-off, they rarely show attachment' to their 
 masters, and no wonder ; even Bill Sykes's dog could not carry 
 his otherwise unqualified obedience to the length of getting over 
 his very particular objection to being drowned. 
 
 On the other hand, the good dog-master considers his four- 
 footed follower as his friend, his other self, his doppelgcinger, so 
 that " Love me, love my dog," has passed into a proverb which 
 has sometimes led to deadly results ; we need only allude to the 
 fatal duel between Colonel Montgomery and Captain Macnamara. 
 
DOGS. 179 
 
 Nor can it be wondered at that a man should feel strongly for 
 the faithful animal that distinguishes him from all others, an 
 animal that may be a burr but is Jiardly ever a bore. Now and 
 then, indeed, an ill-bred cur will, like Launce's Crab, thrust him- 
 self into the company of thtee or four gentlemanlike dogs ; but 
 your Biped Bore constantly and unrelentingly intrudes into a 
 happy knot of mortals, not of his quality, who are shaking off the 
 cares of life with a little joyous converse, till he has succeeded in 
 reducing the gaiety that was flashing so brilliantly to a heap of 
 ashes, and the merry tongues to a dead silence. Or he finds out 
 when you are sick, and by an incomprehensible power possessed 
 only by the typical Bore err Augur not soothsayer drills himself 
 through all the doors barricaded against him, and, having perfo- 
 rated to your sanctum, preys upon you in your own arm-chair, 
 giving you all the while, under colour of much pity, broad hints 
 that you are " booked," and wimbling deeper and deeper still, till 
 he has shattered the remains of your nerves to atoms; when, 
 having absolutely devoured you in your shell, he leaves you, a 
 complete caput mortuum, to go and finish with some other victim. 
 the cannibal ! '. -,. . ? - 
 
 Why, why, is there not in our great clubs a power of repro- 
 bation as well as of election 1 Surely it would not be too much 
 for twelve hundred men to have the power of excluding eight 
 annually : a power, by the way, which would be seldom exerted, 
 for the very knowledge- o( its' existence would have its effect, 
 though it might be necessary now and then to eject some incor- 
 rigible pachydermatous bore pour encourager les autres. There is 
 already a law prohibiting the entrance of our friends the dogs into 
 those masculine establishments, a law which one is, at first, dis- 
 posed to regard as harsh ; but the reflection that most of the 
 members of a club show no backwardness in availing themselves 
 of its privileges, reconciles the mind to the inhospitable practice 
 of making the worthy beasts sit in the porch, anxiously watching 
 for the egress of their masters. Think of the assemblage of the 
 doggies belonging to a thousand or twelve hundred masters, and 
 the duels the principals, to be sure, nowadays, never hit each 
 other which would spring out of the collision. Besides, they 
 are not admitted at court, according to the old French quatrain 
 for which of their qualities we may not guess : 
 
 <* A la court les gros courtisans 
 Sont ours, ou tygres, ou lyons ; 
 Les petits qui sont moins puissants 
 Sont regnards ou camuleons." 
 
 But if they are not allowed to grace our assemblies within doors, 
 there is no lack of them when men are gathered together under 
 
180 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 the canopy of heaven. At a fair, at a fight, at the most solemn 
 spectacles ; wherever, in short, there is a crowd,' there are dogs 
 to be seen, as a matter of course, apparently discussing the mat- 
 ter in hand, or inquiring of each new comer whether he had any 
 thing to do with the embassy, and getting into little coteries and 
 fights of their own ; for, on these occasions, especially if there be 
 a lady in the case, jealousies and suspicions do abound. 
 
 When the citizens feasted the allied sovereigns, we were snugly 
 placed, at an- early hour, at the window of a most worthy trader 
 in the precious metals, upon Ludgate-hill ; one who had been 
 prime warden of the worshipful company, and had two gowns, 
 and everything handsome about him. His' hospitable house was 
 well rilled with honest men and bonnie lassies, but we who had 
 not been long in the small village, were, constantly drawn from the 
 well-spread table, and the bright eyes that surrounded it, to the 
 window aforesaid, by the note of preparation.. In the street were 
 the heaps of gravel intended for smoothing the path of the 
 Regent and the crowned heads. Workmen were employed in 
 levelling these heaps, which' the dogs, already collected in con- 
 siderable numbers, evidently considered as pitched exclusively for 
 their accommodation. The thickening crowd were in their holy- 
 day suits, every thing was bright and gay, the dogs were frisky 
 beyond expression, and the gravel heaps produced the most social 
 feelings among the assembled quadrupeds. 
 
 By and by the gravel was spread the dogs, that had been 
 chasing each other's tails from an early hour, began to be a little 
 tired, but were still in good" spirits. The troops now lined the 
 streets, and at l*ength there seemed to be a disposition on the part 
 of the dogs to consider that they had had enough of the fete. 
 Every now and then, a canine sceptic, who began to think that 
 matters were taking an unpleasant turn, would go to the sides of 
 the street and try to make his way through the living wall that 
 bounded the carriage-way. In nine cases out of ten he was 
 kicked back by the soldiers, and if some particularly enterprising 
 individual succeeded in passing them, a greater obstacle remained 
 behind ; for there was no possibility of getting through the con- 
 glomeration on the foot pavements : trampled upon by the crowd, 
 and butt-ended by the soldiers, he was kicked back with curses 
 into the arena, erst the scene of his gaiety, yelping and howling,' 
 and then and there immediately pitched into by his now hungry, 
 peevish companions. 
 
 Well, the day wore on, the dogs lay down ; the usual cries, 
 " They are coming !" brought every body from the creature- 
 comforts to the windows, and the usual disappointments sent them 
 back to their more substantial enjoyments. At last, the pealing 
 of bells and firing announced the advent of the kings of the earth. 
 
DOGS. 181 
 
 Shouts were heard booming from the distance the heads in the 
 crammed windows were all craning westward, the procession 
 was now coming in earnest. It was headed by a large body of 
 distressed dogs, the phalanx increasing as it advanced. Worn 
 out, kicked to death's door, and scarcely able to crawl, the miser- 
 able curs marched in solemn silence, with head depressed, and 
 slinking tail, to which here and there might be seen appended 
 the badge of the order of the tin canister or kettle. By the side 
 there was no escape they could not retreat, and so the dejected 
 wretches marshalle.d the way, unwillingly and slow, till our coun- 
 try's honour, and that of Europe, were roofed in the Guildhall of 
 the city of London. 
 
 Seeing these familiars, as we do, everywhere around us, and 
 the infinite, variety of form and colour exhibited among them, we 
 are at once led to the inquiry whence they sprang, what was the 
 stock from which the canine family was derived? Your good 
 cynogenealogist will trace out for you the pedigree of any parti- 
 cular race, and will be eloquent on King Charles's breed, of 
 spaniels, and the delicate Blenheim breed, nor will he not descant 
 as learnedly as any historian of the turf on the Czarina, Snowball, 
 or Claret blood, to him who loves " The Couples ;" but, if you ask 
 the said genealogist who was the common ancestor, you may 
 " pause for a reply." Inquire among the zoologists, and one will 
 tell you that the jackal, with his unearthly cry and ghoul-like 
 habits, that robber of the Asiatic and African grave, is the impure 
 source of all that is quadrupedly good and amiable. Another, 
 with more show of reason, will point to the gaunt wolf, 
 
 " With his long gallop that can tire 
 The hound's deep hate and hunter's fire;" 
 
 but it will be difficult to find one who will give you any authority 
 for the existence of a primitive race of dogs in the common 
 acceptation of the 'term. Little osteological difference is to be 
 detected in the dog, wolf, fox, or jackal: none, indeed, on which 
 generic distinction can -be founded with any degree of safety, and 
 therefore, no satisfactory evidence is forthcoming from the fossil 
 canine animals, such as the canis spelseus of the Bone-caverns, the 
 canis giganteus of Avary, and the Agnotherium, an animal of the 
 dog-kind", as large as a lion, discovered at Epplesheim. by Professor 
 Kaup, There is now ground for believing that Sir Roderick Mur- 
 chison's fossil quadruped found at (Eningen, was not a true fox.* 
 The dog, the wolf, the jackal, and the fox, are all collected under 
 the generic appellation, canis, by Linna3us, Cuvier, and other great 
 
 * See Professor Owen's interesting paper, "On the extinct Fossil Viverrine 
 Fox of CEningen, showing its specific characters and affinities to the Family 
 Yiverridse." Proceedings of the Geological Society, 1846, p. 55. 
 16 
 
182 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 zoologists; but tHe principal character assigned by the first of 
 these philosophers to the domesticated dog, or canisfamiliaris, 
 is " cauda (sinistrorsum) recurvata" * tail curled towards the left." 
 There are, indeed, well-marked external differences between the 
 four animals just mentioned, as every one knows who has looked 
 with any attention at them ; and other distinctions will be detected 
 on a closer examination. In. the dogs properly so called, the 
 pupil of the eye is round ; this modification of -the organization 
 exists in the wolf and the jackal, and for this reason, the African 
 Fennec or Zerda is now associated with the true dogs ; but the 
 pupil of the eye in the foxes, whose habits are more nocturnal, 
 is vertical. The wild dogs, as they are called and we do not 
 mean to say that they are improperly named in whatever quarter 
 of the world they are found, do not, in our opinion, help the 
 question ; indeed they have embarrassed it. Now there is evi- 
 dence of the existence of the domesticated dog from the earliest 
 times, and we see no sound reason for concluding that these wild 
 races, some of which are well known to our Indian friends, and 
 one of which has been named somewhat boldly, canis primsevus, 
 do not owe their origin to dogs which have been once under the 
 subjection of man, partially at least, and have from circumstances 
 taken to roving habits and a natural state, like- the wild horses of 
 America. 
 
 In pursuing this inquiry, 'it becomes of importance to ascertain 
 in which of the supposed stocks we can trace the seeds of that 
 affection for man, yes, affection is' the word, which so highly 
 distinguishes the dog. The jackal is altogether unamiable, and 
 we know from the experiments of JohnTIunter, that though it will 
 breed with the dog, the period of gestation is fifty-nine days. If 
 the fox is looked to we say nothing of an appeal to another of 
 the senses there does not appear any very inviting symptom to 
 encourage us to make a fireside companion of him, 
 
 " Who ne'er so tame, so cherishM and lock'd up, 
 Will have a wild trick &i his ancestors." 
 
 Now, your wolf, truculent though he be, is capable of a most 
 cordial attachment to man. We have seen one follow his master 
 about with all the manners of a faithful dog, and doing his bid- 
 ding as obediently. In the instance recorded by M. F. Cuvier, the 
 wolf was brought up and treated like a young dog: he became 
 familiar with everybody whom he" saw frequently, but he distin- 
 guished his master, was restless in his absence, and happy in his 
 presence, acting almost precisely as a favourite dog would act. 
 But his master was under the necessity of being absent for a time, 
 and the unfortunate wolf was presented to the Menagerie du Roi 
 where he was incarcerated in a den he who had " affections, 
 
DOGS. 183 
 
 passions." Most disconsolate of wolves was he, poor fellow ! he 
 pined he refused his food but the persevering kindness of his 
 keepers had its effect upon his broken spirit, he became fond of 
 them, and everybody thought that his ancient attachment was 
 obliterated. Eighteen long months had elapsed since his impri- 
 sonment, when his old master came to see him. The first word 
 uttered by the man, who was mingled in the crowd, had a magical 
 effect. The .poor wolf instantly recognised him with the most 
 joyous demonstrations, and being set at liberty fawned upon his 
 old friend and caressed him in the most affecting manner. We 
 wish we could end the story here ; but our wolf was again shut 
 up, and another separation brought with it sadness and sorrow. 
 A dog was given to him as a companion, three years had elapsed 
 since he last lost sight of the object of his early adoration, time 
 had done much to soothe him, and his chum and he lived happily 
 together- when the old master came again. 
 
 The "once familiar word" was uttered the impatient cries of 
 the faithful creature, and his eagerness to get to his master, went 
 to the hearts of all, and when he was let out of h-is cage, and rushed 
 to him, and with his feet on his shoulders, licked his face, re- 
 doubling his cries of joy, because he who had been lost was found, 
 the eyes of bearded men, who stood by, were moistened. His 
 keepers, to whom a moment before he had been all fondness, now 
 endeavoured to remove him ; but all the wolf was then aroused 
 within him, and he turned upon them with furious menaces. 
 Again the time came when the feelings -of this unhappy animal 
 were to be sharply tried. A third separation was effected. The 
 gloom and sullenness of the wolf were of a more deep complexion, 
 and his refusal of food more stubborn, so that his life appeared to 
 be in. danger. His health, indeed, if health it could be called, 
 slowly returned, but he was morose and misanthropic, and though 
 the fond wretch endured the caresses of his keepers, he became 
 savage and dangerous to all others who approached him. Here 
 was a noble temper ruined. 
 
 Nor are these the only instances of the disposition which is 
 latent in these animals. The she-wolf mentioned by Mr. Bell, in 
 his delightful " History of British Quadrupeds," would come to 
 the front bars of her prison in the garden of the. Zoological So- 
 ciety in the Regent's Park to be noticed ; and when she had cubs 
 she would bring them forward in her mouth to be fondled ; indeed, 
 she was so pertinacious in her endeavours to introduce them into 
 society, that she killed all her little ones, one after the other, by 
 rubbing them against the bars, that they might be within reach 
 of the caressing hand of man. It was as if the poor creature 
 had said, * Do take me and mine out of this place and make pets 
 of us." 
 
184 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 When, therefore, we find this strong disposition for associating 
 with man, we are no longer startled at the views of those who 
 regard the domestic dog, with all its varieties, as the descendant 
 of the wolf. Let us look a little further into this point. As far 
 as the skeleton is concerned, generally, there is hardly any diffe- 
 rence, or very little, between the wolf and the dog, while the skull 
 is almost exactly similar. The days of gestation in the bitch are 
 sixty-three ; precisely the same period is allotted to the wolf. The 
 young of the domestic dog are born blind, as everybody knows ; 
 those of the wolf come into the world in the same condition ; and 
 both first see the light at the same time ; their eyes being opened 
 on the tenth or twelfth day. In the wolf, as well as in the dog, 
 the duration of life averages from fifteen to twenty years. It is 
 true that the jackal, as well as the wolf, will breed with the dog ; 
 but we have no authority to prove that the offspring of the latter 
 and the jackal is fertile, as that of the dog and wolf is. We do 
 not think much of the principal difference between the two animals 
 last mentioned, namely, the comparative obliquity in the position 
 of the eyes of the wolf: domestication for a long series of years 
 may have given a forward direction to those organs in the faithful 
 follower of man. Then, if we look at the Dhole of India, the 
 Dingo of Australia, and other wild or half-reclaimed races, we find 
 the uniformity of colour, the tail, and somewhat -of the general as- 
 
 E?ct of the wolf; indeed, one of the earliest English names for the 
 ingo was, the New South Wales fVolf. It is also worthy of re- 
 mark, that the wild dogs, and even those of the Esquimaux and 
 Mackenzie River breeds, do not appear to bark, though, like the 
 wolf, they may " behowl the moon." The Dingo sent over to Mr. 
 Nepean, by Governor Phillip, and kept at Hatfield House by the 
 Marchioness of Salisbury, neither barked nor growled. Ashkelli, 
 a male Esquimaux dog, brought from the Polar Sea, by Mr. 
 Richards, in Captain Parry's first voyage, though domesticated 
 and good-humoured, seldom barked, according to Mr. Children, 
 but, if displeased, uttered "a low wolfish growl." Mr. Bennett, 
 in his account of the Mackenzie River, or Hare Indian dogs, pre- 
 sented to the Zoological Society by Captain Sir John Franklin 
 and Dr. Richardson, says, " In their native country they are never 
 known to bark, and this peculiarity is still retained by the elder 
 dogs ; but the younger one, which was born in this country, has 
 learned to imitate the language of his fellows." Now these dogs 
 were particularly good-tempered and familiar with' those who 
 noticed them. Upon the whole evidence, we incline to the opinion 
 of those who would derive the domestic dogs from the wolf; and 
 though the former will hunt the latter, it should be remembered 
 that dogs, with a very little encouragement, will also hunt one of 
 their own undoubted race. .' . 
 
DOGS. 185 
 
 But from whatever source the dog be derived, he is one of the 
 most sensible of four-footed animals. Gifted with a most reten- 
 tive memory, he applies his power of observation to the regulation 
 of his conduct so skilfully, that the result has very much the 
 appearance of reasoning ; if, indeed, it may not, without violence, 
 be considered as the exercise of that faculty. His intellect, when 
 well developed, is of no common order, and its constant activity 
 is exhibited when, like the Fury in ^Eschylus, he 
 
 " Opens in his sleep, on th' eager chase 
 
 E'en then intent." 
 
 .-' '- 
 
 Our readers will, we hope, pardon us if we inflict on them a 
 story or two in proof of our assertion. 
 
 We remember to have been once particularly struck with the 
 behaviour of a dog that had lost his master. This, to us, is 
 always a distressing sight, and enough,, in our humble opinion, to 
 have made Democritus himself look grave : but in the instance 
 alluded to, there was food for reflection. 
 
 We- were walking down a hilly field, whose path terminated at 
 a stile which opened upon a road running due east and west. 
 This road was cut at right angles by another road running north- 
 ward. A dog passed with his nose close to the ground, keeping 
 the downward path till he arrived at the stile, through which he 
 squeezed himself, and, with his nose still down, he first hunted 
 busily along the eastern branch, and then along the western. He 
 now retraced his steps, and when he came nearly opposite to the 
 northern road, he lifted his head, looked about him for a moment 
 or two, and then set off along that road as fast as he~ could go, 
 without again putting his nose to the ground, as who should think 
 to himself" he is not gone that way, nor is he gone that way, 
 therefore he must have gone this way*" an operation of the mind 
 very like a syllogism. 
 
 Then there is the well-authenticated story of the dog that was 
 left, in December, 1784, by a smuggling vessel, near Boomer, on 
 the coast of Northumberland ; and we shall let Bewick, who re- 
 cords the fact, tell his own tale. 
 
 " Finding himself deserted," continues Bewick, speaking of the 
 abandoned dog, " he began to worry sheep, and did so much 
 damage, that he became the terror of the country within a circuit 
 of twenty miles. We are assured that when he caught a sheep, 
 he bit a hole in its right side, and, after eating the tallow about 
 the kidnies, left it : several of them thus lacerated, were found 
 alive by the shepherds, and, being taken proper care of, some of 
 them recovered, and afterwards had lambs. From his delicacy in 
 this respect, the destruction he made may in some measure be 
 conceived ; as it may be supposed that the fat of one sheep in a 
 16* 
 
186 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 day would not satisfy his hunger. The farmers were so much 
 alarmed by his depredations, that various means were used for 
 his destruction. They frequently pursued him with hounds, grey- 
 hounds, &c. ; but when the dogs came up with him, he laid down 
 on his back, as if supplicating for mercy ; and in this position 
 they never hurt him ; he therefore laid quietly, taking his rest till 
 the hunters approached, when he made off without being followed 
 by the hounds, till they were again excited to the pursuit, which 
 always terminated unsuccessfully. It is worthy of notice, that 
 he was one day pursued from Howick to upwards of thirty miles 
 distance, but returned thither and killed sheep the same evening. 
 His constant residence during the day, was upon a rock on the 
 Heugh-hill, near Howick, where he had a view of four roads that 
 approached it ; and in March, 1785, after many fruitless attempts 
 he was at last shot there." 
 
 Now, to say nothing of the ruse whereby he regularly saved 
 himself from his "pursuers, this was very like communing with 
 himself* and, as a result, taking up the best possible position for 
 his security under existing circumstances, a position which ena- 
 bled him to baffle his enemies for upwards of a year : what is 
 this if it be not reason ? 
 
 One more illustration of this part of our subject. In the West 
 of England, not far from Bath, there lived, towards the close of 
 the last century, a worthy clergyman, who was as benevolent as 
 he was learned. There were turnspits in those days a most 
 intelligent set they were, and Toby, who was an especial favourite, 
 was a model of the breed, with legs worthy of the Gow Chrom 
 himself, upon which he waddled after his master everywhere, 
 sometimes not a little to his annoyance ; but Toby was a worthy, 
 and he could not find it in his heart to snub him. Things, how- 
 ever, came at last to such a pass, that Toby contrived somehow 
 or other to find his way to the reading-desk on a Sunday, arid 
 when the door was opened, he would whip in, well knowing that 
 his reverend patron was too kind and too decorous to whip him 
 out. Now, though it has been said, that 
 
 " He's a good dog that goes to church," 
 
 the exemplary Dr. B., who thought he had traced a smile upon 
 the countenance of some of his parishioners on these occasions, 
 felt the impropriety of the proceeding : so Toby was locked up 
 in the stable on Sunday morning ; all to no purpose, however, 
 for he scrambled through the shut window, glass, lead and all, 
 and trotted up the aisle after his annoyed master as usual. Mat- 
 ters were now getting serious ; so as soon as he had on the 
 Saturday caused the beef to revolve to a turn which was to be 
 served cold for the Sunday dinner for the good man chose that 
 
DOGS. 187 
 
 all around him should find the Sabbath a day of rest Toby was 
 taken out of the wheel, and his dinner was given to him ; but 
 instead of being allowed to go at large to take his, evening walk 
 after it, Molly, to make sure of him, took him up by the neck, 
 and putting him into the wood-hole where window there was 
 none, drew the bolt, and left him therein. Toby revenged himself 
 by "drying up the souls" of the whole family- with his inordi- 
 nate expostulatory yells during the whole of the remnant of 
 Saturday and the greater part of Sunday. However, there was 
 no Toby dogging the heels of the surplic'ed minister, and it was 
 concluded that the sufferings that the doggie and the family had 
 undergone, would have their effect. Well, the week wore on, 
 with Toby as amiable and as useful as ever, and without a parti- 
 cle of sullenness about him into the wheel went he right cheer- 
 fully, and made it turn more merrily than ever ; in short, par- 
 lour, kitchen, and all were loud in his praise. However, as it 
 drew towards twelve o'clock on the Saturday, Toby was missed.. 
 Poor Molly, the cook, was at her wit's end. 
 
 "Where's that vexatious turnspit gone ?" 
 
 was the question, and nobody could answer it. The boy who 
 cleaned the knives was despatched to a distant barn where Toby 
 was occasionally wont to recreate himself after his culinary la- 
 bours, by hunting rats. No no Toby. The sturdy thrashers, 
 with whom he used sometimes to go home, under the idea, as it 
 was supposed, that they were the lords of the rat-preserve in the 
 barn, and who, being fond of Toby in common with the whole 
 village, used occasionally to give him 
 
 " A bit of their supper, a bit of their bed," 
 
 knew nothing of him.. Great was the consternation at the Rec- 
 tory. Hints were thrown out that " The Tramps" in the green 
 lane had secreted him with the worst intentions, for he was plump 
 and sleek ; but their camp was searched in vain. The worthy 
 family retired for the night, all mourning for Toby : and we believe 
 there is no doubt that when the reverend master of the house 
 came down on Sunday morning his first question was, "Any 
 tidings of Toby ?" A melancholy " No, sir," was the answer. 
 After an early breakfast, the village schools were heard their 
 rewards distributed, not without inquiries for Toby and when 
 church-time came, it is said that the rector, who walked the short 
 distance in full canonicals, looked over his shoulder more than 
 once. He passed through the respectful country-people collected 
 in the little green grave-yard, who looked up to him as their pas- 
 tor and friend, he entered the low-roofed old Norman porch over- 
 hung with ivy, he walked up the aisle, the well-filled pews on 
 
188 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 either side bearing testimony that his sober-minded flock hun- 
 gered not for the excitement of fanaticism, he entered the reading- 
 desk, and as he was adjusting his hassock, caught the eye of Toby 
 twinkling at him out of the darkest corner. Need we say more, 
 than that after this, Toby was permitted to go to church, with the 
 unanimous approbation of the parish, as long as he lived. Now 
 if this was not calculation on the part of Toby, we know not what 
 else to term it, and we could refer our readers to well-authenti- 
 cated stories in print as our dear old nurse used to say when 
 she was determined to silence all incredulity that go as far, and 
 even farther, to show that these animals can calculate intervals of 
 time. 
 
 It is this intellectuality, joined with their individuality for no 
 two dogs are alike that makes them such admirable subjects for 
 the gifted hand of Edwin Landseer. It is said that dogs have 
 been taught to utter, after a fashion, one or two simple words, 
 not exceeding two syllables ; however this may be, no one, we 
 apprehend, who has seen The Two, Dogs can doubt that they 
 converse. When we "look around the walls," as the patronizing 
 orators say at the annual festival in Trafalgar-square, and catch 
 the Promethean fire infused into the portrait of *ft Respectable 
 Member of the Humane Society and others, his fellows, we suspect 
 that a few of the gentlemen ay, and ladies too who have paid 
 for having their faces mapped and hung on those same " walls," 
 sigh occasionally as their eyes rest on the beautifully characterized 
 doggies, and feel an irresistible preference for the Cynic school. 
 The Mahommedans were forbidden to represent either man or 
 other animals ; and the prohibition, if we mistake not, arose frem 
 a tradition that those who are hardy enough to make the attempt 
 will be called upon hereafter, to put a soul into everyone of their 
 representations or else : if there be any foundation for this 
 creed, what an awful future awaits some of our exhibiters. 
 
 Another consequence of the intellect manifest in our friends, the 
 dogs, and the almost human affections that belong to them, is, 
 that superstition has conferred upon them a sort of immortality. 
 To say nothing of " Cerberus," of the poor Indian's "equal sky," 
 or the " Tomalins," and other black-dog familiars of the ages of 
 witchcraft, we have the Mauthe Doog of the Manksman, the Fiend 
 Hund of Faust, and the Hell-hound of Britain As the dog was 
 supposed to be gifted with the power of seeing spirits when they 
 were invisible to man, it is no wonder that we have spectre- 
 hounds, or that our ghostly enemy himself should have been sup- 
 posed in those dark and disgraceful times to which we have 
 alluded, to have condescended to put on the shape of the most 
 sagacious of four-footed beings, one that the ancient Egyptians 
 worshipped as a god. 
 
DOGS. 1S9 
 
 The variety of form and colour in the races of dogs is infinite. 
 Contrast the mastiff with the spaniel place the St. Bernard dog 
 the great Thibet watch-dog that of Spain, or the gallant 
 Scotch deerhound, by the side of our rector's Toby, or one of 
 that curious family of French not Dutch pugs, and it seems 
 almost incredible that they should be all of one species. Yet the 
 most acute observers have failed, and, in our opinion, always 
 will fail, to seize on any character which shall be found to warrant 
 specific distinction. 
 
 We have heard the tiny French dogs, above mentioned, 
 libelled as being useless; but they have very winning ways, and 
 gain upon you, till they almost become little friends. The great 
 luxury of their life seems to consist in being nursed in the lap, 
 that of a lady for choice, and for this they will sit up, and beg 
 as pertinaciously as other dogs will for food. The hound has 
 been sung in every language since Cadmus taught his dragon- 
 lads the alphabet. The bloodhound, and the greyhound, have 
 been immortalized by our best poets, ancient and modern ; a 
 Newfoundland dog was the friend of Byron, and Scott had his 
 Maida. There is hardly a great dog, from that of Ulysses down- 
 wards, that has not had his eulogist ; but these little dogs are a 
 despised generation, and though they may suffer by our pen, we 
 venture a word or two, by way of introducing them to our 
 readers, the more especially as none of them appear to have sat to 
 Edwin. If they had, we would. gladly have left their characterin 
 his hands. Very fine neat limbs, very high foreheads, prominent, 
 expressive eyes, long ears, which they erect, so as to look a little 
 like Fennecs, a tight-curled tail, and a very close, fine coat, are 
 their characteristics : the true bred and handsome ones show a 
 great deal of blood. They are most intelligent and affectionate, 
 and understand in a very short time whether the conversation 
 relates to them, though not addressed to them, nor carried on in 
 an altered tone as indeed is the case with most sensible dogs. 
 
 It was amusing to see three of these little dogs in company with 
 Rundy, a beautiful beagle, especially when a splendid fellow of a 
 French pointer was occasionally admitted into the party. The 
 well-educated pointer, who could do every thing but talk as they 
 say, was ordered into a chair, where he sat with a most becoming 
 gravity, and there, wrapped in a cloak, and with his foraging 
 cap jauntingly cocked over one eye, and a roll of paper in his 
 mouth for a cigar, he looked much more manly than the whey- 
 faced bipeds who pollute our streets and add their mouthful of 
 foul smoke to "the fog and filthy air" of this reekmg town. 
 When the little lapless.dogs on the carpet saw this, they would 
 surround his chair, sitting up in the usual begging position, and 
 hoping, apparently, that among his other accomplishments, he 
 
190 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 had learned the all-soothing art of nursing. Rundy generally took 
 this opportunity of securing the best place on the rug, where he 
 lay stretched out on his side before the fire. The suppliants 
 finding that the Frenchman in the chair made no sign, and that 
 they could produce no impression on the flinty hearts of the rest 
 of the company, to each of whom, in succession, they had sat 
 up, adjourned one after the other, and after sitting up for a 
 moment to the recumbent Rundy, sat down upon him, looking, as 
 a friend once said, like a coroner's jury sitting on the body ; and 
 indeed, Rundy, who was good-tempered and used to the operation, 
 lay as still as if he had been no longer of this world. They 
 seemed to have the greatest objection to resting on the floor, 
 richly Turkey-carpeted though it was. When they were thus 
 seated looking at the fire, with their backs to the company, the 
 words, " Well, you may come," uttered without any particular 
 emphasis, would bring them all in a moment bounding into the 
 laps of the speakers. At night they were always on the look out 
 for a friend who would take them to bed, otherwise the mat was 
 their portion. At the well-known "au lit, au lit" they would rush 
 from the snuggest of laps, and gambol before you to your bed- 
 room. As soon as they entered it and were told, " you may go 
 into bed," they would creep in between the sheets at the top, and 
 work their way down to the bottom, where they would lie all 
 night at yoiir feet, without moving, unless a particularly favoured 
 Lilliputian was permitted to come up and lay its head on the 
 pillow or your arm. 
 
 That these faithful creatures should be subject to the most, 
 frightful and fatal of diseases a disease which they too frequently 
 communicate in their madness to their beloved master or mistress, 
 is one of those inscrutable dispensations that sets all our philo- 
 sophy at nought. 
 
 The chamber of a human being, writhing under hydrophobia, 
 is a scene never to be forgotten by those who have had the mis- 
 fortune to witness it. There lies the wretched victim under a 
 certain sentence of death death the most dreadful ! His unsteady 
 glistening eye wanders over the anxious faces that surround him ; 
 the presence of any liquid the noise of pouring it out a polished 
 surface or any thing that suggests the idea of it even the sudden 
 admission of a cold current of air, bring on the most agonizing 
 paroxysms of spasm in the throat. Oh ! to see him strong in 
 resolution, determined to make the rebel muscles obedient to 
 see and hear him 
 
 " Struggle with the risincj fits," 
 
 and sit up and say that he will take his medicine. And there he 
 is, apparently calm the. attendant approaches with the cup he 
 
DOGS. 191 
 
 receives it you almost think, so much does he seem to have his 
 nerves- under command, that he will drain it. He lifts it to his 
 parched lips, his haggard eye rolls, the rising spasms overpower 
 him " I can't," he faintly utters, and falls back in agony. 
 We dare not go on : it is too horrible ! 
 
 But we may point out, especially as there is a good deal of 
 misunderstanding upon the subject, the usual symptoms that 
 denote the rabid dog; for it frequently happens that a dog is 
 destroyed as mad, when he has no disease of the kind about him ; 
 whilst, on the other hand, the rabid animal is often suffered to 
 live and deal destruction around. It is an error to suppose that a 
 mad dog always shows aversion to water, as the name of the 
 disease implies ; he will, on the contrary, sometimes lap it nay, 
 swim across a river without manifesting any of the horror that 
 marks the disease in man. The most sure symptom is a. complete 
 alteration of temper, from true mild and the familiar to the sullen 
 and the snarling ; he snaps at all objects, animate and inanimate, 
 and gnaws them. ; Even in this state his behaviour often con- 
 tinues unaltered to his master or mistress ; and hence the cases 
 which have arisen from having been licked by the tongue of such 
 a dog, on some part of the face or hands where the skin had been 
 broken. Though he goes wildly about, apparently without an 
 object, foaming at the rnouth generally, and snapping as he pro- 
 ceeds, he rarely gallops, but mostly keeps to a sullen trot with 
 his tail down. The best representation of this mad gait that we 
 have seen, is' in " Bewick's Quadrupeds," where the vignette at 
 p. 830, of the edition of 1820, gives a very correct idea of the 
 rabid animal in its progress. 
 
 What produces this cruel disease in the dog, is a mystery: it 
 can hardly be hardship or ill-treatment, for it frequently happens 
 to pets 
 
 " Bred with all the care 
 ..That waits upon a fav'rite heir." 
 
 Just see what Sonnini says of the dogs at Rosetta, where, 
 though " repelled by man, to whose personal use nature seems to 
 have destined them, they are, nevertheless, incapable of deserting 
 him." In modern Egypt the dog is considered an unclean beast, 
 not to be touched without subsequent purification, and, therefore, 
 carefully shunned by the Mahommedans. " There are few cities 
 in the world,'' writes Sonnini, "which contain so many dogs as 
 those of Egypt ; or at least, there is no one which has the 
 appearance of containing more, because they are there constantly 
 assembled in the streets, their only habitation. There they have 
 no other supplies of food but what they can pick up at the doors 
 of houses, or scramble for by raking into filth and garbage. The 
 females drop their young at the corner of some retired and unfre- 
 
192 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 quented street ; for a disciple of Mahomet would not permit them 
 to approach his habitation. Continually exposed to the cruel 
 treatment of the populace ; massacred sometimes without mercy 
 by an armed mob : subjected to all the inclemency of the ele- 
 ments ; hardly finding the means of supporting a wretched exist- 
 ence ; meager ; irritated to madness ; frequently eaten up by a 
 mange which degenerates into a species of leprosy ; hideous even 
 from the forlornness of their condition ; those miserable animals 
 inspire as much compassion, as they excite contempt and indig- 
 nation against the barbarians among whom they live. It is 
 undoubted!)'' astonishing that amidst a life of misery and suffering, 
 many of those dogs should not be subject to attacks of the 
 hydrophobia. But this malady, rare in the northern parts of 
 Turkey, is still more so in the southern provinces of that empire, 
 and is totally unknown under the burning sky of Egypt. I never 
 saw a single instance of it ; and the natives whom I consulted 
 on the subject, had not so much as an idea of the disease." 
 
 We willingly drop this distressing part of our subject ; but we 
 must not conceal that though hydrophobia generally makes its 
 appearance in man between the thirtieth- and fortieth days after 
 the communication of the virus, fatal cases that have occurred 
 after a lapse of eighteen months are on record ; and there is not 
 wanting high authority for the assertion that a person cannot be 
 considered perfectly safe till two years at least have passed, 
 reckoning from the time when the injury was received. 
 
 CATS. 
 
 "I come, Graymalkin!' 
 
 MACBETH. 
 
 IF dogs are the friends of mankind, their companions in their 
 walks, and their partners in the pleasures of the chase, cats may 
 be considered as the chosen allies of womanhood. Not that the 
 sterner sex have not shown as much fondness for these luxurious 
 quadrupeds as the ladies have exhibited, ay, even those who 
 cradle the blind offspring of their Selimas. and adorn the pensive 
 mother's neck with coral beads. Mahomet, Montaigne, Richelieu* 
 and Johnson, were not exactly simpletons, though it might be 
 difficult to make a modern dandy understand the kindness of 
 heart that sent the lexicographer out to purchase oysters for, his 
 
CATS. 193 
 
 favourite Hodge, when he was old and sick, and fancied no other 
 food. 
 
 When we reflect that these purring associates of the English- 
 man's fireside are so closely connected with the untranslatable 
 word "comfort" a word that has neither name nor representa- 
 tion out of this "nook-shotten isle," and its snuggeries of sea-coal 
 and hearth-rugs with which their satisfactory song harmonizes 
 so soothingly ; that they are the guardians of the store-room* the 
 larder, the dairy, and the granary ; that they 
 
 " Watch o'er the weal of Rhedycinian cheese ; 
 And melting marble of collegiate brawn 
 For heads of houses guard, and lords in lawn ;" 
 
 we are led to inquire the cause of the hatred, even where no 
 antipathy exists, which rages against this maligned and perse- 
 cuted race. The gardener and the gamekeeper, the latter espe- 
 cially, have some grounds for their deadly enmity; the schoolboy 
 too often looks upon them as having been brought into the world 
 for the express purpose of being shod with walnut-shells, or 
 thrown off the church tower with blown bladders tied to their 
 necks ; and of being sent to navigate the horsepond in a bowl, 
 there to withstand the attacks of a fleet of water-dogs, and, finally, 
 die by the teeth of his terrier ;* whilst the murderous cat-skinner 
 
 11 *- . '""^ ( ^ s 
 
 * We cannot resist the temptation of recording a case of tempered school- 
 boy vengeance. Some few years ago, horticulture was the fashion, not to 
 say passion, at a certain -school; and the master thinking, wisely enough, that 
 the boys might have worse pursuits, encouraged the zeal with which they 
 cultivated their little gardens. Whether any of. these horticulturists afterwards 
 belonged to the agricultural society of a celebrated college in one of our uni- 
 versities, whose members, in their zeal for improvement, one fine night 
 ploughed up the lawn in the middle of the quad, with sofas, and planted the 
 Principal out of his own chapel, with shrubs and trees transplanted from his 
 own garden, does not appear ; the schoolboys, at all events, dibbled, and delved, 
 and sowed, and weeded, and were kept out of .mischief. But who shall reckon 
 upon happiness] There was a tremendous bluff-visaged, dark-coloured tabby 
 cat, belonging to ajittle spiteful tailor, who lived hard by. This provoking 
 beast nightly tore up their crocuses, polyanthuses, and hyacinths, and laid low 
 whole rows of mustard and cress : nor was there not a suspicion that in the 
 destruction of the last-mentioned articles puss Was assisted by his master; for 
 though the flowers were prostrate, the esculents for the most part vanished 
 altogether. The boys went up in a body with a complaint to him of the shears, 
 reciting the damage done, and warning him that he should keep his cat at 
 home at night. Their just indignation was treated with derision by the little 
 tailor, who received the remonstrance seated at his door, pipe in mouth. Two 
 or three of the strongest of the youths were for executing summary justice on 
 the irritating scAnezcfer, and quenching him and his pipe together at the 
 pump; but they were restrained by a sage among them, who, looking unut- 
 terable things at the smoker, informed him that he had better look out, or he 
 17 
 
194 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 only sees in them subjects appointed to be flayed alive. These 
 are their open and avowed foes : their secret enemies are scarcely 
 less numerous. Why is this? 
 
 The answer may be, perhaps, found in a dark and disgraceful 
 portion of the criminal annals of this country, of which more 
 anon. 
 
 But we must first say a word or two, touching the natural his- 
 tory of this familiar beast: no easy task; for the origin of the 
 house cat, like that of many other of our domestic animals, has 
 puzzled the learned; and the stock from whence it sprung, is 
 still, in the opinion of some, a problem for the zoologist to st>lve. 
 
 That the cat was domesticated among the Egyptians, we have 
 pregnant evidence, not only in their custom of shaving their brows 
 when their cats died a natural death, but also in the mummies 
 found in their catacombs* (no pun meant), and in the figures of 
 these anim'als on the monuments of that ancient country, 
 perched on the top 'of the Sistrum, for instance, and supposed to 
 represent the moon probably from the following mythological 
 legends. 
 
 would not know his cat again when he saw it, and left him in no very com- 
 fortable state of mind". 
 
 After the exhibition of much ingenuity and many failures, the trespasser 
 was at last caught, bagged, and carried into ia room, where a convention of 
 outraged gardeners, immediately proceeded to consult upon his doom. Two 
 or three of the greatest sufferers loudly gave their voices for death : others were 
 for sparing his life, but curtailing his tail of its fair proportions, and otherwise 
 maltreating him so that he should never be the same cat again. At length 
 the sage, who was merciful, but-determined, begged to be heard. He said that 
 the tailor was in fault more than the ca.1, which did but after its kind in fre- 
 quenting gardens, if suffered to go abroad at night; and as he had by him 
 some of the bestfyn zegellak (ivel brand en vast hand") for electrical experi- 
 ments he proposed to make the unhappy -bagster a warning to all tailors to 
 keep their cats from wandering. He explained his plan, which was adopted 
 new con., and having dissolved sealing wax quant siijf. in spirit of wine, dipped 
 a brush therein j and while two assistants, who were bit and scratched worse 
 than Hogarth's actress in the barn, held the victim, painted the struggling 
 Tommy all over of a bright vermilion, with a masterly hand. The tableau 
 vi-vant was then set down, and home he bolted in the gloaming. How the 
 cat entered the tailor's house, and what the tailor thought of the advent, no 
 one knew; but it was observed that the tailor's hair became rather suddenly 
 gray. For two days nobody saw. either him or his cat.' On the third, he, 
 remembering the threat of the philosophic gardener, walked into the school- 
 room, at high school-time, with his vermilion quadruped under his arm. held 
 him up before the master, .and asked, with a solemn voice and manner, " if 
 that was the way a cat ought to be treated]" The master, who was taken 
 by surprise, burst out into a fit of laughter, in which he was, of course, joined 
 by the boys. The crest-fallen tailor turned round, and with the port of a 
 much-injured man, walked out with his rubicund cat under his arm, as he had 
 walked in. 
 
 * Herod, ir., c. 66, 67. 
 
CATS. 195 
 
 Jove, tired of state affairs and Juno's tongue, sought, one day, 
 a little relaxation in the company of his pretty Latona twins, 
 Apollo and Hecate. To amuse them, he bade them-try their hand 
 at creation, and do something towards filling the empty globule, 
 now called earth. Apollo set his wits to work, and produced 
 MAN. No one likes to be outdone ; so, as Diana saw at a glance 
 that there was no going beyond her brother's handiwork,.she tried 
 to turn the laugh against him, and concocted a sort of. H. B. of 
 her brother's production, in the form of an ape. No one likes to 
 be laughed at: so Pol cut his sister's fun rather short, by turning 
 up a ramping lion. Di, however, was not to be frightened, and 
 played another card of ridicule in the shape of a cat. Apollo, 
 upon this, got into good .humour, and, 'determined to beat his 
 lively antagonist at her own weapons, made a mous.e, which 
 Hecate's cat immediately ate up. The lovely se always have 
 it hollow in matters of finesse. ' > 
 
 Her success at this game seems -to have pleased the Goddess of 
 Wisdom : for when Typhon and his giant host pressed the gods 
 so hard, that they were compelled to flee into Egypt, and save 
 themselves from his fury by shooting their souls into the bodies 
 of quadrupeds and birds, she chose the form of a cat for her meta- 
 morphosis, whilst her brother was glad to escape into the person 
 of a crow, and her papa into the woolly carcass of a ram. 
 
 No, say others, that is a fable ; but the reason why the cat was 
 sacred to Hecate is this : The triple night consequent on Jupi- 
 ter's visit to Alcmena, set all Olympus a wondering: and it was 
 not long before Juno, whose acuteness was not suffered to become 
 dull for want of exercise, soon discovered the liaison. The 
 months rolled on. The Q,ueen of Heaven sent for the Parcae^and 
 gave them her imperial orders, which they sternly obeyed, and 
 poor Alcmena had a weary time of it. Her gossip, Galanthis, 
 after scolding, beseeching, and saying and doing all that a kind 
 woman, almost at her xyit's end, from witnessing the agonies of 
 her bosom friend, could, to make an impression on their stony 
 hearts, had recourse to a little deception. She persuaded the 
 Fates and Lucina, that it was the will of Jove that Hercules 
 should be born. They believed her, dissolved the spell, 
 
 "And made that lady light of her sons." 
 
 The good Galanthis, however, paid Nearly for her friendly ruse: 
 she had provoked the fiercest of all vengeance that of a deceived 
 Glueen, and was turned into a cat.* Hecate, though a bit of a 
 
 * There is another version, setting forth how Galanthis was turned jnto a 
 \veazel by Lucina, who, delegated by Juno, sat near the door of Alcmena'g 
 hou.-?e, with her legs crossed and her fingers joined, in the form of an old woman. 
 Galanthis, suspecting Juno's jealousy, and that the cross-legged old woman 
 
196 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 prude, was so struck with commiseration, that she chose the meta- 
 morphosed dame as her consecrated attendant. Accordingly it 
 was said that the number of the cat's offspring was a gradual pro- 
 gression one, two, three, four, and so on, always augmenting, 
 till a litter of seven was produced, and the total amounted to 
 twenty-eight, the days of a lunation, and that the pupil of the 
 cat's luminous eye dilated and diminished as the moon waxed or 
 waned. 
 
 Leaving the mythologists to settle the question how Hecate and 
 the cat became associated a connexion, which, at one dismal 
 period, many were made to rue, we must return to Egypt, where, 
 without doubt, the cat was domesticated. Thence it may have 
 come to the Greeks, and from them to the Romans, and from the 
 Romans to the rest of the world, as far as their empire extended. 
 
 But why seek so far, when in your indigenous wild-cat, you 
 may find the ancestor of the playful house-kitten that now chases 
 the straw which you draw before it ? 
 
 So thought Linnseus, Pennant, and Cuvier. 
 
 In Opposition to this high authority, are arranged the following 
 reasons, historical and zoological: 
 
 By the laws of Howel dda (Howel the Good) who died in the 
 year 948, after a reign of thirty-three years over South Wales, 
 and eight years over the whole of the principality, the price of a 
 killing before it could see, was to be a penny ; till it caught a 
 mouse, twopence ; and when it commenced mouser, fourpence ; 
 but then it was a sine qua non that it should be perfect in its 
 senses of hearing and seeing, be a good mouser, a good nurse, 
 and have the claws entire. If there happened to be a failure in 
 these essentials, the vendor was to forfeit a third of its value to 
 the vendee. Again : he who stole or killed the cat that guarded 
 the prince's granary, was to forfeit a milch ewe, its fleece and 
 lamb ; or as much wheat as when poured on the cat suspended 
 by its tail (the head touching the floor), would form a heap high 
 enough to cover the tip of the tail.* 
 
 Pennant, who quotes these laws in his British Zoology (1777), 
 observes, that this evidence almost proves to a demonstration, 
 that cats were not aborigines of these islands, nor known to the 
 earliest inhabitants ; and yet in his Synopsis of Quadrupeds (177 1), 
 and in his History of Quadrupeds (3d edition, 1793), he makes 
 the wild cat of these islands, and of the woods of most parts of 
 Europe, the stock of the domestic variety, and in the very same 
 
 was the cause of Alcmena's protracted pain, rushed out of the house with a 
 joyful countenance, and informed the crone that the birth had taken place. 
 Whereupon Lucina uncrossed her legs and loosed her fingers, when Hercules 
 and Iphicles were immediately born. 
 * Leges Wallic. 
 
CATS. 197 
 
 work that contains the observation above quoted, says, speaking 
 of the wild cat, "This animal does not differ specifically from the 
 tame cat ; the latter being originally of the same kind, but altered 
 in colour and in some other trifling accidents, as are common to 
 animals reclaimed from the woods and domesticated." 
 
 Now, though domestication will do a great deal in modifying 
 form and colour, there are some points of. difference between the 
 true wild cat and tame cats, which are well worthy of notice. 
 
 The wild cat is described by Pennant, as being three or four 
 times as large as the house cat. The teeth and claws are, to use 
 his expression, " tremendous," and the animal is altogether more 
 robust. Domestication does not, generally, diminish the size of 
 animals ; on the contrary, it is the experience of every day that 
 the tendency is of an opposite quality, unless the care of the breeder 
 be directed to secure a comparatively minute race ; as, for example, 
 in the case of Bantam fowls and lap-dogs. The tail of the wild 
 cat is stout and as large at the extremity, as it is in the middle 
 and at its insertion, if not larger ; that of the house cat tapers 
 from the base to the tip. Though colour is but a treacherous 
 guide, it should not pass unnoticed that the tail of the wild cat 
 always terminates in a black tuft. 
 
 Well ; but the house cat will breed with the wild cat, and the 
 offspring will be fruitful. Even if this were satisfactorily proved, 
 it would not, in our opinion, be entirely conclusive : most, of the 
 so-called wild cats, however, are merely house cats, which have 
 left their homes, or whose homes have left them, and which have 
 taken to a vagabond and marauding life. Place one of these 
 vagrant cats by the side of a real Scottish wild cat, and you will 
 soon perceive the difference. The latter looks like a stout dwarf 
 tiger ; and his trenchant teeth, broad foot, and powerful claws, 
 well justify the motto of the Clan Chattan, " Touch not the cat 
 but* the glove." 
 
 Dr. Ruppell discovered in Nubia a cat (felis maniculata), and 
 M. Temminck agrees with the doctor in thinking that this is the 
 stock from which the , Egyptian and our domestic cats sprang. 
 It is one-third smaller than the European wild cat, and the pro- 
 portions of the limbs are more delicate ; indeed,. Dr. Riippell calls 
 it kleinpjolige Katze, but its tail is longer. Its stature is about 
 that of a middle-sized house cat. He found it in the craggy and 
 bushy country near Ambukol, west of the Nile, and, on comparing 
 a specimen with the skeleton of a cat's mummy, the latter agreed 
 with the former in the size of the body, the shape of the head, 
 and the length of the tail. ' On this and other evidence, Dr.. Rup- 
 pell comes to the conclusion that his felis maniculata is descended 
 from the domestic cat of the Egyptians. 
 
 * Without. 
 17* 
 
198 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Sir William Jardine concurs with Dr. Riippell and M. Tem- 
 minck ; but Mr. Bell, and his opinion is worthy of all respect, 
 differs from them, principally upon the ground that the ta.il of felis 
 maniculata, instead of being taper, like that of our house cat, ter- 
 minates in a thickened and tufted extremity, although it is some 
 what slender in the greater part of its length. The ears too, Mr. 
 Bell observes, are much longer and broader, and the legs are 
 longer and more slender. 
 
 " Who shall decide, when doctors disagree?" 
 
 We have seen how the cat is associated with Hecate ; and we 
 accordingly find it acting a conspicuous part in witchcraft. 
 
 The expostulating' tabby, in Gay's Fables, says to the olcLbel- 
 dame, 
 
 " 'Tis infamy to serve a hag, 
 Cats are thought imps, her broom a nag ; 
 And boys against our lives combine ; 
 Because, 'tis said, your cats have nine." 
 
 The cat probably owes this reputation to a ninefold vitality, not 
 only to its extraordinary endurance of violence, and its recovery 
 from injuries which, frequently, leave it for dead ; but also to the 
 belief that a witch was empowered to take on her a cat's body 
 nine times. 
 
 Absurd as these fancies now appear to us, they become matter 
 of grave and even painful interest, if considered as to their effect 
 on the manners of the time when the belief in witchcraft was rife, 
 and when hundreds of wretched old women, in these islands 
 alone, were sent out of life " in a red gown" (the slang of that 
 day for being " burnt quick" or alive), after undergoing the most 
 excruciating tortures to make them confess the impossibilities for 
 which they suffered. The smile that rises upon reading these 
 absurdities is changed to the frown of horror and execration at the 
 fate of these unhappy creatures, and the stupid zeal of their prose- 
 cutors. 
 
 Our gentle King Jamie, the great malleus maleficarum, was, 
 naturally enough, supposed to be the special object of the wrath 
 of the whole sisterhood, and, accordingly, we find that on his re- 
 turn from Denmark, in 1590, all the powers of darkness were in 
 league to prevent the completion of his matrimonial union with 
 the princess of that state. Whilst a favouring gale forwarded 
 the rest of the fleet, the royal pair were vexed by storms, and the 
 ship that carried the queen sprang a leak. Nor was the mischief 
 confined to royalty, for the loss of a passage-boat between Leith 
 and Kinghorn was attributed to the war of elements raised on this 
 occasion. Here is a specimen of one of these conjurations : 
 
CATS. 199 
 
 " Agnes Sampsoun, Jonnet Campbell, Johnne Fean, Geilie Uuncane, and 
 Meg Dyn, baptesit ane catt in the wobster's* hous, in the maner following: 
 First, twa of tharne held ane fingar in the ane syd of the chimnay cruik ; and 
 ane vther held ane vther fingar in the vther syde, the twa nebbis^ of the 
 fingaris meting togidder. Than they patt the catt Ihryis throw the lynkis 
 of the cruik, and passet it thryis vnder the chimnay. Thaireftir at Beigie 
 Todis hous, thay knitt to the foure feit of the catt foure jountis^ of men : 
 quhilk being done, the said Jonet fetchit it to Leith ; and about midnicht, 
 she, and twa Luikehop ; and two wyfeis callit Stobeis, came to the peir heid, 
 and saying thir wordis, ' see that thair be na desait among ws,' and thay caist 
 the catt in the see, sa far as thay mycht, quhilk swam owre and. cameagaine : 
 and thay that war in the panis, caist in an vther catt in the see at xi houris, 
 efter quhilk, be thair sorcerie and inchantmentis, the boit perischit betuix 
 Leith and Kinghorne."|j 
 
 We also find fir an old pamphlet (1591) " Newes from Scotland, 
 &c., &c., &c.," the following version of an enchantment on the 
 same occasion : , 
 
 ->..-"... * 
 
 11 Moreover she confessed that she took a cat and christened it, &c., &c., 
 and that in the night following, the said cat was conveyed into the middest 
 of the sea by all these witches sayling in their riddles, or cives,^f and so left 
 the said cat right before the towne of Leith in Scotland. This doone, there 
 did arise such a tempest at sea, as a greater hath not been seen, &c." 
 " Againe, it is confessed that the said 'christened cat was the cause of the 
 Kinges Majestie's shippe, at his comming forlhe of Denmarke, had a contrarie 
 winde to the rest of the shippes then being in^his companie, which thing was 
 most straunge and true, as the Kinges Majestic acknowledged, for when the 
 rest of the shippes had a fair and good winde, then was the winde contrarie, 
 and altogether against his Majestic, &c." 
 
 Nor was this an unconvivial expedition ; for, " they together 
 went to sea, each one in a riddle or cive, and went in the same 
 very substantially with flaggons of wine, making merrie, and 
 drinking by the way in the said riddles or cives." 
 
 In 1594 we find a convocation of sorcerers assembled at Seaton 
 Thorn christening a cat, -and making the poor beast an oblation 
 to Satan ; and this also stated in a criminal trial.** 
 
 Isobell Griersountt had, it seems, a grudge against Adam Clark, 
 and to feed it fat, she " in the likenes of her awin catt, accompa- 
 nied with ane grit number of vther cattis, in ane devillish maner 
 enterit within the hous quhair thay maid ane grit and feirfui noyis 
 and truble, quhairby the said Adam, then lying in his bed, with 
 his wyfe and seruand, apprehendit sic ane grit feir that thay wer 
 liklie to gang mad." Another witch lady was seen making her 
 escape by " ane hole in the ruife," and another stated that she was 
 
 * Weaver's. * Joints. 
 
 f Extremities. Two persons of that name. 
 
 || Trial of Agnes Sampsoun, 1590. 
 
 t In a sieve I'll thither sail." MACBKTH. 
 
 * Trial of Beigis Tod, May, 1608. ff Tried in 1607. t % 
 
200 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 among " the cattis that onbesett him." In short, it was the fa- 
 vourite shape in which the witches played their pranks. 
 
 " Under the cradle I did creep 
 By day, and when the child was asleep 
 At night, I suck'd the breath and rose 
 Arid plucked the nodding nurse by the nose.'* 
 
 Even in our own times we have seen a good old nurse drive a 
 cat out of the room with much significance of manner, that it 
 might not "suck the child's breath;" nor is such caution to be 
 wondered at, when it was the fashionable form for the witches to 
 appear in at their sabbath. It is recorded of Fontenelle, that he 
 confessed to having been brought up in the belief, that all the cats 
 deserted their dwellings on the Eve of St. John, to hie them to the 
 infernal assembly. 
 
 But, as fat as our islands were concerned, such gross super- 
 stitions and disgraceful trials as we have noticed, were not con- 
 fined to Scotland. The following depositions of Matthew Hop- 
 kins, Gent., appear in an old tract (1645) intituled, " A tjue and 
 exact relation of the several informations, examinations, and con- 
 fessions of the late witches, arraigned and executed in the county 
 of Essex. Who were arraigned and condemned at the late ses- 
 sions^ holden at Chelmesford before the Right Honorable Robert, 
 Earl of fVarwicke, and severall of his majesties justices of 
 peace, the 29 of July, 1645. Wherein the several murthers and 
 devillish witchcrafts, committed on the bodies of men, women, 
 and children, and divers cattell, are fully discovered. Published 
 by Authoritie" 
 
 The informations appear to have been taken before "Sir Har- 
 bottell Grimston, Knight and Baronet, one of the Members of the 
 Honourable House of Commons : and Sir Thomas Bowes, Knight, 
 another of his majesties justices of the peace for the county." 
 
 The first informant is "John Rivit, of Mannintree, Tayler; 
 who, on the 21st March, 1645, deposes that about Christmas 
 last, his wife was taken sick and lame, with such violent fits that 
 he verily conceived her sickness was something more than merely 
 natural; whereupon, about a fortnight since, he went to a 
 cunning woman, the wife of one Hovye, at Hadleigh in Suffolk, 
 who told him that his wife was cursed by two women who were 
 his near neighbours, the one dwelling a little above his house, 
 and the other beneath his house (which stood on the side of a 
 hill), whereupon he believed his said wife was bewitched by one 
 Elizabeth Clarke, alias Bedingfield, that dwelt above his house, 
 'for that the said Elizabeths mother and some other of her kings- 
 folke did suffer death for witchcraft and murther/" 
 
 The tailor having laid this very satisfactory and sure foundation 
 
CATS. 201 
 
 on the 21st, Hopkins the witch finder, who lived by his nefarious 
 trade, and had doubtless either got scent of the case or had been 
 apprized of it by the Manningtree sages, makes his appearance 
 on the 25th. The scoundrel's deposition would suffer oy more 
 curtailment than 'is absolutely necessary, arid therefore we give 
 it as far as we can in his own words. 
 
 "This informant saith, that the said Elizabeth Clarke, (sus- 
 pected for a witch as aforesaid) being by the .appointment of the 
 said justices, watched certaine nights, for the better discovery of 
 her wicked practises, this informant came into the roome where 
 the said Elizabeth was w.atched as aforesaid, the last night, 
 being the 24th of this instant March, but intended not to have 
 stayed long there. But the said Elizabeth forthwith told this 
 informant and one Master Sterne 'there present, if they would 
 stay and do the said Elizabeth no hurt, shee would call one of her 
 white impes and play with it in her lap; but this informant told 
 her, they would not allow of it ; and that staying there a while 
 longer, the said Elizabeth confessed"- (Here follows an alleged 
 confession, the particulars of which we must omit; suffice it that 
 the prince of darkness is not made -to possess the most refined 
 taste, though it vis stated that he appeared "in the shape of a 
 proper gentleman with a laced band.") The deposition then 
 goes on: "And within a quarter of an houre after there ap- 
 peared an impe like to a dog, which was white, with some sandy 
 spots, and seemed to be very fat and plumpe, with very short 
 legges, who forthwith vanished away.; and the said Elizabeth 
 said the name of that impe was Jarmard; and immediately there 
 appeared another impe, w r hich -shee called Vinegar Tom, in the 
 shape of a greyhound with long legges: and the said Elizabeth 
 then said that the next impe should be a black impe, and should 
 come for the said Master Sterne, which appeared but presently 
 vanished : and the last that appeared was in the shape of a 
 polcat, but the head somewhat bigger. And the said Elizabeth 
 then told this informant that she had five impes of her owne, 
 and two of the impes of the old Beldam Weste (meaning one 
 Jlnne Weste, widow) who is now also suspected to be guilty of 
 witchcraft: and said sometimes the impes of the old beldam 
 sucked on the said Elizabeth ; and sometimes her impes sucked 
 on the old beldam Weste; And the said Elizabeth further told 
 this informant that Satan would never let her rest, or be quiet, 
 until she did consent to the killing of the hogges of one Mr. 
 Edwards of Mannintree aforesaid, and the horse of one Robert 
 Tayler of the same towne : and this informant further saith, that 
 going from the house of the said Mr. Edwards to his own 
 house about nine or ten of the clock that night, with his grey- 
 hound with him, he saw the greyhound suddenly give a jumpe, 
 
202 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 and ran as shee had been in full course after an hare ; and that 
 when this informant rnade haste to see what his greyhound so 
 eagerly pursued, he espied a white thing about the bignesse of a 
 kitlyn, and the greyhound standing alopfe from it; and that by 
 and by the said whit^e impe or kitlyn daunced about the said 
 greyhound, and by all.likelihood bit off a piece of the flesh of the 
 shoulder of the greyhound ; for the greyhound came shrieking 
 and crying to this informant with a piece of flesh torn from her 
 shoulder. And this informant further saith, that coming into his 
 own yard that night he espied a black thing, proportioned like a 
 cat, onely it was thrice as big, sitting on a strawberry-bed, and 
 fixing the eyes on this informant ; and when he went towards it, 
 it leaped over the pale towards the informant, as he thought, but 
 ran quite through the yard, with his greyhound after it, toa.great 
 gate, which was undersell with a paire of tumbrell strings, and 
 did throw the said gate wide open, and then vanished ; and the 
 said greyhound returned againe to this informant, shaking and 
 trembling exceedingly." 
 
 Mr. Matthew Hopkins having delivered himself of this dainty 
 farrago, " Mr. John Sterne, Gent.," on the same day confirms 
 him, of course ; spicing his own account, however, a little more 
 highly with "Impes." "And the said Elizabeth desired this 
 informant, and the rest that were in the roome with; her to sit 
 downe, and said she would show this informant and the rest 
 some of her impes ; and within half an hour there appeared a 
 white thing in the likeness of a cat, but not altogether so big : 
 and being asked if she would not be afraid of her impes, the said 
 Elizabeth answered ; i What, doe yee thinke I am afraid of my 
 children?' And that she called the name of that white impe 
 Hoult," &c. &c. 
 
 Then follow five other informations, also upon oath, to the 
 same tune, and the confession of the poor overworn old woman 
 herself, giddy for lack of sleep and upon this evidence she was 
 executed at Chelmsford. ,- ' 
 
 Hopkins, having made his footing good, witch prosecutions, of 
 course, abounded in the county. The conviction of Elizabeth 
 Clarke was made the stepping-stone for that of Anne Leech, who 
 was also executed at Chelmsford, as was Helen Clark. His 
 depositions do not indeed appear in the two last-mentioned cases, 
 which were heard before the justices in April, of the same year ; 
 but he was, doubtless, busy on the spot, aiding and abetting ; 
 indeed, we find him in that same month giving his information 
 upon oath in the case of Rebecca West, against whom a true 
 bill was found -by the grand jury ; though she escaped capital 
 punishment on her trial, being " acquitted of life and death." 
 
CATS. 203 
 
 Anne Weste was not so- fortunate, for she was executed at 
 Manningtree, on the first of August in that year. 
 
 Our readers, if we have any, must be sick at heart of these 
 melancholy and disgusting details ; but 'before we close the 
 painful catalogue, Ave must draw their attention to one more 
 case ; for it strongly shows how completely the mania for witch- 
 finding had pervaded all ranks, reaching even that holy profession, 
 the duty" of whose members it is to preach peaCe on earth, and 
 good-will towards men. We 1 have, indeed, the information of 
 "John Edes, Clerke," in the cases of Rebecca -and Anne West, 
 or Weste ; but in those -Cases there was much more evidence, 
 such as it was. In -nhe following case, the Rev. Joseph Long 
 appears to be the principal and almost the only witn'ess. 
 
 "The Information of Joseph Long, Minister of Clacton,'in the 
 county of Essex, taken before the said just., April 29, 1645. 
 
 " This informant saith; that Anne, the wife of John Cooper, 
 of Clacton aforesaid, being accused for a witch, confessed unto 
 this informant, that she the said Anne was guilty of the sin of 
 witchcraft ; and that she hattfhad three black irnpes * ** * called 
 by the names of Wynowe^ Jeso, and PHtnu. And this informant 
 saith, that the said Anne told him, that once she cursed a colt of 
 one William Oottingams, of Clacton aforesaid, and the said colt 
 broke his neck presently after going but of a gate ; and the said 
 Anne further confessed unto this informant, that she the said 
 Anne offered to -give unto, her daughter, Sarah Cooper, an impe 
 in the likeness~of a gray kite, to suck on the said Sarah ; which 
 impe's name, the said Anne called Tomboy ; and told the said 
 Sarah, there was a cat for her ; and this informant saith, that 
 the said Anne confessed unto him, that she the said Anne, about 
 ten yeers since, .falling out with Johan, the wife of Gregory 
 Rous, of Clacton aforesaid, the said Anne Cooper sent one of 
 her impes to kill the daughter of the said Gregory and Johan, 
 named Mary. And this informant' saith, that to his.'. own know- 
 ledge, about the same time, the said child was strangely taken 
 sick, and languishing, within a short time died.". 
 
 The deposition of this clergyman seems to have been nearly all 
 sufficient of itself, for the only other information given in this case 
 is that of Roger Hempson, taken before the said justices on the 
 same day ; this compendious piece of evidence runs thus : 
 
 " This informant doth confirm the information of the said 
 Joseph Longe, and concurs in every particular." 
 
 The unhappy woman against whom this miserable stuff was 
 . recorded, was also executed at Manningtree, on the 1st of August, 
 in the same year. 
 
 In 1661 we find the Demon Drummer of Tedworth, among 
 other varied pranks, in the house of Master John Mompesson, 
 
204 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 purring, one night, in the children's bed like- a cat, "and at that 
 time the clothes and children w>re lift up from the bed, and six 
 men could not keep them down." 
 
 The lingering but expiring belief in this wretched sort of 
 witchcraft is admirably touched by Addison* in his account of 
 Moll White and her Cat, which, according to Sir Roger -de 
 Co verley; " lay under as bad report as Moll White herself; for 
 besides that Moll was said often to accompany her in the same 
 shape, the cat was reported t6 have spoken twice or thrice in her 
 life, and to have played several pranks above the capacity of an 
 ordinary cat." The worthy knight's chaplain is made to act a 
 very different part from the odious character assumed by the 
 minister of Clacton, for Mr. Spectator tells us that he had found 
 upon inquiry, that Sir Roger was several -times staggered with 
 the reports that had been brought him- concerning this old woman, 
 and would frequently have bound her over to the sessions, had 
 not his chaplain with much ado persuad'ed him to the contrary. 
 
 We willingly quit this. dark part of our subject, and return-to 
 honest every-day household cats ; observing only, at parting, that 
 if any modern Canidia sh*buld wish to concoct a charm, the brain 
 of a black cat, the blacker the better, is a special ingredient. 
 
 The animal mechanism of this lion of the mice is admirably 
 adapted to the work that the creature has to do." The apparatus 
 by which the claws are retracted, and sheathed within the folds 
 of the integuments, so that they may be unworn by ordinary 
 progression, and always ready for use, is a most beautiful con- 
 sentaneous arrangement of bone, elastic ligament and tendon. 
 When the claws of a cat are thus retracted, nothing is softer than 
 
 " The velvet of her paws;" 
 
 Nothing-can be more noiseless than the silent -tread with which 
 she steals along on these pattes de velours ; but the concealed 
 weapons are ready to start on the instant into sharp and lacerating 
 action quick as the lancets of a cupping instrument in the 
 hands of the most skilful operator. How she crouches, as if she 
 would almost conceal herself in the ground when she settles her- 
 ;self for her spring with what slashing force does she throw her- 
 self on her nimble four-footed prey with what agility does she 
 leap into the air, and strike down her feathered game ! Her 
 moveable spine enables her to turn in an almost inconceivably 
 small compass ;' and 'with the aid of the powerful muscles of the 
 posterior extremities and her clutching claws, she is up a tree in 
 an instant. Her powerful canine teeth her scissor-like back 
 teeth, for they can hardly be called molars, and her rough tongue, 
 
 > In the year 1711. 
 
CATS. 205 
 
 with its horny retroverted papillae, are all fashioned to assist in 
 tne destruction and dissection of her prey; that is, when she has 
 satiated herself with the enjoyment of its agonies of terror, and 
 fruitless, though desperate efforts to escape.* 
 
 Some have found it difficult to account for the cause of the 
 cat's proficiency in the art of ingeniously tormenting: a scene of 
 this sort is a horrible sight to any one of good feeling ; but it is 
 not at all clear that the cat, though she evidently takes great 
 delight in the sport, perpetrates the act as a mere gratification of 
 wanton cruelty. On the contrary, it seems that she resorts to 
 this agonizing amusement as an exercise to sharpen her powers, 
 or to keep, as it were, her hand in. A kitten, three parts grown, 
 is very much given to this pastime. The mouse, in its paroxysms 
 of terror, leaps aloft: the cat secures the victim with abound. 
 She then remains quite quiet, giving the panting trembler time 
 to recover, and, presently, the poor mouse attempts to steal off 
 gently. She suffers him to go on he quickens his pace he is 
 near the door you feel almost certain that he is safe: bounce 
 she pitches on the wretch, and has him secure. In this way the 
 mouse is made to exhaust all his powers of strength and ingenuity 
 in his anxious endeavours to escape ; whilst the cat, like a cun- 
 ning fencer, is exercising herself to foresee and counteract every 
 attempt. Sometimes a cat with kittens will slightly cripple two 
 or three young rats which she keepK under surveillance, occa- 
 sionally turning out one for the sport and practice of herself and 
 family. But a cat knows better than to pursue this system with 
 a bird which she has knocked down with a coup de patte: no; 
 she kills the winged prey at once. 
 
 Familiar as this animal is to every eye, it seems to be the 
 opprobrium of painters. With one or two brilliant exceptions, of 
 which Edwin Landseer is the chief, artists generally fail in repre- 
 senting a house cat. So, _ when it is brought upon the stage, how 
 seldom does the actor understand his part ? When a cat is in the 
 bills, we are not often absent, and most catawampous failures has 
 it been our lot to see. 'But in this- branch of art, also, a genius 
 occasionally appears. 
 
 Upon one occasion a Tartar enchanter had been for some time 
 on the stage, magnificently clad, and with the lower part of his 
 person dazzlingly enveloped in something like a Brobdignag card- 
 purse :_ not only did he not get a hand, but his insufferable 
 dulness began to endanger the piece. Coughs became extremely 
 prevalent, and an awful sibilation from the pit 
 
 * Those who wish to make themselves minutely acquainted with the 
 organization of the common cat should consult the elaborate and accurate 
 work of Straus-Durckheim, entitled : " Anatomic Descriptive et Comparative 
 du. Ch.at," 4to. 1845. 
 18 
 
206 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 " Rose like an exhalation ;" 
 
 when to him entered a cat about the size of a leopard, but ad- 
 mirably dressed, walked up to a tree, and raising himself on his 
 hind-legs against it, began clawing, as cats do, to keep their talons 
 in trim. This immediately brought down the house ; one of the 
 greatest philosophers of the day who was present exclaiming : 
 "That's an observer!" and leading the rounds of applause like 
 the trunk-maker of old. We know how difficult it is to get 
 human artists to enter into the conception of this extremely 
 difficult part; but when the actor succeeds, the success is perfect. 
 Could any one or any thing excel Jenny Vertpre in the " Femme 
 Chatte?" 
 
 A docile doggie, sewed up in cats' skins, has sometimes been 
 substituted; but do what you may, he will be a doggie still. It 
 was a four-footed actor of this description that performed. the cat 
 in that pretty pantomime pantomimes were pantomimes then 
 "Harlequin Whittington." When the rats ran about "to eat 
 all up," to the great consternation of King Longobarobonyo, and 
 the infinite delight of the holyday children, both small and great, 
 down the captain of the ship put Whiuington's cat. The cat 
 did his duty, and was always cruelly severe upon one particular 
 scamperer, evidently not formed of pasteboard, and made to feel 
 "he was no actor there:" so far so good, excepting that the 
 principal performer was rather of the least for a pantomimic cat ; 
 and moreover pursued his prey more in the canine than the feline 
 style. Still he got- applause, and all went well, save with the 
 poor real rat, who appeared for that night only. But when the 
 victorious cat was brought forward to the floats in the arms of 
 the captain, surrounded by the admiring king and queen, and 
 their whole court, panting from the recent deed, and with a real 
 red elongation of tongue hanging out of his mouth, all the terrier 
 was confessed. 
 
 In these days, when the schoolmaster is not only abroad, but 
 knocketh at the nursery door, to disenchant the nurslings, and 
 reduce their tales to the simplicity of unromantic matter of fact, 
 we dare not conceal the appalling fact that doubts have been cast 
 upon the authenticity of the almost sacred story of " Whittington 
 and his Cat." 
 
 "Cat?" say the learned. "Bah! Cat it might have been; 
 but it was no mouser. Do we not' know that cafta signified a 
 vessel? Does not the profound Bailey, in his edition of Facciola- 
 tus and Forcellinus acknowledge this, when under that word catla 
 he says, * Videtur genus esse navigii,qitod et Jlngli nos dicimus, 
 A CAT?' Did not Philip once build a great ship and how was 
 it named ? ' Tandem,' says the erudite Aldrovandus, 4 CATUS 
 
CATS. 207 
 
 erat navis genus ; legimus enim in annalibus Flandrise a Philippo 
 Burgundione grandem navim. Cati nomine.dzdificatamfuisse,qude 
 valli insfar esse videbatur ; nee prseter rationem cum Cat as naves 
 apud Gellium etiam legantur.' " We hope here be truths. Whit- 
 tington's cat, then, was merely the lucky freight of one of these 
 vessels, which, well husbanded, and fortunately and skilfully in- 
 creased, raisad the venturer to the lofty eminence on which is 
 placed the chair whence the Lord Mayor of London looks down 
 upon all sublunary things made to be eaten and imbibed. And 
 we allow you this out of our great mercy ; for, if you show any 
 signs of discontent,. it shall go hard but we shall damage the 
 theory that London has any exclusive right to the story at all. 
 Have no other countries in Europe such a tale ? Is there no 
 such story current in Asia somewhat generally, and in Persia 
 very particularly ? When you have answered these questions, 
 and.maytiap a few more, we will condescend further. 
 
 Still, as it would be as difficult for the learned of the present 
 day, say what they will, to convince a thorough-bred cockney 
 that Whittington's cat was not a bona fide rnouser, as it was for 
 the learned of a former day to convince Uncle Toby that there 
 was no consanguinity betwixt the Duchess of Suffolk and her 
 son, we would advise them not to waste their lore upon ears 
 unalterably charmed by the music, of Bow bells chiming so. 
 merrily 
 
 " Turn again Whittington." 
 
 In the preface to the famous ballad of "Sir Richard Whitting- 
 ton's advancement" we find it stated* as certain that there was 
 such a man, a citizen of London, by trade a mercer, one who left 
 public edifices and charitable works behind him sufficient to trans- 
 mit his name to posterity. He founded a house of prayer, with 
 an allowance for a master, fellows, choristers, clerks, &c., and an 
 almshouse for thirteen poor men, called Whittington College. He 
 rebuilt the wretched and loathsome prison standing in his time at 
 the west gate of the city, and called it Newgate. The better half 
 of St. Bartholomew's Hospital was built by him, and the fine li- 
 brary in Grey-friars, afterwards called Christ's Hospital, as well 
 as great part of the east end of Guildhall, with a chapel and a 
 library, in which the records of the city might be kept. 
 
 The same authority adds that he was chosen, sheriff in the 
 seventeenth year of the reign of King Richard II., William 
 Stondon, grocer, being then mayor of London. 'He was knighted, 
 and in the twenty-first year of the same reign was chosen mayor 
 an office which he held thrice, his second mayoralty being in the 
 
 _ * A.D. 1727. 
 
208 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 eighth year of Henry IV. 's reign, and his third in the seventh 
 year of Henry V., to whom he is said to have advanced a very 
 considerable sum towards carrying on the war in France. His 
 generous conduct to the conqueror of Agincourt is thus noticed in 
 the ballad: 
 
 " More his fame to advance, 
 
 Thousands he lent the king, . 
 To maintain war in France, 
 Glory from thence to bring. 
 
 " And after, at a feast 
 
 Which he the king did make, 
 He burnt the bonds all in jest, 
 And would no money take. 
 
 "' Ten thousand pounds he gave 
 - , To his prince willingly 
 And would no money have 
 For his kind courtesy." 
 
 We shall now let the writer of the preface speak for himself: 
 " He marry'd Alice, the daughter of Hugh and Molde Fitz- 
 warren : at whose 'house, traditions say, Whittingdon liv'd a 
 servant, when he got his immense riches, by venturing his cat 
 in one of his master's ships. However, if we may give credit to 
 his own will, he was a knight's son ; and more obliged to an 
 English king and prince than to any African monarch, for his 
 riches. For when he founded Whittington College, and left a 
 maintenance for so many people, as above related ; they were, as 
 Stow records it (for this maintenance), bound to pray for the 
 good estate of Richard Whittington and Alice his wife, their 
 founders ; and for Sir William Whittington and Dame Joan his 
 wife ; and for Hugh Fitzwarren and Dame Molde his wife ; the 
 fathers and mothers of the said Richard Whittington and Alice 
 his wife: for King Richard II. and Thomas of Woodstock, 
 Duke of Glocester, special Lords and promoters of the said 
 Richard Whittington, etc." 
 
 Howel in his Londinopolis,* speaks of Richard Whittington 
 as having been chosen for the mayoralty four times. The ballad 
 and the preface above quoted give him that office only thrice. 
 
 x." For to the city's praise, 
 
 Sir Richard Whittington, 
 Came to be in his days, 
 Thrice Mayor of London." 
 
 Generous, charitable, and exemplary as was his life, it does not 
 * A.D. 1657. 
 
CATS. 209 
 
 appear that his bones were left undisturbed; for the same Howel 
 says that he was "thrice buried." 
 
 In the chapter " Of Vintry Ward" the last-mentioned author 
 thus writes : "Then is the fair parish church of Saint Michael, 
 called Paternoster church, in the Royal-street. This church was 
 new builded, and made a colledge of S. Spirit and S. Mary, 
 founded by Richard Whittington, mercer, four times mayor, for 
 a master, four fellows, masters of arts, clerks, conducts, chorists, 
 etc.; and an alms-house, called God's House or Hospital, for 
 thirteen poor men, one of them to be tutor, and to have sixteen 
 pence the week, the other twelve, each of them to have fourteen 
 pence the week for ever, with other necessary provision, an hutch 
 with three locks, with a common seal, etc. The licence for this 
 foundation was granted by King Henry IV. the eleventh of his 
 reign, and in the twelfth of the same king's reign, the mayor and 
 the communally of London, granted to Richard Whittington a 
 vacant piece of ground thereon, to build his colledge in the Roy- 
 all; all which was confirmed by Henry VI. the third of his reign, 
 to John Coventry, Jenkin Carpenter, and William Grove, executors 
 to Richard Whittington. This foundation was again confirmed 
 by Parliament, the tenth of Henry VI., and was suppressed by the 
 statute of Edward VI. The alms-houses with the poor men do 
 remain, and arapaid by the mercers." 
 
 " This Richard Whittington was (in the church) three times 
 buried : first, by his executors, under a fair monument ; then in 
 the reign of Edward VI. the parson of that church, thinking 
 some great riches (as he said) to be buried with him, caused his 
 monument to be broken, his body to be spoiled of his leaden 
 sheet, and again the second time to be buried ; and in the reign of 
 Q,ueen Mary, the parishioners were forced to take him up, and lap 
 him in lead, as afore, ta bury him the third time, and to place his 
 monument, or the like, over him again, which remaineth still, and 
 so he rested." 
 
 At all events, .so long as London is London, Whittington will 
 be always associated with his cat; and no bad associate either, 
 notwithstanding the vile character given of the slandered quadru- 
 ped by BufTpn and others for caprice, treachery, and in short, 
 every bad quality that would make a companion odious. 
 
 Now, though we grant as a general proposition that cats are 
 attached more to the place than the person, we at the same time 
 are free to confess our belief that they are capable of the most 
 steady personal attachment. There are 
 
 Some that are mad, if they behold a cat," 
 
 and the antipathy is so strong that they are ready to faint if one 
 be in the room with them. The gallant Highland chieftain al- 
 
 18* 
 
210 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 luded to by Sir Walter Scott, had "been seen to change into all 
 the colours of his own plaid" on such an occasion. Such per- 
 sons cannot be friendly to cats. But though these animals are 
 too often treated with contumely and cruelty, the instinct of at- 
 tachment is so strong, that they will still keep about the place, 
 notwithstanding the bad treatment they have endured. Though 
 proverbially loth to wet their feet, they have been known, after 
 being carried to a far country in bags, in the hope of banishing 
 them, to swim rivers in their irresistible anxiety to return to their 
 home."* 
 
 Others again will tell you, "I was disposed to be kind to that 
 cat ; but whilst I was caressing it the ill-natured beast turned on 
 me, and bit and scratched me." No pleasant operation, certainly, 
 under any circumstances, but becoming a fearful attack when it 
 is recollected that the bite of a cat has been known to communi- 
 cate the horrible hydrophobia, as fatally as that of the dog. Now 
 in such cases, unless the animal be diseased, or, at least, in nine 
 out of ten, it will be found either that puss's temper has been 
 ruined by previous provocations, or that the party attacked does 
 not know how to play with a cat he does not understand the 
 animal ; what he calls play is teasing, and is resented. But when 
 a cat has been kindly dealt with, and its master or mistress is 
 really fond of it, few animals are more attached. *Such cats have 
 been seen to follow their patrons about like dogs, escort them to 
 the door, when permitted to go no farther, and abide patiently on 
 the mat listening for the much-desired return, from morning till 
 evening. On the entrance of their friend, no dog could express a 
 more lively affection, a more hearty welcome. We need only 
 allude to the story of the favourite cat that would not be parted 
 from its dying master was with difficulty driven from the cham- 
 ber of death and even after the body was 
 
 " Compounded with the dust, whereto 'twas kin," 
 
 would return again and again to the grave, though repeatedly 
 chased from the churchyard, and there lie, braving cold and 
 hunger for hours. 
 
 To be sure, puss is, as Pennant says, " a piteous, squalling, 
 jarring lover;" nor need we wonder that the distinguished 
 northern functionary 
 
 ' Unmov'd, unmelted by the piteous muse 11 
 
 * Female cats are naturally kindly animals; and so strongly imbued with 
 the love of offspring that, at the season of maternity, all feelings seem to be 
 merged in that passion. They have been known to suckle leverets and mice, 
 and young rats have been seen sharing the full tide of maternal affection with 
 a kitten. In the latter case the cat showed the young rats the same attentions 
 in caressing them, and dressing their fur, as she did to her kitten. 
 
CATS. 211 
 
 of a cat-parliament held under his. window, fired his blunderbuss 
 upon the amazed wretches not, however, till he had quieted his 
 legal conscience by reading the Riot Act. 
 
 The days of puss's gestation are fifty-six, or thereabout ; and 
 as she produces two or three litters in a year, and some five or six 
 at a birth, there is no fear that the cat population will decrease, 
 notwithstanding the unsparing means used to keep it down. The 
 young do not see till about the ninth day. 
 
 The varieties are almost infinite : among them, the long silken- 
 haired Angora, the Persian, the bluish Chartreuse, the tortoise- 
 shell, and the typical tabby, are the' most prominent. There is 
 also a tailless variety, which most probably owes its existence to 
 its unfortunate ancestors having been deprived of that handsome 
 appendage by accident. To Spain, it is said, we are indebted for 
 the tortoiseshell variety : and a male of this colour, or rather 
 assemblage of colours, being rare, even now, fetches a high 
 price.* We have seen one of these unhappy varieties chained 
 to his little -kennel, at the door of a dealer in beasts and birds, 
 looking as important, and withal as sorrowful, as any wild beast 
 of them all could look in such a shackled situation. And here 
 we are almost tempted to give a hint to the President and Council 
 of the Zoological Society of London, on the subject of the sin of 
 keeping cats in cages. They certainly were once guilty of such 
 incarceration ; but we hope that they have repented and let their 
 prisoners out. At all events, the bereavementf which they have 
 
 * A friend, not less noted for his scientific labours than his fund of anec- 
 dote, tells us that some twenty-five, or (by'r Lady) thirty years ago, a tor- 
 toiseshell Torn-cat was exhibited in Piccadilly, where the Liverpool Mu- 
 seum was afterwards shown, and where dowagers and spinsters thronged to 
 his levee, as was recorded in the caricatures of the day. " One hundred 
 guineas," says our philosophical friend ^of many tales, " was the price asked ; 
 and I saw many a longing, lingering, coronetted coach at the door of the 
 exhibition-room." 
 
 f- After a gestation of fourteen months and twenty days, the first gi- 
 raffe ever born in Europe, came into the world #t one o'clock, on Wednes- 
 day, the 19th of June, 1839, at the gardens of the Zoological Society of 
 London, in the RegentVpark. It was a male, strong and hearty, and 
 stood on its oustretched legs, two hours after its birth. 
 
 It was a most beautiful creature, and almost a perfect .miniature of the full 
 grown animal, standing about six feet high, the principal difference being 
 in the smallness of the white divisions that separated the great spots. The 
 horns, too, were relatively smaller; and the frontal protuberance was not 
 developed. Not in the least shy, it came up to be caressed : and its full, 
 large, lucid eye, with its long silken lashes, was lovely. 
 
 The mother was not unkind to her offspring, but she would not let it come 
 near her to receive nourishment. Persisting in this prohibition, she lost the 
 power of affording it : still the vigorous young animal throve admirably to all 
 appearance, upon cow's-rnilk, and there was every reason to hope that it would 
 be brought up well by hand. 
 
212 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 recently had to lament disarms all censure; and for the incar- 
 cerated cats, if incarcerated they still be, we can breathe no 
 better wish than a speedy deliverance from their gaol, even if it 
 be to embark with the grim ferryman on their transportation to 
 the Feline Elysium. , ' 
 
 " There shall the worthies of the whiskered race, 
 
 Elysian mice o'er floors of sapphire chace, 
 1 'Midst beds of aromatic marum stray, 
 
 Or raptur'd rove beside the milky way." 
 
 APES AND MONKEYS 
 
 " A wilderness of Monkeys." 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 . - MAZTJRIER, it is said, after a long and patient attendance upon 
 .the monkeys domiciled in the Jardin du JRoi, sewed up in skins, 
 and with a face painted and made up in a concatenation accord- 
 ingly, raised at last the benevolence of a tender-hearted one to 
 such , a pitch, that it offered him a bit of the apple it was eating, 
 and drew from him that rapturous exclamation, pregnant with the 
 consciousness of his apparent identity with the monkey-character 
 "Enfin ! enfin, je suis singe !" 
 
 Poor Mazurier ! when he died, Polichinelle was shipwrecked 
 indeed. We can see him now gaily advancing, as if Prometheus 
 had just touched the wood with his torch, in a brilliant cocked 
 hat of gilt and silvered pasteboard, with rosettes to match, gal- 
 lantly put on athwart ships; that very pasteboard, so dear to. 
 
 On Friday morning, the 27th, at six o'clock, it was frisking about the 
 large box, or rather spacious apartment, in which it was confined with its 
 mother ; and at half-past ten was dead. On the post-mortem examination, 
 the first three stomachs were found in a healthy state ; but the fourth was 
 slightly inflamed, and the rest of the alimentary canal presented a similar 
 condition. The inference to be drawn from this seems to be that its food 
 disagreed with it. Not the slightest blame can attach to any one from this 
 untoward event. The conduct of the keepers, both before and after the 
 birth, was exemplary ; and we have only to hope that if Za'fda should present 
 the society with another baby giraffe, that she will be able and willing properly 
 to fulfil the duties of a mother (1839). 
 
 Since the last paragraph was written ZaYda has produced no less than three 
 young ones, all healthy males. She nursed them admirably, and they are alive 
 and well ; two in England, and one, by the gift of the Zoological Society of 
 London, in Ireland. 
 
APES AND MONKEYS. 213 
 
 recollection as having glittered before our delighted eyes when 
 old nurse unfolded the familiar little books of lang-sytte books 
 which in these philosophical days are shorn of their beams; for 
 "Cock-Robin," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Jack and his 
 Bean-stalk," "The Children in the Wood," "The Seven Cham- 
 pions," "Valentine and Orson," with the other dearly-beloved 
 legends of our childhood, when permitted to enter the nursery, 
 are more soberly clad: their splendid and many-coloured attrac- 
 tive coats have almost entirely disappeared. 
 
 Mazurier was the personification of that invincible Prince of 
 Roues, Punch; but if the comic strength of this elastic, this 
 Indian-rubber man lay in Polichinelle, it was in " The Ape of 
 Brazil" that his tragic power lay and that power, absurd as the 
 expression may seem to those who never beheld him, was great. 
 There was but one blot. in his inimitable performance, It was 
 perfect as a piece of acting if that may be called acting which, 
 like Morris Barnett's Monsieur Jacques, is nature itself; but 
 alas! Mazurier had dressed the character without a tail. The 
 melodrama was admirably got up ; 'but there, to the great distress 
 of zoologists, was the tailless quadrumane in the midst of Brazi- 
 lian scenery, where no traveller and travellers are proverbial for 
 seeing strange things has ever ventured to say that he saw a 
 monkey without that dignifying appendage. 'How true is it that 
 wisdom such wisdom as it is brings sorrow ; all the rest of the 
 world were in ecstacies ; the zoologists shook their heads, and the 
 scene ceased to affect them. 
 
 Be it remembered henceforth by the getters-up of monkey 
 melodramas, that all the monkeys of the New World yet dis- 
 covered rejoice in tails ; the anthropoid apes- of the Old World 
 have none. ; ' , 
 
 But, tailed or tailless,, this 'amusing order of mammiferous 
 animals has always been, and ever will be, regarded by the 
 million with feelings of mingled interest and disgust. Every one 
 is irresistibly attracted by the appearance and tricks of a monkey 
 very few leave the scene without something like mortified pride 
 at the caricature held up to them. The zoologist regards the 
 family with an interest proportioned to their approximation to 
 man ; but he knows that their apparent similarity to the human 
 form vanishes before anatomical investigation ; and that, although 
 there may be some points of resemblance, the distance between 
 the bimanous and the quadrumanous types, notwithstanding all 
 the ingenious arguments of those philosophers who support 
 the theory of a gradual development from a monad to man, js 
 great. 
 
 We would treat with respect such names as Lamarck, Bory de 
 Saint Vincent ay, and others, even unto Monboddo, though the 
 
214 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 announcement of the last will hardly be received by any naturalist 
 with gravity ; but we must beg leave to differ from them toto 
 ccelo. Leaving the tail out of the question, there is no doubt that 
 the number and quality of the teeth in some species are identical 
 with the formula belonging to the human subject ; and there may 
 be as little that the peasants of the Landes of Aquitaine, who gain 
 their living by climbing for the resin of the Pinus Maritima, have 
 acquired a. power of opposing, in a 'certain degree, the great toe to 
 the others; but these facts are, after all, but traps for the unwary, 
 as those who wish to be informed on the subject will see by turn- 
 ing to Professor Owen's paper on the Osteology of theChimpanzee 
 and Orang Utan.* 
 
 A modern zoologist! has, not inaptly, applied the term Chei- 
 ropeds or hand-footed animals to this group ; and, indeed, strictly 
 speaking, they can hardly be called quadrumanous or four-handed. 
 Their extremities, admirably fitted for grasping and climbing, as . 
 far as their arboreal habits require those actions, fall short how 
 very far short ! of that wonderful instrument which surrounds a 
 being born one of the most helpless of all creatures, with neces- 
 saries, comforts, and luxuries, and enables him to embody his 
 imaginings in works almost divine* We look in vain among the 
 most perfectly-formed of the anthropoid apes for the well-deve- 
 loped opposable thumb of the human hand that great boon, the 
 ready agent of man's will, by means of which he holds " dominion 
 over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over 
 every living thing that moveth upon the earth." 
 . ^ The hands of the monkeys are at best but "half made up," 
 and they are generally more or less well fashioned in proportion 
 to the greater or less prehensile development of the tail. The 
 habits pf the race, as we have already hinted, are arboreal, -and 
 their favourite haunts are the recesses of those tropical forests 
 where they can either sport in the sunbeams on the topmost 
 boughs, or shelter themselves from its scorching rays under the 
 impervious canopy of a luxuriant vegetation. When their pri- 
 vacy is invaded by man, a restless and constantly recurring 
 curiosity seems to be their prevailing feeling at first, and at last 
 the intruders are frequently pelted with stones, sticks, and fruits 
 heavy and hard, more especially if they make any demonstration 
 of hostility. 
 
 Robert Lade thus speaks of their behaviour when he went to 
 hunt some of them near the Cape : 
 
 "I can neither describe all the arts practiced by these animals, 
 
 nor the nimbleness and impudence with which they returned after 
 
 
 
 * Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. i.'p. 343. 
 f Mr. Ogilby. 
 
APES AND MONKEYS. 215 
 
 being pursued by us. Sometimes they allowed us to approach so 
 near them, that I was almost certain of seizing them ; but when 
 I made the attempt, they sprung, at a single leap, ten paces from 
 me, and mounted trees with equal agility, from which they looked 
 with great indifference, and seemed to derive pleasure from our 
 astonishment. Some of them were so large, that if our interpreter 
 had not assured us that they were neither ferocious nor dan- 
 gerous, our number would not have appeared to be sufficient to 
 protect us from their attacks. As it would serve no purpose to 
 kill them, we did not use our.guns" (we respect the good feeling 
 of honest Robert and his companions) ;..*,* but the captain hap- 
 pened to aim at a very large one which sat on the top of a tree, 
 after having fatigued us a long time in pursuing him. This kind 
 of menace, however, of which the animal perhaps recollected his 
 having sometimes seen the consequences, terrified him to such a 
 degree, that he fell down motionless at our feet, and we had no 
 difficulty in seizing him. But whenever he recovered from his 
 stupor it required all our dexterity and efforts to keep him. 
 We tied his paws together ; but he bit so furiously that we 
 were under the necessity of covering his head -with our handker- 
 chiefs." 
 
 Indeed, those who have only seen these, agile creatures in 
 menageries, or in a reclaimed state, can have no idea of the wild 
 activity of the tribe in their native woods. Swinging and -leap- 
 ing from tree to tree, ever onjhe hunt for fruits and birds' 
 nests they are most unconscionable plunderers of eggs they 
 lead a merry life, which is, "however, often cut short by those 
 mighty snakes that frequently lie in ambush near their careless, 
 unsuspecting prey. These serpents are the greatest enemies, of 
 the monkeys, with the exception of the common persecutor man. 
 He, indeed, is sometimes touched by compunctious visilings, when' 
 it is too late. 
 
 " Seeing me," says a South American traveller, speaking of a 
 monkey, " nearly on the bank of the river in a canoe, the creature 1 
 made a halt from skipping after his companions, and, being 
 perched on a branch that hung over the water, examined me with 
 attention and the strongest marks of curiosity, no doubt taking 
 me for a giant of his own species, while he chattered prodigiously, 
 and kept dancing and shaking the bough on which .he rested, with 
 incredible strength and agility. At this time I laid my piece to 
 my shoulder, and brought him down from the tree into the 
 stream ; but may I never again be a witness to such a scene ! The- 
 miserable animal was not dead, but mortally wounded. I seized 
 him by the tail, artd taking him in both my hands to end his 
 torments, swung him round and hit his head against the side of 
 the canoe ; but the poor creature still continuing alive, and look- 
 
216 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 ing at me in the most affecting manner that can be conceived, I 
 knew no other means of ending his murder than to hold him 
 under the. water till he was drowned, while my heart sickened on 
 his account, for his dying little eyes still continued to follow me 
 with seeming reproach, till their light gradually forsook them, and 
 the wretched animal. expired. I felt so much on this occasion that 
 I could neither taste of him nor his companions when they were 
 dressed, though I saw that they afforded to some others a delicious 
 repast." 
 
 The repentant writer and his party were driven to the commis- 
 sion of the act for want of fresh provisions : and many of the 
 family are considered most excellent eating by those who can 
 get over the appearance of the animal and of its bones when 
 cooked. There are not many, however, who can .sit down to a 
 dish of monkeys without feeling that it is rather a Cannibalish 
 proceeding. 
 
 It will be obvious, when the leafy home of this restless race is 
 considered, that it is of the utmost consequence that the infant- 
 monkey should be protected as much as possible from a fall. 
 Accordingly, the prevailing instinct of a young one is, in sailor's 
 language, to hold on. It clings to its mother with the greatest 
 tenacity ; and, to enable it to do this, considerable strength is 
 thrown .into the extremities, the anterior limbs especially. 
 
 Le Vaillant, in-his introduction to his first voyage, gives the 
 following curious instance of the exhibition of this instinct under 
 extraordinary circumstances. When living in Dutch Guiana, at 
 Paramaribo, where. 'he was born, and where he had already, 
 .though -very young, formed a collection of insects, the future 
 traveller and his party in one of their excursions had killed a 
 female monkey : 
 
 "As she carried on her back a young one, which had not 
 been Wounded, we took them both along with us ; and when we 
 returned to the plantation, my ape had not quitted the shoulders 
 of its mother. It clung so closely to them, that I was obliged to 
 have the assistance of a negro to disengage them ; but scarcely 
 was it separated from her, when, like a bird, it darted upon a 
 wooden block that stood near, covered with my father's peruke, 
 which it embraced with its four paws, nor could it be compelled 
 to quit its position. Deceived by its instinct, it "still imagined 
 itself to be on the back of its mother, and. under her protection. 
 As it seemed perfectly at ease on the peruke, I resolved to suffer 
 it to remain, and to feed it there with goat's milk. It continued 
 in its error for three weeks, but after that period, emancipating 
 itself from its own authority, it quitted the fostering peruke, 
 and by its amusing tricks became the friend and favourite of the 
 whole family." 
 
APES AND MONKEYS. 217 
 
 Though it is difficult to suppress a smile at the idea of a 
 monkey clinging to a full-bottom on a wig-block and fancying it 
 its mamma, the story, as it begins mournfully with the slaughter 
 of the poor mother, ends tragically for her unhappy offspring ; it 
 died a terrible death, the result, indeed, of its own mischievous 
 voracity, but in agonies frightful to think of: 
 
 " I had, however," continues Le Vaillant, "without suspecting 
 it, introduced tne wolf among my flocks. One morning, on 
 entering my chamber, the door of which I had-bee'n so imprudent 
 as to leave open, I beheld my unworthy pupil making a hearty 
 breakfast on- my noble collection. In the first transports of my 
 passion I resolved to strangle it in my arms : but rage and fury 
 soon gave place to pity, when I perceived that its voraciousness 
 had exposed it to .the most cruel punishment. In eating the 
 beetles it had swallowed some oP the pins on which they were 
 fixed, and though it made a thousand efforts to throw them up, 
 all its exertions were in vain. The torture which it suffered made 
 me forget the- devastation it had occasioned ; I thought only of 
 affording it relief: but neither my tears, nor all the art of my 
 father's slaves, whom I called from all quarters with loud cries, 
 were able to preserve its life."" : ,; 
 
 To return to the instinct exemplified in. the first part of this 
 melancholy tale ; we remember to -have seen a female monkey 
 and her young one in the case of a menagerie- and a small cage, 
 too. In this case the instinct, and it was a good example of 
 the wide difference between that quality and reason, both on 
 the part of the mother and her offspring, was just as strong as it 
 could have been in their native forests. The young one clung as 
 tightly, and the mother showed as much anxiety lest it should be 
 dashed to pieces by a fall whilst she was sitting at the bottom 
 of her cage, which rested on the ground, as if she had been 
 swinging with the breeze upon the tree top. 
 
 The form of the skull in some species approaches to that of 
 man, and the theory of the facial angle adopted by Cuvier and 
 M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, a theory founded on the application of 
 Camper's rule for ascertaining the degree of intelligence and 
 beautiful expression of the human face divine, would at first lead 
 us to conclude that the family which is 1 the subject of our inquiry 
 stood high in the intellectual scale. But, if the facial angle in the 
 young anthropoid apes is equal to 65, in age that angle frequently 
 sinks below 30 ,* and, indeed, we shall find that the docility and 
 apparent intelligence which are so strongly marked in the Chim- 
 panzee and Orang, and which have given rise to such exagge- 
 rated ideas of their intellect, have been always observed in youth- 
 ful animals ; while untameable ferocity and brutality, in short, 
 the very reverse of the amiable and interesting qualitie's which 
 19 
 
218 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 have been so much dwelt on, have been uniformly the concomi- 
 tants of age. The old^anthropoid apes have " foreheads villanous 
 low.". 
 
 Accordingly, though there may be exceptions to the general 
 rule and that there are we shall show the stories told of our 
 friends, whether by ancients or moderns, are hardly ever in their 
 favour. There may be a certain degree of cunning, and^even of 
 accomplishment, in the monkey of whom the tale is told ; but, in 
 nine cases out of ten, the laugh is either at his expense, or he 
 is only saved from ridicule by some horrible catastrophe. From 
 the earliest ages down to the time of that wanchancy creature 
 Major Weir, Sir Robert Redgauntlet's great ill-favoured jacka- 
 nape, the whole tribe have been regarded as unlucky, meddling 
 beings ; the Major came to an untimely end, as every one knows, 
 and where he went, or -at least, was expected, after the breath 
 was out of his body, is pretty plain. 
 
 Either, like ^Elian's ape, the mimic, in its zeal for imitation, 
 makes the trifling mistake of plunging a child into boiling water 
 instead of cold, or it is taken by the hunter's stratagem of wash- 
 ing his face in its .presence, and then leaving, by way of a lotion 
 fdr the poor animal that has been watching his motions, some of 
 the best bird-lime, with which it belutes its eyes till they are 
 sealed up : or a parcel of shell-snails are placed round it, in the 
 midst of which it sits like a fool, not daring to stir for fear. 
 
 The same ^Elian, indeed, and others, tell us of the ape that 
 was a most skilful charioteer ; of the adroitness of another in 
 escaping from, cats, when hunted by them on trees in Egypt, by 
 running to the extremity of a bough too slender to bear the cats, 
 and so, taking advantage of its- bending, reaching the ground in 
 safety, leaving the cats, pfantes /, clutching and clinging on as 
 they best might to save themselves from the shock of the recoil ; 
 of that renowned and all-accomplished animal, to come to more 
 modern times, the Prsegrandem simiam, which Paraeus saw in 
 sedibus Duds Somei, and which so excelled in many arts, that it 
 was named Magister Factotum, but not till after the poor beast's 
 hands had been cut off to keep it out of mischief, to say nothing 
 of the celebrated coup, dear io diplomatists, of the cat's paw. 
 Some of our readers, by the way, may not know that this scene 
 which Edwin LandSeer has so admirably represented painted, we 
 would have said, but painting it may not be called, for the coals 
 are live coals, and the yelling cat is held by the imperturbable 
 monkey to a fire that makes one hot ttf look at it that this 
 event, so familiar to every schoolboy, is recorded as having ac- 
 tually taken place in the hall of Pope Julius the Second. 
 
 But what are these to the clouds of unfortunate adventurers ? 
 An ape may generally be considered to be well off if he only loses 
 
 t 
 
APES AND MONKEYS. 219 
 
 an eye, like the cheiroped king's son in the Arabian story, by 
 magical fire. 
 
 It is but fair to add a legend evidently intended to convey an 
 impression of the sapience of our friends ; not- that we are" going 
 to enter into the controversy as to whether the Prince of Dark- 
 ness chose the similitude of an ape as the most appropriate for the 
 temptation of our common mother Eve ; we leave, that to the 
 initiated-: our tale is much more humble in its pretensions. 
 
 In " A New History of Ethiopia, being a full and accurate 
 description of the kingdom of Abyssinia, vulgarly, though erro- 
 neously,'called the Empire of Prestor John, by the learned Job 
 Ludolphus, author of the Ethiopic Lexicon Made English by I. P. 
 Gent." (folio, 1682), there is a grand engraving of apes with this 
 superscription : 
 
 " 1. Scrambling about the mountains. 
 
 "2. Rernoveing great huge stones to come, at the wormes. 
 
 " 3. Sitting upon ant-hills and devouring the little creatures. 
 
 " 4. Throwing sand or dust in the eyes of wild beast that come 
 to sett upon them.'! A . 
 
 The whole being illustrative of the following edifying piece of 
 information: 
 
 " Of apes there are infinite flocks up and down in the moun- 
 tains themselves, a thousand and more together : there they leave 
 no stone unturned. If they meet with one that two or three can- 
 not lift, they call for more, and all for the sake of the wormes 
 that lye under ; a sort of dyet which they relish exceedingly. 
 They are very greedy after emmets. So that having found an 
 emmet-hill, they presently surround it, and laying their fore-paws 
 with the hollow downward upon the ant-heap, as fast as the 
 emmets creep into their trecherous palmes they lick 'em off with 
 great comfort to their stomachs: and there they will lye till 
 there is not an emmet left. They are also pernicious to fruit and 
 apples, and will destroy whole fields and gardens, unless they be 
 carefully looked after. For they are very cunning, and will never 
 venture in till the return of their spies, which they send always 
 before; who giving information that all tilings are safe, in- they 
 rush with their whole body, and make a quick dispatch. There- 
 fore they go very quie.t and silent to their prey ; and if their young 
 ones chance to make a noise they chastise them with their fists, 
 but if they find the coast clear, then every one hath a different 
 noise to express his joy. ' Nor could there be any way to- hinder 
 them from further multiplying, b.ut that they fall sometimes into 
 the ruder hands of the wild beasts, which they have no way .to 
 avoid, but by a timely flight or creeping -into -the clefts of "the 
 rocks. If they find no safety in flight, they make a virtue of 
 necessity, stand their ground, and filling their paws full of dust or 
 
220 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 sand, fling it full in the eyes of their assailant, and then to their 
 heels again." 
 
 A collection of stories, printed by John Rastell considerably 
 more than a century before the date of the work last quoted, and 
 not long ago discovered by the lamented Rev. I. I. Conybeare, 
 next attracts our notice. It is no other than "The Hundred 
 Merry Tales," the opprobrium of Benedick, or as it is imprinted 
 " ( ( jfUltf Cg SFfllpS." This curious and important addition to 
 the stock of Shaksperfana had, as it is stated in the advertisement 
 of the private reprint (Chiswick, 1815), been converted into the 
 pasteboard which formed the covers of an old book. As far as 
 the pleasantry is concerned generally, we do not wonder at Bene- 
 dick's wincing under Beatrice's imputation that he got his wit out 
 of it. 
 
 But though there 'is much matter tif fact in the book, there 
 are also- many queer tales, some of which have passed for new, 
 "Old Simon," for instance. One of them, the forty-sixth tale, is 
 instructive, inasmuch as it shows what chief-justices were in those 
 days. 
 
 The story is headed "Of the Welcheman that delyuered the 
 letter to the ape." 
 
 The first lines are wanting, but there is enough to make it 
 appear that a master sends his Welsh retainer with a letter to 
 the Chief Justice, in order to obtain favour for a criminal who 
 had been in the writer's service, with directions to the said 
 Welshman to return with an answer. The tale then proceeds thus : 
 
 " This Welcheman came to the Chefe Justyce place, and at 
 the gate saw an ape syttynge there in a cote made for hym, as 
 they use to apparell apes for disporte. This Welcheman dyd 
 of his cappe and made curtsye to the ape, and sayd ' My mayster 
 recommendeth him to my lorde youre father, and sendeth him 
 here a letter.' This ape toke this letter and opened it, and lokyd 
 thereon, and after lokyd vpon the man, makynge many rnockes and 
 moyes as the propertyes of apes is to do. This Welcheman, be- 
 cause he understood him nat, came agayne to his mayster ac- 
 cordynge to his commandes, and told hym he delyuered the letter 
 unto my lorde' chefe iustice sonne, who was at the gate in a furred 
 cote. Anone his mayster asked him what answere he broughte ? 
 The man sayd he gaue him an answere, but it was other Frenche 
 or Laten, for he understode him nat. But, syr,' quod he, * ye 
 need nat to fere, for I saw in his countenance so much that I 
 warrante you he wyll do your errande to my lorde his father.' 
 This gentylman in truste thereof made not anye further suite. 
 For laCke whereof his seruant that had done the felonye within 
 a monthe after was rayned at the kynge's benche, and caste, and 
 afterwarde hanged." 
 
APES AND MONKEYS. 221 
 
 And what, does the reader think the moral is ? Some reflection, 
 perhaps, upon the impunity of those attached to the great, with 
 a hint at God's judgment against unjust judges ? No such thing ; 
 " By this ye may see that every wyse man ought to take hede 
 that he sende nat a foolyssche seruante vpona hasty message that 
 is a matter of nede." Not a bad specimen of the morality of the 
 good old times. 
 
 Those who would amuse themselves with more monkeyana of 
 ancient date, will find some choice passages in Erasmus, Porta, 
 and others.; and may learn how a monkey may occasionally 
 supersede the use of a comb what a horror monkeys have of 
 tortoises and snails how violent is the antipathy between the 
 cock and the ape, and how both of these were added to the 
 serpent and introduced into the deadly sac wherein the matri- 
 cide was inclosed to suffer the frightful punishment awarded to 
 his unnatural act. But we beg to offer 'the following trifle, show- 
 ing how a monkey can behave at a dinner-table. 
 
 In a country town, no matter where, there lived the worthiest 
 and most philosophical of old bachelors, with a warm heart and 
 a sound head, from whose well-powdered exterior dangled that 
 most respectable orqament a queue. Long did this august appen- 
 dage, now no longer seen, linger among the benches of the inns of 
 court. Two worthies we have yet in our eye, Ultimi Caudato- 
 rum I with what veneration do we look up to ye ! with what fear 
 and trembling did we regard the progress of the influenza ! -the 
 destroying angel has passed by, and the tails still depend, from 
 your '* frosty pows" blessings on'em! 
 
 Pardon the digression ; and return we to our bachelor, who 
 entertained a monkey of such good breeding and so much discre- 
 tion, that Jacko was permitted to make one at the dinner-table, 
 where he was seated in a high child's chair next to his master, 
 and took off his glass of perry and water in the same time and 
 measure with his patron, and in as good a style as Dominie 
 Sampson himself could have performed the feat. Now, his 
 master's housekeeper made the best preserved apricots in the 
 county, and when the said apricots were enshrined in a tart, the 
 golden fruit set off by the superincumbent trellis, a more tempting 
 piece of patisserie could hardly be laid before man or monkey. 
 One of these tarts enriched the board at a small dinner-party, 
 and was placed nearly opposite to Jacko, who occupied his usual 
 station. The host helped one and another to some of tins' ex- 
 quisite tart, but he forgot poor Jacko, who had been devouring 
 it with his eyes, and was too well-bred to make any indecorous 
 snatch at the attraction, as most monkeys would have done. At 
 last Jacko could stand it no longer, so looking to the right and 
 left, and finally fixing his eyes on the guests opposite, he quietly 
 19* 
 
222 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 lifted up his hand behind his master's back, and gave his tail such 
 a tug as made the powder fly, withdrew his hand in an instant, 
 and sat with a vacant expression of the greatest innocence. 
 People don't like to have their tails pulled. His master gave him 
 a look, and Jacko gave him another, but even the eloquent expres- 
 sion of Hogarth's monkey on the offending bear's back, fell short 
 of it. It said as plainly as look could speak " Don't be angry 
 don't thrash me they did not see it I beg your pardon, but I 
 must have a bit of that .apricot tart ;" he was forgiven and 
 helped. 
 
 ' Authors generally seem to think that the monkey race are 
 not capable of retaining lasting impressions ; but their memory is 
 remarkably tenacious when striking events call it into action. 
 
 One that in his zeal for imitation had swallowed the entire 
 contents of a pill-box the cathartics, fortunately, were not 
 Morisonian suffered so much, that ever afterwards the produc- 
 tion of such a bo5c sent him to hjs hiding place in a twinkling. 
 
 Another that was permitted to run free had frequently seen 
 the men-servants in the great country kitchen with its huge fire- 
 place, take down a powder-horn that stood on the chimney-piece, 
 and throw a few grains into the fire, to make Jemima and the 
 rest of the maids jump and scream, which they always did on 
 such occasions very prettily. Pug watched his opportunity and 
 when all was ' still, and he had the- kitchen entirely to himself, 
 he clambered up, got possession of the well-filled powder-horn, 
 perched himself very gingerly on one of the horizontal wheels 
 placed for the support of saucepans, right over the waning ashes 
 of an almost extinct wood-fire, screwed ofFthe top of the horn, 
 and reversed it over the grate. 
 
 The explosion sent him half-way up the chimney. Before he was 
 blown up he was a smug, trim, well-conditioned monkey as you 
 would wish to see on a summer's day: he came down a carbonadoed 
 nigger in miniature-, in an avalanche of burning soot. The aplomb 
 with which he pitched upon the hot ashes in the midst of the general 
 flare-up, aroused him to a sense of his condition. He was missing 
 for days. Hunger at last drove him forth, and he sneaked into 
 the house close-singed, begrimed, and looking scared and devilish. 
 He recovered with care, but,~like some other great personages, 
 he never got over his sudden elevation and fall, but became a 
 sadder if not a wiser monkey. If ever Pug forgot himself and 
 was troublesome, you had only to take down a powder-horn in 
 his presence, and he wasofTto his hole like a shot, screaming and 
 clattering his jaws like a pair of castanets. 
 
 Le Vaillant, in his African travels, was accompanied by an ape, 
 which lived on very good terms with the cocks and hens, showing, 
 in defiance of the legend, no antipathy to the former, and a strong 
 
APES AND MONKEYS. 223 
 
 penchant for the latter, for whose cacklings he listened, and 
 whose eggs he stole.' But this and other peccadillos were amply 
 atoned for, by the bonhomie and other good qualities of Kees, for 
 that was the name of the traveller's ape, which seems to have 
 almost realised the virtues of Philip Gluarl's monkey. 
 
 "An animal," says Le Vaillant in his first voyage, just after 
 speaking of the benefits that he derived from his gallant chanti- 
 cleer, "that rendered me more essential services ; which, by its 
 useful presence, suspended and even dissipated certain bitter and 
 disagreeable reflections that occurred to my mind, which by its 
 simple and striking instinct, seemed to anticipate my efforts, and 
 which comforted me in my languor was an ape, of that kind so 
 common at the Cape, under the name of Bawians. As it was 
 extremely familiar, and attached itself to me in a particular 
 manner, I made it my taster. When we found any fruit or roots 
 unknown to my Hottentots, we never touched them until my dear 
 Kees had first tasted them : if it refused them, we judged them 
 to fee either disagreeable or dangerous, and threw them away. 
 
 " An ape has one peculiarity which distinguishes it from all 
 other animals, and brings it very near to man. It has received 
 from'nature an equal share of greediness and curiosity: though 
 destitute of appetite, it . tastes without necessity every kind of 
 food that is offered to it : and always lays ats pawl upon every 
 thing that it finds within its reach. 
 
 " There was another quality in Kees which I valued still more. 
 He was my best guardian ; and whether by night or by day, he 
 instantly awoke on the least sign of danger. By his cries, and 
 other expressions of fear, we were always informed of the approach 
 of an enemy before my dogs could discover it : they were so 
 accustomed to his voice, that they slept in perfect security, and 
 never went the rounds ; on which account I was extremely angry, 
 fearing that I should no longer find that indispensable assistance 
 which I had a right to expect, if any disorder or fatal accident 
 should deprive me of my faithful guardian. However, when he 
 had once given the alarm; they all stopped to watch the signal ; 
 and on the least motion of his eyes or shaking of his head, I have 
 seen them all rush forward, and scamper away in the quarter to 
 which they observed his looks directed.' 
 
 "I often carried him along with me in my hunting excursions, 
 during which he would amuse himself in climbing up trees, in 
 order to search for gum, of which he was remarkably fond. 
 Sometimes he discovered honey in the crevices of rocks, or in 
 hollow trees; but when he found nothing, when fatigue and 
 exercise had whetted his appetite, and when he began to be 
 seriously oppressed by hunger, a scene took place which to me 
 appeared extremely comic. When he could not find gum and 
 
224 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 honey he searched for roots, and ate them with much relish; 
 especially one of a particular species, which, unfortunately for 
 me, I found excellent and very, refreshing, and which I greatly 
 wished to partake of. But Kees was very cunning : when he 
 found any of this root, if I was not near him to claim my part, 
 he made great haste to devour it, having his eyes all the time 
 directed towards me. By the distance I had to go before I could 
 approach him, he judged of the time that he had to eat it alone ; 
 and I, indeed, arrived too late. Sometimes, however, when he 
 was deceived in his calculations, and when I came upon him 
 sooner than he expected, he instantly endeavoured to conceal the 
 morsels from me : but by means of a blow well applied, I com- 
 pelled him to restore the theft ; and in my turn becoming master 
 of the envied prey, he was obliged to receive laws from the 
 stronger party. Kees entertained no hatred or rancour : and I 
 easily made him comprehend how detestable that base selfishness 
 was of which he had set me an example." 
 
 This is all very fine, but we confess that we think poor Kees 
 hardly used in this matter ; nor are we aware of any law, written 
 or unwritten, human or Simian, by which the conversion of the 
 root, which he had sagaciously found, to his own use could be 
 made a theft, or by which the prize could be ravished from him, 
 except indeed by the "good old law" that "sufficeth" people in 
 such cases 
 
 " the simple plan, 
 
 That they should take who have the power, 
 . , And they should keep who can." 
 
 But to return to Le Vaillant's entertaining narrative. 
 
 " To tear up these roots, Kees pursued a very ingenious method, 
 which afforded me much amusement. He laid hold of the tuft 
 of leaves with his teeth ; and pressing his four-paws firmly against 
 the earth, and drawing his head backwards, the root generally 
 followed : when this method, which required considerable force, 
 did not succeed, he seized the tuft as before, as close to the 
 earth as he could ; then throwing his heels over his head, the 
 root always yielded to the jerk which he gave it. In our marches, 
 when he found himself tired, he got upon the back of one of my 
 dogs, which had the complaisance to carry him for whole hours 
 together : one only, which was larger and stronger than the rest, 
 ought to have served him for this purpose ; but the cunning 
 animal well knew how to avoid this drudgery. The moment he 
 perceived Kees on his shoulders, he remained motionless, and 
 suffered the caravan to pass on, without ever stirring from the 
 spot. The timorous Kees still persisted ;< but. as soon- as he 
 began to lose sight of us, he was obliged to dismount, and both 
 
APES AND MONKEYS. 225 
 
 he and the dog ran with all their might to overtake us. For 
 fear of being surprised, the dog dexterously suffered him to get 
 before him, and watched him with great attention. In short, he 
 had acquired an ascendancy over my whole pack, for which he 
 was perhaps indebted to the superiority of his instinct ; for among 
 animals as among men, address often gets the better of strength. 
 While at his meals, Kees could not endure guests ; if any of the 
 dogs approached too near him at that time, he gave them a 
 hearty blow, which these poltroons never returned, but scampered 
 away as fast as they could. 
 
 "It appeared to me extremely singular, and I could not 
 account for it, that, next to the serpent, the animal which he 
 most dreaded, was one of 'his own species : whether it was that 
 he was sensible that his being tamed had deprived him of great 
 part of his faculties, and that fear had got possession of his 
 senses, or that he was jealous and dreaded a 'rivalry in my friend- 
 ship. It would have been very easy for me to catch wild ones 
 and tame them ; but I never thought of it. I had given Kees a 
 place in my heart, which no other after him could occupy ; and I 
 sufficiently testified how far. he might depend on my constancy. 
 Sometimes he heard others of the same species making a noise in 
 the mountains ; and, notwithstanding his terror, he thought 
 proper, I know not for what reason, to reply to them. When 
 they heard his voice they approached : but as soon as he perceived 
 any of them he fled with horrible cries ; arid, running between 
 our legs, implored the protection of everybody, while his limbs 
 quivered through fear. We found it no easy matter to calm him ; 
 but he gradually resumed, after some time, his natural tranquillity. 
 He was very much addicted to thieving, a fault common to almost 
 all domestic animals ; but in Kees it became a talent, the inge- 
 nious efforts of which I admired. Notwithstanding all the correc- 
 tion bestowed upon him by my people, who took the matter seri- 
 ously, he was never amended. He knew perfectly well how to 
 untie the ropes of a basket, to take provisions from it ; and, above 
 all, milk, of which he was remarkably fond : more than once he 
 has made me go without any. I often beat him pretty severely 
 myself: but, when he escaped from me, he did not appear, at my 
 tent till towards night." 
 
 "Milk in baskets !" why, truly, the term "basket" as applied 
 to a vessel for holding milk appears to require some explanation ; 
 but it was really carried in baskets woven by the Gonaquas, of 
 reeds, so delicate, and so close in texture that they might be 
 employed in carrying water or any liquid. The abstraction of 
 the milk, &c. we consider as a kind of set-off against the appro- 
 priation of Kees's favourite root by his master. ! 
 
 The pertinacious way in which Kees bestrode Le Vaillant's 
 
226 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 dogs will recall to the remembrance of some a monkey that was, 
 and perhaps still is, riding about London, in hat and feather, with 
 garments to match, upon a great dog, with the usual accom- 
 paniments of hand-organ and Pan's pipe. Upon these occasions 
 the monkey evidently felt proud of his commanding position ; 
 but ever and anon we have seen him suffer from one of those sad 
 reverses of fortune to which the greatest among us are subject. In 
 the midst of the performance, while-Hhe organ and pipe are 
 playing, and the monkey has it all his own way, and, elevated 
 with the .grandeur that surrounds him, is looking rather aristo- 
 cratically at the admiring crowd, some good-natured but unlucky 
 4x>y throws the dog a bit of cake, in his zeal to pick up which 
 the latter lowers his head and shoulders so suddenly as infallibly 
 to pitch his rider over his head. We have thought more than 
 once that there was a sly look about the dog as he regarded the 
 unseated monkey, utterly confounded by his downfall and the 
 accompanying shouts of laughter from the bystanders. 
 
 We shall now proceed to give sketches of the most remarkable 
 species of monkeys in the New World, as well as of those in the 
 Old Continent and its Islands ; merely observing, en passant, that 
 though zoologists declare that there is but one European species,* 
 another, at least, is to be met with in our quarter of the globe. 
 The Demopithecus of Aristophanes, " qui vel fraudatione vel adu- 
 latione erga populum simiam se exhibet," is, assuredly, not yet 
 extinct ; on the contrary, it still is, and seems at all times to have 
 been, common in Ireland; nor is it by any means of rare occur- 
 rence in Great Britain, especially about the period of a general 
 election. 
 
 AMERICAN MONKEYS. 
 
 " High on the twig I've seen you cling, 
 Play, twist, and turn in airy ring." 
 
 THE TWO MONKEYS. 
 
 MANY of the forests of South America flourish in all their 
 primitive grandeur. Immense tracts are covered with vegetable 
 forms in every stage of luxuriant development. Towering trees, 
 their trunks embraced by gigantic twiners and garlanded by a 
 
 * Macacus sylvanus, Lacepede the Barbary Ape, which has established 
 itself on the rock of Gibraltar. 
 
AMERICAN MONKEYS. 227 
 
 profusion of plants,* in whose curious and splendid blossoms 
 Nature seems to have imitated, in the- wantonness of her prodi- 
 gality, almost every variety of insect shape shoot up and darken 
 the light of day with their broad shadows. 
 
 In these "boundless contiguities of shade," which have never 
 echoed to the woodman's axe, the most perfect silence reigns 
 during the day; a silence, unbroken save by the crashing fall of 
 some ancient tree prostrated by the weight of years, and carrying 
 with it in one vast ruin all that it had long fed and fostered. 
 
 But, if all is silent during the day, at night 
 
 " The wonted roar is up amidst the woods, 
 And fills the air with barbarous dissonance;" 
 
 for in the depths of these solitudes live the Howling Monkeys, to 
 whose voice the voice of the Rev. (jrabriel Kettledrummle would 
 be but as the sough of the wind in the bracken. 
 
 We have already stated that the South American monkeys are 
 all blessed with tails, but they are deprived of those brilliant blue 
 and red callosities which give so much splendour to the integu- 
 ments of many of the Old World family, and recall sometimes a 
 part of the costume of a certain unearthly pedestrian; for his 
 femoral habiliments . V : 
 
 " were blue, 
 And there was a hole where the tail came through." 
 
 Neither do they rejoice in cheek-pouches: they are, consequently, 
 unable to keep any thing in the corner of their jaws, or to furnish 
 forth any rebuke to the Rosencrantzes and Guildensterns of the 
 several courts in this best of all possible worlds. 
 
 " The Howlers," as they are termed, claim our first attention. 
 They are the largest of the American SimiadaeJ and the fierce 
 brutality of their disposition, joined to their low facial angle, 
 remind the observer of the baboons of the old continent, whilst 
 their gregarious habits and nocturnal bowlings agree with the 
 manners of the Gibbons. The yells uttered by these Howlers in 
 the dead of the night are described as absolutely appalling. 
 They strike upon the ear of the uninitiated benighted traveller as 
 if they were not of this world; and even to the naturalist they 
 are terrible. " Nothing," says Waterton, speaking of the Mono 
 
 * The Orchidaceous Epiphytes. So great is their number in humid situa- 
 tions that a thousand species may, it is asserted, be found inTarma, Huanuco, 
 and Xau-xa alone. Th'ey abound in the recesses of tropical forests ; but, in 
 the Orchidaceffi, imitation is not confined to images of the insect world, as 
 those will acknowledge who have seen the flower of the Peristeria, enshrining 
 the semblance of a milk-white dove, which seems actually to hover above an 
 altar ; wax could hardly be modelled into a more perfect representation. 
 
 f Genus Mycetes. 
 
 '>*'. 
 
228 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Colorado, or Red Howler, " nothing can sound more dreadful than 
 i:s nocturnal bowlings. While lying in your hammock in these 
 gloomy and immeasurable wilds, you hear him howling at inter- 
 vals from eleven o'clock at night till day-break. You would sup- 
 pose that half the wild beasts of the forest were collecting for the 
 work of carriage. Now it is the tremendous roar of the jaguar as 
 he springs on his prey ; now it changes to 'his deep-toned growl- 
 ings as he is pressed on all sides by superior force; and now 
 you hear* his last dying moan beneath a mortal .wound." 
 
 When Humboldt and Bonpland landed at Cumana they saw the 
 first troops of Araguatos,* as they journeyed to the mountains of 
 Cocallor and the cele-brated cavern of Guacharo. The forests 
 that surrounded the convent of Caripe, which is highly elevated 
 and where the centigrade thermometer fell to 70 during the 
 night, abounded with them, and their mournful howling was 
 heard, particularly in open weather or before rain or storms, at the 
 distance of- half a league.- "Upwards of forty of this gregarious 
 species were counted upon one tree on the banks of the A pure ; 
 and Humboldt declares his conviction that, in a square league of 
 these wildernesses, more than two thousand may be found. 
 Melancholy is the expression of the creature's eye, listless in its 
 gait, and dismal in its voice. The young ones never- play in cap- 
 tivity like the Sagoins ; no, " The Araguato de los Cumanenses," 
 as the worthy Lopez de Gbmara voucheth, " hath the face of a 
 man, the beard of a goat, and a staid behaviour," such, in short, 
 as may well beseem the possessor of such a "powerful organ," 
 as the newspaper critics have it. 
 
 We will endeavour, with Humboldt's assistance, to convey to 
 the reader some idea of the structure of this sonorous instrument. 
 That most observing traveller states that the bony case of the 
 os hyoides, or bone of the tongue, jn the Mona Colorado is, in 
 size, equal to four 'cubic- inches (water measurement). The 
 larynx, or windpipe, consisting of six pouches, ten lines in length 
 and from tfate'e to five in depth, is slightly attached by muscular 
 fibres. The pouches are like those of the little whistling mon- 
 keys, squirrels,' and some birds-. Above these pouches are two 
 others, the lips or borders of which are of a yellowish cast; these 
 are the pyramidal sacs which are formed by membranous parti- 
 tions and enter into the bony case.- Into these sacs, which are 
 from three to four inches. in length and terminate in a point, the 
 air is.driven ;'the fifth pouch is in the aperture of the arytenoid 
 cartilage and is situated between the pyramidal sacs, of the same 
 form but shorter ; and the sixth pouch is 'formed by the bony 
 
 * Mycetes Ursinus. It is nearly three feet in length, without including 
 the tail. 
 
AMERICAN MONKEYS. 229 
 
 drum itself: within this drum the voice acquires the doleful tone 
 above alluded to. But we are becoming anatomical and sopori- 
 fical ; no more, then, of this " evening drum," and turn we to 
 that grotesque race, the Sapajous. 
 
 They are slender, mild in disposition, flat in face, long in tail, 
 and spidery in general appearance. The genus Jlteles of M. 
 Geoffrey St. Hilaire stands first upon the roll. With anterior 
 hands, either entirely deprived of thumbs, or only supplied with 
 mere rudiments, and weak, long limbs, justifying their popular 
 names of " Spider Monkeys," they are compensated by a. pre- 
 hensile tail of such exquisite sensibility and power, that it may 
 be almost considered a fifth hand. For a length of six or seven 
 inches from the tip, this is naked ; and, on the under surface, it 
 is comparatively callous, for the purpose of prehension. Hum- 
 boldt asserts that the animal can introduce it, without turning its 
 head, into narrow chinks or clefts, and hook out any substance ; 
 but he never saw it employed to convey food to the mouth, though 
 the natives will have it that the monkey goes- a fishing with it. 
 Leap the species of this genus cannot, or, at most, but very im- 
 perfectly ; this tail of all work, however, amply makes amends, for. 
 by it they hang suspended from the branches or swing themselves 
 from bough to bough, and from, tree to tree,, with the utmost 
 agility. Dampier relates, and his statements are generally 
 worthy of credit, that, when troops of them have occasion to cross 
 rivers, they look out for a point where the trees are most lofty, 
 and project farthest over the water. Having arrived at such a 
 place, they climb to the boughs best suited to their purpose, and 
 form a long chain by grasping the tails of each other. This chain 
 hangs free at the lower end, while it is held on at the top, and the 
 living pendulum is swung backwards and forwards, till it acquires 
 sufficient vibration to carry the lower end to the opposite bank. 
 Then the lowest joint catches hold of the first branch within his 
 reach, and mounts as high as he can. As soon as he has made 
 himself fast, the upper joint on the other side lets go, and the 
 whole conjoined " tail" swings, and is carried safely over. Hum- 
 boldt and Bonpland saw some of them which inhabit the banks of 
 the Orinoco suspended in great numbers from the trees, and 
 hanging on to each other by tail and hands in the most ridiculous 
 groups. 
 
 The Quata, or, as the French write the word, Coaita,* is said 
 to unite activity with intelligence, gentleness, prudence, and pene- 
 tration. To be sure the Q,uatas will, when they meet with a 
 learned traveller, or any other strange animal, descend to the lower 
 branches of their trees, to examin.e the phenomenon, and, when 
 
 * Ateles paniscus. 
 20 
 
230 . ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 they have satisfied their curiosity, pelt the phenomenon aforesaid, 
 to get rid of him or it : but that they he sensible and trustworthy 
 is proved by Acosta, who has immortalised the Gluata belonging 
 to the Governor of Carthagena. This domestic was regularly 
 sent to the tavern for wine. They who sent him put an empty 
 pot into one hand, and the money into the other ; whereupon he 
 went spidering along to the tavern, where they could by no means 
 get his money from him till they had filled his pot with wine. As 
 this Ganymede of the Governor came back with his charge, cer 
 tain idle children would occasionally meet him in the street, and 
 cast stones at him ; whereupon he would set down his pot and 
 cast stones at them, " till he had assured his way, then would he 
 return to carry home his pot. And what is more, although he 
 was a good bibber of wine, yet would he never touch it till leave 
 was given him." We are sorry to add that this amiable genus is 
 considered very good eating. Humboldt frequently saw the broiled 
 limbs of the Marimonda in the huts of the natives on the Orinoco; 
 and, at Emeralda, he found in an Indian hut a collation of their 
 roasted and dried bodies, prepared as the pieces de resistance for 
 a "harvest home." 
 
 In Lagothrix, the head is rounder than it is in Steles, the hands 
 are provided with thumbs, such as they are, but the tail is still 
 long and prehensile, and the under surface at the rip is naked. 
 The species of this genus are of some size. The Caparro which 
 inhabits the banks of the Guaviare, one of the streams that flow 
 into the Orinoco, is two feet two inches in length, without includ- 
 ing the tail. The head is very large and round in proportion. 
 
 Cebus next claims our attention. In this form we find the tail 
 beginning to lose somewhat of its prehensile powers, and no longer 
 bared at the tip to add to its sensibility as an organ of touch. In 
 lieu of this, the strength is thrown into the limbs, which are well 
 developed, and the anterior hands are remarkably well formed 
 though, still, less perfectly than those of the Old World monkeys. 
 The first of the five fingers is become more thumb-like, and the 
 palms of the extremities both l)efore and behind are endowed 
 with much sensitiveness. These sylvans are excellent climbers, 
 and of a surprising agility. 
 
 Of these Cebi, the Horned Sapajou,* with the hair of its forehead 
 standing up so as to give the animal the appearance of having a 
 London waterman's cap on, is one of the largest, while the Ouava- 
 pavi des cataractesfi which is very mild and intelligent, is of small 
 size. We remember once to have heard of a sort of compact 
 which was said to have been entered into between a monkey and 
 a pig, the latter of which carried the monkey a certain number 
 
 Cebus fatudlus. f Cebus Albifrons. 
 
AMERICAN MONKEYS. 231 
 
 of times round an orchard, in consideration of the monkey's 
 climbing the apple-trees, and giving them a shake for the benefit 
 of the porker. Though not very old at the time, we gave the 
 narrator credit for being blessed with a very lively imagination, 
 albeit the story was told gravely and vouched as a fact. But 
 Humboldt actually saw, at Maypures, one of these domesticated 
 Ouavapavis, obtaining his rides apparently without any such un- 
 derstanding ; for this clever monkey used to bide his time, and 
 every morning caught a luckless pig, which he compelled to per- 
 form the part of his horse. Seated on pigback did he majesti- 
 cally ride about, the whole day, clinging to his bristly steed as 
 firmly as ever the Old Man of the Sea clung to Sinbad, not even 
 giving poor piggy a respite at meal-times, but continually be- 
 striding him all the time he was feeding in the .savanna that 
 surrounded the Indian huts. A missionary had another of these 
 riders ; but the missionary's monkey had laid the strong hand of 
 possession on a comfortable cat which had been brought up with 
 him, carried him well, and bore all his felestrian exploits with 
 patience and good humour. 
 
 The tail which has become less and less prehensile in the genera 
 last noticed, becomes in Callithrix no longer capable of use as a 
 support. The pretty playful little Siamiri,* whose length hardly 
 exceeds ten inches exclusive of the tail, which reaches thirteen 
 or fourteen, winds that appendage like a boa round its body and 
 limbs, reminding the zoologist in some degree of the mode in 
 which the white-fronted Lemurt disposes of his ; and we now 
 begin to observe, moreover, traces of insectivorous and carnivo- 
 rous appetite. The Macavacahow,^: at the sight of a bird, is 
 roused at once from its apparent apathy ; darting on its victim like 
 a cat, it secures the prize and swallows it in an instant, with all 
 the actions that mark the beast of prey. 
 
 In the Dourocouli, the Cara rayada of the missionaries, we 
 observe traces of the cat in appearance, voice, and manners. This 
 curious animal is nine inches in length ; and its tail, which is 
 hairy, but not prehensile, is about fourteen : the head is large and 
 round ; the muzzle short ; the eyes very large ; but there is no 
 apparent external ear. Three dark stripes are drawn on the 
 head, and come down in front, the centre stripe on the forehead 
 and the two lateral ones reaching to the rounded corners of the 
 eyebrows. 
 
 The animal is, during the day, " a huge sleeper," whence its 
 name " Mono Dormillon," Humboldt, notwithstanding the warn- 
 ing of the natives, that the Dourocoulis will tear out the eyes of 
 
 * Callithrix sciureus. ' t Simia lugens. 
 
 f Lemur AUufrons. Aotes trivirgatus. 
 
232 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 slumbering men, kept one in his bed-room. It slept regularly 
 from nine in the morning till seven at night ; and sometimes it 
 went to sleep at daybreak. It hated the light, and, when dis- 
 turbed, the lethargic animal could scarcely raise its heavy white 
 eyelids ; and its large eyes, which, at nightfall, were lighted up 
 like those of the owl, were lustreless. It must have been but a 
 restless companion for the night : then it was all exertion and ac- 
 tivity, made wild noises, and was constantly jumping up against 
 the walls. It lived for five months, but all attempts to tame it, were 
 fruitless. 
 
 The Dourocoulis are captured during the day by the natives, 
 when they are fast asleep in some hollow tree. The male and 
 female are often taken in the same hole, for they live in pairs. In 
 a state of nature they .pursue small birds and insects, not neglect- 
 ing vegetables, almost every kind of which they will eat. Hum- 
 boldt's specimen was very fond of flies, which it caught dex- 
 terously, and would even sometimes rouse itself for this chase on a 
 gloomy day. Its night-cry resembled that of the Jaguar, and it 
 is thence called Titi-tigre. The mewing notes which it occasion- 
 ally sends forth remind the hearer of a cat, and this resemblance 
 is heightened when the head of a Dourocouli in a state of irrita- 
 tion swells, and the animal hisses or spits, throws itself into the 
 position of a cat when attacked by a dog, and strikes quick and 
 cat-like with its paw. Its voice is very powerful for its size. In 
 the Leoncito,* whose body does not exceed seven or eight inches 
 in length, we have much of the appearance of a tiny lion. 
 
 But it is in the genus Pithecia that we have the nearest 
 approach to human likeness. There are some strong resemblances" 
 in the Couxio ;t but, as Humboldt well observes, of all the monkeys 
 of America, the CapuchinJ of the Orinoco bears the greatest 
 similitude in its features to man. There are the eyes with their 
 mingled expression of melancholy and fierceness ; there is the 
 long thick beard ; and, as this last conceals the chin, the facial 
 angle appears much less than it really is. Strong, active, fierce, 
 the Capuchin is tamed with the greatest difficulty, and, when 
 angered, he raises himself on his hinder extremities, grinds his 
 teeth in his wrath, and leaps around his antagonist with threaten- 
 ing gestures. If any malicious person wishes to see this Homun- 
 culus in a most devouring rage, let him wet the Capuchin's beard, 
 and he will find that such an act is the unforgiveable sin. There 
 is one point, indeed, wherein our monkey differs from civilized 
 man he very seldom drinks ; but, when he does, the similarity 
 returns. Unlike the other American monkeys, which bring their 
 lips to the liquid, the Capuchin lifts the water in the hollow of 
 
 * Midas leoniua. t Pithecia Satanas. t Pithecia Chiroputt's. 
 
AMERICAN MONKKYS. 233 
 
 his hand, inclines his head upon his shoulder, and, carrying the 
 draught to his mouth in the cup of Diogenes, drains it with great 
 deliberation. This appears to be his mode of drinking in a state 
 of nature ; and Humboldt thinks that it is adopted to prevent the 
 wetting of the beard which renders the animal furious, and which 
 could not be avoided if the lips were applied in the usual Simian 
 mode. Our friend the Capuchin is about two feet nine, bushy tail 
 and all, of a brownish red colour, the hair of the body being long, 
 and that on the forehead having a direction forwards. The beard, 
 which arises below the ears, is brown, inclining to black, and 
 covers the upper part of the breast. His large sunken eyes are 
 overarched with well-marked brows, and his nails are bent, with 
 the exception of those on his thumbs. He is not gregarious, and 
 is seldom found in company with his female. 
 
 We must not omit to notice another of these Pithecias with 
 black face and hands and a shorter tail, having a good deal of the 
 general aspect in miniature of one of those respectable, ancient, 
 withered negroes, who, after a long life of slavery, find themselves, 
 in their old age, transmuted, by legislative magic, into apprentices. 
 This species which is termed the Cacajao,* is hardly more than a 
 foot long. It is voracious, weak, very lazy, mild, easily fright- 
 ened, and lives in troops in the forests. ^ 
 
 In Callithrix and <ftotes, the carnivorous propensity and cha- 
 racter are, as we have seen, joined to the general habits of the 
 monkey; and we proceed to finish this imperfect sketch of the 
 American Simiadse, by calling the reader's attention to forms" dis- 
 tinguished by a union of that character and propensity with 
 squirrel-like manners. Such are the genera Hapales and Midas. 
 To the latter belong the pretty diminutive Marikina or Silky 
 Monkey,! an d tne Leoncito before alluded to. These, though 
 their way of life is but little ascertained, are supposed hardly ever 
 to quit the trees. 
 
 Of -the debonnaire Ouistiti or SanglainJ much more is known. 
 This small, delicate creature, with its rich pale gray coat, and pale 
 grayish-white ear-tufts, like the ailes de pigeon of the old beau of 
 other days, feeds in its native woods not only on fruits, roots, and 
 seeds, but also indulges occasionally in insects and little birds. 
 In captivity the Sanglains are great pets, and Edwards relates a 
 curious instance of the craving for something that possessed life 
 breaking out in one that was the favourite of a lady. Once, when 
 he was let loose, he snatched a gold fish from its "watery 
 glass," and instantly killed and devoured it. The lady, upon 
 this, made hirn a present of some live eels, and, as the little 
 
 * Pithecia melanocephala. , -j- Midas rosalia. 
 
 t Hapales lacchus, Illiger. lacchus vulgaris, Geoffrey. 
 20* 
 
234 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 fellow was not more than eight inches long without his tail, these 
 lively gifts frightened him at first a good deal by twisting round 
 his neck when he seized them. His carnivorous nature, however, 
 prevailed, and, without a well sanded hand, he soon mastered and 
 ate them. 
 
 M. F. Cuvier had an opportunity of observing their domestic 
 arrangements in a conjugal state. He had a pair who were blest 
 with three young ones ; but it seems to have been the Lady 
 Sanglain's first accouchement, and she had no experienced female 
 friend to direct her ; so after regarding her interesting progeny, 
 she proceeded to bite off the head of one of them; the other two, 
 in the mean time, took to the breast, and the moment the mother 
 felt them she was all affection. The papa was even more affec- 
 tionate than the mamma, and assiduously assisted in the nursery. 
 The favourite position of the young ones was upon the back or 
 bosom of the mother ; and, when she was tired of nursing, she 
 would come up to her mate with a shrill cry, which said as plainly 
 as cry could speak, "Here! do take the children." He, like a 
 good-natured father, immediately stretched forth his hands and 
 placed his offspring upon his back or under his body, where they 
 held on while he carried them about, till they became restless for 
 want of that which he could not give them ; and then he handed 
 them back to his partner, who, after satisfying their hunger, again 
 turned them over to their papa. 
 
 Cuvier seems to think that their intelligence is inferior to that 
 of many of the smaller monkeys. That their attachment to each 
 other is sometimes great, the following anecdote, related by a lady 
 who kept a couple of them, and who could never te.ll the story 
 unmoved, will prove. 
 
 These playful Sanglains had not, indeed, any family, but they 
 were very happy and were all in all to each other. One of them, 
 unfortunately, died. The other seemed to be unwilling to believe 
 the change that had taken place, and continued to caress the body 
 until it became absolutely necessary to remove it. Every thing 
 was done to console the 'survivor that its fond and distressed 
 mistress could think of; but, as soon as its mate was taken away, 
 the poor widowed Sanglain pressed its little hands to its eyes, 
 refused to be comforted, and remained pining in that attitude till 
 death relieved it from its sufferings. 
 
APES AND MONKKYS OF THE OLD CONTINENT. 235 
 
 
 APES AND MONKEYS OF THE OLD CONTINENT. 
 
 ' Almost a man in size and look." 
 
 GAY'S FABLES. 
 
 VOLTAIRE'S Vieux Solitaire, speaking of those lofty systematists, 
 "qui ont cree Punivers avecleur plume" they are not altogether 
 extinct in our day notices two zoological theories. 
 
 One of these taught that the mountains and man were pro- 
 duced by the waters of the sea. At first, it seems, there were 
 charming marine men, who afterwards became amphibious, and 
 then their fascinating forked tail (how the conservative belles of 
 those days must have deplored the change) became transformed 
 into the lower extremities, on which the great biped has walked 
 ever since. The age of King Saleh, and of his daughter Glueen 
 Gulnare, evidently formed an epoch in this transition. 
 
 The second "Treatise" demonstrated that the race of men were 
 bastard slips of a tribe of baboons. 
 
 The controversy seems to have waxed as warm as that between 
 the Big-endians and the Little-endians ; but the worthy Solitaire 
 appears to have been daring enough to entertain doubts of the 
 correctness of both genealogies, and does not show any very 
 marked preference for either of these systems: "J'aimai" 
 says his manuscript, " autant descendre d'un poisson que tfun 
 singe." 
 
 And yet there have not been wanting philosophers, as we have 
 seen, to advocate the cause of the latter pedigree, which is in- 
 volved in the theory of gradual development. Notwithstanding, 
 however, the different phases which Tiedemann and others have 
 clearly shown to take place in the formation of the human brain 
 before birth, ascending, as they do, from the structure of that 
 organ in the lower animals to that of fishes, reptiles, birds, and 
 mammiferous quadrupeds, till, during the last period of gestation 
 it receives the finish which distinguishes the encephalon of man ; 
 and notwithstanding the occasional difficulties presented by that 
 respectable, persevering, and omnipresent sub-family, the Bores, 
 most of whom afford grounds to the credulous for suspecting 
 that they have not succeeded in entirely rubbing off their 
 excrescences we eschew the fallacy. At the same time, feeling 
 bound to pay all proper respect to those who are interested in 
 
236 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 maintaining the doctrine of Monboddo and others, both French 
 and British, we beg leave to commence our sketch- with those old 
 world monkeys whose tails still flourish in all their pendulosity 
 and perfection. 
 
 The Guenons form a very large group. Robed in bright and 
 beautiful furs, and often light and graceful in their proportions, 
 they still vary greatly in size and shape. Many of them are 
 gifted with a most bounding agility, which carries them from 
 bough to bough, in their African and Asiatic forestrhomes, with 
 nearly the velocity of a bird. When, unhappily for them, they 
 are captured, they prove amiable in disposition, very playful, but 
 not malignant nor mischievous ; and, with due submission to the 
 late all-accomplished Mr. Astley, tailed though they be, they are 
 distinguished for the facility with which they learn tricks, and the 
 address with which they perform them. 
 
 The Entellus Monkey,* widely spread as it is over the continent 
 of India and its islands, is but little known to those who frequent 
 our menageries ; for, in the first place, the species is held in great 
 respect by the natives ; and, in the next, the captives generally 
 pine and die soon after their arrival in Europe. There was one 
 in our Zoological Garden in the Regent's Park, and another at 
 Paris ; but neither of them long survived their arrival ; and 
 Thunberg's specimen died from cold in the delicious climate of 
 the Cape of Good Hope. The accounts given by the last-men- 
 tioned author and Wolff are very amusing ; but they appear to 
 have been embellished by a very vivid fancy. There seems, how- 
 ever, to be no doubt that these worshipful monkeys have acute- 
 ness enough to take advantage of the veneration in which they 
 are held, and to make the unfortunate husbandman pay a ruinous 
 tribute to their sanctity. When the fruits of the well-tilled earth 
 are ripe and ready to be gathered in, down from the forests come 
 overwhelming bands, confident in their sacred character, and make 
 spoil of the harvest before the eyes of the cultivator. There he 
 stands, on the spot now rich with the produce of his labours, 
 vainly endeavouring to scare away with loud cries these swarms 
 of relentless foragers, who quickly consume every thing. He sees 
 his luscious figs, his refreshing cocoa-nuts, his choice apples, and 
 mellow pears, disappear at this fete champetre ; nor do even his 
 cabbages and potatoes escape the appetite of his self-invited and 
 unwelcome guests. 
 
 Dr. Horsfield, who notices the domestication of another species 
 of monkey by the Javanese, and its association with the horse, 
 remarks, that in every stable, from that of a prince to that of a 
 man try or chief of a village,. one is to be found : but he never saw 
 
 * Scmnopithecus Entellus. 
 
APES AND MONKEYS OF THE OLD CONTINENT. 237 
 
 the JBudeng,* the poor Negro Monkey, thus comfortably situated. 
 On the v contrary, this unfortunate species, which possesses a jet 
 black fur, with long silvery hairs, much prized, both by natives 
 and Europeans, for their riding equipages and military decora- 
 tions, is cruelly attacked with cudgels and stones wherever it is 
 found, and slaughtered in great numbers. Associated in large 
 troops on the trees of the extensive forests of Java as many as 
 fifty are often found together the proscribed Budengs, at the 
 sight of their deadly enemy, man, lift up their voices in loud 
 screams and wailings. A violent bustle and commotion ensues, 
 and branches of decaying trees, detached by their movements, are 
 not unfrequently precipitated on the heads of those spectators 
 who have imprudently, not be'en satisfied with observing them at 
 a distance. 
 
 The genera Cercopithecus and Cercocebus form the section of 
 the true Guenons. Of the former genus, which is short in the 
 muzzle, and has a facial angle extending fifty degrees, a round 
 head, slightly flattened in front, and a flat nose, the Diana 
 Monkeyt and the Mona afford perhaps the most pleasing ex- 
 amples. It is, indeed, rather hard upon the Queen of the silver 
 bow, that she should be degraded to the likeness of an African 
 tailed Q,uadrumane ; but we suppose that the white crescent on 
 the monkey's brow was irresistible to M. Geoffrey. " Mona" is 
 a term applied to all long-tailed monkeys, with certain modifi- 
 cations, by the Moors of North Africa, and is, most probably, 
 of Arabian origin ; but the individuals of the pretty species which 
 M. Geoffroy names Cercopithecus Mona, appear to differ much in 
 disposition, though the general character of the species is con- 
 sidered to be gentle and playful. M. F. Cuvier's Mona was the 
 most amiable of monkeys, and its sweetness of temper, which 
 grew with its growth, and was developed under his own eye, 
 remained unimpaired by age. It was, to be sure, a most expert 
 and noiseless thief; and, being suffered to roam at will, would 
 open a chest or drawer by turning the key in the lock, untie 
 knots, undo the rings of a chain, and pick pockets with admirable 
 dexterity. This last accomplisment was its favourite pastime ; 
 and a stranger seldom departed without having undergone a 
 search, with a delicacy of touch not to be detected, and always 
 successful. It was very affectionate ; and the gentle satisfaction 
 with which it would receive and return caresses, and its low but 
 expressive cry of pleasure on such occasions, made it very endear- 
 ing ; nor was this feeling towards it checked by any of the dis- 
 gusting habits too often exhibited by its congeners. One which 
 was kept in the menagerie of the Zoological Society was, on the 
 
 * Semnopithecus Maurus. f Cercopithecus Diana. 
 
 
238 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 contrary, as ill-conditioned a brute as the worst of the Simian, or 
 of any other family. 
 
 Cercocebus approaches in its manners very near to Cercopi-. 
 thecus ; but the greater development of the long canine teeth, the 
 facial angle, the large cheek-pouches, and the shortening tail, 
 seem to lead towards the Baboons. The Mangabey, or White- 
 eyelid Monkey,* and the Green Monkeyt belong to this genus. 
 Western Africa is supposed to be the locality of the former ; and 
 the latter is known to be an inhabitant of the Cape de Verd 
 Islands, as well as of the African Continent. The Mangabey, with 
 its upper eyelids of a dead white, was so named by Buffbn, from 
 the erroneous supposition that his specimens were brought from 
 that territory in Madagascar. In a state-of captivity it is a most 
 unwearied droll frolicsome and good-natured withal. Sir Wil- 
 liam Jardine mentions a female in Mr. WombvvelPs menagerie 
 that was most lively, and gives a figure of her, no easy task for 
 she was never at rest for one moment ; and hep activity was 
 increased when she perceived that she was noticed. " She per- 
 formed," says Sir William, "many of the attitudes of the most 
 experienced harlequins * * *. She was remarkably cleanly and 
 careful not to soil her person. When feeding, she seldom put 
 her head to the food or dish, but lifted and conveyed it to her 
 mouth." Her diet consisted of bread and milk principally, and 
 vegetables occasionally : like Potemkin, she was very fond of a 
 carrot. The large troops in which the Green Monkeys assemble 
 have been remarked by many travellers. It was one of these 
 societies, most probably, that afforded M. Adanson the excellent 
 sport, on the enjoyment of which he dwells with so much satis- 
 faction. The poor animals were surprised in the midst of their 
 tricks ; and M. Adanson declares that nothing could be more 
 entertaining than the endeavours of the little wretches to escape 
 from the slaughtering gun which, the traveller seems to have 
 worked most unrelentingly. . Though he killed twenty-three in 
 less than one hour, within a space of twenty toises, and wounded, 
 we dare say, many more, not one of the sufferers screamed during 
 the whole time ; but the rest gathered together in companies, knit 
 their brows, gnashed their teeth, and yelled as if they intended 
 to attack him. We wish they had with all our hearts, and to 
 some purpose, top, though we have great respect for philosophers 
 in general, and for zoologists in particular. 
 
 Before we proceed to the Baboons, we must not forget a curious 
 form which is placed by some naturalists among the Guenons. 
 The Proboscis MonkeyJ unites in its person the "unshapely cor- 
 
 * Cercocebus fuliginosus. t Cercocebus sabseus. 
 
 t Nasalis larvatus, Geoftroy ; Guenon nasique, Desmarcst ; Le Kahau, 
 Audebert. 
 
APES AND MONKEYS OF THE OLD CONTINENT, 239 
 
 pulence of the Orangs, with the long arms of the Gibbons and 
 the guttural sac of the Howlers. Its physiognomy defies descrip- 
 tion. Diego's feature shrinks into insignificance though he had 
 been to the Promontory of Noses and got him "one of the good- 
 liest that ever fell to a single man's lot" in comparison with the 
 proboscis of the Kahau, He who has only seen stuffed speci- 
 mens, can have no idea of the hideous mask that the undried 
 face presents ; for the protuberance is entirely cartilaginous, 
 and can be inflated by the animal to a prodigious size. The 
 Kahau is about three feet high when erect, and has a long tail. 
 We saw one taken out of spirit in which it had been preserved, 
 looking like one of those horrible female fiends sometimes pictured 
 in old wood-cuts 
 
 " Not uglier follow the night hag." 
 
 A celebrated French naturalist, who was present at the opening 
 of the casket which contained this zoological jewel, was in raptures, 
 and, as the bust emerged, he uttered an exclamation significatory 
 of her maternity. We looked in vain for the young imps, which 
 had probably escaped when their poor barrelled-up mother fell. 
 It must be startling to look round in the wildernesses of Borneo, 
 and behold one of those horrible visages peering, Zamiel-like, 
 from behind the trunk of some dark tree. At sunrise and sunset 
 these animated caricatures assemble in the woods that border the 
 rivers. Then and there they continually ply their guttural sacs 
 and sonorous noses, till the vicinage echoes again with a cry, 
 supposed to be expressed by the word " Kahau" often repeated ; 
 and hence their name. Their activity is energetic, and they will 
 bound from tree to tree, clearing an intermediate space of from 
 fifteen to twenty feet. 
 
 Passing by the Douc, or Cochin-China Monkey,* with its 
 many-coloured coat, for its manners are little known, we must 
 now call the reader's attention to forms in which monkey-depra- 
 vity seems to reach its height. 
 
 The Baboons concentrate all that is fierce, malicious, and dis- 
 gusting. There are two tribes of these enormously powerful and 
 furious brutes. The first, and best, are distinguished by having 
 their nostrils situated on the face, so to speak ; the second form 
 the group of Dog-headed Baboons, Cynocephali, and in them the 
 nasal aperture is placed at the end of the muzzle. 
 
 Of the more gentle tribe, the Wanderowt presents itself as a 
 good example. This " Child of the Sun" as our showmen used 
 always to designate it why, heaven only knows, unless, as the 
 French have done their best for Diana, the English are determined 
 
 * Lasiopyga nemaea. ,f Macacus silenus. 
 
240 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 that they will not be behind their neighbours in doing honour to 
 her glorious brother wears a uniform of deep black, with the 
 exception of the ruff, beard, or mane, which surrounds the face, 
 and varies from ashy-gray to pure white. This ornament may 
 have assisted in fixing the parentage above alluded to, and may 
 have reminded the Polito-people of the jolly face of Sol, looking 
 out from his radiant circumference, over mine host's door. Father 
 Vincent Maria, who observes that there are four monkeys on the 
 coast of Malabar, hath executed a flattering portrait of our friend ; 
 and here is the picture, drawn by the hand of that worthy procu- 
 rator-general of the Bare-footed Carmelites. "The first is per- 
 fectly black, clothed with glossy hair, with a white beard round 
 his chin, a span or more in extent. To him all the other mon- 
 keys show such deep respect, that in his presence they are sub- 
 missive and humble themselves, as if they were aware of his pre- 
 eminence. The princes and great lords esteem him highly, for 
 that he is, above every other, gifted with gravity, capacity, and 
 a wise appearance. Easily is he taught to perform a variety of 
 ceremonies ; and courtesies, and all these in so serious and perfect 
 a style, as to make it matter of great wonder that they should so 
 exactly be enacted by an irrational animal."* 
 
 We have had our eye upon one or two of these Wanderows. 
 There was one in the Zoological Society's collection, then in its 
 infancy, in Bruton Street, and a right merry fellow was he. He 
 would run up his pole and throw himself over the cross-bar, so 
 as to swing backwards and .forwards, as he hung suspended by 
 the chain which held the leathern strap that girt his loins. The 
 expression of his countenance was peculiarly innocent ; but he 
 was sly, very sly, and not to be approached with impunity by 
 those who valued their head-gear. He would sit demurely on 
 his cross-perch, pretending to look another way, or to examine a 
 nut-shell for some remnant of kernel, till a proper victim came 
 within his reach ; when, down the pole he rushed, and up he was 
 again, in the twinkling of an eye, leaving the bare-headed sur- 
 prised one minus his hat, at least, which he had the satisfaction 
 of seeing undergoing a variety of metamorphoses under the 
 plastic hands of the grinning ravisher, not at all calculated to 
 improve a shape which the taste of a Moore, perhaps, had de- 
 signed and executed. It was whispered -horrescimus referentes 
 that he once scalped a bishop, who ventured too near, not- 
 withstanding the caution given to his lordship by another digni- 
 tary of the church, and that it was some time before he could be 
 made to give up, with much mowing and chattering, the well- 
 powdered wig which he had profanely transferred from the sa- 
 
 * Gardens anil Menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated. Vol. T. 
 
APES AND MONKEYS OF THE OLD CONTINENT. 241 
 
 cred poll to his own. The lords spiritual of the present day, with 
 one or two laudable exceptions, are safe from such sacrilege : now, 
 it would be nearly as difficult to take, a wig off a bishop, as it 
 once was to take the breeks off a Highlandman. 
 
 But another Wanderow confined in the open part of the gar- 
 dens in the Regent's Park was of a different temperament. There 
 was melancholy about this creature. He would climb his pole, 
 ascend to his elevated house-top, and there sit for half an hour 
 together, gazing wistfully at that distant portion of the park 
 which presented, when viewed from his position, the appearance 
 of a thick wood, every now and then looking 1 down, as if he were 
 contrasting the smooth-shaven painted pole to which they had 
 fettered him, with the rugged living " columns of the evergreen 
 palaces" of his fathers. 
 
 It is impossible not to feel some compassion for this persecuted 
 race. Monkeys, generally speaking, never live long in confine- 
 ment. How should they ? The most restless and mercurial of 
 animals, to whose existence the balmy fresh air, constant change 
 of place, and prodigality of exercise, seem absolutely necessary, 
 they are shut up for the greatest part of the year in close, sickly, 
 noisome apartments, artificially heated and miserably ventilated ; 
 or often only ventilated by the admission of a current of cold air. 
 Their lungs, poor prisoners, soon become affected, and strumous 
 attacks gradually render the whole organization a mass of disease 
 under which they pine and die. Those that are suffered to go 
 at large, whether in houses, about the streets, on board ships, or 
 at fairs (the favoured ones we mean who skip along the ropes 
 and poles on the outside of the shows, to attract company) are 
 better off: but hapless is the monkey doomed to the civilization 
 of the menagerie. 
 
 Before we arrive at the more brutalized Baboon form, we must 
 notice thejBarbary Ape,* the only European Monkey. This 
 species has established itself on the rocks of Gibraltar, and next 
 to the Green Monkey is the most frequent slave of the travelling 
 showman or Thespian, a misfortune which it owes to its supe- 
 rior intelligence. Though apparently without a tail, it has, 
 nevertheless, a small tubercle in the place of that organ. This 
 is the ape that figures so often in fable both ancient ^and modern, 
 and it is extremely probable that it was the only tailless monkey 
 known to the Greeks. There is no doubt that it was the subject 
 anatomized by Galen, whose account has been verified by the ob- 
 servations of Cuvier and of M. de Blainville. 
 
 Some of our readers may not have heard of an old story, of 
 which, by the way, there is more than one version, setting forth 
 
 * Inuus sylvanus, Cuvier; Macacus sylvanus, Lac^pede ; Le Mae-ot. 
 31 
 
242 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 how a strong party of these apes, headed by a knowing old chei- 
 roped, gave so much annoyance to a certain regiment in garrison 
 on the Rock, that at last they set their wits to work and succeeded 
 in capturing the ringleader. Him they shaved close, both head 
 and face. They then let him go. Away he scampered to his 
 party, who had been watching him at a distance, eager, no doubt, 
 to place himself again at their head, and lead them down to ven- 
 geance. He was received with a volley of sticks and stones by 
 his own troops, who treated him so roughly that he was forced to 
 fly for his life. In this deplorable and degraded state he was 
 fain to sneak back to his old enemies, the th ; and presented 
 himself at their quarters so woe-begone, and with such a rueful 
 visage " all shaven and shorn," that there was no resisting the 
 appeal. He was admitted and remained with his new allies, 
 whom he served with fidelity, upon the same principle that 
 secures the faith of all other allies, because he couldn't help it. 
 The Cynocephalous Apes, or true Baboons, which form the se- 
 cond tribe above alluded to, have a very low facial angle, varying in 
 the adult from 30 to 35. They may be naturally separated into 
 those which have a considerable length of tail, and those whose 
 tail, if tail it may be called, is dwindled into a mere tubercle with 
 a tuft of hairs by way of finish. In captivity these apes (which 
 are not, however, indocile, if taught during their youth) present 
 a more undisguised and complete development of the active ani- 
 mal passions than is perhaps to be found in any other creature. 
 Of large size, and proportions fitted for the exertion of great 
 strength and agility, their fiercene-ss is almost incontrollable, their 
 paroxysms of rage being so violent, it is said, as occasionally to 
 kill them. They are evidently capable of attachment, such as it 
 is ; and the following anecdote related by M. F. Cuvier well 
 illustrates the dominion of passion over them. A Chacma,* kept 
 in the Paris menagerie r managed to escape one day from his 
 cage, into the inclosure belonging to it. Irritated by the stub- 
 born refusal of the baboon to return, his keeper, not very pru- 
 dently, threatened him with a stick. This, instead of producing 
 the desired effect, roused all the ferocity of the beast, and he flew 
 at the unfortunate man, whom he wounded so severely in the 
 thigh as to -endanger his life. The Chacma continued at large, 
 though almost every expedient to make him return to confinement 
 was resorted to. No, all would not do. At last it was recol- 
 lected that the keeper's daughter, who had been kind to the pri- 
 soner, seemed to be a decided favourite ; so the pretty French- 
 woman, tiree a quatre epingks, appeared at a grated door oppo- 
 
 * Cynocephalus Chacma, Desmarest. It belongs to the section with long 
 tails. 
 
APES AND MONKEYS OF THE OLD CONTINENT. 243 
 
 site to that of the cage through which the animal had to pass. 
 But even so powerful a lure had no. effect till a man approached 
 the belle, and pretended to caress her. This was too much ; the 
 poor jealous dupe could not bear the sight. He darted furiously 
 through the open door of his prison at the hateful intruder, and 
 was instantly secured. This was treacherous; but as the Lords 
 of the creation themselves, from Sampson down to the Macheaths, 
 have been the victims of the dear delightful deluders, a Chacma 
 has no right to complain. 
 
 Cunning appears to be a principal feature in the character of 
 the wild baboons. In their attacks, they commence operations at 
 a distance, and endeavour to terrify their foes by their cries-. 
 Bands of these marauders are stated to be cruel enemies to the 
 planter, and the author last quoted even goes so far as to declare 
 that they will watch their opportunity and destroy a plantation 
 from motives of revenge. 
 
 In the short-tailed section, consisting of the Drill* and Man- 
 drill,t we have a personification of brutality, with just enough of 
 humanity about the caricature to make it painfully striking, and 
 to remind us of 
 
 " All that the body perpetrates of bad." 
 
 The showmen name the Mandrill "the wild satyr of the woods," 
 no infelicitous designation. " Happy Jerry," with his pipe of 
 tobacco and glass of sling, was about as odious a looking monster 
 as the debauched Falri himself. 
 
 The Gibbons, or long-armed Apes,:j: are, generally speaking, 
 as mild and amiable as the Baboons are savage and disgusting. 
 The en-tire absence of the tail is well compensated by the extraor- 
 dinary length of the anterior extremities, and the agility of the 
 tribe is quite surprising. They seem to represent in the old 
 continent the Mycetes or Howling Monkeys of America. In 
 some of the genus, which has hitherto been found only in India 
 and its islands, the guttural sacs are so extensive as to be visible 
 externally from their protrusion, and all of them howl. 
 
 These Gibbons, notwithstanding their long and sharp canine 
 teeth and length of upper limb, present, in many of the species, 
 a very human appearance ; and, if all tales be true, rival the Orangs 
 in their mimicry of human actions. Dr. Burrough's male Hoolock 
 which came from Goalpara, on the Burrampooter river, would take 
 hold of the Doctor's hand, and, assisting himself with his other 
 arm, walk with him. He would come at his master's call, seat 
 himself in a chair by his side at the breakfast-table, and help him- 
 
 * Papio leucophseus. f Papio Mormon. $ Hylobates,Illiger. 
 
 Hylobates Hoolock, Harlow. 
 
244 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 self to an. egg, or to the wing of a chicken from the plate of the 
 Doctor (who seems to have indulged in praiseworthy breakfasts), 
 partaking of the coffee, chocolate, milk, tea, and other liquid 
 adjuncts ; sometimes, indeed, contenting himself, like the great 
 Grimaldij with dipping his fingers into the vessel and licking them, 
 but, when thirsty in earnest, lifting the cup and drinking, not 
 from the rim, but as a man drinks when he applies his mouth to 
 the surface of a well or spring. Boiled rice, boiled bread and 
 milk with sugar, plantains, bananas, and oranges were relished, 
 but bananas seemed to gratify him most. He had, however, a 
 low taste for insects, and would search into crevices for spiders ; 
 as for blue bottles, he would catch them in his hand with a dex- 
 terity worthy of the silly Single himself. The poor animal was 
 very affectionate to the Doctor, who appears to have been a most 
 kind-hearted projector, and used to comb and brush his pet, to the 
 great delight of the latter, who always acknowledged his master's 
 morning appearance with a loud, shrill, and often-repeated 
 "Whoo!" But 
 
 "- , "" A favourite has no friend ;" 
 
 and the poor monkey was killed by a blow across the loins with 
 a small stick, inflicted by some lout of a servant inadvertently, 
 as it is said. There was another, a female about nine months 
 old, in the possession of the Doctor, who did all that he could for 
 his little patient in the way of castor oil, calomel, and warm baths, 
 but she " died one day." The sufferer laboured under great pain 
 and oppression in the chest ; it is affecting to read of the eagerness 
 with which she hurried back to the soothing comforts of the bath 
 when she was removed from it, and lay there in comfortable qui- 
 escence as long as she was permitted. 
 
 Among these apes, there is a curious Sumatran form,* with the 
 first and second lingers united up to the middle of the second 
 phalanx. The Siamangs, as they are called, are supposed by-the 
 Malays to be conducted by a head or chief, who has the character 
 of being the strongest of the party, and is believed to be invulne- 
 rable. Like other leaders, he directs their motions, and presides 
 at their morning and evening howlings. Authors give very con- 
 tradictory accounts of the disposition of this species. Some zoolo- 
 gists characterize the animal as stupid, dull, and inactive, whilst 
 others describe it as being remarkably tractable and brisk, show- 
 ing a lively affection towards those who behave kindly to it, and 
 never so happy as when in society. The truth seems to be, as 
 the groom said of the horses, "they've a got their different tem- 
 pers just like we Christians." At all events, the lady Siamangs 
 
 * Hylobates syndactyla. Simia syndactyla, Raffles. 
 
APES AND MONKEYS OF THE OLD CONTINENT. 245 
 
 are most excellent mothers, and carefully preside over the ablu- 
 tions of their little ones. These they carry to the banks of a 
 stream, wash them thoroughly, notwithstanding their cries and 
 kickings, and then wipe them dry, after the most approved me- 
 thods of conducting the baby-toilette. 
 
 We now come to those forms of which such marvellous stories 
 have been told. The Orangs, or "Wild men of the Woods,!' for 
 a long time enjoyed a reputation almost human, a reputation 
 kept up by the prints and drawings which formerly placed triem 
 almost uniformly in an erect position, and by the tricks which 
 those brought to Europe were taught. But neither is the Asiatic 
 nor the African, Orang formed for erect progression.: If left to 
 themselves, they move on the ground most awkwardly, doubling 
 their anterior hands, moving in their advance upon the knuckles, 
 and resting upon the outward edge of the posterior feet. Among 
 trees they are as active and rapid in their motions as they are 
 clumsy and slow on the ground. 
 
 The anterior extremities of the Orang Utan* are nearly as long 
 as they are in Hylobates ; the hands, in this Asiatic, reach nearly ^ 
 to the heels. There is a marked difference between the skull of 
 this species and the crania of Hylobates and of the Chimpanzee. 
 The interparietal crest in Pithecus satyrus is as highly developed 
 as it is in the carnivorous tribe, and the zygomatic arch is widely 
 expanded; nor are these the only points of resemblance. In the 
 Hoolock and in the Chimpanzee the skull is comparatively smooth 
 and human on its outward surface. T , 
 
 Sumatra, and Borneo are the principal localities where the 
 Orang Utan has been hitherto found ; and those which have been 
 brought to Europe have exhibited a considerable degree of intelli- 
 gence, though, as far as our experience and information go, not 
 so high a degree as is manifested by the Chimpanzee. An Orang 
 Utan, brought to England by Captain Methuen, made no attempt 
 to escape when suffered to be at Targe before he was shipped, but 
 became violent when incarcerated in a bamboo cage. He, at 
 first, shook the rails violently, but, finding that they did not yield 
 to his efforts, he tried them separately, pitched upon the. weakest, , 
 and perse veringly worked at it till he broke it and regained his 
 liberty. Then they tried to confine him by a chain fastened to 
 a strong staple ; he soon unfastened it, and ran off. Finding the 
 incumbrance of the chain, as he dragged it after him, he collected 
 it into one or two coils and threw it aver his siioulder : this he did, 
 as occasion required, till, finding that it slipped from his shoulder, 
 he held it in his mouth. At last he was suffered to roam freely 
 about the ship, and became a general favourite, from the grave 
 
 * Pithecus satyrus. 
 
246 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 playfulness of his manners, and his burlesque of human actions 
 and passions. Among other feats he stole the captain's brandy- 
 bottle, and did his best to throw a cage full of small monkeys over- 
 board. . This propensity to monkey-murder has been observed 
 in most of the individuals who have had an opportunity of show- 
 ing it : as if the Orangs considered the monkeys libellous cari- 
 catures upon their more dignified development, and were eager 
 to get rid of their irritating presence. When refused what he 
 wanted he would roll himself on deck, and behave as naughtily 
 as any froward child could ; nay, if the refusal were persisted 
 in, he would suddenly rise, and, uttering piercing screams, rush 
 over the ship's side, as though, in his despair, he were going 
 to throw himself into the sea. At first the captain and his crew 
 actually thought that they had carried the joke too far, and driven 
 'their cheiroped shipmate to commit suicide ; but, on searching, 
 they found him concealed under the chains. 
 
 The individuals, however, brought to this country, give but a 
 faint idea of the size and appearance of a full-grown Orang 
 Utan. Mr. Owen, in his highly interesting memoir on the 
 osteology of this species and the Chimpanzee, gives the height 
 of the Orang Utan as under five feet ; but, according to Dr. Abel, 
 its stature when adult is, sometimes at least, much beyond that 
 limit. 
 
 In the "Asiatic Researches," the Doctor lays before us an ac- 
 count of a scene in which one of these unfortunate Orangs was 
 a principal actor, or rather sufferer; an account which no one 
 can read without pain : 
 
 A party from a brig had, it appears, landed at Ramboon, on 
 the north-west coast of Sumatra, to procure water. The place 
 was much cultivated, and there were but few trees ; on one' of 
 these trees they discovered a gigantic animal. They approached, 
 and he came to the ground. They pursued, and he made for 
 another tree at some distance, presenting to his pursuers a tall 
 man-like figure covered with a fell of shining brown hair, moving 
 almost erect with a waddling gait, sometimes assisting his pro- 
 gress with his hands, and sometimes by the impulse of a bough 
 which he held. On gaining a small clump, he sprang at a bound 
 to a lofty branch, and passed from one limb of the tree to another 
 with the greatest ease and alacrity. They felt that, if the country 
 had been well wooded, he must, in all probability, have escaped; 
 for he travelled from tree to tree with the swiftness of a horse on 
 the ground. Confined as he was to only a few trees, his move- 
 ments were so quick that it was very difficult to take aim, and it 
 was not till his hunters had cut down one tree after another, that 
 they were able effectually to begin their butcher-work. Five 
 balls pierced the wretched creature before his exertions relaxed ; 
 
APES AND MONKEYS OF THE OLD CONTINENT. 247 
 
 then, reclining apparently exhausted, on one of the branches, he 
 copiously vomited blood. Still he held on ; and their ammunition 
 being 1 all expended, they proceeded to cut down the tree, con- 
 vinced that he was so far gone that they could then secure him 
 without trouble. The tree nodded to its fall ; but, as it was 
 falling, they, to their surprise, saw him gain another, and they 
 were obliged to cut down all the trees before they could bring 
 him to the earth. Even then, mangled as he was, he made a 
 most determined defence against the numbers who attacked him 
 with spears, large stones, and other missiles. , He broke "the 
 shaft of one spear it was made of a supple wood, and would 
 have withstood the strength of the stoutest man " as if it had 
 been a carrot," to use the words of the narrator. "Those who 
 aided in this slaughter acknowledged that they were distressed 
 by the hurnan-like expression of his countenance, the piteous 
 manner in which he applied his hands to his wounds, and the 
 whole bearing of the dying combatant. They confessed that the 
 sight was such as almost to make them question the nature of 
 the act they were committing. He lay dead before them, upwards 
 of six feet in length at the lowest computation, according to the 
 narrative. 
 
 We know not what view their worships of the learned societies 
 may take of this transaction, for there is no telling how far a zeal 
 for science may carry its votaries,* but to -the unlearned it must 
 look rather murderous. 
 
 The captain, who furnished Dr. Abel with the details, stated 
 that the creature was a full head taller than any man on board, 
 measuring seven feet in what might be ,called his ordinary stand- 
 ing posture, and eight feet when suspended for the purpose of 
 being skinned. Dr. Abel describes the skin, dried and shrivelled 
 as it was, as measuring in a straight line, from the top of the 
 shoulder to the part where the ancle had been removed, five feet 
 ten inches ; the perpendicular length of the neck, as in the 
 preparation, three inches and a half; the length of the head, from 
 the top of the forehead to the end of the chin, nine inches ; and 
 the length of the skin still attached to the -foot, from the line of 
 its separation from the leg, eight inches. "We thus," says Dr. 
 Abel, " obtain seven feet six inches and a half as the approximate 
 height of the animal." These dimensions are startling, and far 
 
 * We remember to have heard of a clause said to have been in the direc- 
 tions given, many years ago, to a commander of an expedition of discovery, 
 Somewhat to the following effect: "You are to avoid collision with the 
 natives; but if, unfortunately, such an event should happen, and one of them 
 should be killed, you will preserve the body in spirit and bring it home for 
 examination." 
 
248 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 exceed those warranted by the skeletons of adult Orangs hitherto 
 brought to this country. 
 
 The hair of the head was of a reddish brown, growing from 
 behind forwards, and five inches in length. The chestnut-coloured 
 beard was handsome, but very wiry, and appeared to have been 
 curly in life, springing gracefully from the upper lip, near the 
 angles of the mouth, in the form of moustaches, and thence 
 descending to mingle with the portion growing on the chin. 
 
 The personage who has lately arrived at the gardens of the 
 Zoological Society in the Regent's Park, and is now the " ob- % 
 served of all observers," is of the softer sex, and very young. 
 She receives company in the Giraffe-house, and appears amiable, 
 though of a gravity and sage deportment far beyond what is 
 usual at her years. When we first saw her she was standing by 
 her gentleman in waiting, who was patting her head and tickling 
 her chin familiarities which, far from offending her, were ad- 
 mitted with the utmost complacency. Presently, however, she 
 left him, evidently with the intention of making the acquaintance 
 of s a carpenter, who was kneeling with his back towards her 
 making some alterations in her apartment. It sounded odd to 
 hear the gentleman in waiting say, as she laid her hand on the 
 carpenter's shoulder, " Come Jenny, you must leave the car- 
 penter alone," at the same time gently leading her aAvay. " Dear 
 me !" said a lady ; " Dear me ! does she know what is said to 
 her ?" " Yes, she knows her name, Ma'am," was the cautious 
 reply : upon which the lady said " Dear me !" again. 
 
 Finding that she was checked in her proposed liaison with the 
 carpenter, Jenny moved quietly into the box which served her 
 for a bed-room, arranged her blanket, made a wisp of straw into 
 a bundle for a pillow with dexterous manipulation, and then lay 
 down at her ease upon her back, with her straw-pillowed head 
 towards the entrance of the box, still gazing, as she lay, at her 
 carpenter. As we have not observed her parure noticed in any 
 of those "glasses of fashion," French or English, which abound 
 in this metropolis, we think it right to state that her dress con- 
 sists of a fine Welsh flannel chemisette, with continuations of the 
 same, la Turque, over which she wears a robe, seldom seen on 
 the ladies of this country, called a Guernsey frock. She looks very 
 comfortable, but we would advise our friends to pay their respects 
 as soon as they conveniently can ; for, though the temperature of 
 the Giraffe-house is very q-ood, experience has taught us not to 
 consider the lives of such foreigners as Jenny very insurable.* 
 
 . 
 
 * Poor Jenny has long ceased to exist. No care has been spared to pre- 
 serve those anthropoid apes which have been kept in the Regent's Park; but 
 all the watchful anxiety has proved fruitless. 1848. 
 
APES AND MONKEYS OF THE OLD CONTINENT. 249 
 
 .In the Chimpanzee,* the African type of Orang, the arms are 
 very much shortened, not reaching much below the knee ; and 
 the thumbs and great toes are much more- developed than in the 
 Orang'Utan. There are some points in which the latter comes 
 Hearer to man than the former ; but the Chimpanzee, taken 
 altogether, is much more human in its conformation. Still, as we 
 have before observed, there is a wide interval between the Simian 
 and Human forms.t This is strongly shown in the countenance. 
 Lawrence well says that the brute face is merely an instrument 
 adapted to procure and prepare food, and often a weapon of 
 offence and defence. The" human countenance is an organ of" 
 expression, an outward index of what, passes in the busy world 
 within. 
 
 .To repeat the stories so well known of the life, character, and 
 behaviour of the Chimpanzee, would be to occupy space on whic{i 
 we have already trespassed, to say nothing of its renewing the 
 "Infandum, &c." Poor dear Tommy, we knew him well, and 
 who is there who w&s not, at least, his visiting acquaintance ? 
 Was he not immortalized in the carmen zoologicum of the illus- 
 trious Bull ? Peace be with him ! Everybody loved him ; every- 
 body was kind to him. In his last illness he was suffered to 
 come, forth for a closer enjoyment of "the kitchen fire ; and there 
 we saw him. sit, "leaning his cheek upon his hand," watching 
 
 * Troglodytes niger. 
 
 j- We feel that this is no place for anatomical detail, and yet it may not be 
 amiss to draw the reader's attention to one or two of the many points on 
 which this assertion rests. In man, the muscle called flexor longus pollicis 
 pedis terminates in a smgle tendon, and its force is concentrated in the great 
 toe the principal point of resistance in raising the body upon the heel. In 
 the orang the analogous muscle has its termination in three tendons sepa- 
 rately and exclusively inserted in the 1 three middle .toes, to enable them 
 to grasp more forcibly, and so minister to the necessities of an arboreal 
 animal. "Surely," says Mr. Owen, who brings forward this striking diffe- 
 rence, " it is asking us too much to require, us to believe that in the course of 
 time, under any circumstances, these three tendons should become consoli- 
 dated into^one, and that one become implanted into a toe to which non,e of 
 the three separate tendons were before attached." Then again there is the 
 discrepancy in the shape and disposition of the teeth. " What external in- 
 fluence," as the same acute author inquires, " operating upon and around 
 the animal, can possibly modify in its offspring the forms, or alter the size, of 
 the deeply-seated germs of the permanent teeth ? They exist before the 
 animal is born, and let him improve his thinking faculties as he may, they 
 must, in obedience to an irresistible law, pass through their phases of develop- 
 ment, and induce those remarkable changes in the maxillary portion of the 
 skull, which give to the adult orangs a more bestial form and expression of 
 head'than many of the inferior Simice present." The osteology and myology 
 of these animals, to say nothing of the rest of their structure, forbid the con- 
 clusion that the monkey could by any ordinary natural process be ever 
 expanded into Man. 
 
250 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 the gyrations of a depending shoulder of mutton, as it revolved 
 and hissed between him and the glowing grate no, not with the 
 prying mischievous eyes of ordinary monkeys ; but with a pensive 
 philosophic air that seemed to admit his own inferiority, and. to 
 say "Ah ! man is, indeed, the cooking animal." 
 
 January, 1838. 
 
 ELEPHANTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ''.Of all the Blasts which thou This-day did build, 
 To haunt the Hils, the Forrest, and the Field, 
 I see (as Vice-Roy of their Brutish Band) 
 The Elephant the Vant-guard doth command : 
 Worthy that office ; whether we regard 
 His Towered back, where many Souldiers ward ; 
 Or else his Prudence, wherewithall he seems 
 T' obscure the wits of human-kinde sometimes: 
 As studious scholar, he self-rumineth, 
 His lessons giv'n, his king he honoureth : 
 Adores the moon : moved with strange desire, 
 He feels the sweet flames of th' Idalian fire, 
 And (pierc't with glance of a kinde-cruell eye) 
 For humane beauty, seems to sigh and dye. 
 Yae (if the Grecians doe not mis-recite) 
 With's crooked trumpet he doth sometimes write." 
 
 DU BAHTAS ; The Sixth day of the First Weeke 
 
 THESE lines are translated " by y*. famous Philomusus, IOSHVA 
 SYLVESTER, Gent.," as we are informed in the quaint title-page 
 of the folio edition, printed at London in 1633, by Robert Young, 
 who collected his " most delight-full Workes," and gave them to 
 the public with the following dashing address : 
 
 " THE PRINTER TO THE READER. 
 
 " The name of Joshua Sylvester is garland enough to hang 
 before This doore ; a name worthily deare to the present Age, to 
 Posteritie. I doe not therefore, goe about to apologize for this 
 Worke, or to commend it : it shall speak fcr itselfe, louder than 
 eyther others' friendship or envie. I only advertise my Reader 
 that since, the .death of the Author (if at least it be safe to say 
 those men are dead who ever survive in their living monuments) 
 1 have carefully fetcht together all the dispersed Issue of that 
 
ELEPHANTS. 251 
 
 divine Wit : as those which are well worthie to live (like Brethren) 
 together under, one faire roofe, that may both challenge time, and 
 outweare it. I durst not conceale the harmless fancies of his 
 inoffensive youth, which himselfe.had devoted to Silence and 
 Forgetfulness : It is so much the more glory to that worthy 
 Spirit, that hee who was so happy in those youthful strains (some 
 whereof, lately come to hand, and not formerly extant, are in this 
 edition inserted) would yet turne and confine his pen to none but 
 holy and religious Dities. Let the present and future times injoy 
 so profitable and pleasing a work, and at once honour the Author, 
 and thank the Editor." 
 
 The book is got up in the best manner, dedicated to gentle 
 King Jamie, and with its Jlnagrammata Regia "Jacobus Stuart, 
 Justa Servabo, James Stuart A just Master," for example and its 
 pilastered " Corona Dedicatoria" forms a very curious and cha- 
 racteristic specimen of the Euphuistic and Garamna literature of 
 the time. But, alas for posthumous fame ! how few. of the present 
 generation have even heard of Sylvester? Were it hot for the 
 imperishable Isaak Walton,* what would be known of Du Bartas 
 himself? There is much more about the Elephant, and the way 
 in which the Dragon circumvents and kills the huge beast, in 
 verse which, although it might have sounded charmingly in the 
 ears of the Royal Apprentice, our readers would hardly thank us 
 for disinterring. 
 
 Before we enter upon the natural history of the Elephant, and 
 the uses to which he has been applied either in war, the chace,, 
 the procession, or the theatre, we will, with the reader's leave, 
 take a rapid view of the organic structure of the huge animal, 
 beginning with the gigantic bony framework. 
 
 One of the first particular objects that strikes the beholder after 
 the mind has recovered from the impression which the colossal 
 whole never fails to produce, especially when the skeleton of a 
 full grown male is viewed in front, is the enormous size of the 
 cranium; and few of those;- who are not conversant with the 
 organization of the skull, with its broad anterior expanse, fail to 
 express their surprise at its proportions, or to inquire how a 
 weight apparently so great is supported. 
 
 The muscles necessary for working the complicated, powerful, 
 and delicate evolutions of the trunk or proboscis, require a broad 
 surface for their attachment; and ponderous as the skull seems,, 
 it is in great part weighty in appearance only. The chamber 
 of the brain, which last forms in the elephant T j^ of the whole 
 body, is but of comparatively small extent, although there is 
 ample room for that grand centre of the nervous system in pro- 
 
 * " Compleat Atrgler," ch.'r. 
 
252 ZOOLOGICAL RECRKATIONS. 
 
 portion to the necessities of the animal; and many who have 
 heard of or witnessed its' sagacity, deceived by appearances, come 
 to the conclusion that the development of the brain is commensu- 
 rate with the external surface. If this had beeri the truth, we 
 should probably have had in the elephant a forty-man reasoning 
 power imprisoned in a frame utterly unfit to carry out the ideas 
 and reflections engendered in that brain, which woiild have been 
 but inadequately protected from the dangers surrounding a 
 creature whose food is principally obtained by breaking down 
 large branches of trees, and uprooting others of no small dimen- 
 sions. But as it is, the forehead, with its great frontal sinuses, 
 which are larger in the elephant than in any other animal, may 
 be safely used as an immense battering-ram to clear away all 
 obstructions in its path, whilst comparative lightness is secured 
 by the extensive, thin, but firm cellular texture which is so largely 
 developed between the outer and inner tables of the cranium, and 
 becomes an almost impregnable fortification to secure the brain 
 from external danger. It is well known to hunters that the place 
 to which their aim. is best directed in elephant shooting is behind 
 the ear, the vulnerable point by which the massacred Chunee 
 was reached at Exeter" Change, after his cruel and clumsy foes 
 had been blazing away at him in front till they were weary; and 
 the back part of the cranium is the thinnest and least protected, 
 because it is less exposed to danger. 
 
 In the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England is 
 the' skull of the fine Ceylonese elephant, which has, at some time 
 long passed, been the living target for the rifle of the hunter. 
 There are three bullet wounds, all healed, in" the face, and the 
 bullets are still, without doubt, lodged in the reticular diploe 
 between the two tables of the skull which we have above at- 
 tempted to describe-. One of these wounds is in the forehead. 
 The marksman had evidently aimed at the point where the nasal 
 aperture is situated, and if the ball had entered there it would 
 have only had to encounter -the comparatively thin wall'of bone 
 at the back of the chamber, and would in all probability- have 
 brought the animal down. The second hole is a little to the left 
 of the chamber. The third ball had passed through the upper 
 part of the great temporal muscle of the right side, and entered 
 far into the osseous net-work. On introducing a finger into this 
 wound, a smooth-walled circular bony canal is felt as far as one 
 can reach, so admirably has nature completed the curative process. 
 
 Still when we remember that in man the brain forms from 
 2*2 to sV f the^x)dy, the proportion in the 1 elephant does seem 
 somewhat of the least ; but small animals have, generally speaking, 
 a greater brain in proportion to their body than larger ones-*- in a 
 
ELEPHANTS. 253 
 
 mouse, for instance, the proportion is j-%, in a canary bird T ^ and 
 the pachyderms, as a class, have it very small. 
 
 But, notwithstanding these provisions for lightening the burden, 
 the mass to be supported on the neck is enormous : the tusks, the 
 teeth of the upper jaw, the proboscis, and the heavy under jaw, 
 form together the greatest weight that the muscles of the neck 
 and back of any terrestrial animal have to bear. The elevated 
 and roughly-knobbed spinous processes of the vertebras afford 
 ample surface for the attachment of the ligaments and muscles 
 that support and wield the enormous head, tusks, and trunk ; 
 whilst, in the cranium itself, the great temporal fossae make room 
 for the massive crotaphite muscles to suspend and work the 
 ponderous under jaw. 
 
 Old elephants have but one tooth on each side of their jaw : 
 nay, they have seldom, till they are aged, a perfect tooth at all : 
 for as the jaws continue to grow, the new or succeeding tooth 
 acts partially only at first, and then may be seen two teeth" in 
 action. When this advancing tooth has come so forward as to 
 be considerably exposed, the old tooth, reduced and decayed by 
 the pressure of its successor, is shed. This is repeated as long 
 as the animal continues to grow ; but when the growth of the 
 jaw stops, the elephant has no longer more than a single tooth to 
 depend upon. The new or advancing grinder is formed not 
 under, but immediately behind the old tooth, and the anterior 
 end of the new tooth comes into play long before the old one is 
 ripe for shedding. Thus the grinding surface is increased and 
 continued by both, till age reduces the elephant to a single tooth. 
 The beautiful provision of bone-forming pulps or plates which 
 unite with the enamel-forming pulps to make the strong and 
 compact compound molar teeth, may be well seen by steeping 
 one of them in acid. 
 
 The tusks, or, as they were anciently and erroneously deemed, 
 horns, are formed upon a different principle. Instead of .a suc : 
 cession of plates, the ivory is deposited by successive secretions of 
 a vascular pulp, in very thin layers, from within. The hollow in 
 an elephant's tusk is familiar to most : this cavity is the seat of the 
 pulpy substance in which are not unfrequently found foreign 
 bodies, such as musket-balls, which have entered through the 
 wall of the hollow part of the tooth when the ivory was in its soft 
 state, and have become firmly imbedded in the ripened and 
 hardened tusk. 
 
 The enormous size that these offensive and defensive weapons 
 acquire in fine old males is still manifested by specimens which 
 have been kept, on account of their great development and beauty, 
 and saved from the manufacturer. These ponderous tusks are 
 held in the upper jaw not by anv adhesion to the pulpy root, 
 22 
 
254 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 as it may be termed, but by the elasticity of the parts alone, 
 somewhat in the same way that a nail keeps its place in a plank. 
 Some notion may be entertained of the high degree of vascularity 
 of the tusk from an accident that happened to one of the ele- 
 phants formerly kept at Exeter Change. The animal nearly bled 
 to death from the laceration of the vessels of the pulp contained 
 in the- cavity for the purpose of supplying constant internal 
 additions of successive laminae, as the tusk is worn down ex- 
 ternally. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence, in a note to his translation of Blurnenbach, thus 
 lays before us the modes in which a foreign body may become set, 
 as it were, in. the surrounding ivory. 
 
 " We can explain very satisfactorily how a bullet may enter the 
 tusk of an elephant, and become imbedded in the ivory without 
 any opening for its admission being perceptible. It will be 
 shown in a subsequent note, that these tusks are constantly 
 growing during the 'animal's life, by a deposition of successive 
 lamina?, within the cavity, while the outer surface and the point are 
 gradually worn away : and that the cavity is filled for this purpose 
 with a vascular pulp, similar to that on> which teeth are originally 
 formed. If a ball penetrate the side of a tusk, cross its cavity, 
 and lodge in the slightest way on the opposite side, it will become 
 covered towards the cavity by the newly-deposited layers of ivory, 
 while no opening will exist between it and the surface to account 
 for its entrance. If it have only sufficient force to enter, it will 
 probably sink by its own weight between the pulp and tooth, 
 until it rests at. the bottom of the cavity. It there becomes 
 surrounded by new layers of ivory ; and as the tusk is gradually 
 worn away, and supplied by new depositions, it will soon be 
 found in the centre of the solid part of the tooth. Lastly, a 
 foreign body may enter the tusk from above, as the plate of bone 
 which forms its socket is thin ; if this descends to the lower part 
 of the cavity, it may become imbedded by the subsequent for- 
 mations of ivory. This must have happened where a spear-head 
 was found in an elephant's tooth. The long axis of the foreign 
 body corresponded to that of the cavity. No opening for its 
 admission could be discovered, and it is very clear that no human 
 strength could drive such a body through the side of a tusk." 
 (Phils. Trans. 1801. Part 1.) 
 
 The greatest recorded weight of a tusk known to us is three 
 hundred and fifty pounds : the tooth was sold at Amsterdam. 
 
 Topsell, to whose work, quoted by Izaak Walton in the seventh 
 chapter of the first edition of his "Compleat Angler," and in the 
 eighth of the. second, we shall presently draw attention more at 
 large, mentions a book on Judaaa, without the name of the author, 
 who affirms that he saw an elephant's tooth sold to a Venetian 
 
ELEPHANTS. 255 
 
 merchant for six-and-thirty ducats, fourteen spans long, and four 
 spans broad, and it weighed so heavy that he could not move it 
 from the ground. "Vartomanus also saith," continues Topsell, 
 "that he saw in the Isle of Sumatra, two elephants' teeth which 
 weighed three hundred six-and-thirty pounds." 
 
 The- other longest measurements stated are nine feet, and, in 
 one instance, upwards of fourteen feet. What stupendous brutes 
 must the owners of these tusks have been ! A length of from six 
 to seven feet and a diameter at the base of from five to six inches, 
 are considered now as dimensions above the usual average. 
 
 Without wearying those who may take up this sketch with a 
 description of the entire massive skeleton, there are some points 
 on which we may perhaps touch without being tedious. Unlike 
 the herd of mammiferous animals, the thigh bone of the elephant 
 wants the smooth round ligamentous chord* which moors, as it 
 were, the round head of the femur in man, and in the greater 
 part of quadrupeds, to the round hip-socketf in which it moves. 
 The want of this ligament is supplied, in the elephant, by the 
 projecting acetabulum, which closely embraces, and nearly hides 
 the round head of the bone in its deep and nice-fitting cavity, 
 wherein the ball of the femur is so safely secured, that dislocation 
 is almost impossible without fracture of this part of the pelvis. 
 
 The travelling showman now enlightens the gaping spectators 
 that crowd his booth at a country fair with " Some says as 
 elephants got no joints in their legs, but that ere's fabulous ;" and 
 yet there was a time when the popular belief-r-originating, no 
 doubt, in the stiff march of the animal, which results in a motion 
 so disagreeable to the rider, when compared with the easy paces 
 of a horse, arising from the more complicated machinery of the 
 limbs of the latter was so strong, that Sir T. Brown found it 
 necessary to set himself seriously to .refute it as a vulgar error. 
 Strength, certainly, rather than flexibility, is the principle on 
 which the legs of the elephant are formed. But Ulysses, in 
 "Troylus and Cressida," says, 
 
 The elephant hath joynts, but none for curtesie ; 
 His legges are legges for necessity, not for flight.* 
 
 And yet when the animal kneels he bends his hind legs, like a 
 man does when he assumes the kneeling position. SirT. Brown 
 in his third book "Of divers popular and received Tennets con- 
 cerning Animals : which examined, prove either false or dubious," 
 says, " The first shall be of the elephant : whereof there generally 
 passeth an opinion, it hath no joynts; and this absurdity is 
 seconded with another, that being unable to lie down, it sleepeth 
 
 * Ligarnentutn t> res. -J- Acetabulum. * Folio. 
 
256 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 against a tree: which the hunters observing, do saw almost 
 asunder ; whereon the beast relying, by the fall of the tree, falls 
 also .down itself, and is able to rise no more." 
 
 . It would be a waste of space at this time of day, to follow Sir 
 Thomas through his learned and grave refutation of this absurdity, 
 the. more extraordinary, inasmuch as though there are not wanting 
 passages in ancient authors to countenance it, there are multitudes 
 of others referring to actions by elephants which could not be 
 performed without flexure of their joints, and some which 
 expressly describe genuflexion and lying down. 
 
 Propped upon the high, huge limbs, which look like great 
 columns when the animal is at rest, and even when in ordinary 
 progression, how was the elephant, with his extremely short, com- 
 pact neck a compactness and brevity necessary to the easy sup- 
 port of the colossal head to reach the succulent plants beneath 
 it, or even any vegetable production that was not upon a level 
 with its mouth ? The cervical vertebra of the ruminants gene- 
 rally, are so modified as to enable the animal to crop with ease 
 the herbage of the field ; and in the giraffe, the neck is so ex- 
 tremely lengthened as to lift its towering head above the acacias 
 on which it principally browses, while its flexibility enables the 
 animal to apply its prehensile tongue and lips to any food that 
 may suit it, from the ground to a height of eighteen feet.* In 
 the horse and other pachyderms, which are grazers, the pro- 
 portions of the legs and neck are so adjusted, that the mouth 
 reaches the ground with ease, as the spectator immediately per- 
 ceives when he sees their skeletons only. But place a man who 
 has never seen an elephant in the flesh, or a pictorial representa- 
 tion of the animal, before its skeleton, and one of his first mental 
 inquiries will be, "how was the creature fed?" The moment 
 you explain to him that the shortness of the neck was com- 
 pensated by a long flexible proboscis, which depended from the 
 head, between the tusks, capable of touching the ground, or of 
 reaching to that extent above the head, the problem is solved. 
 
 This wonderful organ almost equal to the hand of man, 
 superior to that of the apes is, perhaps, the most elaborate 
 piece of mechanism as yet known to us. In consequence of the 
 space necessarily occupied by the sockets of the tusks, the nasal 
 bones are limited in their development ; and the nostrils in the 
 skeleton are situated towards the upper part of the face. But in 
 
 ' On the night of the 25th of February, 1841, Zarda, the female giraffe 
 in the possession of the Zoological Society of London, gave birth, in the 
 Regent's Park, to a fine healthy male, after a gestation of sixty-five weeks 
 and three days, being Hie third of that sex produced by her in captivity at 
 that place. She has since become the mother of a fourth male. See ante, f>. 
 211, note. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 257 
 
 the living animal they are prolonged into a cylindrical proboscis, 
 endowed with exquisite sensibility, the utmost facility of motion, 
 and enormous strength. At its distal extremity is a small mus- 
 cular appendage, which has aptly been termed the finger. Be- 
 tween thirty and forty thousand muscles enable the elephant to 
 extend this animated instrument, shorten it, and bend it in every 
 direction, so that there is hardly any curve or position which it 
 cannot assume at the will of the animal, nor any substance, large 
 or small, with which it cannot grapple. One of the most philo- 
 sophical poets of ancient Rome uses the term " anguimanus," or 
 " snake-hand," to designate an elephant ; and her greatest orator 
 terms the proboscis " the elephant's hand." Even the rude Caf- 
 fre, when he has slain one of these huge beasts, is said to amputate 
 the trunk with a feeling of awe, and, as he solemnly buries it, to 
 exclaim, " The elephant is a great lord, and the trunk is his hand." 
 
 But this is not all. The proboscis is the elephant's pump, his 
 drinking-cup, his water reservoir, his jet cVeau from whose foun- 
 tain he besprinkles his broad back and ample body his powder- 
 ing apparatus, wherewith he puffs the collected dust over his 
 moistened hide to protect it from flies, his foraging instrument with 
 which he collects his food, from the enormous leafy branch torn 
 from the lofty tree, to the stalk of grass, or the barleycorn picked 
 up from the ground, his tooth-brush we have seen one rub his 
 teeth with mud dentrifice by its aid and his all-powerful arm. 
 Such is this wonderful concentration of might and skill, capable 
 of the most tremendous exertion, and the most delicate adjust- 
 ment, now dashing a strong living man against a wall, from which 
 he falls a mashed and blood-stained inanimate mass, at the behest 
 of an eastern tyrant, and anon gathering up the comfits granted 
 as the terrible brute's reward. 
 
 This "proboscis" or " promuscis," as it was termed by the 
 ancient Italians, was so named, with reference, in all probability, 
 to the organ by which flies, " muscse," take their food : indeed, 
 Cardan, comparing the proboscis of the beast with that of the in- 
 sect, remarks, that whilst nature was framing a gnat, she was 
 meditating on the production of an elephant ; for which conceit 
 he receives a most unsparing castigation at the hands of the sar- 
 castic Scaliger. 'E^co-*/? (epiboscis, or feeder), was the Greek 
 word used to designate the proboscis of a fly. 
 
 Edward Topsell, who was, " Chaplaine in the church of Saint 
 Buttolphe, Aldersgate," to " The Revejend and Right Worshipful! 
 Richard Neile, D. of Divinity, Deane of Westminster, Maister of 
 the Savoy, and, Clearke of the King his*most excellent Maiesties 
 Closet," in his rare " Historic of Four-footed Beastes,"* which 
 is generally considered to be one of the first, if not the first book 
 
 * London: Printed by William laggard 1607. 
 22* 
 
258 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 on Zoology written in Great Britain, thus quaintly describes the 
 proboscis. 
 
 " His truncke called Proboscis and Promuscis, is a large hol- 
 low thing hanging from his nose like skinne to the groundward ; 
 and when he feedeth it lyeth open, like the skin upon the bill of 
 a Turkey-cock, to draw in both his meate and drinke, using it 
 for a hand, and therefore improperly it is called a hand. For by 
 it he receiveth of his keeper whatsoever he giveth him, with it he 
 overthroweth trees, and wheresoever he swimmeth through it he 
 draweth breath. It is crooked, gristly, and inflexible at the roote 
 next to the nose ; within, it hath two passages, one into the head 
 and bodie, by which he breatheth, and the other into his mouth, 
 whereby he receiveth his meate : and herein is the worke of God 
 most woonderfull, not only in giving unto it such a diverse pro- 
 portion and anatomic, but also giving him .reason to knowe this 
 benefite of it, that so long as he is in the water and holdeth up 
 that trunck, he cannot perish. 
 
 " With this he fighteth in warre, and is able to take up a small 
 piece of money from the earth ; with it he hath beene seene to pull 
 down the toppe of a tree, which twenty-foure men with a rope 
 could not make to bend. With it he driveth away his hunters 
 when he is chased, for he can draw up therein a great quantity 
 of water, and shoote it forth againe, to the amazement and the 
 overthrow of them that persecute him." 
 
 The height of the elephant has been greatly exaggerated. 
 
 "Of all earthly creatures," says Topsell, "an elephant is the 
 greatest : for in India they are nine cubits high, and five cubits 
 broad ; in Affrica fourteene or fifteene ful spans, which is about 
 eleven foot high, and proportionable in bredth, which caused ^Elia- 
 nus to write that one Elephant is as big as three Bugils ; and 
 among these the males are ever greater than the females. In the 
 kingdome of Melinda, in Affricke, there were two young ones, 
 not above six months old, whereof the least was great as the 
 greatest oxe, but his flesh was as much as you shall find in two 
 oxen ; the other was much greater." 
 
 These dimensions are tolerably large ; but an altitude of from 
 seventeen to twenty feet has been ascribed by others to the ele- 
 phants of Madras. The average height, however, seems to be 
 under ten feet, measured from the wither or top of- the shoulder : 
 that of the skeleton of Chunee, in the Museum of the Royal Col- 
 lege of Surgeons, is about nine feet six inches from the pedestal 
 on which it stands to the top of the head ; and the male elephant, 
 now in the garden of trte Zoological Society of London, in the 
 Regent's Park, measures about nine feet six inches from the 
 ground to the top of the shoulder.* One belonging to a vizier of 
 * Dead. See Appendix. 
 
ELKPHANTS. 259 
 
 Oude was twelve feet two inches high when his head was raised, 
 as he marched in state, and measured ten feet six inches from the 
 ground to the top of the shoulder. This was the only instance 
 known to Mr. Corse, who was indefatigable in collecting accurate 
 information on the subject, of an elephant exceeding ten feet in 
 height. He had indeed some trouble in getting at the truth of 
 rumors spread abroad by those who had seen the animal, relative 
 to the ultra-gigantic proportions of one at Dacca belonging to the 
 nabob, and said to be about fourteen feet high. 
 
 Now Mr. Corse had formerly seen this very elephant, and 
 then, judging from his eye, had supposed the height of the ani- 
 mal to be twelve feet. Determined to ascertain the fact, he set 
 out for Dacca, where the mahout of the elephant in question as- 
 sured Mr. Corse that his charge was from ten to twelve cubits 
 high in other words, from fifteen to eighteen feet, but that he 
 dared not bring the animal for Mr. Corse's examination without 
 the permission of the nabob. Mr. Corse, however, who from 
 experience knew that the eye is occasionally endowed with a high 
 magnifying power, especially in cases where old prejudices exist, 
 was not to be satisfied with this evidence, direct as it was, and 
 good as it seemed. He asked the nabob's permission to apply 
 the test of actual measurement, it was granted, and the dimen- 
 sions of the animal immediately shrank under its exact severity. 
 Its height did not exceed ten feet. Le Vaillant, it is true, men- 
 tions an enormous African elephant which he wounded, and 
 which, he says, was at least thirteen feet high, with tusks which, 
 to judge by the eye, could not have weighed less than a hundred 
 and twenty pounds each. But the animal escaped, and Le Vail- 
 lant had no opportunity of measuring it accurately... 
 
 Pringle, too, came suddenly upon a male of this species, which 
 two officers of engineers, who were with him, and had been 
 familiar with the sight of wild elephants, agreed was at least 
 fourteen feet in height : here again there was no actual measure- 
 ment. 
 
 The Asiatic is as fastidious with reference to the perfection of 
 his elephant as he is with regard to female beauty. Oriental wri- 
 ters dwell upon the normal points of loveliness in the form of wo- 
 man ; nor are they less particular in laying down the laws of pro- 
 portion which ought to govern the full development of an elephant 
 without blemish. 
 
 A perfect elephant must have long, rounded ears, without rag- 
 ged or indented edges. His eyes, free from specks, should be 
 dark hazel. Neither black nor dark spots of any size ought -to 
 disfigure the roof of his mouth or his tongue. His trunk must be 
 large and well developed. His tail should be long, and the ter- 
 minal tuft of hair should nearly reach to the ground. On each 
 
260 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 of his fore-feet there ought to be five nails, and on each of his 
 hind-feet four, making his full complement eighteen. His head 
 should be well set on, and carried high and stately. The curve 
 of his back ought to rise gradually from the shoulder to the mid- 
 dle, whence it should decline to the setting on of the tail. His 
 limbs must be strong, and his joints firm and well knit. 
 
 The quantity of food necessary for the support of this colossal 
 frame is great, and the expense of keeping a large body of ele- 
 phants, as was formerly the practice in India, for war or cere- 
 mony, must have been excessive. Akbar's own stud, kept for his 
 personal use, amounted to one hundred and one, and the daily 
 allowance to each was two hundred pounds of food. The greater 
 number of them had, moreover, ten pounds of sugar, in addition 
 to rice, pepper, and milk. Three hundred sugar-canes were daily 
 supplied to each of them during the cane season. The elephant 
 kept by Louis XIV. had a daily allowance of eighty pounds of 
 bread, twelve pints of wine, and an enormous mess of vegetable 
 soup, with rice and bread. These were his ordinary provisions, 
 and he picked up no small gleanings besides in the shape of grass 
 and presents from visitors. 
 
 The daily rations of Jack, the male elephant kept in the garden 
 of the Zoological Society of London, and now about thirty-three 
 years old,* are a truss and a half of hay, forty-two pounds of Swe- 
 dish turnips, a mash consisting of three pounds of boiled rice, a 
 bushel of chaff, and half a bushel of bran, ten pounds of sea-bis- 
 cuit, a bundle of straw for his bed, weighing about thirty-six 
 pounds, which he usually eats by the morning, and thirty-six 
 pails of water. 
 
 Besides this he collects no small portion of savoury alms from 
 the public. Formerly his allowance was larger, and he had oats 
 and mangold-wurzel ; but at that time Sunday was a day of fasting 
 with him (as it still is to the carnivora), only broken by a slight 
 morning meal. Some four or five years ago he determined to 
 stand this hebdomadal privation no longer, and for two or three 
 successive Sabbath-nights he made such a disturbance that the 
 keepers had small repose. Finding that this hint was not taken 
 he went a little further next time, and so bestirred himself that, 
 like other agitators who have known exactly how far to go, he 
 carried his point ; for he made an attack upon his door with such 
 good-will and effect, that they were fain to get up in the middle 
 of the night to feed him. Since this demonstration of physical 
 force he has enjoyed his full meals on Sundays. 
 
 While writing this, a curious instance of his ingenuity has 
 come to our knowledge. The boarded ceiling in front of his 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 261 
 
 apartment is low, compared to the height within, but still it was 
 thought to be sufficiently lofty. He has lately, tired probably by 
 his long winter confinement, commenced operations upon it and 
 pulled down some of the boards. The nice application of the 
 tools with which nature lias furnished him was cleverly mani- 
 fested on this occasion. Raising his head suddenly, he drove 
 his tusk through a board, splitting it with the blow; he then 
 applied the finger of his trunk to the aperture, and tore away till 
 he was found out and stopped. Nothing could be more unpromis- 
 ing that the smooth surface of planks above his head, or could have 
 afforded less opportunity for grasping ; but he tried it with his 
 proboscis, found it hollow, and pierced it with his tusk, so as to 
 obtain trunk-hold. This was very like reasoning. 
 
 The necessary daily aliment for. the elephant in a sta-te of do- 
 mestication may be stated, on an average, at about two hundred 
 pounds in weight. Twenty-five rupees a month is the modern 
 Asiatic allowance for each elephant. 
 
 Le Vaillant had a view of the mode in which the wild African 
 elephants feed, and he describes their method of purifying their 
 ligneous salads before they become the grist of the powerful mill 
 which we, have attempted to describe. From the top of an emi- 
 nence at the edge of a wood he perceived four in some very thick 
 bushes-, and taking care to get to the leeward of them he ap- 
 proached with great precaution. For half an hour did he sur- 
 vey them while they were eating the extremities of the branches. 
 Before they took the branches into their mouths, they beat them 
 three or four times with their trunks, in order, as he imagined, to 
 shake off the ants and insects. This done, they grasped with 
 their trunks all the branches they could, and conveying them to 
 their mouths always on the left side, swallowed them without 
 much chewing. He remarked that they preferred those branches 
 which were best furnished with leaves', and that they were, be- 
 sides, extremely fond of a yellow fruit, when it was ripe, which 
 in the country is called a cherry. 
 
 But it would seem that after a long fast, or in moments of care- 
 lessness, the purifying process above noticed by Le Vaillant is 
 occasionally .neglected, for the worthy Topsell, drawing from the 
 ancient legends, and especially from Pliny, who never let a won- 
 derful story pass unnoted, tells us that " They live upon the fruits 
 of plants and roots, and with their trunks and heads overthrow 
 the tops of trees, and eat the boughes and bodies of them, and 
 many times upon the leaves of trees he devoureth chameleons, 
 whereby he is poisoned, and dieth if hee eat not immediately a 
 wild olive!" The bane and antidote are equally credible. Top- 
 sell then proceeds to state that they are so loving to their fellows 
 that they will not eat their meat alone, but having found a prey 
 
262 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 "they go and invite the residue to their feastes and cheere, more 
 like to reasonable, civill men, than unreasonable brute beasts." 
 He thus describes the domesticated elephant's apolaustic pro- 
 pensities. 
 
 " It will forbeare drinke eight daies together, and drinke wine 
 to drunkennesse like an ape. It is delighted above measure with 
 sweet savours, oyntments, and smelling flowers, for which cause 
 their keeper will in the summer time lead them into the meadowes 
 of flowers, where they of themselves will, by the quickness of 
 their smelling, chuse out and gather the sweetest flowers, and 
 put them into a basket if their keeper have any ; which being 
 filled, like daintie and neate men, they also desire to wash, and so 
 will go and seeke out water to wash themselves, and of their owne 
 accord returne backe againe to the basket of flowers, which if 
 they find not they will bray and call for them. Afterward, being 
 led into their stable, they will not eat meat untill they take of their 
 flowers and dresse the brimme's of their maungers therewith, and 
 likewise strew their roome or standing-place, pleasing themselves 
 with their meat, because of the savour of the flowers stuck about 
 their cratch, like dainty fed persons which set their dishes with 
 greene hearbs, and put them into their cups of wine." 
 
 Great longevity was attributed to these quadrupeds. More 
 than four hundred years of life were anciently supposed to be 
 their portion, if their career was not shortened by sickness or 
 accident. This enormous duration seems -to have been allotted to 
 them principally on the faith of a story relating to one marked in 
 a particular manner, which was captured by a king of Lydia four 
 hundred years after a battle in which this remarkable animal had 
 figured. A little cross examination might possibly have thrown 
 some doubt on the identity, and it is hardly necessary to observe 
 how improbable it is that any living frame could sustain the wear 
 and tear of four centuries. Still there -are cases on record of 
 elephants having been in captivity, in more modern times, for a 
 hundred years, and even for a hundred and thirty, to which credit 
 ought not to be rashly denied. In a vegetable-feeding quadruped 
 the duration of the teeth offers a fair criterion by which to judge 
 of the probable extent of life, and we think that Sir Everard 
 Home is the physiologist who has observed that the teeth of the 
 deer and sheep are worn down in much less than fifteen years ; 
 those of the ox tribe in about twenty years ; those of the horse in 
 forty or fifty years; white those of the elephant will last for a 
 century. The longevity of the last-mentioned animal must be, 
 therefore, in all probability very considerable, although falling far 
 short of the ancient estimate. 
 
 The period of gestation is between twenty and twenty-one 
 months. Mr. Corse records the birth of a fine young male 
 
ELEPHANTS. 263 
 
 thirty-five inches and a, half high, at the expiration of twenty 
 months and eighteen days. The breasts are situated on the 
 chest, -and the young one. takes the nourishment with the mouth, 
 not with the trunk, as. Perrault and Buffon insisted, in contradic- 
 tion to the actual observation of Le Vaillant. So much for the 
 value of analogical reasoning by closet zoologists when opposed 
 to the experience of out-door naturalists men who have endured 
 and still endure the greatest fatigues and privations, that they 
 may watch the operations of nature in the forest and the desert, 
 and too often reap for their reward the sneers of incredulous and 
 ignorant critics, who have never passed the boundaries of sea-coal 
 fires and sooty trees. The error of the trunk-sucking faction was 
 strengthened by those who had seen the young elephant or calf, 
 as it is termed, touching the breast of its mother with its probos- 
 cis ; but it no more sucks with that organ than a child does with 
 its hand. 
 
 All the young elephants seen by Mr. Corse, began to nibble 
 and suck the breast, to use his own expressions, soon after birth, 
 pressing it with the trunk to make the milk flow more readily. * 
 He says, that the mothers never lie down to give their young ones 
 this first and natural food, and that it often happens when the 
 darn stands high on her legs that she is obliged to bend her body 
 towards her offspring to enable it to reach the nipple with its 
 mouth. Mr. Corse well remarks that, if ever the trunk was 
 used to lay hold of this part in the mother, it would be upon such 
 occasions, and at this period, when the young one is making la- 
 borious efforts to reach it with the mouth, which it could at all 
 times easily effect with its trunk, if that would have answered the 
 purpose. He had often observed the young elephant grasp the 
 nipple, which projects horizontally from the breast, with the side 
 of its mouth, and he adds, that it is a common practice with the 
 natives of India to raise a small mound of earth some six or eight 
 inches high, for the young one to stand on, thus saving the 
 mother the trouble of bending her body every time she gives her 
 calf the breast, an effort which she could not make with ease when 
 tied to her picket. 
 
 The general evidence is in favour of the female elephants as 
 affectionate mothers, and the painful story recorded by Bruce, 
 whose heart was evidently a very kind one, shows that strong filial 
 attachment is felt by the young. * . 
 
 After an animated description of an Abyssinian elephant-hunt, 
 the African traveller thus concludes : "There now remained but 
 two elephants of those that had been discovered, which were a 
 she one with a calf. The agageer would willingly have left these 
 alone, as the teeth of the female are very small, and the young 
 one is of no sort of value, even for food, its flesh shrinking much 
 
264 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 upon drying; but the hunters would not be limited in their sport. 
 The people having observed the place of her retreat, thither we 
 eagerly followed. She was very soon found, and as soon lamed 
 by the agageers; but when they came to wound her with their 
 darts, as every one did in turn, to our very great surprise, the 
 young one, which had been suffered to escape unheeded and 
 unpursued,came out from the thicket, apparently in great anger, 
 running upon the horses and men with all the violence it was 
 master of. I was amazed, and, as much as ever I was upon 
 such an occasion, afflicted, at seeing the great affection of the 
 little animal defending its wounded mother, heedless of its own 
 life or safety. I therefore cried to them for God's sake to spare 
 the mother though it was then too late, and the calf had 
 made several rude attacks upon me which I avoided with diffi- 
 culty ; but I am happy to this day in the reflection that I did not 
 strike it. At last, making his attacks upon Ayto Engedan, 
 it hurt him a little upon the leg; upon which he thrust "it 
 through with his lance as others did after, and it then fell 
 dead before its wounded mother, whom it had so affectionately 
 defended." 
 
 According to the interesting account of Mr. Crawfurd, upon 
 whose narrative the most undoubting reliance may be safely placed, 
 the young male elephants are weaned at Ava when they are three 
 years old ; in other words, they are separated from their dams and 
 broken in. Their youth and domestication, it might be thought, 
 would render this an easy process ; but it appears to be as tedious 
 and difficult as the reduction of a full-grown elephant, captured in 
 the forest, to obedient subjection. 
 
 Mr. Crawfurd relates, that previous to the commencement of 
 the separation and tuition of the infant elephants, a ceremony, 
 consisting of an invocation to the genius of elephant-hunting, 
 who rejoices in the appellation of Nat Udin-rnain-so, is cele- 
 brated. Between the walls of the town, and an artificial mount 
 verdant with trees, and raised upon a ledge of rock jutting into 
 the Irawadi, is a small elephant-paddock, a single square palisade 
 without gates. On. the side of the mount, under a little pavilion, 
 sat the king, personally directing the ceremony which Mr. Craw- 
 furd so ably describes. A banana-tree had been planted in the 
 middle of the paddock. It was removed with great observance ; 
 and on the spot where it s had been standing, five persons, ad- 
 vanced in age, came forward with solemn strut and dance, bearing 
 branches of a species of Eugenia, or Jambu,and carrying offerings 
 of rice and sweetmeats to the Nat. The exact words of the 
 incantation Mr. Crawfurd could not learn ; but the substance of 
 it was an information to the demi-god, that a glorious prince, the 
 descendant of a line of kings, presided ; that the demi-god was 
 
ELEPHANTS. 265 
 
 therefore requested to be propitious to lend his aid in getting 
 the elephants quietly into the pen, and generally throughout the 
 ceremony. Then some two-and-thirty female elephants, with 
 their young, were. driven into the inclosure ; four males followed, 
 and their riders were provided with long ropes having a noose at 
 the end. Their object was to entangle the young elephants 
 about to be weaned, by the hind leg ; and they did not succeed 
 without great difficulty, for the weanee, as a lawyer might term 
 him, was protected by the herd of elephant matrons, who made 
 common cause for the protection of the persecuted youngling. 
 When he was at last secured, no wild elephant just caught could 
 have been more outrageous and obstreperous. The huge mounted 
 elephants had to ply their trunks and beat the neophyte fre- 
 quently, and Mr. Crawfurd observed, once or twice, that they 
 raised the terrified recusant quite off the ground with their tusks, 
 without doing him any material injury. When thus lifted up, the 
 cry of the patient differed in no way, but in degree, from the 
 scream of a hog in pain or fear. Ultimately, the young probo- 
 scidian, consigned to dry nursing and tuition, was shut into a 
 small pen, where he was under the surveillance of two male ele- 
 phants, who continued to watch him. Mr. Crawfurd appears to 
 have left him still very outrageous, and making violent efforts to 
 extricate himself to very little purpose.* 
 
 Pringle, in the narrative of his encountering the huge African 
 elephant, which we have already noticed, gives a lively account 
 of the natural habits of that species, from personal observation. 
 He was riding with his party, and while they ascended the Win- 
 terberg, the granf^ aspect of which, with its coronet of rocks, 
 frowning front, and steep, grassy skirts, feathered over with a 
 straggling forest, partly scathed by fire, he well describes, he 
 constructed a sort of booth or shieling, for their shelter at night, 
 on the edge of a wood in a lovely verdant glen at the foot of the 
 mountain, all alive with the garrulity of monkeys and parrakeets. 
 Lions were numerous in the vicinity, and they protected them- 
 selves by a blazing watch-fire, and a couple of sentinels during 
 the night ; -but no disturbance interrupted their repose. 
 
 Next day they followed the course of the Koonap, over green 
 sloping hills, till the ruggedness of the ravines, and prevalence of 
 jungle, compelled them to follow a Caffre path, kept open only by 
 the passage of wild animals along the margin of the river. Herds 
 of quag-gas, and various antelopes were seen during the forenoon ; 
 but, after mid-day, they came upon the recent traces of a troop of 
 elephants. 
 
 " Their huge foot-prints : we.re everywhere visible ; and in the 
 
 * Kmbassy to Avn. 
 
 23 
 
266 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 swampy spots on the banks of the river, it was evident that some 
 of them had been luxuriously enjoying themselves, by rolling 
 their unwieldy bulks in the ooze and mud. But it was in the 
 groves and jungles that they had left the most striking proofs of 
 their recent presence and peculiar habits. In many places paths 
 had been trodden through the midst of dense forests, otherwise 
 impenetrable. They appeared to have opened up these paths 
 with great judgment, always taking the best and shortest cut to 
 the next savannah, or ford of the river ; and in this way their 
 labours were of the greatest use to us by pioneering our route 
 through a most intricate country, never yet traversed by a wheel- 
 carriage, and great part of it, indeed, not easily accessible even 
 on horseback. In such places, the great bull elephant always 
 marches in the van, bursting through the jungle as a bullock 
 would through a field of hops, treading down the brushwood, and 
 breaking off with his proboscis the longer branches that obstruct 
 the passage, whilst the females and younger part of ,the herd 
 follow in his wake." \ 
 
 This observing painter with the pen, then proceeds to describe 
 the traces of the operations of these huge animals among the 
 mimosa-trees, sprinkled over the meadows, or lower bottoms. 
 Great numbers of these trees had been torn from the ground and 
 placed in an inverted position, so that the elephants might browse 
 at their ease upon the succulent roots. Many of these trees were 
 of considerable size, and in such cases, the elephant had brought 
 one of his tusks to bear, as a man would use a crow-bar, digging 
 it under their roots to loosen their hold, before he had attempted 
 to wrench up the trees with its trunk. 
 
 While the party were admiring these and other tokens of the 
 elephant's strength and sagacity, they suddenly found themselves, 
 on issuing from a woody defile, in the midst of-a numerous herd. 
 None of the elephants, indeed, were very close to them, but were 
 scattered in groups over the bottom and sides, of a valley, two or 
 three miles in length. Some were browsing on the juicy spek- 
 boom, with which the skirts of the hills on each side were 
 fringed : others were busy among the young mimosas and ever- 
 greens with which the meadows were sprinkled. As the party 
 cautiously proceeded, some of the groups came more distinctly 
 into view. , These, in many instances, appeared to be separate 
 families, consisting of the male, female, and young of different 
 sizes. The gigantic proportions of the chief leaders, and their 
 calm and stately tranquillity , of deportment became more and 
 more striking, as the band of about a dozen horsemen, including 
 Hottentots, advanced ; but the elephants seemed either not to 
 observe, or to disregard the march of the travellers down the 
 valley. As they rode along leisurely through a meadow, thickly 
 
ELEPHANTS. 267 
 
 studded over with clumps of tall evergreens, they suddenly came 
 -upon the enormous male, which they conjectured to be at least 
 fourteen feet high, right in their path, and within a hundred 
 paces. The Hottentots, in their broken Dutch, whispered that he 
 was een gmwzaam karl bania\ bania' groot, which according 
 to the interpretation of one of them, signifies a " hugeous terri- 
 ble fellow, plenty, plenty big." 
 
 The great grewsome carle did not, however, seem to notice 
 them ; for the wind was brisk, and they stood to leeward of him, 
 so that he was not warned by his senses of smelling and hearing. 
 When, however, they turned off at a gallop, making a circuit 
 through the bushes to avoid collision with him, he was startled 
 by the sound of the horses' feet, and turned towards them mena- 
 cingly, erecting his enormous ears, and raising his trunk as if 
 about to charge. Fortunately for the party, however, he remained 
 on the spot, looking after them, in front of two or three females, 
 and as many young ones, which had hastily crowded up behind 
 from the bank of the river, as if to claim his protection. 
 
 Such is the portrait of an elephant in a state of nature. How 
 different is its bearing when it has become subjected to man, 
 whose hand and head subdue all living things, however enormous, 
 to his will. The greatest of terrestrial animals, conscious as it is 
 of enormous strength, obeys all his behests ^for good or for evil; 
 stalking, stately and huge in the solemn procession, proud of its 
 gorgeous trappings ; amusing him with unwieldy, but well- 
 adjusted gambols, and clever tricks ; or " barded from counter to 
 tail," with steel-clad trunk and tusks armed with poisoned 
 daggers, dealing destruction in war, and trampling down masses 
 of men, as if they were no more than an army of locUsts. 
 
 ELEPHANTS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Let them show their features in war." 
 
 MACPUERSON. 
 
 THAT the obedient sagacity of an animal endowed with such 
 enormous strength, should have led the strategist to employ the 
 elephant as an agent, and that such agency should, at first, have 
 been overwhelming, was to be expected. 
 
 In the early periods, the art of war was, in a great degree, 
 
268 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 reduced to a trial of physical strength, and victory, for the most 
 part, was the reward of personal valour. The general, as well 
 as the common soldier, fought hand to hand ; and the effect 
 of the first sight of a well-appointed troop of elephants, when 
 opposed to ancient cavalry and infantry, may well have turned 
 the tide of battle. 
 
 Although the triumphant Liber Pater is stated to have been 
 the first to yoke those of India to his car, the ambushed elephants 
 of King Amoraeus that put to flight the horsemen of Cyrus in his 
 expedition against the Derbices, appear to have been the earliest 
 on record actually engaged. The ancient Indian monarchs, if we 
 are to believe Pliny and others, numbered thousands of these 
 living mountains among their standing armies ; and the story 
 told by Diodorus of the stratagem of the Assyrian Queen, when, 
 weary of the want of excitement attendant upon a long peace, 
 she languished again for conquest, shows in what consideration 
 these animals were -held as an arm of war. India was her object ; 
 but then what was to be done for elephants ? Stabrobates, the 
 king against whom her expedition was to be directed, possessed, 
 besides his other almost countless forces, numbers of these huge 
 animals, well accoutred for the field. 
 
 Semiramis, therefore, caused three hundred thousand black 
 oxen to be slaughtered, and of the skins, sewn together and 
 stuffed with straw, her mechanics formed artificial elephants: 
 there was a man to direct, and a camel to carry each of them, so 
 that at a distance they might well pass for living beasts. The 
 workmen laboured in a secret place, walled round and guarded, 
 so that no hint of what was passing within should transpire ; and 
 when all was finished, the horses of her army were familiarised 
 with the machines, as the knight reconciled his horse and dogs 
 to the presence of the real Rhodian dragon, by teaching them to 
 fight the artificial model. Her troops^ which Were assembled in 
 Bactria, amounted, according to Ctesias, to three millions of in- 
 fantry, two hundred thousand cavalry, a hundred thousand war^ 
 chariots, and a hundred thousand soldiers, armed with very long 
 swords, mounted on camels. With these, the mock-elephants, 
 and two thousand boats so contrived that they could be taken to 
 pieces and reconstructed, and which were transported on the backs 
 of camels, Semiramis took the field. 
 
 On his side, Stabrobates, who had heard of these warlike pre- 
 parations, was not idle ; he increased his' army in every branch, 
 and summoned all his resources to outdo Semiramis. And 
 though he does not seem to have been in the secret of the stuffed 
 machines, he augmented the number of his real elephants, and 
 furnished them so completely with offensive and defensive armour, 
 that it seemed impossible to resist them. He then sent ambas- 
 
ELEPHANTS. 269 
 
 sadors to the queen, upbraiding her with commencing an unpro- 
 voked war; wrote to her some rather strong epistles, in which 
 he touched not very politely on her private habits, and finished 
 by informing her that if he caught her, she should be crucified; 
 whereat the queen smiled, proceeded to the Indus, where the king's 
 fleet lay, sank a thousand of his vessels, and took a great number 
 of captives. Stabrobates feigned a panic and fled ; the feint 
 took: Semiramis crossed the river and pursued the Indians with 
 the whole of her forces, except eighty thousand men left to guard 
 the bridge. 
 
 In her front Semiramis placed, her artificial elephants; and 
 when the amazed scouts carried to the king the news of the mul- 
 titude, of those beasts that protected her line, every one looked on 
 his neighbour, and inquired in surprise, from what source the 
 Assyrians could have been supplied with such numbers? Sta- 
 brobates now, in his turn, began to repent his retreat, and great 
 must have been his comfort when the deserters for they as 
 usual brought the information from the queen's army, enlight- 
 ened him as to the true state of the case. 
 
 Both were now confident, the queen still believing that the 
 cheat was undiscovered, and both marched to the attack. The 
 cavalry and chariots formed the Indian van, and the horses, taking 
 the stuffed machines, which were placed before the Assyrian 
 main body, at a distance, for real elephants, advanced boldly 
 enough. As they came near, the scene was changed, the horses 
 were no longer deluded, but found themselves opposed to mon- 
 strous shapes, the sight and smell of which were equally strange 
 to them: they kicked, they plunged, they reared; some threw 
 their riders, whilst others madly carried them among the enemy, 
 who fell upon them, and drove them in confusion back upon their 
 own main body. 
 
 Stabrobates was again surprised; but he brought up his in- 
 fantry headed by his elephants, the king himself commanding 
 in the right wing, mounted on a stately beast, and fiercely charged 
 the queen, who was opposite to him. The poor made-up elephants 
 behaved nobly, but soon gave way before the massive weight of 
 the real war-brutes, who were not to be taken in by the shredded 
 and patched appearance of their leathern opponents, and a misera- 
 ble slaughter of the queen's troops ensued. The field was covered 
 with the torn and trampled slain, the king's elephants hurling 
 some high into the air with their trunks, goring, rending, and toss- 
 ing others with their tusks, treading down whole ranks of men, 
 and destroying all before them. The Assyrians could no longer 
 stand before such frightful devastation, and their whole army fled 
 with their queen, whose arm had been pierced by the Indian king's 
 23* 
 
270 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 own arrow, and her shoulder by one of his darts : but the fleetness 
 of her horse saved her Hfe. 
 
 Long afterwards, we find elephants among the opponents of 
 Alexander, who encountered them before he passed the Indus ; 
 for, at the battle of Gaugamela, or Arbela, as the field ig usually 
 termed, where the power of Darius fell before the irresistible Mace- 
 donian phalanx, all the elephants of the Persian appear to have 
 been taken. As he marched on Susa, twelve elephants brought 
 from India by Darius, were among the magnificent gifts presented 
 to Alexander by the governor of the province. His victorious army 
 seized, on the bank of the Indus, some of these beasts from the 
 affrighted natives, who fled at his approach. 
 
 The Indus passed, the conqueror marched unchecked till the 
 broad and rapid Hydaspes crossed his path, and he beheld, on 
 the opposite bank, Porus and all his host, presenting a wall of 
 flesh and steel beyond its waves. Familiarised -as the Greeks had 
 been to the sight of the beasts, the prodigious size and enormous 
 number of the Indian king's elephants, their horrible roarings, as, 
 provoked by their keepers, they menaced the invaders, his multi- 
 tudinous and well-appointed army, with the war-chariots and the 
 horsemen thereof, made them pause. The sun rose and set again 
 and again; and there stood the Macedonian and the Indian 
 gazing at each other across that wild water. There, too, stood 
 the elephants on the watch ; every stratagem of the wily Greek 
 to effect a passage had hitherto been bamed, and to attempt it 
 openly, in the face of those threatening living bulwarks, was to 
 court destruction; for the danger apprehended was, that the 
 horses, seized with terror as they neared the elephants, would 
 wildly leap from the boats into the rolling river. Thus passed 
 several days. At length the watch of the Indians was relaxed. 
 The great Greek Captain made a diversion with a part of his 
 army, that drew off the enemy, and the main body of the Mace- 
 donians crossed and stood safely on the ground so lately occupied 
 by the elephants. 
 
 But there was yet a terrible struggle to be sustained. Porus 
 had drawn up his army upon a firm and sandy plain, offering the 
 best ground for the operations of his chariots and cavalry. In 
 front stood the war-elephants, like towers, a hundred feet apart, 
 to cover the infantry and paralyse the Grecian horse with fear. 
 Other huge elephants bearing large wooden towers, full of armed 
 men, flanked each wing. On the right and left the foot were 
 protected by the horse, and the horse by the chariots in their 
 front. The colossal Porus himself was borne upon an elephant 
 towering far above the rest of his fellows. 
 
 Alexander gazed at this imposing and glorious array with stern 
 
ELEPHANTS. 271 
 
 delight. He burst out into a joyous exclamation, that he had at 
 last before him a danger worthy of the greatness of his soul. 
 
 The signal was given. Onward rushed the long levelled pikes 
 of the phalanx, whilst the rapid charges of the cavalry, and the 
 incessant storm of arrows from the light-armed Thracian bow r men, 
 added to the panic that began to spread among the Indians. Still 
 the elephants stood firm, trampling down the infantry like grass- 
 hoppers, or seizing the armed Greeks in their trunks, and deliver- 
 ing them to the tender mercies of their governors. The day was 
 waning, but not the battle, which was still doubtful, when the 
 Macedonians saw that their only chance was. to turn all their 
 strength upon these huge and stubborn enemies. Then was the 
 crashing axe driven deep into their enormous legs, their trunks 
 were lopped with scythe-like weapons, and, while the infantry 
 were thus at work upon them, the Greek cavalry surrounded 
 them. The enraged, mutilated, and hemmed-in beasts, dealt 
 destruction to friend and foe, and, after a carnage to which 
 modern battles offer scarcely any parallel, the wounded and 
 wearied elephants which had not yet dropped, but had no longer 
 strength to push against the masses that opposed them, first 
 stood still, uttering hideous cries, and then staggered out of the 
 fight. 
 
 Unmoved by this disastrous scene, the Indian king did not quail. 
 His lofty stature and enormous elephant exposed him to the aim 
 of all, but, covered as he was with wounds, he still darted his 
 javelins at the enemy, till they dropped from his unnerved arm. 
 Exhausted, he attempted to slide dow r n from his elephant, and its 
 governor perceiving the king's wish, commanded the beast to kneel. 
 This was the finishing stroke ; for, as all the elephants had been 
 trained to imitate the movements of the king's, they knelt too, 
 and became an easy prey. 
 
 In that collection of wonderful stories, got up in all probability 
 for the entertainment of the Empress Julia, the life of Apollonius 
 of Tyana, the Cappadocian seer of impossible sights is related to 
 have found in an Indian town an elephant honoured by the inha- 
 bitants with perfumes and garlands, bearing a Greek inscription 
 on the gold rings that adorned his tusks, purporting that Alexander, 
 the son of Jupiter, had dedicated Ajax to the sun. The name of 
 the elephant belonging to Porus, was said to be Ajax, and, accord- 
 ing to this account, he had survived the defeat some three hundred 
 and fifty years. 
 
 It may be doubted whether Alexander himself had, as one 
 writer at least declares,* elephants among the effective forces 
 of his army on the occasion of that victory. The better evidence 
 
 * Polysenus, who places them in Alexander's left wing. 
 
272 . ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 leads to the conclusion that, with the shrewd sagacity of a great 
 general, he despised them as incumbrances, and as likely to 
 inflict at least as much injury on their friends as on their foes. 
 Not that he did not take care to secure all the elephants that his 
 success or the influence of his name might procure. He had his 
 elephantarch, and appears to have been anxious to leave none of 
 those animal to his enemies, either for pomp or war. His stud, 
 which must have been very numerous, seems to have been divided 
 amongst his successors, of whom he prophetically said that they 
 would celebrate his obsequies with bloody hands. 
 
 In the first chapter of "The first booke of the Maccabees," in 
 Barker's Bible,* we find the following record. 
 
 " 1 After that Alexander the Macedonian, the sonne of Philip, 
 went foorth of the land of Chettiim, and slew Darius King of 
 the Persians and Medes, and reigned for him as he had before in 
 Grecia. 
 
 2 Hee tooke great warres in hand, and wanne strong holds, 
 and slew the kings of the earth. 
 
 3 So went hee thorow to the endes of the world, and tooke 
 spoyles of many nations, insomuch that the world stood in awe of 
 him : therefore his heart was puffed up and he was hautie. 
 
 4 Now when hee had gathered a mighty strong hoste, 
 
 5 And had reigned over regions, nations, and kingdomes, they 
 became tributaries unto him. 
 
 6 After these things hee fell sicke, and knew that hee should 
 die. 
 
 7 Then hee called for the chiefs of his servants, which had 
 been brought up with him of children, and parted his kingdom 
 among them, while he was yet alive. 
 
 8 So Alexander had reigned twelve yeeres when he died. 
 
 9 And his servants reigned every one in his rouine. 
 
 10 And they all caused themselves to be crowned after his 
 death, and so did their children after them many yeeres, and 
 much wickednesse increased in the world." 
 
 Elephants were employed by these crowned servants and their 
 descendants in the bloody wars that followed the partition of 
 Alexander's kingdom. In the battle fought by Eumenes (who 
 had possessed himself of the elephants of Porus) against Anti- 
 gonus, those animals were arrayed in the armies of both. It 
 would weary the reader to follow the history of these pachyderms 
 as an arm of war during this sanguinary period: and through the 
 details of their destruction by stratagem, the sword, and famine. 
 Suffice it to allude to the attack of Polysperchon on Megalopolis, 
 when his sixty-five elephants and the flower of his army miserably 
 
 * 115. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 273 
 
 perished in spiked ditches strewed over with earth ; and to the 
 siege of Pydna by Cassander, the son of Antipater, which termi- 
 nated in the massacre of Alexander's mother, wife, and son, who 
 were there taken with the town, not before the besieged had 
 suffered the most pinching pangs of hunger/and the elephants 
 had been starved on saw-dust. 
 
 We must not, however, pass unnoticed the gallantry of Ptolemy, 
 when Perdiccas attacked him upon the Nile, and with mounted 
 elephants overthrew his fortifications. Seizing a long pike, 
 Ptolemy manned the wall, pierced the eyes of the foremost 
 elephant, wounded his Indian governor, and restored confidence 
 to his soldiers, by whom the storming party were hurled into the 
 river. Again when Ptolemy attacked Demetrius at Gaza, Se- 
 leucus and himself erected an iron, sharp-pointed palisade 
 strengthened with chains, as a barrier against the elephants of 
 Demetrius. The enemy made a terrible onset with their beasts, 
 thinking to conclude, at once, a doubtful battle, but they came 
 to a sudden check at the palisade : and though forced by their 
 gallant governors, who were terribly galled by the darts and 
 arrows of Ptolemy's soldiers, on the pikes, the lacerated elephants 
 were, after the death of most of their riders, taken, and the horse 
 of Demetrius fled in consternation. 
 
 Notwithstanding these examples of successful resistance on his 
 part, it seems to have occurred to Ptolemy that the personal 
 bravery of his troops might be materially aided by opposing the 
 African elephant to his Indian relative. Forthwith he prohibited 
 their slaughter by proclamation, and issued orders for their cap- 
 ture, not without effect, for we find his son Ptolemy Philadelphus 
 in possession of three hundred. , The son of Philadelphus con- 
 sidered himself indebted to them for his victories over the Syrian 
 Antiochus Theus : but the fourth Ptolemy (Philopater) in his 
 disastrous encounter with Antiochus, the Great, had, if we are 
 to believe Polybius, the mortification of witnessing the inferiority 
 of the African to the Indian species in fight. 
 
 The description of the battle glows with the graphic power 
 that distinguishes the Greek historian. When the advance was 
 sounded, the elephants commenced the fray. Some of those 
 belonging to Ptolemy boldly attacked their adversaries, and then 
 might be seen the spearmen fighting hand to hand from the towers 
 on their backs. Nor were the elephants themselves- idle, affording 
 a grand spectacle as front to front they furiously charged each 
 other. With intertwisted trunks, each strove to maintain his 
 position, and when, in the fierce struggle, the stronger turned 
 the flank of his opponent, he gored him with his tusks, as 
 fighting bulls pierce each other with their horns. 
 
 But the greater number of Ptolemy's elephants could not be 
 
274 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 brought up to the combat ; and here, Polybius observes, that this 
 is generally the case with African elephants, which, unable to 
 bear either the odour or the cry of the Indian species, or, more 
 probably, terrified by the great bulk and strength of the latter, 
 frequently turn their backs and flee from the contest. And so it 
 happened on this occasion. For the panic-struck African ele- 
 phants fell back in disorder against the ranks of their own army, 
 and broke the line of the royal guards. Then Antiochus, wheel- 
 ing round the elephants, attacked the cavalry of Ptolemy's right 
 wing, and, at the same time, the Greek mercenaries, who stood 
 near the phalanx and within the elephants, charged and routed 
 the Peltastse, already disorganized by the African elephants, so 
 that Ptolemy's whole left wing was driven from the field. 
 
 This was the Ptolemy, who, on his visit to Jerusalem, in 
 revenge for the insult offered to him by the Jews, in forcibly pre- 
 venting him from entering the temple, determined to extirpate 
 them, and, as a commencement, ordered a vast number to be 
 exposed to his elephants, and trodden under their feet. But the 
 elephants, instead of trampling down the Jews, turned their rage 
 against the Egyptians, who crowded to feast their eyes on this 
 horrible scene an unexpected event, which so struck Ptolemy, 
 that he treated with more than ordinary consideration the nation 
 that he had doomed. 
 
 In the apocryphal book already quoted, we find curious details 
 of the methods employed to marshal and excite the war-elephants 
 of Antiochus. The tenth verse of the first chapter has been 
 quoted. The eleventh proceeds thus : 
 
 " For out of these came the wicked roote, even Antiochus Epi- 
 phanes, the sonne of King Antiochus, which had been an hostage 
 at Rome, and hee reigned in the hundredth and seven and 
 thirtieth yeere of the kingdome of the Greekes." 
 
 In the thirtieth and subsequent verses of the sixth chapter of 
 the same book it is recorded that, 
 
 "The number of his armie was an hundred thousand footemen, 
 and twenty thousand horsemen, and two and thirtie elephants 
 exercised in battell. 
 
 " These came through Idumea, and drewe neere to Beth-sura, 
 and besieged it a long season, and made engines of warre : but 
 they came out and burnt them with fire, and fought valiantly." 
 
 " Then departed Judas from the castle, and removed the hoste 
 towards Beth-zacarias, over against the king's campe." 
 
 " So the king arose very early, and brought the armie and his 
 power toward the way of Beth-zacarias, where the armie set them- 
 selves in array to the battell and blew the trumpets." 
 
 " And to provoke the elephants for to fight, they showed them 
 the blood of grapes and mulberries." i -.-.- 
 
ELEPHANTS. 275 
 
 " And they set the beastes according to the ranges : so that by 
 every elephant there stood a thousand men armed with coates of 
 male and helmets of brasse upon their heads, and unto every beast 
 were ordained five hundreth horsemen of the beast." 
 
 " Which were ready at all times wheresoever the beast was : 
 and whithersoever the beast went, they went also, and departed 
 not from him." 
 
 " And upon them were strong towres of wood that covered every 
 beast, which were fastened thereon with instruments, and upon 
 every one was two and thirty men that fought in them, and the 
 Indian that ruled him." ^' ; V'v 
 
 " They set also the remnant of the horsemen upon both the 
 sides in two wings of the hoste, to stirre them up and to keepe 
 them in the valleyes." 
 
 "And when the Sunne shonne upon the golden shields; the 
 mountains glistened therewith, and gave light as lampes of fire." 
 
 " Thus part of the king's armie was spread upon the high 
 mountains and part beneath: so they marched forward warily, 
 and in order." 
 
 "And all they that heard the noyse of their multitude, and the 
 marching of the companie and the rattling of the harnesse, were 
 astonished : for the army was very great and mighty." 
 
 All this pomp and circumstance, however, failed to daunt the 
 valiant Jew and his brave companions: 
 
 " Then Judas and his host entered into the battell, and they 
 slewe sixe hundreth men of the king's armie." 
 
 "Now when Eleazar the sonne of Aharon, saw one of the ele- 
 phants armed with royal harnesse, and was more excellent than 
 all the other beasts, he thought that the king should bee upon 
 him." 
 
 " Wherefore he ieoparded himself to deliver his people and to 
 get him a perpetual name." 
 
 " And ran boldly unto him through the middes of the hoste, 
 slaying on the right hand and on the left, so that they departed 
 away on both sides." 
 
 " So went hee to the elephant's feete, and gate him under him, 
 and slew him, then fel the elephant downe upon him and there he 
 died." 
 
 W^e must now change the scene to ancient Italy, where the 
 Indian species was first opposed to the Roman soldier by Pyrrhus, 
 who, as the ally of the Tarentines, came to assist them in their 
 vain endeavour to stay the tide, that, rolling from the Tiber, was 
 already overwhelming the neighbouring states. The first impres- 
 sion of the twenty elephants brought into the field by the king, 
 did its work, and gave him a dearly-bought victory ; but use 
 lessens marvel, and every succeeding encounter dissipated the 
 
276 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 terror which this prodigious novelty had inspired, till the ele- 
 phant had much the same effect upon the Roman line of battle 
 as its sudden appearance produced upon Fabricius, who seems to 
 have been no more moved by this attempt on his nerves by the 
 king at Epirus, than he had previously been by the Grecian gold. 
 Dentatus taught his soldiers to provide themselves with a blazing 
 torch in one hand and a sharp sword in the other, and to rush at 
 the huge beasts through the iron shower of arrows discharged from 
 the towers on their backs. This mode of attack soon made them 
 more formidable to the enemy than to their opponents. The 
 maternal instinct of a female elephant on one of these occasions, 
 contributed in no small degree to the success of the Romans, 
 according to Eutropius; for a young one, smarting with its 
 wounds, roared horribly in its anguish, and its mother, in her 
 anxiety to hasten to its succour, broke through every obstacle in 
 her way, and was followed by others, overturning all before them, 
 and throwing the troops of Pyrrhus into irretrievable confusion. 
 The result was the capture of four of these "Lucanian oxen," 
 which were led to Rome in triumph. Nor was this the only 
 disaster sustained by Pyrrhus from the employment of this dan- 
 gerous arm. At the siege of Argos, when every external barrier 
 had been passed, and the besieging army were pressing into the 
 town, the progress of the tower-bearing elephants was suddenly 
 checked by the lowness of the gates, from which they crowded 
 back upon the eager swarming assailants till all was disorder. 
 
 The Punic wars introduced the elephants of Africa to the 
 Romans in much greater force than those of India had presented. 
 In the first, the ill-fated consul took no less than eighteen in one 
 battle, whilst his star was in the ascendant ; but the Spartan 
 general opposed to him, wielded this powerful arm with such 
 skill, that Regulus, whose subsequent ungenerous and cruel mur- 
 der will remain a blot upon the page that records it as long as 
 history endures, was utterly defeated by the troops of Carthage. 
 It was long before the legions recovered from the panic of that 
 day ; and the Carthaginians seeing t^e effect produced, transported 
 numbers of these beasts across the sea -to' Sicily, where nearly 
 a hundred and fifty towered before the beleagured Palermo. The 
 incessant discharge of javelins directed against them by Metellus, 
 was, however,. irresistible. The elephants fled, carrying destruc- 
 tion and disorganization in their terrified path ; and the Romans, 
 sallying forth, obtained a complete victory. ,More than a hundred 
 elephants were among the spoils of the day ; and it is no small 
 proof of the power and mechanical ingenuity of the republic, that 
 they were conveyed to Reggio on a monster raft, covered with 
 earth and floated upon empty casks. From Reggio they were 
 conducted to Rome, there to feast the eyes of the ill-fed and worse- 
 
ELEPHANTS. 277 
 
 clothed populace, and pamper their pride with an incontrovertible 
 sign of the prowess of the national arms. 
 
 Hitherto, the African elephant had only been seen at Rome as a 
 triumphant exhibition ; but the time was now at hand when the 
 Roman was to behold him as an invader. What stronger instance 
 can be adduced in proof of the indomitable energy of Hannibal 
 than the passage of these animals with his host over the Pyre- 
 nees, the Alps, and the Appenines ? 
 
 Great was the tumult there, 
 
 Deafening the din, when in barbaric pomp 
 The Carthaginian on his march to Rome 
 Entered their fastnesses. Trampling the snows 
 The war-horse reared ; and the towered elephant 
 Upturned his trunk into the murky sky, 
 Then tumbled headlong, swallowed up and lost, 
 He and his rider. , . 
 < ' r . -\ 
 
 And although the mountaineers fled at the approach of these 
 huge, animals, many must have perished among the icy precipices 
 so utterly unfit to afford them sure footing. But, after all such 
 losses, sufficient numbers arrived safely in the plains of Italy, to 
 support Hannibal's line of battle with striking effect, and to afford 
 seasonable aid to his troops in their progress. Thus, when 'he 
 passed the Po, the elephants were so disposed as to act as a 
 breakwater above the crossing army, and lessen the force of the 
 current. The African species was led into battle by him and his 
 brother Asdrubal with various success ; but the period was at last 
 come when Scipio was to carry the war into the country of the 
 invaders. 
 
 The reinforcements necessary to fill the places of the numbers 
 that were constantly failing in Italy (seven, for instance, died of 
 starvation during their passage over the Appenines after the bat- 
 tle of Trebia, and the remnant, with the exception of the beast that 
 carried Hannibal, were swept away, together with masses of men 
 and horse, by the swollen Arno), together with the supplies, de- 
 manded for keeping up the requisite force at home, drained Bar- 
 bary of a great portion of these animals, which at that time must 
 have been plentiful there. In vain did Mago, when he invaded 
 Italy in requital of Scipio's descent upon Africa, present his 
 frowning front of Elephants at Insubria. N The. Roman defeated 
 the Carthaginian, and Hannibal found it necessary to follow 
 Scipio, who was thundering at the gate of Zarna. There, the 
 eighty elephants that covered Hannibal's line spread devastation 
 among the light-armed troops of the Roman ; but Scipio dis- 
 mounted his cavalry, and concentrating the whole power of his 
 bowmen against the elephants, threw the galled and terrified 
 24 
 
278 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 beasts in confusion upon Hannibal's right wing, and terminated 
 the second Punic war. 
 
 The Roman generals, relying upon the discipline and valour of 
 their soldiery, had hitherto directed their energies to turning the 
 elephants of their enemies against the troops on whose side the 
 beasts were arrayed, and when they took those living pieces of 
 artillery for elephants seem to have been employed by the 
 ancients for the same purposes, in some degree, as cannon in 
 modern strategy they merely kept them as trophies ; but when 
 the Punic wars were ended, and the Macedonian wars commenced, 
 we find the elephants of Africa in the Roman ranks, and managed 
 with such tact that they contributed largely to the reduction of 
 Macedonia to the grade of a Roman province. The share attri- 
 buted to these belligerents in the victories which led to that con- 
 clusion was, in fact, admitted and illustrated by the device of the 
 last Macedonian king, who, for lack of living beasts, followed the 
 example df Semiramis in the construction of artificial elephants, 
 only that those of Perseus were made of wood, and each contained 
 a trumpeter ready to imitate the animal's battle-cry. 
 
 Moreover, in the interval between the first and second Mace- 
 donian wars, African and Indian elephants were again opposed 
 to each other, but the Roman's African beasts appear to have 
 been very inferior to the Indian elephants of Antiochus. Scipio's 
 quick eye saw this at a glance, and he ordered them into the rear. 
 But if Antiochus had the superiority in this respect, he had not 
 the sword before which, when wielded by Roman hands, both 
 man and elephant went down. Only fifteen of the Syrian king's 
 elephants survived the lost battle, and he was reduced to the same 
 humiliating necessity which had been enforced in the case of the 
 Carthaginians the delivery to his European conquerors of those 
 which he already possessed, and an undertaking never again to 
 train elephants for war. His successor, however, seems to have 
 got up a troop of them, for, as we have seen, he led thirty-two 
 against Jerusalem. 
 
 Topsell, in his quaint language, gives an interesting summary 
 of the use of the elephant as a military engine, and, as the book 
 is scarce, the length of the extract may be forgiven. 
 
 " The king of India was woont to go to warre with 30,000 
 elephants of war, and beside these he had also followed him 3000 
 of the chiefest and strongest in India, which at his command 
 would overthrow trees, houses, walles, or any such thing standing 
 against him : and, indeed, upon these were the Indians wont to 
 fight, for the defence of their coast and country. The farthest 
 region of that continent is called Partalis inhabited by the Ganga- 
 rides and Calingae, the king whereof was wont to have seven hun- 
 dred elephants to watch his army, and there was no meane prince 
 
ELEPHANTS. 279 
 
 in all India which was not lord of many elephants. The king of 
 Palibotree kept in stipend eight thousand every day, and, beyond 
 his territory, was the king of Modubae and Molindae, which had 
 four hundred elephants. These fight with men, and overthrowe 
 all that come within their reach, both with trunke and teeth." 
 
 " There were certaine officers and guiders of these elephants, 
 which were called elephantarchse,, who were the governors of six- 
 teene elephants, and they which did institute and teach them 
 martiall discipline were called elephant ago gi. The military ele- 
 phant did carry 4. persons on his bare backe, one fighting on the 
 right hand, another fighting on the left hand, a third which stood 
 fighting backward from the elephant's head, and a fourth in the 
 middle of these holding the raines and guiding the beast to the 
 descretion of the souldiers, even as the pilot in a ship guideth the 
 sterne wherein was required an equall knowledge and dexterity, 
 for they understand any language quickly, for when the Indian 
 which ruled them said, strike heere on the right hand, or else on 
 the left, or refraine and stand stil, no reasonable man could yeald 
 readier obedience. They did fasten by iron chaines, first of all, 
 upon the elephant that was to beare ten, fifteene, twenty, or thirty- 
 men on either side, two panniers of iron bound underneath their 
 belly, and upon them the like paniers of wood hollow, wherein 
 they place their men at armes, and covered them over with small 
 boards, for the trunk of the elephant was covered with a maile for 
 defence, and upon that a broad sword, and two cubits long : this 
 (as also the wodden castle or paniers aforsaid) were fastened first 
 to the necke, and then to the rumpe of the elephant. Being thus 
 armed, they entered the battell, and they shewed unto the beast 
 to make them more fierce, wine, red liquor made of rice, and white 
 cloth, for at "the sight of any of these, his courage and rage 
 increaseth above all measure ; then at the sound of the trumpet 
 he beginneth with teeth to strike, teare, beate, spoyle, take up 
 into the air, cast down againe, stamp upon men under feet, over- 
 throw with his trunke, and make way for his riders to pierce with 
 speare, shield and sword ; so that his horrible voice, his wonder- 
 full body, his terrible force, his admirable skill, his ready and in- 
 clinable obedience, and his straunge and seldome scene shape, 
 produced in a maine battell no meane accidents and overturnes. 
 For this cause we read how that Pyrrhus first of all produced ele- 
 phants against the Romans in Lucania : afterward Asdruball in 
 Affrica, Antiochus in the East, and lugurtha in Numidia." 
 
 Let us now see how his opponents contended with this formid- 
 able adversary, and the wild sway of his trunk wielding a long and 
 trenchant sword. 
 
 " Against these new kindes of castle-fighting and souldier-bear- 
 ing beastes, on the contrary, they invented new kindes of strata- 
 
280 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 gems, as is before sette downe, and also new instrumentes of 
 warre, for a centuryon in Lucania with a new devised sharp 
 sword, cutte off the trunke of this Beast : againe other invented, 
 that two armed horsses should draw a charriot, and in the same 
 armed men with lavelins and sharpe speares, the speedy Horsses 
 should with all force run upon the elephants, and the speare-men 
 directing their course and weapons some upon the beast, other 
 upon the riders, did not onely wound the beast, but also by cele- 
 rity of the horses, escape all danger." 
 
 In Potter's " Archaeologia Grse.ca"* there is an engraving of 
 an armed elephant and a war-chariot. The front of the head of 
 the elephant is protected by scale-armour, and from the centre of 
 the forehead projects a sharp spike. The forepart of his trunk is 
 defended with jointed plate armour. On his neck sits a governor 
 holding the reins for his guidance in the right hand and a long 
 spear in the other. On his back is a wooden tower in the top of 
 which are seen two men in the act of casting javelins, and two 
 archers with their arrows drawn up to the heads. To the chariot 
 are harnessed two horses covered with scale armour, excepting 
 their crests, which are surmounted with plates of .steel. From the 
 pole two long spears project, and from a cross-piece behind the 
 horses and made fast to the front of the car proceed scythes (two 
 on each side). Scythes also project from the naves of the four 
 wheels. The horses are guided by a man armed with two jave- 
 lins, and behind him sits a warrior with his bow bent, as in the 
 act of discharging his arrow. But to return to Topsell : 
 
 " Other againe sent against him armed souldiers, having their 
 armour made full of sharpe prickes or piercing piked Nayles," 
 [as Moore, of Moore-hall, went forth to fight the dragonof Wantley] 
 " so that when the beast did strike at them with his trunke, he 
 received grievous woundes by his own blowes. Againe there were 
 certaine young men souldiers, armed with light armour, which 
 being mounted uppon swift horsses, could cast darts with singular 
 facility, and without the reach of the beast, many times wounding 
 him with long speares, and so by example of the horse-men, the 
 footemen grew more bold, and with piles in the earth annoyed 
 the belly of the Beast, and utterly vanquishing it and the rider. 
 Againe, they devised slings to cast stones, whereby they beate off 
 the riders, and many times overthrewe the castle-bearer, as it 
 were by some violent stroke of a cannon-shot ; neither was there 
 any more easie way to disaster these monster-seeming soldiers, 
 then by casting of stones, and lastly they would suffer their ele- 
 phants and their riders by poore hopes and appearances of feare, 
 to enter into the middest among them, and so begirte and inclose 
 
 * 8 vo. London, 1706. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 281 
 
 them, that they tooke the elephants alive ; and also more shooters 
 of Darts carried in chariots with the strong course of horsses, did 
 so annoy them, that whereas their bodies were great and unweldy, 
 not nimble to stir out of place, it became more easie to kill an 
 elephant than a Horsse, because many shooters at one time could 
 pierce so faire a marke with unresistable weapons. And these 
 things are related by Vegetius."* 
 
 And here we may close our sketch of the use made of the ele- 
 phant in ancient warfare ; for although it is clear that Julius had 
 elephants in his armies, he seems to have held them in the same 
 estimation that Alexander did. The enormous armed beast came, 
 it is true, effectively upon the battle-scene when the object was 
 to terrify antagonists unaccustomed to such a sight. One of 
 Caesar's victories over the Gauls has been ascribed to a single war- 
 elephant, and it is affirmed that he brought one to Britain, a fact, 
 by the way, unnoticed in his own commentaries. Milton, how- 
 ever, adopts the statement of Dion, that Claudius employed armed 
 elephants as antagonists to the valour of the naked Briton. 
 
 In our next chapter we shall endeavour to present the elephant 
 as he was exhibited in ancient processions and shows. 
 
 ELEPHANTS. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Th' unwieldy elephant 
 
 To make them mirth us'd all his might, and wreath'd 
 His light proboscis. 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 "THE pictures of the nine worthies," writes Sir Thomas 
 Brown in his " Pseud odoxia Epidemica," are " not unquestionable, 
 and to critical speculators may seem to contain sundry impro- 
 prieties. Some will inquire why Alexander the Great is describe! 
 upon an elephant ; for we do not find he used that animal in 
 his armies, much less in his own person ; but his horse is famous 
 in history, and its name alive to this day. Besides, he fought but 
 one remarkable battel wherein there were any elephants, and that 
 was with Porus, King of India, in which, notwithstanding, as 
 Curtius, Arrianus, and Plutarch report, he was on horseback him- 
 
 * The Historic of Foure-footed Beastes. 
 34* 
 
282 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 self. And if because he fought against elephants he is with pro- 
 priety set upon their backs, with no less greater reason is the 
 same description agreeable unto Judas Maccabeus, as may be 
 observed from the history of the Maccabees, and also unto Julius 
 Caesar, whose triumph was honoured with captive elephants, 
 as may be be observed in the order thereof, set forth by Jacobus 
 Laurus" 
 
 The strictures of the learned and astute Dr. of Physick" seem 
 to have run on this occasion, so entirely in what rnay perhaps be 1 
 termed the matter-of-fact vein, that he appears to have lost sight 
 of the allegorical style generally adopted in ancient pictorial and 
 sculptured representations. There is not a cabinet of rare coins 
 that does not afford pregnant evidence of this custom, to which we 
 shall, hereafter, have occasion to refer. But some sages are 
 nothing if not critical, and in the same spirit those who flourish 
 in the year 3000 may be treated with a discussion upon the dis- 
 puted point whether her most gracious majesty Queen Victoria 
 walked about London, Una-like, with a lion, as represented on 
 the reverse of the splendid five-pound piece, or whether Sir Ben- 
 jamin Brodie had in his house an order dedicated to ^sculapius, 
 with a ministering priestess of the first order of fine forms, such 
 as is imperishably stamped on one of the most beautiful medals 
 of ancient or modern times. 
 
 The year 3000 ! Where will the principalities of Europe be 
 then ? Will the wave of empire have rolled westward, following 
 that law which hitherto seems to have ruled it ? Will civiliza- 
 tion be still advancing with rapid current, or be at its height, or 
 on the ebb ? Will some catastrophe, like the burning of the Alex- 
 andrian library, have swept away the lore treasured up for ages, 
 leaving men again to begin at the beginning in science and art ? 
 The last of these questions alone can be answered peremptorily in. 
 the negative. The diffusive magic of Gutenberg, Faust, and 
 Schoeffer called up inextinguishable Mght, and secured immor- 
 tality to the thoughts and inventions of men. The printing-press 
 forbids retrogression, and the streams of knowledge which it 
 pours forth must continue to flow with increased power and 
 fulness, till time is lost in the eternity of which the elephant was 
 the emblem.* 
 
 * Thus on the reverse of a large brass medal of the Emperor Philip we find 
 AETERN1TAS AUGG {JElernitas Jlngustorum} and " A caparisoned ele- 
 phant, with a naked rider, who hokls a goad in each hand, and sits on the 
 animal's back, a less usual berth than the neck and shoulders. This was one 
 of the collection of beasts which Gordian had prepared for his triumph, but 
 which became an organ of his destroyer's popularity and fame ; for there can 
 be no doubt that the medal was struck on the occasion of the secular games, 
 though the legend merely augurs the length of Philip's reign, of which the 
 longevity of the elephant was deemed typical." SMYTH. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 283 
 
 The triumphant entry of Alexander into Babylon was not im- 
 probably rendered more imposing by the introduction of elephants. 
 Such striking accessories are not likely to have been omitted in 
 that grand scene of oriental pomp ; but Quintus Curtius does not 
 mention their presence among the lions, leopards, and other beasts 
 driven and led along the flower-strewed roads, which were dressed 
 with silver altars perfuming the air with frankincense, in honour 
 of the hero whose chariot was preceded by the Magi and Chal- 
 deans chanting hymns in his praise, as he passed in all the flush 
 of manhood and conquest, to a premature death not without sus- 
 picion of poison. Vanity of vanities ! At the age of thirty-two 
 he had conquered all before him, was worshipped as a God, and 
 then, 
 
 two paces of the vilest earth 
 
 Was room enough. 
 
 The elephants of Pyrrhus were the first that appeared in a 
 Roman triumph : and, from that period to the decline of the em- 
 pire they were, at each successive series of victories, paraded 
 through the thronged, streets, the outward and visible signs of ex- 
 tended and extending domination. In Scipio's procession, the 
 elephants that marched to the capitol after the sacrificial victims, 
 brought home the humiliation of Africa to the bosom of every arti- 
 zan. On the last night of Csesar's triumph these massive ani- 
 mals bore in their trunks immense torches. The most graceful of 
 our poets thus brings before us the splendid but painful scene : 
 
 Along the Sacred Way 
 
 Hither the Triumph came, and winding round 
 With acclamation and the martial clang 
 Of instruments, and cars laden with spoil, 
 Stopt at the sacred stair that then appeared, 
 Then thro' the darkness broke, ample, star-bright, 
 As tho' it led to heaven. 'Twas night ; but now 
 A thousand torches, turning night to day, 
 Blazed, and the victor, springing from his seat, 
 Went up, and kneeling as in fervent prayer, 
 i Entered the Capitol. But what are they 
 Who at the foot withdraw, a mournful train 
 In fetters] And who, yet incredulous, 
 IS'ow gazing wildly round, now on his sons, 
 On those so young, well-pleased with all they see, 
 Staggers along, the last 1 They are the fallen, 
 Those who were spared to grace the chariot wheels; 
 And there they parted, where the road divides, 
 The victor and the vanquished there withdrew ; 
 He to the festal board, and they to die. 
 
 According to Suetonius, Julius, as he passed the Velabrum, was 
 nearly thrown out of his chariot by the breaking of the axle-tree, 
 
284 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 and ascended the steps of the capitol lighted by forty elephants* 
 bearing torches on the right hand and on the left. Dio says that 
 Caesar made the ascent on his knees, and seems to intimate that 
 it was not during the Gallic, but the African triumph that he re- 
 turned home, accompanied by nearly the whole of the populace 
 and a multitude of those enormous four-footed Lychnophori. It 
 appears certain, at all events, that on the last-named occasion the 
 elephants figured pre-eminently, and the spoils were displayed on 
 ivory cars. 
 
 Much stress is not to be laid upon the medals which represent 
 Csesarand others riding in chariots drawn by elephants, for many 
 of these were merely emblematical. Dignity, as well as eternity, 
 and the conquest of the country to which it belonged, were typi- 
 fied by the beast. Doubts have been expressed whether the 
 medal of Alexander, with his head on the obverse, and himself in 
 a car drawn by four elephants on the reverse, was of his own time, 
 although of ancient date ; but it is generally considered that the 
 reverse presents him in triumph after his Persian conquests. At 
 Rome, it does not appear to have been unusual to open the public 
 games with car-borne statues drawn by elephants. Thus was 
 the image of Augustus carried in procession after his death, and 
 its arrival at the circus was the signal for the commencement of 
 the sports, as is recorded by a medal whereon the Divus Augus- 
 tus is so portrayed, his head surrounded with rays. The Q,uiri- 
 nal games were probably opened in like manner ; for an ancient 
 bas-relief represents Romulus, as is generally supposed, drawn by 
 four of these animals. 
 
 Pompey, it seems, was the first who actually harnessed ele- 
 phants to his car, intending thus to mortify those whose jealousy 
 envied him his triumph. The mortification, however, recoiled 
 upon himself ; for the gate was too narrow for his ambitious at- 
 tempt, and the chagrined victor was compelled to content himself 
 with horses.t 
 
 * Some make the number four hundred. Thus Topsell "Being thus 
 tamed, they grow into civill and familiar uses, for Csesar ascended into the 
 capitall betwixt four hundred elephants,, carrying at either side burning 
 torches." 
 
 ( The following is Holland's version of Pliny's account: "The first time 
 that ever they were knowne to drawe at Rome, was in the triumph of Pompey 
 the Great after he had subdued Africke, for then were two of them put in 
 geeres to his triumphant chariot. But long before that it is said that Father 
 Bacchus having conquered India did the like when he triumphed for his con- 
 quest. Howbeit in that triumph of Pompey, Procilius affirmeth, that, coupled 
 as they were, two in one yoke, they could not possibly go in at the gates of 
 Rome." Pliny's words are, " Romae juncti primum subiere currum Pompeii 
 magni Africano triumpho : quod prius India victa triumphante Libero patre 
 memoratur. Procilius negat potuisse Pompeii triumpho junctos ingredi por- 
 
ELEPHANTS. 2S5 
 
 This failure had its effect, and it was not .till long after, and 
 when the Romans had turned their irresistible arms against Per- 
 sia, that the conqueror appeared in the triumphal procession drawn 
 by elephants. The surpassing grandeur of these pomps can hardly 
 be conceived, and the English reader who would form any idea 
 of their splendour may turn to Gibbon's dazzling description of the 
 triumph of Aurelian after the fall of Palmyra, when the beautiful 
 Queen of the East, fettered with gold, and almost fainting under 
 the intolerable weight of jewels, " preceded on foot the magnifi- 
 cent chariot in which she once hoped to enter the gates of Rome." 
 This procession was opened by twenty elephants, four royal tigers, 
 above two hundred of the most curious animals of all climates, and 
 sixteen hundred gladiators. >l"* t '.* 
 
 But it was in the theatres that the most extraordinary feats of 
 elephants were exhibited to the Romans. The prodigal luxury of 
 these buildings, and 'the waste of life that steamed up for the ex- 
 citement of a people requiring the stimulus of blood to arouse 
 their jaded attention, would be incredible if the most satisfactory 
 evidence did not place the startling accounts of wholesale slaugh- 
 ter beyond doubt. The gladiator was sworn to the faithful per- 
 formance of his deadly duty, to door to suffer as his master might 
 command ; to his service he bound himself, body and soul, and 
 bright but pitiless eyes were among the thousands that looked 
 down upon him as he fearlessly pronounced his hopeless mori- 
 turus vos saluto. 
 
 Some notion of the lavish expenditure with which wealthy Ro- 
 mans purchased the transient favours of the multitude may be 
 formed from the account of the structures raised by two candi- 
 dates for popular applause. 
 
 Speaking of the theatre of Marcus Scaurus, Jonston, in his: 
 "Constancy of Nature,"* says, "That was a temporary work, 
 and the use thereof was to be scarce for one moneth, yet it had 
 three floors, in which there were 360 marble pillars. The lowest 
 part of the theatre was all of marble, the middle was of glasse, 
 and the uppermost was guilded : the inferiour pillars were fourty 
 foot long, and between them were 3000 brazen statues. The 
 whole theatre was so capacious that it would contain 80,000 
 men." 
 
 Curio caused two theatres to be framed of timber, " and these 
 exceeding big, howbeit so as they might bee turned about as a 
 man would have them, approach neere one to the other, or be re- 
 moved farther asunder as one would desire, and all by the means 
 of one hooke apiece that they hung by, which bare the weight of 
 
 tarn." Nat. Hint. viii. 2. Plutarch states that Pompey resolved to have his 
 chariot drawn by four elephants on this occasion. > 
 * 12mo. 1657. -i 
 
286 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 the whole frame, the counterpoise was so even, and all the whole 
 therefore sure and firme." 
 
 " Now he ordered the matter thus ; that to behold the severall 
 stage plaies and shews in the forenoone before dinner, they shall 
 be set back to back, to the end that the stages should not trouble 
 one another : and when the people had taken their pleasure that 
 way, he turned the theatres about in a trice against the after- 
 noone, that they affronted one another : and toward the latter end 
 of the day, and, namely, when the fencers and sword-plaiers were 
 to come in place, he brought both the theatres nearer together 
 (and yet every man sat stil and kept his place, according to his 
 rank and order), insomuch as by the meeting of the homes and 
 corners of them both together in compasse, he made a fair round 
 Amphitheatre of it : and there in the middest between, he ex- 
 hibited indeed unto them all jointly, a sight and spectacle of 
 sword-fencers righting at sharpe, whom he had hired for that 
 purpose : but in truth, a man may say more truly, that he carried 
 the whole people of Rome round about at his pleasure, bound 
 sure enough for stirring or remooving. Now let us come to the 
 point, and consider a little better of this thing. What should a 
 man wonder at most therein, the deviser or the devise itselfe ? 
 The workeman of this fabricke, or the maister that set him on 
 worke ? Whether of the twaine is more admirable, either the 
 venturous head of him that devised it, or the bold heart of him 
 that undertooke it ? to command such a thing to be done, or to 
 obey and yeeld to goe in hand with it ? But when we have said 
 all that we can, the follie of the blind and bold people of Rome 
 went beyond al ; who trusted such a ticklish frame, and durst sit 
 there in a seat so moveable. Loe where a man might have seen 
 the bodie of that people, which is commander and ruler of the 
 whole earth, the conqueror of the world, the disposer of king- 
 domes and realms at their pleasure, the deviser of countries and 
 nations at their wil, the giver of laws to forrein states, the vice- 
 gerent of the immortall gods under heaven, and representing their 
 image unto all mankind ; hanging in the air within a frame, at 
 the mercy of one only hook, and readie to clap hands at their own 
 danger."* 
 
 Of some of the permanent theatres and amphitheatres we have 
 in our own day the remains, attesting the colossal scale on which 
 those national edifices were erected. 
 
 Jonston, in the book above quoted, after stating that " Cara- 
 calla also, wheresoever he did or purposed to stay in winter, 
 caused amphitheatres and playhouses to be builded and suddenly 
 they were to be demolished," thus continues : " Amongst those 
 
 * Holland's Pliny. Ja 
 
ELEPHANTS. 287 
 
 that lasted, it shall suffice me to make mention onely of the Thea- 
 tre of Titus. A man could hardly see to the top of it, and a 
 whole river of wealth was spent in the building of it, wherefore 
 Martial writes, 
 
 Csesar's amphitheatre hath the name. 
 
 Let all give place, this doth deserve the fame. 
 
 And though such stately structures consumed infinite wealth, yet 
 if we regard the furniture, and such things as were employed 
 besides, we shall finde that the cost they were at, would, have 
 served for great Cities. And that the magistrates did prodigally 
 wast in Theatres, Playes, Wrestlers, Fencers, and such kindes of 
 men all their patrimony, that they might win the peoples liking 
 for an howers time. In a word ; The workmanship was more 
 than the matter. Nero, to show his wealth to Thiridates King of 
 Armenia, covered all the theatre with gold, and the very hangings 
 that hung up were of purple, and bossed with golden stars,* 
 whence that was called a Golden day, and Lucretius alludes 
 unto it. 
 
 Yellow and Golden Hangings commonly, 
 
 And murry coloured in the theatres 
 Hung, twinkling like to stars within the sky. 
 
 Also Caligula, when he set forth some principall sports, He com- 
 manded that the floore round about should be made with minium 
 and chrysocolla; Probus commanded to let loose at once 1000 
 Ostriches, 1000 Stags, as many Bears, 1000 Dogs, with wild goats 
 and many other beasts, and at these sports he gave them to the 
 people by way of Magnificence, and it was free for every one to 
 kill as many as he could : And to add to this, the next day he 
 caused to be showed openly a 100 he Lyons, a 100 Leopards of 
 Africa, as many of Syria, a 100 she Lions, and 300 Bears. And 
 Titus, who though he were called the delights of mankinde, did 
 the like. 
 
 All kindes of beasts, that on the Mountains be, 
 Caesar, thy Theatre affords to thee : 
 The Rocks did creep, the woods did run, men guesse, 
 Such was the wood of the Hesperides. 
 
 But Heliogabalus was the maddest man of them all: For it is 
 reported of him that he made at these sports, his ships flote in 
 Channels that ran with Wine. And Carinus was not far short of 
 him."t 
 
 Amid all this splendour, troops of gladiators variously armed 
 
 * The centre of the awning on this occasion displayed in embroidery Nero 
 as the Sun guiding his chariot, 
 f Constancy of JNature. 
 
288 x ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 rushed to the conflict, under the direction of the Lanista. Here 
 was the T/irax opposed to the Myrmillo, there the Secutor chasing 
 the wily Retiarius, who fled, hiding his time to throw his net over 
 the head of his adversary and pierce the entangled wretch with 
 his trident with many other combatants all with distinctive 
 names, some hotly engaged,- others lying lifeless in their gore 
 the wounded appealing, with raised fingers, for mercy to the per- 
 fume-besprinkled spectators, and the victors staying their hands 
 as they watched for the signal of life or death. Too frequently 
 did the downward-pointing thumbs, tier above tier, remind the 
 vanquished that they were ! 
 
 Required 
 
 To fall with grace, with dignity to sink, 
 While life was gushing, and the plaudits rang 
 Faint and yet fainter on their failing ear, 
 As models for the sculptor. 
 
 The Christian bravery of one man stopped this outpouring of 
 life. Obeying the dictates of the religion of the heart, Telemachus 
 descended into the arena to part the combatants, and suddenly 
 checked the charge of the devoted swordsmen, braving the wrath 
 of the assembled people and securing the abolition of these 
 butcheries^ with his blood.* The excitement of the savage popu- 
 lace at the interruption of the sport was not to be controlled, and 
 the martyr was overwhelmed with a shower of stones. But when 
 their madness had passed away, the noble self-sacrifice of the 
 Asiatic monk sank deep into their repentant hearts, and they sub- 
 mitted to the laws that forbad those sanguinary spectacles. 
 
 The Bestiarius, or beast-fighting gladiator, does not appear to 
 have been employed at the exhibition of the elephants brought to 
 Rome by Metellus. They seem to have been driven about the 
 Circus by slaves, to familiarize the people with, their appearance, 
 and to destroy, by the humility with which the beasts submitted, 
 the terror of their name ; but Pompey exhibited them in a general 
 fight with multitudes of lions and with armed men ; and, in his 
 second consulate, when they were matched against Getulians, 
 one of the wounded elephants showed his dexterous training by 
 snatching the shields of his opponents, and whirling them into 
 the air with his trunk in such a manner as to give them a rotatory 
 motion in their ascent and descent. Here is Topsell's description 
 of some of these encounters. 
 
 "At the-last the fight with elephants turned into a publike 
 game or pastime, both to see them fought withall by men, and 
 
 * This herorc act was done during the games with which Honorius was 
 celebrating the retreat of the Goths ; and, in his time, the laws alluded to were 
 framed. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 289 
 
 also among themselves. When certaine prisoners of the Romans 
 were taken by Anniball, he first constrained them to skirmish 
 among themselves, and so slew one another except only one ; and 
 he was by the like commaundement forced to fight with an ele- 
 phant, but upon condition of liberty if he escaped alive: and 
 thereupon joined combat and slew the elephant to the great griefe 
 and amazement of all the Carthaginians ; but going home, accord- 
 ing to agreement, Anniball fearing that by this fact those great 
 beasts would grow into contempt, sent certaine horsemen to kill 
 him by the way." 
 
 "Their trunke or hand is most easie to be cut off; for so it 
 happened in the sedility or temple office of Claudius, Antonius and 
 Posthumus being consuls, and afterward in the Circus, when the 
 Luculli were the commons officers. And when Pompey was con- 
 sull the second time, there were 17. or 20. which at one time 
 fought within the Circus, at the dedication of the % Temple of, 
 Venus the Victoria, where the Getulians fought with them with 
 speares and dartes ; for their happened an admirable accident, one 
 of the souldiers who having a hurt in his feete did creepe uppon 
 his knees betwixt the legges of the elephants, and caste up the 
 dartes over his head into the beastes belly, which fell downe round 
 about him, to the great pleasure of the beholders, so that many of 
 the elephants perished rather by Art then the strength of the 
 Souldier. No less was the miracle of another slaine with one 
 stroke, for a pile ran into his temples through his eie, and there 
 stacke so fast, that it could not be pulled forth againe ; which 
 thing was afterward assayed by lulius Csesar, and in the third 
 time of his consulship, there were twenty elephantes, which in the 
 games fought with five men, and so many towers on their backes, 
 bearing threescore men in every tower."* 
 
 They were also opposed to bulls; and Martial, in his nineteenth 
 epigramt records the destruction of one by an elephant, the former 
 having rashly come-into contact with the latter, and fancying that 
 the solid bulk of tire elephant might be tossed with as much ease 
 as the stuffed figures on which he had been exerdising his horns. 
 
 Pliny, in' the quaint but striking dress in which " Philemon 
 Holland, Doctor in-Physicke,"| has presented him, thus relates 
 in detail, their pugnacious deeds in the arena. 
 
 " Fenestalla writeth that the first sight of them in Rome, was 
 exhibited in the grand Cirque, during the time that Claudius Pul- 
 cher was ./Edile Curule, when M. Antonius and A. Posthumius 
 were consuls : in the 650 yere after the citie of Rome was built. 
 In like manner, 20 yeres after, when the Luculli were ^Ediles ' 
 
 * Historic of Foure-footed Beasfes. f Sfectaculorum Liber. 
 
 * Folio, 1601. 
 25 
 
290 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Curule, there was represented a combat between Bulls and Ele- 
 phants. Also in the second consulship of C. Pompeius at the 
 dedication of the temple to Venus Victoresse, 20 of them, or as 
 some write, 17 fought in the grand Cirque. In which solemnitie 
 the Gaetulians were set to launce darts and javelins against them. 
 But among all the rest, one elephant did wonders: for when his 
 legs and feet were shot and stucke full of darts, he crept upon his 
 knees, and never staid till he was gotten among the companies of 
 the said Gsetulians, where he caught from them their targets and 
 bucklers perforce, flung them aloft into the aire, which as they 
 fell turned round, as if they had bin trundled by art, and not 
 hurled and thrown with violence by the beasts in their furious 
 anger: and this made a goodly sight and did great pleasure to 
 the beholders. And as strange a thing as that was seen in another 
 of them, whose fortune was to be killed out of hand with one 
 shot: for the dart was so driven that it entered under the eie, and 
 pierced as far as to the vitall parts of the head, even the ventricles 
 of the brain. Wherupon all the rest at once assaied to break 
 forth and get away, not without a great hurry and trouble among 
 the people, notwithstanding they were without the lists, and those 
 set round with yron gates and bars. But those elephants of Pom- 
 pey being past all hope of escaping and going cleere away, after a 
 most pittifull manner and rufull plight that cannot be expressed, 
 seemed to make mone unto the multitude, craving mercie and 
 pittie,with grievous plaints and lamentations, bewailing their hard 
 state and wofull case : in such sort that the peoples hearts earned 
 at this piteous sight, and with teares in their eies, for very com- 
 passion, rose up all at once from beholding this pageant, without 
 regard to the person of Pompey that great General! and Com- 
 mander, without respect of his magnificence and stately show, of 
 his munificence and liberality, where he thought. to have woon 
 great applause and honor at their hands, but in lieu thereof fell 
 to cursing of him, and wishing all those plagues and misfortunes 
 to light upon his head, which soon after^fms'ued accordingly. 
 Moreover, Caesar the Dictatour, in- his third consulship, exhibited 
 another fight of .them, and brought forth twenty to maintain skir- 
 mish against five hundred footmen : and a second time he set out 
 twenty more, with wooden turrets upon their backs, containing 
 sixty defendants a piece: and he opposed against them five hun- 
 dred footmen and as many horse. After all this, Claudius and 
 Nero, the emperors, brought them forth, one by one, into single 
 fight, with approved, expert, and accomplished fencers, at the end 
 of al the other soJemnitie when they had done the.ir prizes." 
 
 Such touches of mercy as that above recorded, were, however, 
 as few and far between as angels' visits ; and, by a just retribu- 
 tion, the hard-eyed spectators were not always exempt from their 
 
ELEPHANTS. 291 
 
 shave of the danger. The general rush of the elephants upon this 
 very occasion, before whose overwhelming charge the iron balus- 
 trade must have been as a fence of reeds, was made non sine 
 vexatione populi ; and, occasionally, that populace had to endure 
 the tormenting caprice of a tyrant. Caligula, when the mortal 
 game was reaching its most interesting and sanguinary point, and 
 the heat was most intense, suddenly caused the awning to be 
 drawn back, and forbade the sun-struck sufferers to leave their 
 places.* Sometimes they were exposed to a more fatal burst of 
 temper. Comrnodus, when hailed with divine honours by the 
 acclamations of the people, assembled to behold one of his gladia- 
 torial exhibitions in the arena, believing that they mocked him, 
 issued orders in his fury for their instant slaughter.- , a "/, >;'xr-. 
 Julius Caesar, indeed, when, conqueror of the world, he returned 
 to Rome, and forgave all who had been opposed to him in arms, 
 at his grand exhibition of Naumachise as well as of battles between 
 horse, foot, and elephants, caused the arena to^be surrounded by 
 ditches for the protection of the people from the infuriated beasts, 
 to which they had been exposed in the games given by Pompey. 
 The naval fights made this precaution the more necessary on 
 account of the fear which the elephants were supposed to feel at 
 the sight of water. Nets were also stretched to secure the spec- 
 tators from the mad leaps of the leopards and lions. The prodi- 
 
 * In the earlier periods, the Romans sheltered themselves from the weather 
 in the theatres as they could, wearing their broad-brimmed causias as a de- 
 fence against the sun, and trusting to their hoods and mantles as a protection 
 against the rain. " In processe of time, Lentulus Spinter (by report) was the 
 first man that in the solemnity of the games and plaies Apollinate, drew fine 
 curtaines over the great amphitheatre at Rome : howbeit, not long after, 
 Caesar Dictator caused the grand Forum or common place at Rome to be 
 covered all over with such rich courtains ; yea, and the high faire street called 
 Sacra, to be hanged on both sides, from his own dwelling house to the very 
 capitoll cliflfe : which magnificent and sumptuous sight was more wondred at, 
 and seene with greater admiration, than the brave shew and Tourney that he 
 set out at the same time of sworde-plaiers at sharpe and to the utterance. 
 Then followed Marcellus, also the son of Octavia, sister to the Emperour 
 Augustus, who, in his own ^Edileship and in the tenth consulship of his uncle 
 Augustus beforesaid, upon the calends or first day of August in that yeare, 
 caused the Romane Forum to be drawne all over and shadowed with the like 
 courtains, although he represented at that time no solemnitie at all of games 
 and plaies : and this he did only, that they who came to plead at the barre, 
 might stand under shade more wholesomely. Lord, what a change was here 
 at Rome since the daies of Cato the Censor. * * * Of late daies there 
 were seene in the amphitheatres of Emperour Nero, traverses drawne upon 
 cords and ropes, with fine courtains of blew azure colour like the skie, and 
 those beset with stars ; where the very floore of the ground under mens feet, 
 was coloured red. But for all these paintings and rich dyes, yet when all is 
 done, the white linnen held the own still, and was highly esteemed above all 
 colors." Holland's Pliny. 
 
292 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 gality of the emperors had here room for display. Nero caused 
 these nets to be knotted with amber ; and in the time of Carinus 
 they were made of gold, either in the form of cord or wire. 
 
 Thirty-two elephants, ten tigers, ten elks, sixty lions, thirty 
 leopards, ten hyaenas, one hippopotamus, ten cameleopards, mul- 
 titudes of deer, goats, antelopes, and other beasts were turned into 
 the arena at the Secular Games, celebrated by the Emperor 
 Philip ; and a murderous match of two thousand gladiators 
 crowned the carnage. For three days and three nights were the 
 games incessantly continued in honour of the thousandth anniver- 
 sary of Rome. When the sun went down, innumerable torches 
 scattered the darkness, till they, in their turn, paled before the 
 dawn. But the measure of iniquity was full, and the end was at 
 hand/ The agonies of the followers of Him whose kingdom is not 
 of this world, were no longer to make sport for the heathen. The 
 Christian jubilees proclaimed peace and good will to men ; and 
 the arena ceased to be saturated with human blood. 
 
 Elephants were also employed by the ancients, as they have 
 been in modern times, to execute criminals, but it appears that 
 they were not always to be depended upon ; " for when King 
 Bochus had condemned thirty men to be torne and trod in pieces 
 by elephants, and tying them hand and foote to blocks or pieces 
 of wood, cast them among thirty elephants, his servants and offi- 
 cers could not by al their wit, skil, or pro vocation, make the beasts 
 touch one of them : so that it was apparent they scorned and dis- 
 dained to serve any man's cruell disposition, or to be the ministers 
 of tyranny and murther."* 
 
 Dark as the picture presented by the exhibitions of the Roman 
 theatre generally is, it had its brighter side, and elephants were not 
 unfrequently presented as actors in genteel comedy, and as ballet- 
 dancers. The training required for these performances, and other 
 almost incredible feats, must have commenced when the animal was 
 young ; indeed, there is no doubt, notwithstanding the supposed 
 impossibility of breeding the animals in confinement, so long che- 
 rished in modern times, that elephants were bred at Rome ;t and 
 as little that the ancients were well acquainted with the fact, so 
 much disputed by Buffbn and others, that the young elephant took 
 its maternal nourishment with the mouth, and not with the trunk. 
 
 Topsell. 
 
 | In another chapter we have stated the rations of a modern elephant in. 
 captivity : here is an account of the diet of an ancient tame elephant. " When 
 they are tamed they will eate barlie either whole or ground: of whole at one 
 time is given them nine Macedonian bushels, but of meal six, arid of drinke 
 eyther wine or water thirty Macedonian pintes at a time, that is fourteen gal- 
 lons, but this is observed, that they drinke not wine except in warre, when 
 they are to fight, but water at all times. Also they will eat dryed figges, 
 grapes, onions, bulrushes, paltnes, and ivy-leaves." Topsell. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 293 
 
 The picture of a young elephant and its mother at Pompeii, de- 
 monstrates this knowledge. ^ 
 
 But their genteel comedy ? Six gentleman-elephants, clad in 
 the toga, accompanied as many lady guests of the same quality, 
 dressed in the stola, to the banqueting-room, and there they went 
 through the ceremonies of the triclinium after the most approved 
 fashion. "There was a certain banquet prepared for elephants 
 upon a low bed in a parlour, set with divers dishes and pots of 
 wine, whereinto were admitted twelve, six males, apparelled like 
 men, and six females, apparelled like women : when they saw-it, 
 they sat downe with great modesty, taking here and there like 
 discreet, temperat ghests, neither ravening upon one .dish or 
 other, and when they should drinke, they tooke the cup receiving 
 the liquor very manerly, and for sport or festivity would, through 
 their trunks, squirt or cast a little of their drink upon their 
 attendants."* 
 
 Their dances and feats of dexterous strength were no less ad- 
 mirable. 
 
 " In the late solemnity of tournois and sword-fight at the sharp 
 which Germanicus Caesar exhibited to gratify the people, the ele- 
 phants were seen to show pastime with leaping and keeping a stir, 
 as if they danced, after a rude and disorderly manner. A common 
 thing it was among them to fling weapons and darts in the aire so 
 strongly, that the winds had no power against them : to flourish 
 also beforehand ; yea, and to encounter and meet together in 
 fight like sword-fencers ; and to make good sport in a kinde of 
 moriske dance. Some of them were so nimble and well practised, 
 that they would enter into an hall or dining place where the tables 
 were set full of guests, and passe among them so gently and dain- 
 tily, weighing, as it were, their feet in their going, so as they 
 would not hurt or touch any of the company as they were drink- 
 ing."! 
 
 Their dancing at last was carried to a high pitch of refinement, 
 for " they learned to daunce after pipes by measure, sometime 
 dauncing softly, and sometime apace, and then again leaping up- 
 right, according to the number of the thing sung or played upon 
 the instrument. Their was an elephant playing upon a cymball, 
 and others of his fellowes dauncing about him, for there was fas- 
 tened to either of both of his fore-legs one cymball, and another 
 hanged to his trunke, the beast would observe just time, and 
 strike upon one and then the other, to the admiration of all the 
 beholders.''^ 'y 
 
 But all the feats of ancient and modern times were eclipsed by 
 those which now demand our notice. Madame Sacqui, when she 
 
 * Topsell. f Holland's Pliny. * Topsell. 
 
294 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 ascended and descended the rope stretched from the gallery to the 
 stage, over the upturned heads of the wondering and trembling pit, 
 was hailed as the princess of funambulists. Afterwards, two per- 
 formers descending from a height which reduced them to the size 
 of fairies, excited, as they danced down the tight-rope amid the 
 blaze of fire-works at Vauxhall, the fears and applause of half 
 London. But when we contemplate an elephant, with all its in- 
 stincts warning it not to venture its immense weight on any frail 
 foundation, an animal that cannot be tempted to pass a wooden 
 bridge or tread a stage till it has satisfied itself of its sufficient 
 strength,- in a similar situation, the fame of all biped rope- 
 dancers fades before the nicely adjusted skill of the gigantic 
 quadruped. "One of the greatest wonders of them was, that 
 they could mount up and climb against a rope ; but more wonder- 
 full that they should slide downe again with their heads down- 
 wards."* In-Nera's time, at the celebration of the Ludi maximi, 
 a distinguished Roman knight descended the rope, seated on an 
 elephant ;t and, at the Floral Games, Galba exhibited rope-dancing 
 elephants. 
 
 The crowning exhibition of this sort is recorded by Pliny. Four 
 elephants, advancing along ropes, bore, in litters, others personating 
 that interesting situation in which the Roman ladies were wont 
 to call upon Juno Lucina.ij: 
 
 The only modern feat at all comparable to this, was exhibited 
 at the marriage of the King of France's* brother, in the thirteenth 
 century, when a man rode on horseback along a rope. Whether 
 the horse was shod " with felt" does not appear. 
 
 * Holland's Pliny. 
 
 I " Ludis, quos pro seternitate imperil susceptos appellari maximos voluit, 
 ex utroque online etsexu plerique ludicras partes sustinuerunt. JNotissimus 
 eques Romanus elephanto supersedens per catadromum decucurrit." Sueto- 
 nius. Nero. 
 
 $ " Per funes incessere, lecticis etiam ferentes quaterni singulos, puerperas 
 imitantes." Pliny, Nat. ffiet., viii. 2. See further, the " Andria" of Te- 
 
ELEPHANTS. 295 
 
 ELEPHANTS. 
 
 PART- IV* 
 
 " Who doubts that elephants are found 
 For science and for sense renown'd ! 
 
 Borri records their strength of parts, -V-V ' 
 
 Extent of thought and skill in arts ; ' ., 
 How they perform the law's decrees, ' 
 And save the state the hangman's fees; 
 And how by travel, understand N 
 
 The language of another land. 
 Let those who question this report, 
 To Pliny's ancient page resort. 
 How learn'd was that sagacious breed ! 
 Who now (like them) the Greek can read !" 
 
 THE ELEPHANT AND THE BOOKSELLER. 
 
 , 
 
 THE passage in Pliny alluded to by Gay in. his caustic fable 
 will be found in the third chapter of the eighth book of the an- 
 cient Italian's " Natural ^History," arid is thus translated by Phi- 
 lemon Holland. 
 
 "Mutianus, a man who had in his time bin thrice consul], 
 reporteth thus much of one of them, that he had learned to make 
 the Greeke characters, and was wont to write in that language 
 thus much, Thus have I written, and made an offering of the 
 Celticke spoiles."* 
 
 This sentence is preceded by another in proof of their "doci- 
 litie." 
 
 "This is knowne for certaine, that upon a time there was an 
 Elephant among the rest, not so good of capacity to take out his 
 lessons, and learn that w r hich was taught him : and being beaten 
 and beaten again for that blockish and dull head of his, was found 
 studying and conning those feats in the night, which he had been 
 learning in the day-time." The honest, industrious, hopeless 
 dunce in Webster's charming picture of the "Dame's School" 
 could do no more. . .- 
 
 Old Topsell, commenting upon the passage in Pliny descriptive 
 of the elephant's writing accomplishments, remarks : 
 
 * Mutianus ter consul auctor est, aliquem ex his et literarum ductus Grse- 
 carum didicisse, solitumque praescribere ejus lingua verbis: "ipse ego haec 
 ecrrpsi, et spolia Celtica dicavi." 
 
296 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 " But in these actions of writing, the hand of the teacher must 
 be also present to teach him how to frame the letters, and then as 
 JElianus sayeth they will write upon tables, and followe the true 
 proportion of the characters expressed before their face, where- 
 upon they looke as attentively as any grammarian." 
 
 Some people cannot bear to be outdone, and a worthy modern* 
 has gone beyond the ancients, for he has endowed the elephant 
 with speech. He tells us that at Cochin there was one that 
 worked with human skill and dexterity. He had one day done 
 a good day's work, in the course of which he had made more than 
 ordinary exertions, and he was fatigued; when the governor of 
 the port directed that he should assist in launching a vessel. To 
 the astonishment of those who knew the willingness and docility 
 of the good-natured beast, the governor's order was met by the 
 most cool disregard on the part pf the overwrought elephant. 
 Caresses and threats were rjesorted to without the slightest effect, 
 when the governor, as a last resource, elevating his voice, com- 
 manded him to execute the task in the name of the King of Por- 
 tugal. This appeal to the elephant's loyalty was not made in 
 vain. To the surprise and joy of the bystanders, he answered, '*! 
 will, I will!" and immediately applied himself to his task, which 
 he performed to the satisfaction of all. Nor is this the only 
 instance on record of the speechifying power of the elephant; 
 though the other speeches are in the same laconic style. 
 
 There is, as usual, some foundation for these marvellous tales. 
 Elephants, it is well known, manifest a perfect intelligence of the 
 commands addressed to them by their keepers, and when called 
 on, will answer to their names by uttering a shrill note, such as 
 most of those who have visited menageries where they are kept, 
 have heard. Here we shall probably find the key of the Cochin 
 story; for one could hardly better express in writing this shrill 
 note than by the word " Hoo," which, in the Malabar language, 
 signifies, * I will." 
 
 And indeed such stories are so captivating, that we cease to 
 wonder at those, who finding it much easier to believe than exa- 
 mine, give a ready assent to every record of the sagacity of these 
 stupendous creatures ; but, after a somewhat extensive experience, 
 founded on a long inquiry into the relative intelligence of animals, 
 we are compelled to agree with Cuvier that the intellect of the 
 elephant does not surpass that of the dog. This conclusion, how- 
 ever, places the huge pachyderm in a very high grade ; for no one 
 can have studied the canine race closely without joining Sir 
 Walter Scott in his declaration, that there was hardly any thing 
 that he would not believe of a dog. The heavy and imposing 
 
 * Acosta. 
 
ELEPHANTS. , . 297 
 
 mass of the elephant's body, together with the certainty that the 
 animal is conscious of the vast strength and crushing weight that 
 he can, in a moment, bring to bear against an enemy ; his appa- 
 rently enormous brain-case, and dignified, sagacious aspect his 
 tremendous trunk-power, and infinitesimally delicate adjustment 
 of it all strike the spectator with awe. Then, he goes through 
 his feats and tricks with such a grave face, that one is hardly sur- 
 prised at hearing a spectator involuntarily exclaim, as he compares 
 the brute with his keeper, "that the quadruped is the cleverer 
 fellow of the two." And it is certain that when a sensible ele- 
 phant and a shrewd keeper put their heads together, they are 
 generally more than a match for an ordinary spectator, and some- 
 times too many fora learned philosopher. 
 
 Not a great many years since, one who held, and justly, a high 
 rank among English physiologists, determined on sounding the 
 depths and shallows of the elephant's organ of hearing. The phi- 
 losopher had, no doubt, read the passages which we have quoted 
 in a former chapter, illustrative of the ear which that animal has 
 for music, and the advantage taken of it to make him both a 
 dancer and musical performer. Accordingly he repaired to old 
 Exeter Change, and there gave the elephant a morning concert. 
 The organ pealed forth its full, rich notes ; the grand piano 
 sounded its measured marches,, and rattled away its jigs. The 
 elephant made no sign. Violins, violoncellos, double basses, 
 horns, trumpets, were tried singly and in concert. The elephant 
 was still impassible. At last a gong was struck, and the hitherto 
 placid animal became all animation, rapturously trumpeting forth 
 his shrill accompaniment. Away went the delighted philosopher, 
 and enlightened a celebrated scientific society by an elaborate 
 paper, in which an account was given of the various instruments 
 played before the elephant, and his apathy till the gong was 
 struck ; with an argal to the effect following, videlicet, that the 
 organ of hearing was so constituted in this huge creature, that it 
 was only affected by the most sonorous of instruments. 
 
 This passed for a very sage deduction, till a sceptic thought he 
 would go to the menagerie and ascertain whether his own expe- 
 rience accorded with that of the writer of the paper. He, did go, 
 and was constant in his attendance for a week, when he found 
 that the striking of the gong was the signal for feeding-time, and 
 that the elephant's rapture was invariably shared by the whole 
 ward of wild beasts lions, tigers, bears, hyrenas, jackals, monkeys, 
 and all who, to a quadruped and quadrumane, leaped up in the 
 wildest excitement at the braying of their brazen dinner-bell. 
 
 That the elephant is a very "Fine-ear" in his auditory faculty 
 there can be no doubt. A friend gifted with great acuteness of 
 observation witnessed the following scene. 
 
298 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 He went to see an elephant, accompanied by two ladies, and 
 among other performances, the keeper permission having been 
 asked and obtained told his monstrous charge to let him know 
 the age of One of the ladies by scraping with his foot as many 
 times as the lady had lived years. The elephant scraped one, two, 
 three, and so on, till he stopped at twenty-eight : the lady was, 
 in fact, under thirty. The keeper was then desired to tell the 
 elephant to indicate the age of the other lady. The obedient 
 creature scraped with his foot as before, and again stopped at 
 twenty-eight. 
 
 41 Look again," said the keeper. 
 
 The elephant surveyed the second lady, with a search ing scru- 
 tiny, and recommenced his scraping ; but he stopped, this time, 
 at twenty-seven and she was, in reality, about a year younger 
 than her companion. 
 
 My friend, who had seen as many shows as the late Lord 
 Stowell, avowed to me that he was puzzled, and entirely at a loss 
 to discover how the feat was performed, although he had closely 
 watched the man. Determined to give himself another chance, 
 he requested the keeper to make the elephant repeat his answers. 
 
 The keeper, who forgot the conjuror's old maxim, " never show 
 the same trick twice to the same party at the same time," com- 
 plied ; and the delusion was now detected. The keeper made 
 the signal by giving the cane which he held in his hand, a suc- 
 cession of nicks with his thumb-nail, conformable to the number 
 of scrapes that the elephant was to make with his foot. 
 
 In truth, the quickness with which a well-trained elephant will 
 take a hint from his mohout is astonishing. 
 
 Bishop Heber mentions a horrible instance of this. Just before 
 his arrival in India, one of these mohouts had been executed for 
 revenging himself on a woman, who had said something to offend 
 him, by means which he thought would be undiscovered. He 
 made a sign to his beast, which, in obedience, instantly killed her. 
 When Tavernier travelled with the Mogul's Mohammedan army, 
 he was, at first, lost in astonishment at seeing the elephants as 
 they marched along seize upon the idols that stood before the 
 pagodas and dash them to pieces, to the great distress and dis- 
 comfiture of the Hindoos ; but he soon found out the carefully- 
 concealed truth. The mohouts, who seem to have been imbued 
 with a spirit of intolerance worthy of modern bigots, made, as 
 they passed, secret signals to their beasts to destroy the symbols 
 of a mode of faith offensive to them. 
 
 This extreme docility is the result of memory and a power of 
 combining ideas of that condition of intellect, and exercise of its 
 faculties, which, notwithstanding the logic of Descartes, Male- 
 branche, and their disciples, induces the close observer and deep 
 
ELEPHANTS. 299 
 
 thinker to come to the conclusion that brutes are not mere ma- 
 chines, but are endowed with reasoning powers to a very consider- 
 able extent. 
 
 Nor is this a new doctrine. It may be traced in the writings 
 of ancient as well as modern poets in the works of the philoso- 
 phers of old, of the Jewish Rabbis, and of the Christian Fathers. 
 The notion of a soul includes, it is true, that of immortality 
 endless duration of existence ; and the ancients interpreted the 
 words as having a triple meaning or distinction. They considered 
 it as indicating a spiritual, a sensitive, and a vegetative principle. 
 According to them, man is possessed of a soul in all the three 
 senses, and brutes in the two last ; while plants have a vegetative 
 soul- only. When we read the -beautiful lines of the " little Queen 
 Anne's man " 
 
 Lo, the poor Indian ! whose untutor'd mind 
 V'*'-y .'". , Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ; 
 His soul proud science never taught to stray 
 Far as the Solar Walk or Milky Way ; 
 Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n, 
 Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heav'n. 
 Some safer world in depth of'woods embrac'd, 
 Some happier island in the wat'ry waste, 
 Where slaves once more their native land behold, 
 No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. 
 To be content's his natural desire ; 
 He asks no angePs wing, no seraph's fire ; 
 But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, 
 His faithful dog shall bear him company- 
 
 we are carried back to the time of Augustus and the Elysian 
 Fields, where the souls of the blessed were surrounded by those 
 of their favourite animals, and revelled in the enjoyment of all that 
 was pleasant to them in life 
 
 Slant terra defixsc hastse passimqite soliiti 
 Per camjntm pascuntur eqni. Quoe gratia currum 
 Armorumque fuit vivis, qu3 cura ninentes 
 Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure reposto's. 
 
 The unsophisticated Red man still looks forward to a heaven of 
 bears and bisons ; and the survivors are careful to place his bow 
 and hunting implements beside him in his tomb. 
 
 It requires no great learning to show that the notion of the 
 future existence of brute animals is not so novel as some may 
 suppose. Manasseh, discoursing of the resurrection, lays it down 
 that brutes will enjoy a much happier state of being than ever 
 they enjoyed here, when men shall rise again ; and Philo, in his 
 treatise of "Future Rewards," asserts, without doubt, that fero- 
 .cious beasts will be divested of their savage nature, and become 
 
300 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 tame and gentle. He expatiates eloquently on the harmony and 
 love that shall be manifested when innocence shall reign in all the 
 regions of restored nature, when the whole race of scorpions, ser- 
 pents, and poisonous insects and reptiles in general shall become 
 harmless, and have no power to afflict the blessed with their ve- 
 nomous weapons. Tertullian, not improbably, had this passage 
 in his mind, when, commenting upon the words of St. Paul,* he 
 declares that there shall be an end of death when the Devil, its 
 chief master, shall go away into the fire which God has prepared 
 for him and his angels : when the sons of God shall be made 
 manifest, and their manifestation shall release the world from the 
 evil to which it is at present subject ; when the innocence and 
 purity of nature shall be restored ; when beasts shall live in har- 
 mony with beasts, and infants shall play with serpents ; when 
 the Father shall have subdued his enemies to his son, and put all 
 thirigs in subjection under his feet. 
 
 Every brute acts, doubtlessly, upon the impulse of an intelligent 
 principle of its own, wisely and wonderfully adapted to its posi- 
 tion upon the earth or in its waters. It has a power of distinc- 
 tion and comparison commensurate with the state of being to 
 which it has pleased the Creator to call it, and, to a certain ex- 
 tent, is a free, though not, like man, a responsible agent. 
 
 Philosophers, such as those above alluded to, are compelled to 
 allow that the actions of brutes express an understanding ; but, 
 in order to prove the position that those animals have no souls at 
 all, say that it is only as every thing else which is regular ex- 
 presses it, such as a watch, a clock, or any other kind of machine ; 
 and they assert that this understanding is as distinct from the 
 beast, as that which arranges the movements of a clock or watch 
 is from those instruments. If this be so, they must consider the 
 animal as insensible to all its natural operations. They must 
 hold that it eats without pleasure, and is insensible to pain that 
 it is, in short, a mere "automaton. When we read such arguments 
 as those which we have here noticed, tending to prove that a dog 
 or an elephant is a mere animated parcel of matter, we are for- 
 cibly reminded of that beautiful passage in Scripture, "The stork 
 in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and 
 the crane, and the swallow, know the times of their coming, but 
 my people do not understand the judgments of their God." 
 
 This is a most pregnant subject, one on which we could dilate 
 much ; but, for the present, we must leave it to inquire into the 
 degree of intellectuality that has been assigned to the massive 
 quadruped which is the subject of this sketch. 
 
 * "And the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corrup- 
 tion into the glorious liberty of the children of God." 
 
ELEPHANTS. V 3Q1 
 
 As long as the elephant is under the direct guidance of man, 
 there is no ground for wonder that even a child should lead him. 
 It is when he is out of the reach of immediate human direction 
 that the measure of his sagacity should be taken. Some of the 
 anecdotes illustrative of his conduct when left to himself, may be 
 accounted for from, the influence of habit, as in the instances of 
 elephants tying their own legs at night, or after swimming a river 
 laden, unloading themselves in the most orderly manner on the 
 opposite shore. But in the case recorded by M. d'Obsonville, 
 there is something more. 
 
 Two elephants had been directed'to knock down a wall by their 
 cornacs, who had dismissed them to their task with their trunks 
 guarded by leather, and with the usual promise of fruit and spirit- 
 uous liquors if they performed it well. The elephants proceed- 
 ed to their work, not singly, but, doubling up their guarded 
 trunks, they combined their forces, and, swaying themselves in 
 equal and measured time, these huge living battering-rams pro- 
 pelled their broad fronts against the building. As it shook under 
 the repetition of their overpowering and uniform shocks, they 
 watched the vacillating equilibrium of the tottering wall, and 
 having made, at the precisely proper moment, one grand, simul- 
 taneous effort, suddenly drew back to avoid the tumbling ruins. 
 
 This may be " what we somewhat superciliously call instinct," 
 to use the expressive language of the author of "Vathek," but it 
 looks very like reason. Two men could not have wielded their 
 instruments of destruction with more efficiency and discretion. 
 In the case of these elephants the utmost possible advantage was 
 taken of their own organization. The broad and massive fore- 
 head, expanded and fortified by the voluminous cellular sinus 
 which separates the external from the internal table of the skull, 
 the short compact neck, and the impulse of the well-balanced, 
 overwhelming weight, were all brought to bear in the most effec- 
 tive manner. And here we may remark, that among quadrupeds, 
 the elephant has, proportionally, the shortest neck, the giraffe the 
 longest neck, and that the megaceros, or great extinct Irish deer, 
 had the stoutest neck, fit to bear the enormous spread of the gigan- 
 tic antlers. In the camel and dromedary, the flexuous neck is 
 peculiarly marked by the absence of the lateral foramina for the 
 vertebral arteries. These peculiarities are well shown in the grand 
 group at the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Eng- 
 land, of which the skeleton of.Chunee, the Asiatic elephant, is the 
 centre, flanked by those of the elk and giraffe on one side, and 
 by those of the megaceros and dromedary on the other.* 
 
 * See the excellent ' Catalogue" and " Synopsis'' by the curator, Pro- 
 fessor Owens, F.R.S., &c., &c. 
 26 
 
302 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 It may be said, indeed, with reference to the unity of strength 
 and purpose exhibited by the elephants in battering down the 
 wall, that, in a state of nature, the necessity, of removing or pull- 
 ing down some great obstacle a large tree for instance would 
 naturally induce the combination of two or more elephants to effect 
 the removal, when it was discovered that the strength of one was 
 inadequate to the task. But this observation, so far from weaken- 
 ing the case, strengthens it, by admitting spontaneous sagacious 
 combination in the untutored beasts. 
 
 Then there are instances where single elephants left alone have 
 acted according to the necessities of the case with the most re- 
 markable intelligence. Take, for example, the story told by the 
 author of " Twelve Years' Military Adventure," who declares 
 that he had seen the wife of a mohout give a baby in charge to 
 an elephant while she went on some business, and had observed 
 the sagacity and care of the unwieldy nurse, to his great amuse- 
 ment. The babe, with the restlessness of childhood, began, as 
 soon as it was left to itself, to crawl about, getting, in the course 
 of its vagaries, sometimes under the huge legs of the animal, and 
 at others, becoming entangled among the branches of the trees on 
 which he was feeding. On such occasions, the elephant would, 
 in the most tender manner, disengage the child, either by lifting 
 it out of the way with its trunk, or removing the impediments to 
 its progress in the same manner. When the child had crawled 
 so far as nearly to reach the limits of the elephant's range (for he 
 was chained by the leg to a stump driven into the ground), he 
 would protrude his trunk and lift the child back, as gently as 
 possible, to the spot whence it had started. 
 
 No old woman could have tended her charge with more show 
 of reason. 
 
 These will appear wonderful manifestations of intellect to such 
 as have not been accustomed to observe the actions of animals ; 
 but the ancients went far beyond any thing stated in modern times : 
 and not only endowed elephants with human passions, but gave 
 them a high moral and religious character. 
 
 And first for their morality : 
 
 44 A certaine elephant seeing his Maister absent, and another 
 man with his Mistresse, he went and slew them both. The like 
 was done at Rome, where the elephant having slaine both the 
 adulterer and adulteresse, he covered them with the bed-clothes 
 untill his keeper returned home, and then by signes drew him 
 into his lodging-place, where he uncovered the adulterers, and 
 shewed him his bloody tooth that tooke revenge upon them both 
 for such a villany : whereat the Maister wondering, was the more 
 pacified because of the manifest-committed iniquity. And not 
 only thus deale they against the woman, but they also spare not 
 
ELEPHANTS. 303 
 
 to revenge the adultery of men, yea, of their owne keeper : for 
 there was a rich man, which had married a wife not very amia- 
 ble or lovely, but like himselfe for wealth, riches, and possessions, 
 which he having gained, first of all set his heart to love another, 
 more fitting his lustfull fancye, and being desirous to marry her, 
 strangled his rich il-favored wife, and buried her not farre from, 
 the elephant's stable, and so married with the other, and brought 
 her home to his house : the elephant abhorring such detestable 
 murther, brought the new-married wife to the place where the 
 other was buried, and with his teeth digged up the ground and 
 shewed her the naked bodye of her predecessor, intymating 
 thereby unto her secretly, how unworthely she had married with. 
 a man, murtherer of his former wife." . 
 
 Next for their piety : 
 
 " They have also a kinde of religion, for they worshippe, reve- 
 rence, and observe the course of the sunne, moone, and starres ; 
 for when the moone shineth, they goe to the waters wherein she 
 is apparent, and, wheri the sunne ariseth, they salute and reve- 
 rence her face : and it is observed in ^Ethiopia, that when the 
 moone is chaunged untill her prime and appearance, these beastes 
 by a secret motion of nature, take boughes from of the trees they 
 feede upon, and first of all lift them up to heaven, and then looke 
 upon the moone, which they doe many times together ; as it were 
 in supplication to her. In like manner they reverence the sunne 
 rysing, holding up their trunke or hand to heaven, in congratula- 
 tion of her rising." 
 
 " Juba was woont to say, that this beast was acceptable to 
 those Gods which ruled sea and land, bycause of their reverence 
 to sunne and moone, and therefore Ptolomeus Philopator offered 
 four elephants in a sacrifice (to recover the quietnesse of his mind), 
 thinking that the Gods would have been well pleased therewith, 
 but finding that his fearfull dreames and visions departed not 
 from him, but rather his disquietnesse increased, fearing that the 
 Gods were angry with him for that action, he made four elephants 
 of brasse, and dedicated them to the sun, that so by this deede he 
 might purchase pardon for the former offence." 
 
 " This religion of theirs also appeareth . before their death, for 
 when they feele any mortall woundes, or other naturall signes of 
 their later end, either they take up the dust, or else some greene 
 herbe, and lift it up to heaven in token of their innocency and 
 imploration of their own weakenes, and in like manner do they 
 when they eate any herbe by natural instinct to cure their dis- 
 eases : first they lift it up to the heavens (as it -were to pray for 
 a devine blessing upon it), and then devoure it." 
 
 " I cannot omit their care to bury and cover the dead carkases 
 of their companions, or any other of their kind ; for finding them 
 
304 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 dead they passe not by them till they have lamented their common 
 misery, by casting dust and earth on them, and also greene boughes, 
 in token of sacrifice, holding it execrable to doe otherwise ; and 
 they know by a naturall instinct some assured foretokens of their 
 owne death. Besides, when they waxe old and unfit to gather 
 their own meate, or fight for themselves, the younger of them 
 feed, nourish, and defend them, ye#, they raise them out of ditches 
 and trenches into which they are fallen, exempting them from all 
 labour and perill, and interposing their own bodies for their pro- 
 tection : neither do they forsake them in sicknesse, or in their 
 woundes, but stand to them, pulling darts out of their bodies, and 
 helping both like skilfull chirurgians to cure their woundes, and 
 also like faithfull friendes to supply their wants." 
 
 For these refined qualities Topsell quotes the authority of Pliny, 
 Solinus, JElian, Plutarch, and Tzetzes. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of these ancient and somewhat mar- 
 vellous records, we have modern accounts of the tender sympathy 
 shown by elephants to tbeir suffering brethren upon the most in- 
 dubitable evidence. Bishop Heber, for instance, relates that an 
 old starved elephant having fallen from weakness, another of very 
 large size and in better condition, was brought to its assistance, 
 and that he was much struck with the almost human expression 
 of surprise, alarm, and perplexity in the countenance of the vigor- 
 ous elephant as it approached its fallen companion. They fas- 
 tened a chain round the neck and body of the sick beast, and 
 urged the other in all ways, by encouragement and blows, to drag 
 it up. The other pulled stoutly for a minute, but on the first 
 groan given by its wretched companion stopped short, turned 
 fiercely round with a loud roar, and with trunk and fore-feet be- 
 gan to attempt to loosen the chain from its neck. 
 
 But to return to Topsell. As a proof of the susceptibility of ele- 
 phants, and their proneness to .the tender passion, take the follow- 
 ing antique version of Beauty and the Beast. 
 
 " At the sight of a beautiful woman they leave off all rage, and 
 grow meeke and gentle, and therefore ^lianus saith, that there 
 was an elephant in Egypt which was in love with a woman that 
 sold corrals ; the selfe same woman was wooed by Aristophanes, 
 and therefore it was not likely that she was chosen by the ele- 
 phant without a singular admiration of hir beauty, wherein Aris- 
 tophanes might say as never man could, that he had an elephant 
 for his rivall, and this also did the elephant manifest unto the 
 man, for on a day in the market he brought her certaine apples, 
 and put them into her ,bosome, holding his trunke a great while 
 therein. Another likewise loved a Syrian woman, with whose 
 aspect he was suddenly taken, and in admiration of her face 
 stroked the same with his trunke, with testification of farther 
 
ELEPHANTS. 305 
 
 Jove ; the woman likewise failed not to frame for the elephant 
 amorous devises with beads and corals, silver and such things as 
 are gratefull to these brute beastes, so she enjoyed his labor and 
 diligence to her great profit, and he hir love and kindnes without 
 offence to his contentment, which caused Horat. to write this 
 verse : 
 
 Quid tibi vis mulier nigris dignissima barris. 
 
 At last the woman died, whom the elephant missing, like a lover 
 distracted betwixt love and sorrow, fell beside himselfe and so 
 perished. Neither ought any man to marvel at such a passion in 
 this beast, who hath such a memory as is attributed unto him, 
 and understanding of his charge and busines as may appeare by 
 manifold examples, for Antipater affirmeth that he saw an ele- 
 phant that knewe againe and tooke acquaintance of his maister 
 which had nourished him in his youth after many yeares ab- 
 sence." 
 
 And we have this further proof of their affectionate regard for 
 their keepers : 
 
 "Their love and .concord with all mankind is most notorious, 
 especially to their keepers and women : for if through wrath they 
 be incensed against their keepers, they kill them, and afterwarde 
 by way of repentance, they consume themselves with mourning : 
 and for the manifesting of this point Arrianus telleth a notable 
 story of an Indian who had brought up from a foale a white ele- 
 phant, both loving it and being beloved of it againe, he was there- 
 upon carried with great admiration. The king hearing of this 
 white elephant, sent unto the man for it, requiring it to be given, 
 him for a present, whereat the man was much grieved, that 
 another man should possesse that which he had so tenderly edu- 
 cated and loved, fitting him to his bowe and purposes, and there- 
 fore like a ryvall in his elephant's love, resolved to deny the king, 
 and shift for himselfe in some other place : whereupon he fled 
 into a desert region with his elephant, and the king understand- 
 ing thereof, grew offended with him, sent messengers after him 
 to take away the elephant, and withall to bring the man back 
 againe, to receive punishment for his contempt." 
 
 " When they came to the place where he remained and began 
 to take order for their apprehension, the man ascended into a 
 steepe place, and there kept the king's messenger off from him 
 by casting of stones, and so also did the beast like as one that had 
 received some injury by them ; at last they got neare the Indian 
 and cast him down, but the elephant made upon them, killing 
 some of them, and defending his maister and nourisher, put the 
 residue to flight, and then taking up his maister with his trunke 
 carried him safe into his lodging, which thing is worthy to be 
 26* 
 
306 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 remembered as a noble understanding part both of a loving friend 
 and faithfull servant." 
 
 " Generally, as is already said, they love all men after they be 
 tamed, for if they meet a man erring out of his way they gently 
 bring him into the right againe, yet being wilde are they afraide 
 of the footsteps of men if they minde their treadings before they 
 see their persons, and when they find an herbe that yeeldeth a 
 suspition of man's presence, they smell thereunto one by one, and 
 if al agree in one savour, the last beast lifteth uppe his voice and 
 crieth out fora token and watchword to make them all flie away." 
 
 " Cicero affirmeth that they come so neare to a man's disposi- 
 tion, that their small company or nation seemeth to overgoe or 
 equall most men in sence and understanding." 
 
 With which not very complimentary affirmation we close this 
 chapter. 
 
 ELEPHANTS. 
 
 PART V. 
 
 , ' 
 
 Lucifer What thy world is, th&u 
 
 But canst not comprehend the shadow of 
 
 That which it wa. 
 " Cain And those enormous creatures, 
 
 Phantoms inferior in intelligence 
 
 (At least so seeming) to the things we have pass'tt 
 
 Resembling somewhat the wild habitants 
 
 Of the deep woods of earth, the hugest which 
 
 Roar nightly in the forest, but ten-fold 
 
 In magnitude and terror ; talle than 
 
 The cherub-guarded walls of Euen, with 
 
 Eyes flashing like the fiery swords which fence them, 
 
 And tusks projecting like the trees stripp'd of 
 
 Their bark and branches what were they ? 
 " Lucifer That which 
 
 The Mammoth is in thy world f but these He 
 
 By myriads underneath its surface." 
 
 CAIlf. 
 
 THE ancients had a notion that the locality from which the 
 elephants came had great influence on their temper and character. 
 
 Thus we read that " The Kinge of the Indians was watched 
 with foure-and-twenty elephants, who were taught to forbeare 
 sleepe, and come in their turnes at certain houres, and so were 
 
ELEPHANTS. 307 
 
 they most faithfull, carefull, and invincible. And as there be of 
 them three kindes, the Palustrians or Marishye elephants are hair- 
 brained and inconstant, the elephantes of the mountaines are 
 subtill and evill-natured, lying in waite to destroy and devoure, 
 but the campestriall elephants are meeke, gentle, docible,and apt 
 to imitate men. In these is the understanding of their country 
 language, of obedience to princes, government, and offices; the 
 love and pleasure of glory and praise ; and also that which is not 
 alway in men; namely, equity, wisdome, and probity."* 
 
 However fanciful this theory may be, there is no question as to 
 the fact of difference of temper and character. Among elephants 
 may be found as vicious brutes as ever walked on four legs or two 
 either, and also as generous, noble-tempered animals as good men 
 ever delighted to win to their will by kindness. When Bishop 
 Heber was travelling in Oude, three elephants were in his train. 
 One was described by his mohout as a fine-tempered beast, but 
 the other two as great rascals. Between a good elephant and 
 his attendants there seems to be the most perfect understanding. 
 The man who walks by its side is talking to it all the time they 
 are jogging on, and very often in a jargon which no one else can 
 understand, but which is perfectly intelligible to the elephant. 
 "My dove!" "Take care!" "Well done, my dear!" "My 
 son!" "My wife!" If a fault is committed, "How could you 
 do that ?" if it is often repeated, "What can you be thinking of?" 
 accompanied by a dig with the sharp iron hawkuss or ankuss, 
 inflicted by the mohout. 
 
 I have seen many strong instances of the attachment of brutes 
 to man; but I do not think I ever saw that feeling so strongly 
 manifested as by a very young elephant that was brought to this 
 country. Never was parent more fondly caressed by a child than 
 was the keeper of this affectionate creature by his charge. If he 
 absented himself even for a moment, the little elephant became 
 restless ; and if the absence was continued for a few. minutes, its 
 distress was quite painful to the spectator. After trying the dif- 
 ferent fastenings of its prison with its as yet weak proboscis, it 
 would give vent to the most lamentable pipings, which only ceased 
 when its friend and protector reappeared. And then how it would 
 run to him, passing its infant trunk round his neck, his arm, his 
 body, and lay its head upon his bosom. The poor man had a 
 weary time of it; he was a close prisoner, nor was he released at 
 night even ; for he was obliged to sleep by the side of his nursling, 
 which would have pined and died if leff by itself. 
 
 But great as is the attachment of these animals to their keepers, 
 and obedient as they are, generally, even to a tyrannical mohout, 
 
 * Topsell. 
 
308 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 it is dangerous to try their tempers too far. " Of all the dumb 
 beasts'," quoth the learned Job Ludolphus, author of the "Ethio- 
 pic Lexicon," speaking of the elephant, " this creature certainly 
 shares the most of human understanding ; kind usage excites 
 their ambition, contumely fires their revenge;" and doubtless the 
 elephant will treasure up a wrong with human tenacity, and some- 
 times avenge himself as cruelly as Tiberius himself. Keepers 
 who have needlessly mingled their caresses with blows have felt 
 the fatal effects of their wanton conduct. Fancying that they 
 have the animal entirely under their control, they become the dupes 
 of his apparently submissive behaviour; but the injured animal 
 bides his time, and, taking advantage of an unguarded moment, 
 balances the accumulated account of wrong with the death of the 
 wrong-doer. A terrible instance of this is recorded in one of 
 Zoffany's pictures. When the Vizier we cannot make up our 
 pen to write Wezeer or Wuzeer, as, according to modern 
 authorities, we ought when the Vizier of Oude sent his embassy 
 to meet Lord Cornwallis at Calcutta, there was among the ele- 
 phants that carried the baggage, a male with a number of people 
 on his back. This elephant, suddenly irritated by a violent and, 
 as far as we know, an undeserved stroke with the penetrating 
 hawkuss, snatched the unhappy driver from his seat, held him up 
 in his trunk so as to render escape or aid impossible, and, after 
 suspending him, as if in warning to others, for a few moments, 
 during which the trembling victim must have endured the very 
 extremity of agonising fear, deliberately dashed him to pieces. 
 Not long ago, an unhappy English keeper was killed by the ele- 
 phant placed under his charge : he had provoked the vengeance 
 of the long-suffering creature by his persecutions, and paid the 
 deadly penalty. 
 
 In the case recorded by Zoffany, the immediate aggression was, 
 in all probability, the last drop that made the bitter cup overflow ; 
 for, unless the animal be naturally of a malignant disposition, 
 there is so much attachment and respect on the part of the brute, 
 that it requires a long course of ill treatment to push him beyond 
 the bounds of endurance and make him turn on his master. But 
 there are occasions when he is not less prompt to avenge an 
 insult on the spot, and such an one occurred during the siege of 
 Bhurtpore, soon after the commencement of the present century. 
 
 The beleaguered city had for a long time been pressed by the 
 British army attended by its host of camp-followers* and attend- 
 ants. The hot season approached, and the dry burning winds 
 
 * Some idea of the comparative number of camp-followers attached to a 
 British army engaged in Indian warfare may be arrived at from the statement 
 of Lieutenant Shipp, who, in one case, gives 80,000 camp-followers, where 
 the fighting men were 8,000 only. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 309 
 
 were at hand : as they prevailed, every tank and every pond were 
 dried up, and the enormous multitude of human beings and cattle 
 were thrown upon the wells alone for their supply of water. The 
 scenes of confusion at these points of attraction may be better 
 imagined than described. 
 
 Two elephant drivers with their beasts were at one of these 
 wells together, and when the usual struggle and confusion amid 
 a war of words were at their height, one of the elephants, which 
 was remarkably large and strong, snatched from the smaller and 
 weaker one the bucket with which his master had provided him, 
 and which he carried at his trunk's end. Loud and long was the 
 squabble between the keepers. The little elephant quietly 
 watched his opportunity, and when his gigantic aggressor was 
 standing with his side to the well, retired a few steps, and then 
 making a rush, came with his head full butt against his antago- 
 nist's side, and tumbled him in. 
 
 Here was a pretty business. The surface of the water was 
 some twenty feet below the level of the ground, and the immersion 
 of the elephant was not calculated to improve the quality of the 
 spring ; besides, how was he to be got out? Not that he seemed 
 much disturbed at his ducking, for, though there were many feet 
 of water below him, he floated about at his ease, appearing rather 
 to enjoy his cool retreat, and to be in no haste to use any exertion 
 for his deliverance. 
 
 At length the mohout bethought him of the fascines which 
 had been employed in great numbers by the army in conducting 
 the siege, and had them lowered into the well, with the hope that 
 the animal might be induced so to place them under him as gra- 
 dually to raise himself to the top. And here was exhibited a 
 striking instance of the power of man over these massive crea- 
 tures, and their quickness of perception and obedience. The 
 mohout soon succeeded in making the elephant understand what 
 he wished him to do, and the sagacious beast continued to dis- 
 pose of the fascines thrown to him under his feet, to such good 
 purpose, that he soon was enabled to stand upon them. But here 
 the charm of the keeper's ascendency seemed to be broken; for 
 the sly elephant, finding himself on firm footing, struck work, 
 and quietly made the most of the deliciously cold bath which had 
 so unexpectedly fallen to his share, revelling in a luxury which 
 he had not enjoyed for many a day. But what will not the love 
 of arrack do ? The bather was at last roused by the most earnest 
 and stimulating promises of the intoxicating draught, and again 
 began to arrange the fascines under his feet, till he had raised 
 himself so high that, by removing a portion of the masonry sur- 
 rounding the top of the well, he was able to step out at the 
 
310 , ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 expiration of fourteen hours from the commencement of the af- 
 fair.* 
 
 But numerous as are the stories told of the stern vengeance of 
 the elephant, there are not wanting instances where the punish- 
 ment inflicted by the injured beast has been of a degrading and 
 even ludicrous character ; as if scorn and contempt were the pre- 
 dominant feelings that dictated the retribution. The dirty water- 
 spout that overwhelmed the treacherous Delhi tailor, who had 
 treated the elephant to a prick with his needle instead of aaapple ; 
 and the muddy shower bestowed on Lieutenant Shipp (who had 
 irritated another by giving him a large quantity of Cayenne 
 pepper between two pieces of bread), six weeks after the commis- 
 sion of the offence, and as a termination to the caresses and 
 fondling of the lieutenant, are of this character, as well as the 
 delayed vengeance of the elephant mentioned by Williamson 
 under the name of Paugul, or fool. The Paugul, who had most 
 likely been put upon like other butts till he could stand it no 
 longer, had refused to bear a greater weight upon a march than he 
 liked, and the angry quarter-master threw a tent-pin at the head 
 of the obstinate beast. Some days afterwards, as the elephant 
 was going to water, he came suddenly upon the quarter-master, 
 seized him with his trunk, and lifting him among the branches 
 of a large tamarind tree, there left him between heaven and earth, 
 as being unworthy of either, to hold on if he were able, and get 
 down if he could. 
 
 A very intelligent elephant was shown, some years since, in a 
 caravan of wild beasts at a fair in the West of England. One of 
 those practical jokers, whose wit lies in pouring melted butter 
 into a friend's pocket, or conveying a putrid oyster into his plate, 
 had been doling out some gingerbread nuts of the first quality to 
 the elephant, who received the instalments, small as they were, 
 with satisfaction and gratitude, manifesting the latter by the spon- 
 taneous performance of some of his tricks between the somewhat 
 protracted intervals of supply. Suddenly, his benefactor produced 
 a large paper parcel, weighing some two or three pounds, and pre- 
 sented it en masse. The elephant took it as it was, and consigned 
 the whole to his powerful crushing-mill. Hardly, however, had 
 he swallowed the dose, before he gave a loud roar, and exhibited 
 all the symptoms of suffering severely from internal heat, handing 
 yes, handing, for the trunk acted as dexterously as a hand the 
 bucket to his keeper, as if beseeching far water, which was given 
 to him, and of which he continued to pour floods sufficient to 
 drive a mill down his capacious and burning throat. 
 
 " Ha !" said the joker, addressing his victim, "those nuts were 
 a trifle hot, old fellow, I guess!" 
 
 * See Griffith's Cuvier. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 311 
 
 "You had better be off," exclaimed the keeper, "unless you 
 want the bucket at your head, and sarve you right too." 
 
 The dispenser of ginger and pepper took the hint ; for there was 
 an angry glare in the drinker's eye, while the distressed beast was 
 
 Eumping up his sixth bucketful ; and in good time he took it, for 
 e had scarcely cleared the entrance of the show, when the empty 
 bucket was hurled after him by the elephant with such force and 
 correctness of aim, that if he had been a moment later, his joking 
 would, in all probability, have been terminated, with his life, on 
 the spot. 
 
 A year had passed away, and the wayfarers from the country 
 villages trod over the withered leaves that had, when fresh, green, 
 and vigorous, shielded their heads from the burning summer's sun 
 as they again bent their steps to the same annual autumnal fair, 
 where the elephant had been before exhibited, and where he was 
 again ready to receive company. 
 
 Our joker was again among his visitors, and, forgetful of his nar- 
 row escape from the bucket, which, at the time, another wit ob- 
 served he had been near kicking, came, as before, with one coat- 
 pocket filled with "best nuts," and the other with hot nuts. He 
 gave the elephant two or three nuts from the best sample, and then 
 drew forth and presented him with a hot one. No sooner had 
 the elephant tasted it, than he seized the coat-tails of his tor- 
 mentor, and, with one whirling sweep with his trunk lifted him 
 from the ground, till, the tails giving way, the man dropped half- 
 dead with fright, and with his coat reduced to a jacket. The 
 elephant, meanwhile, quietly inserted the end of his trunk into the 
 pocket containing the best nuts, and leisurely proceeded, keeping 
 his foot on the coat-tails, to discuss every nut of them. When 
 he had finished the last, he trampled upon the pocket containing 
 the hot nuts, till he had reduced them to a mash: and then, after 
 having torn the tails to rags, threw the soiled fragments at the 
 head of his facetious friend, amid the derision of the assembled 
 crowd. 
 
 The late tenant of the elephantine departments in the Jardin des 
 Plantes manifested, according to a story related of him, no small 
 sense of discrimination under somewhat unworthy treatment. 
 
 A painter was in the habit of choosing for his models the 
 animals confined in the garden. When it came to the elephant's 
 turn to stand for his portrait, the artist, wishing to represent the 
 grim giant in a striking attitude, employed a little boy to throw 
 apples into the mouth of the elephant, thus obliging him to keep 
 his trunk uplifted. The apples were numerous, but the painter 
 was not a Landseer; and as he had not the faculty of seizing and 
 transferring character with Edwin's magical power and rapidity, 
 the task was tedious. By the master's directions, the boy occa- 
 
312 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 sionally deceived the elephant by a simulated chuck, and thus eked 
 out the supply. 
 
 Notwithstanding the just indignation of the baulked expectant, 
 his gourmandise checked his irritable impatience; and, keeping 
 his eye on the still well-filled bag, he bore the repeated disappoint- 
 ments, crunching an apple, when it chanced to come, with appa- 
 rent glee. 
 
 At" length, the last apple was thrown and crunched: the empty 
 bag was laid aside: and the elephant applied himself to his water- 
 tank,, as if for the purpose of washing down his repast. A few 
 more touches would have completed the picture, when an over- 
 whelming douche from his well-adjusted trunk obliterated the 
 design, and drenched the discomfited painter. Having, by this 
 practical application of distributive justice executed judgment on 
 the instigator, the elephant, disdaining the boy, whom he regarded 
 as the mere instrument of wrong, marched proudly round his 
 inclosure, loudly trumpeting forth his triumph. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that, in modern times, the African ele- 
 phant has not been brought under the domination of man for the 
 purposes of utility or parade, whilst his Asiatic relation has been 
 made to minister so largely to human convenience, and almost 
 every phase of oriental pomp and luxury. When Kubla Khan 
 amused himself with ornamenting his "stately pleasure dome" 
 
 Twice five miles of fertile ground 
 
 With walls and towers were girdled round; ' <- 
 And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills, 
 Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree, 
 
 and here .these gigantic landscape-gardeners did good service; for 
 whenever the khan received information that a handsome tree was 
 growing in any place, he caused it to be dug up with all its roots 
 and the earth about them, just as Sir Henry Stuart has since pro- 
 ceeded, and, whatever were its size and weight, caused it to be 
 transported by elephants to an artificial mount that rose in the 
 inclosure, where the tree was added to the verdant group that 
 crowned the hill. Nearly a hundred elephants were employed by 
 Timour in conveying the stones for building the great mosque at 
 Samarcand ; and they have been most efficiently used in the East 
 in ship-launching, and dragging vessels on shore. 
 
 We pass over the cruel pastime of fighting them with each 
 other, or with tigers, wild horses, or dogs, and other barbarous 
 sports of the Mogul amphitheatre. These degrading scenes want 
 the excitement of danger and retributive excuse which dignify the 
 hunter's craft, especially when the destruction of the man-eater 
 is sought. Down to a late period, some of these hunting-expedi- 
 tions were conducted on a scale of prodigious grandeur. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 313 
 
 When the Nawaub of Oude took the field, which he generally 
 did in the month of March, ten thousand cavalry, a like number 
 of infantry, seven or eight hundred elephants, and from forty to 
 sixty thousand camp-followers with grain and merchandise, 
 marched with him. From his palace at Lucknow this host went 
 forth, Asoph-ul-'doulah himself occupying the centre of the line, 
 mounted on an elephant, and attended by two others, one bearing 
 his state howdah, the other that which he used in the chase. 
 On each side of the Nawaub was a prolonged rank of elephants. 
 Straight on did this moving mass proceed, regardless of conse- 
 quences, annihilating the hopes of the husbandman, and deaf as 
 an adder to his cries for mercy. Before the prince, the land was 
 smiling with crops. He passed, and the torn and trampled vege- 
 tation looked as if a devastating hurricane had swept the country. 
 Still onward, onward went the tens of thousands, hemming in 
 daily whole herds of antelopes for his highness's battues, and stop- 
 ping nightly at appointed stations, where every luxury that Vathek 
 could have wished for awaited the court, till they approached 
 the stronghold of the buffaloes, leopards, panthers, and tigers, in 
 the Thibet mountains. Here an encampment was formed, and, for 
 weeks, the carnivora that had fattened upon the flocks and herds 
 of the peasantry, paid the penalty of their ravages; the hunters 
 thus, in some measure, making compensation for the injury done 
 on their march. 
 
 Those hunting armies have now dwindled away before Euro- 
 pean rule, and the task of clearing the country from ferocious 
 beasts is left to the gallantry of such avengers as "Koondah"* 
 and his forest-ranging co-mates. 
 
 An elephant, .when he smells or sees a tiger, casts up his trunk 
 almost perpendicularly, trumpets shrilly, and then immediately 
 recurving it, secures the lower part in his mouth, thus presenting 
 to the savage beast nothing but the rounded contour of the ex- 
 posed part,,well protected by the two flanking tusks. Then may 
 be seen that peculiar determined expression on the faces of the 
 men, which those who have seen it, never forget an expres- 
 sion which, at length, leaves an indelible trace on the visages of 
 some old tiger-hunters, and well it may, especially if the game 
 sought be a confirmed man-eater. The Himalaya mountaineers 
 are soon made aware of the vicinity of one of these murderous 
 plunderers. First, from some lonely spot, children are missing, 
 then, a shepherd or shepherdess disappears, and, at last, the chief 
 himself is carried off, as he lies asleep under the shade of his own 
 tree. 
 
 It seems strange that people liable to such attacks should have" 
 
 * See the graphic papers of the " Old Forest Hanger" in the New Monthly 
 Magazine. 
 
 27 **'* '-I " 
 
314 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 less apparent habitual terror of the tiger, than we who view him 
 in a cage. The peasant will walk through the high grass of the 
 jungle, confident in the protection of his gods, or firm in his belief 
 of predestination, although he knows that the destroyer lurks in 
 the neighbourhood ; and, indeed, it seldom happens that even the 
 man-eaters attack a man when he is in action. They are on the 
 watch to surprise him when he is off his guard, or at rest. 
 
 By the way, the great Himalaya dogs when they are brought 
 out to attack leopards, are clad like some of those represented in 
 the old boar and. stag hunts of Snyders and others, in defensive 
 armour. A spiked collar and breast-plate protect the neck and nar- 
 row chest of the dog from the deadly bite of the great spotted cat. 
 
 The shows of the ancients, to which allusion has been made 
 in a former chapter, independently of the mighty scale on which 
 they were conducted, exhibit a striking-difference when compared 
 with those of the moderns. Where we have representations, they 
 had things. With the exception of the Spanish bull-fights, no 
 national combats with animals now exist in Europe. The days of 
 Orson Pmnit, his bears with their pinky eyes, and stout English 
 mastiffs, have long since passed away. Bull-baiting is happily 
 extinct ; and badger-baiting rarely practised, and then only " on 
 the sly" in the neighbourhood of London. The celebrated ratti- 
 cide Billy has long since gone to that bourne whence neither rats, 
 dogs, nor travellers ever return. It is only in the East that 
 
 All the current of a heady fight 
 
 between elephants and other great quadrupedal gladiators maybe 
 witnessed. We have, indeed, had our Van Amburgh and other 
 dompteurs de betes, whose advent was heralded, some years since, 
 by the introduction of a real live elephant on the London boards. 
 . The first appearance of this great performer will not be soon 
 forgotten by those who were present. 
 
 The house was crowded to the ceiling ; and when, at last, the 
 curtain drew up, unveiling the first scene of the splendid. Oriental 
 melodrama, there was a cry of "down !" "down !" and then a 
 breathless silence. The distant march was heard, and the mimic 
 procession was seen afar off, winding its way over the hills and 
 amid ravines, approaching nearer and nearer as the music became 
 more audible. Gradually the stage was filled by a host glitter- 
 ing in all the splendour of new dresses and decorations : the host 
 divided, and the elephant, gorgeously caparisoned, and bearing a 
 gilde4 turret containing armed men, burst upon the -spectators, 
 who greeted the huge novelty with a tremendous shout and a per- 
 fect hurricane of applause as the elephant advanced. Those who 
 were near, however, began to perceive that the animal, whose trunk 
 was nervously moving from side to side, was reluctantly urged on 
 
ELEPHANTS. 315 
 
 from behind, and kept in a forward direction by the guides on 
 each side. With some difficulty the unwieldy performer was got 
 to the front amid increasing shouts, but there all control ceased. 
 The terrified beast suddenly turned tail to the audience, and lifted 
 its trunk with a shrill shriek of mingled anger and fear. At the 
 same moment the "floats" in its rear were extinguished, and the 
 affrighted fiddlers fled in all directions. Then came chaos ; and in 
 a few seconds the stage was cleared, the half-mad elephant alone 
 remaining, without guide or mohout ; and then did those eight 
 mail-clad gentlemen-supernumeraries manifest a strong disposition 
 to resign their elevated situations. One trembling leg was already 
 advanced over the rocking battlements by each of the terror- 
 stricken inmates, and unwillingly drawn back, as the frantic 
 stage-manager in the wing, with uplifted fist and something very 
 unlike a prayer, threatened them with instant discharge if. they 
 did not keep their places, and, as he put it, " do their duty." 
 There they sat, looking deadly pale through their rouge, expecting 
 instant destruction, but retained by the dread of losing the nightly 
 five shillings, and of the awful reception that awaited them from 
 their wives and families, when that loss and the manner of it 
 should be made known to them. At length the oaths and 
 exertions of the manager drove some of his cowed herd to their 
 quarters. The mohout and guides sneaking up, succeeded in 
 soothing the elephant and leading it off shivering in every limb. 
 But use lessens marvel, and the obedient beast soon went through 
 its part as discreetly as the biped actors. The experiment once 
 made, this example was soon followed. Many of our readers will, 
 for instance, remember the sagacious acting of the elephant at the 
 Adelphi theatre, about eighteen years ago. 
 
 The two well-trained elephants at the Cirque in Paris so 
 delighted the spectators lately, that, at the fall of the curtain, 
 they were loudly called for. When they appeared in obedience 
 to the call, wreaths and bouquets were thrown at their feet. 
 These they gratefully lifted to their heads, and swallowed. 
 
 The quantity of elephantine remains spread so widely and so 
 plentifully over the earth, and especially in Europe, demand some 
 notice before this outline of their history is ended. And here we 
 may observe, that of this form but three species are well known. 
 These, are the African elephant, the Asiatic elephant, and the 
 fossil elephant or mammoth ; for, notwithstanding the number of 
 fossil species recorded, amounting, according to Hermann von 
 Meyer, to eight, Professor Owen has clearly proved that all the 
 fossil remains of the elephants hitherto found in Europe are refer- 
 able to one species only elephas primigenius"* 
 
 * There are good grounds for concluding that the fossil species found in 
 
316 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Before the specific distinctions marked in the teeth were clearly 
 defined, those who would not admit the existence of extinct species, 
 endeavoured to account for the numerous specimens found in 
 Italy by assigning them to the elephants brought thither in the 
 ancient Italian wars. But, at last, some of these relics were dis- 
 covered in Britain, and as the antiquaries could not find a'ny 
 account of more than one elephant imported by the Romans,* 
 Dr. Ciiper attributed the molars of the elephant found in blue 
 clay beneath vegetable mould and loam in Northamptonshire, and 
 the tusks dug out of the gravel in Gray's-inn-lane, in the time of 
 Sir Hans Sloane, to the elephant introduced by Csesar. This 
 mare's nest passed muster very well till the progress of further 
 works brought more to light, when it became apparent that if all 
 these remains belonged to the Roman conqueror's elephant, the 
 teeth of that extraordinary beast must have far exceeded in num- 
 ber the multitudinous beavers shown as "Bradshaw's Hat," and 
 the limbs, Cromwell's interminal exhibited stock of boots. Be- 
 sides, some fossil elephant's teeth had been discovered in Ireland, 
 whose soil was never sullied by the sandals of Caesar's soldiery. 
 
 Still, only the disjecta membra had been detected, when, in 
 1799, SchumachofT, the Tungusian hunter, who was also a col- 
 lector of fossil ivory, observed among the ice-blocks at the mouth 
 of the river Lena a huge indefinite mass. He approached as near 
 to it as he could, but failed to make out what it was, though he 
 made the first step in discovery by ascertaining what it was not : 
 for he saw enough to convince him that it was not one of the 
 pieces of floating timber frequently found there. 
 
 When he returned the next year he perceived that the mass was 
 more free from the ice, and that it had two projections. About 
 the end of 1801, he beheld the entire side of a gigantic animal 
 and one of its enormous tusks. Here was a mine of wealth for 
 
 the Sewalik tertiary formations are distinct. Dr. Falconer and Major Uautley, 
 in their highly interesting and beautifully illustrated work "Fauna antiqua 
 Sivalensis, being the Fossil Zoology of the Sewalik Hills in the North of 
 India," now in the course of publication, describe no less than seven species 
 of Elephas and three of Mastodon. One of these, E. Namadicus, is remark- 
 able for a bulge around the forehead. The skull looks as if it were frowning 
 on the spectator, and brings to mind the tradition of the Virginian Indians 
 relative to the Mastodon of America, which stated that as a troop of these 
 terrible quadrupeds were destroying the deer, bisons, and other animals 
 created for the use of the Indians, the Great Man slew them all with his 
 thunder, except the Big Bull, who fearlessly presented his enormous forehead 
 to the bolts, and shook them off as they fell ; till, being at last wounded in 
 the side, he fled towards the great lakes, where he is at this day. 
 
 The enormous size of some of the proboscidean species recorded by Ur. 
 Falconer and Major Cautley is quite astounding; and the Reptilia described 
 by them are formed on the same gigantic scale. 
 
 * Polysenus, lib. viii., c. 23. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 317 
 
 the ivory-collector, and he hastened home to tell the news to his 
 wife and friends. But this mine would seem to have been like 
 the treasures of old, where there was a guardian spirit of no very 
 gentle character to be overcome, or a fiend roused, ready to rend 
 the intruder limb from limb. His intelligence was received by 
 his family and familiars in a way that turned his joy into mourn- 
 ing. The old men shook their heads and remembered a saying of 
 their fathers, that the discovery of a similar monster had been 
 speedily followed by the death of all the family of the discoverer. 
 Imagination and superstition will do their work when the mind is 
 not enlightened by education and fortified by learning and expe- 
 rience, and our poor Tungusian fell ill in good earnest. He 
 recovered, however, and cupidity came hand in hand with return- 
 ing health, for he thought of the noble tusks of the icy-shrouded 
 mammoth, and how much they would bring into his purse. 
 The summer of 1802 had been cold and churlish, and the mammoth 
 still lay almost as completely entombed in his glacier as ever ; 
 but towards the termination of the fifth year the more genial 
 weather operated so effectually on the ice, that the result was an 
 inclined plane, and down came the mountain of frozen mummy 
 on a sandbank. In 1804, the recovered Tungusian visited his 
 prize, cut off the tusks, and made fifty roubles by them in his 
 dealings with a merchant. 
 
 When Mr. Adams arrived at the place, two years afterwards, 
 that is, in the seventh year after the discovery, he found the mam- 
 moth, but it had undergone sad mutilation. The flesh of the 
 carcase was so fresh that the inhabitants of Jakataski fed their 
 dogs w r ith it, and the white bears, wolves, wolverines, and foxes, 
 that had feasted on the remains, had left the traces of their foot- 
 steps around it. There lay the skeleton almost entirely fleshless, 
 and complete with the exception of one fore-leg, with which the 
 strongest of the unbidden carnivorous guests had probably walked 
 off. The ligaments and portions of the skin held together the 
 vertebral column, one shoulder-blade, the haunch bones, and the 
 other three extremities. A dry skin covered the head, and one 
 well-preserved ear was tufted with hair. The apex of the lower 
 lip had been gnawed away ; the upper lip and proboscis had been 
 devoured, and the molar teeth were brought into view. In the 
 skull was the brain, but as dry as the remainder biscuit after a 
 voyage. Of the tail only eight of twenty-eight or thirty vertebrae 
 -emained ; but a fore-foot and a hind foot were covered with skin, 
 and the sole remained attached. Some of the skin* is in the 
 museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and, when 
 
 * Mr. Adams in his interesting account states that the skin was of such ex- 
 traordinary weight that ten persons found great difficulty in transporting it to 
 the shore; 
 
 27* 
 
318 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 it was first brought there, it smelt offensively. The covering 1 of 
 the skin, which was of a dark gray colour, was woolly and hairy. 
 The woolly or curly portion was of a reddish hue, and some of 
 the coarse, long black hairs or bristles were a foot and a half long. 
 This mammoth was a male ; his neck was ornamented \vith a long 
 mane, and he must have been one of the Falstaffs of the primeval 
 forests ; for, according to Schumachoff, he was so fat that his portly 
 belly hung down below his knees. The skeleton, with his tusks, 
 is now mounted at St. Petersburg, in the museum of the Petropo- 
 litan Academy. From the front of the skull to the end of the 
 tail, or rather, of as much as remains of it, the skeleton measures 
 sixteen feet four inches ; the height is nine feet four inches ; and 
 the tusks, measured along the curve, were nine feet six inches. 
 
 Such was the well-preserved animal inclosed in the ice : but 
 " how gat he there ?" 
 
 Cuvier, and he had his followers, had recourse to the Dcus in 
 machind, in the shape of a great and sudden geological cataclysm, 
 affirming that the change of temperature was immediate, in short, 
 that at the moment when the animal was destroyed, the soil on 
 which he trod became " fields of thick-ribbed ice." Lyell, with 
 more respect for the Horatian precept,* and in a truly philoso- 
 phical spirit, shows how these phenomena, which were supposed 
 to be the result of sudden and violent changes, may be accounted 
 for by the gradual operation of ordinary and existing causes,! and 
 Professor Owen, in his admirable " History of British Fossil Mam- 
 malia," entirely dissipates the difficulty raised with regard to the 
 non-existence of the food necessary for the animal's subsistence. 
 It would be unjust to the professor to clothe his reasoning in other 
 words than his own. 
 
 " Dr. Fleming," writes the professor, " has observed that * no 
 one acquainted with the gramineous character of the food of our 
 fallow-deer, stag, or roe, would have assigned a lichen to the rein- 
 deer.' Bat we may readily believe that any one cognisant of the 
 food of the elk, might be likely to have suspected cryptogamic 
 vegetation to have entered more largely into the food of a still 
 more northern species of the deer tribe. And I can by no means 
 subscribe to another proposition by the same eminent naturalist, 
 that ' the kind of food which the existing species of elephant pre- 
 fers, will not enable us to determine, or even to offer a probable 
 conjecture concerning that of the extinct species.' The molar 
 teeth of the elephant possess, as we have seen, a highly compli- 
 cated and a very peculiar structure, and there are no other quad- 
 rupeds that derive so great a portion of their food from the woody 
 fibre of the branches of trees. Many mammals browse the leaves ; 
 
 * De artc poeticd, line 191. . f Principles of Geology. 
 
ELEPHANTS. 319 
 
 some small rodents gnaw the bark ; the elephants alone tear down 
 and crunch the branches, the vertical enamel-plates of their huge 
 grinders enabling them to pound the tough vegetable tissue, and 
 fit it for deglutition. No doubt the foliage is the most tempting, 
 as it is the most succulent part of the boughs devoured ; but the 
 relation of the complex molars to the comminution of the coarser 
 vegetable substance, is unmistakeable. Now, if we find in an ex- 
 tinct elephant the same peculiar principle of construction in the 
 molar teeth, but with augmented complexity, arising from a greater 
 number of triturating plates, and a greater profusion of the dense- 
 enamel, the inference is plain that the ligneous fibre must have en- 
 tered in a larger proportion into the food of such extinct species. 
 Forests of hardy trees and shrubs still grow upon the frozen soil 
 of Siberia, and skirt the banks of the Lena as far north as latitude 
 60. In Europe, arboreal vegetation extends ten degrees nearer 
 to the pole, and the dental organization of the mammoth proves 
 that it might have derived subsistence from the leafless branches 
 of trees, in regions covered during a great part of the year with 
 snow. We may, therefore, safely infer, from physiological 
 grounds, that the mammoth would have found the requisite means 
 of subsistence at the present day, and at all seasons, in the six- 
 tieth parallel of latitude ; and relying on the body of evidence ad- 
 duced by Mr. Lyell, in proof of increased severity in the climate 
 of the northern hemisphere, we may assume that the mammoth 
 habitually frequented still higher latitudes at the period of its ac- 
 tual existence. * It has been suggested,' observes the same philo- 
 sophic writer, ' that as in our time, the northern animals migrate, 
 so the Siberian elephant and rhinoceros may have wandered to- 
 wards the north in summer.' In making such excursions during 
 the heat of that brief season, the mammoths would be arrested in 
 their northern progress by a condition to which the rein-deer and 
 musk-ox are not subject, viz., the limits of arboreal vegetation, 
 which, however, as represented by the dominating shrubs of Po- 
 lar lands, would allow them to reach the seventieth degree of lati- 
 tude. But with this limitation, if the physiological inferences 
 regarding the food of the mammoth from the structure of its teeth 
 be adequately appreciated and connected with those which may 
 be legitimately deduced from the ascertained nature of its integu- 
 ment, the necessity of recurring to the forces of mighty rivers, 
 hurrying along a carcase through a devious course, extending 
 through an entire degree of latitude, in order to account for its 
 ultimate entombment in the ice, whilst so little decomposed as to 
 have retained the cuticle and hair, will disappear. And it can 
 no longer be regarded as impossible for herds of mammoths to 
 have obtained subsistence in a country like the Southern part of 
 Siberia where trees abound, notwithstanding it is covered during 
 
320 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 a great part of the year with snow, seeing that the leafless state of 
 such trees during even a long and severe Siberian winter, would 
 not necessarily unfit their branches for yielding sustenance to the 
 well-clothed mammoth." 
 
 Gigantic as the Siberian mammoth was, there is evidence to 
 prove that the species was developed to still greater proportions. 
 We have seen a mammoth's tusk that measured ten feet two 
 inches along the curve, and a comparison of the cast of the third 
 or middle rnetacarpal bone of one found in the brick earth at 
 Grays in Essex (which may be seen in the museum of the 
 English College of Surgeons) with the corresponding bone in the 
 skeleton of Chunee in the same noble collection, will give some 
 idea of the huge bulk of the extinct species. 
 
 The old bull mammoth was at least one-third larger in all his 
 dimensions than the largest existing elephant ; but no human eye 
 beheld him as he stalked silently along in his might over desolate 
 tracts where corn now grows, and the busy hum of civilization is 
 heard, 
 
 " Lord of his presence and the land besides." 
 
 DRAGONS. 
 
 " The Dragon of Wantley churches ate 
 (He us'd to come of a Sunday), 
 Whole congregations were to him 
 A dish of Salmagundi. 
 Parsons were his black-puddings, and 
 Fat aldermen his capons, 
 And his tit-bit the collection plate 
 Brimful of Birmingham halfpence. 
 The corporation worshipful 
 He valued not an ace : 
 
 But swallow'd the mayor, asleep in his chair, 
 And pick'd his teeth with the mace !" 
 
 HKIIOICK BALLAD. 
 
 GREAT as has been the progress made in the wide field of natu- 
 ral history within the last thirty years, in no direction has the ad- 
 vance been more decided or more satisfactory, than in that hitherto 
 obscure part of it which sepulchres the remains of animals that 
 lorded it over sea and land when this earth was young. 
 
 And although there is nothing among the earliest known or- 
 ganized forms fashioned by the hand which weigheth all things, 
 
DRAGONS. 321 
 
 that is not pregnant with proof of the same care and design and 
 harmony in the construction of the animal, as shines forth in the 
 being born into the world yesterday, let no one picture unto him. 
 or herself the youth of our planet as lovely to any but the grosser 
 natures then placed upon it to breathe an atmosphere which no 
 human lungs, nay, no lungs of any vertebrate of a high grade 
 could have long breathed as the breath of life. It was a place of 
 dragons : fit only for Saurians, Batrachians, and the like. 
 
 " Dragons ?" 
 
 Yes, dragons : not such as the small, living winged reptiles, 
 that skim from place to place in search of their insect food, relying 
 on their natural parachutes, constructed upon a somewhat safer 
 principle than that of poor Mr. Cocking, and rejoicing in the 
 generic name of Draco: but downright enormous dragons with 
 bellies as big as tuns and bigger ; creatures that would have cared 
 little for Bevis's sword " Morglaye," nor that of the Rhodian 
 Draconicide, nor St. George's " Askalon," no, nor the " nothing- 
 at-all" of More of More Hall, even if those worthies could have ex- 
 isted in the pestiferous region in which the said dragons revelled. 
 
 For in a slough where Calamites and other gigantic marsh- 
 plants, now extinct also, rooted themselves at ease, and reared 
 themselves into a damp jungle ; in a dreary bog, to which the 
 undrained Pontine marshes would have been the land of health, 
 was their lair. In such a nauseous quag, wholesome to them, 
 these monsters roared and wallowed : there they growled their 
 horrid loves, and there they made war upon each other the 
 strong devouring the weak, and the carnivorous "chawing-up" 
 the herbivorous in the midst of the wildest convulsions of a nascent 
 world. 
 
 While this was going on upon what then passed for dry land, 
 great sea-dragons rushed through the waves, or sported on the 
 surface of an ocean not unlike, as far as the waters were concerned, 
 our own, while flying dragons hovered, like Shakspeare's PFitches, 
 through the fog and the filthy air. These last ancient Saurian 
 forms have left no living representative upon the earth. 
 
 Just one hundred years ago, Scheuchzer published his "Physica 
 Sacra," and favoured the world with an engraving of the remains 
 of the " Homo diluvii testis." Those were, indeed, the days of 
 confident assertion, when the blind led the blind ; but it is difficult 
 to believe how a physician, for such was Scheuchzer in every 
 sense of the word, writing M.D. after his name, could mistake 
 the fossil bones of a salamander, or rather of a newt, for those of 
 a human being. "Homo diluvii testis," what a comprehensive 
 form of words Poussin's picture rises before us as we read them 
 and yet 'twas neither man, woman, nor child, but a squab 
 extinct reptile, that never witnessed the deluge at all. 
 
322 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 As the Zurich physician had figured the man, he gave his 
 draughtsman directions to portray man's eternal enemy, and the 
 accomplished artist has with some invention and in his best 
 manner represented the fiend. The usual diabolical head and 
 shoulders of the time are placed upon the body of a huge polypod 
 caterpillar. 
 
 Now, we do not feel disposed to go so far as the charitable 
 preacher, who, after exhausting his benevolent prayers for all 
 earthly beings, proposed to his congregation to pray for " the puir 
 deil." No, let justice be done; but this is more than summum 
 jus and beyond summa injuria. The doom was deserved ; but a 
 degradation of the old dragon below any thing vertebrate, to the 
 base condition of an annulose animal, to a vile grub, was not in 
 the sentence, and if the Prince of Darkness be a gentleman, 
 Scheuchzer has not treated him like one. 
 
 " There are more ways than one of looking at a subject," says 
 Mr. Serjeant Rebutter,* retained in defence of the author of 
 "Physica Sacra;" "there are, .1 say, more ways than one of 
 looking at a subject ; permit me to suggest that Beelzebub was 
 the lord of flies, and a caterpillar may be a butterfly. 
 
 "Then, sir, the moral is as bad as the design; but the truth is 
 that degradation was meant, and the notion is clumsily conveyed. 
 Scheuchzer seems to have shone in the one case as brightly as in 
 the other, and has treated his subjects very scurvily in both." 
 
 But to return to our mortal dragons. 
 
 It may be fairly asked by the uninitiated why the philosophers 
 of 1943 should not smile at the Cuviers, and at the Conybeares, 
 the Bucklands, and the Owens of 1843, as complacently as we of 
 the present day curl our lip at old Scheuchzer ? 
 
 Because his work was almost all guess : because he and those 
 of his time jumped to conclusions instead of painfully making 
 them out, and the authority of a learned name was sufficient with 
 the multitude to insure without further inquiry the reception of 
 any dictum, however absurd on the face of it, as Scheuchzer's 
 assertion, coupled with his imposing plate, undoubtedly was. No 
 man who had the knowledge of a diligent medical student in the 
 first half year of his anatomical studies could, if he had looked 
 attentively on that plate, much less on the fossil itself, have come 
 to the conclusion that it was an anthropolite. But Scheuchzer 
 was blinded by theory ; he would not apply what knowledge he 
 hu'l: he pronounced the humanity of the fossil to be without a 
 shadow of doubt ; he appealed to it as "a relic of the accursed 
 race which had been buried under the great waters ;" and he was 
 for a time implicitly believed. It was not till 1758 that Gesner, 
 apparently for the first time since Scheuchzer's announcement,- 
 threw doubt on his declaration, and stated his own belief that the 
 specimen was a fish (Silurus). 
 
DRAGONS. 323 
 
 Cuvier, before whose eye all false fossil pretensions vanished, 
 and every bone told its true story, came to Haarlem in 1811, and 
 begged permission to work on the stone with a view to the further 
 development of concealed parts. The figure of a salamander's skele- 
 ton was placed beside the fossil, and as the operation proceeded 
 Cuvier had the pleasure of seeing the chisel bring to light the 
 very bones which he had expected and which were portrayed 
 in the figure. 
 
 A finer specimen than Scheuchzer's- that which belonged to 
 Dr. Ammann of Zurich is in the British Museum, and this 
 gigantic fossil newt is now named J2ndrias Scheuchzeri. 
 
 Nothing in palaeontology is, at present, taken on trust. Every 
 statement and every opinion relating to the science undergoes the 
 strictest scrutiny by acute and accurate critics. 
 
 The bony framework of the old bygone-w r orld dragon is now. as 
 satisfactorily demonstrated as that of the human skeleton which 
 hangs beside the lecturer of the Royal Academy. 
 
 That is a striking scene. There stands the professor in all the 
 pride of intellect surrounded by the rising and risen pictorial talent 
 of the day. He has to illustrate a proposition in his discourse and 
 turns to a tall, shrouded figure behind him. The mantle is 
 dropped, and a naked, living man, in the bloom of health and 
 strength starts forward, throwing his muscular and well propor- 
 tioned body and limbs into the required attitude. Every being in 
 the room is alive and attentive, all is in suppressed activity but 
 the ghastly pendant form, and as the lecturer raises the dry bones 
 to explain the action of the living model, and they drop from his 
 warm hand like wooden cylinders, we almost fancy that the grim, 
 feature smiles as who should say 
 
 To this complexion, you must come at last. 
 
 Nor is the osseous system of the bygone dragons the only por- 
 tion of their history clearly unfolded. Their muscular develop- 
 ment, their organs of sense and of motion, their respiratory and 
 circulating systems, the colour and quality of their blood, their 
 digestive organs, their food, their integument, and, for the most 
 part, their habits, are now as well known as the organization arid 
 natural history of the little agile lizard, that basks on the sandy 
 heath in the neighbourhood of Pooie. 
 
 With all due respect for the learned who usually monopolize 
 that title, your geologist is the true antiquary. He deals with the 
 relics of a former world ; his statues and coins are the shells and 
 bones stored up, ki many cases before the creation of man ; and 
 with these he deciphers the annals of the earth. A thousand 
 years in the history of man and his institutions present an accu- 
 mulation of facts and doubts sufficient to daunt the stoutest Fellow 
 
324 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 of the Society of Antiquaries ; but what are a million of years in 
 the sight of the geologist ? 
 
 Before we enter upon the zoological, anatomical, and geological 
 history of these fossil reptiles, the only real dragons on a grand 
 scale, and which we shall endeavour to give in future chapters 
 in a popular manner, encumbered with as few learned terms as 
 possible, it will be necessary for us, in this, to feel our way for 
 awhile in the mists of antiquity, and point out to those who may 
 be interested in the inquiry, as well as the twilight of the time 
 will permit, some of the traditions relating to dragons handed 
 down to us. 
 
 If the infant Hercules, in his eighth month, as some say, but 
 according to the exquisite twenty-fourth Idyll of Theocritus, in 
 his tenth, strangled the two dragons sent by Juno for his destruc- 
 tion, Apollo, as soon as he was born, seized his bow and slew 
 with his arrows the Python which the same jealous goddess 
 she had, in truth, some cause for jealousy had sent to perse- 
 cute his mother. And here let us pause for a moment, to pick 
 up what information we can concerning this Python. The mon- 
 ster was sard to have sprung from the mud and stagnant water 
 that blotted the earth's surface after Deucalion's deluge, and 
 although another legend states that it was produced from the 
 earth, and sent upon the persecuting errand above alluded to, we 
 pray our readers to bear in mind the first of these traditions. 
 
 Old stories tell how Hercules 
 
 A dragon slew at Lerna, 
 With seven heads and fourteen eyes, 
 
 To see and well discern-a. 
 
 Now what was this Lerna? It was said to be the lake into 
 which the daughters of Danaus threw the heads of their slaughtered 
 bridegrooms : here, according to many, harboured the hydra ; 
 and although some held with Hesiod that this hydra was the 
 daughter of Echidna and Typhon, its origin was attributed by 
 most to the putrescent contents of the lake. The ballad above 
 quoted has been very sparing in the number of heads which it 
 bestows on the Lernsean hydra. Alca3us gave that renowned 
 dragon nine, Simonides fifty, and Diodorus one hundred. Sharp 
 work for Hercules with his arrows and club, and his assistant, 
 lolas, with his. actual cautery, if Diodorus be correct in his 
 numbers. 
 
 The Megalaunse of Pausanias, dragons or serpents thirty cubits 
 long, inhabiting India and Africa, were Pythons of the modern 
 nomenclature, probably, but none of your true crested dragons, 
 which appear to have been divisible into five classes : 
 
 1st. Those without either wings or legs, u sroao/. 
 
DRAGONS. 325 
 
 2d. Those with two feet and no wings. The Lernsean hydra 
 and the dragon that laid Rhodes waste, seem to have belonged to 
 this class. These wingless bipeds evidently took a step consi- 
 derably beyond the legless. 
 
 3d. Those with four feet of a still higher grade, and some- 
 what rare. 
 
 4th. Those with two feet and two wings, yet more exalted : and 
 
 5th. Those with two wings and four feet, which seem to have 
 soared to the highest pitch of dragon aristocracy. 
 
 These dragons were not all cruel destroyers and worthless 
 ravagers ; some of them were worthy creatures, taking pleasure 
 in doing good. Such were those two that licked the eyes of 
 Plutus at the temple of ^Esculapius with such happy effect that 
 he began to see ; but the dragons unfortunately died, and he had 
 a relapse from which he does not seem likely to recover in our 
 days. Others again were trustworthy, and suffered accordingly: 
 for the hydra was not the only dragon against which the adult 
 Hercules was pitted. There was that terrible sleepless one 
 sprung from Typhon, that kept watch _ 
 
 . J >*v 
 
 All amidst the garden fair 
 Of Hesperus and his daughters three 
 > . That sang around the golden tree 
 
 with its hundred heads and as many voices. We are quite aware 
 that some reformers have reduced the heads to one, and that on 
 the shoulders of the shepherd who kept the flocks, f***, oh, those 
 ambiguous Greek words of his good masters or mistresses. And 
 so because /*w signifies a sheep as well as an apple, we are to 
 lose our Hesperian dragon? No, by St. George! 
 
 Well, this honest dragon, if all tales be true, was basely mur- 
 dered by Hercules while doing his golden-apple-watching duty, 
 and the derni-god immediately proceeded to rob the orchard : the 
 poor dragon went to heaven, where he may be seen to this day 
 by those who know where to look for him, with the foot of the 
 murderer, who from his high connexions contrived to get there 
 too, upon the head or heads of his victim. 
 
 Notwithstanding these exceptions, however, your dragon, gene- 
 rally speaking, was a most cantankerous monster. 
 
 Of the crowned basilisk, the terror of alt other dragons, and 
 general destroyer of animal and vegetable life, which could slay 
 with its eye, and make the weapon that smote it the conductor of 
 its deadly poison to, tb,e withering arm that wielded it, whether in 
 its apod form or, octopod shape, we must only observe that it has 
 sunk into, a very harmless, but somewhat terrible-looking lizard. 
 A vyhole. chapter might be occupied with the marvellous stories 
 
326 Znnj.PfJICAL KRCREATIONS. 
 
 connected with this horror; but we have dragons more than 
 enough on our hands and spare the infliction. 
 
 According to Philostratus, your mountain dragon had in his 
 youth a moderate crest, which increased as he grew older, when 
 a beard of saffron colour was appended to his chin ; but the 
 dragons of the marsh h,ad no crests. They attained to an enor- 
 mous size, so that they easily killed elephants. ylian and others 
 make their length from thirty or forty to a hundred cubits. Posi- 
 donius described one a hundred and forty feet long that haunted 
 the neighbourhood of Damascus ; and another, whose lair was at 
 Macra, near Jordan, was an acre in length, and of such bulk that 
 two men on horseback, with the monster between them, could not 
 see each other. Then, was there not in the library of Constanti- 
 nople, according to Ignatius, the intestine of a dragon one hundred 
 and twenty feet long, on which were written the Iliad and Odyssey 
 in letters of gold ? 
 
 A subject so pregnant with the wild and wonderful was not 
 likely to be missed by the Scalds of the Gothic nations, nor by the 
 bards of the ancient British. Before the revival of letters these 
 were the historians of the time, and they interwove among their 
 facts the embellishments of dragons, giants, dwarfs, and the like, 
 fit machinery for arresting the attention of their audience. Firm 
 believers, for the most part, in enchantment and the existence of 
 those romantic beings, they delighted in astonishing their hearers 
 with recitals of combats with monsters such as Schiller's "Kampf 
 mit dem drachen," so admirably illustrated by Retzsch. 
 
 Sometimes a true story was veiled under the allegory. Thus, 
 the youth of the pirate king, Regner Ludbrog, who ruled in Den- 
 mark in the year 800, or thereabout, was marked by a gallant 
 exploit. The story ran that the lovely daughter of a Swedish 
 prince was intrusted by her father, during his absence on a distant 
 expedition, to the care of one of his strongest castles, and one of 
 his most tried officers. But 
 
 You may train the eagle 
 
 To stoop to your fist; 
 Or you may inveigle 
 
 The Phoenix of the east ; 
 The lioness ye may move her 
 
 To give o'er her prey ; 
 But you'll ne'er stop a lover, 
 
 He will find out the way 
 
 and her guardian fell in love with his beautiful ward, bearded the 
 prince, her father, from his almost impregnable fortress, and held 
 her against all comers. 
 
 The prince, after stamping and raving according to the most 
 approved forms of the eighth century, put forth a proclamation 
 
DRAGONS. i 327 
 
 promising his daughter in marriage to him who should conquer 
 the treacherous guard and deliver her from thraldom. Many were 
 the competitors for the prize, but the castle stood strong, and he 
 who held it was an experienced captain. All the adventurers 
 failed till Regner buckled on his armour. The fortress could not 
 resist .his fierce attack: he carried it by storm, delivered the lady, 
 and obtained her as the reward of his valour. 
 
 How did the Scalds relate this action ? The name of the traitor 
 was * Orme," and " Orm" in the Swedish language signifies a 
 serpent, so they by a slight poetical license represented the fair 
 daughter as detained from the agonised father by a ruthless 
 dragon which Regner slew and set her free. Regner himself, 
 who was a poet of celebrity, strengthened this' . version by 
 adopting it in his own Runic rhyme, recording the exploits of his 
 life. 
 
 Nor were the nations of the south less credulous upon the sub- 
 ject of dragons. So late as 1557 we find in the "Portraits de 
 quelques animaux, poissons, serpents, herbes et arbres, hommes et 
 femmes d'Arabie, Egypte, et Asie, observez par P. Belon du 
 Mans," under a terrific figure of a winged biped dragon super- 
 scribed "Portrait du Serpent aelle," the following quatrain, 
 
 Dangereuse est du Serpent la nature, 
 
 Qu'on volt voler pres le mont Sinai. 
 
 Qui ne seroit, de la voir, eshahy, 
 
 Si on a peur, voyant sa pourtraiture ? , 
 
 Gesner copies this likeness of the dragon which, it appears, was 
 also in the habit of flying out of Arabia into Egypt, and he adds 
 three other cuts of formidable dragons, one apod and wingless, 
 another apod and winged, and a third in a most rampant state, 
 winged, stinged, biped, and clawed. Aldrovandi (1640) has cuts 
 of many large flying dragons from Pare, Grevinus, and others, and 
 Jonston (1657) collects most of the portraits of basilisks and dra- 
 gons given by Aldrovandi and others up to his time. 
 
 It is hardly to be wondered at that monsters of which so much 
 had been said and sung, to say nothing of pictorial representation, 
 should have become desiderata for the cabinets of the curious, and 
 it seems to have been no bad speculation to manufacture speci- 
 mens for collectors. The skates, or rays, among the fishes, offered 
 admirable materials for this purpose, and a very little ingenuity in 
 cropping, drying, and distorting, soon transformed them into 
 most desirable dragons. Others were made up with much greater 
 care. Such were the biped seven-headed hydras figured by 
 Gesner, Aldrovandi, and Jonston, one of which was brought 
 from Turkey to Venice "Anno a Christo incarnate tricesimo supra 
 sesqui rnillesimum mense Januario," and afterwards given " Fran- 
 
328 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 corum regi." It was valued at six thousand ducats, and appears 
 to have been put together even more skilfully than the mermaid 
 that beguiled the good cockneys of their shillings some years 
 since. The museums of the Cokeltops of former days were 
 nothing without their dragon, and as the rage for collecting 
 increased, the market was supplied with some monster more 
 hideous than the last purchase, and well worthy of a place on the 
 standard of the Brother of the Sun and Moon. Of course every 
 collector's dragon was the real Simon Pure, and above all sus- 
 picion. Tradescant's museum (1656) boasted of "Two feathers 
 of the Phoenix tayle," and "A natural dragon above two inches 
 long." 
 
 In the early literature of our own country, especially in the 
 ancient ballad and broadside, dragons shone forth in all their glory, 
 -only to be eclipsed by the valour of our champions. Nobody 
 was anybody in the old chivalry days who had not slain his 
 dragon. 
 
 One of the oldest, if not the oldest of these poetical legends, 
 well known in Chaucer's time, was that which set forth the deeds 
 of "Syr Bevis of Hampton." The following is the description 
 of the dragon in that canticle : 
 
 Whan the dragon, that foule is, 
 Had a syght of Syr Bevis, 
 He cast up a loude cry, 
 As it had thundered in the sky ; 
 He turned his body towarde the sonj. r . 
 It was greater than any tonne ; 
 His scales were brighter than the glas, 
 And harder they were than any bras : 
 Betweene his shoulder and his tayle, 
 Was forty fote without fayle. 
 He waltred out of his den, 
 ' And Bevis pricked his stede then, 
 And to him a spere he thraste 
 That all to shyvers he it braste : 
 The dragon then gan Bevis assayle, 
 And srhote Syr Bevis with his tayle : 
 Then downe went horse and man, 
 And two rybbes of Bevis brused than. 
 
 The fight was long and fearful : 
 
 There was a well, so have I wynne, 
 And Bevis stumbled right therein. 
 Than was he glad without fayle, 
 And rested awhile for his avayle; 
 And dranke of that water his fyll ; 
 And then he lepte out with good wyll, 
 And with Morglaye his brande, 
 He assayled the dragon, I understande; 
 
DRAGONS. 329 
 
 On the dragon he smote so faste, 
 Where that he hit the scales braste : 
 The dragon then fainted sore, 
 And cast a galon and more 
 Out of his moulhe of venom strong. 
 And on Syr Bevis he it flong : 
 It was venomous y-wis. 
 
 This well gave Syr Bevis the victory ; for, whenever he was 
 hurt sore, he went to the well, washed, and came forth 
 
 as hole as any man, 
 
 Ever freshe as when he began ; ,'-.-, 
 
 The dragon saw it might not avayle 
 
 Beside the well to hold batayle ; 
 
 He thought he would with some wyle, 
 
 Out of that place Bevis begyle ; 
 
 He would have flowen then away, 
 
 But Bevis lept after with good Morglayo, 
 
 And hit him under the wynge, 
 
 As he was in his flyenge, 
 
 There he was lender without scale, 
 
 And Bevis thought to be his bale. 
 
 He smote after, as i you saye, 
 
 With his good sword Morglaye. 
 
 Up to the hiltes Morglaye yode 
 
 Through harte, liver, bone, and bloudo : 
 
 To the ground fell the dragon, 
 
 Great joye Sir Bevis begon. 
 
 Under the scales all on hight 
 
 He smote off his head forth right. 
 
 This, as the Bishop of Dromore remarks, is evidently the parent 
 of the dragon in the " Seven Champions," slain by St. George, 
 as any one may satisfy himself by comparing the two descriptions. 
 Nor is it uninteresting to turn from the dragon of the old 
 romance to that in Spenser's " Faery Queen," with its "wynges 
 like sayls, cruel-rending clawes, yron teeth, and breath of smother- 
 ing smoke and sulphur ;" and then to that most striking passage 
 in the "Pilgrim's Progress," descriptive of the battle between 
 Christian and Apollyon, who spake like a Dragon, and when at 
 last, says Bunyan in his dream, Christian gave him a deadly 
 thrust, spread forth his dragon's wings, and sped him away that 
 I saw him no more." 
 
 Sir Guy of Warwick had slain more than one dragon in his 
 time. Read his own account of the feats. 
 I went into the sOuldan's hoast, 
 
 Being thither on embassage sent, 
 And brought his head away with mee, 
 . I having slain him in his tent. 
 
 There was a dragon in that land 
 Most fiercely e melt me by the way 
 
 28* 
 
330 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 As hee a lyon did pursue, 
 
 Which 1 myself did alsoe slay. 
 
 When he came home he did greater actions ; for, in addition to 
 killing the dun cow, he demolished a monstrous bore what a 
 god-send a Sir Guy would be at the clubs ! and sent him to 
 Coventry : 
 
 But first, near Winsor, I did slayc 
 
 A bore of passing might and strength ; 
 Whose like in England never was 
 
 For hugeness both in bredth and length. 
 ' . ' : .'*V'*Vf, 
 
 Some of his bones in Warwicke yet, 
 
 Within the castle there doe lye: 
 One of his shield-bones to this day, 
 
 Hangs in the city of Coventrye. 
 
 Then again : 
 
 A dragon in Northumberland, 
 
 I also did in fight destroye, 
 W T hich did both man and beaste oppress 
 
 And all the countrye sore annoye. 
 
 This dragon is thus portrayed in the old metrical romance : 
 ' ,' A messenger came to the king, 
 Syr king, he said, lysten me now, 
 For bad tydinges I bring you, 
 In JNorthumberlande there is no man, 
 But that they be slayne every chone : 
 For there dare no man route, 
 By twenty mile rounde aboute, 
 For doubt of a fowle dragon 
 That sleathe men and beastes downe. 
 He is black as any cole 
 Rugged as a rough fole : 
 His body from the navill upwarde 
 No man may it pierce it is so harde ; 
 His neck is great as any summere ;* 
 He runneth as swift as any distrere;]- 
 Pawes he hath as a lyon ; 
 All that he touchetb, he sleath dead downe, 
 Great winges he hath to flight, 
 There is no man that bare him might. 
 There may no man fight him agayrie, 
 But that he sleath him certayne : 
 For a fowler beast then is he, 
 Vwis of none ever heard ye. 
 
 In the ballad of Guy and Amarant," Sir Guy alludes to his 
 former victories when he says to the thirsty giant, 
 
 * A sumpter horse. 
 
 | The horse ridden by a knight in the tournament. 
 
DRAGONS. 331 
 
 Goe drinke thy last, 
 
 Go pledge the dragon and the savage bore ; 
 Succeed the tragedyes that they have past. 
 But never think to drinke cold water more ; ",> . 
 l.'rink deepe to Death, and unto him carouse; 
 Did him receive thee in his earthen house. 
 
 Nor was this any vain boast : for Guy dealt this pagan 
 A blowc that brought him with a vengeance downe. 
 
 Then Guy &ett foot upon the monster's brest, 
 And Irom his shoulders did his head divide, 
 
 Which with a yawiiinge mouth did gape unblest, 
 fsoe dragon's jawes were ever scene so wide 
 
 To open and to shut, till life was spent, ' 
 
 Then Guy tooke keyes and to the castle went. )f ' 
 
 The giant's miserable captives are then delivered, and among 
 them some " tender ladyes," who 
 
 had noe other dyett every day, 
 
 Than flesh of human creatures for their food. 
 
 It was hard that one who thus went about doing good, should 
 have met with so ill a reward : all these brilliant actions could not 
 save poor Sir Guy from being crossed in love, nor from the tragic 
 end which the reader will find, if so disposed, recorded in his 
 "Legend." 
 
 St. George's dragon was eminently pestiferous : . \ 
 
 Against the Sarafcens so rude, 
 
 Fought he lull long and many a day ; 
 Where many gyants he subdu'd, 
 
 In honour of the Christian way ; 
 And after many adventures past, 
 To Egypt land he came at last. 
 
 Now, as the story plain doth tell, 
 . Within that country there did rest 
 ", A dreadfull dragon fierce and fell, 
 
 ; ' Whereby they were full sore opprest: 
 Who by his poisonous breath each day, j 
 Did many of the city slay. 
 
 j? - * * * . 
 
 The dragon's breath infects their blood, 
 
 That every day in heaps they dye'; 
 Among them such a plague is bred, 
 The living scarce could bury the dead. 
 
 The rest of this legend is so well known, that it would be need- 
 lessly occupying space to dwell further upon the subject of it. 
 We would only observe that the dragon's poisonous breath did 
 the principal mischief. 
 
332 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 But the time was at hand when the coup de grace was to be 
 given to these dragon tragedies by the comic verse, showing how 
 
 More of More Hall, with nothing at all, 
 He slew the dragon of Wantley. 
 
 This clever performance was, as has been well observed, to the 
 old metrical romaunts and ballads of chivalry what Don Quixote 
 was to prose narratives of the same kind ; and whether the witty 
 author made his dragon out of a bloated Yorkshire attorney who 
 had stripped three orphans of their inheritance, and had become 
 intolerable by his encroachments and rapacity till a neighbouring 
 gentleman took up the cause of the oppressed, went to law with 
 him, and broke his hard heart ; or some other passages in local 
 history are therein alluded to, no dragon could be brought before 
 the public thereafter without ridicule. 
 
 Thus much for the fabulous part of our subject, as far as it 
 regards terrestrial dragons. We constantly find allusions to the 
 malaria that surrounded these monsters and their localities. It 
 is not unworthy of remark, that the crass air which the real 
 extinct dragons breathed, would, as has been satisfactorily esta- 
 blished, have been fatal to man if he had then been upon the earth 
 which now holds their remains. That earth is one vast grave of 
 cities, of nations, of creations. 
 
 SEA DRAGONS. 
 
 ' " And there in many a stormy vale 
 
 The scald hath told his wondrous tale, 
 
 And many a Kunic column high 
 
 Had witnessed grim idolatry. 
 
 And thus had Harold in his youth 
 
 Learned many a Saga's rhyme uncouth 
 ' Of that sea-snake, tremendous curled, 
 
 Whose monstrous circle girds the world." 
 
 LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. 
 
 THE Hebrew words "Than," "Thanin," and " Thanim," 
 which occur so frequently in the sacred Scriptures, seem to have 
 puzzled the learned, for they sometimes appear as "whales," 
 sometimes as "serpents," " sea-monsters" and " dragons" in their 
 English dress. That some of the " Thanin" were crocodiles, 
 particularly the living idol which the Babylonians worshipped 
 
SEA DRAGONS. 333 
 
 according to " the Historic of Bel and the Dragon, which is the 
 fourteenth chapter of Daniel after the Latine," as the apocryphal 
 book is headed in " the Bible translated according to the Hebrew 
 and Greeke, and conferred with the best Translations in divers 
 languages : Imprinted at London by ROBERT BARKER, printer to 
 the King's most excellent Maiestie. 1615. Cum Privilegio" 
 seems generally agreed ; and in Egypt the crocodile was one 
 of the symbols of Typhon. 
 
 Your crocodile comes of a very ancient house ; for, to say 
 nothing of the evidence above hinted at, we think we have proof 
 to show* that the great Gangetic crocodile (not the Gavial) now 
 fast retiring before the inroads of steam, was in existence with 
 some of the extinct Saurians or Old-World dragons. What is all 
 the blood of all the Howards to such ancestry ? 
 
 The Edda, overflowing as it is with fiction, comprises no wilder 
 tale than that of the " Jormungandr," the ocean-snake or dragon 
 alluded to by the Wizard of the North in our motto. Thor, no bad 
 hand at battering serpents, as Fuseli has shown in one of his 
 most characteristic works, was, it appears, wont to solace himself 
 in his hours of relaxation with the contemplative man's recreation, 
 and, accordingly, he went a fishing for this monster. Having set 
 forth his rod in his best style, he baited his hook with a bull's 
 head, and like many other anglers who relate their adventures in 
 trying for a trout of extraordinary dimensions, very nearly caught 
 it : the said trout being a twelve or fifteen pounder, and although 
 his eyes have been greeted with the devices of half the fishing- 
 tackle shops in London, still coolly enjoying his ancient haunt 
 in the deep glassy eddy that curls by the side of one of the great 
 Thames weirs, where half the mighty river comes thundering 
 down. The snake, however, was not to be had, and is still re- 
 served for the exploits which he is to perform in the battle royal 
 between demons and divinities that is to precede the " Ragna- 
 rockr" or twilight of the gods. 
 
 It must have been a very tiny infant Jormungandr that Olaus 
 Magnus has depicted in the shape of a sea-serpent, not above two 
 or three hundred feet long, quietly intruding its head between the 
 main and mizen masts of some " great ammiral," and cracking 
 the crew like sugared almonds. To the same family must have 
 belonged the " Reversus" of the Indian sea, by means of which 
 the Cuba fishermen were said to fill their canoes with turtle, et 
 cetera. This serpent-like looking anguilliform entity is figured 
 with a kind of purse proceeding from his crown, and falling in a 
 descending curve over his very sharp pike of a nose upon the 
 head of a devoted seal, which, thus " bonnetted," and staring with 
 terror and astonishment, is held fast by the Reversus, as the Re- 
 tiarius of old held his antagonist; whilst a piteous-looking turtle 
 
334 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 is biding his turn to be taken in like manner. Not that it is im- 
 probable that the highly coloured description of some ancient 
 mariner of the alleged method of fishing with the adhesive Re- 
 mora, by putting it overboard tied to a long string, till it fastens 
 on some sleeping Testudinarian, which is thus drawn to the boat 
 and secured, may not have run away with the artist's imagina- 
 tion, and produced the grand cut which graces the page of Aldro- 
 vandi. 
 
 But these legends were of yesterday ; nor must we be tempted 
 by Pontoppidan or Egede, nor by any modern sea-serpent or dra- 
 gon, whether Scandinavian, Caledonian, or American, to forget 
 our petrified old friends, who lead us back to a period long before 
 the fair face of this blest Isle of beauty 
 
 " Arose from out the azure main ; 
 
 when the Trilobite adhered where the snail now creeps ; and 
 when the extinct sea-dragons rushed through living groves of En- 
 crinites and Pentacrinites, devouring fishes now only known in a 
 fossil state, each other, and occasionally perhaps a Pterodactyle, 
 in a universal round game of snap-dragon. 
 
 To arrest the credat, which most probably and pardonably will 
 rise to the lips of those to whom such a scene is now first laid 
 open, we must call in the aid of the Dean of Westminster. 
 
 "During these ages of reptiles," says the eloquent author of 
 the " Bridgewater Treatise," " neither the carnivorous nor the 
 lacustrine mammalia of the tertiary periods had begun to appear ; 
 but the most formidable occupants, both by land and water, were 
 crocodiles and lizards, of various forms and often of gigantic sta- 
 ture, fitted to endure the turbulence and continual convulsions of 
 the unquiet surface of our infant world." 
 
 " When we see," continues the Doctor, "that so large and im- 
 portant a range has been assigned to reptiles among the former 
 population of our planet, we cannot but regard with feelings of 
 new and unusual interest, the comparatively diminutive existing 
 orders of the most ancient family of quadrupeds, with the very 
 name of which we usually associate a sentiment of disgust. We 
 shall view them with less contempt when we learn, from the re- 
 cords of geological history, that there was a time when reptiles 
 not only constituted the chief tenants and most powerful posses- 
 sors of the earth, but extended their dominion also over the waters 
 of the seas, and that the annals of their history may be traced 
 back through thousands of years antecedent to that latest point in 
 the progressive stages of animal creation when the first parents of 
 the human race were called into existence." 
 
 This it must be granted is startling ; but it is not more startling 
 than true : hear Dr. Buckland again ; 
 
SKA DRAGONS. 335 
 
 " Persons to whom this subject may now be presented for the 
 first time, will receive with much surprise, perhaps almost with 
 incredulity, such statements as are here advanced. It must be 
 admitted that they at first seem much more like the dreams of 
 fiction and romance than the sober results of calm and deliberate 
 investigation ; but, to those who will examine the evidence of 
 facts upon which our conclusions rest, there can remain no more 
 reasonable doubt of the former existence of these strange and curi- 
 ous creatures, in the times and places we assign to them, than is 
 felt by the antiquary, who, finding the catacombs of Egypt stored 
 with the mummies of men and apes and crocodiles, concludes 
 them to be remains of mammalia and reptiles that have formed 
 part of an ancient population on the banks of the Nile.'- , 
 
 We will now venture to introduce to such of our readers as may 
 be strangers to them, those 
 
 " Dragons of the wave." 
 
 THE TRUE ENALIOSAURIANS OR ANCIENT SEA DRAGONS. 
 
 These marine lizards were cold-blooded vertebrate animals, 
 breathing atmospheric air zoophagous reptiles, in short, that 
 had suffered a sea-change, adapting them to an aquatic life. 
 
 The peculiar modifications of the Saurian type necessary for fit- 
 ting the animal for its watery career in other words, the special 
 enaliosaurian characteristics consist, as Professor Owen points 
 out in his valuable "Report on British Fossil Reptiles," in the 
 absence of the ball and socket articulations of the bodies of the 
 vertebras ; the position of the nostrils at or near the summit of the 
 head ; their separated haemapophyses ;* and the numerous short 
 and flat digital or finger-bones, which must have been enveloped 
 in a simple, undivided, tegurnentary sheath, forming in both the 
 fore and hind extremities, a fin resembling in external appearance 
 the paddle of the cetaceans or whales. 
 
 The anatomical structure of this highly interesting race, which 
 has no existing representative, is so modified as to result in two 
 generic types, to which Palaeontologists have severally assigned 
 the names of Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus. With the former 
 of these, which was first well defined, we will begin. 
 
 ICHTHYOSAURUS. 
 
 At the first glance, the skull of an Ichthyosaurus, with its elon- 
 gated snout and beak-like jaws armed with large destructive teeth, 
 reminds the observer of the cranium of the cetaceous dolphins. 
 
 * Professor Owen uses the term hxmapiophyses to designate the two infe- 
 rior laminae developed generally to protect the great bloodvessels on the under 
 surface of the centrum or body of the vertebrae. 
 
336 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 But two striking differences soon present themselves ; the first is 
 the reduced development of the cavity for the brain, which is so 
 ample in the comparatively highly-organized Cetacea, and the un- 
 anchylosed state of the cranial bones -both phenomena indicating 
 the lower or reptilian grade of the enaliosaurian : the second is 
 the large size of the eye and of the orbit in which it is set. The 
 external nostrils too, placed at a short distance in front of the 
 orbits, mark the Saurian character of the animal. 
 
 The teeth are not lodged in distinct sockets as they are in the 
 Plesiosaur; they are free at their bases, but inserted in a groove 
 between the outer and inner alveolar or socket-plates, and are 
 more crocodilian than lacertian in their conformation. 
 
 This prolonged and formidably armed head, which is known 
 to have reached six feet in length, permitted the opening of the 
 elastic jaws to an enormous extent, and was joined to a very short 
 neck, so short, indeed, that the animal in the flesh presented in 
 all probability no more appearance of it than a fish or a dolphin 
 exhibits; that is, none at all. The articulating surfaces of the 
 centrer of the vertebras were concave, and, as Professor Owen 
 observes, lead to the inference that they were originally connected 
 together by an elastic capsule filled with fluid, as are the vertebral 
 joints of the back-bone of fishes and of the Perennibranchiate or 
 most fishlike of the reptiles. 
 
 Trtie four paddles, two anterior and two posterior, with which 
 the fish-lizard worked its way through seas long since dried up, 
 were more like the fins of fishes than the swimming paws of the 
 whale-tribe; although in external appearance the resemblance to 
 the latter is strong ; for the typical number fiv.e, which reigns 
 throughout the mammalian hand and foot, however fettered and 
 invested by integument, is here exceeded, and the numerous little 
 phalanges, or joints, resemble the articulated rays of the breast 
 and belly-fins of fishes ; besides which many cartilaginous bifur- 
 cate rays added to the horny constituents, aided in supporting the 
 tegumentary expansion of the Ichthyosaur's paddle. 
 
 But there was yet another portion of progressive machinery 
 wanting to complete the outfit of this Preadamite. Professor 
 Owen, with his usual acuteness and soundness, came to the 
 following conclusions as to the structure of the tail : 
 
 "With these important modifications of the head, trunk, and 
 extremities in immediate relation to aquatic progression, the law 
 of the correlations of organic structure would lead us to anticipate 
 some corresponding modification of the tail. Accordingly we find 
 the vertebrae of this part to be much more numerous than in the 
 previously described enaliosaurian group.* There is no trace, 
 
 * The Plesiosauri. 
 
SEA DRAGONS. 337 
 
 however, of any confluence of the terminal caudal vertebrae, or of 
 any modification of their elongated neur and hsemapophysial 
 spines, such as form the characteristic structure supporting the 
 tail of the osseous fishes. The numerous caudal vertebra? gra- 
 dually decrease in size to the end of the tail, where they assume 
 a compressed form; and thus the tail, instead of being short and 
 broad as in fishes, is lengthened out as in the crocodiles." 
 
 Such being the structure and the inferences justly deduced 
 from it, we shall next see how accident may be improved by a 
 good observer. 
 
 The very frequent occurrence of the fracture of the tail about 
 one-fourth of the way from its distal extremity, had led Professor 
 Owen to suspect that' the accident was connected with the pre- 
 sence of a tegumentary caudal fin ; and the laterally compressed 
 form of the terminal vertebra? since ascertained by Sir Philip Grey 
 Egerton, afforded additional demonstration both of its existence 
 and direction. The only evidence in fact, as Professor Owen 
 observes, which the skeleton of the cetaceous mammal gives of 
 the powerful horizontal caudal-fin which characterizes the recent 
 animal, is the depressed or horizontally flattened form of the 
 terminal vertebra?. He therefore infers, from the corresponding 
 vertebra? of the Ichthyosaur being flattened in the vertical direc- 
 tion, or from side to side, that it possessed a caudal tegumentary 
 fin expanded in the vertical direction : and he recommends a nar- 
 row examination of the lias matrix in which the tail may have 
 been imbedded, for the traces of carbonaceous discoloration, or of 
 an impression of this fin, from which some idea might be formed 
 of its shape and size. 
 
 The occurrence of such a desired impression is not so improba- 
 ble as those unacquainted with the subject may suppose. Dr. 
 Buckland described the tegument of the abdomen, and Professor 
 Owen that of the fin, from specimens found at Barrow-on-Soar. 
 
 "Thus," says Professor Owen, "in the construction of the 
 principal natatory organ of the Ichthyosaurus we may trace, as 
 in other parts of its structure, a combination of mammalian, saurian, 
 and ichthyic peculiarities. In its great length and its gradual 
 diminution we perceive the saurian character; its tegumentary 
 nature, unsupported by osseous rays, bespeaks its affinity to the 
 cetaceans ; while its vertical position brings it close to the peculiar 
 condition of the natatory organ in the fish. 
 
 "But," continues the professor, "it may be argued, the hori- 
 zontality of the caudal fin of the Cetacea is essentially connected 
 with their exigencies as breathers of the atmospheric air: without 
 this means of displacing a mass of water in a vertical direction, 
 the head of the whale could not have been brought with the 
 required rapidity and facility to the surface to inspire : and as the 
 20 
 
338 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 ichthyosaurus was also an air-breather, a like position of the 
 caudal fin might be considered to be equally essential to its 
 existence in the water." 
 
 To this objection, the professor replies that the Ichthyosaurus 
 not being- warm-blooded, would not need to bring its head to the 
 surface so frequently, or perhaps so rapidly, as the cetacean ; and, 
 moreover, a compensation for the absence of a horizontal terminal 
 fin is provided in the presence of the two posterior paddles, which 
 are wholly deficient in the Cetacea. 
 
 The professor's conception of the appearance of this bygone 
 form, " in his habit as he lived," is. that the animal must* have 
 presented the general external figure of a huge predatory abdo- 
 minal fish, with a longer tail and smaller caudal fin than usual ; 
 scaleless, moreover, and covered with a smooth or finely-wrinkled 
 skin analogous to that of the Cetacea. But a closer inspection of 
 the enduring parts of these singular inhabitants of the ancient 
 deep, shows, he justly observes, that under their fishlike exterior 
 was concealed an organization which, in the main, is a modifica- 
 tion of the saurian type. 
 
 A word or two now as to the enormous and curiously- 
 constructed eye of the Ichthyosaur, which must have possessed 
 great visual powers, always on the watch to minister to its 
 predaceous habits and to preserve it from the attacks of the larger 
 individuals of its own kind ; for that the Ichthyosaurs preyed on 
 each other as well as on the Plesiosaurs and fishes, is as clearly 
 proved as that the pike will dine on the pickerel. 
 
 This eye was both a microscope and a telescope, modified in its 
 action by an apparatus similar to that which exists among the 
 feathered tribes, and is most highly developed in the birds of prey. 
 Like the eagles and the owls, the Ichthyosaurus was furnished 
 with a bony sclerotic ring, or circle of osseous plates, arranged 
 around the aperture where once the pupil glittered, and which 
 with its attendant muscles altered the convexity of the cornea, so 
 as to adjust the scope according to the necessities of the animal. 
 Was a near object to be examined ? this machinery by the 
 retraction of the plates protruded the eye, which thus became 
 microscopic. Was distant vision required ? the plates resumed 
 their ordinary position and a telescopic range was secured. Here, 
 in short, was an instrument to light the Ichthyosaur by day or 
 by night, near the surface and in the deep, armed against external 
 injury in the first-named locality, and against the pressure to 
 which it must have been frequently subjected in the second. 
 
 As far as the known specimens can lead us to conclusions with 
 regard to size, some of the species of the Ichthyosaurus, when full 
 grown, must have exceeded thirty feet in length. The great 
 relative proportion of the eye may be imagined from Dr. Buck- 
 
SEA DRAGONS. 339 
 
 land's declaration that it was sometimes larger than a man's 
 head. 
 
 Ten species of these extinct Sea-dragons are enumerated by 
 Professor Owen, four described by the Rev. W. Conybeare, one 
 by Mr. Kcenig, and five by himself. 
 
 PLESIOSAURUS. 
 
 With much of similarity in general form to the Ichthyosaur, 
 the ancient Plesiosaur, its contemporary, presents considerable 
 differences even in external appearance. The first and most 
 striking is the excessive length of the neck and the comparative 
 smallness of the head. Cuvier saj^s of this inhabitant of the ancient 
 world of waters, that it is the most heteroclite of forms, and one 
 which seems best to deserve the name of monster. 
 
 " To the head of the lizard," says Dr. Buckland, " it united 
 the teeth of the crocodile ; a neck of enormous length, resembling 
 the body of a serpent ; a trunk and tail having the proportions of 
 an ordinary quadruped ; the ribs of a chamelion : and the paddles 
 of a whale." 
 
 To the Rev. W. Conybeare and Sir Henry de la Beche we are 
 indebted for the notice of this most extraordinary addition to the 
 ancient Fauna, the first specimens of which appear to have been 
 discovered about twenty years ago. 
 
 To form the head of a Plesiosaur we must combine the cha- 
 racters observable in the Ichthyosaur, the crocodile, and the 
 lizard : but to that of the last-named saurian, the head of the 
 Plesiosaur bears the nearest approximation. 
 
 "It agrees," says Dr. Buckland, "with the Ichthyosaurus in 
 the smallness of its nostrils, and also in their position near 
 the anterior angle of the eye ; it resembles the crocodile in having 
 the teeth lodged in distinct alveoli ; but differs from both in the 
 form and shortness of its head, many characters of which approach 
 closeJy to the Iguana." 
 
 The teeth are comparatively slender and sharp-pointed. 
 
 The swan-like neck, which is almost as long as the body and 
 tail together, consists of from twenty to forty vertebrae. The tail 
 is relatively much shorter than that of the Ichthyosaur, and there is, 
 Professor Owen observes, an obvious reason for the curtailment 
 of this part of the animal ; because the length and mobility 
 of the neck of the Plesiosaur renders a special development of 
 the tail, for producing the lateral movements of the head, unne- 
 cessary. 
 
 In the anterior or pectoral extremities the digits never exceed 
 the metacarpal bones, which are five in number. The first, or 
 radial digit, corresponding with the thumb, has generally three ; 
 
340 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 the second six or seven, the third eight or nine, the fourth eight, 
 and the fifth six phalanges. Professor Owen, who gives these 
 numbers, adds that there can be little doubt that they were 
 enveloped, like the paddles of Cetacea, in a common sheath of 
 integument, and that, from the natural curve of the digits, the 
 paddles of the Plesiosaur must have had a more elegant and 
 tapering form, and have possessed greater flexibility than those of 
 the modern whales. 
 
 The posterior or pelvic extremities almost always equal, and 
 sometimes, as in Plesiosaurus macro cephalus, exceed the anterior 
 extremity, but they closely correspond with them in their radiated 
 appendages. The five metatarsals and their digits, Professor 
 Owen observes, correspond in structure with those of the fore- 
 paddle. The first or tibial metatarsal, he tells us, supports three 
 phalanges, the second five, the third eight or nine, the fourth 
 eight, and the fifth six phalanges. The structure of the bones of 
 this extremity indicates, in Professor Owen's opinion, that the 
 hind paddle had a freer inflection forwards or upon the tibia, than 
 in the opposite direction ; and he thinks that it may have given a 
 compound motion to the propelling stroke of the paddle, similar 
 to that which in skilful rowing is termed "feathering the oar." 
 He further remarks, that the articular extremities of the phalanges 
 of both the fore and hind paddles are sub-concave, with an 
 irregular surface, indicating that they were joined by ligaments 
 or fibro-cartilage, and not by a synovial membrane. 
 
 But what were the habits of this chimsera-like creature ? The 
 best answer will be given by the Rev. W. Conybeare, who thus 
 infers those of Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus : 
 
 " That it was aquatic is evident from the form of its paddles ; 
 that it was marine is almost equally so, from the remains with 
 which it is universally associated ; that it may have occasionally 
 visited the shore, the resemblance of its extremities to those of 
 the turtle may lead us to conjecture ; its motion, however, must 
 have been very awkward on land; its long neck must have 
 impeded its progress through the water ; presenting a striking 
 contrast to the organization which so admirably fits the Ichthyo- 
 saurus to cut through the waves. May it not therefore be con- 
 cluded (since, in addition to these circumstances, its respiration 
 must have required frequent access of air), that it swam upon or 
 near the surface, arching back its long neck like a swan, and 
 occasionally darting it down at the fish which happened to float 
 within its reach. It may, perhaps, have lurked in shoal water 
 along the Coast, concealed among the seaweed, and raising its 
 nostrils to^a level with the surface from a considerable depth, 
 may have found a secure retreat from the assault of dangerous 
 enemies; while the length and flexibility of its neck may have 
 
SEA DRAGONS. 341 
 
 compensated for the want of strength in its jaws, and its incapa- 
 city for swift motion through the water, by the suddenness and 
 agility of the attack which they enabled it to make on every 
 animal fitted for its prey, which came within its reach.'* 
 
 Professor Buckland is of opinion that the tail, being compara- 
 tively short, could not have been used like the tail of fishes, as an 
 instrument of rapid impulsion in a forward direction ; but was 
 probably employed more as a rudder to steer the animal when 
 swimming on the surface, or to elevate or depress it in ascending 
 and descending through the water. The same consequence as to 
 slowness of motion, would, he thinks also, follow from the elonga- 
 tion of the neck to so great a distance in front of the anterior 
 paddles. The total number of vertebra? in the entire column was, 
 he observes, about ninety. From all these circumstances, Dr. 
 Buckland infers that this animal, although of considerable size, 
 had to seek its food as well as its safety, chiefly by means of arti- 
 fice and concealment. 
 
 No less than sixteen species are enumerated by Professor Owen, 
 one described by Cuvier, two by Conybeare, and the rest by 
 himself. 
 
 The period of existence of these enaliosaurians, extended 
 through the whole of the oolitic range, including the lias and 
 oolite of the Wealden and chalk formations. The chalk marl 
 appears to be the most recent deposit where they have been 
 found : they occur also in the gault. 
 
 Their name was legion. To say nothing of the bones which 
 testify to their numbers, the petrified remains of their digested 
 food put the question of their numerical force out of doubt. 
 
 "On the shore at Lyme Regis," says Dr. Buckland, "these 
 coprolites are so abundant, that they lie like potatoes scattered in 
 the ground ; still more common are they in the lias of the Estuary 
 of the Severn, where they are similarly disposed in strata of many 
 miles in extent, and mixed so abundantly with teeth and rolled 
 fragments of the bones of reptiles and fishes, as to show that this 
 region, having been the bottom of an ancient sea, was for a long 
 period the receptacle of the bones and foecal remains of its inha- 
 bitants. The occurrence of coprolites is not, however, peculiar 
 to the places just mentioned ; they are found in greater or less 
 abundance throughout the lias of England; they occur also in 
 strata, of all ages, that contain the remains of carnivorous reptiles, 
 and have been recognised in many and distant climates both of 
 Europe and America." 
 
 The sea in which these extinct monsters gambolled, must have 
 
 been not unlike that of the present day, especially in tropical 
 
 climates. That the medium was capable of transmitting light in 
 
 the same manner that sea-water now does, might be safely 
 
 29* 
 
342 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS 
 
 inferred from such parts of the ocular apparatus of the fossil rep- 
 tiles and fish as are still preserved to us, although the soft parts 
 of the eye are, of course, absent. But in the Trilobites, those 
 most ancient and extinct crustaceans which inhabited the bottom 
 of the old seas, we have the eye itself petrified ; and this, when 
 compared with the similar compound eyes of the Scrolls and 
 Limulus, or King Crab, which now exist, proves, as Dr. Buckland 
 has pointed out, that the visual organs of both were fashioned 
 for media essentially the same, and entirely dispels the dream of 
 those geologists who believed that a turbid chaotic fluid holding 
 in solution the precipitates from which the earth's crust was de- 
 posited, then prevailed. 
 
 In the same sea wherein the Ichthyosaur and Plesiosaur took 
 their pastime, swam shoals of the finny tribe, now extinct and 
 potted in their ancient mud, among them the great Sauroid 
 fishes, which must have almost disputed the mastery with some 
 of the younger branches of the enaliosaurian families. Star- 
 fishes, or Ophiuri, not unlike those which at present occur 
 on our shores ; crinoideans, or stone-lilies as the collectors 
 term them; and extinct crustaceans, organized, however, in 
 the same manner as existing species, were present. Belemnites 
 and Cornua Jlmmonis, which have left no living representative, 
 and Orthocerata, with numerous other testaceous mollusca, were 
 there, to say nothing of turtles ; so that the ancient and respect- 
 able enaliosaurian corporation must have fared sumptuously ; and, 
 certainly the Ichthyosaurian branch of it had a more than alder- 
 manic development of the mouth-and-stomach power. 
 
 The enaliosaurians, Professor Owen observes, are immediately 
 connected with the crocodilian reptiles by the extinct and gigantic 
 Pliosaurus, which is more closely allied to the true Saurians, and 
 whose remains occur in the Kimmeridge and Oxford clays. The 
 teeth are remarkable for their thickness and strength, and the 
 cervical vertebrae for their shortness, the enormous jaws having 
 been wielded by a neck, if neck it may be called, as short and 
 strong as that of the whales. 
 
 But there were other sea-dragons besides the enaliosaurians, 
 framed, however, upon a somewhat different principle, and accord- 
 ing to the Lacertian type, such as the Mosasaurus or great animal 
 of Maastricht. 
 
 This marine giant appears to have been most nearly allied to 
 the Monitory lizards, as they are called, which now frequent the 
 river-sides and marshy places in warm countries, and have had 
 the credit, not very deservedly, we believe, of warning the 
 traveller, by a peculiar whistling sound, of the approach of cro- 
 codiles and their congeners. Five feet is a great length for an 
 existing Monitor to attain ; but the Mosasaur must have reached 
 
SEA DRAGONS. 343 
 
 twenty-five feet. The noble head in the Paris Museum, of 
 which we have casts in this country, is four feet long ; that of a 
 large existing Monitor does not measure more than five inches in 
 length. 
 
 The fossil was found in the calcareous freestone, near Maas- 
 tricht, the most recent deposit of the cretaceous formation, in 
 company with Ammonites, Belemnites,and other organic remains 
 of the chalk formation in 1780, and for some time adorned that 
 city. But it was a very sphinx's riddle to be learned. Some 
 thought it was an enormous crocodile ; others would have it to be 
 very like a whale ; but at last Camper suggested, and Cuvier 
 afterwards confirmed its true zoological relations. 
 
 Fancy a marine Monitor of the length and bulk of a Grampus, 
 with four paddles instead of legs, and a high and deep oar-like 
 tail formed for propelling the animal through the wave, instead of 
 the long and slender tail of the living species and you have some 
 notion of the Mosasaur. 
 
 Its jaws and teeth were tremendous. Nothing comparable to 
 them can be imagined, excepting the ancient caricature, which 
 may be known to some of our readers, representing a learned 
 gentleman in his robes, not quite at his ease, between a pair of 
 Saurian jaws, worthy of Munchausen's creation, and underwritten, 
 
 A LAWYER AND A SAWYER. 
 
 The rush of the Mosasaur through the water must have been 
 most rapid ; and its whole structure bespeaks an agent for keep- 
 ing down the larger races of ancient fishes, more active and de- 
 structive than the great Ichthyosaur itself. 
 
 The Paris specimen belonged to the collection of Hoffman, 
 from whom it was said to have been taken by the chapter of 
 Maastricht, by virtue of some droits vested in them, and was 
 given up by the Dean to the French army when it invested the 
 city. Fortunate was the inhabitant whose dwelling lay near the 
 place where the head of the Mosasaur was deposited : for the 
 story goes, that to prevent the possibility of injury to a prize, 
 which the besiegers were determined to possess, the French 
 cannoniers were enjoined not to point their artillery towards 
 that part of the city which held the remains of this grand Sea- 
 Dragon. 
 
344 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 ANCIENT AMPHIBIOUS AND TERRESTRIAL 
 DRAGONS, 
 
 " Through many a dark and dreary vale 
 They passed, and many a region dolorous, 
 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death." 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 IF, with the eyes of the imagination aided by the lights afforded 
 by the strata and the ancient inhabitants buried therein, we look 
 back upon our earth when the forms of crocodilian reptiles first 
 came upon it, we may picture to ourselves an oozy, spongy, 
 reeky land, watered with wild rivers, and largely overspread by a 
 vast expanse of lakes, on whose dreary, slimy banks gigantic 
 crocodiles reposed amid enormous extinct bog-plants, or floated 
 log-like in the fenny sunshine on their waters, while the silence 
 of the desolate scene was broken by the clank of their monstrous 
 jaws, as they ever and anon closed upon the bygone generations 
 of fishes, or by the growlings and explosions of the distant 
 volcano. 
 
 With, perhaps, one exception the crocodile of the Ganges 
 namely none of the ancient crocodilians exhibit specific identity 
 with the alligators, crocodiles, and gavials now existing. And 
 while they differ from the present races, the modifications of their 
 osseous structure in which they so vary, as well as from each 
 other, are much greater than any of those by which the skeletons 
 of the existing species differ among themselves. 
 
 "Not only," says Professor Owen, "do the form and propor- 
 tions of the peripheral parts, as of the jaws, the teeth, and the 
 locomotive extremities vary, but the spine or central axis of the 
 skeleton, offers modifications of the articular surfaces of the com- 
 ponent vertebrae, which are quite unknown in the alligators, 
 crocodiles, and gavials of the present epoch. In these existing 
 species the anterior surface of the vertebral centrum is concave, 
 the posterior convex, except in the atlas and sacrum. But besides 
 this mode of junction, Cuvier has recognised in the crocodilians 
 of the secondary formations two other types of vertebral struc- 
 ture : in one of these the positions of the ball and socket are 
 
ANCIENT DRAGONS. 345 
 
 reversed; in the other, and more common modification, both the 
 articular surfaces of the vertebra are flat or slightly concave. 
 Remains of extinct crocodilians, exhibiting all the three systems 
 of vertebral articulation, occur in English formations." 
 
 The professor then divides the extinct British species, which, 
 generally, agree with the existing crocodilians, into two sections. 
 
 First, those with concavo-convex vertebrae : secondly, those 
 with biconcave vertebrae. 
 
 In the first of these divisions he notices and describes a single 
 species Crocodilus Spenceri. 
 
 In the second he arranges and gives a description of the follow- 
 ing: Suchosaurus cultridens, Goniopholis crassidens, Teleosaurus 
 Chapmanni, Teleosaurus cadomensis, Teleosaurus asthenodeirus, 
 Steneosaurus rostro-minor, Poikilopleuron BucMandi, Strepto- 
 spondylus Cuvieri, Cetiosaurus brevis, Cetiosaurus brachyurus, 
 Cetiosaurus medius, and Cetiosaurus longus. 
 
 The destructive nature of these ancient inhabitants of the 
 swamps which once occupied the place of the fair fields and cities 
 of these islands, may be imagined from the multitude of weapons 
 that armed their jaws. 
 
 It has been calculated that Teleosaurus cadomensis had one 
 hundred and eighty, and Teleosaurus Chapmanni at least one 
 hundred and forty teeth. The gavial of these degenerate days 
 cannot boast of more than one hundred and twelve. 
 
 But terribly voracious as these and other crocodilians (the 
 enormous Sewalik crocodilian for example*) must have been, 
 their efforts in keeping down the animals of the ancient 
 Fauna of Britain could only have been feeble compared with 
 those leviathans the Cetiosauri, some of which, according to 
 Professor Owen's well-grounded statement, must have rivalled 
 the modern great whales in bulk, and which he holds with 
 reason, we think were strictly aquatic, and most probably 
 marine in their habits. The larger alligator of the Ganges has 
 been known in our own times to descend beyond the brackish 
 water of the delta into the sea, though now frightened from its 
 propriety by the steam-paddles that constantly vex that sacred 
 river. 
 
 The evidence from which Professor Owen comes to this con- 
 clusion rests on the sub-biconcave structure of the vertebrae, and 
 the coarse cancellous tissue of the long bones, which show no trace 
 of a medullary cavity. In the great expanse of the coracoid and 
 pubic bones, he tells us, as compared with the Teleosaurs and 
 crocodiles, the gigantic saurians in question manifested their close 
 
 * See the work of Dr. Falconer and Major Cautley above noticed, p. 316, 
 note. 
 
346 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 affinity to the true Enaliosaurs which formed the principal sub- 
 ject of our last chapter ; whilst their essential adherence to the 
 crocodilian type is marked by the long bones of the extremities, 
 especially the metatarsals, and above all, by the toes being termi- 
 nated by strong claws. 
 
 The main organ of swimming is, the professor adds, shown, by 
 the strength and texture and vertical compression of the posterior 
 caudal vertebras, to have been a broad vertical tail ; and the 
 webbed feet, probably, were used only partially, in regulating the 
 course of the swimmer, as in the puny Jimblyrhynchus of the 
 Gallapagos Islands. 
 
 But what is an Jlmblyrhynchus ? 
 
 There are terrestrial and marine Jlmblyrhynchi ; but it is the 
 aquatic species rfmblyrhynchus cristatus, to which the professor 
 alludes. Here is its portrait drawn by the master hand of Dar- 
 win : 
 
 " It lives exclusively on the rocky sea-beaches, and is never 
 found, at least I never saw one, even ten yards inshore. It is a 
 hideous-looking creature, of a dirty black colour, stupid and 
 sluggish in its movements. The usual length of a full-grown one 
 is about a yard, but there are some even four feet long : I have 
 seen a large one which weighed twenty pounds. On the island 
 of Albemarle, they seem to grow to a greater size than on any 
 other. These lizards were occasionally seen some hundred yards 
 from the shore, swimming about; and Captain Colnett in his 
 voyage says, * they go out to sea in shoals to fish.' With respect 
 to the object, I believe he is mistaken ; but the fact stated on 
 such good authority cannot be doubted. When in the water the 
 animal swims with perfect ease and quickness, by a serpentine 
 movement of its body and flattened tail, the legs, during this 
 time, being motionless and closely collapsed on its sides. A sea- 
 man on board sank one with a heavyweight attached to it, think- 
 ing thus to kill it directly ; but when, an hour afterwards, he drew 
 up the line, the lizard was quite active. Their limbs and strong 
 claws are admirably adapted for crawling over the rugged and fis- 
 sured masses of lava which everywhere form the coast. In such 
 situations, a group of six or seven of these hideous reptiles may 
 oftentimes be seen on the black rocks, a few feet above the surf, 
 basking in the sun with outstretched legs." 
 
 This extraordinary animal, notwithstanding its digusting ap- 
 pearance, seems to be very harmless. Mr. Darwin found the sto- 
 machs of all which he opened distended with minced sea-weed, a 
 food for the procuring and comminution of which its teeth, unlike 
 those of the crocodilians, are well adapted ; nor does he recollect 
 having observed this sea-weed in any quantity on the tidal rocks. 
 He states his belief to be that it grows at the bottom at some little 
 
ANCIENT DRAGONS. 347 
 
 distance from the coast, and he observes that, if such be the case, 
 the object of the animals in going out to sea is explained. 
 
 Another peculiarity in the habits of this creature is thus noticed 
 by the same acute and accurate observer : 
 
 "The nature of this lizard's food, as well as the structure of its 
 tail, and the certain fact of its having been seen voluntarily swim- 
 ming out at sea, absolutely prove its aquatic habits ; yet there is 
 in this respect one strange anomaly ; namely, that when frightened 
 it will not enter the water. From this cause it is easy to drive 
 the lizards down to any little point overhanging the sea, where 
 they will sooner allow a person to catch hold of their tail than 
 jump into the water. They do not seem to have any notion of 
 biting ; but when much frightened they squirt a drop of fluid from 
 each nostril. One day I carried one to a deep pool left by the re- 
 tiring tide, and threw it in several times as far as I was able. It 
 invariably returned in a direct line to the spot where I stood. It 
 swam near the bottom, with a very graceful and rapid movement, 
 and occasionally aided itself over the uneven ground with its feet. 
 As soon as it arrives near the margin, but still being underwater, 
 it either tried to conceal itself in the tufts of sea-weed, or it en- 
 tered some crevice. As soon as it thought the danger was past, 
 it crawled out on the dry rock, and shuffled away as quickly as 
 it could." 
 
 Mr. Darwin goes on to state that he several times caught this 
 same lizard, by driving it down to a point, and though possessed 
 of such perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothing would in- 
 duce it to enter the water: as often as he threw it in, it returned 
 in the manner above described by him. He thinks that this sin- 
 gular piece of apparent stupidity may, perhaps, be accounted for, 
 by the circumstance that this reptile has no enemy whatever on 
 shore, whereas at sea it must often fall a prey to sharks. 
 
 " Hence," adds Mr. Darwin, " probably urged by a fixed and 
 hereditary instinct that the shore is its place of safety, whatever 
 the emergency may be, it there takes refuge."* 
 
 And this innocuous herbivorous lizard is the only known exam- 
 ple of a saurian of decided marine habits at the present period. 
 Strong is the contrast between the lacertian inhabitants of the 
 world of to-day and those which peopled it in the age of reptiles 
 to which we must now return, and inquire into the state of things 
 when the crocodilian dynasty prevailed. 
 
 Remains of the extinct crocodilians may be traced from the 
 
 * Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the vari- 
 ous countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle, under the command of Captain Fitz- 
 Roy, R.N. from 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin, Esq., M.A. F.R.S., Se- 
 cretary to the Geological Society, a work rich in vivid and accurate descrip- 
 tions of nature. 
 
348 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 early tertiary formations (the Eocene period of Lyell) down to the 
 oolite and lias, in both of which strata they occur; and it is 
 worthy of observation that the deviations from the existing genera 
 and species increase in degree, as the beds containing those ex- 
 tinct species indicate periods more remote from the present time, 
 as Professor Owen has pointed out. 
 
 Dr. Buckland, in a few eloquent words, has summed up the 
 appointed task of these ancient agents in the police of nature. 
 After observing that their occurrence in a fossil state is of high 
 importance, inasmuch as it shows that whilst many forms of ver- 
 tebrated animals have one after another been created and become 
 extinct, during the successive geological changes of the surface of 
 our globe, there are others which have survived all these changes 
 and revolutions, and still retain the leading features under which 
 they first appeared in our planet, he thus proceeds : 
 
 " If we look to the state of the earth, and the character of its 
 population at the time when crocodilian forms were first added to 
 the number of its inhabitants, we find that the highest class of 
 living beings were reptiles, and that the only other vertebrated 
 animals which then existed were fishes ; the carnivorous reptiles 
 at this early period must therefore have fed chiefly upon them, 
 and if, in the existing family of crocodiles, there be any that are 
 in a peculiar degree piscivorous, their form is that we should 
 expect to find in those most ancient fossil genera, whose chief 
 supply of food must have been derived from fishes. In the living 
 sub-genera of the crocodilian family, we se the elongated and 
 slender beak of the gavial of the Ganges, constructed to feed on 
 fishes ; whilst the shorter and stronger snout of the broad-nosed 
 crocodiles and alligators give -them the power of seizing and de- 
 vouring quadrupeds that come to the banks of rivers in hot coun- 
 tries to drink. As there were scarcely any mammalia during the 
 secondary periods, whilst the waters were abundantly stored with 
 fishes, we might a priori expect that if any crocodilian forms had 
 then existed, they would most nearly have resembled the modern 
 gavial. And we have hitherto found only three genera which 
 have elongated beaks, in formations anterior to and including the 
 chalk ; whilst true crocodiles, with a short and broad snout like 
 that of the cayman and the alligator, appear for the first time in 
 strata of the tertiary periods, in which the remains of mammalia 
 abound. During these grand periods of lacustrine mammalia, in 
 which but few of the present genera of terrestrial carnivora had 
 been called into existence, the important office of controlling the 
 excessive increase of the aquatic herbivora appears to have been 
 consigned to the crocodiles, whose habits fitted them in a peculiar 
 degree for such a service. Thus the past history of the croco- 
 dilian tribe presents another example of the well-regulated work- 
 
ANCIENT DRAGONS. 349 
 
 ings of a consistent plan in the economy of animated nature, under 
 which each individual, whilst following its own instinct, and pur- 
 suing its own good, is instrumental in promoting the general wel- 
 fare of the whole family of its contemporaries."* 
 
 Our attention is next arrested by the ancient terrestrial dra- 
 gons, 
 
 ~: V 
 
 THE DINOSAURIAN?,t 
 
 as Professor Owen has aptly termed them, and although he has, 
 upon the most satisfactory data, somewhat reduced the enormous 
 dimensions originally assigned to them, " fearfully-great lizards" 
 must they have been. 
 
 This tribe of gigantic crocodile-lizards of the dry land, as Pro- 
 fessor Owen designates them with his usual accuracy, excepting 
 that we may be permitted to express our doubts as to the land 
 being very dry, are, he observes, as clearly distinguished from the 
 modern terrestrial and amphibious saurians, as the opposite modi- 
 fications for an aquatic life characterize the extinct Enaliosaurians 
 or marine-lizards. To Professor Buckland and Dr. Mantell are 
 those interested on the subject and their number is, we are happy 
 to say, no longer small principally indebted for a knowledge of 
 these wonderful and long-buried forms which once had dominion 
 where Queen Victoria now reigns. 
 
 One of the most distinguishing characteristics of these great 
 land-lizards is the possession of marrow-bones. The great bones 
 of the extremities of the Enaliosaurians and ancient crocodilians 
 were solid throughout, and the comparative weight, so far from 
 being inconvenient in the medium through which they generally 
 had to make their way, performed the office of ballast to steady 
 them in and on the water, and prevent them, when on the sur- 
 face, from exposing too much of their bodies, and being what the 
 sailors call crank. 
 
 But in the enormous and dragon-like forms now under con- 
 sideration, those oviparous quadrupeds, in short, whose progres- 
 sion was to be performed on the land, and most probably in sandy 
 or miry places and sloughs, a combination of lightness with 
 strength was required, and the narrow-filled cylinder made the 
 appropriate machinery complete. 
 
 Here is Professor Owen's general definition of his Dinosau- 
 rians : 
 
 "This group, which includes at least three well-established 
 genera of Saurians, is characterized by a large sacrum composed 
 
 * Bridgewater Treatise. 
 
 t A/vof, terrible, fearfully great ; a-auptc, a lizard. 
 30 
 

 350 ZOOLOGICAL RKCRKATIONS. 
 
 of five anchylosed vertebras, .of unusual construction, by the height 
 and breadth and outward sculpturing of the neural arch of the 
 dorsal vertebrae, by the twofold articulation of the ribs to the ver- 
 tebrae; viz., at the anterior part of the spine by a head and 
 tubercle, and along the rest of the trunk by a tubercle attached to 
 the transverse process only, by broad and sometimes complicated 
 coracoids and long and slender clavicles, whereby crocodilian 
 characters of the vertebral column are combined with a lacertian 
 type of the pectoral arch; the dental organs also exhibit the same 
 transitional or annectent characters in a greater or less degree. 
 The bones of the extremities are of large proportional size for 
 saurians; they are provided with large medullary cavities, and 
 with well-developed and unusual processes, and are terminated 
 by metacarpal, metatarsal, and phalangeal bones, which, with the 
 exception of the ungual phalanges, more or less resemble those 
 of the heavy pachydermal mammals, and attest, with the hollow 
 long-bones, the terrestrial habits of the species."* 
 
 The most remarkable of these Dinosaurians hitherto discovered 
 are the Iguanodon, the Megalosaurus, and the Hylseosaurus. 
 We will commence with the 
 
 IGUANODON. L 
 
 The habits of the existing members of the family of crocodiles 
 are so well ascertained and familiarly known, that it would have 
 been needless to go into details on that head ; but the manners of 
 the Iguanas or Guanas which are now living, and come nearest 
 to the great extinct Iguanodon, are not so generally understood. 
 A few words, therefore, explanatory of their form and mode of 
 life, may not be uninteresting previous to a description of the old 
 saurian. 
 
 The modern Guanas are lizards with long scaly bodies and tails, 
 furnished with a depending, deep, thin, gular pouch, also covered 
 with scales, and serrated on the anterior portion of the edge near 
 the chin. The head is somewhat pyramidal. . The neck is a little 
 compressed, and there are cuticular folds on its sides and on the 
 trunk, the upper part of which is convex and rounded, and the 
 under part flattened. The tail is very long and slender, slightly 
 compressed on its sides. The rather long limbs are terminated 
 by five toes with serrated edges and sharp claws, the three middle 
 toes longer than the outside ones : the posterior toes are of greater 
 length than those of the anterior extremities. A crest of elevated 
 strongly-compressed scales, often curved in a posterior direction, 
 arises behind the head, and is continued along the mesial line of 
 
 * Report on British Fossil Reptiles. 
 
ANCIENT DRAGONS. 351 
 
 the back to the end of the tail, diminishing as the extremity of 
 the latter is approached, arid producing a serrated appearance 
 throughout its extent. This saw-like back, joined to the gular 
 pouch and extraordinarily-shaped head, defended by large scaly 
 plates of different forms, gives these animals a formidable aspect, 
 especially when they have attained to their full growth, which 
 frequently reaches five feet where they have not been disturbed, 
 but does riot often exceed that length. 
 
 The geographical distribution of the Guanas extends over a 
 great partof South America and the West India islands. Although 
 they occasionally eat eggs and insects in a wild state, and in cap- 
 tivity have been known to feed on the entrails of fowls, their 
 ordinary food consists of buds, leaves, flowers, and fruits, for the 
 cropping of which their numerous teeth, which may be compared 
 to small lancets, terminating in broad blades with minutely ser- 
 rated edges, are admirably adapted. As this diet leads the Guana 
 to the trees, both form and colour conjoin to aid in securing its 
 safety ; the first enabling it to climb and stand firm on the 
 branches, and the second going far towards concealing it in its 
 leafy haunt. The long, slender, serrated, sharp-clawed toes and 
 lengthened flexible tail, here come into play; and the green, 
 bluish, or slaty hue of the upper part of the body, together with 
 the yellowish green or brownish of the under parts, harmonize 
 with its situation. Sometimes there are brown stripes or yellow- 
 edged zigzags on the sides of the body ; sometimes there is an 
 oblique yellow line on the forepart of the shoulder; some are 
 dotted with brown, the limbs of others are mottled with brown on 
 a blackish ground, and the tail is generally annulated with alter- 
 nate large brown and green or yellowish rings. These variations 
 are, however, in strict keeping with its sylvan habits. 
 
 The Guanas take well to the water in their natural state, and 
 swim with ease and tolerable rapidity. We have seen one in 
 this country perform this feat more than once. The animal 
 entered the pond belonging to the inclosure in which it was kept 
 of its own accord : the motion was easy and graceful, and the 
 long flexible tail appeared to be the principal, if not the only instru- 
 ment by whose oar-like but sinuous action progression was 
 effected. We have also seen a Guana feeding on the leaves of 
 the common kidney bean, to which plant it had resorted after 
 refusing insects and other animal food. The colour of this 
 Guana was a beautiful green. The leaves were assisted into the 
 mouth by the fleshy tongue, and from the very short time they 
 remained there must have been transmitted to the stomach but 
 little comminuted by the teeth, whose services were evidently 
 more applied to prehension and cropping than mastication. 
 
 These animals are oviparous: their eggs are round, with a 
 
352 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 thinner shell, or rather tegument for it is tough, not brittle, 
 than that of those of the common poultry, but with a white and 
 yolk resembling that of a hen's egg in flavour. Nor is this the 
 only delicacy supplied by the uncouth-looking Guanas. They 
 become very fat upon their wholesome diet, and are much sought 
 after for their flesh, which is white as that of a chicken, and equal 
 if not superior to it, when properly offered to the palate. The 
 old authors confine their cookery to boiling and frying : thus Piso 
 says that they love to feed on fruits and eggs, whence they derive 
 much fat, and the whitish flesh " qua? elixa vel frixa inter delicias 
 expetita, nee gallinaceis pullis cedit." 
 
 The same learned Amsterdam physician condescends to give a 
 receipt for dressing their eggs in water, but without either oil or 
 butter "quse addita aqua, non oleo aut butyro friguntur;" a 
 method of frying which does not appear to have occurred to Dr. 
 Kitchener. Modern refinement, however, soon discovered that 
 Guana, to be eaten in perfection, should be presented in the 
 savoury and delicate shape of a fricassee. 
 
 A few words further in illustration of the existing Guanas 
 from eye-witnesses, whose works are not in the hands of every 
 body. 
 
 Sir Hans Sloane gives the following account of an attempt to 
 bring some of the reptiles of Jamaica to England : 
 
 " Though I foresaw the difficulties, yet I had an intention to 
 try to bring with me from Jamaica some uncommon creatures 
 alive: such as a large yellow snake, seven feet long, a Guana, or 
 great lizard, a crocodile, &c. I had the snake tamed by an 
 Indian, whom it would follow, as a dog would his master, and 
 after it was delivered to me I kept it in a large earthen jar, such 
 as are for keeping the best water for the commanders of ships 
 during their voyages, covering its mouth with two boards, and 
 laying weights upon them. I had it fed every day by the guts 
 and garbage of fowl, etc., put into the jar from the kitchen. 
 Thus it liv'd for some time, when being weary of its confinement, 
 it shov'd asunder the two boards on the mouth of the jar, and got 
 up to the top of a large house, wherein lay footmen and other 
 domesticks of her Grace the Duchess of Albemarle, who being 
 afraid to lie down in such company, shot my snake dead. It 
 seem'd before this disaster to be very well pleas'd with its situation, 
 being in a part of the house which was filled with rats, which are 
 the most pleasing food for these sort of serpents. 'Tis upon this 
 account that the European nations inhabiting the countries pro- 
 ducing sugar do not molest these creatures, because they destroy 
 the rats (which came originally from ships cast away on the 
 coast, &c.) which multiply strangely there, and do infinite mis- 
 chief to the sugar canes, not only eating them, but spoiling the 
 
A.KCIENT DRAGONS. 353 
 
 juice of those they gnaw. The Guana us'd to feed on calabash" 
 pulp, and liv'd very well aboard of the yacht, till one day when 
 it was running along the gunnel of the vessel, a seaman frighted 
 it, and it leap'd overboard and was drown'd."* 
 
 Catesby describes the Guana (Lacerta Iguana, Linn.) as a kind 
 of lizard somewhat resembling the crocodile or alligator in shape, 
 but having a shorter head and a serrated crest on the ridge of the 
 back, extending from behind its head to the middle of the tail; 
 they are, he says, of various sizes, from two to five feet in 
 length. 
 
 44 Their mouths," continues Catesby, "are furnished with 
 exceeding small teeth, but their jaws are armed with a bony beak, 
 with which they bite with great strength. They inhabit warm 
 countries only, and are rarely to be met with anywhere north or 
 south of the Tropicks. Many of the Bahama islands abound 
 with them. They nestle in hollow rocks and trees : their eggs 
 have not a hard shell like the eggs of alligators, but a skin only, 
 like those of turtle, and are esteemed good food : they lay a great 
 number of them at a time on the earth, which are there hatch'd 
 by the sun's heat. These Guanas are a great part of the sub- 
 sistence of the inhabitants of the Bahama islands, for which pur- 
 pose they visit many of the remote Bays and Islands, in their 
 sloops to catch them ; which they do by dogs trained for that 
 purpose, which are so dexterous as not often to kill them ; which, 
 if they do, they serve only for present spending; if otherwise, 
 they sew up their mouths to prevent their biting, and put^them 
 into the hold of their sloop till they have catch'd a sufficient 
 number; which they either carry alive for sale to Carolina, or 
 salt and barrel up for the use of their families at home. These 
 Guanas feed wholly on vegetables and fruit, particularly on a kind 
 of fungus, growing at the roots of trees, and of this and others of 
 the Anona kind. Their flesh is easy of digestion, delicate, and 
 well tasted ; they are sometimes roasted, but the more common 
 way is to boil them, taking out the leaves of fat, which they melt 
 and clarify ; this they put into a calabash or dish, into which they 
 dip the flesh of the Guana as they eat it. It is remarkable that 
 this fat, which adheres to the inside of the abdomen, imbibes the 
 colour of the fruit they last eat, which I have frequently seen 
 tinged with pale red, yellow, and sometimes of a purple colour, 
 which last was from eating the Prunus Maritima, which fruit at 
 the same time I took out of them. Though they are not 
 amphibious, they are said to keep under water above an hour : 
 when they swim, they use not their feet, but plap them close to 
 their body, and guide themselves with their tails ; they swallow 
 
 * "Jamaica." Vol. n. N 
 
 30* 
 
354 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 all they eat whole. They cannot run fast ; their holes being a 
 greater security to them than their heels. They are so impatient of 
 cold that they rarely appear out of their holes but when the sun 
 shines."* 
 
 The " Anona" to which Catesby alludes, and which is figured 
 in the plate opposite to his description, is the Jinona Glabra of 
 Linnaeus, the Sour-sop (or Sowr-sop, as Sloane writes it) of 
 the colonists. Catesby says of it that it is an eatable fruit, 
 very sweet, but somewhat insipid: "yet," he adds, "it is the 
 food of guanas and other wild creatures." Sloane has this pas- 
 sage respecting the fruit of this tree " an anonymous Portugal 
 observed this fruit in JBrasile. Purchas saith it tastes like a musty 
 melon, and is shap'd like an ox's heart." The simile as to the 
 shape is not bad. 
 
 Dr. Patrick Browne, in his "History of Jamaica," speaks of 
 the Guana as a native of most parts of America, and generally 
 an inhabitant of the woods ; but remarks that like others of the 
 tribe it lives a very considerable time without food, and changes 
 its colour with the weather or the native moisture of its place of 
 residence. 
 
 "I have kept," observes our author, " a grown Guana about 
 the house for more than two months ; it was very fierce and ill- 
 natured at the beginning, but after some days it grew more 
 tame, and would at length pass the greatest part of the day upon 
 the bed or couch, but it went out always at night. I have 
 never observed it to eat any thing, except what imperceptible 
 particles it had lapped up in the air ; for it frequently threw out 
 its forked tongue, like the chameleon, as it walked along. The 
 flesh of this creature is liked by many people, and frequently 
 served up in fricassees at their tables, in which state they are often 
 preferred to the best fowls. The Guana may be easily tamed 
 while young, and is both an innocent and beautiful creature in 
 that state." 
 
 If the worthy doctor had spared his poor Guana a morsel of his 
 mango or custard-apple, or even thrown it a few succulent leaves, 
 it need not have starved ; but he seems to have thought that it 
 lived upon the chameleon's dish. 
 
 Now turn we to its ancient prototype, the Iguanodon, whose 
 teeth and 'remains were discovered by Dr. Mantell in the Weald, 
 where the climate, in the Age of Reptiles, far frorh being tem- 
 perate, must have been of a tropical character, from the evidences 
 exhumed from its strata. 
 
 The thigh-bone of this monster was larger than that of any 
 existing elephant. Indeed the size of its bones took its first 
 
 * "Carolina." Vol. ii. 
 
ANCIENT DRAGONS. 355 
 
 describers so much by surprise that we have heard " a tail as 
 long as St. Martin's steeple" ascribed to it or some of its fossil 
 brethren, in the enthusiastic eloquence of the moment after 
 dinner. Nay, seventy-five, eighty, and even one hundred feet have 
 been deliberately stated as the length of the Iguanodon, from 1 a 
 comparison of its teeth, clavicle, femur, and claw-bone with those 
 of the Guana at present in existence. 
 
 Now, as Professor Owen remarks, if the comparison had been 
 founded on the claw-bone from Horsham, instead of that com- 
 pared by Dr. Mantell, two hundred feet as the total length of the 
 Iguanodon would have been the result; for the Horsham bone 
 exceeds the corresponding phalanx by forty times. Upon 
 measurements and calculations, however, that appear to be incon- 
 trovertible, the total length of the Iguanodon which differs in 
 some parts of its structure, the articulation of the ribs for example, 
 from that of the Guana is set down by Professor Owen at 
 twenty-eight feet ; and when its enormous bulk and strength is 
 recollected, this ancient herbivorous dragon must have been of a 
 size to have fitly supplied the commissariat of the giants when 
 they warred against Jove. 
 
 The teeth with which this monster cut out its huge morsels 
 from the tough Clathrarise, and other similar rigid plants which 
 are found entombed with its remains, are instruments whose adap- 
 tation to the work which they had to perform beautifully shines 
 out upon examination. 
 
 Professor Owen 'justly observes that the teeth of the Iguanodon, 
 although they resemble very closely those of the Iguana, do not 
 present an exact magnified image of them, but differ in the greater 
 relative thickness of the crown, its more complicated external 
 surface, and still more essentially in a modification of the internal 
 structure, by which the Iguanodon deviated from every known 
 reptile. The structure of the teeth is fully described by the 
 Professor, both from ordinary and microscopical examination, in 
 his " Report ;" but our limits will not permit us to go into the 
 details, notwithstanding their great interest. We can only here 
 state, that in its first or incisive condition, the tooth presented a 
 sharp serrated edge, extending down each side from the point 
 to the broad portion of the body of the tooth ; and as this was 
 necessarily liable to wear away by use, a provision was made to 
 convert it into a molar or grinding tooth, till it was worn down 
 so as to become no longer available, when its place was supplied 
 by a new tooth. To preserve a cutting edge, there was a partial 
 coating of enamel, and to secure the wearing away of the tooth 
 in a more regular oblique plane, the dentine is rendered softer 
 as it recedes from the enamelled edge, by the simple contrivance 
 of arresting the calcifying progress along certain tracts of the 
 
356 ZOOLOGICAL RECRKAT10NS. 
 
 inner wall of the tooth. When attrition had exhausted the 
 enamel, and the tooth became limited to its grinding function, the 
 ossified remnants of the pulp came into operation to add to its 
 molar efficiency. 
 
 Even before Professor Owen had thus laid open the internal 
 structure of these admirable plant-cutting and plant-crushing 
 instruments, Professor Buckland was struck, from mere external 
 examination, with the exquisite design manifested in their confor- 
 mation, which he describes with his wonted felicity; and he 
 shows how, while the tooth was gradually diminishing above, a 
 simultaneous absorption of the root went on below, caused by the 
 pressure of a new tooth rising to replace the old one, until, by 
 this continual consumption at both extremities, the middle portion 
 was reduced to a hollow stump, Avhich fell from the jaw to make 
 room for a more efficient successor. In this last stage, he 
 observes, the form of the tooth had entirely changed, and the 
 crown had become flat, like that of worn-out human incisors, and 
 capable of performing imperfect mastication after the cutting 
 powers had diminished. 
 
 "In this curious piece of animal mechanism," says Dr. Buck- 
 land, in concluding his interesting chapter on the Iguanodon, 
 44 we find a varied adjustment of all parts and proportions of the 
 tooth, to the exercise of peculiar functions ; attended by compen- 
 sations adapted to shifting conditions of the instrument, during 
 different stages of its consumption. And we must estimate the 
 works of nature by a different standard from that which we 
 apply to the productions of human art, if we can view such 
 examples of mechanical contrivance united with so much economy 
 of expenditure, and with such anticipated adaptations to varying 
 conditions in their application, without feeling a profound convic- 
 tion that all this adjustment has resulted from design and high 
 intelligence."* 
 
 Such was the Iguanodon which once basked in the tropical 
 jungles of Sussex, amid extinct plants that formed its shelter 
 and its food. Trees there were none for such a giant to climb, 
 and indeed the caudal vertebras show, as Professor Owen points 
 out, that the tail of the Iguanodon was relatively shorter than 
 that of the Iguana, whilst the size and structure of the sacrum, 
 thigh-bone, and tibia further indicate the adaptation of the great 
 herbivorous saurian for terrestrial life. Neither the invention 
 of the herald who drew the supporters of the shield of the 
 city of London, ready to attack fiercely any reformer who 
 approaches the cockney Goshen, nor even the imagination of 
 
 * Biidgewaler Treatise. 
 
ANCIENT DRAGONS. 357 
 
 Retzsch, can match this bulky monster. Truth is stranger than 
 fiction.* 
 
 HYL^EOSAURUS. 
 
 Another great dragon or lizard of the Weald, to which Dr. 
 Mantell assigns the above name, was discovered by that indefati- 
 gable palaeontologist in Tilgate Forest. It was, at first, sup- 
 posed to have been, like the Iguanodon, herbivorous ; but the 
 observations of Professor Owen go to prove that the jaws con- 
 tained a series of true sockets, and were fitted for the thecodont or 
 socketed mode of attachment of the teeth, and thus agreed with 
 the carnivorous Megalosaurus. There is some doubt, moreover, 
 as to the enormous dermal fringe which was supposed to have 
 extended along the back of the animal, analogous to that which is 
 seen on the modern Cyclura lizard, for reasons given by Pro- 
 fessor Owen in his Report ; but the existence of dermal scutes in 
 the Hylseosaur analogous to those in the recent crocodiles, rests 
 upon unequivocal testimony, and some of them may be seen still 
 adhering to the caudal vertebras, decreasing in size as they 
 approach the end of the tail. The diameter of the largest of 
 these scutes which must have studded the skin of this great 
 reptile, was found to be not more than three inches ; that of the 
 smallest was one inch. 
 
 But the most formidable, as well as the most remarkable of 
 these Old World Terrestrial Dragons, must have been the highly 
 carnivorous 
 
 MEGALOSAURUS. 
 
 To Dr. Buckland, who first founded this extraordinary genus 
 oh specimens discovered in the oolitic slate of Stonesfield, near 
 Oxford, we are indebted for this, in every sense of the word, great 
 addition to the extinct Fauna of these realms. For, although 
 the length of from forty to fifty feet assigned to this ancient and 
 truculent dragon by Cuvier and others, has shrunk before the 
 accurate measurements and calculations of Professor Owen to a 
 total length of thirty feet, its gigantic bones give evidence of an 
 enormous bulk which must have realized the " bely greater than 
 any tonne," of the old legend ; whilst its terrible jaws and tren- 
 chant teeth, which partook of the structure of those of the croco- 
 dile and monitor, attest its great destructive power. ^ 
 
 As Dr. Mantell found the bones of the Megalosaurus in the 
 Wealden fresh-water formation of Tilgate Forest, this slashing 
 
 * The horn which was supposed to have projected from the snout of the 
 Iguanodon is one of its claw-bones, and so 1'roft-ssor Owen has noticed it. 
 
358 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 destroyer may have helped to keep down the great herbivorous 
 Iguanodons, as well as the smaller reptiles, such as crocodiles 
 and tortoises, whose remains are found embedded with it. Dr. 
 Buckland also suggests that it may have taken to the water in 
 pursuit of Plesiosauri and fishes; and infers from the localities 
 .whence it has been disenterred, that it existed during the deposi- 
 tion of the entire series of oolitic strata. The Iguanodon would 
 hardly have succumbed to the Megalosaur without resistance, and 
 the fight between the herbivorous and carnivorous Titans must 
 have been a tremendous tug of war. 
 
 Professor Owen observes, that the most authentic remains of 
 the Megalosaur prove it to have been closely related to the Lacer- 
 tian division of the Saurian order ; but that the teeth, the vertebras, 
 and some of the bones of the extremities, indicate its affinities to 
 the crocodilian group ; and that all these parts manifest more or 
 less strongly the peculiar characters of its own remarkable family. 
 In the instructive and characteristic portion of the lower jaw, he 
 remarks, the sockets, like the teeth, are compressed, and are sepa- 
 rated by complete partitions; but they are so much wider than 
 the teeth as to suggest the existence of a greater portion of 
 ligamentous gum at the upper part of the alveolar tract in the 
 recent animal than in the crocodiles. There is, he remarks, a 
 slight groove and ridge along the inner side of the sockets, and it 
 is at this groove, at the interspace of each triangular plate, that 
 the points of the new teeth, that are to supply the place of the 
 old ones broken or blunted by slaughter, protrude. 
 
 The crowns of these destructive implements were compressed, 
 conical, and pointed, double-edged, and serrated on both the ante- 
 rior and posterior edges. Straight at their first protrusion, they 
 afterwards became slightly curved or sabre-shaped as they grew, 
 and were covered with a fine polished enamel. In the dentition, 
 the Megalosaur approaches nearest, in Professor Owen's opinion, 
 to the Varanian family, which at present includes the largest and 
 most carnivorous species of lizard properly so called. 
 
 Now let us hear Dr. Buckland on the teeth. He points out 
 that in their structure we find a combination of mechanical con- 
 trivances, analogous to those which are adopted in the construc- 
 tion of the knife, the sabre, and the saw. 
 
 When first protruded above the gum, the apex of each tooth 
 presented a double-cutting edge of serrated enamel. In this stage 
 its position and line of action were nearly vertical, and its form 
 like that of the two-edged point of a sabre, cutting equally on 
 each side. As the tooth advanced in growth, it became curved 
 backwards in the form of a pruning-knife, and the edge of ser- 
 rated enamel was continued downwards to the base of the inner 
 and cutting side of the tooth; whilst, on the outer side, a similar 
 
ANCIENT DRAGONS. 359 
 
 edge descended, but to a short distance from the point, and the 
 convex portion of the tooth became blunt and thick, as the back 
 of a knife is made thick for the purpose of producing strength. 
 The strength of the tooth was further increased by the expansion 
 of its sides. Had the serrature continued along the whole of the 
 blunt and convex portion of the tooth, it would, in this position, 
 have possessed no useful cutting power; it ceased precisely at the 
 point beyond which it could no longer be effective. In a tooth 
 thus formed for cutting along its concave edge, each movement 
 of the jaw combined the power of the knife and saw ; whilst the 
 apex, in making the first incision, acted like the two-edged point 
 of a sabre. The backward curvature of the full-grown teeth 
 enabled them to retain, like barbs, the prey which they had pene- 
 trated. In these adaptations we see contrivances, which human 
 ingenuity has also adopted, in the preparations of various instru- 
 ments of art.* 
 
 But, it may be asked, how is this ingenuity in the formation of 
 cruel instruments expressly formed for inflicting pain, and dealing 
 destruction and death, reconcilable with the mercy attributed to 
 the Creator, who manifests in the structure of the lowest of his 
 creatures the best adaptations to its wants and pleasures? The 
 querist will be best answered by the thirteenth chapter of Dr. 
 Buckland's "Bridgewater Treatise," wherein he proposes to 
 show that the aggregate of animal enjoyment is increased, and 
 that of pain diminished by the existence of carnivorous races. In 
 reading that eloquent chapter, let him keep these points steadily 
 in view: first, that it was written with reference to the lower 
 animals ; next, that man is the only animal that knows he is to 
 die; thirdly, that there is room in the world for only a certain 
 amount of enjoyable animal existence ; and he will find that what 
 at first sight appears to be "a scene of perpetual warfare and 
 incessant carnage," is in reality a system of the most enlarged 
 benevolence. We can only find room for the following para- 
 graph : 
 
 '* The law of universal mortality being the established condition 
 on which it has pleased the Creator to give being to every creature 
 upon earth, it is a dispensation of kindness to make the end 
 of life to each individual as easy as possible. The most easy 
 death is, proverbially, that which is the least expected ; and 
 though, for moral reasons peculiar to our own species, we depre- 
 cate the sudden termination of our, mortal life ; yet, in the case of 
 every inferior animal, such a termination of existence is obviously 
 the most desirable. The pains of sickness and decrepitude of age are 
 the usual precursors of death, resulting from gradual decay. These 
 
 * Bridgewater Treatise. 
 
360 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 in the human race alone, are susceptible of alleviation from internal 
 sources of hope and consolation, and give exercise to some of the 
 highest charities and most tender sympathies of humanity. But, 
 throughout the whole creation of inferior animals, no such sym 
 pathies exist ; there is no affection or regard for the feeble and 
 aged ; no alleviating care to relieve the sick ; and the extension 
 of life through lingering stages of decay and of old age, would, to 
 each individual, be a scene of protracted misery. Under such a 
 system, the natural world would present a mass of daily suffering, 
 bearing a large proportion to the total amount of animal enjoy- 
 ment. By the existing dispensations of sudden destruction and 
 rapid succession, the feeble and disabled are speedily relieved 
 from suffering, and the world is at all times crowded with myriads 
 of sentient and happy beings ; and though to many individuals 
 their allotted share of life is often short, it is usually a period of 
 uninterrupted gratification ; whilst the momentary pain of sudden 
 and unexpected death is an evil infinitely small, in comparison 
 with the enjoyments of which it is the termination." 
 
 This being granted, the more efficient the weapon of destruction 
 is, the less will the suffering of the individual be. The wish of 
 the honest host in "Marmion" was, after all, not an uncharitable 
 one : 
 
 " Gramercy, gentle southern squire, 
 i And if thou com'st among the rest, 
 With Scottish broad-sword to be blest, 
 Sharp be the brand and sure the blow, 
 And short the pang to undergo." 
 
 How many of our noble sufferers in those dark days, when the 
 laws may truly be said to have been written in blood, have felt the 
 edge of the axe that was to dismiss them to their account ? One 
 of the last who resorted to this test was Lord Balmerino ; but in 
 his case, it unexpectedly brought additional suffering ; for the 
 unaffected gallant bearing of the man completely unnerved the 
 executioner, and a scene ensued which every lover of his country 
 would wish to veil. That scene took place one hundred years 
 ago, wanting three. What changes have since taken place in the 
 spirit of our punishment ! how much butchery has been swept 
 away, never again, we trust, to defile this land ! 
 
 October, 1843. ' . 
 
ANCIENT FLYING DRAGONS. 361 
 
 ANCIENT FLYING DRAGONS, 
 
 " Their earth is gone for ever 
 So changed by its convulsion, they would not 
 Be conscious to a single present spot." 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 IN the remote ages of the earth, when the forms which we have 
 already attempted to lay before our readers were among the high- 
 est of created beings, the reptilian appears to have been nature's 
 pet type, and she seems to have revelled in modifying it for pro- 
 gression in the sea, by land and water, on land, and through the 
 air 
 
 " To fly, to swim," 
 
 at her "strong bidding." 
 
 But before we enter upon the description of the Pterosauria or 
 winged Saurians, it will be necessary briefly to notice some other 
 old dragon forms, of whose relics, although few and rare, sufficient 
 remain to show to what class they belonged. 
 
 Such, in the natural order Lacertilia,are the teeth of the Leio- 
 don from the chalk of Norfolk, making the nearest approach to 
 those of the Mosasaur ; and the small Raphiosaurus of the chalk 
 formations near Cambridge, affording another instance of the "pro- 
 coelian" type of vertebra, or those with the anterior cup and pos- 
 terior ball. It is worthy of remark that Professor Owen, to whom 
 geologists are so much indebted for the notice of these genera, 
 had not met with any instance of a reptile agreeing with the ex- 
 isting species in this structure below the ^halk. 
 
 To the same order is to be referred a Pleurodont lizard from the 
 Eocene sand underlying the Red Crag at Kyson or Kingston, in 
 Suffolk, about the size of a Guana ; a small Scincoid lizard from 
 the Stonesfield Oolite ; and the rare Rhynchosaurus from the new 
 red sandstone near Shrewsbury. 
 
 Professor Owen observes that the general aspect of the skull in 
 this last form differs from that of existing Lacertians, and resem- 
 bles that of a bird or a turtle, which resemblance is increased by the 
 apparent absence of teeth. The intermaxillary bones, moreover, 
 are double, as in crocodiles and chelonians ; but, with this excep- 
 tion, all the essential characters of the cranium are those of the 
 31 
 
362 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 lizard. Of this small but interesting Saurian the same palaeon- 
 tologist further remarks that there are few genera of extinct rep- 
 tiles with regard to which it is more desirable to obtain the means 
 of determining the precise modifications of the locomotive extre- 
 mities, than in the Rhynchosaur. The fortunate preservation of 
 the skull, he adds, has brought to light modifications of the Lacer- 
 tian structure, leading to wards chelonians or turtles and birds, which 
 before were unknown ; while the vertebrae likewise exhibit very 
 interesting deviations from the Lacertian type. 
 
 Then there were certain Thecodonts$ and as the terms "The- 
 codont," and " Pleurodont," may not be familiar to some of our 
 friends, we shall endeavour to explain them shortly to those who 
 may desire the information. 
 
 A pleurodont lizard, then, is one whose teeth are attached to 
 the bottom of an alveolar groove, and supported by the side-wall 
 of that groove ; but Professor Owen has so luminonsly and con- 
 cisely defined the Acrodont, Pleurodont, and Thecodont Saurians, 
 that we shall give the definition in his own words. 
 
 " Among the inferior or squamate saurians there are two lead- 
 ing modifications in the mode of attachment of the teeth, the base 
 of which may be either anchylosed to the summit of an alveolar 
 ridge, or to the bottom of an alveolar groove, and supported by 
 the lateral wall. These modifications are indicated respectively 
 by the terms * acrodont' and ' pleurodont.' A third mode of fixa- 
 tion is presented by some extinct Saurians, which in other parts 
 of their organization adhere to the squamate or Lacertine division 
 of the order, the teeth being implanted in sockets, either loosely 
 or confluent with the loose walls of the cavity ; these I have 
 termed the * thecodont' Lacertians : the most ancient of all Sau- 
 rians belong to this group."* 
 
 To this tribe belongs the Thecodontosaurus of Dr. Riley and 
 Mr. Stutchbury, from the dolomitic conglomerate of Redland near 
 Bristol ; the Palseosaurus of the same zoologists from the some for- 
 mation ; and the Cladyodon of Professor Owen, who, among the sau- 
 ria incertse sedis r place^the large Polyptycho don horn the Kent- 
 ish rag-quarries (lower green sand) near Maidstone, whose teeth 
 one of which, in the possession of Mr. Benstead in that town, 
 is three inches long, and one inch four lines across the base, in 
 size and general form resemble those of the great sauroid fish 
 Hypsodon, of Agassiz. 
 
 Here also must be arranged an unnamed gigantic fossil saurian 
 from the lower green-sand at Hythe, whose remains were disco- 
 'vered by Mr. Mackeson of that place. This Saurian, in Professor 
 Owen's opinion, was marine ; but most probably of the crocodi- 
 
 1a v, * Report on British Fossil Reptiles. 
 
ANCIENT FLYING DRAGONS. 363 
 
 lian order ; and as enormous in its dimensions as the Polyptycho- 
 don and the Cetiosaurus. The last thecodont saurian noticed by 
 Professor Owen is his genus Rysosteus, from the bone-bed of 
 Aust Passage, near Bristol, and from that of West Cliff on the 
 Severn, eight miles from Gloucester. 
 We now turn our attention to the 
 
 PTEROSAURIANS 
 
 comprised in the genus Pterodactylus of Cuvier, of which he 
 truly says that of all the forms whose ancient existence has been 
 revealed to us, these flying reptiles are incontestibly the most ex- 
 traordinary, and such as, if living, would appear most at variance 
 with any animal now endowed with life. 
 
 For these ancient flying dragons did not sustain themselves in 
 the air by means of their ribs, like those which now skim from 
 tree to tree in India ; nor by a wing like that of a bird ; no, nor 
 by one like that of a bat ; but by a membrane, upheld principally 
 on a very elongated finger, whilst the other fingers preserved their 
 ordinary dimensions and their claws. With this extent of wing 
 the Pterodactyle presented the likeness of the bill of a bird placed 
 upon a long neck. Well may Guvier declare that to those who 
 had not followed out the details of its structure, a representation 
 of the animal as it formerly breathed and moved would appear 
 more like the offspring of a disordered imagination than of the 
 ordinary powers of nature. 
 
 But a word or two will be expected relative to existing flying 
 dragons. 
 
 He who would read of the dragons of " Mooren-Landt," and 
 of the audacity of Juba in writing that dragons have a feathered 
 crest upon their head, when no man could be brought forward 
 able to state with truth that he had ever seen a dragon with a 
 plumed crest, although they have an ornament on their heads ; 
 how they congregate, linking themselves together in groups of 
 four or five, erect their heads to catch the gale, and so swim or 
 sail across the sea to Arabia, a ghastly crew, for improved change 
 of pasture ; how the herb Balis will restore a man poisoned by a 
 dragon, and even bring a, dead dragon to life ; with much more 
 dragon-lore, may consult Pliny's Natural History, and a curious 
 Dutch work published at Amsterdam in 1662,* where many of 
 the ancient stories are collected, and very interesting zoological 
 information of more modern date is to be found. In this book are 
 figures of both the fabulous and existing flying dragons, the first 
 under the name of Draeck and the second under that of Boom- 
 draeck. .' 
 
 ' ' . ' " j- . 
 
 * C. Plinii Secundi des wiidt-vermaerdcn Natuurkondigers, &c., &c. 
 
364 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Bontius, whose observations were collected and published by 
 Piso in his folio work " De Indiae utriusque re naturali et medica" 
 (1658), was one of the first to reduce the fabulous accounts of dra- 
 gons to something like their proper dimensions. Here the Draco 
 volans of Linnaeus is figured in a rough cut, bearing no bad re- 
 semblance, considering the state of wood engraving at the time, 
 of the animal. The chapter is headed 
 
 Lacertus volans, sen Dracunculus alatus 
 Aera pervolitansjunxisse Medea Dracones 
 Dicitur : e Java num tulit has volucres 1 ? 
 
 and we are informed that this is the dragon described by Belon, 
 noticed in a former chapter of this sketch, but that Bontius had 
 found it necessary to describe it a little more accurately, inasmuch 
 as he had seen it not only dead, but alive " here in Java," where 
 he practised physic. 
 
 He observes that Belon has figured this "insect" as a biped, 
 whereas it is a quadruped, and he proceeds to give a good account 
 of its form, colours, and habits, and to relate how these dragons 
 pass "cum stridore" from tree to tree, when the distance is as 
 much as twenty and even thirty paces, as the flying fishes, called 
 aquatic swallows by Gesner, are said to raise themselves from the 
 water for a short time. Bontius adds, that he has not ascertained 
 whether these lizards are poisonous, but, that the Javanese deny 
 that they are so, and handle them like other lizards with impu- 
 nity. Their food, he says, consists of flies, ants, and other small 
 insects ; and he notices them as frequent in the woods of Java, 
 where they become a prey to "greater serpents," quoting the 
 well-known and bitterly true "Homo homini Lupus," of Plautus, 
 as a justification of the proceeding. 
 
 It was the old belief, that whenever a serpent devoured a ser- 
 pent, a dragon was produced ; nay, that this was the only opera- 
 tion by which a serpent could be promoted to dragon's estate. 
 
 We have in a former chapter observed, that no collection of 
 curiosities was anciently considered worthy of much attention, if 
 it did not include a dragon ; and as even the rudest people 
 quickly perceive what collecting travellers want, and as speedily 
 furnish them with their desiderata, it is no subject for wonder that 
 the more civilized fabricators of rarities exercised their ingenuity 
 in supplying the cabinets of the curious with the much-coveted 
 monster. 
 
 If any one wishes to see what the celebrated Hamburg dragon 
 was like, he will find it figured by Seba (1734) in the hundred and 
 second plate of his first volume. It was seven-headed, biped, and 
 wingless in short, purporting to be one of the hydras to which we 
 
ANCIENT FLYING DRAGONS. 365 
 
 have before alluded ; and it may not be uninteresting to some of 
 our readers to learn what Seba says of it. 
 
 Seba then calls the attention of his readers to the large engraving 
 which extends across two folio pages, as that of an animal which 
 passes for a serpent with seven heads. He states that a stranger 
 who did him the honour to visit his cabinet of natural curiosities, 
 first gave him a figure of it, saying, that he had seen the animal 
 at Hamburg that it .resembled a serpent with seven uplifted 
 heads, each having the mouth open, and armed with great and 
 small teeth that it had only two feet and a long tail so that, 
 although it passed for a serpent with seven heads, it approached 
 nearer to a dragon than a serpent. 
 
 "I avow," remarks Seba, "that this story appeared to me very 
 paradoxical, and to be nearer to fabJe than truth." 
 
 But Seba goes on to state that M. F. Eibsen, a minister of 
 the gospel at Wursten, in the duchy of Breme, coming one day 
 to see his cabinet, gave him the same account of this Hydra, and 
 promised to procure for him a drawing of the animal, which the 
 clergyman could easily effect, as he was connected with MM. 
 Dryern and Hambel, the Hamburg merchants, who were the pos- 
 sessors of it. He said that it had first belonged to Count Konings- 
 marck ; and that, after his death, it had been inherited by Count 
 Leeuwenhaupt. 
 
 Seba then relates that, as he had heard that this specimen was 
 for sale for ten thousand florins a statement which M. Eibsen 
 confirmed the magnitude of the sum re-awakened his desire to 
 have a faithful portrait of it. M. Eibsen kept his word, and ob- 
 tained for Seba the copy which he wished for. 
 
 Seba, however, still incredulous, wrote to his friend M. John 
 Frederick Natorp, of Hamburg, who was very curious in natural 
 history, had seen this same Hydra, and assured Seba that it was 
 no work of art, but truly that of Nature. This friend, at Seba's 
 request, sent him a drawing of the natural size, very well coloured ; 
 and from this last, Seba's engraving was made. 
 
 Now for Seba's description of the monstet:- 
 
 It was of a bay-brown colour, shaded with ashy gray. Its 
 back was uneven and rugged. On each of its sides were six large 
 tubercles, which were oblong, and hard as horn, under which row 
 seven other tubercles, which were round, and of the same nature, 
 were arranged along the sides from the feet to the tail. The skin 
 of the whole of the trunk, as well as that of the seven heads, was 
 without any scales, and of a colour approaching to chestnut, and 
 marbled. The seven necks were encircled in front, as it were, by 
 rings placed across them. All the seven mouths were equally 
 open, and armed with teeth like those of a lion. Its long tail 
 was entirely covered with rhomboidal scales. Each foot there 
 
366 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 were but two terminated in four toes, each toe being furnished 
 with a long and pointed claw. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the publication of this figure in 
 such a work as that of Seba, who gives two very fair representa- 
 tions of the Draco volans now existing one on the same page 
 with the Hydra must have added greatly to the fame of the 
 dragon possessed by MM. Dryern and Hambel. Still no collector, 
 even in that Tulipomaniacal country, seems to have screwed his 
 courage to their price. 
 
 One fine day, in walked a quiet foreigner, with a sparkling eye, 
 to whom the precious specimen was shown with the half-con- 
 cealed exultation of those who are wrapped in the comfortable 
 certainty that they possess "a gem" which is unique. 
 
 The foreigner was Linnaeus, who was asked " What he thought 
 of that?" 
 
 The great naturalist carefully examined the dragon, and ap- 
 peared to the surrounding circle to be lost in admiration for the 
 question was repeated. He declared that it was wonderful, very, 
 and a most ingenious combination of snake-skins, teeth of 
 weasels, claws of birds, etc. etc. etc. 
 
 The owners were probably saved by their wrath and fond 
 credulity, from dying on the spot, and by their wholesome dread 
 of a public sudden death, from executing summary vengeance on 
 the acute Swede. Clinging, however, to the belief that their lion, 
 their treasure, their time-honoured Hydra was genuine, Linnseus 
 was threatened with a prosecution for injuring their property; 
 and it is said that he left Hamburg as soon as he could, to avoid 
 their ire. 
 
 It must have been a great shock and a sore trial: a real 
 dragon all others of course counterfeits worth ten thousand 
 florins, changed in a moment, at the keen glance of the Knight of 
 the Polar Star, to a worthless, fraudulent thing " of shreds and 
 patches." 
 
 This sort of ingenuity, no longer finding employment in the 
 creation of dragons, has, of late, solaced itself in the manufacture 
 of mermaids. 
 
 But to return to our real, existing flying dragons. 
 
 The harmless lizards of the genus Draco are insignificant in 
 size, not being more than nine or ten inches, or a foot in length, 
 the tail, being long in proportion to the body. The aspect of the 
 head is singular, and beneath the throat is a large pouch ; so that 
 Cuvier gives a good notion of the animal when he remarks, that 
 the dragons are endowed with the head and teeth of the Stellio 
 lizards, and the scales and gular pouch of the Iguanus. The 
 neck is not large, and the body and limbs are rather slender. 
 The four feet are each furnished with five toes, armed with sharp 
 
ANCIENT FLYING DRAGONS. 367 
 
 nails. The species vary in colour : that of Draco volans is pale 
 blue, or bluish gray, with several dusky-waved markings above. 
 The wings are bordered with white, and spotted with black, deep 
 brown, and white, so as to produce a not inelegant pattern. 
 Beneath, this dragon is pale or whitish brown. 
 
 The ribs in the ordinary serpents, especially in the boas and 
 pythons, are so articulated as to become active instruments of 
 terrestrial progression. In the existing dragons, this part of the 
 skeleton is also made subservient to locomotion ; but in a very 
 different way. Instead of being numerous and comparatively 
 stout and curved, they are few in number, very much elongated, 
 and slender, presenting, when advanced to a right angle with the 
 spine, a graduated appearance, the first being the longest, and 
 the last very much shorter. On these ribs, as on the whalebones 
 of an umbrella, the membranes of the wings are sustained ; and 
 when the dragon wishes to put them in action, the muscles bring 
 the ribs forward and unfurl the wings, so to speak, which then 
 become expanded, and uphold the dragon in the air as it proceeds 
 from tree to tree, or whither its inclination leads it. 
 
 There appears to be scarcely any of that motion with which 
 the wing of the bird or the bat is endowed, for the purpose of 
 progression, by beating the air with a succession of strokes, if any 
 at all, so that the apparatus maybe considered as merely a natural 
 parachute, expansible at the will of the animal. 
 
 Very different were the flying dragons of the Age of Reptiles ; 
 nor can Ave be surprised that an animal like the Pterodactyle, 
 whose remains presented such a variety of contradictions, should 
 have caused some difference of opinions among naturalists, before 
 the penetrating eye of Cuvier cleared away the clouds that sur- 
 rounded it, and reduced the darkness and apparent confusion to 
 light and harmony, 
 
 Collini, a Florentine man of letters, director of the cabinet of 
 the Elector Palatine, at Manheim, and well known from his 
 memoirs of Voltaire, to whom he was for some time attached, 
 first drew public attention to the large and long-beaked species,* 
 which had been found in the lithographic Jurassic limestone of 
 Aichstadt, a formation abounding in animal exuvise, such as those 
 of fishes, crustaceans, insects, and mollusks. These remains 
 appeared to Collini to belong to an animal so heteroclite, that he 
 long hesitated under what class to arrange it. He justly declared 
 that it was neither a bird nor a bat, doubted whether it might not 
 be an amphibian, and finished by the conclusion that its place 
 was to be sought among marine animals. 
 
 Professor Hermann of Strasburg was of opinion that it was a 
 
 * Pterodactylus longirostris. 
 
368 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 mammiferous animal, and, after long consideration, produced a 
 restoration of the creature, with a hairy covering 1 , believing that 
 he had fixed its position as an intermediate species between the 
 bats and the birds. He was greatly strengthened in this belief 
 by Sommering, an authority of no small weight, from the deserved 
 respect in which the latter was held, and who, notwithstanding 
 the appearance of' Cuvier's memoir another wonderful instance 
 of the acuteness of that great man, for he had never seen the 
 specimen, and Collini's figure and description were his only 
 materials -arranged the form among the mammals, in the vicinity 
 of the bats. Now Sommering had seen the specimen, and 
 Cuvier's remarks indicating its true and reptilian character, 
 reached him just as he was going to press with his dissertation, 
 which was read to the academy at Munich in 1810; but instead 
 of opening his eyes at the just reasoning of Cuvier, Sommering 
 set himself to oppose, and vainly attempt to destroy the arguments 
 of the great French zoologist. 
 
 Blumenbach, in 1807, had referred the puzzling fossil to the 
 aquatic web-footed birds, with less reason even than that which 
 led Sommering to consider the animal mammiferous ; for, as 
 Cuvier succinctly observes, the teeth on the bill of the Mergan- 
 sers or Goosanders do not go beyond the horny sheath, and are 
 not to be seen on the bone of the bill. 
 
 Cuvier returned to the charge, recapitulating more explicitly 
 his arguments in favour of the reptilian condition of the animal, 
 and had now an ally in Oken, who had inspected the fossil, and 
 published his memoir in the Isis" of 1819, explaining his 
 reasons for concluding that it was a reptile. 
 
 Not to weary our readers with the controversy, it will be suffi- 
 cient to state that Cuvier, as usual, was right, and that not the 
 most distant doubt is now entertained that the Pterodactyle was 
 a reptile. Professor Owen well observes that the term Ornitho- 
 cephalus, originally imposed by Sommering on the genus Ptero- 
 dactylus of Cuvier, the type of the distinct order of Pterosauria, 
 would be much more applicable to the Rynchosaurus ; for 
 although a more striking approach to the class of birds is made 
 by the pectoral extremity, which endowed the Pterodactyle with 
 the power of flight, it is r the professor observes, precisely in the 
 structure of the cranium that it adheres most closely to the 
 Saurian type of structure. 
 
 Dr. Buckland accounts for the discordance of opinion above 
 noticed, respecting the nature of a creature whose fossil skeleton 
 was almost entire, by alluding to the presence of characters in it, 
 apparently belonging to each of the three classes to which it was 
 referred. There were the birdlike neck and head, the wing 
 approaching in form and proportion to that of the bat, and a 
 body and tail approximating to that of the mammal. 
 
ANCIENT FLYING DRAGONS. 369* 
 
 " These characters," says Dr. Buckland, " connected with the 
 small skull, as is usual among reptiles, and a beak furnished with 
 not less than sixty pointed teeth, presented a combination of 
 apparent anomalies which it was reserved for the genius of Cuvier 
 to reconcile. In his hands, this apparently monstrous produc- 
 tion of the ancient world, has been converted into one of the 
 most beautiful examples ever afforded by comparative anatomy of 
 the harmony that pervades all nature in the adaptation of the 
 same parts of the animal frame, to infinitely varied conditions of 
 existence."* 
 
 Although the cervical vertebrae of the Pterodactyles were 
 lengthened in form, their number falls short of that of birds. Not 
 more than six or seven have been found in the extinct flying 
 Saurians, whilst they are numerous in the plumed bipeds ; the 
 neck of the swan consists of no less than twenty-three. The 
 thin slender lizardlike ribs of the Pterodactyle form a strong con- 
 trast to the flat and broad costal apparatus of birds ; and in the 
 pelvic bones of the extinct Saurian, the lacertian type is followed. 
 The metatarsal bones of the foot are distinct in the Pterodactyle, 
 but consolidated in the bird. 
 
 It is in the bones of the forefoot, however, that the modification 
 of the reptile for the medium in which it was sustained, is most 
 striking. There is no difference in the number, and but little in 
 proportion between the bones of a living lizard's forefoot, and 
 those of a Pterodactyle's anterior or pectoral extremity ; but the 
 latter are so arranged as to fit them for expanding the mem- 
 branous wing which was to enable that strange-looking dragon 
 to steer its flight through the heavy atmosphere, 
 
 Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air, 
 
 an operation which its low organization, and comparatively weak 
 muscular irritability, would have rendered far more difficult in 
 the rarer and purer fluid that now surrounds our earth. This 
 wing differed much in the arrangement of its bones from that of 
 the bat. 
 
 The eye of the Pterodactyle was very large, and the animal 
 was probably noctivagous as well as diurnal. 
 
 Of these anomalous creatures no less than seven species have 
 been described and named; nor is there reason for doubting that 
 more remain to be discovered ; an eighth undescribed species has 
 been found at Stonesfield. Two of these are British, both brought 
 to notice by Dr. Buckland ; and the most perfect of these, the 
 head of which, however, is Avanting, is the Pterodactylus macronyx, 
 Buckl., from Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire. 
 
 < - , '~ .^ f ''. 
 
 ' * Bridgewater Treatise. 
 
370 ZOOLOGICAL RECREATIONS. 
 
 Dr. Buckland is of opinion that these Pterodactyles did not 
 suspend themselves, when at rest, with their heads downward, 
 like the bats ; but he relies on the size and form of the thigh, leg, 
 and foot, for the inference that they had the power of standing 
 firmly on the ground (where they possibly moved with folded 
 wings, after the manner of birds), and of perching on trees, and 
 climbing on rocks and cliffs, by the joint aid of their anterior 
 and posterior extremities, like bats and lizards. 
 
 With submission to an authority worthy of the greatest 
 respect, we cannot subscribe to the whole of this inference. The 
 smallness and weakness of the pelvis forbids us to agree with Dr. 
 Buckland, when he infers that the Pterodactyle stood firmly on 
 the ground, and probably moved thereon with folded wings, after 
 the fashion of a bird. The hooks on the anterior extremities 
 would not only have enabled this Saurian to suspend itself when 
 it wished to rest, but to drag itself along prone on the earth, on 
 which the structure of the pelvic organization forbad it to walk 
 like a bird. 
 
 A careful examination of the whole osseous fabric conducts us 
 to the conclusion that the Pterodactyle shuffled along upon the 
 ground, after the manner of a bat, and scuttled through the 
 water when it had occasion to swim ; nor do we see why it might 
 not, when at rest, have suspended itself by the hind-legs, like the 
 volatile quadruped. The general hue of the body was probably 
 lurid, and the texture of the skin shagreen-like, resembling in 
 some degree the external tegument of a chameleon or guana, 
 excepting the smooth membrane of the wing. 
 
 Insects, such as the large fossil dragon-flies (Libellulse}, dis- 
 interred with them from the Solenhofen quarries, and Coleoptera, 
 whose elytra are found with the bones of the Stonesfield species 
 in the oolitic slate there, contributed, doubtless, to their food, 
 but Dr. Buckland well observes that the head and teeth of some 
 species are so much larger and stronger than would be required 
 for insect capture, that the greater Pterodactyles may possibly 
 have fed on fishes, darting upon them from the air, after the 
 manner of Terns or Solan geese. The enormous size and strength 
 of the head and teeth of Pterodactylus crassirostris, he adds, 
 would not only have enabled it to catch fish, but also to kill and 
 devour the few small marsupial animals which then existed upon 
 land. 
 
 Such were the heteroclite animals to which nothing modern 
 can in the slightest approach be comparable, except perhaps the 
 pictorial dragons of a Chinese screen, and such in all probability 
 were their habits when thousands of years ago they flitted heavily 
 above 
 
 " The pots'nous fields with rank luxuriance crown'd," 
 
ANCIENT FLYING DRAGONS. 371 
 
 where the wholesome air now refreshes the well-cultivated land 
 white to harvest, and the healthy civilized race of men, whose 
 holy and happy day of rest is announced by the sahbath bell. 
 
 If the ploughshare, brightened by the fertile soil which it now 
 divides, brings before us, when it turns up from the furrow some 
 ancient Italian coin, the march of the Roman legions over our hills, 
 plains, and valleys, what visions does the petrified bone of one of 
 these Preadamite Saurians call forth ! 
 
 Look at the reptilian relic in the stone which helps to form 
 that cottage wall. As we gaze, the wall disappears ; and, to the 
 mind's eye, its place is occupied by a vast sea, which, when 
 circulation animated that bone, covered its site. Through the 
 waters of this sea, Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, Mosasaurs, and 
 Cetiosaurs dart, swim, and gambol. If we turn landward, the 
 sluggish river, the marshy jungle and the dreary plain seem 
 peopled by ancient Crocodilians, Iguanodons and Megalosaurs, 
 while Pterodactyles appear to hover in the murky atmosphere of 
 the old dragon times. 
 
 Now, how changed the scene ! Instead of animals of a low 
 grade of organization, which then were the highest and predo- 
 minant forms, the most elaborate and perfect of the animated 
 works of the Creator abound. 
 
 Pterodactyles have been succeeded by birds Ichthyosaurs, 
 Plesiosaurs/ Mosasaurs, and the like, by whales, dolphins, and 
 great fishes. Where the herbivorous Iguanodon revelled, the ox, 
 the deer, and the sheep, quietly crop the fragrant herbage ; whilst 
 in place of the destructive Megalosaur, the carnivorous mam- 
 malia keep down the excessive multiplication of the ruminants ; 
 and MAN has the dominion over all. In future ages his remains 
 will fill the bosom of the earth ; and the traveller in some far 
 distant century will feel the full force of Byron's lines wherever 
 he sets his foot : 
 
 Stop ! for thy tread is on an Empire's dust ! 
 An Earthquake's spoil is sepulchred below ! 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 SINCE the publication of the first edition of this book, poor 
 Ja'ck has sunk under a complication of diseases. His demise was 
 thus noticed in the Observer of the 13th of June, 1847. 
 
 " DEATH OF AN ELEPHANT. 
 
 " The habitual visitors of the Zoological Gardens in the 
 Regent's Park, will learn with regret that their old friend, the 
 elephant, known by the familiar name of " Jack," departed this 
 life on Sunday morning last, after a short illness. .During the 
 last few weeks preceding his dissolution, the health of the poor 
 brute had been rapidly deteriorating. On Friday, the 5th inst., 
 the skin under the lower-jaw cracked, and a copious effusion of 
 blood took place. This was the reason which determined the 
 authorities of the garden to keep poor Jack in solitary confine- 
 ment, but he did not long survive ( his seclusion. On Sunday 
 morning he sunk back upon his haunches, with his, fore-legs 
 extended before him, and remained in this, motionless posture 
 for about two hours, when at half past seven o'clock, his trunk 
 dropped to the ground, ad he expired without making any 
 further movement. He did not fall over, but stiffened in the 
 upright position in which he .lay, not even his head sinking. 
 The probable cause of Jack's death, was .a disease provoked by 
 his great weight, and aggravated by the want of sufficient exer- 
 cise, in that part of his forelegs situated below the knee. This 
 was productive of excessive irritation, which affected, the nervous 
 system generally. .His sufferings were terminated by a stroke of 
 apoplexy. A large Abscess had formed under the lower jaw, of 
 itself quite sufficient to cause death. Thus terminated the 
 career of poor Jack, -whose amusing tricks and docile manner 
 had rendered him everybody's favourite. His mangled remains- 
 are distributed amongst the medical professors resident in the 
 metropolis, the larger having been assigned to the College of 
 Surgeons, the Veterinary College, and the King's College, It is 
 32 
 
374 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 expected that the sale of the skin will realize a considerable sum ; 
 and an attempt will be made to recover the dispersed fragments 
 of the skeleton. The loss of this fine specimen of the elephantine 
 tribe must prove a very serious one to the Zoological Society, 
 and can scarcely be replaced for a less sum than ,800 or ; 1,000. 
 The height of the elephant was between twelve and fourteen 
 feet." 
 
 I find, among my papers, the following note : 
 
 " The last time I saw poor Jack alive, was on Whit-Sunday 
 1847, when I had the honour of attending His Imperial High- 
 ness the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia in his walk over the 
 garden, in company with Sir Roderick Murchison, Professor 
 Owen, and the Grand Duke's suite. 
 
 " The elephant was miserably fallen away, and stood, as he 
 had long previously remained, supporting himself by laying his 
 huge trunk along the bar that fronted his apartment. He was 
 evidently suffering much, and the keeper warned me not to go 
 near, his temper having become ferocious. I knew him well, 
 however, and ventured to approach : and he threw up his trunk 
 and showed his molar teeth in his open mouth at my usual 
 signal. I had nothing to give him but bran, and that he took 
 from my hand. 
 
 " After his death, when the operation of skinning was going 
 on, the sight was disgusting enough. The skinners, in the 
 obscure light of the den, looked like vultures on the huge bloody 
 mass. Professor Owen was desirous of securing the brain entire, 
 and had given his directions accordingly ; but his aids, though 
 skilful, met with difficulties, and were obliged to send for him. 
 There had been great inflammation of the brain. The dura 
 mater adhered to the pia mater, and this last to the brain. 
 In the Professor's endeavour to extract the brain, he was wounded 
 in the left hand in two places by spicula of bone. Mr. Cooper 
 (of Tenterden Street) cauterized the worst wound. His friends 
 were uneasy, remembering the recent melancholy death of Mr. 
 Potter, of University College Hospital, who long lingered, and 
 at last sank, in consequence of the absorption of deleterious 
 matter, in extracting the pelvis of a diseased subject (abscess) 
 with an abrasion of the skin of the hand. Professor Owen had 
 the dangerous symptom of pain up the arm ; but when I saw him 
 on Thursday evening jthat pain had left him, and he was only 
 suffering from the pain of the cauterized wound. In the throat 
 of the elephant was an abscess a foot deep. The Professor told 
 me that the heat of the body was very great, the chemical heat 
 having immediately succeeded the animal heat." 
 
^ POSTSCRIPT. 375 
 
 To this, I have only to add that, to the great joy of his many 
 friends, the Professor entirely recovered from his perilous wound ; 
 and that I have obtained from the intelligent keepers of the 
 animals kept in the garden of the Zoological Society of London, 
 the following information relative to the elephant. 
 
 After he became ill, and suffered from the disease of the joint of 
 the fore-leg, poor Jack remained on his legs till within two hours 
 of his death. In the summer of 1846, he rolled in the mud in the 
 paddock two or three times ; but he had not laid down to rest for 
 two years, dating from March, 1847. About midsummer, 1846, 
 he * fell off in his appetite," to use the keeper's expression ; and 
 for the last six months of his life had not taken more than half 
 of his usual allowance. His temper was not altered by his illness 
 until he was unable to move about, and then a marked change for 
 the worse took place. There must be some mistake in the mea- 
 surement given in the Observer ; for the keeper informs me, that 
 when he was last measured (in June, 1846) his height was nine 
 feet three inches ; and he could hardly have gained such an 
 addition in two years, and while under the pressure of disease. 
 The age of poor Jack was, it is supposed, about forty years. See 
 pp. 200, 261, 262 of this volume.* W. J. B. 
 
 31st January, 1848. f 
 
 With reference to the note relative to the alleged absence of the 
 nightingale from Wales (p. 74), I have been favoured with the 
 following interesting narrative, written to my friend, William Pyle 
 Taunton, Esq., of Ashridge, in the county of Hants, by Mr. 
 and Mrs. Storey Maskelyne, both good observers, and blest with 
 accurate ears for bird-music. 
 
 Mr. Storey Maskelyne thus writes to Mr. Taunton on the 31st 
 of March in the present year : " Whether the nightingales 
 accompanied us into Whales from their favourite shady coverts 
 here (Basset Down House, near Wroughton, Swindon, Wilts), 
 and tuned their nocturnal note solely for us, I will not decide, but 
 our neighbours among the Welsh never confessed to hearing 
 them. 
 
 "Having much business at the time alluded to on our hands, 
 we generally retired late to bed : it was generally at a matutinal 
 hour rather than before midnight. As we were pretty well 
 crowded in our cottage, I always kept a skylight open till we 
 
 * At p. 260, the age of Jack is stated as thirty-three years ; and such it 
 was when the account was written. The falling off in the height, stated as 
 about nine feet six inches, at p. 260, may have been the result of illness. , 
 
376 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 went to bed, when it was secured the last thing. One night, 
 or rather morning, to my infinite delight, I heard the notes of our 
 Basset-Down favourite ! I shut down the skylight, but opened 
 our bed-room window, and we enjoyed beyond expression on that, 
 and on many a subsequent night, the delicious harmony of these 
 birds. We could not be mistaken." 
 
 Mrs. Storey Maskelyne writes to Mr. Taunton on the 5th of 
 April, in the present year, thus " Your letter has been for- 
 warded to me here, and I lose no time in giving you the informa- 
 tion you require on the subject of our favourite bird's visits to the 
 principality. . The Welsh say the nightingale never passes the 
 Bulch Hill. This I doubt, as we certainly frequently heard a 
 song so lovely and varied, it could be no other than the " most 
 musical, most melancholy" songstress of the night. We were 
 frequently late, between eleven and twelve, and then we heard 
 the singing. Being acquainted with the note, we. could distin- 
 guish it in the day-time, and have frequently detected the bird by 
 its song in one of the woods by our house at Glanwysk, where a 
 walk goes round the wood on the hill, so there was no doubt 
 of the locality of it. I also heard it in other places. The 
 situation was near the. confluence of the Usk and the Senny, 
 in the parish of Devynnock. The singing was not confined to one 
 season ; we heard it several years : and I make no doubt, were I 
 there now, this warm weather would be propitious to our having 
 the same treat again." 
 
 MAT, 1848. 
 
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 Volume One, of nearly seven hundred large pages, containing Volumes 
 One, Two, and Three, of the duodecimo edition, and Volume Two, of more 
 than six hundred pages, containing Volumes Four and Five of the 12mo., 
 have just been issued. The remainder will follow rapidly, two volumes in 
 one, and the whole will form an elegant set of one of the most popular his- 
 tories of the day. The publishers have gone to much expense in pre- 
 paring this from the revised and improved London edition, to meet the fre- 
 quent inquiriea/or the " Lives of the Queens of England," in better style, 
 larger type, and finer paper than has heretofore been accessible to readers 
 in this country. Any volume of this edition sold separately. 
 
 A few copies still on hand of the Duodecimo Edition. Ten volumes are 
 now ready. Vol. I. Contains Matilda of Flanders, Matilda of Scotland, 
 Adelicia of Louvaine, Matilda of Boulogne, and Eleanor of Aquitaine. 
 Price 50 cents, in fancy paper. Vol. II. -Berengaria of Navarre, Isabella 
 of Angouleme, Eleanor of Provence, Eleanor of Castile, Marguerite of 
 France, Isabella of France, Philippa of Hainault, and Anne of Bohemia. 
 Price 50 cents. Vol. III. Isabella of Valois, Joanna of Navarre, Katha- 
 rine of Valois, Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville, and Ann of War- 
 wick. Price 50 cents. Vol. IV. Elizabeth of York, Katharine of Arragon, 
 Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, and Katharine Howard. 
 Price 65 cents. Vol. V. Katharine Parr and Queen Mary. Price 65 cents. 
 Vol. VI. Queen Elizabeth. Price 65 cents. Vol. VII. Queen Elizabeth 
 (continued), and Anne of Denmark. Price 65 cents. Vol. VIII. Henrietta 
 Maria and Catharine of Braganza. Price 65 cents. Vol. IX. Mary of 
 Modena. Price 75 cents. Vol. X. Mary of Mod,ena (continued), and 
 Mary II. Price 75 cents. 
 
 Any volume sold separately, or the whole to match in neat green cloth. 
 JUST PUBLISHED 
 
 VOLUME TEN: 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 MARY OF MODENA, AND MARY II. 
 
 Price 75 cents in fancy paper. Also, in extra green cloth. 
 
 "These volumes have the fascination of a romance united to the integrity of history." Times. 
 
 "A most valuable and entertaining work." Cknmide. 
 
 "This interesting and well-written work, in which the severe truth of history takes almost the 
 wildness of romance, will constitute a valuable addition to our biographical literature." Morning 
 Herald. 
 
 "A valuable contribution to historical knowledge, to young persons especially. It contains a 
 mass of every kinJ of historical matter of interest, which industry and research could collect. We 
 have derived much entertainment and instruction from the work." AtlienaEum. 
 
 "The execution of this work is equal to the conception. Great pains have been taken to make 
 it both interesting and valuable." Literary Gazette. 
 
 " A charming work full of interest, at once serious and pleasing." Monsieur Cuizot. 
 
 ' A most charming biographical memoir. We conclude by expressing our unqualified opinion, 
 that we know of no more valuable contribution to modern history than Uiis uinMi vol'ime of Mi 
 Strickland's Lives of the Queens." Morning Herald. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 ROSCOE'S LIVES OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 TO MATCH MISS STRICKLAND'S "QUEENS." 
 
 VOLUME ONE, CONTAINING THE 
 
 LIFE OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 
 
 In neat royal duodecimo, extra cloth, oj- fancy paper. 
 
 "The historical reader will find this a work of peculiar interest. It displays throughout the 
 most pains-taking research, and a style of narrative which has all the lucidity and strength of 
 Gibbon. It is a work with which, shedding such a light as we are justified in saying it will do 
 upon English history, every library ought to be provided." Sunday Times. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE LOVES OF THE POETS, 
 
 Biographical Sketches of Women celebrated in Ancient and 
 
 Modern Poetry. 
 
 BY MRS. JAMIESON. 
 In one royal duodecimo volume, price 75 cents. 
 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT, HIS COURT AND TIMES, 
 
 EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY THOMAS CAMP- 
 
 BELL, ESQ., AUTHOR OF THE "PLEASURES OF HOPE." 
 
 Second Series, in two duodecimo volumes, extra cloth. 
 
 HISTORY OF CONGRESS, 
 
 EXHIBITING A CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SENATE AND THE 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FROM 1789 TO 1793, EMBRACING THE FIRST 
 
 TERM OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 In one large octavo volume of over 700 pages, price only $1.50. 
 
 MOORE'S IREI.ANP-NOW COMPLETE. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND, 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST KINGS OF THAT REALM DOWN TO ITS LATEST CHIEFS. 
 In two octavo volumes, extra cloth. 
 
 Mr. Moore has at length completed his History of Ireland containing the most troubled and inter- 
 esting periods through which it has passed. Those who have possessed themselves of the work as 
 far as the Great Expedition against Scotland in 1545, can procure the second volume separate. 
 
 HISTORY OF THJfw/^ IN 1815, 
 
 CONTAINING MINUTE DETAILS OF TtlE BATTLES OF QUATRE-BRAS, LIGNY, WAVRE 
 AND WATERLOO. 
 
 BY CAPTAIN W. SIBORNE. 
 
 In one octavo volume, with Maps and Plans of Battles, &c., viz.: 
 1. Part of Belgium, indicating the distribution of the armies on commencing hostilities. 2. Field 
 of Qatre-Bras, at 3 o'clock, P. M. 3. Field of Quatre-Bras, at 7 o'clock, P. M. 4. Field of Ligny, 
 at a quarter past 2 o'clock, P. M. 5. Field of Ligny, at half past 8 o'clock, P. M. 6. Field of Water- 
 loo, at a quarter past 11 o'clock, A. M. 7. Field of Waterloo, at a quarter before 8 o'clock, P. M. 
 8 Field of Waterloo, at 5 minutes past 8 o'clock, P. M. 9. Field of Wavre, at 4 o'clock, P. M., 18th 
 June. 10. Field of Wavre, at 4 o'clock, A. M., 19th June. 11. Part of France, on which is shown 
 the advance of the Allied Armies into the Kingdom. 
 
 TEXT BOOK OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 
 
 BY J. C. I GIESELER, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN GOTTINGEN. TRANSLATED 
 
 FROM THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION, BY F. CUNNINGHAM. 
 
 In three octavo volumes, containing over 1200 large pages. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY, 
 
 ON A NEW AND SYSTEMATIC PLAN, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE TREATY 
 
 OF VIENNA, TO WHICH IS ADDED A SUMMARY OF THE LEADING 
 
 EVENTS SINCE THAT PERIOD. 
 
 BY H. WHITE, B.A. 
 
 SIXTH AMERICAN EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS 
 BY JOHN S. HART, A.M. 
 
 In one large royal 12mo. volume, neat extra clotfc. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 GRAHAME'S COLONIAL HISTORY. 
 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 FROM THE PLANTATION OF THE BRITISH COLONIES 
 TILL THEIR ASSUMPTION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 SECOND AMERICAN EDITION, 
 ENLARGED AND AMENDED, 
 
 WITH A MEMOIR BY PRESIDENT QUINCY. 
 
 IN TWO LARGE OCTAVO VOLUMES, EXTRA CLOTH, 
 WITH A PORTRAIT. 
 
 This work haying assumed the position of a standard history of this 
 country, the. publishers have been induced to issue an edition in smaller size 
 and at a less cost, that its circulation may be commensurate with its merits. 
 It is now considered as the most impartial and trustworthy history that has 
 yet appeared. 
 
 A lew copies of the edition in four volumes, on extra fine thick paper, 
 price eight dollars, may still be had by gentlemen desirous of procuring a 
 beautiful work for their libraries. 
 
 " It is universally known to literary men as, in its original form, one of the earliest histories of 
 this country, and certainly one of the best ever written by a foreigner. It has been constantly and 
 copiously used by every one who has, since its appearance, undertaken the history of this country. 
 In the course of the memoir prefixed to it, it is vindicated from the aspersions cast on it by Mr. 
 Bancroft, -who, nevertheless, h:is derived from it a vast amount of the information and documentary 
 material of his own ambitious, able and extended work. It is issued in two volumes, and cannot 
 fail to ficd its way to every library of any pretensions. New York Courier and Enquirer. 
 
 COOPER'S NAVAL HISTORY. 
 HISTORY OF THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 BY J. FENIMORE COOPER. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, WITH CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. 
 
 Complete, two volumes in one, neat extra cloth, 
 
 With a Portrait of the Author, Two Maps, and Portraits of PAUL JONES, BAINBIUDGE, 
 DALE, TREBLE, DECATOR, PORTER, PERRY, AND McDoNoooH. 
 
 WRAXALL'S HISTORICAL MEMOIRS. 
 HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIMES, 
 
 BY SIR N. W. WRAXALL. 
 
 ONE NEAT VOLUME, EXTRA CLOTH. 
 
 This is the work for which, in consequence of too truthful a portraiture of Catherine II., the 
 uthor was imprisoned and ' 
 pressed uutil after his death. 
 
 author was imprisoned and lined. Taught by this experience, his succeeding memoirs he sup- 
 after hi " 
 
 WRAXALL'S POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 
 POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS OF HIS OWN TIMES, 
 
 BY SIR N. W. WRAXALL. 
 
 IN ONE VOLUME, EXTRA CLOTH. 
 
 This work contains much secret and amusing anecdote of the prominent personages of the daf, 
 which rendered its posthumous publication necessary 
 
..*. LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 WALPOLE'S LETTERS AND MEMOI RS. 
 
 THE LETTERS OF HORACE WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFtiRD, 
 
 CONTAINING NEARLY THREE HUNDRED LETTERS. 
 
 NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FEOM THE ORIGINALS, AND FORMING AN~UNINTER- 
 RUPTED SERIES FROM 1735 TO 1797. 
 
 In four large octavo volumes, with a portrait of the Author. 
 
 THE LETTERS OF HORACE WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD, 
 
 TO SIR HORACE MANN, FROM 1760 TO 1785. 
 
 NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS. 
 
 In two octavo volumes, to match the above. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE THE THIRD, 
 
 BY HORACE WALPOLE. 
 NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS. 
 
 EDITED, WITH NOTES, 
 
 BY SIR DENIS LE MARCHANT. ^ 
 
 These Memoirs comprise the first twelve years of the reign of George III. ; and recommend 
 themselves especially to the reader in this country, as containing an account of the early trouble* 
 with America. They form a sequel to the "Memoirs of George the Second," by the same author. 
 
 BROWNING'S HUGUENOTS. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS A NEW EDITION, 
 
 CONTINUED TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 BY W. S. BROWNING, 
 
 In one large octavo volume, extra cloth. 
 
 " One of the most interesting and valuable contributions to modern history-" Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine. 
 
 " Not the least interesting portion of the work has reference to the violence and persecution* 
 of 1815." Times. 
 
 ..__ 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE SECOND WAR BETWEEN 
 
 THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND GREAT 
 
 BRITAIN, DECLARED BY ACT OF CONGRESS, 
 
 JUNE 18, 1812, AND CONCLUDED BY 
 
 PEACE, FEBRUARY 15, 1815. 
 
 BIT C3EI^kRX.ES J. IXTGERS OLL. 
 
 One volume octavo of 516 pages, embracing the events of 1812 1813. 
 
 Beautifully printed, and done up in neat extra cloth. 
 
 ^__ 
 
 MEMORANDA OF A RESIDENCE AT THE COURT OP LONDON, 
 
 COMPRISING INCIDENTS OFFICIAL AND PERSONAL, FEOM 1819 TO 1825; 
 
 INCLUDING NEGOTIATIONS ON THE OREGON QUESTION, AND OTHER UNSETTLED RELATIONS 
 BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 EV RICHARD RUSK, 
 
 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States, from 1817 to 1825 
 
 In one large and beautiful octavo volume, extra cloth. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 NIEBUHVS ROME. 
 
 THH HISTORY OF 
 
 BY B. G. NIEBUHR. 
 
 COMPLETE IN TWO LARGE OCTAVO VOLUMES. 
 Done up in extra cloth ; or five parts, paper, price $1.00 each. 
 
 The last three parts of this valuable book have never before been published in this country, hav- 
 ing only lately been printed in Germany, and translated in England. The two last of these com- 
 prise Professor Niebuhr's Lectures on the latter part of Roman History, so long lost to the world. 
 
 " It is an unexpected surprise and pleasure to the admirers of Niebuhr that is, to all earnest stu- 
 dents of ancient history to recover, as from the grave, the lectures before us." Eclectic Review. 
 
 " The world has now in Niebuhr an imperishable model." Edinburgh Review, Jan. 1844. 
 
 " Here we close our remarks upon this memorable work, a work which, of all that have appeared 
 in our asre, is the best fitted to excite men of learning to intellectual activity : from which the most 
 accomplished scholar may gather fresh stores of knowledge, to which the most experienced politi- 
 cian may resort for theoretical and practical instruction, and which no person can read as it ought 
 to be read, without feeling the better and more generous sentiments of his common human nature 
 enlivened and strengthened." Edinburgh Review. 
 
 " It is since I saw you that I have been devouring with the most intense admiration the third 
 volume of Niebuhr. The clearness and comprehensiveness of all his military details is a new 
 feature in that wonderful mind, and how inimitably beautiful is that brief account of Terni." Dr 
 Arnold (Life, vol. ii.) _ 
 
 PROFESSOR RANKE'S HISTORICAL WORKS. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE POPES, 
 
 THEIR CHURCH AND STATE, IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 
 BY LEOPOLD RANKE. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE LAST EDITION OF THE GERMAN, BY WALTER K. KELLY, ESQ., B. A. 
 
 In two parts, paper, at 1.00 each, or one large volume, extra cloth. 
 
 "A book extraordinary for its learning and impartiality, and for its just and liberal views of the 
 times it describes. The best compliment that can be paid to Mr. Ranke, is, that each side has 
 accused him of partiality to its opponent : the German Protestants complaining that his work is 
 written in too Catholic a spirit ; the Catholics declaring, that generally impartial as he is, it is 
 clear to perceive the Protestant tendency of the history." London Times. 
 
 THE TURKISH AND SPANISH EMPIRES, 
 
 IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY AND BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH, 
 BY PROFESSOR LEOPOLD RANKE. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE LAST EDITION OF THE GERMAN, BY WALTER K. KELLY, ESO^ 
 
 Complete in one part, paper, price 75 cents. 
 
 This work was published by the author in connexion with the " History of the Popes," under 
 the name of " Sovereigns and Nations of Southern Europe, in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Cen- 
 turies." It may be used separately, or bound up with that work, for wliich purpose two titles will 
 be found in it. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY, 
 
 BY PROFESSOR LEOPOLD RANKE. 
 PARTS FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD NOW READY. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND EDITION, BY SARAH AUSTIN. 
 
 To be completed m Five parts, each part containing one volume of the London edition. 
 " Few modern writers possess such qualifications for doing justice to so great a subject as Leo 
 pold Ranke. Indefatigable in exertions, he revels in the toil of examining archives and state 
 papers: honest in purpose, he shapes his theories from evidence; not like D'Aubigne, whose 
 romance of the Reformation selects evidence to support preconceived theory. Ranke never forgets 
 the statesman in the theologian, or the historian in the partisan." A thenceum. 
 
 BROUGHAM ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 One volume 12mo., paper, price 50 cents. 
 
 STUDIES OF THE LIFE OF WOMAN. 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OF MADAME NECKER DE SAUSSURE. 
 Jn one neat 12mo. volume, fancy paper. Price 75 cents. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF MOTHERS ; OR, CIVILIZATION OF 
 MANKIND BY WOMEN. 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OF L. AIME MARTIN. 
 In one 12mo. volume, paper, price 75 cents; or in extra cloth. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATION 3. 
 
 POPULAR SCIENCE. 
 
 PHILOSOPHY IN SPORT, MADE SCIENCE IN EARNEST, 
 
 BEING AN ATTEMPT TO ILLUSTRATE THE FIRST PRIN 
 
 CIPLES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, BY THE 
 
 AID OF THE POPULAR TOYS AND 
 
 SPORTS OF YOUTH. 
 
 FROM THE SIXTH AND GREATLY" IMPROVED LONDON EDITION. 
 
 In one very neat royal 18mo. volume, with nearly one hundred illustrations on wood. 
 Fine extra crimson cloth. 
 
 " Messrs. Lea & Blancliard have issued, in a beautiful manner, a handsome book, called ' Philoso- 
 phy in Sport, made Science in Earnest.' This is an admirable attempt to illustrate the first prin- 
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 tion is conveyed in an easy, graceful, yet dignified manner, and rendered easy to the simplest under- 
 standing. The book is an admirable one, and must" meet with universal favour." N. Y. Evening 
 
 ENDLESS AMUSEMENT. 
 
 JUST ISSUED. 
 
 ENDLESS AMUSEMENT, 
 
 A COLLECTION OF 
 
 NEARLY FOUR HUNDRED ENTERTAINING EXPERIMENTS 
 IN VARIOUS BRANCHES OF SCIENCE, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 ACOUSTICS, ARITHMETIC, CHEMISTRY, ELECTRICITY, HYDRAULICS, HYDROSTATICS, 
 
 MAGNETISM, MECHANICS, OPTICS, WONDERS OF THE AIR PUMP, ALL THE 
 
 POPULAR TRICKS AND CHANGES OF THE CARDS, <kc., kc. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF PYROTECHNY, 
 
 OR THE ART OF MAKING FIRE-WORKS: 
 
 THE WHOLE SO CLEARLY EXPLAINED AS TO BE WITHIN REACH 
 
 OF THE MOST LIMITED CAPACITY. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FROM THE SEVENTH LONDON EDITION. 
 
 In one neat royal 18mo. volume, fine extra crimson cloth. 
 
 This work has long supplied instructive amusement to the rising generations in England, and 
 will doubtless be hailed with pleasure by those of this country \vho like (and what boy does not) 
 the marvellous tricks and changes, experiments and wonders afforded by the magic of science and 
 jugglery. 
 
 CHEMISTRY OF THE FOUR SEASONS, 
 
 SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, AND WINTER. 
 
 AN ESSAY, PRINCIPALLY CONCERNING NATURAL PHENOMENA, ADMITTING Of 
 
 INTERPRETATION BY CHEMICAL SCIENCE, AND ILLUSTRATING 
 
 PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 BY THOMAS GRIFFITHS, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL, ETC. 
 
 In one large royal 12mo. volume, with many Wood-Cuts, extra cloth. 
 
 " Chemistry is assuredly one of the most useful and interesting of the natural sciences. Chemical 
 changes meet us at every step, and during every season, the winds and the rain, the heat and the 
 frosts, each have their peculiar and appropriate phenomena. And those who have hitherto re- 
 mained insensible to these changes and unmoved amid such remarkable, and often startling re- 
 sults, will lose their apathy upon reading the Chemistry of the ' Four Seasons,' and be prepared to 
 enjoy the highest intellectual pleasures. Conceived in a happy spirit, and written with taste and 
 elegance, the essay of Mr. Griffiths cannot fail to receive the admiration of cultivated minds ; and 
 those who have looked less carefully into nature's beauties, will find themselves led on step by 
 step, until they realize a new intellectual being. Such works, we believe, exert a happy influence 
 over society, and hence \ve hope that the present one may be extensively read." Toe Western 
 Lancet. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 POPULAR. SCIENCE, 
 KIRBY AND SPENCE r S ENTOMOLOGY, FOR POPULAR USE. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION- TO ENTOMOLOGY; 
 
 OR, ELEMENTS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OP INSECTS; COMPRISING AN ACCOUNT 
 
 OF NOXIOUS AND USEFUL INSECTS. OF THEIR METAMORPHOSES, FOOD, 
 
 STRATAGEMS, HABITATIONS, SOCIETIES, MOTIONS, NOISES, 
 
 HYBERNAT10N, INSTINCT, &.C., &c. 
 
 With Plates, Plain or Colored. 
 
 BY WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A.,F.R.S., AND WILLIAM SPENCE, ESQ., F.R.S. 
 
 FBOM THE SIXTH LONDON EDITION, WHICH WAS CORRECTED AND CONSIDKBABLY ENLARGED. 
 
 In one large octavo volume, extra cloth. 
 
 "We have been greatly interested in running over the pages of this treatise. There is scarcely, in 
 the wide range of natural science, a more interesting or instructive study than that of insects, or 
 one than is calculated to excite more curiosity or wonder. 
 
 " The popular form of letters is adopted by the authors in imparting a knpwledge of the subject, 
 which renders the work peculiarly fitted for our district school libraries, which are open to all ages 
 and classes." Hunt's Merchant? Magazine. 
 
 A N S Tmr^^ 
 
 JUST ISSUED. 
 
 THE ANCIENT WORLD, OR, PICTURESQUE SKETCHES OF CREATION, 
 BY D. T. ANSTED, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. 
 
 PROFESSOR OK GEOLOGY IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. 
 
 In one very neat volume, fine extra cloth, with about One Hundred and Fifty Illustrations. 
 The object of this work is to present to the general reader the chief results of Geological investi- 
 gation in a simple and comprehensive manner. The author has avoided all minute details of geo- 
 logical formations and particular observations, and has endeavoured as far as possible to present 
 striking views of the wonderful results of the science, divested of its mere technicalities. The 
 work is got up in a handsome manner, with numerous illustrations, and forms a neat volume for the 
 centre table. 
 
 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, 
 
 WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF MINERALS. 
 
 BY JOSHUA TRIMMER, F. G. S. 
 
 With two Hundred and Twelve Wood-Cuts, a handsome octavo volume, bound in embossed cloth. 
 This is a systematic, introduction to Mineralogy, and Geology, admirably calculated to instruct 
 the student in those sciences. The organic remains of the various formations are well illustrated 
 by numerous figures, which are drawn with great accuracy. 
 
 NEW Ai^uTi^NY^^ 
 
 NOW READY. 
 
 MEDICAL BOTANY. 
 
 OR, A DESCRIPTION OF ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT PLANTS USED IN MEDICINE 
 
 AND OF THEIR PROPERTIES, USES AND MODES OF ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 BY R. EGL,ESFELI> GRIFFITH, M.D., &c., &c. 
 
 In one large octavo volume. With about three hundred and fifty Illustrations on Woo. 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OP 
 
 POPULAR INSTRUCTION; WITH NUMEROUS WOOD-CUTS. 
 
 BY W. B. CARPENTER. 
 
 In one volume, 12mo., extra cloth. 
 
 A TREATISE ON COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY, 
 
 BYW. B. CARPENTER. 
 
 REVISED AND MUCH IMPROVED BY THE AUTHOR. WITH BEAUTIFUL STEEL PLATES. 
 (Now preparing.) 
 
 CARPENTER'S ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY, 
 
 WITH ABOUT THRKK HUNDRED WOOD-CUTS. 
 (Preparing ; 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 H U MAN HEALTH: 
 
 OR. THE INFLUENCE OF ATMOSPHERE AND LOCALITY, CHANGE OF AIR AND 
 CLIMATE, SEASONS, FOOD, CLOTHING, BATHING, MINERAL SPRINGS, 
 EXERCISE, SLEEP, CORPOREAL AND MENTAL PUR- 
 SUITS, &.C., &e., ON HEALTHY MAN, 
 
 CONSTITUTING ELEMENTS OF HYGIENE. 
 
 BY ROBLEY DUNGLISON, M.D., &c., &c. 
 
 In one octavo volume. 
 
 %* Persons in the pursuit of health, as well as those who desire to retain 
 it, would do well to examine this work. The author states the work has 
 been prepared "to enable the general reader to understand the nature of 
 the actions of various influences on human health, and assist him in adopt- 
 ing such means as may tend to its preservation: hence the author has 
 avoided introducing technicalities, except where they appeared to him indis- 
 pensable." 
 
 REMARKS ON THE INFLUENCE OF MENTAL EXCITEMENT, 
 
 AND MENTAL CULTIVATION UPON HEALTH. 
 BY A. BRZGHAM, JVI.D. 
 
 Third edition ; one volume, 18mo. 
 
 ^ A TREATISE ON 
 
 CORNS, BUNIONS, THE DISEASES OF THE XTAII.S, 
 
 AND THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE FEET. 
 BY LEWIS DURLACHER, 
 
 SURGEON CHIROPODIST TO THE QUEEN. 
 
 In one duodecimo volume, cloth. 
 BXIXDGEWATEB. TREATISES. 
 
 The whole complete in 7 vols. 8vo., various bindings, 
 
 CONTAINING : 
 
 ROGET'S ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY, in 2 vols., with many cuts. 
 KIRBY ON THE HISTORY, HABITS AND INSTINCT OF ANIMALS, 1 voL, with plates. 
 PROUT ON CHEAT 1STRY CHALMERS ON 1'HE MORAL CONDITION OP MAN WHEWELL, 
 
 ON ASTRONOMY BELL ON THE HAND K1DD ON THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF 
 
 MAN, 2 volumes. 
 BUCKLAND'S GEOLOGY, 2 vols., with numerous plates and maps. 
 
 Roget, Auckland, and Kirby are sold separate. 
 
 THE DOMESTIC MANAGEMENT OF THE SICK ROOM, 
 
 NECESSARY, IN AID OF MEDICAL TREATMENT, FOR THE CURE OF DISEASES. 
 
 BY A. T. THOMSON, M. D., &c. &c. 
 First American, from the Second London Edition. Edited by R. E. GRIFFITH, M. D. 
 
 In one royal 12mo. volume, extra cloth, with cuts. 
 
 "There is no interference with the duties of the medical attendant, but sound, sensible, and 
 clear advice what to do, and how to act, so as to meet unforeseen emergencies, and co-operate 
 with professional skill." Literary Gazette. 
 
 THE MILTW!^^ 
 
 BY OLIVER EVANS. 
 
 THE ELEVENTH EDITION, 
 WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS, BY THE PROFESSOR OF MECHA- 
 
 NICS IN THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 AND A DESCRIPTION OF AN IMPROVED MERCHANT FLOUR MILT.. 
 
 WITH ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 BY C. & O. EVANS, ENGINEERS. 
 This is a practical work, and has had a very extended sale. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 JOHNSON AND LANDRETH ON FRUIT, KITCHEN, 
 AND FLOWER GARDENING. 
 
 A DICTIONARY OF MODERN GARDENING, 
 
 BY GEORGE WILLIAM JOHNSON, ESQ. 
 Author of the " Principles of Practical Gardening," " The Gardener's Almanac," &c. 
 
 WITH ONE HONORED AND EIGHTY WOOD-CUTS. 
 EDITED, WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONS, BY DAVID LANDRETH, OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 In one large royal duodecimo volume, extra cloth, of nearly Six Hundred and Fifty 
 
 double columned Pages. 
 
 This edition has been greatly altered from the original. Many articles of little.anterest to Ameri- 
 cans have been curtailed or wholly omitted, and much new matter, with numerous illustrations, 
 added, especially with respect to the varieties of fruit which experience has shown to be peculiarly 
 adapted to our climate. Still, the editor admits that he has only followed in the path so admirably 
 marked out by Mr. Johnson, to whom the chief merit of the work belongs. Jt has been an object 
 with the editor and publishers to increase its popular character, thereby adapting it to the larger 
 class of horticultural readers in this country, and they trust it will prove what they have desired it 
 to be, an Encyclopaedia of Gardening, if not of Rural Affairs, so condensed and at such a price as to 
 be within reach of nearly all whom those subjects interest. 
 
 " This is a useful compendium of all that description of information which is valuable to the 
 modern gardener. It quotes largely from the best standard authors, journals, and transactions of 
 societies; and the labours of the American editor have fitted it for the United States, by judicious 
 additions and omissions. The volume is abundantly illustrated with figures in the text, embracing 
 a judicious selection of those varieties of fruits which experience has shown to be well suited to the 
 United States. Silliman's Journal. 
 
 " This is the most valuable work we have ever seen on the subject of gardening ; and no man of 
 taste who can devote even a quarter of an acre to horticulture ought to be without it. Indeed la- 
 dies who merely cultivate flowers laithin-doors, will find this book an excellent and convenient 
 counsellor. It contains one hundred and eighty wood-cut illustrations, which give a distinct idea 
 of the fruits and garden-arrangements they are intended to represent. 
 
 " Johnson's Dictionary of Gardening, edited by Landreth, is handsomely printed, well-bound, and 
 sold at a price which puts it within the reach of all who would be likely to buy it." -Evergreen. 
 
 THE COMPLETE FLORIST, 
 
 CONTAINING PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF GREENHOUSE 
 
 PLANTS, AND FOR THE CULTIVATION OF THE SHRUBBERY-THE FLOWER 
 
 GARDEN, AND THE LAWN WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF THOSE PLANTS 
 
 AND TREES MOST WORTHY OF CULTURE IN EACH 
 
 DEPARTMENT. 
 
 WITH ADDITIONS AND AJVI EN D IVI EN TS, 
 
 ADAPTED TO THE CLIMATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 In one small volume. Price only Twenty-five Cents. 
 
 
 A SELECT MANUAL OF KITCHEN GARDENING, 
 
 AND THE CULTURE OF FRUITS, 
 
 CONTAINING FAMILIAR DIRECTIONS FOR THE MOST APPROVED PRACTICE IN EACH 
 
 DEPARTMENT, DESCRIPTIONS OF MANY VALUABLE FRUITS, AND A 
 
 CALENDAR OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED EACH 
 
 MONTH IN THE YEAR. 
 
 THE WHOLE ADAPTED TO THE CLIMATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 In one small volume, paper. Price only Tweuty-five Cents. 
 
 LANDRETITS RURAL REGISTER AND ALMANAC, FOR 1848, 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 _ 
 
 STILL ON HAND, 
 A FEW COPIES OF THE REGISTER FOR 1847, 
 
 WITH OVER ONE HUNDRED WOOD-CUTS. 
 
 This work has 150 large 12mo. pages, double columns. Though published annually, nnd ronfain- 
 n almanac, the principal part of the matter is of permanent utility to the horticulturist am] 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SMALL BOOKS ON GREAT SUBJECTS. 
 
 A SERIES OF WORKS 
 
 WHICH DESERVE THE ATTENTION OF THE PUBLIC, FROM THE VARIETY AND 
 IMPORTANCE OF THEIR SUBJECTS, AND THE CONCISENESS AND 
 
 STRENGTH WITH WHICH THEY ARE WRITTEN. 
 They form a neat 18mo. series, in paper, or strongly done up in three neat volumes, extra cloth. 
 
 THERE ARE ALREADY PUBLISHED, 
 No. L PHILOSOPHICAL THEORIES AND PHILOSOPHICAL EXPERIENCE. 
 
 2. ON THE CONNEXION BETWEEN PHYSIOLOGY AND INTELLECTUAL SCIENCE. 
 3. ON MAN'S POWER OVER HIMSELF, TO PREVENT OR CONTROL INSANITY. 
 4. AN INTRODUCTION TO' PRACTICAL ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, WITH REFER- 
 ENCES TO THE WORKS OF DAVY, BRANDE, LIEBIG, <kc. 
 
 5. A BRIEF VIEW OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY UP TO THE AGE OF PERICLES. 
 6. GREEK PHILOSOPHY FROM THE AGE OF SOCRATES TO THE COMING OF 
 
 CHRIST. 
 
 7. CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE IN THE SECOND CENTURY. 
 8. AN EXPOSITION OF VULGAR.AND COMMON ERRORS, ADAPTED TO THE YEAR 
 
 OF GRACE MDCCCXLV. 
 9. AN INTRODUCTION TO VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY, WITH REFERENCES TO 
 
 THE WORKS OF DE CANDOLLE, LINDLEY, &c. 
 10.-ON THE PRINCIPLES OF CRIMINAL LAW. 
 11. CHRISTIAN SECTS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 12. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF GRAMMAH. 
 
 " We are glad to find that Messrs. Lea &. Blanchard are reprinting, for a quarter of their original 
 price, this admirable series of little books, which have justly attracted so much attention in Great 
 Britain." Graham's Magazine. 
 
 "The wnters of these thoughtful treatises are not labourers for hire ; they are men who have 
 stood apart from the throng, and marked the movements of the crowd, the tendencies of society, 
 its evils and its errors, and, meditating upon them, have given their thoughts to the thoughtful." 
 London Critic. 
 
 "A series of h'ttle volumes, whose worth is not at all to be estimated by their size or price. Ther 
 are written in England by scholars of eminent ability, whose design is to call the attention of the 
 public to various important topics, in a novel and accessible mode of publication." N. Y. Morning 
 News. 
 
 MACKINTOSH'S DISSERTATION ON THE PROGRESS 
 OF ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY 
 
 THE REV. WILLIAM WHEWELL, M.A. 
 In one neat 8vo. vol., extra cloth. 
 
 OVERLAND JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD, 
 
 DURING THE YEARS' 1841 AND 1842, 
 BY SIR GEORGE SIMPSON, 
 
 GOVERNOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY'S TERRITORIES. 
 
 In one very neat crown octavo volume, rich extra crimson cloth, or in two 
 
 parts, paper, price 75 cents each. 
 
 "A more valuable or instructive work, or one more full of perilous adventure and heroic enter- 
 prise, we have never met with." John Bull. 
 " It abounds with details of the deepest interest, possesses all the charms of an exciting romance 
 
 and Furnishes an immense mass of valuable information." Inquirer. 
 
 , 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 
 
 THE NARRATIVE OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION, 
 
 DURING THE YEARS 1838, '39, '40, 41, AND '42. 
 BY C H A 11 L, E S \V I L, K E S , E S Q,., U. S.N. 
 
 COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION. ETC. 
 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. 
 
 A New, Edition, in Five Medium Octavo Volumes, neat Extra Cloth, particularly done 
 
 up with reference to strength and continued use: containing TWENTY-SIX HDN- 
 
 D'RED PAGES of Letter-press. Illustrated with Maps, and about THREE 
 
 HUNDRED SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. 
 PRICE ONLY TWO DOLLARS A VOLUME. 
 
 Though offered at a price so low, this is the complete work, containing all the letter-press of th 
 edition printed for Congress, with some improvements suggested in the course of passing the work 
 again through the press. All of the wood-cut illustrations are retained, and nearly all the maps ; 
 the large steel plates of the quarto edition being omitted, and neat wood-cuts substituted for forty- 
 seven steel vignettes. It is printed on fine paper, with large type, bound in very neat extra cloth, 
 and forms a beautiful work, with its very numerous and appropriate embellishments. 
 
 The attention of persons forming libraries is^especially directed to this work, as presenting the 
 novel and valuable matter accumulated by the Expedition in a cheap, convenient, and readable form. 
 
 SCHOOL and other PUBLIC LIBRARIES should not be without it. as embodying the results of 
 the First Scientific Expedition commissioned by our government to explore foreign regions. 
 
 " We have no hesitation in saying that it is destined to stand among the most enduring monu- 
 ments of our national literature. Its contributions not only to every department of science, but 
 every department of history, are immense ; and there is not an intelligent man in the community-- 
 no matter what may be his taste, or his occupation, but will find something here to enlighten, to 
 gratify, and to profit him." Albany Religiotts Spectator. 
 
 
 
 ANOTHER EDITION. 
 PRICE TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. 
 
 IN FIVE MAGNIFICENT IMPERIAL OCTAVO VOLUMES! 
 
 WITH AN ATLAS OF LARGE AND EXTENDED MAPS. 
 
 BEAUTIFULLY DONE UP IN EXTRA CLOTH. 
 
 This truly great and National Work is issued in a style of superior magnificence 
 and beauty, containing Sixty.four large and finished Line Engravings, embracing 
 Scenery, Portraits, Manners, Customs, <fcc., <fcc. Forty-seven exquisite Steel Vigne ties, 
 worked among the letter-press ; about Two Hundred and Fifty finely-executed Wood- 
 cut Illustrations, Fourteen large and small Maps and Charts, and nearly Twenty-six 
 Hundred pages of Letter-press. 
 
 ALSO, A FEW COPIES STILL ON HAND. 
 
 THE EDITION PRINTED FOR CONGRESS, 
 
 IN FIVE VOLUJVIES, AND AN ATLAS. 
 
 LARGE IMPERIAL QUARTO, STRONG EXTRA CLOTH. 
 PRICE SIXTY DOLLARS. 
 
 JUST ISSUED, 
 
 THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE UNITED 
 STATES EXPLORING EXPEDITION, 
 
 UNDER THE COMMAND OF CHARLES W1LKES, ESQ., U. S. NAVY. 
 BY HORATIO HALE, 
 
 PHILOLOGIST TO THE EXPEDITION. 
 
 in one large imperial octavo volume of nearly seven hundred pa^es. With two Maps, printed to 
 match the Congress copies of the " Narrative." 
 
 Price TEN DOLLARS, in beautiful extra cloth, done up with great strength. 
 * This is the only edition printed, and but few are offered for sale. 
 
 The remainder of the scientific works of the Expedition are in a state of rapid progress. The 
 rolume on Corafs, by J. D. Dana, Esq., with an Athis of Plates, will be shortly ready, to be fol- 
 lowed by the others. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 DON QUIXOTE-ILLUSTRATED EDITION. 
 
 NEARLY READY. 
 
 DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANGHA, 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH OF -' . 
 
 MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA 
 
 BY CHARLES JARVIS, ESQ. 
 
 CAREFULLY REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR AND 
 NOTICE OF HIS WORKS. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 BY TONY JOHANNOT. 
 In two beautifully printed volumes, crown octavo, rich extra crimson cloth/ 
 
 The publishers are happy in presenting to the admirers of Don Quixote an edition of that work 
 in some degree worthy of its reputation and popularity. The want of such a one has long been felt 
 in this country, and in presenting this, they have only to express their hope that it may meet the 
 numerous demands and inquiries. The translation is that by Jarvis, which is acknowledged supe- 
 rior in both force and fidelity to all others. It has in some few instances been slightly altered to adapt 
 it better to modern readers, or occasionally to suit it to the inimitable designs of Tony Johannot. 
 These latter are admitted to be the only successful pictorial exponents of the wit and humor ol 
 Cervantes, and a choice selection of them have been engraved in the best manner. A copious 
 memoir of the author and his works has been added by the editor. The volumes are printed in 
 large clear type, on fine paper, and handsomely bound, and the whole is confidently offered aa 
 worcny uie approbation ot all readers of this imperishable romance. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 PICCIOLA. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED EDITION. 
 
 PICCIOLA, THE PRISONER OF FENESTRELLA; 
 
 OR, CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE. 
 BYX. B. SAINTINE. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 In one elegant duodecimo volume, large type, and fine paper; price in fancy covers 
 50 cents, or in beautiful extra crimson cloth. 
 
 " Perhaps the most beautiful and touching work of fiction ever written, with the exception of 
 Undine." Atlas. 
 
 " The same publishers have shown their patriotism, common sense, and good taste by putting 
 forth their fourth edition of this work, with a set of very beautiful engraved embellishments. There 
 never was a book which better deserved the compliment. It 1s one of greatly superior merit to 
 Paul and Virginia, and we believe it is destined to surpass that popular work of St. Pierre in popu- 
 larity. It is better suited to the advanced ideas of the present age, and possesses peculiar moral 
 charms in which Paul and Virginia is deficient. St. Pierre's work derived its popularity from its 
 bold attack on feudal prejudices; Samtine's strikes deeper, and assails the secret infidelity which 
 is the bane of modem society ,-in its stronghold. A thousand editions of Picciola will not be too 
 many for its merit." Lady's Booh. 
 
 " This is a little gem of its kind a beautiful conceit, beautifully unfolded and applied. The style 
 and plot of this truly charming story require no criticism ; we will only express the wish that those 
 who rely on works of fiction for their intellectual food, may always rind those as pure in language 
 and beautiful in moral as Picciola." A'ew York Review. 
 
 " The present edition is got up in beautiful style, with illustrations, and reflects credit upon the 
 publishers. We recommend to those of our readers who were not fortunate enough to meet with 
 Picciola some years ago, when it was first translated, and for a season all the rage, to lose no time 
 in procuring it now and to those who read it then, but do not possess a copy, to embrace the op- 
 portunity of supplying themselves from the present very excellent edition." Saturday Evening Post. 
 
 "A new edition of this exquisite story has recently been issued by Messrs. Lea <fe Blanchard, 
 embellished and illustrated in the most elegant manner. We understand that the work was com- 
 pletely out of print, and a new edition will then be welcomed. It contains a delightful letter from 
 the author, giving a painful insight into the personal history of the characters who figure in the 
 story." Evening Bulletin. 
 
 u The most charming: work we have read for many a day." Richmond Enquirer. 
 
 LOVER'S RQRY O'MORE. 
 
 ROB. IT O'lfcORE-A NATIONAL ROMANCE, 
 
 BY SAMUEL LOVER. 
 
 A new and cheap edition, with Illustrations by the Author. Price only 25 cents. 
 Also, a beautiful edition in royal 12mo., price 50 cents, to match the following. 
 "A truly Irish, national, and characteristic story." London Literary Gazette. 
 "Mr. Lover has here produced his best work of fiction, which will survive when half the Irish 
 sketches with which the literary world teems are forgotten. The interest we take in the varied 
 adventures of Rory is never once suffered to abate. We welcome him with high delight, and 
 part from him with regret." London Sun. 
 
 LOVER'S IRISH STORIES. 
 
 LEGENDS AND STORIES OF IRELAND, 
 
 BY SAMUEL LOVER. 
 
 In one very neat 12mo. volume, fine paper, extra cloth or fancy paper, 
 With Illustrations by the Author. 
 
 LOVER'S SONGS AND BALLADS, 
 
 INCLUDING THOSE OF THE "IRISH EVENINGS.". 
 
 In one neat 12mo. volume, price 25 cents. 
 
 MARS TON, 
 
 OR THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN AND SOLDIER, - 
 
 BY THE REV. GEORGE CROLY, 
 Author of " Salathiel," " Angel of the World," <fcc. 
 In one octavo volume, paper, price fifty cents. 
 "A work of high character and absorbing interest." New Orleans Bee. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY AND POETICAL REMAINS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 3VE ARGAKET I I L L E K DAVIDSON. 
 BY WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, REVISED. 
 
 POETICAL REMAINS 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 LTJTCRBTIA r-I-ARIA DAVIDSON. 
 
 COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY HER MOTHER, WITH A BIOGRAPHY BY 
 
 MISS SEDGW1CK. 
 A NEW EDITION, BEVISED. 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE . 
 
 WRITINGS OF MRS. MARGARET M. DAVIDSON, 
 
 THE MOTHER-OF LUCRETIA AND MARGARET. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY MISS SEDGWICK. 
 
 The above three works are done up to match ia a neat duodecimo form, fancy paper, price fifty 
 cents each ; or in extra cloth. 
 
 THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS, 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIVE POETRY; TO WHICH ARE NOW ADDED THE 
 CALENDAR OP FLOWERS, AND THE DIAL OF FLOWERS. 
 
 SEVENTH AMERICAN, FROM THE NINTH LONDON EDITION. 
 
 Revised by the Editor of the " Forget-Me-Not." 
 In one very neat 18mo. volume, extra crimson cloth, gilt. With six colored Plates. 
 
 CAMPBELL'S POETICAL WORKS, 
 
 THE ONLY COMPLETE AMERICAN EDITION, 
 
 WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR BY IRVING, AND AN 
 
 ESSAY ON HIS GENIUS BY JEFFREY. 
 In one beautiful crown octavo volume, extra cloth, or calf gilt : with a Portrait and 12 Plates. 
 
 KEBLE'S CHRISTIAN YEAR, 
 
 EDITED BY THE RIGHT R/EV. BISHOP DOANE. 
 
 Miniature .Edition, in 32mo., extra cloth, with Illuminated Title. 
 
 RELIGIO MEDICI, AND ITS SEQUEL, CHRISTIAN MORALS, 
 
 BY SIR THOMAS BROWNE, KT., 
 
 WITH RESEMBLANT PASSAGES FROM COWPER'S TASK. 
 In one neat 12mo. volume. 
 
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 IN SEVEN VOLUMES, ROYAL' 12MO., PAPER OR CLOTH. 
 
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 IN ONE IMPERIAL OCTAVO VOLUME, EXTRA CLOTH OR WHITE CALF. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 DICKENS'S WORKS. 
 
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 CHEAPEST EDITION IN NINE PARTS PAPER, 
 
 AS FOLLOWS: 
 
 THE PICKWICK PAPERS, 1 large vol. 8vo., paper, price 50 cents. 
 OLIVER TWIST, 1 vol. 8vo., paper, price 25 cents. 
 SKETCHES OF EVERY-DAY-LIFE, 1vol. 8vo., paper, price 37 cents. 
 NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, 1 large vol. 8vo., paper, price 50 cents. 
 THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP, 1 vol. 8vo., paper, with many Cuts, 
 
 price 50 cents. 
 
 BARNABY RUDGE, I vol. 8vo., with many Cuts, price 50 cents. 
 MARTIN CflUZZLEWIT, 1 vol. 8vo., with plates, price 50 cents. 
 CHRISTMAS STORIES. THE CAROL, THE CHIMES, THE CRICKET ON 
 
 THE HEARTH, and THE BATTLE OF LIFE together with PICTURES FROM 
 
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 cents each. 
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 DICKENS'S NOVELS AND TALES, 
 
 IN THREE LARGE VOLUMES. 
 
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 CONTAINING ABOUT TWENTY-TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY LARGE DOUBLE 
 
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 PRICE FOR THE WHOLE, ONLY THREE DOLLARS AND SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
 The frequent inquiries for a uniform, compact and good edition of Boz's works, have induced the 
 publishers to prepare one, which they now offer at a price so low that it should command a very 
 extended sale. It is printed on fine white paper, with good type, and forms three large volumes, 
 averaging about seven hundred and fifty pages each, done up in various styles of extra cloth, making 
 a beautiful and portable edition. Some ot the works are illustrated with Wood Engravings. 
 
 This Edition comprehends the first seven parts, and will be completed with the issue of the 
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 on being able to perfect their sets. 
 
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 HUNDRED AND FORTY WOOD-CUTS. 
 
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 JGpThe above are the only Complete and Uniform Editions of Dickens's Works now 
 before the public. 
 
 NOW PUBLISHING, 
 
 DOMBEY AND SON. 
 
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 In twenty numbers, price 8 cents each, with two illustrations by Hablot 
 
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 This is the only edition which presents the plates accompanying the text to which they refer. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
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 SELECT WORKS OF TOBIAS SMOLLETT, 
 
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 BY SIR WALTER SCOTT. 
 
 THIS EDITION CONTAINS: 
 
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 THIS EDITION CONTAINS: 
 
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LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 BOY'S TREASURY OF SPORTS, 
 
 THE BOY'S TREASURY OF SPORTS/ PASTIMES AND RECREATIONS. 
 
 WITH FOUR HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 BY SAMUEL -WILLIAMS. 
 
 IS NOW READY. 
 
 In one very neat volume, bound in extra crimson cloth; handsomely printed and 
 
 illustrated with engravings in the first style of art, and containing 
 
 about six hundred and fifty articles. A present for all seasons. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This illustrated Manual of" Sports, Pastimes, and Recreations," has been prepared with especial 
 regard to the Health, Exercise, and Rational Enjoyment of the young readers to whom it is ad- 
 dressed. 
 
 Every variety of commendable Recreation will be found in the following: pages. First, you have 
 the little Toys of the Nursery; the Tops and Marbles of the Play-ground ; and the Balls of the 
 Play-room, or the smooth Lawn. 
 
 Then, you have a number of Pastimes that serve to gladden the fireside ; to light up many faces 
 right joyfully, and make the parlour re-echo with mirth. 
 
 Next, come the Exercising Sports of the Field, the Green, and the Play-ground ; followed by 
 the noble and truly English game of Cricket. 
 
 Gymnastics are next admitted ; then, the delightful recreation of Swimming : and the healthful 
 sport of Skating. 
 
 Archery, once the pride of England, is then detailed ; and very properly followed by Instructions 
 in the graceful accomplishment of Fencing, and the manly and enlivening exercise of Riding. 
 
 Angling, the pastime of childhood, boyhood, manhood, and old age, is next described ; and by 
 attention to the instructions here laid down, the lad with a stick and a string may sooa become an 
 expert Angler. 
 
 Keeping Animals is a favourite pursuit of boyhood. Accordingly, we have described how to rear 
 the Rabbit, the Squirrel, the Dormouse, the Guinea Pig, the Pigeon, and the Silkworm. A long 
 chapter is adapted to the rearing of Song Birds ; the several varieties of which, and' their respective 
 cages, are next described. And here we may hint, that kindness to Animals invariably denotes an. 
 excellent disposition ; for, to pet a little creature one hour, and to treat it harshly the next, marks 
 a capricious if not a cruel temper. Humanity is a jewel, which every boy should be proud to wear 
 in his breast. 
 
 We now approach the more sedate amusements as Draughts and Chess; two of the noblest 
 exercises of the ingenuity of the human mind. Dominoes and Bagatelle follow. With a know- 
 ledge of these four games, who would pass a dull hour in the dreariest day of winter; or who 
 would sit idly by the fire ? 
 
 Amusements in Arithmetic, harmless I-egerdemain, or sleight-of-hand, and Tricks with Cards, 
 will delight many a family circle, when the business of the day is over, and the book is laid aside. 
 
 Although the present volume is a book of amusements, Science has not been excluded from its 
 pages. And why should it be 1 when Science is as entertaining as a fairy tale. The changes we 
 read of in little nursery-books are not more amusing than the changes in Chemistry, Optics, Elec- 
 tricity, Magnetism, <fec. By understanding these, you may almost become a little Magician. 
 
 Toy Balloons and Paper Fireworks, (or Fireworks without Fire,) come next. Then follow In- 
 structions for Modelling in Card-Board ; so that you may build for yourself a palace or a carriage, 
 and, in short, make for yourself a little paper world. 
 
 Puzzles and Paradoxes, Enigmas and Kiddles, and Talking with the Fingers, next make up plenty 
 of exercise for " Guess," and " Guess again." And as vou have the " Keys" in your own hand, you 
 may keep your friends in suspense, and make yourself as mysterious as the Sphynx. 
 
 A chapter of Miscellanies useful and amusing secrets winds up the volume. 
 
 The " Treasury" contains upwards of four hundred Engravings ; so that it is not only a collection 
 of "secrets worth knowing," but it is a book of pictures, as full of prints as a Christinas pudding 
 is of plums. 
 
 It maybe as well to mention that the "Treasury" holds many new games that have never 
 before been printed in a book of this kind. The old games have been described afresh. Thus it 
 is, altogether, a new book. 
 
 And now we take leave, wishing you many hours, and days, and weeks of enjoyment over these 
 pages ; and we hope that you may be as happy as this book is brimful of aruusemeat. 
 
^" LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 YOUATT AND SKINNEK'S 
 
 STANDARD WORK ON THE HORSE. 
 
 \ THE HORSE. 
 
 BY WILLIAM YOUATT. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH A. 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE; 
 
 A DISSERTATION ON 
 
 THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE; 
 
 HOW TRAINED AND JOCKEYED. 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF HIS REMARKABLE PERFORMANCES; 
 
 AND 
 
 AlSr ESS-AIT O2ST THE ASS A2TO THE MULE, 
 
 BY J. S. SKINNER, 
 
 Assistant Post-Master-General, and Editor of the Turf Register. 
 
 This edition of Youatt's well-known and standard work on the Manage- 
 ment, Diseases, and Treatment of the Horse, has already obtained such a 
 wide circulation throughout the country, that the Publishers need say no- 
 thing to attract to it the attention and confidence of all who keep Horses or 
 are interested in their improvement. 
 
 " In introducing this very neat edition of Youatt's well-known book, on ' The Horse,' to our 
 readers, it is not necessary, even if we had time, to say anything to convince them of its worth ; it 
 has been highly spoken of, by those most capable of appreciating its merits, and its appearance 
 under the patronage of the 'Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,' with Lord Brougham 
 at its head, affords a full guaranty for its high character. The book is a very valuable one, anil we 
 endorse the recommendation of the editor, that every man who owns the ' hair of a horse,' should 
 have it at his elbow, to be consulted like a family physician, 'for mitigating, the disorders, and pro- 
 longing the life of the 1 most interesting and useful of all domestic animals.' "Farmer's Cabinet. 
 
 "This celebrated work has been completely revised, and much of it almost entirely re-written 
 by its able author, who, from being a practical veterinary surgeon, and withal a great lover and 
 excellent judge of the animal, is particularly well qualified to write the history of the noblest of 
 quadrupeds. Messrs. Lea and Blanchard of Philadelphia have republished the above work, omitting 
 a few of the first pages, and have supplied their place with matter quite as valuable, and perhaps 
 more interesting to the reader in this country ; it being nearly 100 pages of a general history of the 
 horse, a dissertation on the American trotting horse, how trained and jockeyed, an account of his 
 remarkable performances, and. an essay on the Ass and Mule, by J. S. Skinner, Esq., Assistant Post- 
 master-General, and late editor of the Turf Register and American Farmer. Mr. Skinner is one 
 of our most pleasing writers, and has been familiar with the subject of the horse from childhood, 
 and we need not add that he has acquitted himself well of the task. He also takes up the import- 
 ant subject, to the American breeder, of the Ass, and the Mule. This he treats at length and con 
 amore. The Philadelphia edition of the Horse is a handsome octavo, with numeroi\s wood-cuts."-* 
 American Agriculturist. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 YOUATT ON THE PIG. 
 
 THE PIG; 
 
 A TREATISE ON THE BREEDS, MANAGEMENT, FEEDING, 
 AND MEDICAL TREATMENT OF SWINE, 
 
 WITH DIRECTIONS FOR SALTING PORK, AND CURING BACON AND HAMS. 
 
 BY WILLIAM YOUATT, V.S,,, 
 Author of " The Horse," " The Dog," " Cattle," " Sheep," &c.,' Ac. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS DRAWN FROM LIFE BY WILLIAM HARVEY. 
 
 In one handsome duodecimo volume, extra cloth, or in neat paper cover, price 50 cents. 
 This work, on a subject comparatively neglected, must prove of much use to farmers, especially 
 in this country, where the Pig is an animal of more importance than elsewhere. No work has 
 hitherto appeared treating fully of the various breeds of swine, their diseases and cure, breeding, 
 fattening, &c., and the preparation of bacon, salt pork, hams, <fcc., while the name of the author of 
 " The Horse," " The Cattle Doctor," <fcc., is sufficient authority for all he may state. To render it 
 more accessible to those whom it particularly interests, the publishers have prepared copies in 
 neat illustrated paper covers, suitable for transmission by mail ; and which will be sent through 
 the post-office on the receipt of fifty cents, free of postage. 
 
 CLATER AND YOUATT'S CATTLE DOCTOR, 
 
 ' EVERY MAN HIS OWN CATTLE DOCTOR: 
 
 CONTAINING THE CAUSES, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT OP ALL 
 
 DISEASES INCIDENT TO OXEN, SHEEP AND SWINE; 
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE 
 
 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF NEAT CATTLE. 
 
 BY FRANCIS CLATER. 
 
 EDITED, REVISED AND ALMOST RE-WRITTEN, BY 
 
 WILLIAM YOUATT, AUTHOR OP "THE HORSE." 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONS, 
 EMBRACING AN ESSAY ON THE USE OF OXEN AND THE IMPROVEMENT IN THE 
 
 BREED OF SHEEP, 
 
 BY J. S. SKINNER. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS CUTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 In one 12mo. volume, cloth. 
 
 "As its title would import, it is a most valuable work, and should be in the hands of every Ame- 
 rican fanner ; and we feel proud in saying, that the value of the work has been greatly enhanced 
 Dy the contributions of Mr. Skinner. Clater and Youatt are names treasured by the farming com- 
 munities of Europe as household-gods ; nor does that of Skinner deserve to be less esteemed in 
 America," American Farmer. 
 
 CLATER'S FARRIER. 
 
 EVERY MAN HIS OWN FARRIER: 
 
 CONTAINING THE CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, AND MOST APPROVED METHODS OF CURB 
 OF THE DISEASES OF HORSES. 
 
 B7 FRANCIS CLATER, 
 
 Author of " Every Man his own Cattle Doctor," 
 
 AND HIS SON, JOHN CLATER. 
 
 FIRST AMERICAN FROM THE TWENTY-EIGHTH LONDON EDITION. 
 
 WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, 
 
 BY J. S. SKINNER. 
 
 In one 12mo. volume, cloth. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 HAWKER AND PORTER ON SHOOTING. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN 
 
 IN ALL THAT RELATES TO GUNS AND SHOOTING. 
 BY LIEUT. COL. P. HAWKER. 
 
 FROM THE ENLARGED AND IMPROVED NINTH LONpON EDITION, 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED THE HUNTING AND SHOOTING OF NORTH AMERICA, WITH 
 DESCRIPTIONS OF ANIMALS AND BIRDS, CAREFULLY COLLATED 
 
 FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES. 
 BY W. T. PORTER, ESQ. 
 
 EDITOR OF THE N. Y. SPIRIT OF THE TIMES. 
 
 In one large octavo volume, rich extra cloth, with numerous Illustrations. 
 
 " Here is a look, a hand-book, or rather a text-bookone that contains the whole routine of the 
 science. It is the Primer, the Lexicon, and the Homer. Everything is here, from the minutest 
 portion of a gun-lock, to a dead Buffalo. The sportsman who reads this book understanding^, may 
 pass an examination. He will know the science, and may give advice to others. Every sportsman, 
 and sportsmen are plentiful, should own this work. It should be a " vade mecum." He should 
 be examined on its contents, and estimated by his abilities to answer. We have not been without 
 treatises on the art, but hitherto they have not descended into all the minutiae of equipments and 
 qualifications to proceed to the completion; This work supplies deficiencies, and completes the 
 sportsman's library." U. S. Gazette. 
 
 " No man in the country that we wot of is so well calculated as our friend of the ' Spirit' for the 
 task he has undertaken, and the result of his labours has been tliat he has turned out a work which 
 should be in the haiids of every man in the land who owns a double-barrelled gun." N. 0. Picayune. 
 
 " A volume splendidly printed and bound, and embellished with numerous beautiful engravings, 
 which will doubtless be in great demand. No sportsman, indeed, ought to be without it, while the 
 general reader will find in its pages a fund of curious and useful information." J&ckmond Whig. 
 
 THE DOG, 
 
 BY WILLIAM YOUATT, 
 
 Author of " The Horse," <kc. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS AND BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 EDITED BY E. J. LEWIS, M.D. &c. &c. 
 
 In one beautifully printed volume, crown octavo. 
 
 LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 Head of Bloodhound Ancient Greyhounds The Thibet Dog The Dingo, or New Holland Dog 1 
 The Danish or Dalmatian Dog The Hare Indian Dog The Greyhound The Grecian Greyhound 
 Blenheims and Cockers The Water Spaniel The Poodle The Alpine Spaniel or Bernardine 
 D g_The Newfoundland Dog The Esquimaux Dog The English Sheep Dog The Scotch Sheep 
 DogThe Beagle The Harrier The Foxhound Plan of Goodwood Kennel The Southern 
 Hound The Setter The Pointer The Bull Dog The Mastiff The Terrier Skeleton of the 
 Dog Teeth of the Dog at seven different ages. 
 
 " Mr. Youatt's work is invaluable to the student of canine history; it is full of entertaining- ana 
 instructive matter for the general reader. To the sportsman it commends itself by the large amount 
 of useful information in reference to his peculiar pursuits which it embodies information which 
 he cannot find elsewhere in so convenient and accessible a form, and with so reliable an authority 
 to entitle it to his consideration. The modest preface which Dr. Lewis has made to the American 
 edition of this work scarcely does justice to the additional value he has imparted to it; and the 
 publishers are entitled to great credit for the handsome manner in which they have got it up." 
 North. American. 
 
 THE SPORTS MAN'S . 
 
 OR HINTS ON HUNTERS, HUNTING, HOUNDS, SHOOTING, GAME, DOGS, GUNS, 
 
 FISHING, COURSING, &c., &c. 
 
 BY JOHN MILLS, ESQ., 
 
 Author of " The Old English Gentleman," &c. 
 
 In one well printed royal duodecimo volume, extra cloth. 
 
 A 
 
 OR SPECTACLES FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
 
 BY HARRY IIIEOVER. 
 In one very neat duodecimo volume, extra cloth. 
 
 "These lively sketches answer to their title very well. Wherever Nimrod is welcome, there 
 should be cordial greeting for Harry Hieover. His book is a very clever one, and contains many 
 instructive hints, as well as much light-hearted reading." Examiner. 
 
 THE 
 
 EMBRACING THE USES, BREEDING, TRAINING, DISEASES, ETC., OF DOGS, AND AN 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THF. DIFFERENT KINDS OF GAME, WITH THEIR HABITS. 
 
 Also, Hints to Shooters, witli various useful Recipes, &c., &c 
 
 BY J. S. SKINNER. 
 
 With Plates. In one very neat 12mo. volume, ?*tra cloth. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHAED'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 FRAMCATELLI'S MODERN FRENCH COOKERY. 
 
 THE MODE K IV COOK, 
 
 A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE CULINARY ART, IN ALL ITS BRANCHES, ADAPTED AS 
 
 WELL FOR THE LARGEST ESTABLISHMENTS AS FOR THE USE 
 
 OF PRIVATE FAMILIES. 
 
 BY CHARLES ELME FRANCATELLI, 
 
 Pupil of the celebrated Careme, and late Maitre D'Hotel and Chief Cook to her Majesty the Queen. 
 In one large octavo volume, extra cloth, with numerous illustrations. 
 
 " It appears to be the book of books on cookery, being a most comprehensive treatise on that art 
 preservative and conservative. The work comprises, in one large and elegant octavo volume, 1447 
 recipes for cook ing dishes and desserts, with numerous illustrations; also bills of fare and direc- 
 tions for dinners for every month in the year, for companies of six persons to twenty-eight. NaL 
 JnleUigencer. 
 
 " The ladies who read our Magazine, will thank us for calling attention to this erreat work on the 
 noble science of cooking, in which everybody, who has any taste, feels a deep and abiding interest. 
 Francatelli is the Plato, the Shakspeare, or the Napoleon of his department ; or perhaps the La 
 Place, for his performance bears the same relation to ordinary cook books that the Mecanique 
 Celeste does to Daboll's Arithmetic. It is a large octavo, profusely illustrated, and contains every- 
 thing on the philosophy of making dinners, suppers, etc., that is worth knowing. GraJiam's Magazine. 
 
 MODERN COOKERY IN ALL ITS BRANCHES, 
 
 REDUCED TO A SYSTEM OF EASY PRACTICE. FOR THE USE OF PRIVATE FAMILIES. 
 
 IN A SERIES OF PRACTICAL RECEIPTS, ALL OF WHICH ARE GIVEN 
 
 WITH THE MOST MINUTE EXACTNESS. 
 
 BY ELIZA ACTON. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS WOOD-CUT ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, A TABLE OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
 
 THE WHOLE REVISED AND PREPARED FOR AMERICAN HOUSEKEEPERS. 
 
 BY MRS. SARAH J. HALE. 
 
 From the Second London Edi-tion. In one large 12mo. volume. 
 
 "Miss Eliza Acton may congratulate herself on having composed a work of great utility, and one 
 that is speedily finding its way to every 'dresser' in the kingdom. Her Cookery-book is unques- 
 tionably the most valuable compendium of the art that has yet been published. It strongly incul- 
 cates economical principles, and points out how good things may be concocted without that reck- 
 less extravagance which good cooks have been wont to imagine the-best evidence they can give of 
 skill in their profession." London Morning Post. 
 
 PLAIN AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR COOKING AND HOUSEKEEPING, 
 
 WITH UPWARDS OF SEVEN HUNDRED RECEIPTS, 
 
 Consisting of Directions for the Choice of Meat and Poultry, Preparations for Cooking; Making of 
 
 Broths and Soups ; Boiling, Roasting, Baking and Frying of Meats, Fish, <fcc. ; Seasonings, 
 
 Colorings, Cooking Vegetables; Preparing Salads ; Clarifying; Making of Pastry, 
 
 Puddings, Gruels, Gravies, Garnishes, &c., &.C., and with general 
 
 Directions for making Wines. 
 
 WITH ADDITIONS AND ALTERATIONS. 
 BY J. M. SANDERSON, 
 
 OF THE FRANKLIN IIOUbK. 
 
 In one small volume, paper. Price only Twenty-five Cents. 
 
 THE COMPLETlfcONrit^ BAKER. 
 
 PLAIN AND PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS 
 
 FOR MAKING CONFECTIONARY AND PASTRY, AND FOR BAKING. 
 
 WITH UPWARDS OF FIVE HUNDRED RECEIPTS, 
 
 Consisting of Directions for making all sorts of Preserves, Sugar Boiling, Comfits, Lozenges, 
 
 Ornamental Cakes, Ices, Liqueurs, Waters. Gum Paste Ornaments, Syrups, Jellies, 
 
 Marmalades, Compotes. Bread Baking, Artificial Yeasts, Fancy 
 
 Biscuits, Cakes, Rolls, Muflins, Tarts, Pies, <tc., <tc. 
 
 WITH ADDITIONS AND ALTERATIONS. 
 
 BY PARKINSON, 
 
 PRACTICAL CONFECTIONER, CHKSTNUT STREET. 
 
 In one small volume, paper. Price only Twenty-five Cent*. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 LAW BOOKS. 
 
 HILLIARD ON REAL ESTATE, 
 
 j NOW READY. 
 
 THE AMERICAN LAW OF REAL PROPERTY. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED. 
 
 BY FRANCIS HILLIARD, 
 
 COUNSELLOR AT LAW. 
 
 In two large octavo volumes, beautifully printed, and bound in best law sheep. 
 
 This book is designed as a substitute for Cruise's Digest, occupying the 
 tame ground in American law which that work has long covered in the 
 English law. It embraces all- that portion of the English Law of Real 
 Estate which has any applicability in this country ; and at the same time it 
 embodies the statutory provisions and adjudged cases of all the States upon 
 the same subject ; thereby constituting a complete elementary treatise for 
 American students and practitioners. The plan of the work is such as to 
 render it equally valuable in all the States, embracing, as it does, the pecu- 
 liar modifications of the law alike in MASSACHUSETTS and MISSOURI, NEW 
 YORK and MISSISSIPPI. In this edition, the statutes and decisions subse- 
 quent to the former one, which are very numerous, have all been incorpo- 
 rated, thus making it one-third larger than the original work, and bringing 
 the view of the law upon the subject treated quite down to the present time. 
 The book is recommended in the highest terms by distinguished jurists of 
 different States, as, will be seen by the subjoined extracts. 
 
 " The work before us supplies this deficiency in a highly satisfactory manner. It is beyond all 
 question the best work of the kind that we now have, and although we doubt whether this or any 
 other work will be likely to supplant Cruise's Digest, we do not hesitate to say, that of the two, 
 this is the more valuable to the American lawyer. We congratulate the author upon the success- 
 ful accomplishment of the arduous task he undertook, in reducing the vast body of the American 
 Law of Real Property to ' portable size,' and we do not doubt that his labours will be duly appre- 
 ciated by the profession." -Law Reporter, Aug., 1846. 
 
 Judge Story says : "I think the work a very valuable addition to our present stock of juridical 
 literature. It embraces all that part of Mr. Cruise's Digest which is most useful to American law- 
 yers. But its higher value is, that it presents in a concise, but clear and exact form, the substance 
 of American Law on the same subject. 1 know no work that we possess, whase practical utility is 
 likely to be so extensively felt." " The wonder is, that the author has been able to bring so great a 
 mass into so condensed a text, at once comprehensive and lucid." 
 
 Chancellor Kent says of the work (Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 635, note, 5th edition) : " It is a work, 
 of great labour and intrinsic value." 
 
 Hon. Rufus Chonte savs : " Mr. Milliard's work has been for three or four years in use, and 1 
 think that Mr. Justice Story and Chancellor Kent express the general opinion of the Massachusetts 
 Bar." 
 
 Professor Greenleaf says : " I had already found the first edition a very convenient book of refe- 
 rence, and do n<^p>ubt, from the appearance of the second, that it is greatly improved." 
 
 Professor J. II. Townsend, of Yale College, says : 
 
 " I have been acquainted for several years with the first edition of Mr. Hilliard's Treatise, and 
 have formed a very favourable opinion of it. 1 have no doubt the second edition will be found even 
 more valuable than the first, and I shall be happy to recommend it as I may have opportunity. I 
 know of no other work on the subject of Real Estate, so comprehensive and so well adapted to the 
 rtate of the law in this country." 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 LAW BOOKS. 
 
 ADDISON ON CONTRACTS. 
 
 A. TREATISE OKT THE LAW OF CONTRACTS AND 
 RIGHTS A2TD LIABILITIES EX CONTRACT!*. 
 
 BY C. G. ADDISON, ESQ., 
 
 Of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law. 
 In one volume, octavo, handsomely bound in law sheep. 
 
 In this treatise upon the most constantly and frequently administered 
 branch of law, the author has collected, arranged and developed in an intel- 
 ligible and popular form, the rules and principles of the Law of Contracts, 
 and has supported, illustrated or exemplified them by references to nearly 
 four thousand adjudged cases. It comprises the Rights and Liabilities of 
 Seller and Purchaser ; Landlord and Tenant ; Letter and Hirer of Chattels ; 
 
 men ; Shipowners ; Shipmasters ; Innkeepers ; Carriers ; Infants ; Luna- 
 tics, &c. 
 
 WHEATON'S INTERNATIONAL LAW. 
 
 ELEHIBETTS OF INTERIT ATIOXTAI, LAW. 
 
 BY HENRY WHEATON, LL.D., 
 
 Minister of the United States at the Court of Russia, <tc. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. 
 In one large and beautiful octavo volume of 650 pages, extra cloth, or fine law sheep. 
 
 "Mr. Wheaton's work is indispensable to every diplomatist, statesman and lawyer, and necessary 
 indeed to all public men. To every philosophic and liberal mind, the study must be an attractive f 
 and in the hands of our author it is a delightful one." Worth American. 
 
 HILL ON TRUSTEES. 
 
 A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE LAW RELATING TO TRUSTEES, 
 
 THEIR POWERS, DUTIES, PRIVILEGES AND LIABILITIES. 
 
 BY JAMES HILL, ESQ., 
 
 Of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law. 
 
 EDITED BY FRANCIS J. TROUBAT, 
 
 Of the Philadelphia Bar. 
 In one large octavo volume, best law sheep, raised bands. 
 
 " The editor beps leave to iterate the observation made by the author that thjwork is intended 
 principally for the instruction and guidance of trustees. That single feature njfr much enhances 
 its practical value." 
 
 ON THE PRINCIPLES OF CRIMINAL LAW. 
 
 In one 18mo. volume, paper, price 25 cents. 
 BEING PART 10, OF " SMALL BOOKS ON GREAT SUBJECTS 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 LAW BOOKS. 
 
 SPEWCB'S EQUITY JURISDICTION. 
 
 THE EQUITABLE JURISDICTION .OF THE COURT OF CHANCERY, 
 
 COMPRISING- 
 
 ITS RISE, PROGRESS AND FINAL ESTABLISHMENT. 
 
 TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, WITH A VIEW TO THE -ELUCIDATION OF THE MAIN SUB- 
 
 JECT, A CONCISE ACCOUNT OF THE LEADING DOCTRINES OF THE COMMON 
 
 LAW, AND OF THE COURSE OF PROCEDURE IN THE COURTS OF COM- 
 
 MON LAW, WITH REGARD TO CIVIL RIGHTS; WITH AN ATTEMPT 
 
 TO TliACE THEM TO THEIR SOURCES; AND IN WHICH 
 
 THE VARIOUS ALTERATIONS MADE BY THE 
 
 LEGISLATURE DOWN TO THE PRESENT 
 
 DAY ARE NOTICED. 
 BY GEORGE SPENCE, ESQ., 
 
 One of her Majesty's Counsel. 
 IN TWO OCTAVO VOLUMES. 
 
 Volume I., embracing the Principles, is now ready. Volume II. is rapidly preparing and will 
 appear early in 1318. It is based upon the work of Mr. Maddock, brought down to the present 
 tune, and embracing so much of the practice as counsel are called on to advise upon. 
 
 A. ISTSW LAW 
 
 CONTAINING EXPLANATIONS OF SUCH TECHNICAL TERMS AND PHRASES AS OCCUP 
 
 IN THE WORKS OF LEGAL AUTHORS, IN THE PRACTICE OF THE COURTS, 
 
 AND IN THE PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS 
 
 AND COMMONS, TO WHICH IS ADDED. AN OUTLINE OF AN 
 
 ACTION AT LAW AND OF A SUIT IN EQUITY. 
 
 BY HENRY J A IVIES HOLT HOUSE, ESQ., 
 
 Of the Inner Temple, Special Pleader. 
 EDITED FROM THE SECOND AND ENLARGED LONDON EDITION, 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ADDITIONS, 
 BY HENRY FENINGTON, 
 
 Of the Pluladelphia Bar. 
 In one large volume, royal 12mo., of about 500 pages, double columns, handsomely 
 
 bound in law sheep. 
 
 " This is a considerable' improvement upon the former editions, being bound with the usual law 
 binding, and the general execution admirable the paper excellent, and the printing clear and 
 beautiful. Its peculiar usefulness, however, consists in the valuable additions above referred to, 
 being intelligible and well devised definitions of such phrases and technicalities as are peculiar to 
 the practice in the Courts of this country. While, therefore, we recommend it especially to the 
 students of law, as a safe euide through the intricacies of their study, it will nevertheless be found 
 a valuable acquisition to the library of the practiiioner himself." Alex. Gazette. 
 
 " This work is intended rather for the general student, than as a substitute for many abridgments, 
 digests, and dictionaries in use by the -professional man. Its object principally is to impress accu- 
 rately and distinctly upon the mind the meaning of the technical terms of the law. and as such 
 can hardly fail to be generally useful. There is mugh curious information to be found in it in re- 
 gard to the peculiarities of the ancient Saxon<,lnw. The additions of the American edition give 
 increased value to the work, and evince much accuracy and care." Pennsylvania Law Journal. 
 
 A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
 
 BY ALFRED S. TAYLOR, 
 
 Lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence and Chemistry at Guy's Hospital, London. 
 With numerous Notes and Additions, and References to American Law, 
 
 BY R. E. GRIFFITH, M.D. 
 In one volume, octavo, neat law sheep. 
 
 IK-AHU^I, OP 
 
 ONE NEAT OCTAVO VOLUME. 
 
 A NEW WORK, NOW RSA.DY. 
 
 OUTLINES OP A COURSE OP LECTURES ON MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
 
 IN OXE SMALL OCTA.VO VOLUME. 
 
LEA AND BLANCIIARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 LAW BOOKS. 
 
 E A S T'S REPORTS. 
 
 REPORTS OF CASES 
 
 ADJUDGED AND DETERMINED IN THE COURT 
 OF KING'S BENCH. 
 
 WITH TABLES OF THE NAMES OF THE CASES AND PRINCIPAL MATTERS. 
 
 BY ED-WARD HYDE EAST, ESQ., 
 
 Of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law. 
 
 EDITED, WITH NOTES AND REFERENCES, 
 BY G. M. WHARTOW, ESQ., 
 
 Of the Philadelphia Bar. 
 
 In eight large royal octavo volumes, hound in best law sheep, raised bands and double 
 titles. Price, to subscribers, only twenty-five dollars. 
 
 In this edition of East, the sixteen volumes of the former edition have 
 been compressed into eight two volumes in one throughout but nothing 
 has been omitted ; the entire work will be found, with the notes of Mr. 
 Wharton added to those of Mr. Day. The great reduction of price, (from 
 $72, the price of the last edition, to $25, the subscription price of this,) 
 together with the improvement in appearance, will, it is trusted, procure for 
 it a ready sale. 
 
 A NEW WORK ON COURTS-MARTIAL. 
 
 A TREATISE ON AMERICAN MILITARY LAW, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 PRACTICE OF COURTS. MARTIAL, 
 
 WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT. 
 BY JOHN O'BRIEN, 
 
 LIEUTENANT UNITED STATES ARTILLERY. 
 
 In one octavo volume, extra cloth, or law sheep. 
 
 "This work stands relatively to American Military Law in the same position that Blackstone* 
 Commentaries stand to Common Law." V. 8. Gazette. 
 
 CAMPBELL'S LORD CHANCELLORS, 
 
 LIVES OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS AND KEEPERS OP 
 THE GREAT SEAL OF ENGLAND, 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE REIGN OF KING- GEORGE IV., 
 
 BY JOHN LORD CAMPBELL, A.M., F.R.S.E. 
 
 FIRST SERIES, 
 
 In three neat demy octavo volumes, extra cloth, 
 BRINGING THE WORK TO THE TIME OF JAMES II., JUST ISSUED. 
 
 PREPARING, 
 SECOND SERIES, 
 
 In four volumes, to match, 
 CONTAINING FROM JAMES II. TO GEORGE IV, 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 
 SCHMITZ AND ZUMPT'S CLASSICAL SERIES. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 C. JUJLII CJESAHIS 
 
 COMMENTARII DE BELLO GALLICO. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND A GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX IN ENGLISH, 
 ALSO, A MAP OF GAUL, AND ILLUSTRATIVE ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 In one handsome 18mo. volume, extra cloth. 
 
 This Series has been placed under the editorial management of two eminent scholars 
 and practical teachers, DR. SCHMITZ, Rector of the High School, Edinburgh, and DR. 
 ZUMPT, Professor in the University of Berlin, and will combine the following advan- 
 tages : 
 
 1. A gradually ascending series of School Books on a uniform plan, so as to constitute within a 
 definite number, a complete Latin Curriculum. 
 
 2. Certain arrangements in the rudimentary volumes, which will injure a fair amount of know- 
 ledge in Roman literature to those who are not designed for professional life, and who therefore 
 Will not require to extend their studies to the advanced portion of the series. 
 
 3. The text of each author will be such as has been constituted bv the most recent collations of 
 manuscripts, and will be prefaced by biographical and critical sketches in English, that pupils may 
 be made aware of the character and peculiarities of the work they are about to study. 
 
 4. To remove difficulties, and sustain an interest in the text, explanatory notes in English will 
 be placed at the foot of each page, and such comparisons drawn as may serve to unite the history 
 of the past with the realities of modern times. 
 
 5. The works, generally, will be embellished with maps and illustrative engravings, accompani- 
 ments which will greatly assist the student's comprehension of the nature of the countries and 
 leading circumstances described. 
 
 6. The respective volumes will be issued at a price considerably less than that usually charged ; 
 and as the texts are from the most eminent sources, and the whole series constructed upon a de- 
 terminate plan, the practice of issuing nevv and altered editions, which is complained of alike by 
 teachers and pupils, will be altogether avoided. 
 
 From among the testimonials which the publishers have received, they append the 
 following to show that the design of the series has been fully and successfully carried 
 out: 
 
 Central High School, Phila., June 29, 1847 
 Gentlemen: 
 
 I have been much pleased with your edition of Csesar's Gallic Wars, being part of Schmitz and 
 Zumpt's classical series for schools. The work seems happily adapted to the wants of learners. 
 The notes contain much valuable information, concisely and accurately expressed, and on the points 
 that really require elucidation, while at the same time the book is not rendered tiresome and ex- 
 pensive by a useless array of mere learning. The text is one in high repute, and your reprint of it 
 is pleasing to the eye. I take great pleasure in commending the publication to the attention of 
 teachers. It will, I am persuaded, commend itself to all who give it a fair examination. 
 
 Very Respectfully, Your Obt. Servt., 
 
 JOHN S. HART, 
 To Messrs. Lea & Blanchard. Principal Phila. High ScfiooL 
 
 Gentlemen. June > 1847. 
 
 The edition of "Caesar's Commentaries," embraced in the Classical Section of Chambers's Edu- 
 cational Course, and given to the world under the auspices of Drs. Schmitz and Zumpt has re- 
 ceived from me a candid examination. I have no hesitation in saying, that the design expressed in 
 the notice of the publishers, has been successfully accomplished, and that the worn is well calcu- 
 lated to become popular and useful. The text appears to be unexceptionable. The annotations 
 embrace in condensed form such valuable information, as must not only facilitate the research of 
 Uie scholar, but also stimulate to further inquiry, without encouraging indolence. This is an im- 
 portant feature in the right prosecution of classical studies, wliich ought to be more generally un- 
 derstood arid appreciated. H. HAVERST1CK, 
 
 Prof, of Ancient Languages, Central High School, Phila. 
 
 VOLUME II. 
 
 P. VIRGILII MARONIS CARMINA. 
 
 NEARLY READY. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 
 
 BIRD'S NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 NEARLY READY. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF NATURAL, PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 BEING AN EXPERIMENTAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER THREE HUNDRED WOOD-CUTS. 
 
 BY GOLDING BIRD, M.D., 
 
 Assistant Physician to Guy's Hospital 
 
 FROM THE THIRD LONDON EDITION. 
 
 In one neat volume. 
 
 " By the appearance of Dr. Bird's work, the student has now all that he can desire in one neat, 
 concise, and well -digested volume. The elements of natural philosophy are explained in very sim- 
 ple language, and illustrated by numerous wood-cuts." Medical Gazette. 
 
 ARNOTrS PHYSICS. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PHYSICS; OR, NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 GENERAL AND MEDICAL. 
 WRITTEN FOR UNIVERSAL USE, IN PLAIN, OR NON-TECHNICAL LANGUAGE. 
 
 BY 2IIELL ARNOTT, 1VI.D. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, BY ISAAC HAYS, M. D. 
 
 Complete in one octavo volume, with nearly two hundred wood-cuts. 
 
 This standard work has been long and favourably known as one of the best popular expositions 
 of the interesting science it treats of. It is extensively used in many of the first seminaries. 
 
 ELEMENTARY CHEMISTRY, THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 
 
 BY GEORGE POWNE S, PH. D., 
 
 Chemical Lecturer in the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, &c., <fec. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 EDITED, WITH ADDITIONS, 
 
 BY ROBERT BRIDGES, M.D., 
 
 Professor of General and Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, &c., <fec. 
 
 SECOND AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 In one large duodecimo volume, ehnep or extra cloth, with nearly two 
 hundred wood-cuts. 
 
 The character of this work is such ns to recommend it to all colleges and academies in want of a 
 text-bc>ok. It is fully brought up to the day, containing all the late views and discoveries that have 
 so entirely changed the face of the science, and it is completely ill ustrated with very numerous 
 wood engravings, explanatory of all the different processes and forms of apparatus. Though strictly 
 scientific, it. is written with great clearness and simplicity of style, rendering it easy to be compre- 
 hended by those who are commencing the study. 
 
 It may be had well Iwund in leather, or neatly done up in strong cloth. Its low price places it 
 within the reach of all. 
 
 
 OF OPTICS, 
 
 BY SIR DAVID BREWSTER. 
 WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, BY A. D. BACIIE, LL.D. 
 
 Superintendent of the Coast Survey, <bc. 
 In one volume, 12mo., with numerous wood-cuU. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 
 
 BQLMAR'S FRENCH SERIES, 
 
 New editions of the following works, by A. BOLMAR, forming, in con- 
 nection with "Bolmar's Levizac," a complete series for the acquisition of 
 the French language. 
 
 A SELECTION OF ONE HUNDRED PERRIN'S FABLES, 
 
 ACCOMPANIED BY A KEY, 
 
 Containing the text, a literal and free translation, arranged in such a manner as to 
 point out the difference between the French and English idiom, &c., in 1 vol., 12mo. 
 
 A COLLECTION OF COLLOQUIAL PHRASES, 
 
 ON EVERY TOPIC NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN CONVERSATION, 
 Arranged under different heads, with numerous remarks on the peculiar pronunciation 
 and uses of various words; the whole so disposed as considerably to facilitate the 
 acquisition of a correct pronunciation of the French, in 1 vol., 18mo. 
 
 LES AVENTURES DE TELEMAQUE PAR FENELON, 
 
 In 1 vol., 12mo., accompanied by a Key to the first eight books, in 1 vol., 12mo., con- 
 taining, like the Fables, the text, a literal and free translation, intended as a sequel 
 to the Fables. Either volume sold separately. 
 
 ALL THE FRENCH VERBS, 
 
 Both regular and irregular, in a small volume. 
 
 NEARLY READY. 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY, 
 
 BY J. MULLER, 
 
 Professor of P' t ysics at the University of Frieburg. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH NEARLY FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, AND TWO 
 COLORED PLATES. 
 
 In one octavo volume. 
 
 Tills Edition is improved by the addition of various articles, and will be found in 
 ever> r respect brought up to the time of publication. 
 
 "The Physios of Muller is a work, superb, complete, unique : the greatest want known to Eng- 
 lish Science could not have been better supplied. The work is of surpassing; interest. The value 
 of this contribution to the scientific records of this country may be duly estimated by the fact, that 
 tfie cost of the original drawings and engravings alone has exceeded the sum of %XX)L"Lancei, 
 March, 1847. 
 
 j^jYjj^^^ 
 
 j&CT ATZ.AS OF -a.WCXENT GEOGRAPHY, 
 
 BY SAMUEL BUTLER, D.D., 
 
 Late Lord Bishop of Litchfield, 
 
 CONTAINING TWENTY-ONE COLOURED MAPS, AND A COMPLETE ACCENTUATED INDEX. 
 
 In one octavo volume, half-bound. 
 
 BUTLER'S ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY, 
 
 GEOGZ&.&FI3X.& C 
 
 OR, T^E APPLICATION OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY TO THE CLASSICS 
 
 BY SAMUEL BUTLER, D.D., F.R.S. 
 
 REVISED BY HIS SON. 
 
 FIFTH AMERICAN, FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION, 
 
 WITH QUESTIONS ON THE MAPS, BY JOHN FROS1. 
 In one duodecimo volume, half-bound, to match the Atlas. 
 
LEA AND BLANCHARD'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 SCHOOL BOOKS. 
 
 WHITE'S UNIVERSAL HISTORY, 
 
 LATELY PUBLISHED, 
 
 ELEMENTS OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY, 
 
 ON A NEW AND SYSTEMATIC PLAN; 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE TREATY OF VIENNA; TO WHICH IS ADDED, A 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE LEADING EVENTS SINCE THAT PERIOD, FOR THE 
 
 USE OF SCHOOLS AND PRIVATE STUDENTS. 
 
 BY H. WHITE, B.A., 
 
 TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 WITH ADDITIONS AND QUESTIONS, 
 
 BY JOHN S. HART, A.M., 
 
 Principal of the Philadelphia High School, and Professor of Moral and Mental Science, <fcc., &c. 
 In one volume, large duodecimo, neatly bound with Maroon Backs. 
 
 This work is arranged on a new plan, which is believed to combine the 
 advantages of those formerly in use. It is divided into three parts, corre- 
 sponding with Ancient, Middle, and Modern History ; which parts are again 
 subdivided into centuries, so that the various events are presented in the 
 order of time, while it is so arranged that the annals of each country can be 
 read consecutively, thus combining the advantages of both the plans hitherto 
 pursued in works of this kind. To guide the researches of the student, 
 there will be found numerous synoptical tables, with remarks and sketches 
 of literature, antiquities, and manners, at the great chronological epochs. 
 
 The additions of the American editor have been principally confined to 
 the chapters on the history of this country. The series of questions by him 
 will be found of use to those who prefer that system of instruction. For 
 those who do not, the publishers have had an edition prepared without the 
 questions. 
 
 This work has already passed through several editions, and has been 
 introduced into many of the higher Schools and Academies throughout the 
 country. From among numerous recommendations which they have re- 
 ceived, the publishers annex the following from the Deputy Superintendent 
 of Common Schools for New York : 
 
 Secretary's Office, > State of New York. 
 
 Department of Common Schools. I Albany, Oct. Uth, 1845. 
 
 Messrs. Lea <J- Blanchard: 
 
 Gentlemen: I have examined the copy of "White's Universal History," which you were so 
 obliging as to send me, and cheerfully and fully concur in the commendations of its value, as a com- 
 prehensive and enlightened survey of the Ancient and Modern World which many of the most com- 
 petent judges have, as I perceive, already bestowed upon it. It appears to me to be admirably 
 adapted to the purposes of our public schools ; and I unhesitatingly approve of its introduction into 
 those seminaries of elementary instruction. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 SAMUEL S. RANDALL, 
 Dfputy Superintendent Common Schools. 
 
 This work is admirably calculated for District and other libraries : an edition for that pnrpose 
 without question* has been prepared, done up in strong cloth. 
 
 HERSCHELL'S ASTRONOMY. 
 
 A TREATISE ON ASTRONOMY, 
 
 BY BIR JOHN P. W. IIERSCHELL, F. R. S., &c. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS PLATES AND WOOD-CUTS. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, WITH A PREFACE AND A SERIES OF QUESTIONS, 
 
 BY S. O. WALKER. 
 
 In ono volume, 1'imo. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
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