[137] Gleanings, vol. i., pp. 163-4.
[138] The tortoise which has gained such immortal celebrity by having fallen under the observation of the author of the Natural History of Selborne, likewise distinguished persons in this way. For 'whenever the good old lady came in sight, who had waited on it for more than thirty years, it always hobbled with awkward alacrity towards its benefactress, whilst to strangers it was altogether inattentive.'
[139] This gentleman was Lord Arthur Russell.
[140] The Times, July 25, 1872.
[141] See Annas. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 2nd series, vol. ix., p. 333.
[142] Thompson, Passions of Animals, p. 118; see also Bingley, Animal Biography, vol. ii., pp. 447-8.
[143] Natural History of Ceylon, p. 314.
[144] Tennent, loc. cit., p. 299.
[145] Curiosities, &c., p. 126. Wilson also, in his American Ornithology, gives the following sufficiently credible account of the memory of a crow:—'A gentleman who resided on the Delaware, a few miles below Easton, had raised [reared] a crow, with whose tricks and society he used frequently to amuse himself. This crow lived long in the family, but at length disappeared, having, as was then supposed, been shot by some vagrant gunner, or destroyed by accident. About eleven months after this, as the gentleman one morning, in company with several others, was standing on the river shore, a number of crows happened to pass by; one of them left the flock, and flying directly towards the company, alighted on the gentleman's shoulder, and began to gabble away with great volubility, as one long-absent friend naturally enough does on meeting another. On recovering from his surprise the gentleman instantly recognised his old acquaintance, and endeavoured, by several civil but sly manœuvres, to lay hold of him; but the crow, not altogether relishing quite so much familiarity, having now had a taste of the sweets of liberty, cautiously eluded all his attempts; and suddenly glancing his eye on his distant companions, mounted in the air after them, soon overtook and mingled with them, and was never afterwards seen to return.'
[146] Journal of Mental Science, July 1879.