PREFACE.

In this work, a part of which is, so far as it extends, a careful compilation from an extensive series of books, the great order mammalia, or, rather, a few of its subjects, is treated anecdotically. The connexion of certain animals with man, and the readiness with which man can subdue even the largest of the mammalia, are very curious subjects of thought. The dog and horse are our special friends and associates; they seem to understand us, and we get very much attached to them. The cat or the cow, again, possess a different degree of attachment, and have "heads and hearts" less susceptible of this education than the first mentioned. The anecdotes in this book will clearly show facts of this nature. In the Letter of the Gorilla, under an appearance of exaggeration, will be found many facts of its history. We have a strong belief that natural history, written as White of Selborne did his Letter of Timothy the Tortoise, would be very enticing and interesting to young people. To make birds and other animals relate their stories has been done sometimes, and generally with success. There are anecdotes hinging, however, on animals which have more to do with man than the other mammals referred to in the little story. These stories we have felt to be very interesting when they occur in biographies of great men. Cowper and his Hares, Huygens and his Sparrow, are tales—at least the former—full of interesting matter on the history of the lower animal, but are of most value as showing the influence on the man who amused himself by taming them. We like to know that the great Duke, after getting down from his horse Copenhagen, which carried him through the whole battle of Waterloo, clapped him on the neck, when the war-charger kicked out, as if untired.

We could have added greatly to this book, especially in the part of jests, puns, or cases of double entendre. The few selected may suffice. The so-called conversations of "the Ettrick Shepherd" are full of matter of this kind, treated by "Christopher North" with a happy combination of rare power of description and apt exaggeration of detail, often highly amusing. One or two instances are given here, such as the Fox-hunt and the Whale. The intention of this book is primarily to be amusing; but it will be strange if it do not instruct as well. There is much in it that is true of the habits of mammalia. These, with birds, are likely to interest young people generally, more than anecdotes of members of orders like fish, insects, or molluscs, lower in the scale, though often possessing marvellous instincts, the accounts of which form intensely interesting reading to those who are fond of seeing or hearing of "the works of the Lord," and who "take pleasure" in them.

CONTENTS.

MAMMALIA.[1]
Man[1]
Gainsborough's Joke—Skull of Julius Cæsar when a boy[2]
Sir David Wilkie's simplicity about Babies[3]
James Montgomery translates into verse a description of Man, after the manner of Linnæus[4]
Addison and Sir Richard Steele's Description of Gimcrack the Collector[5]
Monkeys[9]
The Gorilla and its Story[9]
The Orang-Utan[11]
The Chimpanzee[12]
Letter of Mr Waterton[20]
Mr Mitchell and the Young Chimpanzee[22]
Lady Anne Barnard pleads for the Baboons[24]
S. Bisset and his Trained Monkeys[25]
Lord Byron's Pets[26]
The Ettrick Shepherd's Monkey[27]
The Findhorn Fisherman and the Monkey[29]
"We ha'e seen the Enemy!"[29]
The French Marquis and his Monkey[30]
George IV. and Happy Jerry.—Mr Cross's Rib-nosed Baboon at Exeter Change[31]
The Young Lady's pet Monkey and the poor Parrot[33]
Monkeys "poor relations"[34]
Sydney Smith on Monkeys[34]
Mrs Colin Mackenzie on the Apes at Simla[35]
The Aye-Aye, or Cheiromys of Madagascar[36]
Bats[38]
One of Captain Cook's Sailors sees a Fox-Bat, and describes it as a devil[39]
Fox Bats (with a Plate)[41]
Dr Mayerne and his Balsam of Bats[47]
Hedgehog[48]
Robert Southey to his Critics[48]
Mole[49]
Mole, cause of Death of William III.[49]
Brown Bear[56]
The Austrian General and the Bear—"Back, rascal, I am a general!"[58]
Lord Byron's Bear at Cambridge[59]
Charles Dickens on Bear's Grease and Bear-keepers[59]
A Bearable Pun[60]
A Shaved Bear[61]
Polar Bear[61]
General History and Anecdotes of Polar Bear, as observed on recent Arctic Expeditions (with a Plate)[61]
Nelson and the Polar Bear[67]
A Clever Polar Bear[67]
Captain Ommaney and the Polar Bear[70]
Raccoon[71]
"A Gone Coon"[71]
Badger[71]
Hugh Miller sees the "Drawing of the Badger"[72]
The Laird of Balnamoon and the Brock[75]
Ferret[75]
Collins and the Rat-catcher, with the Ferret[76]
Pole-Cat[76]
Fox and the Poll-Cat[77]
Dog[77]
Phrases about Dogs[77]
Cowper's Dog[79]
Cowper and his dog Beau[81]
Burns's "Twa Dogs"[81]
Dog of Assyrian Monument[86]
Bishop Blomfield bitten by a Dog[88]
Sydney Smith's Remark on it[88]
Bishop of Bristol—"Puppies never see till they are nine days old"[88]
Mrs Browning, the Poetess, and her dog Flush[89]
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., and his dog Speaker[93]
Lord Byron and his dog Boatswain[94]
Lady's reason for calling her dog Perchance[96]
Collins the Artist and his dog Prinny—the faithful Model[96]
Soldier and Dog[97]
Bark and Bite!—Curran on Lord Clare and his Dog[98]
Mrs Drew and the two Dogs[98]
Gainsborough and his Wife and their Dogs[100]
Sir William Gell's Dog, which was said to speak[101]
The Duke of Gordon's Wolf-hounds[102]
Frederick the Great and his Italian Greyhounds[104]
The Dog and the French Murderers[104]
Hannah More on Garrick's Dog[105]
Rev. Robert Hall and the Dog[106]
A Queen (Henrietta Maria) and her Lap-Dog[106]
The Clever Dog that belonged to the Hunters of Polmood[107]
The Irish Clergyman and the Dogs[108]
Washington Irving and the Dog[108]
Douglas Jerrold and his Dog[109]
Sheridan and the Dog[109]
Charles Lamb and his dog "Dash"[110]
French Dogs of Louis XII.[110]
Martin Luther observes a Dog at Lintz[111]
Poor Dog at the Grotta del Cane[111]
Dog a Postman and Carrier[113]
South and Sherlock—Dog-matic[113]
General Moreau and his Greyhound[113]
Duke of Norfolk and his Spaniels[114]
Lord North and the Dog[115]
Perthes derives Hints from his Dog[115]
Peter the Great and his dog Lisette[116]
The Light Company's Poodle and Sir F. Ponsonby[118]
Admiral Rodney and his dog Loup[119]
Ruddiman and his dog Rascal[119]
Mrs Schimmelpenninck and the Dogs[120]
Sir Walter Scott and his Dogs[122]
Sheridan on the Dog-Tax[123]
Sydney Smith dislikes Dogs.—An ingenious way of getting rid of them[124]
Sydney Smith on Dogs[125]
Sydney Smith.—"Newfoundland Dog that breakfasted on Parish Boys"[126]
Robert Southey on his Dogs[126]
A Dog that was a good judge of Elocution.—Mr True and his Pupil[127]
Dog that tried to please a Crying Child[128]
Horace Walpole's pet dog Rosette[128]
Horace Walpole.—Arrival of his dog Tonton[129]
Horace Walpole.—Death of his dog Tonton[130]
Archbishop Whateley and his Dogs[131]
Archbishop Whately on Dogs[132]
Sir David Wilkie.—A Dog Rose[133]
Ulysses and his Dog[133]
Wolf[135]
Polson and the Last Wolf in Sutherlandshire[135]
"If the tail break, you'll find that"[137]
Fox[138]
An Enthusiastic Fox-hunting Surgeon[138]
Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, on the Pleasures of Fox-hunting, and the gratification of the Fox[139]
Arctic Foxes converted into Postmen, with Anecdotes (with a plate)[142]
Jackal[148]
Burke on the Jackal and Tiger[149]
Cat[149]
Jeremy Bentham and his pet cat "Sir John Langborn[150]
S. Bisset and his Musical Cats[152]
Constant, Chateaubriand, and their Cats[153]
Liston, the Surgeon, and his Cat[153]
The Banker Mitchell's Antipathy to Kittens[154]
James Montgomery and his Cats[155]
David Ritchie's Cat[157]
Sir Walter Scott's Visit to the Black Dwarf[157]
Southey, the Poet, and his Cats[158]
Archbishop Whateley and the Cat that used to ring the Bell[160]
Tiger and Lion[161]
Bussapa, the Tiger-slayer, and the Tiger[162]
John Hunter and the Dead Tiger[164]
Mrs Mackenzie on the Indian's regard and awe for the Tiger[165]
Jolly Jack-tar on Lion and Tiger[166]
Androcles and the Lion[167]
Sir George Davis and the Lion[170]
Canova's Lions and the Child[171]
Admiral Napier and the Lion in the Tower[173]
Old Lady and the Beasts on the Mound[173]
Seals[174]
Dr Adam Clarke on Shetland Seals[175]
Dr Edmonstone and the Shetland Seals[176]
The Walrus or Morse (with a Plate)[182]
Kangaroo[188]
Charles Lamb on its Peculiarities[188]
Captain Cooke's Sailor and the first Kangaroo seen[189]
Charles Lamb on Kangaroos having Purses in front[189]
Kangaroo Cooke[189]
Tiger Wolf[190]
Squirrel, &c.[194]
Jekyll on a Squirrel[195]
Pets of some of the Parisian Revolutionary Butchers[195]
Sir George Back and the poor Lemming[196]
McDougall and Arctic Lemming[197]
Rats and Mice[198]
Duke of Wellington and Musk-Rat[200]
Lady Eglinton and the Rats[200]
General Douglas and the Rats[201]
Hanover Rats[202]
Irishman Shooting Rats[203]
James Watt and the Rat's Whiskers[204]
Gray the Poet compares Poet-Laureate to Rat-catcher[204]
Jeremy Bentham and the Mice[205]
Robert Burns and the Field Mouse[206]
Fuller on Destructive Field Mice[208]
Baron Von Trenck and the Mouse in Prison[209]
Alexander Wilson, the American Ornithologist, and the Mouse[211]
Hares, Rabbits, Guinea-Pig[212]
William Cowper on his Hares[213]
Lord Norbury on the Exaggeration of a Hare-Shooter[220]
Duke of L. prefers Friends to Hares[221]
S. Bisset and his Trained Hare and Turtle[221]
Lady Anne Barnard on a Family of Rabbits all blind of one eye[222]
Thomas Fuller on Norfolk Rabbits[222]
Dr Chalmers and the Guinea-Pig[223]
Sloth[224]
Sydney Smith on the Sloth—a Comparison[224]
The Great Ant-Eater (with a Plate)[225]
Elephant[229]
Lord Clive—Elephant or Equivalent?[230]
Canning on the Elephant and his Trunk[232]
Sir R. Phillips and Jelly made of Ivory Dust[233]
J. T. Smith and the Elephant[234]
Sydney Smith on the Elephant and Tailor[235]
Elephant's Skin—a teacher put down[236]
Fossil Pachydermata[236]
Cuvier's Enthusiasm over Fossils[236]
Sow[238]
"There's a hantle o' miscellaneous eatin' aboot a Pig"[238]
"Pig-Sticking at Chicago"[238]
Monument to a Pig at Luneberg[239]
Wild Boar (with a Plate)[239]
The River Pig (with a Plate)[245]
S. Bisset and his Learned Pig[250]
Quixote Bowles fond of Pigs[251]
On Jekyll's treading on a small Pig[251]
Good enough for a Pig[251]
Gainsborough's Pigs[252]
Theodore Hook and the Litter of Pigs[253]
Lady Hardwicke's Pig—her Bailiff[253]
Pigs and Silver Spoon[253]
Sydney Smith on Beautiful Pigs[254]
Joseph Sturge, when a boy, and the Pigs[255]
Rhinoceros[229]
The Lord Keeper Guildford and the Rhinoceros in the
City of London[230]
Horse[256]
Horse shot under Albert[256]
Bell-Rock Lighthouse Horse[257]
Edmund Burke and the Horse[257]
David Garrick and his Horse, "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!"[258]
Bernard Gilpin's Horses stolen and recovered[260]
The Herald and George III.'s Horse[261]
Rev. Rowland Hill and his Horse[261]
Holcroft on the Horse[263]
Lord Mansfield, his Joke about a Horse[267]
Sir John Moore and his Horse at Corunna[268]
Neither Horses nor Children can explain their Complaints[269]
Horses with Names[270]
Rennie the Engineer and the Horse Old Jack[270]
Sydney Smith and his Horses[271]
Sydney Smith.—He drugs his Domestic Animals[273]
Horseback, an Absent Clergyman[273]
Judge Story and the Names he gave his Horses[274]
Short-tailed and Long-tailed Horses at Livery, difference of Charge[275]
Ass and Zebra[276]
Coleridge on the Ass[276]
Collins and the old Donkey at Odell[276]
Gainsborough kept one to Study from[277]
Irishman on the Ramsgate Donkeys[278]
Douglas Jerrold and the Ass's Foal[278]
The Judge and the Barrister[279]
Ass that loved Poetry[279]
Warren Hastings and the refractory Donkey[279]
Northcote, an Angel at an Ass[281]
Sydney Smith's Donkey with Jeffrey on his back[281]
Sydney Smith on the Sagacity of the Ass[283]
Sydney Smith's Deers, how he introduced them into his Grounds to gratify Visitors[284]
Asses' Duty Free[284]
Thackeray on Egyptian Donkey[285]
Zebra, a Frenchman's double-entendre[287]
Camels[287]
Captain William Peel, R.N., on Camel[287]
Captain in Royal Navy measures the progress of the Ship of the Desert[289]
Lord Metcalfe on a Camel when a Boy[290]
Red Deer[291]
Earl of Dalhousie and the ferocious Stag[291]
The French Count and the Stag[293]
Fallow Deer[294]
Venison Fat, Reynolds and the Gourmand[294]
Goethe on Stag-trench at Frankfort-on-Maine[294]
Giraffe[295]
"Fancy Two Yards of Sore Throat!"[295]
Sheep and Goat[295]
How many Legs has a Sheep?[296]
Goethe on Roos's Etchings of Sheep[296]
Lord Cockburn and the Sheep[298]
Erskine's Sheep—an Eye to the Woolsack[298]
Sandy Wood and his Pet Sheep and Raven[298]
General Carnac and She-goat[299]
John Hunter and the Shawl-goat[300]
Commodore Keppel beards the Dey of Algiers[303]
Ox[304]
Irish Bulls[304]
A great Calf! "The more he sucked the greater Calf he grew!"[304]
Veal ad nauseam! too much of a good thing[304]
James Boswell should confine himself to the Cow[305]
Rev. Adam Clarke and his Bullock Pat[305]
Samuel Foote and the Cows pulling the Bell of Worcester College[306]
The General's Cow at Plymouth[308]
Gilpin's Love of the Picturesque carried out—a reason for keeping three Cows[308]
King James on a Cow getting over the Border[309]
Duke of Montague and his Hospital for Old Cows and Horses[309]
Philip IV. of Spain in the Bull-ring[310]
Sydney Smith and his "Universal Scratcher"[311]
Rev. Augustus Toplady on the Future State of Animals—the Rev. William Bull[312]
Windham on the Feelings of a Baited Bull[313]
Whale[315]
A Porpoise not at Home[315]
Whalebone[315]
"What's to become o' the puir Whales?"[316]
Very like a Whale![316]
Christopher North on the Whale[316]

HEADS AND TALES.