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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Other Animals, by G. A. Henty
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: Those Other Animals
+
+Author: G. A. Henty
+
+Illustrator: Harrison Weir
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2018 [EBook #56767]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE OTHER ANIMALS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Yours truly G A Henty [**signature] ]
+
+
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          THOSE OTHER ANIMALS.
+
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                             G. A.  HENTY.
+
+                      WITH PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR
+
+
+                       [++ Illustration: The Pig]
+
+
+             AND TWENTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS BY HARRISON WEIR.
+
+
+                                LONDON:
+
+                  HENRY AND CO., BOUVERIE STREET, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+               The Whitefriars Library of Wit and Humour.
+
+                                -------
+
+                             FIRST SERIES.
+
+            The following Vols. are now ready, 2s. 6d. each.
+
+ESSAYS IN LITTLE. By ANDREW LANG.
+
+SAWN OFF: A Tale of a Family Tree. By G. MANVILLE FENN.
+
+A LITTLE IRISH GIRL. By the Author of “Molly Bawn.”
+
+THREE WEEKS AT MOPETOWN. By PERCY FITZGERALD.
+
+A BOOK OF BURLESQUE. By WILLIAM DAVENPORT ADAMS.
+
+IN A CANADIAN CANOE. By BARRY PAIN, B.A.
+
+
+                             SECOND SERIES.
+
+                          Price 3s. 6d. each.
+
+THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. By G. A. HENTY. With Illustrations by HARRISON
+    WEIR. [Ready.
+
+IN CAMBRIDGE COURTS. By RUDOLPH C. LEHMANN. With Illustrations by A. C.
+    PAYNE. [October.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ ● Transcriber’s Notes:
+    ○ The symbols “++” placed in an illustration caption indicate that
+      the caption was created by the transcriber.
+    ○ Text that was in italics is enclosed in underscores (_italics_).
+    ○ Additional Transcriber Notes are located at the end of this book.
+
+
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                             TO THE READER.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+MAN, being essentially a creature of habit, has come to look upon what
+he is pleased to consider as the inferior creation from one point of
+view only, and that in most cases the narrow and selfish one of his own
+interests; thus his views are frequently lamentably prejudiced and
+erroneous. The natural result has been that, while we condone the
+failings of those creatures we make useful to us, we ignore the virtues
+of other and much more estimable ones. Thus, we admire the Bee because
+we benefit by his labours, while we have not a good word to say for the
+Wasp, who is, in point alike of industry and intelligence, the Bee’s
+superior.
+
+An attempt has been here made to view some of the animal creation from a
+broader point of view, and to endeavour to do justice to those whose
+good points have been hitherto persistently ignored, and to take down
+others from the pedestal upon which they have been placed, as it would
+seem, unfairly and unreasonably. If some of the conclusions at which we
+have arrived are not in accordance with those propounded by men of
+science, we can only say that we are sorry for the men of science.
+
+It has only to be added that some of these essays were first presented
+to the world in the columns of the _Evening Standard_.
+
+                                                                G. A. H.
+
+
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+                                               PAGE
+
+                    THE ELEPHANT                  1
+
+                    THE CROCODILE                 7
+
+                    THE CAMEL                    13
+
+                    THE DONKEY                   19
+
+                    THE DRAGON                   25
+
+                    THE TORTOISE AND TURTLE      30
+
+                    THE SHARK                    36
+
+                    THE SNAKE                    41
+
+                    FROGS                        47
+
+                    DADDY LONG-LEGS              54
+
+                    THE APHIS                    59
+
+                    GEESE                        65
+
+                    SLUGS                        72
+
+                    THE PIG                      78
+
+                    CATERPILLARS                 84
+
+                    THE DOMESTIC FOWL            90
+
+                    THE SPARROW                  96
+
+                    FLIES                       101
+
+                    THE PARROT                  107
+
+                    THE COCKROACH               113
+
+                    MICE                        118
+
+                    CATS                        124
+
+                    THE LADYBIRD                130
+
+                    THE DOG                     136
+
+                    SHEEP                       143
+
+                    THE BEE AND THE WASP        150
+
+                    THE BEAR                    156
+
+                    THE SPIDER                  162
+
+                    THE GNAT                    167
+
+                    THE ANT                     173
+
+                    THE BEAVER                  179
+
+                    THE SQUIRREL                184
+
+                    THE FLEA                    189
+
+                    THE MOSQUITO                195
+
+                    THE COW                     200
+
+                    THE OCTOPUS AND CUTTLE      206
+                      FISH
+
+                    THE BACILLUS                212
+
+
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          THOSE OTHER ANIMALS.
+
+                               ----------
+
+                             THE ELEPHANT.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+IT must be admitted that it is hard upon the citizens of the United
+States that the elephant is not found in the Western Continent. The
+Americans have an especial fondness for big things. They are proud that
+they possess the biggest Continent, the largest rivers, the longest
+railways, the loftiest trees, the most monster hotels, and the tallest
+stories of any people in the world. It is, then, extremely hard upon
+them that they have not also the biggest quadrupeds. Two good-sized
+quadrupeds, indeed, they had—the bison and the moose—but they are fast
+disappearing. As they were not the very biggest, the citizens of the
+States had no interest in preserving them. Had the elephant been there,
+he would, doubtless, have been religiously protected as a subject of
+national glorification. The elephant is not thought so much of in the
+countries where he resides. In India he has been utilised, but in Africa
+is prized only for his flesh and his tusks. He is considered to be a
+highly intelligent animal, and in books for children is generally spoken
+of as the sagacious elephant; but in proportion to his size he is rather
+a poor creature in the way of intelligence, and the brain of the ant,
+tiny as it is, contains more real thinking power than the skull of the
+elephant.
+
+It can hardly be doubted that he owes much of the respect in which he is
+held by man to the peculiar formation of his proboscis. A large nose is
+generally considered as a sign of ability in man, but even the largest
+human nose is, since the change of fashion abolished its usefulness as a
+snuff-box, incapable of any other function than that of an organ of
+smell, and as a convenient support for a pair of spectacles. It is
+practically fixed and immovable, at least for all purposes save that of
+expressing the emotions of scorn and disdain. Man has, then, never
+recovered from the astonishment and admiration experienced by the first
+discoverer of the elephant at finding a beast capable of using his nose
+as a hand—of conveying his food to his mouth with it, and of utilising
+it in all the various work of life. This peculiarity has been more than
+sufficient to counterbalance the many obvious defects in the appearance
+of the elephant—his little pig-like eyes, his great flat ears, his short
+and stumpy tail, and the general hairless condition of his leathern
+skin. Then, too, mankind, even in the present day of advanced education,
+are worshippers of brute strength, as is evidenced by the attraction of
+the feats performed by strong men; and the elephant possesses enormous
+strength. This, however, is positive rather than relative, for he is a
+poor creature indeed in comparison with the flea, or even with the
+beetle, both of which can move weights enormously exceeding their own.
+Even the donkey could, bulk for bulk, give the elephant points.
+
+The elephant is but a chicken-hearted beast. In spite of his size and
+strength he is easily scared, and a hare starting up at his feet has
+been frequently known to have excited in him an uncontrollable panic.
+Now and then one can be trained to await quietly the charge of an angry
+tiger; but this is rather because of the confidence that the animal
+feels in the shooting of the men he carries than in his own powers, and
+after having been once mauled he can seldom be induced to repeat the
+experiment. Naturally, the elephant is timid in the extreme; the
+slightest noise startles him, and, except in the case of a solitary bull
+rendered morose by being driven from the herd by younger rivals, he will
+seldom unless wounded face man. He is, like most animals, capable of
+being taught something; but when it is considered that he lives a
+hundred years, while the dog lives but ten or twelve, he would be stupid
+indeed if he did not in all that time come to some understanding as to
+what was required of him; but even at his best, a well-trained dog is a
+vastly more intelligent animal. This, indeed, might only be expected,
+for the elephant’s brain is smaller in proportion to its bulk than is
+that of almost any other creature, being little larger than that of man;
+and while the brain in man is of about one-twenty-fifth of the size of
+the body, that of the elephant is but one-five-hundredth part. We
+should, therefore, pity rather than blame the creature for the smallness
+of his capacity. It may be said that Baron Cuvier, who made the habits
+of the elephant a subject of attentive study, came to the conclusion
+that at the best he was no more intelligent than a dog.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Elephant]
+
+
+The elephant should have been admired by Dr. Johnson on the ground that
+he is a good hater. Although his brain is not capable of holding many
+ideas, his memory of an injury is particularly retentive, and if he has
+to wait for years, he will get even at last with any one who has played
+him a trick. In old times the elephant was trained to war. Gunpowder had
+not been invented, and the elephant was therefore practically
+invulnerable; but even then his utility was problematical, and if
+pricked by an arrow or javelin, he was as likely as not to turn tail,
+and to spread confusion and death in the ranks of the troops that
+marched behind him. His courage, in fact, is beyond all comparison less
+than that of the horse, who seems to enjoy the clamour of battle, and
+will carry his rider unflinchingly through the heaviest fire. As a beast
+of burden the elephant has his uses, and in countries impassable to
+wheeled vehicles he is very valuable, especially in the carriage of
+pieces of artillery that could not be transported by any other available
+means. Upon a level road, however, he possesses no advantage whatever
+over smaller animals, which will not only drag larger weights in
+proportion to the food they consume, but will do so at much greater
+speed.
+
+The elephant, in fact, appears to have been built up with a single eye
+to his own advantages, and altogether without reference to the use he
+might be to man. He is admirably fitted for sustaining the struggle for
+existence. The mechanism of his feet is such as to sustain to a nicety
+his enormous weight. His thick skin enables him to push his way through
+the thickest and thorniest jungles with impunity, and his flat ears
+closely set to his head also facilitate his passage. The great strength
+and pliability of his prehensile trunk, with its finger-like
+termination, enables him either to break off the massive limb of a tree
+or to pick up the smallest tuft of herbage. By its power of suction he
+can pour volumes of water down his throat, or cool himself by spurting
+it over his coat of mail. In his natural state, before man appeared upon
+the scene, he had few enemies, and it was therefore unnecessary to
+cultivate the attribute of courage. His bulk imposed upon smaller though
+fiercer creatures, and his thickness of skin protected him from their
+assaults. As for intelligence, he needed but a small degree of it,—his
+food lay everywhere within his reach, and he had no occasion for either
+craft or speed in obtaining it. He was a huge perambulating machine for
+the conversion of vegetable matter into flesh, and as such he performed
+his functions admirably, and had no occasion to look further. In his
+progress, in fact, from the germ up to the elephant he steadily devoted
+himself to purely selfish ends. Courage was unnecessary, because he
+intended to be so large and so armour-clad that none would assault him,
+while, as he had no relish for flesh, he had no need for courage to
+assault or for speed to pursue others. It was useless to be intelligent,
+since for him there was no occasion either to hide or to seek. He had
+but to stretch out his trunk to procure abundant sustenance, and more
+brain than was needed for this would be but lumber. His digestive
+organs, on the other hand, were to be upon the largest scale, so as to
+permit him to enjoy the pleasure of constant and prodigious feeding.
+These points must have been steadily kept in view during the whole
+upward progress of the creature, and it is but due to it to say that
+they were crowned by perfect success. The elephant was a world to
+himself—not a very lovable, or intelligent, or courageous one, but
+sufficient in all respects for his own wants and desires; and it would
+be hard to blame him because he has not devoted himself to the
+cultivation of qualities that, although admirable in our eyes, would
+have been wholly useless to him in the career that he had marked out for
+himself.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                             THE CROCODILE.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+THE crocodile and its very near relative, the alligator, possess a
+double interest to man. In the first place, they are the relics of a
+bygone age. Their cousins, the ichthyosaurus and the plesiosaurus, and
+the other great Saurians, have happily long since vanished from the
+world, but the crocodile is still with us, and doubtless retains
+traditions of the days when he and his relatives ranged undisputed
+masters of a swampy universe, undisturbed even by anticipations of
+changes and cataclysms that should render the world an unsuitable place
+of habitation for, at any rate, the larger species among them. The
+second reason for man’s interest in the crocodile is the crocodile’s
+marked partiality for man. The crocodile and the alligator differ very
+slightly from each other; the principal difference being that the
+alligator has a broader head, and that the hind feet of the crocodile
+are much more completely webbed than are those of the alligator.
+
+The general observer, however, would see no greater differences between
+members of the various species of alligators and crocodiles than between
+different human beings; but the scientific man delights in subtleties,
+and there is nothing that affords him a deeper satisfaction than in
+discovering slight peculiarities and differences that enable him to
+divide and subdivide, to invent fresh hard names, and so to deter as far
+as possible the general mob from the study of the subject. As, roughly
+speaking, the crocodile inhabits chiefly the Old World, while the
+alligator has almost a monopoly of the New, the former was naturally
+first known to man, and was an object at once of fear and admiration.
+Its mouth was so much larger than that of man, and its armour so much
+more perfect than anything that man could contrive, that it is easy to
+understand the admiration it excited. Our first written record of it is
+in Job; and it is there, under the name of Leviathan, spoken of as the
+bravest and most formidable of all creatures, as “a king over all the
+children of pride.” The Egyptians, who were given to worship animals,
+and perhaps saw more of the crocodile than they liked, did their best to
+win its goodwill, and elevated it to the rank of a deity. Their tame
+crocodiles were well cared for; and although perhaps these did not
+derive any very lively satisfaction from being adorned with rings of
+gold and precious stones, they doubtless appreciated the abundant food
+with which they were supplied, and the feasts of cake, roast meat, and
+mulled wine occasionally bestowed upon them. The Indian variety have had
+an equally good time of it, and their reputation in that part of the
+world has lasted longer than in Egypt, and indeed still continues, large
+numbers being kept in tanks belonging to some of the temples, still
+regarded as sacred, and fed abundantly.
+
+The alligator of Northern and Southern America, although it has always
+been held in great respect by the natives, has scarcely risen to the
+lofty position occupied by its Eastern cousins. It has, nevertheless,
+held its own, being too formidable and well defended to be interfered
+with with impunity. Although killed and eaten occasionally, it was as a
+rule left severely alone, its flesh having a musty flavour, that needs a
+strong stomach and long familiarity to appreciate. Of late, however,
+evil times have fallen upon the alligator. A use has been found for it.
+So long as the dead crocodile was considered as worthless, save for the
+somewhat disagreeable food it furnished, so long the alligator was safe;
+but it was otherwise as soon as it was discovered that a portion of it
+was a marketable commodity. Some close investigator remarked that under
+its coat of mail it wore a leathern doublet exactly corresponding to it,
+and found that this doublet was capable of being turned into an
+excellent peculiarly-marked leather. From that day the fate of the
+alligator was sealed. It will doubtless be a long time before it is
+exterminated, even in the United States; but, like the bison, it has to
+go. Already on the rivers where the population is comparatively thick it
+has become rare, and even in the swamps where it formerly was undisputed
+master the search is hot for it. Theoretically this will be a matter for
+regret; practically its loss will not be sensibly felt.
+
+It may be owned that the alligator has been to some extent maligned, and
+that the number of human beings destroyed by it was by no means so great
+as its exceeding numbers in some of the sluggish rivers of the Southern
+States or of South America would warrant one in expecting. Nevertheless,
+it was certainly a very formidable foe, and a swimmer attacked by it had
+but small chance of escape. Unlike the shark, the crocodile kills its
+prey by drowning; the shark can take off a limb with a single bite, the
+alligator has no such power. Its teeth are sharp and pointed, but placed
+at irregular distances apart, and though these can wound and lacerate
+sorely they have no cutting power whatever, and when it has captured and
+drowned a prey too large to be swallowed at a mouthful, hides it up in a
+deep hole or under the river bank until it decomposes sufficiently for
+the reptile to be able to tear it in pieces. It is said that any one
+seized by an alligator or crocodile can, if he possess a sufficient
+amount of presence of mind, compel the creature to let go by thrusting
+his thumbs into its one vulnerable point—its eyes. The experiment,
+however, is one that cannot be recommended. It would doubtless be
+interesting, but, like Alpine climbing, the satisfaction of success
+would scarcely compensate for the risk incurred.
+
+In no creature have the defensive powers been carried to the same
+perfection as in the case of the crocodile: its coat of armour is
+absolutely invulnerable to the weapons that it was intended to
+withstand; and even now that man has armed himself with rifles, he is
+unable to penetrate its defence unless the creature is struck in the eye
+or in the thick skin of its leg-joints, which are comparatively exposed.
+The coat of mail, doubtless, possesses certain disadvantages, as did the
+armour worn by the knights of the Middle Ages; while this was proof
+against missiles of all kinds, against sword and dagger, the knight, if
+unhorsed and hurled to the ground, was unable to rise without
+assistance, and lay a helpless victim to the dagger of the meanest
+camp-follower. So it is with the crocodile; it can turn its head but at
+a slight angle with its body, and can turn itself only by means of a
+long _détour_; hence an active man or an animal of any kind can easily
+escape it, unless suddenly seized or knocked over by the sweep of its
+tail.
+
+The crocodile possesses many amiable qualities. It is an excellent
+mother. It does not indeed sit upon its eggs like a hen, but this is
+simply because it knows that the heat of the sand in which it buries
+them is amply sufficient to hatch them. The earlier crocodiles, which
+doubtless followed the example of birds, would speedily discover that
+what was good for the goose was not good for the crocodile, and that
+while but a small supply of heat passed through their armour, its weight
+was disastrous to the wellbeing of the eggs. The crocodile, however,
+carefully guards the buried eggs, and as soon as they are hatched
+watches over the young with anxious and continued care; she escorts them
+to the water, and once there protects them to the utmost of her power
+from all assailants, among whom, it must be admitted with regret, the
+male crocodile figures prominently. This care on the part of the mother
+continues during many months of the young crocodile’s life. In spite of
+this, only a small proportion of them arrive at maturity, for in their
+early days great numbers fall victims to vultures and other birds during
+their rambles on shore. Like all saurians, the crocodile is partial to
+warmth, and as it is capable of prolonged fastings it is able to spend a
+considerable portion of its life basking or asleep on the sands in the
+sun.
+
+The crocodile’s eye is provided with three distinct lids. It is evident
+that this advantage admits of an extraordinary variety of what may be
+called eye-action, and it is probable that these animals are able to
+converse with each other by means of the varied action of the lids. Man
+is able to convey a great deal of expression by the action of a single
+eyelid, and it is reasonable to suppose that the alligator would not
+have been provided with a triple eyelid had it not been able to utilise
+these coverings in a very marked manner. It is strange and somewhat
+unfortunate that this peculiarity should not have been made the subject
+of much further investigation and research by scientific men than has
+hitherto been bestowed upon it. It is evident indeed that we have still
+much to learn concerning the crocodile; and in view of its early
+disappearance, it is to be hoped that the matter will speedily be taken
+in hand by some trained investigator.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                               THE CAMEL.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+DURING the countless ages that must have elapsed in its upward progress
+from the original germ, by the various processes of the survival of the
+fittest, selection, and adaptability to circumstances, it is clear that
+the camel kept its eyes strictly to business. The object of the germ and
+its descendants was to build up an animal that should be capable of
+enjoying existence in the desert. To this they turned all their
+attention, with, it may be admitted, marvellous success; but it must be
+added that, while so doing, they unaccountably neglected the beautiful,
+and turned out a creature which in point of awkwardness and uncouthness
+stands completely apart from the rest of the brute creation. The camel’s
+wide, spongy feet save it from sinking in the sand, its long neck
+enables it either to allay irritation by gnawing itself down its spine
+to the root of its tail, or to grab a rider by the foot, while its hind
+legs are specially adapted by their length to allow it to scratch itself
+behind the ear. It may be admitted that in these respects few animals
+have its advantages. As a provision against sand storms it has the
+unique faculty of being able entirely to close its nostrils; while by
+complicated internal arrangements it is able to carry its water supply
+about with it for some days. Probably the camel did not foresee that,
+while thus little by little perfecting itself for a life in the desert,
+it was constructing an animal that would be exceedingly useful to man,
+and was preparing for itself and its descendants a lifelong servitude;
+but so it has been. The camel was one of the very first animals that man
+turned to his use. Jacob possessed camels, and Joseph was carried away
+into Egypt by a caravan of Ishmaelites with laden camels. Job possessed
+three thousand camels at the beginning of his misfortunes, and was
+promised six thousand at the end. The camel has, in fact, from the first
+been made a servant by man; it is only in Central Asia that it is known
+to exist in a wild state, and it is far more probable that these wild
+camels are the descendants of some escaped from captivity, than that
+they should all along have retained their freedom.
+
+The camel is capable of great and prolonged endurance if not overloaded
+or overdriven; but it is a mistake to suppose that there are no limits
+to its powers in this way. The authorities of the Nile Expedition fell
+into this error, with the result that in three weeks after its start
+from Korti, the four thousand camels collected and brought up at so
+great an expense were all practically _hors-de-combat_, more than half
+being dead and the rest reduced to the last stage of misery and
+weakness. The camel on this occasion showed its usual obstinacy, and
+insisted on dying as a protest against being obliged to travel night and
+day with utterly insufficient quantities of food and water. A similar
+result followed the confidence of the authorities of the Abyssinian
+Expedition in the power of the camel to exist without water when dumped
+down by thousands on the bare sands of Annesley Bay. The failure of the
+camel upon these occasions must not, however, be imputed to it as blame.
+In its progress from the germ it had anticipated only the conditions
+under which it would naturally find itself, and had made no allowance
+for the stupidity of man.
+
+It is not surprising that the camel, finding itself from the first
+reduced to slavery and converted into a beast of burden, should have
+developed a bad temper. No epithet was ever more ridiculously misapplied
+than that of patience in connection with the camel. It is, in fact, only
+possible to account for its use upon the ground that when first applied
+the word bore its strict Latin signification, and that it was the
+“suffering” and not the “long-suffering” signification of the word that
+renders it applicable. The life of the camel is spent in one long
+protest against its lot. It grumbles and growls alike when it is laden
+and unladen, when it is ordered to rise or to kneel; to stop or to go
+on; it roars threateningly at any animal that approaches it, and is
+ready at all times to take a piece out of any one who may place himself
+incautiously within reach of its teeth, and even when lying down will
+shoot out its hind leg with wonderful activity and viciousness to a
+distance of some two or three yards at a passer-by. The camel has
+literally no pleasures; its life is one unbroken round of toil, and it
+would seem almost that it has cultivated ill-temper until it has become
+a form of enjoyment. Even the camel’s walk is evidently the result of
+deep calculation, for it is of all kinds of gait the most unpleasant for
+its rider. The camel has its regular pace,—it will walk two miles and
+three-quarters an hour, neither faster nor slower,—and however urgent
+the need of haste may be to its owner, neither blows nor execrations
+will induce the camel to quicken its pace except for a few hundred
+yards, at the end of which it will settle down into its regulation
+stride, with doubtless much inward chuckling at its rider’s
+exasperation. It would not be fair to blame the camel for this; its
+disposition has been embittered, and it is not unreasonable that it
+should find an alleviation in the only way open to it. Indeed, man has
+much reason to be grateful that the obstinacy of the camel does not take
+the form of refusing from the first to live, rejecting sustenance, and
+persisting in giving the whole thing up as soon as its eyes are open to
+the lot awaiting it.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Camel]
+
+
+There are breeds of camels that differ materially from the ordinary
+specimen in point of speed. The Heirie or Maherry, and the Sabaye, are
+very swift, and will keep up a trot of eight or nine miles an hour for
+many hours together, and have been known to perform a journey of
+thirty-five days’ caravan travelling in five days, doing six hundred and
+thirty miles; while Purchas says that camels will carry messages from
+Timbuktu to places nine hundred miles distant in less than eight days.
+These fast camels have but one hump; but this is also the case with some
+of the beasts of burden. The object of these humps is not very clear,
+but it is supposed that as the stomachs are a reservoir of water, so the
+humps are natural portmanteaus in which the animals convey a reserve of
+sustenance to draw upon in case of need. It is, at any rate, certain
+that the fatty substance composing the humps considerably diminishes and
+dwindles when the animal is overworked.
+
+The camel has courage as well as endurance: it goes on at its regular
+pace like a clock that is wound up, until it stops suddenly and falls;
+when it once does so, nothing can induce it to endeavour to use its feet
+again as long as man is present, although after the departure of the
+caravan it has been known to get up to browse on the bushes, and to find
+its way back to the wells from which it started in the morning. It is
+very insensible to pain. Count Gleichen, in his account of the Camel
+Corps in the Nile Expedition, gives many instances of this; notably the
+case of one camel which, having had its lower jaw shot off by a ball
+from an Arab matchlock, yet continued its journey to the end of the day
+in apparent unconsciousness that anything unusual had taken place. The
+one form of enjoyment of the camel is that dear also to the donkey and
+horse—namely, a roll in the sand. This appears to afford it great
+comfort and consolation, and after an indulgence in it, it is ready,
+when again loaded, to start with renewed vigour. The Heirie, being
+better treated and cared for than the ordinary camel, is naturally a
+very much better tempered beast than his humble congener, and is even
+capable of exhibiting an affection for his master. This is in itself a
+proof that the moroseness of disposition so general in the race is due
+to the treatment they receive from man, and not from any inherent
+incapacity to see things on their bright side; and the thoughtful should
+pity rather than blame camels for using their only available means of
+exhibiting their disgust and discontentment with their hard and joyless
+lot.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                              THE DONKEY.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+WHILE the dog has risen vastly in the scale since Scriptural times as
+the friend and companion of man, the donkey has as distinctly descended.
+There is no reason for believing that this is the fault of the donkey,
+but lies rather in the want of appreciation on the part of man. The
+donkey is, indeed, to no small extent the victim of appearances, and it
+can hardly be doubted that the length of his ears has told terribly
+against him. This is not because there is anything inherently
+objectionable in a donkey’s ears. They match admirably with his general
+appearance, and their constant movement evinces the animal’s intelligent
+interest in what is going on around it. Unfortunately for the donkey,
+however, men are accustomed to see in all other creatures’ ears bearing
+a smaller proportion to the general bulk than they do in the case of a
+donkey, and, therefore, rashly and foolishly, jump at the conclusion
+that the donkey’s ears are excessive. This being once established, it
+naturally follows that man should attribute various bad qualities to the
+donkey, simply because his ears are large; but he is specially credited
+with stupidity and obstinacy. We do not hesitate to say that the
+stupidity is very much greater on the part of man, who fails to
+recognise the characteristics of one of the most worthy of animals, than
+on that of the donkey himself; for it may be doubted whether any
+individual of the animal creation possesses so many virtues as he does.
+He is strong, hardy, patient, laborious, and, in his wild state, fleet
+and brave. He can live on the most meagre provender; he can stand all
+climates. He is a willing servant, and does not despise humble work. He
+is affectionate whenever he gets a chance of being so, and is one of the
+most intelligent of animals. The horse is more showy, but in proportion
+to the amount of food he consumes, and to his weight and size, he is
+less strong than the donkey; he is undoubtedly less intelligent, and, in
+spite of his size, he is no fleeter. The wild ass can leave the horse
+behind him; can climb precipices inaccessible to his rival, can go
+fearlessly along mountain paths where the horse would not dare to tread,
+and is in no way inferior in courage. Well groomed and cared for, his
+coat is almost as sleek and glossy; while he is free from the various
+vices that so often mar the usefulness of the horse.
+
+When living under similar conditions, the horse recognises at once the
+superior sagacity of the ass. On the great ranches of the Western States
+of America donkeys are frequently turned out with droves of horses, and
+in such cases the donkey is always accepted as the leader, and the
+horses gather round him, or follow his footsteps with implicit
+confidence. The wild stallion on the plains is a very formidable animal,
+and is more than a match for man himself when unprovided with firearms;
+but the ass has no fear of it, and the testimony of the plains’ men is
+unanimous that in a combat between them the jack is likely to come out
+the victor. In such cases the donkey is well aware that he is no match
+for the stallion with his heels, but fights with his teeth, and the
+combat resembles that between a well-trained dog and a bull. The jackass
+will rush at his opponent, and, skilfully dodging the blows from its
+fore legs, will leap at its throat, and, having once caught hold, his
+grip cannot be shaken off. In vain will the stallion strike at him, in
+vain lift him in the air and hurl him down again, for the jack, with his
+legs well apart, will always come down on his feet. In vain will the
+horse throw itself down and roll with its opponent. The jack will hold
+on until the horse succumbs to his grip, or the flesh he has seized
+comes away in his hold.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Donkey]
+
+
+Seeing his utility to man, his willingness to give all his strength for
+so slight a return, his patience under hardship, starvation, and cold,
+it is wonderful that the ass is not more highly appreciated, and that he
+does not occupy a far higher place than he does in our regard. In one
+respect only has the ass a weak side. If, as the philosopher says,
+silence is golden in the case of man, it is still more so in the case of
+the ass. The donkey prides himself, not upon his many and sterling
+virtues, but upon what others consider to be his greatest failing.
+Unfortunately, like many human beings, he entertains an altogether
+mistaken idea as to his vocal powers, which he never loses an
+opportunity of exhibiting. Other animals use the voice for the purpose
+of expressing their emotions. The dog’s bark expresses joy,
+watchfulness, or menace; his growl, anger; his whine, impatience or
+discontent. The horse is naturally silent, but his neigh is indicative
+sometimes of welcome, sometimes of impatience. Love is the burden of the
+bird’s song. Maternal solicitude, or a desire for food, that of the baa
+of the sheep. The donkey’s song appears to express nothing but his
+desire to favour all within hearing with a specimen of the beauty and
+power of his voice, and of his amazing vocalisation. Thus he lifts it up
+at all times, and in all places, whenever the idea seizes him, and the
+utmost intelligence of man has hitherto failed to grasp the meaning of
+the strange, varied, and prolonged cachinnations. The boldest animal
+trembles when it hears them. Man puts his hands to his ears, and flies.
+It is not a challenge, it is not a call; it is indicative neither of
+hunger, nor of anger, nor of satisfaction. It seems simply a vocal
+effort, and as such is unique, but, unfortunately for the donkey, it is
+unappreciated. The connection between a donkey’s voice and his tail is
+obscure, but undoubted. It is impossible for him to do justice to
+himself unless his tail be elevated, and advantage has been taken of
+this peculiarity by man, who is apt at turning the weaknesses of others
+to his own benefit. It has been found that by attaching a weight to a
+donkey’s tail—a brick is sufficient—neither the tail nor the voice can
+be elevated. In this respect it must be owned that the donkey is easier
+to deal with than a woman; for while the former can be effectually
+reduced to silence, no means have hitherto been discovered for
+suppressing ladies with a mistaken estimate of their vocal abilities.
+
+Happily of late there has been some slight reaction in favour of the
+donkey, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has
+done something towards impressing upon the minds of the class of men who
+chiefly utilise the services of the ass that the animal is not
+altogether insensible to pain, that he needs a certain amount of
+sustenance, and that there is a limit to his draught powers. Why a
+mistaken idea upon these points should have so long prevailed is by no
+means clear. That it _has_ prevailed is evident from the fact that a
+certain class of men brutally misuse donkeys, as they misuse no other
+creatures save their wives. Men do not take an absolute pleasure in
+beating dogs; but no one can doubt that the brute who lays a heavy stick
+across an unoffending donkey does feel a malicious joy in the pain he
+gives. Matters are better than they were; the schoolmaster is abroad,
+and so are the policeman and the officer of the Society, and between
+them some slight alleviation of the lot of the ass is in progress. But
+even now the spectacle of five or six hulking louts seated behind a
+staggering little donkey, and urging him on his way with oaths and
+blows, may be witnessed any Sunday or Bank Holiday afternoon, upon every
+road leading through the suburbs into the country, to the disgrace alike
+of our civilisation and humanity. In Egypt and in the East the donkey
+still holds something of his former position in public esteem, and even
+a portly merchant, or a grave functionary, has no idea that he is in any
+way demeaning himself when, perched upon the top of an enormous saddle,
+placed on the back of a donkey, he proceeds about his business. Had the
+capacities of the ass been equally recognised in the West, the cycle
+would never have obtained such a height of popularity as it has done. A
+well-made cycle will cost almost as many pounds as a donkey will cost
+shillings. Its expenses of repair will equal in cost the keep of the
+donkey, and, except as a means of promoting perspiration and keeping
+down flesh, no human being would compare the easy and gentle amble of
+the donkey with the labour required for a cycle as an instrument of
+progression. It is a pity that among the many good works that have been
+effected by the influence of Royalty that of raising the donkey in
+public esteem has hitherto had no place. The appearance of the Princess
+of Wales in the Park, in a light equipage drawn by two handsome donkeys,
+would in a short time produce a moral revolution, and the good little
+beasts would soon resume their proper place in popular favour.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                              THE DRAGON.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+LIKE the dodo, the moa, and the great auk, the dragon is admittedly an
+extinct animal, but that is no reason why his characteristics should not
+be considered in these pages. The question that has long agitated
+scientific men is, first, as to the extent to which the personal
+peculiarities of the dragon have been exaggerated by popular tradition,
+and in the second place as to the period at which he became extinct.
+There have been those who have even asserted that his existence was
+purely apocryphal, but with men so mentally constituted argument is
+useless. The traditions of almost all nations point to the fact that not
+only did the dragon exist as a race, but that individual dragons
+continued to exist down to comparatively modern times. We may set aside
+at once the dragon of Wantley. Cæsar makes no allusion to dragons
+existing in Great Britain; Wantley did not exist before Cæsar’s time;
+therefore there can have been no dragon at Wantley. But it is not
+possible so summarily to dispose of all legends, and it is remarkable
+that the dragon should figure with almost precisely the same
+characteristics in the folk lore of both Western and Oriental peoples.
+Our most valuable national coin bears its portrait, and it is the
+national emblem both of China and Japan. St. George, as we know, was a
+warlike saint of Cappadocia; although his feats and adventures are
+somewhat doubtful and misty as to locality, it may be assumed that the
+dragon who succumbed to his prowess was a native of Asia.
+
+The dragon is, in fact, an exceedingly interesting problem, and the
+balance of probability appears to be wholly in favour of his existence.
+We know that great winged saurians inhabited the earth in prehistoric
+times, and such a creature would be likely to survive cataclysms which
+overwhelmed the greater portion of his contemporaries. Water would not
+seriously inconvenience him. His habits would on the whole be retiring,
+and until man multiplied and became thick over the world, there would be
+but small inclination to interfere with him. The saurians attain to
+extreme longevity, and if only a few specimens escaped at the time of
+the flood, their descendants of a very few generations would have
+existed in comparatively modern times. The Chinese legends point to the
+preservation of the dragon in this manner. They say that at a time which
+closely approximates to that generally assigned to Noah’s deluge, great
+floods extended almost to the boundaries of China, and that it was at
+that time that the dragons first made their appearance and became a
+serious scourge in some of the frontier provinces. Doubtless the
+European traditions connected with the dragons were brought by the
+tribes which wave after wave poured in from Central Asia, and it must be
+assumed that there, if anywhere, the survivors from the flood for some
+time flourished.
+
+It is certainly difficult to assume that the descriptions of these
+creatures by so many peoples and such diverse sources would be all but
+identical, had they been purely the work of imagination and not drawn
+from a living model. All accounts unite in describing the dragon as a
+creature clothed with scales, possessing a flexible neck like that of
+the plesiosaurus, a large head, with jaws well furnished with pointed
+teeth like the crocodile’s, a flexible tail like the lizard’s, and wings
+like a pterodactyl’s. The flying apparatus of these extinct creatures,
+indeed, closely resembled that of a bat, being a membrane from the
+vastly extended finger of the fore leg to that of the hind leg. This
+does not agree with the popular idea of the dragon, but the ancients
+were not close observers, and it was quite enough for them to know that
+their gigantic enemy was furnished with wings, without inquiring closely
+into their arrangement. It does not appear that the dragon was able to
+fly, but it would rather seem that when he ran to attack an enemy he
+aided himself by flapping his wings, as a swan often travels along the
+surface of the water before it fairly takes to flight. Some of the
+dragons are depicted as altogether devoid of wings, the Imperial
+Japanese dragon showing no signs of such appendages. Thus both the
+Chinese and Japanese legends go far to prove that several species of
+saurians survived for some time the general disappearance of their
+prehistoric congeners. The legendary dragons differ but slightly from
+some of the prehistoric reptiles, and as the Orientals were entirely in
+ignorance of the former existence or appearance of these creatures, it
+is difficult in the extreme to believe that they could have coined from
+their own imagination a creature so closely resembling them.
+
+In one respect only we must admit an error, and a serious one. Most of
+the legendary dragons possessed stings at the tip of their tail. We give
+up the stings, but at the same time would urge that this error cannot be
+considered as destructive of the truth of the legend. In the present day
+it is popularly believed by the vulgar that the larva known as the
+Devil’s Coach Horse—a creature which when alarmed carries its tail in a
+threatening manner over its head—is, like the scorpion, armed with a
+sting. In some countries, too, it is believed that dragon-flies are
+similarly armed. If, then, such errors can exist in an age of general
+enlightenment, it may well be that in older times the dragon, a creature
+certainly rare as well as very terrible, was by the popular fancy
+endowed with means of defence even more formidable than those he
+possessed. The breath of the creature is in all legends relating to it
+described as fœtid and poisonous. And as undoubtedly snakes exhale a
+fœtid odour, there is nothing improbable in the assertion that the
+dragons also did so.
+
+No details whatever have come down to us as to the domestic habits of
+the dragon. We only know that he desolated whole provinces, and that the
+only method of preserving the community from his attacks was the
+appeasement of his appetite by the offering of victims. These victims
+are generally represented as being young females, but it is not probable
+that the dragon himself was particular on this score. Women would be
+chosen for the tribute, partly because it was supposed that their tender
+flesh would be more gratefully received than that of tougher victims;
+but much more because women were in those days considered of smaller
+account than men, and could be pounced upon and handed over to the
+monster with much less fuss and trouble than would have been the case
+had fighting men been chosen. Women’s rights in those days were much
+less perfectly understood than at present; and the question of the
+equality of the sexes had not so much as occurred even to the most
+speculative philosophers. The origin of the story of the female tribute
+evidently is, that the dragon was too formidable a creature to be
+assailed, and that it was deemed sound policy to keep him in a state of
+lethargy in the cave in which he dwelt by supplying him with an
+occasional victim, rather than that he should sally out and make his own
+selection. The whole story would seem to show that the dragon was, like
+most saurians, content to pass a tranquil existence unless when
+disturbed; that, like the rest of the race, he was capable of prolonged
+fasts; and that, huge as was his bulk, a meal once a month or so
+sufficed for his needs. The dragon was said to roar, and this again is
+another confirmation of the truth of the legend, for the crocodile when
+enraged can bellow like a bull, and this would naturally be the sound
+that a great saurian would utter. Upon the whole, it is evident that the
+balance of probability inclines heavily towards the reality of the
+existence of the dragon up to comparatively modern times; and we may
+still cling to the belief that the national legend of the victory of St.
+George over the dragon is not wholly apocryphal, but possesses a large
+substratum of truth.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                        THE TORTOISE AND TURTLE.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+THE tortoise has in all ages been an object of wonder to man. Its form,
+its slowness of movement, its wonderful coat of armour, its power of
+prolonged fasting, the absence of any apparent pleasure in its
+existence, have all seemed to set it apart among living creatures. The
+Orientals, who are profound thinkers, arrived at the conclusion that the
+world must be held up on the back of a tortoise, no other creature
+appearing capable of sustaining the burden. But even their powers of
+speculation shrank from endeavouring to cope with the inevitable
+problem: what in that case held up the tortoise? There was nothing in
+the habits or customs of the tortoise, as met with on the surface of the
+earth, that could authorise the supposition that it could, in any state,
+not only support itself in the air, but hold up the not inconsiderable
+burden of the earth; indeed, the problem was evidently so insoluble an
+one that we meet with no trace in any of the writings of the early
+pundits that they ever attempted fairly to grapple with it.
+
+It would certainly seem that nature has been more unkind to the tortoise
+than to any other creature. It has given it nothing whatever to
+compensate for the dulness of its existence or its slow and laborious
+method of progression. Almost all other creatures are, in their youth at
+any rate, gay and frolicsome, delighting in their powers of speed and
+activity. No one has ever observed the tortoise at play; it can neither
+run nor frisk, climb a tree, nor throw a somersault. It plods gravely on
+from its birth to its death, like a creature in a living tomb, carrying
+a burden that seems almost too great for its strength—eating a little,
+sleeping a great deal,—thinking, it must be presumed, for even a
+tortoise must do something, deeply and uninterruptedly. As it sees so
+little of the world around it, we must suppose that its meditations are
+self-directed, and that it is continually occupied with attempts to
+solve the problem of the why and the wherefore of its own existence. As
+it has a hundred years to think this out, there is no reason to doubt
+that were the tortoise capable of conveying its thoughts and conclusions
+to man the results would be of the highest value, and that it would be
+found that the speculations of our deepest thinkers are shallow indeed
+by the side of profound meditations of the tortoise. It has, too, the
+advantage of long traditions, and the accumulation of the wisdom of
+ages; for the tortoise is, perhaps, the oldest existing creature on
+earth. Its congeners, who ranged with it the surface of the earth
+countless ages before the present race of animals existed, have all
+passed away, but the tortoise remains almost identical with his far-off
+ancestors.
+
+The number of varieties of the land and water tortoise, the latter known
+as the turtle, are very great, and are of high interest to scientific
+men; the points of structural difference between them, especially in the
+skull, being very much more numerous and important than those existing
+between any species of animals, birds, reptiles, or fish. Their habits
+differ as widely as their structure. Of the land tortoises, some prefer
+a vegetable diet, some insects, worms, and molluscs, while some of the
+larger turtles will feed upon fishes and small aquatic birds. Both land
+and water tortoises are capable of fasting for upwards of a year. Their
+tenacity of life is extraordinary, for their hearts will continue to
+beat, and they are still able to move their limbs with considerable
+force, for ten or twelve days after their heads have been cut off. The
+tortoise is sensitive as to weather; it does not like too great heat,
+and lies in the shade when the sun is strong. It equally objects to
+cold, and buries itself under loose rubbish, or scrapes itself a hole in
+the ground on the approach of winter, taking many weeks about the
+operation.
+
+It might be thought that, clad in its waterproof coat, it would regard
+rain with indifference; but this is far from being the case, for if a
+shower is at hand it will hurry away to shelter. It can only be supposed
+that this extreme sensitiveness to all atmospheric changes has been
+bestowed upon the tortoise to afford it matter for interest and
+excitement. Not only does it sleep throughout the whole of the winter
+months, but in summer it retires to rest early in the afternoon, and
+remains asleep till late in the morning. In the Galapagos Islands the
+tortoises rival in size those of the prehistoric period, weighing three
+or four hundred pounds. The speed of these animals is relatively fast,
+for they can travel as much as six yards a minute. The water turtle
+attains even a greater size, individuals having been taken weighing from
+sixteen to seventeen hundred pounds.
+
+The life of the turtles and fresh water tortoises is a lively one in
+comparison to that of the land species. Instead of the short and
+misshapen legs that serve the purposes of locomotion to the latter, they
+are furnished with paddles that enable them to swim with great rapidity,
+and were it not for their sleeping habits, and for the necessity for the
+females to go ashore to lay their eggs, man would have but few
+opportunities of enjoying turtle soup, for their speed is far greater
+than that at which any boat could be rowed. They are thus able to obtain
+an abundance of food from the slower moving fish; and as their power of
+jaw is very great they are practically masters of the waters they
+frequent. Those close observers, the Chinese, who have a marked
+partiality for turtle, do not rely wholly upon its sleepiness of habit
+or its occasional landings for their supply of soup; they employ in
+their service a fish of the Remora species, which is of peculiar
+construction, and possesses a great power of grip. These fish are
+trained to the work, and taken out in tubs in the fishing boats. To the
+tail of each fish a ring is attached, and to this the fisherman attaches
+a long cord, and slips the fish overboard as soon as they approach a
+basking turtle. Directly the fish discovers the turtle, it makes towards
+it, and fixes itself firmly to it by means of a peculiar apparatus upon
+its head. The fisherman then hauls in the rope, and pulls both fish and
+turtle to the boat, and on getting them on board pushes the fish’s head
+forward, when it at once looses its hold. The story would appear
+incredible were it not vouched for on high authority.
+
+Except as an example to man of patience under a singularly joyless life,
+the purpose of the land tortoise is not very marked. The second lesson
+it teaches—namely, that a life of indolence and lethargy conduces to
+extreme longevity—can scarcely be considered as an advantageous one. One
+species, indeed, furnishes a material that is utilised principally for
+the manufacture of combs and female ornaments, and it was remarked by
+the Brothers Mayhew as singular that the tortoise which supplies ladies
+with combs has itself no back hair. However, even in this respect the
+uses of the tortoise have of late years been greatly discounted by the
+introduction of compounds of india-rubber for the purpose of combs, and
+the decline of the fashion for the lofty decorative combs used by our
+grandmothers—a fashion which, however, appears to be, to a certain
+extent, reviving just at present.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Tortoise]
+
+
+Properly considered, the tortoise should be viewed as an example to be
+avoided rather than followed. Had it not been for the indolent habits of
+the prehistoric tortoise, there can be little doubt that it would in
+time have effected very considerable changes in its structure. The
+survival of the fittest might not have done much for it, as all
+tortoises can hold their own in the way of living on. But the progress
+of selection, the intermarriage between active males and females, would
+naturally have led in time to a much greater development of leg, and the
+tortoise might have become as speedy on land as the turtle in water.
+Unfortunately active tortoises, male or female, were extremely scarce,
+and the result of ages of indolence has been that the race has remained
+absolutely without progress, and that no visible improvement has been
+effected since its first introduction among the inhabitants of earth.
+The lesson furnished by it cannot be too earnestly taken to heart,
+especially as we see the same thing, although in a modified extent,
+among the lower races of humanity.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                               THE SHARK.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+PHILOSOPHERS, although as a rule men of exceedingly positive opinions,
+wholly averse to confess their ignorance upon any point whatever, have
+failed signally in arriving at any satisfactory conclusion as to the
+advantage of the shark in the general scheme of nature. It has been
+suggested that it was created specially for the repression of conceit in
+man, and to show him that he was not, as he might otherwise have
+supposed, the undoubted lord of the inhabitants of the water as of the
+dwellers upon earth. Given special advantages—such as that of holding
+the end of a stout rope, at the other extremity of which is a hook fixed
+in a shark’s mouth—man may, with the assistance of a number of his
+fellows, have the best of the shark. But alone, and in the water, the
+advantage is wholly and absolutely the other way, and the strongest
+swimmer and the bravest heart fail when the tyrant of the sea seeks to
+make his acquaintance. It is true that reports have been current that
+there are natives of the islands of Southern Seas, who, armed with a
+knife, fear not to go out and give battle to the shark in its own
+element, but these tales must be accepted with caution, and are akin to
+the many apparently authentic narratives of the appearance of the
+sea-serpent.
+
+The shark is a creature gifted with great strength, a savage temper,
+dogged perseverance, and exceptional power of jaw. The lion and tiger
+may mangle, the crocodile may lacerate, the bulldog may hold fast—the
+shark alone of living creatures possesses the power of cleanly nipping
+off a human limb at a bite. One ill service nature has done the shark,
+namely, that of placing a triangular fin on his back, which acts as a
+danger signal and gives warning of his approach. Happily the shark has
+not been gifted with sufficient sagacity to be aware of this
+peculiarity, for had he been so he would unquestionably have abandoned
+his habit of swimming close to the surface of the water, and would in
+that case have been enabled to approach his victim unobserved. The shark
+is a slow swimmer for his size and strength. Byron observes, “As darts
+the dolphin from the shark,” but Byron was a poet, and does not appear
+to have been a close observer of the habits of the inhabitants of the
+water; or he would have known that a shark would have no more chance of
+catching a dolphin than a sheep would of overhauling a hare. A shark
+will keep up with a sailing ship, but it is as much as it can do to
+follow in the wake of a fast steamer, and a torpedo boat would be able
+to give it points.
+
+As it is a source of wonder how the flea manages to exist in the sand,
+where his chances of obtaining a meal may not occur once in a lifetime,
+so naturalists are greatly puzzled how the shark maintains himself. The
+ocean is wide, and the number of men who fall overboard small indeed in
+comparison to its area. The vast proportion of sharks, then, must go
+through their lives without a remote chance of obtaining a meal at the
+expense of the human kind. There is no ground for the supposition that
+the shark can exist upon air. He is not, like the whale, provided with
+an apparatus that enables him to sweep up the tiny inhabitants of the
+seas. He is too slow in swimming, and infinitely too slow in turning, to
+catch any fish that did not deliberately swim into his mouth; and unless
+we suppose that, as is said of the snake, he exercises a magnetic
+influence over fish, and causes them to rush headlong to destruction
+between his jaws, it is impossible to imagine how he obtains a
+sufficient supply of food for his sustenance. As it would appear that it
+is only when he gets the good luck to light upon a dead or badly injured
+fish that the shark has ever the opportunity of making a really square
+meal, his prolonged fasts certainly furnish an ample explanation and
+excuse for his alleged savagery of disposition.
+
+The scientific name of sharks is _squalidæ_, though why scientific men
+should have fixed upon such a title is not clear, for there is to the
+ordinary eye nothing particularly ragged or squalid about the shark’s
+appearance. The shark belongs to the same section as the ray, which
+fish, however, resembles its cousin the shark only in the awkward
+position of its mouth, and in its astonishing power of biting, it being
+able to indent an iron boat-hook or bar. The immemorial enmity between
+man and the snake on land is not less bitter and deep-seated than that
+which man on the sea cherishes against the shark. In this case, however,
+it is one-sided, everything pointing to the fact that so far from having
+any hostile feeling for man, the shark has an excessive liking for him.
+It is as unjust to charge the shark with hostility towards man as it
+would be to accuse man of a savage animosity against the ox or the
+sheep. To the shark man is food to be eaten, that is all; and man, the
+almost universal devourer, is the last who is entitled to blame the
+shark on this ground. The Maori has always been regarded as a remarkably
+fine specimen of a savage, and his liking for “missionary” has never
+been seriously imputed to him as a grave failing. Man’s likes and
+dislikes are unfortunately sadly tinged with selfishness. Many men go to
+sea, and therefore the man-eating propensities of the shark excite in us
+a feeling of indignation. The proportion of men who went out as
+missionaries to the Maori was so small as to be altogether
+inappreciable, and the majority therefore regarded the weakness of the
+Maori for them from a purely philosophical point of view.
+
+Fortunately for the inhabitants of these islands, the aversion of the
+shark to cold water is as much marked as is that of the occupants of the
+casual wards of our workhouses; and the consequence is that the larger
+and more dangerous species are very seldom met with on our coasts, and
+upon the rare occasions when they visit us, are in so low and depressed
+a state of mind from the cold that their appetites appear to be wholly
+in abeyance, and there is no record of a bather having been devoured at
+any of our sea-side watering places.
+
+The eye of the shark is small, long, and narrow, closely resembling that
+of a pig. All observers have agreed in attributing to it a sly and
+malicious expression, but this must to some extent be taken as a flight
+of fancy. The only real reason for attributing to the shark a savage
+disposition is that, like the wolf, it has no pity whatever for a
+comrade in distress, and a wounded shark will be instantly attacked and
+devoured by its companions. This is, indeed, an evil trait in the
+creature, and can be excused only on the ground of its prolonged fasts,
+and the overmastering demands of its appetite.
+
+The shark, like the elephant, is of a timid disposition, and is cautious
+and wary in its approaches. All observers are agreed that it is always
+attended by two pilot fishes, who act the same part as that wrongly
+assigned to the jackal in reference to the lion—going on ahead to
+examine any likely object, and returning to inform the shark whether it
+is of an eatable nature. The splashing of oars, or even of the arms and
+legs of a swimmer, will often deter the shark from making an attack, and
+there is every reason to believe that if swimmers in tropical waters
+would always carry with them three or four hand grenades, they would
+have little occasion to fear interference from him. It is strange that
+so obvious a precaution should be generally neglected. The inability of
+the shark to seize its victim without turning itself first upon its back
+must be a serious inconvenience to it, and a swimmer with sufficient
+presence of mind to await its coming, and then when it turns to dive
+suddenly under it, can baffle the rush of a shark, just as a man can
+avoid the charge of an enraged bull by coolness and activity. Man’s
+aversion to the shark here stands greatly in his way, few swimmers when
+attacked possessing sufficient coolness and presence of mind to carry
+the manœuvre into successful effect, although many possess nerve enough
+to await without flinching the onset of the most formidable of
+terrestrial animals. Did we know more of the domestic habits of the
+shark, and learn to appreciate the virtues that he probably possesses,
+there can be little doubt that the unreasoning aversion felt towards him
+would be largely mitigated, and we should come to make due allowance for
+the pressure of hunger that at times operates to our own disadvantage.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                               THE SNAKE.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+IN treating of the snake it should at once be premised that all accounts
+of it must be received with a certain amount of suspicion, as
+representing the views of man as to the snake, rather than the real
+state of things. It is notorious that no historian, however much he may
+strive to write without bias, can be thoroughly trusted in his account
+of matters in which he is a partisan of one side or another. Upon no
+subject is man more strongly prejudiced than upon that of the snake; and
+although he may endeavour to do it justice, it is impossible that he
+should succeed, writing as he does under the influence of a hereditary
+enmity against it. The transaction in the Garden of Eden is doubtless
+responsible for much of this feeling among Western peoples; but this
+would have no influence with Orientals and others who are still in
+ignorance of the legend, and the feeling must therefore be considered as
+a natural and instinctive antipathy throughout the whole human race.
+Whether such a feeling would ever have existed had not a considerable
+proportion of snakes been provided with poison fangs, is a point that
+can never be determined with precision; but the probabilities are
+certainly strongly in favour of the theory that it is entirely to its
+lethal powers that the snake owes the distrust and hostility of man. In
+itself there is nothing that is or should be objectionable in its
+appearance. Very many species are beautifully marked; their movements
+are for the most part graceful; and they are admirably adapted in all
+respects for the life they have to lead. The harmless sorts have
+frequently been tamed, and are capable of considerable affection for
+their masters; and even the poisonous kinds, when deprived of their
+fangs and accustomed to the presence of man, have no objection to be
+handled, and submit to familiarities without any show of resentment.
+Unfortunately for the snake, man is not endowed with an instinct that
+enables him at once to distinguish between the harmless and venomous
+species, and the consequence is, that in the countries where snakes
+abound, one of the first things impressed upon the minds of little
+children by their mothers is, that the snake is a creature to be
+severely let alone; and even in a country like our own, where poisonous
+snakes are rare, we are never able in after life to completely
+emancipate ourselves from the prejudices of childhood. The snake, upon
+the other hand, has no natural hostility to man. If man places his foot
+upon its tail it will of course retaliate, but with a few exceptions the
+snake never goes out of its way to attack man, and will always avoid a
+contest if the opportunity be afforded to it. Indeed, there is every
+reason to believe that if man were inclined to be on good terms with it,
+the feeling would be more than reciprocated. The snake suffers much from
+cold, and would gladly accept the genial warmth of the human bed, or the
+human dwelling, were it but made welcome. Even as it is, it does
+sometimes seek that warmth, with consequences that are frequently
+unpleasant either to man or itself.
+
+As man has at all times been in the habit of deifying creatures of which
+he is afraid, it is not surprising that snake worship has existed to a
+very considerable extent among most of the primitive peoples of the
+world in localities where the snake is a good deal in evidence, and even
+among the moderns it is intimately associated with the author of all
+evil. Among the almost infinite number of legends that surround the
+snake, and testify to the deep respect in which it has always been held,
+is that to the effect that earthquakes are due to the movements of a
+gigantic serpent immured deep down in the centre of the world. Had the
+snake been gifted with the ordinary powers of locomotion, it is probable
+that he would have excited a smaller amount of disfavour, but man is
+given to dislike anything that he does not understand, and the
+mysterious and silent movements of the snake were to him so
+unaccountable as to excite antipathy. It is remarkable, however, that
+the worm, whose mode of progression is somewhat similar, has escaped the
+same odium. The eye of the snake has unquestionably operated to his
+prejudice; there is an entire want of expression about it which baffles
+the effort of man to penetrate its mask, and to get at the creature’s
+inner nature. Had the snake been endowed with an eyelid and a clear
+liquid eye, man would have been more inclined to respond to its
+advances, and to give it the place it requires by his domestic hearth.
+It is doubtless unjust that the snake should suffer from a defect for
+which it is not personally responsible, but unfortunately man is not
+always just in his dealings with the lower order of creation.
+
+The snake varies in dimensions far more than does any other living
+creature. The dog perhaps approaches most nearly to it in this respect,
+but the dog is to a great extent what man has made him by careful
+breeding and selection; and yet even in that case the great St. Bernard
+is not so large in proportion to the tiny toy terrier as is the giant
+boa of tropical forests by the side of some of the slender little whip
+snakes. Undoubtedly the snake in prehistoric times grew to much larger
+dimensions than at present, and skeletons of snakes have been found in
+America by the side of which the largest existing python is absolutely
+insignificant. Indeed, they rival in size the largest sea-serpent, as
+described by its beholders. The serpent that kept a whole Roman army at
+bay was but a pigmy to these extinct creatures, and man has reason to
+congratulate himself that they probably disappeared before he had any
+opportunity of coming into contact with them.
+
+No theory has been offered by men of science why some species of snakes
+should be provided with venomous fangs, while others have no such
+advantage, and there have been hot arguments whether the original father
+of all snakes was or was not so furnished. The balance of probability
+would certainly appear to be with those who argue that he must have had
+venomous teeth. Had it not been so, it is difficult to believe that his
+descendants could by any process of survival or selection have
+established poison bags in their jaws, with the necessary apparatus for
+passing that poison through hollows in the fangs. Upon the other hand,
+it is easy to understand that had the snakes all been originally so
+furnished, some of them might, either from accident or from incautiously
+grasping a round stone under the belief that it was a bird’s egg, have
+knocked out their fangs, and that their descendants might have been born
+without them. We have, indeed, an example of similar action in the case
+of the Manx cat, who, being descended from an ancestor which had, either
+by traps or otherwise, the misfortune to lose his tail, begot a race of
+tail-less cats, whose descendants have to the present day lacked the
+usual caudal appendage. If, then, a cat could transmit this accidental
+peculiarity to his descendants, there can be no reason to doubt that, in
+some cases, a snake having lost his poison fangs could be the father of
+a race of snakes similarly deficient.
+
+As might be expected, the largest snakes all belong to the non-venomous
+species. Being unprovided with the teeth that enabled their congeners to
+slay their prey or combat enemies, the fangless snakes would naturally
+devise other means to procure a living. Having no offensive weapons,
+they would recognise at once that some entirely novel means must be hit
+upon. They could neither bite nor tear their prey: they could neither
+stun it with blows, nor, like the crocodile, drown it. It was, we may
+suppose, to a snake of exceptional genius that the idea occurred of
+squeezing a foe to death. The idea was, doubtless, received with
+enthusiasm, but to be carried into effect against any but the smallest
+of creatures it was clearly necessary that the fangless snakes should
+attain far larger dimensions than those possessed by any of the species
+furnished with poison fangs. However, the idea once mooted, Mr. Darwin’s
+system of natural selection would do the rest. The smaller individuals
+remained small, and from them sprang the blind worm and other species of
+harmless snakes. The larger individuals paired together, and keeping the
+one object steadily before them, in time their descendants attained the
+gigantic proportions of the fossil serpents, who could have mastered and
+made a meal of the Mastodon as easily as the largest boa now existing
+could dispose of a rabbit. With the disappearance of the huge
+prehistoric animals, the serpent must have seen that unless he were to
+perish of hunger it was necessary for him to reduce his size; and by a
+long process, the exact reverse of that by which he had built up his
+bulk, he diminished himself to dimensions which, though still vastly
+greater than those of the poisonous snake, were yet in exact proportion
+to the size of the animals that were henceforth to furnish him with
+food.
+
+So far there has been no marked change in the sentiments which man and
+the snake have entertained towards each other from the earliest times;
+and it is probable that at no distant date, when man has peopled the
+world to its utmost limits, the snake will find that it is incumbent
+upon him to go.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                 FROGS.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+THERE can be no doubt that frogs do not stand as high as they ought to
+do in the estimation of the world. They are regarded as creatures of
+little account, and their large mouths and general emptiness have told
+against them, though why this should be so can hardly be explained,
+seeing that several human beings possessing precisely the same
+characteristics are regarded as great statesmen. But these physical
+peculiarities are, after all, a minor consideration, and the low
+estimation in which frogs are regarded really arises from an irreparable
+misfortune which has befallen the whole race—namely, their inability to
+stand upright. It is this inability which has sunk the frog so low in
+the scale of creation. Had he possessed the power of standing upright,
+his striking resemblance to a somewhat stout human being would have been
+so remarkable, that it is probable he would have ranked even higher than
+the monkey as a type, if not as an ancestor, of man. Any one who has
+seen well executed specimens of frogs set up in the attitudes of human
+beings, must have been struck with the extraordinary resemblance, and a
+community of frogs capable of walking would undoubtedly be regarded by
+men as the closest assimilation in the animal world to human forms and
+ways. Frogs, no doubt, owe this loss of the power of walking to the
+persistent habit of their early ancestors of sitting in the water, a
+habit which, at first, naturally resulted in lumbago, and finally
+deprived them and their descendants of the proper use of their lower
+limbs.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Frogs]
+
+
+In the earlier ages of the world there is strong evidence that frogs had
+not lost this power; and the learned may without difficulty assign the
+origin of all the early legends of pixies, brownies, and dwarfs to the
+accidental discovery by ignorant rustics of communities of frogs, which
+had not, as yet, lost the power of walking. It may, of course, be urged
+that even admitting the existence of troops of little manikins with
+human motions, this would not account for the long conversations and
+strange doings reported of the brownies and pixies, were these nothing
+but frogs with the power of standing and walking upright. But such an
+argument fails to take into consideration the united power of
+superstition and imagination. Have not elaborate ghost stories
+originated upon no more solid basis than a shadow upon a wall, a
+fluttering garment, or a wreath of evening mist? Are not the Irish
+peasantry full of stories of the most detailed adventures with fairies,
+and are not all popular myths built up on the most slender foundations?
+The frightened peasant who, returning from work in the gloaming, first
+came upon a tribe of frogs walking about like human beings, would, upon
+reaching home, scared out of his senses, magnify what he had seen. Not
+content with describing the tribe of little men, clad in green and brown
+jerkins, he would be sure to invent further wonders in the way of
+conversation, and, as his story spread, so it would grow, until the
+existence of a race of brownies would become locally believed in. The
+next rustic who came upon the tribe of frogs would of course outvie the
+first discoverer in the fulness of his details; and thus we can see how,
+upon the foundation afforded by the frogs who had not yet lost their
+power of walking upright, the whole superstructure of brownies, pixies,
+and elves would naturally be raised.
+
+No one who has closely watched the habits of a frog can doubt that he
+possesses great thinking powers, and a fund of information, inherited or
+acquired. His habit of sitting motionless is clearly identical with that
+of the philosophic thinker. There can be no reason why he should so long
+remain in the same attitude, save that he is meditating. His
+weather-wisdom is notorious; he descries the approach of wet weather
+long before any change is visible to the duller sense of man. As an
+athlete he is remarkable, in spite of his comparatively disproportionate
+girth; he can leap long distances, and as a swimmer he is unrivalled.
+Although habitually silent, he is capable of sustaining a lively
+conversation, and even of singing. These accomplishments he is chary of
+displaying in this country, having experience of the proneness of the
+rustic boy to cast stones at him; but in countries such as Italy, where
+the boy is less aggressive and the frog more numerous, the force and
+power with which a tribe of frogs will lift up their voices in chorus is
+astounding.
+
+It has been the opinion of scientific inquirers that the frog could do a
+great deal more talking than he does if he chose. Certain it is that a
+frog, when in danger, such as being played with by a cat, can cry like a
+child, making himself heard two or three hundred yards away. But it is
+only on an emergency like this, or when assembled in conclave, that the
+frog cares to break his customary silence. He acquired the habit
+undoubtedly during the period of his sojourn under water in the guise of
+a tadpole. During that period of his life he had neither means nor
+opportunities of exchanging ideas with his fellows, and the result is
+the same taciturnity in afterlife that would be shown by a human being
+deprived during his early years of all friendly intercourse with others.
+That the frog possesses a strong sense of humour is undeniable. The
+manner in which he will sit, apparently unconscious of the approach of
+man, until a hand is outstretched to seize him, and will then, with a
+whisk and plunge, dive headlong into a pool, and lift his head from the
+water at a safe distance, in evident enjoyment of the trick he has
+played, is a proof of this.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Frogs]
+
+
+That frogs are dainty eating is acknowledged by all who have tried them.
+In this respect their striking likeness upon a small scale to the human
+race has, doubtless, been advantageous to them, for it is this which has
+deterred the fastidious from feasting on them,—the idea that there is
+something approaching cannibalism in the consumption of a frog being
+still very strong in the uncultivated human mind. It has been urged, as
+an argument against the near relationship of frogs to the human family,
+that they build no abodes for themselves; but such abodes would be
+clearly superfluous in the case of creatures who absolutely prefer being
+wet to being dry, who are comfortably clothed in handsome waterproof
+jackets, and prefer to eat their food raw to cooking it. In some
+respects the frog has an advantage over the human being. He has no
+trouble whatever with his family, which is a large one, for, from the
+first, tadpoles are able to set themselves up in life without assistance
+from their parents.
+
+Frogs vary in colour and habit in different countries fully as much as
+do the human race. Although, as a family, they prefer marshy places,
+some species never go near the water from the time they emerge from the
+tadpole state until they return to it full of family cares. There are
+other kinds which make their living among trees, climbing with great
+sureness of foot, rivalling the leaves in their hue, and feeding upon
+the insects that frequent them. This power of adaptation to
+circumstances must be taken as another proof of the intellectual
+development of the frog, and, had the race received as much
+consideration from man as has fallen to the lot of many animals, there
+is no saying to what point their intellectual faculties would have
+developed. As it is, it cannot be denied that they compare not
+unfavourably with similarly neglected human beings, and the frog can, at
+least, claim to be on a level with a Digger Indian.
+
+Whether the frog is endowed with courage is a moot point. He has not, it
+is true, been seen to dispute the passage of his favourite haunts with
+wild beasts, or even with horses or oxen; but this may arise from
+magnanimity as well as from want of courage, and he may feel that, being
+able to enjoy the pool at all times, it would be unjust to grudge a
+drink occasionally to thirsty animals. As to insects, he is less
+tolerant, and destroys those who venture on the surface of what he
+considers his water with promptitude and despatch. Enough has surely
+been said to show that the frog is worthy of vastly higher consideration
+at the hands of man than he has been in the habit of receiving, and
+that, were it not for that unfortunate affliction in the matter of legs,
+frogs would attract great attention from their striking similarity to
+men, their meditative habits, their powers of concerted singing, and
+their great athletic attainments. Now that attention has been called to
+them, doubtless the race will be seriously studied, and it may be
+expected that it will be discovered that they possess far higher and
+finer traits of character than has hitherto been suspected.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                            DADDY-LONG-LEGS.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+ONE compensation for the coming of winter is that at that season we are
+free from the presence of the daddy-long-legs, known to the scientific
+as _Tipula oleracea_, who comes among us in the autumn in vast hosts,
+and makes himself as unpleasantly conspicuous as possible by his earnest
+and persevering efforts to commit suicide in our lamps and candles. This
+creature is remarkable as being a standing protest against the Darwinian
+theory of the survival of the fittest. Nothing could be more unfit than
+this insect to battle for existence; his flight is slow and weary; he is
+incapable of dodging his pettiest foes, and his long, useless legs are
+everywhere in his way. Had there been anything in the theory, the
+_Tipula oleracea_ would have set to work to shorten his legs, to
+strengthen his wings, and to attain something of the easy elegance and
+lightness of movement of his first cousin, the gnat. That it is no fault
+of his own that he has not done so we may be sure, for evidently the
+creature is painfully conscious of the clumsiness of his appearance and
+gait, and is prepared at the shortest of notice to divest himself
+altogether of the legs which are such an encumbrance to him. The urgency
+of his desire to commit suicide in the flames is another proof of his
+consciousness that he is a painful failure, and that the sooner he
+terminates his existence the better, and he gladly yields up his life on
+the smallest pressure between the human finger and thumb. He himself is
+unable to see, and no one else has been able to discover, the _raison
+d’être_ of his existence. He is certainly not ornamental, nor is he
+useful. He has no means of defence, and seems to have no joys in his
+life. He does not appear to have even the pleasure of going to sleep.
+Other insects are diurnal or nocturnal in their habits, but the _Tipula_
+is active all day, and about and on the look-out for candles all night.
+The closest observer has never seen him close an eye. Even in the grub
+state his existence cannot be a cheerful one, unless he derives a
+positive pleasure from the act of devouring everything he comes across.
+For as a grub, he possesses no legs, and no visible eyes; he is a round,
+wrinkled, tough tube, and one of the most destructive of the enemies of
+the farmer and the gardener.
+
+Why in one stage of his life this creature should be altogether legless,
+while in the other he should possess an absolute superfluity of leg, is
+a problem which has puzzled the deepest thinkers, and it has been
+suggested that the abnormal stupidity of the daddy-long-legs is caused
+by his own ineffectual efforts to grapple with the problem. Nature,
+indeed, has given to him an infinitesimally small amount of brain. While
+in the fly and the ant the head bears almost the same proportion to the
+body as it does in the human species, in the _Tipula oleracea_ it is not
+the hundredth part of the bulk of the body; indeed, it is questionable
+whether in all nature a creature is to be found so badly provided with
+head. Even the rustic mind, which is slow to recognise facts in Natural
+History, views this unfortunate and misshapen insect with good-natured
+pity and sympathy. The very village boys abstain from tormenting him,
+partly perhaps from their feelings of kindly contempt; more because he
+is too slow and stupid for his chase to cause any excitement; most of
+all because he parts with his legs and wings so willingly that there can
+be no pleasure in tormenting a creature who does not care whether he
+loses them or not. The _Tipula_ is spoken of by rustics as
+Gaffer-long-legs, sometimes as Peter—or Harry-long-legs, and is credited
+with a character for harmlessness and blundering well-meaningness, which
+is sufficiently well deserved in his state as a perfect insect, but is
+wide of the mark indeed in his larva stage. The wrinkled tube is one of
+the most voracious of creatures, and nothing comes amiss to it. The
+roots of grass, turnips, potatoes, and, indeed, almost all vegetables,
+are equally welcome. When the villa gardener sees with dismay his
+cherished little piece of lawn turn yellow and gradually wither up, he
+knows, or ought to know, that it is the work of the grub of the
+daddy-long-legs. He had, indeed, in the autumn watched swarms of these
+creatures blundering about on the grass, taking short flights of a foot
+or two, and settling down again, but it did not then strike him that
+each and every one of them was hard at work laying eggs, and that their
+seemingly meaningless flights were only movements from crevice to
+crevice in the soil, an egg being inserted in the ground whenever the
+_Tipula_ could find a spot in which she could introduce it. The work of
+maternity once completed, the daddy-long-legs waits till nightfall, and
+then hastens to commit suicide at the first friendly light. As many
+will, if an opportunity be offered, perform this speedy despatch
+previous to the deposition of their eggs, those who have the wellbeing
+of their lawn at heart will do well to light a fire of shavings or other
+brightly burning stuff in the close vicinity of their grass for an hour
+or two every evening when the daddy-long-legs first begin to appear in
+form. They will fly into the flames by thousands. Some may urge that
+such a method is cruel, but death in a large body of flame is
+instantaneous. Indeed, ocular demonstration is abundant to show that
+these creatures, as, indeed, most other insects, are scarcely capable of
+suffering; for, were it otherwise, it is hardly possible that they
+should, after repeated singeings, continue to fly at a candle flame till
+they finally succeed in destroying themselves. Where such measures as
+this are not taken, and the flies are permitted to deposit their eggs in
+the soil, the only method of safety is by rolling the ground with very
+heavy rollers, so as to destroy the grubs, but this has only a partial
+success, as most of them are too deep below the surface to suffer injury
+from the pressure.
+
+Birds are valuable allies to the farmer and gardener in their war with
+the daddy-long-legs, but their numbers are wholly insufficient to cope
+with the evil. Even the most voracious bird would be choked did he try
+to stow away more than a certain-sized bundle of straggling legs and
+wings in his crop. Moreover, the _Tipula_ appears at about the same time
+that plums ripen, and birds greatly prefer stone fruit to
+daddy-long-legs. As our own taste inclines the same way, we cannot find
+any serious fault with them on this score. Spiders dispose of a few, but
+it is remarkable that, awkward and blundering as the daddy-long-legs’
+flight is, he very seldom intrudes into the meshes spread for him by the
+spider. He makes no efforts to avoid a human being, and will fly right
+into his face with the greatest nonchalance; he will settle in his hair,
+and cling to his clothes, but he will almost always manage to avoid a
+spider’s web. In the autumn spiders are extremely plentiful, and their
+webs spread from bush to bush, and from tree to tree, are a perfect
+nuisance to passers-by. With the nets spread for them in all directions,
+it is wonderful how the _Tipula_ manages always to avoid these snares;
+for, however thickly they may be swarming in the garden, it will need a
+very careful search to find a single specimen in one of the webs.
+
+This naturally gives rise to the idea that the daddy-long-legs is a far
+craftier insect than he is generally assumed to be, and that his
+awkwardness of gait and motion is assumed merely to gain sympathy and
+toleration; just as a woman pretends to be an invalid when she wishes to
+coax her husband into giving her something she has set her mind on.
+There may be something in the hypothesis, but the smallness of head and
+lack of brains are against the theory; and we prefer to believe that the
+insect’s power of avoiding the snares of the wily spider is due to some
+at present undiscovered sense or instinct. The daddy-long-legs has not
+been used to any extent for edible purposes, but there is no reason why
+he should not be as good as the locust, who is by no means bad eating.
+Those who are fond of experiments could easily collect a sufficient
+number by the aid of a sweep net on any piece of grass during the month
+of September.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                               THE APHIS.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+INDIVIDUALLY the aphis is insignificant; collectively the aphides are a
+mighty army working incessant damage to man. Whether the locust, the
+caterpillar, or the aphis effects the greatest injury upon the
+vegetation necessary to man’s existence is a moot point. Were the locust
+to be found in all parts of the world, instead of being confined within
+comparatively limited regions, the palm would certainly be awarded to
+it, for the locust spares nothing, and destroys every green thing as its
+armies march along. The caterpillar and the aphis, although far more
+widely distributed, are less universal in their tastes, and fortunately
+neither of them has any partiality for cereals, the great staple of
+man’s food. It may well be believed, however, that were it not that the
+caterpillar is kept down by the ichneumon, and the aphis by the ladybird
+and other foes, both would in a very short time multiply so vastly that
+having devoured every other green thing they would be driven to fall
+upon the corn crops in their green stage; for when approaching ripeness
+the cereals are far too hard for mastication even by the jaws of the
+caterpillar, while the aphis might as well endeavour to obtain
+sustenance from a stone-wall. It is needless, however, here to enter
+into a detailed consideration as to the respective merits, or rather
+demerits, of the three insect scourges; it is enough that one aphis
+alone is fully capable, if left to its own devices, of developing in the
+course of a single year into a host so mighty that it would cover the
+land and wither up and devour all green things. While the caterpillar
+devours the substance of plants, the aphis only sucks their juices, and
+kills by so enfeebling the shoots that they are unable to put forth
+their leaves. It is an awkward, slow-moving creature, with its heavy
+green body swelled almost to bursting with vegetable juice, supported by
+legs so thin and fragile that they can scarce hold up its weight; and
+yet it seems to pervade all nature, and to appear at its season in vast
+armies, which fall almost simultaneously, it would seem, upon the plants
+it affects. So sudden and unaccountable is their appearance, that there
+are many persons who have maintained, and vast numbers still firmly
+believe, that the aphis is spontaneously produced from the juices of the
+plants it affects. The rose-grower will go into his garden and watch the
+young shoots from the leaves making vigorous progress, and he smiles to
+himself at the thought of how soon the sprays will be covered with rich
+blossoms. A cold night comes, followed perhaps by a day or two of dull
+weather. He shakes his head as he inspects his bushes, and marks how the
+delicate young leaves are slightly discoloured. He knows what will
+follow. Two or three days later every shoot is closely packed with a
+layer of the green fly sucking up its vital juices. It is not surprising
+that the grower absolutely refuses to believe that the whole of this
+infinite number of creatures were floating in the air waiting to pounce
+upon his plants at the very instant when, weakened by the frost, they
+are the less able to resist its attacks.
+
+What renders the problem still more difficult is that the aphis army is
+not homogeneous. Each plant has its own tribe that prey upon its juices.
+The bean aphis differs from that of the rose, and this again from the
+hop fly; and, indeed, the number of varieties of aphis is exceedingly
+large. This greatly adds to the difficulty of explaining their
+simultaneous appearance in such countless numbers, for it would be
+necessary to imagine not only one army of aphides ready to sweep down
+upon vegetation weakened by frost or east wind, but a number of them,
+each selecting the particular plants they love, and rejecting all
+others—one hovering round the town looking out for the rose-trees in its
+suburbs, another scouring the rural districts in search of beans or
+peas, a third biding its time until drought or long spell of wet weather
+shall have weakened the hop bines to a point when they may be in a
+condition to suit its palate. It must be remembered that their
+appearance upon a certain plant is not gradual, but almost simultaneous.
+A week after a sharp frost on a May morning the whole of the rose
+growers in the district affected by the frost will find their plants
+attacked by the aphis, while the wail of the hop growers at the
+appearance of the fly will rise simultaneously over a whole district.
+The scientific explanation is that the appearance of the aphis in such
+vast numbers simultaneously is due to its prolific nature, but the
+practical man refuses to credit the suggestion. The aphis is prolific,
+but not prolific in the same way as is the white ant. The aphis will
+produce twenty-five offspring daily, but this will not account in any
+way for the fact that within a day or two of the pest making its
+appearance hundreds of thousands are to be found on every rose bush.
+Could the female aphis, like the termite, produce eighty thousand per
+day, the argument that the whole of the rose trees in a garden have been
+covered by the offspring of comparatively few females who found their
+way there might be accepted readily enough; but the rate of increase is
+incredible when we know that each female can produce but twenty-five
+young in twenty-four hours. It would need, then, not a few, but an
+infinite host of winged females, to account for the phenomenon. That
+many may pass the winter as eggs in the bark of trees and other places
+may be granted, but no one has yet observed the vast hordes streaming
+out from their places of concealment ready to start off in search of
+peas or beans, roses or hops. Moreover, in seasons favourable to
+vegetation, when neither frost nor east winds nor prolonged wet nor
+drought weaken the plants, and they grow robust and strong, what becomes
+of the armies of green fly that would, had the vegetation been sickly,
+have pounced down upon it? Nothing could be less scientific than these
+arguments, but as somehow there is common sense in them, they commend
+themselves to the minds of the foolish multitude, who, in spite of the
+teaching of their instructors, still believe the evidence of their own
+eyes that the aphis is the product of a certain unhealthy state of the
+juice of plants.
+
+But although the increase at the rate of twenty-five per day by no means
+accounts for the almost simultaneous appearance of countless millions,
+it is a ratio that unless checked would by the end of the season
+absolutely cover the face of the earth, for the young ones so speedily
+become mothers that it is calculated the descendants of one aphis will
+during the season number 5,904,900,000. One objection on the part of
+scientific men to the spontaneous generation theory is that the aphis in
+other respects is an exception to the general law that governs the lives
+of all other creatures. It is not necessary for the aphis to have a
+father. The aphides that appear in spring are all females, and the
+process of multiplication and re-multiplication goes on with as much
+regularity as if the male sex had no part whatever in the economy of the
+world. It is only late in the autumn that the males appear, and it is
+not until after pairing that the females take to laying eggs, all the
+previous generations having been born alive. It is clear that when
+treating of a creature so unique in its habits and ways, the word
+“impossible” should never be used even by men so absolutely sure of what
+they assert as are scientific men. It is well, indeed, for man that the
+six thousand million possible descendants from each spring aphis do not
+put in their appearance. Happily nature, while in a moment of
+light-heartedness producing creatures possessed of such extraordinary
+powers of multiplication, and of no visible place or advantage in the
+general scheme of creation, thought proper to furnish them with a vast
+number of foes, whose life should be spent in ceaseless efforts to
+counteract the effects of this fertility. Chief among these stands the
+ladybird, but there are numerous others almost as indefatigable and
+voracious, even without counting man, with his tobacco juice, soap-suds,
+and fumigating apparatus. Nature has handed over the aphis defenceless
+to its destroyers. It possesses neither jaws nor sting; it is unprovided
+with armour, it cannot coil itself up like a wood louse, or assume a
+threatening aspect like the Devil’s Coach-horse. It is simply a helpless
+and unresisting victim, whose destiny is to do as much damage as it can
+to vegetation, and then to be slain. The closest observers have been
+unable to detect any signs of playfulness or of any other form of
+enjoyment in the aphis. Its existence is as monotonous as that of the
+vegetable the juices of which it drinks, and from the juices of which it
+is popularly believed to have sprung.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                 GEESE.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+NO thoughtful man who believes in the transmigration of souls can doubt
+for an instant that those of military men pass a portion of their period
+of change in the bodies of geese. Of all birds it is the most military;
+its carriage, habits, and customs all point to its being animated by a
+spirit which in some former phase of existence has passed through the
+hands of a drill sergeant. Whether walking, swimming, or flying, the
+goose shows its military instincts. It carries its head well upright,
+with a certain amount of stiffness, which speaks of reminiscences of the
+military stock. It advances with its comrades in solid phalanx, and even
+when feeding preserves the same order, and holds itself in readiness for
+instant action. A similar formation is preserved while swimming and
+flying, although in the latter exercise the goose prefers travelling in
+single file, each member of the column preserving its distance
+accurately, and keeping itself in readiness to range up in close order
+should necessity require such a movement.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Geese]
+
+
+The watchfulness of the bird is proverbial. In their wild state sentries
+always keep guard over the feeding flock, and at night it is easier to
+surprise a house guarded by the most wakeful of watch-dogs than to
+approach one around which geese have taken up their quarters. The fact
+that geese saved Rome by giving warning of the approach of the Gauls
+while the watch-dog slept is historical, and the goose was ever
+afterwards honoured by that military people. Even now the goose is
+employed in many places as a watcher, and there are many nurserymen in
+the neighbourhood of London who keep two or three geese in their gardens
+to give notice of the approach of marauders upon their fruit and
+flowers. It is singular, indeed, that they have not been utilised still
+further in this direction. They certainly have the drawback that,
+however great their valour, they are not feared by the armed burglar as
+much as is a savage watch-dog; but, upon the other hand, they can be
+cheaply kept, and can bring up a family which can be turned to other
+purposes than that of sentinels. Of all birds they are the most
+courageous; the gallinaceæ, and, indeed, many other birds, will fight
+fiercely among themselves, but they rarely exhibit valour against other
+creatures, and are almost universally afraid of man. The goose, on the
+contrary, is of mild temper with its comrades, and it is rare indeed
+that quarrels of a serious nature arise even in a large flock of them;
+but they have little fear of other creatures. They will close up
+together and face a dog, and will fiercely resent the approach of a bull
+to their feeding ground; they will attack even a good-sized boy who
+ventures to interfere with them, and although they will retreat before a
+man, they do so in good military order, showing a brave front as they
+fall back, and ready instantly to assume the offensive if an occasion
+offers itself.
+
+In its wild state the goose is an aquatic bird, but when domesticated
+among us it prefers the dry land to the water; even when a pond is handy
+for its use, it passes but a very small portion of its time upon the
+water, and depends principally for its sustenance upon what it can pick
+up on the land. It has doubtless observed that the horse, the bullock,
+and the sheep, who stand high in the estimation of man, obtain their
+sustenance by grazing in the fields, and has therefore abandoned its
+family habits of feeding upon marine plants and insects, and has taken
+to grazing. It retains its web feet, however, so as to be in readiness
+for any contingency that may arise. This adaptability to circumstances
+has given rise to the supposition that the military spirits inhabiting
+the bodies of geese belonged in their lifetime to the gallant corps of
+marines, who always distinguish themselves equally by land and sea. The
+goose has suffered grievously owing to the popular, but altogether
+erroneous, belief in its silliness. How this belief—as expressed by
+calling a child a silly or a stupid goose—first originated has never
+been explained, for there can be no doubt whatever that the goose
+possesses an intelligence far above that of average birds.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances the goose is dignified in its deportment,
+and there is nothing that so angers it as to be hurried. Under such
+circumstances its movements are awkward, and when compelled to walk much
+faster than its ordinary gait, it is often on the verge of falling on
+its nose—a misfortune which does not, so far as we know, happen to any
+other bird or beast under the same circumstances. It is the
+consciousness, no doubt, that its appearance when so bustled borders on
+the ludicrous that excites the anger of the goose, for it is to be
+observed that after such an exhibition it is a long time before it
+recovers its usual placidity of demeanour. At times geese have shown
+themselves capable of strong personal attachment to their owners,
+following them about like dogs, and abandoning their usual habits of
+military evolution with their comrades. This clearly enough points to
+the fact that these geese were, in their former state, soldier-servants,
+whose duties lay in personal attendance upon officers, and were never of
+a military character.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Mother Goose and Dog]
+
+
+Unlike the hen, the female goose is not perpetually roaming about laying
+eggs. In the proper season she lays a sufficient number for the
+perpetuation of her race, and brings up a family more or less carefully;
+but even in this matter she does not exhibit the perpetual fussiness of
+the hen. She allows her young ones considerable freedom of action, but
+is ready in their defence to face the largest dog, and to oppose a
+threatening and formidable demeanour even to a human being whom she
+suspects of aggressive intentions towards them. So courageous is her
+attitude under such circumstances, that even the fiercest dogs will turn
+tail before her onslaught, and the ordinary boy, although he may pretend
+to deride her anger, will keep at a respectful distance from her.
+Undoubtedly the goose when attacking would have a more dignified
+appearance did it keep its head back in readiness for a stroke, as does
+the swan, instead of advancing with outstretched neck. This, however, is
+clearly the result of bygone drill, and the reminiscence of bayonet
+exercise. The cry of the goose is scarcely melodious; its hissing is
+almost peculiar to itself, its congener, the swan, being alone with it
+in the possession of the faculty of raising this angry and threatening
+sound. A flock of geese advancing to the attack, hissing loudly, are
+sufficiently alarming to the average woman, and terrifying in the
+extreme to a child, and even animals vastly superior in bulk and
+strength exhibit signs of trepidation when thus assailed. As might be
+expected, the goose is not particular as to its rations, and will eat
+anything. It will browse upon water weeds, it will graze on grass, it
+delights in corn, and will eat scraps of any kind of food. The final
+result of all this is eminently satisfactory. It is doubtful whether any
+kind of bird affords such excellent eating. Were the goose a rare bird,
+and its flesh so costly as to be seen only on the tables of the wealthy,
+it is probable that it would be considered as the very greatest of
+luxuries. Owing, however, to its numbers, and the manner in which it
+picks up its own living, it requires but little outlay in its rearing.
+Its flesh is so plentiful that at certain seasons of the year it can
+actually be purchased at a lower rate than butcher’s meat. At Christmas
+time geese can be bought in London at sixpence a pound, and the goose
+can fairly claim to be the working man’s greatest luxury in the way of
+food.
+
+Although fashion has ordained that the turkey shall occupy the place of
+honour on the Christmas board of the well-to-do, the flesh of that bird
+is dry and tasteless in comparison to the juicy and well-flavoured meat
+of the goose. But, in addition to supplying man with some of his most
+tasty food, the goose also bestows upon him the most comfortable of
+beds. It is true that the hand of innovation has produced many
+contrivances of steel and iron, with complications of springs, to
+produce the same effect of elasticity as the bed stuffed with good goose
+feathers, and it may be owned that in summer time the spring bed
+possesses certain advantages, but in the depth of winter it is a poor
+substitute for the warmth and cosiness of the feather bed. Altogether,
+the goose deserves a far higher place than it really occupies in the
+esteem and affection of mankind. Its courage and military habits render
+it admirable when alive; its flesh and its feathers should win for it
+our warmest regard after its death.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                 SLUGS.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+ALTHOUGH the slug is not generally classed under the head of _feræ
+naturæ_, it is in the summer time of the year hunted extensively, and
+with the greatest assiduity. The chase is kept up, indeed, in every
+garden in England, but it is in the villa gardens of London that the
+hunt is most actively pursued. It is not that the hatred towards the
+slug is stronger there than elsewhere, but its depredations are more
+noticed and cause greater annoyance. In a large country garden, although
+the head gardener may gnash his teeth when he finds that heavy raids
+have been made upon his beds of petunias or his tender young vegetables,
+the damage done is comparatively so small that it is scarcely noticed.
+But the ravages committed in a villa garden catch the eye at once. The
+possessor, if fond of his little domain, knows every plant in it by
+sight, and when he finds a dozen of his pet seedlings—raised under a
+handlight, watched, watered, and tended with pride and pleasure—lying
+upon the ground, eaten off a quarter of an inch above the surface on the
+very morning after being planted out, his heart is filled with grief and
+rage, and he becomes from that day a determined slug-hunter. This
+pursuit is a fascinating one; undertaken at first from a thirst for
+vengeance, it is soon pursued for its own sake. Many high qualities are
+requisite for marked success in the sport. It requires watchfulness,
+patience, ingenuity, a knowledge of the habits of the prey and of its
+likes and dislikes, and a certain intrepidity as to the risks from night
+air and damp feet, for it is only when the ground is moist that anything
+like a good bag can be hoped for.
+
+The slug is as defenceless as the pigeon, and no greater share of
+courage is required for slug hunting than for pigeon shooting; but
+whereas the one amusement is a slaughter of innocents, the other is the
+destruction of ravening beasts, and stands therefore in a far higher
+category. The slug trusts neither to speed nor fierceness; we know from
+story how his cousin, the snail, when attacked, put to flight a troop of
+tailors, by the exhibition of his horns, or, as the scientific would
+tell us, of his eyes on their upreared stalks. But if the slug possesses
+eyes, he makes no show of them. We are aware that he possesses a
+rudimentary shell, which he carries somewhere in his body, and it is
+possible that he stows away his eyes with equal care.
+
+Secretiveness is, indeed, a strong point in his character, and it
+enables him to hide himself with such marked success that, until he
+chooses from hunger or inclination to walk abroad, he can defy the most
+careful searcher. The slug, unlike the snail, leaves a trail behind him,
+and this remains visible for hours. The creature is fully aware of the
+danger which this shining evidence of his passage would entail upon him,
+but his native craft enables him to baffle his pursuers. As the fox
+doubles across his trail to throw off the hounds, so does the slug upon
+his return to his hiding-place at daylight double and twist until his
+trail is a very labyrinth which Dædalus himself could not solve. Men
+have been known in the enthusiasm of the chase to sprinkle finely
+powdered charcoal over a trail of this kind. The use of a bellows
+removes all the particles save those adhering to the shiny trail, which
+is thus rendered permanent, and can then be studied at leisure. But even
+under these favourable conditions the problem has proved insoluble, and
+medical men cannot too strongly dissuade their patients from undertaking
+a pursuit which experience has shown will eventually terminate in
+madness.
+
+People who write books about gardening give instructions for guarding
+plants from snails, and often recommend a circle of sawdust, soot, or
+lime to be spread round each plant. The villa gardener knows that one
+might as well try to keep a fox from a hen-roost by making a chalk mark
+on the door. He has tried the experiment. He has spent hours, and nearly
+broken his back, in applying these pretended remedies, and in the
+morning his most cherished plants have fallen before the destroyer. He
+knows that there is no prevention, and that the only cure is the
+persistent hunting down of the enemy. There are various methods of
+attaining this end. Pieces of orange peel, if laid on the ground, may be
+searched in the morning with a fair chance of success; for the slug is
+so fond of them that, instead of returning to his home at daybreak, he
+clings to them, and may be found underneath, gorged with over-much
+eating. Pieces of board six or eight inches square, pressed firmly into
+the ground, are a good trap, as these keep the soil beneath them moist,
+and the slug loves moisture and takes refuge under them. Much execution
+may be done by these and similar traps, but the enthusiast regards these
+devices with contempt, for he knows that the enemy may be thinned but
+that he will never be exterminated by such means. The legitimate sport
+is the night hunt, the search, by the light of a lantern, of cabbage or
+lettuce leaves cast down in the favourite haunts of the slug. On these,
+on a warm night after a light rain, it may be found by the score—of all
+sizes, from the tiny glistening speck no larger than a pin’s head, to
+the full-grown animal as long and as thick as a man’s little finger. The
+slug-hunter recognises two species of slugs. There are others he knows,
+notably the great black slug of the woods, but these concern him not.
+The two garden species are the white slug, slimy, active, and
+enterprising, thin in figure, and seldom over an inch in length; and the
+brown slug, very much larger and heavier, short and dumpty in figure,
+triangular in section, only slightly slimy to the touch, and with a coat
+of the toughness of india-rubber.
+
+Hitherto all efforts to turn the slug to profitable use have failed, and
+mankind have been content to destroy without utilising it. The snail, we
+know, makes a good and nourishing soup, and nothing but prejudice
+prevents it from becoming a valuable article of food. But the snail,
+living as it does in its shell, has but a soft skin, while the slug
+possesses a coat of extraordinary toughness, which would seem to be an
+obstacle in the way of its ever becoming useful for culinary purposes.
+Inventive minds have suggested other uses for it. An enthusiast was
+convinced that the slug would make an admirable glue, while another has
+pointed out that the skin of large specimens, carefully tanned, would
+make imperishable fingers for gloves. The latter idea has never yet been
+carried out, owing to the impossibility of finding any material of equal
+durability and toughness for the other portions of the glove.
+
+All efforts to tame or educate the slug have been vain. It has, indeed,
+been used by showmen at fairs to spell out names from letters scattered
+at random on the stage; but it is well-known that the creatures were
+directed to the desired letters by small pieces of cabbage-leaf fastened
+beneath them. The exhibition was abandoned, owing to the slowness of
+movement of the creatures, as they took no fewer than four hours to
+spell out a word of five letters, and audiences grew tired before the
+conclusion of the performance, and did not stay to obtain the full value
+of the penny paid at the door. But although, so far, the slug has failed
+to afford either profit or gratification to man, its existence cannot be
+termed a failure, for there can be no doubt that, although unprovided
+with visible eyes, feet, or other organs, the slug manages to enjoy
+itself vastly. It has a keen scent, and a most discriminating appetite;
+its food is abundant, and costs it nothing. Although it can eat and
+enjoy cabbage leaves, it has higher tastes. For young melons and
+cucumber plants it has the keenest relish, seedlings of all sorts it
+loves, and the more rare and valuable the better it likes them. The slug
+is, in fact, a gourmand, and it is the delicacy of its palate which
+proves its ruin. Did it content itself with the abundant cabbage or the
+full-sized lettuce, men would not grudge it its share, and none would
+trouble to hunt it with lantern and traps; but it is its fastidiousness
+of appetite, its craving for the young and the rare, its weakness for
+the quarter of an inch next to the ground of the stalks of seedlings,
+which sets vengeance upon its track, and causes it to be hunted to
+extermination. At present, however, the end is apparently far off; for
+in spite of its foes the slug flourishes exceedingly, and whatever be
+the prospects of other game, it is likely to afford sport for the
+suburban gardener for generations to come.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                THE PIG.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Pig]
+
+
+SO accustomed are we to the pig in his sty that we are apt to forget
+that he is naturally one of the most valiant of animals, a sturdy and
+desperate fighter, able to hold his own against most wild beasts, and
+ready to face man and to die, fighting valiantly to the last, in defence
+of his wife and offspring. Whether the pig has improved or deteriorated
+under the hand of man depends upon the point of view from which he is
+regarded. Those engaged in consuming the succulent ham, or the crisp
+rasher, would, doubtless, reply in the affirmative; while the Indian
+officer, on his return from a morning spent in the fierce and hazardous
+sport of pig-sticking, would utter as decided a negative. Between the
+wild boar and the domestic pig the difference is as wide as between the
+aboriginal Briton and the sleek alderman; and, in both cases, though
+civilisation has done much, eating has done more to bring about the
+change. Gluttony is undoubtedly at the root of the pig’s present
+condition and status. It cannot be called a gourmand, for it is not
+particular as to its food, and demands quantity rather than quality. It
+is content to eat and to sleep alternately, and the whole energy of its
+naturally vigorous disposition is devoted to putting on fat. The
+consequence is, it is ready for market at almost any period of
+existence. Whether as the toothsome sucking-pig or as a venerable
+great-great-grandmother, the pig is, after a period of repose and extra
+feeding, equally appreciated as an article of food. Other animals become
+tough and lean in old age; the pig knows its duty to man better than
+this, and is ready at all times of its life to bring itself into the
+condition fitted for the knife. In his wild state the boar is swift of
+foot, clad in a coat of coarse, thick hairs, with bristling spine. His
+tusks are very formidable weapons, and he can use his strong forelegs to
+strike with effect. Even the royal tiger will shun a contest with this
+sturdy warrior, unless absolutely driven to it by hunger. His cousins
+and relations all share his courage. The peccary of Mexico, small as he
+is, will when in bands attack the jaguar, or even man, with absolute
+confidence, and, although many may fall in the assault, will, in either
+case, almost certainly prove the conqueror in the end; while the wild
+pigs of Paraguay are equally fierce and formidable, and, having driven a
+hunter into a tree, will remain round it, and refuse to retreat until
+scores have fallen by his rifle, or until they are driven away by
+hunger. The domestic pig, like the Britons when under the tutelage of
+the Romans, would seem to have lost his warlike virtues, were it not
+that there still lingers in his wicked little eye an expression of
+savage defiance that speaks of a consciousness of latent power ready to
+break into open war did he see a prospect of emancipating himself from
+his degrading slavery.
+
+There is a prejudice against the pig because he is dirty. It is
+difficult to imagine a more unreasonable one. He is kept by man in a
+filthy stye, penned in within the narrowest possible limits, and
+deprived of the decencies of life. Under such circumstances, it is
+practically impossible that he could be otherwise than dirty. As in his
+wild state he is protected by a coat of smooth bristles from the dirt,
+nature has not bestowed upon him the long and flexible tongue that
+enables the dog and cat tribe to clean themselves. His short neck, too,
+renders it impossible for him to reach the greater portion of his body.
+The fact that his skin becomes dirty from the conditions under which he
+lives would matter comparatively little, so far as the estimation in
+which man holds him, were he covered with hair. Man is tolerant of dirt
+when it is not brought prominently under his notice, and it is the
+height of injustice to blame the pig for a hairlessness which is solely
+due to the fact that he is kept in comparatively warm quarters. The pig
+of Italy and Sardinia, which for the greater portion of the year picks
+up his living in the forests in a state of semi-wildness, is still well
+clothed with hair; and, indeed, it is only when kept entirely in
+confinement, as with us, that he almost wholly loses his natural
+covering.
+
+The pig is an eminently vocal animal, and even in the bosom of his
+family he maintains a steady, if to man monotonous, conversation. He
+possesses a large variety of notes, in this respect far surpassing any
+other animal. The cat has an extensive register, but principally among
+the high notes; while the pig’s tones embrace the whole gamut, from the
+deep grunt of discontent to the wild shriek of despair. Properly
+educated, the pig should be capable of vocal triumphs of a very high
+kind, its upper notes being as clear and no more unpleasant than the
+corresponding ones of an operatic soprano, while the lower ones would be
+the envy of a basso profundo. It is a little singular that no persistent
+effort should have been made to utilise the pig’s vocal powers in this
+direction, although he has at times been taught to spell and to perform
+other feats requiring as high an intelligence as that of singing.
+
+The pig is capable of adapting himself to all and any circumstances in
+which he may find himself. In Ireland it complacently accepts the
+position of a member of the family; in Africa and the East, where flesh
+is not in demand, and no one takes the trouble to fatten him, he readily
+assumes the office of scavenger in general, and performs that _role_
+admirably. No one has yet, so far as we are aware, adopted the pig as a
+drawing-room pet; and yet, if tended with the same care bestowed upon
+the lap-dog, there is no reason why he should not shine in that
+capacity. His tail is fully as curly as that of the pug, his skin may
+compare not unfavourably with that of the shaved poodle, while in point
+of sprightliness he is, at any rate in his younger days, superior to the
+bulldog. He would not run up curtains like a kitten, nor knock down
+valuable ornaments from the chimney-piece; while he might, doubtless, be
+trained with very little trouble into becoming an efficient guard in the
+house. He is certainly capable of affection, and, as all acquainted with
+his habits are aware, has pronounced likes and dislikes.
+
+In the East the pig is viewed with extreme abhorrence, or, at the best,
+with contempt; but as he shares this feeling with the dog, it must be
+regarded rather as a proof of the want of perspicuity on the part of man
+than of any demerit on that of the pig. The pig does not naturally take
+to the water, and it would have been well had he been, like the dog,
+encouraged to do so, for when once fairly driven to it he is a good
+swimmer; and the popular belief, that he cuts his own throat with its
+fore feet, is, like many other popular beliefs, wholly erroneous,
+although it is true that he will sometimes, in his first flurry at
+finding himself in an unaccustomed element, scratch his cheeks somewhat
+severely.
+
+In the early days of our history the pig formed an even more important
+article of food than he does now. The swineherd was a much more common
+personage than the shepherd; and, indeed, at a time when the greater
+part of the country was covered with a dense forest, sheep must have
+been comparatively few and rare. In all the descriptions of the banquets
+of our forefathers swine’s flesh stands in the very first position, and
+seems to have been a much more common article of nutriment than beef.
+The pig, indeed, affords a great variety of food. The boar’s head,
+properly garnished, is a lordly dish; brawn has always been regarded as
+a delicacy; and pig’s flesh is good whether boiled or roasted, salted or
+smoked. The pig can be eaten almost to the last scrap, for his feet are
+edible, chitterlings and tripe are relished by many, and from his
+superabundant fat we have the lard so useful to housewives.
+
+His skin furnishes an excellent leather. His bristles are unrivalled for
+the manufacture of brushes. Our ancestors showed their wisdom in the
+warm appreciation of the pig, and no small proportion of our cousins,
+the Americans, exist almost entirely upon his flesh. The pig is an
+admirable emigrant, and appears to be almost indifferent to climate,
+flourishing wherever it has been introduced—from the sunny islands of
+the South Seas to the rigour of a Canadian winter. So that it can be
+given sufficient food or obtain it by foraging, he is contented, and
+applies himself vigorously to the work of putting on flesh and rearing
+frequent and extensive families. The contempt with which the pig is too
+generally regarded should be exchanged for a respectful admiration of
+his numerous and varied excellences.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                             CATERPILLARS.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+BUTTERFLIES and gnats, bees, ants, flies, crickets, and many other
+insects, have inspired writers of poetry or prose; but up to the present
+time, as far as we know, no one has made the caterpillar his theme. Yet,
+closely examined, many of the caterpillars are well-nigh as gorgeous in
+their raiment as the most beautiful of butterflies. The caterpillar is
+free from the flippancy and vanity of the butterfly—who spends by far
+the greater portion of its life in play and flirtation; it has business
+to do, and does it conscientiously, and is indeed a character to be
+admired, save in the matter of the destruction of choice vegetables, for
+which, after all, its mother, who deposited the egg upon them, is, in
+fact, solely responsible. The caterpillar is infinite in its variety of
+hue, but chiefly affects black, ashen grey, and white, bright greens,
+yellows and browns with rich bands or blotches of white, yellow and
+scarlet, and indeed almost every variety of brilliant colour. Sometimes
+it is soft, smooth, and hairless; at others covered with a short, thick,
+silken coat like velvet; and occasionally bristling with long, stiff
+hair, a very porcupine among its fellows. Caterpillars from the time
+they are born give evidence of the possession of two predominant
+faculties, the one an all-devouring appetite; the other, the knowledge
+of constant danger and the efforts to escape the eye of their teeming
+foes. This they do in accordance with varied instincts inherited from
+progenitors.
+
+Some will hide on the under side of a leaf, others will eat into its
+substance, and establish themselves a domicile between the outer and
+inner tissue, proceeding at once to enlarge their house and to satisfy
+their appetites. Others, on the approach of danger, will curl themselves
+up, and drop to the ground, trusting to fortune to fall between two
+clods of earth, but, in any case, shamming death until the danger has,
+as they believe, passed away. Another kind, a greyish-brown in colour,
+and rough and knobby of skin, will stand upright, imitating so exactly
+the appearance of a little bent twig, that the keenest eye would fail to
+detect the difference; while a great many caterpillars guard themselves
+against unpleasant surprises by establishing themselves from the first
+in a place of concealment, and there passing the greater portion of
+their lives. When, as not unfrequently happens, the chosen hiding-place
+is in the heart of a bud just beginning to form, the results are
+naturally the death of the flower, and extreme exasperation upon the
+part of its owner. There is nothing pugnacious about the caterpillar,
+all its means of defence being more or less passive in their character.
+A not inconsiderable section no sooner leave the egg than they set to
+work to form themselves a shelter by turning over the edge of the leaf,
+and fastening it with silken threads, so as to form at once a house and
+a hiding-place. Lastly, there are the caterpillars who live in
+communities, and establish a rampart against their foes by throwing
+round their dwelling-place a thick curtain of silken threads, through
+which their insect foes cannot break, while even birds seem to hold it
+in high respect.
+
+The mission of the caterpillar may be considered as two-fold: he has to
+reach the chrysalis stage, from which he will emerge as a butterfly or
+moth, and then perpetuate his species; and he is an admirable machine
+for the conversion of vegetable matter into a form in which it can be
+digested and relished by birds. He stands to the feathered world,
+indeed, in exactly the same position that the ox and the sheep occupy in
+relation to man. Although partial to seeds and fruits, birds are not
+vegetarians in the broad sense of the term, and many would starve had
+they nothing but leaves, whether of the rose or the cabbage, to devour;
+the caterpillar then comes to the rescue, and forms the intermediary
+link. He possesses an appetite of extraordinary voracity, and in the
+course of his not very long life eats many hundred times his own weight
+of vegetables, and converts them into a rich and luscious food for the
+birds. It may be said that, in some respects at least, the instincts of
+caterpillars must be defective, or, knowing that their plumpness is
+their danger, they would eat less. This is no doubt true, but as it is
+true also of sheep and bullocks, it can hardly be made the subject of
+reproach to the caterpillar.
+
+But, after all, vast as is the number of caterpillars who go to feed the
+birds, it cannot be said that birds are by any means their chief enemy.
+Their great foe and relentless exterminator is the ichneumon, against
+whom none of their cunning devices of concealment avail, for he can
+discover them unerringly in their inmost lurking-places. The ichneumon
+varies in size as greatly as does the caterpillar himself. Some of them
+are as long as wasps, although with a slender body, no thicker than a
+bodkin; some so tiny that they can scarce be seen with the naked eye;
+but all are alike in their habits. Watch one, large or small, as he
+settles upon a leaf. Straightway he begins to hunt up and down with
+quick eager motion, like a dog quartering a turnip field for partridges.
+Up and down, below and above, prying into every cranny, he hunts,
+hurrying from one leaf to another until he finds a caterpillar. He
+wastes no time with him, but thrusts the long ovipositor through the
+skin, and places an egg there snugly. He repeats this two, three, or
+half a dozen times, according to his own size, and that to which the
+caterpillar will grow. His young ones must be fed where they are
+hatched, and it would not do to lay more than the caterpillar can
+support. What the sensations of the caterpillar are when thus treated no
+one has so far attempted to explain. It gives a little wince each time
+the operation is performed, and then pursues its vocation as quietly as
+if nothing had happened. There can be little doubt that it is profoundly
+discouraged; it must feel that all its efforts to elude the foe have
+been wasted. It doubtless knows that it has received its death wound,
+that it will never soar in the air as a bright-winged butterfly, and
+that its chrysalis state will be its last. It speaks well, then, for the
+sense of duty of the caterpillar, that it goes as doggedly on as before,
+eating as largely and steadily as if nothing had occurred, and showing
+no sign of pain or disturbance at the birth of foes, who soon begin to
+gnaw away at its interior. It is to be hoped, indeed, that it suffers
+but slightly. The organs of the caterpillar are simple. It is little
+more than a tube, and it is probable that its sensibility is slight.
+Still it is inevitable that it must suffer more or less; but it goes on
+until, just as it is about to assume the chrysalis state, or shortly
+after it has done so, it dies, and the little ichneumons make their way
+through its skin, and, after a brief repose, fly away to recommence the
+deadly work of their parents. It is calculated that fully 80 per cent.
+of caterpillars are slain by ichneumons.
+
+The caterpillar is distinguished for its imperturbable good temper; no
+one has yet witnessed a good stand-up fight between two of them. Even
+when browsing in hundreds upon a leaf, each caterpillar continues its
+work of eating, wholly regardless of the multitude feeding around it.
+Its fellows may press it on every side, or walk across its back, without
+its evincing the slightest sign of irritability, or even
+dissatisfaction. It may be said that, after all, this host are its
+brethren, and that the nearness of the family tie produces this feeling
+of universal benignity. But family ties are not always found to have
+this effect, even among human beings, and, moreover, the caterpillar’s
+good temper and forbearance extend to individuals of entirely different
+species and families. The largest caterpillar coming across a small one
+makes no attempt to bully or interfere with it, and the whole race
+appear to be imbued with a spirit of admirable courtesy and gentleness.
+
+The caterpillar, in confinement, develops qualities of a quite distinct
+nature to those which it exhibits in the wild state. The silkworm
+caterpillar, for example, is intolerant of noise of any kind, and the
+most absolute silence is maintained in the feeding house. It is not that
+noise excites irritability or anger, but it fills it with such disgust
+that it falls ill and speedily dies. Gardeners would be gratified,
+perhaps, were the wild caterpillar equally susceptible; as, in that
+case, two or three discharges of a gun would extirpate the whole race
+throughout the extent of a garden. The caterpillar is clearly worthy of
+much greater attention and study than it has yet received; and as we are
+told to look to the ant and the bee as examples of patience and
+industry, so we may advantageously take a lesson of courtesy and good
+temper from the hitherto little regarded caterpillar.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                           THE DOMESTIC FOWL.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+THE males of the gallinaceous family may be regarded as types of what is
+best and most chivalrous in man, and the cock bird of the variety that
+has become domesticated by man has lost none of the qualities that
+distinguish his wild congenitors. He is among birds what the knight of
+chivalry was among the herd of humanity in the Middle Ages. Splendid in
+his appearance, erect and martial in gait, proud of his prowess, fierce
+in battle, ready to die rather than acknowledge his defeat, he is yet
+the mirror of courtesy among his dames. Not only does he guard them from
+all foes, but he watches over their safety with anxious care, leads them
+to the spot where food is the most abundant, and will even scratch the
+ground to procure dainties for them. He possesses, too, the faults of
+the human type; he is needlessly quarrelsome, and prone to take offence;
+he will challenge to combat a distant stranger with whom he has no
+dispute whatever, and will fight for fighting’s sake, while, if
+victorious, he indulges in a good deal of unseemly exultation and
+boasting at the expense of his foe. Whatever his hue, whether clad in
+brilliantly-coloured panoply or in burnished black, the cock is the type
+of the true warrior, with his bright eye, his martial mien, his
+readiness for battle, his obstinate courage, and the display of a
+certain foppery in the care that he bestows upon his appearance. While
+other birds fight with beak and wing, the cock is furnished by nature
+with a dagger, a formidable weapon, especially in that branch of the
+family in which the martial qualities are carried to their highest
+development—the game fowl. The cock can use his beak with effect, but it
+is upon his spur that he mainly relies for victory. Throughout the whole
+of the gallinaceæ the same characteristics are observable in a more or
+less marked degree. The male of the pheasant, grouse, blackcock, and
+their numerous cousins and relations, are all pugnacious to a degree,
+proud of displaying their airs and graces to their wives, and ready to
+answer the most distant challenge uttered by another male.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Domestic Fowl]
+
+
+The period at which the fowl was first domesticated is lost in
+obscurity. The early Greek writers mention it as a bird held from remote
+antiquity in high honour, and Peisthetærus says that it is called the
+Persian bird, and at one time reigned over that country. It is to the
+East, then, that we must look for the ancestors of the domestic fowl,
+although it is not known how the breed was introduced into Greece or the
+South of Europe. It may either have come through Northern India, or
+Persia, or have been introduced by Phœnician traders. It figured early
+on Greek and Roman coinage, and was carried in the public shows of those
+nations. It was dedicated by the ancients to Apollo, Mercury,
+Æsculapius, and Mars and the Romans, good judges in matters gastronomic,
+had already discovered that it was best when fattened and crammed in the
+dark. Probably the Phœnicians brought it to Britain when they came for
+tin; at any rate, it was here before the invasion of Cæsar, who tells us
+that the Britons abstained from tasting the hare, the cock, and the
+goose, although they bred them for pleasure—probably, in the case of the
+cock, for its fighting powers. As poultry have been found domesticated
+in widely different localities, among peoples having no communication
+with each other, and even in islands in the South Seas, which must have
+been cut off from communication with the mainland for vast periods of
+time, it is evident that their domestication must have taken place in
+the very earliest times, or that there was a natural fearlessness and a
+desire for man’s companionship on the part of the fowl that marked it
+out as specially adapted to be his servant and purveyor.
+
+The hand of man has brought about many changes in the bird by the
+intermingling of species, by careful breeding to render accidental
+peculiarities permanent, and by other methods; by these a great variety
+of breeds have now been established differing widely from each other in
+size and plumage. The breed in general, doubtless, owes its popularity
+partially to its appearance and courage, but still more to the flavour
+of its flesh, its great power of increase, and to its productiveness in
+the matter of eggs. Other birds lay as many eggs as they desire to have
+offspring. The hen is less selfish, and will produce a vastly larger
+number of eggs than she is able to hatch. As the wild bird is not so
+prodigal, it can only be supposed that this fecundity in the matter of
+eggs is upon the part of the hen a proof of gratitude for the food she
+receives from man, a trait which, in itself, should place her high in
+man’s estimation.
+
+While the cock is, above all things, a warrior, the hen is the type of
+the careful housewife and affectionate mother. Nothing can exceed the
+care and attention she bestows upon her young—feeding them, guarding
+them, and teaching them with constant attention, and with occasional
+chidings when disposed to wander from her. She is no gadabout, and her
+whole thoughts are centred upon her duty. But although so affectionate a
+mother and submissive a wife, the hen is mindful of her position as the
+spouse of a warrior; and as the wives of the knights of old would, on
+occasion, don armour, and in their husbands’ absence defend their
+castles, so the hen is ready, when danger threatens, to face boldly the
+dog or the hawk in defence of her children. Neither the cock nor his
+spouse possesses the power of singing, although they can utter a large
+variety of sounds, from the gentle cluck of contentment, the incessant
+talk by the mother to her children, and her triumphant announcement of
+the laying of an egg, to the cock’s bold challenge to battle—the latter
+being as unique a sound among birds as is the bray of the donkey among
+beasts.
+
+Poets have, with their usual inaccuracy, been accustomed to associate
+the crowing of the cock with the dawning of morn. The neighbours of
+persons who keep fowls know better. Unfortunately, the cock appears to
+be entirely unaware that it is possible to have too much even of a good
+thing, and is ready at all hours of the day or night to lift up his
+voice in defiance of all or any within hearing, or to accept the most
+distant challenge borne upon the air. This constitutes a grave defect
+upon the part of the cock. Among human beings we are accustomed to
+consider the constant braggart to be a coward. No such suspicion can
+attach to the cock; but it is a pity that he cannot be brought to
+understand that it is useless to be uttering defiances at all times,
+when the interposition of a strong wire netting renders combat
+impossible.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Hens]
+
+
+The cock can, however, be silenced. Just as the donkey cannot bray
+without straightening its tail, the cock cannot crow without standing
+perfectly erect. A light plank, or even a lath, placed above his perch,
+so as to prevent him raising his head to the fullest, will effectually
+silence him. To the negro race the attractions of the domestic bird are
+simply irresistible, being shared, however, by those of the melon. In
+the United States it is found that even the most irreproachable conduct
+in every other respect, together with a close chapel membership, fail to
+brace him to resist their temptations, and that the fowl-house and melon
+patch are attractions irresistible to the negro. Indeed, a yielding to
+temptation in this respect is regarded by him as no more serious an
+offence than is the purloining of an umbrella or the cheating the
+Customs by an Englishman.
+
+The domestic fowl, although itself affording delicate eating, is in no
+way particular about its own food, and is in this respect almost
+omnivorous. Insects, slugs, and worms are doubtless its natural food,
+but it delights in grain of all kinds, and will eat with avidity
+vegetable refuse and kitchen scraps of every description. Neither fish,
+flesh, nor fowl comes amiss to it, nor does it, as far as it is known,
+suffer from indigestion, although occasionally inconvenienced by
+over-eating. But as the greater part of humanity also suffer from
+partaking of a much larger quantity of food than is necessary for
+existence, it would be unfair to blame the fowl on this account. Upon
+the whole, the cock and his wife are, except for a tendency to be
+quarrelsome and an inordinate fondness for lifting up his voice on the
+part of the former, a couple deserving our highest admiration, alike for
+the courage and valour of the male, the domestic virtues of the female,
+and the assiduity which they display not only in the multiplication of
+their race, but in the provision of a large supply of most wholesome and
+nutritious food to man.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                              THE SPARROW.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+IF, out of the whole feathered creation, one bird had to be selected as
+the national emblem, it is questionable whether, upon the whole, any
+could be found more suited to the position than the sparrow. He is a
+bold, daring bird; where he settles he speedily makes himself master of
+the position, and elbows out all rivals. He can adapt himself to all
+climates; he is prolific, and multiplies with appalling rapidity. He can
+make himself at home equally in town or country, and manages to thrive
+where other birds would die. He has, of course, some characteristics
+which Englishmen would perhaps repudiate, but it must be owned that the
+natives of every other country are almost unanimous in crediting us with
+their possession. He is quarrelsome, combative, self-sufficient, given
+to bullying the weak, and has an excellent opinion of himself. If a
+foreigner were asked to describe our national characteristics, some of
+these qualities would certainly be included in the list; and it is a
+question if any bird possesses so large a share of our national
+characteristics as does the sparrow. He is distinguished for his
+partiality to the neighbourhood of human abodes. The swallow may build
+as frequently against houses, but he only uses them as a convenience,
+and gathers his food or takes his pleasure entirely regardless of the
+inhabitants of the house against which he builds. The sparrow, on the
+contrary, would just as lief place his nest near a house as on it. He
+will build in a disused chimney, or a gutter, or rain-pipe; but if none
+of these places suit his fancy, he will establish his nest in the ivy
+covered wall near at hand, or in a clump of bushes, and, having so
+built, he proceeds to get at once benefit and amusement from his human
+neighbours. He regards their fruit trees and rows of peas as planted for
+his special benefit. He sits on the edge of the roof and observes man as
+he walks in his garden with evident interest and amusement, and
+discusses his peculiarities loudly and volubly with a friend on an
+adjoining roof. He is quite fearless of man’s presence, and will pursue
+his search for insects on the lawn within a few feet of him; and he
+relies confidently upon receiving offerings of food in hard, frosty
+weather in return for his friendship. He alone, of birds, makes himself
+thoroughly at home in the crowded streets, perfectly fearless of passing
+vehicles. He is gregarious by habit, and it is to be remarked that there
+is nothing selfish about him. Throw out a handful of crumbs upon the
+snow, and its first discoverer will joyously call his mates to share in
+it; and if fights do occasionally arise over the division, it is
+apparent that there is no malice about them, but that, like the Irish,
+the sparrow fights from high spirits and “a love of divarshun.”
+
+While the sparrow is favourably viewed by the dwellers of towns and
+their suburbs, it must be owned that he is not regarded in the same
+light in the agricultural districts. He is eminently a Socialist, and
+inclines to the doctrine of equal rights. When he is comparatively few
+in numbers man does not grudge him the small share he claims, but when
+his numbers are legion it becomes another matter. The farmer regards his
+stacks and his crops as his private property, and when myriads of
+sparrows demand toll the agriculturist is apt to become rusty. He sees
+the sparrow only on his predaceous side, and has no leisure to
+investigate his amiable qualities. The few insects the sparrow may
+destroy in his leisure moments weigh but little in the farmer’s mind as
+against the loss of his crops of cherries, the general destruction of
+his peas, or a wholesale raid upon his corn stacks, and so he betakes
+himself to net and gun. This would seem hard upon the sparrow; but he
+has no right to take it amiss, for it is his own habit to wage a war of
+extermination against other birds wherever he obtains a footing. The
+native birds of North America are rapidly disappearing before the army
+of sparrows that have sprung from the few hundreds sent out to cope with
+the caterpillar which devastated the trees in the parks and open spaces
+in New York—just as the aborigines of the country have been almost wiped
+out by the Anglo-Saxon settlers. Even in this country he is fast driving
+out other and more useful birds; the tits and the finches abandon
+neighbourhoods where he abounds, and the house martin has almost
+disappeared from some localities. The consequences of this tyrannical
+conduct will, in the long run, recoil upon the sparrow himself. With the
+decrease of the insect-feeding birds, the pests of our fields and
+gardens will so multiply that, in self-defence, a crusade against the
+sparrow will be organised in all rural districts. The movement has,
+indeed, already begun in many localities, and in the future we may
+expect the sparrow to leave the country side, where he is neither liked
+nor appreciated, and to establish himself altogether in towns, where his
+sprightliness and fearlessness render him a favourite.
+
+It may be admitted that his voice is not the strong point of the
+sparrow, but perhaps it is as well that this should be the case, for
+were he vocal the volume of sound would be unbearable in neighbourhoods
+where he abounds. There is, however, a cheeriness and good-fellowship
+about his confident and inquisitive little chirp, and occasionally in
+the days of his courtship he can emit a very cheerful little song.
+Although so domestic in his habits, the sparrow takes but little trouble
+with his nest. It is a ragged collection of odds and ends, and is
+evidently built on the assumption that his offspring will, like himself,
+have to be handy and shift for themselves, and that anything like luxury
+would be thrown away upon them. As a conversationalist the sparrow
+excels. His short notes are very numerous and varied, he is fond of
+learning the opinions of his neighbours, and of laying down the law
+himself. Animated discussions, warming sometimes into quarrels, arise
+frequently from these consultations upon the housetop; but they seldom
+last long. There is a rush into a bush and a hot pursuit, sharp angry
+cries, and a momentary tussle; and then, the matter having been
+arranged, the disputants separate amicably and proceed on their various
+business.
+
+The flight of the sparrow is not elegant; he wastes no time in graceful
+curves and turnings, but hurls himself straight at his mark. He has none
+of the restlessness of the migrants; he has hard times here when the
+ground is frozen and food is scarce, but he takes the rough with the
+smooth, and has no thought of seeking warmer climes. Contenting himself
+with the shelter of a bush, he fluffs out his feathers, and reduces
+himself into the smallest compass, so that he is almost unrecognisable
+as the alert little bird with long neck and sprightly movements that we
+know in the summer. His confidence in the goodwill of man in the time of
+his distress is touching. Blackbirds, starlings, and thrushes will come
+to share the feast man throws out; but they never lose their fear of
+him, and are ready to take flight at the first sign of his presence. The
+sparrow and the robin will alone hold their ground, will light on the
+window sill fearlessly, and will, if encouraged, even come into the room
+through the open window; and the man must be hard of heart indeed who
+will refuse to give them the little they need to save them from
+perishing. Fortunately for the sparrow, his flesh is not particularly
+toothsome, and there is but little of it. Were it otherwise, it is to be
+feared that he would not be spared; but that as Goths are found capable
+of devouring that charming songster, the lark, still less respect would
+be shown to the friendly sparrow.
+
+Doubtless, the bird would be a less imposing national emblem than the
+eagle, especially when the latter is adorned with two or three heads;
+but he would be at least as respectable a one. A cock sparrow rampant
+would be a not unfitting emblem of the push, the energy, the hardiness,
+the pluck, and the domesticity of the Englishman; and even its
+self-sufficiency and its cockiness should not be taken amiss by a nation
+who are, by the general consent of mankind, the most arrogant and
+self-sufficient people upon earth. Should anything happen to put us out
+of conceit with the lion, we cannot do better than instal the sparrow in
+his place upon the national arms.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                 FLIES.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+ENGLISH poets, whenever they have condescended to take notice of the
+domestic fly, have done so from a favourable point of view. It is for
+them the sportive fly, the jocund fly, or, at worst, the giddy fly. This
+in itself will be a sufficient proof to future generations that the
+poets of our day did not suffer from the loss of their hair, for no
+bald-headed man would view the foibles of the fly indulgently. It must,
+therefore, be assumed as proved that the mental exercise of the
+elaboration of poetry causes a certain cerebral warmth which conduces to
+the growth of the hair; and this view of the case will receive an
+additional support should any portraits of Lord Tennyson be extant at
+the time when this investigation takes place. It is singular that,
+whereas bald-headed men have a marked and unanimous objection to flies,
+the latter have on their part a warm and effusive affection for
+bald-headed men. No philosopher has, so far as we know, attempted to
+explain the irresistible attraction which a bald head presents to a fly.
+It has been suggested, indeed, that, owing to its high polish and its
+capacity for reflecting light, it is assumed to be a luminous globe, and
+so exercises the same attraction to the fly as the globe of a gas light
+does to the nocturnal moth. A far more probable solution is that, as we
+know, the feet of flies are provided with suckers, and that as but few
+surfaces are sufficiently smooth for the perfect working of these
+machines, they view a bald head as a delightful place of exercise for
+them, and enjoy the fun exactly as the street boy enjoys the similar
+sport of attaching a leather sucker to the pavement and pulling at it
+with a string. The fact that poets view the vagaries of the fly with a
+mild indulgence will also, by our far-off descendants, be taken as a
+proof that the poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were
+well-paid and well-to-do persons, living in cool and shaded abodes; for
+undoubtedly, although the wealthy man who dwells in houses of this kind
+may view the fly with gentle tolerance, and even with amusement, such is
+not the light in which it is regarded in the dwellings of the poor.
+Indeed, it may be said that, with the exceptions named, the fly is
+invariably regarded as an unmitigated nuisance, rising in many countries
+to the dignity of a scourge.
+
+In small numbers—in very small numbers—it may be admitted that the fly
+is, as Artemus Ward would have said, an “amoosing little cuss.” His
+restless, and apparently purposeless, circling and dancing in the air,
+the way in which he is perpetually charging any other of his species who
+flies near him, the earnestness and perseverance with which he brushes
+his many-lensed eyes with his forelegs, and arranges his wings, the
+gravity with which he inspects and tastes the sugar and other articles
+on the table, the confidence with which he treats all that is yours as
+his, and the pertinacity with which he insists on committing suicide in
+the milk jug—all these traits are amusing when you do not get too much
+of them.
+
+The _raison d’être_ of the fly has not yet been discovered. Naturalists
+tell us that he belongs to the order of _Diptera_—that is, that he has
+but two wings—but they cannot tell us much more about him. The common
+house fly is provided only with a proboscis, somewhat resembling that of
+the elephant, with which he takes up moisture; but he has a cousin
+exactly resembling him, who when, relying upon this likeness, you allow
+him to settle on the back of the hand, neck, or other surface of flesh,
+instantly digs in a sharp lancet, which is capable of drawing blood.
+Happily, however, this treacherous cousin is comparatively rare, and
+none of the poets appear to have been familiar with him. But if in
+England it is still doubtful why the fly was created, there is no
+hesitation on that point in foreign countries. There the consensus of
+opinion is unanimous. The fly was made to try the patience of man. He
+was intended to make human life a burden by his buzzing, his settling,
+and his tickling, by the zeal he shows in rendering food uneatable, and
+by the cunning with which he circumvents all the efforts of man to
+interfere with his designs.
+
+No one, indeed, can watch a fly engaged in the work of human torment
+without entertaining a suspicion that he is possessed of a certain
+diabolical instinct. So long as the man is wide awake, the fly will keep
+at a distance, unless, indeed, he sees that he is engaged in writing,
+and that his hands are ineffective for offensive purposes. The instant,
+however, that drowsiness steals over the subject, the fly, who has
+pretended to be taking no notice whatever of him, but to be engaged in a
+game of touch-as-touch-can with two or three of his comrades in the air,
+at once gives up his romps and takes to business. Choosing the most
+sensitive point he can find, he alights upon it, and begins to shuffle
+his feet about. A score of times he repeats this performance, generally
+selecting a fresh spot each time, and always evading any slaps aimed at
+him. It is remarkable that while at other times he flies noiselessly, he
+begins to buzz when he commences this game, so that even when he does
+not settle, he causes watchfulness and drives away sleep.
+
+The fly who establishes himself in the kitchen enjoys higher delights
+than the flies who occupy other portions of the house. Cooks are
+notoriously an irritable genus, and the more irritable a victim, the
+more a fly enjoys tormenting him or her. Besides, cooks often have their
+hands full, and so are unable to defend themselves, and a fly always in
+preference attacks a person under these conditions. It is an admitted
+fact that flies possess a strong _esprit de corps_, and that they resent
+any interference with their ways. In a house where flies are
+undisturbed, they take good care not to be troublesome beyond a certain
+point. But if war is waged upon them, they are implacable. The foolish
+man who tries fly paper, whether of the sticky or poisonous sort, will
+soon regret having done so, for legions of flies assemble to revenge
+their slaughtered comrades. For every one slain a hundred put in their
+appearance, and madness is the probable result of perseverance in the
+crusade against them. The Egyptian woman is well aware of this, and will
+allow a hundred flies to settle undisturbed around her infant’s eyes,
+knowing that if she brushes them away worse will befall.
+
+As autumn draws to its close, the fly changes his habits. He ceases to
+gambol in the air, for although his attacks upon human beings become
+more persistent and annoying than before, the quickness and the cunning
+are gone, and an obstinate, blundering stupidity has taken their place,
+and the fly in turn becomes the victim. If he escape this fate, upon
+finding death at hand he selects some spot where his demise will be
+particularly objectionable to the careful mistress of the house: a
+window, a looking-glass, a burnished ornament, or even a particularly
+white piece of wall-paper is chosen, and there he dies, a white fungus
+growing out of his body, and spreading to some distance around the spot
+where he has breathed his last. Whether this white fungus is the cause
+of his death, or whether his death is the cause of the white fungus, is
+still a point of dispute among the learned; the rest of mankind are
+contented to know that he is dead.
+
+Unhappily, a certain proportion live over the winter, taking refuge in
+warm nooks and corners, and hibernating there. So seldom are they found,
+however, that it is a belief among the unlearned that the fly, like the
+swallow, is a migratory creature, and that upon the approach of cold
+weather he seeks warmer climes. It is urged, with a strong show of
+reason, how can all the vast number of flies destined to be the parents
+of the countless myriads in the following year hide away so as to escape
+detection? Scientific men have never attempted to grapple with the
+problem, but cover their ignorance by saying that as they are sure flies
+do not migrate, and as flies do reappear in the spring, it is
+self-evident they must hide away somewhere; and with this dictum the
+public must be content. Taken all in all, it must be admitted that the
+fly has a good time of it, and that his life is devoted solely to
+amusement, varied by feeding. Most other creatures labour hard for a not
+inconsiderable portion of their life in the preparation for and care of
+their young. The fly neither builds nests like the birds, nor lays up
+stores of food like the bees and wasps, nor pierces holes in wood like
+the beetles, nor spends half his time in the hunt for food like most
+quadrupeds. He assumes no responsibilities, for he has neither home nor
+family. Man places his food on tables for him, and builds mansions in
+which he can sport, untroubled by the weather. As the fly is found in
+every part of the known world, it must be assumed that he really has his
+uses, and that he possesses some latent virtue, edible or medicinal,
+which a future generation will, it may be hoped, discover and turn to
+account.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                              THE PARROT.
+
+                                -------
+
+
+THE parrot is at once wise and amusing—a conjunction seldom observed in
+the human race. Under the general denomination of parrots are included
+several distinct species, varying from the great macaw to the tiny
+paroquet, having an exceeding wide range of distribution, being found in
+South America, Africa, and India, and the group of islands stretching
+down to Australia. Brilliant colouring is the most striking
+characteristic of the family, although there are some members,
+especially the parrot of Western Africa, that are almost Quaker-like in
+the quiet grey of their plumage. Next, perhaps, to their colour, their
+most notable characteristic is the extreme harshness of their voices,
+which are at once shriller, more discordant, and more agonising to the
+human ear than the sound uttered by any other of the animal creation,
+being approached only by the feminine voice when raised in anger. It is
+the more surprising that this should be so, since, as is evidenced by
+his nice powers of imitation, the parrot is endowed with a delicate ear,
+and there can be little doubt that the quality of his own voice, and of
+the voices of his wife, his family, and neighbours, must be a serious
+drawback to his happiness. Many parrots are gregarious in their habits,
+and the noise made by one of these flocks is prodigious. The shrill
+screams, the angry scoldings, and hoarse ejaculations create a din not
+altogether dissimilar to that which must have arisen from a city in
+ancient times when being sacked by a victorious soldiery. Among the
+smaller species, such as paroquets, every movement is marked by grace
+and agility. They are restless and playful, and very affectionate in
+their intercourse with each other. Attachment between husband and wife
+is very tender and lasting, and the death of one is generally followed
+speedily by that of its mate. We have less opportunity of observing the
+domestic relations of the larger parrots—the macaws and cockatoos—for
+few men are hardy enough to support the noise of more than one of these
+birds, and a scolding match between a cockatoo and his wife would be
+sufficiently discordant to empty even the largest house of all other
+inmates. It is singular that the tongue of this, the noisiest of birds,
+resembles more closely that of man than does the tongue of any other
+bird, being singularly thick and fleshy; it is doubtless due to this
+peculiarity that it is able to imitate the tones of the human voice so
+accurately as to defy discrimination.
+
+
+    [Illustration: “INDULGING IN A VARIETY OF STRANGE ANTICS.”]
+
+
+While cheerfulness, sociability, and activity characterise the smaller
+parrots, the larger birds are marked by the striking variation of their
+moods. At times they will exhibit for hours an extreme restlessness,
+climbing up and down their perches, hanging head downwards, and
+indulging in a variety of strange antics. At others they will sit for
+long periods almost immovable, being distinguishable only from stuffed
+birds by the occasional droop over the eyeball of their white filmy
+eyelids. The mental characteristics of the larger parrots can hardly be
+termed agreeable, being marked by cynicism, malice, and a consciousness
+of superior wisdom. We do not say the assumption of superior wisdom,
+because no one can doubt its existence; and one of the problems which
+the human mind has failed to solve is what there is that the parrot
+doesn’t know. Diogenes in his tub could hardly have been wiser or more
+cynical than an elderly cockatoo; and a human being, when watching one
+of these birds, feels the same consciousness of youth and inexperience
+that David Copperfield always suffered from in the presence of the
+irreproachable Littimer, and that the traveller in Egypt experiences
+when gazing at the Sphinx. One cannot but feel that the parrot has, in
+addition to his inborn stock of wisdom, acquired a deep knowledge of
+human nature, as the result of years of careful study; that he has
+weighed man in the balance, and has come to the conclusion that he is
+altogether wanting. There is, too, the unpleasant feeling that the
+parrot has studied almost exclusively the worst side of human nature.
+The leer of his half-closed eye, the mocking laugh, the expression of
+malice in his tones, the hypocritical demeanour of friendliness until a
+finger approaches near enough to be seized—all this testifies sadly to
+the fact that the parrot has assimilated the worst qualities of man,
+while there is no sign that the better ones have made the slightest
+impression upon him. Of benevolence there is no trace, and, although
+capable of affection towards his mistress, he treats all other persons
+with equal nonchalance and contempt, although he may be cajoled into
+temporary familiarity by the offer of favourite food. The deep emphasis
+with which he mutters “Poor Polly,” shows the intense self-pity with
+which he views his forced habitation among such trivial and contemptible
+companions, and his regret at his own moral degeneration, the result of
+association with them. He knows that under happier circumstances he
+might have grown a respected patriarch in his native wilds, honoured, by
+those able to appreciate him, for his wisdom, and surrounded by
+respectful and admiring descendants, and it is the contrast between this
+and his present lot that has soured the bird’s temper and made him a
+cynic and a misanthrope.
+
+Hardly less prominent a characteristic among parrots than cynicism is
+malice. The parrot delights openly and undisguisedly in giving
+annoyance. To seize the tail of a passing cat, or to awaken a sleeping
+dog with a sharp bite, affords him a delight over which he will laugh
+for hours. It is a pleasure to him to interrupt a quiet conversation
+with wild and sudden screams, and if by imitating a tradesman’s cry he
+can give a servant the trouble of going to the door, his malicious
+pleasure is unbounded.
+
+The upper mandible of the beak of the parrot bears the same relation to
+that of other birds, as does the nose of the elephant to the similar
+feature among quadrupeds. Instead of being fixed to the skull, it is
+furnished with a separate bone, and is attached by a sort of natural
+hinge to it. He is thus able to open his mouth to a very wide extent,
+and to grasp a finger, a nut, or any other object with amazing force. In
+bestowing this faculty upon the parrot, Nature had an eye solely to the
+creature’s own benefit, and entirely disregarded the possible
+consequences to man. The foot, too, has an exceptional formation, giving
+the bird great power of grasp, enabling it at once to climb, to hang
+head downwards, or to hold its food while it devours it, with a power
+and facility almost unequalled among birds. It is not surprising that,
+with its power of imitating the human voice, and of modulating the
+natural harshness of its accents to the softest tones of that of a
+woman, with its human-like manner of taking its food, its close
+attention to everything that passes around it, and its evident wisdom,
+the parrot has from the oldest times been regarded with a certain
+superstitious respect by man. Ælian states that in India these birds
+were the favourite inmates of the palaces of the princes, and were
+regarded as objects of sacred reverence by the people. Among civilised
+nations this feeling has to some extent died out, but even now servant
+maids generally regard their mistresses’ parrots with dislike and
+aversion, being never quite sure that the parrot will not act the part
+of a tell-tale, and mention to its mistress that a shattered ornament
+was not really, as supposed, the work of the cat. The aversion is almost
+always mutual, a parrot very seldom admitting the slightest approach of
+familiarity on the part of a domestic, regarding her with the aversion
+which the dog manifests towards the tramp. Throughout the East the
+parrot has always been regarded as a bird possessed of mysterious
+knowledge and power, and frequently bears a prominent part in Arab
+legends. As a proof of the ingrained wickedness of the parrot’s nature,
+it need only be pointed out that it possesses a remarkable facility in
+acquiring bad language, and will pick up sailors’ oaths far more readily
+than it will acquire polite language. Upon the whole, although endowed
+with remarkable physical advantages, it must regretfully be owned that
+the parrot is a striking example of misapplied talent.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                             THE COCKROACH.
+
+                             --------------
+
+THE cockroach, the black-beetle of the London kitchen, is a creature
+that excites an amount of repulsion that cannot be accounted for or
+explained. There is nothing threatening in its appearance, as in that of
+some of the larvæ, notably the one popularly known as the “devil’s
+coach-horse.” It is unprovided with offensive weapons at either
+extremity; it can neither sting nor bite. It has not the habit of
+startling nervous persons by leaping suddenly upon them, as do the
+cricket and grasshopper. There is nothing about its figure that should
+be displeasing to the eye. It is, as far as man is concerned, absolutely
+harmless, and yet it certainly excites in the majority of persons a
+feeling of aversion approaching abhorrence, such as no other insect
+gives rise to. The cold light of reason fails to discover any ground for
+such a feeling, and it has been gravely adduced by some as a proof of
+the truth of the belief in the transmigration of souls; and that only
+upon the assumption that the souls of evil men are condemned to pass a
+portion of their future existence in the form of cockroaches, can the
+general antipathy to these creatures be accounted for.
+
+There are many unsolved problems connected with the cockroach. Where
+does he come from, and especially where did he abide before man began to
+build houses? In this country, at any rate, he always takes up his abode
+in the habitation man provides for him. No one ever came across him in
+the fields or woods. It is in the house he lives and multiplies. He
+fears man and shuns his society, and yet appears to have a mysterious
+attraction to his abodes; the cricket only among insects, and the mouse
+and the rat among quadrupeds, share with the cockroach his partiality
+for human dwellings. But the cricket is but a domesticated grasshopper,
+the mouse has a country cousin, and the rat will take up his abode in
+many other localities. The cockroach alone is never found elsewhere, and
+has no relations in any way closely connected with him who are dwellers
+in the open air.
+
+Next to man’s houses, the _blatta_, as he is scientifically called,
+loves his ships; but the variety that is found in vessels, especially in
+those trading with the East, is a larger, uglier, and in every way more
+repulsive creature than his English cousin. Once on board—and there is
+scarce a ship afloat into which he has not smuggled himself—he is there
+to stay, and short of sinking the vessel, or of fastening down the
+hatches and suffocating him with the fumes of sulphur, there is no way
+of getting rid of him. He multiplies with extraordinary rapidity, and
+his odour, when he is present in multitude, is so strong that in the
+hold many ships trading in hot countries it is almost overpowering. The
+flatness of his body enables him to crawl through every chink and
+crevice, and all efforts to keep him out of the cabins are unavailing.
+The ship variety has none of that fear of man that sends the kitchen
+cockroaches scuttling in every direction at the approach of a maid with
+a light. They will fearlessly perambulate his cabin, take up their posts
+on the deck-beams over his head, will watch him gravely with waving
+antennæ, and the moment they discover that he is asleep will run over
+his head and face, entangle themselves in his beard and hair, and gently
+nibble the skin on the tips of his fingers and toes.
+
+The cockroach is an admirable judge of the weather. On board a ship the
+approach of a rain squall will bring them up from the hold into the
+cabins in tens of thousands; and in vessels where they abound they will
+blacken the ceiling, drop on to the tables, and drive nervous passengers
+for refuge to the deck. Whether the British variety is equally affected
+by the weather is a point at present undetermined, for as he does not
+emerge from his hiding places until the servants have gone upstairs and
+the lights are out, his habits have never been examined very closely.
+
+The eccentricity in the movements of the cockroach has doubtless had a
+share in producing the feeling with which he is regarded. His ordinary
+pace is a fast though stealthy walk, but he is given to sudden pauses,
+remaining immovable, save for the constant waving of his long antennæ,
+which show that he is deep in the meditation of past sins or future
+wickedness. But when alarmed his speed is extraordinary: he is gone in
+an instant like a flash, and it needs no ordinary quickness of eye and
+action to bring the avenging foot down upon him. Even in his death he
+acts upon the human nerves, exploding with a sharp crack of so
+singularly thrilling a description that many even of those who most
+greatly dislike the cockroach cannot bring themselves to slay it.
+
+It is on this account principally that nothing like an organised war is
+waged against the cockroach. Feeble efforts are made now and then to get
+rid of it by scattering beetle paste, and other supposed destroyers,
+about the kitchen, or by setting traps for it to walk into; but these
+measures, although effective to a certain point, make but small inroads
+upon its numbers, and it is only when it ascends the stairs and begins
+to pervade the house that serious attention is paid to it. There are men
+in London who make a livelihood by clearing houses, restaurants, and
+other dwellings, of cockroaches. Their methods are a secret, but they
+are certainly efficacious, and did the operators advertise their
+addresses they would be very largely patronised. Some have supposed that
+they charm the insects from their hiding-places by the sounds of sweet
+music; others that they possess a perfume which the cockroach cannot
+withstand, and that by it he is attracted to his death; while a few hold
+the belief that the insects are induced to leave their abodes by the use
+of cabalistic words.
+
+The cockroach, like most of the order of orthoptera to which it belongs,
+retains the same form from the date it issues from the egg to its death.
+Familiar instances of this peculiarity are the earwig, locust, and
+grasshopper. The only difference between the first and second stage is
+that they do not become winged until arriving at maturity, the wings
+being then folded up under the leathery reticulated wing-case that
+distinguishes the order. It is rarely, indeed, that the cockroach uses
+the means of locomotion with which nature has provided it. It is
+possible that if it took to out-door exercise it would do so; but,
+passing its life as it does indoors, it has no occasion whatever for the
+use of its wings, and many people are even unaware that it is provided
+with them. The cockroach is not particular as to its food, and will
+devour almost anything that comes in its way. Crumbs of bread, fragments
+of fat or meat, sweets of all kinds, and indeed almost all food consumed
+by man, are welcome to it. It has a marked partiality for boot blacking,
+and is even able to digest leather. It will drink water, but its
+tendency is rather towards liquids of a sweet or intoxicating nature.
+Treacle or sugar in water attracts it, but it has a marked preference
+for beer, and traps for its ensnarement are generally baited with this
+liquor.
+
+Unlike the cricket and the grasshopper, the cockroach is mute, at least
+so far as our ears are able to perceive, although it is certain that it
+can carry on long conversations with its own species, and two of them
+may often be seen standing head to head in close confabulation,
+enforcing their arguments with waves and flourishes of their antennæ.
+Entomologists may assign the _blatta_ a specific place among the orders
+and genera of insects in accordance with their characteristics, but
+morally they stand apart. They are the rats of the insect world,
+swarming out in their armies from dark recesses in search of garbage; no
+one, indeed, can doubt that, had they the power, they would not hesitate
+to follow the example of the rats on the Rhine, and to devour a bishop
+if he fell in their way. Other insects stand apart from them. The
+cricket may dwell in their midst, but he is not of them, while no
+observer has remarked a single case of friendship between the
+industrious bee, the impetuous and hardworking wasp, or, indeed, any
+other of what may be called respectable insects, with the cockroach—a
+strong proof that the creature is viewed with the same marked disfavour
+by the insect world that it excites in the breast of man.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                 MICE.
+
+                             --------------
+
+SINCE men and mice first became acquainted with each other, the mouse
+has been an enigma to the man. That it possesses strange and mysterious
+powers he is fully aware, although himself unaffected by them; and to
+this day neither naturalists nor philosophers have been able to account
+for, or explain, the abject terror with which the mouse is capable of
+inspiring the female mind. To the male eye, the mouse is one of the most
+harmless and inoffensive of created things. With its soft coat and its
+bright eye, there are few prettier little creatures. It is very easily
+tamed and domesticated; and most boys have, at some time or other, kept
+mice as pets. It is affectionate, intelligent, and capable of acquiring
+all sorts of tricks. It is afraid of man, but it rapidly acquires
+confidence in him, and after a very few visits it will, if undisturbed,
+fearlessly pick up crumbs close to the foot of any man who will sit
+still and watch it. Mice at play are as pretty as kittens, without any
+of the spitefulness which readily shows itself in even the youngest of
+the cat tribe. Were the mouse unknown in England, a few imported here
+would soon, it might be thought, be regarded as the most charming little
+pets ever introduced.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Mouse]
+
+
+Such is the mouse as it appears to man. It is true that he is obliged to
+wage war with it, for it is so prolific that if man and its other
+enemies did not keep down its numbers it would, in a very short time,
+produce a famine in the land. It has most destructive habits of
+burrowing in walls, and eating holes in flooring and wainscots; while
+its depredations in stacks, granaries, and other similar places are
+serious. Thus man is forced in self-defence to war against mice; but he
+does it without ill-feeling, and would rather be able to leave the
+pretty little things alone. The last thing that would enter his mind
+would be to be afraid of them, and the terror with which they inspire
+women is to him absolutely unaccountable. In many respects women are to
+the full as brave and courageous as men. In the horrors of a shipwreck,
+in the dangers of a siege, in times of great peril, such as the Indian
+Mutiny, women have, over and over again, showed themselves to be at
+least equal to men in bravery, in calmness, and in endurance. But the
+woman who would, pale but firm, face a lion in an arena, will fly in
+terror from a mouse; and many a moment of sweet revenge and triumph has
+been felt by men with spouses of strong minds and shrewish tongues, when
+they have seen them paralysed with terror by a tiny mouse.
+
+History records no example of a mouse attacking a man, and, when tamed,
+they never use their teeth. They have no powers of scratching; they
+cannot assume a threatening aspect; they neither show their teeth,
+growl, nor spit; they cannot stick up their furs as can a cat; they are,
+in fact, absolutely without means of aggression, and yet women quail
+before them. Man has wearied himself with conjectures as to this
+phenomenon. The Greek and Roman philosophers were posed by it, and the
+saying, _parturiunt montes, nascitur ridiculus mus_, which has
+ignorantly been supposed to signify that a small matter was produced
+after great labour, has, when critically examined, an entirely different
+and far more profound meaning. The philosopher clearly desired to
+signify that it needed the labour of mountains to produce a creature
+capable of awing the female mind. In the Greek fable of the Lion and the
+Mouse, the same feeling of respect and appreciation for the smaller
+animal is clearly shown. Some have gone so far as to trace back the
+enmity between the female and the mouse to the earliest times, and the
+argument has been advanced that the word translated as serpent, in the
+account of the Fall of Man, really signified mouse, an explanation which
+alone seems to satisfy the exigencies of the case.
+
+This hypothesis is greatly strengthened by the fact that the mouse does
+go on its belly; alone among quadrupeds its feet cannot be seen to move,
+and it apparently glides along on its stomach. Then, again, its head,
+and, indeed, its whole body, is very frequently bruised, and, in fact,
+crushed by the human heel, and for every serpent upon which this process
+is performed it is done a hundred thousand times upon mice. The mouse
+does not, it is true, in return bruise the heel of its bruiser; but
+neither does the serpent, so that this objection applies equally in both
+cases—indeed, a tight shoe is the only article which habitually bruises
+or raises blisters upon the human heel. This is no novel idea, for in
+some old paintings the tempter is pictured in the form of a mouse
+sitting on Eve’s shoulder, and whispering in her ear. That the Jews
+entertained a feeling of abhorrence for the mouse far above anything
+that can be accounted for by natural causes, is proved by the fact that
+Isaiah lxvi. 17 says, “Eating the abomination, and the mouse.” These
+facts, coupled with the abject terror inspired by the mouse in the
+female mind, are really worthy of the attention of divines, who cannot
+fail to notice that whereas the creature, translated serpent, is said to
+be more subtle than any other beast of the field, the word cunning,
+which is synonymous with subtle, is still essentially applied to the
+mouse; while—putting aside the fact that the snake is not a beast at
+all—no modern investigator has ever claimed any particular amount of
+cunning for the serpent.
+
+The terror with which women regard the mouse finds expression in various
+unlooked-for ways. Man has no peculiar liking for his nether
+integuments, as is evidenced by the eagerness with which cockney
+sportsmen, who go North, don the Highland garb instead of trousers, and
+by the popularity among the young fellows who constitute the Scottish
+Volunteers, of the ordinance which transformed the whole regiment into a
+“kilted” corps. Among women, however, movements are constantly taking
+place for the adoption of male lower garments. Sometimes these are
+spoken of as bloomers, sometimes as knickerbockers, sometimes as divided
+skirts. The advocates of these garments base their arguments on the
+ground of health and convenience; but men, who go beneath the surface,
+are well aware that these are but pretexts, and that the real reason why
+women desire masculine garb is that they may the better protect their
+lower limbs from the onslaught of the marauding mouse. No one who has
+ever seen a woman stand on a chair and wrap her garments tightly round
+her ankles upon the alarm of “mouse,” can question how keen is the
+consciousness among the sex of the possibilities of attack by their
+formidable opponents offered by the present style of clothing. It cannot
+be pretended that it is the mere fear of being bitten which so unhinges
+the female nerves where mice are concerned, for there are women who make
+parrots their pets, although parrots sometimes bite atrociously, and are
+singularly treacherous withal. There are others who pet spiteful cats,
+and snappish lap-dogs, and whom neither scratches nor occasional bites
+at all discompose. It cannot, therefore, be argued that any fear of pain
+is at the bottom of their antipathy for mice. The mere fact that here
+and there women can be found who profess not to be afraid of mice in no
+way affects the general truth of the argument. There are women who are
+not afraid of cows; who will not jump up in an open boat if it rocks;
+who are not fond of babies; who do not care for kissing their female
+friends in public. There are even women who will dress as they please,
+and not as their dressmakers tell them. But these are the exceptions
+which prove rules, and the almost universal fear of mice by women can be
+accounted for only upon the hypothesis of which we have above made
+mention.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                 CATS.
+
+                             --------------
+
+THE cat is generally considered to be a domesticated animal, but it
+would be more justly described as a gregarious one. No one who sees the
+placid and indifferent air with which the cat conducts itself when
+within doors, and compares it with the wild rapture with which the
+creature lifts up its voice when assembled with five or six of its
+species upon the end of a garden wall, can question for an instant that
+the cat is above all things gregarious in its instincts. That
+domestication is alien to the feline nature is proved also by the fact
+that there are no recorded instances of lions, tigers, or even the wild
+cats of these islands, walking into a parlour and lying down upon the
+hearthrug of their own accord. In the case of the wild cat it may be
+urged that such an advance on its part would not be welcome, but
+assuredly no opposition would be offered to the lion or tiger who might
+yearn to domesticate itself in this manner. The extreme repugnance which
+the feline race in their wild state evince for fire is another proof of
+the absence of any domestic yearnings in their breasts, for fire is the
+emblem of domesticity. The cat, then, has clearly assumed domesticated
+habits under protest, and as against its innermost nature; but it must
+be admitted that the imputation of hypocrisy, which has been freely
+brought against the animal, is hardly justified. The cat, to do it
+justice, pretends to no fondness whatever for those who care for it. It
+will submit to be rubbed and stroked, and to be placed upon ladies’
+laps, simply because it likes these attentions, not because it is
+grateful to those who render them. It will rub against a human leg, but
+will also rub against the leg of a table with an equal air of affection.
+It will not answer when called unless there be a prospect of food, but
+will gaze in stolid indifference at the fire, as if wholly unconscious
+of being addressed. This absence of affection in cats is in itself an
+argument against the Darwinian theory. Since the days of ancient Egypt,
+cats have been pets. Ladies have—in the absence of better subjects for
+affection—doted upon them from time immemorial; but in all these
+countless generations the cats have not been able to get up a reciprocal
+feeling. Friends of the species have endeavoured to urge in its favour
+that it is affectionate to its young. If, however, five out of six
+kittens are removed and drowned, the mother in no way concerns or
+troubles herself. She certainly will look sharp after the last, but this
+only shows that she likes to have something to nurse and play with. Had
+she had a particle of real love for her offspring, she would have cared
+for all alike.
+
+An intense devotion to public assemblies of its kind upon housetops and
+walls, and to the raising of music, Wagnerian in its absence of melody,
+are the special characteristics of the cat. To gratify its passion for
+concerted music it will dare every danger. Showers of lumps of coal, of
+boots and brushes, cause but a momentary interruption of its song; and
+even wet weather, which of all things it most hates, will not suffice to
+damp its ardour. It can hardly be doubted that cats are well aware that
+their gatherings for vocal purposes are hateful to mankind; but this
+knowledge in no way affects them, and even the voice of the mistress,
+who an hour before bestowed bread and milk, is absolutely unheeded when
+raised in an agonised appeal for silence. The predatory instinct is
+strong in these creatures, and however well a cat be fed or treated, it
+remains a thief to the end of its life. It is believed by those best
+acquainted with them that the greater portion of the time spent by a cat
+sitting in a state of apparent somnolency on the hearthrug, is really
+occupied in maturing plans for the surreptitious carrying off of pats of
+butter, for raids upon the larder, or for the assassination of canary
+birds.
+
+
+    [Illustration: A GATHERING FOR MUSICAL PURPOSES.]
+
+
+The question why the cat should of all creatures be selected by ladies
+as a domestic pet has occasioned high debate among philosophers of all
+ages. The animal possesses many vices. It is erratic in its habits,
+noisy, and thievish. It has no real affection for its mistress. It has
+but one virtue—it is soft, but many other things are soft which are free
+from drawbacks. Some have pretended to see a resemblance between the
+natures of the cat and the woman, but no sufficiently strong analogy can
+be traced to support so libellous an assertion. The fact that both love
+the fireside and hate going out into the wet, and that it is dangerous
+to rub either the wrong way, can scarcely be considered as of sufficient
+importance to warrant the suggestion of general similarity. The feeble
+plea that cats catch mice cannot be admitted as an argument in favour of
+their general acceptance. There are not mice to catch in a great many
+houses, and it is notorious that where there are, not one cat in fifty
+will trouble itself to catch them. The cat who can get milk given it in
+a saucer is not going to trouble itself by catching mice; and the
+knowledge that it is expected to pay for its board by keeping down mice
+troubles it not at all. Even as a mouse-catcher the cat is a poor
+creature—taking half an hour over a job which a terrier of the same size
+will perform in a second.
+
+It has been urged that without cats there could be no cat shows, and
+this may be conceded frankly, but mankind might get on without these
+exhibitions. Were cats unobjectionable in their ways, the onus of
+proving why they should be abolished would rest with those who do not
+keep them; but as they are most objectionable, owing to the torture of
+nerves caused by their midnight assemblages, to say nothing of their
+destructiveness to well-kept gardens, it is for those who own them to
+prove that there is some compensation, some good quality, some advantage
+arising from the keeping of pets which are a pest and an annoyance to
+neighbours. A man is not allowed to hire an organ or a German band to
+play in front of his house, even in the day time, if a neighbour object;
+why, then, should he be allowed to keep a creature which renders night
+hideous with its caterwaulings? The legislation which taxes man’s
+faithful friend and companion, the dog, allows his wife to keep two or
+three cats, and to populate the whole of the district with their
+progeny, if she choose to do so. Over and over again has the
+desirability of placing a tax upon these animals been pressed upon
+successive Chancellors of the Exchequer, but they have hitherto turned
+deaf ears to the suggestion; and the reason is clear: Chancellors of the
+Exchequer are but mortal, and have wives. No man having a wife would
+venture to propose a tax upon cats, and until we have a minister who is
+without either a wife or other female relations, sisters, aunts, or
+cousins, the cat will remain master of the situation.
+
+And yet we are not altogether without hope. The present is essentially
+an age of association. There are Salvation Armies, Blue Ribbon Armies,
+Good Templars, Vegetarians, and Anti-tobacconists. Every one is
+interested in the well-doing of every one else. It cannot be doubted
+that sooner or later there will be an Association for the Suppression of
+Bad Language, and the very first step which such a body must take would
+be the suppression of the cat nuisance. It is calculated that at least
+90 per cent. of those who have fallen into the lamentable habit of using
+strong expressions have been driven thereto, in the first place, by the
+voice of the midnight cat; and a pious divine has gone so far as to
+admit that at least mental profanity is absolutely universal, even among
+the best of men, under these circumstances. Even ladies of
+irreproachable morals and conduct have admitted the use of mental bad
+language, under the irritation caused by hours of sleeplessness through
+the infliction of a concert on the tiles. A society which would take the
+matter in hand would command an enormous support, although the great
+proportion of the subscriptions and donations in furtherance of its
+object would be anonymous, for few men would venture upon an open
+adherence to a society which, as a first step towards the suppression of
+swearing, would undertake to put down the domestic cat.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                             THE LADYBIRD.
+
+                             --------------
+
+THE ladybird occupies among insects a position very similar to that held
+by the robin among birds, and is similarly protected by a feeling akin
+to superstition. It must be owned that the robin has no peculiar claims
+upon the affection of man, on the grounds of benefits bestowed. It sings
+prettily, but there are many birds which surpass it in this respect; it
+has a friendly confidence in man, but not more so than has the sparrow;
+it can scarcely be considered to hold very high rank among the birds
+that render man vital services by acting as exterminators of the pests
+of the fields and gardens, and, indeed, it takes an ample toll of seed
+and fruit for any service it may do in the way of destroying insects.
+The jay’s bright feathers do not afford it protection from the keeper’s
+gun, and the patch of red on the breast of the robin would scarcely in
+itself account for the general feeling in its favour. Nor would the
+pretty markings on the back of the ladybird, for there are many more
+brilliant and showy insects; and the affection and kindly treatment
+which it receives, even from children, can hardly be explained, save as
+an instinct implanted by nature in the human breast, as a protection for
+one of his greatest friends and allies. Next, perhaps, to the ichneumon,
+the ladybird is the most valuable of all insects to man. The bee
+furnishes him with wax and honey, the silkworm with a fabric for the
+adornment of his female kind, the cochineal insect with a dye, the
+locust with a food, this being, however, but a poor return for its
+destruction of vegetation. The worm acts as a subsoil plough, takes down
+dead leaves and herbage, and brings fresh soil to the surface; many
+beetles work as scavengers, the Spanish fly provides us with blisters,
+and, indeed, it may be accepted that the great majority of insects are,
+in one way or another, directly or indirectly of benefit to man. But it
+may be doubted if any, save only the ichneumon, can vie with the
+ladybird in this respect. Its life is spent in the pursuit and
+destruction of the aphis, which, were it not for its vigilance, would so
+increase that it would become, in temperate climates, as great a scourge
+as is the locust in the localities it inhabits. Not only does the
+ladybird as a perfect insect live upon the aphis, but in its earlier,
+though less known, stage it is equally destructive to them, and from the
+time when it issues from the egg to its death its whole life is passed
+in the destruction of these pests of the farmer and gardener. In its
+labours this way it is ably assisted by the larvæ of the Hemerobius,
+which, in its perfect state, is a brilliant four-winged fly; and by
+those of the Syrphidæ, which transfix and devour their thousands on
+their trident-like mandibles. But these creatures, useful as they are,
+are far less common than the ladybirds, which are to be found on every
+plant, and, being amongst the earliest insects to make their appearance
+in the spring, are ready to meet the first invasion of the aphis. It may
+frankly be admitted that the ladybird is not, in this work of
+destruction, animated solely by a desire to benefit man, and even that
+this is quite a secondary matter in its opinion. This, however, may be
+said of many other recognised benefactors of man. The bullock is
+considered none the less a benefactor because he eats, not with the
+express purpose of making flesh, but to gratify his appetite; while the
+sheep values his warm coat rather because it keeps out the cold than
+because it will some day furnish man with a garment.
+
+There are a great variety of ladybirds, differing only in the colours
+and markings of their coats; these are for the most part red, black, or
+yellow, with black, yellow, or white spots. The red with seven black
+spots is the most common, and is found all over Europe and in parts of
+Asia and Africa. It is everywhere a favourite with children, and in
+France they are called _Vaches à Dieu_ or _Bêtes de la Vierge_, and are
+considered sacred to the Virgin. Why this should be so is not very
+clear, but it would be much more easy to find explanations for the title
+than for the verses that especially endear them to children throughout
+this country—
+
+              “Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,
+              Your house is on fire, your children alone.”
+
+There are two or three versions of the last two words, but all alike
+express that there is danger to the children as well as to the house.
+The antiquity of this legend is prodigious; it is one of the group
+brought by the earliest arrivals in Europe from the Far East, and there
+can be little doubt that it came to us from Scandinavia. It is familiar
+to children, with but slight variation, all over Europe, and African
+children repeat an almost identical sentence over the ladybird. As the
+legends current in Europe and Asia are but seldom found among the sons
+of Ham, it does not seem by any means beyond the bounds of probability
+that the legend was in existence before the Flood, and that the children
+of the sons of Noah carried it to the various quarters of the world when
+they scattered from the common centre.
+
+But, though there can be no dispute as to the enormous antiquity of
+these apparently non-sensible lines, scientific men, although agreeing
+that there must be a deep and hidden meaning somewhere, are quite unable
+to arrive at any consensus as to what that meaning can be. As of late
+years it has been the habit of scientific men, whenever they cannot find
+any other satisfactory explanation of an ancient legend or story, to
+assign it to one of the sun myths, “Ladybird, ladybird,” must now be
+considered as included in that broad category, and so takes its place by
+the side of the siege of Troy, the wars of the Gods with the Titans, and
+other apparently widely diverse legends. The highest credit is due to
+scientific men for the ingenuity shown in the invention of this sun-myth
+limbo, into which they are able to shunt away all legends and traditions
+that prove too tough for them to unravel. But, failing to grapple with
+the story of the burning of the ladybird’s house, it would certainly be
+satisfactory if we could get with certainty at the legend that connects
+them with the Virgin. The French call them _Bêtes de la Vierge_, the
+German _Unser Herrenhuhn_, while our own ladybird, which is, of course,
+a mere shortening of “Our Lady’s bird,” is a literal translation of the
+German name, the French differing only in calling the insect a beast,
+while the Germans and ourselves call it a bird. The most plausible
+supposition is that as the Virgin is in many Catholic pictures depicted
+as pierced to the heart with seven swords, the seven black spots on the
+red ladybird are considered as typical of those wounds, the form of the
+little creature being not unlike that of a heart.
+
+Seeing the extreme value of the ladybird’s assistance as a destroyer of
+the green fly, it has more than once been seriously proposed to
+introduce breeding establishments for its multiplication; and there can
+be no doubt, were this practicable, agriculturists, and especially
+hop-growers, whose bines are cruelly ravaged by the green fly, would
+benefit vastly. The silkworm is bred in enormous quantities, and there
+seems no reason why the ladybird should be less susceptible of
+cultivation, if it could but be taught to lay aside its habits of
+restlessness. Unfortunately, the ladybird is a frequent and rapid
+traveller, and the hop-grower would have no assurance that his
+neighbour’s gardens would not benefit more than his own by his labours
+in breeding it. Few beetles take so readily to the wing; it runs fast,
+too, on the little legs packed so snugly away under the flat side of its
+hemisphere. Still, as the flea can be taught not to jump, it ought to be
+possible to restrain the ladybird from flying; and, in that case, if
+kept amply supplied with its favourite food, it might be content to
+breed in captivity, and the management of such an establishment would be
+a source of great interest and amusement to children. Owing, perhaps, to
+its immunity from cruel treatment at the hands of man, the ladybird
+exhibits no fear whatever of him. While the spider will rush to a
+hiding-place, the caterpillar drop itself from a twig, and the flea
+endeavour to escape by the aid of its prodigious activity from the touch
+of man, the ladybird will run unconcernedly across his hand, and,
+indeed, appears to take a pleasure in so doing, until, tired of the
+amusement, it opens its wing-cases, and, after a preliminary flourish of
+its wings, goes off in a swift flight in search of its next meal.
+Properly trained, the ladybird ought to be a skilful performer of
+tricks, although we are not aware that any efforts have been made in
+that direction, but a regiment of them drilled as soldiers and taught to
+manœuvre accurately to the sound of the bugle should certainly be an
+attractive spectacle.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                THE DOG.
+
+                             --------------
+
+OF the various works of man, there are few of which he has more reason
+to be proud than the transformation under his hands of the wild dog into
+the domesticated animal. The change was not early effected; during
+Scriptural times it had made but little progress. The term “dog” is
+everywhere used as one of opprobrium. “Is thy servant a dog that he
+should do this?” is in itself sufficient to show that the possibility of
+the dog being possessed of many virtues had never occurred to the
+speaker. The dog was, indeed, regarded down to comparatively modern
+times in three lights only: as a scavenger, as a guard against wild
+beasts, and as an assistant in the chase, and it is thus that he is
+still viewed in the East and by uncivilised peoples. It must be owned
+that the wild dog, or the dog such as he exists on sufferance in
+Oriental communities, has but few higher claims, that he is by nature
+but little in advance of his cousins the wolf, the jackal, and the
+coyote, and that he is cowardly, cringing, and ferocious according to
+circumstance. His virtues, in fact, are at this stage altogether latent;
+he has been cowed by a long course of misapprehension and ill-treatment,
+and displays only his worst qualities. It is as difficult to recognise
+him as a near relation to the civilised dog as to see the connection
+between a Digger Indian and a Shakespeare or a Newton. It is, then, no
+small credit to man that he has discovered and brought out the grand
+qualities of the dog, and that in making him his companion and his
+friend he has developed virtues equal to those he himself possesses.
+
+It may be said that there never was a man who possessed the proud
+stateliness of the St. Bernard, the unerring sagacity of the sheep-dog,
+or the courage and tenacity of the bulldog. The vainest masher is not
+daintier in his ways than the Italian greyhound, or more soft and
+affectionate than the Blenheim. In point of fun and vivacity the terrier
+in its many varieties stands higher, while in the exhibition of
+unwearied devotion, fidelity, and affection, the whole race put man to
+shame. Although rejoicing in undivided affection, the dog is yet
+contented with an occasional word from his master, he always renders
+prompt and cheerful obedience, is ready to spring up a score of times
+from the most comfortable sleep by the fireside in answer to his
+master’s voice, and is willing at once to abandon the most comfortable
+quarters to brave all weathers if his owner will but deign to take him
+with him. He will face any odds in his defence, and will die in his
+service. Even roughness and unkindness fail to shake his devotion, and
+in adversity as in prosperity his fealty is unbroken. The dog is a fine
+discriminator of persons, and while a well-attired stranger who
+approaches his master’s house will be greeted with silence, or perhaps
+with a slight wag of welcome, his back will bristle and his demeanour
+become unmistakably hostile as soon as he perceives a tramp approaching.
+Dogs are judges of character too, and no coaxing or blandishments will
+seduce them into friendliness with one of whose disposition they
+disapprove, and it must be owned that, like children, they are seldom
+mistaken in their intuitive likes and dislikes.
+
+
+    [Illustration: “CAREFUL BREEDING HAS BROUGHT ABOUT GREAT VARIETIES
+        IN SIZE, FORM, AND APPEARANCE.”]
+
+
+A flesh-eater by nature, the dog adapts itself readily to the habits of
+those around. His preferences are for meat, but few things come
+absolutely amiss to him: bread and cheese, fish, pies and puddings of
+all sorts, vegetables, and even fruit, are eaten by him with apparent
+relish, and he needs but very little education to take to beer, wines,
+and spirits. As might be expected from the analogy of man, the big dog,
+as a rule, is much more gentle, patient, and good-tempered than the
+small one. The latter is ready upon the smallest provocation to become
+excited or pugnacious; he seems to be on the look out for affronts, and
+ever on the watch to assert himself. The big dog, upon the contrary, is
+generally quiet and dignified, and very slow to wrath. While careful
+breeding has brought about great varieties in size, form, and
+appearance, its effects upon the dog’s mental organisation can scarcely
+be traced, save for such differences of disposition as are the result of
+size rather than race. The St. Bernard and the toy terrier, the pug, the
+poodle, the Dachshund, and the spaniel, although differing as widely
+from each other in appearance and shape as if they belonged to different
+families, are yet identical in their possession of the virtues and
+methods of dogdom. Their habits may differ slightly, some seeming to
+find their chief happiness in lying asleep on a soft cushion, others in
+an incessant pursuit of rats and other vermin, some in accompanying
+their masters to the chase. There are dogs whose greatest joy is a swim,
+others whose chief object of life seems to be to pick a quarrel and then
+fight it out. But these differences are no greater than those we find
+existing in men—even in men of the same race. It does not require a very
+wide range of acquaintance to enable us to fix upon a man whose tastes
+correspond respectively to those of one or other of these types of dogs,
+and, indeed, the list might be almost indefinitely extended. This is not
+remarkable, since it is man who has made the dog what he is. No such
+varieties of character are to be found in the wild dog, and even the
+semi-civilised dog of Constantinople, or other Eastern towns, resembles
+his brethren as closely as one sheep in the fold does another.
+
+The Red Indian expects confidently that his faithful hound will be his
+companion in the chase in the country of the Great Manitou, and there
+are not a few Englishmen who, deep down in their hearts, believe that
+the separation between themselves and their affectionate friends and
+loyal servants will not be an eternal one. They would repudiate the idea
+that there was a future before other animals, unless an exception were
+made in behalf of a favourite horse; but the dog has assimilated himself
+so closely to man, has become so much his companion and friend, that it
+is not difficult to a real lover of the dog to suppose that it too may
+have a future before it. At any rate, in a comparison between the dog
+and the man, the advantage is not always with the latter; and few would
+deny that in point of intelligence, of generosity, and nobleness of
+disposition, of fidelity to duty, of patience and of courage, there are
+some dogs that are infinitely the superiors of some men. It was not so
+long ago that, in discussing the muzzling question, a man writing to a
+newspaper said, “Better a thousand dogs should die than one man!” There
+are very few men who, appreciating dogs, would at all agree with this
+opinion. There are men whose lives are more valuable than those of a
+thousand dogs, but there are others whose lives would be dearly
+purchased by that of one dog.
+
+It is possible that if admitted to as intimate a companionship with man,
+other animals might make as rapid a rise as the dog has done; but there
+are few so well suited for that companionship. The cat accepts kindness,
+but declines to be in any way bound by it. It may like petting, and may
+even run to greet a master or mistress, and follow them over the house;
+but the cat takes little interest in their conversation, and keeps its
+thoughts strictly to itself, and its inscrutable face is a mask which
+cannot be penetrated. But beyond the cat the choice is limited. Rats and
+mice are easily tamed, but would never overcome feminine aversion. Sheep
+lack the liveliness necessary for a pet. Cattle are too large for our
+present style of house; while the giraffe, whose eye is probably the
+most lovely of those of any of the brute creation, would scarcely feel
+at ease in a drawing-room. Lions, tigers, and other members of the cat
+tribe have been made pets when young, but become dangerous as they gain
+their strength. The monkey is too intolerant of cold to become a pet in
+this country, and his restlessness and love of mischief are against him.
+The mongoose, perhaps, if more common, would be the most formidable
+rival of the dog. It is admitted to possess a high degree of
+intelligence, to be easily tamed, and very affectionate; but it could
+take the place only of the smaller varieties of dogs, and would fail
+from its want of voice as a guard, and be of little use in a tussle with
+burglars. Take him altogether, there is no animal possessing one tithe
+of the qualifications of the dog for the various purposes for which he
+is used by man, being capable of acting alike as a woman’s pet, as a
+man’s companion, as an assistant in the chase, as, in some countries, an
+animal of draught, as a vigilant sentry, as a powerful and valiant ally,
+and as the most faithful and truest of friends.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                 SHEEP.
+
+                             --------------
+
+THE position of the sheep in the scale of the animal creation has not
+yet been assigned. Naturalists, who are guided by mere externals, have,
+indeed, agreed that the sheep is a quadruped, that it is herbivorous and
+ruminant; but, after all, this does not help us much. Physically, the
+sheep may stand high; mentally, it appears to be about on the level of
+the garden slug. The sheep eats continually, and when he is not eating,
+he is chewing; this gives him a thoughtful appearance; but no savants
+have ever ventured a suggestion as to the subject of his thoughts. He
+has his good points as a producer of wool and mutton, but the garden
+slug is edible and nourishing, and the caterpillar yields a most
+valuable product for clothing; therefore this fact cannot be considered
+as bearing upon the subject of his place in the scale of creation. In
+its wild state the sheep is said to be sagacious, but the stories of
+huntsmen, like those of fishermen, are to be received with marked
+distrust. If the sheep is sagacious in its wild state, why should it
+become so densely stupid when domesticated? The dog and the negro
+improve immensely in intelligence from contact with man, and are both
+capable of attaining a high degree of reasoning power. Dogs cannot,
+indeed, speak, but they certainly understand much of human speech, and
+learn to read the wishes of their masters at a glance. Negroes attain to
+the point of being able to preach sermons—a low test of intellectuality
+certainly, but still a proof of some intelligence.
+
+It is difficult to believe, then, that the sheep can have deteriorated
+mentally from contact with civilisation, and it must be assumed that any
+supposed sharpness of the creature in its wild state must be due solely
+to the fact that it is difficult to approach, and crafty in eluding
+pursuit. But in these qualities the domestic flea is surely its
+superior; and most insects, either by feigning death, by speed in
+running or flying, or by tricks of hiding themselves from observation,
+show higher powers of self-preservation than the most enthusiastic
+admirers of the sheep can claim for it. It is true that the sheep makes
+up for its lack of intelligence by its preternatural gravity and
+thoughtfulness of demeanour. Were every quadruped half as wise as the
+sheep looks, it is clear that the dominion of man over the animal
+creation would be played out. The ovine vocabulary is limited. The sheep
+has, in fact, but one sound, which it is so proud of that it is
+continually making it. Whether calling its offspring, or protesting
+against being driven along a high road, or as an utterance of opinion as
+to the appearance and speed of a passing railway train, it raises this
+cry with precisely the same inflection and vigour.
+
+
+    [Illustration: “ADDICTED TO THE CHILDISH PASTIME OF
+        FOLLOW-MY-LEADER.”]
+
+
+Attentive observers have been of opinion that, like the dog and cat, the
+sheep expresses emotion by different movements of its tail; but none
+have attempted to classify these varieties of motion or to analyse the
+emotion contained by them. Like most timid creatures the sheep is
+crassly obstinate, and will object to be driven into a pen, even though
+the interior be scattered thickly with the succulent turnip, and nothing
+short of prodding with a stick, assisted by barking on the part of a dog
+and bad language on the part of the shepherd, will induce it to enter.
+The animal, except in early youth, has no idea of humour; and even on
+the part of the lamb, playfulness is expressed only by a little frisking
+of an incoherent character. It has been said that the sheep is capable
+of attachment to persons; and an American ballad specifically states,
+that a lamb belonging to a young person of the name of Mary followed her
+wheresoever she went. The fact, however, that the circumstance should
+have been considered worthy of chronicle in verse shows its great
+rarity. One of the peculiarities about sheep is the extreme similarity
+of feature which characterises the individuals of the same breed.
+Nature, which so loves variety that it is said that no two leaves in a
+great tree are exactly alike, gave up the sheep as hopeless. The
+straight forehead and nose, the lack-lustre eye, admitted of no variety
+short of complete change, and even the interference of man, although it
+has created many varieties in size and coat, has done nothing to alter
+the face; it remains in its normal state of uniform stolidity. Lambs,
+indeed, recognise their mothers among a flock; but it is probable that
+the sense of smell rather than of sight enables them to do so.
+
+Even the poets, who have managed to say something for most animals, have
+been unable to invent anything favourable concerning sheep; and silly
+has been their favourite epithet for it. The poet who has apparently
+devoted most attention to their doings, goes so far as to say that a
+flock, of which he is writing, on a certain occasion left their tails
+behind them. This, of course, must only be regarded as a metaphor, his
+meaning being that they were wholly destitute of memory. Scriptural
+authority would seem to show that the sheep is a superior animal to the
+goat, and no doubt it is less given to mischievous tricks; but as this
+is due to a want of sufficient intelligence to devise a mischievous
+trick, it can hardly be considered a feature worthy of high
+commendation. Some have supposed that the sheep throughout its life is
+oppressed with a sense of duty which deadens all other faculties. Having
+in some mysterious manner become possessed of an hereditary knowledge
+that the object of its life is to furnish mutton, it sets itself
+deliberately to work to prepare for the butcher’s knife. To this end, it
+is always eating when it is not sleeping. Its stolidity is assumed
+because it knows that energy is destructive to the formation of fat.
+Unfortunately for the reputation of these animals, their breeders have
+regarded them solely in the light of producers of mutton and wool, and
+have endeavoured to improve them only in this respect. Had they turned
+their attention to developing their mental qualities, the consequences
+might have been different; but naturally the sheep, finding that no
+efforts were being made to improve its intelligence, accepted the place
+in the animal creation that man assigned to it, and has taken no pains
+to improve itself. There is no saying what a society for the improvement
+of the intelligent faculties of sheep might not effect, and if its
+efforts did but produce some change in the expression of their faces it
+would be a boon to mankind. There is a limit now to the pleasure which
+any one save a breeder can obtain from the contemplation of a flock of
+sheep, and this simply from the want of variety. It is true that Phyllis
+and Daphne, and many other maidens, have taken to the tending of sheep;
+but as it is palpable that the attractions of the calling were the
+shepherds and not the sheep, this proves nothing.
+
+To be able to obtain a fair idea of the stupidity of sheep it is
+necessary to see them, not when engaged in tranquil mastication, but
+while driven upon a high road. The manner in which they persist in
+placing themselves under the wheels of any passing waggon or cart is
+remarkable, and would seem to show that even the instinct of
+self-preservation, which is so marked in their wild state, is altogether
+lost in the domestic animal. Singularly enough, they are addicted to the
+childish pastime of follow-my-leader, and wherever one goes the rest
+will follow, even if it be in a jump over a cliff to certain
+destruction. It has been urged in favour of sheep that they are
+affectionate mothers, and will defend their offspring against attack on
+the part of dogs. This, however, can scarcely be considered a fair
+reason for placing them high in the scale of animals, as some insects,
+such as ants and bees, will defend their young even to the death; while
+as to the affection of the sheep, any one who has watched it suckling
+its lamb must have been struck at the absolute indifference of its
+attitude and its evident mute protest against the proceeding. There are
+many other points which might in an exhaustive essay upon the sheep be
+touched on, for example the ridiculous feebleness of its attempt to be a
+formidable and dangerous assailant, as expressed by short stamps of the
+feet, a pretence which fails to impose upon any one. Enough, however,
+has been said to show that the sheep, although classed as a quadruped,
+is really as an animal an impostor, and that its true place in the scale
+according to its mental attributes should rather be among the molluscs
+than the vertebrates.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                         THE BEE AND THE WASP.
+
+                             --------------
+
+IT is undeniable that the bee occupies a far higher position in the
+regard of man than the wasp. The bee is held up as an example to the
+young for its strict attention to business, its forethought and
+prudence. It has been made the object of much study; its habits and
+manners have been watched in hives specially constructed; and the
+behaviour of the bees towards their queen and towards each other has
+been as minutely investigated and described, and is, indeed, almost as
+well known, as are the customs of the ancient Greeks or Romans. The
+wasp, on the other hand, is regarded with absolute hostility. It is
+viewed as an idler, as an irritable and hot-tempered creature, with no
+fixed aims and ends, prone to unprovoked assaults, a disturber of
+picnics, an intruder in the domestic circle—a creature, in fact, to be
+promptly and summarily put to death if opportunity offer itself. This
+hasty and unjust conclusion is, in fact, the result of man’s natural
+selfishness. He does not really admire the bee because the insect stores
+up food for its winter use, but because he is able to plunder that
+store, and to make it available for his own purposes. The squirrel, the
+field-mouse, and many other creatures lay up stores for winter; but, as
+man is not particularly fond of dried nuts or shrivelled grain, he does
+not consider it necessary to profess any extreme admiration for the
+forethought of these creatures. The wasp is perfectly capable of storing
+up honey for its winter use, did it see the slightest occasion for doing
+so; but the wasp is not a fool. It knows perfectly well that its life is
+a short one; that it will die when the winter season approaches. Its
+instinct doubtless teaches it that only a few of the autumn-born females
+will survive to create new colonies in the spring, and that as these
+females will pass the winter in a dormant state in some snug recess
+beyond the reach of frost, there is no occasion whatever to prepare
+stores of food for their use. Did the wasp endeavour to emulate the bee,
+and store its cells with honey, it would rightly be held up to derision
+as an idiot, as the only creature who imitates the folly of man in
+continuing to work until the last to pile up riches for others to enjoy
+after its death. If it is admirable for the bee, who lives through the
+winter, to collect for his use during that time, it is no less admirable
+in the wasp, who dies before the winter, to avoid the absurd and
+ridiculous habit of collecting stores which he cannot profit by.
+
+In all other respects the wasp is the equal, if not the superior, of the
+bee. The latter is content to establish its home in any place that comes
+to hand. Even if man provides a hive for it, the bee has not the sense
+to utilise it until man takes the trouble to bring the habitation and to
+shake the swarm into it. If the hive should not be forthcoming the bees
+will establish themselves in a hollow tree, in a chimney, in the roof of
+a house, or in any other place that appears convenient, and then and
+there begin to build their combs and prepare for the reception of brood
+and honey. The wasp, on the other hand, more industriously sets to work
+to build its own house, walls and all, and the labour required for such
+an undertaking is enormous. Wood, the material it uses, is obtained by
+gnawing posts, gates, rails, or other timber that has lost its sap. This
+is chewed up by the wasp’s strong jaws into a paste, and spread out with
+its tongue in layers finer than tissue paper. Layer after layer is
+spread, until the house, which varies in size from that of an apple to
+one as large as a man’s head, is made rain- and weather-tight, a model
+of symmetry, and a marvellous example of the result of patient and
+persevering labour, a white palace, by the side of which anything the
+bee can do is but poor workmanship. The arrangement inside the structure
+is at least equal to that which the bee can accomplish in the most
+perfectly-constructed hive. The cells are as regular and as carefully
+arranged, and it is kept with the same scrupulous care and cleanliness.
+It is not necessary for the wasp to collect honey and pollen for the use
+of its brood, for these are fed upon insects, the juicy caterpillar and
+the plump body of the blue-bottle being the morsels which they mostly
+affect. In the capture of its prey for the use of its young, the wasp
+works as assiduously as does the owl to gather in field mice for the
+sustenance of its offspring; and each capture, after being carried to
+the nest, is stowed away in the cell with the egg, until it is full, and
+then the entrance securely sealed.
+
+The queen wasp is, in point of activity, energy, and intelligence, far
+ahead of the queen bee. As soon as the latter leaves her cell a perfect
+insect, she is waited upon by a crowd of workers, who provide her with
+food, attend her every movement, and forestall her every wish, and her
+functions are confined solely to the laying of her eggs. The queen wasp,
+on the contrary, is the founder as well as the mother of her colony.
+When she wakes up from her lethargy in the spring, she sallies out to
+find a suitable spot for her future kingdom. Having fixed upon it, she
+proceeds to build her cells unaided. She has to feed herself while
+engaged on this labour, and when a certain number of cells are completed
+she has then to store them with food sufficient to support the grubs,
+until, their second stage completed, they are ready to issue out and to
+take their share in the work. Even when she has an army of children, she
+continues to set them an example of labour and perseverance, supervising
+the operations and working diligently and continuously herself. She is
+the life and soul of her community, and if by any accident she dies
+before the other females, which are hatched late in the season, appear,
+the community is entirely disorganised, the neuters cease from their
+labours, and the whole colony perishes. Nature, too, has done much more
+for the bee than for the wasp, for the former naturally secretes the wax
+from which it forms its cells, while the wasp has no such faculty, and
+has to construct its cells as well as its house from the paper it
+manufactures.
+
+The wasp is as fond of sweets as is the bee, and while a portion of the
+community are engaged upon the work of collecting materials,
+manufacturing paper, and building, the others collect sweets from
+flowers or fruit. Having filled themselves with these, they return home,
+and on entering the hive mount to the upper cells, and there disgorge
+the contents of their honey bag for the benefit of the workers. The bee
+is industrious, it may be admitted, but it is industrious in a quiet and
+methodical way. There is no hurry about the bee, and any one who watches
+it at work will be inclined to admit that it does a good deal of
+pottering about. The wasp has no time for this sort of thing; it knows
+how much there is to be done, and that there is not a single moment to
+be wasted. The queen is laying her eggs; there are the materials for the
+houses to be collected, ground up into paste, and spread; there is food
+for the grubs to be gathered, and supplies for the builders to be
+brought in. The work has got to be done, and there is no time to be
+fooling about. There is, then, no reason whatever for surprise, and
+still less for blame, that when the wasp is interrupted in its work it
+loses its temper at once. It is angry when, having entered at an open
+window, and gathered from a jam-pot, a dish, or a jug—for the wasp is
+not particular—a supply of food, it finds that its way back to its
+hungry friends is barred by a strange smooth obstacle, through which it
+cannot pass. Many men know to their cost how small a thing rouses the
+temper of a woman engaged in the arduous operations of washing or
+cooking, and are careful in avoiding the neighbourhood of the wash-house
+or kitchen upon such occasions; and yet they make no allowance whatever
+for similar irritation on the part of the busy wasp! Again, blame is
+imputed to the wasp because it waxes wroth if it be flapped at with a
+handkerchief or hat; but surely there is nothing surprising in this? Men
+take offence at practical jokes, especially practical jokes of a
+dangerous kind; and the wasp naturally regards these wanton attacks upon
+it, when actively engaged in the business of the community, as dangerous
+impertinences, and is not to be blamed for resenting them. The more one
+examines into the habits of the bee and the wasp respectively, the more
+one is convinced that the high esteem in which the former is held by man
+is simply the result of man’s love for honey; and that the balance of
+superiority is wholly upon the side of the wasp, who is a more
+energetic, a more vivacious, a more industrious, and a more intelligent
+insect than the bee, and should on all these accounts occupy a far
+higher place in man’s esteem and regard than it possesses at present.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                               THE BEAR.
+
+                             --------------
+
+NATURE, in creating the bear, bestowed upon it many good gifts. It is
+strong, robust, and hardy. It is warmly clad, and, moreover, can escape
+the hardships of winter by indulging in a prolonged sleep. One gift,
+however, was denied it—that of grace; altogether, few animals are more
+clumsy in their gait and movements than the bear. It is strange that,
+this being so, the bear should be one of the few animals man has taught
+to dance. The majority of bears are vegetable eaters. Their claws are
+not, like those of the feline tribe, formed to tear or slay an enemy,
+but are designed for digging up the roots that form a large portion of
+its sustenance. As might be expected from the fact that it is a
+vegetarian, the bear is generally of an easy temper, and would be glad
+to leave man alone, if man would but let it alone. This amiability of
+temper by no means arises from want of courage. If their cubs are in
+danger, bears will attack against any odds, and if wounded are amongst
+the most formidable and savage of assailants. The polar bear, living as
+it does upon seals and fish, is by no means so peacefully inclined as
+the various species that exist on roots and fruit. It does not wait to
+be attacked, but at once takes the offensive, and there are few more
+formidable foes. Bears are fond of sweets, the Asiatic as well as the
+American species both hunting diligently for the hives of wild bees,
+which their thick coats enable them to take in defiance of the efforts
+of their indignant owners. In captivity the animal is readily tamed.
+Unfortunately the bear possesses but few qualities that would render him
+of great use to man; had it been otherwise, doubtless it would have been
+tamed and kept in herds, for there seems no reason whatever why it
+should not have been as completely domesticated as the sheep and the ox.
+As, however, its hair is too coarse for working up into textile fabrics,
+and its milk-giving capacity is small, man has viewed it solely as an
+animal for the chase, and has hunted it down ceaselessly, the cubs only
+being occasionally preserved for exhibition in the Zoological Gardens,
+or with travelling showmen. In the latter case the bear shows great
+docility, readily learning to obey its master, and frequently
+manifesting a lively affection for him.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Muzzled Bear]
+
+
+Next only to the monkey, the bear is unquestionably the most human of
+animals in its motions and gestures. In a state of nature, indeed, it
+rarely rises to its hind feet except for the purpose of attack; but the
+fact that it is able to walk upon them, and that it frequently sits up
+on its haunches, and uses its fore paws as hands either for the purpose
+of putting food to its mouth, scratching itself, or rubbing its head,
+gives it a very human appearance. If wounded, too, it will sit up, and
+place its paws over the wound just as a man will do.
+
+The American Indians held the bear in very high respect. This did not,
+indeed, prevent them from hunting it, but, before feasting on its flesh,
+they would always make a speech, begging its pardon, and deprecating its
+anger, upon the ground that they did not kill it from illwill, but
+simply from necessity. The bear dance, in which those engaged in it
+imitated the movements of the animal, was a religious ceremony, and
+generally the bear was regarded with respect far beyond that paid to any
+other animal. It is unfortunate for the bear that it did not from the
+first cultivate its power of walking upon its hind legs, for there can
+be no doubt that had it done so it would have stood much higher in the
+esteem of man. Valuing himself somewhat highly, man is naturally
+disposed to value animals that approach most nearly to him. The monkey
+is deified in some parts of India, and the bear might have stood in as
+high a position, had it but accustomed itself habitually to walk
+upright. It is true that it has none of the sprightliness of the monkey,
+but its gravity, its evidently good intentions, and the somewhat rustic
+awkwardness of its gait, would certainly seem to mark it as intended to
+be a more genial and friendly companion to man than the skittish and
+erratic monkey. The polar bear and the North American grizzly, the
+latter fast approaching extinction, come under a different category
+altogether, and even the accomplishment of walking upright would have
+gone but a short way towards endearing them to man. The polar bear,
+indeed, differs widely from other species. In spite of his great bulk
+and power, he has none of that awkwardness that distinguishes the
+various land bears. He can run with considerable swiftness. He is
+perhaps the best swimmer of all quadrupeds, and is quick and active in
+his movements; but, upon the other hand, his face expresses none of the
+easy good temper of the ordinary bear, but it is at once fierce and
+sullen, watchful and alert.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Bears Climbing]
+
+
+The bear more than any animal conveys the impression of incompleteness,
+and it is difficult to avoid the belief that being slow of temperament
+it has taken much longer in its passage upwards from the germ than have
+other creatures. This being the case, it would be unfair to judge the
+bear as awkward or clumsy when in fact it is simply incomplete; and it
+is probable that in the course of another million years or so, when the
+cycle of its changes is accomplished, it will be an altogether different
+animal, distinguished for the grace of its movements, and for its still
+closer resemblance to man. The bear is perhaps more highly appreciated
+in Germany than elsewhere, it may be because the habits of the people
+approximate more closely to his than do those of the natives of other
+countries. At any rate it bears a conspicuous position in their
+folk-lore, and figures prominently in many a legend and story. It is
+probable that the tale dear to English children of the three bears was
+derived from German sources. The bear has by general consent been voted
+to be the characteristic emblem of Russia, doubtless because the
+peasants, wrapped up in skins in winter, with hoods of the same over
+their heads, do present a very striking resemblance to him. The bear was
+once common in England; its bones are found plentifully among those of
+other cave-inhabiting animals, and it was still numerous in the island
+when the Romans first conquered Britain; it vanished, however, even
+before the wolf, and has been nearly exterminated throughout Western
+Europe. It figured in the Roman arena, where it was probably goaded to a
+savagery altogether alien to its nature. It may be assumed that it was
+at one time regarded in the Old World with something of the superstition
+with which it was held in the New, being the only animal after whom two
+constellations have been named. Were there three of them, we should
+possibly be able to arrive at a satisfactory explanation of the
+children’s story. It is remarkable that both bears are placed by the
+ancients in close proximity to the pole, probably in delicate allusion
+to its climbing powers, as to the present day no bear pit is considered
+complete unless provided with a pole. It is evident that the ancient
+astronomers were wags, and while apparently bent solely upon giving
+names to the constellations, were quietly poking fun at the unlearned.
+It would be difficult otherwise to account for the position assigned to
+Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, for there is nothing whatever in the position
+of the stars forming these constellations that in any way indicates the
+figure of a bear, the outlines of the various animals in the
+constellations being purely imaginative and arbitrary. It is somewhat
+singular that the bear did not figure among the signs of the zodiac,
+when such comparatively insignificant creatures as the ram and the fish
+were pressed into the service. Summing up the bear, it may be said that
+its good qualities predominate over its evil ones, and that it is man’s
+fault rather than the bear’s that they do not dwell comfortably and
+sociably together.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                              THE SPIDER.
+
+                             --------------
+
+THE want of balance in man’s appreciation of things, and the
+unreasonable nature of his prejudices, are in nothing shown more
+strikingly than in the view he takes of the spider. His objection to the
+spider is based upon the fact that it kills its prey and devours it. So
+do the great majority of creatures on earth. The next objection is that
+it catches it in a net; but for every fly the spider catches the
+fisherman will take a thousand fish, also in a net, and no one imputes
+it to him as harm. The fisherman, indeed, is regarded with a sort of
+special affection by the community. He is spoken of as the hardy
+fisherman, the honest fisherman, and, at any rate in his case, the fact
+that he catches his fish in a net is not considered in any way
+reprehensible. Then, it is urged against the spider that, having set its
+net, it hides from view, and, having enticed the fly into its bower,
+rushes out and devours it. But how about man? The fly-fisher casts
+cunningly devised and tempting lures over the fish, while himself
+keeping, as far as possible, hidden from view. The trawler arms himself
+with glittering imitations of fish, studded with deadly hooks; the
+wild-duck gunner paddles up noiselessly in a punt, and shoots down his
+birds while feeding; or hides himself in a bower, and brings them down
+as they pass unsuspectingly overhead. Man uses craft, and skill, and
+cunning to capture his prey of all sorts, and exults in his success. He
+would laugh to scorn the accusation that he was a lurking assassin, and
+yet he assumes a tone of lofty moral superiority towards the spider, who
+uses the gifts nature has bestowed upon him not for sport or amusement,
+but for existence. No spider is recorded as having employed a large body
+of his friends to drive up two or three thousand half-tamed flies to be
+slaughtered by him as a form of amusement. We have no doubt that such
+spiders as may be engaged about their business, within view of slaughter
+so perpetrated by human beings, must quiver in their webs with righteous
+indignation. Let us, then, have no more maudlin sentimentality about the
+cruelty of the spider. It obtains its food by the chase, and in so doing
+exhibits a skill, a dexterity, and a patience unsurpassed by any living
+creature.
+
+The spider has a wonderful power of adaptability to circumstances. The
+great fat-bodied spider of our gardens is necessarily slow-moving, and
+therefore builds its web and waits. There are others less burdened by
+nature who are fierce and active, who hunt their prey on a sunny wall as
+a dog might hunt a rabbit, quartering the ground with restless activity,
+and pouncing upon the prey with the spring of a tiger. Some for
+preference build thick webs in dark corners, festooning cornices with
+filmy drapery, to the annoyance of good housewives. Others, tiny
+creatures these, will throw out a few threads, and, floating upon them,
+allow themselves to be wafted vast distances through the air. There is
+the water spider, who, long before man invented the diving bell, dwelt
+below the water, building its nest there like a thimble, open at the
+bottom, and then laboriously carrying down little globules of air and
+releasing them beneath it, until the water is expelled, and it can dwell
+in the little silver bell it has prepared for itself. Then, too, there
+is the spider who builds for itself a box in the ground with a hinged
+lid as skilfully contrived as any of man’s inventions, and, holding this
+tightly down, can defy the efforts of any foe likely to assail it. Not
+even the ant shows a wider intelligence, a more perfect aptitude for
+using the tools with which nature has provided it, and a greater power
+of adapting itself to circumstances than does the spider, and yet, while
+the ant and the bee are held up as examples to our children, the spider
+is passed over as an objectionable creature, of no account.
+
+The spider is capable of being tamed, and has before now been made a pet
+of by prisoners, who have so domesticated it that it would come at their
+call, take food from their fingers, and come to treat them with absolute
+fearlessness, if not affection. It is not to be pretended that the
+spider possesses no bad qualities. Were it otherwise, it would stand on
+a far loftier level with man. With individuals of its own species it is
+exceptionally quarrelsome, and will not only kill, but eat a conquered
+adversary. It is, undoubtedly, an advanced socialist. So long as its
+supply of the viscid fluid from which it constructs its web holds out,
+it will build its house and defend it against all comers. But when this
+is exhausted, it immediately adopts radical principles, and upon the
+theory that there is no right in property, proceeds at once to rob a
+neighbour of the fruits of its labour, and to instal itself in the
+property from which it has ejected the owner. It is a little singular
+that the socialists have not adopted the spider as the badge and emblem
+of their creed, in recognition of the identity of their principles.
+
+Unhappily, a far darker blot than this rests upon the character of the
+female spider, who is much larger and more powerful than the male. She
+is an excellent mother, and will defend her bag of eggs with her life;
+but she is a mournful example of the working of the rights of women
+carried out to the fullest extent. This can never occur in the human
+race, because, fortunately for man, he is the stronger. Were it
+otherwise, we may be sure that that section of females who clamour for
+equality would be content with nothing less than absolute supremacy. The
+female spider lives up to this. Being the stronger, she does not argue
+with her husband, but when she has no further use for him she simply
+kills him and eats him. Looking at the matter from man’s point of view,
+we are unable to find any justification for this conduct. Our escape
+from the fate of the male spider is largely due to the fact that our
+females are less strong than we: indeed, in spite of physical weakness
+they not unfrequently hold us in subjection, and occasionally rule us
+with a rod of iron. Metaphorically, they may devour us by their
+extravagance; but they have, happily, no ability to carry out to the
+fullest the methods of the female spider. The spider, it must be owned,
+stands almost, if not altogether, alone in the commission of this crime
+of uxoricide. So strange an exception is this to the general rule of
+nature, that one is driven to suppose that the female spiders must,
+perhaps in remotely distant times, have suffered from terrible treatment
+and ill usage at the hand of the males, and that having in course of
+ages attained to greater strength than is possessed by their mates, they
+now revenge upon them the wrongs of their far back ancestors. We do not
+assert that this is absolutely the true explanation of their conduct;
+but it is clear that some events of an altogether exceptional kind must
+have occurred in the history of the spider to bring about so unexampled
+and unnatural a state of things among the two sexes, and to embitter to
+such a degree the female against the male. It is lamentable to have to
+record so evil a trait in the character of one of the most intelligent
+and intellectual of insects, but it would be unfair to other and less
+highly gifted creatures were we to pass it over in silence.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                               THE GNAT.
+
+                             --------------
+
+HAD the gnat been endowed with as great a power of making itself
+obnoxious as its first cousin the mosquito, it would have been the
+subject of anxious inquiry and investigation by man. As it is, it
+attracts but slight attention, and lives and dies in undisturbed
+obscurity. In this respect it closely resembles what are called the
+working classes among man. The noisy spouter, the obnoxious demagogue,
+the troublesome striker attract attention; the vast patient herd live
+and die almost unnoticed. There is no reason for supposing, however,
+that the gnat takes the neglect of man to heart, fond as he undoubtedly
+is of man’s companionship. In this respect he stands almost, if not
+quite alone among created things, for the attentions paid to man by the
+flea, the bug, and the mosquito are strictly selfish. Gnats, however,
+appear to be purely disinterested in their attentions, and to regard the
+doings of man with pleased and curious interest. They will attend him in
+his walks, flying in a cloud over his head or a pace or two in front of
+him; while their interest in him when engaged in fishing, sketching, or
+other pursuits is unbounded. They do not, like the midge, interfere with
+him in any other way, but keep at a respectful distance. A young couple
+strolling through a lane as the shades of evening are falling are a
+spectacle specially attractive to gnats. They will frequently on such
+occasions form themselves into filmy clouds, rising and falling in
+rhythmical measure, expressive of satisfaction and goodwill.
+
+The summer evening gnat must not be confused with a cousin of his which
+occasionally infests low-lying and marshy neighbourhoods. This bears
+both in point of size, appearance, and habits, a much closer relation to
+the mosquito than to the gnat, and it may, indeed, be termed the English
+mosquito. It is many times larger than the gnat which is the subject of
+our remarks, has dark limbs and body, a stinging proboscis, and a bare
+head. The gnat is scarce more substantial than a cobweb, and has upon
+its head a lovely plume. It is silent, or, at least, if it utters a
+sound, its vibrations are too rapid for the ears of man to detect.
+
+The life of the gnat, although short, would seem to be more full of
+pleasure and enjoyment than that of any other creature. Other insects
+that consort together in large numbers do so for mutual convenience or
+protection. Multitudes are needed for the various work of the bee, wasp,
+and ant cities. Caterpillar communities dwell together, partly because
+they were born so, but probably more because the web, their common work,
+is a protection against their enemies, and specially against their most
+deadly foe, the ichneumon. The aphis feed crowded in close herds, but
+their power of locomotion is so small that they live and die where they
+were born. Gnats, however, congregate simply to enjoy the companionship
+of their friends. Their gatherings are great balls and dances. Flying in
+a soft cloud scarce more palpable than steam, and ever changing in form,
+they rise and fall in constant motion, and it is impossible to doubt
+that this action partakes, to some extent, of the character of a dance.
+A faint, low hum accompanies the motion, caused partly, perhaps, by the
+beating of the innumerable gossamer wings, partly by the whispered
+conversation or song from innumerable throats. Naturalists have puzzled
+themselves in vain for any explanation of the object of these dancings.
+The natural one, that it is the outcome of a joyous and happy
+disposition, an exercise expressive of pleasure and happiness, is too
+simple to be received with approval by the scientific mind.
+
+Man does not so rejoice in his existence. He has not such unbounded
+satisfaction in the companionship of multitudes of his fellows, nor
+throughout all nature is there any parallel to the great gatherings and
+dancings of the gnats. Flies, indeed, do join in sportive chases and
+flights, but these are engaged in by few individuals only. Flights of
+starlings and some other gregarious birds approach more nearly to the
+gnat assemblies, and are also frequently marked by rhythmical fallings
+and risings; but they are comparatively short outbursts of playful
+joyousness, and not comparable with the constant and prolonged dances in
+which the gnat spends the greater portion of its existence as a perfect
+insect. Well may the gnat be transparent, for it is doubtful whether it
+takes any solid food from the time of its emergence from its pupa case
+to that when, its existence terminated, it drops lifeless on the surface
+of a stream. It drinks, however, and a dewdrop is sufficient to afford
+refreshment to thousands.
+
+The gnat’s life, like that of most insects, is a dual one; but unlike
+most others, the first—and much the longest portion—is spent in the
+water. The female gnat selects some quiet and sheltered piece of water,
+a stagnant pool for preference, and lays her eggs upon its surface. In
+form they may be compared to long small-bore bullets, pointed at the
+upper end. They are placed closely together and adhere lightly to each
+other, and when the tiny mass is examined through a magnifying glass it
+presents the appearance of a honeycomb studded with tiny points. If no
+accident befall it, the little raft floats until the young ones are
+ready to take to the water; then the lower ends of the tiny tubes open
+and the larvæ swim away. Their life in the water resembles that of most
+other aqueous creatures. They feed upon organisms even more diminutive
+than themselves, and are the prey of the smaller water beetles and tiny
+fish. The gnat larva obtains the animalculæ on which it feeds by means
+of two ciliated organs on the head. These are in constant motion, and
+create a current by which its food is drawn into its mouth. But, though
+an inhabitant of the water, the gnat even in this stage is obliged to
+breathe, and therefore frequently ascends close to the surface, where it
+draws in the air through a little tube situated at the apex of the body.
+
+At the end of about fifteen days this state of its existence is
+completed, and it assumes the pupa state. It is now doubled up, and
+somewhat rounded in form, but it is, nevertheless, still active; it
+still breathes, drawing in the air by two little tubes, situated now on
+the anterior part of the body. When the perfect insect is formed inside
+the pupa case, the air contained within the latter causes it to float on
+the surface. The gnat breaks through the upper side and stands upon the
+skin it has quitted, which serves as a little raft until it has attained
+sufficient strength to fly. This is the most critical moment of the
+gnat’s existence; the fluid in which it has lately existed would now be
+fatal to it, and the tiniest ripple caused by a breath of wind, or the
+passage close by of a fish or water beetle, before the gnat has gained
+strength to fly, would upset the boat and drown its occupant.
+
+Man has not been able to solve the problem whether thought as well as
+life is continuous during the three stages of existence of the gnat, or,
+indeed, in those of any other insect; and knows not whether the gnat has
+any remembrance of the very different existence it passed beneath the
+surface of the water over which, in its perfect state, it delights to
+disport itself. The fact that all insects deposit their eggs in
+situations unsuitable for their own existence, but suitable for that of
+the larvae, is no proof for or against the theory, since it may be the
+result of blind instinct only.
+
+Whether man will ever be able to place himself sufficiently _en rapport_
+with the lower creation as to be able to solve this and many other
+problems must be left to future ages to determine. So far, able as he is
+to acquire with more or less difficulty the languages of all other
+varieties of man, he has failed signally in comprehending that of even
+the birds and animals with whom he is most in contact. The dog and the
+horse are in this respect distinctly his superior, and the former, when
+admitted to close companionship, unquestionably understands at least the
+gist of his master’s words. As it is not the custom of the gnat to waste
+its strength by travelling ahead in a straight line, we have no means of
+determining the actual rate of speed at which it can fly. That it is
+very great is certain. A swarm of gnats caught in a heavy rain-shower
+will continue their gyrations apparently undisturbed, their sight and
+movement being so quick that they are able to dodge the raindrops in
+their descent; and at the termination of the storm, however heavy, their
+numbers will be apparently undiminished. This would seem to show an
+amount of speed and activity relatively unrivalled in any other living
+creature.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                THE ANT.
+
+                             --------------
+
+THE ant has been so thoroughly exploited by Sir John Lubbock and others,
+that it is altogether unnecessary to enter upon any description of its
+customs and habits. It may at once be assumed that, for its size, it is
+the most intelligent of all created beings. Were each particle of the
+brain of man animated by a vigour and sagacity equal to that which
+vivifies the tiny speck of brain matter in the head of an ant,
+imagination altogether fails to picture the result, or to appreciate
+even faintly the wisdom and power that man would in that case possess.
+But even as matters stand, we may with advantage learn much from the
+ant, especially from the more highly organised tropical varieties, in
+which we may include the termite, popularly known as the white ant,
+although in reality belonging to another family. Here we see regular
+communities dwelling together, governed by their own laws and customs,
+and exhibiting the spectacle of a nation acting in accordance with
+natural laws. It must be painful to republicans to find that in the
+great majority of communities of what we are pleased to consider
+inferior creatures, the monarchical principle distinctly prevails. In
+ants, bees, and wasps, the most completely organised of such
+communities, there is a natural head, not elected or chosen by vote, but
+born to the purple. Among animals that congregate for mutual protection
+and convenience, such as horses, stags, and elephants, there is always a
+leader; but in this case he assumes the position by right of superior
+strength, valour, and sagacity. No scientific man has been able to
+discover in his election to the post any trace of the process known in
+the United States as lobbying. There is neither intriguing nor currying
+for popular favour—the strongest and bravest assumes the position by
+right of his strength and bravery, and may be termed a natural dictator.
+These communities are evidently inferior in order and perfection to
+those of the first class.
+
+Thirdly, come creatures of duller brain, of which the sheep may be taken
+as a type. And here we come to nature’s example of a republic, the dull
+level of equality and fraternity, where none are superior to others, and
+there is no emulation, no gradation of rank, and no rising of one
+individual above the rest. One cannot doubt, with these examples before
+us, that Nature has very clearly pointed out that in all highly
+organised communities the monarchical system is that best adapted for
+securing order and progress, and for the general benefit of the whole;
+that for those in a less advanced stage of progress a dictatorship is
+the preferable form of government, while among those of the lowest type
+of intelligence a republic serves the purpose as well as any other
+system.
+
+In the ant nation, which stands at the head of such communities, the
+monarchical principle is carried out to the fullest extent. We have the
+Queen, the ruler and mother of the whole; her courtiers, who attend upon
+her; the military class, who may be considered as the nobles, who do not
+labour personally, but furnish the fighting and are ready to die in
+defence of their country. The overseers, generally larger and more
+intelligent than the mass of workers, direct the operations, chastise
+the indolent, see that all is done with order and regularity, and
+generally supervise and control the operations. These may be taken as
+the type of the middle class, the merchants and manufacturers. Then
+there are the nurses, who take charge of the eggs, feed the young,
+transport the pupæ into the sun, and carry them back into the recesses
+of the city when rain threatens; while below them are the bulk of the
+community, the labourers and masons, the huntsmen, and the cowherds who
+tend the insects from whom the ants obtain a supply of natural honey.
+Lastly, there are the slave population, captives in war, who are the
+servants of the whole community. The result of this perfect combination
+of labour is the erection of edifices, by the side of which man’s
+greatest efforts are in comparison utterly dwarfed and puny.
+
+One reason of the great success of the ant communities, and of the
+perfect order and regularity with which they conduct their operations,
+is that strikes and labour combinations are unknown to them, and all
+classes are content to do their allotted work contentedly, willingly,
+and zealously. It must be painful to members of peace societies to know
+that they are warlike in the extreme, and that among them the principles
+of universal brotherhood have made absolutely no progress. The bravest
+knight of the days of early romance, riding out to attack the giants,
+was but a poor creature by the side of the warrior ant, who will do
+battle fearlessly with the largest and strongest animal that may venture
+to disturb the peace of his city, and, having once fixed his hold upon
+his foe, will suffer himself to be torn limb from limb without relaxing
+his grasp. Advantage is taken of this extraordinary tenacity of grip by
+some primitive peoples, who, if suffering from severe cuts, draw the
+edges of the wound together and then apply ants, who fix their jaws one
+on each side of the cut. The bodies of the insects are then nipped off,
+but the heads retain their grip, and form a perfect suture until the
+wound is completely healed.
+
+Well it is for man that the scheme of Nature did not bestow upon the ant
+bulk as well as wisdom, valour, and industry. Had the ant been only of
+the size of the domestic cat, he would have been absolutely Lord of
+Creation. The fishes alone would survive. A single ant hill would
+furnish an army infinitely more numerous and formidable than the hosts
+of Tamerlane or Attila. The earth would shake under their tread; forests
+would fall before the power of their jaws; the elephant himself would be
+unable to resist their onset. Even now all smaller animals fly in terror
+at the approach of an ant army, and if overtaken fall victims to their
+furious assaults. Such an army, were the individuals no larger than
+mice, would yet be irresistible. Among the many reasons man has for
+gratitude to Providence, not the least is that the ant was not endowed
+with bulk in addition to its other gifts. To attain to the full power of
+its intellect, it requires a warm climate, differing in this respect
+from man, who suffers intellectually both from the extremes of heat and
+cold. The ant of temperate regions bears the same relation to the
+tropical ant that the savage of the tropical zone bears to the civilised
+communities of more temperate climes. The ant of the villa garden and
+the red ant of the woods are but very ignorant savages compared with the
+termite, for while the one inhabits caves and tunnels in the ground, and
+the other rough huts, thatched with the spines of the fir, the white ant
+dwells in a palace far larger in proportion to its size than the abodes
+of the most powerful monarchs of the human race to that of their
+inhabitants.
+
+It is not only man who may with advantage take lessons from the ant; the
+domestic hen would do well in one respect to imitate it. The white ant
+lays eighty-six thousand eggs a day throughout the season—an amount that
+may well cause the hen to be ashamed of her miserable total of three or
+four eggs a week. It is by no means improbable that the partiality of
+all birds for the pupæ of ants is less due to a gastronomic liking for
+them, than to spite at the superior fecundity of the ant. There would be
+a great future opened to the farmer if our scientific men could but
+discover some method of producing a bird which would be a combination of
+the domestic hen with the ant, uniting the size and tranquil habits of
+the one with something of the fecundity of the other. We should not
+demand the full tale of eighty thousand eggs a day; but even were that
+amount divided by a thousand, the result would still be satisfactory.
+The collection and packing of the eggs would furnish employment to the
+juvenile rural population, and eggs would become the commonest and
+cheapest of all diets. There is a book already in existence that gives
+instructions for cooking eggs in a hundred different ways. Doubtless
+many fresh methods would be discovered in preparing the abundant and
+nourishing food that would be thus placed at the service of humanity.
+There would be the additional advantage, that the problem, now so much
+mooted, of our raising eggs sufficient for our consumption without
+dependence upon foreign sources, would be in this way finally solved.
+Whether such a much-to-be-desired consummation is to be arrived at by
+the inoculation of the hen with the blood of the female white ant, or by
+some other method, is a point that must be left to scientific men. It is
+only necessary for us to indicate a subject of research towards which
+their studies and investigations may be directed, with the certainty
+that, if successful, they would be of real utility to the human race.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                              THE BEAVER.
+
+                             --------------
+
+THE beaver is one of the animals that appear fated to die out under the
+encroachment of man. It has already all but if not quite, disappeared in
+Europe, and is rapidly dying out in America, although its final
+extinction has been greatly delayed by the substitution of silk for
+beaver skin in the manufacture of hats, whereby the value of the beaver
+has greatly decreased. In some respects the beaver is the most human of
+animals. It constructs houses, fells trees, and builds dams, and
+although it dwells in communities, each family has its own abode,
+separate and distinct from that of others. The sagacity of the beaver,
+and its resemblance to man in its actions and gestures, naturally cause
+it to be held in considerable veneration by the Indians, and it shares
+with the bear the first place in their esteem, although this feeling in
+no way prevents them from killing it when opportunity offers. It may be
+remarked parenthetically as somewhat singular that the Indians, although
+they have had the beaver always among them, have never taken to the
+wearing of high hats. It was for its flesh that they hunted it; this was
+considered one of their greatest dainties. Whether the beaver entertains
+the same admiration for the sagacity of man as the latter does for that
+of the beaver, is a point that has not been determined. There can,
+however, be no doubt that it regards him as a very formidable foe, and
+that it takes as many precautions to avoid his attacks as it does
+against those of its chief four-footed foe, the wolverine. It is to
+avoid the latter that it builds its houses with their entrances well
+below the level of the water, so that it can go in or out without fear
+of capture by the way. Against man it adopts another method of defence.
+It digs holes or caves in the banks of the river below the water level,
+and here it takes refuge when man attempts to break into its house—in
+this respect following the example of many primitive peoples, who
+abandon their dwellings and seek refuge in almost inaccessible caves at
+the approach of a foe.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Beavers]
+
+
+As might naturally be expected, the sagacity of the beaver has been
+exaggerated by report. It was said to be acquainted with the art of pile
+driving, and to use its tail after the fashion of a mason’s trowel, in
+plastering and smoothing the exterior and interior of its house. These
+myths have been dissipated by more accurate observation. The beaver has
+no natural means of pile driving. Were it to endeavour to drive down a
+thick pile with its tail, it would injure that organ to a degree
+altogether incommensurate with the downward impulse it would impart to
+the pile, and great as its sagacity may be, it has not been able to
+invent a pile driver worked either by mechanism or by steam. Its dams
+are formed from the trunks and arms of trees floated down to a shallow
+point in the stream; here they lodge, others are piled upon them, the
+boughs interlaced, and stones and clay from the bottom are heaped upon
+them, until the whole forms a solid mass, capable of resisting the
+stream even in flood. Where the flow of water is but small, the dam is
+constructed in a straight line across it; where it is liable to be
+swollen greatly by rain, it is built in a concave form, so as to break
+the force of the current. Man himself could not better appreciate the
+necessities of the situation. In streams where the supply of water is
+constant it is unnecessary for the beaver to build dams, as the purpose
+of these is only to maintain the water at a level sufficient to cover
+the entrance of their houses. Even in these cases the beaver often
+miscalculates the length of the wolverine’s fore leg, and the latter
+will lie for hours patiently awaiting the passage in or out of a beaver,
+and then grasp it under water. That the beaver should allow the
+wolverine this opportunity detracts somewhat from its character for
+foresight.
+
+The houses themselves are built much after the fashion of the dams,
+except that timber forms a smaller proportion of the mass, which is
+composed principally of mud and stones. Sometimes, especially when
+circumstances restrict the space available for house building, two or
+more families will live under the same roof, but each abode has its
+separate entrance, and privacy is thus preserved.
+
+The beaver bestows no pains whatever upon the furnishing of its house,
+the interior of which is as bare as that of an Arab tent. There is a
+platform raised above the level of the water, where the beaver and his
+family can dry and comb their fur, they being more particular in the
+latter respect than the human female of the present day, whose tastes
+lie wholly in the direction of disorder and fuzziness. The habits of the
+beaver when at home have not been sufficiently studied to enable them to
+be described with any accuracy, the beaver having a marked objection to
+such investigations. That they are sociable in their habits is evident
+by the way in which they will congregate on the roofs of their houses,
+but whether they visit each other and have entertainments analogous to
+afternoon tea is unknown. It may be considered probable, however, that
+the females meet and compare notes as to their families and domestic
+arrangements; but, as it does not appear that any of the beavers stand
+to each other in the relation of master and servant, one of the most
+fruitful topics of gossip must be wanting. The beaver is not, like the
+otter,—the quadruped whose habits most closely resemble its own,—a
+fish-eater, but like its distant cousin, the vole, feeds entirely upon
+vegetables, its favourite diet being the stalk of an aquatic plant which
+in appearance resembles a cabbage stalk; it will, however, eat almost
+anything in the way of vegetables. In captivity its tastes become
+modified, and it will, like the dog, accommodate itself to
+circumstances, and eat meat, pudding, or anything else that its master
+may be taking. It is very easily tamed, and becomes extremely
+affectionate and attached to those around it.
+
+As may be expected, nature in making the beaver a builder furnished it
+with teeth of extraordinary hardness and wonderful cutting powers. These
+are composed of an extremely hard coat of enamel, the rest of the tooth
+being of a comparatively soft substance, whereby a cutting, chisel-like
+edge is obtained: the enamel growing as fast as it is worn away by use,
+a sharp edge is constantly maintained. So excellent a cutting instrument
+is it, that the Indians in the days before iron was at their disposal
+used to fix beaver teeth in wooden handles with which to cut bone and
+fashion their horn-tipped spears. The beaver can cut down trees of ten
+inches in diameter. It sits upon its branches like a squirrel while
+performing the work, and always makes one side of the cut a good deal
+higher than the other, by which means it is able to make the tree fall
+in any desired direction with an accuracy as great as that of the
+cleverest woodman.
+
+It is a pity that the beaver has not been domesticated in this country,
+for a colony at work would be a most interesting feature in a park, and
+the young would furnish most amusing pets. Like many other animals,
+beavers when at work always place one of their number on guard, and the
+approach of danger is indicated by a loud-sounding flap of the broad
+tail. This tail, as the beaver climbs over its house in the course of
+construction, doubtless aids in smoothing down the surface, and they
+occasionally give a flap with it, but there is no reason for believing
+that it is used by them for the absolute purpose of plastering. It is
+much to be regretted that so interesting an animal is rapidly
+disappearing from the face of the earth.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                             THE SQUIRREL.
+
+                             --------------
+
+AMONG quadrupeds there is none that appears to enjoy its life more
+heartily, and to exhibit so much playful gaiety of disposition, as the
+squirrel. It is the type of liberty and freedom, of an airy joyousness,
+bound down neither by rule nor method, an incarnation of Bohemianism,
+and an existence free from labour, care, and restraint. The bird may
+have as joyous a life during the summer, but in winter its lot, if it
+tarry in northern climes, is a hard one indeed, while if it migrate
+south it has a long, arduous, and perilous journey to undertake, a
+journey to which countless thousands fall victims. The squirrel is free
+from these vicissitudes. In summer he frisks and frolics among the
+foliage of the woods, and during winter he sleeps away the time, snugly
+ensconced in the hollow of a tree, waking up only occasionally to feed
+upon the hoard of nuts or grain that he has providently stored away in
+anticipation of that time.
+
+That the squirrel, with its pretty ways, its alertness, its activity,
+its bright eyes, soft coat, and bushy tail, has not become one of man’s
+greatest pets is due to the squirrel itself. However tame and
+affectionate it may become—and it is capable of becoming both in a high
+degree—it is given to sudden alarms, and will then on an instant make
+its teeth meet in the hand that holds it, the effect being similar to
+that which would be produced by four small chisels being driven into the
+flesh. It may be assumed that the squirrel has no direct intention of
+giving pain, but the result unfortunately does not depend upon the
+intention, and even a ferret requires no more careful handling than does
+a squirrel. This peculiarity of the squirrel has militated to prevent
+any close affection and friendship between it and man, and has been the
+main reason for man’s allowing it to go its own way and to enjoy its
+life in its own fashion.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Squirrel]
+
+
+In this country the squirrel does not multiply to an extent that would
+render it a scourge and a nuisance where it abounds. It may do some
+damage by gnawing young shoots and buds of the trees, and the woodman
+may therefore be compelled to wage war against it, but the farmer does
+not reckon it in the list of his enemies, and upon the whole the
+squirrel lives its life unmolested. This is not so in the Western States
+of America, where the squirrel is among the most troublesome of the
+farmer’s foes, causing terrible depredations among his crops. The
+variety there is not attired in the warm brown coat of its British
+cousin, but is striped black and grey like a tabby cat, and is a good
+deal larger than the English variety, with a magnificently large and
+bushy tail. So numerous are they in some parts, that upwards of a
+hundred thousand have been killed in the course of a year on a single
+estate.
+
+Nature has been extremely bountiful to the squirrel in the matter of his
+allowance of tail, no other quadruped approaching him in this respect.
+The tail of the kangaroo may be as long in proportion, but from the hair
+being short and smooth it makes but little show, and is altogether
+lacking in the dignity of that of the squirrel; it is, too, extremely
+deficient in grace, being held out stiffly in rear, while the squirrel
+manages his as gracefully as a grand dame of the court of Louis XIV.
+managed her train. It is greatly to the credit of the squirrel that,
+adorned as he is by this exceptionally fine and bushy appendage, he does
+not, like the peacock, the turkey, and the bird of paradise, put on side
+in consequence; but except for the pains he takes in cleaning it and
+keeping it in the best possible condition, he seems to place no store on
+this his chief personal adornment. It is not quite clear what was the
+object of nature in thus endowing the squirrel, as we have been taught
+every organ has its special functions, and if one is abnormally enlarged
+it is because such enlargement was either essential to the safety of the
+individual, acted as a protection against his foes, or enabled him more
+easily to procure his food. But it is not very clear that any of these
+objects are served by the tail of the squirrel. He has few enemies, and
+although undoubtedly a long tail adds to the quickness with which an
+animal can turn, the squirrel has less occasion for extraordinary speed
+in this respect than have many other creatures who need it to elude the
+pursuit of their foes. But given the length of tail, its bushiness is
+probably an advantage to the squirrel, as it adds so very greatly to its
+bulk as to much reduce its specific gravity, and thus enables it to drop
+from bough to bough with almost the lightness of a descending feather.
+In point of speed, the squirrel is for its size probably the swiftest of
+quadrupeds, its movements being so rapid that the eye can hardly follow
+them, and for a short distance it would need a very swift dog to
+overtake it. With so many advantages in the way of speed, activity, and
+grace, in addition to those of its very handsome appearance, it is
+surprising that the demeanour of the squirrel affords no indication
+whatever that it has a particularly good idea of itself.
+
+It is brimful of life, fun, and overflowing vitality; it delights in
+testing its powers, and exercises itself to the fullest for the mere
+pleasure of the thing. Kittens and puppies similarly amuse and enjoy
+themselves, but no other animal maintains through life the same love of
+hard exercise for its own sake as does the squirrel. Although so gay and
+sprightly, the squirrel is—unlike some bipeds of similar disposition—an
+excellent husband, faithful, domesticated and constant. He and his wife
+pair not for a season only, but generally for life. After choosing a
+suitable home in the hollow of a tree, they snugly establish themselves
+there, bring up their families, store it with nuts and grain for the
+winter, line it with dry moss, and convert it into one of the most cosy
+of abodes.
+
+The squirrel is gifted with a large share of curiosity; he takes a
+lively interest in all that is going on around him, and appears to be
+particularly interested in man. When walking or driving through
+districts in the United States where the squirrel abounds, scores of
+these little creatures will leap up on to fallen trunks of trees, rails,
+or other vantage points by the side of the track, and watch the coming
+passenger, and will not move until he is within a few paces of them,
+unless, indeed, he is armed with a gun, in which case they, as well as
+birds, soon come to understand that he is dangerous. The squirrel, like
+the rat, is excellent eating, although even where he abounds many
+persons have as great a prejudice against eating it as the ordinary
+English farmer would have against that real delicacy, a rat pie.
+Hunters, however, who shoot it for its skin highly appreciate its flesh,
+their only regret being that there is not more of it. The squirrel
+should never be kept in captivity; it is as gross an act of cruelty to
+confine it as it is to cage a skylark. If it is a punishment to man to
+be kept in a cell, how great must be the pain to a creature so restless,
+so full of life and activity, so happy and joyous in its freedom, as the
+squirrel. The result, as might be expected, is that, however well its
+wants may be attended to, in the great majority of cases it speedily
+pines and dies. If kept at all, it should be in a roomy aviary,
+enclosing shrubs and parts of trees of a sufficient size to enable it to
+indulge to some extent in its natural habits.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                               THE FLEA.
+
+                             --------------
+
+WHILE great pains are devoted to the breeding of horses, cattle, and
+sheep among animals, to that of several kinds of birds, and to the
+propagation of fish, the flea has been left to shift for itself, and has
+managed to thrive. Whether the flea was, in the first place, an
+inhabitant of all terrestrial portions of the globe, or whether,
+starting from a common centre, it speedily spread itself over the earth,
+is a point which has not been decided; but the habits of the flea
+admirably fit him as a traveller; he is a natural stowaway, and being
+able to subsist for a long time without nourishment, he can perform the
+longest journeys without inconvenience among the other belongings of the
+traveller to whom he has temporarily attached himself. At the same time,
+he manages if possible to become the personal attendant and companion of
+his fellow-voyager for the time being, and to carry, as it were, his
+food as well as his lodging with him. So constant are these migrations,
+so assiduous are fleas in their attachment to man, that it is computed
+that even if they started as distinct nationalities constant
+intermixture must have so leavened them that the whole race is now
+practically homogeneous, and speak a language common to all. Although
+partial to comfort, and occasionally taking up his abode in the warm and
+cosy dwellings of the rich, the flea is by no means particular, and
+makes himself equally at home in the tent of the Arab, the hovel of the
+Mexican, the snowhouse of the Esquimaux, the cottage of the Spaniard, or
+the hut of the Persian. He will exist in the sand, and wait patiently
+for the chance passage of something he can devour; but his preferences
+lie in the direction of crowded tenements, and the dirtier and more
+untidy the better. The flea rivals the dog in his affection for man; he
+will cling to him to the last, and anger and even execrations do not
+shake his attachment. He is of a lively disposition, and there is
+nothing that he enjoys more than being hunted, entering thoroughly into
+the spirit of the thing, showing himself occasionally to inspire his
+eager pursuer with hope, and then disappearing into air. With other
+creatures it is generally safe to infer that they will leap forward. The
+flea, however, is bound by no rules, and can spring backward, forward,
+or sideways with equal ease. The power of his hind legs is prodigious,
+and it is well for man that he prefers to remain small, for a flea who
+took into his head to grow even as large as a cat would be a very
+formidable creature. It has been calculated by an American man of
+science that if the mule had the same proportionate power in his hind
+legs as has the flea, he could kick an ordinary-sized man 33 miles 1004
+yards and 21 inches. Mankind has therefore good reason for
+congratulating itself upon the fact that the flea has not, in the course
+of his career, had any ambition in the direction of size, and that the
+smallest and most active only survived in the struggle for existence.
+
+The habits of a flea have not been sufficiently investigated to enable
+us to state with certainty whether he uses his hind legs as weapons in
+his contests with other insects; but it is to be presumed that he does
+so, for why otherwise should Nature have endowed him with so much power
+in these limbs? If the ordinary mode of progression of the flea were,
+like that of the grasshopper, by a succession of springs, the prodigious
+size of his hind legs would be accountable; but, upon the contrary, the
+flea is essentially a runner, and the speed with which he can make his
+way through the thick fur of a cat or the hair of a dog is wonderful. It
+does not appear, indeed, that he ever does take to jumping except when
+inclined to drive human beings on the search for him into a state of
+frenzy.
+
+As it cannot be reasonably supposed that Nature gifted the flea with
+such abnormal saltatory powers merely that he should be a cause of bad
+language among the human kind, some other explanation must be sought
+for. The Darwinian theory, that living creatures develop by the survival
+of the fittest such powers as may be most useful to them, fails
+altogether here, unless it be supposed that the flea’s legs have
+developed only since he made his acquaintance with man. In the earlier
+periods of his history, when he lived in the hair or fur of animals, he
+could have had no occasion whatever to jump. Unfortunately, the early
+historians, in dealing with the flea, are silent as to the length of his
+leaps, and we have, therefore, no means of estimating the rate at which
+he has progressed in this accomplishment during the last two or three
+thousand years. Yet, doubtless, he was present at the Siege of Troy,
+dwelt in the tent of Achilles, and stirred Ulysses to occasional wrath;
+it would have been well, then, had Homer turned for a moment from
+recording the struggles of the Greeks and Trojans, and given us a little
+solid information respecting the flea of those days.
+
+Although abundant everywhere, he is found to be most prolific and
+numerous in the East. Upon this point all travellers are agreed. Some
+put it down to the fact that he loves heat; others to his partiality for
+dirt; while others again go back to the days of the Flood for the
+explanation. While other animals went into the Ark in pairs, it is
+morally certain that the flea went in his thousands; and as the four men
+in charge of all the animals can have had but little time to attend to
+the flea, and as, so far as is known, insecticide powder was not
+invented in those days, the flea doubtless multiplied prodigiously
+during the long voyage. Not knowing what was going on outside, the
+colony would be taken by surprise when the animals suddenly quitted the
+Ark; and vast numbers must have been left behind; these must, after the
+departure of man and the animals from the mountain on which the Ark
+rested, have shifted for themselves as they best could. Some would have
+early started on their travels, others would have clung to the Ark until
+it fell to pieces; but in time, at any rate, they must have scattered
+over the East, and there, being poor travellers except when carried,
+they and their descendants have remained ever since. It would be rash to
+say that this is the only plausible theory. Doubtless others can be
+advanced; but, taking it altogether, it certainly appears the most
+probable explanation of the abundance of the flea in Asia, and it may be
+said in Russia also, and other contiguous countries.
+
+The flea is capable of being tamed, and of affording amusement to man by
+various little tricks. The first step in the process is to restrain his
+natural inclination to jump. This is done by placing him in a low, flat
+box with a glass lid. The flea, supposing that he has an open space
+overhead, jumps, strikes the glass with great violence, and falls
+half-stunned. This discourages him, but, unable to account for the
+phenomenon, he tries again and again, until at last, after some days, he
+arrives at the conclusion that there is something altogether wrong with
+the atmosphere, and that jumping must be abandoned. After this the rest
+is easy. He can be taught to drag a little carriage, to sit on the box,
+to fire a tiny cannon, or to perform other feats. He never, however,
+recovers thoroughly from the effect of his terrible blows against the
+glass. His heart and his spirit appear to be alike broken. Like a caged
+eagle he mopes out his life, and seldom lives more than a month or six
+weeks after his education is completed.
+
+His is, in fact, the true gipsy spirit. Free, he will make himself happy
+under any circumstances, and although he may have his preferences, can
+get on anywhere. He loves the young and the tender, but does not despise
+age. Free, he is joyous, lively, and daring: a captive and chained, he
+pines and dies. It is a pity that no one will do for him what Sir John
+Lubbock has done for the ant. Such an investigator would no doubt be
+able to rehabilitate the flea in public estimation. Although he may be
+forced to live in dirty places, he is himself perfectly clean, taking
+great pains to clean himself with his hind legs, as does the fly. He is
+clad in shining armour, which is wonderfully tough and strong; his eyes
+are lively and prominent. Even in his most joyous moments he is never
+noisy; his attentions to man are unwearied, and the gentle irritation
+thereby caused affords means of occupation and excitement to the lazy
+mendicant, the indolent native of the South, and the contemplative
+Oriental, and rouses them from the lethargy in which they might
+otherwise sink. Fully and properly understood, the flea might take high
+rank among the benefactors of man.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                             THE MOSQUITO.
+
+                             --------------
+
+THERE is nothing in the appearance of the mosquito to excite alarm even
+in the most timid breasts, no sign of his almost diabolical nature, or
+of his power of making himself obnoxious. And yet he is endowed with a
+subtlety, a malice, and a fiendish thirst for blood unparalleled save in
+the leech. The mosquito is found in almost every climate and country,
+sounding his trumpet as vehemently by the shores of the Arctic Sea as
+beside a sluggish stream on the Equator, the British Islands being
+almost alone in their happy immunity from its presence; and among all
+the varied blessings for which a Briton has cause to be thankful there
+is scarcely one so peculiar and so marked as the absence of this
+creature. It is probably seen at its worst in the north of Russia,
+Norway and Sweden, and in some of the Northern States of America. In
+these countries it is hardly safe to leave a horse out at night, for
+although we may safely discredit the legends that horses have been
+carried off bodily by mosquitoes, these animals have undoubtedly been
+killed by the poisonous bites of their innumerable foes. It is the
+methods of the mosquito rather than the injury it inflicts that drive
+men to madness. It is not that they are greatly grudged the drop or two
+of blood they extract, and the pain and inflammation of the wound,
+though often considerable, are not very much more so than those of our
+own midnight assailants, the bug and the flea. If they would but come
+and have their meal in peace and quiet, man might bear it. It is their
+shrill trumpeting, their approaches and departures, and the long and
+agonising suspense that precedes the moment when, their investigation
+complete, they fix on what appears to them the most penetrable point,
+settle, and begin their meal, that cows the spirit of the bravest man.
+Heroes who would face the spring of an infuriated tiger, and lead a
+column to the cannon’s mouth, will quail and cover their head with the
+sheet when they hear the shrill challenge of the mosquito.
+
+Man has endeavoured by many means to defend himself from this
+persecutor. He has rubbed himself with medicaments, and has hung up
+boughs of shrubs to which it is supposed that the mosquito has an
+objection. He has invented pastilles, whose smoke, it was hoped, would
+lull his foe into a lethargy; but at all these and similar measures the
+mosquito laughs. The only resource affording even a partial protection
+is the mosquito curtain. In theory this device is excellent. Man
+enclosed within a curtain of gauze ought to be unassailable.
+Unfortunately the practice does not follow the theory. However secure
+the curtains, however great the pains bestowed in seeing that no
+mosquito was present when the man was tucked up inside them, we doubt
+whether history records a single example of complete success having
+attended the arrangement. Do what man will, the mosquito will be there.
+Its favourite plan is to be beforehand with a man, and to hide somewhere
+until man has entered his muslin tent. Every effort will, it knows, be
+made to dislodge it; the curtains will be shaken, towels will be flapped
+here and there, every nook and corner will, as it seems, be examined,
+but the mosquito will manage in one way or other to evade the search.
+But even in the exceptional cases where it is routed out, the mosquito
+knows that it is but for a time. If there is a hole in the curtains, be
+it only the size of a knitting-needle, it will find it and get through;
+and in the event of the curtains being absolutely new, it is sure to
+find some point at which the tucking up has been imperfectly done. But
+most of all it relies upon entering with the would-be sleeper. The
+latter is well aware of this. He listens first for the sound of wings,
+but at this moment the mosquito is discreetly silent. Then he untucks a
+small portion of the curtain, his attendant flaps a towel wildly, and
+under cover of this he plunges hastily through the orifice, which is at
+once closed behind him. Then, in spite of a thousand similar
+experiences, the man flatters himself that this time he has evaded the
+mosquito, and lies down to rest. Stronger and stronger grows the hope as
+the minutes pass on, and at last it almost blooms into certainty as he
+finally turns over and composes himself for sleep. Drowsiness steals
+over him, when, just as consciousness is leaving him, the mosquito
+sounds a triumphant bugle-blast close to his ear. Then the ordinary man
+sits up in bed as if he were shot, and swears. This is, unfortunately,
+all but universal. The best and most patient of men have found it
+absolutely impossible to avoid using bad language at this crisis. There
+is a shout for the attendant, a light is brought and placed on a table
+near the curtain. Then the battle begins in grim earnest, the man
+against the mosquito; the one silent and watchful, his arms outside the
+sheet ready for instant action, the other, agile, ubiquitous, intent on
+exasperating and not on attacking its victim, now resting for a time in
+a corner, then making a rapid dash at the nose or ear, then disappearing
+again, and lying silent for some minutes. Occasionally, very
+occasionally, the man is victor, and with a rapid clutch will grasp and
+annihilate the mosquito as it passes by his face. In the vast majority
+of cases the man’s watchfulness is in vain. Hours pass, and Nature
+asserts herself. The mosquito has had amusement enough, and now, meaning
+business, remains quiet until its victim dozes off. Not until he is
+sound asleep will it this time move. Then it settles lightly upon him,
+inserts its delicate proboscis in one of the pores of his skin, pours in
+a tiny drop of venom to dilute the blood, and then having drunk till its
+body has swelled to many times its original size, heavily flies away,
+and fastens itself to the curtain, where it falls an easy victim to the
+vengeance of the sleeper in the morning. Such is the conflict when one
+mosquito has found an entrance. When, as is more usual, half a dozen
+have entered, it is, as may be imagined, still more dire and disastrous;
+and the sleeper in the morning wakes with perhaps an eye closed, and his
+face swollen and disfigured by bumps almost beyond knowledge.
+
+The existence of the mosquito can be accounted for only upon the ground
+that he was sent as a special trial to man’s temper, but in that case
+Nature evidently miscalculated the amount of self-control that man
+possesses. A trial can hardly be considered as a trial when the result
+is certain, and the breakdown of man’s temper under the attacks of the
+mosquito is universal and complete. It would have been enough had the
+mosquito been endowed with activity, craft, and voracity. The trial
+would have been in that case ample, but exceptional men might have
+passed through it unscathed. It was the addition of the trumpet that
+settled the matter. No such exasperating sound is to be heard on earth.
+Good resolutions crumble to nought before it. The most patient and the
+most stoical of mortals are as much moved by it as their weaker
+brethren, and the native of the Arctic Circle and he of the Equator
+alike in their respective languages utter words of despair and
+profanity. We may hope, however, that science has not yet spoken its
+last word, and that some future Pasteur or Koch may discover a bacillus
+capable of creating a contagious and fatal disease among mosquitoes, and
+that by this means man may be relieved of a burden almost too heavy for
+him.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                                THE COW.
+
+                             --------------
+
+ALTHOUGH the cow is always with us, we know but little about her beyond
+her likes and dislikes in the matter of food. We have, indeed, by dint
+of long perseverance, transformed the wild cow into an eating machine—a
+vehicle for the conversion of feeding stuffs into milk and meat. Her
+brain is to us a sealed book, which so far no sage has made it his
+business to open. No one, however, can doubt that the cow does a great
+deal of thinking. In this respect it is among beasts as is the owl among
+birds. No one can watch a herd of cattle ruminating tranquilly, without
+being impressed with the conviction that they are thinking deeply.
+Whether they are meditating over the legends that have been handed down
+to them of the time when they wandered wild and free on mountain and
+moor, or are wondering why man busies himself in supplying them with the
+food most to their liking, while he requires no active service in
+return, as he does from the horse, we know not.
+
+The eye of the ox is soft and meditative; it has not inspired modern
+poets, but the ancients recognised its beauty, and the Greeks could find
+no more complimentary epithet for the Queen of the Gods than to call her
+ox-eyed. Such an eye should certainly indicate a philosophic mind, and
+it is in this direction that we must regard it as probable that the
+cow’s ruminations are directed. We may credit her with having arrived at
+a conclusion to her own satisfaction as to the points that have engaged
+the attention of a Darwin or a Spencer, but one can scarce conjecture
+that the cerebral organisation of the cow was beforehand with man in the
+discovery of the steam-engine or the electric telegraph. The Arabs and
+the Orientals, with their deep knowledge of the occult, were evidently
+impressed with the idea that the cow’s brain is so stored with knowledge
+that it would be a danger to mankind were she able to put her thoughts
+into words. This is shown by the fact that, while in their legends the
+gift of speech is frequently bestowed on horses, storks, and birds of
+many kinds, there is no instance of a cow being so favoured. It may be
+said that the dog is similarly omitted; but the dog is an animal looked
+down upon in the East. It is there never admitted to the intimacy of
+man, and, having been habitually repressed, has not acquired the traits
+of character that distinguish it in Western countries. But in whatever
+light the matter is looked at, it cannot be doubted that it is
+unfortunate for the world that so profound a thinker as the cow is
+unable to communicate her conclusions to man.
+
+
+      [++ Illustration: Cow]
+
+
+The cow, as distinct from the bull, is in its wild state a timid animal,
+and it is somewhat singular that although she has lost much of that
+timidity, she largely inspires the feeling among the female sex. Next to
+the mouse, the ordinary woman fears the cow. The dog, a really more
+alarming animal, she is not afraid of; the horse inspires her with no
+terror; but the sight of two or three cows in a lane throws her off her
+balance. On such an occasion a woman will perform feats of activity
+quite beyond her at ordinary times: she will climb a five-barred gate,
+or squeeze herself through a gap in a hedge, regardless of rents or
+scratches, with as much speed and alacrity as she would manifest in
+leaping on a chair in the presence of that ferocious animal the mouse.
+We believe that this unreasoning terror has its origin in the pernicious
+nursery legend of the cow with the crumpled horn. It is true that that
+animal is related to have suffered the maiden all forlorn to milk her,
+but she afterwards tossed the dog; and it is the pictorial
+representations of her while performing this feat that have impressed
+the juvenile mind. The mere fact that there are few precedents for a
+woman being tossed by a cow goes for nothing, nor that the animal’s
+disposition is peaceable in the extreme; it can, therefore, be hardly
+questioned that the timidity excited in the female mind by the cow must
+be founded upon some lost legend of antiquity. It may be that Eve had
+trouble in her first efforts to procure lacteal fluid from the cow, or
+that the specimen chosen to perpetuate the race in the Ark was rendered
+savage and dangerous from its long imprisonment there; but no legend
+that would give favour to either theory has come down to us.
+
+In her wild state the cow is compelled to take considerable exercise in
+order to obtain a sufficient amount of sustenance; the domesticated
+animal, having no need to do so, has developed habits of laziness. She
+has become constitutionally averse to exertion; but Providence, by
+sending the fly, has done much to counteract the effects of this
+tendency. It has been calculated by mechanical engineers that the amount
+of energy required to switch away flies with a cow’s tail is equivalent
+to that which would raise a weight of seven pounds one foot. Intelligent
+observers estimate that upon a hot day when the flies are troublesome, a
+cow will switch her tail thirty times in the course of a minute, thus
+expending an amount of energy per hour sufficient, if otherwise
+employed, to lift nearly six tons’ weight one foot from the ground; so
+that, considering the number of cows in Great Britain, it is clear that
+an amount of power in comparison to which that of Niagara is as nothing
+is being wasted. The thoughtful agriculturist will surely perceive that
+as an expenditure of energy means loss of flesh and decreased production
+of milk, it would be to his interest to envelop his cattle in mosquito
+curtains during the summer months.
+
+The cow is best seen in a state of repose. Either as lying down or
+standing in the shade of a tree, dreamily chewing the cud, and vaguely
+wondering whether beet or turnips will form the staple of her supper,
+there are few animals more taking to the eye. She can walk, too, without
+forfeiting our respect, but she is a lamentable spectacle when she runs.
+The poetry of motion does not exist in the case of the cow, and yet it
+is clear that she takes the greatest pains about her running, and puts
+her whole heart into it; personally, then, she is not to blame in that
+the result is, as an exhibition, a failure. The fault lies in nature
+rather than in the individual. In the course of the Darwinian process of
+transforming, let us say a mole into a cow, it was clearly in the
+creature’s mind that the day would come when she would be milked. Each
+of the countless generations required to bring her to her present form
+kept this contingency steadily in view, and practised kicking sideways.
+The result is, so far as the milkmaid is concerned, a superb success,
+and the cow is able to kick sideways in a manner that excites the
+envious admiration of the horse; but, as was to be expected, with the
+acquisition of the sideway motion the cow’s leg lost the power possessed
+so pre-eminently by the horse and mule of delivering a good, fair,
+square kick backwards; and even in running, what may be called the side
+action predominates over the fore and aft. Doubtless the cow knew her
+own business, and deliberately sacrificed gracefulness of action to the
+joy of being able to kick over a milkmaid. The lover of grace may regret
+that it should be so, but has no right to complain of the cow pleasing
+herself. The original mole probably foresaw that her far-off descendant
+would be a creature of few active enjoyments, and of a steady and
+tranquil nature, and considered that she was perfectly justified in
+making some sacrifice in order to enable the cow of the future to enjoy
+at least one piece of lively fun.
+
+On the whole, however, the cow may fairly claim to be an eminently
+worthy and respectable animal, and to be of great importance to man.
+Some may feel inclined to say, of vital importance; but this may be
+disputed. It is due in a great degree to the attention that man has
+bestowed upon her that she has developed her capacity for putting on
+flesh, and her abnormal secretion of milk. Had man not found her ready
+to his hand, and foreseen her capacity in this direction, he might have
+turned his attention to the mastodon, which in that case would now be
+grazing in vast numbers among the woods planted for his sustenance, and
+would be affording mountains of flesh and tuns of milk, while mastodon
+butter might have been able to hold its own against margarine and other
+fatty compounds. The cow deserves great credit for developing herself
+into her wild type from some wandering germ or other, but for her
+progression to her present status she has to thank the care and
+attention she has received from man.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                      THE OCTOPUS AND CUTTLE FISH.
+
+                             --------------
+
+ALTHOUGH dignified by the name of a fish, the cuttle fish has nothing in
+common with the finny inhabitants of the sea, save that its existence is
+passed beneath the surface of the water. It stands alone, apart from all
+living creatures, with scarcely a point of resemblance to any of them,
+its nearest relations being, perhaps, the sea anemones—those lovely
+inhabitants of pools among rocks. Nature would seem to have created the
+octopus in an idle moment, in order to show how she could diverge from
+her regular course, and turn out a creature with a multiplicity of arms,
+without body or legs, and with its head in the middle of its stomach. As
+usual, she succeeded to perfection, but was so horrified with the
+monster she had made that she threw it into the sea, and endowed it with
+a diabolical disposition. The octopus resembles an ogre dwelling in its
+cave, conscious that its distorted shape will not bear the light, and
+stretching out its arms studded with suckers to grasp and draw down to
+its mouth any living thing that passes within its reach. The cuttle fish
+varies in size from the squid, beloved by gourmands who dwell on the
+shores of the Mediterranean, to the monster octopus who throws his arms
+round boats and drags them to the bottom. Some, indeed, in the Indian
+seas, are reported to grow to a size that renders them formidable even
+to ships, wrapping them in its embrace and dragging the sailors from the
+deck or shrouds. Even allowing for exaggeration, there can be little
+doubt that enormous specimens are occasionally met with, and that these
+would be formidable to small vessels. Bodies have been cast ashore whose
+arms have measured thirty feet in length, and these could well pluck a
+sailor from the deck of a ship. On our own shores they are, happily,
+never met with of formidable size, but comparatively large ones are
+encountered not far south; for it may be taken that the desperate
+struggle described by Victor Hugo in “The Toilers of the Sea” was at
+least not considered by him to be impossible, and that he had heard from
+fishermen of the existence of creatures as large as the one he
+described. The octopus appears almost insensible to pain, and the
+hacking off of one or more of its tentacles does not seem to cause it
+any inconvenience. Its body—or rather its stomach—is its only vital
+part, and even this must be almost cut into pieces before it will
+relinquish the hold it has obtained of a prey. The beak of a parrot is
+the last thing one would expect to find in the centre of these waving
+tentacles, and Nature apparently placed it there as the crowning effort
+in the work of construction of this monster.
+
+Among birds, beasts, and fishes we may seek in vain for a prototype of
+the octopus. To find one we must go to man, and we shall find that, in
+his way, the professional money-lender bears a close resemblance to this
+creature. The waving arms, that by their resemblance to great seaweeds
+lull a passing fish into a sense of security, are represented in the
+case of the money-lender by flattering and unctuous advertisements,
+which, catching the eye of the unwary, persuade him that money is to be
+had for asking, upon terms to suit all pockets; but, as in the case of
+the octopus, once the suckers catch hold, there is no escape; nearer and
+nearer the victim is drawn, in spite of his struggles, to the parrot
+mouth that will tear him to pieces, and swallow up him and his
+belongings. The analogy is in all ways extremely close, and yet the man
+who would shudder at the thought of entering a cave in the depth of
+whose waters the octopus is lurking, will enter the professional
+money-lender’s den with an unmoved countenance and an even pulse.
+Happily, there is every reason for supposing that the fish which form
+the staple of the diet of the octopus suffer less in the process of
+destruction than does the victim of the money-lender. Fish are certainly
+almost, if not entirely, insensible to pain, and there is no reason to
+suppose that they are gifted with strong powers of imagination; it may
+therefore be believed that although a fish may struggle to escape from
+the grip of the tentacle, it feels none of the horror that seizes a
+human victim when once grasped by one of the larger species, and that
+its doom is hidden from it until the savage beak seizes it, and at once
+puts an end to its existence.
+
+While man can to a certain extent enter into the feelings of a large
+proportion of the animal creation, it is beyond his power to imagine
+himself an octopus, or to get himself _en rapport_ with its thoughts.
+Has it any higher impulses? Is it naturally cruel, or does it view its
+own methods and conduct from a strictly business point? Does it persuade
+itself that it is an estimable character? Is it in its own private
+circle affectionate and domesticated? Has it the power of discussing
+passing events with its congeners, and exchanging views as to the
+flavour of the various fish that form its diet, or as to advantageous
+spots for ambush? We can answer none of these questions. It certainly
+has but a small chance of leading a higher life. The subterranean world
+it sees around it is full of strife and destruction. “The large fish eat
+the smaller fish, and so on _ad infinitum_.” It only plays the same game
+as those around it, but by different methods, and there is no reason,
+because those methods are repugnant to us, that the octopus should be of
+the same opinion. Man is singularly intolerant in such matters. He
+himself kills the creatures he requires for food either by knocking them
+on the head, by cutting their throats, or by shooting them. Fish he
+captures either with nets or with a hook which sticks into their mouth
+or throat. And yet he criticises severely the methods of the animal
+creation. He dislikes the spider because like a fisherman it catches its
+prey in nets. He shudders at the cat because it plays with its victim
+just as the angler does. He is shocked because the octopus lies in wait
+for its prey and lassoes it as it passes. There is, in fact, no pleasing
+man, and he is shocked at all methods of killing, even at that most
+closely resembling those which he himself employs in slaying the
+creatures on which he feeds. We fear that there is a great deal of
+humbug about human susceptibilities.
+
+Some of the cuttle fish are large manufacturers of ink. These, instead
+of anchoring themselves to the bottom, float near the surface, and their
+chance of obtaining food would be small were it not for their power of
+ejecting ink, and thus clouding the water and veiling themselves from
+sight—a habit which also affords them a method of escape when themselves
+attacked by the shark or other formidable enemy. This method is not
+unknown to man, and several well-known instances might be adduced of
+public men who, after having by loose assertions brought a formidable
+opponent down upon them, escape under a cloud of misleading words,
+phrases, and explanations that explain nothing, and retractions that
+leave the matter as it was before. Seeing that the peculiar variety of
+ink secreted by the cuttle fish is of a very valuable kind, it is
+somewhat remarkable that no enterprising manufacturer has as yet taken
+the matter in hand and established an aqueous farm for the breeding and
+rearing of cuttle fish. Indian ink and sepia are both so valuable that
+such an enterprise ought to pay handsome profits, and if the oyster can
+be cultivated, why not the cuttle fish? It would, of course, be
+necessary that the retaining walls of the gigantic aquarium indicated
+should be impervious to the passing of cuttle fish even in their
+earliest stage. Otherwise the proprietors would be liable very speedily
+to be indicted as a nuisance by the lodging-house keepers and owners of
+bathing machines of the nearest sea-side watering places. But this could
+doubtless be effected, and then no argument could be adduced that the
+cuttle fish should necessarily be a nuisance to their neighbours that
+would not equally apply to the wild beasts at a menagerie. In the latter
+case one occasionally breaks out and causes consternation, and,
+possibly, damage, and even if an octopus should do the same there could
+be no very valid ground for complaint. As the squid when cooked
+furnishes a somewhat gelatinous food not altogether dissimilar to calf’s
+head, it is probable that the flesh of the larger varieties might be
+utilised for the manufacture of mock turtle, and another source of
+revenue would, therefore, be open to their breeders. It is clear from
+these remarks that the cuttle fish has not hitherto received the careful
+consideration that it deserves, and the dislike we feel for its form and
+habits has blinded us to the benefits that might with culture and
+domestication be derived from it.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                             THE BACILLUS.
+
+                             --------------
+
+HAD the learned Linnæus been informed that there existed a creature of
+which he had taken no account, which exercised a much larger influence
+upon the fortunes and happiness of man than any of those which he so
+laboriously arranged and classified, he would have smiled the smile of
+incredulity. But just as it is but within the present century that
+mankind has awoke to the enormous power and usefulness of steam and
+electricity, so it is only within the last ten or fifteen years that he
+has attained to the knowledge of the existence of the demon bacillus,
+who has sprung at a bound into the position of man’s deadliest enemy.
+Secretiveness must be assigned the first place among the characteristics
+of the bacillus. Since man first appeared upon earth this scourge must
+have carried on its deadly work, and heaped up a hecatomb of victims in
+comparison to which those who have perished by war or by famine are but
+an insignificant handful; and yet man has pursued his way in the
+blindest ignorance of the very existence of his indefatigable enemy.
+
+Even yet comparatively few people are aware of the personal
+peculiarities of the bacillus, or could describe with any approach to
+accuracy the difference between the allied tribes, each of which
+represents some form or other of disease or death, and the scientific
+men who are so actively busying themselves in counteracting its work are
+very chary of describing its personal peculiarities. When these are more
+generally understood it will probably lead to a revolution in art. The
+artist of other days who wished to convey to the beholder that the
+personage depicted was in imminent peril of his life could find no
+better means of doing so than by placing behind him a shadowy figure
+with a death’s head and skeleton arms holding a dart. This childish
+representation can no longer be tolerated, and the artist of the future
+will have only to depict hovering over the principal figure a bacillus,
+and the beholder will at once understand not only that death is
+impending, but will be able to distinguish from the characteristics of
+the bacillus whether it will take the form of consumption, typhoid,
+small-pox, or other disease. This will be of vast utility in the
+painting of historical personages, as no questions can arise centuries
+later as to the cause of their death, the disease of which they died
+being clearly indicated by the accompanying bacillus, which, of course,
+will in future be appended to every posthumous portrait.
+
+It is mortifying to human vanity to reflect that for some sixty
+centuries, at the shortest computation, man has been taking all sorts of
+pains to protect himself against minor dangers, in absolute ignorance of
+the bacillus fiend in his midst. Against the wild beast and the snake he
+has waged open warfare. He has covered himself with armour to protect
+himself from the weapons of human foes. He has furnished his ships with
+lifeboats, he has placed trap-doors in the roofs of his houses to afford
+an escape in case of fire, and has invented the safety lamp as a
+protection for those who work in mines. He has muzzled the dog in order
+to escape the fabulously remote risk of hydrophobia, and he has laid
+down strict regulations to diminish the chances of his being blown up by
+explosives. He has fenced himself in by sanitary regulations to preserve
+himself against the evil effect of foul smells, and has flattered
+himself that by these and many other precautions he has done what he
+could to ensure for himself prolonged life. And yet all this time the
+bacillus has been carrying on his work unsuspected, laughing, in
+whatever passes as his sleeve, as he yearly sweeps away his tens of
+millions of victims. It has, in fact, been a new and terrible
+illustration of the saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.” Proud man, who
+slays the whale for its oil, and the elephant for its ivory, has been
+slain by his invisible foe, the bacillus; and, like a soldier brought
+down by a long range bullet, has not even had the satisfaction of
+knowing who was his slayer.
+
+
+    [Illustration: CHOLERA BACILLUS (Natural Size).]
+
+
+    [Illustration: SMALL-POX BACILLUS (Natural Size).]
+
+
+    [Illustration: TYPHOID BACILLUS (Natural Size).]
+
+
+The microscope has long since discovered to him the existence of
+innumerable creatures, invisible to the naked eye; he has learnt that
+the water he drank teemed with animated atoms; that many of the rocks
+were composed solely of their minute skeletons; that a layer of them
+reposed on the depth of ocean; that countless numbers of them were borne
+with the floating dust in the air. Some of these discoveries caused him
+wonder and admiration, others a certain sense of uneasiness and disgust;
+but when he discovered that neither he nor his ancestors had suffered
+any material inconvenience from imbibing these countless hosts in their
+drinks, or inhaling them in the atmosphere, he ceased to trouble himself
+about them, and went on his way regardless of their existence. The case
+has been wholly changed by the discovery of the bacillus, and man stands
+aghast alike at the terribly destructive and deadly nature of his foe,
+and at his own impotency to guard himself against its attacks. His
+feelings resemble those of the solitary traveller who finds that the
+forest through which he is passing is swarming with desperate and
+determined enemies, who are bent upon taking his life.
+
+It needs no great powers of prevision to perceive that the discovery of
+the bacillus must lead to an enormous revolution in our methods of life.
+It is not man’s nature to submit passively to tyranny and oppression;
+and now that we are beginning to form some idea of the number and deadly
+nature of our foe, we shall assuredly embark upon a prolonged and
+desperate warfare with him. Inventors will, in the first place, devote
+all their energies to discovering a means of defence against his
+attacks. We may expect that just as our ancestors clad themselves in
+armour to protect themselves against human weapons, so in the future we
+shall wear some sort of covering, composed, perhaps, of extremely thin
+and flexible glass, to prevent the bacillus coming in contact with our
+skin; or we may paint ourselves on emerging from our baths with some
+compound which may be discovered to be lethal to him. The passages to
+our lungs will doubtless be defended by a respiratory apparatus that
+will filter him out of the air as it passes in. While thus we endeavour
+in every way to defend ourselves against his attacks, we shall take the
+offensive against him when he succeeds in eluding these precautions, and
+effecting an entrance. Unfortunately, at present the bacillus shows
+himself to be almost invulnerable; but, like Achilles, he has a weak
+spot in his heel. While able, so far as is at present known, to defy all
+drugs and poisons with which he can be attacked while dwelling in the
+human frame, he has none of the hardihood of the cannibal, and is unable
+to support a diet consisting of infusions of his own relations. A boiled
+decoction of his children or cousins is fatal to him. It is upon this
+line that our combat with him is likely, at any rate for a time, to be
+fought out.
+
+This discovery has thrown a lurid light upon many ancient and Eastern
+legends. These have hitherto been entirely misunderstood or not
+understood at all. Saturn was, we know, to be destroyed by his children;
+and Arab stories abound with instances where princes and rulers having
+been warned that their offspring would be the cause of their death, the
+children were accordingly confined in towers and prisons to prevent the
+fulfilment of these prophecies. Hitherto, such tales have appeared mere
+fables, originating in human fancy; but it can now be seen that the
+Ancients and the Orientals alike had some kind of prevision of the
+bacillus, and that this creature was pre-figured in the legends of
+Saturn and of the Arabian rulers. This is another proof, were it needed,
+of the vast store of knowledge possessed in former times by the
+Orientals. It is impossible, at this early stage of the conflict between
+man and the bacillus, to form any very definite opinion as to the side
+with which victory will finally rest; but, judging from the past, there
+is good ground for belief that man will in the end come out conqueror.
+In legendary tales man, valiant, fearless, and determined, always proved
+himself the victor, though opposed by the invisible powers of the air;
+and from this we may gather much comfort. It is with invisible powers
+that this battle has to be waged; and summoning to our aid, as we are
+happily able to do, all the hidden powers of the good fairies, Chemistry
+and Electricity, we may venture confidently to hope for a final victory
+over the swarming legions of the bacillus.
+
+
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+                  ------------------------------------
+
+     Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+                         UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF
+
+                        [++ Illustration: Seal]
+
+                                 H. M.
+                               THE QUEEN.
+
+                     H.R.H. THE PRINCESS OF WALES,
+
+       H.R.H. PRINCESS MARY ADELAIDE, DUCHESS OF TECK, ETC., ETC.
+                                  THE
+                            VICTORIA LIBRARY
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+
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+
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+
+                  Vol. I.—THE GENTLEWOMAN IN SOCIETY.
+
+                By LADY VIOLET GREVILLE. [October 20th.
+
+                         ---------------------
+
+             LONDON: HENRY & CO., 6, BOUVERIE STREET, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+                       GEORGE MOORE’S NEW NOVEL.
+
+                             VAIN FORTUNE,
+
+         By the Author of “A MUMMER’S LIFE,” “A MODERN LOVER,”
+                     “ESSAYS AND IMPRESSIONS,” etc.
+
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+
+                  ------------------------------------
+
+                       TRANSLATED FROM THE DUTCH.
+
+                                  THE
+                          RESIDENT’S DAUGHTER,
+                                A NOVEL.
+
+By MELATI VAN TAVA. Translated from the Dutch by A. TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS.
+    Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. [In preparation.
+
+                  ------------------------------------
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+
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+                     By ERNEST F. SPENCE. [Shortly.
+
+                  ------------------------------------
+
+                          A SHILLING SHOCKER!
+
+                          THE BIG BOW MYSTERY.
+
+         By I. ZANGWILL, Author of “The Bachelor’s Club,” etc.
+
+                   REPRINTED FROM THE Star. [Shortly.
+
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+                       VOL. I.—ESSAYS IN LITTLE.
+
+                            By ANDREW LANG.
+
+                         OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+“If it is well to judge by firstfruits (and, generally speaking, the
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+
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+
+“‘The Whitefriars Library’ has begun well. Its first issue is a volume
+by Mr. Andrew Lang, entitled ‘ESSAYS IN LITTLE.’ Mr. Lang is here at his
+best—alike in his most serious and his lightest moods. We find him
+turning without effort, and with equal success, from ‘Homer and the
+Study of Greek,’ to ‘The Last Fashionable Novel’—on one page attacking
+grimly the modern newspaper tendency to tittle-tattle (in a ‘Letter to a
+Young Journalist’), on another devising a bright parody in prose or
+verse. Mr. Lang is in his most rollicking vein when treating of the once
+popular Haynes Bayly, the author of ‘I’d be a Butterfly’ and things of
+that sort. With Bayly’s twaddling verse Mr. Lang is in satiric
+ecstasies; he revels in its unconscious inanity, and burlesques it
+repeatedly with infinite gusto.... His tone is always urbane, his manner
+always bright and engaging. No one nowadays has a style at once so light
+and so well bred.... It is always pleasant, and frequently
+delightful.”—Globe.
+
+
+              VOL. II.—SAWN OFF: A Tale of a Family Tree.
+
+                          By G. MANVILLE FENN.
+
+                         OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+“Mr. Fenn is an excellent story-teller.”—Athenæum.
+
+“Another volume of the excellently designed ‘Whitefriars Library.’ Both
+‘Sawn Off’ and the other story, ‘The Gilded Pill,’ are good examples of
+light, entertaining and unsensational fiction.”—Review of Reviews.
+
+“Mr. Fenn has succeeded well in enlivening morality with wit, and in
+tempering wit with morality.”—Daily Graphic.
+
+“Mr. Fenn is a favourite writer with the public, and in this volume he
+is seen to advantage.”—Daily Chronicle.
+
+“An amusing volume.”—Daily News.
+
+
+                    VOL. III.—“A LITTLE IRISH GIRL.”
+
+                     By the Author of “Molly Bawn.”
+
+                         OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+“Mrs. Hungerford never fails to be prettily piquant, and this
+volume will be enjoyed quite as much as anything she has ever
+written.”—Academy.
+
+“One needs scarcely to be reminded that the author of ‘Molly Bawn’ is a
+writer of distinct Hibernian wit and verve, but if further proof were
+required it would be found in ‘A Little Irish Girl.’”—Daily Chronicle.
+
+“In all respects a delightful story, written in a bright and happy
+spirit, and full of amusement and instruction.”—Scotsman.
+
+
+                   VOL. IV.—THREE WEEKS AT MOPETOWN.
+
+                   By PERCY FITZGERALD.       [Ready.
+
+                         OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+“A clever skit upon life at a hydropathic establishment, in this
+writer’s popular vein; the book is amusing.”—Gentlewoman.
+
+“In all senses the writing is uncommonly clever, and the sketches of the
+various characters who inhabit a fashionable hydropathic establishment
+are drawn with lifelike fidelity.”—Public Opinion.
+
+“Mopetown is a charming place, and the people who go there are very
+amusing to read about. Some of the character-studies are perfect
+miniatures. There is occasional exaggeration, but never the least
+unkindness; the book is healthy and thoroughly refreshing.”—Pictorial
+World.
+
+“The portrait of the place, and the different types of character that
+are met, afford scope for some very pretty descriptive writing, and here
+Mr. Fitzgerald shows to full advantage.”—Publishers’ Circular.
+
+
+                      VOL. V.—A BOOK OF BURLESQUE:
+                Sketches of Stage Travestie and Parody.
+
+               By WILLIAM DAVENPORT ADAMS.       [Ready.
+
+                         OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+“Mr. Adams deserves distinct credit for his exhaustive compilation on
+the subject of English burlesque.”—Saturday Review.
+
+“A volume which contains a good thing on almost every page.”—Globe.
+
+“This eminently readable volume is a useful and acceptable contribution
+to the history of the English Drama.”—Daily Graphic.
+
+“An enjoyable and amusing volume, which is certain to be widely read;
+the book sparkles with irresistible specimens of wit and
+humour.”—Scottish Leader.
+
+“We find the book genuinely amusing.”—Publishers’ Circular.
+
+“Mr. Adams discourses wisely and well on all our principal native
+burlesque.”—Referee.
+
+         “A volume most welcome on table or desk,
+         Is Davenport Adams’ ‘Book of Burlesque,’
+         There’s fun at your asking, wherever you look,
+         And not a dull page, you’ll declare, in the book.”—Punc
+
+
+                             GREAT SUCCESS.
+
+                    THE BOOK OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON.
+
+                       FIFTH EDITION. NOW READY.
+
+                          THE BACHELORS’ CLUB.
+
+                            By I. ZANGWILL.
+
+                       Crown 8vo. 348 pp. 3s. 6d.
+
+                With ILLUSTRATIONS by GEORGE HUTCHINSON.
+
+                BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM FIRST PRESS NOTICES.
+
+
+ST. JAMES’S GAZETTE: “Some exceedingly clever fooling, and a happy
+      audacity of whimsical invention.”
+
+DAILY GRAPHIC: “A genuine humourist. We own to having laughed heartily,
+      and appreciated the cleverness and the cynicism.”
+
+STAR: “Mr. Zangwill has an original way of being funny. He is full of
+      clever and witty, paradoxical and epigrammatical, surprises. His
+      book is a splendid tonic for gloomy spirits.”
+
+EVENING NEWS: “Not one in a score of the amusing books which come from
+      the press is nearly so amusing as this.”
+
+SUNDAY TIMES: “Read, laugh over, and profit by the history of ‘The
+      Bachelors’ Club,’ capitally told by a fresh young writer.”
+
+GLOBE: “A clever and interesting book. Agreeable satire. Store of
+      epigram.”
+
+REFEREE: “A new comic writer. There is a touch of the devilry of Heine
+      in Mr. Zangwill’s wit.”
+
+SCOTSMAN: “Any one who has listened to what the wild waves say as they
+      beat the shores of Bohemia will read the book with enjoyment and
+      appreciate its careless merriment.”
+
+FREEMAN’S JOURNAL: “Very clever and amusing; highly interesting,
+      humorous and instructive.”
+
+PICTORIAL WORLD: “One of the smartest books of the season. Brimful of
+      funny ideas, comically expressed.”
+
+MAN OF THE WORLD: “Witty to excess. To gentlemen who dine out, the book
+      will furnish a stock of ‘good things’ upon every conceivable
+      subject of conversation.”
+
+GRANTA: “A book of genuine humour. Full of amusing things. The style is
+      fresh and original.”
+
+NEWCASTLE DAILY CHRONICLE: “Really clever and amusing; brimful of
+      genuine humour and fun.”
+
+YORKSHIRE HERALD: “A quaint, fresh, delightful piece of humour. Hood or
+      Douglas Jerrold might have written the book.”
+
+NORTHERN DAILY NEWS: “The reader must be very dyspeptic who cannot laugh
+      consumedly at his funny conceits.”
+
+SPORTING TIMES: “No end of fun. Not a dull line in the book.”
+
+PELICAN: “He who holds in his hands the passport to such a region of fun
+      may snap his hands for a little at fate.”
+
+JUDY: “It’s Zangwillian, which is saying a very great deal indeed in its
+      favour.”
+
+ARIEL: “The cleverest book ever written” (Author’s own review).
+
+
+
+
+                       NOW READY. FIFTH EDITION.
+
+                    THE BOOK OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON.
+
+                          THE BACHELORS’ CLUB.
+
+                            By I. ZANGWILL.
+
+                       Crown 8vo. 348 pp. 3s. 6d.
+
+                With ILLUSTRATIONS by GEORGE HUTCHINSON.
+
+                BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM LATER PRESS NOTICES.
+
+ALLY SLOPER: “We have few genuine humourists, but Mr. Zangwill is
+    certainly one of them.”
+
+ARTIST: “The tales are quite as good as the shorter things of Charles
+    Dickens. The best book of the month.”
+
+DAILY CHRONICLE: “With all his fun he is not a ‘funny man,’ he is a
+    literary humourist—in all the seriousness of claiming a place in
+    literature.”
+
+DETROIT FREE PRESS: “A book almost impossible to review in such a way as
+    to give the reader an adequate idea of its genius. It must be read
+    to be appreciated.”
+
+FUN: “On Fame’s drum it will beat rub-a-dub-dub.”
+
+GLASGOW HERALD: “Would-be wit. The ordinary civilised mortal is not
+    likely to enjoy it. The skits are rather sombre in their
+    eccentricity.”
+
+HEARTH AND HOME: “Humour is a rare gift, but Mr. Zangwill has it in
+    abundance.”
+
+LADY: “The author is one entirely born to the motley. His quips are
+    quaint, his satire delightfully exhilarating.”
+
+LITERARY WORLD: “Entitles Mr. Zangwill to rank as a genuine humourist.
+    The book is full of good things.”
+
+LITERARY OPINION: “Far above the average mechanical stuff that does duty
+    for humour.”
+
+LLOYDS: “Ingenuity of incident is combined with a wealth of reflective
+    wisdom, that often becomes dazzling in its effect.”
+
+MORNING POST: “The author has a manner of touching upon the foibles of
+    the day, full of playful malice, but quite devoid of bitterness,
+    which is one of the best gifts of the humourist.”
+
+OBSERVER: “The author has a delightful vein of humour.”
+
+PUBLISHERS’ CIRCULAR: “We have laughed with genuine enjoyment.”
+
+REVIEW OF REVIEWS: “Much that is genuinely novel and amusing.”
+
+SATURDAY REVIEW: “We like the stories of ‘Hamlet up to Date,’ and ‘The
+    Fall of Israfel’ best, but all are amusing, and all coruscate with
+    puns.”
+
+SPEAKER: “It is impossible to read this book without being delighted
+    with it. It is full of good things.”
+
+SPORTING TIMES: “No end of fun. Mr. Zangwill never misses the
+    opportunity of saying a clever thing.”
+
+SUNDAY SUN: “A funny book by the very funny editor of Ariel.”
+
+WEEKLY DISPATCH: “The history of the Club is told with charming fluency,
+    whimsical variety, and dramatic power; this delightful and clever
+    book; Mr. Zangwill has raised expectations that will not be easily
+    satisfied.”
+
+
+                       BY W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS.
+
+                          A BOOK ABOUT LONDON:
+
+              Its Memorable Places, its Men and Women, and
+                      its History. Crown 8vo. 6s.
+
+          PART I.—STORIES OF HISTORICAL SCENES AND EVENTS.
+          PART II.—STORIES OF FAMOUS LOCALITIES AND BUILDINGS.
+          PART III.—STORIES OF CRIME AND MISADVENTURE.
+
+In this volume an attempt has been made to present in a series of
+striking episodical narratives the principal events in London history,
+and some of the more striking aspects of London life. Full particulars
+are given of plots and conspiracies, forgeries and murders, executions
+and hair-breadth escapes; and many favourite old stories, not easily
+accessible now, are brought forward in a new dress, with all the light
+of recent research thrown upon them.
+
+
+                A COMPANION VOLUME. BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
+
+                          A BOOK ABOUT LONDON.
+
+                         The Streets of London:
+
+An Alphabetical Index to the principal Streets, Squares, Parks, and
+Thoroughfares, with their Associations—Historical, Traditional, Social,
+and Literary. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.
+
+This work is the result of very extensive labour, and offers, it is
+believed, a completer view than has before been attempted of the diverse
+associations which lend so profound an interest to the Streets of
+London. It contains more than a thousand succinct references to
+remarkable persons, incidents, and scenes, with illustrative anecdotes
+and full explanations gathered from a vast number of authentic sources.
+
+
+                        By LADY FLORENCE DIXIE.
+
+                        NEW WORK FOR THE YOUNG.
+
+                                ANIWEE;
+                         Or, The Warrior Queen.
+
+A Tale of the Araucanian Indians and the Mythical Trauco People. By the
+Author of “The Young Castaways,” etc. In large crown 8vo with
+Frontispiece. 5s.
+
+“A story of pure adventure, full of incident, and related with much
+smoothness and animation. As a story simply this work appeals to, and
+will be heartily accepted by, the boys and girls to whom it may be
+presented.”—Globe.
+
+“Another pleasant book for the young from Lady Florence Dixie. The boys
+and girls—and we hope they are many—who have drunk in delight from her
+‘Young Castaways’ will find their reward in this new story of
+‘Aniwee.’”—Echo.
+
+“The story is romantic and interesting enough to delight boys and girls
+alike, and the adventures with the Trauco people are as novel as they
+are thrilling.”—Daily Graphic.
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+
+ ● Transcriber’s Notes:
+    ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
+    ○ Unbalanced quotation marks were left as the author intended.
+    ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
+    ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
+      when a predominant form was found in this book.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Other Animals, by G. A. Henty
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE OTHER ANIMALS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 56767-0.txt or 56767-0.zip *****
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Other Animals, by G. A. Henty
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: Those Other Animals
+
+Author: G. A. Henty
+
+Illustrator: Harrison Weir
+
+Release Date: March 17, 2018 [EBook #56767]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE OTHER ANIMALS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div  class='figcenter id001'>
+<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id002'>
+<img src='images/frontis.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p>Yours truly<br />G A Henty [**signature]</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c000' />
+</div>
+<div>
+  <h1 class='c001'>THOSE OTHER ANIMALS.</h1>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c002'>
+    <div><span class='small'>BY</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='large'>G. A.  HENTY.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'><i>WITH PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR</i></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id003'>
+<img src='images/thepig.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><span class='small'><i>AND TWENTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS BY HARRISON WEIR</i>.</span></div>
+    <div class='c004'>LONDON:</div>
+    <div class='c003'>HENRY AND CO., BOUVERIE STREET, E.C.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c000' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c000'>
+    <div><b><i><span class='large'>The Whitefriars Library of Wit and Humour.</span></i></b></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='c005' />
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>FIRST SERIES.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><b>The following Vols. are now ready, 2s. 6d. each.</b></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c006'><i>ESSAYS IN LITTLE.</i> By <span class='sc'>Andrew Lang</span>.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'><i>SAWN OFF: A Tale of a Family Tree.</i> By <span class='sc'>G. Manville Fenn</span>.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'><i>A LITTLE IRISH GIRL.</i> By the Author of “Molly Bawn.”</p>
+
+<p class='c006'><i>THREE WEEKS AT MOPETOWN.</i> By <span class='sc'>Percy Fitzgerald</span>.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'><i>A BOOK OF BURLESQUE.</i> By <span class='sc'>William Davenport Adams</span>.</p>
+
+<p class='c006'><i>IN A CANADIAN CANOE.</i> By <span class='sc'>Barry Pain</span>, B.A.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c004'>
+    <div>SECOND SERIES.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><b>Price 3s. 6d. each.</b></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c006'><i>THOSE OTHER ANIMALS.</i> By <span class='sc'>G. A. Henty</span>. <i>With Illustrations by</i> <span class='sc'>Harrison Weir</span>. [<i>Ready.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c006'><i>IN CAMBRIDGE COURTS.</i> By <span class='sc'>Rudolph C. Lehmann</span>. <i>With Illustrations by</i> <span class='sc'>A. C. Payne</span>. [<i>October.</i></p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c000' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c007'>TO THE READER.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>MAN, being essentially a creature of habit, has come
+to look upon what he is pleased to consider as the
+inferior creation from one point of view only, and that in
+most cases the narrow and selfish one of his own interests;
+thus his views are frequently lamentably prejudiced and
+erroneous. The natural result has been that, while we
+condone the failings of those creatures we make useful
+to us, we ignore the virtues of other and much more
+estimable ones. Thus, we admire the Bee because we
+benefit by his labours, while we have not a good word
+to say for the Wasp, who is, in point alike of industry and
+intelligence, the Bee’s superior.</p>
+<p class='c010'>An attempt has been here made to view some of
+the animal creation from a broader point of view, and to
+endeavour to do justice to those whose good points have
+been hitherto persistently ignored, and to take down others
+from the pedestal upon which they have been placed, as
+it would seem, unfairly and unreasonably. If some of the
+conclusions at which we have arrived are not in accordance
+with those propounded by men of science, we can only say
+that we are sorry for the men of science.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It has only to be added that some of these essays were
+first presented to the world in the columns of the <i>Evening
+Standard</i>.</p>
+<div class='c011'>G. A. H.</div>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c000' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 class='c007'>CONTENTS.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<table class='table0' summary=''>
+<colgroup>
+<col width='83%' />
+<col width='16%' />
+</colgroup>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class='c013'><span class='fss'>PAGE</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE ELEPHANT</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#ELEPHANT'>1</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE CROCODILE</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#CROCODILE'>7</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE CAMEL</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#CAMEL'>13</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE DONKEY</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#DONKEY'>19</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE DRAGON</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#DRAGON'>25</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE TORTOISE AND TURTLE</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#TORTOISE'>30</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE SHARK</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#SHARK'>36</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE SNAKE</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#SNAKE'>41</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>FROGS</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#FROGS'>47</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>DADDY LONG-LEGS</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#DADDY'>54</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE APHIS</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#APHIS'>59</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>GEESE</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#GEESE'>65</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>SLUGS</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#SLUGS'>72</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE PIG</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#PIG'>78</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>CATERPILLARS</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#CATERPILLARS'>84</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE DOMESTIC FOWL</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#FOWL'>90</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE SPARROW</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#SPARROW'>96</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>FLIES</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#FLIES'>101</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE PARROT</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#PARROT'>107</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE COCKROACH</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#COCKROACH'>113</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>MICE</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#MICE'>118</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>CATS</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#CATS'>124</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE LADYBIRD</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#LADYBIRD'>130</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE DOG</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#DOG'>136</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>SHEEP</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#SHEEP'>143</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE BEE AND THE WASP</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#BEE'>150</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE BEAR</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#BEAR'>156</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE SPIDER</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#SPIDER'>162</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE GNAT</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#GNAT'>167</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE ANT</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#ANT'>173</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE BEAVER</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#BEAVER'>179</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE SQUIRREL</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#SQUIRREL'>184</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE FLEA</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#FLEA'>189</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE MOSQUITO</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#MOSQUITO'>195</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE COW</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#COW'>200</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE OCTOPUS AND CUTTLE FISH</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#OCTOPUS'>206</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class='c012'>THE BACILLUS</td>
+    <td class='c013'><a href='#BACILLUS'>212</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c000' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c000'>
+    <div><span class='xxlarge'>THOSE OTHER ANIMALS.</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='c014' />
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='ELEPHANT' class='c007'>THE ELEPHANT.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>IT must be admitted that it is hard upon the citizens of
+the United States that the elephant is not found in
+the Western Continent. The Americans have an especial
+fondness for big things. They are proud that they possess the
+biggest Continent, the largest rivers, the longest railways,
+the loftiest trees, the most monster hotels, and the tallest
+stories of any people in the world. It is, then, extremely hard
+upon them that they have not also the biggest quadrupeds.
+Two good-sized quadrupeds, indeed, they had—the bison
+and the moose—but they are fast disappearing. As they
+were not the very biggest, the citizens of the States had no
+interest in preserving them. Had the elephant been there,
+he would, doubtless, have been religiously protected as
+a subject of national glorification. The elephant is not
+thought so much of in the countries where he resides. In
+India he has been utilised, but in Africa is prized only for
+his flesh and his tusks. He is considered to be a highly
+intelligent animal, and in books for children is generally
+spoken of as the sagacious elephant; but in proportion to
+his size he is rather a poor creature in the way of intelligence,
+and the brain of the ant, tiny as it is, contains more real
+thinking power than the skull of the elephant.</p>
+<p class='c010'>It can hardly be doubted that he owes much of the respect
+in which he is held by man to the peculiar formation of his
+proboscis. A large nose is generally considered as a sign of
+ability in man, but even the largest human nose is, since the
+change of fashion abolished its usefulness as a snuff-box,
+incapable of any other function than that of an organ of
+smell, and as a convenient support for a pair of spectacles.
+It is practically fixed and immovable, at least for all
+purposes save that of expressing the emotions of scorn
+and disdain. Man has, then, never recovered from the
+astonishment and admiration experienced by the first discoverer
+of the elephant at finding a beast capable of using
+his nose as a hand—of conveying his food to his mouth
+with it, and of utilising it in all the various work of life.
+This peculiarity has been more than sufficient to counterbalance
+the many obvious defects in the appearance of
+the elephant—his little pig-like eyes, his great flat ears, his
+short and stumpy tail, and the general hairless condition
+of his leathern skin. Then, too, mankind, even in the
+present day of advanced education, are worshippers of
+brute strength, as is evidenced by the attraction of the
+feats performed by strong men; and the elephant possesses
+enormous strength. This, however, is positive rather than
+relative, for he is a poor creature indeed in comparison
+with the flea, or even with the beetle, both of which can
+move weights enormously exceeding their own. Even the
+donkey could, bulk for bulk, give the elephant points.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The elephant is but a chicken-hearted beast. In spite of
+his size and strength he is easily scared, and a hare starting
+up at his feet has been frequently known to have excited
+in him an uncontrollable panic. Now and then one can
+be trained to await quietly the charge of an angry tiger;
+but this is rather because of the confidence that the
+animal feels in the shooting of the men he carries than in
+his own powers, and after having been once mauled he can
+seldom be induced to repeat the experiment. Naturally, the
+elephant is timid in the extreme; the slightest noise startles
+him, and, except in the case of a solitary bull rendered
+morose by being driven from the herd by younger rivals, he
+will seldom unless wounded face man. He is, like most
+animals, capable of being taught something; but when it is
+considered that he lives a hundred years, while the dog
+lives but ten or twelve, he would be stupid indeed if he
+did not in all that time come to some understanding as
+to what was required of him; but even at his best, a
+well-trained dog is a vastly more intelligent animal. This,
+indeed, might only be expected, for the elephant’s brain
+is smaller in proportion to its bulk than is that of almost
+any other creature, being little larger than that of man; and
+while the brain in man is of about one-twenty-fifth of the
+size of the body, that of the elephant is but one-five-hundredth
+part. We should, therefore, pity rather than blame the
+creature for the smallness of his capacity. It may be said
+that Baron Cuvier, who made the habits of the elephant a
+subject of attentive study, came to the conclusion that at
+the best he was no more intelligent than a dog.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id004'>
+<img src='images/p004.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c015'>The elephant should have been admired by Dr. Johnson
+on the ground that he is a good hater. Although his brain
+is not capable of holding many ideas, his memory of an
+injury is particularly retentive, and if he has to wait for
+years, he will get even at last with any one who has played
+him a trick. In old
+times the elephant was
+trained to war.
+Gunpowder had
+not been invented,
+and the
+elephant
+was therefore
+practically
+invulnerable;
+but
+even then his utility was problematical, and if pricked by
+an arrow or javelin, he was as likely as not to turn tail, and
+to spread confusion and death in the ranks of the troops
+that marched behind him. His courage, in fact, is beyond
+all comparison less than that of the horse, who seems to
+enjoy the clamour of battle, and will carry his rider unflinchingly
+through the heaviest fire. As a beast of burden
+the elephant has his uses, and in countries impassable to
+wheeled vehicles he is very valuable, especially in the
+carriage of pieces of artillery that could not be transported
+by any other available means. Upon a level road, however,
+he possesses no advantage whatever over smaller animals,
+which will not only drag larger weights in proportion to the
+food they consume, but will do so at much greater speed.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The elephant, in fact, appears to have been built up with
+a single eye to his own advantages, and altogether without
+reference to the use he might be to man. He is admirably
+fitted for sustaining the struggle for existence. The mechanism
+of his feet is such as to sustain to a nicety his enormous
+weight. His thick skin enables him to push his way through
+the thickest and thorniest jungles with impunity, and his flat
+ears closely set to his head also facilitate his passage. The
+great strength and pliability of his prehensile trunk, with its
+finger-like termination, enables him either to break off the
+massive limb of a tree or to pick up the smallest tuft of herbage.
+By its power of suction he can pour volumes of water
+down his throat, or cool himself by spurting it over his coat
+of mail. In his natural state, before man appeared upon the
+scene, he had few enemies, and it was therefore unnecessary
+to cultivate the attribute of courage. His bulk imposed upon
+smaller though fiercer creatures, and his thickness of skin
+protected him from their assaults. As for intelligence, he
+needed but a small degree of it,—his food lay everywhere
+within his reach, and he had no occasion for either craft
+or speed in obtaining it. He was a huge perambulating
+machine for the conversion of vegetable matter into flesh,
+and as such he performed his functions admirably, and had
+no occasion to look further. In his progress, in fact, from
+the germ up to the elephant he steadily devoted himself to
+purely selfish ends. Courage was unnecessary, because he
+intended to be so large and so armour-clad that none
+would assault him, while, as he had no relish for flesh, he
+had no need for courage to assault or for speed to pursue
+others. It was useless to be intelligent, since for him there
+was no occasion either to hide or to seek. He had but to
+stretch out his trunk to procure abundant sustenance, and
+more brain than was needed for this would be but lumber.
+His digestive organs, on the other hand, were to be upon
+the largest scale, so as to permit him to enjoy the pleasure
+of constant and prodigious feeding. These points must
+have been steadily kept in view during the whole upward
+progress of the creature, and it is but due to it to say that
+they were crowned by perfect success. The elephant was
+a world to himself—not a very lovable, or intelligent, or
+courageous one, but sufficient in all respects for his own
+wants and desires; and it would be hard to blame him
+because he has not devoted himself to the cultivation of
+qualities that, although admirable in our eyes, would have
+been wholly useless to him in the career that he had marked
+out for himself.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='CROCODILE' class='c007'>THE CROCODILE.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>THE crocodile and its very near relative, the alligator,
+possess a double interest to man. In the first
+place, they are the relics of a bygone age. Their cousins,
+the ichthyosaurus and the plesiosaurus, and the other great
+Saurians, have happily long since vanished from the world,
+but the crocodile is still with us, and doubtless retains
+traditions of the days when he and his relatives ranged
+undisputed masters of a swampy universe, undisturbed even
+by anticipations of changes and cataclysms that should
+render the world an unsuitable place of habitation for,
+at any rate, the larger species among them. The second
+reason for man’s interest in the crocodile is the crocodile’s
+marked partiality for man. The crocodile and the alligator
+differ very slightly from each other; the principal difference
+being that the alligator has a broader head, and that the
+hind feet of the crocodile are much more completely
+webbed than are those of the alligator.</p>
+<p class='c010'>The general observer, however, would see no greater
+differences between members of the various species of
+alligators and crocodiles than between different human
+beings; but the scientific man delights in subtleties, and
+there is nothing that affords him a deeper satisfaction than
+in discovering slight peculiarities and differences that enable
+him to divide and subdivide, to invent fresh hard names,
+and so to deter as far as possible the general mob from
+the study of the subject. As, roughly speaking, the crocodile
+inhabits chiefly the Old World, while the alligator has almost
+a monopoly of the New, the former was naturally first known
+to man, and was an object at once of fear and admiration.
+Its mouth was so much larger than that of man, and its
+armour so much more perfect than anything that man
+could contrive, that it is easy to understand the admiration
+it excited. Our first written record of it is in Job; and
+it is there, under the name of Leviathan, spoken of as the
+bravest and most formidable of all creatures, as “a king
+over all the children of pride.” The Egyptians, who were
+given to worship animals, and perhaps saw more of the crocodile
+than they liked, did their best to win its goodwill, and
+elevated it to the rank of a deity. Their tame crocodiles
+were well cared for; and although perhaps these did not
+derive any very lively satisfaction from being adorned with
+rings of gold and precious stones, they doubtless appreciated
+the abundant food with which they were supplied, and the
+feasts of cake, roast meat, and mulled wine occasionally
+bestowed upon them. The Indian variety have had an
+equally good time of it, and their reputation in that part
+of the world has lasted longer than in Egypt, and indeed
+still continues, large numbers being kept in tanks belonging
+to some of the temples, still regarded as sacred, and fed
+abundantly.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The alligator of Northern and Southern America, although
+it has always been held in great respect by the
+natives, has scarcely risen to the lofty position occupied
+by its Eastern cousins. It has, nevertheless, held its own,
+being too formidable and well defended to be interfered
+with with impunity. Although killed and eaten occasionally,
+it was as a rule left severely alone, its flesh having a musty
+flavour, that needs a strong stomach and long familiarity to
+appreciate. Of late, however, evil times have fallen upon
+the alligator. A use has been found for it. So long as the
+dead crocodile was considered as worthless, save for the
+somewhat disagreeable food it furnished, so long the alligator
+was safe; but it was otherwise as soon as it was
+discovered that a portion of it was a marketable commodity.
+Some close investigator remarked that under its coat
+of mail it wore a leathern doublet exactly corresponding to
+it, and found that this doublet was capable of being turned
+into an excellent peculiarly-marked leather. From that
+day the fate of the alligator was sealed. It will doubtless
+be a long time before it is exterminated, even in the
+United States; but, like the bison, it has to go. Already
+on the rivers where the population is comparatively thick
+it has become rare, and even in the swamps where it
+formerly was undisputed master the search is hot for it.
+Theoretically this will be a matter for regret; practically
+its loss will not be sensibly felt.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It may be owned that the alligator has been to some
+extent maligned, and that the number of human beings
+destroyed by it was by no means so great as its exceeding
+numbers in some of the sluggish rivers of the
+Southern States or of South America would warrant one
+in expecting. Nevertheless, it was certainly a very formidable
+foe, and a swimmer attacked by it had but small
+chance of escape. Unlike the shark, the crocodile kills its
+prey by drowning; the shark can take off a limb with a
+single bite, the alligator has no such power. Its teeth are
+sharp and pointed, but placed at irregular distances apart,
+and though these can wound and lacerate sorely they have
+no cutting power whatever, and when it has captured and
+drowned a prey too large to be swallowed at a mouthful,
+hides it up in a deep hole or under the river bank until it
+decomposes sufficiently for the reptile to be able to tear it
+in pieces. It is said that any one seized by an alligator or
+crocodile can, if he possess a sufficient amount of presence
+of mind, compel the creature to let go by thrusting his
+thumbs into its one vulnerable point—its eyes. The experiment,
+however, is one that cannot be recommended.
+It would doubtless be interesting, but, like Alpine climbing,
+the satisfaction of success would scarcely compensate for
+the risk incurred.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>In no creature have the defensive powers been carried to
+the same perfection as in the case of the crocodile: its coat
+of armour is absolutely invulnerable to the weapons that
+it was intended to withstand; and even now that man has
+armed himself with rifles, he is unable to penetrate its
+defence unless the creature is struck in the eye or in the
+thick skin of its leg-joints, which are comparatively exposed.
+The coat of mail, doubtless, possesses certain disadvantages,
+as did the armour worn by the knights of the Middle Ages;
+while this was proof against missiles of all kinds, against sword
+and dagger, the knight, if unhorsed and hurled to the ground,
+was unable to rise without assistance, and lay a helpless
+victim to the dagger of the meanest camp-follower. So it
+is with the crocodile; it can turn its head but at a slight
+angle with its body, and can turn itself only by means of
+a long <i>détour</i>; hence an active man or an animal of any
+kind can easily escape it, unless suddenly seized or knocked
+over by the sweep of its tail.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The crocodile possesses many amiable qualities. It is
+an excellent mother. It does not indeed sit upon its eggs
+like a hen, but this is simply because it knows that the
+heat of the sand in which it buries them is amply sufficient
+to hatch them. The earlier crocodiles, which doubtless
+followed the example of birds, would speedily discover
+that what was good for the goose was not good for the
+crocodile, and that while but a small supply of heat passed
+through their armour, its weight was disastrous to the wellbeing
+of the eggs. The crocodile, however, carefully guards
+the buried eggs, and as soon as they are hatched watches over
+the young with anxious and continued care; she escorts
+them to the water, and once there protects them to the
+utmost of her power from all assailants, among whom, it
+must be admitted with regret, the male crocodile figures
+prominently. This care on the part of the mother continues
+during many months of the young crocodile’s life.
+In spite of this, only a small proportion of them arrive at
+maturity, for in their early days great numbers fall victims
+to vultures and other birds during their rambles on shore.
+Like all saurians, the crocodile is partial to warmth, and as
+it is capable of prolonged fastings it is able to spend a
+considerable portion of its life basking or asleep on the
+sands in the sun.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The crocodile’s eye is provided with three distinct lids.
+It is evident that this advantage admits of an extraordinary
+variety of what may be called eye-action, and it is probable
+that these animals are able to converse with each other
+by means of the varied action of the lids. Man is able
+to convey a great deal of expression by the action of a
+single eyelid, and it is reasonable to suppose that the
+alligator would not have been provided with a triple
+eyelid had it not been able to utilise these coverings in
+a very marked manner. It is strange and somewhat unfortunate
+that this peculiarity should not have been made
+the subject of much further investigation and research by
+scientific men than has hitherto been bestowed upon it. It
+is evident indeed that we have still much to learn concerning
+the crocodile; and in view of its early disappearance, it is
+to be hoped that the matter will speedily be taken in hand
+by some trained investigator.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='CAMEL' class='c007'>THE CAMEL.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>DURING the countless ages that must have elapsed in
+its upward progress from the original germ, by the
+various processes of the survival of the fittest, selection, and
+adaptability to circumstances, it is clear that the camel kept
+its eyes strictly to business. The object of the germ and
+its descendants was to build up an animal that should
+be capable of enjoying existence in the desert. To this
+they turned all their attention, with, it may be admitted,
+marvellous success; but it must be added that, while so
+doing, they unaccountably neglected the beautiful, and
+turned out a creature which in point of awkwardness and
+uncouthness stands completely apart from the rest of the
+brute creation. The camel’s wide, spongy feet save it from
+sinking in the sand, its long neck enables it either to allay
+irritation by gnawing itself down its spine to the root of its
+tail, or to grab a rider by the foot, while its hind legs are
+specially adapted by their length to allow it to scratch itself
+behind the ear. It may be admitted that in these respects
+few animals have its advantages. As a provision against
+sand storms it has the unique faculty of being able entirely
+to close its nostrils; while by complicated internal arrangements
+it is able to carry its water supply about with it
+for some days. Probably the camel did not foresee that,
+while thus little by little perfecting itself for a life in the
+desert, it was constructing an animal that would be exceedingly
+useful to man, and was preparing for itself and
+its descendants a lifelong servitude; but so it has been.
+The camel was one of the very first animals that man turned
+to his use. Jacob possessed camels, and Joseph was carried
+away into Egypt by a caravan of Ishmaelites with laden
+camels. Job possessed three thousand camels at the
+beginning of his misfortunes, and was promised six thousand
+at the end. The camel has, in fact, from the first been
+made a servant by man; it is only in Central Asia that it
+is known to exist in a wild state, and it is far more probable
+that these wild camels are the descendants of some escaped
+from captivity, than that they should all along have retained
+their freedom.</p>
+<p class='c010'>The camel is capable of great and prolonged endurance
+if not overloaded or overdriven; but it is a mistake to suppose
+that there are no limits to its powers in this way. The
+authorities of the Nile Expedition fell into this error, with
+the result that in three weeks after its start from Korti, the
+four thousand camels collected and brought up at so great
+an expense were all practically <i>hors-de-combat</i>, more than half
+being dead and the rest reduced to the last stage of misery
+and weakness. The camel on this occasion showed its usual
+obstinacy, and insisted on dying as a protest against being
+obliged to travel night and day with utterly insufficient
+quantities of food and water. A similar result followed
+the confidence of the authorities of the Abyssinian Expedition
+in the power of the camel to exist without water
+when dumped down by thousands on the bare sands of
+Annesley Bay. The failure of the camel upon these
+occasions must not, however, be imputed to it as blame.
+In its progress from the germ it had anticipated only the
+conditions under which it would naturally find itself, and
+had made no allowance for the stupidity of man.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It is not surprising that the camel, finding itself from
+the first reduced to slavery and converted into a beast of
+burden, should have developed a bad temper. No epithet
+was ever more ridiculously misapplied than that of patience
+in connection with the camel. It is, in fact, only possible
+to account for its use upon the ground that when first
+applied the word bore its strict Latin signification, and
+that it was the “suffering” and not the “long-suffering”
+signification of the word that renders it applicable. The
+life of the camel is spent in one long protest against its lot.
+It grumbles and growls alike when it is laden and unladen,
+when it is ordered to rise or to kneel; to stop or to go on;
+it roars threateningly at any animal that approaches it, and
+is ready at all times to take a piece out of any one who may
+place himself incautiously within reach of its teeth, and even
+when lying down will shoot out its hind leg with wonderful
+activity and viciousness to a distance of some two or three
+yards at a passer-by. The camel has literally no pleasures; its
+life is one unbroken round of toil, and it would seem almost
+that it has cultivated ill-temper until it has become a form
+of enjoyment. Even the camel’s walk is evidently the result
+of deep calculation, for it is of all kinds of gait the most
+unpleasant for its rider. The camel has its regular pace,—it
+will walk two miles and three-quarters an hour, neither faster
+nor slower,—and however urgent the need of haste may be
+to its owner, neither blows nor execrations will induce the
+camel to quicken its pace except for a few hundred yards,
+at the end of which it will settle down into its regulation
+stride, with doubtless much inward chuckling at its rider’s
+exasperation. It would not be fair to blame the camel for
+this; its disposition has been embittered, and it is not
+unreasonable that it should find an alleviation in the only
+way open to it. Indeed, man has much reason to be
+grateful that the obstinacy of the camel does not take the
+form of refusing from the first to live, rejecting sustenance,
+and persisting in giving the whole thing up as soon as its
+eyes are open to the lot awaiting it.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p016.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>There are breeds of camels that differ materially from the
+ordinary specimen in point of speed. The Heirie or Maherry,
+and the Sabaye, are very swift, and will keep up a trot of
+eight or nine miles an hour for many hours together, and
+have been known to perform a journey of thirty-five days’
+caravan travelling in five days, doing six hundred and thirty
+miles; while Purchas says that camels will carry messages
+from Timbuktu to places nine hundred miles distant in
+less than eight days. These fast camels have but one
+hump; but this is also the case with some of the beasts of
+burden. The object of these humps is not very clear, but
+it is supposed that as the stomachs are a reservoir of water,
+so the humps are natural portmanteaus in which the animals
+convey a reserve of sustenance to draw upon in case of
+need. It is, at any rate, certain that the fatty substance
+composing the humps considerably diminishes and dwindles
+when the animal is overworked.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The camel has courage as well as endurance: it goes
+on at its regular pace like a clock that is wound up,
+until it stops suddenly and falls; when it once does so,
+nothing can induce it to endeavour to use its feet again
+as long as man is present, although after the departure of
+the caravan it has been known to get up to browse on the
+bushes, and to find its way back to the wells from which
+it started in the morning. It is very insensible to pain.
+Count Gleichen, in his account of the Camel Corps in the
+Nile Expedition, gives many instances of this; notably the
+case of one camel which, having had its lower jaw shot off
+by a ball from an Arab matchlock, yet continued its journey
+to the end of the day in apparent unconsciousness that
+anything unusual had taken place. The one form of enjoyment
+of the camel is that dear also to the donkey and horse—namely,
+a roll in the sand. This appears to afford it great
+comfort and consolation, and after an indulgence in it, it
+is ready, when again loaded, to start with renewed vigour.
+The Heirie, being better treated and cared for than the
+ordinary camel, is naturally a very much better tempered
+beast than his humble congener, and is even capable of exhibiting
+an affection for his master. This is in itself a proof
+that the moroseness of disposition so general in the race is
+due to the treatment they receive from man, and not from
+any inherent incapacity to see things on their bright side;
+and the thoughtful should pity rather than blame camels
+for using their only available means of exhibiting their
+disgust and discontentment with their hard and joyless lot.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='DONKEY' class='c007'>THE DONKEY.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>WHILE the dog has risen vastly in the scale since
+Scriptural times as the friend and companion
+of man, the donkey has as distinctly descended. There is
+no reason for believing that this is the fault of the donkey,
+but lies rather in the want of appreciation on the part
+of man. The donkey is, indeed, to no small extent the
+victim of appearances, and it can hardly be doubted that
+the length of his ears has told terribly against him. This is
+not because there is anything inherently objectionable in
+a donkey’s ears. They match admirably with his general
+appearance, and their constant movement evinces the
+animal’s intelligent interest in what is going on around it.
+Unfortunately for the donkey, however, men are accustomed
+to see in all other creatures’ ears bearing a smaller proportion
+to the general bulk than they do in the case of
+a donkey, and, therefore, rashly and foolishly, jump at the
+conclusion that the donkey’s ears are excessive. This being
+once established, it naturally follows that man should
+attribute various bad qualities to the donkey, simply because
+his ears are large; but he is specially credited with stupidity
+and obstinacy. We do not hesitate to say that the
+stupidity is very much greater on the part of man, who
+fails to recognise the characteristics of one of the most worthy
+of animals, than on that of the donkey himself; for it may
+be doubted whether any individual of the animal creation
+possesses so many virtues as he does. He is strong, hardy,
+patient, laborious, and, in his wild state, fleet and brave.
+He can live on the most meagre provender; he can stand
+all climates. He is a willing servant, and does not despise
+humble work. He is affectionate whenever he gets a chance
+of being so, and is one of the most intelligent of animals.
+The horse is more showy, but in proportion to the amount
+of food he consumes, and to his weight and size, he is less
+strong than the donkey; he is undoubtedly less intelligent,
+and, in spite of his size, he is no fleeter. The wild ass
+can leave the horse behind him; can climb precipices
+inaccessible to his rival, can go fearlessly along mountain
+paths where the horse would not dare to tread, and is in no
+way inferior in courage. Well groomed and cared for, his
+coat is almost as sleek and glossy; while he is free from the
+various vices that so often mar the usefulness of the horse.</p>
+<p class='c010'>When living under similar conditions, the horse recognises
+at once the superior sagacity of the ass. On the
+great ranches of the Western States of America donkeys are
+frequently turned out with droves of horses, and in such
+cases the donkey is always accepted as the leader, and the
+horses gather round him, or follow his footsteps with
+implicit confidence. The wild stallion on the plains is
+a very formidable animal, and is more than a match for
+man himself when unprovided with firearms; but the ass
+has no fear of it, and the testimony of the plains’ men
+is unanimous that in a combat between them the jack
+is likely to come out the victor. In such cases the donkey
+is well aware that he is no match for the stallion with his
+heels, but fights with his teeth, and the combat resembles
+that between a well-trained dog and a bull. The jackass
+will rush at his opponent, and, skilfully dodging the blows
+from its fore legs, will leap at its throat, and, having once
+caught hold, his grip cannot be shaken off. In vain will
+the stallion strike at him, in vain lift him in the air and hurl
+him down again, for the jack, with his legs well apart, will
+always come down on his feet. In vain will the horse
+throw itself down and roll with its opponent. The jack
+will hold on until the horse succumbs to his grip, or the
+flesh he has seized comes away in his hold.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p022.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Seeing his utility to man, his willingness to give all his
+strength for so slight a return, his patience under hardship,
+starvation, and cold, it is wonderful that the ass is not more
+highly appreciated, and that he does not occupy a far higher
+place than he does in our regard. In one respect only has
+the ass a weak side. If, as the philosopher says, silence is
+golden in the case of man, it is still more so in the case
+of the ass. The donkey prides himself, not upon his many
+and sterling virtues, but upon what others consider to be
+his greatest failing. Unfortunately, like many human
+beings, he entertains an altogether mistaken idea as to
+his vocal powers, which he never loses an opportunity of
+exhibiting. Other animals use the voice for the purpose of
+expressing their emotions. The dog’s bark expresses joy,
+watchfulness, or menace; his growl, anger; his whine, impatience
+or discontent. The horse is naturally silent, but
+his neigh is indicative sometimes of welcome, sometimes
+of impatience. Love is the burden of the bird’s song.
+Maternal solicitude, or a desire for food, that of the baa of
+the sheep. The donkey’s song appears to express nothing
+but his desire to favour all within hearing with a specimen
+of the beauty and power of his voice, and of his amazing
+vocalisation. Thus he lifts it up at all times, and in all
+places, whenever the idea seizes him, and the utmost intelligence
+of man has hitherto failed to grasp the meaning
+of the strange, varied, and prolonged cachinnations. The
+boldest animal trembles when it hears them. Man puts
+his hands to his ears, and flies. It is not a challenge, it is
+not a call; it is indicative neither of hunger, nor of anger,
+nor of satisfaction. It seems simply a vocal effort, and as
+such is unique, but, unfortunately for the donkey, it is
+unappreciated. The connection between a donkey’s voice
+and his tail is obscure, but undoubted. It is impossible for
+him to do justice to himself unless his tail be elevated, and
+advantage has been taken of this peculiarity by man, who is
+apt at turning the weaknesses of others to his own benefit.
+It has been found that by attaching a weight to a donkey’s
+tail—a brick is sufficient—neither the tail nor the voice
+can be elevated. In this respect it must be owned that the
+donkey is easier to deal with than a woman; for while the
+former can be effectually reduced to silence, no means
+have hitherto been discovered for suppressing ladies with a
+mistaken estimate of their vocal abilities.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Happily of late there has been some slight reaction in
+favour of the donkey, and the Society for the Prevention of
+Cruelty to Animals has done something towards impressing
+upon the minds of the class of men who chiefly utilise the
+services of the ass that the animal is not altogether insensible
+to pain, that he needs a certain amount of
+sustenance, and that there is a limit to his draught powers.
+Why a mistaken idea upon these points should have so long
+prevailed is by no means clear. That it <i>has</i> prevailed is
+evident from the fact that a certain class of men brutally
+misuse donkeys, as they misuse no other creatures save
+their wives. Men do not take an absolute pleasure in
+beating dogs; but no one can doubt that the brute who
+lays a heavy stick across an unoffending donkey does feel a
+malicious joy in the pain he gives. Matters are better than
+they were; the schoolmaster is abroad, and so are the
+policeman and the officer of the Society, and between
+them some slight alleviation of the lot of the ass is in
+progress. But even now the spectacle of five or six hulking
+louts seated behind a staggering little donkey, and urging
+him on his way with oaths and blows, may be witnessed
+any Sunday or Bank Holiday afternoon, upon every road
+leading through the suburbs into the country, to the disgrace
+alike of our civilisation and humanity. In Egypt and in
+the East the donkey still holds something of his former
+position in public esteem, and even a portly merchant, or
+a grave functionary, has no idea that he is in any way
+demeaning himself when, perched upon the top of an
+enormous saddle, placed on the back of a donkey, he
+proceeds about his business. Had the capacities of the ass
+been equally recognised in the West, the cycle would never
+have obtained such a height of popularity as it has done.
+A well-made cycle will cost almost as many pounds as a
+donkey will cost shillings. Its expenses of repair will equal
+in cost the keep of the donkey, and, except as a means of
+promoting perspiration and keeping down flesh, no human
+being would compare the easy and gentle amble of the
+donkey with the labour required for a cycle as an instrument
+of progression. It is a pity that among the many good
+works that have been effected by the influence of Royalty
+that of raising the donkey in public esteem has hitherto had
+no place. The appearance of the Princess of Wales in the
+Park, in a light equipage drawn by two handsome donkeys,
+would in a short time produce a moral revolution, and the
+good little beasts would soon resume their proper place in
+popular favour.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='DRAGON' class='c007'>THE DRAGON.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_7_0_65 c009'>LIKE the dodo, the moa, and the great auk, the dragon is
+admittedly an extinct animal, but that is no reason
+why his characteristics should not be considered in these
+pages. The question that has long agitated scientific
+men is, first, as to the extent to which the personal peculiarities
+of the dragon have been exaggerated by popular
+tradition, and in the second place as to the period at which
+he became extinct. There have been those who have even
+asserted that his existence was purely apocryphal, but with
+men so mentally constituted argument is useless. The
+traditions of almost all nations point to the fact that not
+only did the dragon exist as a race, but that individual
+dragons continued to exist down to comparatively modern
+times. We may set aside at once the dragon of Wantley.
+Cæsar makes no allusion to dragons existing in Great
+Britain; Wantley did not exist before Cæsar’s time; therefore
+there can have been no dragon at Wantley. But it is
+not possible so summarily to dispose of all legends, and it
+is remarkable that the dragon should figure with almost
+precisely the same characteristics in the folk lore of both
+Western and Oriental peoples. Our most valuable national
+coin bears its portrait, and it is the national emblem both
+of China and Japan. St. George, as we know, was a warlike
+saint of Cappadocia; although his feats and adventures
+are somewhat doubtful and misty as to locality, it may be
+assumed that the dragon who succumbed to his prowess
+was a native of Asia.</p>
+<p class='c010'>The dragon is, in fact, an exceedingly interesting problem,
+and the balance of probability appears to be wholly in
+favour of his existence. We know that great winged
+saurians inhabited the earth in prehistoric times, and such
+a creature would be likely to survive cataclysms which
+overwhelmed the greater portion of his contemporaries.
+Water would not seriously inconvenience him. His habits
+would on the whole be retiring, and until man multiplied
+and became thick over the world, there would be but
+small inclination to interfere with him. The saurians
+attain to extreme longevity, and if only a few specimens
+escaped at the time of the flood, their descendants of a
+very few generations would have existed in comparatively
+modern times. The Chinese legends point to the preservation
+of the dragon in this manner. They say that at a
+time which closely approximates to that generally assigned
+to Noah’s deluge, great floods extended almost to the
+boundaries of China, and that it was at that time that the
+dragons first made their appearance and became a serious
+scourge in some of the frontier provinces. Doubtless the
+European traditions connected with the dragons were
+brought by the tribes which wave after wave poured in from
+Central Asia, and it must be assumed that there, if anywhere,
+the survivors from the flood for some time flourished.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It is certainly difficult to assume that the descriptions of
+these creatures by so many peoples and such diverse sources
+would be all but identical, had they been purely the work
+of imagination and not drawn from a living model. All
+accounts unite in describing the dragon as a creature
+clothed with scales, possessing a flexible neck like that of
+the plesiosaurus, a large head, with jaws well furnished with
+pointed teeth like the crocodile’s, a flexible tail like the
+lizard’s, and wings like a pterodactyl’s. The flying apparatus
+of these extinct creatures, indeed, closely resembled that of
+a bat, being a membrane from the vastly extended finger
+of the fore leg to that of the hind leg. This does not agree
+with the popular idea of the dragon, but the ancients were
+not close observers, and it was quite enough for them to
+know that their gigantic enemy was furnished with wings,
+without inquiring closely into their arrangement. It does
+not appear that the dragon was able to fly, but it would
+rather seem that when he ran to attack an enemy he aided
+himself by flapping his wings, as a swan often travels along
+the surface of the water before it fairly takes to flight.
+Some of the dragons are depicted as altogether devoid of
+wings, the Imperial Japanese dragon showing no signs of
+such appendages. Thus both the Chinese and Japanese
+legends go far to prove that several species of saurians
+survived for some time the general disappearance of their
+prehistoric congeners. The legendary dragons differ but
+slightly from some of the prehistoric reptiles, and as the
+Orientals were entirely in ignorance of the former existence
+or appearance of these creatures, it is difficult in the
+extreme to believe that they could have coined from their
+own imagination a creature so closely resembling them.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>In one respect only we must admit an error, and a
+serious one. Most of the legendary dragons possessed
+stings at the tip of their tail. We give up the stings, but
+at the same time would urge that this error cannot be
+considered as destructive of the truth of the legend. In
+the present day it is popularly believed by the vulgar that
+the larva known as the Devil’s Coach Horse—a creature
+which when alarmed carries its tail in a threatening manner
+over its head—is, like the scorpion, armed with a sting.
+In some countries, too, it is believed that dragon-flies are
+similarly armed. If, then, such errors can exist in an age
+of general enlightenment, it may well be that in older
+times the dragon, a creature certainly rare as well as very
+terrible, was by the popular fancy endowed with means of
+defence even more formidable than those he possessed.
+The breath of the creature is in all legends relating to it
+described as fœtid and poisonous. And as undoubtedly
+snakes exhale a fœtid odour, there is nothing improbable
+in the assertion that the dragons also did so.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>No details whatever have come down to us as to the
+domestic habits of the dragon. We only know that he
+desolated whole provinces, and that the only method of
+preserving the community from his attacks was the appeasement
+of his appetite by the offering of victims. These
+victims are generally represented as being young females,
+but it is not probable that the dragon himself was particular
+on this score. Women would be chosen for the
+tribute, partly because it was supposed that their tender
+flesh would be more gratefully received than that of tougher
+victims; but much more because women were in those days
+considered of smaller account than men, and could be
+pounced upon and handed over to the monster with much
+less fuss and trouble than would have been the case had
+fighting men been chosen. Women’s rights in those days
+were much less perfectly understood than at present; and
+the question of the equality of the sexes had not so much
+as occurred even to the most speculative philosophers.
+The origin of the story of the female tribute evidently is,
+that the dragon was too formidable a creature to be assailed,
+and that it was deemed sound policy to keep him in a state
+of lethargy in the cave in which he dwelt by supplying
+him with an occasional victim, rather than that he should
+sally out and make his own selection. The whole story
+would seem to show that the dragon was, like most
+saurians, content to pass a tranquil existence unless when
+disturbed; that, like the rest of the race, he was capable
+of prolonged fasts; and that, huge as was his bulk, a meal
+once a month or so sufficed for his needs. The dragon was
+said to roar, and this again is another confirmation of the
+truth of the legend, for the crocodile when enraged can
+bellow like a bull, and this would naturally be the sound
+that a great saurian would utter. Upon the whole, it is
+evident that the balance of probability inclines heavily towards
+the reality of the existence of the dragon up to comparatively
+modern times; and we may still cling to the belief
+that the national legend of the victory of St. George over
+the dragon is not wholly apocryphal, but possesses a large
+substratum of truth.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='TORTOISE' class='c007'>THE TORTOISE AND TURTLE.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>THE tortoise has in all ages been an object of wonder
+to man. Its form, its slowness of movement, its
+wonderful coat of armour, its power of prolonged fasting,
+the absence of any apparent pleasure in its existence, have
+all seemed to set it apart among living creatures. The
+Orientals, who are profound thinkers, arrived at the conclusion
+that the world must be held up on the back of a
+tortoise, no other creature appearing capable of sustaining
+the burden. But even their powers of speculation shrank
+from endeavouring to cope with the inevitable problem:
+what in that case held up the tortoise? There was nothing
+in the habits or customs of the tortoise, as met with on the
+surface of the earth, that could authorise the supposition
+that it could, in any state, not only support itself in the air,
+but hold up the not inconsiderable burden of the earth;
+indeed, the problem was evidently so insoluble an one that
+we meet with no trace in any of the writings of the early
+pundits that they ever attempted fairly to grapple with it.</p>
+<p class='c010'>It would certainly seem that nature has been more unkind
+to the tortoise than to any other creature. It has
+given it nothing whatever to compensate for the dulness of
+its existence or its slow and laborious method of progression.
+Almost all other creatures are, in their youth at any rate,
+gay and frolicsome, delighting in their powers of speed and
+activity. No one has ever observed the tortoise at play; it
+can neither run nor frisk, climb a tree, nor throw a somersault.
+It plods gravely on from its birth to its death, like
+a creature in a living tomb, carrying a burden that seems
+almost too great for its strength—eating a little, sleeping
+a great deal,—thinking, it must be presumed, for even a
+tortoise must do something, deeply and uninterruptedly.
+As it sees so little of the world around it, we must suppose
+that its meditations are self-directed, and that it is continually
+occupied with attempts to solve the problem of the
+why and the wherefore of its own existence. As it has a
+hundred years to think this out, there is no reason to doubt
+that were the tortoise capable of conveying its thoughts and
+conclusions to man the results would be of the highest
+value, and that it would be found that the speculations of
+our deepest thinkers are shallow indeed by the side of
+profound meditations of the tortoise. It has, too, the
+advantage of long traditions, and the accumulation of the
+wisdom of ages; for the tortoise is, perhaps, the oldest
+existing creature on earth. Its congeners, who ranged with
+it the surface of the earth countless ages before the present
+race of animals existed, have all passed away, but the tortoise
+remains almost identical with his far-off ancestors.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The number of varieties of the land and water tortoise,
+the latter known as the turtle, are very great, and are of
+high interest to scientific men; the points of structural
+difference between them, especially in the skull, being very
+much more numerous and important than those existing
+between any species of animals, birds, reptiles, or fish.
+Their habits differ as widely as their structure. Of the
+land tortoises, some prefer a vegetable diet, some insects,
+worms, and molluscs, while some of the larger turtles will
+feed upon fishes and small aquatic birds. Both land and
+water tortoises are capable of fasting for upwards of a year.
+Their tenacity of life is extraordinary, for their hearts will
+continue to beat, and they are still able to move their limbs
+with considerable force, for ten or twelve days after their
+heads have been cut off. The tortoise is sensitive as to
+weather; it does not like too great heat, and lies in the
+shade when the sun is strong. It equally objects to cold,
+and buries itself under loose rubbish, or scrapes itself a
+hole in the ground on the approach of winter, taking many
+weeks about the operation.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It might be thought that, clad in its waterproof coat, it
+would regard rain with indifference; but this is far from
+being the case, for if a shower is at hand it will hurry
+away to shelter. It can only be supposed that this extreme
+sensitiveness to all atmospheric changes has been bestowed
+upon the tortoise to afford it matter for interest and excitement.
+Not only does it sleep throughout the whole of the
+winter months, but in summer it retires to rest early in the
+afternoon, and remains asleep till late in the morning. In
+the Galapagos Islands the tortoises rival in size those of the
+prehistoric period, weighing three or four hundred pounds.
+The speed of these animals is relatively fast, for they can
+travel as much as six yards a minute. The water turtle
+attains even a greater size, individuals having been taken
+weighing from sixteen to seventeen hundred pounds.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The life of the turtles and fresh water tortoises is a
+lively one in comparison to that of the land species.
+Instead of the short and misshapen legs that serve the
+purposes of locomotion to the latter, they are furnished with
+paddles that enable them to swim with great rapidity, and
+were it not for their sleeping habits, and for the necessity
+for the females to go ashore to lay their eggs, man would
+have but few opportunities of enjoying turtle soup, for
+their speed is far greater than that at which any boat
+could be rowed. They are thus able to obtain an abundance
+of food from the slower moving fish; and as their
+power of jaw is very great they are practically masters
+of the waters they frequent. Those close observers, the
+Chinese, who have a marked partiality for turtle, do not
+rely wholly upon its sleepiness of habit or its occasional
+landings for their supply of soup; they employ in their
+service a fish of the Remora species, which is of peculiar
+construction, and possesses a great power of grip. These
+fish are trained to the work, and taken out in tubs in the
+fishing boats. To the tail of each fish a ring is attached,
+and to this the fisherman attaches a long cord, and slips the
+fish overboard as soon as they approach a basking turtle.
+Directly the fish discovers the turtle, it makes towards it,
+and fixes itself firmly to it by means of a peculiar apparatus
+upon its head. The fisherman then hauls in the rope, and
+pulls both fish and turtle to the boat, and on getting them
+on board pushes the fish’s head forward, when it at once
+looses its hold. The story would appear incredible were it
+not vouched for on high authority.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Except as an example to man of patience under a
+singularly joyless life, the purpose of the land tortoise is
+not very marked. The second lesson it teaches—namely,
+that a life of indolence and lethargy conduces to extreme
+longevity—can scarcely be considered as an advantageous
+one. One species, indeed, furnishes a material that is
+utilised principally for the manufacture of combs and
+female ornaments, and it was remarked by the Brothers
+Mayhew as singular that the tortoise which supplies ladies
+with combs has itself no back hair. However, even in
+this respect the uses of the tortoise have of late years been
+greatly discounted by the introduction of compounds of
+india-rubber for the purpose of combs, and the decline of
+the fashion for the lofty decorative combs used by our
+grandmothers—a fashion which, however, appears to be,
+to a certain extent, reviving just at present.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p034.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Properly considered, the tortoise should be viewed as an
+example to be avoided rather than followed. Had it not
+been for the indolent habits of the prehistoric tortoise, there
+can be little doubt that it would in time have effected
+very considerable changes in its structure. The survival
+of the fittest might not have done much for it, as all
+tortoises can hold their own in the way of living on. But
+the progress of selection, the intermarriage between active
+males and females, would naturally have led in time to a
+much greater development of leg, and the tortoise might
+have become as speedy on land as the turtle in water.
+Unfortunately active tortoises, male or female, were extremely
+scarce, and the result of ages of indolence has been
+that the race has remained absolutely without progress, and
+that no visible improvement has been effected since its first
+introduction among the inhabitants of earth. The lesson
+furnished by it cannot be too earnestly taken to heart,
+especially as we see the same thing, although in a modified
+extent, among the lower races of humanity.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='SHARK' class='c007'>THE SHARK.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_25_0_65 c009'>PHILOSOPHERS, although as a rule men of exceedingly
+positive opinions, wholly averse to confess their
+ignorance upon any point whatever, have failed signally in
+arriving at any satisfactory conclusion as to the advantage
+of the shark in the general scheme of nature. It has been
+suggested that it was created specially for the repression
+of conceit in man, and to show him that he was not,
+as he might otherwise have supposed, the undoubted
+lord of the inhabitants of the water as of the dwellers upon
+earth. Given special advantages—such as that of holding
+the end of a stout rope, at the other extremity of which is a
+hook fixed in a shark’s mouth—man may, with the assistance
+of a number of his fellows, have the best of the shark. But
+alone, and in the water, the advantage is wholly and absolutely
+the other way, and the strongest swimmer and the bravest
+heart fail when the tyrant of the sea seeks to make his
+acquaintance. It is true that reports have been current
+that there are natives of the islands of Southern Seas, who,
+armed with a knife, fear not to go out and give battle to the
+shark in its own element, but these tales must be accepted
+with caution, and are akin to the many apparently authentic
+narratives of the appearance of the sea-serpent.</p>
+<p class='c010'>The shark is a creature gifted with great strength, a savage
+temper, dogged perseverance, and exceptional power of jaw.
+The lion and tiger may mangle, the crocodile may lacerate,
+the bulldog may hold fast—the shark alone of living creatures
+possesses the power of cleanly nipping off a human limb at a
+bite. One ill service nature has done the shark, namely,
+that of placing a triangular fin on his back, which acts as a
+danger signal and gives warning of his approach. Happily
+the shark has not been gifted with sufficient sagacity to be
+aware of this peculiarity, for had he been so he would
+unquestionably have abandoned his habit of swimming
+close to the surface of the water, and would in that case have
+been enabled to approach his victim unobserved. The shark
+is a slow swimmer for his size and strength. Byron observes,
+“As darts the dolphin from the shark,” but Byron was a
+poet, and does not appear to have been a close observer of
+the habits of the inhabitants of the water; or he would have
+known that a shark would have no more chance of catching
+a dolphin than a sheep would of overhauling a hare.
+A shark will keep up with a sailing ship, but it is as much
+as it can do to follow in the wake of a fast steamer, and a
+torpedo boat would be able to give it points.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>As it is a source of wonder how the flea manages to exist
+in the sand, where his chances of obtaining a meal may not
+occur once in a lifetime, so naturalists are greatly puzzled
+how the shark maintains himself. The ocean is wide, and
+the number of men who fall overboard small indeed in
+comparison to its area. The vast proportion of sharks,
+then, must go through their lives without a remote chance
+of obtaining a meal at the expense of the human kind.
+There is no ground for the supposition that the shark can
+exist upon air. He is not, like the whale, provided with an
+apparatus that enables him to sweep up the tiny inhabitants
+of the seas. He is too slow in swimming, and infinitely too
+slow in turning, to catch any fish that did not deliberately
+swim into his mouth; and unless we suppose that, as is said
+of the snake, he exercises a magnetic influence over fish,
+and causes them to rush headlong to destruction between
+his jaws, it is impossible to imagine how he obtains a sufficient
+supply of food for his sustenance. As it would appear
+that it is only when he gets the good luck to light upon
+a dead or badly injured fish that the shark has ever the
+opportunity of making a really square meal, his prolonged
+fasts certainly furnish an ample explanation and excuse for
+his alleged savagery of disposition.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The scientific name of sharks is <i>squalidæ</i>, though why
+scientific men should have fixed upon such a title is not
+clear, for there is to the ordinary eye nothing particularly
+ragged or squalid about the shark’s appearance. The shark
+belongs to the same section as the ray, which fish, however,
+resembles its cousin the shark only in the awkward position
+of its mouth, and in its astonishing power of biting, it being
+able to indent an iron boat-hook or bar. The immemorial
+enmity between man and the snake on land is not less
+bitter and deep-seated than that which man on the sea
+cherishes against the shark. In this case, however, it is
+one-sided, everything pointing to the fact that so far from
+having any hostile feeling for man, the shark has an excessive
+liking for him. It is as unjust to charge the shark
+with hostility towards man as it would be to accuse man
+of a savage animosity against the ox or the sheep. To the
+shark man is food to be eaten, that is all; and man, the
+almost universal devourer, is the last who is entitled to blame
+the shark on this ground. The Maori has always been regarded
+as a remarkably fine specimen of a savage, and his
+liking for “missionary” has never been seriously imputed to
+him as a grave failing. Man’s likes and dislikes are unfortunately
+sadly tinged with selfishness. Many men go to
+sea, and therefore the man-eating propensities of the shark
+excite in us a feeling of indignation. The proportion of
+men who went out as missionaries to the Maori was so
+small as to be altogether inappreciable, and the majority
+therefore regarded the weakness of the Maori for them from
+a purely philosophical point of view.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Fortunately for the inhabitants of these islands, the
+aversion of the shark to cold water is as much marked as is
+that of the occupants of the casual wards of our workhouses;
+and the consequence is that the larger and more dangerous
+species are very seldom met with on our coasts, and upon
+the rare occasions when they visit us, are in so low and
+depressed a state of mind from the cold that their appetites
+appear to be wholly in abeyance, and there is no record
+of a bather having been devoured at any of our sea-side
+watering places.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The eye of the shark is small, long, and narrow, closely
+resembling that of a pig. All observers have agreed in
+attributing to it a sly and malicious expression, but this must
+to some extent be taken as a flight of fancy. The only real
+reason for attributing to the shark a savage disposition is that,
+like the wolf, it has no pity whatever for a comrade in distress,
+and a wounded shark will be instantly attacked and devoured
+by its companions. This is, indeed, an evil trait in the creature,
+and can be excused only on the ground of its prolonged
+fasts, and the overmastering demands of its appetite.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The shark, like the elephant, is of a timid disposition, and
+is cautious and wary in its approaches. All observers are
+agreed that it is always attended by two pilot fishes, who act
+the same part as that wrongly assigned to the jackal in
+reference to the lion—going on ahead to examine any likely
+object, and returning to inform the shark whether it is of an
+eatable nature. The splashing of oars, or even of the arms
+and legs of a swimmer, will often deter the shark from
+making an attack, and there is every reason to believe that
+if swimmers in tropical waters would always carry with
+them three or four hand grenades, they would have little
+occasion to fear interference from him. It is strange that
+so obvious a precaution should be generally neglected.
+The inability of the shark to seize its victim without
+turning itself first upon its back must be a serious inconvenience
+to it, and a swimmer with sufficient presence
+of mind to await its coming, and then when it turns to
+dive suddenly under it, can baffle the rush of a shark,
+just as a man can avoid the charge of an enraged bull by
+coolness and activity. Man’s aversion to the shark here
+stands greatly in his way, few swimmers when attacked
+possessing sufficient coolness and presence of mind to carry
+the manœuvre into successful effect, although many possess
+nerve enough to await without flinching the onset of the most
+formidable of terrestrial animals. Did we know more of the
+domestic habits of the shark, and learn to appreciate the
+virtues that he probably possesses, there can be little doubt
+that the unreasoning aversion felt towards him would be
+largely mitigated, and we should come to make due allowance
+for the pressure of hunger that at times operates to
+our own disadvantage.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='SNAKE' class='c007'>THE SNAKE.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>IN treating of the snake it should at once be premised
+that all accounts of it must be received with a certain
+amount of suspicion, as representing the views of man
+as to the snake, rather than the real state of things. It is
+notorious that no historian, however much he may strive to
+write without bias, can be thoroughly trusted in his account
+of matters in which he is a partisan of one side or another.
+Upon no subject is man more strongly prejudiced than upon
+that of the snake; and although he may endeavour to do it
+justice, it is impossible that he should succeed, writing as he
+does under the influence of a hereditary enmity against it.
+The transaction in the Garden of Eden is doubtless responsible
+for much of this feeling among Western peoples; but
+this would have no influence with Orientals and others who
+are still in ignorance of the legend, and the feeling must
+therefore be considered as a natural and instinctive antipathy
+throughout the whole human race. Whether such a
+feeling would ever have existed had not a considerable
+proportion of snakes been provided with poison fangs, is
+a point that can never be determined with precision; but
+the probabilities are certainly strongly in favour of the theory
+that it is entirely to its lethal powers that the snake owes
+the distrust and hostility of man. In itself there is nothing
+that is or should be objectionable in its appearance. Very
+many species are beautifully marked; their movements are
+for the most part graceful; and they are admirably adapted
+in all respects for the life they have to lead. The harmless
+sorts have frequently been tamed, and are capable of considerable
+affection for their masters; and even the poisonous
+kinds, when deprived of their fangs and accustomed to the
+presence of man, have no objection to be handled, and
+submit to familiarities without any show of resentment.
+Unfortunately for the snake, man is not endowed with an
+instinct that enables him at once to distinguish between the
+harmless and venomous species, and the consequence is,
+that in the countries where snakes abound, one of the first
+things impressed upon the minds of little children by their
+mothers is, that the snake is a creature to be severely
+let alone; and even in a country like our own, where
+poisonous snakes are rare, we are never able in after life to
+completely emancipate ourselves from the prejudices of
+childhood. The snake, upon the other hand, has no natural
+hostility to man. If man places his foot upon its tail it will
+of course retaliate, but with a few exceptions the snake
+never goes out of its way to attack man, and will always
+avoid a contest if the opportunity be afforded to it. Indeed,
+there is every reason to believe that if man were
+inclined to be on good terms with it, the feeling would
+be more than reciprocated. The snake suffers much from
+cold, and would gladly accept the genial warmth of the
+human bed, or the human dwelling, were it but made
+welcome. Even as it is, it does sometimes seek that
+warmth, with consequences that are frequently unpleasant
+either to man or itself.</p>
+<p class='c010'>As man has at all times been in the habit of deifying
+creatures of which he is afraid, it is not surprising that snake
+worship has existed to a very considerable extent among most
+of the primitive peoples of the world in localities where the
+snake is a good deal in evidence, and even among the moderns
+it is intimately associated with the author of all evil. Among
+the almost infinite number of legends that surround the
+snake, and testify to the deep respect in which it has always
+been held, is that to the effect that earthquakes are due to
+the movements of a gigantic serpent immured deep down
+in the centre of the world. Had the snake been gifted with
+the ordinary powers of locomotion, it is probable that he
+would have excited a smaller amount of disfavour, but man
+is given to dislike anything that he does not understand, and
+the mysterious and silent movements of the snake were
+to him so unaccountable as to excite antipathy. It is
+remarkable, however, that the worm, whose mode of
+progression is somewhat similar, has escaped the same
+odium. The eye of the snake has unquestionably operated
+to his prejudice; there is an entire want of expression about
+it which baffles the effort of man to penetrate its mask, and
+to get at the creature’s inner nature. Had the snake been
+endowed with an eyelid and a clear liquid eye, man would
+have been more inclined to respond to its advances, and to
+give it the place it requires by his domestic hearth. It is
+doubtless unjust that the snake should suffer from a defect
+for which it is not personally responsible, but unfortunately
+man is not always just in his dealings with the lower order
+of creation.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The snake varies in dimensions far more than does any
+other living creature. The dog perhaps approaches most
+nearly to it in this respect, but the dog is to a great extent
+what man has made him by careful breeding and selection;
+and yet even in that case the great St. Bernard is not so
+large in proportion to the tiny toy terrier as is the giant boa
+of tropical forests by the side of some of the slender little
+whip snakes. Undoubtedly the snake in prehistoric times
+grew to much larger dimensions than at present, and skeletons
+of snakes have been found in America by the side of which
+the largest existing python is absolutely insignificant. Indeed,
+they rival in size the largest sea-serpent, as described by its
+beholders. The serpent that kept a whole Roman army at
+bay was but a pigmy to these extinct creatures, and man
+has reason to congratulate himself that they probably disappeared
+before he had any opportunity of coming into
+contact with them.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>No theory has been offered by men of science why some
+species of snakes should be provided with venomous fangs,
+while others have no such advantage, and there have been
+hot arguments whether the original father of all snakes was
+or was not so furnished. The balance of probability would
+certainly appear to be with those who argue that he must
+have had venomous teeth. Had it not been so, it is difficult
+to believe that his descendants could by any process of
+survival or selection have established poison bags in their
+jaws, with the necessary apparatus for passing that poison
+through hollows in the fangs. Upon the other hand, it is
+easy to understand that had the snakes all been originally
+so furnished, some of them might, either from accident or
+from incautiously grasping a round stone under the belief
+that it was a bird’s egg, have knocked out their fangs, and
+that their descendants might have been born without them.
+We have, indeed, an example of similar action in the case
+of the Manx cat, who, being descended from an ancestor
+which had, either by traps or otherwise, the misfortune
+to lose his tail, begot a race of tail-less cats, whose descendants
+have to the present day lacked the usual caudal
+appendage. If, then, a cat could transmit this accidental
+peculiarity to his descendants, there can be no reason to
+doubt that, in some cases, a snake having lost his poison
+fangs could be the father of a race of snakes similarly
+deficient.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>As might be expected, the largest snakes all belong
+to the non-venomous species. Being unprovided with the
+teeth that enabled their congeners to slay their prey or
+combat enemies, the fangless snakes would naturally devise
+other means to procure a living. Having no offensive
+weapons, they would recognise at once that some entirely
+novel means must be hit upon. They could neither bite
+nor tear their prey: they could neither stun it with blows,
+nor, like the crocodile, drown it. It was, we may suppose,
+to a snake of exceptional genius that the idea occurred of
+squeezing a foe to death. The idea was, doubtless, received
+with enthusiasm, but to be carried into effect against any
+but the smallest of creatures it was clearly necessary that
+the fangless snakes should attain far larger dimensions than
+those possessed by any of the species furnished with poison
+fangs. However, the idea once mooted, Mr. Darwin’s
+system of natural selection would do the rest. The smaller
+individuals remained small, and from them sprang the blind
+worm and other species of harmless snakes. The larger
+individuals paired together, and keeping the one object
+steadily before them, in time their descendants attained the
+gigantic proportions of the fossil serpents, who could have
+mastered and made a meal of the Mastodon as easily as the
+largest boa now existing could dispose of a rabbit. With the
+disappearance of the huge prehistoric animals, the serpent
+must have seen that unless he were to perish of hunger it
+was necessary for him to reduce his size; and by a long
+process, the exact reverse of that by which he had built
+up his bulk, he diminished himself to dimensions which,
+though still vastly greater than those of the poisonous snake,
+were yet in exact proportion to the size of the animals that
+were henceforth to furnish him with food.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>So far there has been no marked change in the sentiments
+which man and the snake have entertained towards each
+other from the earliest times; and it is probable that at no
+distant date, when man has peopled the world to its utmost
+limits, the snake will find that it is incumbent upon him
+to go.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='FROGS' class='c007'>FROGS.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>THERE can be no doubt that frogs do not stand as high
+as they ought to do in the estimation of the world.
+They are regarded as creatures of little account, and their
+large mouths and general emptiness have told against them,
+though why this should be so can hardly be explained,
+seeing that several human beings possessing precisely the
+same characteristics are regarded as great statesmen. But
+these physical peculiarities are, after all, a minor consideration,
+and the low estimation in which frogs are regarded
+really arises from an irreparable misfortune which has
+befallen the whole race—namely, their inability to stand
+upright. It is this inability which has sunk the frog so low
+in the scale of creation. Had he possessed the power of
+standing upright, his striking resemblance to a somewhat
+stout human being would have been so remarkable, that it
+is probable he would have ranked even higher than the
+monkey as a type, if not as an ancestor, of man. Any one
+who has seen well executed specimens of frogs set up in the
+attitudes of human beings, must have been struck with
+the extraordinary resemblance, and a community of frogs
+capable of walking would undoubtedly be regarded by men
+as the closest assimilation in the animal world to human
+forms and ways. Frogs, no doubt, owe this loss of the
+power of walking to the persistent habit of their early
+ancestors of sitting in the water, a habit which, at first,
+naturally resulted in lumbago, and finally deprived them
+and their descendants of
+the proper use of their
+lower limbs.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p048.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>In the earlier ages of
+the world there is strong evidence that frogs had not
+lost this power; and the learned may without difficulty
+assign the origin of all the early legends of pixies, brownies,
+and dwarfs to the accidental discovery by ignorant rustics
+of communities of frogs, which had not, as yet, lost the
+power of walking. It may, of course, be urged that even
+admitting the existence of troops of little manikins
+with human motions, this would not account for the
+long conversations and strange doings reported of the
+brownies and pixies, were these nothing but frogs with
+the power of standing and walking upright. But such
+an argument fails to take into consideration the united
+power of superstition and imagination. Have not elaborate
+ghost stories originated upon no more solid basis than a
+shadow upon a wall, a fluttering garment, or a wreath of
+evening mist? Are not the Irish peasantry full of stories of
+the most detailed adventures with fairies, and are not all
+popular myths built up on the most slender foundations?
+The frightened peasant who, returning from work in the
+gloaming, first came upon a tribe of frogs walking about
+like human beings, would, upon reaching home, scared out
+of his senses, magnify what he had seen. Not content with
+describing the tribe of little men, clad in green and brown
+jerkins, he would be sure to invent further wonders in the
+way of conversation, and, as his story spread, so it would
+grow, until the existence of a race of brownies would become
+locally believed in. The next rustic who came upon the
+tribe of frogs would of course outvie the first discoverer
+in the fulness of his details; and thus we can see how, upon
+the foundation afforded by the frogs who had not yet
+lost their power of walking upright, the whole superstructure
+of brownies, pixies, and elves would naturally be
+raised.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>No one who has closely watched the habits of a frog can
+doubt that he possesses great thinking powers, and a fund
+of information, inherited or acquired. His habit of sitting
+motionless is clearly identical with that of the philosophic
+thinker. There can be no reason why he should so long
+remain in the same attitude, save that he is meditating.
+His weather-wisdom is notorious; he descries the approach
+of wet weather long before any change is visible to the
+duller sense of man. As an athlete he is remarkable, in
+spite of his comparatively disproportionate girth; he can
+leap long distances, and as a swimmer he is unrivalled.
+Although habitually silent, he is capable of sustaining a
+lively conversation, and even of singing. These accomplishments
+he is chary of displaying in this country, having
+experience of the proneness of the rustic boy to cast stones
+at him; but in countries such as Italy, where the boy is
+less aggressive and the frog more numerous, the force and
+power with which a tribe of frogs will lift up their voices in
+chorus is astounding.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It has been the opinion of scientific inquirers that the
+frog could do a great deal more talking than he does if
+he chose. Certain it is that a frog, when in danger, such
+as being played with by a cat, can cry like a child, making
+himself heard two or three hundred yards away. But it
+is only on an emergency like this, or when assembled in
+conclave, that the frog cares to break his customary silence.
+He acquired the habit undoubtedly during the period of
+his sojourn under water in the guise of a tadpole. During
+that period of his life he had neither means nor opportunities
+of exchanging ideas with his fellows, and the result is the
+same taciturnity in afterlife that would be shown by a human
+being deprived during his early years of all friendly intercourse
+with others. That the frog possesses a strong sense of
+humour is undeniable. The manner in which he will sit,
+apparently unconscious of the approach of man, until a hand
+is outstretched to seize him, and will then, with a whisk and
+plunge, dive headlong into a pool, and lift his head from
+the water at a safe distance, in evident enjoyment of the
+trick he has played, is a proof of this.</p>
+
+<div  class='figright id006'>
+<img src='images/p051.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>That frogs are dainty eating is acknowledged by all who
+have tried them. In this
+respect their striking likeness
+upon a small scale to
+the human race has, doubtless,
+been advantageous to
+them, for it is this which
+has deterred the fastidious
+from feasting on them,—the
+idea that there
+is something approaching
+cannibalism
+in the consumption
+of a frog
+being still
+very strong
+in the
+uncultivated
+human mind.
+It has been
+urged, as an
+argument
+against the
+near relationship
+of frogs
+to the human family, that they build no abodes for themselves;
+but such abodes would be clearly superfluous in
+the case of creatures who absolutely prefer being wet
+to being dry, who are comfortably clothed in handsome
+waterproof jackets, and prefer to eat their food raw to
+cooking it. In some respects the frog has an advantage
+over the human being. He has no trouble whatever with
+his family, which is a large one, for, from the first, tadpoles
+are able to set themselves up in life without assistance from
+their parents.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Frogs vary in colour and habit in different countries
+fully as much as do the human race. Although, as a
+family, they prefer marshy places, some species never go
+near the water from the time they emerge from the tadpole
+state until they return to it full of family cares. There are
+other kinds which make their living among trees, climbing
+with great sureness of foot, rivalling the leaves in their hue,
+and feeding upon the insects that frequent them. This
+power of adaptation to circumstances must be taken as
+another proof of the intellectual development of the frog,
+and, had the race received as much consideration from
+man as has fallen to the lot of many animals, there is
+no saying to what point their intellectual faculties would
+have developed. As it is, it cannot be denied that they
+compare not unfavourably with similarly neglected human
+beings, and the frog can, at least, claim to be on a level
+with a Digger Indian.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Whether the frog is endowed with courage is a moot
+point. He has not, it is true, been seen to dispute the
+passage of his favourite haunts with wild beasts, or even
+with horses or oxen; but this may arise from magnanimity
+as well as from want of courage, and he may feel that,
+being able to enjoy the pool at all times, it would be
+unjust to grudge a drink occasionally to thirsty animals.
+As to insects, he is less tolerant, and destroys those
+who venture on the surface of what he considers his water
+with promptitude and despatch. Enough has surely been
+said to show that the frog is worthy of vastly higher
+consideration at the hands of man than he has been
+in the habit of receiving, and that, were it not for that
+unfortunate affliction in the matter of legs, frogs would
+attract great attention from their striking similarity to men,
+their meditative habits, their powers of concerted singing,
+and their great athletic attainments. Now that attention has
+been called to them, doubtless the race will be seriously
+studied, and it may be expected that it will be discovered
+that they possess far higher and finer traits of character
+than has hitherto been suspected.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='DADDY' class='c007'>DADDY-LONG-LEGS.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>ONE compensation for the coming of winter is that at
+that season we are free from the presence of the
+daddy-long-legs, known to the scientific as <i>Tipula oleracea</i>,
+who comes among us in the autumn in vast hosts, and
+makes himself as unpleasantly conspicuous as possible by
+his earnest and persevering efforts to commit suicide in
+our lamps and candles. This creature is remarkable as
+being a standing protest against the Darwinian theory of
+the survival of the fittest. Nothing could be more unfit
+than this insect to battle for existence; his flight is slow and
+weary; he is incapable of dodging his pettiest foes, and his
+long, useless legs are everywhere in his way. Had there
+been anything in the theory, the <i>Tipula oleracea</i> would
+have set to work to shorten his legs, to strengthen his wings,
+and to attain something of the easy elegance and lightness
+of movement of his first cousin, the gnat. That it is no
+fault of his own that he has not done so we may be sure,
+for evidently the creature is painfully conscious of the
+clumsiness of his appearance and gait, and is prepared at
+the shortest of notice to divest himself altogether of the
+legs which are such an encumbrance to him. The urgency
+of his desire to commit suicide in the flames is another
+proof of his consciousness that he is a painful failure, and
+that the sooner he terminates his existence the better, and
+he gladly yields up his life on the smallest pressure between
+the human finger and thumb. He himself is unable to see,
+and no one else has been able to discover, the <i>raison d’être</i>
+of his existence. He is certainly not ornamental, nor is he
+useful. He has no means of defence, and seems to have
+no joys in his life. He does not appear to have even
+the pleasure of going to sleep. Other insects are diurnal
+or nocturnal in their habits, but the <i>Tipula</i> is active all
+day, and about and on the look-out for candles all night.
+The closest observer has never seen him close an eye.
+Even in the grub state his existence cannot be a cheerful
+one, unless he derives a positive pleasure from the act
+of devouring everything he comes across. For as a grub,
+he possesses no legs, and no visible eyes; he is a round,
+wrinkled, tough tube, and one of the most destructive of
+the enemies of the farmer and the gardener.</p>
+<p class='c010'>Why in one stage of his life this creature should be
+altogether legless, while in the other he should possess an
+absolute superfluity of leg, is a problem which has puzzled
+the deepest thinkers, and it has been suggested that the
+abnormal stupidity of the daddy-long-legs is caused by his
+own ineffectual efforts to grapple with the problem. Nature,
+indeed, has given to him an infinitesimally small amount of
+brain. While in the fly and the ant the head bears almost
+the same proportion to the body as it does in the human
+species, in the <i>Tipula oleracea</i> it is not the hundredth part
+of the bulk of the body; indeed, it is questionable whether
+in all nature a creature is to be found so badly provided
+with head. Even the rustic mind, which is slow to recognise
+facts in Natural History, views this unfortunate and misshapen
+insect with good-natured pity and sympathy. The
+very village boys abstain from tormenting him, partly perhaps
+from their feelings of kindly contempt; more because
+he is too slow and stupid for his chase to cause any excitement;
+most of all because he parts with his legs and wings
+so willingly that there can be no pleasure in tormenting
+a creature who does not care whether he loses them or not.
+The <i>Tipula</i> is spoken of by rustics as Gaffer-long-legs, sometimes
+as Peter—or Harry-long-legs, and is credited with a
+character for harmlessness and blundering well-meaningness,
+which is sufficiently well deserved in his state as a perfect
+insect, but is wide of the mark indeed in his larva stage. The
+wrinkled tube is one of the most voracious of creatures,
+and nothing comes amiss to it. The roots of grass, turnips,
+potatoes, and, indeed, almost all vegetables, are equally
+welcome. When the villa gardener sees with dismay his
+cherished little piece of lawn turn yellow and gradually
+wither up, he knows, or ought to know, that it is the work
+of the grub of the daddy-long-legs. He had, indeed, in the
+autumn watched swarms of these creatures blundering about
+on the grass, taking short flights of a foot or two, and settling
+down again, but it did not then strike him that each and
+every one of them was hard at work laying eggs, and that
+their seemingly meaningless flights were only movements
+from crevice to crevice in the soil, an egg being inserted in
+the ground whenever the <i>Tipula</i> could find a spot in which
+she could introduce it. The work of maternity once completed,
+the daddy-long-legs waits till nightfall, and then
+hastens to commit suicide at the first friendly light. As
+many will, if an opportunity be offered, perform this speedy
+despatch previous to the deposition of their eggs, those
+who have the wellbeing of their lawn at heart will do well
+to light a fire of shavings or other brightly burning stuff in
+the close vicinity of their grass for an hour or two every
+evening when the daddy-long-legs first begin to appear in
+form. They will fly into the flames by thousands. Some
+may urge that such a method is cruel, but death in a large
+body of flame is instantaneous. Indeed, ocular demonstration
+is abundant to show that these creatures, as, indeed,
+most other insects, are scarcely capable of suffering; for,
+were it otherwise, it is hardly possible that they should,
+after repeated singeings, continue to fly at a candle flame till
+they finally succeed in destroying themselves. Where such
+measures as this are not taken, and the flies are permitted
+to deposit their eggs in the soil, the only method of safety
+is by rolling the ground with very heavy rollers, so as to
+destroy the grubs, but this has only a partial success, as
+most of them are too deep below the surface to suffer injury
+from the pressure.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Birds are valuable allies to the farmer and gardener in
+their war with the daddy-long-legs, but their numbers are
+wholly insufficient to cope with the evil. Even the most
+voracious bird would be choked did he try to stow away
+more than a certain-sized bundle of straggling legs and
+wings in his crop. Moreover, the <i>Tipula</i> appears at about
+the same time that plums ripen, and birds greatly prefer
+stone fruit to daddy-long-legs. As our own taste inclines
+the same way, we cannot find any serious fault with them
+on this score. Spiders dispose of a few, but it is remarkable
+that, awkward and blundering as the daddy-long-legs’ flight
+is, he very seldom intrudes into the meshes spread for him
+by the spider. He makes no efforts to avoid a human
+being, and will fly right into his face with the greatest
+nonchalance; he will settle in his hair, and cling to his
+clothes, but he will almost always manage to avoid a spider’s
+web. In the autumn spiders are extremely plentiful, and
+their webs spread from bush to bush, and from tree to tree,
+are a perfect nuisance to passers-by. With the nets spread
+for them in all directions, it is wonderful how the <i>Tipula</i>
+manages always to avoid these snares; for, however thickly
+they may be swarming in the garden, it will need a very
+careful search to find a single specimen in one of the webs.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>This naturally gives rise to the idea that the daddy-long-legs
+is a far craftier insect than he is generally assumed to
+be, and that his awkwardness of gait and motion is assumed
+merely to gain sympathy and toleration; just as a woman
+pretends to be an invalid when she wishes to coax her
+husband into giving her something she has set her mind on.
+There may be something in the hypothesis, but the smallness
+of head and lack of brains are against the theory; and
+we prefer to believe that the insect’s power of avoiding the
+snares of the wily spider is due to some at present undiscovered
+sense or instinct. The daddy-long-legs has not
+been used to any extent for edible purposes, but there is no
+reason why he should not be as good as the locust, who is
+by no means bad eating. Those who are fond of experiments
+could easily collect a sufficient number by the aid of
+a sweep net on any piece of grass during the month of
+September.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='APHIS' class='c007'>THE APHIS.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>INDIVIDUALLY the aphis is insignificant; collectively
+the aphides are a mighty army working incessant
+damage to man. Whether the locust, the caterpillar, or the
+aphis effects the greatest injury upon the vegetation necessary
+to man’s existence is a moot point. Were the locust
+to be found in all parts of the world, instead of being confined
+within comparatively limited regions, the palm would
+certainly be awarded to it, for the locust spares nothing,
+and destroys every green thing as its armies march along.
+The caterpillar and the aphis, although far more widely
+distributed, are less universal in their tastes, and fortunately
+neither of them has any partiality for cereals, the great staple
+of man’s food. It may well be believed, however, that were
+it not that the caterpillar is kept down by the ichneumon, and
+the aphis by the ladybird and other foes, both would in a very
+short time multiply so vastly that having devoured every
+other green thing they would be driven to fall upon the
+corn crops in their green stage; for when approaching ripeness
+the cereals are far too hard for mastication even by
+the jaws of the caterpillar, while the aphis might as well
+endeavour to obtain sustenance from a stone-wall. It is
+needless, however, here to enter into a detailed consideration
+as to the respective merits, or rather demerits, of the
+three insect scourges; it is enough that one aphis alone is
+fully capable, if left to its own devices, of developing in the
+course of a single year into a host so mighty that it would
+cover the land and wither up and devour all green things.
+While the caterpillar devours the substance of plants, the
+aphis only sucks their juices, and kills by so enfeebling the
+shoots that they are unable to put forth their leaves. It is an
+awkward, slow-moving creature, with its heavy green body
+swelled almost to bursting with vegetable juice, supported
+by legs so thin and fragile that they can scarce hold up its
+weight; and yet it seems to pervade all nature, and to appear
+at its season in vast armies, which fall almost simultaneously,
+it would seem, upon the plants it affects. So sudden and
+unaccountable is their appearance, that there are many
+persons who have maintained, and vast numbers still firmly
+believe, that the aphis is spontaneously produced from the
+juices of the plants it affects. The rose-grower will go into
+his garden and watch the young shoots from the leaves
+making vigorous progress, and he smiles to himself at the
+thought of how soon the sprays will be covered with rich
+blossoms. A cold night comes, followed perhaps by a day
+or two of dull weather. He shakes his head as he inspects
+his bushes, and marks how the delicate young leaves are
+slightly discoloured. He knows what will follow. Two or
+three days later every shoot is closely packed with a layer
+of the green fly sucking up its vital juices. It is not
+surprising that the grower absolutely refuses to believe that
+the whole of this infinite number of creatures were floating in
+the air waiting to pounce upon his plants at the very instant
+when, weakened by the frost, they are the less able to resist
+its attacks.</p>
+<p class='c010'>What renders the problem still more difficult is that the
+aphis army is not homogeneous. Each plant has its own tribe
+that prey upon its juices. The bean aphis differs from that
+of the rose, and this again from the hop fly; and, indeed,
+the number of varieties of aphis is exceedingly large. This
+greatly adds to the difficulty of explaining their simultaneous
+appearance in such countless numbers, for it would
+be necessary to imagine not only one army of aphides ready
+to sweep down upon vegetation weakened by frost or east
+wind, but a number of them, each selecting the particular
+plants they love, and rejecting all others—one hovering
+round the town looking out for the rose-trees in its suburbs,
+another scouring the rural districts in search of beans or
+peas, a third biding its time until drought or long spell of
+wet weather shall have weakened the hop bines to a point
+when they may be in a condition to suit its palate. It must
+be remembered that their appearance upon a certain plant
+is not gradual, but almost simultaneous. A week after a
+sharp frost on a May morning the whole of the rose growers
+in the district affected by the frost will find their plants
+attacked by the aphis, while the wail of the hop growers
+at the appearance of the fly will rise simultaneously over a
+whole district. The scientific explanation is that the appearance
+of the aphis in such vast numbers simultaneously is
+due to its prolific nature, but the practical man refuses to
+credit the suggestion. The aphis is prolific, but not prolific
+in the same way as is the white ant. The aphis will produce
+twenty-five offspring daily, but this will not account
+in any way for the fact that within a day or two of the pest
+making its appearance hundreds of thousands are to be
+found on every rose bush. Could the female aphis, like
+the termite, produce eighty thousand per day, the argument
+that the whole of the rose trees in a garden have been
+covered by the offspring of comparatively few females who
+found their way there might be accepted readily enough;
+but the rate of increase is incredible when we know that
+each female can produce but twenty-five young in twenty-four
+hours. It would need, then, not a few, but an infinite
+host of winged females, to account for the phenomenon.
+That many may pass the winter as eggs in the bark of trees
+and other places may be granted, but no one has yet observed
+the vast hordes streaming out from their places of
+concealment ready to start off in search of peas or beans,
+roses or hops. Moreover, in seasons favourable to vegetation,
+when neither frost nor east winds nor prolonged wet
+nor drought weaken the plants, and they grow robust and
+strong, what becomes of the armies of green fly that would,
+had the vegetation been sickly, have pounced down upon
+it? Nothing could be less scientific than these arguments,
+but as somehow there is common sense in them, they
+commend themselves to the minds of the foolish multitude,
+who, in spite of the teaching of their instructors, still
+believe the evidence of their own eyes that the aphis is the
+product of a certain unhealthy state of the juice of plants.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>But although the increase at the rate of twenty-five per
+day by no means accounts for the almost simultaneous
+appearance of countless millions, it is a ratio that unless
+checked would by the end of the season absolutely cover
+the face of the earth, for the young ones so speedily
+become mothers that it is calculated the descendants of
+one aphis will during the season number 5,904,900,000.
+One objection on the part of scientific men to the
+spontaneous generation theory is that the aphis in other
+respects is an exception to the general law that governs the
+lives of all other creatures. It is not necessary for the
+aphis to have a father. The aphides that appear in spring
+are all females, and the process of multiplication and re-multiplication
+goes on with as much regularity as if the
+male sex had no part whatever in the economy of the
+world. It is only late in the autumn that the males appear,
+and it is not until after pairing that the females take to laying
+eggs, all the previous generations having been born alive.
+It is clear that when treating of a creature so unique in its
+habits and ways, the word “impossible” should never be
+used even by men so absolutely sure of what they assert as
+are scientific men. It is well, indeed, for man that the six
+thousand million possible descendants from each spring
+aphis do not put in their appearance. Happily nature,
+while in a moment of light-heartedness producing creatures
+possessed of such extraordinary powers of multiplication, and
+of no visible place or advantage in the general scheme of
+creation, thought proper to furnish them with a vast number
+of foes, whose life should be spent in ceaseless efforts to
+counteract the effects of this fertility. Chief among these
+stands the ladybird, but there are numerous others almost
+as indefatigable and voracious, even without counting man,
+with his tobacco juice, soap-suds, and fumigating apparatus.
+Nature has handed over the aphis defenceless to its destroyers.
+It possesses neither jaws nor sting; it is unprovided
+with armour, it cannot coil itself up like a wood louse,
+or assume a threatening aspect like the Devil’s Coach-horse.
+It is simply a helpless and unresisting victim, whose destiny
+is to do as much damage as it can to vegetation, and then
+to be slain. The closest observers have been unable to
+detect any signs of playfulness or of any other form of
+enjoyment in the aphis. Its existence is as monotonous
+as that of the vegetable the juices of which it drinks, and
+from the juices of which it is popularly believed to have
+sprung.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='GEESE' class='c007'>GEESE.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>NO thoughtful man who believes in the transmigration
+of souls can doubt for an instant that those of
+military men pass a portion of their period of change in
+the bodies of geese. Of all birds it is the most military;
+its carriage, habits, and customs all point to its being animated
+by a spirit which in some former phase of existence
+has passed through the hands of a drill sergeant. Whether
+walking, swimming, or flying, the goose shows its military
+instincts. It carries its head well upright, with a certain
+amount of stiffness, which speaks of reminiscences of the
+military stock. It advances with its comrades in solid
+phalanx, and even when feeding preserves the same order,
+and holds itself in readiness for instant action. A similar
+formation is preserved while swimming and flying, although
+in the latter exercise the goose prefers travelling in single
+file, each member of the column preserving its distance
+accurately, and keeping itself in readiness to range up in
+close order should necessity require such a movement.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p066.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>The watchfulness of the bird is proverbial. In their wild
+state sentries always keep guard over the feeding flock, and
+at night it is easier to surprise a house guarded by the most
+wakeful of watch-dogs than to approach one around which
+geese have taken up their quarters. The fact that geese
+saved Rome by giving warning of the approach of the Gauls
+while the watch-dog slept is historical, and the goose was
+ever afterwards honoured by that military people. Even now
+the goose is employed in many places as a watcher, and
+there are many nurserymen in the neighbourhood of London
+who keep two or three geese in their gardens to give notice
+of the approach of marauders upon their fruit and flowers.
+It is singular, indeed, that they have not been utilised still
+further in this direction. They certainly have the drawback
+that, however great their valour, they are not feared by the
+armed burglar as much as is a savage watch-dog; but, upon
+the other hand, they can be cheaply kept, and can bring
+up a family which can be turned to other purposes than
+that of sentinels. Of all birds they are the most courageous;
+the gallinaceæ, and, indeed, many other birds, will fight
+fiercely among themselves, but they rarely exhibit valour
+against other creatures, and are almost universally afraid of
+man. The goose, on the contrary, is of mild temper with
+its comrades, and it is rare indeed that quarrels of a serious
+nature arise even in a large flock of them; but they have
+little fear of other creatures. They will close up together
+and face a dog, and will fiercely resent the approach of a
+bull to their feeding ground; they will attack even a good-sized
+boy who ventures to interfere with them, and although
+they will retreat before a man, they do so in good military
+order, showing a brave front as they fall back, and ready
+instantly to assume the offensive if an occasion offers itself.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>In its wild state the goose is an aquatic bird, but when
+domesticated among us it prefers the dry land to the water;
+even when a pond is handy for its use, it passes but a very
+small portion of its time upon the water, and depends
+principally for its sustenance upon what it can pick up on
+the land. It has doubtless observed that the horse, the
+bullock, and the sheep, who stand high in the estimation
+of man, obtain their sustenance by grazing in the fields, and
+has therefore abandoned its family habits of feeding upon
+marine plants and insects, and has taken to grazing. It
+retains its web feet, however, so as to be in readiness for
+any contingency that may arise. This adaptability to circumstances
+has given rise to the supposition that the military
+spirits inhabiting the bodies of geese belonged in their lifetime
+to the gallant corps of marines, who always distinguish
+themselves equally by land and sea. The goose has suffered
+grievously owing to the popular, but altogether erroneous,
+belief in its silliness. How this belief—as expressed by
+calling a child a silly or a stupid goose—first originated has
+never been explained, for there can be no doubt whatever
+that the goose possesses an intelligence far above that of
+average birds.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Under ordinary circumstances the goose is dignified
+in its deportment, and there is nothing that so angers it
+as to be hurried. Under such circumstances its movements
+are awkward, and when compelled to walk much
+faster than its ordinary gait, it is often on the verge of
+falling on its nose—a misfortune which does not, so far
+as we know, happen to any other bird or beast under the
+same circumstances. It is the consciousness, no doubt, that
+its appearance when so bustled borders on the ludicrous
+that excites the anger of the goose, for it is to be observed
+that after such an exhibition it is a long time before it
+recovers its usual placidity of demeanour. At times geese
+have shown themselves capable of strong personal attachment
+to their owners, following them about like dogs, and
+abandoning their usual habits of military evolution with
+their comrades. This clearly enough points to the fact
+that these geese were, in their former state, soldier-servants,
+whose duties lay in personal attendance upon officers, and
+were never of a military character.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id007'>
+<img src='images/p069.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Unlike the hen, the female goose is not perpetually roaming
+about laying eggs. In the proper season she lays a
+sufficient number for the perpetuation of her race, and
+brings up a family more or less carefully; but even in this
+matter she does not exhibit the perpetual fussiness of the
+hen. She allows her young ones considerable freedom of
+action, but is ready in their defence to face the largest dog,
+and to oppose a threatening and formidable demeanour
+even to a human being whom she suspects of aggressive
+intentions towards them. So courageous is her attitude
+under such circumstances, that even the fiercest dogs will
+turn tail before her onslaught, and the ordinary boy, although
+he may pretend to deride her anger, will keep at
+a respectful distance from her. Undoubtedly the goose
+when attacking would have a more dignified appearance
+did it keep its head back
+in readiness for a stroke, as
+does the swan, instead of
+advancing with outstretched
+neck. This, however, is
+clearly the result of bygone
+drill, and the reminiscence
+of bayonet exercise. The
+cry of the goose is scarcely
+melodious; its hissing is almost peculiar to itself, its
+congener, the swan, being alone with it in the possession
+of the faculty of raising this angry and threatening sound.
+A flock of geese advancing to the attack, hissing
+loudly, are sufficiently alarming to the average woman,
+and terrifying in the extreme to a child, and even animals
+vastly superior in bulk and strength exhibit signs of
+trepidation when thus assailed. As might be expected,
+the goose is not particular as to its rations, and will eat
+anything. It will browse upon water weeds, it will graze
+on grass, it delights in corn, and will eat scraps of any
+kind of food. The final result of all this is eminently
+satisfactory. It is doubtful whether any kind of bird affords
+such excellent eating. Were the goose a rare bird, and its
+flesh so costly as to be seen only on the tables of the
+wealthy, it is probable that it would be considered as the
+very greatest of luxuries. Owing, however, to its numbers,
+and the manner in which it picks up its own living, it
+requires but little outlay in its rearing. Its flesh is so
+plentiful that at certain seasons of the year it can actually
+be purchased at a lower rate than butcher’s meat. At
+Christmas time geese can be bought in London at sixpence
+a pound, and the goose can fairly claim to be the working
+man’s greatest luxury in the way of food.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Although fashion has ordained that the turkey shall
+occupy the place of honour on the Christmas board of the
+well-to-do, the flesh of that bird is dry and tasteless in
+comparison to the juicy and well-flavoured meat of the
+goose. But, in addition to supplying man with some of
+his most tasty food, the goose also bestows upon him the
+most comfortable of beds. It is true that the hand of
+innovation has produced many contrivances of steel and
+iron, with complications of springs, to produce the same
+effect of elasticity as the bed stuffed with good goose
+feathers, and it may be owned that in summer time the
+spring bed possesses certain advantages, but in the depth
+of winter it is a poor substitute for the warmth and cosiness
+of the feather bed. Altogether, the goose deserves a far
+higher place than it really occupies in the esteem and
+affection of mankind. Its courage and military habits
+render it admirable when alive; its flesh and its feathers
+should win for it our warmest regard after its death.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='SLUGS' class='c007'>SLUGS.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_6_0_65 c009'>ALTHOUGH the slug is not generally classed under
+the head of <i>feræ naturæ</i>, it is in the summer time
+of the year hunted extensively, and with the greatest
+assiduity. The chase is kept up, indeed, in every garden
+in England, but it is in the villa gardens of London that
+the hunt is most actively pursued. It is not that the hatred
+towards the slug is stronger there than elsewhere, but its
+depredations are more noticed and cause greater annoyance.
+In a large country garden, although the head gardener may
+gnash his teeth when he finds that heavy raids have been
+made upon his beds of petunias or his tender young vegetables,
+the damage done is comparatively so small that it is scarcely
+noticed. But the ravages committed in a villa garden catch
+the eye at once. The possessor, if fond of his little domain,
+knows every plant in it by sight, and when he finds a dozen
+of his pet seedlings—raised under a handlight, watched,
+watered, and tended with pride and pleasure—lying upon
+the ground, eaten off a quarter of an inch above the surface
+on the very morning after being planted out, his heart is
+filled with grief and rage, and he becomes from that day a
+determined slug-hunter. This pursuit is a fascinating one;
+undertaken at first from a thirst for vengeance, it is soon
+pursued for its own sake. Many high qualities are requisite
+for marked success in the sport. It requires watchfulness,
+patience, ingenuity, a knowledge of the habits of the prey
+and of its likes and dislikes, and a certain intrepidity as to
+the risks from night air and damp feet, for it is only when
+the ground is moist that anything like a good bag can be
+hoped for.</p>
+<p class='c010'>The slug is as defenceless as the pigeon, and no greater
+share of courage is required for slug hunting than for
+pigeon shooting; but whereas the one amusement is a
+slaughter of innocents, the other is the destruction of
+ravening beasts, and stands therefore in a far higher category.
+The slug trusts neither to speed nor fierceness; we
+know from story how his cousin, the snail, when attacked,
+put to flight a troop of tailors, by the exhibition of his
+horns, or, as the scientific would tell us, of his eyes on
+their upreared stalks. But if the slug possesses eyes, he
+makes no show of them. We are aware that he possesses
+a rudimentary shell, which he carries somewhere in his
+body, and it is possible that he stows away his eyes with
+equal care.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Secretiveness is, indeed, a strong point in his character,
+and it enables him to hide himself with such marked
+success that, until he chooses from hunger or inclination
+to walk abroad, he can defy the most careful searcher.
+The slug, unlike the snail, leaves a trail behind him,
+and this remains visible for hours. The creature is
+fully aware of the danger which this shining evidence of
+his passage would entail upon him, but his native craft
+enables him to baffle his pursuers. As the fox doubles
+across his trail to throw off the hounds, so does the slug
+upon his return to his hiding-place at daylight double and
+twist until his trail is a very labyrinth which Dædalus
+himself could not solve. Men have been known in the
+enthusiasm of the chase to sprinkle finely powdered charcoal
+over a trail of this kind. The use of a bellows
+removes all the particles save those adhering to the shiny
+trail, which is thus rendered permanent, and can then be
+studied at leisure. But even under these favourable conditions
+the problem has proved insoluble, and medical men
+cannot too strongly dissuade their patients from undertaking
+a pursuit which experience has shown will eventually
+terminate in madness.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>People who write books about gardening give instructions
+for guarding plants from snails, and often recommend a
+circle of sawdust, soot, or lime to be spread round each plant.
+The villa gardener knows that one might as well try to
+keep a fox from a hen-roost by making a chalk mark on the
+door. He has tried the experiment. He has spent hours,
+and nearly broken his back, in applying these pretended
+remedies, and in the morning his most cherished plants
+have fallen before the destroyer. He knows that there is
+no prevention, and that the only cure is the persistent
+hunting down of the enemy. There are various methods
+of attaining this end. Pieces of orange peel, if laid on the
+ground, may be searched in the morning with a fair chance
+of success; for the slug is so fond of them that, instead of
+returning to his home at daybreak, he clings to them, and
+may be found underneath, gorged with over-much eating.
+Pieces of board six or eight inches square, pressed firmly
+into the ground, are a good trap, as these keep the soil
+beneath them moist, and the slug loves moisture and takes
+refuge under them. Much execution may be done by these
+and similar traps, but the enthusiast regards these devices
+with contempt, for he knows that the enemy may be thinned
+but that he will never be exterminated by such means. The
+legitimate sport is the night hunt, the search, by the light of
+a lantern, of cabbage or lettuce leaves cast down in the
+favourite haunts of the slug. On these, on a warm night
+after a light rain, it may be found by the score—of all sizes,
+from the tiny glistening speck no larger than a pin’s head,
+to the full-grown animal as long and as thick as a man’s
+little finger. The slug-hunter recognises two species of
+slugs. There are others he knows, notably the great
+black slug of the woods, but these concern him not.
+The two garden species are the white slug, slimy, active, and
+enterprising, thin in figure, and seldom over an inch in
+length; and the brown slug, very much larger and heavier,
+short and dumpty in figure, triangular in section, only slightly
+slimy to the touch, and with a coat of the toughness of
+india-rubber.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Hitherto all efforts to turn the slug to profitable use have
+failed, and mankind have been content to destroy without
+utilising it. The snail, we know, makes a good and
+nourishing soup, and nothing but prejudice prevents it
+from becoming a valuable article of food. But the snail,
+living as it does in its shell, has but a soft skin, while the
+slug possesses a coat of extraordinary toughness, which
+would seem to be an obstacle in the way of its ever becoming
+useful for culinary purposes. Inventive minds have suggested
+other uses for it. An enthusiast was convinced that
+the slug would make an admirable glue, while another has
+pointed out that the skin of large specimens, carefully
+tanned, would make imperishable fingers for gloves. The
+latter idea has never yet been carried out, owing to the
+impossibility of finding any material of equal durability and
+toughness for the other portions of the glove.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>All efforts to tame or educate the slug have been vain.
+It has, indeed, been used by showmen at fairs to spell
+out names from letters scattered at random on the stage;
+but it is well-known that the creatures were directed to
+the desired letters by small pieces of cabbage-leaf fastened
+beneath them. The exhibition was abandoned, owing
+to the slowness of movement of the creatures, as they
+took no fewer than four hours to spell out a word of
+five letters, and audiences grew tired before the conclusion
+of the performance, and did not stay to obtain the full value
+of the penny paid at the door. But although, so far,
+the slug has failed to afford either profit or gratification
+to man, its existence cannot be termed a failure, for
+there can be no doubt that, although unprovided with
+visible eyes, feet, or other organs, the slug manages to
+enjoy itself vastly. It has a keen scent, and a most discriminating
+appetite; its food is abundant, and costs it
+nothing. Although it can eat and enjoy cabbage leaves, it
+has higher tastes. For young melons and cucumber plants
+it has the keenest relish, seedlings of all sorts it loves, and the
+more rare and valuable the better it likes them. The slug is,
+in fact, a gourmand, and it is the delicacy of its palate which
+proves its ruin. Did it content itself with the abundant
+cabbage or the full-sized lettuce, men would not grudge it
+its share, and none would trouble to hunt it with lantern
+and traps; but it is its fastidiousness of appetite, its craving
+for the young and the rare, its weakness for the quarter
+of an inch next to the ground of the stalks of seedlings, which
+sets vengeance upon its track, and causes it to be hunted
+to extermination. At present, however, the end is apparently
+far off; for in spite of its foes the slug flourishes exceedingly,
+and whatever be the prospects of other game, it is likely
+to afford sport for the suburban gardener for generations
+to come.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='PIG' class='c007'>THE PIG.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+
+<div  class='figright id006'>
+<img src='images/p079.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='drop-capa0_45_0_65 c016'>SO accustomed are we to the pig in his sty that we are
+apt to forget that he is naturally one of the most
+valiant of animals, a sturdy and desperate fighter, able to
+hold his own against most wild beasts, and ready to face
+man and to die, fighting valiantly to the last, in defence of
+his wife and offspring. Whether the pig has improved or
+deteriorated under the hand of man depends upon the
+point of view from which he is regarded. Those engaged
+in consuming the succulent ham, or the crisp rasher, would,
+doubtless, reply in the affirmative; while the Indian officer,
+on his return from a morning spent in the fierce and
+hazardous sport of pig-sticking, would utter as decided a
+negative. Between the wild boar and the domestic pig
+the difference is as wide as between the aboriginal Briton
+and the sleek alderman; and, in both cases, though
+civilisation has done much, eating has done more to bring
+about the change. Gluttony is undoubtedly at the root of
+the pig’s present condition and status. It cannot be called
+a gourmand, for it is not particular as to its food, and
+demands quantity rather than quality. It is content to
+eat and to sleep alternately, and the whole energy of its
+naturally vigorous disposition is devoted to putting on fat.
+The consequence is, it is ready for market at almost any
+period of existence. Whether as the toothsome sucking-pig
+or as a venerable great-great-grandmother, the pig is,
+after a period of repose and extra feeding, equally appreciated
+as an article of food. Other animals become tough
+and lean in old age; the pig knows its duty to man better
+than this, and is ready at all times of its life to bring itself
+into the condition fitted for the knife. In his wild state
+the boar is swift of
+foot, clad in a coat
+of coarse, thick
+hairs, with bristling
+spine. His tusks
+are very formidable
+weapons, and
+he can use his
+strong forelegs to
+strike with effect.
+Even the royal
+tiger will shun a
+contest with this
+sturdy warrior, unless absolutely driven to it by hunger.
+His cousins and relations all share his courage. The
+peccary of Mexico, small as he is, will when in bands
+attack the jaguar, or even man, with absolute confidence,
+and, although many may fall in the assault, will, in either
+case, almost certainly prove the conqueror in the end;
+while the wild pigs of Paraguay are equally fierce and
+formidable, and, having driven a hunter into a tree, will
+remain round it, and refuse to retreat until scores have
+fallen by his rifle, or until they are driven away by hunger.
+The domestic pig, like the Britons when under the tutelage
+of the Romans, would seem to have lost his warlike virtues,
+were it not that there still lingers in his wicked little eye an
+expression of savage defiance that speaks of a consciousness
+of latent power ready to break into open war did he see
+a prospect of emancipating himself from his degrading
+slavery.</p>
+<p class='c010'>There is a prejudice against the pig because he is
+dirty. It is difficult to imagine a more unreasonable one.
+He is kept by man in a filthy stye, penned in within the
+narrowest possible limits, and deprived of the decencies
+of life. Under such circumstances, it is practically impossible
+that he could be otherwise than dirty. As in his
+wild state he is protected by a coat of smooth bristles from
+the dirt, nature has not bestowed upon him the long and
+flexible tongue that enables the dog and cat tribe to clean
+themselves. His short neck, too, renders it impossible for
+him to reach the greater portion of his body. The fact
+that his skin becomes dirty from the conditions under
+which he lives would matter comparatively little, so far as
+the estimation in which man holds him, were he covered
+with hair. Man is tolerant of dirt when it is not brought
+prominently under his notice, and it is the height of injustice
+to blame the pig for a hairlessness which is solely
+due to the fact that he is kept in comparatively warm
+quarters. The pig of Italy and Sardinia, which for the
+greater portion of the year picks up his living in the forests
+in a state of semi-wildness, is still well clothed with hair;
+and, indeed, it is only when kept entirely in confinement, as
+with us, that he almost wholly loses his natural covering.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The pig is an eminently vocal animal, and even in the
+bosom of his family he maintains a steady, if to man
+monotonous, conversation. He possesses a large variety of
+notes, in this respect far surpassing any other animal. The
+cat has an extensive register, but principally among the
+high notes; while the pig’s tones embrace the whole gamut,
+from the deep grunt of discontent to the wild shriek of
+despair. Properly educated, the pig should be capable of
+vocal triumphs of a very high kind, its upper notes being as
+clear and no more unpleasant than the corresponding ones
+of an operatic soprano, while the lower ones would be the
+envy of a basso profundo. It is a little singular that no
+persistent effort should have been made to utilise the pig’s
+vocal powers in this direction, although he has at times
+been taught to spell and to perform other feats requiring
+as high an intelligence as that of singing.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The pig is capable of adapting himself to all and any
+circumstances in which he may find himself. In Ireland it
+complacently accepts the position of a member of the
+family; in Africa and the East, where flesh is not in demand,
+and no one takes the trouble to fatten him, he readily assumes
+the office of scavenger in general, and performs that <i>role</i>
+admirably. No one has yet, so far as we are aware,
+adopted the pig as a drawing-room pet; and yet, if tended
+with the same care bestowed upon the lap-dog, there is no
+reason why he should not shine in that capacity. His tail is
+fully as curly as that of the pug, his skin may compare not
+unfavourably with that of the shaved poodle, while in point
+of sprightliness he is, at any rate in his younger days, superior
+to the bulldog. He would not run up curtains like a kitten,
+nor knock down valuable ornaments from the chimney-piece;
+while he might, doubtless, be trained with very little
+trouble into becoming an efficient guard in the house. He
+is certainly capable of affection, and, as all acquainted with
+his habits are aware, has pronounced likes and dislikes.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>In the East the pig is viewed with extreme abhorrence,
+or, at the best, with contempt; but as he shares this feeling
+with the dog, it must be regarded rather as a proof of the
+want of perspicuity on the part of man than of any demerit
+on that of the pig. The pig does not naturally take to the
+water, and it would have been well had he been, like the
+dog, encouraged to do so, for when once fairly driven to it
+he is a good swimmer; and the popular belief, that he cuts
+his own throat with its fore feet, is, like many other popular
+beliefs, wholly erroneous, although it is true that he will
+sometimes, in his first flurry at finding himself in an unaccustomed
+element, scratch his cheeks somewhat severely.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>In the early days of our history the pig formed an even
+more important article of food than he does now. The
+swineherd was a much more common personage than the
+shepherd; and, indeed, at a time when the greater part of
+the country was covered with a dense forest, sheep must
+have been comparatively few and rare. In all the descriptions
+of the banquets of our forefathers swine’s flesh stands
+in the very first position, and seems to have been a much
+more common article of nutriment than beef. The pig,
+indeed, affords a great variety of food. The boar’s head,
+properly garnished, is a lordly dish; brawn has always
+been regarded as a delicacy; and pig’s flesh is good whether
+boiled or roasted, salted or smoked. The pig can be eaten
+almost to the last scrap, for his feet are edible, chitterlings
+and tripe are relished by many, and from his superabundant
+fat we have the lard so useful to housewives.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>His skin furnishes an excellent leather. His bristles are
+unrivalled for the manufacture of brushes. Our ancestors
+showed their wisdom in the warm appreciation of the pig,
+and no small proportion of our cousins, the Americans, exist
+almost entirely upon his flesh. The pig is an admirable
+emigrant, and appears to be almost indifferent to climate,
+flourishing wherever it has been introduced—from the
+sunny islands of the South Seas to the rigour of a Canadian
+winter. So that it can be given sufficient food or obtain it
+by foraging, he is contented, and applies himself vigorously
+to the work of putting on flesh and rearing frequent and
+extensive families. The contempt with which the pig is
+too generally regarded should be exchanged for a respectful
+admiration of his numerous and varied excellences.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='CATERPILLARS' class='c007'>CATERPILLARS.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_45_0_65 c009'>BUTTERFLIES and gnats, bees, ants, flies, crickets,
+and many other insects, have inspired writers of
+poetry or prose; but up to the present time, as far as we
+know, no one has made the caterpillar his theme. Yet,
+closely examined, many of the caterpillars are well-nigh as
+gorgeous in their raiment as the most beautiful of butterflies.
+The caterpillar is free from the flippancy and vanity of the
+butterfly—who spends by far the greater portion of its life
+in play and flirtation; it has business to do, and does it
+conscientiously, and is indeed a character to be admired,
+save in the matter of the destruction of choice vegetables,
+for which, after all, its mother, who deposited the egg upon
+them, is, in fact, solely responsible. The caterpillar is infinite
+in its variety of hue, but chiefly affects black, ashen
+grey, and white, bright greens, yellows and browns with rich
+bands or blotches of white, yellow and scarlet, and indeed
+almost every variety of brilliant colour. Sometimes it is
+soft, smooth, and hairless; at others covered with a short,
+thick, silken coat like velvet; and occasionally bristling with
+long, stiff hair, a very porcupine among its fellows. Caterpillars
+from the time they are born give evidence of the
+possession of two predominant faculties, the one an all-devouring
+appetite; the other, the knowledge of constant
+danger and the efforts to escape the eye of their teeming
+foes. This they do in accordance with varied instincts
+inherited from progenitors.</p>
+<p class='c010'>Some will hide on the under side of a leaf, others will
+eat into its substance, and establish themselves a domicile
+between the outer and inner tissue, proceeding at once to
+enlarge their house and to satisfy their appetites. Others,
+on the approach of danger, will curl themselves up, and
+drop to the ground, trusting to fortune to fall between two
+clods of earth, but, in any case, shamming death until the
+danger has, as they believe, passed away. Another kind,
+a greyish-brown in colour, and rough and knobby of skin,
+will stand upright, imitating so exactly the appearance of a
+little bent twig, that the keenest eye would fail to detect the
+difference; while a great many caterpillars guard themselves
+against unpleasant surprises by establishing themselves from
+the first in a place of concealment, and there passing the
+greater portion of their lives. When, as not unfrequently
+happens, the chosen hiding-place is in the heart of a bud
+just beginning to form, the results are naturally the death
+of the flower, and extreme exasperation upon the part of
+its owner. There is nothing pugnacious about the caterpillar,
+all its means of defence being more or less passive
+in their character. A not inconsiderable section no sooner
+leave the egg than they set to work to form themselves a
+shelter by turning over the edge of the leaf, and fastening
+it with silken threads, so as to form at once a house and a
+hiding-place. Lastly, there are the caterpillars who live in
+communities, and establish a rampart against their foes by
+throwing round their dwelling-place a thick curtain of silken
+threads, through which their insect foes cannot break, while
+even birds seem to hold it in high respect.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The mission of the caterpillar may be considered as two-fold:
+he has to reach the chrysalis stage, from which he
+will emerge as a butterfly or moth, and then perpetuate his
+species; and he is an admirable machine for the conversion
+of vegetable matter into a form in which it can be digested
+and relished by birds. He stands to the feathered world,
+indeed, in exactly the same position that the ox and the
+sheep occupy in relation to man. Although partial to seeds
+and fruits, birds are not vegetarians in the broad sense of
+the term, and many would starve had they nothing but
+leaves, whether of the rose or the cabbage, to devour; the
+caterpillar then comes to the rescue, and forms the intermediary
+link. He possesses an appetite of extraordinary
+voracity, and in the course of his not very long life eats
+many hundred times his own weight of vegetables, and
+converts them into a rich and luscious food for the birds.
+It may be said that, in some respects at least, the instincts
+of caterpillars must be defective, or, knowing that their
+plumpness is their danger, they would eat less. This is no
+doubt true, but as it is true also of sheep and bullocks, it
+can hardly be made the subject of reproach to the caterpillar.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>But, after all, vast as is the number of caterpillars who
+go to feed the birds, it cannot be said that birds are by any
+means their chief enemy. Their great foe and relentless
+exterminator is the ichneumon, against whom none of their
+cunning devices of concealment avail, for he can discover
+them unerringly in their inmost lurking-places. The ichneumon
+varies in size as greatly as does the caterpillar himself.
+Some of them are as long as wasps, although with a slender
+body, no thicker than a bodkin; some so tiny that they can
+scarce be seen with the naked eye; but all are alike in their
+habits. Watch one, large or small, as he settles upon a
+leaf. Straightway he begins to hunt up and down with
+quick eager motion, like a dog quartering a turnip field for
+partridges. Up and down, below and above, prying into
+every cranny, he hunts, hurrying from one leaf to another
+until he finds a caterpillar. He wastes no time with him,
+but thrusts the long ovipositor through the skin, and places
+an egg there snugly. He repeats this two, three, or half a
+dozen times, according to his own size, and that to which
+the caterpillar will grow. His young ones must be fed
+where they are hatched, and it would not do to lay more
+than the caterpillar can support. What the sensations of
+the caterpillar are when thus treated no one has so far
+attempted to explain. It gives a little wince each time the
+operation is performed, and then pursues its vocation as
+quietly as if nothing had happened. There can be little
+doubt that it is profoundly discouraged; it must feel that
+all its efforts to elude the foe have been wasted. It doubtless
+knows that it has received its death wound, that it will
+never soar in the air as a bright-winged butterfly, and that
+its chrysalis state will be its last. It speaks well, then, for
+the sense of duty of the caterpillar, that it goes as doggedly
+on as before, eating as largely and steadily as if nothing
+had occurred, and showing no sign of pain or disturbance
+at the birth of foes, who soon begin to gnaw away at its
+interior. It is to be hoped, indeed, that it suffers but
+slightly. The organs of the caterpillar are simple. It is
+little more than a tube, and it is probable that its sensibility
+is slight. Still it is inevitable that it must suffer more or
+less; but it goes on until, just as it is about to assume the
+chrysalis state, or shortly after it has done so, it dies, and
+the little ichneumons make their way through its skin, and,
+after a brief repose, fly away to recommence the deadly
+work of their parents. It is calculated that fully 80 per
+cent. of caterpillars are slain by ichneumons.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The caterpillar is distinguished for its imperturbable good
+temper; no one has yet witnessed a good stand-up fight
+between two of them. Even when browsing in hundreds
+upon a leaf, each caterpillar continues its work of eating,
+wholly regardless of the multitude feeding around it. Its
+fellows may press it on every side, or walk across its back,
+without its evincing the slightest sign of irritability, or even
+dissatisfaction. It may be said that, after all, this host are its
+brethren, and that the nearness of the family tie produces
+this feeling of universal benignity. But family ties are not
+always found to have this effect, even among human beings,
+and, moreover, the caterpillar’s good temper and forbearance
+extend to individuals of entirely different species and
+families. The largest caterpillar coming across a small one
+makes no attempt to bully or interfere with it, and the
+whole race appear to be imbued with a spirit of admirable
+courtesy and gentleness.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The caterpillar, in confinement, develops qualities of a
+quite distinct nature to those which it exhibits in the wild
+state. The silkworm caterpillar, for example, is intolerant
+of noise of any kind, and the most absolute silence is
+maintained in the feeding house. It is not that noise excites
+irritability or anger, but it fills it with such disgust
+that it falls ill and speedily dies. Gardeners would be
+gratified, perhaps, were the wild caterpillar equally susceptible;
+as, in that case, two or three discharges of a gun
+would extirpate the whole race throughout the extent of
+a garden. The caterpillar is clearly worthy of much greater
+attention and study than it has yet received; and as we are
+told to look to the ant and the bee as examples of patience
+and industry, so we may advantageously take a lesson of
+courtesy and good temper from the hitherto little regarded
+caterpillar.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='FOWL' class='c007'>THE DOMESTIC FOWL.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>THE males of the gallinaceous family may be regarded
+as types of what is best and most chivalrous in man,
+and the cock bird of the variety that has become domesticated
+by man has lost none of the qualities that distinguish
+his wild congenitors. He is among birds what the knight
+of chivalry was among the herd of humanity in the Middle
+Ages. Splendid in his appearance, erect and martial in
+gait, proud of his prowess, fierce in battle, ready to die
+rather than acknowledge his defeat, he is yet the mirror of
+courtesy among his dames. Not only does he guard them
+from all foes, but he watches over their safety with anxious
+care, leads them to the spot where food is the most
+abundant, and will even scratch the ground to procure
+dainties for them. He possesses, too, the faults of the
+human type; he is needlessly quarrelsome, and prone to
+take offence; he will challenge to combat a distant stranger
+with whom he has no dispute whatever, and will fight for
+fighting’s sake, while, if victorious, he indulges in a good deal
+of unseemly exultation and boasting at the expense of his
+foe. Whatever his hue, whether clad in brilliantly-coloured
+panoply or in burnished black, the cock is the type of
+the true warrior, with his bright eye, his martial mien, his
+readiness for battle, his obstinate courage, and the display
+of a certain foppery in the care that he bestows upon his
+appearance. While other birds fight with beak and wing,
+the cock is furnished by nature with a dagger, a formidable
+weapon, especially in that branch of the family in which the
+martial qualities are carried to their highest development—the
+game fowl. The cock can use his beak with effect,
+but it is upon his spur that he mainly
+relies for victory. Throughout the
+whole of the gallinaceæ the same
+characteristics are observable in a
+more or less marked degree. The male of the pheasant,
+grouse, blackcock, and their numerous cousins and relations,
+are all pugnacious to a degree, proud of displaying their
+airs and graces to their wives, and ready to answer the
+most distant challenge uttered by another male.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p091.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>The period at which the fowl was first domesticated is
+lost in obscurity. The early Greek writers mention it as
+a bird held from remote antiquity in high honour, and
+Peisthetærus says that it is called the Persian bird, and at
+one time reigned over that country. It is to the East, then,
+that we must look for the ancestors of the domestic fowl,
+although it is not known how the breed was introduced into
+Greece or the South of Europe. It may either have come
+through Northern India, or Persia, or have been introduced
+by Phœnician traders. It figured early on Greek and
+Roman coinage, and was carried in the public shows of
+those nations. It was dedicated by the ancients to Apollo,
+Mercury, Æsculapius, and Mars and the Romans, good
+judges in matters gastronomic, had already discovered
+that it was best when fattened and crammed in the dark.
+Probably the Phœnicians brought it to Britain when
+they came for tin; at any rate, it was here before the
+invasion of Cæsar, who tells us that the Britons abstained
+from tasting the hare, the cock, and the goose, although
+they bred them for pleasure—probably, in the case of the
+cock, for its fighting powers. As poultry have been found
+domesticated in widely different localities, among peoples
+having no communication with each other, and even in
+islands in the South Seas, which must have been cut off
+from communication with the mainland for vast periods
+of time, it is evident that their domestication must have
+taken place in the very earliest times, or that there was a
+natural fearlessness and a desire for man’s companionship
+on the part of the fowl that marked it out as specially
+adapted to be his servant and purveyor.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The hand of man has brought about many changes in
+the bird by the intermingling of species, by careful breeding
+to render accidental peculiarities permanent, and by other
+methods; by these a great variety of breeds have now been
+established differing widely from each other in size and
+plumage. The breed in general, doubtless, owes its popularity
+partially to its appearance and courage, but still more
+to the flavour of its flesh, its great power of increase, and
+to its productiveness in the matter of eggs. Other birds
+lay as many eggs as they desire to have offspring. The hen
+is less selfish, and will produce a vastly larger number of
+eggs than she is able to hatch. As the wild bird is not so
+prodigal, it can only be supposed that this fecundity in the
+matter of eggs is upon the part of the hen a proof of gratitude
+for the food she receives from man, a trait which, in
+itself, should place her high in man’s estimation.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>While the cock is, above all things, a warrior, the hen is
+the type of the careful housewife and affectionate mother.
+Nothing can exceed the care and attention she bestows
+upon her young—feeding them, guarding them, and teaching
+them with constant attention, and with occasional chidings
+when disposed to wander from her. She is no gadabout,
+and her whole thoughts are centred upon her duty. But
+although so affectionate a mother and submissive a wife, the
+hen is mindful of her position as the spouse of a warrior;
+and as the wives of the knights of old would, on occasion,
+don armour, and in their husbands’ absence defend their
+castles, so the hen is ready, when danger threatens, to face
+boldly the dog or the hawk in defence of her children.
+Neither the cock nor his spouse possesses the power of
+singing, although they can utter a large variety of sounds,
+from the gentle cluck of contentment, the incessant talk by
+the mother to her children, and her triumphant announcement
+of the laying of an egg, to the cock’s bold challenge
+to battle—the latter being as unique a sound among birds as
+is the bray of the donkey among beasts.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Poets have, with their usual inaccuracy, been accustomed
+to associate the crowing of the cock with the dawning of
+morn. The neighbours of persons who keep fowls know
+better. Unfortunately, the cock appears to be entirely
+unaware that it is possible to have too much even of a good
+thing, and is ready at all hours of the day or night to lift up
+his voice in defiance of
+all or any within hearing,
+or to accept the most
+distant challenge borne
+upon the air. This
+constitutes a grave defect
+upon the part of
+the cock. Among human beings we are accustomed to
+consider the constant braggart to be a coward. No such
+suspicion can attach to the cock; but it is a pity that he
+cannot be brought to understand that it is useless to be
+uttering defiances at all times, when the interposition of a
+strong wire netting renders combat impossible.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p094.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>The cock can, however, be silenced. Just as the donkey
+cannot bray without straightening its tail, the cock cannot
+crow without standing perfectly erect. A light plank, or
+even a lath, placed above his perch, so as to prevent him
+raising his head to the fullest, will effectually silence him.
+To the negro race the attractions of the domestic bird are
+simply irresistible, being shared, however, by those of the
+melon. In the United States it is found that even the most
+irreproachable conduct in every other respect, together with
+a close chapel membership, fail to brace him to resist their
+temptations, and that the fowl-house and melon patch are
+attractions irresistible to the negro. Indeed, a yielding to
+temptation in this respect is regarded by him as no more
+serious an offence than is the purloining of an umbrella or
+the cheating the Customs by an Englishman.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The domestic fowl, although itself affording delicate
+eating, is in no way particular about its own food, and is in
+this respect almost omnivorous. Insects, slugs, and worms
+are doubtless its natural food, but it delights in grain of all
+kinds, and will eat with avidity vegetable refuse and kitchen
+scraps of every description. Neither fish, flesh, nor fowl
+comes amiss to it, nor does it, as far as it is known, suffer
+from indigestion, although occasionally inconvenienced by
+over-eating. But as the greater part of humanity also suffer
+from partaking of a much larger quantity of food than is
+necessary for existence, it would be unfair to blame the fowl
+on this account. Upon the whole, the cock and his wife
+are, except for a tendency to be quarrelsome and an inordinate
+fondness for lifting up his voice on the part of the former,
+a couple deserving our highest admiration, alike for the
+courage and valour of the male, the domestic virtues of
+the female, and the assiduity which they display not only in
+the multiplication of their race, but in the provision of a
+large supply of most wholesome and nutritious food to man.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='SPARROW' class='c007'>THE SPARROW.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>IF, out of the whole feathered creation, one bird had to
+be selected as the national emblem, it is questionable
+whether, upon the whole, any could be found more suited
+to the position than the sparrow. He is a bold, daring
+bird; where he settles he speedily makes himself master
+of the position, and elbows out all rivals. He can adapt
+himself to all climates; he is prolific, and multiplies with
+appalling rapidity. He can make himself at home equally
+in town or country, and manages to thrive where other
+birds would die. He has, of course, some characteristics
+which Englishmen would perhaps repudiate, but it must be
+owned that the natives of every other country are almost
+unanimous in crediting us with their possession. He is
+quarrelsome, combative, self-sufficient, given to bullying
+the weak, and has an excellent opinion of himself. If a
+foreigner were asked to describe our national characteristics,
+some of these qualities would certainly be included in the list;
+and it is a question if any bird possesses so large a share
+of our national characteristics as does the sparrow. He
+is distinguished for his partiality to the neighbourhood
+of human abodes. The swallow may build as frequently
+against houses, but he only uses them as a convenience,
+and gathers his food or takes his pleasure entirely regardless
+of the inhabitants of the house against which he builds.
+The sparrow, on the contrary, would just as lief place his
+nest near a house as on it. He will build in a disused chimney,
+or a gutter, or rain-pipe; but if none of these places suit
+his fancy, he will establish his nest in the ivy covered wall
+near at hand, or in a clump of bushes, and, having so built,
+he proceeds to get at once benefit and amusement from his
+human neighbours. He regards their fruit trees and rows
+of peas as planted for his special benefit. He sits on the
+edge of the roof and observes man as he walks in his
+garden with evident interest and amusement, and discusses
+his peculiarities loudly and volubly with a friend on an adjoining
+roof. He is quite fearless of man’s presence, and will
+pursue his search for insects on the lawn within a few feet
+of him; and he relies confidently upon receiving offerings of
+food in hard, frosty weather in return for his friendship.
+He alone, of birds, makes himself thoroughly at home in the
+crowded streets, perfectly fearless of passing vehicles. He
+is gregarious by habit, and it is to be remarked that there
+is nothing selfish about him. Throw out a handful of
+crumbs upon the snow, and its first discoverer will joyously
+call his mates to share in it; and if fights do occasionally
+arise over the division, it is apparent that there is no malice
+about them, but that, like the Irish, the sparrow fights from
+high spirits and “a love of divarshun.”</p>
+<p class='c010'>While the sparrow is favourably viewed by the dwellers
+of towns and their suburbs, it must be owned that he
+is not regarded in the same light in the agricultural
+districts. He is eminently a Socialist, and inclines to the
+doctrine of equal rights. When he is comparatively few in
+numbers man does not grudge him the small share he
+claims, but when his numbers are legion it becomes another
+matter. The farmer regards his stacks and his crops as
+his private property, and when myriads of sparrows demand
+toll the agriculturist is apt to become rusty. He sees the
+sparrow only on his predaceous side, and has no leisure
+to investigate his amiable qualities. The few insects the
+sparrow may destroy in his leisure moments weigh but little
+in the farmer’s mind as against the loss of his crops of
+cherries, the general destruction of his peas, or a wholesale
+raid upon his corn stacks, and so he betakes himself to net
+and gun. This would seem hard upon the sparrow; but he
+has no right to take it amiss, for it is his own habit to wage
+a war of extermination against other birds wherever he
+obtains a footing. The native birds of North America are
+rapidly disappearing before the army of sparrows that have
+sprung from the few hundreds sent out to cope with the
+caterpillar which devastated the trees in the parks and
+open spaces in New York—just as the aborigines of the
+country have been almost wiped out by the Anglo-Saxon
+settlers. Even in this country he is fast driving out other
+and more useful birds; the tits and the finches abandon
+neighbourhoods where he abounds, and the house martin
+has almost disappeared from some localities. The consequences
+of this tyrannical conduct will, in the long run,
+recoil upon the sparrow himself. With the decrease of the
+insect-feeding birds, the pests of our fields and gardens will
+so multiply that, in self-defence, a crusade against the sparrow
+will be organised in all rural districts. The movement
+has, indeed, already begun in many localities, and in the
+future we may expect the sparrow to leave the country
+side, where he is neither liked nor appreciated, and to
+establish himself altogether in towns, where his sprightliness
+and fearlessness render him a favourite.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It may be admitted that his voice is not the strong point
+of the sparrow, but perhaps it is as well that this should be
+the case, for were he vocal the volume of sound would be
+unbearable in neighbourhoods where he abounds. There
+is, however, a cheeriness and good-fellowship about his
+confident and inquisitive little chirp, and occasionally in
+the days of his courtship he can emit a very cheerful
+little song. Although so domestic in his habits, the sparrow
+takes but little trouble with his nest. It is a ragged
+collection of odds and ends, and is evidently built on the
+assumption that his offspring will, like himself, have to be
+handy and shift for themselves, and that anything like
+luxury would be thrown away upon them. As a conversationalist
+the sparrow excels. His short notes are very
+numerous and varied, he is fond of learning the opinions
+of his neighbours, and of laying down the law himself.
+Animated discussions, warming sometimes into quarrels,
+arise frequently from these consultations upon the housetop;
+but they seldom last long. There is a rush into a bush and
+a hot pursuit, sharp angry cries, and a momentary tussle;
+and then, the matter having been arranged, the disputants
+separate amicably and proceed on their various business.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The flight of the sparrow is not elegant; he wastes no
+time in graceful curves and turnings, but hurls himself
+straight at his mark. He has none of the restlessness of
+the migrants; he has hard times here when the ground is
+frozen and food is scarce, but he takes the rough with the
+smooth, and has no thought of seeking warmer climes.
+Contenting himself with the shelter of a bush, he fluffs out
+his feathers, and reduces himself into the smallest compass,
+so that he is almost unrecognisable as the alert little bird
+with long neck and sprightly movements that we know in the
+summer. His confidence in the goodwill of man in the time
+of his distress is touching. Blackbirds, starlings, and thrushes
+will come to share the feast man throws out; but they never
+lose their fear of him, and are ready to take flight at the first
+sign of his presence. The sparrow and the robin will alone
+hold their ground, will light on the window sill fearlessly,
+and will, if encouraged, even come into the room through
+the open window; and the man must be hard of heart
+indeed who will refuse to give them the little they need to
+save them from perishing. Fortunately for the sparrow,
+his flesh is not particularly toothsome, and there is but little
+of it. Were it otherwise, it is to be feared that he would
+not be spared; but that as Goths are found capable of
+devouring that charming songster, the lark, still less respect
+would be shown to the friendly sparrow.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Doubtless, the bird would be a less imposing national
+emblem than the eagle, especially when the latter is adorned
+with two or three heads; but he would be at least as respectable
+a one. A cock sparrow rampant would be a not
+unfitting emblem of the push, the energy, the hardiness, the
+pluck, and the domesticity of the Englishman; and even its
+self-sufficiency and its cockiness should not be taken amiss
+by a nation who are, by the general consent of mankind, the
+most arrogant and self-sufficient people upon earth. Should
+anything happen to put us out of conceit with the lion, we
+cannot do better than instal the sparrow in his place upon
+the national arms.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='FLIES' class='c007'>FLIES.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>ENGLISH poets, whenever they have condescended to
+take notice of the domestic fly, have done so from a
+favourable point of view. It is for them the sportive fly,
+the jocund fly, or, at worst, the giddy fly. This in itself will
+be a sufficient proof to future generations that the poets of
+our day did not suffer from the loss of their hair, for no
+bald-headed man would view the foibles of the fly indulgently.
+It must, therefore, be assumed as proved that the
+mental exercise of the elaboration of poetry causes a certain
+cerebral warmth which conduces to the growth of the hair;
+and this view of the case will receive an additional support
+should any portraits of Lord Tennyson be extant at the
+time when this investigation takes place. It is singular
+that, whereas bald-headed men have a marked and unanimous
+objection to flies, the latter have on their part a
+warm and effusive affection for bald-headed men. No
+philosopher has, so far as we know, attempted to explain
+the irresistible attraction which a bald head presents to a
+fly. It has been suggested, indeed, that, owing to its high
+polish and its capacity for reflecting light, it is assumed to
+be a luminous globe, and so exercises the same attraction
+to the fly as the globe of a gas light does to the nocturnal
+moth. A far more probable solution is that, as we know,
+the feet of flies are provided with suckers, and that as but
+few surfaces are sufficiently smooth for the perfect working
+of these machines, they view a bald head as a delightful
+place of exercise for them, and enjoy the fun exactly as
+the street boy enjoys the similar sport of attaching a leather
+sucker to the pavement and pulling at it with a string.
+The fact that poets view the vagaries of the fly with a
+mild indulgence will also, by our far-off descendants, be
+taken as a proof that the poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth
+centuries were well-paid and well-to-do persons,
+living in cool and shaded abodes; for undoubtedly, although
+the wealthy man who dwells in houses of this
+kind may view the fly with gentle tolerance, and even with
+amusement, such is not the light in which it is regarded in
+the dwellings of the poor. Indeed, it may be said that,
+with the exceptions named, the fly is invariably regarded
+as an unmitigated nuisance, rising in many countries to
+the dignity of a scourge.</p>
+<p class='c010'>In small numbers—in very small numbers—it may be
+admitted that the fly is, as Artemus Ward would have said,
+an “amoosing little cuss.” His restless, and apparently
+purposeless, circling and dancing in the air, the way in
+which he is perpetually charging any other of his species
+who flies near him, the earnestness and perseverance with
+which he brushes his many-lensed eyes with his forelegs,
+and arranges his wings, the gravity with which he inspects
+and tastes the sugar and other articles on the table, the
+confidence with which he treats all that is yours as his, and
+the pertinacity with which he insists on committing suicide
+in the milk jug—all these traits are amusing when you do
+not get too much of them.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The <i>raison d’être</i> of the fly has not yet been discovered.
+Naturalists tell us that he belongs to the order of <i>Diptera</i>—that
+is, that he has but two wings—but they cannot tell us
+much more about him. The common house fly is provided
+only with a proboscis, somewhat resembling that of the
+elephant, with which he takes up moisture; but he has a
+cousin exactly resembling him, who when, relying upon this
+likeness, you allow him to settle on the back of the hand,
+neck, or other surface of flesh, instantly digs in a sharp
+lancet, which is capable of drawing blood. Happily, however,
+this treacherous cousin is comparatively rare, and
+none of the poets appear to have been familiar with him.
+But if in England it is still doubtful why the fly was created,
+there is no hesitation on that point in foreign countries.
+There the consensus of opinion is unanimous. The fly was
+made to try the patience of man. He was intended to
+make human life a burden by his buzzing, his settling, and
+his tickling, by the zeal he shows in rendering food uneatable,
+and by the cunning with which he circumvents all
+the efforts of man to interfere with his designs.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>No one, indeed, can watch a fly engaged in the work of
+human torment without entertaining a suspicion that he is
+possessed of a certain diabolical instinct. So long as the
+man is wide awake, the fly will keep at a distance, unless,
+indeed, he sees that he is engaged in writing, and that his
+hands are ineffective for offensive purposes. The instant,
+however, that drowsiness steals over the subject, the fly,
+who has pretended to be taking no notice whatever of him,
+but to be engaged in a game of touch-as-touch-can with two
+or three of his comrades in the air, at once gives up his
+romps and takes to business. Choosing the most sensitive
+point he can find, he alights upon it, and begins to shuffle
+his feet about. A score of times he repeats this performance,
+generally selecting a fresh spot each time, and always
+evading any slaps aimed at him. It is remarkable that
+while at other times he flies noiselessly, he begins to buzz
+when he commences this game, so that even when he does
+not settle, he causes watchfulness and drives away sleep.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The fly who establishes himself in the kitchen enjoys
+higher delights than the flies who occupy other portions
+of the house. Cooks are notoriously an irritable genus,
+and the more irritable a victim, the more a fly enjoys
+tormenting him or her. Besides, cooks often have their
+hands full, and so are unable to defend themselves, and
+a fly always in preference attacks a person under these
+conditions. It is an admitted fact that flies possess a
+strong <i>esprit de corps</i>, and that they resent any interference
+with their ways. In a house where flies are undisturbed,
+they take good care not to be troublesome beyond a certain
+point. But if war is waged upon them, they are implacable.
+The foolish man who tries fly paper, whether of the sticky
+or poisonous sort, will soon regret having done so, for
+legions of flies assemble to revenge their slaughtered comrades.
+For every one slain a hundred put in their appearance,
+and madness is the probable result of perseverance
+in the crusade against them. The Egyptian woman is well
+aware of this, and will allow a hundred flies to settle undisturbed
+around her infant’s eyes, knowing that if she
+brushes them away worse will befall.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>As autumn draws to its close, the fly changes his habits.
+He ceases to gambol in the air, for although his attacks
+upon human beings become more persistent and annoying
+than before, the quickness and the cunning are gone, and
+an obstinate, blundering stupidity has taken their place, and
+the fly in turn becomes the victim. If he escape this fate,
+upon finding death at hand he selects some spot where his
+demise will be particularly objectionable to the careful
+mistress of the house: a window, a looking-glass, a
+burnished ornament, or even a particularly white piece
+of wall-paper is chosen, and there he dies, a white
+fungus growing out of his body, and spreading to some
+distance around the spot where he has breathed his last.
+Whether this white fungus is the cause of his death, or
+whether his death is the cause of the white fungus, is still a
+point of dispute among the learned; the rest of mankind
+are contented to know that he is dead.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Unhappily, a certain proportion live over the winter,
+taking refuge in warm nooks and corners, and hibernating
+there. So seldom are they found, however, that it is a
+belief among the unlearned that the fly, like the swallow,
+is a migratory creature, and that upon the approach of cold
+weather he seeks warmer climes. It is urged, with a strong
+show of reason, how can all the vast number of flies destined
+to be the parents of the countless myriads in the following
+year hide away so as to escape detection? Scientific men
+have never attempted to grapple with the problem, but
+cover their ignorance by saying that as they are sure flies
+do not migrate, and as flies do reappear in the spring, it
+is self-evident they must hide away somewhere; and with
+this dictum the public must be content. Taken all in all,
+it must be admitted that the fly has a good time of it, and
+that his life is devoted solely to amusement, varied by
+feeding. Most other creatures labour hard for a not
+inconsiderable portion of their life in the preparation for
+and care of their young. The fly neither builds nests like
+the birds, nor lays up stores of food like the bees and wasps,
+nor pierces holes in wood like the beetles, nor spends half
+his time in the hunt for food like most quadrupeds. He
+assumes no responsibilities, for he has neither home nor
+family. Man places his food on tables for him, and builds
+mansions in which he can sport, untroubled by the weather.
+As the fly is found in every part of the known world, it
+must be assumed that he really has his uses, and that he
+possesses some latent virtue, edible or medicinal, which
+a future generation will, it may be hoped, discover and
+turn to account.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='PARROT' class='c007'>THE PARROT.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c008' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c009'>THE parrot is at once wise and amusing—a conjunction
+seldom observed in the human race. Under the
+general denomination of parrots are included several distinct
+species, varying from the great macaw to the tiny paroquet,
+having an exceeding wide range of distribution, being found
+in South America, Africa, and India, and the group of
+islands stretching down to Australia. Brilliant colouring is
+the most striking characteristic of the family, although there
+are some members, especially the parrot of Western Africa,
+that are almost Quaker-like in the quiet grey of their
+plumage. Next, perhaps, to their colour, their most notable
+characteristic is the extreme harshness of their voices,
+which are at once shriller, more discordant, and more
+agonising to the human ear than the sound uttered by any
+other of the animal creation, being approached only by
+the feminine voice when raised in anger. It is the more
+surprising that this should be so, since, as is evidenced by
+his nice powers of imitation, the parrot is endowed with a
+delicate ear, and there can be little doubt that the quality of
+his own voice, and of the voices of his wife, his family, and
+neighbours, must be a serious drawback to his happiness.
+Many parrots are gregarious in their habits, and the noise
+made by one of these flocks is prodigious. The shrill
+screams, the angry scoldings, and hoarse ejaculations create
+a din not altogether dissimilar to that which must have
+arisen from a city in ancient times when being sacked by
+a victorious soldiery. Among the smaller species, such as
+paroquets, every movement is marked by grace and agility.
+They are restless and playful, and very affectionate in their
+intercourse with each other. Attachment between husband
+and wife is very tender and lasting, and the death of one is
+generally followed speedily by that of its mate. We have
+less opportunity of observing the domestic relations of the
+larger parrots—the macaws and cockatoos—for few men
+are hardy enough to support the noise of more than one
+of these birds, and a scolding match between a cockatoo
+and his wife would be sufficiently discordant to empty even
+the largest house of all other inmates. It is singular that
+the tongue of this, the noisiest of birds, resembles more
+closely that of man than does the tongue of any other bird,
+being singularly thick and fleshy; it is doubtless due to this
+peculiarity that it is able to imitate the tones of the human
+voice so accurately as to defy discrimination.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p109.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p>“<span class='sc'>Indulging in a Variety of Strange Antics.</span>”</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>While cheerfulness, sociability, and activity characterise the
+smaller parrots, the larger birds are marked by the striking
+variation of their moods. At times they will exhibit for
+hours an extreme restlessness, climbing up and down their
+perches, hanging head downwards, and indulging in a variety
+of strange antics. At others they will sit for long periods
+almost immovable, being distinguishable only from stuffed
+birds by the occasional droop over the eyeball of their
+white filmy eyelids. The mental characteristics of the
+larger parrots can hardly be termed agreeable, being marked
+by cynicism, malice, and a consciousness of superior wisdom.
+We do not say the assumption of superior wisdom, because no
+one can doubt its existence; and one of the problems which
+the human mind has failed to solve is what there is that the
+parrot doesn’t know. Diogenes in his tub could hardly have
+been wiser or more cynical than an elderly cockatoo; and a
+human being, when watching one of these birds, feels the
+same consciousness of youth and inexperience that David
+Copperfield always suffered from in the presence of the
+irreproachable Littimer, and that the traveller in Egypt experiences
+when gazing at the Sphinx. One cannot but feel
+that the parrot has, in addition to his inborn stock of wisdom,
+acquired a deep knowledge of human nature, as the
+result of years of careful study; that he has weighed man in
+the balance, and has come to the conclusion that he is altogether
+wanting. There is, too, the unpleasant feeling that
+the parrot has studied almost exclusively the worst side of
+human nature. The leer of his half-closed eye, the mocking
+laugh, the expression of malice in his tones, the hypocritical
+demeanour of friendliness until a finger approaches near
+enough to be seized—all this testifies sadly to the fact that
+the parrot has assimilated the worst qualities of man, while
+there is no sign that the better ones have made the slightest
+impression upon him. Of benevolence there is no trace, and,
+although capable of affection towards his mistress, he treats
+all other persons with equal nonchalance and contempt,
+although he may be cajoled into temporary familiarity by
+the offer of favourite food. The deep emphasis with which
+he mutters “Poor Polly,” shows the intense self-pity with
+which he views his forced habitation among such trivial and
+contemptible companions, and his regret at his own moral
+degeneration, the result of association with them. He
+knows that under happier circumstances he might have
+grown a respected patriarch in his native wilds, honoured,
+by those able to appreciate him, for his wisdom, and surrounded
+by respectful and admiring descendants, and it is
+the contrast between this and his present lot that has soured
+the bird’s temper and made him a cynic and a misanthrope.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Hardly less prominent a characteristic among parrots
+than cynicism is malice. The parrot delights openly and
+undisguisedly in giving annoyance. To seize the tail of a
+passing cat, or to awaken a sleeping dog with a sharp bite,
+affords him a delight over which he will laugh for hours.
+It is a pleasure to him to interrupt a quiet conversation
+with wild and sudden screams, and if by imitating a tradesman’s
+cry he can give a servant the trouble of going to the
+door, his malicious pleasure is unbounded.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The upper mandible of the beak of the parrot bears the
+same relation to that of other birds, as does the nose of the
+elephant to the similar feature among quadrupeds. Instead
+of being fixed to the skull, it is furnished with a separate
+bone, and is attached by a sort of natural hinge to it. He
+is thus able to open his mouth to a very wide extent, and
+to grasp a finger, a nut, or any other object with amazing
+force. In bestowing this faculty upon the parrot, Nature
+had an eye solely to the creature’s own benefit, and entirely
+disregarded the possible consequences to man. The foot,
+too, has an exceptional formation, giving the bird great
+power of grasp, enabling it at once to climb, to hang head
+downwards, or to hold its food while it devours it, with a
+power and facility almost unequalled among birds. It is
+not surprising that, with its power of imitating the human
+voice, and of modulating the natural harshness of its accents
+to the softest tones of that of a woman, with its human-like
+manner of taking its food, its close attention to everything
+that passes around it, and its evident wisdom, the parrot
+has from the oldest times been regarded with a certain
+superstitious respect by man. Ælian states that in India
+these birds were the favourite inmates of the palaces of the
+princes, and were regarded as objects of sacred reverence
+by the people. Among civilised nations this feeling has
+to some extent died out, but even now servant maids
+generally regard their mistresses’ parrots with dislike and
+aversion, being never quite sure that the parrot will not
+act the part of a tell-tale, and mention to its mistress that
+a shattered ornament was not really, as supposed, the
+work of the cat. The aversion is almost always mutual,
+a parrot very seldom admitting the slightest approach
+of familiarity on the part of a domestic, regarding her
+with the aversion which the dog manifests towards the
+tramp. Throughout the East the parrot has always been
+regarded as a bird possessed of mysterious knowledge and
+power, and frequently bears a prominent part in Arab
+legends. As a proof of the ingrained wickedness of the
+parrot’s nature, it need only be pointed out that it possesses
+a remarkable facility in acquiring bad language, and will
+pick up sailors’ oaths far more readily than it will acquire
+polite language. Upon the whole, although endowed
+with remarkable physical advantages, it must regretfully be
+owned that the parrot is a striking example of misapplied
+talent.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='COCKROACH' class='c007'>THE COCKROACH.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>THE cockroach, the black-beetle of the London kitchen,
+is a creature that excites an amount of repulsion
+that cannot be accounted for or explained. There is nothing
+threatening in its appearance, as in that of some of the larvæ,
+notably the one popularly known as the “devil’s coach-horse.”
+It is unprovided with offensive weapons at either
+extremity; it can neither sting nor bite. It has not the habit
+of startling nervous persons by leaping suddenly upon them,
+as do the cricket and grasshopper. There is nothing about
+its figure that should be displeasing to the eye. It is, as
+far as man is concerned, absolutely harmless, and yet it
+certainly excites in the majority of persons a feeling of
+aversion approaching abhorrence, such as no other insect
+gives rise to. The cold light of reason fails to discover any
+ground for such a feeling, and it has been gravely adduced
+by some as a proof of the truth of the belief in the transmigration
+of souls; and that only upon the assumption that
+the souls of evil men are condemned to pass a portion of
+their future existence in the form of cockroaches, can the
+general antipathy to these creatures be accounted for.</p>
+<p class='c010'>There are many unsolved problems connected with the
+cockroach. Where does he come from, and especially
+where did he abide before man began to build houses?
+In this country, at any rate, he always takes up his abode
+in the habitation man provides for him. No one ever
+came across him in the fields or woods. It is in the
+house he lives and multiplies. He fears man and shuns
+his society, and yet appears to have a mysterious attraction
+to his abodes; the cricket only among insects, and the
+mouse and the rat among quadrupeds, share with the
+cockroach his partiality for human dwellings. But the
+cricket is but a domesticated grasshopper, the mouse has
+a country cousin, and the rat will take up his abode in
+many other localities. The cockroach alone is never found
+elsewhere, and has no relations in any way closely connected
+with him who are dwellers in the open air.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Next to man’s houses, the <i>blatta</i>, as he is scientifically
+called, loves his ships; but the variety that is found in vessels,
+especially in those trading with the East, is a larger, uglier,
+and in every way more repulsive creature than his English
+cousin. Once on board—and there is scarce a ship afloat
+into which he has not smuggled himself—he is there to stay,
+and short of sinking the vessel, or of fastening down the
+hatches and suffocating him with the fumes of sulphur, there
+is no way of getting rid of him. He multiplies with extraordinary
+rapidity, and his odour, when he is present in
+multitude, is so strong that in the hold many ships
+trading in hot countries it is almost overpowering. The
+flatness of his body enables him to crawl through every
+chink and crevice, and all efforts to keep him out of the
+cabins are unavailing. The ship variety has none of that
+fear of man that sends the kitchen cockroaches scuttling
+in every direction at the approach of a maid with a
+light. They will fearlessly perambulate his cabin, take up
+their posts on the deck-beams over his head, will watch
+him gravely with waving antennæ, and the moment they
+discover that he is asleep will run over his head and face,
+entangle themselves in his beard and hair, and gently nibble
+the skin on the tips of his fingers and toes.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The cockroach is an admirable judge of the weather. On
+board a ship the approach of a rain squall will bring them
+up from the hold into the cabins in tens of thousands; and
+in vessels where they abound they will blacken the ceiling,
+drop on to the tables, and drive nervous passengers for
+refuge to the deck. Whether the British variety is equally
+affected by the weather is a point at present undetermined,
+for as he does not emerge from his hiding places until
+the servants have gone upstairs and the lights are out, his
+habits have never been examined very closely.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The eccentricity in the movements of the cockroach has
+doubtless had a share in producing the feeling with which
+he is regarded. His ordinary pace is a fast though stealthy
+walk, but he is given to sudden pauses, remaining immovable,
+save for the constant waving of his long antennæ,
+which show that he is deep in the meditation of past sins or
+future wickedness. But when alarmed his speed is extraordinary:
+he is gone in an instant like a flash, and it needs no
+ordinary quickness of eye and action to bring the avenging
+foot down upon him. Even in his death he acts upon the
+human nerves, exploding with a sharp crack of so singularly
+thrilling a description that many even of those who most
+greatly dislike the cockroach cannot bring themselves to
+slay it.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It is on this account principally that nothing like an
+organised war is waged against the cockroach. Feeble
+efforts are made now and then to get rid of it by scattering
+beetle paste, and other supposed destroyers, about the
+kitchen, or by setting traps for it to walk into; but these
+measures, although effective to a certain point, make but
+small inroads upon its numbers, and it is only when it
+ascends the stairs and begins to pervade the house that
+serious attention is paid to it. There are men in London
+who make a livelihood by clearing houses, restaurants,
+and other dwellings, of cockroaches. Their methods are a
+secret, but they are certainly efficacious, and did the operators
+advertise their addresses they would be very largely
+patronised. Some have supposed that they charm the insects
+from their hiding-places by the sounds of sweet music;
+others that they possess a perfume which the cockroach
+cannot withstand, and that by it he is attracted to his death;
+while a few hold the belief that the insects are induced to
+leave their abodes by the use of cabalistic words.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The cockroach, like most of the order of orthoptera to
+which it belongs, retains the same form from the date it
+issues from the egg to its death. Familiar instances of
+this peculiarity are the earwig, locust, and grasshopper.
+The only difference between the first and second stage is
+that they do not become winged until arriving at maturity,
+the wings being then folded up under the leathery reticulated
+wing-case that distinguishes the order. It is rarely,
+indeed, that the cockroach uses the means of locomotion
+with which nature has provided it. It is possible that if
+it took to out-door exercise it would do so; but, passing
+its life as it does indoors, it has no occasion whatever for the
+use of its wings, and many people are even unaware that it
+is provided with them. The cockroach is not particular as
+to its food, and will devour almost anything that comes in
+its way. Crumbs of bread, fragments of fat or meat, sweets
+of all kinds, and indeed almost all food consumed by man,
+are welcome to it. It has a marked partiality for boot
+blacking, and is even able to digest leather. It will drink
+water, but its tendency is rather towards liquids of a sweet
+or intoxicating nature. Treacle or sugar in water attracts it,
+but it has a marked preference for beer, and traps for its
+ensnarement are generally baited with this liquor.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Unlike the cricket and the grasshopper, the cockroach is
+mute, at least so far as our ears are able to perceive, although
+it is certain that it can carry on long conversations with its
+own species, and two of them may often be seen standing
+head to head in close confabulation, enforcing their arguments
+with waves and flourishes of their antennæ. Entomologists
+may assign the <i>blatta</i> a specific place among the
+orders and genera of insects in accordance with their characteristics,
+but morally they stand apart. They are the rats
+of the insect world, swarming out in their armies from dark
+recesses in search of garbage; no one, indeed, can doubt that,
+had they the power, they would not hesitate to follow the
+example of the rats on the Rhine, and to devour a bishop if
+he fell in their way. Other insects stand apart from them.
+The cricket may dwell in their midst, but he is not of them,
+while no observer has remarked a single case of friendship
+between the industrious bee, the impetuous and hardworking
+wasp, or, indeed, any other of what may be called
+respectable insects, with the cockroach—a strong proof that
+the creature is viewed with the same marked disfavour by
+the insect world that it excites in the breast of man.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='MICE' class='c007'>MICE.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_45_0_65 c016'>SINCE men and mice first became acquainted with each
+other, the mouse has been an enigma to the man.
+That it possesses strange and mysterious powers he is fully
+aware, although himself unaffected by them; and to this
+day neither naturalists nor philosophers have been able to
+account for, or explain, the abject terror with which the
+mouse is capable of inspiring the female mind. To the
+male eye, the mouse is one of the most harmless and
+inoffensive of created things. With its soft coat and its
+bright eye, there are few prettier little creatures. It is very
+easily tamed and domesticated; and most boys have, at
+some time or other, kept mice as pets. It is affectionate,
+intelligent, and capable of acquiring all sorts of tricks. It
+is afraid of man, but it rapidly acquires confidence in him,
+and after a very few visits it will, if undisturbed, fearlessly
+pick up crumbs close to the foot of any man who will sit
+still and watch it. Mice at play are as pretty as kittens,
+without any of the spitefulness which readily shows itself
+in even the youngest of the cat tribe. Were the mouse
+unknown in England, a few imported here would soon, it
+might be thought, be regarded as the most charming little
+pets ever introduced.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p119.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Such is the mouse as it appears to man. It is true
+that he is obliged to wage war with it, for it is so prolific
+that if man and its other enemies did not keep down its
+numbers it would, in a very short time, produce a famine
+in the land. It has most destructive habits of burrowing in
+walls, and eating holes in flooring and wainscots; while its
+depredations in stacks, granaries, and other similar places
+are serious. Thus man is forced in self-defence to war
+against mice; but he does it without ill-feeling, and would
+rather be able to leave the pretty little things alone. The
+last thing that would enter his mind would be to be afraid
+of them, and the terror with which they inspire women is
+to him absolutely unaccountable. In many respects women
+are to the full as brave and courageous as men. In the
+horrors of a shipwreck, in the dangers of a siege, in times
+of great peril, such as the Indian Mutiny, women have,
+over and over again, showed themselves to be at least equal
+to men in bravery, in calmness, and in endurance. But the
+woman who would, pale but firm, face a lion in an arena,
+will fly in terror from a mouse; and many a moment of
+sweet revenge and triumph has been felt by men with
+spouses of strong minds and shrewish tongues, when they
+have seen them paralysed with terror by a tiny mouse.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>History records no example of a mouse attacking a man,
+and, when tamed, they never use their teeth. They have
+no powers of scratching; they cannot assume a threatening
+aspect; they neither show their teeth, growl, nor spit;
+they cannot stick up their furs as can a cat; they are,
+in fact, absolutely without means of aggression, and yet
+women quail before them. Man has wearied himself with
+conjectures as to this phenomenon. The Greek and Roman
+philosophers were posed by it, and the saying, <i>parturiunt
+montes, nascitur ridiculus mus</i>, which has ignorantly been supposed
+to signify that a small matter was produced after great
+labour, has, when critically examined, an entirely different
+and far more profound meaning. The philosopher clearly
+desired to signify that it needed the labour of mountains to
+produce a creature capable of awing the female mind. In
+the Greek fable of the Lion and the Mouse, the same feeling
+of respect and appreciation for the smaller animal is clearly
+shown. Some have gone so far as to trace back the enmity
+between the female and the mouse to the earliest times,
+and the argument has been advanced that the word translated
+as serpent, in the account of the Fall of Man, really
+signified mouse, an explanation which alone seems to satisfy
+the exigencies of the case.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>This hypothesis is greatly strengthened by the fact that
+the mouse does go on its belly; alone among quadrupeds
+its feet cannot be seen to move, and it apparently glides
+along on its stomach. Then, again, its head, and, indeed,
+its whole body, is very frequently bruised, and, in fact,
+crushed by the human heel, and for every serpent upon
+which this process is performed it is done a hundred thousand
+times upon mice. The mouse does not, it is true, in
+return bruise the heel of its bruiser; but neither does the
+serpent, so that this objection applies equally in both cases—indeed,
+a tight shoe is the only article which habitually
+bruises or raises blisters upon the human heel. This is no
+novel idea, for in some old paintings the tempter is pictured
+in the form of a mouse sitting on Eve’s shoulder, and
+whispering in her ear. That the Jews entertained a feeling
+of abhorrence for the mouse far above anything that can be
+accounted for by natural causes, is proved by the fact that
+Isaiah lxvi. 17 says, “Eating the abomination, and the
+mouse.” These facts, coupled with the abject terror inspired
+by the mouse in the female mind, are really worthy
+of the attention of divines, who cannot fail to notice that
+whereas the creature, translated serpent, is said to be more
+subtle than any other beast of the field, the word cunning,
+which is synonymous with subtle, is still essentially applied
+to the mouse; while—putting aside the fact that the snake
+is not a beast at all—no modern investigator has ever
+claimed any particular amount of cunning for the serpent.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The terror with which women regard the mouse finds
+expression in various unlooked-for ways. Man has no
+peculiar liking for his nether integuments, as is evidenced
+by the eagerness with which cockney sportsmen, who go
+North, don the Highland garb instead of trousers, and by
+the popularity among the young fellows who constitute the
+Scottish Volunteers, of the ordinance which transformed
+the whole regiment into a “kilted” corps. Among women,
+however, movements are constantly taking place for the
+adoption of male lower garments. Sometimes these are
+spoken of as bloomers, sometimes as knickerbockers, sometimes
+as divided skirts. The advocates of these garments
+base their arguments on the ground of health and convenience;
+but men, who go beneath the surface, are well
+aware that these are but pretexts, and that the real reason
+why women desire masculine garb is that they may the
+better protect their lower limbs from the onslaught of the
+marauding mouse. No one who has ever seen a woman
+stand on a chair and wrap her garments tightly round her
+ankles upon the alarm of “mouse,” can question how keen is
+the consciousness among the sex of the possibilities of attack
+by their formidable opponents offered by the present style
+of clothing. It cannot be pretended that it is the mere fear
+of being bitten which so unhinges the female nerves where
+mice are concerned, for there are women who make parrots
+their pets, although parrots sometimes bite atrociously, and
+are singularly treacherous withal. There are others who
+pet spiteful cats, and snappish lap-dogs, and whom neither
+scratches nor occasional bites at all discompose. It cannot,
+therefore, be argued that any fear of pain is at the bottom
+of their antipathy for mice. The mere fact that here and
+there women can be found who profess not to be afraid of
+mice in no way affects the general truth of the argument.
+There are women who are not afraid of cows; who will not
+jump up in an open boat if it rocks; who are not fond of
+babies; who do not care for kissing their female friends in
+public. There are even women who will dress as they
+please, and not as their dressmakers tell them. But these
+are the exceptions which prove rules, and the almost
+universal fear of mice by women can be accounted for
+only upon the hypothesis of which we have above made
+mention.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='CATS' class='c007'>CATS.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>THE cat is generally considered to be a domesticated
+animal, but it would be more justly described as a
+gregarious one. No one who sees the placid and indifferent
+air with which the cat conducts itself when within doors,
+and compares it with the wild rapture with which the
+creature lifts up its voice when assembled with five or six
+of its species upon the end of a garden wall, can question
+for an instant that the cat is above all things gregarious in
+its instincts. That domestication is alien to the feline
+nature is proved also by the fact that there are no recorded
+instances of lions, tigers, or even the wild cats of these
+islands, walking into a parlour and lying down upon the
+hearthrug of their own accord. In the case of the wild
+cat it may be urged that such an advance on its part would
+not be welcome, but assuredly no opposition would be
+offered to the lion or tiger who might yearn to domesticate
+itself in this manner. The extreme repugnance which the
+feline race in their wild state evince for fire is another
+proof of the absence of any domestic yearnings in their
+breasts, for fire is the emblem of domesticity. The cat,
+then, has clearly assumed domesticated habits under protest,
+and as against its innermost nature; but it must be admitted
+that the imputation of hypocrisy, which has been freely
+brought against the animal, is hardly justified. The cat, to
+do it justice, pretends to no fondness whatever for those
+who care for it. It will submit to be rubbed and stroked,
+and to be placed upon ladies’ laps, simply because it likes
+these attentions, not because it is grateful to those who
+render them. It will rub against a human leg, but will also
+rub against the leg of a table with an equal air of affection.
+It will not answer when called unless there be a prospect
+of food, but will gaze in stolid indifference at the
+fire, as if wholly unconscious of being addressed. This
+absence of affection in cats is in itself an argument against
+the Darwinian theory. Since the days of ancient Egypt,
+cats have been pets. Ladies have—in the absence of
+better subjects for affection—doted upon them from time
+immemorial; but in all these countless generations the cats
+have not been able to get up a reciprocal feeling. Friends
+of the species have endeavoured to urge in its favour that
+it is affectionate to its young. If, however, five out of six
+kittens are removed and drowned, the mother in no way
+concerns or troubles herself. She certainly will look sharp
+after the last, but this only shows that she likes to have
+something to nurse and play with. Had she had a particle
+of real love for her offspring, she would have cared for all
+alike.</p>
+<p class='c010'>An intense devotion to public assemblies of its kind upon
+housetops and walls, and to the raising of music, Wagnerian
+in its absence of melody, are the special characteristics of
+the cat. To gratify its passion for concerted music it will
+dare every danger. Showers of lumps of coal, of boots and
+brushes, cause but a momentary interruption of its song;
+and even wet weather, which of all things it most hates,
+will not suffice to damp its ardour. It can hardly be doubted
+that cats are well aware that their gatherings for vocal purposes
+are hateful to mankind; but this knowledge in no way
+affects them, and even the voice of the mistress, who an
+hour before bestowed bread and milk, is absolutely unheeded
+when raised in an agonised appeal for silence. The predatory
+instinct is strong in these creatures, and however well a cat
+be fed or treated, it remains a thief to the end of its life.
+It is believed by those best acquainted with them that the
+greater portion of the time spent by a cat sitting in a state
+of apparent somnolency on the hearthrug, is really occupied
+in maturing plans for the surreptitious carrying off of pats
+of butter, for raids upon the larder, or for the assassination
+of canary birds.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id008'>
+<img src='images/p127.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p><span class='sc'>A Gathering for Musical Purposes.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>The question why the cat should of all creatures be selected
+by ladies as a domestic pet has occasioned high
+debate among philosophers of all ages. The animal possesses
+many vices. It is erratic in its habits, noisy, and thievish.
+It has no real affection for its mistress. It has but one
+virtue—it is soft, but many other things are soft which are
+free from drawbacks. Some have pretended to see a resemblance
+between the natures of the cat and the woman, but
+no sufficiently strong analogy can be traced to support so
+libellous an assertion. The fact that both love the fireside
+and hate going out into the wet, and that it is dangerous to
+rub either the wrong way, can scarcely be considered as of
+sufficient importance to warrant the suggestion of general
+similarity. The feeble plea that cats catch mice cannot be
+admitted as an argument in favour of their general acceptance.
+There are not mice to catch in a great many houses,
+and it is notorious that where there are, not one cat in fifty
+will trouble itself to catch them. The cat who can get
+milk given it in a saucer is not going to trouble itself by
+catching mice; and the knowledge that it is expected to
+pay for its board by keeping down mice troubles it not at
+all. Even as a mouse-catcher the cat is a poor creature—taking
+half an hour over a job which a terrier of the same
+size will perform in a second.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It has been urged that without cats there could be no cat
+shows, and this may be conceded frankly, but mankind
+might get on without these exhibitions. Were cats unobjectionable
+in their ways, the onus of proving why they should
+be abolished would rest with those who do not keep them;
+but as they are most objectionable, owing to the torture of
+nerves caused by their midnight assemblages, to say nothing
+of their destructiveness to well-kept gardens, it is for those
+who own them to prove that there is some compensation,
+some good quality, some advantage arising from the keeping
+of pets which are a pest and an annoyance to neighbours.
+A man is not allowed to hire an organ or a German band to
+play in front of his house, even in the day time, if a neighbour
+object; why, then, should he be allowed to keep a
+creature which renders night hideous with its caterwaulings?
+The legislation which taxes man’s faithful friend and companion,
+the dog, allows his wife to keep two or three cats,
+and to populate the whole of the district with their progeny,
+if she choose to do so. Over and over again has the desirability
+of placing a tax upon these animals been pressed
+upon successive Chancellors of the Exchequer, but they
+have hitherto turned deaf ears to the suggestion; and the
+reason is clear: Chancellors of the Exchequer are but
+mortal, and have wives. No man having a wife would
+venture to propose a tax upon cats, and until we have a
+minister who is without either a wife or other female relations,
+sisters, aunts, or cousins, the cat will remain master of
+the situation.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>And yet we are not altogether without hope. The present
+is essentially an age of association. There are Salvation
+Armies, Blue Ribbon Armies, Good Templars, Vegetarians,
+and Anti-tobacconists. Every one is interested in the well-doing
+of every one else. It cannot be doubted that sooner
+or later there will be an Association for the Suppression of
+Bad Language, and the very first step which such a body
+must take would be the suppression of the cat nuisance. It
+is calculated that at least 90 per cent. of those who have
+fallen into the lamentable habit of using strong expressions
+have been driven thereto, in the first place, by the voice of
+the midnight cat; and a pious divine has gone so far as to
+admit that at least mental profanity is absolutely universal,
+even among the best of men, under these circumstances.
+Even ladies of irreproachable morals and conduct have
+admitted the use of mental bad language, under the irritation
+caused by hours of sleeplessness through the infliction
+of a concert on the tiles. A society which would take the
+matter in hand would command an enormous support,
+although the great proportion of the subscriptions and
+donations in furtherance of its object would be anonymous,
+for few men would venture upon an open adherence to
+a society which, as a first step towards the suppression of
+swearing, would undertake to put down the domestic cat.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='LADYBIRD' class='c007'>THE LADYBIRD.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>THE ladybird occupies among insects a position very
+similar to that held by the robin among birds, and
+is similarly protected by a feeling akin to superstition. It
+must be owned that the robin has no peculiar claims upon
+the affection of man, on the grounds of benefits bestowed.
+It sings prettily, but there are many birds which surpass it
+in this respect; it has a friendly confidence in man, but not
+more so than has the sparrow; it can scarcely be considered
+to hold very high rank among the birds that render man vital
+services by acting as exterminators of the pests of the fields
+and gardens, and, indeed, it takes an ample toll of seed
+and fruit for any service it may do in the way of destroying
+insects. The jay’s bright feathers do not afford it protection
+from the keeper’s gun, and the patch of red on the breast
+of the robin would scarcely in itself account for the general
+feeling in its favour. Nor would the pretty markings on
+the back of the ladybird, for there are many more brilliant
+and showy insects; and the affection and kindly treatment
+which it receives, even from children, can hardly be explained,
+save as an instinct implanted by nature in the
+human breast, as a protection for one of his greatest friends
+and allies. Next, perhaps, to the ichneumon, the ladybird
+is the most valuable of all insects to man. The bee furnishes
+him with wax and honey, the silkworm with a fabric
+for the adornment of his female kind, the cochineal insect
+with a dye, the locust with a food, this being, however,
+but a poor return for its destruction of vegetation. The
+worm acts as a subsoil plough, takes down dead leaves and
+herbage, and brings fresh soil to the surface; many beetles
+work as scavengers, the Spanish fly provides us with blisters,
+and, indeed, it may be accepted that the great majority of
+insects are, in one way or another, directly or indirectly of
+benefit to man. But it may be doubted if any, save only
+the ichneumon, can vie with the ladybird in this respect.
+Its life is spent in the pursuit and destruction of the aphis,
+which, were it not for its vigilance, would so increase that it
+would become, in temperate climates, as great a scourge as
+is the locust in the localities it inhabits. Not only does
+the ladybird as a perfect insect live upon the aphis, but in
+its earlier, though less known, stage it is equally destructive
+to them, and from the time when it issues from the egg to
+its death its whole life is passed in the destruction of these
+pests of the farmer and gardener. In its labours this way
+it is ably assisted by the larvæ of the Hemerobius, which,
+in its perfect state, is a brilliant four-winged fly; and by those
+of the Syrphidæ, which transfix and devour their thousands
+on their trident-like mandibles. But these creatures, useful
+as they are, are far less common than the ladybirds, which
+are to be found on every plant, and, being amongst the
+earliest insects to make their appearance in the spring, are
+ready to meet the first invasion of the aphis. It may
+frankly be admitted that the ladybird is not, in this work of
+destruction, animated solely by a desire to benefit man, and
+even that this is quite a secondary matter in its opinion.
+This, however, may be said of many other recognised
+benefactors of man. The bullock is considered none the
+less a benefactor because he eats, not with the express
+purpose of making flesh, but to gratify his appetite; while
+the sheep values his warm coat rather because it keeps out
+the cold than because it will some day furnish man with a
+garment.</p>
+<p class='c010'>There are a great variety of ladybirds, differing only in
+the colours and markings of their coats; these are for the
+most part red, black, or yellow, with black, yellow, or white
+spots. The red with seven black spots is the most common,
+and is found all over Europe and in parts of Asia and
+Africa. It is everywhere a favourite with children, and in
+France they are called <i>Vaches à Dieu</i> or <i>Bêtes de la Vierge</i>,
+and are considered sacred to the Virgin. Why this should
+be so is not very clear, but it would be much more easy to
+find explanations for the title than for the verses that
+especially endear them to children throughout this
+country—</p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b c018'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Your house is on fire, your children alone.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c019'>There are two or three versions of the last two words, but
+all alike express that there is danger to the children as well
+as to the house. The antiquity of this legend is prodigious;
+it is one of the group brought by the earliest arrivals in
+Europe from the Far East, and there can be little doubt that
+it came to us from Scandinavia. It is familiar to children,
+with but slight variation, all over Europe, and African
+children repeat an almost identical sentence over the ladybird.
+As the legends current in Europe and Asia are but
+seldom found among the sons of Ham, it does not seem
+by any means beyond the bounds of probability that the
+legend was in existence before the Flood, and that the
+children of the sons of Noah carried it to the various
+quarters of the world when they scattered from the
+common centre.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>But, though there can be no dispute as to the enormous
+antiquity of these apparently non-sensible lines, scientific
+men, although agreeing that there must be a deep and
+hidden meaning somewhere, are quite unable to arrive at
+any consensus as to what that meaning can be. As of late
+years it has been the habit of scientific men, whenever they
+cannot find any other satisfactory explanation of an ancient
+legend or story, to assign it to one of the sun myths,
+“Ladybird, ladybird,” must now be considered as included
+in that broad category, and so takes its place by the side of
+the siege of Troy, the wars of the Gods with the Titans, and
+other apparently widely diverse legends. The highest credit
+is due to scientific men for the ingenuity shown in the
+invention of this sun-myth limbo, into which they are able
+to shunt away all legends and traditions that prove too
+tough for them to unravel. But, failing to grapple with
+the story of the burning of the ladybird’s house, it would
+certainly be satisfactory if we could get with certainty at the
+legend that connects them with the Virgin. The French
+call them <i>Bêtes de la Vierge</i>, the German <i>Unser Herrenhuhn</i>,
+while our own ladybird, which is, of course, a mere shortening
+of “Our Lady’s bird,” is a literal translation of the
+German name, the French differing only in calling the insect
+a beast, while the Germans and ourselves call it a bird.
+The most plausible supposition is that as the Virgin is in
+many Catholic pictures depicted as pierced to the heart with
+seven swords, the seven black spots on the red ladybird are
+considered as typical of those wounds, the form of the little
+creature being not unlike that of a heart.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Seeing the extreme value of the ladybird’s assistance as
+a destroyer of the green fly, it has more than once been
+seriously proposed to introduce breeding establishments for
+its multiplication; and there can be no doubt, were this
+practicable, agriculturists, and especially hop-growers, whose
+bines are cruelly ravaged by the green fly, would benefit
+vastly. The silkworm is bred in enormous quantities, and
+there seems no reason why the ladybird should be less
+susceptible of cultivation, if it could but be taught to lay
+aside its habits of restlessness. Unfortunately, the ladybird
+is a frequent and rapid traveller, and the hop-grower would
+have no assurance that his neighbour’s gardens would not
+benefit more than his own by his labours in breeding it.
+Few beetles take so readily to the wing; it runs fast, too, on
+the little legs packed so snugly away under the flat side of
+its hemisphere. Still, as the flea can be taught not to jump,
+it ought to be possible to restrain the ladybird from flying;
+and, in that case, if kept amply supplied with its favourite
+food, it might be content to breed in captivity, and the
+management of such an establishment would be a source of
+great interest and amusement to children. Owing, perhaps,
+to its immunity from cruel treatment at the hands of man,
+the ladybird exhibits no fear whatever of him. While the
+spider will rush to a hiding-place, the caterpillar drop itself
+from a twig, and the flea endeavour to escape by the aid of
+its prodigious activity from the touch of man, the ladybird
+will run unconcernedly across his hand, and, indeed, appears
+to take a pleasure in so doing, until, tired of the amusement,
+it opens its wing-cases, and, after a preliminary flourish of its
+wings, goes off in a swift flight in search of its next meal.
+Properly trained, the ladybird ought to be a skilful performer
+of tricks, although we are not aware that any efforts have
+been made in that direction, but a regiment of them drilled
+as soldiers and taught to manœuvre accurately to the
+sound of the bugle should certainly be an attractive
+spectacle.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='DOG' class='c007'>THE DOG.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>OF the various works of man, there are few of which he
+has more reason to be proud than the transformation
+under his hands of the wild dog into the domesticated
+animal. The change was not early effected; during
+Scriptural times it had made but little progress. The term
+“dog” is everywhere used as one of opprobrium. “Is thy
+servant a dog that he should do this?” is in itself sufficient
+to show that the possibility of the dog being possessed of
+many virtues had never occurred to the speaker. The dog
+was, indeed, regarded down to comparatively modern times
+in three lights only: as a scavenger, as a guard against wild
+beasts, and as an assistant in the chase, and it is thus
+that he is still viewed in the East and by uncivilised
+peoples. It must be owned that the wild dog, or the dog
+such as he exists on sufferance in Oriental communities, has
+but few higher claims, that he is by nature but little in
+advance of his cousins the wolf, the jackal, and the coyote,
+and that he is cowardly, cringing, and ferocious according
+to circumstance. His virtues, in fact, are at this stage
+altogether latent; he has been cowed by a long course of
+misapprehension and ill-treatment, and displays only his
+worst qualities. It is as difficult to recognise him as a near
+relation to the civilised dog as to see the connection
+between a Digger Indian and a Shakespeare or a Newton.
+It is, then, no small credit to man that he has discovered
+and brought out the grand qualities of the dog, and that in
+making him his companion and his friend he has developed
+virtues equal to those he himself possesses.</p>
+<p class='c010'>It may be said that there never was a man who possessed
+the proud stateliness of the St. Bernard, the unerring sagacity
+of the sheep-dog, or the courage and tenacity of the bulldog.
+The vainest masher is not daintier in his ways than
+the Italian greyhound, or more soft and affectionate than
+the Blenheim. In point of fun and vivacity the terrier in
+its many varieties stands higher, while in the exhibition
+of unwearied devotion, fidelity, and affection, the whole
+race put man to shame. Although rejoicing in undivided
+affection, the dog is yet contented with an occasional word
+from his master, he always renders prompt and cheerful
+obedience, is ready to spring up a score of times from the
+most comfortable sleep by the fireside in answer to his
+master’s voice, and is willing at once to abandon the most
+comfortable quarters to brave all weathers if his owner will
+but deign to take him with him. He will face any odds in
+his defence, and will die in his service. Even roughness
+and unkindness fail to shake his devotion, and in adversity
+as in prosperity his fealty is unbroken. The dog is a fine
+discriminator of persons, and while a well-attired stranger
+who approaches his master’s house will be greeted with
+silence, or perhaps with a slight wag of welcome, his back
+will bristle and his demeanour become unmistakably
+hostile as soon as he perceives a tramp approaching.
+Dogs are judges of character too, and no coaxing or
+blandishments will seduce them into friendliness with one
+of whose disposition they disapprove, and it must be owned
+that, like children, they are seldom mistaken in their intuitive
+likes and dislikes.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id009'>
+<img src='images/p139.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p>“<span class='sc'>Careful Breeding has brought about Great Varieties in Size, Form,<br />and Appearance.</span>”</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>A flesh-eater by nature, the dog adapts itself readily to
+the habits of those around. His preferences are for meat,
+but few things come absolutely amiss to him: bread and
+cheese, fish, pies and puddings of all sorts, vegetables, and
+even fruit, are eaten by him with apparent relish, and he
+needs but very little education to take to beer, wines, and
+spirits. As might be expected from the analogy of man,
+the big dog, as a rule, is much more gentle, patient, and
+good-tempered than the small one. The latter is ready
+upon the smallest provocation to become excited or
+pugnacious; he seems to be on the look out for affronts,
+and ever on the watch to assert himself. The big dog,
+upon the contrary, is generally quiet and dignified, and
+very slow to wrath. While careful breeding has brought
+about great varieties in size, form, and appearance, its
+effects upon the dog’s mental organisation can scarcely
+be traced, save for such differences of disposition as are
+the result of size rather than race. The St. Bernard and
+the toy terrier, the pug, the poodle, the Dachshund, and
+the spaniel, although differing as widely from each other in
+appearance and shape as if they belonged to different
+families, are yet identical in their possession of the virtues
+and methods of dogdom. Their habits may differ slightly,
+some seeming to find their chief happiness in lying asleep
+on a soft cushion, others in an incessant pursuit of rats and
+other vermin, some in accompanying their masters to the
+chase. There are dogs whose greatest joy is a swim,
+others whose chief object of life seems to be to pick a
+quarrel and then fight it out. But these differences are no
+greater than those we find existing in men—even in men of
+the same race. It does not require a very wide range of
+acquaintance to enable us to fix upon a man whose tastes
+correspond respectively to those of one or other of these
+types of dogs, and, indeed, the list might be almost
+indefinitely extended. This is not remarkable, since it is
+man who has made the dog what he is. No such varieties
+of character are to be found in the wild dog, and even the
+semi-civilised dog of Constantinople, or other Eastern towns,
+resembles his brethren as closely as one sheep in the fold
+does another.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The Red Indian expects confidently that his faithful
+hound will be his companion in the chase in the country of
+the Great Manitou, and there are not a few Englishmen
+who, deep down in their hearts, believe that the separation
+between themselves and their affectionate friends and loyal
+servants will not be an eternal one. They would repudiate
+the idea that there was a future before other animals,
+unless an exception were made in behalf of a favourite
+horse; but the dog has assimilated himself so closely to
+man, has become so much his companion and friend, that
+it is not difficult to a real lover of the dog to suppose that
+it too may have a future before it. At any rate, in a
+comparison between the dog and the man, the advantage
+is not always with the latter; and few would deny that
+in point of intelligence, of generosity, and nobleness of
+disposition, of fidelity to duty, of patience and of courage,
+there are some dogs that are infinitely the superiors of
+some men. It was not so long ago that, in discussing the
+muzzling question, a man writing to a newspaper said,
+“Better a thousand dogs should die than one man!”
+There are very few men who, appreciating dogs, would at
+all agree with this opinion. There are men whose lives
+are more valuable than those of a thousand dogs, but there
+are others whose lives would be dearly purchased by that of
+one dog.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It is possible that if admitted to as intimate a companionship
+with man, other animals might make as rapid
+a rise as the dog has done; but there are few so well
+suited for that companionship. The cat accepts kindness,
+but declines to be in any way bound by it. It may like
+petting, and may even run to greet a master or mistress,
+and follow them over the house; but the cat takes little
+interest in their conversation, and keeps its thoughts strictly
+to itself, and its inscrutable face is a mask which cannot
+be penetrated. But beyond the cat the choice is limited.
+Rats and mice are easily tamed, but would never overcome
+feminine aversion. Sheep lack the liveliness necessary for
+a pet. Cattle are too large for our present style of house;
+while the giraffe, whose eye is probably the most lovely of
+those of any of the brute creation, would scarcely feel at
+ease in a drawing-room. Lions, tigers, and other members
+of the cat tribe have been made pets when young, but
+become dangerous as they gain their strength. The
+monkey is too intolerant of cold to become a pet in this
+country, and his restlessness and love of mischief are against
+him. The mongoose, perhaps, if more common, would be
+the most formidable rival of the dog. It is admitted to
+possess a high degree of intelligence, to be easily tamed,
+and very affectionate; but it could take the place only of
+the smaller varieties of dogs, and would fail from its want
+of voice as a guard, and be of little use in a tussle with
+burglars. Take him altogether, there is no animal possessing
+one tithe of the qualifications of the dog for the various
+purposes for which he is used by man, being capable of
+acting alike as a woman’s pet, as a man’s companion, as an
+assistant in the chase, as, in some countries, an animal of
+draught, as a vigilant sentry, as a powerful and valiant
+ally, and as the most faithful and truest of friends.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='SHEEP' class='c007'>SHEEP.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>THE position of the sheep in the scale of the animal
+creation has not yet been assigned. Naturalists, who
+are guided by mere externals, have, indeed, agreed that the
+sheep is a quadruped, that it is herbivorous and ruminant;
+but, after all, this does not help us much. Physically, the
+sheep may stand high; mentally, it appears to be about
+on the level of the garden slug. The sheep eats continually,
+and when he is not eating, he is chewing; this gives him a
+thoughtful appearance; but no savants have ever ventured
+a suggestion as to the subject of his thoughts. He has his
+good points as a producer of wool and mutton, but the
+garden slug is edible and nourishing, and the caterpillar
+yields a most valuable product for clothing; therefore this
+fact cannot be considered as bearing upon the subject of
+his place in the scale of creation. In its wild state the
+sheep is said to be sagacious, but the stories of huntsmen,
+like those of fishermen, are to be received with marked
+distrust. If the sheep is sagacious in its wild state, why
+should it become so densely stupid when domesticated?
+The dog and the negro improve immensely in intelligence
+from contact with man, and are both capable of attaining
+a high degree of reasoning power. Dogs cannot, indeed,
+speak, but they certainly understand much of human
+speech, and learn to read the wishes of their masters at a
+glance. Negroes attain to the point of being able to preach
+sermons—a low test of intellectuality certainly, but still a
+proof of some intelligence.</p>
+<p class='c010'>It is difficult to believe, then, that the sheep can have
+deteriorated mentally from contact with civilisation, and it
+must be assumed that any supposed sharpness of the creature
+in its wild state must be due solely to the fact that it
+is difficult to approach, and crafty in eluding pursuit. But
+in these qualities the domestic flea is surely its superior;
+and most insects, either by feigning death, by speed in
+running or flying, or by tricks of hiding themselves from
+observation, show higher powers of self-preservation than
+the most enthusiastic admirers of the sheep can claim for it.
+It is true that the sheep makes up for its lack of intelligence
+by its preternatural gravity and thoughtfulness of demeanour.
+Were every quadruped half as wise as the sheep looks, it is
+clear that the dominion of man over the animal creation
+would be played out. The ovine vocabulary is limited.
+The sheep has, in fact, but one sound, which it is so proud
+of that it is continually making it. Whether calling its
+offspring, or protesting against being driven along a high
+road, or as an utterance of opinion as to the appearance
+and speed of a passing railway train, it raises this cry with
+precisely the same inflection and vigour.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id010'>
+<img src='images/p145.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p>“<span class='sc'>Addicted to the Childish Pastime of Follow-my-Leader.</span>”</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Attentive observers have been of opinion that, like the
+dog and cat, the sheep expresses emotion by different movements
+of its tail; but none have attempted to classify these
+varieties of motion or to analyse the emotion contained
+by them. Like most timid creatures the sheep is crassly
+obstinate, and will object to be driven into a pen, even
+though the interior be scattered thickly with the succulent
+turnip, and nothing short of prodding with a stick, assisted by
+barking on the part of a dog and bad language on the part of
+the shepherd, will induce it to enter. The animal, except in
+early youth, has no idea of humour; and even on the part
+of the lamb, playfulness is expressed only by a little frisking
+of an incoherent character. It has been said that the sheep
+is capable of attachment to persons; and an American
+ballad specifically states, that a lamb belonging to a young
+person of the name of Mary followed her wheresoever she
+went. The fact, however, that the circumstance should
+have been considered worthy of chronicle in verse shows
+its great rarity. One of the peculiarities about sheep is
+the extreme similarity of feature which characterises the
+individuals of the same breed. Nature, which so loves
+variety that it is said that no two leaves in a great tree are
+exactly alike, gave up the sheep as hopeless. The straight
+forehead and nose, the lack-lustre eye, admitted of no
+variety short of complete change, and even the interference
+of man, although it has created many varieties in size and
+coat, has done nothing to alter the face; it remains in its
+normal state of uniform stolidity. Lambs, indeed, recognise
+their mothers among a flock; but it is probable that
+the sense of smell rather than of sight enables them to
+do so.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Even the poets, who have managed to say something for
+most animals, have been unable to invent anything favourable
+concerning sheep; and silly has been their favourite
+epithet for it. The poet who has apparently devoted most
+attention to their doings, goes so far as to say that a flock,
+of which he is writing, on a certain occasion left their
+tails behind them. This, of course, must only be regarded
+as a metaphor, his meaning being that they were wholly
+destitute of memory. Scriptural authority would seem to
+show that the sheep is a superior animal to the goat, and
+no doubt it is less given to mischievous tricks; but as this
+is due to a want of sufficient intelligence to devise a
+mischievous trick, it can hardly be considered a feature
+worthy of high commendation. Some have supposed that
+the sheep throughout its life is oppressed with a sense of
+duty which deadens all other faculties. Having in some
+mysterious manner become possessed of an hereditary knowledge
+that the object of its life is to furnish mutton, it
+sets itself deliberately to work to prepare for the butcher’s
+knife. To this end, it is always eating when it is not
+sleeping. Its stolidity is assumed because it knows that
+energy is destructive to the formation of fat. Unfortunately
+for the reputation of these animals, their breeders
+have regarded them solely in the light of producers of
+mutton and wool, and have endeavoured to improve them
+only in this respect. Had they turned their attention
+to developing their mental qualities, the consequences
+might have been different; but naturally the sheep, finding
+that no efforts were being made to improve its intelligence,
+accepted the place in the animal creation that man assigned
+to it, and has taken no pains to improve itself. There is
+no saying what a society for the improvement of the intelligent
+faculties of sheep might not effect, and if its efforts
+did but produce some change in the expression of their
+faces it would be a boon to mankind. There is a limit now
+to the pleasure which any one save a breeder can obtain
+from the contemplation of a flock of sheep, and this simply
+from the want of variety. It is true that Phyllis and
+Daphne, and many other maidens, have taken to the
+tending of sheep; but as it is palpable that the attractions
+of the calling were the shepherds and not the sheep, this
+proves nothing.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>To be able to obtain a fair idea of the stupidity of sheep
+it is necessary to see them, not when engaged in tranquil
+mastication, but while driven upon a high road. The
+manner in which they persist in placing themselves under
+the wheels of any passing waggon or cart is remarkable,
+and would seem to show that even the instinct of self-preservation,
+which is so marked in their wild state, is
+altogether lost in the domestic animal. Singularly enough,
+they are addicted to the childish pastime of follow-my-leader,
+and wherever one goes the rest will follow, even
+if it be in a jump over a cliff to certain destruction. It has
+been urged in favour of sheep that they are affectionate
+mothers, and will defend their offspring against attack on
+the part of dogs. This, however, can scarcely be considered
+a fair reason for placing them high in the scale of
+animals, as some insects, such as ants and bees, will defend
+their young even to the death; while as to the affection
+of the sheep, any one who has watched it suckling its
+lamb must have been struck at the absolute indifference
+of its attitude and its evident mute protest against the proceeding.
+There are many other points which might in an
+exhaustive essay upon the sheep be touched on, for example
+the ridiculous feebleness of its attempt to be a formidable
+and dangerous assailant, as expressed by short stamps of
+the feet, a pretence which fails to impose upon any one.
+Enough, however, has been said to show that the sheep,
+although classed as a quadruped, is really as an animal
+an impostor, and that its true place in the scale according
+to its mental attributes should rather be among the molluscs
+than the vertebrates.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='BEE' class='c007'>THE BEE AND THE WASP.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>IT is undeniable that the bee occupies a far higher
+position in the regard of man than the wasp. The
+bee is held up as an example to the young for its strict
+attention to business, its forethought and prudence. It
+has been made the object of much study; its habits and
+manners have been watched in hives specially constructed;
+and the behaviour of the bees towards their queen and
+towards each other has been as minutely investigated and
+described, and is, indeed, almost as well known, as are the
+customs of the ancient Greeks or Romans. The wasp, on
+the other hand, is regarded with absolute hostility. It is
+viewed as an idler, as an irritable and hot-tempered
+creature, with no fixed aims and ends, prone to unprovoked
+assaults, a disturber of picnics, an intruder in the domestic
+circle—a creature, in fact, to be promptly and summarily
+put to death if opportunity offer itself. This hasty and
+unjust conclusion is, in fact, the result of man’s natural
+selfishness. He does not really admire the bee because
+the insect stores up food for its winter use, but because he
+is able to plunder that store, and to make it available for
+his own purposes. The squirrel, the field-mouse, and many
+other creatures lay up stores for winter; but, as man is not
+particularly fond of dried nuts or shrivelled grain, he does
+not consider it necessary to profess any extreme admiration
+for the forethought of these creatures. The wasp is perfectly
+capable of storing up honey for its winter use, did it see the
+slightest occasion for doing so; but the wasp is not a fool.
+It knows perfectly well that its life is a short one; that it
+will die when the winter season approaches. Its instinct
+doubtless teaches it that only a few of the autumn-born
+females will survive to create new colonies in the spring,
+and that as these females will pass the winter in a dormant
+state in some snug recess beyond the reach of frost, there is
+no occasion whatever to prepare stores of food for their use.
+Did the wasp endeavour to emulate the bee, and store its
+cells with honey, it would rightly be held up to derision as
+an idiot, as the only creature who imitates the folly of man
+in continuing to work until the last to pile up riches for
+others to enjoy after its death. If it is admirable for the
+bee, who lives through the winter, to collect for his use
+during that time, it is no less admirable in the wasp, who
+dies before the winter, to avoid the absurd and ridiculous
+habit of collecting stores which he cannot profit by.</p>
+<p class='c010'>In all other respects the wasp is the equal, if not the
+superior, of the bee. The latter is content to establish its
+home in any place that comes to hand. Even if man
+provides a hive for it, the bee has not the sense to utilise it
+until man takes the trouble to bring the habitation and to
+shake the swarm into it. If the hive should not be forthcoming
+the bees will establish themselves in a hollow tree,
+in a chimney, in the roof of a house, or in any other place that
+appears convenient, and then and there begin to build their
+combs and prepare for the reception of brood and honey. The
+wasp, on the other hand, more industriously sets to work to
+build its own house, walls and all, and the labour required
+for such an undertaking is enormous. Wood, the material
+it uses, is obtained by gnawing posts, gates, rails, or other
+timber that has lost its sap. This is chewed up by the wasp’s
+strong jaws into a paste, and spread out with its tongue in
+layers finer than tissue paper. Layer after layer is spread,
+until the house, which varies in size from that of an apple to
+one as large as a man’s head, is made rain- and weather-tight,
+a model of symmetry, and a marvellous example of the result
+of patient and persevering labour, a white palace, by the side
+of which anything the bee can do is but poor workmanship.
+The arrangement inside the structure is at least equal to
+that which the bee can accomplish in the most perfectly-constructed
+hive. The cells are as regular and as carefully
+arranged, and it is kept with the same scrupulous care and
+cleanliness. It is not necessary for the wasp to collect
+honey and pollen for the use of its brood, for these are fed
+upon insects, the juicy caterpillar and the plump body of
+the blue-bottle being the morsels which they mostly affect.
+In the capture of its prey for the use of its young, the wasp
+works as assiduously as does the owl to gather in field mice
+for the sustenance of its offspring; and each capture, after
+being carried to the nest, is stowed away in the cell with the
+egg, until it is full, and then the entrance securely sealed.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The queen wasp is, in point of activity, energy, and intelligence,
+far ahead of the queen bee. As soon as the latter leaves
+her cell a perfect insect, she is waited upon by a crowd of
+workers, who provide her with food, attend her every movement,
+and forestall her every wish, and her functions are
+confined solely to the laying of her eggs. The queen wasp,
+on the contrary, is the founder as well as the mother of her
+colony. When she wakes up from her lethargy in the
+spring, she sallies out to find a suitable spot for her future
+kingdom. Having fixed upon it, she proceeds to build her
+cells unaided. She has to feed herself while engaged on
+this labour, and when a certain number of cells are completed
+she has then to store them with food sufficient to
+support the grubs, until, their second stage completed, they
+are ready to issue out and to take their share in the work.
+Even when she has an army of children, she continues to
+set them an example of labour and perseverance, supervising
+the operations and working diligently and continuously
+herself. She is the life and soul of her community, and if
+by any accident she dies before the other females, which
+are hatched late in the season, appear, the community is
+entirely disorganised, the neuters cease from their labours,
+and the whole colony perishes. Nature, too, has done
+much more for the bee than for the wasp, for the former
+naturally secretes the wax from which it forms its cells,
+while the wasp has no such faculty, and has to construct
+its cells as well as its house from the paper it manufactures.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The wasp is as fond of sweets as is the bee, and while
+a portion of the community are engaged upon the work of
+collecting materials, manufacturing paper, and building, the
+others collect sweets from flowers or fruit. Having filled
+themselves with these, they return home, and on entering
+the hive mount to the upper cells, and there disgorge the
+contents of their honey bag for the benefit of the workers.
+The bee is industrious, it may be admitted, but it is
+industrious in a quiet and methodical way. There is no
+hurry about the bee, and any one who watches it at work
+will be inclined to admit that it does a good deal of pottering
+about. The wasp has no time for this sort of thing;
+it knows how much there is to be done, and that there
+is not a single moment to be wasted. The queen is laying
+her eggs; there are the materials for the houses to be
+collected, ground up into paste, and spread; there is food
+for the grubs to be gathered, and supplies for the builders
+to be brought in. The work has got to be done, and there
+is no time to be fooling about. There is, then, no reason
+whatever for surprise, and still less for blame, that when the
+wasp is interrupted in its work it loses its temper at once.
+It is angry when, having entered at an open window, and
+gathered from a jam-pot, a dish, or a jug—for the wasp is
+not particular—a supply of food, it finds that its way back
+to its hungry friends is barred by a strange smooth obstacle,
+through which it cannot pass. Many men know to their
+cost how small a thing rouses the temper of a woman
+engaged in the arduous operations of washing or cooking,
+and are careful in avoiding the neighbourhood of the wash-house
+or kitchen upon such occasions; and yet they make
+no allowance whatever for similar irritation on the part of
+the busy wasp! Again, blame is imputed to the wasp
+because it waxes wroth if it be flapped at with a handkerchief
+or hat; but surely there is nothing surprising in
+this? Men take offence at practical jokes, especially
+practical jokes of a dangerous kind; and the wasp naturally
+regards these wanton attacks upon it, when actively engaged
+in the business of the community, as dangerous impertinences,
+and is not to be blamed for resenting them. The
+more one examines into the habits of the bee and the wasp
+respectively, the more one is convinced that the high
+esteem in which the former is held by man is simply the
+result of man’s love for honey; and that the balance of
+superiority is wholly upon the side of the wasp, who is a
+more energetic, a more vivacious, a more industrious, and a
+more intelligent insect than the bee, and should on all these
+accounts occupy a far higher place in man’s esteem and
+regard than it possesses at present.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='BEAR' class='c007'>THE BEAR.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>NATURE, in creating the bear, bestowed upon it
+many good gifts. It is strong, robust, and hardy.
+It is warmly clad, and, moreover, can escape the hardships
+of winter by indulging in a prolonged sleep. One gift, however,
+was denied it—that of grace; altogether, few animals
+are more clumsy in their gait and movements than the
+bear. It is strange that, this being so, the bear should be
+one of the few animals man has taught to dance. The
+majority of bears are vegetable eaters. Their claws are not,
+like those of the feline tribe, formed to tear or slay an
+enemy, but are designed for digging up the roots that
+form a large portion of its sustenance. As might be expected
+from the fact that it is a vegetarian, the bear is
+generally of an easy temper, and would be glad to leave
+man alone, if man would but let it alone. This amiability
+of temper by no means arises from want of courage. If
+their cubs are in danger, bears will attack against any odds,
+and if wounded are amongst the most formidable and
+savage of assailants. The polar bear, living as it does upon
+seals and fish, is by no means so peacefully inclined as the
+various species that exist on roots and fruit. It does not
+wait to be attacked, but at once takes the offensive, and
+there are few more formidable foes. Bears are fond of
+sweets, the Asiatic as well as the American species both
+hunting diligently for the hives of wild bees, which their
+thick coats enable them to take in defiance of the efforts of
+their indignant owners. In captivity the animal is readily
+tamed. Unfortunately the bear
+possesses but few qualities that
+would render him of great use
+to man; had it been otherwise,
+doubtless it would have been
+tamed and kept in herds, for
+there seems no reason whatever
+why it should not have
+been as completely domesticated
+as the sheep and the ox.
+As, however, its hair is too
+coarse for working up into
+textile fabrics, and its milk-giving
+capacity is small, man
+has viewed it solely as an
+animal for the chase, and has
+hunted it down ceaselessly, the
+cubs only being occasionally
+preserved for exhibition in the
+Zoological Gardens, or with
+travelling showmen. In the latter case the bear shows great
+docility, readily learning to obey its master, and frequently
+manifesting a lively affection for him.</p>
+
+<div  class='figright id011'>
+<img src='images/p157.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>Next only to the monkey, the bear is unquestionably the
+most human of animals in its motions and gestures. In a
+state of nature, indeed, it rarely rises to its hind feet except
+for the purpose of attack; but the fact that it is able to
+walk upon them, and that it frequently sits up on its
+haunches, and uses its fore paws as hands either for the
+purpose of putting food to its mouth, scratching itself, or
+rubbing its head, gives it a very human appearance. If
+wounded, too, it will sit up, and place its paws over the
+wound just as a man will do.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The American Indians held the bear in very high respect.
+This did not, indeed, prevent them from hunting
+it, but, before feasting on its flesh, they would always make a
+speech, begging its pardon, and deprecating its anger, upon
+the ground that they did not kill it from illwill, but simply
+from necessity. The bear dance, in which those engaged
+in it imitated the movements of the animal, was a religious
+ceremony, and generally the bear was regarded with respect
+far beyond that paid to any other animal. It is unfortunate
+for the bear that it did not from the first cultivate its
+power of walking upon its hind legs, for there can be no
+doubt that had it done so it would have stood much
+higher in the esteem of man. Valuing himself somewhat
+highly, man is naturally disposed to value animals that
+approach most nearly to him. The monkey is deified in
+some parts of India, and the bear might have stood in as
+high a position, had it but accustomed itself habitually to
+walk upright. It is true that it has none of the sprightliness
+of the monkey, but its gravity, its evidently good intentions,
+and the somewhat rustic awkwardness of its gait, would
+certainly seem to mark it as intended to be a more genial
+and friendly companion to man than the skittish and erratic
+monkey. The polar bear and the North American grizzly,
+the latter fast approaching extinction, come under a different
+category altogether, and even the accomplishment of walking
+upright would have gone but a short way towards endearing
+them to man. The polar bear, indeed, differs widely from
+other species. In spite of his great bulk and power, he has
+none of that awkwardness that distinguishes the various
+land bears. He can run with considerable swiftness. He
+is perhaps the best swimmer of all quadrupeds, and is quick
+and active in his movements; but, upon the other hand, his
+face expresses none of the easy good temper of the ordinary
+bear, but it is at once fierce and sullen, watchful and
+alert.</p>
+
+<div  class='figleft id012'>
+<img src='images/p160.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>The bear more than any animal conveys the impression
+of incompleteness, and it is difficult to avoid the belief that
+being slow of temperament it has taken much longer in its
+passage upwards from the germ than have other creatures.
+This being the case, it would be unfair to judge the bear as
+awkward or clumsy when in fact it is simply incomplete;
+and it is probable that in the course of another million
+years or so, when the cycle of its changes is accomplished,
+it will be an altogether different animal, distinguished for the
+grace of its movements, and for its still closer resemblance
+to man. The bear is perhaps more highly appreciated in
+Germany than elsewhere, it may be because the habits of
+the people approximate more closely to his than do those
+of the natives of other countries. At any rate it bears a
+conspicuous position in their folk-lore, and figures prominently
+in many a legend and story. It is probable that
+the tale dear to English children of the three bears was
+derived from German sources. The bear has by general
+consent been voted to be the characteristic emblem of
+Russia, doubtless because the peasants, wrapped up in skins
+in winter, with hoods of the same over their heads, do
+present a very striking resemblance to him. The bear was
+once common in England; its bones are found plentifully
+among those of other cave-inhabiting
+animals, and it was still
+numerous in the island when the
+Romans first conquered Britain;
+it vanished, however, even before
+the wolf, and has been nearly
+exterminated throughout Western
+Europe. It figured in the Roman
+arena, where it was probably
+goaded to a savagery altogether
+alien to its nature. It may be
+assumed that it was at one time
+regarded in the Old World with
+something of the superstition
+with which it was held in the
+New, being the only animal after
+whom two constellations have
+been named. Were there three
+of them, we should possibly be
+able to arrive at a satisfactory
+explanation of the children’s
+story. It is remarkable that
+both bears are placed by the
+ancients in close proximity to
+the pole, probably in delicate allusion to its climbing
+powers, as to the present day no bear pit is considered
+complete unless provided with a pole. It is evident that
+the ancient astronomers were wags, and while apparently
+bent solely upon giving names to the constellations, were
+quietly poking fun at the unlearned. It would be difficult
+otherwise to account for the position assigned to Ursa
+Major and Ursa Minor, for there is nothing whatever
+in the position of the stars forming these constellations
+that in any way indicates the figure of a bear, the outlines
+of the various animals in the constellations being purely
+imaginative and arbitrary. It is somewhat singular that the
+bear did not figure among the signs of the zodiac, when
+such comparatively insignificant creatures as the ram and
+the fish were pressed into the service. Summing up the
+bear, it may be said that its good qualities predominate over
+its evil ones, and that it is man’s fault rather than the bear’s
+that they do not dwell comfortably and sociably together.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='SPIDER' class='c007'>THE SPIDER.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>THE want of balance in man’s appreciation of things,
+and the unreasonable nature of his prejudices, are in
+nothing shown more strikingly than in the view he takes of
+the spider. His objection to the spider is based upon the
+fact that it kills its prey and devours it. So do the great
+majority of creatures on earth. The next objection is that
+it catches it in a net; but for every fly the spider catches
+the fisherman will take a thousand fish, also in a net, and no
+one imputes it to him as harm. The fisherman, indeed, is
+regarded with a sort of special affection by the community.
+He is spoken of as the hardy fisherman, the honest fisherman,
+and, at any rate in his case, the fact that he catches
+his fish in a net is not considered in any way reprehensible.
+Then, it is urged against the spider that, having set its net,
+it hides from view, and, having enticed the fly into its
+bower, rushes out and devours it. But how about man?
+The fly-fisher casts cunningly devised and tempting lures
+over the fish, while himself keeping, as far as possible,
+hidden from view. The trawler arms himself with glittering
+imitations of fish, studded with deadly hooks; the wild-duck
+gunner paddles up noiselessly in a punt, and shoots down
+his birds while feeding; or hides himself in a bower, and
+brings them down as they pass unsuspectingly overhead.
+Man uses craft, and skill, and cunning to capture his prey
+of all sorts, and exults in his success. He would laugh to
+scorn the accusation that he was a lurking assassin, and yet
+he assumes a tone of lofty moral superiority towards the
+spider, who uses the gifts nature has bestowed upon him not
+for sport or amusement, but for existence. No spider is
+recorded as having employed a large body of his friends
+to drive up two or three thousand half-tamed flies to be
+slaughtered by him as a form of amusement. We have no
+doubt that such spiders as may be engaged about their
+business, within view of slaughter so perpetrated by human
+beings, must quiver in their webs with righteous indignation.
+Let us, then, have no more maudlin sentimentality about
+the cruelty of the spider. It obtains its food by the chase,
+and in so doing exhibits a skill, a dexterity, and a patience
+unsurpassed by any living creature.</p>
+<p class='c010'>The spider has a wonderful power of adaptability to
+circumstances. The great fat-bodied spider of our gardens
+is necessarily slow-moving, and therefore builds its web
+and waits. There are others less burdened by nature who
+are fierce and active, who hunt their prey on a sunny wall
+as a dog might hunt a rabbit, quartering the ground with
+restless activity, and pouncing upon the prey with the
+spring of a tiger. Some for preference build thick webs in
+dark corners, festooning cornices with filmy drapery, to the
+annoyance of good housewives. Others, tiny creatures
+these, will throw out a few threads, and, floating upon them,
+allow themselves to be wafted vast distances through the
+air. There is the water spider, who, long before man
+invented the diving bell, dwelt below the water, building its
+nest there like a thimble, open at the bottom, and then
+laboriously carrying down little globules of air and releasing
+them beneath it, until the water is expelled, and it can dwell
+in the little silver bell it has prepared for itself. Then,
+too, there is the spider who builds for itself a box in
+the ground with a hinged lid as skilfully contrived as any
+of man’s inventions, and, holding this tightly down, can
+defy the efforts of any foe likely to assail it. Not even the
+ant shows a wider intelligence, a more perfect aptitude for
+using the tools with which nature has provided it, and a
+greater power of adapting itself to circumstances than does
+the spider, and yet, while the ant and the bee are held up
+as examples to our children, the spider is passed over as an
+objectionable creature, of no account.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The spider is capable of being tamed, and has before
+now been made a pet of by prisoners, who have so domesticated
+it that it would come at their call, take food
+from their fingers, and come to treat them with absolute
+fearlessness, if not affection. It is not to be pretended
+that the spider possesses no bad qualities. Were it otherwise,
+it would stand on a far loftier level with man. With
+individuals of its own species it is exceptionally quarrelsome,
+and will not only kill, but eat a conquered adversary. It
+is, undoubtedly, an advanced socialist. So long as its
+supply of the viscid fluid from which it constructs its web
+holds out, it will build its house and defend it against all
+comers. But when this is exhausted, it immediately adopts
+radical principles, and upon the theory that there is no right
+in property, proceeds at once to rob a neighbour of the
+fruits of its labour, and to instal itself in the property from
+which it has ejected the owner. It is a little singular that
+the socialists have not adopted the spider as the badge and
+emblem of their creed, in recognition of the identity of their
+principles.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Unhappily, a far darker blot than this rests upon the
+character of the female spider, who is much larger and
+more powerful than the male. She is an excellent mother,
+and will defend her bag of eggs with her life; but she is a
+mournful example of the working of the rights of women
+carried out to the fullest extent. This can never occur in
+the human race, because, fortunately for man, he is the
+stronger. Were it otherwise, we may be sure that that
+section of females who clamour for equality would be
+content with nothing less than absolute supremacy. The
+female spider lives up to this. Being the stronger, she does
+not argue with her husband, but when she has no further
+use for him she simply kills him and eats him. Looking at
+the matter from man’s point of view, we are unable to find
+any justification for this conduct. Our escape from the fate
+of the male spider is largely due to the fact that our females
+are less strong than we: indeed, in spite of physical weakness
+they not unfrequently hold us in subjection, and occasionally
+rule us with a rod of iron. Metaphorically, they may
+devour us by their extravagance; but they have, happily,
+no ability to carry out to the fullest the methods of the
+female spider. The spider, it must be owned, stands
+almost, if not altogether, alone in the commission of this
+crime of uxoricide. So strange an exception is this to the
+general rule of nature, that one is driven to suppose that
+the female spiders must, perhaps in remotely distant times,
+have suffered from terrible treatment and ill usage at the
+hand of the males, and that having in course of ages
+attained to greater strength than is possessed by their
+mates, they now revenge upon them the wrongs of their
+far back ancestors. We do not assert that this is absolutely
+the true explanation of their conduct; but it is clear that
+some events of an altogether exceptional kind must have
+occurred in the history of the spider to bring about so
+unexampled and unnatural a state of things among the two
+sexes, and to embitter to such a degree the female against
+the male. It is lamentable to have to record so evil a
+trait in the character of one of the most intelligent and
+intellectual of insects, but it would be unfair to other and
+less highly gifted creatures were we to pass it over in
+silence.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='GNAT' class='c007'>THE GNAT.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>HAD the gnat been endowed with as great a power
+of making itself obnoxious as its first cousin the
+mosquito, it would have been the subject of anxious inquiry
+and investigation by man. As it is, it attracts but slight
+attention, and lives and dies in undisturbed obscurity. In
+this respect it closely resembles what are called the working
+classes among man. The noisy spouter, the obnoxious
+demagogue, the troublesome striker attract attention; the
+vast patient herd live and die almost unnoticed. There
+is no reason for supposing, however, that the gnat takes the
+neglect of man to heart, fond as he undoubtedly is of man’s
+companionship. In this respect he stands almost, if not
+quite alone among created things, for the attentions paid
+to man by the flea, the bug, and the mosquito are strictly
+selfish. Gnats, however, appear to be purely disinterested
+in their attentions, and to regard the doings of man with
+pleased and curious interest. They will attend him in
+his walks, flying in a cloud over his head or a pace or
+two in front of him; while their interest in him when
+engaged in fishing, sketching, or other pursuits is unbounded.
+They do not, like the midge, interfere with him
+in any other way, but keep at a respectful distance. A
+young couple strolling through a lane as the shades of
+evening are falling are a spectacle specially attractive to
+gnats. They will frequently on such occasions form themselves
+into filmy clouds, rising and falling in rhythmical
+measure, expressive of satisfaction and goodwill.</p>
+<p class='c010'>The summer evening gnat must not be confused with
+a cousin of his which occasionally infests low-lying and
+marshy neighbourhoods. This bears both in point of
+size, appearance, and habits, a much closer relation to the
+mosquito than to the gnat, and it may, indeed, be termed
+the English mosquito. It is many times larger than the
+gnat which is the subject of our remarks, has dark limbs
+and body, a stinging proboscis, and a bare head. The gnat
+is scarce more substantial than a cobweb, and has upon
+its head a lovely plume. It is silent, or, at least, if it
+utters a sound, its vibrations are too rapid for the ears of
+man to detect.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The life of the gnat, although short, would seem to be
+more full of pleasure and enjoyment than that of any other
+creature. Other insects that consort together in large
+numbers do so for mutual convenience or protection. Multitudes
+are needed for the various work of the bee, wasp,
+and ant cities. Caterpillar communities dwell together,
+partly because they were born so, but probably more because
+the web, their common work, is a protection against
+their enemies, and specially against their most deadly foe,
+the ichneumon. The aphis feed crowded in close herds,
+but their power of locomotion is so small that they live
+and die where they were born. Gnats, however, congregate
+simply to enjoy the companionship of their friends. Their
+gatherings are great balls and dances. Flying in a soft
+cloud scarce more palpable than steam, and ever changing
+in form, they rise and fall in constant motion, and it is
+impossible to doubt that this action partakes, to some
+extent, of the character of a dance. A faint, low hum
+accompanies the motion, caused partly, perhaps, by the
+beating of the innumerable gossamer wings, partly by the
+whispered conversation or song from innumerable throats.
+Naturalists have puzzled themselves in vain for any explanation
+of the object of these dancings. The natural one,
+that it is the outcome of a joyous and happy disposition,
+an exercise expressive of pleasure and happiness, is too
+simple to be received with approval by the scientific mind.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Man does not so rejoice in his existence. He has not
+such unbounded satisfaction in the companionship of multitudes
+of his fellows, nor throughout all nature is there any
+parallel to the great gatherings and dancings of the gnats.
+Flies, indeed, do join in sportive chases and flights, but
+these are engaged in by few individuals only. Flights of
+starlings and some other gregarious birds approach more
+nearly to the gnat assemblies, and are also frequently
+marked by rhythmical fallings and risings; but they are
+comparatively short outbursts of playful joyousness, and
+not comparable with the constant and prolonged dances in
+which the gnat spends the greater portion of its existence
+as a perfect insect. Well may the gnat be transparent,
+for it is doubtful whether it takes any solid food from the
+time of its emergence from its pupa case to that when,
+its existence terminated, it drops lifeless on the surface of
+a stream. It drinks, however, and a dewdrop is sufficient
+to afford refreshment to thousands.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The gnat’s life, like that of most insects, is a dual one;
+but unlike most others, the first—and much the longest
+portion—is spent in the water. The female gnat selects
+some quiet and sheltered piece of water, a stagnant pool
+for preference, and lays her eggs upon its surface. In form
+they may be compared to long small-bore bullets, pointed
+at the upper end. They are placed closely together and
+adhere lightly to each other, and when the tiny mass is
+examined through a magnifying glass it presents the appearance
+of a honeycomb studded with tiny points. If no
+accident befall it, the little raft floats until the young ones
+are ready to take to the water; then the lower ends of the
+tiny tubes open and the larvæ swim away. Their life in
+the water resembles that of most other aqueous creatures.
+They feed upon organisms even more diminutive than
+themselves, and are the prey of the smaller water beetles
+and tiny fish. The gnat larva obtains the animalculæ on
+which it feeds by means of two ciliated organs on the
+head. These are in constant motion, and create a current
+by which its food is drawn into its mouth. But, though
+an inhabitant of the water, the gnat even in this stage is
+obliged to breathe, and therefore frequently ascends close
+to the surface, where it draws in the air through a little
+tube situated at the apex of the body.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>At the end of about fifteen days this state of its existence
+is completed, and it assumes the pupa state. It is now
+doubled up, and somewhat rounded in form, but it is, nevertheless,
+still active; it still breathes, drawing in the air by
+two little tubes, situated now on the anterior part of the
+body. When the perfect insect is formed inside the pupa
+case, the air contained within the latter causes it to float
+on the surface. The gnat breaks through the upper side
+and stands upon the skin it has quitted, which serves as
+a little raft until it has attained sufficient strength to fly.
+This is the most critical moment of the gnat’s existence;
+the fluid in which it has lately existed would now be fatal
+to it, and the tiniest ripple caused by a breath of wind, or
+the passage close by of a fish or water beetle, before the
+gnat has gained strength to fly, would upset the boat and
+drown its occupant.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Man has not been able to solve the problem whether
+thought as well as life is continuous during the three stages
+of existence of the gnat, or, indeed, in those of any other
+insect; and knows not whether the gnat has any remembrance
+of the very different existence it passed beneath the
+surface of the water over which, in its perfect state, it
+delights to disport itself. The fact that all insects deposit
+their eggs in situations unsuitable for their own existence,
+but suitable for that of the larvae, is no proof for or against
+the theory, since it may be the result of blind instinct only.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Whether man will ever be able to place himself sufficiently
+<i>en rapport</i> with the lower creation as to be able to solve
+this and many other problems must be left to future ages
+to determine. So far, able as he is to acquire with more or
+less difficulty the languages of all other varieties of man, he
+has failed signally in comprehending that of even the birds
+and animals with whom he is most in contact. The dog and
+the horse are in this respect distinctly his superior, and the
+former, when admitted to close companionship, unquestionably
+understands at least the gist of his master’s words. As
+it is not the custom of the gnat to waste its strength by
+travelling ahead in a straight line, we have no means of
+determining the actual rate of speed at which it can fly.
+That it is very great is certain. A swarm of gnats caught
+in a heavy rain-shower will continue their gyrations apparently
+undisturbed, their sight and movement being so
+quick that they are able to dodge the raindrops in their
+descent; and at the termination of the storm, however
+heavy, their numbers will be apparently undiminished.
+This would seem to show an amount of speed and activity
+relatively unrivalled in any other living creature.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='ANT' class='c007'>THE ANT.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>THE ant has been so thoroughly exploited by Sir John
+Lubbock and others, that it is altogether unnecessary
+to enter upon any description of its customs and habits. It
+may at once be assumed that, for its size, it is the most
+intelligent of all created beings. Were each particle of the
+brain of man animated by a vigour and sagacity equal to
+that which vivifies the tiny speck of brain matter in the head
+of an ant, imagination altogether fails to picture the result,
+or to appreciate even faintly the wisdom and power that
+man would in that case possess. But even as matters stand,
+we may with advantage learn much from the ant, especially
+from the more highly organised tropical varieties, in which
+we may include the termite, popularly known as the white
+ant, although in reality belonging to another family. Here
+we see regular communities dwelling together, governed by
+their own laws and customs, and exhibiting the spectacle of
+a nation acting in accordance with natural laws. It must be
+painful to republicans to find that in the great majority of
+communities of what we are pleased to consider inferior
+creatures, the monarchical principle distinctly prevails. In
+ants, bees, and wasps, the most completely organised of
+such communities, there is a natural head, not elected or
+chosen by vote, but born to the purple. Among animals
+that congregate for mutual protection and convenience, such
+as horses, stags, and elephants, there is always a leader; but
+in this case he assumes the position by right of superior
+strength, valour, and sagacity. No scientific man has been
+able to discover in his election to the post any trace of the
+process known in the United States as lobbying. There
+is neither intriguing nor currying for popular favour—the
+strongest and bravest assumes the position by right of his
+strength and bravery, and may be termed a natural dictator.
+These communities are evidently inferior in order and perfection
+to those of the first class.</p>
+<p class='c010'>Thirdly, come creatures of duller brain, of which the
+sheep may be taken as a type. And here we come to
+nature’s example of a republic, the dull level of equality
+and fraternity, where none are superior to others, and there
+is no emulation, no gradation of rank, and no rising of one
+individual above the rest. One cannot doubt, with these
+examples before us, that Nature has very clearly pointed
+out that in all highly organised communities the monarchical
+system is that best adapted for securing order and progress,
+and for the general benefit of the whole; that for those in a
+less advanced stage of progress a dictatorship is the preferable
+form of government, while among those of the lowest
+type of intelligence a republic serves the purpose as well
+as any other system.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>In the ant nation, which stands at the head of such communities,
+the monarchical principle is carried out to the
+fullest extent. We have the Queen, the ruler and mother
+of the whole; her courtiers, who attend upon her; the
+military class, who may be considered as the nobles, who
+do not labour personally, but furnish the fighting and
+are ready to die in defence of their country. The overseers,
+generally larger and more intelligent than the mass
+of workers, direct the operations, chastise the indolent, see
+that all is done with order and regularity, and generally
+supervise and control the operations. These may be taken
+as the type of the middle class, the merchants and manufacturers.
+Then there are the nurses, who take charge of
+the eggs, feed the young, transport the pupæ into the sun,
+and carry them back into the recesses of the city when rain
+threatens; while below them are the bulk of the community,
+the labourers and masons, the huntsmen, and the
+cowherds who tend the insects from whom the ants obtain
+a supply of natural honey. Lastly, there are the slave
+population, captives in war, who are the servants of the
+whole community. The result of this perfect combination
+of labour is the erection of edifices, by the side of which
+man’s greatest efforts are in comparison utterly dwarfed and
+puny.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>One reason of the great success of the ant communities,
+and of the perfect order and regularity with which they conduct
+their operations, is that strikes and labour combinations
+are unknown to them, and all classes are content to do
+their allotted work contentedly, willingly, and zealously. It
+must be painful to members of peace societies to know
+that they are warlike in the extreme, and that among them
+the principles of universal brotherhood have made absolutely
+no progress. The bravest knight of the days of early
+romance, riding out to attack the giants, was but a poor
+creature by the side of the warrior ant, who will do battle
+fearlessly with the largest and strongest animal that may
+venture to disturb the peace of his city, and, having once
+fixed his hold upon his foe, will suffer himself to be torn
+limb from limb without relaxing his grasp. Advantage is
+taken of this extraordinary tenacity of grip by some primitive
+peoples, who, if suffering from severe cuts, draw the
+edges of the wound together and then apply ants, who fix
+their jaws one on each side of the cut. The bodies of the
+insects are then nipped off, but the heads retain their grip,
+and form a perfect suture until the wound is completely
+healed.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Well it is for man that the scheme of Nature did not
+bestow upon the ant bulk as well as wisdom, valour, and
+industry. Had the ant been only of the size of the domestic
+cat, he would have been absolutely Lord of Creation.
+The fishes alone would survive. A single ant hill would
+furnish an army infinitely more numerous and formidable
+than the hosts of Tamerlane or Attila. The earth would
+shake under their tread; forests would fall before the power
+of their jaws; the elephant himself would be unable to
+resist their onset. Even now all smaller animals fly in
+terror at the approach of an ant army, and if overtaken fall
+victims to their furious assaults. Such an army, were the
+individuals no larger than mice, would yet be irresistible.
+Among the many reasons man has for gratitude to Providence,
+not the least is that the ant was not endowed
+with bulk in addition to its other gifts. To attain to the
+full power of its intellect, it requires a warm climate, differing
+in this respect from man, who suffers intellectually
+both from the extremes of heat and cold. The ant of
+temperate regions bears the same relation to the tropical
+ant that the savage of the tropical zone bears to the civilised
+communities of more temperate climes. The ant of the
+villa garden and the red ant of the woods are but very
+ignorant savages compared with the termite, for while the
+one inhabits caves and tunnels in the ground, and the other
+rough huts, thatched with the spines of the fir, the white ant
+dwells in a palace far larger in proportion to its size than the
+abodes of the most powerful monarchs of the human race
+to that of their inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It is not only man who may with advantage take lessons
+from the ant; the domestic hen would do well in one
+respect to imitate it. The white ant lays eighty-six thousand
+eggs a day throughout the season—an amount that may
+well cause the hen to be ashamed of her miserable total of
+three or four eggs a week. It is by no means improbable
+that the partiality of all birds for the pupæ of ants is less
+due to a gastronomic liking for them, than to spite at the
+superior fecundity of the ant. There would be a great
+future opened to the farmer if our scientific men could but
+discover some method of producing a bird which would be
+a combination of the domestic hen with the ant, uniting the
+size and tranquil habits of the one with something of the
+fecundity of the other. We should not demand the full
+tale of eighty thousand eggs a day; but even were that
+amount divided by a thousand, the result would still be
+satisfactory. The collection and packing of the eggs would
+furnish employment to the juvenile rural population, and
+eggs would become the commonest and cheapest of all
+diets. There is a book already in existence that gives
+instructions for cooking eggs in a hundred different ways.
+Doubtless many fresh methods would be discovered in
+preparing the abundant and nourishing food that would
+be thus placed at the service of humanity. There would
+be the additional advantage, that the problem, now so much
+mooted, of our raising eggs sufficient for our consumption
+without dependence upon foreign sources, would be in this
+way finally solved. Whether such a much-to-be-desired consummation
+is to be arrived at by the inoculation of the hen
+with the blood of the female white ant, or by some other
+method, is a point that must be left to scientific men. It is
+only necessary for us to indicate a subject of research towards
+which their studies and investigations may be directed,
+with the certainty that, if successful, they would be of real
+utility to the human race.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='BEAVER' class='c007'>THE BEAVER.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>THE beaver is one of the animals that appear fated
+to die out under the encroachment of man. It has
+already all but if not quite, disappeared in Europe, and is
+rapidly dying out in America, although its final extinction
+has been greatly delayed by the substitution of silk for
+beaver skin in the manufacture of hats, whereby the value
+of the beaver has greatly decreased. In some respects the
+beaver is the most human of animals. It constructs houses,
+fells trees, and builds dams, and although it dwells in
+communities, each family has its own abode, separate and
+distinct from that of others. The sagacity of the beaver,
+and its resemblance to man in its actions and gestures,
+naturally cause it to be held in considerable veneration by
+the Indians, and it shares with the bear the first place in
+their esteem, although this feeling in no way prevents
+them from killing it when opportunity offers. It may
+be remarked parenthetically as somewhat singular that the
+Indians, although they have had the beaver always among
+them, have never taken to the wearing of high hats. It was
+for its flesh that they hunted it; this was considered one of
+their greatest dainties. Whether the beaver entertains the
+same admiration for the sagacity of man as the latter does
+for that of the beaver, is a point that has not been
+determined. There can, however, be no doubt that it
+regards him as a very formidable foe, and that it takes as
+many precautions to avoid his attacks as it does against
+those of its chief four-footed foe, the wolverine. It is to
+avoid the latter that it builds its houses with their entrances
+well below the level of the water, so that it can go in
+or out without fear of capture by the way. Against man
+it adopts another method of defence. It digs holes or
+caves in the banks of the river below the water level, and
+here it takes refuge when man attempts to break into its
+house—in this respect following the example of many
+primitive peoples, who abandon their dwellings and seek
+refuge in almost inaccessible caves at the approach of a foe.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p180.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>As might naturally be expected, the sagacity of the
+beaver has been exaggerated by report. It was said to
+be acquainted with the art of pile driving, and to use its
+tail after the fashion of a mason’s trowel, in plastering and
+smoothing the exterior and interior of its house. These
+myths have been dissipated by more accurate observation.
+The beaver has no natural means of pile driving. Were it
+to endeavour to drive down a thick pile with its tail, it would
+injure that organ to a degree altogether incommensurate
+with the downward impulse it would impart to the pile,
+and great as its sagacity may be, it has not been able to
+invent a pile driver worked either by mechanism or by
+steam. Its dams are formed from the trunks and arms
+of trees floated down to a shallow point in the stream;
+here they lodge, others are piled upon them, the boughs
+interlaced, and stones and clay from the bottom are heaped
+upon them, until the whole forms a solid mass, capable
+of resisting the stream even in flood. Where the flow of
+water is but small, the dam is constructed in a straight line
+across it; where it is liable to be swollen greatly by rain,
+it is built in a concave form, so as to break the force of the
+current. Man himself could not better appreciate the
+necessities of the situation. In streams where the supply of
+water is constant it is unnecessary for the beaver to build
+dams, as the purpose of these is only to maintain the
+water at a level sufficient to cover the entrance of their
+houses. Even in these cases the beaver often miscalculates
+the length of the wolverine’s fore leg, and the latter will lie
+for hours patiently awaiting the passage in or out of a
+beaver, and then grasp it under water. That the beaver
+should allow the wolverine this opportunity detracts somewhat
+from its character for foresight.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The houses themselves are built much after the fashion
+of the dams, except that timber forms a smaller proportion of
+the mass, which is composed principally of mud and stones.
+Sometimes, especially when circumstances restrict the space
+available for house building, two or more families will
+live under the same roof, but each abode has its separate
+entrance, and privacy is thus preserved.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The beaver bestows no pains whatever upon the furnishing
+of its house, the interior of which is as bare as that of an
+Arab tent. There is a platform raised above the level of
+the water, where the beaver and his family can dry and comb
+their fur, they being more particular in the latter respect
+than the human female of the present day, whose tastes lie
+wholly in the direction of disorder and fuzziness. The
+habits of the beaver when at home have not been
+sufficiently studied to enable them to be described with
+any accuracy, the beaver having a marked objection to such
+investigations. That they are sociable in their habits is
+evident by the way in which they will congregate on the roofs
+of their houses, but whether they visit each other and
+have entertainments analogous to afternoon tea is unknown.
+It may be considered probable, however, that the females
+meet and compare notes as to their families and domestic
+arrangements; but, as it does not appear that any of the
+beavers stand to each other in the relation of master and
+servant, one of the most fruitful topics of gossip must be
+wanting. The beaver is not, like the otter,—the quadruped
+whose habits most closely resemble its own,—a fish-eater,
+but like its distant cousin, the vole, feeds entirely upon
+vegetables, its favourite diet being the stalk of an aquatic
+plant which in appearance resembles a cabbage stalk; it
+will, however, eat almost anything in the way of vegetables.
+In captivity its tastes become modified, and it will, like the
+dog, accommodate itself to circumstances, and eat meat,
+pudding, or anything else that its master may be taking.
+It is very easily tamed, and becomes extremely affectionate
+and attached to those around it.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>As may be expected, nature in making the beaver a
+builder furnished it with teeth of extraordinary hardness
+and wonderful cutting powers. These are composed of an
+extremely hard coat of enamel, the rest of the tooth being
+of a comparatively soft substance, whereby a cutting,
+chisel-like edge is obtained: the enamel growing as fast
+as it is worn away by use, a sharp edge is constantly maintained.
+So excellent a cutting instrument is it, that the
+Indians in the days before iron was at their disposal
+used to fix beaver teeth in wooden handles with which
+to cut bone and fashion their horn-tipped spears. The
+beaver can cut down trees of ten inches in diameter.
+It sits upon its branches like a squirrel while performing
+the work, and always makes one side of the cut a good deal
+higher than the other, by which means it is able to make
+the tree fall in any desired direction with an accuracy as
+great as that of the cleverest woodman.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It is a pity that the beaver has not been domesticated in
+this country, for a colony at work would be a most interesting
+feature in a park, and the young would furnish most amusing
+pets. Like many other animals, beavers when at work
+always place one of their number on guard, and the approach
+of danger is indicated by a loud-sounding flap of the broad
+tail. This tail, as the beaver climbs over its house in the
+course of construction, doubtless aids in smoothing down
+the surface, and they occasionally give a flap with it, but
+there is no reason for believing that it is used by them for
+the absolute purpose of plastering. It is much to be regretted
+that so interesting an animal is rapidly disappearing from
+the face of the earth.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='SQUIRREL' class='c007'>THE SQUIRREL.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_6_0_65 c016'>AMONG quadrupeds there is none that appears to
+enjoy its life more heartily, and to exhibit so much
+playful gaiety of disposition, as the squirrel. It is the
+type of liberty and freedom, of an airy joyousness, bound
+down neither by rule nor method, an incarnation of
+Bohemianism, and an existence free from labour, care, and
+restraint. The bird may have as joyous a life during the
+summer, but in winter its lot, if it tarry in northern climes,
+is a hard one indeed, while if it migrate south it has a
+long, arduous, and perilous journey to undertake, a journey
+to which countless thousands fall victims. The squirrel is
+free from these vicissitudes. In summer he frisks and frolics
+among the foliage of the woods, and during winter he sleeps
+away the time, snugly ensconced in the hollow of a tree,
+waking up only occasionally to feed upon the hoard of
+nuts or grain that he has providently stored away in
+anticipation of that time.</p>
+<p class='c010'>That the squirrel, with its pretty ways, its alertness, its
+activity, its bright eyes, soft coat, and bushy tail, has not
+become one of man’s greatest pets is due to the squirrel
+itself. However tame and affectionate it may become—and
+it is capable of becoming both in a high degree—it is given to
+sudden alarms, and will then on an instant make its teeth
+meet in the hand that holds it, the effect being similar to
+that which would be produced by four small chisels being
+driven into the flesh. It may be assumed that the squirrel
+has no direct intention of giving pain, but the result unfortunately
+does not depend upon the intention, and even
+a ferret requires no more careful handling than does a
+squirrel. This peculiarity of the squirrel has militated to
+prevent any close affection and friendship between it and
+man, and has been the main reason for man’s allowing it to
+go its own way and to enjoy its life in its own fashion.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id005'>
+<img src='images/p185.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>In this country the squirrel does not multiply to an extent
+that would render it a scourge and a nuisance where it
+abounds. It may do some damage by gnawing young shoots
+and buds of the trees, and the woodman may therefore be
+compelled to wage war against it, but the farmer does not
+reckon it in the list of his enemies, and upon the whole the
+squirrel lives its life unmolested. This is not so in the
+Western States of America, where the squirrel is among
+the most troublesome of the farmer’s foes, causing terrible
+depredations among his crops. The variety there is not
+attired in the warm brown coat of its British cousin, but is
+striped black and grey like a tabby cat, and is a good deal
+larger than the English variety, with a magnificently large
+and bushy tail. So numerous are they in some parts, that
+upwards of a hundred thousand have been killed in the
+course of a year on a single estate.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Nature has been extremely bountiful to the squirrel in
+the matter of his allowance of tail, no other quadruped
+approaching him in this respect. The tail of the kangaroo
+may be as long in proportion, but from the hair being short
+and smooth it makes but little show, and is altogether lacking
+in the dignity of that of the squirrel; it is, too,
+extremely deficient in grace, being held out stiffly in rear,
+while the squirrel manages his as gracefully as a grand
+dame of the court of Louis XIV. managed her train. It is
+greatly to the credit of the squirrel that, adorned as he is by
+this exceptionally fine and bushy appendage, he does not,
+like the peacock, the turkey, and the bird of paradise, put
+on side in consequence; but except for the pains he takes
+in cleaning it and keeping it in the best possible condition,
+he seems to place no store on this his chief personal
+adornment. It is not quite clear what was the object of
+nature in thus endowing the squirrel, as we have been
+taught every organ has its special functions, and if one is abnormally
+enlarged it is because such enlargement was either
+essential to the safety of the individual, acted as a protection
+against his foes, or enabled him more easily to procure his
+food. But it is not very clear that any of these objects are
+served by the tail of the squirrel. He has few enemies, and
+although undoubtedly a long tail adds to the quickness
+with which an animal can turn, the squirrel has less
+occasion for extraordinary speed in this respect than have
+many other creatures who need it to elude the pursuit of
+their foes. But given the length of tail, its bushiness is
+probably an advantage to the squirrel, as it adds so very
+greatly to its bulk as to much reduce its specific gravity,
+and thus enables it to drop from bough to bough with
+almost the lightness of a descending feather. In point of
+speed, the squirrel is for its size probably the swiftest of
+quadrupeds, its movements being so rapid that the eye can
+hardly follow them, and for a short distance it would need a
+very swift dog to overtake it. With so many advantages
+in the way of speed, activity, and grace, in addition to those
+of its very handsome appearance, it is surprising that the
+demeanour of the squirrel affords no indication whatever
+that it has a particularly good idea of itself.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It is brimful of life, fun, and overflowing vitality; it delights
+in testing its powers, and exercises itself to the fullest
+for the mere pleasure of the thing. Kittens and puppies
+similarly amuse and enjoy themselves, but no other animal
+maintains through life the same love of hard exercise for its
+own sake as does the squirrel. Although so gay and sprightly,
+the squirrel is—unlike some bipeds of similar disposition—an
+excellent husband, faithful, domesticated and constant.
+He and his wife pair not for a season only, but generally for
+life. After choosing a suitable home in the hollow of a tree,
+they snugly establish themselves there, bring up their families,
+store it with nuts and grain for the winter, line it with dry
+moss, and convert it into one of the most cosy of abodes.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The squirrel is gifted with a large share of curiosity; he
+takes a lively interest in all that is going on around him,
+and appears to be particularly interested in man. When
+walking or driving through districts in the United States
+where the squirrel abounds, scores of these little creatures
+will leap up on to fallen trunks of trees, rails, or other
+vantage points by the side of the track, and watch the
+coming passenger, and will not move until he is within a
+few paces of them, unless, indeed, he is armed with a gun,
+in which case they, as well as birds, soon come to understand
+that he is dangerous. The squirrel, like the rat, is
+excellent eating, although even where he abounds many
+persons have as great a prejudice against eating it as the
+ordinary English farmer would have against that real
+delicacy, a rat pie. Hunters, however, who shoot it for
+its skin highly appreciate its flesh, their only regret being
+that there is not more of it. The squirrel should never be
+kept in captivity; it is as gross an act of cruelty to confine
+it as it is to cage a skylark. If it is a punishment to
+man to be kept in a cell, how great must be the pain to a
+creature so restless, so full of life and activity, so happy and
+joyous in its freedom, as the squirrel. The result, as might
+be expected, is that, however well its wants may be attended
+to, in the great majority of cases it speedily pines and dies.
+If kept at all, it should be in a roomy aviary, enclosing
+shrubs and parts of trees of a sufficient size to enable it
+to indulge to some extent in its natural habits.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='FLEA' class='c007'>THE FLEA.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>WHILE great pains are devoted to the breeding of
+horses, cattle, and sheep among animals, to that
+of several kinds of birds, and to the propagation of fish, the
+flea has been left to shift for itself, and has managed to
+thrive. Whether the flea was, in the first place, an inhabitant
+of all terrestrial portions of the globe, or whether,
+starting from a common centre, it speedily spread itself
+over the earth, is a point which has not been decided;
+but the habits of the flea admirably fit him as a traveller;
+he is a natural stowaway, and being able to subsist for a
+long time without nourishment, he can perform the longest
+journeys without inconvenience among the other belongings
+of the traveller to whom he has temporarily attached himself.
+At the same time, he manages if possible to become
+the personal attendant and companion of his fellow-voyager
+for the time being, and to carry, as it were, his food as well
+as his lodging with him. So constant are these migrations,
+so assiduous are fleas in their attachment to man, that it
+is computed that even if they started as distinct nationalities
+constant intermixture must have so leavened them that
+the whole race is now practically homogeneous, and speak
+a language common to all. Although partial to comfort,
+and occasionally taking up his abode in the warm and cosy
+dwellings of the rich, the flea is by no means particular, and
+makes himself equally at home in the tent of the Arab, the
+hovel of the Mexican, the snowhouse of the Esquimaux,
+the cottage of the Spaniard, or the hut of the Persian. He
+will exist in the sand, and wait patiently for the chance
+passage of something he can devour; but his preferences
+lie in the direction of crowded tenements, and the dirtier
+and more untidy the better. The flea rivals the dog in his
+affection for man; he will cling to him to the last, and
+anger and even execrations do not shake his attachment.
+He is of a lively disposition, and there is nothing that he
+enjoys more than being hunted, entering thoroughly into
+the spirit of the thing, showing himself occasionally to inspire
+his eager pursuer with hope, and then disappearing
+into air. With other creatures it is generally safe to infer
+that they will leap forward. The flea, however, is bound by
+no rules, and can spring backward, forward, or sideways
+with equal ease. The power of his hind legs is prodigious,
+and it is well for man that he prefers to remain small, for
+a flea who took into his head to grow even as large as a cat
+would be a very formidable creature. It has been calculated
+by an American man of science that if the mule had the
+same proportionate power in his hind legs as has the flea,
+he could kick an ordinary-sized man 33 miles 1004 yards
+and 21 inches. Mankind has therefore good reason for
+congratulating itself upon the fact that the flea has not, in
+the course of his career, had any ambition in the direction
+of size, and that the smallest and most active only survived
+in the struggle for existence.</p>
+<p class='c010'>The habits of a flea have not been sufficiently investigated
+to enable us to state with certainty whether he uses his
+hind legs as weapons in his contests with other insects;
+but it is to be presumed that he does so, for why otherwise
+should Nature have endowed him with so much power in
+these limbs? If the ordinary mode of progression of the
+flea were, like that of the grasshopper, by a succession of
+springs, the prodigious size of his hind legs would be accountable;
+but, upon the contrary, the flea is essentially a
+runner, and the speed with which he can make his way
+through the thick fur of a cat or the hair of a dog is
+wonderful. It does not appear, indeed, that he ever does
+take to jumping except when inclined to drive human beings
+on the search for him into a state of frenzy.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>As it cannot be reasonably supposed that Nature gifted
+the flea with such abnormal saltatory powers merely that
+he should be a cause of bad language among the human
+kind, some other explanation must be sought for. The
+Darwinian theory, that living creatures develop by the
+survival of the fittest such powers as may be most useful to
+them, fails altogether here, unless it be supposed that the
+flea’s legs have developed only since he made his acquaintance
+with man. In the earlier periods of his history, when
+he lived in the hair or fur of animals, he could have had
+no occasion whatever to jump. Unfortunately, the early
+historians, in dealing with the flea, are silent as to the
+length of his leaps, and we have, therefore, no means of
+estimating the rate at which he has progressed in this
+accomplishment during the last two or three thousand years.
+Yet, doubtless, he was present at the Siege of Troy, dwelt
+in the tent of Achilles, and stirred Ulysses to occasional
+wrath; it would have been well, then, had Homer turned
+for a moment from recording the struggles of the Greeks
+and Trojans, and given us a little solid information respecting
+the flea of those days.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Although abundant everywhere, he is found to be most
+prolific and numerous in the East. Upon this point all
+travellers are agreed. Some put it down to the fact that he
+loves heat; others to his partiality for dirt; while others
+again go back to the days of the Flood for the explanation.
+While other animals went into the Ark in pairs, it is
+morally certain that the flea went in his thousands; and as
+the four men in charge of all the animals can have had but
+little time to attend to the flea, and as, so far as is known,
+insecticide powder was not invented in those days, the flea
+doubtless multiplied prodigiously during the long voyage.
+Not knowing what was going on outside, the colony would
+be taken by surprise when the animals suddenly quitted the
+Ark; and vast numbers must have been left behind; these
+must, after the departure of man and the animals from the
+mountain on which the Ark rested, have shifted for themselves
+as they best could. Some would have early started
+on their travels, others would have clung to the Ark until it
+fell to pieces; but in time, at any rate, they must have
+scattered over the East, and there, being poor travellers
+except when carried, they and their descendants have
+remained ever since. It would be rash to say that this
+is the only plausible theory. Doubtless others can be
+advanced; but, taking it altogether, it certainly appears the
+most probable explanation of the abundance of the flea
+in Asia, and it may be said in Russia also, and other
+contiguous countries.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The flea is capable of being tamed, and of affording
+amusement to man by various little tricks. The first step
+in the process is to restrain his natural inclination to jump.
+This is done by placing him in a low, flat box with a glass
+lid. The flea, supposing that he has an open space overhead,
+jumps, strikes the glass with great violence, and falls
+half-stunned. This discourages him, but, unable to account
+for the phenomenon, he tries again and again, until at last,
+after some days, he arrives at the conclusion that there is
+something altogether wrong with the atmosphere, and that
+jumping must be abandoned. After this the rest is easy.
+He can be taught to drag a little carriage, to sit on the box,
+to fire a tiny cannon, or to perform other feats. He never,
+however, recovers thoroughly from the effect of his terrible
+blows against the glass. His heart and his spirit appear
+to be alike broken. Like a caged eagle he mopes out his
+life, and seldom lives more than a month or six weeks after
+his education is completed.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>His is, in fact, the true gipsy spirit. Free, he will make
+himself happy under any circumstances, and although he
+may have his preferences, can get on anywhere. He
+loves the young and the tender, but does not despise age.
+Free, he is joyous, lively, and daring: a captive and
+chained, he pines and dies. It is a pity that no one will
+do for him what Sir John Lubbock has done for the ant.
+Such an investigator would no doubt be able to rehabilitate
+the flea in public estimation. Although he may be forced
+to live in dirty places, he is himself perfectly clean,
+taking great pains to clean himself with his hind legs, as
+does the fly. He is clad in shining armour, which is
+wonderfully tough and strong; his eyes are lively and
+prominent. Even in his most joyous moments he is never
+noisy; his attentions to man are unwearied, and the gentle
+irritation thereby caused affords means of occupation and
+excitement to the lazy mendicant, the indolent native of the
+South, and the contemplative Oriental, and rouses them
+from the lethargy in which they might otherwise sink.
+Fully and properly understood, the flea might take high
+rank among the benefactors of man.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='MOSQUITO' class='c007'>THE MOSQUITO.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>THERE is nothing in the appearance of the mosquito
+to excite alarm even in the most timid breasts, no
+sign of his almost diabolical nature, or of his power of
+making himself obnoxious. And yet he is endowed with
+a subtlety, a malice, and a fiendish thirst for blood unparalleled
+save in the leech. The mosquito is found in
+almost every climate and country, sounding his trumpet
+as vehemently by the shores of the Arctic Sea as beside
+a sluggish stream on the Equator, the British Islands being
+almost alone in their happy immunity from its presence; and
+among all the varied blessings for which a Briton has cause
+to be thankful there is scarcely one so peculiar and so
+marked as the absence of this creature. It is probably seen
+at its worst in the north of Russia, Norway and Sweden,
+and in some of the Northern States of America. In these
+countries it is hardly safe to leave a horse out at night, for
+although we may safely discredit the legends that horses
+have been carried off bodily by mosquitoes, these animals
+have undoubtedly been killed by the poisonous bites of
+their innumerable foes. It is the methods of the mosquito
+rather than the injury it inflicts that drive men to madness.
+It is not that they are greatly grudged the drop or two of
+blood they extract, and the pain and inflammation of the
+wound, though often considerable, are not very much more
+so than those of our own midnight assailants, the bug and
+the flea. If they would but come and have their meal
+in peace and quiet, man might bear it. It is their shrill
+trumpeting, their approaches and departures, and the long
+and agonising suspense that precedes the moment when,
+their investigation complete, they fix on what appears to
+them the most penetrable point, settle, and begin their meal,
+that cows the spirit of the bravest man. Heroes who
+would face the spring of an infuriated tiger, and lead a
+column to the cannon’s mouth, will quail and cover their
+head with the sheet when they hear the shrill challenge of
+the mosquito.</p>
+<p class='c010'>Man has endeavoured by many means to defend himself
+from this persecutor. He has rubbed himself with medicaments,
+and has hung up boughs of shrubs to which it is supposed
+that the mosquito has an objection. He has invented
+pastilles, whose smoke, it was hoped, would lull his foe into
+a lethargy; but at all these and similar measures the mosquito
+laughs. The only resource affording even a partial protection
+is the mosquito curtain. In theory this device is
+excellent. Man enclosed within a curtain of gauze ought
+to be unassailable. Unfortunately the practice does not
+follow the theory. However secure the curtains, however
+great the pains bestowed in seeing that no mosquito was
+present when the man was tucked up inside them, we
+doubt whether history records a single example of complete
+success having attended the arrangement. Do
+what man will, the mosquito will be there. Its favourite
+plan is to be beforehand with a man, and to hide somewhere
+until man has entered his muslin tent. Every
+effort will, it knows, be made to dislodge it; the curtains
+will be shaken, towels will be flapped here and there, every
+nook and corner will, as it seems, be examined, but the
+mosquito will manage in one way or other to evade the
+search. But even in the exceptional cases where it is routed
+out, the mosquito knows that it is but for a time. If there is
+a hole in the curtains, be it only the size of a knitting-needle,
+it will find it and get through; and in the event of the
+curtains being absolutely new, it is sure to find some point
+at which the tucking up has been imperfectly done. But
+most of all it relies upon entering with the would-be sleeper.
+The latter is well aware of this. He listens first for the
+sound of wings, but at this moment the mosquito is discreetly
+silent. Then he untucks a small portion of the
+curtain, his attendant flaps a towel wildly, and under cover
+of this he plunges hastily through the orifice, which is at
+once closed behind him. Then, in spite of a thousand
+similar experiences, the man flatters himself that this time
+he has evaded the mosquito, and lies down to rest. Stronger
+and stronger grows the hope as the minutes pass on, and at
+last it almost blooms into certainty as he finally turns over
+and composes himself for sleep. Drowsiness steals over him,
+when, just as consciousness is leaving him, the mosquito
+sounds a triumphant bugle-blast close to his ear. Then the
+ordinary man sits up in bed as if he were shot, and swears.
+This is, unfortunately, all but universal. The best and
+most patient of men have found it absolutely impossible to
+avoid using bad language at this crisis. There is a shout
+for the attendant, a light is brought and placed on a table
+near the curtain. Then the battle begins in grim earnest, the
+man against the mosquito; the one silent and watchful,
+his arms outside the sheet ready for instant action, the
+other, agile, ubiquitous, intent on exasperating and not on
+attacking its victim, now resting for a time in a corner, then
+making a rapid dash at the nose or ear, then disappearing
+again, and lying silent for some minutes. Occasionally,
+very occasionally, the man is victor, and with a rapid clutch
+will grasp and annihilate the mosquito as it passes by his
+face. In the vast majority of cases the man’s watchfulness
+is in vain. Hours pass, and Nature asserts herself. The
+mosquito has had amusement enough, and now, meaning
+business, remains quiet until its victim dozes off. Not until
+he is sound asleep will it this time move. Then it settles
+lightly upon him, inserts its delicate proboscis in one of the
+pores of his skin, pours in a tiny drop of venom to dilute the
+blood, and then having drunk till its body has swelled to
+many times its original size, heavily flies away, and fastens
+itself to the curtain, where it falls an easy victim to the
+vengeance of the sleeper in the morning. Such is the conflict
+when one mosquito has found an entrance. When, as
+is more usual, half a dozen have entered, it is, as may be
+imagined, still more dire and disastrous; and the sleeper
+in the morning wakes with perhaps an eye closed, and his
+face swollen and disfigured by bumps almost beyond
+knowledge.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The existence of the mosquito can be accounted for only
+upon the ground that he was sent as a special trial to man’s
+temper, but in that case Nature evidently miscalculated the
+amount of self-control that man possesses. A trial can
+hardly be considered as a trial when the result is certain,
+and the breakdown of man’s temper under the attacks
+of the mosquito is universal and complete. It would
+have been enough had the mosquito been endowed with
+activity, craft, and voracity. The trial would have been
+in that case ample, but exceptional men might have
+passed through it unscathed. It was the addition of the
+trumpet that settled the matter. No such exasperating
+sound is to be heard on earth. Good resolutions crumble
+to nought before it. The most patient and the most stoical
+of mortals are as much moved by it as their weaker
+brethren, and the native of the Arctic Circle and he of the
+Equator alike in their respective languages utter words of
+despair and profanity. We may hope, however, that science
+has not yet spoken its last word, and that some future
+Pasteur or Koch may discover a bacillus capable of creating
+a contagious and fatal disease among mosquitoes, and that
+by this means man may be relieved of a burden almost too
+heavy for him.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='COW' class='c007'>THE COW.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_6_0_65 c016'>ALTHOUGH the cow is always with us, we know but
+little about her beyond her likes and dislikes in the
+matter of food. We have, indeed, by dint of long perseverance,
+transformed the wild cow into an eating machine—a
+vehicle for the conversion of feeding stuffs into milk
+and meat. Her brain is to us a sealed book, which so far
+no sage has made it his business to open. No one, however,
+can doubt that the cow does a great deal of thinking. In
+this respect it is among beasts as is the owl among birds.
+No one can watch a herd of cattle ruminating tranquilly,
+without being impressed with the conviction that they are
+thinking deeply. Whether they are meditating over the
+legends that have been handed down to them of the time
+when they wandered wild and free on mountain and moor,
+or are wondering why man busies himself in supplying them
+with the food most to their liking, while he requires no
+active service in return, as he does from the horse, we
+know not.</p>
+<p class='c010'>The eye of the ox is soft and meditative; it has not
+inspired modern poets, but the ancients recognised its
+beauty, and the Greeks could find no more complimentary
+epithet for the Queen of the Gods than to call her ox-eyed.
+Such an eye should certainly indicate a philosophic mind,
+and it is in this direction that we must regard it as probable
+that the cow’s ruminations are directed. We may credit
+her with having arrived at a conclusion to her own satisfaction
+as to the points that have engaged the attention of a
+Darwin or a Spencer, but one can scarce conjecture that
+the cerebral organisation of the cow was beforehand with
+man in the discovery of the steam-engine or the electric
+telegraph. The Arabs and the Orientals, with their deep
+knowledge of the occult, were evidently impressed with the
+idea that the cow’s brain is so stored with knowledge that
+it would be a danger to mankind were she able to put her
+thoughts into words. This is shown by the fact that, while
+in their legends the gift of speech is frequently bestowed on
+horses, storks, and birds of many kinds, there is no instance
+of a cow being so favoured. It may be said that the dog is
+similarly omitted; but the dog is an animal looked down
+upon in the East. It is there never admitted to the intimacy
+of man, and, having been habitually repressed, has
+not acquired the traits of character that distinguish it in
+Western countries. But in whatever light the matter is
+looked at, it cannot be doubted that it is unfortunate for
+the world that so profound a thinker as the cow is unable
+to communicate her conclusions to man.</p>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id013'>
+<img src='images/p202.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>The cow, as distinct from the bull, is in its wild state a
+timid animal, and it is somewhat singular that although she
+has lost much of that timidity, she largely inspires the feeling
+among the female sex. Next to the mouse, the ordinary
+woman fears the cow. The dog, a really more alarming
+animal, she is not afraid of; the horse inspires her with no
+terror; but the sight of two or three cows in a lane throws
+her off her balance. On such an occasion a woman will perform
+feats of activity quite beyond her at ordinary times: she will
+climb a five-barred gate, or squeeze herself through a gap
+in a hedge, regardless of rents or scratches, with as much
+speed and alacrity as she would manifest in leaping on a
+chair in the presence of that ferocious animal the mouse.
+We believe that this unreasoning terror has its origin in
+the pernicious nursery legend of the cow with the crumpled
+horn. It is true that that animal is related to have suffered
+the maiden all forlorn to milk her, but she afterwards tossed
+the dog; and it is the pictorial representations of her while
+performing this feat that have impressed the juvenile mind.
+The mere fact that there are few precedents for a woman
+being tossed by a cow goes for nothing, nor that the animal’s
+disposition is peaceable in the extreme; it can, therefore, be
+hardly questioned that the timidity excited in the female
+mind by the cow must be founded upon some lost legend
+of antiquity. It may be that Eve had trouble in her first
+efforts to procure lacteal fluid from the cow, or that the
+specimen chosen to perpetuate the race in the Ark was
+rendered savage and dangerous from its long imprisonment
+there; but no legend that would give favour to either theory
+has come down to us.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>In her wild state the cow is compelled to take considerable
+exercise in order to obtain a sufficient amount of sustenance;
+the domesticated animal, having no need to do so, has
+developed habits of laziness. She has become constitutionally
+averse to exertion; but Providence, by sending the fly, has
+done much to counteract the effects of this tendency. It
+has been calculated by mechanical engineers that the amount
+of energy required to switch away flies with a cow’s tail is
+equivalent to that which would raise a weight of seven
+pounds one foot. Intelligent observers estimate that upon
+a hot day when the flies are troublesome, a cow will switch
+her tail thirty times in the course of a minute, thus
+expending an amount of energy per hour sufficient, if otherwise
+employed, to lift nearly six tons’ weight one foot from
+the ground; so that, considering the number of cows in Great
+Britain, it is clear that an amount of power in comparison
+to which that of Niagara is as nothing is being wasted.
+The thoughtful agriculturist will surely perceive that as an
+expenditure of energy means loss of flesh and decreased
+production of milk, it would be to his interest to envelop
+his cattle in mosquito curtains during the summer months.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>The cow is best seen in a state of repose. Either as lying
+down or standing in the shade of a tree, dreamily chewing
+the cud, and vaguely wondering whether beet or turnips
+will form the staple of her supper, there are few animals
+more taking to the eye. She can walk, too, without forfeiting
+our respect, but she is a lamentable spectacle when
+she runs. The poetry of motion does not exist in the case
+of the cow, and yet it is clear that she takes the greatest
+pains about her running, and puts her whole heart into it;
+personally, then, she is not to blame in that the result is,
+as an exhibition, a failure. The fault lies in nature rather
+than in the individual. In the course of the Darwinian
+process of transforming, let us say a mole into a cow, it
+was clearly in the creature’s mind that the day would come
+when she would be milked. Each of the countless generations
+required to bring her to her present form kept
+this contingency steadily in view, and practised kicking
+sideways. The result is, so far as the milkmaid is concerned,
+a superb success, and the cow is able to kick sideways
+in a manner that excites the envious admiration of
+the horse; but, as was to be expected, with the acquisition
+of the sideway motion the cow’s leg lost the power possessed
+so pre-eminently by the horse and mule of delivering a
+good, fair, square kick backwards; and even in running,
+what may be called the side action predominates over the
+fore and aft. Doubtless the cow knew her own business,
+and deliberately sacrificed gracefulness of action to the joy
+of being able to kick over a milkmaid. The lover of grace
+may regret that it should be so, but has no right to complain
+of the cow pleasing herself. The original mole probably
+foresaw that her far-off descendant would be a creature
+of few active enjoyments, and of a steady and tranquil
+nature, and considered that she was perfectly justified in
+making some sacrifice in order to enable the cow of the
+future to enjoy at least one piece of lively fun.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>On the whole, however, the cow may fairly claim to be
+an eminently worthy and respectable animal, and to be of
+great importance to man. Some may feel inclined to say,
+of vital importance; but this may be disputed. It is due
+in a great degree to the attention that man has bestowed
+upon her that she has developed her capacity for putting
+on flesh, and her abnormal secretion of milk. Had man
+not found her ready to his hand, and foreseen her capacity
+in this direction, he might have turned his attention to the
+mastodon, which in that case would now be grazing in vast
+numbers among the woods planted for his sustenance, and
+would be affording mountains of flesh and tuns of milk,
+while mastodon butter might have been able to hold its
+own against margarine and other fatty compounds. The
+cow deserves great credit for developing herself into her
+wild type from some wandering germ or other, but for her
+progression to her present status she has to thank the care
+and attention she has received from man.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='OCTOPUS' class='c007'>THE OCTOPUS AND CUTTLE FISH.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_6_0_65 c016'>ALTHOUGH dignified by the name of a fish, the
+cuttle fish has nothing in common with the finny
+inhabitants of the sea, save that its existence is passed
+beneath the surface of the water. It stands alone, apart
+from all living creatures, with scarcely a point of resemblance
+to any of them, its nearest relations being, perhaps, the sea
+anemones—those lovely inhabitants of pools among rocks.
+Nature would seem to have created the octopus in an idle
+moment, in order to show how she could diverge from her
+regular course, and turn out a creature with a multiplicity of
+arms, without body or legs, and with its head in the middle
+of its stomach. As usual, she succeeded to perfection, but
+was so horrified with the monster she had made that she
+threw it into the sea, and endowed it with a diabolical disposition.
+The octopus resembles an ogre dwelling in its
+cave, conscious that its distorted shape will not bear the
+light, and stretching out its arms studded with suckers to
+grasp and draw down to its mouth any living thing that
+passes within its reach. The cuttle fish varies in size from
+the squid, beloved by gourmands who dwell on the shores of
+the Mediterranean, to the monster octopus who throws his
+arms round boats and drags them to the bottom. Some,
+indeed, in the Indian seas, are reported to grow to a size
+that renders them formidable even to ships, wrapping them
+in its embrace and dragging the sailors from the deck or
+shrouds. Even allowing for exaggeration, there can be little
+doubt that enormous specimens are occasionally met with,
+and that these would be formidable to small vessels. Bodies
+have been cast ashore whose arms have measured thirty
+feet in length, and these could well pluck a sailor from the
+deck of a ship. On our own shores they are, happily, never
+met with of formidable size, but comparatively large ones
+are encountered not far south; for it may be taken that the
+desperate struggle described by Victor Hugo in “The Toilers
+of the Sea” was at least not considered by him to be impossible,
+and that he had heard from fishermen of the
+existence of creatures as large as the one he described. The
+octopus appears almost insensible to pain, and the hacking
+off of one or more of its tentacles does not seem to cause it
+any inconvenience. Its body—or rather its stomach—is its
+only vital part, and even this must be almost cut into pieces
+before it will relinquish the hold it has obtained of a prey.
+The beak of a parrot is the last thing one would expect to
+find in the centre of these waving tentacles, and Nature
+apparently placed it there as the crowning effort in the work
+of construction of this monster.</p>
+<p class='c010'>Among birds, beasts, and fishes we may seek in vain for
+a prototype of the octopus. To find one we must go to
+man, and we shall find that, in his way, the professional
+money-lender bears a close resemblance to this creature.
+The waving arms, that by their resemblance to great seaweeds
+lull a passing fish into a sense of security, are represented
+in the case of the money-lender by flattering and
+unctuous advertisements, which, catching the eye of the
+unwary, persuade him that money is to be had for asking,
+upon terms to suit all pockets; but, as in the case of the
+octopus, once the suckers catch hold, there is no escape;
+nearer and nearer the victim is drawn, in spite of his
+struggles, to the parrot mouth that will tear him to pieces,
+and swallow up him and his belongings. The analogy is
+in all ways extremely close, and yet the man who would
+shudder at the thought of entering a cave in the depth of
+whose waters the octopus is lurking, will enter the professional
+money-lender’s den with an unmoved countenance
+and an even pulse. Happily, there is every reason for
+supposing that the fish which form the staple of the diet of
+the octopus suffer less in the process of destruction than
+does the victim of the money-lender. Fish are certainly
+almost, if not entirely, insensible to pain, and there is no
+reason to suppose that they are gifted with strong powers of
+imagination; it may therefore be believed that although a
+fish may struggle to escape from the grip of the tentacle, it
+feels none of the horror that seizes a human victim when
+once grasped by one of the larger species, and that its doom
+is hidden from it until the savage beak seizes it, and at once
+puts an end to its existence.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>While man can to a certain extent enter into the feelings
+of a large proportion of the animal creation, it is beyond
+his power to imagine himself an octopus, or to get himself
+<i>en rapport</i> with its thoughts. Has it any higher impulses?
+Is it naturally cruel, or does it view its own methods and
+conduct from a strictly business point? Does it persuade
+itself that it is an estimable character? Is it in its own
+private circle affectionate and domesticated? Has it the
+power of discussing passing events with its congeners, and
+exchanging views as to the flavour of the various fish that
+form its diet, or as to advantageous spots for ambush? We
+can answer none of these questions. It certainly has but
+a small chance of leading a higher life. The subterranean
+world it sees around it is full of strife and destruction.
+“The large fish eat the smaller fish, and so on <i>ad infinitum</i>.”
+It only plays the same game as those around it, but by
+different methods, and there is no reason, because those
+methods are repugnant to us, that the octopus should be
+of the same opinion. Man is singularly intolerant in such
+matters. He himself kills the creatures he requires for food
+either by knocking them on the head, by cutting their
+throats, or by shooting them. Fish he captures either
+with nets or with a hook which sticks into their mouth or
+throat. And yet he criticises severely the methods of the
+animal creation. He dislikes the spider because like a
+fisherman it catches its prey in nets. He shudders at the
+cat because it plays with its victim just as the angler does.
+He is shocked because the octopus lies in wait for its prey
+and lassoes it as it passes. There is, in fact, no pleasing
+man, and he is shocked at all methods of killing, even at
+that most closely resembling those which he himself
+employs in slaying the creatures on which he feeds. We
+fear that there is a great deal of humbug about human
+susceptibilities.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Some of the cuttle fish are large manufacturers of ink.
+These, instead of anchoring themselves to the bottom,
+float near the surface, and their chance of obtaining food
+would be small were it not for their power of ejecting ink,
+and thus clouding the water and veiling themselves from
+sight—a habit which also affords them a method of escape
+when themselves attacked by the shark or other formidable
+enemy. This method is not unknown to man, and several
+well-known instances might be adduced of public men
+who, after having by loose assertions brought a formidable
+opponent down upon them, escape under a cloud of misleading
+words, phrases, and explanations that explain
+nothing, and retractions that leave the matter as it was
+before. Seeing that the peculiar variety of ink secreted
+by the cuttle fish is of a very valuable kind, it is somewhat
+remarkable that no enterprising manufacturer has as yet
+taken the matter in hand and established an aqueous farm
+for the breeding and rearing of cuttle fish. Indian ink and
+sepia are both so valuable that such an enterprise ought to
+pay handsome profits, and if the oyster can be cultivated,
+why not the cuttle fish? It would, of course, be necessary
+that the retaining walls of the gigantic aquarium indicated
+should be impervious to the passing of cuttle fish even in
+their earliest stage. Otherwise the proprietors would be
+liable very speedily to be indicted as a nuisance by the
+lodging-house keepers and owners of bathing machines of
+the nearest sea-side watering places. But this could doubtless
+be effected, and then no argument could be adduced
+that the cuttle fish should necessarily be a nuisance to their
+neighbours that would not equally apply to the wild beasts
+at a menagerie. In the latter case one occasionally breaks
+out and causes consternation, and, possibly, damage, and
+even if an octopus should do the same there could be no
+very valid ground for complaint. As the squid when cooked
+furnishes a somewhat gelatinous food not altogether dissimilar
+to calf’s head, it is probable that the flesh of the
+larger varieties might be utilised for the manufacture of
+mock turtle, and another source of revenue would, therefore,
+be open to their breeders. It is clear from these remarks
+that the cuttle fish has not hitherto received the careful
+consideration that it deserves, and the dislike we feel for
+its form and habits has blinded us to the benefits that might
+with culture and domestication be derived from it.</p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <h2 id='BACILLUS' class='c007'>THE BACILLUS.</h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='c017' />
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>HAD the learned Linnæus been informed that there
+existed a creature of which he had taken no
+account, which exercised a much larger influence upon the
+fortunes and happiness of man than any of those which he
+so laboriously arranged and classified, he would have smiled
+the smile of incredulity. But just as it is but within the
+present century that mankind has awoke to the enormous
+power and usefulness of steam and electricity, so it is only
+within the last ten or fifteen years that he has attained to
+the knowledge of the existence of the demon bacillus, who
+has sprung at a bound into the position of man’s deadliest
+enemy. Secretiveness must be assigned the first place
+among the characteristics of the bacillus. Since man first
+appeared upon earth this scourge must have carried on
+its deadly work, and heaped up a hecatomb of victims in
+comparison to which those who have perished by war or by
+famine are but an insignificant handful; and yet man has
+pursued his way in the blindest ignorance of the very
+existence of his indefatigable enemy.</p>
+<p class='c010'>Even yet comparatively few people are aware of the
+personal peculiarities of the bacillus, or could describe with
+any approach to accuracy the difference between the allied
+tribes, each of which represents some form or other of
+disease or death, and the scientific men who are so actively
+busying themselves in counteracting its work are very chary
+of describing its personal peculiarities. When these are
+more generally understood it will probably lead to a revolution
+in art. The artist of other days who wished to convey
+to the beholder that the personage depicted was in imminent
+peril of his life could find no better means of doing so than
+by placing behind him a shadowy figure with a death’s
+head and skeleton arms holding a dart. This childish representation
+can no longer be tolerated, and the artist of
+the future will have only to depict hovering over the principal
+figure a bacillus, and the beholder will at once understand
+not only that death is impending, but will be able to
+distinguish from the characteristics of the bacillus whether
+it will take the form of consumption, typhoid, small-pox, or
+other disease. This will be of vast utility in the painting of
+historical personages, as no questions can arise centuries
+later as to the cause of their death, the disease of which they
+died being clearly indicated by the accompanying bacillus,
+which, of course, will in future be appended to every
+posthumous portrait.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It is mortifying to human vanity to reflect that for some
+sixty centuries, at the shortest computation, man has been
+taking all sorts of pains to protect himself against minor
+dangers, in absolute ignorance of the bacillus fiend in his
+midst. Against the wild beast and the snake he has waged
+open warfare. He has covered himself with armour to
+protect himself from the weapons of human foes. He has
+furnished his ships with lifeboats, he has placed trap-doors
+in the roofs of his houses to afford an escape in case of
+fire, and has invented the safety lamp as a protection for
+those who work in mines. He has muzzled the dog in
+order to escape the fabulously remote
+risk of hydrophobia, and he
+has laid down strict regulations to
+diminish the chances of his being
+blown up by explosives. He has
+fenced himself in by sanitary regulations
+to preserve himself against the
+evil effect of foul smells, and has
+flattered himself that by these and many other precautions
+he has done what he could to ensure
+for himself prolonged life. And yet
+all this time the bacillus has been
+carrying on his work unsuspected,
+laughing, in whatever passes as his
+sleeve, as he yearly sweeps away his
+tens of millions of victims. It has,
+in fact, been a new and terrible
+illustration of the saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
+Proud man, who slays the whale for
+its oil, and the elephant for its ivory,
+has been slain by his invisible foe,
+the bacillus; and, like a soldier
+brought down by a long range
+bullet, has not even had the satisfaction
+of knowing who was his
+slayer.</p>
+
+<div  class='figright id014'>
+<img src='images/cholera.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p><span class='sc'>Cholera Bacillus</span><br />(Natural Size).</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div  class='figleft id014'>
+<img src='images/smallpox.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p><span class='sc'>Small-pox Bacillus</span><br />(Natural Size).</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div  class='figright id014'>
+<img src='images/typhoid.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+<div class='ic002'>
+<p><span class='sc'>Typhoid Bacillus</span><br />(Natural Size).</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>The microscope has long since discovered to him the
+existence of innumerable creatures, invisible to the naked
+eye; he has learnt that the water he drank teemed with animated
+atoms; that many of the rocks were composed solely
+of their minute skeletons; that a layer of them reposed on
+the depth of ocean; that countless numbers of them were
+borne with the floating dust in the air. Some of these
+discoveries caused him wonder and admiration, others a
+certain sense of uneasiness and disgust; but when he discovered
+that neither he nor his ancestors had suffered any
+material inconvenience from imbibing these countless hosts
+in their drinks, or inhaling them in the atmosphere, he
+ceased to trouble himself about them, and went on his way
+regardless of their existence. The case has been wholly
+changed by the discovery of the bacillus, and man stands
+aghast alike at the terribly destructive and deadly nature of
+his foe, and at his own impotency to guard himself against
+its attacks. His feelings resemble those of the solitary
+traveller who finds that the forest through which he is
+passing is swarming with desperate and determined enemies,
+who are bent upon taking his life.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>It needs no great powers of prevision to perceive that the
+discovery of the bacillus must lead to an enormous revolution
+in our methods of life. It is not man’s nature to
+submit passively to tyranny and oppression; and now
+that we are beginning to form some idea of the number
+and deadly nature of our foe, we shall assuredly embark
+upon a prolonged and desperate warfare with him. Inventors
+will, in the first place, devote all their energies to
+discovering a means of defence against his attacks. We
+may expect that just as our ancestors clad themselves in
+armour to protect themselves against human weapons,
+so in the future we shall wear some sort of covering,
+composed, perhaps, of extremely thin and flexible glass, to
+prevent the bacillus coming in contact with our skin; or we
+may paint ourselves on emerging from our baths with some
+compound which may be discovered to be lethal to him.
+The passages to our lungs will doubtless be defended by
+a respiratory apparatus that will filter him out of the air
+as it passes in. While thus we endeavour in every way to
+defend ourselves against his attacks, we shall take the
+offensive against him when he succeeds in eluding these
+precautions, and effecting an entrance. Unfortunately, at
+present the bacillus shows himself to be almost invulnerable;
+but, like Achilles, he has a weak spot in his heel. While
+able, so far as is at present known, to defy all drugs and
+poisons with which he can be attacked while dwelling in
+the human frame, he has none of the hardihood of the
+cannibal, and is unable to support a diet consisting of
+infusions of his own relations. A boiled decoction of his
+children or cousins is fatal to him. It is upon this line
+that our combat with him is likely, at any rate for a time,
+to be fought out.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>This discovery has thrown a lurid light upon many ancient
+and Eastern legends. These have hitherto been entirely
+misunderstood or not understood at all. Saturn was, we
+know, to be destroyed by his children; and Arab stories
+abound with instances where princes and rulers having been
+warned that their offspring would be the cause of their
+death, the children were accordingly confined in towers and
+prisons to prevent the fulfilment of these prophecies.
+Hitherto, such tales have appeared mere fables, originating
+in human fancy; but it can now be seen that the Ancients
+and the Orientals alike had some kind of prevision of the
+bacillus, and that this creature was pre-figured in the legends
+of Saturn and of the Arabian rulers. This is another proof,
+were it needed, of the vast store of knowledge possessed in
+former times by the Orientals. It is impossible, at this
+early stage of the conflict between man and the bacillus, to
+form any very definite opinion as to the side with which
+victory will finally rest; but, judging from the past, there is
+good ground for belief that man will in the end come out
+conqueror. In legendary tales man, valiant, fearless, and
+determined, always proved himself the victor, though opposed
+by the invisible powers of the air; and from this
+we may gather much comfort. It is with invisible powers
+that this battle has to be waged; and summoning to our
+aid, as we are happily able to do, all the hidden powers of
+the good fairies, Chemistry and Electricity, we may venture
+confidently to hope for a final victory over the swarming
+legions of the bacillus.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c000'>
+    <div>THE END.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='c020' />
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>Printed by Hazell, Watson, &amp; Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c003' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c002'>
+    <div>UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div  class='figcenter id015'>
+<img src='images/p225.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>H. M.</div>
+    <div>THE QUEEN.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>H.R.H. THE PRINCESS OF WALES,</div>
+    <div class='c003'>H.R.H. PRINCESS MARY ADELAIDE, DUCHESS OF TECK, ETC., ETC.</div>
+    <div>THE</div>
+    <div><span class='xxlarge'>VICTORIA LIBRARY</span></div>
+    <div><span class='large'>FOR</span> <span class='xxlarge'>GENTLEWOMEN</span>.</div>
+    <div><b><span class='large'>IN COMPLETE VOLS., HANDSOMELY BOUND.</span></b></div>
+    <div><i>With PORTRAITS and other ILLUSTRATIONS. Crown</i> 8<i>vo, </i>6<i>s.</i></div>
+    <div class='c003'><b><i><span class='large'>Excerpt from Prospectus.</span></i></b></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_65 c016'>A <span class='sc'>“Gentlewoman’s Library”</span> implies by its title that it will embrace
+a wide range of subjects. We shall endeavour to supply good and
+wholesome Fiction, also Descriptive Sketches, and Essays on Moral
+and Social Questions connected with Women’s Welfare. We shall deal with
+Hygiene, Manners, Dress, the Toilette, the Boudoir, Music, and the Cuisine. We
+shall sit, as it were, with the Gentlewoman in her Drawing-room, and accompany
+her when she goes Abroad. We shall help her to adorn her House and
+to entertain Society. We shall cater for her as Wife, Mother, and Daughter.
+We shall go with her a-shopping in Town, and follow her into the Country.
+In a word, whatever interests the English Gentlewoman will interest us and
+our collaborateurs.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>We propose that these volumes shall be written and illustrated exclusively
+by Gentlewomen—who, in our opinion, must needs be best acquainted with
+the wants, tastes, and sympathies of Gentlewomen. Further, we propose that
+they shall be handsomely printed and “got up,” so as to be fit for Gentlewomen’s
+handling; that they shall be uniform in size (not less than 250 pages
+octavo) and price; and that six to eight volumes shall be issued in a
+twelvemonth.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Among the volumes which will appear in due succession will be found:</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“<b>The Gentlewoman in Society</b>,” by Lady <span class='sc'>Violet Greville</span>.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“<b>The Gentlewoman’s Book of Health</b>,” by <span class='sc'>Kate Mitchell</span>, M.D.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'><b>Works of Fiction, etc., etc., written for Gentlewomen</b>, by Mrs. <span class='sc'>E. Lynn-Linton</span>,
+Mrs. <span class='sc'>Alexander</span>, Mrs. <span class='sc'>Burton-Harrison</span> (Author of “The Anglo-Maniacs”),
+Miss <span class='sc'>M. Betham-Edwards</span>, Miss <span class='sc'>Emily Faithfull</span>, Mrs. <span class='sc'>Fenwick Miller</span>,
+Miss <span class='sc'>Iza Duffus-Hardy</span>, Hon. Mrs. <span class='sc'>Henniker</span>, and others.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“<b>The Gentlewoman’s Book of Sports</b>,” with Illustrations, two vols., edited by
+Lady <span class='sc'>Violet Greville</span>, with Contributions on Riding, Fencing, Shooting,
+Driving, Hunting, Fishing, Golf, Lawn Tennis, Gymnastics, Archery, etc., etc.,
+by Her Grace the Duchess of <span class='sc'>Newcastle</span>, the Marchioness of <span class='sc'>Breadalbane</span>,
+Lady <span class='sc'>Colin Campbell</span>, Lady <span class='sc'>St. Leonards</span>, Lady <span class='sc'>Boynton</span>, Mrs. <span class='sc'>George F.
+Stagg</span>, Miss <span class='sc'>Stewart</span>, Mrs. <span class='sc'>Samuel Samuda</span>, Mrs. <span class='sc'>Hilliard</span>, Miss <span class='sc'>Laura
+Caunan</span>, “<span class='sc'>Diane Chasseresse</span>,” Miss <span class='sc'>Leale</span>, and others.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“<b>The Gentlewoman at Home</b>,” by Mrs. <span class='sc'>Talbot Coke</span>.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“<b>The Gentlewoman’s Music Book</b>,” by Miss <span class='sc'>Oliveria Prescott</span>.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“<b>The Gentlewoman’s Book on Dress</b>,” by Mrs. <span class='sc'>Douglas</span>.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>“<b>Gentlewomen of To-Day</b>,” sketched by other Gentlewomen.</p>
+
+<p class='c010'>Also works on Gardening, Painting, the Toilette, Art, Needlework, etc.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><span class='xlarge'>HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c016'>has been graciously pleased to sanction the use of the title “<span class='sc'>The Victoria
+Library</span>,” and to order two copies of each volume for the Royal Library.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><b><span class='xlarge'>Vol. I.—THE GENTLEWOMAN IN SOCIETY.</span></b></div>
+    <div class='c003'>By LADY VIOLET GREVILLE. [<i>October 20th.</i></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='c021' />
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>LONDON: HENRY &amp; CO., 6, BOUVERIE STREET, E.C.</div>
+  </div>
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+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c000'>
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+    <div>“ESSAYS AND IMPRESSIONS,” etc.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><i>In crown 8vo, with Numerous Illustrations by</i></div>
+    <div class='c003'><i>MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN</i>.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><b>6/-.</b></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c006'><b>Also a LARGE-PAPER EDITION, crown 4to, limited
+to 150 Copies, Numbered and Signed by the Author,
+£1 5s. net.</b> [<i>October 15th</i>.</p>
+<hr class='c022' />
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div>TRANSLATED FROM THE DUTCH.</div>
+    <div class='c003'>THE</div>
+    <div><span class='xxlarge'>RESIDENT’S DAUGHTER,</span></div>
+    <div>A NOVEL.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c006'>By <span class='sc'>MELATI van TAVA</span>. Translated from the Dutch by <span class='sc'>A. Teixeira
+de Mattos</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. [<i>In preparation</i>.</p>
+<hr class='c022' />
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><span class='large'><b>NEW 2/- NOVELS.</b></span></div>
+    <div><span class='xlarge'>THE DYNAMITARDS:</span></div>
+    <div>A TALE OF A.D. 1888.</div>
+    <div>By REGINALD TAYLER. [<i>Shortly.</i></div>
+    <div class='c003'>A FREAK OF FATE.</div>
+    <div>By ERNEST F. SPENCE. [<i>Shortly</i>.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='c022' />
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><span class='large'><b>A SHILLING SHOCKER!</b></span></div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='xxlarge'>THE BIG BOW MYSTERY.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'>By I. ZANGWILL, Author of “The Bachelor’s Club,” etc.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='sc'>Reprinted from the</span> <i>Star</i>. [<i>Shortly</i>.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c000'>
+    <div><span class='xxlarge'><i>The Whitefriars Library of Wit and Humour.</i></span></div>
+    <div class='c003'><b>A New Series of Monthly Volumes designed to supply the Public</b></div>
+    <div><b>with Entertaining Literature by the Best Writers.</b></div>
+    <div class='c003'><i>Crown 8vo, cloth, with Portrait, </i>2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d. each.</i></div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='sc'>Vol.</span> I.—<span class='xlarge'>ESSAYS IN LITTLE.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'>By <span class='sc'>Andrew Lang</span>.</div>
+    <div class='c003'>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c016'>“If it is well to judge by firstfruits (and, generally speaking, the judgment
+is right), the new ‘Whitefriars Library’ should compass the very laudable
+designs of its projectors. The first monthly volume of the new series may
+fairly be said to be aflush with the finest promise. Mr. Andrew Lang’s
+‘<span class='sc'>Essays in Little</span>’ is one of the most entertaining and bracing of books. Full
+of bright and engaging discourse, these charming and recreative essays are
+the best of good reading. Hard must be ‘the cynic’s lips’ from which Mr.
+Lang’s sportive pen does not ‘dislodge the sneer,’ harder that ‘brow of care’
+whose wrinkles refuse to be smoothed by Mr. Lang’s gentle sarcasms and
+agreeable raillery.... ‘<span class='sc'>Essays in Little</span>’ ought to win every vote, and please
+every class of reader.”—<i>Saturday Review.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“The volume is delightful, and exhibits Mr. Lang’s light and dexterous
+touch, his broad literary sympathies, and his sound critical instinct to great
+advantage.”—<i>Times.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“‘The Whitefriars Library’ has begun well. Its first issue is a volume by
+Mr. Andrew Lang, entitled ‘<span class='sc'>Essays in Little</span>.’ Mr. Lang is here at his best—alike
+in his most serious and his lightest moods. We find him turning
+without effort, and with equal success, from ‘Homer and the Study of Greek,’
+to ‘The Last Fashionable Novel’—on one page attacking grimly the modern
+newspaper tendency to tittle-tattle (in a ‘Letter to a Young Journalist’), on
+another devising a bright parody in prose or verse. Mr. Lang is in his most
+rollicking vein when treating of the once popular Haynes Bayly, the author of
+‘I’d be a Butterfly’ and things of that sort. With Bayly’s twaddling verse
+Mr. Lang is in satiric ecstasies; he revels in its unconscious inanity, and
+burlesques it repeatedly with infinite gusto.... His tone is always urbane,
+his manner always bright and engaging. No one nowadays has a style at
+once so light and so well bred.... It is always pleasant, and frequently
+delightful.”—<i>Globe.</i></p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c004'>
+    <div><span class='sc'>Vol.</span> II.—<span class='xlarge'>SAWN OFF: A Tale of a Family Tree.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'>By <span class='sc'>G. Manville Fenn</span>.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='large'>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c016'>“Mr. Fenn is an excellent story-teller.”—<i>Athenæum.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“Another volume of the excellently designed ‘Whitefriars Library.’ Both
+‘Sawn Off’ and the other story, ‘The Gilded Pill,’ are good examples of
+light, entertaining and unsensational fiction.”—<i>Review of Reviews.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“Mr. Fenn has succeeded well in enlivening morality with wit, and in tempering
+wit with morality.”—<i>Daily Graphic.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“Mr. Fenn is a favourite writer with the public, and in this volume he is
+seen to advantage.”—<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“An amusing volume.”—<i>Daily News.</i></p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c004'>
+    <div><span class='sc'>Vol. III.</span>—<span class='xlarge'>“A LITTLE IRISH GIRL.”</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'>By the Author of “Molly Bawn.”</div>
+    <div class='c003'>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c016'>“Mrs. Hungerford never fails to be prettily piquant, and this volume will be
+enjoyed quite as much as anything she has ever written.”—<i>Academy.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“One needs scarcely to be reminded that the author of ‘Molly Bawn’ is a
+writer of distinct Hibernian wit and <i>verve</i>, but if further proof were required
+it would be found in ‘A Little Irish Girl.’”—<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“In all respects a delightful story, written in a bright and happy spirit,
+and full of amusement and instruction.”—<i>Scotsman.</i></p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c004'>
+    <div><span class='sc'>Vol. IV.</span>—<span class='xlarge'>THREE WEEKS AT MOPETOWN.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'>By <span class='sc'>Percy Fitzgerald</span>.       [<i>Ready.</i></div>
+    <div class='c003'>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c016'>“A clever skit upon life at a hydropathic establishment, in this writer’s
+popular vein; the book is amusing.”—<i>Gentlewoman.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“In all senses the writing is uncommonly clever, and the sketches of the
+various characters who inhabit a fashionable hydropathic establishment are
+drawn with lifelike fidelity.”—<i>Public Opinion.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“Mopetown is a charming place, and the people who go there are very
+amusing to read about. Some of the character-studies are perfect miniatures.
+There is occasional exaggeration, but never the least unkindness; the book
+is healthy and thoroughly refreshing.”—<i>Pictorial World.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“The portrait of the place, and the different types of character that are met,
+afford scope for some very pretty descriptive writing, and here Mr. Fitzgerald
+shows to full advantage.”—<i>Publishers’ Circular.</i></p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c004'>
+    <div><span class='sc'>Vol. V.</span>—<span class='xlarge'>A BOOK OF BURLESQUE:</span></div>
+    <div>Sketches of Stage Travestie and Parody.</div>
+    <div class='c003'>By <span class='sc'>William Davenport Adams</span>.       [<i>Ready.</i></div>
+    <div class='c003'>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c016'>“Mr. Adams deserves distinct credit for his exhaustive compilation on the
+subject of English burlesque.”—<i>Saturday Review.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“A volume which contains a good thing on almost every page.”—<i>Globe.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“This eminently readable volume is a useful and acceptable contribution to
+the history of the English Drama.”—<i>Daily Graphic.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“An enjoyable and amusing volume, which is certain to be widely read; the
+book sparkles with irresistible specimens of wit and humour.”—<i>Scottish
+Leader.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“We find the book genuinely amusing.”—<i>Publishers’ Circular.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c016'>“Mr. Adams discourses wisely and well on all our principal native burlesque.”—<i>Referee.</i></p>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b c018'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>“A volume most welcome on table or desk,</div>
+      <div class='line'>Is Davenport Adams’ ‘Book of Burlesque,’</div>
+      <div class='line'>There’s fun at your asking, wherever you look,</div>
+      <div class='line'>And not a dull page, you’ll declare, in the book.”—<i>Punc</i></div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c004'>
+    <div><span class='large'>GREAT SUCCESS.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>THE BOOK OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'>FIFTH EDITION. NOW READY.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='xxlarge'>THE BACHELORS’ CLUB.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'>By I. ZANGWILL.</div>
+    <div class='c003'>Crown 8vo. 348 pp. 3s. 6d.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><b><span class='large'>With ILLUSTRATIONS by GEORGE HUTCHINSON.</span></b></div>
+    <div class='c003'>BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM FIRST PRESS NOTICES.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c023'><span class='sc'>St. James’s Gazette</span>: “Some exceedingly clever fooling, and a happy
+audacity of whimsical invention.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Daily Graphic</span>: “A genuine humourist. We own to having laughed heartily,
+and appreciated the cleverness and the cynicism.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Star</span>: “Mr. Zangwill has an original way of being funny. He is full of clever
+and witty, paradoxical and epigrammatical, surprises. His book is a
+splendid tonic for gloomy spirits.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Evening News</span>: “Not one in a score of the amusing books which come from
+the press is nearly so amusing as this.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Sunday Times</span>: “Read, laugh over, and profit by the history of ‘The
+Bachelors’ Club,’ capitally told by a fresh young writer.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Globe</span>: “A clever and interesting book. Agreeable satire. Store of
+epigram.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Referee</span>: “A new comic writer. There is a touch of the devilry of Heine
+in Mr. Zangwill’s wit.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Scotsman</span>: “Any one who has listened to what the wild waves say as they
+beat the shores of Bohemia will read the book with enjoyment and
+appreciate its careless merriment.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Freeman’s Journal</span>: “Very clever and amusing; highly interesting,
+humorous and instructive.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Pictorial World</span>: “One of the smartest books of the season. Brimful of
+funny ideas, comically expressed.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Man of the World</span>: “Witty to excess. To gentlemen who dine out, the
+book will furnish a stock of ‘good things’ upon every conceivable
+subject of conversation.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Granta</span>: “A book of genuine humour. Full of amusing things. The style
+is fresh and original.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Newcastle Daily Chronicle</span>: “Really clever and amusing; brimful of
+genuine humour and fun.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Yorkshire Herald</span>: “A quaint, fresh, delightful piece of humour. Hood
+or Douglas Jerrold might have written the book.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Northern Daily News</span>: “The reader must be very dyspeptic who cannot
+laugh consumedly at his funny conceits.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Sporting Times</span>: “No end of fun. Not a dull line in the book.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Pelican</span>: “He who holds in his hands the passport to such a region of fun may
+snap his hands for a little at fate.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Judy</span>: “It’s Zangwillian, which is saying a very great deal indeed in its
+favour.”</p>
+<p class='c024'><span class='sc'>Ariel</span>: “The cleverest book ever written” (Author’s own review).</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c000'>
+    <div><b><span class='large'>NOW READY. FIFTH EDITION.</span></b></div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>THE BOOK OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'><b><span class='xlarge'>THE BACHELORS’ CLUB.</span></b></div>
+    <div class='c003'>By I. ZANGWILL.</div>
+    <div class='c003'>Crown 8vo. 348 pp. 3s. 6d.</div>
+    <div class='c003'>With ILLUSTRATIONS by GEORGE HUTCHINSON.</div>
+    <div class='c003'>BRIEF EXTRACTS FROM LATER PRESS NOTICES.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Ally Sloper</span>: “We have few genuine humourists, but Mr. Zangwill is
+certainly one of them.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Artist</span>: “The tales are quite as good as the shorter things of Charles Dickens.
+The best book of the month.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Daily Chronicle</span>: “With all his fun he is not a ‘funny man,’ he is a literary
+humourist—in all the seriousness of claiming a place in literature.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Detroit Free Press</span>: “A book almost impossible to review in such a way
+as to give the reader an adequate idea of its genius. It must be read to
+be appreciated.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Fun</span>: “On Fame’s drum it will beat rub-a-dub-dub.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Glasgow Herald</span>: “Would-be wit. The ordinary civilised mortal is not
+likely to enjoy it. The skits are rather sombre in their eccentricity.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Hearth and Home</span>: “Humour is a rare gift, but Mr. Zangwill has it in
+abundance.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Lady</span>: “The author is one entirely born to the motley. His quips are quaint,
+his satire delightfully exhilarating.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Literary World</span>: “Entitles Mr. Zangwill to rank as a genuine humourist.
+The book is full of good things.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Literary Opinion</span>: “Far above the average mechanical stuff that does duty
+for humour.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Lloyds</span>: “Ingenuity of incident is combined with a wealth of reflective
+wisdom, that often becomes dazzling in its effect.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Morning Post</span>: “The author has a manner of touching upon the foibles of
+the day, full of playful malice, but quite devoid of bitterness, which is
+one of the best gifts of the humourist.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Observer</span>: “The author has a delightful vein of humour.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Publishers’ Circular</span>: “We have laughed with genuine enjoyment.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Review of Reviews</span>: “Much that is genuinely novel and amusing.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Saturday Review</span>: “We like the stories of ‘Hamlet up to Date,’ and ‘The
+Fall of Israfel’ best, but all are amusing, and all coruscate with puns.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Speaker</span>: “It is impossible to read this book without being delighted with
+it. It is full of good things.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Sporting Times</span>: “No end of fun. Mr. Zangwill never misses the opportunity
+of saying a clever thing.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Sunday Sun</span>: “A funny book by the very funny editor of <i>Ariel</i>.”</p>
+<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Weekly Dispatch</span>: “The history of the Club is told with charming fluency,
+whimsical variety, and dramatic power; this delightful and clever book;
+Mr. Zangwill has raised expectations that will not be easily satisfied.”</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c1'>
+<div class='nf-center c004'>
+    <div><span class='large'>BY W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'><b><span class='xlarge'>A BOOK ABOUT LONDON:</span></b></div>
+    <div class='c003'><b>Its Memorable Places, its Men and Women, and</b></div>
+    <div><b>its History. Crown 8vo. 6s.</b></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='lg-container-b'>
+  <div class='linegroup'>
+    <div class='group'>
+      <div class='line'>PART I.—<span class='sc'>Stories of Historical Scenes and Events.</span></div>
+      <div class='line'>PART II.—<span class='sc'>Stories of Famous Localities and Buildings.</span></div>
+      <div class='line'>PART III.—<span class='sc'>Stories of Crime and Misadventure.</span></div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c025'>In this volume an attempt has been made to present in a series of striking episodical
+narratives the principal events in London history, and some of the more striking
+aspects of London life. Full particulars are given of plots and conspiracies, forgeries
+and murders, executions and hair-breadth escapes; and many favourite old
+stories, not easily accessible now, are brought forward in a new dress, with all the
+light of recent research thrown upon them.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c004'>
+    <div>A COMPANION VOLUME. BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><b><span class='xlarge'>A BOOK ABOUT LONDON.</span></b></div>
+    <div class='c003'><span class='large'><b>The Streets of London:</b></span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>An Alphabetical Index to the principal Streets, Squares, Parks, and
+Thoroughfares, with their Associations—Historical, Traditional, Social,
+and Literary. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</p>
+
+<p class='c025'>This work is the result of very extensive labour, and offers, it is believed, a completer
+view than has before been attempted of the diverse associations which lend so
+profound an interest to the Streets of London. It contains more than a thousand
+succinct references to remarkable persons, incidents, and scenes, with illustrative
+anecdotes and full explanations gathered from a vast number of authentic sources.</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c004'>
+    <div><span class='large'>By LADY FLORENCE DIXIE.</span></div>
+    <div class='c003'>NEW WORK FOR THE YOUNG.</div>
+    <div class='c003'><b><span class='xxlarge'>ANIWEE;</span></b></div>
+    <div><b><span class='xlarge'>Or, The Warrior Queen.</span></b></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c010'>A Tale of the Araucanian Indians and the Mythical Trauco People.
+By the Author of “The Young Castaways,” etc. In large crown 8vo
+with Frontispiece. 5s.</p>
+
+<p class='c025'>“A story of pure adventure, full of incident, and related with much smoothness
+and animation. As a story simply this work appeals to, and will be heartily accepted
+by, the boys and girls to whom it may be presented.”—<i>Globe.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c025'>“Another pleasant book for the young from Lady Florence Dixie. The boys and
+girls—and we hope they are many—who have drunk in delight from her ‘Young
+Castaways’ will find their reward in this new story of ‘Aniwee.’”—<i>Echo.</i></p>
+
+<p class='c025'>“The story is romantic and interesting enough to delight boys and girls alike, and the
+adventures with the Trauco people are as novel as they are thrilling.”—<i>Daily Graphic.</i></p>
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c004' />
+</div>
+<p class='c010'>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class='tnbox'>
+
+ <ul class='ul_1 c002'>
+    <li>Transcriber’s Notes:
+      <ul  class='ul_2'>
+        <li>Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
+        </li>
+        <li>Unbalanced quotation marks were left as the author intended.
+        </li>
+        <li>Typographical errors were silently corrected.
+        </li>
+        <li>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant
+        form was found in this book.
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </li>
+  </ul>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Those Other Animals, by G. A. Henty
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOSE OTHER ANIMALS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 56767-h.htm or 56767-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
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+</pre>
+
+  </body>
+  <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57c on 2018-03-17 19:29:42 GMT -->
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author	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-02-08 01:46:42 -0800
committer	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-02-08 01:46:42 -0800
commit	8955303083d831cba73149d2695b310a8795d09b (patch)
tree	a1ddec37b5a0f57512042ecb66efb92e248b0577