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第0章 富豪和公主的故事

y, and delight in basking in the rays of the sun, or in creeping as close as possible to the fire. When two of them are confined together, they interlace their limbs and tails after a singular fashion, and placing their heads in such a position as that each may, if disturbed, see what is going on behind the other’s back, fall comfortably asleep.

Procyon Lotor. Cuv.

The colour of the common Baboon is reddish brown; his face and hands are black, and his upper eyelids white. The hair of his cheeks forms a considerable tuft on each side; and the under surface of his body is but sparingly covered. In bulk he is equal to a middle sized dog; his proportions are thickset and inelegant; but he is by no means dull or inactive. When young, he is gay, playful, and docile; but as he grows older he becomes untractable, malicious, and ferocious. He is sometimes even dangerous, his muscular strength and agility, together with the great power of his teeth and jaws, rendering him a formidable opponent. On this account it is absolutely necessary to keep him strictly confined. He is a native of Africa, and more especially of the tropical parts of its western coast.

beef.

s conjoined sufficiently indicate that their proper place of abode is the surface of the earth, on which they are enabled to run with a greater or less degree of speed; and that the air, in which they are incapable of elevating themselves to any considerable height, or of propelling their flight with more than moderate swiftness, and into which some of them cannot even raise themselves at all, is an uncongenial element to which they can seldom resort. They furnish the principal and most useful breeds of our domestic poultry, and stock our farm-yards with their most valuable inhabitants.

The whole of the drawings are from the pencil of Mr. William Harvey, who, in seizing faithful and characteristic portraits of animals in restless and almost incessant motion, has succeeded in overcoming difficulties which can only be appreciated by those who have attempted similar delineations. In the portraits he has strictly confined himself to the chastity of truth; but in the vignettes, which have always some reference to the subject of the article which they conclude, he has occasionally held himself at liberty to give full scope to his imagination.

cerating teeth, and their rough and rasplike tongue, are supplied by a broad and lengthened snout, teeth of a character totally different in almost every essential point, and a soft, smooth, and extensible tongue. The claws too, which in the cats are strongly curved, exceedingly sharp at their edges, tapering gradually to a fine point, and capable of being entirely retracted within their sheaths, are here indeed of great power, and sometimes even considerably arched, but rounded in their surfaces, more or less blunted at their extremities, and constantly protruded to their full extent. In this manner might the contrast be pursued through almost every organ; but our limits warn us that we must at once proceed to the enumeration of the essential characters which combine the Bears into a well marked group.

mprehends those beautifully spotted, but ferocious, beasts. His fur, however, it must be remarked, has little of the sleekness which characterizes those[64] animals, but exhibits, on the contrary, a peculiar crispness which is not to be found in any other of the tribe.

The New Holland Emeu, as well as the Ostrich and the Cassowary, to both of which it is nearly related, is now generally regarded as belonging to the Rasorial Order, the Gallina? of Linn?us, the feet of which are formed for running and for scratching up the earth in search of the seeds which constitute their usual subsistence. Some of the birds, however, which are referred to it, and particularly those now under consideration, feed upon fruits and roots. The whole of the Order are distinguished by a certain degree of convexity on the upper surface of the bill, the base of which is enveloped by a membrane, in which are situated the nostrils covered by a cartilaginous[222] scale; by the muscular plumpness of their bodies, and especially of their legs; by the shortness of their wings, and the diminution of strength in their pectoral muscles; and by the thickness and strength of their anterior toes, generally three in number, united at the base alone by a connecting membrane, and roughened beneath. These character