Heads and Tales : or, Anecdotes and Stories of Quadrupeds and Other Beasts, Chiefly Connected with Incidents in the Histories of More or Less Distinguished Men.

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• Publié par: rubob
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 61
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Heads and Tales, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 Title: Heads and Tales or, Anecdotes and Stories of Quadrupeds and Other Beasts, Chiefly Connected with Incidents in the Histories of More or Less Distinguished Men. Author: Various Editor: Adam White Release Date: June 28, 2008 [EBook #25918] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEADS AND TALES *** Produced by Julia Miller, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) HEADS AND TALES; OR, ANECDOTES AND STORIES OF QUADRUPEDS AND OTHER BEASTS, CHIEFLY CONNECTED WITH INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORIES OF MORE OR LESS DISTINGUISHED MEN. COMPILED AND SELECTED BY ADAM WHITE, LATE ASSISTANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON Second Edition. LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET. MDCCCLXX. The Tasmanian Wolf. Thylacinus Cynocephalus. PREFACE. In this work, a part of which is, so far as it extends, a careful compilation from an extensive series of books, the great order mammalia, or, rather, a few of its subjects, is treated anecdotically. The connexion of certain animals with man, and the readiness with which man can subdue even the largest of the mammalia, are very curious subjects of thought. The dog and horse are our special friends and associates; they seem to understand us, and we get very much attached to them. The cat or the cow, again, possess a different degree of attachment, and have "heads and hearts" less susceptible of this education than the first mentioned. The anecdotes in this book will clearly show facts of this nature. In the Letter of the Gorilla, under an appearance of exaggeration, will be found many facts of its history. We have a strong belief that natural history, written as White of Selborne did his Letter of Timothy the Tortoise, would be very enticing and interesting to young people. To make birds and other animals relate their stories has been done sometimes, and generally with success. There are anecdotes hinging, however, on animals which have more to do with man than the other mammals referred to in the little story. These stories we have felt to be very interesting when they occur in biographies of great men. Cowper and his Hares, Huygens and his Sparrow, are tales—at least the former—full of interesting matter on the history of the lower animal, but are of most value as showing the influence on the man who amused himself by taming them. We like to know that the great Duke, after getting down from his horse Copenhagen, which carried him through the whole battle of Waterloo, clapped him on the neck, when the war-charger kicked out, as if untired. We could have added greatly to this book, especially in the part of jests, puns, or cases of double entendre. The few selected may suffice. The so-called conversations of "the Ettrick Shepherd" are full of matter of this kind, treated by "Christopher North" with a happy combination of rare power of description and apt exaggeration of detail, often highly amusing. One or two instances are given here, such as the Fox-hunt and the Whale. The intention of this book is primarily to be amusing; but it will be strange if it do not instruct as well. There is much in it that is true of the habits of mammalia. These, with birds, are likely to interest young people generally, more than anecdotes of members of orders like fish, insects, or molluscs, lower in the scale, though often possessing marvellous instincts, the accounts of which form intensely interesting reading to those who are fond of seeing or hearing of "the works of the Lord," and who "take pleasure" in them. [Pg vi] [Pg vii] CONTENTS. MAMMALIA.[1] MAN Gainsborough's Joke—Skull of Julius Cæsar when a boy Sir David Wilkie's simplicity about Babies James Montgomery translates into verse a description of Man, after the manner of Linnæus Addison and Sir Richard Steele's Description of Gimcrack the Collector MONKEYS 1 2 3 4 5 9 The Gorilla and its Story The Orang-Utan The Chimpanzee Letter of Mr Waterton Mr Mitchell and the Young Chimpanzee Lady Anne Barnard pleads for the Baboons S. Bisset and his Trained Monkeys Lord Byron's Pets The Ettrick Shepherd's Monkey The Findhorn Fisherman and the Monkey "We ha'e seen the Enemy !" The French Marquis and his Monkey George IV. and Happy Jerry.—Mr Cross's Ribnosed Baboon at Exeter Change The Young Lady's pet Monkey and the poor Parrot Monkeys "poor relations" Sydney Smith on Monkeys Mrs Colin Mackenzie on the Apes at Simla The Aye-Aye, or Cheiromys of Madagascar B ATS One of Captain Cook's Sailors sees a Fox-Bat, and describes it as a devil Fox Bats (with a Plate) Dr Mayerne and his Balsam of Bats H EDGEHOG Robert Southey to his Critics MOLE Mole, cause of Death of William III. B ROWN B EAR The Austrian General and the Bear—"Back, rascal, I am a general!" Lord Byron's Bear at Cambridge 9 11 12 20 22 24 25 26 27 29 29 30 31 33 34 34 35 36 38 39 41 47 48 48 49 49 56 58 59 Charles Dickens on Bear's Grease and Bearkeepers A Bearable Pun A Shaved Bear POLAR B EAR General History and Anecdotes of Polar Bear, as observed on recent Arctic Expeditions (with a Plate) Nelson and the Polar Bear A Clever Polar Bear Captain Ommaney and the Polar Bear R ACCOON "A Gone Coon" B ADGER Hugh Miller sees the "Drawing of the Badger" The Laird of Balnamoon and the Brock FERRET Collins and the Rat-catcher, with the Ferret POLE-C AT Fox and the Poll-Cat D OG Phrases about Dogs Cowper's Dog Cowper and his dog Beau Burns's "Twa Dogs" Dog of Assyrian Monument Bishop Blomfield bitten by a Dog Sydney Smith's Remark on it Bishop of Bristol—"Puppies never see till they are nine days old" Mrs Browning, the Poetess, and her dog Flush Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., and his dog Speaker 59 60 61 61 61 67 67 70 71 71 71 72 75 75 76 76 77 77 77 79 81 81 86 88 88 88 89 93 Lord Byron and his dog Boatswain Lady's reason for calling her dog Perchance Collins the Artist and his dog Prinny—the faithful Model Soldier and Dog Bark and Bite!—Curran on Lord Clare and his Dog Mrs Drew and the two Dogs Gainsborough and his Wife and their Dogs Sir William Gell's Dog, which was said to speak The Duke of Gordon's Wolf-hounds Frederick the Great and his Italian Greyhounds The Dog and the French Murderers Hannah More on Garrick's Dog Rev. Robert Hall and the Dog A Queen (Henrietta Maria) and her Lap-Dog The Clever Dog that belonged to the Hunters of Polmood The Irish Clergyman and the Dogs Washington Irving and the Dog Douglas Jerrold and his Dog Sheridan and the Dog Charles Lamb and his dog "Dash" French Dogs of Louis XII. Martin Luther observes a Dog at Lintz Poor Dog at the Grotta del Cane Dog a Postman and Carrier South and Sherlock—Dog-matic General Moreau and his Greyhound Duke of Norfolk and his Spaniels Lord North and the Dog Perthes derives Hints from his Dog 94 96 96 97 98 98 100 101 102 104 104 105 106 106 107 108 108 109 109 110 110 111 111 113 113 113 114 115 115 Peter the Great and his dog Lisette The Light Company's Poodle and Sir F. Ponsonby Admiral Rodney and his dog Loup Ruddiman and his dog Rascal Mrs Schimmelpenninck and the Dogs Sir Walter Scott and his Dogs Sheridan on the Dog-Tax Sydney Smith dislikes Dogs.—An ingenious way of getting rid of them Sydney Smith on Dogs Sydney Smith.—"Newfoundland Dog that breakfasted on Parish Boys" Robert Southey on his Dogs A Dog that was a good judge of Elocution.—Mr True and his Pupil Dog that tried to please a Crying Child Horace Walpole's pet dog Rosette Horace Walpole.—Arrival of his dog Tonton Horace Walpole.—Death of his dog Tonton Archbishop Whateley and his Dogs Archbishop Whately on Dogs Sir David Wilkie.—A Dog Rose Ulysses and his Dog WOLF Polson and the Last Wolf in Sutherlandshire "If the tail break, you'll find that" FOX An Enthusiastic Fox-hunting Surgeon Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, on the Pleasures of Fox-hunting, and the gratification of the Fox Arctic Foxes converted into Postmen, with Anecdotes (with a plate) JACKAL 116 118 119 119 120 122 123 124 125 126 126 127 128 128 129 130 131 132 133 133 135 135 137 138 138 139 142 148 Burke on the Jackal and Tiger C AT Jeremy Bentham and his pet cat "Sir John Langborn S. Bisset and his Musical Cats Constant, Chateaubriand, and their Cats Liston, the Surgeon, and his Cat The Banker Mitchell's Antipathy to Kittens James Montgomery and his Cats David Ritchie's Cat Sir Walter Scott's Visit to the Black Dwarf Southey, the Poet, and his Cats Archbishop Whateley and the Cat that used to ring the Bell TIGER AND LION Bussapa, the Tiger-slayer, and the Tiger John Hunter and the Dead Tiger Mrs Mackenzie on the Indian's regard and awe for the Tiger Jolly Jack-tar on Lion and Tiger Androcles and the Lion Sir George Davis and the Lion Canova's Lions and the Child Admiral Napier and the Lion in the Tower Old Lady and the Beasts on the Mound SEALS Dr Adam Clarke on Shetland Seals Dr Edmonstone and the Shetland Seals The Walrus or Morse (with a Plate) K ANGAROO Charles Lamb on its Peculiarities Captain Cooke's Sailor and the first Kangaroo seen 149 149 150 152 153 153 154 155 157 157 158 160 161 162 164 165 166 167 170 171 173 173 174 175 176 182 188 188 189 Charles Lamb on Kangaroos having Purses in front Kangaroo Cooke TIGER WOLF SQUIRREL, &c. Jekyll on a Squirrel Pets of some of the Parisian Revolutionary Butchers Sir George Back and the poor Lemming Mc Dougall and Arctic Lemming R ATS AND MICE Duke of Wellington and Musk-Rat Lady Eglinton and the Rats General Douglas and the Rats Hanover Rats Irishman Shooti