Part 1

ECCENTRICITIES

THE ANIMAL CREATION.

BY JOHN TIMBS.

AUTHOR OF "THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN."

WITH EIGHT ENGRAVINGS.

SEELEY, JACKSON, AND HALLIDAY, 54, FLEET-STREET. LONDON. MDCCCLXIX.

The right of translation is reserved.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTORY.--CURIOSITIES OF ZOOLOGY.

Natural History in Scripture, and Egyptian Records, 11.--Origin of Zoological Gardens, 12.--The Greeks and Romans, 12.--Montezuma's Zoological Gardens, 13.--Menagerie in the Tower of London, 14.--Menagerie in St. James's Park, 14.--John Evelyn's Notes, 15.--Ornithological Society, 15.--Continental Gardens, 16.--Zoological Society of London instituted, 16; its most remarkable Animals, 16.--Cost of Wild Animals, 18.--Sale of Animals, 20.--Surrey Zoological Gardens, 20.--Wild-beast Shows, 21.

THE RHINOCEROS IN ENGLAND.

Ancient History, 22, 23.--One-horned and Two-horned, 25, 26.--Tractability, 25.--Bruce and Sparmann, 27.--African Rhinoceros in 1868, 27.--Description of, 29.--Burchell's Rhinoceros, 30.--Horn of the Rhinoceros, 31, 32.

STORIES OF MERMAIDS.

Sirens of the Ancients, 33.--Classic Pictures of Mermaids, 34.--Leyden's Ballad, 35.--Ancient Evidence, 36, 37, 38.--Mermaid in the West Indies, 39.--Mermaids, Seals, and Dugongs, 41.--Mermaids and Manatee, 42.--Test for a Mermaid, 43.--Mermaid of 1822, 43.--Japanese Mermaids, 44.--Recent Evidence, 47, 48.

IS THE UNICORN FABULOUS?

Ctesias and Wild Asses, 65.--Aristotle, Herodotus, and Pliny, 50.--Modern Unicorns, 50.--Ancient Evidence, 51.--Hunting the Unicorn, 52.--Antelopes, 53, 54.--Cuvier and the Oryx, 54.--Tibetan Animal, 55.--Klaproth's Evidence, 55.--Rev. John Campbell's Evidence, 57.--Baikie on, 58.--Factitious Horns in Museums, 59.--Unicorn in the Royal Arms, 60.--Catching the Unicorn, 60.--Belief in Unicorns, 61.

THE MOLE AT HOME.

Economy of the Mole, 62.--Its Structure, 63.--Fairy Rings; Feeling of the Mole, 64.--Le Court's Experiments, 62, 65.--Hunting-grounds, 67.--Loves of the Moles, 68, 69.--Persecution of Moles.--Shrew Mole, 70.--Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, on Moles, 71.

THE GREAT ANT-BEAR.

The Ant-Bear of 1853, 72, 73.--Mr. Wallace, on the Amazon, describes the Ant-Bear, 73.--Food of the Ant-Bear, 74.--His Resorts, 75.--Habits in Captivity, by Professor Owen, 76-80.--Fossil Ant-Bear, 80, 81.--Tamandua Ant-Bear, 82--Von Sack's Ant-Bear, 83.--Porcupine Ant-Eater, 84.--Ant-Bears in the Zoological Gardens, 84.

CURIOSITIES OF BATS.

Virgil's Harpies, 85.--Pliny on the Bat, 85.--Rere-mouse and Flitter-mouse, 86.--Bats, not Birds but Quadrupeds, 87.--Sir Charles Bell on the Wing of the Bat, 87.--Vampire Bat from Sumatra, 88.--Lord Byron and Vampire, 89.--Levant Superstition, 89.--Bat described by Heber, Waterton, and Steadman, 90.--Lesson on Bats, 91.--Bat Fowling or Folding, 91, 92.--Sowerby's Long-eared Bat, 92, 96.--Wing of the Bat, 96.--Nycteris Bat, 97.--Kalong Bat of Java, 98.--Bats, various, 100, 101.

THE HEDGEHOG.

Hedgehog Described, 102.--Habits, 103.--Eating Snakes, 105.--Poisons, 105, 106.--Battle with a Viper, 105.--Economy of the Hedgehog, 106, 107.

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS IN ENGLAND.

Living Hippopotamus brought to England in 1850, 108.--Capture and Conveyance, 111.--Professor Owen's Account, 111-115.--Described by Naturalists and Travellers, 115-118.--Utility to Man, 118-119.--Ancient History, 119.--In Scripture, 120.--Alleged Disappearance, 121.--Fossil, 122.

LION-TALK.

Character, 123.--Reputed Generosity, 125.--Burchell's Account, 125.--Lion-Tree in the Mantatee Country, 127.--Lion-hunting, 128.--Disappearance of Lions, 130, 131.--Human Prey, 132.--Maneless Lions of Guzerat, 134.--A Lion Family in Bengal, 135, 136.--Prickle on the Lion's Tail, 137-139.--Nineveh Lions, 139.--Lions in the Tower of London, 140, 141.--Feats with Lions, 142.--Lion-hunting in Algeria, by Jules Gerard, 144.--The Prudhoe Lions, 144.