these animals distinguished by the names of great, middle-size, less, and striped Ant-Eaters, but the above stated character is common to all of them.

WHEN hungry, is an undaunted and most ferocious inhabitant of the woods, but a coward when the stimulus of appetite is no longer in action; he delights to roam in mountainous countries, and is a great enemy to sheep and goats; the watchfulness of dogs can hardly prevent his dilapidations, and he often dares to visit the haunts of men, howling at the gates of cities and towns. His head and neck are of a cinereous colour, and the rest of a pale yellowish brown. He commonly lives to the age of fifteen or twenty years, and possesses a most exquisite power of smelling his prey at a great distance Wolves are found nearly every where, except in England, where this noxious race has been entirely destroyed.

So called because of the horn on his nose, is bred in India and Africa; he is of a dark slate colour, and is inferior to no one but the elephant; he measures about twelve feet in length, but has short legs. His skin, which is not penetrable by any weapon, is folded upon his body in the manner represented in the figure above; his eyes are small and half closed, and the horn on his nose is so sharp, and of so hard a nature, that it is said to pierce through iron and stone. He is perfectly indocile and untractable; a natural enemy to the elephant, to whom he often gives battle, and is said never to go out of his way, but that he will rather stop to destroy the obstacles which offer to retard his course, than to turn about; he lives on the grossest vegetables, and frequents the banks of rivers and marshy grounds; his hoofs are divided into four claws, and it is reported that he grunts like a hog, which he resembles in many points as to shape and habits. The female produces but one at a time, and during the first month, the young Rhinoceros is not bigger than a large dog.

Is produced in most countries, and varies much in size and colour. In Muscovy some are white, some red, and others black. His abode is generally on the skirt of a wood, in a hole which some other animal has either voluntarily left or been driven from. Nature, who endowed him with sagacity, craft, and cunning, has not, however, allotted him a long life; being classed by her among the dog kind, the duration of his existence does not exceed twelve or fifteen years. His bite is tenacious and dangerous, as the severest blows cannot make him quit his hold; his eye is most significant, and expressive of every passion, as love, fear, hatred, &c. The Fox is the greatest enemy to the poultry-yard, which he depopulates often in the course of one night. But when his choice food, the chicken flesh, is not accessible, then he devours animal food of all kinds, even serpents, lizards, frogs, toads; and if his habitation is near the water, he even contents himsel with shell-fish. In France and Italy he does a great deal of damage in vineyards, being very fond of grapes, and spoiling many for the choice of one bunch his stratagems are well known, and need not to be related here.

Is generally famed for long life, but upon no certain authority. The naturalists agree, however upon this point, that his life may exceed forty years, but that his existence, as it has been asserted, reaches to three centuries, is not sufficiently proved to claim our belief; he comes to his full growth at five, soon after which his horns, which are yearly shed and renewed, grow from a narrower basis, and are less branching. He is the tallest of the deer kind. The Stag is called Hart after he has completed his fifth year. This creature is known in many countries; the female, called the Hind, is without horns. Every year, in the month of April, the male loses his antlers, and conscious of his temporary weakness, hides himself till his new ones are hardened. Little need be said of the pleasure taken in hunting the Stag, the Hart, and the Roe-buck,

it being a matter well known in this country, and in all parts of Europe. His flesh is accounted an excellent food, and even his horns, so useful to cutlers, when reduced to shavings, are much esteemed in physic under the common name of hartshorn. The swiftness of the Stag is become proverbial, and the diversion of hunting this creature has, for ages, been looked upon as a royal amusement. When fatigued in the chace, he often throws himself in a pond of water, or crosses a river, and, when caught, he sheds tears like a child. Our great Bard, Shakespeare, gives us a beautiful description of this circumstance in "As you Like it," act II. scene I.

To the which place a poor sequester'd Stag,

That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish; and indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting; and the big round tears
Cours'd one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase.