Is in size between a cat and a fox. The skin is spotted and beautiful, of a reddish grey colour. He is meek and gentle, except when provoked, and is easily domesticated. In Constantinople he strays from house to house, as does our cat, and in his wild state inhabits marshy places and irriguous valleys.

HAS so strong and disagreeable a smell that it is become proverbial; his skin is stiff, hard, and rugged, and when well prepared, lasts long in garments. His tail is not above two hands long. The breast, tail, and legs, are of a blackish colour, but the belly and sides yellowish. He keeps in secret corners at tops of houses, and is a disastrous pest to the poultry

yard. Some of them frequent the woods and destroy a great quantity of birds; and some others, forsaking the haunts of man, retire to the rocks and crevices of the cliffs on the seashore, preferring a meagre and scanty diet with security, to the daintiness of chicken flesh and eggs, attended with trouble and fear. The Polecat is the same with the Fitchat, the hair of which is made into fine brushes and pencils for the use of painters.

Is reckoned the most intellectual animal in the creation after man. It has been supposed that in ancient times they lived nearer the poles than they now do; but, however, they are, at this time, confined nearly to the torrid zone. Providence, always impartial in the distribution of his gifts, has given this bulky quadruped a quick instinct nearly approaching to reason, in compensation for the uncouthness and ill-shapedness of his body. The Ceylon Elephant, the largest of all, is about thirteen feet high, and seven broad, and is much the largest of all animals. His skin is mouse colour, some

times white, and sometimes black. His eyes are rather small for the size of his head, and his ears, which are very expanded and of a peculiar shape, have the concha hanging down, instead of standing up, as in most quadrupeds. The Elephant is a gregarious animal in his wild state, and in domesticity is susceptible of attachment and gratitude, as well as of anger and revenge. Several anecdotes are related of his quick apprehension, and chiefly of the vindictive treatment he uses against those who have either scoffed at or abused him. His mouth is armed with broad and strong grinding teeth, and two large tusks, which measure sometimes nine or ten feet. From these tusks all that ivory can ever produce of fine and exquisite workmanship is made. The ivory from the tusks of the female is reckoned the best, as the tooth, being smaller, admits less porosity in the cellular part of the mass.

Becoming tame under the mild treatment of a good master, the Elephant is not only a most useful servant, for the purposes of state or war, but is also of great help in taming the wild ones that have been recently caught. The Indostan superstition has paid great honours to the white race of this quadruped; and the island of Ceylon is supposed to breed the finest of the kind. This immense beast, by the wisdom of Providence, has not been placed among the carnivorous animals, vegetable food being much more abundant than animal, he is destined to live on grass and tender sprouts of all sorts. This noble creature bears in state on his back the potentates of the East, and seems to delight in the pompous pageantry of Indostan; in war, he carries a tower filled with archers, and in a state of domesticity, lends his assistance to

The

all who require it. The female is said to go a year with young; and to bring forth one at a time. Elephant lives 120 or 130 years.

The greatest wonder the Elephant presents to the admiration of the intelligent observer of nature is his proboscis, or trunk, composed of elastic rings to the extent of six or eight feet, and so flexible that he uses it as dexterously as a man does his hand. It was erroneously said, that the Elephant could receive nourishment through his trunk; this sort of pipe is nothing but a prolongation to the snout, for the purpose of breathing, into which the animal can, by the strength of his lungs, draw up a great quantity of water or other 'liquid, which he spouts again, or brings back to his mouth by inverting and shortening his proboscis for this purpose. It would be exceeding the rules we have adopted in the compilation of this book, to say more upon a creature that has been so often, and so well described by other naturalists.

the species. The young of the Opossum are brought forth, as it should seem, before their time, and the finishing of their formation is performed in a bag, which the mother has under her belly, in which they find a place of security, and whither they retire at the approach of danger. This animal is about the size of a badger, with a long tail, and sits up easily on his hinder legs. He is an inhabitant of Virginia, and feeds upon fish.

THE SLUGGARD, SLOTH, OR POTTO, As he is called by the Negroes, is the most idle and listless of all breathing creatures. He can hardly be said to have been endowed by Providence, with locomotion, as his crawling on the earth, or climbing the trees, is not only long and slow, but also attended with difficulty and groanings. The faint sound Ai, which he utters when labouring along, has been the cause of his being called by this name.

The Unau is a branch of the same family. The flesh of both kinds is eaten by the inhabitants of South America and of the island of Ceylon, and has not a disagreeable taste.