12 



Gleanings in Natural Hj/iory. 



[Atrg. 1, 



For the Monthly Magazine. 



GLEANINGS ill NATURAL HISTORY. 



No. I. 



THE ARABIAN CAMEL. 



IN tlie Menagerie du Mufeum at Paris 

 there are 'wo Arabian cnniels, which 

 were given to the' Republic, in the year 

 1798, by theDeyot" Algiers. At the time 

 of their arrival they were about three years 

 of age. Their hair was almoft white, 

 except on the top of the huncii, vhcre it 

 vas fomewhat red. Tirey are now be- 

 co.ne of a darlcer or greyidi-red coluur — 

 In Egypt the grey ones are thought the 

 itrongeft. There aie feme camels that 

 are black and white, but they are very 

 fcarce. The male eats thiAy pounds 

 ■weight of hay in a day, and the female 

 twenty : each of them is allowed a pail 

 of water a day. 



There are likewife in the Menagerie 

 two Baflrian camels, each with two 

 hunches on its bick ; and it is fuppoled 

 that they are at leaft fifty years of age.— 

 They are both males, and were formerly 

 employed on particular cccafions to draw 

 a carriage. They always deep with their 

 eyes open. — La Menagerie du Mufium 

 National d'llijioire Natureli'e. 



THE SLOW LEMlfR. 



Several of thefe little animals (not Targer 

 than a fmili cat) have at different times been 

 brought in'o England ; and the colleflions 

 both at the Tower of London and Exeter 

 'Change have frequen'.ly been enriched by 

 them. In our climate it is ncceffary to 

 keep them very warm ; and fa erctremely 

 tender are they, that no care or attention 

 has hitherto been able to preferve them in 

 life for more than two or three years.— 

 They have never been known to breed in 

 this coiiniry. Thtir ullial food in con- 

 finement is bread and milk ; but they are 

 molt fond of fruit. From their conftant 

 inclination to climbing, tliey ; re generally 

 kept in high wire cages, limilar in fliape 

 to thole adopted for parrots ; and during 

 the greater part of their waking hours 

 they amuCe themfclves in climbing round 

 'the fidfs, and to the perches placed in dif- 

 ferent parts acrofs. They fkep in the 

 day rolled up fomewhat like a ball, and 

 regularly awake juft as the evening begins 

 to let in. Their eyes, like thoie of a cat, 

 Ihine in the dark. They are liitficiently 

 gentle to admit of perfons handling them j 

 but whenever they are fuddenly roufed 

 from deep, they fnap at the fingers of the 

 intruder with great appearance of ill- 

 temperi By molt of the keepers of wild. 



beafts thefe animals are denominated Jlotbr. 

 There are none at this time cither in the 

 Tower or at Exeter 'Change, but there is 

 one at Brookes's Menagerie, Haymarket. 



THE LION. 



Claude Jan-ie(iuin, in his Voyage to Se- 

 negal, relates a fingular ftory of a combat 

 betwixt one of the Moorifli chiefs and a 

 hon, on the bank of the Niger, of whicli 

 he (fates himfclf to have been an eve- 

 witnefs. This Prince took Jannequin 

 and his fuite to a place adjoin ng ui'on a 

 large woot', much infelfed by wild beafts, 

 and dirtfted them to mount jp.to the trees. 

 Then getting on his horfe, and taking 

 along with him three fpea^s and a dagg-er, 

 he entered tha wood, where le foon found 

 a lion, which he wounded in the buttock. 

 The enraged animal fprang with great fury 

 at his aiTailant, who, by a feigned flight, 

 drew him where the company f^efore whom 

 he was to ex'hibit, were ftationed. He 

 then turned his horfe, and in a moment 

 darted a I'econd fpearat him, which pierced 

 hi« body. He alighted, and the lion, now 

 grown furious, advanced with open jaws 

 to devour him, but he received the animal 

 on the point of his third fpear, which he 

 forced into his gullet ; then at one kap 

 fpringing acrofs his body, he cut open his 

 throat with the dagger. In this contelt 

 the Moor exhibited fo great a degree of 

 agility and addrefs, that he received no 

 other wound than a flight fcratch on the 

 thigh. 



DOGS. 



Thefe animals are fo refpefled by many 

 of the Mahometans, that, in fome of the 

 towns in the Levant, large endow- 

 ments have often been given by will for 

 the maintaining of a certain number of 

 dogs and cats ; and at Conllantinople 

 there are perfons regularly paid to fee the 

 intention of the dcnors put in execution 

 of feeding them in the ftreets. For this 

 purpofe, alfo, in feveral of the towns, 

 people ftation themfelves at the corners of 

 the ftreets to fell vifluals for dogs. Some 

 of the Turks, out of charity, have them 

 cured of wounds that they happtn acci- 

 dentally to receive, but particularly of the 

 mange, with which thefe creatures are 

 here miferably afiliiled towards the end of 

 their life. Yet vvith all this attention and 

 all this charity towards the animals, the 

 Turks have a rooted detellation for them, 

 and in a time of peftilence they kill a» 

 many as they can find, imagining that iti« 

 thele unclean creatures which inteff the 

 air. — lournejorff Voyage intty iht Lgvantg 

 vol, ii, p. Cz, 



THE 



