fiS2 



Gleanings in Natural Hljiory: 



[oa. 1, 



fpring. A^ter various enquiries in the 

 neighboiuhood to a (certain the owner of 

 the car, ht was at length difcovered lo be 

 a m'iicman who lived in Totinll-fieids. 

 This man had alio a dog, with which the 

 cat had £er.er;illy lived on the moft friend- 

 ly tfrnis. During her pregnancy, how- 

 ever, (be l^.ad become I'jmenh.it ill-tcm- 

 prifd, and the two animals quarrelled. 

 The conlequence of the qunrrel was, that 

 the cat on a fuddrn eniirrly f irfook the 

 lioiife, and was loft to the famdy. What 

 inducement (he couKl h .ve h:»d to wander 

 at leal* a mile and a hal; from her home, 

 to take her relldence, at lalt, in a hollow 

 tree, can i'carcely he coijcflortd ; unlefs 

 we may fiipnolc that tl.is w:is the firft 

 pidce that prelented itirit', likely to afi'ord 

 flielter for htr(elt and her young ones. 

 Although (he had only a tingle kitten 

 when (lie *as tound, yet as die was at that 

 time in an extitmcly lean and emaciafed 

 ftate, it is n it improbable that flie might 

 have had more, but had been cumpelied 

 by hunger to devour them, as many other 

 animals are known occafionally to du in 

 fuch circumltances. 



HORSE. 



Fleury, in his Ecclcfiaftical Hiftory, re- 

 marks, that about the year 799, a coun- 

 cil was held in England, ons of the de- 

 crees of which forbade the cutting off of 

 horles' tails, and the eating of their flcfn. 



ELEPHANT. 



The Situr Bi iie, in his Travels along 

 the Weftein Coaft of Africa, informs us 

 that fome Frenchmen in (ailing up the ri- 

 ver Kur'nali, in a boat, foutid an elephant 

 faft in the mud, which they hoped, in 

 conlcquence, to make an ealy prizi. When 

 they got near they fired at him with ti;eir 

 inufkets, but the balls only lerved to en- 

 rage the animal. The elephant, fi.\cd as 

 he was in the mud, had no other means 

 of avengng himielf than by filling his 

 tiunk. with muddy water, and pouring it 

 in a torrent upon his adailants. This was 

 fo often repcited, that the men were at 

 length obliged to row '>fF, in oider to emp- 

 ty their boat of the mud. In the mean 

 time, coninuts the writer, with the aid 

 of a (frong flood fetting down the river, 

 the an mal was enabled to fwim in lafety 

 to the jliore, and efcape. 



He lays that the elephants lie in the 

 mud of the river lometimes in herds of 

 forty, fifty, or upwards. This, as he 

 conjetlures, is forrhe purpofe of cooling 

 and rcfVefliing theml'elvts. He afferis that 

 they fcarcelytake any notice of travellers 

 as they pafs by them, unlefs the latter are 

 rafh enough to tire at and wound any of 



them, in which cafe they are fometimea 

 known to become dangerous enemies. 



According to the account of Captain 

 Hawkins, written about the year 1608, 

 and publiflied in Puichas's Pilgrims, the 

 Great Mogul kept at thit time no fewer 

 than three hundred ek-phants in the royal 

 ftables. The.'e were, at certain times, 

 all brought belore him, richly clad in 

 trappings of cloth of gold or velvet. 

 They were fo well trained and managed, 

 that Hawkins fays he faw the king com- 

 mand one of his fons, a boy only feven 

 years old, to go to one of the elephants 

 tor the purpofe of being lifted up in his 

 trunk. The animal performed this part 

 by taking the child from the ground, and 

 placing hitii In the hands of one of his 

 keepers. He afterwards, on being or- 

 dered, did the fame to feveral oiher chil- 

 dren which were prefcnt. 



Smith, in the Account of his Voyage to 

 Guinea (performed in the early ptrt of 

 lalf century), informs us that the motion 

 of the elephant in the water is fo fwift 

 that no ten-oared boit could be able to 

 keep pace wiih it. He lays that the ele- 

 phants fed principally on a fort of fruit 

 not unlike a papaw, which grows wild m 

 I'everal parts of Guinea. ThLs fruit is 

 found in abundance upon TalTo iflind, 

 and the elephants often fwjm over tliither 

 from the continent, tor the purpofe of eat- 

 ing it. 



THE LION. 



A Florentine nobleman had a mule fo 

 exceedingly vicious a» to be altogether un- 

 governab e, from its kicking and biting 

 every perlon that approached it. He or- 

 dered It to be turned into the court of his 

 menagerie, and a lion to be let loole upon 

 it. The lion roared aloud when he firft 

 oblcrved the animai, hut the mule, with- 

 out It'tming at all alarmed, ran into a cor- 

 ner of the courr, and lo placed herfelf 

 that flic could only be attacked in the rear. 

 In this fituation (he waited the onfet, ^at 

 the fame time watching with the greateft 

 atteniisn all the motions of her adverfary. 

 Thi lion, aware of the difficulty, ufed 

 all fiis art, hut to no purpofe, to throw^ 

 her oft her guard. At laft the mule, 

 feizing a favourable opportunity, gave him 

 iuch a falute, in the face, with lier hind 

 feet, as to beat out eight or ten of hii 

 teeth J and to compel the animal to retire 

 to his lodge, without inaking any further 

 attempts to fcize upon her, and thus leav- 

 ing her in quitt pofleflioiflof the field.—.* 

 f'ojage dans l" Affrique Occhienta'e par Lu' 

 bat, vol. if. p. 16. 



It is a vulgar error that the lion is 



