112 LOVE TO MAN IN ANIMALS. 



Indeed, my friend, I do aver 

 That it is not the letter R,* 4 



But B, that is canine ; 

 With Cowper, BEAU liv'd day and night, 

 And little BOUNCE was Pope's delight, 



And pretty BLANCHE is mine. 



J. MITFORD. 



FEW facts and circumstances in natural history 

 are more pleasing, than those which illustrate the 

 attachment that animals shew to each other, or to 

 those of the human race who are kind to them. 



Every sportsman knows that the common Wood- 

 pigeon (the Ring Dove) is one of the shyest birds 

 we have and so wild, that it is very difficult in- 

 deed to get within shot of one. This wild bird, 

 however, has been known to lay aside its usual 

 habits. In the spring of 1839, some village boys 

 brought two young wood-pigeons taken from the 

 nest to the parsonage-house of a clergyman in 

 Gloucestershire, from whom I received the follow- 

 ing anecdote. " They were bought from the boys 

 merely to save their lives, and sent to an old wo- 

 man near the parsonage to be bred up. She took 



* Romeo. Ay, nurse ; what of that ? both with an R. 

 Nurse. Ah, mocker ! that's the dog's name. R is for the dog. 



