INDEX. 



incontestable proof that birds have their manners rather 

 from nature than education, 4-18. 



Biscayneers were in possession of the whale-fishery on the 

 coasts of Greenland, in the beginning of the fourteenth 

 century, v. 43. Their method of taking the whale, 44. 



Bison and Urus, names of descendants of one common stock ; 

 error of the naturalists upon this point; the cow and bison 

 are animals of the same kind ; description of the bison ; it 

 is supposed by Klein and Buifon no more than another 

 name for the bonassus ; the breed found in all the southern 

 parts of the world; that breed more expert and docile than 

 ours ; many bend their knees to take burdens up or set them 

 down ; the respect for them in India degenerated into ado- 

 ration ; it is nimble of foot ; is esteemed by the Hottentots ; 

 assists them in attending their flocks, and guarding them 

 against invaders ; is taught to combat the enemies of the 

 nation, and every army of the Hottentots is furnished with 

 a herd of them ; they procure the Hottentots an easy vic- 

 tory before they strike a blow ; lives in the same cottage 

 with its master, and when it dies, a new one is chosen to 

 succeed it by a council of the old men of the village, and 

 is then joined with a veteran of its own kind, from whom it 

 learns, becomes social and diligent, and is taken for life 

 into friendship and protection; the bisons are found to differ 

 from each other in several parts of the world ; some have 

 horns, some are without ; they are equally tractable and 

 gentle when tamed, and are furnished with a fine, lustrous, 

 soft hair, more beautiful than that of our own breed ; their 

 hump of different sizes, weighing from forty to fifty pounds, 

 more or less ; cuts and tastes somewhat like a dressed ud- 

 der ; the bisons of Malabar, Abyssinia, Madagascar, Arabia, 

 Africa, and America ; in the course of a few generations, 

 the hump wears away ; its description ; the bison and the 

 cow breed among each other; the grunting or Siberian 

 cow, and the little African cow or zebu, are different races 

 of the bison, ii. 235, &c. 



Bitch, a pregnant bitch so placed by M. Buffon, that her 

 puppies were brought forth in warm water, i. 389. 



Bitches, one forgotten in a country-house, lived forty days 

 without any other nourishment than the wool of a quilt she 

 had torn to pieces, iii. 30. 



Bittern, or mire-drum, the solemnity of its evening-call cannot 

 be described by words ; they are calls to courtship, or of 

 connubial felicity; it differs from the heron chiefly in 

 colour; its wind-pipe fitted for the sound; opinions con- 

 cerning the cause of its boomings ; never utters its call in 

 domestic captivity ; its residence ; a retired timorous animal ; 

 its food, nest, and eggs ; in three days, leads its little ones 

 to their food ; differences between the bittern and the heron ; 



