240 



ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



have employed an army of hunters and trappers. The 

 Numidian satraps were ex-officio agents for the Roman 

 menagerie-depots (Friedlander, pp. 141-145), and the 

 African proconsuls were specially instructed to keep a 

 lookout for novelties, " quidquid novum ex Africa .•" the 

 big snake of Bagradas or an able-bodied unicorn would 

 at once have made the fortune of its captors. Pliny's 

 " Natural History" abounds with arena statistics, min- 

 gled with curious anecdotes and still stranger supersti- 

 tions, though certainly no other zoologist had ever such 

 opportunities for studying the nature and habits of wild 

 animals. 



During the Middle Ages the Spanish Moriscoes were 

 the best naturalists. Their intercourse with the Eastern 

 Caliphate filled their cities with outlandish curiosities, 

 and some of the princes of Cordova were great sports- 

 men : Abu Abdallah and Abdel Zagal used to import 

 African lions and bait them with a special breed of mas-, 

 tiffs. Their Christian successors seem to have inherited 

 that passion, and when the African fcrce became scarce 

 they found a good substitute in the half-wild bulls of the 

 pastoral Sierras. The Andalusian toros bravos were at 

 first baited with dogs, but the kings of Aragon intro- 

 duced trained swordsmen, and bull-fighting then became 

 a national passion. Saragossa, Malaga, and Madrid vied 

 in the splendor of their matanzas, and at the end of the 

 fifteenth century all the towns and larger villages, and 

 even the wealthier convents, had their special bull-rings. 



