264 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXVI. 



even including cormorants and sea-gulls, find con- 

 sumers among the inhabitants of large towns, who 

 are exceedingly omnivorous, and by no means over 

 fastidious in their tastes ; and so wide is the range 

 of ornithological traffic in which the poulterers 

 engage, that the bird-stuffer and the collector of 

 specimens cannot do better than make friends with 

 them. 



But beyond all other places, Leadenhall Market 

 is the emporium to which the purchaser of rare 

 birds and animals, living or dead, should betake 

 himself. There is scarcely a quadruped, from a 

 brown bear to a white mouse, or a bird, from a 

 golden eagle to a long-tailed tomtit, which cannot 

 be found there ; and not a few of the dealers in 

 these articles are themselves curious specimens of 

 the genus homo, accustomed to deal with every 

 description of customer, from the nobleman who 

 wishes to add to his menagerie or to the feathered 

 tenants of his lake, to the organ-boy who wants to 

 purchase a dormouse or monkey. They are as 

 shrewd as Scotchmen, and as keen bargainers as a 

 Yorkshire horse-dealer: but although somewhat 

 over-suspicious in making their purchases, and 

 sadly deficient in elegance of manner and language, 

 they are on the whole by no means bad fellows to 

 deal with, if care be taken not to " rub them 



