BOOK VIII. XVII. 43-xviii. 46 



its claws in delivery." Aristotle, however, whose Aristotwa 

 authority I feel bound to cire first as I am going in Hf^^rctL. 

 great part to follow him on these subjects, gives a 

 different account. King Alexander the Great being 

 fired with a desire to know the natures of animals 

 and having delegated the pursuit of this study to 

 Aristotle as a man of supreme eminence in every 

 branch of science, orders were given to some thousands 

 of persons throughout the whole of Asia and Greece, 

 all those who made their hving by hunting, fowhng, 

 and fishing and those who were in chai'ge of warrens, 

 herds, apiaries, fishponds and aviaries, to obey his in- 

 structions, so that he might not fsul to be informed 

 about any creature born anywhere. His enquiries 

 addressed to those persons resulted in the composition 

 of his fanious works on zoology, in nearly 50 volumes. 

 To my compendium of these, with the addition of 

 facts unknown to him, I request my readers to give 

 a favourable reception, while making a brief excur- 

 sion under our direction among the whole of the 

 works of Nature, the central interest of the most 

 glorious of all sovereigns. Aristotle then states 

 that a honess at the first birth produces five cubs, 

 and each year one fewer, and after bearing a single 

 cub becomes barren ; and that the cubs are mere 

 lumps of flesh and very small, at the beginning of the 

 size of weasels, and at six months are scarcely able 

 to walk, not moving at all until they are two months 

 old ; also that Hons are found in Europe only between 

 the rivers Achelous *" and Mestus,'^ but that these far 

 exceed in strength those produced by Africa and Syria. 



XVIII. He states that there are two kindsof Hons, Varietiesof 

 one thickset and short, with comparatively curly manes ^^,j,'^'"' 

 — these being more timid than the long, straight- 



35 



