ANIMALS. 503 



SO large, nor so strong, as the camel. These two races, how- 

 ever, produce with each other, and the mixed breed formed be- 

 tween them is considered the best, the most patient, and the 

 most indefatigable of all the kind. 



Of the two varieties, the dromedary is by far the most numer- 

 ous, the camel being scarcely found, except in Turkey, and the 

 countries of the Levant ; while the other is found spread over 

 all the deserts of Arabia, the southern parts of Africa, Persia, 

 Tartary, and a great part of the eastern Indies.* Thus, the 



Fe. In. 

 Length of the back 3 1 



From the croup to tlie bo^om of the hoof 5 S 



hough to the bottom of the hoof 2 9 



Length of the hoofs 'i^a 



She grew somewhat after her arrival, bnt her IieaJth was never good. 

 Her joints appeared to shoot over, and she was very weak ;iud crippled. 

 Indeed, so great was the weakness of her fore-legs, that a pulley was con. 

 structed, being suspended from the ceiling of her hovel, and fastened round 

 lier body, for the purpose of raising her on her legs witliout any exertion 

 on her part. When she first arrived, she was exceedingly playful, and per- 

 fectly harmless ; but she became afterwards much less active, although as 

 gentle as before. She appeared to know her keeper, and every object by 

 which she was surrotmded attracted her attention. 



* The term dromedary properly applies to a very swift species of camel. 

 Tlie name '<i>^l ,>.es «?»/"■! (fleet camel) was given by Strabo and Diodorus Sicu- 

 lus to a single race of the species, of great speed, now called by the Arabs 

 el heirie. Obtaining the word dromedary from dromas, we have popuhu-ly, 

 and even scientificaUy, applied it to the species. A dromedary is to a camel, 

 what a racer is to a horse of burden. I'here are one-humped and two- 

 humped dromedaries, and one-hiunped and two-himaped camels. 



The lean and almost floshless body of the camel is covered with hair, 

 which is very short on the forepart of the muzzle : this becomes longer on 

 the top of the head, and almost tufty on the neck and parts of the fore-legs, 

 on the back, and particularly on the hump, which it covers all over. The 

 tail is also thick with liair, which exteuds considerably beyond the vertebra; 

 The colour of the hair varies : it is either wliite, with a slight tint of rose 

 colour, grey, bay, or dark brown, approaching to black. The hair fulls olf 

 and is renewed every year about the end of spring and the commencement 

 of summer. 



At Pisa, in Italy, camels have been reared for two centuries. Of those 

 M. Santi has published an interesting memoir. He describes the peculiar 

 excitation of the camel for about two months of the year — February and 

 March. During this period these patient and gentle creatures, particularly 

 the male, become restless and ferocioits ; will bite their keepers ; and fight 

 amongst themselves with their teeth and feet. 



The female camel goes with young between eleven and twelve months, at 

 the end of wliich time she has one foal. Tliere has been no example at Tisa 

 of more than one being produced at a birth. The little one is at first unable 



