358 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Tri 



Bad Treatment and its Effects. 



We often remark that such and such bad effects are the results 

 of bad treatment. If we want a striking illustration of what 

 bad treatment can do, let us notice the natural history of the 

 ass. The ass is far from being by nature so stupid as is gene- 

 rally supposed. Most of the donkeys that we see in England 

 are no fair specimen of the animal. Many of them, from bad 

 feeding and treatment, are not well grown ; ill-usage has ren- 

 dered them obstinate and reckless ; and when once the temper 

 of an ass is spoilt, there is no possibility of making the creature 

 tractable. It will bear numberless blows without mending its 

 pace or exerting itself at all the more. But in its best condi- 

 tion, when well fed and well managed, it is capable of being 

 trained and being attached to man with as much facility as the 

 horse. Buffon even says that the ass is more susceptible of 

 strong attachment than the horse, and under a good and kind 

 master may be made to exhibit very great sagacity. In Arabia 

 and Persia the ass is of a very different character from that in 

 which he appears among us ; and in Spain he is so highly bred, 

 and brought up to such a degree of beauty and vigour, as to be 

 for many purposes equal to the horse. In these countries asses 

 are smooth and sleek ; they carry their heads erect, and have 

 finely formed legs, and walk or gallop with extreme grace and 

 agility. R. 



The Tribunal. 



When in the height of summer the meadows are parched, 

 and ponds and morasses are dried up, the stork resorts to the 

 interior of the woods, with their glades, brooks, and marshes ; 

 and when also here in the beginning of autumn, the inferior 

 animals retire into their holes and winter abodes, he prepares 

 for his migration to the south, and vast numbers collect together 

 and cruise about in the air. At such times it happens that the 

 storks hold a tribunal. It is a "right with might," like old 

 military German custom, if not even according to the Lycurgus 

 code. On a retired mead the long-shanked personages come 

 together from all quarters ; they fly round and round in large 

 circles, making a loud clappering, for the matter in hand is a 



