CURIOUS CREATURES. 157 



cially from a white cocke, and the reason hereof, is be- 

 cause they are both partakers of the Sunnes qualities in 

 a high degree, and therefore the greater body feareth the 

 lesser, because there is a more eminent and predominant 

 sunny propertie in the Cocke, than in the Lion. Lucretius 

 describes this terrour notably, affirming that, in the 

 morning, when the Cocke croweth, the lions betake them- 

 selves to flight, because there are certain seedes in the 

 body of Cockes, which when they are sent, and appeare 

 to the eyes of Lions, they vexe their pupils and apples, 

 and make them, against Nature, become gentle and 

 quiet." 



THE LEONTOPHONUS THE PEGASUS THE CROCOTTA. 



The Lion has a dreadful enemy, according to Pliny, 

 who says : " We have heard speak of a small animal to 

 which the name of Leontophonus^ has been given, and 

 which is said to exist only in those countries where the 

 Lion is produced. If its flesh is only tasted by the 

 Lion, so intensely venomous is its nature, that this lord 

 of the other quadrupeds instantly expires. Hence it is 

 that the hunters of the Lion burn its body to ashes, 

 and sprinkle a piece of flesh with the powder, and so 

 kill the Lion by means of its ashes even so fatal to it 

 is this poison ! The Lion, therefore, not without reason, 

 hates the Leontophonus, and, after destroying its sight, 

 kills it without inflicting a bite : the animal, on the other 

 hand, sprinkles the Lion with its urine, being well aware 

 that this, too, is fatal to it." 



We have read, in the Romances of Chivalry, how 

 that Guy, Earl of Warwick, having seen a Lion and a 



1 From Aeovrotfrovos, the Lion Killer. 



