The Zoologist— October, 18G7. 923 



or "collections of tales, is the great German Beast- epic (as it has been 

 well called) of " Reineke Fuchs," which amused knight and dame in 

 the middle ages, and in which .Reynard's unscrupulous cunning and 

 knowledge of the world overcome all opposition, and deliver him from 

 the most desperate and well-merited dangers. The Scotch name for 

 the fox is " the tod " (" Islcmdic, toa, tove, vulpes" Jamieson), his 

 nickname, answering to Reynard, being " Tod-Lowrie," the derivation 

 of which is somewhat obscure. A curious piece of folk-lore, common 

 in Germany and Scotland, relates that when the fox is annoyed with 

 vermin he takes a bunch of wool or moss in his mouth, and then 

 slowly backs into a stream till his snout only is above the surface, thus 

 driving the fleas, &c, into his trap, which is then quickly dropped and 

 carried away by the current. Allan Ramsay thus alludes to this story 

 iu his pastoral of 'The Gentle Shepherd': — 



<l As fiist as fleas skip to die tnte of woo', 

 Whilk slee Tod-Lowrie hands vvithoot bis mou', 

 When lie to droon them, and bis bips to cool, 

 In simmer days slides backwards in a pool." 



Seals and Cetacea. — Chambers, in his ' Domestic Annals of Scot- 

 land,' quotes various old authors and journalists who record the 

 appearance on our coasts of sea monsters, which were believed to 

 foretell calamity to the nation, and which were probably rare species 

 of seals and cetaceans. For example, Hector Boece informs us that 

 in 1510 a "terrible beast of the bigness of a greyhound and footed 

 like a gander" invaded one of the Argyleshire lochs, and, rising out of 

 the water, " did overthrow huge oaks with his tail, and therewith 

 killed outright three men that hunted him:" he adds that it was 

 believed that " this beast is never seen but against some great trouble 

 and mischief to come upon the realm of Scotland." Hollingsbed, in 

 his ' Chronicle' (1577), speaks of " sundry fishes of monstrous shape, 

 with cotvls over their heads like unto monks, and in the rest resembling 

 the body of man," which were seen in the Firth of Forth before the 

 advent of pestilence and murrain. This description reminds one of 

 the crested seal (Slemmatopus cristatus) of Greenland, which, how- 

 ever, has not been recorded as visiting our coasts. It has been often 

 suggested that the very human appearance of some of the marine 

 mammalia may have been the origin of the omnipresent belief in 

 mermaids. This theory is certainly strongly confirmed by the 

 following facts, for which I am again indebted to Mr. Chambers's 



