Quadrupeds . 1105 



opinion that this fear is without foundation. We have not only the 

 absence of this scruple in the case of inferior animals, but we have 

 the opportunity of interrogating Nature by the means of experiments, 

 and by analogy we may transfer some of the conclusions obtained to 

 the human species. 



I am persuaded that much more might be done with the dog than 

 1 need anticipate. That analogous researches may be made with re- 

 spect to the horse, cannot be doubted. I suggested the importance 

 of noticing the domestic animals, to my friend D'Abadie, on the oc- 

 casion of his first visit to Abyssinia ; and on his return, he informed 

 me that he had had occasion to remark the possession of a very parti- 

 cular variety of horse in connexion with the diffusion of related tribes 

 of men. Whatever may be the value and results of enquiries like 

 these, as respects the study of Ethnology, the labour need not be in 

 vain as respects the animals themselves, since conclusions of more or 

 less practical value can scarcely fail to be deduced for the guidance 

 of the breeder and the benefit of the public. 



I should observe that not merely the dingo of Australia, but the dogs 

 of Mexico and some other parts of the New World, have been pur- 

 posely left out of the question in this sketch, as they would merely 

 produce an inconvenient complication. They merit, however, a care- 

 ful examination, not only in connexion with the history of the genus 

 Canis, but in relation to the varieties of man by which they have 

 been more or less domesticated and diffused in particular regions. 



Thos. Hodgkin. 



Anecdote of Leverets suckled by a Bitch. The mowers, in cutting the grass, found 

 three leverets, a few days old, which a bitch suckled on their being placed with her in 

 an old dilapidated shed. She took as much care of them as of her puppies for a few 

 days, when they disappeared one by one each night. The old hare having been watch- 

 ed about the place, is supposed to have enticed the leverets between the rough planks 

 of which the shed is constructed and in which the bitch was fastened. — John Fremlyn 

 Streatfeild; Chart's Edge, Westerham, July 9, 1845. 



Singular act performed by a Cow. The singular act performed by a sheep, men- 

 tioned by Mr. Lewis (Zool. 1048), tempts me to record a somewhat similar occurreuce 

 observed by myself just a year since, at Finborough, in this county ; but in my case 

 the " performer" was a cow, one of a large and beautiful dairy of short-horns, and ap- 

 parently in perfect health. We were struck by observing her, one evening, in front of 

 the parlour windows, for a considerable time, with head uplifted, exactly as Mr. Lewis 

 says, " alternately protruding and drawing in," and at length dropping, what we all 

 fancied was her tongue, but which, upon examination, proved to be part of a huge 

 beef-bone. And every evening, for, I should think, a fortnight, did this same cow, in 

 front of the same window, with infinite pains, select and mouth some large bone. No 

 other cow did it, nor has this one done it since. — Frederick Barloiv ; Burgh, Suffolk, 

 August 19, 1845. 



