8 Quadrupeds, 



almost miraculous were they not so familiar. The dog, doubtless the 

 original denizen of European and Asiatic forests, has lost all trace of 

 his original freedom, and appeals to man for his daily bread in ex- 

 change for his services and faithful companionship. His size, his 

 figure, his clothing, his very senses are so altered and so varied, that 

 it has become a matter of scientific enquiry to ascertain his original 

 condition. In Australia, where it is said he was once luiknown, he has 

 shaken off his allegiance to man, and is distinguished by habits of ra- 

 pine and savage freedom, though with an inferiority of size and figure. 

 Again, in America, where but lately he made his first appearance as 

 a slave and a stranger, the noble horse now ranges over boundless 

 plains in a state of the most controlless liberty, while in the tem- 

 perate regions of the old world, whence he came, he is scarcely 

 known but as a slave and a captive. In the days of Plutarch bears 

 were exported from Britain for the amusement of the Romans ; at the 

 present day Britons import them for a similar purpose. In the reigu 

 of Edw^ard the First wolves were sufficiently numerous to justify the 

 appointment of a royal commission for their destruction ; and at a 

 somewhat more remote date houses were erected by the way- side as 

 places of refuge against their attack. The pig, now only known here 

 as the tenant of the sty, once ranged our woods at large under the 

 special protection of royalty, too noble a game to be slaughtered by 

 any other than regal hands ; and the poor commoner who dared to 

 transgress, paid by the loss of his sight for so gross an infringement 

 on the prerogative of monarchs. In North America the buffalo and 

 native Indian are retreating daily before the face of the white man ; 

 and the time seems fast approaching when the existence of both will 

 be a matter of history. Birds are less subject to these changes; their 

 powers of coming and going are less limited ; and few that have once 

 inhabited a country have ever been known entirely to abandon it. Of 

 these few the common stork is a striking example. It was formerly 

 abundant here, and is now equally so in the towns of Holland, under 

 the same latitude and climate, and equally densely peopled with our 

 own country. The capercailzie, formerly an inhabitant of Scotland, 

 and still abundant in the pine forests of Noi-way, has once become en- 

 tirely extinct in the fonner country ; yet on being again introduced 

 has readily taken to its former haunts, and bids fair once more to be 

 reckoned among oxxxferce naturd. 



Now in enumerating the animal productions of a country, it is ne- 

 cessaiy maturely to consider the claim of each to be admitted into the 

 list. In Great Britain, geologists have discovered abundant traces 



