154 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



dispute about the Water Wagtail, the other 

 to the nesting of the Starling. The season 

 has now arrived when each succeeding number 

 can hardly fail to increase in interest. 



Zoological Eecreations. By W. J. 

 Broderip, F.R.S. Small 8vo. H. Colburn. 



It is strange but true, that no periodical 

 devoted solely to matters of Natural History 

 has been known to prosper as a pecuniary 

 speculation. It ever was so ; ever will be 

 so. To be a lover of Natural History for 

 its own sake, — to have a soul that can 

 appreciate the marvels of Creation, and a 

 retined taste to enjoy all that is provided 

 for our use in the world of Nature, — these 

 are rt gifts " which are not conferred upon the 

 multitude. The " choice" few are alone in 

 the secret. 



Aware of this "great fact," we have ever 

 made Our Journal widely discursive in the 

 matters treated of, — the Book of Nature 

 having neither a beginning nor an ending. 

 This causes us to circulate everyv:here. 

 Those who love Natural History will, in our 

 pages, find it introduced in every fascinating 

 form ; whilst all who seek variety, amuse- 

 ment, and general information, are as amply 

 and carefully provided for. Thus do we 

 seek to win people to our favorite study ; 

 and strive to create a love for that which we 

 individually feel to be so lovely. 



The book now before us is one which 

 should rank second only to the imperishable 

 work of Gilbert White. It is written in 

 a very amiable spirit ; and abounds in the 

 most delightful records of animal life, inter- 

 spersed with endless anecdotes, both original 

 and selected. It is just the book we should 

 like to see in the hands of youth ; nor could 

 a teacher make his pupil a more acceptable 

 present. It would act as a seasonable foil 

 to the cheap poison (vending by wagon- 

 loads in green shilling volumes,) which is 

 now doing such serious, such irreparable 

 injury to the public morals and the cause 

 of virtue. It would moreover create a pure 

 taste for the amiable, in contradistinction to 

 the sensual, — now carrying all before its 

 baneful influence. 



As it would never do to part from a book 

 like this without an extract, let us introduce 

 some of the author's delightful comments on 



THE DOG. 



The little dogs and all, 

 Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart.— Leak. 



Yes, dogs are honest creatures, and the most 

 delightful of four-footed beings . The brain and 

 nervous system may be more highly developed in 

 the Anthropoid apes, and even in some of the 

 monkeys ; but for affectionate, though humble com- 

 panionship, nay friendship ; for the amiable spirit 

 that is on the watch to anticipate every wish of 

 bis master — for the most devoted attachment to 



him in prosperity and adversity, in health and sick- 

 ness, an attaclmient always continued unto death, 

 and frequently failing not even when the once warm 

 hand that patted him is clay-cold; what — we 

 had almost said who — can equal these charming 

 familiars? Your dog will, to please you, do that 

 which is positively painful to him. Hungry 

 though he be, he will leave his food for you ; he 

 will quit the strongest temptation for you; he 

 will lay down his life for you. Truly spake he 

 who said, " Man is the God of the Dog." 



Of all the conquests over the brute creation 

 that man has made, the domestication of the dog 

 may be regarded as the most complete, if not the 

 most useful : it is the only animal that has followed 

 him all over the earth. And to see how these 

 noble animals are treated by savages civilised as 

 well as uncivilised ; kicked, spurned, harnessed 

 to heavy carriages, half-starved, cudgelled, they 

 still follow the greater brute that lords it over 

 them, and if he condescends to smile upon them 

 how they bound in gladness ! if he, by some inex- 

 plicable obliquity of good feeling, in a moment of 

 forgetfulness caresses them, they are beside them- 

 selves with joy 



From whatever source the dog be derived, he 

 is one of the most sensible of four-footed ani- 

 mals. Gifted with a most retentive memory, 

 he applies his power of observation to the regu- 

 lation of his conduct so skilfully, that the result 

 has very much the appearance of reasoning; if, 

 indeed, it may not, without violence, be considered 

 as the exercise of that faculty. His intellect, 

 when well developed, is of no common order, and 

 its constant activity is exhibited when, like the 

 Fury in ./Eschylus, he 



" Opens in his sleep, on th' eager chase 

 E'en then intent." 



Our readers will, we hope, pardon us if we inflict 

 on them a story or two in proof of our assertion. 



We remember to have been once particularly 

 struck with the behavior of a dog that had lost 

 his master. This, to us, is always a distressing 

 sight, and enough, in our humble opinion, to have 

 made Democritus himself look grave : but in the 

 instance alluded to, there was food for reflection. 



We were walking down a hilly field, whose path 

 terminated at a stile which opened upon a road 

 running due east and west. This road was cut 

 at right angles by another road running northward. 

 A dog passed with his nose close to the 

 ground, keeping the downward path till he arrived 

 at the stile, through which he squeezed himself, 

 and, with his nose still down, he first hunted 

 busily along the eastern branch, and then along 

 the western. He now retraced his steps; and when 

 he came nearly opposite to the northern road, he 

 lifted his head, looked about him for a moment or 

 two, and then set off along that road as fast as he 

 could go, without again putting his nose to the 

 ground, as who should think to himself — " He is 

 not gone that way, nor is he gone that way, 

 therefore he must have gone that way "—an oper- 

 ation of the mind very like a syllogism. 



Then there is the well-authenticated story of 

 the dog that was left, in December, 1784, by a 

 smuggling vessel, near Boomer, on the coast of 

 Northumberland; and we shall let Bewick, who 

 records the fact, tell his own tale : — 



