PLATE LVII. 



to the ancients, has been much disputed. We think it possible that 

 they were. We must however allow, should this be true, that it is 



Coasts ;* and if our observations in the present instance should tend to 

 remove a delusion no less popular, or less generally accredited than 

 either of the preceding, it will, we trust, be deemed of some advantage 

 at the least to th^i cause of truth.f 



It has been advanced in the descriptive details of this ambiguous 

 object, by some authorities of great respectability, and with a degree of 

 confidence that cannot fail to ensure attention, that "Mermaids to the 

 present day have been considered as creatures of imagination/' " And 

 although,'' continues the narration, " some old navigators are stated to have 

 seen, and to have described such an animal, yet their relations have always 

 been received not with doubt only, but also with ridicule. And he who 

 would have asserted that an animal exists in the sea combining the appear- 

 ance of the human species with that of been as a fish would have readily 

 believed as if he had asserted the existence of the Centaur. Such has been 

 the state of our knowledge of this part of the creation." " But now," 

 continue these writers, "we are happily relieved from any further doubt on 

 the subject, by the exhibition of an animal of this description.'^ Again we 



accidental variety, having the plumage white, instead of rufous with black bars, 

 which is the usual plumage of the young Cuckoo. Vide Donovan's British Birds, 

 vol. 2, plate 41. This white variety was found in Cornwall about six years ago, and 

 strangely puzzled some juvenile Naturalists. It is not unworthy of notice that 

 Aldrovandus far more than a century ago speaks of Demi-Parrots appearing in the 

 West of England : these prove to be the Common Crossbill, Loxia Curvirostra. 

 Donovans British Birds, vol. 2, plate 29. 



« " Mermaid " of the Scottish Isles. The animal of which various amusing tales 

 appeared a few years ago. This is a creature pretty closely allied to the Shark 

 Tribe ; it is the Chimera Monstrosa of Naturalists. Vide Donovxn's British Fishes, 

 vol. 5, plate 111. This is the " Mermaid" of the North Seas, and it is the details 

 respecting this last-mentioned fish that has been so strangely amalgated with the 

 " Mermaid" of the present day, in order to demonstrate, upon the evidence of both, 

 the existence of such a race of animals. We may confidently add that these two 

 objects, although their histories have been so entirely blended together, are in no 

 manner related to each other. 



t More has been written on this subject, by ourselves in the Natural History 

 department of the Cyclopaedia of Dr. Rees. See article Dragon, Flying Dragon, &c. 



