FLYING DRAGON. 



181 



ago, find a dead rat in the physic garden, which 

 he made to resemble the common picture of dra- 

 gons, by altering its head and tail, and thrusting 

 in taper sharp sticks, which distended the skin on 

 each side till it mimicked wings. He let it dry 

 as hard as possible. The learned immediately 

 pronounced it a dragon ; and one of them sent 

 an accurate description of it to Dr. Magliabechi, 

 librarian to the grand Duke of Tuscany ; seve- 

 ral fine copies of verses were wrote on so rare a 

 subject ; but at last Mr. Bobart owned the cheat ; 

 however it was looked upon as a master-piece of 

 art ; and, as such, deposited in the Museum, or 

 Anatomy-School, where I saw it some years after." 



The most remarkable instance, in later times, is 

 that of a Dragon of the kind above-mentioned, 

 which was in possession of a merchant at Ham- 

 burgh, and which was considered by its proprie- 

 tor as of the value of 10,000 florins; but which 

 the penetrating eye of Linnaeus, during his visit 

 to that city, soon discovered to be a mere decep- 

 tion, ingeniously contrived by a dextrous com- 

 bination of the skins of snakes, teeth of weesels, 

 claws of birds, &c. being, as Linnaeus himself ex- 

 presses it, non Naturce sed artis opus e.vimium,*' 

 It is said that Linnseus, in consequence of this 

 discovery, was obliged to fly from Hamburgh, in 

 order to avoid the wrath of the enraged proprie- 

 tor, who determined on a prosecution against 

 him, as having injured the reputation of his pro- 

 perty. An exact representation of this curious 

 imposture is given by Seba, who, however, does 



