COMIC ART. 
14 
shot, tongue out, and every muscle tense and 
strained. Three mountain sheep — father, mother, 
and little one — -are climbing a rocky precipice. 
A group of ptarmigans shows the three colors- 
winter, spring, and summer. A mother grouse is 
clucking about with a brood of chickens in the 
.most inimitably natural way. And last, not least, 
in an out-of-way corner is a touch of drollery for 
the children — a little wooden house, like a dog- 
kennel, and coming out of the door a very tiny 
squirrel, on his hind legs, with a very tiny, yel- 
low duckling hanging on his arm. The conscious 
strut, the grotesque love-making of the pair is 
as positive and as ludicrous as anything ever seen 
in a German picture-book. Only the most artistic 
arrangement of every fibre, every feather, every 
hair could have produced such a result. We 
laughed till we were glad to sit down on the rail- 
ing, close to the grizzly bear, and rest. 
“ But a funnier thing still was on the left hand 
- — a group of monkeys sitting round a small table 
playing poker. One scratching his head and scowl- 
ing in perplexity and dismay at his bad cards, and 
another leaning back smirking with satisfaction 
over his certain triumph with his aces ; one smok- 
ing with a nonchalant air; and all so absorbed in 
the game that they do not see the monkey on 
the' floor, who is reaching up a cautious paw and 
drawing the stakes — a ten dollar bill — off the 
