"The Mimicke or Getulian Dogge," is, I take it, meant for a poodle. It was "apt to imitate al things it seeth, for which cause some have thought that it was conceived by an Ape, fo...
The largest of the Saurians which we have left us, is the Crocodile; and it formerly had the character of being very deceitful, and, by its weeping, attracted its victims. Sir John...
As a change from this awful animal, let us examine the Planta Tartarica Borometz--which was so graphically delineated by Joannes Zahn in 1696. Although this is by no means the firs...
In the title-page of one edition of "The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes" (1607) Topsell gives this picture of the Gorgon; and he says, respecting this curious animal, the followi...
He also mentions and delineates a curious Ape which closely resembles the classical Satyr: "Under the Equinoctiall, toward the East and South, there is a kind of Ape called AEgopit...
Of this bird, the Kingfisher, Aristotle thus discourses:--"The halcyon is not much larger than a sparrow; its colour is blue and green, and somewhat purple; its whole body is compo...
What a curious belief was that of the Unicorn! Yet what mythical animal is more familiar to Englishmen? In its present form it was not known to the ancients, not even to Pliny, who...
Of the Martin, or, as in Heraldry it is written, Martlet, Guillim thus writes:--"The Martlet, or Martinet, saith Bekenhawh, hath Legs so exceeding short, that they can by no means...
But we must leave warm climes, and birds of Paradise, and speak of "Birds shut up under the Snow." "There are in the Northern Countries Wood-Cocks, like to pheasant for bigness, bu...
"There is also another Monster like to that, called Circhos, which hath a crusty and soft Skin, partly black, partly red, and hath two cloven places in his Foot, that serve for to...
The race of Amazons or fighting women, is not yet extinct, as the chronicles of every police court can tell, and as an organised body of warlike soldiers--the King of Dahomey still...
"We find three kinds of sponges mentioned; the first are thick, very hard, and rough, and are called tragi: the second are thick, and much softer, and are called mani: of the third...
The Lion has a dreadful enemy, according to Pliny, who says:--"We have heard speak of a small animal to which the name of Leontophonus[36] has been given, and which is said to exis...
Terrestrial and Aerial animals were far more familiar to the Ancients than were the inhabitants of the vast Ocean, and not knowing much about them, their habits and ways, took "omn...
This Voracious Animal, whose size may be imagined by comparison with the Seal it is devouring, is thus described by Magnus:--"Because this Beast is conversant in the Northern Water...
Of curious animals, other than Apes, depicted as having some approach to the human countenance, perhaps the most curious is the Manticora. It is not a parvenu; it is of ancient dat...
Writing on the lower phases of Marine Animal life, he says:--"Indeed, for my own part, I am strongly of opinion that there is sense existing in those bodies which have the nature o...
Many writers have essayed this fabled creature, but almost all have approached the subject with diffidence, as if not quite sure of the absolute entity of the animal. Thus, Aristot...
Transition from hirsute humanity to the apes, is easy, and natural--and we need only deal with the Simiinae, which includes the Orang, the Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla. These are th...
Of the antiquity of the belief in the Sea-Serpent there can be no doubt, for it is represented on the walls of the Assyrian palace at Khorsabad, more than once, in the sculpture re...
"The Sea-Hare is found to be of divers kinds in the Ocean, but so soon as he is caught, onely because he is suspected to be Venemous, how like so ever he is to a Hare, he is let lo...
Again we are indebted to Gesner for the drawing of this Sea Monster. Olaus Magnus, speaking of "The Monstrous Hog of the German Ocean," says:--"I spake before of a Monstrous Fish f...
Of all extraordinary beliefs, that in the Barnacle Goose, which obtained credence from the eleventh to the seventeenth centuries, is as wonderful as any. The then accepted fact tha...
The Leech has, from a very early age, been used as a means of letting blood; but, among the old Romans, it had medicinal uses such as we know not of now. It was used as a hair dye....
Of this fish Pliny writes:--"There is a very small fish that is in the habit of living among the rocks, and is known as the Echeneis, [Greek: Apo tou echein neas]. (From holding ba...
The Lamiae are mythological--and were monsters of Africa, with the face and breast of a woman, the rest of the body like that of a serpent; they allured strangers, that they might...
Pliny mentions the Sting Ray, and ascribes to it marvellous powers, which it does not possess:--"There is nothing more to be dreaded than the sting which protrudes from the tail of...
This last sentence seems almost a compendium of The History of Tom Thumb, for his wit enabled him to overcome the lubber-headed giants, in every conflict he was engaged in with the...
Pliny says of the Phoenix:--"AEthiopia and India, more especially produce birds of diversified plumage, and such as quite surpass all description. In the front rank of these is the...
Of the great Cat, the Lion, the ancients give many wonderful stories, some of them not altogether redounding to his character for bravery:--"A serpent, or snake doth easily kill a...