Toads were always considered venomous and spiteful, and they had but one redeeming quality, which seems to be lost to its modern descendants:-- "Sweet are the uses of adversity; Wh...
Of the Walrus, Rosmarus, or Morse, Gesner draws, and Olaus Magnus writes, thus:--"The Norway Coast, toward the more Northern parts, hath a great Fish, as big as Elephants, which ar...
Aldrovandus portrays the Basilisk with eight legs. Topsell says it is the same as the Cockatrice, depicts it as a crowned serpent, and says:--"This Beast is called by the Graecian...
Olaus Magnus writes of "The cruelty of some Fish, and the kindness of others. There is a fish of the kind of Sea-Dogfish, called Boloma, in Italian, and in Norway, Haafisck, that w...
is probably the Thresher whale. Pliny thus describes it:--"The Balaena (whale of some sort) penetrates to our seas even. It is said that they are not to be seen in the ocean of Gad...
The fable of the Pelican "in her piety, vulning herself," as it is heraldically described--is so well known, as hardly to be worth mentioning, even to contradict it. In the first p...
"There is also another Sea-Monster, called Sahab, which hath small feet in respect of its great body, but he hath one long one, which he useth in place of a hand to defend all his...
This enormous monster, peculiar to the Northern Seas, is scarcely a fable, because huge Calamaries are not infrequently seen. Poor Pontoppidan has often been considered a Danish An...
"There is also in this Lake (the White Lake) a kind of bird, very frequent; and in other Coasts of the Bothnick and Swedish Sea, that cries incessantly all the Summer, Alle, Alle,...
Aldrovandus gives us a picture of a curly-legged Cat, but, beyond saying that it was so afflicted (or ornamented) from its birth, he gives no particulars. Topsell, too, is singular...
Topsell mentions a fearful beast called the Su. "There is a region in the new-found world, called Gigantes, and the inhabitants thereof, are called Patagones; now, because their co...
Modern observation, and especially Ostrich farming, has thoroughly exploded the old errors respecting this bird. We believe in its powers of swallowing anything not too large, but...
Whether the following bird is meant for the Hoopoe, or the Lapwing, I know not. The Latin version has "De Upupis," which clearly means Hoopoes--and the translation says, "Of the Wh...
This bird, as described by Aristotle, and others, is of a peculiar turn of mind:--"When the Crocodile gapes, the trochilus flies into its mouth to cleanse its teeth; in this proces...
No wonder that a credulous age, which could see nothing extraordinary in the Barnacle goose, could also, metaphorically, swallow such an egg, as Licetus, first of all, and Aldrovan...
Sir John Maundeville saw in "the kingdome named Mancy, which is the best kingdome of the worlde--(Manzi, that part of China south of the river Hoang-ho) whyte hennes, and they bear...
No one would credit the industrious Ant, whose ways we are told to consider, and gather wisdom therefrom, was avaricious and lustful after gold; but it seems it was even so, at lea...
When not taken from living specimens, or skins, the artists of old drew somewhat upon their imaginations for their facts, as is the case with this Antelope, of which Topsell gives...
Of the Ray tribe of fishes, the Sea Dragon is the most frightful-looking, but we know next to nothing about it. Pliny only cursorily mentions it thus:--"The Sea Dragon again, if ca...
"And is the swallow gone? Who beheld it? Which way sailed it? Farewell bade it none?" (W. Smith, Country book.) Olaus Magnus answered this question, according to his lights, and wh...
He also tells us about the senses of fishes, and first of their hearing:--"Among the marine animals, it is not probable that Oysters enjoy the sense of hearing, but it is said that...
So also, up North, they seem to have had a special breed of Hornets, which must have been ferocious indeed, sparing neither man nor beast, as is evidenced by the corpses, and by th...
Gesner describes a four-footed duck, which he says is like the English puffin, except in the number of its feet: but Aldrovandus "out-Herods Herod" when he gives us "A monstrous Co...
"The Saw fish is also a beast of the Sea; the body is huge great, the head hath a crest, and is hard and dented like to a Saw. It will swim under ships and cut them, that the Water...
The conjunction of the human form with birds is very easy, wings being fitted to it, as in the case of angels--and as applied to beasts, this treatment is very ancient, vide the wi...