The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-07-11

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ing birth to young. The Onocentaur wa
the Bully Bottom of the old zoologist, he hat
an ass's head on a mans body.
A wonderful beast is the Pathyon, of whicl
the heathens thought that it partook of tn,
nature of divinity. 1t has a purple coat, al
radiant with scintillating light. lis bones
are wonderfully hard and strong and it,
nerves can only be torn asunder with Tia,
greatest violence. The Pilosus is as man
with the hoofed feet of beast; the blessed
Hero describes it in the life of Paul the Her
nit. In the zoology of our forefathers, even
the horse beloved Of poets, Pegasus, was fig
ured and described. After that, we need not
be surprised at meeting also with the Pig
mics, mature at the age Of three years, old
at seven or at being told, as matter Of sci
ence, how they ride on wild goats armed with
arrows to make war against the cranes and
capture eggs.
As there was no system preferable in those
days, the arrangement of plants, beasts, birds,
&C., was mBde alphabetical. In turning over
the leaves of our book, we have looked from
Pegasus to Pigmies, and now pause at Pedi-
culi, the curse upon mans head They are
either produced from Precipitation, we learn,
or exhaled through the pores of the skim
They swarm in the heads oftayellers, because
in travel men pcrspre much and meet with
paucity of baths.
Turning on to letter Il, we pause at Rccu-
Ius. the ba.ilsk. We find him discussed
again under the head birds; for as he is
partly cock and partly serpent, it is hard to
know whether he is rightly bird or beast
At the sight of him, the breath Of him, or
the sound of his hiss men become dropsical
and die. The fatal part of him when he kills
by being looked at, are three hairs under his
head The basilisk is produced out Of an
egg layed by an aged cock and hatchcd in
dunghill, or some say by serpent but this
is uncertain. They who have seen the egg,
say that it has not a shell, but instead Of a
shell skin so tough that it can scarcely be
broken with hatehct
1t is hardly necessary to repeat the we'll
known proof of the fine spirit of the Rhi-
noceros, that he dies of grief when made
captive. The Salamander is depicted by the
naturalist on a comfortable litter Of fire. 1t
Is IN animal without a spleen, and wit. the
liver on the left side of the body. Pope Al
rxander had a robe made of the wool of this
animal, which was not put into water but in
10 fire when it wanted washing. We viii
hurry on TO Unicorn, because the representa- |
ion of that animal on the British arms as Of
equal size with the ion-although in other re- T
,pccts accurate--is calculated to give an OK
,cedingly erroneous impression. The uni .
,orn is quite n small ANIMAL though noted .
or its strength.
OF course the many-hcadcd Hydra is dcs-
ribbed with scientific accuracy, and that We
nay end the alphabet of beasts with Z, let
Is speak Of the Zubro. This beast, which is .
lepictcd throwing into the air three dogs at
! time, and trampling on another, is 50 swift,
lat, it t-rns round on its own dung as il is
sllinc, and tosscs it back TO a great distance
With its horns, in order that il may fall as a
'ctard among, and sufocatc the dogs by
Which he is pursued
We will now treat Of surprising birds, and
.rieily. The Barliata are Il sort Of Barnaclc
.cese, growing at sea on pnirid wood, to
Which they hang by their bcaks till they fall
g. The beaLs are, as it were the stalks by
thch they grow. The good bishop, Jacobus
AthcniensiS, in history Of Eastern travel.
avs that he has seen such birds growing up
II trees by the seashore, and hanging by the
cak as pears hang by the stalk. The Caris-
a is little bird that flies unhurt through fire.
iced it be said, that few centuries ago, the
oologist included among birds blowfies and
iagbcctles!
There was Of course also Fenix, the PhG-
tx, dear still to insurance companies, though
hy they love It We know not, since it Is
ypc Of nothing else but arson. This Ara
ian bird-thcre : but one-whan old, col
cts aromatic herbs under hot sun, and
ms them into flame with It's own wings,
nd so burns itself up, with the direct pur-
ose Of rising again in an improved state
ON the ashes. Manifest arson, gentlemen /
the Phoenix Fire OfIicel The new Php-
tx first appears in the ashes as a worm, but
rows rapidly; and this iHdubitable fact in
atural history used 20 be taken as a proof
f the resurrection. OF Grippes, the griffin,
nd his deeds in HyPerborean mountains, We
eed only say, that here he is among the 9th
T birds; here too is HarPia, the harpy. Then
lere Is Merops, an carthloying bird, that
uilds in the earth, and hides its eggs deep
Il have heard saw said
Dung owl, in one Of Lessing's fables. ''that
iere is a bird called Mcrops, which flies
lcEwards with its head towards the ground.
an this be trucT' ~No, my child, that Is
,olish invention of man. He himself may
C such a Merops, for he would be too happy I