A NATURAL HISTORY OF British and Foreign QUADRUPEDS; CONTAINING MANY MODERN DISCOVERIES, ORIGINAL OBSERVATIONS, AND NUMEROUS ANECDOTES. BY JAMES H. FENNEL L. WITH TWO HUNDRED WOOD CUTS. "Science should be stripped of whatever tends to clothe it in a strange and repulsive garb; SIR JOHN HERSCHAL. LONDON: JOSEPH THOMAS, FINCH LANE, CORNHILL. 1841. PREFACE. ALTHOUGH many modern works are to be found descriptive of particular groups of the higher animals, or of the miscellaneous, but generally very imperfect, collections in our zoological gardens, yet a long time has elapsed since the publication of any work like the present, giving a concise, but comprehensive view of the characteristic appearances, habits, and uses, of this class of animals in general. The progress which this department of zoology has made since the time of Buffon, renders his work, as well as the volumes which Goldsmith, Bewick, and others, have chiefly compiled from him, but ill-adapted for popular instruction. Buffon will ever claim our respect and our praise, for the zeal with which he accumulated facts on his favourite study; but his predilection for theories which he could not support without a violation of truth, and his invincible prejudices against many animals, which he determined to depict in the worst colours, often led him, unfortunately, to draw wrong inferences from facts, and sometimes to exaggerate and distort them; while, on the other hand, he has often embellished them, so that they might promote those efforts at ensuring an eloquent effect, which are so apparent throughout his work, and which, like the will-o'-the-wisp, display an effulgence more calculated to deceive than to assist. By the experienced and discriminating naturalist alone, can Buffon's work be perused without fear of being misled by the persuasions of eloquence; which, in philosophic inquiries, generally prove delusive to the unwary. Even, putting these considerations aside, |