male, changed its usually mild disposition to a singular degree of ferociousness. During this time, no one, not even its master's voice, had any influence over its actions. One day it seized him by the sleeve of his coat, and could not be induced to loose its hold, till its jaws were forcibly wrenched open by means of an iron instrument. Another time it laid hold of the head of a tolerably large dog, which it crushed to pieces with its teeth. In short, it exercised its fury upon every living object that ventured to come within its reach. It bellowed, and always, during these days, seemed in great agitation. Sometimes it would continue to bellow for many hours successively.

"The animal usually slept in the daytime; and was frequently heard to snore at a very considerable distance. Its repose was so sound, that its master could easily approach without awaking it; and it often happened that he had a difficulty in rousing it, unless at the same time, he put a fish of some kind to its nose. In this case, however, the animal soon recovered its wonted vivacity. If the fish was with drawn to a little distance, it would raise its head, and the interiour part of its body; and standing tiptoe, on its forefeet, would endeavour to reach it. This was the only kind of food that it could be induced to eat; and of carp and eels (the fish it was usually fed with) it was most fond of the former. Care was always taken to roll them in salt before they were offered; and about 30 lbs. weight of these fish, raw, and thus covered with salt, were necessary for its daily subsistence. All the eels were swallowed whole, as well as a few of the carp that were first presented. But when the animal began to be satiated, it gutted the others before it ate them. For this purpose it seized them by the head, which it crushed between its teeth; then, with singular address, it ripped open the belly, emptied it of its contents, and, in conclusion, swallowed the remainder of

the bodies whole."

The different British varieties of the dog are next noticed. These are fourteen in number, the whole of which are figured in the plates, and with a degree of spirit and animation that reflects great credit on the abilities of Mr. Howitt, the draughtsman. The shepherd's dog, the setters, the grayhound, the lurcher, and the pointer, are particularly excellent. Numerous anec

dotes are given of each of the varieties. In some of Mr. Bingley's descriptions, we think, there is no inconsiderable degree of elegance. Speaking of the general character of the dog, he says:

"Without excepting even the elephant, the dog seems the most tractable and docile of all the brute creation. His gentleness and fidelity have rendered him, in many countries, not merely a useful, but a necessary companion of man. To the orders of his master he yields a ready and implicit obedience. He acts upon these orders with alacrity; and, by his vigilance and courage, frequently secures him from the attacks of his enemies. He guards, both by day and night, his property; and will often risk his life in its defence. He is seldom inclined to injure any person, unless previously irritated or assaulted, and is almost the only animal which forbears to resent bad treatment from his owner. The dog, under such usage, does not even seek to desert his master; but, in spite of the injury, will still continue to follow and defend him. If he has committed a fault, and finds that it is discovered, he crouches at his master's feet, as if to implore his clemency: but, if he be not fortunate enough to obtain mercy, he submits to the chastisement, and, the moment it is over, will lick the hand that punished him. On the least encouragement, he recovers his accustomed gayety, runs round, and affectionately fawns upon his master. On all occasions he is attentive to his voice; and he knows, intimately, that of every person from whom he is accustomed to receive favours or attention."

The characters both of the wild and domestick cat are well delineated; and we were particularly pleased with the remarks which Mr. Bingley has made on several circumstances relating to the latter. The next in succession are the weasels, a tribe of which the British species are five in number: the common and pine martin, polecat, common weasel, and stoat or ermine. The following anecdote is related of the common weasel; but we have strong reasons for considering Mr. Bingley in an errour respecting the animal, although the circumstance is corroborated by a somewhat similar

account given by Mr. Kerr, in his translation of the Systema Naturæ. We know that, by the country people of several parts of England, the stoat and the weasel are confounded; and we consider it more than probable, that this has been the case in the present instance, particularly when we recollect that the weasel, properly so called, is one of the smallest of the British quadrupeds, and that the stoat is at least twice its size.

"In the warren at Wakefield Outwood, in Yorkshire, a weasel was, one day, observed in the act of dragging along a young rabbit, which it had just killed. The little animal was watched to a burrow, the repository of its plunder; and the mouth was carefully stopped up, till a spade could be brought to dig it out. On turning up the earth, there were found lodged, at the bottom of the hole, no fewer than fourteen couple of small rabbits, all of which had evidently been conveyed thither by this voracious and destructive invader. The reason given for such an enormous accumulation of provisions was, that, although the weasel usually satiates itself with some part of the blood of the animal it kills, it never devours the remainder of its prey till it is in a state of putrefaction."

We cannot resist the temptation of inserting some pleasing anecdotes of a harvest mouse that Mr. Bingley had in his possession upwards of two years. These mice, which are of a bright chesnut colour, and so small as seldom to be more than about the sixth part of an ounce in weight, are hitherto unknown in any other parts of England than the counties of Hants, Dorset, Wilts, and Sussex.

"About the middle of September, 1804, I had a female harvest mouse given to me by Mrs. Campbell, of Chewton House, Hants. It had been put into a dormouse cage immediately when caught, and a few days afterwards produced eight young ones. I entertained some hopes that the little animal would have nursed these, and brought them up; but having been disturbed in her removal, about four miles, from the country, she began to destroy them, and I took them from her. The young ones, at the time I received them (not more than

two or three days old) must have been at least equal in weight to the mother. became reconciled to her situation; and, "After they were removed, she soon when there was no noise, would venture to come out of her hiding place, at the extremity of the cage, and climb about among the wires of the open part before me. In doing this, I remarked that her tail was in some measure, prehensile; and that to render her hold the more secure, she generally coiled the extremity of it round one of the wires. The toes of all the feet were particularly long and flexile, and she could grasp the wires very firmly with any of them. She frequently rested on her hind feet, somewhat in the manner of the jerboa, for the purpose of looking about her; and in this attitude could extend her body, at such an angel as at first greatly surprised me. She was a beautiful little animal; and her various attitudes in cleaning her face, head, and body, with her paws, were peculiarly graceful and elegant.

"For a few days after I received this mouse, I neglected to give it any water; but when I afterwards put some into the cage, she lapped it with great eagerness. After lapping, she alraised herself on her hind feet, Creed her head with her paws. She continued, even till the time of her death, exceedingly shy and timid; but whenever I put into the cage any favourite food, such as grains of wheat or maize, she would eat them before me. On the least noise or motion, however, she immediately ran off, with the grain in her mouth, to her hiding place.

"One evening, as I was sitting at my writing desk, and the animal was playing about in the open part of its cage, a large, blue fly happened to buzz against the wires. The little creature, although at twice or thrice the distance of her own

length from it, sprang along the wires with the greatest agility, and would certainly have seized it, had the space betwixt the wires been sufficiently wide to have admitted her teeth or paws to reach it. I was surprised at this occurrence, as I had been led to believe that the harvest mouse was merely a granivorous animal. I caught the fly and made it buzz in my fingers against the wires. The mouse, though usually shy and timid, immediately came out of her hiding place, and running to the spot, seized and devoured it. From this time I fed her with insects, whenever I could get them; and she always preferred them to any other kind of food that I offered her.

"When this mouse was first put into her cage, a piece of fine flannel was folded up into the dark part of it, as a bed, and I put some grass and bran into the large, open part. In the course of a few days all the grass was removed; and; on examining the cage, I found it very neatly arranged betwixt the folds of the flannel, and rendered more soft by being mixed with the knap of the flannel, which the animal had torn off in considerable quantity for the purpose. The chief part of this operation must have taken place in the night; for although the mouse was generally awake and active during the daytime, yet I never once observed it employed in removing the grass.

"On opening its nest, about the latter end of October, 1804, I remarked that there were amongst the grass and wool at the bottom, about forty grains of maize. These appeared to have been arranged with some care and regularity; and every grain had the corcule, or growing part, eaten out, the lobes only being left. This seemed so much like an operation induced by the instinctive propensity that some quadrupeds are endowed with, for storing up food for support during the winter months, that I soon afterwards put into

the cage about a hundred additional grains

of maize. These were all in a short time carried away; and on a second examination, I found them stored up in the manner of the former. But though the animal was well supplied with other food, and particularly with bread which it seemed very fond of, and although it continued perfect ly active through the whole winter, on examining its nest a third time, about the end of November, I observed that the food in its repository was all consumed, except half a dozen grains.

"This interesting little animal died in the month of December, 1806, after a confinement of two and a quarter years. I have some reason to believe that its death was occasioned by water being put into its cage, in a shell picked up on the seashore, that had been much impregnated with salt."

We find, from this volume, that the number of known species of British quadrupeds is forty four; that there are fourteen distinct varieties of British dogs; fourteen of sheep; and thirteen of cattle. Anecdotes are related of the whole of these, and nearly the whole of them are figured in the engravings. At the end of the volume there is a sy

nopsis of the animals, which contains an account of the shape, dimensions, &c. as well as a reference to all the authors that have been con

sulted. This we consider a great improvement, as the popular parts are by this means freed from the interruption of such as are technical. A considerable saving of space also arises from this plan, which allows the descriptions of the animals to be much more compressed than they could possibly have been if incorporated into the body of the work.

The plan and execution of this volume, we think, are both good. Indeed, we have seldom seen a work of natural history, which, at so cheap a rate as the present, has yielded us so much amusement. The plates, which are very numerous, contain, with some few exceptions, admirable representations of the animals; and they are infinitely the more interesting, from the circumstance of their having been all executed from original drawings.

Having thus far stated our favourable opinion of this work, we must now be permitted to point out some defects and some errours. And first with respect to the plates. The representation of the great bat is by

no means correct. The head is too much like that of a dog; and the ears do not close sufficiently round the eyes. Both the head and ears of the martin are incorrect. The fox we do not like; and the cow in the plate of Devonshire cattle is bad. If a living Suffolk carthorse had his legs in the same proportion as those in the print of that animal, the near fore leg would be at least six inches longer than the other. These defective plates, which, indeed, are very few in proportion to the whole number in the volume, we hope the author will think it necessary to cancel in a future edition. The situation of the spleen in some animals does not certainly warrant the conclusion which Mr. Bingley has drawn in p. 12, "that this member is chiefly of

use in regulating the supply of blood for the necessities of the stomach." We would ask the author also, on what authority it is, that, in p. 140, he asserts that wild cats are "altogether untameable, however young they may be when first caught?" since it is evident, that the originals of the present domestick cats must have been wild? With respect to the sy

nonyms at the end of the volume, we think that it is at present a matter of little importance to quote the works of Gesner, Ruysch, Klein, or Brisson; but we confess that we were rather surprised not to find a single reference to the German work on Mammalia by Schrebor, particularly as some other German books of natural history have been consulted.

IT was to be expected, and much to be desired, that we should be supplied with details of the unforturate Spanish campaign under the late sir John Moore, from some of those who were engaged in the sad scene, and whose situations afforded them opportunities of recording the events which they beheld. We have, accordingly, been furnished with several publications of this nature, which respectively demand from us such a report to our readers, as our other duties and our space will permit us to assign to them, considering their number and the similarity of their contents. But we regarded it as incumbent on us to place first on the list the narrative which has been prepared from the papers of the lamented general himself, of which a full abstract was given in our number for September last; and to which, as the standard, in all questions of high political and military import, every other account must be referred and be subservient. In miscellaneous information, however, and in delineations which respect countries and manners, the productions of private individuals have, in course, the advantage; and to these points, therefore, we shall chiefly attend in our view of them.

From the signature to the plates in this volume, viz. R. K. Porter, delin. and from current report, we understand that it proceeds from the pen of a gentleman of that name, to whose pencil the publick have been frequently indebted; who has also served on the staff of the British army; and who, during his travels in Russia, received the honour of knighthood from the sovereign of that empire. His style of writing possesses the liveliness and the freedom which are appropriate to epistolary correspondence; but is not always sufficiently correct for the literary eye; and he speaks of the people with whom he is mixing, and of the transactions to which he was a party or a witness, with an unreservedness which is desirable for historical purposes, but which may, perhaps, subject him to the charge of harshness in some cases, and in others to that of a deficiency in the secrecy of a preux chevalier. His representations of both the Portuguese and the Spanish are, indeed, generally unfavourable; and it is to be regretted that all former travellers, and the events of the present day, but too strongly corroborate his opinion.

Of Lisbon, the usual picture pre

sents itself; and we are introduced to nasty streets and dirty houses; idle monks and amorous devotees; meretricious dances and obscene songs. We lament also to hear that "since the departure of the French, those in power are again making the horrours of the inquisition the instru ments of their vengeance."

During the writer's march through Portugal into Spain, a very discreditable national trait presents itself:

"We were frequently shown the caps and arms of the unfortunate Frenchmen

who had fallen sacrifices to the knives of

this oppressed people. They told us exultingly, while they held them up, the particulars of many a bloody scene; and how often it had been repeated by the discovery and murder of some other poor stragglers. I fear that this base sort of revenge is the only one the generality of this nation are now capable of devising. I nowhere hear amongst them any sentiments on their release from a foreign yoke, which speak principles of a nobler kind than a merely natural joy at being relieved from insult and exaction. No grand views connected with freedom and national advantages seem to enter their heads. All they think of is the temporary escape from personal inconvenience; and I have a notion that had Napoleon's generals acted with less rigour, and condescended in any degree to have won the people's confidence, we should have heard that all was very quietly settled in Lusitania. But when the titles of the native nobility are assumed, and their estates sequestrated; when the lower classes are oppressed and plundered, no wonder then that every body being injured, all should seek redress, and, fearful of their own strength, fly to the broad shield of England.”

On entering Spain at Alcantara, sir Robert Porter says that he contemplated the proud walls of that city as "a type of the brave nation we came to defend; noble in ruins, and settled on the impregnable rock of nature, determined to maintain their existence against those attacks which shook other places to their foundation."

"With such sentiments, such respect and cordiality for the inhabitants, did we

enter Alcantara. But the governour proved a beast, a vulgar, uncivil animal, with little power to serve us, and less inclination. Indeed all seemed asleep to the feelings He was asleep when we called on him. we brought along with us. They received us with the coldness of men, showing they were resolved ever to consider us as strangers, and treated us with an inhospitality they durst not have ventured had they not believed us to be friends."

Heu! sic omnia! with only such exceptions as confirm the rule.

At Salamanca, we find the author's military views become very gloomy, and his ideas but too much in accordance with those which we know to have been entertained by the commander in chief, and with the actual result. He anticipates the necessity of that retreat which he yet deprecates and dreads, and he adds:

"From the brave honesty of sir John Moore, I have no doubt of his informing ministers at home of the true state of Spain; and of how shamefully the junta has misled them, by its representations of the patriotick zeal and military preparation of the nation. That the Spaniards did not continue as the junta found them was its own fault. Oppressed and outraged by the French, with a wild revenge, hordes of enraged people rose in every quarter of the kingdom. Their sudden and impetuous vengeance carried all before them; the veteran armies of France were destroyed; the usurper driven from his assumed capital; and the cry of restitution resounded every where. This was the sympathetick act of a whole nation; and this was the fortunate moment for a virtuous nobility to have turned it to their country's advantage. Had some great spirit seized this conquering body, and guided it with the singleness of aim which actuated the soul of Pelagio, when at the head of his zealous Asturians he

drove the invading Saracens over his native mountains, we should not now he shut up in Salamanca, nor would the flying Spaniards be seeking a temporary refuge in their dishonoured homes."

In a letter from Sahagun, when the army was advancing to the enemy, sir R. Porter well observes: