Natural History: Mammalia

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Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1848 - Animal behavior - 302 pages
 

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Page 157 - He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens. The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
Page 207 - There are three creatures, the squirrel, the field-mouse, and the bird called the nut-hatch (Sitta Europcea), which live much on hazelnuts; and yet they open them each in a different way. The first, after rasping off the small end, splits the shell in two with his long fore-teeth, as a man does with his knife...
Page 11 - The people of the countrie, when they travaile in the woods, make fires where they sleepe in the night ; and in the morning when they are gone, the Pongoes will come and sit about the fire till it goeth out ; for they have no understanding to lay the wood together.
Page 147 - had just commenced ascending this stream in his boat, when suddenly a violent shock was felt from underneath, and in another moment a monstrous hippopotamus reared itself up from the water, and, in a most ferocious and menacing attitude, rushed, open-mouthed, at the boat, and, with one grasp of its tremendous jaws, seized and tore seven planks from her side ; the creature disappeared for a few seconds, and then rose again, apparently intending to...
Page 165 - He then hitches the lazo, so that the three legs are bound together. Then sitting on the horse's neck, he fixes a strong bridle, without a bit, to the lower jaw. This he does by passing a narrow thong through the eye-holes, at the end of the reins, and several times round both jaw and tongue. The two front legs are now tied closely together with a strong leathern thong, fastened by a slip-knot. The lazo, which bound the three together,., being then loosed, the horse rises with difficulty.
Page 127 - ... breathe securely during sleep, whilst the body remained floating at perfect ease beneath the surface : the animal might thus repose, moored to the margin of a lake or river, without the slightest muscular exertion, the weight of the head and body tending to fix and keep the tusks fast anchored in the substance of the bank, as the weight of the body of a sleeping bird keeps the claws clasped firmly around its perch.
Page 250 - If a cat has nine lives, this creature surely has nineteen ; for if you break every bone in their skin, and mash their skull, leaving them for dead, you may come an hour after, and they will be gone quite away, or perhaps you may meet them creeping away.
Page 126 - To an animal of such habits, the weight of the tusks sustained in water would have been no source of inconvenience; and if we suppose them to have been employed as instruments for raking and grubbing up by the roots large aquatic vegetables from the bottom, they would, under such service, combine the mechanical powers of the pick-axe with those of the horse-harrow of modern husbandry. The weight of the head, placed above these downward tusks, would add to their efficiency for the service here supposed,...
Page 137 - These milk grinders are not shed, but are gradually worn away during the time the second set are coming forward, and, as soon as the body of the grinder is nearly worn away, the fangs begin to be absorbed. From the end of the second to the beginning of the sixth year, the third set come gradually forward as the jaw lengthens, not only to fill up this additional space, but also to supply the place of the second set, which are, during the same period, gradually worn away, and have their fangs absorbed....
Page 110 - Haul in the slack," observes the headsman, while the boatsteerer coils it again carefully into the tubs as it is drawn up. The whale is now seen approaching the surface ; the gurgling and bubbling water which rises before also proclaims that he is near ; his nose starts from the sea ; the rushing spout is projected high and suddenly, from his agitation.

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