Animal Sagacity: Exemplified by Facts : Showing the Force of Instinct in Beasts, Birds, &c

Front Cover
W. Espy, 1824 - 180 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 165 - Some saw his skill tried on a horse which could never before be brought to stand for a smith to shoe him. The day after Sullivan's half-hour lecture I went, not without some incredulity, to the smith's shop, with many other curious spectators, where we were eye-witnesses of the complete success of his art. This, too, had been a troop-horse; and it was supposed, not without reason, that after regimental discipline had failed no other would be found availing.
Page 165 - This, too, had been a troop horse, and it was supposed, not without reason, that after regimental discipline had failed, no other would be found availing. I observed that the animal seemed afraid whenever Sullivan either spoke or looked at him.
Page 164 - Bonaparte himself. How his art was acquired, or in what it consisted, is likely to remain for ever unknown, as he has lately left the world without divulging it.
Page 77 - Arab has excited the rage of a camel, he throws down his garments in some place near which the animal is to pass, and disposes them in such a manner that they appear to cover a man sleeping under them. The animal recognises the clothes, seizes them in his teeth, shakes them with violence, and tramples on them in a rage.
Page 136 - ... his threatenings were of no avail, he began a lamentable moaning, and by every token of grief and supplication seemed to beg the body of the deceased: on this, it was given to him: with tender sorrow he took it up in his arms, embraced it with conjugal affection, and carried it off with a sort of triumph to his expecting comrades.
Page 116 - Aubri, at Paris, and by his melancholy howling, seemed desirous of expressing the loss they had both sustained. He repeated his cries, ran to the door, looked back to see if any one followed him, returned to his master's friend, pulled him by the sleeve, and with dumb eloquence entreated him to go with him. The singularity of all...
Page 165 - In common cases this mysterious preparation was unnecessary. He seemed to possess an instinctive power of inspiring awe, the result perhaps of natural intrepidity, in which I believe a great part of his art consisted ; though the circumstance of the tete-a-tete shows that upon particular occasions something more must have been added to it.
Page 154 - Here, all at once, it was missing, and calling and whistling was to no purpose. Nine weeks after this, all but two days, some glaziers were at work in the cathedral, and heard, amongst the timbers which support the dome, a faint noise. Thinking it might be some unfortunate human being, they tied a rope round a boy, and let him down near the place whence the sound came. At the bottom, he found a dog, lying on its side, the skeleton of another do£, and an old shoe, half eaten.
Page 145 - ... to receive him at an advantage. A very diverting chase now commenced, in which, from the shallowness of the water, we could discern the whole track of the fish, with all its rapid turnings and windings. After a smart pursuit, the dog found himself left considerably behind, in consequence of the water deepening, by which he had been reduced to the necessity of swimming. But instead of following...
Page 164 - After a tete-a.tetc between him and the horse for about half an hour, during which little or no bustle was heard, the signal was made ; and upon opening the door, the horse...

Bibliographic information