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THE TOWER MENAGERIE.




                                   THE
                            TOWER MENAGERIE:

                               COMPRISING
                           THE NATURAL HISTORY
                                 OF THE
                ANIMALS CONTAINED IN THAT ESTABLISHMENT;

                                  WITH
               Anecdotes of their Characters and History.

                             ILLUSTRATED BY
         PORTRAITS OF EACH, TAKEN FROM LIFE, BY WILLIAM HARVEY;
              AND ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY BRANSTON AND WRIGHT.

                             [Illustration]

                                 LONDON:
                  PRINTED FOR ROBERT JENNINGS, POULTRY;
                   AND SOLD BY W. F. WAKEMAN, DUBLIN.
                              M DCCC XXIX.

                                CHISWICK:
                     PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM
                             COLLEGE HOUSE.




                             [Illustration]

                                   TO
                       HIS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY
                         KING GEORGE THE FOURTH,
                                   THE
               MUNIFICENT PATRON OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES,

                              This Volume,

        IN WHICH IT IS ATTEMPTED TO COMBINE BOTH ART AND SCIENCE
                                 IN THE
                  ILLUSTRATION OF HIS ROYAL MENAGERIE,

                                   IS,
               BY HIS MAJESTY’S MOST GRACIOUS PERMISSION,
                            HUMBLY INSCRIBED.




CONTENTS.


                                         PAGE

    INTRODUCTION                           ix

    BENGAL LION                             1

    LIONESS AND CUBS                       11

    CAPE LION                              17

    BARBARY LIONESS                        24

    TIGER                                  25

    LEOPARD                                35

    JAGUAR                                 41

    PUMA                                   49

    OCELOT                                 53

    CARACAL                                57

    CHETAH, OR HUNTING LEOPARD             61

    STRIPED HYÆNA                          71

    HYÆNA-DOG                              77

    SPOTTED HYÆNA                          81

    AFRICAN BLOODHOUND                     83

    WOLF                                   89

    CLOUDED BLACK WOLF                     93

    JACKAL                                 97

    CIVET, OR MUSK CAT                     99

    JAVANESE CIVET                        103

    GRAY ICHNEUMON                        105

    PARADOXURUS                           107

    BROWN COATI                           109

    RACOON                                111

    AMERICAN BLACK BEAR                   115

    GRIZZLY BEAR                          121

    THIBET BEAR                           129

    BORNEAN BEAR                          133

    EGRET MONKEY?                         144

    COMMON MACAQUE                        145

    BONNETED MONKEY, VAR.                 146

    BONNETED MONKEY                       147

    PIG-FACED BABOON                      148

    BABOON                                149

    WHITE-HEADED MONGOOS                  151

    KANGUROO                              155

    PORCUPINE                             161

    ASIATIC ELEPHANT                      163

    ZEBRA OF THE PLAINS                   177

    LLAMA                                 181

    RUSA-DEER                             185

    INDIAN ANTELOPE                       191

    AFRICAN SHEEP                         197

    GOLDEN EAGLE                          201

    GREAT SEA-EAGLE                       202

    BEARDED GRIFFIN                       203

    GRIFFON VULTURE                       205

    SECRETARY                             209

    VIRGINIAN HORNED OWL                  213

    DEEP-BLUE MACAW                       215

    BLUE AND YELLOW MACAW                 217

    YELLOW-CRESTED COCKATOO               219

    NEW HOLLAND EMEU                      221

    CRESTED CRANE                         225

    PELICAN                               227

    ALLIGATOR                             231

    INDIAN BOA                            233

    ANACONDA                              237

    RATTLESNAKE                           239




INTRODUCTION.


The origin of Menageries dates from the most remote antiquity. Their
existence may be traced even in the obscure traditions of the fabulous
ages, when the contests of the barbarian leader with his fellow-men were
relieved by exploits in the chase scarcely less adventurous, and when
the monster-queller was held in equal estimation with the warrior-chief.
The spoils of the chase were treasured up in common with the trophies
of the fight; and the captive brute occupied his station by the side
of the vanquished hero. It was soon discovered that the den and the
dungeon were not the only places in which this link of connexion might
be advantageously preserved, and the strength and ferocity of the forest
beast were found to be available as useful auxiliaries even in the
battle-field. The only difficulty to be surmounted in the application
of this new species of brute force to the rude conflicts of the times
consisted in giving to it the wished-for direction; and for this purpose
it was necessary that the animals to be so employed should be confined
in what may be considered as a kind of Menagerie, there to be rendered
subservient to the control, and obedient to the commands, of their
masters.

In the theology too of these dark ages many animals occupied a
distinguished place, and were not only venerated in their own proper
persons, on account of their size, their power, their uncouth figure,
their resemblance to man, or their supposed qualities and influence,
but were also looked upon as sacred to one or other of the interminable
catalogue of divinities, to whose service they were devoted, and on
whose altars they were sacrificed. For these also Menageries must
have been constructed, in which not only their physical peculiarities
but even their moral qualities must have been to a certain extent
studied; although the passions and prejudices of the multitude would
naturally corrupt the sources of information thus opened to them, by the
intermixture of exaggerated perversions of ill observed facts and by the
addition of altogether imaginary fables.

If to these two kinds of Menageries we add that which has every where
and under all circumstances accompanied the first dawn of civilization,
and which constitutes the distinguishing characteristic of man emerging
from a state of barbarism and entering upon a new and social state of
existence, the possession of flocks and herds, of animals useful in his
domestic economy, serviceable in the chase, and capable of sharing in his
daily toils, a tolerable idea may be formed of the collections which were
brought together in the earliest ages, and were more or less the subjects
of study to a race of men who were careless of every thing that had no
immediate bearing upon their feelings, their passions, or their interests.

But as civilization advanced, and the progress of society favoured
the developement of mind, when those who were no longer compelled by
necessity to labour for their daily bread found leisure to look abroad
with expanded views upon the wonders of the creation, the animal
kingdom presented new attractions and awakened ideas which had before
lain dormant. What was at first a mere sentiment of curiosity became
speedily a love of science; known objects were examined with more minute
attention; and whatever was rare or novel was no longer regarded with a
stupid stare of astonishment and an exaggerated expression of wonder, but
became the object of careful investigation and philosophic meditation.
Such was the state of things in civilized Greece when the Macedonian
conqueror carried his victorious arms to the banks of the Indus, and
penetrated into countries, not altogether unknown to Europeans, but the
natural productions of which were almost entirely new to the philosophers
of the West. With the true spirit of a man of genius, whose sagacity
nothing could escape, and whose views of policy were as profound as
the success of his arms was splendid, Alexander omitted no opportunity
of proving his devotion to the cause of science; and the extensive
collections of rare and unknown animals which he transmitted to his old
tutor and friend, in other words the Menagerie which he formed, laid the
foundation of the greatest, the most extensive, and the most original
work on zoology that has ever been given to the world. The first of
moral philosophers did not disdain to become the historian of the brute
creation, and Aristotle’s History of Animals remains a splendid and
imperishable record of his qualifications for the task.

Very different were the feelings by which the Roman generals and people
were swayed even in their most civilized times and at the height of their
unequalled power. Through all the gloss which history has thrown over
the character of these masters of the universe there appears a spirit
of unreclaimed barbarity which was never entirely shaken off. From the
scenes of their distant conquests their prætors sent to the metropolis
of the world bears and lions and leopards and tigers; but a love of
science had no share in the motives for the gratification of which they
were transmitted, and the chief curiosity manifested on such occasions by
the people of Rome was to ascertain how speedily hundreds or thousands,
as the case might happen, of these ferocious beasts would destroy each
other when turned out half-famished into the public amphitheatre, or
how long a band of African slaves, of condemned criminals, or of hired
gladiators, would be