On another occasion, Mr. Jukes says, "we picked up a few young seals, and as one of them was shedding his white coat, we eased him entirely of it, and disclosed his second coat, a beautifully spotted skin of short smooth hair,—grey and black." The seal is furnished with whiskers, which, like those of the cat, appear to be very sensitive, and to serve as organs of touch. Mr. Jukes mentions that there are four species of seals known on the coast of Newfoundland, viz. the bay seal, which is the smallest of the four, and which is never found at any great distance from land; the harp seal, which is that most commonly found on the icebergs, and the one generally taken for its oil and skin; the hooded seal; and the square flipper, which is very large and very scarce. The harp seal, which is the most common, is so named from having, in addition to the usual spots, "a broad curved line of connected blotches proceeding from each shoulder, and meeting on the back above the tail, forming a figure something like an ancient harp or lyre. The female has not this harp, neither has the male till after his second year. The young, when born, are covered with the white fur already described; they are then called 'white coats'; at about five or six weeks old they shed this white coat, and a smooth spotted skin appears; they are then called young harps. When twelve months old, the males are still scarcely to be distinguished from the females, and during that season they are called 'bedlamers.' The next season, the male has assumed his harp." The hooded seals are larger than the harps; their skin is of a lighter grey, and the spots and blotches with which they are marked are very irregular. The male, called a "dog hood," is distinguished by a singular hood, or bag of soft flesh, on his nose. When attacked or alarmed, he inflates this hood, so as to cover the face and eyes; and it resists shot. The young of this species are not provided with the thick woolly coat of the young harp seals, or, if they have it, it is shed when they are very young. They are white on the lower part of the body, but their backs have a bluish tinge, and hence they are generally called blue backs. "Those which were brought on board alive, seemed much more gentle and tamer than the white coats, and when teased, they did not offer to scratch and bite so much as the others." The hooded seals are not found in such large herds as the harps, and as their fat is not so thick, they are considered very inferior in value. These seals appear to have more affection than the others, and the sealers say that if they can kill a female, they are sure of several others, as her young ones will not leave her, and the male "will not go far from the spot, but keeps continually popping his head up in the holes and pools about, growling and whining after his mate."
WALRUS, OR SEAHORSE.
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The walrus or sea-horse closely resembles the seal in the formation of its feet; but it is also furnished with two large tusks in the upper jaw, the points of which hang down and nearly unite, and which sometimes are twenty- four inches long. These tusks do not appear till the creature is full grown, and when seen at a distance without tusks, its head very closely resembles the human face. "As this animal," says Mr. Scoresby, "is in the habit of raising its head above water, to look at ships and other passing objects, it is not at all improbable but that it may have afforded foundation for some of the stories of mermaids or mermen. I have myself seen a sea-horse in such a position and under such circumstances, that it required little stretch of imagination to mistake it for a human being; so like, indeed, was it, that the surgeon of the ship actually reported to me his having seen a man with his head just appearing above the surface of the water." The tusks of the sea-horse are equal in durability to those of the elephant, and as they keep their colour better, they are frequently used by dentists to make artificial teeth.
THE KANGAROO FAMILY, OR MARSUPIALIAN ANIMALS.
In these creatures the singular phenomenon is presented, of an animal using its tail as a third hind-leg. Kangaroos, in general, dwell in troops of from twelve to thirty, under the guidance of a respectable old captain, who is evidently much looked up to by the rest. In a state of repose, they rest, as it were, on a kind of tripod composed of the two hinder legs, and the tail, with the two fore-legs hanging down like hands, and the body nearly perpendicular. When they move, it is generally by repeated bounds, leaping sometimes, it is said, nearly thirty feet at a single spring. Nothing can be more ludicrous than the sight of these animals in motion, as they go jumping about, dangling their little fore-feet before them in the most ridiculous manner possible. Mr. Cunningham, in his work on New South Wales, gives the following account of a kangaroo hunt — "From the great length of their hind-legs and tail, they are enabled to stand on the firm bottom of a pond, while the dogs are obliged to swim, and in this way a fight between a large kangaroo and a pack of dogs affords a most amusing spectacle. The kangaroo stands generally upright, with his fore-paws spread out before him, wheeling round and round to ward off his assailants; and whenever one arrives within reach, he pounces his paws upon him, and, sousing him suddenly under, holds him fast in this position, gazing all the while around with the most solemn simpleton sort of aspect, heedless of the kicking and sprawling of his victim, whom he quickly puts an end to, if some courageous colleague does not in good time advance to his aid, so as to force the kangaroo to let his half-drowned antagonist bob above water again, who, the moment he does so, paddles forthwith toward shore, shaking his ears and looking most piteously, with no inclination to venture in a second time, notwithstanding all the halloos and cheerings with which you may urge him." In this way the battle is continued for some time, without any great mischief being done on either side, till the kangaroo begins to be weary of it, when he leaps out of the water and bounds away at such a pace as renders it quite impossible for the dogs to overtake him.
The females of all the animals belonging to the Marsupialian or Kangaroo tribe are furnished with a pouch in front, in which they carry their young, and it adds to the oddity of the appearance of the female kangaroo, when she goes leaping along, to see her young ones peeping out from the little bag which she carries before her.
THE SQUIRREL TRIBE, OR GNAWERS.
The animals belonging to this tribe confine themselves to a vegetable diet, and as they are furnished with very sharp teeth, they live principally upon nuts, the bark of trees, and other similar substances. The animals included in this tribe are generally lively, and very active.
The common squirrel, with its varieties the black and the gray, are all very beautiful, and they have all the same habits of hiding their food when they have more than they can eat. The common squirrel does this sometimes in a very curious manner; and one belonging to a lady of my acquaintance, which was allowed to go loose and to climb on his mistress's shoulder, stuffed the bands of her hair so full of nuts, that at night, when her maid took the combs out of her hair before going to bed, the nuts rolled down in all directions, to the great astonishment of the poor girl, who could not imagine what her mistress had been doing to her hair.
The flying squirrel is very pretty, but, like all the other flying quadrupeds, it merely receives the name from a portion of skin growing from the fore to the hind legs, which acts as a parachute, and greatly aids it when it is in the act of leaping. It has the same habits of hiding as the common; and one that was kept by a gentleman in Staffordshire, used to steal lumps of sugar out of the sugar-basin, and hide them among the leaves of a carved cornice round the ceiling of a room. The house was old; in damp weather the sugar melted, and ran down the walls; this led to a discovery; and a great quantity of sugar that had been missed, and the theft of which had been attributed to a servant, was found in this very odd hidingplace.
FLYING SQUIRREL.
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The aye-aye, or long-fingered rat of Madagascar, is remarkable for the long slender fingers of its fore-paws, and its very curious feet, which look like human hands. The different kinds of marmots and dormice belong to this division, as also the common rats and mice; all of which are celebrated for their gnawing propensities. To the Rodentia, or gnawing animals, also belong the hamster and the chinchilla, both celebrated for their fur; the jerboa, or jumping hare of the Cape, which uses its tail almost like a kangaroo; the common hare; the rabbit; the guinea pig; the porcupine; and the beaver. Of the latter animal many curious stories have been told, particularly of the manner in which it builds its dwelling; but the observations of modern naturalists prove that these have been much exaggerated, as it does not appear that the beaver either divides his house into rooms, or uses his tail for a trowel or a sledge. It is true, however, that the beaver builds itself a house of the young branches of trees, which it gnaws through, and carrying them to the place where it wishes to build, piles them upon one another very ingeniously, fixing them in the bank of a river. A young beaver brought to England in 1832, gave a very amusing proof of his building propensities. He was quite domesticated, and suffered to wander about the house, though his favourite abode was the hearth-rug in his master's library. One day, however, he found out the housemaid's closet, and immediately went to work to build himself a house. He first seized a large sweeping brush, and dragged it along with his teeth to a room where he found the door open; he afterwards laid hold of a warming-pan in the same manner, and having laid the handles across, he filled up the walls of the angle made by them with the wall, with hand-brushes, baskets, boots, books, towels, and anything he could lay hold of. As his walls grew high, he would often sit, propped up by his tail, (with which he supported himself admirably,) to look at what he had done; and if the disposition of any of his building materials did not satisfy him, he would pull part of his work down, and lay it again more evenly. It was astonishing how well he managed to arrange the incongruous materials he had chosen, and how cleverly he contrived to remove them, sometimes carrying them between his right fore-paw and his chin, sometimes dragging them with his teeth, and sometimes pushing them along with his chin. When he had built his walls, he made himself a nest in the centre, and sat up in it, combing his hair with the nails of his hind feet.