The Project Gutenberg EBook of Heads and Tales, by Various

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Title: Heads and Tales
or, Anecdotes and Stories of Quadrupeds and Other Beasts,
Chiefly Connected with Incidents in the Histories of More
or Less Distinguished Men.

Author: Various

Editor: Adam White

Release Date: June 28, 2008 [EBook #25918]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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HEADS AND TALES.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

[Illustration: The Tasmanian Wolf. (_Thylacinus Cynocephalus._)]

HEADS AND TALES;

OR,

ANECDOTES AND STORIES OF QUADRUPEDS
AND OTHER BEASTS,

CHIEFLY CONNECTED WITH INCIDENTS IN THE
HISTORIES OF MORE OR LESS DISTINGUISHED MEN.

COMPILED AND SELECTED BY

ADAM WHITE,
LATE ASSISTANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, BRITISH MUSEUM.

Second Edition.

LONDON:
JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.
MDCCCLXX.

PREFACE.

In this work, a part of which is, so far as it extends, a careful
compilation from an extensive series of books, the great order mammalia,
or, rather, a few of its subjects, is treated anecdotically. The
connexion of certain animals with man, and the readiness with which man
can subdue even the largest of the mammalia, are very curious subjects
of thought. The dog and horse are our special friends and associates;
they seem to understand us, and we get very much attached to them. The
cat or the cow, again, possess a different degree of attachment, and
have "heads and hearts" less susceptible of this education than the
first mentioned. The anecdotes in this book will clearly show facts of
this nature. In the Letter of the Gorilla, under an appearance of
exaggeration, will be found many facts of its history. We have a strong
belief that natural history, written as White of Selborne did his Letter
of Timothy the Tortoi