"alio magis spectaculo lætatus. Hor"rentibus quippe per totum corpus villis, ingenti, primum latratu intonuit : "moxque increvit adfultans, contraquel belluam exfurgens hinc et illinc, carties "fici dimicatione, qua maxime) opus, effet, infeftans, atque evitans, donec "affidua rotatam vertigine adflixit, ad "cafum ejus tellure concuffa." "ALEXANDER the Great on his expedition to India received from the king of Albania a prefent of a dog of uncommon bigness. Struck with its appearance, he commanded bears, wild boars, and ftags to be turned out fucceffively before it; but the animal lay ftill in quiet contempt. The generous prince, offended at fuch want of fpirit in fo vaft a bulk, ordered the dog to be killed. The Albanian king, hearing of this, fent another, the the only one of the kind remaining, with a request that they would try him, not with inferior kinds of game, but with a lion or an elephant. Alexander complied, and beheld a lion inftantly torn to pieces. Greatly delighted with the fpectacle, he then commanded an elephant to be brought out before him. The dog, bristling up the hairs of his whole body, first thundered with a terrible barking; then flew at the elephant, and rifing to him on this and that fide, artfully at tacking and yielding by turns, made. him fo giddy with the inceffant rotation, that at length he fell, the earth fhaking at his fall." THE manner in which the fea-eagle ftrikes its p prey is described with fimilar force and elegance, and forms an 'image well adapted to poetical reprefentation. After c After speaking of the other fpecies of eagles, he fays, Supereft haliaetos, "clariffima oculorum acie, librans ex "alto fefe; vifoque in mari pifce, præceps in eum ruens, & difcuffis pectore "aquis rapiens." "The fea-eagle remains, endowed with a moft piercing fight he balances himself on high, and efpying a fifh in the fea, defcends precipitately upon it, and feizes it, dashing asunder the waves with his breaft. " The striking appearance of this rapid defcent has not escaped the notice of other naturalifts. The ofprey, a bird of the aquiline class, which takes its prey in this manner, has the expreffive name of leaden eagle, Auguista piumbina," given it by the Italians; and on the fame account the term Cata ratta racta is applied to a particular fpecies of gull. t}} fC! VARIOUS Comparisons have been framed by the poets to reprefent in a forcible and lively manner the fituation of a perfon enjoying himself in fecurity, thoughtless of fome impending danger. Gray, in his poem of the Bard, has in a very fublime and beautiful manner wrought up a common image to this purpofe. Fair laughs the morn, and foft the Zephyr blows, prey. AN + ...AN image exactly correfpondent to this, and although less fublime, equallyexpreffive and picturefque, might be copied from Pliny's account of the pigeon: This bird, he fays, appears to have sa fense of pride, exhibited not only in the oftentatious display of its colours, but in a wanton manner of figuring in its flight, and clapping its wings, which occafions3 it fometimes to entangle its feathers, and offer itself an eafy prey to its deadly foe, the hawk. Spectat occultus A "fronde latro, et gaudentem in ipfal gloria rapit." "The felon marks him, concealed among the leaves, and snatches him away in the midst of his glory." His defcription of the birds called apades, which Mr. Pennant fuppofes to be the formy petrel, is very lively, and would |