'In some are found
Such teachable and apprehensive parts,
That man's attainments in his own concerns,
Matched with the expertness of the brutes in their's,
Are ofttimes vanquished and thrown far behind.'
Cowper.
A surgeon of Leeds, (Eng.,) says Buffon, found alittle spaniel who had been lamed. He carried the poor animal home,bandaged up his leg, and, after two or three days, turned him out.The dog returned to the surgeon's house every morning, till the legwas perfectly well. At the end of several months, the spaniel againpresented himself, in company with another dog, who had also beenlamed; and he intimated, as well as piteous and intelligent looks couldintimate, that he desired the same kind assistance to be rendered tohis friend as had been bestowed upon himself. A similar circumstance isstated to have occurred to Morant, a celebrated French surgeon.
A fox, adds the same writer, having entered a hen-house through a smallaperture, which was the only opening, succeeded without disturbingthe family in destroying all the fowls, and in satiating his appetitewith part of them; but his voracity so enlarged his dimensions as toprevent his egress. In the morning the farmer discovered the havoc ofthe night, and the perpetrator himself sprawled out on the floor of thecoop, apparently dead from surfeit. He entered, and taking the creatureby the heels, carried him out and cast him beside the house. This wasno sooner done than the fox sprang up and bounded away with the speedof a racer. This was communicated by the person.
A spaniel, Obsend informs us, having discovered a mouse in ashock of corn, jumped with his fore feet against it to frighten himout; and then running quickly to the back side, succeeded in taking themouse as he attempted to escape.
Buffon says: 'A number of beavers are employed together atthe foot of the tree in gnawing it down; and when this part of thelabor is accomplished, it becomes the business of others to sever thebranches, while a third party are engaged along the borders of theriver in cutting other trees, which though smaller than the first tree,are yet as thick as the leg, if not the thigh, of a common-sized man.These they carry with them by land to the brink of the river, and thenby water to the place allotted for their building; where sharpeningthem at one end, and forming them into stakes, they fix them in theground, at a small distance from each other, and fill up the vacantspaces with pliant branches. While some are thus employed in fixingthe stakes, others go in quest of clay, which they prepare for theirpurpose with their tails and their feet. At the top of their dyke, ormole, they form two or three openings. These they occasionally