Volume 3

The Percy anecdotes / collected and edited by Reuben and Sholto Percy [pseud.].

Date:
pref. 1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Percy anecdotes / collected and edited by Reuben and Sholto Percy [pseud.]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    M3 him. He gave bint a good supper, and on retiring to bed, took him with him to his chamber. No sooner had he pulled off his breeches, than they were seized by the dog ; the owner, conceiving that he wanted to play with them, took them away again. The ani- mal began to bark at the door, which the traveller opened, under the idea that the dog wanted to go out. Caniche snatched up the breeches and away he flew. The traveller posted after him with his nightcap on, and literally sans culottes. Anxiety for the fate of a purse full of gold Napoleons, of forty francs each, which was in one of the pockets, gave redoubled velocity to his steps. Caniche ran full speed to his master’s house, where the stranger arrived a moment afterwards, breath- less and enraged. He accused the dog of robbing him. ‘ Sir,’ said the master, ‘ my dog is a very faithful creature ; and if he has run away with your breeches, it is because you have in them money which does not belong to you.’ The traveller became still more exas- perated. ‘Compose yourself, sir,’ rejoined the other, smiling, ‘ without doubt there is in your purse a six livre piece, with such and such marks, which you have picked up in the Boulevard St. Antoine, and which I threw down there with the firm conviction that my dog would bring it back again. This is the cause of the robbery which he has committed upon you.’ The stranger’s rage now yielded to astonishment; he delivered the six livre piece to the owner, and could not forbear caressing the dog which had given him so much uneasiness, and such an unpleasant chase. Minstrel’s Bark. Seals have a very delicate sense of hear- ing, and are much delighted with music. The fact was not unknown to the ancient poets, and is thus alluded to by Walter Scott: ‘ Rude Heiskar’s seals, through surges dark, Will long pursue the minstrel's bark.’ ‘ Mr. John Laing, in his account of a voyage to Spitzbcrgen, mentions, that the captain of the ship’s son, who was fond of playing on the violin, never failed to have a numerous audi- tory when in the seas frequented by these animals ; and Mr. L. has seen them follow the ship for miles when any person was playing on deck. Feeding the Orphan. In June, 1816, some young gentlemen dis- appointed in duck shooting, fired a few rounds for their amusement at a flock of swallows, and unfortunately brought some of the parent swallows to the ground, and among the rest, both parents of a young brood of five, whose nest was in the corner of one of the windows of Mr. Gavin Inglis’s house, at Strathendry. Conceiving the young would perish from hunger, Mr. I. resolved to take them into the house, and try to bring them up under1 the care of his children, who had undertaken to catch flies for them. This humane intcr)xjsi. tion was however found unnecessary; the news of the calamity had spread over the colony and a collection of parent-swallows had assem- bled. The state of the nest and the young was taken under review, and arrangement! were immediately gone into for the protee. tion and support of the helpless orphans. \ supply of provisions was brought them be. fore leaving them for the night; and next day, and every day for some time after, tht benevolent office of feeding them was carried i on with so much parental care by the older swallows in succession, that the orphan group, were as regularly fed, and as soon fledged arid on the wing, as the young of any nest In the whole colony. A Sly Couple. A gentleman in the county' of Stirling kept a greyhound and a pointer, and being fond of coursing, the pointer was accustomed to find the hares, and the greyhound to catch them When the season was over, it was found that the dogs were in the habit of going out by themselves, and killing hares for their pH amusement. To prevent this, a large trot ring was fastened to the pointer’s neck by a leather collar, and hung down so as to pa- vent the dog from running, or jumping otjf dikes, &c. The animals, however, continued to stroll out to the fields together; and one day the gentleman suspecting that all vajt not right, resolved to watch them, and to hk surprise, found that the moment when they thought that they were unobserved, the grey- hound took up the iron ring in his mouth, an carrying it, they set off to the hills, and begas to search for hares as usual. They werefd- lowed, and it was observed, that whenever the pointer scented the hare, the ring was dropped, and the greyhound stood ready*] pounce upon poor puss the moment the other i drove her from her form, but that he urc- formly returned to assist his companion afts he had caught his prey. The Indicator. The Hottentots in Southern Africa art remarkable for their skill in observing tht bees, as they fly to their nests, but they haw still a much better guide than their own acute- ness, on which they invariably rely. This is a small brownish bird, nothing remarkable o its appearance, of the cuckoo genus, to which naturalists have given the specific name of th' Indicator, from its pointing out and discover- r ’ • • J ' the |t ing, by a chirping and whistling noise, nests of bees ; it is called by the farmers the b honey-bird. In the conduct of this little animal there a something that looks very like what philoso- y pliers have been pleased to deny the brute Sy creation. Having observed a nest of honey, ft it flies in search of some human creature, tWs I