Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/240

232 is more in accordance with the Bestiary than is Drayton's, but Lyly is with the latter in speaking of "a sweet panther with a devouring pouch," and they both follow Pliny. Spenser pens more scandal:—

If we remain standing by the door of Noah's Ark we shall see other animals approach and hear instructive comments:—

the pachyderm that has in these latter days usurped the name of the graceful creature which, since the time of James the First, has so well performed its part in supporting the royal arms of Great Britain and Ireland. Drayton was too much of a poet and too little of a naturalist to combine the two. He should have spoken of the cat that secreteth, not of "the cat that voideth civet"; and when he lets slip the expression, "th'uneven legged badger," we can only tell him that Dr. Browne finds the opinion that this creature "hath the legs of one side shorter than of the other repugnant unto the three determinators of truth—authority, sense, and reason," and that modern zoologists do not note an inequality. Here comes "the iron-eating ostrich," here "the constant turtle," whose reputation has survived the ruthless scoff of Waterton: "The soot-black crow is just as