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8 almost miraculous wore they not so familiar. The dog, doubtless the original denizen of European and Asiatic forests, has lost all trace of his original freedom, and appeals to man for his daily bread in exchange for his services and faithful companionship. His size, his figure, his clothing, his very senses are so altered and so varied, that it has become a matter of scientific enquiry to ascertain his original condition. In Australia, where it is said he was once unknown, he has shaken off his allegiance to man, and is distinguished by habits of rapine and savage freedom, though with an inferiority of size and figure. Again, in America, where but lately he made his first appearance as a slave and a stranger, the noble horse now ranges over boundless plains in a state of the most controlless liberty, while in the temperate regions of the old world, whence he came, he is scarcely known but as a slave and a captive. In the days of Plutarch bears were exported from Britain for the amusement of the Romans; at the present day Britons import them for a similar purpose. In the reign of Edward the First wolves were sufficiently numerous to justify the appointment of a royal commission for their destruction; and at a somewhat more remote date houses were erected by the way- side as places of refuge against their attack. The pig, now only known here as the tenant of the sty, once ranged our woods at large under the special protection of royalty, too noble a game to be slaughtered by any other than regal hands; and the poor commoner who dared to transgress, paid by the loss of his sight for so gross an infringement on the prerogative of monarchs. In North America the buffalo and native Indian are retreating daily before the face of the white man; and the time seems fast approaching when the existence of both will be a matter of history. Birds are less subject to these changes; their powers of coming and going are less limited; and few that have once inhabited a country have ever been known entirely to abandon it. Of these few the common stork is a striking example. It was formerly abundant here, and is now equally so in the towns of Holland, under the same latitude and climate, and equally densely peopled with our own country. The capercailzie, formerly an inhabitant of Scotland, and still abundant in the pine forests of Norway, has once become entirely extinct in the former country; yet on being again introduced has readily taken to its former haunts, and bids fair once more to be reckoned among our feræ naturâ.

Now in enumerating the animal productions of a country, it is necessary maturely to consider the claim of each to be admitted into the list. In Great Britain, geologists have discovered abundant traces