r
daylight; she routed him up with her nose, and seemed to think because
she was stirring he ought also to be on the alert. This was rather
against his ideas on the subject, as he was apt to stay out late at the
dances in the neighbouring _guinguettes_; and he used to complain, all
the time loving her very dearly.

ANTELOPES.

The many characters which antelopes possess in common with deer, seem to
place them together; but naturalists have ranked them among those
Ruminantia who have hollow horns. They are some of the most beautiful
animals in the world, and are sub-divided into sections, which depend on
the shape of their horns, but into which classification the present work
does not enter. The exquisite Gazelle, the type of Eastern beauty, the
poet's theme, with her slight and graceful shape, her slender limbs,
and her full, dark eyes, often meets with a fate which has no poetry in
it; for she is the favourite morsel of the lion and the leopard. It
might have been thought, that they would have preferred larger and more
fleshy game, but, like true epicures, the high flavour of the gazelle is
preferred to size. The falcon is often used by men for catching them, as
even the swift greyhound cannot overtake them; they are also driven into
traps, by surrounding them, in the manner of a battle. Their skin is
used in making a peculiar sort of drum.

The pigmy antelope inhabits some parts of Africa, and, in size,
corresponds with the small deer of Ceylon. I never saw so beautiful a
little creature, appearing more like a fable than a reality. Their tiny
black horns are but slightly curved inwards, their legs are not thicker
than the quill with which I am now writing; and yet all the characters
of the antelope are strongly marked. The first I saw had been brought to
my uncle; and as I entered his room, I stood quite still at the door,
with surprise at this exquisite, tiny creature, who remained with one
leg up, ready to dart away with the speed of lightning from the
intruder, for whose approach he was listening. I feared to move, lest
the vision should disappear; but death soon made it fade away
altogether. Captain Fisher, of the Navy, tried to take a pair of these
fairy-like creatures to England; they were kept in his own cabin, he
gave them all the goat's milk which had been provided for his own use,
and took infinite pains to shelter them from cold or accident; he
succeeded in getting them as far as the Channel, whe