Thought I'd share this with you guys http://books.google.ca/books?id=Xls...nd+its+curiosities.&lr=&as_brr=1&rview=1&cd=1
I love the description of all Leopards being male and all Panthers being female. What an odd thought that seems now, yet entirely sensible when you think of various other species that are divided in this way. The description of the panther being fed the dead child is pretty shocking though, who would do that? It's interesting that the writer doesn't seem to know what some of the animals are, would this be his own lack of knowledge? Or did the collection simply not know? The last line of the section is strange to modern ears too, berating the keepers for feeding them so well that the bear and lion refused to fight! Thank you for posting that, very interesting reading.
Oh great fun! And I love seeing all the old style "s" as "f" Makes me think of that episode of Vicar of Dibley where Alice has to do a public reading from a Bible printed that way and comes to the word "succor" The story about the ostrich at the Dutch zoo, sadly shows that zoo visitors haven't changed much in 225 years
