[Illustration: KING PENGUINS.] ECCENTRICITIES OF THE ANIMAL CREATION. BY JOHN TIMBS. AUTHOR OF "THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN." WITH EIGHT ENGRAVINGS. SEELEY, JACKSON, AND HALLIDAY, 54, FLEET-STREET. LONDON. MDCCCLXIX. _The right of translation is reserved._ CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY.--CURIOSITIES OF ZOOLOGY. Natural History in Scripture, and Egyptian Records, 11.--Origin of Zoological Gardens, 12.--The Greeks and Romans, 12.--Montezuma's Zoological Gardens, 13.--Menagerie in the Tower of London, 14.--Menagerie in St. James's Park, 14.--John Evelyn's Notes, 15.--Ornithological Society, 15.--Continental Gardens, 16.--Zoological Society of London instituted, 16; its most remarkable Animals, 16.--Cost of Wild Animals, 18.--Sale of Animals, 20.--Surrey Zoological Gardens, 20.--Wild-beast Shows, 21. THE RHINOCEROS IN ENGLAND. Ancient History, 22, 23.--One-horned and Two-horned, 25, 26.--Tractability, 25.--Bruce and Sparmann, 27.--African Rhinoceros in 1868, 27.--Description of, 29.--Burchell's Rhinoceros, 30.--Horn of the Rhinoceros, 31, 32. STORIES OF MERMAIDS. Sirens of the Ancients, 33.--Classic Pictures of Mermaids, 34.--Leyden's Ballad, 35.--Ancient Evidence, 36, 37, 38.--Mermaid in the West Indies, 39.--Mermaids, Seals, and Dugongs, 41.--Mermaids and Manatee, 42.--Test for a Mermaid, 43.--Mermaid of 1822, 43.--Japanese Mermaids, 44.--Recent Evidence, 47, 48. IS THE UNICORN FABULOUS? Ctesias and Wild Asses, 65.--Aristotle, Herodotus, and Pliny, 50.--Modern Unicorns, 50.--Ancient Evidence, 51.--Hunting the Unicorn, 52.--Antelopes, 53, 54.--Cuvier and the Oryx, 54.--Tibetan Animal, 55.--Klaproth's Evidence, 55.--Rev. John Campbell's Evidence, 57.--Baikie on, 58.--Factitious Horns in Museums, 59.--Unicorn in the Royal Arms, 60.--Catching the Unicorn, 60.--Belief in Unicorns, 61. THE MOLE AT HOME. Economy of the Mole, 62.--Its Structure, 63.--Fairy Rings; Feeling of the Mole, 64.--Le Court's Experiments, 62, 65.--Hunting-grounds, 67.--Loves of the Moles, 68, 69.--Persecution of Moles.--Shrew Mole, 70.--Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, on Moles, 71. THE GREAT ANT-BEAR. The Ant-Bear of 1853, 72, 73.--Mr. Wallace, on the Amazon, describes the Ant-Bear, 73.--Food of the Ant-Bear, 74.--His Resorts, 75.--Habits in Captivity, by Professor Owen, 76-80.--Fossil Ant-Bear, 80, 81.--Tamandua Ant-Bear, 82--Von Sack's Ant-Bear, 83.--Porcupine Ant-Eater, 84.--Ant-Bears in the Zoological Gardens, 84. CURIOSITIES OF BATS.