_Balearick_ Cranes, and Partridges; yea, my House is so full of them, that, if a Painter were to draw it, he may take from thence the Copy of _Noah_’s Ark. Besides the Delight that I and my Family take in these Creatures, to counterpoise our long Absence from our own Country, I got also this Advantage by them, that now I know, by Experience, what I could hardly believe when I read it in Books. You know a great many Books are full of strange Stories, what ardent Love some wild Beasts have to Mankind: I could never give Credit to such Relations, but looked upon them as Romances, till I saw with my Eyes, a Lynx, which I got out of _Assyria_, so passionately affected towards one of my Servants, though known to him but a little while before, that for my part I could not think but she was in Love with him: For, whenever he was present, she would mightily fawn upon him, and in a manner embrace him, and almost kiss him. Whenever she was about to go away from him, she would gently lay her Claws on his Cloaths, as labouring to retain him; and, when he was gone, she would eye him; and whensoever he was in Sight, would hardly ever remove her Eye from that Quarter. During the Time of his Absence, she was very sad, but upon his Return she would skip and be jocund; she could not endure he should be at any Time absent; for one Time, when he went with me beyond Sea, to the _Turkish_ Camp, the Lynx pined away by degrees, would not eat a bit, but at length died. I was troubled for his Loss, for I had designed him, with another choice Ichneumon (which I had) as a Present for my Master _Cæsar_; and the rather, because of the exceeding Beauty of his Skin, which made him look quite different from other Lynxes: The best of the kind are bred in _Assyria_, from whence this came, and their Skins are sold here for fifteen or sixteen Crowns of Gold apiece. I question not, but these were the _Babilonian_ Pells or Skins, so much famed and valued amongst the Ancients, of which mention is made in Law-Books; in the Title of _Publicans_.