THE OSTRICH.The ostrich is sometimes called the "camel-bird," because it is so verylarge, because it can go a long time without water, and because it livesin desert and sandy places, as the camel does. It is often taller thanthe tallest man you ever saw, and it neck alone is more than a yard inlength.Each of the wings is a yard long when the feathe

THE PEACOCK.The peacock is first mentioned in the Bible in the time of Solomon. Heused to send his vessels to distant countries, and they came back oncein three years, "bringing gold, and silver, and ivory, and apes, andpeacocks." Solomon was the richest among all the kings that the Bibletells us about. When he first became king God spoke to him in

THE NIGHT-HAWK.I believe this is the only animal of any kind mentioned in the Bible,the name of which begins with N. It is named in the 11th chapter ofLeviticus, among other birds, such as the owl, the cuckoo and the raven,which the children of Israel were not allowed to eat.It is somewhat like the owl in its shape, and in its large, full, roundeye

THE LOCUST.The locust is called an insect, as well as the ant and the bee, butinstead of being harmless, as they usually are, it does a great deal ofinjury. It is also much larger than they; for it is generally threeinches long, and sometimes as much as four or five. The plague of thelocusts was the eighth that God sent upon the Egyptians, because

THE MOLE.I remember but two places in the Bible where this animal is mentioned.One is in Leviticus, where it is named among the unclean animals whichthe Israelites were forbidden to eat; and the other is this verse in thesecond chapter of Isaiah: "In that day a man shall cast his idols ofsilver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for h

THE LION.You have seen pictures of the lion a hundred times, I suppose, andperhaps you have seen it alive; would you not like to know what theBible says about it? You have heard it called the "king of beasts,"because it is so strong and so bold; it is afraid of no other animal,and it is strong enough to carry away a horse or a buffalo. In the 30thv

THE KITE.The kite is mentioned but once or twice in the Bible. In Leviticus, 11: 13,14, it is named among the birds which the Israelites were notallowed to use for food. "And these are they which ye shall have inabomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are anabomination; the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, and thevulture

THE LEOPARD.The leopard is a beautiful animal, though very savage and cruel. It isabout as large as the largest of our dogs, but it looks much more like acat than a dog. You have watched kittens at their play a hundred times,and you know how very quick, and pretty, and graceful all their motionsare. It is just so with the leopard; and it can creep

THE JERBOA, or MOUSE.You will not find the name of the Jerboa in the Bible; but it issupposed to be the same animal that is called a mouse in the 17th verseof the 66th chapter of Isaiah, "They that sanctify themselves, andpurify themselves in the gardens, eating swine's flesh, and theabomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the

THE HORSE.There is a fine description of a war-horse in the book of Job-a bookwhich some think to be the oldest in the world. It is in the thirty-ninth chapter. "Hast thou given the horse strength? Hast thou clothedhis neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, andr

THE IBEX, or WILD GOAT.The Ibex is a kind of goat, but different from the one described at page33. It is sometimes called the Rock Goat, or Wild Goat; and the last isthe name given it in the Bible. It resembles the common goat, but islarger, and its horns are much longer; they are sometimes considerablymore than a yard in length, beautifully curved

THE HART AND HIND.Several animals of the deer kind are mentioned in the Bible under thenames of Fallow-deer, Hart, Hind, and Roe-buck. They were all numberedamong the clean animals, or those which the Israelites were allowed toeat; as we see in Deut. 14:4, 5, "These are the beasts which ye shalleat; the ox, the sheep, the goat, the hart, the roe-bu

THE FOX, or JACKAL.It is not quite certain whether the fox mentioned in the Bible is thesame animal that we now call by that name. It probably means what wenow call the jackal. This animal is about as large as a common sizeddog, and its color is yellow, or reddish brown. It never goes out aloneto seek its food, but always in companies of forty or f

THE GOAT.There are two kinds of goat in the countries where the Bible waswritten; one very much like those that we sometimes see; the otherdiffering from it in several respects, especially in the greater lengthof its ears. It is supposed that the prophet Amos speaks of the latterkind when he says, "As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lio

THE ASS.Perhaps you may have seen the ass, though it is not very common in thiscountry. It has some resemblance to a horse, but is not as large, andgenerally seems rather sleepy and dull. In some countries, such asthose where the Bible was written, it is a fine large animal, and thepeople use it for riding. Some persons mentioned in the Bible owned

THE EAGLE.Did you ever see an eagle? There were once a great many among the rocksand mountains of our own country, but they will not stay where there aremany people; so they are seldom seen here now. They like to make theirnests in high and rocky places, where nobody can find them; as a versein the Bible says, "Though thou shouldest make thy nest o

THE DOG.There are many dogs in the countries where the Bible was written, butthe people do not like them as well as we do, and do not let them liveabout their yards and houses. So the dogs go wandering about withoutany master, and live on whatever they can find in the streets or aroundthe markets. In the fifty-ninth Psalm you will find the verse: "

THE BEE.Although the bee is so small an animal, it is very well known; and manylearned men have spent a great deal of time in observing it, and havewritten many very curious things about it. They tell us that there isin every hive a queen, larger than the rest, whom they all follow andobey; and that if she dies or is carried away, they all leave th

THE CAMEL.There are two or three varieties of the camel, but they do not differfrom each other much more than our horses, some of which, the stout andstrong, we use to draw heavy loads; others, more slender and graceful,we use for riding. The swift camel is called a Dromedary; it will carryits rider a hundred miles a day. Dromedaries are mentioned

THE BEAR.Did you ever hear children say, "He is as cross as a bear? I hope itwill never be said of you, for nobody loves a child who is selfish andunkind, or who speaks cross and angry words. The bear is certainly avery cross animal; the name that was given to it in Bible times means agrumbler or growler. It does not even like other bears, exceptin