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    A bird with such an appetite had need have some power of purveying for it . When the prey is too large to he swooped upon and carried offj this is how it manages : — - . • * If it sees an old chamois or a sheep or goat grazing near a precipice , it will Vgfeirl round and round , trying to tprment and frighten the creature till it flies to ^ the edge of the cliff ; and then falling straight down upon it * not unfrequently succeeds in pushing it into tie abyss below with one stroke of its wings . Diving dorai after its liangled victim , it will begin by picking but its eyes , and then pro * - eeedto tear open arid devour the body . A lammergeier onceendeavoured in this manner to scare an ox , standing on ttie edge of a steep cleft , over the precipice He persisted obstinately in hia efforts , but thequadruped was nob to be terrified or roused from its native stupidity ; and planting itself firmly on its legs , and lowering its Lead , it quietly waited till the assailant perceived the uselessness of his attempt . The bird has not unfrequentiy practised his precipitating manoeuvre

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    MRS . FITZHERBERT . Memoirs of Mrs . Fitzhetbert , with an Account ofher Man-iage with the Prince of Wales aftet wards King George tJte Fourth . By the Hon . Charles Langdale . Bentley . The Hon . Charles Langdale ought to be satisfied . Without obtaining from the strong room of Messrs . Coutts ' s Bank the documents there preserved ; he has nearly completed the story of Mrs . Fitzherbert . His memoirs , therefore , must be consulted by all future biographers of George the Fourth . But the character of the lady is left exactly asit was ; and if a touch is added to that of the King , it is a touch of the branding-iron , Mrs . Fitzherbert never was compared to Emma Hamilton , and never will be compared to Rachel Knssell . She was a cunning , clever woman , with much ambition , and without much

    sensibility , who , surrounded by wary counsellors , acted upon calculation , and , on her way to fame and power , trod underfoot some things that women are supposed to prize . She had mo heart , but adored respectability , and would not stand , even towards the heir of the throne , in an unrecognisable relation . If all this had not been long notorious , the Hon . Charles Langdale supplies a supplement of very convincing testimony . As we have said , it alters nothing ; it only strengthens the view already accepted by history . What is here disclosed of the King exhibits him as a vulgar , weak-witted egotist , destitute of scruples , manners , and virtues , a prevaricator , a bigamist , and ahy pocrite , to his own family at once a tyrant and a coward , and to the world at once insolent and deceitful . This was " the man whom Mrs . Fitzherbtrfc

    loved , and whom she wooed -with adroit , retiring arts , always flying from his pursuit , yet never concealing herself in inaccessible obscurity . No , Mary Anne Smythe , who had been twice married when she became the " sweet lass of Richmond Hill , " » had learned much from her double widowhood . Too wise , perhaps too scrupulous , to become the mistress of the Prince of Wales , she was too ambitious to shrink from an equivocal connection , continued long after , in the face of the public , he had been married to Caroline and Caroline ' s

    successor . The editor of this memoir has undertaken , not very judiciously , to vindicate the lady ' s fame . In as far as he is successful , his task was unnecessary ; in as far as her reputation was ambiguous , liis plea has been unsuccessful . It had not been left for him to prove that Mrs . Fitzherbert declined to live with the Prince of Wales unless as his wife ; but it was not in his power to prove more . To assert a Roman purity for the lady who reconciled herself to the conditions of King George ' s polygamy , may be very amiable on the part of a kinsman , but is not very judicious on the part of an advocate . Mrs . Fitzherbert is acquitted . That must suffice . She does not leave the Court without a stain on her womanly character . Mr . Langdale , however , was tempted to put in his affidavit by a loose statement in Lord Holland's memoirs , by " a misunderstood paragraph in Dr . Doran ' s lives of the Hanover queens , and by certain Quarterly criticisms , He indulges in some satirical insinuations against

    the courtly injustico of suppressing evidence that would compromise the name of George the Fourth , though it is necessary to establish the character of George the Fourth ' s first wife . But Mr . Langdale himself strikes obliquely and maliciousl y at higher names—at the name of Charles James Fox > for example , to whom ho imputes , without reserve , the habit of public profligacy , and , by implications , the statement of a falsehood to the House of Commons . Surely the ambiguous allusion was unnecessary . If the Prince of Wales behaved to Mrs . Fitzhorbcrt as a hypocrite and a poltroon , it was not the first or the last time that he exposed bis t . otnl want of manly qualities . There is no doubt that ho commissioned Fox to deny hia marriage to the House of Commons ; that he denied it himself , and aftcrwnrda " owned " it in a fit of cowardly dejection . The plain story is tliia : Mary Anno Smythe , boxn exactly a hundred years ago , was beautiful and fascinating , and married , first Edward Weld , of Lulworth Castle ; second , Thomas Fitzherbert , of Surimerton . After these marriages she wus loft

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    the low countries from dangerous inundations . On the other hand , it withers the apple blossom , and destroys the promise of fruib . If the north or wesfc wind follow quickly upon the Fon , they precipitate the evaporation in violent showers of rain . But sometimes in the Higher Alps , more particularly during the autumn and eariv spring ; this wind will blow gently for weeks together , accompanied by the most beautiful weather , whilst in the valloy there is either no prevailing wiqd , or a slight breeze from the north . Hence the curious fact , that sometimes zn December or January some spot lying high ia the mountain will be found green and fertile , blossoming with spring gentians and inhabited by gnats and lizards ; while down in the valley the pino branches groan under the weight of snow , and the stream is encrusted with ice . He is great on the glaciers , the streams and avalanches , and tells us the novel and inexplicable fact , that men bur ied in the avalanche snow hear distinctly every word uttered by those who are seeking for them , while their own most strenuous shouts fail to penetrate even a few feet of the snow !

    The chapter on the Lamrnergeier , or Alpine Vulture , is very striking ; and in it the naturalists who love to expatiate on the " evidences of design , " will learn with some disgust that , although the beak is so admirably ' contrived' for tearing flesh , it grows so long in old age as " to hinder the animal from eating z" thus , if a hunter ' s bullet fails to terminate the robber ' s existence , Nature kindly undertakes the office by gradual starvation : for , the vulture is not a bird to live on air ; he requires substantial food : — The contents of the stomachs of lammer-geiers -which have been opened after death have created no little astonishment , and stippasB all that has ever been

    related of the voracity and digestive powers of similar European birds of prey . One contained five bullockB * ribsj two inches thick and from six to nine long , a lump of hah * , and the leg of a young ; goat from the knee to the foot . The bones ¦ were perforated by the gastric juice , and partly reduced to powder . But the ¦ most abundant feast was found in the stomach of a lammergeier killed by Dr Schinz , which contained the large hip-bone of a cow , the skin and fore-quarters oi a chamois , many smaller hones , some hair , and a heathcock ' s claws . It waa evident that the bird had pursued and devoured these animals one after the ¦ other .

    out the year . Here at the beginning of May , the female gives birth to fro-u fi . v « to nine blind cubs which she nurses and tends carefully . After the lapse of < Lme weeks she leads out the pretty little yellow creatures , sports with them , brings th ? birds , lizards , and other small prey , and instructs them ia the art of oatS tormenting , and * devouring other animals . When they have reached the size of * half-grown cat , they he in fine weather before the entrance of their home mom ing and evening , waiting the return of fcheir parents . An observer seldom sup ceerls in discovering thej young family , as the mother h extremely watchful am ? on hearing the slightest rustle will retreat , her cubs in her mouth , to th « IioIp In July the young foxes , full of hope , venture alone upon the chase , and atbreS of day try to surprise a hare or squirrel , or to allure a young heathcock or tf they can find nothing better , a quail or golden-crested wren , or even a mouse into their hole , while the smallest among them will content itself with a worm or a cricket . They already imitate their parents , busily scenting with their loupomted snouts the tracks on the ground , their delicate ears erect , their small green , squinting eye ? eagerly examining the landscape , and fcheir soft woolly brush lightly moving as they step softly along . The young ones leave the parental home for good in the autumn , and live alone in their respective holes , till iu the spring they look out for a companion for life . '

    Reinecke has a liberal appetite ; no animal , dead or living , comes amiss 1 he prickly coat of the hedgehog is safe against his teeth , but not against his cunning ; he torments and pulls the poor creature about so lon <* that at ast it unrols itself and surrenders . If Reinecke has his leg caught in a trap he bites it off , and runs away quite unconcerned ; and after very severe wounds he recovers ; indeed a single shot seldom kills him . Yet in spite of this tenacity of life , a smart blow on the nose kills him at once . Js not this singular ? Indeed the variety in tenacity of life among animals is quite surprising : a slight wound kills a hare , an ibex , or a deer , but chamois , foxes , wolves , cats , and squirrels will bear very severe wounds . We close our notice of this delightful book by an amusing anecdote of the Fox ' s cunning : — A physician had a fox which he allowed to run about at liberty all day , and which never hurt a creature . It would run out into the woods and come back

    voluntarily ; to be chained up at night . Remarking once that its collar was too wide , it slipped its neck out of it , patrolled about the neighbouring yards , by night , and stole the poultry , returning always before daylight , and creeping back into its collar . It pursued this course with impunity for a long time , and , as it was always found in the morning chained up and harmless , no one suspected it , till at last somebody watched it , and discovered its tricks .

    upon huntsman whom it has discovered standing in hazardous positions on jutting points or ledges of rocks . . Those who have been fchua surprised have declared that the noise , together with the strength and rapid motion of the enormous wings have exerted a certain magical and almost irresistible influence over them . Lovers of thrilling stories will thank us for quoting this : — Equally ^ frightful was the situation of a Sardinian who attempted to rifle a lamniergeier ' s nest in the mountains of Eglesias . He was accompanied Toy his two - 'brothers , who let him . down by a rope ; a common practice in places where the perpendicular nature of the rook , does not allow of clamber ing down its face .

    Suspended aver the tremendous abyss , b . e had taken four young vultures oat of the nest , when the parents fell upon him simultaneously , like furies . He kept them off by his sabi-e , which he swung incessantly over bis head , when suddenly the rope began to shake violently ; he looked up , and to his ' horror discovered that in the beat of defending himself he had cut through three-fourths of its thickness . The remaining ; threads might snap at any momeut , and the slightest movement oa his part might precipitate him inbo the depths below . Slowly and carefully his companions drew him up , and he -was safe . His hair , which waa raven , black ( his age was about twenty-two ) , had turned white , it was said , in that half-hour .

    The chapter on Chamois and Chamois-hunting , though interesting , is less novel ; we pass on , therefore , to the Lynx , of whom it is said : — Having sprung upon a beast it endeavours to tear it down ; hut , if unsuccessful , allows it to escape with perfect indifference , and returns to its 1 > ranok without betraying a sign of vesation . It is not voracious ; but it is sometimes rendered incautious by its love of fresh blood . If it has secured no prey during the day , it will wander at night to an immense distance , perhaps over three or four mountains ; hunger giving it courage and sharpening its senses . On meeting with a flock of sheep or goats grazing , it immediately glides like a snake on its belly , seizes a favourable opportunity to spring upon the back of a victim , and kills it instantaneously by biting an artery in the neck . It is satisfied with devouring the intestines and part of the head , neck , and shoulders ; and its peculiar method of destroying its prey enables the shepherd at once to identify the delinquent by whom his flock has been visited . * * * * When a trace of some sanguinary deed is discovered , the criminal is generally far away from tho spot where it was perpetrated , and if rsued ifc into distant

    pu escapes regions . If , however , the sportsman succeeds iu surprising it on the &pofe , it makes no effort to escape , and is easily shot . Like the wild oat , it remains lying quietly oix its tree , and staring at its antagonist . An unarmed huntsman can deceive it by sticking up a few articles of clotting before it while he returns to fetch his gun . The lynx continues gazing fixedly at the clothes till the weapon is ready and tho shot fired . Yon Tscbudi indulges too much in the hypothetical so familiar to naturalists ¦ wnci * he says that the Lynx is restrained from , attacking domestic animals ¦ SJ ^ . ^ J ?* ' discovery . " The intelligence of beasta we willingly admit ; ¦ Wr ' i ^ ty ^ . forethought and knowledge as is implied to nn animal abstaining « wn , ajMiTtaih prey from fear of discovery we must not bo asked to believe . MwrJaraiHar friend the "Fax has a very good biography in these pages . His m ^* " { fe * actei : * nd 9 ed . has never stood very high ; but Reinecke is one of the ttWcealJip , scoundrels . Ho dislikes forming a retreat for himself , for he disuOS %$ *** " ?** ^ » » «* he generally contrives to dispossess the industrious ^ 'S > ° H < irlRCal bad 8 OT of hia garters . See him at homo ;—fbSrf w ™ SiS ^ I / W ' < ho dwentaS 8 of our mountain foxoavery artistically ' eZnfMl %£ iffi ^ S * " COtt £ Bt of on * P oari ty > with two or throe entrances connected with Oftoh ^ tbor . < Tho onimola uB ^ lljr inhabit these quartern through-

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    304 THE LEADER . r Na 3 l 4 ^ Satu

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 304, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2134/page/16/