Animal Lore in English Literature. London, John Murray 1932. With 10 illustr. on 8 plates in collotype [incl. frontispiece] and 11 line reproductions in the text. IX, 196 S., 1 Bl. OLwd.
First edition. - Contents: The sources - and uses - of animal lore (popular traditions, allegories, animal characteristics). The birth and death of animals (breeding of scorpions and eels, birth of bears, generation of vipers, propagation of the phœnix). Animals as types of character (treachery of the hyena, sweet breath of the panther, crocodiles’ tears as hypocritical grief, the lapwing as a forward fellow, leading apes in hell, inconstancy of the chameleon, the polype and the filial devotion of the stork, the phœnix and the turtle, the pelican and her young). Some fabulous animals (dragon, virgin and unicorn, sea-unicorn, mantichoras and centaurs, catoblepas or gnu, the terrible reputation of the basilisk). Other mammalia and a few insects (lion, wolf, porcupine, spiders and their poison, moth, scorpion). Marine creatures (sea-monsters, whale and grampus, dolphins as harbingers of bad weather, sea-hare, the bewitching power of the ray). Some reptiles (fire and the salamander, jaws of the crocodile, power of snakes and serpents, the hydrus and the horned snake). Birds of the air (birds of paradise, starvation of the eagle, the hatching of ostrich eggs, the crane and the bee, the peacock’s feet). Appendix. Index. - Einband gering bestoßen und leicht fleckig, Innendeckel mit Exlibris, Vorsätze etwas stockfleckig, sonst sauber.
