receive the royal assent. It has not, however, been of a kind that needed any action on the part of your Committee.
In view of any proceedings which may be taken in the session of 1879 in regard to the recommendations of the Scottish Herring Fishery Commissioners already recited, as well as on general grounds, your Committee respectfully urges its reappointment.
THE MAMMALS OF SHAKSPEARE.
By Henry Reeks, F.L.S., F.Z.S.
(Concluded from p. 249.)The Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros .
Once only does Shakspeare mention the Rhinoceros, and then apparently only for the purpose of illustrating a most formidable opponent, for Macbeth, speaking to the ghost of Banquo, exclaims —
"What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble."
Macbeth. Act iii., Scene 4.
The Wild Boar, Sus scrofa.
Until the extinction of the wild boar in Britain, probably during the seventeenth century, boar-hunting was considered royal sport. From the spirited descriptions given by Shakspeare (who mentions the wild boar upwards of thirty times), it would appear that the poet had himself joined in the chase: —
"'Thou hadst been gone,' quoth she, 'sweet boy, 'ere this,
But that thou told'st roe thou would'st hunt the boar.
O be advis'd; thou know'st not what it is
With javelin's point a churlish swine to gore,
Whose tushes never sheathed he whetteth still,
Like to a mortal butcher bent to kill.'"
Venus and Adonis. Stanza 103.
The flesh of wild boars was considered a great delicacy, and, from the difficulty of procuring it, an expensive dish. Can we
