the flesh of hares in detestation, esteeming it impure: that of the variable hare, in its white state, is excessively insipid.

THE AMERICAN HARE.

These have their ears tipt with grey; the upper part of the tail black, the lower white: the neck and body mixed with ash, rust colour, and black. Their legs are of a pale ferruginous colour; their belly white. Their fore-legs are shorter, and their hind ones longer in proportion than those of the common hare. They measure eighteen inches in length, and weigh from three to four pounds and a half. They inhabit all parts of North America. In New Jersey, and the colonies to the south of that province, they retain their colour during the whole year. But to the northward, on the approach of winter, they change their short summer fur for one very long, silky and silvery, even to the roots, the edges of the ears only preserving their colour. At that time, it is in the highest season for the table, and is of vast use to those who winter in Hudson's Bay, where they are taken in vast abundance, in springs made of brass wire, placed in hedges, constructed on purpose, with

holes before the snares for the hares or rabbits to pass through.

They breed once or twice a-year, and have from five to seven at a time. They do not migrate, like the preceding, but always haunt the same places. They do not burrow, but lodge under fallen timber, and in hollow trees. They breed in the grass; but, in the spring, shelter their young ones in hollow trees, to which they also run when pursued. The hunters force them out of those retreats, by means of a hooked stick, or by making a fire, and driving them out by the smoke.

ACCOUNT OF Mr. ANDREWS,

THE CELEBRATED BILLIARD PLAYER, AND S. BISSETT, FAMOUS FOR TEACHING DOCILITY TO DUMB ANIMALS.

Extracted from an Ingenious and Entertaining Work, just published, Entitled" ECCENTRIC BIOGRAPHY."

R. Andrews was born to an easy indepeudent

M fortune, but commencing life at a time that

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he was incapable of judging of the world, or of himself, was led away by a single passion; for he was not actuated by any other. He devoted himself entirely to the blind goddess, and worshipped her incessantly under the form of two ivory balls. He was remarkably thin, not very tall, though above the middle size: his face was a perfect vacuum, with respect to every possible idea except billiards. So infatuated was he in pursuing this game, to attain the summit of excellence at it, that he sacrificed days, nights, weeks, months, and years to it.

At length he arrived to such a degree of perfection, as well in the theoretical, as the practical part of the game, that there was no player in Europe could equal him, except one, who was the celebrated Abraham Carter, who kept the tables at the corner of the Piazzas, Russel-street, Covent-Garden. Mr. Andrews was the most devoted adept of this game that ever nature produced; he seemed but to vegetate in a billiard-room, and indeed he did little more in any other place. He was a perfect billiard valetudinarian, iu the most rigid signification of the expression. He ate, drank, slept, walked, nay, talked but to promote the system of the balls. His regimen was tea, and toast and butter, for breakfast, for dinner, and for supper.

It might reasonably be imagined, that so regular a professor would obtain all the advantages that could result from the science. He won considerable sums, but knew not the value of money; and when playing for only five or ten pounds, he took no pains but seemed perfectly indifferent about winning or losing. There was a latent finesse in this, but it did not operate to his advantage: he was laying by for bets, but as they were seldom offered, the ftrength of his play being very well known, he often lost, by repeated small sums, very considerable ones.

It is generally believed, however, that he has played for more money at billiards, than any other person ever did. The following is a remarkable circumstance: he one night won of Colonel W--e upwards of 1000l. and the colonel appointed to meet him the next day, to go with him into the city, to tranfer stock to him to the amount of the sum lost. Being in a hackney-coach, they tossed up who should pay. Andrews lost, and upon this small beginning he was excited to continue, till he had lost the whole sum he won the night before at billiards. When the coachman stopped to set down, he was ordered to get np again, and drive them back, as they had no occasion to get out.

By these pursuits he lost very large sums which he had won at billiards; and, in a few years, hazard, and other games at chance, stripped him of every shilling he could command. He had still left a small annuity, which he endeavoured to dispose of, but it was so securely settled upon himself that he could not sell it; otherwise it is probable that it would have been transferred' to the gaming-table. He very lately lived in a retired manner in Kent, where he declared to an intimate old acquaintance that he never knew contentment while he was roll

ing in money; but since he was obliged to live upon a scanty pittance, he thought himself one of the happiest men in the universe. It is now generally believed that he is dead.

S. BISSET, remarkable for his patience and eccentricity in teaching docility to the dumb creation, was born at Perth, in Scotland, about the year 1721. He was bred a shoe-maker, and had the reputation of being an excellent hand at what is called woman's work. He afterwards went to London, where he married a woman who brought him some property, turned broker, and continued to accumulate money till the notion of teaching the quadruped kid attracted his attention in the year 1739.-Reading an account of a remarkable horse shewn at the fair of St. Germains, curiosity led him to try his hand on a horse and dog, which he bought in London, and he succeeded beyond all expectation. Two monkies were the next pupils he exercised his art upon, one of which he taught to dance and tumble on the rope, and the other played a barrel-organ. He also taught these anticanimals to perform several other curious tricks, such as drinking to the company, going through several regular dances with the dog, &c. Three young cats were the next objects of his tuition. He instructed those domestic tygers to strike their paws in such directions on the dulcimer as to produce several regular tunes, having music books before them, and squalling at the same time in different keys or tones, first, second, and third, by way of concert, These performances exciting general curiosity, his house was every day crouded, and his business much interrupted. Being advised to make a public exhibition of his animals, he readily assented to the proposal; and the well known

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Cat's Opera was advertised to be represented in the Haymarket, where a horse, a dog, the monkeys, and the cats, went through their several parts with uncommon applause, to crouded houses; and in a few days Bisset found himself a gainer of almost a thousand pounds, as a reward for his ingenuity. This success created a desire of extending his dominion over other animals. He procured a leveret, and taught it to beat several marches on a drum on its hind-legs, till it became a full grown hare. He taught canary birds, linnets, and sparrows, to spell the name of any person in company, to distinguish the hour and minute of time, and play many other surprising feats. He trained six turkeycocks to go through a regular dance; but, to accomplish this, he acknowledged to have adopted the eastern method by which camels are made to dance, by heating the floor. In the course of six months teaching, he enabled a turkey to fetch and carry like a dog; and having chalked the floor, and blackened its claws, could direct it to trace out any given name of the company. At length, not meeting with the encouragement he had for some years received, he found himself constrained to make an itinerant exhibition of part of his group, and to sell the rest. After fhewing his animals in the city of London, to the great astonishment of thousands, in 1775 he took the north-west circuit of the kingdom, and afterwards went to Belfast, where he established himself in a public-house, resolving in future to deal only with the rational part of animated nature. But the habits and the amusements of life cannot be all at once abandoned. He trained a dog and cat to perform many amazing exploits. A doubt being started to him, whether the obsti→ nacy of a pig could be conquered, his usual patient fortitude was exercised to try the experiment. Vol. 14. No. 57.

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