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behind, eating its neck, and digging its passage to the great Llood-vessels that lie in that part. Travellers who wander through those deserts, often see pieces of the glutton's skin sticking to the trees, against which it was rubbed by the deer. But the animal's voracity is greater than its feelings, and it never seizes without bringing down its prey. When, therefore, the deer, wounded, and feeble with the loss of blood, falls, the glutton is seen to make up for its former abstinence, by its present voracity. As it is not possessed of a feast of this kind every day, it resolves to lay in a store to serve it for a good while to come. It is, indeed, amazing how much one of these animals can eat at a time! That which was seen by Klein, although without exercise or air, although taken from its native limate, and enjoying but an indifferent state of health, was yet seen to eat thirteen pounds of flesh every day, and yet remained unsatisfied. We may, therefore, easily conceive how much more it must devour at once, after a long fast, of a food of its own procuring, and in the climate most natural to its constitution.

A life of necessity generally produces a good fertile invention. The glutton, continually pressed by the call of appetite, and having neither swiftness nor activity to satisfy it, is obliged to make up by stratagem the defects of nature. It is often seen to examine the traps and the snares laid for other animals, in order to anticipate the fowlers. It is said to practise a thousand arts to procure its prey, to steal upon the retreats of the rein-deer, the flesh of which animal it loves in preference to all others; to lie in wait for such animals as have been maimed by the hunters; to pursue the isatis while it is hunting for itself; and, when that animal has run down its prey, to come in and seize upon the whole, and sometimes to devour even its poor provider; when these pursuits fail, even to dig up the graves, and fall upon the bodies intered there, devouring them bones and all. For these reasons, the natives of the countries where the glutton inhabits, hold it in utter detestation, and usually term it the vulture of quadru peds. And, yet it is extraordinary enough, that being so very obnoxious to man, it does not seem to fear him.(g) We are told by Gamelin of one of these coming up boldly and calmly where there were several persons at work, without testifying the smallest apprehension, or attempting to run until it had received several blows, that at last totally disabled it. In all probability it came among them seeking its prey; and, having been used to attack animals of inferior strength, it had no idea of a force superior to its own. The glutton, like all the rest of its kind, is a solitary animal; and is never seen in company except with its female, with which it couples in the midst of winter. The latter goes with young about four months, and brings forth two or three at a time.(g) They burrow in holes as the weasel; and the male and female are generally found together, both equally resolute in defence of their young. Upon this occasion the boldest dogs are afraid to approach them; they fight obstinately, and bite most cruelly. However, as they are unable to escape by flight, the hunters come to the assistance of the dogs, and easily overpower them. Their flesh, it may readily be supposed, is not fit to be eaten; but the skins amply recompense the hunters for their toil and danger. The fur has the most beautiful lustre that can be imagined, and is prefered before all others, except that of the Siberian fox, or the sable. Among other peculiarities of this animal, Linnæus informs us, that it is very difficult to be skinned; but from what cause, whether its abominable stench, or the skin's tenacity to the flesh, he has not thought fit to inform us.

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CHAP. XIV.

ANIMALS OF THE HARE KIND.*

HAVING described in the last chapter a tribe of minute, fierce, rapacious animals, I come now to a race of minute animals, of a more harmless and gentle kind, that, without being enemies to any, are preyed upon by all. As nature has fitted the former for hostility, so it has entirely formed the latter for evasion: and as the one kind subsist by their courage and activity, so the other find safety from their swiftness and their fears. The hare is the swiftest animal in the world for the time it continues; and few quadrupeds can overtake even the rabbit when it has but a short way to run. To this class also we may add the squirrel, somewhat resembling the hare and rabbit in its form and nature, and equally pretty, inoffensive, and pleasing.

If we were methodically to distinguish animals of the hare kind from all others, we might say that they have but two cutting teeth above and two below, that they are covered with a soft, downy fur, and that they have a bushy tail. The combination of these marks might perhaps distinguish them tolerably well; whether from the rat, the beaver, the otter, or any other most nearly approaching in form. But, as I have declined all method that rather tends to embarrass history than enlighten it, I am contented to class these animals together for no very precise reason, but because I find a general resemblance between them in their natural habits, and in the shape of their heads and body. I call a squirrel an animal of the hare kind, because it is something like a hare. I call the paca of the same kind, merely because it is more like a rabbit than any other animal I know of. In short, it is fit to erect some particular standard in the imagination of the reader, to refer him to some animal that he knows, in order to direct him in conceiving the figure of such as he does not know. Still, however, he should be apprized that his knowledge will be defective without an examination of each particular species: and that saying an animal is of this or that particular kind is but a very trifling part of its history.

Animals of the hare kind, like all others that feed entirely upon vegetables, are inoffensive and timorous. As nature furnishes them with a most abundant supply, they have not that rapacity after food remarkable in such as are often stinted in their provision. They are extremely active and amazingly swift, to which they chiefly owe their protection; for being the prey of every voracious animal, they are incessantly pursued. The hare, the rabbit, and the squirrel, are placed by Pyerius, in his Treatise of Ruminating Animals, among the number of those that chew the cud; but how far this may be true, I will not pretena Certain it is that their lips continually move whether sleeping or to determine. waking. Nevertheless, they chew their meat very much before they swallow it, and for that reason I should suppose that it does not want a second mastication. All these animals use their fore-paws like hands; they are remarkably salacious, and are furnished by nature with more ample powers than most others for the business of propagation. They are so very prolific, that were they not thinned by the constant depredations made upon them by most other animals, they would quickly overrun the earth.†

ANIMALS OF THE HARE KIND.-The animals of this family have two front teeth in each jaw; those in the upper jaw are dou bled, having two smaller ones standing behind the others; they feed entirely on vegetables, are very small, and run by a kind of leaping; they have five toes on the fore-feet, and four on the hinder.

THE GENUS LEPUS. - This genus includes many species, which are widely spread over the earth's surface, in the new world, as well as the old. All the species are alike under the continued influence of fear, and as their eyes are presumed not to be perfect during daylight, and their lateral direction prevents the animal seeing directly forward,

THE HARE. Of all these the hare is the largest, the most persecuted, and the most timorous; all its

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are readily received, and the animal's motions directed accordingly. The muscles of the body are very strong, and without fat, so that it may be said to carry no superfluous burthen of flesh about it; the hinder feet are longer than the fore, which still adds to the rapidity of its motions; and almost all animals that are remarkable for their speed, except the horse, are formed in the same

manner.

An animal so well formed for a life of escape, might be supposed to enjoy a state of tolerable security; but as every rapacious creature is its enemy, it but very seldom lives out its natural term. Dogs of all kinds pursue it by instinct, and follow the hare more eagerly than any other animal. The cat and the weasel kinds are continually lying in ambush, and practising all their little arts to seize it; birds of prey are still more dangerous enemies, as against them no swiftness can avail, nor retreat secure; but man, an enemy far more powerful than all, prefers its flesh to that of other animals, and destroys greater numbers than all the rest. Thus pursued and persecuted on every side, the race would long since have been totally extirpated, did it not find a resource in its amazing fertility.

The hare multiplies exceedingly; it is in a state of engendering at a few months old; the females go with young but thirty days, and generally bring forth three or four at a time.(g) As soon as they have produced their young they are again ready for conception, and thus do not lose any time in continuing the breed. But they are in another respect fitted in an extraordinary manner for multiplying their kind; for the female, from the conformation of ber womb, is often seen to bring forth, and yet to continue pregnant at the same time; or in other words, to have young ones of different ages in her womb together. Other animals never receive the male when pregnant, but bring forth their young at once. But it is frequently different with the hare; the female often, though already impregnated, admitting the male, and thus receiving a

they rather rely on their hearing, the organ of which is very perfect, to warn them of approaching danger. Perfectly defenceless, indeed, and exposed to countless enemies, they have no chance of safety but in the expedition of their flight, and unless forewarned by the acuteness of one or more of their senses, of the approach of an enemy, they would invariably fall the victim of surprise. Their Creator, while he has left them a prey to so many other animals, has provided them with one mode of self-defence in a rapid locomotion, rendered more efficacious by a quick

susceptibility of danger. Lively timidity must be attended with pain, however; and if there be any disparity in the distribution of good and evil to inferior creation, all except sportsmen, must pity creatures which exist constantly, under the excitement of acute fear.

The heart is said to be larger relatively to their parts in these than in most other animals; and it has been noticed, that Pliny observed generally, that all animals of a fearful disposition have the heart of considerable size.-GRIFFITH, in Cuvier's Animal Kingdom.

(g) Buffon, vol. xiii. p. 12.

second impregnation. The reason of this extraordinary circumstance is, that the womb in these animals is divided in such a manner that it may be considered as a double organ, one side of which may be filled while the other remains empty. Thus these animals may be seen to couple at every period of their pregnancy, and even while they are bringing forth the young laying the foundation of another brood.

The young of these animals are brought forth with their eyes open, and the dam suckles them for twenty days, after which they leave her, and seek out for themselves.(g) From this we observe, that the education these animals receive is but trifling, and the family connexion but of short duration. In the rapacious kinds the dam leads her young forth for months together; teaches them the arts of rapine; and, although she wants milk to supply them, yet keeps them under her care until they are able to hunt for themselves. But a long connexion of this kind would be very unnecessary as well as dangerous to the timid animals we are describing; their food is easily procured; and their associations, instead of protection, would only expose them to their pursuers. They seldom, however, separate far from each other, or from the place where they were produced; but make each a form at some distance, having a predilection rather for the place than each other's society. They feed during the night rather than by day, choosing the more tender blades of grass, and quenching their thirst with the dew. They live also upon roots, leaves, fruits and corn, and prefer such plants as are furnished with a milky juice. They also strip the bark of trees during the winter, there being scarce any that they will not feed on, except the lime or the alder. They are particularly fond of birch, pinks, and parsley. When they are kept tame, they are fed with the lettuce and other garden herbs: but the flesh of such as are thus brought up is always indifferent.

They sleep or repose in their forms by day, and may be said to live only by night.(g) It is then that they go forth to feed and couple. They do not pair, however, but in the rutting season, which begins in February; the male pursues and discovers the female by the sagacity of its nose. They are then seen, by moonlight, playing, skipping, and pursuing each other; but the least motion, the slightest breeze, the falling of a leaf is sufficient to disturb their revels; they instantly fly off, and each takes a separate way.

As their limbs are made for running, they easily outstrip all other animals in the beginning; and could they preserve their speed it would be impossible to overtake them; but as they exhaust their strength at their first efforts, and double back to the place they were started from, they are more easily taken than the fox, which is a much slower animal than they. As their hind legs are longer than the fore, they always choose to turn up hill, by which the speed of their pursuers is diminished while theirs remains the same. Their motions are also without any noise, as they have the sole of the foot furnished with hair: and they seem the only animals that have hair on the inside of their mouths.

They seldom live above seven or eight years at the utmost; they come to their full perfection in a year; and thus multiplied by seven, as in other animals, gives the extent of their lives.(g) They are not so wild as their dispositions and their habits seem to indicate; but are of a complying nature, and easily susceptible of a kind of education. They are easily tamed. They even become fond and caressing, but they are incapable of attachment to any particular person, and never can be depended upon; for, though taken never so young, they regain their native freedom at the first opportunity.*

* DOMESTICATION OF HARES.-Although the hare is solitary and silent, it is not altogether so wild as its habits seem to indicate. Their disposition is gentle, and if taken young, they are capable of training and education. M. Desmarest had one a considerable time in his house; it lost all its natural wildness, and its habits had become quite (g) Buffon, vol. xiii. p. 12.

familiar, at least to all it knew, but of stran-
gers it was still fearful In winter it sat before
the fire between two large Angora cats, and a
sporting dog, with whom it lived on the best
of terms; at table it was generally close to
its master, looking for food, and if thwarted
in its expectations, would beat with its fore.
paws in rapid succession on the hand or arm
(g) Ibid.
(g) Ibid.

But their natural instincts for their preservation are much more extraordinary than those artificial tricks that are taught them. They make themselves a form particularly in those places where the colour of the grass most resembles that of their skin; it is open to the south in winter, and to the north in summer. The hare, when it hears the hounds at a distance, flies for some time through a natural impulse, without managing its strength, or consulting any other means but speed for its safety. Having attained some hill or rising ground, and left the dogs so far behind, that it no longer hears their cries, it stops, rears on its hinder legs, and at length looks back to see if it has not lost its pursuers. But these, having once fallen upon the scent, pursue slowly, and with united skill; and the poor animal soon again hears the fatal tidings of their approach. Sometimes, when sore hunted, it will start a fresh hare, and squat in the same form; sometimes it will creep under the door of a sheep-cot, and hide among the sheep; sometimes it will run among them, and no vigilance can drive it from the flock; some will enter holes like the rabbit, which the hunters call going to vault; some will go up one side of the hedge, and come down the other; and it has been known, that a hare sorely hunted has got upon the top of a cut quick-set hedge, and run a good way thereon, by which it has effectually evaded the hounds. It is no unusual thing also for them to betake themselves to furze bushes, and to leap from one to another, by which the dogs are frequently misled. However, the first doubling a hare makes, is generally a key to all its future attempts of that kind, the latter being exactly like the former. The young hares tread heavier, and leave a stronger scent, than the old, because their limbs are weaker; and the more this forlorn creature tires, the heavier it treads, and the stronger is the scent it leaves. A buck, or male hare, is known by its choosing to run upon hard highways, feeding farther from the wood-sides, and making its doublings of a greater compass than the female. The male having made a turn or two about its form, frequently leads the hounds five or six miles on a stretch; but the female keeps close by some covert side, turns, crosses, and winds among the bushes like a rabbit, and seldom runs directly forward. In general, however, both male and female regulate their conduct according to the weather. In a moist day they hold by the high-ways more than at any other time, because the scent is then strongest upon the grass. If they come to the side of a grove or spring, they forbear to enter, but squat down by the side thereof, until the hounds have overshot them; and then, turning along their former path, make to their old form, from which they vainly hope for protection.*

of the person so treating it. It acquired an excessive degree of fat; a common consequence in common with these and many

other animals in a domesticated state.

As a further proof of the subserviency to the powers of man of a most predominant moral quality in this animal, its timidity, we may refer to an exhibition which has been common about the streets of London, certainly in one individual, and probably in several, of a hare which moved fearlessly about upon a table in the midst of the surrounding multitude, the tones of a hand organ, and the mixed noise and confusion of a public street. The hare was taught, further to beat a tambourine, which it did with great rapidity, and in the manner of that described by M. Desmarest, when soliciting a boon from its master; and as a still further proof how completely its fears were neutralized, it was accustomed to pull the trigger and discharge a pistol, rather large in dimensions and calibre, and commensurate consequently in

report; and when it is considered that this was an affair of recurrence perhaps almost every half-hour, it can hardly be supposed that the animal was taken by surprise, as to the consequences of pulling the trigger. There are few animals so completely stupid as not to learn by reiterated practice the immediate consequences which invariably follow from any particular act, nor did the animal in question, exhibit the least alarm or shock on making the report, which would, in all probability, at least without similar training, have the effect of turning a lion.— GRIFFITH.

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