STUDY XI. 



337 



We might apportion, in like manner, the other 

 graflès, to the different quadrupeds of our forefts, 

 as to the flag, to the hare, to the wild boar, and fo 

 on. Thefe firft determinations would require cer- 

 tain experiments to be made on the taftes of ani- 

 mals, but they would be very instructive, and 

 highly amufing. They would have no mixture of 

 cruelty, as mod of thole of our modern phyfics have, 

 by which the wretched animal is flead alive, poi- 

 foned, or fuffocated, in order to come at the know- 

 ledge of it's propenfities. Our experiments would 

 fludy their appetites only, and not their convul- 

 fions. Befides, there are a great many of thofe 

 preferred and rejected plants, already well-known 

 to our fhepherds. One of them fhewed me, in the 

 vicinity of Paris, a gramineous plant, which fattens 

 (heep more in a fortnight, than the other fpecies 

 can do in two months. The moment, too, that 

 they perceive it, they run after it with the utmoft 

 avidity. Of this I have been an eye-witnefs. I 

 do not mean, however, to affert that each fpecies 

 of animal limits it's appetite to a fingle fpecies of 

 food. It is quite fufficient, in order to eftablifli 

 the order which I am propofing, that each of them 

 gives, in every genus of plant, a decided pre- 

 ference to fome one fpecies ; and this is confirmed, 

 beyond all doubt, by experience. 



VOL. III. 



the 



