Scientific Intelligence. — Zoologi/. 387 



den in a deep sandy ravine, under the Knock of Braemory, 

 near the source of the Burn of Newton. Two brothers, re- 

 siding at the httle place of Falkirk, boldly undertook to watch 

 the old ones out, and to kill their young ; and as every one 

 had suffered more or less from their depredations, the excite- 

 ment to learn the result of so perilous an enterprize was uni- 

 versal. Having seen the parent animals quit their den in search 

 of prey, the one brother stationed himself as a sentinel, to give 

 the alarm, in case the wolves should return, while the other 

 thre^- off his plaid, and, armed with his dirk, alone crawled in 

 to dispatch the cubs. He had not been long in the den, when 

 the wolves were seen by the watchman hastening back to the 

 ravine. A sudden panic seized the wretched man, and he 

 fled without giving the promised warning, and never stopped 

 till he crossed the Divie, two miles off. There, conscience- 

 stricken for his cowardice, he wounded himself in various places 

 with his dirk ; and, on reaching Falkirk, he told the people, 

 who eagerly collected to hear the result of the adventure, that 

 the wolves had surprised them in the den, that his brother was 

 killed, and that he had miraculously escaped, wounded as he 

 was. A shout of vengeance rent the air, and each man, catch- 

 ing up whatever weapon he could lay hands on, the whole 

 gathering set out, determined, at all hazards, to recover the 

 mutilated remains of their lost friend. But, what was their 

 astonishment, when, on reaching the Hill of Bogney, they be- 

 held the mangled and bloody form of him whom they supposed 

 dead, dragging itself towards them. For a moment they were 

 awed by a superstitious fear ; but they soon learned the history 

 of his escape. He had found little difficulty in killing the cubs, 

 and he was in the act of making his way out, when the mouth 

 of the hole was darkened, and' the she-wolf was upon him. 

 With one lucky thrust of his dirk, he dispatched her at once ; 

 but his contest with her grim companion was long and severe ; 

 and although he fought in that narrow place, and from behind 

 the body of the brute he had killed, he was nearly torn to 

 pieces before he succeeded in depriving his ferocious enemy 

 of life. The indignation of the people against the dastard 

 brother, on thus beholding his falsehood and cowardice made 

 manifest, knew no bounds. They dragged him before the laird. 



