GAZELLE. OTTERS. 205 



claimed a second time, and, I regret to add, was 

 a third time turned out. On this occasion, the 

 poor bird, probably finding that the place of refuge 

 it had sought would not avail it in its hour of 

 need, fled across the country pursued by the hawk, 

 who struck it down and killed it. 



Timid, however, as most animals are and influ- 

 enced by fear, it is astonishing how strongly affec- 

 tion operates over their greatest apprehension of 

 danger. One of our travellers, I think it was 

 Captain Welstead, mentions, that when he was 

 in Syria, he and some of his party caught some 

 young Gazelles, and having cut their throats, the 

 carcases were suspended from the saddles of the 

 different horsemen. In this situation they were 

 followed the whole of the day by the bereaved 

 and affectionate mothers, who forgot their own 

 danger in their love for their offspring. The ga- 

 zelle is well known to be one of the most timorous 

 of animals ; but here affection preponderated over 

 the strongest impulses of its nature. 



Lieutenant Wood, also, in his very interesting 

 account of his journey to discover the source of 

 the river Oxus, mentions the following fact, shew- 

 ing how strong the affection of animals is for their 

 young under peculiar circumstances. His boat was 

 moored on the shore of the Indus, where they 

 disturbed a colony of Otters, which showed some 

 resentment at the intrusion on their haunts. Two 



