IN GENERAL. 121 



first state of existence, may be one of the many 

 provisions of Nature to keep up the balance be- 

 tween the camivora and the other orders of mam- 

 malia; for as the reproduction, in hot climates at 

 least, may amount to two litters in the year, and 

 each be of eight or ten, it follows that the destroyers 

 would increase beyond measure, unless by the above 

 and probably other precautions, a great number 

 perished at an early period of life ; and in this way 

 became themselves food for other camassier in the 

 form of living prey, or in a corrupting state, when, 

 at their second dentition, numbers are carried off by 

 disease. The adults of different species, and even 

 of the same, if disabled, are prey to others ; nay, 

 the mothers occasionally eat their own whelps ; 

 they mutually destroy each other in their battles, 

 and are devoured by hyaenas. Nature appears to 

 have implanted an innate hostility between the 

 canine and feline genera. The hyaena, the dhole, 

 and other wild dogs, are alike reported to destroy 

 all tiger-cubs they can find ; and the last mentioned 

 in particular, enabled by their superior instinct to 

 act in packs, and combine their attacks, are even 

 more than a match for the most powerful of the 

 felinae. Those that perish in these conflicts only 

 add to the repast of the survivors, and in this man- 

 ner further the purposes of Nature. It is to this 

 peculiar instinct, no doubt, that the desire of tigers 

 to escape from the presence of sporting dogs, so 

 often observed in India, is mainly to be ascribed. 

 Of the smaller canines, the jackal still evinces the 



