CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS. 213 



ermines, gluttons, bats, &,c. Though all these, and many other 

 tribes of quadrupeds, live solely upon blood and carnage, yet 

 some of them, as the tiger, the wolf, the hyaena, and many 

 other inferior species, are much more rapacious and destruc- 

 tive than others. The lion, though surrounded with prey, 

 kills no more than he is able to consume. But the tiger is 

 grossly ferocious, and cruel without necessity. Though sa- 

 tiated with carnage, he perpetually thirsts for blood. His 

 restless fury has no intervals, except when he is obliged to lie 

 in ambush for prey at the sides of lakes or rivers, to which 

 other animals resort for drink. He seizes and tears in pieces 

 a fresh animal with the same rage as he exerted in devouring 

 the first. He desolates every country that he inhabits, and 

 dreads neither the aspect nor the arms of man. He sacri- 

 fices whole flocks of domestic animals, and all the wild beasts 

 which come within the reach of his terrible claws. He at- 

 tacks the young of the elephant and rhinoceros, and some- 

 times even ventures to brave the lion. His predominant 

 instinct is a perpetual rage, a blind and undistinguishing fe- 

 rocity, which often impel him to devour his own young, and 

 to tear their mother in pieces when she attempts to defend 

 them. He delights in blood, and gluts himself with it until he 

 is intoxicated. He tears the body for no other purpose than 

 to plunge his head into it, and to drink large draughts of^blood, 

 the sources of which are generally exhausted before his thirst 

 is appeased. The tiger is, perhaps, the only animal whose 

 ferocity is unconquerable. Neither violence, restraint, nor 

 bribery, have any effect in softening his temper. With harsh 

 or gentle treatment he is equally irritated. The mild and 

 conciliating influence of society makes no impression on the 

 obduracy and incorrigibleness of his disposition. Time, in- 

 stead of softening the ferociousness of his nature, only exas- 

 perates his rage. He tears, with equal wrath, the hand which 

 feeds him, and that which is raised to strike him. Every 

 animated object he regards as fresh prey, menaces it with 

 frightful groans, and often springs at it, without regarding his 

 chains, which only restrain, but cannot calm his. fury. 



In temperate climates, the wolf seems to exceed all other 

 animals in the ferocity and rapaciousness of his disposition. 

 When pressed with hunger, he braves every danger. He 

 attacks all those animals which are under the protection of 

 jtnan, especially such as he can carry off with ease, as lambs, 

 kids, and the smaller kinds of dogs. When successful in his 

 expeditions, he returns often to the charge, till, after being 



