214 HOSTILITIES OF ANIMALS. 







chased and wounded by men and dogs, he retires during the 

 day to his den. In the night, he again issues forth, traverses 

 the country, roams round the cottages, kills all the animals 

 that have been left without, digs the earth under the doors, 

 enters with a terrible ferocity, and puts every living creature 

 to death, before he chooses to depart and carry off his prey. 

 When these inroads happen to be fruitless, he returns to the 

 woods, searches about with avidity, follows the track and the 

 scent of wild beasts, and pursues them till they fall a prey to 

 his rapacity. In a word, when his hunger is extreme, he loses 

 all idea of fear, attacks women and children, and sometimes 

 men ; at last he becomes perfectly furious by excessive exer- 

 tions, and generally falls a sacrifice to pure rage and distrac- 

 tion. When several wolves appear together, it is not an asso- 

 ciation of peace, but of war. It is attended with tumult and 

 dreadful growlings, and indicates an attack upon some of the 

 larger animals, as a stag, an ox, or a formidable mastiff. This 

 depredatory expedition is no sooner ended, than they separate, 

 and every individual returns in silence to his solitude. Wolves 

 are fond of human flesh. They have been known to follow 

 armies, to come in troops to the field of battle, where bodies 

 are carelessly interred, to tear them up, and devour them with 

 an insatiable avidity ; and, when once accustomed to human 

 flesh, these wolves ever after attack men, prefer the shepherd 

 to the flock, devour women, and carry oft children. Whole 

 countries are sometimes obliged to arm, in order to destroy 

 the wolves. 



Neither are the feathered tribe exempted from the general 

 law of devastation. But the number of birds of prey, propi 

 erly so called, is much less in proportion than that of carniv- 

 orous quadrupeds. Birds of prey are likewise weaker ; and, 

 of course, the destruction of animal life they occasion is 

 much more limited than the immense devastations daily com- 

 mitted by rapacious quadrupeds. But, as if tyranny never 

 lost sight of its rights, great numbers of birds make prodigious 

 depredations upon the inhabitants of the waters. A vast, tribe 

 of birds frequent the waters, and live solely upon fishes. In 

 a certain sense, every species of bird may be said to be a bird 

 of prey ; for almost the whole of them devour flies, worms, 

 and other insects, either for food to themselves or their 

 young. Birds of prey, like carnivorous quadrupeds, are not 

 so prolific as the milder and more inoffensive kinds. Most of 

 them lay only a small number of eggs. The great eagle and 

 the osprey produce only two eggs in a season. The pigeon, 



