READILY TAMED. 25 



manner of a dove-cot with us, on a single post at some six 

 to eight feet from the ground), in which, when shifting 

 his quarters, he deposits superfluous provisions, &c. For 

 the beast finds his way even to this ingeniously-contrived 

 larder, and gnawing a hole in the bottom of it, devours the 

 contents. 



What length of time the female carries her young, seems 

 not very well ascertained; but it would appear by all 

 accounts that she brings forth in April or May. Though 

 Laestadius, as mentioned, speaks of four cubs, she has seldom, 

 I believe, more than two or three at a birth. 



The flesh of the glutton is said to be very palatable. 

 The Lapps at least, after that the beast has fattened at 

 their expense on the rein-deer, relish it exceedingly. 



This animal would seem to be easily domesticated. M. 

 Hedberg speaks of three that were captured young in the 

 parish of Gellivaara, in Lapland. " They were allowed their 

 full liberty," he informs us; "but in the autumn, the 

 servant having forgotten to fasten the door of the building 

 wherein the sheep were confined, the gluttons found their 

 way into it, and killed several of the sheep." What became 

 of the depredators does not appear; but the probability is 

 that after this catastrophe, they themselves were shortly 

 destroyed. 



The capture of the glutton is effected in various ways in 

 Scandinavia; though, from the comparative paucity of his 

 numbers, and from his somewhat solitary habits, fewer 

 devices are brought into play to insure his destruction, than 

 is the case with the wolf, the fox, and other beasts of prey. 



Some are killed in Skalls; but the number is incon- 

 siderable, for the reason probably that when the beast 



