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A HISTORY OF 



require proportional supplies from nature, 

 they would quickly consume their own store; 

 and, of consequence, many of them would 

 soon perish through want; so that life would 

 thus be given without the necessary means of 

 subsistence. In a word, Providence has most 

 wisely balanced the strength of the great 

 against the weakness of the little. Since it 

 was necessary that some should be great and 

 others mean, since it was expedient that some 

 should live upon others, it has assisted the 

 weakness of one by granting it fruit fulness; 

 and diminished the number of the other by 

 infecundity. 



In consequence of this provision, the larger 

 creatures, which bring forth few at a time, 

 seldom begin to generate till they have near- 

 ly acquired their full growth. On the contra- 

 ry, those which bring many, reproduce before 

 they have arrived at their natural size. Thus 

 the horse and the bull are nearly at their best 

 before they begin to breed ; the hog and the 

 rabbit scarcely leave the teat before they be- 

 come parents in turn. Almost all animals 

 likewise continue the time of their pregnan- 

 cy in proportion to their size. The mare con- 

 tinues eleven months with foal, the cow nine, 

 the wolf five, and the bitch nine weeks. In 

 all, the intermediate litters are the most fruit- 

 ful ; the first and the last generally producing 

 the fewest in number, and the worst of the 

 kind. 



Whatever be the natural disposition of ani- 

 mals at other times, they all acquire new cou- 

 rage when they consider themselves as defend- 

 ing their young. No terrors can then drive 

 them from the post of duty ; the mildest begin 

 to exert their little force, and resist the most 

 formidable enemy. Where resistance is hope- 

 less, they then incur every danger, in order 

 to rescue their young by flight, and retard their 

 own expedition by providing for their little 

 ones. When the female oppossum, an ani- 

 mal of America, is pursued,she instantly takes 

 her young into a false belly, with which nature 

 has supplied her, and carries them off, or 

 dies in the endeavour. I have been lately as- 

 sured of a she-fox, which, when hunted, took 

 her cub in her mouth, and run for several 

 miles without quitting it, until at last she was 

 forced to leave it behind, upon the approach 

 of a mastiff, as she ran through a farmer's yard. 



But, if at this period the mildest animals ac- 

 quire new fierceness, how formidable must 

 those be that subsist by rapine! At such times, 

 no obstacles can stop their ravage, nor no 

 threats can terrify ; the lioness then seems 

 more hardy than even the lion himself. She 

 attacks men and beasts indiscriminately, and 

 carries all she can overcome reeking to her 

 cubs, whom she thus early accustoms to slaugh- 

 ter. Milk, in the carnivorous animals, is much 

 more sparing than in others* and it may be 

 for this reason that all such carry home their 

 prey alive, that, in feeding their young, its 

 blood may supply the deficiencies of nature, 

 and serve instead of that milk with which 

 they are so sparingly supplied. 



Nature, that has thus given them courage 

 to defend their young, has given them instinct 

 to choose the proper times of copulation, so 

 as to bring forth when the provision suited to 

 each kind is to be found in the greatest plen- 

 ty. The wolf, for instance, couples in Novem- 

 ber, so that the time of pregnancy continuing 

 five months, it may have its young in April. 

 The mare, who goes eleven months, admits 

 the horse in summer, in order to foal about 

 the beginning of May. On the contrary, those 

 animals which lay up provisions for the win- 

 ter, such as the beaver and the marmotte, cou- 

 ple in the latter end of autumn, so as to have 

 their young about January, against which sea- 

 son they have provided a very comfortable 

 store. These seasons for coupling, however, 

 among some of the domestic kinds, are gene- 

 rally in consequence of the quantity of pro- 

 visions with which they are at any time sup- 

 plied. Thus we may, by feeding any of these 

 animals, and keeping off the rigour of the cli- 

 mate, make them breed whenever we please. 

 In this manner those contrive who produce 

 lambs all the year round. 



The choice of situation in bringing forth is 

 also very remarkable. In most of the rapa- 

 cious kinds, the female takes the utmost pre- 

 cautions to hide the place of her retreat from 

 the male ; who otherwise, when pressed by 

 hunger, would be apt to devour her cubs. 

 She seldom, therefore, strays far from the den, 

 and never approaches it while he is in view, 

 nor visits him again till her young are capa- 

 ble of providing for themselves. Such ani- 

 mals as are of tender constitutions take the 



