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ANIMALS OF 



the bristles of its back all stand upright, its 

 head hangs low, and yet its teeth appear ; all 

 which give it a most frightful aspect, which 

 a dreadful howl tends to heighten. This, 

 which I have often heard, is very peculiar : its 

 beginning resembles the voice of a man moan- 

 ing, and its latter part as if he were making a 

 violent effort to vomit. As it is loud and fre- 

 quent, it might, perhaps, have been sometimes 

 mistaken for that of a human voice in distress, 

 and have given rise to the accounts of the an- 

 cients, who tell us, that the hyaena makes its 

 moan to attract unwary travellers, and then to 

 destroy them : however this be, it seems the 

 most untractable, and, for its size, the most 

 terrible of all other quadrupeds ; nor docs its 

 courage fall short of its ferocity ; it defends it- 

 self against the lion, is a match for the panther, 

 attacks the ounce, and seldom fails to conquer. 

 It is an obscene and solitary animal, to be 

 found chiefly in the most desolate and unculti- 

 vated parts of the torrid zone, of which it is a 

 native." It resides in the caverns of mountains, 

 in the clefts of rocks, or in dens that it has 

 formed for itself under the earth. Though ta- 

 ken never so young, it cannot be tamed; it 

 lives by depredation, like the wolf, but is much 

 stronger, and more courageous. It sometimes 

 attacks man, carries off cattle, follows the flock, 

 breaks open the sheep-cots by night, and rava- 

 ges with insatiable voracity. Its eyes shine by 

 night ; and it is asserted, not without great 



appearance of truth, that it sees better by night 

 than by day. When destitute of other provi- 

 sion, it scrapes up the graves, and devours the 

 dend bodies, how putrid soever. To these 

 dispositions, which are sufficiently noxious and 

 formidable, the ancients have added number- 

 less others, which are long since known to 

 be fables : as, for instance, that the hycena was 

 male and female alternately ; that having 

 brought forth and suckled its young, it then 

 changed sexes for a year, and became a male. 

 This, as was mentioned above, could only pro- 

 ceed from the opening under the tail, which 

 all animals of this species are found to have ; 

 and which is found in the same manner in no 

 other quadruped, except the badger. There 

 is, in the weasel kind indeed, an opening, but 

 it is lower down, and not placed above the 

 anus, as in the badger and the hyaena. Some 

 have said that this animal changes the colour 

 of its hair at will ; others, that a stone was 

 found in its eye, which, put under a man's 

 tongue, gave him the gift of prophecy ; some 

 have said that it had no joints in the neck, 

 which, however, all quadrupeds are known to 

 have ; and some, that the shadow of the hyaena 

 kept dogs from barking. These, among ma- 

 ny other absurdities, have been asserted of this 

 quadruped ; and which I mention to show the 

 natural disposition of mankind, to load those 

 that are already but too guilty with accumu- 

 lated reproach. 



CHAPTER L1L 



OF ANIMALS OF THE WEASEL KIND. 



HAVING described the bolder ranks of car- 

 nivorous animals, we now come to a minuter 

 and more feeble class, less formidable indeed 

 than any of the former, but far more numer- 

 ous, and in proportion to their size, more ac- 

 tive and enterprising. The weasel kind may 

 be particularly distinguished from other carni- 

 vorous animals, by the length and slenderness 

 of their bodies, which are so fitted as to wind, 

 like worms, into very small openings, after 



Buffbn. 



their prey ; and hence also they have received 

 the name of vermin, from their similitude to 

 the worm in this particular. These animals 

 differ from all the cat kind, in the formation 

 and disposition of their claws, which, as in the 

 dog kinds, they can neither draw nor extend at 

 pleasure, as cats are known to do. They dif- 

 fer from the dog kind, in being clothed rather 

 with fur than hair ; and although some vnrie- 

 es of the fox may resemble them in this par- 

 cular, yet the coat of the latter is longer, 

 stronger, and always more resemblinsr hair. 



