WOLF. 



which they generally resort. He is naturally 

 clownish and dastardly; but want makes him in- 

 genious, and necessity gives him courage. When 

 pressed with famine, he braves danger; he at- 

 tacks those animals which are under the protec- 

 tion of man, especially such as he can transport 

 with ease, as lambs, small dogs, and kids; and 

 when successful in his bloody expeditions, he re- 

 turns often to the charge, till, being wounded, 

 chaced, and persecuted by men and dogs, he re- 

 tires, during the day, to his den; but issues forth 

 in the night, traverses the country, roams about 

 the cottages, kills all the animals which have 

 been left without, digs the earth under the doors, 

 enters with a dreadful ferocity, and puts every 

 living creature to death before he chooses to de- 

 part and carry off his prey. When these inroads 

 happen to be fruitless, he returns to the woods, 

 searches about with avidity, follows the tract of 

 wild beasts, and pursues them, in the hope that 

 they may be stopped and pursued by some other 

 Wolf, and that he may be a partaker in the spoil. 

 In fine, when his hunger is extreme, he loses the 

 idea of fear; he attacks women and children, and 

 even sometimes darts upon men, till, becoming 

 perfectly furious by excessive exertions, he gene- 

 rally falls a sacrifice to pure rage and distrac- 

 tion." 



In the year 1764 an animal of this kind exert- 

 ed peculiar ravages in some particular districts of 

 Gevaudan in Languedoc, and became the terror 

 of the whole country. If the accounts then given 



