66 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



their limbs more robust, their senses more deli- 

 cate and acute. What sight can compare with 

 that of the eagle and the lynx ; what scent can 

 be more exquisite than that of the wolf and the 

 jackall ? All the perceptions of carnivorous ani- 

 mals are more accurate, their sagacity embraces 

 a greater variety of objects, and in feats of 

 strength and agility they far surpass the herbi- 

 vorous tribes. A tiger will take a spring of fif- 

 teen or twenty feet, and seizing upon a buffalo, 

 will carry it with ease on its back through a 

 dense and tangled thicket : with a single blow 

 of its paw it will break the back of a bull, or 

 tear open the flanks of an elephant. 



While herbivorous animals are almost con- 

 stantly employed in eating, carnivorous animals 

 are able to endure abstinence for a great length 

 of time, without any apparent diminution of their 

 strength : a horse or an ox would sink under 

 the exhaustion consequent upon fasting for two 

 or three days, whereas the wolf and the martin 

 have been known to live fifteen days without 

 food, and a single meal will suffice them for a 

 whole week. The calls of hunger produce on 

 each of these classes of animals the most opposite 

 effects. Herbivorous animals are rendered weak 

 and faint by the want of food, but the tiger is 

 roused to the full energy of his powers by the 

 cravings of appetite ; his strength and courage 

 are never so great as when he is nearly famished. 



