ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



mouthed barks, till the inmates were asleep. Utter 

 darkness, too, is apt to silence the voice of our faithful 

 ally, and the next morning the people will wonder what 

 makes the dear fellow so tired : the explanation might 

 surprise them still more, if the Night could speak. 



Domestic cats often absent themselves for weeks to- 

 gether, and return as lean as a rake, but unrepentant, 

 till the dangers of vagrancy are brought home to them 

 by boot-jack and gunpowder arguments. Many old vil- 

 lage tomcats take regular summer vacations. Orchards 

 and the extensive grain-fields of our Northern States 

 supply them with young birds enough to keep soul 

 and skeleton together, and the vicissitudes of roughing 

 it seem to count for nothing against the pleasures of 

 independence. The woods of the Mississippi Valley 

 are full of half-wild hogs. They are just tame enough 

 to answer a repeated dinner-call, but rarely come home 

 of their own accord, though their adventures in the 

 wilderness are rather over-spiced with danger: "bush 

 pork" is generally full of buckshot. Goats, too, are 

 apt to lose their way whenever they get a chance; and 

 the hunters of the Tyrolese Alps often hear their bells 

 in the inaccessible heights of the Ortler range, where 

 they have to pick their food from the clefts of icicled 

 rocks till the November storms drive them back to the 

 valleys. 



But where emancipation would be a change for the 

 better, only constant vigilance can prevent a declara- 



