ANIMALS. 279 



traversing extensive tracts of rugged country, than the claw-foot of 

 their pursuers. 



The stomach is generally proportioned to the quality of the ani- 

 mal's food, or the ease with which it is obtained. In those that live 

 upon flesh, and such nourishing substances, it is small and glandular, 

 affording such juices as are best adapted to digest its contents ; their 

 intestines, also, are short, and without fatness. On the contrary, such 

 animals as feed entirely upon vegetables, have the stomach very large; 

 and those who chew the cud have no less than four stomachs, all 

 which serve as so many laboratories, to prepare and turn their coarse 

 food into proper nourishment. In Africa, where the plants afford 

 greater nourishment than in our temperate climates, several animals, 

 that with us have four stomachs, have there but two.* However, in 

 all animals the size of the intestines are proportioned to the nature of 

 the food ; where that is furnished in large quantities, the stomach di- 

 lates to answer the increase. In domestic animals, that are plentiful- 

 ly supplied, it is large ; in the wild animals, that live precariously, it 

 is much more contracted, and the intestines are much shorter. 



In this manner, all animals are fitted by nature to fill up some pe- 

 culiar station. The greatest animals are made for an inoffensive life, 

 to range the plains and the forest without injuring others ; to live upon 

 the productions of the earth, the grass of the field, or the tender 

 branches of trees These, secure in their own strength, neither fly 

 from any other quadrupeds nor yet attack them : nature, to the great- 

 est strength, has added the most gentle and harmless dispositions ; 

 without this, those enormous creatures would be more than a match 

 for all the rest of the creation ; for what devastation might not ensue 

 were the elephant, or the rhinoceros, or the buffalo, as fierce and as 

 mischievous as the tiger or the rat? In order to oppose these larger 

 animals, and in some measure to prevent their exuberance, there is a 

 species of the carnivorous kind, of inferior strength indeed, but ol 

 greater activity and cunning. The lion and the tiger generally watch 

 for the larger kinds of prey, attack them at some disadvantage, aud 

 commonly jump upon them by surprise. None of the carnivorous 

 kinds, except the dog alone, will make a voluntary attack, but with 

 the odds on their side. They are all cowards by nature, and usually 

 catch their prey by a bound from some lurking place, seldom attempt- 

 ing to invade them openly ; for the larger beasts are too powerful for 

 them, and the smaller too swift. 



A lion does not willingly attack a horse ; and then only when com- 

 pelled by the keenest hunger. The combats between a lion and a 

 horse are frequent enough in Italy ; where they are both inclosed in 

 a kind of amphitheatre, fitted for that purpose. The lion always ap- 

 proaches wheeling about, while the horse presents his hinder parts to 

 the enemy. The lion in this manner goes round and round, still nar- 

 rowing his circle, till he comes to the proper distance to make his 

 spring ; just at the time the lion springs, the horse lashes with botlt 

 legs from behind, and, in general, the odds are in his favour : it moie 

 often happening that the lion is stunned, and struck motionless by UK 



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