6 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



not adapted. Pigeons can be brought to feed on flesh, 

 and hawks on bread. Sheep, when covered with snow, 

 have been known to eat the wool off each other's backs. 



The various diseases to which animals are subject, tend 

 greatly to shorten the period of their existence. With the 

 methods of cure employed by different species, we are but 

 little acquainted. Few accurate observations appear to 

 have been made on the subject. Dogs frequently effect a 

 cure of their sores, by licking them. They eat grass to ex- 

 cite vomiting ; and probably to cleanse their intestines from 

 obstructions, or worms, by its mechanical effects. Many 

 land animals promote their health by bathing, others by 

 rolling themselves in the dust. By the last operation, they 

 probably get rid of the parasitical insects with which they 

 are infected. 



But independent of scarcity, or disease, comparatively 

 few animals live to the ordinary term of natural death. 

 There is a wasteful war every where raging in the animal 

 kingdom. Tribe is divided against tribe, and species a- 

 gainst species, and neutrality is nowhere respected. Those 

 which are preyed uppn, have certain means which they em- 

 ploy to avoid the foe ; but the rapacious are likewise qua- 

 lified for the pursuit. The exercise of the feelings of be- 

 nevolence may induce us to confine our attention to the for- 

 mer, and adore that goodness which gives shelter to the de- 

 fenceless, and protection to the weak, while we may be dis- 

 posed to turn, precipitately, from viewing the latter ; lest 

 we discover marks of cruelty, where we wished to contem- 

 plate nothing but kindness. These feelings are usually the 

 companions of circumscribed and partial observation, and 

 fall far short of the object at which they aim. 



It would be impious in us to inquire why the waster has 

 been created to destroy. It is enough if we know that ra- 

 pacious animals occupy a station in the scale of being. And,, 



