78 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. III. 



ball : not, however, before many travellers and villagers 

 had fallen victims to his ferocity. 



(96.) Ounces, leopards, conguars, lynxes, weazels, 

 polecats, and, indeed, all the carnivorous animals, how- 

 ever small, are extremely fierce by nature ; and even 

 the wild cat of Britain has all the dangerous qualities, 

 in a less degree, of its kindred species. The hamster 

 rat (Mus Cricetus) is said to attack every creature that 

 comes in its way, without reference to their size or 

 superiority ; to be the victim of the blindest rage ; and 

 to allow himself to be beaten to pieces, rather than 

 submit. He even wars with his own species, without 

 excepting the females ; and their battle terminates only 

 with the death of one of the combatants, which, after- 

 wards, serves as a repast to the cruel victor. The 

 Myrmecophaga jubata, or great anteater (fig. 18.), is, 



although a harmless animal when unmolested, stated to 

 be an unrelenting foe when once it gets its enemy 

 within its reach ; it is then said to fix its claws firmly 

 into the sides of its antagonist, and will suffer itself to 

 be destroyed sooner than relinquish its hold, even of a 

 dead adversary. 



(97.) Cowardice, which, in man, is the usual ac- 

 companiment of an ungenerous, or an ignoble spirit, is 

 equally conspicuous in such brutes as are the most 

 treacherous and bloodthirsty. " Persons unacquainted," 

 observes Williamson, " with the true character of the 

 tiger, would expect to see him (in those fights which 

 are sometimes exhibited in India, between this animal 

 and the buffalo) attack his adversary as soon as he 

 entered the area; but, no; as soon as the buffalo 



