CHAP. IX. ASSOCIATIONS FOB HUNTING. 373 



lowship, it may be, continues ; but when the booty is 

 obtained, all community is dissolved, and they either 

 quarrel among themselves over their prize, or at once 

 disperse. There is not, in fact, any other motive for 

 uniting together than mere selfishness. How truly, un- 

 fortunately, does this typify the temporary union of 

 those of the human species, who unite, in lawless bands, 

 to pillage and destroy ; who carry misery and blood- 

 shed among the innocent, for the sole gratification of 

 their insatiable appetites. The hyaenas, the wild dogs, 

 the wolves, the jackals, and the hunting leopards, are 

 all striking and familiar instances of such associations. 

 So long as food can be supplied by individual exertion, 

 each appears to provide for itself ; but when this be- 

 comes scarce, or a herd of peaceful antelopes are passing 

 on their migration, they instinctively unite into bands, 

 and commence a simultaneous attack upon their inno- 

 cent prey. These habits are so well known, that to 

 cite individual instances would be superfluous. It may 

 be, that the dog, in his wild state, not only hunts, but 

 lives, in packs : but this does not diminish the force of 

 the observation ; because, as this animal is intended 

 by nature to typify the ruminants in its own family, 

 we should naturally expect it would give us the strong- 

 est example of docility and tractability, under man, of 

 any to be found among carnivorous quadrupeds. 



(28?.) 3. Among birds, many of the falcons, and other 

 birds of prey, unite for the same purpose. The innu- 

 merable flocks of quails, rollers, bee-eaters, and other 

 birds, which annually perform two migrations from and 

 to the shores of Africa, are always followed by great 

 numbers of the lesser sized falcons, which hang on 

 their flanks and rear, picking up the stragglers, or such 

 as, through weakness, cannot keep up with the main 

 flock. We have repeatedly witnessed assemblies of this 

 sort, at such seasons, in the island of Sicily, where fif- 

 teen or twenty falcons may be seen together, high in 

 the air, having all the appearance of sociability, but 

 which disperse and become solitary so soon as the quails 

 T 



