22 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



and perpetuation. In these battles, which always result in 

 mutilation and death to many, the strong, of course, conquer, 

 and the weak being killed or driven off, are prevented from 

 perpetuating their own imbecility, and thus degenerating the 

 race. All are familiar with the savage contests of the ca- 

 nines, felines, &c. At such periods, even among the grami- 

 nivorous tribes, old Spencer tells of 



"As greet a noyse as when in Cymbrian plain 

 An heard of bulles whome kindly rage doth sting, 



Doe for the milky mother's want complain, 

 And fill the fields with troublous bellowing." 



It is a fact, with regard to the habits of the Mustangs, or 

 wild horses of our great prairies, which we have frequently 

 observed personally, that the weaker stallions are invariably, 

 after desperate contests, either killed or driven into solitary 

 banishment, from which they never return to the herd, until 

 their strength and prowess have been so far developed in the 

 solitude, as to give them some hopes of being able to triumph 

 in a renewed struggle with their conquerors. The mares, in 

 the mean time, are passive observers, and surrender without 

 hesitation, to whichever of the opponents may have demon- 

 strated the right to approach them legitimately. There is a 

 still more curious instance, which we have learned from books, 

 of this stern recognition of the utilitarian principle amongst 

 the lower animals. The stork, which belongs to the old 

 world, and is a migrating bird, furnishes this illustration. It 

 is said, that when the period for their annual journey arrives, 

 all those storks who neighbor in the district assemble, as do 

 our martins and swallows, at a given place, for the purpose 

 of practising their wings, and thoroughly testing their powers 

 of flight, before they set off on their long pilgrimage towards 

 the Orient. After several weeks, spent in serial circlings and 

 evolutions, the stronger storks suddenly fall upon those which 

 have shown, in this probation, such deficient energy of wing, 



