HO ANIMALS OF THE 



sticks behind, eating its neck, and digging its 

 passage to the great blood-vessels that lie in that 

 part. Travellers who wander through those de- 

 serts, often see pieces of the glutton's skin stick- 

 ing to the trees, against which it was rubbed by 

 the deer. But the animal's voracity is greater 

 than its feelings, and it never seizes without bring- 

 ing down its prey. When, therefore, the deer, 

 wounded and feeble with the loss of blood, falls, 

 the glutton is seen to make up for its former 

 abstinence by its present voracity. As it is not 

 possessed of a feast of this kind every day, it re- 

 solves to lay in a store to serve it for a good while 

 to come. It is indeed amazing how much one of 

 these animals can eat at a time ! That which was 

 seen by M. Klein, although without exercise or 

 air, although taken from its native climate, and 

 enjoying but an indifferent state of health, was 

 yet seen to eat thirteen pounds of flesh every day, 

 and yet remain unsatisfied. We may, therefore, 

 easily conceive how much more it must devour at 

 once, after a long fast, of a food of its own pro- 

 curing, and in the climate most natural to its con- 

 stitution. We are told, accordingly, that from 

 being a lank thin animal, which it naturally is, it 

 then gorges in such quantities, that its belly is 

 distended, and its whole figure seems to alter. 

 Thus voraciously it continues eating, till, incapa- 

 ble of any other animal function, it lies totally 

 torpid by the animal it has killed, and in this 

 situation continues for two or three days. In 

 this loathsome and helpless state it finds its chief 

 protection from its horrid smell, which few ani- 



