358 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



close to the town, can never be approached by the most cautious 

 sportsmen ; they climb with the greatest facility among frightful 

 precipices, where neither dogs nor men can follow, and thus 

 their preservation is effected by the possession of one single 

 faculty. 



Although destitute of defensive weapons, the bats are secured 

 from many hostile attacks by their nocturnal habits and their 

 peculiar mode of flight. Their evolutions are so rapid, that the 

 owl, who is supposed to be their greatest enemy, is quite unable 

 to catch them on the wing ; though, as he inhabits the same 

 lonely spots caves, grottos, ruins he may chance to surprise 

 them while they are reposing in their dismal haunts. The cats 

 and the weasels, unable to follow them through the air, can only 

 seize such of them as by some accident have fallen to the ground ; 

 and thus, although seemingly so helpless, they have in reality 

 scarcely any foe to dread but man, who, instead of protecting 

 and fostering these highly useful animals whose services are 

 the more to be valued as they chiefly, with their companions the 

 goatsuckers, prey upon crepuscular and nocturnal insects 

 foolishly persecutes and destroys them. 



The ruminants, whose tender flesh so mightily excites the 

 appetite of the felidse, frequently evade or baffle these for- 

 midable enemies. In addition to great swiftness, which soon 

 carries them out of the reach of danger, they have also the 

 means of repelling it. Their heads are furnished with strong 

 pointed horns, by which they can not only rebut their adver- 

 sary and keep him at bay, but even toss him in the air and 

 pierce him to death. 



The power of the bovine races is well known even in their 

 domesticated condition, but in the wild state they are much 

 more formidable. The East Indian buffalo will set even the 

 savage tiger at defiance ; for though singly he may find it difficult 

 to withstand the sharp claws and furious onset of his for- 

 midable enemy, yet when belonging to a herd, his companions 

 immediately come to his assistance and put the brute to flight. 

 The Indian herdsman, trusting to the spirit of these courageous 

 ruminants, is therefore not in the least afraid of leading them 

 into a jungle infested by tigers. Captain Eice once saw a 

 troop of buffalos, excited by the blood of a tiger he had wounded, 

 throw themselves furiously into the thicket where the beast had 



