SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 625 



Hyaena has concealed himself with a burning torch, throw- 

 ing a blanket over his head, and tying his feet, as if he were 

 a calf; and the people in the Moorish towns, when they 

 meet hyasnas in the streets, will frequently, we are told, pull 

 them by the ears in sport, without their offering any other 

 resistance than to pull back. Fierce and ravenous as these 

 animals are when prowling for their prey, they are yet ca- 

 pable of domestication, and become as submissive as a dog. 

 But they pine and fret under a deprivation of liberty, and 

 when chained or confined in a cell like wild beasts, preserve 

 the fierceness and indocility distinctive of their rudest condi- 

 tion. The Hysenas certainly approach very near, in certain 

 characters, to the Dog; and it is just possible, that the blood of 

 this rude and ravenous creature may have been mingled with 

 that of certain domesticated breeds. It is said that the Dogs 

 of some of the African tribes have much of the aspect of this 

 animal ; and even in our own country, we sometimes see, in 

 the case of the larger dogs fed on the garbage of shambles, 

 something like an approach to the marking of the fur, the ex- 

 pression of the eyes, and general appearance, of these animals. 



But the true Canidse are certain species of Dogs which exist 

 in the Old and New Continents, including, 1st, the Wolves, the 

 Jackals, and Foxes, so called ; 2dly, various species of Wild 

 Dogs, which approach more or less to the typical forms of 

 the Wolf, the Jackal, and the Fox, and which might, doubt- 

 less, were our knowledge of them sufficiently precise, be in- 

 cluded in one or other of these generic forms ; and, 3dly, the 

 Fennecs, or Zerdas, little animals of the Dog kind, inhabit- 

 ing the African Continent. 



Of these animals, the Wolf is that which, from his num- 

 bers, and the terrible ravages which his sanguinary appetites, 

 his hardihood, and surpassing sagacity, have enabled him 

 to inflict on other animals, has excited the greatest interest, 

 and, in every age, been placed in a painful relation with the 

 ruder as well as the more civilized inhabitants of countries. 

 His howlings in the dead of night, or when the moon shines 



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