ANIMALS*. 455 



goes round and round, still narrowing his circle, till he conies to 

 the proper distance to make his spring ; just at the time the lion 

 springs, the horse lashes with both legs from behind, and, in ge- 

 neral, the odds are in his favour ; it more often happening that 

 the lion is stunned, and struck motionless by the blow, than that 

 he effects his jump between the horse's shoulders. If the lion is 

 Stunned, and left sprawling, the horse escapes, without attempt- 

 mg to improve his victory ; but if the lion succeeds, he sticks to 

 his prey, and tears the horse in pieces, in a very short time. 



But it is not among the larger animals of the forest alone, 

 that these hostilities are carried on ; there is a minuter, and a 

 still more treacherous contest, between the lower ranks of quad- 

 rupeds. The panther hunts for the sheep and the goat ; the 

 catamountain for the hare or the rabbit ; and the wild cat for 

 the squirrel or the mouse. In proportion as each carnivorous 

 animal wants strength, it uses all the assistance of patience, as- 

 siduity, and cunning. However, the arts of these to pursue, are 

 not so great as the tricks of their prey to escape ; so ttiat the 

 power of destruction in one class, is inferior to the power of 

 safety in the other. Were this otherwise, the forest would soon 

 be dispeopled of the feebler races of animals ; and beasts of prey 

 themselves would want, at one time, that subsistence which they 

 lavishly destroyed at another. 



Few wild animals seek their prey in the day-time ; they are 

 then generally deterred by their fears of man in the inhabited 

 countries, and by the excessive heat of the sun in those exten- 

 sive forests that lie towards the south, and in which they reign 

 the undisputed tyrants. As soon as the morning, therefore, 

 appears, the carnivorous animals retire to their dens ; and the 

 elephant, the horse, the deer, and all the hare kinds, those inof- 

 fensive tenants of the plain, make their appearance. But agai:i, 

 at night-fall, the state of hostility begins ; the whole forest then 

 echoes to a variety of different bowlings. Nothing can be mor« 

 terrible than an African landscape at the close of evening ; the 

 deep- toned roarings of the lion ; the shriller yellings of the tiger; 

 the jackal, pursuing by the scent, and barking like a dog; the 

 hjena, with a note peculiarly solitary and dreadful ; but, above 

 bU, the hissing of the various kinds of serpent.", that then begin 

 their call, and, as I ann assured, make a much louder symphony 

 than the birds in our groves in a morning. 



