BOOK II. 



OF RUMINATING ANIMALS. 



CHAP. I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Of all animals, those that chew the cud are the most harmless, 

 and the m.ost easily tamed. As they live entirely upon vegeta- 

 bles, it is neither then interest nor their pleasure to make war 

 upon the rest of the brute creation ; content with the pastures 

 where they are placed, they seldom desire to change, while they 

 are furnished with a proper supply ; and fearing nothing from 

 each other, they generally go in herds for their mutual security. 

 All the fiercest of the carnivorous kinds seek their food in 

 gloomy solitude ; these, on the contrary, range together ; the 

 very meanest of them are found to unite in each other's defence ; 

 and the hare itself is a gregarious animal, in those countries 

 where it has no other enemies but the beasts of the forest to 

 guard against. 



As the food of ruminant animals is entirely of the vegetable 

 kind, and as this is very easily procured, so these animals seem 

 naturally more indolent and less artful than those of the carni- 

 vorous kinds ; and as their appetites are more simple, their in- 

 stincts seem to be less capable of variation. The fox or the 

 wolf are for ever prowling ; their long habits of want give them 

 a degree of sharpness and cunning; their life is a continued 

 scene of stratagem and escape : but the patient ox, or the deer, 

 enjoy the repast that nature has abundantly provided ; certain of 

 subsistence, and content with security. 



As nature has furnished these animals with an appetite for 

 such coarse and simple nutriment, so she bas enlarged the capa- 

 city of the intestines, to take in a greater supply. In the carni- 

 vorous kinds, as their food is nourishing and juicy, their stomachs 

 1. 2 X 



