ANIMALS. 289 



may, tliei'efore, easily conceive how much more it must devour 

 at, once, after a long f'asl, of a food of its own procnn-ing, and in 

 the climate most natural to its constitution. We are told, a<-- 

 cordingly, 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 iigure seems to alter. Thus voraciously it conti- 

 nues eating, till, incapable 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 animals care tc come near ;' so that it continues eating and 

 sleeping till its prey be devoured, bones and all, and then it 

 mounts a tree, in quest of another adventure. 



The glutton, like many others of the weasel kind, seems to 

 prefer the most putrid flesh to that newly killed ; and such is 

 the voraciousness of this hateful creature, that, if its swiftness 

 and strength were equal to its rapacity, it would soon thin the 

 forest of every other living creature. But, fortunately, it is 

 so slow, that there is scarcely a quadruped that cannot escape it, 

 except the beaver. This, therefore, it very frequently pursues 

 upon land ; but the beaver generally makes good its retreat by 

 taking to the water, where the glutton has no chance to succeed. 

 This pursuit only happens in summer ; for in the winter all that 

 remains is to attack the beaver's house, as at that time it never 

 stirs from home. This attack, however, seldom succeeds ; for 

 the beaver has a covert way bored under the ice, and the glutton 

 has only the trouble and disappointment of sacking an empty 

 town. 



A life of necessity generally produces a good fertile invention. 

 The glutton, continually pressed by the call of appetite, and hav- 

 ing neither swiftness nor activity to satisfy it, is obliged to make 

 up by stratagem the defects of nature. It is often seen to exa- 

 mine the traps and the snares laid for other animals, in order to 

 anticipate the fowlers. It is said to practise a thousand arts to 

 procure its prey, to steal upon the retreats of the rein-deer, 

 the flesh of which animal it loves in preference to all others ; 

 to lie in wait for such animals as have been maimed by the hunt- 

 ers ; to pursue the isatis \\hile it is hunting for itself: and when 

 that animal has run down its prey, to come in a>id and seize up- 

 1 Lniiia-'i Systeniii, p. fi7. 

 H. 2h 



