CANIS. 



the dog, subject to madness, communi- 

 cated also by bite, but generally coming 

 on in winter rather than in summer. In 

 the north of Europe they live much on 

 seals, and extending their excursions far 

 on the ice, when that is detached, in 

 consequence of a change of weather, 

 from the land, they are carried off into 

 the ocean, and express the sense of their 

 dreadful and insuperable danger by the 

 most bitter bowlings of despair. 



There is no animal, whose carnivorous 

 appetite is stronger than that of the wolf, 

 and he is endowed by nature with all the 

 means of satisfying it, being strong, agile, 

 subtle, and enabled not only to explore, 

 but to seize and subdue his prey. 



By the perpetual war in which he is in- 

 volved with man, however, he is often re- 

 duced to extreme difficulties, and driven 

 far into wilds and forests, where the means 

 of satisfying his appetite are scarcely to 

 be found : remoteness from human habi- 

 tation, in proportion as it adds to his scar- 

 city, embarrases his subsistence. The 

 urgency of his wants drives him back to 

 those dangers which he was eager to 

 shun, and inspires him often with courage 

 by no means natural to him, and rising to 

 all the vehemence of fury and distraction. 

 He will in these circumstances of pressure 

 make no scruple of attacking women and 

 children, and occasionally assault and de- 

 vour men. The Paris gazette for 1764, 

 states the ravages and devastation by 

 one of these creatures, near Languedoc, 

 to have comprehended the destruction 

 of no less than twenty persons. It will 

 devour its own species as well as the 

 human. It is remarkable for suspicion, for 

 terror at the sound of a trumpet, for ex- 

 quisite acuteness of smell, for its endu- 

 rance of extreme cold and hunger, for 

 its fearfulness of a cord or rope drawn 

 along the ground, and for leaping over 

 fences rather than passing through doors 

 or gates. When taken young, its sa- 

 vage character has, by assiduous educa- 

 tion, been not merely greatly mitigated, 

 but, in a few instances, completely sub- 

 dued. The time of gestation in the wolf 

 is 100 days, being forty more than that 

 of the dog, which may be considered as a 

 radical difference between these species 

 of animals. See Mammalia, Plate VI. 

 fig. 2. 



C. hyaena, or the striped hyaena. These 

 animals are generally about the size of a 

 large dog, and abound in many parts of 

 Asia and Africa. They have been al- 

 most universally believed to be untame- 

 able, but several decided instances to the 



contrary have occurred. Their manners, 

 however, are particularly untractable 

 and ferocious, and truly indicated by 

 that unremitted gloom and malice ex- 

 pressed in their countenance. They in- 

 habit, principally, rocks and caves, and, 

 shunning the light of day, avail them- 

 selves of darkness to commit their depre- 

 dations. They feed not only on prey 

 which they have themselves killed, but 

 putrid carcases supply them with a de- 

 licious banquet, and the bodies of the 

 dead are often, with most persevering la- 

 bour, torn up from their graves in 

 churchyards, where they have sometime 

 been deposited, and devoured with the 

 keenest relish. They follow the motions 

 of contending armies, anticipating, by the 

 associations furnished from experience, 

 and which are formed in the inferior ani- 

 mals as well as in man, the feast to be 

 supplied from human conflict and car- 

 nage. When they are first put in mo- 

 tion, they appear, as is not uncommon 

 with dogs, to labour under some fracture 

 or dislocation in their hind legs. This, 

 however, in a short time totally vanishes. 

 In Syria, and about Algiers, they live 

 mnch, if not principally, on bulbous roots, 

 in the choice of which they are uncom- 

 monly fastidious. In Barbary, the Moors 

 will not hesitate to pull the hyaena by the 

 ears in the day-time, and, indeed, experi- 

 ence from it no attempt at injury : they 

 will even enter his cave with a torch, 

 and throwing a blanket over him, hawl 

 him out without any inconvenience. In 

 the same country some small animals 

 have been shut up with a hyaena fasting, 

 during a whole day, and yet have been 

 found alive and uninjured ; but by night, 

 a young ass, a goat, and a fox, locked up 

 with one, were destroyed, and, excepting 

 some of the larger bones of the ass, com- 

 pletely devoured before morning. 



In Abyssinia these animals are nearly 

 equally active aud bold by day and night. 

 They abound in every part, and are 

 scarcely less numerous even than sheep. 

 Mr. Bruce complains of their being the 

 plague of his life in that country, the 

 terror of his night-walks, and the destruc- 

 tion of his mules and asses, which were, 

 with them a favourite food. One night, 

 having, for a moment, quitted his tent, 

 where he had previously heard some 

 noise within it, the cause of which, how- 

 ever, he was unable to discover, and had 

 ceased to think of, he observed on his 

 return, in the dark, two large blue eyes 

 most fixedly glaring on him. A light 

 being speedily brought, he discovered, 



