;joo 



VERTEBRATA. 



THE GLUTTON. 



: ho throws himself down upon elks and reindeer, and fixes so firmly on their bodies with his 

 claws and teeth that nothing can remove him. In vain do the poor victims fly and rub them- 

 selves against trees; the enemy attached to the crupper or the Beck continues to suck their blood, 

 to enlarge the wound, and to devour them gradually and with great voracity, till they fall down 



■lend." 



Buffon, however, though sometimes seduced into exaggeration by the marvelous facility of his 

 style and the lavish flow of his imagination, belonged to an age when what had been said was 

 considered as, of course, done; authority was not the exclusive guide, at least in matters ot 

 science, and therefore his inquiries went behind what was written, the question being, What is th> 

 truth ' Thus he not only corrected many errors of those who had gone before him, but eveii. 

 in Borne eases, recanted his own. Tn regard to the glutton, in a supplementary chapter, he gives 

 an account of one he had actually seen, as follows: "He was so tame that he discovered no fiflro 

 eity, and did not injure any person. His voracity has been as much exaggerated as his ferocity; 

 he ate, ind< ed, a great deal, but when deprived of food he was not importunate. He is rathei 

 wild, avoids water, and moves with a kind of leap. After eating, he covers himself in the • 

 with Btraw. In dbrinking, he laps like a dog. If indulged, he would devour more than four 

 pounds of flesh in a day; he swallows his food voraciously, and almost without chewing." 

 i- tie- plain, unvarnished tale, told from observation. How different from the loose narratioi 

 the "old authors." 



Tie- wolverene i- found in all the high northern latitudes of both continents. It is common 1 1 

 < lanada, and even in Michigan, and thence northward to the Polar Sea, its range extending fron 

 Davis 1 Straits on the east, to the islands of Alaska on the west. The body of the animal isal 

 two feet and a half long; the head is broad and compact, suddenly rounded off on even - side t. 

 form tie- nose; jaws resembling those of a dog in shape; back arched; tail low and bushj ; leg 

 thick and short ; the whole aspect indicating strength without much activity. Fur generally darl 

 brown, passing in the height of winter almost into black. A pale reddish-brown band, more 01 



