i 9 8 A SPORTING PARADISE 



wolverene, or glutton (Gulo luscus], and I cannot 

 do better than begin by quoting what Audubon 

 describes as the errors and superstitions of Buffo n 

 in relation to the wolverene. Writing of this 

 animal (vol. vii., p. 277), he says : 



" The defect of nimbleness he supplies with 

 cunning : he lies in wait for animals as they pass ; 

 he climbs upon trees in order to dart upon his 

 prey and seize it with advantage ; he 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 themselves against trees ; 

 the enemy, attached to the crupper, or neck, 

 continues to suck their blood, to enlarge the 

 wound, and to devour them gradually with equal 

 voracity, till they fall down. 



" More insatiable and rapacious than the wolf, 

 if endowed with equal agility, the wolverene, or 

 glutton, would destroy all the other animals ; but 

 he moves so heavily that the only animal he is 

 able to overtake is the beaver, whose cabins he 

 sometimes attacks and devours the whole, unless 

 they quickly take to the water, for the beaver 

 outstrips him in swimming. When he perceives 

 that his prey has escaped, he seizes the fishes ; and 



