ORDER CARNASSIER. 339 



specimens are selected for the opposite plate, which exhibit 

 the disparity in the shape of the head and jaws, incident to 

 the domesticated varieties, that have induced the modern 

 subdivisions of this variable race. 



We must now quit these humble companions and faithful 

 friends of Man, and proceed to a review of their rougher 

 and more intractable congeners. 



The docile character of the greater part of these ani- 

 mals must not induce us to forget that we are now treating 

 on genera, decidedly of the true carnivorous type, properly 

 to be termed beasts of prey. Those whom we have hitherto 

 surveyed, were either, in part, frugivorous, and many of 

 them proportionally gentle in their disposition ; or if car- 

 nivorous and cruel, yet wanting strength completely to en- 

 force the demands of their sanguinary appetite, or to allow 

 it any extensive range of annoyance. But the animals now 

 before us, have both the power and the will for devasta- 

 tion and carnage. They may be termed, without impro- 

 priety, the aristrocratic order of the carnivorous tribes, 

 and, like similar orders among men, at certain periods of 

 history, they maintain their pre-eminence, by remorseless 

 rapine, unsated thirst of blood, and inextinguishable fe- 

 rocity. 



Let us not, however, run into the popular error, that 

 the ferocious disposition of the carnivora is unconquerable. 

 It is a common opinion, that these animals, ever thirsting 

 for blood, and stimulated into fury by the mere sight of 

 their prey, are alike insensible to the voice of kindness 

 and the rod of correction, and will resist, by the mere force 

 of their native instinct, every means successfully employed 

 in the taming of other species. Buffon, with his usual 

 eloquence, in speaking of the Tiger, says, " His only in- 

 stinct is a perpetual rage, a blind fury, which knows no- 

 thing, which distinguishes nothing. His disposition is, 



Z 2 



