206 THE WOLVERENE. 



agility the Glutton would destroy all the other animals ; but he moves so 

 heavily that the only animal he is able to overtake in the com-se is the 

 beaver, whose cabins he sometimes attacks, and devours the whole unless 

 they quickly take to the w^ater, for the beaver outstrips him in swimming. 

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

 when he can find no living creature to destroy, he goes in quest of the 

 dead, whom he digs up from their graves and devours with avidity." 



Even the intelligent Gmelin, who revised and made considerable addi- 

 tions to the great work of Linn^us, on a visit to the North of Europe im- 

 bibed many of the notions of the Siberian hunters, and informs us, with- 

 out however giving full credence to the account, that the Wolverene 

 " watches large animals like a robber, or surprises them \vhen asleep," 

 that " he prefers the reindeer," and that " after having darted do^\'Ti from 

 a tree like an arrow upon the animal, he sinks his teeth into its body and 

 gnaws the flesh till it expires ; after which he devours it at his ease, and 

 swallows both the hair and skin." 



However, although Buffon in his earlier history of the species, adopted 

 and published the errors of previous writers, he subsequently corrected 

 them and gave in a supplementary chapter not onlj' a tolerable figure but 

 a true historj^ He received a Wolverene alive from the northern part 

 of Russia, and preserved it for more than eighteen months at Paris. And 

 when the Count was thus enabled to examine into its habits, as thej^ were 

 developed from day to day, he found them of a very ordinary charac- 

 ter, and it was discovered to be an animal possessing no very striking 

 peculiarities. He informs us, " He was so tame that he discovered no 

 ferocity and did not injure any person. His voracity has been as much 

 exaggerated as his cruelty ; he indeed ate a great deal, but when de- 

 prived of food he was not importunate." 



" The animal is pretty mild ; he avoids water, and dreads horses, and 

 men dressed in black. He moves by a kind of leap, and eats pretty vo- 

 raciously. After taking a full meal he covers himself in the cage Avith 

 straw. When drinking he laps like a dog. He utters no cry. After 

 drinking, he throws the remainder of the water on his belly with his 

 paws. He is almost perpetually in motion. If allowed he would devour 

 more than four pounds of flesh in a day; he eats no bread, and devours 

 his food so voraciously, and almost without chewing, that he is apt to 

 choke himself." 



We have seen this species in a state of confinement in Europe ; the 

 specimens came, vire were informed, from the north of that continent. 

 In Denmark, a keeper of a small caravan of animals allowed us the pri- 

 vilege of examining a Wolverene which he had exhibited for two jears. 



