LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



shadow of a doubt in my mind that the sensations 

 of an animal fleeing from a hawk or fox, or even 

 struggling in its grasp, are much the same as 

 those of the foot-ball player or the fencer, neither 

 of whom is exactly to be pitied. So that on the 

 whole it seems safe to conclude that the life of 

 our wild animals is happy in spite of occasional 

 periods of hunger and thirst. Cold appears 

 hardly to affect them at all, except when they are 

 weakened by hunger ; and though ill-health is not 

 by any means unknown among them, it would 

 appear to be almost wholly confined to the vege- 

 table-eaters whose food-supply is most abundant 

 and easily procured. The flesh-eaters, probably 

 owing to their more active lives, enjoy apparently 

 unbroken health, though the habit most of them 

 have of gorging themselves to the utmost extent 

 of their capacity after a successful kill would 

 ruin any ordinary digestion ; but probably their 

 frequent periods of enforced fasting counteract 

 the effects of over-eating. 



i6 



