168 NOTES ON THE DOG TRIBE. 



for their support ? Certainly, if dogs be grega- 

 rious, and hunt for food in packs, the system 

 appears very imperfect, and is somewhat against 

 the order of nature, by which the dog can always 

 find sufficient food in the wilds, when he is a 

 solitary individual ; but must be sorely pinched 

 at best, and often deprived of the means of obtain- 

 ing it, when congregated, and scouring the country 

 in large, and quarrelsome, and famished packs. 



Civilized man can easily find food and shelter 

 for his packs of hounds ; but there is no such 

 provision in the regions where dogs run wild. 

 Accidental food is all that these last can find. 

 Were wild dogs to hunt in packs, the daily supply 

 of food, would not be sufficient to satisfy the 

 cravings of every individual ; and to prevent star- 

 vation, the pack would soon be obliged to separate, 

 and each dog to hunt for itself. 



The lion, a carnivorous animal, springs upon 

 his prey from a lonely ambush; and has no com- 

 petitor. So it is with the tiger ; and so, I have 

 no doubt, it must be with the wild dog : — because* 

 by steal thy approaches, and in silence, the neigh- 

 bourhood is not alarmed; — and herds which 

 constitute the food of carnivorous animals, would 

 not be driven from their native haunts, But, let 

 a pack of hungry dogs make one or two attacks 



