NOTES ON THE DOG TRIBE. 169 



upon the congregated multitudes of herbaceous 

 animals, and then we may rest assured that these 

 last would take the alarm, and would fly for ever 

 from their once peaceful abodes. 



So that, we may consider it a most wise pro- 

 vision in the economy of nature, that, on account 

 of food alone, herbaceous animals should be 

 gregarious, and carnivorous ones, the solitary 

 inhabitants of countries where Omnipotence has 

 ordered them to range. 



I do not deny, but that half-a-dozen individuals 

 of a canine family, occasionally may be observed 

 in the act of scouring along a plain, or traversing 

 a wood in company : — for I myself have counted 

 two old stoats with their five half-grown young- 

 ones, crossing the road before me, as in quest 

 of something. Another time, some thirty years 

 ago, before the park wall was finished, I had a 

 brood of foxes in a stony thicket. One evening, 

 towards the middle of autumn, as I was sitting 

 on a bank, with my loaded air-gun waiting for 

 rabbits, the two parent foxes and five young ones, 

 all in a line, passed before me, not more than 

 fifty yards distant. I remained fixed as a statue. 

 They were cantering away, when one of the 

 young foxes spied me. He stopped and gave 

 mouth. This was more than I could bear ; so, as 



