WOLF. 
human cupidity ? Compelled to hide in forests, 
where the few animals found naturally exert all 
their powers to elude the voracious destroyer, 
it finds it's food but little proportioned to it's 
•rapacity. Dull, and pusillanimous, as it is by 
nature, being often reduced to the verge of fa- 
mine, want renders it ingenious, and necessity 
inspires it with courage. Pressed by hunger^ 
it ventures to attack those animals which are 
under the protection of man; and readily car- 
ries ofF sheep, lambs, or small dogs. Succeed- 
ing in a first excursion, it frequently returns ; 
till, w^ounded or hard pressed, by the shep- 
herds or their dogs, it conceals itself all -day . 
in the thickest coverts, and now^ ventures out 
only at night. Then, indeed, it scours the 
countf)'- ; peering round the villages, and car- 
rying ofF whatever animals it finds unprotect- 
ed. It attacks sbeepfolds ; and even scratches 
up, and undermines, the threshokk of doors 
where sheep are housed ; when, entering furi- 
ously, it kills the whole flock before it begins 
to carry off a single carcase. With a whole 
sheep in i^'s mouth, however, it can outrun the 
shepherd. Should these sallies be unattended 
with success, it returns to- the forest: there 
