t 8 ] 
circumfiance, by thofe who have raifed male Canary 
birds [d]. 
Monf. de Buffon’s expreffion is, cc J’ai fait elever 
£C des hafes avec des lapins,” which at firft feems to 
imply that he had reared them from their earlieft 
infancy. 
Upon confulting however the didiionary of Tre- 
voux, the compilers inform us the word Elever jV] 
often fignifies the feeding and keeping an animal, 
without refpedt to its age ; and they cite its being ap- 
plied to elephants in Europe, which it is believed 
never bred in that quarter of the globe. 
But the bed ex poll tor of the fenfe in which an au- 
thor ufes a word is in other parts of the fame work. 
In the fifth Vol. of his Natural Hiftory, p. 210. 
Monf. de Buffon gives an account of his making 
the fame fort of experiment between the Wolf and 
a Dog, in the following words : 
<c J’ai fait clever une louve prife dans les bois, 
6C de deux ou trois mois.” 
In this pafiage, the word is applied to a wolf, of 
three months old, and to fhew that Monf. de Buf- 
fon did not think the age at which the animal is 
confined to be material in fuch an experiment, he 
immediately afterwards ftates, that he caught fome 
[d~\ Birds which- differ fpeciftc illy fcarcely ever breed ex- 
cept both are taken early from the neft, and particularly the 
hen ; I have procured a breed from two robins in a cage the 
prefent year-by attending to this circumftance, and I believe I 
could equally fucceed with aim oft any other kind of birds, as 
when they are thus reared, they have not the leaft awe of man. 
[^] “ Elever fignifte, Nourrir auffi, foit plante, foit animal, 
«« & en avoir foln ” 
“ On a de la peine a elever des elephant en Europe.” 
foxes 
