.4 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
ing tlie legs of the conquered, as though it would not have been 
simpler not to have broken them in the first place. Alas 1 the bird 
of prey und the tiger, who are obliged to live upon flesh, every day 
give proud lessons of humanity to man. They do not hunt among 
themselves, and they kill only to satisfy their hunger. Castagno, 
my hound, believes in his heart that I calumniate my species when 
I relate to him certain human extravagances. The dog is not con- 
tented with having given the herd to man ; he has constituted him- 
self the guardian and defender of the gift which he has given us. 
The enemies of the right of property who see in individual proper- 
ty only its abuses, and who will not agree that the ambition of 
property is also one of the most active stimuli of human labor, 
hardly pardon the dog his ardent sympathies for the law. It is 
ungrateful of them. The dog who defends the sheep and the horse 
against the tooth of the wolf, works for the whole society, and not 
for one man. It is not his fault if man abuses the wealth that he 
has placed in his hands. The passion for hunting is the charac- 
terial dominant of the canine race. The dog, the wolf, and the fox 
employ the same system of hunting. They call each other, and 
unite to attack a beast when its importance requires combination. 
They know its refuges — all have been studied ; they repair to those 
places where they are certain to see it pass, to seize it en route. 
While some are in ambuscade, others lead and give voice on the 
track, to indicate to their accomplices the direction of the animal 
pursued. When they do not succeed in thus capturing the beast 
chased by surprise, they try to run it down. Wolves, who have 
few friends, and who are obliged to behave with extreme pru- 
dence in the neighborhood of settlements, almost always hunt 
dumb. I have several times been in a position to admire the deep 
subtlety of their strategic combinations — their calculation and sa- 
gacity are frightful. All these animals, especially the wolf, prac- 
tice the procedure of relays from time immemorial. The relay is 
a squadron of dogs, or of fresh wolves, that hold themselves on 
the presumed passage of the beast hunted, to take the place of the 
fatigued hunters, so as not to leave the unhappy victim one mo- 
ment of rest. There is no forester who may not have heard the 
fox, hunting by night. The warbling of the jackal makes the 
