THE SHE wolf’s BEREAVEMENTS. 
261 
her cubs, and she is not the creature to allow her progeny to be 
seized without defending them. In these conflicts however, maternal 
love is stronger than the desire of vengeance, and there are a hund- 
red examples of wolves that instead of springing at the throat of 
the kidnapper, have only thought of regaining their little ones and 
carrying them off in their mouths, one after another, to the depths 
of the forest. ^ 
Now the destroyers of wolf cubs, who are well acquainted with 
the procedures of these poor mothers, know how to profit by the 
intervals which elapse between each trip, and by means of a small 
sacrifice they always succeed in saving the greater part of their 
booty. It is by the same means, relates the legend of Bengal, 
that the tiger-catchers succeed in procuring young individuals of 
this family, and in escaping the murderous tooth of the tigress. 
Here, indeed, the robber takes good care to avoid a meeting with 
the mother, who would not let him off so easily as the she wolf ; 
and his tactics consist in putting down the new-born creatures on 
the road, to occupy the mother during the time that is necessary 
for him to gain a place of safety. 
The loss of her children has often produced on the she wolf the 
same effects as the fast too long and rigorous. She has been 
seen to fall into violent fits of madness in consequence of this cruel 
blow. But the civilizees will not even accord to the poor beast 
the excuse of despair. Like all animals endowed with a subtle 
smell, like the dog, like the fox ; the wolf never attacks his prey 
except by stealing up under the wind, so that the effluvia of his 
body and the noise of his step may not reach it. 
The season when the wolf is most to be feared is that of fogs, 
which make a night of day, and permit the bold thief to stalk un- 
observed into the poultry yard and the sheep fold. The assassins 
and burglars of the capital also consider the days of thick fogs as 
days of good luck. 
The morning after such days, the shelves of La Morgue (the 
dead house) generally offer a richer collection of corpses than the 
evening before. 
The wolf and fox both hunt perfectly well in the daytime when 
a chance is presented. The wolf has from time immemorial prac- 
