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«;PECIAL nOLLFCTIONS

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DATE

This book must not be
taken from the Library
building.

LIDranr Bureau

Barrs Buffon.

BufFon's Natural History.

CONTAINING

A THEORY OF THE EARTH,

A GENERAL

HIS TOR Y OF MAN,

OF THE BRUTE CREATION, AND OF
VEGETABLES, MINERALS,

FROM THE FRENCH.
WITH NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR.

» IN TEN VOLUMES.

VOL. VII.

ELontion :

PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETOR,
AND SOLD BY H. D. SYMONDS, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1807.

T. Gillet, Printer, Wild court.

CONTENTS

OF

THE SEVENTH VOLUME.

Of Carnivorous Animals.

Pa^e

fe

Of Tigers - - • - 1

Animals of the Old Continent - - 4

Animals of the New TVorld - - 24

Animals common to both Continents - S3

The Tiger - . . 57

The Panther^ Ounce^ and Leopard - 68

The Jaguar - - - 81

The Cougar - - - 87

The Lynx - - 92

TheHi/cBna - - - 107

The Civet and the Zibet - - 117

The Genet - - 129

The Black Wolf - - 132
The Canadian Muslcrat, and the3Tuscovj/

Musk-rat - - 133

The Peccariy or Mexican Hog - 141

The

'^^i

\^^^

[ iv ]

Page

The Rousette^ or Ternat Bat, the RougettCy

or Little Ternat, and the Vampyre 149

The Senegal Bat - - 162

The Bull'dog Bat - - 163

The Bearded Bat - - 164:

The striped Bat - - 165

The Polatouch - - 165

The Grey Squirrel - - 173
The Palmist, the Squirrel ofBarbar?/ and

Switzerland - - 177

The Jnt Eaters - - 181

The Long and Short-tailed Manis 193

The Armadillo - - 197

The Three-banded - - 202

Six-handed - - 205

Eight-handed - - ^07

^ine-banded - - 208

Twelve-banded - - ^iO

Eighteen-handed - - :212

The Paca - r :g22

The Opossum - - 229

The Marmose - - 251

The Cayopollin - - 253

The Elephant - - • 255

The Rhinoceros - - 322

BUFFON'S

NATURAL HISTORY.

OF CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS.

OF TIGERS.

A S the word Tiger is a generic name, given
several animals of different species, it is
proper to begin witlidistinguisliing tliera from
each other. Leopards and Panthers have
often been confounded together, and are called
Tigers by most travellers. The Ounce, a small
species of Panther, which is easilj' tamed, and
used by the Orientals in the chace, has been
taken for the Panther itself, and described as
such by the name of Tiger. The Lynx, and
that called the Lion's provider, have also some-
times received the name of Panther, and sorae-
yoL, VII. B times

N. C. State College

BtirroN^s

times Ounce. In Africa, and in (lie soulherfl
parts of Asia, these animals are common ; but
the real tiger, and the only one wliich ought to
be so called, is scarce, was little known by the
ancients, and is badly described by the mo-
derns. Aristotle does not mention him ; and
Pliny merely speaks of him as an animal of
prodigious velocity ; tremendce 'celocitatis ani"
mal;* adding, that lie was a much more
scarce animal than the Panther, since Augus-
tirs presented the first to the Romans at the
dedication of the theatre of Marcellus, while
so early as the time af Scaurus, this zEdile sent
150 panthers, and afterwards 400 were given
by Pompryy and 420 by Augustus, to the
public sliewsat Rome. Pliny, however, gives
no description of the tiger, or any of its cha-
racteristics. Oppian and Solinus appear to
be the first who observed that the tiger is mark-
ed with long streaks, and the panther with
round spots. This, indeed, is one of the cha-
racteristics which distinguibhes the true tiger
from a number of animals that have been so
called. Strabo, in speaking of the real tiger,
gives Mogasthenes as his authority, for saying
that iu India there are tigers twice as large as
the lion. The tiger then stands described by
the ancients as an animal that is fierce and.

* Pliny Nat. Hist. lib. viii. cap. xviii.

swift.

NATURAL HISTORY. 3

swiff, marked with long stripes, and exceeding
the lion in size ; nor has Gesner, nor the other
modern naturalists, who have treated of the
tiger, added any thing to these observations of
the ancients.

In the French language all those skins of
which the hair is short, and are marked with
round and distinct spots, are called tiger-skin&,
and travellers sharing in this error, have called
all animals so marked by the general name of
tigers ; even the academy of sciences have
been borne away by this torrent, and have
adopted the appellation to all, although by
dissection they found them materially different.

The most general cause, as we intimated in
the article of the lion, of these ambiguous terms
in Natural History, arose from the necessity of
giving names to the unknown productions of
the New World, and thus the animals were
called after such of the old continent to whom
they had the smallest resemblance. From the
general denomination of tiger to every animal
whose skin was spotted, instead of one species
of that name, we now have nine or ten, and
consequently the history of these animals is
exceedingly embarrassed, writers have applied
to one species what ought to have been ascribed
to another.

To dispel the confusion which necessarily

results

buffon's

rcsuKs from these erroneous denominations,
particularly among those which have been
commonly called iigers, I have resolved to give
a comparative enumeration of quadrupeds, in
which I shall distinguish, 1. Those which are
peculiar to the old continent, and were not
found in America when first discovered. 2.
Those which are natives of the new continent,
and were unknown in the old. 3. Those which
existing alike in both continents, without hav-
ing been carried from one to tlie other by man,
may be considered as common to both. For
which purpose it has been necessary to collect
and arrange the scattered accounts given by
the historians of America, and those who first
visited this continent as travellers.

ANIMALS OF THE OLD CONTINENT.

AS the largest animals are the best known,
and about which there i? the least uncertainly,
in this enumeration they shall follow^ nearly
according to their sizie.

Elephants belong to the Old World ; the
largest are found in Asia, and the smallest in

Africa*

NAtURAL HISTORY. 5

Africa. They are natives of the hottest cli-
mates, and, thonn^h they will live, they cannot
multiply in temperate ones; they do not propa*
gale even in their own countries after they are
deprived of their liberty. Tliough confined
to the southern parts of the old Cvontiiient their
species is numerous. li is unknown in Ame-
rica, nor is there any animal there that can be
compared to it in size and figure. The same
remark applies to the Rhiiioceros, which is less
numerous than the elephant; he is confined to
the desarts of Africa, and the forests of south-
ern Asia; nor has America any animal that
resembles him.

The Hippopotamus inhabits the banks of the
large rivers of India and Africa, and is less nu-
merous than the Rhinoceros. It is not found
in America, nor even in the temperate climates
of the Old Continent.

The Caniel and Dromedary, so apparently
similar, yet in reality so dissimilar, are very-
common in Asia and Arabia, and in all theeast-
ern parts of the ancient continent. The name
of camel has been given to the Lama and Pacos
of Peru, which arc so different i'rom the camel
as by some to have been called sheep, and by
oihers camels of Peru; though the picos has
nothing in common with t!ie European sheep
but the wool, and the lama resembles the camel

only

6 buffon's

only by the length of its neck. The Spaniards
formerly carried camels to Peru ; they left them
first at the Canaries, -whence they afterwards
transported them to America ; but the climate
of the new world does not seem favourable to
them, for (hou<^h they produced, their num-
bers have always remained very small.

The Giraffe or Camelopard, an animal re-
markable fur its height, and the length of i(s
neck and forelegs, is a native of Africa, parti-
cularly EtIiiopia,and has never spread beyond
the tropics iu the teinijerate climales of the old
continent.

In the preceding article wc have seen that
the lion exists not in America, and that the
puma of Peru is an animal of a different spe-
cies ; and we shall now find that the tiarer
and panther belong also to the old continent,
and that the animals of South America, to
whom those names have been applied, are also
different. The real tiger is a terrible animal,
and more, perhaps, to be dreaded than the lion
himself. His ferocity is beyond comparison;
but an idea of his strength may be drawn from
his size ; he is generally from four to five feet
high, and from nine to fourteen in length,
without including his tail; his skin is not
covered with round spots, but with black
stripes upon a yellow ground, which extend

across

NATURAL HISTORY. 7

across f^e boJy, and form rings from one end
of the tail to tbe otiicr. These characteristics
alone are sufficient to distinguish him from all
the animals of prey belonging to the new con-
tinent, as the largest of them scarcely ever ex-
ceed the size of our mastiffs. The leopard and
panther of Africa and Asia, though much
smaller than the tiger, are larger than the ra-
pacious animals of South America. Pliny,
whose testimony cannot be doubted (since pan-
thers were daily exposed, in his time, at ihe
theatres in Rome), indicates their esscnti d cha-
racteristics, by saying, their hair is whiiish, di-
Tersified throughout with black spots, like eyes,
and that the only difference between ihe male
and female were the superior whiteness of her
hair.

The American animals, which have been
called tigers, have a greater resemblance to the
panther, and yet their difference from that sj>e-
cies is very evident. The first is the Jaguaray
ox Jcmowray a native of Guiana, Brasil, and
other parts of South America. Ray, wiHi
some propriety, calls the animal the Pard, or
Brasilian lynx. The Portuguese call him
Ounce, because they had first, by corru;:tion,
given that name to the lynx, and afterwards to*
the small panther of India ; and the French,
without his having the smallest affinity, have

called

8 buffon's

called him liger. He diflPcrs from the panther
ill size, in Ihc position and fi2:ure of the spots,
in the colour and length of the hair, which is
frizzled when yoang, and never so straight as
tliatofthe panther, differing also indisposition,
beingmoresavage, and cannot bf tamed : still,
however, tiie jaguar of liiasil resembles the pan-
ther mere than anyother animal of the newworld.
The second Ave call Cougar, by contracting the
Brasilian nnine cous^ouacoU'Cira^ and which the
French, with still less propriety, have called
the Red Tiger. Frojn the real tiger it differs
in all, and from the panther in mo^t respects,
its hair being red, and without spots; and in
. the form of its head, and length of his muzzle,
it differs also fiom them both. A third species,
which has also been called tiger, though equal-
ly remote, is tlie JaguaretCy wliich is nearly of
the size of the jaguar, and rescir.bles him ia
natural habits, but differs in some exterior
characters. He has been called black tiger, be-
cause his hair is black, interspersed with spots
of a stili blacker hue. Besides these three spe-
cies, and perhaps a fourUi, which is smaller,
that have been named after the tiger, there is
another Aniericarj animal, which appears to
Lave a greater right to it , namely, the Cat-pardj
or mountain cat, which resembles both the
cat and the panther. Though snwUer than

either

NATURAL HISTORY. 9

either of the above three animals, it is laro-er
than the wild cat, which it resembles in figure,
but its tail is much shorter, and it differs also
by havins^its hair diversified with black spots,
long upon the back and round upon the belly.
These four American animals have, therefore,
very improperly been named tigers. The
cougar and cat-pard J have seen alive, and am
convinced they are of different species, and
still more so from the tiger or panther ; and as
for the puma and jaguar, it is evident, from
the testimony of those who have seen them,
that the former is not a lion, nor the latter a
tiger, and therefore, without scruple, we may
pronounce, that neither the lion, tiger, nor
even the panther, exist in America, any more
than the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus
camel, or the cameleopard. AH these spe-
cies require a hot climate for propagation,
and as none of them exist in the nor i hern re-
gions, it is impossible they should have had
any communication with America. This gene-
ral fact is too important not to be supported by
every proof; we shall, therefore, continue our
comparative enumeration of the animals of
the old continent with those of the new.

It is generally known, that upon horses
being first transported into America they
struck the natives with surprise and terror ;
^^^•^"- C and

10 buffon's

and that this animal has thriven and multi-
plied so fast, as to have become almost as nu-
merous there now as it is in Europe. It is the
same also with the ass, which has thriven
equally in these warm climates, and from
which mules have been produced, that are
more serviceable than the lamas for carrying
heavy loads over the mountainous parts of
Chili and Peru. The Zebra is also an animal
of the old continent, and which, perhaps,
has never been even seen in the new ; it seems
to require a particular climate, and is found
only in that part of Africa which lies betweeft
the Equator and the Cape of Good Hope.

Oxen were unknown in the islands and on
the continent of South America. Soon after the
discovery of these countries, the Spaniards
transported bulls and cows to them from Eu-
rope. In 1550 oxen wereemployed, for the first
time, in tilling the ground in the valley of Cus-
co. On the continent these animals multiplied
prodigiously, as well as in tlie islands of St.
Domingo, Cuba, Barlovento, &c. and in many
places they even became wild. The species of
horned cattle found at Mexico, Louisiana, &c.
which is called the mid ox or Bison, is not
produced from the European oxen. The bison
existed in America before our race was car-
ried thither ; and from the latter he is so dif-
ferent

NATURAL HISTORY. II

ferent as to authorize the opinion of his being
a different species. He has a rise between his
shoulders, his hair is softer than wool, is longer
before than behind, is curled upon \he neck
and along the spine of the back ; he is of a
brown colour, and faintly marked with some
whitish spots ; he has also short legs, whichj
like the head and neck, are covered with long
hair ; and the male has a long tail with a tuft
of hair at the end, like that of the lion. These
differences seem (o be sufficient grounds for
considering the ox and bison of different spe-
cies, yet I will not pretend to determine they
are so, because the only characteristic which
identifies animals to be of the same species, is
their proi)agating and producing similar indi-
viduals, and which fact has never been deter-
mined between the bison and the oxen of Eu-
rope. M. de la Nux, a member of the royal
council of the isle of Bourbon, has favoured me
with a letter, in which he says, the hunched-
back ox of that island propagates with the com^
raon horned cattle; and of great advantage
would it be, if persons who live in remote coun-
tries would follow the example of this getitle-
man, in making ex?:erimcntal observations up-
on animals. Nothing could be more easy than
for the inhabitants of Louisiana, to try if the
American bison would copulate with the Eu-

ropeain

12 BUFFOX's

ropean cow. It is probable thej would pro-
duce together, and in that case it would be as-
certained that the European ox, the hunched-
backed species of the isle of Bourbon, the East
India bull and American bison, form only one
species. M. de la Nux proved b\^ experiments,
that the bunch is not an essential characteristic,
since it disappeared after a few generations ;
and I have myself discovered that the protube-
rance upon a camel's back, which, though as
in the bison, is very common, is not a constant
characteristic, and is probably owing to the
healthful state of the body, as I once saw a
sickly camel which had not the smallest ap-
pearance of a lump. As to the other diflference,
namely, the hair being more long and soft,
that may be entirely owing to the influence of
the climate, as is the case with goats, hares,
and rabbits. With some appearance of pro-
bability, it may be supposed, (especially if the
American bison produces with the European
cow) that our oxen may have found a passage
over the northern districts to those of North
America, and having afterwards advanced
into the temperate regions of this New World,
they received the impressions of the climate,
and in time became bisons. But till the essen-
tial fact of their producing together be lully
confirmed, I think it right to conclude that our

oxen

NATURAL HISTORY. 13

oxen belong to the old continent, and existed
not in America before they were carried
lliither.

To sheep America has no pretensions ; they
were transported from Europe, and have
thriven both in the warm and temperate cli-
mates; but, however prolific, they are com-
monly more meagre, and their flesh leiis juicy
and tender than those in Europe. Brasil seems
to be the most favourable to them, as it is
there alone that they are found loaded with
fdt. Guinea sheep, as well as European, have
been transported to Jamaica, and they liave
prospered equally well. These two species
belong solely to the old continent. It is also
the same with goats, and those we now meet
with in America in such great numbers, all
originated from goats introduced from Europe.
The latter has not, however, multiplied so fast
at Brasil as the sheep. When the Spaniards
first carried goats to Peru they were so rare as
to be sold for 1 10 ducats a piece ; but after-
wards they multi; lied so prodigiously as to
be held of little value but for their skins ; they
produce there from three to five kids at a time,
while in Europe they seldom have more than
one or two. In all the islands ihey are equally
numerous as on the continent. The Spaniards

transported

It buffon's

transported them even into the islands of the
South Sea ; and in the island of Juan Fernan-!'
dez their increase became prodigious. But
proving a supply of provisions to the free^
booters who afterwards infested those parts,
the Spaniards resolved to extirpale them, and
for that purpose put dogs upon the island, who,
multiplying in their turn, not only destroyed
all the goats in the accessible parts, but became
so fierce as to attack even men.

The hogs which were transported from Eu*
jope to America succeeded better, and multi-?
plied faster, than the sheep or goat. The first
swine, according to Garcilasso,sold si ill dearer
than the first goats. PibO says ihe flesh of the
ox and sheep is not so good at Brasil as in Eur
lopc, but that of the hog, which multiplies
very fast,'is better ; and Laet, in his History of
the New World, affirms that it is preferable
at St. Domingo, to what it is in Europe. In
general it may be remarked, that of all domes-
tic animals which have been carried from Eu-
rope to America, the hog has thriven tlie best
and most universally. In Canada and in Bra-
sil, which includes the wainie t and coldest
climates of the new world, hogs multiply, and
their iiesh is equally good ; while the goat, on
the contrary, multiplies in warm and temperate

climate^

NATURAL HISTORY. IS

climates only, and cannot maintain its species
in Canada without continual supplies. The
ass multiplies in Brasil, Peru, &l. but not in
Canada, where neither mules nor asses are to
foe seen, although numbers of the latter have
been transported thither in couples. Horses
have multiplied nearly as much in the hot as
HI the cold countries throughout America ; btit
kave diminished in size, a circumstance whicli
is Common to all animals transported from
Europe to America ; and what is still more
singular, all the native animals of America are
much smaller in general than those of the old
continent. Nature in their formation seems
to have adopted a smaller scale, and to have
formed man alone in the same mould. But to
proceed in our enumeration : — The hog, then,
is not a native of America, but was carried
thither ; and he has not only increased in a do-
mestic state but lias even become wild, and
multiplied in the woods without the assistance
of man. A species of hog has also been trans-
ported from Guinea to Brasil, which has like-
wise multiplied ; it is much smaller, and seems
to form a distinct species from the European
hog ; for although the climate of Brasil is fa-
vourable to every kind of propagation, these
animals have never been known io intermingle.

D<)gs,

16 buffon's

Dogs, whose races are so varied, and so nu-
merous! v diffused, were not found in America,
unless in a few rude reserablunces, which it is
difficult to compare Avith the species at large.
At St. Domingo, says Garcilasso, (here were
little animals called gosques^ not unlike little
dogs ; but tliere were no dogs like those of Eu-
rope. He adds, that the latter, on being trans-
ported to Cuba and St. Domingo, had become
■wild, and diminished the number of cattle
which had become wild also; that they com-
mitted their devastations in troops of ten or
twelve, and were more destructive than wolves.
According to Joseph Acosta, there were no real
dogs in the West Indies, but only an animal
resembling small dogs, called by the Peruvians
alcos^ which attach themselves to their mas-
ters, and seem to have nearly the same dispo-
sitions as the dog. If we may believe Father
Charlevoix, who quotes no authority, " The
goschis of St. Domingo were little mute
dogs, which served as an amusement to the
ladies, and were also employed in the chaco
of other animals. Their flesh was good for
eating, and they were of great benefit to tlie
Spaniards during tlie first famines, which
these people experienced, so that they would
have been exhausted, had there not been num-
bers of them afterwards brought from the

continent^

NATURAL HISTORY. 17

continent. Of this animal tliere were several
sorts ; of some the hair was straight, others
had their bodies covered with a wool exceed-
ingly soft ; but the greatest number had only
a thin covering of tender down. In colours
they exceeded the varieties in the European
dogs, forming an assemblage of all colours,
the most lively not excepted."

If this species of the goschis ever existed,
especially as described by Father Charlevoix,
whyhaveother authors never mentioned it? why
does it no longer exist ? or if in existence, by
what means has it lost all its beatiful pecu-
liarities ? It is most likely that the goschis of
Charlevoix, and of which he never found the
name but in Father Pers, is the gosques of
Garsilasso ; and it is also probable that these
gosques of St. Domingo, and the alcos of
Peru, are the same animal ; for certain it is,
that of all American animals this has the most
aflSnity to the European dog. Several authors
have considered it as a real dog ; and Laet
expressly says, that when the West Indies
were discovered they in St. Domingo employ-
ed a small dog in hunting, but which was
absolutely dumb. We observed, in the
history of the dog, that he loses the faculty
of barking in hot countries, but instead there-
of they had a kind of howl, and are not
VOL.. VII. D like

IS buffon's

like these American animals, perfectly mnte.
European dogs have thriven equally ^vell in
the hot and cold climates of America, and of
all animals they are lield in tlie highest estima-
tion by the savages ; but they have undergone
essential changes, for in hot countries lliey
Iiaye lost their voice, in cold ones they have
decreased in size, and in general their ears
have become straight. Thus they have de-
generated, or rather returned to their primitive
species, the shepherd^s dog, whose ears are
erect, and who barks the least. From whence
we may conclude, that the dog belongs to the
old continent where their nature has been de-
veloi^ed in the temperate regions only, and
where they appear to have been varied and
brought to perfection by the care of man, for
in all uncivilized countries, and in very hot or
cold climates they are ugly, small, and almost
mute.

The Hyaena, which is nearly the sizeof the
wolf, was known to the ancients, and I have
myself seen a living one. Ji is remarkable
for having an opening between the anus and
tail, like the badger, and from which issues
a humour that has a strong smell ; also for a
long brisdy mane which runs along its neck ;
and for a voracity which prompts i( to scrape
up graves and devour the most putrid bodies.

Tim

NATURAL HISTORY. 19

Tliis horrid animal is only to be found in
Arabia, and other southern provinces of Asia;
it does not exist in Europe and has never been
found in the New World.

The jackall, which of all animals not ex-
cepting the wolf makes the nearest approach
to the dog though differing in every essential
characteristic, is very common in Armenia
and Turkey, and is very numerous in several
other provinces of Asia and Africa ; but it is
abvolutcly unknown in the new world. It i«
about the size of the fox, and of a very bril-
liant yellow ; this animal has not extended to
Europe, nor even the northern parts of Asia.

The Genet, being a native of Spain, would
doubtless have been noticed had he been found
in America, but that not being the case, we
may consider him as j^eculiarto the old con-
tinent ; he inhabits the southern parts of Eu-
rope, and those of Asia und^r the same latitude.

Though it has been said tl>e Civet was
found in New Spain, I am of opinion it was
notthe African, or Indian Civet, which yields
the musk that is mixed and prepared with that
of the animal calledtheHiam of China ; this ci-
vet I conceive to belong to the southern part of
the old continent, has never extended to the
north, and consequently would not have found
' •:jassagc to the New World.

20 buffon's

Cats as well as dogs were entire strangers to
the New Continent, and though I formerly
mentioned ihat a huntsman had taken to Colum-
bus a cat which he had killed in the woods of
America, I am now convinced that the species
did not then exist there. I was then less aware
of the abuses which had been made in names,
and I acknowledge I am not yet sufficiently ac-
quainted with animals to distinguish them with
precision in the fictitious and misapplied deno-
minations given them by travellers. Nor is
this to be wondered at, since the nomenclators,
whose researches were directed to this object,
have rendered it more dark and intricate by
their arbitrary names and arrangements. To
the natural propensity of comparing ihings
which we see for the first time, with those al-
ready known, and the almost insuperable diffi-
culty of pronouncing the American names be-
ing added, we are to impute this misapplication
of names which have since been productive of
so many errors. It is much more easy, for ex-
ample, to call a new animal, a wild boar, than
to pronounce its name at Mexico, quah-coi/U'
melt y to call another American fox ^ than to re-
tain its Brasilian appellation, tamandua-guacw,
to give the name of Perwim/z sheep , ox camel ^

to

NATURAL HISTORY. 21

to those animals which in the language of Peru
are call(?d pelon ichiath oquitli. It is the same
with almost all the other animals of the New
World, whose names were so sirange and bar-
barous to the Europeans, that they endeavour-
ed to apply otliers to them, from the resem-
blance they had to those of the old continent,
but they were often from affinities too remote to
justify the ap< lication. Five or six species of
small animals were named hares, or rabbits,
merely because their flesh was pahtable food.
They called coro and elk an animal without
horns, although it had no affinity to either, ex-
cept a small resemblance in tlie form of the
body. Biit it is unnecessary at present to
dwell upon the faLe denominations which
have been applied to the animals of America,
because I shall endeavour to point out and
correct them when we come to treat of each of
those animals in particular.

We find, then, that all our domestic ani-
mals, and the largest animals of Asia and
Africa were unknov\n in the New World ; and
the same remark exteiids to several of the less
considerable species, of which we shall now
proceed to make a cursory mention.

The gazelles, of which there are various
kinds, and of which some belong to Arabia,
others to the East Indies, and some to Africa,

all

22 buffon's

all require a hot climate to subsist and mul-
tiply, they therefore never extended to the
northern climates, so as to obtain a passage to
America ; it appears, indeed, that the African
gazelle, and which Hernandeg, in his History
of Mexico calls algazel ex Aphrica must have
been transported thilhcr. The animal of New
Spain, which the same authorcalls^emaw^arfl?;?^,
Seba ccrvus, Klein tragulus^ and Brisson the
gazelle of New Spain, appears to be a different
species to any on the old continent.

It is natural to conclude, that the Chamois
Goat, which delights iji the snow of the Alps,
w ould not be afraid of the icy regions of the
north, and thence might have passed to Ame-
rica, but no such animal is found there. This
animal requires not only a particular climate,
but a particular situation. He is attaclied to
the tops of the Alpine, Pyrenean, and other
lofiy mountains, and far from being scattered
over distant countries, lie never descends even
to the plains at the botlom of his hills ; but in
this he is not singular, as the marmot, wild
goat, bear, and lynx, are also mountain ani-
mals, and very rarely found in the plains.

The buffalo is a native of hot countries, and
has been rendered domestic in Italy ; he re-
sembles less than the ox, the American bison,
and is unknown in the new continent. The

wild

NATURAL IIISTORT. 25

ivild goat is found on the tops of the higliest
mountains of Europe and Asia, but was nes-er
seen on ihe Cordeliers. The Musk-animal,
which is nearly the size of a fallow-deer, in-
habits only a few particular countries of China
and Eastern Tartary. The little Guinea Deer,
as it is called, seems also confined to the pro-
vinces of Africa and the East Indies. The
Rabbit, which comes originally from Spain,
and has been diffused over all the temperate
climates of Europe, did not exist in America ;
for the animals of that continent which are so
called, are of a different species, and all the
real ones were tran^^ported thither from Eu-
roi:e. The Ferret, brought from Africa to
Europe, was unknown in America ; as were
also our rats and mice, which having been
carried there in European ships, have since
multiplied prodigiously.

The following then are nearly all the ani-
mals of the old continent, namely, the ele-
phant, rhinoceros, hiiipopotamus, camel, dro-
medary, giraffe, lion, tiger, panther, horse,
ass, zebra, ox, buffalo, sheep, goat, hog, dog,
hyaena, jackall, genet, civet, cat, gazelle,
chamois goat, wild goat, Guinea deer, rabbit,
ferret, rat, mouse, loir, lerot, mnrniot, ich-
neumon, badger, sable, ermine, jerboa, th«
niaki, and several species of monkcyS; none

of

24 buffon's

of which were found in America on the first
arrival of the Europeans, and which coiise-
quenlly are peculiar to the Old World, as we
shall endeavour to prove in the particular his-
tory of each animal.

ANIMALS OF THE NEW WORLD.

THE animals of the New World were not
more known to the Europeans, than were our
animals to the Americans. The Peruvians
and Mexicans were the only people on the
new continent, which were half civilized.
Thelattcrhad no domestic animals; and those
of the former consisted of the lama, the paces,
and the alco, a small animal which was do-
mestic in the house like our little dogs. The pa-
cos and the lama, like the chamois goat, live
only on the highest mountains, and are found
on those of Peru, Chili, and New Spain.
Though they had become domestic among
the Peruvians, and consequently spread over
the neiglibouring countries, their multipli-
cation was not abundant, and has even de-
creased in their native places, since the intro-
duction of European cattle, which have suc-
ceeded

ly. C. State CoUege

NATURAL mSTORY. 25

ceeded astonishingly in all the southern coun-
tries of the American continent.

It appears singular that in a world, occupied
almo&t entirely by savages, whose manners
somewhat resembled those of the brutes, there
should be no connection, no society existing
between them and the animals by which they
were surrounded ; and this was absolutely the
case, for there were no domestic animals, ex-
cepting where the people were in some degree
civilized. Does not this prove that man, in a
savage state, is nothing more than a species of
animal, incapable of ruling others; and pos-
sessing only individual faculties, employs them
for procuring his subsistence, and providing
for his security, by attacking the weak, and
avoiding the strong, but without entertaining
any idea of real power, or endeavouring to re-
duce them to subjection ? Every nation, even
those which are but just emerging from bar-
barism, has its domestic animals. With us
the horso, the ass, the ox, the sheep, the goat,
the hog, the dog, and the cat; in Italy the
buffalo ; in Lapland the rein-deer ; in Peru
the lama, the pacos, and the alco ; in the
eastern countries, the^ dromedary, the camel,
and various species of oxen, sheep, and goats ;
in the southern ones the elcpliant ; all these
VOL. VII. E animals

26 buffon'«

animals have been reduced to servitude, or ad-
mitted into society ; while the savage, hardly
desirous of the society of his female, either
fears or disdains that of other animals. Of
these speciesj rendered domestic, it is true, not
one existed in America ; but if the savages,
with whom it was peopled, had anciently
united, and had communicated to each other
the mutual aids of society, they would have
rendered subservient the greatest part of the
animals of that country, most of them being
mild, docile, and timid, few mischievous, and
scarcely any formidable. Their liberty, there-
fore, has been preserved solely from the weak-
ness of man, who has little or no power with-
out the aid of society, upon which even the
multiplication of his species depends. The
immense territories of the new world were
but thinly inhabited ; and, I believe it may
be asserted, that on its first discovery, it con-
tained not more Ihan half the number of people
that may now be reckoned in Europe. This
scarcity of men allowed every oilier animal to
multiply in abundance; every thing was fa-
vourable to their increase, and the number of
individuals of each species was immense ; but
the number of species were comparatively few,
and did not amount to more than a fourth,

or

NATURAL HISTORY. 27

®r a third of those of the old continent. If we
reckon 200 species of animals in the known
world we shall find that more than ISO of
them belonged to the old continent, and less
than 70 to the new ; and if we except the
species common to both continents, that is,
such as by their natures are capable of endur-
ing the rigours of the north, and might have
passed from one to the other, there will not
remain above forty species peculiar to, and
natives of, America. Animated nature, there-
fore, is in this portion of the globe less active,
less varied, and even less vigorons ; for by the
enumeration of the American animals Ave shall
perceive, that not only the number of species
is smaller, but that in general (hey are inferior
in size to those of the old continent ; not one
animal throughout America can be compared
to the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus,
dromedary, bufialo, tiger, lion, &c. The
Tapir of Brasil is the largest of all the South
American animals, and this elepharit of the
new world exceeds not the size of a very small
mule, or a calf at six months old ; with both
which animals he has been compared, al-
though lie does not resemble either. The
Lama is not so big as the top-ir, and appears
large only from the length of his neck and legs ;
ajid the Pacos is much smaller still. The Ca-

biai,,

^8 buffon's

biai, which, next to the tapir, is the largest of
the South American animals, is not bigger
than a common-sized hog ; he differs as much
as any of the preceding from all the animals
of the old continent ; for although he has
been called the water-hog, he has essentially
different characteristics from that animal.
The Tajacou is smaller than the cabiai, and
has a strong external resemblance to the hog,
but differs greatly in his internal conformation.
Neither the tajacou, cabiai, nor the tapir, are
to be found in any part of the old continent ;
and the same may be said of the Tamanduci'
cuacu^ or Ouariri, and of the Ouatiriou^ which
we have called Ant-eaters. These last animals,
the largest of which is below mediocrity, seem
confined to the regions of South America.
They are remarkable in having no teeth, their
tongue is long and cylindrical, and their
mouth is so small that they can neither bite nor
hardly take hold of any thing ; they can
only procure subsistence by putting out their
long tongue in the way of the ants, and draw-
ing it in when loaded with them. The sloth,
which is called aiy or hai^ by the natives of
Brasil, on account of the plaintive cry of ai,
which it continually sends forth, seems
likewise to be confined to the new continent.
It is smaller than either of the preceding

onesj

NATURAL HISTORY. 29

ones, being not more than two feet long, and
is scarcely so quick in his motion as the turtle;
it has but three claws on each foot, ils fore
legs are longer than its hind ones, it has a very
short tail, and no ears. Besides, the sloth and
armadillo are the only quadrupeds, which
have neither incisive nor canine teeth, but
whose grinders are cylindrical, and round at
the extremities, nearly like those of some ce-
taceous animals.

The Curiacou of Guiana is an animal of the
nature and size of our largest roe-bucks; the
male has horns, "which he sheds every year, but
tlie female has none. At Cayenne it is called
the Hind of the Woods. There is another
species, called the little cariacou, or hind of the
fens, which is considerably smaller than the
former, and the male has no horns. From the
resemblance of the names I suspected that the
cariacou of Cayenne might be the caguacu, or
cougouacu-apara, of Brasil,and comparing the
accounts given by Piso and Marcgrave of the
latter with the cariacou I had alive, I was per-
suaded they were tlie same animal, yet so dif-
ferent from our roe-buck as to justify our con-
sidering them distinct species.

The tapir, cabiai, tajacou, ant-eater, sloth,
cariacou, lama, pacos, bison, puma, jugnar,
coujuar, juguarat, and the raountain-CAt, &c.

are

so BUFFO N^S

are therefore the largest animals of the new
continent. The middle-sized and small ones
are (he cuaridus, or gouandous^ agouti, coati,
pacci, opossum, cavies, and armadillos ; all
which I believe are peculiar to the new world,
although our latest nomenclators speak of two
-pther species of armadillos, one in the East
Indies, and the other in Africa ; but we have
only the testimony of the author of the de-
scription of Seba's cabinet for their existence,
and that authority is insufficient to confirnx
the fact, for misnomers frequently happen in
the collections of natural objects. An animal,
for example, is purchased under the name of
a Ternat, or American bat, and another
under that of the East India Armadillo ;
they are then announced by those names in
a descriptive catalogue, and are adopted by
our nomenclators ; but when examined more
closely the American bat proves to be one of
our own country, and so may the Indian or
African armadillo be merely an armadillo of
America.

Hitherto we have not spoken of Apes, their
history requiring a particular discussion. As
the vAord Ape is a generic term applied to a
number of species, it is not surprising that it
should be said they abound in thesoulhern parts
of both continents; but it is for us here to cn^-

quire

NATURAL HISTORY. ^!

quire whether the apes of Asia and Africa be
the same animals as those so called in xlmerica,
and whether from among more than tliirly spe-
cies of apes, which I have examined alive, one
of tbem is alike common to botli continents.

The Satyr, Ourang-outang, or Man of the
Woods, as it is indiscriminately termed, seems
to differ less from man than from the ape, ar.d
is only to be found in Africa or the south of
Abia. The Gibbon, whose fore legs, or arms^
areas long as the whole body, even the hind legs
included, is a native of the East Indies alone.
Neither of these have tails. The ape, properly
so termed, wliose hair is greenish, with a small
intermixture of yellow, has no tail, belongs to
Africa, and a few other parts of the old conti-
nent, but is not to be found in the new. It is
the same also with the Cynocephali-apes, of
of which there are two or three species ; nei-
ther of them having any tails, at least they
are so short as scarcely to be perceivable. All
apes which are without tails, and whose muz-
zles, from being sliort, bear a strong resem-
blance to the face of man, are real apes ; and
the species above-mentioned are all natives of
the old continent, and unknown in the new ;
from whence we may pronounce that there are
no real apes in America.

The

52 buffon's

Tlie Baboon, an animal larger than the dog*,
ahd whose body is pursed up like that of the
hjaena, is exceedingly different from those we
have noticed, and has a short tail : it is equally
endowed with inclination and powers for mis-
chief, and is only to be met with in the desarts
of the southern parts of the old continent.

Besides these without tails, or with very short
ones, (which all belong to the old continent)
almost all the large ones with long tails, are
peculiar to Africa. There are few even of the
middling size in America, but those called lit-
tle long-tailed monkeys are very numerous, of
which there are several species; and when we
give the particular history of these animals, it
will appear the American monkeys differ very
much from the apes of Asia and Africa. The
Maki, of which there are three or four species,
has a near resemblance to the monkeys with
long tails, but is another animal, and peculiar
also to the old continent. All the animals,
therefore, of Asia and Africa, which are known
by the name of apes, are equally as strange in
America as the rhinoceros or tiger ; and the
more we investigate this subject, the more we
shall be convinced that the animals of the
southern parts of one continent did not exist in
the others and the few found in them must have

been

NATURAL HISTORY. 33

been carried thither, by men. Between the
coasts of Brasil and Guinea, there are 500
leagues of sea ; and between those of the East
Indies and Peru, the distance exceeds 2000
leagues : It appears, therefore, that all those
animals which from their nature are incapable
of supporting cold climates, or, if supporting,
cannot propagate therein, are confined on two
or three sides by seas they cannot cross, and on.
the other by lands so cold they cannot live in
them. At this one general fact, then, however
singular it may at first appear, our wonder
ought to cease, namely, that not one of the
animals of the torrid zone of one conlinentj
are natives of the torrid zone of the other.

ANIMALS COMMON TO BOTH CONTINENTS.

BY the preceding enumeration it appears,
that not only the quadrupeds of the hot cli-
mates of Asia and Africa, but many of those in
the temperate climates of Europe, are strangers
in America; but we find many there of such
VOL, VII. F as

34: BUFFON^S

as can supportcold and propagate tliclrspeciies'
in the regions of the north ; and though there
is an erident difference in them they cannot but
be considered as the same animals ;"and this in^
duces us to believe, they formerly passed from
6ne continent to the other by lands still un-
jknown, or possibly long since buried by the
Tvaves. Of the contiguityof the two northern
provinces, the proof thus drawn from Natural
History is a stronger confirmation than all the
conjectures of speculative Geography.

The Bears of the lUionois, of Louisiana^
&c. seem to be the same with ours ; the former
being only smaller and blacker. The stag of
Canada, though smaller than ours, differs only
in the superior loftiness of his horns, number
of antlers, and length of his tail. The roe-
buck, found in the south of Canada, and in
Louisiana, is also smaller and has a longer tail
than that of Europe. The Orignal is the same
animal as the Elk, but not so large. The rein-
deer of Lapland, the fallow-deer of Greenland,
and the Caribou of Canada, appear to be one
and the same animal. Brisson has indeed
classed the latter with the cervus Burgundicus
of Johnston, but which animal remains un-
known, and possibly received that name from
accident or caprice.

TJie

NATURAL HISTORY. 35

The hares, squirrels, hedge-hogs, otters,
*narmots, rats, shrew-mice, and the moles, are
species which may be considered as common
to both continents ; though there is not one
perfectly similar in America, to what it is in
Europe; and it is very difficult, if not impos-
sible, to pronounce whether they are in reality
different species, or mere varieties rendered per-
manent by the influence of the climate.

The Beavers of Europe seem to be the same
as those of Canada. These animals prefer cold
countries, but can subsist and propagate in tem-
perate ones. In the islands of the Rhone in
France, there still remain a few of the number
which formerly subsisted there ; and they seem
more desirous of avoiding a too populous thau
a too warm country. They never form their
societies but in desarts remote from the dwell-
ings of men ; and even in Canada, which can
be considered as little more than a vast desart,
they have retired far from any human habita-
tion. The Wolf and Fox are common to both
continents. They are met with in all parts of
North America, and of both species ; there are
some entirely black. Though the Weasel and
Ermine frequent the cold countries of Europe,
they are very rare in America, which is not
the case with the pine-weasel, marten, and

pole- cat.

56 BUFFO n's

pole-cat. The Pine-weasel of North America
seems to be the same with that of the northern
parts of Europe. The Yison of Canada has a
strong resemblance to our Marten ; and the
streaked Pole-cat of North America, is perhaps
a mere variety of the European kind. The
Lynx of America is, to all appearance, the
same with that in Europe. Though it pre-
fers cold countries, it lives and muKiplies in
temperate ones, and is seldom seen but in fo-
rests and on mountains. The Seal, or sea-calf,
seems to be confined to the northern regions,
and is alike to be found on the coasts of Eu-
rope and North America,

Such, with a few exceptions, are all the ani-
mals common to the old and new world ; and
from this number, inconsid' rable as it is, we
ought, perhaps, to deduct one third, whose spe-
cies, tliough similar in appearance, may be dif-
ferent in reality. But admitting the identity of
species, those common to both continents are
very small in number, compared wilh those pe-
culiar to each ; and it is also evident, that such
only as can bear cold, and can multiply in these
climates, as well as in warm onts, are to be
found in both. From which there cannot re-
main a doubt but that the two continents are,
or have been, contiguous to^Yards the north,

ancj

NATURAL HISTORY. 37

and that the animals common to both, found a
passage over lands which at present are to us
unknown. There is reas:^n to believe, from
the discoveries made by the Russians to the
north of Kamtschatka, that the lands of Asia
and America are contiguous, while the north
of Europe appears ahvays to have been sepa*
rated from the latter by seas too considerable
forany quadruped to havecrossed; nevertheless,
the animals of North America have a stronger
resemblance to those of the northern parts of
Europe than to those of the north of Asia*.
Neither the Argali, Sable, Mole of Siberia, nor
Chinese Musk, are to be found at Hudson's Bay,
or any othef north-west part of the new conti-
nent; while in the north-east parts we not only
find the animals common to the north of Eu-
rope and Asia, but even such as appear to be
peculiar to Europe. But it must be acknow*
lodged, that the nortli-east parts of Asia are so
little known that we cannot attempt to ailirm,
with certainty, wlieiher the animals of tht;
porlh of Europe are to be found there or not.

We have already remarked, as a striking
singularity, that the animals in the southern
provinces of the new continent arc small, in
comparison with those of the warm regions of
(he old ; the elephant, &c. of the latter being

some

3S buffon's

t^ome of them eight and ten times larger (Lan
the tapir, &c. of the former. And this general
fact, as to size, is further corroborated, by all
the animals which have been transported from
Europe having become less, and also those
common to boUi continents being much smaller
in America than those of Europe. In this
FiCW world, then, there must be something
in the combination of the elements, and other
physical causes, which opposes the aggrandise*
ment of animated nature ; there must be ob-
stacles to the development, and perhaps to the
formation of the principles of life. Under this
sky, and on this vacant land, even those which,
from the benign influence of other climates,
had received their full form and complete ex-
tension, lose both, and become shrivelled and
diminished. These extensive regions were
thinly inhabited by a few wandering savages,
who, instead of acting as masters, had no
authority in it : for they liad no controul over
either animals or elements ; they had neither
subjected the waves nor directed the motions
of rivers, nor even cultivated the earth around
them ; they were themselves nothing more than
animals of the first rank, mere automatons,
incapaWe of correcting Nature, or seconding
her intentions. Nature, indeed, had treated

them

NATURAL HISTORY. 5J)

fliem more as a stepmother than as an indulgent
parent, by denying to them the sentiment of
love, and the eager desire to propagate their
species. The American savage, it is true, is
little less in stature than other men, jet that is
not sufficient no form an exceplion to the ge-
neral remark — that all animated nature is com-
paratively diminutive in the new continent.
In the savage the organs of generation are
small and feeble ; he has no hair, no beard, no
ardour for the female ; though more nimble
than the European, from being habituated to
running, he is not so strong ; possessed of less
sensibility, yet he is more timid and dastardly ;
he /has no vivacity, no activity of soul, and
that of the body is less a voluntary exercise than
a necessary action occasioned by want. Sa-
tify his hunger and thirst and you annihilate
the active principle of all his motions ; and he
will remain for days together in a state of stu-
pid inactivity*. Needless is it to search further
into the cause for the dispersed life of savages,

and

* Mr. Valllant says, that the Hottentots will sleep for two
or three days together, either from hunger or excess in eat-
ing; for, when hungry, indolence has suggested to them,
the expedient of sleeping instead of the labour of seeking
for food, and that by tying a bandage round their bellies
they can do so for the above space, without eiperiencine
tkny consequent iaconYenlence,

40 BUFFO N^S

and ihc'ir aversion to sociefy. Nature has
Tvitlilicld from liiem the most precious spark of
Iicr torch ; they have no ardour for the female,
and consequently no love for their fellow-crea-
tures. Strangers to an attachment the most
lively and tender, their other kindred sensa-
tions are cold and languid : to their parents
and children they are little more than in-
different ; with them the bands of the most
intimate of all scciet}', are feeble, nor is there
tlie smallest connection })etween one family
and another; of course they have no social
state among them ; cold in temperament^
their manners are cruel, their women they
treat as drudges born to labour, or rather as^
beasts of burthen, whom they load with all
the produce of the cliace, and whom they
oblige, without pity or gratitude, to perform
offices repugnant to their natures, and fre-
quently beyond their strength. They have
few children, and to those they pay little at-
tention. The whole arises from one cause ;
they are indifferent because they are weak, and
pus indifference to the female is the original
stain which defaces nature, prevents her from
expanding, and while it destroj-s the seeds of
life, strikes at the root of society. Man, there-
fore, forms no exception ; for Nature, by re-
trenching

NATURAL HISTORY. 41

trenching the faculty of love, has diminished
him more than any other animal. Before wc
examine the causes of this general effect, it
must be acknowledged, that although Nature
has reduced all the quadrupeds of the new
world, jet she has preserved tlie size of rep-
tiles, and enlarged that of insects ; for although
there are larger lizards and larger serpents at
Senegal than in South America, yet in these
animals the difference is not near so great as
^n the quadrupeds ; the largest serpent at Sene-
gal is not twice as large as the great adder of
Cayenne, whereas the elephant is ten times as
big as the tapir, which is the largest animal of
South America. In no part are the insect
tribes so large as in South America. At Cay-
enne, the spiders, caterpillars, and butterflies,
surpass all the insects of the old continent, not
only as to size, but in ricliness of colours, de-
licacy of shades, variety of forms, number of
species, and the prodigious multiplication of
individuals. The toads, frogs, and other
creatures of this kind, are also very large in
America. Of the birds and fish we shall say
nothing; for since they possess the power of
migrating from one continent to the other, it
v, ould be almostimpossibletodistingnish which
properly belongs to eilher, but insects and rep-
VOL. VII. G tiles,

42 buffon's

tiles, like quadrupeds, are confined nearly to
the spot in which they came into existence.

Let ns now then enquire why, in this new
world, the reptiles and insects are so large,
the quadrupeds so small, and the men so cold.
These effects must depend on the quality of the
earth and atmosphere, on the degrees of heat
and moisture, on the situation and height of
mountains, on the quality of running and stag-
nate waters, on the extent of forests, and, in a
word, on the state in which inanimate nature
presents itself in that country. In the new
world there is much less heat and more moisture
than in the old. If we compare the heat and
cold, in each degree of latitude, we shall find a
very great difference ; that at Quebec, which
is under the same degree of latitude as Paris,
the rivers are covered with ice for months in
the year, and the grounds with snow several
feet thick ; the air, indeed, is so cold, tliat the
birds fly off at the approach of winter, and re-
turn not till invited by the warmth of spring.
This difference of heat under ihe same latitude
in the Temperate Zone, though considerable,
is perhaps less so than the difference of that
under the Torrid Zone. At Senegal, we are
scorched, while at Peru, situate under the same
line, we enjoy the benign influence of a tempe-
rate

NATURAL HISTORY. 43

rate climate. In such a situation is the conti-
nent of America placed, and so formed, that
every thing concurs to diminish tlie action of
heat. There we tind the highest mountains
and greatest rivers in the known world ; these
mountains form a chain which seems to termi-
nate the length of the continent towards the
west, while the plains and low grounds are all
situated on this side of the mountains, from
whose base they extend to the sea, which se-
parates the American from the European con-
tinents. Thus the east wind, which constantly
blows between the tropics, does not reach
America until it has traversed a vast extent of
ocean, and has consequently been greatly cool-
ed ; and fortius reason it is much less warm at
Brasil and Cayenne, for example, than at Se-
negal and Guinea, where this east wind arrives,
charged with the heat of all the burning sands
and desarts which it necessarily passes in tra-
versing both Asia and Africa.

In treating of the different colours of men,
particularly negroes, it appeared to be demon-
strated that the strong tincture of brown or
black depends entirely on the situation of the
country ; that the negroes of Nigritia, and those
of the west coast of Africa are the blackest,
because those countries are so situated as to

contain

41; BUFFOn's

contain more lieat than any other part of the
globe, from the east ^vind not reaching them
until it had passed immense tracks of land ;
that the American Indians, under the line, are
only tawny, and the Brasilians brown, though
under the same latitude as the negroes, because
the heat of the climate is not so great, and the
east wind has been cooled with the water, and
loaded with humid v apours. The clouds which
intercept the sun, and the rains which refresh
the earth, are periodical, and continue several
months at Cayenne, and other countries of
South America. The first cause renders all
the east coasts of America more temperate than
either Asia or Africa ; this wind arrivinsr in a
cool state begins to assume a degree of heat in
traversing the plains of America, but which is
checked by the enormous chain of mountains
of which the western part of the new conti-
nent is composed, so that it is less hot under
the line at Peru and Cayenne, and the natives
are of a less dark complexion. If tlie Cor-
deliers were reduced to a level v/ith the ad-
jacent plains, the heat would be excessive in
the western territories, and tliere would soon
be men as black at Chili and Peru, as on the
western coasts of Africa. It is evident then
that diminution of heat in the new continent is

owinfiT

NATURAL HISTORY. 45

owing entirely to situation ; and we shall now
make it appear, that there is a mucli greater
degree of moisture in America. The moun-
tains being the most lofty of any upon the
globe, and directly facing the east wind, they
stop and condense the vapours of the air, and
thus give rise to a number of springs, which^
by their junction, form the greatest rivers in
the world. In proportion, therefore, to its
extent there are more running waters in the
new continent than in the old, and which are
augmented by their confined situations ; for
the natives liaving never checked the torrents,
directed the rivers, nor drained the marshes,
immense tracts of land are covered by tlie
stagnant waters, by which the moisture of the
air is encreased and the Iieat diminished.
Besides, the earth being every where covered
with trees and coarse weeds, it never dries, but
constantly produces humid and unwholesome
exhalations. In these gloomy regions. Na-
ture remains concealed under her old garments,
never having received a new attire from the
cultivation of man, but totally neglected, her
productions languish, become corrupted, and
are prematurely destroyed. It is principally
then from the scarcity of men in America, and
from most of them living like the brutes, that

the

A6 fiUFFON^S

the earth has been neglected, remains cotcl,
anil is unable to produce the active principles
of Nature. To develope the seeds of the
largest animals and enable them to grow and
multiply, requires all the heat which the sun
can communicate to a fertile soil ; and for a
reason directly opposite it is, that insects, rep-
tiles, and all the little animals which wallow
in the mud, whose blood is watery, and whose
increase depends on putrefaction, are more
numerous and large in the low, humid, and
marshy lands of the new continent.

When we reflect on these very striking dif-
ferences between the old and new continents,
we can hardly help supposing that the latter is,
in fact, more recent, and has remained buried
under the ocean longer than the rest of the
globe ; for, the enormous western mountains
excepted, which seem to be monuments of the
most remote antiquity, it has all the appear-
ance of being a land newly sprung up. We
find sea-shells in many places under the very
first stratum of the vegetable earth, formed into
masses of lime-stone, though usually less hard
and compact than our free-stone. If this con-
tinent is in reality as ancient as the other, why
did so few men exist on it ? why were the most
of that few wandering savages ? why did the

Mexicans

NATURAL IIISTORr. 47

Mexicans and Peruviansj wlio alone had en-
tered in!o society, reckon only 200 or 300
years from the first man who taught them to
assemble ? why had they not reduced the lama,
pacos, and other animals, by w liich they were
surrounded, into a domestic state? As their
society was in its infancy, so were their arts ;
Iheir talents were imperfcci, their ideas unex-
pandcd, their organs rude, and their language
barbarous. The names of their animals*, of
which we have subjoined a few as a specimen,
were so difficult to pronounce, that our only
astonishment is, how the Earopean.^ should
liave tnken the trouble to write them.

Thus every circumstance seems to indicate,
that the Americans were new men, or rather
men who had been so long estranged from, the
rest of their species that they had lobt all idea
of the world from wliich they had issued ; that
thcgreafest part of the American continent was
new land, unassisted by man, and in which Na-
ture

* Fe'on ichiati oquitli — the lama.

Tapiierete, inBrasil ; maniperousyin Guinea — the tapii*.
JMacatUbichiltic temamacanu. — the antelope of New Spaill.
Quaiihtla coymatl — the Meiican hog.
Tlacoozcloil — the mountain cat.
Tlaclaughqui ocdotl, in Mexico — the jaguar,
HoitzLquatz!!: — the porcupine of New Spain.
XokitzclHiniii — the Tvlexican wolf.

48 BUFFON'i

ture had not had time to establish all her plans,
or to display their full extent; that the men
are cold and the animals diminutive, because
the ardour of the former, and the largeness of
the latter, depend on the heat and salubrity
of the air; and that, in the course of a few
centuries when the lands are cultivated, the fo-
rests cut down, the rivers confined within
proper channels, and the marshes drained, this
very country will become the most fruitful,
healthy, and opulent in the world ; as it ap-
pears already in every part which has been cul-
tivated by man. We mean not to infer tliat
large animals would then be produced, for the
tapir and cabiai will never attain the size of
the elephant or hippopotamus, but those
"which may be transported there will no longer
dirainiih. By degrees man will fill up the
vacuums in these immense territories, which,
when discovered, were perfect desarts.

The first writers who recorded tlie conquests
of the Spaniards, to heighten the glory of their
arms exaggerated the number of their enemies ;
but is it possible for any reasonable man to
credit that there were millions of inhabitants
at Cuba and St. Domingo, when those writers
admit there was neither a monarchy, a repub-
lic, nor scarcely any society among them ;
and that in these two neighbouring

islands

NATURAL HISTORY. 49

islands, situated at but a little distance from
the continent, there were only five species of
animals, the largest of which was not bigger
tlian a rabbit ? Than this fact, as affirmed by
Laet, Acosta, and Father du Tertre, in their
different histories, no stronger proof can be
adduced of tlie empty and desart state of this
new-discovered world.

M. Fabry, wlio travelled for fifteen months
over the western parts of America, beyond the
Mississippi, assured me that he sometimes did
not meet a single man for the space of 300 or
400 leagues ; and all our officers who went from
Quebec to the Ohio, and from that river to Lou-
isiana, agree that it is not uncommon to travel
upwards of 100 leagues without seeing a single
family of savages. From these testimonies it is
plain, that the most agreeable countries of this
new continent were little better than desarts;
but what is more immediately necessary to
our purpose, they prove that we should dis-
trust the evidence of our nomenclators, who
set down in their catalogues animals as be-
longing to the new world which solely belong
to the old, and others as native* of particular
districts where in fact they never existed ;
and in the same manner they have classed some
animals as natives of the old world, which
belong exclusively to America.
VOL. VII. H I do

50 buffon's

I do not pretend to affirm positively that
none of the animals which inhabit the warm
climates are not commoi to both . To be ph y-
sically certain of this it is necessary they
should have been seen ; but it is evident, with
respect to (he large animals of America, tliat
none of them are to be foimd in the old con-
tinent, and very few of the small ones. Be-
sides, allowing there to be some exceptions,
Ihey must relate to a triflir.g number of species,
and in no desrree affect thesreneral rule which
I intend to establish, and which seems to me to
be our only certain guide to the knowledge of
animals. This rule, which leads us to judge
of them as much by climate and disposition as
from figure and conformation, will seldom be
found wrong, and it will enable us to avoid
and discover a multitude of errors. If, for
example, we mean to describe the hyaena of
Arabia, we may safely affirm that it does not
exist in Lapland ; but we will not say with
Brisson, and some others, that the hysna and
the glutton are the same animal ; nor with
Kolbe, that thecrossed-fox, which inhabits the
jiorthern parts of the new continent, is found
at the Cape of Good Hope, as the animal he
mentions is not a fox, but a jackall. But it
is not my object at present to point out all the
errors of nomenclators : my intention is solely

• to

NATURAL histohy. 61

td prove that their blunders would have beenlcss
had they paid some attention to thediiferences
of climates ; if the history of animals had
been so far studied as to discover, which I
have done, that those of the southern parts of
each continent are never found in both ; and
lastly, if they had abstained from generic
names, which have confounded together a
number of species, not only different, but even
remote from each other.

The true business of a nomenclator is not
to enlarge his list, but to form rational com-
parisons in order to contract it. Nothing can
be more easy than, by perusing all the authors
on animals, and by selecting their names and
phrases, to form a table which however will
always be long, in proportion as the enquiry
is superficial ; while nothing can be more dif-
ficult than to compare them with that judg-
ment and discernment which is necessary to
reduce that table to its proper dimensions. I
said before, and now repeat, that in the whole
known part of the globe there are not above
200 species of quadrupeds, including among
them 40 species of apes. To each of these,
therefore, wc had only to appropriate a name ;
and to retain 200 names, only a very moderate
exertion of memory is required ; for what pur-
pose then are quadrupeds formed into classes

p'ud

52 buffon's

and genera, which are nothing more than
props to serve the memory in the recollection
of plants, which are so very numerous, and
often so very similar. But instead of a list of
200 quadrupeds we have volumes heaped upon
volumes full of intricate names and phrases.
Why introduce an unintelligible jargon, when
we may be understood by pronouncing a sim-
ple name ? Why change terms merely to form
classes? When a dozen animals are included
under tl)e name, for example, of the Rabbity
why is the Rabbit itself omitted, and must be
sought for under the genus of the Hare? Is
it not absurd and ridiculous to form classes in
which the most remote genera are assembled
together ; to put in the first, for example, man
and the bat ; the elephant and scaly lizard in
the second ; the lion and ferret in the third ;
the hog and the mole in the fourth ; and the
rhinoceros and the rat in the fifth ? Ideas so
vague and ill-conceived can never maintain
their ground. These works are destroyed by
their own authors, one edition contradicting
another, and neither of them approved but by
children, or by such as are always the dupes
of mystery, mistaking the appearance of me-
thod for the reality of science. By comparing
the fourth edition of Linnaeus*s Systema Na-
turae with the tenth, we find man is no longer

classed

NATURAL HISTORY. 55

classed -with the bat, but with the scaly li-
zard; that the elephant, hog, and rhinoceros,
instead of being classed as before with the scaly
lizard, mole, and rat, are all three huddled
together with the shrew-mouse. In the former
he had reduced all quadrupeds to five classes,
but in the latter he divides them into seven.
From these alterations we may form some idea
of those introduced among the genera, and
how the species have been jumbled and con-
founded. According to the same author there
are two species* of men, the man of day and
tlie man of night, and that these are so very
distinct that they ought not to be regarded as
varieties of the same species. Is not this add-
ing fable to absurdity ? and were it not better
to remain silent with respect to matters of which
we arc ignorant, than to found essential cha-
racters, and general distinctions upon the
grossest error ? But to whatever length criti-
cisms of this kind might be extended, I shall
proceed no farther, especially as it does not
form my principal object, having already said
enough to put every reader on his guard, a-
gainst the general as well as particular errors
which abound so much in the works of nomen-
clators.

* HtvtQ diurffKs sapiens ; ioms ncctnrnus IrorlodHut,

In

54 BUFFO n\

In drawing general conclusions, from what
has been advanced, we shall find that man is
the only animated being in whose nature there
is sufficient strength, genius, and flexibility, to
lubsist and multiply in all the different climates
of the earth. It is evident that no other ani-
mal possesses this grand privilege, for, far from
being able to multiply in every part of the
globe, most of them are confined to certain
climates,and even pariicular districts. Inevery
respect man is the work of heaven, while many
animals are the mere creatures of the earth.
These of one continent exist not on another,
and if tliere are a few exceptions, they are so
changed and diminished as hardly to be known.
Can a s'ronger proof be given that the impres-
sion of their form is not unalterable ? that their
nature, less permanent than that of man, may
in time be yaried, and even absolutely chang-
ed ? that from the same cause those species
which are least perfect, least active, and fur-
nished with the fewest engines of defence, as
well as the most delicate and the most cum-
brous, have already, or will disappear, for
their very existence depends on the form which
man gives to the surface of the earth, or per^
mits it to retain.

Th»

NATURAL HISTORY. 55

The prodigious Mammoth, whose enormous
bones I have often viewed with astonisliment,
and which were at least six times bigger than
those of the largest elcpliant, exists no longer ;
although lis remains have been found in Ire-
land, Siberia, Louisiana, and other places re-
mote from each other. Of all species of qua-
drupeds this was certainly the largest and
strongest, and since it has disappeared, how
many smaller, weaker, and less remarkable,
must have perished, without having left any
evidence of their past existence ? How many
others have been improved or degraded by tlie
great vicissitude of the earth and waters, by the
culture or neglect of nature, by their long con-
tinuance in favourable or repugnant climates,
that they are no longer the same ! and yet, next
to man, quadrupeds are beings whose nature is
•most fixed, and whose form most permanent*
Birds and fishes vary more : those of insects
are subject to greater variations still ; and if
we descend to plants, which ought not to be
excluded from animated nature, we shall be
astonished at the celerity and facility with
whicli they vary and assume new forms.

It may not be impossible, then, witiiout in-
verting the order of nature, that all the animals
*pf the new world originated from the same-
stock

56 buffon's

stock as those of tlieold ; that having been af-
terwards separated by immense seas or impassa-
ble lands, they, in course of time, underwent
all the effects of a climate which was new to
Ihem, and which must also have had its qua-
lities changed by the very causes which pro-
duced its separation ; and that they, in conse-
quence, became not only inferior in size, but
different in nature. But these circumstances,
if true, ought not to prevent us from consider-
ing them now as animals of different species.
From whatever causes these changes may have
proceeded, whether produced by time, climate,
or soil, or whether originating with the crea-
tion, they are not the less real. Nature is, in-
deed, in a perpetual fluctuation. It is sufficient
for man to watch her in his own time, to look a
little backward and forward, by way of forming
a conjecture of what she might have been for-
merly and what she may hereafter be.

As to the utility to be derived from this
comparison of animals, it is evident, that in-
dependent of correcting the errors of our no-
menclators, our knowledge of the animal crea-
tion will be enlarged, rendered less imperfect
and more certain ; that we shall be in less
hazard of attributing to American animals,
properties which belong to those of the East

Indies,

Kiurm-ed nirjttimrjtuiihn

I' 10.102

JiLtck Coiujar

IIGIOI

TujlT

NATURAL HISTORY, 57

Indies, because they may have the same name ;
that in treating of foreign animals, from ac-
counts given by travellers, we shall be more
able to distinguish names and facts, and to
refer them to their true species ; and, in fine,
that the history in which we are now engaged
will be less erroneous, and perhaps more lumi-
nous and complete*

THE TIGER.

IN the class of carnivorous animals, the lion
stands foremost, and he is immediately followed
by the tiger, who, possessing all the bad qua-
lities of the former, is a stranger to his good
ones. To pride, courage, and strength, the
lion adds dignity, clemency, and generosity,
while the tiger is ferocious without provoca-
tion and cruel without necessity. Thus it is
throughout all nature where rank proceeds
from the superiority of strength. The first
class, sole master of all, are less tyrannical than
their immediate inferiors, whojdenied u nliraited
authority, abuse those powers which they pos-
\ou\u, I sess;

58 BUFFO n's

{Sess ; thus the tiger is more to be dreaded than'
the lion. The latter often forgets that he is
the sovereign, or strongest of animals ; with
an even pace he traverses the plains and forests;
man he attacks not unless provoked, nor ani-
mals but when goaded by hunger. The tiger,
on the contrary, though glutted with carnage,
has still an insatiate thirst for blood ; his ran-
cour has no intervals. With indiscriminate
fury he tears in pieces every animal he comes
near, and destroys with the same ferocity a fresh
animal as he had done the first. Thus he is the
scourge of every country he inhabits ; and of
the appearance of man or his weapons, he is
fearless. He will destroy whole flocks of do-
mestic animals if he meets with them, and all
the wild animals that come in his way. He
attacks the young elephant and rhinoceros,
and will sometimes brave the lion himself.

The form of the body usually corresponds
with the nature and disposition. The noble
air of the lion, the height of his limbs in exact
proportion to the length of his body, his large
thick mane, which covers his shoulders and
shades his face, his determined aspect, and
solemn pace, seem to announce the dignity and
majestic intrepidity of his nature. The tiger
has a body too long, limbs disproportionally

short,

NATURAL HISTORY. 59

sliort, naked head, and ha^^'gard eyes ; strong
cliaracteristics of desperate malice and insatia-
ble cruelty. He has no instinct but an uni-
form rage, a blind fury, so undistinguishing
that he not unoften devours his own progeny,
and even tears the dam in pieces if she oft'ers
to defend them. Would he were to gratify
liis tliirst for blood to its utmost, and by
destroying them at their birth extinguish the
whole race of monsters which he produces!

Happy is it for other animals that the spe-
cies of tiger is not numerous, and that it is
chiefly confined to the warmest provinces of
the East. They are found in Malabar, Siam,
Bengal, and in all tlie countries inhabited by
the elephant and rhinoceros. It is, indeed,
said, that they accompany the latter for the
purpose of eating their dung, which serves to
purge them. Be this as it may, they are
often seen together at the sides of lakes and
rivers, where they are probably compelled
to go by thirst, having often occasion for
water to cool that fervor they so constantly
endure. It is also a convenient situation to
surprise his victims, since the heat of the
climate compels all animals to seek for water
several times a day ; here lie chooses his prey,
or rather muhiplics his massacres, for having
' killed

60 buffon's

killed one animal, he often proceeds to the
destruction of others, tearing open their bodies,
and swallowing their blood by long draughts;
for which their thirst seems never to be ap-
peased.

When, however, he has killed a large ani-
mal, as a horse, or buffalo, he does not devour
it on the spot, for fear of being disturbed, but
drags it oflf to the forest, which he does with
such ease, that the swiftness of his course seems
scarcely retarded by the enormous load which
lie trails after him . From this circumstance we
might judge of his strength, but we shall have
a more just idea of it by considering his bodily
dimensions. Some travellers have compared
him for size to the horse, others to the buffalo,
and others merely say he is larger than the
lion; but we have accounts more recent, which
deserve the utmost confidence. I have been
assured by M. de la Lande-Magon that he saw
a tiger in the East-Indies fifteen feet long ; al-
lowing that he includes the tail, and granting
four feet for that, the body would still be more
than ten. It is true that the skin preserved in
the Royal Cabinet of France is not more than
seven feet from the tip of the nose to the in-
sertion of the tail; but this tiger had been
taken very young, and was afterwards always

confined

NATURAL HISTORY. 61

confined in a very narrow apartment, where the
want of exercise, and space to range in, re-
straint and, perhaps, not having proper nou-
rishment, not only its life might have been
shortened, but the growth of its body prevent-
ed. From the dissection of animals of every
species that have been reared in houses or
court-yards, we find that their bodies and
members for want of exercise, never attain
their natural dimensions, and that the organs
which are not used as those of ge'neration, are
so little expanded as to be scarcely perceivable.
The diftl-rence of climate alone is capable of
producing the same effects as confinement and
want of exercise. None of the animals of
hot countries produce in cold oncs,even though
well fed, and at full liberty ; and as reproduc-
tion is a natural consequence of full nutrition,
it is evident that when the former does not
operate the latter must be incomplete ; and
that, \i\ such animals, cold of itself is sufficient
to restrain the powers of t!ie internal mould,
and to diminish the growth, since it destroys
the active faculties of reproduction. It is
not, therefore, surprising that the tiger
above alluded to should not Iiave acquired its
natural growth ; yet from a bare view of its
j^jtuifed skin^ and an examination of its skeleton,

we

62 BUFFoa^i

we may form an idea of its formidable strength
as an animal. Upon the bones of the legs
there are inequalities which denote muscular
ligatures stronger than those of the lion. These
bones are also to the full as strong, though
shorter; and, as already intimated, the height
of the tiger's legs bear no proportion to the
length of his body. Thus that velocity wh ich
Pliny ascribes to him and which the word tiger
seems to imply, ought not to be understood of
liis ordinary movements, or the celerity of his
continued course ; for it is evident, that as his
leirs are short and he can neither walk nor run
so fast as those animals which have them pro-
portionally longer ; but tliis prodigious swift-
ness, may with great propriety, be applied to
the extraordinary bounds he is capable of ma-
king without any particular effort, for if we
suppose him to have the same strength and
agility in proportion with the cat, which he
greatly resembles in conformation, and which
in an instant will leap several feet, we must al"
low that the bounds of a tiger, whose body is
ten times as large, must be immense. It is not,
therefore, the quickness of his running, but of
Lis leaping that Pliny meant to denote, and
which from the impossibilily of evading, when
he has made a spring, stiU readers him more
formidable.

The

NATURAL HISTORY. 6f

Tlte tiger is, perhaps, the only animal whose
spirit cannot be subdued. Neither force nor
restraint, violence nor flattery, can prevail, in
the least, on his stubborn Nature. He is
equally indignant at the gentle and harsh
usage of his keeper ; and time instead of mol-
lifying his disposition, only serves to increase
his fierceness and malignity. With equal
wrath he snaps at the hand that feeds as
that "which chastises him. He roars at the
sight ofevery object which lives, and seems to
consider all as his proper prey ; he seems to
devour beforehand with a look, menacing it
with the grinding of his teeth, and, regardless
of his chains, makes efforts to dart upon it, as
if to shew his malignity when incapable of ex-
erting his force.

To complete the idea of the strength of this
terrible animal we shall quote Father Tachard's
account of a combat between a tiger and three
elephants, at Siam, of which he was an eye-
witness ; he says, " a lofty palisade of bamboo
cane was built, about a hundred feet square,
into which inclosurc three elephants were in-
troduced, for the purpose of fighting a tiger.
Their heads, and part of their trunks, were
covered with a kind of armour like a mask.
A« sQOn as we arrived at the place a tiger was

brought

6^1 buffon's

broiTglit forth, of a size much larger than ztr.y
Vie had seen before; he was not at first let
loose, but held by two cords, so that he could
not make a spring ; one of the elephants ap-
proached and gave liim three or four blows on
the back with his trunk, with such force as to
beat him to the ground, where he lay for some
time without motion, as if he had been dead 3
although this first attack had greatly abated his
fury, lie was no sooner untied, and at liberty,
than he gave a loud roar, and made a spring at
the elephant's trunk, which was stretched out
to strike him ; but the elephant drew up his
trunk with great dexterity, received the tiger
upon his tusks, and tossed him up into the
air. This so discouraged him that he no more
ventured to approach the elephant, but made
several turns round the palisade, making seve-
ral efforts to spring at the spectators. Shortly
after a second, and then a third elephant was
set against him, each of which gave him such
blows that he once more lay for dead, and they
certainly would have killed him had not an end
been put to the combat." From this account
we may form some idea of the strength and
ferocity of the tiger ; for this animal, though
young, and not arrived at his full growth,
though reduced to captivity, and held by cords,

yet

NATURAL HISTORY. 65

jet he was so formidable to three such enor-
mous foes, that it was thought necessary to
protect those parts of their bodies which were
not defended by impenetrable skin.

The tiger, of which an anatomical descrip-
tion was made by the Jesuits at China, and
communicated by Father Gouie to the Academy
of Sciences, seemed to be the true species,*
as does also that which the Portuguese have
distinguished by the name of Royal Tiger.
Dellon expressly says, in his Travels, that tigers
abound more in Malabar than in any other part
of the East Indies; that their species are nume-
rous, but that the largest, which is as big as a
horse, and called by the Portuguese the Royal
Tiger, is very rare. To all appearance, then,
the Royal Tiger is not a different species ; he
is found in the East Indies only ; and, notwith-
standing what has been said by Brisson, and
others, is an utter stranger at Brasil. I am
even inclined to think that the real tiger is pe-
culiar to Asia, and the inland parts of the south
of Africa ; for though the generality of travel-
lers, who have frequented the African coasts,
VOL. VII. K speak

* This tiger was streaked, and had been slain, with four
others, in the field, by the Emperor, it weighed 265]bs. but
one of them weighed 400; when dissected, one-third of its
stomach was full of worms, and yet it could not be said the
animal had begun to putrify. Hist. Aead, 1€69.

6G buffon's

speak of timers as very common, yet it is very
plain, from their own accounts of tbem, that
they are either leopards, panthers, or ounces.
Dr. Shaw says, that the lion and panther hold
the first rank at Tunis and Algiers, and that in
those parts of Barbary the tiger is an animal
unknown. This observation seems founded in
truth, for they were Indian, and not African,
ambassadors, who presented Augustus, while at
Samos, the first tiger the Romans had ever
seen ; and it was also from the Indies thatHe-
liogabalus procured those tigers, with which,
in order to represent the god Bacchus, be pro-
posed that his car should be drawn.

Thus the species of tlie tiger has always been
more rare and less diffused than that of the lian.
The female, like the lioness, however, pro-
duces four or five cubs at a lime. She is fierce
at all times, but, upon her young being in
danger, her fury becomes excessive. She then
braves every danger to secure them, and will
pursue the plunderers of them with such fero-
city, tliat they are often obliged to drop one
to secure the rest ; this she takea up and con-
veys to the nearest cover, and then renews the
pursuit, and will follow them to the very
gates of towns, or to the ships in which they
may have taken refuge ; and i^hen sh|e has no
longer hopes of recovering her young, she ex-

presfcca

NATURAL HISTORY. 67

presses her agony by the most dismal howls of
^lespair.

The tiger testifies his anger in the same man-
ner as the lion ; he moves the skin of his face,
shews his teeth, and roars in a frightful man-
ner ; but the tone of his voice is very different ;
and some travellers have compared it to the
hoarse croak of certain large birds ; and the
ancients expressed it by saying, Tigrides indo'
mitce raucant^ rugiuntque Leones.

The skins of these animals are much esteem-
ed, particularly in China; the Mandarins
cover their seats and sedans with them, and also
their cushions and pillows in winter. In Eu-
rope, though scarce, they are of no great value ;
those of the panther aud leopard being held in
much greater estimation. The skin is the only-
ad vantage, trifling as it is, which man can de-
rive from this dreadful animal. It has been
said that his sweat is poisonous, and that the
hair of his whi kers is more dangerous than an
envenomed arrow ; but the real mischiefs he
does when alive are sufficient,- with. 'ut giving
imaginary ones to parts of his body when
dead ; for certain it is, the Indians eat the flesh
of the tiger, and that they neither find it disa-
greeable nor unwholesome, and if the hair of
bis whiskers, taken in the form of a pill, do de-
stroy.

6S buffon's

stroy, it is that being hard and sharp it pror
duces the sanne effect in the stomach as a
number of small needles would.

THE PANTHER, OUNCE, AND LEOPARD.

IN order to avoid an erroneous use of names,
to prevent doubt, and to banish ambiguity, it
may be necessary to remark that, in Asia and
Africa, there are, beside the tiger, whose his-
tory we have just given, three other animals of
the same genus, but which not only differ
from him, but also from each other. These
are the Panther, Ounce and Leopard, which
have been confounded together by naturalists,
and also with a species of the same kind pecu-
liar to America ; but to prevent confusion, we
shall, in the present instance, confine ourselves
solely to those of the old continent.

The first of these species is the Panther,
(fg, 107.; which the Greeks distinguished by
the name ofPardalis, the Latins by that of
Panthera, and Pardus, and the more modern
Latins by Leopardus. The body of this ani-
mal, wh^n it has attained its fullgrowth, is five

or

Eiwraycd /vr Bam Jiitnbn

I'IG.107
TiuU/ur

NATURAL HISTORY. 69

or six feet long, from (he tip of the nose to the
insertion of ihe tail, which is above two (^eet
long. Its colour is of a yellow hue, more or
less dark on the back and sides, and whitish
under the belly ; it is marked with black spots
which are circular, or in the form of a ring,
and in which rings there are generally lesser
spots in the centre of the same colour ; some of
these are oval, others, circular, and are fre-*
quently alx)ve three inches in diameter ; on the
face and legs the black spots are single, and on
the tail and belly they are irregular.

The second is the Little Panther of Oppian,
which tlie ancients have distinguished bv no
particular name, but Avhich modern travellers
have called Ounce, corrupted from the name of
lynx or lunx. To this animal we shall pre-
serve the name of Ounce, because, in fact, it
seems to have some affinity to the lynx. It is
much less than the panther, its body being
only about three feet and a half long, which is
nearly the size of the lynx ; its hair is longer
than that of the panther, as is also its tail, whicli
sometimes measures tliree feet, although its
body is one-third less than that of the panther,
whose tail never exceeds two feet and an half.
The colour of the ounce is whitish grey upon
the back and sides, and still more white under

the

fO buffon's

the hell J ; the back and sides of the panther
are always yellow, but the spo's are nearly of
the same size and form in them both.

The third species was unknown to the an-
cients, being peculiar to Senegal, Guinea,
and other southern countries which they had
not discovered ; and which we, following the
example of travellers, shall call Leopard a
name wliich has been improperly ap])lied to
the panther. The Leopard is larger than the
ounce, though considerably smaller than tlie
panther, being only four feet in length, the
tail measures from two to two feet and a half.
On the back and sides the hair is of a yellow
colour, under the belly it is whitish ; it has
black annular spots like those of the panther
and ounce, but smaller and less regularly dis-v
posed.

Each of these animals, therefore, forms a
different species. Our furriers call the skins
of the first species panther skins ; those of the
second, which we call ounce, African tiger
skins ; and those of the third, or leopard, very
improperly tiger skins.

Oppian knew the panther and ounce, and
was the (irst who observed there were two
species of the former, the one large and the
other small. Though alike in the form of their

bodies

NATURAL HISTORY. 71

bodies and the disposition of the spots, yet they
differed in the length of their tails, which in
the small species was longer than in the large
ones. The Arabians have named the large
panther Nemer, and the small one Phet or
Phed ; which last seems to be a corruption of
Faadh, the present name of this animal in
Barbary. " The Faadh," says Dr. Shaw, in
his Travels, " resembles the leopard, (he
should have expressed it panther) in having
similar spots, in other respects they however
differ, for the skin of the faadh is more dark
and coarse, and its disposition is also less fierce."
Besides we learn from a passage of Albert,
commented on by Gesner, that the phe", or
phed of the Arabs, is called in the Italian, and
some other European languages Leuaza, or
Lonza. It is beyond a doubt then, tliat the
little panther of Oppian, the phet or phed of
the Arabians, the faadh of Barbary, and the
onza, or ounce of the Europeans, is the same
animal ; and probably also is the Hard or Par-
dus of the ancients, and the Panthera of Pliny ;
since he mentions its hair is white, whereas,
as we have observed, that of the great Panther
is yellow. It is, besides, highly probable that
the little pantlier was simply called pard or
pardus, and that, in process of time, the large

panther

72 buI'Fon's

panther obtained the name of leopard, or leo-*
pardus, from a notion that it was a mongrel
species, wliich liad aggrandized itself by an in-
termixture with that of the lion. As this
could only be an unfounded prejudice, I have
preferred the primitive name of panther to the
modern compound one of leopard, which last
I have applied to another animal that has
hitherto been mentioned by equivocal names
only. The ounce therefore differs from the
panther, in being smaller, having a longer tad,
also longer hair, of a whitish grey colour ;
while the leopard differs from them both, by
having a coat of a brilliant yellow, more or
less deep, and by the smalbiess of his spots,
which are generally disposed in groups, as if
each were formed by three or four united.

Pliny, and several after him, have said, that
the coat of the female panther was whiter than
that of the male. This may be true of the
ounce, but no such difference have we ever
observed in the panthers belonging to the
menagerie of Versailles, which were designed
from life ; and if there be any difference be-
tween the colour of the male and female it can
be neither very permanent nor sensible ; in
some of the skins we have, indeed, perceived
different shades, but which we rather ascribed

to

NATURAL HISTORY. 73

to the difference of age or climate than of
sex.

The animals described and dissected by the
Academy of Sciences, under the name of
Tigers, and lliat described by Cains, in Ges-
ner, under the name of Uncia, are of the same
species as our leopard ; and of (his there can-
not remain a doubt, after comparing the fi-
gure, and the description which we have given,
with those of Caius and M. Perrault. The
latter, indeed, says, that the animals so dis-
sected and described by the gentlemen of the
Academy, under the name of tigers, were not
the ounce of Caius; but the only reasons he
assigns are, that the ounce is smaller, and has
not white on the under part of its body. It
may also be observed, that Caius, who does not
give the exact dimensions, says, generally it
was bigger than the shepherd's dog, and as
thick as the bull-dog, though shorter in its
legs; how, therefore, Perrault should assert
the ounce of Caius to be smjiller than the ti-
gers dissected by the gentlemen of the Acade-
my I am at a loss to conceive, for those ani-
mals measured only four feet from the nose io
the tail, which is the exact length of the leo-
pard we are now describing. On the whole,
then, it appears, that the tigers of the Acade-
my, the ounce of Caius, and our leopard, are
VOL, VII. L the

74 KtTFPON'a

the i§ame dniHtal ; and nrot less ttue do I con-
ceive it that our panther is the same with the
panther of the ancients, notwithstanding the
distinctions which have been attempted to be
made by Linnaeus, Brissonj and odier non^en-
cTatofs, as they perfectly reserable each other
in every respect but size, and tliat may safely
be ascribed to confinement and want of exer-
cise. This difference of size at ^rst perplexed
me, but after a scrupulous examination of the
large skins sold by the farriers with that of
our own, I had not the smallest doubt of their
being the same animals. The panther I have
described, and two other animals of the same
species kept at Versailles, were brought from
Barbary. The two first were presented to the
French King by the Regency of Algiers, and
the third was purchased for his Majesty of an
Algerine Jew.

It is particularly necessary to observe, that
neither of the animals we are now describing
can be classed with the pardus of Linnaeus, or
the leopardus of Brisson, as tliey are described
•with having long spots on the belly, which is
a characteristic that belongs neither to the
panther, ounce, or leopard, and yet the panther
6f the ancients has it, as well as the pardus of
Gesner, and the panthera of Alpinus ; but
from the researches I have made I am con*

yinccd

NATUKAL HISTORY. 7h

vioced that these th^ee ajnimak, and peiihaj)^ a
fourth, which we shall treat of hereafter, aud
"which have not these long spo^s on the bellj,
are the only species of this kind to be found in
Asia and Africa, aud therefore we must hold
this character of our nomenclators as fictitious,
especially when we recoHect, that if any ani-
mals have these long spots, either in the old .or
new continent, they are always upon the neck
or back, and never on the belly. We shall
merely observeiurther, that in reading the an-
cients we must not confound t\iej)a/Uher with
the panthera, the latter is the animal we have
described, but the pantherof the scholiasts of
'Homer and other authors, is a kind of timid
wolf, perhaps the jackal 1, as I shall explain
when I come to the history of that animal.

After having dissipated the cloud under
which our nomenclators seem to have obscured
Nature, and removed every ambiguity, by
giving the exact description of the three ani-
mals under consideration, we shall now pro-
ceed to the peculiarities which relate to then*
respectively.

Of the panther, which I had an opportunity
of examining alive, his appearance was fierce,
he had a restless eye, a cruel (countenance, pre-
cipitate

76 buffon's

cipitate motionsj and a cry similar to that of
an enraged dog, but more strong and harsh ;
his tongue was red and exceedingly rough, his
teeth were strong and pointed ; his claws sharp
and hard ; his skin was beautiful, of a yellow
hue, interspersed with black spots of an annu-
lar form, and his hair short 5 the upper part of
his tail was marked with large black spots, and
with black and white ringlets towards the
extremity ; his size and make was similar to
that of a vigorous mastiff, but his legs were
not so large.

All our travellers confirm the testimonies of
the ancients as to the large and small panther,
that is, our panther and ounce. It appears
that there now exist, as in the days of Oppian,
in that part of Africa which extends along the
Mediterranean, and in the parts of Asia which
were known to the ancients, two species of
panthers, the largest of which has been called
panther or leopard, and the smaller ounce, by
the generality of travellers. By them it is uni-
versally allowed that the ounce is easily tamed,
that he is trained to the chace and employed for
this purpose in Persia, and in several other pro-
vinces of Asia ; that some ounces are so small
as to be carried by a horseman on the crupper,

and

Jj:opwti

Natural HistoiiY. 77

and so mild as to allow themselves to be handled
and caressed.* '1 he Panther appears to be of a
more fierce and stubborn nature ; wlien in the
power of man, and in his gentlest moments, he
seems rather to be subdued than tamed. Never
does he entirely lose the ferocity of his disposi-
tion ; and in order to train him to the chace,
much care and precaution are necessary. W hen
thus employed, he is shut up in a cage and car-
ried in one of the little vehicles of the country ;
as soon as the game appears, the door is open-
ed, and he springs towards his prey, generally
overtaking it in three or four bounds, drags it
to the ground and strangles it ; but if disap-
pointed of his aim he becomes furious, and will
even attack his master, who to prevent this dan-
gerous consequence usually carries with him
some pieces of flesh or live animals, as Iambs
or kids, one of which he puts in his way to ap-
pease the fury arising from his disappointment.
The species of the ounce {fig* 104.) seems to
be more numerous, and more diffused than that
of the panther; it is very common in Arabia,
Barbary, and the southern parts of Asia,

Egypt,

* A particular account of this practice is related In Ta-
vernier's Travels; Chardln's Travels in Persia; Ccsncr's
Hist. Quad, Pros, Alp. Hist. E^pt. Bcniier dans le Mo-
9ul} &«.

78 buffon's

E^ypt, perhaps, excepted.* They are even
known in China, where they are distinguished
by the name of hinen-paoA The ounce is em-
ployed for the chace, in the hot climates of
Asia, because dogs are very rarely to be found
unless transported thither, and then they very
soon lose not only their voicebut their instinct.}
Besides the panther, ounce, and leopard, have
such an antipathy to dogs, that they attack
them in preference to all other animals. § In
Europe our sporting dogs have no enemy but
the wolf; but in countries full of tigers, lions^
panthers, leopards, and ounces, which are all
more strong and cruel than the wolf, to attempt
to keep dogs would be in vain. As the scent
of the ounce is inferior to that of the dog, he
hunts solely by the eye ; with such vigour does
he bound, that a ditch, or a wall of several
feet high, is no impediment to his career ; he
often climbs trees to watch for his prey, and
when near, will suddenly dart upon them ; and

this

* Maserler affirms that there are neither lions, tigers, nor
leopards in Egypt. Descrip. Egypt^ Tom. IL

f A kind of leopard or panther found in the province of
Pekin ; it is not so ferocious as the ordinary tigers. Tievenot*.

i Vide Voyage de Jean Ovington, Tom. I. p. 278.

§ The leopards, says le Maire, are deadly enemies to
dogs, and devour ail of them they meet.

NATURAL HISTORY. 79

this method is also adopted by the panther
and leopard.

The Leopard, {f.g» 103.) has the same man-
ners and disposition as the panther ; but in no
part does he appear to have been tamed like
the ounce ; nor do the Negroes of Senegal and
Guinea, where he greatly abounds, ever make
use of him in the chace. He is generally lar-
ger than the ounce, but smaller than the pan-'
ther ; and his tail, though shorter than that of
the ounce, is from two to two feet and a half
in length. This leopard of Senegal and Gui-
nea, to which we have particularly appropri-
ated the name of leopard^ is probably the ani-
mal which at Congo is called the Engoi ; and
perhaps also the Antamba * of Madagascar.
I quote these names, from a persuasion that an
acquaintance with the denominations applied
to them in the countries which they inhabit
would increase our knowledge of animals.

The species of the leopard seems to be sub-
ject to more varieties than that of the pan-
ther and the ounce. I have examined
many leopards' skins which differed from

eath

* The antamba is a beast as large as a dog; it has a
round head, and, in the opinion of the Negroes, resembles
the leopard; it devours both men and cattle, and is only to
be found in the most unfrequented parts of the island.
Hacourt'i Voyage,

80 buffok's

each other, not only in the ground colour,
but in the shade of the spots -which last are
always smaller than those of the panther or
the ounce. In all leopards' skins, the spots are
nearly of the same size and the same figure, and
their chief difference consists in their colour
being deeper in some than in otliers ; in being
also more or less yellow, consists also the dif-
ference in the hair itself; but as all these skins
are nearly of the same size, botli in the body
and tail, it is highly probable they belong to
the same species of animals.

The panther, ounce, and leopard, are only
found in Africa, and the hottest climates of
Asia; they have never been diffused over the
northern, nor even the temperate regions.
Aristotle speaks of the panther as an animal of
Asia and Africa, and expressly says, it doesnot
exist in Europe. It is impossible, therefore,
that thc^:e animals, which are confined to the
torrid zone of the old continent, could ever
have passed to the new world by any northern
lands ; and it will be found, by the description
"we shall give of the American animals of this
kind, that they area differentspecies, and ought
not to be confounded with those of Africa anc^
Asia, as they have been by most of our nomen-
clators.

These

NATURAL HISTORY. 81

These animals, ia general, delight in the
thickest forests, and often frequent the borders
of rivers, and the environs of solitary habita-
tions, where they surprise their prey, and seize
equally the tame and wild animals that come
there to drink. Men they seldom attack, eyen
though provoked. They easily climb trees in
pursuit of wild cats and other animals, which
cannot escape them. Thongli they live solely
by prey, and are usually meagre, travellers
pretend that their flesh is not unpalatable;
the Indians and negroes eat it, but they prefer
that of the dog. With respect to their skins,
they are all valuable, and make excellent furs.
The most beautiful and most costly is that of
the leopard, which, when the colours are
bright, not unfrequently sells for eight orninc
guineas.

THE JAGUAR.

THE jaguar (fig' 105.) resembles the ounce
in size, and nearly so in the form of the spot^
upon his skill, and in disposition. He is less
ferocious than the panther or the leopard. The
ground of his colour, like that of the leopard,
TOL.VJI* M i{*

S2 bcffon's

is a bright yellow, and not grey like that of the
ounce. His tail is shorter than that of either;
his hair is longer than the panther's, but
shorter than that of the ounce ; it is frizzled
when he is young, but smooth when at full
growth. I never saw this animal alive, but
had one sent me entire and well preserved in
spirits, and it is from this subject the figure
and description have been drawn ; it was taken
when very young, and brought up in the
house till it was two years old, and then killed
for the purpose of being sent to me ; it had
not therefore acquired its full growth, but it
was evident, from a slight inspection, that i(s
full size would hardly have equalled that of
an ordinary dog. It is, nevertheless, an ani-
mal the most formidable, the most cruel,
it is, in a word, the tiger of the new world,
where Nature seems to have diminished all
the genera of quadrupeds. The Jaguar,
like the tiger, lives on prey ; but a lighted
brand will put him to flight, and if his appe-
tite is satisfied, he so entirely loses all courage
and vivacity, that he will fly from a single
dog. He discovers no signs of activity or
alertness but when pressed with hunger.
The savages, by nature cowardly, dread his
approach. They pretend he has a particular
propensity to destroy them, and that if he

meets

NATURAL HISTORY. 83

meets with Indians and Europeans asleep to-
gether, he will pass the latter and kill the for-
mer. The same thing has been said of the
leopard, that he prefers black men to white,
that he scents them out, and can distinguish
them as well by night as by day.

Almost all the authors who have written the
History of the New World, mention this ani-
mal, some by the name of tiger or leopard, and
others under the names given them at Brasil,
Mexico, &c- The first who gave a particular
description of him were Piso and Marcgrave,
who called him jaguara, instead of janouara,
his Brasilian name. They also speak of another
animal of the same genus, and perhaps of the
same species, under the name of jaguarettc ;
but, like those two authors, we have distin-
fi-uished them from each other, because there is
a probability of their being different species ;
but whether they are really so, or only varieties
of the same species, we cannot determine,
havins: never seen but one of the kinds. Piso
and Marcgrave say, that the jaguarettc differs
from the jaguar, by its hair being shorter, more
glossy, and of a different colour, being black,
interspersed with spots of a still deeper black.
But from the similitude in the form of his
bod3^5in his manners, and disposition, he may,

nevertheless.

84 BUFFOX'S

nevertheless, be only a variety of the same spe-
cies, es[)ecially as, according to the testimony
of PisOjthe ground colour of the jao:uar,as well
as that of the spots, vary in different indivi-
duals ; he says that some are marked with
black, and others with red or yellowish spots;
and with regard to the difference of colour,
that is, of grey, yellow, or black, the same is
to be met with iu other species of animals, as
there arc black wolves, black foxes, black
squirrels, &c. If such variations are not so
common among wild as tame animals, it is be-
cause the fi^rmer are less liable to those acci-
dents which tend to produce them. Their
lives being more uniform, their food less va-
rious, and tlieir freedom less restrained, their
nature must be more permanent, that is, less
subject to accidental alterations and changes
in colour.

The jaguar is found in Brasil, Paraguay,
Tucuman, Guiana, in the country of tljc
Amazons, in Mexico, and in all parts of
South America. At Cayenne, however, tliis
animal is more scarce tlian the cougar, which
they denominate red tiger, nor is thejagnarso
common ngw in Brasil, which appears his na-
tive country, as it ^Yas formerly. A price lias
been jet upon his head, so that many of them
vhave been destroyed, and the others have with-
drawn

FIG.lOo

JiUfuoj- or'JW-w Spaui

klG.loe

NATURAL HISTORY. 85

drawn themselves from the coasts to the inland
parts of the country. Thejaguarelte appears
to have been always more scarce, or at least to
have inhabiied those places which were distant
from the haunts of men, and the few travellers
who mention him appear to have drawn their
accounts entirely from Marcgrave and Piso.

SUPPLEMENT.

M. le BRUN had a female Jaguar of New
Spain (fig. 105.) sent him in theyear 1775; it
appeared very young, and was much less than
the one described in the original \sork, this
measuring one foot eleven inches long, and the
former two feet five inches ; there was a great
resemblance between them, and the differences
only such as are common to the varieties of the
same species. The ground colour of the one
wc are now^ spenking of was a dirty grey inter-
mixed with red : the spots were yellow, bor-
dered with black ; its head yellow, and ears
black, with a white spot on the external part.

Among a nun)bcr of excellent remarks made
by M. Sonnini de Manoncour, respecting the

jaguars

86 bufi'on's

jaguars ofGuiana, he says, " the hair of the
young jaguar is not frizzled, as stated by M. de
Buffon, but perfectly smooth, and with regard
to their only equalling the size of an ordinary
d«g, I have had the skin of one that measured
near five feet from the nose to the tail, which
was two ft^et long } and from the tracks I have
seen of these animals I have little doubt of the
American tigers being as large as thoic of
Africa, except (be royal tiger, the largest
animal to which (hat name is given ; for the
panther, which M. de Button considers the
largest, docs not exceed five or six feet when
full grown, and it is certain that some of these
aniraalsexcecd those dimensions. Whenyoung
their colour is a deep yellow, which becomes
lighter as they advance in years. He is not
by any means an indolent animal ; he con-
stantly attacks dogs, commits great devastation
among flocks, and in the desarts is even for-
midable to men. In a journey I made through
these forests, we were tormented with one for
three successive nights, and yet he avoided
all our attempts to destroy him ; but finding
we kept up large fires, of which they are
much afraid, he at last left us with a dismal
howling. At Cayenne the natives have an
idea that the jaguar would rather destroy them

than

NATURAL HISTORY. 87

than the whites, Init it is not «o with the ea-
vages, with whom I have travelled through
thedesarts, and never found them to have any
particular terror ; they slept as we did, with
their hammocks suspended, making aliitle fire
under them, which often went out before tlie
morning; and, in short, took no particular
precautions, where they knew themselves sur-
rounded with those animals. (This, observes
M. BufFon, is a strong proof that they are not
very dangerous animals to men.) The flesh
of the jaguar is not g^ood. All the animals of
the new continent fly from him, not being able
to withstand his power : the only one capable
of making any tolerable resistance is the ant-
eater, who, on being attacked, turns on his
back, and often preserves himself by the
strength of his long claws."

THE COUGAR.

THE Cougar, (fig, 106.; is longer but less
thick than the jaguar ; he is more agile, more
slender, and stands higher on his legs ; he has
a small head, long tail, and short hair, which

ift

S8 BUFFOS^S

is nearly of one entire colour, namely, a lively
red, intermixed with a few blackish tints, par-
ticularly on his back. He is neither marked
with stripes like the tiger, nor with spots like
the panther, ounce, or Ito ard. His chin,
neck, and all the inferior parts of his body
are whitish. Though not so strong as the ja-
guar he is as fierce, and perhaps more cruel.
He appears more ravenous, for having once
seized his prey, he kills it, and without waiting
to tear it to pieces, he coniinues to eat and suck
alternately, until he has gorged his appetite
and glutted his blood-tJiirsty fury.

These animals are common in Guiana.
They have been known formerly to swim over
from the continent to Cayenne, in order to de-
vour the flocks ; insomuch that they were at
first considered as the scourge of the colony ;
but by degrees (he settlers lessened tlieir num-
bers, and by continually hunting them have
compelled tlie remaiiider to retire far from the
cultivated parts of the country. They arc
found in Brasil, Paraguay, and in the country
of the Amazons ; and tht re is reason to believe
that the animal, described by some travellers,
under the name of the Ocorome, in Peru, is
the same as the cougar, as well as '.hat in the
country of the Iroquois, which has been con-
sidered

NATURAL HISTORY. ^9

sideredas a tiger, though it is neither striped
like that animal, nor spotted like the pan^lier.
The cougar, by the lightness of his body, and
length ot'his legs, seems to be more calculated
for speed, and climbing of trees, than the ja-
guar. They are equally indolent a»>d cowardly,
when glutted with prey ; af^d they seldom at-
tack men unless they find them asleep.- When
there is a necessity for passing the night in the
"Woods, the kindling a fire is the only prec^iu-
tion necessary to prevent their approach.*
They delight in the shades of forests, where
they hide themselves in some bushy tree, in
order to dart upon such animals as pass by.
Though they live only on prey, and drink
blood more often than water, yet it is said their
flesh is very palatable. Piso says, it is as
good as veal ; and Charlevoix, and others,
have compared it to mutton. I think it is
hardly credible that the flesh can be well
tasted ; and therefore prefer the testimony of
Desmarchais, who says, the best thing about
this animal is his skin, of which they make
horse-cloths, his flesh being generally lean and
of a disagreeable flavour.
VOL. vif. N strp-

* The Indians on the banks of the Oronoka, in Guiana,
h'ght a fire during the night in order to frighten away the
tigers who dare not approach the place as long as the fire
teraains burning.

90 buffon's

SUr^LEMENTt

MR. COLINSON mentions another spe-
cies of cougar, which is found on the moun-
tains of Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and
the adjacent provinces, and which, from his
account, seems to differ very much from that
just described ; his legs being shorter, and his
body and tail much longer, but in colour, and
in the shape of the head, they have a perfect
resemblance.

M. de la Borde describes three species of ra-
pacious animals at Cayenne ; first, the jaguar,
Tvhich they call tiger ; the second, the cougar,
or red tiger ; (the former is about the size of a
largebull-dog,and the latter much smaller) and
the third they call black tiger, which we have
termed black cougar, {pg- 102.) "Its head,
continues M. de la Bordc, is somewhat like that
cif a common cougar ; it has long black liair,
a long tail, and large whiskers, but is much
less than the other. The skin of both the

jaguar

NATimAL HISTORY. 91

jag^uar and cougar are easily penetrated even
■with the arrows of the Indians. When very
hard set for food, they will attack cows and
oxen ; in this case they spring upon their backs j
and having brought them to the ground, they
tear th<?m to pieces, first opening their breasts
and bellies, to glut themselves with their blood ;
they then drag pieces of flesh into the wood^
covering the remainder with branches of trees,
and keeping near to feed upon it, until it be-
gins to putrify, when they touch it no more.
They will keep near a flock of wild hogs, for
the purpose of seizing the stragglers, but cau*-
tiously avoid being surrounded by them. They
often seek for prey on the sea-shore, and devour
the eggs left there by the turtles : they also
make prey of the caimans, or alligators, lizards,
and fishes ; to take the former, they use the
craft of lying doAvn by the edge of the water,
which they strike so as to make sufficient noise
to attract his attention, who will come towards
the place, and no sooner puts his head above
water, than his seducer makes a certain spring
at him, kills and drags him to some convenient
place where he may devour him at leisure.
It is said by the Indians that the jaguar decoys
the agouti in the same manner, by counterfeit-
ing his cry. They sometimes eat the leaves

and

92 buffon's

and buds of the Indian figs ; they are excellent
swimmers, and cross the largest rivers. They
seldom have more than one young at a time,
which they hide in the trunks of hollow trees.
Th. y eat their flesH at Cayenne, and, when
young, it is as white as that of a rabbit."

The cougar is easily tamed, and rendered
nearly as familiar as domestic animals.

THE LYNX.

THE gentlemen of the Academy of Sciences
have given a very accurate description of the
Lynx, and have discussed with equal ingenuity
and erudition the circumstances and names rela-
tive to f his animal, which occur in the writings
of th." ancients. They have shewn that the lynx
of iElian is the same anintal which they have
dissected and described under tho name of Lu-
pus-carvari'is, and jus*ly censure tho^e who
have t'kt^n ii for the Th')S of Aris'otle. This
dibcusbion is enriched with observations and re-
flections

NATURAL HISTORY. 95

flections equally interesting and pertinent ; it is
a pity, tlierefore, tliey had not adopted its real
name of lynx, instead of that which is the same
that Gaza gave to the Ihos of Atistotle. Hav-
ing, like Oppian, intimated that there are two
species or races of the lynx, the one large,
which chaces the stag and fallow-deer, and
the other smaller, which scarcely hunts any
thing but the hare, they appear to have con-
founded the two species together, namely, the
spotted lynx, which is commonly found in
the northern countries ; and the lynx of the
Levant or Barbary, whose skin is of an uni-
form colour. 1 have seen both these animals
alive, and they closely resemble each other in
many particulars. They have both lono-
stripes of black hair at the extremities of their
ears. This very circumstance, by which iElian
first distinguished the lynx, belongs, in fact, to
these animals only, and perhaps it was this
which induced the Academy to consider them
as the same species. But, independently of
the difference of colour and spots upon the hair,
it will appear extremely probable ihat ihcy
belong to two distinct species.

Klein says, that the most beautiful lynx be-
Jong:^ to Africa and Asia in general, and to
Persia in particular ; that he had seen one at

Dresden^

9^ buffon's

Dresden, which came from Africa, which wa^
finely spotted, and of a considerable height ;
that those of Europe, especially from Prussia,
and other northern countries are less pleasing
to the eye, that their colour is little, if at all,
inclined to white, but rather of a reddish hue,
with spots confused and huddled together.
Without absolutely denying what M. Klein
has here advanced, I must declare I could never
learn from any other authority that the lynx is
an inhabitant of the warm climates of Asia and
Africa. Kolbe is the only writer who mentions
the lynx as common at the Cape of Good
Hope, and as perfectly resembling that of
Brandenburgh in Germany ; but I have dis*
covered so many mistakes in the writings of
this author, that I never gave much credit to.
his testimony, unless Avhen supported by that
of others. Now all travellers mention having
seen the spotted lynx in the North of Germany,
in Lithuania, Muscovy, Siberia, Canada, and
other northern regions of both continents ; but
not one, whose accounts I have read, asserts
he met with this animal in the warm climates
of Africa or Asia. The lynxes of the Levant,
B^irbary, Aral)ia, and other hot climates, are,
as I before observed, of one uniform colour,
and without spots ; they cannot, therefore, be

th9

NATURAL HISTORY. 95

ttie same as that mentioned by Klein, which
he says was finely spotted, nor that of Kolbe,
which, according to his statement, perfectly
resembled those of Brandenburgh. It would-
be difficult to reconcile these testimonies with
the information we have from other hands.
The lynx is certainly more common in cold?
than in temperate climates, and is at least very
rare in hot ones. He was, indeed, known to
the Greeks and Romans ; a circumstance which
does not, however, infer that he came from
Africa, or the southern provinces of Asia.
Pliny, on the contrary, says, that the first of
them which were seen at Rome, came from
Gaul in the time of Pompey. At present there
are none in France, except possibly a few in
the Alpine and Pyrenean mountains. But the
Romans, under the name of Gaul, compre-
hended several of the northern countries ; and,
besides, France is not at this time so cold as it
was in those times.

The most beautiful skins of the lynx come
from Siberia, as belonging to the Loup-cer^
vier, and from Canada, under the name of
chat'Ceroier, because, like all other animals,
they are smaller in the new than in the old
world ; and are therefore compared to the wolf
in Europe, and to the cat in Canada. What

seems

96 BUFFO ^'S

seems to have deceived M. Klein, and might
have deceived even more able writers is, first,
that the ancients have said that India furnished
lynxes to the god Bacchus; secondly, Pliny
has placed the lynx in Ethiopia, and has said
their hides and claws were prepared at Carpa-
thos, now Scarpantho or Zerpantho, an island
in the Mediterranean, between Rhodes and
Candia 5 thirdly, Gesner has allotted a parti-
cular article to the lynx of Asia or Africa, in
which there is the following extract of a letter
from Baron Balicze. " You have not," says beta
Gesner, "mentioned in your history of animals,
the Indian or African lynx. As Pliny has
mentioned it, the authority of that great man
has induced me to send you a drawing of this
animaly *hat you may include it in your list.
This drawing was made at Constantinople.
This animal is \ery different from the lynx of
Germany, being much larger, has shorter and
rougher hair, &c." Gesner, without making
any reflections on this letter, contents himself
with giving thesubi^tanccof it, and intimating
within a parenthesis, that the drawing never
came to hand.

To prevent a continuance of these errors,
let it be observed, first, that poets and
painters have affixed tigers, panthers, and
lynxes, to the car of Bacchus, as best pleased

their-

NATURAL HfstORY. ^

their fancies ; or rather because all fierce and
spotted animals were consecrated to that god ;
secondly, that it is the word Ij/nx which con-
stitutes the whole of the ambiguity, since by
comparing what Pliny says in one* passage
with two others + it is plain that the Ethiopian
animal which he calls lynx, is by no means the
same as the chaus, or lupus-cervarius, which
comes from the northern countries ; and that it
was from this name being improperly applied
that the Baron Balicze was deceived though he
considers the Indian lynx as a different animal
from the German luchs, or our lynx. This
Indian or African lynx, which he has described
as larger and more full of spots than our lynx,
was in all probability, a kind of panther.
However true or erroneous this last conjecture
may be, it appears that the lynx, of which we
are now treating, is a stranger in the southern
countries, and is found only in the northern
parts of the new and old continents. Olaus
says this animal is common in the forests of
the North of Europe ; Olearius, in speaking of
Muscovy, asserts the same thing ; Rosinus
Lentilius observes that the lynx is common in
Courland and Lithuania, and that those of
Cassubia, a province of Pomerania, are very
VOL. VII. O small,

* Vid- Plinyi ^b- Vin. cap. 19. flbld. VIII3C, 22, 28.

9S buffon's

small, and not so much spotted as those ef Po«
land and Lithuania ; and lastly, Paul Jovius
confirms these testimonies by adding, that the
finest skins of the lynx come from Siberia, and
that there is a great traffic carried on with them
at Ustivaga, a town about 600 miles from
Moscow.

This animal, which as we have shewn, pre-
fers the cold to the temperate climates, is one of
those which might have passed from one con-
tinent to the other through fhe northern re-
gions, and this is probably the reason why we
find him a tenant of the northern parts of
America. Travellers have described him in
such a manner as to preclude all mistake; and
besides its skin forms an article of commerce be-
tween Europe and America. Thclynx of Can-
ada,as we have already remarked, is only small-
er and whiter than those of Europe, and it Is
from this diflference in size that they have been
distinguished with the appellation of c^ at-cervi*
e?', and been considered by our noraenclators as
animals of a different species. Without pro-
nouncing decisively upon this question we shall
only observe, that to all appearance the lynxes
of Canada and of Muscovy are of the same
species, first because the difference in size is
not very considerable; since it is almost re-

lativelj

NATURAL HISTORY. 99

latively the same as that which takes place be-
tween all animals common to both continents ;
the wolf, fox, &c. being smaller in America
than (hey are in Europe, it cannot be expected
<o be otherwise with the lynx. Secondly, be-
cause, even in the north of Europe, these ani-
mals are found to vary in size ; and authors
mention two kinds, the one large and the other
small. Thirdly, because they equally require
the same climate, are of the same dispositions,
the same figure, differing only in size, and a few
trifling particulars of colour, circumstances
not sufficient to authorize our pronouncing
them to be two distinct species.

The lynx, of which the ancients have said
his sight could penetrate opaque bodies, and
whose urine possessed the property of harden-
ing into a precious stone, called Lapis Lyn-
curius, is an animal that never existed, any
more than the properties attributed to him,
except in fable. To the true lynx this imagi-
nary one has no affinity but in name. We must
not, therefore, following the example of most
naturalists, attribute to the former, which is
a real being, the properties of this imaginary
one, the existence of which even Pliny himself
does not seem disposed to believe, since be
speaks of it as an e:^traordinary animal, and

classes

100 buffon's

classes it with the sphjnx, the pegasus, and
other prodigies, or monsters, the produce of
Ethiopia, a country with which the ancients
Avere very little acquainted.

Our lynx, though he cannot see through
stone walls, has bright eyes, a mild aspect, and
an agreeable lively appearance. His urine
produces not precious stones, but he covers it
■with earth, like the cats, to whom he has a
jiear resemblance, and whose manners, and
love of cleanliness are the same. In nothin<r is
he like the wolf but in a kind of howl, which
being heard at a considerable distance often
deceives the hunters, by making them suppose
they hear a real wolf. This alone, perhaps, is
the cause of his having received the appellation
of loup^ and to distinguish him from the real
■wolf, and because he attacks the stags, the
epithet of cervarius might have afterwards
been added. The lynx is not so big as the
wolf, has shorter legs, and generally about the
size of a fox. He differs from the panther and
ounce in the following particulars; he has
longer hair, his spots are less lively, and are
badly disposed ; his ears are much longer, and
they have tufts of black hairs at the points ;
his tail is shorter, and is also black at the end ;
his eyes hare a whitish cast, and his counte-
nance

NATURAL HISTORY. 101

nance is more agreeable, and less ferocious.
The skin of the male is more spotted than that
of the female. He does not run like the wolf,
but walks and bounds like the cat. He lives
upon other animals, and those he pursues to
the tops of tlie highest trees, so that neither
the wild-cat, pine-weasel, ermine, nor squirrel,
can escape him. He also seizes birds, lies in
wait for the stag, roe-buck, and hare, whom
he seizes by the throat, sucks their blood, and
then opens their heads to devour the bruins ;
this done he frequently abandons them to go
in search of fresh prey, and is seldom known
to return to the former one ; which has given
rise to the remark, that of all animals the lynx
has the shortest memory. His colour changes
with the climate and the season. In winter
his fur is much better than in summer, and
his flesh, like that of all beasts of prey, is not
good to eat.

9UP-

.102 jBurroN's

SUPPLEMENT.

THERE is a Canadian Lynx in the Royal
Cabinet in France, in fine preservation ; it is
only two feet three inches long, and rather
more than thirteen inches high ; its body is
covered with long grey hair, striped with yel-
low, and spotted with black ; its head also is
grey, interspersed with white and yellow hairs,
and shaded with a kind of black stripes ; it has
long white whiskers ; its pars are more than
two inches hioh, wliite on the inside, with
yellow edges, the outside of a mouse colour,
edged with black, and at the tip of each car is
a tuft of black hair seven lines high ; it has a
short tail, which is black from (he end to about
the middle, and the other part is of a reddish
"white; its belly, hind-legs, inside of the fore-
legs and feet are of a dirty white, and it has
long white claws. This lynx strongly resembles
the one we have just described, except in the
length of the tail and tuft on the ears, from
■which we may infer that the Canadian Lynx
is a variety from that of the old continent.

Pontoppidan

KATURAL HtSTOUr. 105

Pontoppidan describes the lynx of Norway
to be white with deep spo(s, and claws like
those of a cat ; he says there are four species
there, some being like the wolf, others the fox,
others the cat, and others with a head like that
of a colt ; the last of which is not only doubt-
ful in itself, but throws a degree of suspicion
on the veracity of the remainder.

The species of the lynx is very common
throughout Europe, and also in the northern
provinces of Asia. Their skins are very valu-
able, and much esteemed for muffs, &c. in
Norwiiy, Russia, and even as far as China,
and notwithstanding they are very common^
they sell at a high price.

THE CARACALi

THOUGH the Caracal* resembles the lynx
in size, formation of (he body, aspect, and the
tufts of black hair at the extremities of the

ears,

* In Turkey It Is called Kaarah-kula ; Arabia Gat el
Oiallah; in Persia Siyah-Gush, denoting in all three Ian-
guages, thi cat with lon^ ears.

104 BUFFON^S

ears, I do not scruple from their disagreement
in other respects, to treat of them as animals
of a different species. The Caracal is not
spotted like the lynx ; his hair is rougher and
shorter ; his tail is longer, and of a uniform
colour ; his snout is longer, in aspect he is
less mild, and in disposition more fierce. The
Ijnx inhabits cold and at most temperate cli-
mates, while the caracal is to be found only
in the warmest countries. It is as mucli from
these differences of disposition and climate,
that I judge them to be of different species, as
from the inspection and comparison of the
two animals, both of which I have examined
and had designed from life.

The Caracal is common in Barbary, in Ara-
bia, and in all those countries inhabited by the
lion, panther, and ounce. Like them he de-
pends on prey for subsistence, but from the in-
feriority of his size and strength, he has much
difficulty to procure a sufficiency ; frequently
being obliged to be content with the leavings
of the more powerful. He keeps at a distance
from the panther, because that animal exercises
its cruelty after being gorged with food ; but
he follows the lion, who, when the cravings of
his appetite are satisfied, never injures any crea-
ture. From the remains left by this noble ani-
mal |

NATURAL HtStORY. 105

mal, the caracal not iinoften enjoys a comfort-
able repast. Sometimes he follows, or even
goes before, at nogreatclistaiice, taking a refuge
in the trees, when self-preservation renders it
necessary, and where the lion cannot, like the
panther, follow him. For all these reasons it
is that the caracal has been called the Lion's
Guide, or Provider ; and it is said that the lion,
whose smell is far from being acute, employs
him to scent out his prey, and is permitted to
enjoy the remains as a reward for his trouble*
The caracal* {fig^ 108.) is about the size of
a fox, but more fierce, and much stronger.
He has been known to attack, and in a few mi-
nutes, to tear in pieces a large dog, whicli de-
fended himself to the utmost. He is very
difficult to tame, yet if taken very young, and
reared with care, he may be trained to the
chace, to which he is by nature inclined, and
in which he is very successful, especially if he
be only let loose upon such animals as are in*
ferior in strength, for he declines a service of
danger with every, expression of reluctance.
Vol. vii. P In

* The principal part of his body w of a rdddiah brdwa
colour, the inferior parts of the neck and belly whitiahi
sound his muzzle black, his ^ars of a dark shade, with a tufic
•f black hair from his extremities .

106 buffon's

In India they made use of him to catch hares',
rabbits, and even large birds, whom he seizes
with singular address and facility.

SUPPLEMENT.

Mr. BRUCE has informed me that he saw
a caracal in Nubia, which differed from the
OHe of barbarj, just described ; his face was
more round, his ears black on the outside, in-
termixed with white hairs, and on the breast,
belly,*^and inside of the thighs he had yellow
spots. But this is a mere variety, of which
there are several : for instance, in Ly bia there
is a caracal with white ears, and a white tail
with four black rings at the end, and which
is not bigger than a domestic cat; and if
this were to establish a difference we might
say there are two species of caracals in Bar-
bary, the one large, with black ears and long
tufts, and the other smaller, with white eai-s
and short tulits.

tH&

NATURAL HISTORY. 107

THE HYiENA.

ARISTOTLE has left us two accounts by
which alone the hyaena {fig* 110.) might ea-
sily be distinguished from all other animals.
Nevertheless, travellers and naturalists have
confounded him with no less than four other
species, namely, the jackall, glutton, civet, and
the baboon ; all of which are carnivorous and
ferocious like the hyaena, and all have some few
particular resemblances to him, whence these
errors may have originated. The jackall in-
habits the same countries, and like the hyaena
resembles the wolf in form ; like him also he
feeds upon dead carcases, and digs up graves
to devour their contents. The glutton has
the same voracity, the same appetite for cor-
rupted flesh, the same propensity for digging
the dead out of their graves ; and though he
belongs to a different climate, and his figure is
widely different from that of the hyaena, yet
from this affinity of disposition authors have
thought themselves warranted in considering

tliem

1()S' buff^n's

them as of the same species. The civet is a
native of the same countries as the hyaena, and
like him has a streak of long liair along the
back, and also a particular oi)ening, or glan-
dular pouch ; characteristics which belong
only to a few animals, and which induced
Bellon to suppose the civet was the hyaena of
the ancients. As io the baboon, which has
hands and feet like those of a man or a mo ikey,-
he resembles the hyaena still less than the other
three, and it must be solely from tlieir name
that they have been confounded together.

The hyaena, according to Dr. iSliaw, is call-
ed dubbah in Barbary ; and Marmol, and Leo
Africanus, say, the baboon is distinguished by
the name o( dabuh; and as the baboon belongs
to the same climates, scratches up the earth and
is nearly of the same form with the hyaena ;
these circumstances first deceived travellers,
and naturalists adopted their blunders without
investigation ; and even those who distinguished
the two animals, retained the name of dahuh
to the hyaena, which in fact belongs to the
baboon. It appears, then, that the hyaena
is neither the dabuh of the Arabians, thejesef
or sesef of the Africans, nor the deeb of Bar-
bary. But to put a final stop to this confusion
of names, I shall give, in a few words, the sub-
stance

NATURAL HISTORY. 109

stance of the inquiries I have made with re-
spect to those animals.

Aristotle calls it by two names, hycena and
planus; names which we may be assured are
applied to the same animals by comparing the
passages wherein they are mentioned.* The
ancient Latins retained the name hyaena, and
never adopted that of glanus. In the writings
of the modern Latins^ however, we find the
ganus, or gannus, and helbus employed as
names for the hyaena. According to Rasis, the
Arabians call it kaho^ or zaho^ names that ap-
pear to be derived from the word zeeh^ which,
in their lanficuasre denominates a wolf. In Bar-
bary the hyaena bears the name of dubhah^ as
appears from the description given of this ani-
mal by Dr. Shaw.t In Turkey it is called

zirtlaaty

* Aristotle Hist. Animal, lib. vi. c. 32. lib. viii. c. 5.

f The Dubbah is nearly the size of the wolf. Its neck is so
exceedingly stiff, that when it offers to look behind, or evea
on one side, it is obliged to turn the whole body, like the
hog, the badger, and the crocodile. Its colour is somewhat
inclined to a reddish brown, with a few brown streaks of a
darker hue, it has very long hairs on the neck which it can
occasionally erect. Its paws are large and well armed, v/ith
which it digs up plants, and sometimes dead bodies from
their graves. Next to the lion and panther, the dubbah is
the most fierce of all the animals of Barbary. As it is fur«
aished with a mane, has a difficulty in turning the head, and
scrapes up deid bodies from their graves, it has every ap-
pearance qf being the hyxna o»f the ancients. See SLaw't
7ravtls.

IIQ buffon's

zirtlaat, accord in £^ <o Nicremberg; in Persia
kaflaar^ as stated by Kccnipfer ; and castavy
according to Pietro dclla Valle. These are
the only names \*hich seem aciually (o refer to
the hyaena ; though it is nevertheless probable
that the lycaou and the crocuia of India and
Ethiopia, of v.hich the ancients speak, are no
other than tlic hyt-ena. Porphyry expressly
says that the crocuia of the Indies is the hy-
aena of the Greeks; and, indeed, all they have
"written, whether true or fabulous, respecting
the lycaon and crocuta, bears some analogy
to the nature of the hyaena. But we shall
make no further conjectures on this subject
until we treat of fabulous animals, and the
affinities Xh^y hav^e with real ones.

The panther of the Greeks, the lupus cana-
rius of Gaza, and the lupus armcnius of the
modern Latins and Arabians, seem to be the
same animal, that is, the jackall, which the
Turks call cical^ according to Pollux, and tha-
cnl according to Spon and Wheeler ; which
the modern Greeks distinguish by the name of
::achaUa, the Persians sieckal^ or schachal, and
the Moors of Barbary cfee^y that of jackall,
however, having been adopted by a number
of travellers, to that we shall give the prefer-
ence, and only remark at present, that he
differs from the hyaena not only in size,

figure,

N ATI! UAL niSTOilY. Ill

figure, and colour, but in natural iiabits, for
the lij.^na is a solitarj' animal, while the jack-
all is seldom seen but in troops. After the
example of Kampfer, some of our nomcncla-
tors have called the jackall lupus aureus^ be-
cause his hair is of a lively yellow hue*

It is therefore evident, that the jackall is a
very different animal from tlie hyaena; and no
less so than the glutton, \vhi8h is an animal
confined to the northern regions of Lapland,
Russia, and Siberia ; it is a stranger even in
the temperate climates, and therefore could
never have inhabited Arabia, or any of the
other warm countries in which the Iiytcna re-
sides. It differs also in form, for the glutton
bears a strong resemblance to a very large
badger; his legs are so short that his belly
almost reaches the ground ; he has five toes
on each of his ftei^ has no mane, and hb
body is covered with black hair, excepting
sometimes a few reddish-yellow hairs upon his
sides; in short, he resembles him in nothing
but in being exceedingly voracious. He was
unknown to the ancients, who had made no
great progress into the north of Europe.
Olaus is the first author who mentions this
animal and from his prodigious gluttony he
called him gulo. In Sclavonia he afterwards

Qbtaine4

112 BtJFr'ON's

obtained the name of rosomak^ and in Ger-*
many jerff. or wildfras, and (he French tra*
Vellers have called him glouton. There are
varieties in this species, as well as in (hat of
(he jackall, which we shall speak of when we
come to the particular history of those ani-
mals, and shall only here observe, that those
varieties, instead of assimilating them with the
hyaena, render them additionally a more dis*
tinct species.

The civet has nothing in common with the
hyaena but the glandular pouch, under the
tail, and the mane along the neck and back-
bone. It differs from the hyaena in figure and
size, not being more than half as large; his
ears are short and covered with hair, whereas
those of the hyaena are long and naked ; he has
also short legs, and five toes upon each foot,
"While the legs of the hyaena are long, and he
has only four toes upon each foot ; nor does
the civet dig up the earth in search for dead
bodies. From these differences these animals
are easily to be distinguished from each other.

With respect to the baboon, which is the
papio of the Latins, and as we have before ob-
served, has been mistaken for tke hyana, mere-
ly from the ambiguity of names, which seems
to have arisen from a passage of Leo Afri-

canus

If ATURAL HISTORY. 113

canus, and since copied by Marmol. *^ The
dabuh say these authors, is of the size and form
of the wolf; and scratches up dead bodies
from their graves.'* From which it was sup-
posed to mean the dubhah^ or hyaena, although
it is expressly stated in the same passages that
the dubbah has hands and feet resembling those
of a man ; a remark which, however appli-
cable to the baboon, cannot be applied to the
hyaena.

From taking a view of the lupus'marinus of
Bellon, which Gesner has copied, we might
mistake it for the figure of the hj'ffina, to
which it bears a great resemblance ; but his
description corresponds not with our hyaena,
for he says, the lupus-marinus is an amphibious
animal which feeds on fish, and has sometimes
been seen on the coasts of the British ocean ;
besides this author says nothing of the pecu-
liar characteristics which distinguish the
hyaena from all other animals. It is possible
that Bellon, prepossessed with the notion that
the civet was the hjaena of the ancients, has
given the figure of the real one under the name
of lupus-marinusy for so striking and singular
are the characters of that animal, that it is
hardly possible to be deceived in them ; he is,
perhaps, the only quadruped that has four toes
yoL. VII. Q upon

114r BUFFON^S

upon each foot. Like the badger he has an
aperture under the tail, which does not pene-
trate into the body ; his ears are long, straiglit,
and naked ; his head is bhorter and more square
than that of the woU"; his legs are longer,
especially the hind ones ; his eyes are placed
like those of the dog ; the hair of his body
and mane is of a dark grcy^ with a small in-
termixture of yellow and black, and disposed
all along in waves, and though in size he
equals the wolf, yet he has, nevertheless, a
contracted appearance.

This wild and solitary animal resides in the
caverns of mountains, the clefts of rocks, or in
dens, which he forms for himself under the
earth. Tliough taken ever so young he is
not to be tamed ; he is naturally ferocious.
He lives like the wolf, by depredation, but he
is more strong and daring. He sometimes
attacks men, and darts with a ferocious reso-
lution on all kinds of cattle ; he follows the
flocks, and even breaks down the sheep-folds
in the night to get at his prey. His eyes
shine in the dark, and it is asserted that he
sees better by night than day. All naturalists
who havetreated of this animal, except Kaemp-
fer, say, that his cry resembles the noise of a
man who is vomiting, while the latter asserts

it

NATURAL HISTORY. 115

it to be like the lowing of a calf. He defends
himself against the lion, htaiids in no awe of
the panther, and attacks the ounce, which is
incapable of resisting hira. When at a loss
for prey he ^crapes up the earth with his feet,
and tears out the carcasses of animals and men,
which in the countries he inhabits are pro-
miscuously buried in the fields. He is found
in almo.4 all the hot climates of Africa and
Asia, and it is probable that the animal called
farasscy at Madagascar, which resembles the
wolf in figure, but is larger and stronger, is the
same animal.

Of (his animal more absurd stories have been
told than of any other. The ancients have
gravely written that the hysena is alternately
male and female; tliat when it brings forth,
suckles and rears its progeny, it remains as a
female the whole year, but the year follow-
ing it resumes the functions of the male, and
obliges its companion to submit to those of the
female. The circumstance wliich gave rise to
this fable is plainly the orifice under the tail,
in both males and females, indej^endently
of the organs of generation peculiar to both
sexes, and which are the same in the hyaena as
in all other animals. It has also been affirmed
that this animal could imitate the human voice,
remember the names of shepherds, call upon,

fascinate.

116 buffon's

fascinate, and render them motionless; that lie
can terrify shepherdesses, cause them to forget
and neglect their flocks, to be distracted in
love, &c. All this might surely happen with-
out the intervention of the hyaena ! But I shall
conclude here, to avoid the reproach which
has been cast upon Pliny, that of taking plea-
sure in compiling and relating absurd fables.

SUPPLEMENT.

AT the fair of St. Germain, in the year
1773, I saw a male hyaena ; the one just de-
scribed was very ferocious, and as I mentioned
untameable, but this was perfectly gentle, for
though his keeper made him angry for the
purpose of erecting his mane, yet he seemed
to forget it in a few moments, and suffer him-
self to be played with without any appearance
of dislike. He exactly accorded with the de-
scription I have given, except his tail being
entirely white.

In the island of Meroe there is a large kind
of hyaenas, so strong that they can run off

with

i'tOiDO

1. )V/.l'.

I'LC no.

J/vn//o .

NATURAL HISTORY. 117

■with a man to the distance of more than a
league without stopping. These are also of a
darker colour, and erect their long hairs on
the hind parts and not the front. Mr. Bruce
informs me that he has observed, that when
the hjaenas are forced to take to flight, they
are at first exceedingly lame of the left hind
leg, and which continues for more than an
hundred paces, so much so indeed as to give
them the appearance of falling, and that it is
the same also with those of Syria and Barbary.

THE CIVET AND THE ZIBET.

THE generality of naturalists are of opinion
that the perfume called civet, or musk, is fur-
nished only by one species of animals. I have,
however, seen two animals that furnish it,
which, though they have many essential affini-
ties, both in their external and internal confor-
mations, yet diffi?r in so many characteristics,
that there is sufficient reason to consider them
as two distinct species. To the first I have

continued

118 BUFFO N*S

continued the original name of Civet, (fg,
111.) and the second, for the sake of distinc-
tion, I have called Zibet {fig. 113.) Theczre^
seems to be the same as tliat described by the
Academy of Sciences ; by Caius, in Gesner,
page 837, and by Fabius Columna, who has
given both the male and female figures in the
publication of Faber, which follows that of
Hernandes. The zihet appears \o be the same
animal as M. de la Peyronnie has described
under the name of Musk Animal, in the Me-
moirs of the Academy of Sciences for the year
1731. Both differ from the civet in the very
same characters ; both want the mane, or tlic
long hair, on the back-bone, and both have
the tail marked with strong annular streaks.
The civet, on the contrary, has a mane, but
no rings on the tail. It must, however be
acknowledged that our zibet, and the musk
animal of M. de la Peronnie, are not so per-
fectly similar as to leave no doubt of the iden-
tity of their species. The riiigs on the tail of
the zibet are larger than those of the musk ani-
mal, and the length of his tail is shorter in pro-
portion to that of his body ; but these differ-
ences are slight, and appear to be mere acci-
dental varieties, to which the civet must be
more subject than any other wild animal, as

they

Ettorafcd ror Barr-f Ha/Von

^4da

/

NATURAL HISTORY. 119

they are reared and fed like domestic ones ia
many parts of the Levant and East Indies.
Certain it is, that our zibet bears a stronger
resemblance to the musk animal than to the
civet, nnd consequently they may be consider-
ed as the same species. Nor, indeed, do we
mean positively to affirm Ihat civet and zibet
are not varieties of the same species, but from
their different characteristics there is a strong
presumption they really are so.

The animal which we here name the Civet,
is called the falanoucy at Madagascar, nzimcy
or nzfiisi at Congo, kankan in Ethiopia, and
hastor in Guinea. That it is the civet of
Guinea I am certain, for the one I had was
sent from Guinea, to one of my correspondents
at St. Domingo, where, after being fed for
some time, it was killed for the more easy con-
veyance to Europe.

The zibet is probably tlie civet of Asia, of
the East Indies, and of Arabia, where he is
called zebct, or zibet, an Arabic word, which
likewise signifies the perfume of that animal,
and which we have adopted to signify the
animal itself. He differs from the civet in
havinsT alona-er and less thick bodv : a snout
more thin and slender, and somcwhit concave
on the upper part ; whereas that of the civet
is more short, thick, and rather convex. The

ears

120 buffon's

cars of the zibet are also larger and more ele-
vated ; his tail is longer, and more strongly
marked; his hair is shorter and much more
soft ; he has no mane, or long hair on the
neck or back-bone; no black spots under the
eyes, or on the cheeks ; all of which are re-
markable characteristics in the civet. Some
travellers have suspected there were two spe-
cies of civets ; but no person has examined
them with sufficient accuracy as to give a dis-
tinct description. I have seen both ; and after
a careful comparison, am of opinion, that they
not only differ in species^ but perhaps belong
to different climates.

These animals have been called musk-cats,
though they have nothing in common with the
cat, except bodily agility. They rather re-
semble the fox, especially in the head. Their
skins are diversified with stripes and spots,
which has occasioned them to be mistaken for
small panthers, when seen at a distance ; but
in every other respect they differ from the
panther. There is an animal called the Genet,
which is spotted in the like manner, whose
head is nearly of the same shape, and which,
like the civet, has a pouch where an odori-
ferous humor is formed ; but this animal is
smaller than our civet ; its legs are shorter,
and its body thinner ; its perfume is very faint^

aal

NATURAL HISTORY. 121

and of short duration ; while the perfume of
the civet is very strong, and that of the zibet
is so to an excess.

This humor is found in the orifice which
these animals have near the organs of genera-
tion ; it is nearly as thick as pomatum, and
though the odour is very strong, it is yet
agreeable, even when it issues from the body
of the animal. This perfume of the civet must
not be confounded with musk, which is a
sanguineous humor, obtained from an animal
very different from either the civet or zibet^
being a species of roe-buck, or goat, without
horns, and which has no one property in com-
mon with the civet, but that of furnishing a
strong perfume.

These two species of civets have not been
distinguished with precision. They have both
been sometimes confounded with the weasel of
Virginia, the genet, the musk-deer, and even
with the hyaena. Bellon, who has given a
figure and description of the civet, insists that
it was the hyaena of the ancients, and his mis-
take is the more excusable not being destitute
of some foundation. Certain it is, that most of
the fables which h a ve been related of the hyaena,
took their rise from the civet. The philters
said to have been obtained from certain parts of
VOL. VII. R the

122 buffon's

the hyasna, and their power to excite love, suf-
ficiently indicate that the stimulating virtues
of the preparations of civet, were not unknown
to the ancients, and which arc still used for this
very purpose in the East. Wliat they have
said of the uncertainty of the sex of the hyaena,
is still more applicable to the civet, for the
male has no external appearance, but three
apertures so perfectly similar to those of the
female, that it is hardly possible to determine
the sex but by dissection. The opening which
contains the perfume, is situated between the
other twoj and in the same direct line which
extends from the os sacrum to the pubis.

Another error, which has made more pro-
gress, is that of Gregoire de Bolivar, with re-
spect to the climates in which the civet is
found. After stating them to be common in
Africa and the East Indies, he positively af-
firms they are also very numerous in all parts
of South America. This assertion, transmitted
by Faber, has been copied by Aldrovandus,
and adopted by all the authors who have since
treated of the civet. But the truth is, that
they are animals peculiar to the hottest climates
of the old continent, and which could not have
found a northern passage into the New World ;
where, in fact, no civets ever existed until they

were

NATURAL HISTORY. 125

were transported thither from the Philippine
Islands and the coasts of Africa. As the asser-
tion of Bolivar is positive, and mine only nega-
tive, it is necessary I should give my particular
reasons, to prove the falsity of the fact. Be-
sides my own remarks, I refer to the very words
of Faber himself.* On this head it is to be
observed, that the figure given by Faber, was
left to him by Recchi, without any descrip-
tiont ; and of which the inscription is, ani'
mal zihethicum Americanum ; but this figure
has no resemblance to the civet or zibet, and
rather represents the badger ; secondly, Faber
gives a description and the figures of a male
and female civet, which resemble our zibet ;
but these civets are not the same animal as
that represented in the first figure; nor do
they represent animals of America, but civets
belonging to the old continent, of which Fa-
bius Columna had procured drawings at Na-
ples, and furnished Faber with tlieir figures
and descriptions ; thirdly, after having quoted
Bolivar respecting the climates in which the
civet is found, Faber concludes with admiring
Bolivar's prodigious memory, and that he
was indebted for this recital to the oral infor-
mation

* Navas Hisp. Anim. NardI Antonil Recchi Imagines &
Nomina, Joannis Fabri Lyncei Expositione, p. 539.

124f buffok's

mation of (hat gentleman. These three re-'
marks are alone sufficient to create a suspicion
respecting the pretended a7iimal zibethicum
Americanum^ but what completely proves the
error, FernandeSj in his description of the ani-
mals of America, flatly contradicts Bolivar,
and affirms that the civet was not a native of
America, but that, in his time, they had be-
gan to transport some of them from the
Phillippine Islands to New Spain. In iine^
if we add this positive testimony of Fernandesj
to that of all the travellers, who mention that
civets are very common in the Philippine
Islands, in the East Indies, and in Africa,
not one of whom intimates having seen this
animal in America, every doubt will vanish
of what we advanced in our enumeration of
the animals of the two continents, and it will
be admitted that the civet is not a native of
America, but an animal peculiar to the warm
climates of the old continent, and that he was
never found in the newj until after he had
been transported thither. Had I not guarded
against such mistakes, which are too fre-
quent, I should have described ray civet as
an American animal, from its having been
sent to me from St. Domingo, and not directly
from Guinea, the place of its nativity, of which
I was, however, assured by the letter from M.

Pageg

l^ATURAL HISTORY. 125

Pages which accompanied the animal. These
particular facts I consider as confirmations to
the general pasition, that there is a real differ-
ence between all the animals of the southern
parts of each continent.

Both the civet and zibet are then animals of
the old continent, nor have they any other ex-
ternal differences, besides those already pointed
out; and as to their internal differences, and
the structure of their reservoirs which contain
the perfume, they have been so accurately de-
scribed by Messrs. Morand and Peyronnie, in
the Memoirs of the Academy for 1728 and
173 !>, that I could do liltle more than give a
repetition of their accounts. Wilh regard to
what remains to be further observed of those
two animals, as the few facts are hardly more
applicable to the one than the other, and as it
would be difficult to point out the distinction,
I shall collect the whole under one head.

The civets, (by the plural number 1 mean
the civet and zibet) though natives of the hot-
test climates of Asia and Africa, can yei live in
temperate and even cold countries, provided
they are carefully defended from the injuries of
the weather, and supplied with succulent food.
In Holland they are frequently reared for the
advantage obtained by their perfume. The
civet brought from Amsterdam is preferred to

that

196 BurroN's

<liat ^vhicli comes from the Levant or the In*
dies, as being the most genuine. Thatim*
ported from Guinea would be the best, were it
not that the Negroes, as well as the Indians,
and the people of the Levant, adullerate it
with the mixture of storax, and other balsamic
and odoriferous drugs and plants.

Those who keep these animals collect the
perfume in (he following manner ; they put
them into a narrow cage, in which they can-
not (urn tliemselves ; this cage opens behind,
and two or three times in a week the animal is
drawn a little out by the tailj and kept in that
position by putting a bar across the fore par
of the cage ; tliis done, the person takes out
the perfume from the pouch with a small
spoon, scraping all the internal parts, and
then, putting the matter into a vessel, the great-
est care is taken to keep it closely covered.
Thequantity so procured depends greatly upon
the appetite of the animal, and the quality of
liis nourishment, as he always produces more
in proportion io the goodness of his food.
Hashed flesh, eggs, rice, small animals, birds,
young poultry, and particularly fish, are the
best, and which he most prefers ; and these
ought to be so varied as to excite his appetite
and preserve his healtli. He requires but

little

NATURAL HISTORY. 127

little water, and though he drinks seldom, yet
he discharges urine very frequently : and even
on such occasions, the male is not to be dis-
tinguished from the female.

The perfume of the civets is so strong that
it communicates itself to all parts of the body ;
the hair and skin is impregnated with it to
such a degree, that it preserves the odour for a
long time after it is stripped off. If a person
be shut up in a close room with one of them
alive, he cannot support the perfume, it is so
copiously diffused. When the animal is en-
raged, its scent is more violent than ordinary,
and if tormented so as to make him sweat, that
is also collected and serves to adulterate, or at
least encrease the perfume which is otherwise
obtained.

The civets arc naturally wild, and even fe-
rocious ; and though tameable to a certain de-
gree, they are never perfectly familiar. Their
teeth are strong and sharp, but their claws are
blunt and feeble. They arc light and active,
and live by prey, pursuing small animals, and
surprising birds. They can bound like cats,
and run like dogs ; and sometimes steal into
yards and out-houses to carry off the poultry.
Their eyes shine in thedarkjand they probably
see better in the night than in the day. When

they

128 buffon's

Ibey fail in procuring animal food, they subsist
on roots and fruits. As they seldom drink
they never inhabit moist places, but chearful-
ly reside among arid sands and burning moun-
tains. They breed very fast in their native
climates ; but though they can live, and even
produce perfume in temperate climates, yet
they cannot multiply. They have a voice
more powerful, and a tongue less rough than
the cat, and their cry is not unlike that of am
enraged dog.

The odorous humor ■svbich exudes from
these animals is called civet in England and
France, and zibet, or algaliciy in Arabia, the
Indies, and the Levant, where it is more used
than in Europe. It is now very little employ-
ed as a medicine, but it is still used as an in-
gredient in the compositions of perfumers and
confectioners. The smell of the civet, though
stronger, is more agreeable than tliat of the
musk. Both, however, lost their repute when
the method of preparing ambergris was dis-
covered ; and even that seems now to be pro-
scribed from the toilets of the polite and deli^
cate.

THE

NATURAL histohy. 129

THE GENET.

THE Genet (/?i^. 112) is a smaller animal
than the civet. He has a long body, short
legs, a sharp snout, slender head, and smooth
soft hair, of a glossy ash colour, marked with
black spots, which are round, and separated
on (he sides, but so nearly united on the back as
to have the appearance of stripes alongthebody.
Upon the neck and back it has a kind of mane,
which forms a black streak from the head to
the tail, the latter of which is as long as the
body, and is marked with seven or eight rings,
alternately black and white ; the black spots
on the neck also appear to form streaks, and it
has a white spot under each eye. Under tlie
tail, and in the very same place with the civets,
it has a pouch, in which is secreted a kind of
perfume, but is much weaker, and its scent
soon evaporates. It is somewhat longer Inaii
the marten, which it greatly resembles in form,
habit, and disposition ; and from which it seems
chiefly to differ in being more easily tamed.
Mellon assures us, that he has seen them in the
houses at Constantinople as tame as cats, that
WOL, VII. S ihey

130 buffon's

Ihey were permitted to run about without
doing the least mischief, and that they wer«
called Constantinople cats ; Spanish cats; genet
cats, Sfc. though, indeed, they have nothing in
common with that animal, except the skill
of watching and catching mice.* Naturalists
pretend that genets inhabit only moistgrounds,
and reside along the banks of rivers, and that
they are never found on mountains or dry
grounds. The species is not numerous, or, at
least, not much diffused ; for there are none of
Ihera in any part of Europe, except Spain and
Turkey. They seem to require a warm cli-
mate to subsist and multiply in, and yet they
are not found in India or Africa. The fossane
has been called the genet of Madagascar, but
that animal is of a different species, as will
hereafter be shewn.

The skin of the genet makes a light and
handsome fur, it was formerly fashionable for
muffij, and consequently very dear ; but the
manufacturers having got the art of counter-
feiting them, by painting the skins of grey

rabbits

♦ It is, perhaps, because they are only found in the Levant
and in Spain, that they are designated by their country; for
the name of genet is not derived from any of the ancient
languages, and is probably only a new appellation taken
from some place abounding with them, a custom which is
very common in Spain, where a certain race of horses arc
failed genets.

NATURAL HISTORY. 131

rabbits with black spots, their value is abated,
ftom bains: no lons^er esteemed.

SUPPLEMENT.

I formerly stated that genets were not to bs
found in any parts of Europe, except Spain
and Turkey, but since then I have learned that
they are common in the southern provinces of
France, and that at Poitou they are known by
thaf name even to the peasantry. In April,
1775, the Abbe Roubard sent me a genet that
■was killed at Livray, in Poitou, which, except
isome trifling variations in the colour of the
hair, was similar to that I have described ; and
he assured me that the species was also to be
found in the neighbouring provinces ; and
M. Delpeche informed me, in a letter, that it
was a constant practice with the peasants of
the province of Rouergue to bring dead genets
to the merchants in the winter ; he added,
that they were not very numerous, that they
were principally found near Villefranche, and
that they burrow in holes like the rabbits,
especially in winter,

TfiS

132 bufpon's

THE BLACK WOLF.

WE mention this animal merely as a supple-
ment to the description we have given of the
wolf, for there can be little doubt of his be-
longing to the same species. We have already
said, that in the northern parts of Europe
there were some wolves black, and others
■white, and that the black wolves were ge-
nerally the largest ; but the one we are now
about to describe came from Canada, and was
smaller than the common wolf; but we have
had repeated occasions to remark, that the
animals of the northern parts of America
are less in size than those belonging to the
north of Europe, and this difference in siie was
the chief, if not the only variation in him ;
besides, he had been taken very young, and
ever after kept in a state of captivity, which
also might have prevented the completion
of his growth. Our common wolf is less in,
Canada than in Europe; and in that country
black wolves and foxes are not uncommon.

Wc

llj.

Jlc;

114-
Caruidian ^lusJc Jial .

TIG .lit:

.\fi.ric/in Hty

NATURAL HISTORY. J3S

We saw this animal alive, and to us it appear-
ed perfectly to resemble the common wolf both
in figure and disposition.

THE CANADIAN MUSK-RAT, AND THE MUSCOVY
MUSK-RAT.

THOUGH these two animals have been
denominated musk-rats, and have a few com-
mon characteristics, jei they ought not to be
confounded ; they must also be distinguished
from the Pilori, or Musk-rat, of the Antilles ;
all three forming different species, and belong-
ing to different climates ; the first, also called
Ondatra, is found in Canada ; the second, or
Desman, in Lapland and Muscovy ; and the
Pilori, in Martinico and other of the Antille
islands.

The Musk-rat of Canada (fg. 115) differs
from that of Muscovy in having all its toes
separate, eyes very conspicuous, and a short
nose ; whereas the latter (fig- 114) lias the toes
of the hind feet united by a membrane, ex-
ceedingly small eyeS; and a long nose like thp

shrew-

ISi bitffon's

shrew-morise. The tail of both is flat, irit
whicli,as well as in many oilier characteristics,
lliey differ from the pilori of the Antilles.-
The (ail of the pilori is short, and, like that
of other rats, cylindrical ; the other two have
long tails, and the head of the first is like that
of a water-rat, and the head of the second re-
sembles a shrew-mouse.

In the memoirsof the Academy of Sciences,
for 1725, we meet with a very ace n rate de-
scription of the Canadian musk-rat. M. Sarra-
sin, a correspondent of the Academy, dissected
a number of them at Quebec, and made some
striking and singular remarks; by comparing
his description with our own, we have not the
least doubt but the animal which he calls the
musk-rat of Canada, is the same with that now
before us.

This animal is of the size of a small rabbit,
and of the figure of a rat. Its head is short,
and similar to that of the water-rat ; its hair is
soft and glossy, with a thick down underneath,
like that of the beaver ; its tail is long and
covered with little scales, like that of the other
rats, though of a different form, for instead of
being cylindrical it is flat from the middle to
the lip, and rather round at the insertion. Tlie
toes are not \inited by membranes, but fur-
nished

NATURAL HISTORY. 135

fiisli^d with a long thick hair, which enables
^he animal to swim with ease. Ls ears are
very short, but nvot naked, as in tlie common
rat, but covered with hair, both outwardly and
inwardly ; i(s ej^es are large ; it lias two in-
cisive teeth, about an inch long, in the under
jaw, and two shorter ones in the upper ; these
four teeth are very strong, and by them Ih^
animal is enabled (o gnaw through wood.

The strikir^g singularities remarked by M.
Sarrasin, in this animal are, first, the muscur
iar force and great expansibility in the skin,
^Yhich enables the animal to contract and
compress its body into a smaller size. Se-
condly, the suppleness of the false ribs, which
admits a contraction of body so considerable
(hat the musk-rat can obtain an ensy passage
through holes where smaller animals cannot
find admission. Thirdly, the manner in which
the female voids her urine, the urethra not
terminating, as in other animals, under the
clitoris, but at a hairy eminence above the
ios pubis, and in v/hich there is an orifice,
that serves (he urine to escape. Tliis strange
organization is found in only a few species
of animaU, as rais and apes have three aper-
tures ; and these two are perliaps the only
animals who have a passage for tlie urine
distinct from the organs of generation : to the

fcinaks

156 BtJFFO?j's

females alone, however, does this singularity
belong, for the conformation of the males is
the same with that of other quadrupeds. M,
Sarrasin observes, fourthly, that the testicles
"which, as in other rats, are situated on each
side of the anus, become exceedingly large,
considering the size of the animal, during the
rutting season ; but that over, they not only
change in size, consistency, and colour, but
even in situation, and with the seminal vessels,
and all the organs of generation become almost
invisible. And, lastly, that the vessels which
contain the musk, or perfume, of this animal,
under the form of a milky humor, and which
adjoin the parts of generation, undergo the
same changes; that during the rutting season
they enlarge in a great degree, and then the
perfume is exceedingly strong, and may be sen-
sibly distinguished at a considerable distance,
but at its expiration they become wrinkled,
decay, and at length entirely disappear. The
change in the vessels, which contain the per-*
fume, is effected more quickly, and more
completely, than that of the parts of genera-
tion. These ve^tels are common to both sexes,
and at the above periods contain a considerable
quantity of milky humor; and the secretion
is formed, and the humor yoidedj nearly in

th^

NATURAL HISTORY. 157

ihe same place as the urine of other quadru-
peds. These singularities wefe worthy the
attention of so able an anevtomibt as M. Sar-
rasin. We have already mentioned similar
alterations in the parts of generation in the wa-
ter-rat, the carapagnol, and the mole; but
this is not the place for us to enlarge on the
general consequences which might be drawn
from these singular facts, nor even on the im-
mediate references they may have to our theo-
ry of generation. These we shall soon have
occasion to present with more advantage, by
uniting them with other facts to which they
relate.

As the Canadian musk-rat belongs to the
same cou itry as the beaver, is fond of water,
and has nearly the same figure, colour, and
Lair, they have been often compared to each
other; it is even affirmed, that, at the first
glance, a full grown musk-rat may be mis-
taken for a beaver of a month old. But in the
form of their tails there is a considerable dif-
ference ; that of the beaver being oval and flat
horizontally ; whereas that of the musk-rat is
of a considerable length,and flat, or compressed
vertically. In disposition and instinct, how-
ever, these animals have a strong resemblance.
The musk-rats, as well as the beavers, live in
societies during the winter. They form little
yoL. VII. T dwellinirs

1S8 buffon's

dwellings about two feet and a lialf in diame-
ter and sometimes larger, in which is often an
association of several families. These habita-
tions are not for the purpose of resorting to, in
order to sleep like the marmots, for five or six
months, but to obtain a shelter from the in-
clemency of the weather ; they are of a round
formy and covered with a dome about a foot
thick ; the materials for making which are
herbs and rushes interwoven together, and ce-
mented with clay, which they prepare with
their feet ; these huts are impenetrable by the
rain, and secured from the effects of inunda-
tions by being elevated on the inside, and tho'
covered with snow several feet thick in the
winter these animals do not seem to be incom-
moded by this circumstance. They do not
provide a stock of provisions fot that season,
but dig a sort of passages round their dwell-
ings, for the purpose of procuring roots and
water. A f winter is not their season of love,
they reap but little advantage from associa-
ting. All this period they remain totally
deprived of light, and therefore no sooner
has the mild breath of spring begun to
xJissolve the snow, aud uncover tbe tops of
their little mansions, than the huntsmen open
their dome suddenly, dazzle them with the
light, and kill or seize all those who have not

obtaiRod

NATURAL HISTORY. 139

obtained shelter in their subterraneous passages;
but as their skins are valuable, and their flesh
not unpalatable, thither they are also pursued
for slaughter. Such as escape quit their habi-
tations about the same time. They wander
about during the summer but always in pairs,
for then is the time of their amours ; then it is
that all their vessels expand, and feeding large-
ly upon the fresh roots and vegetables which
the season affords, they acquire a strong smell
of musk ; a scent which, though agreeable to
Europeans, is so disgustful to the savages,
that they distinguish one of their rivers, from
being frequented by a number of them, the
Stinking River, and the animal itself the Stink-
ard.

They produce once a year, and generally
have five or six young. Their time of gesta-
tion cannot be long, as they are not in season
till the summer, and their young are full grown
by October, when they seek for shelter ; they
construct new huts every year, and are never
known to revisit their former habitations.
Their cry is a kind of groan, which the hunts-
men imitate in order to allure them. So strong
arc their fore-teeth, and so calculated for
gnawing, that if shut up in a box, they soon
make a hole large enough to escape through,
a faculty which they possess in common with

th^

140 buffon's

the beaver. They do not swim so fast, or so
long as the beaver, and are often seen npon
the ground ; they run very indifferenlly, and
in their walk they waddle like a goose. Their
skin retains the smell of musk, which renders
it of little value to the furriers, but their under
hair, or down, is used in the manufacture of
hats. These animals arc not very wild, and
■when taken young are easily tamed ; and are
then tolerably handsome, for their tail, which
is afterwards long and disagreeable, is very
short. They play with all the innocence and
sprightliness of young cats, and they might
be reared with ease but for their disagreeable
smell.

The Canadian and Muscovy musk-rats, are
the only animals belonging- to the northern
regions which yield any perfume, for the odour
of the castoreiim (obtained from the badger)
is highly disagreeable ; and it is only in warm
climates that we meet with the animals which
furnish the real musk, the civet, and other de-
licate perfumes.

The musk-rat of Muscovy might, perhaps,
present singularities analogous to those of the
Canadian, and not less remarkable, but it does
not appear that any naturalist has yet had an
opportunity to dissect, or examine it alive. Of
its exterior form alone we can speak, as that

sent

NATURAL HISTORY. 141

sent from Lapland, for the king's cabinet, was
in a dry state, and therefore I can only add
ray regret that so little is known about it.

THE PECCART, OR MEXICAN HOG.

AMONG the animals of the New World,
few species are more numerous, or more re-
markable, than that of the Mexican Hog.*
(/to* I '6.) At the first glance he resembles
our wild boar, or ratlier the hog of Siam,
which, as we have already observed, is nothing
more than a variety of the wild boar ; and for
which reason this has been called the Ameri-
can wild boar, or American hog. He is, how-
ever, of a distinct species, and refuses to en-
gender either with our wild or domestic kinds ;
a circumstance of which I was convinced, by
having reared one of these animals in com'
pany with several sows.

He differs also from the hog in a number
of characteristics, both external and internal.
He is less corpulent, and his legs are shorter;

in

* Xhis animal has a variety of names ; besides the above,
some call him Tujassouy Tajacou, Pa^Mira, Sainoj &C.

142 buffon's

in tbe stomacli and intestines, there is a differ-
ence of conformation. He has no tail, and
his bristles are much stronger than those of
the ^vild boar; and, lastly, he has on his back,
near the crupper, an opening from which
there is discharged an ichorous humor of a
very disagreeable smell. This is the only
animal which has an opening in this part of
the body. In the civets, the badger, and tlie
genet, the reservoir for their perfume is situ-
ated beneath the parts of generation ; and in
the musk-animal, and the musk-rat of Canada,
we find it under the belly. The moisture
which exudes from this aperture in the back
of the Mexican hog, is secreted by large glands,
which M. Daubenton has described w ith
much attention, as well as the other singulari-
ties of this animal; Dr. Tyson also in the
Philosophical Transactions, No. 153^ has given
a good description of it. Without minutely
detailing the observations of these two able
anatomists, I shall barely remark, that the
latter was mistaken in asserting that this ani-
mal has three stomachs, or, as Mr. Ray says,
a gizzard and two stomachs. M. Daubenton
plainly shews, that it is only one stomach di-
vided by two similar pouches, which give it
the appearance of three; that only one of
these pouches has a pyrolus, or orifice below,

for

NATUHAT. HISTORY. liS

for the discharge of its contents ; that, conse-
quently, we ought to consider the two others
merely as appendages to, or rather portions
of, the same stomach.

The Mexican hog might be rendered a do-
mestic animal like tl)e common kind ; he has
nearly the same habits and natural inclina-
tions ; feeds upon the same aliments, and his
flesh, though more dry and lean, is not unpa-
latable, and may be improved by castration.
When killed, not only the paris of generation,
if the flesh is intended to be eaten, (as is albo
done "svith the wild boar) must be taken in-
stantly away, but also the glands at the open-
ing in the back, and which are common to
both male and female, must likewise be re-
moved, for if this operation be deferred for
only half an hour, the flesh becomes utterly
unfit to be eaten.

These animals are extremely numerous in
all the warm climates of South America.
They go in herds of two or three hundred to-
gether, and unite, like hogs, in the defence of
«ach other. They are particularly fierce
when their young are attempted to be taken
from them. They surround their plunderers,
attack them without fear, and frequently mako
their lives pay the forfeit of their rashness.
In their native country they prefer the moun-
tainous

144 buffon's

tainous parts to the low and level grounds ;
neither do they seek marshes nor mud, like
our hogs, bat remain in the forests, where
they subsist upon wild fruits, roots, aud ve-
getables ; they are an unceasing enemy to all
the serpent kinds, with which the uncultivat-
ed forests of the New Continent abound : as
soon as tliey perceive a serpent or viper, they
seize it with their fore hoofs, skin it in an in-
stant, and devour the flesh.

These animals are very prolific ; the young
ones follow the dam, and do not separate from
her till they are full grown. If taken young
they are very easily tamed, and soon lose all
their natural ferocity, but they never shew any
signs of docility, but continue stupid, without
attachment, or even seeming to know the hand
that feeds them. They do no mischief, and
may be permitted to run tame, without appre-
hending any dangerous consequence. They
seldom stray far from home, but return of
themselves to the sty i they never quarrel
among each other, except when they are fed
in the same trough. At such times they have
an angry grunt, much stronger and harsher
than that of a common hog ; but they seldom
scream J only when suddenly surprised, or fright-
ened, when they have a shrill manner of l)low-
ing like the wild boar. When enraged they

draw

NATURAL HISTORY. 145

draw their breath with great force, and point
their bristles upward wliich more resemble the
sharp armour of the hedge- hog than the bris-
tles of the wild boar.

The species of the Mexican hog is preserved
without alteration, and altogether unmixed
with that of the European hog, which has been
transported fo, and become wild in, the forests
of America. These animals meet in the woods,
and even herd together, and yet never produce
an intermediate breed. It is the same wilh the
Guinea hog, which has greatly multiplied in
America, after being brought thither from
Africa.

However approximate the species of the
European hog, the Guinea-hog, and the pec-
cari, may appear, it is, nevertheless, evident,
that they are each distinct, and separate from
the others since they inhabit the same climate
without intermixture. Of the three, the
strongest, most robust, and most formidable, is
our wild boar. The peccari, though equally
fierce, is yet less active, and inferior as to the
engines of defence, his tusks being much
shorter. This animal dreads the cold, and can-
not subsist, without shelter, even in our (em-
perate regions ; nor can our wild boar exist in
countries which are very cold ; therefore it is
yoL. VII. U irapossibl*

146 BUFFON'g

impossible that either of them could have found
a passage from the one continent to the other,
over any northern country ; and therefore the
Mexican hog cannot be considered as an Eu-
ropean hog degenerated, or changed, by the
climate of America, but as an animal i)eculiar
to the southern regions of that continent.

Ray and other naturalists, have maintained,
that the humor discharged from the back of
the Mexican hog is a kind of musk, an agree-
able perfume, even as it exudes from the body
of the animal ; that it is perceived at a consi-
derable distance, and perfumes every place he
inhabits, and through which he passes. I have,
I mus^t own, a thousand times experienced very
contrary effects ; for so disagreeable is the smell
of this moisture, on being separated from the
body of the animal, that I could not collect it
"without being exceedingly incommoded. It
becomes less fcetid by being dried in the air, but
never acquires the agreeable smell of musk, or
of civet ; and naturalists would have expressed
themselves with more propriety, if they had
compared it to that of castor eum.

EUP«

NATUllAL HISTORY. 147

SUPPLEMENT.

M. DE LA BORDE says, there are two
kinds of the Peccari, or Mexican hog^, in
Cayenne, which never intermix ; the largest
of which is black, excepting two white spots
upon its jaws, and that the hair of the smalt
one is rather red ; but I apprehend the differ-
ences are occasioned by age, or some accident-
al circumstance. He adds, that those of the
large size do not associate with men; but that
they live in the woods, upon seeds, roots, and
fruits ; that they dig in the damp soils for
worms, and that they go in flocks of two of
three hundred. It is no difficult matter to
shoot them^ as, instead of flying, they collect
together, and will stand several discharges;
hay, they will even attack the dogs, and some-
times men. He mentions an instance where
he was out with a party that were surrounded
by a flock of these hogs, who were not to be
intimidated by a continual firing, and could
not be dispersed until several of them were

tilled.

148 BUFFO nV

killed. When taken young, tliey are sooii
rendered familiar, but they will not intermix
with the domestic hogs. When living in
their natural state of freedom, they often re-
side in the marshes, andwillswim across rivers.
Their flesh, though palatable, is not so good
as the common hog ; it has a strong resem-
blance to that of the hare, and is without lard
or grease.

M. de la Borde speaks of another species of
hog found in Guiana, which he calls patira, in
these terms : '' The patira is about the size of
the small Mexican hog, and the only differ-
<.^nce is the former having a white stripe along
the back ; they live in large forests, and, in
general, herd in families. They will defend
themselves against dogs, when hunted by
them : when likely to be overpowered, they
seek shelter in hollow trees, or in holes of the
earth, that have been made by armadillocs,.
which they entered backwards. To get them
out, the hunters employ every means to irri-
tate them, (having first inclo ed a space round
the hole) for when angry they will quit their
retreat, and the men, standing prepared, de-
stroy them with pitchforks and sabres. If a
hunter observes a single one in a hole, and
does not then wish to take it, he closes up the

entrance.

NATURAL HISTORY. 14^

entrance, and is sure toliaveliira the next day*
Their flesh is superior to that of other hogs.
When caught young tlicy are easily rendered
domestic, but even then they preserve their
natural inveteracy against dogs, whom they
attack on all occasions. They constantly live
in the marshes, unless when entirely covered
with water. The females produce two at a
time, and they breed at all seasons of the year.
Tlieir hair is soft, like that of the Mexican
hog. When tamed they follow their masters,
and allow themselves to be handled by tliose
they know, but strangers they always threaten
by shewing their teeth.'*

tHE ROUSETTE, OR TERNAT BAT, THE ROUGETTE,
OR LITTLE TERNATj AND THE VAMPYRE.

THE Roussette* and the Rougettet seem
to form two distinct species, but they so nearly
resemble each other that they ought not to be

presented

* Also called the Flying Dog, and the Great Bat of Ma-
dagascar,
f Or the Red-necked Flying Dog,

iM BUFFOi\*S

presented apart, as they differ onlj in the st2<*
of the bodj and colour of the hair. The Great
Ternat, (f(g> 11 7. J whose hair is of a reddish
brown, is nine inches in length, from the tip*
of (he nose to the insertion of the tail, and in
breadth tliree feet, when the membranes, which
serve it for wings, arc fullj extended. The
Hougette, whose hair is of a reddish ash colonr,
is hardly more than five inches and a half in
length, and two feet in breadth, when the wings
are extended ; and its neck is half encircled
with a stripe of lively red, intermixed with
orange, of which we perceive no vestige on
llie neck of tlie roussette. They both belong
to nearly the ^amc hot climates of the old
continent, are met with in Madagascar, in the
island of Bourbon^ in Ternat, the Philippines,
and other islands of the Indian Arch ipelagOy
where they seem to be more common than on
the neighbouring continents*

In the hot countries of the New World,
there is another flying quadruped, of which
we know not the American name, but shall call
it Yampyre, because it sucks the blood of men^
and other animals while asleep, without causing
sufficient pain to awaken them. This Ame-
rican animal is of a different species from the
bats just mentioned; both of which are to be

found

Te /*/-i<3^^_5 ftt:

TTG. 11 a

ruG: 119

-Bu^l J)f^J3cvt Setve^aZ _3«^

NATURAL HISTORY. 151

found solely in Africa, and in tLe southern
parts of Asia.

The vampyre* is smaller than the rougelte,
•which is itself smaller than the rousselte.
The first, when it flies, seems to be of the size
of a pigeon, the second of a raven, and the
third of a large hen. Both theroussette and
rougette have well shaped heads, short ears,
and round noses, nearly like that of a dog. Of
the vampyre, on; the contrary, the nose is long,,
the aspect as hideous as that of the ugliest bats ;
its head is unshapely, and its ears are large,
open, and very erect : its noise is deformed,
its nostrils resembling a funnel, with a mem-
Jbrane at the top, whieh rises up in the form
of a sharp horn, or cock's-comb, and greatly
heightens the deformity of its fdce. There is
no doubt, therefore, that this species is dif-
ferent from the Ternat bats. It is an animal
not less mischievous than it is deformed ; it is
the pest of man, and the torment of other
animals. In confirmation of this, the authen-
tic testimony of M. de la Coadamine may be
produced. ^' The bats," says he, " which
suck the blood of horses, mules, and even men,
when they do guard against it by sleeping

under

* Ah American animal called the Great American Bat,
fir Flying Dog of New Spaiij.

152 euffon's

under the shelter of a pavilion, are a scoiirg©
common to most of tlie hot countries of Amci-
rica. Of these some are of a monstrous size.
At Borja, and several other places, they have
entirely destroyed the large cattle which the
missionaries had brought thither, and which
had begun to multiply." These facts are con-
firmed by many other historians and travellers.
Petrus Martyr, who wrote not long after the
conquest of South America, says, that there
are bals in the isthmus of Darien which suck
the blood of men and animals while they are
asleep, so as to much weaken, and frequently
kill them. Jumilla, Don George Juan, and
Don Ant. de Ulloa, assert the same. Though
from the above testimonies it appears that these
blood-sucking bats are numerous, particularly
in South America, yet we have not been able
to obtain a single individual. Seba has pre^
sented us with a figure and description of this
animal, of which the nose is so extraordinary,
tliat I am astonished travellers should not
have remarked a deformity so palpable as to
strike the most superficial bcliolder ; possibly
the animal of which Scba gives the figure, is
Xiot the same with that which we distinguish
by the name of the vampyre, or blood-sucker ;
it is also possible, that this figure of Seba's is

fal&9

NATURAL HlSTOllY. 153

false or exaggerated, or at lenst that this de-
formed nose is only a raoiis rou^^ accidental
variety ; though of these deformities ihere may
be found permanent examples in some other
species of bats. By time alone will these ob*
scuriticsbe removed.

Both the roussette and rougette are in the
cabinet of the King of France; and it is to
llie island of Bourbon that we are indebted for
them. They belong exclusively to the Old
Continent; atid in no part either of Africa or
Asia arc (hey so numerous as ;he vampire is in
America. These animals are larger, stronger,
and perhaps more mischievous than the vam^
pyre. But it is by o; en force, and in the day
as well as night, that they com.mit hostilities.
Fowls and small birds are the objects of their
destructive fury ; they even attack men, and
•wound their faces ; but no traveller has ac-
cused them of sucking the blood of men and
animals while ash'cp.

The ancients had but an imperfect know ledge
of these winged quadrupeds, which may, in-
deed, be termed m.nsters; and it is probable,
that from those whimsical models of Nature,
they received the idea of harpies. The wings,
the teeth, -he cl nvs, the cruelty, the voracity ;
the nastiness, and all the destructive qua li ies,
and noxious faculties of the harpies, bear no
VOL. VII. X small

154 buffon's

small resemblance to those of the Ternat bat-
Herodotus seems to have denoted them, when
he mentions that there were large bats whicli
greatly incommoded the men employed in
collecting cassia round the marshes of Asia,
and that J to shield themselves from the dan-
gerous bites of these animals, they were obliged
to cover the body and face with leather.
Strabo speaks of very large bats in Mesopo-
tamia, whose flesh was palatable. Among the
moderns, these large bats have been mentioned,
though in vague terms, by Albertus, Isidorus,
and Scaliger. With more precision have they
been treated of by Linscot, Nicholas Matthias,
and Francis Pyrard ; Oliger Jacobeus has given
a short description of them with a figure ; and
lastly, in Seba, and in Edwards, we find well-
executed description and figures, which cor-
respond with our own.

The Ternat bats are carnivorous animals,
voracious, and possessed ofan appetite for every
thing that offers. In a dearth of flesh or fish,
they feed on vegetables and fruits of every kind.
They are fond ofthejuiceof the palm-tree, and
it is easy to take them by placing near their
retreats vessels filled with palm-tree water, or
any other fermented liquor, with which they
are sure to intoxicate themselves. They fasten
themselves to trees, and hang from them by

their

NATURAL HISTORY. 155

their claws. They usually fly in flocks, and
more by night than by day. Places which
are much frequented they shun, and their fa-
vourite residence is uninhabited islaruls. To
copulation they are strongly inclined. In the
male the sex is very apparent, and not con-
cealed in a scabbard, like that of quadrupeds,
but extends forwards from the body, nearly
as it does in the ape. In the female the sex
is equally conspicuous ; she has but two
mpples, and those situated upon the breast ;
she produces more than once a year, but the
number at each time is but small. Their flesh,
when young, is not unpalatable ; the Indians*
are fond of it, and compare its flavour to that
of the partridge or the rabbit.

The American travellers unanimously agree,
tliat the great bats of the new continent suck
the blood both of men and animals while they
are asleep, and without awakening them. Of
this singular fact, no mention is made by any
of the Asiatic or African travellers, who speak
of the Ternat bats. Their silence, neverthe-
less, is no adequate proof of their being guilt-
less, especially as they have so many other

resemblances

* The Moors and Malayans are most certainly meant, as
the Indians neither eat nor kill any animal. Lett. M. La
Nux.

loG

liUFFON S

resemblances to (hose great bats, which we
denominated vampyres. I have, therefore,
thoiii^bt it worth while to examine how it is
•possible that these animals should suck the
blood of a person asleep, without causing a
pain so sensible as to awake him. Were they
to cut the flesh with their teeth, which are as
large as (hose of other quadrupeds of the same
size, the pain of the bite would effectually
rouse any of the human species, however
soundly asl-^ep ; and the repose of animals is
more easily dis(urbcd than ihat of man. Thus
it would also be. were they to inflict the wound
with their chiws. With their tongue only,
then, is it possiV>lc for ihem to make such mi-
nute apertures in the skin, as to imbibe the
blood through them, and to open the veins
without causing an acute pain.

The tonij;ue ot the vampyre I have not had
an opportunity of observing, but those of several
Ternat bats which M. Daubenton attentively
examir^ed, seemed to indicatethe possibility of
the fact ; their tongues were sharp, and full of
prickles directed backward ; and.it appears that
these prickles, or points, from their exceeding
minuteness, may be insinuated into the pores
of (be skin, and may penetrate them so deep
as to command a flow of the blood, by the con-
tinued

NATURAL HISTORY. 157

•

tinued function of the tongue. But it is need-
less to reason upon a fact of which all the cir-
cumstances are imperfectly known to us, and
of which some are perhaps exaggerated, or
erroneously related.

SUPPLEMENT.

AMONG other remarks which I received
from the ingenious M. de la Nux upon this
work, after its first publication, were the iol-
lowing respecfing these animals. lie says, in
general terms, that the size and number of the
Great Ternat Bats arc both exaggerated ; that
instead of attacking men tliey invariably en-
deavour to get from them, consequently never
bite but when taken, or defending themselves,
which they do then most dreadfully ; and that
instead of being ferocious animals, they are
perfectly gentle iii their dispositions. Speaking
from his own experience, he says, bodi the
great and small Ter.iat bats arc natives of
Bourbon, the isles of France, and Mada-
gascar, in the former of which lie had resiled
upwards of fifly years; when he first arrived

there

I5S bupfon's

there they were very numerous in many places
where at present they are not to be found, and
for these reasons, that the forests were then
adjacent to them, which had been cleared away
by the settlements, and that it is only in forests
they can subsist ; besides, they brin^^ forth but
opce a year, and are hunted, both by whites
and negroes, for the sake of their flesh and
grease. The females are in season about the
month of May, and produce towards the end
of September. They appear to come to ma-
turity in about eight months, since there are
no small ones to be seen after April or May,
and the young are to be known from the old
by their colours being more vivid : they be-
come grey with age, but it is uncertain at
what period; at this time their flesh is very
disagreeable, and their fat alone, of which they
have plenty during the summer, is eaten by
the negroes. They never feed upon any kind
of flesh, but entirely on bananas, peaches, and
other fruits and flowers with which these
foresis abound : they are exceedingly fond of
the juices of certain umbellated flowers; and
it is possibly for the purpose of sucking the
different species of tliem that they have such a
number of sharp papillie on their tongues.
They never touch the skins of i\\e mango,

peril a p-

NATURAL HISTORY. 159

perhaps because it is resinous. Some of them
which have been caught, and kept alive, have
been known to eat bread and sugar-canes, but
I believe, even in that state, no kind of meat,
either raw or prepared. There cannot be any
thing to apprehend from these animals, either
personally, or even for poultry, because they
are incapable of seizing upon the smallest bird,
for if they come too near the ground they fall,
and are then under the necessity of climbing
up some elevated object before they can re-
sume their flight, and in this case they climb
up the first thing they meet with, even if it be
a man. They trail their bodies along, conse-
quently move very slow, and which is of itself
sufficient to prove tlieir incapacity for seizing
birds. These animals, when going to take
wing, cannot, like birds, dart at once into
the air, but are obliged to beat their wings
several times to fill them, and to release their
claws from what they have hold of, and even
then the weight of their bodies frequently bears
them to the ground ; from this necessity of
filling their wings they cannot take flight
from any part of the tree, but are obliged to
crawl to a part of the branch where they can
act with perfect freedom. They are rauch
alarmed at the firing of a gun, or at a peal of

tliunder t

160 buffon's

thunder; and if a lar^e flock of them, resting
upon a tree, are surprised by cif her of these re-
ports, in their haste to fly, numbers of them
fall to the ground, not having sulficieut air in
their wings; in this case they hasten to climb
up the first object they met with ; let us there-
fore only suppose that object to be a traveller
unacquainted with these animals , he would na-
turally be struck \vilh terror at being suddenly
surrounded with a number of creatures of such
an ugly form arid aspect, and especially when
(hey began to climb up his body ; he would of
course endeavoar to extricate himself from
them, and they, in turn, finding themselves
roughly treated, might begin to scratch and
bite. Would not a circumstance of this na-
ture be sufficient to give rise to the idea that
these bats were ferocious anim?.]s, rushing
upon men for the purpose of wounding and
destroying them? when the whole would
arise from the rencounter of different animals
mutually afraid of each other. They are led
to reside in forests by instinct, it f)ei ng there
only they can pn;cure subsisteiicc, and not
from any savage dis^.osition ; besides this, nei-
ther of these bats ever light upon carrion, nor
do they eat upon the ground, but generally in
a hanging posture, and which appears to be

necessary

NATURAL HISTORY. 161

cecessary when they feed all of wbich is surely
enough to prove they are neitlicr carnivorous,
voracious, nor cruel animals ; and as tlicir
flight is both heavy and noisy, there cannot
remain a doubt of their being a species very
distant from the vampyre. The great Ternat
bats have also been charged with feeding on
fish, because Ihey sometimes fly very near the
water ; but this is equally untrue, for it is cer-
tain that they live entirely on vegetables, and it
is solely for the purpose of washing themselves
that they go so near the water, being an ex-
ceedingly clean animal, for of the numbers
I have killed I never found dirt upon any of
tbera.

When near, the great Ternat bat is certainly
rather disgustful, and all his motions are dis-
agreeable, and it is only wlien perched on a
tree that his natural deformity is concealed ;
he then hangs with his head downward, his
wings are folded close to his sides, his vibrating
wings, which are his greatest defects, as well
as hind paws, by whicli he is suspended, are
concealed, and there then appears only a round
plump body, covered witli a clean, smooth
brown hair, terminated with a head rather
agreeable than otiierwise. This is the only
attitude in which tliey take repose, they fre-
voL, VII. Y quejilly

162 BUFFON*$

quently remain in it the greatest part of the day,
and in it they are seen to the greatest ad-
vantage, especially if they are at the height of
40 or 50 feet, and about 100 feet distant. The
great Ternat bat is always placed for shew with,
his wings extended, by which means he is seen
to the greatest disadvantage. The representa-
tion given of him in your work is not exact, as
they never rest with their fonr feet on the
ground. Both sjiecies are excellent food, and
have never been known to produce any bad ef-
fects, although frequently eaten to excess ; nor
is that in the least surprising when we consider
they feed entirely on ripe fruits, the juices^
flowers, and according to Herodotus, the exu-
dations of trees."

THE SENEGAL BAT.

THE Senegal Bat* (fg, 119.) or as it is

called by some, the Marmotte Yolante, is of a

dark brown colour upon its head and back,

with

* Of this and the two following Mr. Pennant's Synopsis
contains very accurate descriptions.

NATURAL HISTORY. 16H

mih a light mixture, which increasing under
the belly, renders that considerably paler ; the
tail, as well as the membrane of the wings, are
quite black. That which I saw and had been
brought from Senegal, by M. Adanson, was
not more than four inches in length, and his
wings extended to about 21 inches ; his head
was long, ears short, and his nose rather point-
ed ; he had 20 teeth in the whole, two incisive,
two canine, and eight grinders in the upper jaw
and six incisive and two canine in the under.

THE BULL-DOG BAT.

THE Bull-Dog Bat, (fig. 118.; has a
short thick nose, and large broad ears, which
bend forward. The greatest part of its body
is a dark ash-colour ; the middle of its belly is
brown, and its chest and throat a clear ash,
without any mixture ; the tail and membrane
of the wings are nearly black, from the lattef
of which there comes a part of the tail, com-
posed of five false vertebrae. It has 26 teeth,
two incisive, and two canine, iu each jaw;

eight

164 bufpon's

eight grinders in the upper, and ten in the
lower ; it is not more than two inches in lengthy
measuring from the top of the nose, nor does
its wings extend to quite ten.

THE BEARDED BAT,

THE head of this bat (jig, 120J is very pe-
culiarly constructed ; the nose is sunk in the
front, and, contrary to all other animals, it has
not its nostrils divided by a partition, but are
placed on the sides of a kind of gutter entirely
open from one end to the other ; the exterior
edges of them join above the upper lip, form-
ing a cavity from thence to the front, where it
terminates with a deep hole covered all round
with long hairs. It has long narrow ears ; the
hair on the top and hind part of the head, along
the neck, back, tail, and shoulders, is of a red-
dish brown, and all the remainder is of a yel-
lowish white ; the membrane of the wings and
tail have a kind of mixture of black and red-
dish brown.and its claws are yellow. Its bodyis
about an inch and a half long, and its wings
extend to about seven.

Lolatoueh

hcardixt Bat

Swisjttiqu&rd

NATURAL HISTORY. I6j

THE STRIPED BAt.

THIS Bat is very small, has a short nose
and broad ears, bending forward ; it is of a
whitish-yellow colour^ excepting under its
throat, breast, and belly, which is a light blue,
with a yellow shade; the tail, and membrane
of the wings are a mixture of yellow and
brown.

THE POLATOUCH.

I HAVE chosen to continue the name this
animal bears in Russia, its native country, ra-
ther than to adopt those vague and uncertain
ones since appropriated to it, such as, the
Flying-rat, Flying-squirrel, &c.

The Polatouch (fg. 121. ) resembles but in
a few particulars either the squirrel, loir, or
rat. To the squirrel it has no affinity but iu
the largeness of the eyes, and form of the tail,

16iS BUFFON*S

the latter of wliicb, however, is neither so long',
nor bushy as in the former. He is more like
the loir by the shape of his body, his short and
naked ears, and the hairs of his (ail, which are
of the same form and length ; but lie is not
like him, subject to numbness in cold weather*
The polatouch is a different species from the
squirrel rat, or dormouse, though he parti-
cipates of the nature of all three. M. Klein
gave the first exact description of this animal,
in the Philosophical Transactions, 1733; he
was, however, known long before that time.
He is found in the northern parts both of the
ancient and New Continent,* but he is more
common in America than in Europe, where
he is seldom seen, except in Lithuania and
Russia. This little animal dwells upon trees,
like the squirrel ; he goes from branch to
branch, and when he leaps from one tree to
another, his loose skin stretches forward by
his fore-legs, and backward by his hind ones;
his skin thus stretched and drasvn outwardly
more than an inch, increases the surface of
his body, without adding to its weight, and
consequently retards the acceleration of his

fall,

* Thfi Hurons of Canada have three different species of
squirrels. The Flying-squirrels are frequent in North
America, but they have been lately found in Poland.

NATURAL HISTORY. 167

fall, SO that he is enabled to reach in one leap
a great distance. This motion is not like the
flight of a bird, nor the fluttering of a bat, both
of which are made by strikifjg the air with
repeated vibrations. It is one single leap,
caused bj the first impulsion, the motion of
which is prolonged, because the Ix)dy of the
animal presents to the air a htrger surface, and
thence finds a greater resistance, and falls more
slowly. This singular extension of the skin
is peculiar to the polatouch, and this charac-
teristic is sufficient to distinguish him from
all other squirrels, rats, or dormice. Biit the
most singular things in Nature are not unpa-
ralleled ; there is another animal of the same
kind, Vflili a similar skin, which is not only
stretched from one leg to another, but from the
head to the tail. This animal, whose fisruro
and description has been given hy Seba, under
the denomination of the flying-squirrel of Vir-
ginia, seems so different from the polatouch, as
to constitute another species ; though probably
it may be ot)ly a simple variety, or an acci-
dental and monstrous production, for no tra-
vel Fer or naturalist makes mention of it. Seba,
is (he only one who has seen it in the cabinet
of Yincent ; and I always distrust descriptions
of animals madeiu cabinets of curiosities, which

are

108 buffon's

are often disfigured to make them appear
more extraordinary.

I have seen and kept a long -while the living
polatouch. He has been well described by tra«-
Tellers, particularly Sagard, Theodat, John of
Laet, Fernandes, Le Hontan, Denys, Catesby,
Dumont, LcPague du Pratz, Sec. and Messrs.
Klein, Seba, and Edwards, have given exact
descriptions of him, with his figure. What
I have seen of this animal agrees with their
relations^ He is commonly smaller than a
squirrel. That which we liad weighed little
more than two ounces, about the weight of a
middling sized bat, and the squirrel weighs
eight or nine ounces. However, there are
some of a greater size, since we have a skin of
a polatouch much larger than usual.

The polatouch has some analogy with the
bat by this extension of the skin, which unites
the fore and hind legs, and supports him in the
air ; he seems also to participate of his nature,
for he is quiet and sleepy in the day time, having
no activity but towards the evening. He is
easilytaraed,but soon offended, and must be kept
in a cage, or fastened with a small chain ; he
feeds upon bread, fruits, seeds, and is remark*-
ably fond of the buds and shoots of the birch
and pine trees. He does not seek after nuts

au4

NATURAL HISTORY. 16^

and almonds like a squirrel. He makes a bed
of leaves, in which he buries himself, and sleeps
through the day, leaving it only in the night,
or when pressed by hunger. As he has little
agility, he becomes easily the prey of martens,
and other animals who climb up the trees, so
that the species is not numerous, although
they have commonly three or four young at a
time*

SUPPLEMENT.

In the original work I remarked having seen
the skin of a polatouch larger than the common
size, but the difference was very trifling, to one
the Prince de Conde has since permitted me to
examine, whose bulk was perfectly gigantic,
compared with those of Russia or America, the
latter never exceeding five inches in length, and
this measured twenty -three. It was taken
upon the Malabar coast, where they are \ery
common, as well as in the Philippine Islands,
and other parts of India, where they are called
taguans, or great flying squirrels; but not-
withstanding Ihey resemble the polatouch in
TOL. Yii. Z fisrure.

170 bufton's

figure, and the extension of ilieir skin, yet I
think they ought to be considered as difierent
species; for among other varieties, the tail of
the taguan is round, and that of the common
kind flat ; the hair of the former's tail is also of
a blackish brown, the face is quite black, the
sides of the head have a mixture of white hairs,
and on the nose and round the eyes, there are
also some red ones ; it has long brown hairs that
cover the neck, the whole back is a mixture of
black and whi*e, the belly of a dirty white ; the
upper part of the extended skin is brown, and
the under a greyish yellow, the legs black with
a reddish shade, the tail brown, deepening by
degrees until it becomes quite black at the end,
tlie toes are black, and' the claws hooked like
those of the cat, from which, and the resem-
blance of the tail, it has been called by some
the flying cat. M. de Vosmaer, in his De-
scription of an Ecuretdl Volant^ gives a very
particular account of both species, as does IM.
TAbbe Prevost, and both of which perfectly
coincide with the above.

At this time, March 17, 1775, I have one
of the small species alive; I kept it in a cage,
with a box at the bottom filled with cotton, in
wliicli it covers itself all day, and only comes
out at niglit to seek for food. Whenever it is

forced

NATUIIAL HISTORY. 171

forced to come out, it cries somewbat like a
mouse ; its teeth are small, but sharp, and it
bites violently ; it; can only be made to extend
its wings by letting it fall from some height ;
and it is so very chilly, that I am astonished
how it preserves itself in the northern climates,
since it would very soon perish, even in
France, if it were nnt supplied with plenty of
cotton to cover itself all over.

Of the Great Flying Squirrel M. de Yos-
iuaer remarks, *' that it has a great aflBnity to
the smaller species described by M. de Buf-
fon ; they both have the same kind of mem-
branes, with which they support themselves
in the air when they leap from tree to tree.
These animals were first mentioned by Valen-
tine, who states them to be found in the island
of Gilolo, where they are caiWed JJj/ing civets ;
he describes them to have long tails, and says,
when at rest their wings are not to be seen ;
that they are very wild and fearful ; that
their heads are reddish, intermixed with grey,
that their membranes are covered with hair,
their teeth so strong and sharp that they would
snon escape from a wooden cage ; that they are
sometimes caWed ffj/ing monkeys ; and that they
are also to be met with in the island of Ternat,
>yhere they were at first mistaken for squirrels.

M. FAbbe

172 buffon's

M. PAbbe Prevost says, it is also found in
the Philippine Llands, where it is called ta"
guan; that he saw two females, the one at the
Hague, whose body was a light chesnut, rather
darker on the back, and black towards the
extremity of the tail ; and that he had also
seen two males in the Prince of Orange's cabi-
net, which were one foot five inches long in
the body, and their tails one foot eight. The
hind part of their heads, back, and the com-
mencement of the tail are covered with lon<r
Lairs, black at the bottom, and of a greyish
white at the ends ; the other part of the tail
is black, and the hair is so disposed as to
make (he tail have a round appearance, the
cheeks are brown, and their throats, breasts,
and bellies are of a whitish grey. The mem-
branes are the thinnest in the middle where
they are covered with chesnut hairs, increas-
ing in thickness towards the paws, and the
colour growing darker until it is nearly blacl^
^t the extremities.

THE

NATURAL HISTORY. 173

THE GREY SQUIRREL.

THIS animal is found in the northern parfs
of both continents. He is in shape like a
common squirrel, and his external difference
consists in his being larger, and the colour of
his hair not being red, but of a grey more or
less deep ; his ears are not so hairy towards
the extremity as those of our squirrels. These
differences, which are constant, seem suf-
^cient to constitute a particular species.^
Many authors think this species is different in
Europe and America, and that the grey squir-
rels of the former are of the common kind,
and that they change their colour with the
season in the northern climates. Without
denying absolutely this assertion, which does
not seem sufficiently proved, we look upon
the grey squirrel of Europe and America as
the same animal, and as a distinct species
from common squirrels, who are found in the
northern parts of both continents, being of the
same size, and of a red, more or less bright
according to the temperature of the country.

At

At the same time, other squirrels of a larger
jiize, whose hair is grey, or somewhat black,
in all seasons^ breed in the same latitude. Bci-
sides, the fur of the grey squirrel is more fine
and soft thaji that of our squirrels j we are,
therefore, authorised tx} believe that though
yery nearly alike, they ought to be distin-
guished as different s}:ecies,

M. Regnard sa^s affirmatively, that the
grey squirrels of Lapland are the same animals
as (he French squirrels. This assertion is so
positive that it would bp satisfactory were it
not contradicted by odiers; M. jlegnard ha$
written excellent dramatic pieces, but he did
.pot give a sufficient application to Natural
Ilistory, nor did he continue long enough in
L»apland to see the squirrels change their co-
lour. It is true that some naturalists, and
among them Linnaeus, have said, that in the
north of Europe the hair oi^ the squirrel chan-
j^es colour in the winter. This may be trucj
for the hares, wolves, and v»easels, also change
ilicir colour in those climates; but from red
ihcy grow white, not grey ; and to give no
other iivstance hut that of the squirrel, Lin-
jijeus in the Fauna Siiecica, says, oestate ruber
hienie incanus^ consequently from red he l:)e-
comes white; and we i!o not see why this au^
tbor should substitute for the word incamis

that

NATURAL HISTORY. 175'

that ofcinereus, which is found in <hc last
edition of the Sj/stema Naturxe. M. Klein
asserts, on the contrary, that Xho. squirrels in
the vicinity of Danfzic, are red in i\\Q winter
as well as in the summer, and that there are
others frequently found in Poland grey and
blackisli, whado not change their colour aiij
more tliaiv the red ; these last also breed in
Canada, and in all parts of North Amerlc?i,
consequently we may consider the grey squir-
rel as an animal common to both continents,
and of a different species from that of the com'
mon squiprel.

Besides, we do not perceive that the squirrels
which are very frequent in our forests unite its
troops ; we do not see them travel in compa-^
nies, approach the waters, nor cross rivers^
upon the bark of trees. Thus they differ from
the grey squirrels, not only in size and colour
but in natural habits; for although the navi-
gations of the grey squirrels seem almost in-
crerlible, they are attested by so many wit-
nesses that we cannot deny the fact.*

Of

* The grey squirrels frequently remove their place of re-
sidence, and it not unoftcn happens that not one can be seen
one winter where they were in multitudes the year before;
they go in large bodies, and when they want to cross a laice
or river, they sdize a piece of the bark of a bircli or limc»
and drawing it to the edge of the water, get upon it, and

trxfsf

17G buffon's

Of all quadrupeds that are not domestic^
the squirrel is, perhaps, the most subject to
vary in shape and colour, and whose species
has the greatest numbers of others that ap-
proach it. The white squirrel of Siberia seems
to differ only in colour from our common
squirrel. The black and the grey of America
are, perhaps, ordy varieties of the grey squir-
rel. Tlie squirrels of Barbary, Switzerfandj
arid the palmist, are three species very much
like each other.

We have very little information with regard
to the grey squirrel. Fernandes says, that the
grey or blackish squirrels of America dwell
upon trees, particularly upon pines; that they
feed upon fruits and seeds; that they provide
provisions for the ^vinter, and heap it up in.
some hollow tree, where they retire during
that season, and where the female brings forth
her young. The grey squirrel differs, then,
from the others who make their nests at the

tops

trust themselves tothehazard of the wind and waves, erect-
ing their tails to serve the purpose of sails ; they sometimes
form afleet of three or four thousand, and if the wind proves
too strong, a general shipwreck ensues, to the no small emo-
lument of the Laplander who may fortunately find their
bodies on the shore, as, if they have not lain too long, their
furs will prepare in the usual manner ; but if the winds are
favourable they are certain to make theix desired port.
^lui-res dc ikf. Regnard, torn, i. p. 1 Q2>-

NATURAL HISTORY. 177

tops of trees like birds, yet we do not pretend
to affirm that the blackish squirrel, mentioned
by Fernandes, is the same as the grey squirrel
of Virginia, or that both of them are the same
as the grey squirrel of Europe ; we only think
it is probable, as these three animals are nearly
of the same size and colour, inhabit the same
climates, are precisely of a similar form, and
their skins being equally used in the furs, call-
ed the fur of the grey sqirrel.

THE PALMIST, THE SQUIRRELS OF BARBARY
AND SWITZERLAND.

THE Palmist is about the size of a rat, or
a small squirrel ; he lives upon the palm-trees,
from which he takes his name. Some call
bim the palm-rat, and others the palm-tree
squirrel ; but as he is neither a rat nor a squir-
rel, we call him palmist, (fig* 123.) His head
is nearly the same form as that of the campag-
nol, and covered with rough hair. His long
tail does not lie on the ground, like that of the
yoL^ VII. A a rat.

ITS buffon's

rat, but he carries it erect vertically, without,
however, throwing it down on his back like
the squirrel ; it is covered Avith hair longer
than that of his body, but shorter than the hair
of the tail of a squirrel. His back is variega-
ted with white and brown stripes, which dis-
tinguish the palmist from all other animals^
except the squirrels of Barbary and Switzer-
land. These three animals are so much alike,
that Mr. Ray thought they made but one spe-
cies ; but if we consider that the palmist and
the squirrel of Barbary, are only found in the
warm climates of the ancient continent, and
that the squirrel of Switzerland, described by
Lister, Catesby, and Edwards, is only to be
met with in the cold and temperate regions of
the New World, we must judge them to be dif-
ferent species. By minute observation it is
easy to perceive that the white and brown
stripes of the Swiss are disposed differently
from those of the palmist, whose white stripe
extends all along the back, while it is black or
brown in the Swiss ; and this brown stripe in
the latter is followed by a white stripe, in the
same manner as the white stripe in the former
is by a brown ; besides, the palmist has but
three white stripes, while the Swiss has four ;
he also brings down his tail on his back, which

the

l«fATURAL HISTORY. 179

the palmist does not : the latter dwells upon
trees, and theSwiss is an inhabitant of theearth;
from "which difference he is called the land
squirrel. Ih fine^ he is smaller than the pal-
mist, consequently there can be no doubt of
their being two different species.

As for the squirrel of Barbary, as he is of
the same continent and climate, of the same
size, and nearly the same form as the palmist,
they might be considered as varieties of the
same species ; yet in comparing the description
and figure of the squirrel of Barbary, given by
Caius, and copied by Aldrovandus and John-
son, with the description given here of the
palmist, and comparing afterwards the de-
scription and figure ofthe squirrel of Barbary,
given by Edwards, it is easy to discern that
they are different animals. We have seen
them all in the king's cabinet. The squirrel
of Barbary has the head and forehead more
round, the ears longer, and the tail more bushy
than the palmist ; he is more like a squirrel
than a rat, by the form of his head and body ;
and a palmist resembles more a rat than a
squirrel. The squiitel of Barbary has four
white stripes, and the palmist has no more
than three; the white stripe is on the palmist's
back bone, but that on the squurrel of Barbary

is

180 buffon's

is brown and red. These animals have yery
near the same habits and dispositions as the
common squirrel. Like him they feed upon
fruit, and use their fore paws in carrying it to
the mouth ; they have the same voice and cry,
the same instinct, and agility ; they are live-
ly and tractable, easily tamed, and so fond of
their habitations, that they never go out but
o diversion, and return spontaneously to
heir residence. They are both of a pretty
figure ; their coats, which has white stripes, is
more valuable than that of the squirrel ; their
size is shorter, their body lighter, and their
motions equally quick. The palmist, and the
sauirrel of Barbary, dwell on trees like the
common squirrel, but the Swiss lives upon the
earth, and, like the field mouse, forms a re-
treat that the water cannot penetrate ; he is
also less docile and less gentle than the two
others ; he bites without mercy, except com-
pletely tamed, from which it appears he is
more like a rat, or a field mouse, than a squir-
rel, by instinct and nature.

T1I£

C'rt'al^ Oi^^u^er.

i'nr.a2.3-o'

SAart /a//i/. ^la/ZiJ-. Zonj/ /a/Yfi Ui/ita .

NATURAL HISTORY. 181

THE ANT EATERS.

SOUTH America produces three animals
with a long snout, a small mouth, without
teeth, and a large round tongue ; with which
they penetrate info the ants' nests, and draw
them out again when covered with those in-
sects, which are their principal food. The first
of these ant-eaters is that which the Brasilians
call Tamandua-Gaucu, or Great Tamandua,
and to which the French settled in America
have given the name of Tamanoir. This ani-
mal (Jig, 124.) is about four feet inlegnth from
the extremity of the muzzle to the origin of its
tail ; his head is fourteen or fifteen inches long,
his muzzle stretches out to a great length ; his
tail is two feet and a half long, is covered with
rough hair, more than a foot in length ; his
neck is short, his head narrow, his eyes black
and small, his ears round, his tongue thin,
more than two ^eei long, and which he folds up
in his mouth. His legs are but one foot high ;

182 fiFFFON's

the fore-legs are a little higher, and more
slender than those behind : he has round feet;
the fore-feet are armed with four claws, the two
middle ones are the longest; those behind have
five claws. The hair of his tail and body are
black and white. Upon the tail they are dis-
posed in a bunch, which he turns up on his
back, and covers with it his whole body, when
he is inclined to sleep, or wants to shelter
himself from the rain or heat of the sun. The
long hair of his tail and of his body is not
round in all its extent ; it is flat towards the
ends, and feels like dry grass. He waves his
tail frequently and hastily when he is irri-
tated, but it hangs down when he is com-
posed, and sweeps along the ground. The
hair of the fore-part of his body is longer than
that on the hind part. On the neck and back
it is somewhat erect, and towards the tail, and
on the flanks, close to the skin ; his fore-parts
are variegated with white, and his hind-parts
wholly black ; he has also a white stripe on the
breast, which extends on the sides of the body
and terminates on the back near the thighs ;
his hind-legs are almost black, and the fore-legs
almost white, with a large black spot towards
the middle. The Great Ant-eater moves so
slow that a man can easily overtake him in run-
ning;

NATURAL HISTORY. 183

ning ; his feet seem less calculated to walk
than to climb, and to fasten round bodies ; for
he holds so fast a branch, or a stick, that it is
not possible to force it from him.

The second of these animals is called by the
Americans only Tamaudua ; he is much smaller
than the former, being not above eighteen
inches from the extremities of the muzzle to
the tail ; his head is five inches long, his muz-
zle crooked, and long ; his tail ten inches long,
without hair at the end ; his ears are erect, and
about an inch long ; his tongue is round, eight
inches long, and placed in a sort of hollow
canal within the lower jaw ; his legs are not
above four inches in height, his feet are of the
same form, and have the same number of
claws as the Great Ant-Eater. He climbs
and holds fast a branch, or a stick, like the
former, and his motions are equally slow. lie
cannot cover himself with his tail, the hair be-
ing short, and the end almost bare. When
he sleeps he hides his head under his neck and
fore-legs.

The third of these animals, the natives of
Guiana call ouatiriouaou. He is still smaller
than the second, being not above six or seven
inches in lensTth from the extremities of the
^nout to the tail ; his head is two inches long ;

and

184 buffon's

and his muzzle proportionally short; his tail
is seven inches in length, tlie hair curls down-
wards, and it is bare at tlie end ; his tongue is
narrow, long, and flat ; his neck is very short,
his head big in proportion to the body ; his
eyes are placed low, and at a li(tle distance
from the corners of the mouth, his ears arc
small, and hidden by the hair ; his legs arc but
three inches long, the fore-feet have only two
claws, the outward of which is much thicker
and longer than the inward; the hind feet
liave four claws, the hair of the body is about
nine inches long ; smooth, and of a shining
colour, diversified with red and yellow, his
feet are not made to walk, but to climb and to
take hold of branches of trees, on which he
Langs himself by the extremity of his tail.

We know of these kind of animals only the
three species we have mentioned. M. Brisson,
after Seba, speaks of a fourth species, under the
denomination of the long-eared ant-eater, but
we doubt its existence ; because Seba has been
guilty of more than one error in enumerating
animals of this kind ; he says expressly, " we
preserve in our cabinet six species called ant-
eaters," and yet he gave only a description
of five; and amongst them he reckoned the
7/sqidepatl^ or moKJfette, an animal, not only

of

J^ATUnAL HISTORT. 185

6f a species, but even of a genus, "widely differ*
ent from the ant-eaters, as he has teeth, and a
flat short tongue, like other quadrupeds, and
comes very near a kind of weasels or martens.
Out of these six species, pretended to be pre-
served in the cabinet of Scba, four only remain,
as theysquiepati, which he reckoned the fifth,
is no ant-eater, and the sixth is not even men-
tioned, unless the author meant to comprehend
among these animals the Pangolin or scaly li-
zard, which he does not intimate in his de-
scription of that animal. The scaly lizard
feeds upon ants ; he has a long muzzle, a nar-
row mouth, without visible teeth, and the
tongue round ; characteristics which he has in
common with ant-eaters ; but he differs from
it as well as from all other quadrupeds, by
having the body covered with thick scales in-
stead of hair. Besides, this animal belongs to
the hottest climates of the old continent, and
the ant-eaters, whose bodies are covered with
hair, are found only in the southern parts of
the new world. There are therefore no more
than four species instead of six, mentioned by
Seba, and out of these four there is but one
species discernible by its description ; which
is our third or smallest ant-eater, to whom
Seba allows but one claw to each foot, though
he has two. The three others are so imper-
TOL. VII. B b fectly

l86 button's

fectly described, that they cannot be traced (cJ
their true species. One may judge by this of
the credit which Seba's voluminous book de-
serves. This animal which he culls tamandua
murmecophage of America^ and the figure of
which he has given*, cannot be compared
with either of the three we are now treating
of, it is sufficient to be convinced of his error
by reading his description. The second
which he terras tamandua-guacu of Brasil, or
the bfar <iw/-eaier, is described in a vague,
equivocal manner ; yet I am inclined to
think with Klein and Linnaeus, that he meant
the true tamandua-guacu, or great ant-eater,
but it is so badly described, and so imperfectly
represented, that Linnaeus has comprehended,
under one species^ the first and second of
Seba's animals. M. Brisson considered the
last as a particular species, but I do not believe
his establishment of tJiis species better founded
than his criticism on M. Klein, for having con-
founded it with that of the great ant-eater. Th^
only just reproach M. Klein has incurred, h
to have added to the good description lie liag
given of this animal, the erroneous indicationsj
of Seba. In fine, the third of these animals^
whose figure is given in that work, is so badly
describjcd, that I cannot persuade myself, not-*

withstanding

* Seba, torn. I, p. 60, tab. 57. fig. 2,

NATURAL HISTORY, 187

witlistanding the respect I have for Linnasus
and Brisson's authority, this animal from Se-
ba's description and figure can be the middle
ant eater ; I only wish that his description may
be attended to in order to judge of its flillacy.
These discussions, although tedious and disa-
greeable, cannot be avoided in the. details of a
Natural History . Before wcwrite upon a subiec t
Tery little known, we must, as much as possi-^
ble, remove all obscurities, and point out the
numberless errors before we can come to the
truth. The result of this criticism is a proof
that three species af ant-eaters really e:5ist,
namely the tamaiioir^ the tamanclua, and the
ouatirioiiaou, and that the fourth called the
long-eared ant-eaters, mentioned by M. Bris-
6on, is doubtful, as well as the other species
indicated by Seba. I have seen the first and
last with their skins, in the king's cabinet ;
and they are certainly very different from
each other. We have not seen the tamandua,
but have described it, after Piso and Marc-
grave, the only authors that ought to be con-
sulted upon this animal, as all others have
only copied them. The tamandua, and the
small ant-eater have the extremities of their
tails bare, with which they hang on the
branches of trees, and when they perceive
hollows, they put their tongues within, and

aravy

1S8 BUFFOiV'f

draw them instantly back in their mouths,
to swallow the insects which they have ga-
thered.

These three animals, so diflferent in size and
proportions of the body, have many things in
common, both as to conformatioij and instinct.
All feed upon ants, and put their tongues into
toney, and other liquid and viscous sub-
stances ; they gather quickly crumbs of bread
and small pieces of meat ; they are easily
tamed ; they can subsist a long while without
food; they do not swallow all the liquor
-which they take into their mouths, a part re-
turning through their nostrils ; they commonly
sleep in the day-time, and change their sta-
tion in the night; they go so slow that a man
may overtake them easily whilst running in
open ground. The savages eat their flesh,
but which has an unsavoury taste.

The great ant-eater looks, at a distance, lik^
a fox, and for that reason some travellers call
him the American fox y he is strong enough to
defend himself against a large dog, and even
the jaguar. When attacked he at first fights
standing on his hind legs, like the bear, and
makes use of his fore claws, which are powerful
weapons ; afterwards he lies down on his back,
and uses all four feet, and in that situation he
is almost invincible, and fights with obstinacy

tiU

NATURAL HISTORY. IS9

till the last extremity ; even after he has put to
death his adversary he keeps hold of him a
long while. He maintains t]ie figlit longer
than most animals, from being covered witli
long bushy hair and a very thick skin, besides
his flesh is remarkably hard, and he seldom
loses his life in these en<]racreraents.

The three ant-eaters are natives of the hot-
test climates of America, are found in Brasil,
Guiana,, the country of the Amazons, &c. but
they are not met with in Canada, or in the
northern regions of the new world, they con-
sequently do not belong to the ancient conti-
nent ; yet Kolbe and Desmarchais have stated
these animals to live in Africa, but they seem
to have confounded the scaly lizard with the
ant-eaters. Perhaps this mistake is in conse-
quence of a passage of Marcgrave, who says 5
* '' Tamandua-guacuBrasiliemihus^congensihus
(ubiet frequens est) umhula dictiis; " but Marc-
grave certainly never saw this animal in Af-
rica, since he confesses that he had seen only
his skin in America. Desmarchais only says
that the great ant-eater is found in Africa aj}
well as America, but he adds no circumstance
to prove this fact. In regard to Kolbe's
attestation 5 we reckon it nothing, for a maii

viho

IdO buffon's

ivbo has seen at the Cape of Good Hope, elks
and lynxes, like those of Prussia, might also see
the ant-eaters in the same climate. But they
arc not mentioned by any authors among the
animals of Asia or Africa, while all the travel-
lers, and most of the historians, of America,
make a particular mention of them. De Lery,
de Laet, Father d*Abbeville, Maffee, Faber,
Nierembcrg, and M . de la Condamine, agree
witli Piso and Barrere, in declaring that the
ant-eaters are peculiar to the warm countries
of America; thus we cannot doubt that Des-
inarchais and Kolbe were mistaken, and thai
these three species of animals do not exist iu
the ancient continents.

SUPPLEMENT.

I HAVE received from M. Maudhuit, re*
siding at Guiana, an ant-eater in excellent con-
dition, which appears to be of the same species
as those just described, differing somewhat in
the length of the muzzle and the toes.

M. d<j

NATURAL HISTORY. 191

M. de la Borde has also transmitted several
particulars ; he says, *' There are two species
of ant-eaters which inhabit the woods of
Guiana, the one larger than the other ; they
run very slow, and when they swim across large
rivers which is a common practice, it is easy
to knock them on the head with a stick ; but
in the woods it is necessary to use muskets,
for the dogs refuse to hunt tliem. The great
ant-eater tears up the nesfs of wood-lice,
whicli he easily discovers; he is a dangerous
animal to encounter, as he gives most se-
vere wounds with his claws, with which he
successfully defends himself against the most
fierce animal of this continent, such as the
jaguars, cougars, &c. and with which he also
kills many dogs, who are therefore afraid of
him. He is said to feed on ants, for which his
tongue appeared well calculated, but I found in
tlic stomach of one a great number of wood-
lice, which had just been swallowed. The fe-
males bring for(h in the holes of trees, and
have one at a time, and at tliose periods they
will even attack men. The savages at Cayenne
"Cat the flesh,although it is black and unsavory ;
their skins are thick and hard ; they do not
attain their full size before they are four years

old;

192 BtJFFON's

©Id ; and the ^vliolc of their respiration is per*
formed through their nostrils. The smaller
©no has ^vhilish hair, about two inches long ;
rt has no teeth, but its claws are very long.;
this, as well as the former feeds during the
Bight; the female also has but one at a time,
and they perfectly resemble each other, but the
latter is more scarce to be met "with than the
former.'*

This gentleman sent me also the following
remarks upon our third species. " It has
bright hair, rather of a golden colour ; it feeds-
upon ants, which adhere to its tongue; it i»
not bigger than a squirrel, runs very slow, and
is easily taken ; it fixes itself so faist to a stick
or branch that it may be carried in that man-
ner to any distance, and they are frequently
found til us fixed ; these, like the former bring
forth but one at a lime, in the holes of trees^
and feed also in the night ; they are not by
any means scarce, though it is difficult to dis*
tinguish Ihem on the trees*"'

JllW

NATURkTi HISTORY* 193

f HE LONG AND THE SHORT-TAlliEtt MANl».

THESE animals are comraoflly known
under th«name of scaly lizards ; we reject this
denomination ; 1st. because it is a compound ;
2dly, because it is ambiguous, and applied to
both species ; Sdly, because it is wrongly
imagined ; these animals being not only of
another species, but even of a difterent class,
than the lizards, which are oviparotts reptiles,
while the pangolin, and the phatageri, as tli6y
arc called in their native countries ef ihb east,
are viviparous quadrupeds.

A 11 lizards are covered with & sle^k speckled
skirt, in representation ^f scales, but these ahi*-
raals have no scales on theit throat, breast, 6r
heWyj the ph^ageri, or Idng-tailed manisj
(Jig* 126) like other ^aadrupeds, has hair on
all these under parts of the body ; the pangolin,
or short-tailed manis (fig. 125) h^s nothinj^
but a smooth skin without hair. The sealos
with which all the other patts of the bodies of

VOL* VII. C c th€SC

104 BUfFON's

these two animals are covered do not stick to
the skin, thej' are only strongly fixed at the
lower parts, being moveable, like the quills of
a porcupine, at the will of the animal ; they
raise these scales when exasperated, and when
particularly so, they roll themselves up like a
ball, resembling the hedge-hog: these scales are
so big, so hard, and so sharp, that they repel all
animals of prey ; it is an offensive armour which
"wounds while it resists. The most cruel and
voracious animals, such as the tiger and the
panther, make but uselcssefforts to devour these
animals, they tread upon, and roll them about,
but when they attempi to seize them, they re-
ceive severe wounds ; they can neither destroy
them by violence, nor bruize, or sniother them
"with their weight. The fox is averse to attack-
ing the hedge-hog when rolled up, but he
forces him to stretch himself by treading on,
and squeezing him with all his weight, and as
soon as his head appears, he seizes (he snout,
and thus secures him as a prey. But of all qua-
drupeds, without even excepting the porcupine,
the armour of the manis is the strongest and
most offensive, and which animals, by con-
tracting their bodies and presenting their wea-
pons, brave the fury of all their enemies,
\Vhen they contract themselves, they do not

takcj

JfATURAL HISTORY. IQ3

take, like the hedg^e-hog, a globose figure, but
form an oblong, their thick and long tail re-
maining outwardl y and encircling their bodies;
this exterior part, by which it would seem these
animals could be seized, carries its own de-
fence; it is covered with scales equally hard
and sharp as those with which the body is
cloathed,and asit is convex upwards and flat
below, nearly in tlie form of half a pyramid^
the sides are covered with square scales folding
in a right angle, as thick and as cutting as the
others, so that the tail seems to be still more
strongly armed than the body, the under parts
of which are unprovided with scales.

The short*tailed raanis is larger than the
long tailed kind ; his fore feet are covered with
scales, but the feet of the latter, and part of his
fore legs are clothed with hair only. The
formerhas also larger scales, thicker, more con-
vex, uniformly cutting, and not so close as those
of the latter, which are armed with three sharp
points ; he is also hairy upon the belly ; the
other has no hair on that part of his body, but
between the scales which cover his back, some
thick and long hair issues like the bristles of a
hog, which are not on the back of the long-
tailed species. These are all the essential dif-
ferences which we have observed in the skins of

both

196 BUFFOJiV

both these animals, and which distingnistt?
them from all other quadrupeds so much, that
they have been looked upon as a species of
monsters. From these general and constant
diiFerences, we dare affirm them to be two ani^
mals of distinct species. We have discovered
their analogies and differences, not only by the
inspection of three of them, which we have
seen, but also by comparing all which has
been observed by travellers and naturalists.

The short-tailed manis is from six to eight
feetm length, his tail included, when becomes^
to his full growth ; the tail is nearly as long atr
the body, though it appears shorter when the,
ajiimal is young ; the scales are not then so
large nor so thick, and of a pale colour ; the
colour becomes deeper in (he adult, and the
jscales acquire such a hardness, as to resist a
musket ball. Both these animals have some
affinity with the great and middle ant-calcr, for
like them they feed on ants, liave very long
tongues, narrow months, without apparent
teeth ; their bodies and tails are also very long,
and the claws of their feet very near of the same
length and the same form, but ihey I>ave five
toes on each foot, while the great and middle
ant-eaters have but four to their fore feet ; these
•»te cavered with hair, the others are armed

with-

NAT0RAL HlsTORYr 197

^ifh scales ; and besides they are not natives of
tiie same continent. The ant-caters are found
in America, and both the species of the raanis
belong to the East Indies and Africa, where
the negroes call them quogelo ; they eat their
flesh, -which they reckon a delicate wholesome
food, and use their scales for different purposes.
They have nothing forbidding but their figure ;
they are gentle and innocent, feeding upon in-
sects only ; they never run fast, and cannot es*
eape the pursuit of men, except by hiding
themselves in hollow rocks, or in holes, which
tliey dig themselves, and in which they breed*
They are two extraordinary species, not nu-
merous, and seemingly useless : their odd form
seems to exist as an intermediate class betwixt
the quadrupeds and reptiles.

Tli£ ARMADILLO.

saf

WHEN wo speak of a quadru|)ed, the very
name seems to carry the itica of an animal co-
vered with b^ir; as when we mention a birdy
Of fi^^h, feathers, and scaler pre^asnt the£Q^] ?es

to

198 BUFFON^S

to our iraaginaiion, and seem to be insepariible
attributes of those beings : yet Nature, as if
willing to deviate from this characteristic tmi*
formity, and to elude our views, offers herselfj
contrary to our general ideas, and in contra*
diction to our denominations and characters^
and amazes more by her exceptions than by
lier laws. Quadrupeds, which we look upon
as the first class of living nature, and who are,
next to man, the moit remarkable beings of
this world, are neither superior in every thing,
nor separated by constant attributes from all
other animals. The first of those characters
which constitutes their namc,and which consists
in having four feet, is common to lizards, frogs,
&c. which differ, however, from quadrupeds
in so many other respects, as to make them be
considered as a separate class. The second
general property, to produce young alive, is
not peculiar to quadrupeds, since it is also
common with cetaceous animals. And the
third attribute, which seems the less equivocal,
as it is the most apparent, that of being co-
vered with hair, exists not in several species
which cannot be excluded from the class of
quadrupeds, since this single characteristic ex-
cepted, they are like them in all other respects :
and, as these exceptions of nature are but gra-
dations

NATURAL HISTOIIY. 19D

Nations calculated to join in a general chain,
tlie links o^ihc most distant beings, we should
seize these singular relations as they offer
tliemselves to our view. The armadillos, in-
stead of hair, are covered, like turtles, craw-
fish, &c. with a solid crust. The manis is
armed with scales like fish ; the porcupine
carries a sort of prickly feathers, the quill of
wliich is like that of the birds. Thus in the
class of quadrupeds, and in the most constant
characteristic of these animals, that of being
covered with hairs, Nature varies in bringing
them near the tlirce different classes of birds,
fishes, and the crustaceous kinds. We must
be cautious then in judging of the nature of
brink's by one single character, as that would
always lead us into error ; even two or three
characters, though general, are often insuffi-
cient, and it is only, as we have often repeated,
by the union of all the attributes, and by enu-
merating all the characters, iliat we can judge
of the essential qualities of the productions of
nature. A good description without defini-
tions, an expcsition more exact on the differ*
cnces than the analogies, a particular atten-
tion to exceptions and almost imperceptible
gradations, are the true rules, and I dare as-
sert, the only means of estimating nature. If
fhe time lost in forming definitions had been

employed

200 EU1F0N*S

employed m makin;^ good descriptions, wc
should not at this day have found Natural
History in its infancy ; we should have had
less trouble in taking off her bawblcs, disen-
tangling her from her swaddling clothes, and,
perhaps, have anticipated her slow discoveries^
ft>r we should have written more for science^
and less against error.

But to return to our stibjeci ; it appctirs
then that there exists several species of animals'
which are not covered with hair aniong the
viviparous quadrupeds. Arnaadillos form alone
a whole genus, iii which may be reckoned
many distinct species, all of whom are, how-
ever, covered with a crust, resenibling bone ;
it covers the head, neck, back, flanks, rump,
and the tail, to the very extremity. The crust
is covered with a thiil skin, sleek and transpa-
rent : the only parts that are not sheltered by
this buckler are tho throat, fereast, and belly,
which havfe a white grainy skin, like that of a
j)lucked fowl, by inspecting these parts with
attention, we perceive thenidimcnts of scales
of the same substance as the crust ; the skin oi
these animals, even in the placeis ^here it is
most soft, is therefore inclined to become
liony, but the ossification is only realized
on the superior and external parts of the body.
This crust is not in one piece, like that of the

NATURAL HrSTORV. ^l

turtle, but consists of several bands, joined to
each other by membranes, which allow this
armour a de^rree of motion. The number of
these bands does not depend, as might be
imagined, on the age of the animal. The

young armadillos, and theadnlts, have thesame
number of stripes, of which we have been con-
vinced by comparing tliera ; and though we
cannot be certain that all these animals do not
intermix and produce promiscuously, yet it is
Very probable, that since the difference in the
number of these moveable bands is constant,
they are really distinct species, or at least
lasting varieties, produced by the influence of
various climates. In this uncertainty, which
time alone can remove, we have thought proper
to mention all the armadillos under one head
enumerating each of them as if they were, ia
fact, so many different species.

Father d'Abbeville seems to be the first who
has distinguished them by different names or
epithets, and which have been, for the most
part, adopted by the authors who have written
after him. He has clearly indicated six species
of them: first, tatouomsso,' or, as we call it,
twelve-banded armadillo; 2. the tatouette, or
eight-banded; S.iheencuberto ofMarcgrave,
or six-banded ; 4. the (atua-apara, or three-
VOL. VII. Dd banded 5

^g buffon's

banded ; 5. the cinquingon, or eighteen-banded;
6. cachichame, or nineteen-handed. Other
travellers have confounded the species ; but
Vfe have borrowed only the description of the
tipar and the cinquingon, having seen the other

four.

All, except the cinquingon have two long
bucklers, one at the shoulders, and another
on the rump ; they each consist of oue solid
piece ; but the buirass, which is also bony, and
(Covers the body, is transversely divided, and
parted into more or less moveable bands, sepa-
rated from each other by a flexible skin. But
the cinquingon has but one buckler, and that
on his shoulder, the rump being covered with
moveable bands, like those of the cuirass of the
body. But we shall now proceed to a de-
scription of them particularly.

THE THREE-BANDED ARMADILLO.

THE first author who described this animal
T?as Clusius, and though his description wa»
from a drawing only, it is eridently the same

species'

NATURAL HISTORY. 903

species which Marcgrave calls the tatua-
apara ; from its three moveable stripes,
and its short tail ; he has an oblong head, al-
most pyramidal ; the snout sharp, small eyes,
short round ears, and the upper part of the
bead covered with a helmet of one piece ; he
has five claws to each foot ; the two middle
claws of the fore feet are very long, and the
two lateral shorter ; the fifth, which projects,
is the least. In the hind feet they are shorter
and more even. The tail is but two inches in
length, and is entirely covered with a crust;
the body is a foot long, and above eight inches
in its largest breadth. The cuirass, which
covers it, is divided into four parts, and com-
posed of three moveable transverse bands,
which give the animal liberty to bend and
contract his body in a round form ; the skin
between the stripes is very supple. The buck-
lers which cover the shoulders and rump are
composed of five pieces, equally disposed ift
five angles ; the three moveable bands betwixt
these two bucklers consist of square pieces, or-
namented with little scales of a straw colour.
Marcgrave adds, that when he lies down io
sleep, or any person touches him, he brings
his fore feet together, lays his head under his
belly, and bends himself so perfectly round

that

204 BUFroN's

that he looks more like a sea-shell than a ter-
restrial animal. This contraction is made
"with the assistance of two great muscles on the
sides of his body, and the strongest man finds
it difficult to force hira with his hands to
stretch out. Piso, and Ray, have added
nothing to the description of Marcgrave, but
it is singular that Seba, who has given us a
description and figure of this animal evidently-
copied after Marcgrave, not only not mentions
that author, but tells us, " that no naturalist
Las known this animal, that it is extremely
scarce, and found in the most remote countries
of the East Indies," when in fact this animal
is well described by Marcgrave, and the spe-
cies is well known, not indeed in the East In-
dies, but in America, where it is very com-
mon. The only real difference between the
description of Seba, and that of Marcgrave is,
that the latter gives the animal five claws to
each foot, and Seba allows him but four, and
yet they evidently speak of the same animal.

Fabius Calumna has given the description
and figure of an armadillo contracted into a
ball, which seems to have had four moveable
bands, but as this author was absolutely un-
acquainted with the animal, whose skin or
^hell he has described, as he did not ^ven

know

l-'K.-. I'iB

J,€>tJt/- tt/f/e</ r -// //ffK// //t,

NATURAL HISTORY. 205

know the name of the armadillo, thousjh men-
tioned by Bellon fifty years before, but gave
him a Greek name, (chdoniscus) ; besides, as
he confesses, that the skin had been pasted
together, and wanted several pieces, we do
not see ourselves authorised to pronounce, as
our modern nomenclators have done, that a
species of armadillo, with four moveable bands,
exists in Nature ; and more especially since
these imperfect indications given in 1606, by
Fabius Calumna, no mention is made of it in
the works of any naturalists ; and, if be really
did exist, he certainly would have been intro-
duced into some cabinets, or have been ob*
served by some travellers,

THE SIX BANDED.

THIS species (y^g". 127) is larger than the
former ; he has the upper part of the head,
neck, body, legs, and tail, covered with a very
hard crust, composed of several large pieces,
elegantly disposed. He has a buckler on each
shoulder, and another on the rump, each of

Vv'hich

S06 BUFFO n's

which are in one piece ; only there is beyond
the buckler on the shouldersj and near the head
a moveable band, wliich enables the animal to
bend its neck. The buckler on the shoulders
is formed by five parallel rows, composed of
pieces which represent five angles, with an
oval in each ; the cuirass on the back, that is
the part betwixt the two bucklers, is divided
into six bands, which are united together and
to the bucklers, by seven joints of a supple and
thick skin. These bands are composed of
large square pieces ; from the skin of these
joints some white hairs issue out, like those on
the breast and belly ; all these inferior parts are
covered only by a grainy skin, and not by a
crustaceous substance like the upper. The
buckler on the rump has a border, the mosaic
work of which is similar to that of the move-
able bands, and the rest consists of pieces like
those of the bucklers of the shoulders. The
crust of the head is long, broad, and consists of
one piece, extending to the moveable band on
the neck. He has a sharp muzzle, small and
hollow eyes, a narrow and sharp tongue ; the
ears are without hair, naked, short, and brown,
like the skin of the joints ; he has eighteen teeth
in each jaw, five claws to each foot, long, in a
round form, and rather narrow ; the head and

the

NATURAL HISTORY. 207

the snout are like those of a pig, the tail is
thick at its origin, diminishing gradually to-
wards the extremity, wiiere it is very slender
and round. The colour of the body is a red*
dish yellow; the animal is commonly thick
and fat, and the male has the sexual organ
Tcry visible ; he digs into the ground with
great facility with his snout and claws ; he
dwells in the daytime underground, and only
goes out towards the evening to seek for food ;
he drinks often, lives upon fruit, roots, insects,
and birds, when he can catch them.

THE EIGHT BANDED.

THIS is not so large as the last, he has SL
small head, a sharp snout, the ears erect, and
rather long, the tail still longer, and the legs
rather short. He has small black eyes, four
toes on the fore-feet, and five on those behind :
tfee head is covered with a helmet, the shoul-
ders and rump with shields, and the body
with a cuirass composed of eight moveable
beads connected together,and with the bucklers,

by

208 buffon's

by nine joints of a flexible skin ; the tail has
also a similar number of bands. The colour
of <he cuirass on the back is iron grey, and on
the flanks and tail of a light grey with spots
of iron grey. The belly is covered with a
whitish skin, grainy and hairy. The indi-
vidual of this species, described by Marcgrave,
had a head three inches long, the ears near
two, the legs about three, the two middle toes
of the fore-feet an inch ; the body from the
neck tp the origin of the tail seven inches, and
the tail nine inches in length ; the bucklers
had small white spots; the moveable bands
were marked by triangular figures ; this crust
was not hard, being penetrable to the smallest
shot which would kill the animal, whose flesh
is very white, and good to eat.

THE NINE BANDED.

NIEREMBERG has described this animal
very imperfectly : Wormius and Grew have
described him much better. The individual
which Wormius mentioned was adult,and one of

the

NATURAL HISTORY. 20^

the largest of the species ; that of Grew was
younger and smaller. We shall only give their
descriptions as far as they agree with our own
specimens. Besides, it may be presumed, that
this nine-striped armadillo is not really a
distinct species from the eight, which he re-
sembles in every other respect. We have two
eight-banded armadillos which are dried, and
seem to be both males; we have seven or
eight with nine bands, one well preserved,
which is a female, and the others are so dried
up that we could not discern the sex. It is
probable, therefore, that the eight-banded is
the male, and the nine-banded the female.
But this is merely a conjecture for we shall give
in the following article the description of two
armadillos, one of which has more rows than
the other upon the buckler on the rump, and
yet they are so alike in every other respect,
that one should be inclined to think this
difference arises only from that of the sex,
for it is not improbable, that greater num-
bers of these moveable bands may be neces-
sary to facilitate the gestation and delivery of
the female. The head of the armadillo, the
skin of which Wormius has described, was
i^ve inches from the end of the snout to the
ears, and eighteen inches from the ears to the
Vol. VII. Ee tail,

2i0 buffon's

tailj which last was afoot in length, and conr-.
posed of twelve rings. The head of that de-
scribed by Grew was three inches, the body
seven and a half, and the tail eleven ; the pro-
portions of the head and body agree, but the
difference of the tail is too great ; and it is pro-
bable that the tail of that described by Wor.
mius had been broken, for it should have ex-
ceeded a foot in length. As in this species the
tail diminishes to the size of an awl, and is, at
the same time, very brittle ; few of the skins
therefore liave the whole tail preserved as that'
described by Grew.

THE TWELVE BANDED,

THIS seems to be the largest of the species*
He has a larger and broader head, and a snout
not so sharp as the others; hl^ legs and feet
are thicker, and his tail has not any crust ; a
particularity which is alone sufficient to dis-
tinguish this species from all others. He has
five toes on each foot, and twelve moveable

bands*

NATURAL HISTORY. 211

1:^a(ls. Tlie buckler on theslioulders is form-
ed of frve or six rows, each composed of large
quadrangular pieces. The moveable bands
are also formed of large pieces, almost square;
those which compose the buckler on the rump
^re like those on the shoulder. The helmet of
the head consists of large irregular pieces.
Between the joints of the moveable bands and
in the other parts of the armour, there appear
some hairs like the bristles of a hog ; there are
also upon his breast,belly, legs, and tail, round
scales,almost imperceptible, hard and polished
like the crust, and between which are small
tufts of hair. The pieces which compose the
helmet, the two bucklers, and the cuirass,
being proportionally larger and less in number
in this than in other armadillos, evidently
prove he is the largest of the kind. The
head of that from \\hich we took this descrij)-
tion was seven inches long, and the body
twenty-one.

T*!i;

212 buffon's

Ti 1

THE EIGHTEEN BANDED.

Mr. GREW first described this animal from
a skin preserved in the cabinet of the Royal
Society in London. All the other armadillos
have two bucklers, one on the shoulders, and
the other on the rump, but this has but one,
which is upon his shoulders. He is called the
weasel armadillo, because his head is nearly
of the same form as a weasel. From the de-
scription of this animal given by Grew, it ap-
pears, that his body is about ten inches in
length, his head three, and his (ail five; the
legs two or three inciies in height ; the fore-?
head large and flat, small eyes, and the ears an
inch long,^ he has five toes on each foot, the
three in the middle being the largest. The ar-
mour of the head and legs is composed of
round scales, about a quarter of an inch di-
ameter, that on the neck consisted of
one piece, as did the buckler on tlie
shoulders composed of several rows of
scales like those of the armour; these rows
on the buckler, in this species, as in all others
are continuous, and join by a symphysis.

The

NATURAL HISTORY. 213

The rest of (he body, from the buckler on the
shoulders to the tail, is covered with moveable
bands, parted from each other by a supple
membrane : these bands are eighteen in num-
ber ; those nearest the shoulders are the largest,
and are composed of small squares. The pos-
terior are intermixed with round and square
pieceS) and the extremity of the armour near
the tail is of a parabolic figure. The first half
of the tail is encircled with six rings, compo-
sed of small square pieces, and the lower part
is covered with irregular scales. The breast,
belly, and ears, are naked, as in the other spe-
cies. It should seem that, of all armadillos,
this has the most facility to contract and roll
himself up in a ball, by his moveable bands
which extend to the tail.

Linnaeus who must have seen the descrip-
tions of Grew and Ray, who both agree with
that we have given, has indicated this animal
with one band only, instead of eighteen :
founded on an evident mistake, by having
taken the tatu sen armadillo Africa?ius of Seha,
for the tatu muslelinas of Grew, which even
according to the descriptions of these two au-
thors, are very diiTerent from each other. It
is doubtful whether thetatou of Seba exists, at
}.east as he has described him, but the animal

givea

S14 buffon's

given in Grew's description is a real existing
species.

All the armadillos come originally from
America; tliey were unknown before the dis-
covery of the New World. The ancients
never mentioned them, and modern travellers
all agree, that these animals are natives of
Mexico, Brasil, Guiana, &c. and no one
pretends to have seen this species in Asia or
Africa, Some have, indeed, confounded the
scaly lizards of the East Indies with the arma-
dillos of America. Others tlioiight they ex-
isted on the western coasts of Africa, because
they have sometimes been transported from
Brasil into Guinea. Bellon, who wrote above
two centuries ago, and is one of the first who
4ias given a short description, with the figure
of a tatou, from a skin which he had seen in
Turkey, says, that it came from the new con-
tinent. Oviedo, De Lery, Goraara, Thevet,
Ant, Herrera, Father d' Abbeville, Francois,
Xiraenes, Staddenius, Monard, Joseph Acos-
ta, De Laet, and all the more recent authors
mention these animals as natives of the south*
em countries of America. Piso is the only
one who has pretended, without any autho-
rity, that the armadillos were found in the
East Indies, as well as in America ; and it is

probable,

NATURAL HISTOKr* !J15

probable, that he has confounded the scaly
lizards with the armadillos, especially as thej
have been so called by the Spaniards ; this
error has been adopted by nomenclators, and
those who have given descriptions of cabinets ;
who have not only admitted the existence of
armadillos in the East Indies, but even in
Africa, though none were ever in those two
parts of the world, ^cept such as have been
transported from America.

The climate of these animals is not there-
fore, equivocal; but it is more difficult to de-
termine the relative bulk of each species. For
this purpose we have compared great num-
bers which are preserved in the king's cabi-
net and those of others. We have also com-
pared the descriptions of all authors with
those of our own, without being able to ascer-
tain the fact. It appears that the twelve and
six banded are the largest, and that the three,
eight, nine, and eiglitecn banded are the
smallest. In the larger species the crusta-
ceous substance is harder and more solid; the
pieces which compose it are larger, and in a
smaller number; the moveable bands encroach
less one u pon the other : the flesh, as well as (he
^kin, is harder, and not so savory. Piso says,
that the flesh of the six banded is not eat-

91G buffon's

able ; and Nieremberg affirms, that it fs nri^
wholesome and pernicious. Barrere says, tha^
the twelve banded has a strong smell of musk 5
and all authors agree in praising the flesh of
the three banded, and particularly that of the
eight, which is as white, and equally good as
the flesh of a pig* They say also, that the
small species dwell in marshy and low
grounds, and that those of the large species
are found on dry and high lands only.

These animals can all contract their bodies
into a round form, with more or less facility.
When they are contracted the defects of
their armour is most visible in those who
have it composed of the smallest number of
pieces ; the three banded then shews two large
voids betwixt the bucklers and the armour
on the back. None of them can roll theni-
selves up in a ball so exact as that formed by
the hedge-hog ; when so contracted they re-
present the figure of a globe flattened at tne
two ends.

This singular crust, which covers them, \s a
bone composed of small contiguous pieces, 3it).d
being neither moveable nor jointed, except at
the partitions of the bands, are united by a
symphysis, and may all be separated from each
other if put on the fire. When the animal is

alive

NATURAL HISTORY. Slf

alive these small pieces, both of the bucklers
and the moveable bands yield to his motions,
especially when he contracts himself, other-
wise he could not possibly roll himself up.
These pieces in different species are of differ-
ent figures always as regularly disposed as an
elegantly contrived mosaic work. The pelli-
cle which covers the crust is a transparent
skin, and has the effect of a varnish on the
whole body; this skin, when taken off,
changes the relievo of this natural mosaic^ and
gives it a different appearance. This crusta-
ceous covering is only a surface independent
of the interior parts of the animal's body, his
bones, and other organs, being composed like
those of other quadrupeds.

The armadillos, in general, are innocent,
harmless animals, unless they can penetrate
into gardens, where they will eat the melons,
potatoes, pulse, and roots. Though they ori-
ginally belong to the hot climates of America,
they live in temperate regions. I once saw
one in Languedoc, ^>hich was fed in the house,
and went about every where without doing
any mischief. They walk quickly, but they
can neither leap, run, nor climb up trees, so
that they cannot escape those who pursue
them; they have no resource but to hide them-
voL. VII. F f selves

£18 buffon's

solves in their holes, or if at loo great a dis-
tance from their habitations, to endeavour to
dig one before they are overtaken, for Avhich
they ^vant but a few instants, the mole itself
not being more expert in digging the ground.
Sometimes before they can get quite concealed
they are caught by the tail, and when they
make such a strong resistance that the tail is
often broke without bringing out the body ; in
order to take them without mutilation the
burrow must be opened, when they are taken
without any resistance ; when caught they roll
themselves up into a ball, and will not extend
again unless they are placed near the fire.
Hard as their coat of mail is, the animal, on
being lighdy touched with the finger, receives
50 quick an impression that he contracts instan-
taneously. When in deep burrows they are
forced out by smoking them, or letting water
run down the holes. It is said that they re-
main under ground above three months in
the year ; be that as it may, it is certain that
they never come out of their holes but in the
night, when they seek for food. The arma-
dillo is hunted with small dogs, by whom he
is soon overtaken ; but before they have
reached him he contracts himself, in which
condition he is seized, and carried oiF. If
near the brink of a precipice, he escapes

botk

NATURAL HISTORY. 219

l)oth dogs and hunters, for contracting he
roHs himself down like a ball, without hurt or
prejudice to his coat of mail.

These animals are fal, and very prolific:
the male has exterior signs of great generative
faculties ; the female brings forth, as it is said,
every four months, of course their species are
very numerous. As they are good to cat they
are hunted in different manners ; they are
easily taken with snares laid for them on the
banks of rivers, and in marshy grounds, which
they inhabit by preference. They never go to
any great distance from their burrows, which
are very deep, and which they endeavour to
reach ivhenever they arc alarmed. It is pre-
tended they are not afraid of the bite of the
rattle snake, though it is as dangerous as that
of the viper; nay, it is asserted, that they live
in peace with these reptiles, which are often
found in their holes. The savages make dif-
ferent uses of their crusts ; they paint them
with divers colours, and make baskets, boxes,
and other small vessels, of them. Mon-ird,
Ximenes, and many other writers, have attri*
buted great medicinal properties to different
parts of these animals ; they assure us that the
crust aceous covering, reduced into poMder,
aud taken inwardly, even in a small quantity,

is

220 buffon's

is a powerful sudorific ; and that the bone of
the hip, pulverised, cures the venereal disease ;
that the first bone of the tail, applied to the
ear, cure^ deafness, &c. We give no credit
to these extraordinary properties ; the crust
and bones of the armadillos being of the same
nature as the bones of other animals. Such
marvellous effects are never produced but by
imaginary virtues.

SUrrLEMENTr

I RECEIVED the drawing of a six-banded
armadillo, taken from life, from M. de Seve,
and with it a description; in which, after stat-
ing that it corresponds pretty much with that
we have given, observes, that the rows on the
bucklers, and their pieces, vary in form and
number : this animal was fourteen inches long,
independent of the tail, which he supposed to
be about six inches, as part of it was broken
off; his head was rather more than three inches
long, and his ears a little above one ; on the
broadest part of the body the crust measured
six inches seven lines ; the fore legs were two
inches long, and his hind ones three.

M. de

NATURAL HISTORY. 221

M. de la Borde says, there are two species
of Armadillos at Guiana, the largest black and
the other a greyish brown ; the former are so
prolific as sometimes to bring forth eight or
ten at a litter : they reside in very deep holes,
and when any attempts are made to take them
by digging, they penetrate further in the earth,
and almost perpendicularly ; they only quit
their holes in the night, and then for the pur-
pose of seeking for food, which commonly con-
sists of worms, ants, and woodlice ; their flesh
is of an excellent flavour, and resembles that
of a pig. The small one has not more than
four or five young at a time, and tliey are more
hard to be taken ; these sometimes come out
of their holes in the day, but never when it
rains. The hunters know when they are in
their holes by the number of flies which hover
round : and when they begin to dig the animal
digs also, and by throwing the earth behind,
so eff'ectually closes up the holes that smoke
cannot penetrate to them. 1 conceive the first
of these animals to be that we have mentioned,
as the twelve-banded, and the other the eight-
banded armadillos.

Dr. W. Watson has given a description of
an armadillo with nine bands, and a long tail,
ifig. 128.) in the Philosophical Transactions,

where

222 buffon's

•where he says, This animal was brouglit fron(i
America, and kept alive in the house of Lord
Southwell ; but the drawing was not taken till
after its death ; he weighed seven pounds, and
was not bigger than a common-sized cat ;
while in possession of Lord Southwell it grew
considerably ; it was fed with flesh and milk,
but would not cat grain or fruits. Those by
whom it was brought from America asserted,
(hat it dug a hole for itself in the earth in
which it lived.

THE PACA.

THEPaca {fig, 129.) is an animal of the
new world, wliicli digs itself a borough like u
rabbit, io whom he has often been compared,
though there is scarce any likeness between
them ; he is much larger than the rabbit, or
even the hare ; his body is bigger and more
compact; he has a round head and short
snout ; he is fat and bulky, and is more like a
pig in form, grunting, waddling, and manner

of

x#>

l6"-»

IIG.

1-20

Afiiriiic Opo.(.nitn

Tata

\ iroiiuan Of'o.viiin \t<ilc itiiii Trmoir

NATURAL HISTORY. 223

of eating, for he does not use, like the rabbit,
his fore feet (o carry food to his mouth, but
, grubs up the earth like the hog to find sub-
sistence. They inhabit the banks of rivers,
and are found only in the damp and warm
places of South America : their flesh is very
good to eat, and excessively fat ; their skin is
eaten like that of a pig. For these reasons ^
perpetual war is carried on against tliese ani-
mals. Hunters find it very difficult to take
them alive ; and when they are surprized in
their burrows, which have two openings, they
defend themselves, and bite with great rage
and inveteracy. Their skins, though covered
with short and rough hair, make a fine fur
because it is regularly spotted on the sides.
These animals bring forth very often, and in
abundance: men, and animals of prey, destroy
great numbers of them, and yet the species re-
mains undiminished in numbers ; he is pecu-
liar to South America, and is found no where
in the old continent.

SUP-

22i bupfon's

SUPPLEMENT,

OUR former description of the Paca was
taken from a young one which had not nearly
come to its full growth. Since then I have
had one sent me, which was much bigger even
when he arrived, and continued to grow while
I kept him, namely from August 1774, to
May 28, 1775. From the Sieur Trecourt I
received an account of his natural habits, in
which that gentleman says : " This animal re-
mains perfectly quiet in the day, if he is pro-
vided with a wooden cage, or box, and has
plenty of provisions, to which he readily re-
tires of himself while the day continues, but
as soon as night comes on he becomes in a per-
petual agitation to get out, and will even use
violent efforts to effect that purpose if he is
fastened in ; this he never attempts during the
day, unless pressed to make some natural eva-
cuatio!!, in which case he always gets to the
furthest corner, having an aversion to any kind
of dirt in the place he lives in ; even his straw
he pushes out with his nose Mhen it begins to

smell,

NATURAL HISTORY. 225

smell, and will seek about for rags, or paper,
to supply its place. He had no particular at-
tachment to his box, for he would often for-
sake it for some obscure corner, and when once
his bed was made, he could only be made to
leave his new habitation by force. This ani-
mal, which was a female, gave a strong proof
of her propensity to cleanliness, for a large
male rabbit being put with her when she was
in season, she received him with a degree of
fondness, and something was expected from"
them ; slie would lick his nose, ears, and body,
and even suffer him to take away the greatest
part of her food ; but upon voiding his excre-
ment, in their common apartment, she imme-
diately took an aversion to him, and retired to
the bottom of an old press, making herself a
bed with paper and rags, nor would she return
to her house again, until she perceived it was
cleared of the dirt and her filthy companion.

The Paca very easily becomes domesticated,
and is very gentle and tractable, unless when
much irritated. He is very fond of being no-
ticed, and will lick the hands of those who
caress him ; he very readily distinguishes the
voices of those who take care of him, and when
stroked on the back, he will lie down on his
belly, stretch himself out, and, with a gentle
VOL. VII. G g cry,

cry, express his gratitude for the favour, and
seem to ask a continuance ; but if laid hold of
in a rou^li manner, he will struggle violently
to escape. His muscles are very strong, yet
his feeling is so delicate that the slightest touch
on the skin will excite in him the most sensi-
ble emotions; and whicli sensibility, though
commonly producing good humour, will some-
times, by irritation, or presenting an offensive
object, put him in the most violent passion.
A strange dog invariably produces the latter
effect; and he has been observed, when shut
in his cage, to make violent efforts to get out
upon the appearance of one. It was at first
thought he had no desire to come out but
upon natural occasions ; but one day, when
he was at liberty, he flew out upon a poor
dog, and bit him very severely ; but in a few
days after he became perfectly familiar with
the same dog. He will also fly at strangers^
if they plague him, but he never offers to bite
those by whom he is taken care of. He has
a dislike to children, and will run after them ;
and when in a passion he makes a kind of
grunting, and at the same time a chattering
with his teeth. He very frequently sits for ar
considerable time together on his posteriors,
and has a Goramon practice of appearing to

coittb'

natuhal history. 227

Comb his head and whiskers wifJi his paws,
which he repeatedly licks with his tongue.
When thus employed, he scratches all parts
of his body which he can reach with his fore
paws, and afterwards the remainder with liis
hind ones. He is, however, a gross animal ;
he does not appear delicate; his coat is not
smooth ; he is far from active, but moves hea-
vily and somewhat like a hog ; whom he also
resembles by the whiteness and thickness of
his skin ; he seldom attempts to run, and
when he does, it is very aukwardly.

This animal, though not full grown, mea-
sured more than eighteen inches from the
point of his nose to the extremity of his body,
and he could stretch himself out to near twx>
feet, while the one which 1 formerly described
was not more than seven inches five lines, and
this difference was evidently to be attributed
to their ages, as in all other respects they were
perfectly similar.

This animal measured about seven inclies
high before, and nine and a half behind, by
which his head always appeared lower than Jiis
hind parts : his head is five inches long, and
rather convex ; lie has large brown eyes, two
inches asunder, short round ears, covered with
a fine down, a broad bl.ick nose, divided like

that

228 buffon's

that of a hare, verj large nostrils, and in
which he has great strength ; tlie upper jaw
comes out above an inch beyond the louer;
he has a fold along them that may at first
sight be taken for the mouth, bui which is
scarcely perceptible unless it is open ; he has
two large yellow teeth in each jaw, with
which he can cut through wood, and I have
known him make a hole in a plank in a single
night throush which he could put his head ;
but, although several times attempted, he
would never permit us to count his grinders ;
he has a thick rough tongue, and whiskers on
each side his nose, consisting of black and
white hairs; he has five toes on each foot,
and long claws on them, of a flesh colour;
and his tail is merely a kind of button, does
not exceed five lines in length, and requires a
close inspection to discover it»

Tlie paca, when doraeslicated, will eat any
thing that is given him, and if fed with bread
he seems to have an equal relish for it, whe-
ther soaked in water, wine, or vinegar ; he is
extremely fond of sugar and fruits, and will
leap about for joy when they are given him ;
he seems to have the same relish for grapes,
celery, onions, or garlic ; he will also cat
grasS;, moss, the bark of trees, or even wood ;

he

NATURAL HISTORY. 229

he drinks like a dog ; bis urine has a disagree-
able smell, and his excrements are like those
of the rabbit.

As there can be little doubt but tliese ani-
mals ^vould produce in the climates of France;
as they are easily tamed, and their flesh is ex-
cellent food, they might be rendered an ad-
vantageous acquisition, especially as one in-
dividual would be equal to seven or eight rab-
bits, and their flesh not inferior.

M. de la Borde agrees "with most of the fore-
going particulars, a-id says also that the paca
generally has his hole on the banks of rivers,
and that he so forms it as to have three ways
to enter or retreat; that when disturbed he
takes to the water, and endeavours to effectuate
bis escape by diving frequently, and that he
makes a stout defence when attacked by dogs.

THE OPOSSUM.

THE Opossum is an animal of America,
which is easily distinguished from all others by
two singular characters; first, the female has
under the belly a large cavity where she re-
ceives

'230 buffon's

<;eives and suckles her young ; secondly, both
male and female have no claws on the great
toes of the hind feet, which is separated from
the others, as the thumb on the human hand,
whilst all the other toes are armed with
crooked claws, like the feet of other quadru-
peds. The first of these characters has been
observed by most travellers and naturalists,
but the second had escaped their observation.
Edward Tyson, an jEnglish physician, seems
to be the first who made this remark ; and he
only has given a good description of the fe-
male in a treatise printed in London in 1698,
under the title of The Anatomy of an Opos-
sum. Some years after, W. Cooper, a cele-
brated English anatomist, communicated to
Tyson the observations which he had made
Tipon the male. Other authors, and especial-
ly the nomenclators, who have multiplied
beings without necessity, have here fallen into
numerous errors respecting this animal.

Our opossum, described by Tyson, is the
same animal as the oriental philandre of
Seba, since of all the animals which Se-
ba has described, and to which he gave
the name of philandre, opossum, or cari-
gueya, this is the only one who has a
bag under the belly, and thumbs with-
out claws behind. This animal is a native

of

NATtlRAL HISTORY. 231

of the warm climates of tlie new world ; for the
two we have in the king's cabinet came from
America. That which Tyson had, was sent
him from Virginia. M. de Chanvallon, cor-
respondent of the x4.cademy of Sciences in Mar-
tinrco, who has given us a young opossum,
acknowledged the two others to be true opos--
sums of America. All the travellers agree,
that this animal is found tn Brasil, New .?pain,
Virginia, and the Antilles ; and none mention
fiavingscen it in the East Indies ; thus Scba
was mistaken in calling it tlicorlcntial philan-
dre. He says, his philandre was sent him
from A mboyna, under the uenne of coes-coes^
with other curiosities, but he confesses, at the
same time, that it had been transported from
some other remote countries to Amboyna.
This should be sufficient to shew, that the
denomination of oriental philandre was
improper ; for it is possible that travellers
have transported this animal from America
to the East Indies, but nothing proves that
he is a native of Amboyna ; and even the pas-
sage ofSeba, which we have qnoted, seems
to indicate the contrary. The cause of this
error and even of the name coes-coes^is found
in Piso, who says, that in the East Indies, and
only in the island of Amboyna, is found an
animal very much like the opossum of Brasil

to

^32 BUFFON S

to whom the natives give the name o^cous-cous»
Piso quotes no authority for this assertion. It
would be strange, if it was true, as Piso affirms;
that this animal is oiilj found in Amboyna,
while Seba, on the contrary, says, that the
opossum sent him from Amboyna, was not a
native of that island, but had been brought
there from more distant countries ; thongh he
was ignorant of the native country of his phi-
landre, he nevertheless gave liim the epithet
of oriental, though he is certainly the same
animal as that of the West Indies ; the proof
of it will clearly appear by comparing the
fiffure he has ffiven with Nature. But ano-
ther error of this author is, that while he
gives to the opossum of America the name of
great oriental philandre he presents us another
animal, which he thinks a different one, under
the name of the philandre of America ; and
which according to his own description, differs
only from the former by being smaller, and
having the spots above the eyes of a deeper
brown colour ; w^hich differences are merely
accidental, and too inconsiderable to constitute
two different species, for he does not mention
another difference more essential, if it existed,
that Seba's philandre of America has sharp
claws on the hind toes of the hind feet, while

his

NATURAL HISTORY. 233

bis oriental ph Hand re has noclaws uponhistwo
thumbs. It is certain, that our opossum, v/hich
is the true one of' America, has noclaws to his
toes behind'; if an animal with sharp claws did
exist, such as is represented by Seba, it could
not be, as he asserts, the opossum of America.
But this is not all, Seba mentions a third ani-
inal, under the name of oriental philandre, of
whom, however, he speaks only after Valentin,
an author who, as we have observed already,
deserves little credit : and this third animal is
vet the same as the two first. We are, there-
fore, persuaded that the three animals of Seba
are individuals of the same species, and which
species is the same as our opossum ; and that
the difference between them might be occa-
sioned by their age, as it entirely consists in
Iheir size and slight variations in their colour,
particularly in the spots above their eyes.

Seba says, '* that according to Valentin, this
last philandre is the largest species seen in the
East Indies, and particularly among the Ma-
lays, where he is called pelandor aroe, which
signifies a rabbit of Aroc, though Aroe is not
the only place where these animals are found ;
that they are common in the island of Solor ;
that they are kept promiscuously with rabbits,
to whom they do no harm; and that the inha-
ypL. VII. li h bilan.'s

234 uuFroN^s

bitants eat (heir flesh, which they reckon ex-
cellent." These flicfs are very doubtful, not
to say absolutely false, for according to Seba,.
this is not the largest species of the oriental
philandre, that it bears no resemblance to the
rabbit, therefore is very improperly termed the
rabbit of Aroe ; and that no person who has
travelled in (he East Indies has mentioned this
remarkable animal ; neither is he found in the
island of Solor, nor in any other part of (he an-
cient continent. Seba himself seems to have
perceived not only the incapacity, but also the
inaccuracy of the author whom he quotes : F.
Valentin has written a Natural History of the
East Indies in five volumes folio, and for the
credit due to his testimony, both Artedi and
Seba refer to a passage wherein he aflfirms,
'' that the pouch of the pliilandre is the womb
in which the young are conceived ; that having
himself dissected a female, he found no other;
and if that pouch is not tlie real womb, the
teats are to the young, what the pedicles are to
fruits, that they stick to them till they are suffi-
ciently grown, and then they are separated
like the fruit, when it is come to ripeness."
What seems to be the truth is, that Valentin,
who affirms that those animals are common in
the East Indies, especially at Solor, had never

seen

NATURAL HISTORY. 235

^een any there; that all he says, even his most
manifest errors, are copied from Piso and
Marcgrave, who are themselves copyists of
Ximenes, and are mistaken in every thing they
have advanced of their own authority ; for
Marcgrave and Piso say expressly and obser-
vatively, as well as Valentin, that the pouch
is the true womb wlicre the young of the opos-
sums are conceived. Marcgrave says, he dis-
sected one, and found no other womb : Piso,
•who says he dissected many, affirms he nevet
could discover any womb in the internal parts,
and also maintains the opinion, equally ill-
grounded, that this animal is found at Am-
boyna. One may judge of what credit ought
to be given to Marcgrave, Piso, and Valentin's
assertions, the first of whom had not examined
Tvith accuracy ; tlie second had added to th^
errors of the first, and the last copied from
both.

I should willingly ask pardon of my reader
for the length of this critical disquisition, but
when obliged to correct errors, we cannot be
too exact or too attentive, even to the smallest
circumstances.

M. Brisson, in his work upon the quadru-
peds, has adopted whatever he found in that of
Seba, and adopts both his denominations and

descriptions ;

S36 BUFFO n's

descriptions; he goes even further than his au-
thor, in making three distinct species of the
philandres, described by Seba ; for, if he had
adhered to Seba, he would have observed that
the latter did not give them as really different
from each other. Seba had no doubt that an
animal of the warm climates of America, could
be found also in the torrid regions of Asia ; but
he distinguished them according as they came
to him from one or the other continent. It
seems clear that he docs not use the word spe-
cies in its most strict sense, nor did Seba ever
pretend to make a methodical division of ani-
mals into classes, genera, and species; he has
only given the figures of the ditlerent animals
in his cabinet, distinguishing by names, accord-
ing as he saw some difference in their size, co-
lour, or the countries from which he received
tliem. It appears, therefore, that M. Brisson
was not authorised by Sebn, in making three
different species of philandres, -especially as he
has notemployed thedistinctivc characters, and
makes no mention of the want of the claws, in
the hind toes of the hind feet; he only says, in
general, that the toes of tlie philandres have
claws, without making any exception ; yd the
one which he saw in the King's cabinet, and
whix:h is our opossum^ hud no claws to the hind

toes

Enamred tor Banx Bunhn

Ekphant

Jthi/wravs

NATURAL HISTORY. 237

iocs of the hind legs, and which seems to be
the only one he has seen. The work of M .
Brisson is very useful, but in his catalogue
tlie species are more numerous than in that
of Nature.

We have now only to examine the nomen-
clature of Linnaeus, which in this article is
much less erroneous than in many others, for
he suppresses one of the three species of Seba ;
but he should have reduced tliem to one. Be-
sides, he employs the distinctive character of
the toes behind withuut claws, which none but
Tyson had observed. The description which
Lin:iffius gives of the opossum as the marsu'
jjialis, seems to be a good one, and agreeable
to Nature, but he is in an error when under
the name of opossum he designs an animal dif-
ferent from his marsupialis^ upon the authority
of Seba, acknowledging, liowever, that this
opossum had no claws to i\\^ toes behind,
whilst they are very visible m tlie figures of
Seba. Another error is, considcriiig the mari'
tacaca of Piso, as the same animal as ttiecan-
gueya^ whilst these two animals, thougii men-
tioned in the same chapier, are mentioned by
Piso as two different animals, and he describes
them one after the other. But Iiis greatest
error is in making two difiorent species of the

niaysitpiaUs

^38 BUFFO n's

marsKpialis and the opossum ; thej have both,
according to LinncBus, the pouch, the hind
toes of their hind iect have no claws, are both
natives of America, and only differ in this re-
spect, bj the iirst liaving eight paps, and the
second only two, and tlie spot above the eyes
more pale. These characteristics cannot be
sufficient to distinguisli them as distinct spe-
cies ; for the first can scarcely be called a dif-
ference; nor can any thing be established as
j6xed or certain, in regard to the order and
the number of the paps, since they vary in the
same species of most animals.

From this examination, w hich we have made
with strict impartiality,it appears, that the;?/;/-
landre, oposswn,seu cariguej/a Br asilicfish, and
the philander orientalis maximus of Seba ;
those of M. Brisson, and the marsup'mlis and
opossum of Linnaeus are all of them the same
animal, which is our opossum whose natural
climate is South America ; and who was never
seen in the East Indies, but when transported
thither. Upon this subject, som.e uncertainty
still remains in regard to the tauhi^ which
Marcgrave does not mention as an animal dif-
ferent from the cariguei/a^hwi which Johnston,
Seba, Klein, Linnreusj and Brisson, have pre-
sented as distinct from the preceding. In

Marcgrave

NATURAL HISTORY. 939

Marcgrave the two names of cariguejja and
taiihi are found in the same article, wliere it is
said, tliatthis animal iscalled carigueya in Bra-
sil, and taiihi in Paraguay. There is after-
wards a descripiionof the c«ng-«eyfif taken from
Ximenes ; and then another is given of the ani-
mal called taiihiy by the Brasilians ; cachorro
domato, by the Portuguese, and hooschralteyOT
the rat of the wood, by the Dutch. Marc-
grave does not say this is an animal different
from the cariguet/a, but on the contrary, con-
siders it as the male of that species ; and it ap-
pears clearly, tliat the male and female opos-
sum were called taiihi in Paraguay, and that
in Brasil they gave the name of taiihi to the
male, and that oi carigueya to the female. Be-
sides, the difference between those two animals,
such as it is indicated by their descriptions, i»
too inconsiderable to conclude they are not the
same species. The most essential is, the colour
of the hair, which in the carigueya is yellow
and brown, and grey in the taiihi, the hairs of
which are white at their bottom, and brown
or black at the extremities. It is therefore more
than probable, that the taiihi is the male opos-
sum. Mr. Ray seems to be of that opinion,
when speaking of the carigueya, and the taiihi.
Yet? notwithstanding Marcgrave's authority,

and

S40 bupfon's

and the rational doubt of Rny, Seba gives (be
figure of an animal, under the name of the
taiihi; and says, at the sime time, that this
taiibi is the same animal as the tlaquatzin of
Hernandes ; this is adding error upon error ;
for even according to Seba, his taiihi^ which is
a female, has no bag under the belly ; and Her-
nandes gives to his tlaquatzin this bag as a par-
ticular characteristic; consequently the ^<7//^« of
Seba connot be the tlaquatzin of Hernandes,
as it has no pouch, nor the taiibi of Marcgrave,
since it is a female ; it is certainly, therefore,
another animal badly designed, and badly de-
Scribed, to whom Seba thought proper to give
the name of taiibi, and which he confounds?
"with the tlaquatzin of Hernandes, which as we
have said before, is our opossum. Brisson and
Linnaeus have, in regard to the taiibi, literally
followed Seba ; theyhave copied even his error in
regard to the tlaquatzin of Hernandes, and both
have made an equivocal species of thisanimal,
the first under the name of phihmdre o^ BrnsU ,
and the second under that of philander. The
true taiibi of M;ircgrave and Ray, is not there-
fore the /azVi/ of Seba, (he philander of Lin-
na3us, nor the Jirasilian philander of Brison ;
nor are the two lat(er the tlaquatzin of Hernan-
des. The taiibi jf Seba (supposing his exist-

ence)

NATURAL HISTORY. 241

ence) is a different animalfrom all those treated
of by the above authors, and ought to have had
a particular denomination, and not been con-
founded with the taiibi of Marcgrave, which
Jias nothing in common with him ; besides, as
the male opossum has no pouch, it is not sur-
prising that they have been taken for different
animals, as that the female is called carigueya,
and the male taiibi.

Edward Tyson dissected and described the
female opossum with care ; in the individual
which served him for subject, the head was
fix inches, the body thirteen, and the tail twelve
in length : the fore legs were six inches, and
the hind legs four inches and a half in height :
the body was fifteen or sixteen inches in cir-
cumference; the tail three inches round in the
beginning, and only one inch towards the ex-
tremities ; the head three inches betwixt the
two ears, decreasing gradually to the nose ; and
was more like that of a pig than a fox ; the
sockets of the eyes are much inclined in the
direction from the ears to the nose ; the ears are
rounded, and about an inch and a half long ; the
mouth was two inches and a half wide from
one of the corners of tlie lip to the extremity
of the snout ; the tongue narrow, three inches
iloog, and rough ; his fore feet had five toes
YOL. VII. I i armed

242 buffon's

armed with crooked claws, but in the hind
feet he had only four toes with claws, and tht
fifth toe, or thumb, was separated from the
others, was placed lower, and had no claws.
All his claws were without hair, and covered
with a skin of a reddisli colour, and very near
an inch in length ; his hind and fore paws were
large, and he had fleshy callosities under all the
toes. The tail was covered with hair for two
or three inches from the beginning, and the
rest of it with a smooth scaly skin to the end.
These scales were whitish, almost hexagonal,
and placed regularly, so that they did not en-
croach upon each other, but were divided by
a skin browner than the scales. The cars were
without hair, thin and membranous like the
wings of a bat, and very open. The upper
jaw longer than the under ; the nostrils large,
the eyes small, black, and lively ; the neck
short, the breast wide, and the whiskers like
those of a cat : the hairs of the forehead whiter
and shorter than those of the body ; his colour
a yellowish grey, intermixed with black on the
back and sides, more brown on the belly, and
still deeper on the legs. Under the belly of the
female (fe. 131 .) is a skin two or three inches
long, which forms a kind of pouch by a double
fold thinly covered with hair on the inside, and

which

NATURAL HISTORY. 943

which ponch contains the teats. Tlicyoune;
enter into this pouch to suck, and soon acquire
the habit of hidingtliemsel ves in it, so that they
retire thither whenever they arc frightened.
This pouch opens and shuts according to the
will of the animal ; which it eficcts by several
muscles and two bones, which are peculiar to
the opossum ; these two bones are about two
inches in length, placed by the os pubis, they
decrease gradually from the basis to the extre-
mities, and support the muscles which open the
pouch ; the antagonists of these muscles serve
to shut it so exactly, that in the living animal
the opening cannot be seen, without forcibly
dilating it with the fingers. The inside of this
pouch is full of kernels, which contain a yellow
substance, the smell of which is so offensive,
that it infects the wholebody of theaniraal ; yet
when this matter is dried, it not only loses its
disagreeable smell, but acquires a perfume
which may be compared to that of musk.
This pouch is not, as Marcgrave and Piso
have falsely asserted, the place in which the
young are conceived ; the female opossum has
an internal womb, diflerent indeed from that
of other animals, but in which the young are
conceived, and remain till they are brought
forth* Tyson says, that in this animal there

are

244: buffon's

are two wombs, two vaginas, and four ova-
riums. M. Daubenton does not agree with
Tyson in these particulars ; but by his de-
scription, it is at least certain, that in the or-
gans of generation of the opossums, there are
several parts double which are single in other
animals. The glans penis of the male, and the
glans clitoridis in the female, which are fork-
ed, and seem double. The vagina, which is
single at the entrance, is afterwards divided
into two channels ; this conformation is very
singular, and differs from that of all other qua-
drupeds.

The opossum belongs to the south parts of
the new world, but he does not, like the ar-
madillo, seem contined to the hottest climates,
for he is found not only in Brasil, Guiana, and
Mexico, but also in Florida, Virginia, and
other temperate regions of this contin^t.
They are very common in these countries, as
Ihey bring forth often, and most authors say
four or five, others six or seven, at a time.
Marcgrave affirms, that he has seen six young
ones alive in the pouch of the female ', they
•were about two inches in length, were very
nimble, and went in and outof the pouch many
times in a day. They are very small when
just brought forth : some travellers say they

are

NATURAL HISTORY. 245

are not bigger than flies wlien they go out of
the womb into the pouch, and attach them-
selves to the teats. This fact is not so much
exaggerated as might be imagined, for we have
seen in an animal, whose species is somewhat
like that of the opossum, young ones sticking
to the teats not bigger than beans ; and it is
not improbable, that, in these J^nimalsj the
womb is only the place of conception and first
formation of the foetus, whose unfolding is
completed in the pouch. No one has observed
the time of their gestation, which we think is
shorter than in any other quadruped ; andas
this early exclusion of the foetus is a singula-
rity in nature, we wish those who have an
opportunity of observing the opossums in their
native country would contrive to discover how
long the females go with young, and how long
the young remain attached to the teats. This
observation is curious in itself, and may be-
come useful, in pointing out some means of
preserving the lives of children born before
their natural period-

That the young opossums stick to the teats
of the mother till they have acquired strength,
and a sufficient growth to move with ease, is
a fact not to be doubted ; nor is it peculiar
to this species only, since we have seen it in
that of the marmose. The female marmose

has

246 buffon's

has not, like the opossum, a bag under the
belly; it is not, therefore, in consequence of
the assistance wliich the young receive from
the pouch that they stick so long to the teats,
and increase in that immoveable situation. I
make this observation to prevent the pouch
being considered as a second womb, or at least
an asylum necessary to the young before they
are unfolded. Some authors pretend that they
stick to the teats for several weeks, others
say that they remain in the pouch only the
first month after they came out of (he womb.
The pouch may be opened, the young count-
ed, and even felt, without disturbing them, for
they do not leave the teats, which they hold
with their mouths, before they are strong
enough to walk ; then they fall into the bag,
and afterwards go out to seek for their sub-
sistence; they often go in again to sleep, to
suck, and to hide themselves when terrified ;
in cases of danger the mother flics, and carries
the whole of her young with her. Her belly
does not seem to have any increased bigness
•when she is breeding, for in the time of the
true gestation it is scarcely perceivable that
she is with young.

From inspecting the form of the feet it is
easy to perceive that he walks and runs auk-
ward ly ; '

ITATURAL HI5T0RT. 847

wardly ; it is said a man can overtake him
witliout liastening his steps. He climbs up
trees with great facility, hides himself in the
leaves to catch birds, or hangs by the tail, the
extremity of which is so muscular and flexible
that he can clasp with it any thing he seizes
upon. He sometimes remains a long while in
this situation, his body suspended, with his
head hanging downward, waiting for his prey.
At other times he jumps from one tree to
another, as the monkeys, with like muscular
flexible tails, which he resembles also in the
conformation of his feet. Though carnivo-
rous, and even greedy of blood, which he sucks
with avidity, he feeds also upon reptiles,
insects, sugar-canes, potatoes, roots, and even
leaves and bark of trees. He may easily be
rendered a domestic animal, for he is neither
wild nor ferocious ; but he creates disgust by
his smell, which is more offensive than that of
the fox ; his figure is also forbidding, for his
cars are like those of an ounce, Jiis tail re-
sembles that of a serpent, his mouth is cleft
to the very eyes, his body appears always
dirty, because his hair is neither smooth nor
curled, and seems as if covered with dirt.
His bad saaell resides in the skin, for his flesh

is

§48 BUfroN^s

is eatable. The savages hunt tliis animal by
preference, and leed on his flesh heartily.

SUPPLEMENT.

M. dc la BORDE has sent me an account
of three opossums, which he kept in a cask at
Cayenne; in most particulars it agrees with
the description already given ; he says they are
very easily tamed, and feed upon fish, fleshy
bread, &c. that those he had possessed no dis-
agreeable smell, but that there are two species,
the one which has so strong an odour as to be
called stinking by the inhabitants, and that
their flesh is not good to eat.

M. de Vosmaer, to his description of the
flying squirrel, has added a note, in which he
;^ys, " the coes-coes is the &05C^ of the East
Indies, the pJtilandre of Seba, and the didelphie
of Linnajus. M. de Buffon has confided this
animal to the new world, and positively denies
its existence in the East Indies ; but I can
assure that learned naturalist that Valentin
and Seba said no more than the truth, in

affirming

NATURAL HISTORY* 249

affirming they were common to both Asia and
America, for I have had a male and female sent
me from the East Indies, and Dr. Schlosser, at
Amsterdam received one of the same species
from Amboyna. The principal difference
between those of the East and West Indies is
in the colour of the hair, the male of the
fbrmer being of a yellowish white, and the fe-
male a little darker, with a brown line on the
back, and their ears are less than those of the
latter. The heads also of the West India
species are much shorter than those of the
East." I have not the smallest reason to doubt
M. Vosmaer's receiving two animals from the
East Indies, under the name of coes'Coes^
but am of opinion the differences which he
points out are sufficient to induce us not Uy
consider them the same species as the opossums.
I, however, confess the justice of his observa-
tion upon my making the three philandres of
Seba the same animal, when, in fact, the third
is a different species, and found in the Philip-
pine islands, and possibly in many parts of the
East Indies, where it is called coes-coes, or
ctiscKs. Christopher Barchewitz gives a de-
scription of this animal found in the island
of Lethy, and from the similarity it plainly ap-
pears, that the East India cuscus is of the same
VOL. VII. K k genus

2j0 buffon's

genus as the American opossum ; but that is no
proof of their being of the same species ; and
I am still of opinion, that the animals of one
continent will not be found in the other, unless
they have been transported thither. I do not
mean to deny the possibility of the same cli*
mates in the two continents produeing^ some
animals of exactly the same species, provided
other circumstances were the same ; I am not,
however, treating here of possibilities, but of
general facts, of which we have given many
instances in our enumeration of animals pecu-
liar to the two continents; and, upon the
whole, I am inclined to consider the coes-coes
of the East Indies as an animal whose species
approaches very near to that of the opossums
of America, but that they have similar differ-
ences, to those which are observable between
the jaguar and leopards, which of all animals
peculiar to the southern climates of the twa
continents, without being tlie same species,
come the nearest to each other.

THE-

NATURAL IHSTORV. 251

THE MAHMOSE,

THE species of the Marmose, or Murine
Opossum, (Jig* lo^.) resembles tliat of the
preceding ; they are natives of the same cli-
mate and the same continent ; they are very
much alike in the form of (he body, the con-
formation of the feet, in the tail, which is
mostly covered with scales, except the upper
part, which is hairy, and by the teeth, which
are more numerous than in other quadrupeds.
But the marmose is smaller, and Iiis snout
sharper ; the female has no pouch under the
belly, she has only two loose skins near the
thighs, between which the young fix them-
selves to the teats. The parts of generation of
the male and female marmose resemble, by
their form and their position, those of the
opossum. When the young are brought forth,
and fix themselves to the teals, they are not so
big as small beans. The brood is also more
numerous ; 1 have seen ten young ones, each
sticking to a diflfercnt teat, and the mother
liad four more teats, which made fourteen in

all.

252 buffon's

all. It is particularly on the females of tliis
species that the observations, recommended in
the preceding article, should be made ; as I am
persuaded they bring forth a few days after con-
ception, and that the young are only foetuses
which are not come to the fourth part of their
growth. The mother always miscarries, and
the foetuses save their lives by sticking to the
teats, and never leaving them till they have
acquired the growth and strength which they
would naturally have got in the womb, if they
had remained until the proper period.

The marmose has the same manners, and the
same inclinations, as the opossum ; both of
them dig burrows to dwell under the ground,
hang by the extremities of their tails to the
branches of trees, and rush upon birds and
small animals ; they eat fruit, corn, and roots,
but they are still more greedy of fish and
craw-fish, which, it is affirmed, they catch
with their tails. This fact, however, is doubt-
ful, and does not agree with the natural stupi-
dity attributed to those animals, who, accord-
ing to the relation of most travellers, do not
even know how to move, fly, or defend them-*
Selves, with any degree of art.

THE

NATURAL HISTORY. 253

THE CAYOPOLLiy,

FERNANDES is the first author who Iia^
tncntioned this animal. The Cajopollin, says
lie, is a small animal, little bigger than a rat,
very much resembling the opossum in the
snout, ears, and tail, and vvliich he makes use
of as we do our hands ; he has thin transparent
ears ; his belly, legs, and feei, are white. The
young, when frightened, seize hold of the
mother, who carries them up on the trees.
This species is found on tlie mountains of
New Spain. Nieremberg has copied Fcr-
nandes verbatim, without any addition of his
own. Seba, who first caused this animal to be
engraved, gives no description of it; he only-
says, that he has the head thicker, and the tail
a little bigger than the marmose, and that
though he is of the same kind he belongs to
another climate, and even to another continent.
He refers his readers to Nieremberg and John-
ston for a fuither description of this animal ;

but

2j| BurroN's

but it seems evident that neither of them had
seen him, as they only follow Fernandes.
J^either of these three authors say that he is a.
native of Africa, on the contrary, they assert,
that he comes originally from the mountains
of the warm climates of America, and yet Scba,
>vithout any authority, has pretended, that it
is an African animal. That which we have
seen certainly came from America ; he was
larger, (he snout not so sharp, and the tail was
longer than those of ihe marmose, and he
resembled the opossum more even than the
marmose does. These three animals are
much alike in the conformation of their interior
and exterior parts, in their additiqnal bones,
form of their feet, in being brought forlh be-
fore their entire formation, their long and conr
tinned adherence to the teats, and in their ha-
bits and dispositions. They are all tliree
natives of the new world, and of the same
climate ; they are never found in the cold re-
gions of America, nor can hardly live in tem-
perate climates. All of them are very ugly ;
their mouths extended like that of a pike, their
ears like those of a bat, their tails like that of
a snake, and their monkey's feet present a very
odd form, v/hich is rendered still more dis-
agreeable

NATURAL HISTORY. 955

agreeable hy their bad smell, and by the slow-
ness and stupidity which accompany their ac-
tions and manners.

THE ELEPHANT.

THE Elephant, the human species except-
ed, is the most considerable animal of this
world ; he surpasses all terrestrial beings in size,
and approaches near to man in understanding,
as much, at least, as matter can approach to
mind. The elephant, dog, beaver, and ape,
of all the animated beings, have the most ad-
mirable instinct ; but this instinct, which is
only the product of all the interior and exterior
faculties of the animal, manifests itself very
differently in every one of these species. The
dog is naturally as cruel and bloody as the
wolf; but his ferocious nature is to be con-
quered by gentleness : he only differs from the
other animals of prey, by possessing a degree
of sensibility , which makes him susceptible of
affection, and capable of attachment. lie has
from nature this disposition, which man has

cultivated

cultivated and improved bj a constant and
ancient society Vt ith this animal. The dog
alone was wourthy of this attention, as he is
more capable than any other quadruped of
foreign impressions, his social nature has im-
proved all liis relative faculties. His sensibi-
lity, tractable temper, courage, talents, and
even his manners, are modified by the example
and qualities of iiis matter. He has not then,
from nature, all those qualifications he appears
to possess, but has acquired them from his in-
tercourse wit Ii men ; he is only more susceptible
of tuition tiian other animals ; far from having,
like most of them, a disgust for man, his in-
clination leads him to seek their society : ac-
tuated by a desire of pleasing, his tractability,
fidelity, constant submission, and that atten-
tion neccssrtry to act in consequence of man's
orders, are the result of this natural sentiment.
The ape, on the contrary, is untractable and
eccentric; his nature is perverse; he has no
relative sensibility, no gratitude for good treat-
ment, and no remembrance of favours ; he is
naturally averse from the society of man,
he hates constraint, is mischievous by na-
ture, and inclined to do every thing hurtful
and disagreeable. But these real faults are
compensated by seeming perfections. Ills

exterior

NATURAL HISTORY. 257

exterior conformation resembles that of man,
lie has arms, hands, and fingers. The use of
these parts alone, makes him superior in dex-
terity to other animals ; and the affinities to
us which he then possesses by a similarity of
motions, and the conformity of his actions,
please and deceive us, and induce us to attri-
bute to interior qualities, what depends merely
on the formation of his members.

The beaver, who seems inferior to the dog
and ape, by his individual faculties, has never-
theless received from Nature a gift almost
equivalent to that of speech; he makes himself
so well understood by those of his own spe-
cies, as to bring them together; to act in con-
cert, and to undertake and execute extensive
and continued labours in common ; and this
social lore, as well as the product of their re-
ciprocal understanding, have better claims
to our admiration, than the dexterityof the ape,
or the faithfulness of the dog.

Thus the dog's genius is only borrowed ; the
ape has but the appearance of sagacity , and
the beaver is only sensible in regard to himself,
and those of his species. The elephant is supe-
rior to them all three, for in him are united all
their most eminent qualities. The hand is the
principal organ of the ape's dexterity ; the ele-
voL. VII. L 1 Pbant

258 BUFFON*S

pliant is equallyso with his trunk, which serves
him instead of arms and hands, by it he can
lift up, and seize small as well as large objects,
carry them to his mouth, place them on his
back, hold them fast, or throw them to a dis-»
tance ; he has at the same time the docility of
the dog" ; he is, like him, susceptible of gra-*
titude, capable of a strong attachment, attends
upon man without reluctance, and submits to
him, not so much by force as good treatment;
serves him with zeal, intelligence, and fidelity ;
in fine, the elephant, the same as the beaver,
likes the society of his own species, and by
whom he is understood. They are often seen
(a assemble together, disperse, and act in coni
cert, and if they do not carry on any work in
common, it is, perhaps, only for want of
room and tranquillity ; for men have been
very anciently multiplied in all the regions in-
habited by the elephant ; he consequently
lives in fear and anxiety, and is no where a
peaceful possessor of a space large and free
enough to establish a secure habitation. We
have seen that all these advantages are re-
quisiteto manifest the talents of the beaver, and
that wherever men are settled, he loses his
industry, and ceases to build. Every bei»»g lias
its relative value in Nature. To judge of
the elephant, we must allow him to possess the

sagacity

NAttJRAt HlSTORlr. 259

fttgacify ofthe beaver, the dexterity of the ape,
the sentiment of the dog with the peculiar ad^
vantages of strength, bigness, and longevity.
We must not forget his arms, or tusks, with
which he can pierce through and conquer the
lion. AVe should also recollect that he shakes
the ground at every step ; that with his trunk
he roots out trees ; that with the strength of
his body, he makes a breach in tlie wall ; that
thougli tremendous by his strength, he is more
invincible by the resistance of his bulky mas-
si veness, and the thickness of his skin; that he
can carry on his back an armed tower filled
with many men ; [and that he alone moves ma-
chines, and carries burthens, which six horses
cannot move. To this prodigious strength,
he joins courage, prudence, coolness, and an
exact obedience ; he preserves moderation even
in his most violent passions ; he is more con-
stant than impetuous in love : in anger he does
not forget his friends ; he never attacks any
but those who have given him some offence ;
and he remembers favours as long as injuries.
Having no taste for flesh, and feeding chiefly
upon vegetables, he is not naturally an enemy
to any living creature ; he is beloved by them,
all, since all of them respect, and no one has
cause to fear him. For these reasons^ men at

all

260 buffon's

all limes liave had a sort of veneration for this
first of animals. The ancients considered the
elephant as a prodigy, a miracle of Nature,
and he is in reality her greatest effort ; they
have attributed io him without hesitation, in-
tellectual qualities and moral virtues.

Pliny, jElian, Solinus, Plutarch, and other
more modern authors, have even given to this
animal rational faculties, a natural innate re-
ligion,the observation of a daily worship,such
as that of the sun and moon, the use of ablution
befote adoration, a spirit of divination, piety
towards heaven and their fellow creatures
whom they assist at their deaths ; and after
their decease, express their regret by tears, and
cover them with earth. The Indians, prepos-
sessed with the opinion of the metempsychosis,
are to this day persuaded, that a body so majes-
tic as that of the elephant cannot be animated
but by the soul of a great man,or aking. Tliey
respect at Siam, * Laos, and Pegu, white ele-
phants

* The white elephant, so much respected in India, and
who has been the cause of so many wars, is very small and
wrinkled with age. He is attended by several mandarins who
ar*eappointed£o take care of him,andhis victuals is presented
to him in large golden vessels ; his apartment is very mag-
iiificent, and gUt aU round. At about a league from the

country-

NATURAL HISTOHY, gCl

pliants as the living manes of the emperors
of India. They have each of them a palace,
a number of servants, golden vessels, exqui-
site dainties, magnificent trappings, and are
absolved from all labour and obedience ; the
living emperor is the only one before whom
they kneel down, and the monarch returns tlie
salute. These flattering attentions, this re-
spect, these offerings flatter them but do not
inspire them with vanity ; they have not con-
sequently a human soul, and this circum-
stance should be sufficient to prove it to the
Indians.

Without adopting the credulities of anti-
quity, and the puerile fictions of superstition,
the elephant is an animal still worth the atten-
tion of a philosopher, who ought to consider
him as a being of the first distinction. He
deserves to be known, and to be observed ; we
shall therefore write his history with impar-
tiality ; we shall consider him at first in his
state of nature when he is free and indepeud-
€nt_, and afterwards in his servile condition,

when

country-house belonging to the king, is another white ele-
phant, kept as a successor to the former, whom they say is
SOO years old. He is also attended by mandarins, and his
mother and aunt are kept with him out of respect. Freaisr
Voyage du P. Taehard.

"2(59 UUFFON*S

tvhen Hie will of bis master becomes (lie cause
of bis actions.

In a wild state, tbe elepbant is neither san-
guinary nor ferocious ; be is of a mild temper,
and never makes a bad use of bis arms^ or his
strength ; for he never employs or exerts thera
but in his own defence, or in protecting others
of his species. His manners arc social, for he
is seldom wandering alone: they commonly
walk in troops, the oldest leading, and the
next in age bringing up the rear ; the young
and the weak keeping in the middle. The
females carry tlieir young, and hold them
close with their trunks. , They only observe
this order in perilous marches when they go to
iced on cultivated lands 5 they travel with
less precaution in forests and solitary places,
but without separating to such a distance as
not to be able to give to each other mutual
assistance, and warnings of danger. Some,
however, straggle, and remain behind, and it
is none but these the hunters dare attack, for
a small army would be requisite to assail tlie
whole herd, and they could not conquer with-
out a great loss of men. It is even dangerous^
to do them the least injury, for they go
straight to tbe olfender, and notwithstanding
the great heaviness of their bodies they walk

so

NATURAL HTSTORY, 963

SO fast that they easily overtake the most agile
man; they pierce him through with their
tusks, or seize him with their trunks; throw
him like a stone, and then kill him by tread-
ing him under their feet. Bat it is only when
they have been provoked that they become so
furious and so implacable; they do no harm
to those who do not disturb them ; yet^ as they
are very suspicious, and sensible of injuries,
it is proper to avoid them ; and the traveller;?
who frequent the countries where they are nu-
merous, light great fires in the night, and
beat drums, to prevent their approach. It is
said that when they have been once attacked
by men, or have fallen into a snare, they never
forget it, but seek for revenge on all occasions.
As they have a most exquisite sense of smell-
ing, perhaps more perfect than that of any
other animal, they smell a man at a great dis-
tance, and can easily follo.v him by the scent.
The ancients have asserted that the elephant
tears up the grass where the hunters have pass-
ed, and with their trunks convey it to each
other, in order to give information of (he pas-
sage and march of the enemy. These animals
are fond of the banks of rivers, deep valleys,
shady places, and marshy grounds. They
cannot go long without water, which they
niake thick and muddy before they drink it.

They

564 BtJFFON's

They often fill their trunks with water, either
to convey it to their mouths, or only to cool
their noses, and to amuse themselves in
sprinkling it around them. They cannot
support cold, and suffer equally from exf
cessivc heat; to avoid the burning rays of the
sun, they penetrate into the thickest recesses
of the forests. They bathe often in the water ;
the enormous size of their bodies is rather an
advantage to them in swimming, and they do
jiot sink so deep in the water as other animals ;
besides, the length of their trunks, which
tbey erect in the air, and through whiph they
})reathe, takes from them ^11 fear of being
drowned.

Their common food is roots, herbs, leaves,
and young branches ; they also eat fruit ancj
corn, but they have a dislike to flesh and fish,
When one of them finds a good pasture, h^
Cfills the others, and invites them to come and
feed with him. As they consume a great quan?
lity of fodder, they often change their place,
and.when they find culiivated lands they make
a prodigious waste ; tlieir bodies being of an
enormous weight, they destroy ten times more
with their feet, than they consume for their
food, which may be reckoned at 150lbs. of
grass daily ; and as they always keep in great
numbers together, they will lay waste a

large

NATURAL HISTORY. 965

large territory in an hour's time ; for this reason
the Indians and Negroes exert every means to
prevent their visits, and to drive them away ;
they make great noises, and large fires round
their cultivated lands ; yet, notwithstanding
these precautions, tjie elephants often take pos-
session of them, drive away the cattle and men,
and sometimes pull down their cottages. It is
difficult to frighten them, as they are little sus-
ceptible of fear ; the only things that can stop
their progress are fire-works, and crackers
thrown amongst them ; the sudden and repeated
noise of which sometimes occasions them to
turn back. It is very difficult to part them,
for they commonly act together whether they
attack, proceed, or turn back.
r When the females come in season this social
intercourse yields to a more lively sentiment ;
the herd separate in pairs, having each chosen
their mates ; they then seek for solitary places,
and in their march love seems to precede and
modesty to follow them ; for they observe the
greatest mystery in their amours, and they have
never been seen to couple. They avoid the
inspection of their own species, and, perhaps,
know better than ourselves the pure delight of
secret pleasure, being wholly taken with one
beloved object. They retire into shady woods
VOL, VII. Mm and

-6G buffon's

and most solitary places, to give themselves
up, without disturbance or restraint, to the im-
pulses of Nature, which are strong and lasting,
as they have long intervals between their sea-
sons of love. The female goes two years with
young ; when she is in that condition the male
abstains from her, and thus are they subjected
to the influence of love but once in three
years. They bring forth only one young,
which has teeth at its birth, and is then bigger
than a ^^ild boar; his tusks are not visible,
but they appear soon after, and when six
months old they are some inches long. At
that age the elephant is bigger than the ox,
and the tusks continue to increase till he is
much advanced in years, provided the animal
is in health, and at liberty, for it is scarcely
to be imagined how much slavery and un-
natural food change his natural habit and
constitution.

The elephant is easily tamed, brought into
submission, and instructed, and as he is the
strongest and most sensible of animals, he is
more serviceable than any of them; but he
seems always to feel his servile condition, for
though subject to the powerful impressions of
love they never couple, nor produce in a state
of domesticity. His j assion, irritated by con-
straint,

NATURAL HISTORY. 267

siraint, degenerates into fury; as be cannot in-
dulsre it without witnesses he becomes violent
and intractable, and (he strona^est chains and
fetters are of I en found necessary to stop his
impetuosity, and subdue his anger. Thus the
elephant differs from all domestic animals
which man treats or manages as beings without
will; he is not like these born slaves, which
we mutilate or multiply for our use. Here
the individual alone is a slave, the species re-
mains independent, and constantly refuses to
increase for the benefit of their tyrants. This
alone shews in the elephant elevated sentiments
superior to the nature of common brutes. To
be agitated by the most ardent desires, and to
deny themselves the satisfaction of enjoyiug
them ; to be subjected to all the fury of love,
and yet not to violate the laws of modesty, are,
perhaps, the highest efforts of human virtue,
but which in these majestic animals are all
suggested by inibtinct, and from which they
never deviate. Enraged tlint they cannot be
gratified without witnesses their fury becomes
stronger than their passion of love, destroys
the effects of it, and provokes, at the same
time, that anger which, in those instanis, ren-
ders the elephant more dangerous than any

other wild animal.

We

268 buffon's

We should be inclined to doubt this fact,
were it possible, but naturalists, historians,
and travellers, all agree, that the elephants ne-
ver produce in a domestic state. The kings
of India keep a great number of them, and
after having endeavoured in vain to make
them multiply, like other domestic animals,
they found it necessary to part the males from
the females, to prevent that fury which is
occasioned by the irritation of desires they
"will not satisfy in a state of subjection. There
are, therefore, no domestic elephants but what
have been wild, and the manner of taking,
taming, and bringing them into submission de-
serves particular attention. In the middle of
forests, and in the vicinity of the places fre-
quented by the elephants, a spot is chosen, and
encircled with palisadoes ; the strongest trees
of the forest serve for stakes, to which are
fastened cross pieces of timber, which support
ihe other stakes. A man may easily pass
through this palisado ; a large opening is
also left, through which the elephant may go
in, and over it is a trap, or large stake, which
is let down to shut the opening after the ani-
mal has entered. To bring him to this in-
closure tlie hunters take a tame female with
them into the forest, who is in season, and

• when

NATURAL HISTORY. 269

wlien they think she is near enough to be
heard they oblige her to make the cry of love,
the wikl male answers immediately, and begins
his march to meet her. She is then led to-
wards the inclosure, repeating her call now
and then; she arrives first, and the male
following her track enters through tlie same
gate. As soon as he perceives himself enclosed
his ardour vanishes, and when he discovers the
hunters he becomes furious ; they throw ropes
at him with a running knot, by which they
fetter his legs and trunk ; they then briiigtwo
or three tame elephants, led by dextrous men,
and endeavour to tie him to one of them ; in
short, by dint of dexterity, strength, terror,
and caresses, they succeed in taming him in a
few days.

I shall not enter into more particulars on
this subject, but refer to those travellers who
have been ocular vitne ses of the manner of
hunting the elephants;* it varies according

to

* For the purpose of hunting the elephant, they have at a
little distance from Luovo, a kind of amphitheatre, sur-
rounded with high walls, where those are placed who wish
to see the spoit. In the middle of these walls a palisade is
formed, with strong stakes fixed in (he ground; a pretty
large opening is left on the side next the forest, and a smaller
one towards the city, into which the elephant cannot enter
without difficulty. Upon the day fixed upon for the chace,
the hunters go into the forests upon some female elephants

covering

270 BUFFON*S

to different countries, and according' to the
power and the abilities of those who make war
against thera, for instead of erecting, like the
tings of Siara, walls, terraces, ox making pa-
lisades around large inclosures, the poor ne-
groes use the most simple snares; they dig
pits in the passages, where the elephanls are
known to pass, so deep as io prevent Iheir
getting out again when fallen in.
,. The elephant, when once tamed, becomes
the most tractable and submissive of all ani-
mals;

covering themselves with leaves to prevent being seen '
havrng- reason to suppose there are wild ones near, they
make the females utter certain cries, and which the wild
males instantly answer ; the hunter then drives the female
back to the above amphitheatre, whither the male con-
stantly follows her, and being entered the large opening is
immediately shut. At the one we were present, the females
went out on the other side, but from the smallness of the
size the wild one refused to enter ; the females repeated
their cries, and some of the Siamese began to irritate him,
by clapping their hands, and cty'mg _fat, pat, while others
struck him with long poles that had sharp points, all of
whom he pursued, but they escaped by slipping between
the palisades, sufficient spaces being left for that purpose ;
at length he fixed upon one whom he pursued with great
fury, and the man running Into this narrow passage
the elephant followed him, but the moment he entered,
the bars, before and behind, were let fall, and he no
sooner found himself in the snare than he made the
moat violent efforts, and raised the most hideous cries.
The hunters then endeavoured to sooth him by flinging
quantities of water upon his body and trunk, rubbing

hinj

NATURAL IirSTORY, 271

mals ; he conceives an affection for bis leader,
caresses him, and seems to foresee whatever
can please him ; in a little time he understands
signs, and even the expression of sounds; he
distinguishes the tones of command, anger, or
approbation, and acts accordingly. He never
mistakes the voice of his master ; be receives
his orders with attention, executes them with
prudenceand eagerne s, but without j)recipita-
tion, for his motions are always measured, and
his character seems to participate of the gravity
of his body. He is easily taught to bend his

knees

him with leaves, puttingoil on his ears, 'and bringinop
tame elephants, who seemed to caress him with their trunks,
one of which, properly trained,wasmountedbyaman wha
made him go backwards and forwards to shew as it were the
stranger that he had nothing to fear. Ropes were thrown
round his hind legs and body, and then the bar was taken
away from the father end, where being come he was tied to
two tame elephants one of each side of him these led him
the way while another pushed him behind with his head un-
til they came to a kind of shade where he was fastened to a
large post, like the capstan of a ship, and there left till the
next day. While here, one of the Bramins, or priests, dress-
ed in white, and mounted on another elephant, goes to him
and sprinkles him with consecrated water, which they im-
agine has the power of divesting him of his ferocity. Next
day he is marched off with the other elephants, and by the
end of the fifteenth, they are in general perfectly tame-
Premier Voyaw'; du P. Tachard,

In Ethiopia they take great num.bers of these animals by
forming an inclosure in the thickest parts of the .'irests*

leavin?

1^72 BUFFO n's

knees to assist tliose who ride on his back ; he
caresses his friends, salutes the persons he is
directed to t:\kenoticeof, lifts up burdens, and
helps to loid himsrlf with his trunk ; he has
no aversion to bein^ clothed, and seems to
delight in a goklm harness or ma>^nificent
trappings ; he is easily put into traces, and
often employed in drawing ; he draws evenly,
wiihoiit s'opping or any marks of dislike,
prov ided he is not i; suited by unseasonable cor-
rection, and that his driver seems to approve
the spontaneous exertion of his strength. His
conductor is mounted on his neck, and makes

use

leaving a sufficient opening.witha door lying flat on the
ground ; the hunters sit to watch for the elephant on a tree
and as soon as he enters they draw up the door with a rope,
then descend and attack him with arrows, bat if by any
chance he gets out of his confinement, he kills every man
that he can come near. L'Afrique de Marmol.

At Ceylon they take the elephant by digging deep ditches
lightly covering them over, in places frequented by these
animals, who coming on this covering in the night, una-
voidably fall in and are unable to get out again ; here tlie
slaves supply them with food, to whom they, in a short
time, are so accustomed, and familiar, as to be led up to Goa
perfectly tame They have also a mode of hunting them
with two tame females, whom they take into the forests, and
coming near a wild elephant, they let them loose; these go
up to the strange on.' on each side, press so closely against
him as to force him their way, and render it imposiible for
him to escape. Memoir es touchant Ics Ittdcs Oriaitales. Vo^a^es.
^e P. Fhilippe^ Tkevenot, \^c.

NATURAL HISTORY. 273

use of an iron rod, hooked at the end, with
which he strikes him on the head, or sides, to
make him turn, or increase his pace; but a
word is commonly sufficient, especially, if the
animal has had time to make himself well ac-
quainted with his conductor, and has a con-
fidence in him. His attachment is sometimes
so strong", and so lasting, and his affection so
great,, that he will refuse to serve a second
person, and has been known to die of grief
when in a fit of rage he has happened to de-
stroy his keeper.

The species of the elephant is numerous,
though they bring forth but one in two or
three years. In proportion to the shortness
of the life of an animal is its multiplicity of
production; and in the elephant the duration
of its existence compensates for the smallness
of its number; and if it be true that they live
200 years, and propagate until they are 120,
each couple may bring forth forty in that time.
Besides, having nothing to fear from other
animals, and being taken by men with great
difficulty and danger, tlie species has not de-
Creased, and is generally dispersed in all the
southern parts of Africa and Asia. They are
numerous at Ceylon, in the Mogul dominions,
in Bengal, Siam, Pegu, and the other terri-?
tories of India. They are perhaps, in a
VOL. VII. Nn greater

274 bttffonV

greater number in the South of Africa, ex*
copt some parts which they have abandoned,
since they have been so fully inhabited by men.
They are fiiithful to their country ,and constant
to their climate, for though they can live in
temperate regions it does not seem that they
ever attempted to settle, or even to travel
into them. They were formerly unknown in
Europe. It does not seem that Homer, who
speaks of the ivory, knew the animal from
whom it is obtained. Alexander was the first
who rode upon an elephant in Europe. He
sent into Greece those which he took at Porus,
and were, perhaps, the same which Pyrrhus
employed several years after ai^ainst the Ro-
mans, in the Tarentine war, and with which
Curius adorned his triumph into Rome. An-
nibal afterwards brought them from Africa,
made them pass the Alps, and led them al-
most to the gates of Rome.

From time immemorial the Indians have
made use of elephants in war. Among those
nations, unacquainted wih military discipline,
they formed their best troop, and as long as
battles were decided by iron weapons they
commonly vanquished. Yetwe learn by history
that the Greeks and Romans soon used them-
selves to those monbters of war; they opened

their

NATURAL HISTORY. 975

their ranks to let them go through ; they did
not attempt to wound them, but threw all
their darts against their leaders, who were
obliged to turn all their attention to the
elephant, when separated from their troops.
Now that fire is become the element of war, and
the principal instrument of death, elephants,
who are afraid of noise and flame, would be
ralher an incumbrance in battle, and more
dangerous tlian useful. The kings of India
still arm their elephants in war, but it is more
for shew than for real service ; yet they derive
from these animals the same Utility that arises
from an army which is to enslave their equals ;
they make use of them to subdue the wild
elephants. The most powerful monarchs of
the Indies have now above 200 elephants for
war. They keep many others for different
services, and to carry the large cages in which
their women iravel ; it is a perfectly s:>ife way
of travelling, for the elephant never stumbles;
but time is required to be used to the motions
of his pace. The best place is upon the neck^
as you there ride more easy than on tiie shoul-
ders or the back ; but in war, or hunting, se-
veral men ride the same elepliant : the con-
.ductor rides on his neck, and ihe hunters, or
warriors, are placed on other parts of his body.
Jn those happy regions, where our cannon

and

275 buffon's

and our murdering arts are yet scarcely known,
they figlit still upon elephants. At Cochin,
and in the other parts of Malabar, they make
no use of horses, and all those who do not fight
on foot are mounted upon elephants. In Ton-
quin, Siam, and Peg a, the king, and all the
grandees, ride on nothing but elephants ; on
festival days they are preceded and followed
by a great number of these animals, superbly
caparisoned, and covered \Nith the richest
stuffs. They surround their tusks with gold
and silver rings ; they paint their ears and
cheeks ; they crown them with garlands, and
their harness is ornamented with liUle bells;
they seem to delight in magnificent attire, and
the more their tra pings are rich and splendid
the more they are cheerful and caressing. It
is only in the East Indies that the elephants
are so far improved, for in Africa they can
scarcely tame ihem. The Asiatics, anciently
civilized, have reduced the education of
the elephant into a system, and they have in-
structed and modified him according to their
manners. But of all the Africans the Cartha-
ginians were the only people who trained up
the elephants to war, because at the time of
the splendor of their commonwealth they were,
perhaps, more civilized than any other of the

eastern

NATURAL HISTORY. 277

eastern nations. At present no wild elephants
are found in all that part of Africa on ihis
side Mount Alias ; there are even few beyond
lliose mountains, as far as tlie river Senegal.
But they are numerous in Senegal, in Guinea,
in Congo, and on the Teeth Coast, in the
countries of An<o, Acra, Benin, and uU the
other southern parts of Africa, as fur as the
Cape of Gond Hope, except some provinces
very pr>pul)U«, such as Fida, Ardra, &c.
They are al.-o f und in Abyssinia, in Ethiopia,
in Nigritia, on the eastern coast, and in the
inland parts of Africa. Tiiey are also in the
great islands of India and Africa, such as
Madagascar, Java, and the Philippines.

After comparing the rehtions of travellers
and historians it seems that elephants are actu-
ally more numerous in Africa th in in Asia ;
they are there aUo less mistrustful, and not so
shy, as if they knew ihe unsUifulness and the
little power of the men who inhabit this part
of the world ; they come d;uly without fear to
their habitaUon«, and treat the negroes with
that natural and scornful i!idiff<>rence they
have for other aniinals ; they do not consider
those men as pow rful and formidable beings,
but as a species wliose skill consists in Jaying
snarcS;without having the courage to encounter

them,

S78 buffon's

them, and absolutely ignorant of the art of re-
ducing them into subjection. It is by this art
known, from the earliest limes, to the eastern
nations, that their species is diminished. The
wild elephants, which they tame, become by
their captivity, like so many voluntary eu-
nuchs, which daily drain the source of gene-
ration ; but, on the contrary, in Africa, where
they are all free, the whole species propngate,
and all tlic individuals constantly concur to
ifs increase. I do not know any other cause
for this difference in their numbers, for, in
considerinir the other effects, it seems the south
of India, and the east of Africa, are the natu-
ral countries, and the most suitable to the ele-
phant. He is there much larger and stronger
than in Guij)ea, or in the other western parts
of Africa. He fears excessive heat, and never
inhabits the burning sands ; he is most fre-
quently found on the flat countries near tlie
rivers, and never on the hilly parts of Africa ;
but in India the most powerful and the most
courageous of the species, and who have the
strongest and longest tusks, are the elephants
of the mountains; tliey inhabit the high
grounds, where the air being more temperate,
the water more pure, and the food more
wholesome, they gradually arrive to the full
perfection of their nature. In,

NATURAL HISTORY. 279

In general (he elephants of Asia are larger
and superior in strength, lo those of Africa ;
particularljf those of Ceylon, which exceed in
courage and sugL\city even those of Asia. Pro-
bably they owe these qualifications to their
more improved education ; it is, however, cer-
tain, that all travellers have celebrated the ele-
phants of this island, where the ground is in-
terspersed with mountains, which rise gradual-
ly towards the centre, and where the heat is
not so excessive as in Senegal, Guinea, and
otlier western parts of Africa. The ancients,
who knew no more of this part of the world,
but the countries seated between Mount Atlas
and the Mediterranean, had observed, that the
elephants of Lybia were much smaller than,
those of India. There are not any elephants
at this time, in that part of Africa, which
proves, as mentioned in the article of the Lion,
that men are more numerous there how than
they were in the ages of Carthage. The ele-
phants liave retired in proportion as men have
molested them ; but in travelling througli the
climates of Africa, they have not changed their
nature ; for those of Senegal, Guinea, &c. are
at this time smaller than those of India.

The strength of lliese animals is proportion-
ate to their bigness. The elephants of India

carry

280 buiton's

carry with case burdens of three or four thou-
sand pounds weight ; the smallest, that is, those"
of xifrica, lift up freely with their trunks, bur-
dens of two hundredweight, and place them
on their shoulders; thej take into their trunks
a great quantity of water, which they throw
out around them, at seven or eight feet distance;
they can carry a weight of a thousand pounds
upon their tusks ; with their trunks they break
off branches, and with their tusks they root
out trees, 'i'heir strength may be judged of
by their agility, comparatively to the bulk of
their bodies; they walk as fast as a horse goes
on an easy trot ; and they run as fast as a horse
can gallop; which seldom happens in their
wild state, except when they are provoked or
frightened. The tame elephants are commonly
walked; they travel easily, and without fa-
tigue, fifteen or twenty leagues a day ; and,
when hurried, they can travel thirty-five or
forty. Their steps are heard at a great dis-
tance, and they may be followed by their tracks,
for the marks they leave on the ground are
fifteen or eighteen inches in diameter.

A domestic elephant does, perhaps, to his
master more real service than five or six horses ;
but he requires much care and abundance of
good food ; it is computed that he consumes to

the

NATURAL HISTORY. 281

tht amount of an bundled pence per day. He is
commonly fed with raw or boiled rice mixed
•with water ; and it is reckoned he wants one
hundred pounds of rice daily to be kept in his
full vigour ; they give him also grass to cool
him, for lie is often over- heated, and must be
led to the water that he may bathe two or three
limes a day; he easily leaf:i& to wash himself;
he takes the water up in his trunk, carries it to
his mouth, drinks part, and thv'^n by elevating
his trunk, le & the remainder flow over every
part of his body. To give an idea of the ser-
vices he is able to perform, it is sufficient to
observe, .that all the bags^ bales, and parcels,
which are transported from one place to ano-
ther in the Indies, are carried by elephants ;
that they carry burdens on their Ijodics, their
necks, their tasks, and even with their mouths,
by giving them the end of a rope which they
hold with their teeth.

When the elephant is taken care of he lives
a long time even in captivity; and it is to be
presumed, that in a state of liberty his life is
still longer. Some authors say he lives four
or five hundred years; other^?, two or three
hundred ; and others^ one hundred and twenty,
thirty, and even one hundred and fifiy years,
i take this last opinion to be the nearest to the
TOL. vii* O o trulh ;

282 buffon's

truth ; and if it is certain, that captive elephants
live one hundred and twenty or thirty years ;
those who are free, and enjoy all the conveni-
ences and rights of Nature, must live at least
two hundred; besides, if their gestation lasts
two years, and thirty years are required to
bring them to their full growth, we may be
assured that their life extends to the term we
have mentioned. It is not so much the capti-
vity, as the change of climate which shortens
their existence : whatever care is taken of the
elephant, he does not live long in temperate,
and still shorter ia cold climates. The ele-
phant which the Kingof Portug il sent to Louis
XIV. in J 668, and who was then but four
years old, died in his seventeenth, in January
1681, and lived only thirteen years in the me-
nagerie of Versailles, where he was trea<ed
with care and tenderness, and fed with profu-
sion ; he had every day four score pounds of
bread, twelve pints of wine, two buckets of
porridge, with four or five pounds of bread in
it, the last was changed every other day for
two buckets of rice boiled in water, without
reckoning what was given him by visitors.
He had, besides, every day a ^heaf of corn to
amuse himself; for, after eating the ears, he
made large whisps of the straw, and used them

to

NATURAL HISTORY. 283

to drive away the flies. He delighted in break-
ing the straw in small bits, which he did with
great dexterity with his trunk ; and as he was
led to walk daily, he pulled and eat the grass.
The elephant who was lately at Naples, though
the heat is greater than at Paris, lived there
but a few years. Those which have been
transported to Petersburgh perished succes-
sively, notwithstanding they were well shelter-
ed, covered, and warmed with stoves ; conse-
quently, we may conclude, that this animal
cannot live in a state of nature, nor multiply
in Europe. But I am surprised that the Por-
tuguese, who first knew the use and value of
these animals in the East Indies, did not trans-
port them into the warm climate of Brasil,
where they might have propagated, if left at
liberty.

The common colour of the elephant is of
ash grey, or blackish. White ones, as we have
observed, are extremely scarce : and some have
been seen in the Indies of a reddish colour ;
these and the white are much esteemed ; but
these varieties are so scarce, that they cannot
be considered as a race distinct from the spe-
cies, but rather as accidental qualities peculiar
to individuals ; for otherwise, the countries of
the white, red, and black elephants would be
known, as well as the climates of white, red,

and

284 buffon's

pnd black men, and those of a copper colour*
" Elephants of three difierent sorls are found
in the Indies ; (says Father Vincent Marie) the
^vhite, wliich are the largest, most firentle, and
of the best temj^er, are worshipped as gods by
several nations ; the red, such as those of Cey-
lon, though the smallest, are the most valiant,
the strongest, and best for war, and the other
elephanls, either from natural inclination, or
perceiving in them somelhing superior, shew
them a great respect; the third species, is that
of the black, which are the most common, and
the least esteemed." This author is the only
one who has intimated that Ceylon was the pe-
culiar climate of red elephants ; Other travel*-
lers make no mention of such a fact. He also
affirms, that the elephants of Ceylon arc small-
er than the others. Thevenot says the same
tiling in his voyage, but others assert the con-
trary. Father Vincent Marie aLo, is the only
author who has said the while elephants are
the largest. Father Tachard assures us on the
contrary, that the white elephant of the king
Siam was rather small, though very old.
After comparing the relations of travellers, in
regard to the size of elephants in different
countries, it seems, that the smallest are those
of North and West Africa, and that the an-
cients, who only knew the northern part of

Africa,

NATURAL HISTORY. 28i>

Africa, had j^oine reason to say that, in general,
the elephants of the Indies were much hirgcr
than those of Africa. But in the eastern parts
of this quarter of the world, unknown to them,
the elephants are at least as large as those of
India ; for those of Siam and Pegu excel in
bulk the elephants of Ceylon ; which, howe ver,
are the most courageous and intelligent, ac-
cording to the unanimous opinion of travellers.
Having thus collected the difierent facts re-
lative to the species, let us now examine mi-
nutely the fiicultics of the individual; his
senses, motion, size, strength, address, sagacity,
and intelligence. The elephant has very small
eyes, compared to the enormous size of his
body, but they are bright and lively ; and
what distinguishes them from the eyes of all
other animals, is their paihetic expression of
seniiment, and an almost rational direction of
all their motions. He turns them slowly and
gently towards his master, and when he speaks,
the animal has the appearance of listening to
him with an eye of friendship and attention,
and by an expressive glance seems to penetrate
into his wishes, and anticipate his desires. He
seems to reflect, to think, and to deliberate,
and never acts till he has examined and ob-
served several times, without passion or pre-
cipitation,

2S6 BUFFO n's

cipKation, the signs of which he is to obey.
Doi^s, the eyes of which have rauch expression,
are anim «ls too lively to allow us to distin-
guish their successive sensations ; but as the
elephant is naturally grave and sedate, we
may read in his eyes, who^e motions are slow,
the order and succession of his interior af-
fections.

He has a qnick hearing, and this organ,
like that of smelling, is outwardly more mark-
ed in he elephant than in any other animal.
His ears are very large, even in proportion to
his body ; they are flat, and close t ) the head,
like thoic of a man; they commonly hang
down, but he raises and moves them with such
facility that he makes use of them to defend
his eyes against the inconveniency of dust and
flies. He delisrlitsin the sound ofmnsical in-
struments, and moves in exact time to the
sound of the trumpet and tabor. He has an
exquisite sense of smelling, and he is passion-
ately fond of perfumes of all sorts, and espe-
cially of fragrant flowers ; he gathers them one
by one, makes nosegays of them, which he
smells with eagerness, and then carries to his
mouth, as if he intended to taste them.
Orange flowers are one of his most exquisite
dainties 3 he strips with his trunk an orange

tree

NATURAL HISTORY. 2S7

tree of all its verdure, eating the feu it, the
flowers, the leaves, and even tlie young
branches. He chuses in meadows odoriferous
plants, and in the woods he gives the prefer-
e ce to cocoa, palm, and sago trees, and as
these trees are pithy and tender he not only
cats the leaves and fruits but even the branches,
the trunk, and the roots, for when he cannot
break tlie branches with his trunk, he roots up
the trees with his tusks.

In reffard to the sense of feeling, it centres in
his trunk ; but it is as delicate and as distinct
in that as in the human hand. This trunk,
composed of membranes, nerves, and muscles,
is, at the same time, a member capable of mo-
tion, and an organ of sentiment. The animal
can not only move and bend it, but he can
shorten, lengthen, and turn it ail ways. The
extremity of the trunk is terminated by a pro-
tuberance, which projects on the upper part
like a finger, by which the elepliant does the
same as we do with our fingers; he pcks up
from the ground the smallest pieces of money ;
he gathers herbs and flowers, chusing them
one after another; he unties knots, opens and
shuts doors, by turning the keys or slipping
the bolts : he learns to draw regular characters
with an instrument as small as a pen. We

cannot

288 buffon's

cannot even deny that lliis hand of the elephant
has several advantages over ours : it is equally
flexible and as dexterous in feeling or laying
hold of objects. These operations are made
by means of that sort of finger, seated at the
superior part of the border, which surrounds
tile extremity of the trunk, in the middle of
"which there is a corcavily, in the form of a
cup, and at tlie bottom of it are the two aper-
tures, which convey the sense of smelling and
respiration. The elephant, consequently,
unites in his trunk both the senses of feeling
and smelling ; and he may join the power of
bis lungs to the action of his hand, cither
drawing liquids by suction, or lifting up very
heavy burdens^ by applying the extremity of
his trunk, and making within an empty place
by respiration.

Thus the delicacy of feeling, exquisiteness
of smelling, facility of motion, and the power
of suction, are united in the tru;ik of the ele-
phant. Of all the instruments which Nature
has so liberally bestowed on her favourite pro-
ductions, the trunk of iheelephant is, perhaps,
the most complete add the most admirable ; it
is not only an organic instrument, but a triple
sense, whose united functions are, at the same
time, the cause, and produce ihectlbct of that

intelligence,

NAtunAL HIStORY* 289

Intelligence, and of those peculiar faculties
tvhich distinguish the elephant, and raise him
above all other quadrupeds. He is less subject
than other animals to errors of sight, because
he rectifies them quickly by the sense of feel-
ing ; and making use of his trunk as a long
arm to feel distant bodies, he acquires, like
men, distinct ideas of distance. But other
animals (except the monkey, and some others,
who have the fore feet similar to arms and
hands) cannot acquire the same ideas without
running over that space with their bodies^
Peeling is, of all the senses, that which has the
most relation to knowledge. The delicacy of
feeling gives the idea of the substance of th«
bodies; the flexibility of the trunk gives the
idea of their exterior form ; the power of sue*
tion, that of their weight; smelling, that of
their qualities ; and its length, that of their
distance. They, therefore, with the same
member, and by one simultaneous act, feel,
perceive, and judge of divers things at once.
His multiplied sensations are equivalent to re*
flection; and though this animal is, like others,
incapable of thinking, as his sensations are
combined in the same organ, are coeval and
undivided, it is not surprising that he has
ideas of hia own, and that he acquires in a
toL. VII. P p little

^90 BUFFO n'^S

little time those we inculcate to him. His re-
membrance should be more perfect than that
of any odier animal, for memory only depends
chiefly on the circumstances of action ; and
no sensation, however lively, can leave a last-
ing impression, when single and abstractedly
taken ; but several combined sensations leave
deep impressions, so that if the elephant can-
not recal an idea by feeling alone, the sensar
lions of smelling and suction, which act at the
same time, help him in recalling them to re-
membrance. With us the best method to im-
prove the memory is to make use successively
of all our senses to consider an object ; and it
is for want of that combined use of the senses
that man forgets more things than he can re-
collect.

Although the elephant has a more retentive
memory, and more intelligence tlian any other
animal, his brain is proportionally smaller
than most of them, which I only mention as a
proof that the brain is not the seat of senti-
ment, the sensorium commune^ which resides,
on the contrary, in the nerves of the senses,
and in the membranes of the head, which are
so numerously distributed on the trunk of the
elephant, as to be equal to all those on the rest
of the body. It is, therefore, by virtue of

this

NATURAL HISTORY. 291

tliis singular combination of faculties in the
k-unk, that this animal is superior to all others
in intelligence, notwithstanding his enormous
size, and the disproportion of his form; for
the elephant is, at the same time, a miracle
©I intelligence, and a monster of matter. His
body is very thick, without any suppleness ;
his neck short and stiff, his head small and
deformed, his ears and nose exceedingly large ;
liis eyes, mouth, genital members, and tail,
very small in proportion ; his legs are like
massive pillars, straight and stiff; his feet so
short and small, that they are hardly percep-
tible, and his skin hard, thick, and callous ;
all these deformities are more remarkable,
from being exhibited on a large scale, and
most of them being peculiar to himself alone,
no other animal having eitlier the head, feet,
nose, ears, or tusks, placed like those of the
elephant.

From this singular conformation he suffers
several inconveniences; he can scarcely move
his head, or turn back without making a cir-
cuit. The hunters who attack him behind,
or on the flanks, avoid the effects of his ven-
<reance by circular motions, and they have
sufficient time to strike him again whilst he
is turning against them. His legs, which are
not so stiff as his neck and body, yet bend

very

292 buffon's

very slowly, and witli difficulty ; their articu*
lation with the thighs is very strong. His
knee is situated like that of a man, and his
feet as low ; but his foot has no strength nor
elastic power, and the knee is hard, without
suppleness ; yet whilst the elephant is in his
youth and vigour, he bends it to lay down, to
let himself be loaded, or to help his leaders to
mount him ; but when he is old or infirm,
this motion becomes so difficult that he sleeps
standing ; and, if he is compelled to lay down,
the use of engines are necessary to raise him.
His tusks, which become of an enormous
weight when he grows old, not being seated
n a vertical position, as the horns of other
animals, form two long levers, and being in
an almost horizontal direction, fatigue his head
prodigiously, and draw it downwards, so that
the animal is sometimes obliged to make holes
in the wall of his lodge to support them, and
ease himself of their weight. He has the dis»
advantage of having the organ of smelling far
distant from that of tasting ; and likewise the
Inconvenience of not being able to seize any
thing on the ground with his mou'h, because
his neck is too short to let his head reach
the earth ; he is forced, therefore, to take
his food, and even his drink with his nose;
^nd to carr^ it not only to the entrance of his

inouth)

NATURAL HISTORY. 29S

mouth, but to liis very throat ; and when his
trunk is full of water, he thrusts the extre-
mity of it to the very root of the tongue, pro-
bably to pusli back the epiglottis, and to pre-
vent the liquor which passes through with im-
petuosity, from entering into the larynx ; for
he thrusts out the water by the strength of the
same air which he had employed to suck it up,
and it goes out of the trunk with noise, and
enters into the throat with precipitation. Nei?-
Iher the tongue, the mouth, nor the lips, are of
any service to him, as to other animals, in suck-
ing or lapping their drink. From this descrip-
tion seems to result the singular consequence,
that the young elephant must suck with his
nose, and afterwards carry the milk to his throat.
Yet the ancients have written that he sucks with
the mouth, and not with thet runk ; but they were
not, probably, witnesses of the fact, and have
founded their opinion on the analogy with all
other animals. If the young elephant had once
been used to suck with his mouth, how could
he lose that habit the remainder of his life ?
Why does he never use the mouth to take wa-
ter within his reach? Why does he constantly
em ply two actions, where one would be suffi-
^ieni ? Why does he never take any thing with
}iis mouth, but what is thrown in when it is

open?

294 BUFFO n's

open ? It appears probable, (herefarc, that (he
young elephant "SMcks with his trunk only.
This prcsunaption is n<t ofily proved by the
subsequent facts, Init is also founcied on a better
analogy than that which decided the opinion
«f (he ancients. We have said, that animals in
general, at the instant they are brought forth,
can hare no indication of the food they want,
from any other sense but tiiat of smelling: the
ear is certainly of no n: c in that resi^ect ; nei-
ther is the eyCy since the eyes of most animals
are not open when they begin to suck: feeliiig
can give hut a vague idea of all tlie parts of the
mother's body, or rather indicates nothing re-
lative to the appetite. Smelling alone directs
him : it is not only a soit of taste, but a species
of fore-taste, which precedes, accompanies,
and determines the other. The elephant, like
other animals, perceives by this fore-taste the
presence of his food ; and as the seat of smell-
ing is united with the power of suction at the
extremity of his trunk, he applies it to the
teats, sucks the milk, and conveys it afterwards
to his mouth to satisfy his appetite. Besides,
the two paps being seated on the breast, like
those of women, and the teats being very small
in proportion to the size of the mouth of the
young- elephant, who cannot bend his neck,
he conldnot reach the teat of his mollier with

his

JTATURAL HISTORY. ^95

Ills mouth, unless slie laid upon her bacli:, or on
her side, and even in that sitiuition he would
find it very diHicult to suck her, on account
of the hugeness of the mouth, and the small-
ness of ihe nipples, 'l he margin of the trunk,
which the elephant contracts as mucli as he
pleases, is easily proportioned to thenipple, and
the young elephant may suck his mother with
it, either when she stands^ or lies on her side.
Thus, every thing agrees to confute the opi-
nion of the aucierits on this subject, for none
of them, n<» even any of the moderns,, {retend
to have seen the elepliant sucking, and I think,
I may affirm, that whenever that obseryatioft
is made, it will appear, that he does not stick
with his mouth, but with his trunk, 1 like-
wise believe, that the ancients have been mis-
taken in telling us, that elephants couple like
other quadrupeds, the po.sition of the parts
seeming to make it almost impossible. The
female has not, like other quadrupeds, the ori-
iice of the vagina near the anus, being near
three feet distance from it, and seated almost
in the middle of the belly. Besides, naturalists
and travellers agree tliat the male eh^phant
has not the genital member longer than a horse,
and therefore it is impossible for them to co-
pulate like other quadrupeds, and that the fe-
male must necessarily lie on her back, and

wLicli

2^6 BtJFFON*S

"which De Feynes and Tavernicr positively'
affirm mast be the fact, thotigh I should not
pay much attention to their testimony were it
not in conformity with the physical conforma-»
tion; they require, therefore, for this ope-
ration, more time and conveniences, than
other animals ; and it is, perhaps, for this rea^
son they never couj3le, but when at full liberty*
The female must not only consent, but even
place herself in an indecent situation, to pro*
voke the male, which probably, she never as-
sumes but when she thinks herself without
witnesses. Is not modesty then a physical
virtue of which animals are stisceptible ? It is
at least like softness^ moderation, temperance,
a general attribute of the female sex.

Thus the elephant neither sucks, eats, or
drinks, like other quadrupeds. The sound of
Lis Voice is also very singular. If we believe
the ancients, he has, as it were, two voices : the
one issuing from the trunk, which is rough, and
from the length of the passage is somewhat
like that of a trumpet ; and the other coming
from his mouth, which is interrupted by short
pauses and hard sighs. This fact, advanced by
Aristotle and afterwards repeated by natural-
ists and sortie travellers, is at least doubtful.
M. de Bussy affirms positively,! hat the elephant
does not utter any sounds through the trunk j yet

a»

NATURAL HISTORY. 297

as in sliudinfi: the mouth close, man can make
a sound tIirou<;h the nose, it is poNsible that the
elephant, with so long a nojsC may issue sounds
in (he same manner. From wherever it pro-
ceeds, the crj of Ihe elephant is beard at m')re
than a league's distance; and yet, it is not so
terrifying as the roaring of the lion or the
tiger.

The elephant is yet more singular in the
conformation of his feet, and the texture of
his skin. He is not clothed with hair like
other quadrupeds, hut his skin is perfectly bare;
some bristles issue out in different parts, they
are thinly scattered on the body, but more thick
on the eye-lids, on the back part of the head,
within the ears, the Ihighs, and the legs. The
epidermis has two sorts of wrinkles, which are
hard and callous, some sinking, others pro-
minent, which gives a divided appearance,
like the bark of an old oak. In man, and in
other animals, the epidermis sticks every wliere
close to the skin, but in the elephant, it i^ only
fastened by some points, like two quilted stuffs
one above the o'her. This epidermis is natu-
rally dry, and soon acquires three or four lines
of thickness, by the divers crusts, which are
regenerated one above the other, drying up.
It is this thickness of the epidermis which
VOL. vii* Q q produces

|)roduces the elephantiasis ^ or dry leprosy,
to which man, whose skin is bare like that of
the elephant, is sometimes subject. This dis-^
temper is very common to elephants, and ta
prevent it the Indians rub them often with oil,
to preserve the skin clean and supple. It is
very tender wherever it is not callous ; in the
fissures, and other places, where it is neither
dry nor hard, the elephant is so sensible of the
sting of the flies, that he not only employs his
natural motions, but even the resources of his
intelligence to get rid of them. He makes use
of his tail, ears, and trunk, to strike them ; he
contracts his skin and squeezes them to death
betwixt his wrinkles ; he takes branches of
trees, boughs, and handfuls of straw, to drive
them away, and when all this does not answer
the purpose, he gathers dust with his trunk,
and covers with it all the tender parts of his
body. He often covers himself wilh dust se-
veral times in a day, particularly after bathing.
The use of water is almost as necessary to
these animals as air. When at liberty they
seldom leave the banks of rivers, but often go
into them, and remain for hours together up to
the belly. In India, where they are treated
most suitable to their nature and constitution,
they wash them with care, and give them all

thA

NATUfeAL HISTORY. 299

tlie necessary time and opportunity to wash
themselves. They clean their skins by rubbing
it with pumice-sfones, and afterwards they
pour on them perfumed oil, and paint them
with various colours.

The conformation of the elephant's feet and
legs is also different from that of other ani-
mals ; the fore legs seem to be higher than
those behind, yet the hind legs are the longest;
they are not bent in two places, like the hind
legs of a horse, or an ox, the thigh-bones of
which seem to be of the same piece with the
buttock, the knee very near the belly, and
the bones of the foot so high and so long that
they seem to make a great part of the leg ; in
the elephant, on the contrary, the foot is very
short, and rests on the ground ; he has the
knee like man, in the middle of the leg ; his
short foot is divided into five toes, which are
all covered with a skin, so as not to appear
outwardly ; we are only able to perceive a
kind of nails, the number of which varies,
though that of the toes is constant, for he has
always five toes to each foot, and commonly
five nails, but sometimes he has no more than
four, or even three, and in this case they do
»ot correspond exactly with the extremities of

the

SOO BUFFO n's

the toes. However, this variety, "v\hich has
only been observed in young elephants trans-
ported to Europe, seems to be merely acci-
dental, and depends, probably on the treat-
ment the elephant has received in his youth.
The sole of the feet is covered with a skin, as
hard as the hoof, which projects all round ;
the nails are formed of the same substance.

The ears of the elephant are very long ; he
makes use of them as a fan, and moves them
as he pleases: his tail is not longer than his
ears, being commonly near three feet in length ;
it is rather thin, sharp, and garnished at the
extremity with a tuft of large black, shining,
and solid bristles ; these bris les are as big and
as strong as wire, and a man cannot break them
by pulling with his hands, though they are
elastic and pliant. This tuft of hair is an
ornament which the negro women are parti-
cularly partial to, from superstitious notions.
An elephant's tail is sometimes sold for two or
three slaves, and the negroes often hazard their
lives to cut and snatch it from the living ani-
mal. Besides this tuft at the extremity, the tail
is covered throughout with hard bristles, big-
ger than those of a wild boar; some are also
found on the coiivex part of the trunk; and

on

NATURAL HISTORY. SOI

on ihe eye-brows, wliero they sometimes are a
foot ill length. The hiirs on the eye-lids are
peculiar to men, monkeys, and ele^:hants.

The climate, food, and condition, have great
influence on the growth and size of the ele-
phant. In general those who are taken
young, and early lose their liberty, never come
to their full growth. The biggest elephants
of India, and the eastern coasts of Africa, are
fourteen feet high ; the smallest, which are
found in Senegal, and in tlie other western
parts of Africa, are not above ten or eleven
feet ; and those which are brought young into
Europe acquire not that height. That which
■was in the menagerie of Versailles, which
came from Congo, was but seven ket and a
half high, in his seventeenth year. During
thirteen years that he lived in France he did
not grow above a foot, so that at the age of
four, when he was sent he was only six feet
and a half high, and as the growth gradually
diminishes as animals advance in jcars, if he
had lived thirty years, which is the ordinary
term of their full growth, he would not have
been more than eight feet high. Thus a
domestic state reduces the growth of the ani-
mal at iea>t one third, not only in height but
in all other dimensions. Tiie lefl«rth of the

body,

S02 BUFFO N*S

body, measured from the eye <o the tail, is verj
near equal to his height; an elephant of the
Indies, therefore, of fourteen feetliigh, is sevea
times bigger and heavier than was the elephant
of Versailles. In comparing the growth of
this animal with that of man we shall find,
that an infant, being commonly thirty-one
inches, that is half his height when he is two
years old, and coming to his full growth at
twenty, the elephant, who increases in height
and bulk to his thirtieth year, should come
to half hia height in three years. In the same
manner, if we judge of the enormity of the
bulk of the elephant, it will be found, that
the volume of a man's body being supposed to
be two cubic feet and a half, the body of an
elephant of fourteen feet in length, allowing
him only three feet in thickness, av.d of a
middling breadth, would be fifty times as big,
and, consequently, an elephant ought to weigh
as much as fifty men.

'' I have seen (says father Vincent Marie)
some elephants who were fourteen or fifteen
,feet high, long and thick in proportion. The
male is always larger than the female. The
price of tliese animals increases in proportion
to their size, which is measured from the eye
to the extremity of the back, and after exceed-

inar

NATURAL HISTORY. 505

ing certain dimensions, the price increases like
that of precious stones."

*' The elephants of Guinea (says Bosman)
areteuy twelve, or thirteen feet in height, and
yet they are incomparably smaller than those of
the East Indies, since those who have written
the history of that country, give to those more
cubits in heiglit, than the others have feet."

" I have seen elephants thirteen feet high,
(says Edward Terry) and I have met with
many, who affirmed they have seen elephants
fifteen feet hiffh*."

From these, and many other attestations, we
may conclude, that the most common size of
the elephant is from ten to eleven feet ; that
those of thirteen or fourteen feet are very scarce,
and that the smallest are at least nine feethicfli
when they come to their full growth in a state
of liberty. These enomous lumps of matter,
as we have observed, move with much celerity ;
they are supported by four members, which are
more like pillars 5 or massive columns, than legs,
and are from fifteen to eighteen inches in dia-
meter, and five or six feet in height; their legs
are therefore twice as long as those of a man ;

thus,.

• These authors probably referred to dlfFerent measures,
the first meaning Roman, the second Rlienishj and the last
Eno;Ush feet^

50i BUFFON^S

thus, tliougli the elephant took but one step td
a man's two, he wouIJ overtake him in run-
ning. The common pace of the elephant is not
swifter than that of the horse; but when he is
pressed, he goes a sort of amble, equivalent for
quickness to a gallop. He executes with s^^eed,
and even with ease, all direct motion ; but he
has no ficili'y for oblique or retrograde mo-
tions. It is commonly in narrow and deep
roads, where he can hardly turn, that the ne-
groes attack him, and cut off his tail, which
they value as much as the whole animal. He
cannot godown a steep declivity without much
difficulty, he is then obliged to bend the hind
legs, in order to keep the fore part of his body
on a level with the hind, and ihai his own
•weight may not throw him down. He swims
well, though the form of his legs and feet seem
to indicate the contrary ; but as the capacity of
his breast and belly is very large, as the volume
of the lungs and intestines is enormous, and as
those parts are full of air, or matter lighter than
water, he sinks less deep than any other ani-
mal ; he finds less resistance to overcome, and^
consequently, can swim faster in making less
efforts with his limbs. Tlius, he is very
useful for crossing rivers ; besides two field-
picces; each of ihcm four-pounders, with

whicli*

NATURAL HISTORY. 305

wliicti he is loaded on these occasions, he car-
ries heavy baggage, and several persons hold-
ing him by the ears and tail. When thus
loaded, he swims deep in the water, and no-
thing is seen but his trunk, which he keeps
erect to enable him to breathe.

Though the elephant commonly feeds on
herbs and young branches, and requires pro-
digious quantities of these aliments, to extract
from them the nutrition necessary to such a
body, yet he has not many stomachs, like most
animals who feed on tlie same substances. He
has but one stomach, does not ruminate, and
is formed more like the horse than the ox, or
other ruminating animals. The want of a
paunch is supplied by the bigness and length
of his intestines, and especially of the colon,
which is two or three feet in diameter, and fif-
teen or twenty in length. The stomach is
much smaller than the colon, being but four
feet, at the most, in length, and a foot and a
half in diameter. To fill such a capacious-
ness, the animal must eat almost continually,
especially when he has no food more substan-
tial than herbage ; therefore the wild elephants
are almost always employed in grubbing up
trees, gathering herbs, or breaking young
boughs ; and those that are tame, though fed
VOL. VII. R r with

30& BVErojj'&

with gieat quaatities of rice, pluick up lierbi^
whenever they fiad an crppoartunity . How-^
ever great the appetite of tlie elepb^nt,^ b^ eat&
with moderation, and his taste for Clea.nli|iies$(
gets the belter of his wants. Jlis de^terit^ ift
parting, with his trunk, the good leaves frona.
the bad,,aRd the care betakes to shake olf the^
saj>d or insects^ are eonvinciu^ n^rks of bin,
di^icctej. He i$ very foad of wine, spirituous
liquors, brandy, a^nd arraiCk. He^ is prevailed
uppa to exert his greatest efforts, and ta uu*
dertake the most arduous task, by shewing
]|iiu a vesisel full of these liquofs, and promis*
i^^ it tq biu\ ais thse reward oi kis kboui&t-
He seems also to like the smoke of tobacco^
Iwt it stupifies and intoxicates him^: he has x
natufaj ^v«r»ioH to bg-d smells^ and such an
autipathy lor hogs;, that the cry of that ani«
npial dkordors %ud puts him to flight.

Tp give a complete idea of the nature and
intelligence of this singular animal, I shall in-*
sert he^e some ps^rticulars communicated to
me by the MatCquis de MoaJtmirail, President
of thie Hoy al Academy of Sciences, who has
taken the trouble to translate from some Italian
aoid Gecu^aii books, whjbch were uot known to
rae, whatever rebates to the history of the ant*
iQal ^e^tiou. Uh tsk3t«> iQt dits and. scioo^es^

NATURAt. HISTORY. SOt

his fceal fot llie advancement of llieta^ bis ex-
quisite judgment, and a very extensive know-
ledge of all the parts of Natural History, enti-
tle him to the greatest respect, and it is \?itli
pleasure and gratitude I refer to the informa-
tion he has given me, and whieh I shall havie
frequent occasion to refer to in the subseqtrent
part of this work: — *' They make use of the
elephant to carry artillery over mountains ;
and it is then that he gives the greatest proofs
t)f his inteliigence : when the oxen, yoked toge-
thet, endeavour to draw a piece of artillery up
a nrountain, the elephant pushes the breech of
the cannon with hiis forehead, and at every
effort he supports the carriage with his knee,
X^hich he places against the wheel. He seems
as if he understood what is said to him.
When his deader employs hirn in some hard
labour, he explains what is his work, and the
teasons which ought to engage him to obey.
If the elephant shews any repugnance to cotti-
ply, the comacky so his leader is called, prd-
itiises to give him arrack, or some other thing
that he likes ; then the aiiimal aglrees to every
thing proposed ; but it is dangerous to break a
promise with him, as many cornacks have
fallen victims by such conduct. An instance of
this happened at Dekan, which deserves to be

recorded ;

308 buffon's

recorded; and which, however incredible it
may appear, is perfectly true. An elephant,
in revenge, killed his cornack ; the man's wife
being witness of this dreadful catastrophe,
took her two children and threw thera to the
feet of (he still enraged animal, saying. Since
tJwuhast killed mi/ husband^ lahe also my life
and that efmy children. The elephant stopped
jshort, grew calm, and, as if moved with regret
and compassion, took with his trunk the biggest
of the two children, placed him on his neck,
adopted him for his cornack, and would never
suffer any other to mount him afterwards.

" If the elephant be vindictive he is no less
grateful. A soldier at Pondicherry, who com-
monly gave one of these animals a certain
measure of arrack every lime he received his
pay, having one day drank more tHn common,
and seeing himself pursued by the guard, who
"wanted to conduct him to prison, look refuge
under the elephant, and there fell asleep. In
vain did the guard attempt to draw him out
from this asylum, the elephant firmly defend-
ing him with his trunk. The next day,
when the soldier became sober, he was struck
with terror to find himself under an animal of
such enormous bulk. The elephant, who no
doubt perceived his consternation, caressed

him

NATURAL HiSTonV. S09

him with his trunk, and made him understand
that he might depart freely.

*' The elepliant sometimes falls into a sortof
phrcnzj, which deprives him of his tractabi-
lity, and makes him so formidable that it is frc-
qnently thought necessary to kill him, though
they generally tie him with heavy chains, in
hopes that he will come to himself; but when
in his natural state the most acute pains cannot
provoke him to do any harm to those "who have
not offended him. An elephant, made furious
by the wounds he had received in the battle of
Hambour, ran about the field crying out in the
most hideous manner. A soldier, notwithstand-
ing the warning of his companions, was unable
to fly, perhaps from being wounded ; the ele-
phant coming up to him appeared afraid of
trampling him under his feet, took him up with
his trunk, placed him gently on one side, and
continued his march." These particulars were
given to the Marquis Montmirail by M. de
Bussy, who lived ten years in India, and served
the state with reputation. lie had several ele-
phants in his service; he mounted them often,
saw them every day, and had frequent oppor-
tunities of observing many others.

The gentlemen of the Academy of Sciences
have also communicated to us the folio winjr

facts,

310 buffon's

facts, which they learned from (hose who grj-
venied the elephant at Versailles, and which
deserve to be mentioned here. " The elephant
seemed to discern when any body made a fool
of him, and he remembered the affront to b6
revenged (he first opportunity. A man de*
ceivcd him by feigning (b throw something
into his moUth, upon which the aninial gav6
liim such a blow with his trunk as broke two
of his fibs; having knocked him down, he
trartfipled him under his kei, and broke on6 of
bis legs, and then kneeling down, he tri^d tb
thrust his tusks into the man's belly, which)
however, went into the ground on both sides of
his thigh, without hurting him. He bruised
another man, by squeezing him against the
•wall, for a little mockery. A painter was
desirous to draw him in an unusual attitude^
with his trunk erect and his mouth open 5 thft
servant of the painter, to make him remain ift
that attitude, threw fruits into his mouth, but
often deceived him, which provoked his indig*
nation, and, as if he knew the painter was
the cause of his being thus insulted, without
taking any notice of the servant, he threw such
a quantity of water with his trunk upon the
paper, the master was drawing on, as totally
to spoil the design. The elephant made less

uso

Natural hIsvouy. 3tl

Use of Hi» strength than of bis address, whlcli
•was such that he wntied with great facility a
double lealher string which fastened his legj
{\od as this buckle had a small string twisted
around it with several knots, he untied them
all without breaking either the strings or the
strap. One night, having thus disentangled
himself from his leather strings, he dexterously
Woke open tlie door of his lodge, so that his
keeper was not awakened by the noise ; he
went from thence into several courts of the
menagerie, breaking open the doors that were
shut, and pulling down the stone work when
the passage was too narrow for him to pass ;
by this means he got into the lodges of other
animals, terrifying them to that degree, thait
they hid themselves in the remotest parts of
the inclosures.'* In fine, to omit nothing thait
may contribute to make all the natural and
acquired faculties of this animal so superior to
all others, perfectly known, we sliall add some
facts, extracted ftom the most credible au-
thors* " Theelephantj even when wild (says
Father Vincent Marie), has his virtues. He
is generous and temperate ; and when tamed
be is esteemed for gentleness and fidelity to his
master, ar»d friendship for his governors. If
destined to the immediate services of princes

he

312 BUFFON^S-

he knows his fortune, and preserves a gravity
agreeable to the dignity of his employ. If, on
the contrary, he is employed in mean labours,
he evidently grieves and laments his being
thus debased. In war he is impetuous and
proud at the first onset; he is equally so when
surrounded by hunters, but he loses courage
when he is conquered. He fi^^hts with liis
tusks, and fears nothing so much as losing his
trunk, which, by its consistence, is easily cut
off. lie is naturally mild, never attacks any
person, unless he has been offended ; he seems
to delight in company, is particularly fond of
cliildren, caresses them, and seems to be sensi-
ble that they are harmless and innocent,"

'' The elephant, (says F. Pyrard) is an ani-
mal of so much judgment and knowledge^ that
one should think him endowed with rational
faculties ; besides being of infinite service to
man. If wanted to be ridden, he is so supple,
and obedient, that he conforms to the conve-
niency and quality of the person he serves :
he bends his knees, and helps his leader to
mount him wilh his trunk. He is so tractable,
that he does whatever he is required, provided
he is treated with gentleness. He performs all
that he is commanded, and caresses those w hom
he is directed to use with civility."

"By

NATURAL HISTORY. 313

*' By giving the elephants, (says the Dutch
travellers) whatever can please them, they are
as easily tamed and rendered as su])missive as
men. It may be said they want no other fa*
culty, but that of speech. They are proud
and ambitious, but they remember good oihces,
and are so grateful for them, that they never
fail to incline their head as a mark of respect,
when they pass before a house where they have
been well used. They may be conducted at
the command of a child, but they love to be
praised and cherished. No person can affront,
or injure them without their notice ; and those
who have treated them with disrespect, may
think themselves happy if they escape without
being sprinkled with the water from their
trunks, or thrown into the dirt."

" The elephants, (says Father Philip) come
very near the human species in judgment and
reasoning. Monkeys are stupid brute animals
compared to them. The elephants are so
modest, that they cannot bear being seen when
they couple ; and if by chance, any person
were to see this operation they would infallibly
be revenged of them. They salute by bending
the knees, and inclining their head ; and when
their master shews his intention to mount them,
they so dexterously present to him their foot,
VOL. VII, S s ^ that

314; buffon's

that he may use it as a step. When a wild
elephant is taken, and his feet are tied, one of
(he hunters comes near, salutes, makes an
apology for having tied him, and protests that
his intention is not to do him any harm ; tells
liim that in his savage state he often wanted
food, but now he will be treated with tender-
ness, and which he promises to do constantly.
The hunter has no sooner finished this sooth-
ing discourse, than the elephant follows him as
gently as a lamb. We must not, however,
conclude from this, that the elephant under-
stands languages, but only having a particular
discerning faculty, he knows the motions of
esteem from contempt, friendship from hatred,
and all other sentiments of man towards him,
for which cause he is more easily tamed by
reasoning than by blows. He throws stones to
a great distance, and very straight with his
trunk; which he also makes use of to pour wa-
ter over his body when bathing."

" Of five elephants, (says Tavern icr) which
the hunters had taken, three escaped, although
their bodies and legs were fastened with chains
and ropes. These men told us the following
surprising circumstance, if it can be believed,
that when an elephant has been caught, and
escaped the snare, he becomes very mistrustful

and

NATURAL HISTORY. 315

and breaks off a large branch with his trunk,
with wliich he sounds the ground before he puts
his footupouit,todisco7er if thereareany holes,
by which he may be caught a second time ; for
this reason the hunters, who related this sin-
gularity, despaired of catching again the three
elephants who had escaped. The other two
which they had caught, was each of them
placed betwixt two tame elephants, and around
them were six men, holding torches, who
spoke to tlie animals, and presented them some-
thing to eat, saying, in their language, '' take
this and eat it." What they gave them con-
sisted of small bundles of hay, bits of black
sugar, and rice boiled in water, with pepper.
When the wild elephant refused to do what he
was ordered, the men commanded the tame
elephants to beat him, which they did imme-
diately ; one striking his forehead, and when
he seemed to aim at a revenge, the other struck
him on the side, so that the poor creature
soon perceived he had nothing to do, but to
obey."

" I have several times observed, (says Ed-
ward Terry) that the elephant does many
things which seemed to be more the result of
a rational than an instinctive faculty. He
does whatever his master commands him.
If he wishes him to frighten any body, he

advances

316 buffon's

advances towards him witli the same fury
as if he would tear him to pieces, and [when
near he stops short, without doing him any
harm. If the master is inclined to affront
another, he speaks to the elephant, who takes
up dirty water with his trunk, and throws
it over the person pointed out to him. His
trunk is made of a cartilage, hangs betwixt
his tusks, and by some called his hand, be-
cause on many occasions it is as serviceable
to him as the hand is to men. The Mogul
keeps elephants for the execution of criminals
condemned to death. If their leader bids
them dispatch the wretched creatures quick-
ly, they tear them to pieces in a moment
.with their feet ; but if commanded to make
the criminals languish, they break their bones
one after another, and make them suffer tor-
ments as cruel as those of the wheel."

We might quote several other facts equally
curious and interesting, but we should exceed
the limits of this work; we should not have
even entered into so many particulars, if the
elephant (Jig. lS3.)werenot,of all animals,the
first in every respect, and that which conse-
quently deserves most attention.

We have said nothing respecting the pro-
duction of his ivory because M. Daubcnton has
made several useful observations upon the na-
ture

NATURAL HISTORY. 317

ture and quality of it, but he has at the same
lirae assigned to the elephant the tusks, and
prodigious bones attributed to the mammoth.
I confess I was long doubtful on this subject ;
I had several times considered those enormous
bones, and compared them with the skeleton
of an almost adult elephant preserved in the
king's cabinet, and before writing the his-
tory of those animals, I could not persuade
myself that elephants six or seven times big-
ger than tlie one whose skeleton I had seen,
could exist ; more especially, as the large bones
had not the same proportions with the corre-
sponding ones of the elephant, I thought with
the generality of naturalists that these enor-
mous bones had belonged to an animal much
larger, whose species was lost or annihilated.
But it is certain, as we have mentioned before,
that some elephants exist who are fourteen feet
high, that is, six or seven times bigger (for
the bulk is in proportion to the cube in
height) than the elephant, of whose skele-
ton we have spoken, and which was not
more than seven feet and a half in height.
It is also certain, for the observations of
M. Daubenton, that age changes the pro-
portion of the bones and when the animal
is adult, they grow considerably thicker,
though they are come to their full height : in

fine,

518 buffon's

fine, it is certain, from the relations of tra-
vellers, that of some elephants, the tusks
weigh more than ISOlbs.* From these ob-
servations, we cannot doubt that those tusks
and bones we have already noticed for their
prodigious size, actually belonged to the
elephant. Sir Hans Sloane was of that opi-
nion, but he did not prove it. M. Gemelin
said it still more affirmatively, and gave on this
subject several curious factst ; but M. Dau-
benton is the first who has proved them un-
questionably

* Mr. Eden says, that several elephant's tusks which he
measured, were no less than nine feet long, and as big as a
man's thigh in circumference, some of them weighing more
than nine pounds ; and that he saw a head in the possession
of a Mr. Jude, which had been brought from Guinea by
some English ships, of which the mere bones, without the
tusks, weighed upwards of 200lbs. and it was supposed that
when the head was entire it could not weighlessthan .500lbs.
Lopes affirms he met with several tusksthat weighed 200lbs.
Jlisi. Gen. des Voyages, This magnitude of the tusks is also
confirmed by Drake, Holbe, and the Dutch travellers.

f The Czar, Peter, being curious in Natural History, issu-
ed orders in the year 1722, that wherever any bones of the
mammoth should be found, search should be made after the
remainder, and the whole of them sent to Petersburg,
and which orders were made public in all the towns of Siberia.
In consequence of this several persons applied to the Woy-
wode of Jakutzk to be sent ofFtotwo different places, where
they affirmed they had seen these bones ; their demands
were complied with, and many of them returned with heads
and various bones, which were transmitted t© Petersburg,

and

NATURAL HISTORY. 319

questionably by exact measures and compa-
risons, and reasons founded on the great know-
ledge that he has acquired in the Science of
Anatomy.

SUPPi^EMENT.

THE female elephant, as in »^i other ani-
mals, is more gentle than the male, at least
we found it so, for the male which we saw in
1771, was more fierce and untractable than a
female we witnessed in 1773 ; he would fre-
quently lay hold of, and tear the clothes of
those who approached too near him, and even
his keepers were always obliged to be on their

guard,

ani placed in the Imperial cabinet ; but it will be found
upon examination that all the bones placed there, under the
denomination of the Mammoth bones, are perfectly similar
with the elephant's. And as to their being found un-
der the earth and in Siberia, it may fairly be presumed that
in the great revolutions which have happened to the earth,
a great number of elephants might be driven from their n^
tlve climates ; many have been destroyed by the inundations,
and those who wandered so far into the North must neces-
sarily have perished from the rigours of the climate, f-^oyacrt
s KamUeBatiaJjar M- Gmelin.

S20 buffon's

guard, while she was perfectly quiet j and
always ready to obey, nor ever shewed a dis-
position to be perverse but when they wanted
to put her into a coveredwaggon for the purpose
of conveying her from one town to another ;
upon which occasion she would refuse to go
forward, and they had no means of making her
advance but by pricking her behind; this
would make her very angry, and being unable
to turn, the only way she had of revenge was
to take up water in her trunk and throw it
over them, and which she would do in pretty
large quantities.

I formerly remarked, there was a probability,
from the situation of the sexual organs, that
these animals did not copulate in the same man-
ner as other quadrupeds, but this conjecture 1
understand is not warranted in fact, for M*
Marcel Bles thus expresses himself upon the
subject : " The comte de Bufibn, in his ex-
cellent work, is deceived in respect to the
copulation of the elephants. In many parts of
Asia and Africa they certainly, during their
season of love, retire into the most secret
recesses of the forests ; but in the island of
Ceylon which is almost in every part inhabited,
and wliere I have lived twelve years, they have
not that opportunity of concealing themselves,

I have

NATURAL HISTORY. SSI

I have frequently examined them, and from the
female organ being nearly in the middle of the
belly there is some reason to conclude as M. de
BiifFon- has done ; however, when inclined to
admit the male, I have seen the female bend her
two fore legs upon the root of a tree, lowering,
at the same time, her head and neck, andkeep<
ing her hind legs erect, which gave the male an
opportunity of acting in the same manner as
other Quadrupeds. They never copulate but
in a ttate of freedom. The males are very fu-
rious in the rutting season, and it is very dan-
gerous to go near them ; during which the
females will sometimes make their escape, and
seek the wild males in the woods, A few days
after her cornack goes into the woods in search,
of her, and she will come to him upon hearing
him call her by name, and quietly suflfer herself
to be led home again. It was from these ex-
cursions discovered that the females bring forth
at the end of nine months."

I certainly am ready to give full credit ta
the first remark of M. Marcel Bless, because he
assures us that he has seen the elephant perform
the operation; but I cannot think we ought so
perfectly to acquiesce as to the time of their
going with young, since it is the opinion of all
travellers that they do not bring forth in a less
period than two years.

yoL. VII. T t THE

522 buffon's

THE RHINOCEROS.

AFTER the elephant the Rhinoceros
ifig* 124) is the most powerful of quadrupeds;
he is at least twelve feet in length, from the ex-
tremity of the snout to the tail ; six or seven
feet in height, and the circumference of his
body is nearly equal to his length. In bulk,
therefore, he nearly resembles the elephant, and
if he appears smaller, it is because his legs are
shorter in proportion than those of the elephant .
But he differs widely from that sagacious ani-
mal by his natural faculties and intelligence,
having received from Nature merely what she
grants in common to all animals. He is de-
prived of all feeling in his skin ; he has no or-
gan to answer the purpose of hands, to give
him a distinct sense of touching ; instead of a
trunk he has only a moveable lip, in which
centres all his dexterity. He is su perior to other
animals only in strength, magnitude, and th«
offensive weapon, which he carries upon hig
nose, and which is peculiar to him. Thig

weapoB

NATURAL HISTORY, 323

weapon is a very hard horn, solid throughout,
and placed more advantageously than the horn
of ruminating animals ; those only protect the
superior parts of the head and neck, whilst the
horn of the rhinoceros defends all the exterior
pads of the muzzle, the mouth, and the face,
from insult. For this reason the tiger attacks
more readily the elephant, whose trunk he can
seize, than the rhinoceros, which he cannot
attack in front without running the danger of
having his inside torn out ; for the body and
limbs are covered with so impenetrable a skia
that he fears neither the claws of the tiger nor
lion, nor the fire and weapons of the hunts-
man. His skin is blackish, of the same co-
lour, but thicker and harder than that of the
elephant ; nor does he feel the sting of flies.
He cannot contract nor extend his skin ; it is
folded by large wrinkles on the neck, shoulders,
and rump to facilitate the motion of his head
and legs, which last are massive, and termi-
nated by large feet, armed with three great
toes. His head is larger in proportion than
that of the elephant, but his eyes are still
smaller, which he seldom opens entirely. The
upper jaw projects above the lower, and the
upper lip is moveable, and may be lengthened
six or seven inches j it is terminated by a sharp

edge^

3M buffon's

edge, which gives (he animal the power to ga-
ther grass and divide it into handfuls, as the
elephant does with his trunk. This muscular
and flexible lip is a sort of imperfect trunk
which is equally capable of seizing with force,
aiid feeling with delicacy. Instead of those
long ivory tusks, which form the weapons of
the elephant, the rhinoceros has a powerful
horn, and two strong incisive teeth in each
jaw : these teeth, which the elephant has not,
are placed at a great distance, one in each
corner or angle of the jaws; the under jaw is
square before, and there are no other incisive
teeth in all the interior part, which is covered
hy the lips ; but, independently of these four
incisive teeth, placed in the four corners of
the mouth, he has twenty-four smaller teeth,
six on each side of each jaw. His ears are al-
ways erect ; they are in form like those of the
hog, only they are smaller in proportion to
his body, and they are the only hairy parts
about him. The end of the tail, like that of
the elephant, is furnished with a tuft of large
bristles, very hard and very solid.

Mr. Parsons, a celebrated physician in Lon-
don, to whom the republic of letters is indebted
for several discoveries in Natural History, and
to whom I am under obligations for the marks

of

NATURAL HISTORY. 525

of esteem and friendship he has honoured me
with, published in 1744, a Natural History of
the Rhinoceros, of which I shall givean extract
with more willingness, because w hatevcr Mr,
Parsons has written deserves credit and at-
tention.

" Though the rhinoceros was often seen at
the spectacles at Rome, from the time of Pom -
pey to that of Heliogabalus, though many have
been transported into Europe in these last ages,
and though Bontius, Ghardin, and Kolbe,havc
drawn this figure, both in the Indies and Afri-
ca, yet he was so badly represented, and his de-
scription was so incorrect, that he was known
very imperfectly, until those which arrived in
London in 17o9 and 1741, were inspected,
when the errors or caprices of those who had
published figures of him became very visible.
That of Albert Durer, which was the first, is
the least conformable to Nature ; it has, ne-
vertheless, been copied by most naturalists ;
and some of them have loaded it with false
drapery, and foreign ornaments. That of
Bontius is more simple and more true; but
the inferior part of the legs is badly delineated.
On the contrary, that of Chardin represents
naturally the foldings of the skin and feet,
but in other respects does not resemble the ani-
mal.

o

i'6 Burroj^'s

mal. That of Camerarius is not better; nor
is that drawn from the rhinoceros which was
in London in 1683, and which was published
hy Carwilham in 17v>9. Those which were
engraved on the ancient pavement of Praeaeste,
or on (he medals of Domilian, are very imper-
fect ; but they have not the imaginary orna-
luents given to that of Albert Durer." Dr.
Parsons has taken the trouble to draw this
animal himself in three different views, before,
behind, and in profile; and particular parts
from other rhinoceroses which are preserved
in the cabinets of Natural History.

The rhinoceros which arrived in London in
17S9, was sent from Bengal : though not more
than two years old, the expences of his food,
and of his voyage, amounted to near one thou-
sand pounds sterling. He was fed with rice,
sugar, and hry ; they gave him daily seven
pounds of rice, mixed with three pounds of
sugar, which they divided into three portions :
he had also hay and green herbage, to the last
of which lie gave the preference. His drink
was water, of which he drank great quantities
at a time. He was of a quiet disposition, and
suffered all parts of his body to be felt. He
grew unruly upon being struck, or when he was

hungry I

NATURAL HISTORY. 327

hungry ; and in both cases be could only be
appeased by giving him something to eat»
When lie was angry lie leaped forwards ^.vith
impetuosity, and raised himself to a great
height, and rushed furiously against the walls
with his head, and which he did with a pro-
digious quickness, notwithstanding his heavy
appearance and massive corpulence. " I have
often been witness (says Dr. Parsons) of those
motions produced by impatience or anger, es-
pecially in the morning before his rice and
sugar were brought hira. The quickness and
celerity of the motions of this animal made me
of opinion that he is absolutely unconquerable,
and that he would easily overtake any man
who should have given him offence."

This rhinoceros, when two years old, was
not higher than a young cow who had never
had any young ; but h is body was very long and
very thick. His head v/as large in proportion
to his body ; taking it from the ears to the
horn of the nose, it formed a concavity, the
extremities of which, that is, the upper end of
the snout, and the part near the ears are very
high. The horn, not then an inch long, was
black, smooth at the end, but wrinkled and di-
rected backwards at the base. His nostrils
tvere not above aa inch from the mouth ; the

under

32S buffon's

under lip was liketbatof a ox, but the upper
resembled that of an horse, \vi(h thisdiftbrence
and advantage,that the rbinoceroscan lengthen,
direct, turn it round a stick, and seize with it
those objects which he wants to carry to his
mouth. The tongue of this young rhinoceros
was soft like that of a calf; his eyes had no vi-
vacity, they were formed like those of a hog,
and were placed very lowj that is, near the
opening of the nostrils. His ears were large,
thin towards the end, and bound up with a sort
of wrinkle at the origin. His neck was very
short, the skin forming on (his part two large
foldings which surround him. His shoulders
were very thick, and at their juncture there was
another fold of skin which comes under the
fore legs. The body of this young rhinoceros
was very thick, and resembled that of a cow
ready to bring forth. There was another fold
betwixt thebody andthe rump, which descends
n rider the hind legs ; and lastly, there was ano-
ther fold which transversallysurrounds the lower
part of the crupper, at some distance from the
tail. The belly was very big, and hung down
to the ground, especially the middle part ; the
legs were round, thick, strong, and bent back-
ward at the joint, which was covered by a re-
markable fold of the skin when the animal laid

down,

NATURAL HISTORY. 329^

down,but it disappeared when lictvas'standing.
The tail was thin and short, compared to the
volume of the body ; that of this rhinoceros
was not above seventeen inclies in length ; it
is a little thicker at the extremity^ which is co-
vered with hard, short and thick hair. The
sexual organ of the rhinoceros is of an ex-
traordinary form ; it is contained in a sort of
case, like that of a horse, and the first thing
which appears when irritated is a second pre-
puce of flesh colour, from which issues a
hollow pipe, in form of a funnel, like a fleur
de luce. It not being in a straight direction,
but rather inclining backward, he emits his
urine beliind, and from which it appears their
copulation must be different from other ani-
mals. The female has the exterior parts
of generation situated like those of the cow,
and she resembles perfectly the male in the
size and form of the body. The skin is
thick and impenetrable ; in taking the folds
with the hand, it feels like a wooden plank
half an inch thick. " When it is tanned
(says Dr. Grew) it is excessively hard,
and thicker than the skin of any other ter-
restrial animal." It is every where more or
less covered with incrustations, in the shape
of galls, which are small on the summit of the
neck and back, but becomes bigger down the
VOL. Yiu Uu sides;

330 BUFFO N*S

sides ; the largest are on the shoulders anci
crupperjthe thighs, and around thelegs,down
to the feet ; but betwixt the folds the skin is
penetrable, and even tender, and as soft as
silk, "while the outward part of the folds is as
rough as the rest. This tender skin between
the folds is of flesh colour, and the skin of th«
belly is nearly of the same colour and consist-
ence ; but those galls, or tuberosities, should
not, as some authors have done, be compared
to scales, as they are mere callosities of the
skin, irregular in their figure and symmetry in
their respective positions. The suppleness of
the skin in the folds gives the rhinoceros the
power of moving his head, neck, and limbs,
with facility. The whole body, except at the
joints, is inflexible, like a cuirass. Dr. Par-
sons says, that this animal hearkened with a
sort of continual attention to any kind of noise;
so hat if he was even sleeping, eating, or sa-
tisfying other urgent wants, he instantly raised
up his head, and listened till the noise had
ceased.

In fine, after giving this exact description of
the rhinoceros. Dr. Parsons examines whether
the rhinoceros with a double horn exists, and
having compared the relations of ancients and
moderns, and the remains of this variety,
found in the collections of natural objects, he

concludes^

NATURAL HISTORY. 33

concludes, with some probability, that the
rhinoceroses of Asia have commonly but one
horn, and those of Africa, generally two.

It is certain that some rhinoceroses have
but one horn, and others have two ; but it is
not equally certain that this variety is constant,
and depends on the climate of Africa or India,
or that two distinct species may be established
from these differences. It seems (hat the rhi-
noceroses with one horn have it bigger and
longer than those who have two. There are
single horns of three feet and a half, and, per-
haps, of more than four feet in length, by six>
or seven inches in diameter at the base. Some
double horns are but two feet in length.

Commonly these horns are brown, or olive
colour, though some are grey, and even white.
They have only a small concavity, in form of
a cup, under their base, by which they are
fastened to the skin of the nose ; the remaining
part of the horn is solid, and very hard. It is
with this weapon that the rhinoceros is said to
attack, and sometimes mortally wound, the
biggest elephants, whose long legs give the
rhinoceros an opportunity of striking them
with his snout and horn under their bellies
where the skin is tender, and penetrable ; but

if

332 buffon's

if lie misses the first blow the elephant throw?r
him on (he ground and kills him.

The horn of the rhinoceros is more valued
by the Indians than the ivory of the elepliant,
not so much on account of its real use, though
they make several things of it with the chisel,
but for divers speciGc virtues, and medicinal
properties, which they ascribe to it. The
"white, from being the most rare, arc also those
which they value most. Among the presents
which the king of Siam sent to Louis XIV.
in 1G86, were six horns of the rhinoceros.
We have seen in the king's cabinet twelve of
different sizes, and one of them, though
mutilated, is three feet eight inches and a half
in length.

The rhinoceros, without being ferocious,
carnivorous, or even very wild, is, nevertheless,
untractable. He is of the nature of a hog,
blunt and brutal, witliout intellects, sentiment,
or docility. He is subject to fits of fury, that
nothing can calm ; for the rhinoceros, which
Emanuel, king of Portugal, sent to the Pope
in 1513, was the cause of the ship being de-
stroyed in which he was transporting ; and (hat
which we saw at Paris was drowned in the
same manner, in going over to Italy. These

animals,

NATURAL HISTORY. 3S3

animals, also like the hog, are much inclined
to wallow in the rairc. They like damp and
marshy places, and seldom leave the banks of
rivers. They are found in Asia and Africa,
in Bengal, Siam, Laos, Mogul, Sumatra, Java,
in Abyssinia, in Ethiopia, ui ihe country of the
Anzicos, and as far as the Cape of Good
Hope. But in general the species is not so
numerous, or so universally spread, as that of
the elephant. The female brings forth but
one young, and that at a great distance of
time. In the first month tlie rhinoceros is
not much bigger than a large dog ; he has no
horn when iirst brought forth, although the
rudiment of it is seen in the foetus. When
he is two years old his horn is not above an
inch long ; and in his sixth year it is about
ten inches ; and as some of these horns are
very near four feet long, it appears that ihey
<rrow till the half, or, perhaps, daring the
whole life of the animal, which must be long,
since the rliinoceros, described by Dr. Parson?,
was not come to half his growth at two years
old, which makes it probable that this animal,
like man, lives to seventy or eighty years.

Without the capacity of being useful like
the elephant, the rhinoceros is equally hurtful
from the prodigious devastation which he

makes

SS4 buffon's

makes in the fields. He has no one advan-
tageous quality while alive. His flesh is ex-
cellent, according to the taste of the Indians
and Negroes : Kolbe says, he has often eaten
it with pleasure. His skin makes the best
and hardest leather in the world ; and not
only his horn, but all the other parts of his
body, and even his blood, urine, and excre-
ments, are esteemed as antidotes against poi-
son, or remedies against several diseases.
These antidotes, or remedies, extracted from
different parts of the rhinoceros, are of the
same use in the dispensatory of the Indians,
as the theriaca is in that of Europe. Probably,
all those virtues are imaginary : — But how
many things are held in great estimation,
which have no value but in opinion !

The rhinoceros feeds upon coarse herbs, such
as thistles and prickly shrubs, and he prefers
this wild food to the sweet pasture of the
verdant meadows. He is fond of sugar canes,
and eats also all sorts of corn. Having no
taste for flesh, he neither molests small animals,
nor fears the large ones, but lives in peace with
them all, not excepting the tiger, who often ac-
companies, without daring to attack him ; there-
fore, I doubt, whether the battles betwixt the
elephant and rhinoceros, have any foundation;

they

NATURAL HISTORY, 335

they must at least be seldom, since there is no
motive for war on either side; and, besides, no
sort of antipathy has been observed between
these animals. Some even in captivity have
lived quietly together, without giving oflfence
or provocation. Pliny is, I believe, the first
who has mentioned these battles betwixt the
rhinoceros and elephant. It seems they were
compelled to fight in the spectacles at Rome,
and, probably from thence the idea has been
taken, that when in their natural state they
fought as desperately ; but every action without
a motive is unnatural ; it is an effect without
a cause, which cannot happen but by chance.
The rhinoceroses do not herd together, nor
march in troops like tlie elephants ; they are
more wild and solitary, and perhaps more
difficult to hunt and subdue. They never
attack men unless provoked ; but then they
become furious, and are very formidable.
Neither scymetars, darts, nor lances, can make
an incision upon his skin, which even resists
musket balls ; the only places penetrable in
his body are the belly, the eyes, and round
the ears; so that the hunters, instead effacing
and attacking this animal, follow him at a
distance by his track, and wait till he lies
down to rest or sleep. We have in the king's

cabinet

336 BurFON*s

cabinet a foetus of a rhinoceros, wliich was
extracted from the body of the mother, and
sent from the island of Java : it was said, in a
memorial which accompanied this presentjthat
twenty-eight huntsmen having assembled to
attack this rhinoceros, they followed her at a
distance for some days, one or two walking
now and then before to reconnoitre her situa-
tion ; by these means they surprised her when
she was asleep, and silently came so near that
they discliarged at once their twenty -eight
guns into the lower parts of her belly.

From the description given by Dr. Parsons,
it appears that this animal has a good ear,
and even very attentive : it is also affirmed, that
Lis sense of smelling is excellent ; but it is said
that he has not a good eye, and sees only those
things which are before him : his eyes are so
small, and placed so low, and obliquely, they
have so little vivacity and motion, that this fact
seems to be confirmed. His voice, when he is
calm, resembling tlie grunting of a liog ; but
when he is angry, it is sharp, and heard at a
great distance. Though he lives upon vege-
tables, he does not ruminate : thus, it is prob-
able, that, like the elephant, he has but one
stomach, and very large bowels, which supply
the office of many stomachs. His consump-
tion

NATURAL HISTORY. SS7

tion of food, though very great, is not com-
parable to that of the elephant, and it appears,
by the thickness of his skin, that he loses much
less than the latter by perspiration.

SUPPLEMENT.

In the month of September, 1770, another
rhinoceros was brought to the royal mena-
gerie, which was said to be only three months
old ; but I am persuaded it was as many years.,
for it was eight feet tMO inches in length, in-
cluding the head, five feet six inches high, and
eight feet two inches in circumference : by
the 28th of August, i?81, it had increased
seven inches in length, three inches in the
height, and seven inches in circumference , and
on the 12th of August, 1772, it measured
nine feet four inches in length, including the
head, six feet four inches higli at the crupper,
and only five feet eleven at the withers. In
some places its skin was spotted with black
and grey, and in others it was in deep furrows,
having the appearance of a kind of scales.
This animal had but one horn, which was
VOL. VII. Xx brown?

53S buffon's natural history.

brown, and of a very hard substance ; and in
all other respects he nearly resembled the de-
scription we have already given.

Mr. Bruce has remarked, that my conjec-
ture, that in the interior parts of Africa there
were rhinoceroses with two horns, was exactly
the case, for he saw none in Abyssinia but
what had one situated near the nose, which
was of the common form, and the other rather
higher on the head, sharp at the point, and al-
ways shorter than the first. M. Daubenton
received a letter from M. Allamand at Leyden ,
in J 776, in which that gentleman says, " In a
passage which M. de BufFon has quoted from
Mr. Parsons, it is supposed, that the rhinoce-
roses of Asia have but one horn, and those of
the Cape of Good Hope have two, but I am
inclined to believe the opposite is the fac^, for
the heads of those I have received from Ben-
gal, and other parts of India, had always two
hoiiis, and those which came from the Cape
had but one." This remark of M. Allemand
we may consider as a confirmation of our far-
mer observation, that the rhinoceroses with
two horiiS form a variety in the species, and
may be equally found in Asia and Africa.

END OF THE SEFENTH VOLUME:

T. Ciliet, Printer, Wild-coujt,

f ROPERTr LIWART

Directions for placing the Plates in the
Seventh Volume,

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