Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of AnimalsLee, R., Mrs.
General
Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals
Lee, R., Mrs.
Animal behavior -- Juvenile literature
shoulders, licking his face with every mark of the most lively joy, and
menacing his keepers, who offered to remove him, and towards whom, not a
moment before, he had been showing every mark of fondness. A third
separation, however, seemed to be too much for this faithful animal's
temper; he became gloomy, desponding, refused his food, and for a long
time his life appeared to be in danger. His health, however, returned;
but he no longer suffered the caresses of any but his keepers, and
towards strangers manifested the original savageness of his species."
There was another wolf at the same Menagerie, who was very docile and
affectionate, distinguishing those whom he knew from strangers, and
seeking their caresses. We were very good friends, and I often played
with him, so that he knew my voice. After an absence of two years, to my
great surprise, he recognized it, dashed to the bars of the den, thrust
his paws out to greet me, and gave every sign of delight. It is
probable, that this circumstance, combined with another, may have given
rise to the history related by Captain Brown, in his "Popular Natural
History," of which I now beg to give a correct version:--"Mme. Ducrest
[then Mlle. Duvaucel] and I were going out at Baron Cuvier's front door,
when a man, holding something tied up in a handkerchief, asked if we
belonged to the house. On replying in the affirmative, he offered his
bundle; she shrank from it, as the same thing had occurred to me a few
days before, and I received the dried and tattooed head of a New
Zealander; but he opened the handkerchief, and displayed a beautiful
little wolf puppy, covered with silky black hair. She joyfully received
it; we carried it to the keepers of the Menagerie, and orders were given
that it might be fed on soup and cooked meat. The wolf continued to be
very handsome, very playful, and very tame for about a year, when she
became a mother, and from that time was savage and unsociable to human
beings, never recovering her former amiable disposition. She was from
the Pyrenees."
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