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opportunity for our visiting them, _a l'improvisto_, whenever we pleased. On one of these occasions we saw two rabbits, lately introduced into their society, crunching carrots, _demissis auribus_, and quite at their ease, while two little "wolves" were curiously snuffing about; at first looking at the rabbits, and then _imitating_ them, by taking up some of their _prog_, which tasting and not approving, they spat out--then, as if suspecting the rabbits to have been playing them a trick, one of them comes up stealthily, and brings his own nose in close proximity to that of one of the rabbits, who, quite unmoved at this act of familiarity, continues to munch on. The wolf contemplates him for a short time in astonishment, and seeing that the carrots actually disappear down his "oesophagus," returns to the other wolf to tell him so. His next step is to paw his friend a little, by way of encouraging him to advance. So encouraged he goes up, and straight lays hold of the rabbit's ear, and a pretty plaything it would have made had the rabbit been in the humour! In place of which he _thumps_ the ground with his hind legs, rises almost perpendicularly, and the next moment is down like lightning upon the head of the audacious wolf, who on thus unexpectedly receiving a double "colaphus" retreats, yelping! The other wolf is more successful; having crept up stealthily to the remaining rabbit, he seizes him by his furry rump--off bounds he in a fright, while the other plants himself down like a _sphinx_, erects his ears, and seems highly pleased at what he has been doing! We used sometimes to visit the wolves while they slept; on these occasions a slight whistle was at first sufficient to make them start upon their legs; at last, like most sounds with which the ear becomes familiar, they heard it passively. All our attempts to frighten the rabbits by noises _while they were engaged in munching_, proved unsuccessful.] [Footnote 9: Sydenham.] [Footnote 10: So notorious and violent has this hydromachia become, that it has at length called forth a poem, styled the _Vichyade_, of which the two resident physicians are the Achilles and Hector. The poem, which is as coarse and personal as the _Bath Guide_, is not so clever, but is much read here, _non obstant_.] [Footnote 11: An ingenious physician assures us, that he has for years past been in the habit of consulting his patients in place of his barometer, and has thus been enabled to
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