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