Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed

[Illustration: TROPICAL AMERICAN HUMMING-BIRDS]

    YOUNG FOLKS' TREASURY

    In 12 Volumes

    HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE
    _Editor_

    EDWARD EVERETT HALE
    _Associate Editor_

    The Animal World

    A Book of Natural History

    _By_
    THEODORE WOOD

    _Edited by_
    ERNEST INGERSOLL

    VOLUME V

    NEW YORK
    THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY INC.
    _Publishers_

    COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY
    THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY INC.

PARTIAL LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS, ASSISTANT EDITORS AND ADVISERS

  HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE
    _Editor_

  EDWARD EVERETT HALE
    _Associate Editor_

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, President Columbia University.

WILLIAM R. HARPER, Late President Chicago University.

HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Ex-President of the United States.

HON. GROVER CLEVELAND, Late President of the United States.

JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS, American Roman Catholic prelate.

ROBERT C. OGDEN, Partner of John Wanamaker.

HON. GEORGE F. HOAR, Late Senator from Massachusetts.

EDWARD W. BOK, Editor "Ladies' Home Journal."

HENRY VAN DYKE, Author, Poet, and Professor of English Literature,
Princeton University.

LYMAN ABBOTT, Author, Editor of "The Outlook."

CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS, Writer of Animal Stories.

JACOB A. RIIS, Author and Journalist.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE, Jr., English Professor at Union College.

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS, Late Author and Creator of "Uncle Remus."

GEORGE GARY EGGLESTON, Novelist and Journalist.

RAY STANNARD BAKER, Author and Journalist.

WILLIAM BLAIKIE, Author of "How to Get Strong and How to Stay So."

WILLIAM DAVENPORT HULBERT, Writer of Animal Stories.

JOSEPH JACOBS, Folklore Writer and Editor of the "Jewish Encyclopedia."

MRS. VIRGINIA TERHUNE ("Marion Harland"), Author of "Common Sense in the
Household," etc.

MARGARET E. SANGSTER, Author of "The Art of Home-Making," etc.

SARAH K. BOLTON, Biographical Writer.

ELLEN VELVIN, Writer of Animal Stories.

REV. THEODORE WOOD, F. E. S., Writer on Natural History.

W. J. BALTZELL, Editor of "The Musician."

HERBERT T. WADE, Editor and Writer on Physics.

JOHN H. CLIFFORD, Editor and Writer.

ERNEST INGERSOLL, Naturalist and Author.

DANIEL E. WHEELER, Editor and Writer.

IDA PRENTICE WHITCOMB, Author of "Young People's Story of Music,"
"Heroes of History," etc.

MARK HAMBOURG, Pianist and Composer.

MME. BLANCHE MARCHESI, Opera Singer and Teacher.

CONTENTS

                                                       PAGE

  Introduction                                           xi

  CHAPTER

        I Apes and Gibbons                                1

       II Baboons                                         7

      III The American Monkeys and the Lemurs            16

       IV The Bats                                       26

        V The Insect-Eaters                              33

       VI The Larger Cats                                47

      VII The Smaller Cats                               60

     VIII The Civets, the Aard-Wolf, and the Hyenas      68

       IX The Dog Tribe                                  78

        X The Weasel Tribe                               91

       XI The Bear Tribe                                102

      XII The Seal Tribe                                113

     XIII The Whale Tribe                               121

      XIV The Rodent Animals                            136

       XV The Wild Oxen                                 157

      XVI Giraffes, Deer, Camels, Zebras, Asses,
            and Horses                                  179

     XVII The Elephants, Rhinoceroses,
            Hippopotamuses, and Wild Swine              201

    XVIII Edentates, or Toothless Mammals               212

      XIX The Marsupials                                218

       XX Birds of Prey                                 232

      XXI Cuckoos, Nightjars, Humming-Birds,
            Woodpeckers, and Toucans                    243

     XXII Crows, Birds of Paradise, and Finches         254

    XXIII Wagtails, Shrikes, Thrushes, etc.             263

     XXIV Parrots, Pigeons, Pea-Fowl, Pheasants, etc.   273

      XXV Ostriches, Herons, Cranes, Ibises, etc.       281

     XXVI Swimming Birds                                291

    XXVII Tortoises, Turtles, and Lizards               299

   XXVIII Snakes                                        311

     XXIX Amphibians                                    321

      XXX Fresh-water Fishes                            326

     XXXI Salt-water Fishes                             337

    XXXII Insects                                       354

   XXXIII Insects (_continued_)                         369

    XXXIV Spiders and Scorpions                         387

     XXXV Crustaceans                                   397

    XXXVI Sea-Urchins, Starfishes, and Sea-Cucumbers    409

   XXXVII Mollusks                                      414

  XXXVIII Annelids and Coelenterates                    427

          Walks with a Naturalist                       437

          Nature-study at the Seaside                   457

          Our Wicked Waste of Life                      487

          INDEX                                         497

(_Much of the material in this volume is published by permission of
E. P. Dutton & Company, New York City, owners of American rights._)

ILLUSTRATIONS

  TROPICAL AMERICAN HUMMING-BIRDS             _Frontispiece_

                                                FACING PAGE

  TYPES OF APES AND MONKEYS                               6

  PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS OF MONKEYS                      16

  FOUR GREAT CATS                                        48

  SOME FIERCE CATS                                       64

  A WOLFISH GROUP                                        80

  TYPES OF FUR-BEARERS                                   96

  TYPES OF BEARS                                        128

  TYPES OF RODENTS                                      144

  FOUR TYPES OF CATTLE                                  156

  WILD SHEEP AND GOATS                                  164

  GOATS AND GOAT-ANTELOPES                              166

  TYPES OF ANTELOPES                                    176

  THE ANTLERED DEER                                     184

  CHILDREN'S PETS AT THE ZOO                            189

  WILD RELATIVES OF THE HORSE                           196

  PACHYDERMS AND TAPIR                                  206

  TYPES OF MARSUPIALS                                   220

  TYPICAL BIRDS OF PREY                                 232

  FOUR HANDSOME BIRDS                                   253

  FINCHES AND WEAVER-BIRDS                              262

  AMERICAN INSECT-EATING SONG-BIRDS                     272

  GAUDY TROPICAL BIRDS                                  276

  AMERICAN GAME-BIRDS                                   280

  FOUR GREAT GAME-BIRDS                                 280

  AMERICAN WADING BIRDS                                 298

  TYPES OF WATER-BIRDS                                  298

  CHARACTERISTIC FORMS AND MARKINGS OF AMERICAN
    BIRDS EGGS                                          298

  NORTH AMERICAN FOOD AND GAME FISHES                   336

  INSECTS INJURIOUS TO AMERICAN MAPLE-TREES             368

  LEAF-EATING INSECTS OF SHADE-TREES                    386

  LIFE ON THE SEA-BOTTOM                                413

  NORTH AMERICAN SEED-EATING SONG-BIRDS                 442

  CHICKADEE AND WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH                 456

INTRODUCTION

This volume is a sketch of the animal life of the whole world. More than
a sketch it could not be in the space at the author's command; but he
has so skilfully selected his examples to illustrate both the natural
groups and the faunas which they represent, that his work forms a most
commendable ground-plan for the study of natural history.

Few writers have been so successful in handling this subject. His style
is singularly attractive to the young readers whom he has in view; yet
he does not depart from accuracy, nor exaggerate with false emphasis
some unusual phase of an animal's character, which is the fault of many
who try to "popularize" zoölogy.

One may feel confident, therefore, that the boy or girl who opens this
volume will enjoy it and profit by it. The sketch dwells on the animals
most often to be seen in nature, or in menageries, or read of in books
of travel and adventure, and will thus serve as a valuable reference aid
in such reading. But it will, and ought to, do more. It will arouse anew
that interest in the creatures about us which is as natural as breath to
every youngster, but is too rarely fostered by parents and teachers.

Nothing is more valuable in the foundation of an education than the
faculty and habit of observation--the power of noting understandingly,
or at least inquiringly, what happens within our sight and hearing. To
go about with one's eyes half shut, content to see the curtain and never
curious to look at the play on nature's stage behind it, is to miss a
very large part of the possible pleasure in life. That his child should
not suffer this loss ought to be the concern of every parent.

Little more than encouragement and some opportunity is needed to
preserve and cultivate this disposition and faculty. Direct a
youngster's attention to some common fact of woodland life new to him,
and his interest and imagination will be excited to learn more. Give him
a hint of the relationship of this fact to other facts, and you have
started him on a scientific search, and he has begun to train his eye
and his mind without knowing it. At this point such books as this are
extremely helpful, and lead to a desire for the more special treatises
which happily are now everywhere accessible.

This suggestion is not made with the idea that every youngster is to
become a full-fledged naturalist; but with the sense that some knowledge
of nature will be a source of delight throughout life; and with the
certainty that in no direction can quickness of eye and accuracy of
sight and reasoning be so well and easily acquired. These are qualities
which make for success in all lines of human activity, and therefore are
to be regarded as among the most important to be acquired early in life.

The physical benefit of an interest in animal life, which leads to
outdoor exercise, needs no argument. The mental value has been touched
upon. The moral importance is in the sense of truth which nature
inculcates, and the kindliness sure to follow the affectionate interest
with which the young naturalist must regard all living things.

No matter what is to be their walk in life, the observing study of
nature should be regarded as the corner-stone of a boy's or girl's
education.

                                              ERNEST INGERSOLL

MAMMALS

CHAPTER I

APES AND GIBBONS

First among the mammals come the monkeys. First among the monkeys come
the apes. And first among the apes come the chimpanzees, almost the
largest of all monkeys.

CHIMPANZEES

When it is fully grown a male chimpanzee stands nearly five feet high.
And it would be even taller still if only it could stand upright.

But that is a thing which no monkey can ever do, because instead of
having feet as we have, which can be planted flat upon the ground, these
animals only have _hind hands_. There is no real sole to them, no
instep, and no heel; while the great toe is ever so much more like a
huge thumb. The consequence is that when a monkey tries to stand upright
he can only rest upon the outside edges of these hand-like feet, while
his knees have to be bent awkwardly outward. So he looks at least three
inches shorter than he really is, and he can only hobble along in a very
clumsy and ungraceful manner.

But then, on the other hand, he is far better able to climb about in the
trees than we are, because while we are only able to place our feet flat
upon a branch, so as to stand upon it, he can grasp the branches with
all four hands, and obtain a very much firmer hold.

Chimpanzees are found in the great forests of Central and Western
Africa, where they feed upon the wild fruits which grow there so
abundantly. They spend almost the whole of their lives among the trees,
and have a curious way of making nests for their families to live in, by
twisting the smaller branches of the trees together, so as to form a
small platform. The mother and her little ones occupy this nest, while
the father generally sleeps on a bough just underneath it. Sometime
quite a number of these nests may be seen close together, the
chimpanzees having built a kind of village for themselves in the midst
of the forest.

A CLEVER SPECIMEN

If you visit the zoölogical gardens in New York, London, or some other
city, you may be quite sure of seeing one or more chimpanzees. They are
nearly always brought to the zoos when they are quite young, and the
keepers teach them to perform all kinds of clever tricks. One of them in
the London Zoo, who was called "Sally," and who lived there for several
years, actually learned to count! If she was asked for two, three, four,
or five straws, she would pick up just the right number from the bottom
of her cage and hand them to the keeper, without ever making a mistake.
Generally, too, she would pick up six or seven straws if the keeper
asked for them. But if eight, nine, or ten were asked for she often
became confused, and could not be quite sure how many to give. She was a
very cunning animal, however, and when she became tired of counting she
would sometimes pick up two straws only and double them over, so as to
make them look like four!

"Sally" could talk, too, after a fashion, and used to make three
different sounds. One of these evidently meant "Yes," another signified
"No," and the third seemed to be intended for "Thank you," as she always
used it when the keeper gave her a nut or a banana.

Two kinds of chimpanzees are known, namely the common chimpanzee, which
is by far the more plentiful of the two, and the bald chimpanzee,
which has scarcely any hair on the upper part of its head. One very
intelligent bald chimpanzee was kept in Barnum's menagerie, and was even
more clever, in some ways, than "Sally" herself.

THE GORILLA

Larger even than the chimpanzee is the gorilla, the biggest and
strongest of all the apes, which sometimes grows to a height of nearly
six feet. It is only found in Western Africa, close to the equator, and
has hardly ever been seen by white travelers, since it lives in the
densest and darkest parts of the great forests. But several
gorillas--nearly all quite small ones--have been caught alive and kept
in captivity in zoos, where, however, they soon died.

One of these, named "Gena," lived for about three weeks in the Crystal
Palace, near London. She was a most timid little creature, and if
anybody went to look at her she would hide behind a chimpanzee, which
inhabited the same cage, and watched over her in the most motherly way.
Another, who was called "Pongo," lived for rather more than two months
in the London Zoo, and seemed more nervous still, for he used to become
terrified if even his keeper went into the cage. But when the animal has
grown up it is said to be a most savage and formidable foe, and the
natives of Central Africa are even more afraid of it than they are of
the lion.

Like most of the great apes, the gorilla has a most curious way of
sheltering itself during a heavy shower of rain. If you were to look at
its arms, you would notice that the hair upon them is very thick and
long, and that while it grows _downward_ from the shoulder to the
elbow, from the elbow to the wrist it grows _upward_. So when it is
caught in heavy rain, the animal covers its head and shoulders with its
arms. Then the long hair upon them acts just like thatch and carries off
the water, so that the gorilla hardly gets wet at all.

When the gorilla is upon the ground it generally walks upon all fours,
bending the fingers of the hands inward, so that it rests upon the
knuckles. But it is much more active in the trees, and is said to
be able to leap to the ground from a branch twenty or thirty feet high,
without being hurt in the least by the fall.

THE ORANG-UTAN

Another very famous ape is the orang-utan, which is found in Borneo and
Sumatra. It is reddish brown in color, and is clothed with much longer
hair than either the gorilla or the chimpanzee, while its face is
surprisingly large and broad, with a very high forehead. But the most
curious feature of this animal is the great length of its arms. When a
man stands upright, and allows his arms to hang down by his sides, the
tips of his fingers reach about half-way between his hips and his knees.
When a chimpanzee stands as upright as possible, the tips of its fingers
almost touch its knees. But when an orang-utan does the same its fingers
nearly touch the ground. Of course, when the animal is walking, it finds
that these long arms are very much in its way. So it generally uses them
as crutches, resting the knuckles upon the ground, and swinging its body
between them.

But the orang seldom comes down to the ground, for it is far more at its
ease among the branches of the trees. And although it never seems to be
in a hurry, it will swing itself along from bough to bough, and from
tree to tree, quite as fast as a man can run below. Like the gorilla and
the chimpanzee, it makes rough nests of twisted boughs, in which the
female animal and the little ones sleep. And if it is mortally wounded,
it nearly always makes a platform of branches in the same way, and sits
upon it waiting for death.

Orangs are often to be seen in zoölogical gardens, although they are so
delicate that they do not thrive well in captivity. One of these
animals, which lived in the London Zoo for some time, had learned a very
clever trick. Leaning up against his cage was a placard, on which were
the words "The animals in this cage must not be fed." The orang very
soon found out that when this notice was up nobody gave him any nuts or
biscuits. So he would wait until the keeper's back was turned,
knock the placard down with the printed words underneath, and then hold
out his paw for food!

As a general rule, orangs seem far too lazy to be at all savage. Those
in zoos nearly always lie about on the floor of their cage all day,
wrapped in their blankets, with a kind of good-humored grin upon their
great broad faces. But when they are roused into passion they seem to be
very formidable creatures, and Alfred Russel Wallace tells us of an
orang that turned upon a Dyak who was trying to spear it, tore his arm
so terribly with his teeth that he never recovered the proper use of the
limb, and would almost certainly have killed him if some of his
companions had not come to his rescue.

GIBBONS

Next we come to the gibbons, which are very wonderful animals, for they
are such astonishing gymnasts. Most monkeys are very active in the
trees, but the gibbons almost seem to be flying from bough to bough,
dashing about with such marvelous speed that the eye can scarcely follow
their movements. Travelers, on seeing them for the first time, have
often mistaken them for big blackbirds. They hardly seem to swing
themselves from one branch to another. They just dart and dash about,
upward, downward, sideways, backward, often taking leaps of twenty or
thirty feet through the air. And yet, so far as one can see, they only
just touch the boughs as they pass with the tips of their fingers.

If you should happen to see a gibbon in the next zoo that you visit, be
sure to ask the keeper to offer the animal a grape, or a piece of
banana, and you will be more than surprised at its marvelous activity.

The arms of the gibbons are very long--although not quite so long as
those of the orang-utan--so that when these animals stand as upright as
they can the tips of their fingers nearly touch the ground. But they do
not use these limbs as crutches, as the orang does. Instead of that,
they either clasp their hands behind the neck while they are walking, or
else stretch out the arms on either side with the elbows bent downward,
to help them in keeping their balance. So that when a gibbon leaves the
trees and takes a short stroll upon the ground below, it looks rather
like a big letter W suspended on a forked pole!

[Illustration: TYPES OF APES AND MONKEYS

  1. Diana Monkey.       2. Orang-utan.         3. Hanuman Monkey.
  4. Mandrill Baboon.    5. Capuchin Monkey.    6. Spider Monkey.]

Gibbons generally live together in large companies, which often consist
of from fifty to a hundred animals, and they have a very odd habit of
sitting in the topmost branches of tall trees at sunrise, and again at
sunset, and joining in a kind of concert. The leader always seems to be
the animal with the strongest voice, and after he has uttered a peculiar
barking cry perhaps half a dozen times, the others all begin to bark in
chorus. Often for two hours the outcry is kept up, so loud that it may
be heard on a still day two or three miles. Then by degrees it dies
away, and the animals are almost silent until the time for their next
performance comes round.

Several different kinds of gibbons are known, the largest of which is
the siamang. This animal is found only in Sumatra. It is a little over
three feet high when fully grown. If you ever see it at a zoo you may
know it at once by its glassy black color, and its odd whitish beard.
Then there is the hoolock, which is common in many parts of India, and
has a white band across its eyebrows, while the lar gibbon, of the Malay
Peninsula, has a broad ring of white all round its face. Besides these
there are one or two others, but they are all so much alike in their
habits that there is no need to mention them separately.

CHAPTER II

BABOONS

How can we tell a baboon from an ape?

That is quite easy. Just glance at his face. You will notice at once
that he has a long, broad muzzle, like that of a dog, with the nostrils
at the very tip. For this reason the baboons are sometimes known as
dog-faced monkeys. Then look at his limbs. You will see directly that
his arms are no longer than his legs. That is because he does not live
in the trees, as the apes do. He lives in rough, rocky places on the
sides of mountains, where there are no trees at all, so that arms like
those of the gibbons or the orang-utan would be of no use to him. He
does not want to climb. He wants to be able to scamper over the rocks,
and to run swiftly up steep cliffs where there is only just room enough
to gain a footing. So his limbs are made in such a way that he can go on
all fours like a dog, and gallop along so fast among the stones and
boulders that it is hard to overtake him.

THE CHACMA

Perhaps the best known of the baboons is the chacma, which is found in
South Africa. The animal is so big and strong, and so very savage, that
if he is put into a large cage in company with other monkeys, he always
has to be secured in a corner by a stout chain. A chacma that lived for
some years in the Crystal Palace was fastened up in this way, and the
smaller monkeys, who knew exactly how far his chain would allow him to
go, would sit about two inches out of his reach and eat their nuts in
front of him. This used to make the chacma furious, and after chattering
and scolding away for some time, as if telling his tormentors what
dreadful things he would do to them if ever he got the chance, he
would snatch up an armful of straw from the bottom of his cage and fling
it at them with both hands.

"If I fed the smaller monkeys with nuts, instead of giving them to him,"
says a visitor, "he would fling the straw at me."

Chacmas live in large bands among the South African mountains, and are
very difficult to watch, as they always post two or three of their
number as sentinels. As soon as any sign of danger appears one of the
watchers gives a short, sharp bark. All the rest of the band understand
the signal, and scamper away as fast as they can.

Sometimes, however, the animals will hold their ground. A hunter was
once riding over a mountain ridge when he came upon a band of chacmas
sitting upon a rock. Thinking that they would at once run away, he rode
at them, but they did not move, and when he came a little closer they
looked so threatening that he thought it wiser to turn back again.

An angry chacma is a very formidable foe, for it is nearly as big as a
mastiff, and ever so much stronger, while its great tusk-like teeth cut
like razors. When one of these animals is hunted with dogs it will often
gallop along until one of its pursuers has outstripped the rest, and
will then suddenly turn and spring upon him, plunge its teeth into his
neck, and, while its jaws are still clenched, thrust the body of its
victim away. The result is that the throat of the poor dog is torn
completely open, and a moment later its body is lying bleeding on the
ground, while the chacma is galloping on as before.

These baboons are very mischievous creatures, for they come down from
their mountain retreats by night in order to plunder the orchards. And
so cautiously is the theft carried out, that even the dogs on guard know
nothing of what is going on, and the animals nearly always succeed in
getting away.

When it cannot obtain fruit, the chacma feeds chiefly upon the bulb of a
kind of iris, which it digs out of the ground with its paw, and then
carefully peels. But it is also fond of insects, and may often be seen
turning over stones, and catching the beetles which were lying hidden
beneath them. It will even eat scorpions, but is careful to pull off
their stings before doing so.

THE MANDRILL

Another interesting baboon is the mandrill, which one does not often see
in captivity. It comes from Western Africa. While it is young there is
little that is remarkable about it. But the full-grown male is a
strange-looking animal, for on each of its cheeks there is a swelling as
big as a large sausage, which runs upward from just above the nostrils
to just below the eyes. These swellings are light blue, and have a
number of grooves running down them, which are colored a rich purple,
while the line between them, as well as the tip of the nose, is bright
scarlet. The face is very large in proportion to the size of the body,
and the forehead is topped by a pointed crest of upright black hair,
while under the chin is a beard of orange yellow. On the hind quarters
are two large bare patches of the same brilliant scarlet as the nose. So
you see that altogether a grown-up male mandrill is a very odd-looking
creature.

The female mandrill has much smaller swellings on her face. They are
dull blue in color, without any lines of either purple or scarlet.

Almost all monkeys are subject at times to terrible fits of passion, but
the mandrill seems to be the worst tempered of all. Fancy an animal
dying simply from rage! It sounds impossible, yet the mandrill has been
known to do so. And the natives of the countries in which it lives are
quite as much afraid of it as they are of a lion.

Yet it has once or twice been tamed. In the Natural History Museum, at
South Kensington, London, is the skin of a mandrill which lived for some
years in that city in the earlier part of the nineteenth century. His
name was "Jerry," and he was so quiet and contented that he was
generally known as "Happy Jerry." He learned to smoke a pipe. He was
very fond of a glass of beer. He even used to sit at table for his
meals, and to eat from a plate by means of a knife and fork. And he
became so famous that he was actually taken down to Windsor to appear
before King George the Fourth!

There is another baboon called the drill, which is not unlike the
mandrill in many respects, but the swellings on its face are not nearly
as large, and they remain black all through its life. It is a much
smaller animal, too, and looks, on the whole, very much like a mandrill
while it is quite young.

THE GELADA

Almost as odd-looking as the mandrill, though in quite a different way,
is the gelada, which is found in Abyssinia. Perhaps we may compare it to
a black poodle with a very long and thick mane upon its neck and
shoulders. When the animal sits upright this mane entirely covers the
upper part of its shoulders, so that a gelada looks very much as if it
were wearing a coachman's mantle of long fur.

In some parts of Abyssinia geladas are very numerous, living among the
mountains in bands of two or three hundred. Like the chacmas in South
Africa, they are very mischievous in the orchards and plantations,
always making their raids by night. It is said that on one occasion they
actually stopped no less a personage than a Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,
and prevented him from proceeding on his journey for several hours.

The story is, that as the Duke was traveling in Abyssinia his road lay
through a narrow pass, overhung with rocky cliffs; that one of his
attendants, catching sight of a number of geladas upon the rocks above,
fired at them; that the angry baboons at once began to roll down great
stones upon the path below, and that before they could be driven off
they succeeded in completely blocking the road, so that the Duke's
carriage could not be moved until the stones had been cleared away.

Whether this story is altogether true or not, we cannot say. But there
can be no doubt that geladas are very warlike animals. Not only will
they attack human beings who interfere with them, they also attack other
baboons. When they are raiding an orchard, for instance, they sometimes
meet with a band of Arabian baboons, which have come there for the same
purpose as themselves. A fierce battle then takes place. First of all
the geladas try to roll down stones upon their rivals. Then they rush
down and attack them with the utmost fury, and very soon the
orchard is filled with maddened baboons, tumbling and rolling over one
another, biting and tearing and scratching each other, and shrieking
with furious rage.

The Arabian baboon itself is a very interesting creature, for it is one
of the animals which were venerated by the ancient Egyptians. They
considered it as sacred to their god Thoth, and treated it with the
greatest possible honor; and when it died they made its body into a
mummy, and buried it in the tombs of the kings. Sometimes, too, they
made use of the animal while it lived, for they would train it to climb
a fig-tree, pluck the ripe figs, and hand them down to the slaves
waiting below.

These baboons sometimes travel in great companies. The old males always
go first, and are closely followed by the females, those which have
little ones carrying them upon their backs. As they march along, perhaps
one of the younger animals finds a bush with fruit upon it, and stops to
eat a little. As soon as they see what he is doing, a number of others
rush to the spot, and begin fighting for a share. But generally one of
the old males hears the noise, boxes all their ears and drives them
away, and then sits down and eats the fruit himself.

THE PROBOSCIS-MONKEY

Next we come to a group of animals called dog-shaped monkeys, and the
most curious of them all is the proboscis-monkey. This is the only
monkey which really possesses a nose. Some monkeys have nostrils only,
and some have muzzles, but the proboscis-monkey has not merely a nose,
but a very long nose, so long, in fact, that when one of these monkeys
is leaping about in the trees it is said always to keep its nose
carefully covered with one hand, so that it may not be injured by a
knock against a bough.

Strange to say, it is only the male animal that has this very long nose,
and even he does not get it until he is grown up. Indeed, you can tell
pretty well how old a male proboscis-monkey is just by glancing at his
nose. When he is young it is quite small. As he gets older it grows
bigger. And by the time that he reaches his full size it is three
or four inches long. Naturally this long nose gives him a very strange
appearance, and his great bushy whiskers, which meet under his chin,
make him look more curious still.

We do not know much about the habits of the proboscis-monkey. In Borneo,
its native country, it lives in the thick forests, and is said to be
almost as active among the branches of the trees as the gibbons
themselves. The Dyaks do not believe that it is a monkey at all, but say
that it is really a very hairy man, who insists on living in the forests
in order to escape paying taxes.

THE HANUMAN

The hanuman, another of the dog-shaped monkeys, lives in India, where it
is treated with almost as much reverence as the Arabian baboon was in
Egypt in days of old.

The natives do not exactly worship these monkeys, but they think that
they are sacred to the god Hanuman, from whom they take their name.
Besides that, they believe that these animals are not really monkeys at
all, but that their bodies are inhabited by the souls of great and holy
men, who lived and died long ago, but have now come back to earth again
in a different form. So no Hindu will ever kill a hanuman monkey or
injure it in any way, no matter how much mischief it may do. The
consequence is that these animals are terrible thieves. They know
perfectly well that no one will try to kill them, or even to trap them,
so they come into the villages, visit the bazaars, and help themselves
to anything to which they may take a fancy. Yet all that the
fruit-sellers will do is to place thorn-bushes on the roofs of their
shops to prevent the monkeys from sitting there.

European sportsmen, however, often find the hanuman very useful. For its
greatest enemy is the tiger, and when one of these animals is being
hunted a number of hanumans will follow it wherever it goes, and point
it out to the beaters by their excited chattering.

Next to the tiger, the hanuman dislikes snakes more than any living
creature, and when it finds one of these reptiles asleep it will
creep cautiously up to it, seize it by the neck, and then rub its head
backward and forward upon a branch till its jaws have been completely
ground away.

The hanuman belongs to a group of monkeys which are called langurs. They
may be known by their long and almost lanky bodies, by the great length
of their tails, and by the fact that they do not possess the
cheek-pouches which many other monkeys find so useful. And it is very
curious that while the arms of the apes are longer than their legs, the
legs of the langurs--which are almost as active in the trees--are longer
than their arms.

If you ever happen to see a hanuman you may know it at once by its black
face and feet, and by its odd eyebrows, which are very bushy, and
project quite away in front of its face.

THE GUENONS

We now come to the guenons, of which there are a great many kinds. Let
us take two of these as examples of the rest. The first is the green
monkey, which comes from the great forests of Western Africa. You may
know it by sight, because it is the commonest monkey in every menagerie.
It is one of the monkeys, too, which organ-grinders so often carry about
on their organs. But they do not care to have it except when it is quite
young, for although it is very gentle and playful until it reaches its
full size, it afterward becomes fierce and sullen, and is apt at any
moment to break out into furious passion.

Like most of the guenons, green monkeys go about in droves, each under
the leadership of an old male, who wins and keeps his position by
fighting all his rivals. Strange to say, each of these droves seems to
have its own district allotted to it; and if by any chance it should
cross its boundary, the band into whose territory it has trespassed will
at once come and fight it, and do their utmost to drive it back.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know how the animals mark out their own
domains, and how they let one another know just how far they will be
permitted to go?

Our second example of the guenons is the diana monkey, which you
may at once recognize by its long, pointed, snow-white beard. It seems
to be very proud of this beard, and while drinking holds it carefully
back with one hand, in order to prevent it from getting wet.

Why is it called the "diana" monkey? Because of the curious white mark
upon its forehead, which is shaped like the crescent which the ancients
used to think was borne by the goddess Diana. It is a very handsome
animal, for its back is rich chestnut brown in color, and the lower part
of its body is orange yellow, while between the two is a band of pure
white. Its face and tail and hands and feet are black. It is a very
gentle animal, and is easily tamed.

THE MANGABEYS

These are very odd-looking monkeys, for they all have white eyelids,
which are very conspicuous in their sooty-black faces. Indeed, they
always give one a kind of idea that they must spend their whole lives in
sweeping chimneys.

They are among the most interesting of all monkeys to watch, for they
are not only so active and full of life that they scarcely seem able to
keep still, but they are always twisting their bodies about into all
sorts of strange attitudes. When in captivity they soon find out that
visitors are amused by their antics, and are always ready to go through
their performances in order to obtain a nut or a piece of cake.

Then they have an odd way, when they are walking about their cages, of
lifting their upper lips and showing their teeth, so that they look just
as if they were grinning at you. And instead of carrying their tails
behind them, as monkeys generally do, or holding them straight up in the
air, they throw them forward over the back, so that the tip comes just
above the head.

Only four kinds of mangabey are known, and they are all found in Western
Africa.

MACAQUES

There is one more family of monkeys found in the Old World which we must
mention, and that consists of the animals known as macaques. They
are natives of Asia, with one exception, and that is the famous magot,
the only monkey which lives wild in any part of Europe. It inhabits the
Rock of Gibraltar, and though it is not nearly as common as it used to
be, there is still a small band of these animals with which nobody is
allowed to interfere. They move about the Rock a good deal. When the
weather is warm and sunny, they prefer the side that faces the
Mediterranean, but as soon as a cold easterly wind springs up they all
travel round to the western side, which is much more sheltered. They
always keep to the steepest parts of the cliff, and it is not easy to
get near enough to watch them. Generally the only way to see them at all
is by means of a telescope.

The magot is sometimes known as the Barbary ape, although of course it
is not really an ape at all. But it is very common in Barbary, and two
or three times, when the little band of monkeys on the Rock seemed in
danger of dying out, a few specimens have been brought over from Africa
just to make up the number.

The only other member of this family that we can mention is the
crab-eating macaque, which is found in Siam and Burma. It owes its name
to its fondness for crabs, spending most of its time on the banks of
salt-water creeks in order to search for them. But perhaps the strangest
thing about it is that it is a splendid swimmer, and an equally good
diver, for it has been known to jump overboard and to swim more than
fifty yards under water, in its attempts to avoid recapture.

THE AMERICAN MONKEYS AND THE LEMURS

A great many very curious monkeys live in America; and in several ways
they are very different from those of Africa and Asia.

Most of the Old World monkeys, for example, possess large cheek-pouches,
in which, after eating a meal, they can carry away nearly enough food
for another. No doubt you have often seen a monkey with its cheeks
perfectly stuffed out with nuts. But in the American monkeys these
pouches are never found.

Then no American monkey has those bare patches on its hind quarters,
which are present in all the monkeys of the Old World, with the
exception of the great apes, and which are often so brightly colored.
And, more curious still, no American monkey has a proper thumb. The
fingers are generally very long and strong; but the thumb is either
wanting altogether, or else it is so small that it cannot be of the
slightest use.

[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS OF MONKEYS.

  1. Young Orang-utan "Dohong."       2. Barbary Ape.
  3. Japanese Red-faced Monkey.       4. White-faced Sapajou.
  5. Siamang Gibbon.                  6. Chimpanzee "Polly."

_All lived in the New York Zoölogical Park._]

SPIDER-MONKEYS

Perhaps the most curious of all the American monkeys are the
spider-monkeys, which look very much like big black spiders when one
sees them gamboling among the branches of the trees. The reason is that
their bodies are very slightly built, and their arms and legs are very
long and slender, while the tail is often longer than the head and body
together, and looks just like an extra limb. And indeed it is used as an
extra limb, for it is prehensile; that is, it can be coiled round any
small object so tightly as to obtain a very firm hold. A spider-monkey
never likes to take a single step without first twisting the tip of its
tail round a branch, so that this member really serves as a sort of
fifth hand. Sometimes, too, the animal will feed itself with its tail
instead of with its paws. And it can even hang from a bough for
some little time by means of its tail alone, in order to pluck fruit
which would otherwise be out of its reach.

Owing partly, no doubt, to constant use, the last few inches of this
wonderful tail are quite bare underneath--without any hair at all. It is
worth while to remember, just here, that while in many American monkeys
the tail has this prehensile grasp, no monkey of the Old World is
provided with this convenience.

When a spider-monkey finds itself upon level ground, where its tail, of
course, is of no use to it, it always seems very uncomfortable. But it
manages to keep its balance as it walks along by holding the tail over
its back, and just turning it first to one side and then to the other,
as the need of the moment may require. It uses it, in fact, very much as
an acrobat uses his pole when walking upon the tight rope.

It is rather curious to find that while other monkeys are very fond of
nibbling the tips of their own tails, often making them quite raw,
spider-monkeys never do so. They evidently know too well how useful
those members are to injure them by giving way to such a silly
habit--which is even worse than biting one's nails.

When a spider-monkey is shot as it sits in a tree, it always coils its
tail round a branch at once. And even after it dies, the body will often
hang for several days suspended by the tail alone.

These monkeys spend almost the whole of their lives in the trees,
feeding upon fruit and leaves, and only coming down to the ground when
they want to drink. As a general rule they are dreadfully lazy
creatures, and will sit on a bough for hours together without moving a
limb. But when they are playful, or excited, they swing themselves to
and fro and dart from branch to branch, almost as actively as the
gibbons.

HOWLERS

Very much like the spider-monkeys are the howlers, which are very common
in the great forests of Central America. They owe their name to
the horrible cries which they utter as they move about in the trees by
night. You remember how the gibbons hold a kind of concert in the
tree-tops every morning and every evening, as though to salute the
rising and the setting sun. Well, the howlers behave in just the same
way, except that their concert begins soon after dark and goes on all
through the night. They have very powerful voices, and travelers who are
not used to their noise say that it is quite impossible to sleep in the
forest if there is a troop of howlers anywhere within two miles. And it
is hard to believe that the outcry comes from the throats of monkeys at
all. "You would suppose," says a famous traveler, "that half the wild
beasts of the forest were collecting for the work of carnage. Now it is
the tremendous roar of the jaguar, as he springs upon his prey; now it
changes to his terrible and deep-toned growlings, as he is pressed on
all sides by superior force; and now you hear his last dying groan
beneath a mortal wound. One of them alone is capable of producing all
these sounds; and if you advance cautiously, and get under the high and
tufted trees where he is sitting, you may have a capital opportunity of
witnessing his wonderful powders of producing these dreadful and
discordant sounds."

If one monkey alone is capable of roaring as loudly as a jaguar, think
what the noise must be when fifty or sixty howlers are all howling at
the same time. No wonder travelers find it difficult to sleep in the
forest.

Perhaps the best known of these monkeys is the red howler. Its color is
reddish brown, with a broad band of golden yellow running along the
spine, while its face is surrounded by bushy whiskers and beard.

THE OUAKARI

Another very curious American monkey is the red-faced ouakari. If you
were to see it from a little distance you would most likely think that
it was suffering from a bad attack of scarlet fever; for the face and
upper part of the neck are bright red in color, as though they had been
smeared with vermilion paint. And as its whiskers and beard are
sandy yellow, it is a very odd-looking animal.

If a ouakari is unwell, strange to say, the bright color of its face
begins to fade at once, and very soon after death it disappears
altogether.

Ouakaris are generally caught in a very singular way. They are only
found in a very small district on the southern bank of the Amazon River,
and spend their whole lives in the topmost branches of the tallest
trees, where it is quite impossible to follow them. And if they were
shot with a gun, of course they would almost certainly be killed. So
they are shot with a blowpipe instead. A slender arrow is dipped into a
kind of poison called wourali, which has been diluted to about half its
usual strength, and is then discharged at the animal from below. Only a
very slight wound is caused, but the poison is still so strong that the
ouakari soon faints, and falls from its perch in the branches. But the
hunter, who is carefully watching, catches it in his arms as it falls,
and puts a little salt into its mouth. This overcomes the effect of the
poison, and very soon the little animal is as well as ever.

Ouakaris which are caught in this way, however, are generally very
bad-tempered, and the gentle and playful little animals sometimes seen
in zoos have been taken when very young. They are very delicate
creatures and nearly always die after a few weeks of confinement.

THE COUXIA

If you were to see a couxia, or black saki, as it is often called, the
first thing that you would say would most likely be, "What an
extraordinary beard!" And your next remark would be, "Why, it looks as
if it were wearing a wig!" For its projecting black beard is as big as
that of the most heavily bearded man you ever saw, while on its head is
a great mass of long black hair, neatly parted in the middle, and
hanging down on either side, so that it looks just like a wig which has
been rather clumsily made.

The couxia is extremely proud of its beard, and takes very great
pains to prevent it from getting either dirty or wet. Do you remember
how the diana monkey holds its beard with one hand while drinking, so as
to keep it from touching the water? Well, the couxia is more careful
still, for it will not put its lips to the water at all, but carries it
to its mouth, a very little at a time, in the palm of its hand. But the
odd thing is that it seems rather ashamed of thinking so much about its
"personal appearance," and, if it knows that anybody is looking at it,
will drink just like any other monkey, and pretend not to care at all
about wetting its beard.

Like most of the sakis, the couxia is not at all a good-tempered animal,
and is apt to give way to sudden fits of fury. So savagely will it bite
when enraged, that it has been known to drive its teeth deeply into a
thick board.

THE DOUROUCOULIS

Sometimes these odd little animals are called night-monkeys, because all
day long they are fast asleep in a hollow tree, and soon after sunset
they wake up, and all night long are prowling about the branches of the
trees, searching for roosting birds, and for the other small creatures
upon which they feed. They are very active, and will often strike at a
moth or a beetle as it flies by, and catch it in their deft little paws.
And their eyes are very much like those of cats, so that they can see as
well on a dark night as other monkeys can during the day.

The eyes, too, are very large. If you were to look at the skull of a
douroucouli, you would notice that the eye-sockets almost meet in the
middle, only a very narrow strip of bone dividing them. And the hair
that surrounds them is set in a circle, just like the feathers that
surround the eyes of an owl.

But perhaps the most curious fact about these animals is that sometimes
they roar like jaguars, and sometimes they bark like dogs, and sometimes
they mew like cats.

There are several different kinds of these little monkeys, the most
numerous, perhaps, being the three-banded douroucouli, which has three
upright black stripes on its forehead. They are all natives of Brazil
and other parts of tropical America.

MARMOSETS

One of the prettiest--perhaps the very prettiest--of all monkeys is the
marmoset, which is found in the same part of the world. It is quite a
small animal, being no bigger in body than a common squirrel, with a
tail about a foot long. This tail, which is very thick and bushy, is
white in color, encircled with a number of black rings, while the body
is blackish with gray markings, and the face is black with a white nose.
But what one notices more than anything else is the long tufts of
snow-white hair upon the ears, which make the little animal look
something like a white-haired negro.

Marmosets are very easily tamed, and they are so gentle in their ways,
and so engaging in their habits, that if only they were a little more
hardy we should most likely see them in this country as often as we see
pet cats. But they are delicate little creatures, and cannot bear cold.
What they like to eat most of all is the so-called black beetle of our
kitchens. If only we could keep pet marmosets, they would very soon
clear our houses of cockroaches, as these troublesome creatures are
correctly called. They will spend hours in hunting for the insects, and
whenever they catch one they pull off its legs and wings, and then
proceed to devour its body.

When a marmoset is suddenly alarmed, it utters an odd little whistling
cry. Owing to this habit it is sometimes known as the ouistiti, or
tee-tee.

LEMURS

Relatives of the monkeys, and yet in many respects very different from
them, are those very strange animals, the lemurs, which are sometimes
called half-apes. The reason why that name has been given to them is
this: Lemurs by the ancients were supposed to be ghosts which wandered
about by night. Now most of the lemurs are never seen abroad by day.
Their eyes cannot bear the bright sunlight; so all day long they sleep
in hollow trees. But when it is quite dark they come out,
prowling about the branches so silently and so stealthily that they
really seem more like specters than living animals.

When you see them close, they do not look very much like monkeys. Their
faces are much more like those of foxes, and they have enormous staring
eyes without any expression.

The true lemurs are only found in Madagascar, where they are so numerous
that two or three at least may be found in every little copse throughout
the island. More than thirty different kinds are known, of which,
however, we cannot mention more than two.

The first of these is the ring-tailed lemur, which may be recognized at
once by the fact that its tail is marked just like that of the marmoset.
The head and body are shaped like those of a very small fox, and the
color of the fur is ashy gray, rather darker on the back, and rather
lighter underneath. It lives in troops in Central Madagascar, and every
morning and every night each troop joins in a little concert, just like
the gibbons and the howlers.

But, oddly enough, this lemur is seldom seen in the trees. It lives on
the ground, in rough and rocky places, and its hands and feet are made
in such a way, as to enable it to cling firmly to the wet and slippery
boulders. In fact, they are not at all unlike the feet of a house-fly.
The body is clothed with long fur, and when a mother lemur carries her
little one about on her back it burrows down so deep into her thick coat
that one can scarcely see it at all.

The ruffed lemur is the largest of these curious animals, being about as
big as a good-sized cat. The oddest thing about it is that it varies so
very much in color. Sometimes it is white all over, sometimes it is
partly white and partly black, and sometimes it is reddish brown.
Generally, however, the shoulders and front legs, the middle of the
back, and the tail are black, or very dark brown, while the rest of the
body is white. And there is a great thick ruff of white hairs all round
the face.

The eyes of this lemur are very singular. You know, of course, how the
pupil of a cat's eye becomes narrower and narrower in a strong
light, until at last it looks merely like an upright slit in the
eyeball. Well, that of the lemur is made in very much the same way,
except that the pupil closes up from above and below instead of from the
sides, so that the slit runs across the eyeball, and not up and down.

The slender loris may be described as a lemur without a tail, It is
found in the forests of Southern India and Ceylon. It is quite small,
the head and body being only about eight inches long, and in general
appearance it gives one rather the idea of a bat without any wings. In
color it is dark gray, with a narrow white stripe between the eyes.

This animal has a very queer way of going to sleep. It sits on a bough
and rolls itself up into a ball with its head tucked away between its
thighs, while its hands are tightly folded round a branch springing up
from the one on which it is seated. In this attitude it spends the whole
of the day. At night it hunts for sleeping birds, moving so slowly and
silently among the branches as never to give the alarm, and always
plucking off their feathers before it proceeds to eat them. Strange to
say, while many monkeys have no thumbs, the slender loris has no
forefingers, while the great toes on its feet are very long, and are
directed backward instead of forward.

LEMUROIDS

There are two lemur-like animals which are so extraordinary that each of
them has been put into a family all by itself.

The first of these is the tarsier, which is found in several of the
larger islands in the Malay Archipelago. Imagine an animal about as big
as a small rat, with a long tail covered thickly with hair at the root
and the tip, the middle part being smooth and bare. The eyes are
perfectly round, and are so big that they seem to occupy almost the
whole of the face--great staring eyes with very small pupils. The ears
are very long and pointed, and stand almost straight up from the head.
Then the hind legs are so long that they remind one of those of a
kangaroo, while all the fingers and all the toes have large round pads
under the tips, which seem to be used as suckers, and to have a
wonderful power of grasp. Altogether, the tarsier scarcely looks like an
animal at all. It looks like a goblin.

This singular creature seldom seems to walk. It hops along the branches
instead, just as a kangaroo hops on the ground. And when it wants to
feed it sits upright on its hind quarters, and uses its fore paws just
as a squirrel does.

Even more curious still is the aye-aye, of Madagascar, which has puzzled
naturalists very much. For its incisor teeth--the sharp cutting teeth,
that is, in the middle of each jaw--are formed just like those of the
rat and the rabbit. They are made not for cutting but for gnawing; and
as fast as they are worn away from above they grow from beneath. All of
its fingers are long and slender; but the middle one is longer than all
the rest, and is so thin that it looks like nothing but skin and bone.
Most likely this finger, which has a sharp little claw at the tip, is
used in hooking out insects from their burrows in the bark of trees. But
the aye-aye does not feed only upon insects, for it often does some
damage in the sugar plantations, ripping up the canes with its sharp
front teeth in order to get at the sweet juices. It is said at times to
catch small birds, either for the purpose of eating them or else to
drink their blood. And it seems also to eat fruit, while in captivity it
thrives on boiled rice.

The aye-aye is about as big as a rather small cat, and its great bushy
tail is longer than its head and body put together. It is not a common
animal, even in Madagascar, and its name of aye-aye is said to have been
given to it on account of the exclamations of surprise uttered by the
natives when it was shown to them for the first time by a European
traveler. But it is more likely that the name comes from the cry of the
animal, which is a sort of sharp little bark twice repeated.

Strange to say, the natives of Madagascar are much afraid of the
aye-aye. Of course it cannot do much mischief with its teeth or claws;
but they seem to think that it possesses some magic power by means of
which it can injure those who try to catch it, or even cause them to
die. So that they cannot be bribed to capture it even by the offer of a
large reward. Sometimes, however, they catch it by mistake, finding an
aye-aye in a trap which has been set for lemurs. In that case
they smear it all over with fat, which they think will please it very
much, and then allow it to go free.

The aye-aye is seldom seen in captivity, and when in that state it
sleeps all day long.

CHAPTER IV

THE BATS

Next in order to the monkeys come the bats, the only mammals which are
able to fly. It is quite true that there are animals known as flying
squirrels, which are sometimes thought to have the power of flight. But
all that these can do, as we shall see by and by, is to take very long
leaps through the air, aided by the curious manner in which the loose
skin of the body is fastened to the inner surface of the legs.

HOW BATS FLY

Bats, however, really can fly, and the way in which their wings are made
is very curious. If you were to look at a bat's skeleton, you would
notice, first of all, that the front limbs were very much larger than
the hinder ones. The upper arm-bone is very long indeed, the lower
arm-bone is longer still, and the bones of the fingers are longest of
all. The middle finger of a bat, indeed, is often longer than the whole
of its body! Now these bones form the framework of the wing. You know
how the silk or satin of a lady's fan is stretched upon the ribs. Well,
a very thin and delicate skin is stretched upon the bones of a bat's arm
and hand in just the same way. And when the little animal wants to fly,
it stretches its fingers apart, and so spreads the wing. When it wants
to rest it closes them, and so folds it against its body.

Then you would notice that a high bony ridge runs down the bat's
breast-bone. Now such a ridge as this always signifies great strength,
because muscles must be fastened at each end to bones; and when the
muscles are very large and powerful, the bones must be very strong in
order to carry them. So, when an animal needs very strong
breast-muscles, so that it may be able to fly well, we always find a
high bony ridge running down its breast-bone; and to this ridge
the great muscles which work the wings are fastened.

Something more is necessary, however, if the animal is to fly properly.
It must be able to steer itself in the air just as a boat has to be
steered in the water. Otherwise it would never be able to fly in the
right direction. So nature has given it a kind of air-rudder; for the
skin which is stretched upon the wings is carried on round the end of
the body, and is supported there, partly by the hind legs, and partly by
the bones of the tail. And by turning this curious rudder to one side or
the other, or tilting it just a little up or a little down, the bat is
able to alter its course at will.

THE USEFUL CLAW

But you would notice something else on looking at a bat's skeleton. You
would notice that the bones of the thumb are not long and slender, like
those of the fingers, but that they are quite short and stout, with a
sharp hooked claw at the tip. The bat uses this claw when it finds
itself on the ground. It cannot walk, of course, as it has no front
feet; so it hitches itself along by means of its thumbs, hooking first
one claw into the ground and then the other, and so managing to drag
itself slowly and awkwardly forward.

It is not at all fond of shuffling along in this way, however, and
always takes to flight as soon as it possibly can. But as it cannot well
rise from the ground it has to climb to a little height and let itself
drop, so that as it falls it may spread its wings and fly away. And it
always climbs in a very curious manner, with its tail upward and its
head toward the ground, using first the claws of one little foot and
then those of the other.

When a bat goes to sleep it always hangs itself up by the claws of its
hind feet. In an old church tower, or a stable loft, you may often find
bats suspended in this singular way. And there is a reason for it. The
bat wants to be able, at the first sign of danger, to fly away. Now if
it lay flat upon the ground to sleep, as most animals do, it would not
be able to fly quickly; for it would have to clamber up a wall or a post
to some little height before it could spread its wings. And this
would take time. But if it should be alarmed while it is hanging by its
hind feet, all that it has to do is to drop into the air and fly off at
once.

BATS IN THE DARK

There is something else, too, that we must tell you about bats. They
have the most wonderful power of flying about on the darkest night,
without ever knocking up against the branches of trees, or any other
obstacles which they may meet on their way. It used to be thought that
this was because they had very keen eyes. But it has been found out that
even a blind bat has this power, which seems really to be due to very
sensitive nerves in the wings. You can feel a branch by touching it. But
a bat is able to feel a branch _without_ touching it, while it is
eight or ten inches away, and so has time to swerve to one side without
striking against it.

THE WINTER SLEEP

Bats, like hedgehogs and squirrels, pass through the winter in a kind of
deep sleep, which we call hibernation. It is more than ordinary sleep,
for they do not require any food for months together, while they
scarcely breathe once in twenty-four hours, and their hearts almost
cease to beat. If the winter is cold throughout, they do not wake at all
until the spring. But two or three hours' warm sunshine arouses them
from their slumber. They wake up, feel hungry, go out to look for a
little food, and then return to their retreats and pass into the same
strange sleep again.

AN INTERESTING SPECIMEN

"I once kept a long-eared bat as a pet," says a writer, "and a most
interesting little creature he was. One of his wings had been injured by
the person who caught him, so that he could not fly, and was obliged to
live on the floor of his cage. Yet, although he could take no
exercise, he used to eat no less than seventy large bluebottle flies
every evening. As long as the daylight lasted, he would take no notice
of the flies at all. They might crawl about all over him, but still he
would never move. But soon after sunset, when the flies began to get
sleepy, the bat would wake up. Fixing his eyes on the nearest fly, he
would begin to creep toward it so slowly that it was almost impossible
to see that he was moving. By degrees he would get within a few inches.
Then, quite suddenly, he would leap upon it, and cover it with his
wings, pressing them down on either side of his body so as to form a
kind of tent. Next he would tuck down his head, catch the fly in his
mouth, and crunch it up. And finally he would creep on toward another
victim, always leaving the legs and the wings behind him, which in some
strange way he had managed to strip off, just as we strip the legs from
shrimps.

"I often watched him, too, when he was drinking. As he was so crippled,
I used to pour a few drops of water on the floor of his cage, and when
he felt thirsty he would scoop up a little in his lower jaw, and then
throw his head back in order to let it run down his throat. But in a
state of freedom bats drink by just dipping the lower jaw into the water
as they skim along close to the surface of a pond or a stream, and you
may often see them doing so on a warm summer's evening."

THE PIPISTRELLE

The pipistrelle, a common European bat, is said to feed chiefly upon
gnats, of which it must devour a very large number, and as it much
prefers to live near human habitations, there can be no doubt that it
helps to keep houses free from these disagreeable insects. In captivity
it will feed freely upon raw meat chopped very small. It appears earlier
in the spring than the other bats, and remains later in the autumn.

HORSESHOE BATS

These bats of the Old World have a most curious leaf-like membrane upon
the face, which gives them a very odd appearance. In the great
horseshoe bat this membrane is double, like one leaf placed above
another. The lower one springs from just below the nostrils, and spreads
outward and upward on either side, so that it is shaped very much like a
horseshoe, while the upper one is pointed and stands upright, so as
partly to cover the forehead. The ears, too, are very large, and are
ribbed crosswise from the base to the tips; so that altogether this bat
is a strange-looking creature.

Perhaps none of the bats is more seldom seen than this, for it cannot
bear the light at all, and never comes out from its retreat until
darkness has quite set in. And one very seldom finds it asleep during
the day, for it almost always hides in dark and gloomy caverns, which
are hardly ever entered by any human being. In France, however, there
are certain caves in which great numbers of these bats congregate
together for their long winter sleep. As many as a hundred and eighty of
them have been counted in a single colony. And it is a very strange fact
that all the male bats seem to assemble in one colony, and all the
female bats in another.

VAMPIRES

In Central and South America, and also in the West Indian Islands, a
number of bats are found which are known as vampires. Some of these eat
insects, just like the bats of other countries, and one of them--known
as the long-tongued vampire--has a most singular tongue, both very long
and very slender, with a brush-like tip, so that it can be used for
licking out insects from the flowers in which they are hiding. Then
there are other vampires which eat fruit, like the flying foxes, about
which we shall have something to tell you soon. But the best known of
these bats, and certainly the strangest, are those which feed upon the
blood of living animals.

If you were to tether a horse in those parts of the forest where these
vampires live, and to pay it a visit just as the evening twilight was
fading into darkness, you would be likely to see a shadowy form hovering
over its shoulders, or perhaps even clinging to its body. This would be
a vampire bat; and when you came to examine the horse, you would
find that, just where you had seen the bat, its skin would be stained
with blood. For this bat has the singular power of making a wound in the
skin of an animal, and sucking its blood, without either alarming it or
appearing to cause it any pain. And if a traveler in the forest happens
to lie asleep in his hammock with his feet uncovered, he is very likely
to find in the morning that his great toe has been bitten by one of
these bats, and that he has lost a considerable quantity of blood. Yet
the bat never wakes him as it scrapes away the skin with its sharp-edged
front teeth.

Strangely enough, however, there are many persons whom vampires will
never bite. They may sleep night after night in the open, and leave
their feet entirely uncovered, and yet the bats will always pass them
by. Charles Waterton, a famous English traveler, was most anxious to be
bitten by a vampire, so that he might learn by his own experience
whether the infliction of the wound caused any pain. But though he slept
for eleven months in an open loft, through which the bats were
constantly passing, they never attempted to touch him, while an Indian
lad who slept in the same loft was bitten again and again.

But as these bats cannot always obtain blood, it is most likely that
they do not really live upon it, but only drink it when they have the
chance, and that as a rule their food consists of insects.

FLYING FOXES

Of course these are not really foxes. They are just big bats which feed
on fruit, instead of on insects or on blood. They are called also
fruit-bats. But their long, narrow faces are so curiously fox-like that
we cannot feel surprised that the name of flying foxes should have been
given to them.

Flying foxes are found in many parts of Asia, as well as in Madagascar
and in Australia, and in some places they are very common. In India,
long strings of these bats may be seen regularly every evening, as they
fly off from their sleeping-places to the orchards in search of fruit.
In some parts of India, early in the morning, and again in the evening,
the sky is often black with them as far as the eye can reach, and they
continue to pass overhead in an unbroken stream for nearly
three-quarters of an hour. And as they roost in great numbers on the
branches of tall trees, every bat being suspended by its hinder feet,
with its wings wrapped round his body, they look from a little distance
just like bunches of fruit.

It is rather curious to find that when they are returning to the trees
in which they roost, early in the morning, these bats quarrel and fight
for the best places, just as birds do.

In districts where they are at all plentiful, flying foxes do a great
deal of mischief, for it is almost impossible to protect the orchards
from their attacks. Even if the trees are covered all over with netting
they will creep underneath it, and pick out all the best and ripest of
the fruit; while, as they only pay their visits of destruction under
cover of darkness, it is impossible to lie in wait for them and shoot
them as they come.

The flight of the fruit-bats is not at all like that of the bats with
which we are familiar, for as they do not feed upon insects there is no
need for them to be constantly changing their course, and darting first
to one side and then to the other in search of victims. So they fly
slowly and steadily on, following one another just as crows do, and
never turning from their course until they reach their feeding-ground.

The largest of these fruit-bats is the kalong, which is found in the
islands of the Malay Archipelago. It measures over five feet from tip to
tip of the extended wings. The Malays often use it for food, and its
flesh is said to be delicate and well flavored.

CHAPTER V

THE INSECT-EATERS

Next to the bats comes the important tribe of the insect-eaters,
containing a number of animals which are so called because most of them
feed chiefly upon insects.

THE COLUGO

One of the strangest of these is the colugo, which lives in Siam, Java,
and the Islands of the Malay Archipelago. It is remarkable for its
wonderful power of leaping, for it will climb a tall tree, spring
through the air, and alight on the trunk of another tree seventy or
eighty yards away. For this reason it has sometimes been called the
"flying colugo"; but it does not really fly. It merely skims from tree
to tree. And if you could examine its body you would be able to see at
once how it does so.

First of all, you would notice that the skin of the lower surface is
very loose. You know how loose the skin of a dog's neck is, and how you
can pull it up ever so far from the flesh. Well, the skin of the colugo
is quite as loose as that on the sides and lower parts of its body.

Then you would notice that this loose skin is fastened along the inner
side of each leg, so that the limbs are connected by membrane just like
the toes of a duck's foot. And you would also see that when the legs are
stretched out at right angles to the body, this membrane must be
stretched out with them.

Now when a colugo wishes to take a long leap, it springs from the tree
on which it is resting, spreads out its limbs, and skims through the air
just as an oyster-shell does if you throw it sideways from the hand. The
air buoys it up, you see, and enables it to travel ten times as far as
it could without this loose skin. But of course this is not flight. The
animal does not beat the air with the membrane between the legs,
as bats and birds do with their wings. It cannot alter its course in the
air; and it is always obliged to alight at a lower level than that from
which it sprang.

The colugo is about as big as a good-sized cat, and its fur is olive or
brown in color, mottled with whitish blotches and spots. When it clings
closely to the trunk of a tree, and remains perfectly motionless, it may
easily be overlooked, for it looks just like a patch of bark covered
with lichens and mosses. It is said to sleep suspended from a branch
with its head downward, like the bats; and whether this is the case or
not, its tail is certainly prehensile, like that of a spider-monkey. And
strangest of all, perhaps, is the fact that, although it belongs to the
group of the insect-eaters, it feeds upon leaves.

THE HEDGEHOG

In European countries, where it is common, one can scarcely walk through
the meadows on a summer's evening without seeing this curious animal as
it moves clumsily about in search of prey. There everybody is familiar
with its spiky coat, which affords such an excellent protection against
almost all its enemies.

But it is not everybody who knows how the animal raises and lowers its
spines. It has them perfectly under control; we all know that. If you
pick a hedgehog up it raises its spines at once, even if it does not
roll itself up into a ball and so cause them to project straight out
from its body in all directions. But if you keep the creature as a pet,
and treat it kindly, it will very soon allow you to handle it freely
without raising its spines at all.

The fact is this. The spines are shaped just like slightly bent pins,
each having a sort of rounded head at the base. And they are pinned, as
it were, through the skin, the heads lying underneath it. Besides this,
the whole body is wrapped up in a kind of muscular cloak, and in this
the heads of the spines are buried. So if the muscle is pulled in one
direction, the spines must stand up, because the heads are carried along
with it. If it is pulled in the other direction they must lie
down, for the same reason. And it is just by pulling this muscle in one
direction or the other that the animal raises and lowers its spines.

HEDGEHOG HABITS

The hedgehog is not often seen wandering about by day, because it is
then fast asleep, snugly rolled up in a ball under the spreading roots
of a tree, or among the dead leaves at the bottom of a hedge. But soon
after sunset it comes out from its retreat, and begins to hunt about for
food. Sometimes it will eat bird's eggs, being very fond of those of the
partridge; for which reason it is not at all a favorite with the
gamekeeper. It will devour small birds, too, if it can get them, also
lizards, snails, slugs, and insects. It has often been known to kill
snakes and to feed upon their bodies afterward. It is a cannibal, too,
at times, and will kill and eat one of its own kind. But best of all it
likes earthworms.

The number of these which it will crunch up one after another is
astonishing. "I once kept a tame hedgehog," says a naturalist, "and fed
him almost entirely upon worms; and he used to eat, on an average,
something like an ordinary jampotful every night of his life. He never
took the slightest notice of the worms as long as the daylight lasted;
but when it began to grow dark he would wake up, go sniffing about his
cage till he came to the jampot, and then stand up on his hind feet, put
his fore paws on the edge, and tip it over. And after about an hour and
a half of steady crunching, every worm had disappeared."

In many places farmers persecute the hedgehog, and kill it whenever they
have a chance of doing so. And if you ask the reason the answer is
generally to the effect that hedgehogs steal milk from sleeping cows at
night. Now it does not seem very likely that a cow would allow such a
spiky creature as a hedgehog to come and nestle up against her body.
But, on the other hand, it cannot be denied that hedgehogs are often to
be seen close by cows as they rest upon the ground. But they have not
gone there in search of milk. Don't you know what happens if you lay a
heavy weight, such as a big paving-stone, on the ground? The worms
buried under it feel the pressure, and come up to the surface in
alarm. Now a cow is a very heavy weight; so that when she lies down a
number of worms are sure to come up all round her. And the hedgehog
visits the spot in search, not of milk, but of worms!

The young of the hedgehog, which are usually four in number, do not look
in the least like their parents, and you might easily mistake them for
young birds; for their spikes are very soft and white, so that they look
much more like growing feathers. The little creatures are not only
blind, but also deaf, for several days after birth, and they cannot roll
themselves up till they have grown somewhat. The mother animal always
makes a kind of warm nest to serve as a nursery, and thatches it so
carefully that even a heavy shower of rain never seems to soak its way
through.

Strange to say, the hedgehog appears to be quite unaffected by many
kinds of poison. It will eat substances which would cause speedy death
to almost any other animal. And over and over again it has been bitten
by a viper without appearing to suffer any ill results.

In England, about the middle of October, the hedgehog retires to some
snug and well-hidden retreat, and there makes a warm nest of moss and
dry leaves. In this it hibernates, just as bats do in hollow trees, only
waking up now and then for an hour or two on very mild days, and often
passing three or four months without taking food.

SHREWS

During the earlier part of the autumn, you may very often find a curious
mouse-like little animal lying dead upon the ground. But if you look at
it carefully, you will see at once that in several respects it is quite
different from the true mice.

In the first place you will notice that its mouth is produced into a
long snout, which projects far in front of the lower jaw. Now no mouse
ever has a snout like that. Then you will find that all its teeth are
sharply pointed, while the front teeth of a mouse have broad, flat edges
specially meant for nibbling at hard substances. And, thirdly, you
will see that its tail, instead of gradually tapering to a pointed
tip, is comparatively short, and is squared in a very curious manner.
The fact is that the little animal is not a mouse at all, but a kind of
shrew, of which there are many American species. One is large, and
pushes through the top-soil like a mole. Another, smaller, is blackish,
and has a short tail. The commonest one is mouse-gray and only two
inches long plus a very long tail. It is fond of water, but has no such
interesting habits as those of the European shrew next described.

These creatures are very common almost everywhere. But we very seldom
see them alive, because they are so timid that the first sound of an
approaching footstep sends them away into hiding. Yet they are not at
all timid among themselves. On the contrary, they are most quarrelsome
little creatures, and are constantly fighting. If two shrews meet, they
are almost sure to have a battle, and if you were to try to keep two of
them in the same cage, one would be quite certain to kill and eat the
other before very long. They are not cannibals as a rule, however, for
they feed upon worms and insects, and just now and then upon snails and
slugs. And no doubt they do a great deal of good by devouring
mischievous grubs.

Why these little animals die in such numbers just at the beginning of
the autumn, nobody quite seems to know. It used to be thought that they
were killed by cats, or hawks, or owls, which refused to eat them
because of some unpleasant flavor in their flesh. But then one never
finds any mark of violence on their bodies. A much more absurd idea was
that they always die if they run across a path which has been trodden by
the foot of man! Perhaps the real reason may be that just at that season
of the year they perish from starvation.

THE WATER-SHREW

The best way to see this pretty little creature is to go and lie down on
the bank of a stream, and to keep perfectly still for five or ten
minutes. If you do this--not moving even a finger--you will very
likely see half a dozen or more of the little animals at play. They go
rushing about in the wildest excitement, chasing one another, tumbling
over one another, and uttering curious little sharp, short squeaks, just
like a party of boys let out from school after a long morning's work.
Suddenly one will dash into the water and dive, quickly followed by
another and then by a third. As they swim away beneath the surface they
look just like balls of quicksilver, because their soft, silky fur
entangles thousands of little air-bubbles, which reflect back the light
just as a looking-glass does. And you will notice that they do not swim
straight. First they turn to one side, and then to the other side,
exactly like some one who has just learned to ride a bicycle, but does
not yet know how to keep the front wheel straight. And the reason is
this. The shrew swims by means of its hind feet, which are fringed with
long hairs, so as to make them more useful as paddles; and it uses them
by striking out first with one and then with the other. The consequence
is that when it strikes with the right foot its head turns to the left,
while when it strikes with the left foot its head turns to the right.

But it would not be able to swim even as straight as it does if it were
not for its tail, which is fringed with long hairs just like the hind
feet. And as the little animal paddles its way through the water it
keeps its tail stretched out behind it, and uses it as a rudder, turning
it a little bit to one side or the other, so as to help it in keeping
its course.

After chasing one another under water for a minute or two, the little
animals give up their game. And now, if you watch them carefully, you
can see them hunting for food. First they go to one stone down at the
bottom of the stream, and then to another, poking their long snouts
underneath in search of fresh-water shrimps, or the grubs of
water-insects. But a minute or two later they are all back on the bank
again, dashing about and chasing one another and squeaking as merrily as
ever.

Sometimes you may see a water-shrew which is very much darker in color
than the others, the fur on the upper part of its body being almost
black. It used to be thought that such animals as this belonged to a
different species, to which the name of oared shrew was given. But we
know now that they are only dark varieties of the common water-shrew.

JUMPING SHREWS

These are all found in Africa. They are curious little creatures with
extremely long hind feet, by means of which they leap along just as if
they were tiny kangaroos. So swift are they, that it is very difficult
for the eye to follow their movements. And as they disappear into their
burrows at the slightest alarm and do not come out again for some little
time, few people ever have a chance of watching their habits.

The snouts of these shrews are so very long that the little animals are
often known as elephant-shrews.

TREE-SHREWS

This is a group so called because they spend almost the whole of their
lives in the trees. In some ways they are not unlike tiny squirrels,
being nearly as active in their movements, and sitting up on their hind
quarters to feed, while the food is held in their fore paws. They are
found in various parts of Southern Asia. They soon become very tame,
actually entering houses, and climbing up on the table while the
occupants are sitting at meals. They will even drink tea and coffee out
of the cups! And if they are encouraged they make themselves quite at
home, and will drive away any other tree-shrews which may venture into
the house.

The largest animal of this group is the tupaia, which lives in Borneo
and Sumatra. But the most curious is the pen-tailed tree-shrew, which
has a double fringe of long hairs at the end of its tail, arranged just
like the barbs of a feather, so that its tail looks very much like a
quill pen. The rest of the tail, which is very long, is covered with
square scales; and while the tail itself is black, the fringe of hairs
is white, so that the appearance of the animal is very odd. It is found
in Sarawak, and also in some of the smaller islands of the Malay
Archipelago.

THE DESMAN

This animal may be described as a kind of mixture of the elephant-shrew
and the water-shrew; for it has an extremely long and flexible snout,
and it spends almost its whole life in the water. Its feet are very well
adapted for swimming, the toes being joined together by a web-like
membrane like those of the duck and the swan, so that they form most
exquisite paddles. And the animal is so fond of the water that, although
it lives in a burrow in the bank of a stream, it always makes the
entrance below the surface.

This is a very good plan in one way, for if the little animal is chased
by one of its enemies, it can easily take refuge in its long, winding
tunnel, which twists about so curiously, and has so many side passages,
that the pursuer is almost sure to be baffled. But in another way it is
a bad plan, for as the burrow has no entrance except the one under
water, it never gets properly ventilated, the only connection with the
outer air being some chance cranny in the ground. And in winter-time,
when deep snow has covered up this cranny, while the surface of the
stream is frozen to a depth of several inches, the poor little desman
can get no fresh air at all, and often dies in its own burrow from
suffocation.

This animal has a curious musky odor, which is due to certain glands
near the root of the tail. So strong is this odor, that if a pike
happens to have swallowed a desman a few days before it is caught, its
flesh cannot be eaten, for its whole body both smells and tastes
strongly of musk. Two kinds of desman are known. One is the Russian
desman, which is found in the steppes, and the other is the Pyrenean
desman, which lives in the range of mountains from which it takes its
name.

THE COMMON MOLE

This is perhaps the most interesting of all the insect-eaters. Have you
ever noticed how wonderfully it is suited for a life which is almost
entirely spent under the ground?

Notice, first of all, the shape of its body. It is a pointed cylinder.
Now that is the very best shape for a burrowing animal, because it
offers so little resistance to the ground as the creature forces its way
along. And nowadays we make all our boring tools and weapons of that
shape. The gimlet, which has to bore through wood; the bullet, which has
to bore through air; the torpedo and the submarine boat, which have to
bore through water--they are all made in the form of pointed cylinders.
And the mole is a pointed cylinder too. Its body is the cylinder, and
its head is the point; and so the animal is able to work its way through
the soil with as little difficulty as possible.

Then notice the character of its fur. It has no "set" in it. You can
stroke it backward or forward with equal ease. And this is most
important in an animal which lives in a burrow. If a mole had fur like
that of a cat, it would be able to travel head foremost through its
tunnel quite easily; but it could not move backward. And this would
never do, for sometimes the mole is attacked by an enemy in front, while
it has no room to turn round in order to retreat. So nature has made its
fur in such a way that it "gives" in either direction, and enables the
little animal to move either forward or backward with equal ease.

A WONDROUS DIGGER

See what wonderful front paws the mole has--so broad, so very strong,
and armed with such great, stout claws. They are partly pickaxes, and
partly spades, which can tear away the earth and fling it up into
molehills with the most wonderful speed. The rapidity with which a mole
can dig is really marvelous. "Three times," a writer tells us, "I have
seen moles walking about on the ground. Each time I was within ten yards
of the animal; each time I ran to the spot. And yet each time the little
creature had disappeared into the ground before I could get there! It
did not seem to be digging. It simply seemed to sink into the soil, just
as though it were sinking into water."

Then just see how hard and horny the skin of the paws is. If it were
not for this, the mole would be always cutting itself with sharp flints
as it dug its way through the ground. Notice, too, how both the eyes and
ears are hidden away under the fur, so that fragments of earth may not
fall into them. Nature has been very careful to suit the mole to the
strange life which she calls upon it to lead.

Perhaps no animal is so strong for its size as the mole. Its muscles and
sinews are so hard that they will turn the edge of a knife. If a mole
could be magnified to the size of a lion or a tiger, and its strength
could be increased in corresponding degree, it would be by far the more
powerful animal of the two.

THE MOLE AND ITS FOOD

The reason why the mole is so strong, and so well suited for a life
underground, is that it is meant to feed partly upon worms, and partly
upon such grubs as wireworms, which live on the roots of plants. And the
appetite of the animal is astonishing. It is ever eating, and yet never
appears to be satisfied. Don't think of keeping a mole as a pet; because
if you do, you will have to spend almost the whole of your time in
digging up worms for it to eat! Mole-catchers say, indeed, that if a
mole goes without eating for three hours it is in danger of starvation.
So that the animal must spend the greater part of the day, and of the
night too, in searching for food.

How does it find the worms and grubs? Well, of course it cannot see
underground; so sometimes, we may think, it smells them, for its scent
is certainly very keen. But oftener, most likely, it hears them moving
about; for its ears are even keener still. Haven't you noticed that,
although you may often walk through fields which are almost covered with
molehills, you never see the earth being thrown up? That is because the
mole hears you coming. It hears your footsteps when you are a hundred
yards distant, or even more, and immediately stops work until you have
gone away again. In "The Tempest," Caliban tells his companions to
"tread softly, that the blind mole may not hear a footfall." Although
Shakespeare was wrong in thinking that moles are blind, he was quite
right in reminding us that they have very sharp ears.

FRIEND OR FOE?

The gardener, of course, looks upon the mole as a foe; and so it is when
it drives its tunnels under our lawns, and throws up great heaps of
earth on the surface of the grass. And the farmer regards it as a foe
too, and kills it whenever he has an opportunity. But perhaps the farmer
may not know what a busy little animal the mole is, and what thousands
and thousands of mischievous grubs it devours. There are wireworms,
which nibble away at the roots of plants till they kill them, and then
move on to destroy other plants in the same way. There are
"leather-jackets," or daddy-long-legs grubs, which feed upon the roots
of grass, and sometimes ruin all the turf in a meadow. There are also
the great fat white grubs of beetles, which are worse, perhaps, than
either; and many others as well. Now the mole is always preying upon
these. It eats them in hundreds every day of its life. And just think of
all the mischief that they would have done if they had been allowed to
live! No doubt it is annoying to the farmer to have molehills among his
hay, which blunt the knives of the reaping-machines, and prevent them
from cutting properly. But even that is better than having no hay to
cut; and there would be none if all these mischievous grubs were allowed
to live.

But there is another way as well in which the mole is useful; for the
earth which it digs up from down below, and throws up in heaps on the
surface of the ground, serves for what the farmer calls a top-dressing.
After a time, you see, the nourishment in the soil at the surface is
sucked out of it by the roots of the grass. If it were in a garden, the
farmer could dig it. If it were in a corn-field, or a turnip-field, he
could plow it. But in a meadow, he can do neither, without destroying
the pasture. So he applies a top-dressing. He gets some good, rich earth
from elsewhere, and spreads it over the surface; and this earth works
down to the grass-roots, and gives them just the nourishment they
require.

Now this is exactly what the mole is always doing. The earth which it
throws up is fresh, rich earth from down below, which the roots have not
reached. It is just what the failing grass requires. And if the farmer
rakes the molehills down, so as to spread this earth evenly over the
surface of the field, he finds that it forms a top-dressing quite as
good as any he could apply himself. So instead of looking upon the mole
as one of his enemies, he ought to include it in the list of his
laborers.

THE LITTLE WELL-DIGGER

Another thing that we must tell you about the mole is the way in which
it obtains water. It is a very thirsty animal, and constantly requires
to drink. At the same time, it cannot leave its burrow half a dozen
times a day, in order to visit a stream or a pond, for it would almost
certainly be killed by one of its many enemies. So it actually digs
little wells of its own, always doing so in the dampest parts of its
tunnels, where they fill up almost immediately. And when it wants to
drink it just goes off to the nearest of these wells and satisfies its
thirst.

THE MOLE'S FORTRESS

But the most wonderful thing that the mole does is to make what we call
a fortress, surrounding the chamber in which it sleeps. This fortress is
situated either in a natural mound of earth, or else beneath the
spreading roots of a tree or a large bush; and it is made in this way:
First the mole digs a short circular gallery. A little way under this it
digs another, rather larger in diameter, and connects the two by means
of five short passages. In the middle of the mound, and about half-way
between the two galleries, it scoops out a large round hole, from which
three passages run to the lower gallery. This is the mole's bedroom, and
it communicates with the main burrow by a tunnel which dips under the
lower gallery. Finally, a number of runs branch out from the lower
gallery in all directions.

So, you see, if a mole is chased by an enemy, it can nearly always
escape by passing through its fortress. It goes up one passage, down
another, up again by a third, down again by a fourth, and then off by
one of the side runs; so that its pursuer is almost sure to be
bewildered. And if the little animal should be surprised while asleep,
it can escape in any direction without losing even a moment.

As the mole always likes to make itself comfortable, it collects
together a quantity of dry grass, moss, and leaves, and piles them up in
the central chamber, so as to make a warm and cosy bed! And the female
mole makes a nursery for her little ones in much the same way.

FIERCE FIGHTERS

Sad to say, moles are very quarrelsome little animals, and frequently
fight when they meet. Here is an account of one of their battles,
written by a passer-by who happened to witness it.

"Walking along a quiet lane, I heard some very funny little squeaks
proceeding from the other side of the hedge. I am perfectly used to all
sorts of animal and bird sounds, but had never heard the like of these
before. On getting cautiously over the hedge, I found two moles fighting
in the ditch. I went to within two yards of them, but they took not the
slightest notice of me, so intent were both on their business. I at once
looked at my watch. They kept on, up and down, scratch and bite, for
seven minutes, when one turned the other completely over on his back,
and seized him by the throat, which he cut as cleanly as if done by a
knife, thus finishing the fight. The way in which they used their
formidable front feet was surprising."

THE STAR-NOSED MOLE

This mole is found in the United States and Canada. It is a very
odd-looking animal, for its muzzle is shaped into a long snout, at the
tip of which is a circle of fleshy rays of a rosy red color, which look
like the petals of a red daisy, or the spreading arms of a sea-anemone.
These rays can be opened wide or closed up at pleasure, and seem to
serve as very delicate organs of touch, helping the animal in finding
and catching its prey.

This mole is also remarkable for having a very long tail, which is more
than half the length of the head and body. The total length is about
seven inches.

CHAPTER VI

THE LARGER CATS

Now we come to the beasts of prey, foremost among which stand the
members of the great cat tribe. All these animals have their bodies
formed in a very wonderful way.

First of all, their eyes are intended for use chiefly by night. If you
look at a cat's eyes during broad daylight, when the sun is shining, you
will notice that the pupils, through which she sees, are nothing more
than mere narrow slits in the middle. Look at them again toward evening,
when the twilight is just beginning to creep on, and you will see that
the pupils are a good deal bigger, occupying nearly half the eyeball.
Look at them once again, when it is almost dark, and you will find that
they are bigger still, having widened out over nearly the whole of the
eye.

Now the eyes of a lion and a tiger are made in just the same way. The
darker the night, the more the pupils expand, so that they may be able
to take in the few rays of light that there are. We sometimes say that
these animals can see in the dark. That, of course, is a mistake, for in
perfect darkness no animal can see at all. But even on the darkest night
there is always some light, and no matter how little there is it is
enough to allow lions and tigers to see perfectly well, because of the
wonderful way in which their eyes are made.

THE STEALTHY TREAD

But these creatures do not only want to be able to see their victims on
a dark night; they also want to be able to creep up to them without
making the slightest sound. It would be quite useless, for instance, for
a lion to chase a deer, because the deer is by far the swifter animal of
the two. If the lion is to catch the deer at all he must spring upon it
unawares, and strike it down before it knows its danger. And this is
not at all easy, for the ears of a deer are very sharp, and if the lion
were to make the least noise while creeping up, it would take the alarm
directly. But under his great broad paws the lion has soft, fleshy
cushions, which enable him to walk along without making any noise at
all. Haven't you noticed how silent a cat's tread is? You simply cannot
hear her place her foot upon the ground. Well, lions and tigers walk in
just the same noiseless manner, so that the deer never hears them
creeping up, and is struck down and killed before it has time to realize
its danger.

[Illustration: FOUR GREAT CATS

  1. Lion and Lioness.           2. Canada Lynx.
  3. Cheeta.                     4. Tiger.]

But suppose that there are bushes in the way. Suppose, for example, that
in order to approach the deer at all the lion must creep through a
thicket. Is he not quite sure to brush up against a branch as he does
so, causing the leaves to rustle? And will not the deer hear the sound
and take the alarm?

Well, no doubt this would happen if the lion had to depend for his
silent approach only on the soft cushions under his feet. But then, you
see, he has whiskers as well! Perhaps you thought these were only meant
for ornament. But they are meant for use; and they are employed in a
very curious manner. When they are spread out on either side, they
measure from tip to tip exactly the width of the body. Besides this,
there is a very delicate sensitive nerve at the root of every whisker,
which runs straight to the brain. So, you see, if the tip of a whisker
is touched, the brain feels it directly; and if as the lion is creeping
through the bushes his outspread whiskers brush against the branches, he
knows at once that there is no room for him to pass without making a
noise and alarming his victim. So he draws his head back, and creeps up
by another way.

KILLING AND EATING

Then it is very important that his claws should be kept sharp; for he
depends upon them for tearing his victim down. So every claw fits into a
sheath, which protects the point, and prevents it from being worn down
by rubbing against the ground. You can easily see these sheaths by
examining the paw of a cat; and those of the lion and tiger are formed
in just the same way. And the muscles which work them are so arranged
that they keep the claws always drawn back, except just when the animal
uses its paw in striking.

And then, once more, these animals have very curious tongues. Haven't
you noticed when a cat has licked your hand how very dry and rough her
tongue feels? It is quite different from the smooth, wet tongue of a
dog. Well, the tongue of a lion or tiger is even rougher still; and if
you were to look at it sideways, you would see why. It is covered all
over with sharp hook-like projections, the points of which are directed
toward the throat.

The reason is this: a lion or a tiger does not succeed in killing prey
every night. Sometimes it hunts for one night, sometimes for two nights,
sometimes even for three nights, without any success at all. So that
when it does catch a victim, it wants to eat as much of its flesh as it
possibly can. And if its tongue were not made in this singular manner,
it would have to waste a great deal; for its sharp-pointed teeth cannot
tear off nearly all the flesh of the bones. By means of its rough
tongue, however, it can lick off even the tiniest scraps; and not even
the smallest atom has to be wasted.

If you give a dog a bone which is too big for him to crunch up and
swallow, you will always find that he leaves a good deal of meat upon
it. But if you give a similar bone to a hungry cat, you will find that
she licks it perfectly clean. That is because her tongue is made in just
the same way as that of a lion.

LIONS

About forty different kinds of cats are known, most of which are found
in the warmer parts of Africa and Asia. The most famous of all, of
course, is the lion, which is spread over the greater part of the
African continent, and is also found in Persia and in India.

We need not describe the lion, for everybody knows perfectly well what
it is like. But perhaps you do not know that the Indian lion hardly ever
has a mane. For this reason it was formerly thought that there were two
different kinds of lions, the Indian animal being quite different from
that found in Africa. But we now know that this is not the case, and
that the Indian lion is only a kind or variety, not a distinct species.

But there are very few lions left in India now, while even in Persia
they are not nearly so plentiful as they used to be. In many parts of
Africa, however, these animals abound, and it is not at all an uncommon
thing for six or eight to be seen together.

During the daytime the lion is generally fast asleep, lying up in a
thicket, or in a bed of reeds by the side of a pool or a river. But as
soon as night falls he leaves his retreat, and begins to prowl about in
search of prey, roaring loudly from time to time. One would think that
this would only alarm other animals, and lead them to seek safety in
flight. But when a lion roars he generally puts his head close to the
ground, and this has the effect of making it almost impossible for them
to tell from which direction the sound is coming, so that they do not
know how best to try to escape him. And very often, in their
bewilderment, they rush to the very spot where he is lying in wait.

When a lion springs upon his victim, he either kills it by a stroke from
his terrible paw, or else bites it in the throat or across the back of
the neck. He then drags it away to some convenient retreat, eats his
fill, and returns to his lair to sleep. Next day, very likely, he will
return to the carcass for another meal. But when he gets there he often
finds that the jackals and hyenas have discovered it, and left very
little for him.

Wherever a lion goes he is almost sure to be followed by a number of
jackals, all anxious to feast on the remains of the animals he kills.
But he never allows them to approach until he has eaten as much as he
can possibly swallow, and it is said that if one of them attempts to do
so he will catch it and bite off all its paws as a warning to the others
to be more respectful.

According to a great many hunters, the lion is not nearly so courageous
as it is generally supposed to be, and is really rather a cowardly
animal. They say, for example, that it will hardly ever face a man
unless it is brought to bay, but will always try to slink away and
escape. If they kill a deer, and want to protect its body from the
lions, they can always do so by tying two or three streamers of white
cloth to sticks planted round the carcass, so that they flutter in the
wind. And though the animals may prowl round and round all through the
night, roaring loudly from time to time, they will never venture to
approach within fifteen or twenty yards. Neither will they attack a
tethered horse if the bridle is left hanging from its neck.

All hunters agree, however, that if a lion is wounded, or if it sees no
chance of escape, it is a most terrible foe, and cannot be encountered
without the utmost peril.

If a lion is captured while quite young, it is very easily tamed, and
can even be taught to perform all kinds of tricks at the word of
command. But lions born in captivity are not nearly so easy to manage,
and can never be depended upon for a moment.

Lions generally have three or four cubs at a birth, and the little
animals are just as playful at kittens. But although they are always
ready for a good romp it is not wise to play with them, for a baby lion
is as big as a good-sized cat, and is very much stronger, so that a bite
from its teeth or a blow from its paw is rather a serious matter. For
the first few months of their lives the cubs are brindled, almost like
tigers, the stripes disappearing by degrees as the fur grows darker.
They do not reach their full size until they are about four years old.

TIGERS

The tiger is found principally in the jungles of India, although it is
spread over the greater part of Central and Southern Asia. In some
respects it is a finer animal than even the lion. It is certainly
stronger; it is quite as courageous; and it is nearly as large, though
the shortness of its legs and the absence of a mane cause it to appear a
good deal smaller.

Probably any one, on seeing a tiger for the first time, would imagine
that it must be a very conspicuous animal in its native jungle. But, as
a matter of fact, this is not the case at all. As long as a tiger keeps
perfectly still it is most difficult to see him, even if you happen to
be looking straight at him; for his bright orange fur, marked with
glossy black stripes, looks just like the yellow leaves of the
jungle-grass, with streaks of deep shadow between them. This coloring,
of course, helps the tiger in two ways. In the first place, when he is
hunting, it enables him to creep up to his victims without being seen;
and in the second place, when he is being hunted himself, it often helps
him to crawl away without being noticed.

In some parts of India tigers are still extremely common; and of course
they do a great deal of mischief. They are very fond of preying upon
domesticated cattle, and sometimes, every four or five days for months
together, the same tiger will kill and carry away a bullock from the
same herd. He generally kills his victims by springing upon them
suddenly, seizing their throats with his jaws, and then wrenching their
heads backward and sideways, so as to break their necks. Then he will
either drag away the carcass into the jungle at once, or he will hide
close by, and come back in order to feast upon it when night is
beginning to fall.

Of course a tiger cannot devour the whole of a bullock's body at one
meal; but at the same time he does not care to leave the remainder for
the jackals. So when he has eaten his fill he nearly always finds a
sleeping place close by, so that if he should wake up and hear a party
of jackals quarreling over the carcass, he can rush out at them and
drive them away.

MAN-EATERS

But worse by far than the cattle-destroying tigers are the man-eaters.
These are sometimes said to be the old and almost toothless animals
which can no longer kill a buffalo or a bullock, and therefore take to
preying upon human beings instead. But very often quite a young animal
becomes a man-eater; and it is said that if a tiger should once taste
human blood he will always prefer it afterward to any other food.

A man-eating tiger will often throw a whole district into a state of
terror. Day after day he will conceal himself among the thick bushes
which border a native road, and lie in wait for solitary passers-by. One
day, perhaps, a man will be carried off; the next day, a woman; the day
after, a child. No one knows where the animal is hiding; and sometimes
he will succeed in killing fifty or sixty human beings before he is
discovered and destroyed.

TIGER-HUNTING

When the natives kill a tiger, they generally do so by driving him into
a small clump of jungle, surrounding it with stout netting, and then
spearing him through the meshes. Or perhaps they will climb a tree close
to the carcass of a bullock which the animal has killed, and shoot him
when he comes at dusk to feast upon its remains. But in Oudh the tiger
is said to have been formerly destroyed in a very curious way. A number
of leaves of the prauss tree, which are large and broad like those of a
sycamore, were smeared with a kind of bird-lime, and laid upon the
ground in the animal's path. When he came along one of these leaves
would stick to his paws, and he would find that he could not shake it
off. So he would try to remove it by rubbing it against his face. The
only result, of course, would be that his nose and eyes became covered
with bird-lime. Meanwhile he had trodden upon other leaves, which he
tried to remove in the same way. Before very long his eyelids were stuck
down so that he could not open them. Then he would lie down and rub his
face upon the ground, covering it with earth, and so making matters
worse. By this time he would be thoroughly frightened and begin to howl
pitifully, so that when the hunters came running up they found the poor
beast an easy prey.

Europeans, however, hunt the tiger by means of elephants, which have to
be carefully trained before they can be depended upon to face the
furious animal. A number of elephants are generally employed, the
hunters riding in howdahs, seats fixed upon their backs, while several
hundred natives, perhaps, act as beaters, shouting and yelling, beating
drums, firing guns, and making as much din as they possibly can to
frighten the animal from its retreat. Sometimes it is so terrified that
it slinks out, and falls an easy prey. But now and then it will charge
the nearest elephant with the utmost fury, sometimes springing upon it
and almost reaching the howdah before it is killed by a well-directed
bullet.

The number of tiger cubs in a litter varies from two to five, or even
six, although families of more than three are not very common. The
little ones do not reach their full size until they are three years old,
and during the whole of that time they go about with their parents.

LEOPARDS

Much smaller than either the lion or the tiger, but still a very large
and powerful animal, is the leopard, which is sometimes known as the
panther. It is spread over almost the whole of Africa, and also over the
greater part of Asia, and in many districts is very common.

You can always recognize the leopard by its markings. The ground color
of the fur is bright yellow, with just a tinge of red in it, becoming
lighter on the flanks, and passing into white on the lower surface of
the body. The spots are black, and those on the back and sides are
always ring-shaped, enclosing a patch of yellow. Sometimes, however, the
whole of the fur is black. But even then you can see the spots, which
look something like the markings in watered silk.

Somehow, these black leopards always seem far more savage than the
others, and those who have them under their care say that it is quite
impossible to tame them.

In spite of its smaller size, the leopard is nearly as powerful as the
tiger, and in some ways is an even more formidable foe. It is much more
active, for instance, and is more easily roused into rage; while it can
climb trees like a cat, and spring down upon a passer-by from among the
branches. It does not as a rule attack man, and will always seek safety
in flight if it can. But if it is brought to bay it will fight
furiously, and nothing will check it but a bullet through the heart or
the brain.

When it can do so, the leopard always likes to live near the habitations
of man, because there are so many opportunities of springing upon a
pony, a sheep, or a goat. At night, too, it will rob the hen-roosts, or
make its way into the pens where the calves are kept, and carry one of
them off before its presence is even suspected. Dogs, too, fall victims
to it in great numbers, and now and then it succeeds in pouncing upon
an unwary monkey. When it kills an animal it does not leave the carcass
lying on the ground as the tiger does, and visit it night after night
until it is consumed, but carries parts of its body up into a tree, and
hides them in a kind of larder which it has made among the branches.

Those who have hunted it say that the leopard is a far more difficult
animal to kill than the tiger. The reason is that it is so much more
wary. A tiger, as it creeps through the jungle, will look most carefully
in front of it as it moves along, as well as on either side, but it
never seems to think of looking up into the branches of a tree above, to
see if an enemy is hiding there. So very often the hunter is able to
shoot it before it has the least idea that it is in danger. But a
leopard is much more cautious, and never comes back to its lair, or to
the remains of its kill, without carefully examining the boughs above as
well as the bushes below; so that unless the hunter is well concealed
the animal is almost sure to discover him and to crawl silently away
before he has got the chance of a shot.

THE OUNCE

This animal looks rather like a leopard with very light-colored fur. But
the rosette-like spots are a good deal larger, the fur is very much
longer and thicker, and the tail is almost as bushy as that of a Persian
cat. The reason why the fur is so thick is that the ounce lives in very
cold countries. It is found high up in the mountains of Central Asia,
ascending during the summer to a height of perhaps eighteen thousand
feet--a good deal higher than the summit of Mont Blanc--and coming down
to the lower levels in winter. In other words, it is hardly ever seen
below the snow-line, and is often known as the snow-leopard. So it wants
good thick, warm fur. We do not know very much about its habits, for it
is a very difficult animal to watch in a state of nature. Very few
people ever see it. But it seems to prey chiefly upon wild goats, wild
sheep, and those odd little burrowing animals that we call marmots, and
also upon domesticated sheep and cattle which are sent up to graze on
the higher slopes of the mountains. It is said never to venture to
attack man.

THE JAGUAR

Still more like a leopard is the jaguar, which lives in Central and
South America. But you can tell it at once by looking at the
rosette-like marks on its body, most of which have either one or two
small patches of dark brown fur in the middle. It also has three or four
bold black streaks across its breast, which are never seen in the
leopard. And its tail is ever so much shorter, the tip scarcely reaching
to the ground when the animal is standing upright.

The jaguar is perhaps even a better climber than the leopard, and seems
far more at its ease among the branches than on the ground. Indeed,
there are some parts of the great swampy forests of Brazil in which the
animal is said never to descend to the ground at all, but to spend its
whole life in the trees which stand so close side by side that it can
easily spring from one to another. You wonder, perhaps, what it feeds
upon. Why, upon monkeys, and very active indeed it has to be if it
wishes to catch them. But then, when a band of monkeys discover a
jaguar, they are never able to resist the temptation of getting as close
to him as they dare, and chattering and screaming as loudly as they can,
just to annoy him. Isn't that exactly like monkeys? But sometimes they
venture a little _too_ close, and then with a sudden spring he
seizes the nearest of his impudent tormentors and carries it shrieking
away.

Birds, too, are often caught by the jaguar, who pounces upon them as
they are roosting upon a branch. But he is not at all particular as to
what he eats, and sometimes he will leave the trees altogether, and go
hunting in the reed-beds by the riverside for capybaras, which we will
describe farther on. He is very fond of these animals, for they are so
slow in their movements that they cannot run away, so badly provided
with natural weapons that they cannot fight, and so fat and delicate
that they afford most excellent eating.

Then, just for a change, perhaps, he will stroll down to the
sea-shore, and look for a good big turtle. When he sees one--which is
generally a female on her way back to the water after laying her eggs in
the sand--he seizes it suddenly with his fore paws, and turns it over on
its back, so that it cannot possibly escape. Then, perhaps, if he is not
very hungry, he leaves it for a little while. But soon he returns, and
manages to scoop out all the flesh of the animal from between the shells
by means of his long hooked talons, thrusting in his paw over and over
again, till scarcely the smallest particle is left remaining.

Very likely, too, he will find the spot where the turtle had laid her
eggs, dig them up, and devour them as well. Sometimes he will crouch on
the bank of a stream, quite close to the water, and hook out the fish
that pass by with his claws. And when he is very hungry indeed he will
eat lizards and even insects.

Like the ounce, however, the jaguar seldom or never ventures to attack a
human being, although he will fight savagely if he is driven to bay. But
he will often spring upon horses and cattle, and in such cases he nearly
always kills them by seizing their heads between his front paws, and
giving a sudden wrench sideways and upward so as to break their necks.

Like most of the cats, the jaguar has a fondness for scratching the
trunks of trees, and sometimes a tree may be found with gashes in its
bark an inch deep and more than a yard long.

THE PUMA, OR COUGAR

Next to the jaguar, the puma is the largest of the American cats, a
full-grown male being sometimes as much as eight feet in total length,
of which about three feet is taken up by the tail. In color it is tawny
brown, becoming lighter on the lower surface, and without any spots at
all. But the odd thing is that its young are marked all over with large
blotches of blackish brown, while their tails are ringed with black like
that of the tiger. And these markings do not disappear until they are
more than six months old.

The puma is found in almost all parts of the American continent, from
British Columbia in the north to Patagonia in the south, and it is even
said to have been seen in Tierra del Fuego. It spends some part of its
life in the trees, being almost as good a climber as the jaguar. But it
almost always hunts upon the ground, trying to creep stealthily up to
its victim, and to spring upon it before its presence is even suspected.

It scarcely ever ventures to attack a man, but will often follow him for
a long distance as though waiting an opportunity to pounce upon him
unawares. But if he suddenly turns and faces the animal, it will always
slink away, even if he is quite unarmed. Sometimes, too, it will allow
itself to be killed without attempting to defend itself at all. So
hunters have a rather poor opinion of its courage. The farmers, however,
have very good reason for dreading the animal, for it is a terrible
enemy to sheep, and has been known to kill as many as fifty in a single
night. And it will also leap suddenly upon horses and cattle and break
their necks, just as the jaguar does.

Although in some ways it is such a cowardly creature, the puma will
often fight the jaguar itself. Of course it is the weaker animal of the
two, but it is so exceedingly quick in its movements, and makes such
excellent use of its teeth and talons, that in many cases it gets the
best of the battle. Sometimes, when a jaguar is killed by a hunter, its
back is found to be deeply scored all over by the claws of a puma.

In many parts of North America the puma is known as the panther, or
"painter," also as the mountain lion, and it has other names besides.

THE CLOUDED LEOPARD

There is still one more of the larger cats which we must not pass by
without mention, and that is the clouded leopard, or clouded tiger,
which is found in the southeastern parts of Asia, and in the larger
islands of the Malay Archipelago. In size it is about as big as a small
leopard, and its yellow brown fur is marked with stripes like those of
the tiger, spots like those of the leopard, rosettes like those of the
jaguar, and blotches like those of the ocelots, while its tail is
adorned with rings of glossy black. So, you see, it is a very handsome
animal.

We do not know very much about its habits, but it seems to live
almost entirely in the trees, and to prey chiefly upon birds, while
those who have caught and tamed it say that it is very gentle and
playful. The Malays call it the rimau-dahan, or "tree-tiger"; and there
is a smaller variety, found in the same localities, which is generally
known as the marbled cat.

CHAPTER VII

THE SMALLER CATS

The smaller members of the cat tribe include many interesting animals of
which our readers, if not already informed concerning them, will be glad
to learn something.

THE SERVAL

Unfortunately, although this is quite a common animal in many parts of
Africa, we know very little about its habits. But it appears to prey
chiefly upon the smaller antelopes, creeping silently up to them as they
are grazing, and springing upon them so suddenly that they never know
that they are in danger until they are struck down.

In South Africa, where it is a good deal more numerous than it is in the
northern parts of the continent, the Dutch call the serval the
_bosch-katte_, or "bush-cat," because it looks like a rather big
cat, and lives in the thick bushy parts of the veldt. It is a pretty
animal, and would be prettier still if its short, stumpy tail were a
little longer, for its fur is bright golden yellow, marked with dark
spots, some of which run into one another, and so form stripes.
Underneath the body the fur is nearly white, while the ears are
jet-black, with a broad white band running across them. In length the
animal measures about three feet, ten inches of which are taken up by
the tail; and it stands about eighteen inches in height.

THE OCELOT

This is one of the handsomest of all the cats. It is found in almost all
parts of tropical America. But it is not a very easy animal to describe,
because it varies so much in color that until a few years ago
naturalists thought there were several different kinds of ocelots, to
all of which they gave separate names. As a rule, however, the ground
color of the fur is either brownish yellow or reddish gray, while the
back and sides are marked with rows of streaks and spots and blotches,
which sometimes run into one another in such a way as to look almost
like stripes. The length of the animal is about four feet, of which
about fifteen inches is occupied by the tail, and it stands from sixteen
to eighteen inches in height.

The ocelot is found only in forest districts, and is an excellent
climber, spending most of its life in the trees. It feeds chiefly upon
birds, hiding among the thick foliage until they settle within reach,
and then knocking them over with its ready paw. Or it will spring down
upon them as they alight on the ground below. It seems to like the head
of a bird best of all, and generally eats that first; and very often it
will pluck its victim most carefully before proceeding to devour it.

The animal called the margay is really a kind of small ocelot, and it is
sometimes known as the tiger-cat.

THE EGYPTIAN CAT

In this we have a most interesting animal, not only because it seems
certain that it is the ancestor of the cats we keep now as pets, but
also because in days of old the people of Egypt used to venerate it,
just as they also did the Arabian baboon. In every way they treated it
with the greatest possible honor. Indeed, to kill a cat, in those days,
was a far more serious offence than to kill a man, and if the offender
was discovered he was certainly made to pay the penalty with his life.
And when the animal died its body was carefully embalmed and wrapped in
spices, and was then solemnly buried in the tombs of the kings.

If you ever go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or to the
Boston Museum, you may see the mummied remains of some of the very cats
which were venerated by the people of Egypt five thousand years ago.

In the British Museum is an old painting which is as interesting,
although in a different way. For it shows us that, while the ancient
Egyptians held the cat in such high honor, they expected it to make
itself useful in return. The picture represents a hunter and his family
going out on an expedition in search of water-birds, and from it we
learn that they would embark in a boat with several decoy birds,
together with a carefully trained cat. They would then push off into the
great beds of tall reeds which fringed the sides of the river, and sit