Such animals, however, we know were already in the field, for we saw at the beginning of the last chapter that, together with the small rodents, insect-eaters, and lemurs, there were two groups of much larger animals, first the Herbivora  or grass-feeders, including the hoofed animals (Ungulata ) and the elephants; and secondly, their great enemies the Carnivora  or flesh-feeders.

Now these two groups, on account of their size, strength, and agility, have spread very widely over the earth, espedially the grass-feeders, for there is no part of the world which has not some vegetable-feeding animal in it, if only a few green shoots grow there. It is true the Rodents take some part of this green food, but then they are small and insignificant compared to the large Rhinoceroses, Elephants, Hippopotamuses, Oxen, Antelopes, Goats, Pigs and Sheep, which roam over wide spaces, and are even less restricted than the flesh-eating animals, for they live in the open air or the thick jungle, never in caves and holes, and their young ones are born wherever they may happen to be, and in a few hours run by their mother's side, so that young and old wander together wherever food and shelter is to be found.

And so we shall see that these vegetable-feeders have filled every spot where they could possibly find a footing. In the regions of snow and ice the reindeer in Europe, and the elk and musk-sheep in America, rake the snow to uncover their scanty food, while the burning deserts of North Africa and East Asia have bred their camels and wild asses, and those of South Africa their quaggas. On the prairies of America the bison, and on the plains of Asia the wild cattle, feed in herds of thousands, while the zebra courses over the African hills. If we look to the tops of mountains, to dangerous crags where the merest tufts of grass arc to be found, there we meet with the goats and sheep in India and Asia, the chamois and ibex in Europe, the big-horn sheep in the Rocky Mountains of America; or if We turn to the dense forests and tropical jungles, there we find the giraffes in Africa, the elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, antelopes, and wild boars in Africa and India, some feeding on the branches of the trees, some grazing on the grasses and lower brushwood, and some digging up roots and underground food. Only the rivers remain, and here too, in Africa, the hippopotamus has taken possession, feeding on the water plants and wallowing on the muddy banks.

In this way every available spot is used by one herbivorous animal or another, and if we could only trace out their pedigree we should be surprised to find how wonderfully each one has become fitted for the special work it has to do. But three things they all require and have, though they may arrive at them in different ways. The first  of these is a long face and freely moving under jaw, with large useful grinding teeth to work up and chew the vegetable food; the second,  a capacious stomach to hold and digest green meat enough to nourish such bulky bodies; and the third,  good defensive weapons to protect themselves against each other, and against wild beasts. Weapons of attack they do not need, except for fighting among themselves; for being grass-feeders they do not attack other creatures, and this is one of the great differences between them and the flesh-feeding or carnivorous  animals.

We need not look far to see these three chief characters of the vegetable-feeders in active work. Look at any horse as he grazes in the meadow, and see how his under jaw works from side to side as soon as he has a good mouthful. A peep into his mouth will show that he is using broad flat back teeth to grind the grass to pulp (see Fig. p. 262), and he will go on eating all day without overfilling the large stomach which lies within his barrel-shaped body. And as to his defences, if he is vicious, he will soon show that his front teeth are good weapons, while his hoofs will deal an ugly blow.

Then turn to the cow, quietly chewing the cud by his side; you will find that she has no upper front teeth, but only a hardened gum, upon which her under teeth bite as she crops the grass; but she too has broad flat teeth behind, while within she has a stomach with four compartments, and when she has filled one of these full of half-chewed grass, she lies down, and with a slight hiccough returns a ball of food to her mouth to be leisurely ground down. It is not difficult to see that to animals, such as wild cattle, antelopes, goats, and sheep, which often have to go far to seek their food, an arrangement of this kind, by which they may store provender in a larder for quiet enjoyment by-and-by, must be a great advantage. But the cow cannot defend herself with her teeth since she has no upper ones in front; in their stead she has strong horns which are quite as dangerous, so that an angry bull is an enemy not pleasant to meet.

Lastly, there is another fierce vegetable-feeding animal almost as dangerous as a bull, though we no longer come across him in England; for the Wild Boar, as he still flourishes in the forests of Germany, can inflict very ugly wounds with his lower eye-teeth which grow out and project over his upper lip, forming large tusks.

So we see that while the vegetable-feeding animals have three characters in common, namely, large flat grinders, a capacious stomach, and defensive weapons, their defences, on the other hand, may be of three different kinds, and they may depend upon horns, hoofs, or teeth for protection.

Now in the beginning, when we first meet with the milk-givers, these defences were not so complete in any of the vegetable-feeders as they are now. Of the elephants alone it may perhaps be said that they had large and formidable ancestors. As to the rest, the huge hippopotamus and sharp-tusked boar were only represented by small animals; and even later, when the hogs branched off in a line of their own, they had at first only ordinary teeth, which did not grow out as tusks.

So, too, the fierce horned rhinoceros had as an ancestor a hornless tapir-like creature, and the graceful hoofed horse a little creature no larger than a fox, with five separate toes on his feet Lastly, all the horned animals which chew the cud,—oxen, buffaloes, antelopes, and deer,—were nowhere to be seen, and in their place were only some small elegant creatures without horns.

It is only at a later period when the flesh-feeding animals grew strong and dangerous, and the vegetable-feeders had to struggle for their lives, that we begin to find the remains of hogs and hippopotamuses with tusks, rhinoceroses with nose-bones, and fleet horses which could take to their heels, or bite and kick their enemy to death; of stags with antlers, ever increasing in size; and of bulls and buffaloes, goats and antelopes, with true horns. For not only by this time were they persecuted by the flesh-feeders, but they themselves were becoming very numerous, and it was the strongest only that could secure feeding-grounds or carry off wives.

It is very curious to see the different ways in which the three chief lines of vegetable-feeders secured these advantages to themselves. First, there were the hogs and hippopotamuses. The hogs did not grow to any enormous size, but their thick skins were a great protection to them, and their eye-teeth became their defence, growing out from the loWer, and sometimes from both jaws into huge tusks; while their broad, round, flexible snouts served them to turn up the ground, and so get at roots and under-ground fruits such as other grass-feeding animals could not find; though at the same time they did not despise snakes or toads, and have become omnivorous animals. And so they have spread nearly all over the world; in Europe and Asia as wild hogs, and their wives the sows; one peculiar form, the Babirusa, being found only in Celebes; in Africa as large Wart-hogs, some as big as donkeys, with two pair of strong tusks curling out of the mouth; while in South America the family is represented by the small Peccaries, which travel about in herds, and have no tusks to show; but which, nevertheless, are bold and fearless, for they have within  their lips short lancet-shaped tusks, which inflict fearful wounds. Only in North America, north of Texas, no wild  creature of the hog family now lives, though in ancient times there were plenty of them.

Meanwhile the warmth-loving hippopotamuses, the hog's nearest relations, with huge grinding teeth behind, sharp front teeth, and tusks within their lips, took to a water-life in the Old World. When we look at their immensely powerful bodies, and their short stout legs with four strong hoof-covered toes, and learn how rapidly they can gallop on land, and how furiously they charge an enemy in the water7snapping their great jaws which will kill a large animal at one crunch, we do not wonder that they can hold their own, especially as they always live in herds. Yet large and powerful as they are, they have not spread far over the earth, for though in past ages the hippopotamus swam in the river Thames, and grazed and left his bones in the ground upon which London streets now stand, yet after a time they crept down to warm Africa, where they may now be seen lazily basking on the surface of the Nile or of the river Zambesi by day, and making tracks by night into the swamps and jungle to feed on the coarse rank grass. They are well fitted for their life, for their thick naked skin, with pores which give out a fatty oil, keeps them from chill in the water; their eyes are set well back on their heads, so that as they float deep they can still look around, and the slits of their nose, and the openings of their ears, can both be closed and made water-tight when they dive, while their slow breathing enables them to remain a long while under water.

The second line was that of the rhinoceroses, tapirs, and horses, or the uneven-toed animals which have one or three toes on the hind feet. They took to very different means of defence. The Tapirs, large, heavy, and with enormously tough hides, seem to depend chiefly upon their great strength for defence. Starting in warm times in the Old World, they have wandered in their day nearly all over the globe, dying out in later times, till now one kind is left solitary in Sumatra and Malacca, and the remainder have found their way down to South America, where they tear the branches from the trees with their short movable snouts, and feed peaceably at night unless attacked, when they make a furious rush at their enemy and conquer by sheer force.

The rhinoceros, the tapir's nearest relation, is even better defended; his skin is so thick and hard that in the Indian rhinoceros it actually forms a kind of jointed armour; his skull is wonderfully strong, and his nose is supported by thick bones, on the top of which are one or two solid horns, which are formed by a modification of the hairs of the skin growing matted together.

And now notice, just as we saw that the horned cow has no front upper teeth, so too the rhinoceros, though his horn is of quite a different kind, has in some cases lost his front teeth, which he does not need, since he rushes with his horn at his enemy instead of biting. Like the hippopotamus, the rhinoceros once wandered all over Europe and Asia, and when the great cold came on, the woolly species which roamed far north was often caught in the frost and snow of Northern Asia, where his fleshy body has been found preserved in the ice. Now he too has taken refuge in the warm parts of Asia and Africa, where he either grazes on the plains or plucks the leaves from the trees in the jungle with the fleshy flap of his upper lip.

But of all the animals of this three-toed group the Horse has the most interesting history, because we can read it most perfectly. The only certainly original wild animals of the horse tribe now living are the Zebras, Quaggas, and Asses of Asia and Africa; yet strange to say, it was in America that this tribe began, for there we find that tiny pony not bigger than a fox, with four horn-covered toes to his front feet (and traces of a fifth) and three toes on his hind ones. Then, as ages went on, we meet with forms, still in America, first with four toes on the front foot, and then with only three toes on all the feet, and a splint in place of the fourth on the front ones. In the next period they have travelled into Europe, and there, as well as in America, we find larger animals with only three toes of about equal size. One more step, and we find the middle toe large and long, and covered with a strong hoof, while the two small ones are lifted off the ground. Lastly, in the next forms the two side toes became mere splints; and soon after, in America and in Europe, well-built animals with true horse's hoofs abounded, the one large hoof covering the strong and broad middle toe. For what. we call a horse's knee is really his wrist, and just below it we can still find under the skin, those two small splints (sw ) running down the bone of the hand, while the long middle finger or toe, with its three joints (1, 2, 3), forms what we call the foot. It is by these small splints ", "
", "center", "70", "5", "5", "[Illustration]", "Fig. 68
Skeleton of a Wild Ass
i,  incisor teeth; g,  grinding-teeth, with the gap between the two sets as in all large grass-feeders; k,  knee; h,  heel; f,  foot; t,  middle toe of three joints carrying the hoof; s,  splint, or remains of one of the two lost toes; e,  elbow; w,  wrist; h,  hand-bone; 1, 2, 3, joints of the middle toe.") ?> the horse still reveals to us that he belongs to the three-toed animals.

Now while these changes in the toes were going on, the space between the front teeth and eye-teeth gradually increased, till we arrive at the large gap now seen in the horse and ass (see Fig. p. 262). The chief bone of the fore arm (radius) increased in size, and the other bone (ulna) became joined to it, and the same in the hind leg. The brain increased in size mainly in the front part, and the body grew much larger, improving in form and build, till the long, slender, flexible legs became the perfection of running and galloping limbs such as we find in the zebra of to-day, poised upon a strong jointed toe, with its last joint broadened into a firm pad, and covered with a thick nail—the hoof. We have only to compare the well-proportioned leg of a horse with the thick, strong, clumsy leg of an elephant, to see, on the one hand, what a shapely and beautiful limb it has become; while, on the other hand, if we put it by the side of a giraffe's leg, we must acknowledge at once that it is a far stronger and more serviceable limb than if it had gone to the other extreme. There can be no doubt that when the horse arrived at this point of the strong single hoof and well-shaped body, he had a wide range over the world, both Old and New; but curiously enough, while in Asia and Africa the tribe branched out into many forms, such as asses, quaggas and zebras, in America it died out, so that till we found the fossil-forms, it was thought that no horses had ever been there till they were brought by the Spaniards.

Meanwhile, in the Old World, they must have lcd as free and joyous a life as those horses do now which have run wild in Tartary and America, galloping, frolicking, feeding, and neighing to each other with delight, as they roamed over the wide plains in troops of thousands, for solitary wanderers they would soon have fallen a prey to wolves or jaguars; and if the mothers wished to protect their foals they had to learn to follow one leader and act together in time of danger.

they grew accustomed, as generations passed on, to unite against their common foes, placing the mares and their foals in the centre when attacked, while the fathers met the enemy with hoofs and teeth. And so they became intelligent and tractable even in their wild state, to those of their own kind, and laid the foundation of those noble qualities of which man now reaps the benefit.

But the horses were not the only group which combined in this way for protection. The third great line of hoofed animals, those which have "cloven" feet of two toes, and which "chew the cud," have learnt many a lesson of vigilance, fidelity, and affection, by their social habits. Everyone has read of the herds of antelopes or deer, where the sentinels stand faithfully watching while their companions feed, and stamp or whistle when danger is near; while in the herds of wild cattle, not only will the mothers keep a watchful look-out for danger, but the bulls will join to protect the young ones at the risk of their own lives. Mr. Allen relates how, in America, a young bison, which had strayed from the troop and was followed by wolves, was surrounded by a number of old bulls, who, facing about, warily conducted him across the plain till he was safely among the dense mass of buffaloes, which the wolves dared not attack.

Now these "ruminant" animals, with complicated stomachs and the power of feeding at long intervals, have spread far and wide over the earth under many different forms, and while some are still very numerous, others are now rare, or almost destroyed.

Take, for example, the Camel, the true "child of the desert." There are no wild camels left now, so long has man conquered and tamed this useful beast of burden. But in past ages vast numbers of camel-like forms lived in North America, which found their way on the one hand to the south, where the Llamas, Alpacas, and Guanacos now feed on the mountains of Peru and Chili, while on the other they travelled over Northern Asia to the deserts of Africa and Arabia, and there became those curious desert-animals which the Arabs used and still use as their beasts of burden. A strange old fellow is the camel, with his two-toed hairy feet, with only nail-hoofs upon them, and his hard pads on his thighs and legs, on which he rests when he lies or kneels. His curious fleshy hump, which is single in the true camel or dromedary and double in the Bactrian camel, serves him as a special provision of fat, and it dwindles when he is short of food, recovering its size and firmness when he is full-fed again; and he is the only cud-chewing animal which has kept his front teeth and defends himself with them, having no horns.

Still more strange in some ways are the giraffes, of which we know very little, except that large forms like them once wandered in Europe. For they, with only the same number of bones as other animals, have these so lengthened out that, as they wander in the tropical forests, their slender legs raise them above all other animals, and their long neck, which nevertheless has only seven joints like all the milk-givers, enables them to reach the high trees, so as to strip off the leaves with their ribbon-like tongues.

But we should want much space to discuss such curious forms as these, and we need not go further than the ordinary deer of our parks to read a strange history of how life has gradually armed her children. The giraffe with his long neck to feed, and his wide straggling legs to fly swiftly from danger, has only short hairy covered knobs on his forehead for horns. But the stag, who is obliged to fight, especially when he wishes to secure his wives, has antlers so branched and so heavy that it is a wonder that his neck can carry them.

Now it is in the autumn that the stags fight and struggle together to secure the leadership of the does, and it is then that their antlers are finest and strongest, and they remain so during the whole winter. But when the early spring comes, the bone of the antlers dries up near the head, where there is a little ridge round it, and soon they fall off, a skin forms over the place, and new ones begin to grow. Then as the little knobs push forward and increase, how lovely they are, for the skin covered with soft hair is all over them, carrying the network of blood-vessels which secrete the bone within. So fast do they grow that antlers weighing seventy-two pounds will be complete in ten weeks, and when they are finished, the "velvet," as this soft skin is called, dries up, and they rip it off against a tree, leaving the bare bone.

Thus equipped, the stag is a match for the world, and he knows it; his bearing is proud and haughty, and instead of flying from danger he will turn round and fight fiercely when attacked. And now comes the curious part of his history. In the different stags of the world we see all kinds of antlers, from one single spike like a stiletto in some American stags, to the superb antlers of the Red-deer, some of which have as many as sixty-six spikes. But when the red-deer begins to grow his antlers, he does not get this splendid tree in the first year, he has only a single spike; this falls off, and the next year he grows them with a second branch; the third year both branches become doubled and another appears, and so each year as he grows them afresh they are more and more complicated, till at last the whole branched tree grows up in a few months. Now in thus increasing his spikes year by year, he is in his own person most curiously retracing the steps of his ancestors in ages past; for, as we have seen, the first deerlike animals had no horns, then as the ages passed on we find that they had single spikes; later on, their descendants grew antlers of two branches, and later still more complicated ones, so that the race put on little by little those magnificent antlers which now the red-deer and others carry, and meanwhile the various species spread all over the world, except into Australia and Africa, south of the desert.

Still, even the stags have times in the year, before their antlers are grown, when they are comparatively defenceless. There remains yet another branch of the "ruminant" family, even better provided with weapons. These are the antelopes, wild cattle, and buffaloes, for with them the horns never fall off. The reason of this is that they grow in quite a different manner from the stags' antlers. Instead of the bone being laid down by the skin, it grows out as a core from the forehead, and the skin over it hardens into horn as it grows, so that the tip of a bull's horns is the oldest part.

Here then we can have no branching as in the stag, but on the other hand a firm and terrible weapon increasing from year to year; and even the king of the beasts, the lion, when he attacks a large buffalo, is often seriously wounded for his pains. We should not wonder then if these animals had conquered the world wherever man had not destroyed them; but strange to say, they have kept chiefly to the old world, for none have travelled to South America, and only the Bisons have overrun North America with their vast herds. All the rest, buffaloes, wild cattle, antelopes, gazelles, goats and sheep, have made their home in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and a fine time they must have had of it when all Europe was one field of undulating plains and dense forests, and the ancestors of our cattle crashed through the tangled bushes, drank by the silent rivers, or grazed on the wild rough herbage. Then, where town and villages now stand, there must have been scenes such as travellers still relate of Central Africa, where amid dense jungle, magnificent forests, and flat marshy grounds,

There the huge buffaloes come down in troops out of the forest to drink, while the great hippopotamuses leave their watery bed to feed on the rough grass of the swamps. Not far off, a herd of zebras comes galloping by to drink lower down in the river, startling the large antelopes feeding quietly in the soft green pasture above, for they know that this is the hour when the lions are abroad and will fall upon any straggler with tooth and nail, while the distant howling of the hyenas shows that they would not be far behind in seizing upon any weak or wounded animal. But little does the heavy rhinoceros care for all this as he too tramps slowly along on his way to drink, for with his size and defences he runs but little risk of attack. Thus all the country is alive with large milk-givers, and we realise that when they ruled all over the world, as they still do in Africa, they too must have had their time of triumph and greatness like the great fish or the monster reptiles.

But hush! as we watch this scene a heavy thud, thud, strikes upon our ear, like the tramping of heavy troops upon soft ground. It is the "lords of the forest," the large Elephants, which, after feeding all day in the shady jungle, are coming down to drink and bathe. What, then, is the history of these huge antiquated animals that they have not come into our story as yet? The reason is this: as they stand alone now with their huge flapping cars, their column-like legs and feet, and their long grasping trunk, so they have stood apart from the hoofed animals almost as long as we have any knowledge of them. So far as we can judge by their skeleton, especially the shoulder blade, they come nearer to the gnawers, or rodents, than to any of the large vegetable-feeders. Their legs are awkward and their gait clumsy, for the thigh bones are enormously long and thick, and the toes arc enclosed in a thick pad with only the nails to mark them; but above all it is the head and mouth which make so strange a figure. Look at the huge forehead, showing a skull of immense size. This skull would be far too heavy to carry if it were not full of hollows, making a large framework to bear the tusks of smooth white ivory, which grow out from the upper jaw to a length of more than six feet on each side, and weigh sometimes from eighty to one hundred pounds. Surely a wonderful size for teeth, and we shall not wonder that they are the only front teeth that the elephant has, and that they go on growing all his life from a permanent pulp, like the gnawing teeth of the rodents. But if he opens his mouth you will see that, besides these, he has at the back huge flat grinders, one, or never more than two, at a time on each side; but those are monsters, with hard enamelled ridges for grinding his food. During his lifetime of about a hundred years the elephant grows six of these teeth on each side, twenty-four in all, the new ones growing up at the back and pushing forward as the old ones wear away.

And, last of all, look at his wonderful trunk; see how it grows out straight from his face, his cheeks merging into it so that he is all nose; and then consider that this trunk, a double-barrelled tube, ending in a fleshy finger opposite to a thick cushion which acts as a thumb, is the elephant's arm and hand, with which he feels and grasps and tests everything that comes in his way. With it he can pick up a crumb or root up a strong tree, gather a leaf or tear off a branch, draw up a gallon of water to squirt over his body when heated with the sun, or suck up the few drops in a puddle when water is scarce; with it he caresses those he loves, as gently as a mother strokes her child with her hand, or uses it to dash his enemy upon the ground, before he pierces him with his tusks or tramples him under foot.

And yet this formidable and delicate weapon is nothing more than a long fleshy nose and upper lip, provided with millions of interlaced muscles, which draw it in every direction, guided by the delicate nerves. If we did not sec it, could we have believed that any creature could have gained so much experience, and learned to do so many wonderful things as elephants do, merely by possessing a movable nose?

Yet so it is, for if the elephant stands far above all other vegetable-feeding animals in intelligence and even reasoning power, we can only attribute it to two causes—the long life he leads, and the delicate implement he carries for testing things around him. The strongest of all animals, he has reigned supreme for ages, even the lion or the tiger often meeting a terrible death from his trunk, his tusks, or his heavy feet, if they venture to attack him; while everywhere, during his hundred years of life, he has handled and tested and tried every object he has come near with his fleshy trunk, till now when we examine his brain we find that though small for so large an animal it is folded and refolded into those curious convolutions which are always found in highly intelligent animals.

For many long ages this education must have been going on; for already, when the monkeys and opossums were playing about the trees in England, an ancient elephant called the Mastodon, having four tusks, was roaming over Europe, Asia, and America; while soon after, the hairy Mammoth, kept warm by his shaggy coat, wandered right up into the snows of Siberia and the extreme of North America, and often met his death in the ice, and true elephants ruled the world in Europe and India, continuing down to our day. All these had the same delicate trunk, and gained experience as they wandered over the wide world, till some have become extinct and others have shrunk back into the dense forests of Africa and India, where they often give proofs of a power of reasoning which surprises us, and make them seem like old patriarchs of a bygone time, looking thoughtfully upon a world which has grown new and strange.

And here we must take leave of the Hcrbivora, and turn our attention to that large army of flesh-feeders which we find throughout all past ages harassing and destroying the vegetable-feeders on all sides, killing their young, falling upon the stragglers, the weak and the aged, and keeping down their numbers by constant persecution. For, since the whole world is teeming with life, and countless new beings are coming into existence day after day, there is no creature on the earth which has not some other creature to prey upon it. Thus, for example, the whole host of small animals, rats and rabbits, moles, shrews, and small birds of all kinds, have their special pursuers in long wiry-bodied civets and ichneumons, weasels, pole-cats, ferrets, pine-martens, and paradoxures, which can work their way into a hole, give chase through the long grass, or climb the trees and feed on birds' eggs or young birds. There is a vast multitude of these smaller flesh-eating animals, with teeth so sharp that a weasel will kill its prey in a second by piercing the skull by its bite; and they make sad havoc all over the world among young and weak creatures, while a great many of them, such as the weasel tribe, the pole-cat, and the skunk, are themselves protected from larger animals of prey by their disagreeable smell.

Then the birds again have their numbers greatly thinned by the wild cats, tiger-cats, and racoons; while the fox, the badger, and the glutton, do their share in devouring partridges and all ground birds, hares, rabbits, and even lambs and other young creatures.

Lastly the fish, too, have their pursuers, for the mink and the otter, though true land animals, seek their food in the water, the sea-otter giving us a hint as to how such flesh-eating animals as seals, which are the great fish-devourers, took to a watery life. But though these smaller flesh-eaters are spread in great numbers over the world, the civets and ichneumons only in the Eastern Hemisphere, the racoons only in America, and the weasels and their relations everywhere, yet the war they carry on is but little seen compared with the ravages of their more imposing relations the wolves, the bears, and the lions, tigers, and their kin. For these animals seek their prey among the buffaloes, antelopes, horses, sheep, and hogs, and where they go they leave the track of blood behind them, and appear indeed as ruthless destroyers.

And yet it would not be fair to speak of these larger flesh-feeding animals as if they had worked nothing but evil to their more peaceful neighbours; for how would Life educate her children if she put no difficulties in their way to be conquered, no sufferings to be endured? We saw that in the beginning the vegetable-feeders were neither so strong, so intelligent, nor so swift of foot as they are now, while the flesh-feeders were not nearly so well armed for destruction as the tigers and lions of to-day.

It was in the long long struggle for life that the animals with the largest and strongest horns got the upper hand, that the swiftest horses or antelopes survived and left young ones, that the best climbers baffled their hungry pursuers, while the most intelligent and cautious feeders learned to herd together and watch for danger; while we must remember that it is more often the sickly, worn-out, and diseased animals that fall a prey to the devourers, and their life is ended far less painfully than if they dragged themselves into some hole to die. And so, too, on the other hand, with the flesh-feeders themselves. It was no wanton cruelty that taught them to hunt for prey, to creep stealthily along and leap upon their victims, and to take advantage of the weak and feeble. It was pressing hunger and the necessity of providing their young ones with food; and they, too, have often suffered in the struggle; so that it was only the strongest, healthiest, and best armed, that won the victory and were able to bring up their children.

Moreover, it is quite a mistake to suppose that the greater part of the life of a lion or a wolf is spent in killing and destroying, any more than ours is because we eat beef and mutton. The Lion, at any rate, never attacks an animal unless he is hungry, and even the wolf, generally considered so cruel and bloodthirsty and pitiless, spends the greater part of the year in some quiet place in the mountains with wife and cubs, only hunting for their daily food (though sometimes he is guilty of killing more than he needs), and playing, gambolling, and resting the remainder of the time.

It is when winter comes, and the young ones are stronger and food is scarce, that he grows wild with hunger, and starts off; with a number of others, to scour the forests, so that the animals fly in terror as they hear the howling from afar; and even the traveller, driving his sledge across the snow, urges his frightened horses to their utmost speed, since, with a pack of hungry wolves, even if he has firearms, his life is at stake.

The Wolf, with his relations, the foxes and jackals, Canidæ  or Dog family; but this name is unfortunate, as there are no original wild dogs, only those which have run wild from man. Dogs are now almost certainly shown to be descended from wolves and jackals.") ?> is the form of flesh-eating animals which has become least altered from the general type of milk-givers. He has the slim form peculiar to flesh-eaters, but the claws of his feet cannot be drawn in like those of tigers, nor has he those powerful hindquarters which enable them to bound and leap, or the strong paw and fore leg with which they give the death-blow to their prey. Moreover, his face is long like a sheep's, and his jaws are full of teeth, some of which are blunter than the tiger's teeth, and more fitted for grinding, for wolves and dogs are omnivorous. But then, on the other hand, he is not so much of a vegetarian as the bears, nor has he their clumsy gait and cumbersome body, for he walks upon his toes and not his flat foot; lastly, his front teeth are large and sharp, and his fangs strong, for they are his chief weapons, and he uses them with wonderful effect. He is essentially a running animal, and chases his prey, rarely leaping on it but tearing it down with his teeth. Strong as he is, he seldom attacks an animal larger than himself except when he has companions to help him, and then, indeed, he makes little account of a horse or a buffalo, for combination and co-operation are the great strength of the wolf tribe. Even their cowardly cousins the Jackals hunt in packs when they attack living animals, feeding at other times on offal and the remains of the lion's feast. Yet such is the power of numbers that there is no part of the world, except a few islands, where some member of the wolf family is not to be found. In Northern Europe, Asia, and North America, the common wolves and the prairie wolves hunt in large packs, and in South America the Red Wolf takes their place. In Africa and India the jackals wander with their dismal howl; and even in Australia the wild Dingo dog, probably brought there long ago by savage man, is the terror of all peaceful creatures.

Nor must we forget the cunning clever Fox, with his keen face and bushy tail; for he, curiously enough, is the only one of the wolf family which always hunts alone. The reason of this probably is that he contents himself with small prey—birds, rabbits, and game; while his burrowing habits, his cunning, and his night-hunting, enable him to escape destruction He is one of the most subtle and knowing of animals except, perhaps, the jackal; and the fact that the pupil of his eye expands and contracts like a cat's, especially fits him for night-work. So, although he has only himself to depend upon, his race has spread from the Arctic regions, where the Blue Fox wanders over the frozen sea to cat dead seals, down to Africa where the tiny Fennecs feed upon dates, and South America where the Gray Foxes follow the jaguar, as the jackals in Africa do the lion.

And now, does it not seem strange that from a family so fierce and bloodthirsty as the wolf family, our own true, faithful, large-hearted dog should have sprung? But do not let us be too hasty. Remember that this hunting and killing is not for pleasure but for daily bread, and that the wolf and jackal at home are good, tender, and loving parents; and, moreover, that they have both of them been tamed, and shown great affection to man.

Surely we wrong the animals when we call bad men "brutes," for men love and forget, but a dog will die on his master's grave, and a tame wolf, whose mistress went away, pined and grieved till she returned, when, on hearing her footstep, he bounded to meet her, and springing up upon her, fell back dead,—his faithful heart had burst with the shock of joy.

And then, also, we must remember that the family of the wolf is the only one among the carnivora in which the animals hunt in packs, so as to learn sociable habits and to obey the will of others. And here, perhaps, we have the reason why, though we have tamed the cat and brought her to our homes, she still remains half-defiant, and can never be taught to work for man; while the dog, on the contrary, has become our obedient servant, and will tend our sheep, guard our homes, and defend our lives.

Loving, and affectionate indeed, as she is, yet the cat will probably never entirely lose the free untamable spirit of her tribe, for if we search the whole world over we shall not find a creature better fitted for a hunter of prey than the wild cat, the lion, or the tiger. Gentle and loving at home with the wife and little ones, patting with soft paws in which the claws are hidden, and doing no harm to any one till food is needed, yet when they are once out on the chase we see that every part of their structure is of use in approaching and overcoming their victims.

Look at the Tiger as he moves along, crouching to spring upon his prey. Here we have no round barrel-shaped body, with a tight-fitting skin, as in the horse and ox, but a slim slender-waisted animal, which is lithe and nimble, because feeding on nourishing flesh he can do with a small stomach and short digesting tube. So, too, his loose hanging skin, forming a flap under his body, saves him from wounds in his adventurous life, for, when seized by teeth or claw, this skin wrinkles up, so that even if a good grip be taken the tender flesh underneath may escape. This flesh itself is firm and solid, being made of powerful muscles, while the cords or tendons of the body are so thick and strong that he can kill an ox with a blow of his paw; and under this flesh again are bones polished like ivory, far more compact and firm than those of most animals, and bound together by strong ligaments, the rounded joints moving smoothly upon each other and causing those graceful movements which enable him to creep stealthily and spring upon his prey. Lastly, the tips of his toes, upon which he walks, are clothed underneath with a soft pad which breaks his fall when he leaps, and makes his footfall silent as he creeps through the jungle; while, nevertheless, he has sharp claws hidden within to strike when needful.

These movable claws are indeed peculiar to the cat or feline tribe (though the civets and ichneumons can draw theirs in half), and they are caused by the second joint of the toe being grooved, while the end joint, curved and covered with a horny claw, is drawn back by a strong elastic band (l ) till it lies in this groove so that the outgrowing skin of the toe covers it. There it remains so long as it is not wanted; but when the animal bends its paw to strike, another band or tendon (t ) under  the toe is tightened and the claws are thrown forward, burying themselves in the flesh of the victim.

So in shape, in limbs, and in claws, the tiger, the lion, and their relations, are the perfection of hunting animals; and when we examine thewell-formed head set upon the strong neck, so that it can turn widely from side to side, ever on the watch, we see that here too everything is fitted for the work. Not only are his ears so quick of hearing that the smallest rustle in the grass startles him at once, while his large round eyes have a special reflecting mirror at the back to catch the faint rays of evening light when he prowls abroad, but the whisker-like tufts on his face are so provided with nerves at their base that when he raises them they are the most delicate feelers to guide him in the dark. Then, instead of the long narrow face, flat teeth, and sideway-moving under jaw of the horse or ox, we find that he has a large broad brain-case with a well-formed brain within, and a short face with rough bony ridges upon it, to support powerful muscles which move the lower jaw up and down,  so as to mince the food, and even crush solid bones.

Such a small mouth cannot hold many teeth, and the front ones, though sharp and pointed, are small, for the tiger does not fight with his teeth like the wolf, but strikes with his heavy paw. But the eyeteeth are immensely large, strong, and dagger-like, to hold the prey and tear the flesh apart, and all the double teeth behind, especially the last bottom tooth and the one to match it above, have very sharp cutting edges, so that, when the two jaws work against each other they divide the flesh like a pair of shears. Lastly, his tongue is not soft and fleshy, so as to serve for tasting, but very rough, and covered with horny pimples which serve to rasp the flesh from the bones of his prey.

Thus, in all the animals of the cat tribe, such as the lion, the tiger, the jaguar, and their relations, every part of the body has become fitted to help them in the work of destruction; and even their near relation the Hyaena, though he cannot keep his claws sharp by drawing them in, nor leap so well because his hind legs are short, makes up for this by his immensely strong jaw and conical teeth with which he attacks his prey, instead of using his paw, and which serve him to split open even the strongest thigh bone of a horse or ox, or to gnaw the ends to extract the marrow.

With all these advantages, we shall not wonder that the feline family and their near relations were the rulers of the forests and plains and mountains till man came to conquer them, or that lions and large cats, something like those living now, together with the fierce sabre-toothed tiger (Machairodus), roamed over Europe, Asia, and North and South America, where the crowds of vegetable-feeders offered them plenty of food. They were even numerous in England, where the lion chased the elk and the wild cattle, before he was driven back to Africa, Persia, and Bengal. No doubt in those days he scraped out his den in the valley of the Thames, as he still does in some quiet spot in the African plains where he hunts alone, except when his little ones are born, and then for some time he lives with his lioness, helping her to provide for them, and taking out the cubs as soon as they are a year old to teach them to hunt, to leap upon their prey, and to strike it with their paw, educating them like a true father in getting their living. And when they are three years old, the young lions will go off and meet together, two or three in a party, till in the spring each one seeks a wife for himself, having many a fierce battle with other lions before he can win her, and finding then the use of his thick mane in protecting his neck from the teeth of his rivals.

So the "king of the beasts" lives

for though by no means so large as people generally imagine, compared to the buffaloes, or horses, or large antelopes which he attacks, yet his immense strength generally secures him the victory over all but the rhinoceros and the elephant, and he feeds in a royal manner, sharing his hunting grounds only with the leopard, and leaving the remains of his feast for the hyanas and jackals following in his track.

Then just where his reign ends in Bengal, that of the tiger begins, that splendid and ferocious cat, larger even than the lion, which spares no animal, and will fight till death even with those stronger than himself. When we see our own house-cat playing with a mouse, striking at it, letting it escape, and at last giving it the final grip, we are watching in miniature the cruel game which is played in the dense jungles of Asia by the tiger with the antelopes, young buffaloes, and other terrified animals. Yet when we see the mother cat caressing her little ones, this too is true to tiger life, for though the father does not watch and care for his children as the lion does, the tigress loves them with the utmost devotion, and attacks all who come near them, dying sooner than forsake her cubs.

So in Africa and Asia the lion and the leopard reign, while the tiger is confined to Asia, ranging up to the snowy regions in the Caucasus Mountains and Mantchuria, where he is covered with a warm coat of hair. Yet all these animals have but a small kingdom now compared to olden times; and man has so cleared the ground in other parts of the world that we must travel away to South America to find the other large felines, the fierce Jaguar and Puma. There the jaguar, second only in strength to the tiger, carries all before him, making havoc among the peccaries and the herds of wild horses, and even fishing in the rivers for turtles and fish; scooping the turtles out of their shell with his sharp claws, and conquering every animal except the great ant-bear in whose embrace he has been found dead after he had also killed his enemy. The puma, meanwhile, contents himself usually with smaller prey,—sheep and rheas, opossums and monkeys, for he can climb like a cat, and passes much of his life in the trees. Thus, though the cat family wander over the whole earth, the larger kinds live chiefly in the warm parts of the world where life is luxuriant and man has not yet driven them out.

But these are not all the wild flesh-feeders. There remains a third group—a lazy, easy-going, lumbering group, which, though they spread from the equator to the poles, have taken chiefly to temperate and colder regions for their home, to mixed food for their nourishment, and have gone off on a line as far from the wolves on the one side as the lions have on the other.

This group is the Bears, and it is a very curious one in many ways. For, in the first place, though they are large and strong animals, they have very much given up eating flesh-food, and have taken to berries and acorns, fruits, vegetables, and honey. To get this last they even climb the trees to dig out the comb with their paw, trusting to their thick shaggy hair to protect them from the stings, which, however, they sometimes receive rather heavily on the nose.

A glance at a bear's mouth will tell at once that he is partly a vegetarian, for his hind teeth are smoothed down, and as he eats he can move his lower jaw slightly from side to side, so as to chew vegetable food. Even the Polar Bear, which eats little else but fish and seals, has these same grinding teeth, and he can be fed for a long time upon bread; while it is found that he keeps in better health when in zoological gardens if he has some grass occasionally. Still it is only the Sun Bears and Sloth Bears in India and Malacca which never eat flesh, for the Bruin of our northern countries often varies his food with deer or sheep, and grows more ferocious and flesh-feeding as he grows in years. It would almost seem as if his very laziness and awkward gait may have led him to take to vegetarianism as a convenient change, when animal food was not handy. For though a bear can trot along at a good pace, yet his heavy lumbering body and long foot with the whole heel touching the ground (see Fig. 78), make him decidedly not well fitted for a hunting animal.

How different he looks from the slim wolf running on the tips of his toes, and the graceful tiger bending his long hind legs for a leap! Yet he is a formidable animal too, for his muscles arc tremendously strong, and his firmly-planted foot enables him to rise upon his hind legs and give that deadly embrace which drives the breath out of the body of his victim.

The wolf attacks with his teeth, the lion strikes with his paw, but the bear hugs his enemy to death; and here his long stiff claws serve him well, for though he cannot draw them in to keep them sharp, yet they are rough and jagged, and inflict dreadful wounds. The great Grizzly Bear of America, which is sometimes nine feet long, and strong enough to drag along the carcase of a bison, sticks his front claws into his prey while he tears the flesh with the hind feet; he is the only one, except the polar bear, which lives principally upon animal food.

In fact, the bears take much the same place in the animal world that heavy phlegmatic men do among ourselves; easy-going, but dangerous if roused, they seem to have succeeded in life more by accommodating themselves to things as they have found them, than by conquering and taking by force like the wolves and tigers. Thus a bear roams leisurely through the thick forest, for few animals care to meddle with him and he feeds wherever food comes easy, especially in the autumn when fruits abound and he can grow fat; and then he lies down to sleep in a cave or hollow tree, or in a nest of moss and leaves, till spring comes round again. Why should he trouble himself to struggle with difficulties? Unless, indeed, food is scarce, and then he sometimes has ari uneasy winter, or attacks animals he would otherwise leave alone.

But if once he is roused, or if a she-bear is afraid that her cubs may be attacked, then you see that under the lazy good-nature there is plenty of pluck and ferocity. He would rather be let alone, for he looks upon life as a thing to enjoy and take leisurely, but if you will have a struggle then he will see who is master. And this kind of philosophy, somewhat easy for strong powerful creatures, has stood Bruin in good stead, for he has spread over all countries where there are thick forests, except Africa and Australia; and with his great strength and shaggy coat must have been very safe from attack till man came to annoy and worry him.

Even the polar bear, living amidst perpetual snow and ice on the shores of Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and Greenland, has not, on the whole, a bad life of it, for he is master of the situation, and conquers and devours even the tusked walrus. The polar bear is a most interesting animal, because he shows us the bear tribe becoming adapted to a watery life. His body is much longer and more flexible than that of most bears, giving him the power to twist and turn in the water, as he swims with strong broad feet; and his long neck, narrow head, and small ears, are all fitted for a watery fishing life, while he fights entirely with his teeth and does not hug his prey. Again, the soles of his feet, instead of being bare, are covered with long stout hairs, giving him foothold upon the slippery ice, over which he travels very quickly, climbing up from time to time on the icy hummocks to see where seals are to be found, or to scent a dead whale from afar. He is an inveterate seal-hunter, chasing them in the water or out of it with equal ease and great cunning, though they are quick too, and often escape him just when he thinks he has caught them. It is when they are asleep with their noses upon the ice or the land, that he has his best chance, for then he will swim warily behind them, coming up close, till, even if they wake, they have no choice but to be killed where they are, or to leap out on the solid ice where he will soon overtake them.

The polar bear, unlike his brown cousins, fishes and hunts all the winter through, and it is only the mothers which take refuge in caves hollowed out of the snow, where their little ones are born in early spring, and nestle down by her side in their icy home. And when the cubs can run, both father and mother care for them with true devotion, defending them against all attacks, and pushing them before them when pursued, even going so far as to take them in their teeth and swim away with them when they cannot otherwise save them.

So we see that the polar bear has become more than half a water-animal, and gives us the first hint that some milk-givers may take to a thoroughly sea life. Neither among the wolves nor the felines do we find any animals taking entirely to the water; but in the weasel family, which comes near to the bears, we have the otters, and among the bears themselves their polar cousin, which reminds us that there is another great division of flesh-feeders which we must study in the next chapter—the walruses, seals, and sea-bears, the porpoises, dolphins, and whales, which with finned paddles have struck out quite a new line of life, and imitated the fish so well that they are often wrongly classed among them.