preys on fish, but during the long winter it leaves the frozen waters, and preys, like other Polecats, on Mice and land animals."[1] The Bactrian Camel (Camelus bactrianus), instead of confining itself to a strictly vegetable diet, will, according to Prejevalski, when pressed by hunger, readily devour almost anything that it may come across, including felt blankets, bones and skins of animals, flesh, and fish.[2] That prolific pest in Australia—the Rabbit—is now said to have learned to live and thrive on bark and the twigs of bushes, and even to have developed the power of getting up trees[3] in search of food, going up as high as eight feet, using their teeth to climb with.[4] When the Hamsters (Cricetus frumentarius) issue in the spring from the burrows in which they have have passed their winter hybernation, "they devour ravenously almost anything that comes before them, not refusing an occasional young bird, a mouse, or a beetle."[5] As is generally known, the usual food of these animals is of a vegetable nature. "Reindeer devour hundreds and thousands of Lemmings."[6] Mr. J.A. Thomson states that he had a report on creditable authority that in the hard winter 1894-95, Stags in Aberdeenshire were known to have eaten Rabbits."[7] The Chacma Baboon in some parts of the Cape Colony "has largely taken to killing Lambs for the purpose chiefly of sucking the milk with which they have filled their stomachs."[8] In Egypt, Hyænas are "said to feed on Indian corn, and be destructive to the crops."[9] In the Scottish Highlands, near the head of Loch Garry, Foxes were strictly preserved and plentiful. A year or two ago, when their cubs were ravenous, these Foxes took to killing Lambs in the fields around, and the unusual spectacle in Britain "was seen of large fires kept burning all night to scare them away, while slumber was
- ↑ 'Origin of Species,' 6th edit. p. 138.
- ↑ Lydekker, 'Roy. Nat. Hist.,' vol. ii. p. 411.
- ↑ "In California it has forgotten how to burrow" (C.J. Cornish, 'Wild England of To-day,' p. 189).
- ↑ Writer in the 'Times'; quoted in 'Spectator,' January 4th, 1896.
- ↑ Lydekker, loc. cit. vol. iii. p. 125.
- ↑ Brehm, 'From North Pole to Equator,' p. 75.
- ↑ Ibid, editor, note, p. 567.
- ↑ S. Schonland, 'Zoologist,' 4th ser. vol. i. p. 155.
- ↑ A. Leith Adams, 'Naturalist in Nile Valley and Malta,' p. 47.
