If so, this is but one more instance
showing how perfectly the animals are fitted for the life which they live
in their natural state.
And now we must pass from this group to another great Division of the
Mammalia--the Herbivorous animals, which live, not on the flesh of birds or
beasts, which they hunt for themselves, but upon grass and green things.
In the first class the Gnawing creatures are placed; you can always know
them by their teeth. Perhaps you remember how different the front teeth of
a rabbit are from those long, sharp ones which pussy shows now and then
when she yawns. By constantly gnawing their food, the teeth of squirrels,
hares, rats, mice, dormice, and all animals called Rodents, or Gnawers,
would soon be worn away, but that, unlike our teeth, they never cease
growing while the creature lives. The most interesting of these creatures
is the Beaver, with its webbed hind feet and broad tail. I hope you will
some day read about the mud-built houses, and the clever dams which beavers
make across the rivers. Mr. Wood says that when they have been tamed they
will still go on building dams across one corner of the room in which they
are, and collecting boots, brushes, books, all sorts of things, and putting
them together industriously; for they still have in captivity the same
instinct which teaches them to dam the stream where they build, so that
the entrance to their houses may always be below the surface, and never be
barred by the ice, during frost.
Pages:
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371