THE FOOD OF THE OTHER LAND ANIMALS 93 



for forest living types, gregarious, and taken all together repre- 

 sent an enormous bulk. Over much of the world the native 

 types are now much reduced in numbers or even have become 

 extinct; but the balance has been little changed, since they 

 have been replaced with domestic cattle, horses, sheep and 

 goats. 



The so-called edentates, including the sloths, ant-eaters 

 (except the Australian), armadillos, pangolins and aard-varks, 

 are all uncanny ludicrous beasts with strange habits; they are 

 few in species and, with some exceptions, rather rare. The 

 sloths Hve in trees and never come to the ground; all feed on 

 leaves. The ant-eaters live on the ground or in trees and feed 

 mostly on white ants, though also eating other insects. The 

 aard-varks, with the same habits, live in burrows. The pan- 

 golins and armadillos are burrowing or terrestrial, but one 

 small pangolin lives in trees. The pangolins and some armadil- 

 los are mainly white ant eaters; other armadillos will eat other 

 insects as well or even most animal substance, living or dead. 



The insectivores include a large number of mammals, mostly 

 terrestrial, a few burrowing, tree living, or even aquatic, re- 

 presented by the moles, shrews, hedge-hogs and allied creatures, 

 most of which live chiefly on insects, though the moles eat 

 mainly earth-worms, another type lives on fish, and still an- 

 other is partially herbivorous. 



The carnivores, the lions, tigers, jaguars and other cats, the 

 wolves, dogs, foxes, bears, ichneumons, otters, skunks, rac- 

 coons, seals, and various other forms, are all carnivorous, 

 mostly feeding on other vertebrates, especially on other mam- 

 mals, birds and fishes, the smaller largely on insects, and some, 

 Hke the hyaenas, chiefly on carrion. A few, such as the crab- 

 eating raccoon, have curiously specialized habits. The walrus 

 feeds on molluscs. The reverse of the habit recently adopted 

 by the New Zealand kea is exhibited by the Mediterranean 

 seal which, living on fish, has a fondness for grapes and is 

 said sometimes to commit great havoc in the vineyards of 

 Sardinia and Sicily at the time of the vintage. 



