A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



extract the nutritive matter from grass-seeds a masticating stomach 

 is necessary, a gizzard whose muscular walls are able to grind 

 the seed, such as the gallinaceous birds of the campos possess. 



The grass, which without trunk or boughs has to withstand the 

 force of the wind that scours across the open plains, must perforce 

 elaborate effective reinforcing substances; consequently it contains 

 many indigestible components, and must be eaten in large quantities 

 if it is to suffice the needs of an animal, especially when it is dried 

 and withered by the sun. For this reason the Bovidae and other 

 ruminants are provided with several stomachs, which nourish the 

 body in different ways; while the Rodents retain their food for an 

 unusually long time, partly in a stomach which has several com- 

 partments, and partly in an enormous caecum, which in the hare 

 is longer than the animal's body. The nature of this diet entails an 

 abundant excretion of indigestible material, so that the soil is 

 constantly manured, which favours the growth of the grass. A 

 striking lesson as to the difference between the harmonious activities 

 of Nature and the one-sided activity of man is afforded by the 

 fact that for thousands of years the soil of the steppes — for example, 

 the steppes of the Ukraine — retained the greatest fertility. Only 

 when man began to cultivate the black soil did its productiveness 

 diminish. Similarly, in the State of Sao Paulo the coffee-planters 

 exploited the red soil, the terra roxa, prepared by Nature. The 

 cultivation of coffee exhausted it in a few years, and the planters 

 are continually obliged to take fresh virgin soil into cultivation. 



The dung which the animals of the steppes provide in such 

 abundance enables certain other creatures to make a living. Dung- 

 beetles of all kinds are typical inhabitants of the grassy plains. In 

 Nature everything is utilized and drawn once more into the cycle 

 of life. Bodies whose life has departed build up the living bodies of 

 burying-beetles and vultures. Even the food which is still passing 

 through the intestine of an animal does not escape attention, and 

 since, as is evident, a good many digestible substances are excreted 

 without being utilized, parasites, in the shape of intestinal worms, 

 find their way into the animal's body, transforming these substances 

 too into living substance. Just as in human factories efforts are 

 made to utilize even the waste products, so no stage of the long way 

 from the earth to the living animal, and back again, is overlooked. 

 Everywhere life adapts itself, and nowhere on its upward or down- 

 ward journey is the evolving substance unexploited. 



But if one animal is set over another, what of those that form 



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