THE OCCUPATIONS OF ANIMALS 13 



of stupidity, is doubtless a blessing to the bird. Nest- 

 building affords great pleasure to it — the more pro- 

 tracted the amusement, the better for the architect. 



The squirrel labours from early morn till late eve 

 laying up a store of nuts. When one storehouse is full 

 the industrious animal opens another, and then proceeds 

 to forget the existence of the first ! 



Go to the running stream and watch the kingfisher 

 at work. He does not select a suitable place and keep 

 to it ; he flies from rock to rock and continually makes 

 excursions up and down the river, and is thus enabled 

 to spend the whole of the day in fishing and yet not 

 overeat himself. 



It may be asked. How do sessile animals solve the 

 problem ? The sea-squirt, the sponge, and the barnacle 

 are non-locomotive, and hence they cannot fritter away 

 their time as a butterfly does. I reply, that for these 

 degenerate creatures, sans eyes, sans teeth, sans every- 

 thing, there is no problem to solve. Sessile animals are, 

 to all intents and purposes, plants ; they are creatures 

 devoid of feeling. An oyster has no more soul than a 

 dandelion. 



To return to the higher animals. The search for 

 food undoubtedly occupies a very large portion of their 

 day, even if they waste no time. It is not an uncommon 

 thing to find over one thousand seeds in the crop of a 

 granivorous bird. Suppose such a creature is able to 

 find and swallow two hundred seeds in an hour, then 

 the eating of a thousand represents five hours' solid 

 work. Insectivorous birds, such as wagtails, must eat 

 several hundreds of insects in a day. Animals that 



