ANGORA KIDS F. ACACIA 



belong to those wonderful lands which border the great 

 deserts of Africa and Asia. These animals have been 

 obliged to travel far and fast, and to perfect their bodily 

 strength in order to pick up a living. 



They have been taught (perhaps we should say learnt) by 

 the thorns and briers of the wilderness. 



The Cactus, Prickly Pears, or other succulent plants which 

 belong to true deserts, are covered over with most curious 

 and interesting spines. A row of little projections runs 

 down each edge of the round fleshy stem. On each projection 

 there is a rosette of spines. Sometimes these are long, 

 slender, and diverging ; in other cases they are short, stout, 

 and curving over. 



Now imagine a guanaco in South America, or even a rat 

 or mouse, which is perishing of thirst in the arid desert 

 where such things are found. It will be seen that it is by 

 no means easy for it to taste the water in the juicy stem, for 

 even the thin muzzle of a rat could scarcely get between the 

 thorns. 



Kerner describes how the wild asses in South America 

 root up or try to split the Cacti with their hoofs to get at 

 the juicy tissue of the unarmed lower parts. Yet they 

 often receive dangerous wounds in doing so from the frightful 

 spines of Melocactus ^ and others. 



It is very interesting to see a flock of Angora goats in 

 South Africa attacking an Acacia. The kid is a pretty, 

 white, flufly little creatm-e, with the most meek, mild, and 

 innocent expression. Yet it is a quarrelsome little brute. 

 In a few minutes an Acacia will be despoiled, broken, and 

 robbed of its foliage by a flock of them, although it bristles 

 all over with long spines, of which there are a pair at the base 

 of each leaf. i Kerner, I.e., vol. 1, p. 447. 



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