NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



illustrated by the crocodile at the water's edge, 

 by the snake in the grass, by the octopus among the 

 rocks ready to grapple a dreamy fish, by the young 

 ant-lion who digs in the sand a pitfall for unwary 

 insects, and by a thousand more. 



Others prowl about in search of their prey the 

 cats large and small treading noiselessly with claws 

 of steel under their velvet gloves, the snakes gliding 

 swiftly in the jungle like Kipling's famous Kaa, tho 

 foxes alone, the wolves in packs, the bats and owls 

 and a hundred others by night, the eagles and swifts 

 and a thousand others by day, the monkeys seeking 

 out the orchards, the otter the trout-pools, 

 the walrus the mussel-beds, some with wondrous 

 swiftness like the weasel after the rabbit, others with 

 great leisureliness like snails on the hunt for mush- 

 rooms. There is no end to the variety of ways and 

 means. 



Some of the details of device are full of interest. 

 The thrush breaks the snails' shells against a stone, 

 making heaps of the remains, reminding us of the 

 " kitchen-middens " which still bear witness to the 

 meals of prehistoric man ; rooks sometimes let 

 freshwater mussels drop from a height on to the 

 gravel, and it was thus that a Greek eagle killed the 

 poet ^Eschylus by letting a tortoise drop on his bald 

 head, which glistened like a white stone ; the 

 oyster-catcher knocks the limpet off the rock with 

 a dexterous stroke of its strong bill ; the grey 

 shrike stakes its victims on thorns. 



Of hunting by means of snares the best illustrations 

 are afforded by spiders, which show all levels from 



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