FOOD OF UNGULATES 79 



chiefly on young shoots r.nd young branches of acacia, varied 

 with fruits and roots. Rhinoceroses cause great damage in 

 sugar-cane and melon fields, and are especially dreaded l^y 

 the owners of cacao plantations, where they do much harm 

 to the young growth. The tapir, like the rhinoceros, shelters 

 itself during the day time and feeds at night on palm leaves 

 or fallen fruit or swamp-grass and water-plants. 



The Artiodactyla or even-toed ungulates are equally 

 herbivorous, but the pig is omnivorous and will eat flesh, 

 fresh or decayed, and any amount of filth. Wild pigs are 

 often very destructive to crops, but away from human activity 

 they will often feed upon roots, sedges, and carrion, and 

 excreta. They trample and root up the soil in a terrible 

 fashion and destroy all vegetation. The hippopotamus, owing 

 to its gigantic bulk, consumes an immense amount of food. 

 Its stomach is enormous, measuring 11 feet in length and 

 capable of containing from five to six bushels of foodstuffs. 

 It also causes considerable damage to rice-, millet-, and 

 sugar-plantations, causing even more damage by its trampling 

 than by its feeding. Away from human habitations " hij^j^os " 

 live chiefly on water plants. The llamas of South America 

 feed by day and have to descend from the rocky heights of 

 the Cordilleras, to which they resort as summer approaches, 

 to obtain food in the valleys. In their natural state their 

 allies, the camels of Africa and Asia, feed on green food, though, 

 when domesticated, grain is largely given them ; but to keep 

 them in health green food is essential. It is often supplemented 

 by dates. Like the ass, they are fond of eating and swallowing 

 the most thorny plants. 



Deer browse on grass, but they also eat the leaves of trees 

 and shrubs. The wapiti of North America is rather a coarse 

 feeder, and will readily take food rejected by horses or oxen. 

 Reindeer are apt to migrate from the inland to the coast 

 during the autumn and to vary their ordinary diet of moss 

 by eating sea-weeds. They have a specially modified horn 

 with a flange for shifting the snow so that they can get at 

 the underlying moss. The musk-ox of Arctic Canada is 

 more closely allied to the sheep and goats than to the ox. 

 It fives in herds. The caribou or American reindeer devours 



