FOOD OF RODENTS 



81 



ways once either to the left or to the right, and the wliole of 

 the rest of the time it moves in the other direetion. Tiie un- 

 gulates are the source of food to the carnivorous land animals, 

 and form a large part of the flesh consumed by men. "The 

 charred limb of a ruminant" is a favoured dish of mankind. 

 The RoDENTiA, hares, rabbits, rats, mice, beavers, squirrels, 

 etc., gnaw, and they will gnaw pretty well anything. They 

 are very easy to find amongst mammals by the presence of 

 a pair of large chisel-shaped front teeth wliich grow con- 



FiG. 28. The Musquash, Fiber zxbethicus. 



tinuously. They are almost entirely herbivorous and they 

 get their food by gnawing. They are in the main terrestrial 

 and they burrow; but a few are fresh- water and a few — like 

 the flying squirrels — are arboreal. The musquash of North 

 America burrows in banks and feeds, chiefly at nights, on 

 water-plants. 



The carnivorous animals, Carnivora, as their name implies, 



feed both on flesh-eating animals and plant-eating animals, 



but ultimately they are dependent on the herbivora. Some of 



them, such as the hyena and the jackal, feed on carrion. The 



s L 6 



