42 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 
Some species, however, are no doubt more 
interesting than others, especially perhaps 
those which live together in true communi- 
ties, and which offer so many traits — some 
sad, some comical, and all interesting, — which 
reproduce more or less closely the circum- 
stances of our own life. 
The modes of animal life are almost in- 
finitely diversified ; some live on land, some 
in water ; of those which are aquatic some 
dwell in rivers, some in lakes or pools, some 
on the sea-shore, others in the depths of the 
ocean. Some burrow in the ground, some 
find their home in the air. Some live in the 
Arctic regions, some in the burning deserts ; 
one little beetle (Hydrobius) in the thermal 
waters of Hammam-Meskoutin, at a tempera- 
ture of 130°. As to food, some are carnivor- 
ous and wage open war; some, more insidious, 
attack their victims from within; others feed 
on vegetable food, on leaves or wood, on seeds 
or fruits; in fact, there is scarcely an animal 
or vegetable substance which is not the special 
and favourite food of one or more species. 
Hence to adapt them to these various require- 
— 7) 
