ADAFFATIOXS 



329 



defense; (c) defense of young; (<:/) rivalry; (e) adjustment to 

 surroundings. 



For the purpose of capture of tlioir prey, most carnivorous 

 animals are provided with strong claws, sharp teeth, hooked 

 beaks, and other structures familiar to us in the hon, tiger, 

 dog, cat, owl, and eagle. Insect- eating mammals have con- 

 trivances especially a(la})ted for the catching of insects. The 

 ant-eater, for exam})le, has a long sticky tongue which it tlirust.s 

 forth from its cvlindrical 

 snout deep into the recesses 

 of the ant-hill, bringing it 

 out with its surface covered 

 with ants. Animals which 

 feed on nuts are fitted with 

 strong teeth or beaks for 

 cracking them. Strong teeth 

 are found in those fishes 

 which feed on crabs, or sea 

 urchins. Those mammals 

 like the horse and cow, that 

 feed on plants, have usually 

 broad chisellike incisor teeth 

 for cutting off the foliage, 

 and teeth of very similar 

 form are developed in dif- 

 ferent groups of plant-eating 

 fishes. Molar teeth are found 

 when it is necessary that the 

 food should be crushed or 



chewed, and the sharp canine teeth go with a flesh diet. The 

 long neck of the giraffe enables it to browse on the foliage of 

 trees in grassless regions. 



Insects like the leaf-beetles and the grasshoppers, that feed 

 on the foliage of plants, have a pair of jaws, broad but sharply 

 edged, for cutting off bits of leaves and stems. Those which 

 take only liquid food, as the butterflies and sucking bugs, 

 have their mouth parts modified to form a slender, hollow 

 sucking beak or ])roboscis, which can be thrust into a flcnvcr 

 nectary, or into the green tissue of ]^lants or the flesh of animals 

 to suck up nectar or ])lant sap, or blood, according to the 

 .s])ecial food habits of the insect. The honey-bee has a very 



FiTi. Ib'J. — i nc iirijwti i)cln:iii, .-In a\ iiiu i;iii:ir 

 sac which it uses in catching antl holilinK 

 fishes for its food. 



