146 GROWTH AND FOOD OF ANIMALS. 



of the globe, is to be derived from the diversity of appetites 

 for particular species of food, implanted by nature in the 

 different tribes. Some fishes are only to be found in certain 

 latitudes. Some animals inhabit the frigid, others the torrid 

 zone : some frequent deserts, mountains, woods, lakes, and 

 meadows. In their choice of situation, they are uniformly 

 determined to occupy such places as furnish them with food 

 accommodated to their natures. Monkeys, the elephant, and 

 rhinoceros, fix on the torrid zone, because they feed on vege- 

 tables which flourish there during the whole year. The 

 reindeer inhabit the cold regions of the north, because these 

 countries produce the greatest quantity of the lichen, a species 

 of moss, which is their beloved food. The pelican makes 

 choice of dry and desert places to lay her eggs. When her 

 young are hatched, she is obliged to bring water to them 

 from great distances. To enable her to perform this neces- 

 Siiry office, nature has provided her with a large sack, which 

 extends from the tip of the upper mandible of her bill to the 

 throat, and holds as much water as will supply her brood for 

 several days. This water she pours into the nest to cool her 

 young, to allay their thirst, and to teach them to swim. Lions, 

 tigers, and other rapacious animals, resort to these nests, 

 drink the water, and are said not to injure the young. The 

 goat ascends the rocky precipice, to crop the leaves of shrubs 

 and other favorite plants. The sloth and the squirrel feed 

 upon the leaves and the fruit of trees, and are therefore fur- 

 nished with feet which enable them to climb. Water-fowls 

 live upon fishes, insects, and the eggs of fishes. Their bill, 

 neck, wings, legs, and whole structure, are nicely fitted for 

 enabling them to catch the food adapted to their natures. 

 Their feeding upon the eggs of fishes, accounts for that vari- 

 ety of fishes which are often found in lakes and pools on the 

 tops of hills, and on high grounds remote from the sea and 

 from rivers. The bat and the goat-sucker fly about during 

 the night, when the whole air is filled with moths and other 

 nocturnal insects. The bear, who acquires a prodigious 

 quantity of fat during the summer, retires to his den, when 

 provisions fail him, in winter. For some months, he receives 

 his sole nourishment from the absorption of the fat which 

 had been previously accumulated in the cellular membrane. 



A glutton, brought from Siberia to Dresden, ate every day, 

 says M. Klein, thirty pounds of flesh without being satisfied. 

 This fact indicates an amazing digestive power in so small a 

 quadruped ; for the story of his squeezing his sides between 

 Vwo trees, in order to make him disgorge, is a mere fable. 



