MAMMALIA. 



141 



Indeed there is scarcely any of the climbing mam- 

 malia which does not combine in its anterior extre- 

 mities at least some other action besides that of mere 

 climbing ; and in consequence of this \ve never can 

 have a clear understanding of the extent to which 

 animals of this kind possess the power of locomotion 

 considered simply in itself. 



Even in walking animals which do not climb, or 

 pain any height which they cannot reach at a single 

 bound from a place of rest for all the feet, the fore 

 legs very often have compound action. Thus, for 

 instance, the elephant appears to have as ungainly a 

 foot, and as ill adapted for any thing in addition to 

 mere motion, as one can well suppose ; and yet the 

 elephant contrives to turn this apparently clumsy 

 ami unmanageable foot into no b.id substitute for a 

 hand, to co-operate with its curious proboscis in per- 

 forming rather nice operations. The very tame and 

 playful elephant which the Duke of Devonshire had 

 at Chiswick, and which was equally a favourite for 

 its mild disposition and its mechanical dexterity, held 

 a soda water bottle very neatly with its foot at such 

 an angle as not to spill the water that it contained, 

 until it had extracted the cork with what may be 

 called the thumb and finger of its proboscis ; and after 

 it had done this, and then drank the water from the 

 hottle, it cculd hold the empty bottle in the same 

 manner till it replaced the cork. 



Very many other vegetable and miscellaneous 

 feeders use the foot in the obtaining their food. 

 Sometimes to hold the one end of the food till they 



zes the other with the mouth, and either cut off 

 what they require with the teeth, or pull it asunder 

 with a jerk of the head. Most animals that feed on 

 the loaves of trees, occasionally use the foot in strik- 

 ing down the branches ; and not a few of those which 

 have to find their subsistence under the snow, employ 

 the foot in scraping off the snow, in order to reach 

 what they eat. The solid hoofed animals, whose 

 native localities appear to be those margins of the 

 deserts where the pools and the streams get very 

 shallow during the drought, have the habit of scrap- 

 ing a little pit with the foot, in order to obtain a 

 sufficient depth of water for quenching their thirst. 

 The pig makes great use of the foot in feeding, both 

 in holding on till he tears it, and in keeping down 

 the ground while he draws up roots, after he has 

 nozzled oft' the surface mould, so as to reach the 

 blanched part, which is his favourite morsel. So 

 strong and so natural is the habit now mentioned in 

 this species of animal, that they do not forget it in a 

 state of domestication, and where they have not 

 occasion either to pull roots, or to hold on till their 

 food is divided. The countryman's criticism upon 

 Morland's three pigs feeding, is an illustration very 

 much in point here. That talented but eccentric 

 artist was particularly fond of painting pigs, and 

 equally faithful in his delineations of their forms. 

 The three pigs was looked upon as a chef ffcsuvre in 

 animal painting, and the countryman was brought to 

 see it, as something of the merits of which he could 

 judge, and which, from its supposed faithfulness to 

 nature he could not fail to admire. He studied it for 

 some time with much attention, and upon being asked 

 what he thought of it, replied, " They are much 

 the shape and colour of pigs certainly, but after all 

 they are not pigs." " What in the name of wonder 

 induces you to think so?" asked his cicerone with 

 some astonishment. " Why, who on earth ever saw 



three pigs feeding without one on 'em having his 

 foot in the trough y" replied the countryman, clearly 

 showing, that how well soever Morland had studied 

 the forms of pigs, this countryman had been far more 

 attentive to their habits. 



There are few, indeed, of the walking mammalia 

 where we do not find some use of their fore feet in 

 addition to the mere operation of walking ; and there 

 are not a few which use the fore-feet, and especial Iv 

 the hind ones, as weapons of defence, and sometimes 

 of attack. This last circumstance, however, does not 

 interfere so much with any other habit of the animal 

 as those which we have formerly mentioned. The 

 particular way in which the foot assists in feeding 

 depends not a little upon the nature of the food ; 

 and we have therefore to study the feet of those 

 animals both with regard to the kind of their food 

 and the places where they obtain it ; the last of which 

 is a very extensive and varied inquiry, and demands 

 a good deal of acquaintance with natural geography 

 before it can be turned to proper account. This, 

 however, is an advantage rather than otherwise, for 

 we have a double profit and a treble pleasure when 

 the study of one science induces, or even compels 

 us, to study another. Each science is in itself both 

 a pleasure and a profit, and then there is superadded 

 the higher and more mental pleasure which we derive 

 from tracing the connexion between them. 



When we think of the localities for which climbing 

 or walking animals of some description or other must 

 be adapted, in order that no portion of nature's great 

 pasture may lie waste, we must look at the world 

 in every zone and in every latitude, ascertain the 

 character of every surface, both with regard to its 

 form, its fertility, and the plants which it produces, we 

 must take careful note of the peculiarities of climate- 

 and of seasons which belong to each, and we must 

 take into consideration the general vegetation, and 

 the other animals. We must do all these things, 

 because in every place which is left to the course of 

 nature all the parts of nature harmonise : and if wo 

 can once possess ourselves of the principle of this 

 harmony, it furnishes a ready and an easy key to a 

 vast number of particulars. This is in fact the grand 

 generalisation to which all our inquiries into natural 

 history ought to tend ; and the mammalia are far 

 preferable to any other productions of nature for 

 being our first and best guides in this delightful and 

 all-instructive path. The mammalia of a country are 

 its most permanent animated inhabitants ; they sum- 

 mer and winter there, and do not quit, unless the 

 physical circumstances of the country alter, or the 

 animals themselves are driven into other places, or 

 extirpated by man. We must, however, leave the 

 general subject, and proceed to some particular illus- 

 trations. 



Organs of Climbing. Mammalia climb upon such, 

 varied substances and for purposes so different, that 

 it is not easy to contrive any general description 

 which will include the whole of them. Trees are, 

 however, the chief resort of climbing mammalia, and 

 the most characteristic ones are the quadrumana or 

 four-handed animals ; in all their divisions, including 

 apes, baboons, and the different species of monkus. 

 Then there are some other animals which climb with 

 less perfect hands, such as the lemurs, the loris, the 

 ! galago, the aj-ai, and a few others. Bears and 

 1 some other animals climb by clasping with the legs, 

 and partly also by the help of their claws ; and there 



