V. 



THE ANIMALS OF THE FOREST. 



To the stranger the forest appears almost deserted. 

 Hardly the sign of an animal is to be seen by any 

 but a skilled huntsman, and by him only after a 

 most careful search. There are no open places, 

 but the whole is one vast game cover, in the 

 recesses of which millions of animals may be 

 hidden without an indication of their presence. 

 For there are no herbivorous animals, as there 

 are no pastures on which they can graze. Not 

 a blade of grass or hardly a green leaf is seen 

 under the wide-stretching roof, and it would there- 

 fore be impossible for them to live. Even the 

 deer of the savannah, although sometimes found 

 in the jungle, cannot exist inside the forest. It 

 has followed, therefore, that in the course of ages 

 the wild beasts have accommodated themselves per- 

 fectly to their environment, and are now as well 



