ANIMAL 'MATERIA ME DIG A' 173 



of dead deer for the sake of the salt and lime in 

 them, while all cattle and sheep will eagerly eat 

 rock-salt when placed in low, wet pastures. Many 

 birds, especially pigeons, are salt-eaters, though the 

 carnivorous birds, like the carnivorous animals, do 

 not seem to need it. Pheasants, which, like turkeys, 

 have a delicate digestion, especially when young, 

 require hot and pungent food in addition to their 

 usual fare. It has been noticed that when wild they 

 scratch up and eat the roots of the wild arum, which 

 are so hot that they will blister the tongue, and in 

 the Caucasus they eat the colchicum root. Pheasant- 

 breeders have taken the hint from this, and mix 

 hot spices with their pheasant-meal, just as turkey- 

 rearers give their poults peppercorns. It has been 

 noticed also that birds, and some animals, require 

 drugs far stronger and in larger quantities than are 

 needed to produce an effect on men.* 



The carnivorous animals avoid salt, and take 

 an emetic instead. This at least seems to be the 

 object with which dogs eat the harsh and sword- 

 like blades of ' spear-grass.' But they also eat other 

 grass merely as medicine. Cats also eat grass, and 

 not always as an emetic. There is a wide-leaved 

 kind which grows in some gardens, though not in 



* The brent geese, which feed mainly on a sea grass, roll this into little 

 balls or pads and push it into shot holes when they have been wounded. 



