174 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY 



others, which is known as c cat-grass/ Cats will come 

 to eat it from a distance, and some will take it from 

 the hand if it is plucked and brought to them. This 

 medicinal use of grass seems common to most of 

 the larger cats. At the Zoo, when the grass is cut 

 in the spring, a few handfuls are generally given 

 to the lions and leopards, which eat it just as a dog 

 does. 



A third panacea for indigestion among birds, and 

 used also by the larger lizards, is the swallowing 

 of stones of all sizes, from a pound-weight in the 

 case of the crocodile to the tiny grit and gravel in 

 the gizzards of birds. This can only be done for 

 purely medical reasons, for not even a crocodile 

 would swallow stones, as famishing negroes do earth, 

 4 to deceive the stomach.' Breeders of prize poultry 

 have recently been engaged in one of those con- 

 troversies, which rage with such unbridled warmth 

 among the ' fancy/ as to whether ' grit ' is necessary 

 for the well-being of fowls, and if so, what grit, 

 and whether it should be patent grit or common 

 mortar and gravel. Judging from the habits of 

 fowls and pigeons other than those bred for show, 

 there can be no doubt that they naturally eat gravel 

 and grit as medicine, the pigeons taking it more 

 freely at the time when the eggs are about to be 

 laid. It has been noticed also that dogs, when always 



