1 86 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY 



prairies of America, and so attached to particular 

 localities that, in whatever part of the forest a 

 captured pony is released, it usually finds its way 

 back to that in which it was bred. Various attempts 

 to improve these ponies have been made, which 

 have met with marked success in all respects but 

 one, that, namely, of size. The influence of the 

 thoroughbred sires which have been let run in 

 the forest, is still seen in their fine shape, high 

 Arablike quarters, elegant heads, and extraordinary 

 endurance. But the experiment of getting direct 

 crosses from larger animals always fails, if the 

 object be to run them in the forest, for the simple 

 reason that an animal above a certain size cannot 

 find sufficient food to maintain it. By browsing 

 all day, and the greater part of the night, little 

 < foresters ' of twelve or thirteen hands high can 

 just c make both ends meet/ though after the 

 winter they are extremely thin and ragged. But 

 anything above that size requires artificial support, 

 and its progeny naturally deteriorates. On the 

 other hand, the size does not tend to fall below 

 the standard at which Nature sets the limit, the 

 natural appetite and wants of these hardy creatures 

 prompting them to do the best for themselves from 

 day to day with a constancy hardly to be under- 

 stood by beings whose minds are not concentrated 



