652 



THE NATURE BOOK 



case of the Stoat), and generally the por- 

 tion of liini forward of the shoulder 

 girdle may be said to bristle with " re- 

 ceivers." 



Though it is probable that a Squirrel's 

 tail may, on occasion, serve as a para- 

 chute (it is decidedly distichous), I am 

 inclined to think, from observation of 

 a number of Squirrels, that this particu- 

 lar function is seldom in evidence, and 

 that the main uses of a Squirrel's tail 

 are the nice adjustment of his centre 

 of gravity, and the provision of a warm 

 winter wrapping. So far as the former is 

 concerned, a Squirrel who is sitting back 

 on his haunches (his normal feeding 

 position), or who is sitting still on a branch, 



{see illustration on p. 648), arranges his 

 tail S-wise. so that the main weight of it 

 is disposed over his back. When leaping 

 from bough to bough, or over the ground, 

 a Squirrel's tail may be fully extended, 

 or arched, either disposition being com- 

 pletely under the control of the Squirrel. 

 When sleeping in his nest, a Squirrel, like 

 a Stoat, wraps his tail round himself, and 

 includes its mouth in its shelter. It 

 serves, in fact, as a respirator and blanket 

 combined. I am not satisfied that 

 Squirrels ever become torpid, even in 

 the hardest weather, or that they ever 

 make a store. " Tmprohus atqiie impro- 

 vidus " would be a fitting motto for the 

 clan. 



Douglas English. 



ANIMAL EPICURES 



By GERVAISE TURNBULL 



IT is a curious and interesting study to 

 notice the very various tastes and 

 antipathies which animals in a state 

 of domestication show in the selection of 

 their food supply. Depraved tastes may 

 occur in some cases where, as in cats and 

 dogs, close contact with civilisation has 

 blunted the natural instincts ; but with 

 the ordinary farm animals there is a 

 natural selection shown, generally of a 

 healthy character, when they are allowed 

 to roam at liberty. 



It is a wide one, too, and more discern- 

 ing than might be supposed from first 

 observation, and horses, cattle, sheep 

 and goats, and even pigs, show their likes 

 and dislikes in an unmistakable manner. 

 Horses, we all know, are most particular 

 in the foods which they will eat when in 

 the stable, and if they show less discern- 

 ment when grazing they have their fancies, 

 though prolmbly not to the same extent 

 as sheep. Their chief characteristic when 

 grazing is the way in which they pare the 

 grass closely down in certam places, 

 leaving a patchy appearance in the field. 

 This points to a difference in the taste of 



the herbage, which, though apparently the 

 same to the observer, horses are not slow 

 to find out. Indeed, it is noticeable what 

 a preference live stock generally show to 

 one field over another, due largely, no 

 doubt, to one being of better quahty than 

 the other, but also, perhaps, because some 

 particular kind of herbage or plant is there 

 which they affect. 



It may, perhaps, surprise the general 

 reader to learn that a very large number 

 of plants may be growing in a gi^ass field 

 that appears to the casual obser\-er 

 to be " nothing but grass." The subject 

 was carefully gone into some years ago 

 at Rothamsted, the great scientific station 

 for agricultm-e, and on the plots there 

 grown as many as eighty-nine kinds of 

 plants were found. Only twenty of these 

 were grasses, and ten leguminous plants, 

 so that there were a large number of 

 weeds, as they would be called in arable 

 ground, though no doubt many of them 

 would be appreciated by live stock. 



It will be interesting to trace the 

 particular plants that grow in this way, 

 and also in hedgerows and similar places. 



