SUMMER INDUSTRIES 127 



evolutionist point of view, this seems highly probable. All 

 that we do say is, that there is no case of animal cleverness 

 on record which may not be described without crediting 

 the performer with general ideas that is to say, all may 

 be accounted for on the supposition that the activity is 

 either instinctive or intelligent. Some lovers of animals 

 think that we might be more generous when we are at 

 it, but the scientific method holds fast by the law of parsi- 

 mony, which forbids us making larger assumptions than are 

 warranted by the facts. 



The primitive human occupations of hunting, fishing, 

 shepherding, and farming afford a convenient classification 

 of a large group of animal industries those concerned 

 with food-getting. 



Of the primary activity of hunting there are many 

 modes. Lurking is illustrated by the crocodile at the 

 water's edge, by the snake in the grass, by the octopus 

 among the rocks ready to grapple a dreamy fish, by the 

 larval ant-lion who digs in the sand a pitfall for unwary 

 insects, and by a thousand more. 



Others prowl about in search of their prey the cats 

 large and small treading noiselessly with claws of steel 

 under their velvet gloves, the snakes gliding swiftly in the 

 jungle like Kipling's famous Kaa, the foxes alone, the 

 wolves in packs, the bats and owls and a hundred others by 

 night, the eagles and swifts and a thousand others by day, 

 the monkeys seeking out the orchards, the otter the trout- 

 pools, the walrus the mussel-beds, some with wondrous 

 swiftness like the weasel after the rabbit, others with great 

 leisureliness like snails on the hunt for mushrooms. There 

 is no end to the variety of ways and means. 



Some of the details of device are full of interest. The 

 thrush breaks the snails' shells against a stone, making 

 heaps of the remains quaintly suggestive of the archaeo- 



