ANIMALS IN FAMINE 1 1 1 



foes, and they invade the rickyards, and almost enter 

 the dwellings, of their only hereditary enemy. Recent 

 accounts of the behaviour of four thousand starving 

 elk in the northern territory of the United States 

 correspond exactly with those of the Highland deer 

 in the hard winter of 1893. They approached the 

 buildings for food, and could hardly be driven from the 

 stacks of hay. Yet only one herbivorous animal out of 

 all the multitude of species has ever thought of making 

 a store of hay against a time of famine, and this is one 

 of the most insignificant of all, the pika, or calling hare 

 of the Russian steppes. There would be nothing very 

 extraordinary in the fact if social animals, such as deer, 

 cattle, or antelopes, did gather quantities of long 

 herbage, like the tall grasses of Central Africa or of 

 the Indian swamps, and accumulate it for the benefit of 

 the herd, and combine to protect it from other herds, 

 or if they reserved certain portions of the longer herbage 

 for food in winter. The latter would perhaps demand 

 a greater range of concepts than the former. But the 

 brain-power of the improvident deer must be equal to 

 that of the squirrel or field-mouse, which seldom forget 

 to lay aside a c famine fund/ In temperate climates, 

 prolonged frost or snow is the only frequent cause of 

 famine among either beasts or birds. This cause is 

 not constant, season by season, but it occurs often 

 enough in the lifetime of most individuals of the 







