i82 THE RANGE OF ANIMAL DIET 



single food grain. Famine is much less common among 

 4 omnivorous ' races than among those which are almost 

 parasitic on a single plant like the banana or the potato. 

 In spite of prejudices, which even in this country would 

 make the lower classes more willing to forego a portion 

 of their weekly meat-supply than to eat rye-bread in 

 place of the wheaten loaf, the tendency everywhere is to 

 increase the range and variety of food. 



Among animals the same tendency can be traced. It 

 appears most noticeably in domesticated species, but it 

 can be traced amongst those which are wild, and in 

 regions where evidence of its force as a working law is 

 given by the very small number of creatures now found 

 which live on a single item of food. In the case of 

 domesticated animals the range of diet is often extended 

 by compulsory detainments in regions in which they are 

 forced to endure the winter which otherwise they would 

 have avoided by migration. 



The northern range of the horse and ox now far 

 exceeds the natural food-limit. The Shetland pony 

 could always pick up a bare living, but the Iceland 

 pony has during the winter absolutely no natural food- 

 supply. A few are taken into the houses, but the 

 greater number are turned loose by their owners, and 

 have for sole support sea- weed and the heads of dried 

 cod. The Norwegian cow, spending the winter inside 

 the Arctic circle, was formerly fed largely on soup made 



