DAINTIES OF ANIMAL DIET 189 



not only as a luxury, but as a medicine. The ' grape 

 cure ' makes a marked difference in their condition, and 

 animals which enter the vineyards suffering from mange 

 are said to be restored to health very soon after their 

 diet of grapes has begun. One British carnivorous 

 animal, the marten, also seeks fruit as a dainty. In 

 Sutherlandshire Mr. St. John discovered that some 

 animal was stealing his raspberries, and, setting a trap, 

 caught in it a marten cub. Dogs will also eat fruit, 

 though rarely. When they do they usually take a 

 fancy to gooseberries ; the present writer has met with 

 two spaniels which had this taste, and would take the 

 gooseberries from the trees, and put out the skins after 

 eating the pulp. 



In the annual report on the management of the 

 menagerie of the Zoological Society, the item * onions ' 

 always figures largely in the bill for provender. Onions, 

 as is well known to housekeepers, are an indispensable 

 ingredient in very many dishes in which their presence 

 is hardly recognised by those who would at once detect 

 the presence of the smallest morsel of the vegetable if 

 uncooked ; and by most out-of-door populations, espe- 

 cially Spaniards and Portuguese, they are eaten raw 

 with bread as part of their staple food. But no English 

 animal seems particularly fond of them, and it is not 

 easy to guess for whose benefit they are in such 

 request at the Zoo. They are bought mainly for the 



