THE SLEEPING HOMES OF ANIMALS 199 



habitation. Like prehistoric man, the animals alike of 

 past ages and of the present hour have made caves their 

 bedrooms, and that they regard these in the light of 

 home is almost certain, for they return to die there. 

 Whether the last English rhinoceros slept in the 

 Derbyshire cave where his bones were found can only 

 be matter of conjecture. But caves are the natural 

 sleeping-places of nearly all nocturnal creatures, which 

 need by day protection from enemies and from the 

 disturbing light. Hollow trees serve the smaller 

 creatures ; but the great caves, especially those of 

 the tropical forest, whether on the Orinoco, or in 

 Central America, or the Indian Archipelago, or in 

 prehistoric Kentucky, have been the sleeping-places of 

 millions of creatures from the remotest ages of the 

 earth. There sleep the legions of the bats ; there 

 the * dragons ' and monsters of old dreamed evil dreams 

 after undigested surfeits of marsupial prey or of pre- 

 historic fish from vanished seas ; and there the wolf, 

 the bear, the panther, and the giant snake still sleep 

 away the hours of day. 



Other animals, in place of seeking and maintaining a 

 private bedroom, prefer to sleep together in companies. 

 Aristotle's remark that ' carefulness is least in that 

 which is common to most' holds good of these 

 communal sleeping-places. Even clever creatures like 

 pigs and domestic ducks have no * home ' and no 



