372 GENERAL ADAPTIVENESS. 



refuse. Not only so, but by some suitable means they prevent 

 the germination of stored seeds. This is usually supposed to 

 be by their biting off the germinating ends (Watson). 

 Wallace suggests that they do so simply by ' continually 

 using for food those seeds which begin to germinate, and 

 that there always remain many seeds whose germination is 

 delayed.' But whatever be the means adopted, we know 

 what the end accomplished is. Certain harvesting ants also 

 climb up the stems of shepherd's-purse, bite off the capsule, 

 take out the seeds, transport, accumulate, and store them 

 (Moggridge). 



Many animals make caches of surplus food, of what 

 remains after all the present calls of hunger have been 

 satisfied ; the surplus being buried or concealed sometimes in 

 holes scraped in the earth, and again ingeniously covered up 

 so as not to attract notice, or under rocks and stones. The 

 carrion crow removes the refuse of fishermen's nets by por- 

 tions to above highwater mark, depositing them under rocks 

 and stones (Montagu). The burial of food in order that it 

 may become ' high ' is said to be characteristic of the 

 retriever breed of dogs (' Nature ') . But in other cases, 

 though buried or concealed food may become tainted or 

 putrid in the course of time before it is consumed, it is no 

 part of the animal's object in hiding or storing it that it 

 should become so. 



Certain animals have to dismember their prey or tear up 

 their food in order to its transport or consumption. Certain 

 shrikes impale or transfix their prey on thorns in order to 

 pull them to pieces ; in confine meiit using a nail for the 

 same purpose if it be provided by man or is accidentally 

 accessible (Montagu). Foraging ants cut their prey to 

 pieces for convenience of carriage (Belt). 



The modes of administering food to, or of feeding, the 

 young, sick, aged, or helpless, involve a number of deliberate 

 processes ; such as 



1. Crushing or soaking hard substances. 



2. Masticating them ; and 



3. Putting the bolus down the throat. 



Colnett, in his ' Voyage to the South Seas,' says that he 



