420 USE OF NATURAL INSTRUMENTS. 



locked up in a coach-house repeatedly extricated herself by 

 drawing up the drop-bolt with her hind hoof ('Animal 

 World '). Sheep attacked by the breeze fly stamp by striking 

 their feet on the ground, as an expression of their excite- 

 ment (Figuier) . The tumble-dung beetle of North America 

 rolls its pellets of dung by pushing with its hind feet. A 

 certain trap- door spider of New Zealand holds down the 

 hinged door of its subterranean nest by means of its feet, so 

 as to prevent its being opened by an intruder or an enemy 

 (Gillies). 



Various animals apply their tails to a number of useful 

 purposes. The cat, ant-eater, squirrel, jerboa, guinea-pig, 

 wolf, jackal, maruiozet, and other animals use their tails 

 partly as respirators or comforters (Lawson Tait), as retainers 

 of heat, just as women wear boas. 



The yak uses its tail as a fly-flapper, whisk, or fan, and 

 the horse and many other animals in a similar way employ 

 their tails to protect themselves to a certain extent from 

 insect pests. Eats use their tails, as cats do their paws, in 

 extracting or abstracting jelly, oil, or cream from preserve 

 bottles or other vessels with necks too narrow to admit of 

 the passage of their whole body, as has been recently proved 

 by the experiments of Eomanes, and was long ago pointed 

 out by Jesse. An instance is given by Baird of a rat re- 

 paying the attention or affection bestowed upon it by a child 

 companion by the useful service of whisking flies from his 

 face by means of its tail. Miss Gordon Gumming describes 

 an old monkey in India giving a young one a swing on its 

 tail, just as man uses his foot with his infant. The macaco 

 and other monkeys play with their own tails as well as with 

 those of their fellows (Cassell), and there are probably few 

 persons who have not seen kittens amusing themselves in a 

 similar cheap and simple way. The marmozet (monkey) uses 

 its own tail as a covering for its body during sleep (Cassell) 

 in lieu of other forms of bed-clothes. The aides monkey uses 

 its tail in fishing (Houzeau), and the racoon does the same 

 in fishing for crabs (' Percy Anecdotes '). The rat uses its 

 tail in the guidance of the blind. Apes employ theirs in 

 suspension and progression (Houzeau). The great ant-eater 



