Traces of Animal Habits 225 
in which these records are made. Hair is a living, growing, 
and plastic tissue. The individual hairs grow at the bottom 
of their follicles, and the shaft is constantly being pushed by 
the force of growth in that direction which offers the least 
resistance to its onward course. In most regions of an 
animal's body the hairs find no resistance and he in the 
primitive direction, the point being worn down by friction 
or its length regulated by the requirements of the pelage of 
the individual animal, in which case the hais are shed and 
soon replaced: by others. This growth takes place approximately 
at the rate of half-an-inch a month, so that if an animal’s 
hairy covering were adapted to 
maintaiming its full growth, 
every year would show six 
inches added to the length 
of the hairs. But even so 
small a matter as the length 
of a hai is adjusted to the 
requirements of its possessor, 
and Nature takes care to wear 
down the hairs at the point while they are growing 
in the follicle, or the whole hair is shed, the process 
differing at different seasons and in different animals. = 
Those regions where resistance to this primitive flow of 
hai is found are the seats of many of the reversed 
areas, whorls, featherigs and crests, a few of which 
have been deseribed. 
lig. 7. GIRAFFE 
ae 
Fig. 8. GIRAFFE. 
Nore.—Part I. of this article will be found on page 152 of this Volume. 
A NEW _ BOOK. 
THIS is not the first occasion on which we have spoken in praise of Mr. W. J. 
luong’s work, and we hope it will not be the last. We said once that in our 
opinion he was, as a naturalist author, second only to Mr. Seton (Thompson), but 
on reading his last book issued by his publishers (Messrs. Ginn), “A Little Brother 
to the Bear,” we are inclined to revise this statement and say that Mr. Long has 
chmbed to the very top of the tree, or rather, of that branch which, though tried 
and tried successfully by many, he and Mr. Seton have retained apart and above 
from all other competitors. To an infinite amount of patience in watching the ways 
of the wild, Mr. Long brings a most charming style in describing what he has seen, 
and in these pen-portraits he is ably seconded by Mr. Copeland, as artist, whose 
numerous illustrations are a great acquisition to the book. However, it is the 
print, not the pictures, which is the chief feature of the book, and from it one can 
learn more about the animals it deals with than one is able to from most books 
on zoology. We heartily commend the book to all our readers. 
