238 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



lished themselves in these areas. For the fundamental law holds 

 good for mammals as for other creatures, that suitable districts, and 

 these only, will be colonized sooner or later, notwithstanding the 

 arbitrary and usually rough and cruel interference of man. 



Quite diflferent from such wanderings are the expeditions made 

 by mammals to secure a temporary betterment. These are probably 

 undertaken, if not by all species, at least by representatives of every 

 family in the class; they vary in duration and distance, and may 

 even have the character of true migrations, but they always come 

 to an end after a certain time, and the wanderer ultimately returns 

 to his original place of abode. The intention or hope of reaching 

 better grazing or hunting grounds, the desire to profit by some 

 casual opportunity for making life more comfortable, may be said 

 to be the chief motive of such expeditions. They take place all the 

 year round, in every latitude and longitude, even in districts where 

 the conditions of life do not vary materially at different times. The 

 mammal begins and ends them either alone or in bands, companies 

 or herds, according as it is wont to live with its fellows; it follows 

 the same routes with more or less regularity, and appears at certain 

 places at approximately the same time, yet it is always guided by 

 chance circumstances. 



When the fruits of the sacred fig and other trees surrounding 

 the temples of the Hindoos are beginning to ripen, the Brahmids 

 who tend temple and trees await with unctuous devotion the arrival 

 of their four-footed gods. And not in vain, for the two divinities, 

 Hulman and Bunder, two species of monkey, unfailingly appear to 

 strip the luscious fruits from the trees piously planted and tended 

 for their benefit, and also to rob and plunder in the neighbouring 

 fields and gardens as long as it is worth while. Then they disappear 

 again, to the sorrow of their worshippers and the joy of the other 

 inhabitants of India, whose possessions they have' ravaged, as they 

 gathered in their spoils in their usual ruthless fashion. In Central 

 Africa, when the chief cereal of that country, the dhurra or Kafiir- 

 miUet, comes to maturity, a dignified and inventive baboon, tried 

 and experienced in all the critical situations of life, leads down the 

 flock of which, as leader, he is justifiably proud, to see whether 



