THE STRUGGLE FOR FOOD AND ROOM 



2V7 



moths that hover over petunias and other deep-cupped 

 flowers have sucking-tubes three or four inches long 

 (fig. 2i6), and a famous member of this family in Mada- 

 gascar has its sucking-tube fourteen inches long, which 

 enables it to reach to the bottom of a great trumpet- 

 shaped flower. Lions and tigers, wolves, and the like 

 which feed upon other live animals must have specially 

 developed legs and muscles for swift running, or spring- 

 ing, or swimming. The otter can swim and dive better 

 than most fishes, and with 

 his greater cleverness has 



little difficulty in capturing 



the swiftest of them. The 



eagle has great talons for 



grasping its prey, and a strong 



hooked beak for tearing it. 



The pelican has a large 



pouch or sac on its lower jaw 



which it uses as a scoop-net 



for catching fish. The spoon- 

 bill duck takes up mouth- 



fuls of mud and water which 



it strains out through a close 



fringe of small thin plates 



at the sides. The preying 



mantis (fig. 217) has great 



spiny fore legs for seizing its prey, the unwary house-flies, 



on the window-panes, while the dragon-fly has a large 



mouth which it can open very wide, and can engulf in 



this fatal trap many tiny midges as it flies swiftly through 



their dancing swarms. 



Special means for protection. — -Some animals have 



poison-fangs, like the rattlesnake and the ugly lizard of 



the desert called Gila monster, and others stings, like the 



scorpion, to kill their prey. These weapons are of course 



Fig. 217. — Preying mantis. (Natural 

 size; from specimen.) 



