PROVISIONS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 8 1 



the days when hunting will not be productive, lay up 

 provisions to utilise in such times of famine, rise a 

 degree higher than even the most skilful hunters. 

 Not all amass with the same sagacity, and we shall 

 find different examples of foresight, from the most 

 rudimentary to the highest, very near what we may 

 observe in Man. 



The provisions harvested by animals have more 

 than one destination : some are for the individual 

 himself who has gathered them ; others, on the con- 

 trary, are to serve as the food for his young at the 

 age when they are not yet capable of seeking their own 

 food. I will deal with these latter in another chapter, 

 and propose at present only to speak of those animals 

 who provision barns with the intention of themselves 

 profiting by them. 



The foresight of the animal is so much the greater 

 the more remote the future for which he prepares. 

 The Carnivora live from day to day and lay up no 

 stores ; it is the Rodents, certain frugivorous birds, 

 and insects who exhibit the most complicated acts of 

 economy. 



Provisions laid up for a short period. — As a rudi- 

 mentary example of the art of preserving food in 

 view of possible famine, I may mention the case of 

 the Lanius collurio. I have already spoken of this 

 bird and of his custom in days of abundance of 

 spitting on thorns all the captures he has made. One 

 may see side by side Coleoptera, crickets, grass- 

 hoppers, frogs, and small birds. It is evident that 

 these reserves cannot be preserved for more than a 

 day, or at most two days. The bird amasses just 

 enough to show us his apprehensions of the possible 

 future lack of success in hunting, and his thought of 



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