i6 



THE FOOD OF ANIMALS 



Canines; i, Incisors. 2, Skull of Thylacinus. Note in fig. 3 (representing the JrirliTri/^nalc nr\ r\r\ 



front-teeth of Thylacinus) the four incisors in the upper, and three in the lower jaw. r 



and the blunt claws are not capable of being drawn back into 

 sheaths. As might be expected, the teeth are more numerous 

 than in the latter group, their total being generally forty-two as 

 against thirty. Although some of the dog-like animals are carrion- 

 eaters to a greater or less extent, the pursuit of living prey is the 



rule, and the actions 

 of dogs in a fox-hunt 

 exemplify, under 

 artificial conditions, 

 the normal condi- 

 tion of such ani- 

 mals in a state of 

 nature. That is to 



Fig. 312. — I, Jaws of Dog. tn, Molars ;/w, Premolars ; c/, Carnassial ; can, Say, a. numOcr OI 



individuals co-op- 

 erate together, and 

 the quarry is tracked, mainly if not entirely, by means of the 

 sense of smell. All sorts of Wild Dogs, Wolves, and Jackals 

 hunt together in packs, trusting mainly to their noses, and 

 everyone will recall instances of the kind related in books where 

 the Wolf plays a conspicuous part in the narrative. W. P. Lett 

 (in a section of The Big Game of North Afnerica) gives the 

 following very good example of the clever tactics pursued by 

 wolves: — "The Madawaska River, which was once, so far as 

 unrivalled natural beauty could make it so, the rushing, foaming 

 queen of Ottawa's peerless tributaries, has along its turbulent 

 course many rapids and chutes of wondrous grandeur and beauty. 

 One of those chutes, about one hundred miles from the city 

 of Ottawa, is called the Wolf Portage. It was so named on 

 account of the wolves chasing deer into the water at that point 

 during winter. The hunted deer were in the habit of rushing 

 into the rapids to escape the fangs of their sanguinary pursuers. 

 In catching the deer at the Wolf Portage, the wolves displayed 

 much cunning. When a deer took to water at the head, it was 

 quickly carried over the rough chute and down the rapids into 

 the gradually narrowing, ice-enclosed glade or channel at the foot. 

 Just at the spot where the current drove it against the ice, under 

 which it would immediately be whirled, a number of the wolves 

 stood on the ice, and the instant the deer touched its edge it was 

 seized by the fierce and hungry animals, dragged out upon the ice. 



