THE OCCUPATIONS OF ANIMALS 13 
of stupidity, is doubtless a blessing to the bird. Nest- 
building affords great pleasure to it—the more pro- 
tracted the amusement, the better for the architect. 
The squirrel labours from early morn till late eve 
laying up a store of nuts. When one storehouse is full 
the industrious animal opens another, and then proceeds 
to forget the existence of the first ! 
Go to the running stream and watch the kingfisher 
at work. He does not select a suitable place and keep 
to it; he flies from rock to rock and continually makes 
excursions up and down the river, and is thus enabled 
to spend the whole of the day in fishing and yet not 
overeat himself. 
It may be asked, How do sessile animals solve the 
problem? The sea-squirt, the sponge, and the barnacle 
are non-locomotive, and hence they cannot fritter away 
their time as a butterfly does. I reply, that for these 
degenerate creatures, sans eyes, sans teeth, sans every- 
thing, there is no problem to solve. Sessile animals are, 
to all intents and purposes, plants; they are creatures 
devoid of feeling. An oyster has no more soul than a 
dandelion. 
To return to the higher animals. The search for 
food undoubtedly occupies a very large portion of their 
day, even if they waste no time. It is not an uncommon 
thing to find over one thousand seeds in the crop of a 
granivorous bird. Suppose such a creature is able to 
find and swallow two hundred seeds in an hour, then 
the eating of a thousand represents five hours’ solid 
work, Insectivorous birds, such as wagtails, must eat 
several hundreds of insects in a day. Animals that 
