MIMICRY. 305 



least disposed towards water, and will not, when they can avoid 

 it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into that element." * 

 To this Mr. Harting adds a note : — " It is generally supposed 

 that Otters live exclusively on fish, but such is not invariably the 

 case. They are carnivorous as well as piscivorous, and have 

 been known to eat Ducks and Teal, and, while in confinement, 

 young Pigeons. Frogs form part of their bill of fare, and even 

 Mussels at times furnish food to these animals."! The Common 

 Armadillo (Dasypus villosus) is an adroit capturer of Mice, and 

 Mr. Hudson " frequently found their stomachs stuffed with 

 clover, and, stranger still, with the large hard grains of the maize 

 swallowed entire." I " The Zoo Otters have conformed to the 

 universal tendency to extend the range of diet by eating ship- 

 biscuit as well as fish." § According to Mr. Lydekker, Otters 

 have been known when hard pressed during winter to make 

 occasional raids on the farmyard, where they have been asserted 

 not only to kill poultry, but also young Lambs and Pigs. || As 

 stated by Mr. Dimmock, " Adolph Miiller mentions that his Cat 

 regularly hunted at twilight the moths, chiefly Noctuidce, in 

 his garden" ('Zool. Garten,' Aug. 1880, jahr. 21, pp. 253-4). 

 He also states, from his own experience : " About 1870 I had a 

 Cat that nearly every hot afternoon in summer and autumn 

 caught Grasshoppers (Caloptenus and (Edipoda), and brought 

 me her insect captures alive before eating them, with as much 

 pride as if she had taken Mice or birds." He also noticed 

 " several Cats capture and eat beetles of the genera Lachnosterna 

 and Prionus ; the odour of the beetles of the latter genus seems 

 sufficiently pungent and repulsive to drive away Cats, since they 

 dislike most pungent odours ; but I have seen two Cats that 

 apparently regarded Prionus as a delicacy, for they would eat dead, 

 mutilated, sometimes half-decayed beetles of this genus which they 

 found about the yard."H Of the North American Mustela vison 

 Darwin relates, " During the summer this animal dives for and 



* ' Nat. Hist. Selborne,' Harting's edition, p. 96. 

 f Ibid. p. 97, note. 



I ' The Naturalist in La Plata,' pp. 60 and 71. 



§ C. J. Cornish, ' Animals of To-day,' p. 235. For other instances of 

 changed diet, cf. ibid. p. 185. 



II ' Koyal Nat. Hist.,' vol. ii. p. 93. 



H ' American Naturalist,' Sept. 1884. 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. III., July, 1899. x 



