58 



tations of animals for obtaining food. Of most 

 interest here is the giraffe, whose long neck is thought 

 to have developed through his reaching for the upper- 

 most twigs of an umbrella-like tree that mainly forms 

 his food, by the gradual starving out of the short- 

 necked ones during seasons of drought, and the ten- 

 dency of the longer necked survivors to have long- 

 necked young. The great ant-eater, that because of 

 the character of his food gets along without teeth is 

 another interesting form. He uses' his long sticky 

 tongue to get the ants out with and breaks them up 

 against gome ridges in the roof of his mouth. .Notice 

 how his fore feet are adapted for digging up the ants. 



Rare Birds. — A few of the rare birds of North 

 America are shown in the small case at the right in 

 leaving this room. The snowy egret has been sacri- 

 ficed at the altar of fashion and has now almost dis- 

 appeared. The ivory-billed woodpecker has always 

 been a rare bird. The wild pigeon as late as 1878 

 flew in flocks that darkened the sky for miles in sec- 

 tions of the country that to-day have not seen one for 

 years. Through the slaughter of millions every year 

 the wild pigeon has become only a memory. 





