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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



digestive fluids of the first and second stomachs, and 

 brought up for the final mastication of the cud, these 

 spines are more or less softened and flexible, and are then 

 disposed of with comparative ease before being returned 

 to the third and fourth stomachs for further digestive 

 treatment ; it is a complicated process, that of transform- 

 ing grass into blood. Also in the desert they eat the 

 mesquite beans, and when ripe revel in the fruit of 

 the prickly pear, as marvelous a distillation of sweets 

 from the awful sterileness of the land as the combs of 

 honey were which Samson found in the carcass of the 

 lion. In the forest deer love the leaves and buds of 

 the tiger-lily,f the sheep-sorrel or wood-sorrel, and the 

 Oregon sorrel, as well as other tart herbs, — for instance, 

 the wild pie-plant (canaigre). They eat acorns, and, 

 in fact, at certain seasons of the year, as well as with 

 Indians, bears, squirrels, chipmunks, the wild pigeon, 

 mountain quail, and woodpeckers, and, I fancy, the fox 

 when very hungry, the wildcat, skunk, and porcupine, 

 acorns are a staple of diet. Deer love all kinds of soft, 

 succulent berries which man finds edible, — strawberries, 

 raspberries, blackberries, currants, blueberries, huckleber- 

 ries, mulberries, wild currants, — whether black, red, or 

 yellow, — gooseberries, service-berries, elderberries, salal- 

 berries, the Oregon grape when they can get it, the 

 thimble-berry and its relative, the salmon-berry of the 

 north, the berries of the toyon, or Christmas-berry, and 

 also domestic fruits — apples, cherries, apricots, nectarines, 

 plums, pears, peaches, and watermelons, when they can 



* Donkeys, mules, and horses love the heads of thistles, and I imagine 

 that deer do as well, but have not the requisite evidence, 

 t Lilium pardalinum. 



