550 
pliist's natural histoet. 
[Book X. 
and more in winter than in summer, mostly for seven months 
in the year. The Pontic mouse also ruminates in a similar 
manner. 
CHAP. 94. DIYEESITIES IN THE DRINEJNG OF ANIMALS. 
In drinking, those animals which have serrated teeth, lap ; 
and common mice do the same, although they belong to another 
class. Those which have the teeth continuous, horses and 
oxen, for instance, sup ; hears do neither the one nor the other, 
but seem to bite at the water, and so devour it. In Africa, 
the greater part of the wild beasts do not drink in summer, 
through the want of rain ; for which reason it is that the mice 
of Libya, when caught, will die if they drink. The ever- 
thirsting plains of Africa produce the oryx,^^ an animal which, 
in consequence of the nature of its native locality, never 
drinks, and which, in a remarkable manner, affords a remedy 
against drought : for the G^etulian bandits by its aid fortify 
themselves against thirst, by finding in its body certain 
vesicles filled with a most wholesome liquid. In this same 
Africa, also, the pards conceal themselves in the thick foliage 
of the trees, and then spring down from the branches on any 
creature that may happen to be passing by, thus occupying 
what are ordinarily the haunts of the birds. Cats too, with 
what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do they creep 
towards a bird ! How slily they will sit and watch, and then 
dart out upon a mouse ! These animals scratch up the earth 
and bury their ordure, being well aware that the smell of it 
would betray their presence. 
CHAP. 95. (74.) ANTIPATHIES OE ANIMALS. PEOOFS TBAT THEY 
ABE SENSIBLE OF FEIENDSHIP AND OTHEE AFFECTIONS. 
Hence there will be no difficulty in perceiving that animals 
are possessed of other instincts besides those previously men- 
tioned. In fact, there are certain antipathies and sympathies 
among them, which give rise to various affections besides those 
which we have mentioned in relation to each species in its 
appropriate place. The swan and the eagle are always at 
*6 Probably the ermine. See B. viii. c. 55. 
PKny alludes to dogs, cats, and similar mammifera, as having serrated 
teeth ; the term, however, is quite inappropriate. 
59 See B. viii. c. 79. 
