582 
Animals and their Diet . 
[October, 
sheep-eating parrot of New Zealand, the outbreak of can- 
nibalism in an aviary of parrots recorded by Dr. Buller, and 
the zoophagous tastes recently developed by baboons in 
South Africa, who, according to Mrs. Carey-Hobson,* some- 
times kill and devour sheep. These instances show that the 
habits of animals are not so fixed as was formerly imagined. 
They have their preferences, and their digestive organs may 
be better adapted for one kind of food than for another. 
But with few exceptions they will not starve, and if what 
may be called their natural food is wanting, or is scarce, 
they take any substitute which presents itself. Curiously 
enough, when any species has thus adopted a new diet, it 
shows a disinclination to return to its former food. 
We have next to consider that the majority of warm- 
blooded animals are omnivorous, in so far that they consume 
both animal and vegetable food. 
Thus, beginning with the Primates, it is a great mistake 
to assert that the apes and monkeys are purely vegetarian 
in their diet. They never omit an opportunity of robbing a 
bird’s nest, and they feed with avidity upon a great variety 
of inserts from fleas upwards. The lemurs are, if anything, 
a shade more inclined to animal food than the true monkeys. 
Even amongst the Carnivora we find not a few which vary 
their diet more or less with vegetable matter. Thus the 
bears and their allies, with the exception of the so-called 
Polar bear, seem to prefer fruits, roots, honey, inserts, and 
even grain before it is quite ripe and hardened. The Vi- 
verridse also include some fruit-eating members, such as the 
civet-cat. There is no satisfactory evidence that any of the 
cats in a wild state will consume vegetable matter, but at 
least two groups of the Canidse — the foxes and the jackals* — 
are not averse to fruit. 
Among the Rodents an omnivorous character is becoming 
more and more fully established. The squirrels, in addition 
to fruits, nuts, and grain, greedily devour eggs, nestling 
birds, and inseCts; the hamster, the so-called Norwegian 
rat (Waterton’s Hanoverian, but which might be better 
styled the Russian), even the common mouse, and indeed 
all the true Muridse, are omnivorous. We have little doubt 
but when the habits of the remaining Rodent groups are 
thoroughly known, it will be found that they all, in addition 
to their vegetable diet, prey upon inserts, worms, and mol- 
lusks, if not upon more highly organised animals. 
Among bats the majority appear to be purely insectivorous, 
* Knowledge, March 17th, x8 82. 
