And yet this formidable and delicate weapon is nothing more than a long fleshy nose and upper lip, provided with millions of interlaced muscles, which draw it in every direction, guided by the delicate nerves. If we did not see it, could we have believed that any creature could have gained so much experience, and learned to do so many wonderful things as elephants do, merely by possessing a movable nose?

Yet so it is, for if the elephant stands far above all other vegetable-feeding animals in intelligence and even reasoning power, we can only attribute it to two causes—the long life he leads, and the delicate implement he carries for testing things around him. The strongest of all animals, he has reigned supreme for ages, even the lion or the tiger often meeting a terrible death from his trunk, his tusks, or his heavy feet, if they venture to attack him; while everywhere, during his hundred years of life, he has handled and tested and tried every object he has come near with his fleshy trunk, till now when we examine his brain we find that though small for so large an animal it is folded and refolded into those curious convolutions which are always found in highly intelligent animals.

For many long ages this education must have been going on; for already, when the monkeys and opossums were playing about the trees in England, an ancient elephant called the Mastodon, having four tusks, was roaming over Europe, Asia, and America; while soon after, the hairy Mammoth, kept warm by his shaggy coat, wandered right up into the snows of Siberia and the extreme of North America, and often met his death in the ice, and true elephants ruled the world in Europe and India, continuing down to our day. All these had the same delicate trunk, and gained experience as they wandered over the wide world, till some have become extinct and others have shrunk back into the dense forests of Africa and India, where they often give proofs of a power of reasoning which surprises us, and make them seem like old patriarchs of a bygone time, looking thoughtfully upon a world which has grown new and strange.

* * * * *

And here we must take leave of the Herbivora, and turn our attention to that large army of flesh-feeders which we find throughout all past ages harassing and destroying the vegetable-feeders on all sides, killing their young, falling upon the stragglers, the weak and the aged, and keeping down their numbers by constant persecution. For, since the whole world is teeming with life, and countless new beings are coming into existence day after day, there is no creature on the earth which has not some other creature to prey upon it. Thus, for example, the whole host of small animals, rats and rabbits, moles, shrews, and small birds of all kinds, have their special pursuers in long wiry-bodied civets and ichneumons, weasels, pole-cats, ferrets, pine-martens, and paradoxures, which can work their way into a hole, give chase through the long grass, or climb the trees and feed on birds’ eggs or young birds. There is a vast multitude of these smaller flesh-eating animals, with teeth so sharp that a weasel will kill its prey in a second by piercing the skull by its bite; and they make sad havoc all over the world among young and weak creatures, while a great many of them, such as the weasel tribe, the pole-cat, and the skunk, are themselves protected

from larger animals of prey by their disagreeable smell.

Fig. 73.

The Weasel[173]—a small, long, narrow-bodied carnivorous animal.

Then the birds again have their numbers greatly thinned by the wild cats, tiger-cats, and racoons; while the fox, the badger, and the glutton, do their share in devouring partridges and all ground birds, hares, rabbits, and even lambs and other young creatures.

Fig. 74.

The Egyptian Ichneumon,[174] a long-bodied carnivore, sucking crocodile’s eggs.

Lastly the fish, too, have their pursuers, for the mink and the otter, though true land animals, seek their food in the water, the sea-otter giving us a hint as to how such flesh-eating animals as seals, which are the great fish-devourers, took to a watery life. But though these smaller flesh-eaters are spread in

Footnote 173. Mustelus.

Footnote 174. Herpestes.

great numbers over the world, the civets and ichneumons only in the Eastern Hemisphere, the racoons only in America, and the weasels and their relations everywhere, yet the war they carry on is but little seen compared with the ravages of their more imposing relations the wolves, the bears, and the lions, tigers, and their kin. For these animals seek their prey among the buffaloes, antelopes, horses, sheep, and hogs, and where they go they leave the track of blood behind them, and appear indeed as ruthless destroyers.

And yet it would not be fair to speak of these larger flesh-feeding animals as if they had worked nothing but evil to their more peaceful neighbours; for how would Life educate her children if she put no difficulties in their way to be conquered, no sufferings to be endured? We saw that in the beginning the vegetable-feeders were neither so strong, so intelligent, nor so swift of foot as they are now, while the flesh-feeders were not nearly so well armed for destruction as the tigers and lions of to-day.

It was in the long long struggle for life that the animals with the largest and strongest horns got the upper hand, that the swiftest horses or antelopes survived and left young ones, that the best climbers baffled their hungry pursuers, while the most intelligent and cautious feeders learned to herd together and watch for danger; while we must remember that it is more often the sickly, worn-out, and diseased animals that fall a prey to the devourers, and their life is ended far less painfully than if they dragged themselves into some hole to die. And so, too, on the other hand, with the flesh-feeders themselves. It was no wanton cruelty that taught them to hunt for prey, to creep stealthily along and leap upon their victims, and to take advantage of the weak and feeble. It was pressing hunger and the necessity of providing their young ones with food; and they, too, have often suffered in the struggle; so that it was only the strongest, healthiest, and best armed, that won the victory and were able to bring up their children.

Fig. 75.

The Wolf,[175] showing the dog-like form, and long mouth full of teeth.

Moreover, it is quite a mistake to suppose that the greater part of the life of a lion or a wolf is spent in killing and destroying, any more than ours is because we eat beef and mutton. The Lion, at any rate, never attacks an animal unless he is hungry, and even the wolf, generally considered so cruel and

Footnote 175. Canis lupus.

bloodthirsty and pitiless, spends the greater part of the year in some quiet place in the mountains with wife and cubs, only hunting for their daily food (though sometimes he is guilty of killing more than he needs), and playing, gambolling, and resting the remainder of the time.

It is when winter comes, and the young ones are stronger and food is scarce, that he grows wild with hunger, and starts off, with a number of others, to scour the forests, so that the animals fly in terror as they hear the howling from afar; and even the traveller, driving his sledge across the snow, urges his frightened horses to their utmost speed, since, with a pack of hungry wolves, even if he has firearms, his life is at stake.

The Wolf, with his relations, the foxes and jackals,[176] is the form of flesh-eating animals which has become least altered from the general type of milk-givers. He has the slim form peculiar to flesh-eaters, but the claws of his feet cannot be drawn in like those of tigers, nor has he those powerful hindquarters which enable them to bound and leap, or the strong paw and fore leg with which they give the death-blow to their prey. Moreover, his face is long like a sheep’s, and his jaws are full of teeth, some of which are blunter than the tiger’s teeth, and more fitted for grinding, for wolves and dogs are omnivorous. But then, on the other hand, he is not so much of a vegetarian as the bears, nor has he their clumsy gait and cumbersome body, for he walks

Footnote 176. These are united in one family, the Canidæ or Dog family; but this name is unfortunate, as there are no original wild dogs, only those which have run wild from man. Dogs are now almost certainly shown to be descended from wolves and jackals.

upon his toes and not his flat foot; lastly, his front teeth are large and sharp, and his fangs strong, for they are his chief weapons, and he uses them with wonderful effect. He is essentially a running animal, and chases his prey, rarely leaping on it but tearing it down with his teeth. Strong as he is, he seldom attacks an animal larger than himself, except when he has companions to help him, and then, indeed, he makes little account of a horse or a buffalo, for combination and co-operation are the great strength of the wolf tribe. Even their cowardly cousins the Jackals hunt in packs when they attack living animals, feeding at other times on offal and the remains of the lion’s feast. Yet such is the power of numbers that there is no part of the world, except a few islands, where some member of the wolf family is not to be found. In Northern Europe, Asia, and North America, the common wolves and the prairie wolves hunt in large packs, and in South America the Red Wolf takes their place. In Africa and India the jackals wander with their dismal howl; and even in Australia the wild Dingo dog, probably brought there long ago by savage man, is the terror of all peaceful creatures.

Nor must we forget the cunning clever Fox, with his keen face and bushy tail; for he, curiously enough, is the only one of the wolf family which always hunts alone. The reason of this probably is that he contents himself with small prey—birds, rabbits, and game; while his burrowing habits, his cunning, and his night-hunting, enable him to escape destruction. He is one of the most subtle and knowing of animals except, perhaps, the jackal; and the fact that the pupil of his eye expands and contracts like a cat’s, especially fits him for night-work. So, although he has only himself to depend upon, his race has spread from the Arctic regions, where the Blue Fox wanders over the frozen sea to eat dead seals, down to Africa where the tiny Fennecs feed upon dates, and South America where the Gray Foxes follow the jaguar, as the jackals in Africa do the lion.

And now, does it not seem strange that from a family so fierce and bloodthirsty as the wolf family, our own true, faithful, large-hearted dog should have sprung? But do not let us be too hasty. Remember that this hunting and killing is not for pleasure but for daily bread, and that the wolf and jackal at home are good, tender, and loving parents; and, moreover, that they have both of them been tamed, and shown great affection to man.

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