The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals

'GREY SEAL.

Note the difference between the seal's and the sea-lion's hind flippers. When on land, the seal advances by a jumping movement, produced by the muscles of the body, assisted forward by the front flippers^

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of the World144 The Living Animals

young soon after their arrival. The new-born young ones are almost black, unlike the adults, which are of a light slate-brown. They are suckled by the female for some time, and then left to themselves, lying on the beach, where they seem to grow fat without further feeding. oil.' ThisThey are always allowed by the sealers to lie like this, ' in order to make more it. Probablyaccount was corroborated by all the sealers I met, but I do not understand the cows visit their offspring unobserved from time to time. Peron says that both parent elephant-seals stay with the young without taking any food at all till the latter are about six or seven weeks' old, and that the old ones conduct the young to the water and carefully keep them company. The rapid increase in weight is in accordance with Peron's account. Ooodridge gives a somewhat different story namely, that after the females leave the young the old males and the pups proceed inland, as far as two miles sometimes, and stop without food for more than a month, during which time they lose fat. The male sea-elephants come ashore for the purpose of breeding about the middle of August, the females a little later." Formerly the elephant-seals were found as far north as the Californian coast, where their capture was the main business of the sealing-traders. This species also formed the mainstay of the far southern sealers. As the elephant-seals were killed off, so the business became less and less profitable. It is to be hoped that the voyages of exploration to the Antarctic ice-fringe will not lead to the discovery of fresh sealing-grounds, for if this is the case there is little chance that any of the southern seals will escape entire destruction. Some form of close time has already been enforced in the pursuit of the hair-seals of Northern Europe; but it is very desirable that the species still found on our own coasts should also receive protection. Except when they paid visits to the fixed salmon-nets, they never did any harm; and fixed of the stake-nets, which these animalsnets are now illegal. When a seal learned the use were very quick to understand, it would wait quietly till it saw a fish caught, and then swim up and carry it off before the fishermen could take it. still regularly visit our shores. Two species namely, the COMMON SEAL and GREY SEAL The common seal breeds on our south-western coasts, and the grey seal off the Hebrides. If the common seal were accorded a close time, its numbers would probably increase; and the spectacle of such interesting creatures visible on our coast could not fail to be of great interest. All the old legends of mermaids and wild men of the sea are based on the capture of seals. Perhaps the most ancient is one which records such a capture in the river near Orford Castle, in Suffolk, in the reign of Henry II. The ignorant soldiers were persuaded that it was a man, and tortured it to make it speak. They then took it to the church, and showed it the sacred emblems. As it " showed no reverence," they took it back to the castle, and fed it on fish. It was allowed to go into the river, but returned to its captors of its own accord. Later it swam away to the sea. The monk who recorded the story stated his conviction that this seal was an evil spirit which had got into the body of a drowned sailor. A grey seal was taken not many years ago in the creek leading up to the little town of Wells, in Norfolk. It was so tame

By. permission of tit* Hon. Walter Rothschild] [Tr'uiy. that the fishermen Caught it by HARP-SEAL, throwing coats over it as it lay on The harp-seal ccmes. from Greenland. the mud.

y perniit [ Tring. SEA-ELEPHAXT. These enormous seals (about 20 feet in length) are becoming very scarce. When they come ashore, they are easily approached, though not so easily killed. They are much valued for their oil. Note the trunk-like prolongation of the nose, which, when the animal is excited, becomes distended. 145 19

CHAPTER IX.

THE RODENTS, OR GNAWING ANIMALS.

all the HE Rodents, or Gnawing Mammals, have same general type of teeth, from which the order T receives its distinctive name. There are a very large number of families and of genera among the rodents, more than in any other order of mammals. All the rodents possess a pair of long chisel-shaped incisor teeth in each jaw. The ends of these teeth are worn into a sharp edge which cuts like a steel-in- tool. In most rodents these are the only teeth that part of the jaw, a wide gap intervening between them and the other teeth. The hares, rabbits, and calling-hares have a minute pair of teeth set just behind the large pair in the upper jaw. The grinding-teeth are set far back, and are never more than six in number, these being sometimes reduced to four. Rodents generally have five toes on the fore feet; in the hind feet there are in some cases only four, or even three. None of the species are of great size; the largest, the CAPYBARA, a water-living animal of South America, is about the dimensions of a small pig. But the number of species of small rodents is prodigious, and their fecundity so Photo ly W. P. Dando] [Regent's Park. CAPYBARA. great that they ^^ This, the largest of the Rodents, is found by the rivers of constantly increase South America. in favourable field-seasons until they become a plague. Voles, lemmings, mice, and rabbits are constant sources of loss to agriculture in their seasons of extraordinary increase. Most rodents feed ^K. l on vegetables, though rats and mice have developed carnivorous tastes. No rodents have canine teeth.

THE SQUIRRELS.

Those of the order of Gnawing Animals which have only liketwo incisors in each jaw, and no rudimentary teeth those possessed by the hares, are called "Simple-toothed Rodents." Of these the family usually placed first in order is that of the SQUIRRELS and their allies. The True Squirrels and Marmots have five molar teeth on each side of the upper jaw. Jiy permission of Professor Bumpus, At- 1'urk.

Squirrels are found in nearly every temperate part of FLYING-SQUIRREL. the globe, from Norway to Japan, and in very great numbers One of the small species of the group. 146

The Rodents, or Gnawing Animals 147 in India and the tropics. Everywhere they are favour-ites; and though they do some mischief in highly cultivated countries, they are among the most harmless of creatures. Most of them live on wild nuts and the kernels of fruit; they suck eggs occasionally, and in Canada will come to the traps in extreme cold and eat the meat with which they are baited.

THE RED SQUIRREL.

This, the common squirrel of England, is representative of the whole order. In old Scandinavian legends the squirrel is represented as the messenger of the gods, who carried the news of what was going on in the world to the other animals. Together with its close relations, it is the most graceful of all climbers of trees. With its long tail waving behind it, it races up or down the trunks and across the forest from branch to branch as easily as a horse gallops across a plain. It will descend Photo by A. S. liudland & Sons. the trunk head downwards FLYING-SQUIRREL.

distance of 40 feet with the aidas fast as it runs up. The large flying-squirrels are mainly nocturnal. They can leap a Squirrels pair for life, and of the parachutes of skin stretching from the fore to the hind limbs. are most affectionate little creatures, always playing or doing gymnastics together. The squirrel builds a very good house, in which he shows himself far more sensible than the monkeys and apes; it is made of leaves, moss, and sticks. The sticks come first as a platform; then this is carpeted, and a roof put on. No one who has seen English squirrels at work house-building has ever it is the best nest made by any mammal, thoroughlydescribed exactly how they do it; in the are born the nest In this andwell fitted squirrels young waterproof. together " for " set themselves do not the and of June; thatmonth up parents, they keep with year till the next spring. The red colour is very persistent in squirrels. One Chinese variety, black and red, has even bright red teeth. In cold countries the red squirrels make stores of food, but spend much of the winter asleep.

It is a great pity that in England no one tries to tame the squirrels as they do in America; there they are the greatest ornament of the parks of cities, coming down to be fed as tamely as our sparrows. The writer has known one instance in which a lady

induced wild squirrels to pay daily visits to her bedroom for food; they used to climb up the ivy and jump in at the open window. The great enemies of squirrels near houses are the cats, which kill all the young ones when they first come down from the trees. In a garden in Berkshire a pair of squirrels had a family every summer for five years, but none ever survived the cats’ persistent attacks. These squirrels were most amusing and improvident. They used to hide horse-chestnuts, small potatoes, kernels of stone fruit, bulbs of crocuses, and other treasures in all kinds of places, = Photo Uy We PeaaAla [Regent's Park, and then forget them. After DORSAL SQUIRREL FROM CENTRAL AMERICA. deep snows they might be seen A most beautiful species, ‘The main colour is red, but the back is French grey, and the tail scampering about looking into uRrenrhiprey ena res eye rs. every hole and crevice to see whether that happened to be the place where they had hidden something useful. Much of the store was buried among the roots of trees and bushes, and quite hidden when the snow fell.

THE GREY SQUIRREL.

In Northern Europe, and across Northern Asia and America, a large grey squirrel is found. From its fur the “squirrel-cloaks” are made. These squirrels live mainly on the seeds of pines in winter, and on wild fruits, shoots, and berries in summer. It has been noticed that they will entirely forsake some great area of forest for a year or two, and as suddenly return to it. The marten and the sable are the great enemies of the grey squirrel, but the eagle-owl and goshawk also kill numbers of them. In many countries the flesh of the squirrel is eaten. The grey-and-black squirrel of the United States was thus described some sixty years ago: “It rises with the sun, and continues industriously en-~ gaged in the search for food for four or five hours every morning. During the warm weather of spring it pre-pares its nest on the branch of a tree, constructing it first of dried Sticks, which it breaks off, or, if these are not at hand, of green twigs as thick as a finger, which it gnaws off from the boughs. ‘These it lays in the fork of a tree, so as to make a frame- Photo ty A. S, Rudland & Sons, work. It lines this framework with ASIATIC CHIPMUNKS, leayes, and over these again it spreads Small ground-squirrels which store food for the winter. moss. In making the nest, the pair