The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-12-30

or course IL is not at all surprising
that you should carry your lunch with
you when YOU are going to be away from
home NIL day. but think Of an animal
doing such "A thing!
There il the camel. for instance.
Everybody knows that il carries It's
drinking water with IL, but IL does more;
it carries its lunch too. That hump on
the camel's back is not "A curvature OF
the spine, as it may seem, but u mass Of
fatty material. That hump, in fact, il
the camel's lunch basket.
When IA well-fed. healthy camel starts
out on "A Journey across the desert, its
water pouch is full, and its hump il big.
When water fails, the camel has only To
draw on it's reservoir, and when food Is
wanting, the hump is called upon.
Not that the camel helps itself to bites
Of it's hump. That would be decidedly
uncomfortable way of getting a meal,
and very likely the camel would rather
go hungry than do that. In some way
the hump is gradually absorbed, and for
"A long time after the camel has been
unable TO find anything to eat IL can
got along very comfortably OF what its
hump supplies it with. BY and by, Of
course, the hump is used up, and then
the camel will starvc as quickly as any
other animal.
A great deal more like genuine lunch
basket Is the bag the pelican carries It's
food in. The pelican il about as un-
calmly aud odd "A bird "a can be found,
and vet IL n very interesting one. IL has
great wcbbcd feet, short legs, big body,
huge wings and an enormous head.
It's head is mostly bill, and on tho
under part Of the bill il "A ilabby bag
made Of tough skin. That bag can
stretch aud stretch until il can hold m
incredible quantity Of fish, for it is ia
that bag that the pelican puts the fish it
catches for it, food. When the bag is
full, the pelican rises heavily from the
sea. and with broad sweeps of It's great
wings flaps slowly TO the shore, where
il aligh,s aud prepares to enjoy the meal
IL has earned. One by one the still liv-
ing fish are tossed into the air and come
down head first into the wide.opened
mouth of the hungry bird.
Then there are some OF the South
American monkeys which have curious
little l,Mch baskets in their cheeks.
Everybody must have seen monkeys
stuhing and stulling food into their
mouths until their checks were bulged
quite out OF shape.
II looks "a if the greedy little fellows
were merely examining their mouths full.
The truth il, many of the monkeys have
queer little pockets in their cheeks into
which they can stow enough food FOR a
meal. Nor do the full cheeks interfere
at all with the chewing Of the monkeys
any more than If the pockets were out
side instead Of inside Of the mouth.
But there Is "A little animal called the
than this OF carrying its food. On each
side Of It's face is IA pouch which looks
very much like a kid glove finger drawn
in at one end. These pouches stick
straight out from the face and can be
made to hold a large supply OF food
The COW aud deer aud sheep and other
similar animals have still another way OF
laying in a supply OF food. They bite
of grass and leaves and swallow them
without chewing nj all. The food goes
into "A special stomach. there 20 stay
until il is wanted. When the animal
is ready for IL, IA ball OF the food IS made
up in that first stomach aud sent up in
the animals mouth That ball is Just a
mouthful, and the animal can chew it
comfortably. After it il chewed aud
swallowed it goes into the proper
stomach and is digested. Eating in that
way is called Eliminating. Harper's
Young People.