Daily Kennebec journal., 1900-07-21
How Wild Animals Feed.

WIN MS KNIVES, lOrkS ana spoons, MS
mincing machines graters and sieves, nut
crackers. ovens and kettles, man can
command, in spite of his feeble teeth. a
bill of fare. animal and vegetable. that
might well appall even Il hog. The hard
est shelled egg or nut. the toughest flesh,
the largest or smallest fruits. these offer
no difficulties. By one process or many,
according to the needs of the case, he
prepares each article to his liking and
digestion. In the great world of wild life,
however meals are differently ordered,
and animals must find the food for which
they are physically fitted-find ii or
starve. The old fable of the fox and
stork; with their fiat dish and deep pitch
er, illustrates one aspect, but only one,
of this difficulty.
Nature is generally equal to the work
The barnacle is an interesting case in
point. In its early days the barnacle
swims as freely as a fish, seeking its food
| animals of that class. When in middle
age, it settles demurely to more restfuI
existence, even though its home be the
skin of a whale. it can no longer go to
seek its food. The food must in these
| circumstances be induced to come to the
| barnacle, and this is facilitated by the
| ability of the crustacean to set up tiny
| currents in the water with the aid OF
| its six pairs of curly feet.
| 1t must be admitted that we shall not
J find in Natures realm many other crea-
| lures that feed in this way with their
| feet-that is to say, by sticking the food
| into their stomach, bLJ glance around
! one of the rooms of her workshop will
reveal the manner in which the teeth, bill,
| tongue and claws have been modelled ana
modified 70 constitute perfect food
| equipment. So closely in some cases have
I these organs been adapted to the food
sought that it is sometimes possible to
| tell from a very slight examination of
! them the diet of the peculiar animal un-
| der notice, an inference particularly al
| lowable in the case of the majority Of
| birds
The head Of the kea. that much dis
| cusSed mutton-eater Of New Zealand, H.
| luStrated at once the ease and difficulty
| of accepting such evidence. though it
must fairly be confessed that the kSa i;
an exceptional individual. 1t can Scarcely :
| be insisted that its bill. though powerful,
points to any prediSp position from meat
diet, for many of the COckatOoS, pure veg
| etdriJnS display cas-, for instance, the
| great black cockatoO) far more power in
| their beak than many Of the truly car
| niVorous ana raptorial birds. The ken
| has. matter of fact. the iringed
| tongue of hUney-eater. and honey il
| unquestionably must have led on i'm the
| DAYS before certain unforeseen clrculn-
| stances Tin the shape OF cploniSts ana
| their Sheep intcrVCned. and, while de
J stroying the birds natural sources %
| food gave it many new tastes and new
| opportunities of satisfying them.
| Those VINO interest themselves closely
| in evolution will watch with interest cat
| some future date. the change Is as yet
| TOO recent to he of use To this generatiunD
|
| SOlesCence of an organ no longer needed,
AS better example of Natures foresiEht
| we find the nostrls of the gannet at the
| base Of the bill "a converse of the case
| of the kiwi. in which they are situated
| almost at the tipD, ana almost covered
| by the skin. thanks to which device ,hc
| bird is able to dive without Inconvenience
| from great height on the shoals of iish
| beneath.
! Looking. for instance. at the skulls of
the right and sperm whales. we see heads
| Of such different structure as to seem
| scarcely capable of reference to the same
| order of mammals. The right, or whale
| bone. whale has no teeth, and feeds only
| on the minute creatures of different kind
| that float tunder the collective scientific
| title of planktOn), retaining them in the
| baleen sieve. The huge sperm whale, or
| cachalot, on the other hand. has strong
| teeth in the lower jaw. which enable it
| to feed on fishes and even on porpoiscs,
| smaller members Of its own order. Esch-
| RIGHT German naturalist, discovered
| sunk deep in the gums of young whale
| bone whales, traces of teeth, and this dis
| very gives rise to the doubt whether in
| ds luI ssCS these W'.1t' bon Wla,"S - tl
4 .ot also have possessed teeth when full
| grown. feeding like the cachalot, on fish.
| If SO. then did it also possess wndlcb5ne,
| and for what purpose? Dentists tell us
| that our own jaws are gradually dimin-
1 ishing in length, and Darwin regarded
| our practice OF cooking food. and thereby
| giving our teeth less work to do. as re-
| sponsibe for the tendency of the wisdom
| ttetn 10 disappear.
| In the rodents we have to consider q
| very interesting feature in the shape of
| two incisCrS stTikingly curved and de
| veloped in either jaw, the presence Of
| which at once indicate a habit of gnaW-
ing vegetable food. These teeth are ever
| growing, and should any Of the four be
| broken hv accident the opposing incisor
| will inevitably grow unchecked into the
| other jaw and bring about the animal 5
| death from starvation. In the hareS and
rabbits there is a second smaller pair Of
inciSor teeth in the upper jaw. immedl-
| ately behind the other two, but of the
| precise significance of this supplementary
| pair l do not recollect having read or
| heard any satisfactory explanation.
In the teeth of grazing animals we SHAH
| find the chief practical interest to lie in
| the comparative damage they do to the
| grass and in this connection Sir Walter
Gilbey has shown by diagrams in hi;
| Young Race Horses, that the teeth of
| the horse. which meet. 40 far more harm
| to pasture grass than those in the pad
led mouth of the OK.
1 In the kangarooS we find the large in
| cisors in the lower jaw cropping the
| grass like scissors.
| Birds, or those at any rate that eX1S.
/ nowadays outside of archaeological col
| !ections. have no teeth, nothing in fact
| to represent them. unless we so regard
the Serrated edges of the mandibles in
1 some fish-eating birds that will be no.
| ,iced later
| Among the reptiles. which stand lit
| tie lower than the birds, we find teeth
intended for seizing. rather than masti-
| eating for it is the simple practice OF
l snakes and their kind to bolt their vic
l tins whole. after the manner of fishes.
l In the dreaded rattlesnake. for instance,
the two upper tubular fangs are conspic-