The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-12
ANIMAL GREEDINESS
MAN DECLARED TO BE THE GREEDIEsT MEMBER OF HTHE
 LOT.
Some Geurnands. Eat. More h Pre- portion Than Elephants Hu- man Race Furnishes Some oueer and Interesting Exam
 a1es Of Heavy Dating--
 GlraHe fs m Epieure.

Pal1 Mall Magazine.
 Sc comonly are persons of large ap-
 petite upbraided as hogs. giuttons. or cormorants that the question suggests itself: Are these illustrations accu- rate, or must they be accepted by nat uralists with the same qualification
 that belongs to such comparisons as silly as a goose" blind as bat ''timid as hare." and any others eau | ally popular fin everyday talk? Those who have studied such creatures know I that geese often display undeniable cunning. that bats. though endowed I with senses of which we have no equivalent, are not blind. and that hares can, at times. be most pugna- cious.
 From the general contemplation of whether these and other animals so de- | scribed are greedy out of the conn mon run, 1t Is but . step to the prob lem whether any living beast or bird, l reptile, fish or insect, Is actually greedier than the greediest man. writes | T. G. Afialo.
 | Obviously, it is fair in such conn parison to take the case of the man who can and does eat more than his fellows--because such a man. dis | agreeable though he may be from one standpoint, is undeniably more natural | than those who, bowing to the verdict of the medical attendant. or restrain ed by considerations of polite behavior, habitually eat less than they could If they were to continue eating until able to swallow no more.
 The whole system of feeding in our | artifical lives Is quite distinct from that adopted in the rest of the animal world. and, doubtless, also from that which was in vogue with the cavemen. | Able by various devices to procure our | food as required, we have appointed certain feeding times. and at these we I rigidly take our meals---Breakfast, luncheon and dinner.
 The wild creatures of nature know no such restraint. The birds in our for worms or at the boughs for ber- ries. The lethargic cattle in the Il meads, when not actually grazing. are ruminating, which is grazing over again. The caterpillars on our rose trees, the ants in our storeroom. are always at table. Only civilized man and his domestic animals know the formaiity of meal times. And so 1t is throughout nature with all the fur footed and winged creatures.
 In considering the appetites and tastes of man and the lower animals it is of importance to distinguish in every class between the gluttons (the word Is used conventionally and without prejudice) and the epicures-- more differentiated by the French as xourmahds and gourmets. the former of which prefer quantity. while the
 latter are all for the quality of their food.
 The human race furnishes innumer- able examples of both. Haydn. the composer, would sometimes order six covers for dinner, and dine alone. One King of England died after surfeit of lampreys; the undoing of another was an excessive meal of peaches and new ale.
 With these may be ranked Sporeo- gambi, a human hog. who ate 2006 yards of marcaroni at sitting, and Domery, the Pole, who, in the pres ence of witnesses. devoured fin one morning fourteen pounds of raw beef and almost the same weight of tallow candles.
 These are the gluttons; and if we compare Domery's feat with the daily meal of a full grown working elephant
 weighing five or six tons--namely, fsO pounds of vegetable food--we find the man the greater of the two.
 The epicures are less repulsive. A high prices for red muilet. and ate only the flyers. was . benefactor of trade; and the famous Comte de Broussin, who despised mushrooms unless their flavor had been brought out by his mule treading on them. likewise en-
 
 Every class of animals has its ex- amples of these two categories. With the epicures we may class the giraffe. with the gourmandizers the vultures, | The following selection will approx imately serve to illustrate by more or less familiar animal types the two classes.
 GIuttons--sMoie. 'Boar. Bear. 'Hy- ena, sKfiier whale, ssHornbills. sssVulture, sCormorant. "Seagull, sPy- thons, ssssandhopper, "Living food. 'carion. .Burying beetle: ''shark sAnt eater, ssperm whale. s'''"Mana- tee. sosprey, ssssHummingbirds l sssss Gray Miliet. ""s''Bees and wasps. sssVegetarian.
 It must also be remembered that the man who eats. immense meals 1 lacks the excuse of these heavier the vulture, the python and the shark have excellent reason for eating all they can when a rare chance offers They may have gone long without a meal. and there is no instinct to tell them when they will get another; luncheon that within six or seven hours he will be dining. The mole. like the little shield-tatl- ed snakes of Ceylon. which hunt the same food, has to work like a slave, digging and tunneling and undermin- ing acres of surface soil in his pur- suit of the worms, and all this labor must breed . hearty appetite. The Vulture and the python are so sluggish in their movements that the latter, more, particularly, lacking the birds taste for carrion. must often be compelled to go hungry for weeks to- gether.
 | A~aIn v,hiin OreAdinaa fa a tarm of reproach among ourselves. 1t ts im- | possible to glance down the preceding table with the same feeling of distaste. l for we know that some of the greed | lest among them are natures appoint ed agents for the resolution of mat ter, which otherwise would taint the atmosphere and poison mankind, into l its harmles elements.
 | There are other conditions | which distinguish the greed of the lower animals from the greed of man. In the case of the great python. for in- | stance, and. in fact. of all serpents. more or less. the teeth are so stunted in the jaw. that the reptile is bound to
 eat all there is. and is debarred from leaving off when It's victim is only half devoured.
 Some years ago one of the largest serpents In the Geological Gardens ate another, almost as large, which had
 shared it's compartment. Much was
 said and written at the time of the
 offensive ''greediness" of the creature
 but, in point of fact, it's inclination Ioan tA f0 he sa,