Carnivory

“ In fine, we find upon certain species of carnivora that we know to be more or less scavengers and catchers of small fry such as require rather to be picked up than stalked or chased, and on others that we suspect of having the same habit, the same sky-picturing patterns that, from the eye-level of their prey, efface the top contours of most other slow walking feeders-on-small-life, in all branches of the animal kingdom. ”

“ If you will open Kitty’s mouth, or Ponto’s, you will see what style of teeth these carnivora have; they are made for tearing flesh, and are accompanied by sharp claws for holding fast the living prey. All the carnivora are singularly strong, agile, and tenacious of life. The carnivora are so varied and interesting, that we leave them to be studied elsewhere, and indeed so we must serve the final order of mammals—the primates. [94]
These primates are divided into two sub-orders, the quadrumana, or four-handed animals, and the human race. ”

“ The rodents vastly outnumber all other mammals and are typified by the squirrels, rats, and mice; their food is mainly vegetable matter, but many of them eat insects and meat whenever available. The carnivores, including such species as the weasel, mink, and marten, are mainly flesh eaters, preying largely upon rodents, but they also eat insects and fruits of many kinds. The insectivores include the moles and shrews, which, with all the bats found within our limits, are almost exclusively eaters of worms and insects. ”

“ They are introduced into animals which are vegetable-feeders, by means of water and plants, and into carnivorous animals by their prey. The tape-worms of the herbivora lay eggs like the others, but their embryos have, as soon as they are hatched, a ciliary covering which allows them [Pg 205] to live and move about in the water. Those of beasts of prey are entirely different; it is by means of the prey that they enter their hosts. Each carnivore has its own worms, as it has its own prey which introduces them. ”

“ We have now arrived at the closing group of the true Carnivora; a group which, although less sanguinary in its habits than almost any of those which we have hitherto had occasion to notice, and endowed by nature with a capacity of subsisting entirely on vegetable substances, comprehends nevertheless, among the closely allied species of which it is composed, not merely the largest, but even some of the most formidable, of the carnivorous Mammalia. ”

“ The helpers may also be regarded as direct and indirect: in the case of a carnivorous animal, for example, a particular herbaceous plant may, in multiplying, be an indirect helper, by enabling the herbivora on which the carnivore preys to get more food, and thus to nourish the carnivore more abundantly; the direct helper may be best illustrated by reference to some parasitic creature, such as the tape-worm. The tape-worm exists in the human intestines, so that the fewer there are of men the fewer there will be of tape-worms, other things being alike. ”

“ But the Carnivora, in their wild state, must eat flesh raw, and for the most part reeking, and this has to be torn from the conquered prey. So that the teeth have to be applicable to the first, or destructive process, and then to the tearing to pieces of the fleshly substance, and the scraping of the bones; they may even have to crush the bones themselves, the more spongy parts serving for food; and, greatest feat of all, to break the hardest long bones for the succulent marrow. ”

“ Many carnivorous species, which seek their prey at night, will also find advantages in such protective colours, for thus they will more easily escape the notice of their prey. Hence many nocturnal carnivores are black or nearly so, as the Mink, Fishes, some Bears, &c. The same principles will apply to birds, reptiles, fishes, and to insects, both in their larval and adult states, for many members of all these groups are very active at night, and hide away in holes or beneath dense herbage by day.... ”

“ This important inquiry extends also to the constituents of the food of carnivorous animals in the earliest periods of life; for this food also contains substances, which are not necessary for their support in the adult state. The nutrition of the young of carnivora is obviously accomplished by means similar to those by which the graminivora are nourished; their development is dependent on the supply of a fluid, which the body of the mother secretes in the shape of milk. ”

“ But this is perhaps because the minute, almost invisible creatures, or entomostraca, of which the rivers and ponds are full, and which are the main food of the smaller water carnivora, live mainly on decaying vegetable substance, which is practically converted and condensed into microscopical animals before these become in turn the food of others. It is as if all trees and grass on land were first eaten by locusts or white ants, and the locusts and white ants were then eaten by semi-carnivorous cows and sheep, which were in turn eaten by true carnivora. ”

“ We may, however, fairly draw a parallel between Man and a large carnivore. The Lion, superior in size, and perhaps equal in activity, has a digestive system not proportionately greater; and yet has a higher rate of multiplication than Man. Here the only decided want of parity, besides that of organization, is that of food. Possibly a carnivore gains an advantage in having a surplus nutriment consisting almost wholly of those nitrogenous materials from which the bodies [466] of young ones are mainly formed. ”

“ Meal worms, the stand-by food of bird fanciers who keep soft-bills as pets, are a real delicacy and are very beneficial for canaries, especially during the breeding and moulting seasons, or when a bird is run-down as a result of soft moult. Meal worms are the larvae of the small grain moths such as are prevalent in any cereal product, and which you sometimes find in bird seed. Meal worms can often be raised as a profitable side line and sold to pet shops. ”

“ They are, sooner or later, dependent for food on plant-products. It is true that the carnivora eat animal food, but the animals they eat are directly or indirectly consumers of vegetable products. Plants are nature's primary producers of organic material. Animals utilize these products and carry them to higher developments. ”

“ As regards food, it will eat almost anything. It seems equally fond of mice, frogs, lizards, birds' eggs, snails, worms, fruit, beechnuts, and roots. If it finds a wasps' or a bumblebees' nest, it will dig it up and devour all the grubs and the food which has been stored up for them, caring nothing for the stings [99] of the angry insects. And very often it gathers a quantity of provisions together in a small chamber opening out of its burrow, which it uses as a larder. ”

“ Being of a timid disposition, they proceed only at night in quest of food, which consists of fallen fruit, roots, leaves, insects, &c. It is, however, not founded on truth, that they extract the milk from the udders of cows; as the peculiar smallness of their mouth renders the act of sucking impracticable.—They may be advantageously kept in gardens, where they will be of considerable service, by devouring many noxious insects, especially moles, mice, and snails, which last they eat with great avidity.—The flesh of these creatures is eatable. ”

“ Some bird-catchers say that the tits with forked tails are alone addicted to this, but they are mistaken; it is certainly true that some are more cruel than others, experience teaches us this every day.
Food.—When wild they feed on insects, seeds, and berries, destroy many smooth caterpillars, flies, grasshoppers, gnats, and small butterflies, and climb about the trees like woodpeckers, seeking in the moss the eggs and grubs of insects. In autumn and winter they eat all kinds of seeds, especially hemp-seed, fir, and pine-seed, oats, kernels of fruit, mast nuts, and occasionally flesh. ”

“ In feeding it is omnivorous; besides insects of all kinds, such as ticks, grasshoppers, beetles, etc., it eats berries of various kinds, lizards, and other kinds of food. It catches insects on the ground by very active jumps, pursues them on the wing, and with its sharp thin bill digs them out in the earth. They hop about and over the bodies of cattle, especially when they are lying down, and when grazing they have been observed clinging to a cow’s tail, picking insects from it as far down even as its extremity. ”

“ The question is not whether we are herbivorous or carnivorous animals. It is perfectly certain that we are neither. The carnivora feed on flesh alone, and eat that flesh raw. Nobody proposes that we should do this. The herbivora eat raw grass. Nobody suggests that we should follow their example.
It is perfectly clear that man cannot be classed with the carnivorous animals, nor the herbivorous animals, nor with the graminivorous animals. ”

“ The carnivora, on this principle, must be forbidden,—as they are,—because they live by taking the life of other animals; hence, also, is explained the exclusion of the multitudinous varieties of the insect world, as feeding on that which is dead and corrupt. On the other hand, the animals which chew the cud and divide the hoof are counted clean; inasmuch as the sheep and the cattle, the chief representatives of this class, were by every one recognised as at the furthest possible remove from any such connection with death and corruption in their mode of life ”

“ The feeding of carnivores is on the whole the most easy; the chief pitfall being the extreme liability of all except the larger forms to fatal digestive disturbances from food that is not quite fresh. The more powerful creatures in a state of nature are accustomed to kill a prey too large to be devoured at once, and to return to it again and again, long after it has become putrid ”

“ Partridges and Pheasants are watched to their retreat and plundered mercilessly of their eggs and young; the smaller birds are treated in like manner: hares and rabbits, if they suffer themselves to be surprised, have their eyes picked out and are torn to pieces; rats, mice, and frogs are a lawful prey; carrion, offal of all kinds, snails, worms, grubs, and caterpillars, each in turn pleasantly vary the diet; and, when in season, grain and fruit are attacked with as much audacity as is consistent with safety; and might, whenever available, give a right to stray chickens and ducklings. ”

“ The flight of these bold, lively, and restless birds–often met with in small parties–is Finch-like and not uncommonly brief; the song, frequently heard in chorus, is mellow and pleasing, accompanied by chattering, whistling, and chirping notes; the diet consists of insects and fruits, even the latter being occasionally snatched upon the wing; while worms, larvae, and molluscs are eaten, and some species scratch for food among fallen leaves. The nests are usually shallow fabrics of grass, roots, fibres, moss, and lichens, lined with hair or down ”

“ The young may be taken from the nest in the month of March, or even earlier if the winter be mild they are treated and fed like the former species. The carrion crow is even more easily tamed, for I have seen old ones, which have been taught to go and come, and others in their wild state, which have regularly fed in the yard going in the spring to breed in the woods, and returning at the beginning of the winter to pass that season in a domestic state. Insects, worms, mice, fruit, and grain form its principal food in its wild state. ”

“ The food consists of worms, molluscs, insects and their larvae, green herbage, tubers, roots of aquatic plants and seeds; Porphyrio and Tribonyx cause serious damage to potato-, rice-, and corn-crops: while the former bird is said to have a curious habit of holding the larger edibles in its claws and nibbling them like a Parrot. Some of the stronger species occasionally prey on mice, lizards, young birds, and eggs. The nest may be a large mass of aquatic plants or dry flags, as in the Coots, or a similar but smaller structure, as in the Gallinules ”

“ The escaped prey of one pair of finches or sparrows or robins will not only grow up to spoil half-a-dozen vegetables, but will bring forth a progeny which will ruin scores of plants, and leave enough heirs to run through the property of hundreds more. While, therefore, I have wireworms, slugs, larvæ of mischievous moths, &c., in my garden, I shall let the birds try what they can do with the mischief which I certainly cannot manage in any clumsy human method. ”

“ The food of young sparrows was found to vary greatly; of those taken at the same time from one farmyard, some broods contained insects, some corn, green or ripe, or green peas, and a few green seeds, chiefly of grass, and in many would be a mixture of some or all these. The kind of food by no means always depends on the age of the birds; the first food after being hatched given to a young sparrow is commonly a small green caterpillar, but large callow ones a few days old are often full of ripe wheat, and some ready to fly contain insects chiefly. ”

“ These are all vegetable-feeders; and they leave plenty of room for the little insect-feeders, the Myrmecobius, with its long bushy tail, and the Bandicoots or rabbit-rats, which feed partly on bulbs and roots,196 and more often on insects, grubs, and even small mice and vermin.
But where are the animal-eaters? Surely here, as in other parts of the world, some of the group have taken to feeding on their neighbours? There are very few carnivorous animals in Australia, and these are small, though fierce, and feed chiefly on rats and mice ”