Serpents will feed on eggs, and the address displayed by the dragon is quite remarkable. For it will either swallow the egg whole, if its jaws will allow of it, and roll over and over so as to break it within, and then by coughing eject the shells: or else, if it is too young to be able to do so, it will gradually encircle the egg with its coils, and hold it so tight as to break it at the end, just, in fact, as though a piece had been cut out with a knife; then holding the remaining part in its folds, it will suck the contents.
Scorpions live on earth. Serpents, when an opportunity presents itself, show an especial liking for wine, although in other respects they need but very little drink. These animals, when kept shut up, require but little aliment, hardly any at all, in fact. The same is the case also with spiders, which at other times live by suction. No venomous animal will die of hunger or thirst. The sphingium and the satyr stow away food in the pouches of their cheeks, after which they will take it out piece by piece with their hands and eat it; thus they do for a day or an hour what the ant usually does for the whole year.
GROUP OF RODENT ANIMALS.
The only animal with toes upon the feet that feeds upon grass is the hare, and he will eat corn as well; while the solid-hoofed animals, and the swine among the cloven-footed ones, will eat all kinds of food, as well as roots. To roll over and over is a peculiarity of the animals with a solid hoof. All those which have serrated teeth are carnivorous. Bears live also upon corn, leaves, grapes, fruit, bees, crabs and ants; wolves will eat earth even when they are famishing. Cattle grow fat by drinking; hence salt agrees with them well. All animals ruminate lying in preference to standing, and more in winter than in summer. The Pontic mouse also ruminates in a similar manner.
THE CAT—Felis Doméstica.
In drinking, those animals which have serrated or canine teeth, lap; and common mice do the same, although they belong to another class. Those which have the teeth continuous, horses and oxen, for instance, sup; bears do neither the one nor the other, but seem to bite at the water, and so devour it. In Africa, the greater part of the wild beasts do not drink in summer, through the want of rain; the mice of Libya, when caught, will die if they drink. The ever-thirsting plains of Africa produce the oryx, an animal which, in consequence of the nature of its native locality, never drinks, and which, in a remarkable manner, affords a remedy against drought: for the Gætulian bandits by its aid fortify themselves against thirst, by finding in its body certain vesicles filled with a most wholesome liquid. In this same Africa, also, the pards conceal themselves in the thick foliage of the trees, and then spring down from the branches on any creature that may happen to be passing by, thus occupying what are ordinarily the haunts of the birds. With what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do the cats creep towards a bird! How slily they will sit and watch, and then dart out upon a mouse!