OCR Text |
Show HABITS OF HORSE AND DONKEY. Easily Traced Back to Their Most Remote Re-mote Ancestors. The ancestors of the horse were accustomed ac-customed Ui roam over the plains, where every tuft of grass or bush might conceal an enemy waiting to spring uvon them. I'nder these circumstances cir-cumstances the) must often have saved their lives by starting qnleUty back or Jumping to one side when they enme without warning upon some strange object. This Is a habit which has not left the animal, even after long years of domestication. On the other Imnd, the donkej Is descended de-scended from animals which lived among the hills, where there were precipices and dangerous declivities, nnd from Uine conditions resulted his slowness and sure footedness. His ancestors were not ho liable to sudden 1 attacks from wild beasts and snakes. 1 Ilrsldrs, sudden and wild starts would have been positively dangerous to them. Consequently they learned to nvold the verv trick which has been fo useful to the horse. The hsbit of eating thistles, which Is peculiar alone to the donkey. Is nlso descended from these ancestors, lu the dry, barren localities lo-calities which they Inhabited there was often little food; hence they lenrned to cnt hard, dry and even prlvkly plants when there was nothing else. |