But the patriarchs of the herd may be told chiefly by
two signs; in the first place they have few teeth or none at all, and,
in the second place, they have ceased to grow the pointed tips to
their antlers. The forward-pointing tips of the growing horns (that is
to say the brow-antlers), with which the animal meets attack, are
technically termed its 'defenders'; with these the patriarchs are
unprovided, and their antlers merely grow straight upwards. Stags shed
their horns annually, in or about the month of May; after shedding,
they conceal themselves, it is said, during the daytime, and, to avoid
the flies, hide in thick copses; during this time, until they have
grown their horns, they feed at night-time. The horns at first grow in
a kind of skin envelope, and get rough by degrees; when they reach
their full size the animal basks in the sun, to mature and dry them.
When they need no longer rub them against tree-trunks they quit their
hiding-places, from a sense of security based upon the possession of
arms defensive and offensive. An Achaeine stag has been caught with a
quantity of green ivy grown over its horns, it having grown
apparently, as on fresh green wood, when the horns were young and
tender. When a stag is stung by a venom-spider or similar insect, it
gathers crabs and eats them; it is said to be a good thing for man to
drink the juice, but the taste is disagreeable. The hinds after
parturition at once swallow the afterbirth, and it is impossible to
secure it, for the hind catches it before it falls to the ground: now
this substance is supposed to have medicinal properties. When hunted
the creatures are caught by singing or pipe-playing on the part of the
hunters; they are so pleased with the music that they lie down on the
grass. If there be two hunters, one before their eyes sings or plays
the pipe, the other keeps out of sight and shoots, at a signal given
by the confederate. If the animal has its ears cocked, it can hear
well and you cannot escape its ken; if its ears are down, you can.
{BK9|CH6
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When bears are running away from their pursuers they push their cubs
in front of them, or take them up and carry them; when they are being
overtaken they climb up a tree. When emerging from their winter-den,
they at once take to eating cuckoo-pint, as has been said, and chew
sticks of wood as though they were cutting teeth.
Many other quadrupeds help themselves in clever ways. Wild goats in
Crete are said, when wounded by arrows, to go in search of dittany,
which is supposed to have the property of ejecting arrows in the body.
Dogs, when they are ill, eat some kind of grass and produce vomiting.
The panther, after eating panther's-bane, tries to find some human
excrement, which is said to heal its pain. This panther's-bane kills
lions as well. Hunters hang up human excrement in a vessel attached to
the boughs of a tree, to keep the animal from straying to any
distance; the animal meets its end in leaping up to the branch and
trying to get at the medicine. They say that the panther has found out
that wild animals are fond of the scent it emits; that, when it goes
a-hunting, it hides itself; that the other animals come nearer and
nearer, and that by this stratagem it can catch even animals as swift
of foot as stags.
The Egyptian ichneumon, when it sees the serpent called the asp,
does not attack it until it has called in other ichneumons to help; to
meet the blows and bites of their enemy the assailants beplaster
themselves with mud, by first soaking in the river and then rolling on
the ground.
When the crocodile yawns, the trochilus flies into his mouth and
cleans his teeth. The trochilus gets his food thereby, and the
crocodile gets ease and comfort; it makes no attempt to injure its
little friend, but, when it wants it to go, it shakes its neck in
warning, lest it should accidentally bite the bird.
The tortoise, when it has partaken of a snake, eats marjoram; this
action has been actually observed. A man saw a tortoise perform this
operation over and over again, and every time it plucked up some
marjoram go back to partake of its prey; he thereupon pulled the
marjoram up by the roots, and the consequence was the tortoise died.
The weasel, when it fights with a snake, first eats wild rue, the
smell of which is noxious to the snake. The dragon, when it eats
fruit, swallows endive-juice; it has been seen in the act. Dogs, when
they suffer from worms, eat the standing corn. Storks, and all other
birds, when they get a wound fighting, apply marjoram to the place
injured.
{BK9|CH6 ^paragraph 5}
Many have seen the locust, when fighting with the snake get a tight
hold of the snake by the neck. The weasel has a clever way of getting
the better of birds; it tears their throats open, as wolves do with
sheep. Weasels fight desperately with mice-catching snakes, as they
both prey on the same animal.
In regard to the instinct of hedgehogs, it has been observed in many
places that, when the wind is shifting from north to south, and from
south to north, they shift the outlook of their earth-holes, and those
that are kept in domestication shift over from one wall to the other.
The story goes that a man in Byzantium got into high repute for
foretelling a change of weather, all owing to his having noticed this
habit of the hedgehog.
The polecat or marten is about as large as the smaller breed of