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Jag-toothed animals drink by lapping, as do also some animals
with teeth differently formed, as the mouse. Animals whose upper and
lower teeth meet evenly drink by suction, as the horse and the ox; the
bear neither laps nor sucks, but gulps down his drink. Birds, a
rule, drink by suction, but the long necked birds stop and elevate
their heads at intervals; the purple coot is the only one (of the
long-necked birds) that swallows water by gulps.
Horned animals, domesticated or wild, and all such as are not
jag-toothed, are all frugivorous and graminivorous, save under great
stress of hunger. The pig is an exception, it cares little for grass
or fruit, but of all animals it is the fondest of roots, owing to
the fact that its snout is peculiarly adapted for digging them out
of the ground; it is also of all animals the most easily pleased in
the matter of food. It takes on fat more rapidly in proportion to
its size than any other animal; in fact, a pig can be fattened for the
market in sixty days. Pig-dealers can tell the amount of flesh taken
on, by having first weighed the animal while it was being starved.
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