1. When bears are in flight, they drive their cubs before them, or
take them up and carry them. When nearly overtaken, they climb up into
trees. When they first come from their hiding place they eat the arum,
as it has been already observed, and gnaw the trees as if they were
cutting teeth. Many other animals also prudently provide themselves
with remedies, for they say that the wild goats in Crete, when struck
with an arrow, seek out the dittany, for this plant assists in working
the arrow from their body.
2. And dogs, when they are ill, provide themselves with an emetic from
a certain kind of grass. The panther, when it has eaten the poison
called pardalianches,[225] seeks for human ordure, for this relieves
it. This poison also will kill lions, the hunters, therefore, suspend
ordure in a vessel from the trees, in order that the animal may not
wander far from them; for the panther jumps at it and attempts to seize
it, and dies before it can reach it. They say that the panther is aware
that its peculiar scent is grateful to other wild animals, and that it
preys upon them in concealment, and when deer approach near, it catches
hinds.
[225] Perhaps Aconite.
3. The Egyptian ichneumons, when they see the serpent called the asp,
do not attack it until they have invited others to assist. They roll
themselves in mud as a protection against its blows and wounds; they
first bathe in water and then roll themselves on the ground. When the
crocodile gapes, the trochilus flies into its mouth, to cleanse its
teeth; in this process the trochilus procures food, and the other
perceives it, and does not injure it; when the crocodile wishes the
trochilus to leave, it moves its neck that it may not bite the bird.
When the tortoise has eaten a viper, it afterwards eats origanum; this
has been observed. A person who had often seen this done, and had
observed that when the tortoise had tasted the origanum it went back
to the viper, gathered all the origanum, and when this was done, the
tortoise died.
4. The weasel eats the herb rue before it attacks a serpent, for
the smell of this herb is obnoxious to serpents. When the draco has
eaten much fruit, it sucks the juice of the bitter lettuce; it has
been seen to do this. When dogs are troubled with worms, they eat
the green tops of corn. When the pelargus or any other bird has been
wounded in flight, they feed upon marjoram, and many persons have
seen the locust[226] settle upon the neck of serpents with which it
was contending. The weasel also appears prudent in the way in which
it attacks birds, for it kills them in the same manner as wolves kill
sheep; it will fight also with serpents, and especially with those that
hunt mice; for the weasel pursues the same animals.
[226] Spax lacerticida.--_Schneider._
5. Observations have been frequently made on the instinct of the
hedgehog, for when the north and south winds change, those that dwell
in the earth alter the position of the entrance of their burrows; those
which are kept in houses alter their position from wall to wall, so
that they say that in Byzantium there was a person who obtained the
character of predicting the change of the weather, from observations
made on the hedgehog. The ictis is about the size of a small Maltese
dog; in the thickness of its hair, its appearance, its white belly, and
the cunning of its disposition, it resembles the weasel; it is easily
tamed; it attacks hives of bees, for it is very fond of honey; it eats
birds like cats; its penis, as it has been already observed, is bony,
and appears to be a remedy for stranguary in the human subject; it is
administered in shavings.