Guenther has actually seen a
mouse suspend itself by the tail (_Origin_, p. 189).
Again, Mr. Lawson Tait has called attention to the use of the tail in
the cat, squirrel, yak, and many other animals as a means of preserving
the heat of the body during the nocturnal and the winter sleep. He says,
that in cold weather animals with long or bushy tails will be found
lying curled up, with their tails carefully laid over their feet like a
rug, and with their noses buried in the fur of the tail, which is thus
used exactly in the same way and for the same purpose as we use
respirators.[43]
Another illustration is furnished by the horns of deer which, especially
when very large, have been supposed to be a danger to the animal in
passing rapidly through dense thickets. But Sir James Hector states,
that the wapiti, in North America, throws back its head, thus placing
the horns along the sides of the back, and is then enabled to rush
through the thickest forest with great rapidity. The brow-antlers
protect the face and eyes, while the widely spreading horns prevent
injury to the neck or flanks.
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