Sentence Examples:
They are mostly carnivorous, though they seize upon almost anything that comes in their way: they even devour their own offspring, and manifest a particular predilection for all living creatures.
He, however, made weapons for himself, and, impelled by a carnivorous instinct, made prey of the animals that surrounded him.
The carnivorous orchid was having a good day and keeping its own counsel as a sensible orchid expectant of continued patronage should do.
One of their most common topics of talk was the flight of birds, particularly the carnivorous species, to which they addressed talks as they flew.
It is also possessed of a carnivorous habit, it being peculiarly fond of burrowing in old burying places, where it lives, principally on the corpse.
To the naturalist this district is of fascinating interest, on account of the large number of carnivorous birds of various species by which it is still haunted.
The smaller wild mammals, carnivorous and herbivorous, and a truly representative family of birds, including one or two rare visitors, have here a perfect sanctuary.
Perforce a vegetarian, he found that a vegetable diet was good for his health, and delivered to himself many a scornful speech on the habits of the carnivorous multitude.
Then we would imitate those animal murderers, by catching some fish which we broiled to satisfy our carnivorous appetites.
The smell is, however, fetid and offensive, and hence toads are less exposed to the attacks of carnivorous animals and of birds than frogs, in which such glands do not exist.
He is carnivorous also, and will even attack and conquer the lordly buffalo, dragging his huge carcass to the neighborhood of his den, that he may prey upon it at his leisure.
If pure selfishness and aggressiveness are the measure of personality, then are not many of the carnivorous animals endowed with a very high degree of "personality"?
A much more important problem is the question as to the existence of the carnivorous monster which has left its traces in this glade.
Whilst herbivorous animals abounded during the Post-Pliocene, we have ample evidence of the coexistence with them of a number of Carnivorous forms, both in the New and the Old World.
They are not inferior in size to an albatross, and are carnivorous, feeding on the dead carcasses of seals or birds that were thrown into the sea.
The arboreal life of higher mammals would seem to be most easily explained by the view that they were driven to it by stronger carnivorous mammals having possession of the ground.
Sometimes in the midst of the noon-day stillness, a sudden yell or scream will startle one, coming from some minor fruit-eating animal, set upon by a carnivorous beast or serpent.
A smile, which showed all her strong white teeth in a somewhat carnivorous way, overspread her face as she shook hands vigorously with her hostess.
It is obvious without proceeding to a tertiary or carnivorous order, that the condition of energy in the animal world may be supposed fulfilled in these successive series of engines, and no violation of the principles governing the actions going on in our machines assumed.
In her mind's eye she saw Reginald crush between his relentless hands the delicate soul of Ernest Fielding, as a magnificent carnivorous flower might close its glorious petals upon a fly.
He contended that man is not naturally a drinking animal; that his thirst is a morbid symptom, the outcome of a carnivorous diet and other unwholesome habits.
This represents a creature with the body of a man walking erect but with the head apparently of some carnivorous mammal, as shown by the prominent canine tooth.
"This is the more remarkable," observes Darwin, "when compared to the case of carnivorous quadrupeds, which are so abundant in hot countries."
For example, the lion is endowed with carnivorous teeth, which are intended for meat, and if meat be not found, the lion starves.
This is the way in which ferocious beasts and bloodthirsty wolves behave, carnivorous animals that live by themselves and fight for their lives.
The great carnivorous dinosaurs are much rarer than the herbivorous kinds, and these three skeletons are the most complete that have ever been found.
In contrast with the Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus this skeleton represents the smaller and more agile carnivorous dinosaurs which preyed upon the lesser herbivorous reptiles of the period.
We may succeed by gaining his favor; he is the king of all the birds, and carnivorous, but for all we know his disposition may be so merciful that he will spare our offspring not only himself, but order all the other birds of prey, his subjects, to do likewise.
The more diversified in habits and structure the descendants of our carnivorous animals become, the more places they will be enabled to occupy.
It would be easy to show that there now exist carnivorous animals presenting close intermediate grades from strictly terrestrial to aquatic habits; and as each exists by a struggle for life, it is clear that each must be well adapted to its place in nature.
We took also a few slender poles, upon which we intended to hang our meat to keep it out of reach of prowling carnivorous animals.
Take the case of a carnivorous quadruped, of which the number that can be supported in any country has long ago arrived at its full average.
The more diversified in habits and structure the descendants of our carnivorous animal became, the more places they would be enabled to occupy.
It would be easy to show that within the same group carnivorous animals exist having every intermediate grade between truly aquatic and strictly terrestrial habits; and as each exists by a struggle for life, it is clear that each is well adapted in its habits to its place in nature.
It has intensified the mutual feelings of envy among Western races themselves, as they fight over their spoils and display a carnivorous pride in their snarling rows of teeth.
A reddish yellow pigment present in human bile, and in that from carnivorous and herbivorous animals; the normal biliary pigment.
Being a ground feeder it is subject to the attacks of carnivorous quadrupeds, which are not found in the very small islands.
As they went down the mountains, the carnivorous animals would have devoured a large portion of the herbivorous animals saved in the ark.
The number and form of the teeth, and the structure of the stomach, and bowels, determine whether an animal be herbivorous, or carnivorous.
Its principal advantage, however, would seem to be to a species that became largely carnivorous and needed to capture running or flying prey.
Among the birds there are none more quick-witted than the social crows, none with less display of intelligence than the solitary carnivorous species.
Prowling carnivorous animals haunted its new place of residence, and these it had to avoid by speed or alertness of motion, or combat them by strength and the use of weapons.
In the meantime the body of the second rodent had been drawn in and devoured by another of the carnivorous crystalline monsters.
Where animal life was so abundant there were sure to be carnivorous animals also, and lions, hyenas, tigers, and other animals added to the variety of animal life.
The increased length appears to be due to the domestic cat being less strictly carnivorous in its diet than any wild feline species; I have seen a French kitten eating vegetables as readily as meat.
In this part of the education of their young, the parent badgers adopted methods similar to those of the fox and other carnivorous animals.
It is only when the latter succeed in cutting out some weaker or less sagacious animal that these carnivorous creatures succeed in tearing down their prey.
His firm white teeth, as they crunched on the cracker suggested, even stronger, the semblance to a carnivorous animal of prey.
In fact, the lowest savages still live as isolated families like the carnivorous mammals, rather than in clans or tribes.
"Yes, it must be a survival of one of the carnivorous dinosaurs," he decided, then paused, increasingly conscious of that steady thudding noise.
I began eating meat again, although as I now look at my actions in this matter I can see no earthly reason why I should have turned either herbivorous or carnivorous.
The Fire People were carnivorous, with claws and fangs a hundred feet long, the most terrible of all the hunting animals that ranged the primeval world.
Among the most remarkable are reptiles of gigantic size; some of them herbivorous, others carnivorous, and far exceeding in size any now known even in the torrid zone.
They are strictly carnivorous, their diet consisting of any animal, vertebrate or invertebrate, small enough to be overcome.
Even in the wild state the skunk is not, strictly speaking, a carnivorous animal as they will eat and in fact are fond of sweet corn when in a milky state, also sweet potatoes, melons and wild fruits.
Their food was in very great part composed of shell-fish, though they evidently caught and ate various kinds of deer, boar and a variety of carnivorous animals.
The weasel is the smallest of all carnivorous animals and the various species and varieties are distributed over the greater portion of northern Asia, Europe and North America.
Neither is it a strictly carnivorous animal, as it feeds largely on the berries of the mountain ash and in seasons when these berries are plentiful, the fisher does not take bait well.
The reversal in this case of the usual proportions between the skeletal remains of herbivorous and carnivorous beasts and birds is due to the character of the deposits.
As is well known, most fur-bearing animals are carnivorous, feeding on flesh, and the trapper who can locate the place, that is the hunting grounds of the game he is trapping, is usually successful.
The value of carnivorous mammals and the larger birds of prey in destroying rats should be more fully recognized, especially by the farmer and the game preserver.
Among the agencies that help to keep down the numbers of rabbits few are more effective than carnivorous birds and mammals.
From the standpoint of the farmer and fruit grower these birds and certain carnivorous mammals are far more beneficial than harmful.
Indiscriminate slaughter of carnivorous birds and mammals should be suppressed whenever rodent pests are to be controlled.
These examples, the only ones to which my experiments have extended hitherto, seem to me sufficiently convincing to allow me to conclude that the carnivorous larva does not have exclusive tastes.
Since the frog is carnivorous, what digestive ferments are probably present, and what ones absent from the alimentary canal?
Like the various carnivorous animals, it can, though a reptile, fast in its aquatic home for weeks and even months without apparent inconvenience.
Who can doubt, then, that when a carnivorous animal employs the weapons with which nature has furnished it for the destruction of another animal, in order to satisfy its hunger, that it acts in obedience to a law of its being, originally impressed upon its constitution by the Creator?
To preserve, then, a proper balance between the different species is, doubtless, the object of the creation of the carnivorous.
These animals, as they now exist, are divisible into the two great classes of carnivorous and herbivorous species, being distinguished by their anatomical structure; and so has it ever been.
These examples are sufficient to prove the existence of the carnivorous and herbivorous races in all ages and in about the same relative numbers.
If, for instance, one race of carnivorous species died out, new races were created to occupy their place, so that the herbivorous species should not overrun the globe.
At first these early mammals seem to differ only in a few characters from the great herbivorous and carnivorous reptiles that ages before had flourished and then vanished from the earth.
The value of carnivorous mammals and the larger birds of prey in destroying rats and mice should be more fully recognized, especially by the farmer and the game preserver.
Herbivorous animals, in eating vegetables, eat nitrogen, and we, who are carnivorous, we also eat nitrogen, since we eat the herbivorous animals.
For five days the expedition tramped north in the rain and heat, through a land given over to dead men, vultures and carnivorous animals.
The cultivated dog is no longer a merely carnivorous animal, he has accustomed himself to a variety of food; but it is perhaps the peculiar characteristic of the student's dog that he drinks beer.
With a keen sense of justice, and an aristocratic air, they passed our plates of carnivorous foods without venturing a taste, and went to their herbivorous piles of sod delicacies.
Among the scale-winged insects, however, carnivorous caterpillars are rare, seldom occurring among the moths and in hardly more than one species among the butterflies.
Although feeding chiefly on roots, fruits and grain, it is also to some extent carnivorous, attacking and eating small quadrupeds, lizards and birds.
In the carnivorous, the jaws can only move backward and forward; in the herbivorous their motion is lateral, as observed in the cow when chewing her cud.
There she would have thrust him down the throat of the burrow, and then crawled in and laid an egg on the helpless beast, from which in time would have hatched the carnivorous wasp grub.
Another species of solitary bee, whose larva is carnivorous, resorts to a still more wonderful, but, it must be confessed, very cruel, expedient to supply the worm-like progeny with food.
Being without incisors or canines, the structure of its eighteen molars proves that it was not carnivorous: they each resemble the composite molars of the Elephant.
The world abounded at that period in large and carnivorous reptiles, which may indeed have been the principal enemies with which the first mammals had to cope.
The converse is true that in purely carnivorous animals, including insect- and fish-eating forms, there is the greatest difference between the anterior set of grinding teeth and those which follow.
In some instances, the stomach and intestines of these great carnivorous creatures, filled with half-digested food, have left indubitable traces of their presence in situ.
As the low position of the nest exposes them to become the prey of carnivorous quadrupeds, they soon quit it, even before they can fly.
It frequently happens that the attitude desired for a feline or other carnivorous animal is one expressive of anger, rage, or defiance.
These shell-fish are, with few exceptions, carnivorous; not that the siphon shape of the shell has any direct connection with the animal's way of feeding.
The habit which many small birds display of mobbing carnivorous ones is probably due to a desire to drive off the enemy, and perhaps also to warn friends by the hubbub.
According to this, about eight orders of Marsupial animals may be distinguished, the one half of the main group or legion of which are herbivorous, the other half carnivorous.
The chief matter is to separate the species as much as possible, so that the carnivorous kinds shall not destroy the harmless ones; and on this plan the study of each kind is greatly facilitated.
Feeding is necessary only in the case of carnivorous larva and beetles, and for these small fish is undoubtedly the best; the herbivorous creatures supply themselves.
Those who have committed one of the miscellaneous crimes enter the bodies of miscellaneous wild carnivorous animals (such as tigers).
The food of the dogs is entirely carnivorous, for they would rather live by gnawing their own harness than to eat bread, even if the latter could be supplied.
The cravings of hunger are felt, but the carnivorous rover despises the well-stored granaries of the ark, and makes its evening meal out of the carcasses that drift upon the waters.
The bee had been slain by the wasp, a carnivorous insect normally, but the wasp knew that sweet honey was concealed in the half-filled crop of the bee.
No animal is so favored in its carnivorous instincts as the mole; forty-four teeth studded with points never cease working from morning to night.
You see, in a mountain badger, which is more carnivorous than the prairie variety, the canine teeth are more fully developed.