Exeter Change, in London. One hundred and fifty-two bullets were fired
into him at short range, and directed toward vital parts, before he fell
dead. It was found necessary to kill an elephant at Geneva, May 31st,
1820. Three ounces of prussic acid and three ounces of arsenic were
administered, but produced no effect. He was shot by a cannon thrust
through a breach in the wall, the muzzle almost touching him. The ball
entered near the ear, behind the right eye, went through a thick
partition on the opposite side of the enclosure, and spent itself
against a wall. The animal stood still two or three seconds, then
tottered, and fell without any convulsive movement.
_Ears of the Elephant._
The ears of the African elephant are said to be much larger, in
proportion to the size of the animal, than those of the Indian species.
Baker, the African traveler, says that he has frequently cut off an ear
of one of these animals to form a mat, on which he has slept
comfortably.
_A Shaved Bear._
"At Bristol I saw a shaved monkey shown for a fairy, and a shaved bear,
in a check waistcoat and trousers, sitting in a great chair as an
Ethiopian savage. This was the most cruel fraud I ever saw. The
unnatural position of the beast and the brutality of the woman keeper,
who sat upon his knee, put her arm around his neck, called him husband
and sweetheart, and kissed him, made it the most disgusting spectacle I
ever witnessed. Cottle was with me."—_Southey._
_Retailing a Lion._
A lion in a Cincinnati menagerie recently lost a part of his tail. A
vicious hyena, confined in an adjoining cage, nipped it off, for want of
something better or worse to do. The _Enquirer_ of that city tells the
sequel of the story—
"The noble king of the woods was much mortified in consequence, and it
was feared would worry himself to death. He kept continually biting his
tail and playing all kinds of mysterious pranks in his cage. Two men
were kept continually employed, at an expense of $21 a week each, to
watch the lion and prevent him from further injury upon himself.
"Mr. John Carney, the new superintendent of the Zoological Gardens,
devised a plan for the pacification of the king of the forest, which has
succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations. He had a small box-cage
constructed adjoining the lion's cell, and coaxed the wounded beast
therein. The cage was so constructed that the lion could not turn about
in it. Once in, his tail was treated medically, and covered with a black
snake's skin. The lion now seems perfectly satisfied with the amendment
to his tail, and holds his head as erect and is as proud as ever. Mr.
Carney is a genius."
_Magpie Stoning a Toad._
There is a story told of a tame magpie which was seen busily employed in
a garden gathering pebbles, and with much solemnity and a studied air
dropping them into a hole about eighteen inches deep, made to receive a
post. After dropping each stone it cried "Currack" triumphantly, and set
off for another. On examining the spot, a poor toad was found in the
hole, which the magpie was stoning for his amusement.
_Cynocephalic Apes._
A correspondent in the "Transvaal Republic" writes that a species of
large cynocephalic apes are in the habit of ravaging the coffee
plantations there, which therefore have to be guarded. Among the coffee
trees there grows a shrub whose fruit the apes particularly enjoy. But
a species of wasp had fastened their nests to these shrubs, and the apes
were kept from their tempting food by their fear of being stung. One
morning fearful cries were heard from the apes, and the following scene
was witnessed: A large baboon, the leader of the band, was throwing some
young apes down into the shrubs, that they might break off the wasp
nests with the shock of their fall. The poor victims, stung by the
infuriated insects, were crying piteously, but the old baboon paid no
heed to their miserable condition. While they were down below, suffering
from the anger of the wasps, he quietly proceeded to regale himself with
the fruit, now safely within his reach, and occasionally threw a handful
to some females and young a little way off.
_Monkeys Demanding their Dead._
Mr. Forbes tells a story of a female monkey who was shot by a friend of
his and carried to his tent. Forty or fifty of her tribe advanced with
menacing gestures, but stood still when the gentleman pointed his gun at
them. One, however, who appeared to be the chief of the tribe, came
forward, chattering and threatening in a furious manner. Nothing short
of firing at him seemed likely to drive him away. At length he
approached the door of the tent with every sign of grief and
supplication, as if he were begging for the body. It was given to him;
he took it in his arms and carried it to his companions with actions
expressive of affection, after which they all disappeared.
_Can Dogs Count?_
A gentleman on a visit to Scotland came across some men who were washing
sheep. Close to the water where the operation was being carried on was a
small pen, in which a detachment of ten sheep were placed handy to the
men for washing. While watching the performance his attention was called
to a sheep-dog lying down close by. This animal, on the pen becoming
nearly empty, without a word from any one, started off to the main body
of the flock, and brought back ten of their number, and drove them into
the empty washing-pens. The fact of his bringing exactly the same number
of sheep as had vacated it he looked upon at first as a strange
coincidence—a mere chance. But he continued looking on, and, much to
his surprise, as soon as the men had reduced the number to three sheep,
the dog started off again, and brought back ten more, and so he
continued throughout the afternoon, never bringing one more nor one
less, and always going for a fresh lot when only three were left in the
pen, evidently being aware that during the time the last three were
washing he would be able to bring up a fresh detachment.
_Can Hens Count?_
On one occasion the author found a hen disposed to set in a
horse-trough. She had but eight eggs under her, and he added five more.
The next morning he noticed that she had discarded five of the eggs;
they were replaced, and were again hustled to the other end of the
trough. He next marked the eggs, in order to discover whether she
objected to the five eggs with which he had supplied her. At his next
visit he found that she had once more rejected five eggs, two of which
were marked and three not marked. She would accept but eight eggs, and
was left to incubate in peace.
_How Rats and Mice use their Tails._
To test the correctness of the popular belief that rats and mice use
their tails for feeding purposes, when the food to be eaten is
contained in vessels too narrow to admit the entire body of the animal,
a writer in "Nature" made the following experiments: Into a couple of
preserve bottles with narrow necks he put as much semi-liquid fruit
jelly as filled them within three inches of the top. The bottles were
then covered with bladder and set in a place frequented by rats. Next
morning the covering of each bottle had a small hole gnawed in it, and
the level of the jelly was lowered to an extent about equal to the
length of a rat's tail, if inserted in the hole. The next experiment was
still more decisive. The bottles were refilled to the extent of half an
inch above the level left by the rats, a disk of moist paper laid upon
the surface, and the bottles covered as before. The bottles were now
laid aside in a place unfrequented by rats, until a good crop of mould
had grown upon one of the moistened disks of paper. This bottle was then
transferred to the place infested by the rats. Next morning the bladder
had again been eaten through at one edge, and upon the mould were
numerous and distinct tracings of the rats' tails, evidently caused by
the animals sweeping their tails about in the endeavor to find a hole in
the paper.
_Kicked by a Camel._
The camel's kick is a study. As it stands demurely chewing the cud, and
gazing abstractedly at some totally different far-away object, up goes a
hind leg, drawn close in to the body, with the foot pointing out; a
short pause, and out it flies with an action like the piston and
connecting-rod of a steam-engine, showing a judgment of distance and
direction that would lead you to suppose the leg gifted with perceptions
of its own, independent of the animal's proper senses. I have seen a
heavy man fired several yards into a dense crowd by the kick of a camel,
and picked up insensible.—_Keane._
_Crocodiles of the Nile._
The crocodile of the Nile is one of the most celebrated of the eastern
species. Among the ancient Egyptians it was a sacred animal, and to
destroy it was a crime. The priests kept crocodiles in tanks in the
temple grounds; they ornamented them with jewels and fed them with the
choicest food. After death the bodies were carefully embalmed and buried
with great ceremony, and it is not uncommon at this date to find
crocodile mummies in their tombs.
_Alligators Swallowing Stones._
The alligators on the banks of the Oronoko, previous to going in search
of prey, swallow large stones, that they may acquire additional weight
to aid them in diving and dragging their victims under water. Bolivar
shot several with his rifle, and in all of them were found stones
varying in weight according to the size of the animal. The largest
killed was about seventeen feet in length, and had within him a stone
which weighed sixty or seventy pounds.
_Animals Forecasting Danger._
That animals forebode the approach of an earthquake is a fact which
frequently has been demonstrated. When no sign announces to unthinking
man the coming terror, these creatures indicate it by their agitation
and their cries. Every animal, without exception, feels this singular
presentiment, but it has been more particularly observed among the
poultry in the barn-yard. Dogs howl distressingly, and great
restlessness is shown by horses and oxen in the open country.
Humboldt relates that, in the earthquakes so frequent in South America,
oxen and other domesticated animals will stand with their legs placed
wide apart, as if they hoped by that device to lessen the danger of
being precipitated into a crevasse which might suddenly open under their
feet. It is for this reason that men in the same regions are advised, on
the occurrence of an earthquake, to extend their arms from their bodies
in the shape of a cross. The precaution is one which tradition and
experience have impressed on the inhabitants.
_Singular Provision against Famine._
The synapta is a marine animal closely allied to the sea-cucumber. If
one of them is preserved in sea-water for a short time, and subjected to
a forced fast, a very strange thing will be observed. The animal, being
unable to feed itself, successively detaches various parts of its body,
which it amputates spontaneously. "It would appear," says M.
Quatrefages, "that the animal, feeling that it had not sufficient food
to support its whole body, is able successively to abridge its
dimensions by suppressing the parts it would be most difficult to
support, just as we should dismiss the most useless mouths from a
besieged city." This singular mode of meeting a famine is employed by
the synapta up to the last moment. In order to preserve life in the
head, all the other parts of the body are sacrificed.
_Looking for the Head of the Bed._
Every one has observed that dogs, before they lie down, turn themselves
round and round, which has been facetiously called "looking for the head
of the bed." Those who have had an opportunity of witnessing the actions
of animals in a wild state, know that they seek long grass for their
beds, which they beat down and render more commodious by turning around
in it several times. It would appear, therefore, that the habit of our
domesticated dogs in this respect is derived from the nature of the same
species in the wild state.—_Mr. Jesse._
_Getting Himself Outside of his Dinner._
The intelligence of a toad is remarkable. When an insect is too large to
swallow, it thrusts the creature against a stone to push it down its
throat. On one occasion, when a toad was attempting to swallow a locust,
the head was down the former's throat, the hinder part protruding. The
toad then sought a stone or clod, but as none were to be found, he
lowered his head and crept along, pushing the locust against the ground.
But the ground was too smooth (a rolled path), and the angle at which
the locust lay to the ground too small, and thus no progress was made.
To increase the angle, he straightened up his hind legs, but in vain. At
length he threw up his hind quarters, and actually stood on his head,
or, rather, on the locust sticking out of his mouth; and, after
repeating this several times, succeeded in getting himself outside of
his dinner.
_Superstition about the Camel._
The Orientals declare that, at the time of the rising of the Pleiades,
the camel sees the constellation before it is visible to the human eye,
and will not lie down in any other direction than with its head toward
the east.
_Pedigree of Arabian Horses._
The Arabs claim that their finest horses are direct descendants of the
stud of Solomon. The pedigree of an Arabian horse is hung around his
neck soon after his birth, properly witnessed and attested. The
following is the pedigree of a horse purchased by a French officer in
Arabia:—
"In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate, and of Saed
Mahomed, agent of the high God, and of the companions of Mahomed, and of
Jerusalem. Praised be the Lord, the omnipotent Creator. This is a
high-bred horse, and its colt's tooth is here in a bag about his neck,
with his pedigree, and of undoubted authority, such as no infidel can
refuse to believe. He is the son of Rabbamy, out of the dam Labadah, and
equal in power to his sire of the tribe of Zazhalah; he is finely
moulded, and made for running like an ostrich. In the honors of
relationship he reckons Zuluah, sire of Mahat, sire of Kallac, and the
unique Alket, sire of Manasseh, sire of Alsheh, father of the race down
to the famous horse, the sire of Lahalala. And to him be ever abundance
of green meat and corn, and water of life, as a reward from the tribe of
Zazhalaha; and may a thousand branches shade his carcass from the hyæna
of the tomb, from the howling wolf of the desert; and let the tribe of
Zazhalah present him with a festival within an enclosure of walls; and
let thousands assemble at the rising of the sun in troops hastily, where
the tribe holds up, under a canopy of celestial signs within the walls,
the saddle with the name and family of the possessor. Then let them
strike the bands with a loud noise incessantly, and pray to God for
immunity for the tribe of Zoab, the inspired tribe."
_Voracity of the Mole._
A naturalist has calculated that a mole devours annually 20,000 grubs.
It is so voracious that it must eat every six hours. 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. It
requires nourishment to such an extent, that if deprived of food for a
day it dies of inanition. It is a complete eating machine, gulping down
every day a proportionately enormous quantity of food, so that M. de la
Blanchére was right in saying that "if we could magnify the mole to the
size of an elephant, we should be face to face with the most terrific
brute the world ever brought forth."
_Cat Worship._
In the Middle Ages animals formed as prominent a part in the worship of
the time as they did in the old religion of Egypt. The cat was a very
important personage in religious festivals. At Aix, in Provence, on the
festival of Corpus Christi, the finest tom cat of the country, wrapt in
swaddling clothes like a child, was exhibited in a magnificent shrine to
public admiration. Every knee was bent, every hand strewed flowers or
poured incense, and the cat was treated in all respects as the god of
the day.
_Horses Feeding one Another._
M. de Bossanelle, captain of cavalry in the regiment of Beauvilliers,
relates in his "Military Observations," printed in Paris in 1760, "that
in the year 1757 an old horse of his company, that was very fine and
full of mettle, had his teeth suddenly so worn down that he could not
chew his hay and corn, and that he was fed for two months, and would
still have been so fed had he been kept, by two horses on each side of
him that ate in the same manger. These two horses drew hay from the
rack, which they chewed, and afterward threw before the old horse; that
they did the same with the oats, which they ground very small and also
put before him. This was observed and witnessed by a whole company of
cavalry, officers and men."
_Odd Mode of Revenge._
Monkeys in India are more or less objects of superstitious reverence,
and are, consequently, seldom destroyed. In some places they are fed,
encouraged and allowed to live on the roofs of the houses. If a man
wishes to revenge himself for any injury done him, he has only to
sprinkle some rice or corn upon the top of his enemy's house or granary,
just before the rains set in, and the monkeys will assemble upon it, eat
all they can find outside, and then pull off the tiles to get at that
which falls through the crevices. This, of course, gives access to the
torrents which fall in such countries, and house, furniture and stores
are all ruined.
_Cats with Knotted Tails._
We extract the following paragraph from the narrative of a voyager in
the Indian Ocean, because it contains an account of a rarity in natural
history with which few, we suspect, are acquainted:—
"The steward is again pillowed on his beloved saltfish, and our only
companion is a Malacca cat, who has also an attachment for the steward's
pillow. Puss is a tame little creature and rubs herself mildly against
our shoes, looking up in our faces and mewing her thoughts. Doubtless
she is surprised that you have been so long looking at her without
noticing the peculiarity in her tail, which so much distinguishes her
from the rest of the female race in other quarters of the globe. Did you
ever observe such a singular knot? so regular, too, in its formation?
Some cruel monster must have tied it in a knot while puss was yet a
kitten, and she has outlived both the pain and the inconvenience. But
here comes a kitten, all full of gambols and fun, and we find that the
tail is in precisely the same condition. So, then, this is a remarkable
feature amongst the whole race of Malayan cats, but for which no one we
meet with is able to give us a satisfactory explanation."
_Tortoises Afraid of Heat and Rain._
Tortoises seem, by their thick shells, to be protected against all
changes of the weather. But one of immense size, imported from the
Galapagos Islands to England, was actually afraid of rain. Its owner
says: "No part of its behaviour ever struck me more than the extreme
timidity it always expresses with regard to rain; and though it has a
shell that would secure it against a loaded cart, yet it exhibits as
much solicitude about rain as a lady dressed in her best attire,
shuffling away on the first sprinklings and running its head into a
corner. If attended to, it becomes an excellent weather glass; for as
sure as it walks elate, and as it were on tip-toe, feeding with great
earnestness in the morning, so sure will it rain before night." The same
tortoise was careful to keep out of the hot sun, and always sought a
shady nook at mid-day in summer.
_Pea Crabs._
The fact that these small crabs take up their abode within the shells of
mollusks was well known to the ancients, and gave rise to many curious
fables. A species is very common in the _pinnæ_ (mollusks) of the
Mediterranean, and was imagined to render important services to its host
in return for its lodging, keeping a lookout for approaching dangers,
against which the blind pinna itself could not guard, and particularly
apprising it, that it might close its shell when the cuttle-fish came
near. It is curious to find this repeated by Hasselquist, in the middle
of the last century, as a piece of genuine natural history. Whether the
pea crab lives at the expense of the mollusk, and sucks its juices, is
uncertain. It is certain, however, that the flesh of such mollusks is
palatable to pea crabs, as they eat it greedily in the aquarium.
_Extraordinary Muscular Strength of the Bat._
When bats bring forth their young they are obliged to carry them on
their backs, as they do not build nests like the birds, the little
things hanging fast to their fur during flight. The extrordinary
strength of muscle possessed by the bat is shown in the fact that two of
the young, which are often born at a birth, weigh two-thirds as much as
the parent. Thus, flying at nearly double its ordinary weight, we can
fancy the power of this animal, surpassing in proportion the strength of
the eagle or condor.
_Great Digestive Powers._
In certain caterpillars the digestive power is so great that they
swallow every day three or four times their own weight in food. If the
elephant and rhinoceros were to feed on this scale, and were as numerous
as the caterpillars, they would require but a short time to devour all
the vegetation on the globe.
_The Earwig._
This insect is supposed to have a "fondness" for getting into the human
ear, the effect of which, it has been believed, is to penetrate the
brain and cause madness. The earwig is not more likely than any other
insect to enter the ear. The wings of the earwig, when fully expanded,
are in shape precisely like the human ear, from which fact it is highly
probable that the original name of the insect was ear-_wing_ and not
ear-_wig_, which appears to be entirely without meaning. The name is
also traced to the Saxon _ear-wigca_, from its destroying ears of grain
and fruit.
_Eyes of the Cuttle-Fish._
The eyes of the cuttle-fish are so solid as to be almost calcareous.
They are exceedingly beautiful, and reflect light with a splendid play
of color, like an opal. They are used for necklace beads in Italy, and
are highly valued objects for the jeweler's art.
_Innate Appetite._
McKenzie mentions the following fact as having been witnessed by Sir
James Hall: He had been engaged in making experiments in hatching eggs
by artificial heat, and on one occasion observed in one of his boxes a
chicken in the act of breaking from its confinement. It happened that
just as the creature was getting out of the shell a spider ran along the
box, when the chicken darted forward, seized and swallowed it.
_Leaf-Butterfly of Java._
This butterfly, as a defense against the birds of the tropics, almost
exactly imitates, in its color and appearance, the leaves of the trees
among which it lives. The upper surface of the wings, when outspread, of
a rich orange blue, is very marked, but the lower side consists of some
shade of ash or brown or ochre, such as are found among dead and
decaying leaves. When the insect is at rest on a tree, it resembles so
closely a leaf that the most acute observation fails to note the
difference. It sits on a twig, the wings closely fitted back to back,
concealing the antennæ and head, which are drawn up beneath their
basis. The little tails of the hind wing touch the branch and form a
perfect stalk to the seeming leaf. The irregular outline of the wings
gives exactly the perspective effect of the outline of a shriveled leaf.
_The Jump of a Flea._
M. de Fonvielle, in his interesting work on the "Invisible World,"
maintains that a flea can raise itself from the ground to a height equal
to two hundred times its stature. At this rate, he says, a man would
only make a joke of jumping over the towers of Notre-Dame or the heights
of Montmartre. A prison yard would be useless unless the walls were more
than a quarter of a mile in height.
_Book-Worms._
An instance is recorded of twenty-seven folio volumes being perforated,
in a straight line, by the same worm, in such a manner that, by passing
a cord through the round hole made by it, the twenty-seven volumes could
be raised at once.
_Spider Barometers._