Man has been instructed in many things by lower animals, but there is
yet much to be learned. It is said that the first suspension bridge
across the Niagara was constructed after the plainest sort of hint from
a spider. Yet we have never found the name of Mr. Spider cut upon the
buttresses of a bridge. Who knows but that the builders of the pyramids
of ancient Egypt copied their engineering plans from the ants who for
generations had pursued similar methods in the architecture of their
cities? Spiders had been ballooning for many centuries before man swung
his first parachute to the breeze. In fact, there is a species of
spider, which, although they have no wings, are able to spin for
themselves a sort of apparatus by means of which they navigate the air;
yet man, with all his boasted intelligence, has not accomplished this,
even with the most complicated machinery. So I might go on to suggest
many mechanical and economic contrivances used by lower animals, some of
which man has copied but many of which he has as yet been unable to
equal.
Before the first potter of old had fashioned a vase or a jug the Eumenes
fraterna had constructed his dainty little jugs of mud. But the making
of jugs is not the only art man might learn from this little wasp. Upon
examination we find the jug filled with small green caterpillars. After
depositing her egg Mrs. Wasp thus provides for her baby when it shall
appear upon the field of action. Now the peculiar part of this
proceeding to which I wish to call attention is that the worm is not
dead, but is merely in a comatose state. If it had been killed it would
have putrified and entirely disappeared before the young wasp was
hatched. Furthermore, the young wasp is fond of fresh caterpillar steak,
preferably from the living animal. So Mrs. Wasp must have a method of
preserving the fresh living victim for her rapacious progeny next
spring, while he is too young to hunt for himself, and while the
caterpillars are still securely hiding in their mummy cases, Mrs. Wasp
finds the venturesome young caterpillar crawling somewhere, and pouncing
upon him, carefully inserts her sting into the nerve ganglia that are
located in a line along his dorsal surface. We don’t know how she
learned the exact location of the ganglia and that a few well-directed
stabs will produce more effect than hundreds of misdirected thrusts in
other parts of the body, but it is certainly true that she selects the
very segments in which the ganglia are located to inflict the wound. And
she had the location of these nerve centers for a long time before
biologists made the discovery. What a fine thing it would be for the
biologist if he could learn the secret of thus preserving living animals
instead of the stiff, discolored and uninteresting alcoholic specimens.
Then think of the economic value of such a discovery. Animals could be
fattened in summer at much smaller expense and then injected and set
away until needed. We would have no more difficulty in providing our
armies with beef on the hoof, and fresh meat could be shipped at much
less expense over long distances, as no ice would be necessary. We would
have no more complaint of embalmed beef and putrid canned goods.
The common mud wasp that builds in old garrets fills his nest with a
species of spider much relished by the young wasp and exhibits much
judgment in supplying exactly the right number to provide for the
growing wasp until he is able to sally forth and seize prey for himself.
These spiders—often seventeen or eighteen of them—are stupefied in the
same manner as in the case of the potter wasp, and are living when the
young wasp begins his repast. This habit is peculiar to many species of
wasp and is, I think, worthy of careful study. I wish I had space to
tell of the almost fiendish ingenuity that certain parasites show in
maintaining themselves at the expense of their hosts.
The ground hog has a knack of spending his winter in a way that is at
once economical and pleasant. They generally hibernate in pairs, rolling
themselves up into balls. They do not seem to breathe or to perform any
of the life functions during their long six months’ sleep. There is, I
fear, no foundation of fact for the ancient fiction of the ground hog
appearing and making weather prognostications on the second of February.
A gentleman writing in the New York Sun of some years since says: “I
took the trouble once to dig into a woodchuck’s burrow on Candlemas day,
and a warm, cloudy day it was; just such a day when the ground hog is
said to come out of his hole and stay out. I found two woodchucks in the
burrow, with no more signs of life about them than if they had been shot
and killed. From all outward appearances I could have taken them out and
had a game of football with them without their knowing it.”
Nor is it true that hibernating animals live upon their accumulated fat,
for digestion, as well as other active life processes, ceases.
Hibernating animals always begin their long sleep upon an empty stomach,
and food injected into their stomach is not digested. The fat
disappears, it is true, but it is not in any strict sense digested. Any
experienced hunter is aware that unless the entrails are removed from
the shot rabbit the fat will disappear from about the kidneys. The fat
may, and no doubt does, assist in some way in the long sleep. It may act
as fuel to keep up the right living temperature. At any rate, it is true
that hibernating animals eat voraciously and grow very fat just before
they go to sleep. It is a peculiar fact that many hibernating animals
bring forth their young during this period. This is especially true of
woodchucks and bears. It is a common experience with hunters that only
male bears are killed during the winter season.
Mr. Andrew Fuller of Ridgewood, New Jersey, according to the article
above quoted, had an interesting experience with a pair of Rocky
Mountain ground squirrels. After missing them for a month he
accidentally found them curled up under some straw, apparently frozen
stiff. He brought them to the house to show his wife the misfortune that
had befallen his pets. Soon they seemed to thaw out and scampered about
as lively as ever. No sooner were they put out in the cold than they
resumed their sleep, which continued all winter, their bodies
maintaining a fairly constant temperature, seldom falling below three
degrees above the freezing point of water. They came out in the spring
as chipper as if they had been asleep but one night. Many hibernating
animals will if wakened by being placed in a warm room, eat eagerly, but
they soon show a desire to resume their nap.
The Loir, a peculiar little native of Senegal, never hibernates in its
native clime, but every specimen brought to Europe becomes torpid when
exposed to cold. The common land tortoise—wherever he may be and he is a
voracious eater of almost anything—always goes to sleep in November, and
wakes some time in May.
Just as in the north numerous animals hibernate upon approach of cold,
so in the south there are species that may be said to estivate during
the hottest weather. While the northern animals curl up so as to retain
heat, his southern cousin straightens out as much as possible to allow
the heat to escape from all parts of the body.
But it was not my intention to write an essay upon hibernation and
allied phenomena, but merely to speak of it as a subject that should be
investigated. What a splendid arrangement it would be for the poor, the
sick, and the melancholy folk if they could just hibernate for six
months occasionally.
I will merely speak of the light of the so called lightning bug, with
its over ninety per centum efficiency and no heat and no consumption of
fuel to speak of. Why doesn’t some genius learn her language and find
out how she does it? She has been trying for centuries to demonstrate it
but we are too stupid to learn her secret.
Rowland Watts.
THE GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE.
(_Quiscalus macrourus._)
The Great-tailed Grackle belongs to a family of birds that is “eminently
characteristic of the New World, all the species being peculiar to
America.” It is the family of the blackbird and oriole, of the bobolink
and the meadowlark. It is called the Icteridae, from a Greek word
ikteros, meaning a yellow bird. The majority of the one hundred and
fifty or more species that are grouped in this family make their home in
the tropics where their brilliant colors are emphasized by the ever
green foliage and the bright sunshine.
The family is interesting because the species, though closely related,
vary so widely in their habits. They “are found living in ground of
every nature, from dry plains and wet marshes to the densest forest
growth.” Here are classed some of the birds which are among the most
beautiful of our songsters. Here, too, are classed some species that
never utter a musical sound, and whose voices are harsh and rough. The
sexes are usually dissimilar, the female being the smaller and generally
much duller in color.
The Great-tailed Grackle is a native of Eastern Texas, and the country
southward into Central America. The Grackles are sometimes called Crow
Blackbirds. There are five species, all found in the United States, The
Bronzed and the Purple Grackles are the most generally distributed and
best known.
The Great-tailed Grackle, as well as the other species, usually builds
rude and bulky nests in trees, sometimes at quite a height from the
ground. It will also nest in shrubs and it is said that it will
occasionally select holes in large trees. The males are an iridescent
black in color and the females are brown and much smaller. Both sexes
spend most of their time on the ground. Their feet are strong and large,
and, when upon the ground, they walk or run and never hop.