consists of a large rounded chamber which is reached by a long burrow
from the side of a stream. From his main living-room are oftentimes
found a number of smaller chambers or galleries, and these are used to
store food in the form of delicate roots and bits of bark. Some of the
more ambitious muskrats build large houses on piles of mud which rise
out of the water. These houses are usually made of heaps of dead grass
and weeds which are cemented together with mud and clay; at other times
they contain no mud or clay, and seem to be only piles of tender roots
and swamp grasses to be used for food during the long, cold winters.
From his physical appearance, the muskrat is well prepared to do his
work: he is stoutly built, with a body about a foot in length, not
including the tail; has small eyes, and tiny ears, partly covered with
fur. In the winter, as food gets scarce, he begins to eat even the
walls of his house, and by the time his home is gone--spring has
arrived!
A most unusual family of skilled house-builders are the brush-tailed
rat-kangaroos, or Jerboa kangaroos of Australia and Tasmania. They are
no larger than an ordinary rabbit, but they have cousins who are as
large as a man. These rat-kangaroos have most interesting tails, covered
with long hair which forms itself into a crest near the tip. Their homes
are found among small grassy hills, where there are a few trees and
bushes. They scratch out a small hole in the ground, near a tuft of tall
grass, and so bend the grass as to form a complete roof to the house,
which is rather poorly constructed, and whose chief interest lies in the
unusual way the kangaroos have of carrying all the building materials,
like tiny bundles of hay, held compactly in their tails. There is no
other workman among the animals that employs quite this method of
transporting materials.
The rat-kangaroos have a dainty little brown cousin that lives in
Africa, and who is occasionally seen jumping around on the ground,
underneath bushes, and near damp springs. He is very small, not over
three inches in length, and is like a miniature kangaroo, except for his
long tail. Like their great cousins--the kangaroos--Mrs. Jerboa often
carries her babies on her back when she goes out to seek food.
In the Great Sahara Desert, parched and dry, are found numerous cities
of these little animals. With the exception of a few birds, reptiles,
jackals and hyenas, they are the only inhabitants of this barren and
desolate land. From the Arabs we learn that these little animals have
extensive and intricate burrows, consisting of innumerable passages
tunnelled out in the hard, dry soil. And these tunnels are the result of
combined labour on the part of the entire community. The least alarm
causes them to scuffle away into their underground homes.
One of the larger species of Central Asia employs a stratagem that is
remarkable. Like their cousins of Africa, they live in a great
underground city which is a perfect network of burrows which end in a
large central chamber. From this chamber a long winding tunnel
terminates very near the surface of the ground, and it is a long
distance from the other burrows. No sign of its existence appears from
above the surface of the earth, but if an enemy invades the burrow, away
the jerboas rush for this secret exit and break through to the surface
out of reach of the trouble, and escape.
These African jerboas are exceedingly odd in appearance, and they are
two-legged in their habits of walk, and never go on all-fours. They walk
by placing one hind foot alternately before the other; and they run in
the same way. They can leap an extraordinary distance.
Frogs and toads, as a class, are not so skilled in house-building as
some of their higher relations, but there is one of their number--the
_Hyla faber_--that is remarkably gifted in building mud houses. He lives
in Brazil, and the natives call him the _ferreiro_, or smith, and he is
indeed the master-builder of his family. Mrs. Hyla is really the gifted
member of the tribe, and it is during the breeding season that she
diligently dives underneath the water, digs up handfuls of mud, and
builds on the bottom a small circular wall, which encloses a space about
ten to fourteen inches in diameter. This wall is continued until it
reaches about four inches above the surface of the water. It looks not
unlike a small volcano, and the inside is skilfully smoothed. This has
been done by Mrs. Frog's artistic hands. When the house is entirely
completed, Mrs. Frog lays a great number of eggs, and here they are
quite safe from enemies both as eggs and baby tadpoles.
Mr. Frog seems little concerned in the building of the home, but he does
take pleasure in croaking for Mrs. Frog while she works. Perhaps this
is to her heart genuine music, and his faithful attention to their
children makes up for his love of idleness!
Perhaps the strangest animal engineer in the world is found in
Madagascar and Australia. It is the duckbill or duckmole, and is
scientifically known as the _Ornithorhynchus paradoxus_. The natives of
Australia call it by several names: _Mallangong_, _Tambreet_, and not a
few call it, _Tohunbuck_.
This odd little aquatic engineer digs long tunnels of great intricacy in
the bands of lazy rivers, and because of its paradoxical nature and
appearance has caused many strange stories to originate about its habits
and methods of propagation. It has the beak of a duck and waddles not
unlike this bird, but, like other mammals, it gives birth to its young,
and does not lay eggs, as is so often claimed for it. When swimming it
looks like a bunch of floating weeds or grass.
Its home is always on the banks of a stream, and is always provided with
two entrances: one below the surface of the water, and the other above.
This insures escape in case of enemies. The main tunnel or road to the
home is sometimes fifty feet in length, and no engineer could devise a
more deceptive approach; it winds up and down like a huge serpent, to
the right, and to the left, and is so annoyingly variable in its sinuous
course that even the natives have great trouble in digging the duckbill
out of its nest.
The nest is oval in form, and is well-carpeted with dry weeds and grass.
Here the young reside on soft beds until they are large enough to care
for themselves. There are from one to four in each nest.
There are no greater architects in the universe than may be found among
the coral-polypes. These interesting little animals of the deep have
been much misunderstood, and have sometimes had the erroneous
designation of "insect" bestowed upon them. The word "insect" has been
applied in a very loose and general sense in other days; but naturalists
and scientists should see to it that the use of this term be corrected
in reference to these wonderful coral-architects, and that no informed
person refer to them except as animals. Even poets have been guilty of
propagating the most erroneous ideas about the nature and works of these
sea-builders. Montgomery, in his _Pelican Island_, makes statements that
are shocking to an intelligent thinker, and which no scientist can
excuse on the ground of poetical license. "The poetry of this excellent
author," says Dana, "is good, but the facts nearly all errors--if
literature allows of such an incongruity." Think of coral-animals as
being referred to as shapeless worms that "writhe and shrink their
tortuous bodies to grotesque dimensions"! These deep-sea builders
manufacture or secrete from their own bodies the coral substance out of
which the great reefs are built. It is a part of their life work and
nature, as a flower produces its own colours and shapes; it is amusing
to know that it has only been about one hundred and fifty years since it
was discovered not to be a plant but an animal! Even Ovid states the
popular belief of the classic period when he speaks of the coral as a
seaweed "which existed in a soft state as long as it remained in the
sea, but had the curious property of becoming hard on exposure to the
air."
These strange coral-producing animals of the deep demand two especially
important conditions only under which they will thrive: namely, a
certain depth of water and a certain temperature. Thus it is seen that
the warmth of the sea determines the distribution of the corals; the
geography of these animals is defined by degrees of temperature. Only in
equatorial seas may reef-building corals be found; and if we select the
"Equator as a natural centre of the globe, and measure off a band of
1800 miles in breadth on each side of that line," we will find that it
will include the chief coral regions of the earth.
The work of the corals is most interesting. Small as are these tiny
workmen, each and every one does his bit and, speck by speck, adds his
minute contribution to the growing mass of coral until entire islands
are surrounded by extensive reefs. Tahiti, for example, is surrounded by
a barrier reef which is really an immense wall. The large barrier reef
on the northeast coast of Australia extends in a continuous line for
1,000 miles, and varies from 10 to 90 miles in breadth. Some reefs are
mere fringes which simply skirt the coast lands, and seem to be mere
extensions of the beach. Still another variety of reef is known as the
"atoll" or "lagoon" reef. This latter form is seen in circular rings of
coral of various breadths which enclose a body of still water--the
lagoon. There are many of these coral islands in the Indian and Pacific
Oceans. Keeling or Cocos Atoll, of the Indian Ocean, is 9-1/2 miles in
its greatest width; Bow Island is 30 miles in length, and 6 miles wide;
while in the Maldive Archipelago one island measures 88 geographical
miles in length, and in some places is 20 miles wide. When one beholds a
large coral ring, covered with rich soil and tropical vegetation, and
"protecting a quiet lake-haven from the restless ocean without, it is
little to be wondered at that the earlier voyagers recorded their
surprise that the apparently insignificant architects of such an
erection are able to withstand the force of the waves and to preserve
their works among the continual attacks of the sea." As Pyrard de Laval
truly said, "It is a marvel to see each of these atollons surrounded on
all sides by a great bank of stone--walls such as no human hands could
build on the space of earth allotted to them.... Being in the middle of
an atollon, you see all around you this great stone bank, which
surrounds and protects the island from the waves; but it is a formidable
attempt, even for the boldest, to approach the bank and watch the waves
roll in, and break with fury upon the shore."
As to the explanation of the modes of formation of these coral-reefs,
the scientists have long been propounding theories which are sometimes
amusing. Strangely enough they have nearly all explained that
coral-polypes aggregate themselves in the forms of atolls and
barrier-reefs by a mysterious "instinct," mediocrity's only term for
screening its ignorance, and which is also given as the cause for their
secreting lime. Flinders says that they form a great protecting reef in
order that they may be protected by its shelter, and that the leeward
aspect of the reef forms a nursery for their infant colonies.
Thus we see that these same scientists are accrediting these little
architects with the possession of a great intelligence, and they are
thought to co-operate together in a manner expressive of the greatest
degree of efficiency and brotherly feeling. Each of these scientists
gives a theory that leaves untouched the essential question of the
causes for coral-reefs assuming their various shapes; and it is
reasonable to believe that they work according to a divine wisdom and
plan, and that mankind does not yet understand their strange ways, which
give us a higher conception of the universe than that held by the
ancients. Science has come to the point where it must recognise the
perfect unity of all life, and that our fellow-architects, engineers,
and house-builders in the animal world also fill an important place in
Nature's great scheme.
XI
FOOD CONSERVERS
_"He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."_
--COLERIDGE.
It can almost be said that there is no industry or profession of the
human world that is not carried on with equal skill in the animal world.
This is especially true of merchandising and store-keeping; animals,
however, have different methods of merchandising than men, although
these methods are none the less real. They give and take instead of buy
and sell and have co-operative shops which they operate with great
success. They unite for a desired end, and demonstrate their ability to
work together in a common enterprise in a way that might teach man a
good lesson.
Food and shelter are the first needs of animals. In order to obtain
these, they group themselves into foraging parties in the most ingenious
manner. Like mankind, they sometimes co-operate for dishonest ends; they
form "trusts" and organise into gangs for purposes of mutual aid.
Deer, monkeys, rabbits, foxes, and numerous others conduct their
dining-rooms on a co-operative principle. Some watch and wait while
others dine. The same is true where they go to watering places to drink
and bathe.
Perhaps the most unique and clever food conserver is the American
polecat. He not only provides for himself, but prepares a larder for his
young, so that they will have plenty of food. The nursery is usually
comfortably embedded in a cave, and is lined with soft, dry grass.
Adjoining this nursery is a larder, which often contains from ten to
fifty large frogs and toads, all alive, but so dexterously bitten
through the brain as to make them incapable of escaping. Mr. and Mrs.
Pole-cat can then visit or hunt as they please, so long as their
children have plenty of fresh meat at home!
Another interesting food conserver is the chipping squirrel, or
chipmunk, so named because his cry sounds like the chirp of little
chickens. His method of dress is most unusual; he is brownish grey in
colour, with five stripes of black and two of pale yellow running along
the back of his coat; the throat and lower part of his body is snowy
white. These colours occasionally vary, when the grey and yellow are
superseded by black.
His home is underground, usually under an old wall, near a rock fence,
or under a tree; his burrow is so long and winding that he can easily
escape almost any enemy, except the weasel, which is not easily
outwitted. His nursery and living-room is quite pretentious, but his
lateral storeroom is a marvel! He is a miser indeed, and stores up every
acorn and nut he can find, even many times more than he can ever eat.
His variety of food is almost unending--he loves buckwheat, beaked nuts,
pecans, various kinds of grass seeds, and Indian corn. In carrying food
to his home he first fills his pouches to overflowing and then takes
another nut in his mouth; he thus reminds the classical reader of
Alemaeon in the treasury of Croesus.
The hedgehog is a regular Solomon in her methods of collecting fruit.
Plutarch had a very high opinion of her. He says that when grapes are
ripe, the mother hedgehog goes under the vines and shakes them until
some of the grapes fall; she then literally rolls over them until many
are attached to her spines, and marches back to her babies in the
cave. "One day," says Plutarch, "when we were all together, we had the
chance of seeing this with our own eyes--it looked as if a bunch of
grapes was shuffling along the ground, so thickly covered was the animal
with its booty."
[Illustration: _American Museum of Natural History, New York_
THE SKUNK MOTHER TRIES TO KEEP ON HAND A GOOD SUPPLY OF SUCH DELICACIES
AS FROGS AND TOADS, SO THAT HER YOUNG MAY NEVER GO HUNGRY.]
[Illustration: _American Museum of Natural History, New York_
THE PORCUPINE AND THE HEDGEHOG HAVE A UNIQUE METHOD OF COLLECTING FOOD
FOR THEIR YOUNG. AFTER SHAKING DOWN BERRIES OR GRAPES, THEY ROLL IN
THEM, THEN HURRY HOME WITH THE FOOD ATTACHED TO THEIR QUILLS.]
Alpine mice not only form comfortable winter homes in the earth, but
combine into small winter colonies, each colony numbering about ten to
twelve inhabitants, all of whom are under the direction of a leader.
Thus organised, they proceed to lay up provisions for the winter. They
use their mouths as scythes and their paws as rotary machines. Surely
their wisdom and foresight call forth our greatest admiration. The
jerboas or jumping mice are not only skilled athletes in the art of
jumping, but they are gifted food conservers and producers as well. They
lay up complete storehouses of food, which they do not consume
altogether as their appetite may direct; but conserve it carefully for
the times when nothing can be obtained from the fields. Then, and then
only, do they open the closed magazines. Such acts of intelligence
cannot be recorded under the head of "instinct"! They demonstrate the
ability to plan for the future, and meet all emergencies.
Certain food hoarders and robbers, like the vole, are so very greedy and
become such misers that they often threaten total destruction to large
areas of grain. They were so plentiful in the classic land of Thessaly,
the vale of Tempe, and the Land of Olympus that the old Greeks
established what they called an Apollo Smintheus, the Mouse-destroying
God. In the early spring, according to Professor Loeffler, who has made
a special study of their invasions, they begin to come down from their
homes in the hills to the cultivated fields. They seem to follow regular
roads, and often travel along the railroad embankment. They travel very
slowly, and when at home live somewhat on the order of prairie dogs,
that is, in underground dwellings with numerous winding passages and
tunnels.
These wise little food conservers are nocturnal in habit, and are rarely
seen except by careful observers. When they once determine to rob a
field, they do it with amazing rapidity and completeness. In a single
night hordes of these workers go into a cornfield and by daylight not a
stalk of corn remains. The field is as empty as if a cyclone had struck
it. They work with great system, and while a part of their number cut
the stalks down, others cut it up into movable sizes, while still others
superintend its systematic removal. Storehouses are usually provided
before the grain is even cut. They make long voyages throughout a
country, storing away tons of grain and food in these various
granaries. To these they come for supplies whenever necessary. All
poverty-stricken voles are also fed from these storehouses, since it is
the product of the community as a whole. Aristotle wrote at length about
their wise and destructive ways.
Not the least ingenious of food conservers are the hamsters, members of
the great rodent family. They have made their dwellings most comfortable
and even luxurious in arrangement and furnishings. Like wealthy farmers,
they are not satisfied with comfortable dwellings only, but they too
must have spacious barns adjoining their homes. Their home, or burrow
proper, consists of two openings: one, which is used as an entrance, and
which sinks vertically into the ground; the other, which is used as an
exit, with a winding slope. The central room is beautifully carpeted
with straw, moss, and dry leaves, which makes it a very pleasant
living-room and bedroom. A third small winding tunnel leads from this
room to the barns and storehouse. Thus, Mr. and Mrs. Hamster and the
children have no need to go forth in the cold and wet weather to seek
food--they can remain at home perfectly protected and well-fed. They are
very liberal, and in case of need or poverty, will always share their
food with their neighbours.
I once found the nest of a harvest mouse, which was woven of plaited
blades of straw of the oats and wheat. It was perfectly round, with the
aperture so ingeniously closed that I could scarcely tell to what part
of the nest it belonged. It was as round as a marble and would actually
roll when placed on a table, although within its walls were six tiny
mice, naked and blind. As they increased in size day by day, the elastic
wall of their small home expanded, and thus served their need until such
time as they were old enough to live independent of this specially
provided shelter.
There is a larger animal, known as a "rat-hare" or the harvest rat,
which gathers piles of hay for winter use, sometimes to the height of
six or eight feet in diameter. They begin harvesting in the early part
of August, and after having cut the grass, they carefully spread it out
to dry before placing it in their barns. These barns are usually located
in holes or crevices of mountains. They are found in immense numbers in
the Altai Mountains.
The California woodrat is not only a food hoarder but a notable thief
and robber. A nest was found that was a veritable tool chest and pawn
shop! It contained fourteen knives, three forks, six small spoons, one
large soup spoon, twenty-seven large nails, hundreds of small tacks, two
butcher knives, three pairs of eye-glasses, one purse, one string of
beads, one rubber ball, two small cakes of soap, one string of red
peppers, several boxes of matches, with numerous small buttons, needles,
and pins. Apparently these woodrats are as ambitious for unnecessary and
useless possessions as is man himself. Their big storeroom did, however,
contain a larder in which they had some of their favourite food, such as
seeds and nuts.
Some animals have learned not only to acquire, but also to defend and
protect, all their property. We see in the human world how strong is the
impulse to collect, and children will invariably collect anything from
pebbles to peach-pits, if they see other children doing the same thing.
Most animals that do not hoard are those that forage for food, or fish,
and rarely have permanent homes. The orang-outangs, for example, are
regular gipsies, and go from place to place wherever food is plentiful.
They take life easy, and sometimes during their journeys select a
suitable spot near the seashore and have a real picnic. A scout has
already discovered the right spot for getting big oysters, of which they
are exceedingly fond, and when they have assembled, certain ones proceed
to dig up the oysters, which they hand to others on the shore and they,
in turn, place them on big stones, and proceed to open them for the
feast. If one of the fishermen-monkeys discovers an oyster open, he will
not insert his hand to remove the meat until first placing a stone
between the valves. This assures him protection against the closing of
the oyster. In most cases, they open the oysters by first placing them
on stones and then using another stone as a hammer. These facts are
vouched for by no less authorities than Gamelli Carreri, Dampier, and
Wafer.
It is only a matter of time until many animals will understand the use
of man-made tools. Some have already learned to use such tools as they
make and shape for themselves. Monkeys and apes are already gifted in
this art. Of course, under domestication, they use knives, forks,
spoons, and dishes not so much from intelligence as from imitation.
This, however, might be said of many human beings. I have seen an
immense chimpanzee sit in a chair, set his own dinner table, use his
knife and fork correctly when eating, and take great delight in the use
of his napkin, which he always carefully refolded when his meal was
over.
The human-like qualities of apes and monkeys, however, need scarcely be
told. They are so very similar to man in most ways that there are few
things they cannot do. Aelian tells of an ape which learned to drive
horses skilfully. He knew just when and how to use the whip, how much
slack to allow in the reins, and when to tighten them! They greatly
resent any intrusion on their hunting-grounds, and make use of sticks
and clubs to protect them. The chief is always armed with a club, and is
thoroughly skilled in the use of it. It sometimes happens that an
elephant will come to the same tree to seek food that apes frequent, and
although they have no enmity towards each other, they like the same kind
of food. As soon as the ape sees the elephant reaching his trunk among
the branches, he immediately slips near the elephant, and when an
opportunity presents itself, he whacks him over the trunk with his club!
The infuriated elephant runs away in terror!