The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1872-07-12

an ancient OAK III SelOOfne, still knoWu
as the "raven tree the same pair of
ravens are believed to have fixed their
residence for aseries OF more than ninety
years. Swans upon the River Thames,
about whose age there can be no mis-
take, since they are ann ually nicked by
the Winters Company, under whose
keeping they have been for five CEN
turtles, have been known TO survive $50
years and more. The melody of the
dying swan is entirely mythical.
Upon approach of death the bird quits
the water, sits down upon the banks,
lays its head upon the ground, expands
its wings a triae, and expires, utlering
no sound.
The extreme longevity of the parrot
is equally authentic. In the Geological
Gardens of London, there is a macaw
that was admitted to the Toweri in the year
1854. At Versailles, during the reign
OF Charles X, there was always hanging
cage in the Etldebe.f, which con.
tanned parrot purchased by the Regent
Orleans for the Duchess de Berri. There
is not collection in the royal avialies
of Europe thathas motifs ancient parrot.
The writer purcha ea a gray African
parrot in 1886, whose res i,ience in Wales
was authenticated for seventy.seven
years. The bird, more wonderful for
variety of speech than for her a &c, learn
ing everything and forG citing nothing,
accomplished alike in the Welsh tongue
and the English, born in Africa, living
more than thyee-quarters Of a century
in Europe, anddying in America, might
have been alive now but for needless.
ness. In 1867, she had certainly APP
preached, if she had not reached and
passed, her one hundredth ye r. Upon
a severely cold night in De. ember of
that year, she was sent from New York
to Washington, and persisted by the
way. She was in perfect health, had
never known day Of sickness, showed
no decrepitude, enjoyed life to the ut.
termost, demanded no allowances or
concessions on the score of advanced
years, and might, but for an exposure
to the rigor to an unaccus stoned climate,
have been alive to-day.
Among fishes, the carp is notorious
for the remarkable tena city with which
1t clings to life. In the canals of Chan
tilly carps have been kept formore than
hundred years. They become hoary
through old age, and so tame that they
como at the call of the k eeper to be fed.
From remote antiquity the pike has
been considered a long liver. Pliny in
ancient times, Pennant and Gesner in
modern, dwell emphatically upon the
longevity of this fish. In 1897 pike
was taken from the waters of Thail-
burn, in Swaba, with a golden ring at
tached to it, on which was engraved in
Greek characters III am the fish that
was put into this lake by Frederick H.,
Oct. 5, 1850" The fish was, therefore,
247 years old.
The great longevity of the tortoise is,
perhaps, best established of all. One in
the gardens Of lambeth Palace lived
120 years. Another at Peters borough
attained the age of 223 years. Bishop
Marsh's predecessor in the See had re-
membered it above sixty years, and he
was the seventh prelate who had worn
the inter during its soourn il the close.
When this tortoise died, its body weigh
ed fourteen pounds, and it's shell two
hundred and fifty.two pounds.-N. s.
Dodge, in Appleton's Journal.