Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-09-09
ALEXA. GAZETTE & VIRGINIA ADVERTISER

bird who looked at the barometer every morning.
and would not 60 out if it pointed to wet. An
auecdote told by German naturalist OF a bea-
yer is no less wonderful than the above; he de-
clares that he saw beaver weeping over the
crown of an old hat. Soon another beaver ap-
preached it, and she cried more piteousy than
the first; then number Of young beavers, at
tracted by their sobs, came running up, and
they all cried too He accounts for this by
saying that the hat being made of beaver, the
animals had evidently recognized in 1t the skin
of one of their own kindred. WHO can say"
he asks, whether this very hat was not to them
the sad remains of an affectiopate son-the only
remembrance of favorite brother
Captain Parry tells a story Of Polar bear,
which puts the instinct of the animal beyond
all doubt; he had given it to one of his sailors,
who with this small capital, started Snowman,
and having taught the bear to dance, used to
take it out upon the streets. The sailor after
ward assured Captain Parry that he could never
get the bear to pass barber s shop; he ac-
counts for this by saying that, as ''bear, 5
grease" was only sold to those places, the ami
NAL was 10 constant state OF fear lest 1t would
be his fate some day to be sold in sx-penny
pots.
The socable grosbeck, bird which is found
abut the Cape Of Good Hope, displays great
Ingenuity in building its nest, which is con-
structed as strongly as possible, so as to keep
out the March rains A Genevese traveller re-
cords the fact of finding a whole row ftheir
nest covered over at the roof with bits OF mack.
intosh which they had evidently picked up
from one of the frequent wrecks off the coast.
What but instinct could have taught these So
ciable grosbecks that mackintoshes were water
proof?'
Many singular anecdotes are told of the fox.
The most probable of those is the one of the
fox plundering hen every morning OF its eggs,
and leaving piece of chalk, Of the same size
of an egg for every one he stole.
POPULATION OF THE GLoBE-There are on
the globe l,llS,OO0 900, souls of which 36O,-
uO0,O 900 are Caucassians 522 900, 600 are Mon
golians: 100000 900 are Ethiopians 279, ,OO0.-
900 are Malaysians 100000 are ludo-Am-
orleans.
There are s642 languages spoken, and 900
religions. The yearly mortality OF the globe
ll5, 200 per day. 1900 per hour, so per minute.
So each pulsation Of the human heart marks
the decease of some human creature; the aver
age human life is 33 years !; one fourth OF the
population die at or before the age OF years;
one half at or before II years among 10000
persons one arrives at the age Of 100; one in
500 attains the age of 60 one in 100 to the
age of 70 married men live longer than single
ones; in 100, 95 marry and more marriages
occur in June and December than in any other
months in the year; there are 1856, 900, 900
Christians (only about one quarter of the hu-
man race); there are 100000 lsraelites
there are 600, 600 900 Asiatic religionsts, there
30O,OOOO0O Pagans; in the Christian churches,
l70,OO0O00 profess the Roman Catholic re:.
gion, rs 600. 600 profess the Greek faith, and
SO,OOO,0OO the Protestant.
The TAME WAsP.-At the recent meeting
of the British Association, in Brighten, in the
section Of zoology and botany, Sir John Lub-
book exhibited tame wasp which had been IN
his possession for about three months, which ne
brought with him from the Pyrenees. The wasp
was of social kind, and he took it in its nest
formed Of twenty-seven cells, in which there
were fifteen eggs, and had the wasp been al
lowed to remain, by this time there would have
been quite little colony Of wasps. None of
the eggs however, came to maturity, and the
wasp had laid no eggs since it has been IN his
possession. The wasp was now quite tame,
thought at first it Was rather too ready with its
sting. 1t now ate sugar from his hand and
allowed him to stroke it. The wasp had every
appearance of health and happiness, and al
though it enjoyed an ''outing" occasionally,
it readily returned to its bottle, which it SEEM
cd to regard as home This was the first
tame wasp kept by itself he had ever heard
Of
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