American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-03-23
Age of Animals.
BY \. s. DODGE.


was nearly an octogenarian. He was for
born. But of the three hundred and
nineteen whelps that have been born
during the last thirty years in Regent
| Park, full one half have come into the
world with cleft palates, and have died in
infancy, because they conld not suck.
The keepers filled their nostrils with tow,
and tried various other devices, but it did
no good. They could get no sustenance,
and persisted in consequence, The aver
age age of the lion is probably about
thirty years. There is this, however, to
be said about him: In the domestIcated
| state he never has a chance. He PAGES
| backward and forward in the nutshell of Il
cage. In Paris and London the bear has
his pole, the deer his paddock, and the
otter his pool, where each has liberty
enough to preserve his health, but the lion
is stalled like an OK, till he grows puffy
and lethargic.
OF all the terrestrial mammalia, the ele-
plant seems to be the longest liver, some
| times exceedinga century. One historical
individual is reported to have attained a
much greater age. When Alexander the
Great invaded the dominions of Porus,
one of the raiahs of Upper India, he took
a great elephant from the conquered
prince, named him Ajax, dedicated him
to the sun. and let him go with this in
scription, alexander, the son of Jupiter,
hath dedicated Ajax to the sum-" The
animal is said to have been found with
the inscription three hundred and fifty
years afterward. 1t need hardly be re-
marked, to prevent full credence being
given to this relation, that it rests upon
the very dubious authority of ancient
times. However, the elephant, beyond
doubt, often rounds the century; and, if
not the king, is entitled to be considered
the patriarch of beasts.
The hare, rabbit, and squirrel, if they
escape the gun of the sportsman, seldom
outlive the seventh year. The average
age of the fox is from twelve to fifteen
years of the cat about fifteen, and of
the wolf from eighteen to twenty years.
The horse, in a domestic state, does not
often live longer than twenty five years, and
the ass ranges to about the same period.
Old age Frustrated Copenhagen" the
famous steed of the Duke Wellington, at
the age of twentyseven. But the Wild
horse is supposed to attain a much greater
age; and there is case on record, well
authenticated, of pony, imported into
Berkshire, England, from Shetland, in
1856, living till 1913. Swine have been
known to live through thirty years, deer
eighteen, and camels fifty, though the
average ages of all these are much less.
The dog loses his sprightliness in his
sixth or seventh year, and has evidently
passed the bounds of youth. Gray hairs
are here and there upon him at the close
of his eight year, chiefly around his eyes,
and at the corners of his mouth. Such
| appearances become more conspicuous to
the eleventh or twelfth year, when actual
decrepitude usually commences, and in
| creascs so rapidly that by the fourteenth
year the animal is a burden to himself,
and a nuisance to others. The dogs have
| fingered to twenty years. Hexior, shaggy
spaniel of German breed, of unusual life
and intelligence, WAS received at four
years old by lady in London, in 1854,
and did not die till Christmas-Day of
| 1870. 1t was Hexior's good fortune to
| live in a mansion full of dogs and empty
of children. Her history could be woven
into story. From being the equal of
her canine associates, she became the pre-
ferred, and from that the associate Of her
mistress. As her years increased, she
grew to be queen of the household. She
| had a language for every need of her life,
and it was heard, understood, and obeyed.
No one of her associates-they were seven
in number-even entered her luxurious
kennel, or touched her dainty repast, or
followed her to her intimacies with her
mistress, or We'd with her in the caresses
of strangers, or passed the threshold in
her company when she went to take her
daily airing BY force of character she
held her own to the last, and in her dying
hour, on pillow in the boudoir, her eyes
followed her mistress while life was pant
ing towards its goal, subdLed in frolic
among the usually noisy tribe, every
MEMBER of which was present and pass
ed away with the dignity of the patriarch
Jacob, when che gathered up his feet in
his bed and yielded up the ghost"
The average age of sheep does not
much exceed ten years. To that period
they live, breed, and thrive well. There
are instances, however, of a much more
protracted age.
Cows and oxen generally reach the age
of seventeen without diminution of their
powers. Rings round their horns tell the
number of their days. AT four years old
a ring is formed at the roots of the horns
added. Thus, by adding three to the
number of rings upon the horns, the age
of the animal is arrived at.
Among the feathered creation the eagle
and raven, the swan and parrot, are each
centenarians. An eagle kept in Vienna
died after confinement of one hundred
and fourteen years, and ON an ancient oak
in Selborne, still known as the craven
tree" the same pair of ravens are believed
to have fixed their residence for II series
of more than ninety years. Swans upon
the river Thames, about whose age there
can be no mistake, since they are annu-
ally nicked by the WINNERS Company,
under whose keeping they have been for
five centuries, have been known to sur
vive one hundred and fifty years and
more. The melody of the dying swan is
entirely NEUROLOGICAL. Upon approach
of death the bird quits the water, sits
down upon the banks, lays its head upon
the ground, expands it's wings trifie,
nd