The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1873-07-16
ANIMAL rNTELLIGENoE.

~ EkhhANlitNi WIN lCoidto III tAiC
suburbs of this city has neghbor who
maintains, to the annoyance of his
friends, an irrepressible whi1et dog.
This dog not only receives daily the
verbal execraton Of the vicinity, but
is made the target of sundry more tan.
gible missiles. AS the dog objects to
any person entering any house within
sight, and takes the range Of all the
lawns, it is not to be wondered at that
people hurl at him whatever missile
may first come To hand. 1t is remark
able, however that none of these hand.
grenades ever happen to hit their OBJ
ject and it is not surprising, under
the circumstances, that the dog recog-
uizes nobody as 'Sir Oracle" " but barks
on in perfect impunity.
1t so happened, few days since,
that strange dog, on a reconnoiter-
ing tour, appeared upon the scene.
The genteman's family, conceiving
that any more dogs, under the circum-
stances, were superhuous, drove out the
new intruder. He escaped to the
street with tail depressed and head
down. evidently demorallzed. The
rst.mentioned dog nuisance saw the
situation at once, Immediately repaired
to the street, and commenced a confer
ennce with the faint-hearted stranger.
Soon the tail was lifted and the head
was erect The two dogs rallied, form.
ed in line, and, trottiDg defantly back
to the place whence the strange dog
had been elected, charged boldly and
vociferously at the porch where men,
ber of the family was still standing.
1t was too much. The assailants were
welcomed with screams Of laughter
which the family could not repress,
and the dogs, feeling that they had on
ly made themselves ridiculous, sneak
ed off, evidently ashamed Of them
selves.
This little incident may be classed
among triaes. But such trifes are of
the class of things which, as the man
in the comedy says, "no fellow can
find ont" Men can decipher and in
terpret the Inscriptions on the remains
Of Nineveh, and reconstruct language
from them, but nobody can explain
how animals communicate their ideas
to each other. And yet they obvious
ly do, for they act in concert, after re-
ceiving information from each other
And it is not only the larger animals
who do this, but insects. The beetle,
dignifed with the name Of Sacred" :"
from its appearance in Egyptian HE
roglyphic symbols, shows the same
wonderful sagacity to-day that it did
when Moses tloated in the Nile, though
its modern name is less stately. The
creature euvelops its egg in a ball
about the size of a walnut, and rolls
the ball to ~ place Of securi-
ty. This is arduous work and is
equal to many a human piece Of en-.
gineering. A recent writer on natu-
raj history gives his observations upon
a feat performed by these insects,
which we can readily believe, having
observed the like. A ball in the pro-
gress of removal fell into a hole, from
which the beetle in charge of trans
portation could not raise it. The in
sect disappeared and in a few moments
returned with working party Of three
or four, who soon relieved the master
of transportation" of his dilemma The
ball was lifted out, the laboring beetle
went on her way, keeping it rolling,
and the others separated to return to
their occupations, whatever they were.
The writer of this article once watch.
ed party of wasps, who, in dragging
the carcass of large insect, had to
cross railroad. They got over one
rail easy enough, from the outside but
to get over the next puzzled them.
The perpendicular iron was a serious
difficulty, but the smooth corner of the
face of the rail was worse. After many
Intellectual attempts, scouting parties
were sent out, and in few moments
the "base was changed" the carcass
was dragged along to a practicable
crossing" and the party, plunder and
all, got safely over, just before a train
came laundering along.
A good lady, who cared nothing
about the insect world, except as to the
means of exterminating the trouble
seme little enemies who devastated her
store-room, pronounced the conversa-
tion of two naturalists as "disgusting."
She said they did nothing at all the
"whole livelong evening but talk about
beetles and bugs and such nasty
things" Perhaps the general popular
feeling is not essentially different from
that of the pattern housekeeper, though
not so bluntly expressed. Yet the
study of the wonderful works of these
despised creatures, and the results OF
the nerfnrmanca eff their functions In