Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-05-21
Continued from first pages

- L
The victor who
: AT ONCE RELEASED THE PRISONER,
and both the combatants and the
spectators went quietly away.
This is another example of an an
imal assisting its fellow-ereature,
and doing so by means of its own
language, when force had proved
unavailing.
The following remarkable instance
of the communication of ideas among
the lower animals is narrated by the
Rev. c. Otway.
At the -four mill in Tubberakeena,
near Clonmel, while the possession
of the late Mr.. Newbold, there was
a goose which, by some accident,
was left solitary, without mate
or offspring, gander, or gOsling.-
Now it happened, as is common,
that the miller's wife had set num-
Der of duck-eggs under hen, which
| in due time were incubated; and of
course, the ducklings, as soon as
they came forth, ran with natural
instinct to the water, and the hen
was in a sad pucker-her maternity
urging her to follow the brood, and
her instinct disposing keep on dry
land.
In the meanwhile while up sailed
the GOOSE. and with a noisy gabble,
which certainly (being interpredl
meant, Leave them to my care, !"
she swan up and down with the
ducklings, and when they were tir-
ed with their aquatic excursion, she
consigned them to the care of the
hen.
The next morning, down came
again the ducklings to the pond, and
there was the goose waiting for
them, and there stood the hen in her
great illustration. On this occasion
we are not all sure that the goose
invited the hen, observing her ma
ternaI trouble; but it is a fact that
she beng near the shore,
THE HEN JUMPED ON HER BACK,
and there sat, the ducklings swim
ming, and the goose and hen after
them, up and down the pond.
This was not asolitary event; day
after day the hen was seen on board
the goose, attending the ducklings
up and down in perfect contented-
ness and good humor-numbers of
people coming to witness the Cir
cumstance, which continued until
the ducklings coming to days of
discretion, required no longer the
joint guardianship of the goose
and the hen.
Only yesterday evening Jan, Is,
1874 received a remarkable cor
robboration of the truth of this sto-
ry. was narrating it to lady,
who, 1 found, was perfectly ac-
quainted with the facts, She had
heard the story told by friend of
hers, who had witnessed the curl
GUS alliance between the hen and
the goose, and had not the least
idea that it had eyer appeared in
print,
There are one or two points about
this narrative which are deserving of
notice. That language was en-
ployed by the goose, the hen, and
the ducklings, is evident enough;
but it is
A CURIOUS QUESTION
whether the ducklings understood
the hen better than the goose or
vice versa. l am rather inclined to
think that when hen tries to call
from the water the ducklings which
she has Matched, she fails, because
she does not know how to express
herself. Her own chickens would
never venture into the water, and
she has words in her vocabulary
to suit the occasion.
Ducklings understand duck well
enough, but when they are in the wa
ter they do not pay the least atten-
ton to the hen on the land, though
she may iutter about in the greatest
distress, and use every means in her
power to call the foster children to
shore. 1t seems, in this case, as if
the aquatic goose could talk to the
aquatic ducklings, both having the
same expressions in their vocabula-
ries. 1t could take charge of them
as long as it is thought proper, and
when the time came, order them
shore, and deliver them to the hen
They did not obey, or did not un-
derstand, the hen, when she called
them on shore; but they both under
stood ane obeyed the goose.
That there was also a language
common to both parties is evident
from the action adopted by the
hen. She could not have sat on the
back of the goose unless invited by
the latter, which is a bird possessed
of great intellectual powers.