The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-08-31
The Resources Of Animals.

The Resources Of Animals.
Animals, even of the least important
species, sometimes resort to shifts and
expedients to defend and support their
existence, so curious as to astOnish even
those observers who are most familiar
with their habits. The little gOssamer
spider, having no wings, still finds its
home in the upper air. Weaving a tiny
kite Of web and flying 1t aloft by unwind.
ing thin kite string from its spinneret,
it finally fastens the lower end to twig,
and climbs fearlessly up the filament, till
at last it sits far above the earth and
catches midges upon its floating raft in
the air. This little forager has been
found sailing in the air nearly mile
high by ballOonists!
The male spider has usually very
poor show for liberty or even for life.
Small and lean, weak and cowardly, a
mere speck by the side of his big, blush
ing sweet heart, she generally catches him
when he first comes counting, spears him
with her fierce mandibles, gnaws the
quivering flesh off his bones, and filings
his polished skeleton into the sewer. She
is heartless and ferocious-a coquette and
warrior. Woman's rights are carried to
an extreme. The husband is not allowed
to vote or to govern his own family. Be-
fore his brood of 1000 children have
climbed merrily upon their mothers back
she has generally made breakfast of
him, and his bones bleach in the back
yard.
Then there is the hermit crab, the pug.
nacious crustacean that can seldom sue.
coed in preserving its own life at all, ex.
cept by finding the shell of some large
snail or welk to crawl into. Having a
bulky and soft abdomen, it is peculiarly
vulnerable to attack from predaceous
fishes and crabs, and its only safety is in
covering its salient extremity. If it finds
an eligible snail shell empty, it immedi-
ately takes possession by backing its ex-
posed body in and fastening the shell on
by the posterior hooks, leaving its head
and legs outside. Then it drags the shell
around till it is outgrown, when it seeks
another. If it finds none unoccupied, it
frequently kills living snail, eats him
and unceremoniOusly takes possession OF
his house. Or it attacks tenant crab
the winner of the combat retaining the
premises. The loss of an eye or claw il
by no means mortal injury, or even &
permanent Gripping, as the mutilation
heals, and the eye or limb reappears as
good as ever.
Speaking of crustaceans, did you evcl
see long or soft. shell clam in his native
wilds? DO you know what that exposed
proboscis is which you call the neck? II
is a double-acting muscular pump, with
two pipes and valves, through one Of
which salt water is drawn and through
the other expelled. 1t drenches the gills
which retain as food any bit of nutrimen
| which may float in, when the filtered
water is passed ont through the othel
valve. And that dark lump in the clam
which you have often rejected, madam
as the stomach, is not the receptacle Of
food at all, but merely an excellent en-
larged liver, which epicures might, with
out torturing the humble bivalve, make
into a pate de toie gras.
Most animals that are in dangerfrom pre-
daceous foes are of natural tint, resembling
the hues of the earth or trees upon which
they live. Partridges, quails and othe
sand and heath birds, are brown, lik'
their dwelling place, and the color serves
to conceal and protect them. Some but
tertlies and locusts are exactly the shap,
Of the leaves of the tree upon which they
cling, so that they are not visible in theil
true character. Where a hundred have
settled you cannot see one, only the leave:
clinging to the branches and swaying ii
the wind. Not only the color OF the leaves
is initiated, but the venation, to the mos
minute particular; and it is only wher
you strike the bush with a stick that thu
''leaves" rise and flutter away. Some o
these leaf insects, as they are called
change their colors with the season of thu
year-green in spring, brighter in sum
mer and brown in autumn, like the true
leaf. Even the imperfections of the leaves
are mimiced-thOse characteristic mark
! ings and erasions of the leaf which result
from the attacks of minute insects. The
decay of dying leaves is so initiated that
as MIR. Wallace remarks, cit is impossible
to avoid thinking, at first sight, that thu
| butterflies themselves have been attacked
by real fungi
In the turbulent brooks of Connecticut
and probably of other States, is fond al
ingenious little insect, that the rural peO
pie know as a bundle bug, an inch or two
| long, which protects itself from preda
ceous fishes by gluing to his sides small
sticks, somewhat longer than his body
until he is encased in an irregular woodeI
cylinder-a jagged and clumsy boat, il
which he alternately floats and crawls
This carpenter worm leaves an orifice fol
his head and legs, and his artificial shell
seems thorough shield.
The medusa or jelly-tish of our sea
coast is we'll known to all sea-bathers
and its phosphorescence often reveals it
whereabouts to steamboat travellers. It i
as large as a tea plate, fiat, gelatinous ant
translucent; with the convex portion for
ward, it pushes its way through the waite
as if it were a small parasol-a whit
fringe yard long, waving backward
from the edge, assisting the resemblance
This creature has hardly any life;
seems to have only one organ, which re
ceives and elects food, and its movemen
through the water is by series of con
vulsive jerks. Lift it out of the waite
and it drops through the fingers like THU
jelly. But in its native element it has til
power of sharply singing with its fringe
from which it is called nettle fish. Thi
fringe, when microscopically examined
is folnd to be filled with minute sacks
each of which contain MICROSCOPE
arrow ready to discharge. Friction burst
the cells and causes the discharge of myr
lads of arrows into any soft flesh tina
may be the cause of the disturbance. TIL
harm is not great to any robust organism
but it must be sufficient to shock and par
alyze some of the inferior fishes
Graphic. ..e...-.q. -5.-...,
Death on the Stage.
Now that the stimulation of death OF
the stage is a matter of every day CONVEX
sation, it may not be out OF place t
glance at a few of the many cases wher
| death, or at least its sudden approach, ha