Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1879-03-06

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From Land and Water London.
4 weasel stole into a farm yard at Tock-
ington near Bristol, day or two since,
and, sczing one Of brood of ducklmgs,
proceeded to carry it off and demolioh it
at his leisure in the stable straw. I'm
luckily for him, however, Iii, manwuYres
were watched by cat from the farm
| house, and his meal was scarcely begun
before pussy disturbed him. A fight en-
sued. and in very short time the weasel
had departed this life, and | hear that
pussy has repeated her exploit once since.
Is it not very unusual for a eat to tackle Il
weasel?
\ REMARK ABLE CAT.
II il not often we have anything re-
markabIe to report concerning our dOmest-
lc feline quadrupcds, but on the present
occasion may mention trait Of charac-
tcrs manifested by an ancient tabby that
is quite out Of the common. | have heard
that old maids and cats are like birds of Il
feather that associate together, neither Of
whom possess any affection; but there is,
in the little village of Thirl,tonc, South
Devon, Il eat that is remarkable for It's at-
tcctIOnatc nature and attachment to
friends. Dogs hitherto have monopolized
the good name that miSrs from strong at-
tcrtion, but the cat refer to is able and
ready to defend its mistress, and has done
so on several occasions. A few days ago,
while a lady friend was romping with the
mistress in the garden, l'abby certainly
thought she was making more free than
welcome, and at once intcrpos"d her au-
th)rity by attacking the strange lady in
most determined manner, On making in
Wirics found the eat had served many
other visitors i'll similar way.
WEE ENGINEERING.
On going around the garden, this morn
ing. ! perceived what seemed a small
piece of cheese apparently floating in the
mir straight before me. On coming mp to
it, found that it was suspended from Il
spider web, which was spun right across
the path. Ones first hasty thought was
that this spider had found Il piece o
cheese below, and, taking Il fancy to it,
was then drawing it up into It's web to
cnt it. Further examination, however,
showed that the substance was not cheese,
but Il small pebble much resembling that
edible, evidently taken from the gravel
walk beneath. There was nothing for the
spider to attach his web to ON the walk,
so he had selected Il suitable stone to bal
ancc his web which, indeed, it did adj
mirably, the web being attached to trees
on either side of the walk and weighted
below by the stone, so as to he in nearly
perpendicular position. The stone was
connected to the web by II threcfold cord,
the strands of which were attached to diff
icrent parts Of the stone. ! visited the
web two or three hours after the spider
had finished it, and found that hls ingen-
uity had been reward ed, as the web con-
tanned besides large fly. off which he
was dining more flies than have ever be-
fore seen in web. Neither myself nor
those of my friends to whom have show
ed the web have ever seen anything Of the
kind before. Perhaps yourrealers will be
interested in such IN example Of high IN
stiuct in a spider, and those who are more
versed in natural history than myself may
he able to remember other examples of the
same kind. That the stability Of the web
depended upon the weight Of the stone
was shown when put my hand under the
latter. The result was that as ! raised my
hand, the lowerpart Of the web gradually
collapsed, but when the stone was suffered
again 10 fall gently, the web resumed its
proper shape. The web was about five
feet from the ground.
Spider engineering i3 most interesting
subject, and enc that have spent hours
IN studying. have worked ont most Of
the problems in connection with 1t, but the
weight dodge have not yet been able to
explain. Some spiders will use ties; hut
others, Of exactly the same species, will
use Il weight, although the circumstances
under which both build apparently are
similar. But how does the spider raise
the weight? This could never explain
to my satisfaction, us some of the weights !
are SO large that it is scarcely possible they !
could lift them by dead lift Besides. |
they will put on two or more weights IN Il
hours before wind, to fix their structures.
The industry and ingenuity of the spider
passes belief to all those who have seen
them at work, but no more profitable day |
can be- spent 10y a young engineer than a |
LAY after storm in path through the |
gor,e watching spider demonstrating his |
web. This i, the legitimate wayof seeing |
the work done, but there are other lodges, |
such as breaking down the webs and |
the poor devils reconstruct them. |