National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-08-15
MISCELLANEOUS.
Cnriosifiaa of Animal Lie.

OuriOsiles OF Animal Lifes
From the correspondence Of Nature wo take
the following:
About twenty years ago was residing on
the coast Of County Antrim, Ireland at tho
time the telegraph wires were set up along
that charming road which skirts the sea for
twenty-five miles between Larne and Cush-
endall. During the winter months large
ilooks OF starlings always migrated over from
Scotland, arriving in the early morning.
The first winter after the wires were stretched
along the coast j frequently found numbers
OF starlings lying dead or wounded on the
roadside, they having evidently in their flight
In the dusky morn struck against the tele-
graph wires-not blown against them, MS these
accidents ofteu occurred when there was but
little wind. l found that the peasantry had
come TO the conclusion that these unusual
deaths were due 10 the flash of the telegraph
messages, killing any starlings that happened
TO be perched on the wires when working
Strange to say that throughout tho following
aud succeeding winters hardly death oc-
Cured among the starlings on their arrival.
1t would thus appear that the birds wore
deeply impressed and understood the cause Of
the fatal accidents among their fellow-trav-
elers that previous year, and hence carefully
avoided the telegraph wires not only So but
the young birds must also have acquired this
knowledge and perpetuated it-a knowledge
which they could not have acquired by ex-
perience or even instinct, unless tho instinct
was really inherited memory derived from the
parents whose brains were first impressed
by it,"
"a plague of rats visited the higher coffee
districts of Ceylon during the year 1875, doing
great damage to young and old plantations
alike. 1t is remarkable that the invasion of
rats was simultaneous with the towering and
death of the NilloO (StrObildathes), which forms
the greater part of the underwood of Ceylon
forest, and is said to flower and die once every
seven years. The most remarkable part of tho
plague was that the rats did not seem to de-
YOUR any part of the branches they cut of, but
to nip of and leave them untouched upon the
ground. So serious, indeed, was the damage
done that on some coffee estates rewards were
given to coolies for every rat they caught and
1t was not an uncommon thing to hear of three
or four hundred rats being destroyed, on ono
estate only, per week"
About three o'clock on the 18th of June /
picked up a female butterfly, the head of which
had recently been plucked of by bird and
was lying near the body. Thinking it was
dead, carried 1t home TO examine the wing
scales. On chipping off bit OF wing about
four hours afterward, the legs moved, and in
short time an egg was laid In about two
minutes another egg was laid. Others fol-
lowed, till hveand-twenty had been expelled
The laying then ceased, and the headless
mother seemed dead. Next morning on touch
ing her, the laying was resumed On close ex-
animation "A heaving of the wings and rings of
tho abdomen could be observed with about tho
frequency of human breathing. At the end of
twenty nine and a-half hours from the time Of
finding the laying ceased. Seventy-eight eggs
were laid by the butterfly with her head Off