The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-11-19
Short Stories About Animals.

a snake two feet long had a lively
fight lately with a chipmunk on the
banks of the Waikiki river. The snake
coiled around bis antagonist several
times, but the little fellow slipped out
of the folds and turned again, biting the
snake't body. Soon the snake was I'M
able to crawl, and the chipmunk killed
il.
A mule in the Newark cement COM
pany's works refuses to do service after
the bell sounds the hour Of noon. II he
is hosting a load he deliberately allows
it to settle back. After feeding he al
lows himself to be hitched up, but no
amount of ~coaxing or beating will in
duce him to work until after the one
o'clock whistle.
A large number Of black ants being
driven from a sugar bowl, soon returned.
To try their ingenuity the housekeeper
suspended the bowl bya string from the
ceiling. The ants tried to reach it by
standing on each others backs, but the
pyramid fell down as fast as it was
raised. Soon afterward she saw them
descending the string and dropping
down upon the Jumps OF sugar.
A slightly wounded blackbird In
Remsen was put in a cage within a few
feet Of robins nest. The robins knew
that the blackbird was a despoiler OF
birds eggs and they perched neal the
cage and signifed their disapproval in
earnest and noisy tones. But in a few
days they seemed to comprehend the
helpless captivity of their enemy, and
they began regularly feeding the black
bird as faithfully as they fed their
young in the adjacent nest.
The owner OF a three-year-old colt at
Blooming Grove, Wis, having occasion
to drive the mare, hitched her up, and
shutting the colt in the barn, drove of.
just before reaching the gate he looked
back, and to his establishment saw the
colt jump out of an open door in the
second story of the barn and run off as
if nothing unusual had happened. In
vestigation proved that the animal bad
climbed q fight of steep stairs in order
to reach the upper floor of the barn.
A Nashville parrot lost his mistress
her sweetheart. The young man called
at her home and pulled the bell. The
parrot, sitting in an upper window,
called out: Go to the windoww The
your man was startled. He looked Mt
all the windows and fund them closed.
He pulled the bell again. Next door,"
shouted the parrot, initiating the voice
OF the young lady. But the young man
knew he was right and pulled again.
go to the w~orkhousew shrieked the
parrot, and the young man vent away
in q rage.
An English naturalist, while pre-.
serving ants and spiders in bottles of
alcohol, met with a touching exhibition
that caused him to iorego further ex.
periments. He wished to preserve a
large female spider and twenty four of
her young ones that he had captured.
He put the mother into q bottle of alco-
hol, and saw that after a few moments
she folded her legs upon her body, and
was at rest. Hethen put into the bottle
the young ones, who of course mani
tested acute pain. What was his sur
prise to see the mother arouse herself
from her lethargy, dart around, and
gather her young ones to her bosom,
fold her legs over them, again relapse
into insensibility, until at last death
came to relief, and the limbs, no longer
controlled by this maternal instinct, re-
leased their grasp.