Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-10
STRANGE STORIES ABOUT AN1mALs.

useless, an outcast and wanderer. Prior
| to its suicide by drowning it was character
| lied by sadness of look. 1t obviously
pondered its course Of action, exhibited for
time hesitancy, but at last came to a de-
cision, and acted upon it with promptness
and resolution. 1t preferred death to ts
experience in life, and refused to allow it.
self to be saved
In another instance cited by the same
author, the dog was old, diseased, dis
tracted with pain. 1t, too, drowned itself
with the utmost dehberation, first casting
last piteous, g longing, lingering, look .
at its master, who had suspected it OF be-
ing affected by, and probably had deserted
it for the suspected, rabies.
An old collie shepherds dog) in Cath
ness, troubled with the infirmities of age,
| including deafness and the loss of teeth.
in 1876 committed suicide-here again by
drowning. Evidently age was burden
to him. The day before the last scene in
| the drama was enacted he was observed to
/ take a general survey of the locality he
was about to quit forever-in very shaky
way. He then wendell his way over the
ground familiar to him In his hunting days
to the sea-shore-a distance of about two
miles - and without taking a longing,
! lingering look behind he plunged into the
sea and expired. The act was witnessed
| by number of persons on the shore.
A Newfoundland dog of great age
had his feelings wounded by being scolded,
beaten in pretense only by means of
pocket handkerchief, and having door
shut in his face when about to leave room
with his usual companions-a nurse and
her group of children. Soon after he was
found alive, but with his head altogether
or partly submerged in a ditch. He was
dragged out. But now he refused to eat
or drink, and before long he was found in
the same position in the same ditch, but
this time dead. He had succeeded in this
second determined attempt at drowning,
having failed in securing his purpose with
sufficient rapidity and directness by star
walton.
A captive monkey that committed
suicide by drowning, prior to the act was
noticed to become morose. 1t refused all
companionship, bit viciously, and had a
marked fixity and yagueness-as if con-
templative-of gaze (Forbes).
An American canvas back duck used its
bill to keep itself submerged till it was
drowned, Selling water-weeds attached to
or growing from the bottom of pond or
lake tGilImore) Certain fowls were de-
termined upon suicide, and many jumped
deliberately overheard on the African
lake Albert Nyanza Baker,. Captive
| birds sometimes poison themselves, ap-
parently preferring death to confinement.
4 The American stag or deer commits sui
eide sometimes when seized or attacked by
/ the gluttop, by precipitating itself against
| trees tPierquin and Watsonl.
Dr. Bidie has put upon record very de-
cided case of suicide in the common black
scorpion of Southern India, as it occurs, for
instance, in Madras. One was placed ex-
perimentally in a glazed chronological
case and exposed to the suns rays. 1.-THE
| light and heat seemed to irritate it very
much. Taking common botanical lens, [
! focused the rays of the sun on its back.
! The moment this was done it began to run
! hurriedly about the case, kissing and spit
ting in very fierce way. This expert
ment was repeated some four or FIVE times
with like results. But, on trying it once
again, the scorpion turned up its tail and
plunged the sting into its own back. In
less than half minute life was quite ex-
tinct" Another Indian officer confirmed
DR.. Bidie's observation subsequently by as
is a well Unknown fact. They turn back their
tails and sting themselves to DEATH; for
instance, "when surrounded by a circle of
glowing embers," from which presumably
they infer escape to be impossible and
death by the torture of burning imminent
Pasley's experiments on scorpions also led
to their death by suicide.
A certain trap-door spider of New Yea
af 70 ],
voluntary sacrifice of its own life - It is
perfectly clear to me, says a most intelh-
gent observer and describer of its habits,
| Otago Institute, that the spider deliber-
ately sealed its nest and starved itself and
It's Young to death. 1t evidently could not
bear to leave its home, for it could have
done so easily at any time with its young.
The partial marring of its handiwOrk
seemed to have so disheartened it that it
sealed itself up in its own ruined house-a
| broken-hearted architect and builder
In the town near which | reside there
are at least two large dogs whose peculiari-
ties are well known to many of the inhab-
itants, and especially TO school children,
which dogs are habitually sent by their
masters merchants of the town. TO pur-
a penny in its mouth and each trots off,
whenever penny is given to it, to a cer-
tain bakers shop. There they rear them
selves upon their hind legs, place their
fore paws well on the counter,
and thus firmly supporting themselves,
they drop their penny on the counter,
receiving roll in return This they carry
back in their mouth in one case If tact, the
1,.o ~ 70 al 81, 4
being broken up and offered, it understands
it to be for its own use, and deyours tho
fragments. Much less common,
but more suggestive incidents are the fol-.
lowing A certain terrier, now dead
" Captain long we'll known in Rothesay,
publicly begged money from suitable per-
sons. showing great discrimination IN the
selection of persons to whom he made his
appeal When he had an excess OF funds
more than he required to buy his modi-
cum of bread at the bakers-he hid his
money in the Office of his master (who was
and is still harbormaster) or sometimes
about the quay, in which latter case
and appropriated by some needy and
greedy quay porters or street arabs: He
carried on this profitable business of beg
kAtiS LID Ohu dCCOuHb blii uiS tSSNh nSAS
quite worn down by the incessant friction
of the coins he had caught up and
carried.
A certain Newfoundland dog when Of
fered coin, if not at the moment hungry,
would hide it under his mat, thus gradu-
ally accommodating fund of coppers, from
which he distracted penny or half penny
at time, according to the state OF MS APP
petite. He knew perfectly well the differ;
ence between the coins and their rela-
tive value, and that he was entitled te
receive two biscuits for the larger sum
and only one for the half penny. Some
times he only wanted single biscuit, and
wished for the change out Of his penny.
Now and then he took a fancy for
French roll by way of a variety. If
you gave him sixpence he would receive
the change, and then allow you to take it
coN,eEaJ t.,,%h !,