Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-07-16
SHORT STORIES OF ANIMALS.

Capt. De Abortiz, OF the Spanish bark
Odulla, has tame walrus that he cap
tured thirteen years ago when it was u
pup. When caught it weighed ~
pounds, but it now turns the scale at
Ala pounds, has two enormous tusks.
measures six feet three at the girth, and
Is eight feet four inches long. In bright
weather it sleeps in the sun on deck.
During heavy blows it resorts to ken.
mel, but when the weather is calm it
leaps overheard and sports about the
ship for hours, catching and eating fish.
W hen tired OF swimming it is hauled on
board i'll IL great iron basket. On one
occasion, off the Cape OF Good Hope, a
great shark tackled it, laying hold OF
one OF its paws and biting off two of its
toes; the wairus dove, and, coming up
under the shark, killed and devoured
him with cries Of delight.
An engineer on the Illinois Central rail-
road tells this story OF dogs race with
an express tram: ''lIe would stand
with his mouth open, ears Hopping, and
tail pointing south until the cow-catcher
was abreast; then he would gather his
legs under him and Off he would go. 1t
was jolly good run so long as he could
keep up, and, if did lay myself liable
to be side tracked, he had lair show.
How fast did he. run? Oh, well, my
time-card is thirty-seven, and the old
dog would loll his tongue, laugh, and
bark, and keep up tor twenty or thirty
telegraph poles. Then he'd quit"
A weli-tralned Newfoundland dog be-
longing to mllliner Of Norwich. Conn,
r. ~ ,... IN 10 .l; n n. t,i ihar J.;Iy
A strange dog recently attempted to i'm.
pose on him while he WAS loaded down
with commissary stores. lie hung to the
basket, but stopped long enough to get
good look ut the cur. Then he star
| ted off IN II run. to the store, where he
deposited the basket, and returned to the
street and began the search for his as
salant. He iound hlm, and proceeded
to chastise him in fine style.
The experiment Of introducing migra.
tory quail from Europe appears to be
succeeding. a flock OF these quails
were recently seen at West Brighton,
N. Y, and seven pairs OF them are
.known'to have bred last season and rails.
cd good sized families. Several thous.
and were liberated in Mains last year,
they have returned from the south
this spring. -
In the neighborhood OF Turakina, N ew
Zealand, an army OF caterpillars sever
al hundreds OF thousands strong was
marching across the railway line, bound
tor Il new field OF oats, when the train
rumbled along. Suddenly it came to 8
dead stop. GA examination il was found
that the wheels of the engine had be-
come so greasy that they kept on revol.
wing without adVanclng-they could not
grip the rails. The guard and the en-.
gine driver procured sand and strewed
it on the rails ,anH the train made a fresh
start, but il was found that during the
stoppage thousands OF caterpillars had
crawied all over the engine, and all over
the Carriages, inside and out.
a mare belonging to MIR. Muncy, who
resides on the Touchet, Washington ter
ritory, attracted the attention OF The fam
lily by her strange actions. She would
run up to them, rub them with her nose,
whlnuy, and then run toward the river.
Curiosity prompted them to follow her.
They discovered her colt entangled in q
drilt IN the river, only Its head being
visible. 4 ,4 rIii. .
A Bollnas, Cal, man says that he put
two heus in a bag to prevent them from
setting. and hung 1t across the clothes
line. He thought no more of it aud
the bag was lett there. When it was
taken down, both hens were found alive
but destitute OF feathers as il they had
been'boiied, and in the bag were nine.
teen eggs.
James Finch, OF Camden, N. j., utll-
izes his dog as u means OF communica
tion with his daughter, who lives more
than a mile away. A letter is tied to
the dogs collar and he is told to take
it to Emma. 1t is promptly delivered.
and the answer is as faithfully. returned.
The dog OF farmer at Kickapoo, III,
dug into gravel and sand bank
tor skunk, throwing the dirt be
hind him. Alter he had caught and
killed the skunk he found himself i'm.
prlsoned. When he emerged, sixteen
days aftcrward, he was very lean
doc