The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-04-20
Curiosities Of Animal Life.

been known to live ten months with
out food.
Flies have been known to recover
after having been immersed twelve
months in wine.
The sea-anemone can, at its pleas
ure, turn inside out, and again as
sumo its natural shape and appear
ance.
The eggs of the cheesemite are so
minute that a pigeons egg would
hold fully one hundred millions OF
them.
The grasshopper has between his
throat and his stomach an apparatus
called a gizzard, with more than 200
teeth in it, for grinding his food.
1t has been reckoned that single
aphis, OF plant-lOuse, may give rise
in one summer to a quintillion
| 100000, 900, 700, O,OOO,OO0) of little
ones.
If the crab is often interrupted he
will, like the spider, pretend to be
dead, and will watch an opportunity
to sink himself into the sand, keep
ing only his eyes above.
M. st. Pierre once saw a vast num-
Der Of ants overcome a centipede
They seized it by all its legs and
bore it along as workmen would
have done large piece of timber.
A flea will eat ten times its own
weight Of provisions in a day, and
will drag after it a chain a hundred
times heavier than itself 1t leaps
distance of at least two hundred
times its own length.
Some beetles, when counterfeiting
death, will suffer themselves to be
gradually roasted without moving a
single joint. II have pierced spiders
with pins" says Mr., Smellie, "and
torn them to pieces without their
indicating the slightest marks of
pain" ...
The water boatmen, among the |
most agile of water insects, row
themselves along under-side upper
most. Their habit of moving up
side down is of great use to them in
feeding, for many of their victims
have hard backs, so the water boat
men dive down and come up under
their prey, thus attacking them on
their soft side.
The bones of the Archaeoplery, a
rare fossil found recently in Ger
many, are very much like those of
a lizard, and its hind legs are like
those of a bird, and it was when
alive clothed with feathers This
was really a most wonderful link
between the birds and the reptiles.
There can be no doubt regarding
the reptilian affinities of birds.
Something like a dixie or Ievee
along the White River, near In
dianapolis, gave way recently and
pasture containing a eve and lamb
was flooded The doomed animals
sought the highest point and stood
there. As the water continued to
rise, the lambkin reared its fore
feet to the neck of the dam, in which
position it remained until both were
swept away and lost.
The termites or white-ants the
plague of India and Africa - are
blind, and always work in the dark
Mingled with the common workers
IRE always seen much larger insects,
also blind, with huge heads and
avs shaped like jagged stiIIettos.
These are the soldiers. They de-
fend the laborers, hanging on to any
enemy with their sharp pincers, and
themselves to be torn to
pieces rather than give way.
The wolves in Finland have be-
come so audacious of late as not to
De cOntented with tearing COWS and
sheep, but are now constantly at
acking even human beings In
ess than two months eleven chill {
lren have been carried away from I
lear Hango and eaten by the beasts.
They were never before known to /
)e so bold, and the belief is that,
ike the man eating tigers of India,
1C5C DCCtSIo nav DCCII 1ClQCICu |
laring by impunity and the acquir- 6
ID zest for human blood. t
The wild dogs of India run by !
lose, and, having made themselves !
with sambur or other !
Leer in the valley or jheel Of the :
UNCLE, they separate and lie i'll wait {
t the different passes from the :
hat, crouching on the high ground :
bove the paths taken by the deer. :
)ne or two of the pack then go :
round and rouse the sambur, which =
ushes up hill by one of the many :,
aths. The dog which lies in wait =
ng springs at his victim and fixes =
D his throat, and the others soon !
un into him. =
The solitary wasps sting their a
ictims in such a manner as to G
ierce the ganglia, and thus, with f
ut killing them, almost deprive
hem of all power Of movement.
me species Of sphex which preys t.
n a large grasshopper, after hav- b
lg almost paralyzed her victim in t
be usual manner, throws it on its u
ack, bends the head so as to ex- o
end the articulators of the neck, d
nd then, seizing the membrane be- s.
ween the head and the body with Q
er jaws, crushes the ganglion-a v
instinct. a
-~)~-
Knoxville Chronicle: From Mr.. t