Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1883-11-29
SIX.LEGGED POLICEMEN.

a naturalist. "There is evidence that
among the animals there is a police
department or an ambulance corps,
one or the other"
The reporter closed one eye holding
it shut with one hand, and with the
other gaEcd through a powerful mag
nilier. He saw three ants, and one
was apparently in very maudlin CON
dition. II raised its legs in the air,
waved its head to and fro like an elc-
phant, and evinced decided desire to
walk backward. In the mean time
the other two ants were vainly en-
deavoring To coax it along at first
caressing it with their aptennw, and
finally, as If out of patience, Selling it
and marching it off out Of the range
of vision.
. "That," d the naturalist. ais a
case of dru., and disordcrly; SO or
ten days ! ei the ant on sweetcned
rum, So thu. it was actually drunk;
then admitted two sober ants to see
if they would take care of it, and you
see they have done so.
The idea of intoxicating ants is
original with Sir John Lubbock He
found that ants nearly always arrested
other ants that he had made drunk. In
fact, if YOU asked me what was the
most intelligent animal next to man |
should say the ant NO not because
he Will get drunk, but for "A thousand
reasons"
ado You suppose ants imprison their
kind for Offences asked the reporter.
There is no doubt of it," was the
reply, las they imprison vast numbers
of insects for various reasons. In fact.
the lower animals have their prisons
and prisoners rs well as we do. OF
course they are little different, bit
tastes. Everybody knows how ants
make prisoners Of various species of
aphides. and slaves of their own kind.
One of the most remarkable cases of
Imprisonment is that Of the bird horn
bill, SO called from the wonderful de-
velopment Of its bill. which is only
used in crushing fruit The breeding
season is probably not looked forward
to with any great degree of pleasure
by the birds. as it is a period of close
imprisonment for the mother and Of
great labor for the father bird As
the time approaches the female search
es for a hollo~ tree. and. having form
ed rude nest, takes her place within.
The male now flies away and returns
with its bill fun OF mud. which it
plasters about the opening of the nest.
Load after load is thus brought and
laid on until the creviCe is completely
plastered up, with the exception Of a
single orihce large enough to admit
the bill Of the prisoner The mud
soon hardens. and the bird is firmly en-
closed, and so remains until the young
are hatchcd and we'll grown. The
male bird is not hard iailer, however.
but works to obtain food for its mate.
SO that she comes out OF prison in
much better condition than her unfor-
tunate jailer.
Trees are not the only prisons"
continued the speaker "In marine
life there is no end Of prisons and
prisoners. For example. here is the
beautiful sponge called Venus's flower
basket which grows in eastern seas.
They are unsightly objects when first
taken up, the rich sheeny silvcry
framework that we see being merely
the skeleton Of the sponge. so to speak
So much like basket work is this skel-
eton that when they were first brought
TO Europe they were supposed to be
the work Of men, and 80 brought fabu-
lous prices. In this one that / have
you see there are two prisoner crabs,
but how did they get in? Each is as
large as the end Of your little finger,
and the largest hole in the skeleton is
not larger than pinhead"
"The reporter gave it up
"The truth is, said the naturalist,
"that .he crabs are prisoners for life,
and have served out a life sentence.
In their younger days these crabs are
called by different names. and in one
stage-the zoea-they are extremely
- -.
small, and live roaming sort of life
During this time our crabs must have
crawled through the minute window
of the living sponge, and were unable
TO get out. The sponge grew. and so
did the crabs. Finally the sponge was
6ghed up and the animal matter was