Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-05-12
KNOWING CREATURES.

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KNOWING CREATURES.
We have read stories of spiders tanned
by prisoners, and here is one from
"Animal Intelligence" which shows
that, besides being capable of tameness,
they have n enough to resent being
81 noticed one day in q half
dark corner a tolerably respectable
SPIDERS web, in which a well-fed spider
had made its home, and sat at the nest
opening early and late watching for
flying or creeping food. 1t o o
became a regular duty with me to carry
it flies several times a day, which [ laid
down before its door with pair of
pincers. After a while the spider came
each time and took the flies out of the
pincers. This game was carried on for
weeks, as it seemed to me curious.
But one day when the spider seemed
very %ravenous, and regularly flew at
each fly offered to it, 1 began teasing it.
AS soon as it had got hold of the fly I
pulled it back again with the pincers.
1t took this exceedingly i'll. The first
time, as 1 finally j eft the fly with it, it
managed to forgive me; but when I
later took a fly right away, our friend
ship was destroyed forever. On che
following day it treated my offered flies
with contempt, and would not move,
and on the third day it had disap-
peared." 's lu
You have all heard of the ants of
South America-the Ecitons-which go
about in great crowds and kill every
live creature they overtake. There is
an account given by MI. Belt, showing
that not all the wisdom of the country
belongs to the ants. "Many of the
spiders would escape by hanging sus-
pended by a thread Of silk from the
branches, safe from the foes that
swarmed both above and below. 1 no.
ticed that spiders generally were most
intelligent in escaping, and did not, like
the cockroaches and other insects, take
shelter in the first hiding-place they
found. l have often seen large spiders
making off many yards in advance, and
apparently determined to put a good
distance between themselves and the
foe. 1 once saw one ofthe false spiders,
or harvest men, standing in the midst
of an army of ants, and with the great
est GOODNESS lifting, after another,
its long legs, which supported its body
above their reach. Sometimes as many
as five out Of its eight legs would be
lifted at once, and whenever an ant ap-
preached n of those on which it stood,
there was always a clear space within
reach to put down another, SO as to be
able to hold up the threatened one out
of danger"
One who has studied the ways of that.
wise bird, the gray parrot, is ready to
believe almost any story aboutit. There
is one in which pussy, though very
knowing herself, found her match in
cunning. ''One day the cat and parrot
had a quarrel. think the cat had up
set Polly's food, or something Of that
kind; however, they seemed all right
again. An hour or SO after Polly was
standing on the edge of the table; she
called out, in tone OF. deep affection:
'Puss, puss, come then, come then,
pussy Pussy went, and looked up in
nocently enough. Polly with her heak
seized a basin of milk standing by, and
tipped the basin and all its contents
over the cat; then chuckled diabolically.
OF course the fall broke the basin, and
half-drowned the cat"
In one case a parrot owed its life to
puss. "One evening there was no one
in the kitchen. Cook had gone up
stairs and left a bowl of dough to rise
by the fire. Shortly after the cat
rushed up after her, mewing and maxi
ing what signs she could for her to go
down; then she jumped up and seized
her apron, and tried to drag her down.
As she was IN such a state of excite
ment, cookwent and found Polly Shrek
ing, calling out, Tapping her wings,
and struggling violently, up to her
knees in dough, and stuck quite fast.
No doubt if she had not been rescued
she would have sunk in the morass and
been smothered."
Cage-birds know quite well enough
how to ask for q bath, and it seems
that some wild ones do also. A lady
writing about a jackdaw which lived
in her yard says: 81 generally made a
practice of filling a large basin which
stands under the trees every morning
for Jacks bath. A few days ago I
forgot this duty, and was reminded of
the fact in a very singular n
When 1 opened my dressingg-room shut
tiers about eleven o'clock, l found my
little friend waiting just outside them,
as though he knew that he should see
me there; and when he did, he placed
himself Immediately in front of me, and
then shook himself and spread out his
wings just as he always does in his
bath. The action was so suggestive,
and so unmistakable, that 1 spoke just
as l would have done to a child: oh,
yes, Jack, of course you shall have
some water Christian Union.