St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-03-21
INHERITED INSTINCT.
Oddities of Animal Life in the Rocky
Mountains

|
form the habits of animals, birds and
fishes when in a purely wild condition;
but how can one explain the curious
fact of the gopher or ground-squirrel
''holing up as the miners call it, on
or about the goth of August of each.
year? The weather at that time is usu-
ally warm and pleasant, and generally
continues so until October, yet Mr..
Gopher about the 1st of August may be
seen skipping along with small tuft
OF grass IN his mouth, which, as he dis
appears down his hole with a twinkle
OF his tail, he carries with him for his
winters bed. These curious little fell
lows may be seen by hundreds on, say,
the 10th OF August; on the 21st but few
can be seen; and by the 25th you may
ride miles and not see one. Is this what
some people call 'tinherited instinct?"
The gophers are sharp in their gener-
alton, easily tanned to come from their
holes at a signal; and standing motion
less and erect on their hind-feet, they
await the little delicacy you are
expected to give them. l know
one fat fellow, by the men chris
tened Click. vino on being tanned, at
once drove al the others to respectful
distance, while he remained in the cabin,
erect and keen-cyed, waiting for his
supper. Dick found that the men some
times closed the cabin-door when at
meals, thus keeping him out. Next day,
though the door was shut, Dick APP
pcared as usual Examination showed
that he had dug q hole from the outside
under the floor, coming up exactly
where two boards had failed to meet in
one corner; thus finding the only posi-
BILE opening by which he could get
through the floor. How was this
planned? The gopher appears to
freeze perfectly solid in our severe win
tiers. Miners drifting through gravel
in winter have several times, to my
knowledge, dug them out curled like a
ball, but solid and cold as though dead.
1t is impossible to open them out when
in this condition; they are like q block
of wood. But place one near q hot log
fire and soon he will straightcn himself;
and first one hind-leg and then the other
will kick little, and Mr.. G. sits up
and looks around with beWildered air.
Our fish act in a similar manner in
winter. In fishing through the ice-
sometimes the latter four feet thick
the temperature is usually low, say from
twenty to forty-five degrees below zero
the fish, whether trout, grayling, or
whitefish, when released from the hook
and thrown on the ice, almost imne-
diately cease jumping about. Many of
them 'stifen or freeze in curved form,
as though stricken with the intense
cold as they struggled on the ice. Take
these same fish home to warm kitchen,
and they will when thawed, kick and
flop about as though newly caught /
have seen this occur five hours after
being out of water, and have been told
they will live Tor twenty-four hours, if
kept frozen for that time.
Our bears-the grizzly, cinnamon and
black-go into winter quarters when it.
suits them. They are influenced wholly
by season, it would seem. Sometimes,
if one or two bright, warm days follow
one another in winter, Bruin will come
out for q short promenade; but he
quickly returns homeward on the least
change of temperature. The she-bear
is supposed here to bring forth her cubs
when in winter quarters. No matter
how early you may see the female bear
in spring, she always has her cubs with
her.
will mention fact that has, / under
stand, been disputed by some professors
in the East, and that is the presence of
in the swallows nests here.
[ refer to the building swallow
| have seen nests which fairly swarmed
inside with these abominable crawlers.
This fact is so well known here that
miners, cowboys, ETC., will knock down
the partly built nest and thus discour-
age the birds from building at that par
ticular spot. because letting the nests
remain means having your cabin in
tested after time with these very eff
cient substitutes for bed-bugs. Wheth-
er these ticks are parasites brought
from the South or not, do not know,
but do know that the nests here have
them.
The snoW-shoe rabbit is curious lit
tie fellow; the loose skin of the feet is
enlarged so as to expand on PRESSURE
and Bunny can skim along deep soft
snow where no living animal can fol-
low him. The mountain goat has
similar protection given it by nature;
the thick Wiry hair on its legs above
The hoofs spreads outwards when
walking over snow, and enables this
lnsocial party to wander at sweet will
over deep and deadly drifts unmolested
oy his enemies. The spreading wiry hair
him from sinking over few
inches in the snow. He never descends
o the low country, unless in unusually
severe weather. In summer, he ranges
IN the SUBMITS almost Of the highest
lille clncn IN | / thn ,,n,.,,nA,, 81 g, IN.