The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-04-14
THE SCORPION

characteristics Of Very Dangerous In
habitant of the Bermudas.
must confess to having had a very
vague idea about the scorpion before
becoming acquainted with the tropics.
l think if had been driven to it l
should have described him as creature
with wings, black. and somewhere
about the size of a humming-bird. This
would have been about as inaccurate a
description as can be imagined. He
has no wings, he is not black, and he is
nowhere near the size of even half
grown humming-bird. There is an
imaginary picture of him In all the
almanacs, but it doesn't look very much
like him-that sign of the zodiac.
A full-grown scorpion is from two to
two-and-a-half inches long and his
color is a sort of ashy gray. He has
eight legs, upon all Of which minute
hair grows, and his tail is much longer
than there is any necessity for consid-
ering the size of his body, and l
have included that in measuring his
length. 1t is at the end of his tail that
he carries his venomous sting, and
when he curls up his body into a semi
circle and brings that lively end of his
tail to bear upon an enemy, the enemy
can not drop him too soon. His body
is nowhere as thick as lead
pencil, but at the head it branches out
into claws, or horns, or additional legs,
whichever you like to call them; so that
in shape he is somewhat like tack
hammer. He is shaped very much like
hammer-headed shark, only hammer
headed sharks are not familiar enough
| in Northern waters to serve for an illus
tration. He is 4 creature of mold and
slime, like the snail. Let an old box
lie on the ground, particularly in u
moist place, till the bottom boards
begin to decay, and your scorpion trap
is ready.
When you want your game lift up
the box and there is your scorpion. But
be careful to take hold of the box near
the top. and not get your fingers in his
way. For the scorpion is very rapid in
his movements, and he will give you a
sting before you know it. When he
strikes you with the end of his tail. like
q wasp, he exudes a venomOus liquid,
and man might better hold a red-hot
iron in his hand than get the tenth part
of drop of this liquid into his blood.
1t is not necessarily fatal. particularly
in the Bahamas, but it condenses the
heat of forty furnaces.
| In some parts of South America scor-
pion bites are frequently fatal, but l
have not heard of any one having been
killed by them in Nassau. This is easily
accounted for. The scorpion likes to
feed upon decaying wood. In South
America, where dye woods and other
poisonous woods abound, the scorpions
feed upon them, and thus work into
themselves a good supply of outside
poison, which, taken together with his
naturally poisonous liquid, does its
work for whoever is unfortunate enough
to be stung. But In Nassau such
poisonous woods are few, and the
scorpions have to fatten themselves
respectfully on pine, cedar and ma
hogany.
They never attack anybody unless
disturbed. But if barefoot boy steps
on one, or if you pick up a stone or .
board with one lying under it, he will
sting you if he can, and he will do it
on very short notice, too. have seen
a decaying board picked up that had
three or four scorpions lying under it.
Nobody ever thinks of letting one
escape in this part of the world II he
can help it. The same feeling that
sailors have about sharks, people in
tropical countries have about all these
venomous insects. just as we always
try to kill a snake in the North. a
Southerner always tries to kill taran-
tula, II scorpion or a centipede.-Cor.
Boston Commercial Bulletin.