Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-11-27
WONDERS OF INSTINCT.
The Curious Powers of Animals
Who Do Not Reason.

When the naturalist Ruppell ex-
plored the highlands of eastern Africa,
two Soudanese emirs or chieftains once
permitted him to deposit his baggage
in their military camp while he pur-
sued his inquiries In the glens Of a
neighborIng mountain range. On his
return he presented necklaces of beads
to the emirs, and, having observed
that there were just twenty tents in
the fortified kraal, and that every tent
was occupied by exactly seven men, he
handed the emirs a bag containing 141
glass buttons, with the request that
they give one button to every warrior
in the camp.
The glittering keepsakes were at
once distributed, and Ruppel had Just
reloaded his baggage cart. when one of
the chieftains removed the professor s
hat, and gravely examined the top and
rear of his head.
''Verily, oh, friend,'' he said, ''you
must have an extra eye somewhere or
other, for else you would not possibly
have discovered the exact number of
our men.
The honest emir himself could proba-
bly, count up to seven, and with the aid
or his fingers and toes, perhaps could
count even to twenty, but evidently did
not think 1t possible that the human
mind could grasp the vast product of
! the two factors.
A similar mistake may often tempt
| US TO misconstrue the abilities of our in.
stInct guided fellow creatures. The
supposed sixth sense'' may often be
nothing but an uncommon development
of fl- f.
Take for example the deerhound.
which pursues his game through brush
and brake, and returns safely hcme.
even after he has crossed waters that
would prevent him from retracing his
steps by the sense of smell. A few
years. practice, however, enables the
hunter himself to remember the general
direction of his rambles through a path
less forest where d noYiCe would surely
lose his way.
BY hereditary transmission Of the
traits of countless generations of dogs
that have hunted. and which include
the wolf-like ancestors, the domestic
dog may have perfected the ability TO
lind his way to an apparently preternat-
ural degree.
Individual experience, indeed, often
wholly fails to explain such faculties as
the protective Instincts of certain
birds and animals. The British Zoolo-
gist, Spalding, once procured some
newly Matched turkeys, and in order TO
make an experiment carried them into
hall adjoining room where he kept
pair of pet hawks that had not been
fed that morning. and which now and
then vented their impatience in shrIll
scream
The young turkeys had but just come
out of their egg shells, and had never
seen a hawk or heard one before; but
at the first sound of those screams they
all started to their feet and toddled off
with every sign of terror.
At sight of snake or rat my pet
baboon will retreat TO the farthest cor
ner of her cage. l ascribed the precau-
ton to a nervous dread of all unknown
animals, until L made the experiment
with pair of guinea pigs. Jenny was
eating her breakfast when the squealing
little strangers entered her cage, but in
this case her only dread seemed to be
that she might have to share her meal
with the uninvited guests.
For a minute or two she watched
their movements with an air of puzzled
curiosity, but then. instead of taking
to her heels, she made grab at the
intruders, and without further ado hus-
tied them out, and discouraged repe-
tition of the visit by giving each a
parting pinch in the back.
Jenny had received her geological ed =
ucation in the AbySsinian highlands,
while guinea pigs are natives of South
America, but somehow the sight of the
waddling pigmies seemed to satisfy her
Al. =. 4 l.. Ns..t.N
This baboon had a strange appetite
for insects. She appears to recognize
the difference between the harmless
northern centIpede and its dreadful
tropical relative, but she handles craw-
fish with evident suspicion, either on
account of their pinching apparatus or
because OF their resemblance to the
oyergrown scorpions of the tropics.
With snakes she absolutely declines
to take any risks; the non-poisonous
varieties include too many dangerous
strangers.
Hereditary instincts sometimes con-
tinue to assert themselves under circum-
stances that seem to make their assist
ance rather superfluous. There was d
time when the ancestO s of the dog
found it a useful precaution to bury
the remnants Of good meal, and thus
provide against possible times OF scar
city, and that old race habit still
prompts their descendants to hide bones
and old crusts even where the bounty OF
their masters supplies them with regular
and abundant daily meals.
Lapdogs that have never left the
premises OF a fashionable residence
''hunt'' in their dreams, which proves
that their minds retain latent aptitude
for the fayorite pastimes of their fore
fathers.
During summer tour In the Aus
trian Alps one of my neighbOrs bought
young shepherd dog and brought him
to suburb Of Cincinnati, where sheep
are seen only in the form of mutton;
but every little while the young herder
would try to earn his board by collect
ing troop of stray geese, and, in spite
OF their Kissing protest, drive them
along the street like a flock of restless
sheep.