The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-07-11
SOME FREAKS OF NATURE.
Prof Agassiz Told a Good Story on
His Friend, Mr.. Buck
land.
The Naturalist Worried Over the
Use q Boar Made Of
Horns
ANNOYING Whine Of the Familiar Mos
quito-The Deadly Tsetse Fly-Other
Curious Phenomena.

a
quito-The Deadly Tsetse Fly-Other
Curious Phenomena.
Prof. Agassiz used to tell good story
about his friend auckland, the British
naturalist, who, on one of his visits to the
London Zoo, was attacked by babiroussa,
or horned boar, and had to save himself by
headlong retreat. writes Prof. Phelix Os-
valid in the New York Ledger.
THAT brute would have knocked you
down if he had struck you with his horns,"
remarked synlpathizing friend.'
"Oh. don't care,'' said the philosopher;
.'but it worries me to notice that he never
does use his horns, as you call them. They
are horn-sbaped tusks and curved too much
backward to be of any service in, fighting.
What in the world can be their practical
purpose?'
Naturalists of that sort are liable to good
deal of worry. Nature abounds with un-
explained phenomena. OF what use. for
instance, is the long tail of the mail pleas
ant to bird that has often to
save itself by flight? In some
varieties Gas in the Chinese
silver pleasantly, the problematic append
age is nearly six feet long and makes it al
most impossible for its proprietor to take
wing at short notice. In running through
the tangled underbrush of tropical forest
the tail is hardly less obstructive, and is GER
talnly not ornamental enough to compen-
safe its undesirable tendencies. And again,
Of what benefit to its owner are the enor-
NOUS horns of the Wapiti stag-antlers
with a spread of fifty-six inches and q weight
of twenty-five pounds? Besides stretching
left and right almost as far as man
of average size could extend is arms, they
send out number of lateral branches,
forming system of hooks and prongs ex-
uuisiteiy adapted to catch against every
bush. as the encountered animal dashes
along through the maze OF its native
woods.
II would not care for the bite of mos
quito if it wasn't for the internal whine," l
indeed, not quite easy to understand OF
what profit the droning and buzzing sound
of it's wings can be to any blood-sucking in
sect, It merely serves to warn or annoy its
intended victims to whom it can hardly be
more aggravating than to the whining little
vampire itself.
A still greater enigma is the deadly virus
of the African tsetse fly. In southern Nubia.
there are districts where herdsmen have to
drive their cattle hundreds of miles every
spring to avoid the bites Of the little pest,
whose private purpose is limited to extrac-
tion of a few drops Of blood, and whose in
terests have no imaginable connection with
the subsequent agony of it's victims. a day
or two after stout steer has been bitten
strange swellings appear under his jaw
and about the groins; the animal shivers
and witches as If in extreme distress, and
with outbreaks Of fury similar to those OBJ
served in an advanced stage of hydro
phobia. The testimony Of such travellers
as DR.. Livingstone and Sir Samuel Baker
kayee no doubt about the actually Of the
described results; yet If wasp should be
pear it nibbles the arrangement could hard
" appear more prepOsterous. The gratu-
itous destruotiveness of certain carniverous
animals presents very similar problem.
An otter in well-stooked fsh-pond will
kill about fifty fishes for one it eats, and
the murderous instinct OF the weasel and
the European pine marten far exceeds the
needs and conceivable interests of the little
demons. An amateur poultry fancier of my
acquaintance once lost twenty eight inn
ported chickens in q single night, all of
them having been killed by small, sharp
bite into the base OF the brain. In
three or four cases the murderer had
gnawed the skull of its prey and torn
open the neck in quest of blood, but with
those exceptions the massacre seemed to
have been prompted by sheer wanton love
of havoc. With little more prudence the
poultry-loving marten could have repeated
his visits and banquets for long series of
tied to one or the other of the half hundred
different disorders fowls are heir to, for the
hen house harbored an army OF feathered
bipeds, some of them on the sick list. But
that one nights mischief ended the game.
The fiend was tracked to his loophole and
kpoy ,Na1 %hox nvk arynvN Snrp
As a rule, defenseless animals are dressed
in the colors best adapted to conceal them
from their enemies, and kind nature goes
SO far as to vary the protective hue of GER
tain creatures with the different seasons of
the year, as in the case of the Norwegian
mer. but turns white at the approach of
winter.
But the close study of that rule reveals
some curious exceptions. In the Arctic
regions, where snow-white would be the
best possible protective color, several
species of seal are dressed In suits OF black
and dark brown that contrast strikingly
with the black surface of the icefelds, and
attract polar bears and other connOisseurs
Of sealskin from distance of many miles.
Sparrow hawks often pursue tanagers or
summer redbirds, that try their best to es-
capa by darting into a thicket Of tanRin
vines ines but are BETRAYED again and again BY
the woods afire," as Henry Thoreau ex-
presses it. Several species of tropical
inches are attired in even more risky hues
"a glazing combination of white and scar
let or of yellow and dark-blue; colors that
can not possibly escape the attention of
even casual observer. Butterflies fight the
struggle for existence under similar disad-
vantages, and many species of their help
less caterpillars seem to have been colored
expressly for the convenience of their chief
enemies, the predatory ichneumon wasps,
that can hardly fail to see coil OF red and
dark brown worms in a green tree.
What Do You Know
About tho Superb Pullman DINING Car,
which have been recently placed in aerv;c.