Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-07-26
FREAKS OF NATURE.
Certain Animals Have Characteristic,
for which No Reason Can he Found.

Certain Animals Have Characteristic
for Which No Reason Can BE Found.
Prof Agassiz used to tell q good story
about his friend Buck land, the British
naturalist, who, on one of his visits to tn,
London ZOO, was attacked by babirousa
or horned boar, and had to save himsel
by headlong retreat.
:" That bruie would have knocked you
down If he had struck you with his horns,
remarked q sympathiZing friend.
"Oh, don't care, said the philosopher
but 1t worries me TO notice that he never
does use his horns, as they call them
They are hornshaped tusks, and curved
too much backward to be of any service
In lighting. What in the world can DC
their practical purpose?"
Naturalists OF that sort are liable to good
deal OF worry, says Felix l.. Oswald in the
. New York Ledger. Nature abounds with
unex planned phenomena. or what use, for
instance, is the long tail of the male pleas
ant to bird that has often to save itself by
fight? In some varieties las in the Chinese
silver pheasant) tho problematic append
age Is nearly six feet long, and makes 1t
almost impossible for its proprietor to take
wing at short notice. In running through
the tangled underbush ofa tropical forest
the tail Is hardly less obstructive, and is
| certainly not ornamental enough TO COM
pensate its undesirable tendencies. And,
again, of what benefit to its owner are the
enormous horns of the Wapiti stag -antlers
with spread of 5,i inches and a weight of
rs pounds2 Besides stretching left and
right almost as far as man OF average size
could extend his arms, they send out u
number of lateral branches, forming a
system of hooks and prongs exquisitely
adapted to catch against every bush as the
incumbered animal dashes along through
the maze of its native woods.
+" would not care for the bite of mos
quito if it wasn't for its internal whine," /
I'VE heard many people say, and 1t seems,
Indeed, not quite easy to understand OF
what profit the dronng and buzzing sound
Of It's wings can be to any blood d-sucking
insect. 1t merely serves to warn or annoy
its intended victims, to whom 1t 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
Nuba there are districts where herdsmen
have to drive their cattle hundreds of miles
every spring to avoid the bite of the little
pest, whose private purpose Is limited TO
the extraction of a few drops of blood, and
whose interests have no imaginable con-
nection with the subsequent agony of its
victims. A day or two afer stout steer
has been bitten strange swellings appear
under his jaw and about the grOins; the
animal shivers and twitches as II in ex-
treine distress, and finally dies in con.
vulsiOns often attended with outbreaks of
fury similar to those observed in an an
vanced stage of hydrophobia. The testi-
mony of such travellers as DIR. Livingstone
and Sir Samuel Baker leaves no doubt
about the actuality ofthe described results;
yet, ifa wasp should be provided with an
apparatus to poison every pear 1t nibbles
the arrangement could hardly appear more
prepOsterOus.
The gratuitous destr,ictiveness of certain
carnivorous animals presents very similar
problem. An otter In a well stock ed fish
pond will kill about fifty fishes for one 1t
eats, and the murcerous instinct OF the
weasel and the European pine marten far
exceeds the needs aud conceivable inter
ests of the little demons. An amateur
poultry fiincier of my acquaintance once
lost twenty-eight imported chickens in a
single night, all of them having been
killed by small, sharp bite into the base
of the brain. In three or four cases the
had guawed the skull of its prey
and torn open the neck in quest of blood,
but with these exceptions the massacre
seemed to have been prompted by sheer
wanton love of havoc. With a little more
prudence the poultry-loving marten could
have repeated his visits and banquets for
long series of nights, and have all his
credited to one or the other
Of the half hundred different disorders
fowls are heir to, for the henhouse har-
bored an army of feathered bipeds, some
of them on the sick list. But that one
nights lnlScnleI enueu lne game. me
fiend was tracked to his loophole and
trapped the very next evening.
AS u rule detenseless 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
certain creatures with the different sea-
sons of the year, as in the case of the Nor
wegian grouse, whose plumage is brown
in summer, but turns white ut the approach
of winter. But this 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
with the bleak surface of the
ice-fields, and attract polar bears and
other connoisseurs of sealskin from dis
tance of many miles. Sparrow hawks
often pursue tanagers or summer redbirds
that try their best to escape by darting in
to a thicket of tangle vines, but are be-
trayed again and again by color that
"fiames as If II was going to set the woods
afire," as Henry Thoreau expresses it.
Several species of tropical finches are at
tired in even more risky hues-a glarng
OF white and scarlet OF yellow
aud dark blue-colors that cannot possibly
escape the attention of even a casual OBJ
server. Butterflies fight the struggle for
existence under similar disadvantages.