The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-08-27
QUEER FREAKSO OF NATURE
UNBxPLAINED PHENOMENA IN
THE ANIMAL WORLD.

Bird Tails and Deer Horns That Arc
Useless to Their Possessors-Wan.
ton Destructiveness of Animals.
Nature abounds with unexplained phe-
nomena. OF what use, for instance, is
the long tail of the male pheasant to a
bird that has often to save itself by flight Z
In some varieties Gas in the Chinese silver
pheasant, the problematic appendage is
nearly six feet long and makes it almost
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
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-ant-
lers with a spread of fifty six inches and
weight Of twenty-five poundsl Be
side stretching left and right almost as
far as man of average size could extend
his arms, they send out number of lat
eral branches forming a system of hooks
and prongs exquisitely adapted to catch
against every bush, as the encumbered
animal dashes along through the maze Of
Of its native woods.
''I would not care for the bite of
mosquito if it wasn't for its whine, l
have heard many people say, and it
seems, indeed, not quite easy to under
stand of what profit the oroning or buz-
zing sound of its wings can be to any
blood-sucking insect. 1t 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 Nubla, there arc districts
where herdsmen have to drive their cat
tie hundreds of miles every spring to
avoid the bite of the little pest, whose
private purpose is limited to extration of
few drops of blood, and whose inter.
ests have no imaginable connection with
the subsequent agony of its victims. A
day or two after a stout steer has been
bitten, strange swellings appear under
his jaw and about the groins; the animal
shivers and twitches, as if in extreme
distress and finally dies in convulsions,
often attended with outbreaks of fury,
similar to those observed in an advanced
stage of hydrophobia. The testimony of
such travellers as DR.. Livingstone and Sir
Samuel Baker leaves no doubt about the
actuality of the described results yet if
wasp should be provided with an appa-
ratus to poison every pear it nibbles, the
arrangement could hardly appear more
preposterous. The gratuitous destruc.
tiveness of certain carnivorous animals
presents very similar problem. An
otter in well-stocked tish-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 anna
teur poultry fancier of my acquaintance
once lost twenty-eight imported chick
ems in single night, all of them having
been killed bya 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 excep-
tions, the massacre seemed to have been
prompted by a sheer wanton love of
havoc. With little more prudence, the
poultry-loving marten could have re-
peated his visits and banquets for a long
series of nights, and have all his depre-
dations credited to one or the other of
the half-hundred different disorders
fowls are heir to, for the hen.nouse har-
-. 9 G.S.liIy Of feathered bipeds some
OF them always on the sick list. But
that one nights mischief ended the
game. The tiend was tracked to his
loop hole and trapped the very next
evening.
AS rule, defenceless 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 seasons of the year as in case
of the Norwegian grouse, whose plumage
,cEs brown in summer but turns white at
- he approach of winter
- But the close study of that rule reveals
some curious exceptions. In the Arctic
regions where suow-whitc 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 bleak surface of the
ice-telds, and attract polar bears and
other connOisseurs of seal-skin from dis
tance of many miles. Sparrow hawks
often puruse tanagers or summer-red-
birds, that try their best to escape by
darting into a thicket of tangle-vines,
but are betrayed again and again by
color that "hames as if it was going to
set the woods atire, as Henry Thoreau
expresses it. Several species of tropical
finches arc attired in even more risky
hues-a glaring combination of white
and scarlet or Of yellow and dark blue;
colors that cannot possibly escape the
attention of even a casual observer. But
terlies fight the struggle for existence
under similar disadvantages, aud many
species Of their helpless caterpillars seem
to have been colored expressly for the
convenience of their chief enemies, the
the predatory ichneumon wasps, that can
hardly fail to sec a coil of red and dark
brown worms in a green tree e.-NsD York
Ledger.
A Diamond is Useful.