The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-07-28
FREAKS OF NATURE.
Certain Animals Have Chsracterfstics for
which No Reason Can DO Found.

which No Reason Can b Found.
Prof. Agassiz used to tell q good story |
about his friend auckland, the British
naturalist, who, on one of his visits to the
London zoo was attacked by babir-
oussa, or horned boar, n had to save
himself by q headlonR retreat.
"That brute would have knocked you
down IL he had struck you with his horns,"
remarked q sympathixing friend.
"Oh,I don't care" said thephilosopher |
but Il worries me to notice that he never
does use his horns, as you call them They
lRs horn-shaped tusks and curved toe 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 a
good deal of worry, says Felix l.. Oswald
in the New York Ledger. Nature abounds
with unexplained phenomena. OF what
use, for instance, is the long tail of the
male pheasant to a bird that has often to
save itself by flight? In some varieties
,as IN the Chinese silver pheasantD 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 under-
brush of a tropical forest the tail Is hardly
less obstructive, and il is certainly not or
udfiltnthl tIOukn 10 toinDtlSdtt Tvs III
sirable tendencies. And, again, of what
benefit to its owner are the enormous
horns of the W.apiti stag-antlers with IA
spread of 55 inches and "A weight of %
pounds? Besides stretching right n
left almost as far as n man of average
size could extend his arms, they send out
a number of lateral branches, forming a
system of hooks and prongs exquisitely
adapted to catch against every bush as
h encountered animal dashes along
through the maze Of its native woods.
~ would not care for the bite OF a mos
quito IL il wasn't for its Internal whine,"I
have heard many people say; and il
seems, indeed, not quite easy To under
stand of what profit the droning and buzz
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 "a 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 SOUTH
ern Nubia there are districts where herds
men 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 inn
aginable 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 dIu dOout tht RFoltfS tnt ann
NAL shivers and witches as il in extreme
distress, and finally dies i'm commissions,
often attended with outbreaks of fury sim
liar to those observed in an advanced
stage of hydrophobia. The testimony of
such travellers as DIR. Livingstone and Sir
actually of the described results; yet, IL a
wasp should be provided with an appa-
ratus to poison every pear IL nibbles the
arrangement could hardly appear more
preposterous.
The gratuitous destructiveness Of GER
tain arniverous animals presents a very
similar problem. An otter in a well
stocked fish pond will kill about fifty
fishes for one il eats, n 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 y
imported chickens in a single night, all
of them having been killed by n 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 i'm quest of blood. but with
those exceptions the massacre seemed &c
have been prompted by n sheer wantor
love of havoc. With a little more pru
dence the poultry-loving marten coult
a repeated his visits and banquets fol-
a long series of nights, and have all hi,
utIItdhttotlt Y W oIlt OF lDt OIIe1
of the ha%lf-hundred different orders fowl,
are heir To, for the hen-house harbored al
army OF feathered bipeds, some of then
on the sick list. But that one nights mis-
chief ended the game. The fiend wa,
tracked to his loophole and trapped tn,
very next evening.
Al a rule. defenseless animals ar,
dressed i'm the colors best adapted to con
ceal them from their enemies and kin,
nature goes so far as TO vary the protect
i've hue of certain creatures with the diff
ferent seasons OF the year, as in the cas-
OF the Norwegian grouse, whose plumag,
Is browni in summer, but turns white a
the approach OF winter. But this clos
, study of that rule reveals some curiou
: exceptions. In the Arctic regions, wher
now white would be the best possibl
protective color, several species Of brow
seal are dressed In suits of black and darI
! brown hat contrast strikingly with tn
bleak surroundings of the ice fields, an
4 attract polar pears and other connoisseur
of sealskin from n distance O
. many miles. Sparrow hawks oftel
Y pursue tanagers or summer redbirds
. that try their best to escape by dartin
into a thicket of tanRle vines, but are bs
= trayed again and again by n color tina
1 FLAMES as IL IL was going to set the wood
afire," as Henry Thoreau expresses 1
Several species OF tropical finches are a
tired in even more risky hues-a glarin
combination III white and scarlet or q
yellow and dark ~blue-colors that can n,
u possibly escape the attention Of a casua
observers. Butterflies fight the struggl
e for existence under similar disadvanti
gcs, u many species of their helples
caterpillars seem to have been lcolore
, expressly for the convenience of the
u chief enemies, the predatory ichneumo
y wasps. that can hardly fail to see a co
of red and dark brown worms ON a gree
$ tree.
9 A skeleton In the Closet.