The Opelousas courier., 1891-10-17
ODD FACTS ABOUT BRUTES.
MATTERS OF INTEREST NOT GEN.
ERALLY KNOWN.
Ants Put % a Peculiar Use-Tigers
Drawer Than Lions-All Wild An
imaIs Are Far-sighted.

drawer 4AhI1 1fCNS AL FAA0 @1A
imaIs Are Far-sighted.
The grip Of an ants jaw is retained
even after the body has been bitten of
and nothing but the head remains. This
knowledge is possessed by a certain tribe
Of Indians in Brazil, who put the ants to
a very peculiar use. When an Indian
gets a cash cut in his hand, instead Of
having his hand sewn together, as ply
sicians do in this country, he procures
five or six large black ants, and holding
their heads near the cash, they bring
their jaws together in biting the flesh,
and thus pull the two sides OF the cash
together. sS,hen the Indian plnehes off
the bodiespf the ants and leaves the
heads clin9ing to the flesh, which is held
together until the cash is perfectly
healed.
A pair of rats, happily situated and I'M
disturbed, will in three years, have in
creased to $50, sos. Calculating that ten
rats eat as much in one day as a man,
which, we think, is rather under than
over the fact, the consumption of these
rats would be equal to that of $3.50
men the year round and leave eight rats
in the year to spare. Multiplying in this
rapid way, 1t is proyidential that the rat
has SO many natural enemies. All these
to the contrary Notwithstanding, he of
ten proves sufficiently troublesome to
make the community conspire against
him. In Ireland they SINCE the hair Of a
rat which b IS been caught, but it is other
wise unframed. In Germany they let
one loose with a small bell attached to
his neck. The tinkling of this, as the
belled rat chases his friends, produces a
panic among them and causes them to
flee the premises.
The Bengal tiger has more courage
than the lion, according to a Snowman,
who states that the matter was tested in
this manner: eve placed a shooting
cracker in the respective cages and fired
the fuses. As soon as the fuses began
to burn they attracted the attention of
both animals, but in a widely different
manner. The lion drew into a corner
and watched the proceedings with a dis
t~rustful and uneasy eye. The tiger, on
the contrary, advanced to the burning
fuse with a firm step and un~finching
gaze. On reaching the cracker he toek
his paw and began to roll it over the
floor, and when it exploded beneath his
very nose he did not finch, but con-
tinued his examination until perfectly
satisfied. The lion betrayed great fear
when he heard the report of the explo-
sion, and for quite a time could not be
cooked out of his den."
A curious communication has been
made to the academic de Medicine" by
NJ. Motais of Anglers, whose works on
the various diseases of the eye are highly
esteemed. He has closely examined the
effect Of captivity on the sight of wild
beasts, such as lions, tigers, ETC., and
asserts that all animals in a savage state
are far-sighted. The same remark ap-
plies to man in an uncivilized state, and
v to those who, though civilized,
follow vocations which oblige them to
remain constantly in the open air, such
as sailors or farm laborers. The same
faculty exists in Gagged animals, when
they have been taken after the age of siz
or eight months; but when born in cap
tivity or kept in cages when very young
they become nearsighted, which M.
Motais attributes to the narrow space in
which they are confined and the train
ing which obliges them to follow the
eye Of the keeper or trainer to obey his
will. The nearsightedness Of school
children may, in his opinion, be ascribed
to the same cause.-The habit of concen-
trating the sight on one point, and the
fact that the power of the visual organ
becomes modified according to the
requirements to which it is subjected.
Many stories told of the crafty fox are
doubtless incidents of the Imagination.
But a recent writer tells an anecdot'
which, though taxing belief, he says il
vouched for by an eyewitness Of the at
fair. Some fishermen on the west coasi
of Ireland were in the habit of going tc
q small island, q few hundred yards from
the mainland, in quest of bait. The isl
and was inhabited by large numbers Q
rabbits, and could be reached at low it'd
by wading, the water there being onl.
q few inches deep. One morning the.
went in their boat quite early, it beinl
high tide, and on landing saw q deat
fox lying on the beach. The fur Of th'
animal was all b~edraggled, and b
seemed to have been drowned. One Q
the men, remarking that his skin wa
worth something, pitched him into th
boat. Procuring their bait they returned
to the mainland, and the man who ha
possessed himself of the fox seized hiI
by the tail and flung him on shore. a
soon as the animal struck the beach b
picked himself up with considerable agil
ity for q dead fox and shot off like
fash up among the cliffs, while the me
stood staring at each other in NUT
establishment. The men concluded tina
he had crossed over to the island durin
the night, when the tide was low, j
search Of rabbits, and, finding il th
morning that be was cut off from th
mainland, counterfeited death, with th
expectation of thereby procuring a pas
age to the shore in a boat, an expecta
ton which was fully realized.
IN the island Of Ceylon the people ar
very fond of elephant hunting. The
begin By clearing an open space near
forest, which is strongly fenced in wit
trunks of trees. with open places 70
doors. This is called q corral, Vine
SO much Of the work is done the native
get behind and around the elephant
with blazing torches, shaking spears az
rattling ali kinds Of noisy Instruments
order "a friohkan the huge animals viii