Morning journal and courier., 1892-03-22
THEY LIVE LIVES OF FEAR.
Animals That Spend Their Whole
Time Hiding From Their Ene-
From the Indianapolis News.l

mics.
from the Indianapolis News.l
AS sat looking from my window the
other morning upon a red squirrel gather
ing hickory nuts from a small hickory and
storing them up in his den in the bank /
was forcibly reminded of the state of con-
slant fear and apprehension in which the
wild creatures live, and l tried to picture
to myself what life would be to me, or to
any of u.s. hedged about by SO many dan
gers, real or imaginary.
The squirrel would shoot up the tree,
making only brown streak from the bot
tom to the top; would seize kis nut and
rush down again in the most precipitate
manner. Half way to his den, which was
not over three rods distant, he would rush
up the trunk of another tree for few
yards to make an observation. No danger
being near, he would dive into his den and
reappear again in twinkling.
Never did he fail during the half hour
or more that watched him to take an OBJ
servation on his way both to and from his
Something seemed to say to him all the
time: "Look out! look outl" ''The catl"
''the hawk" "the OWL" 1.-THE boy with the
gum"
1t was bleak December morning; the
first fine flakes of cold, driving snow
storm were just beginning to sift down,
and the squirrel was eager to finish har-
vesting his nuts in time. 1t was quite
touching to see how hurried and anxious
| and nervous he was. 1 felt like going out
| and lending a hand. The nuts were
small, poor pig nuts. and 1 thought of all
| the gnawing he would have to do to get at
the scanty meat they held. Nv little boy
| took pity on squirrel that lived in the
| wall near the gate and cracked the nuts
| for him and placed them upon a small
board shelf in the tree where he could sit
and eat them at his ease.
The red squirrel is not so provident as
the chipmunk. He lays up no stores reg
ularly, but by fits and starts; he never has
| ter; hence he is more or less active all the
season Long before the December snow
| the chipmunk has for days been making
hourly trips to his den with full pockets
of nuts, or corn, or buckwheat, till his
| bin holds enough to carry him through to
April. He need not, and believe does
not, set foot out of doors during the whole
winter. But the red squirrel trusts more
| to luck. As alert and watchful as the red
cat. Ny Mig, as black as ebony, knows
well the taste of his flesh. have known
him TO be caught by the blacksnake and
successfully swallowed. The snake, no
doubt, lay in ambush for him.
This fear, this eyer-present source of
danger of the wild creatures we know lit
tie about. Probably the only person in
the civilized countries who is no better off
than the animals in this respect is the Car
of Russia. He would not even dare gath
| or nuts as openly as my squirrel. 4 black
| er and more terrible cat than Mig would be
| lying in wait for him and would mske a
meal of him. The early settlers in this
country must have experienced something
of this dread of apprehension from the
Indians. Many African tribes now live in
| the same state of constant fear of the slave
catchers or other hostile tribes. Oar an
cestors back in geologic times must have
| known fear as O constant feeling. Hence
| the prominence of fear in infants and chill
dren when compared with the youth of the
grown person Babies are nearly always
afraid of strangers.
| In the domestic animals also fear is
much more active in the young than in the
old. Nearly every farm boy has seen q
calf but day or two old which its mother
/ has secreted in the woods or in a remote
field, charge upon him furiously with q
| wild bleat when first discovered. After
| this first ebullition of fear IL usually set
| ties down into the tame humdrum of its
| bovine elders. Eternal vigilance is the
price of life with most of the wild cres-
| lures.
The coon is probably the most cour-
ageous creature among our familiar wild
| animals. Who ever saw a coon show the
white featheri He will face any odds with
perfect composure. I have seen coon
upon the ground, beset by four men and