The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-02

with dozen others, will insure you boat
load of croaking catfish or comforting cells.
Hou have seen the woodpecker many a
time climbing the stem of the old tree, go
ing up 1t with the facility of the squirrel,
tapping it with his bill, and turning his
head aside aud listening, with his ear close
to the tree, to hear the expected movement
beneath the surface that will betray the
presence of the grub he would dine upon.
But did you know that if the woodpecker,
after having climbed the old trees trunk
should happen by some possibility TO be
robbed Of the use of his wings, he could
never get of Of that tree unless he tum-
| bed like stone 70 the grouudl Whether
you know II or not IL is so. The wood
pecker can work his way up trees trunk
with ease, but he can't climb down, as the
saying is. Ii he couldn't fly away he would
have to stay there until he starved TO death
or fell down and perhaps broke his neck.
But his lively little relative, the sapsucker,
can climb down tree as readily
as he can climb up it. Which, speak
ing OF the sapsucker, reminds me of
an extraordinary and touching thing l
saw pair of these interesting birds do once
l was boy, ana it was green-apple time.
Consequently l was surreptItiously III an
orchard, another boy with me. We saw a
sapsucker clinging to the trunk of an apple
tree. eagerly inspecting its bark for insects.
At a moment when it had its sharp bill in
serted in en- intRrstice of the bark my conn
panion threw large green apple with all
his force at the bird. The apple hit the
bird square on the back of the head and
drove its bill clear to the base into the tree,
and there the sapsucker hung, dead. We
had noticed no other sapsuckers when the
fatal throw was made but almost ms family
two others came flirting from somewhere
and lit on the tree trunk ,one on each side Of
the bird that hung there by its bill. They
twittered and hustled about in great agi-
tation for a minute or two and then began
Juggling at the dead bird, and worked until
| they had pulled its bill from the tree. The
dead sapsucker dropped to the ground. The
other two dragged it several feet away to a
spot under q bush, where they scratched
with their feet hole in the ground. Roll
ing the dead bird into the grave they had
dug, they covered it with dirt. Having
buried their dead com panion. they hoped
two or three times around the grave and
then flew away. That pathetic scene i'm
pressed US SO deeply that my comrade aud l
resolved on the spot that we would never
impale an apple tree with "a sapsucker in
that way again, and we never did.
ut would go hard with the harmless and
defenseless little brown lizard of the Sierra
foot Mills, hunted persistently as it Is by its
deadly foe, the tarautula, if it wasn't for
the extraordinary talent IL has in the way
of taking on and putting off its tail. The
big, poisonous spider is specially fond of
this lizard, but it is seldom that he ever gets
more than its tail to lunch on. The lizard
is ever on the watch for its foe, and flies at
sight Of the hIdeous animal The tarantula
immediately gives chase and quick as the
lizard is, the tarantula is quicker, and
invariably seizes it by the tail. The
lizard gives itself a sudden hump
aud shake, snaps its tail of
and escapes. Although that thing is
tr 10 TO ,kt1lo 10
a fact that it never seems to fail to cause
him the most profound amazement. for he
will stand stock still, with the lizards tail
ia his mouth, and gaze after the fleeing
reptile with his eyes actually bulging until
the lizard has disappeared. Then the big
spider will place the toll on the ground, ex-
amininR it from cpd to end, give another
| surprised look in the direction the detached
lizard took, and then make the best of his
disappointment by eating the tail The most
curious part OF the whole thing is that the
lizard begins to sorout new tail at once,
and in the course OF two or three days comes
out as good as new.
why does the swapping turtle always
lay her eggs in the forenooul No one has
ever told me why, and don't know, but
| she always does The swapping turtle is
| particular about the nest she digs in the
| sand or dirt, and she sometimes digs two or
| three before she gets one to suit her. II she
| eggs, but il it Is afternoon when the nest is
| ready she will return to the water and come
| back the next forenoon and lay the eggs.
That is a little bit of animal superstition
that ought to be investigated.
"Think OF an Insignificant insect with
maternal instincts exactly similar to the
hensl The dreaded but harmless earwig is
such one aud tue oaly insect known that
lays its eggs, sits on them, aud matches them
out itself. When the brood is Matched the
mother earwig attends them just as the hen
does her chicks, watching over them. gath
ering them together under her body, aud
calling them il some way if danger is near.
The esrwig presents the almost incredible
fact Of unmistakeable affection between an
insect and its offspring, something unique
in that order Of animal life.
II know nothing in nature more extraor-
dinay than the magical skill of the female
helgrammite-the gigantic and fierce look
iny fly the larva of which is the hideous
dobson, familiar to black bass fishermen as
packer of eggs. She lays 5000 eggs on
the under side of some leaf near running
water and covers them with a thin fila,
ment. This nest OF eggs looks like a circu-
lar whita blotch on the leaf. 1t is half an
inch in diameter, but it is raised so little
above the iurface of the leaf that the differ
ence between'the two is hardly noticeable,
so marveiously are the eggs arranged be-
meath the filament. Yet if you remove the
eggs aud place them lengthwise in a row
they will make a line twelve feet in length,
aud if gathered up and put into O teacup
they will half fill it.
Nv hat curious ways animals and birds
insects and reptiles have, indeed. What
strange, but artling waysm
SEVVNTEEN ALI HEADEESs