The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-16
ODDITIES OF WILD ANIMALS.
stories of Some Clever and Inquisi-
tive Bears.
From the New York Tribune.

From the New York Tribune.
"People who live near the haunts of
wild animals see a good many strange
sights if they are watchful," said a woods
man. "Our folks once had a stumpy lot
with woods on three sides of it. The field
had been seeded to clover, and fifteen or
twenty woodchucks dug holes in the
ground and lived high and in peace till
bear got in the habit, along in July, of
stealing out of the woods just before sun
set every day, crouching in the tall clover
and bouncing on a woodchuck while it
was getting it's supper. Father wouldn't
shoot the bear, because it's fur was good
for nothing then, and he wanted it to thin
out the woodchucks. When the bear kill
ed a number of woodchucks and carried
them into the woods, a wise old wood
chuck in the upper end of the field began
to smell a rat, and whenever the bear
stole out of the timber the cunning old
woodchuck would sit by its hole and
whistle like everything to warn the other
woodchucks of the bears presence. Then
he and all the woodchuckS in the lot would
scoot into their holes, and the bear would
SLOUGH back into the woods looking sheep
ish When the alert old woodchuck had
played that trick on 6rnin rev times me-
for at noon one hot day we saw the bear
shamble out of the woods and climb up
tree just above the cute old woodcnuck
burrow Not single Woodchuck was in
sight and that made us wonder what the
bear was up to. The bear stayed In the
tree all the afternoon, and just before
shutdown we saw the cute old Woodchuck
crawl out of its hole and take survey of
the field. He didn't see the bear, so pref
ty soon he scampered off some distance
from his hole and began to nibple clover
contentedly No sooner had the wood
chuck started to eat his supper than the
bear let himself drop from the limb. IL
landed near the whole. got on its feet in
a second and lay fiat in the clover. The
woodchuck heard the thud and scampered
for his hole, and the cunning bear nabbeu
him and squeezed him to death In hurry.
with the wise woodchuck out of the way,
the bear had smooth shedding, and before
the end of August it killed every wood
chuck in the lot. =
the Sinnamahoning creek, who had
queer experience with an inquisitive bear.
The water used on the premises was
of a knoll by hydraul1c ram that stood
in a covered, plank box few feet below
tba snring Every beat of the rams
yaive could be plainly heard in the wood
bouse and the ram had worked all right
for six years, when, one morning, 1t got
balky Just as the owner was dipping mis-
Daii }nfo the trough. 1t stopped and start
"a several times, and the astonished
farmer. after he had listened to its jam
boree a while, handed a monkey wrench
snring and find out what the matter was.
Inst then the mans wife wanted me TO
do some thing in the cellar, so the man
tool the wrench and started for the
spTing. When he got to the edge of
grove the secret of the rams queer con-
5uet was revealed to him. He saw a
large bear with it's paws on the box peer
ing down at the ram. the animals in
ouisitiveness having driven 1t to tear the
cover off to find out what sort of a thing
was heating in the box. The bear was
very much amused with its new play
thing. for it touched the valve several
times with its paw and acted as if it was
trying to ascertain why the valve didn't
work when its paw was on 1t. The Gu