The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-08
Animal Sleep.

Though many animals look upon sleep as a luxury, and make comforta- ble beds for it's enjoyment, as was shown in the Spectator of December 1, others sleep butt title; and their slum- bers are so light that they seem to have
 the power of becoming instantaneously awake, however soundly they may have been sleeping. It is commonly said of some creatures that they sleep with one eye open" The instantaneous tran sition by which, when awakened, they pass into action. such as fight and es- cape, with full possession of their facul- ties almost suggests that they have some additional sense,s which takes the form of vigilance in sleep, and remains conscious when all other consciousness is lost. This is an easy but not satis- factory explanation of this quick recov- cry of sense rby sleeping animals; for it attributes to them a faculty not pos sessed by man, under conditions in which life of men and animals would naturally be supposed to differ least- that is, when the use of their higher faculties is for a time partially sus- pended.
 There is good reason to believe that the broken and timid form of animal sleep in the greater number of species is not such as they would naturally choose, but is the result of habits ac- quired and transmitted in centuries of danger and avoidance of their enemies, and that the same causes which have modified the hours of sleep have also modified its character, Of the animals which when wild, now sleep by day, snatching broken periods of unrestful slumber as and where they can, not a twentieth part are night-feeders by nature and by choice. The true noe turnal animals are those which can on- y find their food at night With the exceptions of the owls and opossums. which are partly insectivorous, they are nearly all insect eaters bats, lemurs, lorises, and nightjars; and though the last, like the owls, do move with rapid jty and some precision when once dis turbed, the others might be distinguish ed from those creatures which are only nocturnal by necessity by the absence of that wakefulness in sleep which the later possess in such marked degree.
 The bats, lemurs, and lorises are dur ing the day steeped and drugged with slumber. If once discovered, they make no effort to escape; like the opossums which let the "back fellows chop them put of their holes in the hollow trees v,itbort r,noUiDty fr0n, +boiY, sIooripo places, it does not seem possible for them to awaken. Light benumbs their faculties like freezing cold, and they seek darkness with the same instinct that a human being with senses be- numbed by sickness demands more light. Bats, the only purely nocturnal animals in this country, show this char lcteristic in its completed form. Their daylight sleep paralyzes them, though not be cause they are unable to see and fly with safely in the sunlight for they 2an do both. But if handled and dis turbed they make no effort even to spread their wings, and seem unable to shake off the drowsy influence. Not wen the great night-hying moths are 90 completely the slaves of this un- yielding habit of dominal sleep.
 Contrasted with this deep repose, the of the great body of her 3ivorous animals is so light and broken hat it may be doubted whether their senses are ever so completely at rest IS to deserve the name of sleep at all. | In human sleep the sense of hearing |