Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-01-30
ISLAND PYGMlES.
A Familiar Talk About Some Very Little
Animals.

Familiar Talk About Some Very Little
Animals.
1t is curious that almost all of the
animal pygmies whether of the present
age or of the past, seem to come from
islands, usually the islands of the south
ern seas, although the Shetland and the
Orkney isles, where the dwarf ponies
scramble over the rugged rocks, are ex-
captions.
In the island of Ceylon, with its
giant spiders, with their nets spun with
yellow silk twisted az thick as rope in
comparison with our filmy, gossamer
threads, and giant butterflies with emer-
aid wings, are also wonderful pygmy
creatures. There are little bulls, the
Brahman, or sacred oxen, not more than
80 inches in height at their largest
growth, and generally only 22. They
are very pretty, with their silky hides
and their legs like those of the deer,
though they have deep dewlaps and
bumped necks, like the zebu breed.
These bulls are swift, keeping up a
long, swinging trot or run, and they go
for great distances without food or wa
ter, if necessary. Reins are fastened to
a ring in the cartilage of the nose, and
most of the freight Of the island is car
ried by these little creatures in their
small two wheeled carts.
Another pretty pygmy found i'll the
Ceylon forests is the graceful musk deer,
not more tAan 10 inches in height and
Il or IA inches III length. 1t is exqui-
sitely formed, like the antelope, and is
gray, dappled with white spots. In the
Sunday islands is another species of
deer, rot much larger than cat.
Tic pygmy marmoset does not come
from al island, but from Brazil, whose
great river however, gives its bordering
forests many of the conditions of island
life. These dwarf monkeys are only
4 inches tall when standing up, and
Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller tells of two
that could wrestle and tumble III a la
dy's open palm, sit on the edge of tea
cup, hide in al kinds of small places
and perch together on a lead pencil.
They are full OF fun and mischief and
are incessantly scolding, chattering and
leaping from one tall object to another.
Their color is pretty gray, and they
have very long tails, ringed with black
and gray, also funny little dark tufts
of hair, like whiskcrs, on each side of
the face.
One of the oldest dwarfs is dwarf
elephant Several are in this coun-
try. They are wonderfully sagacious
and quick Of intelligence. In the island
of Malta the fossil remains arc found of
race of pygmy elephants no bigger
than sheep, and the babies CT this spe-
cies might 10 doubt have been easily
held on tic PALM CT a mans hand. An
other fossil pygrny is that OF horse,
said to be 10 larger than fox.
We rarely hear of ocean pygmies, but
pygmy whale, perfectly formed, with
all the characteristics of its immense
kindred, the sperm whales, the largest
living animals known, has recently
been discovered. The large whale is so
feet in length, while the pygny one is
only S.
The human pygmies-at least, the
pygmy races, such as the little folk of
the banana forests in Africa and the
understood Rock Veddalis of Ceylon-
are not at all intelligent and seem like
children arrested in their earliest stages,
but individual dwarfs have been very
quick witted and Of a fiery spirit, like
the valiant little Godfrey Hudson, who
was knigh;ed By King Charles.
L. Mosby in Philadelphia Times.