The Monitor-register., 1897-01-29
ISLAND PYGMIEs.
A Familiar Talk About Some Very Little
Anima1s

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-
ceptions.
In the island of Ceylon, with its
giant spiders, with their nets spun with
yellow silk twisted as 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
30 inches in height at their largest
growth, and generally only %. They
are very pretty, with their silky hides
and their legs like those of the deer,
though they have deep dewlaps and
bumped neoks, like the zebu breed.
These bulls are swift, keeping up
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 in the
Ceylon forests is the graceful musk deer,
not more than 10 inches in height and
IL or IA inches in length. It is exqui-
sitely formed, like the antelope, and is
gray, dappled with white spots. In the
Sunday islands is another species Of
deer, not much larger than cat.
The pygmy marmoset does not come
from an island, but from Brazil, whose
great river, however, gives its bordering
forests many of the conditions of island
life. These dwarf monkeys are only
inches tall when standing up, and
Mrs Olive Thorne Miller tells of two
that could wrestle and tumble in la
dy's open palm, sit on the edge of tea
cup, hide in all kinds of small places
and perch together on 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 a pretty gray, and they
have very long tails, ringed with black
and gray, also funny little dark tufts
of hair, like whiskers, 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 are found of
a race of pygmy elephants no bigger
than sheep, and the babies of this spe-
cies might no doubt have been easily
held on the palm of mans hand. An.
other fossil pygmy is that of horse,
said to be no larger than fox.
We rarely hear of ocean pygmies, but
pygny whale, perfectly formed. with
all the characteristics of it's immense
kindred, the sperm whales, the largest
living animals known, has recently
been discovered. The large whale is 80
feet in length, while the pygmy one is
only 8.
The human pygmies-at least, the
pygmy races such as the little folk Of
''sstiS banana forests in Africa and the
undersized Rock Veddalis of Ceylon-
are not at all intelligent and seem like
children arrested in their earliest stages,
: bs1f11aft idual ESwarfs have been very
quick witted and of fiery spirit, like
efhe valiadt f4eoffrey Hudson, who
was Enfghted by King Charles. Ella
r Mosby in Philadelphia Times,