The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-03
TO DEFEND THEIR YOUNG.
FIGHTING ABILITY OF PEACEFUL
BIRDS AND BEASTS.
Fury of u Pathological Cow That Did
Up Il Bear-AnOther Bears Defense
of Her Cubs-HawISs Put to Flight
by ROOster-Fate of sheep
killing DOg-PrOwess of Il Hog.

of Her Cubs-HaWISS Put to Flight
by ROoster-Fate of sheep
killing Dog-PrOwess of n Hog.
From the New York sun.
"a boy reared on backwoods farm
learns many curious things in natural his
tory, If only he keeps his eyes open for
them,' said I. A. Leonard, formerly OF
Maine when I was a boy on my fathers
farm In Cherryheld, I had more fun and
excitement in watching the doings of birds
and beasts than 1 have ever found in any
thing since. One thing particularly inter-
ested me, tie courage and pugnacity that
even peaceful animals viii show in defense
of their young / had practical object les
son in che matter when l was a very small
boy. 1 had already learned to let hen
with chickens alone. having seen the Jury
with which the mother blddy would tack
lie a dog or cat that came too near her
brood, hammering him With her wings and
pecIing at his eyes. A partridge did the
same thing by me when [ blundered upon
her nest one day in bit of woodland near
the house. While her young ones, just
hatched out, ran for cover, she came
fled SO that she looked twice her usual size,
and so sudden and furious was her attack
that l went 10 the ground squarey on my
back did not stay to fight it out, but got
to my feet and backed away holding my
arm up to shield my face. The partridge
made feInts at me to hold my attention
until she felt sure that her brood was safe
ly hidden, and then flew away into the
bushes, taking a direction intended to mis-
lead me as 10 where they were.
My next object lesson of the maternal
instinct of defense was a more startling
enc. 1t came when I was II years old. A
COW of ours, as COWS often will do, had
hidden her calf, and I had set out to find
it. l heard the cow lowing in the woods
and went to where she was, in a clear
ing grown up with ferns and raspberry
bushes. Above the bushes I saw the COW
back and horns and could tell that she was
on the fight against something that could
not see. She was standing her ground,
facing about so as to keep her enemy,
wherever it was, always under her eye.
I thought of nothing bigger than a dog
or fox and was pressing forward to set
look at it, when a bear suddenly rose up
on his launches, standing head and Shout
ders above the tops of the bushes. At that
the COW made a rush for him with horns
paw and then grappled her with both fore
paws by the head. The cow coming under
fun Roadway, was too much for him TO
stand up against She Knocked him over,
breaking his hold, and the way she horned
him and butted him about among the
bushes was a caution to bears. The rum
pus was too much for my nerves, and L
went up a tree. 1t was needless, so far
as danger from the bear went, for the COW
had him whipped in the first round, and he
got away as soon as he could, whimpering
and biting at his sides in the places where
the cows horns had pricked him.
From the tree l could see the calf where
he was hidden. He was what 1 had come
for. but l did not feel like climbing down
TO the ground until l was sure that the
COW had got quiet. But she knew her
friends, and when 1 went to the calf and
set him on his feet-he was hiding, like
q fawn, close TO the ground-she made no
objection, but went quietly back to the
pasture with the calf following.
There We're mere bears TO the acre In
Cherryfield in my boYhood days than in
any other township i'll Maine. 1t was poor
season for bears when there was not
dozen new bear stories snapped among
the men who lounged Of winter evenings
around the stoves in the village stores. In
the same opening in The woods where our
COW whipped the bear a she bear made
ii lively for four Of our neighbors one sun
day afternoon. They had gone there for
raspbCrries, and the bear, which had cubes
somewhere near by, came out of the BUSH
es at them without warning in terrible
rage They had no firearms with them but
they got together and pelted the bear with
clubs and stones until she was driven back
into the bushes. but no sooner had she
gone than she was out again growing,
foaming at the mouth, and grinding her
tUsks as if she meant to do them up this
FOR made
the bear to turn them away Any old hum
ter would have known that she was safe
not 10 touch the men unless she saw that
her cubs were actually in dam
ger from them but it looked like
grim reality all the same. AS
often as the men pelted her into the
bushes she came out again from some 9TH
err quarters ami she kept them busy for
full quarter OF an hour. At last the bear
Owed into the brush and stayed there. She
mad made sure that her cubs had time to
get into safe hiding, which was all she
wanted from The first.
every farmer boy has watched admir-
ingy tho plucky little king birds, not so
big as robins, that fearlessly attack great
owls and hawks and crows near their
nests, and send them lodging and scurry-
ing away. Crows in the same way will at
tack the hawk and the great horned owl.
In the poultry yard a rooster will some
We had In our yard Corhin-Chna roos-
ter, a big fellow, who could stand on the
ground and cat corn off the head of a bar
rel and he was a fighter. He would gather
the hens together and stand guard over
them when a hawk lowered overhead and
il Inc hawk dropped upon a fowl he would
tackle him before he could rise aloft with
his prey. Usually the hawk, after being
tumbled over once, would fly away, but
sometimes a scrimmage would follow that
lasted until the people OF the house had
time to come upon the scene. The rooster
left one big hawk dead on the field. and he
himself bore plenty of marks of his battles
with hawks lie came 10 grief at last
through an eagle that killed him in the
farmyard and carried MIN away before the
eyes Of his harem.
I'm a township adjoining Cherryfeid a
young Durham bull killed a bear in pro-
tecting herd of COWS and calves. When
first observed by some haymakers, the
other cattle We're huddled together, with
the bull standing in front Of them facina