Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-24
CANNIBALISM OF FISH. FLESH AND
FOWL.

Cannibalism is a vice that has per-
meated almost every grade of life the
world over since it's creation. 1t is re-
markable to what extent it is 1racticed
among fish, animals and insects, to say
nothing about savage and civilized races.
1t is a common custom of the Cuban
scorpion offspring to devour the mother
This occurs shortly after the birth of the
brood. The young cling to the mother
until they nave killed her.
The "grampuS,' the rare, black Florida
scorpion, devours any other of it's species
it comes across.
Among the spider tribe hardly one male
in a thousand escapes the fate of being
eaten by its mate. The female spider is
always much the larger of the two, and it
is she as a rule, who spins the food net
and constructs a neatly lined nest beside
it. There her mate goes to find her, and
tearing a hole in the side of the nest, en-
terS. Sometimes she allows him to live
unmolested for weeks or months; but the
end is always the same. One day a dry
sucked corpse is all that is left, and the
female goes on as quietly alone as if such
a domestic tragedy had never taken place
In the higher orders of creation can
nibaliSm is a vice common enough. What
farmers heart has not at one time or
another been grieved by the sudden dis
appearance Of part or all of a promis-
ing litter of piglings, butchered and eaten
by their unnatural mother. Such hor-
rible performances are far more common
among domesticated animals han wild
ones.
Every schoolboy knows how necessary
is that the old buck rabbit should never
be allowed access to the young ones dur
ing their first few weeks of life, while
even the doe must be carefully shut up
in a dark, quiet hutch, or she, too, will
II Avalnp r1nniha1jctir tan1ppkinS Cats
when frightened have been known to kill
and eat tiny kittens, and at least one
case is on record of a tigress, alarmed by
a terrier, doing the same thing.
The worst cannibals among purely
savage animals are undoubtedly wolves.
When pressed by famine they invariably
fall upon and devou any weak member
of their pack, and every Russian wolf
hunter knows that when chased across
the steppes by a yelling horde of these
shaggy demons of the waste he will be
granted a respite for each one he shoots
while the others tear the fallen one to
pieces, leaving not a bone behind.
The same holds good of the savage
"dholes' of India, the wild dogs which
hunt the jungle in packs, and are objects
of dread even to the lordly tiger himself.
The dcspiscd and hated jackal and its
cousin the heavy-jaWcd hyena are both
to some extent cannibals, and not above
snatching up and making hasty mouth
full of some Wretched young one of their
own species. Rats, too, all over the world
turn cannibalS when pressed by hunger.
Fish are the very worst cannibals Of all
Big fish eat little fish all the World-or,
rather all the seas and ~rivers-Over. Sal
mon are the most cruel Offenders. The
great big fish snap up the small ones in
dozens and hundreds. SO does the trout
and all the "salmo' family. The perch is
given to infanticide, while the pixies vo-
racity is only equaled by his size and ca
pacity for slowing away cod. The great
appropriated gariish of tropical waters,
which is the original ancestor of our pike,
may be watched in the clear waters Of his
native lakes gobbling up little sars all
day long.
In many parts of the world snakes are
supposed to evOur their young. But this
is a fallacy. 1t is, all the same, a fact
that both the adder, the ra~ttlesnake and
other serpents give their young shelter
in their mouths when any sudden danger
threatens.