Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1900-03-02
SOME LAZY ANIMALS.
Much-Abused sIoth In Marvel OF
Industry Compared to Some
Birds and Insects.

A baser libel was never penned than
that amazing bit of natural history
which described the sloth as the LATEST
animal known. Like the snail, the poor
sloth was never cut out for anything
better. Even when his worst enemy,
the keen-toothed jaguar, is bounding
him through the green arches of the
tropical forest, the wretched sloth can
nst add another yard an hour to his
speed.
The first duty of any self-respecting
bird is surely to build nest in which
| to raise it's young. Yet look at the num-
ber which shirk this necessary proceed
ing. The kestrel never dreams of such
exertion. The last years home of
magpie suits Mr.. and Mrs. Kestrel to
perfection.
The sparrow hawk, too, finds some
thing of the same sort very handy. The
house where Mrs. Carrion Crow brought
up her last years brood does well to go
on with. Even the lump of rough odds
and ends which has once done duty as
a squirrels nest is not to be despised.
The cuckoo not only presumes on the
kindness of other birds to lay her egg
in their nests, but her young, when
Matched, cruelty evicts its foster broth
ers and sisters to perish miserably on
the cold earth below.
The cheeky sparrow, too, has many
of the bad habits of the habitual tramp.
His nest, when he makes one, is of the
most untidy description, and house
martens neat, mud-built abode is very
much to his taste if he can seize il dur
ing the absence of it's proper owner.
Some creatures are much too lazy to
feed themselves. There is a large war
rior ant the ancestors of which, many
generations ago, captured smaller ants
as slaves. In the course of ages the
fighting ants have become so helpless
and incapable that if their slaves do
not attend them they simply perish, not
knowing how or where to procure the
necessary food.
To such an extent, indeed, has this
degeneration proceeded, that the very
structure of the Amazon ant, as it is
called, has slowly altered, till its mandi-
bles have lost their teeth and are be-
come mere nippers - deadly weapons
lnueeu, DuL USELESS except lOT purposes
of war.
Not only do their slaves feed them,
but also carry them on their backs from
place to place.
The fishhawk is another creature that
. prefers it's hard work done for it. II
/ hovers over the gulls as they are fishing
spots one rising with plump mackerel
in its claws, and swoops down like q
thunderbolt. The poor gull, scared out
l. of its senses, drops its feast, which the
pirate seizes ere it reaches the water
and devours it.
The remora, or sucking fish, thinks
nothing of a thousand-mile trip fas
tened tight on the back of shark ol
l the hull of ship, and when it let's &c
{ never dreams of offering fare, or ever
so much as thank you.
I Another small fish with big Latir
name travels in the mouth of the Bra
lillian catfish.
: The little pea crab generally foist,
! himself upon the mussel or oyster, ant
{ lives in comfort on the spoils of his un
willing host. The hermit crab seems t.
have lost the power of forming for him
Il self shell of any kind; so he hides hi
ljelly-like form in the recesses of tn
first old shell he may come across
Z Stroy Stnriec