The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-01-10

NATURAL HISTORY FACTS.
Curious Instincts of Animals Which
Puzzle the Wisest Head

e'HNiN
Here is curious and little known
fact regarding litter-b bearing animals -
dogs, wolves, the whole cat family hogs,
rabbits, and so on-each of their young
appropriates to itself one particular teat
and never by any chance sucks any
other. AT first all the teats are tumid
and full Of milk. Within week those
which do not suckle become dry and
small. Thus a glance at the mother
shows the number of her young. The
effect is often very curious BY this
process Of natural selection the big
milk giving teats frequently alternate
regularly with the dry ones.
The wise men say this Is one of ma
lures special provisions against injue-
tice. Without it, among gregarious ami
mails the strongest litter would plum
der trample and starve tn weaker ones.
OF course, in the same family the pig
or puppy or kitten or cub which holds
on Largest or sucks hardest gets the
biggest shore of the provision-but that
| Is another thing from going outside.
| Very young lambs are as like as peas
in pod to everything, except the noses
of their mothers. A hundred ewes at
pasture, with lambs of the same size,
will make no mistake about their child
ren--that is if the children have once
been accepted as their own. Sometimes
1t happens that for no visible reason a
eve rejects her lamb, and cannot be in
duced to own it. If she has twins she
may own one and reject the other. A
case in point was that of grade of me-
rino, which brought forth at once a
big bouncing white lamb and a very
scrawny black atom. She would not
look at the white fellow, but lavished
passionate devotion upon the black one,
to the great amazement of the shepherd.
He declared that in forty years expert
ence he had seen nothing like it-though
he had known many cases IN which
black lambs were promptly disowned,
Regular shepherds have trick by
which to fool the ewes nose. If a new
born lamb dies they strip it Of Its skin
and fasten the skin securely upon an
other iamb-on of twins or 1t may be
triplets Then fora day or two they PIN
the little creature along with the bereft
eve. In most cases she accepts 1t rears
it, never knowing the difference, but
sometimes as soon as the extra skin Is
removed, she pushes 1t violently away
and will have nothing to do with it.
Mig gnfhonewoflphg
Milk giving does not always depend
upon motherhood. A case in point was
that of a barren mare. left at pasture
with a pair of weanlings, about
months old. Their mothers were out Of
sight and hearing, and after the first |
two days it was noticed that they ap- |
peared to be suspiciouely content In a
week the mare, their companion, began |
to lose flesh, her owner decided to in |
vestigate. little watching showed |
that she went through the form of suck
ling both colts. She was separated and |
kept twelve hours in a stall. At the
end Of that time the milk was drip
ping from her udder and she was whn-
Ing as restlessly for her adopted children
as though they were her own.
Almost the same thing happened to
a heifer calf the pride of a Tennessee
COW pen, where calves We're never wean-
ed, but sucked as regularly as milking
time came around. Tw impish small
black boys who had the pob of "keep-
ing off the calves beguiled the tedium
of waits by penning the hefer calf in
a fence corner and pretending to milk
her into a broken gourd. They began it
in June, when the creature was 6
months old BY October they had
brought her to her milk" 1t came in
a tiny stream, of course, but was milk
Curiously enough the
heifer, which had every mark of turn
ing out a valuable mixer at maturity.
proved almost worthless for the pail.
There are many odd and interesting
things to be said Of the quail, which IS
known throughout large scope of the
as the partridge. One is that
t has the power, when badly frighten-
3D. of withholding its scent A covey
quickly flushed, will scatter and lie 80 ,
lose the best dog in the world will over
'un them, making no sign of point until ,
he bird 7utters up right under foot.
Another is that it has the faculty of
death if taken winged, in |
land, and of coming quickly to life the 8
minute the grasp is relaxed in the neigh !
,orhood of good cover Further, the ,
birds have a sort of barometric sense.
A woodsman marking the direction in o., :
which quail feed can almost certainly | :
oretell the days weather. If thew
stubble or cornfields it will be 6