The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1900-02-22
SOME LAZY ANIMALS.
Much-Abused sloth Is e 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 sloIh 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
MT add another yard an hour to his
| speed.
The first duty of any self-respectins
bird is surely TO build nest in which
| to raise its young. Yet look at the num-
Der which shirk this necessary proceed
| ing. The kestrel never dreams of such
exertion. The last years home of a
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. Carbon 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 it dur
ing the absence of it's proper owner.
Some creatures are much too lazy to
feed themselves. There is 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 mardi-
DIES nave lOoJ lhSli ltcbh anu al Z DS-
come mere nippers - deadly weapons
indeed, but useless except for 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 its hard work done for it. 1t
hovers over the gulls as they are fishing.
spots one rising with 4 plump mackerel
in its claws, and swoops down like a
thunderbolt. The poor gull, scared out
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 a shark or
the hull of a ship, and when it let's go
never dreams of offering fare, or even
so much as thank you.
Another small fish with a big Lati i'm
name travels in the mouth of the Bra
lillian catfish.
The little pea crab generally foists
himself upon the mussel or oyster, and
lives in comfort on the spoils of his I'M
willing host. The hermit crab seems to
have lost the power of forming for him
self shell of any kind; so he hides his
ielly-like form in the recesses of the
first old shell he may come across
Stray Stories.