The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-06-22
THE CITIZEN FREDERICK MD FRIDAY MORNING %
LAZY ANIMALS.
There Are Several That Dislike Work
as Much as the Sloth.

A bigger mistake was never penned
than that which described the sloth
as the LATEST animal known. Like the
snail, the poor sioth was never cut out
for anything better Even when his
worst enemy, the keen-toothed jaguar.
is chasing him through the green arch
eS of the tropical forest, the wretched
sloth cannot add another yard an hour
to his speed.
1t is easy to find a dozen cases Of
wild creatures whose dislike for hard
work far exceeds that of the sloth.
The first duty Of any selfrespecting
bird is surely TO build a nest in which
to raise its young Yet look at the
number which shirk this.
The cuckoo has passed into a prov
erb, not only as the LATEST of lazy
birds, but as a downright thief and
poacher. She not only presumes on the
kindness of other birds to lay her eggs
in their nests. but her young, when
hatched. cruelty losses out its foster
brothers and sisters to perish on the
cold earth below. The cheeky sparrow,
too, has many of the bad habits of the
tramp. His nest, when he makes one,
Is Of the most untidy description and
barn swallows neat, mud built
abode is very much to his taste If he
can seize ii during the absence of its
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 weak that if their slaves do not
attend them they simply lie, not know
ing how or where to procure their
food.
To such an extent, indeed, mas this
proceeded that the very structure Of
the Amazon Ant, as it is called, has
slowly altered, till its jaws have lost
their teeth and are become mere nip
pers-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
palce to place
The tishhawk is another creature
that prefers its hard work done for it.
1t hovers over the gulls as th0t are
fishing, spots one rising with a plump
mackerel in its claws. and swoops
down like n thunderbolt The Door
gull, scared out of its senses, drops its
feast, which the pirate seizes ere it
reaches the water, and devours itself.
In the water one finds many crea-
lures that are too lazy to do their own
travelling, and so find something else
10 act as stped The remora, or suck
ling fish, thinks nothing of a thou
sand-mile trip fastened tight on the
back Of a shark or the hull of a ship,
and when it lets 20 never dreams of
offering n fare, or even so much as a
thank you. Another small fish with
big Latin name travels in the mouth
Of the Brazilian catfish.
Crabs, some Of them, are not very
energetic. The little peacrab general
~ foists himself upon the mussel or
oyster, and lives in comfort on the
spoils of his unwilling host The her
nit crab seems. through ages of laZi-
ness. TO have lost the power of form
ing for himself a shell of any kind: so
10 save himself from becoming n tit
bit for the first prowler he hides ho
jclly-lke form in the rccesses of the
first old shell he may come across.
The amount of creatures which
trade on others for homes and places
Of refuge is legion. Owls live in prairie
dogs burrows. petrels of the Chicken
Islands in lizards burrows, while
snakes of every description take ref
uge in the holes dug by rabbits, tor
toises, or other earth tunnelers.