St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-12-14
HOW DO THEY KNow7
Animals Seem to Have Sense of Days
and Hours.
Old Gent-No need of running like
fool with it.

AuAWaAS 0eem " lave SeuSe O1 Lays
and Hours.
Do animals and birds have within
them some instructive consciousness
Of time? Naturalists believe that
they do, and many well-known facts
observed by different men in diff
ferent places lend color to that view,
says the Youths Companion.
The oriole arrives in Massachusetts,
every year about the tenth day Of
May, paying little attention to differ
ences of weather. He may have his
late seasons and his early seasons, but
the very large number of years in
which his arrival has been noted on
the tenth day indicates that his
chronological machinery, like that Of
a cdckoo-clock, pops him into view at
a given moment.
Birds which migrate southwark
early, not waiting for frost or cold
winds, also seem to be aware when the
date has arrived for their departure.
Many king birds, for instance, may
be seen in Massachusetts on the last
day of August, but very few are seen
after the first day of September:
The woodchuck knows when the
time has come for him to eden up
He not only feels the necessity Of roll
ing himself up in his own sustaining
fat and going to sleep for the winter,
but he feels it at particular time,
quite regardless of the state Of the
weather. Woodchucks have been do
mesticated, and allowed to sleep in
a warm place, with all the food they
needed, yet they |Sdenned up when
the regular time came for them to
do so.
They awake in the spring with
much the same regularity. The
grounding day. legend is ridicn-
lous. It il, of course, unreasonable
to suppose that in country like ours,
with range Of climates from the
semitropical to the completely arctic,
a creature will come out Of his hole
everywhere on the second day Of
February, and then regulate his fu-
ture conduct according to the wealth
er on that day, staying out if it be bad,
and going back if it be good. !.
But the legend belongs properly Lot
to the woodchuck but to the badger,
and to the European badger, at that;
and, moreover, the Germans give us
a version exactly opposite to that
which is most current. They say that
the badger peeps out of his hole on
Candlemas day, and draws back when
he finds snow shining the sun.
The persistence Of the woodchuck
legend may thus be traced to the reg
ularity Of the ,chuck's European rela-
tive.
A naturalist who has studied this
interesting characteristic Of animals
tells story, from his own obserya-
ton, which seems to show that some
creatures may have a still more exact
sense of time than is indicated by the
regularity Of their migrations and hi
FORMATIONS. He once enjoyed the ac-
quaintance Of a mouse which, at ex-
actly quarter before four o'clock ev-
cry afternoon, was in the habit of
coming out along a wainsc5ting and
his way to pot Of paste OF
the table, the crust of which he then
proceeded to nibble. No "suburban-
tie, having his train in mind, could
be more regular in ARRIVING at his
breakfast-table than this mouse was
in coming for his daily nibble of paste.
How did the mouse know when it
vas quarter before four? The nat.
uralist could not answer the question
but he is certain that the little crea-
Eure had some way Of measuring time.
Some people are as hard to get rid
of as an old habit Atchison GlobA