Saint Mary's beacon., 1902-07-24

1ne case 0I ROBERT Browning q
bulldog il one Of the most remarka-
BILE instances on record OF the rea-
soning. powers Of animals. The
great poet received the dog as .
present from = friend. and the ami.
NAL y once became greatly attached
% bis new master. . Ii wonld toler-
ats no inferferencs from any person
except him or bis mother. and would
never allow strangers 70 be too "a
miliar.
II neighbor came in, he was MOI
allowed 70 shake hands with her,
for the dog at once showed his teeth.
Not evcs her husband was allowed
= apprzneh her te1plasel& i and uvsa
il Robert was more friendly with her
than the dog thought proper the an
imal would snarl.
One day, 70 subject him to severe
test, Robert Browning put his arm
around his mother 8 neck as they sat
at table. The dog Immediately went
round behind them, put bis forefeet
ON the back Of the chair, and pushed
Roberts arm away.
This same bulldog had o particu-
lar aversion to Mrs. Browning's IA
vorite cat. The feline annoyed him
very much, but he always refrained
from attacking her. One day, when
the family was out, he chased the
nnf0rtuate cat under q cupboard,
and kept her there besieged all day,
until Mrs. Browning returned, and
gave him severe lecture. He new
er molested the cat again.
In the bird world, there is no more
keen-eyed specimen than the blue
heron. And other birds seem to
know this fact, for he is used by
them as q sentinel while they are
feeding, and he acts for any smaller
birds who may be near his feeding
ground. Ducks and geese make good
use of him, and it is a matter for
wonder that sportsmen-particular-
ly duck and geese hunters-don' I
employ decoy herons in order to at
tract these wild fowl. The long legs
and keen eyes Of the heron are par
ticularly adaptable for scouting; and
while the smaller birds grub away
in the tall weeds, the heron stands
motionless, with his head above their
tops, invisible, save to the little ones
for whom he is keeping watch.
The frightened, half-stifled cries
of parrot hanging helplessly in its
cage near lift, saved the lives of
many people in q Manchester ware
house. Volumes of smoke came pour
ing through the ventilators of the
building, when suddenly the cries
of Fire, fire. Poor Polly Poor
Jack / Jack isafraidi H. were heard,
together with piercing :Shrieks. In
o short while FIRE engines and es-
capes were on the'scene. Human
cries were heard from the top win
dow. Ladders were pushed up
higher, and Mr.. aud Mrs. John Rat
cliffe and John Martin taken down.
Ratcliffe suddenly remembered the
parrot, and, together with a fireman,
both CROPPED their way to where he
last was seen. The cage was found,
bat the bird was dead.
DR.. NJ. L. Holbrook seems per-
fectly. convinced that the ordinary
female spider has a large amount of
brains and reason. To cite an in
stance, he says that last summer he
had a particular opportunity of
watching a large spider that had a
web on the top of decaying peach
tree. with so few leaves that the
straads of the web were in view.
When the doctor first saw the spider
with his glass, she seemed to be
climbing from the top Of the tree on
nothing TO telephone wire some
fifteen feet away. and somewhat high
er than the web. When she reached
the wire, she went round it, and
then went back.
In studying the situation, DIR.
Holbrook found that the web was so
located that it required a cable TO
hold it up, and the spider had in
some Nay got one over the wire so
far away. This she did by throw
ing out a slender silken thread,
which. on account of its glutinous
properties, attached itself to the
wire. Every morning, so long as
DR.. Holbrook watched, the spider
travelled once over the cable, in or
der to mend or strengthen it.
In his book, THE Life of the Bee, .
NJ. Maurace Maeterlinck. gives some
extraordinary instances of the. i'm
genuity Of this little creature. ''In
order." he says, ito satisfy myself
that hexagonal architecture was tru-
,ly within the spirit Of the bee, cut
of and removed one day a disc OF
the size OF . FIVE shilling piece from
the center Of comb. ct aspot where
there. were both brood-cellsand cells