The Opelousas courier., 1902-07-19
ANIMALS THAT GO ON STRIKE.
And Manage Their Labor Difficulties Wit
Surprising Ingenuity.

4Au ANA6%O AhCAKA al y
Surprising Ingenuity.
Men are not the only animals that
go on strike. Beasts and birds some
times quit work suddenly and make
trouble for any one who tries to force
them to resume their labor. Often
when a large herd of horses are in a
field they bunch together under the
trees, eat less than usual, are more
FESTIVE, and are always neighing and
rubbing noses. The outcome Of such
actions usually ID ,i.%i jlIt tu.GIe HcId
decline to be saddled, or harnessed,
chase their attendants, and bite, kick
and squall all day. The Oldest "jog-
trotter," after a conference" of this
kind, will try to smash up his cart and
behave like an unbroken colt. Cows
sometimes are seen crowding together
in the pastures, and then the farmer
looks for trouble. The.- fdget and
moon" about, and when milking time
comes they raise strenuous objections
to being MIXED and are about as in
tractable as mules. Bullocks, when
they get on a fit of this kind, actually
are called STRIKERS" in England, and
are likely to become dangerous.
Birds are famous for "woman's
rights" strikes-that is, the females
sometimes flock together, abandoning
or driving away the males, and refuse
to do any "housework" whatever. They
desert their nests and will not finish
building; they leave their eggs to grow
cold and unhatchable, and nothing will
induce them to return. The male birds
grow extremely concerned at such
times, but they have no remedy, for
throughout the beast and bird creation
the male will never attack the female,
though the opposite often happens.
Warblers and starlings especially are
given to these female workers
strikes" and the affair often becomes
serious, for a whole district will be
full of nests left to rot, sets Of eggs
abandoned, and even young broods
Matched out before the strike was ION"
left to starve.
Certain kinds of black ants have
little yellow ants which do most OF
their work for them. Once in a while
these little yellow fellows will 60 on
a strike, and the "blacks" try to force
them back to work by cutting off their
food supply. If that does not sue
coed, they will attack the strikers in
force or will make a raid and get an
other gang of "yellows" into the col
ony. But the newcomers, as a rule,
join the strikers. The strike ends
by the "yellows" escaping and found
ing a colony for themselves, OF they
| give in and settle down to work again.
1t is a well known fact that rabbits
are the most determined Of animal
strikers. In rabbit colonies there liz
nearly always a certain number Of
stronger rabbits who do most Of the
hardest digging and burroWing, and
about once in every two years these
appear to grow. disconnected and de-
cline to make the passages which con-
meet all the burrows in a big warren.
| Without these passages the assembly
is not safe from stoats and f~errets, and
| the commonwealth is endangered But
the large digging rabbits give up work
and sit about browsing in the pasture
all day and night, and unless they
| choose to 60 to work again, all new
excavations for fresh rabbit families
have to stop.-Field and Stream.