The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-09-27
SURGERY BY ANIMTLS.
Some Wonderful Examples Related
by n Close Observer.

better, says William j. Long in The
outlook, writing upon animal surgery.
Others may have dipped deep into In
dian history and folklore, and learned
that many of the herbs used by the
American tribes, and especially the
cures for rheumatism, dySentery, fever
and snake bites were learned direct.
from the animals, by noting the rheu-
| matte old bear grub for fern roots or
battle in the hot mud of a sulphur
| spring, and by watching with eager
eyes what plants the wild creatures ate
when bitten by rattlers or wasted by
fever. And all have perhaps wonder
ed how much the animals knew, and
especially how they came to know it.
To Illustrate the matter simply and
in our own day and generation: A deer
that has been chased all day by dogs,
and that has escaped at last by swim
| ming an icy river and fallen exhaust
| ed on the further shore, will lie down
to sleep in the snow. That would mean
swift death for any human being. Half
the night the deer will move about
at short intervals, instead of sleeping
heavily, and in the morning he is as
| good as. ever and ready for another
run. The same deer shut up in a warm
barn to sleep over night, as has been
| more than once tested with park ami
| mails, will be found dead in the morn
| ing.
AN old Indian who lives and hunts
on Vancouver Island told me recently
| that he has several times caught beaV-
er that had previously cut their legs
! off to, escape from traps, and that two
| of them had covered the wounds thick
| ly with gum. Last spring the same
Indian caught a bear in a deadfall
! On the animals side was a long rip
from some other bears claw, and the
urnI haI \ al
soft spruce rOSin. This last experience
| corresponds closely with one of my
own. shot a big bear years ago in
Northern New Brunswick that had re-
ceiVed gunShot wound which had
| raked him badly and then penetrated
| the leg. He had plugged the wound
carefully with clay, evidently to stop
the bleeding, and then had covered
the broken skin with sticky mud from
the rivers brink, to keep the flies away
from the wound and give it a chance
to heal undisturbed. 1t is noteworthy
here that the bear uses either gum or
clay indifferently,w while the beaver and
muskrat seem to know enough to avoid
the clay. which would be quickly wash
ed off in the water.
one day in the early spring I saw
two elder ducks swimming about the
Hummock pond, on the Island of Nam
tucket. Then keen-eyed critic will in
terfere here and say l was mistaken;
for elders are salt water ducks that
love the open sea and are supposed
never to enter fresh water not even
TO breed. That is what l also sup
posed until l saw these two; so I sat
down to watch awhile and find out, if
possible, what had caused them to
change their habits. At this time of
year the birds are almost invariably
found in pairs, and sometimes a flock
a hundred yards long will pass you,
flying close to the water and sweeping
around the point where you are watch
ing, first a pretty brown. female and
then a gorgeous black and white drake
just behind her. alternating with per
feet regularity, female and male,
throughout the whole length of the long
line. The two birds before me, how
ever, were both females, and that was
another reason for watching them in
stead of the hundreds of other ducks,
coots and sheldrakes and broadbills
that were scattered al lover the big
pond.
The first thing noticed was that the
birds were acting queerly, dipping their
heads under water and keeping them
there for a full minute or more at a.
time. That was curious, too, for the
water under them was too deep for
feeding, and the elders prefer to wait
till the tide falls and then gather the
exposed shellfish from the rocks, rather
than to dive after them, like a coot.
Darkness came on speedily to hide the
birds, who were still dipping their heads
as if bewitched, and l went away no
wiser for my watching.
"A few weeks later there was an
other elder, a big drake in the same
pond, and acting in the same queer
way. Thinking perhaps that this was
a wounded bird that had gone crazy
from a shot in the head, l pushed out
after him in an old tub of a boat; but
he took wing at my approach, like any
other duck, and after a vigorous flight
lit furthed down the pond, and plunged
his head under water again. Thorough
ly curious now, I went on a still hunt
after the stranger, and after much diff
ficulty succeeded in shooting him from
the end of a bushy point. The only
unusual thing about him was that a
large mussel, such as grow on the rocks
in salt water, had closed his shells
firmly on the birds tongue in such a
way that he could neither be crushed
by the birds bill nor scratched off by
the birds foot. I pulled the mussel
off. put it in my pocket, and went
home more mystified than before.
THAT night I hunted up an old fish
erman who had big store of Informal
ton in his head about all kinds of wild
| things, and asked him if he had ever
l.
| Once or twice, he said. They kept
| dipping their heads under water, kind
er crazy like But he had no explana-
! ton to offer until i showed him the
mussel that l had found on the ducks
| tongue. Then his face lightened. Mus
sells of that kind won't live in fresh
water he declared, at a glance; and
then the explanation of the birds queer
actions flashed into both heads ait once;
They were simply drowning the mussels
in order to make them loosen their
! grip on the birds tongues.
Twenty years ago, while sitting
! quietly by a brook at the edge of the
woods in Massachusetts, a woodcock
fluttered out into the open and made
his way to a spot on the bank. 1t was
! the season when gunners were abroad
! in the land, and my first impression
| was that this was a wounded bird
that had made a long flight after be-
ing shot at, and that had now come
out to the stream to drink or to battle
his wounds, as birds often do.
AT first he took soft clay in his
bill from the edge of the water and
seemed to be smearing it on one leg
near the knee. Then he fluttered away
on one foot for a distance and seemed
| to be pulling tiny roots and fibres of
grass, which he worked into the CLAW
RIII0IIVNEoc