The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1903-05-21
SHARPER EARS THAN OURS.
Birds and Beasts Hear Sounds We Cam
Detect-A Weather Sense, Too.

Birds and Beasts Hear Sounds We Can't
Detect-A Weather Sense, Too.
Most people suppose a mole to be
dumb but it is not. A mole can give a
sound so shrill that it hasn't any effect
on the human ear at all, and another
sound so low and soft that no human
being can hear it. Yet weasel can
hear both OF these sounds as plainly as
you can the report of a gun, and
sound-registering machine, the phon-
autograph, will show them both with
scores of other sounds you are deaf to,
The usual note of the mole is low
purr, which it uses a good deal while
at work under ground, and it can also
shout at the top of its voice il hurt or
alarmedr but, though it shouted and
purred in your ear, you wouldn't hear
it. The sound register, however, with
its delicate pencil that marks the vol
ume of sound on a paper, gives the
quality of both sounds.
A weasel, too, which is one of the
mole's enemies, can hear these sounds
through a couple of inches of earth,
and often catches the mole when he
throws mp its hillocks of earth, and af-
The common field mouse, too, has a
purr that is altogether beyond you,
though you can hear him squeak plain
ly enough if he is hurt. A Deaths
moth, too, can squeak, but that is done
by rubbing his wings together, and is
not voice at ALL
But the champion of all creatures
for good hearing, and one that can hear
a sound that is over hundred degrees
beyond our own limit, is the common
thrush, and you may often amuse your
self by watching him. He can hear a
lobworm moving underground, locate
him by the noise and haul him out.
Often you may see q thrush stand
perfectly still on your lawn, cock his
ear and listen intently, then make
couple of steps and haul out fat lob
worm. Even the startling, which is
about the size of thrush, can not do
this, but he knows the thrush can, and
being a disreputable person with no
common honesty. he follows the young
thrushes about on their worm hunts
and steals the werms from them as
soon as they are caught
AS for the smells you can't smell,
they are more numerous than those
you can, and if you want an example,
go on your knees in field where there
are partridges and see if you can smell
them six or seven yeards away-or even
freshly dead one an inch from your
nose.
They have no scent to You. But if
you own pointer dog you may watch
him canter across field at full speed
and suddenly stop as if shot. tail out
stretched and body rigid, nose in the
air, all because he caught the scent of
a covey of birds some yards away watt
ed to him by the wind. He-and most
other dogs-can smell lark as far as
partridges.
But if you choose you can mad e
yourself smell so per cent better by
wetting your finger and drawing it un-
der your nose. With damped nostrils,
like the dog, yon will detect scents that
did not reach you before.
Coming to the feelings you can not
feel, perhaps it is we'll they are so num-
erons. You can feel q gnat settle on
your skin bnt not a lake nudge, nor
fifty of them, and you can not even feel
their bite--though they stick quivel
full of saws and files into you--till the
irritation begins.
But watch one of these midges light
on horses fapk-though they do moi
weigh the so, 900 of drachm-a and you
will see the horse give his whole skin q
twist round about where the midge il
and try to shake it off Even though
he has shaggy coat he can feel that
midge alight.
Besides these limits to your every
: day scenes, however, there are severa
senses which you haven't got at all but
which plenty of other creatures have
One is the sense of weather You Car
tell by any sense, except newspaper re-
ports, what the weather will be day of
ter tomorrow, but animals can, fol
they carry natural barometers in theil
brains. When frost, for instance
has lasted week or two, and all the
meadows are bound up, you will fint
insect feeding birds that have gone tC
the mud banks OF estuaries, moving
back in focks to the fields thirty hours
before the first signs of thaw. Chi
cago Record Fl erald.
law liver makes a law man. Bur