Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1903-11-13
FACTS ABOUT THE SENSES.
Sounds Heard by Animals That Cannot Be
Heard by Human Ears.

Heard by Human Ears.
Most people suppose 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 a
weasel can hear both these sounds as
plainly as you can the report o gun,
and q sound-registering machine-the
phonsutograph--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 good deal while
at work underground; and it can also
shout at the top of its voice if hurt or
alarmed, 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
volume or sound on 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 up his hillocks of earth. The
common field mouse, too. has a purr
that is altogether beyond you, though
you can hear him squeak plainly
enough if he is hurt. A deaths. s.head
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 sound that is over q hundred
degrees beyond our own limit, is the
common thrush, and you may often
amuse yourself by watching him at it.
He can hear lobworm moving under
ground, locate him by the noise. and
haul him out.
Often you may see q thrush stand
perhaps still on your lawn, cock his
ear, and listen intently, then make
couple Of steps, and haul out q fat lob
worm. Even the startling, which is
about the size of thrush, cannot do
this, but he knows the thrush can,
and. being disreputable person with
no common honesty, he follows the
young thrushes about on their worm
hunts, and steals the worms 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 il you want an example,
60 on your knees in field where there
are psrtridges, and see if you can
smell them six or seven yards away
or even freshly dead one an inch
from your nose.
They have no scent to you. But if
you own a pointer dog, you may
watch him canter across field at full
speed aud suddenly stop as if shot, tail
outstretched and body rigid. nose in
the air, all because he caught tho
scent of covey OF birds some yards
away waited to him by the wind. He
and most other dogs-can small
lark as far as a partridge.
But if you choose you can make
yourself smell so per cent. better by
wetting your finger and drawing it
under your nose. With damped nos
trils-like the dog-you will detect
scents that did not reach you before.
Coming to the feelings you cannot
feel, perhaps it is as we'll they are so
numerous. You can feel gnat settle
on your skin, but not q lake midge,
nor 6fty OF them, and you cannot even
feel their bite--though they stick q
quiverful of saws and files into you
till the irritation begins.
But watch one OF these midges light
on horses lank-though they do not
weigh the fifty thousandth Of drachm
and you will see the horse give his
whole skin twist. round about where
the midge is, and try to shake it off.
Even though he has q shaggy coat, he
can feel that midge alight.
Besides these limits to your every.
day senses, however, there are several
senses which you haven't got at all
but which plenty Of other creatures
have. One is the sense of weather.
You cannot tell by any sense-except
newspaper reports-what the weather
will be the day after tomorrow; but
animals can, for they carry natural
barometers in their brains. When
frost, for instance, has lasted . week or
two, and all the meadows are bound
up, you will find insect.feeding birds
that have gone to the mudbanks of
estuaries moving back in focks to the
field thirty hours before the first signs
OF q thaw.