Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-07
SHARPER EARS THAN OURS.
Birds and Beasts Hear Sounds We
Can't Detect.
From the Chicago Record Herald.

From the Chicago Record Herald.
Most people suppose a mole to be dumb,
but 1t is not. A mole can give sound so
shrill that 1t 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 Of a gun, and
a sound-registering machine, the phonauto-
graph, will show them both, with scores Of
other sounds you are deaf to. The usual
note of the mole Is a low purr, which 1t
uses good deal while at work under
ground, and 1t can also shout at the top of
its voice, If hurt or alarmed; but though 1t
shouted and purred in your ear you
ever. with its delicate pencil that marks the
volume Of sound on a paper, gives the quail
ity of both sounds
A weasel, too, which is one of the mole g
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 q
purr that is altogether beyond you, though
you can hear him squeak plainly enough II
he is hurt. A death's-head moth, too can
squeak, but that Is done by rubbing his
wings together, and is not a voice at ALL
But the champion of all creatures for good
hearing, and one that can hear G. sound that
is over 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 thrush stand per-
fectly still on your lawn, cock his ear and
listen intently, then make a couple Of steps
and haul out a fat lobworm. Even the
starting, which is about the size Of a
thrush, cannot do this, but he knows the
thrush can. and being a disreputable per-
son 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 If you want an
example, go on your knees in field where
there are cartridges and see II you can
smell them six or seven yards away-or
even a freshly dead one an inch from your
nose.
They have no scent to you. But II you
own pointer dog you may watch him can
ter across field at full speed and suddenly
stop as If shot, tail outstretched and body
rigid nose in the air, all because he caught
the scent Of covey Of birds some yards
away waited to him by the wind He-and
most other dOgs-can smell a lark as far as
a partridge. But II you choose you can
make yourself smell 80 per cent better by
wetting your finger and drawing it under
your nose. With damped nostrils-like the
dog-you will detect scents that did not
reach you before Coming to the feelings
you cannot feel, perhaps 1t Is as well they
are SO numerous. You can feel q gnat set
tie on your skin. but not a lake nudge, nor
fifty of them, and you cannot even feel
their bite-though they stick quiverful of
saws and files into you-till the irritation
begins.
But watch one of those midges light on
horses 1ank-though they do not weigh the
tO,OO0th OF a drachm-and you will see the
horse give his whole skin a twist, round
about where the nudge is, and try to shake
1t off. Even though he has shaggy coat,
a mi q feyhf 6Ao
these limits to your everyday senses, how
ever. 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 mud
banks Of estuaries. moving back in f1ocks
to the fields thirty hours before the first
signs OF thaw.