The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-07-30
how ANIMALS COMMUNICATE.

In walking through geological
park or a natural history museum
the great difference between birds
land anirlals-or more correctly
llnlammals- in regard to color is no
ticeable. Many of the feathered
creatures have brilliant tints and
fues, and the coats of hair of the
four-footed kindred, the deer, the
bears, the monkeys, are compare
lively dull colored. The reason for
all this is most interesting, and when
unlocked from its hard sheathing of
scientific words, will add pleasure to
any visit we may pay hereafter to
the 200, a museum, or even circus.
Birds and animals have no system
of postofices, no letters, or even adj
dresses; when the children of the
jungle and desert are lost no police
man or detective hastens to find
them, no telephone or telegraph aids
the search. Yet without any of
these necessaries the wild creatures
have wonderful systems of commu-
nication- more accurate and trust
worthy than any we can ever hope
to invent. The five senses (and
perhaps mysterious sixth of which
we can only guess) are the tele-
phones and police, the automatic
alarms and sentinels of our wild
friends. Our own abilities in using
eyes, nose and ears are pitiful when
compared with the same functions
in birds and animals.
Eyes and noses are important
keys to the bright colors of the birds
and the comparative sonlbreness of
hairy-coated creatures. Take dog
and an oriole as good examples of
the two extremes. When dog has
lost his master he first looks about.
He strains his eyes with the intense
expression of short-sighted person,
and after a few moments of this
usually yelps with disappointment,
drops his nose to the ground, and
with unfailing accuracy follows the
track of his master. When the
freshness of the trail tells him that
he is near its end he resorts to eyes
again, and is now near enough to
recognize the face he seeks. A fox,
when running before a hound, may
double back and make a close re-
c0rTrluToouflvv- aaOsa-
in full view without the hounds see
ing or stopping in following out the
full curve of the trail ahead, so
completely does the wonderful pow
er Of smell absorb the entire atten-
ton Of the dog.
Now turn to the oriole. AS we
might imagine, the nostrils incased
in horn render the sense of smell of
slight account. 1t is hard to tell
how much a bird can distinguish
ir this way-probably only the odor
of food near at hand. When we ex-
anime the eye of our bird, we find
a sense organ of very high order.
Bright, intelligent, full-circled, of
great size compared to the bulk of
the skull, protected by three COM
plete eyelids; we realize that this
must play an important part in the
life of the bird. There are, of course,
many exceptions to such generali-
cation as this. For instance, many
species of sparrows are dull colored.
We must remember that the voice
the calls and songs of birds-is
highly developed, and in many in
stances renders bright coloring
needless in attracting the mate or To-
eating a young bird.
AS we have seen, the sense OF
smell is very highly developed
among our four-footed animals, but
to make this efficient there must be
something for it to act on, and in
this regard we find some interesting
facts of which little has been written
outside of scientific textbooks.
Birds have only one gland on the
entire body-the oil gland above the
base of the tail, which supplies an
unctuous dressing for the feathers.
Birds, therefore, have not the power
of sweating, but make up for this
by very rapid breathing. Four
footed animals, on the contrary,
have glands on many portions of the
body. Nature is seldom contented
with the one function, which an or
gan or tissue primarily performs,
but adjusts and adapts it to others in
most ingenious ways. Hence, when
an animal prespires the pores of the
skin allow the contained moisture to
escape and moisten the surface of
the body, but in addition to this, in
many animals, collections of these
pores in the shape of large glands
secrete various odors which serve
important uses. In the skunk such
a gland is a practically perfect pro-
lection against attacks from his enc
mics. He never hurries, and does
not know what fear is-a single
wave of his conspicuous danger sig
nal is sufficient to clear his path.
It is said that the puma, great horn
ed owl and harpy eagles have been
known to attack and kill skunks.
They must have been very hungry,
indeed. In certain species OF the
rhinoceros there are large glands the
foot. These animals live among
grass and herbage, which they brush
against as they walk, and thus
"bIaze' plain trail for the mate or .r
young to follow. There are few, II
any, animals which care to face a
rhinoceros, so the scent is Incidental
" useful to other creatures as
warning.
It is believed that the hard callosi-
ties on the legs of horses are the re-
mains of glands which were once
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