The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-09-21
ANIMALS THAT
LIKE TO Battle

4
cause you are possessed of high in
telligence and have but two legs you
are the only animal that takes a bath.
Nearly all the domestiea ted and some
| of the wild animals, as we'll as the
| birds. indulge in this luxury. You may
see this for yourself if you look around
the animals quarters in Central Park
or pay a visit to the Zoo in the Bronx.
To some animals the bath is a pleasure,
TO others it is mainly a duty.
The habits of animals that have come
under the sway of man are well known,
but it is a difficult matter to tell what
are the habits of the creatures in the
mense size and height of the trees. and
T the growth of parasitic plants upon
them. 1t is possible for birds and the
smaller animals to drink and, perhaps,
battle, without ever descending to the
earth, finding the water in the aerial
cisterns of the immense flowers of the
trees and climbers, or in the hollows
of the gigantic stems, in both of which
it is said that water insects and even
molluscs are found, living in these
strange water tanks in the upper sto-
ries of the tropical forest.
1t is rather curious that birds are
| far more devoted to bathing than are
beasts. From the falcon to the SPAR
row birds, delight in bathing; yet they
have far more trouble to get their
feathers dry than beasts have to dry
their fur. Monkeys never wash or
battle, though they have, as a rule,
every chance to do 50. Possibly ex-
perience has taught them to be afraid
of crocodiles, which are pretty general
| ly distributed in monkey haunted riv-
| ers. 1t is said that a number of Indian
| monkeys watched party of Europeans
| in a boat, who washed their hands and
| brushed their teeth. Next day the
monkeys were seen to come to the riv-
er side and go through the form OF
washing their bands and of brushing
their teeth with bits of sticks. A large
/ illustration of an orang-outang wash
| ing it's hands in a pool appeared in an
old fashioned natural history publish
ed some so years ago. but there is ho
evidence that this is other than an
artists imagination.
OF the cat tribe. large and small,
only the tiger and jaguar, and perhaps
the little Fishing cat, battle for pleas
ure The tiger will sit with only its
head out of the water on blazing hot
day in an Indian jungle. They will also
nearly immerse themselves when they
come down to drink at night, and leave
long dripping trail on the sand be-
hind them when they emerge. That
the polar bear enjoys a bath as well
as the use of the element for swimming
and as a hunting ground no one can
a A Do fha nj
polar bears bath was being filled with
fresh water it would stand with its
mouth open, letting the water run
through its jaws, and when the bath
was full would play all kinds of tricks,
reveling in the water. One of its an
tics was to float on its back in the
water and then catch hold of it's heels
with its forepaws and roll over in
ball. 1t would also turn over back
ward on the edge and fall in with a
resounding splash. Though foxes are
never seen to wash, and there is no
record of the wolf doing so, nearly all
dogs battle, and some do so not only
for GOODNESS, but for cleanliness. There
is more than one instance on record
of criminal dogs, which had been kill
ing sheen. taking a swim to aid them
in getting rid of the blood marks.
Among the few other washing ami
mails which are carnivorous is
well known species of raccoon. 1t is
not only devoted to bathing and sun
ming itself, but has an odd habit of
taking its food to the water and CIV
ing it thorough washing before eat
ing it. It will da bible anything which
it takes fancy to in the water. One
which had a family at the Zoo wash
ed its unlucky kittens SO often that
they died. But as a rule it is the man.
mails with little or no hair which use
the bath most often. This may be
partly because the others fear CATCH
ing cold with wet fur elinging to them,
though, on the other hand, this seems
TO make little difference when caused
by rain. But the "pachyderms," most
of them hairless, such as the wild pigs,
the elephant, the various species of
and also the Indian buffa-
10. seek water, and sometimes mud
baths. with the greatest eagerness. In
hot climates this is partly to obtain a /
coating of mud to keep of the stings
of flies and insects. But deer and rein /
deer win do the same. But the ele- /
plant or rhinoceros vastly enjoys a |
bath in clean water.
A rhinoceros will splash about with
almost infantile exuberance in his bath, /
and the elephants VIII squirt them
selves all over with hundredweights of /
water. In India they will retire quite
under the surface if allowed to enter
a river, only putting their trunks out
-RrookIyY Eagle.