The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-02
SENSES OF ANIMALS.
How Beasts, Birds and Insects Can
Find One Another.

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New York Post.
In walking through geological park or
a natural history museum. the great differ
ence between birds and animals-or more
correctly mammals-in regard to color is
noticeable. Many OF the feathered
creatures have brilliant tints and hues and
the coats of hair OF the four-fo0ted kindred.
the deer, the bears, the monkeys are
comparatively dull coiored. The reason
for all this is most interesting. and when
unlocked from its hard sheathing OF
visit we may pay hereafter 10 a zoo, a mu-
scum or even 4 circus.
Birds and animals have no system OF
postOffices, no letters, or even addresses;
when the children of the jungle and
desert are lost no policeman detective
hastens to find them, no telephone or telc-
graph aids the search. Yet without any o.
these necessaries the wild creatures have
wonderful systems of communication
more accurate and trustworthy than anv
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 func-
tons in birds and animals.
Eyes and noses are important keys to
the bright colors Of the birds and the COM
parative sombreness OF hairy-coated
creatures Take a dog and an oriole as
good examples Of the two extremes When
a dog has lost his master he first looks
about. He strains his eyes with the In
tense expression Of a short-sghted per-
son, and after few moments of this usu-
ally yelDs with disappointment, drops his
| nose to the ground. and with unfailng ac-
curacy follows the track of his master
| When the freshness OF the trail tells him
| that he is near it's end he resorts to eyes
again, and is now near enough to recognize
| the face he seeks A fox, when running be-
| fore a hound, may double back and make a
| close reconnaissance near his trail. passing
in full view without the hounds seeing him
or stopping in following out the full curve
| Of the trail ahead. so completely does the
| wonderful power of smell absorb the en-
| tire attention 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 IL is
hard 10 tell how much a bird can dis
| tinguiSh in this way-probably only the
| odor OF food near at hand When we exam
| Inc the eye of our bird We find a sense
organ of a very high order. Bright intel
| ngent, full-circled, of great size compared
to the bulk of the skull, protected by three
| complete eyelids; we realize that this must
! play an important part in the life of the
| bird. There are, of course, many excep-
| tiOns TO such a generalization as this For
| instance, many species OF sparrows are
| dull-colored. We must remember that the
! highly developed. and in many instances
| renders bright coloring needless in attract
ing the mate or locating 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 IL to act on
| and in this regard we find some interesting
| facts Of which little has been written out
| side 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 ami
mails, on the contrary, have glands on many
| portions of the body. Nature is seldom
| contented with the one function, which an
| adjusts and adapts IL 10 others in most in
| genious ways. Hence, when an animal
perspires the pores OF the skin allow the
| contained moisture 10 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 i'm
portant uses. In the skunk such a gland is
a practically perfect protection against at
tacks from his enemies. he never hurries,
wave of his conspicuous danger signal g
SUFFICIENT TO clear his path. Ii is said that
the puma, great horned owl. and harpy
eagles have been known to attack and kill
skunks. They must have been very hun
CRY, indeed. In certain species OF the rhi-
noceros there are large glands in the foot.
| These animals live among grass and herb
age, which they brush against as they
walk, and thus ''blaze" a plain trail for
the mate or young TO follow. There are
few, if any, animals which care TO face q
| rhinoceros, so the scent Is incidentally USE
full to other creatures as a warning.
1t is believed that the hard callosities
on the legs of horses are the remains OF
glands which We're, once upon time. use
full. "CiVet," which is obtained from the
civet cat. and musk" from the queer little
! hornless musk deer are secretions OF
glands. 1t has been suggested that the de-
fenseless musk deer escapes from many Of
its enemies from the similarity of its Sc
erection to the musky odor of crocodile
In many animals, which live together In
herds, such as deer and antelopes and
which have neither bright colors nor far
reaching calls to aid straying members e
regain the flock, there are large and active
scent glands. The next time you see live
antelope in a geological park look closet,
at the head. and between the eyes and III,
nostrils large opening will be seen OF
each side, which closes now and then.
flap of skin shutting II tightly Among pig
the fierce pecarry Is a very social animal
found large gland from which a clea
watery fluid is secreted. Dogs and wolves
also have their odor-secreting glands OF
the back, and the wolf pack" i
) The gland of the elephant is on the tenn
pie, and secretes only when the animal 1
, in dangerous mood-a hint. therefore. o
opposite significance TO that OF the herdini
animals, as this says: Let me alone
Stay away! Certain low species of monk
! eys, the lenurs, have a remarkable bar
patch on the forearm, which covers
!, gland serving some use.
: | If we marvel at the keenness of seen
: among animals. how incredible seems IN
. similar scent in insects-similar i'm func
! ton. however different the medium q
: structure may be- Think of the scent iron
female moth so delicate that dis
tinguish nothing even near its body. al
tracing male Of the same species from
\ ! distance OF mile or more. IL is sure
true that the greatest marvels are not al
ways associated with mere bulk.
q UNION MEN NAY BE