The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-06-09
ANIMALS SENSE OF HuMoR.
They Pull Tails, Make Up Faces and
Play Misehievous Tricks.


Animals with sense of humor, or
signs of one anyway. are described
by writer in the Strand He tells of
L female baboon that delighted in
teasing certain watch dog.
As soon as the dog settled himself
for a doze the baboon would steal
up and give the canine tail vicious
tug. OF course the dog would go Tor
her, but she would simply wait till
he got close enough. then leap over
his head and from behind give his tail
another pull.
A Siamese monkey was being
brought to Europe on a steamer with
several other monkeys, who, for some
reason, would have nothing to do with
him
This ostracism exasperated the 81
amese and whenever he got chance
he would grab one of the others by
the tail drag him all over the deck
and finally climb into the rigging and
drop his victim with a dull thud.
Darwin tells of female orapgou-
tang that took hold of dish in which
her food was served and put It on ner
head as II II were hat. Thus adorn-
ed she provoked roars of laughter, to
her evident qualification, from the
crowd around her cage.
Another naturalist saw a baboon get
even with an officer who had often
leased him. Seeing the officer ap-
preaching the baboon poured some
water into a hole in the ground, mix
ing 1t with earth so as to make mud.
When his enemy came MP re splashed
the muddy water on the officers uni
form. For long time after this
every time the animal saw the officer
he INDUCED in what had every appear.
ance of being laughter
SavilIe Kent declares that dolphins
are fond OF teasing other fish by seiz-
ing their tails and dragging them
through the water. He once saw two
dolphins attack big skate swimming
near the surface of the water. The
skate tried to escape them by raising
its tail out of water, but the dolphin,
got hold of II and dragged the skate
in every direction.
Foals will often tease human beings
by galloping toward them, as If In
tending to run them down, then stop
ping short within an uncomfortably
short step or two.
Gross, the naturalist, relates several
amusing instances of a similar nature
about dogs. He had once dog VINO.
when given a piece Of bread that he
did not care to eat, dropped II, and
then, lying upon It, pretended to look
all around with the most innocent air,
as If wondering where it had fallen.
Another case he speaks of is that
of terrier whose greatest pleasure It
was to catch flies on the window panes
Nothing annoyed the animal more
than to he laughed at when he missed
his prey
I'm order to discover what he would
do says Gross, IL purposely laughed
immoderately each time he was unsuc-
oossful and the more / laughed the
clumsier he grew.
AT last he was so Enthusiastically an
Aoyed that in his despair he pretended
to capture dy, and made the ap-
propriate movements of tongue and
lips. finally rubbing his neck on the
ground as If TO crush his victim, after
which he regarded me with q triumph
ant air. rlt
80 we'll had he played his little
comedy that. had not seen the very
lily on the window, | certainly would
have been taken in by this trick
When | called his attention to the fact
that the fly he had chased was still at
large and that there was no dead ny
on the floor. he perfectly understood
that his hypocricy had been discovered
and was so ashamed that he skunk
away ana hid under a couch"