Naturalist.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 376, 23 July 1903, Page 7

Naturalist.

DOGS FOE ARMY WOEK. I instructions have been issued in Germany regarding the employment of dogs for military purposes.! It is stated tljat tae. kind of dog best adapted for messenger is the dale terrier. Experiments %ith the German setter are M'fbe Continued for the present. It is interesting to know that only pedigree dogs of the purest breed are to be trained. JOLLY OLD CBOW. The farmers and residents of Brown's Mills to a man declare that their town sbejters the most knowing crow that everdug up ;n4wly planted corn, Bays a New Jersey letter in the ' Chicago Inter-Ocean,' and lest some unknowing person might go gunning for him, they are guarding him zealously. They keep a sharp lookout on the bird for another reason. He has a way of indulging wi±ichare not always appreciated.

In appearance he looks exactly like any other black crow, but he isn't. He has a name, Jim, and an owner. Job Stephensoß, who says he has not yet had an offer of money enough to buy him. -,. Jim was a member of a big flock that made a lot of trouble for the farmers, but, being a superior crow, he forsook his bad company and went to live on Stephenson's place last spring. Job soon learnt that the bird meant well and fed him. Jim accepted the! compliment, and has never changed his headquarters. Erery morning the crow accompanies the men to White's cranberry bog, flies along with them a distance of two miles. Wnile they worx, Jim amuses himself in the manner which has given him his local reputation. ; ¥\. 1" M 1

His pet diversion is picking the pockets of the coats thrown off~by the men at work, and .there is in trying to hide a coat from him. One man recently thought he iwould fool the bird, and hid his coat in a corn stack. Jim found it and cleaned out the pockets of tobacco, matches and pipe. What hej does with his plunder is a mystery. He hides it somewhere, but no ono has yet been able to locate his treasure house, - 1 .' I"' : •

Jim is also an inebriate at heart, though he seldom has a chance to indulge in Ms fancy. That fact cams out recently when one of the hands stuffed his coat pocket full of corn soared wifehf-whisky ;and left the coat in sighfrof Jim.; Jim ate it with relish, and in a little while became so overcome that he flaw to a tree and went to sleep. The next day he returned to the coat in which he had made the find, and hang around near it for a week before he Anally gave up hope of another debauch. Jim also acts as a rising signal for the village. Every morning at 5.30 he flies through the streets, squawking notes, which the villagers declare are the nearest he can come to saying ' Gat up 5 get up r When he: first became a member of the community the crow was, the cause of a good deal of trouble."- People awoke to find that the milk cans left on their back stoops had been overturned, and for a while no one knew who the miscreant was. * -

At length a housewife saw Jim grab the handle of a can with his beak and use his entire strength in turning it over. She charged on him with a broom. So did another worn in the next morning, and after that J.m behaved himself. As a watches the crow is most useful. Several times he has given the alarm when a polecat?;.or < mink threatenel Stephenson's chicken yard, and it is for his faithfulness that the crow's owner refuses to part withf him. ;■ \. .' ",:. '.

MOSQUITOES AND MALARIA. Dr. Michael Gxabham, of Jamaica, is at work upon the mosquitoes of the Atlantic islands. He has found at Teneriffe, on the south side, a small anopheles identical with, or allied-to; the malarial insect of tho West Coast of Africa. Tais species is fairly common in the ravines and tanks. He has found also the same mosq lito as is concerned in the spread of yellew fever at Havana, These discoveries are of great interest, for though the islands are free from malarial and yellow fever it is quite easy to contemplate either disease spreading when introduced if these subtle means of conveyance are at hand, BEWITCHED HORSES. In Cambridgeshire, apparently, superstition is dying hard. At Bottisham sessions, Walter Smith, wood dealer, was convicted recently of "cruelty to three horses by withholding sufficient food. It transpired that Smith had conceived the extraordinary notion that he and his horses were bewitched, and that was the reason why the. animals would not work. Having asked a 'wise man' at a neigboij ing village for advice, Smith and a companion on a certain dark night in January purchased two bottles. Tnese Smith filled with the water in which horses' ahces were cooled at t!ie Blacksmith's shop and picked up from the shop floor some uails and parings of horses' hoofs. Later in the evening he purchased some pins and needles, and toward midnight, in the silence and darkness of his kitchen, he golemnly proceeded to boil the mixture of water, nails, pieces of hoof, pins and needles in a saucepan. While the operation which was to relieve the wood dealer and his horses from the spell was proceeding a knock came to the door, and Smith was so thoroughly frightened that, in the words of a witness who was present at the performance, he .' blundered upstairs/ leaving his companion alone with 'cauldron,' and the incantation ihoontiipntly ended. The magistrates thought witchcraft no excuse for starving horses, ind fined defendant £3 2 i 6d. HYPNOTISED THE HORSE. Buyer: 'Lwk here, you! Tou said the horse was sound, and gentle, and free from tricks The first day I drove him he fell down a d:zen tmej, and he's as bad to-day.' Ddaler: ' Um—you've been wondering if I cheated you, perhaps P' Yes, I ha ;e.' ' And the first time you drove the hoss you wondered if he hadn't some tricks, didn't you P' * Of course.' 'And you kept saying to yourself, * I vender if that there hoss will tumble down,' eh ?', , t■ r. •Probably.' :' And you made up your mini on it a great deal, most likely ?' •Tnatfstrue.' .. 'Tfcat's wot's:; the matter, ~ You've hypnotised him. • See"?' «He's perfectly quiet, gentlemen,' said in innkeeper, referring to a horse which twogcovices were to drive, 'but you must keep the rein off his tail.'

When they returned the iimkeeper inquire I how they got on. ' Splendidly !' w&a the reply. *Wn had one rather sharp shower, and we took it in turns to hold the umbrella over the horse's tail, so there was no real danger,'