Naturalist,

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 429, 4 August 1904, Page 7

Naturalist,

ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. f late lamented Consul, the chimihwm panzae which earned poi , Ira* week in London music balls, and , died at the height of bis fame, was not the only example of exceptionally I highly trained animals'which the world , has seen. Some men seem to possess an i extraordinary magnetic power over , animals, which enables them to tame and , train the mesfc unpromising materials into , a high degree of efficiency. The sensation of London in or about the year 1760 was a * cats' opera' at the Haymarket, conducted by a Scotch shoemaker named Biesatt, who had taught these creatures to play tunes on the dulcimer as an accompaniment to their own squalling, which was as harmonious as it could be made by their being taught to howl in three tones—first, aeoond and third. His great success, however, was with a pig which, according to a contemporary account by the author of the Anthologia Hibernica,' was seen for two or three days by many persons of respectability to spell without any apparent direction the names of those in the company; to oast up accounts; to point out words thought of by persons present} to tell exactly the hours, minutes, seconds; to distinguish the married from the single,' &<i, While this learned pig was performing in Dublin an armed ram an broke into the room, slew the animal with his sword, assaulted Bisset himsalt and so unnerved the unfortunate trainer that he took to his bed and died within a few days, Apropos of trained pigs, not the least notable of the fraternity was Sir Henry Milmay's black New Forest sow which, having at its youth been brought up with pointer puppies; was educated by the keeper with them and like them. She did such credit to her training that Sir Henry Milmay considered her as useful as any pointer he had ever had. She quartered her ground deliberately, backed the dogs admirably, showed the keenest scent in pointing—which she did by falling on her knees—and was so patiently stanch that she would remain at point for five minuteß and upwards, ks soon as the game rose she returned to her trainer, a man named Turner, and grunted loudly for tho bit of sausage with which she was always rewarded.

A story ia told of a bulldog which unquestionably had at least so much sense of hnmor as to resent ridicule. Oa one occasion he was dressed op in a shawl and leghorn hat and exhibited to-the company as an old aegress— a part he looted to such perfection that every one shrieked with laughter. He nursed his wrath to keep it wum for six weeks, when, seeing the leghorn hat on a peg behind the door he leaped on a chair, fetched it down and tore it to shreds, It was the only ast of mischief he had ever committed since his puppy hood. When & hen laid, as ahe often did, an egg in his kennel ia the stable he always carefully curried the egg in his mouth and laid it down unbroken beside the basket ia the yard, where the other eggs were deposited when collected. & naturalist, who ia in charge of a fiae museum, ia one of the'cathedral towns, tells a story to the effect that he had once , seen a horse in a field seize and work with i his teeth the handle of a pump in order to water some thirsty cows which were blowing lt*a.-iitftbly over the waterless trough I This naturalist had also seen a young, halt fledged sparrow which had fallen out of the neat helped back by its parents thus: They threw a straw into the little derelict's beak, and, seizing themselves' each end of it, they flew up with the nestling above the nest, and then dropped him gently into it! Here are two stories given upon the authority of Mr Gavin Inglis. In a Fifeshire village a sparrow had laid her eggs and half reared her brood in a last year's swallow's nest, On the return of the swallows the original owner and builder tried to take possession of the nest with the Itelp, not of its mate only, but of a number of othC?' swallows, Taeir combined; efforts to dislodge the sparrow being- vain, they held a council of war, which sentenced the usurper to a death like that of Constance in Marmion. Not only the little band which had tried to storm the nest, but the whole flock of swallows fetched building material and ia a short time walled up the criminal and her brood to perish miserably in darkaess or starvation,

PYTHONS To be crushed by a python seems one of the most awful deaths'. Yet it is said to be comparatively painless. Nearly every slow death, save when the body i 3 torn or burned or broken—such as by drowning, or suffocation by the inhalation of letLil gas—in itself lacks horror. In this category the doctors who examined a recent victim say that among painless deaths may now be placed death in a python's coils. Kdlle. Anita Eongere, a snake t&msr, has been squeezed by a python, and lives to tell her experiences,

' We were in Canada/ she says, ' and it was winter. The weather was so sold that my snakes were almost good for nothing. The cobras were jest so many logs the moment I took them out of their warm blankets in a heated room. The performance was in the evening, and, as I remember, I was very tired. The day's work had been tryisg. There was just one more act - thf exhibition of Monarch, my big python. Monarch had been trained to creep out of his box. I would take out enough of his body to wind once round my waist, and then I would stand still while he dragged along the rest of .his eleven feet and encircled me. This he would do mest gently. But this night as one length after another coiled round me I felt the whole frame of the serpent tighten; I wanted to scream but I was afraid. I held Monarch's head in one hand, and instead of watching my audience bent my gaza into his eyes, speaking to him all the while in alow, purring tone to which be was used, but he simply spread wider his great mouth. ' At this I signalled the attendants to go further away, for an angry snake must see no one bat his master. The p*jn was now exquisite. I felt I must totter and fall, but I was held upright aa though 1 stood in a metal pipe. My feet seemed no longer to touch the floor; 1 was floating through space, with my beacon the great head of the python, whose baady eyes glowed like twin coals. Finally I found myself engaged in strange calculations, harboring weird hopes. How long -until I should feel a rib snapP Which one would break first P XM& quite forgotten my lungs. I was not using them at all, I could not breathe. Then 1 closed my eyes and waited. Upon my eyes broke the sound of music. Tea, it was the old grind-organ of Pierre Lecardi whom I used to know when I was a girl. No longer did I see the poised, vibrating face of the python. The python must have disturbed my line of vision by a hug more. intense, for I was lifted twenty years ahead and laid in the arms of a great, strong man. Some danger lurkid hearwhen the protecting arma of my husband closed about me. Then I fainted, and when I came to they were cutting the dead python's coils from my body.*