DUEL EXTRAORDINARY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 92, 5 April 1876, Page 4

DUEL EXTRAORDINARY.

Mr Buckland tells the following story of ajfighi^between^a ßoprpion, and a moused He says :-r- 1 (1 On carefully opening the box, I saw two scorpions sitting in it with their tails over their backs, ; They were divld^rc&iff&W other by a partition, and were 'Ve^y-guietj; but on seeing light they immediately began to uipyej so .that »[!} ;had to. be careful not to r let , them escape into the room. Sen^ngv, for a.^laj|g,.fis j h globe, I turned the box suddenly over,* bottom shook .them into it. For a momenfc^t^, Scprpipns remained quiet on the bottom; then waking up they suddenly rushed at each other* and began fightiiigi "find wrestling; filaw to claw, like.bujl^pgfl; X had great trouble to separate them, and. get one of them aut ofrth^gjobe; -„ , v \ , . '.~ , , : . . ._ ■-. In th'V course of thW morning it was anßounced i; that a. had. been cau gh t. in a trap. ; I 'immediately thought of testing the poison of, the scorpion upon the mouse. The reader must know that my scorpion is a" little beast, with a body the size of a large black-beetle. He has small legsjonieach side likq the legs of a lobster, and also two hipping clawe. v A^,t.N end V 6f the body is a tail ne *risJ£irii*iuotiek !f??S» consisting of a ! horny bag , r (he, shape. .of an apple-pip, and armed' with a brown-colored 'sting hawing, a,. curve like a bramble thorn.. Th§;{, 1 p j p,int j pf: l , the -sting is exceedingly Bharp./The general color of theacorpion is ffWorrid lo6Kingf;w6xy brown; The eve'sbf the scbrpion^little black shining points-;— are situated at the . top of. hia head. When jpreparing to fight he carrieajhis; tail in ;a^curye over his back and brandishes his jßtiDg with -immense rapidity. Heaims his blows directly forw^aW^a^a-Bdltlier gives a bayonet thrust. ' ; ; s > The scorpion wa^.Jying quietly at the bottom of Jther globe when I shook tbe mpii9effrom : the trap into it ; but the sudden arrival] of a stranger into his private, ?; &partmeDtß awoke him up directly. He hoisted bis sting and began brandishing -it about. The mouse /shortly 'crossed his path ; the scorpion instantly lunged his sting into ■him. This in turn woke up the 1 mouse, who began'io jump' up and down like a Jac^-in-Uie^bpx.,, ( >Vhen he became . quiet; „th& scorpion; jthen^ attacked the enemy, with his claws extended, like the pictures of ; the scorpion in the Signß ( pf -lhe ; Zodiac ; he made another sbot at ''the mouse, but missed him. I then called "time," to give both combatatits a-resti 'When the mouse hud got his wind, I Btirred up tbe scorpion once'^m ore : and, aathe fancy say; "lie came 'up smiling.'" The mouse during the interval had made up his raipd that he would have to fight; and not strike his colors to a scorpion as he would to a cat."* When, therefore, the scorpion camer*wttn l iri range, the mouse/ gave a squeak and bit him on the back ; the ' scorpion, at the same moment planted htßjjlig'^eli^etiveen the mouse's ears on jJb^e, tpp^bf ..Jus l head. The scorpion then tried to retreat, but could not, for one claw had got entangled in the fur of the 1 mouse. Then came one of the most ludicrous scenes I over beheld. Mouße^and^ecprpion closed, and both rolled over and": over* like ; , two cats fighting* The scorpion. continued stabbibg' f th7e thbusewilh his sting, his tail going 1 ;! v^ito'^tlhie 1 , ye) ocity"; ! and .. swift Bprj > ng ) i p!''a .needle, in afse.wing-mathinp, in fact, tbe^B,corpionrhadj the mouse, as pugnacious -schoolboy s say. in chancery. The .moment the .scorpion tired, and; thelunseso?j^ quent,:.! thßjMi.o.uß'a i got; .hold of the last t joint of his adversary's tail with hia jawyftud gave the sting a hard nip with ilia teeth (it, was. most , interesting to notice^lV^^ %? P 0^ 6 8(^ s paw). The : fc once tried to beat a refci^a^fruT he 'couldn't get away, as his claws were entangled in the fur. ThS ! mo%se'seiz'e3 this opportunity; and deliberately bif- r twb' of the scorpion's Bide O Wg% T 'pff. ili He i th : eri retired to the corner, and began to wash his face and comb his fur. I took out my watch to note hbw'lbngOit would be before the poison of the scorpion took efface. I waited minute after minute and notbiog happened; the •mouse seemed a little tiredv. and; that was all. When about ten "minu'ty had passed I shook the scorpion up to the place whera the mou^F^ sitting; ,;Tbe scorpion was a plucky arachnoid, for he tried to come up to theiScVatoh once more ; but as a ship is disabled when she hae lost her mainmast by a shot, so scorpio formidoWus, a>> Horace call him, was crippled for further encounter. He tried to hoist' his'sting 1 , but the bite from the'raouse had injured hia tail, so that he coulJwiiot strike straight with it, andyit bad lost; its spring from the wound. Seeing that the scorpion was ■ " lying under bare poles," the mouse sat himself down and began deliberately to eat the scorpion's legs up one after the clh'er.^l 'V',. '„''• ; J. — _, ■ .___, . .