ON INSTINCTS.
(From Onee-a-Week.) ; It is a well-known fact, -that when a sheep has produced two lambs, and hasdied in bringing them forth, other ewes of the flock liave suckled and brought up the young ones, I have seen sparrows feed young canary birds, which ■' have been placed for the first time outside of a window, when they have cried for the food their parents had been in ; the habit of supplying them with. Sparrows, also, have been known to feed one of "their companions, who was caught by the leg by a long piece of worsted which she was conveying to her nest in the thatched roof of a! building, and from which she could not[ extricate herself. She was th-asfed for. f many days until the worsted .gave way, • when-the whole of lipt companions appeared, to rejoice at her escape, by; making clamorous noises, But what shall we call the instinct of the elephant, which, when a child unable to walk, had^been placed under its care, has allowed it to crawl as far as the extent of the animal's chain, and then gently lifted it up with its trunk, and replaced it in safety ? It is evidently an extraordinary effect both of care and intelligence, and is also a proof of that noble animal's gentle nature. Some animals, and even some insects, will put on the semblance of death when their~lives are in danger. The common snake, I happen to know, will do this on some occasions. At others, he will emit Vo horrible a stench that no one will feel inclined to molest him. Ants have a peculiar instinct, indeed a very one. On tlie tender shoot of a poplar tree a number oF little green'insects called aphes may often be seen clustered togetitt-r. Ants find their, way to these shoots or small branches, and tickle the aphes with their antennae- this process appears to: give pleasure *te the aphes, who emit a sweet fluid from their bedies which the ants greedily devour. I have myselt witnessed this operation -too often to admit a doubt of its truth. I have known z. cat, when she was shut up in U room and wanted to get out, riag the bell, and make her escape when the servant answered it. } A puppy of the St. Bernard breed has-been seen to scratch'up the snow the first time it was placed upon it, in \ imitaiien of that noble breed of dogs who are lenown to searcli for 'bodies; buried in the -snew on the Alps, and Ibus preserve many lives. I have seen } a young pointer, when only a.few weeks; old, point steadily at a chicken in a poultry yard : and young ducks, which p have been hatched under a 'hen, will, by.a-natural instinct, take =to the water. If they were hatched in an oven, they; would probably do the same. : Monkeys are very fond of bird's =eggs. Id-some-countries where these abound, birds in order to preserve their eggs will make their nests at the end of the slender branches of trees, so that; the monkeys cannot reach them. Xt is said that when a scorpion is surrounded 'by a circle of burning coals ■or wood, and -begins to feel the heat, it runs about to«eek.sbme mode of escape, • but finding none, it -stings itself and immediately dies. It is a common amusement among the soldiers at Gibraltar, where these r-eptiles -abound, to witness ; the fact above stated. Here we have •an instance of self-destruction, and of a; knowledge of a mode of getting quit of' a painful existence. ; It is an interesting fact that all birds make tbe size of their nests, not in pro-: portion to the number of their eggs, but in proportion to the number and size of the young it will have to contain.
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Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 3, 16 November 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)
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638ON INSTINCTS. Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 3, 16 November 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)
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