Odd Things About Animals.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 23, 5 June 1902, Page 15

Odd Things About Animals.

Jubt as nations have developed from their savage state into civilised beings, co naturally dogs and cats and horses and hogs and other domestic animals are very different from the wild things that were caught in the forest and trained to usefulness, but there are some habits inherited from their far away ancestors which they still retain and by which they are distinguished one from the other. We never question, for instance, why a horse runs so swiftly and has such power of endurance, but we must remember that his ancestors had to flee and defend themselves from wolves— their greatest enemies — and that their rearing and plunging waß also a former means of defence if the enemy sprang on their backs. Their neigh was a watchword call when wild horses went in droves and some Bort of signal was necessary to keep them from straying. Sheep when frightened always run to an elevation beoauie their ancestors originally came from the mountains. They always follow a leader because in the dangerous mountain passes their ancestors had to go in single file. Hogs grunt because their feeding grounds were thick woods where they could not see one another, and sound was necessary to keep them together. Dogs have a way of turning round several times before they lie down. This looks very foolish now, but when they were wild things centurieß ago they slept in the tall grass and turned around several times to hollow out a bed, and they have never outgrown this habit, but to this late day they will turn round on a rug just as if it were in the tall grass. Cats have perhaps the most traces of old ancestral habits. Many things they do have some trace of the lion or the tiger very near the surface. Their uncertain temper, their purring and growling, their sudden bounds, their tendency to scratch, all come from the forest and the jungle.