Anecdotes of Animals Part 11

A mother bear, with two cubs, came too near a whaler, and was shot. The cubs not trying to escape, were taken alive. The little creatures, though at first seeming quite unhappy, at length became in some measure reconciled to their fate, and being quite tame, were allowed sometimes to go at large about the deck.

While the s.h.i.+p was moored to a floe a few days after they were taken, one of them having a rope fastened round his neck, was thrown overboard.

It at once swam to the ice, got upon it, and tried to escape. Finding itself, however, held by the rope, it tried to free itself in the following clever way.

Near the edge of the floe was a crack in the ice. It was of considerable length, but only eighteen inches or two feet wide, and three or four feet deep. To this spot the bear turned; and when, on crossing the chasm, the bight of the rope fell into it, he placed himself across the opening; then suspending himself by his hind feet, with a leg on each side, he dropped his head and most all of his body into the chasm; and with a foot applied to each side of the neck, tried for some minutes to push the rope over his head.

Finding that this scheme did not work, he moved to the main ice, and running with great force from the s.h.i.+p, gave a strong put on the rope; then going backward a few steps, he repeated the jerk. At length, after repeated attempts to make his escape in this way, every failure of which he announced with an angry growl, he gave himself up to his hard fate, and lay down on the ice in angry and sullen silence.

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Lx.x.xIV

DECEIVING THE FOWLER

A young pointer, out with his master hunting, ran on a brood of very small partridges. The old bird cried, fluttered, and ran trembling along just before the dog's nose, till she had drawn him to a considerable distance; when she took wing and flew farther off, but not out of the field. At this the dog went back nearly to the place where the young ones lay concealed in the gra.s.s. The old bird no sooner saw this than she flew back again, settled first before the dog's nose, and a second time acted the same part, rolling and tumbling about till she drew off his attention from the brood, and thus succeeded in saving them.

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Lx.x.xV

ASKING a.s.sISTANCE

A party of a s.h.i.+p's crew was sent ash.o.r.e on a part of the coast of India, for the purpose of cutting wood for the s.h.i.+p. One of the men, having strayed from the rest, was greatly frightened by the appearance of a large lioness, who came toward him. But when she had come up to him, she lay down at his feet, and looked very earnestly, first at him, and then at a tree a short distance off. After doing this several times, she arose and started toward the tree, looking back at the man several times, as if trying to make him follow her. At length he went, and when he reached the tree, he saw a huge baboon with two young cubs in her arms. He supposed they must belong to the lioness, as she lay down like a cat, and seemed to be watching them very anxiously. The man being afraid to climb the tree, decided to cut it down, and having his axe with him, he at once set to work, the lioness, meantime, watching to see what he was doing. When the tree fell, she sprang upon the baboon, and after tearing her in pieces, she turned round and fawned round the man, rubbing her head against him in great fondness, and in token of her grat.i.tude for the service he had done her. After this she took the cubs away, one at a time, and the man went back to the s.h.i.+p.

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Lx.x.xVI

DOG SMUGGLERS

In the Netherlands, they use dogs of a very large and strong breed as they would horses. They are harnessed like horses, and chiefly employed in drawing little carts filled with fish, vegetables, and other produce.

Before the year 1795, such dogs were also employed in smuggling; which was the easier, as they are exceedingly docile.

The dogs were trained to go back and forth between two places on the frontiers, without any person to attend them. Being well loaded with little parcels of goods, lace, and the like, they set out at midnight, and went only when it was perfectly dark. An excellent, quick-scented dog always went some paces before the others, stretched out his nose toward all quarters, and when he scented custom house officers, turned back, which was the signal for immediate flight.

Concealed behind bushes, or in ditches, the dogs waited till all was safe, then continued their journey, and at last reached, beyond the frontier, the dwelling-house of the receiver of the goods, who was in the secret. But here, also, the leading dog only at first showed himself. On a certain whistle, which was a signal that all was right, they all hastened up. They were then unloaded, taken to a nearby stable, where there was a good layer of hay and plenty of good food.

There they rested until midnight, and they then returned in the same manner as they had come, back over the frontiers.

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Lx.x.xVII

PORUS SAVED BY HIS ELEPHANT

King Porus, in a battle with Alexander the Great, being severely wounded, fell from the back of his elephant. The Macedonian soldiers, supposing him dead, pushed forward, in order to rob him of his rich clothing and accoutrements; but the faithful elephant, standing over the body of its master, boldly drove back every one who dared to come near, and while the enemy stood at bay, took the bleeding Porus up with his trunk, and placed him again on his back.

The troops of Porus came by this time to his relief, and the king was saved; but the elephant died of the wounds which it had so bravely received in the heroic defense of its master.

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Lx.x.xVIII

A HUMANE SOCIETY

A large colony of rooks had lived for many years in a grove on the banks of a river. One quiet evening the idle birds amused themselves with chasing one another through endless mazes, and in their flight they made the air sound with many discordant noises. In the midst of this play, it unfortunately happened that one of the rooks, by a sudden turn, struck his head against the wing of another. The wounded bird instantly fell into the river. A general cry of distress followed. The birds hovered with every expression of anxiety over their distressed companion.

Encouraged by their sympathy, and perhaps by the language of counsel known to themselves, he sprang into the air, and by one strong effort reached the point of a rock that projected into the river. The joy became loud and universal; but, alas! it was soon changed into notes of sorrow, for the poor, wounded bird, in trying to fly toward his nest, dropped again into the river, and was drowned.

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Lx.x.xIX

A MOTHER WATCHING HER YOUNG

The following singular instance of the far-sighted watchfulness of the mother turkey over her young is told by a French priest. "I have heard,"

he says, "a mother turkey, when at the head of her brood, send forth the most hideous scream, without being able to see any cause for it. Her young ones, however, the moment the warning was given, hid under the bushes, the gra.s.s, or whatever else seemed to offer shelter or protection. They even stretched themselves at full length on the ground, and lay as motionless as if dead.

In the meantime, the mother, with her eyes directed upward, kept up her cries and screaming as before. On looking up in the direction in which she seemed to gaze, I discovered a black spot just under the clouds, but was unable at first to decide what it was. However, it soon appeared to be a bird of prey, though at first at too great a distance to be distinguished. I have seen one of those mother turkeys continue in this agitated state for four hours at a stretch, and her whole brood pinned down to the ground, as it were, the whole of that time, while their foe has taken its circuits, has mounted and hovered directly over their heads. When he, at last, disappeared, the mother changed her note and sent forth a different sort of cry, which in an instant gave life to the whole trembling brood, and they all flocked round her with expressions of pleasure, as if conscious of their happy escape from danger."

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