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rounding objects. Whilst other animals have excitement conforming to their rapid motions, the shrivelled face of the chameleon hardly indicates life; the eyelids are scarcely parted; he protrudes his tongue towards the insect with a motion so imperceptible, that it is touched and caught more certainly than by the most lively action... Thus, various creatures living upon insects reach their prey by different means and instincts; rapidity of motion, which gives no time for escape, is bestowed on some, while others have a languid and slow movement that excites no alarm.

The loris, a tardigrade animal, might be pitied for the slowness of its motions, were they not the very best means bestowed upon it as necessary to its existence. It steals on its prey by night, and extends it arm to the bird on the branch, or to the great moth, with a motion so imperceptibly slow as to make sure of its object.

The sloth, in its wild state, spends its life in trees, and never leaves them but from force or accident. The eagle to the sky, the mole to the ground, but the sloth to the tree. A bare inspection of the limbs of the sloth ought to have enabled naturalists to assert positively that he was never modelled to walk on the ground. He does not even live upon the branches, but under them. He moves suspended and rests suspended.

Far from stripping an entire tree of its leaves in order to satisfy the calls of hunger, I know by actual observation that he merely takes a mouthful or two of the foliage at a time, and then moves onwards. His falling from the tree, too, like an inanimate mass, is an imaginary speculation, fit for the nursery fireside on a winter's evening... Some years ago I kept a sloth in my room for several months. I often took him out of the house and placed him upon the ground, in order to have an opportunity of observing his motions. If the ground were rough he would pull himself forwards by means of his fore legs, at a pretty good pace; and he invariably shaped his course towards the nearest tree. But if I put him upon a smooth and welltrodden part of the road, he appeared to be in trouble and distress. His favorite abode was the back of a chair; and after getting all his legs on a line with the topmost part of it, he would hang there for hours together, and often, with a low inward cry, would seem to invite me to take notice of him... Amongst the birds, too, the swift and the humming-bird have nothing whatever to do with the ground, and this may be seen from the disproportionate character of their feet and legs. As all the four toes of the swift point forwards, it would be very difficult, nay, almost impossible for this bird to maintain a firm

hold on the branch of a tree. On wing it spends the live-long day; on wing its captures its food; and on wing it seizes feathers floating in the air, and takes them to its nest for the purpose of incubation; and when night sets in it retires to rest in the holes of towers, and under the eaves of houses, but never on the branches of trees.

Should the humming-bird chance to come to the ground before your face, its awkward struggles would show at once that it was quite out of its element. When once it has reached the twig, there it remains, quiet and motionless, like our domestic swallow. The humming-bird when in the act of feeding, however, never perches, but invariably takes its nutriment whilst fluttering before a flower.

The ant-bear is another animal which has been much maligned and misrepresented, for neither is he adapted for climbing, nor is it at all necessary for him to do so. Throughout the whole extent of his wooded empire, the ground itself swarms with millions upon millions of ants, fat and healthy, while the structure of his bones declares the provision of the extremity for digging... What else should the ant-bear do with his tremendous claws, and cylinder shaped snout, so tough as to enable him to perforate the huge ant-hills, which, in certain districts of South America, appear more like the roofs of Chinese temples, than the work and habitations of insignificant little insects?... He is chiefly found in the inmost recesses of the forest, and seems partial to the low and swampy parts near creeks, where the troely-tree grows. There he goes up and down in quest of his favorite nutriment, scraping with his powerful muzzle, the glutinous secretion on his long tongue aiding him in licking up the emmets... He cannot travel fast; man is superior to him in speed. Without swiftness to enable him to escape from his enemies; without teeth, the possession of which would assist him in self-defence; and without the power of burrowing into the ground, by which he might conceal himself from his pursuers, he is still capable of ranging these wilds in perfect safety: nor does he fear the fatal pressure of the serpent's coil, or the teeth of the famished jaguar... Nature has formed his fore legs* wonderfully thick and strong and muscular, and armed his feet with tremendously sharp and crooked claws. Whenever he seizes an animal with these for

* Vide Sir Charles Bell on the "Hand" for an illustration of the anatomical structure of the humerus, Bridgewater Treatise, p. 76.

midable weapons, he hugs it close to his body, and keeps it there till it dies through pressure, or want of food... Nor does the ant-bear, in the meantime, suffer much from loss of aliment, as it is a well-known fact that he can go longer without food than perhaps any other animal except the land tortoise. His skin is of a texture that perfectly resists the bite of a dog; and his hinder parts are protected by thick and shaggy hair, while his immense tail is large enough to cover his whole body.

The Indians have a great dread of coming in contact with the ant-bear; and, as with the moose of Canada, after disabling him in the chase, never think of approaching him till he be quite dead. Waterton.

HEREDITARY INSTINCT.

WITHIN twenty years from the foundation of our village, the deer had already become rare, and in a brief period later they had fled from the country. One of the last of these beautiful creatures, seen in the waters of our lake, occasioned a chase of much interest, though under very different circumstances from those of a regular hunt...A pretty little fawn had been brought in very young from the woods, and nursed and petted by a lady in the village, until it had become as tame as possible. It was graceful, as those little creatures always are, and so gentle and playful, that it became a great favorite, following the different members of the family about, caressed by the neighbours, and welcomed everywhere.

One morning, after gambolling about as usual until weary, it threw itself down in the sunshine, at the feet of one of its friends, upon the steps of a store... There came along a countryman, who for several years had been a hunter by pursuit, and who still kept several dogs; one of his hounds came to the village with him on this occasion. The dog, as it approached the spot where the fawn lay, suddenly stopped; the little animal saw him, and started to his feet...It had lived more than half its life among the dogs of the village, and had apparently lost all fear of them; but it seemed to know instinctively that an enemy was at hand. In an instant a change came over it, and the gentleman who related the incident, and who was standing by at the moment, observed that he had never in his life seen a finer sight than the sudden arousing of instinct in the beautiful creature... In a second its whole character and appearance seemed changed; all its past habits were forgotten; every wild impulse was awake; its head erect, its nostrils dilated, its eyes flashing. In another instant, before

the spectators had thought of the danger, before its friends could secure it, the fawn was leaping wildly through the street, and the hound in full pursuit.

The bystanders were eager to save it; several persons instantly followed its track; the friends who had long fed and fondled it calling the name it had hitherto known, but in vain. The hunter endeavored to whistle back his dog, but with no better success. In half a minute, the fawn had turned the first corner, dashed onwards towards the lake, and thrown itself into the water...But if for a moment the startled creature believed itself safe in the cool bosom of the lake it was undeceived; the hound followed in hot and eager chase, while a dozen of the village dogs joined wildly in the pursuit... Quite a crowd collected on the bank,-men, women, and children,anxious for the fate of the little animal known to them all; some threw themselves into boats, hoping to intercept the hound before he reached his prey; but the plashing of the oars, the eager voices of the men and boys, and the barking of the dogs, must have filled the beating heart of the poor fawn with terror and anguish, as though every creature on the spot where it had once been caressed and fondled had suddenly turned into a deadly foe... It was soon seen that the little animal was directing its course across a bay towards the nearest borders of the forest; and immediately the owner of the hound crossed the bridge, running at full speed in the same direction, hoping to stop his dog as he landed. On the fawn swam as it never swam before; its delicate head scarcely seen above the water, but leaving a disturbed track, which betrayed its course alike to friends and enemies...As it approached the land the exciting interest became intense. The hunter was already on the same line of shore, calling loudly and angrily to his dog; but the animal seemed quite to have forgotten his master's voice in the pitiless pursuit... The fawn touched the land; in one leap it had crossed the narrow line of beach, and in another instant it would reach the cover of the woods. The hound followed, true to the scent, aiming at the same spot on shore; his master anxious to meet him, had run at full speed, and was now coming up at the most critical moment... Would the dog hearken to his voice, or could the hunter reach him in time to seize and control him? A shout from the village bank proclaimed that the fawn had passed out of sight into the forest; at the same instant the hound felt the hunter's strong arm clutching his neck. The worst was believed to be over. The fawn was leaping up the mountain side, and its enemy under restraint. The other dogs, seeing their leader cowed, were easily managed.

A number of persons, men and boys, dispersed themselves in search of the little creature but without success; they all returned to the village, reporting that the animal had not been seen by them. Some persons thought that after the fright had passed over it would return of its own accord. It had worn a pretty collar, with its owner's name engraved upon it, so that it could easily be known from any other fawn that might be straying about the woods.

Before many hours had passed a hunter presented himself to the lady whose pet the little creature had been, and showing a collar with her name on it, said that he had been out in the woods, and saw a fawn in the distance; the little animal, instead of bounding away, as he had expected, moved towards him; he took aim, fired, and shot it through the heart. When he found the collar about its neck, he was very sorry he had killed it...And so the poor little thing died. One would have thought that terrible chase would have made it afraid of man; but no, it forgot the evil, and remembered the kindness only, and came to meet as a friend the man who shot it. It was long mourned by its best friend. Miss Cooper.

INSTINCT OF INSECTS.

IN the course of his ingenious and numerous experiments, Huber put under a bell-glass about a dozen humble bees, without any store of wax, along with a comb of about ten silken cocoons, so unequal in height that it was impossible the mass should stand firmly. Its unsteadiness disquieted the humble bees extremely. Their affection for their young led them to mount upon the cocoons for the sake of imparting warmth to the enclosed little ones, but in attempting this, the comb tottered so violently, that the scheme was almost impracticable... To remedy this inconvenience, and to make the comb steady, they had recourse to a most ingenious expedient. Two or three bees got upon the comb, stretched themselves over its edge, and with their heads downwards, fixed their fore feet on the table upon which it stood, whilst with their hind feet they kept it from falling. In this constrained and painful posture, fresh bees relieving their comrades when weary, did these affectionate little insects support the comb for nearly three days... At the end of this period, they had prepared a sufficiency of wax, with which they built pillars, that kept it in a firm position; but by some accident afterwards, these got displaced, when they had again recourse to their former manœuvre for supplying their place, and this operation they perseveringly

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