ANIMAL SELF-DEFENSE. 



607 



pocket-knife into its handle. The fangs of the scorpion are modified 

 feet. 



Certain fishes have the power of storing a large quantity of elec- 

 tricity, which is used at will to paralyze and kill prey or enemies. 

 The electric eel can kill small fishes at a distance, it is said, of fifteen 

 feet ; and they sometimes kill the horses which are driven into the 

 pools for the purpose of exhausting and capturing the eels. The elec- 

 tricity, is stored in a peculiar tissue of large cells or tubes which act 

 like a battery of so many Leyden-jars. Apparently nervous force is 

 here converted into electricity. After giving several shocks, the creat- 

 ure is exhausted for a time. 



Besides those creatures which are passively offensive by their odors, 

 there are others which can at will exini 

 fluids to offend and deter enemies. The 

 skunk need only be named, and the point 

 will be fairly grasped by the reader. 

 Some reptiles have the power to expel 

 an offensive fluid from glands in the 

 skin. The toad and salamander are ex- 

 amples. This fluid is acrid and biting, 

 and intensely irritating to delicate skin, 

 as the mucous membrane of the mouth 

 or eye. The abundance of this viscid 

 yellow fluid in the salamander probably 

 led to the ancient notion that this little 

 amphibian could withstand and extin- 

 guish fire. The water-beetle (Dytiscus) 

 also expels a nauseating fluid. 



It is very curious to find how some 

 weak and lowly creatures succeed in 

 frightening away their powerful foes. 

 They assume a virtue which they do not ^^Z^^SS'^^^t, 

 possess. The attitudes of some insects tajjg; cjjwjirg ** 



may also protect them, as the habit of 'tothepectora\&ns-nl,nervilaterales; 



. J np, branches of the pneumojastric 



turning up the tail, by the harmless rove- nerves going to the electric organ ; 



beetles, no doubt leads other animals, 



besides children, to the belief that they can sting. The curious atti- 

 tude assumed by sphinx caterpillars is probably a safeguard, as well as 

 the blood-red tentacles which can suddenly be thrown out from the 

 neck by the caterpillars of all the true swallow-tailed butterflies." 



Many creatures produce sounds for the same purpose. The cat 

 spits. Snakes hiss. The porcupine rattles his quills. " Even the pre- 

 liminary rustle of the quills with which a porcupine generally prepares 

 every attack is sufficient to make an ordinary horse flee in terror." 

 Perhaps the sounds >produced by certain naked sea-snails are in some 

 decree for defense. 



