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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



back over his shoulder, like a frightened 

 baby," and covered himself with his piece 

 of carpet. Then his fear gave place to 

 pleasure, and he sat down, with smoothed 

 hair, and listened to the music. The piccolo 

 at first frightened him, but he soon held out 

 his hand for the instrument and was allowed 

 to examine it. " The flute did not interest 

 him, but the bagpipes — reproduced on the 

 violin — achieved a triumph." The capu- 

 chins were busy eating their breakfast ; 

 " but the violin soon attracted an audience. 

 The capuchins dropped their food and clung 

 to the bars, listening, with their heads on 

 one side, with great attention. The keeper 

 drew our notice to the next cage. There, 

 clinging in rows to the front wires, was a 

 silent assembly of a dozen macaques, all 

 listening attentively to the concert which 

 their neighbors were enjoying. At the first 

 sounds of the flute most of these ran away ; 

 and the piccolo excited loud and angry 

 screams from all sides. Clearly, in this case, 

 the violin was the favorite." When the 

 flute was played to the elephant, he stood 

 listening with deep attention, one foot raised 

 from the ground, and its whole body still. 

 " But the change to the piccolo was resented. 

 After the first bar, the elephant twisted 

 round, and stood with its back to the per- 

 former, whistling and snorting and stamping 

 its feet. The violin was less disliked, but 

 the signs of disapproval were unmistakable." 

 The deer were strongly attracted by the vio- 

 lin, and showed equal pleasure at the tones 

 of the flute. The ostrich seemed to enjoy 

 the violin and flute, though it showed marked 

 dislike at the piccolo. " The ibexes were 

 startled at the piccolo, first rushing forward 

 to listen, and then taking refuge on a pile of 

 rock, from which, however, the softer music of 

 the flute brought them down to listen at the 

 railing. The wild asses and zebras left the 

 hay with which their racks had just been 

 filled ; and even the tapir, which lives next 

 door, got up to listen to the violin ; while 

 the flute set the Indian wild ass kicking with 

 excitement. But the piccolo had no charms 

 for any of them, and they all returned to 

 their interrupted breakfasts." A sleeping 

 tiger was awakened by the soft playing of 

 the violin near its cage; listened to the 

 music for a time " in a very fine attitude," 

 then "purred," lay down again, and dozed. 



At the first notes of the piccolo, it " sprang 

 to its feet and rushed up and down the cage, 

 shaking its head and ears, and lashing its 

 tail from side to side. As the notes became 

 still louder and more piercing, the tiger 

 bounded across the den, reared on its hind 

 feet, and exhibited the most ludicrous con- 

 trast to the calm dignity and repose with 

 which it had listened to the violin. With 

 the flute, which followed, the tiger became 

 quiet, the leaps subsided to a gentle walk, 

 and coming to the bars and standing still 

 and quiet once more, the animal listened 

 with pleasure to the music." 



The Observatory at Areqiiipa, Peru. — 



Prof. Pickering, of Harvard Observatory, is 

 well satisfied with the advantages of the 

 South American branch observatory near 

 Arequipa, Peru, eight thousand feet above 

 the sea. During a large part of the year, he 

 says, the sky is nearly cloudless. A tele- 

 scope having an aperture of thirteen inches 

 has been erected there, and has shown a re- 

 markable degree of steadiness in the atmos- 

 phere. Night after night atmospheric con- 

 ditions prevail which occur only at rare in- 

 tervals, if ever, in Cambridge. Several of 

 the diffraction rings surrounding the brighter 

 stars are visible, close doubles in which the 

 components are much less than a second 

 apart are readily separated, and powers can 

 be constantly employed which are so high as 

 to be almost useless in Cambridge. In many 

 researches the gain is as great as if the ap- 

 erture of the instrument was doubled. The 

 observatory is also favorably situated with 

 reference to the southern stars, most of 

 which can not be seen at all from the United 

 States. 



Ashamed, yet Faithfnl. — We have re- 

 ceived from Dr. John S. Flagg, of Boston, a 

 curious incident illustrating the operation of 

 something like a moral sense in a dog. One 

 rainy morning in October, 1891, Dr. Flagg 

 observed a setter dog in front of himself, 

 slinking along with his tail and head de- 

 pressed, and his whole gait one of dejection. 

 He proved to be following a seedy-looking 

 man in a state of reeling intoxication. Be- 

 ing impressed that the dog's trouble was 

 caused by shame at the intoxication of his 

 master and the attention he was attracting, 



