FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



14* 



refuse to approach ground where they have 

 stood. For this reason a traveling menage- 

 rie was recently refused permission to en- 

 camp on a village green, although the people 

 would have been glad to see the show, but 

 because the presence of the camels would 

 interfere with the customary use of the place 

 for a market, by engendering difficulties 

 when the next attempt should be made to 

 drive horses upon it. Yet, at a performance 

 of two bears in London, one of the horses of 

 a four-in-hand almost touched one of them, 

 without himself or any of the team showing 

 any nervousness over the matter. The hatred 

 of cattle for dogs is supposed to have been 

 inherited from the days when their calves 

 were constantly killed by wolves or wild 

 dogs. But " why the horse not only does not 

 share this antipathy, but, on the contrary, 

 loves a dog, it is difficult to explain." The 

 dislike of the cat family for dogs likewise 

 probably dates from the time when the wild 

 dogs hunted and destroyed their whelps. 

 '* There is much probability in this conjec- 



ture, for it is the dog, and not the wolf, 

 which the tiger so intensely dislikes, and it 

 is only the packs of wild dogs, not wolves, 

 which would venture to kill a cub. Leopards, 

 which naturally live in branches of trees, sim- 

 ply look on dogs as a favorite article of food ; 

 and the puma of the pampas, which inhabits 

 a country where the wild dog is unknown, is 

 also a great dog-killer. The dogs, on their 

 part, seem quite aware of the difference of 

 view on the part of the various cats ; they will 

 mob a tiger and hunt all tiger-cats. But they 

 all seem to fear the leopard, and by nature 

 to fear the puma, though in North America 

 they can be trained to hunt it. It was re- 

 cently noticed that a large dog, which found 

 its way to a point opposite the outdoor cages 

 of the lion-house at the Zoo, crept under- 

 neath a seat as soon as the puma caught 

 sight of it, and exhibited signs of the utmost 

 nervousness and fear." The antipathies of 

 most animals find a climax "in the com- 

 mon and intense horror of the poisonous 

 snake." 



MINOR PARAGRAPHS. 



THE Municipal Administration Commit- 

 tee of the Reform Club of the City of New 

 York kas secured Mr. Robert C. Brooks as 

 its secretary, who has established his office 

 at the University Settlement House, 26 De- 

 lancey Street ; has begun the collection of a 

 working library, which is rapidly growing ; 

 and has practically completed a bibliography 

 of Municipal Administration, of twenty-five 

 hundred manuscript pages, comprising a sub- 

 ject index and another list, arranged alpha- 

 betically and containing nine thousand en- 

 tries referring to thirty four hundred articles 

 in American, English, French, German, Italian, 

 and Spanish publications, with the names of 

 twelve hundred writers. It has more recently 

 begun the issue of a quarterly magazine called 

 Municipal Affairs, the first number of which 

 contains the bibliography. It is working 

 earnestly to enlist those who are willing to 

 aid in propaganda work chiefly by holding 

 meetings, at which questions of municipal 

 polity are discussed by competent speakers. 



THE importance is insisted upon by 

 Thomas A. Williams, in a paper on the 

 Grasses and Forage Plants of the Dakotas, 

 of making every effort to preserve the native 



grasses. They are naturally adapted to the 

 conditions that prevail in the region, and it 

 is very improbable that introduced forms 

 can be had to take their places satisfacto- 

 rily for many years to come. Climatal evi- 

 dences are abundant to prove that some of 

 the native forms will flourish under condi- 

 tions that would kill the common cultivated 

 ones ; and the prolonged dry weather of the 

 later summer, which would be destructive to 

 cultivated species, simply cures these native 

 ones on the ground, so that cattle can forage 

 on them in winter as if they were hay. The 

 importance of these grasses is illustrated by 

 the immense shipments from the Dakotas of 

 stock which have had no other feed than that 

 growing naturally on the prairies. Many of 

 the most valuable of these grasses are much 

 benefited by judicious irrigation, even though 

 it be only slight. 



AN expedition is fitting out by the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History, with the 

 aid of Mr. Morris K. Jesup, for the system- 

 atic study of the peoples inhabiting the 

 coasts of the North Pacific Ocean between 

 the Amoor River in Asia and the Columbia 

 River in America. The exploration is to be 



