594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS.* 



BY FREDERIC HOUSSAY. 



WE find among animals not only hunting and fishing but the 

 art of storing in barns, of domesticating various species, of 

 harvesting and reaping the rudiments of the chief human indus- 

 tries. Certain animals in order to shelter themselves take advan- 

 tage of natural caverns in the same way as many races of primitive 

 men. Others, like the fox and the rodents, dig out dwellings in 

 the earth ; even to-day there are regions where man does not act 

 otherwise, preparing himself a lodging by excavations in the chalk 

 or the tufa. Woven dwellings, constructed with materials entan- 

 gled in one another, like the nests of birds, proceed from the same 

 method of manufacture as the woolen stuffs of which nomad 

 tribes make their tents. The termites who construct vast dwell- 

 ings of clay, the beavers who build huts of wood and of mud, have 

 in this industry reached the same point as man. They do not 

 build so well, no doubt, nor in so complex a fashion as modern 

 architects and engineers, but they work in the same way. All 

 these ingenious artisans operate without organs specially adapted 

 to accomplish the effect which they reach. It is with such genu- 

 ine industries that we have to deal, for the most part neglecting 

 other productions, more marvelous in certain ways, which are 

 formed by particular organs, or are elaborated within the organ- 

 ism, and are not the result of the intelligent effort of the indi- 

 vidual. To this category belong the threads which the spider 

 stretches, and the cocoon with which the caterpillar surrounds 

 himself to shelter his metamorphosis. 



STRUGGLES OF THE CHASE. It is not always sufficient for the 

 hunter to find game and to reach it. If the game is of large size 

 it may be able to hold its own, and the pursuit may end in a vio- 

 lent struggle, in which both skill and cunning are necessary to 

 obtain conquest. 



The bird which displays the most remarkable qualities in this 

 struggle which terminates the chase, exhibiting indeed a real 

 fencing match, is the secretary bird (Gypogeranus reptilivorus, 

 Fig. 1). He is the more interested in striking without being him- 

 self struck, since the fangs with which his prey, the snake, is gen- 

 erally armed might at the first blow give him a mortal wound. 

 In South Africa he pursues every snake, even the most venomous. 

 Warned by instinct of the terrible enemy he has met, the reptile 

 at first seeks safety in flight ; the secretary follows him on foot, 



* An abstract from the author's book under this title in The Contemporary Science 

 Series. Imported by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 



