eae 
HERE is another story of an animal duel which 
took place only this year between 
a Pig and a Python, animals 
whose families are well known to 
be natural enemies, though it is believed such a 
battle has never before been witnessed by civilised 
man. ‘The pig, intended for the pythons dinner, 
was placed in his cage, and, all unconscious of 
danger, trotted about until it came in contact with 
the wriggling tail of the snake. This awoke the 
python, who at once drew its huge body together 
into a coil, darted out its long forked tongue and 
just missed the pig’s nose. In an instant all the 
instincts of its ancestors took possession of the pig 
who seemed as though transformed into a wild 
fighting /pec- 
cary. The long 
bristles on his 
back stood up 
two inches 
high, and he 
sprang for his 
antagonist’s 
head, but the 
quickness of 
the serpent 
eluded his on- 
slaught, and 
once more get- 
ting into pos- 
ition struck 
again for the 
And 
Another. 
Animal Anecdotes 
29 
Enoueu of fights for the present, and now for a 
more peaceful story—one of a 
domestic cat who always sat up to 
dimner with his master every 
evening, and had his napkin round his neck 
and his own plate with some dainty morsels 
of fish. He used his paws of course instead 
of a knife and fork, “but” says his master, “he 
was very particular and behaved with extra- 
ordinary decorum. When he had finished his 
fish I sometimes gaye him a piece of mine. 
One day he was not to be found when the dinner 
bell rang, so we began without him. Just as 
the plates were being put round for entrées, puss 
came rushing upstairs and sprang into his chair 
A Cat 
Story. 
with two mice 
in his mouth. 
Before he 
could be stop- 
ped he drop- 
ped one mouse 
on his own 
plate and then 
one on to mine. 
He divided 
his dinner with 
meas I divided 
mine with 
him. It was an 
arrangement 
that appeared 
to give him 
From an Instantaneous Photograph 
THE PIG 
pig’s nose and 
again missed. 
A second time 
the pig flew at the snake’s head, and a second time 
he missed, but he managed to tear a piece of skin 
from its throat and thus scored first blood. At 
last the final round had come. ‘Twisting his tail 
round a post to give him leverage to crush his 
enemy the python struck again, and the pig, with 
desperate courage leapt forward and caught the 
snake’s head in his teeth. As he crunched 
his tusks through the snake’s spine the monster’s 
coils slid round his body and began to crush it. 
For a moment the pig released his grip, then seized 
the snake’s head once more, and in a spasm of 
agony as his own ribs were being crushed, sank 
his teeth into the back of the serpent’s brain and 
bit in two the spinal cord. 
THAT FOUGHT A PYTHON. 
every satisfac- 
tion.” 
Os 
DoMESTICATED animals are represented in one of 
our coloured plates this month by 
a reproduction from an original 
painting by Mr. Harrison Weir, of a Brahma 
Pootra, these birds were imported into this country 
in the year 1852, nine of them being sent as a pres- 
ent to Queen Victoria by Mr. George P. Burnham, 
under the name of grey-Shanghia. 
Mr. Weir, whose name is familiar to all animal 
lovers, has been busy for many years past on a 
great work dealing with Poultry, this is nearly 
ready for publication and will be issued in 
fortnightly parts. It will be illustrated with 
many beautiful coloured plates and a large 
number of original drawings. 
Fowls. 
