ANIMAL A 
THE following case would seem to prove fairly 
conclusively that grief often leads 
animals to attempt suicide. A 
ereat Dane dog was abandoned 
by the family to which he belonged. For 
week or more he roamed about the neighbour- 
hood, vainly seeking his protectors. The cook 
in a restaurant fed him well, but no one cared 
to give hima home. One morning he appeared 
in front of the house where his family had 
lived, ran up the stairs, and leaped from an 
upper window to the street. He was so badly 
hurt by the fall that a policeman shot him. 
Investigation proyed that neither by word nor 
by gesture had anyone in the house threatened 
him. No one invited him to leap down, nor 
was there anyone in the street resembling any 
member of the family which had deserted him. 
Do Animals 
Commit 
Suicide ? 
a 
DD 
Mr. G. Fryuay, of Leith, relates how his dog 
Howes once saved a child’s life, he says: 
Terrier Saved ‘‘I had a Yorkshire terrier which 
a Child’s Life. ysed to accompany me in many 
of my walks. One day while walking along a 
street with it, I stopped to look at a shop window. 
Behind me on the pavement there was a trap- 
door to a cellar, which was open. A man was 
carrying sacks of coal from a cart and emptying 
them through the opening. Hearing my dog 
barking I turned round and saw it pulling 
vigorously at the coalman’s trousers and trying 
as hard as it could to keep him from the trap- 
door. Wondering what was the matter with 
the dog I looked into the cellar. Imagine my 
surprise to see a child lying stunned on the 
coal. It had fallen down while the man’s back 
was turned, and the dog, noticing it, had en- 
deavoured, and successfully so, to keep the man 
from putting coals on the top of it. The child 
was taken out and carried home and quickly 
recovered. If the man had emptied his coal on 
the top of it, it would have been killed, but 
fortunately, and to its parents’ joy, my dog 
saved its life.” 
VD 
Aw elephant was chained to a tree one day, and 
An Intelligent !t8 driver made an oven at a short 
Thief. distance in which he put some 
rice cakes to bake, and then, covering them 
i) 
74) 
NECDOTES. 
with stones and grass, he went away. When 
he was gone the elephant unfastened the chain 
round his foot with his trunk, went to the oven, 
uncovered it, took out the cakes and ate them, 
covered up the oven again with the stones and 
erass and went back to his place. He could 
not fasten the chai again, so he twisted it 
round his foot in order to look the same; and 
when the driver returned was standing with 
his back to the oven. 
5/7) 
A SAILOR retiring into private life after his last 
voyage brought home a small 
monkey, which soon became the 
pet of everyone. This animal’s 
greatest friend, however, was a cat, which he 
seemed to think it was his duty to protect, as well 
as her little family of four kittens. One day the 
barn in which they were housed caught fire. 
Nick (as the sailor had named him), instinctively 
scenting danger, took up a kitten in each arm and 
made for the door, the cat following his example 
with one in her mouth. As soon as they were 
safe Nick bravely fought his way back to rescue 
the other, but he never returned. The brave 
little fellow perished in the flames with the one 
he tried to save. 
Quite a 
Hero. 
We" 
THE owner of an ostrich farm in Florida has a 
good watchman to guard his 
The Ostrich ~2 P 
stock. He has trained an ostrich 
as Watchdog. : : 
to act in that capacity, and the 
bird patrols the farm and gives at intervals a 
cry that may be interpreted to mean ‘“‘ All’s well!” 
If anything frightens him, he at once communi- 
cates his alarm to his companions by a series 
of yells as he advances to the attack. He is a 
bird of unusual intelligence, but is very savage. 
At night it is especially dangerous to go near 
him, and to see his keeper force him back to 
his pen in the morning is one of the sights of 
the farm. A large fork is the keeper’s weapon, 
and before it the bird slowly gives way, screeching 
with rage and striking out with his feet. One 
night the ostrich caught a thief. The farm hands 
were all asleep, when there arose a terrible 
hubbub, which, as the men became sufficiently 
roused to distinguish sounds, resolved itself into 
the angry cries of the bird and the shrieks of 
a human being. Rushing to the pen, the men 
50 
