SOME STRANGE CREATURES. 



A little animal found in Southern 

 America, and bearing the name of liron, 

 has almost all the characteristics of the 

 sarig-ua, only that it is amphibious. It is 

 on that account that it is called the little 

 waterdog. It is a lovely little animal that 

 lives in the rivers and pools. Its skin is 

 covered with short hair, very soft and of 

 extraordinary beauty. Its color is white 

 and black, so disposed, that beginning 

 with the head, it forms a ribbon of black 

 hair which shows itself in the shape of a 

 semi-circle, and then at the distance of 

 two fingers forms another, then a third 

 and a fourth, etc. As its radii are black 

 on a white ground, they contribute very 

 much to the beauty of the animal. Its 

 little head is like that of a dormouse, 

 with the whiskers of a cat. Its feet are 

 webbed; its tail is very striking, and en- 

 tirely without hair from the middle to its 

 extremity. The belly of this animal is 

 split entirely down, and divided into two 

 long strips of skin which it opens and can 

 shut so hermetically that the division is 

 hardly to be perceived. These strips are 

 lined with a soft and thick short hair. It 

 is with them that the female covers as 

 many as six little ones, which she carries 

 under this thin cuticule. 



There is also in South America, in the 

 region of the Orinoco and other rivers, 

 an amphibious animal which goes under 

 a different name by the Caribs, the Span- 

 iards and other tribes and races inhabit- 

 ing the great districts not yet fully 

 known. This is the chiquira, which has 

 the nose of a sheep, red hair, and a tail 

 so short that it hardly appears. The In- 

 dians eat it on fast days, because it lives 

 as much in the water as on land. These 

 animals swim in shoals and come up 

 from time to time to breathe. They feed 

 on the grass that grows on the borders 

 of the rivers and lakes. It is there that 

 the Indians wait for them with their ar- 

 rows, for they are exceedingly fond of 

 their flesh. 



One of the most unfortunate animals 

 in the world is the babakoto, as grown-up 

 people with lots of time to spare like to 

 call him, Indris brevicaudatus. We call 

 him unfortunate, because he labors under 

 the disadvantage of resembling a monkey 

 without the chief joy of the monkey's 

 life — the one that compensates the mon- 

 key for his lack of beauty — which is, in 

 brief, the ability to swing about on trees 

 with his tail. The reason why the baba- 

 koto cannot swing by his tail is that he 

 has no tail worth mentioning, and it is no 

 doubt due to this fact that all the babo- 

 koto can do is to sit on a tree and whim- 

 per and wail. If you wish to see the babo- 

 koto in the full luxury of his woe, you 

 must go to Madagascar, whither he has 

 gone to live, to be rid, no doubt, of the 

 saucy apes of Central Africa, who are 

 said to have made cutting and uncompli- 

 mentary remarks about his caudal short- 

 comings. 



In the middle of Africa is found an ape 

 which builds a shelter for himself in a 

 tree, and so he is called the house-build- 

 ing ape. He selects a tall tree growing 

 nearly straight out, and about twenty feet 

 from the ground. This branch is for his 

 floor, and over it he makes a roof, exactly 

 in the shape of a large umbrella, with the 

 trunk of the tree for the handle. It is 

 made of leafy branches, tied on to the 

 tree with vines, of which African woods 

 are full, and is so well shaped and neatly 

 made that it would do credit to a human 

 builder. When the ape is at home, he sits 

 in the branch with his head up under the 

 green roof, and an arm around the trunk 

 to hold on. One animal lives in each 

 house alone, and he uses it only until he 

 has eaten all the food near by that he 

 cares for. Then he builds a new house 

 in another place. 



One of my neighbors brought me, the 

 other day, a wheel-mole, or more proper- 

 ly a star-nosed mole, which he had 



caught in his cellar. This curious little 



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