BIRDS ftND NATURE 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



SOME ANIMAL PROPENSITIES, 



QJ. 



(^TJ^T is not quite agreeable to con- 

 template many of the short- 

 comings, from a moral point of 

 view, of certain of the animal 

 creation, and even less to be 

 compelled to recognize the necessity 

 of them. Thievery in nature is widely 

 extended, and food is the excuse for it. 

 Civilizatioa has made the practice of 

 the humanities possible among men, 

 but the lower animals will doubtless 

 remain, as they have ever been, wholly 

 subject to the instincts with which 

 nature originally endowed them. 



Huber relates an anecdote of some 

 Hive-bees paying a visit to a nest of 

 Bumble-bees, placed in a box not far 

 from their hive, in order to steal or 

 beg the honey. The Hive-bees, after 

 pillaging, had taken almost entire 

 possession of the nest. Some Bumble- 

 bees, which remained, went out to 

 collect provisions, and bringing home 

 the surplus after they had supplied 

 their own immediate wants, the Hive- 

 bees followed them and did not quit 

 them until they had obtained the 

 fruit of their labors. They licked 

 them, presented to them their pro- 

 bosces, surrounded them, and thus at 

 last persuaded them to part with the 

 contents of their "honey-bags." The 

 Bumble-bees did not seem to harm or 

 sting them, hence it would seem to 

 have been persuasion rather than force 

 that produced this instance of self- 

 denial. But it was systematic robbery, 

 and was persisted in until the V/asps 



were attracted by the same cause, 

 when the Bumble-bees entirely for- 

 sook the nest. 



Birds, notwithstanding their at- 

 tractiveness in plumage and sweetness 

 in song, are many of them great 

 thieves. They are neither fair nor 

 generous towards each other. When 

 nest-building they will steal the 

 feathers out of the nests of other birds, 

 and frequently drive off other birds 

 from a feeding ground even when there 

 is abundance. This is especially true 

 of the Robin, who will peck and run 

 after and drive away birds much larger 

 than himself. In this respect the 

 Robin and Sparrow resemble each 

 other. Both will drive away a Black- 

 bird and carry away the worm it has 

 made great efforts to extract from the 

 soil. 



Readers of Frank Buckland's delight- 

 ful books will remember his pet Rat, 

 which not infrequently terrified his 

 visitors at breakfast. He had made 

 a house for the pet just by the 

 side of the mantel-piece, and this was 

 approached by a kind of ladder, up 

 which the Rat had to climb when he 

 had ventured down to the floor. Some 

 kinds of fish the Rat particularly liked, 

 and was sure to come out if the savor 

 was strong. One day Mr. Buckland 

 turned his back to give the Rat a 

 chance of seizing the coveted morsel, 

 which he was not long in doing and in 

 running up the ladder with it ; but he 

 had fixed it by the middle of the back. 



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