BIRDS AND ALL NATURE, 
Illustrated by GOLOR PHOTOGRAPHY, 
Vol. IV. 
SEPTEMBER, 1898. 
No. 3. 
SOME ANIMAL PROPENSITIES. 
IT 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. 
Civilization 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 Wasps 
81 
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. 
