Stories about the Instinct of Animals, Their Characters, and Habits Part 6

"Arrived at the coast, they prepare to cast their sp.a.w.n. They go to the edge of the water, and suffer the waves to wash twice or thrice over their bodies, and then withdraw to seek a lodging upon the land. After a short time the sp.a.w.n becomes ready for being deposited, when they again seek the sea-side, and leave the sp.a.w.n to be brought to maturity by the heat of the sun. Much of the sp.a.w.n, which exactly resembles the roe of a herring, is devoured by the fishes; that which escapes soon arrives at maturity, and millions of little crabs are then to be seen slowly travelling towards the mountains.

"The old ones in the mean time seek to return to their old haunts, but so feeble are they that they seem scarcely able to crawl along. Some of them, indeed, are obliged to remain in the level parts of the country till they recover, making holes in the earth, which they block up with leaves and dirt. In these they cast their old sh.e.l.ls, after which they soon recover, and become so fat as to be delicious food.

"At the season of their descent from the mountains, the natives of the islands which they inhabit, eagerly wait for them and destroy them in thousands. On their descent they are only taken for the roe or sp.a.w.n, the flesh being then poor and lean: on their return from the sea-side they are in greatest repute, being then fat and high flavoured.

"The crab-catchers adopt various modes of securing them, but they are obliged to be very cautious, for when the animals perceive themselves attacked, they throw themselves on their back, and snap their claws about, pinching whatever they lay hold of very severely. The crab-catchers, however, soon learn to seize them by the hind legs, in such a manner as that the nippers cannot reach them."

"You said, Uncle Thomas, that the fishes watched the descent of the crabs, that they might feed on the sp.a.w.n. Do you think that they are endowed with reasoning powers, as well as the higher cla.s.ses of animals, Uncle Thomas?"

"No doubt of it, Frank. Old Isaac Walton, the most amusing author on angling who ever wrote, tells many curious stories about fishes, of their coming to be fed at the sound of a bell, and so forth.

"Many fishes exhibit the migratory instinct quite as distinctly as those animals which I have just told you about. The salmon leaves the sea, and seeks its way up the rivers, stemming their most rapid currents, and scaling highest waterfalls with a pertinacity which can only be the result of an instinct implanted in them by their Creator."

"And the herring, Uncle Thomas; does not it come every year from the Polar seas to sp.a.w.n on our sh.o.r.es? I read a very interesting account of their progress southwards somewhere lately."

"I can tell you where, Frank; I will show it you, and when you have read it aloud, I will point out one or two mistakes, which it is as well to clear your mind of. It is in old Pennant's work; here it is; will you read it to us, John?"

"With pleasure, Uncle Thomas.

"This mighty army begins to put itself in motion in the spring. They begin to appear off the Shetland Islands in April and May. This is the first check this army meets in its march southward. There it is divided into two parts; one wing of those destined to visit the Scottish coast takes to the east, the other to the western sh.o.r.es of Great Britain, and fill every bay and creek with their numbers; others proceed towards Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart of herrings; they then pa.s.s through the British channel, and after that in a manner disappear. Those which take to the west, after offering themselves to the Hebrides, where the great stationary fishery is, proceed towards the north of Ireland, where they meet with a second interruption and are obliged to make a second division; the one takes to the western side and is scarcely perceived, being soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic, but the other, which pa.s.ses into the Irish sea, rejoins, and feeds the inhabitants of most of the coasts that border on it. The brigades, as we call them, which are separated from the greater columns, are often capricious in their motions, and do not show an invariable attachment to their haunts."

"Thank you, John. Now all this sounds very fine, and seems very systematic. It has but one objection--it is quite untrue. It is in the first place more than doubtful if the herring frequents the Polar seas at all; and in the second place, the most distinguished naturalists are of opinion that it never leaves the neighbourhood of our own sh.o.r.es, but merely retires to the deep water after it has sp.a.w.ned, and there remains till the return of another season calls it again to the sh.o.r.es to undergo a similar operation. So you see, Frank, it does not follow that an interesting account of an animal's habits is necessarily a true one."

CHAPTER VIII.

Uncle Thomas tells about the Baboons, and their Plundering Excursions to the Gardens at the Cape of Good Hope, also about Le Vaillant's Baboon, Kees, and his Peculiarities; the American Monkeys; and relates an amusing Story about a young Monkey deprived of its Mother, putting itself under the Fostering Care of a Wig-Block.

"Oh, Uncle Thomas, I saw such a strange looking creature to-day. It was so ugly. It seemed to be a very large monkey, it was as big as a boy."

"I heard of it, Boys, though I did not see it. It was a baboon, and one of the largest of the species.--It was what is called the dog-faced baboon."

"Where do such animals come from, Uncle Thomas."

"From Africa, John, and I believe they are not to be found elsewhere.

They are very fierce and mischievous creatures, and are said sometimes even to attack man, but this I believe to be an exaggeration. Immense troops of them inhabit the mountains in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope, whence they descend in bands to plunder the gardens and orchards. In these excursions they move on a concerted plan, placing sentinels on commanding spots to give notice of the approach of an enemy. On the appearance of danger, the sentinel utters a loud yell, upon which the whole troop retreats with the utmost precipitation."

"Do they carry the spoil with them when they are thus disturbed, Uncle Thomas?"

"When disturbed they are said to break in pieces the fruit which they have gathered, and cram it into their cheek pouches--receptacles with which nature has furnished them for keeping articles of food till they are wanted.

"Le Vaillant, a traveller in Africa, had a dog-faced baboon which accompanied him on his journey, and he found its instinct of great service to him in various ways. As a sentinel he was better than any of the dogs. So quick was his sense of danger, that he often gave notice of the approach of beasts of prey, when every thing else seemed sunk in security. He was also very useful in guarding the people of the expedition from danger, from using unwholesome or poisonous fruits. The animal's name was Kees. Here is the very interesting account which his master gives of him.

"Whenever we found fruits or roots, with which my Hottentots were unacquainted, we did not touch them till Kees had tasted them. If he threw them away, we concluded that they were either of a disagreeable flavour, or of a pernicious quality, and left them untasted. The ape possesses a peculiar property, wherein he differs greatly from other animals, and resembles man,--namely, that he is by nature equally gluttonous and inquisitive. Without necessity, and without appet.i.te, he tastes every thing that falls in his way, or that is given to him. But Kees had a still more valuable quality,--he was an excellent sentinel; for, whether by day or night, he immediately sprang up on the slightest appearance of danger. By his cry, and the symptoms of fear which he exhibited, we were always apprized of the approach of an enemy, even though the dogs perceived nothing of it. The latter at length learned to rely upon him with such confidence, that they slept on in perfect tranquillity. I often took Kees with me when I went a hunting; and when he saw me preparing for sport, he exhibited the most lively demonstrations of joy. On the way he would climb into the trees, to look for gum, of which he was very fond. Sometimes he discovered to me honey, deposited in the clefts of rocks, or hollow trees. But if he happened to have met with neither honey nor gum, and his appet.i.te had become sharp by his running about, I always witnessed a very ludicrous scene. In those cases, he looked for roots, which he ate with great greediness, especially a particular kind, which, to his cost, I also found to be very well tasted and refreshing, and therefore insisted upon sharing with him. But Kees was no fool. As soon as he found such a root, and I was not near enough to seize upon my share of it, he devoured it in the greatest haste, keeping his eyes all the while riveted on me. He accurately measured the distance I had to pa.s.s before I could get to him; and I was sure of coming too late. Sometimes, however, when he had made a mistake in his calculation, and I came upon him sooner than he expected, he endeavoured to hide the root, in which case I compelled him, by a box on the ear, to give me up my share. But this treatment caused no malice between us; we remained as good friends as ever. In order to draw these roots out of the ground, he employed a very ingenious method, which afforded me much amus.e.m.e.nt. He laid hold of the herbage with his teeth, stemmed his fore feet against the ground, and drew back his head, which gradually pulled out the root. But if this expedient, for which he employed his whole strength, did not succeed, he laid hold of the leaves as before, as close to the ground as possible, and then threw himself heels over head, which gave such a concussion to the root, that it never failed to come out.

"When Kees happened to tire on the road, he mounted upon the back of one of my dogs, who was so obliging as to carry him whole hours. One of them, which was larger and stronger than the rest, hit upon a very ingenious artifice, to avoid being pressed into this piece of service.

As soon as Kees leaped upon his back he stood still, and let the train pa.s.s, without moving from the spot. Kees still persisted in his intention, till we were almost out of his sight, when he found himself at length compelled to dismount, upon which both the baboon and dog exerted all their speed to overtake us. The latter, however, gave him the start, and kept a good look-out after him, that he might not serve him in the same manner again. In fact, Kees enjoyed a certain authority with all my dogs, for which he perhaps was indebted to the superiority of his instinct. He could not endure a compet.i.tor; if any of the dogs came too near him when he was eating, he gave them a box on the ear, which compelled him immediately to retire to a respectful distance.

"Serpents excepted, there were no animals of whom Kees stood in such great dread as of his own species,--perhaps owing to a consciousness, that he had lost a portion of his natural capacities. Sometimes he heard the cry of the other apes among the mountains, and, terrified as he was, he yet answered them. But if they approached nearer, and he saw any of them, he fled, with a hideous cry, crept between our legs, and trembled over his whole body. It was very difficult to compose him, and it required some time before he recovered from his fright.

"Like all other domestic animals, Kees was addicted to stealing. He understood admirably well how to loose the strings of a basket, in order to take victuals out of it, especially milk, of which he was very fond.

My people chastised him for these thefts; but that did not make him amend his conduct. I myself sometimes whipped him; but then he ran away, and did not return again to the tent, until it grew dark. Once as I was about to dine, and had put the beans which I had boiled for myself upon a plate, I heard the voice of a bird, with which I was not acquainted. I left my dinner standing, seized my gun, and run out of my tent. After the s.p.a.ce of about a quarter of an hour, I returned, with the bird in my hand; but to my astonishment, found not a single bean upon the plate.

Kees had stolen them all, and taken himself out of the way. When he had committed any trespa.s.s of this kind, he used always, about the time when I drank tea, to return quietly, and seat himself in his usual place, with every appearance of innocence, as if nothing had happened; but this evening he did not let himself be seen; and on the following day, also, he was not seen by any of us; and in consequence, I began to grow seriously uneasy about him, and apprehensive that he might be lost for ever, but on the third day, one of my people, who had been to fetch water, informed me that he had seen Kees in the neighbourhood; but that as soon as the animal espied him, he had concealed himself again. I immediately went out and beat the whole neighbourhood with my dogs. All at once, I heard a cry, like that which Kees used to make when I returned from my shooting, and had not taken him with me. I looked about and at length espied him, endeavouring to hide himself behind the large branches of a tree. I now called to him in a friendly tone of voice, and made motions to him to come down to me. But he would not trust me, and I was obliged to climb up the tree to fetch him. He did not attempt to fly, and we returned together to my quarters; here he expected to receive his punishment; but I did nothing, as it would have been of no use.

"When exhausted with the heat of the sun, and the fatigues of the day, with my throat and mouth covered with dust and perspiration, I was ready to sink gasping to the ground, in tracts dest.i.tute of shade, and longed even for the dirtiest ditch-water; but after seeking long in vain, lost all hopes of finding any in the parched soil. In such distressing moments, my faithful Kees never moved from my side. We sometimes got out of our carriage, and then his sure instinct led him to a plant.

Frequently the stalk was fallen off, and then all his endeavours to pull it out were in vain. In such cases, he began to scratch in the earth with his paws; but as that would also have proved ineffectual, I came to his a.s.sistance with my dagger, or my knife, and we honestly divided the refreshing root with each other.

"An officer, wishing one day to put the fidelity of my baboon, Kees, to the test, pretended to strike me. At this Kees flew in a violent rage, and, from that time, he could never endure the sight of the officer. If he only saw him at a distance, he began to cry and make all kinds of grimaces, which evidently showed that he wished to revenge the insult that had been done to me; he ground his teeth, and endeavoured, with all his might, to fly at his face, but that was out of his power, as he was chained down. The offender several times endeavoured, in vain, to conciliate him, by offering him dainties, but he remained long implacable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DOG AND BABOON--Page 185.]

"When any eatables had been pilfered at my quarters, the fault was always laid first upon Kees; and rarely was the accusation unfounded.

For a time the eggs which a hen laid me were constantly stolen away, and I wished to ascertain whether I had to attribute this loss also to him.

For this purpose, I went one morning to watch him, and waited till the hen announced by her cackling that she had laid an egg. Kees was sitting upon my vehicle; but the moment he heard the hen's voice he leapt down, and was running to fetch the egg. When he saw me he suddenly stopped, and affected a careless posture, swaying himself backwards upon his hind legs, and a.s.suming a very innocent look; in short, he employed all his art to deceive me with respect to his design. His hypocritical manoeuvres only confirmed my suspicions, and, in order in my turn to deceive him, I pretended not to attend to him, and turned my back to the bush where the hen was cackling, upon which he immediately sprang to the place. I ran after him, and came up to him at the moment when he had broken the egg, and was swallowing it. Having caught the thief in the fact, I gave him a good beating upon the spot; but this severe chastis.e.m.e.nt did not prevent his soon stealing fresh-laid eggs again. As I was convinced that I should never be able to break Kees of his natural vices, and that, unless I chained him up every morning, I should never get an egg, I endeavoured to accomplish my purpose in another manner: I trained one of my dogs, as soon as the hen cackled, to run to the nest, and bring me the egg without breaking it. In a few days the dog had learned his lesson; but Kees, as soon as he heard the hen cackle, ran with him to the nest. A contest now took place between them, who should have the egg; often the dog was foiled, although he was the stronger of the two. If he gained the victory, he ran joyfully to me with the egg, and put it into my hand. Kees, nevertheless, followed him, and did not cease to grumble and make threatening grimaces at him, till he saw me take the egg,--as if he was comforted for the loss of his booty by his adversary's not retaining it for himself. If Kees had got hold of the egg, he endeavoured to run with it to a tree, where, having devoured it, he threw down the sh.e.l.ls upon his adversary, as if to make game of him.

In that case, the dog returned, looking ashamed, from which I could conjecture the unlucky adventure he had met with.

"Kees was always the first awake in the morning, and when it was the proper time he awoke the dogs, who were accustomed to his voice, and, in general, obeyed without hesitation the slightest motions by which he communicated his orders to them, immediately taking their posts about the tent and carriage, as he directed them."

"What a delightful companion Kees must have been, Uncle Thomas!"

"He must at least have been an amusing one, Frank, and not an unuseful one either. There are, however, great variations in this respect among the monkeys; some of them are most lively creatures, seldom sitting still for a couple of minutes, while others are retired and gloomy in their dispositions, and some are most fickle and uncertain. The fair monkey, though one of the most beautiful of the tribe, is of the latter description, as the following story will testify:--

"An animal of this cla.s.s, which from its extreme beauty and gentleness was allowed to ramble at liberty about a ship, soon became a great favourite among the crew, and in order to make him perfectly happy, as they imagined, they procured him a wife. For some weeks he was a devoted husband, and showed her every attention and respect. He then grew cool, and became jealous of any kind of civility shown her by the master of the vessel, and began to use her with much cruelty. His treatment made her wretched and dull; and she bore the spleen of her husband with that fort.i.tude which is characteristic of the female s.e.x of the human species. And pug, like the lords of the creation, was up to deceit, and practised pretended kindness to his spouse, to effect a diabolical scheme, which he seemed to premeditate. One morning, when the sea ran very high, he seduced her aloft, and drew her attention to an object at some distance from the yard-arm; her attention being fixed, he all of a sudden applied his paw to her rear, and canted her into the sea, where she fell a victim to his cruelty. This seemed to afford him high gratification, for he descended in great spirits."

"Oh, what a wretched creature, Uncle Thomas. I wonder the sailors did not throw him into the sea also."

"Stay, Frank, you are somewhat too hasty. He deserved certainly to be punished; but I doubt whether it would have been proper to have put him to death for his misdeed. All monkeys are not, however, equally cruel; some of them, indeed, are remarkable for the instinctive kindness which they evince towards their young. When threatened by danger, they mount them on their back, or clasp them firmly to their breast, to which the young creatures secure themselves, by means of their long and powerful arms, so as to permit of their parent moving about, and springing from branch to branch, with nearly as much facility as if she were perfectly free from all inc.u.mbrance."

"Oh, I can readily believe that, Uncle Thomas. One day lately, at the Zoological Gardens, I saw two monkeys clasping a young one between them, to keep it warm. They seemed so fond of it."

"Yes, Frank, I have also seen them occupied in the same way. I was quite delighted at such an unexpected exhibition of tenderness.

"Some of the monkeys which are natives of the American continent have the singular characteristic of prehensile tales; that is, of tails which they can more about, and lay hold of branches of trees with nearly as much ease as they can with their hands. The facilities which this affords them for moving about with celerity among the branches of trees is astonishing. The firmness of the grasp which it takes of the tree is no less surprising, for if it makes a single coil round a branch, it is quite sufficient, not only to support the weight of the animal, but to enable it to swing in such a manner as to gain a fresh hold with its feet."

"That is very curious, Uncle Thomas. Is there any other animal which has this power in the tail."

"Oh, yes, Frank, several of the lizards have the power, as well as some other animals; the little harvest mouse, for instance; but none of them are possessed of it in so high a degree as the American monkeys.

"I have now pretty well exhausted my stories about the monkey tribe. I recollect only one more at present, and it occurred to the same traveller to whom Kees belonged.

"In one of his excursions he happened to kill a female monkey, which carried a young one on her back. The little creature, as if insensible of its mother's death, continued to cling to the dead body till they reached their evening quarters; and even then it required considerable force to disengage it. No sooner, however, did the little creature feel itself alone, than it darted towards a wooden block, on which was placed the wig of Le Vaillant's father, mistaking it for its dead mother. To this it clung most pertinaciously by its fore paws; and such was the force of this deceptive instinct, that it remained in the same position for about three weeks, all this time evidently mistaking the wig for its mother. It was fed, from time to time, with goat's milk; and, at length, emanc.i.p.ated itself voluntarily, by quitting the fostering care of the peruke. The confidence which it ere long a.s.sumed, and the amusing familiarity of its manners, soon rendered it a favourite. The unsuspecting naturalist had, however, introduced a wolf in sheep's clothing into his dwelling: for, one morning, on entering his chamber, the door of which had been imprudently left open, he beheld his young favourite making a hearty breakfast on a very n.o.ble collection of insects. In the first transports of his anger, he resolved to strangle the monkey in his arms: but his rage immediately gave way to pity, when he perceived that the crime of its voracity had carried the punishment along with it. In eating the beetles, it had swallowed several of the pins on which they were transfixed. Its agony, consequently, became great; and all his efforts were unable to preserve its life."

"Poor creature! How unfortunate, Uncle Thomas. It must, however, have been a very stupid animal to mistake a wig for its mother."