The Wonders of the Jungle Volume I Part 16

So the people who want to catch a wild animal find out first what fault that kind of animal has--whether he is greedy, or obstinate, or bad tempered. And they _catch the animal because of that very fault_!

A bear is very obstinate; in fact the bear, the pig, the donkey, and the mule are among the most obstinate of animals. So, because the bear is very obstinate, he will never give up when he meets anything that blocks his way; and if he has made up his mind to do anything, he will never give up, even if he finds he _cannot_ do it and that it is very foolish to try to do it.

So the people remember the bear's obstinacy, and catch him in this way:

They find a large tree which has a bough fifteen or twenty feet from the ground; then they tie a pot of honey on the bough, quite two or three yards away from the fork where the bough joins the trunk. So, if a bear wants to get at the honey, he will have to climb up the trunk, and then walk along the bough to the place where the pot is tied.

But the people also take a heavy stone, tie a stout rope around it, and hang up the stone by the rope from another bough higher up. They place the stone in such a way that it swings right in front of the honey and a little above it. Then the people hide in thickets near by.

Presently a bear smells the honey from a distance, and comes to find it. On reaching the place he sees the pot of honey on the tree. As the bear is a good climber, he soon scrambles up the trunk of the tree and walks along the bough toward the honey.

But just as he is coming to it, he sees something right before his path. It is the block of stone! And he cannot get at the honey without pushing the stone aside. So, what does he do? Why, quite naturally he pushes the stone aside with his paw. But, as I have told you, the stone is hung up by a rope; and so it _swings_ any way you may push it.

Then what happens? Why, as soon as the bear pushes the stone aside with his paw, the stone _swings back_ and hits him on the paw. The bear gives a growl, and again pushes the stone aside, and this time harder than before.

Then what happens? The stone swings back and hits the bear harder than before! In fact, the stone will always swing back just as hard as it is pushed.

But the bear does not know that! So with another growl he pushes the stone again--and now much harder than before. Then of course the stone comes back much harder, and whacks him again.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Bear Fighting a Block of Stone]

This makes the bear really angry. He hits at the stone, and sends it flying through the air in a big curve. But when the stone has gone up and up in that curve, it begins to come down, down, the same way--and gives the bear a thumping whack on the jaw.

Now, if the bear were not such an obstinate animal, he would go away after that third blow, and try to forget the honey. But the bear will never, never, give in! Instead, he gets quite mad with rage. He thinks some enemy is hiding behind the stone!

"Who is. .h.i.tting me?" he growls. "Come out of that, and fight fair!"

With that he hits a frantic blow at the stone; for the bear is a good boxer. He sends the stone swinging through the air again, and farther than before. Again the stone swings back and gives the bear a hard whack.

In this way the fight goes on. Of course the stone cannot get hurt; so it is the bear that gets hurt, every time. And as he will never give in, he goes on fighting with the stone, and gets hurt more and more, till at last he is knocked right off the tree, and falls stunned to the ground.

Then the clever people rush in from their hiding place, throw a net over the bear, and carry him away. And that is how the zoo gets some of its bears.

CHAPTER XV

Bright Birds

Now I shall tell you something about birds; not ordinary birds, but a special sort.

Of course, birds are not exactly animals of the kind that I have been telling you about, as they have only two legs, instead of four. But they have two wings, which are more useful to them than two more legs.

If they had four legs they could run fast; but with the two wings they can fly, which is ever so much faster and better than running. And they still have two legs with which to stand on the ground, when they have to come down to rest or to feed.

The birds that I am going to tell you about live wild in the jungle, and are free to build their nests where they like.

Among the birds we like best, some can _sing_, and some have _bright feathers_. Those that sing may live near your own homes in the country--the lark, the thrush, the nightingale, and some others. But the birds that have bright feathers live generally in other countries.

_Most birds that have lovely voices do not have bright feathers_; and _most birds that have lovely feathers cannot sing_.

So among animals everything is very fair and just. With us it sometimes _seems_ different. Some children appear to have all the good luck, and others all the bad luck. Some children can sing well, and are also very pretty; others cannot sing at all, and are also plain to look at. But really things are not quite so unfair; for a child who is plain, and cannot sing, may still have _some other gift_.

Among birds, those that can sing you may have seen often enough near your own homes in the country; so I shall now tell you about the birds that have bright feathers.

Most birds with bright feathers live in hot countries, where it is _sunny_ almost the whole year. In fact, it is the bright light of the sun in those countries that gives the colors to the feathers of the birds, which are as lovely as the colors of the rainbow.

Among the bright birds that live quite wild in the jungles of hot countries, the most beautiful are the _flamingo_, the _parrot_, the _c.o.c.katoo_, the _peac.o.c.k_, the _golden pheasant_, the _egret_, and a few others.

_The Flamingo_

I shall tell you first about the flamingos, as they _live together in flocks_. They were once found in America, and only a few years ago there were many flocks of them in Florida, but now there are very few left in this country. They are now found in Africa and in the countries of southern Asia; a few are found also in Europe.

This is the way the flamingos live. They choose a place in the jungle where there is a lake or a river, and build their nests all around the lake, or by the bank of the river. The nest is just a heap of mud raised up from the ground, with a hollow at the top where the mother bird lays her eggs. Sometimes many thousands of flamingos are found together around one place, which is then called a _flamingo colony_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Flamingo Colony Photograph of a group in the American Museum of Natural History, New York]

The flamingo is a very tall bird, taller than a man when standing up.

The flamingo's legs are long and thin, and the neck is also long. The long neck and the long legs are very useful to him. He stands in the water on his legs, which look almost like a pair of stilts; then he bends down his long neck, dips his beak into the water, and catches a fish or any other small creature that he can find there. And although the fish or the small creature sees the flamingo's legs in the water, it does not run away. Why? Because it mistakes the legs for reeds growing in the water!

When thousands of flamingos in a colony are standing around the lake or by the river, where they live, it is a very grand sight from a distance. The flamingo's feathers are a bright red in color, with white or pink at the edges; so the thousands of flamingos look like an army of soldiers with red coats.

In former years, when soldiers sometimes wore red coats, travelers who happened to come toward a lake in Africa would suddenly see at a distance an army of soldiers, as they thought, standing by the lake.

What they really saw were the flamingos fishing!

But no traveler could get very near the flamingos, for they have _sentinels_! I have told you that the wild buffaloes have sentinels to warn them when an enemy is coming. The flamingos have the same. Their sentinels stand here and there just outside the place where the others are fishing; and they keep a lookout all the time. If any enemy comes, they cry out,

"Honk! Honk! Honk!" That means, "Enemy coming! Fly away!"

And of course all the flamingos rise up in the air and fly away to a safe place, till the enemy goes away.

To see a whole flock of flamingos flying in the sky far above one's head is a most wonderful sight. You have seen a cloud at sunset shining with lovely tints of red and pink and orange: well, the flock of flamingos flying in the sky looks something like that. And they all _keep level_ at the same great height, in _rows and ranks_, just like an army, as there are thousands and thousands of flamingos in the flock.

Sometimes the rows and ranks widen out for a few minutes, and fill a large portion of the sky; then they close up again, and look like one long banner of red floating in the sky.

And all the time they have sentinels that fly outside the rows and ranks. They make the pattern in the sky still more beautiful.

My dear children, the more you think of these wonders of the jungle and of the world, the more you will understand how great and wise is G.o.d, Who made all these things.

_The Parrot_

Another bright bird that lives in the jungle in a flock is the _parrot_. You know all about him, as you must have often seen him caged, or chained by the leg to a stand. But he is different in his happy home in the jungle. He lives in almost every sunny country, and flies about in flocks.

Wild parrots also make their nests in flocks. In India there is a deserted city called Amber. Once upon a time a great King lived there in a lovely marble palace; and the n.o.bles and courtiers also had lovely marble palaces and mansions.