ANIMAL AND BIRD FACTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 144, 20 June 1934, Page 13

ANIMAL AND BIRD FACTS.

Serpents are said to obey the voice of their master. The trumpet-bird _of America follows its owner like a spaniel, and the jacaxio acts as a guard to poultry, protecting them in the field all day from birds of prey, and escorting them home at night. In the Shetland Isles there is a gull which defends the flock from eagles; it is therefore regarded as the privileged bird. The chamois, bounding over the mountain, are indebted for their safety in no email degree to a species of pheasant. The bird acts as the sentinel; for as soon as it gets eight of a man, it whistles-—upon hearing which, the chamois, knowing the hunters to he near, darts off at full speed. Partridges and plovers delude their enemies from the nest of their young. When the bird hears the sound of dogs, she puts herself in the way of the hunter, and proceeds to draw them away from her fawns. Instances of the effect of grief upon animals are no less remarkable. A do'g died of sorrow at the loss of his master, and a bullfinch abstained from singing for ten entire months on account of the absence of its mistress. On her return it immediately resumed its song. Lord Kaimes relates an instance of a canary which, while singing to a mate, hatching her eggs in a cage, fell dead. The female left the nest and, finding him dead, rejected all food and died by. his side.