SOME ANIMAL FIGHTS.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 7700, 4 November 1890, Page 6

SOME ANIMAL FIGHTS.

A paper in the new Longman » called "On the Fighting liwtinct," describes some peculiarities in animals which are little Known. Mr J. A. Bartlett, the writer, is evidently a keen observer, and many of us endeavour to be so likewise; but he has noticed things which have come within the observation of very few. A fight between a polecat and —unlikely antagonist I—a hare is one of the incidents he tells us he has witnessed. It was in ; Hampshire ;he heard a shrill cry; and saw a half -crown leveret tumbling down the bank of a lane with a polecat—he says " a large animal of the ferret tribe, probably a polecat "—fastened on its neck. The betting was surely a thousand to three against ! the leveret, unless of course, the biped interfered and altered the odds; but a very strange ' thing now happened. "Pity prompted mc to come to the rescue," he says " but I had barely commenced to obey the impulse, when, with a grunt and a scamper, a full-grown hare leapt through the gap and attacked the polecat with the utmost ferocity. The latter, , loth to lose a good dinner, took up an attitude of defence and defiance, but was immediately knocked over by a well-planted'and resounding kick. Recovering itself, it gatheredits limbs for a apring, and threw itself repeatedly upon tte rodent, dodging, feinting, and guarding with lightning rapidity. The hare, oowever, was fairly, roused to fury, for, seizing an ungarded moment, she bowled over the vermin with a tremendous blow, and, following up her advantage before It could recover itself, drummed upon it until the life was wellnigh driven out of its body." The defeated vermin unfortunately escaped, crawling Into a hole beneath the roots of an oak, for the hare could not finish him ofE ■ Another story is of a fight between a pheasaat and a gamecock. What the poultry had done to offend his nobler relative does not appear, but the pheasant descended into the farm yard, wentfor the chanticleer, and knocked him oVer again and again as he filed. Heie I should have- been inclined to back the • gamecock, bat he was not in it with the pheasant —at least, this was so at first, and here I am surprised at Mr Bartlett's anecdote. He says that nest morning the pheasant returned, but the farmer had been on the alert, "a pair of steel spurs altered the situation, and the gaudy champion of the woods soon figured with bread sauc@' on the farmer's table." Bat on the first occasion the gamecock simply bolted; wny did ha fight on the second, for he could not have known that he was armed with weapons which gave him a pull over his enemy? •

Some animals appea? to display lnatincts, tbe nobility of which would often,' very often, shame mankind., One of Mr Bartlett's stories is of a very powerful Newfoundland dog who ducked other dogs in a neighbouring stream when they grew unbearably rude. Once he had an altercation with an insolent mastiff; they Quarrelled -r- seeing the greatness of the Newfoundland's character one would like to say that it was over a point of high politics, but in fact the matter fa dispute was a bone—and in the course of the straggle the mastiff fell into the water.. Oddly enough, he could not swim, and was in danger of being drowned when the Newfoundland jumped in, and seizing the other by the collar, brought hislateenemy safe to land." There they wagged their respective tails, and each went to attend to his own business. This is not my dog story, ftiit Longman's* let mc add. Other creatures seem to fight for the mere sake of fighting, as in the following instance. The Writer says: "An invalid friend of mine was amused for six consecutive days by the antics of two robins, which came regularly at 10.30., a.m. and fought & duel on the lawn outside Ms window. The combat invariably lasted until One or other became too exhausted to recover his legs, whereupon the victor would seize him and triumphantly drag him round the enclosure! The birds were so much alike In size and colour that he was unable to satisfy himself aa to whether the same bird always conquered; but neither seemed seriously trnrt, and after the sixth day thsyvaaislied, and ho saw them no more. The same gentleman, who was a close observer of nature, has a recollection of two cats , which advanced daily from opposite ends of a long and lofty wall, and meeting in the middle, fought with great fury until one or both were precipitated to she ground below, upon which the fight ceased immediately, th 9 combatants tenanting the wall. and basking peacefully aide by aide ia the •mg end Dramatis, . .