TALES ABOUT TAILS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 86, 10 January 1928, Page 15

TALES ABOUT TAILS

After the insertion of the hind legs, znost animals’ have a little backbone to «*nare. This constitutes the tail, and there is very little excuse for it. , ,So Dame Nature, who is an economical tndv, has encouraged tho beasts to put it to various duties. The whale and the porpoise, when they decided to make the sea lheir permanent home, adapted the tail ns a propeller very efficiently. Not onlv the rabbit, but most kinds of door and antelope, grew a white tuft at tho rnd and used it ns a danger signal. The sreuirrel made a scarf of it. to keen him warm during his winter sleep, and was thus tho first io wear a boa. The kangaroo decided to sit on it. Grazing animals, driven frantic by hordes of insects, turned it into a ffy-wnisk. The onossum uses if as a "pram, tho beayer as a trowel and mallet m its building operations. The . tadpole, during the uncomfortable period when it can neither feed like a fish nor an animal, absorbs it for food. In all animals the tail is tho organ of emotion. The wave of enerry generated bv the emotion seeks an outlet and takes the line of least resistance into the usually unemployed J tail.