ANIMALS WHO ARE DRUNKARDS.

Northland Age, Volume IV, Issue 47, 13 July 1908, Page 8

ANIMALS WHO ARE DRUNKARDS.

The "drink problem." in relation !to the lower form of animal life, I presents certain aspects that have [ their analogies in human life, sometimes tragic, always saddening, occasionally ludicrously amusing. Cer- | tain species of the tiniest insects are ' inordinately fond of intoxicants. ;; These, however, do not become “habi- | tuals," for the “first offence" is in- | variably the last. The industrious : bee is equally tempted from flowers fto the more perilous . seductions of ! sugared spirits, and the much malign-j-ad wasp gets as '‘drunk as a lord" j<on every available occasion, and in iMs liquor is a quarrelsome insect ! fCassio of a very dangerqus kind. An excise officer attached to a distillery accidentally discovered, states | Mr. J. Bewick, F.R.Z.S., whose ; statements we reflect in this article, a means of getting rid of the moths • ! and other insects that pestered him. He put temptation in their way, and ; they “fell from grace." One night jhe was making a glass of whisky ■ toddy, and accidentally spilled some on the table. In a trice the insects J swarmed on it, wallowed in it, got ; dead drunk, and so perished ! ! Tho life history and economy of the j honey bee tribe have been the puzzle j and admiration of naturalists for ! thousands of years, surpassed only in j the case of ants—and from the time of Solomon (the first great naturalI ist mentioned in history) these have j'been deftly appropriated by philoso- | phers and poets to point a moral or adorn a tale. BEES SADLY PRONE TO DRINK. But bees are sadly prone to fall victims to the “drink habit," and if once a bee sips of the natural iintoxicating juice of certain plants, the “poisoned chalice" itself to a disastrous extent, and it dies an irreclaimable drunkard. Any kind of sugared spirits exposed on a window sill on a summer's day will lure bees away from the flowers, and beastly intoxication follqws, our authority reminds us. It is the same with ants ; in fact, with all insects ; with all animals, domesticated or semi-domesticated—-with, of course, the exception of animals that drink nothing. Even among birds, degeneracy in this respect is not unknown. Mr. Bewick tells us he knew a pet gander that had a notorious reputation as a "toper." He has seen it “lip" up a quart of stout greedily, and although that kind of liquor was its favourite it took beer readily, and “a hair of the dog that bit him" in the morning, in the shape of whisky and water, 'was never refused. That particular goose lived to a great age. How “Jenny," a female Barbary monkey, fell from the grace of temperance was, writes Mr. Bewick, very puzzling. She had been obtained when little more than a baby by a relative of his, who was a strict abstainer, and she was his constant companion in the house, in the garden, in his rural rambles, even on his angling expeditions. But fall she did, and in her dodges to procure liquor displayed abnormal cunning. She came to know every public house for miles around, and wandered far and wide, invariably, by a kind of drunken instinct peculiar to man, finding her way home even when thoroughly intoxicated. Inconsiderate people used to give this unhappy monkey liquor, and nothing came amiss, from “fire-water” to beer. She died comparatively young. Some dogs “take to drink," 4*he saddest case of irreconcilable degeneracy being that of a Scottish deerhound named Juno. Juno was a favourite of her master, always accompanying him to a hotel about 10 p.m. for supper. It was probably there that she graduated as a toper. She certainly became one, and whisky she could swallow as easily as a man could an oyster. In time her drinking feats became the subjects of bets. DOGS THAT TAKE TO DRINK. She also'had the curious “homing instinct." One fine spring morning the master was trudging home and espied Juno several hundred yards ahead of him, evidently very drunk, but steering in the right directiqn. He followed slowly. When she got to the garden gate she managed to paw open the gate, and she staggered qn to the lawn and rolled down under a bush. Next day she was very ill, and he administered a “nip" with a few drops of another kind of poison in it. She wagged her tail feebly, looking him kindly in the face—and died. Among domestic animals the horse is most liable to succumb to the craving for alcoholic liquor. When a horse shows symptoms of taking cold, it is quite usual with some people to give him a good stiff drink of whisky in his feed. The average ! horse swallqws the alcoholic mixture I with great relish, but during the foli lowing day he will exhibit symptoms I of fever, headache, in fact, all the signs of the alcoholic reaction. Br. Bewick was acquainted with a handsome bay hunter, who, having received doses of whisky, three days in succession, refused after that to eat or work until at least a pint of liquor had been poured out for him. —"Science Siftings."