CRIMINAL ANIMALS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10599, 20 February 1896, Page 3

CRIMINAL ANIMALS.

! Modern criminology compares not only the different crimes of human beings, but tho_e of ; t}ie lower animals with them. Professor F«rJ rero devotes an article in the New York j " Forum "■ to enumerating various instances iof crime among animals, in order to fortify the theories of bis master, Lorabroso. Lombroso hud beeu criticised, he says, because he has quoted, as examples of crime among uminals, certain actions wbich cannot be regarded as real crim«s, as th*y are solely the result of the straggle for existence. ■ Bat if ww leave out thfc^e actions, whose true nature Professor Lombroao has failed bo recognise, we shall find that auimals ido become guilty of real crime when, ! without the slightest necessity, tbey commit actions which are hurtful to their specii:s, I or, in the case of gregariou, animals,.to their, j companions. Among auimals, as among men. ! th«re are individuals which are incapable of j living and satisfying their wants without doing some harm to their fellows ; therefore they are abnormal and criminal beings, foe tbeir actions i do not tend to ensure the prosperity of tbeir j species. Almost every form aud variety of human crime is thus to be found among animals. BBES AS BURGLARS. Casts of theft are uoticed among bees. Bui'hver, in his " Psychic Life of Animals," speaks of thievish bees wbich, in order bo save tbeniselves tbe troubla of working, attack wellstocked hives in masses, kill the sentinels and the inhabitants, rob the hives, and carry off tae. provioions. After repeated enterprises of this description they acquire a taste for robbery and violence; they recruit whole companies, which get more and more nnmeroua; aud finally they form regular colonies of brigand bees. But it is a still more curious fact that these brigand-bees can j be produced artificially by giving working-beeo a mixture of honey and brandy co drink. The bees soon acquire a taste for tbis beverage, which has the same disastrous effect upoa them as npon men; they become ill-disposed and irritable, and lose all desire to work ; and' finally, when they begin to feel hungry, they attack and plunder the well-supplied bives. There is one variety of bee—the ISpUecodes— which lives exclusively upon plunder. Accordj ing to Marchall, this variety is formed of individuals of tbe Halyetes species, whose organs of nidification were defective, and which have gradually developed into a separata variety, living almost exclusively by plunder. FEATHERED FELONS. The cuckoo is tbe bsst-known instance, perhaps, of a bird criminal. But he, is by no means alone. According to the observations of Linnaeus and Tesse, sparrows are sometimes guilty of real robbery with regard to swallows' nest<; and the swallows in their turn .dtfend themselves and take their revenge. The following a count of a case of this description has beon given by Tesse: —Some swallows had built, their nests under the windows of the first floor of an uninhabited house in Mernon square, ■ Dublin. A sparrow took possession of the nest, and in vain tbe unfortunate swallows endeavoured to retain their hold upon it. They were forced to abandon the nest; but tbey returned with a band of their companions, eacb of whom was provided witb a littie lump of mud. The entrance to tbe nest was soon blocked up, and tbe intruder found himself a prisoner. Sometimes, according to the/same author, ] | their revenge takes a different form. He | ! writes:—"At Hamptoo Court a couple of: sparrows took possession of a nest built by a j i ceuple of swallows, in spite of an obstinate ' resistance on the part cf the latter. Having once established themselves, the intruders were no longer molested. But the day came when they were obliged to leave the nest in search of food tor their young; then, as soon as they wero out of sight, several swallows came to demolish the nest, and I saw tbe young sparrows lying dead upon tbe ground." j CANINE CRIMINALS. ' I Cases of theft have at times been remarked : : among female dogs, but such cases are almost always influenced by maternal love. Certain j dogs whicb, wben iv s normal condition, are i i very well-bshaved and respect their master's , property, begin to steal when they have puppies, i and they will steal anything that the latter will : cat. It is still more curioits tbat certain sterile j dogs will steal the young belonging to others, iv I order to form a family—a family which in most casus dies, notwithstanding th« solicitude of its adopting parent, which is affectionate, but . unable to discharge a mother's duties. Accord- '■ ing to M. Enpinas, something similar to this I may be observed among mules: cetain mules I luring foals away from their-'mothers in order | to satisfy a morbid maternal instinct; then, being unable to bring them up, letting them die of starvation. MENAQKRIK MURDER. Dogs will kill cats, and presumably not for food. It is their nature to. But there are instances of murder in animal lifo, committed apparently under the influence of individual malice or pacsion. It would be absurd to ds- : clare tbat a hawk which kills a swallow is a criminal, for he is only fighting out his struggle for existence; but, on the other hand, anima's which kill others of their own species are guilty of a true criminal act when they do so for any other reason than tbat of snlf-defenco. j Thus, Carl Vogt, the celebrated German naturalist, has observed a couple of stork* that had for several years built tbeir nest in a village near Sftletta. One day it waa noticed that, when the male was out in search of feod, another youoger bird began to court the female. At first he was repulsed, then .'.derated and welcomed ; at last, one morning, the two birds flew away to tha field where the husband was hunting for frogs, and killed him. ! According to Brehm, storks often murder the j members of the flock which either refuse to follow tbem at the timo of migration or are not able to do so. Parrots, although f rugivorous birds as a rule, will sometimes attack their companions and crush their skulls by repeated blows trom. their beaks. IVniale partridges love their young very dearly, but their jealousy of their companions is so great that they often kill each other's yoUDg. Houzeau has noticed among anthropomorphic monkeys—especially among the females iv menageries—that they treat eacb other with the greatest cruelty, and sometimes even kill eaoh other.