THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2660, 8 March 1905, Page 76

THE NATURALIST.

An Elephant and Ms Mother. —How the Youngster was Chastised. — Elephants dearly lovo a joke. When cngaoed in the timber trade, m Burmah, I observed some queer pranks played by them. On one" occasion I saw a calf play a most ludicrous trick on its mother. The older animal was hauling a log, which 50 coolies could not have moved, from a river to the sawmills, quite unsuspicious of any guil*) in the bosom of her offspring The youngster took a turn with his trunk round one of the chain traces, and pulled back with all his might. This additional weight caused ths mother x> stop and look behind her- but, on discovering the cause, she sravely shook her head, and prepared to resume her task of drawing the log to the mill. This was just what *he little imp expected; and,, before the strain was put on asain. he kicked out the iron hook 'which" fastened the long chain to the log. As the mother again began to pull, t.e held back with all his strength on the train until her muscles were in full play, and then suddenly let go. ! The effect was disastrous in the extreme. Down went the old elephant on her knees, and her driver described a most graceful and prolonged curve before he landed on tho ground. But, like a cat, he struck on his feet, and, blurting out some heavy Burmese exclamations, of wrath, he whispered a few words in the ear of the aniazed victim of this unfilial practical joke. She seemed to understand him at once, and there ensued one of the most exciting chases it has ever been my good fortune to witness, i The calf scented danger the moment he I saw the driver whisper to his mother, and ! he placed a large stack of timber between I the enraged animal and himself as speedily as possible. Elephants seem too clumsy to do much running, but these two coursed up and down the yard in a manner which astonished me.

The youngster was more quick in txirning. but at last he was cornered. The maternal trunk smote him on the loins. He gave a shriek ; at a second stroke he dropped on his knees, and took Irs punishment bravely and patiently. A few minutes later he walked past us to his shed ; but his trunk was drooping, and the great, tears were coursing silently down his indismbber cheeks.

I was sorry foi th-? poor little fellow, and I noticed that at dinner-time his mother ■was gently rubbing him down with her trunk, and manifesting many signs of affection. — Ohums.

Protective Colouring in Fishes.

I have seen voting examples of lurbot, taken by tho lafte Matthias Dunn in a handnet in the clay water off Pentewan, change within half an hour fiom their original whiteness to the blackness of the iron bucket to which they were presently transferred. Sculior&es, too, pome uf

the Australian species, adapt their appearance wonderfully to the outline of the weedfronds amid which they hide. Some of the skates and rays show (says a writer in the Cornhil] Magazine) similar protective colouring to that of the flatfish when lying on the bottom of .their acquarian tanks, and then, too, the movement of the breathing spiracles alone betrays. The flat shape of the turbofc and sol© aide them in escaping notice when lying on the sand, and it is said that the distribution of the colour, on the upper surface only, still further contributes to this appearance of flatness. The hiding of the dory, which is a vertical-swimming fish, depends on another optical illusion. So thin is the dory from eido to side, so close do the fins Us to his sides, that, viewed end on, the fish vanishes in a thin line. I have repeatedly watched dory creep right o.i unsuspecting sand-eels beneath Bournemouth pier in this fashion, and there can bn little doubt that the hiding which serves to ambuscade a weaker but swifter victim will also on occasion serve to escape from a stronger enemy. Colour protection is also observed in the cod, conger, and some other of our sea-fish which are captured on either rocky or sandy ground, those examples caught on the rocks being conspicuously darker than those whose abode is on the sand. The conger are, in fact, distinguished by the fishermen as "black" and' "white" conger. Those who have bathed in Australian bays will recall a similar and very necessary distinction between "black" and "white" water, the latter being that with a background of sand that betrays the presence of dreaded sharks. Even the blue and silver herring biends so wonderfully with the ruffled *urfaee-water that on a breezy, sunny day the individual fish can be distinguished only with the greatest difficulty.

Monkeys.— A specimen of Werner's monkey, a species which has never been introduced into England before, has just been received by the Zoological Society of LoeT** don. and is now on' show in the Menagerie at Regent's Park. This monkey was described in 1850 by the French naturalist Geoffroy, from living examples in the Jardin dcs Plantes at Paris, and was named after the celebrated animal painter, Werner. It belongs to the same group as the common green monkey, but is quite different in colour from that species, being of a uniferm yellowish red above and whitisih beneath, with black face and ears, and a long tail tipped with golden red. When i first described, the home of this monkey \ was not known, but it appears to come from the Congo, whether from its source in Central Africa or its mouth in Weet Africa is not certain.

Habits of Greater Black-baokcd Gull.— l have lately been informed by a, friend' who resides in Scotland, a close observer and a distinguished scientist, though not a professed ornithologist, that in some parts of that . country, especially in Sutherland, the greater black-badked gull has acquired the habit, at the lambing 1 season, of seeking out the newly-born lambs, and tearing out and devouring their tongues. It does not appear that they eat any other portion of them, but the result is the same, for the Ktfl© animals, being unable to suck, soon die, and, indeed, would, probably do so in any case from shock. lam anxious to learn if this, which is new to me, is a generallyknown fact, and also from what parts of Scotland it has been recorded. It would be interesting, too. to learn when the habit was first noticed, and if it has shown sign^s of spreading. Such bad habits apparently ara soon learnt, and develop with considerable rapidity. as in the somewhat similav case of the New Zealand kea and Buphaga, which has, it seems, lately proved a great pest in jome parts of South Africa. — "G.," in the Field.