Lizards in Samoa.

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 68

Lizards in Samoa.

A resident of Samoa writes in an entertaining way of the lizards — little fellows about 2in long, pTettily coloured in a light and a dark shade of brown. They can run up a. window-pane quite as easily as can flies, on which they feed. When alarmed, the lizards are off like a flash of light, and will take the most reckless leips. I have seen them land safe at the end of a 20ft jump. Yet when cornered they have no hesitation in snapping off the most « f their tails. That was a maddening puzzle to my small cat. The sight of a moo anywhere was an immediate challenge to the kitten. She would immediately start on the hunt, for the most part a fruitless chase, for the little lizard could skulk off faster than two cafes could pursue. Yet when the kitten did succeed in landing on the lizard there followed 1 a scene of bewilderment. The moo in variably snapped off it 9 tail, which was left wriggling in one part of the verandah, while the lizard ran off a short distance and awaited developments. The kitten never knew whether to catch Ihe lizard or the tail. If the moo moved the kitten .went for it; but she always etopped dhort to keep an eye on the wriggles of the tail. As soon as she turned back to the care of the tail, the moo got in motion and had to be looked after. Hundreds of times I have wafchod tlio dilemma, and the ending was always llio saiine — the lizard got away, and tho- UiHon had to be content with tin* lw>ny htil. But there were lota of liziu-d.-? nliout u-y house, sprouting new <suls.

Chained Dog?.— To keep a dog on Mie chain perpetuallj- is but one degree less

cruel than to keep a bird life-imprisone in a caoe. He is by nature a hunting-ani-mal, and, like his wild relation, he IS msde both in body and mind for a free and active life. If you take away his freedom you take awiy all that makes his life worth living, yet tens of thousands ot doo-s are kept continually on the chain without the slightest necessity, merely wo "believe, because people do not think or realise what they are doing. It is not from want of protest. The hapless victims tugall day "at their chains, and they bark and howl, with little Tesult except that they are scolded as bad dogs, cr are threatened or struck with the whip, because, forsooth, they disturb or annoy 1 heir gaoler. Norisifc for want of appreciation when a little kindness is sometimes shown. The mad delight of the chained dog when he does find himself free would, one would think, touch anyone who had evar 6O iittle sympathy in hU natura, and make him vow that ho would never again d^ny such a boon to a loving fellow creature while he had it in his power to grant it. The cruelty is dve 1 , wo believe, to nothing but dull, unthinkingapathy, which regards only its own selfish wants and pleasures. — The Animals' Friend.

Caged; Birds. — The right place for a bird is the open air, with nothing overhead but the sky and irees. The fidgety restlessness of a bird, as it dolefully goes the oV4 monotonous round of its cage, is often mistaken for liveliness, just as its song is thought to be an out-pouring of a joyous heart. Both ideas are mistaken. Watch a bird in a iree, free and happy, and you will see none of these jerky, aimless hoppings to and fro. In the caged bird it ia an expression of .Jiseom'brt, and his song, under these sad circumstances, is an outburst of forrow, rage, or ungratified longing. To a practised ear its melody is as different from the warble of a free bird among the woods as a human shriek of pain is from a human song. But a worset woe is the substitution of rrtificial or unnatural diet for those healthy foods which the wild bird is taught to seek for himself with a wi«o instinct. This deprivation goes side by side with that of being bereft of mate and young, objects of his existence for which he cannot but pine. What a stony-hearted person must that have beonwho first ea^ed a, bird, thereby setting tip a custom fraught with misery to myriads of gentle, lovely creatures. Were such an object as a caged bi -d to be seen now for the first time, all would shrink from the shocking spectacle with loathing, but habifc has rendered it familiar.