THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2842, 2 September 1908, Page 76

THE NATURALIST.

Wild Boar Shooting* —In the German Sachsenwald.— One morning we drove a strip of wood' in the Sacb&enwald. I took up my stand, and the two foresters, Brandt andr an assistant, went into the covert with the I had not long to wait. Scarcely had! the doge disappeared within the trees than, they 'gave tongue and drove something- at top speed straight towards where I sat at the other end of the wood. Nearer and' nearer oame the thud of a heavy beast galloping towards me, and a large old' boar, one of 014 finest I ever saw, raced past at about 5(Ty«-r«[6 away, tihe whole pack at his heels. Th.ls should have been a certain shot, and perhaps would have been, only the trees were unusually thiok just there and 1 a| branch of one of them ©topped my first ball. I managed to get in the second barrel of my double 4-bofe rifle just as lie quartered away from me. From the way he lurched towards the shot, and then swung his tail round" to recover his balance, it was clear that he was hard hit. Yet he pulled himself together in wonderful fashion, and went off apparently as fast as ever, eventually disappearing from eight in a thick clump. With the exception of a rough-coated dachshund, all the dogs then gave up the chase. In a few minutes Brandt and the other forester emerged from the wood, and I told them that I thought the boar was badly wounded. The snow -was not heavy enough to give us much held, but found a few drops of blood about half a mil© from the covert in which th<? ljcar had vanished. Brandt and his assistant now separated, one taking either side of the thicket and examining every foot of the ground on their hands and- knees. This is cold, wet work, and there are days on which, in thick covert, the men would bo wet through if they did not wear oilskins a3 a protection. Wonderful woodcraft these men ehowod, and the dogs were no less keen ; and for two hours we followed tjie trafl of the boar , from one thicket to "another, end finally back towards the spot where he had first been started. Then cam© some larger drops of blood, and from these Brandt knew that the animal had been hit in the liver. At length come more blood on a cross road, and ihen the end was not far off. for little Hexie put down her nose and dashed into a thicket, from which she at onoe gave tongue. In ran the other dogs, the two men with them, and" they soon cajne up with the boar, which struggled gamely on, fighting a gallant fight to tho last, through the thickest of undergrowth. Once only just tihen Brandt got a glimpse of him, and the boar instantly charged, which had the effect of sending- Brandt into safety up a tree. The other forester saw the bfute soon afterwards, shot, missed, and was treed in nis turn. All this was most exciting for everybody concerned, including, no doubt, tho boar, which was eventually hit with the third shot. Then he set his back against a tree and fought to his last breath, and so h© died. — Walter Winans, in Pearson's Magazine. Waltz of the Ostricli. The so-oalloc 1 waltzing performance of the ostrich is familiar in South Afric£, but few outfiderjs have ever heard of i\. It concilia of a rapid whirling movement,

' sometimes one way, sometimes another, the 1 wings spread out and alternately elevated | and depressed. It is a fascinating sight ' when Indulged by a large flock. j First one bird will dart forward and begin the circular movements; another will follow, encLfchen others, until the entire' flock is c&fee'fing around in the mad wHirl. Some -will, continue until thieyjdrop exhausted' or, "apparently" "becoming" giddy, stumble aud fall. ' • -..«--- ,,, The -danoe ie seen- in att its 'glory only .when, a considerable^ ' -number c -of biirds' are" together. . 14 often takes place among "only a*few, but is never so intense or pfcolenged as when the flock is large. • - - . The Spujh Africans! have the, following, theory "of the 'significance of this playful activity i— * -' ■ " 1_ The wild ostrich can " protect' himself against lions and leopards in no other way than by flight. When. <&aeed by a beast .of prey the ostrich, starting to run, twists and turns 3n l curious "fashion, and jerks so quickly from side to side', that no beast would be likely to haT* time to set himself for a spring- in, one direction before the bird had changed his course. Ostriches thus pursued have been seen to stop, at full speed,, turn as if pivoted 1 , and flee again in almost the opposite direction. Probably no ot/her animal can do this. Th© South Africans believe that the instinctive waltzing movement of the ostrich is useful in perfecting the bird in the art of suddenly twisting and taming, wh ; oh is most likely to' assist it to elude its natural enemies, the larger c&rnivora.— New York Stm. Are Animals Kleptomaniacs? Have animals any moral sense? t>o they know right from wrong? A inenegeri£ proprietor was asked for his opinion on this matter. "Well," was his reply, "I won't go so far as to say that' uiey have any moral sense, but they certainly khow v when they are doing wrong, amd, generally speaking, they look very shamefaced when caught. "Monkeys have ft peculiar trait. They'd 1 rather steal a thing than get it honestly. Elephants are also prone to thieving-. "One young bull elephant I have used to get loose night after nighjt, and steal anything in tne edible line he couJdi lay 1 his trunk on. Even tobacco was fair prey for him. . '"One of my giraffes, also, made use of his long neck to iMfftch aver his cage at night and consume sweets from a confectionery stall just outside. He'd eat anytiriiK and everything, and yet it never aftected him in health. "Some of the attendants used to have trouble with their straw brooms, which wore out uncommonly quickly. By . watching we found out that the brooms were left at might within reach, of th& camels, who ate all the straw and threw the sticks down. After that we found a new place ■to keep the broome." The Bird Clown. The oddities of the yellow-breasted' ohat begin even with his classification. To think of" a warbler the size of a Baltimore oriole ! A warbler with a song like a mocking bird! Indeed, there is little about the chat that is not remarkable; he goes in for the weirdr and: the spectacular. If Nature designed him to show what he could do in the way of the unusual and the eccentric she had remarkable success. This bird 7 and not the catbird, is the real "clown of the woods." down., of the thioket would be more apt, for, like the catbird, he prefers the shrub and lower trees ; a wild tangle of briars and vines is a favourite haunt. It is only the better to survey such a retreat that he mounts to the top of a tree- From his lofty perch he singe, to the amazement and bewilderment of the person that hears the song for the first time. More likely than, not he will become invisible and silent upon, the first attempt to approach him, remaining quiet and hidden till you move on again; then he chuckles loudly and scolds and 1 spits and scoffs till you are out of sight and hearing. No bird is co fearful of beingseen or such a master of hide-and-seek. It is wpr&o than useless to try to steal a march on him. He manages to be al-wavs on the wrong- side of the next bush. His nest is a pretty little basket of straws and 1 weed stalks lined with fine grasses and strips of soft bark or leaves, placed a foot or more above ' the ground among tall weeds or Lushes. I Take a peep at t ne white, red- ! speckled e£?g=> and then hide among the bushes as far away from the nest as you | can, while still keeping in sight. You may , ha\e to wait for an hour, and even make other trip* to the spot, but this is the I surest wa\ to get a good look at this shy I one . — From "Nature and Science,' in the j June St. Nicholas.