ON INSTINCTS.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 4, 17 November 1863, Page 3

ON INSTINCTS.

(From Onoe-a-Week.)

It is a well -known fact, that when a sheep has produced two Jambs, and has died in bringing them forth, other ewes of the flock have suckled and brought up the young ones. I have seen sparrows feed young canary birds, which have been placed for the first time outside of a window, when they have cried fojr the food their parents had been in the habit of supplying them with. Sparrows, also, have been known to feed one of their companions, who was caught by the leg by a long piece of worsted which she was conveying to her nest in the thatched roof of a building, and from which she could not extricate herself. She was thus fed for many days until the worsted gave way, when the whole of her companions appeared to rejoice at her escape, by making clamorous noises, But what shall we call the instinct of the elephant, which, when a child unable to walk, had been placed under its care, has allowed it to crawl as far as the extent of the animal's chain, and then gently lifted it up with its trunk, and replaced it in safety ? It is evidently an extraordinary effect both of care and intelligence, and is also a proof of that noble animal's gentle nature.

Some animals, and even some insects, will put on the semblance of death when their lives are in danger. The common snake, I happen to know, will do this o^n some occasions. At others, he will emit so horrible a stench that no one will feel inclined to molest him.

Ants have a peculiar instinct, indeed a very curious one. On the tender shoot of a poplar tree a number of little green insects called aphes may often be seen clustered together. Ants find their way to these shoots or small branches, and tickle the aphes with their antennas ; this process appears to give pleasure te the aphes, who emit a sweet fluid from their bodies which the ants greedily devour. I have myself witnessed this operation too often to admit a doubt of its truth.

I have known a cat, when she was shut up in a room and wanted to get out, ring the bell, and make her escape when the servant answered if.

A puppy of the St. Bernard breed has been seen to scratch up the snow the first time it was placed upon it, in imitation of that noble breed of dogs who are known to search for bodies buried in the snow on the Alps, and thus preserve many lives. I have seen a young pointer, when only a few weeks old, point steadily at a chicken in a poultry yard : and young ducks, which have been hatched under a hen, will, by a natural instinct, take to the water. If they were hatched in an oven, they would probably do' the same.

Monkeys are very fond of bird's eggs. In some countries where these abound, birds in order to preserve their eggs will make their nests at the end of the slender branches of trees, so that the monkeys cannot reach them.

It is said that when a scorpion is surrounded by a circle of burning coals or wood, and begins to feel the heat, it runs about to seek some mode of escape, but finding none, it stings itself and immediately dies. It is a common amusement among the soldiers at Gibraltar, where these reptiles abound, to witness the fact above stated. Here we have an instance of self-destruction, and of a knowledge of a mode of getting quit of a painful existence.

, It is an interesting fact that all birds make the size of their nests, not in proportion to the number of their eggs, but in proportion to the number and size of- the young it" will have to contain.