A Hundred Anecdotes of Animals Part 11

During a fox hunt, Reynard, being hard pressed, was reduced to the necessity of taking refuge up a chimney of a hothouse. He was followed by one of the hounds, who, pa.s.sing through a flue upwards of fifty feet in length, came out at the top of the chimney, but missed Reynard in its murky recess. By this time a number of people were collected at the top of the chimney, who let down a terrier, who soon made him come in view, holding fast by his brush.

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ANECDOTE Lx.x.xVIII.

Escape of Jengis Khan.

The Mogul and Kalmuc Tartars attribute to the white owl the preservation of Jengis Khan, the founder of their empire; and they pay it on that account almost divine honours. The prince, with a small army, happened to be surprised and put to flight by his enemies. Forced to seek concealment in a coppice, an owl settled on the bush under which he was hid. At the sight of this animal the prince's pursuers never thought of searching the spot, conceiving it impossible that such a bird would perch where any human being was concealed. Jengis escaped, and ever after his countrymen held the white owl sacred, and every one wore a plume of its feathers on his head. The Kalmucs continue the custom to this day, at all their great festivals; and some tribes have an idol in the form of an owl, to which they fasten the real legs of this bird.

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ANECDOTE Lx.x.xIX.

A Refugee Squirrel.

A squirrel, whose bad luck it was to be captured, was lodged for safe custody in a trap used for taking rats alive. Here he remained for several weeks, till at length, panting for liberty, he contrived to make his escape through a window, and repaired once more to his native fields. The family in which he had been a sportive inmate, were not a little vexed at the loss of their little favourite, and the servant was ordered in the evening of the same day to remove the trap, that they might no longer be reminded of their loss; but on proceeding to discharge his duty, he found to his surprise that the squirrel, all wet and ruffled by the storm, had rea.s.sumed his station, and again taken up his lodgings in a corner of the trap.

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ANECDOTE XC.

Retaliation.

A wild stork was brought by a farmer into his poultry yard to be the companion of a tame one, which he had long kept there; but the tame stork, disliking a rival, fell upon the poor stranger, and beat him so unmercifully that he was compelled to take wing, and with some difficulty escaped. About four months afterwards, however, he returned to the poultry yard, recovered of his wounds, and attended by three other storks, who no sooner alighted, than they all together fell upon the tame stork, and killed him.

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ANECDOTE XCI.

A Newsman Extraordinary.

One of the carriers of a large newspaper having become indisposed, his son took his place; but not knowing the subscribers he was to supply, he took for his guide a dog which had usually attended his father. The animal trotted on a-head of the boy, and stopped at every door where the paper was in use to be left, without making a single omission or mistake.

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ANECDOTE XCII.

The Bear Cubs.

A female bear, with two cubs, approached near a whaler, and was shot. The cubs not attempting to escape, were taken alive. These animals, though at first evidently very unhappy, became at length in some measure reconciled to their situation, and being tolerably tame, were allowed occasionally to go at large about the deck. While the s.h.i.+p was moored to a floe, a few days after they were taken, one of them having a rope fastened round his neck, was thrown overboard. It immediately swam to the ice, got upon it, and attempted to escape. Finding itself, however, detained by the rope, it endeavoured to disengage itself in the following ingenious way. Near the edge of the floe was a crack in the ice of considerable length, but only eighteen inches or two feet wide, and three or four feet deep. To this spot the bear turned; and when, on crossing the chasm, the bight of the rope fell into it, he placed himself across the opening; then suspending himself by his hind feet, with a leg on each side, he dropped his head and most part of his body into the chasm; and with a foot applied to each side of the neck, attempted for some minutes to push the rope over his head.

Finding this scheme ineffectual, he removed to the main ice, and running with great impetuosity from the s.h.i.+p, gave a remarkable pull on the rope; then going backward a few steps, he repeated the jerk. At length, after repeated attempts to escape this way, every failure of which he announced by a significant growl, he yielded himself to his hard necessity, and lay down on the ice in angry and sullen silence.

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ANECDOTE XCIII.

n.o.ble Perseverance.

Elephants were, of old, employed in India in the launching of s.h.i.+ps. It is related of one, that, being directed to force a very large vessel into the water, the work proved superior to its strength; his master, with sarcastic tone, bid the keeper take away the lazy beast, and bring another: the poor animal instantly repeated his efforts, fractured his skull, and died on the spot.

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ANECDOTE XCIV.

The Catcher Caught.

During a sudden inundation of the Rhine, a hare, unable to escape through the water to an eminence, climbed up a tree. One of the boatmen rowing about to a.s.sist the unfortunate inhabitants, observing puss, rowed up to the tree, and mounted it, eager for the game, without properly fastening his boat. The terrified hare, on the approach of its pursuer, sprang from the branch into the boat, which thus set in motion floated away, leaving its owner in the tree in dread of being washed away by the current. After several hours' anxiety, he was perceived, and taken off by some of his companions.

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ANECDOTE XCV.

Deceiving the Fowler.

A young pointer, out with his master hunting, ran on a brood of very small partridges. The old bird cried, fluttered, and ran trembling along just before the dog's nose, till she had drawn him to a considerable distance; when she took wing and flew farther off, but not out of the field. On this the dog returned nearly to the place where the young ones lay concealed in the gra.s.s; which the old bird no sooner perceived, than she flew back again, settled first before the dog's nose, and a second time acted the same part, rolling and tumbling about till she drew off his attention from the brood, and thus succeeded in preserving them.

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