IX
WILD ANIMALS IN MAN'S SERVICE

You must by this time think that there is hardly any kind of animal upon the earth that man has not at some time kept as a friend or a captive. Of course, we mean the larger animals, the quadrupeds, reptiles, birds, and fishes, not the vast hordes of insects and the still lower animals. Of these there is only one, the honey-seeking bee, that has been made to work for man, but of the large animals many more than those spoken of have served him in some way or have been captured and caged for his pleasure.

All the large cities have their Zoölogical gardens, where wild beasts of many kinds are kept on show, and in villages and small towns and cities the travelling menagerie carries such wild creatures around where everyone may see them.

Here, in strong cages, we may look at the lordly lion, with its splendid mane, and its gaping jaws, filled with cruel teeth, and the tiger, fierce and sly, pacing round and round its narrow cage on silent feet, and at times stopping to glare with savage eyes at the lookers outside. It may have seen and made a meal on such beings in its native wilds.

Then there are the snarling hyena, the spotted leopard, the wild-eyed wolf, the American panther and wild-cat, the growling bear, and many others. Greatest among these are the huge and savage rhinoceros, the ugly river-horse, or hippopotamus, and the noble elephant.

These are only a few of the animals that are kept for show, among them many of the tameable ones, as the playful monkey, the slender deer or antelope, the large elk and moose, the wolf, raccoon, opossum, kangaroo and many others of the smaller animals.

Man is able to make friends of the most of these. In fact there are daring men and women who are ready to go into the cages of the fiercest of these beasts and make them go through the tricks they have been taught. They have been even found bold enough to put their heads into the lion's mouth. This is always a foolish thing to do, and sometimes it has ended in the lion's closing his great jaws and smashing the man's head as one would smash an egg-shell.

With all this we are not here concerned. It is only the animals that serve us as friends and helpers that we are dealing with. But man at times makes use of certain creatures that usually are only seen in a wild state, so it is well to say something of the wild animals that at times are made to serve us in some way.

THE DANCING BEAR

You have seen, no doubt, the dancing bears, clumsy, ugly brutes that men lead around the country, visiting the summer resorts, and making the animals go through some awkward movements on their hind legs, which they call dancing.

This is not a sign of any great sense in the bear. To get up on his hind legs is a common habit of this lumbering fellow. Many hunters who have made the bear angry have found this to be the case. When it wants to fight up comes the bear on its hind feet. It is not like a prize fighter, using its fore-legs to spar with; though it can strike a blow that will hurl the strongest man to the ground. But what it tries to do is to get its fore-legs round the man and give him a hug. When a bear hugs, he means business. It is not a tender embrace, but a bone-cracker that few men can stand.

The bear is an easy animal to tame. The common brown bear I mean, not the savage grizzly bear, which no one would think of trying to tame, except when young. When a bear is tamed it shows itself a docile animal that will not hurt any one who treats it well.

As for the learned bears, their learning does not amount to much. It takes no special teaching to get them on their hind legs or to prance around in a clumsy fashion. Yet the bear is not wanting in brain powers. It is really an animal of much intelligence and very teachable.

It shows this in various ways. I have told you how the elephant gets hold of a piece of food by blowing back of it with his trunk, and how the monkey does the same thing by throwing his shawl over it and drawing it in. The bear has a way of his own of doing the same thing, as the following anecdote will show:

It is the story of a bear at the Zoo, to which some one threw a bun. The bun fell into the bear's bathing pool, out of his reach. The animal could have got it easily by going into the water, but did not just then want to wet his feet and in his wise head thought out another plan. He put his paw into the water and began stirring it up till he had a sort of current going round the pond. When one leg was tired he put in the other, moving it in the same direction, and kept this up till the bun came swimming round within reach.

There are other stories of the same kind and they go to show that the bear has good thinking powers. He certainly knew that by making a current in the water he could cause the bun to float up within reach of his paws. It is not likely that this bear had ever done the thing before or seen it done, so he had to think it out for himself.

There is a very interesting thing to say about wild animals which will fit in well at this point. As a rule they only want to be let alone, and if man would quit hunting them many of them would become as tame as the cows and sheep in our fields. There is much proof of this, some of it very late proof.

After the Yellowstone National Park was set aside as a national pleasure ground orders were given that none of the wild animals of the park should be shot. You may think that these wild creatures could not find this out, but they soon did. Thus we are told that the elks, the great deer of the mountains, are very alert and timid outside the park boundary, but when they have crossed this and come into the park they grow very bold and independent. They have learned that the crack of the gun which means death on one side of the border is not heard on the other, and have taken in this lesson.

As for the bears, they are fearless of man when inside the park, and come up close to the hotels and other buildings as if they looked upon these as part of their lunch route. It is the same with the other wild animals. They seem to know.

We hear of the same thing from East Africa. No one can shoot at game within a certain distance on each side of the East African Railway. That is the law and the wild beasts have come to know it. Travellers on that road tell us that crowds of wild animals can be seen on both sides of the road, antelopes, zebras, ostriches, deer, and the like, looking with curious eyes as the train goes by but not trying to get away.

This was not the case in the past, when people could shoot at them from the train. No one has posted up a bulletin in beast language telling that a treaty of peace had been signed between man and beast. But there stands the fact. These innocent creatures have lost all their old fear of the railway train. They seem to have told one another.

This is not the case with such dangerous brutes as the lion, the leopard, the hyena and the rhinoceros. These do not come within the terms of the treaty of peace. Travellers are free to shoot at them. As a result you do not see them among the animals that welcome the train.

THE SEAL AND THE ALLIGATOR

So far we have been talking of land animals, those that live, eat and breathe on solid ground. If we turn to the sea, we find it the native abode of the fish and of many animals lower than fish in nature's great family. And it is of interest to find that some land animals have gone back to the great world of waters, part of them to live there all the time, part to share their time between land and sea.

Among the first of these is the mighty whale, much the largest of living beings; also the porpoise, the dolphin, and other air-breathers that live in the ocean. Chief among those that spend their lives in part on the land are the seals. And these are the only animals of the land-sea kind that have ever been tamed, so we must say a few words about the seal.

There are many kinds of seals, some of them, like the sea-elephant of the southern seas, being very large. Others are small. All are splendid swimmers, their arms and hands acting as fins or oars, with which they can make their way very swiftly through the water. The ocean is their dining hall, in which a great dish of fish is ever ready for them, but their home is on island shores, where their young are born and brought up till they are able to swim.

The kind of seal to be talked of here is that known as the Common Seal. This is the easiest to tame. It is found in the Arctic seas and comes down the coasts of Europe as far south as the Mediterranean and the coasts of America as far south as New Jersey.

This little fellow, along with some other species, is very intelligent. Where they are not hunted they will come very close to boats and to men on shore. They have a fondness for music and will follow a boat for miles if a flute or some other instrument is played. The ringing of the churchbell of the little town of Hoy, in the Orkney Islands, has often brought a great many seals into the bay, drawn there by the bell tones.

Seals that have been taken and tamed are very gentle and docile, and will live long if they have water to bathe and swim in, and fish to eat. They like to be taken notice of and caressed, come like dogs when their names are called, and can be easily taught many little tricks, so that learned seals are often put on exhibition.

When taken young and brought up in a household the seal acts as if it felt itself to be one of the family, and likes much to lie and warm itself in front of the fire. It grows very fond of those who care for it, showing a tender and loving nature.

We are told of one that would follow its master about like a dog, eating from his hand and lying by his side when he sat before the kitchen fire. It would also nestle close to the dog, with which it had made friends. When anyone came into the room, up would go its head to see who the newcomer was. But it never tried to bite dog or stranger.

The winter after this young seal was taken was cold and stormy, so that it was not easy to catch fish enough to feed the family and the seal. They tried giving it milk, but it took so much of this that in the end the family could not afford to keep it and decided to set it free and let it fish for itself.

Taking the little thing—it was very young—into a boat, they rowed out to sea, and when far enough from land tossed it overboard. But they were not going to get rid of their pet seal so easily as this. It swam after the boat, crying in so pitiful a way that they could not bear the tone and in the end took it on board again. Thus it was brought back to the house and lived there several months more before it took sick and died.

There is a story very like this of another seal that its owners tried several times to get rid of. They failed to do so, the knowing creature always finding its way back. At one time it even crept into the room through an open window and made its way up to bask by the fireside.

While it is not strange that the seal can be easily tamed, we should not look for such a thing in so savage an animal as the alligator, the most feared and hated of the animals found in the waters of our Southern States. Yet even this ferocious reptile can be tamed, as the following story will show.

The alligator in question was taken when very young, before its wild nature had shown itself, and was fed and attended to by its master, of whom it became very fond. It grew so tame that it would follow him about the house like a dog, even scrambling up and down stairs after him.

But the funny thing about this comical pet was that its chief friend was the cat, and that pussy returned its friendship. When the cat lay drowsing before the fire, the alligator would crawl up, lay its head on her back, and go to sleep in this position. It seemed happy whenever the cat was near, but grew very restless if its furry friend was away.

Raw flesh was fed to it and sometimes milk, which it liked very much. At night, in cold weather, it slept in a box, with wool for it to nestle in. But one night there came a sharp frost and the little guest was forgotten. The next morning the native of warm climates was found frozen to death.

THE STORK, CORMORANT AND ALBATROSS

It would take many pages to tell about all the wild animals that have at times been tamed by man or made to serve him in various ways. As it is, we must confine ourselves to a few, and have selected the three water-birds named above all of which have been of service to man in some way.

The Stork is not a tame bird in the sense of being kept about the household, but it has so long been taken care of and laws made to protect it, that it has grown very familiar and may be seen walking about the streets of Holland, even among crowds of people, without a show of fear. No one wants it for food, for its flesh is not good, and it does so much service by eating frogs, snakes and other troublesome animals, that every one feels friendly towards it.

It also struts about in the market places and keeps them clean and fresh by eating all the offal. Thus it plays the part of the turkey-buzzard of our Southern cities, which is taken care of for the same reason.

The Common Stork of the Old World countries is a large bird, long-legged and long-necked. It is pure white in color, except that the wings are partly black and the bill and legs are red. It sleeps standing on one leg, with the neck folded and the head turned back on the shoulders. If alarmed, as when a dog comes near, it makes a loud snapping noise with its bill.

The stork spends the winter in Africa and flies back in the summer to Europe, where it is very common in Holland and North Germany. Its feeding place is in the marshes, where it wades about, eating the frogs and other small animals to be found there. It is very fond of eels and will follow people about the streets who feed it on this favorite morsel. It has a way of asking for food by nodding its head, flapping its wings, and blowing the air from its lungs.

Of a mild and peaceful disposition, the stork has long been much cared for and a halo of romance clings round it, coming down from ancient times. This arises from its devotion to its young, which brings it into esteem in various countries. It builds its nest on the roofs or chimneys of houses or the steeples of churches, the nest being a bunch of sticks, reeds and other debris. In the ruined cities of Asia a stork's nest may be seen on the top of nearly every standing pillar.

In Holland and many other parts of Europe it is common to put a box on the roof for the stork, and when the inmates find that a stork has built in their box they are glad, for they think it will bring good luck to the family. When a new baby comes to the household, children are told that the stork has brought it out of the well, and thus the young grow to like the stork. Four or five eggs are laid in the stork's nest, of white color tinged with buff, and the birds are apt to come back to the same nest year after year.

The stork not only shows great fondness for its young, but is also thought to take much care of its aged parents. Whether this is true or not, it adds to the affection people have for this bird. When the summer is over and it is time to fly south, the birds gather in large flocks as if to talk the matter over. The stork, indeed, has no voice, but it makes a great clatter with its bill. The meeting over, the flock flies off for the far-away tropics, the birds rising very high and making a loud rushing noise with their wings. They are gone, to be seen no more until the next summer is at hand.

Now let us take up the story of the Cormorant, one of the web-footed swimming and fishing birds, of which so many kinds dwell about the waters of the world. They belong to the same family as the pelicans, but while the pelican has a great net, or fish basket, under its lower bill, the cormorant has only a small one, not big enough to hold many fish.

The cormorants are great fish-eaters, so much so that it is common to call any large eater a cormorant. There are many species, some small, some large, living on the shores of islands and in some cases along rivers.

The way in which this bird is of service to man is in its being tamed and trained to catch fish for him. This used to be done in England and is still done in China. How it is done may be told in a few words.

The bird is easily tamed by the Chinese fishermen and is trained by them for its new duty. While being trained a string is tied to its leg so as to control its movements. Then small fish are thrown out and it springs after them. In time it learns to go into the water when a whistle is given and to come back when it hears a different whistle. After three or four weeks of this training the bird is ready for duty and no longer needs a string to hold it.

The birds become in time as docile as dogs and obey every order of their masters. When put regularly to work a small ring of hemp is tied around their throats, so that they cannot swallow large fish. When the fisherman rows out into the water the birds sit quietly on the side of the boat until they get his orders. Then into the water they dash and usually come up with a fish, which they bring to him.

If one comes up with a fish too large to handle, another bird, sometimes several birds, will come to his aid and help him to land the prize. Sometimes one of them takes a lazy fit and swims about the water, paying no heed to business. Then the fisherman shouts at the idle bird and strikes the water with his oar, keeping this up till it dives for prey.

At the end of the day's work the ring on the bird's neck is loosened or taken off and some of the fish are given it or it is allowed to fish for itself. Like the stork, the cormorant is very fond of eels, and when one of them comes up with an eel there is often a fight between two or three of them for the prize.

There is another bird on our list, the Albatross. It has never been tamed and cannot be said to be of service to man. At least I can name only one instance. In this case the bird is said to have been used to carry a message from shipwrecked sailors, telling where they could be found and asking for help. I cannot say whether this story is true or not, but it leads us to say something about this famous bird of the waves.

The albatross is a wonderful flyer. It is the largest of the web-footed birds, being four feet long and with a wing spread of from ten to seventeen feet. It seems to float or glide on the air rather than fly, hardly moving its long wings except when rising from the water.

It often follows ships for a long time; day after day, some people say, but this is doubtful. No ship can outsail it and it is said to be able to fly as much as eight hundred miles in a day. Sailors often fish for it with a baited hook, but find it hard to haul in, as it often draws out the hook or breaks the line. But a bait of blubber is very attractive and in a few minutes the same bird will take the hook again. Only by catching a fish in some such way as this could a message tied to its legs by shipwrecked sailors be found.

Sailors have long had a superstition about shooting the albatross, fearing that it would bring ill luck to the ship and its crew. All who can do so would do well to read Coleridge's famous poem of the "Ancient Mariner," in which the men who "shot the albatross" brought terrible misfortune to the ship and all on board.

THE HONEY-GIVING BEE

There is only one other animal of which I shall speak as a servant or aid of man, this time an insect, the well-known hive bee, which every one of you must have seen, and like enough many of you may have felt, for this little fellow has a very "hot foot."

The bee cannot be called a tame animal. Although it lives with man and under his care, it does not know this but fancies that it is working for itself alone. And the honey which man gets from it is laid up by the busy bee for its own use. It has no notion of working for man, but is robbed by him of its sweet stores.

Among all the wild animals that are of service to man this little humming insect stands first. Nimble, active, always at work, always singing over its work, the happiest of the working class, it keeps itself busy through all the season of flowers in gathering honey from their cups and carrying it to store away in its neat cells of wax. It is a winter store of food it is laying up. By good fortune the bees are able to collect more than they need for their own use, so their keepers can take part of it and still leave the little workers enough to live on the winter through.

The bee has been working in this way for man during long ages. Go far back in time and you will find writers telling about the bees and their ways. The Greek and Roman writers tell us much about them,—some of it fancy, some of it fact,—and within later times these useful insects have been much studied and written about.

I do not propose to tell the story of the bee, for it is much too long a one to be given in this place. All I need speak of here is the service it renders to man. There are many varieties of bees but only one, the hive bee, is of interest to us in this story, for it is the only one that works for us.

What we do for the bee is to supply it a home to live in, a cage or hive in which it may dwell, take care of its young, and lay up a store of its sweet food. How all this is done is very interesting. There is nothing in nature more neatly built than the waxen comb of the bee, and no prettier dish for our tables than a comb full of the golden honey. And there is nothing which most of us like better to eat. So it is the comb of the bee that I shall speak of here, rather than the bee itself.

The bee goes abroad for honey, but the wax which it uses for the comb is formed in its own body. It comes out from a sort of wax-pocket in the lower part of the body, is scraped up by the legs and carried to the mouth. Here it is well chewed and then laid on the floor for the use of the comb-builders.

From this wax the bees build a series of six-sided cells, laid side by side, some of them to hold honey, others as cradles for the young. They are fastened to the walls and hang downward. It is well to say here that there is only one egg-layer in the hive. This is called the queen bee. The others are workers and drones. The workers store up food, the drones (the male bees) do nothing but eat it. This the workers let them do while the summer lasts and food is plenty, but they do not let them spend the winter in the hive, eating the food which they have not helped to gather. When the summer season is over they drive the drones from the hive and sting them to death.

Is there a lesson for us in this habit of the bees? They have no room in the hives for those who do no work, and kill them on the spot rather than let them starve or freeze. While we could not do a thing like this, it might be well if everybody was made to work for the food they eat, as the bees do.

Now let us come back to the waxen cells, built so neatly and packed into the hive so closely that no man could do it better. Some of these, as I have said, are cradles for the young; some are store-houses for food. The queen bee is a wonderful egg layer. For every egg laid by the hen she will lay several hundred, each in a cell of its own. From the egg comes a little maggot, which feeds on the honey and pollen given it till it swells into a fat little worm. Then it builds around itself a cocoon of fine silk, in which it lies hid while it is going through the process of changing from a worm into a bee. In the end it comes out a winged insect, ready to take its part in the business of the hive.

Egg-laying is the work of the queen; food gathering is that of the workers. As soon as warm weather comes and blossoms open on bushes and trees, the bees may be seen at work, visiting flower after flower and sucking up by aid of the tongue the sweet juice to be found in so many flower cups. This is partly used for food, but much of it is stored in the honey bag of the bee to be carried to the hive and laid away in the honey cells.

As the season goes on new plants bear blossoms, so that all through the blossom season the busy bees find plenty of their sweet food. Another thing they collect is the pollen of the flowers. This clings to the hairs of the body while they are at work in the blossoms, and is cleaned off by the jaws and feet, a little honey being mixed with it. In this way little pellets are formed which are used as food for the young. On this rich food the little ones soon grow fat.

Another thing gathered by the bee is a sticky substance called propolis. It is used as a cement, to varnish the combs and stop up all holes. The bees carry this home on their legs and the workers in the hive clean it off and use it while it is soft to cover up all weak spots.

I have said that the wax is formed in the body of the bee. The same may be said of the poison. This flows into the sting, and by its aid the bee is able to defend itself, not only against its natural enemies, but against artificial ones, like meddlesome boys. But the sting is barbed, so that the bee often fails to draw it back after using it. Thus the sting is pulled from the body and the bee dies from the wound.

For long ages men have kept bees, making hives for them. Every season new swarms come from the old hives and are brought in various ways to start fresh colonies in new ones. Hives have been made of many things, often of straw, which was long used in England. To get the honey from these the bees were first killed by the fumes of sulphur. It seems a cruel thing to kill them in order to rob them, and it is not now done.

In our country the straw hive has never been used. The hives now in use have frames on which combs may be built and filled with honey and then drawn out, leaving the lower combs for the bees' own use. There is a process by which the honey can be drawn from the combs without breaking them in any way, so that they may be filled again by the bees. As in this case they do not have to make new combs the active insects can soon fill the old ones again.

Little more remains to be said. There are certain flowers which yield honey of fine flavor, such as those of the heather, the white clover, the buckwheat, the rosemary and the orange-flower. In ancient times the most famous honey was that of Mount Hybla in Sicily and Mount Hymettus in Greece. In our own days the countries in which bee-farming is carried on most largely are the United States and Canada, and of this country, Southern California is the paradise of the beekeeper.

On some bee farms are from two thousand to three thousand hives and it is said that as much as seven hundred pounds of honey have been taken from one hive. Thus this little buzzing insect is one of the most active and able of the animals that help to feed and serve us, and with the busy bee we may close our list of man's Animal Friends and Helpers.