p. 10 | SOME ANIMAL PARADOXES

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 24, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 12.

SOME ANIMAL PARADOXES.

IN New Zealand a species of parrot is found that, finding its food entirely on the ground, has lost the power of flight. It differs from the rest of its family only in this particular, and in being almost voiceless.

Among recent breeds of pigeons is the parlor tumbler, which has not only lost the power of flight, but has very nearly lost that of walking as well. Its queer motions when it attempts to walk have given it its name, the tumbler.

“As thick as the hair on a dog’s back,” expresses nothing in Mexico, for the Mexican dog is entirely devoid of hair on his back or anywhere else. The hot climate having rendered it superfluous, Mother Nature kindly divested him of it. Nor does “the little busy bee improve each shining hour” in that country. On the contrary, it soon learns that, as there is no winter there, there is no necessity for laying in a store of honey, and degenerates into a thoroughbred loafer.

“As big as a whale” might be rather small, as there is a species of the cetacean genus hardly three feet long.

“As cunning as a fox” would have sounded idiotic to the discoverers of Kamtchatka. They found foxes in large numbers, but so stupid, because they had never before seen an enemy, that they could be killed with clubs.

“As awkward as a crab” does not apply on some of the South Sea islands, for a crab is found there that not only runs as fast as an average man, but climbs trees with the ease of a schoolboy.—Sports Afield.