Identifier: birdsnature1021901chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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e of six inchesof fat, it is almost impossible to reach avital place even with long teeth and bearclaws, and the Walrus is often able toflounder into the deep water and escapeby remaining under water until the bearhas to come up for breath. One of the favorite amusements of theWalrus is to float in the water with hishind flippers hung down and his nosecomfortably above the wash and eitherfall asleep or indulge in deep roaringswhich are said to sound like somethingbetween the mooing of a cow and thebaying of a mastiff and which oftenserve, like whistling buoys, to warn sail-ors from rocks and shoals. The young are born in the spring, andgenerally on the ice floes, but being bornfat the ice floes are probably as warm tothem as is a nest to a little mouse. Themothers show great affection for theiryoung, and will not abandon them indanger, even allowing themselves to bespeared while protecting their offspring.As the Walrus are social by nature, wan-dering about in great herds, and as they
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WALRUS.(Trichechus rosmarus). also show a marked sympathy for eachothers misfortunes, it is very dangerousto wound one in the water lest the wholeherd join in a common defense. An adult male Walrus measures abouttwelve feet from the end of his nose tothat of his very short tail, or fourteen feetto the end of his hind flippers, andweighs something over a ton. His girth isas great as his length, in fact, it has been often observed that his great circumfer-ence and too-loose skin seem rather asource of annoyance than otherwise toohim, especially when he tries to land ona sandy beach. Even with the wash ofthe breakers he is rarely able to get be-vond the water line, except as the tidegoes down and leaves him, dry perhaps,but vet at the mercy of men and polarbears. Dane Coolidge. TOUCHING INCIDENTS ABOUT PIGEONS. The homing pigeon has proved thatlocality is a faculty fully developed in thebirds little brain, but I heard, the otherday, an instance of memory in the spe-cies that was most tou

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