Birds and All Nature, Vol. 5, No. 5, May 1899: Illustrated by Color Photography — John Shaqi
Birds and All Nature, Vol. 5, No. 5, May 1899: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and All Nature, Vol. 5, No. 5, May 1899: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
Professor Hubrecht of the University of Utrecht has lately announced
that Monsieur Tarsier is no less a personage than a "link" connecting
Grandfather Monkey with his ancestors. Thus the scale of the evolution
theorists would be changed by Professor Hubrecht to run: Man, ape,
monkey, tarsier, and so on, tarsier appearing as the great-grandfather
of mankind.
Tarsier may best be described as having a face like an owl and a body,
limbs, and tail like those of a monkey. His sitting height is about
that of a squirrel. As his enormous optics would lead one to suppose,
he cuts capers in the night and sleeps in the daytime, concealed
usually in abandoned clearings, where new growth has sprung up to a
height of twenty feet or more. Very often he sleeps in a standing
posture, grasping the lower stem of a small tree with his long and
slender fingers and toes. During his nightly wanderings he utters a
squeak like that of a monkey. During the day the pupils of his eyes
contract to fine lines, but after dark expand until they fill most
of the irises. From his habit of feeding only upon insects he has a
strong, bat-like odor.
John Whitehead, who has spent the last three years studying the animals
of the Philippines, foreshadows the probable behavior of the tarsier
when he arrives at the national "zoo." The Philippine natives call the
little creature "magou."
"In Samar," says Mr. Whitehead, in a report just received at the
Smithsonian, "where at different times I kept several tarsiers alive,
I found them very docile and easily managed during the day. They feed
freely off grasshoppers, sitting on their haunches on my hand. When
offered an insect the tarsier would stare for a short time with its
most wonderful eyes, then slowly bend forward, and, with a sudden
dash, would seize the insect with both hands and instantly carry it to
its mouth, shutting its eyes and screwing up its tiny face in a most
whimsical fashion. The grasshopper was then quickly passed through the
sharp little teeth, the kicking legs being held with both hands.
"When the insect was beyond further mischief the large eyes of the
tarsier would open and the legs and wings were then bitten off, while
the rest of the body was thoroughly masticated. My captive would also
drink fresh milk from a spoon. After the sun had set this little
animal became most difficult to manage, escaping when possible and
making tremendous jumps from chair to chair. When on the floor it
bounded about like a miniature kangaroo, traveling about the room on
its hind legs with the tail stretched out and curved upward, uttering
peculiar, shrill, monkeylike squeaks and biting quite viciously when
the opportunity offered."
THE TRAILING ARBUTUS.
WILLIAM K. HIGLEY.
Thou dainty firstling of the spring,
Homage due to thee, I bring.
The faintest blushes of the morn
Do tint thy petals and adorn,
And thy fine perfume, sweetly faint,
Is like the breathings of a saint.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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