The Animal World, A Book of Natural History: Young Folks' Treasury (Volume V) — John Shaqi
The Animal World, A Book of Natural History: Young Folks' Treasury (Volume V)Wood, Theodore
General
The Animal World, A Book of Natural History: Young Folks' Treasury (Volume V)
Wood, Theodore
Animals -- Juvenile literature
An angry chacma is a very formidable foe, for it is nearly as big as a
mastiff, and ever so much stronger, while its great tusk-like teeth cut
like razors. When one of these animals is hunted with dogs it will often
gallop along until one of its pursuers has outstripped the rest, and
will then suddenly turn and spring upon him, plunge its teeth into his
neck, and, while its jaws are still clenched, thrust the body of its
victim away. The result is that the throat of the poor dog is torn
completely open, and a moment later its body is lying bleeding on the
ground, while the chacma is galloping on as before.
These baboons are very mischievous creatures, for they come down from
their mountain retreats by night in order to plunder the orchards. And
so cautiously is the theft carried out, that even the dogs on guard know
nothing of what is going on, and the animals nearly always succeed in
getting away.
When it cannot obtain fruit, the chacma feeds chiefly upon the bulb of a
kind of iris, which it digs out of the ground with its paw, and then
carefully peels. But it is also fond of insects, and may often be seen
turning over stones, and catching the beetles which were lying hidden
beneath them. It will even eat scorpions, but is careful to pull off
their stings before doing so.
THE MANDRILL
Another interesting baboon is the mandrill, which one does not often see
in captivity. It comes from Western Africa. While it is young there is
little that is remarkable about it. But the full-grown male is a
strange-looking animal, for on each of its cheeks there is a swelling as
big as a large sausage, which runs upward from just above the nostrils
to just below the eyes. These swellings are light blue, and have a
number of grooves running down them, which are colored a rich purple,
while the line between them, as well as the tip of the nose, is bright
scarlet. The face is very large in proportion to the size of the body,
and the forehead is topped by a pointed crest of upright black hair,
while under the chin is a beard of orange yellow. On the hind quarters
are two large bare patches of the same brilliant scarlet as the nose. So
you see that altogether a grown-up male mandrill is a very odd-looking
creature.
The female mandrill has much smaller swellings on her face. They are
dull blue in color, without any lines of either purple or scarlet.
Almost all monkeys are subject at times to terrible fits of passion, but
the mandrill seems to be the worst tempered of all. Fancy an animal
dying simply from rage! It sounds impossible, yet the mandrill has been
known to do so. And the natives of the countries in which it lives are
quite as much afraid of it as they are of a lion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account