CHAPTER XXV.

INSTRUMENTS OF DEFENSE AND ATTACK.

[Sidenote: Fighting instruments of animals.]

Animals have various instruments for defending themselves. Some have claws, some horns, some hoofs, some spurs and beaks, some powerful teeth, and some stings. These they use to defend themselves when attacked.

[Sidenote: Why man has none of them.]

But man has none of these things. Why is this? It is because, as I have told you about tools, with his mind he can contrive instruments of defense, and with his hands he can use them. If men could not contrive and use such things as spears, and swords, and guns, they would stand a poor chance with some of the animals if obliged to contend with them. A lion or tiger, you know, could tear the stoutest man in pieces if he had nothing in his hands to defend himself.

It would be well if men would use the fighting instruments which they make only for defending themselves. But they often use them in attacking others, just as beasts do their weapons, and sometimes they even use their hands, and teeth, and nails in the same way that beasts do. Hands were made for useful work and innocent play; but they are often used to strike with. Teeth are given to us to eat with; but children, and even men sometimes, bite with them like an angry beast. Nails are given us for various useful purposes, but I have known children to use them in fighting as beasts do their claws and spurs.

[Sidenote: Claw and beak of a cruel bird.]

The fighting instruments of some birds are very powerful. Here are a claw and a beak of a very cruel bird. How fast this claw would hold the victim, and how would this beak tear it in pieces! Very different are they from the slender claws and the light beak of such birds as the canary.

[Sidenote: The vulture and the lamb.]

Here is a very rapacious bird, the vulture. He is on a rock, and has under his feet a lamb which he found in the valley below. It had perhaps wandered from the flock, and, as it was feeding, not thinking of danger, the vulture espied it. Swiftly diving down, he caught it with his strong claws and brought it up here. You see what a beak he has to tear the lamb in pieces, that he may devour it.

[Sidenote: The bill of the toucan.]

[Sidenote: How it trims its tail.]

The toucan, which you see here, has a larger bill than most other birds. It uses it in crushing and tearing its food, which consists of fruits, mice, and small birds. You see that its edges are toothed somewhat like a saw, adapting it to tear in pieces the little animals which this bird feeds on. But it can use its bill also for another purpose. It is a powerful instrument of defense in fighting off the animals that attack it. The toucan makes its nest in a hole of a tree, which it digs out with its bill, if it does not readily find one already made; and there it sits, keeping off all intruders with its big beak. The mischievous monkeys are its worst enemies; but, if they get a blow from that beak, they are very careful to keep out of the way of it afterward. When the toucan sleeps, it manages to cover up this large bill with its feathers, and so it looks as if it was nothing but a great ball of feathers. There is one curious use which it makes of its bill: it uses it to trim its tail, cutting its feathers as precisely as a pair of scissors would. It takes great care in doing this, evidently thinking that it is important to its beauty. It waits till its tail is full grown before it begins to trim it.

[Sidenote: The cat’s paw and its cushions.]

The claws of the cat hold the rat very fast, while her long, sharp teeth tear its flesh, and pull even its bones apart. If you see a cat do this, you will get some idea of the way in which a lion or tiger tears in pieces any animal. As your cat lies quietly purring in your lap, look at her paws. The claws are all concealed, and the paw, with its cushions, seems a very gentle, peaceable thing; but wake her up and let her play with a string, and as she tries to catch it with her paw, the claws now thrust out make it look like a powerful weapon, as it really is in the eyes of rats and mice. There are muscles that work those claws when the cat’s mind tells them to do it. When the claws are not thrust out these muscles are quiet, but they are ever ready to act when a message comes to them from the brain.

Did you ever think what the use is of those springy cushions in the cat’s foot? They are to keep her from being jarred when she jumps down from a considerable height, as she often does. Other animals that jump have them. There is another use for these cushions. They are of assistance to animals in catching their prey. If the cat had hard, horny feet, as she went pattering around the rats and mice would take the alarm and get out of the way.

[Sidenote: Horned animals.]

[Sidenote: The horns of the kudu.]

Some animals have horns which they use in attack and defense, and very powerful weapons they are in some cases. Animals that have them often defend themselves successfully against the attacks of lions, tigers, etc., that are so powerful with their teeth and claws. They gore with them. They can toss up quite a large animal into the air with them. In this animal (called the koodoo) they are nearly three feet long. You see that they have a beautiful spiral shape; indeed, the whole animal is very handsome. It lives in South Africa, in woods at the side of rivers. You might suppose that it would be rather difficult to get about among the trees and bushes with such long horns; but the koodoo manages to do this very well by throwing his head back and letting his horns rest on his shoulders.

[Sidenote: The sword-fish.]

Here is a drawing of a sword-fish. Its sword is made of bone, and it is so very strong that it has been known to be run through the bottom of a ship. In the British Museum there is a piece of the bottom of a ship with one of these swords run through it, and broken short off. The fish must have died at once, for such a blow must have dashed his brains out, as we say. This sword must be a powerful weapon of defense or attack in the fights of this fish with other animals.

[Sidenote: The saw-fish.]

Here is a fish that has a saw instead of a sword. The teeth, you see, are on both sides of the saw. This fish is very large, and uses this weapon with great effect in its fights with whales and other monsters of the deep. It sometimes very foolishly pushes its saw into the bottom of a ship, as the sword-fish does his sword.

[Sidenote: The porcupine.]

[Sidenote: What the porcupine does with his quills.]

There are some animals that have very singular instruments of defense. The porcupine is one. It is covered with two kinds of quills. Those of one kind are long, slender, and curved. The others are short, straight, very stout, and have a sharp point. Whenever the porcupine is chased by any animal, and finds that he can not escape by running, he stops and bristles up all his quills, as you see in the previous engraving. He then backs, so that the short, sharp quills may stick into the animal that pursues him. It has been said that he shoots his quills at any one that attacks him. But this is not so. The error came from the fact, that if any of the quills happen to be a little loose, they fall out or stick into the flesh of his adversary.

[Sidenote: The ink-bag of the cuttle-fish.]

The cuttle-fish has a curious way of escaping from those fishes that attack him. He is a strangely-shaped animal, as you see. He has eight long arms, and the little spots that you see on these are suckers, with which he can stick to a rock, or can hold tightly any fish or shell that he catches. This queer-looking animal has inside of him a bag filled with a dark fluid like ink. This he uses as a means of defense in this way: if he is chased by a fish larger than he is, he empties his ink-bag in the water, and thus makes such a cloud that it blinds his pursuer, and then the cuttle-fish very easily gets out of the way.

[Sidenote: The torpedo.]

This singularly-formed fish, the torpedo, has two electrical batteries--that is, machines for making electricity or lightning; and it can give a shock when it pleases. If the fish is a large one, it can give a shock powerful enough to knock a man down. It can disable, of course, almost any fish that attempts to fight with him, and it probably uses its battery also to overcome the animals that it devours.

[Sidenote: The electric eel.]

Here is an eel, called the electrical eel, which has the same power, and uses it for the same purposes. A sailor was once knocked down by a shock from one of these eels, and it was some time before he recovered his senses.

[Sidenote: The armor of turtles.]

The different kinds of turtles, while they have no great means of attack, have most extraordinary means of defense. They have a complete suit of thick, bony armor. Most kinds of turtles can draw in their heads and limbs out of sight, and some can shut up their armor as tight as a box, and so be secure against almost any attack. This is a picture of the green turtle, which sometimes grows so large as to weigh as much as three or four men. It is found in most of the islands of the East and West Indies. Its flesh is considered a great luxury. The beautiful tortoise-shell, from which combs are made, is obtained from this armor of some kinds of turtles.

_Questions._--What are some of the instruments of defense and attack that animals have? Why has man none of these? What is the use which men ought to make of the weapons which they contrive? How are hands, teeth, and nails often improperly used? What are the fighting instruments of birds? Tell about the vulture. Tell the different uses of the large bill of the toucan. What are the weapons of the cat? What is said about the muscles of her claws? Of what use are the cushions on her feet? Tell about the koodoo. Tell about the sword-fish and about the saw-fish. What is said about the porcupine? What about the cuttle-fish? What about the torpedo and the electrical eel? What about the turtles?