Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1911 — BUZZ THAT PUZZLED ANIMALS [ARTICLE]

BUZZ THAT PUZZLED ANIMALS

Noise of Wind In Telegraph Wires Used to Mislead Them, But They Have Grown Wiser. - When telegraph poles were first set up they had a most disquieting effect upon various species of animala In Norway, for Instance, at the time of the introduction of these useful articles, the bears were much' perplexed to determine their purpose. The Norwegian bear, hearing the moaning of the wind in the wires, such a buzzing as he had somewhere heard before, proceeded in the ursine fashion to--“put two and two together.” Such a buzzing must mean the presence of a sweet morsel; the poles must be gigantic hives; so the bear set to work to root the poles out of the ground. The strange humming also attracted the attention of the woodpeckers, which concluded that innumerable insects were concealed In these tall poles. Therefore the birds went to work to find the treasure, boring holes to extract the insects. In time, however, they all became wiser, and the telegraph pole or wire came to be used by more than one species of bird as a safe place for Its nest. There Is a small bird of Natal that used to build Its cradle shaped nest In the branches of trees, but as soon as the telegraph wires were set up it changed the location of its housekeeping and built on the wirss, so that snakes could not molest its treasures.

The new position was found so secure that the bird added a second door to the nest, which had hitherto possessed only a small opening on the side furthest from the bverhanging branch.

For many years the buffaloes of our western plains utilized the telegraph poles to “scratch their backs,” and so delightedly would a group of them attack the poles for this purpose that many of the big sticks were put out of commission.