Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1881 — Birds and Beasts. [ARTICLE]

Birds and Beasts.

A flight of white butterflies that filled the air like snowflakes was seen recently in South Florida. A bird’s nest recently found in a tree of a New Jersey town was covered with a thatched roof Investigation showed that it was the tomb ofayoung robin deaettn its nest, and the covering was no doubt the work of the parent birds. The Monroe (N. C.) Express tells of a merchant in that place who upon opening his store in the morning found ajar of brandy peaches overturned and broken by rats, and he killed easily fifteen rats that lay on the counter and floor too drunk to get away. The Elmira Free Press tells a story of how a blind; horse. in a pasture lot was led to choice feeding ground and to water by a gander, who went before him giving eigne by a constant cackle. A perfect understanding was had between them, and they seemed to know what eaoh At night the gander accompanied the hone to the stall, sat under the trough, and the horse would occasionally bite ofi a mouthfol of com and drop it to the

ground for his feathered lriend, and thus they would share each other’s meals. Finally, on one Sunday after- 4 noon, the horse died. The gander seemed utterly lost, wandered around disconsolately, looking everywhere for his old comrade, refusing food, and at the end of a week he, too, died, life may not have any special attractions for us, and we may possibly in dulge in a great deal of nonsense about being willing and even anxious to shuffle ofi thfa mortal coil, still if we had the power to fix the date of our own exit none of us would mention any day of any month in the present told that next week Is to be our last we should make still more less; Like the Hibernian. w« all want to live long enough to near the minister preach oaf