Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, September 21, 1878
    A curious partnership is related as existing at Chelsea, Vt., where a turkey and a partridge are sharing a nest. The turkey continues to deposit her egg daily, although the partidge began to set after laying thirteen. During the occupation of the nest by the turkey the partridge attends to feeding.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, September 28, 1878
    It is a remarkable fact, says the London Times, that a taste for gaming appears in some cases to pervade a whole people, and to become one of the chief national characteristics. Nowhere is this more manifest than among the inhabitants of the Asiatic Islands. Games of hazard are the favorites of these islanders. Some of them they have learned from the Chinese, the most debauched of gamesters, and others of the Portuguese. The only game of hazard of native origin, among the Japanese, consists in guessing the number of a certain kind of beans which the players hold in their hands. But of all the species of gaming that to which the Indian islanders are most fondly addicted is betting on the issue of the combat of puguacious animals, and particlarly the cock. The breed in highest estimation is the produce of Celebes. The people of Java fight their cocks without spurs; but the Maylays and natives of Celebes with an artificial spur, in the shape of a small scythe which, notwithstanding its barbarous appearance, is in reality less destructive than the contrivance employed among ourselves.
    Quail fighting also is extremely common in Java. The most famous breed of this bird is found in the island of Lombok; it is a singular fact that the female is used in these bitter but bloodless combats, the male being comparatively small and timid. Neither do the Javanese hesitate to bet considerable sums on a battle between two crickets, which are excited to the conflict by the titilation of a bladde of grass judiciously applied to their noses.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, October 12, 1878
    A big dog in Paris, Ky., is a friend of drunkards in need. Whenever he sees a staggering man, he sticks to him until home is reached, or watches at the wayfarer’s side if he falls in the gutter.
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Friday, August 12, 1898
    Among the enthusiastic patriots uptown the other day was a man who owns a handsome spaniel and one good at retrieving. This man, reports the Philadelphia Record, began his celebration by throwing a pack of small firecrackers into the street and before the first one had a chance to explode the dog rushed out and grabbed the bunch and was making toward his master as fast as he could. Before the innocent dog reached his destination, however, an explosion took place, and one after another the little rolls of powder went popping at a great rate. Of course the spaniel dropped them, but he remained in the middle of the pack, jumping at the ones that blew up into the air until the entire pack had gone off. Then, after picking up one or two of the exploded crackers, he returned to his master and landed them at his feet. The man petted the dog awhile and then looked to see if he had been injured, and found that his beautiful coat of curly brown hair had been so much singed that it would be necessary to have it clipped. The dog was always held high for a retriever in the estimation of his owner and those who knew him, but his stock has risen 100 percent now and no amount of money could buy him.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Saturday, September 28, 1878
    A Georgia farmer smeared his hogs with tar to rid them of fleas, and turned them loose in the woods. At night they did not return to the pen as usual, and in the morning he found them stuck together, the tar making them adhere in a mass. They might have gone home, nevertheless, by concert of action, but it isn’t in a hog to harmonize.
Published in the Waukegan Gazette, Waukegan, Illinois on Sunday, October 6, 1878
       One of the plagues of Egypt has visited several districts in County Derry, Ireland. A fly, hitherio unknown, but almost the size of a house-fly, has appeared in such vast numbers as to fill the air like mist. They molest the animal kingdom alone, awarming about horses, cattle and men, and inflicting a venomous sting which produces inflamation, some times closing the eyes of horses and driving cattle wildly home from the field.
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Monday, August 8, 1898
    The North China Herald says that a curious phenomenon was witnessed recently at daybreak upon the opening of the Chlangmen gate of Soochow. Some 4,000 or more rats of all sizes were seen to file out of the gates, showing no fear of the country people who were flocking to sell their market produce in the city. There is much excitement amounting almost to a panic, therefore, in Soochow, and a dire fate is prophesied to the city, it being remembered that a similar exodus happened in the ’50s, just prior to the fall of the city into the hands of the Taiping rebels.
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Monday, July 25, 1898
The Faithful Animal Warns the Captain Just in Time to Avoid a Collision.
    Capt. Granlain, of a big lake liner, boasts of a first class seaman that never leaves the vessel or demands money for his service. This peculiar tar is known as “Bert.” He has no surname, as far as his fellow sailors are able to ascertain. Beyond an occasional report to the “old man,” as the captain is called, he rarely opens his mouth, says the Chicago Chronicle.
    “Bert” will have the everlasting gratitude of the stockholders of the transportation corporation for being instrumental in avoiding a collision recently. The steamer was proceeding slowly along Lake Huron in a dense fog with every eye directed ahead in search of a strange light. The deep-mouthed whistle was bellowing out a warning every moment and an answering toot was occasionly heard on the starboard side.
    Suddenly “Bert” was full of activity. He had bee looking through the gloom as earnestly as the others with his paws on the bulwarks. He bounded to the captain and barked with all his might. Capt. Granlain rushed to the engineer signal and ordered “reverse.” The helm was thrown to port just in time to avoid a towering passenger boat whose prow loomed up suddenly in the fog. If the freighter had proceeded along her course both vessels would probably have gone to the bottom.
    “That dog is the greatest sailor on the lakes,” said the captain. “He always keeps my watch with me and cannot be induced to leave the deck forward or the bridge where I may chance to be. His eyes are far superier in power of vision than human opties. Next summer when I get time I’m going to teach him the compass, and then I may be able to utilize him at the wheel. I think he would make an excellent pilot.”
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Wednesday, July 20, 1898
Species of Huge and Voracious Reptiles Haunt Swamps of Pennsylvania.
    A species of bird-eating frog infests the swamps in Susquehanna county, Pa. These huge croakers have also proved destructive to young chickens, says the New York Press.
    A few days since a farmer named Wainwright, of Herrick, had his attention called to the bird-eating propensity of this species of frog by the cries of a small bird in a near-by swamp. Thinking it had been seized by a snake he hastened to the spot, and saw a beautiful red and green bird in the mouth of a large, greenish frog. Only the bird’s head was visible, and its cries becoming fainter, the frog was killed and the bird released. Its feathers were all wet and slimy, and for some days it could be distinguished in the garden by its ruffled plumage.
    Since then others of the same species of frog have, on several occasions, been killed with young chickens half swallowed, and once a duckling was rescued from the same fate.
    The frogs make a cluckling sound so nearly like that of a hen calling her chickens for food that whole broods have been deceived and have rushed toward the swamp, where they supposed the hen to be. The frogs are wary, and it is difficult to find them except by the squeaks of distress from their victims.
Published in the Waukegan Daily Sun, Waukegan, Illinois on Monday, July 18, 1898
A Maryland Man Comes to the Rescue of One of the Birds Held Prisoner by the Reptile.
    Benjamin Rust, of Chestertown, Md., gives an interesting account of a combat between a large snapping turtle and a vast number of crows, which he witnessed a few days ago. While noted for his shyness, the crow is also noted as a vicious fighter in defence of his own household. Mr. Rust noted a great commotion among the crows in a meadow. The birds were darting down making vicious thrusts with their wings at the same time keeping up a tremendous chatter.
    It was noticed that one crow, though flapping vigorously, was unable to get away. An examination disclosed the cause of the trouble to be a big snapping turtle, which had seized a crow by the wing and held it captive, and was making his way to a branch, were it is supposed the bird would have been dragged down and drowned, preparatory to being eaten. Mr. Rust captured the snapper and released the crow.
    Snappers do no small amount of damage to goslings and young ducks. They grab their prey by the foot as they swim along, drag them beneath the water and when they are drowned proceed to devour them at their leisure.