In fact, the usual end of a quarrel which has its inception in greed or avarice is death. And those elements can be typified in queer incidents. An ostrich possesses three things, the smallest brain of any bird or animal of its size, the most powerful kick of anything except a mule, and a positive obsession for anything that glitters. A few years ago, a circus made a feature of two ostriches trained to draw a small cart in parade and in the entrees, keeping the big birds in a net-wire enclosure in the menagerie tent as an exhibition. The owner of the show possessed a large diamond ring, and it was one of his amusements to raise his hand over the enclosure and watch the antics of the weak-billed birds as they strove vainly to pull the glittering stone from its setting. Then one day a loose prong allowed the gem to drop within the enclosure!
A wide-eyed and somewhat excited owner gulped as he saw two thousand dollars worth of diamond fall into the straw and the two ostriches rush wildly for it. Then his eyes grew even wider as one of the birds raised a heavy foot, and with a straight, outward kick, sent his be-plumed companion reeling half across the enclosure. However, before the kicker could reach the diamond, the kickee was back on the job again, to release a series of blows, and the fight was on.
It continued for a half an hour, and ended only when one of the birds, by a swift and well-aimed blow, caught his adversary just at the junction of the neck and head, decapitating him. By that time, all idea of what the fight was about had left the tiny brain of the victor, and gasping, his wings raised, he wobbled to a far end of the enclosure and settled there, while the owner thrust a hand hurriedly into the straw, rescued his diamond and rushed for a jeweler.
“Lucky at that,” he mused, as he went out of the menagerie entrance, “you can buy ostriches for a hundred dollars apiece!”
So the list runs, even through to that of racial hatreds. The oft-repeated chase of the dog and cat, and the enmity which seemingly is never overcome between them, is repeated in the menagerie, with the exception of the fact that here it is the cat which chases the dog. It is almost impossible to work a leopard group in the same arena or ring in which a dog act has been worked; the canine scent arouses them to such an extent that they can think of nothing else than hunting their hereditary enemy. The same is true in a measure with tigers, and in a lesser degree with lions. In a few instances, cases have been known where lions and dogs actually have become friends, but with a tiger or leopard, never. The sole result of their meeting is a swift lunge, a crackling impact, a setting of the feline jaws at the base of the dog’s skull, and the breaking of its neck, all happening in an instant. Then the dog is devoured, nor can all the efforts of animal men or trainers drag the enraged beast from its prey.
In fact, the only thing that can arouse greater excitement among felines than a dog is that outcast of the animal world, the hyena. Here the racial lines are drawn sharply and distinctly; it is an enmity which is at high pitch always; the very proximity of a hyena cage will drive a tiger or leopard to madness, and if a feline is placed in the compartment opposite to a hyena, it seldom ceases its efforts until the day when some careless animal attendant leaves the partition door unclamped, when the feline can claw and tear until it raises the barrier and rushes through to annihilate its foe.
In lesser degree is shown the hatred of a tiger for a horse, the hatred of a puma for a bear, the hatred of a chimpanzee for an elephant.
REPRESENTATIVE CIRCUS DOGS.
Just as a warning, if you are a father or mother, and you decide some time to take your baby to the circus, never allow it to get within “reaching distance” of a leopard’s cage. Why, no animal man can explain, but the hatred of a leopard for a baby amounts almost to a mania, and the beast will fret itself into a frenzy in its attempts to reach through the bars, and catch its victim in its poisonous claws, pull it into the cage, there to kill and devour it!