Tales from Zoology

Chapter 6 : The Silkworm
In my garden there were some old mulberry trees. They had been set out long ago by my grandfather. One autumn I was given a quantity 1 of silkworm eggs, and advised to raise the worms and make silk. These eggs were dark gray and so small that in my zolotnik I counted five thousand eight hundred and thirty-five of them. They were smaller than the heads of the smallest pins. They were perfectly inert ; only, when they were crushed, they made a crackling sound. I heaped them up on my table and had forgotten all about them. But when spring came, I went one day out into my garden and noticed that the mulberry buds were swelling, and were even in leaf where the sun got to them. Then I remembered about my silkworm eggs, and as soon as I went into the house I began to ex- amine them and scatter them over a wider surface. The larger part of them were no longer of a dark gray as before, but some had turned into a... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 5 : Touch and Sight
Twist the index finger with the middle finger and place between these fingers intertwined a small ball in such a way that it touches both, and then shut your eyes. It will seem to you that you are holding two balls. Open your eyes and you will see that it is only one. Your fingers have deceived you, and your eyes have corrected the impression. Look best of all a little sidewise at a good, clear mirror, it will seem to you that it is a window or a door, and that there is something behind it. Touch it with your fingers and you will assure yourself that it is a mirror. Your eyes deceived you, but your fingers cor- rected the impression. (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 4 : Scent
A man sees with his eyes, hears with his ears, smells with his nose, tastes with his tongue, and feels with his fingers. Some men have more serviceable eyes. Some men have less serviceable eyes than others. One man has keen sense of hearing, another is deaf. One man has a more delicate sense of smell than another, and he perceives an odor from a long distance, while another will not notice the stench from a bad egg. One person recognizes an object by touching it, while another can do nothing of the sort, and is unable to distinguish wood from paper by the touch. One no sooner puts a substance into his mouth than he tells it is sweet, while another swallows it and cannot make out whether it is sweet or bitter. In the same way wild animals have various senses in various degrees of power. But all wild animals have a keener scent than man has. When a man wants to tell what an object is, he examines it, he listens when it makes a noise, sometime... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 3 : Hares and Wolves
Hares feed at night on the bark of trees ; field-hares, on seeds and grass ; barn-hares, on grains of wheat on the threshing-floors. In the nighttime hares leave on the snow a deep, noticeable trail. Men and dogs and foxes and crows and eagles delight in hunting hares. If a hare went in a straight line without doubling, then in the morning there would be no trouble in following his trail and catching him ; but God has endowed the hare with timidity, and this timidity is his salvation. At night the hare runs over the fields and woods with- out fear and leaves a straight track; but as soon as morning comes, and his foes awake, then the hare begins to listen, now for the barking of dogs, now for the creaking of sledges, now for the voices of peasants, now for the noise of wolves in the woods, and so he leaps first to one side and then to the other. He darts ahead, and something frightens him, and so he doubl... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 2 : How Wolves Teach Their Cubs
I was riding along the road, when I heard some one shouting behind me. It was a young shepherd. He was running across a field, and pointing at something. I looked, and saw two wolves running across the field. One was full grown ; the other was a cub. The cub had on his back a lamb which had just been killed, and he had the leg in his mouth. The old wolf was running behind. As soon as I saw the wolves, I joined the shepherd, and we started in pursuit, setting up a shout. When they heard our shout, some peasants started out also in pursuit, with their dogs. .As soon as the old wolf caught sight of the dogs and the men, he ran to the young one, snatched the lamb from him, jerked it over his own back, and both wolves increased their pace and were soon lost from view. Then the lad began to relate how it had happened. The big wolf had sprung out from the ravine, seized the lamb, killed it, and carried it... (From : Wikisource.org.)

The Owl and the Hare
It was growing dark. The owls began to fly in the forest, over the ravine, in search of their prey. A big gray hare was bounding over the field, and began to smooth his fur. An old owl, as she sat on the bough, was watching the gray hare ; and a young owl said, " Why don't you pounce down on the hare ? " The old one replied : " I am not strong enough. The hare is large. If you should clutch him, he would carry you off into the thicket." But the young owl said : " Why, I could hold him with one claw, and with the other I could cling to the tree." And the young owl swooped down on the hare, clutched his back with his claw in such a way that all the nails sank into the fur, and he was going to cling to the tree with the other claw ; and he sai... (From : Wikisource.org.)