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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

WAV

3 1924 090 302 161

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
THE

NATURALIST’S LIBRARY.

CONTAINING

Scientific and Popular Descriptions

OF

MAN, QUADRUPEDS, BIRDS, FISHES,
REPTILES, AND INSECTS,

COMPILED FROM THE WORKS OF

3sROFFROY, LACEPEp
a. & 5 * Bry,
930" pwis AND CLARKR, Any Bip

   

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chon: gs ON RAL py By 0
_ Saat STOR M4 Soy
So "Oo 2s,
<t S On, ?>,
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é

ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE CLASSIFICATION OF STARK.

EDITED BY A. A. GOULD, M.A.

WITH 400 ENGRAVINGS.

BOSTON:

PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY.
1859.
Entered according tc the Act of Congiess, mn the year 1833,
BY CARTER, HENDEE, & CO.
im the Cleri’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
.

ADVERTISEMENT

Tue study of Natural History has become so extensive as to
cail for a great multiplication of books upon the subject. A few
years ago, the translation of Buffon, which appeared under the title
of ** Goldsmith’s Animated Nature,’’ was almost the only work in
popular use. Even when its utter want of accuracy and adaptation
to the improved state of science, was generally known, it still con-
tinued to be reprinted, and was probably the instrument of dissemi-
nating nearly as touch error as truth,

But within a short period, several excellent works have appeared
in Europe, combining in a good degree, popular and pleasing
descriptions of animals, with scientific accuracy. In the present
volume, an attempt has been made to compile from these a more
complete and comprehensive body of popular and scientific Zoology
than has heretofore appeared, in any form accessible to common
ceaders.

This work is arranged according to the classification of Stark,
which is based upon that of Cuvier. Although it embraces scientific
names and descriptions, yet these are made to occupy as little
compass as possible, and are placed at the foot of the pages in the
form of notes. The subject of Zoology is one of great utility, and
should be extensively read. The grand object has been to render
the work acceptable to general readers, by devoting a large portion
of it to lively and entertaining sketches’ of the habits and instincts
sf animals; and a large number of books of travels, have becn
urned over in search of their illustrative traits.

The original compiler having made arrangements to depart for
Europe, the manuscript was submitted to the present Editor, wh
is responsible for the accuracy of the press, forthe correctness of
the facts selected, and for their arrangement according to the system
proposed. The work is now submitted to the public, and though
as a systematic work it may not be entirely such as might be
ADVERTISEMENT.

desired, yet the editor is confident that the abundance of authentie
facts, and of useful and entertaining matter contained in its pages,
will amply repay the reader for the time spent in its perusal.

It has been remarked by an elegant writer, that ‘ the pursuit of
Natural History in almost any way, as a study or an amusement, is
both indicative and productive of gentleness, refinement and virtue.’
This we believe to be strictly true, and if the present volume shal
be instrumental in diffusing a taste for knowledge, the influence
of which is so salutary, we shall deem the labor bestowed upon the
compilation as abundantly rewarded.

THE EDITOR.

 

 
 

DIFFERENT RACES OF MEN.

‘* Naturalists,” says Dr. Good, ‘‘ reckon five races of men”
Fhese ditfer in many features of person and character, as well as
3omplexion, and we will point out the most striking distinctions.

Fwst. The Evrorran, or wuts rack, is fair, having the
cheeks more or less red; the head globular; the face straight and
oval; the forehead slightly flattened; the nose narrow, and slightiy
aquiline; the mouth usually small; the chin full and rounded; the
eyes blue or gray, oftener than dark; and the hair, yellow or
brown, of different shades, and flowing.

The most perfect of this race may be found in Asia Minor
The Circassians and others who live south of the Caucasian moun-
tains, are the most beautiful persons in the world; and it should be
remembered, that in this spot of the globe, man was first created
This circumstance is of some weight in the conjecture -hat tho
original color was white.

Second. The Asiatic, or BRown man, is yellowish brown or olive;
the head is nearly square; the cheek bones wide, and the face flat;
the eyes are small and black; the chin rather prominent, and the
hair blackish and thin.

Third. The American, or. RED MAN, is of a copper color; the
head is less square, the cheek bones less expanded, and the face
less flattened than in the Asiatic; the eyes are deeply seated, and
the hair is black, straight and thick
DIFFERENT RACES OF MEN.

Fourth The Arrican, or BLacK MAN, varies from a deep tawny
to a perfect jet. The head is narrow; the face projecting towards
the lower part; the forehead arched; the eyes projecting; the nose
thick and flat; the lips, particularly the upper one, very thick; the
jaws prominent; the chin retracted; the hair black, frizzled and
woolly,

The countenance of the negro is more unlike the European and
more like the monkey, than that of any other variety.

Fifth. The Ausrra.ian, or TawNY MAN, is of a mahogany color;
the head is narrowed at the upper part; the forehead somewhat
expanded; the upper jaws slightly prominent; the nose broad, but
distinct; and the hair harsh, coarse, long and curly. This variety
inhabits New Holland, and seems to form a middle point between
the European and the African.

In this general classification of mankind, two circumstances must
be remembered. First, the distinctive characters will not apply to
every individual of the particular division to which they belong;
swarthy or copper colored persons are often found among the
genuine white race; and European features, and sometimes even a
fair skin are to be mct with in the black and tawny tribes.

In the second place, we must recollect that the frequent migra-
tions among some of the divisions, particularly the Europeans,
would cause this race to be widely scattered, and often prominently
intermixed with the other races in their own particular divisions of
the globe.

“Consequently, we' are more likely to meet with Asiatics and
Africans possessing European features, than to find among the
white race the wide cheek bones and flat face of the brown manand
the flat nose and thick lips of the negro.

 
 

PARTS OF A BIRD.

The external parts of a bird, which require to be noticed and distin-
guished by the naturalist, are the head, neck, body, wings, tail and legs;
which parts again are subdivided more or less minutely, according to the
taste of various writers on the subject. The above outline engraving is to
assist young naturalists in naming these.

1, Maxriia Superior, the upper
mandible of the bill.

2. Maxityia Inrertor, the lower
mandible of the bill.

3. CuLmen, the ridge of the bill.

4. Gonys, the angle or point of
the under mandible.

5. Dertrom, the hook of the bill.

6, Nargs, the nostrils.

7. Mesorurntom, the upper ridge
of the bill.

8. Lorom, the bone, a naked space
at the base of the bill.

9. Mento, the chin.

10. Frons, the forehead.

 

 

1]. Vertex, the crown of the
head.

12. Stncirur, the, hinder part of
the head.

13. Capistroum, the face,

14, Suprrctiioum, the eyebrow.

15. Recro Orntuamica, the ree
gion of the eye.

16. Tempora, the temples,

17. Gena; the cheek. ,

18. Reero Parorica, the pares
above the ear.

19. Cotium, the neck.

20. Crrorx, the hinder part of tbe
neck.
PARTS JF A BiRD.

21. Nucaa, the nape of the neck.

22. Aucnenium, the under nape
ot the neck.

23. Gurr, the throat.

24. Gua, the gullet.

25. Jueu.om, the lower throat.

26. Pecrus, the breast.
» Ericastrum, the stomach.
28. ABDOMEN.

29. Hypocuonpria, the sides of ||

the abdomen.

30. Venter, the belly.

31. Crissum, the vent.

32. Dorsum, the back.

33. InrERscaPruLuw, the space be-
tween the shoulders.

34. Teneum, the middle of the |

back. J

35. Urnoryerom, the rump.

36. Humeni, the shoulders.

37. Fiexoura, the bend of the
wing.

38. Axrura, the arm-pit.

39. Axa, the wing

 

 

40. Tecrrices, the wing coverta.

41. Tecrraices Masorgs, the larg
est wing coverts.

42. Tecrrices Mrnores,
smallest wing coverts.

43. Tectrices Mepiz, the mid
dle wing coverts,

44, Remieers, the rowers.

45. Primarte, the quills.

46. Secunpar x, secondaries,

47. Caupa, the tail.

48. Rectrices, the tail feathers,

the

| divided into,

49, InrermEDIAEz, the middle, and,
50. LaTeraes, the side feathers.

| 51. Trsta, the thigh answering to

the leg in quadrupeds.

52. Prana, or Pes, foot, divided
into

53. Tarsus, the shank, answering
to the heel in quadrupeds.

54, Acrorarsium, the shin.

‘55. Hauux, the grea we,

56. Diarri, the toes

 
ELEMENTS

oF

NATURAL HISTORY.

 

INTRODUCTION.

Tue stject of Natural History is the material world, and the various
classes of organized and inorganic bodies which form its component
parts. To examine and arrange these in connection with the laws by
which they are governed, to investigate their structure, their history,
and their uses, is the province of the Naturalist. In its most extended
sense, Natural History embraces all the visible ereation, and includes
every object in that creation, from the most magnificent of the celestial
bodies, to the smallest ‘insect or particle of dust, which is found in the
globe inhabited by men. A field so extensive, compared with the
limited powers of the human faculties, is too vast for the subject of
mdividual research ; and in detail its objects are so numerous, that to
possess a knowledge of even a small portion of these, has been
considered a competent task for a life spent in investigation.

For this reason it has become matter of necessity to subdivide and
arrange the objects of the material world into portions, suitable to the
powers and the intelligence of those whose province and interest it is
to investigate the wonders of creation. One great branch, termed
Natura. Puttosopxy, has thus been divided into numerous depart-
ments, of which Dynamics, or the doctrine of the laws of motion and
its effects, and its subsidiary divisions, Statics, Hydrostatics, &c., ofler
a wide field to investigation. The observation of the positions and
revolutions of the heavenly bodies has become the province of that
branch of Natural Science denominated Astronomy: the nature, mo-
tion, and qualities of light, form the science of Orrics: the changes
that take place in the atmosphere, as they are perceived by the senses,
or indicated by instruments, is the object of MeTEorotocy: and it is
the province.of Curmistry, another great branch of Physical Science,

2
x INTRODUCTION.

to investigate the mutual agencies of the elementary principles of mate
‘ter upon one another, their composition, and the laws by which they
are reculated. These divisions of the great field of Natural Science
have, from the universality of their influence, been called General
Physics ; while Natural History, in its limited sense, and as confined
to the examination of what have been called the three kingdoms of
Nature, viz: the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral, has received the
name of Particular Physics. Natural History, besides, is distinguished
from the other branches of science now named in this, that while Dy-
ramies is a science chiefly of calculation, and Chemistry of experi-
ment, the basis of this science rests chiefly un observation.

In the limited sense in which Natural History is thus to be under-
stood, as confined to the three great divisions of Animals, Vegetables,
and Minerals, a System of Nature is a grand catalogue of the objects
in these kingdoms, in which each individual has a distinctive charac-
ter and an appropriate name. These individuals, for the sake of ar-
rangement, are collected into groups, which have something in com-
mon, and which are termed Genera; genera are further combined into
other groups, which form in systems what are called Orders; and or-
ders are finally arranged under one great head, which is termed a
Class. This scale of divisions, of which the highest contains the least,
is, as Baron Cuvier remarks, a kind of dictionary, where the prozerties
of things are investigated to discover their names, and which rv veases
the usual order of such works, where the names are indicated us de-
sailing the qualities of the things named.

But though method and arrangement form the first step to th. ruow-
ledge of the numerous objects which claim the attention of t.v. ‘atu-
ralist, Natura] History is by no means confined to a list of ne ves. If
the method be a good one, and the subdivisions arranged cor ornably
to the fundamental and natural connections of bodies, the very arranze-
ment and classification of names of beings which have som thing in
common, leads to the knowledge of their connection and dk xendence
upon one another, and to their comparative importance in th: scale of
existence. Were it possible to arrange all the classes of organized and
inorganized existence in such a manner that the individuals of the
same genus should be more nearly connected with that genus than
with any other—the genera of the same order more nearly connectea
with that order than with ali the other orders, and so on,—little more
would be necessary to make the method, so far as depends on arrange-
ment, complete. But it has not hitherto been found in practice, that
*

INTRODUCTION. xl

characters sufficiently uniform, and, at the same time, easily cognizas
ble, can be found for arranging all the groups of individuals into
closely connected families. Aware of this, Linneus, in his Systema
Nature, employed one system of organs in his division of its various
objects; while those whe attempt to class individual species according
to what is called the natural method, take the whole structure of the
objects into consideration. The last of these methods, it is evident,
could it be carried into effect, would be the most philosophical ; but
either system followed exclusively, is found to produce the most
heterogeneous combinations. That system, then, is to be considered
the best, which, in addition to short and clear diagnostic characters,
affords the greatest facility in investigating the productions of Nature.

The term Nature, it may be remarked, bears various significations.
It is sometimes used to signify the properties which a being derives
from original conformation, in opposition to those which it has acquir-
ed from art; sometimes to express the whole objects which, compose
she universe ; at other times, the laws which regulate this universe ;
and these laws being, in point of fact, the will of that beneficent and
omnipotent Being, who formed all this “gay creation,” the word
Nature is frequently employed, by a figure of speech, to designate its
Great Author.

The first great division of natural objects, is into oRGANIZED and
rorsanic bodies; the first, including animals and plants—the second,
minerals. These distinctions are easily understood, and have been
universally acknowledged to be conformable to nature. Vitality dis-
tinguishes the one——the want of vitality characterizes the other.

The objects of Natural History are further arranged into three
great divisions, which have appropriately enough been called king-
doms, viz: the AnimaL—the VecETasLeE—and the Minerat kingdoms.
These divisions are not less proper than convenient; and although
some writers believe it possible to trace a continuous but progressive
connection, from the most perfect animal in the scale to the inert and
lifeless rock, yet there seems no good reason for supposing that suck a
chain exists, or, if existing, that all the links shall ever be discovered.
The works of the- Author of Nature are, indeed, all in consistent
harmony with one another, and there is a mutual dependence, a:dvan-
tageous to all, among the various classes of organized beings: but
between the lowest form of vegetable or animal life, and the most
symmetrically disposed crystal in the mineral kingdom—between a
living body and inert matter—there is an immeasurable distance; and
xH INTRODUCTION.

between the highest of the lower animals and Man, of all be:ngs, alone
endowed with the power of reason and the faculty of speech, a dis
tance still more incalculable.

Animals have been defined to be organized bodies, which have life
and sensation, and are capable of voluntary motion ;—Vegetadles,
organized bodies, endowed with a vital principle, but wanting seuss
tior. ;—and Minerals, unorganized bodies, without life, and, of course,
~vithout sensation.

It has been found impossible to give a satisfactory definition of Life;
and physiological writers have therefore limited their efforts to com-
municate some idea of the vital: principle, by remarking its effects.
Life, where its effects are most easily recognized, seems to consist in
the faculty with which certain corporeal combinations are endowed,
of existing for a certain period under a determinate form, and assimi-
lating to their substance a part of the surrounding bodies; at the same
time restoring to the elements part of their own substance. This
vital principle, which, when allied to matter, controls its affinities and
directs its forms, is not palpable to the senseg in an uncombined shape;
and it is only from its effects on material substances, that its exi.tence
is demonstrated. Baron Cuvier compares the mechanical action of
life on matter to a vortex, more or less rapid, more or less complicated
where the supply and the waste of particles occasion a constant move-
ment. While this movement subsists, the ‘body which exercises it
sives; when the movement is stopped beyond recall, the body dies.
After death, the elements which composed it, delivered tg the ordi-~
nary chemical affinities, soon separate, to form other and new com-
binations.

All living bodies die, after a period, of which the limit is determi-
nate for each species; and death, indeed, appears to be a necessary
result of vital action, which insensibly alters the organic structure.
The living body, which derives its mysterious birth from another
living body which has preceded it, at first enlarges in dimensions,
according to certain proportions and limits fixed for each species, and
for each of its parts; these parts gradually increase in density; the
fibres and vessels which compose them, imperceptibly acquire a rigid-
ity, which unfits them for the discharge of their functions ; the vital
impulse ceases, and the body naturally dies. In short, absorption,
assimilation, exhalation, developement, and generation, are functions
common to all living beings; their birth and their death, the universal
terms of their existence.
INTRODUCTION. ‘ xm

Organization pre-supposes life, and the organization of each being.
yaplies the life proper to that being. Life, indeed, is never seen, but
in connection with an organized body; and all the ingenuity of the
materialist has failed to show, that particles of matter can organize
themselves, or be organized by any combination known in chemistry
In fact, vitality exercises upon the elements, which form at each
instant part of the living body, an action contrary to what the ordi-
nary chemical] affinities can produce, without this master agent; and
no puwer in Nature is known, capable of reuniting again, in the same
manner, the atoms which have been disjoined by death.

Animal life is distinguished from vegetadle life, by the power of
lucomotfon and sensation ; the first is active—the other passive.
The nourishment of plants is derived through the medium of their
roots ; that of animals, through a central organ of digestion, destined
to receive the food. The organization of this cavity and its appur-
tenances, varies according to the nature of the aliments, and the alte-
rations which they undergo, before furnishing fluids proper to be
absorbed ; while the atmosphere and the earth supply vegetables with
juices, ready for absorption. Anirnal bodies, besides, at least those

, classes higher in the scale of existence, possess a circulating system,
muscles for voluntary movements, and nerves for sensation. Respira-
tion is another essential function in the animal constitution ; and in
proportion as the respiratory system is complete, the animal functions
are more fully exercised. In addition, also, to the chemical elements,
which enter into the composition of vegetables—oxygen, hydrogen,
and carbon—a fourth substance, azote, seems almost peculiar to the
animal constitution. ‘To complete the distinction between anima] and
vegetable life, Hedwig has ingeniously remarked, that in vegetables,
the sexual organs fall each year, or at each production, while animals
preserve them through the whole course of their existence.

As nutrition is the most general function of living bodies, under
the name of organs of nutrition, are comprehended all the parts of
the body by which alimentary matters are introduced for its support;
or which are employed in preparing the food for that purpnse. The
materials of nutrition penetrate, by various means, into organized
bodies. They may either be introduced under the form of elastic
fluids, by the pores, or imperceptible interstices, in all living bodies,
or they may be conveyed by a particular organization for this purpose,
mto an internal organ of digestion. Sometimes this internal canai, or
aigesiive cavity, has the form of a tube with two orifices the one for
XIv INTRODUCTION,

the entran:e of food, the other for the exit of matters unfit for the
purposes of life; others have only a single opening, destined to this
double use; and a few which are found in water, absorb their nourish-
ment in the manner of vegetables, with this difference, that the canals

which run from their numerous mouths, end in a common cavity.

The solid matters introduced into the digestive cavity, or stomach,
are converted by an internal process, first, into a pulpy mass, named
chyme, and afterwards, into a semi-fluid substance, denominated chyle,
which is finally taken up, or absorbed, by appropriate vessels, and
conveyed to the great centre of circulation, the heart. .

The movement communicated by the action of the heart to the -

nternal fluids, tow mixed with other animal liquids, and termed

blood, by which they are impelled through the body, is known by the
name of circulation. The vessels which conduct the blood or chyle
to the heart, are called veins; those which conduct it from the heart
to the other parts of the body, are called arteries; and the alternate
dilatation and contraction of this important organ, is the mechanism
by which this object is accomplished. In certain classes of animals, in
which the circulation is simple, the venous blood terminates in a kind
of reservoir, or appendage to the heart, named azricle. A muscular
apparatus, attached to this sinus, propels the blood, which it receives
through an orifice, into the cavity of the heart. The ventricle, com-
posed of thicker and stronger muscular walls, is furnished with move
able valves, which prevent the blood from returning into the auricle,
while it is impelled by the contraction of the ventricle, into the artery.
This arrangement varies much, both in the mechanism and in the

number of auricles and cavities in the heart, in different classes, and.

éven in families of the same class of animals.

The liquid, prepared by the process of digestion, requiring to be
submitted to the action of the atmosphere, or water containing air, to
absorb the oxygen and deprive it of certain principles, the function hy
which this is accomplished is called respiration. The organ which
performs this service is the Zwugs, through which the blood is forced
by the action of the keart. In animals doomed by their organization
to live constantly in water, respiration is eflected by means of mem-
branous lamine, called gills, (branchie,) which separate the air from
the water, as it passes over their multiplied surface.

Among animals which appear to have ne true circulation, there
exists another mode of respiration, by trachez, or air-vessels, by which
the air is conveyed through the body in elastic canals; and in these
INTRUDUCTION, xv

animals. it is through their integuments, which are soft and easily
permeable, or on their surface, that the respiratory function is exercis-
ed, as in vegetables.

In many animals, the mode of generation is not known. Of others,
fixed to solid bodies, like vegetables by their roots, the power of re-
production seems to be by buds, or gemme, or by means of a separas
tion, which operates naturally or accidentally, of some parts of their
bodies, in which are ultimately developed the organs which at first
were wanting. In all other animals, there are organs specially des-
tined to generauon. These organs distinguish the males froin the
females. In the greater part of animals, the sexes are distinct and
se}'arate, in two different individuals of the same species; but in some
classes, the individuals are at once males and females. In this case,
these beings are termed androgynous. Sometimes, the individuals
possess both sexes, like the greater number of vegetables, and they
are then called hermaphrodites.

The animals which have the sexes separate, differ, also, among
themselves. Those are termed oviparous, in which the germ of the
young individual is separated from the parent for a time before birth,
under the form of an egg. Viviparous animals, on the contrary, are
those in which the young are ‘nourished in an organ, termed the
uterus, and are not excluded from the mother till they have taken the
form which they afterwards preserve.

Other modifications are noticed among the oviparous animals, or
those which deposit eggs. In some, the egg is impregnated within
the animal, and then the shell, or covering, is generally solid or corne-
ous. In others, such as fishes, frogs. sume insects, and many mol-
lusca, the impregnation of the ovum does not take place till after
extrusion. Two remarkable circumstances have been further observ
ed, among oviparous animals. The one is, that in some species the
ova are not truly excluded, but hatched in the parent animal, who
thus preserves the imperfect beings, till they have acquired the requi-
site solidity for beang deposited in a place adapted to their further deve-
lopement. These species, which are met with in very different classes
are termed ovo-viviparous. The other singular fact to be noticed in
regard to oviparous animals is, that in a very great number of species,
the young, when hatched, have neither the form, the structure, nor the
manners of the parent animal; and many live in altogether a different
mediuin. These animals undergo, in the course of their limited ex-
istence, many organic transformations, or successive metainorphoses.
xvi INTRODUCTION.

Such, in particular, are the frogs, and connected genera, and the
whole class of insects.

The moving power is another characteristic of animal organization.
It is seated in the muscular Jibre, which is formed of filaments of ex-
Jessive tenuity, capable of contraction, and of moving the parts upou
which they are fixed. These fibres are distributed over the body, and
produce all its exterior and interior motions. When they are unites
in a bundle, of which the mass co-operates in the same action, this
bundle 1s termed a muscle. In animal bodies, there are as many
different muscles as there are simple movements; and besides, there
are generally, for the purpose of bringing back the parts to their
original position, other bundles of fibres, destined to produce a con-
trary effect, and which have been accordingly termed antagonist
muscles. The element of the muscular fibre, chemically considered,
appears to reside in a matter called fibrine. :

The other organs destined to the purposes of movement, are alto
gether passive. Sometimes they are disposed outwardly, under the
appearance of membranes, or integuments, more or 'ess solid; some-
{imes under the form of crusts or sheaths, in the in erior of which the
ruscles are placed. The solidity of these parts, their structure, their
articulation, and movements, correspond to the animal’s mode of life;
and these crusts, shells, scales, or sheaths, are of a calcareous or horny
nature, and adapted to the efforts they are destined to sustain,—the
more soft coverings of this kind, as may be conceived, being only
calculated for motion in fluids.

In the higher classes of animals, the solid articulated parts which
form the frame-work of the body and modify its form, are almost
always placed internally, and serve the purpose of jointed levers, and
asa fulcram for their muscular coverings. These parts are the ones
of animals, and when arranged as a whole, they are termed the bony
skeleton. All these bones meet in a central stalk, or hollow and
moveable column, called the spzne, of which the pieces, more or less
solid and numerous, are termed vertebre. Among those which are,
ox. this account, named Vertebrated Animals, the column is terminated
at one end by the cranium, a bony cavity, inclosing the mass of zere-
bral matter which gives sensation, and is the seat, generally, of four
ergans of sense. In the head is also placed the mouth, an instru-
mont capable of prehension, and provided with organs for mechanical-
ly‘dividing the aliment; and often, also, in this important part of
animals, the organs are placed which produce or facilitate the actiog

*
INTRODUCTION. xvil

of respiration. The spine is generally prolonged behind, and forms
the tail in many animals.

The mechanical apparatus by which animals acquire the know-
ledge of what is around them, are termed organs of sense ; and the
impressions made on these by external objects, sensations. The
medium by which these sensations are conveyed to the brain, the
great centre of nervous energy, is through nerves; and the whole
apparatus of sensation is termed the nervous system. In animals not
possessed of a brain, or spinal column, cords, or threads of nervous
matter, with thickenings, or ganglions, at certain distances, form their
medium of sensation; and although in some groups of animals, com-
posed of soft parts, or of extreme tenuity, the presence of nerves has
not been satisfactorily traced, yet there seems little reason to doubt the
existence, in a greater or less degree, of the faculty of sensation, in
even the lowest of the animal races.

The material substance of animal bodies, in an anatomical view,
may be divided into solids and fluids. The solid portions are named
tissues, and are united, or combined in various degrees, in the animal
organs. These tissues have been distinguished by anatomists by
their forms, or by the chemical elements which enter into their compo-
sition. They are chiefly the following: 1. The cellular tissue, form-
ing in the greater number of animals the connecting medium of all
their organs, and enveloping and penetrating them by a reticulation,
of a spongy nature, which takes the form of ceils, capable of disten-
sion by the fluids which it includes. 2. The fibro-gelatinous tissue is
a collection of solid, tenacious, and resisting fibres, in their longitudi-
nal direction, flexible and elastic across, whose use seems to be to com-
municate movement, and resist the efforts of exterior force. It is so
named, from dissolving in boiling water, to the consistence of a jelly.
3. The membranous tissue is a disposition of thin, membranous, flexible
laminw, extended like a web, and various in structure and uses. The
eutaneous membrane envelopes the superficies of the body, and per-
mits absorption and exhalation. It is formed of many layers, and
prodaces the hair feathers, nails, scales, &c., of the animal body.
Other membranes are called mucous, or folliculous, because they
secrete a viscid fluid, which lubricates their internal surface; and
serous membranes are those so named from their internal smooth and
polished surface, exhaling a very liquid humor. They form thin and
transparent sacs, without openings, which facilitate the reciprocal
movements of the organs. 4. The vascular tissue is formed of con-

3
xVIL . INTRODUCTION,

tinuous, membranous, branched tubes, to receive, contain, and direct the
nutritive juices, from the organs where they are preyared, till they are
required for the purposes of nutrition, respiration, ur the secretions
5. The glandular tissue includes those secreting o.gans which pro-
duce fluids for internal use, or to transmit them out cf the body, by
means of excretory canals. These organs have a granular or lobated
form. 6. The bony tissue, or cartilaginous, calcareous, and corneous,
is formed by the mucous, or gelatinous parenchyma, in which are
deposited the hardest and most resisting parts, which protect the body
and contribute to its motion. 7%. The fibrinous or muscular tissue is
composed of filaments disposed in bundles, which, from their power of
contraction, produce all the movements which characterize animals.
8. The xervous tissue is a net-work of filaments and tubes, in the
interior of which are found prolongations of the cerebral matter.
This tissue, extending from the centre to the circumference, like radii
from a centre, is the medium of sensation,—actuates every member
through the medium of volition, and connects all the parts of the body
by a mutual sympathy.

The animal fluids are found in the body under the form of gases, o1
liquids, of various consistence. The first being absorbed, or exhaled,
are but momentarily under this form. The fluids are the chyme, the
chyle, the lymph, the blood, and the serous, albuminous, mucous,
saline, and other humors, peculiar to different parts of the body.

The simple chemical elements which are found in the animal struc-
ture, are among the imponderable agents, caloric, light, and the
electric fluids. Among the simple gases, azote, which enters into the
composition of many of the tissues; hydrogen, which is one of the
elements of lymph, bile, &c.; oxygen, which all animals absorb in
the act of respiration; carbon, lime, sulphur, iron, &c., which serve as
the base of many salts, formed by carbonic and phosphoric acid.

The instincts and habits of the different classes of animals will be
nereafter detailed, in the descriptions of the individual species, whose
manners have been most accurately observed. It {s sufficient, in tnis
place, to state, that all their motives to action, their migrations, and
their instincts, may be traced to the desire of self-preservation, and the
impulse of reproduction.

The Vecetaste Kincpom is sufficiently distinguished from the
animal, as before remarked, by its passive character, by the want or
spontaneous motion, and of sensation. Vegetable life is. theretore,
supported by absorption ; and its functions, like those of animals. are
#

iNTRODUCTIGR. ¥ix

exercised in nutrition, developement, and reproduction. The principal
part of the nourishment of plants, is derived from their roots; and
their texture is composed of tissues and vessels formed for absorbing,
retaining, and elaborating the nutritive juices, drawn from the soil
and atmosphere. The vegetable kingdom, likewise, has this analogy
among others, with the animal; that the function of 1eproduction is
performed through the medium of sexual organs. These organs are
protected. by the cerolla, or flower; and all the display of color and
form in this essential part of vegetables, is, like the notes of many
birds, connected with the important purpose of the continuation of the
species. The number, form, and situation of these organs, has afford-
ed to Linneus the chief characters in his simple, though artificial
arrangement of the classes and orders of plants, in consequence termed
the sexwal system; while what is called the natural system, proposed
by Jussien, is founded chiefly upon the presence or absence, and the
nature of the seed, or germ—the relative position of the stamina—
and upon the absence or presence, and form, of the corolla.

The Miverat Kinepom is distinguished from the other two great
divisions, by the absence of vitality and organic structure. Forming
the solid crust of the globe, the mineral kingdom, in its various com-
pounds, affords support and sustenance to the organized beings existing
on its surface. The constitution and arrangement of the mineral
strata have given rise to various theories, to account for their present
appearance ; but facts have not yet been sufficiently multiplied to
afford a satisfactory solution. One. great line, however, is drawn be-
tween those mineral strata which have been termed primitive, in
which no organized remains occur, and those of posterior formation,
in which the remains of plants and animals are discovered. The
principal external characters of the mineral kingdom are taken from
their specific gravity, as compared with water,—hardness,—crystalli-
zation, when it exists, —and cleavage, or the direction of the lamella,
which, in many minerals, is regulated by the relation of the external
surfaces to the primary crystal, or form. Of a less constant kind are
color, degree of transparency, fracture, and the streak which many
minerals show, when scratched. The physical characters are fusibi-
lity, solubility, phosphorescence, electricity, magnetism, and refraction.

Linneus, in his Systema Nature, arranged the Animal kingdom
into six classes, the Vegetable kingdosa into twenty-four, and the
Mineral kingdom into three. As this arrangement, though now
modified and extended in many of its parts, as will be detailed elsee
XxX INTRODUCTION.

where, forms the basis of modern classification, and was the first sue-
cessful attempt at arranging in intelligible order, the various objects
of Natural History, its principal divisions are subjoined.*

CLASS FIRST—MAMMALIA. CLASS FOURTH — PISCES.
Orpre_ I. Primates, Orver I. Apodes,
- II. Bruta, Ke Il. Jugulares,
« Til Ferz, “TI. Thoracici,
«IV. Glires, « TV. Abdominales.
« _V. Pecora,
« VL Bellue, CLASS FIFTH—INSECTA.
“VIL. Cete. Orver I. Coleoptera,
‘ us II. Hemiptera,
CLASS SECOND— AVES. mK THE, Lepldomers,
Orver I. Accipitres, «IV. Neuropiera,
ce Il. Pice, ee V. Hymenoptera,
« JI. Anseres, «VI. Diptera,
“IV. Gralle, «VIL. Aptera.
“e V. Galline,
a RO Feces CLASS SIXTH—VERMES.
Orver I. Intestina,
CLASS THIRD— AMPHIBIA. “ Il. Mollusca,
Orver I. Reptilia, « III. Testacea,
s II. Serpentes, «TV. Lithophyta,
« III. Nantes. _ V. Zoophyta.

 

THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM

is divided into twenty-four classes, according to the number and post
tion cf tha stamens; the greater part of the orders, from the number
of pistils mn tue flower; others, by the situation of the seeds, and
form of the seed-vessels ; in compound flowers, from the arrangement
of the florets; and the great cles of cryptogamic plants, or plants
without conspicuvus flowers, form four orders, divided into Filices,
Musci, Alge, and Fungi.

THE MINERAL KINGDOM
is divided ints three classes, viz: J. Petra; II. Miners; IIT. Fosstz1a;
and numerous subdivisions. But, as the mineral] kingdom had attract
ed but little of the attention of Linneus, and the progress of chemistry

 

* Systema Nature ed. 12. Holmie ~765.
INTRODUCTION. XX1

has since changed the whole science of mineralogy, it is not necessary
here, to give the inferior details.

Such is the “field of realities,’ as M. Lamarck terms it, which the
study of Nature offers to the intelligent mind. Life, in all its aspects,
is exhibited in countless forms, and the regular succession of organized
beings, present the creation in the attractive features of perennial
youth. Without herbivorous races, the vegetable kingdom would
soon encumber the surface of the globe; without carnivorous animals,
the others would multiply beyond their means of support; and provi-
sion is made in those tribes, whose food is decomposing substances, to
free the earth from dead animal remains. By no conceivable means,
could the same amount of existence and happiness be attained , and
the whole system is so wonderfully arranged, that among the oe
less existences which people the earth, the air, and the waters, there
is a constant harmony between the means of existence and the existing
bemgs. While animals, useful to others, are produced in amazing
numbers, the fecundity of others, whose physical powers might other-
wise give them a superiority, are limited, and species apparently the
most defenceless, are provided with means of protection, which insure
their perpetuity. To Man alone, as the intelligent head of the whole,
is given the dominion over the inferior creatures; his reason has
enabled him to apply to his use the whole of the organized and
inorganic bodies around him, and left him, within certain limits, the
accountable Master of the creation. ~

On the utility of a knowledge of the objects of Nature, to a being
depending on her productions for the supply of all-his conveniences
and wants, it is scarcely necessary to insist. No species of human
learning is so well calculated to form habits of attention and correct
observation, as the study of the different branches of Natural History ;
and none is more admirably adapted to the feelings and capacities
of the young. Besides the improvement of the intellectual powers,
which the examination of the structure and habits of any class of
organized beings is calculated to produce, and the associations likely
to be thereby awakened, there is something in the study of Nature
which anrroaches to philosophy of a higher kind—something that,
while it teaches man his place in this Creation of Wonders, infallibly
leads him to admire the wisdom, and power, and goodness, displayed
by us Great Author.
FIRST—THE ANIMAL KINGDOM:

Accorp:ng to Cuvier, there are four principal forms, after which all living
neings seem to have been modelled. The basis of these distinctions is
laid in the organization of the creatures themselves. Sensation and move-
ment are the characteristics of animals. ‘The heart and the organs of
circulation, seem a kind of centre for those functions which may be called
vegetative, while the brain and the nervous system, form the principal source
of the functions more exclusively animal. Descending from the higher to
the lower races of animals, both these systems are found gradually to
become more imperfect, and finally to disappear altogether. In the lowest
tribes in the scale, where nerves are no longer visible, the muscular fibre
also ceases to be distinct, and the organs of digestion are reduced to a
simple cavity in the homogeneous mass. In insects, the vascular system
disappears, even before the nervous system; but in general, the dispersion
of the medullary masses is connected with the agents of muscular motion:
a spinal marrow, upon which knots, or ganglia, represent as many brains,
or seats of sensation, corresponding to the structure of a body divided into
numerous rings, and supported by pairs of limbs, distributed along these
annulations. This relative proportion in the structure of general furms,
which results from the arrangement of the organs of motion, from the dis-
tiibution of the nervous masses, and from the energy of the circulating
system constitutes the ‘basis upon which M. Cuvier has founded the princi-
pal divisions of the Animal Kingdom.

In the first of these general forms, which is that of Man, and the animals
which resemble him most nearly, the brain and the principal trunk of the
nervous system.are inclosed in bony cases; the first called the cranium, the
second the vertebra. To the sides of the vertebral column, as to a centre, are
attached the ribs, and the bones of the members which form the frame- work
of the body. The muscles, in general, cover the bones, which they put into
actior, and the viscera are inclosed in the head and trunk. Animals of this
form are calicd VerTEBRATED ANIMALS, (Anzmalia Vertebrata.)

They have all red blood, a muscular heart, a mouth with two horizontal
Jaws, distinct organs of vision, hearing, smell, and taste, situated in cavities
of the head, and never more than four limbs. The sexes are always
separate and the distribution of the medullary masses and the principal
branches of the nervous system, is nearly the same in all.

On a close examination of any of the characters of this leading division,
some analoey of conformation is always found, even in the species the most
24 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

remote from each other; and the gradation of the same general plan is to
be traced from Man down to the lowest of the fishes.

‘In the second conformation, peculiar to animals, there is no nternal frame-
work, or skeleton. The muscles are simply attached to the skin, which forms
a soft and contractile covering, from which proceed, in many species, stony
plates or envelopes, denominated shells, of which the position and produc-
tion are analogous to that of the mucous body. The nervous system is,
with the viscera, included im this general covering, and is composed of many
scattered masses, united by nervous threads. The principal of these, placed
upon the cwsophagus, is denominated the brain. Of the senses, nroperly so
zalled, the organs of taste and sight are alone to be distinguished, and even
these are sometimes wanting. One family alone exhibits the organs of
hearing. This division, however, is always characterized by a complete
circulating system, and particular organs for respiration; and the organs
of digestion and secretion are little less complicated than those of the verte-
brated animals. Though the general plan of their organization be not so
uniform in regard to external configuration, as the preceding division, yet
even between these parts, there is always an analogous resemblance in
structure and functions. This division is termed Motiuscovs ANIMALS,
(Animalia Mollusca.)

The third general form is that which is observed in insects, worms, &c.
Their nervous system consists of éwo long cords, extending along the belly,
swelled out at intervals, and uniting into knots, or ganglia. The first of
these, placed upon the esophagus, though held analogous to the brain, is but
little larger than the others. The covering of the body is divided by trans-
verse folds, into a certain number of rings, of which the teguments are in
some hard, in others soft, but to the interior of which the muscles are always
attached. Articulated limbs are often attached to the sides of the annulated
portions of the trunk, but it is also frequently destitute of those organs
of movements. To these animals, Cuvier has given the name of Articu-
LATED ANIMALS, (Animalia Articulata.)

In this division is observed the transition from the circulating system in
closed vessels, to a nutritive process, by simple imbibition; and also a cor-
responding transition from respiration, by circumscribed organs, to respiras
tion performed through the medium of trachee, or air-vessels, disjersed
througi: the body. The organs of taste and sight, are very evident in the
animals of this division. Their jaws, when they have any, are invariably
lateral. One family alone possesses the organ of hearing.

The animals comprehended under the fourth general form, are nsually
known by the name of Zoopuytes. They approach, in structure, to the
homogeneous character of plants. Neither a distinct nervous system, nor
particular organs of sense, are perceptible, and but obscure vestiges of cir-
culation. Their respiratory organs are almost always on the surface of
their bolies The intestines of the greater number consist merely in a
VERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 25

tavity, without an outlet. The lowest in the series, which are also the
last of the animal tribes, exhibit nothing but a homogeneous pulp, possessed
of motion and sensibility. In the preceding divisiuns, the organs of move-
ment and sense are disposed symmetrically, on both sides of an axis; but
in this, they have a circular arrangement, around a common centre. This
form of existence Cuvier arranges under the head of RapiaTED ANIMALS,
(Animalia Radiata.) a)

The term Zoology, includes the whole of the Animal kingdom ; hesides
wnico, different departments have received particular names; such as Orni-
thology, for the birds; Ichthyology, for the fishes; Entomology, for insects;
and Conchology, for the testaceous Mollusca.

 

FIRST DIVISION.
VERTEBRATED ANIMALS.

Tue body of vertebrated animals is sustained by a skeleton, composed
of many pieces, connected together and moveable upon one another. The
body is composed of a head, a trunk, and limbs. The head is formed of the
eranium, which incloses the brain, and of the face, composed of two jaws.
In the face are the organs of sense. The trunk is sustained by the spine
and ribs. The spine is composed of vertebra which move upon one another,
all of which have a cylindrical opening in the centre, forming together, a ca-
nal, containing the portion of nervous matter called the spinal marrow. The
ribs are semicircular, and protect the sides of the cavity of the trunk. They
are generally articulated, by one extremity, to the vertebral column, and by
the other, to the sternum. In some species, they are scarcely perceptible.

The vertebrated animals have never more than two pair of limbs; some-
times, indeed, one or other of these pairs is deficient, and sometimes both.
According to the motions to which these limbs are destined to be subser-
vient, the anterior ones assume the form of hands, feet, wings, <1 fius; the
posterior, of feet or fins. * s

The blood of the vertebrated animals is always red, and seems, by its
composition, adapted to sustain energy of sensation anc muscular vigor.
The correspondence of the blood with the respiration, necessary to the
several species of these animals, has suggested their division into classes.

The external organs of sense, in all vertebrated animals, are two eyes,
two ears, two nostrils, the teguments of the tongue, and the teguments of
the whole body. The nerves unite with the nervous matter in the vertebra,
end terminate in two medullary masses, in the cranium, the volume of
which is generally proporticned to the extent of the intellectual eapicity.

There are always two jaws, an upper and under one. The principal
motion exists in the lower, which bas the power of elevanon or depression.

4
26 VEKRTEBRATED ANIMALS.

In the greater number, the upper jaw is completely fixed and motionless,
Both are generally provided with teeth, excrescences of a peculiar nature,
similar in chemical composition to bone, but which grow from the jaws
by a process or secretion. The jaws of one entire class, however, (that
of birds,) and tae genus Testudo, in that of reptiles, are invested with a
horny substance.

The intestinal canal extends from the mouth to the anus, in various
degrees of expansion or contraction. It possesses certain appendices, and
receives liquids of a solvent nature, viz: saliva, from the mouth, the secre-
tion of the gland denominated pancreas, and the bile, which is produced by
another large gland, the liver. In the passage of the food through the
alimentary canal, the part of it adapted to the purposes of uutrition, and
termed the chyle, is absorbed by the lacteal vessels, and conveyed into the
pulmonary artery, where, in combination with the blood, it undergoes a
certain change; and after each portion of the body has received its proper
supply, the remainder is carried back into the veins, by a set of vessels
analogous to the lacteals, and which, together, form what is usually called
the lymphatic system. The veins carry back to the heart the blood which
has served the purposes of nutrition. This blood, however, must pass either
wholly or partially into the organ of respiration, for the purpose of resuming
its arteria) character, before it is carried back by the arteries, to the different
parts of the body. In the three first classes of vertebrated animals, the organ
of respiration consists of lungs, an assemblage of small cells, permeable
by the external air. In fishes alone, respiration is performed by gills, or
branchie—a series of lamine, between which the water passes.

In all vertebrated animals, the blood which furnishes to the liver the
materials of the bile, is supplied from the venous blood which has circulat-
ed in the intestines, and which, after being reunited in a trunk called the
vena porte, is again divided at the liver, and distributed in ramifications
through its suhstance.

The sexes in this division are always in separate individuals; but the
mode in which fecundation is performed, is different in the various classes.

Though, in all these points, the vertebrated animals have a general resems
blance, yet the various beings of which this division is composed, present
peculiarities, which are the foundation of their arrangement into classes.
These differences depend upon the nature and energy of their movements,
which again are always proportioned to the quantunvof respiration; for upon
the perfection of this function, in a great measure, depend the irritability of
the muscular fibre, and the energy of the muscular action. The quantity
of respiration depends upon the relative portion of blood, contained at
every given instant of time, in the lungs, and the amount of oxygen which
enters into the composition of the fluid. The quantity of blood is altogether
determined, by the peculiar disposition of the organs of respiration and
circulation. =
MAMMALIA. Q7

The organs of circu.ation may be double, so that all the blood conveyed
4y the veins from the different parts, must undergo a process of circulation,
befor. 1t can be returned by the arteries; or they may be simple, in which
case, valy a portion of the blood which returns to the body, passes through
the lungs. This last is the case with reptiles. The quantity of their
respiration, and the qualities depending on it, vary with the relative propor-
aon of blued, returned at each pulsation, into the lungs.

Fishes have a double circulation; but as they respire through the medinm
er water, and their blood only receives the portion of oxygen in that
meuium, their quantity of respiration is, perhaps, less than that of reptiles.

ina ue Mammalia, the circulation is double, and the respiratory process
simp. ‘the quantity of their respiration is superior to that of reytiles and

“fisues. Rut the quantity of respiration in birds is sti!l greater than that

of quaa.uyeds, because they also respire by various other cavities, as well
as the lung.. The air penetrates through their whole body, and acts upon
the branches of the aorta, with the same efficiency as upon those of the
pulmonary artery.

From these «circumstances result four different kinds of motion, among
vertebrated animals. Quadrupeds, in whom the quantity of respiration is
moderate, are nrmed for walking and running, and their predominant
characteristic is vigor. Birds, whose respiratory system is more extensive,
possess the lightness and strength of muscles necessary to support them in
their flight. Repules, which respire more feebly, creep non the earth, and
many of them puss more or less of their existence in a state of torpor. And
fishes, which move in a fluid almost as specifically heavy as themselves,
are enabled to execute their movements, by an arrangement altogether
different from the others. Every peculiarity of organization proper to
each of these classes, and especially such as belong to motion and external
sensation, have a close and necessary relation with the characters now
enumerated.

»

CLASS FIRST—MAMMALIA.

Vertebrate? Animals, with red and warm blood, breathing through lungs, vive
parous, and suckling their young with milk formed in their breasts, or
mamme.

Tue class Mammalia is placed at the head of the Animal kingdom, not
only because it is the class to which Man, considered in his animal structure,
belongs, but also bec use the Mammalia enjoy the most numerous faculties,
the must delicate sensations, and the most varied powers of motion. As the
quantity of respiration is in mammiferous animals moderate, tney are
generally formed for walking, and, in consequence, all the articulations of
the:r frame have defined forms, which determine their motions.
28 MAMMALIA.

Some 9f the Mammalia, however, can raise themselves in the air, by
means of elongated limbs connected by extensible membranes; others have
their limbs so much sho~tened, that they can move with facility only in
water; but these cireums ances by no means exclude them from the cluss
to which they are allied, by other essential characters.

All the Mammalia have the upper jaw fixed to the craaium; the ‘ower

us composed of two pieces, articulated by-a projecting condyle to a iixed
temporal bone. The neck is composed of seven, and, in one specirs, cf nine
vertebre. The anterior ribs are attached to a sternum, fornied of a uumber
of pieces, placed vertically. Their anterior extremity conumences at the
scapula, which is not articulated to any other bone, but simply suspended in
the muscular attachments, and often resting on the sternum, by an interme-
diate bone, denominated the clavicle. This extremity is ccntinued by an
arm, a fore-arm, and a hand, which last is formed of two rows of little
bones, called the carpus, of another row named the metacarpus, and of
fingers, each composed of two or three bones, called phalanges.
’ With the exception of the Cetacea, all this class have the first part of the
posterior extremity fixed to the spine. This part, in the form of a girdle,
or basin, is named the pelvis. In youth, it is divided into three pairs of
bones,—the os ilium, which is attached to the vertebral column; the os
pubis, which forms the anterior part; and the ischiwm, which forms the
posterior portion. At the junction of these three bones, is the cavity where
the bone of the thigh is articulated, to which again is joined the leg, com-
posed of two bones, the zia and the fibula. This extremity is terminated
by the foot, which is composed of parts analogous to the hand, viz; a tarsus,
metutarsus, and toes.

The head, in the Mammalia, is always articulated by two condyles. "pon
the atlas, or first vertebra. The brain is composed of two hemispneres,
united by a medullary lamina, called the corpus callosum, and contains two
ventricles, inclosing four pairs of tubercles, called corpora striata, the thalami
optici, nates, and testes. Between the thalami optic: is a third ventricle, com-
municating with the fourth, situated beneath the cerebellum. The crura
of the cerebellum form always under the medulla oblongata, a transverse
prominence, called pons Varola.

The eye, always lodged in its orbit, is protected by two eyelids, and a
vestige of a third. Its crystalline lens is fixed by the ciliary processes, and
its cellular sclerotic coat.

In the ear there is always found a cavity, shut up by a membrane, called
the tympanum, with four little bones; a vestibule, at the entrance of which
ne of these bones is placed, and which communicates with three semicir-
cular canals; finally, a spiral canal, termed the cochlea, which terminates
by one of its canals in the tympanal cavity, and by the other into the vesti-
bule. ‘Fhe cranium is divided into three compartments. The antcrior part
is formed of the two frontal bones and the ethinoid; the intermediate, by the
parietal anJ the sphenoid bones; and the posterior, by the occipital bone.
MAMMALIA 29

Between the occipital, the parietal, and the sphenoid, are inserted the tem-
poral vones, which, to a certain extent, belong to the faze.

In the fcetus the occiput is divided into four parts, the body of the
sphenoid into two, and three of its pairs of ale are separate; the temporal
bone into three, of which one serves to complete the cranium, another to
enclose the labyrinth of the ear, the third to form the walls of its cavity, &c.
These portions of the cranium unite more or less quickly, according to the
species, and end by perfect union in the adult. ;

The face is formed by the two maxillary bones, between which the
nasal canal passes. Before these, are two intermaxillary, behind two palate
bones, and between them descends the single plate of the ethmoid bone,
named the vomer. At the entrance of the nasal canal are the bones which
form the nose. The molar or cheek bone of each side, unites the maxillary to
the temporal, and often to the frontal bone; and finally, the lachrymal cavity
occupies thé internal angle of the orbit, and sometimes part of the cheek.

The tongue, in the Mammalia, is always fleshy, and attached to the hyoid
bone, which bone is suspended by ligaments to the cranium.

Their lungs, two in number, are composed of a mass of small cells,
inclosed without adhesion in a cavity formed by the sides of the diaphragm,
and lined by the pleura. Their organ of voice is at the upper extremity
of the trachea or windpipe; and a fleshy continuation, named velum palati,
establishes a direct communication between their larynx and the back part
of their ‘nostrils.

Living on the earth’s surface, as do the greater part of the Mammalia,
they are exposed to alternations of heat and cold, and their bodies have, in
consequence, a covering of hair, which is thicker in the colder, and more
scanty in the warmer regions. The Cetacea, which inhabit the sea, are,
however, totally destitute of this covering.

The intestinal canal of the mammiferous animals, is suspended by a fold
of the peritoneum, called the mesentery, which contains numerous con-
globate glands for the lacteal vessels. Another production of the perito-
num, named the epiploon, hangs before and beneath the intestines.

The generation of the Mammalia 1s essentially viviparous. The foetus,
after conception, descends into the uterus, to the inner surface cf which it
és attached by means of an arrangement of vessels, termed the placerta,
through the medium of which, nourishment is derived. The young. for
some time after birth, are nourished by a particular secretion of the mother,
4milk,) produced in the mammiferous animals, after parturition, and drawn
oy the young from mamma, or teats. It is from this last character that the
term Mammalia has been applied to this class—a character exclusively
proper to them, and by which they are more easily recognized than by any
other external distinction. The essential characters of the Mammalia are
taken from the organs of touch, and the organs of mastication. On the
first, depend the power and dexterity of the animal; and from the second
30 MAMMALIA.

may be deduced the nature of its food, and the ccasequent structure cf its
digestive apparatus. On these characters are founded the division of mam-
miferous animals, into orders.

The degree of perfection of the organs of touch, may be estimated accord-
ing to the number and mobility of the fingers, and according to the greater
or less depth with which their extremities are covered by the nail or hoof.
A hoof, for instance, which envelopes that part of the extremity which
would otherwise touch the ground, blunts the feeling, and renders the foot
incapable of seizing. The opposite extreme is, when only a single lamina
covers the upper surface of the end of the finger or toe, leaving to the other
all its sensibility. The nature of the food may be judged of by the appears
ance of the molar teeth, to the form of which the articulation of the
jaws always corresponds. For cutting flesh, the teeth require to be edged
hke a saw, and the jaws to close vertically, like scissors. To bruise grains
or roots, it is requisite that the molars have a flat crown; that the jaws
should move horizontally, as well as vertically ; and that the teeth should
be composed of parts of unequal hardness, to give them the necessary
inequalities for this operation. The hoofed animals are all necessarily
herbivorous, and possess teeth of this description, since the structure of their
feet precludes them from seizing living prey.

Animals with unguiculated toes or fingers, on the contrary, are suscepti-.
ble of more variety in their modes of subsistence; for, besides the form
of the molar teeth, they differ materially among themselves in the mobility
and delicacy of their toes or fingers. There is one characteristic, however,
which exercises a mighty influence on the dexterity of the animals possess-
ed of it, and which multiplies or greatly varies their modes of action. This
is the faculty of opposing a thumb to the other fingers, and of thus being
enabled to seize with facility the most minute objeets. This opposition
of a fifth member to the other four, constitutes what is properly called the
hand, an organ which is carried to the highest degree of perfection in man,
in whom alone the anterior extremities are free.

These various combinations strictly determine the nature of the different
mammiferous animals, and afford the characteristics from which orders
are formed. In the following pages, the Mammalia will be arranged under
the following orders: ,

Orver I. BIMANA, Orver VI. GLIRES,
«TI, QUADRUMANA, “VII. EDENTATA,
“. JII, CHEIROPTERA, “« VIII. PACHYDERMA.
“ IV. FERZ, s IX. RUMINANTIA
“ V. MARSUPIALIA, «s X. CETACEA.

The total number of mammiferous animals described, according to Des-
marest, is about eight hundred and fifty, including, however, many species
imperfectly ascertained, and the fossil Mammalia; of which, belonging tw
the oder Quadrumana, are one hundred forty-one,—Cheiroptera, ninety

e
MAMMALIA—MAN. 31

seven,—Fere, one hundred seventy-six,— Marsupialia, forty-seven, —
Glires, one hundred forty-nine,—Edentata, twenty-four, —Pachyderma,
fifty-five,— Ruminantia, ninety-seven, —Cetacea, sixty-two. Of these about
three hundred and thirty are frugivorous, or herbivorous; eighty omnivo-
rous one hundred and fifty, insectivorous, and two hundred and forty, carni-
vorous, in a greater or lesser degree. The number of terrestrial species
domesticated by man, (but perhaps including all that are really useful,)
amount only to thirteen.

 

ORDER FIRST—BIMANA.!

 

Man stands alone in the order and genus to which Naturalists have
eferred his species. Differing widely in physical conformation from al.

 

1 The order Bimana embraces animals with teeth of three kinds; the posterior extre-
nities proper for walking; the anterior furnished with hands; nails flat; body vertical,
exo peciura] mamme ; stomach simple; orbital and temporal fosse distinct.

2 Homo supiens. The genus Homo has four upper and four lower incisor teeth; two
pper and two lower canines, one on each side; molars, five above and five below, or
ach side. The whole number of his teeth, thirty-two.
32 MAMMALIA—MAN

other classes of animated beings, and distinguished by reason and the power
of steech, this wonderfully constructed being seems the bond of connection
between the material and immaterial worlds. Possessed of mental powers
which raise him beyond the level of the surrounding creation, and connect
him with higher orders of existences, man is the only being who looks
forward to futurity, and intuitively perceives his connection with and depen-
dence upon the great Source of Intelligence. While the inferior animals
enjoy uaalloyed the blessings of life and present enjoyment, man combines
the past, the present, and the future in his calculations of happiness; and
while some parts of his organization connect him with creatures around
him, and sober his rule over beings with animal feelings of pleasure and
pain as acute as his own, his intellectual powers, unfettered by the material
organs which are their instruments, trace the Divinity in ail the parts of
creation. Hence has arisen the religious feeling among every tribe of
human beings, however rude; and man alone, seems to connect himself
with the Great Author of his being, through the medium of intellectual
homage and worship, according to his conceptions of that Almighty Being,
the Creator and Preserver of all.

While reason places man at such an infinite distance from the inferior
animals, the faculty of articulate speech, and an artificial language, widen
the barrier still further ; for although some of the animals possess the power
of articulation ina constlendble degree, and can communicate by natural
signs, significant to those of their own species, they totally fail in those
powers which enable man to classify objects, and to employ sounds or
signs as an instrument of thought. Brutes possess, indeed, the powers of
sensation, perception, and memory, and seem to be capable of intellectual
operations to a certain extent; but their action is extremely limited, and
bounded to the supply of their bodily wants; and, though susceptible of a
species of education, their imitative powers are neither subservient to the
improvement of the individual nor his species.

The faculty which seems to direct the inferior animals, in most of their
operations, essentially different from any thing like human intelligence, is
called instenct. This wonderful faculty, surer in its limited aims than rea-
son, bears, however, no propertion to the general intelligence of the animals
which exercise it; for it has been remarked, that those in whom the mn-
#tinctive propensity displays the greatest seeming wisdom and contrivance,
upon. some occasions, are upon others, remarkably deficient in sagacity.

The physical structure of man, also, widely separates him from the otner
portions of the mammiferous class. But these variations, in form and pro-
portion, are neitver so prominent, nor so totally different in character, from
the ott.er animal structures, as to account for the superiority which he enjoys.
‘Destined to be nourished on substances used in common with other animals,
the mechanism of his frame must so far correspond with theirs, as to be
MAMMALIA—MAN. oo

able, like them, to convert these substances to the fluids which support his
animal life; and his organs of sensation must necessarily be analogous, in
some degree, to those of beings on whom. the material world is destined to
niake similar impressions. But no material organs which man possesses,
abstracted from the mind of which they are but the instruments, can account
for this intellectual supremacy; and those hypotheses which would trace
man’s intellectual and moral powers to the absolute or relative size of the
brain or other material organs, have miserably failed in connecting. min!
with matter, or thought with organic structure.

The structure of the human frame, however, is wonderfully adapted te
the various purposes for which it is destined ; and even physically consider-
ed, seems the worthy habitation of a being placed at the head, and with the
contro] of animated nature. Man, indeed, considered as an animal, is the
only one which walks erect in a vertical position; the only one with hands
at the anterior extremity, distinct from the organs of locomotion, and free
for executing his purposes. Contrary to what is found in any other mam-
miferous animal, the structure of his body demonstrates that man is destin-
ed to walk erect.

The foot is entirely different from the posterior hand of apes, and furnishes
a larger and firmer base than that of any other animal. It would be impos-
sible for man, even if he desired it, to walk on the four extremities, his feet
being almost inflexible, and the great length of his thigh would bring his
knee to the ground. His shoulders, also, being too much separated, and
his arms too far extended from the central line, would produce a very
ineffectual support for the upper part of the body. The arteries which
supply the human brain, not being subdivided, as in most: quadrupeds, the
blood necessary for an organ of such volume, would be poured in toc
copiously and rapidly, if he should assume the horizontal position.

According to Cuvier, no quadruped is comparable to man, for the magni-
tude of the hemispheres of the brain in proportion to the size of the face.
Though the external senses of man are less energetic than in some otlcr
animals, they are, however, extremely delicate. His eyes are directed
forwards, and thus, though he does not see to both sides of him at once, like
most quadrupeds, there is a greater unity in the result ot the visual opera-
tion. Of all animals, he can best distinguish the various degrees of sound,
and he appears to be the only creature whose sense of smell is sufficiently
delicate to be affected by unpleasant odors.

Fruits, roots, an¢ succulent vegetables, appear to be the natural food of
man. His hands afford him facility in procuring these, and his short and
comparatively weak jaws, his canine teeth, scarcely projecting beyond the
ine of the others, and his tuberculous molar teeth, are little calculated to
feed on herbage, or devour flesh, unless those aliments are previously pre-
pared by fire. The organs of digestion in man, are in conformity with

5
.

34 MAMMALIA—MAN.

those of mastication. The stomach is simple, the intestiral canal of mode-
rate length, and the large intestines well marked.

The vertebral column, or spine, is e: nposed of thirty-two vertebra, sever
of which are denominated cervical, tw lve dorsal, five lumbar, five sacral
and three eoccygeal. Of the ribs, seven pairs are attached to the sternum,
or breast bone, by cartilaginous pzoductions, and are called true ribs.
The other five pairs are called false ribs. The male of the human
species seldom exceeds six feet in height; the female is generally a few
inches less.

At his birth, the mvranr is exposed to a new element, the air. What the
sensations are on the admission of this element into the lungs, it is impossi-
ble to guess; but from the cries of the infant, we may conjecture that it 1s
attended with pain. The eyes of an infant are indeed open, but they are
dull, and appear to be unfitted for the performance of any office whatever;
and their outward coat is wrinkled. The same reasoning will apply te
most of the other senses. It is not till after forty days that it begins to
smile; nor,is it till then that it begins to weep: its former sensations of
pain are unaccompanied with tears. The length of an infant, at birth, is
twenty-one inches, though some do not exceed fourteen; and it generally
weighs eight, and sometimes fourteen pounds. The form of the body and
limbs of a new-born infant, are by no means perfect. Formerly, infants
as soon as born, were injudiciously and unnaturally laced with bandages ;
so that they were not able to move a single joint. Nations which we
call barbarous, act more rationally and more humanely in this respect.
The Siamese, the Indians, the Japanese, the negroes, the savages of Ame-
rica, lay their infants naked in hanging beds of cotton, or in cradles lined
with fur.

The eyes of children always seek the light, and if only one eye be direct.d
to it, the other wil. probably become weak; both eyes ought, therefore, to
be equally shaded or equally exposed. Squinting is commonly the effect
of injudicious treatment in this respect.

In teething, the cutting of the first set generally commences about the
sixth or seventh month, and ends between the second and third year. The
order of cutting is generally as follows :— First, the two middle incisors, or
cutting teeth of the lower jaw; then, after an interval of three or four weeks,
‘the upper corresponding incisors follow. The two canine, or stomach teeth
‘below, one or. each side, next declare themselves ; and these are followed by
the eye teeth, in the upper jaw. Soon after, the two first molars, or grind-
ers, one on each side, succeed to the canine, in the lower jaw; those above
them follow. After the lapse of from four to six years, four more grinders
are added in each jaw; these are permanent. At the age of puberty or
‘ater, the dentes sapientie, or wisdom teeth appear.

The hair of most infants is exceedingly light, almost white. The body,
during infancy, is said (perhaps erroneously) to be less sensible of cald than
MAMMALIA—MAN. 35

during any other season of life. The pulse‘is certainly strong, and it is
therefore fair to conclude, that the internal heat is considerabie. Till the
age of three years, the life of infants is extremely precarious ; in the course
of the ensuing second and third years, it becomes more certain, and at six
or seven, a child has a greater probability of living than at any other period
of life. It is remarked, that of a certain number of children born at the
same time, above a fourth die in the first year, above a third in two years,
and at least one half in three years. By other calculations, it appears that
ove half of the children born at the same time, are not extinct in less than
seven or eight years.

At twelve or fifteen months, infants begin to lisp. The broad soind of A,
is the first sound which they articulate with most ease. Of the consonants,
B. M, P, T, are most easy. In every language, therefore, éaba, mama, papa,
ar- the first words that children learn. Some children pronounce distinctly
in .wo years, though the generality do not talk for two years and a half,
an.. frequently not so early.

»yome persons cease growing at fourteen or fifteen, while others continue
their growth to twenty-two or twenty-three. In men, the body attains its
perfect proportion at the age of thirty, and in women sooner. The persons
of women are, indeed, generally complete at twenty. The distance between
the eyes is less in man than in any other animal; in some creatures, in fact,
the eyes are at so great a distance, that it is impossible they should ever
view the same object with both eyes at once. Men and apes are the only
animals that have eyelashes on the lower eyelid. Other animals have
them on the upper, but want them on the lower lid. The upper lid rises
and falls, the lower has scarcely any motion.

The ancients erroneously considered the hair as a kind of excretion, and
believed that, like the nails, it increased by the lower part putting out the
extremity ; but the moderns have discovered that every hair is a tube, which
fills and receives nutriment, like the other parts of the body. The roots,
they observe, do not turn gray sooner than the extremities, but the whole
changes color at once. Instances have been known, of persons who have
grown gray in one night.

There is uttle known exactly with regard to the proportions of the human
figure ; and che beauty of the best statues is better conceived by observation
than by measurement. Some, who have studied after the ancient masters,
divide the b dy mto ten times the length of the face, and others into eicht
They tell us that there is a similitude of proportion in different parts of tna
body: thus, that the hand is the length of the face; that the thumb is tne
length of the nose; that the space between the eyes is the breadth of tne
eye; that the breadth of the thickest part of the thigh is double that of tre
thickest part of the leg, and treble the smahest; that the arms extends
ure as long as the figure is high.
36 MAMMALIA-MAN

The strength of man is very considerable, whcn matured by practice.
We are assured that the porters of Constantinople carry burthens of not
less weight than nine hundred pounds; and Mr Desaguliers tells us of a
mau, who by distributing a certain number of weights, in such a manner
that every part of his body bore its share, was able to support a weight of
two thousand pounds, in an upright posture.

The strength of a man may te still farther estimated by the continuance
of his labor, and by the agility of his motions. Men who are exercised 10
roaning, outstrip horses, or at least continue their speed for a greater length
of time. Ina journey, also, a man will walk down a horse; and after they
have. proceeded together for several days, the horse will be quite ured, and
the man will be as fresh as at the beginning. The royal messengers
of Ispahan, who are runners by profession, go thirty-six leagues in fourteen
or fifteen hours. Travellers assure us that the Hottentots outrun lions
in the chase; and that the savages who hunt the elk, pursue with such
speed this animal, which is as fleet asa stag, that they at last tire it down
and take it.

When the constitution of the body is sound, it is probably possible, by
moderation in the passions, temperance, and sobriety, to lengthen out the
period of tire for a few years. But even of this there seems an uncertainty.
Men no doubt there are, who have passed the usual period of human exist-
ence; and, not to mention Parr, who lived to the age of one hundred and
fifty-two, and Jenkins, to that of one hundred and sixty-nine, as recorded in
the Philosophical Transactions, we have many instances of the prolongation
of life to one hundred and ten, and even to one hundred and twenty years *
Yet this longevity was occasioned by no peculiar art or management. On
the contrary, it appears that the generality of such long livers were peasants,
accustomed to the greatest fatigues, huntsmen, or laborers; men, in fact,
who had employed their whole bodily strength, and even abused it, ‘f to
abuse it be possible, otherwise than by continual idleness and debauchery.

If, in the duration of life, there is any difference to be found, it ought
seemingly to be ascribed to the quality of the air. In elevated situations,
it has been observed, there are commonly found more old people than in
such as are low. The mountains of Scotland and Wales, of Auvergne and
Switze land, have furnished more instances of extreme longevity, than the
plains of Holland or Flanders, of Germany or Poland. In general, however,
the period of human existence may be said to be the same in every country.
<f not cut off by accidental diseases, man 1s found to live to the years of
ninety or a hundred. Beyond that date our ancestors did not live; nor haa
it in any degree varied since the time of David. ,

From a careful inspection of the registers of burials, in a certain number
of country parishes in France, compared with the mortality of Paris, the
following tab’e nas been made out, of the prohable duration of hurnan life
MAMMALIA--MAN. 37

TABLE OF THE PROBABILITIES OF THE DURATION OF LIFE

 

 

;
Age. Duration of Life. Age. Duration of Life. Age. | Duration of Life.
Years | Years. Months. Years. | Years. Months. || Years.| Years. Months. ‘
0 8 0 29 28 6 (|| 58 12 3
1 33 0 30 28 0 59 ll 8
| ie 38 0 31 27 6 60 11 1
i 3 40 0 32 26 11 61 10 6
4 41 0 33 26 3 62 10 0
5 Al 6 34 25 7 63 9 6
6 42 0 35 25 Cc 64 9 0
a 42 3 36 24 5 65 8 6
8 41 6 37 23 10 66 8 0
9 40 10 38 23 3 67 7 6
10 40 2 39 22 8 68 7 0
11 39 6 40 22 1 69 6 7
12 38 9 41 21 6 70 6 2
13 38 1 42 20 11 Ti 5 8
| 375 43 | 20 4 | 8 4
; Ld 36 9 44 19 9 73 5 0
16 36 0 45 19 3 74 4 9
17 35 4 46 18 9 75 4 6
18 34 8 47 18 2 76 4 3
19 34 0 48 17 8 77 4 1
20 33 5 49 17 2 78 3 11
21 32 11 50 16 7 79 38 9
22 32 4 51 i6 0 80 3 7
23 31 10 52 15 6 81 3 5
24 31 3 53 15 9 82 3 3
25 30 9 54 14 6 83 3 2
“Ba ou 2 55 14 0 84 3 1
27 29 7 56 13 5 85 3 0
28 29 0 57 12 10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By this Table it appears, that it is reasonably to be expected, or, in other
words, that we may lay an even wager, that an.infant newly born, will live
eight years longer; that an infant of one year, will live thirty-three years
longer; that an infant of two years, will live thirty-eight years longer; that
aman of twenty, will live thirty-three years and five months longer; that a
man of thirty, will live twenty-eight years longer; and so proportionally
of every other age.

Ideas of external things are conveyed to the soul of man by means of the
five Senses for séeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. The organs
through which the senses act are the nerves, which are small thread-like
‘fibres, distributed all over the body, and all of them connected with the brain.

The eyes seem to be formed very early in the human embryo. In the
chicken, also, of all the parts that are double, these are the soonest produc-
ed; and itis observed from the eggs of several soris of birds, as well ag
from thosn of lizards, that the eyes are much Jarger and more early in ther
38 MAMMALIA—MAN.

‘

expansion than any other parts of the two-fold growth. Though in vivipa-
rous animals, and particularly in man, they are, at first, by no means so
large in proportion as in the oviparous classes, yet they obtain their due
formation sooner than any other parts of the body. Thus it is also with the
organ of hearing. The little bones that help to compose the internal parts
of the ear, are entirely formed, before any of the other bones have acquired
any part of their growth and solidity. Hence it is evident, that those parts
of the boly which are furnished with the greatest quantity of nerves, are
those which appear the soonest, and which are the soonest brought to
perfection.

Mr Cheselden having couched for a cataract a boy of thirteen years
of age, who had been blind from his birth, and having thus communicated
to hin the sense of sight, was at great pains to mark the progress of his
visual powers. This youth, though hitherto incapable of seeing, was not,
however, absolutely and entirely blind. Like every other person whose
vision is obstructed by a cataract, he could distinguish day from night, and
even black {rom white, or either of them from the vivid color of scarlet. Of
the form of bodies, however, he saw nothing; nor of colors themselves,
unless the light was strong. At first, the operation was performed only
upon one of his eyes; and when he saw for the first time, so far was he
from forming the smallest conception of distances, that he supposed, (as he
himself expressed it,) that every thing he saw touched his eyes, in the same
manner as every thing he felt touched his skin. The objects that pleased
him most were those of which the surfaces were plane, and the figures
regular; though as yet he could in no degree judge of their different forms,
or assign a reason why some were more agreeable to him than others.
The ideas he had entertained of colors during his former dark state, were so
unperfect, that when he saw them in reality, he could hardly be persuaded
they were the same. When such objects were shown him as he had been
formerly familiar with by the touch, he observed them with earnestness, in
order to distinguish them a second time. As of these, however, he had too
many to retain all at once, the greatest number were forgotten ; and for one
thing which he knew, after seeing it, there were a thousand things, accord-
ing to his own declaration, of which he no longer possessed the smallest
remembrance. He was very much surprised to find that those persons and
those things which he had loved best, were not the most pleasing to the
eye ; nor could he help testifying his disappointment in finding his parents
less handsome than he had conceived them to be. Before he could distin
guish that a pic.ure resembled a solid body, about two months elapsed. Ti}
then, he only considered it as a surface, diversified by a variety of colors.
but when he began to perceive that these shadings actually represente|
human beings, he also began to examine by the touch, whether they had
not the usual qualities of such bodies; and great was his surprise to find
smooth and even, what he had supposed a very unequal surface. He was

os
MAMMALIA—MAN. 3o

then shown a m1uature portrait of his father, which was contained im his
mother’s watch-case ; and though he readily perceived the resemblance, yet
he expressed his amazement how so large a face could be comprised in so
small a compass. To him it appeared as strange as that a pint vessel should
contain a bushel. At first, he could bear but a very smal] quanuty of light,
and he saw every object much larger than life; but in proportion as he
observed objects that were in reality large, so in proportion he conceived
the others to be diminished. Beyond the limits of what he saw, he had no
conception of any thing. He knew that the apartment he occupied was
only a part of the house; and yet he could not imagine how the latter
should appear larger than the former. Before the operation, he formed no
great expectations of the pleasures he should receive from the new sense he
was promised. That he might be enabled to read and write, was his grand
object. He said, among other things, that he could enjoy no greater delight
from walking in the garden, with this sense, than without it; because there
he already walked at his ease, and was acquainted with all the walks.
With great truth he also remarked, that his blindness gave him one advan-
tage over the rest of mankind; an advantage which, indeed, he preserved
for a long time after he had obtained the sense of seeing; namely, that of
being able to walk in the night with confidence and security. No sooner,
however, had he began to enjoy this new sense, than he was transpor‘ed
beyond measure ; and he declared that every new object was a new s urce
cf delight to him; that his pleasure was so great, he had not langnage to
express it. About a year after, he was carried to Epsom, where there is a
very beautiful and a very extensive prospect; with this he seemed greatly
charmed; and the landscape before him, he called a new method of seeing.
He was couched in the other eye a year after the former, and of both opera-
tions the success was equally great. When he saw with both eyes, every
object appeared to him twice as large as when he saw with but one eye,
though he did not see double, or at least he showed no marks from which
any such conclusion might be drawn.

There is now a living instance of Cheselden’s blind man, of whom a
curious account has just been published. This person, whose name is
Caspar Hauser, was by some foul means kept confined in a cell, from
infancy to the age of about seventeen, and never had seen any object but
the walls of his cell anda few toys. When directed to look out of the
window upon a wide and extensive prospect, in all the glory of summer, he
drew back with visible horror, exclaiming, ugly! ugly! About two years
afterwards, in 1831, he was shown the same prospect, and asked why he
called it ugly when he formerly saw it. He replied, “what I then saw was
indeed very ugly. For when I looked at the window, it always appeared to
me as if a window shutter had been placed close to my eyes, upon which a
wall painter had spattered the contents of his different brushes, filled with
whitu, blue, green, yellow, and red paint, all mingled together. Single things,
40 MAMMALIA—MAN.

as I now see things, I could not at that time recognize and disti nguish from
each other. This was shocking to look at; and besides, it made me feel
anxious and uneasy; because it appeared to me, as if my window had been
closed up with this party-colored shutter, in order to prevent me from loeking
out into the open air. That what I then saw, were fields, hills, and houses ;
that many things, which at that time appeared to me much larger, were, in
fact, much smaller; while many other things that appeared smaller, were,
in reality, larger than other things, 1s a fact, of which 1 was afterwards con-
vinced, by the experience gained during my walks; at length I no longer
saw any thing more of the shutter.” He stated that in the beginning, he
could not distinguish between what was really round or triangular, and what
was only painted as round or triangular. The men and horses represented
on paper, appeared to him precisely like those that were carved in wood,
but.that in the packing and unpacking of them, he had soon found the
difference.

We judge of distance only by experience, otherwise, when experience dues
not set us right, the more distant an object is, the smaller it appears.
When, from particular circumstances, we cannot form a just idea of dis-
tance, and when we cannot judge of objects but by the angle, or rather the
image, which they form in our eyes, we are then necessarily deceived as to
the size of such objects. Every man has experienced how liable we are, in
travelling by night, to mistake a bush which is at hand, for a tree which is
at a distance, or indeed a tree which is at a distance, for a bush which is
at hand. In the same manner, if we do not distinguish objects by their
form, and if thereby we cannot judge of distance, the same fallacy will still
remain: in this case, a fly which is passing rapidly, close before our eyes
will appear to be a bird at a considerable distance ; and a horse which may
be in the middle of a plain, without motion, and in an attitude similar, for
example, to that of a sheep, will appear no larger than a sheep, till we have
once discovered that it is a horse.

Whenever, therefore, we find ourselves benighted in an unknown place,
where no judgment is to be formed of distance, we are every moment liable
to deceptions of vision; hence originate, in part, the dreadful anecdotes of
sPEcTREs, and of those strange, hideous, and gigantic figures, which so
many persons tell us they have seen. Though such appearances, it is com-
monly asserted, exist solely in the imagination, yet it is highly possible that
they might appear literally to the eye, and be in every respect seen as
described to us.

The deception arising from the eye misjudging of magnitudes and dis-
tances, is not, however, the only source of spectral illusions. Disease,
particularly of the head, and violent excitement of the nervous system, ofter.
produce the most singular and vivid phantasms. Of this kind, many cases
are on record in the annals of medicine. One of the first that was brought
to public notice, and one of the most remarkable, is that of M. Nicolai, the
MAMMALIA—MAN. 41

celebrated German bookseller, and member of the Royal Society of Berlin.
It is related by himself. Nicolai had for years been subject to a congestion
m the head, to relieve which, he was frequently blooded by leeches.

“Tn the first two months of the year 1791, (says he,) I was much affected
in my mind, by several incidents of a very disagreeable nature; and on the
24th of February, a cireumstance occurred which irritated me extremely.
At ten o'clock in the forenoon, my wife and another person came to console
1ae; I was in a violent perturbation of mind, owing to a series of incidents
which had altogether wounded my moral feelings, and from which I saw
no possibility of relief, when suddenly I observed, at the distance of ten
paces from me, a figure—the figure of a deceased person. I pointed atit,
and asked my wife whether she did not see it. She saw nothing, but being
much alarmed, endeavored to compose me, and sent for the physician. The
figure remained some seven or eight minutes, and at Jength I became a
little more calm; and, as I was\extremely exhausted, I soon afterwards fell
into a troubled kind of slumber, which lasted for half an hour. The vision
was ascribed to the great agitation of mind in which J had been, and it was
supposed I should have nothing more to apprehend from that cause; but
the violent affection having put my nerves into some unnatural state, from
this arose further consequences, which require a more detailed descriptiun.

“Tn the afternoon, a little after four o’clock, the figure which I had seen
in the morning, again appeared. I was alone when this happened; a cir-
cumstance which, as may be easily conceived, could not be very agreeable.
I went, therefore, to the cpattment of my wife, to whom I related it. But
thither, also, the figure pursied me. Sometimes it was present, sometimes
it vanished; but it was alwivs the same standing figure. A litile after six
u’clock, several stalking figy-es also appeared; but they had no connection
with the standing figure. Iceu assign no other reason for this apparition
than that, though much more ccmvased in my mind, I had not been able so
soon entirely to forget the cause ot such deep and distressing vexation, and
had reflected on the consequences of it, in order, if possible, to avoid them;
and that this happened three hours ater dinner, at the tine when the Jliges-
tion just begins.

“At length I became more composed, with respect to the disagreeable
meident which had given rise to the firs: apparition; but though I had used
very excellent medicines, and found myselt ip other respects perfectly well,
yet the apparitions did not diminish, but, on the contrary, rather increased
m number, and were transformed in the most extraordinary manner.

“After I had recovered from the first impression of terror, I never felt
myself particularly agitated by these apparitions, as I considered them to
be, what they really were, the extraordinary consequences oy rndisposition +
on the contrary, 1 endeavored as much as possible to preserve my coms
pesure of mind, that I might remain distinctly conscious of wuat passed
within me. J observed these phantoms with great accuracy ano very eften

6

‘
42 MAMMALIA—MAN.

reflected on my previous thoughts, with a view to discover some law in the
association of ideas, by which exactly these or other figures might present
themselves to the imagination. Sometimes! thought I had made a dis-
covery, especially in the latter period of my visions; but, on the whole, J
could trace no connection which the various figures that thus appeared and
disappeared to my sight had, either with my state of mind, or with my
employment, and the other thoughts which engaged my attention. After
frequent accurate observations on the subject, having fairly proved and
maturely considered it, I could form no other conclusion on the cause and
consequence of such apparitions, than that, when the nervous system is
weak, and at the same time too much excited, or rather deranged, situilar
figures may appear, in such a manner as if they were actually seen and
heard; for these visions, in my case, were not the consequence of any known
law of reason, of the imagination, or of the otherwise usual association of
ideas; and such also is the case with other men, as far as we can reason
from the few examples we know.

“The origin of the individual pictures which present thvmselves to us,
must undoubtedly be sought for in the structure of that organization by
which we think; but this will always remain no less inexplicable to us,
than the origin of those powers by which consciousness and fancy are made
to exist.

“The figure of the deceased person never appeared to me after the first
dreadful day; but several other figures showed themselves afterwards very
distinctly ; sometimes such as I knew; mostly, however, of persons I did
not know; and amongst those known to me, were the semblances of both
living and deceased persons, but mostly the.former ; and I made the obser-
vation, that acquaintances with whom I daily conversed never appeared to
me as phantasms; it was always such as were at a distance.

“When these apparitions had continued some weeks, and I could regard
them with the greatest composure, I afterwards endeavored, at my own
pleasure, to call forth phantoms of several acquaintance, whom I for that
reason represented to my imagination in the most lively manner, but in
vain. For however accurately I pictured to my mind the figures of such
persons, I never once could succeed in my desire of seeing them eaternally ;
though I had some. short time before seen them as phantoms, and they had
perhaps afterwards unexpectedly presented themselves to me in the same
manner. The phantasms appeared to me in every case involuntarily, as
if they had been presented externally, like the phenomena in nature, thoveh
they certainly had their origin internally; and, at the same time, ] was
always able to distinguish with the greatest precision phantasms from
phenomena. Indeed, I never once erred in this, as I was in general per-
fectly calm and self-collected on the occasion. I knew extremely well,
when it only appeared to me that the door was opened, and a phantom
entered, and when the door really was ovened, and any person caine in.
MAMMALIA—MAN 43

“It is also to be noted, that these figures appeared to me at all times,
under the most different circumstances, equally distinct and clear. Whe-
ther I was alone or in company, by broad daylignt equally as in the night-
time, in my own as well as in my neighbor’s house; yet when I was at
another person’s house they were less frequent, and when I walked the
public street they very seldom appeared. When I shut my eyes, sometimes
the figures disappeared, sometimes they remained, even after J had closed
muy eves. If they vanished in the former case, on opening my eyes again
the same figures appearea which I had seen before.

“T sometimes conversed with my physician and my wife, concerning the
phantasms which at the time hovered around me; for in general the forms
appeared oftener in motion than at rest. They did not always continue
present— they frequently left me altogether, and again appeared for a shorter
or longer space of time, singly or more at once; but, in general, several
appeared together. For the most part, J] saw human figures of both sexes;
they commonly passed to and fro as if they had no connection with each
other, like people at a fair, where all is bustle; sometimes they appeared to
have business with one another. Once or twice I saw amongst them persons
on horseback, and dogs and ‘birds; these figures all appeared to me in their
natura) size, as distinctly as if they had existed in real life, with the several
tints on the uncovered parts of the body, and with all the different kinds
uf colors of clothes. But I think, however, that the colors were somewhat
paler than they are in nature.

“None of the figures had any distinguishing characteristic; they were
neither terrible, ludicrous, nor repulsive: most of them were ordinary ap-
pearances— seme were even agreeable.

“On the whole, the longer I continued in this state, the more did the
number of phantasms increase, and the apparitions become more frequent.
About four weeks afterwards, I began to hear them speak: sometimes the
phantasms spoke with one another, but for the most part they addressed
themselves to me: those speeches were in general short, and never con-
-taine:' any thing disagreeable. Intelligent and respected friends often
appe tred to me, who endeavored to console me in my grief, which still left
deep traces in my mind. This speaking I heard most frequently when |
was alone; though I sometimes heard it in company, intermixed with the
conversation of real persons; frequently in single phrases only, but some-
times even in connected discourse.

“Though at this time I enjoyed rather a-good state of health, both in t say
and mind, and had become so very familiar with these phantasmns, that at
last they did not excite the least disagreeable emotion, but on the contrary
afforded me frequent subjects for amusement and mirth; yet, as the disorder
sensibly increased, and the figures appeared to me for whole days together,
and even during the night, if I happened to awake, I had recourse to several
medicines, and was at last again obliged to have recourse to the application
of leeches.

~
44 MAMMALIA—MAN.

“This was performed on the 20th of April, at eleven v’clock in the fove-
noon. I was alone with the surgeon, but during the operation the room
swarmed with human forms of every description, which crowded fast one
on another; this continued till half past four o’clock, exactly the time when
the digestion commences. I then observed that the figures began to move
more slowly ; soon afterwards the colors became gradually paler, and every
seven minttes they lost more and more of their intensity, without any
alieration in the distinct figure of the apparitions. At about half past six
o’clock, all the figures were entirely white, and moved very little; yet the
forms appeared perfectly distinct ; by degrees they became visibly less plain,
without decreasing in number, as had often formerly been the case. The
figures did not move off, neither did they vanish, which also had usually
happened un other occasions. In this instance they dissolved immediately
into air; of some, even whole pieces remained for a length of time, which
also by degrees were lost to the eye. At about eight o’clock, there did not
remain a vestige of any of them, and I never since experienced any appear-
ance of the same kind. Twice or thrice since that time, I have felt a pro-
pensity, if I may be so allowed to express myself, of a sensation, as if I saw
something which in a moment again was gone. I was even surprised by
vhis sensation, whilst writing the present account, having, in order to render
it more accurate, perused the papers of 1791, and recalled to my memory
all the circumstances of that time. So little are we sometimes, even in the
greatest composure of mind, masters of our imagination.”

As the sense of sight is the effect of the action of light upon the eye, it is
well known that too much light as well as too little, is extremely prejudi-
cial. Travellers, who cross countries covered with snow, are obliged to
wear a crape before their eyes. Persons, therefore, who read or write much,
should accustom themselves to a moderate light.

There are many reasons to induce us to suppose, that such persons as are
short-sighted, would see objects larger than others; and yet it is a certain
truth that they see them smaller.

Error is however not confined to any one sense; and that of HEARING Is
liable to similar mistakes with that of sight. This sense conveys no distinc!
intelligence of the distance whence a sounding body is heard: a great noise
far off, and a small one very near, produce the same sensation; and, unless
we reccive information from some other sense, we can never distinctly tell
whether the sound bea great ora small one. It is not till we have, by
experience, becume acquainted with any particular sound, that we can judge
of the distance when we hear it. When, for example, we know the tone
of a bell, we are then at no great loss to determine how far it is from us.

The air is the principal means of conveying the sound.* Sound is im

 

* The strokes of a hell give no sound, when it is placed under the receiver of an ate
eump, which is exhausted of its air.
MAMMALIA—MAN. 45

effect, always.a vibration, or wave-like motion, communicated by other bodies
to the air, and to our senses, by the air striking on our auditory nerve,

Every body that strikes against another, produces a sound, which is sira
ple in such bodies as are not elastic, but which is often repeated in such as
are. If we strike a bell, for instance, a single blow produces a sound, which
is repeated by the undulations of the sonorous body, and which is multiplied
as often as it happens to undulate or vibrate. ‘These undulations succeed
each other so fast, that the ear supposes them one continued sound; where-
as, in reality, they form many sounds. Sounding bodies are, therefore, of
two kinds; those unelastic ones, which being struck return but a single
sound; and those more elastic, returning a succession of sounds, which
uniting together form a tone. This tone may be considered as a great
number of sounds, all produced, one after the other, by the same body, as
we find in a bell which continues to sound for some time after it is struck.
A continuing tone may be also produced from a non-elastic body, by repeat-
ing the blow quick and often, as when we beat a drum, or when we draw a
bow along the string of a fiddle.

To know the manner in which musical sounds become pleasing, it must
be observed, that no one continuing tone, how loud or swelling so ever,
can give us satisfaction; we must have a succession of them, and those
in the most pleasing proportion. The nature of this proportion may
be thus conceived. if we strike a body incapable of vibration with
a double force, or what amounts to the same thing, with a double mass
of matter, 11 will produce a sound that will be doubly grave. Music
has been said, by the ancients, to have been first suggested by the
blows of different hammers on an anvil. Suppose then we strike an
anvil with a hammer of one pound weight, and again with a hammer
of two pounds, the two pound hammer will produce a sound twice as
grave as the former. But if we strike with a two pound hammer, apd
then with a three pound, the latter will produce a sound one third more
grave than the former. -If we strike the anvil with a three pound hammer,
and then with a four pound, it will likewise follow, that the latter will be
a quarter part more grave than the former. Now, in comparing all those
sounds, it is obvious that the difference between one and two is more easily
perceived than between two and three, three and four, or any numbers
succeeding in the same proportion. The succession of sounds will be,
therefore, pleasing in proportion to the ease with which they may be dis-
tinguished. That sound which is double the former, or, in other words, the
aetave to the preceding tone, will among all others be the most pleasing
aarmony. The next to that, which is as two to turee, or, in other words, the
dhird, will be most agreeable. And thus, universally, those sounds whose
differences may be most easily compared are the most agreeable.

Sound has, in common with light, the property of being extensively
liffused. Like light, it also admits of reflection. The laws of this reflec-
46 MAMMALIA—MAN.

tion, it is true, are less distinctly understood than tose of light: all we
know is, that sound is principally reflected by hard bodies, and that their
being hollow also sometimes increases the reverberation. The internal
cavity of the ear, which is fashioned out in the temporal bone, like a cavern
cut into a rock, seems to be fitted for the purposes of echoing sound with
the greatest precision.

One of the most common complaints in old age is deafness ; which proba-
kly pro:eeds from the failure of the nerves, in the labyrinth of the ear.
This disorder also proceeds sometimes trom a stoppage by the wax, which
art may easily remedy. In order to know whether the defect be an internal
or an external one, let the deaf person put a repeating watch into his mouth,
and if he hears it strike, he may be assured that his disorder proceeds from
an external cause, and may be in some measure cured.

It often happens that people hear better with one ear than the other; and
these, it is observed, have what musicians call a Wad ear. Buffon made
many trials on persons thus circumstanced; and he always found that
their defect in judging properly of sounds, proceeded from the inequality of
their ears, and their receiving, by both at the same time, unequal sensations.
In like manner, as such persons hear false, they also, without knowing it,
sing false. They also frequently deceive themselves with regard to the side
whence the sound comes, generally supposing the noise to come on the part
of the best ear.

Hearing is a much more necessary sense to a man than to animals. In
these it is only a warning against danger, or an encouragement to mutual
assistance. In man, it is the source of most of his pleasures; and with-
out it the rest of his senses would be of little benefit. A man born deaf,
must necessarily be dumb; and his whole sphere of knowledge must be
bounded by sensual objects. We have a singular, and perhaps an unex-
agipled instance of a young man, who, being born deat, was restored;
at the age of twenty-four, to perfect hearing. The account, which is given
m the memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, 1703, page 18, is in substance
is follows:

“A young man of the town of Chartres, between the age of twenty-tnree
and twenty-four, the son of a tradesman, and deaf and dumb from his birth,
began to speak all of a sudden, to the utter astonishment of the whole town.
{le gave them to understand that, about three or four months before, he had
Leard the sound of the bells, and was greatly surprised at this new and un-
known sensation. After some time, a kind of water issued from his left
ear and he then heard perfectly well with both. During these three months
be was sedulously employed in listening, without saying a word and accus-
toming himself to speak softly, so as not to be heard, the words pronouncea
by others. He labored hard also, in perfecting himself in the pronunciation,
and in the ideas attached to every sound. At length, having supposed him-
self qualified to break silence, he declared that he could now speak, though
MAMMALIA—MAN. 47

as yet but imperfectly. Soon after, some able divines questioned Hun con
eerning his ideas of his past state; and principally with respect to God, his
soul, the moral beauty of virtue, and deformity of vice. The young man,
however, had not directed his solitary speculations into that channel. He
had gone to mass indeed with his parents, had learned to sign himself with
the cross, to knee] down, and to assume all the grimaces of a man in the
act of devotion. Buthe did all this without any manner of knowledge of the
intention or the cause; he saw others do the like, and that was enough for
him. He knew nothing even of death, nor did ir ever enter into his mind
He led a life of pure animal instinct; and though entirely taken up wita
objects of sense, and such as were present, he did not seem to have made
such reflections even upon these, as might reasonably have been expected.
The young man was not, however, deficient in understanding; but the un-
derstanding of a man, deprived of all commerce with others, is so very con-
fined, that the mind is in some measure totally under the control of its
immediate sensations.”

It is highly’ possible, nevertheless, to communicate ideas to deaf men,
which they previously wanted, and even to give them very precise notions
of abstract and general subjects, by means of signs and of letters. A person
Dorn deaf, may, by time and application, be taught to read, to write, and
even, by the motions of the lips, to understand what is said to him; a plain
proof how much the senses resemble, and may supply the defects of each
other. It is probable, however, that, as most of the motions of speech are
made within the mouth by the tongue, the knowledge from the motion of
the lips can be but very confined. ;

The sense of FEELING is spread over the whole body, but it employs itself
differently in different parts. The sensation which results from feeling,
cannot be excited otherwise than by the contact and immediate application
of the superficies of some foreign body to that of our own. If we apply a
foreign body against the breast, or upon the shoulder of a man, he will feel
it; tha‘ is, he will know that there is a foreign body which touches him: but
he will not have a single idea of the form of this body, because the breast
touching the body in a single plane ut surface, he cannot gather from it any
knowledge of this body. It is the same with respect to all other parts of the
body, which cannot adjust themselves upon the surface of foreign bodies,
and bend themselves to embrace, at one time, many parts of their super-
ficies. These parts of our body cannot, therefore, give any just idea of their
form ; but those which, like the hand, are divided into many small, flexible,
and moveable parts, and which, consequently, can apply themselves, at one
and the same time, upon the different planes of the superficies of the body,
are those, wich, in effect, give us the ideas of their form and of their size.

It is not, therefore, only because there is a greater quantity of nervous
tufts, at the extremity of the fingers than in any other part of the body— it
not, as it is vulgarly pretended, becanse the hand has the most delicate
48 MAMMALIA—MAN.

sense —that it 1s in effect the principal organ ef feeling, cu tae conhary,
we can say, that there are parts more sensible, ana where the sense of feel-
ing is more delicate, as the eyes, the tongue, &c.; but it is merely because
the hand is divided into many parts, all moveable, all flexible, all acting at
one and the same time, and all obedient to the will; it is because the hand
is the only organ which gives us distinct ideas of the form of bodies. Ani-
mals which have hands, appear to be the most acute: apes do things so
resembling the mechanical actions of man, that it seems as if they had the
same succession of corporeal sensation for the cause of them. Animals which
a.e deprived of this organ, cannot have any knowledge distinct enough
of the form of things; as they cannot grasp any object, and as they have
not any part divided and flexible enough to be able to adjust itself upon the
superficies of bodies, they certainly have not any precise notion of the
form, any more than of the size of them. It is for this reason that we often
see them in suspense, or frightened, at the aspect of objects with which they
ought to be the best acquainted, and which are the most familiar to them.
The principal organ of their feeling is the muzzle, because this part is
divided in two by the mouth, and because the tongue is another part, that
serves them at the same time to touch bodies, which we see them turn and
turn again, before they take them between their teeth.

It is, therefore, to the sense ef feeling, that we are indebted for the power
of usefully exercising all our other faculties. One man does not, perhaps,
possess more ingenuity or capacity than another ; but because in his earliest
infancy he made a greater and a readier use of this sense. As soon as
children are indulged with the liberty of their hands, they presently bring
them into action, and are fond of touching whatever is presented to them,
They are seen to amuse themselves, and take pleasure in handling every
thing they are capable of grasping: they seem as if they were endeavoring
to find out the form of bodies, by touching them on every side; and, for a
considerable time, they amuse themselves in this manner, or rather they
inform themselves of new objects. In the rest of our life, we ourselves, it
we reflect upon it, amuse ourselves in a different method, in doing, or in
seeking to do, any thing thatisnew.

Of the senses of smELLING and TastinG, there is little to be said worthy
of observation. It is evident, that, with respect to the first of these, there
are animals which are infinitely superior to man; and perhaps there may
exist creatures which, in delicacy of taste, may as much surpass the volup
tuary, as the beagle does in acuteness of scent. .

Of the numerous varieties of the human race, Cuvier mentions three only
as eminently distin:t, viz: the white, or Caucasian ; the yellow, or Mongo.
lian; aud the negro, or Ethiopian. Blumenbach conceives they may be
divided into five distinct varieties, viz: the Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethio-
pian, American, and Malayan; and other writers have farther subdivide
these as their family characteristics were more or less marked.
MAMMALIA—WAN. 49

1. The Caucasian variety includes all Europeans, with the exception
of the Laplanders, and the inhabitants of the western and northern parts
of Asia. They have the face oval; facial angle eighty-five degrees; f.rehead
high, and expanding.cheeks, colored red: hair long, brown, but varying
from white to black.

2. The Mongolian variety inhabits eastern Asia, Finland, and Lapland, in
Europe ; and includes the Esquimaux of North America. They have a
broad and flat olive colored face, with lateral projections of the cheek bones;
tucial angle seventy-five degrees; oblique and narrow eyes; hair hard,
straight, black ; beard.thin.

3. The Ethiopian variety, inhabiting the middle parts of Africa, are black
in a greater or less degree, with black woolly hair, jaws projecting forward,
thick lips, and flat nose ; facial angle seventy degrees.

4. The American variety, comprising all the aboriginal Americans, except
the Esquimaux, are mostly tan or reddish copper-colored, with prominent
cheek bones, short forehead, flattish nose, straight, coarse hair, and thin
deard.

5. The Malayan variety includes the inhabitants of the islands in the
Indian Ocean, and Polynesia. They are of a brown color, from a clear
mahogany, to the darkest clove or chesnut brown, with thick, black, bushy
hair, a broad nose, and wide mouth.

In considering the peculiarities which distinguish man from the brute
creation, his capability of inhabiting every climate, and sustaining every
degree of heat and cold, deserves to be noticed. While the geographicat
range of most animals is extremely limited, the physical and intellectual
powers of man enable him to create a climate of his own in every degree
of latitude: and while the Indian of Canada may sleep pon the snow with
impunity with the thermometer at forty degrees below zero, the natives «f
Sierra Leone Suffer, unhurt, the heat of a vertical sun, with the thermomeur
above one hundred degrees. And as the physical powers and intellectual
resources of man enable him to occupy the whole surface of the globe, his
capacity of living on every species of food renders him, in the widest sense
of the word, omnivorous. The continued use of animal food is as natura}
and wholesome to the inhabitants of the Arctic regions, where it is impos-
sible to raise vegetables, as a mixed diet is to the Englishman ; and vegeta-
ble food within the tropics is necessary from the exuberance of this part of
the creation, and the comparative scarcity of those gregarious animals on
which man subsists .n other latitudes.

There are many causes which contribute to the producing of an apparent
variety, between the different nations of the globe. Climate, food, manners,
and customs, produce not only a difference in sentiment, but even in the
external form of a different people.

In examining the surface of the earth, and beginning our inquiries from

‘the nortb, we find in Lapland, and in the northern parts of Tartary, a race
‘ 7
50 MAMMALIA—MAN.

of small-sized men, whose figure is uncouth, and whose physiognomy is as
wild as their »anners are unpolished. Though they seem to be of a degen-
erate species, they yet are numerous, and the countries they occupy are
extensive.

The Lartawpers, the Danes, the Swedes, the Muscovites, the inhabitants
of Nova Zembla, the Samoyedes, the Ostiacs of the old continent, the Green-
landers, and the savages to the north of the Esquimaux Indians of the new
continent, appear to be of one common race, which has been extended and
multiplied along the coasts of the northern seas, and over deserts considered
as uninhabitable by every other nation. In these countries, the visage is
large and broad, the nose is flat and short, the eyes are of a yellowish brown
inclining to black, the eyelids are drawn towards the temples, the cheek
tones are extremely prominent, the mouth is very large, the lower part of
the countenance is very narrow, the lips are thick and turned outward, the
voice is shrill, the head is bulky, the hair is black and straight, and the skin
is tawny. The Laplanders are small in stature, and, though meagre, they
are yet of a squat form. In general, their size is about four feet, nor do
the tallest exceed four feet and a half;~and among these people, if there
-S any difference to be found, it depends on the greater or less degree of
deformity.

In winter the Laplanders clothe themselves with the skin of the rein-deer,
and in summer with the skins of birds. To the use of linen they afe utter
strangers. The women of Nova Zembla have their nose and their ears
vierced, in order to have them ornamented with pendants of blue stone;
and, as an additional lustre to their charms, they also form blue streaks
upon their forehead and chin. Those of Greenland dress themselves with
the skin of the dog-fish: they also paint the visage with blue and yellow
colors, and wear pendants in the ears. They all live under ground, or in
huts almost entirely covered with earth, and with the bark of certain trees,
or the skins of certain fishes; and some form subterranean trenches, by which
one hut communicates with another, and by which, during the winter
months, they enjoy the conversation and society of their neighbors. A con-
tinued darkness for several months, obliges them to illuminate their dreary
abode with lamps, which they keep alive with that very train oil they
use as drink. Under all these hardships they are subject to few diseases,
and live to a prodigious age. So vigorous indeed are the old men, that they
are hardly to be distinguished from the young. The only infirmity they
experience, and it is an infirmity common to them all, is that of blindness.
Dazzled as they perpetually are, by the strong reflection of the snow in
winter, and enveloped in clouds of smoke in autumn and spring, rarely,
when advanced in years, are they still found to retain the use of their eyes.

The Tartar country, taken in general, comprehends the greatest part of
Asia, and in fact extends from Russia to Kamtschatka. All the Tartar
matious have the upper part of the visage very large and wrinkled, even
MAMMALIA—MAN. 53

while yet in their youth. Their nose is short and flat, their eyes are little,
and sunk in the head; théfr cheek bones are high; the lawer part of their
visage is narrow; their chin is long and prominent; their teeth are long
and straggling ; their eyebrows are so large as to cover the eyes; their eye-
lids are thick ; their face is broad and flat; their complexion is tawny ; and
their hair is black. They have but little beard, have thick thighs, and short
legs, and, though but of middling stature, they yet are remarkably strong
and robust. The ugliest of them are the Calmucks, in whose appearanze
vaere seems to be something frightful. They are all wanderers; and their
only shelter is that of a tent made of hair o: skins. Their food is horse-
flesh and camel-flesh, either raw, or a little sodden between the horse and
the saddie. They eat also fish dried in the sun. Their most common
drink is mare’s milk, fermented with millet ground into meal. They all
have the head shaved, except a tuft of hair on the top, which they let grow
sufficiently long to form into tresses on each side of the face. The women,
who are as deformed as the men, wear their hair, which they bind up with
bits of copper, and other ornaments of the same nature.

Some travellers tell us, that the limbs of the CuInEsE are well proportion
ed, that their body is large and fat, their visage large and round, their eyes
small, their eyebrows large, their eyelids turned upwards, their nose short
and flat; that, as for their beard, which is black, upon the chin there is very
little, and upon each lip there are not more than seven or eight prickles:
that those who inhabit the southern provinces of the empire are more
brown and tawny than the others; that, in color, they resemble the natives
of Mauritania, and the more swarthy Spaniards; but that those who inhabit
the middle provinces are as fair as the Germans.

Le Gentel assures us, that the Chinese women do every thing in their
power to make their eyes appear little, and oblong; that, for this purpose,
it is a constant practice with the little girls, from the instruction of the
mother, forcibly to extend their eyelids; and that, with the addition of a
nose thoroughly compressed and flattened, of ears long, large, open, and
pendant, they are accounted complete beauties. He adds, that their com-
plexion is delicate, their lips are of a fine vermilion, their mouth is wel:
proportioned, their hair is very black; but that, by the use of paint, they so
greatly injure their skin, that before the age of thirty they have all the
appearance of old age.

So strongly do the Japanese resemble the Chinese, that we can hardly
scruple to rank them in the same class. They only differ from them in
being more yellow, or more brown. In general, their stature is contracted,
their face as well as their nose is broad and flat, their hair is black, and
their beard 1s little more than perceptible. They are haughty, fond of war,
rall of dexterity and vigor, civil and obliging, smooth-tongued, and courte-
ous, but fickle and vain. With astonishing patience, and even almost
regardless of them, they sustain hunger, thirst, cold, heat, fatigue. and all
52 MAMMALIA—MAN.

\

other hardships of life. Their ceremonies, or rather ther grimaces, in
eating, are numerous and uncouth. They are daborious, are very skilful
artificers, and, in a word, have nearly the same disposition, the same man-
ners, and the same customs as the Chinese.

One custom which they have in common, and which is not a little fantas-
tic, is, so to contract the feet of the women, that they are hardly able to
support themselves. Some travellers mention, that in China, when a girl
has passed her third year, they break the foot in such a manner, that the
toes are made to come under the sole; that they apply to it a strong water,
which burns away the flesh; and, that they wrap it up in a number of
bandages, till it has assumed a certain fold. They add, that the women
feel the pain of this operation all their lives; that they walk with great
difficulty ; and that their gait is to the last degree ungraceful. Other travel-
lers do not say that they break the foot in their infancy, but that they only
compress it with so much violence as to prevent its growth; but they unani-
mously allow, that every woman of condition, and even every handsome
woman, must have a foot small enough to enter, with ease, the slipper of a
child of six years old.

The Moeuns, (Hindoos,) and the other inhabitants of the peninsula of
India, are not unlike the Europeans, in shape and in features; but they
differ more or less from them in color. The Moguls are of an olive com-
plexion ; and yet, in the Indian language, the word Mogul signifies White.
The women are extremely delicate, and they bathe themselves very often:
they are of an olive color, as well as the men; and, contrary to what is seen
among the women of Europe, their legs and thighs are long, and their body
is short.

The inhabitants of Persta, of Turkey, of Arabia, of Egypt, and of the
whole of Barbary, may be considered as one and the same people, who, in
the time of Mahomet, and of his successors, invaded immense territories,
extended their dominions, and became exceedingly intermixed with the
original natives of all those countries. The Persians, the Turks, and the
Moors, are to a certain degree civilized; but the Arapians have, for tke
most part, remained ina state of independence, which implies a contempt
of laws.

The Eeyrtian women are very brown; their eyes are lively; their stature
is rather low; their mode of dress is by no means agreeable; and their con-
versation is extremely tiresome. But though the women of Egypt are com-
monly rather short, yet the men are of a good height. Both, generally
speaking, are of an olive color; and the more we remove from Cairo, the
more we find the people tawny, till we come to the confines of Nubia, where
they are as black as the Nubians themselves.

“The women of Circassia,” says Struys, “are exceedingly fair and beau.
tiful. Their complexion is incomparably fine; their forehead is-large and
smooth ; and, without the aid of art, their eyebrows are so delicate, that
MAMMALIA—MAN. 53

they appear as threads of silk. Their eyes are large, soft, anu yet full of
animation; their mouth is small and expressive of a smile, and their chin.
what it ought to be, in order to form a perfect oval. Their neck and breasts
are admirably formed; their stature is tall, and the shape of their body easy ;
their skin is white as snow, and their hair of the most beautiful black.”

The Turxs, who purchase a vast number of those women as slaves, are
a people composed of many different nations. From the intermixture,
during the crusades, of the Armenians, the Georgians, and the Turcemans,
with the Arabians, the Egyptians, and even the Europeans, it is hardly ressi-
ble tc distinguish the native inhabitants of Asia Minor, of Syria, and of the
vest of Turkey. All we can observe is, that the Turkish men are generally
robust, and tolerably well made; that it is even rare to find among them
persons either hump-backed or lame; that the women are also beautiful,
well proportioned, and free from blemishes; that they are very fair, because
they seldom stir from home; and that, when they do go abroad, they are
always veiled.

Before the Czar Peter I., we are told, the Muscovrrts had not merged from
barbarism. Born in slavery, they were ignorant, brutal, cruel, without
courage, and without manners. Men and women bathed promiscuously in
bagnios, heated to a degree intolerable to all persons but themselves; and
on quitting this warm bath, they plunged, like the Laplanders, into cold
water. They are now a people in some degree civilized, and commercial,
fond of spectacles, and of other ingenious novelties.

From the regions of Europe and Asia, our attention is now to be directed

toa race of people differing more from ourselves in external appearances,
than any that has been hitherto mentioned.
‘ In the seventeenth or eighteenth degree of north latitude, on the African
coast, we find the Nrcrors of Senegal and of Nubia, some in the neighber-
hood of the ocean, and others of the Red Sea; and after them, all the other
nations of Africa, from the latitude of eighteen north, to that of eighteen
south, are black, the Ethiopians, or Abyssinians excepted. It appears, then,
that the portion of the globe which nature has allotted to this race of men,
contains an extent of ground, parallel to the equator, of about nine hundred
leagues in breadth, and considerably more in length, especially northward
of the equator. Beyond the latitude of eighteen or twenty, there are no
longer any negroes, as will appear when we come to speak of the Caffres
and of the Hottentots.

By confounding them with their neighbors the Nubians, we have been long
in an error, with respect to the color and the features of the Ermiorfans.
Marmul says, that the Ethiopians, (Abyssinians,) are absolutely black, that
their visage is large, and their nose flat; and in this description the Dutch
travellers agree with him. The truth, however, is, that they differ from
the Nubians, both in color and in features. The skin of the Ethiopians is
brown, or dlive cclored, like that of the southern Arabians, from whom, it
54 ‘ MAMMALLA—MAN.

1s prubable, they derive their origin. In stature they are tall; the features
of their countenance are strongly marked; their eves are large and beauti-
ful; their nose is well proportioned ; their lips are tin; and their teeth are
white. Of the inhabitants of Nubia, on the contrary, the nose is flat, the
lips are thick and prominent, and the countenance 1s exceedingly black.
These Nubians, as well as the Barbarians, their western neighbors, are a
species of negroes, not unlike those of Senegal.

The first negroes we meet with, are those who live on the south side
of Senegal. These people, as well as those who occupy the different terri-
tories between Senegal and Gambia, are called Jalofes. They are all very
black, well proportioned, and of a size sufficiently tall. Their features are
less harsh than those of the other negroes; and some of them there are,
especially among the female sex, whose features are far from irregular.
Among them, to be perfectly beautiful the color must be exceedingly black,
and exceedingly glossy: their skin, however, is highly delicate and soft;
and color alone excepted, we find among them women as handsome as in
any other country in the world. They are usually very gay, lively, and
amorous.

Father du Tertre says expressly, that, if the negroes are for the most part
flat-nosed, it is because the parents crush the noses of their children; that
in the same manner they compress their lips, in order to render them thick-
er; and that of the few who have undergone neither of these operations,
the features of the countenance are as comely, the nose is as prominent,
and the lips are as delicate as those of the Europeans. It appears, however,
that among the negroes in general, thick lips anda nose broad and flat,
are gifts from nature, by which was originally introduced, and at length
established, their custom of flattening the nose and thickening the lips
of such as at their birth discovered a deficiency in these ornaments. Though
the negroes of Guinea are in general very healthy, yet they seldom attain
what we term old age.

The negroes in general are a remarkably innocent and inoffensive people.
If properly fed, and unexposed to bad usage, they are contented, joyous and
obliging; and on their very countenances may we read the satisfaction
of their souls. If hardly dealt with, on the other hand, their spirits forsake
them, and they droop with sorrow.

Mr Kolben, though he has given so minute a description of the Horrrn-
rots, is strongly of opinion, however, that they are negroes. Like that
of the latter, he assures us, that their hair is short, black, frizzled, and
woolly ; nor in a single instance did he ever observe it long.

Though of all the Hottentots, the nose is very flat, and very broad, yet it
would not be of that form, did not their mothers, considering a prominent
nose as a deformity, think it a duty incumbent upon them to crush it pre-
sently after their birth.’ Their lips are also thick, and their upper lip is
particularly so; their teeth are very white ; their evebrows are thick ; their
MAMMALIA—MAN. 53

head is large; their body is meagre; their limbs are slender. They seldom
live fonger than. forty years; and of this short duration of life, the causes
douhtiess are, their being so fond of filth, and residing continually in the
midst of it; as also their living upon meat which is tainted or corrupted,
of which indeed their neurishmen’ chiefly consists. We might dwell longer
upon the description of this nasty people ; but as most travellers have given
very large accounts of them, to their writings we refer. One fact, however,
related by Tavernier, we ought not to pass in silence. The Dutch, he says,
suce took a Hottentot girl, soon after her birth; and after bringing her
up among themselves, she became as white as an European. From this
circumstance he presumes, that all the Hottentots would be of a tole-
rable whiteness, were it not for their custom of perpetually begriming
themselves.

Though in America, we observe less variety in the human form than
might be expected in so extremely extensive a continent, it cannot yet be
svpposed, but that, in such a diversity of climates and situations, a conside-
rable diversity of inhabitants must also be found.

In beginning our inquiries, then, we find in the most northern parts
of America, a species of Laplanders, similar to those of Europe, or to the
Samoyedes of Asia; and though, in comparisun to the latter, they are few
in number, yet they are diffused over a considerable extent of ground. Those
who inhabit the land of Davis’ Strait are of a diminutive size, of an olive
complexion, and their legs are short and thick. They are skilful fishers ;
they eat their fish and their meat raw; their drink consists of pure water,
or of the blood of the dog-fish; they are, moreover, very strong, and gene-
rally live toa great age. Here we see the figure, the color, and the man-
ners of the Laplanders ; and, what is truly singular is, that, as among the
Laplanders of Europe, we meet with the Finlanders, who are white, comely,
tall, and tolerably well made; so, in like manner, among the Laplanders
of. America, we ineet with another species of men, tall, well made, tolerally
white, and with features exceedingly regular.

Of a different race from the former, seem to be the savages of Hudson’s
Bay, and northward of the land of Labrador: they are, however, ugly,
diminutive, and unshapely; their visage is almost entirely covered with
hair, like the savages of the country of Yesso, northward of Japan. In
summer they dwell under tents made of skins of the rein-deer; in winter
they live under ground, lixe the Laplanders and the Samoyedes, and, like
them, sleep together promiscuously, and without the smallest distinction.
They likewise live to a great age, though they feed on nothing but raw
meat and fish. The savages of Newfoundland have a considerable resem
blance to those of Davis’ Strait; they are low in stature; they have little
or no beard; their visage is broad and flat; their eyes are large; they are
generally rather flat-nosed; and, upon the whole, are far from being unlike
the savages of the northern continent, and of the environs of Greenland.
56 MAMMALIA—MAN.

Besides these savages, who are scattered over the most northern parts
of America, we find others more numerous, and altogether different, in
Canada, and in the vast extent of land to the Arctic sea. These are all
tolerably tall, robust, vigorcus, and well made; they have hair and eyes
black, teeth very white, a complexion tawny, their beard scanty, and over
the whole of their body hardly a vestige of hair; they are har¢y, indefati-
gable walkers, and very nimble runners. They are alike unaffected 5y
excesses of hunger, and of repletion; they are by nature »o.d and fierce,
grave and sedate. So strongly, indeed, do they resernble the Oriental Tar-
tars in the color of the skin, the hair, and the eyes, in the scantiness of
beard, and of hair, as also in disposition and in manners, that, were they
not separated from each other by an immense sea, we should conclude them
to be descended from that nation. In point of latitude, their situation is
also the same; and this still farther proves how powerfully the climate
influences not only the color, but the figure of men.

If, however, in the whole of North America, there were none but savages
to be met with, in Mexico, and in Peru, there were found nations polished,
subjected to laws, governed by kings, industrious, acquainted with the arts,
and not destitute of religion.

In the present state of these countries, so intermixed are the inhabitants
o. ‘Texico and New Spain, that hardly do we meet with two visages of the
same color. In the city of Mexico, there are white men from Europe,
Indians from the north, and from the south of America, and negroes from
Africa, &c., insomuch, that the color of the people exhibits every different
shade which can subsist between black and white. The real natives of the
country are of a very brown olive color, well made and active; and though
they have little hair, even upon their eyebrows, yet upon their head their
hair is leng and very black.

In surveying the different appearances which the human form assunies
in the different regions of the earth, the most striking circumstance is that
of color. This circumstance has been attributed to various causes; but
experience justifies us in affirming, that of this the principal cause is the
heat of the climate. When this heat is excessive, as at Senegal and in
Guinea, the inhabitants are entirely black; when it is rather less violent,
as on the eastern coasts of Africa, they are of a lighter shade; when it
begins to be somewhat more temperate, as in Barbary, in India, in Arabia,
&c., they are only brown; and, in fine, when it is altogether temperate, as
in Europe, and in Asia, they are white; and the varieties which are there
remarked, proceed solély from varieties in the mode of living. All the
Tartars, fur example, are tawny, while the Europeans, who live in the
same latitude, are white. Of this difference the reasons seem to be, that
the former are always exposed to the air; that they have ne towns, no
fixed habitations; that they sleep upon the earth, and in every respect live
coarsely and savagely. These circumstances alone, are sufficient to rende
MAMMALIA—MAN. 57

them less white than the Europeans, to whom nothing is wanting which
may render life comfortable and’ agreeable. Why are the Chinese whiter
than the Tartars, whom they resemble in all their features? It is because
they live in towns, because they are civilized, because they are provided
with every expedient for defending themselves from tne injuries of the
weather, to which the Tartars are perpetually exposed.

‘When cold becomes extreme, however, it produces some effects similar
to those of excessive heat. The Samoyedes, the Laplanders, the Green-
landers, are very tawny; and it is even asserted, as we have already
observed, that, among the Greenlanders, there are men as black as those
of Africa. Here we see two extremes meet: violent cold and violent heat
produce the same effect upon the skin, because these two causes act by one
quality, which they possess in common. Dryness is this quality; and ‘t is
a quality of which intense cold 1s equally productive as intense heat; so by
the former, as well as by the latter, the skin may be dried up, altered, and
rendered as tawny as we find it among the Laplanders. Cold compresses,
shrivels, and reduces within a narrow compass, all the productions of
nature; and thus it is, that we find the Laplanders, who are perpetually
exposed to all the rigors of the most piercing cold, the most diminutive of
the human species.

The most temperate climate is between the degrees of forty and fifty.
There we behuld the human form in its greatest perfection; and there we
ought to form our ideas of the real and natural color of man. Situated
under this zone, the civilized countries are, Georgia, Circassia, the Ukraine,
European Turkey, Hungary, South Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France,
the north of Spain, and the northern part of the United States of America;
.of all which the inhabitants are the most beautiful, and the most shapely,
in the world.

As the first, and almost the sole cause of the color of mankind, we ought
therefore to consider the climate ; and though upon the skin the effects of °
nourishment are trifling, when compared with those of the air and soil, yet
upon the form they are prodigious. Food which is gross, unwholesome, or
badly vrepared, has a strong and a natural tendency to produce a degeneracy
in the human species; and in all countries where the people fare wretched-
ly, they also look wretchedly, and are uglier and more deformed than their
neighbors. Even among ourselves, the inhabitants of country places are
less handsome than the inhabitants of towns; and we have often remarked,
that in one village, where poverty and distress were less prevalent than in
another village of the vicinity, the people of the former were, at the same
time, in person more shapely, and in visage. less deformed.

The air and the soil have also great influence, not only on the form of
men, but on that of animals, and of vegetables. Let us, after examining
the peasants who live on hilly grounds, and those who live embosomed in
the neighb ing valleys, compare them together, and we shall find that the

8
58 MAMMALIA—MAN,

former are active, nimble, well shaped, and lively; the women commony
handsome; that, on the contrary, in the latter, in proportion as the air,
food, and water are gross, the inhabitants are clumsy, and less active and
vigorous.

From every circumstance, therefore, we may obtain a proof, that mankind
are not composed of species essentially different from each other; that, on
the contrary, there was originally but one individual species of men, which,
after being multiplied and diffused over the whole surface of the earth,
underwent divers changes, from the influence of the climate, from the
difference of food, and of the mode of living, from epidemical disten.pers, a3
also from the intermixture, varied ad infinitum, of individuals more or -ess
resembling each other.

Of ACCIDENTAL VARIETIES IN THE HUMAN sPEcIES. Besides those Sreat
varieties proceeding from general causes, which have just been noticed,
says Buffon, and which serve as marks of distinction to the nations of the
earth, there are others, which affect only individuals, which appear casual
and often unfortunate deviations from the general standard. The Blafards,
Or WHITE NEGROES, (if this expression may, be admitted,) are among the first
of these extraordinary deviations which attract our attention. They are
found occasionally in all parts of the East Indies, at Madagascar, in Africa,
at Carthagena, and most parts of South America. They are a weak, imbe-
cile class of human beings, and are in general barren. The negresses at
Carthagena and Panama, more frequently than any others, are known to
produce Blafards; and it is to be observed, that the climate there is more
debilitating to the human frame. “ Those of Darien,” says a modern travel-
ler, “have so marked a resemblance to the white negroes of Africa, that we
cannot but assign them the same origin. Their color is dead white, like
that of paper or muslin, and without the least appearance of red on any
part of the surface of the body. They are born white, and their skin never
darkens. In Africa their hair is white and woolly, like that of the genuine
negroes; and in Asia it is long, and as white as snow, or reddish inclining
to yellow. Their eyebrows and eyelasifes resemble the skin of the eider-
duck, or rather the soft down which is about the throat of a swan The iris
is sometimes of a pale blue, and sometimes of a lively yellow inclining to
reddish. They are in general remarkably feeble and low of stature.” A
white negress, of the name of Genevieve, was born of black parents in :he
island of Dominica, in the year 1759. Her father and mother were brought
from the Gold Coast in Africa, and were perfectly black. Genevieve wag
white in every part of her body. She was about four feet eleven inches
bigh, and her body was well proportioned. Every feature was completely
correspondent to those of the negroes. The lips and the mouth, however,
though perfectly formed like those of other negroes, had a singular appear.
ance for want of color; they were as white as the rest of her skin, with no
appearance of red. Wer skin in general was of a tallow culor; when she
MAMMALIA—MAN. 59

appruached the fire, however, there was a slight tinge of red appeared in
Ser cheeks. Her head was well covered with wool of about an inch anda
half in length. It was harsh, thick, and frizzled; it was white at the roots,
and reddish at the extremity. The eyebrows were just marked by a light
white down, and the eyelashes were rather more apparent. Her eyes ap-
peared of a dull blue. This white negress endured the full light of the sun
without winking, or any apparent inconvenience. S).e was, what is called,
short-sighted: but she could distinguish the smallest objects at two or three
inches from her eyes. But the most singular circumstance respecting her
eyes, was a continual motion, or oscillation, by which they alternately
turned from and towards each other; and this motion she was not able
to stop.

Her teeth were well arranged, and finely enamelled; there -was no disa-
greeable smell about her, nor any oiliness upon the skin, as is often the
case with common negroes. Her hands were large but well formed, and
were covered with wrinkles, like those of an old person. Her feet and her
ancles were also wrinkled. Her parents produced only this girl white; tha
rest of their children were all perfect negroes.

It has been said that these white negroes, if united with blacks, would
produce a pied race; but however this be, it is certain that pied or spotted
negroes are not uncommon. It arises evidently from some defective organi-
zation in the skin; and we have instances even in this climate of a similar
deviation from the ordinary course of nature.

The Albinoes are, among the whites, that whigh the Blafards, as Buffon
denominates them, are among the blacks. This name was originally given
by the Portuguese to Moors who were born white, and has since been
appropriated to similar individuals in our own race. The best accoun
which has yet appeared of Albinoes is the following, which was sent by Dr
Traill, of Liverpool, to Nicholson’s Journal.

“Robert Edmond and his wife Anne are both natives of Anglesey, in
North Wales. He has blue eyes, and hair ulmost black ; her eyes are blue,
and her hair of a light brown. Neither of them have remarkably fair skins.
They have been married fourteen years. Their first child, a girl, had blue
eyes and brown hair. The second, a boy, (now before me,) has the charac-
teristics of an Albino, viz: very fair skin, flaxen hair, and rose-colored eyes.
The taird and fourth children were twins, and both boys; one of them has
blue eyes and dark brown hair; the other was an Albino. The former is
still alive: the Albino lived nine month:, though a very puny chill. The
fifth child, a girl, had blue eyes and brown hair. The sixth, and last now
here, is a perfect Albino.

“The oldest of these Albinoes is now nine years of age, of a delicate
constitution, slender, but well formed both in person and in features; his
appetite has always been had; he frequently complains of a dull pain in his
forehead ; his skin is exce2dingly fair; his hair flaxen and soft; his cheeks
60 MAMMALIA—MAN

have very little of the rose in them. The iris and pupil of his eyes are of a
bright rose-red color, reflecting in some situations an opaline tinge. He
cannot endure the strong light of the sun. When desired to look up, his
eye.ds are in constant motion, and he is incapable cf fixing the eye steadily
on any object, as is observed in those laboring under some kind of slight
ophthalmia, but in him is unaccompanied by tears. His mother says, that
his tears never flow in the coldest weather; but when vexed, they are shed
abundantly. The white of the eye is generally bloodshot. He says he sees
better by candle than by daylight; especially at present, when the reflection
from the snow on the ground is extremely offensive to him. He goes to
school, but generally retires to the darkest part of it to read his lesson,
because this is raost agreeable to his eyes. In my room, which has a
northern aspect, he can only distinguish some of the letters in the pages
of the Edinburgh Review; but, if the light is not permitted to fall full on
the book, he is able to read most of them. He holds the book very near his
eye. His disposition is very gentle; he is not deficient in intellect.”

Among the sports of nature, with respect to the human race, not one
of the least singular was the porcuriInE MAN. He was born in the county
of Suffolk, England, in 1710. The skin of his body was covered with ex- ;
crescences like thorns, or prickles, and about the thickness of a packthread.
His face, the palms of his hands, and the soles of his feet, were the only
parts which were free from these singular warts. They were of a reddish
brown, and had such a degree of hardness and elasticity, as to rattle when
the hand was moved over the body. They were half an inch long in some
parts, and were shorter in others. They did not appear till two months
after his birth; but, what is most extrao:dinary, they dropped off every
winter, and were renewed in the spring. In oti.er respects the man enjoy-
ed a good state of health. He had six children, all of whom, like their
father, were covered with these excrescences.

Among these varieties of nature in the human species, we may reckon
dwarfs and giants. Deceived by some optical illusion, the ancient histo-
rians gravely mention whole nations of pigmies, as existing in remote
quarters of the world. The more accurate observations of the mederns,
however, convince us that these accounts are entirely fabulous.

The existence, therefore, of a pigmy race of mankind, being founded in
error or in fable, we can expect to find men of diminutive stature only by
accident, among men of the ordinary size. Of these accidental dwarfs,
every country, and almost every village, can produce numerous instances:
there was a time when these unfavored children of nature were the peculiar
favorites of the great; and no prince, or nobleman, thought himself com-
pletely attended, unless he had a dwarf among the number of his domestics,
These poor little men were kept to be laughed at, or to raise the barbarous
pleasure of their masters, by their contrasted inferiority. Even in England,
as late as the time of King James the First, the court was at one time
MAMMALIA—MAN 61

furnished with a dwarf, a giant, and a jester. These, the king often took a
pleasure in opposing to each other, and often fomented quarrels among
them, in order to be a concealed speetator of their animosity.

Tt was ir the same spirit that Peter of Russia, in the year 1710, celebra
ted a marriage of dwarfs. This monarch, though raised by his native genius
far above a barbarian, was, nevertheless, still many degrees removed froin
actual refinement. His pleasures, therefore, were of the vulgar kind; and
this was among the number. Upon a certain day, which he had ordered
to be proclaimed several months before, he invited the whole body of his
courtiers, and all the foreign ambassadors, to be present at the marrage
of a pigniy man and woman. The preparations for this wedding were not
only very grand, but executed in a style of barbarous ridicule. He ordered,
that all the dwarf men and women, within two hundred miles, should repair
to the capital; and also insisted, that they should be present at the cere-
mony. For this purpose, he supplied them with proper vehicles; but so
contrived it, that one horse was seen carrying a dozen of them into the city
at once, while the mob followed shouting and laughing from behind. Some
of them were at first unwilling to obey an order, which they knew was
calculated to turn them into ridicule, and did not come; but he soon obliged
them to obey; and, as a punishment, enjoined that they should wait upon
the rest at dinner. The whole company of dwarfs amounted to seventy,
beside the bride and bridegroom, who were richly adorned, and’ in the ex-
tremity of the fashion. For this company in miniature, every thing was
suitably provided; a low table, small plates, little glasses, and, in short,
every thing was so fitted, as if all things had been dwindled to their own
standard.

But the most complete history of a dwarf is preserved by M. Daubenton,
in his Natural History. This dwarf, whose name was Baby, was well
known, having spent the greatest part of his life at Luneville, in the palace
of Stanislaus, the titular king of Poland. He was born in the village of
Plaisne, in France, in the year 1741. His father and mother were peasants,
both of good constitutions, and inured to a life of husbandry and labor.
Baby, when born, weighed but a pound and‘a quarter. We are not inform-
ed of the dimensions of his body at that time, but we may conjecture they
were very small, as he was presented on a plate to be baptized, and for a
long time lay ina slipper. His mouth, although proportioned to the rest
of his body, was not, at that time, large enough to take in the nipple; and
he was, therefore, obliged to be suckled by a she-goat that was in the house,
and that served as a nurse, attending to his cries with a kind of maternal
‘fondness. He began to articulate some words when eighteen months old;
ind at two years he was able to walk alone. He was then fitted with
thoes that were about an inch and a half long. He was attacked with
several acute disorders; but the small-pox was the only one which left any
marks behind it. Until he was six years old, he ate no other food but pulse,
62 MAMMALIA—MAN.

potatoes, and bacon. His father and mother were, from their poverty,
incapable of affording him any better nourishment; and his education was
little better than his food, being bred up among the rustics of the place. At
six years old, he was about fifteen inches high ; and his whole body weigh-
ed but thirteen pounds. Notwithstanding this, he was well proportioned
and handsome: his health was good, but his understanding scarcely passed
the bounds of instinct. It was at that time that the king of Poland, having
heard of such a curiosity, had him conveyed to Luneville, gave him the
name of Baby, and kept him in his palace.

Baby, having thus quitted the hard condition of a peasant, to enjoy all
the comforts and conveniences of life, seemed to receive no ilteration from
his new way of living, either in mind or person. He preserved the good-
ness of his constitution till about the age of sixteen, but his body seemed to
increase very slowly during the whole time; and his stupidity was such,
that all instructions were lost in improving his understanding. He could
never be brought to have any sense of religion, nor even to show the least
signs of a reasoning faculty. They attempted to teach him dancing and
music, but in vain; he never could make any thing of music; and as for
dancing, although he beat time with tolerable exactness, yet he could never
remember the figure, but while his dancing-master stood by to direct his
motions. Notwithstanding, a mind thus destitute of understanding was
not without its passions; anger and jealousy harassed it at times; nor was
he without desires of another nature.

At the age of sixteen, Baby was twenty-nine inches high; at this he
rested ; but having thus arrived at his acme, the alterations of puberty, or
rather, perhaps, of old age, came fast upon him. From being very beauti-
ful, the poor little creature now became quite deformed; his strength quite
forsook him; his back bone began to bend; his head hung forward; his legs
grew weak; one of his shoulders turned awry; and his nose grew dispro-
portionably large. With his strength, his natural spirits also forsook him ;
and, by the time he was twenty, he was grown feeble, devrepid, and marked
with the strongest impression of old age. It had been before remarked by
some, that he would die of old age before he arrived at thirty; and, in fact,
by the time he was twenty-two, he could scarcely walk a hundred paces,
being worn with the multiplicity of his years, and bent under the burtaen
of protracted life. In this year he died; a cold, attended with a slight fever,
threw him into a kind of lethargy, which had a few momentary intervals ;
but he could scarcely be brought to speak. However, it is asserted, that jn
the last five days of his life, he showed a clearer understanding than in his
times of best health: but at length he died, after enduring great agonies, in
the twenty-second year of his age.

Baby, it is evident, waS a creature calculated rather to excite pity or dis-
gust than any other feeling,—a being as stunted in mind as in body. But
to these diminutive beings nature does not always forget to give intellectual
MAMMALIA—MAN. 63

faculties. Jeffery Hudson, to whom Buffon alludes as the dwarf of the
English court, was a brave and intelligent man. He killed, in a duel, Mr
Cutts, who had insulted him; and he served as a captain in the royal army.
In moderr. times, we have an instance of a dwarf possessed of every
mental and personal accomplishment. Count Borulawski was the son of a
Polish nobleman attached to the party of King Stanislaus, and who lost his
property in consequence of that attachment. His father had six children.
three dwarfs, and three of the ordinary stature; and it is a singular circum-
stance, that they were born alternately, a big and a little one. The Count’s
youngest sister, who died at the age of twenty-three, was of a much more
diminutive size than he was. He grew till he was thirty, when he was
three feet two inches in height. The proportions of his figure were perfect-
ly correct, which is rarely the case with dwarfs, and his look was manly
and noble. His manners were full of grace and politeness ; his temper was
good; and he possessed a lively wit, united with an excellent memory and
a sound judgment. Till the age of forty-one, he lived in the enjoyment
of perfect health, and of all the comforts of life, under the patronage of a
lady, who was a friend of the family. He then married a lady, of the mid-
dle size, by whom he had three children, none of whom were dwarfs. To
procure the means of subsistence for his family, he at first gave concerts in
the principal cities of Germany; on which occasions he played upon the
guitar, of which instrument he was a perfect master. At Vienna he was
persuaded to turn his thoughts to England, where it was supposed that the
public curiosity would in a little time benefit him sufficiently to enable him
to live independent in a country so cheap as Poland. Borulawskiaccor-
dingly visited England, where he was admired, and extensively patronized,
by the nobility and gentry. He exhibited himself in London, Edinburgh,
Dublin, Bath, and most of the principal cities and towns, and wherever he
went he gained friends. Borulawski died a few years since. He published
his own memoirs.

Of ciants we have several accounts from mariners, that a nation actually
exists; and mere speculation should never induce us to doubt their veracity.
Ferdinand Magellan was the first who discovered this race of people along
the coast, towards the extremity of South America. Magellan was a Portu-
guese of noble extraction, who having long behaved with great bravery,
under Albuquerque, the conqueror of India, he was treated with neglect by
thé court, upon his return. Applying, therefore, to the king of Spain, he
was entrusted with the command of five ships, to subdue the Molucca
Islands; upon one of which he was slain. It was in his voyage thither,
that he happened to winter in St Julian’s Bay, an American harbor, forty-
nine degrees south of the line. In this desolate region, where nothing was
seen but objects of terror, where neither trees nor verdure dressed the face
of the country, they remained for some months without seeing any human
creature. They had judged the country to be utterly uninhabitable, when
64 MAMMALIA—MAN.

one day they saw approaching, as if he had been dropped from the clouas
a man of enormous stature, dancing and singing, and putting dust upon his
nead, as they supposed in token of peace. This overture for friendship was
by Magellan’s command, quickly answered by the rest of his men; and the
giant approaching, testified every mark of astonishment and surprise. He
was so tall, that the Spaniards only reached his waist; his face was
.proad, his color brown, and painted over with a variety of tints; each cheek
aad the resemblance of a heart drawn upon it; his hair was approaching te
whiteness ; he was clothed in skins, and armed with a bow. Being treated
with kindness, and dismissed with some trifling presents, he soon returned
with many more of the same stature; two of whom the mariners decoyed
on shipboard: nothing could be.more gentle than they were in the begin-
ning; they considered the fetters that were preparing for them, as orna-
ments, and played with them, like children with their toys ; but when they
found for what purpose they were intended, they’ instantly exerted their
amazing strength, and broke them in pieces with a very easy effort. This
account, with a variety of other circumstances, has been confirmed by suc-
ceeding travellers.*

To these varieties in the human species might be added a considerable
catalogue of Monsters; but as few of these have survived the hour of their
birth, and as the detail of most of them can serve but to disgust, we shall
only trouble the reader with a few instances. The first is an affecting
account of the most singular production of this kind that stands recorded in
the History of Nature.

On the 26th of October, 1701, at Tzoni, in Hungary, two female children
were born, which were united together at the loins. They lived to the age
of twenty-one years. At seven years of age they were carried into Holland,
England, Italy, Russia, and into almost every country of Europe. At the
age of nine they were purchased by a pious clergyman, in order to place
them in a convent at Petersburgh, where they remained till the 25th of
February, 1723, when they died.

One of these twins was named Helen, and the other Judith. Helen grew
tall, and was straight. Judith was less, and a little crooked. As they were
united at the loins, they could only see one another by turning their heads,
They in general agreed well together, and loved each other affectionately,
At six vears of age Judith was affected with a palsy on the left side ; and
though arterwaius she sppeared cured, she always retained a strong impres-
sion of that malady, and her minu was always heavy and weak. Helen, on
the contrary, was handsome and gay. She had a’good understanding, and
some wit. They had the small-pox and the measles at the same time 3 but

 

* The soherer narratives of recent travellers have reduced the stature of the Patago-
nians to a more reasonable standard ; though still leaving them the character of being a
tall race. From five feet ten, to six feet seven inches, appears to be the height of ihe
individuals of this tribe.
MAMMALIA--MAN. 65

they had other maiadies or indispositions separately: for Judith was subject
toa cough and a fever; Helen, on the contrary, enjoyed good health. When
they were neaily twenty-one years of age, Judith took a fever, fell intoa
lethargy, and died; the unfortunate Helen was obliged to follow her lot.
Three minutes before the death of Judith, she fell into an agony, and diea
almost at the same moment.

A pair united in a similar manner, has recently been exhibited in the
United States and England. They, too, were born in the east, and are
known as the Siamese youths. A fleshy band, of from four to six inches
long and two broad,, proceeding from the pit of each stomach, connects them
together. The entire band admits four fingers to pass freely behind it,
when the boys stand shoulder to shoulder, and its width and thickness allow
the thumb to meet the fingers on the front aspect. The vestiges of one
common navel are visible at the lower and middle part of the band, and it -
ts equidistant between the two bodies. The band is hollow, except about
an inch in the centre, and there is evidently a hernial protrusion into it
from each of the boys, in the action of coughing. Their appearance is
healthy, their dispositions cheerful, and their attitudes and motions graceful.
They move across the room with all the ease and grace of a couple skilfully
waltzing, and seem never to have any difference of intention or purpose
which can give pain to their band of union by making them draw different
ways. The natural position of the youths, or that which seems to place
the connecting ligament in its natura] form, is that of face 10 face. This
position, as must be obvious, is extremely inconvenient, and the boys have
consequently accustomed themselves to stand or move side by side. Their
persons are thus drawn mutually closer, which makes it necessary for one
to place his arm about the neck or waist of the other. The position may
be varied—that is, the ligament may be made an axis, upon which the
youths can turn and bring in contact the two opposite sides, instead of these
which were first in collision. Their identity of purpose, and unity of move-
ment, combined with a general similarity of tastes, dispositions, and habits,
has created in some a suspicion that their organization was nore intimately
connected than at first sight appears. They eat, drink, and sleep simulta-
neously ; their health is affected alike; and on being conveyed through the
streets in a coach, so perfect is their unity of action, that they could not be
prevailed upon to look out of its opposite windows. These circumstances
many have been disposed to attribute to something more than the power
of habit; but there can be no doubt that the youths are perfectly distinct
beings, having each his organization totally independent of the other.
This is placed beyond a doubt by various circumstances. No one can fail
to be touched with the perfect harmony that subsists between them. At-
tempts have been made to create jealousies between them, but without the
slightest success. Any gift which they receive capable of division, is shared

“between them; and any description of present passes from one to the
65 MAMMALIA—APES.

other as a joint possession. It would perhaps be more just to say, that they
recognize no difference between themselves. A very attentive observer,
however, will not fail to discover, between these two boys, who certainly
bear the strongest possible resemblance to each other, a.marked distinction:
One seems to bea little more robust than the other, and even to possess
an intellectual superiority over his brother. Perhaps this notion acquires
plausibility from the circumstance that the former generally acts as the
organ of communication on the joint part with the interpreters. It is ob-
served, that this superior brother yields on all occasions to the impulses
of the weaker, giving up his own choice, and preferring the course intimat-
ed by the other. The inferior brother then playfully leans against his mate
for support, or the one pats the cheek, or presses the foreliead, or adjusts the
shirt collar of the other, in such a way as betrays the kindliest feelings in
each, and the tenderest affection for each other.

A still more wonderful lusus nature lately existed in the person of a
bicephalous girl, born of Sardinian parents. She died recently at Paris.
Ritta, or the right side of the infant, bad been ill for three days, and her illness
did not appear in any degree to influence the health of Christina, the other
side; so that at the moment when Ritta had given up the ghost, Christina
was hanging to the breast of her mother, and playing with her face. But
suddenly she let go, heaved a sigh, and expired. On dissection, two hearts,
touching at the upper surface, but perfectly free at the base, were found in
one pericardium. There was only one liver, which was evidently formed
by the juncture of two; but there were two stomachs, and two small intes-
tines, the latter of which joined ten or twelve inches above the cecum. The
cecum was single, and all below was the same. In the pectoral cavity
there was only one diaphragm, which had evidently been formed out of
those of two subjects.

ORDER SECOND—QUADRUMANA.!
Tue order Quadrumana is divided into two families, the Simie or Apes
and the Lemures.
APES?

Ir the conformation of the body always implied corresponding intellectual
attributes, the apes should approach the vearest to man in intellect. But

 

1 This order embraces animals with three kinds of teeth, incisors, canines, and molars;
four extremities, terminated by hands, with the thumb separate from the other fingers,
and more or less opposable to them; fingers long and flexible¢ two or four pectoral
mammie ; clavicles complete; hones of the arm and leg distinct, and suscentihle of the
motions of pronation and supination: male organs of generation external; stomach mem-
branous, simple; intestires of medium length; a small cecum; orbital and temporal
fosse distinct.

* This family is distinguished by a form appeecig more or less to that of man; four
1aclined incisors in each Jaw; nose more or less prominent; nostrils more ar less sepur
reted from one another; two pectoral mamme: ; orbital and temporal fossa distinct.
MAMMALIA—APES. 67

this is not found to be the case: and though the family of apes have, like
man, their anterior hands free, and their thuinbs oppogable, though in,a less
degree, yet it is not found that their sagacity is superior or even equal to
that of some other tribes of mammiferous animals. The structure of their
bedy indeed enables them to perform many movements similar to those
of man; but these, when they approach the usages of the human race, are
in general the effect of mere education or imitation, in individuals with-
drawn from their kind. Possessed of hands at both extremities, capable,
were they directed by intelligence, of turning the soil or the inhabitants of
the forests to their use, they are inferior in sagacity to the beaver and many
other animals which live in society. ‘The social instinct of the apes, indeed,
seems limited to the tendency which frugivorous animals have in genera!
to live in wandering troops, for the purposes of mutual protection.

The whole structure of apes marks them as essentially formed for clim)-
ing trees, and it is in forests, accordingly, that they are chiefly found. Their
gait on the ground, and on all fours, as quddrupeds, is awkward and by
leaps; and their head not being placed in equilibrium on the spine as in
man, their pelvis being small, and the muscles of the thigh being attached
lower in the leg, prevents their assuming the erect posture. Their very
long arms and hands at both extremities, are, on the contrary, admirably
calculated for their mode of life.

The apes are lively, petulant, and extremely lascivious. They possess
the talent of imitation to a great degree, and have the ancient generic
denomination of Simie, from Simulare, to imitate. Condamine and Bou-
guer, when making their observations, in South America, on the figure of,
the earth, were annoyed by domesticated apes, looking through their tele-
scopes, planting signals, running to the pendulum, taking the pen to write,
and imitating all the actions of these learned astronomers. Their ittell-
gence is not, however, greater than that of the dog, though their imitative
actions appear advantageously from their particular conformation. Their
senses of touch, of smell, and of taste, are particularly acute, and seem to
direct all their appetites, which are sensual and gross in almost all the
species.

Apes bring forth one or two young ata birth, after a gestation of fron:
five tv seven months, according to the species. The females carry their
young in their arms or upon their backs, offer them suck, aintise them, and
sometimes strike or bite them, when they are dissatisfied. Among the
Sapajous, or American apes with prehensile tails, the young seat themselves
upon the haunches of the mother, preserving their equilibrium by their
tail. The males are polygamous in the smaller species, but often monoga-
mous in the largest.. Their geographical range is extremely limited, ant
they are only found under the tropics in both hemispheres. ,
68 i MAMMALIA—CHIMPANSE.

THE CHIMPANSE.

 

Cuvier thus describes this remarkable species of ape. “Jt is covered
with black or brown hairs, less thickly in front. If we can trust to tae
elations of travellers, this animal approaches, or even surpasses, the human
stature. But we have not yet seen in Europe any specimen confirmatory,
‘or even indicative, of the truth of this assertion. It inhabits Guinea and
" -Congo—lives in troops—constrncts huts of leaves and branches of trees—
arms itself with stones and clubs, and employs them to repulse from its
dwelling both elephants and men—pursues and carries off the negro wo-
men, &c. Naturalists have constantly confounded this animal with the
orang outang. In a domesticated state, it becomes gentle enough to he
taught to walk upright, and to sit and eat after our manner.”

The chimpansé approaches the human form more nearly than any other
animal. Unlike the orang outang, it has no intermaxillary bone. It has
also the last joint of the great toe perfect. That it has greater facility for
‘the biped. or upright mode of locomotion than the orang outang, is alse
apparent, by its possessing the round ligament of the-thigh bone, which the
orang has not.

Griffith closes his account of this animal in the following words: “Of the
intellectual properties of this species, as we can add little new, we shall not

 

1 Troglodytes niger. The genus Troglodytes comprises Simic with four incisor teeth
above, and four below; two canines ahove, and two below; ten molars above, and ten
thelow—in all, thirty-two teeth. Canines little praiserne contiguous to the incisors and
molars, as those. of man; head rounded; muzzle litte projecting ; superciliary ridge
prominent; facial angle, fifty degrees; arms almost proportioned to the iegs, reaching ta
the bottom of the thighs; thumbs long and opposable; no tai: ;heek pouches, intermaxil
Jarv bones, nor callosities on the buttocks. — -
MAMMALIA—ORANG OUTANG. 69

say much. If the account of Grand Pré, and other travellers, can be relied
on, its intelligence seems to surpass that of the orang-outang. Docility,
submissiveness, and an apparent melancholy, have marked the characters
of the few young specimens brought to Europe, rather than anv mental
ae iteness, surpassing that found in most of the species of the quadrumanons
w te in general.” This animal has been frequently taken, on the coait
¢ Africa, and carried to Europe.

 

THE ORANG OUTANG!

 

Tue average height of the species is from three to four and a half feet.
The body is covered with coarse red hairs. The forehead equals in height

 

! Pithecus Sutyrus. The genus Pithecus embraces Simi, with four incisor teeth above
and four below; canines two ahove, and two below; molars tet. above, and ten below.
;Camnine teeth a litte longer than the others; molurs more square than in man, with tuber-
eles more prominent; head rounded; no superciliary ridge, at least in young individuals ;
facial angle fifty to sixty-five degrees; arms excessively long; thumnhs pretty short; ne
tail, or cheek pouches; callosities on the buttocks ir some species; ears rounded, similar
to th se of nan. bs
70 MAMMALIA—ORANG OUTANG.

one half of the rest of the visage. The face is bluish. There are neither
pouches in the cheeks, nor callosities on the posteriors. The hinder thumbs
are remarkably short. This celebrated ape resembles man more nearly
than any other animal, in the form of the head and the volume of the brain.

The natural history of the orang outang has been miserably disfigured by
the mixture of it with that of other apes of the larger size, more especially
with that of the chimpansé. Upon a critical examination, (says Cuvier,)
T have ascertained that he inhabits the most oriental countries only, as
Malacca, Cochin China, and particularly the great island of Borneo, whence
he ‘has been brought to Europe by way of Java, though but rarely. He is
gentle, easily tamed, and capable of attachment. From the character of his
physical conformation, he can arrive at some facility in the imitation of
several human actions; but his intelligence by no means equals the exag
gerated accounts we have received of it, nor does it appear to surpass cauch
that of the canine species. Camper has discovered, and ably descts .ed, two
membranous sacs, which produce a thickness and hoarseness in tue voice;
but he was wrong in believing that the nails are always wu. mg og the
hinder thumbs.

We are in possession of some very minute and labored d:«...ptions of this
animal, especially by M. Cuvier, Professor Camper, Tilers 4,, and Dr Abel.
The last we shall present to the reader in the author’s ow . words, as scien-
tific, useful, and highly interesting.

“The hair of the orang outang is of a brownish red cclor, and covers his
back, arms, legs, dnd vutside of his hands and feet. On the back it is in
some places six inches long, and on his arms five. It is thinly scattered
over his hands and feet, and is very short. It is dire.ted downwards on the
back, upper arm, and legs, and upwards on the fore arm. The face has no
hair except on its sides, somewhat in the manner of whiskers, and a very
thin beard. The shoulders, elbows, and knees, have fewer hairs than other
parts of the arms and legs. The palms oi the hands and feet are quite
naked.:

“The prevailing colo: ot the animal’s skin, when nakea, or seen through
the hair, is a bluish gray.

“The head, viewed in front, is- pear-shaped, expanding from the chin
upwards, the cranium being much the larger end. The eyes are close
together, of an oval form, and dark brown color. The eyelids are fringed
with lashes, and the lower ones are saccular and wrinkled. The nose is
scarcely raised above the level of the face, except at the nostrils, which are
but little elevated: their upenings are narrow and oblique. The mouth is
very projecting, and of a roundish mammillary form. Tts opening is large
and when closed is marked by little more than a narrow seam. The lips
are very narrow, and“Seaicely perceptible when™the mouth is shut. The
chin projects less than-‘the mouth : below it, a pendulous membrane gives
the appearance of a double chin, and swells out when the animal is angry
MAMMALIA—ORANG OUTANG. 71

or much pleased. Each of the jaws contains twelve teeth; namely, four
incisive teeth, the two middle ones of the upper jaw being twice the width
of the lateral; two canine, and six molar teeth. The ears are small, closely
reseinbling the human ear, and have their lower margins in the same line
with the external angles of the eyes.

“The chest is wide compared with the pelvis: the belly is very protube-
rant. The arms are long in proportion to the height of the animal. The
legs are short, compared with the arms.

“The hands are long, compared with their width and with the human
hand. The fingers are small and tapering: the thumb is very short, scarce-
ly reaching the first joint of the fore finger. All the fingers have very
perfect nails, of a blackish color, and oval form, and exactly terminating
with the extremities of the fingers. The feet are long, and resemble
hands, in the palms, and in having fingers rather than toes, but have heels
resembling the human. The great toes are very short, are set on at right
angles to the feet close to the hee), and are entirely without nails.

“The orang outang of Borneo, is utterly incapable of walking in a perfect-
ly erect posture. He betrays this in his whole exterior conformation, and
never voluntarily attempts to counteract its tendency. His head leaning
forward, and forming a considerable angle with the back, throws the centre
of gravity so far bevond the perpendicular, that his arms, like the fore legs
of other animals, are required to support the body. So difficult, indeed, is it
for him to keep the upright position for a few seconds, under the direction
of his keeper, that he is obliged, in the performance of his- task, to raise his
arms above his head, and throw them behind him, to keep his balance. His
progressive motion on a flat surface is acconiplished by placing his bent fists
upon the ground, and drawing his body between his arms: moving in this
manner, he strongly resembles a person decrepit in the legs, supported on
crutches. In a state of nature he probably seldom moves along the ground;
his whole external configuration showing his fitness for climbing trees, and
clinging to their branches. The length and pliability of his fingers and toes
enable him to grasp with facility and steadiness, and the forve of his muscles
empowers him to support his body for a great length of time by one hand
or foot. He can thus pass from one fixed object to another, at the distance
of his span from each other, and can ovviously pass from one branch of a
tree to another, through a much greater interval. In sitting on a flat
suifave, this animal turns his legs under him. In sitting on the branch
of a tree, or on a rope, he rests on his heels, his body leaning forward
against his thighs. This animal uses his hands like ctheis of the mop-
key tribe.”

The individual described by Dr Abel, “on his arrival in Java from Bata-
via, was allowcd to be entirely at liberty, till within a day or two of being
put on buard the Cxsar to be conveyed to England; and whilst at large
made no attempt to escape: but became violent when put into a large
72° MAMMALIA—ORANG OUTANG.

railed baniboo cage, for the purpose of being conveyed from the island. As
soon as he felt himself in confinement, he took the rails of the cage into
his hands, and shaking them violently, endeavored to break them in pieces;
but finding that they did not yield generally, he tried them separately, and,
having discovered one weaker than the rest, worked at it constantly, till he
had broken it, and made his escape. On board ship, an attempt being made
to secure him by a chain tied to a strong staple, he instantly unfastened it,
and ran off with the chain dragging behind; but finding himself embarras-
sed by its length, he coiled it once or twice, and threw it over his shoulder.
This feat he often repeated; and when he found it would not remain on his
shoulder, he took it into his mouth.

“After several abortive attempts to secure him more effectually, he was
allowed to wander freely about the ship, and soon became familiar with the
sailors, and surpassed them in agility. They often chased him about the
rigging, and gave him frequent opportunities of displaying his adroitness in
managing an escape. On first starting, he would endeavor to outstrip his
pursuers by mere speed; but when much pressed, eluded them by seizing
a loose rope, and swinging out of their reach. At other times, he would
patiently wait on the shrouds, or at the mast head, till his pursuers almost
touched him, and then suddenly lower himself to the deck by any rope that
was near him, or bound along the mainstay, from one mast to the other,
swinging by his hands, and moving them one over the other. The men
would often shake the ropes by which he clung with so much violence, as
to make me fear his falling; but I soon found that the power of his muscles
could not be easily overcome. When ina playful humor, he would often
swing within arm’s length of his pursuer, and, having struck him with his
hand, throw himself from him.

“Whilst in Java, he lodged in a large tamarind-tree, near my dwelling,
and formed a bed by intertwining the small branches, and covering them
with leaves. During the day, he would lie with his head projecting beyond
the nest, watching whoever might pass under; and when he saw any one
with fruit, would descend to obtain a share of it. He always retired for the
night at sunset, or sooner if he had been well fed, and rose with the sun,
and visited those from whom he habitually received food.

“Of some small monkeys on board from Java, he took little notice, whilst
ander the observation of the persons of the ship. Once, indeed, | e of enly
attempted to throw a small cage, containing three of ther, overloard, be-
zause, probably, he had seen them receive food, of which he could obtain no
part. But although he held so little intercourse with them,when under our
inspection, I had reason to suspect that he was less indifferent to their
society when free from our observation ; and was one dav summoned to the
top-gallant yard of the mizen-mast to overlook him playing with a young
male monkey. Lying on his back partially covered with a sail, he for
some time contemplated, with great gravity, the gambols cf the monkey,
MAMMALIA—ORANG OUTANG. 73

whieh vourded over him; but at length caught him by the tail, and tried to
envelope him in his covering. The monkey seemed to dislike his confine-
ment, and broke from him, but again renewed his gambols, and although
frequently caught, always escaped. The intercourse, however, did not
seem to be that of equals, for the orang outang never condescended to romp
with the monkey, as he did with the boys of the ship. Yet the monkeys
had evidently a great predilection for his company ; for whenever they
broke loose, they took their way to his resting place, and were often seen
lurking about it, or creeping clandestinely towards him. There appeared
to be no gradation in their intimacy; as they appeared as confidently fami-
liar with him when first observed, as at the Close of their acquaintance.

“But although so gentle when not exceedingly irritated, the orang outang
would be excited to violent rage, which he expressed by opening his mouth,
showing his teeth, and seizing and biting those who were near him. Some-
times, indeed, he seemed almost driven to desperation ; and, on two or three
occasions, committed an act, which, in a rational being, would have been
called the threatening of suicide. If repeatedly refused an orange when he
attempted to take it, he would shriek violently, and swing furiously about
the ropes; then return and endeavor to obtain it: if again refused, he would
roll for some time like an angry child upon the deck, uttering the most
piercing screams; and then suddenly starting up, rush furiously over the
side of the ship and disappear. On first witnessing this act, we thought
that he had thrown himself into the sea; but, on a search being made,
found him concealed under the chains.

“This animal neither practices the grimaces and antics of other monkeys,
nor possesses their perpetual proneness to mischief. Gravity, approaching
to melancholy, and mildness, were sometimes strongly expressed in his
countenance, and seem to be the characteristics of his disposition. When
he first came among srangers, he would sit for hours with his hand upou
his head, looking pensively at all around him; and when much incommoded
by their examination, wevid hide himself beneath any covering that was at
hand. His mildness waz evinced by his forbearance under injuries, which
were grievoes before he was excited to revenge; but he always avoided
those who often teazed him. He soon became strongly attached to’ those
who used him kindly. By their side he was fond of sitting; and getting as
close as pussible to their persens, would take their hands between his lips,
and .fly t» them for protection. From the boatswain of the Alceste, who
shared his meals with him,,and was his chief favorite, although he some-
times purloined the grog and the biscuit of his benefactor, he learned to
eat with a spoon; and might be often seen sitting at his cabin door, enjoy-
ing his coffee, quite unembarrassed by those who observed him, and with
a grotesque and sober air, that seemed a burlesque on human nature.

“Next ‘o the boa*swain, I was, perhaps, his most intimate acquaintance,
He would always follow me to the mast-head, waiter 1 often went for the

10
74 MAMMALIA—ORANG OUTANG.

sake of reading apart from the noise of the ship; and, having satisfied him-
self that my pockets contained no eatables, would lie down by my side, and
pulling a topsail entirely over him, peep from it occasionally to watcn my
moveinents.

“His favorite amusement in Java, was in swinging from the branches of
trees, in passing from one to another, and in climbing over the roots of
houses ; on board, in hanging by his arms from the ropes, and in romping
with the boys of the ship. He would entice them into play by striking
them with his hand as they passed, and bounding from them, but allowing
them to overtake him, and engage in a mock scuffle, in which he used his
hands, feet, and mouth. If any conjecture could be formed from these
frolics, of his mode of attacking an adversary, it would appear to be his first
object to throw him down, then to secure him with his hands and feet, and
then wound him with his teeth.

“On board ship, he commonly slept at the mast-head, after wrapping him-
self ina sail. In making his bed, he used the greatest pains to remove
every thing out of his way, that might render the surface on which he
intended to lie, uneven; and, having satisfied himself with this part of his
arrangement, spread out the sail, and lying down upon it on his back, drew
itover his body. Sometimes I pre-oceupied his bed, and teased him by
refusing to give it up. On these occasions, he would endeavor to pull’ the
sail from under me, or to force me from it, and would not rest till I had
resigned it. If it were large enough for both, he would quietly lie by my
side. If all the sails happened to be set, he would hunt about for some
other covering, and either steal one of the sailors’ jackets or shirts that
happened to be drying, or empty a hammock of-its blankets. Off the Cape
of Good Hope, he suffered much from a low temperature, especially early
in'the morning, when he would descend from the mast, shivering with cold,
and‘running up to any one of his friends, climb into their arms, and clasp-
ing them closely, derive warmth from their persons, screaming eens at
any attempt to remove him.

“His food in Java was chiefly fruit, especially mangostans, of+ which he
was extremely fond. He preferred coffee and tea, but would readily take
wine, and exemplified his attachment to spirits by stealing the captain’s
brandy bottle. Since his arrival in London, he has preferred beer and rr ilk
to any thing else, but drinks wine and other liquors.

“In his attempts to obtain food, he afforded us many opportunities of
judging of his sagacity and disposition. He was always very impatient to
receive it when held out to him, and became passionate when it was not
soon given up; and would chase a person all over the ship to obtain it. 1
seldom came upon deck without sweetmeats or fruit in my pocket, and
could never escape his vigilant eye. Sometimes I endeavored to evade him
hy aseending to the mast-head, but was always overtaken or intercepted in
my progress, When he came up with me on the shrouds, he would secure
MAMMALIA—ORANG OUTANG. . 75

himself by one foot on the rattlings, and confine my legs with the other and
one of Lis hands, while he rifled my pockets. If he found it impossible to
overtake me, he would climb to a considerable height on the rigging, and
then drop suddenly upon me. Or if, perceiving his intention, | attempted
to descend, he would slide down a rope, and meet me at the bottom of the
shrouds. Sometiines I fastened an orange to the end of a rope, and lowered
it to the deck from the mast-head ; and as soon as he attempted to seize it,
drew it rapidly up. Afte: »semg several times foiled in endeavoring to
obtain it by direct means, ne altered his plan. Appearing: to care little
about it, he would remove to some distance, and ascend the rigging very
leisurely for some time, and then, by a sudden spring, catch the rope wHich
held it. If defeated again by my suddenly jerkive the rope, he would, at
first, seem quite in despair, relinquish bis effert, and rush about the rigging,
screaming violently. But he would always returu, and again seizing the
rope, disregard the jerk, and allow it torun through his hand till within
teach of the orange; but if again foiled, would come to my side, and taking
me by the arm, confine it while he hauled the orange up.

“T have seen him exhibit violent alarm on two occasions only, when he
appeared to seek for safety in gaining as high an elevation as possible. On
seeing eight large turtles brought on board, whilst the Cesar was off the
Island of Ascension, he climbed with all possible speed to a higher part
of the ship than he had ever before reached, and, Jooking down upon them,
projected his long lips into the form of a hog’s snout, uttering at the same
time a sound which might be described as between the croaking of a frog
and the grunting of a pig. After some time, he ventured to descend, but
with great caution, peeping continually at the turtles, but could not be
induced to approach within many yards of them. He ran to the same
height, and uttered the same sounds, on seeing some men bathing and
splashing in the sea; and since his arrival in England, has shown nearly
the same degree of fear at the sight of a live tortoise.”

This animal survived his transportation to England, from August, 1817,
‘when he arrived,) to the Ist of April, 1819, during which interval he was
in the custody of Mr Cross, at Exeter "Change, as much caressed for the
gentleness of his disposition, as he was noticed for his great rarity. There
was no need of personal confinement, and little of restraint or coercion; to
his keepers, especially, and to those whom he knew by their frequent visits,
he displayed a decided partiality. During his last illness, and at his Jeath,
his piteous appearance, which seemed to bespeak his entreaties to those
about him for relief, did not fail to excite the feelings of all whe witnessed
them; an excitement evidently heightened by the recollection of human
suffering under similar circumstances, which the sight of this animal so
strongly tiought to mind. He was shedding his teeth at the period of his
death, which was probably promoted, if not cause] by it.
76 . MAMMALIA—GIBBON.

Of the many attempts to transport the orang outang alive to Europe, we
believe only one or two have been successful. In 1825, one was brought to
Boston, from Batavia, by Captain Blanchard, but unfortunately it died in
the harbor before landing. Captain Shirley, who arrived there from Batavia,
in June, 1831, was more fortunate. He brought a young orang outang,
which is now in good health, and has every prospect of enduring the
climate. Ic isa female of about three years old, and was procured origi+
nally in Borneo. The interest excited in respect to this animal, as well by
its own extraordinary characteristics, as by the variety of accounts that
authors have given.of it, has induced us to examine it with some care. We
have also caused a correct likeness to be taken, which is the oné, at e”
head of the present article.

In comparing this animal with the preceding description, by Dr Abel;
we find it remarkably accurate and complete. We observe that the thumbs
of the hinder hand has no nail, and it seems that in nine cases mentioned
oy Dr Abel, the same fact existed. Two instances to the contrary,. how-.
ever, are cited; one by Tilesius, the other by Cuvier. We also remathed
that the thumb is placed nearly at right angles to the hand, inclining a little
toward the wrist.

 

THE GIBBON, OR LONG-ARMED APE,}

 

Atways keeps in an erect posture, even when it walks upon all fours; its
arms being as long as its body and legs put together. We have seen one of
these animals alive. It had no appearance of any tail; it hada circle of
gray, bushy hair, all round the face, which gave it a very remarkable appear-
ance. Its eyes were large, and sunk in its head; its face resembling that of
a man, tanned, and its ears well proportioned. This ape appeared to us to
be of a gentle and tractable disposition ; its motions were neither rash nor
precipitate. It was fed on bread, fruit, almonds, &c., and calinly received

 

1 Pithecus lar. The gibbons, of which there are several, have the long arms of the orang,
the low forehead of the chimpause, and allosities on the buttocks, They have no tail or
cheek pouch.
MAMMALIA—SIAMANG. 7

the fruit that was presented to it; it was very averse to cold and wet
weather, and did not long live after being brought from its native country.
It is a native of the East Indies, and particularly, found along the coasts
or Coromandel, Malacca, and the Molucca Islands.

THE SIAMANG.

 

Curse aniiwns ave plack all over, and have two naked folds of skin on
the neck, whicn are occasionally inflated. The hair is long and soft. They
are very common im Sumatra. They are generally found assemb.ed in large
troops, conducted, 1t is said, by a chief, whom the Malays believe invulnera-
ble. Thus assembled at sunrise, and again at sunset, they vie with each

. other in making the most dreadful cries, perfectly stunning to those accus-
tomed to them, and frightful in the highest degree to strangers. At all
other times they appear to be perfectly quiet, as long at least as they are
undisturbed.

Maternal affection will triumph over every other passion, and the mother
0. a young one, which has been wounded, will immediately throw away
her life in an attack on an enemy. This affection is also displayed under
more pleasing circumstances, and their care of the persons of their young

 

‘ Pithecus syndactylus.
48 MAMMALIA—MALBROUCK.

by washing, rubbing, and drying them, in spite of the pettish cries and
resistance of the infant siamang, is highly ludicrous and amusing.

 

‘
THE MALBROUCK)

Tursr animals are found in Bengal, where travelleis inform us they
plunder whole fields of grain, and plantations of sugar-canes ; and while
one stands sentinel on a tree, the others load themselves with the booty,
But if the owner of the field or plantation appears, to interrupt their depre-
dations, their faithful companion on the look-out, gives notice, by crying
out, houp, houp, houp, which the rest perfectly understand; and, all at once,
throwing down their plunder which they hold in their left hands, they
scamper off upon three legs, holding the remainder in their right, and save
themselves from their pursuers by climbing up trees, where they have their
general abode. The females, even loaded with their young ones, clasp
them close to their breast, leap like the others, from branch to branch, and’
escape with the rest. When it happens that they cannot find any provision
in the fields, they get on the tops of houses, and, having pulled off the tiles,
do great damage to the inside. They do not eat a single thing, without
smelling at it for a long time beforehand; and when they have satisfied
their hunger, they put the remainder in their cheek pouches, for the next
day: they destroy the nests of birds, and never fail to throw the eggs on
the ground, when they want appetite or inclination to eat them.

The most formidable enemy these animals have, is the serpent; no othe
animal of the forest being able to surprise them, as they are so exceedingly
swift and subtle, and easily climb up and seat themselves on the tops of the
nighest trees. The monkey, (says a traveller,) has it in his power to be
master of the forest; for there are neither tigers nor lions which can dispute
tne possession with it. The chief animal it has to fear, and which attacks
it both night and day, is the snake. There are some snakes in those forests
of a prodigious size, which wind up the trees where the monkeys reside,
and, when they happen to surprise them sleeping, swallow them whole
before the little animals have time to make a defence. ?

The malbrouck has pouches on each side of its cheeks, and callosities on

 

4 Cercocebus cynosurus. The Cercocebus is a sub-genus of the Cercopithecus, whict
includes Simize with four upper and four lower incisors; canines, two upper and twe
‘ower; molars, ten upper and ten lower, Canines a little projecting, with intermediate
spaces for their reception; posterior molars with only four tubercles. Head rounded
facial angle, forty-five to fifiy degrees ; ears sometimes rounded, sometimes shghtl
lar; thumbs distinct, more or less approaching to the fingers ; cheek pouches ; all
on the buttocks, with the exception tr A

turned up on the back.

* Some later naturalists are of opinion, that the malbrouck is not a nati :
“ ive
bu of Africa. of India,

angu-
' f osities
one species ; tail as long at least as the bndy, often
MAMMALIA~MAIMON...MAGOT 79

its posteiiors ; its tail is very nearly as long as the body and head put
together. The eyelids are of a fleshy, and the face of an ash color; the
ears are large, thin, and of a flesh color; they have a list of gray hairs
above the eyes but in other parts are of a uniform color, apprdaching
towards a brown on the upper parts of the body, and towards a gray on
the lower. It goes on all fours, and is-about a foot or a foot and a kalf long,
from the snout to the insertion of the tail.

THE MAIMON, OR PIG-TAILED BABOON,

Wnuicn is a native of the banks of the Ganges, has pouches on each side
of its cheeks, and callosities on its posteriors; its tail is naked, curled up,
and about the length of five or six inches; the canine teeth are not much
longer in proportion, than those of men; the face, ears, hands, and feet, are
naked, and of a flesh color; the hair on the body is of a beautiful greenish
gray, each hair being gray and black, tipped with yellow; the extremities
are gray; the region of the loins isa golden yellow; and the thighs are
of a lively red. It sometimes walks erect, and at other times upon all
fours: it is about two feet or two feet and a half tall, when erect. It is
a spiteful animal.

THE MAGOT, OR BARBARY APE. ,

Tuts animal is generally known by the name of the Barbary ape. Of all
the apes which have no tail, this animal can best endure the temperature
of a northern climate. Buffon kept one for many years. In the swnmer
it yemained in the open air with pleasure; and in the winter might be kept
in aroom without any fire. It was filthy, and of a sullen disposition: it
equally made use of a grimace to show its anger, or express its sense of
hunger; its motions were violent, its manners awkward, and its physiogno-
my rather ugly than ridiculous. Whenever it was offended, it grinned and
showed its teeth. It put whatever was given it into the pouches on each
side of its jaws, and commonly eat every thing that was offered it, except
raw flesh, cheese, and other things of a fermentative nature. When it
slept, it was fond of roosting on a wooden or iron bar. It was always kept

 

1 Macacus rhesus. The genus Macacus, consists of animals with four upper and four
lower incisors; two upper and two lower canines; ten upper and ten lower molars. Canine
teeth very strong, above all in the males; the first and second molars have two tubercles
on their crown; the three others have four, with the exception of the last of the lower jaw,
which has five, and which is terminated by a heel; facial angle, forty to forty-five degrees ;
superciliary ridges much developed; muzzle broad and projecting ; eyes approaching;
nostrils oblique ; ears naked, close to the head, angular; cheek pouches; lips thin and
extensible; callosities on the buttocks.

2 Magot inuus. The Magot is a sub-genvs of the Macacus, characterized by having a
simple tubercle, in place of a tail
80 MAMMALIA--MAGOT.

chained, for, notwithstanding its long subjection, it was neither civilized,
nor fond of its keener: apparently, it had been but badly educated, for ]
have seen others of the same kind, who were more sagacious, obedient,
gayer, and so tractable as to be taught to dance, and suffer themselves
quietly to be clothed and dressed.

 

This ape is about two feet and a half, or three feet high, in its erect pos-
ture; but the female is not so large as the male. It is completely covered
with a light gray brown hair. It rather chooses to walk on all fours, than
erect. When it sleeps, it is almost always sitting. There are two very
prominent callosities on its posteriors. It abounds in Barbary, and in the
forests of India, Arabia, and Africa. In Barbary, the trees are sometimes
nearly covered with them. This ape is said to have become naturalized in
the most inaccessible parts of the rock of Gibraltar.

It is probably this kind of monkey, which Robert Lade speaks of, in the
following terms: “We travelled over a great mountain at the Cape of
Good Hope, where we diverted ourselves with hunting the large apes,
which are there in great plenty. Iam not able to represent all the tracta-
bleness of these animals which pursued us, nor the swiftness and impudence
with which they returned to us after we had driven them away. Some-
times they suffered us to approach so near them, that, stopping almost close
to one of these animals to take my. observations, I thought myself certain
of securing him, when, taking a sudden leap, he sprang above ten paces
from me, and climbed up a tree with the greatest agility. They remained
afterwards very quiet, looking on us as though they were pleased with our
astonishment. There were some so exceedingly large, that if they had
been of a ferocious nature, our. number would not have been sufficient to
Secure us from their attacks. As it would have been useless to kill these
animals, we made no use of our guns; but the captain, thinking to wound
one of them, which was seated on a tree, after a long pursuit, had no sooner
presented his piece, but the animal, probably from the remembrance of the
execution of some of his companions in the same manner, was so greatly
terrified at it, that it fell almost motionless at our feet, and being stunned
in the fall, we had not the least trouble to secure it: however, when it
revived, we had occasion for all our strength and address to keep it, defend.
MAMMALTIA—BABOON 81

ma itself by biting those who were near it, which obliged us to bind ow
handkerchiefs over its head.”

Tavernier tells us that some of the inhabitants of India adopt a ludicrous
mode of avenging themselves on these monkeys, who not unfrequently
attack the women who are going to market, and rob them of their provi
sions. In an open space, near the retreat of the apes, they place five or
six baskets of rice, forty or fifty yards asunder, and near the baskets, a num-
ber of stout cudgels, each two feet in length. They then hide themselves,
to watch for the result. Thinking that no one sees them, the apes hasten
towards the baskets. Fora while they grin angrily at each other, then
approach, then retire, and seem to dread coming to action for the prey.
More daring than the males, the females at length advance to the baskets,
and as they thrust in their heads to eat, the males on the one side rush
forward to prevent them. This brings on a general engagement, and the
cudgels are lustily plied till the weakest party is compelled to seek for
ahelter in the wovds. The victors then quietly fall to, upon their hard-
earned meal. a

 

THE PIG-FACED BABOON.

   

OY Ress e : Hh frei
a a /
SS Vill EEE

Tus animal, which 1s also called the chacma, is a native of Africa, and
was formerly exceedingly troublesome to the settlers in the neighborhood

 

1 Cimocephalus porcarius. The genus Cynocephalus comprises Simi, with four upper
id four lower incisors; two upper, and two lower canines; ten upper, and ten lowes
nolors. Canines very strong; last molar of the under jaw on each side with a heel;
nead and muzzle much elongated ; nostrils placed at the extremity, like the dog; facia
ingle, thirty to thirty-five degrees; superciliary. sagittal, and occipital ridges, much de-
veloped ; orbit hollow; maxillary bone much preluced; face wrinkled, with lougitudinal
striz; ears flat and angular; cheek p,‘\ches; members of nearly equal length, aud very
robus!.; large callosities.

V1
B82 MAMMALIA—MANDRILL.

of the Cape of Good Hope. It is a proper baboon. Its general color isa
dusky hue, Lordering upon black. The body is from two to three feet in
tength, and the tail is so short, that, when the animal stands on all fours,
it does not reach the ground. The adult has a large mane. The fore~
head of this species is remarkably d2pressed; the nose is much prolonged.
The voice of the pig-faced baboon has a near resemblance to the bark

of a dog.

 

THE MANDRILL.J

 

Tws baboon, which also bears the name of the ribbed-nosed baboon, 1s
an ugly, disgusting animal. It is found on the Gold Coast, and in other
si uthern provinces of Africa, where the negroes call it doggo, and the Euro-

eans, mandrill. This animal is the largest of the baboon’ kind. Smith
relates, that a female mandrill was given to him, which was not above six
months old, and had then attained the size of an adult baboon. He like-
wise acquaints us, that these animals always walk erect; that they sigh
and cry like the human species; that they have a violent passion for the
female sex; that they never fail to overcome them if they come within
their reach,

This animal is equally remarkable for its variety of color, its singularity
af appearance, its immense strength, and its unconquerable Savageness “

 

‘ Cynocephalus mormon
MAMMALIA—COAITA. 85

Under its projecting forehead, (says Mr Bingly,) are two small and vivid
eyes, situated so near to each other, that their position alone gives to the
physiognomy an air of ferocity. An enormous muzzle, indicative of the
most brutal passions, terminates in a broad and rounded extremity of a fiery
red color, from which continually oozes a mucous humor. The cheeks,
greatly swollen and deeply furrowed, are naked, and of a deep blue color.
A narrow, blood-colored ridge extends down the middle of the face, and
terminates in the nose. Round the neck the hair is very long. On the
sides of the head it joins that at the top, and the whole terminates in a
somewhat pointed form. Each hair of the body is annulated with black and
yellow ; so that the whole fur has a greenish brown hue.

One of these animals was exhibited at Charing Cross, London. He some-
times sat in a chair, smoked a pipe, drank spirits and water, and appeared
to understand every look and gesture of his keeper. He had a very con-
tented look, and passed under the name of “ Happy Jerry.”

When standing upright, the mandrill isin height from three feet anda
half to five feet. It is to be found on the Gold Coast, in several other parts
of Africa, and also. in the East Indies and the Indian Archipelago. Its
voice bears some resemblance to the roaring of a lion. No art or kindness
can in the least subdue its brutal propensities; and its great strength
renders it an object of perpetual dread to its keepers. Yet it is not, strictly
speaking, a carnivorous animal; for, though it will eat meat that has been
cooked, its usual food is fruit and nuts.

THE COAITA.!

Next to the warine, and the alouato, the coaita, or four-fingered monkey,
is the largest of the sapwous.* There was one alive at the Duke of Bouil-
lon’s, where, by its farniliarity and forward caresses, it merited the affection
of those who had it under their care; but in spite of the good treatment and
attention paid to it, it could not resist the winter of the year 1764. It differs
greatly in disposition from the warine and the alouato, which are wild and
untamneable. It also differs from them in having but four fingers, and ne
thumb to the fore gaws: by this character alone, and its holding tail, it is

 

1 Ateles paniscus. The ena Ateles has four upper and four lower incisors ; two upper
and two lower canines ; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Canines a little projecting,
crossing one another, conival; molars with blunt crowns, as those of man; head rounds
face perpendicular; facial angle, about sixty degrees; ears hardened ; extremities very long
and slender; the anteriar ones, generally tetradavtyle; thumb, none, or only replaced hy a
wart, or extremely short, and armed with a little sharp nail; posterior pentadactyle ; nail,
convex and short; tail extremely Jong, strongly prehensile, having a part without hair,
and covered with a delicate skin toward its extremity.

* The sapajous are apes peculiar to the American continent, having long, prehensile
tals. *
84 MAMMALIA—HOWLING MONKEY.

easily distinguished from the monkey kind. In the use of their tail thess
animals are singularly dexterous. They can pick up with it even straws
and bits of wood; and M. Audebert tells us, that he saw one of the species
carry hay in its tail to make its bed, and move and spread it about as easily
as an clephant could have done with his trunk.

In climbing, too, this member is of great use. There are, (says Dam
pier,) in the Isthmus of America, numbers of monkeys, some of which are
white, but the most part black—some have beards, others none. These
monkeys are very droll, and performed a thousand grotesque postures as we
traversed in the woods. When they are unable to leap from one tree to
another, on account of the distance, or the tree being separated by a river,
their dexterity is very surprising. The whole family form a kind of chain,
locking tail in tail, or hand in hand, and one of them holding the branch
above, the rest swing down, balancing to and fro like a pendulum, until the
undermost is enabled to catch hold of the lower branches of some neighbor-
ing tree. When the hold is fixed below, the monkey lets go that which
was above, and thus comes undermost in turn; but creeping up along the
chain, attains the next branches of the tree like the rest; and thus, they all
take possession without ever coming to the ground.

They have the address to break the shell of oysters to eat them. They
generally produce only one or two young ones at a time, which they carry
upon their backs; they feed upon fish, worms, and insects, but fruit is their
general food, and they grow fat when it is ripe, when, it is said, their flesh
1s good and exquisite eating.’

The coaita is about a foot and a half long, and its tail is longer than the
head and body measured together: it goes on all fours.

 

THE WARINE, AND THE ALOUATO, OR
HOWLING MONKEY,

Are the largest of these animals, belonging to the new continent: they
surpass the size of the largest monkey, and approach the size of the baboon.
They have a long tail, and are moreover of the sapajou family, in which they
hold a very distinct rank, not only with regard to size? but also to voice
which sounds like a drum, or as others say, like the screaming of immense
herds of swine, and may be heard at a very great distance. From the excess
sive nu.se which they make, they have obtained the name of the howling
monkey. Marcgrave informs us, “that every morning and evening the warznes

 

1 Mycetes senirulus. The genus Mycetes has four upper and four lower incisors ; 1we
upper and two luwer canines; twelve upper and twelve ower molars, Canines well de
veloped, triquetrous ; head pyramidal; countenance oblique; facial angle, thirty degrees
hyoid bone ventricuse, apparent externally, and cavernous. Four extreniities penta lac’
tyle; tail very long; strongly prehensile, nakesl under its extremity ; nails convex avd short
MAMMALLA—WEEPER. 85

and the zlouatos assemble in the woods; that one among them seats himself
on an clevated place, makes a sign with his hand to the rest to seat them-
selves round him; as soon as he sees them all seated, he begins an oration
with so quick and loud a voice, that, ata distance, it might be imagined they
were all making a noise together. During the whole discourse, the rest
keep a profound silence, and when it is ended, he makes a signal to the
rest to answer him, and immediately they all set up a cry together, till by
another sign with his hand he orders them to be silent; when they are
immediately obedient and quiet. Then the first renews his discourse, or
his song, which when finished, and the others have paid the utmost atten-
tion to it, the whole assembly breaks up and separates.” This singular
noise is made by the instrumentality of a long bony process in the throat,
According to the same author, “the face of the warine is broad, the eyes
black and sparkling, the ears short and round, the tail naked at the extremi-
ty, with which it holds firmly whatever it encircles; the hair of the body is
black, long, and glossy; itis much longer under the chin, which forms a
kind of round beard: the hair'on the hands, feet, and a part of the tail, is
brown. The male is of the same eelor as the female, and only differs
from it in being a little larger. The females carry their young on their
backs, and thus luaded leap from branch to branch, and from tree to tree.
The young one clasps the narrowest part of the body of the mother with
its hands and arms, and thus holds itself firmly fastened, whatever motion
its parent makes. In other respects, these animals are wild and mischiev-
ous: they can neither be tamed nor subdued, and bite dreadfully. As they
live only on fruit, grain, and some insects, their flesh is not bad eating. It
is like that of the hare, but a little sweetish, for which reason a good quan-
tity of salt is put to that which is roasted: the fat is the color of its hair.
They are both lively, active, and very pleasing by their tricks and nimble-
ness. ‘They are, however, fantastical in their tastes and affections: thcy
secm to have a strong inclination for some people, and as great an aversion
for others. They are natives of French Guiana. They usually live in
troops of from twenty to forty individuals. They often whistle, and when
they are enraged they shake their heads violently, and utter, in a ferocious
tone, the syllables, Pz, ca, row ”

 

THE SAI, OR WEEPER.}

Trave ters have described these animals hy the name of Aowlers, from
their plaintive moan. Others have called them musk monkeys, from uieir

 

1 Cebus apella, The genus Cebus has four upper and four lower incisors ; two upper
and two lower canines; six upper and six lower molars. Superior incisors larger than the
miferior; canines more or less strong, those of the males being much more so than the
females; head round, muzzle short, forehead a little prominent; occiput projecting | ehind
facil angie, alow sixty degrees; ears rounded ; hyoid bone, not projecting ; tail prehen-
sile, but eutirely covered with hair. ;

‘
386 MAMMALIA—OUISTITI.

having, like the macaque, that peculiar smell. They belong to the sapajou
amily, as they have a holding tail; they have only two teats, aid tring
forth but one or two atatime. They are gentle, docile, and so U:morous,
that their common cry, which resembles that of the cat, is dwindled down
to a kind of sighing, when they are threatened. Their food, in this climate,
is principally snails and beetles, which they prefer, before any other; but mn
their native country of Brazil, they chiefly live upon grain, and the wild

- fiuit they pluck from trees, whence they very seldom descend till they have
stripped their habitation of its treasure.

 

THE STRIATED MONKEY, OR OUISTITI!

 

Tue name of this animal is taken from the sound of its voice. It 1s not
above six inches long, and its tail more than double that length, which is
annulated black and white, like the macauco. Its face is naked, and of a
flesh color. It has two very singular tufts of long white hair on the fore
part of the ears, which, although very large, cannot be seen by looking at
the full face of this animal. Mr Edwards says, that, when it is in good
health, it has much hair and tufted; that one of those which he saw, and
which was healthy, fed on several things, as biscuits, fruit, pulse, insects,
snails; and, being one day unchained, he struck ata little gold fish which
was ina glass globe, killed it, and devoured it with the greatest avidity;
that afterwards, some small eels being put before him, he was frightened
when they twisted about his neck, but that he soon conquered and ate them.
It is a great enemy to cats. These animals, when young, have an ugly
appearance, having scarcely any hair on their bodies. They cling closely
to the teats of their dam; and as they grow older, they fix themselves on

 

1 Jacchus vulgaris. This genus has four upper and four lower incisors; two upver and
two lower canines; six upper and six lower molars. Locisors and canines variable in their
dimensions. Molars with a crown. furnished with sharp tubercles; head round, muzzle
short: occiput prominent; tai] longer than the hody, soft, and entirely covered with hairs
feet pentacactyle; thumb of the anterior hands pot opposable; nails very lung, comp ressed,
arched, and pointed.
MAMMALIA-MACAUGO. of

her back cr shoulders; when she 1s weary of carrying tnem, sne releases
herself by rubbing against the wall.

The striated monkey is of a hardy nature, and has sometimes produced
young ones in Europe, even as far to the north as Paris. Most of the
individuals have a somewhat musky smell. The voice isa kind of shrill,
hising whistle.

 

FAMILY II.—LEMURS.

TuEsE animals are characterised by a general form, approaching to the
quadruped, properly so called: incisors varying in both jaws, in number,
form, and situation. Nostrils at the extremity of the muzzle; posterior
extremities longer than the anterior; first finger of the hind feet after the
thumb, uv rminated by a sharp, turned-up nail; two or four pectoral mamme:
tail, wh. \ it exists, not prehensile.

THE MACAUCO.I

Te: macauco, (which is the ring-tailed lemur of Shaw,) is a beautiful
apirv?i remarkable for the largeness of its eyes, and the length of the
ninde iegs, which by far exceed those before; Ly its beautiful and long tail,
which is continually elevated and in motion, and upon wh.en are upwards
of thirty rings, alternately black and white, all very distinct and separate
one from the other. It is gentle; and, although it grewtly resembles the
monkey in many particulars, it is not so malicious in its nature. It isa
giegarious animal, commonly found in company in its natural state; in
Madagascar, thirty or forty are seen herding together. It sleeps in a sitting
posture, with its snout resting upon its breast; its body is no thicker than
that of a cat, but is longer; and it appears larger, as the iegs of the animal
are very long. The hair is soft, aud stands upright.

 

1 Lemur catic. The genus Lemur is characterized by four upper and six under incisors.
One canine on each side, in hoth jaws; molars five above an tour below, on each side.
Superior incisors, united in pairs, inferior, inclined, long. Superior canines, long, com-
pressed, crossing the inferior ones hefore; inferior canines, or first molars, compresse:t
triangular; molars with blunt, tuberculous crowns; two pectoral namie; head, loug
and triangular; muzzle slender; ears short and rounded; fourth toe of the feet largest:
tod longer than the body, ce vered with hair, not prehensile; hair soft and woolly.
 

MAMMALIA—MONGOOS.

 

Tue mongoos is less than the macauco; but its hair is, like that, ot 3
short and silken nature, but a little curled; the nose is also thicker. Buffur
had a mongoos in his possession for several years; its coat was of a brown
tulur, the eyes yellow, the nose black, and the ears short. It had a custom
of playing with and biting its tail, and had, by this method, lessened it by
four or five of the last vertebra. Whenever it got loose, it visited the shops
iu the neighborhood, and would make free with fruit, sugar, sweetmeats, &c.;
to obtain which it would open the boxes. At such times, it was difficult to
retake it; and it would bite those that attempted it, even its keeper.

 

THE RED AND BLACK LEMUR2

yp

   

Tus 1s not only one of the most beautiful of the group to whieh w

—

 

1 Lemur mongooz. 2 Lemur ruber,
MAMMAL: A—LEMUR. &9

belongs, Iyit it also possesses the additional recommendation of being
unquestionably the rarest known species. Very little was known-of it till a
living individual was brought to Europe, and figured by M. Cuvier, in his
splendid work. A specimen in the collection at Exeter Change has since
been noticed by Mr Griffith.

The color of this animal is of a bright rufous brown above, and that of
the under parts a deep black. The tail is perfectly black. The hair of the
upper parts and tail is extremely lung, soft, and woolly. The eyes are
lively and expressive. From the nose to the root of the tail, it measwes
about sixteen inches, and the tail itself is still longer.

 

THE SLOW LEMUR, OR BENGAL LORIS.

 

in BER

Tuts animal is so s'uccich in its motions, that sone have Leen errone
easly induced to consider it asa sloth. [1 is about the size of a small cat,
and has a flattish face, a nose rather shvrp, and extremély prominent eyes;
tt is of a pale brown or mouse color; round the eyes is a circle-of dark
brown, and along the middle of the back runs a stripe uf the same colour.
During the greatest part of the day it sleeps, or at least lies without motion,

 

 

t Nycticehus Bengalensis, Geofl, Lemur tardigrada, Lin. The geuns Nycfieehus has
two or four upper, and six lower incisors, two upper and two lower canines : twelve upper
and ten luwer molars. Intermediate inctsors separate; lateral, small or none; anterior
molars with one point, these at the hottem with a large crown, hollow in the contre, and
tubercles at the angles: body thick : members robust ; head ronnd s inuzzle short, net
tumed up; eyes very large. approaching, and directed forward; ears short and harry;
two pectoral iamnve ya very short tail: Fones of the teg and arm distimet: tibia longer
Ahan the fensur; tarsus au metatarss of equal length. Inhalts Bengal, Ceylon, and

Nava
12
90 MAMMALIA—LEMUR.

One of thee ammats is described hy the late Sir Willams Sopes, in th
fourth volume of the Asiatic Researches. ‘In his manners,” says he, “he
was for the most part gentle, except in the cold season, when his temper
seems wholly changed; and his Creator who made him so sensible of cold,
to which he must often have been exposed, even in his native forests, gave
him, probably for that reason, his thick fur; which we rarely see on animals
in these tropical climates. To me, who not only constantly fed him, but
bathed him twice a week in water accommodated to the seasons, and whom
lie clearly distinguished from others, he was at all times grateful, but when
I disturbed hisw in winter, he was usually indignant, and seemed to reproach
me with the uneasiness which he felt, though no possible precautions had
been omitted to keep him ina proper degree of warmth. At all times he
was pleased at being stroked on the head and throat, and he frequently
suffered me to touch his extremely sharp teeth: but his temper was aiways
quick; and when he was unseasonably disturbed, he expressed a little re-
sentment, by an ohscure murmur, like that of a squirrel; or a greater degree
of displeasure by a peevish cry, especially in winter, when he was often as
fierce, on being much importuned, as any beast of the woods.

“From half an hour after sunrise to half an hour before sunset, he slept
without intermission, rolled up like a hedgehog; and, as soon as he awoke,
he began to prepare himself for the labors of Ais appruaching day, licking
ard dressing himself like a cat: an operation which the flexibility of his
neck and limbs enabled hiin to perform very completely : he was then ready
for a slight breakfast, after whieh he commonly took a short nap; bu
when the sun was quite set, he recovered All his vivacity.

“His ordinary food was the sweet fruit of this country; plantains always,
and mangoes during the season; but he refused peaches, and was nut fond
of mulberries, or even of guiavas: milk he lapped eagerly, but was content
with plain water. In general, he was not voracious, but he never appeared
satiated with grasshoppers; and passed the whole night, while the hot
season fasted, in prowling for them. When a grasshopper, or any insect,
alighted within his reach, his eyes, which he fixed on his prey, glowed with
uncommon fire; and having drawn himself back, to spring on it with greater
force, he seized the prey with both his fore paws, but held it in one of them
while he devoured it. For other purposes, and sometimes even tor that
of holding his food, he used all his paws indifferently as hands, and frequents
iy grasped with one of them the higher parts of his ample cage, while his
three others were severally engaged at the bottom of it; bur the posture
of which he seemed fondest, was to cling with all four of them to the Wires
his body being inverted. In the evening, he usually stood erect tor many,
minutes, playing on the wires with his tingers, and rapidly moving his Jody
from side to side. as 4 ne page found the uulity of exercise in bis unnatural
state of continerent
MAMMALIA—BAT. 91

“A little before day-break, when my early hoxrs gave me frequent oppor-
tun ties uf observing him, he seemed to solicit my attention; and if I
presented my finger to him, he licked or nibbled it with great gentlencss,
but eagerly took fruit when I offered it, though he seldom ate much at his
morning repast: when the day brought back his night, his eyes lost their
lustre and strength, and he composed himself for a slumber of ten or elvven
aours.

“My little friend was, on the whole, very engaging; and when he was
fGund lifeless, in the same posture in which he would naturally have slept
T consoled tyself with believing that he died without much pain, and lived
ith as much pleasure as he could have enjoyed in a state of captivity.”

 

ORDER THIRD—CHEIROPTERA.

THeEse animals are in their general form disposed for fight. Their inci-
sors are variable in number; canines more or less strong; molars somes
times covered with points, sometimes furrowed longitudinally ; a fold of
skin between the four members and the fingers of the anteriur feet; two
pectoral mamme; very strong clavicles; scapula large: fore arms not
capable of rotation.

THE BAT.

An animal, which, like the bat, is balf quadruped and half bird, and which,
in fact, is neither the one nor the other, isa kind of monster. In the bat,
the fore feet are, properly speaking, neither wings nor feet, though the
animal uses them for the purpose of flying, and occasionally of moving
along upon the ground. They are, in fact, two shapeless extremities, of
which the bones are of a monstrous length, and connected by «a membrane,
not covered with feathers, or even with hair, like the rest of the body: they
are a kind of winged paws, or hands, ten times larger than the feet, and in
all, four times longer than the whole length of the hody of the animal: they
are, ina word, parts which have rather the appearance of a capricious and
aeeidental, than a regular and determined production.

Te these incongruities, these disproportions of tue body and meinbers,
ma~ be added the still more striking deformities of the head. In sume
species, the nose is hardly visible, the eyes are sunk near the tip of the ear,
and are confounded with the cheeks; in others, the ears aiz as long as the
body, or else the face is twisted into the form of a Lorse-shoe, and the nose
covered with a kind of crust. Averse, likewise, to the suviety of all other
creatures, they shun the light, inhabit none but dark and glooiny places, te
which, after their nocturnal excursions, they are sure to return by break of
day, and in which they remain, fixed, as it were, to the walls, til nigh
again approaches
92 MAMMALIA—BAT.

Their motion in the air is with less propriety to be termed a flight, than
a kind of uncertain flutter, which they seem to execute by strugyles, and in
an awkward manner. They raise themselves from the ground with dillicul-
ty, never soar to a great height, and are but imperfectly qualified to accele-
rate or even to direct, their flight. This, far from being either rapid or
very direct, is performed by hasty vibrations in an oblique and winding
dire tion; and in passing along they do not fail to seize all the gnats, moths,
anc other nocturnal insects that come in their way. These they swallow
ent.re; and in their excrements we meet with the remains of wings and
the other dry parts, which they have not been able to digest. Like quadru-
peds, the bat brings forth its young alive, and like them it has teeth
and nipples.

From the observations of Spallanzani, it appears that many of the bats
possess an additional sense, by which, when deprived of seeing, they are
enabled to avoid any obstacles that may be in the way of their fight.

It is affirmed that these animals do not produce more than two at a birth,
and that these they suckle, and even carry along with them as they fly.
They unite in numbers to defend each other from the cold; they pass the
winter without awaking, without stirring, and without eating, from the end
of autumn till spring. Though they can more easily support unger than
cold, and can even subsist a number of days without food, they yet belung
to the number of carnivorous animals; for, when opportunity serves, they
will devour bacon, and meat of all kinds, whether raw or roasted, whether
fresh or corrupted.

 

VAMPIRE BATS.

THE ROUSSETTE, THE ROUGETTE? AND
THE SPECTRE BATS
Tue roussette and the rougette seem to fourm two distinct species, which,

however, are $0 full of resemblances to each other, that they ought not to
ke presented asunder. The latter differs from the former solely in the size

 

¥ Pleropus vulgaris, Georr. The genus Pleropus has four upper ard four tower incisors;
two upper and two lower canines ; ten upper and twelve lower molars. Motars with the
crown truncated obliquely, and marked with a longitudinal furrow; had. long and
conical; ears short, simple, with auricles; no crestor nasal appendage; tail shana naner
interfemoral membrane sloped off. An adJitivnal phalanx and nail on the index finger
of the wings; tongue papillous,

2 Pteropus stramineus, GEOFF.

3 Phyllosioma speetrum, Lis, The genus Phyllostoma has four upper aid four lower
incisors; two upper and tive lower cauines ; teu tipper and ten or Po lower molars
Lateral incisors very small, the intermediate ones broader: head, long aud conteal ; wnse
with two nasal crests, one like a leaf, the other of a horse-shoe forme; ears large naked
not umted, Atle internal, demtated ; eyes small and lateral; tougue rough with horny
papilla ; tail and interfemoral membrane more or less developed, :
MAMMALIA—BAT. 93

of the body and the colors of the hair. The roussette, whose hair is of a
reddish srown, is in length nine inches from the tip of the nose to the inser-
tion of the tail, and in breadth three or even four feet, when the membranes,
which serve it for wings, are fully extended. The rougette, whose hair is
of a reddish ash-color, is hardly more than five inches and a half in length,
and two feet in breadth; and its neck is half encircled with a stripe of hair
of a lively red, intermixed with orange color, of which we perceive no ves-
tige on the neck of the roussette. They both belong nearly to the same hot
climates of the old continent. We meet with them in Madagascar, in the
island uf Bourbon, in Ternate, in the Philippine and other islands of the
{ndian Archipelago, where, indeed, they seem to be more common than in
the neighboring continents.

The smell of these creatures 1s ranker than that of a fox, yet the Indians
consider them as delicious food, and the French who reside in the Isle of
Bourbon, even boil them in their soup to give it a relish! The hair
of the vampire bat, interwoven with threads of cyperus squamasus, is
used by the natives of New Caledonia for making ropes and the tassels of
their clubs.

In the hotter countries of the New World, and in some of the islands
of the Pacific Ocean, we likewise meet with another flying quadruped,
of which we know not the American name, but to which we will affix
the denomination of spectre, because it sucks the blood of men, and of
animals, while they are asleep, without causing even sufficient pain to
awake them.

The spectre is smaller than the rougette, which is itself smaller than the
roussette. The former, when it flies, seems to be of the size of a pigeon;
the second, of the size of a raven; and the third, of the size of a large hen.
Of both, the roussette and the rougette, the head is tolerably well shaped ;
the ears are short, and the nose is very round, and nearly in form like that
of adog. Of the spectre, on the contrary, the nose is more elongated ; the
aspect is as hideous as that uf the ugliest bats; the head is unshapely, and
the ears large, very open, and very straight; its nose is disfigured ; its nos-
trils resemble a funnel, and have a membrane at the top, which rises up in
the form of a sharp horn, or cock’s comb, and greatly heightens the deformi-
ty of its face.

There is no doubt, therefore, but that the species of the spectre is different
rom those of the roussette and the rougette. It is an animal] not less mis-
thievous than it is deformed; it is the pest of man, the torment and destruc-
don of animals. In confirmation of this truth, a more authentic testimony
cannot be produced than that of M. de la Condamine. ‘The bats,” says he,
“which suck the blood of norses, of mules, and even of men, when they do
not guard against it by sleeping under the shelter of a pavilion, are a scourge
common to most of the hot countries of America. Of these there are some
of a monstrous size. At Borja, and several other places, they have entirely
54 MAMMALIA—BAT.

destroyed the large cattle which the missionaries had brought thither, and
which had begun to multiply.”

The roussette and rougette are larger, stronger, and perhaps yet more
mischievous than the spectre; but it is by open force, and in the day.as well
as in the night, that they commit hostilities. Fowls and small animals are
the objects of their destructive fury; they even attack men, and bite theit
faces most cruelly.

All these bats are animals carnivorous, voracious, and possessed of an
appetite for every thing that offers. In a dearth of Hesh or fish, they feed on
vegetables and fruits of every kind. As they are fond of the juice of the palm
tree, so it is easy to take them by placing in the neighborhuod of their retreas
a few vessels filled with palm tree water, or any other fermented liquor,
with which they intoxicate themselves. They fasten to, and suspend them-
selves from trees, with their claws. They are usually seen in troops, and
more so by night than by day; places which are much frequented they shun ;
and their favorite residence is in the deserted parts of islands.

I have frequently thought it worth while to examine how it is possible
that these animals should suck the blood of a person asleep, without causing,
at the same time, a pain so sensible as to awake him. Where they cut the
flesh with their teeth or with their claws, the pain of the bite would effectu-
ally rouse any of the human species, however soundly asleep. With their
tongue only, then, it is possible for them to make such minute apertures in
the skin, as to imbibe the blood through them, and to open the veins without
causing an acute pain.

  

‘ =e

~ in ———

 

 

The tongue of the spectre I have not had an opportunity to observe ; bu
that of several roussettes, which Mr Daubenton has attentively examined,
seems to indicate the possibility of the fact. It is sharp, and full of prickles
directed backward ; and it appears that these prickles, or points, from their
exneeding minuteness, may be insinuated into the pores of the skin, may
MAMMALIA—BAT. 95

enlarge them, and may penetrate them so deep, as to command a flow of
blood by the continual suction of the tongue. But we can only conjecture
upon a fact of which all the circumstances are imperfectly known to us, and
of which soine are perhaps exaggerated, or erroneously related, by the writers
who have transmitted them to us.

Captain Stedman, while sleeping in the open air in Surinam, was attack-
ed by one of the spectre bats. On awaking, about four o’clock in the
morning, he was extremely alarmed to find himself weltering in congealed
blood, and without feeling any pain. Having started up, he ran tu the sur-
geon with a firebrand in his hand, and all over besmeared with gore. The
cause of his alarm was, however, soon explained. After he had applied
some tobacco ashes to the wound, and had washed the gore from himself
and his hammock, he examined the place where he had lain, and observed
several small heaps of congealed blood upon the ground; on examining
which, the surgeon judged that he had lost at least twelve or fourteen ounces.
Captain Stedman says, that these animals, knowing by instinct that the
person they intend to attack is ina sound slumber, they generally alight
near the feet; where, while the creature continues fanning with his enormous
wings, which keeps the person cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of the
great toe, so very small that the head of a pin could scarcely be received into
the wound, which is consequently not painful. Yet, through this orifice, he
sucks the blood until he is obliged to disgorge. He then begins again, and
thus continues sucking and disgorging till he is scarcely able to fly; and the
sufferer has often been known to sleep from time into eternity. The spectre
bat generally bites in the ear, but always in places where the blood will flow
spontaneously.

The following extract is from Waterton :

“We will now take a view of the vampire. As there was a free entrance
and exit to the vampire in the loft, where I slept, I had a fine opportunity
of paying attention to this nocturnal surgeon. He does not always live on
blood. When the moon shone bright, and the fruit of the banana tree was
ripe, I could see him approach and eat it. He would also bring into the luft
from the forest, a green round fruit, about the size of a nutmeg. There was
something also in the blossom of the sawarri nut-tree that was grateful tu
him; for on coming up Waratilla creek in a moonlight night, I saw several
vampires fluttering round the sawarri tree, and every now and then the
blossoms, which they had broken off, fell into the water. So I concluded
that the vampires pulled them from the tree, either to get at -he incipient
fruit, or to catch the insects which often take up their abode in flowers.

“ The vampire, in general, measures about twenty-six inches from wing to
wing extended, though I killed one which measured thirty-two inches. He
frequents old houses and hollow trees; and sometimes a cluster of them
may 5e seen in the forest, hanging head downwards from the branch of a
(Te 2.
96 MAMMALIA—BAT.

“©The vampire has a curious membrane, which rises from the nose, ang
gives it a singular appearance. There are two species of vampire in Guiana,
a larger and a smaiier. The larger sucks men and other animals; the
smaller seems to confine himself chiefly to birds. I learnt from a geutlernan
high up on the river Demerara, that he was completely unsuccessful with
his fowls on account of the small vampire. He showed me some that had
been sucked the night before, and they were scarcely able to walk.

“Some years ago, I went to the river Paumaron with a Scotch gentlemaa,
by name Tarbet. We hung our hammocks in the thatched loft of a planter’s
house. Next morning, I heard this gentlernan muttering in his hammock,
and now and then letting fall an imprecation, just about the time he ought
to have been saying his morning prayers. ‘ What is the matter, Sir,’ said J
softly; ‘is any thing amiss? ‘What’s the matter? answered he sullen-
ly; ‘why the vampires have been sucking me to death.’ As soon as there
was light enough, I went to his hammock, and saw that it was much stained
with blood. ‘There,’ said he, thrusting his foot out of the hammock, ‘see
aow these infernal imps have been drawing my life’s blood? On exainin-
ing his foot, I found the vampire had tapped his great toe: there was a
wound somewhat less than that made by a leech; the blood was still vozing
from it: I conjectured he might have lost from ten to twelve ounces of
blood. Whilst examining it, I think I put him in a worse humor by remark-
ing, that an European surgeon would not have been so generous as to have
blooded him without making a charge. He looked up in my face, but did
not say a-word; and I saw he was of opinion that I had better have spared
this piece of ill-timed levity.”

Of American bats there are five kinds noticed by Godman, viz: the
Carolina, hoary, cuneated, subulate, and New York bats.

ORDER FOURTH—FER AZ.

Tuts order embraces animals with four extremities proper for walking;
three kinds of teeth: mamme abdominal, varying in number, stomact
simple, membranous, intestines short.

FAMILY I.—INSECTIVORE.

Tse have the feet flat, armed with stout nails; those of the hind feet
always with five toes, having their sole entirely bearing upon the ground,
fore feet generally with five toes; molar teeth crowned with pointed ‘where
cles; canines sometimes very long, sometimes very short; incisors variable
ta number; body covered with hair or prickles,
MAMMALIA~HEDGEHOG, OF

THE HEDGEHOG.1!

Tuts animal varies in length from six to ten inches; and has the power
af defending itself from an enemy without combating him, and of annoying
without attacking him. Possessed of little strength, and of no agility by
which it might escape its foes, it has received from nature a prickly armor,
with a faculty of rolling itself up into a ball, ant of presenting from every
part of its body a poignant weapon of defence. Even from its fear this
animal obtains another engine of security; the smell of its urine, which,
when attacked, it generally sheds, being’ sufficient to disgust its enemy with
the contest, and to keep him at a distance. Thus, the generality of dogs
are content with barking at the hedgeheg, when it falls in their way, with-
out discovering any inclination to seize it. Of these, however, there are
some, which, like the fox, have had the address to master it, though of the
marten, the polecat, the ferret, the weasel, or any of the birds of prey, it has
0 dread.

When at large in the country, they are generally found in woods, under
the trunks of old trees, as also in the clefts of rocks. It is not probable that
they climb up trees, as some naturalists have affirmed, or that they make
use of their prickles to carry off the fruit; it is with their mouth they seize
it, They always remain at the foot, in some hollow space, or under moss.
Shey remain in a state of inactivity all day; they only venture abroad by
night, and seldom approach human habitations. They sleep during the
winter; and therefore every thing that has been said of their laying up pro-
visions for that season, must be false. They at no time eat much, and can
subsist very long without any food whatever. Hedgehogs are occasionally
eaten, and their flesh is said to be delicate food ; their skin is not nw con-
verted to any use, though the ancients used i‘ for the purpose of a clothes
brush.

The hedgehog may be rendered domestic, and in that state is very useful
destroying cockroaches and beetles, which he pursues and devours with
great activity. He is believed also to destroy mice, nearly if not quite ag
well asacat. A hedgehog belonging to the proprietor ofan inn at Felton.
in Northumberland, Eng., was taught to perform perfectly the duty of 2
turnspit dog. Itran familiarly round the house, and was very obedient.

“Tn the month of June, 1782,” says a correspondent in the Gentleman’s
Magazine, ‘a full grown hedgehog was put into a small yard, in which
was  bordér of shrubs and annuals. In the course of a few days he formed,
beneath a small holly tree, a hole in the earth sufficiently large to receive

 

! Erinaceus Europeus, Lin. The genus Erinaceus has six upper and six lower incisors;
two upper and two lower canines; ten upper and eight lower molars ;intermediate upper
incisors separate, cylindrical; canines smaller than the molars; body thick, covered with
zrickles above and stiff hairs below, capable of rolling up into a ball; muzzle pointed ;
zars medium size, or very short and rounded ; toes armed with strong nails; tail short or
none ; ten mamme, six pectoral, and four ventral; no caecum ; clavicles complete.

13
98 MAMMALIA—MOUSE.

his body. After a while a small shed was built for him in the corner of the
yard, and filled with straw; but the animal would not quit its former situa-
tion unti. it was covered with a stone. He then took possession of the
shed, and every morning carried leaves from a distant part of the border, to
stop its mouth. His principal food was raw meat and mice. Of the latter,
he would eat six at a time, but never more; and although these were
thrown to him dead, he bit them all in the neck before he began to eat any.
tle would also eat suails with their shells; but would leave any thing for
milk, which he lapped exceedingly slow. To this, even if set six or eight
yards distant from his shed, he would almost always come cut half an hour
before his usual time. If the person who usually fed him neglected to do
so, he would follow him along the yard; and if the door was open he woule
go into the house. If meat was put near the mouth of his shed in the day
time, he wculd sometimes pull it in and eat it. As the weather became
colder, he varried more leaves into his shed; and sometimes he would not
come out for two or three days successively. About the end of November
he died; from want of food, as was supposed, but most probably trom the
severivy of the weather.”

THE SHREW MOUSE!

¥s smaller than the domestic mouse: it has a strong smell, which is peculiar
to itself, and so offensive to cats, that, though they will cheerfully chase and
kill the shr2w mouse, yet they will not eat its flesh, like that of the domes-
tic mouse. It is evidently this noisome odor, this aversion of the cat to it,
that gave rise to the notion, that the shrew mouse is a venomous animal,
and that its bite is so dangerous to cattle of all sorts, and particularly to
horses. The truth, however, is, that it is neither venomous nor capable
of biting ; for it cannot open its mouth sufficiently wide to seize the double
thickness of the skin, which is absolutely necessary, in order to bite. The
distemper among horses, it is farther to be observed, which the vulgar attri-
sule to the tooth of the shrew mouse, is a swelling which proceeds from an
internal cause, and has no connection with any bite, or rather scratch, that
this little animal may give.

In winter, especially, the shrew mouse generally fixes its residence in
some hay-loft, stable, or barn, where it feeds on grain, insects, and putrified

 

1 Sorex araneus, Lin. The genus Sorex has two upper and two lower incisors; six or
eight upper and four lower spurious canines, or lateral incisors; eight upper and six lower
true molars; upper middle incisors hooked and dentated at base; molars crowned with
points; head much elongated; nose prolonged and moveable: ears short, rounded ; eyes
rmall, but perceptible; tail more or less long, often angular; teet with weak toes sepa-
racad, furnished with crooked nails; teats six or eitht; ba. 2ous glands on the sitles.
MAMMALIA—MOLE. 9%

flesh. It is hkewise found in the woods and fields, where, living on corn,
it sometimes conceals itself under moss or leaves, sometimes under the
trunks of trees, sometimes in holes abandoned by moles, and sometimes in
noles of a smaller size, which it forms for itself by digging with its claws
and snout.

The shrew mouse produces, it is said, as many at a birth as the domestic
mouse, though less frequently. It has a squeak much more sharp and
piercing than the latter. In point of nimbleness, however, it is far inferior;
and as it both sees imperfectly, and runs slowly, there is little difficulty in
taking it.

The usual color of the shrew is brown, with a mixture of red; others
of them are ash-colored; and in all there is a greater or less degree of white-
aess upon the belly. They are very common throughout Europe; and in
America there are several species of a small size. Among them are
the small shrew, and the short-tailed shrew. The first is found on the
Missouri, and the latter on the Rocky Mountains. Godman mentions a
third species, and Richardson notices two others, the American marsh
shrew, and Foster’s shrew mouse.

THE MOLE)

Wirxovt being blind, has such small eyes, and these so concealed, that it
was formerly supposed to be able to make but little use of the sense of seeing;
but it is now known that its eyes possess all the qualities necessary to dis-
tinct vision. It enjoys also the senses of hearing and feeling in an eminent
degree. Its skin is soft as silk; and its paws, which are furnished with
five claws, are very different from those of other animals, and almost like
the hands of a human being. Proportioned to the size of its body, its
strength is great; it possesses the mild habitudes of repose and of solitude ;
the art of securing itself, of forming, instantaneously, as it were, an asylum
‘or itself; or extending it, and of obtaining, without the necessity of relin-
quishing it, an abundant subsistence.

The mole shuts up the entry to its retreat, which it seldom deserts, unless
forced to it by heavy rains in summer. It is fond of cultivated grounds,
and 1s never to be found in those which are either muddy, hard, compact, or
stony. It requires a soft soil, well supplied with esculent roots, and wit
insects and worms, of which, indeed, its principal nourishment consists

 

1 Valpa Europea, Lin, The genus Talpa has six upper and eight lower incisors: two
upper and two lower canines; fourteen upper. and twelve lower molars. Body. thick,
head elongated, pointed ; muzzle with a cartilaginous hutton ; eyes very small ; no external
cars ; pentadactylous; fore feet very large, with toes united to the nails, which are surung
aud slightly arched.
106 MAMMALIA—MOLE.

In skinning the larve of insects, which it always does before it eats therm,
it displays much expertness; stripping off the skin from end to end, and
squeezing out the contents of the body.

As these animals very seldom come above ground, they have but few
enemies; and very readily evade the pursuit of animals swifter and strongez
than themselves. The chief calamity which befals them is an inundation
and when this happens, they are seen in numbers attempting to save them
selyes by swimming, and using every effort to reach the higher grounds.
The greater part, however, perish, as well as the young, which remain
behin? in their holes. Were it not for such accidents, from their great
fecundity, they would become extremely troublesome. They generally have
four or five at a time; and it is easy to distinguish, among other mole hills,
that in which the female has brought forth her young. These are made
with much greater art than the rest; and are usually larger and more
elevated. It is probable they produce oftener than once a year. Thus
far, indeed, is certain, that new-born moles are found from the month of
April to the month of August; a circumstance which, however, may be
owing to their having been engendered and brought forth sooner or later
in the year.

The hole in which they produce their young is formed with singular skill.
and deserves a particular description. The female begins by erecting the
earth into a tolerably spacious apartment, which is supported within by
partitions at proper distance, to keep the roof from falling. All around this
she works, and beats the earth very firm, so as to make it capable of
‘reeping out the rain, let it be never so violent. As the hillock, in which the
partment is thus formed, is raised above ground, the apartment itself is
sonsequently above the level of the plain, and therefore less subject to acci-
{ental slight inundations. The place being thus fitted, she procures grass
ind dry leaves as a bed for her young. There they lie secure from wet,
and she continues to make their retreat equally free from danger; for all
round this hill of her own raising, are holes running into the earth, which
go off from the middle apartment, like rays from a centre, and extend about
fifteen feet in every direction. These resemble so many walks or chases,
into which the animal makes her subierraneous excursions, and supplics
her young with such roots or insects as she can provide; but they contribute
still more to the general safety ; for as the mole is very quick of hearing,
the instant she perceives her little habitation attacked, she takes to her
burrow, and unless the earth be dug away by several men at once, she and
ner young always make good a retreat.

Moles live in pairs, between which a warm attachment subsists. They
are, however, said to be ferocious, and occasionally to tear and eat each
other.

Some authors have said, but without foundation, that the mole and the
hadger slecp the whole winter. As a proof that the latter quits its hole in
MAMMALIA—MOLE. 101

winter as well as in summer, we have only to view the traces it leaves upon
the snow. As for the mole, so far is it from sleeping during the winter,’
that it continues its subterranean operations then as well as in summer;
and the peasants of France even proverbially remark, that, “ when moles are
at work, a thaw is at hand.” They-are indeed fond of warm places; and
the gardeners often catch them round their beds, in the months of Decem-
ber, January, and February. In pasture lands, and in nurseries of forest
trees, they do considerable mischief. In 1740, M. Buffon planted sixteen
acres with acorns, the greater part of which were speedily carried away
by the moles. Not less than a bushel of acorns was found in some of
their burrows. The common mole of Europe is supposed not to inhabi

America.

THE SHREW MOLE!

 

Is found in abundance in North America, from Canada to Virginia. It lives
principally under ground, in which it burrows with great quickness, by
means of its strong and broad hands, armed with sharp claws. These bur-
rows are sometimes very deep, and hills of loose earth are generally found
over them. Sometimes one of these creatures shows his head from the
centre of one of the hills at mid-day, for the purpose of enjoying the sun-
shine. They form galleries under ground, by which they can travel «n any
direction. It is said, that they come to the top of the ground daily, at
twelve o’clock.

This animal is covered with a soft, glossy fur; its head is destitute
of external ears, though its sense of hearing is very acute. The eyes
are so small as scarcely to be perceived. It has great strength and speed,

 

1 Sealops Canadensis. The genus Scalops has two incisors above and four helow ;
three conical teeth, and three molars, on each side, in both jaws. Lower incisors conical,
straight, with two very small intermediate incisors ; first and third upper conical teeth on
each side, larger than the second ; molars crowned with sharp tnhercles; muzzle prolong-
ed and cartilaginous; eyes very small; external ears, none; feet short, pentadactyle, the
anterior very broad - tails loi g, attened, proper for digging ; tail short.
LO? MAMMALIA—MOLE...BEAR,

even on the surface of the earth, its movement being the same as when
burrowing.

 

THE GOPHER MOLE, OR CAMAS RAT.

Tuts animal is found on the Columbia and Missouri rivers. It lives
beneath the surface of the earth, and eats roots. The head appears 'arge
and clumsy, owing to its cheek pouches. The root of the camas p'ant is
its favorite food, from which it derives its name. It is said by Schoo,craft,
to employ its pouches in carrying dirt out of its hole, and Richardson adopts
this account as true; but an intelligent individual, who has spent much
lime in the country which it frequents, assures us that he has often seen
the gopher at work, and that it brings up the dirt with its broad feet.
The quantity that it will throw out in a short space of time, is truly
astonishing.

FAMILY II.—CARNIVORA.

Tuese animals have six incisors in each jaw; molars generally edged;
sometimes tuberculous, never rough, with pointed tubercles un their crown:
canines very strong.

THE BROWN BEAR\.I

Tue bear is not only a savage, but a solitary animal; he takes refuge in
the most unfrequented parts, and the most dangerous precipices o* uninhab-
ited mountains. He chooses his den in the most gloomy parts of the forest,
in some cavern that has been hollowed by time, or in the hollow of some
enormous old tree. Thither he retires alone, and passes a part of the win-
ter without provisions, or without ever stirring abroad. He is not, however,
entirely deprived of sensation, like the dormouse or the marmot, but seems
rather to subsist upon the exuberance of his former flesh, and only feels the
calls of appetite when the fat he had acquired in summer begins to be con-
siderably wasted,

When this happens, which we are told it generally does at the expiration
of forty or fifty days, the male forsakes his den; but the female remains
confined for four months, by which time she has brcught forth her young.

 

1 Ursus arctus. The genus Ursus has six upper and six lower incisors ; two upper
and two lower canines ; four to seven upper, and the same number of lower molars, — In
visors of ‘he lower jaw on the same line; posterior molars very stroug. with a square crown
aud blunt wcbercles; feet pentadactyle, armed with strong nails; body thick; tail short
niamwu.% six; two pectoral and four ventral. !
MAMMALILA—BEAR. 10%

Ihat the latter should not only be able to subsist, but even o nurse her
pfispring, without receiving herself any food for such a length of time,
is highly umprobable. When with young, however, it is allowed that they
are exceedingly fat, as also that, being covered with a very thick coat, sleep-
ing the greater part of their time, and giving themselves no exercise or
motion, they must necessarily lose very little by perspiration.

Though the males of the brown species devour their new-born little ones,
when they find an opportunity for it, yet the females seem, on the contrary,
to love them with a ferocious distraction. When once they have brought
forth, their fury is more violent, as well as more dangerous, than that of
the males. Before the young leave the womb, their formation is perfect -
and if the foetus of the bear appears at the first glance unformed, it is
merely because there is a want of proportion in the body and meinbers evea
of the grown bear, and because, which is well known to be the case in all
animals, the fcetus, or the new-born animal, is always more disproporuoned
than the grown animal.

   

 
  

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The voice of the bear isa kind of growl, a harsh murmur, which, when
enraged especially, is heightened by a clashing of the teeth. Highly
susceptible of anger, that anger is always furious, and often capricious.
However mi.d he may appear before his master, and even obedient when
tamed, he ought still to be distrusted, still treated with circumspection ;
hur, on any account, must he be struck on the tip of the nose, or touched on
the parts ol’ generation.
104 MAMMALIA-—BEAR.

This animal is capable of some degree of instruction. There are few whe
nave not seen him stand on his hind legs, or with these dance in rude and
awkward measure, to tunes either sung or played on an instrument. But,
even in thus tutoring him, it is necessary, in order to succeed, that the
animal should be taken young, and be held in constraint ever after. The bear
which has passed his youth, is not to be tamed, nor even held in awe, and
shows himself, if not actively intrepid, at least fearless of danger.

The wild bear turns not from his path, nor offers to shun the sight of
man; and yet, it is said, by a certain whistle he may be surprised, and so
far charmed as to stop, and stand upon his hind feet. This is the ume to
shoot, or by one method or other to destroy him; for, when only wounded
in an attack, he darts with fury at his foe, and, clasping him with his
fore paws, is sure to stifle or strangle him, unless immediate assistance be
given. : :

The bear enjoys the senses of seeing, hearing, and feeling, in great per-
fection; and yet, comparedgwith the size of his body, his eye is very small;
his ears are also short; his skin is coarse; and his hair very thick. His
smell is exquisite; more so, perhaps, than that of any other animal, the
internal surface of his nose being very extensive, and excellently calculated
to receive the impression of odors. He strikes with his paws as a man
strikes with his fists; but in whatever particulars he may bear a rude kind
of resemblance to the human species, he is only rendered the more de-
formed by them; nor do they give him the smallest:superiority over other
animals.

In no part of the world, perhaps, are bears more numerous than at Kam-
stchatka, and no where are they so gentle. They rove about the plains in
large droves, yet they never disturb the women and girls, who gather roots
and herbs, or turf for fuel, in the very midst of them; nay, they will even
eat out of their hands. Their mildness, however, does not preserve thera
from being persecuted by mankind. For this ingratitude man has, indeed,
some excuse in the great utility of the spoils of the bear. The Kamstcha-
dale would find it much more difficult to subsist, did not the bear supply
him with many necessary articles. Beds, coverlets, caps, gloves, shoe-
soles, and collars for sledge dogs, are made of the skin; the fat is savory
and nutritious as food, and when melted is used as oil; the flesh 1s highly
esteemed; the shoulder blades are converted into sickles for cutting grass
the intestines, when prepared, are worn by the women as masks, to protect
the face from the sun, and are also converted into excellent panes for win
dows; and the heads and haunches are hung on trees, around the dwellings,
as ornaments, or as trophies. To the bear the Kamstchadale is likewise
indebtéd for his scanty knowledge of physic and surgery, which he acquires
by noticing what herbs the animal applies to his wounds, or cats when he
is laboring under disease; and to the bear, too, he owes all his ideas of
MAMMALIA—BEAR. 105

dancing; his bear dance, as he calls it, being nothing more than a close
nnitation of his shaggy quadruped instructors.

Th, brown bear is upwards of four feet long. He inhabits Europe and
the +mperate parts of Asia.

THE GRIZZLY BEAR.

 

 

“Sg So reall

Tuts animal inhabits the northern part of America, and is, perhaps, the
most formidable of all bears ‘in magnitude and ferocity. He averages twice
she bulk of the black bear, to which, however, he bears some resemblance
m his slightly elevated forehead, and narrow, flattened, elongated muzzle.
His canine teeth are of great size and power. The feet are enormously
large; the breadth of the fore foot exceeding nine inches, and the length of
the hind foot, exclusive of the talons, being eleven inches and three quarters,
and its breadth seven inches. The talons sometimes measure more than
six inches. He is, accordingly, admirably adapted for digging up the
ground, but is unable to climb trees, in which latter respect he differs wholly
from every other species. The color of his hair varies to almost an indefi-
nite extent, between al] the intermediate shades of a light gray and a black
brown ; the latter tinge, however, being that which predominates. It is
always in some degree grizzled, by intermixture of grayish hairs, only the
brown hairs being tipped with gray. The hair itself is, in general, longer,
finer, and more exuberant than that of the black bear.

The neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains is one of the principal haunts
of this animal. There, amidst wooded plains, and tangled copses of bough
and underwood, he reigns as much the monarch, as the lion is of the sandy
wastes of Africa. Even the bison cannot withstand his attack. Such is
his muscular strength, that he will drag the ponderous carcass of the anima)
zo a convenient spot, where he digs a pit for its reception. The Indians

—— ~~

 

1 Ursus ferox, Lewis & CiarKe.
106 MAMMALIA—BEAR.

regard him qith the utmost terror. His extreme tenacity of life renders
him still more dangerous; for he can endure repeated wounds which would
be instantaneously mortal to other beasts, and, in that state, can rapidly
pursue his enemy. So that the hunter who fails to shoot him through the
brain, is placed in a most perilous situation.

One evening the men in the hindmost of one of Lewis and Clark’s canoes
perceived one of these bears lying in the open ground about three hundred
paces from the river; and six of them, who were all good hunters, went to
attack him. Concealing themselves by asmall eminence, they were able
to approach within forty paces unperceived ; four of the hunters now fired,
and each lodged a ball in his body, two of which passed directly through the
lungs. The bear sprang up and ran furiously with open mouth upon them ;
two of the hunters, who had reserved their fire, gave him two additional
wounds, and one breaking his shoulder-blade, somewhat retarded his mo-
tions. Before they could again load their guns, he came so close on them,
that they were obliged to run towards the river, and before they had gained
it the bear had almost overtaken them. Two men jumped into the canoe ;
the other four separated, and concealing themselves among the willows,
fired as fast as they could load their pieces. Several times the bear was
struck, but each shot seemed only to direct his fury towards the hunter; at
last, he pursued them so closeiy that they threw aside their guns and
pouches, and jumped from a perpendicular bank, twenty feet high, into the
river. The bear sprang after them, and was very near the hindmost man,
when one of the hunters on the shore shot him through the head and finally
killed him. When they dragged him on shore, they found that eight balls
had passed through his body in different directions.

On another occasion, the same enterprising travellers met with the largest
bear of this species they had ever seen; wen they fired be did not attempt
to attack, but fled with a tremendous roar, and such was bis tenacity of
life, that although five balls had passed through the lungs, and five other
wounds were inflicted, he swam more than half across the river to a sand
bar, and survived more than twenty minutes.

Mr Jobn Dougherty, a very experienced and respectable hunter, whe
accompanied Major Long’s party during their expedition to the Rocky
Mountains, several times very narrowly escaped from the grizzly bear.
Once while hunting with another person on one of the upper tributaries to
the Missouri, he heard the report of his companion’s rifle, and when he
looked round, beheld him at a short distance endeavoring to escape from one
of these bears, which he had wounded as it was coming towards him.
Dougherty, forgetful of every thing but the preservation of his friend, hasten-
ed to cal] off the attention of the bear, and arrived in rifle-shot distance just
in time to effect his generous purpose. He discharged his ball at the ame
mal, and was obliged in his turn to fly; his friend, relieved from immediate
danger, prepared for another attack by charging his rifle, with which he
MAMMAL 1A— BEAR, ‘107

again wounded the bear, and saved Mr D. from furthe: peril. Neither re«
ceived any injury from this encounter, in which the bear was at length killed.

Mr Dougherty, the hunter before mentioned, relates the following in-
stance of the great muscular strength of the grizzly bear: —Huaving ki led
a bison, and left the carcass for the purpose of procuring assistance to skin
and cut it up, he was very much surprised on his return to find that it had
been dragged off, whole, to a considerable distance, by a grizzly bear, and
had been placed in a pit, which the animal had dug with his claws fo: its
reception.

THE AMERICAN BLACK BEAR.

 

Tuts animal is found in considerable numbers, in the northern districts
of America. In size and form he approaches nearest to the brown bear; but
his color is a uniform shining jet black, except on the muzzle, where it is
fawn colored; on the lips and sides of the mouth it is almost gray. The
hair, except on the muzzle, is long and straight, and is .ess shaggy than in
most other species. The forehead has a slight elevation, and the muz-ie is
elongated, and somewhat flattened above. The young ones, however, are
first of a bright ash color, which gradually changes into a deep brown, and
ends by becuming a deep black.

The American black bear lives a solitary life in forests and uncultivated
deserts, and subsists on fruits, and on the young shoots and roots of vegeta-
bles. Of boney he is exceedingly fond, and, as he isa most expert climber,
he scales the loftiest trees in search of it. Fish, too, he delights in, and is
atten found in quest of them on the borders of lakes and on the sea-shore.

 

1 Ursus Ameri anus, Desm.
108 MAMMALIA—BEAR.

When these resources fail, he will attack small quadrupeds, and even am
mals of some magnitude. As, indeed, is usual in such cases, the love of
flesh in him grows with the use of it.

As the fur is of some value, the Indians are act auiaa in the chase of the
creature which produces it. ‘ About the end of December, from the abund-
ance of fruits they find in Louisiana and the neighboring countries, the
bears become so fat and lazy that they can scarcely run. At this time they
are hunted by the American Indians. The nature of the chase is generally
this: the bear chiefly adopts for his retreat the hollow trunk of an old cypress
tree, which he climbs, and then descends into the cavity from above. The
hunter, whose business it is to watch him into his retreat climbs a neigh-
boring tree, and seats himself opposite to the hole. In one hana he holds
his gun, and in the other a torch, which he darts into the cavity. Frantic
with rage and terror, the hear makes a spring from his station; but the
hunter seizes the instant of his appearance, and shoots him.

“The pursuit of these animals is a matter of the first importance to some
of the Indian tribes, and is never undertaken without much ceremony. A
principal warrior gives a general invitation to all the hunters. This is fol-
lowed by a strict fast of eight days, in which they totally abstain from food ;
but during which the day is passed in continual song. This is done to in-
voke the spirits of the woods to direct the hunters to the places where there
are abundance of bears. They even cut the flesh in divers parts of their
bodies, to render the spirits more propitious. They also address themselves
to the spirits of the beasts slain in preceding chases, and implore these
to direct them in their dreams to an abundance of game. The chief of the
hunt now gives a great feast, at which no one dares to appear without first
bathing. At this entertainment, contrary to their usual custom, they eat
with great moderation. The master of the feast touches nothing; but is
employed in relating to the guests ancient tales of feats in furmer chases;
and fresh invocations to the spirits of the deceased bears cunclude the whole.

“They then sally forth, equipped as if for war, and painted black; and
they proceed on their way in a direct line, not allowing rivers, marshes, or
any other impediment, to stop their course, and driving before them all the
beasts they find. When they arrive at the hunting ground, they surround
as large a space as they can; and then contract their circle, searching at
the same time every hollow tree, and every place capable of being the
retreat of a bear; and they continue the same practice till the chase is
expired.

“As soon as a bear is killed, a hunter puts into his mouth a lighted pipe
of tobacco, and blowing into it, fills the throat with the smoke, conjuring
the spirit of the animal not to resent what they are about to do to its body,
or to render their future chases unsuccessful. As the beast makes no reply,
they cut out the string of the tongue, and throw it into the fire. If it
trackle and shrivel up (which it is almost sure to do,) they accept this ag
MAMMALIA~—BEAR. 10%

a good omen; if not, they consider that the spirit of the beast is nct appeas-
ed, and that the chase of the next year will be unfortunate.”

In the Tower Menagerie of London, there isa very tame and playful
American bear, which was presented to it in 1824. He was originally in
the same den with the hyzna, and, except at feeding times, was on good
terms with his companion. A piece of meat, however, would occasiunally
produce a temporary dissension between them; in which the hyena, though
the smallest of the two, had usually the upper hand. On such occasions,
the defeated Sear would moan most piteously, in a tune somewhat like a
sheep bleating, while the hyena devoured the remainder of his dinner.*

 

THE WHITE, OR POLAR BEAR.

 

Tue polar bear is distinguished by his tremendous ferocity. It somes
times reaches the length of twelve feet. Its head and neck are more

 

* When our forefathers first settled in America, bears were common in all parts of the
country elong the Atlantic. Many adventures with them took place, some of which are
recorded in the histories of the times. The following is said to have occurred at a later
period : ‘ :

Some years since, when the western part of New-York was in a state of nazure, and
wolves and bears were not afraid of being seen, some enterprising pilgrim had erected
and put in operation a saw-mill, on the banks of the Genesee. One day as he was sitting
on the log, eating his bread and cheese, a large black bear came from the woods towards
the mill. The man, leaving his luncheon on the log, made a spring, and seated himself
‘un a beam above ; when the bear, mounting the log, sat down with his rump towards the
saw, whicn was in operation, and comunenced his appetite on the man’s dinner. After a
little while, the saw approached near enough to interfere with the feathers on Bruin’s
back, and he hitched along a little and kept on eating. Again the saw came up, and
scratched a little flesh. The hear then whirled about, and throwing his paws arcund the
saw, held on till he was mangled through and through, when he roli d otf, fell through

into the flood, and bled to death.
4 Ursus maritimus, Lin.
110 MAMMALIA—BEAR.

lengt! cned than that of the brown bear, and the body is longer in proportion
to its bulk. In the Polar seas itanay literally be said to swarm. There, it
is seen not only on the land and fixed ice, hut on floating ice several leagues
out at sea In the latter manner, white bears are sometimes conveyed to
Iceland, wnere they are so much dreaded by the inhahitants that a crusade
is immediately commenced against them. At sea, the food of this animal
is fish, seals, and the carcases of whales; on land, it preys upon deer and
otner animals, and will eat various kinds of berries. In winter, it beds
itself deeply under the snow or eminences of ice, and awaits, in a
torpid state, the return of the sun. It suffers exceedingly when exposed to
great heat.

Of the ferocity of the Polar bear, Barentz gives a striking proof. In
Nova Zembla they attacked his sailors, carried them off in their mouths
with the utmost facility, and devoured them in sight of their comrades. A
few years ago, some sailors in a boat, fired at and wounded one. In spite
of his receiving another shot, he swam after the boat, and endeavored
to climb into it. One of his feet was cut off with a hatchet, but he still
pursued the aggressors to the ship. Numerous additional wounds did not
check his fury; mutilated as he was, he ascended the ship’s side, drove the
sailors into the shrouds, and was following them thither, when a mortal
shot stretched him dead on the deck.

But even this formidable animal is not without its good qualities. Itisa
faithful mate and an affectionate parent. Hearne tells us that, at certain
seasons of the year, the males are so much attached to their mates, that he
has often seen one of them, ona female being killed, come and put his
paws over her, and rather suffer himself to be shot than abandon her.

“While the Carcase frigate, which went out some years ago to make
discoveries towards the North Pole, was locked in the ice, early one morn-
ing the man at the mast-head gave notice that three bears were making
their way very fast over the frozen ocean, and were directing their course
towards the ship. They had, no doubt, been invited by the scent of some
blubber of a walrus that the erew had killed a few days before; which had

"been set on fire, and was burning on the ice at the time of their approach.
They proved to be a she bear and her two cubs; but the cubs were nearly
as large as the dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, and drew out of the
flames part of the flesh of the walrus that remained unconsumed, and ate it
voraciously. The crew from the ship threw upon the ice great lumps of
the flesh of the sea horse, which they had still remaining. These the eld
bear fetched away singly, laid every lump before her cubs as she brought it,
and dividing it, gave to each a share, reserving but a small portion to her-
self. As she was fetching away the last piece, the sailors levelled their
muskets at the cubs, and shot them both dead; and in her retreat they
wounded the dam, but not mortally. It would have drawn tears of pity
frum any but unfeeling ‘minds, to have marked the affectionate concern ex-
MAMMALILA--BEAR. 111

pressed by this pour beast in the last moments of her expiring young ones.
Though she was herself dreadfully wounded, and could but just crawl tc
the place where they lay, she carried the lump of flesh she had fetched
away, as she had done others before, tore it in pieces and laid it before
them ; and when she saw that they refused to eat, she laid her paws first
upon one and then'upon the other, und endeavored to raise them up. When
she found she could not stir them, she went off, and when she had: got to
some distance, she looked back and moaned. Finding this to no purpase,
she returned, and, smelling round them, began to lick their wounds. She
went off a second time as before; and, having crawled a few paces, looked
again behind her, and for some time stood moaning. But still her cubs not
rising to follow her, she returned to them again; and, with signs of inex-
pressible fondness, went round pawing them and moaning. Finding at last
that they were cold and ‘lifeless, she raised her head towards the ship, and
uttered a growl of despair, which the murderers returned with a volley
of musket balls. She fell between her cubs, and died licking their wounds.”

Mr Scoresby mentions a singular circumstance with respect to a part
of this animal. “The liver, I may observe, as a curious fact,” says he, ‘is
hurtful, and even deleterious ; while the flesh and liver of the seal, on which
it chiefly feeds, are nourishing and palatable. Sailors who have inadver-
tently eaten the liver of bears, have almost always been sick after it: some
have actually died; and the effects on others has been to cause the skin to
peal off their bodies. This is, perhaps, almost the only instance known
of any part of the flesh of a quadruped proving unwholesome.”

 

THE LARGE LIPPED BEAR

 

Tus animal, which was first brought from India about forty years ago,
was at first misnamed the five-fingered, or ursine sloth. It has, however,

 

1 Ursus labiatus, Desm.
LL2 MAMMALIA—BEAR.

nothing in common with the family of the sloths, but is a gecuine bear.
This curious quadruped is said to have been brought from the itterior par
of Bengal, where it burrows in the ground. It is covered with bieck, shag.
gy hair, which on the back is twelve inches long, where it divides and
torms a kind of bunch. The hair on its head is short, and the snout 1s
of a yellowish white. The tail is so short as to be scarcely vis.ble Its
lips are thin and very long, and furnished with muscles, by wliena it can
protrude them in a most singular manner. Its legs and feet resemble those
of the common bear, and on each foot it has five long, crooked, white ctaws,
which it uses either together or separately, like fingers to break its food,
and convey it to the mouth. It has no cutting teeth, but two very strong
canine teeth, and six grinders in each jaw.

It is a gentle but sluggish animal, and feeds on bread. fruit, nuts, honey,
or fat; but refuses roots, and the lean and muscular parts of flesh. In
general, its motions are slow and languid; but when disturbed or irritated

t appears rather lively, and utters a kind of short, abrupt roar

x

THE BORNEAN BEAR.

 

Ly one point, this native of Borneo differs strikingly from the other bears.
Its head, instead of being flattened, is nearly hemispherical above, rising in
a strong arch, immediately behind its obtuse and gradually attenuated nose.
Its mouth is=very expansible, and hasa long, narrow, extensile tongue,
which the owner can protrude nearly a foot, and then curve spirally ix-
wards; a process which it frequently performs. The claws are very long,

 

' Ursus malaianus, Honsr.
MAMMALIA—BEAR. U3

firmly arched, tapering gradually to the point, and well calculated for
digging the earth. Its short, glistening fur, rather rigid, yet soft to the
touch, is a fine jet black on the body, head, and extremities. The muzzle
is of a yellowish brown, and the anterior part of the neck has a large, broad
patch, of a more bright and nearly orange tint, and an irregular quadrangu-
lar form, deeply notched above. Fram the muzzle to the tail, one individual
measured three feet nine inches.

“Tt arrived in this country,” says the author of the ‘Tower Menagerie,
“about four years ago; and formed, until lately, one of the most attractive
and interesting spectacles, among the animals confined in the menagerie.
It was brought from Borneo when very young, and during its passage was
the constant associate of a monkey, and of several other young animals. It
was thus domesticated ia early life, and its manners in confinement grea‘ly
resembled those of the Malayan bear, observed by Sir Stamford Raffle, to
which it was probably not inferior in sagacity or intellect. It could rest
entirely on its posterior feet, and could even raise itself without difficulty,
to a nearly erect posture; but was more generally seen in a sitting attitude
at the door of its apartmeni, eagerly surveying the visiters, and attracting
their attention by the uncouthness of its form, and the singularity of its
motions. When a morsel of bread or cake was held at a small distance
beyond its reach, it would thrust forward its upper lip as a proboscis, in a
most iudicrous.iN%anner, at the same time making use of its paws to seize
the object. After obtaining it and filling its mouth, it would place the re-
mainder with great calmness on its posterior feet, ard bring it in successive
portions to its mouth. When craving for food, and also while consuming it,
it emitted a coarse, but not unpleasant, whining sound, accompanied by a
low, grunting noise; but if teased at this time, it would suddenly raise its
voice to a harsh, grating tone. It was excessively voracious, and appeared
disposed to eat almost without cessation ; a propensity which finally
cost it its life, having overgorged itself at breakfast one morning in the
summer, during the hot weather, and dying within ten minutes afterwards.
On seeing its keeper, it would often place itself in a variety of attitudes, to
court his attention and, caresses, extending its nose and anterior feet, or,
suddenly turning round, exposing its back and waiting for several minutes
in this posture with its head placed on the ground. It delighted in being
paited and rubbed, even by strangers; but violently resented abuse aud ill
treatment. Its principal food was bread.”

15
114 MAMMALIA—BEAR,

THE THIBET BEAR.

 

Tins species, unless Cuvier and others are in error, is also to be found m

Sumatra. It is particularly distinguished from the Malay and the large
‘lipped bears, by the thickness of its neck, and the flatness of its head. It

has a compact body and heavy limbs, and its claws are little more than
aalf as long as those of the other Indian bears. ‘The ears are very large
The muzzle is moderately thick, and somewhat lengthened; the upper part
black, with a slightly reddish tint on the sides; the edges of the lips flesh
colored, arid the hair smooth. From the back part of the head, however,
the hair becomes shaggy. A uniform jet black is its invariable color, except
on the lower lip, which is white ; and so also is a patch on the front of the
neck, shaped like the letter Y, the oblique lines of which pass in front of
the shoulders, while the lower line occupies the middle of the chest.

M. Duvaucel considers the Thibet bear to be somewhat ferocious. But
the animal from which the cut was drawn, was tolerably tame, and was
exceedingly fond of play in his own uncouth manner. He lived on bread
and fruits, and nothing could induce him to taste flesh, either raw on
evoked.

 

1 Ursus thibetunus, Cuv.
MAMMALLA—RACCOON, 615

THE RACCOON.

 

Tur raccoon is a native of most parts of North America; but 1t hag never
yet been found on the Old Continent. Buffon asserts that it is common in’
South America, but we believe it has never been found farther south than
Mexico.

It is an animal of about the same size as a small badger; its body is short
and bulky; its fur is fine, long, thick, blackish at the surface, and gray
towards the bottom ; its head is like that of the fox, but its ears are round
and shorter ; its eyes are large, of a yellowish green, and over them there is
a black and transverse stripe; its snout is sharp; its tail is thick, but taper-
ing towards a point, and marked alternately from one end to the other with
black and white, and brownish rings, and is at least as long as the body: its
fore legs are much shorter than the hind ones, and both are armed with five
strong, sharp claws. :

It inhabits the southern parts of the fur districts, being found as far north
as Red river, in latitude fifty degrees, from which quarter about one hundrea
skins are procured annually, by the Hudson’s Bay Company. If there 1s no
mistake as to the identity of the species, the raccoon extends farther north
on the shores of the Pacific than it does on the eastern side of the Rocky
Mountains. Dixon and Portlock obtained cloaks of raccoon skins from the
nutives of Cook’s river, in latitude sixty degrees; and skins supposed to be
ot the raccoon, were also seen at Nootka Sound, by Captain Cook. Lewis

 

1 Procyon lotor, Lux. The genus Procyon has six upper and six lower incisors; twa
mpper and two lower canines; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Lower iucisors og
the same line ; the three posterior molars tuberculous ; feet pentadactyle ; nails sharp,

muzzle pointe1; ears small; tail long; six ventral mamme. ;
116 MAMMALIA—RACCOON.

and Clarke expressly state that the raccoon, at the mouth of the Columbia,
1s the same with the animal so common in the United States. Desmarest
says that the raccoon extends as far south as Paraguay. It is an animal,
with a’fox-like countenance, but with much of the gait of a bear, and heing
partially plantigrade, it was classed by Linneus in the genus Ursus. In
the wild state, it sleeps by day, comes from its retreat in the evening, and
prowls in the night in search of roots, fruits, green corn, birds, and insects.
It is said to eat merely the brain, or suck the blood of such birds as it kills.
A lcw.water, it frequents the sea shore to feed on crabs and oysters. It is
fond of dipping its food into water before it eats, which occasioned Linnzus
to give it the specific name of Jo¢or. It climbs trees with facility. The fur
of the racoon is used in the manufacture of hats, and its flesh, when it has
been fed on vegetables, is reported to be good.

He may be tamed witheut difficulty, and is then very good-natured and
sportive, but is as mischievous as a monkey, and seldom remains at rest.
Of ill weatment he is extremely sensible, and never forgives those from
whom he has received it. He has also an antipathy to sharp and harsh
sounds, such as the bark of a dog and the cry of a child.

We shall insert here, the greater part of a letter written by M. Blanquart
de Salines, to Count de Buffon, on the correctness of which full reliance
“may be placed.

““My raccoon was always kept chained before he came into my possession,
and in this captivity he seemed sufficiently gentle, though not caressing ;
all the inmates of the house paid him the same attention, but he received
them differently ; treatment he would submit to from one person, invariably
offended him when offered by another. When his chain was occasionally
broken, liberty rendered him insolent; he took possession of his apartment
suffering no one to approach him, and was with difficulty again confined.
During his stay with me, his confinement was frequently suspended ; with-
out loosing of him, I aliowed him to walk about with his chain on, and he
expressel his gratitude by various movements. It was otherwise when he
escaped by his own efforts: he would then ramble for three or four days
together over the neighboring roofs, and only descend at night into the
yards, enter the hen-roosts and destroy the poultry, especially the Guinea
fowls, eating nothing but their heads. His chain did not render him less
sanguinary, though it made him more circumspect: he then employed
stratagem, allowing the poultry to familiarize theniselves with him by par-
taking of his food; nor was it until he had induced them to fee) in perfect
security, that he would seize a fowl and tear it in pieces; he also killed
kittens in the same manner.

“If the raccoon be uot very grateful for favors received, he 1s singularly
sensible of bad treatment; a servant one day struck him some blows with a
stick, and often afterwards vainly endeavored to conciliate him, by offering
eggs and shrimps, of which the animal was very fond. At the approach of
MAMMALIA—COATI. 117

this servant, he became enraged, and with sparkling eyes would spring towards
him, making violent outcries; under such circumstances, he would accept
of nothing, until his enemy had with drawn. The voice of the raccoon, when
enraged, is very singular, sometimes resembling the whistling of a curlew,
and at others the hoarse barking of an old dog. When struck by any one,
or attacked by an animal stronger than himself, he offered no resistance;
like the hedge-hog, he hid his head and paws, by rolling his body in form
of a ball, and would have suffered death in that position. I have observed
that he never left hay nor straw in his bed, preferring to sleep on the
boards; when litter was given, he threw it away immediately. He did not
seem very sensible to cold, and passed two out of three winters exposed to
all the rigors of the season, and did well, notwithstanding he was frequently
covered with snow. Ido not think he was solicitous to receive warmth;
during some frosts, I gave him separately warm water and water almost
frozen, to soak his food in, and he always preferred the latter. He was at
liberty to sleep in tke stable, but often preferred passing the night in the
open yard.”

THE BROWN COATI,

 

Tuts animal, of which we are now about to treat, many authors have
called coatimundi. It is very different from the animal described in the pre-
ceding article. It is of a smaller size than the raccoon; its body and neck,
1ts head and nose, are of a more lengthened form; its upper jaw is an inch,
or an inch anda half longer than the lower one, and its snout, which is
moveable in every direction, turns up at the point. The eyes of the coati
are also smaller than the eyes of the raccoon, and are surrounded by three

 

1 Nasua fusca. The genus Nasua has six upper and six lower .acisors; two upper
and two lower canines; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Lower incisors on the
same line; three posterior molars, tuberculous ; feet pentadactyle, armed with strony
nails ; nose mich prolonged and moveable; tail long; six ventral mamme.
118 MAMMALIA—BADGER.

white spots , its hait is longer and coarser, its legs are shorter, and its feet
longer; but, like the raccoon, its tail is diversified with rings,'‘alternately
black and fulvous; and to all its feet there are five claws. q

This animal has a practice of eating its own tail, which, when not muti-
lated, is longer than’its body, and which it generally rears aloft, and can
inove with ease in any direction.*

As for the coati in other respects, it is an animal of prey, which subsists
on Mesh and blood, which, like the fox, destroys small animals and poultry,
hu: ts for the nests of little birds, and devours their eggs; and it is probable
fre a this conformity of disposition, that some autl.ors have considered the
co iasa species of small fox. It inhabits the woods of South America.
hh wrsuit of its prey, it climbs trees with much agility. When tamed,
w chit easily is, it is fond of being caressed, but does not become much
y ched to its owner.

 

THE EUROPEAN BADGER!

ee,
re WR

h
NOD

 

aS

-* a lazy, distrustful, solitary animal, that retires far from the approach of

 

* Ge sanan says, “It has been considered very wonderful that this animal should ead its
wen tail, which certainly appears to be the fact. The extreme length of its tail, in which
she plood circulates but feebly, exposes it to the influence of the cold or frost; and the
ceeding ly tormenting irritation produced thereby, leads the animal to gnaw and scratct:
he tail to *elieve the excessive itching. The disease spreads, and the anguish induces
ahe cugtimandi to gaaw more furiously, and eventually his life is destroyed by the exten-
-swn of the “nflammation and ‘rritation to the spine, &c.”

' Toru utearis, The gems Taxus has six upper and six lower incisors ; tv uppe.
~ uwo lo wer canines: ten upper and twelve lower molars. The first molar very sm
MAMMALIA—BADGER. 119

o)an, and digs a subterraneous residence, where it spends, at least three
Yourths of its existence, and never ventures forth but in search of food. It
burrows in the ground with particular facility, as its body is rather of an
oblong form, and its claws, those especially of the fore feet, are very long
und compact. The hole which it thus forms often proceeds to a great depth
below the surface of the earth, and the passage to it is always oblique and
winding.

The fox, who is less expert at such excavations, often appropriates to his
own convenience the labors of the badger.

Unable to compel him from his retreat by force, it drives him from it by
stratagem, often remains a fixed sentinel at the mouth of the passage,
disturbs it, and, as an infallible expedient, it is said, emits his ordure. The
badger gone, he immediately assumes possession of it, enlarges it, and every
way accommodates it to his own purpose. Though forced to remove to
another habitation, this animal does not, however, remove to another coun-
try. Ata little distance from its old burrow, it forms a new one, from
which it never stirs but at night. The dogs easily overtake it when it is at
any distance from its hole, and then, using all its strength, and all its pow-
ers of resistance, it throws itself upon its back, and defends itself with
desperate resolution. It has one single advantage over its assailants. The
skin is so thick, and especially so loose, that the teeth of the dogs can make
little impression on it, and the badger can turn himself round in it, so as to
bite them in their tenderest parts.

The young badgers are easily tamed; they will play with young dogs,
and, like them, will follow any person whom they know, and from whom
they receive their food; but the old ones, in spite of every effort, stil] remain
wild. They are neither mischievous nor voracious, as the fox and the wolf
are, yet they are carnivorous; and though raw meat is their favorite food,
yet they will eat any thing that comes in their way, as flesh, eggs, cheese,
butter, bread, fish, fruit, nuts, roots, &c. They sleep the greater part of
their time, without, however, being subject, like the mountain rat or the
dormouse, to a torpor during the winter; and thus it is that though they
feed moderately, yet they are always fat.

Their hole they keep exceedingly clean, nor are they ever known to void
their ordure in it. The male is rarely to be found with the female. In
summer she brings forth, and her usual number at a birth is three or four.
These she feeds at first with her milk, and afterwards with such petty prey
as she can surprise. She seizes young rabbits in the warren, rans birds of
their young, while yet in the nest, finds out where the wild bees have laid
up their honey, where field-mice, lizards, serpents, and grasshoppers are to

 

the second and third pointed, the fourth cutting on the external side, the fifth tuberculous
and lurge; body low upon the legs; pentadactyle; nails robust; tail short; an anal
pouch, containing a fetid secretion.
120 MAMMALIA—BADGER.

be met with; and carries all to her expecting brood, which she frequently
orings forward to the mouth of her hole.

These animals are naturally of a chilly temperament. Such as are rear
ed in a house.seem to be never more happy than when near a fire. They
are likewise very subject to the mange; and, unless carefully washed, the
dogs that penetrate into their burrows are seized with the same distemper

The hair of the badger is always filthy; between the anus and the tai
there is an opening, which, though it has no communication with any inte
rior part, and is hardly an inch deep, continually emits an oily liquid
This the animal is fond of sucking. Its flesh, when the animal is well fed,
makes excellent hams and bacon; and of its skin are made coarse furs, col

lars for dogs, and trappings for horses. The hair js used for painters
brushes.

 

THE AMERICAN BADGER.

 

Tre American badger, as compared with the European,.is generally less
in size, and of a lighter make; the head, though equally long, is not so
sharp towards the nose, and the markings on the fur are remarkably diffe-
rent. A narrow white line runs from between the eyes towards the back,
the rest of the upper part of the head is brown, the throat and whole under
jaw are white, the cheeks partly so; a semicircular brown spot is placed
between the light part of the cheeks, and the ears.

The American badger frequents the sandy plains or prairies, which skirt
the Rocky Mountains, as far north as latitude fifty-eight degrees. It
abounds on the plains watered by the Missouri, but its exact southern range
has not, as far as I know, been defined by any traveller. The sand prairies,
im. the neighborhood of -Carlton-house, on the banks of the Saskatchewan,
and also on the Red River, that flows into Lake Winnipeg, are perforated
by innumerable badger-holes, which are a great annoyance to horsemen,
particularly when the ground is covered with snow.

Whilst the ground is covered with snow, the badger rarely comes from
its hole; and I suppose that in that climate it passes the winter from the
peginning of November to April, in a torpid state. Indeed, as it obtains

be small animals on which it feeds by surprising them in their burrows, it

1 Taxus Labradorica.
MAMMALIA WOLVERENE. 12)

has little chance of digging them out at a time when the ground is fruzen
into a solid rock. Like the bears, the badgers do not lose much flesh dur
ing their long hibernation; for on coming abroad in the spring, they are
observed to be very fat. As they pair, however, at that season, they soon
become lean.

This badger is a slow and timid animal, taking to the first earth it comes
tv, when pursued; and as it makes its way through the sandy svil with the
rapidity of a mole, it soon places itself out of the reach of danger. The
strength of its fore feet and claws is so great, that one which had insinuated
only its head and shoulders into a hole, resisted the utmost efforts of two
‘stout young men, who endeavored to drag it out by the hind legs and tail,
until one of them fired the contents of his fowling piece into its body.
Early in the spring, however, when they first begin to stir abroad, they may
be easily caught by pouring water into their holes; for the ground being
frozen at that period, the water does not escape through the sand, but soon
fills the hole, and its tenant is obliged to come out.

The American badger appears to be a more carnivorous animal than the
European one. A female which I killed, had a small marmot, nearly
entire, together with some field mice, in its stomach. It had also been eat-
ing some vegetable matters. — Richardson.

'

 

THE WOLVERENE.

 

Tuts animal has a broad, compact head, which is suddenly rounded off on
every side, to form the nose. In the shape of its jaws it resembles a dog.
Its ears are low, rounded, and much hid by the surrounding fur. The back

 

1 Gulo arcticus. The genus Gu/o has six upper and six lower incisors; two upper
and two lower canines; ten or eight upper and twelve lower molars. The three first
molars in the upper and the four i the lower jaw small, succeeded hy a large carnivorous
tooth, and a small tuberculous one at the back; body low; head moderately elongated ;
ears short and round ; tail short; feet pentadactyle ; toes with crooked nails; no anal peuch.

6

’
122 MAMMALIA—POLECAT.

is arched, the tail low and bushy; the legs thick and short; and the whole
aspect of the animal indicates strength without much activity. The fur
bears a great similarity to that of the black bear, but is not so long, nor
of so much value.

The wolverene is a carnivorous animal, which feeds chiefly upon the
carcasses of beasts that have been killed by accident. It has great strength,
and annoys the natives by destroying their hoards of provision, and demo-
lisning their marten traps. It is so suspicious, that it will rarely enter a
trap itself, but beginning behind, pulls it to pieces, scatters the logs of which
it is built, and then carries off the bait. It feeds also on meadow mice,
marmots, and other rodentza, and occasionally on disabled quadrupeds of a
larger size. We have seen one chasing an American hare, which was at
the same time harassed by a snowy owl. It resembles ‘he bear in its gait,
and is not fleet; but it is very industrious, and no doubt feeds well, as it is
generally fat. It is much abroad in the winter, and the track of its journey
in a single night may be traced for many miles.

This animal inhabits northern Europe and America. It is about the size
of the badger. The above description is from Dr Richardson.

THE POLECAT!

Is about seventeen inches in length; of a deep chocolate color,’nearly ap-
proaching to black ; has short ears, tipped with white, and the tail is cover-
ed with longish hair. In summer he generally tives in woods, thick brakes,
or rabbit warrens. Hig burrow is about two yards deep, and commonly
ends under the root of a tree. In winter, he haunts barns, hay-lofts, and
other out-houses, whence he sallies forth on the poultry.

When heated, or enraged especially, it sends forth and diffuses a stench
that is absolutely intolerable. The dogs will not eat its flesh; and even its
skin, though good in itself, sells at a very low price, as it can never be
entirely divested of its natural odor.

These animals are very destructive to young game of all kinds, and com:
mit dreadful devastations among pigeons when they get into a pigeon-house.
Without making so much noise as the weasel, they doa great deal more
mischief; dispatching each victim with a single wound in the head, and
satiating themselves with copious draughts of blood, after which they carry
off the prey: or if the aperture by which they entered will not admit of this,
they first eat the brains, and then carry away the head, leaving the body
behind. They are also extremely fond of honey, and are frequently known,

 

1 Mustela putorius,Lix. The genus Mustela has six upper and six lower incisors; two
upper and two lower canines; eight or ten upper and ten or twelve lower molars. Body
elongated ; head smal} and oval; ears short and round; legs short; feet pentadactyle
arined with sharp, hooked claws. No anal pouch. .
MAMMALIA—FERRET...WEASEL. 123

m winter, to attack the hives, and drive away the bees. Rabvits, however,
seem to be their favorite prey, and a single polecat is often sufficient to
destroy a whole warren. They will also catch and eat fish, though, proba-
-gly, this is done by them only when other food is not attainable. This
animal is not a native of America.

THE FERRET.

Tus animal is by nature a mortal enemy to the rabbit. If even a dead
one is presented to a young ferret, which had never seen ote before, it
springs at it, and tears it with fury; if it be a living one, it seizes it by the
neck and nose; and instantly begins to suck its blood. When the ferret is
iet loose into the burrows of the rabbits, it is necessary to muzzle him, that
he may not kill them at the bottom, but only oblige them to run out, and
thereby fall into the net laid for them at the entry. If he is allowed to go
unmuzzled, there is a risk of losing him, because, after having sucked the
blood of the rabit, he will fall asleep; and the smoke which is raised at the
mouth of the burrow does not always prove a sufficient expedient for bring-
ing him back, as there are often more issues than one, and as one burrow
generally communicates with others, in which the ferret is apt to be the
mere bewildered, the more he is surrounded with the smoke.

The ferret has a yellowish fur, and red eyes. It is nearly fourteen inches
long, and is thought by Cuvier to be only a variety of the polecat.

THE WEASEL?

 

Tue common weasel is as frequent in temperate and in hot countnes, as
it is scarce in cold ones.

The weasel is the smallest of the class to which it belongs, and is an active
and handsome little animal. Exclusive of the tail, it is not seven inches in
length ; and its height is not more than two anda Half. The tail, which is
bushy, measures about two inches anda half. The color of the weasel is a
pale reddish brown on the back and sides, but white under the throat and

 

\ Mustela furo, Lin 2 Mustela vuigaris, Lux.
124 MAMMALIA—ERMINE.

belly. The eyes are small and black ; the ears short and roundish ; and tne
nose is furnished with whiskers, like those of a cat. It moves by unequal
leaps, and can spring several feet from the ground, or run up a wall without
difficulty.

When a weasel enters a hen-roost, it never meddles with the cocks or the
o'd hens; it makes choice of the pullets, the young chickens, and these it
kills with a single stroke on the head, and carries away one after another.
The eggs it sucks with incredible avidity ; making a small hole at one end,
througk which it licks out the yolk. In winter, it generally resides in some
granary, or hay-loft; where the female often continues even in the spring,
in order to bring forth her young among the hay or straw. During this
ume, the weasel makes war with the rats and mice, with more success than
the cat, since, following them into all their hgles, it is next to an impossi-
bility for them to escape. It also climbs ots the pigeon houses, to the
nests of sparrows, &c., and commits great havoc. In summer, it removes
to some distance from the houses, always choosing the lower lands about
the mills and streams, hiding itself among the bushes, in order to catch the
birds, and not unfrequently taking up its habitation in the hollow of an old
willow. The female generally brings forth four or five. The young ones
come forth with their eyes shut, but in a little time they attain a sufficiency
of growth and strength to follow their mother to the chase. They attack
adders, water rats, moles, field mice, &c., and, traversing the meadows,
devour quails and their eggs, ’

Like the polecat and the ferret, these animals have so strong a scent that
they cannot be kept in any place that is inhabited. As their own smell is
very bad, they seem to sustain no inconvenience from any foreign stench or
infection. A peasant took, one day, three weasels newly brought forth in
the carcass of a wolf, which had been suspended by its hind legs, from one
of the branches of a tree; and though the wolf was almost entirely rotten,
the old weasel, nevertheless, brought moss, straw, and leaves, in order to
make a bed for her young ones in the cavity of the thorax. The weasel
may be tamed, and is then very good tempered, and excessively curious.

 

THE ERMINE, OR STOAT.I

Tue weasel with a black tail is called the ermine when it is white, and
tne stoat, when it is red or yellowish. Though it isa less common animal
than the weasel, yet there are numbers to be found in the old forests, and
sometimes during the winter in the neighborhood of woody grounds. It is

-always easy to distinguish it from the common weasel, because the tip of
its tail is uniformly of a deep black, while the edges of its ears, and the
extremities of its feet, are white.

1 Mustela erminca, Desm.
MAMMALIA—MARTEN. 125

Godman considers the common -weasel of the United States to be the
same as the ermine or stoat of Europe. He says that in the middle and
eastern States, it is most generally known as the weasel. Farther north, it
is called stoat in its summer, and ermine in its winter pelage of pure white.
Richardson says that both the ermine or stoat, and the common weasel
of Europe, are indubitably found in America; the former extending to the
most remote arctic districts, and the latter-as far north as the Saskatcaoe-
wan river.

—_-

THE PINE MARTEN, OR PINE WEASEL,

 

Onictvatiy a native of the north, is ina manner peculiar to that climate,
where it is so numerous, that the quaatity of furs produced fro:n this animal
alone, and carried into foreign countries, is actually astonishing. In tem-
perate climates, on the contrary, it is rarely, and in warm climates never,
to be found. Some there are in Burgundy, and some in the forest of Fon-
tainbleau ; but in general they are as scarce in France as the beech marten
1s common. It is not uncommon in the wild parts of Scotland, among the
wooded ravines of the mountains.

Alike averse to open countries, and to countries which are inhabited, it
remains in the bosom of some forest, ranges below through the labyrinths
of the thicket, or towers aloft upon the branches of trees. It subsists by the
chase, and destroys a prodigious quantity of birds, whose nests it searches
for, and invades, in order to devour the eggs. Of the squirrel, the dormouse,
&c., it also makes a prey; and it is known to eat honey, as well as the
beech marten. In the description of the wild cat, will be found an account
of the combats of that animal with the pine marten.

To this, may be added, with respect to the latter, that it is said te be
sumetirnes victurious, even over the golden eagle, when that bird pounces
on it as its prey. It seizes the aggressor by tne throat, and the loss of biood
soon brings down the eagle lifeless from its ‘‘ pride of place.”

Its neck is yellow, whereas that of ‘the beech marten is white; and ‘ts
hair, at the same time, is much finer, thicker, and less subject to shed.

When the female is near her time, her custom is to climb to the nest of
some squirrel, to drive her from it, to enlarge it for her own purpose, and to

 

1 Mustela martes, Lin.
126 MAMMALI1A—SABLE...SKUNK.

bring forth her young in it. In the same manner, she occupies the old nests
of the owl and the buzzard, as also the hollow places of trees, from whick
she presently dislodges the woodpecker, and other birds.

THE SABLE.

Tuts animal resembles the marten, and is found in great numbers in
Siberia and Kamtschatka. Its fur is very valuable, and the Russian govcrn-
ment derives considerable revenue from its sale. Pennant and Godman
both say it is found in the northern parts of our continent; but Richardson
does not mention it in his Fauna Boreali Americana.

THE SKUNK2

   
 

Be eategacce Oe

 

Tuts animal inhabits the whole of North America, and is also found
throughout a part of the southern portion of that continent. A considerable
number of animals of this genus are natives of America, resembling each
other strongly in form and size, but differing in the number and variety of
their stripes and markings, have been described by authors as so many
distinct species. Baron Cuvier thinks that the present state of our
knowledge of these animals does not warrant us in considering them
ovherwise than as varieties of a single species, and of these varieties he
enumerates fifteen.

 

1 Mustela zibellina, Pavas. y

2 Mephitis Americahus, Desm. The genus AZephitis has six upper and six lower incisors ;
two upper and two lower canines; eiht upper and ten lower molars. Body elongated,
arctica ; toes of the foot separated, and armed with strong nails, the anterior formed for
digging ; tail long and bushy, or none. .
MAMMALIA—OTTER. 127

This animal is of a brown color, marked sometimes with two white
stripes. The faculty this animal possesses, of annoying its enemies by the
discharge of a noisome fluid, causes it to be rather shunned than hunted,
which the value of its skin would otherwise be sure to occasion. ‘lhe
smallest drop of this fluid is sufficient to render a garment detestable for a
great length of time. Washing, smoking, baking, or burying articles of
dress, seem to be equally inefficient for its removal.

The skunk is generally found in the forests, having its den either in the
stump of an old tree, or in an excavation in the ground. It feeds on the
young of birds, and upon small quadrupeds, eggs, wild fruits, &c. 1t also
does much mischief in the poultry yard.

 

THE OTTER.

 

THE common otter is of a deep brown color, and is usually about two feet
in Jength from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail; the head and
nose are broad and flat; the mouth*bears some similitude to that of a fish;
the neck is short, and equal in thickness to the head; the body long; the
tai] broad at the insertion, but tapering off toa point, and about sixteen
inches long; the eyes are very small, and placed nearer to the nose than is
customary in quadrupeds. The legs are very short, but remarkably strong,
broad and muscular, and so pl.iced as to be capable of being brought into a
a line with the body, and performing the office of fins; and each fov* is
furnished with five toes, connected by strong, broad webs, like those of
water fowl.

Accurately considered, the otter cannot ‘be pronounced an amph:htous
animal. We even find them drowned, when they happen to have been
entangle. in a net; and this, evidently, for want of having had time to
destroy it, and thereby effect their escape. For want of fish, frogs, water
rats, or other nourishment, it will eat the young branches and the bak
of aquatic trees ; and in spring it will eat new grass.

 

1 Lutra vulgaris, Lin. The genus Lutra has six upper and six lower incisors; two
upper aud two lower canines; ten upper and ten lower molars. Head large and Hatteued ;
ear» short; body long; low upov. the legs; toes webbed ; nails crovked ; tail long, flattened
aorizontelly.
128 MAMMALIA—OTTER, ,

These voracious animals are generally found at the sides of lakes and
rivers, but particularly the former, in which they destroy so much more than
they devour, that they will sometimes spoil a pond in the space of a few
nights. They do equal mischief by tearing in pieces the fishermen’s nets,
which they infallibly do, whenever they happen to get entangled in them.
In forming its retreat the otter displays great sagacity. It makes the en-
trance under water, burrows upwards, provides several cells to retire to in
case of floods, and opens on the surface a small orifice for the admission o1
air, which orifice it contrives so as to be concealed, by a thick bush. The
female goes with young about nine weeks, and generally produces four or
five ata time. These are always found at the edge of the water; and, if
under the protection of the dam, she teaches them, on the approach of an
enemy, to plunge, like herself, into the deep, and escape among the weeds
or rushes that fringe the stream. It is, therefore, only in the absence of tne
dam, that the young can be taken; and in some places there are dogs pur-
posely trained for discovering their retreats. One of the favorite pastimes
of the otter is, to get on a high ridge of snow, bend his fore feet backward,
and slide down the side of it, sometimes to the distance of more than twenty
yards.

If taken while young, the otter may be tamed and taught to fish for its
master, and wil] become almost as affectionate and docile as the dog.

For the destruction which he makes among the finny tribe, and also the
disturbance which he gives them in their haunts, the otter is an object of
abhorrence to the angler. Old Izaak Walton calls them “villainous ver-
min,” and many other hard names, and declares that, in his judgment, “all
men that keep otter-dogs ought to have pensions from the king, to encou-
rage them to destroy the breed of these base otters.”

Unless it can be shot, it is difficult to capture the otter, when the water is
not frozen, as it takes to the water, dives, and oceasionil'y “ vents,” as the
hunter terms it; that is, raises its nose to the surface to breathe. ‘The
old hunters, (says a recent writer,) who set more value upon the difficulty
of the capture, than on the prey itself, attack the otter in posse comitatus,
beat the banks with dogs, hedge in a space with nets, ana assail the otter
with clubs and spears, when he comes up to breathe.” ‘This was precisely
the manner in which an otter hunt was conducted in the days of honest
Izaak, and he seems to have considered it as the finest of all spurts, excep
angling.

 

THE CANADA OTTER.

Tue Canada otter resembles the European species in its habits ard food
put it may be distinguished from it, by the fur of its be.ly being of t.e same

 

1 Jautra Canadensis, Des.

>
MAMMALIA—OTTER 129

shining biown as its back. It is a much larger animal, and has, in propor-
tion, a shorter tail than the European one. In the winter season it fre-
quents rapids and falls, to have the advantage of open water, and when its
usual haunts are frozen over, it will travel to a great distance, through the
snow, in search of a rapid which has resisted the severity of the weather.
If it is seen, it throws itself on its belly, and slides through the snow for
several yards, leaving a deep furrow behind it. This movement is made
with great rapidity, When closely pressed, it will turn and defend itself
with great cosunacy. It inhabits the Mackenzie and other rivers nearly to
the Arctic Sea, and the western parts of the United States.

THE SOUTH AMERICAN OTTER)

Tue color of the South American otter is different from that of the
Curopean: the latter 1s much darker; and the male is still darker than the
‘emale, who generally gets brown while suckling her puppies; Abbé Ricardo
says that they change coats. The skin is now more valuable than formerly.
and is used for pistol covers, and foraging regimental caps are made of
them. The skins of otters are also used for segar cases, and the Indians
eat their flesh. In destroying fish, the otter reiects the head, and will not
use it, although pressed by hunger. in Buenos Ayres there is one quite
domesticated, which wiil invariably bring home what it gets in the river
but tame habits make it lazy and indolent; it is vicious during the breeding
season, and is obliged to be chained.

The sport of otter hunting in South America is thus described by a recent
traveller :—In the monvh of May, the parties assemble by previous arrange-
ment, composed principally of the chief inhabitants and their relatives or
clans, and visiters, male sluves, muleteers, &c. Having ascended the
waterfalls, they encamp near those clear and transparent rivers in which
otters abound. After the business of physicing the bloodhounds and a spe-
cies of blueish cur without any hair, they make their hunting dispositions,
and appomt their land and water captains to head each party; the duty of
the latter is to stand in the prow of the canoe, and cheer the dogs to the
prey. The huntsman, in fact, is mostly an Indian, as those dogs will not
hunt to any other tongue; what this is owing to, whether custom or saga-
city, I know not, but it is certainly tne case; however, the young Spaniards
and Creoles have latterly remedied this defect, and are now as well qualified
to hunt a bloodhound in the Indian tongue as an Indian himself. Both
parties having armed themselves with otter spears, barbed like harpoons,
and with handles made of rough, light wood, about ten feet in length, they
cheer on the bloodhounds, who no sooner wind the prey than they join

 

‘ fautra Braziliensis, GMEx

17
130 MAMMALIA—OTTER.

chorus with their huntsman, until they arrive near the Calle Pero, or ofter
city, when the land party divides into three; one watches; another ascends
the ford; while the other pokes the banks, in order to eject the creature.
As soon as he is started, the hounds are again in full ery, and the curs, are
leosed to dive after him, and will relieve each other in this task: as soon
as one is up, down goes the other, while the hounds keep up the cry in the
water at a slow pace, until they eventually force the creature to the head of
the stream into shallow water, where these curs either snap him up, or he is
speared by the hunters; after this the hounds are allowed the gratification
of mouthing him witil satisfied, when they again return to depopalate this
little commonwealth of otters.

In their abode the heads, tails, fins, and fragments, of several species of
fish will be seen. Ashe seldom eats more than a mouthful of each fish,
he must cause a frightful destruction among the finny race, and his de-
predations cause his haunts to be found out at low water, when the
hounds would otherwise pass him.

THE SEA OTTER.
ART ap
ere

=

    
  
 

    
 

    
  

 

== Eimaarut
‘lus harmless, playful, and interesting animal is generally about four
feet long, thirteen inches of which are occupied by the tail. The fur is of
great value, it being soft and of a deep glossy black. It has long been ex-
ported in great quantities by the Russians, who received eighty or a hun-
dred rubles from the Chinese for each skin until the market was overstock -
ed. The sea otter is to be found only within a very few degrees of latitude
in the North Pacific ; its range being mostly confined to the coast of Kamt-
schatka, the adjoining islands, and the opposite American shore. Sea
otters are perfectly inoffensive, and so sportive that much of their time
seems tu be passed in playing diverting tricks. They live in pairs, and are
very constant to each other. Such is their fondness for their young, that
they will never abandon them; on being robbed of them they will starve
themselves to death, and will endeavor to breathe their last on the spor
where their offspring were destroyed.

 

1 Lutra marina, Des.
MAMMAL!IA—DOUG. 131

THE DOG.

Uarcentss of the frame, elegance of the form, strength of the bady, free-
dsm of the motions, and all the exterior qualities, are not the noblest pro-
perties in an animated being; and, as in mankind, understanding is ; referred
to figure, courage to strength, and sentiment to beauty, so the interior
qualities are those which we esteem most in animals; for it is in these
that they differ from the automaton; itis by these they are raised above
the vegetable, and made to approach nearer to ourselves; it is their sense
which ennobles their being, which regulates, which enlivens it, which com-
mands the organs, makes the members active, gives birth to desire, and
gives to matter progressive motion, will, and life.

The dog, independently of his beauty, vivacity, strength, and swiftness,
has all the interior qualities which can attract the regard of man. The

-tame dog comes to lay at his master’s feet his courage, strength, and talents,
and waits-his orders to use them; he consults, interrogates, and beseeches ;
the glance of his eye is sufficient; he understands the signs of his will.
Without the vices of man, he has all his ardor of sentiment; and, what is
more, he has fidelity and constancy in his affections; no ambition, no inte-
rest, no desire of revenge, no fear but that of displeasing him, he is all
zeal, all warmth, and all obedience; more sensible tv the remembrance of
benefits than of wrongs, he soon forgets, or only remembers them to make
his attachment the stronger; far from irritating, or running away, he even
exposes himself to new proofs; he licks the hand which is the cause of his
pain, he only opposes it by his cries, and at length entirely disarms it by
his patience and submission.

In deserts, and depopulated countries, there are wild dogs, which in their
manners differ only from wolves, by the facility with which they are tained;
they unite also in large troops, to hunt and attack by force wild boars and
bulls, and even lions and tigers.

Dogs which have been abandoned in the deserts of America, and have
lived wild for a hundred and fifty, or two hundred years, though changed
from their original breed, since they are sprung from domestic dogs, have,
ootwithstanding this long space of time, retained, at least in part, their
primitive form, and travellers report that they resemble our greyhound *

 

1 Canis familiaris, Lix. The genus Canis has six upper and six lower incisors; vwe
upper and two lower canines; twelve upper and fourteen lower molars. ‘Fhe three firs;
molars in the upper jaw, and the four in the lower, small edged ; the great carnivorous tooth.
ahove hicuspid, orth a tubercle on the inner side; two tuberculous teeth hehind each of
the large carnivorous ones; muzzle elongated; tongue soft; ears erect; fore feet penta-
dactylous ; hind feet tetradactylous; teats inguinal and ventral. .

*It must not be understood that the dog is not an original inhabitant of America.
Godman remarks “iat the people of the northern parts of America and Asia, have, for
ages heyond the memory of man, employed dogs as heasts of burden, or for draught. The
dogs of the Esquimaux, and other aborigines of this continent, differ much in size and
color, yet they are all of a b-eed apparently intermediate to the wolf and fox.
132 MAMMALIa- DOG.

These wild dogs, however, are extremely thin and light; .nd as the grey
hound does not differ much from the cur, or from tle dog which we
will call the shepherd’s dog, it is natural to think, that these wild dogs are
rather of this species, than real greyhounds; since on the other side, ancient
travellers have said, that the dogs of Canada had the ears straight like
foxes, and resembled the middle sized mastiff, that is, our shepherd’s dog,
and that those of the deserts of the Antilles isles, had also the head and
ears very long, and in appearance very much resemble foxes.

Dogs are commonly born with their eyes shut: the two eyelids are not
only closed, but adhere by a membrane, which breaks away as soon as the
muscle of the superior eyelid is become strong enough to raise it and to
overcome this obstacle; and the greater number of dogs have not their eyes
open till the tenth or twelfth day. They attain their growth in two years.
The dog is old at fifteen years, and seldom lives beyond twenty.

THE GREYHOUND.

 

 

Tuts elegantly formed animal was once held in such estimation, that y
was the peculiar companion of a gentleman, who was anciently known by
his horse, his hawk, and his greyhound. In such repute was it, that Canute
enacted a law that it should not even be kept by any one who was under
the rank of a gentleman. It has a long body, a neat and elongated head,
full eye, long meuth, sharp and very white teeth, little ears, with thin
gristles in them, a straight neck and full breast; his fore and hind legs are”
long and straight; his ribs round, strong, and full of sinews, and taper
about the belly. It is the swiftest of the dog kind, and’ easily trained for
the chase when twelve months old. It courses by sight and not by scent,
as other hounds do; and is supposed to outlive all the dog tribe. Buffor

 

' Canis familiaris graius.
\MAMMALIA—DOG. 133

imagines it to be descended from the Irish greyhound, only rendered more
thin and delicate by the influence of climate. There isa variety of this
species, which is called the Highland greyhound. It is very large, strong,
deep-chested, covered with long rough hair, and has the scent and sagacity
of the bloodhound. This kind has become exceedingly scarce.

 

THE SPANIEL.

 

‘Tuis beautiful animal is of Spanish extraction, whence it derives :1s
name, and the silky softness of its coat. Itis elegant in form, with long
pendent ears, and hair gracefully curled or waved. Its scent is keen, and it
possesses in the fullest perfection the good qualities of sagacity, docility,
and attachment. So strong is the latter, that instances have been known
in which the animal has died of grief for the loss of its master. Dash, a
spaniel belonging to the gamekeeper of the Rev. Mr Corsellis, would not
quit his master’s bed after his death; being taken away, he perpetually re-
turned to the room, and daily visited the grave; and, in spite of all the
kindness that was shown him, he died at the end of fourteen days. The
land spaniel may be taught a variety of tricks, such as fetching, carrying,
and diving. He is employed in setting for partridges, quails, &c., and his
steadiness and patience, in the perfurmance of this task, are worthy of
admiration.

 

THE WATER SPANIEL?

Or all the dog «ind, th.s anima. seems to be the sost docile, and the most
attached to man. Many other species are impatient of correction; but the
water spaniel, though fierce to strangers, bears blows and ill usage from
his master with undiminished affection. This creature is well calculated
for hunting of otters, ducks, &c. Watching the stroke of the piece and per-
ceiving the game that is shot, he instantly swims after it, and brings it te

Canis fam. ex‘rari 1s, 2 C. f. aquaticus,
134 MAMMALIA—DOG

his master. He will fetch and carry at command, and will dive to the
bottum of deep water in search of a piece of money, which he will bring
out, and deposit at the feet of the person by whom he was sent. Cowper
has recorded, in a pleasing poem, an instance of sagacity and of a desire to
gratify a master, which was displayed by his spaniel, Beau. As he was
walking by the Ouse, he was desirous to obtain one of the water-lilies, which
grew in the river, but was unable to reach it. Beau seemed disposed to
assist him, but the poet called him off, and pursued his ramble. On his
return, however, Beau rushed into the stream, cropped a lily, and laid it at
his master’s feet.

 

THE HARRIER!

Is closely allied to the beagle, though larger, more swift, and vigorous. Lt
is ardent in the chase, and frequently outstrips the Heetest sportsman. A
mixed breed, between this and the large terrier, forms a strong, active, and
hardy hound, which is used in hunting the otter. It is rough, wire-haired,
thick-quartered, long-eared, and thin-shouldered.

 

THE SPANISH POINTE R?

 

Is derived, as its name implies, from Spain, but has long been naturalized
in England, where great attention has been paid to preserve the breed in
all its purity. It is remarkable for the aptness and facility with wiich it
receives instruction, and may be said to be almost self-taught; whilst the
English pointer requires the greatest care and attention in breaking and
training for the sport. But on the ‘other hand, it is less capable chan the
English pointer of enduring fatigue. It is chiefly empluyed in finding
partridges, pheasants, &c.

 

1C. Gallicu:. 2 C. avicwaris.

fe
MAMMALIA—DOG, 135

THE ESQUIMAUX DOG!

     

Wes — — .
SS SiRe RE
Ro ae ee thd END fa

T rs animal is one of those varieties of the dog, from which man receives
obedience and affection. To the Esquimaux Indians his services are invalu-
able. He assists them to hunt the bear, the rein-deer, and the seal; in
summer, while attending his master in the chase, he carries a weight of
thirty pounds; in winter he is yoked to a sledge, and conveys his master
over the trackless snows. Several of them drawing together, will convey
five or six persons, at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, and will
travel sixty miles in a day. In winter he is scantily fed, and roughly treat-
ed, yet his fidelity remains unshaken. The Esquimaux dog does not bark.
In appearance, he comes nearest to the shepherd’s dog, and the wolf dog.
His ears are short and erect, and his bushy tail curves elegantly over his
back. His average stature is one foot ten inches, and the length of his
body, from the back of the bead to the commencement of the tail, is two
feet three inches. His coat is long and furry, aud is sometimes brindled,
sometimes of a dingy red, sometimes black and white, and sometimes
almost wholly black.

The manner in which the sledge is drawn by these animals, is described
with much accuracy and spirit, by Captain Parry, in the Journal of his
Second Voyage. “When drawing a sledge,” says he, “the dogs have a
simple harness, (annoo,) of deer or sea) skin, going round the neck hy one
bight, and another for each of the fore legs, with a single thong leading over

 

'C. Borealis, This animal is a native of America, and is considered hy Godman, as
descended from the wolf and the fox. He observes, that they retain so much of the ex-
ternal appearance, and general carriage of the wild animal, as to leave no question of
their descem from the same stock of the wolf, residing in the vicinity, and do not appear
to he distinctly removed from that species, however long they may have been in the
service of man.
136 MAMMALIA—DOG.

the back, and attached to the sledge as a trace. Though they appear at first
sight, to be huddled together without regard to regularity, there is, in fact,
considerable attention paid to their arrangement, particularly in the selec-
tion of a dog of peculiar spirit and sagacity, who is allowed, by a longer
trace, to precede the rest as leader, and to whom, in turning to the right or
left, the driver usually addresses himself. This choice is made without
regard to age or sex, and the rest of the dogs take precedency according to
their training or sagacity, the least effective being put nearest the sledge.
The leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet from the fore part of the
sledge, and the hindmost dog about half that distance ; so that when ten or
twelve are running together, several are nearly abreast of each other. The
driver sits quite low, on the fore part of the sledge, with his feet overhang-
ing the snow on one side, and having in his hand a whip, of which the
handle is plaited a little way down to stiffen it, and give it a spring, on
which much of its use depends ; and that which composes the lash is‘chew-
ed by the women, to make it flexible in frosty weather. The men acquire ©
from their youth considerable expertness in the use of this whip, the lask
of which is left to trail along the ground by the side of the sledge, and with
which they can inflict a very severe blow on any dog at pleasure. Though
the dogs are kept in training entirely by fear of the whip, and, indeed, with-
out it, would soon have their own way, its immediate effect is always
detrimental to the draught of the sledge; for not only does the individual
that is struck draw back, and slacken his trace, but generally turns upon
his next neighbor, and this passing on to the next, occasions a general
divergency, accompanied by the usual yelping and showing of the teeth:
The dogs then come together again by degrees, and the draught of the
sledge is accelerated ; but even at the best of times, by his rude mode of
draught, the traces of one third of the dogs form an angle of thirty or forty
degrees on each side of the direction in which the sledge is advancing.
Another great inconvenience attending the Esquimaux method of putting
the dogs to, besides that of not employing their strength to the best advan-
tage, is the constant entanglement of the traces, by the dogs repeatedly
doubling under from side to side, to avoid the whip ; so that, after running
a few miles, the traces always require to be taken off and cleaned.

“Tn directing the sledge, the whip acts no very essential part, the driver
for this purpose using certain words, as the carters do with us. to make the
dogs turn more to the right or left. To these a good leader attends with
admirable precision, especially if his own name be repeated at the same
time, looking behind over his shoulder with great earnestness, as if listening
to the directions of the driver. On a beaten track, or even where a single
foot or sledge mark is occasionally discernible, there is net the slightesy
trouble in guiding the dogs: for even in the darkest night, and in the
heaviest snow-dri(t, there is little or no danger of their losing the road, the
leader keeping his nose near the ground, and directing the rest with won
MAMMALIA—DOG 137

derful sagacity. Where, however, there is no beaten track, the best driver
among them makes a terrible circuitous course, as all the Esquimaux roads
plainly show ; these generally occupying an extent of six miles, when, with
a horse and sledge, the journey would scarcely have amounted to five. On
rough ground, as among hummocks of ice, the sledge would be frequently
overturned, or altogether stupped, if the driver did not repeatedly get off,
and by lifting or drawing it on one side, steer clear of those accidents. At
all times, indeed, except on a smooth and well made road, he is pretty con-
stantly employed thus with his feet, which, together with his never-ceasing
vociferations, and frequent use of the whip, renders the driving of one of
these vehicles by no means a pleasant or easy task. When the driver
wishes to stop the sledge, he calls out, ‘ Wo, woa,’ exactly as our carters do,
but the attention paid to this command depends aitogether on his ability to
enforce it. If the weight is small and the journey homeward, the dogs are
not to be thus delayed; the driver is therefore obliged to dig his heels into
the snow to obstruct their progress, and having thus succeeded in stopping
tnem, he stands up with one leg before the foremost cross-piece of the
sledge, till, by means of laying the whip gently over each dog’s head, he has
made them all lie down. He then takes care not to quit his position, so
that, should the dogs set off, he is thrown upon the sledge instead of being
ieft behind by tham.

“With heavy loads, the dogs draw best with one cf their own people,
especially a woman, walking a little way ahead; and in this case, they are
sometimes enticed to mend their pace by holding a mitten to the mcuth,
and then making the motion of cutting it with a knife and throwing it cn
the snow, when the dogs, mistaking it for meat, hasten forward to pick it
up. The women also entice them from the huts in a similar manner. The
rate at which they travel depends, of course, on the weight they have to
draw, and the road on which their journey is performed. When the latter
is level, and very hard and smooth, constituting what, in other parts of
North America, is called ‘good sleighing,’ six or seven dogs will draw from
eight to ten hundred weight, at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour,
for several hours together; and will easily, under these circumstances, per-
form a journey of fifty or sixty miles a day. On untrodden snow, five-and-
twenty, or thirty miles, would be a good day’s journey. The same number
of well fed dogs, with a weight of five or six hundred, (that of the sledge in-
cluded,) are almost unmanageable, and will, on a smooth rord, run any way
they please, at the rate of ten miles an hour. The work performed by a
greater number of dogs, is, however, by no means in a proportion to this,
owing to the imperfect mode already described of employing the strength
of these sturdy creatures, and to the more frequent snarling and fighting
occasioned by an increase of numbers.”

18
138 MAMMALIA—DOG.

THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG!

Twis animal, which came originally from the island whence it derives its
name, has a remarkably pleasing countenance, is exceedingly docile, and
of great size and sagacity. In their native country, they are extremely
useful to the settlers on the coast, who employ them to bring woud from the
interior. Three or four of them, yoked to a sledge, will draw three hundred
weight of wood for several miles. In the performance of this task they are
sv expert as to need no driver. After having delivered their load, they will
return to the woods with the empty sledge, and are then rewarded by being
fed with dried fish.

The feet of this dog are more palmated than usual; which structure
enables it to swim very fast, to dive easily, and to bring up any thing from
the bottom of the water. It is, indeed, almost as fond of the water as if it
were an amphibious animal. So sagacious is it, and so prompt in lending
assistance, that it has saved the lives of numberless persons, who were on
the point of drowning; and this circumstance, together with its uniform
goud temper, has justly rendered it a universal favorite.

 

THE MASTIFF?#

Tuts species of dog is peculiar to England. It is nearly of the size of a
Newfoundland dog, strong and active, possessing great sagavity, and is
commonly employed as a watch dog. The mastiff is said seldom to use
violence against intruders, unless resisted, and even then he will sometimes
only throw down the person, and hold him for hours, without doing him
further injury, till he is relieved. He has a large head, with short pendent
ears, and thick lips hanging down on each side. In the reign of James I.,
a contest was exhibited between three mastilfs and a lion, ia which the
king of beasts was compelled to seek for safety in flight.

 

THE TERRIER?

   

raion SS One ES
{s a small, thick-set hound, of which there are two varieties; the one with
short legs, long back, and commonly of a black or yellowish color, mingled

 

1C./f. extrarius. Sub-variety. 2C. Anglicus. 3 C. Britannicus.
MAMMALIA—DOG, 139

with white; the other more sprightly in appearance, with a shorter body,
and the color reddish brown or black. It has a most acute sense of smell+
ing, and an inveterate enmity to all kinds of vermin. "or is it excelled by
any dog in the quality of courage. It will encounter e-en the badger with
the utmost bravery, though it often receives severe wounds in the contest,
which, however, it bears with unshrinking fortitude. As it is very expert
in forcing foxes and other game out of their coverts, and is particularly
hostile to the fox, it is generally an attendant on every pack of hounds in
which case the choice of the huntsman is not directed by the size of the
animal, but by its strength and power of endurance.

 

THE AUSTRALIAN DOG.! *

Tus dog, which is also called the Australasian and New Holland dog,
and by the natives, the dingo, is about equal in size, and similar in its pro-
portions, to the common house dog, or lurcher. It is two feet five inches in
length, muscular legged, agile, and courageous, with a bushy tail, and long,
straight hair, of a deep fawn color on the upper parts, and almost white on
the under surface. He is exceedingly voracious and fierce. One of them
has bera known to leap on the back of an ass, which was not saved from it
withe: + considerable difficulty.

 

: THE BULL-DOG#?

 

‘faausa much less in size than the mastiff, the bull-dog is nearly equal tw
“ep ya streogth, and superior to him in fierceness. Those of the brindled
«ind are accounted the best. No natural antipathy can exceed that of this
suimal epamst the bull. Without barking, he will naturally fly at and
seize t} » fiercest bull; running directly at his head, and sometimes catching
uuld of Gis nose, he will pin the bull to the ground; nor can he, without

 

C. f. Australasia. 2 C. Molossus.
140 MAMMALIA—DOG.

great difficulty, be made to quit his hold. Such is his rage, that at a bull
fight in the north of England, a brute in the shape of a man, wagered, that
he would successively cut off the feet of his dog, and that the animal should
return to the attack after each amputation. The horrible experiment was
tried, and the wager was won. ‘Two of these dogs, let loose, at once, are a
match for a bull, three for a bear, and four for a lion. :

 

THE SHEPHERD’S DOG.!

Tus dog is distinguished by his upright ears and sharp muzzle. His
hody is long, and covered with thick, woolly-like hair; his legs are rather
short. All of his feet have one, and some of them two superfluous toes,
which appear destitute of muscles, and hang dangling at the hind part of
the leg. When properly trained, this dog becomes perfectly well acquaint-
ed with every individual sheep of his master’s flock, and is of the greatest
service to the pastoral inhabitants of the northern parts of Great Britain.

 

THE BLOOD-HOUND

 

Leth Nat

Isa tall, beautifully formed animal, usually of a reddish or brown color
which was anciently in high esteem in England. His employ was to
recover any game that had escaped wounded from the hunter, or had been
stolen out of the forest; but he was still more serviceable in hunting
thieves and robbers by their footsteps. For the latter purpose they are now
almost disused in that country; but they are still sometimes employed in
the royal forests to track deer stealers, and on such occasions they display
an extraordinary sagacity anc acuteness of scent. In the Spanish West
India islands, however, they are constantly used in the pursuit of criminals,
and are accompanied by officers called chasseurs.

oo

 

1 C. domesticus,
‘

MAMMALIA—DOG. 141

THE AFRICAN BLOOD-HOUND.

 

Two males and a female of this species—a species which is remarka2le
for its elegance and its sagacity, were brought to England, from Africa, by
Major Denham. While he was in that country he frequently employed
them in hunting the gazelle; in performing which they displayed infinite
skill. After a lapse of an hour and a half, or even two hours, they would
follow the scent; and they would often quit the line of it, to cut off a double,
or, in other words, to shorten the distance, and would recover it with the
greatest ease. This dog is used in Africa to track a flying foe to his retreat.
Captivity has rendered the female surly, and has deprived the whole of them
of the desire to perpetuate their race.

THE HY ZENA DOG.

 

2
Tuts dog is a native of Southern Africa, and is a serious nuisance to the
frontier settlements at the Cape. It hunts in packs, generally at night, and
is exceedingly fierce, swift, and active. Sheep, it unhesitatingly attacks,
hut it is less daring with respect to the horse and the ox, and, accordingly

 

1 Canis pictus, Desm,
142 MAMMALIA--WOLF.

“t waits till the animal is asleep. The injuries which it inflicts are usually
mortal. To bite off the tail of the ox seems to be its delight. The hyena
dog is smaller and slenderer than the hyena, or the wolf. In color it is of
a reddish or yellowish brown, variously mottled, along the sides of the hody
and on the legs, in large patches of intermingled black and white. From
1ts completely black nose and muzzle, a strong black line passes up the’
centre of the forehead to between the ears, which are very large, black on
both surfaces, and furnished with a broad and expanded tuft of long, whitish
hairs, filling a considerable part of their concavity. Its tail, of moderate
length, is covered with long bushy hair, divided in the middle by a ring
of black. Its ferocity seems to be untamable. Mr Burchell, who first
carried it to England, kept one for twelve months, at the end of which
period even its feeder did not dare to lay his hand upon it.

 

THE WOLF.

 

f

Tue wolf, as well externally as internally, so nearly resembles the dog,
{hat he seems modelled upon the same plan; and yet he only offers the
reverse of the image. If his form be similar, his nature is different; ana
indeed they are so unlike in their dispositions, that no two animals can
‘have a more perfect antipathy to each other. A young dog shudders at the g
sight of a wolf; a dog who is stronger, and who knows his strength, bristles
up at the sight, testifies his animosity, attacks him with courage, endeavors
to put him to flight, and does all in his power to rid himself of a presence
that is hateful to him. They never meet without either flying from or
fighting with each other. If the wolf is the stronger, he tears and deveiars
his prey; the dog, on the contrary, is more generous, and cox-tents himself
with his victory.

The dog, evgn in his savage state, is not cruel ; he is easily tamed, and
continues finnly attached to his master. The wolf, when taken young,
becomes tame, but never has an attachment. Nature is stronger in him
than education ; he resumes, with age, his natural dispositions, and returns,
as soon as he can, to the woods whence he was taken. Cuvier, however

 

' Canis lupus, Lin
MAMMALIA—WOLP. 143

gives a remarsable_instance, in which a wolf manifested for his master all
the devoted attachment of a dog. The gentleman whu brought hin up
from a puppy, and who was going to travel, presented him to the Paris
menagerie when he was full grown. For several weeks the wolf was
inconsolable; but at length he contracted new attachments with those about
him, and seemed to have forgotten his former owner. At the end of eigh-
teen months, however, that owner returned, and, as soon as the wolf heard
the well known voice in the gardens of the menagerie, he displayed ‘he
most violent joy, and, on being set at liberty, he hastened tohis friend. An
absence of three years next tovk place, and the wolf was again discunsolate.
The master once more returned, and ,though, it being evening, the wolf's
den was shut up, yet the moment the tones of his friend met his ear, he
uttered the most anxious cries. On the door being opened, he darted
towards the long absent person, leaped upon his shoulders, licked his face,
and threatened to bite the keepers when they attempted to separate them,
When the man left him, he fell sick, rejected all food, was long on the verge
of death, and would thenceforth never suffer a stranger to approach him.

Dogs, even of the dullest kinds, seek the company of other animals; they
are naturally disposed to follow and accompany other creatures; the wolf,
on the contrary, is the enemy of all society; he does not even keep much
company with those of his kind. When they“are seen in packs together, it is
not to be considered as a peaceful society, but a combination for war: they
testify their hostile intentions by their loud howlings, and by their fierceness
-liscover a project for attacking some great aniwal, such as a stag or a bull,
or for destroying some formidable dog. The instant their military expedi-
tion is completed, their society is at an end; they then part, and each
returns in silence to his solitary retreat. There is not even any strong
attachment between the male and female; they seek each other only once
a year, and remain but a few days together. ‘

The difference in the duration of the pregnancy of the she wolf, who goes
with young above a hundred days, and the bitch, who dues not go above
sixty, proves, that the wolf and the dog, so different in disposition, are still
more so in one of the principal functions of the animal economy.

The wolf generally brings forth five or six, and sometimes even nire, a
a litter. The cubs are brought forth, like those of the bitch, with the eyes
closed. The dam suckles them for some weeks, and teaches them betimes
to eat flesh, which she prepares for them, by chewing it first herself. Thay
do not leave the den where they have been littered, till they are six weeks
or two months old. It is not, however, till they are about ten or twelve
months old, and till they have shed their first teeth and completed the. new,
that the dam thinks them in a capacity to shift for themselves. Then,
when they have acquired arms from nature, and have learned industry and
sourage from her example, she declines all future care of them, heing again
magaged in bringing up a new progeny. These animals require two ot
144 MAMMALIA—WOLF.

three years for their growth, and live to the age of fifteen or twenty years
The body of the wolf is about three and a half feet long.

The wolf grows gray as he grows old, and his teeth wear, like those of
most other animals, by using. He sleeps when his belly is full, or when
he is fatigued, rather by day than night, and is always very easily waked.
He drinks frequently ; and in times of drought, when there is no water to
be found in the trunks of trees, or in pools about the forest, he comes often,
in the day, down to brooks or lakes in the plain. Although very voracious,
he yet supports hunger for a long time, and often lives four or five days
without food, provided he is supplied with water.

The wolf has great strength, particularly in his fore parts, in the muscles
of his neck and jaws. He carries off a sheep in his mouth, without Jetting
it. touch the ground, and runs with it much swifter than the shepherds who
pursue him, so that nothing but the dogs can overtake him, or oblige him
tu ,uite his prey. He bites cruelly, and always with greater vehemence in
proportion as he is less resisted; for he uses precautions with such animals
as attempt to stand upon the defensive. He is cowardly, and never fights
but when under the necessity of satisfying his hunger, or of making good
his retreat. When he is wounded by a bullet, he is heard to cry out; and
yet, when surrounded by the peasants, and attacked with clubs, he never
howls, but defends himself in silence, and dies as bard as he lived.

If he happens to be caught in a pit-fall, he is for some time so frightened
and astonished, that he may be killed without offering to resist, or taken
alive without much danger. At that instant, one may clap a collar round
his neck,. muzzle him, and drag him along, without his even giving the
least signs of anger or resentment. At all other times, he has his senses
in great perfection. He smells a carcass at the distance of more thana
league; he also perceives living animals a great way off, and follows them
a long time upon the scent. Whenever he leaves the wood, he always
takes care to go out against the wind. When just come to its extremity,
he stops to examine, by its smell, on all sides, the emanations that may
come either from his enemy or his prey, which he very nicely distinguishes.
He prefers those animals which he himself kills to those he finds dead; and
yet he does not disdain these, though ever so much infected, when no better
are to be had. He is particularly fond of human flesh ; and, perhaps, if he
were sufficiently powerful, he would eat no other. Wolves have been seen
following armies, and arriving in numbers upon the field cf battle, where
they devoured such dead bodies as were left upon the field, or but negligently
interred. These, when once accustomed to human flesh, ever after seek
particularly to attack mankind, choose to fall upon the shepherd rather than
his flock, and devour women, carry off their children, &c.

“The color of this animal differs according to the different climates in
which he is bred, and often changes even in the same country. Besides the
common wolves which are found in France and Germany, there are others

1
MAMMALIA—WOLF, 145

with thicker hair, inclining to yellow. In the northern climates, some are
found quite black, and some white all over. The former are larger and
stronger than those of any other kind.

¢

 

THE CLOUDED BLACK WOLE..

 

Tuts animal is a native of the extreme northern regions ud America. It
isa mich nobler looking creature than the common svecies, and is also
much arger and more robust. The ears are remarkably short, and the tail
is shorter in proportion than that of the wolf. The hair is mottled with
various shades of black, gray, and white, and is of considerable length, par-
ticularly along the middle of the back and shoulders, where it forms a sort
of ill defined mane. On the sides the coloring is somewhat lighter, and is
of a still lighter shade beneath. From the top of the nose to the origin of
the tail, this animal measures about four feet and a quarter. Its ferocity
remains undiminished by protracted confinement.

 

THE AMERICAN WOLF.

Tue common wolf of America is considered to be the same species as the
wolf of Europe, and, in regard to habitp and manners, gives every eviden:e
of such an identity.*

 

1 Canis Lycaon, Lin.

* Richardson remarks that he has travelled over thirty degrees of latitude in America,
and has never seen there any wolves which had the gaunt appearance, the supe at
long jaw and tapering nose, the high ears, long legs, slender loins, and narrow feet of the
Pyrenean wolf. He adds, that the American animal has a more robust form than the
European wolf. Its muzzle is thicker and more obtuse, its head larger and rounder, and
there is a sensible depression at the union of the nose and forehead. He notices six varie-
ties of the wolf in North Ainerica :—common pray wolf, white, pied, dusky, black, and
praine. ‘Lhere is little reason to doubt that all the wolves of America are of one species ;
and .he variations of size, coior, and habits, are to he referred to diversities rf climate
which have been gradually impressed upon these animals.

19
146 MAMMALIA—-WOLF.

Like all the wild animals of the dog kind, they unite in packs to hunt
jown animals which individually they could not master, and, during their
sexual season, engage in the most furious combats with each other for the
possession of the females.

In the regions west of Hudson’s Bay, wolves are often seen, both in the
woods and on the plains, though their numbers are inconsiderable, and it is
not common to see more than three or four ina pack. They appear to be
very fearful of the human race, but are destructive to the Indian dogs, and
frequently succeed in killing such as are heavily laden, and unable to keep
up with the rest. The males are not so swift as the females; and they
seem to lead a forlorn life during the winter, being seldom seen in pairs
until the commencement of spring. They bring forth their young in bur-
rows, and though it might well be inferred that they are fiercer at those
times, than under ordinary circumstances, yet Hearne states that he has
frequently seen the Indians take the young ones from the dens and pla}
with them. They never hurt the young wolves, but always replace them
in their dens, sometimes painting the faces of these whelps with vermilion
or red ochre.

At the highest northern latitudes which have yet been explored, tle
wolves are very numerous and very audacious. They are generally to be
found at no great distance from the huts of the Esquimaux, and follow these
people from place to place, being apparently very much dependent upon
them for food, during the coldest season of the year. They are frequently
seen in packs of twelve or more, prowling about at a short distance from
the huts of the Esquimaux, lying in wait for the Esquimaux dog, which
they are successful in killing, if he wanders so far as to be out of reach of
assistance from his master.

When the aboriginal Americans first gave place to European adventurers,
and the forests, which had flourished for ages undisturbed, began to fall be-
fore the unsparing axe, the vicinity of the settler’s lonely cabin resounded
with the nightly howling of wolves, attracted by the refuse provision usually
to be found there, or by a disposition to prey upon domestic animals.
During winter, when food was most difficult to be procured, packs of these
famished and ferocious creatures were ever at hand, to run down and destroy
any domestic animal found wandering beyond the enclosures, which their
individual or combined efforts could overcome, and the boldest housedog
could not venture far from the door of his master without incurring the risk
of being killed and aevoured. The common wolf was then to be found in
considerable numbers throughout a great extent, if not the whole of North
America ; at present, it is only known as a resident of the remote wooded
and mountainous districts.
MAMMALIA—WOLF. 147

THE PRAIRIE, OR BARKING WOLF.

 

Tis wolf frequents the prairies or natural meadows of the west, where
troops or packs, containmg a considerable number of individuals, are fre-
quently seen following in the train of a herd of buffalo or deer, for the
purpose of preying on such as may die from disease, or in consequence of
wounds inflicted by the hunters. At night they also approach’ the en-
campment of travellers, whom they sometimes follow for the sake of
the carcasses of animals which are relinquished, and, by their discordant
howlings close to the tents, effectually banish sleep from those who are
unaccustomed to their noise. According to Say’s observation, they are more
numerous than any of the other wolves which are found in North America.

The barking wolf closely resembles the domestic deg of the Indians in
appearance, and is remarkably active and intelligent. Like the common
wolf, the individuals of this species frequently unite to run down deer, or a
buffalo calf which has been separated from the herd, though it requires the
fullest exercise of all their speed, sagacity, and strength to succeed in this
chase. They are very often exposed to great distress from want of food,
and in this state of famine are under the necessity of filling their stomachs
with wild plums, or other fruits no less indigestible, in order to allay in some
degree the inordinate sensations of hunger.

In confirmation of the sagacity of this wolf, we shall quote from Say, to
whom we owe all that has yet been made known on this species some
anecdotes respecting it. ‘Mr Peale constructed and tried various krids of
traps to take them, one of which was of the description called a ‘live trap,"
a shallow box reversed and supported at one end by the well known kind
of trap-sticks usually called the ‘ figure four,’ which elevated the front of the
trap upwards of three feet above its slab flooring; the trap was about six
feet long, and nearly the same in breadth, and was plentifully baited with
offal. Notwithstanding this arrangement, a wolf actually burrowed under
the flooring, and pulled down the bait through the crevices of the floor -

 

1 Canis latrans, Say.
148 MAMMALIA—JACKAL.

tracks of different size were observed about the trap. This procedure w ould
seem to be the result of a faculty beyond mere instinct.

“ This trap proving useless, another was constructed in a different part
of the country, formed like a large cage, through which the animals might
enter, but not return; this was equally unsuccessful; the wolves attempted
in vain to get at the bait, as they would not enter by the route prepared for
them. A large double ‘steel trap’ was next tried; this was profusely
baited, and the whole, with the exception of the bait, was carefully concealed
beneath the fallen leaves. This was also unsuccessful. Tracks of the
anticipated victims were next day observed to be impressed in numbers on
the earth near the spot, but still the trap with its seductive charge remained
untouched. The bait was then removed from the trap, and suspended over
it from the branch of a tree; several pieces of meat were also suspended in
a similar manner from trees in the vicinity. The following morning the
bait over the trap alone remained. Supposing that their exquisite sense of
smell warned them of the position of the trap, it was removed and then
covered with leaves, and the baits being disposed as before, the leaves to a
considerable distance around were burned ; and the trap remained perfectly
concealed by ashes ; still the bait over the trap was avoided. It was not
until a log trap was used that an individual of this species was caught.
This log trap is made by raising one log above another at one end by means
of an upright stick, which rests upon a rounded horizontal trigger on the
lower log.”— Godman.

THE JACKAL!

   

ee 7 = —

Is one of the commanest wild animals in the east, yet there is scarcely any
one less known m Europe, or more confusedly described by naturalists. It

 

1C. aureus Lin.
MAMMALIA—JACKAL. 149

-nhabits the warmer parts of the old continent, and seems to occupy the
place of the wolf, which is nui there so common. “In size,” says Mr Ben-
nett, ‘he is about equal to the common fox, but he differs from that equally
troublesome animal in the form of the pupils of his eyes, which correspond
with those of the dog and of the wolf; in the comparative shortness of lus
legs and muzzle; in his less tufted and bushy tail; and in the peculiar
marking of his coat. The coloring of his back and sides consists of a
mixture of gray and black, which is abruptly and strikingly distinguished
from the deep and uniform tawny of his shoulders, haunches, and legs ; bis
head is nearly of the same mixed shade with the upper surface of his body,
as is also the greater part of his tail, which latter, however, becomes black
towards its extremity; his neck and throat are whitish, and the under
surface of his body is distinguished by a paler hue.” The yellow which
1s about him is the reason why many authors have called the jackal the
golden wolf.

As the species of the wolf approaches that of the dog, so the jackal finds
a place between them both. The jackal, or adil, as Belon says, is a beast
between the wolf and the dog. To the ferocity of the wolf, it joins, in fact, a
little of the familiarity of the dog. Its voice is a kind of a howl, mixed
with barking and groaning; it is more noisy than the dog, and more vora-
cious than the wolf; it never stirs out alone, but always m packs, of
twenty, thirty or forty ; they collect together every day, to go in search of
their prey ; they make themselves formidable to the most powerful animals,
by their number; they attack every kind of beasts or birds, almost in the
presence of the human species; they abruptly enter stables, sheepfolds, and
other places, without any sign of fear; and when they cannot meet with
any other thing, they will devour boots, shoes, harnesses, &c., and what
leather they have not time to consume they take away with them. When
they cannot meet with any live prey, they dig up the dead carcasg@s of men
and animals. The natives are obliged to cover the graves of the deal with
larg? thorns, and other things, to prevent them from scratching and digging
up the dead bodies. ‘The dead are buried very deep in the earth; for it is
not a little trouble that discourages them. Numbers of them work together,
and accompany their labor with a doleful cry; and, when thry are once
accustomed to feed on dead bodies, they run from country to cor atry, follew
armies, and keep close to the caravans. This animal may be styled the
crow of quadrupeds ; for they will eat the most putrid or infectious flesh;
their appetite is so cons;ant and so vehement, that the driest leather is sa:
vory to them; and ski- flesh, fat, excrement, or the most putrefied animal
is alike to their taste.
(50. MAMMALIA—FOX

THE FOX)

 

Is one of the most widely distributed animals, and is found in all the tempe-
rate and northern regions of the old and new world. With one exception,
the structure of the eye, the organization of the fox and dog are similar.
Hence the fox preys by night. He has always been famous for his cunning;
he generally fixes his residence at the edge of a wood, and yet not far re-
moved from some cottage or some hamlet. He listens to the crowing of
the cock, and the cackling of other domestic fowls: even at a considerable
distance he scents them, and seizes his opportunity. If he be able to get
into the yard, he begins by levelling all the poultry without remorse. This
done, hegcarries off a part of the spoil, hides it at some convenient distance,
and again returns to the charge. Taking off another fowl in the same
manner, he hides that also, though not in the same place; and this method
he practises for several times together, till warned by the approach of day,
or the noise of the family, he finally retires. The same, arts are observed
when he finds birds entangled in springs laid for them by the fowler; with
whom the fox, taking care to be beforehand, very expertly snatches the birds
out of the snare, conceals them in different places, leaves them there some-
times for two or three days, and is never at a loss to recover his hidden
treasure. He is equally alert in seizing the young hares and rubbits, before
they have strength enough to escape him; and when the old ones are
wounded and fatigued, he is sure to come upon them in the moments of
distress, and to show them no mercy. In the same manner he finds
out the nests of the pastridge and the quail, and seizes the mother whiie
silling.

 

*C. vupes, Lars.
MAMMALIA—FOX. 151

The fox is so voracious, that, when deficient of better food, he devours
rats, mice, lizards, toads, and serpents. Insects and shell-fish he is lixe-
wise sometimes known to eat. In vain does me hedgehog roll itself up
into a ball to oppose him: this determined glutton teases it till it is obliged
to appear uncovered, and then devours it. The wasp and the wild bee are
attacked by him with equal success. Though at first they fly out upon
their invader, and actually oblige him to retire, yet this repulse is but for a
few minutes, till he has rolled himself upon the ground, and thus crushed
such as may have stvzk to his skin: he then returns to the chaige, and at
length, by dint of perseverance, obliges them to abandon their combs, which
he greedily devours, both wax and honey.

The young foxes are born blind, like dogs; like them, too, they are
eighteen months or two years in coming to perfection, and live about
thirteen or fourteen years. They are nursed with great affection by the
mother, who has been known to run with them in her mouth several miles
when hunted. The senses of the fox are as good as those of the wolf; his
scent 1s more acute, and the organ of his voice is more supple and more
perfect. The wolf is never heard but by dreadful howls, while the fox only
yelps, barks, and sends forth a mournful sound, resembling the cry of the
peacovk. His tones, too, are different, according to the different sentiments
with which he is affected. He has one sound expressive of desire, another
of murmur, another of sorrow, and another of pain: the latter is never
heard from him, unless in the instant that he is wounded by shot, and has
lost the use of some member; for, like the wolf, when attacked with cudgels
alone, he never murmurs, but will defend himself with obstinacy, and fight
in silence to the last gasp. He bites dangerously, and with such deter-
mined fury, that, in order to make him relinquish his hold, ponderous
wooden and even iron bars are necessary to be forced between his jaws.

The flesh of the fox is not so bad as the flesh of the wolf. Dogs, and
even men, eat it in autumn, especially if the animal has fed on grapes;
und, in winter, good furs are made of his skin. He sleeps so sound, that,
however closely approached, there is no great danger of awaking him.
When he only means to rest himself, he stretches out his hind legs, and
remains flat on his belly. In this posture he watches for the birds as they
perch on the hedges; who no sooner perceive him, than they give each other
warning of their approaching danger. The jackdaw and the magpie, in
particular, often follow him along to the distance of some hundred paces,
still towering beyond his reach, and, with their cries and notes of hostility,
apprise other animals to beware.

Of all wild animals, the fox 1s most subjected to the influence of climate,
and there are found nearly as many varieties in this species, as in that of
any domestic animal. The generality of foxes in Europe are red ; of some,
however, the hair is of a grayish cast; and, of all, the tip of the ta, is white.
In the northern countries foxes of all colors are found.
152 MAMMALIA—FOX

THE ARCTIC FOX,

In its full winter dress, is entirely of a pure white color, except at the tip
of the tail, where there are a few black hairs intermixed. Before the eyes,
and on the lower jaw, the hair is short and sleek ; on the posterior part of the
cheeks, and on the forehead, it becomes longer, and on the occiput and
neck it equals the ears in length, and is intermixed with soft wool. There
is so much wool on the body, that it gives the fur the character of that
of the American hare. In the months of April and May, when the snow
begins to disappear, the long white fur falls off, and is replaced by shorter
hair, more or less colored. The head and chin are then brown, having
some fine white hairs scattered through the fur. A similar brown color ex-
tends along the back to the tail, and down the outside of all the legs; the
under parts of the body being of a dingy white.

The perfect similarity of habits, and the series of variations in their fur,
may lead us to conclude that the arctic foxes of the New and Old World
are of the same species. They are inhabitants of the most northern lands
hitherto discovered, and in North America they are numerous, on the shores
of Hudson’s Bay, north of Churchill, and exist also in Bhering’s Straits.

The brown’* variety of the Arctic fox breeds on the sea-coast, within the
Arctic circle. They form burrows in sandy spots in little villages, twenty
or thirty burrows being constructed adjoining each other. Towards the
middle of winter they retire to the southward, evidently in search of food,
keeping as much as possible on the coast.

Captain Lyon, who has studied the manners of the Arctic fox with atten-
tion, says, “that it bears a great resemblance to the European species,
though it is considerably smaller. The general time of rest is during the
daylight, in which they appear listless and inactive, but the night no sooner
sets in, than all their faculties are awakened: they commence their gain-
bols, and continue in unceasing and rapid motion till morning. Their bark
is so modulated, as to give you an idea that the animal is at a distance,
although at the very moment he lies at your feet. They feed on eggs,
young birds, blubber, and carrion of any kind; but their principal food seems
to be lemmings of different species. A confinement of a few hours often
sufficed to quiet one of them; and some instances have occurred of their
being perfectly tame although timid, from the first moment of their captivity.
Their fur is‘of small value in commerce.”

 

1 C. lagopus, Lin.
MAMMALIA—FOX. 153

THE SILVERY FOX.)

 

Tuts animal is very rare, a greater number than four or five being seldom
taken in a season in the fur countries. The fur is six times the value of
any other fur produced in North America. It is sou%etimes found of a shin-
ing black, the tip of the tail being white. It is commonly found of a black
color, intermixed with hairs tipped with white. It inhabits the same
districts with the red fox. It is not yet clearly proved that it is of the
same species as the black fox of Europe, though it bears a strong resem-

lance to it.

 

THE AMERICAN FOX.

 

THe common fox of America is supposed by Cuvier to be a distinct species
from the red fox of Europe. It inhabits all parts of the United States. It

Oo regentatus, Desm. 8 Alig, Drm.

20
154 MAMMALIA-—FENNEC.

is of a bright red color on the head, back, and sides; on the throat and neck
of adark gray; and pale red on the under parts of the body. It bearsa
strong resemblance to the common European fox, but differs from it in the
breadth and capacity of its feet for running on the snow; and the quantity
of long hair, clothing the back part of the cheeks, with the shorter ears and
nose, give the head a more compact appearance. It has a much finer brush
‘han the European one, and is altogether a finer animal. It is very plenti-
ful in the wooded district of the fur countries, about eight thousand being
annually imported into England from thence.

Red foxes prey much on the smaller animals of the rat family, but they
are fond of fish, and reject no kind of animal food that comes in their way.
They hunt their food chiefly in the night, though they are frequently seen
in the daytime. They are taken in steel traps, but much nicety is required
in setting them, as the animal is very suspicious.

THE FENNEC.

 

Tus beautiful and extraordinary animal, or at least one of this genus,
was first made known to European naturalists by Bruce, who received it
from his dragoman, whilst consul genera] at Algiers. Bruce kept it alive for
several months. Its favorite food was dates, or anv other sweet fruit, it
was also very fond of eggs; when hungry it would eat bread, especially
with honey or sugar. His attention was immediately attracted if a bird
flew near him, and he would watch it with an eagerness that could hardly
be diverted frora its object: but he was dreadfully afraid of a cat, and
endeavored to hide himself, the moment he saw an animal of that species,
though he shdwed no symptoms of preparing for any defence. Bruce never

 

'C. Brucei, Burr,
MAMMAL A—CIVET. 155

neard that he had any voice. During the day he was inclined to sleep,
but became restless and exceedingly unquiet as night came on.

Bruce describes his fennec as about ten inches long, and of a dirty white
color; the hair on the belly being softer, whiter, and longer than on the res!
of the body.

There has been great diversity of opinion among naturalists concerning
this animal. Cuvier treats Bruce’s account as scarcely worthy of credit
tut Denham and Clapperton, on their return from Central Africa, brought
ski: of the animal, and thus placed its existence beyond doubt.

THE CIVET!

 

{s from two to three feet in length, stands from ten to twelve inches'high,
and has a tail half the length of its body. The hair is long, and the ground
color of it is a brownish gray, interspersed with numerous transverse, inter-
rupted bands or irregular spots of black. Along the centre of the back,
from between the shoulders to the end’of the tail, is a kind of mane, which
ean be erected or depressed as the animal pleases, and which is formed
of black hairs, longer than those of the body. The sides of the neck and
the upper lip are nearly white. The legs, and the greater part of the tail,

 

1 Viverra civetta, L's. The genus Viverra has six upper and six lower incisors; twe
upper and two lowe, canines; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Three false
molars in the uyper jaw, conical and compressed, a large carnivorous bicuspid tooth, and
wo tuberculous ones; in the lower, four false molars, one bicuspid and one tuberculous ;
read long; muzzle pointed; feet pentadactyle; claws semiretractile; ai:al pouch more
ar iess deep.
156 MAMMALIA—CIVET.

are perfectly black; there is a large, black patch round each eye which
passes thence to the corner of the mouth; and two or three bands of the
same color stretch obliquely from the base of the ears towards the shvulders
and neck, the latter of which is marked with a black patch.

The perfume of the civet is very strong ; and though the odor is so strong,
it is yet agreeable, even when it issues from the body of the animal. The
perfuine of the civet we must not confound with musk, which is a sanguine-
ous humor, obtained from an animal altogether different from either the
tivet or the zibet.

The civets, though natives of the hottest climates of Africa and of Asia, are
yet capable of living in temperate, and even in cold countries, provided they
are carefully defended from the injuries of the air, and provided with deli-
cate and esculent food. In Holland, where no smal] emolument is derived
from their perfume, they are frequently reared. The perfume of Amster-
dam is esteemed preferable to that which is brought from the Levant, or
the Indies, which is generally less genuine. ‘That which is imported from
Guinea, would be the best of any, were it not that the negroes, as well as
the Indians and the people of the Levant, adulterate it with mixtures of
laudanum, storax, and other balsamic and odorous drugs.

Those who breed these animals for the sake of their perfume, put them
into a long and narrow sort of box, in which they cannot turn. This box
the person who is empluyed to collect the perfume, opens behind, for this
purpose, twice or thrice a week; and, dragging the animal which is con-
fined in it, backward by the tail, he keeps it in this position by a bar before.
This done, he takes out the civet with a small spoon, carefully scraping with
it, all the while, the interior coats of the pouch under the tail, which secretes
and contains it. The perfume thus of. aired, is put into a vessel, and every
care is taken to keep it closely shut.

The quantity which a single animai wll «Tord, depends greatly upon tts
appetite, and the quality of its nourisiim srt. 7+ yields more in proportion
as it is more delicately and abundantly ied Raw flesh hashed small, eggs,
rice, small animals, birds, young fowis, ane vu>rticularly fish, are the food
in which the civet most delights.

As to the rest, the civet is 2 wild, nerce auin.1, and, though sometimes
tamed, is yet never thoroughly familiar. Its teet. are streng and sharp;
out its claws are feeble and blunt. It is sight and »c1 ve and lives by prey,
pursuing birds, and other small aninias, which it is ab. te overcome. It
generally attacks at night, and by surprise. They a.e sometimes seen
stealing into yards and out-houses, like tne fox, in order 10 -#rv off poultry.
Their eyes shine in the night; and it is very provaule that 1 ‘ev see better
by night than by day. When they fail of animal ivoa, wey «re ford to
subsist upon roots and fruits. They very seldom diina; nor ck the ever
inhabit humid ground; but in burnirg sands, and in aziu noun vi ts they
cheerfully remain. There is another animal called
MAMMAu1A—CIVET. 157

THE ZIBET

Wan arirers from the civet, in having a body longer and less thick, a snout
fla. 1, more -Iender, and somewhat concave at the upper part; its hair is
muc.a sherte and softer; it has no mane, no black under the eyes, or upon
the cleexs. ll these characteristics are peculiar to, and very remarkable
in, the cive:

THE JAVANESE CIVET?

 

DrrFEeRs considerably from the common civet. The body, narrow, corn-
pressed, and higher behind than before, is from fifteen to eighteen inches
long. The back is strongly arched. The muzzle is narrow and tapering;
the ears short and rounded; the profile forms a perfectly straight line; the
tail, tapering gradually to the tip, is as long as the body, and is marked
with eight or nine broad, black rings, which alternate with as many of a
grayish hue. A much lighter gray than that of the civet composes the
ground color; there isa broad, longitudinal dorsal line of black, and on
each side two or three narrower black lines, consisting of confluent spots.
Over the rest of the body these spots are thickly but rather irregularly scat-
tered, so as to constitute a series of flexuous, dotted lines. The side of the
aeck above is occupied by a deep, longitudinal black line, and, below, there
ts a second, which is more obliquely placed. The head is grayish, and has
no spots; and the legs are externally black.

 

1 V. zibetha, Lin, V. Rasse Honsr.
158 MAMMALIA—GENET...ICHNEUMON

THE GENET!

 

is an animal smaller than the civets. It has a long body, short legs, a sharp
snout, anda slender head. Its fur, which is exceedingly smooth and soft,
is of an ash color, glossy, and marked with black stripes, which are separate
upon the sides, but which unite upon the back. It has, also, upon the neck,
a kind of mane, or longish hair, which forms a black streak, from the head
to the tail, which last is as long as the body, and is marked with seven or
eight rings, from the insertion to the tip, which are alternately black and
white.

The genet has under the tail, and in the very same place with the civets,
an opening, or pouch, in which is separated a kind of perfume resembling
civet, but less strong, and apt sooner to evaporate. It is an animal some-
what larger than the marten, which it strongly resembles, not only in the
form of the body, but also in disposition and habit, and from which it seems
chiefly to differ in being more easily tayned. It is a native of Spain, Africa,
and the south of Asia.

THE ICHNEUMON,?

 

From the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, is from twenty-four to forty-
two inches in length; nearly half of which is occupied by the tail. At the
pase, the tail is véry thick; 1t tapers gradually towards the point, which is

 

1 V. Genetta, Lin.

* Herpestes Pharaonis. The genus Herpestes has six upper and six lower incisors:
two upper and two lower canines; ten upper and ten lower molars. Body elongated;
anal pouch large; feet pentadactyle, semi-palmated, with nails partly retractile.
MAMMALIA—ICHNEUMON. 159

slightly tufted. The eyes are of a bright red; the ears almost naked, smal!
and rounded ; the nose is long and slender. The legs are short. The hair
is hard and coarse, and of a pale reddish gray, each hair being mottfd with
brown or mouse color.

This animal is domestic in Egypt, like our cat; and, like that, is service-
able in destroying rats and mice ; but its inclination for prey and its instinc
are much stronger and more extensive tham the cat’s; for it hunts alike,
birds, quadrupeds, serpents, lizards, and insects. It attacks every living
creature in general, and feeds entirely on animal flesh: its courage is equal
to the sharpness of its appetite; it is neither frightened at the anger of the
dog, nor the malice of the cat, nor even dreads the bite of the serpent. It
pursues them with eagerness, and seizes on them, however venomous they
may be. As soon as it begins to feel the impressions of their venom, it
immediately goes in search of antidotes, and particularly a root that the
Indians call by its name, and which, they say, is one of the most powerful
remedies in nature against the bite of the viper. It sucks the eggs of the
crocodile, as well as those of fowls and birds; it also kills and feeds on
young crocodiles, when they are scarcely come out of their shell; and, as
fable commonly accompanies truth, it has been currently reported, that, by
virtue of this antipathy, the ichneumon enters the body of the crocodile,
when it is asleep, and never quits it till he has:devoured its entrails. Jt was
formerly deified by the Egyptians, for its serviceable qualities.

It lives commonly by the sides of rivers, inundations, and other waters,
and is reported to swim and dive occasionally, like an otter, and to remain
for a considerable time beneath the liquid element. It quits its habitation
to seek its prey near habitable places. It sometimes carries its head erect,
fore-shortens its body, and raises itself upon its hind legs; at other times,
it,creeps and lengthens itself like a serpent: it often sits upon its hind feet,
and often springs upon its prey: its eyes are lively and full of fire. Its
aspect is beautiful, the body very active, the legs short, the tail thick and
very long, and the hair rough and bristly. Both male and female have a
remarkable orifice, independent of the natural passages. It isa kind of
pocket, into which an odoriferous liquor filters. They pretend that it opens
this bag, or pocket, to refresh itself when too hot. Its nose is very sharp,
and its mouth narrow, which prevents it from seizing and biting any thing
very large; but this defect is amply supplied by its agility, courage, and by
its power. It very easy strangles a cat, although much larger and stronger
than itself; it often fights with dogs, and, of whatever size they are, it com-
monly gets the better of them. It may easily be domesticated, and is then
foore tame, obedient, and affectionate than a cat. e
166 MAMMALIA—HY ENA.

THE STRIPED HYENA.l

 

So striking, and even so singular, are the characteristics of the hyana,
that it is hardly possible to be deceived by them. It is, perhaps, the only
quadruped which has but four toes to either the fore or hind feet: ike the
badger, it has an aperture under the tail, which does not penetrate into the
interior parts of the body ; its ears are long, straight, and nearly bare; its
head is more square and shorter than that of the wolf; its legs, the hind
ones especially, are longer; its eyes are placed like those of the dog; the
hair and mane of a brownish gray, with transverse dark brown or blackish
bands on the body, which stripes become oblique on the flanks and the legs.
The coat is of two sorts; fur or wool, in small quantity, and long, stiff, and
silky hair. Its height varies from nineteen to twenty-five inches, and its
usual length, from the muzzle to the tail, is three feet three inches.

The striped hyena is a native of Barbary, Egypt, Abyssinia, Nubia,
Syria, Persia, and the East Indies. It generally resides in the caverns of
mountains, in the clefts of rocks, or in dens, which it has formed for itself
under the earth. It lives by depredation, like the wolf; but it is a stronger
animal, and seemingly more daring. It sometimes attacks man, carries off
cattle, follows the flocks, breaks open the sheepcotes by night, and ravages
with a ferocity insatiable. By night also its eyes shine; and it is main
tained that it sees better than in the day. If we may credit all the natural
ists who have treated of this animal, its cry is very peculiar, beginning
with something like the moaning of a human being, and ending in a sound
which resembles the sobs or reachings of a man in a violent fit of vomiting;

1 Hyena vulgaris. The genus Hyena has six upper and six lower incisors; two

upper and two lower canines ; ten upper and eight lower molars. Feet tetradactyle; nails
not retractile; legs long; eves projectine; ears large ; a glandular pouch at the anus.
MAMMALIA—HYAENA 16)

but, according to Kempfer, wo was an ear-witness of the fact, it sounds
like the lowing of a calf. When at a loss for other prey, it scrapes up the
earth with its feet, and devours the carcasses both of animals and men,
which, in the countries that it inhabits, are interred promiscuously in the
fields,

/

 

THE SPOTTED HY ENA|!

 

Tus animal is a native of Southern Africa, and abounds in the neighbor-
aood of the Cape of Good Hope, where it is called the tiger wolf. It is
somewhat inferior in size to the striped hyena, but, in its wild state, has
the same manners and propensities. Its short muzzle is less abruptly
truncated, and its ears, short and broad in form, are of a nearly quadrilateral
figure. The general color of the hide is a dirty yellow, or yellowish brown,
and the whole body is covered with spots of a blackish brown, excepting
the under part of the belly and of the breast, the inner surface of the limbs
and the head. The muzzle is black, and the tail covered with long bushy
hair of a blackish brown. Like the striped hyena, the spotted species has
jaws of enormous strength, with which it easily breaks to pieces the hurd-
est bones.

‘It isa common but erroneous idea, that the hyana is wholly savage anc
untamable. Both species have been tamed, and instances are recorded of
individuals having manifested all the attachment of a dog. The striped |
hyena has recently been domesticated in the Cape territory, and is consider-
ed one of the best hunters after game, and as faithful and diligent as any
of the common domestic dogs. The truth is, that the hyena has a very

 

1 Hi. capensis, Dram.

21
162 MAMMALIA—HYANA.

natural aversion to close confinement, and when exhioited, as he gcuerally
is, in a narrow cage, he is miserable, and consequently irritable. In a man,
similarly situated, the expression of anger would be praised as a generous
‘hatred of slavery.

The hyzna was undcubtedly once an inhabitant not only of the European
continent, but also of the British islands. His bones have been found in
various parts of England and Wales, and particularly in a cave at Kirby
Moorside, in Yorkshire.

The depredations of the hyena are not confined to the remains of the
dead. There are periods when they become bold from extreme hunger, and
will carry off very large animals, and even human beings, with the most
daring ferocity. Major Denham says, ‘tat this season of the year,”
(August,) “there are other reasons, besides the falls of rain, which induce
people to remain in their habitations. When the great lake overflows the
immense district which, in the dry season, affords cover and food, by its
coarse grass and jungle, to the numerous savage animals with which Bornou
abounds, they are driven from these wilds, and take refuge in the standing
corn, and sometimes in the immediate neighborhood of the towns. Ele-
phants had already been seen at Dowergoo, scarcely six miles from Kouka,
and a female slave, while she was returning heme, from weeding the corn,
to Kowa, not more than ten miles distant, had been carried off by a lioness
The hyenas, which are every where in legions, grew now so extremelt
ravenous, that a good large village, where I sometimes procured a draught
of sour milk on my duck-shooting excursions, had been attacked the night
before my last visit, the town absolutely carried hy storm, notwithstanding
defences nearly six feet high of branches of the prickly tulloh, and two
donkies, whose flesh these animals are particularly fond of, carried off, in
spite of the efforts of the people. We constantly heard them close to the
walls of our town at night; and ona gate being left partly open, they
would enter and carr~ off any unfortunate animal that. they could find in
the streets.”

With this strong desire for food, approaching to the loldness of the most
desperate craving, the hyzna, although generally fearful of the presence
of man, is an object of natural terror to the African traveller. Bruce relates,
that,one night in Maibsha in Abyssinia, he heard a noise in his ‘ent, una,
getting up from his bed, saw two large blue eyes glaring upon him. Is
was a powerful hyena, who had been attracted to the tent by a quantity of
candles, which he had seized upon, and was bearing off in his mouth. He
had a desperate encounter with the beast, but succeeded in killing him. In
she neighborhood of the ruins of those cities on the northern coast of Africa,
which, in ancient times, were the abodes of wealth and splendor, and
witnessed the power of the Ptolemies and Caesars, the hyena is a constant
tesident, and increases the sense of desolation by the gloominess of his
habits. At Ptolemeta, where there are many remains of former architectural
MAMMALIA—LION, 1635

magnificence, the fountains which were constructed for the accommodation
of an enormous population are now useless, except to the wandering Arab,
and to the jackal and hyena, who stray amongst these ruins after sunset,
to search for water at the deserted reservoirs. Seldom does the hyana
molest the traveller in these solitudes; but his howl, or the encounter of
his fierce and sullen eye, is always alarming. Captain Beechey says,
‘although we had very frequently been disturbed by hyenas, we neve
found that familiarity with their howl, or their presence, could render their
near approach an unimportant occurrence ; and the hand would instinctively
find its way to the pistol, before we were aware of the action, whenever
either of these interruptions obtruded themselves closely upon us, either by
night or by day.” Such encounters are generally without any fatal results,
if the man does not commence the attack. The hyzna sets up a howl, and
doggedly walks away, with his peculiar limping motion, which gives him
an appearance of lameness, but when he is attacked, his resistance is a:
fierce as it is obstinate.

 

THE LION.

 

1H=E outward form of the lion seems to speak the superiority of his m-
ternal qualities. His figure is striking, his look confident and bold, his
gait proud, and his voice terrible. His stature is not overgrown, like that
of the elephant, or the rhinoceros; nor is the shape clumsy, like that of the
hippopotamus, or the ox. He is in every respect compact and well-propor-
tioned, a perfect model of strength joined with agility.

 

1 Felis eo, Lin. The genus Felis has six upper and six lower incisors; two upper ana
two lower canines; eight or six upper and six lower molars; five toes on the fore feet
hind feet tetradactyle ; nails retractile; head short; four molars on each side of the uppet
‘aw (the lust tuberculous and very sinall; three in the lower jaw; ears puited.
164 MAMMALIA—LION.

His force and muscular power he manifests outwardly by his prodigious
leaps and bounds; by the strong and quick agitation of his tail, which alone
is sufficient to throw a man on the ground; by the facility with which he
moves the skin of his face, and particularly that of his forehead, which adds
greatly to his physiognomy, or rather to the expression of fury in his counte
nance; and Jastly, by the facility he has of shaking his mane, which is not
only bristled up, but moved and agitated on all sides, when he is enraged.

The largest lions are about eight or nine feet in length, from the snout to
the Insertion of the tail, which is of itself four feet long; and these large
lions are about four or five feet in height. Those of the small size are about
five feet and a half in length, and three anda half in height. In all her
dimensions, the lioness is about one fourth less than the lion.

The lion is furnished with a mane, which becomes longer in proportion
as he advances in age. The lioness, however, is without this appendage at
every age.

Both the ancients and the moderns allow that the lion, when newly born,
is in size hardly superior to a weasel ; in other words, that he is not more
than six or seven inches long; and if so, some years at least must necessa-
rily elapse before he can increase to eight or nine feet. They likewise
mention, that he is not in a condition to walk till two months afier he is
brought forth ; but, without giving entire credit to these assertions, we may,
with great appearance of truth, conclude that the lion, from the largeness
of ais size, is at least three or four years in growing, and that, consequently,
be mast live seven times three or four years, that is, about twenty-five years

T: is usually supposed that the lion is not possessed of the sense of smell
inz n such perfection as most other animals of prey. Itis also remarked
that too strong a light incommodes him ; that he seldom goes abroad in the
middle of the day; that he commits all his ravages in the night; and that
when he sees a fire kindled near a herd or flock, he will not venture near it;
that though his sight is bad, it is not, however, so faulty as his smell ; and that,
unlike the dog or the wolf, he rather hunts by the former than by the latter.

The lion, when hungry, boldly attacks all animals that come in his way;
but, as he is very formidable, and as they all seek to avoid him, he is often
obliged to hide, in order to take them by surprise: For this purpose he
crouches upon his belly, in some thicket, or among the long grass, which is
found in many parts of the forest. In this retreat he continues, with patien:
expectation, until his prey comes within a proper distance; and he ther
springs after it with such force, that he often seizes it at the first bound. J
ne misses the effort, and in two or three reiterated springs cannoi seize ht
prey, he continues motionless for a time, seems to be very sensible of hus
disappointment, and waits for a more favorable opportunity. He devours a
great deal at a time, and generally fills himself for two or three days to
come. His teeth are so strong that he very easily breaks the bones, and
swallows them with the rest of the body. It is reported that he sustains
MAMMALIA—LION. 165

hanger a very long time; but thirst he cannot support in an equal degee,
his temperament being extremely hot. He drinks as often as he meets
@ith water, lapping like a dog. He generally requires about fifteen pounds
af raw flesh in a day ; and seldom devours the bodies of animals when they
begin to putrefy ; but he chooses rather to hunt for fresh spoil than return to
that which he had half devoured before. While young and active, the lion
subsists on what he can obtain by the chase, and seldom quits his native
deserts and forests ; but when he becomes old, heavy, and less qualified for
sxercise, he approaches the habitations of man, to whom, and to domestie
animals, he then becomes a more dangerous enemy. It is observed, how
ever, that when he sees men and animals together, itis always on the latter
ever on the former, that he vents his fury; unless indeed he should be
struck, and then, at no loss to know whence the blow came, he instaniy
deserts his prey, in order to obtain revenge for the injury. The flesh of the
camel he is said to prefer to that of any other animal. He is likewise
exceedingly fond of that of young elephants, which, from their inability to
resist him till they have received the assistance of their tusks, he easily
dispatches, when unprotected by the dam; nor are there any animals able
to oppose the lion, but the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, and the hip-
popotamus. :

However terrible this animal may be, it is not uncommon, with dogs of a
large size, and well supported with a proper number of men on horseback,
to chase him, dislodge him, and force him to retire. But for this enterprise
it is necessary that the dogs, and even the horses, should be previously
disciplined ; since almost all animals tremble and fly at the very smell of
the lion. ‘

Though the skin of the lion is firm and compact, it is not, however, proof
against a musket ball, nor even a javelin; but he is seldom known to be
dispatched with one blow. Like the wolf, he is frequently taken by strata-
gem; and for this purpose a deep hole is dug in the earth, over which, when
slightly covered with earth and sticks, some living animal is fastenel asa
bait. When thus entrapped, all his fury subsides; and if advantage is
taken of the first moments of his surprise, or his disgrace, he nay zasily be
chained, muzzled, and conducted to a place of security.

The flesh of the lion is of a strong and disagreeable flavor: yet the
negroes and the Indians do not dislike it, and it frequently forms a part of
their food.

The good qualities, and particularly the courage and magnanimity uf the
lion, have been the theme of panegyric to Buffon, and other writers on
natural history.- Later naturalists, however, are disposed to estimate his
merits at a lower rate. “The ‘lordly lion,’” says Godman, “conceals
himself near the places where deer and other animals come to drink, and
springs upor them from his ambush, like the veriest torn-cat; having feeble
sight; and being unfit for the chase, he follows the wild dogs and chacals,
{66 , MAMMALIA—LION.

which rim down buffaloes, antelopes, &c., and when they have succeeded,’
drives them off and gorges to repletion; as he relinquishes the carcass when’
satiated, he is called generous; as he does not attack and devour men, when
not hungry, he is considered magnanimous ; he retires slowly, facing his
enemies, being unable to run with speed, and is celebrated for his noble
spirit; and, as he does not kill the wild dogs and other small aniinals, be-
vattse it 1s not in his power to catch them, he is then called clement ; while
in virtue of his great strength, dreadful claws, horrid teeth, and aw/ul roar,
he is considered as altogether royal. Yet this ring of quadruveds bas not
half the moral excellence of a poodle dog, nor a thousandth part of the
dignity of character possessed by the elephant. He is, moreover, nc match
for the great tiger of Asia, which, in ferocity, savage daring, audacicus de-
structiveness, unconquerable and unappeasable hatred to mankind, is infi-
nitely more royal, and a more consistent emblem of a great number of
human ‘ings, who have aided, in various ages and countries, to retard the
progress of improvement and the march of miftd.”

“At the time when men first adopted the lion as the emblem of courage,”
says that intelligent traveller, Mr Burchell, ‘it would seem that they regard-
ed great size and strength as indicating it; but they were greatly mistaken
in the character they have given to this indolent, skulking animal, and
have overlooked a much better example of courage, and of other virtues
also, in the bold and faithful dog.” Myr Barrow also brands him with the
character ef cowardly and treacherous.

“His forbearance and generosity,” says Mr Bennett, “if the facts be cares:
fully investigated, will be found to resolve themselves into no more than
this: that in his wild state he destroys only to satiate his hunger or
revenge, and never, like the ‘gaunt wolves,’ and the ‘sullen tigers,’ of whom
the poet has composed his train, in the wantonness of his power and the
malignity of his disposition; and that, when tamed, his hunger being satis-
fied, and his feelings being free from irritation, he suffers smaller animals to
remain in his den uninjured, is familiar with, and sometimes fond of, the
keeper, by whom he is attended and fed, and will even, when under con-
plete control, submit to the caresses of strangers.

“But even this limited degree of amiability, which, in an animal of less
formidable powers, would be considered as indicating no peculiar mildness
of temper, is modified by the calls of hunger, by the feelings of revenge,
which he frequently cherishes for a considerable length of time; and by
various other circumstances, which render it dangerous to approach him

* gnguardedly, even in his tamest and most domesticated state, without pre
viously ascertaining his immediate state of mind. On such occasions, no
Keeper possessed of common prudence, would be rash enough to venture
on confronting him. He knows too well, that it is no boy’s play to

———— seek the lion in his den,
And fight him there, and make bim tremble there:
MAMMALIA—LION. 1by

for in this state of irritation, from whatever cause it ma, have arisen
ke gives free scope to his natural ferocity, unrestrained by that control tu
which, at other times, he submits with meek and unresisting patience.”

It appears, however, to be a well authenticated fact, that neither the lior
nor the tiger can bear the steady gaze of the human eye, but are completely
cowed by it. A writer in the South African Journal, says, “the Bechuanc
thief, old Peyshow, now in Cape Town, conversing with me a few days ago,
said that the lion very seldom attacks man if unprovoked; but he will
frequently approach within a few paces and survey him steadily; and some-
times he will attempt to get behind him, as if he could not stand his look,
gut was yet desirous of springing upon him unawares. If a person, in such
tircumstances, attempts either to fight or to fly, he incurs the most immi-
vent peril; but if ne have sufficient presence of mind coolly to confront
aim, without appearance of either terror or aggression, the anima} will, in
almost every instance, after a little space, retire. The overmastering effect
of the human eye upon the lion has been frequently mentioned, though
much doubted by travellers; but, from my own inquiries among lion
hunters, I am perfectly satistied of the fact; and an anecdote related to me
afew days ago, by Major Mackintosh, proves that this fascinating effect is
not restricted to the lion. An officer in India, well known to my infor-
mant, having chanced to ramble into a jungle, suddenly encountered a
royal tiger. The rencontre appeared equally unexpected on both sides,
and both parties made a dead halt, earnestly gazing on each other.
The gentleman had no firearms, and was aware that a sword would be
no effective defence in a struggle for life with such an antagonist!
But he had heard that even the Bengal tiger might be sometimes check-
ed by looking him firmly in the face. He did so: in a few minutes,
the tiger, which appeared prepared to make his final spring, grew dis-
turbed—slunk aside—and attempted to creep round upon hiin behind
The officer turned constanuy upon the tiger, which still continued to shrink
from his glance; but darting into the thicket, and again issuing forth at a
different quarter, it persevered for above half an hour in this attempt ta
satch him by surprise; till at last it fairly yielded to the contest, and left
he gentleman to pursue his pleasure walk, The direction he aow took, ax
may te easily believed, was straight to the tents, at double quick time.”
168 MAMMALIA—LION.

THE BENGAL LION.

 

Tue uniformity of his color is one characteristic which distinguishes tne
-ton from his congeners of the feline race. Except in his young state, when
there is an appearance of stripes, he is of a pale tawny above, which be-
comes somewhat lighter beneath. A second mark is, the long and flowing
mane of the full grown male, which, commencing nearly at the root of his
nose, extends backwards over his shoulders, and gracefully undulates on
each side’of his face and neck. A third is,.a long and blackish tuft of hairs
which terminates his tail. In size, the Asiatic lion rarely equals the south-
ern African. He is of a more uniform and pale yellow, and has a peculiar
appendage in the long hairs which begin beneath the neck, and occupy the
whole of the middle line of the body below.

The lioness has no mane, is of smaller size than the lion, more slenderly
and delicately made, and more graceful and agile in her movements. The
head of the lion is almost uniformly elevated ; that of the lioness is almost
uniformly carried on a !evel with the line of her back, which gives her a
sullen and downcast luok. The period of gestation is a hundred and eigist
days. Th: young are born with the eyes open; but the ear does not vee
come ev apletely erect for two months, The lion arrives at marurity m
five years, and is then nearly eight feet long.
MAMMALIA—LION, 16

THE CAPE LION,

 

‘Tuere are two varieties of this species, which, from their color, particu.
larly of the manes, are designated by the settlers, as the pale and the bluck
lun. The latter of these is the larger ard more ferocious of the two, and
is occasionally found of the enormous length of eight feet from the tip of the
nose to the origin of the tail. The tail is usually about half the length of
the body. The pale variety is the more common.

The colonists at the Cape bear the lion a deadly hatred for the mischief
which he does to them, particularly in the destruction of their horses, for
the flesh of which he seems to have an especial liking. Being excellent
marksmen, they will almost attack him singly; but the more common mode
of attacking him is by hunting parties.

The hunting of an African lion is described with infinite spirit by Mr
Pringle, who was a settler on the eastern frontier of tne Vape colony. “One
night,” says he, ‘a lion, that had previously purloined a few sueep out of
my kraal, came down and killed my riding horse, about a hundred yards
from the door of my cabin. Knowing that the ion, waen he does not carry
off his prey, usually conceals himself in the vicinity, and is very apt to be
dangerous by prowling about the place in search of more game, I resolved
to have him destroyed or dislodged without delay. i therefore sent a mes-
senger round the location, to invite all who were willing to assist in the
enterprise, to repair to the place of rendezvous as specdily as possible. In
an hour, every man of the party, (with the exceptisn of two pluckless fel-
lows, who were kept at home by the women,) appeared, ready mounted and
armed. We were also reinforced by about a dozen of the ‘Bastuard’ or
mulatto Hottentots, who resided at that time upon our territory as tenants
vr herdsmen,—an active and enterprising, though rather an unsteady, race

22
170 MAMMALIA—LION.

of men. Our friends, the Tarkaboors, many of whom are excellent lion
qunters, were all too far distant to assist us, our nearest neig hbors residing
at least twenty miles frum the location. We were, therefore, on account
of our own inexperience, obliged to make our Hottentots the leaders of
the chase.

“The first point was to track the lion to his covert. This was effected
oy a few of the Hottentots, on feot. Commencing from the spot where the
oorse was killed, they followed the spoor, (track,) through grass, and gravel,
and brushwood, with astonishing ease and dexterity, where an inexperieuce
ed eye could discern neither foot print nor mark of any kind,—unt. at
length we fairly tracked him into a large bosch, or straggling thicke: of
brushwood and evergreens, about a mile distant.

“The next object was to drive him out of this retreat, in order to attack
dim in close phalanx, and with more safety and effect. The approved mode,
in such cases, is to torment him with dogs till he abandons his covert, and
stands at bay in the open plain. The whole band of hunters then march
forward together, and fire deliberately one by one. If he does not speedily
fall, but grows angry and turns upon his enemies, they must then stand
close in a circle, and turn their horses, rear outward; some holding them
fast by the bridles, while the others kneel to take a steady aim at the lion
as he approaches, sometimes up to the very horses’ heels, couching every
now and then, as if to measure the distance and strength of his enemies.
This is the moment to shoot him fairly in the forehead, or some other mor
tal part. If they continue to wound him ineffectually till he waxes furious
and desperate, or if the horses, startled by his terrific roar, grow frantic
with terror, and burst loose, the business becomes rather serious, and may
end in mischief; especially if al] the party are not men of courage, coolness,
and experience. The frontier boors are, however, generally such exceilent
marksmen, and, withal, so cod] and deliberate, that they seldom fail to shoot
nim dead as soon as they get within a fair distance.

“Tn the present instance, we did not manage matters quite so scientifically.
The Bastuards, after recounting to us all these and other sage laws of lion
hunting, were themselves the first to depart from them. Finding that the
few indifferent hounds which we had, made little impression on the enemy,
they divided themselves into two or three parties, and rode round the jungle,
firing into the spot where the dogs were barking round hiin, but without
effect. At length, after some hours spent in thus beating about the bush,
the Scottish blood of some of my cuuntrymen began to get impatient; and
three of them announced their determination to march in and beard the lion
in his den, provided three of the Bastuards, (who were superior marksmen,)
would support them and follow up their fire, should the enemy venture to
give battle. Accordingly, in they went, (in spite of the warnings of some
more prudent men among us,) to within fifteen or twenty paces of the spot
where the animal lay concealed. He was couched among the rvots of a
MAMMALIA—LION. 1721

large evergreen bush, with a small space of open ground on one side of it+
and they fancied, un approaching, that they saw him distinctly lying glaring
at them from beneath the foliage. Charging the Bastuards to stand firm
and level fair, should they miss, the Scottish champions let fly together, and
struck, not the lion, as it afterwards proved, but a great bluck of red stone,
beyond which he was actually lying. Whether any of the shot grazed him
is uncertain, but, with no other warning than a furious growl, forth he
bolted from the bush. The pusillanimous Bastuards, in place of now pouring
a their volley upon him, instantly turned and fled helter-skelter, leaving him
to do his picasure upon the defenceless Scots ; who, with empty guns, were
tumbling over each other, m their hurry to escape the clutch of the ranipant
savage. Ina twinkling he was upen them, and with one stroke of his paw
dashed the nearest to the ground. The scene was terrific! There stood
the lion with his paw upon his prostrate foe, looking round, in conscious
power and pride upon the bands of his assailants, and with a port the most
aoble and imposing that can be conceived. It was the most magnificent
hing I ever witnessed. The danger of our friends, however, rendered it at
the moment too terrible to enjoy either the grand or the ludicrous part of
the picture. We expected every instant to see one or more of them torn
in pieces ; nor, though the rest of the party were standing within fifty paces
with their guns cocked and levelled, durst we fire for their assistance. One
was lying under the lion’s paw, and the others scrambling towards us in
such a way as to intercept our aim at him. All this passed far more rapid-
ly than I have described it. But luckily, the lion, after steadily surveying
us for a few seconds, seemed willing to be quits with us on fair, terms; and
with a fortunate forbearance, (for which he met but an ungrateful recom-
pense,) turned calinly away, and driving the snarling dogs like rats from
among his heels, bounded over the adjoining thicket, like a cat over a foot-
stool, clearing brakes and bushes twelve or fifteen feet high, as readily as
if they had been turts of grass, and, abandoning the jungle, retreated
towards the mountains.

“After ascertaining the state of our rescued comrade, (who fortunately
nad sustained no other injury than a slight scratch on the back, and a severe
bruise in the ribs, from the force with which the animal bad dashed him to
the ground,) we renewed the chase with Hottentots and hounds in full y,
In a short time we again came up with the enemy, and found him standing
at bay under an ald mimosa tree, by the side of a mountain stream, which
we had distinguished by the name of Douglas water. The dogs were bark:
ing round, but afraid to approach him, for he was now beginning to growl
fiercely, and to brandish his tail in a manner that showed he was meditating
mischief. The Hottentots, by teking a circuit between him and the nioun-
tain, crossed the stream, and took a position on the top of a precipice
overlooking the spot where be stood. Another party of us occupied a posi-
ion on the other side of the glen; and placing the poor fellow thus between
172 MAMMALIA—LION,

two fires, which confused his attention and prevented his retreat, we rept
battering away at him till he fell, unable again to grapple with us, pierced
with many wounds.

“He proved to be a full grown lion of the yellow variety, about five or
six years of age. He measured nearly twelve feet from the nose to the tip
of the tail. His fore leg, below the knee, was so thick that I could not span
it with both hinds; and bis neck, breast, and limbs appeared, when the
skin was taken uff, a complete cengeries of sinews.”

Major Denham furnishes us with the following anecdote: “The skin ofa
noble lion was sent me by the sheikh, which had been taken near Kabshary,
measuring from the tail to the nose fourteen feet two inches. He had devour-
ed {vur slaves, and was at last taken by the following stratagem ; the inha-
bitants assembled together, and, with loud cries and noises, drove him from
the place where he had last feasted; they then dug a very deep blaque, or
circular hole, armed with sharp pointed stakes; this they most cunningly
covered over with stalks of the gussub; a bundle of straw, enveloped ina
robe, was laid over the spot, to which a gentle motion, like that of a man
turning in sleep, was occasionally given by means of a line carried to
some distance. On their quitting the spot, and the noise ceasing, the lion
returned to his haunt, and was observed watching his trap for seven or eight

 

nours— by degrees approaching closer and closer,—and at length he made
a dreadful spring on his supposed prey, and was precipitated to the bottom
of the pit. The Kabsharians now rushed to the spot, and before he could
recover himself, despatched him with their spears.”

It has been remarked of the lion, by the Bushmen, that he generally kills
and devours his prey in the morning at sunrise, or sunset. On this account,
hen they intend to kill lions, they generally notice where the spring-buckg
MAMMALIA--LION. 173

ar’gnazing at the rising of the sun; and by observing, at the same time,
if they appear frightened and run off, they conclude that they have been
attacked by the lion. Marking accurately the spot where the alarm took
place, about eleven o’clock in the day, when the sun is powertul, and the
enemy they seek is supposed to be fast asleep, they carefully examine
the ground, and finding him in a state of unguarded security, they lodge a
poisoned arrow in his breast. The moment the lion is thus struck he
springs from his lair, and bounds off as helpless as the stricken deer. The
work is done ; the arrow of death has pierced his heart, without even break-
ing the slumbers of the lioness which may have been lying beside him; and
the Bushman knows where, in the course of a few hours, or even in less
time, he will find him dead, or in the agonies of death.

Mr Eurchell furnishes us with the following lively description :—“The
day was exceedingly pleasant, and not a cloud was to be seen. Fora mile
or two we travelled along the banks of the river, which in this part abound-
ed in tall mat-rushes. The dogs seemed much to enjoy prowling about and
examining every bushy place, and at last met with some object among tne
rushes which caused them to set up a most vehement and determined bark-
ing. We explored the spot with caution, as we suspected, from the peculiar
tone of their bark, that it was, what it proved to be, lions. Having encour-
aged the dogs to drive them out, a task which they performed with great
willingness, we had a full view of an enormous black maned lion, anda
lioness. The’ latter was seen only for a minute, as she made her escape up
the river, under concealment of the rushes; but ¢he lion came steadily for-
ward and stood still to look at us. At this moment we felt our situation
not free from danger, as the animal seemed preparing to spring upon us,
and we were standing on the bank at the distance of only a few yards from
him, most of us being on foot and unarmed, without any visible possibility
of escaping. I had given up my horse to the hunters, and was on foot
myself, but there was no time for fear, and it was useless to attempt avoid-
ing him. I stood weil upon my guard, holding my pistols in my hand,
with my finger upon the trigger, and those who. had muskets kept them-
selves prepared in the same manner. But at this instant, the dogs boldly
flew in between us and the lion, and surrounding him, kept him at bay Ly
their violent and resolute barking. The courage of these faithful animais
was most admirable; they advanced up to the side of the huge beast, and
stood making the greatest clamor in his face, without the least appearance
of fear. The lion, conscious of his strength, remained unmoved at their
anisy attempts, and kept his head turned towards us. At one mornent, the
dogs perceiving his eyes thus engaged, had advanced close to his feet, and
seemed as if they would actually seize hold of him, but they paid dearly for
their prudence, for, without discomposing the majestic and steady attitude
in which he stood fixed, he merely moved his paw, and at the next instant
{ beheld two lying dead. ‘n doing this, he made so litule exertion, that it
4 MAMMALIA—LION.

was scarcely perceptible by what means they had been killed. Of tne time
which we had gained by the interference of the dogs, nota moment was
lost; we fired upon-him; one of the balls went through his side jus’ be-
tween the short ribs, and the blood immediately began to Jow, but the
animal still remained standing in the same position. We aad now no
doubt that he would spring upon us; every gun was instantly reluaded; but
happily we were mistaken, and were not sorry to see him move quietly
away; though J had hoped in a few minutes to have been enabled to take
hold of his paw without danger.

“ This was considered, by our party, to be a lion of the largest size, and
seemed, as I measured him by comparison with the dogs, tu be as large
as an ox. He was certainly as long in body, though lower in stature;
and his copious mane gave him truly a formidable appearance. He was
of that variety which the Hottentots and boors distinguish by the name
of the slack on, on account of the blacker color of the mane, and which
is said to be always larger and more dangerous than the other, which
they call the pale ton. Of the courage of a lion I have no very high opinion,
but of his majestic air and movements, as exhibited by this animal, while at
liberty in his native plains, I can bear testimony. Notwithstanding the
pain of a wound, of which he must soon afterwards have died, he moved
slowly away witha stately and measured step. :

“The lion, as we have seen, principally lives in the plains, and is always
found where there are large herds of wild antelopes and other animals
feeding together, in that fellowship which is characteristic of each species.
To all these animals he is an object of unceasing dread. It is supposed by
the agitation which oxen display when a lion is near them, that they can
scent him at a considerable distance. Whatever may be his physical
strength, therefore, and we know that it is prodigious, it is evident he could
not accomplish his purposes by strength alone. The instinctive fear of the
creatures upon which he preys would be constantly called into actiun, by
their keen sight and acute scent; and they would remove to some distant
part befure the destroyer could reach them. The lion, too, as well as the
tiger, and others of the same species, seldom runs. He either walks, or
creeps, or, for a short distance, advances rapidly by great bounds. It is
evident, therefore, that he must seize his prey by stealth; that he is not
fitted for an open attack ; and that his character is necessarily that of great
power united to considerable wariness in its exercise.

“Every one, almost, is familiar with the roar of the lion. It is a sound
of terror, and produces an appalling effect. It is said by travellers that it
sometimes resembles the sound which is heard at the moment of an earth-
quake ; and that he produces this extraordinary effect by laying his head
upon the ground, 2nd uttering a half stifled growl, by which means the
nuise is conveyed along the earth. The instant this roar is heard by the
animals who are reposing in the plains, they start up with alarm; they Aly.
MAMMALIA—LION. 175

in al] directions ; they rush into the very danger which they seek to avoid
This fearful sound, which, the lion utters, is produced hy the great compara+
tive size of the larynx, the principal organ of voice in all animals * He
utters it to excite that fear which is necessary to his easy selection of an
individual victim.

“The lion, as well as all of the cat tribe, takes his prey at night; and it 1s
necessary, therefore, that he should have peculiar organs of vision. Jn all
those animals which seek their food in the dark, the eye is usually of a
large size, to admit a great number of rays; and that part which is called
the choroides reflects, instead of absorbing, the light. The power of seeing
in the dark, which the cat tribe pacnetees. has always appeared a subject of
mystery ; and it is natura] that it should be so, for man himself sees with
more difficulty in the dark than any other animal; he has a compensation
in his ability to produce artificial light. This peculiar kind of eye, there-
fore, is necessary to the lion to perceive his prey; and he creeps towards it
with a certainty which nothing but this distinct nocturnal vision could give

“Every one must have observed what are usually called the whiskers on a
cat’s upper lip. The use of these ina state of nature is very important.
They are organs of touch. The slightest contact of these whiskers with
any surrounding object is felt most distinctly by the animal, although the
hairs are themselves insensible. They stand out on each side, in the lion,
as well as in the common cat, so that, from point to point, they are equal to
the width of the animal’s body.

“If we imagine, therefore, a lion stealing through a cogent of wood in an
imperfect light, we shall at once see the use of these long hairs. They in-
dicate to him, through the nicest feeling, any obstacle which may present
itself to the passage of his body; they prevent the rustle of boughs and
leaves, which would give warning to his prey if he were to attempt to pass
through too close a bush ;—and thus, in conjunction with the soft cushions
of his feet, they enable him to move towards his victim with a stillness
greater even than that of the snake, who creeps along the grass, and is not
perceived till he has coiled round his prey.”

 

*“The size of the larynx is proportionate to the strength of the sounds which ani-
mals utter. The aliscalute size of the larynx of the whale and the elephant is the
largest; but relatively the larynx of the lion has a still greater circumference. "—Noies ta
Blimenbach’s Comp. Anatomy, by Lawrence and Coulson, 1827.
176 MAMMALIA- COUGAR.

THE PUMA, OR COUGAR.

 

Tur puma, cougar, or American lion, is from four to five feet long, but
more commonly of the former size, and has a tail of half that length, which
has not, like that of the lion, a terminating brush of hair; neither has the
puma a mane. Indeed, his name of lion could only have been given to him
by careless or unscientific observers, as his uniform sameness of color is the
sole point of resemblance which he has to the king of beasts. He hasa
smal} rounded head, a broad and rather obtuse muzzle, and a body which,
in proportion, is slender and less elevated than that of his more dignified
namesake. ‘The upper parts of his body,” says Mr Bennett, ‘are of a
bright silvery fawn, the tawny hairs being terminated by whitish tips: be-
neath and on the inside of the limbs he is nearly white, and more com
pletely so on the throat, chin, and upper lip. The head aas an irregular
mixture of black and gray; the outside of the ears, especially at the base,
the sides of the ‘muzzle from which the whiskers take their origin, and the
extremity of the tail, are black.” The fur of the cubs has spots of a darker
hue, which are visible only in certain lights, and disappear when the animal
is full grown. Both the sexes are of the same color.

The puma* was once spread over the whole wide extent of the new
world, from Canada to Patagonia. The progress of civilization has, how-
ever, circumscribed his range, and has rooted him out in many places.
Notwithstanding his size and strength, he is cowardly ; and, like almost al!
cowards, he is sanguinary. Ifhe find a flock of sheep unprotected, he will

 

1 Felis concolor, Lin.

* It is not now common, in any part of the United States, except the unsettled districts,
{t is usttally called the panther, or painter, ly the common people. It is also called the
calamouut.
MAMMALIA—COUGAR. 177

destroy the whole, merely that he may enjoy the luxury o, sucking their
blood. Ashe possesses much timidity and little swiftness, and in South
America frequents the open plains, he generally falls a victim when the
hunter pursues him with the unerring lasso.

In seizing its prey, the puma crawls softly on his belly through the shrubs
and byshes, conceals itselfin ditches, or assumes a fawning appearanee.
As soon, however, as it can reach its victim, it leaps on its back by one
bound, and soon rends it to pieces. Molina tells us, that, in Chili, where
the husbandmen tether their horses in the fields by pairs, the puma kills
and drags one away, and compels the other to follow by occasionally strik-
ing it with his paw. All animals are not thus easily vanquished. Asses
defend themselves with their heels, and are often victorious ; and cows form
themselves into a circle round their calves, turn their horns towards the
assailant, and not unfrequently destroy him. Even a woman ora child can
put him to flight. When hunted with dogs, however, and cut off from his
retreat to a rock or a tree, he places himself under the trunk of a large tree,
and fights furiously.

The puma is easily tamed, and in captivity becomes tractable, and even
attached. It loves to be noticed and caressed, expresses ils pleasure by
purring, will follow its owner about like a dog, and has been known to suffer
children to ride upon its back.

The following anecdotes are from Godman :—

“Two hunters, accompanied by two dogs, went out in quest of game
near the Catskiil mountains. At the foot of a large hill, they agreed to go
round it in opposite directions, and when either discharged his rifle, the
other was to hasten towards him to aid in securing the game. Soon after
parting, the report ofa rifle-;was heard by one of them, who, hastening
towards the spot, after some search, found nothing but the dog, dreadfully
lacerated and dead. He now became much alarmed for the fate of his
companion, and while anxiously looking around, was horror-struck by the
harsh growl of a cougar, which he perceived on a large limb of a tree,
‘crouching upon the hody of his friend, and apparently meditating an attack
on himself. Instantly he levelled his rifle at the beast, and was so fortu-
nate as to wound it mortally, when it fell to the ground along with the
body of his slaughtered companion. His dog then rushed upon the wounded
cougar, which with one blow of its paw laid the poor animal dead by its
side. The surviving huater now left the spot, and quickly returned With
several other persons, when they found the lifeless cougar extended near
the dead bodies of the hunter and the faithful dogs.”

“ About the close of the late war, a merchant of Piqua, named Herse,
received a considerable sum of money in small bills, which made it appear
of still greater magnitude to several suspicious looking persons who were

resent when it was received. Mr Herse being unarmed, was apprehen-
wwe that an attempt would be made tatrob nim at the camping ground, and

23
178 MAMMALIA—COUGAR.

expressed his apprehensions to a single fellow-traveller, who was also un-
provided with arms. In-consequence, they resolved not to go to the camp-
ing ground, but to pass the night in the woods without fire; there, turning
their horses loose, they lay down in their blankets on the leaves. I:. the
night they were aroused by hearing the horses snort, as they are apt to do
on the approach of Indians, and shortly after they were heard to make
several bounds through the woods, as if some one had unsuccessfully
attempted to catch them. After some time had elapsed, they both distinctly
heard, what they supposed to be, a man crawling towards them on his
hands and feet, as they could hear first one hand cautiously extended and
pressed very gently on the leaves, to avoid making a noise, then the other,
and finally the other limbs in like manner and with equal care. When they
believed that this felonious visitor was within about ten feet of them, they
touched each other, sprang up simultaneously, and rushed to some distance
through the woods, where they crouched and remained without further dis-
turbance. A short time after, they heard the horses snorting and bounding
furiously through the woods, but they did not venture to arise until broad
daylight, being still ignorant of the character of their enemy.

“When sufficiently light to see, by climbing a sapling, they discovered
the horses at a considerable distance on the prairie. On approaching them,
it was at once evident that their disturber had been nothing less than a
cougar. It had sprung upon the horses, and so lacerated with its claws
and teeth their flanks and buttocks, that with the greatest difficulty were
they able to drive the poor creatures before them to Shane’s. Several other
instances of annoyance to travellers had happened at the same place, and
Shane believed by the same cougar.”
MAMMALIA-TIGER, -° 179

THE TiGER?

 

ay Ge
Se

Ry,

In the class of carnivorous animals, the lion is the foremost. Immediately
after him, follows the tiger ; which, while he possesses all the bad qualities
of the former, seems to be a stranger to his good ones. To pride, to
courage, to strength, the lion adds greatness, and sometimes, perhaps,
clemency; while the tiger, without provocation, is fierce; without neces-
sity, is cruel. Thus it is throughout all the classes of nature, in which
the superiority of rank proceeds from the superiority of strength. The
first class, sole masters of all, are less tyrannical than the inferior classes,
which, denied sv full an exertion of authority, abuse the powers entrusted
to them.

More, therefore, than even the lion, the tiger is an object of terror. THe
is the scourge of every country which he inhabits. Of the appearance of
man, and of all his hostile weapons, he is fearless; wild animals, as well as
tame ones, fall sacrifices before him; the young elephant and rhinoceros he
sometimes attacks; and sometimes, with an increased audacity, he braves
the lion himself.

The form of the body usually corresponds with the nature and disposition
of the animal. The tiger, with a body too long, with Jimbs too short, with
a head uncovered, and with eyes ghastly and haggard, has no characteristics
*but those of the basest and most insatiable cruelty. For instinct, he has
nothing but a uniform rage, a blind fury; so blind, indeed, so undistinguish-
ed, that he frequently devours his own progeny, and, if she offers to defend
them, tears in pieces the dam herself.

 

1 Felis tigris, Lin
180 MAMMALIA—TIGER.

Happy is it for the rest of nature, that this animal is not common, and
that the species is chiefly confined to the: warmest provinces of the East
Tke tiger is found in Malabar, in Siam, and in Bengal. .

When he has killed a large animal, such as a horse or a buffalo, he does
not choose to devour it on the spot, fearing to be disturbed ; and, in order to
feast at his ease, he carries off his prey to the forest, dragging it along with
such ease, that the swiftness of his motion seems scarcely retarded by the
enormous load he sustains.

To give a still more complete idea of the strength of this terrible creature,
we shall quote a passage from Father Tachard, who was an eye-witness
af a combat of one tiger against two, and even three, elephants, at Siam.
For this purpose, the king ordered a lofty palisade to be built, of bamboo
cane, about a hundred feet square; and in the midst of this were three
elephants, appointed for combating the tiger. Their heads, and part of
their trunks, were covered with a kind of armor like a mask, which defend-
ed that part from the assaults of the fierce animal with which they were to
engage. As soon, (says this author,) as we were arrived at the place, a
tiger was brought forth from his den, of a size much larger than we had
ever seen before. He was not at first let loose, but held with cords, so that
one of the elephants approaching, gave him three or four blows with his
trunk on the back, with such force that the tiger was for some time stunned,
and lay without m. tion, as if he had been dead. As soon, however, as he
was let loose, and at full liberty, although the first blows had greatly, abated
his fury, he made at the elephant with a loud shriek, and aimed at seizing
nis trunk. But the elephant, wrinkling it up with great dexterity. received
the tiger on his great teeth, and tossed him up into the air. This so dis-
couraged the furious animal, that he no more ventured to approach the
elephant, but made several circuits round the palisade, often attempting to
fly at the spectators. Shortly after, a second, and then a third elephant,
were sent against him, and they continued to strike him so terribly with
their trunks, that he once more lay for dead; and they would certainly have
killed him, had not a stop been put to the combat.

The tiger, of which Father Gouie has communicated to the Academy of
Sciences an anatomical description, composed by the Jesuit Fathers at
China, seems to belong to the true species, as does also that which the Por-
tuguese have distinguished by the name of royal tiger. Dellon expressly
says, in his ‘Travels,’ that there is no country of India in which tigers so
much abound, as Malabar; that there the species are numerous, but that
the largest of all is that which the Portuguese call the royal tiger, which is
very rare, and is as large as a horse.

The species of the tiger has always been much rarer, ana much less general-
y diffused, than that of the lion. Like the lioness, nevertheless, the tigress

roduces four or five young ones at a birth. From her nature she is fierce
all times; but when surrounded with her infant progeny, and in the
MAMMALIA—TIGER. {8}

sinallest danger of losing them, her rage, her fury, becomes extravagant
To oppose the daring invaders of her den, she braves every danger. On
such occasions, she pursues the spoiler with an enmity the most inveterate ;
and he, contented to lose a part in order to save a part, is frequently obliged
to drop one of her cubs. With this she immediately returns to her den,
and again pursues him: he then drops another; and, by the time she has
returned with that, he generally escapes with the remainder. Should her
young be torn from her entirely, with hideous cries she expresses her agony
and her despair, and follows the captor to the very town, or ship, in which
ae may have taken refuge, and dares him, as it were, to come forth.

The skins of these animals are much esteemed all over the East, particu-
larly in China; the mandarins cover their seats of justice in the public
‘places with them, and convert them into coverings for cushions in winter.
The Indians eat the flesh of the tiger, and find it neither disagreeable nor
unwholesome.

Such is the character which Buffon and many other naturalists have given
to the tiger, and it certainly is not calculated to prejudice us in his favor.
More recent writers have, however, and apparently with justice, endeavor-
ed to remove a part of the odium which has been thrown upon him. Mr
Bennett, the scientific and acute author of the description of the animals in
the Tower Menagerie and the Zoological Gardens, has labored with much
eloquence to raise the tiger in the scale of estimation. “Closely allied to
the lion,” says he, ‘‘whom he resembles in powér, in external form, in
internal structure, in zoological character, in his prowling habits, and in his
sanguinary propensities, the tiger is at once distinguished from that king
of beasts, and from every other of their common genus, by the peculiar
marking of his coat. Ona ground which exhibits in different individuals
various shades of yellow, he is elegantly striped by a series of transverse
black bands or bars, which occupy the sides of his head, neck, and body,
and are.continued upon his tail, in the form of rings, the last of the series
uniformly occupying the extremity of that organ, and giving to it a black
tip of greater or less extent. The under parts of his body and the inner
sides of his legs are almost entirely white: he has no mane, and his while
frame, though less elevated than that of the lion, is of a slenderer and more
graceful make. His head is also shorter, and more rounded. .

“ Almost in the same degree that the lion has been exalted and magn fied,
at the expense of his fellow brutes, has the tiger been degraded and depress-
ed below his natural level. While the one has been held up to admiration,
as the type and standard of heroic perfection, the other has, with equal
capriciousness and disregard of the close and intimate relationship subsisting
setween them, been looked upon by mankind in general, with those feelings
of unmingled horror and detestation, which his character for untamable
ferocity and insatiable thirst of blood, was so well calculated to inspire. It
tequires, however, but little consideration to teach us that the broad cistine-

‘

\
182 MAMMALIA—TIGER.

tion which has been drawn, cannot by possibility exist, and the recorded
observations of naturalists and travellers, beth at home and abroad, will be
found amply sufficient to prove that the difference in their characters and
habits, on which so much stress has been laid, is in reality as slight and
unessential as that which exists in their corporeal structure.

“Unquestionably, the tiger has not the majesty of the lion; for he is desti-
tute of the mane, in which that majesty chiefly resides. Neither has he
the same calm and dignified air of imperturbable gravity which is at once su
striking and so prepossessing in the aspect of the lion. But, on the cther
hand, it will readily be granted, that in the superior lightness of his fiame,
which allows his natural agility its free and unrestricted scope, and in the
graceful ease and spirited activity of his medions, to say  not'<ng of the
beauty, the regularity, and the vividness of his csloring, he far excels his
competitor, whose giant bulk and comparative heaviness of person, added to
the dull uniformity of his color, detract in no small degree from the impres-
sion produced by his noble and majestic bearing.

“In comparing the moral qualities of these two formidable animals, we

shall also find that the shades of difference, for at most they are but shades,
which distinguish them, are, like their external characteristics, pretty
equally balanced in favor of each. In all the leading features of their
character, the habits of both are essentially the same. The tiger, equally
with the lion, and in common indeed with the whole of the group to which
he belongs, reposes indolently in the security of his den, until the calls of
appetite stimulate him to look abroad for food. He then chooses a conve-
nient ambush, in which to lie concealed from observation, generally amid
the underwood of the forest, but sometimes even on the branches of a tree,
which he climbs with all the agility of acat. In this secret covert he
awaits with patient watchfulness the approach of his prey, upon which he
darts forth with an irresistible bound, and bears it off in triumph to his den.
Unlike the lion, however, if his first attack proves unsuccessful, and he
misses his aim, he does not usually slink sullenly back into his retreat, but
pursues his victim with a speed and activity which is seldom baffled even by
the fleetest animals.
. “It is evident, then, that in the general outline of his habits, and even in
most of the separate traits by which his character is marked, he differs Lut
little from the lion. His courage, if brute force stimulated by sensual ap-
petite can deserve that honorable name, is at least equal ; and as for magna-
nimity and generosity, the idea of attributing such noble qualities to either,
is in itself so absurd, and is so fully refuted by every particular of their
authentic history, that it would be perfectly ridiculous to attempt a com-
parison where no materials for comparison exist.”

That the tiger is not irreclaimably ferocious, and that he is capable not
merely of a capricious and transient liking, but of an enduring attachment,
the following story affords an extraordinary and corvincing proof “A
MAMMALIA—TIGER. 183

peautiful young tiger, brought in the Pitt, East Indiaman, from China, in the
year 1790, was so far domesticated as to admit of every kind of familiarity
from the people on board the ship. It seemed to be quite harmless,’ and
was as playful asakitten. It frequentiy slept with the sailors in their
hammocks; and would suffer two or three of them to repose their heads on
its back as upon a pillow, while it lay stretched out upon the deck. In
-eturn for this indulgence, it would, however, now and then steal their
meat. Having one day stolen a piece of beef from the earpenter, he follow-
ed the animal, took the meat out of its mouth, and beat it severely for the
theft: which punishment it suffered with all the patience of a dog. It
would frequently run out on the bowsprit; climb about the ship like a cat;
and perform many other tricks, with an agility that was truly astonishing.
There was a dog on board, with which it would frequently play in the most
diverting manner imaginable. This animal was taken on board the ship
when it was only a month or six weeks old, and arrived in England before
it had quite completed its first year. On its arrival it was presented to the
king, and was afterwards deposited in the Tower of London. It even there
continued to be perfectly good-natured, and was, in no instance, known to be
guilty of any savage or mischievous tricks.

“Tn the year 1801, one day after this tiger had been fed, his keeper put
into the den to him, a smiall, rough, black terrier puppy, a female. The
beast suffered it to remain uninjured, and soon afterwards became so much
attached to it, as to be restless and unhappy whenever the animal was
taken away to be fed. On its return, the tiger invariably expressed the
greatest symptoms of delight, always welcoming its arrival by gently lick-
ing over every part of its body. In one or two instances the terrier was
left in the den, by mistake, during the time the tiger had his food. The
dog sometimes ventured to eat with him, but the tiger generally appeared
dissatisfied with this liberty. After a residence with the tiger of several
months, the terrier was removed to make way for a little female Dutch
mastiff. It was, however, thought advisable, before the terrier was taken
away, to shut up the mastiff for three or four days among the straw of the
tiger’s bed, to take off, if possible, any smell that might be offensive to the
animal. The exchange was made soon after the animals had been fed, the
tiger seemed perfectly satisfied with his new cempanion, and immediately
began to lick it, as he had before done the terrier. The dog seemed at first
in considerable alarm with so formidable an inmate, but in the course of the
day he became perfectly reconciled to his situation. This diminwtive crea-
ture the tiger would suffer to play with him, with the greatest goud-nature.
{ have myself, says Mr Bingley, seen it bark at him, and bite him by the
foot and mouth, without his expressing the least displeasure. When the
dog, in its frolic, seized his foot, he merely lifted it up ou of its mouth, and
seemed otherwise heedless ofits attacks.

“ Strange dogs were several times put into the tiger’s den after his feed.
184 MAMMALIA—TIGER.

ing, and he in no instance attempted toinjure trem. Mr Cross the present
keeper of Exeter Change, and who formerly had the care of the animals in
the Tower, informed me that he could himself have ventured in safety into
the den. The ship-carpenter, who came over with the tiger, came to the
Tower to see him. The animal, though they had been separated more than
two years, instantly recognized a former acquaintance, rubbed himself back-
ward and forward against the grating of his den, and appeared highly de
lighted. Notwithstanding the urgent request that he would not expose
himself to so much danger, the man begged to be let into the den, and with
so much entreaty, that he was at last suffered to enter. The emotions of
the animal seemed roused in the most grateful manner. He rubbed him-
self against him, licked his hands, fawned upon him like a cat, and in no
respect attempted to injure him. The man remained there two or three
hours; and’he at last beganto fancy there would be some difficulty in
getting cut alone. Such was the affection of the animal towards his former
friend, and so close did he keep to his person, as to render his escape by no
means so easy as he had expected. With some care, however, he got the
tiger beyond the partition of the two dens, and the keeper, watching his
opportunity, closed the slide, and separated them.”

Among many mstances which we could adduce, where individuals have
fallen victims to these animals, we may mention ‘that related by Dr Shaw,
where the son of Sir Hector Monro was, in 1792, attacked by a tiger, ac-
companied by a tigress, in such a manner as caused his death within
twenty-four hours. This animal lies in ambush for his prey, and not unfre-
quently destroys his own young. Sometimes he forms his ambush on the
borders of rivers and streams, where other animals are compelled to repair,
by the heat of the climate, for their drink; but his velocity in running is so
great, that few creatures escape inevitable destruction.

These animals are peculiar to Asia. They are generally natives of
Bengal, the kingdoms of Siam, Tonquin, Sumatra, and China, also the
countries north of China, the Indus, and those of Southern Asia. Buffon
says they are also found in Southern Africa ; but Mr Pennant observes, that
he could find no authority for his assertion, inasmu‘h as the animals called
tigers by Ludolphus and Kolben were only the leopard or panther. The
same gentleman also observes, that this animal is, by an improper misnomer.
given to Africa and America. The natives of Sumatra are so infatuated
with the belief that they are animated by the souls of their ancestors. that
they seldom destroy them.
MAMMALIA—JAGUAR, 185

THE JAGUAR,I

 

WicH is sometimes called the American tiger, is one of the most formida-
_ble animals of the New World. He is to-be found in the southern division
of America, from Paraguay to Guiana; but b2 does not appear to inhabit to
the northward of the Isthmus of Darien. Even in the south the race is
gradually growing more rare, in consequence of the double temptation to
destroy him, which is offered by the desire of getting rid of a beast se
destructive to the flocks, and by the high price which is obtained for
his skin.

More robust and more clumsy than the leopard, he is also much superior
in size, as he often measures four or five feet from the nose to the root of
the tail. His head is larger and rounder than the leopard’s, his limbs are
shorter, and his tail is of such a length as only to allow the tip to trail on
the ground when the animal stands erect. Above the line of the eyes, the
profile is also more pro:ninent.

“These differences cf form,’ says Mr Bennett, ‘are accompanied 9»y
differences in color and markings equally decisive. The general appearance
is, at the first glance, the same in both; but b< pen roses of the leopard are
searcely more than half the size of those of ..e jaguar, and they all enclose
a space of one uniform color, in which, unless in some rare and accidental
instances, no central spots exist, while, in the latter animal, most of those
which are arranged along the upper surface near the middle line of the back,
are distinguished by one or two small black spots enclosed within their
circuit. The middle line itself is occupied in the leopard by open roses,
mtermixed with a few black spots of small size and roundish form; that of

 

1 Felis onca, Lin.

24
186 MAMMALIA—JAGUAR,

the jauar, on the contrary, is marked by one or two regular longitudinar
lines of broad, élongated deep black patches, sometimes extending severa.
mches in length, and occasionally forming an almost continuous band from
between the shoulders to the tail. The black rings towards the tip of the
latter are also more completely circular than in the leopard.”

The jaguar is a solitary animal, residing in forests, especially near large
rivers. He is an excellent swimmer. D’Azara tells us, partly from per-
sonal observation, that, after a jaguar had destroyed a horse, he dragged
the body sixty paces, and then swam with it over a broad and deep river.
He is equally expert at climbing. ‘I have seen,” says M. Sonini, “in the
forests of Guiana, the prints left by the claws of the jaguar on the smooth
bark of a tree from forty to fifty feet in height, measuring about a foot and
a half in circumference, and. clothed with branches near its summit alone.
It was easy to follow, with the eye, the efforts which the animal nad made
to reach the branches: although his talons had been thrust deeply into the
body of the tree, he had met with several slips, but he had always recovered
his ground, and, attracted no doubt by some favorite object of prey, had at
length succeeded in gaining the very top.¥

The jaguar lies in ambush for his prey, on which he pounces suddenly,
and his great’ muscular strength enables him instantly to bear it to the
ground. Man he does not often attack, and never but by stealth. While
M. Sonini was travelling in Guiana, his party was closely dogged for three
nights by one of these animals, which eluded al] their attempts to shoot it,
and would, doubtless, have carried off any individuat who might have un-
guardedly exposed himself. 7

Ferocious as he is in his wild state, the jaguar, when captive, becomes
tame and even mild, and is particularly fond of licking the hands of those
with whom he is familiar.

The taking of the jaguar forms a portion of the warlike features distin-
‘guishing the Indians of South America, particularly the Llaneros, or men
of the plains. One inducement a Llanero has in pursuing the jaguar, is the
honor of the feat—for the value of its skin and the little depredations it
commits on the flocks, would never, I apprehend, (says a late traveller in
South America,) induce him to risk a single combat with such fierce
animals; but there is a stronger stimulus, viz. that killing seven jaguars,
or six tigers, will give him the titlé of guapo, or warrior, and the privilege
of choosing the fattest virgin in the tribe, for his companion; for with them,
the lady who is most en bon point, is most beautiful. This alone is a
‘sufficient inducement; and they endeavor to complete their task as early
as the age of seventeen. At the approach of the breeding season, they
watch with great assiduity the battles that take place between the male and
the female, as this is a sure indication of her littering, not wishing to have
‘the male know where she deposits the cubs, as some naturalists assert that
me eats them; others, that he hugs them to death. However this be, she
MAMMALIA—JAGUAR. 187

never suffers him 10 approach the jungle, if I may be allowed to call it so
until they arc able to run after her. During this period, he awaits her with
the most tender solicitude, and even brings her a portion of his prey. He
‘ys sven hovering instinctively about the place where she is crouched at
noontide. When the Llanero perceives this, he envelopes himself in a
‘acuar’s skin, and approaches him, taking good care to have the wind in
his favor, as the jaguar’s keen scent would soon discover the imposition
Even this sagacity and instinct they think they have got over, by burning
plaintain leaves so as to take away for hours any scent which the human
oody has; though this is probably a mere fancy. As soon as the Llanero
perceives the jaguar, he runs from him on all fours, and endeavors to mimic
the whining cry of the beast, which by some is said to be like a cat, or
like hogs crouching ina sty; the latter is what I would compare thein to,
as 1 have seen them mustering by night previous to hunting. As soon as
the male perceives him, he bounds towards him; when the Llanero dex-
terously throws the noose (the lasso) over him, and soon strangles him.
Sometimes he wounds him with his lance, and, then a sanguinary conflict
-takes place. As the Llanero has his left arm well bound round with tanned
horse skin, impervious to the jaguar’s tusks, he presents his left hand; as
soon as the jaguar seizes it, he is stabbed with a long knife, which seldom
misses the heart, as the principal excellence of a guapo, is killing the beast
with as few stabs as possible. As soon as he dispatches the male, the
female becomes an easy prey. Sometimes the Llanervs, when their num-
bers are complete, will, to show their dexterity and address, decoy the
jaguar into a defile, when the man uncovers and shows himself; the jagnar
endeavors to retreat, but is prevented by other Indians, who scare him with
firebrands, for they can produce fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together,
as quick as with tinder. In this manner they worry him with dogs, while
they keep him at bay until the women arrive to witness their cruelty. As
the jaguar gets frantic, he endeavors to bite at every thing near him; as
often as the creature opens his mouth, he is sure to have a burning torch
rammed into his throat, until madness exhausts him, and he is no longer
able to close his jaws; then the women and boys descend from their high
positions, chop off his paws, hammer out his teeth, and often skin him
alive, while the boys are smeared with the blood, in order to make them
good warriors, and the mothers take delight in seeing the animosity they.
have to the creature, even when no longer able to do any injury. As to
the female jaguar, they have only to come near her crouching place to pro-
voke a quarrel, as she will often attack them before they are within two
hundred yards of it: in her they sometimes find a more formidable enemy
than in the male, although much inferior in point of size and strength, but
more subt e and crafty; their bite is difficult to heal, and the Llanero think
a wound from a jaguar a great disgrace ; so much so, that a young aspirant
for the title of guapo, who had the mis ortune of being wounded in a ren-
188 MAMMALIA—TIGER...PANTHER,

contre, was so much ashamed of acknowledging it, that he suffered a morta
fication sooner than expose the wound, although he was well aware the
women possessed a salve that would cure him.

 

THE BLACK TIGER

Tus animal is a native of South America, and is generally considered as
a very ferocious and destructive beast. It is about the size of a heifer of a
year old, and is entirely of a deep brownish black color on the upper parts,
and of a pale gray, or whitish hue underneath ; the upper lip and paws are
also whitish, but the tail is of the same dusky appearance as the body.

.

 

THE PANTHER!

 

ResEmBies the tiger in its habits, and the leopard in its skin. Like the
tiger, it has an insatiable thirst of blood, and an untamable ferocity,
like the leopard, its skin is spotted, but is less beautiful than the skin of
that animal. It seems, in truth, only a large variety of the leopard. The
panther is usually more than six feet long, independent of the tail, which
is about three feet in length. In Africa, one was killed by Major Denham,
which was more than eight feet in length. His hair is short, sleek, and
mossy, and his color is, in general, of a bright tawny yellow, elegantly
marked with black spots, disposed in circies of four or five each, with a
single spot in the centre: his chest and belly are white. He has short and
pointed ears, fierce and restless eyes, a strong, harsh cry, and a savage
aspect, So rapid are his movements that few animals can escape him, and
such is his agility, that he climbs trees in pursuit of his prey, and is sure
of seizing his victim. The flesh of animals is said to be his favorite food.
but when pressed by hunger he makes his attacks without discrimination.

In the time of the Romans, panthers appear to have been very numerous,
and at present the species is said to extend from Barbary to the remotest
parts of G-tinea.

 

1 Felis nigra, a variety of the preceding 3 Felis pardus, Lin.
MAMMALIA—PANTHER. 189

1c must be opserved, that it is very doubtful whether the panther has ever
yet been truly represented in any drawing. Temminck is of opinion that all
the nominal representations of panthers are really those of leopards.

Major Denham, in his travels in Africa, furnishes us with the following
description: ‘During the latter part of the night, while riding on in front
with Maramy, the sheikh’s negro, who had accompanied me from Kouka,
and who appeared to attach himself more closely to me as we approached
danger, we had started several animals of the leopard species, who ran from
us so swiftly, twisting their long tails in the air, as to prevent our getting
near them. We, however, now started one of a larger kind, which Maramy
assured me. was so satiated with the blood of a negro, whose carcass we
found lying in the wood, that he would be easily killed. I rode up to the
spot jyst as a Shouaa had planted the first spear in him, which passed
through the neck, a little above the shoulder, and came down between the
animal’s legs ; he: rolléd over, broke the spear, and bounded off witht the
lower half in his body. Another Shouaa galloped up within two arms’
length, and thrust a second spear through his loins; and the savage animal,
with a woful howl, was in the act of springing on~his pursuer, when an
Arab shot him through the head with a ball, which killed him on the spot.

“Tt was a male panther, (zazerma,) of a very large size, and measured,
from the point of the tail to the nose, eight feet two inches; the skin was
yellow, and beautifully marked with orbicular spots on the upper part of
the body, while underneath, and at the throat, the spots were oblong and
irregular, intermixed with white. These animals are found in great num-
bers in the woods bordering on Mandara ; there are also leopards, the skins
of which I saw, but not in great numbers. The panthers are as insidious
as they are cruel; they will not attack any thing that is likely to make
resistance, but have been known to watch a child for hours, while near the
protection of huts or people. It will often spring on a grown person, male
or female, while carrying a burthen, but always from behind: the flesh of a
child or ofa young “id it will sometimes devour; but when any full grown
animal falls a prey t ‘ts ferocity, it sucks the blood alone.”

The following nan ive of an encounter with a pamther, which is copied
from the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, will abundantly prove the
tormidable nature of the panther, even when the animal is not of ite
largest size.

“T was at Jaffna, at the northern extremity of the island of Ceylon, in .3
beginning of the year 1819,” says the writer, ‘when, one morning, my scr-
vant called me an hour or two before my usual time, with, ‘Master, master!
people sent for master’s dogs—tiger in the town!’ Now, my dogs chanced
to be some very degenerate specimens of a fine species, called the Poligar
dog, which I should designate as a sort of wiry-haired greyhound, without
scent. I kept them to hunt jackals; but tigers are very diferent things.
By the way, there are no real tigers in Ceylon; but leopards and purihers
190 MAMMALIA—PANTHER,

are always’ called so, and by ourselves as well as by the natives. This
turned out to be a panther. My gun chanced not to be put together; and
while my servants were doing it, the collector and two medical men, who
had recently arrived, in consequence of the cholera morbus having just theu
reached Ceylon from the continent, came to my door, the former armed wita
a fowling-piece, and the two latter with remarkably blunt hog spears.
They insisted upon setting off without waiting for my gun, a proceeding
uot much to my taste. The tiger (I must continue to call him so,) had
taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, like those of Ceylon huts in general,
spread to the ground like an umbrella; the only aperture into it was a small
door, about four feet high. The collector wanted to get the tiger out at
once. I begged to wait for my gun; but no—the fowling-piece, (loaded
with ball of course,) and the two hog spears were quite enough. I gota
hedge stake, and awaited my fate trom very shame. At this moment, to
my great delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two artillery
men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we should have cut without
them, as the event will show. 1 was now quite ready to attack, and my
gun came a minute afterwards. The whole scene which follows, took place
within an enclosure, about twenty feet square, formed, on three sides, by a
strong fence of palmyra leaves, and on the fourth by the hut. At the door
of this, the two artillery men planted themselves; and the Malay captain
got at the top, to frighten the tiger out by worrying it,—an easy operation,
as the huts there are covered with eccoa-nut leaves. One of the artillery
men wanted to go in to the tiger, but we would not suffer it. At last the
beast sprang: this man received him on his bayonet, which ke thrust app2-
rently down his throat, firing his piece at the same moment. The bayonet
broke off short, leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest re-
mained in the animal, but was invisible to us: the shot probably went
through his cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him, as he instant-
ly rose upon his legs, with a loud roar, and placed his paws upon the
soldier’s breast. At this moment, the animal appeared to me about to
reach the centre of the man’s face; but I had scarcely time to observe this,
when the tiger, stooping his head, seized the soldier’s arm in his mouth,
turned him half round staggering, threw him over on his back, and fell
upon him. Our dread now was, that if we fired upon the tiger, we might
kill the man: for the moment there was a pause, when his comrade attack-
ed the beast exactly in the same manner as the gallant fellow himself had
done. He struck his bayonet into his head; the tiger rose at him—he
fired; and this time the ball took effect, and in the head. The animal
staggered backwards, and we all poured in our fire. He still kicked and
writhed ; when the gentlemen with the hog spears advanced, and fixed him,
while some natives finished him, by beating him on the head with hedge
stakes. The brave artillery man was, after all, but slightly hurt: he claim-
ed the skin, which was very cheerfully given to him. There was, however,
MAMMALIA—LEOPARD 191

a cry among the natives that the head should be cut off: it wag, and, in so
doing, the kuife came directly across the bayonet. The animal measured
scarcely less than four feet from the root of the tail to the muzzle. There
was no tradition of a tiger having been in Jaffna befure; indeed, this one
must have either come a distance of almost twenty miles, or have swam
across an arm of the sea nearly two in breadth; fe: Jeffna stands on a
peninsula on which there is no jungle of any magnitude.”

 

THE. LEOPARD.)

 

‘ms formidable and sanguinary animal is found nearly throughout tne
whole of Africa, and in eastern and southern Asia. He usually measures
about three feet in length, exclusive of the tail, but sometimes reaches four
feet. His appearance indicates his natural disposition. He has a restless
eye and a sinister countenance, and all his motions are hasty and abrupt.
In rapidity, agility, and precision of motion, he is unrivalled by any other
animal; an advantage which he owes to the strength of his muscles, the
suppleness of his joints, the extreme pliability of his spine, the greater
lateral compression of his body, and the slender proportions of his limbs.
His prey, on which he darts from his hiding-place, and even pursues up
the trees, consists of antelopes, monkeys, and the smaller quadrupeds.
Usually, he shuns man, but when closely pressed, he turns upon the hunter,
and hunger will drive him to attack, though by stealth, the human race.

“Even among the cats,” says Mr, Bennett, “he is remarkable for extreme
sleekness and excessive agility. He is well distinguished from all the
other species, by the vividness of his coloring, and the beauty of his mark-

 

1 Felis leopardus, Lin.
192 MAMMALIA—OUNCGE.

ings. These consist of numerous rows of large rose-like spots, passin,
along his sides, each formed of the confluence of several smaller Llack spots
into an irregular circle enclosing a fawn colored centre, upon a general
ground color of light yellow. On his head, neck, and limbs, and the central
iine of his back, the spots run into one another so completely, as to form:
full patches of smaller size than the open roses, and without central yellow.
The under parts of his body, as is usual in most quadrupeds, become gradu-
ally of a lighter hue, the throat, chest, and abdomen being of a pure and
delicate white. “ His tail is equal in length to the entire body, excluding the
head; and is marked by a continuation of the open roses of the sides, which
become, towards its extremity, separaied in such a manner as to surround
the upper surface with partial rings of black alternating with white. The
whiskers are long and white, and implanted in a series of black lines which
traverse his lips.”

In captivity, the leopard has been sometimes brought to a considerable
degree of tameness.” It is not, however, very safe to trust them; for their
original nature is now and then unexpectedly displayed. The female leopard
mn the Tower is extrenrely tame, suffers herself to be patted by the keeper.
and licks ‘his hands. She has a curious propensity to destroy such articles
of dress as she cau seize; and has torn to pieces hundreds of parasols,
umbrellas, muffs, and hats, which the owners unwarily suffered to come
within reach of her sudden and agile spring.

 

THE CHETAH, OR OUNCE.

    
 

 
  

Rater Se x
f ve Boe ‘ + R
tae mn

THIs animal, which is called the youze in Persia, the chetah in India, and
to which Pennant gave the nam: of the hunting leopard, is a native of Atrice

 

1 te -
\ Feds uncia, Gaerin.
MAMMALIA—OCELOT. 193

and Southern Asia. With the distinguishing characteristics of the cat
species, it combines somewhat of the dog. Unlike those of the cat, its
claws are only slightly retractile. In size he is intermediate between the
leopard and the hound, but has a slenderer body, more elevation in his legs,
and a less flat forepart of the head than the former, while he wants the
graceful and lengthened form of head and body by which the latter is dis-
tinguished. His fur is not sleek, but has a peculiar crispness. Above, the
ground color is a bright yellowish fawn; beneath, it is a pure white; the
back and sides are covered with innumerable spots, close to each other,
from half an inch to an inch in diameter. The spots are larger, but less
closely set, on the back than on the head, sides, and limbs. On the chest
and under part of the body they are wanting. The tail is marked with in-
terrupted rings of them, till near the extremity, which is surrounded by
three or four complete rings. Along the back of the neck, and the anter.or
part of the spine, is a mane, consisting of longer, crisper, and more upright
hairs.

In the east he is used in hunting by the higher classes. Hiding himself
as much as possible, he approaches the object, and when he has come
sufficiently near it, he makes five or six enormous bounds, with incre-
dible velocity, darts on his victim, and instantly strangles him. In his
domesticated state, the chetah is one of the most. playful and fond of ani-
mals. He has not the slightest appearance of the caprice and mischievous-
ness of the cat.

 

THE OCELOT.

  

In describing the ocelot, serious mistakes have been committed by Buffon
and other naturalists. It is to Mr Bennett that we are indebted for the

 

' Felis pardalis, Lin
?6
194 MAMMALIA—OCELOT.

latest and most accurate description of this animal. “ Nearly equal in
size to the lyny of Europe,” says he, “but shorter in its proportions ‘and
more graceful in its form, it holds, as it were, a middle station between the
leopard and the domestic cat. Its body, when full grown, is nearly three
feet in length, and its tail rather more than one; while its medium height
may be reckoned at about eighteen inches. The ground color of its fur is
gray, mingled with a slight tinge of fawn, and on this it is elegantly mark-
ed with numerous longitudinal bands, the dorsal one being continuous and
entirely black, and the lateral, tc the number of six or seven on each side,
consisting, for the most part, of a series of elongated spots with black mar-
gins, sometimes completely distinct, and sometimes running together. The
centre of each of these spots offers a deeper tinge of fawn than the ground
color external to them; and this deeper tinge is also conspicuous on the
upper part of the head and neck, and on the outside of the limbs, all of
which parts are irregularly marked with full black lines and spots of va-
rious sizes. From the top of the head, between the ears, there pass back-
wards, towards the shoulders, two, or more frequently four, uninterrupted
diverging bands, which are full black anteriorly, but generally bifurcate
posteriorly, and enclose a narrow fawn colored space within a black margin ;
between these there is a single longitudinal, somewhat interrupted narrow
black line, occupying the centre of the neck above. The ears are short and
rounded, and externally margined with black, surreunding a large central
whitish spot. The under parts of the body are whitish, spotted with black,
and the tail, which is of the same ground color with the body, is also cover-
ed with blackish spots. The tail of the specimen in the Tower does not
exceed six or seven inches, but, as it ends abruptly, it has, in all probabusty,
been shortened by-some accident.”

The animal in the Tower was sent from Trinidad, under the namy ot
the Peruvian tiger. It is extensively spread over the American cvud-
nent, being found in the widely separated regions cf Mexico and suma-
guay, where it abides in the depths of the forests during the day, and
gives chase at night to birds and small quadrupeds. As it is an autive
climber, it follows the birds even to their nests. ‘It is easily tamed,’ says
Mr Bennett, “but seldom loses all trace of its natural ferncity. D’Azara.
however, speaks of one which was so completely domici'iated, as to be ler’
at perfect liberty ; it was strongly attached to its master and u ver attempr
ed to make ts escape.” ;
MAMMALIA—-LYN4X. 195

THE LYNX!

 

Is an animal more commonly found in cold than in temperate climates;
and is, at least, very rare in hot ones. Bory St Vincent, however, assures
us that he shot several in Spain. It is abundant in the northern parts of
Europe, Asia, and America. The lynx of the Greeks and Romans was not
the animal which now bears that name, but the caracal.

The lynx, of which the ancients have said, that the sight was so sharp
as to penetrate opaque bodies, and of which the urine was made to possess
the marvellous property of hardening into a solid substance, a precious stone
called lapis lyncurius, is an animal which never existed, any more than all
the properties attributed to it, but in fable. To the present lynx, or to the
earacal, this imaginary one has no affinity, but in name. We must not,
therefore, as the generality of naturalists have hitherto done, attribute to
the former, which is a real being, the properties of tis imaginary one, the
existence of which Pliny himself does not seem disposed to believe, since
he speaks of it only as an extraurdinary beast, and classes it with the
sphinx, the pegasus, and other prodigies, or monsters, the produce of
Ethiopia.

The European lynx possesses not the wonderful quality of seeing through
walls ; but it has bright eyes, a mild aspect, and, upon the whole, an agreea-
dle and lively appearance. Such, however, is its native ferocity, that it is
said to be incapable of being subdued. Its urine produces not precious
stones, but like the cat, an animal which it nearly resembles, and of which
it retains the manners, and even the cleanliness, it covers 11 uver with
earth.

The most beautiful skins of the lynx are brought from Siberia, as belong-
Ing to the lupus-cervarius; and from Canada, as belonging to the felis-
cervarius ; because being, like all other animals of the New Continent,
smaller than those of the Old World, in Europe they are compared to a
wolf in size, and in Canada to a wild cat.

The lynx has short legs, and is generally about the size o1 the fox. The
ears are erect, and are tipped with a long pencil of black hair. The fur

 

1 Felis lynz, Lin.
(96 MAMMALIA—LYNX.

which is long and thick, is ofa pale gray color, with a reddish tinge, ana
obscurely marked with small dusky spots on the upper parts of the body
The under parts are white. The skin of the male is more beautifully
marked than that of the female. It does not walk or run like the wolf ina
progressive motion, but leaps and bounds like the cat. It gains its sole
subsistence by devouring othér animals; and these it will follow to the
very tops of trees. Neither can the wild cat, the marten, the ermine, nor
the squirrel, escape its pursuit. It also seizes birds, lies in wait for the
stag, the roebuck, and the hare, and with one bound often seizes them by
the throat. When in possession of its prey, it first sucks the blood of the
animal, and then lays open its head, in order to devour the brains. This
done, it generally abandons the victim of its fury, goes in search of fresh
prey, and is seldom known to return to the former; a circumstance which
has given rise to the vulgar remark, that of all animuls the lynx has the
shortest memory. The skin of this animal changes its color according to
the season and the climate. In winter it isin every respect better than it
is in summer; and its flesh, like the flesh of all beasts of prey, is not proper
to eat.

CANADA LYNX.

Tuts 1s the only species of the genus which exists north of the Great
Lakes, and eastward of the Rocky Mountains. It is rare on the sea-coast,
and does not frequent the Barren Grounds, but it is not uncommon in the
woody districts of the interior, since from seven to nine thousand are annu-
ally procured by the Hudson’s Bay Company. It is found on the Mackenzie
River, as far north as 66°. It is a timid creature, incapable of attacking
any of the larger quadrupeds ; but well armed for the capture of the Ameri-
can hare, on which it chiefly preys. Its large paws, slender loins, and
long, but thick hind legs, with large buttocks scarcely relieved by a ‘short
thick tail, give it an awkward, clumsy appearance. Itis easily destroyed
by a blow on the back with a slender stick; and it never attacks a man.
Its gait is by bounds straight forward, with the back a little arched, and
lighting on all feet at once. Itswims well, but it is not swift on land. It
breeds once a year, and has two young atatime. The natives eat its
flesh, which is white and tender, but rather flavorless, much resembling
that of the American hare.

The early French writers on Canada gave it the name of Loup Gervier.
The French Canadians now term it indifferently La Chats, or Le Peshoo.
feunaue vonsidered it as identical with the lynx of the Old World; Geoffroy
St Hilaire named it as a distinct species ; and Temminck has again, under the
name of Felis Borealis, described the species as the same in both hemispheres.

 

1 Friis Canadensis, Desm.
'

; MAMMALIA—SIYA-GUSU¥. 197

BAY LYNX, OR AMERICAN WILD CAT}

 

THe common wild cat of North America stands very high upon its legs
and has a short tail Which is curved upwards at its extremity; which cir
cumstances tend to give the animal an appearance of being somewhat dis-
proportioned. In other respects its physiognomy reminds one strongly of
the domestic cat, to which its general aspect and movements are very simi-
lar. The residence of the wild cat is usually in woody districts, where it
preys upon birds, squirrels, and other small animals, which are taken by
surprise, according to the manner of all the animals belonging to the genus
felis. This animal is about two feet long, and twelve or thirteen inches in
circumference. The tail but little exceeds three inches in length. The
general color is a deep reddish, mingled with smal] spots of blackish brown.
This animal is occasionally met with in New England, but is more com-
mon in Canada and the Western States. It must be distinguished from
the wild cats, occasionally shot in our woods, which h’.ve sprung from the
domestic cat

 

THE CARACAL, OR SIYA-GUEH2

 

Tuoren the caracal resembies the lynx in size, im the formation of the
body, and the aspect of the head; and though, like wnat annoal, it seems toe
have the peculiar, and-almost singular characteristic of 4 stripe of black

 

1 Felis rufa, GMEL. 2 Felix car ucar, Lin.
198 MAMMALIA—CARACAL.

hair at the extre:ity of the ears; we do not scruple, nevertheless, , fron
their disagreement in other respects, to treat of them as animals of different
species.

The caracal is not spotted like the lynx; it has hair rougher and shorter;
its tail is larger, and of a uniform color; its snout is more elongated; in
appearance it is less mild, and in disposition it is fiercer. The lynx is an
inhabitant of the cold, or at most of the temperate regions; the caracal is
only found in hot countries.

The caracal, which is the lynx of the ancients, is common in Barbary, in
Arabia, and in the southern half of Asia, and in all those countries which
are inhabited by the lion, the panther, and the leopard: like them it depends
on prey for its subsistence; but, unlike them, from its inferior size, its
inferior strength, to procure that prey, it has much difficulty. Hardly,
indeed, has it aught to subsist on, but what the more potent carnivorous
animals are disposed to leave for it. It follows tae lion, who, when the
immediate cravings of his appetite are gratified, is of a disposition altogether
inhostile. From the refuse of what this noble animal has devoured, the
caracal frequently enjoys a comfortable meal. When, however, he is left to
his own powers for support, he attacks hares, rabbits, and birds; of the
latter he is exceedingly fond, and will pursue them with astonishing swift.
ness to the tops of the tallest trees.

The caracal is somewhat larger than a fox, and much fiercer and stronger.
It has been known to attack, tear in pieces, and destroy, in a few minutes, a
sarge dog, who, fighting for his life, defended himself with all his strength.
It is very difficult to tame this animal; yet if taken when very young, and
afterwards reared with care, some affirm that it may be trained tothe chase,
to which it is by nature inclined, and in which it is sure to succeed, pro-
vided it is let loose against such animals only as are its inferiors, and
unable to resist it. Should it be a service of danger, with every expression
of reluctance it declines it. It is stated that in India they make use of this
animal to take hares, rabbits, and even large birds, all of which it surprises,
and seizes with singular address and facility. It is, however, doubtful
whether the caraca. is ever thus employed. In captivity it is extremely
sulky, and stares fiercely whenever it is noticed.
MAMMALIA—TIGER CAT. 199

THE TIGER CAT OF AFRICA, OR CAPE CAT!

 

Tats beautiful animal was erroneously supposed by Buffon to be the
same as the serval of India; but we have recently seen a living specimen in
Boston, from which the above accurate likeness was taken, and which ena-
bles us to testify to the accuracy of the following description from Shaw.
“This animal is extremely brilliant in color, it being of the brightest ful-
vous yellow, with jet black stripes and spots; the chin, throat, and breast,
pale ash color; along the back are black stripes; on the sides of the neck,
and on the breast, numerous small crescent shaped spots pointing upwards;
on the legs numerous roundish spots; and the tail very strongly and dis-
tinctly annulated with black and yellow.”

The specimen of the cape cat to which we have referred, was certainly
one of the most beautiful animals we nave ever seen. Its motions were
exceedingly quick and graceful, and its countenance mild, lively, and pleas-
ing. Its for was very slender; the head and body not being larger than
those cf a domestic cat; yet its height and length were nearly twice as great.

 

_} Felis capensis.
200 MAMMALIA—CAT

THE DOMESTIC CaT!

 

Trove an animal of prey, is a useful domestic. Itis neither wanting ws
sagacity nor sentiment; but its attachments are stronger to places than to
persons. The form of its body corresponds with its dispositiun. The cat
ts handsome, light, adroit, cleanly, and voluptuous: he loves ease, and
searches out the softest furniture in order to repose on, and rest himself.

Young cats are gay, lively, pretty, and would be very proper to amuse
children, if the strokes of their paws were not to be feared. Their dispo-
sition, which is an enemy to all restraint, renders them incapable of a
regular education. We are told, nevertheless, of the Greek friars of Cyprus
having taught cats to hunt, take, catch, and destroy the serpents with
which that island was infested ; their sccat, which in the dog is an eminent
quality “: “> from being good, and therefore they do not pursue animals
which taey n- .onger see; they do not hunt, but wait and attack them by
surprise.

The most immediate physical cause of this inclination which they have
to spy out, and surprise other animals, comes from the advantage which
they receive from the particular conformation of their eyes. The pupil, in
man, as well as in the greater part of animals, is capable of a certain degree
of contraction and dilatation ; it enlarges a little when there is no light, anu
contracts when it becomes too strong.

In the eye of the cat, and of nocturnal birds, this contraction and dilata
tion are so considerable, that the pupil, which in obscurity is large ano
round, becomes, in broad day, long and narrow like a line; and for .hs
reason, these animals see better during the night than during the day_ tne
form of the pupil being always round when it is not constrained. During
the day, there is a continual contraction in the eyes of the cat, and it is only
by effort, as it were, that he sees in a strong light; whereas, at twilight, the
pupil resuming its natural form, he sees perfectly, and profits from this
advantage, to know, attack, and surprise other animals. The whiskers,
too, appear to aid him in the chase, by possessing qualities analoze:s to
those of the antenne of insects.

1 Felis catus, Lin.
MAMMALIA—CAT. 201

Cats seem to have a natural dread of water, cold, and oad smells. They
are very fond of perfumes, and giadly suer temse.ves to be taken and
caressed hy persons who use them. The scent of valerian has so powerful,
and so delicious an effect on them, that they appear transported with plea-
sure by it; and, in order to preserve this plant in gardens, it is common to
suriound it with a close fence. Cats will smell it from afar, will run and
rub themselves against it, and will pass and repass so often over it, as to
destroy it in a short time.

One of the most remarkable properties of the domestic cat is, the anxiety
with which it makes itself acquainted, not only with every part of its usual
habitation, but with the dimensions and external qualities of every ob-
ject by which it is surrounded. Cats do not very readily adapt themsel\es
to a change of houses; but we have watched the process by which one,
whose attachment to a family is considerable, reconciles itself to such a
change.

He surveys every room in the house, from the garret to the cellar; if a
door is shut, he waits till it be opened to complete the survey ; he ascertains
the relative size and position of every article of furniture ; and when he has
acquired this knowledge, he sits down contented with his new situation. It
appears necessary toa cat, that he should be intimately acquainted with
every circumstance of his position, in the same way that a general first
examines the face of the country in which he is to conduct his operations.
If a new piece of furniture, if even a large book or portfolio, is newly placed
in a room which a cat frequents, he walks round it, smells it, takes note
of its size and appearance, and then never troubles himself further about
the matter.

This is, probably, an instinctive quality; and the wild cat may, in the
same way, take a survey of every tree or stone, every gap in a brake, every
path in a thicket, within the ordinary range of its operations. The whiskers
of the cat, as we have mentioned in the case of the lion, enable it to
ascertain the,space through which its body may pass, without the inconve-
nience er vainly attempting such a passage. :

The memory of a cat must be very strong, to enable it to understund this
great variety of local circumstances, after a single observation. The same
power of memory leads this animai, much as its affection may be doubted,
to know the faces of individuals. We have seen a cat exhibit manifest
delight upon the return of its master, or of a person from whom it had
received peculiar kindness. There are several instances of strong attach-
ment to the human race, in cats, though, in number and intensity, they fall
short of the attachment of the dog.

Cats appear to possess, in some degree, the power ot fascination. “There
was at my house, a little while ago, a cat, seen watching a bird upon the
top of a tree, and for some time they mutually fixed their eyes upon each
other. At length, the bird let he self fall resistless into the cat’s claws

26
*

202 MAMMALIA—CAT.

either dazzled and astonished by the force of imagination, or drawn by some
attractive power in the cat.”

As they are exceedingly clean, and as their coat is always dry and shin-
ing, their hair easily electrifies; and sparks are seen to come from it, when
rubbed with the hand, in any dark place. Their eyes shine in the dark
almost like diamonds, and reflect outwardly, during the night, the light
which they may be said to have imbibed during the day.

Cats may be taught to perform tricks, such as leaping over a stick, but
they always do such feats unwillingly. There was an exhibition of cats, in
Regent-street, London, where the animals, at the bidding of their mas er,
(an Italian,) turned a wheel, drew up a bucket, rang a bell, and, in doing
these things, begin, continue, and stop, as they were commanded. But the
commencez, continuez, arretez of their keeper, was always enforced with a
threatening eye, and often with a severe blow; and the poor creatures ex-
hibited the greatest reluctance to proceed with their unnatural employments.
They had a subdued and piteous look; but the scratches upon their master’s
arms, showed that Azs task was not always an easy one.

“At Elford, near Litchfield, in England, the Rev. Mr Sawley had taken
the young ones from a hare which had been shot. His cat, which had just
ost her own kittens, carried them away, as it was supposed, to eat them;
out it presently appeared that it was affection, not hunger, which incited
ner, as she suckled them and brought them up as their mother.”

Wild cats, from whence all the domestic varieties have been derived, have
veen seen in several parts of Africa, as in Guinea, at the Gold Coast; at
Madagascar, where the original inhabitants had even domestic cats; at the
Cape of Good Hope, where, Kolben says, “there are also, though in a small
number, wild cats of a blue color ;” and these blue, or rather slate colored
cats, are found again in Asia. In Europe, but one species of wild cat is
known, and seems tv be but little varied by climate. ;

In England, the wild, or wood cat, is the fiercest and most destructive
of predatory animals, and may not improperly be denominated the British
tiger. At its full growth, it stands a foot anda half in height, measures
nearly two feet round the body, and, including the tail, which is half a yard
long, itis about four feet in lengta. A larger head, more vividly sparkling
eyes, and a more agile and daring demeanor, distinguish it from the dumes-
tic species. Its color is of a yellowish brown; the head, back, sides, and
tail, being marked transversely with bars of deep brown and black. It isa
very solitary animal. Merely to wound them is dangerous, as they will
turn furiously on their assailant, and they have strength enough to render
themselves formidable. In spite, however, of their strength and agility,
they are often vanquished by a much smaller enemy. That enemy is the
pine marten. The combat between the two animals is well described by
the author of a recent valuable work, The British Naturalist. “The onset,”
says he, “is one of some skill on both sides. The aim of the cat is ta
MAMMALIA—SEAL. 203

pounce with her paws upon the head of the marten, in such a way that the
claws may destroy or wound its eyes, while her teeth.are embedded in its
neck; and if she can accomplish that, the fate of the marten is decided.
That, however, if done at all, must be done in a moment; and if it be lost,
there is no repairing the mistake. The spring of the wood cat is larger than
that of her opponent, and the cat takes up her position so that she shall,
if possible, alight upon his head with her full spring and impetus. To dis-
tract her attention, he keeps moving his head from side to side, and if he
succeeds in his object, he rushes to close quarters by a side movement
If the spring of the cat takes proper effect, there is a struggle, but not ct
_ long duration; and it is the same with the opposite result, if the cat miss
and the marten fasten, during the short pause of exhaustion after the
spring.”

A singular animal has recently been discovered in the island of Java,
which seems the connecting link between the cat and ferret tribes. It has
the lengthened muzzle, and slender body of the latter, with the sheathed
and retractile claws of the former. Dr Horsfield denominates it Prionodon
gracilis.

FAMILY IJTI—-AMPHIBIA.

Turse animals have the feet short, enveloped in the skin, in form of fins;
the posterior in- the direction of the body; number of incisurs variable, often
six, and sometimes four above, more generally four, and sometimes two
below.

THE SEAL|!

 

Its animal has its head round, like that of the human species; its snout
1s broad, like the otter’s; the eyes, large and elevated ; little, or no external

 

1 Phoca vitulina, Lyx.’ The genus Phoca has six or four upper and two or fonr lower
incisors; two upper aid two lower canines; ten ov twelve upper and ten or twelve lower
molars. Molars all cutting or conical; five toes on all the fects tail short; eyes large
nostrils closing at the will of the animal; head round; exterual ears wanting; four ab-

Jominal mainme.
204 MAMMALIA—SEAL.

signs of ears, only two auditory passages in the sides of the nead; it has
whiskers about its mouth, and its teeth somewhat resemble uinse of the
wolf; the tongue is sloped at the point; the body, hands, and feet, covered
with a short and bristly hair; it has no legs, but two feet, or memlLranes,
like hands, with five ‘toes, terminated by as many claws. These mem-
branes. wvhich have the appearance of hands, are only larger and turned
backwards, as if designed to unite with its very short tail, which they
atcompany on both sides. The body is thickest where the neck is joined
iv it, whence the animal tapers down to the tail like a fish. This amphibi-
ous creature, though of a very different nature from that of our domestic
animals, yet seems susceptible of a kind of education. It.is taught to salute
persons with its head and its voice; it is accustomed to obey the call of its
keeper, and gives many other signs of intelligence and docility.

The sensations of the seal are as perfect, and its sagacity as ready, as
those of any other quadruped; both the one and the other are strongly
marked by its docility, its social qualities, its strong instinct for its female,
its great attention towards its young, and by its voice, which is more expres-
sive and mare modulated than in other animals. Its body is likewise firm
and large. Itis also strong, and armed with very sharp teeth and claws,
and has many particular and singular advantages over any other animals
we can compare with it. It endures both heat and cold, and feeds indiffe-
rently on grass, flesh, or fish. It can equally live on ice, land, or in the
water. On account of their remaining so long a time under water, it was
supposed that the foramen ovale remained open, as in the human feetus, but
it is not so.

But these advantages, which are very great, are counterbalanced by im-
perfections still greater: they may be said to be deprived of the use of theit
fore legs, or membranes; they are almost entirely shut up within its body,
while nothing appears but the extremities of them, which are furnished with
five toes, scarcely moveable, being united together by a very strong mem-
brane, so that they might more properly be called fins than feet, as they are
more adapted for the purpose of swimming than walking; the hind feet,
indeed, being turned backwards, are entirely useless upon land; so that
when the animal is obliged to move, it drags itself forward like a reptile,
and with an effort more painful; for it cannot twist itself about like a ser-
vent, but lies like a lump on the earth, and by grasping whatever it finds
‘n its reach, drags itself up the steepest shores, rocks, and shoals of ice: by
this method, it moves with such a degree of swiftness, that a man cannot
overtake it. It makes its way towards the sea, and often, though wounded,
escapes the pursuit of the hunter.

Seals are social animals, and are generally found in great numbers in the
places they frequent: their natural climate is the northern, but they are
also met with, in the temperate, and even hot countries; for they are seen
on the shores of almost all the seas in the universe. The species alone
MAMMALIA-SEAL. 205

seem to vary ; and, according to the difference of climates, its color cnanges,
and even its shape.

The females: of these animals bring forth in winter, and rear their
young upon some sand bank, rock, or small island, at some distance {rom
the continent. When they suckle their young, they.sit upon their hinder
fegs, and they continue with their dam for twelve or fifteen days; after
which, she brings them down to the water, accustoms them to swim, and
get their food by their own industry. As each litter never exceeds above
three or four, so the animal’s cares are not much divided, and the education
of her little ones is soon completed. The young, particularly, distinguish
their mother’s voice among the numerous bleatings of the old ones, and are
perfectly obedient to her call. The time that intervenes, from their birth
till they attain their full growth, being many years, the length of their
lives must also be very long. Buffon is of the opinion, that these animals
live upwards of a hundred years.

The voice of the seal may be compared to the barking of an angry dog.
When young, they have a shrill note, somewhat like the mewing of a cat.
Those that are taken early from their dams mew continually, and very often
die, sooner than take the food that is offered them. These animals, in
general, are of a courageous nature. It is remarked, that, instead of being
terrified at thunder and lightning, they are rather delighted, generally come
on shore in tempests and storms, and even quit their icy abodes to avoid the
shock of the tempestuous waves: at such times, they sport in great numn-
bers along the shore; the tremendous conflict seems to divert them, and
the heavy rains that fall, appear to enliven them. They have naturally a
disagreeable scent, and when there are great numbers together, it is per-
ceived at a great distance.

As they have a prodigious quantity of blood, and are also greatly
overloaded with fat, they are consequently of a very dull and heavy nature ;
they usually sleep soundly, and are fond of taking their repose on flakes
of ice, or on the sides of rocks, at which time the hunters approach very
near without disturbing them, and this is the usual method of taking them.
They are very seldom killed with firearms ; for, as they do not irnmediately
die, even‘if they are shot in the head, they plunge into the sea, and are
entirely lost to the hunter. The general method, therefore, is to surprise
them when asleep, and knock them on tne head.
206 MAMMALIA—SEAL

THE GREENLAND SEAL

Turse animals differ considerably in size, being found from four to nine
feet long. They also vary in their colors; some being black, others white,
some spotted, and many yellow. Their chief food consists of fish, which
they are remarkably expert in pursuing and catching. In those places
where herrings are seen in shoals, the seals destroy them by thousands:
and when these retire, they are obliged to hunt after fish that are stronger
and more capable of evading pursuit. They are taken for the sake of their
skins and the oil their fat yields. The seal is capable of being tamed, and
is said to be fond of music. The Icelanders believe them to be the offspring
of Pharaoh, and his host, who were converted into seals on their being over-
whelmed in the Red Sea. Were the race of this creature to cease to exist,
the Greenlander would be rendered almost unable to inhabit his rigid clime,
as it is principally from them that he derives the necessaries of life. There
is searcely a part of them which is not of the highest utility to him.

The manner in which a Greenlander catches a seal, is as follows: The
instant a seal is seen, he whispers, pussee ! (seal,) along the surface of the

 

water, to the nearest of his companions, who telegraphs the signal till all
‘the boats are engaged in the chase; and it is seldom possible for their prey
to escape. The seal is impetuous in disposition, and having once discover-
ed his pursuers, he dives repeatedly, and in different directions, to confound
them; but becomes at length so short breathed by his hurry, that he cannot
remain long out of sight; and, as the wskees are around at various points
watching the favorable moment, one of them paddles silently in his rear,
using the paddle with one hand, while with the other he is getting his
‘tackle in order; and having advanced near enough, for he is sure to measure

 

1 Phoca Groenlandica, Muti.
MAMMALIA—SEAL. 207

th. listance with accuracy, he flings the dart, and never fails to strike.
The seal, terrified and wounded, dives in the greatest terror; buta float
being attached to the dart by a leathern line, he is soon forced up again
aud despatched.

European and American ships are sent to the high northern latitudes to
procure the oil and skins of seals, which are of extensive importance in
commerce and manufactures.

One mode of killing the seal, is to go to the caves on shore, into which
herds of seals occasionally enter. When the sealers are properly pla-ed,
they raise a simultaneous shout, at which the affrighte. animals rush out
in great confusion, and are dispatched with wonderful quickness, by a single
blow on the nose, struck with a club. They are very tenacious of life when
struck or wounded on any other part of the body.

The best situation for sealing in the Arctic seas, is stated by Scoresby,
to be in the vicinity of Jan Mayen’s Island; and the best season, the months
of March and April. When the boats arrive at the ice, the sealers imme-
diately attack the animals with clubs, and stun them by a single blow over
the nose, which mode enables one person to destroy a large number of seals;
when they are seen on pieces of drift ice they are hunted by means of boats,
each boat pursuing a different herd; should the seals attempt to leave the
ice before the arrival of the boat, the sealers shout as loudly as possible, and
produce such amazement in the seals by this uproar, as to delay their flight
till the boat arrives and the work of destruction is begun. Where the seals
are very numerous, the sealers stop not to flay those they have killed, but
set off to another ice field to kill more, merely leaving one man behind to
take off the skins and fat. When the condition of the ice forbids the use of
boats, the hunter is obliged to pursue the seals over it, jumping from piece
to piece, until they succeed in taking-one, which he then stops to flay and
flense, or to remove the skin and fat. This sometimes is a horrible busi-
ness, since many of the seals are merely stunned, and occasionally recover
after they have been flayed and fleased. Inthis condition, too shockingly
mangled for description, they have been seen to make battle and even to
swim off.

The number of seals destroyed in a single season, by the regular sea ers,
may well excite surprise. One ship has been known to obtain a cargo of
four or five thousand skins, and upwards of a hundred tons of oil. Whale
ships have accidently fallen in with and secured two or three thousand
of these animals during the month of April. The sealing business is, how-
ever, very hazardous when conducted on the borders of the Spitzbergen ice.
Many ships, with all their crews, are lost by the sudden and, tremendous
storms occurring in those seas, where the dangers are vastly multiplied by
the driving of immense bodies of ice. In one storm that occurred in the
year 1774, no less than five seal ships were destroyed in a few hours, and
six hundred valuable s+ men perished

©
208 MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT SEAL.

THE FETID SEAL|l

Tas seal, when full grown, is about four feet and a half long, and its
skin is covered with a dingy white hair, composed of stiff bristles and soft
hair. The old animals are remarkably fetid, and this nauseous odor taints
their flesh and fat equally. The fetid seal frequents the fixed ice near
frozen lands, and never relinquishes its haunts when old. It has holes in
the ice for the purpose of fishing, and is solitary in its habits, pairs being
rarely seen together. It is not a timid animal, and is occasionally preyed
upon by the eagle, being taken while asleep upon the surface.

THE SEA LION, OR ELEPHANT SEAL-

To the species of seals, as above described, we may, with great propriety,
add another animal, described in Anson’s Voyages, by the name of the
sea lion. Itis found in great numbers on the coasts of the South Sea.
The sea lion resembles the sea calf, which is very common in the same
latitude; but they are much larger than any of the former, being from
eleven to eighteen feet long, and from eight to eleven in circumference. It
is so fat, that when the skin is taken off, the blubber is about a foot thick
allround the body. About ninety gallons of oil is drawn from one of these
animals; they are at the same time very full of blood, and when deeply
wounded in many parts of the body, the blood spouts out with amazing
power ; the throat of one of these animals being cut, it afforded two barrels
of blood, besides what then remained in its body. Its skin is covered with
a short hair of a brownish color, but blackish on the tail and feet: their
toes are united by a membrane which does not reach to their extremity ;
each of the toes is known by a claw. The sea lion differs from the seal,
not only in its size and bulk, but also in some other characters; the male
has a kind of thick comb or trunk hanging from the end of the upper jaw,
about five or six inches long, which becomes inflated when the animal is
angry. This character is not seen in the female. The strongest males
collect together a flock of females, and hinder the others from approaching
them. These animals are truly amphibious; they remain all the summer
wm the sea, and go on shore in the winter, at which season the females
bring forth their young, but never above one or two at a litter, which they
suckle, like the seal.

The sea lions, while they are on shore, feed on the grass by the side of
the sea; they are of a very heavy and drowsy nature, and delight to sleep
in the mire; but they are very wary, and at those times commonly fix some
as sentinels near the place where they sleep; and it is said, that these sentt-

 

1 Phoca fotida, Mowe. 2 Phoca ansonii, Desm.
MAMMALIA—SEA BEAR. 209

nels are very careful to awake them when any danger is near. Their
voices are very shrill, and of various tones; sometimes grunting like hogs,
and sometimes neighing like horses. The males often fight with each
other, when they wound one another desperately with their teeth. The
flesh of these animals is not disagreeable to eat, particularly the tongue,
which is as good as that of the ox. They are very easily Killed, as they
cannot defend themselves, nor fly from their enemies; they are so exceed-
ingly heavy, that they move with great difficulty, and turn themselves about
with still greater. Those that hunt them have only to guard against their
teeth, which are very strong, and which they make use of with powerfw
effect on those who approach within their reach.

THE HOODED SEAL

Tue hooded seal is most commonly found on the shores of Greenland, of
Davis’ Straits, and occasionally of Newfoundland. It is distinguished by
the singular appendage it has on its head, formed by an extension of the
skin of the front which communicates with the nostrils, and can he inflated,
or elevated and depressed, at the pleasure of the animal. Jt is covered with
short black hairs. The use of this hood has not been ascertained.— Godmon

 

THE URSINE SEAL, OR SEA BEAR #2

 

Tue males of this species are, in general, about eight feet long, but the
females are much smaller. Their bodies are very thick, and the color of
the hair is commonly black, but that of the old ones is tipped with gray.
The females are of an ash colored hue. The nose projects like that of a
pug dog, and the eyes are large and prominent. Their voice varies on dif-
ferent occasions; thus, when sporting on their native rocks, they low like
a cow; when engaged in battle, they growl hideously; after a defeat or re-
ceiving a wound, they mew like a cat; and the note of triumph after a

 

1’ Phoca cristata, Gu. 2 Phoca ursina, Lin.

27
210 MAMMALIA—MORSE.

victory somewhat resembles the chirping of a cricket. Theze animuls are
chiefly found on the islands in the vicinity of Kamtschatka, from June to
September ; after which they remove, some to the Asiatic, and some to the
American coast. On Behring’s Island they are so numerous as almost to
cover the whole shore; but it is a singular fact, that they uly frequent that
part of it which lies towards Kamtschatka.

Ursine seals live in families, each male being surrounded vy from eight
to fifty females, whom he watches with the most vigilant jealousy, and
treats in the most tyrannical manner. They are of an irritable disposition,
and have frequent battles. So tenacious are they of life, that they will live
a fortnight after receiving wounds which would be speedily mortal to other
animals.

THE WALRUS, OR MORSE.

 

‘

THE name of sea cow, or sea horse, by which the walrus is most genes
rally known, has been very wrongly applied; since the -animal which it
denotes has not the least resemblance to the land animals of that name.
the denomination of sea elephant, which others have given it, is much bet-
ter imagined, as it is founded on a singular and very apparent character.
The walrus, like the elephant, has two large ivory tusks, weighing from
ten to thirty pounds each, which shoot from the upper jaw; its head also is
formed, or rather deformed, like that of the elephant, and would entirely
resemble it in that part if it had a trunk; but the walrus is deprived of that
instrument, which serves the elephant in the place of an arm and hand, and
has real arms to make use of. These mewbers, like those of the seal,
are shut up within the skin, so that nothing appears outwardly but its hands
and feet: its body is long and tapering, thickest towards the neck: the

 

! Trichecus rosmarus, GME. The genus Trichecus has two upper and no lower inci-
sors; two upper and no lower canines; ten upper and ten lower molars; incisors small,
deciduvus ; superior canines or tusks large, longer than the head, compressed laterally ;
molars cylindrical, crown truncated obliquely ; body elongated ; head round ; muzzle large;
no external ears; tail very short; fore be like fins, with five toes; hind feet horizontal ;
toes ente oped in the skin.
MAMMALIA—MORSE. O11

whole hody is clothed with a short hair; the toes, and the hands, or feet,
are covered with a membrane, and terminated by short and sharp pointed
claws. On each side of the mouth are large bristles in the form of
whiskers: its tongue is hollowed, the concha of the ears are wanting, &c. ;
so that, excepting the two great tusks, and the cutting teeth, which it is
deficient in above and below, the walrus in every other particular perfectly
resembies the seal: it is only much larger and stronger, being commonly
from twelve to sixteen feet in length, and eight or nine in circumference,
and sometimes reaching eighteen feet in length, with a proportiouable
girth ; whereas the largest seals are no more than seven oreight feet. The
walrus, also, is generally seen to frequent the same places as the seals
are known to reside in, and are almost always found together. They have
the same habitudes in every respect, excepting that there are fewer varie-
ties of the morse than of the seal: they likewise are more attached to one
particular climate, and are rarely found except in the northern seas.
“There was formerly,” says Zordrager, ‘great plenty of morses and
seals in the bays of Horisont and Klock, but at present there are very few.
Both these animals quit the water in the summer, and resort to the neigh-
poring plains, where there are flocks of them from eighty to two hundred,
particularly morses, which will remain there several days together, till
hunger obliges them to return to the sea. This animal externally resein-
bles the seal, but it is stronger and much larger: like that, it has five toes
to each paw, but its claws are shorter, and its head thicker and rounder;
its skin is thick, wrinkled, and covered with very short hair of different
colors; its upper jaw is armed with two teeth about half an ell or an ell
mo length; these tusks, which-are hollow at the root, become larger as the
animal grows older. Some of them are found to have but one, the other
being torn out in fighting, or perhaps fallen out through age. This ivory
generally brings a greater price than that of the elephant, as it is of a more
zompact and harder substance. The mouth of this animal is like that ot
the ox, and furnished with hairs which are hollow, pointed, and about the
thickness of a straw. Above the mouth are two nostrils, through which
the animal spouts the water like a whale. There are a great number or
morses towards Spitzbergen, and the profit that is derived from their tecth
and fat fully repays the trouble of taking them, for the oil is almost as much
valued as that produced from the whale. When the hunter is near one of
these animals in the water, or on the ice, he darts a very strong harpoon at
it, which, though made expressly for the purpose, often slips over its hard
and thick skin; but if it has penetrated into it, they haul the animal
towards the boat, and kill it with a sharp and strong lance. The morse is
generally heavier than the ox, and as difficult to pursue as the whale, the
skin of which is more easily pierced. For this reason, they always endea-
vor to wound it in the most tender part, and aim at its eves: the animal,
ebliged by this motion to turn its head, exposes its breast to the hunter,
Q12 MAMMALIA—MORSE.

who immediately strikes very forcibly in that part, and draws the lance out
again as quick as possible, for fear it should seize the Innce with its teeth,
and wound those that attack it. Formerly, before these animals were so
greatly persecuted, they advanced so far on shore, that when it was high
water, they were at a great distance from the sea; and at low water, being
at a still greater, the hunters easily approached them and killed great num-
bers. The hunters, in order to cut off their retreat to the sea, and after
they had killed several, made a kind of barrier of their dead bodies, and in
this manner often killed three or four hundred in a season. The prodigious
quantity of bones spread over the shores, sufficiently proves how numerous
these animals were in former times. When they are wounded, they be-
come extremely furious, often biting the lances in pieces with their teeth,
or tearing them out of the hands of their enemies; and when at last they
are strongly engaged, they put their head betwixt their paws, or fins, and
in this manner roll into the sea. When there is a great number together,
they are so bold as to attack the boats that pursue them, bite them with
their tee:h, and exert all their strength to overturn them.”

Captain Cook saw a herd of them floating on an ice island off the north-
ern coasts of the American continent. “They lie,” says he, “in herds of
many hundreds, upon the ice, huddling over one another like swine; and
roar or bray so loud, that in the night, or in foggy weather, they gave us
notice of the vicinity of the ice before we could see it. We never found the
whole herd asleep, some being always on the watch. These, at the ap-
proach of the boat, would wake those next to them; and the alarm being
thus gradually communicated, the whole herd would be awaked. Butthey
were seldom in a hurry to get away, till after they had been once fired at.
They then would tumble over one another into the sea, in the utmost con-
fusion. And if we did not, on the first discharge, kill those we fired at, we
generally lost them, though mortally wounded. Vast numbers of these ani-
mals woul? follow and come close up to, the boats; but the flash of a musket
in the pan, even the pointing of a musket at them, would send them
down in an instant. The female walrus will defend her offspring to the
very last, and at the expense of her own life, whether in the water or upon
the ice. Nor will the young one quit the dam, though she be dead; so
that, if one be killed, the other is a certain prey.”

We find the walrus can live, at least for some time, in a temperate cli-
mate. We do not know how long it goes with young, but if we judge by
the time of its growth and size, ve must suppose it to be upwards of nine
months, It cannot continue in the water fora long time together, and is
obliged ta go on shore to suckle its young, and for other occasions. When
they meet with a steep shore, or pieces of ice to climb up, they make use
of their tusks to hold by, and-their feet to drag along the heavy mass ot
their body. They are said to feed upon the shell-fish which are at the
rottom of the sea, and to grub them up with their strong tusks. Others
MAMMALIA—OPOSSUM. 2138

vay, that they live on the broad leaves of a certain vegetable which grows
in the sea, and that they eat neither flesh nor fish. But I imagine all these
opinions have but a weak foundation; and there is reason to think, that, the
walrus, like the seal, lives on prey, especially herrings and other fish; for
it does not eat at all when upon land, and it is chiefly hunger which obliges
it to return to the sea.

The fat of the walrus furnishes from one to two barrels of cil and the
skin is capable of being manufactured into a strong and elastic leather.

 

ORDER FIVE—MARSUPIALIA.

Antmats of this order have teeth different in the different genera. The
young are brought forth prematurely, often into a pouch formed by a fold o.
the skin of the abdomen of the females, inclosing the mamme; marsupial
bones in both sexes ; thumb of the hind feet sometimes wanting, sometimes
very distinct, without nail, opposable to the other toes.

THE VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM.

 

Tue vpossum is found in Brazil, Guiana, Mexico, Florila, Virginia, and
other temperate regions of this continent. The female has under the belly
a large cavity, where she receives and suckles her young; she produces
often, and a great number of young each time, most authors say, four or
five, others six or seven.

 

1 Didelphis Virginiana, Pexx. The genus D'delphis has ten upper and eight lower inci-
sors ; two upper and two lower canines ; twelve or fourteen upper and fourteen lower molars.
Two superior intermediate incisors larger than the others; lower incisors equal; canines
strong, coinpressed molars, the three first in the upper jaw triangular; the others crown-
ed with points ; head long and conical; muzzle pointed, mouth much cleft; ears large,
ro.nded and almost naked; five toes on all the feet; nails long eud beut; hind feet plant.
grade with the thumbs opposable, but destitute of nails; tail long, scaly, miost y de
prived of hair.
214 MAMMALIA—OPOSSUM.

The yuung opossums stick to the paps of the mother till they have acyuir-
ed strength enough, and a sufficient growth to move easily. _

The latest and ful’est account of the manners and habits of the opossum,
is given by Dr Godman. “The opossum,” says he, “is very remarkable
from other peculiarities, besides those which relate to the continuation of its
kind. In the first place, it has a very large number of teeth, (no less than
fifty,) and its hind feet are actually rendered hands, by short, fleshy, and
oppozable thumbs; which, together with the prominences in the palms of
these posterior hands, enable the animal to take firm hold of ébjects which
no one would think could be thus grasped. An opossum can cling by these
feet hands, to a smooth silk handkerchief, or a silk dress, with great securi-
ty, and climb up by the same. In Jike manner, he can ascend by a skein
of sil, or even a few threads. ‘The slightest projection, or doubling, of any
material, affords him a certain mean of climbing to any desired height.
Another curious and amusing peculiarity, is his prehensile tail; by simply
curving this at the extremity, the opossum sustains his weight, and depends
from the limb of a tree, or other projecting body, and hanging in full securi-
ty, gathers fruit, or seizes any prey within his reach; to regain his position
on the limb, it is only necessary to make a little stronger effort with the tail,
and throw his body upward ac the same time.

“Tn speaking of the more obvicus peculiarities of the opossum, we may
advert to the thinness ana membranous character of the externa] ears, whic>
may remind us, in some degree, or what has been heretofore said relative to
the perfection of the sense or toucn possessed by the bat, in consequence
of the delicacy of the extended integumeni forming the ears and wings.
The extremity of the nose of our animal is also covered with a soft, moist,
and delicate integument, which is, no dount, very sensitive. On the sides
of the nose, or rather on the upper hp, there are numerous long and strong
divergent whiskers, or bristles, projecting to the distance of nearly three
inches ; over each eye, there are two long, black bristles, rather softer than
the others, somewhat crisped, or undulated, and slightly decurved ; while,
on the posterior part of the cheek, and about an inch below and in front
of the ear, there is a bunch of long, straight bristles, (very similar to those
of a hog,) six or eight in number, projecting laterally, so as to form a right
angie with the head. When the elongated conical form of the opossum’s
head is recollected, together with its nocturnal habits, we cannot avoid re-
mark ng, that all these arrangements appear to have immediate reference
to the sa‘ety of the animal, furnishing the means of directing its course, and
warning iv of the presence of bodies which otherwise might not be discovei-
ed until too late.

«Tile mouth of the opossum is very wide when open, yet the animal does
aot drink by lapping, but by suction. ‘The wideness of the mouth is ren-
dered very remarkable, when tne female is approached, while in company
wita sr young. She then silentiy drops the lower jaw to the greatest dis«
MAMMALLA—OPOSSUM. 215

tance .t is capable of moving, retracts the angles of the .ips, and shows the
whole ef her teeth, which thus present a formidable array. She then utters
@ muttering kind or snarl, but does not snap, until the hand, or other object,
bo brovght very close. If this be a stick, or any hard or insensible body
“Ne seldom closes her mouth on it after the first or second time, but main
rains the same gaping and snarling appearance, even when it is thrust into
ver mouth. At the same time; the young, if they have attained any size

 

either exhibit their signs of defiance, take refuge in the pouch of the mother,
or, clinging to various parts of her body, hide their faces amidst her
long hair.

“The general color of the opossum, is a whitish gray. From the top of
the head, along the back, and upper part of the sides, the gray is darkest ;
and this color is produced by the intermixture of coarse white hairs, upwards
of three inches long, with a shorter, closer, and softer hair, which is white
at base, and black for about half an inch at tip. The whole pelage (fur,) is
of a woolly softness, and the long white hairs, diverging considerably, allow
the back parts to be seen, so as to give the general gray color already men-
tioned. On the face the wool is short, and of a smoky white color; that on
the belly is of the same character, but is longer on the fore and hind legs;
the color is nearly black from the body to the digits, which are naked
beneath. The tail is thick and black, for upwards of three inches at base,
and is covered by small hexagonal scales, having short rigid hairs inter-
spersed throughout its length, which are but slightly perceptible at a little
distance. The opossum is generally killed for the sake of its flesh and fat.
Its wool is of considerable length and fineness, during the winter season,
and we should suppose, that in manufactures it would be equal to the
sheep’s. woo) which is wrought into coarse hats.

“The opossum is a nocturnal and timid animal, depending for his safety
more on cunning than strength. His mutions are slow, and his walk when
216 MAMMALIA—OPOSSUM.

on the ground, entirely plantigrade, which gives an appearance of clumsi
ness to his movements. When on the branches of trees, he moves with
much greater ease, and with perfect security from sudden gusts of wind,
even were his weight sufficient to break the limb on which he rests, there
is no danger of his falling to the earth, unless when on the lowest branch,
as he can certainly catch, and securely cling, to the smallest intervening
twigs, eitler with the hands or the extremity of the tail. Ths organ is
always employed by the animal, while on the smaller branches of trees, as
if to guard against such an occurrence, and it is very useful in aiding the
epessum to collect his food, by enabling him to suspend himself from a
branch above, while rifling a bird’s ‘nest of its eggs, or gathering fruits.

“The food of the opossum varies very much, according*to circumstances.
Jt preys upon birds, various small:-quadrupeds, eggs, and, no doubt, occasion-
ully upon insects. The poultry yards are sometimes visited, and much
havoc committed by the opossum, as, like the weasel, this animal is fonder
of cutting the throats and sucking the blood of a number of individuals, than
of satisfying his hunger by eating the flesh of one. Among the wild fruits,
‘the persimon, (Diospyros Virginiana,) is a great favorite, and it is generally
after this fruit is in perfection, that the opossum is killed by the country
people for the market. At that season it is very fat, and but little difference
is to be perceived between this fat and that of a young pig. ‘The flavor of
the flesh is compared to that of a roasted pig: we have, in several instances,
seen it refused by dogs and cats, although the opossum was in fine order,
and but recently killed. This may have been owing to some accidental
circumstante, but it was uniformly rejected by these animals, usually not
very nice when raw flesh is offered.

“The hunting of the opossum is a favorite sport with the country people,
who frequently go out with their dogs at night, after the autumnal frosts
have begun, and the persimon fruit is in its most delicious state. The
opossum, as soon as he discovers the approach of his enemies, lies perfectly
close to the branch, or places himself snugly in the angle where two limbs
separate from each other. The dogs, however, soon announce tle fact of
his presence, by their baying, and the hunter, ascending the tree, discovers
the branch upon which the animal is seated, and begins to shake it with
great violence, to alarm, and cause him to relax his hold. This is soon
effected, and the opossum, attempting to escape to another limb, is pursued
immediately, and the shaking is renewed with greater violence, until at
length the terrified quadruped allows himself to drop to the ground, where
hunters, or dogs, are prepared to dispatch him. ,

“Should the hunter, as frequently happens, be unaccompanied by dogs
when the opossum falls to the ground, it does not immediately make its
escape, but steals slowly and quietly toa little distance, and then gather-
ing itself into as small a compass as possible, remains as still as if dead.
Should there be any quantity of grass or underwood aear the tree, tus
MAMMAL1A—OPOSSUM. 217

apparently simple artifice is frequently sufficient to secure the animal’s
escape, as it is difficult by moonlight, or in the shadow of the tree, to dis-
tinguish it: and if the hunter has not carefuily observed the spot where it
fell, his labor 1s often in vain. This circumstance, however, is generally
attended to, and the opossum derives but little benetit from his instinctive
artifice.

“ After remaining in this apparently lifeless condition for a considerable
time, or so long as any noise indicative of danger can he heard, the opcssum
slowly unfolds himself, and creeping as closely as possible upon the ground
would fain sneak off unperceived. Upon a shout, or outcry, in any tone,
from his persecutor, he immediately renews his deathlike attitude and still-
ness. If then approached, moved, or handled, he is still seemingly dead,
and might deceive any one not accustomed to his actions. This feigning is
repeated as frequently as opportunity is allowed him of attempting to escape,
and is known so well to the country folks, as to have long since passed into
a proverb: ‘He is playing possum,’ is applied with great readiness by them,
to any one who is thought to act deceitfully, or wishes to appear what he
is not. ‘

“The usua] haunts of the opossum, are thick forests, and their dens are
generally in hollows of decayed trees, where they pass the day asleep, and
sally forth, mostly after nightfall, to seek food. They are occasionally seen
out during daylight, especially when they have young ones of cunsiderable
size, too large to be carried in the maternal pouch. The female then offers
a very singular appearance, as she toils along with twelve or sixteen cubs,
nearly of the size of rats, each with a turn of his tail round the 1vot of the
mother’s, and clinging to her back and sides with paws, hands, and mouth.
This circumstance was thought distinctive of another species, hence called
dorsigera, but is equally true of the common or Virginian opossum. It is
exceedingly curious and interesting to see the young, when the mother is at
rest, take refuge in the pouch, whence one or two-of them may be seen
peeping out, with an air of great comfort and satisfaction. The mother in
this condition, or at any time in defence of her young, will make battle,
biting with much keenness and severity, for which her long canine teeth
are wel] suited.

“If taken young, the opossum is generally tamed, and becomes very fond :
of human society, in a great degree relinquishes its nocturnal habits, and
grows troublesome from its familiarity. We have had one thus tamed,
which would follow the inmates of the house with great assiduity, and com-
vlain with a whining noise when left alone. As it grew older, it became
mischievous, from its restless curiosity, and there seemed to be no possibility
of devising any contrivance effectually to secure it. The same circumstance
is frequently remarked by persons who have attempted to detain them iu
saptivity ; and of the instances which have come to our knowledge, where
even a great number were apparently well secured, they have all in a short

23
218 MAMMALIA—OPOSSUM.

time enlarged themselves, and been no more heard of. In some such in
stances these animals have escaped in the city, and for a long time have
taken up their quarters in cellars, where their presence has never been sus-
pected, as during the day they remained concealed. In this way it is very
probable that many are still living in the city of Philadelphia obtaining a
plentiful food by their nightly labors.”

 

THE CAYOPOLLIN, OR MEXICAN OPOSSUM)

 

Is a small animal, a little larger than a rat, very much resemoung the opos-
sum in the snout, the ears, and the tail, which is thicker and stronger than
that of a rat; he makes use of it as we do our hands; he has thin transpase
rent ears; the belly, the legs, and feet white. ‘The young, when they are
frightened, embrace the mother, who lifts them up on the ees. This spe-
cies has been found on the mountains of New Spain.

THE MARMOSE, OR MURINE OPOSSUM/?

REsEMBLES, in most respects, the Virginian; they are natives of the same
climate, in the same continent, and are very much alike by the form of the
body, the conformation of the feet, and the tail, a part of which is covered
with scales, the upper part only being hairy. But the marmose 1s smaller
than the common opossum, his snout is still sharper; the female has no
bag under the belly, she has only two loose skins near the thighs, between
which the young place themselves to stick to the paps. When the young
are brought forth, they are not so large as small beans; they then stick to
the paps. The brood of the marmose is very numerous; we have seen ten
small marmoses, each sticking to a pap, and the mother had stil] fouir nore
paps. It is probable that these aniinals bring forth a few days after concep-
tion. The young are then fatuses only, which are not come to the fourth
part of their growth.

 

1 Didely his cayopollin, Lin. 2 Didelphis murina, Lin,
to

MAMMALIA—KANGUROO.

THE KANGUROOW

 

Trene exists several species of the kanguroo, all of which are natives
of New Holland. ‘the principal of these, is the great kanguroo, which was
first discovered in 1770, by some of the persons who accompanied Captain
Cook. It often measures nine feet in length, from the tip of the nose to the
end of the tail; and, when full grown, weighs two hundred pounds. The
bead and neck are very small, while the lower pags gradually dilate toa
very great size; the fore legs are hardly nineteen inches long, while the hind-
er ones, which are perfectly bare, and callous beneath, measure three feet
seven inches. The head bears some resemblance to that of the deer, having
a mild and placid visage; the ears are moderately large and erect, the eyes
full, and the mouth rather small. The general color is a pale brown, inclin-
ing to white underneath. From the great difference in length of the fore and
hind legs, the pace of this animal consists in vast springs, or bounds, which
are said at times to exceed twenty feet in length. It can with ease leap
over an obstacle above nine feet high. In its state of rest, it sits ere t on
the whole length of the hind feet, supporting itself by the base of the tail;
which is occasionally used as a v,eapon of defence, and is of such prodigious
strength as to be able to brea: the leg of a man ata single blow. The
female seldom produces more than one young one ata birth, which, when
first brought forth, is not ahove an inch long, and is received into an

 

1 Kangurvs labiatus,Georr. The genus Kangurus has six upper and two lower in-
ecisors ; NO canines; ten upper and ten lower ios. Ears large, pointed; eyes large ;
fore legs very short, with Tee toes, and strong nails; hind legs long, robust, with four
toes; the two internal, united and stall; the central large, with a strong claw, like a
hapf, plantigrade ; tail very strong, with powerful muscles, uot preheusile, but serving
fof locomotion; an abdominai pouch,
220 MAMMALIA—KANGUROO.

abdominal pouch, that the female is furnished with, wnich conceals the
teats, and serves as a receptacle to secure the young in time of danger.

The habits of the kanguroo have been recently described, with equal ani.
mation and fidelity, by Mr Cunningham, in his amusing and yaluable ac«
count of his Two Years’ Residence in New South Wales.

“Our largest animals,” he says, “are kanguroos; all of which are fine
eating, being clear of fat except about the tail, tasting much like venison,
and riaking most delicious stews and steaks, the favorite dish being what
is called a s‘eamer, composed of steals, and chopped tail, with a few slices
of salt pork, stewed with a very small quantity of water. for a couple of
hours in a close vessel. We have the forest kanguroo, of a gray color, with
a longish fur, inhabiting the forests; the wallaroo, of a blackish color, with
a coarse shaggy fur, inhabiting the hills; and the red kanguroo, with
smooth, short, closé fur, of a reddish color (resembling considerably in fine-
ness and texture the fur of the sea otter,) inhabiting the open forests; and all
of these varieties attain the weight of two hundred pounds and upwards when
full grown. The wallabee and paddymalla grow to about sixty pounds
each, and inhabit the bushes and broken hilly country. The rock kanguroo
is very small, living among the rockiest portions of the mountains; while
the kanguroo rat, or, more properly, rabbit, is about the size of the smallest
of the latter kind of animal, and lodges in hollow trees, hopping along, like
the other kanguroos, with great speed, and affording good sport in the chase.
The kanguroos make no use of their short fore legs except in grazing, when
they rise upon them and their tail, bring their hind legs forward, and go
nibbling upon all four@ppulling up occasionally some favorite plant with
their fore paw, and sitting up bold and erect upon their hind houghs and
tail, while they slowly bite and nibble it, shifting it from paw to paw, like
a boy protracting his repast on a juicy apple. When chased, they hop upon
their hind legs, bounding onwards at a most amazing rate, the tail wagging
as they leap, and serving them for a balance. They will bound over gul-
lies, and down declivities, the distance of thirty yards, and fly right over the
tops of low brushwood; so that, in such places, dogs stand very little chance
with them ; but in a clear open country soon tire iuem out. The dogs seize
them generally by the hip, and throw them over; then fasten upon their
throats and finish them. But few dogs will attack a large kanguroo singly,
some of the two hundred weight size often hopping off with three or four
assailants hanging about them; anc I was informed of one that actually
carried a man to some distance. When a dog gets up close to a large kan-
guroo, it will often sit upon its tail and haunches, and fight the dog, turning
adroitly round and round, so as always to face him, and pushing him off
with the ‘ore paws ; or it will seize and hug him like a bear, ripping him up
with the long sharp claw on its powerful hind leg. They are constantly
indeed cutting, and often killing, dogs with this terrible weapon, which wil
tear out the bowels ata single kick; anda large kangurvo is on this a&
MAMMALIA—KANGUROO. 22)

eount, very dangerous even for a man to approach, when set at bay. The
kanguico hunters immediately hamstring them when thrown, to prevent
mjury to themselves or the dogs; while the black natives give them a heavy
blow over the loins with their waddie, which completely paralyzes their
hind legs, as all the Jarge nerves supplying these parts pass out there. The
kanguroo has en)y ope young at a time, which you may see attached by the
mouth to the nipple inside the mother’s pouch, from the period it is the
size of your thumb top, and as bare and unshapen as a new-born mouse,
until it attains the size of a poodle dog, with a fine glossy coat of hair,
ready to leap out and hop along after the mother. The young are attached
to the nipple in somewhat the same way as the placenta of other animals is
attached to the uterus, the mouth being contracted round the nipple, which
swells out like a cherry inside it, nourishing the foetus by means of absorp-
tion through this indirect channel, the mouth and nipple adhering sc
strongly that it requires considerable force to separate them. When the
foetus arrives at sufficient age to suck, it drops off the nipple, and may then.
ve said to be Jorn, yet still continuing inside of the pouch, and sucking milk
now through the ducts of that same nipple from the external surface of
which it formerly derived a very different species of nourishment. The
manner in which the young reach this pouch from the ovary, and attach
themselves to the nipple, is still, I believe, a mystery, as no communicative
duct has yet been found; but the natives assert they are born in the usual
way, and that the mother places them there. It is amazing to see the young
kanguroo pop its head out of the pouch when the mother is grazing, and
nibble too at the tender herbage which she is passing over. When hard
hunted, the mother will stop suddenly, thrust her fore paws into her pouch,
drag out the young one and throw it away, that she may hop lighter along.
They are always very hard pressed, however, before they thus sacrifice the
life of their offspring to save their own; and itis pitiful to see the tender
sympathetic looks they will sometimes cast back at the poor little helpless
creatures they have been forced to desert. J'rom this singular mode of
gestation, you may handle the fetus en utero, and pull it about by the tail
like a kitten, from the first moment of its appearance there, up to the very
day of its birth, without causing either pain or annoyance to it or its mother.
Such is the very singular manner in which nearly all our Australian
quadrupeds are generated and brought forth. When the young kanguroo
has attained a considerable size, it will craw] cut, feed about, and creep in
again to warm itself, or in case any danger approaches. The kanguroos
feed early in the morning, when the dew is on the grass, which is the best
time to hunt them. Ifthere is no dog in your pack that will show the
game, you must keep sight of the dogs at full gallop to secure it, or else
take out a little short-legged terrier, that will run the,foot, and that youcan
eadily keep sight of till it reaches the others, otherwise you may lose all
our sport, as few of our dogs ,sive tongue either in the chase or at the
229 MAMMALIA—WOMBACH.

death If there is a river or pond near, the kangureos are sure to retreat
thither when hard pressed, and in this way readily baffle the natives’ dogs,
by shoving under water and drowning such as may venture in beside them.
From the great length of their hind legs and tail, they are enabled ty stand
on the firm bottom, while the dogs are obliged to swim; and in this way a
fight between a large kanguroo and a pack of dogs affords a most amusing
spectacle. The kanguroo stands gravely upright, with his fore paws spread
out before him, wheeling round and round to ward off his assailants; and
whenever one arrives within his reach, he pounces his paws upon him, and
sousing him suddenly under, holds him fast in this position, gazing all the
while around with the most solemn, simpleton sort of aspect, heedless of
the kicking and sprawling of his victizn, whom he quickly puts an end to, if
some courageous colleague does not in good time advance to its aid, and
force the kanguroo to let his half drowned antagonist bob above water
agam; the dog paddles forthwith towards shore, shaking his ears and
looking most piteously, with no inclination to venture in a second time,
not. hstanding all the halloos and cheerings with which you urge him.”

The wunguroo may be domesticated. “One of the largest tame kangu
roos I have seen in this country,” says Mr Cunningham, “ is domesticated,
and a mi..hievous wag he is, creeping and snuffing cautiously towards a
stranger, .ith such an innocently expressive countenance, that roguery
could neve. be surmised to exist under it; when, having obtained, as he
thinks, a sufficient introduction, he claps his fore paws on your shoulders, as
if to caress you, and, raising himself suddenly upon his tail, administers
such a well jut push with his hind legs, that it is two to one but he drives
you heels ov.r head! This is all done in what he considers facetious play,
with a view f giving you a hint toexamine your pockets, and see what bon
bons you have got for him, as he munches cakes and comfits with epicurean
gotit; and if ue door is a-jar, he will gravely take his station behind your
chair at meal .a.te, like a tackey, giving you an admonitory kick every now
and then, if ye fail to heip him as well as yourself.”

THE WOMBACH.1

Tuis animal is a native of New South Wales, and was discovered in me
year 1798. It is about the size of a badger, a species of which it was sup-
posed to be, from its dextvrity in burrowing in the earth by means of its
fore paws ; but, in its general motions, it appeared to have much of the
habits and manners of a bear. It hasa large head, a broad forehead, a

 

1 Phascolomys wombat. This animal is the only one of the genus. It has two upper
and two lower incisors; no canines; ten upper and ten lower molars. Incisors strong
and thick; molars with ‘oval crown divide: a furrow; body thick; head large, flat;
ears short; eyes much separated ; feet with five toes, the anterior armed with crooke
and robust nails for digging; thumb of hind feet very small, nailless; tail scarcely appa-
rent; <u aldominal pouch in the female.

.
MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 223

face tapering to the nose, which is a hard gristly substance, well adapted
fur removing the earth when it burrows; each jaw has two cutting teeth,
long and sharp like those of a kanguroo, with a space of an inch between
them and the grinders, which are strong and well set. Frorn the structure
of its teeth, it does not appear to be a carnivorous animal; its eyes are
small and black; its ears short and pointed. The paws are something like
a beaver’s, with which it rans so awkwardly that a man could easily over-
take it. Its posteriors differ from most other animals by falling dow. ina
sloping direction, commencing at the hip joint, and descending ‘c the knve
joint w the hind legs; its tail is so short that itis scarcely perceivable.
The general color is a cream brown, intermixed with black hairs. The
female, like most other animals of New South Wales, is distinguished by a
pouch or false belly for its young. The flesh is considered bv the natives
as a great luxury.

 

ORDER SIX—GLIRES.

Animats of this order have two large incisors in each jaw, separated
from the molars by a vacant space; no canine teeth; molars with flat
crowns, or blunt tubercles; extremities, the posterior longest, terminated by
unguiculated toes, the number varying according to the species; mamma
variable in number; stomach simple ; intestines very long.

THE BEAVER.

 

‘lan beaver seems to be now the only remaining monument of that kind
ui intelligence in brutes, which, though infinitely inferior, as to its princi-

 

 

1 Castor fiber, Lin. The genus Castor has two upper and two lower incisors ; eight upper
and eight lower molars. Mulare composed ofa flat crown, with sinuous and complicated
tidges of enamel; five toes on each foot, the anterior short and close, the posterior longer
and palinated ; tail broad, thick, flattened horizontally, of au oval form,naked aud cover-
el with scales.
224 MAMMALIA—BEAVER.

ple, to that of man, supposes, however, certain common projects, certair
relative ends in view, projects which, having for their basis sogiety, in like
manner suppose some particular method of understanding one another, and
of acting in concert.

It is allowed, that the beaver, far from having an absolute superiority over
the other animgis, seems, on the contrary, to be inferior to some of them as
to its qualities merely as an individual. It is an animal tolerably mi:3,
tranquil, and familiar, though rather, it would seem, gloomy and melancholy.
If we consider this animal, therefore, in its dispersed and solitary state, we
shall find, that, as to internal qualities, it is not superior to other animals
that it has not more ingenuity than the dog, more sense than the elephan.,
or more cunning than the fox. It is rather remarkable for the singularities
of its internal qualities. Of quadrupeds, the beaver alone has a flat, oval
tail, covered with scales, which serves as a rudder to direct its motions in
the water. It is the only quadruped that nas membranes between the toes
on the hind feet, and at the same time none on the fore ones, which it uses
as hands in carrying focd to the mouth. It is the only one which, while it
resembles a terrestrial animal in its fore parts, seems to approach the nature
of an aquatic being in its hind ones.

The beavers begin to-assemble, in the month of June or J uly, in order to
form a society, which is to continue for the greater part of the year. They
arrive in numbers from every side, and presently form a company of two or
three hundred. The place of meeting is commonly the place where they
fix their abode ; and this is always by the side of some lake or river.

Godman’s account, chiefly, taken from Hearne, of the manner in which
the beavers construct their dwellings, being somewhat particular, we insert
it here.

“They are not particular in the site they select for the establishment or
their dwellings, but if in a lake or pe:', where a dam is not required, they
are careful to build where the water is sufficiently deep. In standing
waters, however, they have not the advantage afforded by a current for the
transportation of their supplies of wood; which, when they build on a run-
ning stream, is always cut higher up than the place of their residence, and
floated down.

“The materials used for the construction of their dams, are the trunks and
branches of small birch, mulberry, willow, poplar, &c. They begin to cut
down their timber for building, early in the summer, but their edifices are
not commenced until about the middle or latter part of August, and are not
completed until the beginning of the cold season. The strength of their
teeth, and their perseverance in this work, may be fairly estimated, by the
size of the trees they cut down. ‘These are cut in such a manner as to fall
into the water; and then floated towards the site of the dam or dwellings.
Small shrubs, &c., cur at a distance from the water, they drag with their
leetn to tne stream, and then launch and tow them to the place of deposit.

a
MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 225

Ata short distance above a beaver dam, the number of trees which have
been cut down, appears truly surprising, and the regularity of the stumps
which are left, might lead persons unacquainted with the habits of the
animal to believe that the clearing was the result of human industry.

“The figure of the dam varies according to circumstances. Should the
current be very gentle, the dam is carried nearly straight across; but when
the stream is swiftly flowing, it is uniformly made with a considerable
curve, having the convex part opposed to the current. Along with the
trunks and branches of trees, they intermingle mud and stones, to give
greater security ; and when dams have been long undisturbed and frequently
repaired, they acquire great solidity, and their power of resisting the pres-
sure of water and ice, is greatly increased by the willow, birch, &c., occa-
sionally taking root, and eventually growing up into something of a
regular hedge. The materials used in constructing the dams, are secured
solely by the resting of the branches, &c., against the bottom, and the sub-
sequent accumulation of mud and stones, by the force of the stream, or by
che industry of the beavers.

“The dwellings of the beaver are formed of the same materials as their
dams, and are very rude, though strong, and adapted in size to the number
of their inhabitants. These are seldom more than four old, and six or eight
young ones. Double that number have been occasionally found in one of
the lodges, though this is by no means a very common occurrence.

“When building their houses, they place most of the wood cross-wise, and
nearly horizontally, observing no other order than that of leaving a cavity in
the middle. Branches, which project inward, are cut off with their teeth and
thrown among the rest. The houses are by no means built of sticks first,
and then plastered, but all the materials, sticks, mud, and stones, if the
latter can be procured, are mixed up together, and this composition is
employed from the foundation to the summit. The mud is obtained from
the adjacent banks or bottom of the stream or pond, near the door of the
hut. Mud and stones, the beaver always carries, by holding them between
his fore paws and throat.

“Their work is all-performed at night, and with much expedition. Whea
straw or grass 1s mingled with the mud used by them in building, it is an
accidental circumstance, owing to tae nature of the spot whence the lattce
was taken. Assoon as any part of the material is placed where it is in-
tended to remain, they turn round and give it a smart blow with the tail.
The same sort of blow is struck by them, upon the surface of the water,
when they are in the act of diving.

“The outside of the hut is covered, or plastered with mud, late in the
autumn, and after frost has begun to appear. By freezing, it soon becomes
almost as hard as stone, effectually excluding their great enemy, the wolve-
rene, during the winter. Their habit of walking over the work frequently
during ils progress, has led to the absurd idea of their using the tail asa

29
220 MAMMALIA—BEAVER.

trowel. The habit of flapping with the tail, is retained by them ina state
of captivity, and, unless it be in the acts already mentioned, appears design-
ed to effect no particular purpose. The houses, when they have stood for
some time, and been kept in repair, become so firm from the consolidation
of all the materials, as to require great exertion, and the use of the ice chisel
or other iron instruments, to be broken open. The laborious nature of such
ar. undertaking may easily be conceived, when it is known that the tops of
ta2 houses are generally from four to six feet thick at the apex of the cane.’

It is near their habitations, that they establish their magazines uf fresh
bark and soft wood ; and to each hut or cabin, there is one allotted, cf a size
proportioned to the number of its inhabitants, to which they have all a com-
roon right; nor do they offer to plunder their neighbors.

Hamlets, so to express them, have been seen, composed of twenty, and
even twenty-five dwellings. Such large settlements, however, are rare.
In general, they do not contain more than ten or a dozen families, each of
which has its own separate district, magazine, and habitation; nor will it
allow any strangers to settle within its inclosure. The smallest dwellings
contain two, four, and six; the largest, eighteen, twenty, and it is even said,
thirty beavers; and it seldom or never happens that the number of males
and females is not upon a par. Moderately speaking, therefore, their socie-
ty may be said to consist frequently of one hundred and fifty, or two hundred
workmen; who, having first exerted their united industry and diligence in
fearing a grand public work, afterwards form themselves into different
‘bodies, in order to construct private habitations.

However numerous the republic of beavers may be, peace and good order
are uniformly maintained in it. A common series of toil has strengthened
their union; the coaveniences which they have procured for each other, and
the abundance of provisions which, after having amassed, they continue to
consume together, render them happy within themselves; and, having
moderate appetites, entertaining even an aversion to blood and carnage,
they have net the smallest propensity to hostility or rapine, but actually
-enjoy all the blessings which man is only born to desire. Friends to each
other, if threatened by any enemies from abroad, they know how to avoid
them; and for this purpose, on the first alarm, they give notice of ther
toutual danger, by striking the water with their tails, which sends forth a
sound that is heard in their most distant dwellings. On this occasion, each
beaver, as he thinks most expedient, plunges ints the water, or conceals
nimself within the walls of his own habitation, which is in no danger but
from the fire of the angry heavens, or from the weapons of man, and which
no animal dares attempt to open or to overturn.

These asylums are not only secure, but also very neat and commodious.
The floor is covered with verdure, young and tender branches of trees serv-
mg them for a carpet, on which they never permit any of their excrements
to be left. The window which fronts the water, serves them for a balcony,
MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 221

trom which they enjoy the fresh air, and bathe themselves the greater part
of the day. In the water they remain in an upright posture, the head and.
fore parts only being visible. This element is, indeed, so necessary to them,
or rather gives them so mych pleasure, that they seem unable, as it were,
to live without freyuent immersions in it. Sometimes they go to a con-
siderable distance under the ice ; and then they are easily taken, by attacg-
ing the dwelling on one hand, and laying in wait for them, at the same
time, at a hole which is purposely formed a little way off in the ice, and to
which they are obliged to come for breath.

The habit which this animal has, of continually keeping the tail and all the
hind parts of the body in the water, seems to have changed the nature of its
flesh. That of the fore parts, till we come to the reins, is of the same quality
taste, and consistency, as the flesh of land animals; that of the tail, and
of the hind legs and thighs, has the smell, the savor, and all the qualities
of fish. As for the tail, in particular, it is even an extremity, and actual
portion of a fish fixed to the body of a quadruped. In length, it generally
measures a foot, in thickness an inc‘, and in breadth five or six inches. It
is entirely covered over with scales, and has a skin altogether the same as
that of a large fish. The largest beavers weigh from fifty to sixty pounds,
and in length are little more than three feet from the tip of the snout to the
insertion of the tail. The females are said to go four months with young.
They bring forth about the close of winter, and their number generally
consists of two or three ata time. Nearly at this period the males leave
therm, and go forth into the fields, where they enjoy all the sweets of the
spring. In this season, they pay occasional visits to their habitation, but
never reside init. There, however, the females remain employed in suck-
ling, tending, and rearing their little ones, who are in a condition to follow
them at the expiration of a few weeks. They then, in their turn, go abroad,
where they feed on fish, or on the bark of young trees, and pass the whole
of their time upon the water, or among the wuuds.

Winter is the season which is principally allotted for hunting them, as it
is then only that their fur is in perfection; and when, after their ‘fabrics
are demolished, a great number happen to be taken, their society is never
restored ; the few that have escaped captivity or death disperse themselves
and become houseless wanderers; or, concealed in some hole under ground,
and reduced to the condition of other animals, they lead a timid life, ne
longer employ themselves but to satisfy their immediate and most urgen
wants, no longer retain those faculties and qualities which they eminently
possess in a state of society.

To capture beavers residing on a small river or creek, the Indians o
America find it necessary to stake the stream across, to prevent the animais
from escaping, and then they try to ascertain where the vaults or wasnes
in the banks are situated. This can only be done by those who are verv
experienced in such explorations, and is thus performed:—The hyncer is
298 MAMMALIA—BEAVER.

turmshed with an ice chisel lashed to a handle four or five feet in length,
with this instrument he strikes against the ice as he goes along the edge of
the banks. The sound produced by the blow informs him when he is op-
posite to one of these vaults. When one is discovered, a hole is cut through
the ice of sufficient size to admit a full grown beaver, and the search is con-
tinued until as many of the places of retreat are discovered as possible.
During the time the most expert hunters are thus occupied, the others w:th
the women are busy in breaking into the beaver houses, which, as may be
supposed from what has been already stated, is a task of some difficulty.
The beavers, alarmed at the invasion of their dwelling, take to the water
and swim with surprising swiftness to their retreats in the banks; but their
entrance is betrayed to the hunters watching the holes in the ice, by the
motion and discoloration of the water. The entrance is instantly closed
with stakes of wood, and the beaver, instead of finding shelter in his cave,
is made prisoner and destroyed. The hunter then pulls the animal out, if
within reach, by the introduction of his hand and arm, or by a hook design-
ed for this use, fastened to a long handle. Beaver houses found in lakes, or
other standing waters, offer an easier prey to the hunters, as there is no
occasion for staking the water across.

The Indians inhabiting the countries watered by the tributaries of the
Missour! and Mississippi, take the beavers principally by trapping, and are
generally supp’ -d with steel traps by the traders, who do not sell, but lend
or hire them, in order to keep the Indians dependent upon themselves, and
also to lay claim to the furs which they may procure. The name of the
trader being stamped on the trap, it is equal to a certificate of enlistment,
and indicates, when an Indian carries his furs to another trading establish-
ment, that the individual wishes to avoid the payment of his debts. The
business of trapping requires great experience and caution, as the senses of
the beaver are very keen, and enable him to detect the recent presence of
the hunter by the slightest traces. It is necessary that the hands should be
washed clean before the trap is handled and baited, and that every precau-
tion should be employed to elude the vigilance of the animal.

The bait which is used to entice the beavers is prepared from the sub-
stance called castor (castorewm,) obtained from the glandulous pouches of
the male animal, which contain sometimes from two to three ounces.
This substance is called by the hunters dark-stone, and is squeezed gently
into an open mouthed phial.

We meet with beavers in America from the thirtieth degree of north lati
tude to the sixtieth, and even beyond it.* In the northern parts they are
very common ; and the farther south we proceed, their number is still found

 

* Pennant fixes the southern range of the American beaver in latitude 30°, in Louisian
not far from the Gulf of Mexico; “whilst Say mentions the confluence of the Ohio an
Mississippi as their limit, which is about seven degrees further to the northward, Their
seost nonkern range is, perhaps, on the banks of the river Mackenzie. — Ri bartson.
MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 22%

to decrease. The same observation holds with respect to the Old Conti
nent: we never find them numerous but in the more northern countries:
and in France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Egypt, they are exceedingly rare.
They formerly inhabited both England and Wales, but have long been
extinct in both. Giraldus Cambrensis states them to have frequented the
tiver Tievi, in Cardiganshire. They must, however, have been uncommon,
as, in the tenth century, the Welsh laws valued a beaver skin at the enor-
mous sum of a hundred and twenty pence. The ancients knew them; and
by the religion of the Magi it was forbidden to kill them.

Several authors have said, that the beaver, being an aquatic animal, could
not live solely on land. This opinion, however, is erroneous; for the bea-
ver which was mentioned in a preceding paragraph, having been taken
when quite young in Canada, and always reared in the house, did not know
the water when he was brought to it, was afraid of it, and refused to go inte
it. Even when first plunged into a basin, there was a necessity for keeping
him in it by force. A few minutes after, nevertheless, he became so well
reconciled to it, that he no longer showed an aversion to his new situation ;
and, when afterwards left to his liberty, he frequently returned to it of him-
self, and would even roll about in the dirt, and upon the wet pavement.
One day he made his escape, and descended by a cellar staircase into the
quarries under the Royal Garden. There he swam to a considerable dis-
tance on the stagnated waters which are at the bottom of those quarries ;
yet no sooner did he see the light of the torches which were ordered duwn
for the purpose of finding him, than he returned, and allowed himself to be
taken without making the smallest resistance.

He is an anima! familiar without being fawning ; and when he sees people
at table, he is sure to ask for something to eat. This he does by a little
plaintive cry, and by a few gestures of his fore paws. When he has obtain-
ed a morsel, he carries it away, and conceals himself, in order to eat it at
his eage. !n several instances he has been completely domesticated, ond
become as docile as a dog. When he sleeps, which he does very cfteu, he
lies upon his belly. No food comes amiss to him, meat excepted; and this
he constantly refuses, either raw or boiled. He gnaws every thing he cc “nes
near; and it was found necessary to line with tin the tun in which he waa
brought over.

Independently of the fur, which is indeed the most valuable article fur-
nished by the beaver, this animal furnishes a substance that has been con
siderably used in medicine. This substance is known by the name of
castor. The savages, it is said, obtain an oil from the tail of the beaver,
which they employ as a topical remedy for different complaints. The flesh
of this animal, though fat and delicate, is yet bitter, and disagreeable to the
palate.

There are twc kinds of hair on the skin of the beaver; that next the skin
13 short, and as fine as down; the upper coat is more scanty, thicker, an¢
230 MAMMALIA—MUSKRAT.

longer. The downy hair is manufactured into hats, stockings, caps, and
other articles. The skin is so considerable an article of traffic, that the
species which produces it will, perhaps, at length be exterminated. At one
sale, the Hudson’s Bay company sold about fifty-four thousand ; and, in
1798, a hundred and six thousand were exported to Europe and China from
Canada alone. In the year 1743, the imports of beaver skins into London
aud Rochelle, amounted to upwards of one hundred and fifty thousod; and
there is reason to suppose that a considerable additional quantity was at
that period introduced illicitly into Great Britain. In 1827, the importaticn
of beaver skins into London for more than four times the extent of fur
country than that which was occupied in 1743, did not much exceed fifty
thousand. ‘

The senses of the beaver are very acute; and so delicate is its smeli, that
it will suffer no filth, no bad stench, to remain near it. When kept too long
in confiuement, and under the necessity of voiding its excrement, it drops it
near the threshold of its prison, and when the dvor is opened, is sure to
push it out.

.

THE ONDATRA, MUSQUASH, OR MUSKRAT.

 

Tins animal is closely allied in form and habits to the beaver, and ts
fond in the same parts of America as that animal, from thirty to sixty-nine
tz seventy degrees of latitude. But it is more familiar in its habits, as it is
to be found only a short distance from large towns. The musquash is a
watchful, but not a very shy animal. It may be frequently seen sit ing on
the shores of small muddy islands, not easily to be distinguished from a
piece of earth, till, on the approach of danger, it suddenly plunges into the
water. It forms burrows on the banks of streams and ponds, the entrance
to which isin deep water. These burrows extend w great distances, and
do extensive injury to farms, by letting in the water upon the land.

 

Fiber zibethicus, Desm. The genus Fiber bas two upper and two lower incisors;
six upper and six lower molars. Molars with a flat crown and scaly angular 2igza
lates of enamel; fore feet with four toes and the rudiment of a thiunb; posterior wit!
ve, edged with stiff and close bristles; tail loug, compressed laterally, naked except a
few scattered hairs, and granular,
MAMMALIA—WATER RAT 23)

In some situations, these animals build houses ofa conical form, re-
sembling those of the beaver, formed of mud grass, and reeds j:lastered
together. They feed upon the roots and tender shvots of aquatic plants, and
on the leaves of grasses. They are excellent swimmers, dive well, and can
remain fora long time under water. It is rare to have an opportunity of
seeing the animal during the day, as it then lies concealed in its burrow,
and it is not till night, that it issues forth for food or recreation. It does
not, like the beaver, lay up a store of provision for the winter ; and it builds
a new habitation every season.

This anima] is common in the Atlantic States, and its fur beirg valuable
for hats, it is much hunted. The Indians kill them by speaing them
through the walls of their houses. Between four and five thousand skins
are annually imported into Great Britain from North America.

he ondatra is of the size of a small rabbit, and of the form ofa rat. Its
head is short and similar to that of the water rat; its hair is soft and glossy,
with a very thick down underneath, nearly like that of the beaver; its tail
is long, and though of a different form, being flattened laterally, it is cover-
ed nevertheless with little scales, in the same manner as those of other rats.

THE WATER RAT!

Is alittle animal, about the size of the black rat. but in its nature and habits
rather resembling the otter than the rat. Like the otter, it frequents the
fresh waters, and is generally found on the borders of rivers, rivulets, and
ponds ; like that creature, too, it seldom feeds but upon fish, ur the spawn
of fish, though sometimes it eats frogs, water insects, and even roots and
herbs. This animal is not web-footed ; but, though every toe of its feet is
separated, it swims with facility, keeps itself a long time above water, and
carries off its prey, in order to eat it when it has reached the land.

The bead of the water rat is shorter, the nose broader, the hair more
erect, and the tail much longer, than that of the land rat. On the back it is
of a fine raven black ; the under part is white, with a black line along the
middle. The body is about three inches long. The fur has an astonishing
power of resisting water. Like the otter, it flies from large rivers, or rather
from thuse which ar2 too much frequented, and is never found either in
houses or in barns.

It is probable, that these animals bring forth often in a year; but of this
we have nocertain izformation. Their flesh is not absolutely bad; and, in

 

1 Arvicola amphibius, Lin. The genus Arvicola has two upper and two lower incisors ;
81x a and six lower molars. Molars with @ flat crown and angular plates of enamel
ears large; anteriur toes with nails; tail round, hairy, almost the leugth of the bod:
232 MAMMALIA~—MOUSE.

Catholic countries, the peasants eat it during Lent, as they do that of the
otter. This species is to be found throughout Europe, the very extremiues
of the north excepted. In Holland it is devoted to destruction, as one of the
must dangerous enemies of the country, in consequence of its burrowing in
the dikes.

THE FIELD MCUSE!

ts smaller than the rat, but larger than the common mouse, and does not
live in houses. It is remarkable for the largeness and prominence of its
eyes; it differs likewise both from the rat and the mouse in the color of its
skin, which, while it is tolerably white under the belly, is of a reddish
brown upon the back. ‘The species is generally and abundantly diffused.

It appears that they are a long time in attaining their full growth, as they
vary considerably in size. The largest are rather more than four inches in
.ength, from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail; and the smallest.
which appear to be full grown as well as the others, are an inch shorter.
As there are found many of different intermediate sizes, however, there is
no room to doubt but that the larger and the smaller are all of the same
species. m

These creatures are fond of dry and elevated grounds. In woods, and in
the fields adjoining to them, they are to be found in great numbers. They
conceal themselves in holes, which they either find already made, or which
they make for themselves, under bushes, or the trunks of hollow trees. In
these they amass so prodigious a quantity of acorns, nuts, &c., that in one
single hole there has been found a bushel ata time; and this provision,
instead of being proportioned to the wants of the animal, is only so to the
capacity of the place allotted for its reception. These holes are generally
more than a foot under ground, and often divided into two cells, of which
the one serves for a habitation for itself and its young ones, and the other
for a granary. The only method of preventing their ravages, which has
appeared effectual, is that of setting traps at every tenth pace, through the
whole extent of each piece of new sown land. There wants-no other bait
tan 4 roasted nut laid under a flat stone, which is to be supported by a
small bit of wood. This they will eagerly attempt to seize; and, being
fixed to the wood, no sooner do they touch it, than the stone falls upon
them, and stifles or crushes them to death.

The short tailed field mouse, is more generally diffused than the long
railed kind, and is found almost every where; in woods, in meadows, and
even in gardens.

 

1 Arvicola vulgaris, Des.
MAMMALIA—LEMMING RAT. 283

THE LEMMING RATJOR LAPLAND MARMOT,

Is of the shape of a mouse, but has a shorter tail; its body is about the
length or five inches, covered with fine hair of various colors. Those of
Norway are of the size of a water rat; but those of Lapland are si arcely as
large as mice. The former are variegated with black and tawny in the
upper parts; the sides of the head and the under parts are white. The legs
are grayish, and the under parts of the body of a dull white. In some, there
are many red hairs about the mouth, resembling whiskers, six of which are
longer and redder than the rest. The mouth is but small, and the upper
lip is divided like the squirrel’s. The remains of the food in the throat
of this animal, incline us to imagine it ruminates. The head is large, short,
and thick; the neck short, and the body thick. The eyes are small and
black ; the ears round, and inclining towards the neck ; the legs before are
short, and those behind longer, which gives it a greater degree of swiftness ;
the feet are clothed with hair, and armed with five very sharp and crooked
claws ; the middle claw is very long, and the fifth is like a litle finger, or
the spur of a cock, sometimes placed very high up the leg. This animal,
therefore, whose legs are very short, runs very swift. It generally inhabits
the mountains of Norway and Lapland, but descends in such great numbers
in some years, and in some seasons, that the inhabitants look on their
arrival as a terrible scourge, from which there is no possibility of delive-
rance. They move, for the most part, in a square, marching forward by
night, and lying still by day. Thus, like an animated torrent, they are
often seen more than a mile broad covering the ground, and that so thick,
that the hindermost touches its leader. It is in vain that the inhabitants
resist, or attempt to stop their progress; they still keep moving forward;
and though thousands are destroyed, myriads are seen to succeed and make
their destruction impracticable. They generally move in lines, which are
about three feet from each other, and exactly parallel. Their march is
always directed from the north-west to the south-west, and regularly con-
ducted from the beginning. Wherever their motions are turned, nothing
can stop them ; they go directly forward, impelled by some strange power;
and from the time they at first set out, they never think of retreating. Ifa
lake or a river happens to interrupt their crogress, they all together take
the water and swim over it; a fire, a deep we'll, or a torrent, does rot turn
them out of their straight lined direction ; they boldly plunge im:o the
flames, or leap down the we 1, and are sometimes seen climbing up on the
other side. If they are interrupted by a boat across the river while they are
swimming, they never attempt to swim round it, but mount directly up its

 

1 Lemmus Norvegicus, Desm. The genus Lemmus has two upper and two lower in-
cisors ; six upper and six lower molars. Molars with a flat crown and angular plates of
enamel ; ears very short; fore feet in some species with five, im others four tues, proper
for diggi2g ; tail short and hairy.

30
234 MAMMALIA—LEMMING RAT.

sides; and the boatmen, who know how vain resistan¢e would be, calmly
suffer the living torrent to pass over, which it does without farther dainage,
If they meet with a stack of hay or corn which interrupts their passage,
instead of going over it, they gnaw their way through; if they are stopped
by a house in their course, if they cannot get through it, they continue there
till they die. It is happy, however, that they eat nothing that is prepared
for human subsistence; they never enter a house to destroy the provisions,
but are contented with eating every root and vegetable that they meet. If
they happen to pass through a meadow, they destroy it in a very short time,
and give it an appearance of being burnt up and strewed with ashes. If
they are interrupted in their course, and a man should imprudently venture
to attack one of them, the little animal is no way intimidated by the dis-
parity of strength, but f.iously flies up at its opponent, and barking some-
what like a puppy, wherever it fastens it dues not easily quit its hold; if, at
last, the leader be found out of its line, which it defends as long as it can,
and be separated from the rest of its kind, it sets up a plaintive cry, different
from that of anger, and, as some say, gives itself a voluntary death, by hang-
ing itself on the fork of a tree.

An enemy so numerous and destructive would quickly render the coun-
tries where they appear, utterly uninbabitable, did it not fortunately happen
that the same rapacity that animates them to destroy the labors of mankind,
at last impels them to destroy each other. After committing incredible
devastation, they are at last seen to separate into two armies, opposed with
deadly hatred, alovg the coasts of the larger lakes and rivers. The Lapland-
ers, who observe them thus drawn up to fight, instead of considering their
mutual animosity as a happy riddance of a most dreadful pest, form omi:
nous prognostics from the manner of their engagements. They consider
their combats as a presage of war, and expect an invasion from the Russians
or Swedes, as the side next those kingdoms happens to conquer. The two
divisions, however, continue their engagements and animosity, until one
party overcomes the other: from that time they utterly disappear, nor is it
well knuwn what becomes of either the conquerors or the conquered.
Some suppose, that they rush headlong into the sea; others, that they kill
themselves, as some are found hanging on the forked branches of trees;
and others, that they are destroyed by the young spring herbage. But the
most probable opinion is, that having devoured the vegetable productions
of the country, and having nothing more to subsist on, they then fall to
devouring each other, and having habituated themselves to that kind of
food, continue it. However this be, they are often found dead by thousands,
and their carcasses have been known to infect the air for several miles
round, s9 as to produce very malignant disorders. They also seem to infect
the plants they have gnawed, for the cattle often die that afterwards feed in
the places where they have passed. The inhabitants have an opinion, ag
they do not know whence such numbers proceed, that they fall with the rain
MAMMALIA—LEMMING. DORMOUSE., 235

Five or six young ones are produced at each litter, and the female brings
forth several ‘times in the course of a year. They sometimes litter while
emigrating, and they have been seen carrying some of their offspring in
their mouths, and others on their backs. ‘

As for the rest, the male is generally larger and more beautifully spotted
than the female; they go in droves into the water; but no sooner does a
storm of wind arise, than they are all drowned. The flesh of the ‘lemmings
is horrid food, and their skin, although covered with a very beautiful fur, is
of toa little consistence to be serviceable.

 

HUDSONS BAY LEMMING!

THis curious animal was first described by Foster, and afterwards more
fully by Pallas. It inhabits Labrador, Hudson's Straits, and the coast from
Churchill to the extremity of Melville peninsula, as well as the islands of
the Polar esa, visited by Captain Parry. Its habits are still imperfectly
known. In sumnier, according to Hearne, it burrows under stones, in dry
ridges ; and Captain Sabine informs us, that in winter it resides in a nest of
Moss,.on the surface of the ground, rarely going abroad. The former author
also acquaints us that it is so easily tamed, that if taken even when full
grown, it will in a day or two be perfectly reconciled, very fond of being
handled, and will creep, of its own accord, into its master’s neck or
bosom. There are three other different species of the lemming, belonging
to America.

 

THE FAT SQUIRREL, OR DORMOUSE?

OF this kind of animal, we know three species, which, like the marmot,
sleep during the winter; namely, the fat squirrel, the garden squirrel, and
the common dormouse. Many authors have confounded these species
together, though they are all three very different, and of consequence easily
known and distinguished.

The fat squirrel is nearly of the size of the common European squirrel ;
and, like it, its tail is covered with long hair. It is of a pale ash color on
the upper parts of the body, and whitish on the under. It is witl:out pro-
priety, that the term sleep has been applied to the state of these animals

1 Lemmus Hiudsonius, Desm.

2 Myorus glis, Lis. The genus Myorus has two upper and two lower incisors; etght
upper and eight lower molars. Molars simple, with transverse projecting tines ; fore
feet with four toes, and the rudiment of a thumb; tail very loug, rouud, with har tufted
ur depressed.
‘N

236 MAMMALIA—DORMOUSE,

Juring tne winter. They are not im a state of natural sleep at this period ;
they are in a torpor, which is produced by the coldness of the blood, and by
which they lose the use of their members and senses. Theifinternal heat
is indeed so small, that it hardly exceeds that of the temperature of the air.
When the heat of the air is at ten degrees above the freezing point of the
thermometer, the heat of these animals is also at ten degrees. Now itis
wel] known, that the internal heat of man, and of the generality of animals,
exceeds at all times thirty degrees; and therefore there is little reason to
wondr why these animals, so inferior to all others in point of heat, should
become torpid as soon as their little quantity of internal heat ceases to be
assisted by the external heat of the air; a circumstance which naturally
bappens when the thermometer is not more than ten or eleven degrees
above congelation. This is the real cause of the torpor of these animals; a
cause of which naturalists have not been apprised, and which, nevertheless,
extends to all animals that sleep during the winter.

This torpur continues as long as the cause which produces it continues,
and ceases when the cold ceases. A few degrees of heat above the tenth or
eleventh degree are sufficient to reanimate these creatures; and if they are
kept in a very warm place during winter, they do not become torpid at all.

The flesh of the fat squirrel is not unlike that of the guinea-pig. “They
were considered as a dainty, by the Romans, who fattened great numbers
of them in receptacles, called gliraria. Like the common squirrel, this
animal lives in forests, climbs to the tops of trees, and leaps from branch to
branch. This it does less nimbly, indeed, than the squirrel, whose legs are
longer, whose belly is by no means so big, and which is remarkable for
being meagre. Nuts, however, and other wild fruits, form its usual nourish-
ment. It likewise eats little birds, which it takes in the nests. It does not,
like the squirrel, nestle in the upper parts of trees, but makes a bed of moss
in the trunks of those which are hollow. It also shelters itself in the clefts
of rocks, and always manifests a preference for dry places. It avoids mois-
ture, it drinks littie, rarely descends to the ground, and, unlike the squirrel,
which is easily tamed, remains always wild. The species is very generally
uiffised in Europe.

 

THE GARDEN DORMOUSE!

Is of a tawny color on the upper part of the body, and whitish ash, tinged
with yellow, on the under. Round each eye it has a black circle, and’a
black spot behind each ear.

These animals nestle in the holes of walls, climb up trees, choose the
best fruits, and gnaw them as they begin to ripen. To peaches, in particu-
lar, they are exceedingly destructive. They climb up pear, apricot, and

 

1 Myorus nitela, Desa.
MAMMALIA—DORMOUSE...RAT. 237

other trees; and in a scarcity of other fruit, they eat almonds, nuts, and
even legumingus plants. These they carry in great quantities to their
hules, where®they make a bed of herbs, moss, and leaves. The cold stupi-
fies, the heat revives them; and sometimes there are eight or ten found ia
one place, all in a state of torpor, all huddled ‘ogether, and rolled up ina
ball, in the midst of their hoard of provisions. Their flesh is not eatable.
and has even the disagreeable smell of the house rat.. This animal s to be
found in all the temperate climates of Europe.

THE COMMON DORMOUSE.!

\

‘Tuts animal has eyes sparkling, full, and black; its tail is tufted, and its
hair of a tawny red. The throat is white. It never lives in houses, is
seldom to be found in gardens, but chiefly frequents the woods, where it
firds a shelter in the hollow of some old tree.

The species is by no means numerous, yet they seem to be tolerably com-
mon in Italy, and to Le not unknown even in the northern climates; but it
does not appeur to be an English animal; for Ray, who had seen it in Italy,
observes, that the sma}! dormouse which is found in England, is not red upon
the back, like the Iiaiex, and that it probably belongs t9 another species.

The dormouse becomes torpid by the cold, and rolis itself up in a ball; it
revives in mild weather, and hoards up nuts and other dry fruits, fer iuture
sustenance. It forms its nest in trees, like the squir:ei, thuugh generally in
a lower situation, among the branches of a nut trez, 1a a bush, &e. The
nest is composed of interwoven moss, leaves, and 9739s; 18 about siy inches
in diameter; has no aperture but at the tup, and contains three or four
yvung ones.

THE NORWAY RAT?

 

ais well known animal came originally from Persia or India, and was
‘t' known in England, previous to 1730. Itis now naturalized in all the
couatries of Europe and America.

 

1 Myorus avellanarius, Desm.

2 Mus decumanus, Desm. The genus Mus has two upper and two lower incisors ;
canines, none; molars, three above and three helow, on each side. Molars with tubercu-
lous crowns; four toes, and rudimentary thumb on the fore feet; hind feet with four
anguiculated toes; ears oblong or round, naked ; tail long, naked, and | peal tur with
scattered hairs, longer and stiffer than the others, sometimes forming a kind of spines.
238 MAMMALIA—RAT.

It has a reddish skin, a long tail, the backbone arched like that of the
squirrel, the body eiueh thicker, and whiskers like those ce a cat. It is
about nine inches long, and has a tail of the same length" as the body
covered with minute dusky scales, thickly interspersed with short hairs. It
is considerably within half a century, since that species has been spread in
the neighbourhood of Paris. They multiply, indeed, prodigiously ; since it is
well known that they generally produce twelve or fifteen, often sixteen,
seventeen, eighteen, and even nineteen young ones ata time. The males
are larger, stronger, and more mischievous than the females. When any
one pursues, and endeavors to take them, they will turn again, and bite the
hand or stick which touches them. Their bite is not only sharp but dan-
gerous, and is inmediately followed by a considerable swelling; and the
wound, though small, is yet long in being closed. They bring forth three
times in a year, the dams previously preparing a bed for their young; and
thus two individuals of this species produce, at least, three dozen in the
space of twelve months.

 

THE BLACK RAT?

Is carnivorous, and even, if the expression is allowable, omnivorous. Hard
substances, however, it prefers to soft ones; it devours wool, stuffs, and
furniture of all sorts; eats through wood, makes hiding-places in walls,
thence issues in search of prey, and frequently returns with as much as it
is able to drag along with it, forming, especially when it has young ones
to provide for, a magazine of the whole. The females bring forth several
tumes in the year, though mostly in the summer season; and they usually
produce five or six at a birth.

In defiance of the cats, and notwithstanding the poison, the traps, and
every other method that is used to destroy these creatures, they multiply so
fast as frequently to do considerable damage. On board a man of war they
have been known to consume a hundred weight of biscuits daily, and when,
to destroy them, the ship has been smoked between decks, six hampers a
day have for some time been filled with their carcasses. The Isle of France
was once abandoned, on account of their immense swarms; and, even now,
they are a severe scourge toit. In old houses, in the country, especially,
where great quantities of corn are kept, and'where the neighboring barns
and hay-stacks favor their retreat, as well as their multiplication, they are
often so numerous, that the inhabitants would be obliged to remove with
their furniture, were they not to devour each other. This we have often,
by experience, found to be the case, when they have been in any degree
straitened for provisions; and the method they take to lessen their num-

7 1 Mus raitus, Lin.

 
MAMMALIA—MOUSE. 23Y

hers, is, for the stronger to fall upon the weaker. This done, they lay open
their skulls, and first eat up the brains, afterwards the rest of their body.
The next day, hostilities are renewed in the same manner; nor do they
suspend their havoc till the majority are destroyed. For this reason it is,
that, after any place has for a long while been infested with rats, they often
seetu to disappear of a sudden, and sometimes for a considcrable time.

The female always prepares a bed for her young, and provides them
immediately with food. On their first quitting the hole, she watches over,
defends, and will even fight the cats, in order to save them. The weasel,
though a smaller anima), is, however, a still more formidable enemy than
the cat. The rat cannot inflict any wounds but by snatches, and with his
fore teeth, which, however, being rather calculated for gnawing than for
biting, have but little strength; whereas the weasel bites fiercely with the
force of its whole jaw at once, and, instead of letting go its hold, sucks the
blood through the wound. In every conflict with an enemy so dangerous,
it is no wonder, therefore, that the rat should fall a victim.

 

THE MOUSE!

\\ \ \
IS

         
 

   

Is an animal smaller than the rat, as also more numerous, and more gene-
rally diffused. Its instinct, its temperament, its disposition is the same;
nor does it materially differ from the rat, but by its weakness. and the habits
which it contracts from that circumstance. By nature timid, by necessity
familiar, its fears and its wants are the sole springs of its actions. It never
leaves its hiding-place, but to seek for food; nor does it, like the rat, go
from one house to another, unless forced to it, or commit by any means so
rnuch mischief. When viewed without the absurd disgust and apprehension
which usually accompanies, or is affected at the sight of it, the mouse is a
beautiful creature ; its skin is sleek and soft, its eyes bright and lively, all
its limbs are formed with exquisite delicacy, and its motions are smart and
active. Though one of the most timid of creatures, the mouse may be
taught to repose confidence in mankind, and will quit its place of refuge to
receive food. Some few of this species are of a pure white color, with large

 

1 Mus musculus, Lav
240 MAMMALIA—HAMSTER.

red eyes; but whether they be a permanent kind, or only an accidentat
variety, cannot well be determined.

But for its immehse fecundity, the species of the mouse could not subsist.
Even in mouse-traps they have been known to bring forth. They produce
at all seasons, and several times in the year. Their usual number ata
birth is five or six; and these, in less than fifteen days, attain growth and
strength sufficient to run about and shift for themselves.

 

THE HAMSTER.

 

Tus animal, which is also called the German marmot, is about the size
of the brown rat, but much thicker. Its color is reddish brown above, and
black beneath; there are three large oval white spots on each side of the
body. The ears are somewhat large. But the peculiarity which distin-
guishes it is, that there are two pouches, or receptacles for food, on eacn
side of its mouth. These are not conspicuous externally, when empty
but, when distended, they resemble a pair of tumid bladders, with a smocth,
veiny surface, which the fur cf the cheeks conceals. The pouches of one
which Dr Russel dissected, were found stuffed with French beans, arranged
lengthways, in such compact and accurate order, that it was exceedingly
difficult to conceive low they had been so placed. When loosely laid ona
table, they formed a heap thrice the bulk of the animal’s body. Austria,
Silesia, and some parts of Germany, are their native places.

The hamster is one of the most famous and most pernicious rats that
exists. ‘ We have fed one of these animals for many months,” says Buffon,
“and afterwards had it dissected, and observed, that the hamster resemble¢
more the water rat, than any other animal; it resembled it, also, in the
smallness of its eyes, and the fineness of its hair; but its tail is not so long
_ as that of a water rat; but, on the contrary, itis much shorter than thas
of the short tailed mouse. All these animals live under the earth, and
seem to be animated with the same instinct. They have nearly the same
habits, and purticularly ‘hat of collecting corn, &c., and making great maga-
zines in their holes.” ,

 

' Cricetus vulgaris, Desm. The genus Cristie has two upper and two lower inci-
sors; no canines; six upper and six lower molars. Crown at the molars with blunt
tubercles; fore feet with four toes, and a rudimentary thumb; hind feet pentadactyle,
with strong uails ; tail short and hairy ; cheek pouches.
MAMMALIA—HAMSTER. Q41

The habitations of the hamsters are different, according to their sex and
age, and also to the quality of the land they inhabit. That of the male
hamster, is an oblique passage, and at the entrance isa portion of earth
thrown up. Ata distance from the entrance, there is a single hole, which
descends in a perpendicular manner to the chambers or cavities of the
habitation. There is no hillock of earth near that hole; which makes ug
presume, that the oblique entrance is made hollow from the outside, and
that the perpendicular hole, by which they come out, is worked withinside,
from the bottom to the top.

The habitation of the female has also an oblique passage, with two or
three, and even eight perpendicular holes, by which the young ones may
come in and go out. The male and the female have each their separate
abode; that of the female is deeper than that of the male.

The perpendicular hele is the common passage for coming in and going
out. By the oblique road, they throw out the earth they scratch up. This
passage also has a gentle declivity into some of the cavities, and another
more steep into others, which serve for a free circulation of the air in this
subterraneous habitation. The cavity where the female breeds her young
contains no provision, but only a nest formed of straw or grass. The depth
of the cavity is very different. The young hamster, of a year old, makes
its burrow only a foot deep, while the old animal often hollows it to the
depth of four or five feet. All the cavities communicate together in one
habitation, which is about eight or ten feet in diameter.

These animals store their magazines with dry clover, corn, and other
grain; beans and peas they likewise provide themselves with; all these
they are particularly careful to separate from the husk, which, with every
other matter they do not make use of, they carry out of their habitation by
this oblique passage.

The hamster commonly gets in its winter provisions at the latter end
of August. Its stores are not meant for a winter supply, it being torpid at
that season, but for the preceding and following period. When it has filled
its magazines, it covers them over, and shuts the avenues to them carefully
with earth. This precaution renders the discovery of these animals very
difficult. The heaps of earth which they throw up before the ol lique pas-
sage, are the only marks to trace their habitations. The most usual method
of taking them, is by digging them out of their holes, which is attended
with much trouble, on account of the depth and extent of their burrows;
however, a man versed in this business, commonly effects his purpose with
good success. In auturnn, he seldom fails of finding two good bushels of
curn in each of their habitations; and he draws great profit from the sking
of tne animals. The hamsters bring forth their young two or three times
in a year, and seldom less than five or six each time. Some years there
are great numbers of them to be seen, and in others, scarcely any to be
met with. They multiply in great numbers when the seasons are wet,

31
Q42 MAMMALIA—CHINCHILLA.

which causes a great scarcity of grain, by the devastation these animals
make.

The back of the hamster is commonly brown, and the belly black ; how-
ever, there are some of a gray color; and this difference may proceed
from their age. Besides these, there are some often met with which are
entirely black.

The hamster begins to burrow at the age of six weeks, or two months;
it never procreates, however, in the first year of its growth. There are
numkers produced in one year, insomuch, that, in some parts of Germany,
from their occasioning a dearth of corn, a reward is fixed on their heads.
In one year, about eleven thousand skins, in another fifty-four thousand,
and ina third year, eighty thousand were produced at the town hall of
Gotha, as vouchers to enable the bearers to receive the reward. They
are likewise in such great numbers, that their fur is sold exceedingly cheap.

The polecat is a great enemy to the hamster, which he destroy in great
aumbers; he not only pursues them on land, but follows them into their
burrows, and feeds on them there.

The hamster itself, is one of the must inveterate enemies of its own kind.
His life, (says a recent naturalist,) is divided between eating and fighting.
He seems to have no other passion than that of rage; which induces him
€o attack every animal that comes in his way, without in the least attend-
ing to the strength of the enemy. Ignorant of the art of saving himself
by flight, rather than yield, he will allow himself to be beaten in pieces
with a stick. If he seizes a man’s hand, he must be killed before he wil
guit his hold.

THE CHINCHILLA.

    

ee yim =
107 SS nym HN ——

Tums iateresting animal, which produces the fur which passes under its
name, is a species of field mouse, and ts common in the high plains of Chili
and Peru. It is about nine inches in length, and has a tail about half the
length of its hudy. Itsits upon its haunches, and takes its food in its fore
paws like a squirrel. It feeds chiefly upon bulbous roots.

 

Srteetns laniger, Desm.
MAMMALIA—JERBOA. 243

THE JERBOA.

Tue head of the jerboa is sloped somewhat in the manner of a rabbit; but
the eyes are larger, and the ears shorter, though elevated and open, with
respect to its size; its nose and hair are of a flesh color, its month short and
thick, the orifice of the mouth very narrow, the upper jaw very full, the
lower narrow and short, the teeth like those of the rabbit; the whiskers
are composed of long black and white hairs; the fore feet are very short.

 

and never touch the ground; they are furnished with four claws, which are
only used as hands to carry the food to the animal’s mouth; the hind feet
have but three claws, the middle one longer than the other two. The tail
is three times as long as its body, and is covered with short stubborn hair,
of the same color as that on the back, but tufted at the end with longer and
softer hair; the legs, nose, and eyes are bare, and of a flesh color. The
upper part of the head and back are covered with an ash colored hair; the
sides, throat, and belly are whitish ; and below the loins, and near the tail,
there is a large, black, transversal band, in form of a crescent. While
leaping, the jerboa stretches out its tail, but while standing or walking, it
carries it in the form of an §, the lower part touching the ground.

These little animals commonly conceal their hands, or fore feet, with
their hair; so that they are said by some to have only hinder feet. When
they move from one place to another, they do not walk, that is, advance
one foot before the other, but jump, or bound, about four or five feet ata
time ; this they do with the greatest ease and swiftness, holding themselves
erect, after the manner of birds,'when they hop on the ground. Instead,
however, of proceeding straight forward, it jumps first to one side, and then
to the other. Such is its agility, that even a greyhound can scarcely kill it.
They rest themselves in a kneeling posture, and only sleep in the day. In
the night-time, they seek for their food like hares, and, like them, feed on
grass, corn, and other grain. They are of a gentle nature, but not to be

 

1 Tiipus gerboa, Desm. The genus Dipus has two appr and two lower incisors; ne
canines; six or eight upper, and six lower molars. olars simple, with tuberculous
crowns; eyes large; ears long, pointed ; posterior extremities much elongated, with the
vumber of toes variable, but having only one metatarsal bone; tail very long, tufied
244 MAMMALIA—MARMOT.

tamed beyond a certain limit. ‘They burrow like rabbits. ana in much less
time. The excavations which it forms are many yards long, oblique, and
winding, but not more than halfa yard from the surface of the ground. It
1s fond of warmth, making its nest of the finest and most delicate herbage ,
and seems sensible of the approach of bad weather by wrapping itself up
cluse in hay, with its head between its thighs. It sleeps during winter,
without nutriment. The Jerboa breeds several times in the summer, aid
4sually brings forth seven or eight young ones at a litter. The flesh is
recl:ned one of the greatest of delicacies by the Arabs. They are found in
Svna, Pheenicia, Barbary, &c.

THE LABRADOR JUMPING MOUSE!

 

Is fond in the fur countries as far north as Slave Lake. Its calor 1s brown
above, and white beneath. : x

THE MARMOT.

TreneE seenis to be a combination of the bear and the rat in the form of
the marmot. Its nose, its lips, and the form of its head, are like those cf
the hare ;-it has the hair and claws of the badger, and teeth of the beaver,
the whiskers of the cat, the paws of the hare, with a tufted tail and short

 

1 Gerbillus Labradorius, Sasine. The genus Gerbillus has two upper and two lower
incisors ; no canines; six uppet and six lower molars. Molars tuberculous ; posterior
extremities very long, with tye toes, each with its proper metatarsal bone; tail long.
covered with hair. —

2 Arctomys marmotta, Desm. The genus Arctomys has two upper and two lower
incisors ; no canines ; ten upper and eight lower molars, Incisors very strong; molarg
with ridges and blunt tuhercles; body thick and heavy; head large; no cheek pouches:
ears shor’. anc rounded ; eyes large; feet robust, thuse before witl four toes and a rudie
mentary thun.b; those behind with five toes, the nails strong, compressed, and crooked
*
MAMMALIA—MARMOT. 245

ears. The color of its hair on the back is reddish brown. On the belly it
is reddish, but softer and shorter. Its voice resembles that of a little dog,
when it is played with or caressed; but when it is irritated or friglitened, it
raises a loud and shrill cry, highly offensive to the ear. The marmot is a
very cleanly animal. In autumn, particularly, it is loaded with fat, though
all the parts of the body are never equally so. The marmot would be tolera-
ole fuod, did it not constantly retain somewhat of a disagreeable smell.

This animal, which delights in the regions of ice and snow, and is never
fuund but on the highest mountains, is, nevertheless, most liable to be bee
numbed by the cold. From the end of September, or the beginning of
October, the marmot generaliy retires to its hole, an ' appears not again till
about the beginning of April. The place of its ret. tis formed with pre-
caution, and finished with art. It is rather wide th o long, and very «cep,
so that it is capable of containing several, without teing under a necessity
of crowding each other, or injuring the air they breathe. Their feet and
claws are formed as if they were designed to dig; and, in fact, ‘they bur-
row into the ground with amazing celerity, scraping up the earth, and
throwing back what they have loosened behind them constantly as they pro-
ceed. Stil] more wonderful is the form of their hole; it resembles the letter
Y, the two branches having each an opening that conducts into one channel,
which terminates in their general apartment at the bottom. As the whole
is contrived on the declivity of a mountain, there is no part of it on a level
but the apartment at the end. One of the branches, or openings, issues out
sloping downward; and this serves as a kind of sink, or drain, for the who-e
family, in which they void their excrements, and through which the mois-
ture of the place finds an easy passage. The other branch, on the contrary,
slopes upward, and serves them asa door to go in and out. The apartment
at the end is warmly lined with moss and hay. It is even asserted, that
this is a public work; that some cut the finest grass, others pile it up, and
others take their turns to convey it to the hole. Upon this occasion it is
added, one of them lies upon its back, permits the hay to be heaped upon
its belly, keeps its paws upright to make greater room, ana in this manner,
remaining still upon its back, is dragged by the tail, hay and all, to their
common retreat. This practice some assign as a reason for the hair being
generally worn away from their backs. However, another and perhaps a
detter reason may be given for this appearance; namely, their inhabiting
cells under ground, and being constantly employed in digging up the earth.
Whenever they venture abroad, one is placed as a sentinel, sitting on an
elevated rock, while the others amuse themselves in the fields below, or are
employed in cutting grass, and making it into hay for their future conveni
ence ; and no sooner does their trusty sentinel perceive aman, an eagle, u
dog, or any other enemy,~than he gives notice to the rest by a kind ot
whistle, and is himself the last that takes refuge in the cell.

They make no provision for the winter, fureseeing probably that such a
*
Qo MAMMALIA—MARMOT.

precaution would be useless. But when they perceive the first approaches
of the season, in which their vital motions are to continue in some measure
suspended, they labor very diligently to close up the apertures of their dwel-
lings, which they effect with such solidity, that it is more easy to open the
earth any where else, than where they have closed it. They are at that
time very fat, and some of them are found to weigh twenty pounds. In
this plight they continue for three months longer ; but by degrees their flesh
begins to waste, and they are quite thin by the end of winter. When their
retreat is discovered, they are found each rolled into a ball, and covercd
with hay. In this state they seem entirely lifeless; they may be taken
away, and even killed, vithout their testifying any sense of pain; and those
who find them in this ianner carry home the fat ones for fond, and the
young ones for breedin. up and taming. The marmot produces but once a
year, and the litter generally consists of three or four. Their growth is’
quick, and they live only nine or ten years. They are found in the Alps,
Apennines, Pyrenees, in the highest mountains of Germany, in Poland, and
in America, with some variations.

Wien taken young, the marmot is more capable of heing tamed than any
other wild animal. It will easily learn to perform feats with a stick, to
dance, and in every thing to obey the voice of its master. It has a great
antipathy to the dog; and when it becomes familiar in a house, and is sure
of being supported by its master, it will, in his presence, attack the largest
dogs, and bpldly fasten upon them with its teeth. Though this creature is
not quite so large as a hare, it is yet of a more squat make, and has great
strength joined to great agility. It has four teeth in the front of the jaw,
which are long and strong enough to inflict a terrible wound; and yet,
unless provoked to it, it neither attacks dogs, nor does mischief to any
creature whatever. If care be not taken, however, it will gnaw the furni+
ture of a house, and will even make holes through wooden partitions.

As the marmot has very short thighs, and the toes of its paws are formed
like those of the bear, so it often sits erect, and walks with ease, like that
animal, upon its hind feet. With its fore paws it carries its food to its
mouth, and eats in an upright posture like the squirrel. It runs much
swifter up hil] than down ; it climbs trees, and runs up the clefts of rocks
or the contiguons walls of houses, with much facility; so much sv, indeed,
that it is ludicrously observed of the Savoyards, who are the general
chimney-sweepers of Paris, that they have learned their trade from the
marmot.

These animals eat indiscriminately of whatever is given them, whether it
be flesh, bread, fruits, herbs, roots, pulse, or insects. Of milk and butter,
however, they are particularly fond; and, though less inclined to petty
theiis than the cat, Tey are yet never better pleased than when they obtam’
access to the dairy.
MAMMALIA—MARMDT., Q4A7
a

THE MARYLAND MARMOT, OR Woopcnuck.

Tats animal is common in all the temperate parts of America. It does
great injury to the farmers, as the quantity of herbage it consumes is really
surprising. It burrows in the ground on the sides of hills, and these extend
to great distances under ground, and terminate in various c1atubers. Ilere
the marmot makes himself a comfortable bed of dry leaves, grass, and any
soft rubbish, where he sleeps from the close of day, till the next morning is
far advanced.

The Maryland marmot eats with great greediness, and in large quanti-
ties. It is fond of cabbage, lettuce, and other garden vegetables. When in
captivity, it is exceedingly fond of bread and milk.

At the commencement of cold weather, the marmot goes into winter
quarters, blocks up the door within, and remains torpid till the warm sea-
son. It is about thesize of a rabbit, and of a dark brown color.

 

PARRY’S MARMOTA

 

Tus animal has a blunt snout, and short ears, with a long tail tipped
with black. The body is marbled on the upper part with confluent black
and white spots, and ferruginous beneath. It is one foot in length, and
inhabits Canada. ,

 

1 Arsttomys monax, Lin. 2 Arctomys Parry’s Ricuagpson.
248 MAMMALIA—SQUIRREL.

THE SQUIRREL.

 

Tne common squirrel of Europe 1s a beautiful little animal, whien 1s ony
half wild, and which, by its gentleness, its docility, and even the innocence
of its manners, might deserve to be exempted from the present class. It is
neither properly a carnivorous nor an injurious animal, though it some-
times seizes on birds; its general food consisting of fruit, almonds, hazle-
nuts, beecli-mast, and acorns; it is neat, cleanly, alert, lively, and industri-
ous ; its eyes are large, black, and full of fire, its countenance is sharp, its
body is nervous, and its limbs are supple. It is of a bright brown color,
inclining to red; the breast and belly are white; the ears are ornamented
with long tufts of hair. The fore feet are strong and sharp, and the fore legs
are curiously furnisued with long stiff hairs, projecting on each side like
whiskers. ;

The beauty of its form is yet heightened by a spreading tail, in shape like
a plume of feathers, which it raises above its head, and forms into a kind
of shade for itself.

The squirrel may be said to be less a quadruped than almost any other
four-footed animal. It generally holds itself almost upright, using its fore
feet as hands for a conveyance to its mouth. Instead of hiding itself in the
earth, it is continually in the air; it somewhat resembles the birds ty its
lightness and activity ; like them, it rests upon the branenes of trees; leap-
ing from one to the other, and in the highest of them builds its nest. It
avoids the water still more than the earth; and it is even asserted of this
animal, that, when it is obliged to zross a river or stream, it uses the bark
of a tree, or some such light woody substance, as a boat, while its tail sup-
plies the place of sails, and of a rudder. It gathers together a quantity of

 

1 Seiurus vulgaris, Lin. The genus Seirus has two upper and two lower incisors;
no canines; ten upper and ten lower molars. luferior incisors compressed laterally
molars tubercuiar; body elongated; head small; ears erect, rounded; eyes large; fore
feet with four long toes, with compressed crooked nails and a tubercular thamb; cand
feet very large, with five wes; tail long, often with hair disposed in two rows; two
pectoral and six ventral mamme.
MAMMALIA—SQUIRREL. 249

nuts duriag the summer, which it deposits in the hollow part of some old
tree, and to these has recourse for provision in winter; and such is the
agility of its body, that it will, in an instant, climb a beach tree, let its bark
be ever so smooth.

THE AMERICAN GRAY SQUIRREL!

Is remarkable for-its beauty and activity, and is common throughout the
United States. It is generally found in hickory and chesnut woods, where
it feels on nuts, aad lays upa hoard for the winter. They construct their
nests with cure on the tops of tall trees, and seldom leave them during the
cold weather. Tuey do a great deal of mischief in the corn fields, by
destroying and carrying off a great quantity of corn. They are very easily
domesticated, and in captivity are very playful and mischievous. The gray
squirrel is commonly ofa fine bluish gray, mingled with a golden color.

AMERICAN FLYING SQUIRREL?

 

Tne commen flying squirrel is very abundant in the United States, and 18
mach adirired for the softness of its fur, and the gentleness of its dispos:
tion. The skin of the sides is extended from the fore to the hind limbs, so
as to form a sort of sail, which ewables it to descend swiftly from a grea
height, m we easiest and most pleasant manner, often passing over acon
siderable space. This squirrel is small, of an ash color above, and
white beneath, with large, prominent black eyes. It builds its nest in
hollow trees.

 

Sciurus cinereus, Desm.
2 Pleramys volucella, Deam. The genus Pteromys has two upper and two lower inei-

sors; no canines; ten upper and eight lower molars: head round, ears rounded; eyes
large ; fore feet with four elongated toes, with compressed sharp elaws and the cudie
mentofa thunbh; hind feet with five toes much divided; tal doug, hairy, sometimes

dist.chous; skin of the sides extended, forming a kind of parachute.

32
230 MAMMALIA—PORCUPINE.

 

The Severn River flying squirrel is much larger than the species Jescribea
above, has a longer tail, and is of a different color. It is found near James’
* Bay and Lake Huron.

The Rocky Mountain flying squirrel lives in thick pine forests, and
seldom leaves its retreats exceptatnight. It resembles the Severn River
flying squirrel in forin, though its liinbs and tail are larger. Itis of a
vellowish brown color.

 

THE PORCUPINE!

     

 
  

 

 

See ee es
EAE

Is generally about two feet in length, from the head to the extremity of tne
tail. The body is covered with spines, from ten to fourteen inches loug,

 

1 Hystrix cristata, Lin. phe genus Hystriz has two upper and two lower incisors 3
no canines; eight upper and eigft lower molars. Molars with flat crowns, but with
ridges of enamel; head strong; muzzle gibbous; ears short, rounded; tongue with
spiny scales ; fore feet with four toes and a rudimentary thamb,; tind feet pentacdactyle 5
“pines ioe or less long, on the body, sumetimnes intermixed with hairs; tail someumes
prehensile

n
MAMMALIA—PORCUPINE. 255

tesembling the barrel of a goosequill in thickness, but tapering at both
ends, and variegated with black and white rings. In their usual state, they
incline backward, like the bristles of a hog, but when the animal is irritated,
they rise and stand upright.

Travellers and naturalists have almost unanirpously declared, that this
animal has the faculty of discharging its quills, and wounding its foes at an
iinmense distance; iuat these quills have the extraordinary and particular
property of penetrating farther into the flesh, of their own accord, as seon ag
ever the point has made an entrance through the skin. These stories,
however, are all purely imaginary, and without the smallest foundation or
reazun. The error seems to have arisen either from this animal raising its
prickles upright, when he is irritated; and, as there are some of them
which are only inserted into the skin by a small pellicle, they easily fall
off; or from his sometimes shaking off his quills to a considerable distance
when he is shedding them. We have seen many porcupines, but have never
observed them dart any of their quills from them, although they were vi-
olently agitated, We cannot, then, avoid being greatly astonished, that the
greatest authors, both modern and ancient, as well as the most sensible
travellers, have joined in believing a circumstance so entirely false. In
justice, however, to Dr Shaw, we must except him from the number of
these credulous travellers: “Of all the nuimber of porcupines,” says he,
“which I have seen in Africa, I have never yet met with one which darts
its quills, however strongly it was irritated. Their common method of
defence is to lie on one side, and when the enemy approaches very near, to
rise suddenly, and wound him with the points of the other.” It appears,
however, that there is 4 pernicious quality in the quills; which renders it
difficult to cure the wounds inflicted by them.

The porcupine, although a native of the hottest climates of Africa and
India, lives and multiplies in colder couniries, such as Persia, Spain, and
Italy. Agricola says, that the species were not transported into Europe
before the last century. They are fuund in Spain, but more comnionly
in Italy, especially on the Apennine mountains, and in the environs of
Rome.

In its wild state, the porcupine is a perfectly inoffensive animal. It never
attacks, and will elude an aggressor when it can; but if compelled to de-
fend itself, it forces even the lion to retire. In its domestic state, it is
neither furious nor vicious; it is only anxious for its liberty ; and, with the
assistance of its fure teeth, which are sharp and strong, like those of the
beaver, it easily cuts through a wooden prison. Itis also known, that it
feeds willingly un fruits, chesnuts, and crumbs of bread; that, in its wild
state, it lives upon roots and wild grain; that, when it can enter a garden,
it makes great havoc, eating the herbs, roots, fruit, &. It becomes fat
like most other animals, towards the end of semmer ; and its flesh, although
insipid, is tolerable eating.
252 MAMMALIA—PORCUPINE.

When the form, substance, and organization of the priviles of the porcu-
pine are considered, they are found to be true quills, to which only feathers
are wanting to mrke them exactly resemble those of birds. They strike
together with a noise as the animal walks; and it easily erects them in the
same tanner as the peacock spreads the feathers of its tail. The Indians
use them to adorn many articles of dress and furniture, and dye them of
various colors.

 

THE COUANDO, OR BRAZILIAN PORCUPINE!

 

Tuts animal is much smaller than the porcupine of the Old Continent; 108
head and muzzle is shorter; it has no tuft on its head, nor slit in the upper
lip; its quills are somewhat shorter, and much finer; its tail is long; it is
carnivorous, rather than frugivorous, and endeavors to surprise birds, small
animals, and poultry, while the porcupine only feeds upon herbs, greens,
fruits, &c. It sleeps all the day, like the hedge-hog, and only stirs out in
tae night. It climbs up trees, and hangs in the branches by its tail, which
the porcepine cannot do. Al] travellers agree that its flesh is very good
eating. It is easily tamed, and commonly lives in high places. These
anizia.s are found over all America, from Brazil] and Guiana, to Louisiana,
and tae southern parts of Canada. While the porcupine is only to be found
an the hottest parts of the Old Continent.

In transferring the namne of porcupine to the couando, they have suppose}
and transmitted to him the same faculties, especially that of lancing his
quills. Ray is the only person who, has denied these circumstances,
although they evidently appear at first view to be absurd.

 

§ Aystrtx cuandu, Desm.
MAMMALIA—PORCUPINE. 253

THE URSON, OR CANADA PORCUIINE.:

Tuis animal, placed by nature in the desers part of North America, te

the east of Hudson’s Bay, exists independent of, and far distant from, man.
The urson might be called the speny beaver, it being of the same size, the
same country, and the same form of body; it has, like that, two long, strong,
and sharp incisive teeth at the end of each jaw; its prickles are short, and
almost covered with hair; for the urson, like the beaver, has a double coat;
the first consists of long and soft hair, and the second, of a down, er felt.
which is still softer or smoother. In the young ursons, the prickles are
sroportionably larger, more apparent, and the hair shorter and scarcer than
vn the adults.
' This animal dislikes water, and is fearful of wetting himself. He makes
nis habitation under the roots of great hollow trees, sleeps very much, and
chiefly feeds upon the bark of juniper. Jn winter, the snow serves him for
drink; in summer, he laps water like a dog. The savages eat his flesh, and
strip the bristles off the hide, which they make use of instead of pins and
needles. Many of the trading Americans, also, depend upon them for food
at certain seasons of the year.

The following observations are from Dr Godman: “In the remote and
unsettled parts of Pennsylvania, the porcupine is still occasionally found;
but south of this state, it is almost unknown. According to Catesby, it
never was found in that direction beyond Virginia, where it was quite rare.
In the Hudson’s Bay country, Canada, and New England, as well as in
some parts of the western states, and throughout the country lying between
the Rocky Mountains and the great western rivers, they are found in great
abundance, and are highly prized by the aboriginals, both for the sake of
their flesh and their quills, which are extensively employed as ornaments to
their dresses, pipes, weapons, &c.

“The patience and ingenuity displayed by the Indian women, in orna-
menting dresses, buffalo robes, moccasins, &c., can scarcely be appreciated
by those who have never seen any of the articles thus adorned. We have
already mentioned that these quills rarely exceed two inches and a half, or,
at most, three inches in length; and are not larger in circumference than
a moderate sized wheat straw. Yet we find large surfaces worked or
embroidered in the neatest and most beautiful manner with these quills,
which are dyed of various rich and permanent colors. .In making this
embroidery, they have not the advantage of a needle, bu’ ase a straight awl.
Some of their work is done by passing the sinew of a deer, or other animal
through a hole made with the awl, and at every stitch wrapping this thread
witi one or more turns of a porcupine quill. When they wind the quill

 

1 Hystrizx dorsata, Des.
254 MAMMALIA—HARE.

near its end, the extremity is turned into the skin. or is concealed by the
succeeding turn, so as to appear, when the whole is completed, as if but a
single strip had been used. In other instances, the ornament is wrought
of the porcupine quills exclusively, and is frequently extremely beautiful,
from its neatness and the good taste of the figures into which it is arranged.
In general, however, the strong contrast of colors is the iost remarkable
effect aimed at. On some of the articles of dress, figures of animals, exhibit-
ing much ingenuity, are formed by embroidering with these quills. The
Philadelphia museum, so rich in objects of natural history, also boasts a
most splendid and valuable collection of articles of dress, and implements
of peace and war, peculiar to the various aboriginals of our country. Who-
ever wishes to see to what extent the quills of the porcupine are employed
by these interesting people, and also to form a better idea of the number of
porcupines that must be found in the trans-Mississipian regions, may be
fully gratified by visiting this great institution.”

 

THE HARE.

           

 
  
 
 
 

  

Fe
SS NS

ig
cee UNE

 

 

 

 

 

Hanes are universally and abundantly spread over the face of the wh ile
earth; and rabbits, though they originated only in particular climates, da
yet multiply so prodigiously in alinost every place to which they are trans-

 

1 Lemus timidus, Lis. The genus Lepus has four upper and two lower incisors; no
zanines; twelve upper and. ten lower molars. Centre upper incisors large and wed
suaped, with a longitudinal furrow in frout, lower incisors square; molars crowned with
transverse lamina of enamel; ears and eyes large; fore legs short, with five toes; the
hind feet long, with only four, covered with hair; tail short, erect; teats, from six to ten;
tectum very large.
MAMMALuIA—HARBE, 235

perted, that it is no longer possible to extirpate them, and no small art is
required in order to diminish their number. Some species of hares are
‘nigratory. They move, in flocks of five or six hundred, and often to a great
distance, in search of food.

In those districts in Fngland, which are reserved for the chase, four or five
hundred hares are killed in the course of perhaps one day’s sport. These
animals multiply amazingly; they are in a condition to engender in all
seasons, and before the first year of their life is expired. The females do
not go above thirty or thirty-one days with their young.

The young ones are brought forth with their eyes open; the mo.her
suckles them for the space of twenty days; after which they separate them-
selves from her, and provide for their own subsistence. They do not with-
draw themselves far from each other, nor from the place where they first
drew breath; yet they live in solitude, and each composes for itself a form,
ata little distance, perhaps sixty or eighty paces. Thus, when we finda
young leveret in one place, we are almost sure of finding one or two more
in the neighborhood. They feed more by night than by day; and their
favorite articles of provision, are herbs, roots, leaves, fruit, and grain, but,
above all, such plants as yield a milky juice. They even eat the bark of
trees in winter. When they are reared at home, they are fed with lettuce
and roots ; but the flesh of these domestic hares is always of a bad flavor.

Hares sleep much, but always with their eyes open. They have no eye-
sashes, and seem to have but bad eyes. |The eyes, however, are so prorai-
nent, that they can see both before and behind. Their hearing is exceeding-
ly acute, and their ears are very large, compared with the size of their body.
They move these long ears with great facility, and use them as a helm, in
order to direct their course, which is so rapid, that they easily outstrip all
other animals. As their fore legs are much shorter than their hind legs,
they can more easily ascend than descend; for which reason, when they
are pursued, their first object is to gain, if possible, some mountain. Their
motion in running, is a kind of gallop; they proceed without making any
noise, because their feet are plentifully covered with hair, even underneath;
and perhaps they are the only animals which have hair growing withia
their mouths.

Hares live not above seven or eight years. They pass their lives m
solitude and in silence; and never are known to exert their voice, but when
they are forcibly laid hold of, tormented, or wounded. They are by no
means so wild, as, by their habits, might be supposed ; they are gentle, and
susceptible of a species of improvement. As they have a good ear, as they
rest on their hind feet of their own accord, and use their fore legs like arms,
some have been so tutored as to beat a drum, to gesticulate in cadence, &c

Hares may be domesticated, and they then display sagacity, affection, and
oy small share of curiosity. Cowper, the poet, has given an amusing
acount of three of them, which he kept for some years.
256 MAMMALIA—RABBIT.

THE RABBIT.

 

Tnovcen the hare and the rabbit are, externally as well as mternally, very
much alike, yet they form two distinct and separate species.

The fecundity of the rabbit is even greater than that of the hare; and,
without crediting what Wotton has advanced, that one pair only, being left
together in an island, produced six thousand in one year, it is certain, that
these creatures multiply so prodigiously in countries which are proper for
the breed, that the earth cannot furnish them with subsistence: they destroy
herbs, roots, grain, fruit, and even trees and shrubs; and, were it not for
the use made in Europe of the dog and the ferret, they would reduce the
country toa desert. In the reign of Augustus, they became such a nuisance
to the Balearic Islands, that the inhabitants were under the necessity of
petitioning the emperor to send a military force to destroy them. The rab-
bit not only engenders and produces oftener than the hare, but it has more
ways to escape from its enemies, and to avoid the sight of man.

This circumstance alone may suffice to prove that the rabbit is superior
to the hare in point of sagacity. Both are alike in their conformation, and
both have it in their power to dig retreats for themselves. Both are timid
to an excess; but the one, possessed of less art, is contented with forming
a residence on the surface of the earth, where it rernains continually expos-
ed; while the other, by a more improved instinct, takes the trouble to dig
into the earth, and there to make itself an asylum; and so true is it, that
they act in this case from a kind of reason or reflection, that we never see
the domestic rabbit employed in the same work. Rabbits give the alarm to
each other by thumping on the ground with one of their hind feet, which
may be heard to a considerable distance.

The domestic rabbits, like all other animals, vary in their color; white,
black, and gray, belong properly to nature. The black rabbits are the
most scarce.

These animals are able to engender and produce at the age of five or six
months. It is asserted, that they commonly attach themselves to one
particular female, and never quit her. She goes with young thirty or

 

1 Lepus cuniculus, Lin.
MAMMALIA—AMERICAN HARE. sy |

tnirty-one days, and will produce five, six, and sometimes seven o: eight at
a birth. Like the doe-hare, she has a double matrix, and, of consequence,
can have in her womb, at the same time, two separate litters. It appears,
however, that superfetations are less frequent in this species than in that
of the hare.

A few days before they bring forth, they dig a fresh burrow, not in a right
line, but in a crooked direction, at the bottom of which they make an exca-
vation; after which they tear a quantity of hair feom their bellies, and
make a kin] of bed for the use of their little ones. For the first two days
they never quit them; they never stir abroad, unless forced to do so from
necessity, and return as soon as ever they have taken their nourishment.
‘At this season, they eat much, and very quick ; and thus they tend and
suckle their young for more than six weeks. ‘Till then, the buck does
not know them, nor does he enter the burrow which the doe has dug.
Often, even when she quits itand leaves her little ones behind, she stops
up the entry to it with earth, wet with her urine; but when they begin to
venture to the edge of the hole, and to eat groundsel and other herbs, which
the doe picks out for them, the buck begins to know them, to take thera
between his paws, to endeavor to give a gloss to their hair, to lick their
eyes; and all of them, in succession, partake equally of his cares.

Though rabbits are found in America, they are not natives of it, but are
descended from those which have been brought from Europe. The animal
vulgarly called rabbit in this country, is the American hare, which we shalt
next describe,

THE AMERICAN HARE.

 

Tuts animal is found throughout this country, to as far north as the
vicinity of Carlton House, in the Hudson’s Bay country. According to the
etatement of Hearne, “they are not plentiful in the eastern parts of the
northern Indian ‘country, not even in those parts that are situated among

 

1 Lepus Americanus, GMEL.

33
258 MAMMALIA—AMERICAN HARE

‘the woods; but to the westward, bordering on the southern Indian country
they are in some places pretty numerous, though by no means equal to what
has been, reported of them at York Fort, and some other settlements in the
Bay.” In parts of the Union, this hare is exceedingly common, and large
numbers are annually destroyed for the sake of their flesh and fur.

During the daytime the hare remains crouched within its form, which 1s
a mere space, of the size of the animal, upon the surface of the ground,
cleared of grass, and sheltered by some overarching plant ; or else its habi-
tation isin the hollowed trunk of a tree, or under a collection of stones, &c.

It is at the earliest dawn, while the dewdrops still glitter on the herbage,
or when the fresh verdure is concealed beneath a mantle of glistening
frost, that the timorous hare commonly ventures forth in quest of food, or
courses undisturbed over the plains. Occasionally during the day, in retired
and little frequented parts of the country, an individual is seen to scud from
the path, where it has been basking in the sun; but the best time for study-
ing the habits of the animal is during moonlight nights, when the hare is
to be seen sporting with companions in unconstrained gambols, frisking
with delighted eagerness around its mate, or busily engaged in cropping its
food. On such occasions the turnip and cabbage fields suffer severely,
where these animals. are numerous, though in general they are productive
of serious injury. However, when the food is scarce, they do much mis
chief to the farmers, by destroying the bark on the young trees in the
aurseries, and by cutting valuable plants.

The flesh of the American hare, though of a dark color, is mueh esteemed
as an article of food. During the summer season they are lean and tough,
and in many situations they are infested by a species of cestrus, which lays
its eggs in their skins, producing worms of a considerable size. But in
the autumnal season, and especially after the commencement of the frost,
when the wild berries, &c., are-ripe, they become very fat, and are a delicious
article of food. In the north, during winter, they feed op the twigs of the
pine and fir, and are fit for the table throughout the season. The Indians
eat the contents of their stumachs, nutwithstinding the food is such as we
have just mentioned. :

The American hare never burrows in the ground like the common
European rabbit. When confined in a yard, our animal has been known te
attempt an escape by scratching a hole in the earth near the fence or wall,
but there are few wild animals, whatever may be their characters, that wil.
not do the same, under similar circumstances, though in their natural condi-
tion they may never attempt to burrow. Such is the fact in relation to the
- American hare, which never burrows while it is a free tenant of the fields
and woods. Jt has been said that this animal also occasionally ascends
trees, which must be understood solely of its going up within the trunks of
ballow trees, which it effects by pressing with its back and feet against
MAMMALIA—AMERICAN HARE. 255.

opposite sides of the hollow, ascending somewhat in the same manner. that
a sweep climbs a chimney.

The hare is not hunted in this country as in Europe, but is generally
roused by a dog, and shot, or is caught in various traps and snares. In its
movements our hare closely resembles the commen hare of Europe, bound-
ing along with great celerity, and would no doubt, when pursued, resort to
tue artifices of doubling, &c., so well known to be used by the European
animal. The American hare breeds several times during the year, and in
the Southern States even during the winter months, having from two to
tour or six at a litter,

In general, the hare is not devoid of the instinct necessary for its pre-
servatiun, nor of sagacity sufficient to effect an escape from its enemies. It
prepares for itself a form ; and in winter, it chooses a spot which 1s exposed
to the south, as in summer it does one which is situated to the north. Ie*
hides itself from view among hillocks of earth which are of the same color
as its hair. “Ihave seen,” says Du Fouilloux, ‘\a hare so cunning, that,
as svon as it heard the huntsman’s horn, it started from its form, and,
though at the distance of a quarter of a league from it, leaped to a pond, and
there hid itself among the rushes, and thus escaped the pursuit of the dogs.
T have seen a hare, which, after having run above two hours before the
dogs, has dislodged another hare, and taken possession.of its form. I have
seen others swim over three ponds, of whicn tne smallest was not less than
eighty paces broad. I have seen others, which, after having been warmly
chased for two hours, have entered a sheepcote, through the little opening
under une door, and remained among the cattle. 1 have seen others, which,
when the dogs have chased them, joined a flock of sheep in the field, and,
in like manner, remained with them. I have seen others, which, when
they heard the dogs, have concealed themselves in the earth. I have seen
others, which have gone along one side of a hedge, and returned by the
other ; so that there was only the thickness of the hedge between the dogs
and the hare. I have seen others, which, after they had been chased for
half an hour, have mounted an old wall of six feet high, and taken refuge ip
a hole covered with ivy.”

The nature of the soil has a great influence on these, as well as on all
other animals; the hares of the mountains are larger and fatter than those
of the plains, and are also of a different color; the former being browner on
the body, and whiter about the neck than the latter, which are more inclined
to red. On high mountains, and in the northern countries, they become
white in the winter, and in summer recover their ordinary color.
260 MAMMALIA—CABIAL,

THE CABIAT!

 

Is about the size of a hog of twelve months’ growth. The head is longer;
the eyes are larger; the snout, instead of being rounded, as in the hog,
is split like that of a rabbit or hare, and furnished with thick, strong
whiskers; the mouth is not so wide; the number and form of the teeth are
different, for it is without tusks; like the peccary, it wants a tail, and,
unlike to all others of this kind, is in a manner web-footed, and thus easily
fitted for swimming and living in water. The hoofs before are divided into
four parts, and those behind into three; between the divisions, there is a
prolongation of the skin; so that the feet, when cpened in swimming, cap
beat a great surface of water.

This animal, thus made for the water, swims there like an otter, seeks
the same prey, and seizes the fish with its feet and teeth, and carries them.
te the edge of the lake to devour them with the greater ease. It lives also
upon fruits, corn, and sugar-canes. As its legs are broad and flat, it often
sits upright upon its hind legs. Its cry resembles more the braying of an
ass than the grunting of a hog. Its color is a deep reddish brown above,
and fawn beneath. It seldom stirs out but at night, and almost always in
company, without going far from the sides of the water in which it preys.
It can find no safety in flight; and, in order to escape the enemies which
pursue it, it plunges into the water, remains at the bottom a long time, and
rises at such a distance, that the hunters lose all hopes of seeing it again.
It is fat; and the flesh is tender, but, like that of the otter, rather of a fishy
taste; tne head, however, is not bad; and this agrees with what is said of
the beaver, whose exterior parts have a taste like fish.

The cabiai is quiet and gentle; it is neither quarrels(me nor ferocious
with other animals. It is easily tamed, comes at call, and willingly
follows the hand that feeds it. We do not know the time of their bringing

forth their young, their growth, and consequently the length of life of this
animal. They are very common in Guiana, as well as in Brazil, in Ama
zonia, and in all the lower countries of South America.

 

1 Hydrocherus capybara, Lin. The genus Hydrocherus has two upper and two lower
incisors ; no canines; ten upper and eight lower inolars. Molars composed of lamine ;
eyes large; ears rounded ; fore feet with four, the hinder ones with three palmated tues +
no tail; two maine ; hair scattered and bristly.
MAMMALIA—GUINEA-PIG. 261°

THE GUINEA-PIG!

 

—
a
ASSAM tha

Troven originally a native of the warm climates of Brazil and Guinea,
lives, huwever, and breeds in temperate and even cold countries, prcvided
it is properly taken care of. Its skin is of little or no value; and the flesh,
dhough people may, and actually do eat it, is very indifferent food; a cir-
zumstance which might, in some measure, be removed, were they to be
teared in warrens, where they might have air, space tu range in, anda
proper choice of herbs. Those which are kept in houses have nearly the
same taste as the house rabbit; and of those which have passed the sum
mer in a garden, the taste is less disagreeable, but is still insipid.

The Guinea-pig is much less than the rabbit; its upper lip is only half
divided; it has two cutting teeth in each jaw; large and broad ears; its
hair is of different colors, white, varied with orange and black, in irregular
patehes. It has no tail, and is very restless, from which latter circumstance
it derives the epithet affixed to one of its names.

The growth of these animals is not entirely completed till the expiration
of eight or nine months; though indeed it is in apparent bulk and fat that
they chiefly increase till then, the developement of the solid parts being
finished before the age of five or six months. The female never goes with
young above three weeks; and she has been known to bring forth when
on!y two months old. The first litter is not so numerous as the subsequent
litters. It does not amount to more than four or five; the second amounts
to five or six, and the rest to seven or eight, and even to ten or eleven.
She does not suckle her young longer than twelve or fifteen days. Thus
these animals produce at least every two months; and as those which are
newly born produce in the same manner, their multiplication is astonisnir 2.
In one year a thousand might be obtained from a single couple, did they
not frequently destroy each other, and perish from the cald and wet.

The Guinea-pig feeds on ‘all sorts of herbs, and especially on parsley,
which it prefers even to bran, flour, or bread. Of apples and other fruits it
is also exceedingly fond. Like the rabbit, it eats precipitately, litle ata
time, but very often. It whines somewhat like a yeung pig.

So cleanly are Guinea-pigs, that much of their: time is spent in licking
and smoothing the fur of each other, and of the little ones; and should the

 

1 Caria cobaya, Desm. The genus Cavia has two upper and two lower incisors; no
ranines ; eight upper and eight lower molars. Body thick; muzzle short, compressed 5
eyes large; ears round; legs short, four tues on the fons feet, three on the hind feet, not
palmated ; no tail- two ventral teats,
262 MAMMALIA—AGOUTI.

latter chance to be dirtied, the mothcr will never again suffer them to come
near her. If kept in a room, it seldom crosses the fivor, but creeps round
by the wall.

These animals are so delicate, that it is with difficulty they undergo the
rigors of winter. When they feel the cold, they assemble together, press
close to one another, and in this situatiun are frequently found dead.

\

 

THE AGOUTI)

 

Tris animal is about the size of a hare, and has been considered, errone
ously, as « kind of rabbit, or large rat, by the generality of nomenclator:
As it has the hair of a hog, so also it has the voracious appetite of thn
animal, It eats indiscriminately of all things; and when satiated, it hides
the remainder, like the dog or the fox, for a future occasion.

It does not, like the rabbit, dig a hole in the ground, but burrows in the
holes of trees. Its ordinary food consists of the roots of the country, pota-
toes, yams, and such fruits as fa!l from the trees in autumn. It uses itz
fore paws like the squirrel, to carry its food to its mouth; and as its hind
feet are longer than the fore ones, it runs very swiftly upon plain ground, or
up a hill, but upon a descent it is in danger of falling. Its sight is excel-
lent; its hearing equals that of any other animal; and whenever it is
whistled to, it stops to hearken. The flesh is dressed like that of a suck-
ing pig, and of such as are well fed, is tolerable food, though it has always
a peculiar taste, and is rather rough. :

It is hunted by dogs; and whenever it goes into a sugar ground, where the
canes cover the place, it is easily overtaken ; for it is embarrassed every step
it takes, so that a man may easily come up with trand kill it, without any other
assistance than a stick. When in the open country, it usually runs with
great swiftness before the dogs until it gains its retreat, within which it
continues to hide, and nothing but filling the hole with smoke can force it
out. For this purpose the hunter burns faggots or straw at the entrance,

 

1 Dasyprocta acuti, Lin. The genus Pasyprocta has two upper and two lower inci
sors; no canines; eight upper and eight lower molars. Feel rather elongated ; fore-
head flat; muzzle thick; eyes large and projecting; fore feet with four toes and a rad?
mentary thumb; hind legs longer than those before, with three tues and strung uals;
sole of the foot naked and callous.
MAMMALIA—CAVY. 263

and conducts the stnoke in such a manner that it fills the whole eavity.
While this is doing, the poor little animal seems sensible of its danger,
begs for quarter with a most plaintive cry, but seldom quits its hole till tha
utmost extrenily.

The agouti seems to be a native of the south parts of America; nor is it
at all known in the Old Continent. It is, however, very common in Brazil,
Guiana, St Domingo, and all the islands around. To the cold and tempe-
rate regions of America this animal is a stranger.

THE PACA, OR SPOTTED CaVyY}

 

“s an animal of the New World, who digs a burrow like a rabbit, tot which
ne has been compared, though there is scarcely any !ikeness between these
two animals; he is much larger than the rabbit, and even than the hare;
he has a reund lead, and the snout short; he is fat and bulky, and by the
form of his body he is more like a pig, as well as by grunting, waddling,
and the manner of eating; for he does not use, as the rabbit does, his fore
feet to carry food to his mouth; but grubs up the earth like the hog, to find
his subsistence. The color of the back is dark brown, or liver colored ; bnt
is lighter on the sides, which are beautifully marked with lines of wh:te
epots, running in parallel directions from its throat to its rump; those on the
upper part of the body are perfectly distinct; the belly is white. Its head
is large ; its ears short and naked; its eyes full, and placed high in its head,
near the ears; it has two strong yellow cutting teeth in each jaw; its
mouth is small; its upper lip divided ; and it has long whiskers on its lips,

 

1 Celogenys sobriger, Desm. The genus Celogenys has two upper and two lower
incisors ; no canines; eight upper and eight lower molars. Five toes on all the feet; the
external and internal toe belied heing nearly rudimentary; nails conical, strong, for
digging: cheek pouches; a naked tubercle in place of a tail; two pectoral aud two
mguinal inamme.
264 MAMMALILA—SLOTH.

and on each side of its head, under the ears. Its legs are short, with four
toes on the fore, and three on the hind foot; and it has no tail.

These animals inhabit the banks of rivers, and are found in damp and hot
places of South America; the flesh is very guod to eat, and excessively fat;
their skin, also, is eaten as that of a pig. The natives of Brazil consider
the flesh to be a great delicacy ; a perpetual war is therefore carried on
against these animals. Hunters find it very difficult to take them alive;
and when they are surprised in their burrows, which have two openings,
they defend themselves, and bite with great rage and inveteracy. When
pursued, they take to the water, and escape by diving. If attacked by dogs,
it defends itself vigorously. Their skin, though covered with short and
rough hair, is valuable, because it is spotted on the sides. These animals
bring forth young in abundance: men, and animals of prey, destroy a great
quantity of them, and yet the species is still numerous. They are peculiar
to South America, and are found no where in the Old Continent.

 

ORDER SEVENTH—EDENTATA.

Axtaats of this order have no incisors in cither jaw; sometimes canines
and molars, or molars only; often no teeth at all; extremities terminated
with toes, in number variable, armed wich strong nails; orbital and tem-
poral fuss united.

THE UNAU, AND TIE AT2 OR SLOTH.

Tiese two animals have the epithet of sloth given to them both, by most
authors, on account of their slowness, and the difficulty with which they
walk. The unau, or two-toed sloth, has no tail, and only two nails on the
fore feet. The ai, or three-toed sloth, has a short tail, and three nails on
every foot. The nose of the unau, is likewise much longer, the forehead
higher, and the ears longer than those of the ai. It differs aiso in the hair.
As for its interior, its viscera are buth formed and situated dillerently ; but
the most distinctive, and, at the same time, the most singular character, is,
that the unau has forty-six ribs, while the ai has but twenty-eight. This
alone supposes two species, quite distinct one from the other; and these
forty-six ribs, in an animal whose body is so short, isa kind of excess or

 

3 Bradypus didactylus, Lin, s

2 Bradypus tridactylus, Lix. The genus Bradvpus has two upper and two lower
canines ; faite ti porand sx lower molars. Canines higher than the molars, pyramidal
and pointed ; wines cylindrical; head small, rounded ; muzzle truncated ; neck short,
nostitls at the extremity of the muzzle; anterior extremities longer than the posterier
with two or three united toes, terminated by very long, robust nails; fur thick and harsh,
with the hur of the fore arms directed upwards; stomacn membranous, divided inte
Many sacs; intestines short; uo coecum,
MAMMALIA—SLOTH. 265

error in nature; for, even in the largest animals, and those whose nodies
are relatively longer than they are thick, not one of them is found to have
somany. The elephant has only forty, the dog twenty-six, and the human
species twenty-four, &. This difference in the construction of the unau
and the ai, supposes a greater distance between these two kinds than there
is between that of the cat and the dog, which have the same number of ribs;
for the extarnal differences are nothing in comparison with the internal
ones, which are the causes of the others. These animals inhabit Suuth
America, and are especially numerous in Brazil and Guiana.

 

Waterton gives the following account of the sloth: “ This singular animal
{3 destined by nature to be produced, to live, and to die, in the trees; and, to
do justice to him, naturalists must examine Lim in his upper element, Ife
is w scarce and solitary animal, and, being good food, he is Hever allowed to
escape. He inhabits remote and gloomy forests, where snakes (ike up
their abode, and where cruelly stinging ants and scorpions, and swanips,
and innumerable thorny shrubs and bushes, obstruct the steps of civilized
man. Were yon to draw your own conclusions from the deseriplions which
have been given of the sloth, you would probably suspect that no naturalisé
had actually gone into the wilds with the fixed determination to find him
out and exam'ne his haunts, and see whether nature has committed any
blunder in the formation of this extraordinary creature, whieh appears to us
so forlorn and miserable, so ill put together, and su totally unfit wv eajoy the

34
266 MAMMALIA—SLOTH.

blessmgs which have been so bountifully given to the rest of animated
aatre; for, as it has formerly been remarked, he has oo sules to his feet,
and he is evidently ill at ease when he tries to move on the ground ; and it
ts then that he looks up in your face with a countenance that says, ‘Have
pity on me, for [am in pain and sorrow.’

“Tt mostly happens that Indians and negroes are the people who catch
the sloth, and bring it to the white man. Hence it may be conjectured that
the erroneous accounts we have hitherto had of the sloth have nut been
penned down with the slightest intention to mislead the reader, or give hina
an exaggerated history, but that these errors have naturally arisen ty
examining the sloth in those places where nature never intended that he
shuuld be exhibited.

“ However, we are now in his own domain. Man but litile frequents
these thick and noble forests, which extend far and wide on every side of
us. This, then, is the proper place to go in quest of the sloth. We -will
first take a near view of him. By obtaining a knowledge of his anatomy,
we shall be enabled to account for his movements hereafter, when we see
nim in his proper haunts. His fore legs, or, more correetly speaking, bis
arms, are apparently much too long, while his hind legs are very shart, and
look as if they could be bent alinost to the shape of a cork-screw. Both the
fore and hind legs, by their form, and by the manner in which they are
joined to the body, are quite incapacitated from acting in a perpendicular
direction, or in supporting it on the earth, as the bodies of other quadrupeds
are supported, by their legs. Hence, when you place him on the floor, his
belly touches the ground. Now, granted, that he supported himself on his
legs like other animals, nevertheless he would be in pain, for he has no
soles to his feet, and his claws are very sharp and long, and curved, so
that, were his body supported by his feet, it would be by their extremities;
just av vour body would be were you to throw yourself on all fours, and uy
tosupport it on the ends of your tues and fingers —a trying position. Were
the floor of glass, or of a polished surface, the sloth would aetually be quite
stationary ; but as the ground is generally rough, with little protuberances
upon it, such as stones, or roots of grass, &e., this just suits the sloth, and
he moves his fore legs in all directions, in order to find something to lay
hold of; and when he has succeeded, he pulls himself forward, and is taug
enabled to travel onwards, but, at the same time, in so tardy a manner as to
acquire him the name of sloth. \

“Indeed, his looks and his gestures evidently betray his uncomfortable
sitation; and, asa sigh every now and then escapes him, we way be
entitled to conclude that he is actually in pain.

“Some years ago | kept a sloth in my room for several months. T often
took him out of the house, and placed him upon the ground, in order te
have an opportunity of observing his motions, Lf the ground were rough,
he would pul himself forwards by means of his fore legs, ata pretty good
MAMMALIA—SLOTH.. 267

pace, and he invariably shaped his course towards the nearest tree. But
if I put hin upon a smooth and well trodden part of the road, he appeared
to oe in trouble and distiess ; his favorite abode was the back of a chair;
and, after getting all tis legs in a line upon the topmost partof it, he would
hang there for hours together, and-often, with a low and inward ery, would
seem to invite me to take notice of him.

“The sloth, in its wild state, spends its whole life in the trees, and never
leaves them but through force or accident. An all-ruling Providence has
ordained man to tread en the surface of the earth, the eagle to soar in the
expanse of the skies, and the monkey and squirrel to inhabit the trees ; still
these may change their relative situations without feeling much inconvent-
ence; but the sloth is doomed to spend his whole life in the trees; and,
what is more extraordinary, not wpon the branches, like the squirrel and the
monkey, but wider them. He moves suspended from the branch, he rests
suspended from it, and he sleeps suspended from it. To enable him to do
this, he must have a very dierent formation from that of any other known
quadruped.

“Hence, his seemingly bungled conformation is at once accounted for;
and, in lieu ef the sloth leading a painful life, and entailing a melancholy
and miserable existence on its progeny, it is but fair to surmise that it enjoys
life just as much as any other animal, and that his extraordinary formas
tion and singular habits are but further proofs to engage us tu adimire the
wonderful works of Omnipotence.

“Tt must be observed, that the sloth does not hang head downwards like
the vampire. When asleep, he supports himself on a branch parallel to the
earth. He first seizes the branch with one arm, and then with the other;
and, after that, brings up both his legs, one by one, to tne same branch; so
that all four are ina line; he seems perfectly at rest in this position.
Now, had he a tail, be wouid be ata loss to know what to do with it in
this position ; were he to draw it up with his legs, it would interfere with
them; and were he to let it hang down, it would become the sport of the
winds, Thus his deficiency of tail isa benefit to him; it is merely an
apology for 4 tail, scarcely exceeding an inch and a half-in length.

“TY observed when he was climbing, he never used his arms both together,
but first one and then the other, and so on alternately. There is a singus
larity in his hair, different from that of all other animals, and, | believe,
hitherto unnoticed by naturalists; his hair is thick and coarse at the
extremity, and gradually tapers to the root, where it becomes fine as the
finest spider’s web, His fur has so much the hue of the moss which grows
on the branches of the trees, that it s very difficult to make him out, when
he is at rest.

“The male of the three-toed sloth has a longitudinal bar of very fine
black hair on his back, rather ower than the shoulder-blades ; on each side
of this black hair there is © space of yellow hair, equally fine; it has the
268 MAMMALIA--SLO1 22.

appearance of heing pressed into the body, and looks exactly as if it had
been singed. If we examine the anatomy of nis fure legs, we shall imme-
diately perceive by their firm and muscular texture, how very capable they
are o° supporting the pendent weight of his body, both in climbing and at
rest; and, instead of pronouncing them a bungled composition, as a cele
brated naturalist has done, we shall consider them as remarkably well cal»
culated to perform their ordinary functions.

“ As the sloth is an inhabitant of forests within the tropics, where the
trees touch each other in the greatest profusion, there seems to be no reason
why he should confine himself to one tree alone for fuod, and entirely strip
it of its leaves. During the many years |] have ranged the forests, | have
never seen a tree in such a state of nudity; indeed [| would hazard a con-
jecture, that by the time the animal has finished the last of the old leaves,
there would be a new crop on the part of the tree he had stripped first, ready
for him to begin again, so quick is the process of vegetation in these
countries.

“ There is a saying among the Indians, that when the wind blows, the
sloth begins to travel. Incalm weather he remains tranquil, probably not
liking to cling to the brittle extremity of the branches, lest they should break
with him in passing from one tree to another; but as soon as the wind
rises, the branches of the neighboring trees become interwoven, and then
the sloth seizes hold of them, and pursues his journey in safety. There is
seldom an entire day of caim in these forests. The trade wind generally
sets in about ten o’clock in the morning, and thus the sloth may set off after
breakfast, and get a considerable way before dinner. He travels ata good
round pace; and were you to see him pass from tree to tree, as | have done,
you would never think of calling him a sloth.

“Thus it would appear that the different histories we have of this
quadruped are erroneous on two accounts; first, that the writers of them,
ceterred by difficulties and local annoyances, have not paid sufficient atten-
tion to him in his native haunts; and, secondly, they have deseribed him in
a sittiation in which he was never intended by nature to cut a figure, I

‘mean on vie ground. The sloth is as much ata loss to proceed on his
journey upon a smooth and level floor, as a man would be whu had to walk
a mile in stilts upon a line of feather-beds.

“One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo, T saw a large two-taed
sloth on the ground upon the-bank ; how he got there nobody could tells’
the Indian said he had never surprised a sloth in such a situation before 3
he would hardly have come there to drink, for both above and below the
place, the branches of the trees touched the water, and afforded bim an easy
and safe access to it. Be this as it may, though the trees were not above
twenty yards from him, he could not make his way through the sand, in
time to eseape before we landed. As soon as we gor up to him, he
Arew h mself on his bagk, and defended himself in a gallant style with hia
e
MAMMALIA—ARMADILLO. 269

fore legs. ‘Come, poor fellow,’ said I to him, ‘if thou hast got into a
hobble to day, thou shalt not suffer for it; I'll take no advantage of thee in
misfortune; the forest is large enough both for thee and me to rove in; go
thy ways up above, and enjoy thyself in these endless wilds; it is more
than probable thou wilt never have another interview with man. So, fure
thee well.’ On saying this, I took up a large stick which was lying there,
held it for him to hook on, and then ‘conveyed him to a high and stately
mora. He ascended with wonderful rapidity, and in abouta minute he was
almost at the top of the tree. He now went off in aside direction, and
caught hold of the branch of a neighboring tree; he then proceeded towards
the heart of the turest; 1 stood looking on, lost in amazementat his singular
mode of progress. I followed him with my eye till the intervening branches
closed in betwixt us; and then I lost sight forever of the two-toed sloth. I
was going to add, that 1 never saw a sloth take to his heels in such earnest;
but the expression will not do, for the sloth has no heels.”

 

THE SIX-BANDED ARMADILLO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unver the general name of armadillo, we may reckon several species
which seem to us really distinct; in all of them the animal is protected by
a crust resembling bone ; it covers the head, the neck, the back, the flauks,
the buttocks, and the tail to the very extremity. This crust is covered out-
wardly by a thin skin, sleek and transparent; the only parts that are not
sheltered by this buckler, are the throat, the breast, and the belly, which
presents a white grainy skin, like that of a plucked fowl; and, in consider-
ing these parts with attention, you will perceive the appearance of scales

‘which are of the same substance as the crust. This crust is, however, nut

1 Dasypus sexcinclus, Lin. The genus Dasypus has two upper and four lower incisors,
sometimes none ; molars varying in the several species from twenty-eight to sixty-eight
simple, cyimdrical, separate, without enamel on the inner side; head long; mouth au
eyes small; body enveloped ina hard scaly shell in three compartments covering the
_avad, body, and tail, with moveable transverse bands hetween Ube ; five toes ou the hind
feet; four or five on the fore feet, with long nails fur diggmg.
®

270 MAMMALIA—ARMADILLO.

of one piece, like that of the turtle; it consists of several parts joined to each
other by as many membranes, which put this armor in motion. ‘The nume
ber of these natural bands does not depend on the age of the animal; for
the young armadillo and the adults have in the same species the same nume
ber. Father d’Abbeville has distinguished six species of the armadillo, but
the principal difference between them consists in the number of pands or
divisions in the armor of the different species. The six-banded armadillo
differs from its fellows in being also of a smaller size, not larger than that
of a young pig, and in its tail being shorter.

The armadilloes in general are innocent, harmless animals; if they can pe>
netrate into gardens, they wil] eat melons, potatoes, pulse and routs. Though
used originally to the hot climates of America, they live in temperate regions.
They walk quickly, but they can neither leap, run, nor climb up trees ; so they
cannot escape by flight; they have then no other resource but to hide them-
selves in their holes, or, if they are at too great a distance from their subterra-
neous habitations, they contrive to dig one before they are overcome; for the
mole is not more expert in digging the ground. They are sometimes caught
before they are out of sight, and they then make such a resistance, that the
tail is broken without bringing out the body; in order to take them without
mutilation, the burrow must be opened; they are then caught without
making any resistance. When they find themselves in the hands of their
pursuers, they roll themselves up into a ball, and are placed near the fire, to
force them to stretch out their coat of mail; which, hard as it is, as soun as
it is touched with the finger, the animal receives so quick an impression,
that he contracts instantaneously. When they are in deep burrows, the
method of forcing them out is to smoke them, or to let water run down the
hole; the former process, however, is not always successful, as while his
pursuer digs, the animal digs also, and so effectually closes up the hole, by
throwing up the earth backwards, that the smoke is excluded. Some pre-
tend they remain under ground above three months without venturing out:
it is true, that they remain in their holes in the daytime, and never go out
but in the night to seek for their subsistence. The armadillo is hunted
with small dogs, who soon overtake him; but he stops before they have
reached him, and contracts himself; in this condition he is taken and carried
off. Ifhe finds himself on the brink of 4 precipice, he escapes the dogs and
the hunters, by rolling himself up, and letting himself fall down like a ball,
without injury or prejudice to his scales.

“The armadillo,” says Mr Waterton, “is very common in these (the South
American) forests; he burrows in the sand hills like a rabbit. As it often
takes a considerable time to dig him out of his hole, it would be a long and
laborious business 10 attack each hole indiscriminately, without knowing
whether the animal were there or not. To prevent disappointment, the
Indians carefully mine the mouth of the hole, and puta short stick down it,
Now if, on introducing the stick, a number of musquitoes come out, the
MAMMALIA—ANT EATER. 27)

Indians know to a certainty that the armadillo is in it; whenever there are
no musquitoes in the hole, there is no armadillo.”

These animals are fat, and very prolific; the female brings forth, as it 1s
reported, four young ones every month, which makes their species very
numerous. They are good to eat, and are easily taken with snares laid for
them on the banks of the rivers, and in the marshy grounds, which they
inhahit in preference. It is pretended, that they are not afraid of the bite
of the rattlesnake; it is likewise pretended, that they live in peace with
these reptiles, which are often found in their holes. The savages apply
their scales to different purposes, and make of them baskets, boxes, and
other small vessels light and solid. The armadillo is only found in South
America.

 

THE TAMANOTIR, THE TAMANDUA, AND THE
FOURMILLIER, OR ANT-EATER.

Soutn AMERICA produces three species of animals, with a long snout, a
small mouth, and no teeth; their tongues, ofa round form, are remarkably
long; with which they catch the ants, which are their principal food. On
coming to an ant hill, the animal scratches it up with his claws, and then
protrudes his slender tongue, which has the appearance of an exceedingly
long earth-worm. It is covered with a viscous saliva. To this the ants
adhere, and, by retracting it, he swallows thousands of them. He also-
tears up the nests of woodlice, and often climbs the trees in pursuit of them,
and of the wild bees and their honey.’ The first of these ant-eaters is that
which the Brazilians call tamandua guacu, or great tamandua, to whom the
French settled in America have given the name of tamanoir. The English
call] it

THE GREAT ANT-EATER.!

Tuts animal is about four feet in length from the extremity of the snout
to the origin of the tail; his head is fourteen or fiften inches long, his snout
stretches out to a great length; his tail, two feet and a half long, is covered
with rough hair, which is more than a foot in length; his neck is short;
his head narrow; his eyes black and small; his ears round; his tongue
thin, more than two feet long, which he folds again in his mouth, after he
draws it entirely out. His legs are but one foot high;. the fore legs are a
little higher and more slender than those behind; he has round feet; the

 

1 Myrmecophaga jubata, Lin, Animals of the genus Myrmecophaga are utterly tooth-
less ;' they have the head elongated; muzzle tapering toa point; tongue long, protractile;
tues united, four before and five behind, or two before and four behind, arnual with strong
nails ; two pectoral and twe ventral mamma; tail long; sometimes prehensile,
272 MAMMALIA—ANT-EATER.

fore feet are acmed with four claws, the two middle ones are tle longest.
those behind have five claws. The hair of his head and body is black and
white; this animal turns his tail up on his back, and cuvers with it his
whole body, when he is inclined to sleep, or wants to shelter himself from
the rain or the heat of the sun. The long hair of his tail and of his bodv is

 

not round in all its extent; it is flat towards the end, and feels like dry
grass. He waves his tail frequently and hastily when he is irritated, but if
hanzs down when he is composed, and he sweeps the way with it as he
goes. The tamanoir walks slowly; a man can easily overtake him in
running; his Teet seem less calculated to walk than to climb, and to fasten
round bodies; and he holds so fast a branch or a stick, that it is not possible
to snatch either from him. ‘The second of these animals is that which
the Americans call

THE TAMANDUA.!

He is much smaller than the tamanoir; he is not above eighteen inches
from the extremities of the snout to the rump; his head is five inches long,
his snout crooked, and underneath flat and long; he has a tail ten inches
long, without hair at the end; tis ears are erect, and about an inch in
jength; his tongue is round, eight inches long, and placed in a sort of
gutter or hollow canal within the’ lower jaw; his legs are not above four
inches in height, his feet are of the same form, and have the same number
of claws as the tamanoir. He climbs up and holds fast a branch, or a stick,
like the tamanoir, and his march is equally slow. He does not cover him-
self with his tail, which cannot shelter him, being almost bare; the hair of.
the fore part is shorter than that of the tamanoir; when he sleeps he hides
his head under his neck and his fore legs, The third of these animals 1s
that which the naturalists of Guiana call

 

1 Myrmecophaga tridactyla, Lin.
¥ MAMMALIA—ANT-EATER, 273

THE WATIRIWAOU,!

Anp the French fourmillier, or ant-eater. He is still much smaller than
the tamandua, being not above six or seven inches in length from the extre-
mity of the snout to the tail; his head is two inches long; the snout is not
near so long as that of the tamanoir, or the tamandua; his tail is seven
inches in length, is bent underneath, and bare at the end; his tongue i3 nar-
row, long, and flat; his neck is almost bare; the head is large in proportion
to the body; his eyes placed low, at @ little distance from the corners of the
mouth; his ears are small and hidden by the hair; his legs are but three
inches in height; the fore feet have no more than two claws, the outward
is much longer than the inward one; the hind feet have four claws; the
hair of the body is about nine inches long; he feels smooth; his color is
shining, diversified with red and yellow ; his feet are not made to walk, but
to climb up, and to take hold of branches of trees, on which he hangs hina:
self by the extremity of his tail.

These three animals, sc different in the size and proportions of the body,
have, nevertheless, many things in common, as to conformation and their
natural instinct. All three feed upon ants, and suck honey and other liquid
and viscous substances; they gather quickly crumbs of bread and small pieces
of meat; they are tamed and domesticated easily ; they can subsist a long
while without food; they do not swallow all the liquor which they keep in
their mouth —one part of it issues out of their nostrils; they commonly
sleep in the daytime, and change their station in the night; they go so
slowly, that a man may overtake them easily whilst running in open ground.
The savages eat their flesh, which has, however, an unsavory taste.

The tamanoir looks ata distance like a great fox, and for that reason
3ome travellers call him the American fox; he is strong enough to defend
himself against a large dog, and even a jaguar; when he is attacked he
fights standing on his hind legs, like the bear, and makes use of his fore
claws, which are murdering weapons, for his protection; afterwards he lics
on his back to use his hind legs, and in this situation he is almost invinci-
ole; he fights with obstinacy to the last extremity, and even after he has
put his adversary to death, he keeps hold of him a long while. He is
covered with long bushy hair, and a very thick skin; besides, his tlesh is
remarkably hard, and he seldom loses his life in these engagements.

The tamanoir, the tamandua, and the fourmillier, are natives of the
hottest climates only of America; they are found in Brazil, in Guiana, and
in the country of the Amazons, &c.; they do not breed in Canada, nor in
the other frozen regions of the New World, and do not belong consequently
to the Ancient Continent.

We copy the following from “‘ Waterton’s Wanderings.”

“The ants have their enemies, as well as the rest of animated nature

 

1 Myrmecophaga didactyla, Lux.
35
274 MAMMALIA—ANT-EATER.

Amongst the foremost of these stand the three species of ant-bears. Thu
smallest 13 not much larger than a rat; the next is nearly the size of a fox;
and the third, a stout and powerful animal, measuring about six feet from
the snout to the end of the tail. He is the most inoffensive of all animals,
and never injures the property of man. He is chiefly found in the inmost
recesses of the forest, and seems partial to the low and swampy parts near
creeks, where the Troely tree grows. There he goes up and down in quest
of ants, of which there is never the least scarcity; so that he soon obtains a
sufficient supply of food with very little trouble. He cannot travel fast;
man is superior to him in speed. Without swiftness to enable him to
escape from his enemies, without teeth, the possession of which would assist
him in self-defence, and without the power of burrowing in the ground, by
which he might conceal himself from his pursuers, he is still capable of
ranging through these wilds in perfect safety; nor does he fear the fatul
pressure of the serpent’s fold, nor the teeth of the famished jaguar. Nature
has formed his fore legs wonderfully thick, strong and muscular, and armed
his feet with three tremendous sharp and crooked claws. Whenever he seizes
an anima] with these formidable weapons, he hugs it close to his body, and
keeps it there till it dies through pressure, or want of food. Nor does the
ant-bear, in the mean time, suffer from want of aliment, as itis a well known
fact, that he can go longer without food than perhaps any other animal,
except the land tortoise. His skin is of a texture that perfectly resists the
bite of a dog: his hinder parts are protected by thick and shaggy hair,
while his immense tail is large enough to cover his whole body.

“The Indians have a great dread of coming in contact with the ant-bear;
and after disabling him in the chase, they never think of approaching him
till he is quite dead. It is perhaps on account of this caution, that natural-
ists have never yet given to the world a true and correct drawing of this
singular animal, or described the peculiar position of his fore feet when he
walks or stands. If, in taking a drawing from a dead ant-bear, you judge
of the position in which he stands from that of all other terrestrial animals,
the sloth excepted, you will be in error. Examine only a figure of this
animal, in books of natural history, or inspect a stuffed specimen in the
best museums, and you will see that the fore claws are just in the same
forward attitude as those of a dog, or a common bear, when he walks or
stands. But this would be an intolerable attitude for the ant-tear. The
length and curve of his claws canuot admit of such a position. When he
walks or stands, his feet have somewhat the appearance of clubhands. He
goes entirely on the outer side of his fore feet, which are quite bent inwards,
the claws collected into a point, and going under the foot. In th’s position
he is quite at ease; while his long claws are disposed of in a manner to
render them harmless to him, and are prevented from becoming dull and
worn, like those of the fog, which would inevitably te the case, did their
points come im actual contact with the ground: for his claws have not the
A MAMMALIA—MANIS. 275

retractil: pow2r which enables animals of the feline species tc preserve the
sharpness of their claws on the most flinty path. A slight inspection of the
fore feet of the ant-bear will easily convince you of the mistakes that artists
and naturalists have fallen into; for you will perceive that the whole outer
side of his foot is not only deprived of hair, but is hard and callous; proof
positive of its being in perpetual contact with theground. On the contrary
the inner side of the bottom of his foot is soft and rather hairy.

“Tere is another singularity in the anatomy of the ant-bear. He has
uve sery large glands situated below the roof of the tongue. From these is
emitted a glutinous liquid, with which his long tongue is lubricated when
le puts it inte the ants’ nests. These glands are of the same substance aa
those found in the lower jaw of the woodpecker. The secretion from them,
when wet, is very clammy and adhesive; but on being dried, it loses those
qualities, and you can pulverize it betwixt your finger and thumb; so that
in dissection, if any of it has got upon the fur of the animal, allow it to dry
there, and then it may be removed, without leaving any stain behind. The
ant-bear isa pacific animal. As his habits and haunts differ materially
from those of any other animal in the forest, he might live to a good old
age, and die in peace at last, were it not that his flesh is good food. On
this account the Indian wages perpetual war with him, and as he cannot
escape by flight, he falls an easy prey to the poisoned arrow. If he be ever
closely attacked by a dog, he throws himself on his back, and if he can
‘catch hold of his enemy with his tremendous claws, the invader is sure to
pay for his rashness with the loss of life.”

THE PANGOLIN! AND PHATAGIN;? OR, THE
SHORT AND LONG-TAILED MANTIS.

 

THEsE animals are commonly known under the name of scaly lizards;
but they are not only of another genus, but even of another class than the
lizards, which are oviparous reptiles, while the pangolin and rhe phatagin
gre viviparous quadrupeds.

 

1 Manis crassicaudata, Georr.

= Manis longicaudatd§iGrorr. The genus Manis is entirely toothless; the body is
elongated, covered with strong, corneous, triangular, and imbricated scales, and capable
of rolling into a ball; muzzle loug; tongue prutractile; feet with five toes, formed for
digging ; tail long. 7
276 MAMMALIA—MANIS.

*

All the lizards are wholly covered, even under the belly, with a sleck
speckled skin, resembling scales; but the pangolin and the phatagin have
no scales under their throat, on the breast, or the belly; the phatagin, like
vhe other quadrupeds, has hair on all these under parts of the body; the
pangolin has nothing but a smooth skin without hair. The scales with
which al] the other parts of the body of these two animals are clothed and
covered, do not stick to the skin; they are only fixed and inherent to it .
underneath ; they are moveable, like the prickles of the porcupine. These
scales are so large, so hard, and so sharp, that they frighten and discourage
all animals of prey; on collision they will strike fire like flint; 1t is an
offensive armor which wounds while it resists.

The most cruel and the most voracious animals, such as the tiger and the
panther, make but useless efforts to devgur these armed animals ; they tread
upon them, roll them; but when they attempt to seize them, they are
grievously wounded; they can neither terrify them by violence, nor bruise
nor smother them with their weight.

When the pangolin and the phatagin contract themselves, they do not
take, as the hedgehog, a globular and uniform figure; they form an oblong
coat of armor; but their thick and long tail remains outward, and encircles
their bodies. This exterior part, by which it seems these animals might
otherwise be seized, carries its own defence; it is covered with scales
equally hard and sharp with those with which the body is clothed, and as it
is convex above, and flat below, in the form of half a pyramid, the sides are
covered with square scales folded in a right angle, as thick and as sharp as
the others ; so that the tail seems to be still more strongly armed than the
nody, the under parts of which are unprovided with scales.

The pangolin, or short tailed manis, is larger than the phatagin, or long
tailed kind; his fore feet are covered with scales, but the phatagin’s feet
and part of his fore legs have none, being only clothed with hair. The
pangolin has also larger scales, thicker, more convex, and not so close as
those of the phatagin, which are armed with three sharp points; on the
contrary, the scales of the pangolin are without points, and uniformly sharp.
‘The phatagin is hairy upon the belly; and the pangolin has no hair on that
part of lis body, but between those scales which cover his back some thick
and long hair issues like the bristles of a hog, which are not found on the
‘back of the phatagin.

The pangolin is from six to eight feet in length, including his tail; the
tail 1s very near as long as the body, though it appears shorter when young
the scales are not then so large nor so thick, and of a pale color, which is
deeper when the animal is adult; they acquire such a hardness, that they
resist a musket ball. Like the ant-eaters, the pangolin and the pha:agir .
live chiefly upon ants; they have also a very Jong tongue, a narrow mouth
and without apparent tecth ; their body and their tail are also very long, anc
ine claws of their feet very near of the same length and the same form, bu
MAMMALIA—CHLAMYPHORUS. Q77

equal m number. Like the ant-eater, the pangolin is alio toothless, and
has a long cylindrical tongue, which it uses in the same manner as that
animal to procure the insects on which it subsists. When the pangolin
approaches an ant hill, it lies down near it, concealing as much as possible
the place of its retreat, and stretching out its long tongue among the ants,
keeping it for some time immovable. These little creatures, allured by its
shining appearance, and the unctuous substance with which it is smeared,
instantly gather upon it in great numbers; and when the pangolin supposes
that it has a sufficiency, it quickly withdraws the tongue, and swallows
them at once. This operation it repeats till it is satisfied, or till the ants,
grown more cautious, will be no longer allured to their destruction. The
ant-eaters are found in America; the pangolin and the phatagin, in the East
Indies, and in Africa, where the negroes call them quugelo. They eat their
flesh, which they reckon a delicate, wholesome food; they also use their
scales for different purposes. Their mode of killing it is by beating it with
clubs. The pangolin and the phatagin have nothing forbidding but their
figure; they are gentle, harmiess, and innocent; they feed upon insects
only ; they never run fast, and can only escape the pursuit of men by hiding
themselves in hollow rocks, or in holes which they dig for themselves; they
are two extraordinary species, not numerous, nor very useful; their odd
form seems to place them as an intermediate class betwixt the quadrupeds
and the reptiles.

THE CHLAMYPHORUS!

 

Has been discovered only within the last five years. From the tip of the
nose to the root of the tail, 11 measures but five inches and a quarter ; its

 

1 Chlamyphorus truncatus, Haran. This animal, which is the only one of the genus,
has sixteen upper and as many lower teeth, all molars; the two first in each jaw pointed,
the rest flat and cylindrical ; shell composed of a series of transverse plates; toes five
before and beb_od. with compressed nails ; tail short, turned downward.
2738 MAMMALIA—PLATYPUS.

neight at the shoulder is only one inch and three quarters, and the lengtn
of its tail is one inch. This is rather less than half the size of the three
banded armadillo. It is a native of South America.

 

THE DUCK-BIDULED PLATYPUS)1!

New Horzanp is the country that produces this anomalous animal, ons
of the strangest sports of nature, as it combines the bili of a bird with the
usual characteristics of a quadruped. So singular is this union, that 1t was
at first supposed to be the trick of some person, for the purpose of imyosir Z
on collectors. When the creature was first discovered, it received the allu-
sive name of ornithorynchus paradoxicus ; but it has since been denom, ated
the platypus anatinus, or duck-billed platypus. It has a depressed body,
somewhat resembling that of an otter in miniature, which is covered witha
soft fur, dark brown above, and of a ferruginous white beneath. The head
is flattish, and the snout so exactly resembles that of some broad billed
species of duck, that it might easily be mistaken for such. The tail is flat,
furry, and of the same color as the body. ‘The length of the whole animal,
from the tip of the beak to'that of the tail, is thirteen inches; of the beak,
an inch anda half. The legs are very short, and terminate ia a broad web,
which on the fore feet extends to a considerable distance beyond the claws,
nut on the hind feet reaches no further than the roots of the claws. On the.
upper part of the head, on each side, a little beyond the beak, are situated
two oval white spots, in the lower part of each of which the eyes are em-
bedded.

From the general form of this animal, and particularly its bill and webbed
feet, it may naturally be concluded, that it resides in watery situations;
that it has the habit of digging or burrowing in the banks of rivers, or under
ground; and that its food consists of aquatic plants and animals

ORDER EIGHTH.—PACHYDERMATA.

Antmats of this order have three or two kinds of teeth; four extremities,
with the toes variable in number, and furnished with strong nails or hoofs;
ne clavicles; organs of digestion not disposed for ruminating. This order
commences the series of hoofed quadrupeds.

 

1 Platypus anatinus. This genus, which comprises only two individuals yet knowa,
has four upper and four lower molars, the teeth are fibrous, and fixed only in the
gum; ahomy heak resembling a duck’s hill; nostrils contiguous, opening at the end
af the upper mandible ; cheek pouches; feet webbed, pentadactyle; with a spur on tha
and ones in the male; tail short, broad at the base.
es MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 279

FAMILY I.--PROBOSGIDEA,.

In this family the individuals have their upper incisors in the form of
elongated tusks; molars compound and in small number; five toes on all
the feet; nose prolonged into a proboscis.

THE ELEPHANT.

Txe human race excepted, the elephant is the most respectable of ani-
mals. In size, he surpasses all other terrestrial creatures, and in undere
standing he is inferior only to man. Of all the brute creation, the elephant,
the dog, the ape, and the beaver, are most admirable for their sagacity ; but
the genius of the dog is only borrowed, being instructed by man in almost
every thing he knows. The monkey has only the appearance of wisdorn,
and the beaver is only sensible with regard to himself, and those of his
species. The elephant is superior to them all three: he unites all their
most eminent qualities. The hand is the principal organ of the monkey’s
dexterity ; the elephant with his trunk which serves him instead of arms
and hands, with which he can lift up, and seize the smallest, as well as the
largest objects, carry them to his mouth, place them on his back, hold them,
or throw them far off, has the same dexterity as the monkey, and at the
same time the tractableness of the dog. He is, like him, susceptible of
gratitude, capable of a strong attachment. He uses himself to man with-
out reluctance, and submits to him, not so much by force, as by good treat-
ment; he serves him with zeal, intelligence, and fidelity. In fine, the
elephant, like the heaver, loves the society of his equals, and makes them
understand him. They are often seen to assemble together, disperse, act
in concert, and if they do not erect buildings, and do nut work in common,
it 1s, perhaps, for want of room only, and tranquillity; for men have
very anciently multiplied in all the regions inhabited by the elephant; he
consequently lives in fear and anxiety, and is no where a peaceful possessor
of a space large and secure enough to establish his habitation on a settled
spot. Every being in nature has his real price, and relative value; to judge
of both in the elephant, we must allow him at least the judgment of the
beaver, the dexterity of the monkey, the sentiment of the dog, and, to add
to these qualifications, the peculiar advantages of strength, size, and lor ge-
vity. We must not forget his arms, or his defence, with which he can pierce
wnrough and conquer the lion. We must observe, that he shakes the ground
at every step; that with his trunk he roots up trees; that with the strength

 

1The genus E/ephas, of which there are only two species, has two upper incisors or
tusks ; four upper and four lower molars. Tusks slightly arched towards their extremity,
composed of ivory cased in a crust of enamel; molars composed of vertical and trars-
verse lamin covered by enamel ; five toes on all the feet; nose elongated into a cylinari-
cal proboscis, moveable in all directions, with a moveable appendix at the termination,
serving the purpose of a finger; head very large; neck short; eyes small, lateral; ears
extremely flat and very large; Lodv large ard :aassive; tail short, tufted at the end; two
nun,
280 MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT,

of his body he makes a breach in a wall; that being terrible by Ls force
he is invincible by the resistance only of his enormous mass, and by the
thickness of the leather which covers it; that he can carry on his back a
tower armed in war, with a number of men; that he alone moves machines,
and carries burthens, which six horses cannot move. To this prodigious
strength he joins courage, prudence, coolness, and an exact obedience. He
preserves moderation even in his most violent passion; he is more con-
stant than impetuous in love; in anger he does not forget his friends; he
never attacks any but those who have given him offence; he remembers
favors as long as injuries. Having no taste for flesh, and feeding chiefly
upon vegetables, he is not naturally an enemy to other aniinals; he is belov-
ed hy them all, since all of them respect him, and have no cause to fear him.
For these reasons, men have had at all times a veneration for this great,
this first of animals. The ancients considered the elephant as a prodigy,
a miracle of nature; they have much exaggerated his natural faculties;
they attribute to him, without hesitation, not only intellectual qualities, but
moral virtues.

In a wild state, the elephant is neither bloody nor ferocious; his manners
are social; he seldom wanders alone; he commonly walks in company, the
oldest leads the herd, the next in age drives them, and forms the rear; the
young and the weak are in the middle. The females carry their young, and
hold them close with their trunks. They only observe this order, however,
in perilous marches, when they go to feed on cultivated lands. They walk
or travel with less precaution in furests and solitary places, but stil] keeping
at such a moderate distance from each other, as to be able to give m«tual
assistance, and seasonable warnings of danger. Some, however, straggle,
and remain behind the others; none but these are attacked by hunters, for
a small army would be requisite to assail the whole herd, and they could
not conquer without a great loss of men. It is even dangerous to do them
the least injury; they go straight to the offender, and, notwithstanding the
weight of their body, they walk so fast that they easily overtake the lightest
man in running; they pierce him through with their tusks, or seize him
with their trunks, throw him against a stone, and tread him nder their
feet; but it is only when they have been provoked, that they become so
furious and so implacable. It is said, that when they have been once attack
ed by men, or have fallen into a snare, they never forget it, and seek for
revenge on al: occasions. As they have an exquisite sense of smell,
perhaps more perfect than any other animal, owing to the large extent
of their nose, they smell a man ata great distance, and could easily follow
nim by the track. These animals are fond of the banks of rivers, deep
valleys, shady places, and marshy grounds; they cannot subsist a long
while without water, and they make it thick and muddy before they drink.
They often fill their trunks with it, either to convey it to their mouth, or
only to cool their nose, and to amuse themselves in sprinkling it around

XN
MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. oR)

them. They cannot support cold, and suffer equally from excessive heat:
fur, to avoid the burning rays of the sun, they penetrate into the thickest
forests. They also bathe often in the water; the enormous size of their
body is rather an advantage to them in swimming, and they do not swim
so deep in the water as other animals; besides, the length of their trunk,
which they erect, and through which-they breathe, takes from them all fear
of being drowned.

Their common food is roots, herbs, leaves, and young branches; they also
eat fruit and corn, but they have a dislike to flesh and fish. When one cf
them finds abundant pasture, he calls the others, and invites them to come arc
feed with him. As they want a great quantity of fodder, they often change
their place, and when they find cultivated lands, they make a prodigious
waste; their bodies being of an enormous weight, they destroy ten times more
with their feet, than they consume for their food, which may be reckoned at
the rate of one hundred and fifty pounds of grass daily. As they never feed
but in great numbers, they waste a large territory in about an hour's time;
for this reason, the Indians and the negroes take great pains to prevent their
visits, and to drive them away, by making a great noise, and great fires; not-
withstanding these precautions, however, the elephants often take possession
of them, drive away the cattle and men, and sometimes pull down their
cottages. It is difficult to frighten them, as they are little susceptible ef
fear; nothing can stop them but fireworks, and crackers, thrown amongst
them, the sudden effect of which, often repeated, forces them sometimes to
turn back. It is very difficult to part them, for they commonly attack their
enemies all together, proceed unconcerned, or turh back.

The female elephant. goes two years with young; she only brings fort
one at a time, which has teeth as soon as brought forth. He is then larger
than a boar; yet his tusks are not visible, they appear soon after, and at
six months old are some inches in length; at that age, the elephant is
larger than an ox, and the tusks continue to increase till he is advanced
in years.

It is very easy to tame the elephant. But there is no domestic elephant
that has not been wild before. The manner of taking, taming, and bring-
ing them into submission, deserves particular attention. In the middle of
forests, and in the vicinity of the places which they frequent, a large space
is chosen, and encircled with palisadoes; the strongest trees of the forest
serve instead of stakes, to which cross pieces of timber are fustened, which
support the other stakes; a man may easily pass through this palisado;
there is another great opening, through which the elephant may go in, with
a trap hanging over it, or a gate whicn ts snut behind him. To bring nim
to that inclosure, he must be enticed by a tame female, ready to take the
tale; and when her leader thinks she is near enough to be heard, he obliges
her to indicate by her cries the condition she is in. The wild male answers
uvmediately, and begins his march to join her: she repeats her call now

36
282 MA MMALIA—ELEPHANT.

‘ .

tad ther, and arrives first to the first inclosure, where the male, following
ser track, enters through the same gate. As soon as he perceives himselt
shut up, his ardor vanishes, and when he discovers the hunters, he becomes
furious. They throw at him ropes with a running Knot to stop nim; tney
fetter his legs ana his trunk, they bring two or three tame elephamis, led by
dexterous men, and try to tie them with the wild elephant, and at last, by
dint of dexterity, strength, terrcr, and caresses, they succeed in taming him
in a few days. :

The elephant, once tamed, becomes the most tractable and the most sub-
missive of al] animals; he conceives an affection for his leader, he caresses
him, and seems to guess whatever can please him. Ina lite time he
understands the signs, and even the expression of sounds; he distinguishes
the tone of command, that of anger or good nature, and acts accordingly.
He never mistakes the words of his master. He receives his orders with
attention, executes them with prudence and eagerness, without precipita-
tion ; for his motions are always measured, and his character seems to
participate of the gravity of his body. He is easily taught to bend the knee
to assist those who will ride on his back. He caresses his friends with his
trunk, and salutes with it the persons he is directed to take notice of. He
makes use of it.to lift burdens, and helps to load himself. He has no aver-
sion to being clothed, and seems to delight in a golden harness or magnifi-
cent trappings. He is easily. put to the traces of carts, and draws ships
upon occasion. He draws evenly, without stopping, or any marks o. dis-
like, provided he is not insulted by unseasonable correction ; and provided
‘is driver seems to be thankful for the spontaneous exertion of his strength.
Fis leader is mounted on his neck, and makes use of an iron rod, crooked
at the end, with which he strikes him gently on the head to make him turn
or increase his pace. But often a word is sufficient, especially if he has had
time to make himself well acquainted with his leader, and has a confidence
in him. His attachment is sometimes so strong and so lasting, and his
affection so great, that commonly he refuses to serve under any other per-
son; and he is known to have died of grief for having in anger killed his
vovernor.

If it is true, as has been affirmed, that the elephant lives two hundred
years, and that he begets when he is one hundred and twenty years .dd,
each couple brings forth forty young in that space of time. Besides, having
nothing to fear from other animals, and litle even from men, who take
them with great difficulty, the species has not decreased, and is generally
dispersed in all the southern parts of Africa and Asia.

From time immemorial, the Indians made use of elephants in war.
Amongst those nations unacquainted with the European military discipline,
they were the best troops of their armies; and as long as battles were
decided by mere weapons, they commonly vanquished. Yet, we see in
history, that the Greeks and Romans used themselves sovn to thuse mone
MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 283

sters of war; they opened their ranks to let them gc though; they did not
attempt to wound them, but threw all their darts against their leaders, who
were forced tv surrender, and to calm the elephants when separated from
their troops; and now that fire is become the element of war, and the prin-
cipal instrument of death, the elephants, who are afraid of the noise and the
fire of the artillery, would be rather an incumbrance in battle, and more
dangerous than useful,

 

In those regions, however, where our cannons and murdering arts are
yet scarcely known, they fight still with elephants. At Cochin, and in parts
of Malabar, they do not make use of horses, and all those who do not fight
on foot are mounted upon elephants. In Tonquin, Siam, and Pegu, the
king, and all the grandees, never ride but upon elephants. On festivai days
they are preceded and followed by a great number of these animals richly
284 MAMMALIA ELEPHANT.

caparisoned, and covered with the richest stuffs. On comparing the rela-
uions of travellers and historians, it appears that elephants are more
numerous in Africa than in Asia; they are there also less mistrustful, not
so wild, and, as if they knew the unskilfulness and the. little power of the
men with whom they have to deal in this part of the world, come every
day without fear to their habitations.

The following extracts are furnished by Major Denham: ‘While I was
thus employed, Maramy came galloping up, saying that he had found three
very large elephants, grazing to the south-east, close to the water ; when he
came within a few hundred yards of them, all the persons un foot, and my
servant on a mule, were ordered to halt, while four of us, who were mount-
ed, rode up to these stupendous animals.

“The Shiekh’s people began screeching violently ; and although, at first,
the elephants appeared to treat our approach with contempt, yet they soon
moved off, erecting their ears, and giving a roar that shook the ground
under us. One was an immense fellow, I should suppose sixteen feet high;
the other two were females, and moved away ratuer quickly, while the
male kept in the rear, as if to guard their retreat. We wheeled swiftly
round him; and Maramy casting a spear at him, which struck him just un-
der the tail, and seemed to give him about as much pain as when we prick
our finger with a pin the huge beast threw up his pruboscis in the air with
a loud roar, and from it cast such a volume of sand, that, unprepared as J
was for such an event, nearly blinded me. The elephant will sometimes
rush upon a man and horse, and after choking them with dust, will destru,
them in an instant.

“As we had cut him off from following his companions, he took the
direction leading to where we had left the mule and the footmen; they
quickly fled in al] directions, and my man Columbus was so alarmed, that
Le did not get the better of it for the whole day. We pressed the elephant
now very close, riding before, behind, and on each side of him; and hia
look sometimes, as he turned his head, had the effect of instantly checking
the speed of my horse; his pace never exceeded a clumsy rolling walk, but
was sufficient to keep our horses in a short gallop. I gave him a ball from
each barrel of my gun, at about fifty yards distance; but the first, which
struck him on the body, failed in making the least impression. After giving
himn another spear, which flew off his tough hide without exciting the least
sensation, we left him to his fate.

“News was soon brought us that eight elephants were at no great dis-
tance, and coming towards us; it was thought prudent to chase them away,
and we all mounted for that purpose. They appearec unwilling to go, and
did not even turn their backs till we were quite close, and had thrown
several spears at them; the flashes from the pan of the gun, however, seem-
ed to alarm them more than any thing; they retreated very majestically,
first throwing out as before, a quantity of sand. A number of the birds here

~
MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 285

called ¢uda, were perched ‘1pon the backs of the elephants; these resemble
a thrush in shape and note, ana were represented tu me, as being extremely
useful to the elephant in picking off the vermin from those parts which it is
not in his power to reach.’

 

THE ASIATIC ELEPHANT.

   

     

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fw general, the elephants of Asia are of a larger size, and superior in
mivength to those of Africa; in particular, those of Ceylon, who exceed in
nourage and sagacity all those of Asia. Probably they owe these qualifica-
tions to their education, more improved in Ceylon than any where else.
They differ also in other particulars, so as to constitute them a different
species. “His head,” says Mr Bennett, ‘‘is more oblong, and his forehead
presents in the centre a deep concavity between two lateral and rounded
elevations; that of the African being round and convex in all its parts.
The teeth of the former are composed of transverse vertical lamine of equal
breadth, while those of the latter form rhomboidal or lozenge shaped divi-
stons. The ears of the Asiatic are also smaller, and descend no lower than
his neck, and he exhibits four distinct toes on his hind feet. The African
on the contrary, is furnished with ears of much greater size, descending t:
his legs, and no more than three toes are visible on his posterior extrem.
ties.” The individual, which is the subject of the wood cut, is believed :
be little more than three years old.

The elephants of the Indies easily carry burdens of three or four thousan:
weight ; the smallest, that is, those of Africa, lift up freely with their trunks

 

1 Elephas Indicus, Cuv.
286 MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT.

burdens of two hundred pounds weight, and place them on their shoulders
they take in this trunk a great quantity of water, which they throw out around
them at seven or eight feet distance ; they can carry burdens of more than
a thousand weight upon their tusks; with their trunk they break branches
of trees, and with their tusks they root out the trees. One may judge of
heir strength by their agility, considering at the same time the bulk of their
body; they walk as fastas a small horse on the trot, and when they run,
they can keep up witha horse on full gallop, which seldom happens in their
wild state, except when they are provoked by anger, or frightened. The
tame elephants travel easily, and without fatigue, fifteen or twenty leagues
a day; and when they are hurried, they may travel thirty-five or forty
leagues. They are heard at a great distance, and may be followed very
near on the track, for the traces which they leave on the ground are not
equivocal; and on the ground where the steps of their feet are marked they
are fifteen or eighteen inches in diameter.

When the elephant is taken care of, he lives a long while even in capti-
vity. Some authors have written, that he lives four or five hundred years;
others, two or three hundred; and the most credible, one hundred and
twenty, thirty, and even one hundred and fifty years. Whatever care, how-
ever, is taken of the elephant, he does not live long in temperate countries,
and still less in cold climates. The elephant which the king of Portugal
sent to Louis XIV., in 1668, and which was then but four years old, died in
his seventeenth, in January, 1681, and lived only thirteen years in the
menagerie of Versailles, where he was treated with care and tenderness,
and fed with profusion. He had every day four pounds of bread, twelve
pints of wine, two buckets of porridge, with four or five pounds of bread,
two buckets of rive boiled in water, without reckoning what was given to
him by visitors ; he had, besides, every day one sheaf of corn to amuse him-
self; for, after he had eaten the corn ears, he made akind of whip of straw,
and used it to drive away the flies; he delighted in breaking the straw in
small bits, which he did with great dexterity with his trunk; and, as he
was led to walk daily, he plucked the grass and eat it.

The common color of the elephant is ash gray, or blackish. The white
are extremely scarce; some have been seen at different times in the Indies,
where also some are found of a reddish color. ‘

The elephant has very small eyes, compared with his enormous size, but
they are sensible and lively; and what distinguishes then from all other
animals, is their pathetic, sentimental expression. He seems to reflect, to
think, and to deliberate ; and never acts sill he has examined and observed
several times, without passion or precipitation, the signs which he is to
obey. Dogs, the eyes of which have much expression, are animals too
lively to distinguish their successive sensations; but as the elephant is
naturally grave and sedate, one may read in his eyes the order and outward |
appearang? of his interior affections.
4
MAMMALILA—ELEPHANT. 28

He has a quick ear, and this organ is outwardly, like that of smell-
ug, more marked in the elephant than in any other animal; lis ears are
very large, even in proportion to his body; they are flat, and close to the
head, like those of a man; they commonly hang down, but he raises them
up, and moves them with great facility ; he makes use of them to wipe his
eyes, and to cover them against the inconveniency of dust and flies. {le
delights in the sound of instruments, and seems to like music; he soon
learns to beat time, and to move accordingly ; he seems animated by the
beat of the drum and the sound of trumpets; he has an exquisite smell, and
1s passionately fond of perfumes of all sorts, and of fragrant flowers; he
selects them one after another, and makes nosegays, which he smells with
eagerness, and then carries them to his mouth as if he incended to taste
them.

 

His sense of feeling centres in his trunk; but it is as delicate and as
distinct in that sort of hand as in that of man; this trunk, composed of
membranes, nerves, and muscles, is, at the same time, a member capatle
of motion, and an organ of sense; the animal can not only move and bend
it, but he can shorten, lengthen, and turn it all-ways. The extremity of
this trunk terminates by an edge, which projects above like a finger; it 1s
with this sort of finger that the elephant does whatever we do with ours,
he picks up from the ground the smallest pieces of money ; he gathers nuts
and flowers, choosing them one after another; he unties knots, opens and
shuts doors, turning the keys, and bolts them; he learns to draw regular
characters with an instrument as small as a pen.
%
288 M \MMALIA—ELEPHANT.

Although the elephant has a more retentive memory, and more intelli.
gence than any other animal, he has the brain smaller than most of them;
he is, at the same time, a miracle of intelligence and a monster of matter,
his body is very thick, without any suppleness; the neck is short and very
stiff; the head small and deformed ; the ears of an excessive diameter ; and
the nose is of a still more disproportionate length; the eyes are too small
as well as the mouth; his legs are like massive pillars, straight and stiff
the feet so short and so small, that he seems to have none; the skin is hard
thick, and callous. All these deformities are remarkable, as all of them are
exhibited on a large scale; and they are more disagreeable to the eye, as
most of them have no other example .n the creation; no other anima
having either the head, the feet, the nose, the ears, or the tusks, made 01
placed like those of the elephant.

The elephant is yet singular in the conformation of the feet and the
texture of the skin. He is not clothed with hair like other quadrupeds ; his
skin is bare; some bristles issue out of the chops; they are very thin on the
body, and thicker on the eyelids, on the back part of the head, within the
ears, the thighs, and the legs. The epidermis, or outside skin, bard and
callous, has two sorts of wrinkles, some hollow, others prominent. In man,
and other animals, the epidermis sticks every where close to the skin. In
the ele thant, it is only fastened by some points, like two quilted stuffs one
ahove tic other. This epidermis is naturally dry, and soon acquires three
or four lines of thickness, by the crusts which are generated one above the
other drying up. It is this thickness of the epidermis which produces the
elephantiasis, or dry leprosy, to which man, whose skin is bare, like that of
the elephant, is sometimes subject. This distemper is very common to
elephants; and, to prevent it, the Indians take care to rub them often with
oil, and to preserve the skin supple by frequent bathing. It is rather tender
where itis not callous; and the elephant is so fearful of the sting of the flies.
that he not only employs hisenatural motions, but even the resources of his
intelligence, to get rid of them ; he makes use of his tail, of his ears, of his
trunk, to strike them; he contracts his skin wherever he can, and squeezes
them to death betwixt the wrinkles. Ife cleans his skin by rubbing it with
pumice stones, and afterwards pours on it perfumed oil and colors. The
conformation of the feet and legs is also singular, and different in the
elephant from that of other ae i the fore legs seem to be higher than
those behind, yet the hind legs are the lo. gest; they are not bent like the
hind legs of a horse or an ox, the thighs of which seem to be of the same
piece with the buttocks; their knee is very near the belly, and the foot so
high and so long, that it seems to make a great part of the leg. In the
elephant, on the contrary, this part is very short, and touches the gronnd>
he has the knee, like man, in the middle of the leg, not near the belly.
This foot, so short and so small, is divided into five toes, which are all co-
vered with a skin, none appearing outwardly ; one sees only a sort of claws.
MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 289

tne uniber of which varies, though that of the toes is constant; for he has
always five to each foot, and commonly also five claws; but sometimes he
has no :nore than four, or eveg three; and, in this case, they do not cor
respond exactly with the extremity of the fingers.

The ears of the elephant are very long; his tail is not longer than the
ear; it is commonly near three feet in length; it is rather thin, sharp and
garnished at the extremity with a tuft of large, black, shining, and solid
bristles, which are as large aud as strong as wire; and a man cannot break
them with his hands, as they are elastic and pliant. This tuft of hair is ap
ornament which the negro women are particularly fond of; and they attra
bute to it some particular virtue, according to their superstitious notions ;
an elephant’s tail is sometimes sold for two or three s:aves ; and the negroes
often hazard their lives to cut and snatch it from ine living animal.

The largest elephants of the Indies, and the eastern coasts of Africa, are
fourteen feet high; the smallest, which are found in Senegal, and in the
other western parts of Africa, are not above ten or eleven feet; and those
which have been brought young into Europe, were not so high. That at the
menagerie at Versailles, which came from Congo, was but seven feet and a
half high in his seventeenth year. During thirteen years that he lived in
France, he did not grow above a foot; so that at the age of four, when he
was sent, he was only six feet and a half high.

in order to give a complete idea of the nature and intelligence of this
singular animal, we shall insert here some particulars communicated by the
Marquis of Montmirail. The Indians make use of the elephant to carry
artillery over mountains; and it is then that he gives the greatest proofs
of his intelligence. He acts in the following manner :— When the oxen,
yoked two and two, endeavor to draw up the mountain the piece of artillery
the elephant pushes the breech of the gun with his forehead; and at every
effort that he makes, he supports the carriage with his knee, which he
places near the wheel; and it seems as if he understands what is said to
him. When his leader employs him in some hard labor, he explains what
is his work, and the reasons which ought to engage him to obey. If the
elephant shows an aversion to comply, the cornac (so his leader is called)
promises to give him arrack, or something he likes; then the anirnal agrees
to every thing proposed ; but it is dangerous to forfeit his word; more than
one cornac has been the victim of his deception. An instance of this hap-
pened in the Deccan, which deserves to be recorded ; and, however incredi-
ble it may appear, it is exactly true. An elephant had been revenged cf Lis
cornac by killing him. His wife, witness of this vatastrophe, took her two
children and threw them to the feet of the animal, still furious; telling him,
Since thou hast killed my husband, take uso my life, and that of my children
The elephant stopped short, grew calm, and, as if be had been moved with re-
gret and compassion, took with his trunk the largest of the two children, placed
it on his neck, adopted him for his cornac, and would have no other leader

37
290 MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT.

If the elephant is vindictive, he is no less grateful. A soldier of Pondi-
eherry, who commonly carried to one of these animals a certain measure
of arrack every time that he received his pay having one day drank more
than common, and seeing himself pursued by the guard, who threatened to
conduct him to prison, took refuge under the elephant, and slept there. It
was in vain that the guard attempted to draw him out from this asylum;
the elephant defended him with his trunk. The next day the soldier, he»
come sober, was struck with terror to lie under an animal of this enormous
bulk. The elephant, who, no doubt, perceived his consternation, careszed
him with his trunk, to remove his fears, and made him understand that he
might depart freely.

The elephant falls sometimes into a sort of a frenzy, which deprives htm
of his tractableness, and makes him extremely formidable. This commonly
happens in the spring season. He is commonly killed on the first symptoms
of madness, for fear of mischief. Sometimes he is tied with heavy chains
in hopes that he will come to himself; but when he is in his natural state,
the most acute pains cannot engage him to do any harm to persons who
have not offended him. An elephant, furious with the wounds which he
had received in battle at Hambour, ran through the fields, and cried out in
the most hideous manner. A soldier, who, notwithstanding the warning of
his companions, could not fly, perhaps, because he was wounded, remained
in his way ; the elephant was afraid to trample him under his feet, took him
with his trunk, placed hirh gently on one side of the road, and continued his
march. The gentlemen of the Academy of Sciences have also communicated
to us some facts which they have learned from those who governed the ele-
phant at the menagerie of Versailles; and these facts seem to deserve a place.

“The elephant seemed to discern when any person made a fool of him;
and he remembered the affront to be revenged of it the first opportunity.
Having been balked by a man, who feigned to throw something into his
mouth, he struck him with his trunk, and broke two of his ribs; afterwards
he trampled him under his feet, and broke one of his legs; and having
kneeled down, he tried to thrust his tusks into the man’s belly, which, how-
ever, went into the ground on both sides of the thigh, which was not wound-
ed. He bruised another man, by squeezing him against the wall for a
similar mockery. A painter was desirous to draw him in an extraordinary
attitude, which was, to keep his trunk erect, and the mouth open. The
servant of the painter, to make him remain in that attitude, threw fruits
into his mouth; but afterwards he deceived him, which provoked his indigna-
ton; aud, as if he had known, that the cause of this deception was the
painter’s desire of having him drawn, he was revenged on his master, by
throwing with his trunk a great quantity of water, which spoiled the paper
mtended for his design ”

He made less use of his strength than of his dexterity, whicn was such,
that he untied, with great facility, a double leather suring which fastened his
MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 29.

leg, with his mouth untying it from the buckle’s tongue, and after this buckle
had a small string twisted around it, with divers knots, he untied them all,
without breaking any thing. One night, that he had thus disentangled
himself from his leather strings, he broke open so dexterously the d>or of
his lodge, that his governor was not waked by the noise. He went tience
into divers yards of the menagerie, breaking open doors that were shut, and
pulling down the stone work, when the passage was too narrow fur him

aud thus he went into the lodges of other animals, terrifying them to such a
uicgree, that they ran away to hide themselves in the most remote part of
the park. In fine, to omit nothing of what may contribute to make all the
natural faculties of this animal perfectly known, as well ‘as his acquired
knowledge, we shall add scme facts, extracted from the most credible auth crs.

“Of five elephants,” says Tavernier, ‘which huntcrs had taken, three
escaped, although their bodies and their legs were fastened with chains and
ropes. ‘These men told us a very surprising circumstance, if we can believe
it, which is, that when once these elephants have been caught, and eluded
the snares of their adversaries, if they are compelled to go into the woods,
they are mistrustful, and break with their trunk a large branch, with which
they sound the ground before they put their foot upon it, to discover if there
are any holes on their passage, not to be caught a second time; which made
the hunters, who related this singularity, despair of catching again the three
elephants who had escaped. Wesaw the other two which they had caught;
each of them was betwixt two tame elephants; and around the wild
elephants were six men, holding spears. They spoke to these animals
in presenting them something to eat, and telling them, in their language,
Take ths aud eat it. They had small bundles of hay, bits of black sugar, or
tice boiled in water, with pepper. When the wild elephant refused to da
what he was ordered, the men commanded the tame elephants to beat him,
which they did immediately; one striking his forehead with his ; and when
he seemed to aim at revenge against his aggressor, another struck him; so
that the poor wild elephant perceived he had nothing to do but to obey.”

“T have observed several times,” says Edward Terry, “ that the elephant
does many things which are rather an indication of human reasoning, than
a simple, natural instinct. He dues whatever his master commands him.
If he orders him to frighten any person, he advances towards him with the
same fury as if he would tear him to pieces; and when he comes near him,
he stops short, without doing him any harm. If the master wishes to
affront another, he speaks to the elephant, who takes with his trunk dirty
water, and throws it at his face. The Mogul has elephants for the execu-
tion of criminals condemned to death. If their leader bids them to dispatcl,
these wretches svon, they tear them to pieces in a moment with their feet-
on the contrary, if he commands them to make these criminals languish,
they break their bones one after another and make them sulle torments as
cruel as those of the wheel ”
292 MAMMALIA- ELEPHANT.

The celebrated white elephant, which is the only one in the possessicn of
the king of Ava, is of a cream volor,.and has no appearance of disease or
‘debility. It was taken in 1806, when young, in the forests of Pegu, and 1s

 

about twenty-seven years old. Both the court and people consider it pecue “
hharly inauspicious to want a white elephant; hence the repute in whicn
‘they are held, and the anxiety to obtain them.

The capture of a white
‘elephant is consequently highly rewarded.

 

It has been asserted by Builon and others, that the young elephant sucks
MAMMALIA—HIPPOPOTAMUS. 293

with its trunk. It is now ascertained that it sucks with its mouth like otha
animals. Mr Cross says, “in sucking, the young elephant always. grasps
the nipple, which projects horizontally from the breast, with the side of his
mouth. I have very often observed this; and so sensible are the attendants
of it, that with them it is a common practice to raise a smull mound of
earth, about six or eight inches high, for the young one to stand on, and tus
save the mother the trouble of bending her body every time she gives suck,
which she cannot readily do when tied to her picket.” _M. Foucher d’Obson-
ville, who had also observed the young elephant playing with the teat of the
mother with his trunk, attributes the prevalent error to this circumstance.

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.)

 

Attnoven this animal has been celebrated from the earliest ages, it was,
notwithstanding, but imperfectly known to the an:zients. It was only
towards the sixteenth century that we had some precise indications on the
subject.

In comparing the descriptions which we have observed in different travel-
lers, the hippopotamus appears to be an animal whose body is longer and
thicker than that of the rhinoceros; but his fore legs are much shorter. lis
head is short, and thick in proportion to the body. He has no horns, neither
on the nose, like the rhinoceros, nor on the head, like ruminating animals.
His cry, when hurt, approaches as near to the neighing of the hurse, as the

 

1 Hinpopotamus amphibius, Lin. The genus Hippopotamus has four upper and four
Lower incisors; two upper and two lower canines: fourteen upper and fourteen lower
molars. Lower canines much developed. forming strong tusks curved upwards ; hard,
thick, and square; muzzle very large and gibbous; bone very thick and heavy; legs
ehort, wih four toes on the feet; eyes and ears small; tail short; two ventral mamma
skin verv thick, almost without hair.
294 MAMMALIA—HIPPOPOTAMUS

bellowing of the buffalo; but his usual voice resembles the neighing of a
horse, from which, however, he differs in every other respect; and this fact,
we may presume, has been the sole reason for giving him the naine of
hippopotamus or river horse, as the howling of the lynx, which resembles
that of the wolf, has occasioned him to be called the stag-hke wolf. The
incisive teeth of the hippopotamus, and especially the two canine eeth of
the lower jaw, are very long, very strong, and of so hard a substaace, that
they strike fire with a piece of iron. This is probably what has given rite
fo the fable of the ancients, who have reported that the hippaputamus
vomited fire. These canine teeth of this animal are white, so clear and so
hard that they are preferable to ivory, for making artificial teeth. The
molars are square, or rather longer on one side than the other, nearly like
the grinders of a man, and so thick, that a single one weighs more \han
three pounds. The largest of the incisive, or the canine teeth, are twelve,
and even sixteen inches in length, and sometimes weigh twelve or thirteen
pounds each. The skin is in some parts two inches thick ; and the Africans
cut it into whip thongs, which, in consequence of their softness and pliability,
they prefer to those procured from the rhineceros’s hide.

The male hippopotamus is about six feet nine inches long, from the
extremity of the muzzle to the beginning of the tail; fifteen feet in cireum-
ference, and six feet and a half in height. His legs are about two feet ten
inches long; the length of the head three feet and a half, and eight feet and
a half in circumference ; and the width of the mouth, two feet four inches.
It, however, sometimes acquires much greater magnitude. In the south of
Africa, M. le Vaillant killed one which measured ten feet seven inches in
length, and about nine feet in circumference.

Thus powerfully armed, with a prodigious strength of body, he might
render himself formidable to every animal; but he is naturally gentle, and
appears never to be the aggressor, except when annoyed or wounded. It
has been erroneously stated, that he curnmonly moves slowly on the land,
but, on the contrary, when he has been injured, he has been known t pure
sue persons for several hours, who escaped with great difficulty. [le swims
quicker than he runs, pursues the fish, and makes them his prey. Tiree or,
tour of them are often seen at the bottom of a river, near some cataract
forming a kind of line, and seizing upon such fish as are forced down by tha
violence of the stream. He delights much in the water, and stays there as
willingly as upon land; notwithstanding which, he has no membranes; be-
tween his toes, like the beaver and otter; and it is plain, that the great ease
with which he swims, is only owing to the great capacity of his body, which
only makes bulk for bulk, and is nearly of an equal weight with the water.
Besides, he remains a long time under water, and walks at the bottum as
well. as he does in the open air. When he quits 1t to graze upon land, he
eats sugar -canes, rushes, millet, rice, roots, &c., of which he consumes and
destroys a great quantity, and does much injury to cultivated lands; but, ag
MAMMALIA—HIPPOPOTAMUS. 295

he is more tim! upon earth than in the water, he is very easily driven
away; and, 23 his legs are short, he cannot save himself wall by flight, if he
is far from any water. Tis resource, when he finds himself in danger, is to
plunge hi.aself into the water, and go a great distance before he reappears.
He commonly retreats from his pursuers; but if he is wounded, he becomes
irritated, and immediately facing about w.th great fury, rushes against the
boats, seizes them with his teeth, often tears pieces out of them, and sor ie-
times sinks them under water. ‘I have seen,” says a traveller, “an
hippopotamus open his mouth, fix one tooth on the side of a boat and another
to the second plank under the keel; that is, four feet distant from each other,
pierce the side through and through, and in this manner sink the boat to
the bottom, I have seen another lying by the side of the sea-shore, upon
which the waves had driven a shallop heavily laden, which remained upon
luis back dry, and which was again washed back by another wave, without
the animal appearing to have received the least injury. When the negroes
go a fishing in their canoes, and meet with an hippopotamus, they throw
fish to him; and then he passes on, without disturbing their fishery any
more. He injures most when he can rest himself against the earth; but
when he floats in the water, he canenly bite. Once, when our shallop was
near shore, I saw one of them get underneath it, lift it above water upon
his hack, and overset it with six men who were in it; but fortunately they
received no hurt.”

“ We dare not,” says ancther traveller, “irritate the hippopotamus in the
water, since an adventure happened, which was near proving fetal to three
men. They were going in a small canog, to kill one in a river where there
was about eight or ten feet water. After they had discovered him walking
at the bottom, according to his custoin, they wounded him with a long lance,
which so greatly enraged him, that he rose immediately to the surface of the
water, regirded them with a terrible look, opened his mouth, and, at one
bite, took a great piece out of the side of the canoe, and had very nearly
overturned it; but he replunged, almost directly, to the bottom of the water.”

These animals are only numerous in some parts of the world; it even
appears, that the species is confined to particular climates, and seldom to he
met with, but in the rivers of Africa. Dutch travellers say that they bear
three or four young ones; but this appears very suspicious, as the hippopota~
mus is of an enormous bulk; he is in the class of the elephant, the rhinoce-
ros, the whale, and all other great animals, who bring forth but one; and
this analugy appears more certain than ail the testimonies that they have
exhibited. The female brings forth her young upon land, and the calf, at
the instant when it comes into the world, will fly to the water for shelter if
pursued; a circumstance which Thunherg notices as a remarkable instance
of pure instinct. Major Denham furnishes us with the following amusing
account ; —

“It was intended this evening to have killed an hippopotamus, an animal
296 MAMMALIA—HIPPOPOTAMUS.

which exists in great numbers in the lake, on the border of which we were
encamped; but a violent thunder storm, to our great disappointment, pre-
vented our witnessing so novel a species of sport. The flesh is considered
agreat delicacy. On the morrow we had a full opportunity of convincing
ourselves that these uncouth and stupendous animals are very sens bly
attracted by musical sounds, even though they should not be of the softest

 

kind; as we passed along the burders of Lake Muggaby at sunrise, they
tollowed the drums of the different chiefs the whole length of the water,
sometimes approaching so close to the shore, that the water they spouted
from their mouths reached the persons who were passing along the banks.
I counted fifteen at one time sporting on the surface; and my servant
Columbus shot one of them in the head, when he gave so loud a roar, as he
buried himself in the lake, that all the others disappeared in an insvant.”

The preceding cut is copied from Thompson’s Travels in Southern Africa,
from which we make the following extract. ‘ The hippopotami are nume-
rous in many parts of this river, (the Gariep,) and are occasionally caugl t by
the natives, by means of huge pitfalls dug in the paths frequented by u era
when they issue from the floods, to browse on the wooded banks. The
capiwe of one of those enormous animals must be an event of rejoicing « a
whele horde of half starved Bushmen or Koranas, sufficient to banish hanger
and neaviness for months tocome. The hippopotamus, thougt timid on
shore, is sometimes a dangerous antagonist in the water. Mr Mcffat mn-
formed me, that once when he was passing Read’s Drift, a Hottentot of his
party was bit in two by one of these monstrous animals.”

It appears from the accounts of travellers, that the numbers of this animal
are very great in nearly all the lakes and rivers of Africa, from the Cape of
Good Hope to 15° north latitude.
MAMMALIA—HOG. Q97

THE HOG!

OF all quadrupeds, the hog appears the most rough and unpolished. Hus
voraciousness apparently depends on the continual necessity which he has
ww fill the vast capaciousness of his stomach. It is the roughness of the
hair, the hardness of the skin. and the thickness of the fat, which render
these animals so insensible t. blows. Mice have been known to lowe in
their backs, an& eat their fit and their siin, without their seeming seusiole
of \t Their other senses are good; and the hunitsmen know that wild
boars both sve, hear, aud smell. at a great distance; since, in order to sur-
prise them, they wuit in silence during the night, and place themselves
under the wind, to prevent the boars perceiving their smell, of which they
are sensible ata great distance, and which always immediately makes them
change their read.

Their imperfection in the sense of touch is still more augmented bya
distemper which 1» called the meast!es, and which renders them almost abso-
lutely insensible. This disorder proceeds in general from the coarseness of
their food; for che wild boar, which usually lives on corn, fruits, acorns, and
roots, is not subject to this distemper, any more than the young pig whilst
it sucks. This is only to be prevented by keeping the domestic hog in
a clean stable, and giving him plenty of wholesome food; by this means
his flesh will become excellent to the taste, and the lard firm and brittle,
especially, if he be kept for a fortnight or three weeks before he is killed,
in a clean stable, without litter, giving him no other food than dry corn;
for this purpose we should choose a swine of about a year old, full of flesh
and fat.

Voracious and uncleanly as he is, the hog has some good qualities. If
one of his own kind utters a cry of distress, every hog within hearing in-
stantly hurries to his assistance. When teased by a dog, they have Leen
known to hem him round, and kill him. Ifa male and female are brought
up together when young, and the latter loses her companion, she begins
immediately to decline, and probably dies of a broken heart.

Nor is che hog wholly useless while living. In Minorca, he is frequently
yoked to the plough in conjunction with an ass, and he performs his task
in a workmanlike manner. In some parts of Italy and F.ance, swine are
used to discover truffles, which grow a few inches under the surface of the
soil. A cord is tied round the animal’s hind leg, he is conveyed to the field,
and wherever he stops to root with his nose, there the truffle is invariably

 

1 Sus serafa, Lis. The genus Sus has four or six upper and six lower incisors; two
upper and two lower canines; fourteen upper and fourteen lower molars, Caaimtes heat
upwards and laterally; molars tuberculons: lower incisors bent forward: for toes on all
the feet, he two middie ones only touching the ground, armed with strong outs; aose
elongated, cartilacinous ; body covered with bristles; twelve teats. 7

38
2938 MAMMALIA—HOG

found. A recent French writer on the noble science of gastronomy luda
crously denominates the hog, ‘ the Christopher Columbus of the truffle.”

That hogs are not destitute of sagacity, is proved by the long succession
of learned pigs which, for so many years, have been trained to astonish the
multitude at fairs, and other places, where numbers of persons are con~
gregated.

 

The wild boar is hunted by dogs, or else taken by surprise in the nignt by
the light of the moon. As he runs but slowly, leaves a strong odor behind
him, defends himself against the dogs, and wounds them dangerously, so he
should not be hunted by dugs designed for the stag and the goat; for this
hunting spoils their scent, and teaches them to go slowly. The oldest only
should be attacked, and these are easily known by their traces; a young
wild boar, of three years old, is difficult to take, because he runs a great
way without stopping; instead of which, a wild boar that ts older does not
run far, suffers himself to be closely hunted, and has no great fear of the
dogs. In the day, he usually hides himself in the thiekest and most unfre-
quented part of the wood; and in the evening, and at night, he goes out to
seek for food. In summer, when the corn is ripe, it is easy to surprise
him ; but mostly soamong oats, where he frequents every night. As-soon as
he is killed, the hunters immediately cut out the testes, the smell of which
is so strong, that if five or six hours were to elapse without eu.s1z them
out, al) the flesh would be infected ; and in an old wild boar tne aeau only
is good to eat; instead of which, the Hesh of the young wild bear is
extremely delicate.

No person that has lived in the country ever so little, is ignorant of the
profits arising from the hog; his flesh sells for more than that of the ox; the
lard is valuable; the bluod, the bowels, the viscera, the feet, and he tongue,
when properly prepared, are all fit to eat. The dung of the hog is much
colder than that of other animals, and should not be used for-any but hot
and dry lands. The skin has its use, for saddles are made of it; and
brooms, brushes, and pencil brushes are made of the hair. The flesh of this
animal takes salt and saltpetre better than any other, and will keep longer
salted.

This species, though abundant, and greatly spread in Europe, in Afiica,
and in Asia, was not, however, found on the continent of the New World.
Tt was transported by the Spaniards, who have carried black hogs to the
continent, and to almost all the large islands of America; they are multiplis
MAMMALIA—BABIROUSSA. 299

ed, and becomne wild in many places; and resemble European wild boars,
with this difference, that the body is shorter, the head larger, and the skin
thicker; and domestic hogs, in warm climates, are al) black like wild boars.
The fecundity of the hog is very great; instances are known of individuals
producing three hundred and twenty-five young in twenty liuers, and two
hundred and five in twelve litters. The English variety of the hog come-
times weighs twelve hundred pounds. There are many other varieties.

 

THE BABIROUSSA, OR INDIAN IIOG.2

 

ALL naturalists have regarded this animal as a kind of hog, though it has
naither the head, stape, bristles, nor tail of a hog. Its legs are longer and
its muzzle shorter. Itis covered with soft and short hair like wool; and
its tail, which tapers to a fine point, is terminated by a tuft of the same;
its body is likewise not so thick and clumsy as that of the hog; its ears are
short and pointed; its skin is black, and furrowed with wrinkles and
creases ; but the most remarkable character, and what distinguishes it from
all other animals, are four enormous tusks, or canine teeth; the teeth, the
two shortest of which shoot out of the lower jaw, like those of the boar; the
two others, which come from the upper jaw, pierce the cheeks, or rather the
upper part of the lips, and rise crooked almost to the eyes. These tusks
are of a very beautiful ivory, much smoother and finer, but not so hard as
that of the elephant.

These quadrunle and enormous tusks give these animals a very formidas
ble appearance; they are, however, less dangerous than our wild boars,
They go, like them, in herds; they havea very strong smell, by which they
are easily discovered, and hunted with good success. They grunt terribly,
defend themselves, and wound their enemy with their under tusks; for the
upper are rather of disservice than of use to them. Although wild and fero-
cious as the boar, they are tamed with much ease; but their Hesh, which is
very good food, putrefies ina very short time, As their hair is fine, and
their skin delicate, it is soon penetrated by the teeth of the dogs, who hunt

 

~

1 Sus bubyrussa, Lin,
300 MAMMALIA—MEXICAN HOG.

them in preference to wild boars, and sooner accomplish their purpose, ‘Tne
babiroussa stiikes its upper tusks into the branches of trees, to rest its head,
or to sleep standing. ‘This habit it has in commoa with the elephant, who,
in order to sleep in an erect posture, supports his head by fixing the end of
his tusks in the holes which he makes in his lodging.

The babiroussa differs still more from the wild boar by its natural appe-
tites. It feeds upon grass and leaves of trees, and does not endeavor to
enter gardens, to feed on beans, peas, and other vegetables: while the wild
puar, who lives in the same country, feeds upon wild fruits, roots, and often
on the depredations it makes in gardens. These animals, who go alike in
herds, never mix; the wild boars keep on one side, and the babiroussas 9n
the other; these walk quicker, and have a very fine scent. They often fix
themselves against a tree, to keep uff the hunters and their dogs. When
they are pursued fora long time, they make towards the sea, and, swimming
with great dexterity, very often escape their pursters; for they swim fora
very long time, and often to very great distances, and from one island to
another. The babiroussa is found not only in the island of Bourou, near
Amboyna, but also in many parts of Southern Asia and Africa.

 

THE PECCARY, OR MEXICAN HOG,

 

Dirrers from the common hog in a number of characteristics, both external
and internal. Its head is sherter and broader; it has only four incisor
teeth in the upper jaw, instead of six; it has only three instead of six toes
on the hind feet; its legs are slenderer; in the stomach and intestines there

 

1 Picotyles torquatus, Lin. The genus Dicotyles has four upper and six lower incisors
two upper and two lower canines ; twelve upper and twelve lower molars; tusks not proyect=
ing from the mouth, the other teeth like ihe of the hog; four toes before, three Naiad:
only two of which lean upon the ground; a glandular opening on the back, from whick
exiides a foetid humor ; no tail.
MAMMALIA MEXICAN HOG. " 30)

1s a difference of conformation; the tail is extremely short, remarkably flat,
and completely pendulous ; and its bristles are much stronger than those of
the wild boar; and, lastly, it has, upon that part of the back which borders
apon the buttocks, an opening from which there is discharged an ichorous
humor of a very disagreeable smell. The peccary is the only animal which
has an opening in this region of the body. In the civets, the badger, and
the genet, the reservoir for the perfume is situated beneath the parts of
generation ; and in the musk animals we find it under the belly.

The peccary may be rendered a domestic animal, like the hog, and \as
pretty nearly the same habits and natural inclinations. It feeds upon .he
same aliments; and its flesh, though more dry and lean than that of a
hog, is not unpalatable. The female, however, breeds only ounce a year,
and has but two young ones at a birth.

These animals are extremely numerous in all the parts of South America
‘There are two species ; ;

THE COLLARED PECCARY,! AND THE WHITE-
LIPPED PECCARY2

Tue former is not a migratory animal, but usually lives in the forest
where it is produced, and is generally met with in pairs or in small families.
Tt is the smallest of the two species, seldom measuring three feet in lengt,
or weighing more than fifty pounds. Its genera] color is a yellowish gray,
with the exception of the legs, which are nearly black; and it has a some-
what erectile mane on the back of the neck, composed of a row of long
black bristles.

The white-lipped peccary is much larger than the other species, as it not
unfrequer:tly reaches a length of three feet and a half, anda weight of a
hundred pounds. It is thicker and stouter in its propertions, has a longer
and thicker mane, and has less of the grayish tinge. ‘Unlike the former
species, the white-lipped peccaries,” says the author of The Gardens and
Menagerie of the Zoological Suciety, “congregate in numerous bandas,
sometimes amounting, it is said, to more than a thousand individuals of all
ages. Thus united, they frequently traverse extensive districts, the whole
troop occupying an extent of a league in length, and directed in their march,
if the accounts of the natives are to be credited, by a leader, who takes his
station at the head of the foremostrank. Should they be impeded in their
progress by a river, the chief stops for a moment, and then plunges boldly
into the stream, and is followed by all the rest of the troop. The breadth
of the river or the rapidity of the current appear to be but trifling obstacles
in their way, and to be overcome with the greatest facility. On reaching
the opposite bank, they proceed directly on their course, and continue their
march even through the plantations which, unfortunately for the owners,

 

1 Dicotyles torquatus, Cuv. 2 Dicotyles tabiatus Cuv.
302 MAMMALIA—MEXICAN HOG.

may happen to lie in their way; and which they sometimes completely
devastate by rooting in the ground for their favorite food, or devouring such
fruits as they find there. If they meet with any thing unusual on their way,
they make a terrific clattering with their teeth, and stop and examine the
object of their alarm. When they have ascertained that there is no danger,
they continue their route without further delay; but if a huntsman should
venture to attack them when they are thus assembled in large numbers, he
is sure to be surrounded by multitudes and torn to pieces by their tusks, if
us is so unwise as to neglect his only chance of escape, which consists ip
climbing a tree, and thus getting fairly out of their reach. The smaller
ounds aré by no means equally courageous, and always take to flight at the
first attack.

“M. Sonnini relates that he was often, in the course of his travels ip
Guiana, surrounded by a troop of peccaries infuriated with the havoc made
Ly the muskets of himself and his companions. Mounted upon a tree, he
was enabled to observe their motions, and to notice the manner in which
they encouraged, by their grunts and by the rubbing of their snouts together,
those among them who were injured by the shots which were poured on
them from above. With erected bristles, and eyes sparkling with rage,
they still maintained their ground; and it was sometimes only after two or
three hours’ incessant firing that they were at last compelled to quit the field
of battle, and to leave the bodies of the dead to the mercy of the conquerars
These days of victury over the peccaries, he adds, are always cave 3f
abundance for the traveller in those immense forests, who has *9 ucner re-
source except the chase. An enormous gridirun is ic..wlia.ely constructed
with sticks fixed in the earth, and three feet i: neigh, over which a quantity
of small branches are placed iu a transverse direction. On these the pecca-
cies are deposited, after heing at ‘n pieces, and are cooked by a slow fire,
which is kept up cuzine *he whole night.”

In its tates country, the peccary is rather fond of the mountainous parts,
rnen of the low and level grounds; itseems to delight neither in the marshes
nor the mud, like our hogs; it keeps among the woods, where it subsists
upon wild fruits, roots, and vegetables; it is also an unceasing enemy to
the lizard, the toad, and al] the serpent kinds with which the uncultivated
forests of the New Continentabound. As soon as it perceives a serpent ora
viper, it at once seizes it with its fore hoofs and teeth, skins it in an instant,
and devours the flesh. They commit great havoc among the sugar-canes,
maize, manihot, and potato crops.

The young ones follow the dam, and do not separate from her till they
have come to perfection. If taken at first, they are very easily tained, and
soon lose all their natural ferocity; they, however, never display any re
markable signs of docility. They only continue to do no mischief; and they
may be permitted to run tame, without apprehending any dangerous conse
quences. They seldom stray far from home; they return of themselves to
MAMMALIA—RUINOCEROS. 303

the sty, and do not quarrel among each other, except when they happen to
ve fed in common. When enraged, they draw their breath with great
force, and their bristles point upward; nor, on such occasions, can these be
said so much to resemble the bristles of the wild boar as the sharp armor of
the hedgehog.

 

Captain Waterton, who made several excursions into the forests ot
Guiana, tells us that the Macoushi Indians are accustomed to kill birds and
other game, with arrows dipped in poison called wowrali. This is made
from a plant of that name, mixed with several other ingredients, and pre-
pared with magical ceremonies and incantations. A large portion of the
food of the natives consists of peccaries slain by the poisoned arrows. The
bow is commonly used, and the animal seldom runs two hundred paces
after being struck before he dies by the effect of the subtle poisun. It is
remarkable that the flesh of credtures killed in this manner, is perfectly
wholesome. Besides the bow, the Indians often use a tube made of a reed
eleven or twelve feet in length, through which the arrow is sent by the
‘breath with great precision and considerable force. Birds are generally kill-
ed in this way, and sometimes larger animals.

THE RHINOCEROS.

Arrer the elephant, the rhinoceros is the most powerful of all quadrupeds.
He 1s at least twelve feet in length, from the extremity of the snout to the

 

} Rhinoceros of India, Rhinoceros Indicus, Sumatra Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros Sondaicus
and Rhinoceros Sumatrensis, (two species.) Two horned Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros A fri«
canus and Rhinoceros Camus, (two species.) The genus Rhinoceros has scmetimes
none, sometimes two, and sometimes four upper and the same number of lower inctsors 5
no canines; twelve or fourteen upper and the same number of lower molars.  Incisors
unequal among themselves when they exist; anterior molars small, the posterior increas-
ing progressively ; eyes emall, lateral; ears long, narrow; three toes on all the feet, one
or two horns pe on the nose, ahove the nasal cavity; skin very thick, naked and
rugous ; tail short, laterally compressed.
304 MAMMALIA—RHINOCEROS.

tail; six or seven feet in height; and the circumference of his body is very
nearly equal to his length; he is therefore like the elephant in bulk ; and if
he appears inuch smaller, it is because his legs are much shorter in propor-
tion to those of the elephant; but he differs widely from that sagacious
animal, in his natura! faculties, and his intelligence; having received from
nature merely what she grants in common to all animals, deprived of all
feeling in the skin, having no organ answering the purpose of hands, nor
distinct for the sense of feeling, he has nothing instead of a trunk, but a
moveable upper lip, in which centres cll his dexterity. He is superior to
other animals only in strength, size, and the offensive weapon which he
carries upon his nose, and which is peculiar tu im. This weapon is a very
hard horn, solid throughout, and placed more advantageously than the horns
of ruminating animals; these only protect the superior parts of the head
and neck, whilst the horn of the rhinuceros defends all the exterior parts of
the snout, and preserves the muzzle, the mouth, and the face from insult;
so that the tiger attacks more readily the elephant, in seizing his trunk, than
the rhinoceros, which he cannot attack in front, without running the danger
of being killed; for the body and limbs are covered with an impenetrable
skin; and this animal fears neither the claws of the tiger nor the lion, nor
even the fire and weapons of the huntsman; his skin is a dark leather, of ©
the same color, but thicker and harder than that of, the elephant; he dues
not feel the sting of flies; he cannot contract his skin; it is only folded by
targe wrinkles on the neck, the shoulders, and the buttocks, to facilitate the
motions of the legs, which are massive, and terminate in large feet, armed
with three great claws. The skin of the two horned rhinoceros is much
more easily penetrable than that of the single horned. It not only ap-
pears that the skin is thinner than that of the one horned rhinoceros, but it
seems that it has not the same folds. Mr Burchell says that there are two
distinct species of the two horned rhinoceros in South Africa. He has the
head larger in proportion than the elephant; but the eye still smaller, which
he never opens entirely, and they are so situated that the animal can see
anly what is in a direct line before him. The upper jaw projects above the
lower; and the upper lip has a motion, and may be /engthened six or seven
inches ; it is terminated by a sharp edge, which enables this animal, with
more facility than other quadrupeds, to gather branches ond grass, and
divide them into handfuls, as the elephant does with his trunk. This
muscular and flexible lip is a sort of trunk very incomplete, but which is
equally calculated for strength and dexterity. Instead of those long ivory
teeth which form the tusks of the elephant, the rhinoceros has his powerful
horn, and two strong incisive teeth in each jaw. These incisive teeth,
which the elephant has not, are placed at a great distance from each other
in the jaws of the rhinoceros. He has, besides these, twenty-four smaller
teeth, six on each side of each jaw. His ears are always erect; they‘are,
for the form like those of a hog, only they are larger in proportion to his
MAMMALIA—RHINOCEROS J05

body ; they are the only hairy parts of it. The end of tne tail is, like that
of the elephant, furnished with a tuft of large bristles, very hard and very
solid. Huge and seemingly unwieldy as the rhinoceros is, he has the
power of running with very great swiftness.

The rhinoceros which arrived in London in 1739, had been sent from
Bengal. Although he was young, (being but two years old,) the expens-
es of his food, and his voyage, amounted to near one thousand pounds
sterling ; he was fed with rice, sugar, and hay. They gave him daily seven
pounds of rice, mixed with three pounds of sugar; which they divided into
three parts. He had, also, a great quantity of hay and green grass, to which
he gave the preference. His drink was nothing but water, of which he
drank a great quantity at once. He was of a quiet disposition, and let his
manager touch him on all the parts of his body. He grew unruly when he
was struck, or was hungry; and in both cases he could not be appeased
without giving him something to eat. When he was angry, he leaped
forward with impetuosity to a great height, beating furiously the walls with
his head; ; which he did with a prodigious quickness, notwithstanding his
heavy appearance.

This rhinoceros, when he was two years old, was not much higher than
a young cow who has not yet borne young; but his body was very long and
very thick. The tongue of this young rhinoceros was soft, like that of a
ealf; his eyes had no vivacity; they are like those of a hog in form, and
were placed very low; that is, nearer the opening of the nostrils.

Mr Parsons says, that he has observed a very particular quality in this
animal; he hearkened with a sort of continual attention to any noise; so
that, if he even was sleepy, employed in eating, or in satisfying other urgent
wants, he started instantly, raised vp his head, and gave attention till the
noise had ceased.

It is certain that scme rhinceeroses have but one horn on the nose, and
others two. In the two-horned rhinsceros, one of the horns is smaller than
the other, and is situated above »*. When the animal is quiescent these
horns are laose, but they become fixed when it is irritated. There are single
horns of three feet and a half, and perhaps of more than four feet in length,
by six or seven inches in diamete, at the base; there are also double horns
which are but two feet in length. Ccmmonly, these horns are brown, or
olive color; yet some are gray and even white. They have only a small
concavity, in form of a cup, at their basis, by which they are fastened to the
skin of the nose; the remaining part of the horn is solid, and very hard. It
is with this weapon that the rhinoceros is said to attack, and sometinies to
wound mortally the largest elephants, whose long legs give the rhinoceros
who has them much shorter, an opportunity of striking them with his horn
under the belly, where the skin is tender, and more penetrable; but if he
misses the first blow, the elephant throws him on the ground, and kills him.
The horn of the rhinoceros’ is more valued by the Indians, than the ivory

39
306 MAMMALIA—RHINOCEROS.

of the elephant; not so much on account of the matter, of which they make
several works with the chisel, but for its substance, to which they attribute
divers virtues, and medicinal properties. ‘The white ones, as the most rare,
are also those which they value most. Cups made of this horn are used
to drink out of by many of the Indian princes, under the erroneous idea that
when any poisonous fluid is put into them, the liquor will terment and run
over the top. si

The rhinoceros, without being ferocious or carnivorous, or even very
wild, is nevertheless untamable. He is of the nature of a ‘hog, blunt and
grunting, without intellect, without sentiment, and without tractableness.
These animals are also, like the hog, very much inclined to wallow in the
mire; they like damp and marshy places, and seldom leave the banks of
tivers. They are found in Asia, and Africa, in Bengal, Siam, Laos, in
the Mogul dominions, in Sumatra, in Java, in Abyssinia, and about the
Cape of Good Hope. The two-horned rhinoceros is only found in Africa.
But, in general, the species is not so numerous, or so universally spread, as
that of the elephant. The female brings forth but one young, and at a great
distance of time. In the first month the rhinoceros is not much bigger than
a large dog; he has not, when first brought forth, the horn on the nose,
although the rudiment of it is seen in the fotus. When he is two years

‘old, this horn is only an inch long; and in his sixth year it is about ten
inches. And as some of these horns have’ been seen very near four feet
long, it seems they grow till his middle age, and perhaps during the whole
life of the animal, which must Le long, since the rhinoceros described by
Mr Parsons was not come to half his growth when he was two years old;
which makes it probable, that this animal lives, like a man, seventy or
eighty years.

Without being useful, as the elephant, the rhinoceros is very hurtful, by
the prodigious devastation which he makes in the fields. The skin is the
most valuable part of this animal. His flesh is excellent, according to the
taste of Indians and negroes. Kolben says, he has often eaten it with
great pleasure. His skin makes the best and hardest leather in the world;
and not only his horn, but all the other parts of his body, and even his
blood, his urine, and his excrements, are esteemed as antidotes against
poison, cr a remedy against several chet probably, however, all those
virtues are imaginary.

The rhinoceros feeds upon herbs, thistles, prickles, and shrubs; and he
prefers this wild food to the sweet pasture of the verdant meadows: he is
very fond of sugar-canes, and eats all sorts of corn. Having no taste what-
ever for flesh, he does not molest small animals, neither fears the large
ones, living generally in peace with them all, even with the tiger, who often
accompanies him, without daring to attack him.

The rhinoceroses do not herd together, nor march in troops, like the
elephant; they are wilder, and more solitosy, and perhaps more diffiewlt
MAMMALIA--RHINOCEROS. 307

to be hunted and subdued. They never attack men unless provoked; but
then they become furious, and are very formidable. The steel uf Damascus,
the cimeters of Japan, cannot make an incision in his skin; the darts and
lances cannot pierce him through. His skin even resists the balls of
a musket; those of lead become fat upon lis leather, and the iron ingots
cannot penetrate through it. The only places absolutely penetrable in this
body, armed with a cuirass, are the belly, the eyes, and round the ears; se
that huntsmen, instead of attacking this animal standing, follow him ata
distance by his track, and wait to approach him at the time that he sleeps
or rests himself. There is, in the king of France’s cabinet, the feetus of a
r..inoceros, which was sent from the island of Java, and extracted from the
Lody of the mother. It was said, in a memorial which accompanied this
present, that twenty-eight huntsmen had assembled to attack inis rhinoce-
ros. They had followed her far off for some days, one or two men watking
now and then before, to reconnoitre the position of the animal. By these
means, they surprised her when she was asleep, and came so near in
silence, that they discharged, all at once, their twenty-eight guns into the
lower parts of her belly.

A rhinoceros, about a year old, recently brought from Calcutta, was
lately exhibited in Boston. The engraving furnishes a very exact represen-
tation of this animal. Its length, from the nose to the insertion of the tail,

 

was six feet; its height, three feet four inches. The length of its head,
eighteen inches; that of its tail, thirteen inches. The horn had not made
its appearance upon the nose, but there was a large protuberance, which
indicated the place where it was growing, and seemed to form the root or
basis of it. The animal, when disturbed, made a noise like a young calf,
It bad very much the air anc manners of a hog. It betrayed no feas
308 MAMMALIA—RHINOCEROS.

or shyness, but seemed constantly intent upon getting something to eat.
Tt fed upon hay, potatoes, and grain, and so greedy was its appetite, that
no‘1ing came amiss. Another recently arrived at Boston, and died in the
harbor. It was about a third larger than the one above mentioned. Its
skeleton, beautifully prepared, is now in the Cabinet of the Boston Society
of Natural History.

We have seen that this animal has a good ear; it is also affirmed, that
he has the sense of smeliing in perfection ; but it is pretended he has nota
rool eye, and sees only before him. His eyes are so sinall, and placed
so low, and so obliquely, they have so little vivacity and motion, that this
fact needs no other confirmation. His voice, when he is calm, resembles
the grunting of a hog; and when he is angry, his sharp cries are heard at
a great distance. Though he lives upon vegetables, he does not ruminate ;
thus, it is probable, that, like the elephant, he has but one stomach, and
very large bowels, which supply the office of the paunch. His consumption,
though very great, is not comparable to that of the elephant; and it ap-
pears, by the thickness of his skin, that he loses less than the elephant
his perspiration.

Two species of the two horned rhinoceros are found in South Africa.
The following figare was drawn from life, by Mr Melville, and conveys ap ,
accurate representation of the species, whick abounds most in the Bechuana

N A « \
: oo
Na \ ANN

A
oO

AN

PA

    
  
 

tore =
ERE
= —— 2OD\ Ex SS =

   
      

country. The horn of the female is, however, much longer and more
slender than that of the male, being three and a half feet long. Being a
strong, ponderous, and elastic substance, it is much prized by the natives,
for handles to their battle-axes. The secondary horn is, in many instances,
so smal] as to be scarcely perceptible at a little distance.
MAMMALIA—TAPIR. 309

THE TAPIR, OR THE ANTA.!

Tue tapir is of the size of a small cow, but without horns, and with
a short, naked tail; the legs are short and thick, and the feet have.small
black hoofs. The body is thick and clumsy, and the back somewhat arched,
and the hair is of a dusky or brownish color. On the short thick neck is
a kind of bristly mane, which, near the head, is an inch and a half in
length, Tlis head is of’ a tolerable size, with. roundish erect ears, and smal!

 

eyes, and the muzzle terminates in a kind of proboscis, which can be ex-
tended or contracted, at the will of the animal. The latter it uses in feed-
ing, to grasp its food and convey it to the mouth, in the same way that the
rhinoceros applies its upper lip; and in this are also contained the organs
of smell. He has ten incisive teeth, and ten grinders, in each jaw; a
character which separates him entirely from the ox, and other ruminating
animals. His skin is so thick and hard as to be almost impenetrable to a
bullet; for which reason the Indians make shields of it.

The tapir seldom stirs out but in the night, and delights in the water,
where he oftener lives than upon land. He is chiefly to be found in marshes,

 

1 Tapirus Americanus. The genus Tapirus has six upper and six lower incisors;
two upper and two lower canines; fourteen upper and fourteen lower molars. Interme-
diate mcisors shorter than the exterior ; nose terminating in a moveable little proboscis,
but not by a kind of fiuger, like the elephant; eyes small; ears long and moveahle;
fore feet with four toes, the hind ones with three, with short, round hoofs; tail very
short; two inguinal mamme.
B10 MAMMALIA—EORSE.

and seldom goes iar from the borders of rivers or lakes. He swims and
dives with singular facility. When he is threatened, pursued, or wounded,
he plunges into the water, and remains there ull he has got toa great
dis’ance, before he re-appears. These customs, which he has in common
with the hippopotamus, have made some naturalists imagine him to be

_ of the same species; but he differs as much from him in nature. as he is dis-
tant from him in climate. Tao be assured of this, there needs no more than
to compare the description we have now recited, with that of the hippopotas
mus. Although the tapir inhabits the water, he does not feed upon fish,
and, although his mouth is armed with twenty sharp incisive teeth, he is
not carnivorous. He lives upon sugar-canes, grasses, the leaves of shrubs,
and various kinds of fruit; and does not make use of what nace has
armed iim with against other animals. He is of a mild and timid nature,
and flies from every attack or danger: when, however, he is cut off from
retreat, he makes a vigorous defence against dogs and men. His usual
attitude is that of sitting on his rump like a dog+ and his voice is a kind
of whistle. The flesh is wholesome food. He may be tamed, and is then
very gentle and docile. Thiz animal is commonly found in Brazil, Para-
guay, Guiana, and in all the extent of South America, from the extremity
of Chili to Columbia. .

A species of tapir, which has recently been discovered, is very common
in the island of Sumatra and the forests of Malacca. Its body is of a dirty
white, while the head, legs, and tail are of a deep black. This species has
no mane, and its pruboscis is from seven to eight inches long. |

Among the numerous fossil remains of a former world, are found frag-
ments of tapirs of enormous size. One of these extinct species, the gigantic
Yapir, must have been more than equal tu the elephant in magnitude.

THE HORSE.

Tue horse is not known in its pristine state. The natural dispositisa
of these animals is not ferocious, they are only high spirited and wild; and
though superior in strength to the greatest part of animals, yet they never
attack them; and if they are attacked by others, either disdain them or
trample thein under their feet. They go also in bodies, and unite them-
selves into troops, merely for the pleasure of being together; for they are

 

1 Emus caballus, Lin. The genus Aqiuus has six upper and six lower incisors; two
upper and two lower canines, or sometimes noue in the females; twelve upper and twelve
sower molars. Molars furrowed on each side, with flat crowns and several ridges of enamel;
a void space between the canines an] molars; upper lip capable of considerable mouon 3
eyes large ; ears rather liurge, pointed, erect, and moveable; feet termi i
hod; tail with long hair, cr a tuft at its extremity; two inguinal mammu.

 
MAMMALILA—HORSE. sli

not feartul of, bat have an attachment to, each other. As herbs and vegeta-
bles are sufficient for their nourishment, they have quite enough to satisfy
their appetite; and as they have no relish for the flesh of animals, they
uever make war with them, nor with each other. They never quarrel
about their rood, they have no occasion to ravish the prey o1 another, the
ordinary source ol’ contentions and quarrels.

 

SS
CLARUWN. a nS Pa ne

 

The astonishment aud fear which the inhabitants of Mexico and Peru
expressed at the sight of horses and, their riders, convinced the Spaniards
that this animal was eutirely unknown in those countries. They therefore
earried thither a great. number, as weil for service and their particular
atility, as to propngare the breed. M. de la Salle, in 1685, saw in the
northern parts of America,near the bay of St. Louis, whole troops of these
wild horses, feeding in the pastures, which were so fierce that no one dared
to approach them. The author of the History of the Adventures .f the
Buccaneers, says, that, in the island of St Domingo, horses may sometimes
be seen in troops of upwards of five hundred, al] running together; and that as
s00n a3 they see a man, they will all stop. That one of them will appreach
toa certain distance, snort, take flight, and then all the rest will follow
aim. To eatch them, they make use of nooses made of ropes, which they
spread and hang in places which they know they frequent. But if they are
caught by the neck they strangle themselves, unless the hunter comes in
ume to their assistance, who instantly secures them by the body and legs,
and fastens them to trees, where they are left for two days without either
food or drink. This experiment is sufficient to begin to mage them tracta-
ble, and in time they become as much so as if they had never been wild.
And even if by chance they ever regain their liberty, they never becothe se
again. but koow treir masters, and suffer them to catch them again with-
out uvuble.
312 MAMMALIA—HORSE.

Of those which have returned to the wild state, such as the numerous
herds of South America, the appearance is not prepossessing, according
to the ‘deas which have been formed of the symmetry of the domestic
varieties.

The different races of the horse are numerous, most of the principal coun-
tries in the world possessing breeds peculiar to themselves. But the
‘Arabian race has long been considered as the noblest of the species, and as
combining the qualities of endurance, vigor, and temper, in a higher degree
than any of the other varieties. As breeders of horses have ascertained
that the qualities of the Arabian horse may be perpetuated in his descende
ants, in the countries of Europe, where attention is paid to the raising of
this valuable animal, for various purposes, the deterioration which a north
ern climate induces in a native of warmer latitudes, is counteracted by
crossing with the original breed. From the importation of the pure breed
of Arabia into Europe, and the different crossings of these and their de-
scendants with the native breeds, has arisen all that variety of appearance
and qualities of the horse, which fits them for heavy draughts, the plough,
or the sadcle.

Jt is in Eng!and chiefly, hcwever, that the cultivation and education of
the lorse has been curried to its greatest refinement, and in France are
Leal races, admirably adapted to the different purposes which agriculture,
or cotumer ‘e, or luaury inay demand. The first is the race horse, immedi-
ately proceeding from an Arabian or Barbary stallion, with an English mare
already crossed with a Barb or Arab, in the first degree, or the result of two
crossings in the same degree. This breed is termed first: blood, or the
nearest possible to the original e:uck; and in the quality of speed it is not
probable that it can ever be exceeded. The vext is the hunter, the result
of crossing a stallion of the first blood with a mare of a degree less near the
original source. The third, is the cross between the hunter and the more
common mares, which, uniting the stronger limbs and heavier bodies of the
indigenous races to the qualities of the Arabian, produce the British car-
riage horses; and the great dray horse, whose gigantic proportions and
immense power of draught can scarcely be surpassed, are the prodice of this
last with the strongest mares of the country breed. And it is a curious
circumstance that, in the mixture of all these races, the influence of the
Arar blood is observable, either in the conformation of some peculiar parts,
or the preservation of some peculiar qualities. The Persian, Barbary, and
Turkish horses are those which come nearest to the Arabian in conforma-
tion and qualities, and the Spanish horses long enjoyed a high character in
Europe, probably from the breed being kept up by the intermixture of the
horses of Barbary. In France are numerous varieties, and most of them
very serviceable animals. The other European races, it would be impossi-
ble to enumerate here.
MAMMALIA—HORSE, ' 813

The Arabs divide their horses into two races. The firs , which they call
hechlani, or kailhan, are those whose genealogy is known for two thousand
years, and which has, they say, originated from the stud of Solomon. The
other race, appropriated to servile uses, they name kaduscha, or horses of an
unknown race, and they are peculiarly careful, by certificates and other
means, to preserve the principal races pure. The mares enjoy the exclusive
privilege of transmitting the purity of the race to their descendants, and
the genealogies are alivays reckoned from the mothers.

Herds of wild horses, the offspring of those which have escaped from the
Spanish possessions in Mexico, are not uncommon in the extensive prairies
that lie to the west of the Mississippi. They were once numerous on the

 

Kootannie Lands, near the northern sources of the Columbia, on the east-
ern side of the Rocky Mountain ridge; but of late years, they have een
almost eradicated in that quarter. They are not known to exist in a wil
state, to the northward of the fifty-second or fifty-third parallel of latitude.
The young stallions live in separate, herds, being driven away by the old
ones, and are easily ensnared, by using domestic mares asa decoy. The
Kootannies are acquainted with the Spanish-American mode of taking ther:
with the lasso.

40
314 MAMMALIA—ZEBRA.

THE DZHIGGTAI, OR WILD ASS)

Exnieits in its natural, or wild state, an appearance very far superior, both
in point of beanty and vivacity, to the horse. Lt is a native of Asia, living,
like the rest uf this genus, in a gregarious manner. It chiefly occurs in the
dry and mountainous deserts of Tartary, and in the southern parts of india
and Persia. It is frequently spoken of as being met with, by travellers in
Africa; but the quagga, which abounds in Southern Africa, and is somes
dimes calJed the wild ass, has been no doubt confounded with this animal,
The colo: of the wild ass is gray, or brownish yellow, with a brown dorsa.
stripe, and one or two bands across the shoulders.

The food of this animal consists chiefly of saline or bitter plants. 1t 1s
also fond of salt or brackish water. The manners of the wild ass resemble
those of the wild horse. They assemble in troops, under the conduct of a
leader or sentinel, and are extremely shy and vigilant; and, like the former
animals, dart uff with the utmost rapidity on the sight of mankimd. ‘They
have been at all times celebrated for their swiftness. Their voice resembles
that of the domestic ass, but is somewhat shriller. From this animal, the
domestic ass has been gradually derived.

THE ZEBRA?

 

Ts, perhaps, the handsomest and most elegantly clothed of all quadrupeds.
He has the shape and graces of the horse, the swiftness of the stag, and

1 Equus hemionus, Desm. 8 Equus zebra, Lin.

 
MAMMALIA—ZEBRA. 315

a striped roke of black and white alternately disposed with so much regula-
mtv and symmetry, chat it seems as if nature had made use of the rule and
vompass to paint it. These alternate bands of black and white are so much
the more singular, as they are straight, parallel, and very exactly divided,
like a striped stu; and as they, in other parts, extend themselves not only
over the body, but over the head, the thighs, the legs, and even the ears
and the tail; so that, ata distance, this animal appears as if he were sur
rounded with little fillets, which some person had disposed, in a regular
manner, over every part of the body. In the females, these bands are alter.
nate's Slack and white. In the male, they are brown and yellow, but
always of a lively and brilliant mixture, upon a short, fine, and thick hair ;
the lustre of which still more increases the beauty of the colors. The zebra
is, in general, Jess than the horse, and larger than the ass; and, although
it has often been compared to those two animels, and called the weld horse
and the s/riped ass, itis a copy neither of the one nor the other; and might
tather be called their model, if al! was not equally original in nature, and
if every species had not an equal right to creation.

The zebra is not the animal the ancients have indicated under the name
onagra. There exists in the Levant, the eastern parts of Asia, and in the
northern parts of Africa, a beautiful race of asses, who, like the finest horses,
are natives of Arabia, This race differs from the common, by the size of
the body, the slenderness of the legs, and the lustre of the hair. They are
of a uniform, but commonly of a tine mouse color, with a black gross upon
the back and the shoulders; and sometimes they are of a bright gray color,
with a flaxen cross. The zebra is also of a different climate from the
onagra, and ix only to be met with in the most eastern and the most south-
ern parts of Africa, from Ethiopia to the Cape of Good Hope, and thence to
Congo. [t exists neither in Europe, Asia, nor America, nor even in all the
northern parts of Africa. Those which some travellers tell us they have
seen at the Brazils, have been iransported thither from Afriea ; those which
others are recounted ‘to have seen in Persia, and in Turkey, have been
brought from Ethiopia; and, in short, those that we have seen in Europe
are almost all frou the Cape of Good Hope. This point of Africa is
their trie climate, their native country, and where the Dutch have e:n-
ployed all their care to subject them and to render them tame, without
having been hitherte able to succeed. That which has served for the
subje t of our deser pion, was very wild when he arrived at the royal
menagerie in France; and he was never entirely tamed. Nevertheless,
he was broken for the saddle; but there were precautions necessary ; two
mer held the bridle, while a third was upon him. His mouth is very
hard; his ears so sensille, that he winees whenever any person goes to
touch them. He is restive, like a vicious horse, and obstinate asa mule;
but, perhaps, the wild horse and the onagra are not Jess intractable ; aud
there is reason to believe, that if the zebra was accustuned to obediynce
316 MAMMALIA—ZEBRA.

und tameness from his earliest years, he would become as mild as the ass
and the horse, and might be substituted in their room.

The zebra is chiefly found in the southern parts of Africa; often seen near
the Cape of Good Hope, and a penalty of fifty rix dollars is inflicted on-any
person who shoots one of them. Such of them as are caught alive, are
presented to the governor. Several have been brought to England; but
except in one instance, they have all displayed great wildness, and even
ferocity. The exception was in that which was burnt some years ago at
Ex‘er Change. It would allow young children to be put upon its back,
an was once ridden from the Lyceum to Pimlico; but it was bred and
reared iu Portugal, from parents half reclaimed. In several other cases,
zebras have attempted to injure spectators, and have not even spared their
keepers. The voice of this creature is thought to have a distant resem-
blance to the sound of a post horn.

 

THE ZEBRA OF THE PLAINS.:

Tue zebra which we have just described, is confined to tae mountains
the subject of the present article inhabits the flat parts near the Cape. Till
very recently, the difference between them was not accurately understood.
“The ground color of its whole body,” says Mr Bennett, ‘is white, inter-
rupted by a regular series of broad black stripes extending from the back
across the sides, with narrower and fainter ones intervening between each.
Over the launches aud shoulders, these stripes form a kind of bifurcation,
between the divisions of which there are a few transverse lines of the same
color; but these suddenly and abruptly cease, and are net continued on the
legs, which are perfectly white. Along the back there is a narrow, longitudi-
nal line, bordered on each side with white. The mane is throughout broadly
and deeply tipped with black, and is marked by a continuation of the trans-
verse bands of the neck. ‘The lines of the face are narrow and beautifully
regular; from the centre of the forehead they radiate downwards over the
eyes; along the front of the muzzle they are longitudinal, the outer ones
having a curve outwards; and on the sides they form broader transverse
Lands. From the confluence of these bands on the extremity of the muz-
zle, the nose, and the lower lip, those parts become of a nearly uniform
blackish brown. The tail is white: there is no longitudinal ventral line
and a large black patch occupies the posterior part of the ear, near the tip
The hoofs are moderately large, deep in front, shallow behind, and much
expanded at their margin.” ;

The subject of the present article, which has now been about two years
in the menagerie, will suffer a boy to ride her about the yard; and is

 

—

| Equus montanus, BurcHe..
MAMMALIA—QUAGGA...ASS. 317

frequently allowed to run loose through the Tower, with a man by her side,
whem she does not attempt to quit, except to run to the canteen, where she
ts occasionally indulged with a draught of ale, of which she is particularly
“nd,

 

THE QUAGGA\1

 

THE quagga, which till lately has been confounded with the zebra, 1s now
acknowledged as a distinct species, much allied to the former, but marked
with fewer and larger bands, which are of a browner color than in the
zebra, and are chiefly disposed on the fore parts of the animal; while the
hind parts are rather spotted than striped. The ground color also of the
quagga is of a ferruginovs tinge, especially on the thighs and back. It is
of a milder nature than the zebra, and is said to have been successfully
used by some of the Dutch colonists at the Cape, in the manner of a horse,
for draught, &c. It inhabits the same parts of Africa as the zebra, but is
found in separate herds, never associating with that species.

THE DOMESTIC ASS?

Is naturally as humble, patient, and quiet, as the horse is proud, ardent, and
impetuous. He suffers with constancy, and perhaps with courage, chastise-
ment and blows. He is moderate, both as 10 the quantity and quality of
his food. He is contented with the hardest and most disagreeable herbs,
which the horse, and other animals, will leave with disdain. He is very
delicate, with respect to his water, for he will drink none but the clearest,
and from rivulets which he is acquainted with. He drinks as moderately
as ne eats, and does not put his nose in the water, through fear, as some

 

1 Equus cowgga, GMEL. 2 Equus asinus, Lux
318 MAMMALIA—ASS.

say, of the shadow of his ears; as care is not taken to currycomb him, he
frequently rolls himself on the grass, thistles, and in the dust; and, without
regarding his load, he lays himself down to roll about as often as he can
and by this seems to reproach his master for the little care ne takes of him.
For he does not paddle about in the mud and in the water ; he even feare
to wet his feet, and will turn out of his road to avoid the mud. His legs are
aJso drier and cleaner than the horse; he is susceptible of educaticiz, and
come have been seen sufficiently disciplined to be made a show of,

 

In their earliest youth they are sprightly, and even hendsome. They
-are light and genteel ; but either from age or bad treatment. they soon lose
their beauty, and become slow, indocile, and headstrong. Plinv assures
us, that, when they scparate the mother from the young eve, she wiil go
through fire to recover it. The ass is also strongly attacned to lis master,
notwithstanding he is usually ill treated; he will smell nim afar off, and
can distinguish him from all other men. He also knows the places where
he has lived, and the ways which he has frequented. His eyes are good,
and his smell acute; his ears are excelient, which has also contributed to
his being numbered ameng timid animals, all of which, it is pretended, have
the hearing extremely delicate, and the ears long. When he is overioaded,
he shows it by lowering his head and bending down his ears. When he is
greatly abused, he opens his mouth, and draws back his lips in a most dise
agreeable manner, which gives him an-air of derision and scorn. If his
eyes are covered over, he remains motionless; and when he is laid duwn on
his side, and his head is fixed in such a manner that one eye rests on the
ground, and that the other is covered with a piece of wood or stick, he will
remain in this situation without any motion or endeavor to get up. He
walks, trots, and gallops like the hcrse; but all his motions are smaller
and much slower: notwithstanding ke can run with tolerable swiftness, he
can gallop but a little way, and only for a small space of time, and, what-
ever pace he uses, if he is hi rd pressed, he is soon tatigued.
MAMMALIA—ASS. 319

The ass is three or four years in growing, and lives twenty-five or th rty
years, They sleep less than the horse, and do not lie down to sleep unless
when quite tired.

There are among asses different races, as among horses; but they are
much less known, because they have not been taken the same care of, o1 fol-
lowed with the same attention; but we cannot doubt that they came all ori-
ginally from warm climates. Aristotle assures us, that there were none in his
time in Scythia, nor in the other neighboring countries of Scythia, nor even
m Gaul, which, he says, is a cold climate; and he adds, that a cold climate
either prevents them from procreating their species, or causes them to de-
generate ; and that this last cireumstance is the reason thai :hey are small
and weak in Illyria, Thrace, and Epirus. They appear to have come origi-
nally from Arabia, and to have passed from Arabia into Egypt, from Egypt
into Greece, from Greece into Italy, from Italy into France, and afterwards
mto Germany, England, and lastly into Sweden, é&c.; for they are, in fact,
weak and small in proportion to the coldness of the climate. They are
said ‘o have been introcuced-into England subsequently to the reign of
Elizabeth. Of all the various breeds of asses, the Spanish breed is by far
the finest. They are often found of the height of fifteen hands, and the
value of a hundred guineas. In the northern parts of the United States,
the ass is little used ; in the middle and southern States they are common;
m the West Indies, Mexico, and South America, they are the chief beasts
of burden. In travelling over the Andes they are of the utmost utility.

The ass is, perhaps, with respect to himself, the animal which can carry
the greatest weight; and as it costs but little to feed him, and he scarcely
cequires any care, he is of great use in the country, at the mill, &c.; he
also serves to ride on, as all his paces are gentle, and he stumbles less than
ihe horse; he is frequently put to the plough, in countries where the earth
is light, and his dung is an excellent manure to enrich hard moist lands.
Nothing is more common in Europe than to see men in humble cireum-
stances ri¢ing on asses and mules. In New England a man would almost
as soon be seen mounted on a cow, as on one of these creatures.

The ass, lite some other animals, and some birds, possesses in great pere
fection the power of finding his way home, when lost ata great distance.
An instance of this is recorded by Kirby and Spence, in their exce tent Intros
duction to Entomology. In March, 1816, an ass, the property of Capiain
Dundas, R. N. then at Malta, was shipped on board the Isier frigate,
Captain Forrest, bound from Gibraltar for that island. The vesse! having
struck on some sands off the Point de Gat, at some distance from the snore,
the ass was thrown overboard, to give it a chance of swimming to land,—
a poor one, for the sea was running so high, that a boat which ‘eft the
ship was lost. A few days afterwards, however, when the gates of Gibral-
tar were opened in the morning, the ass presented himeelf for admittance,
and proceeded to the stable of Mr Weeks, a merchant which he had former-
320 MAMMALIA—MULE.

ly occupied, to the no small surprise of this gentleman, who imagined
that. from some accident, the animal-had never been shipped on board
the Ister.

On the return of this vessel to repair, the mystery -was explained; and it
“turned out, that Valiante (as the ass was called,) had not only swam safely
to shore, but, without guide, compass, or travelling map, had found lus way
from Point de Gat to Gibraltar, a distance of more than two hundred
miles, thro igh a mountainous and intricate country, intersected by strenms,
which he had never traversed before, and in so short a period, that he could
not have made one false turn. His not having been stopped on the road
was attributed to the circumstance of his having formerly been used to
whip criminals upon, which was indicated to the peasants, who have a
superstitious horror of such asses, by the holes in his ears, tc which the
persons flogged were tied.

 

THE MULE

4s an intermediate creature, springing from the union of the male ass with
the mare, or of the horse with the female ass, (the former being the best,)
and it accordingly inherits the small legs and handsome shape of the horse
and the long ears, and cross on the back, which characterize its more hum-
ble parent. In obstinacy it surpasses the latter; but it is valuable for its
sureness of foot, which enables it to pass with safety along the most tremen-
dous precipices, if left to the guidance of its own instinct. The mule is
fond of handsome trappings, and is longer lived than either the horse or the
ass. This animal is much used in the southern states, in the West Indies,
and in South America.

 

ORDER IX.—RUMINANTIA.*

Anmats of this order have no incisors in the upper jaw; in the lower jaw
usually eight; a vacant space between the incisors and the molars, but ‘nm
which one or two canines are found in some genera. Molars, twelve in
each jaw, the crown marked with two double crescents of enamel, of which
the convexity is outwards in the lower jaw, and inwards in the upper. No
clavicles; extremities disposed for walking; two toes furnished with hoofs;
metacarpal and metatarsal bones united; four stomachs ; intestines long;
two or four inguinal mamme; horns in the males, and often in the females

_ of most species.

 

* The term ruminantia, indicates the singular faculty of masticating the food twice.
The first three of the stomachs of these animals are disposed in such a manner that their
toud may enter into either of them. Their food is invariably vegetable, and they are
widely distribut:d over both continents.
MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 32

THE CAMEL! AND DROUMEDARY#

 

THE principal, and, as may be said, the only perceptible character by
which these animals differ, consists in the camel’s bearing two bunches, or
protuberances, and the dromedary only one. The latter is also much less,
and not so strong as the camel; but both of them herd and procreate toge-
ther; and the production from this cross-breed is more vigorous, and of
greater value, than the others.

This mongrel issue from the dromedary and the camel forms a secondary
breed, which also mix and multiply with the first; so that in this species,
as well as in that of other domestic animals, there is to be found a great
variety, according to the difference of the climates they are produced in.
Aristotle has judiciously marked the two principal breeds; the first, (whic.
has two bunches,) under the name of -the Bactrian camel; and the second,
under that of the Arabian camel. ‘The first are called Turcoman, and the
others, Arabian camels. This division still subsists, with this difference
only, that it appears, since the discovery of those parts of Africa and Asia
which were unknown to the ancients, that the dromedary is, without com-
parison, more numerous and more universal than the camel. The last

 

1 Camelus Bactrianus, Lin,

2 Camelus dromedarius, Lin. The genus Camelus, of which these two are tec only
individuals, has two upper and six lower incisors ; two upper and two lower canines; twa
upper and two lower fhlse molars; ten upper and ten lower true molars —_ Inferior incisors
in the form of cutting wedges ; the superior, Jateral ; canines conical, erect and strong; false
molars on each side in the interdentary space ; toes united helow; head long; nec4 ve
long; upper lip cleft; nostrils slit obliquely; eyes projecting; ears smat ; pacs with
fatty bunches ; callosities on the breast and flexures of the extremities; four ¥21:ra. mom

me ; hair wooly; tail of medium length.

4l
322 MAMMAL1IA—CAMEL.

being seldom found in any other place than in Turkey, and in some othea
parts of the Levant; while the dromedary, more common than any other
beast of his size, is to be found in all the northern parts of Africa, in Egypt,
in Persia, in South Tartary, and in all the northern parts of India.

 

The dromedary, therefore, occupies an immense tract of land, while the
camel is confined to a small spot of ground; the first inhabits hot and
parched regions; the second a more moist and temperate soil. The camel
appears to be a native of Arabia; for it is not only the country where there
as the greatest number, but it is also best accommodated to their nature.
Arabia is the driest country in the world; and the camel is the least thirsty
of all animals, and can pass seven days without any drink. The feet of the
camel are formed to travel in sand; while, on the contrary, he cannot sup-
port himself in moist and slippery ground. Herbage and pasture are want-
ing to this country, as is the ox, whose place is supplied by the camel.

The Arabs regard the camel as a present from heaven, a sacred animal,
without whose aid they could neither subsist, trade, nor travel. It has
been emphatically called the ship of the desert. Its milk is their common
nourishment ; they likewise eat its flesh, especially that of the young ones
which they reckon very good. ‘The hair of these animals, which is fine ano
soft, is renewed every year, and serves them to make stuff for their clothing
and thew furniture. Blessed with their camels, they not only want for
nothing, but they even fear nothing. With them, they can, in a single day,
place a tract of desert, of fifty miles, between them and their enemies, and
ail the armies n the world would perish in the pursuit of a troop of Arabs.
Let any one figure to himself a ccuntry without verdure, and without water,
a burning sun, a sky always clear, plairs rovered with sand, and mountains
stil] more parched, over which the eye extends, and the sight is lost, with
MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 323

aut being stopped by a-single living object. A dead earth, flayed (if we may
be allowed the expression,) by the winds, which presents nothing but bones
of dead bodies, flints scattered here and there, rocks standing upright or
overthrown ; a desert entirely naked, where the traveller never drew his
breath under the friendly shade; where he has nothing to accompany hiin,
and where nothing reminds him of living nature; an absolute void a thou-
sand times more frightful than that of the forest, whose verdure, in some
measure, diminishes the horrors of solitude ;-an immensity which he in vain
attempts to overrun; for hunger, thirst, and burning heat, press on him
every weary moment that remains between despair and death.

Nevertheless, the Arab has found means to surmount these difficulties,
and even to appropriate to himself these gaps of nature. They serve
‘him for an asylum ; they secure his repose, and maintain him in his inde-
pendence.

An Arab who destines himself to this business of land piracy, early har-
dens himself to the fatigues of travelling. He accustoms himself to pass
many days without sleep; to suffer hunger, thirst, and heat.’ At the same
time he instructs his camels, he brings them up, and exercises them in the
same method. A few days after they are born, he bends their legs under
their bellies, and constrains them to remain on the earth, and loads them,
in this situation, with a weight as heavy as they usually carry, which he
only relieves them from, to give them a heavier. Instead of suffering them
to feed every hour, and drink even when they are thirsty, he regulates their
repasts, and, by degrees, increases them to greater distances between each
meal; diminishing, also, at the same time, the quantity of their food.
When they are a little stronger, he exercises them to the course; he excites
them by the example of horses, and endeavors to tender them also as swift,
and more robust. At length, when he is assured of the strength and swiftness
of his camels, and that they can endure hunger and thirst, he then loads
them with whatever is necessary for his and their subsistence. He dey arts
with them, arrives unexpectedly at the borders of the desert, stops the first
ae he sees, pillages the straggling habitations, and loads his camels

ith his booty. If he is pursued he is obliged to expedite his retreat, aud
then he displays all his own and his. animals’ talents. Mounted on one
of his swiftest camels, he conducts the troop, makes them travel day and
night, almost without stopping either to eat or drink. In this manner,
he easily passes over three hundred miles in eight days; and, during all
that time of fatigue and travel, he never unloads his camels, and only allows
them an hour of repose and a ball of paste each day. They uften run in
this manner for eight or nine days, without meeting with any water, during
which time they never drink; and when by chance they find a pool at some
distance from their route, they smell the water at more tnan half a mile
before they come to it. Thirst now makes them redouble their pace; and
then tn>y drink enough for all the time past, and for as long to come, for
324 MAMMALIA—CAMEL.

often they are many weeks in travelling; and their time of abstinence en
dures as long as they are upon their journey.

In Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Arabia, Barbary, &c., they use no other | care
riage for their merchandise, than camels, which is, of all their conveyances,
the most ready, and the cheapest. Merchants, and other travellers, assem-
ble themselves in caravans, to avoid the insults and piracies of the Arabs,
These caravans are often very numerous, and often composed of more
eamels than men. Every one of these camels is loaded according to his
strength; and he is so sensible of it himself, that when a heavier load than
usual is put upon him, he refuses it, by constantly remaining in his resting
posture, till he is lightened of some of his burden.

Large and strong camels generally carry a thousand, and even twelve
hundred weight; the smaller only six or seven hundred. 1n these commer-
cial journeys they do not travel quick; and as the route is often seven or
eight hundred miles, they regulate their stages. They only walk, and go
every day ten or twelve miles; they are disburthened every evening, and are
suffered to feed at liberty. If they are in a part of the country where there
is pasture, they eat enough in one hour to serve them twenty-four, and to
ruminate on, during the whole night; but they seldom meet with pastures,
and this delicate food is not necessary for them. They even seem to prefer
wormwood, thistles, nettles, furze, and other thorny vegetables, to the
milder herbs; and so long as they can find plants to browse on, they very
easily live without any drink. When a caravan arrives at a wadey, or
watering place, in the desert, it usually halts for some days. Nothing can
exceeil the delight with which both men and beasts reach one of these pools.

The facility with which they abstain so long from drinking, is not pure
habit, but rather an efféct of their formation. Independent of the four
stomachs, which are commonly found in ruminating animals, the camel is
possessed of a fifth bag, which serves him as a reservoir to retain the water.
This fifth stomach is peculiar to the camel. It is of so vast a capacity, as
‘o contain a great quantity of liquor, where it remains without corruption,
or ~vithout the other aliments being able to mix with it. When the animal
is p-essed with thirst, or has occasion to dilute the dry food, and to mace-
rate it for rumination, he causes a part of, this water to reascend into the
stomach, and even to the throat, by a simple contraction of the muscles.

This animal bears about him all the marks of slavery and pain; below
the breast, upon the sternum, is a thick and large callosity, as tough as
horn; tne like substance appears upon the joints of the legs. And, although
these callosities are to be met with in every animal, yet they plainly prove
that they are not natural, but produced by an excessive constraint ana
pain, as appears from their being often found filled with pus. It is there-
fore evident, that this deformity proceeds from the custom to which these
animals are constrained, of forcing them, when quite young, to lie upon
.their stomach with their legs bent under then, and in that ere mped posture
MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 825

to bear not only the weight of their body, but also the burdens with which
they are laden. These poor animals must suffer a great deal, as they make
lamentable cries, especially when they are overloaded ; and, notwithstand-
ing they are continually abused, they have as much spirit as docility. At
the first sign they bend their legs under thei: bodies, and kneeling upon the
ground, they are loaded, without the trouble of lifting the load a great
height, which must happen, were they to stand upright. As soon as they
are loaded, they raise themselves up again without any assistance or sup-
port; and the conductor, mounted on one of them, precedes the whole troop,
who follow him at the same pace as he leads. They have need of neither
whip or spur, to excite them; but, when they begin to be fatigued, their
conductors support their spirits, or rather charm their weariness, by a song,
or the sound of some instrument. When they want to prolong the route,
or double the day’s journey, they give them an hour’s rest; after which,
renewing their song, they again proceed on their way for many hours more;
and the singing continues unti] they stop. Then the camels again kneel
down on the earth, to be relieved from the burden. They remain in this
cramped posture, with their belly crouched upon the earth, and sleep in the
midst of ‘their baggage, which is tied on again the next morning, with as
much readiness and facility as it was untied before they went to rest.

They havea great plenty of milk, which is thick, and nourishing even
for tne human. species, if it is mixed with more than an equal quantity of
water. The females seldom do any labor while they are with young, but
are suffered to bring forth at liberty. The profit which arises from their
produce, and from their milk, perhaps surpasses that which is got from their
labor., In general, the fatter the camels are, the more capable they are
of enduring great fatigues. Their hunches appear to be formed only from
the superabundance of nourishment; for, in long journeys, where they are
obliged to stint them in their food, and where they suffer both hunger and
thirst, these hunches gradually dimirish, and are reduced almost even, and
the eminences are only discovered by the height ofthe hair, which is al vays
much longer upon these parts than upon any other part of the back.

The young camel sucks its mother a year; and when they want ¢ ‘ring
him up so as to make him strong and robust, they leave him at Lerty te
suck or graze for a longer time, nor begin to load him, or put him to labor,
till he has attained the age of four years. The camel commonly lives forty
or fifty years.

The camel is not only of greater value tnan the elephant, but perhaps
not of less than the horse, the ass, and the ox, al] united together. He
alone carries as much as two mules. He not only eats less, but likewise
feeds on herbs as coarse as the ass. The female furnishes milk a longer
time than the cow. The flesh of the young camels is good and wholesome,
like veal; their hair is finer, and more sought after than the finest wool ;
there is neta part of them, even to their excrements, from which some
326 MAMMALIA—CAMEL.

profit is not drawn; for sal ammoniac is made from their urine. Their
dung, when drie1 and powdered, serves them for litter, as it does for horses,
with whom they often travel into countries where neither straw nor hay is
known. In fine, a kind of turf is also made of this dung, which burns
freely, and gives a flame as clear, and almost as lively, as that of dry wood.
Even this is another great use, especially in deserts, where not a tree is
to be seen, and where, from the deficiency of combustible matters, fire is
almost as scarce as water.

At particular seasons of the year, camel fights are common at Smyrna,
and at Aleppo. Such exhibitions are the disgrace of the vulgar (le ihey
the high or the low vulgar,) of all countries; and the liea fighis of the
savage Romans, the bull fights of Spain, the bull and badger baitings and
sock fights of England, and the camel fights of Asia Minor, are equally
dications of a barbarian spirit, which can only be eradicated by knowledge
and true religion. Of these, however, the camel fights appear the least
objectionable.

Mr Mac Farlane thus describes to us this curious scene:—“Qne of the
favorite holiday amusements of the Turks of Asia Minor, is furnished by
the camel combats. An inclosure is made, and two camels, previously
muzzled, so that they cannot hurt each other much, are driven in, and incit-
ed to fight with each other. Their mode of combat is curious; they knock
their heads together, (laterally,) twist their long necks, wrestle with their
fore legs, almost like bipeds, and seem to direct their principal atiextion to
the throwing down of the adversary. During this combat, the Turks, deep-
ly interested, will back some one camel and: some the other; and they will
clap their hands and cry out the names of their respective favorites, just as
our amateurs do with their dogs, or as the Spaniards, at their more splendid
and more bloody bull fights, will echo the name of the hardy bull, or the
gallant matador.

“T once, however, chanced to see a less innocent contest, which I have
noticed in my volume of'travels. This was on the plain between Mounts
Sipylus and Tartalee, and the town of Smyrna. It was a fight in down-
aight earnest. Two huge rivals broke away from the string, and set to in
spite of their drivers. They bit each otner furiously, and it was with great
difficulty the devidgis succeeded in separating these, at other times, affecs
tionate and docile animals. The popular amusements which the camel
affords in other parts of the East are of a less ferocious nature. Ata parti«
cular season of the year, the Mahomedans in the neighborhood of Mount
Sinai have camel races, and this festival is a time of great rejoicing.”

Burckhardt relates an interesting story, which beautifully illustrates the
surprising instinct of the camel. It was told to him by a man who had
binself suffered all the pangs of death :—

“In the month of August, a small caravan prepared to set out from Bers
ber to Daraou. It consisted of five merchants and about thirty slaves, with
MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 327

4 proportiouate number of camels. Afraid of the robber Naym, who at that
time was in the habit of waylaying travellers about the well of Nedjeym,
and who had constant intelligence of the departure of every caravan from
Berber, they determined to take a more eastern road, by the well Owareyk.
They had hired an Ababde guide, who conducted them in safety to that
place, but who lost his way from thence northward, the route being very
unfrequented. After five days’ march in the mountains, their stock cf water
was exhausted, nor did they know where they were. They resolved, there-
fore, to direct their course toward the setting sun, hoping thus to reach the
Nile. After two days’ thirst, fifteen slaves and one of the merchants died ;
another of them, an Ababde, who had ten camels with him, thinking that
the camels might know better than their masters where water was to be
found, desired his comrades to tie him fast upon the saddle of his strongest
camel, that he might not fall down from weakness. And thus he parted
from them, permitting his camels to take their own way ; but neither the
man nor his camel were ever heard of afterwards. On the eighth day after
leaving Owareyk, the survivors came in sight of the mountains of Shigre,
which they immediately recognised ; but their strength was quite exhaust-
ed, and neither men nor beasts were able to move any farther. Lying down
under a rock, they sent two of their servants, with the two strongest re-
maining camels, in search of water. Before these two men could reach the
mountain, one of them dropped off his camel, deprived of speech, and able
only to move his hands to his comrade as a signa} that he desired to be left
to his fate. The survivor then continued his route; but suc}. was the effect
of thirst upon him, that .is eyes grew dim, and he lost the road, though he
had often travelled over it before, and had been perfectly acquainted with it.
Having wandered about for a long time, he alighted under the shade of a
tree, and tied the camel to one of its branches. The beast, however, smelt
the water, (as the Arabs express it,) and, wearied as it was, broke its halter,
and set off galloping furiously, in the direction of the spring, which, as it
afterwards appeared, was at half an hour’s distance. The man well under-
standing the camel’s action, endeavored to follow its footsteps, but could
only move a few yards. He fell exhausted on the ground, and was about
-) breathe his last, when Providence led that way, from a neighboring en-
campment, Bisharye Bedouin, who, by throwing water upon the man’s face,
restored him to his senses. They then went hestily together to the water,
filled the skins, and returning to the caravan, had the good fortune to find
the sufferers still alive. The Bisharye received a slave for his trouLle. My
informer, a native of Yembo, in Arabia, was the man whose came} discover-
ed the spring ; and he added the remarkable circumstance, that the youngest
slaves bore the thirst beter than the rest, and that, while the. grown ug
boys all died, the children reached Egypt in safety.”
328 MAMMALIA—LLAMA.

THE LLAMA.

 

Tis height of this animal is about four feet; its body, comprehending the
neck aad head, is five or six feet iong; its neck alone is near three fect.
The head is small and well proportioned, the eyes large, the n3se somewhat
long, the lips uhick, the upper divided, and the lower a little depending: it
wants the incisive and canine teeth in the upper jaw. The ears are four
inches long, and move with great agility. The tail is seldom above eight
mches long, small, straight, and a little turned up at the end. It is cloven
tuoted, like the ox ; but the hoof has a kind of spear-like appendage behind,
which assists the animal to move and support itself over precipices and
tugged ways. The back is clothed with a short wool, as is the crupper and
tail; but it is very long on the belly and sides. These animals differ in
color; sore are white, others black, but most of them brown. The engrav-
tag was drawn from a white llama, in the Zoological Gardens.

The growth of the lama is very quick ; and its life is but of short dura-
tion. This auimal couples so early as at three years of age, and remains
strong and vigorous till twelve; after which it begins to decline, aad

 

1 Auchenia glama, Lin. The genus Auchenia has two upper and six lower incisors;
two upper and uo lower canines; two upper false molars; ten upper and ten lower true
molars. Teeth resembling these of the camel; muzzle little erin Teretat upper lip cleft;
neck slender; eyes large; ears long, pointed, and moveable; feet terminated bv twe toeg
furnished with tale crooked nails, with a cailous sole; call.sities on the hreast and
knees; tail short; »wo mamme
MAMMALIA—LLAMA. 320

tomes entirely ubless at fifteen. They are gentle and phlegmatic, and
do every thing with the greatest leisure and caution. When they stop on
their journeys, they bend their knees very cautiously, in order to lower their
bodies without disordering their load. As soon as they hear their driver
whistle, they rise up again with the same precaution, and proceed on their
journey. They feed, as they go along, on the grass they meet with in their
way, but never eat in the night, making use of that time to ruminate. The
Nama sleeps, like the camel, with its feet folded under its belly, and rnmi-
nates in that posture. When overloaded or fatigued, it falls cn its te ly and
will not rise, though its driver strikes it with his utmost force.

3 i ZA NY
DKK i

Hy Wf) A AYN
HAI AY

 

Peru, according to Gregory de Bolivar, is the true and native country of
the lamas; they are conducied into other provinces, as New Spain, &c.
But this is rather for curiosity than utility. But in Peru, from Powosi to
Caraccas, these animals are in great numbers, and make the chief riches
of the Indians and Spaniards, who rear them. Their flesh is excellent
food; their hair, or rather wool, may be spun into beautiful clothing; and
tney are capable of carrying heavy Joads in the most rugged and dangerous
ways. The strongest of them wil] travel with two hundred or two hundred
and fifty pounds weight on their backs. Their pace is but slow, and the:r
journey is seldom above fifteen miles a day; but then they are sure, and
descend precipices, and find footing among the most craggy rocks, where
even men can scarcely accompany them. -They commonly travel for five
days together, when they are obliged to rest, which thev do, of their own
accord, for two or three days. They are chiefly employed in carrying the
riches of the mines of Potosi. Bolivar affirms, that in his time above three
hundred thousand of these animals were in actual employ.

42
330 MAMMALIA--PACO.

a

These useful, and even necessary animals, are attended with no expense
to their masters. For, as they are cloven footed, they do not require to be
shod, nor do they require to be housed, as their woo! supplies then with a
warm covering. Satisfied with a small portion of vegetables and grass,
they want neither corn nor hay to subsist upon. They are still more
moderate in what tley drink; as their mouths are contirually moistened
with saliva, which they have in a greater quantity than any other animal,
The nauives hunt the guanaco, which is the llama in a wild state, for the
sake of its fleece. The dogs have much trouble to follow them; and, if
they do not come up with them before they gain the rocks, both the hunters
and cugs are obliged to desist in their pursuit.

The llama is in general a timid and docile animal. If teased, or ill
treated, however, it becomes spiteful. Their mode of manifesting their
anger is singular; it consists in darting their saliva in considerable quantity
upon the person who offends them. They will cover with it a surface of
three or four yards in extent. In the wood cut, one of the animals is
represented in the act of thus showing his displeasure. It has been assert-
ed that the saliva is venomous, but this is an error.

 

THE PACO!

Sranps in much the same relation to the llama, that the ass does to the
horse. He is smaller, and not so serviceable ; but his fleece is more useful.
His wool is fine and long, and is a sort of merchandise 1s valuable as silk.
The natural color of the paco is that of a dried rose-leaf, which is so fixed
that it undergoes no alteration under the hands of the manufacturers.
They not only make good gloves and stockings of this woo, but also form
it into quilts and carpets, which bring a higher price, and exceed those
of the Levant.

The pacos also resemble the Hamas in their form, excepting that their
legs are shorter, and their muzzle thicker and closer. They inhabit and
climb‘ over the highest. parts of the mountains. The snow and ice seem
rather agreeable than inconvenient to them. When wild, they keep
together in flucks, and run very swift; and as svon as they perceive a
stranger, thev take flight, driving their young before them. The ancient
raonarchs of Peru rigorously prohibited the hunting of them, as they inulti-
ply but slowly. But since the arrival of the Spaniards in these parts, their
number is greatly decreased, so that at present there are very few remain-
ing. The flesh of these animals is not so good as that of the guanacos;
and they are only sought after for their fleece, and the bezoar they produce.

 

1 Auchenia vicunna, Lin.
MAMMALIA—THIBET MUSK. 30]

The method of taking them, proves their extreme timidity, or rather their
weakness. The hunters having driven the flock into a narrow passage,
across which they have stretched a rope about four feet from the ground,
with a number of pieces of linen or cloth hanging on it, the animals ave so
intimidated at these rags agitated by the wind, that they stop, and, ere wd-
ing together in a heap, the hunters kill great numbers of them with the
greatest ease. But if there are any guanacos among the flock, wich are
less timid than the pacos, they leap over the rope with great agility. Te
example is immediately followed by the whole flock, und they esc: pe te
stratagem of their pursuers.

With respect to the domestic ,pacos, they are used to carry burdens, like
the llamas; but, being smaller and weaker, they carry much less weight.
They are likewise of a more stubborn nature; and, when once they rest
with their load, they will suffer themselves to be cut to pieces sooner than
rise. The Indians have never made use of the milk of these animals, as
they have scarcely enough to supply their own young. The great profit
derived froin their wool has induced the Spaniards to endeavor to naturalize
them in Europe. They have transported them into Spain, in hopes to raise
the breed in that country; but, the climate not agreeing with their nature,
not one of them lived. We are, nevertheless, persuaded that these animals,
which are more valuable than the llamas, might thrive upon the European
mountains, especially upon the Pyrenean. Those who brought them into
Spain, did not consider that they can exist, even in Peru, only in the cold
regions ; that is, on the top of the highest mountains; that they are
never to be found in the valleys, and die if brought into hot countries ;
that, consequently, in order to preserve them, they should be landed, not
in Spain, but in Scotland, and even in Norway, and with greater certainty
at the foot of the Pyrenean, Alpine, or other mountains, where they migh
climb and attain to the region that most agrees with their nature

 

é THE THIBET MUSK!

Tne size and general appearance of this animal resembles, in sme
degree, that of the roebuck. It is about three feet four inches in length, and
abvut two feet eight inches in neight, from the top of the shoulders to the
bottom of the fore feet; the ears are long and narrow, of a pale yellow in
the inside, and deep brewn outside. The general color of the body isa
deep iron gray. The female is not so large as the male, has two teats, but
is destitute of tusks.

 

1’ Moschus moschiferus, Lin. The genus Voschus has eight lower incisors, no upper
ones ; vo upper canines, no le wer ues; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Canines
wanting altogether in the few ales; superior canines targe in the inales ; ears long, pomt-
ed; hod y slender; feet with boofs, separated and envelup.ng the last phalanges; tail very
short; two inguinal mamme.
3832 MAMMALIA—ELK.

These animals are found in the Alpine mountains of zsia, Torqnin, anu
Siberia, and about lake Baikal. In their habits and manners, they are very
like the chamois and other mountain goats, leaping with great celerity, and
when pursued, taking refuge among the highest and most inaccessible
summits. Indeed, their favorite haunts are the tops of mountains cuvered
with pines, where they delight to wander in places the mest difficult of
access. The flesh of the males is much infected with the taste of muslr
but it is eaten by the Russians and Tartars.

They are hunted for the sake of their well known perfume, which is con
tained in an oval bag, about the size of a small hen’s egg, hanging from the
abdomen, and peculiar to the male only. This receptacle is found constant-
ly filled with a soft, unctuous, brownish substance, of the most powerfuw
and penetrating scent, and which is. the perfume in its natural state. When
close, and in large quantities, the smell is very powerful and injurious. 11
has been known to force the blood from the nose, eyes, and ears, of those
who have imprudently or accidentally inhaled its vapors; but at a distance,
the scent is usually considered agreeable. A grain of musk is sufficient to
perfume an apartment fora considerable time; but in larger quantities it
continues to give out its scent for many years, and seems scarcely wasted
in its weight, although it has during that time filled the atmosphere to a
great distance with its particles. It is employed in medicine, particularly
in nervous and hysteric disorders; and in those cases is found to be oue
of the most powerful remedies in use. The quantity produced from each
animal is about a quarter of an ounce, and is found at all seasons of the
year ; but not in those that are young.

Many thousands of these bags are sent over annually to Europe, besides
the great consumption which exists in different parts of the East; for
Tavernier says, that he bought, in one journey, seven thousand six hundred
and seventy-three musk bags. To account for which, it is supposed that
the musk is frequently mixed and adulterated with the blood of the animal

THE ELK, OR MOOSE)

Is a much larger, and a much stronger anima: than the stag and the rein-
deer. It is usually larger, both in height and bulk, than the horse. His
hair 1s so rough, and his hide so hard, that.a musket ball cannot penetrate
it. His legs are very firm, with so much motion and strength, especially

 

1 Cervus alves, Lis. The genus Cervus has eight incisors helow; canines none, or
two above; molars twelve above and twelve below, Canines compressed and bem back +
head long, terrainated hy a muzzle; eyes large. pupils elongated transversely sa lachry-
mal simis in most; ears large and pointed; tongue soft; hody slender; four inguinal
mamnue ; horns solid, deciduous, palmated, branched, ur simple in the males; femates,
with one exception, withov’ horns,
MAMMALIA—MOOSE. odd

in the fore feet, that he can kill a man by one single stroke of his foot;
nevertheless, he is hunted nearly as we hunt the stag; that is, with men
and dogs. It is affirmed, that waen he is touched with the lance, or pur-
sued, it happens that he often falls down all at once, without either being

 

pulled down or wounded. From this circumstance, some have presumed
he was subject to the epilepsy; and on this presumption, which is not well
founded, (since fear alone might be able to produce the same effect,) this
absurd conclusion has been drawn, that his hoof is a remedy for the ey ilep-
sy, and even preserves persons from it. His pace, when disturbed, is a
rapid kind of trot. In walking, he lifts his feet very high, and can, without
difficulty, step over a gate that is five feet high.

Naturalists have generally considered the moose deer to be the same
species with the elk of the northern parts of the Old World; but the fact
that few of te American quadrupeds have been found precisely similar to
their Europsan representatives, ought to excite doubts of the identity of the
moose and Scandinavian elk. The moose exists in considerable numbers,
near the Bay of Fundy; and frequents the woody tracts in the fur countries
to their most northern limit, and on the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers,
where they feed on the willows and aspen. They are rarely, if ever, found
west of the Rocky Mountains. In the more northern parts, the moose is
qvite a solitary animal. It has the sense of hearing in very great perfection,
ad is the most shy and wary of all the deer species, and on this account
moose hunting is looked upon as the greatest of an Indian’s acquirements.
The skill of a mecse hunter is most tried in the early part of the winter,
as the animal is tracked by its foot marks on the snow; and it is necessary
that he should k+:p constantly to leeward and use the utmost caution, for
the rustling of a leaf is sufficient to alarm the watchful beast. In this man-
ner, he tracks tue animal, till by the marks on the snow he discovers that
he is very nea’ to him. He then breaks a twig, which, alarming the moose,
it springs up apJ prepares to start. The hunter now fires, and seldom fails
a killing him.

{n the spripz, when the snow is very deep, the hunters frequently chase
stem on snow shoes. Notwitlistanding the Jengthened chase which tae
334 MAMMALIA—STAG.

moose can sustain on the snow, Hearne remarks that it is both tender foot-
ed and short-winded ; though instances are recorded of its eluding pursuit
for six successive days. ‘lhe same author says, that, in summer, moose
deer are often killed in the water by the Indians, as when they are crossing
the riverg or lakes, they never make any resistance. They are the easiest
to domesticate of any of the deer kind.

 

The flesh of the moose is more relished by the Indians, and residents in
the fur countries, than that of any other animal, principally, on account of
its soft fat. It bears a greater resemblance to beef in its flavor, than to
venison. The nose is considered most excellent food. The moose acquires
a large size, occasionally weighing eleven or twelve hundred pounds.
Its skin, when properly dressed, makes a soft, thick, pliable leather,
excellently adapted for moccasins, or other articles of winter clothing. Its
movements are very heavy; it shuffles or ambles along, its joints cracking
at every step, with a sound heard to some distance. During its progress,
it holds up its nose so as to lay the horns back horizontally. Although its
figure is uncouth, yet when seen in a wilderness, in all the glory of its full
, grown horns, ne animal could appear more majestic or im nosing.

THE STAG!

Is one of those mild, tranquil, innocent animals, which seem as if they were
created solely to adorn and animate the solitude of the forests, and tu occupy

 

re

1 Cervus elaphus; Lin.
MAMMALIA—STAG. 835

remote from man, the peaceful retreats of nature. [lis light and elegant
form ; his flexible, yet nervous limbs; his head rathe: adorned, than armea,
with a living substance, like the branch of a tree, which is every year
renewed ; his size, his swiftness, his strength, sufficiently distinguish him
from the r2st of the inhabitants of the forest.

 

The old stags shed their horns first, which happens about the end of Feb-
ruary, or the beginning of March. Stags in their seventh year do not
undergo this change till the middle or the end of March; nor do those in
their sixth year, till the month of April.

After they have shed their horns, they separate from each other; the very
young ones, alone, associating together. They remain no longer im covert;
they seek the beautiful parts of the country, the groves, and the open cop-
pices, where they remain all the summer, till they recover the antlers which
Were wont to adorn their brows. And, during this season, they carry their
heads low, for fear of striking them against the branches; for tkiey ‘are
exceedingly tender till they arrive at perfection. The horns of the oldest
stags are scarcely half repaired by the month of May; nor do they attain
their full length and hardness till about the end of July. The horns of the
young stag are very late shed, and very late recovered; but when these
are completely lengthened, and are become quite hard, they rub them
836 MAMMALIA -STAG.

against the trees, in order to clear ther fium the scurf with which they
are covered.

The hinds, or females, carry their young eight mnths, and a few days.
They are not all prolific; and one sort there is m particular, which is
always barren. The fawn retains this appellation no longer than till it is
six months old; then the knobs begin to appear, and it takes the name of a
knobber, which it bears till these knobs are lengthened to so many points,
whence they are termed prickets, or brockets. It does not quit its mother
early, though it grows fast, but follows her all the summer. In winter, the
hinds, the knobbers, the prickets, and the young stags resort to the herd,
forming troops, which are more numerous in proportion as the season is
more severe. In spring, they divide, the hinds retiring to bring forth their
young; and at this time there are scarcely any but the prickets and the
young stags, which go together. In general, the stags are inclined to
remain with each other, and to roam abroad in companies; it is only from
fear or necessity that they are ever found dispersed or separated.

The growth of the horns appears to depend on the redundancy of the
fluids ; and the beauty of this, as indeed of every part, depends much upon
their food.

The stag passes his whole life in the alternatives of .plenitude and want,
of corpulence and leanness, of health and sickness, without having his con-
stitution much affected by the violence of the change; nor is the duration
of his life inferior to that of other animals’ which are not subject to such
vicissitudes. As he is five or six years in growing, so he generally lives
seven times that number of years; that is, thirty-five or forty years. What
nas been reported, therefore, concerning the prodigious longevity of the
stag, is without any good foundation, though supported by the story of one
which was taken by Charles VI. in the forest of Senlis, with a collar round
his neck, whereon was inscribed, ‘“Czsar hoc me donavit;” and people
chose rather to believe that this animal had lived a thousand years, and had
received this collar from a Roman emperor, than to conclude that he might
come from Germany, where the emperors have always ~ssumed the title
of Cesar.

The horns of the stag continue to increase in bulk and height, from the
second year to the eighth. They remain beautiful, and much thé same,
during their vigor of life; but as their body declines with age, so do their
horns decline also.

It is but seldom that the stags of Europe have more than twenty or
twenty-two antlers, even when their head is in its most beautiful state;
and, as the size of the stag’s head depends on the quantity of his food, so
the quality of his horns is found also to depend on the kind of nourishment
he receives. It is like the wood of the forest, large, soft, and light, in moist
and fertile countries ; and, on the contrary, short, hard, and heavy, in such
as are dry and barren.
MAMMALIA—STAG. 337

The most common color of the stag is yellow, though there are many
found of a brown, and many of a red color. White stags are much more
uncommon, and seem to be stags become domestic. Th2 color of the horns,
like that of the hair, seems in particular to depend on the nature and age
of the animal. The horns of the young stags are whiter than those of the
old ones. Of those stags, also, whose hair is of a light yellow, the horns
are often of a sallow hue, and disagreeable to the eye.

This animal seems to have good eyes, an exquisite smell, and an excek
lent ear. When he would hearken to any thing, he raises his head, pricks
up his ears, and then he hears from a great distance. When he issues from
a little coppice, or some other spot half covered, he stops, in order to take @
full view around him, and then snuffs up the wind, in order to try whether
fie can discover the scent of aught that may give him disturbance. -Though
naturally rather simple, he is yet far from being destitute of curiosity and
cunning. If any one whistles, or calls aloud to him from a great distance,
he instantly stops short, and gazes with fixed attention, with even a kind
of admiration ; and if he sees neither arms nor dogs, he passes along
quietly, and without altering his pace. With equal tranquillity and pleasure
he seems also to listen tc the shepherd’s pipe, or flageolet; and the huuters,
in order to embolden him, sometimes use these instruments. In general, he
fears men much less than he does dogs, and entertains neither distrust nor
artifice, but in proportion as he is disturbed. He eats slowly, chooses his
food, and seeks afterwards to repose himself, that he may ruminate at
Seisure, though the act of rumination lie does not seem to perform with the
same ease as the ox; nor is it without undergoing much violence that the
stag can throw up the food contained in his first stomach. He seldom
jrinks in the winter, and seldomer still in the spring.

In England, the number of red deer is diminishing. This has, no doubt,
arisen, from the grazing of sheep and cattle, by which the seclusion the red
deer are so fond of, has been broken in upon, both in the mountains and in
the valleys. As the more lucrative occupation of the soil extends into the
remoter districts, the race must further and further decrease; nor is the
period at which they will be wholly extinct, in all probability, very distant.
Now, unless by a person, whom long observation has rendered familiar
with their haunts, the country may be traversed without seeing even one.
From their fleetuess, and the nature of the ground on which they are found,
horses and hounds are of no direct use in the chase of them as the steed
would be required to leap precipices of fifty feet, instead of gates of five
bars; and the dogs would be constantly tumbling into gullies and ravines,
which are cleared by the deer at one bound. They cannot be driven “with
hound and horn,” as was the case in the days of “the barons bold;” neither
ean they be collected and hemmed in, after the somewhat similar manner
in which the Highland chiefs conducted their sports. Still, there are a few
places where a person who has been habituated to the occupation, and who

43
338 MAMMALIA-—STAG.

does not fear to ground himself in a morass, and will submit to the other
pleasures of “stalking,” may occasionally find a roe. The most certain
time is, when the state of the weather is such as to iorce the herds to the
well-heads, where there is brushwood near to cover the marksman.

“The largest forest set apart for red deer which exists in Scotland, is the
forest of Atholl, where a hundred thousand English acres are given up to
tnem; and upon this large tract neither man, woman child, sheep, oor
oxen are allowed to trespass, with the exception of those parties who are
vermitted to partake of the mysteries of deer stalking.

“The sportsmen, seldom more than two in each party, set forth, accom:
panied by a keeper who acts as general; and they are followed by two or
three Highlay ders, carrying spare rifles, and leading the deer huunds. The
putty is prec:ded by the keeper, who is about twenty or thirty yards in
advance, attentively examining the face of every hill with his telescope, to
discover the deer that may be grazing upon it. Upon detecting a herd, a
council of war is held, and the plan of operations determined upon. It is
necessary to proceed with much caution, as, independent of the strong sense
of smelling, seeing, and Learing, which these animals are endued with,
there is always one of the herd, generally a hind, or female deer, stationed
as sentinel ; and, upon the least suspicion being excited, the signal is given,
and they are off. Great care is therefore taken, in the approach, to ad-
vance up the wind, and to conceal the party by taking advantage of the
mequalities of the ground, preserving the strictest silence. It frequently
happens, that the sportsmen are cbliged to make a circuit of some miles,
to get near them undetected—at other times they may find that they are
in a situation, from which they cannot extricate themselves unseen. In
that case, they must lie down till the herd move into a more favorable
position for their purpose. Having arrived as near to them as is possible
without detection, the sportsmen, after a careful examination of their rifles,
still keeping themselves as much concealed a= possible, fire, and continue
firing and loading, as long as they remain within practicable distance.
Eleven out of a herd of fifteen have-been known to be killed by one person.
fhe accidental circumstance of an echo, the sound being heard on one side
and the flash appearing on the other, so puzzled the deer, that they stood
still, till the four last gathered courage and made off. When wounded,
large hounds, of a breed between the greyhound and the bloodhound, are
let loose upon the track of their blood, and they never leave it till they have
brought. the animal to bay; generally, in some stream, where they keep him
till the sportsman comes up and dispatches him by shooting him through
the head. It is necessary for the huiter to be very cautious in approaching
him when at bay, and always to keep him down the stream, from where he
stands ; for if ne breaks his bay, he is very likely tu attack his pursuer, gore
him with his horns, or trample him to pieces with his feet.”
MAMMALIA—DEER. 839

THE MALAYAN RUSA DEER!

Is a native of India, and of the Indian islands. | “He is,” says Mr Bennett,
“dark cinereous brown above, nearly black on the throat and breast, and
ight fawn, intermixed with dirty white, on the inside of the limbs. Tis
eyes are surrounded by a fawn colored disc, and patches of the same color
occupy the fore knees, and a space above each of the hoofs in f*cnt. His
nose, Which is black, is enveloped in an extensive muzzle; his ears are nearly

ft

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naked on che mside, and marked by a patch of ditty white at the base
externally ; and his mane, which spreads downwards over the neck and
throat, is remarkably thick and heavy. His tail is black above, and light
fawn beneath; and a disc of the latter color occupies the posterior part of
the buttocks, having on each side a blackish line which separates it from
the lighter tinge of the inside of the thighs. His horns, when properly
grown, consist of a broac burr, from which the pointed basal antler rises
almost perpendicularly to the extent of nine or ten inchés ; of a stem, which
is first directed outwards, and then forms a bold curve inwards; and of a
snag, or second antler of smaller size, arising from the stem near its extre-
mity on the posterior and internal side, and forming with it a terminal fork.
the brunch, however, being shorter than the stem, and not exceeding fir

or six inches in length. The entire length of the horns is about two feet

they are of a dark colour, very strong, and decply furrowed throughout.

 

4 Cervus equinus. Cuv.

ve
340 MAMMALIA—DEER

THE INDIAN STAG.)

 

T'sr axis, or Indian stag, is of the sma'l number of ruminating animals
‘who wear horns, like the stag. He has the shape and swiftness of ihe fallow
deer ; but what distinguishes him from the stag and fallow deer 1s, that his
‘body is marked with white spots, elegautly disposed, and separated one
rom another, and that he is a native of not countries, Hiadostan, and parti-
cularly Bengal; while the stag and deer nave their coat of a uniform color,
.and are to be met with in greater numbers, it: cold countries aud temperate
ssegions, than in hot climates.

The axis appears to be an intermediate mixture between the deer and the
wag. He resembles the deer in the size of his body, the lenyth of his tail,
and his coat, which is the same during his whole life. He only essentially
differs from that animal in his horns, which uearly resemble those of the
stag. The axis, therefore, may possibly be only a variety depending on the
climate, and not a different species from the deer; for, although he is a
‘native-of the hottest countries of Asia, he supports, and easily multiplies in
that of Europe. He is a very mild and timid animal.

 

' Cervus aris, Lin,
MAMMALIA—DEER. 34)

THE FALLOW DEER.

 

No two animals can be more nearly allied than the stag and the fallow
deer; and yet no two animals keep more distinct, or avoid each other with
more fixed animosity. They are never seen to herd in the same place; it is
even rare, unless they have been transported thither, to find fallow deer in
a country where stags are numerous. They seem to be of a nature less ro-
bust and less savage than the stag. They are found but rarely wild in the
forests, and are bred up in parks, where they are, as it were, half domestic.

England is the country of Europe where they most abound; and there,
their flesh, which dogs are observed to prefer to that of all other animals, is
held in no smal] estimation. It seems to be an animal formed for a tempe~
rate climate; for it is never found in Russia, and very rarely in the forcsts
of Sweden, or in any other northern country; and as the fallow deer is an
animal less savage, more delicate, and, indeed, it may be added, more
domestic than the stag, it is likewise subject to a greater number of
varieties. ay

The horns of the buck, like those of the stag, are shed every year, an?
take nearly the same time for repairing.

It fiequently-bappens, that a herd of fallow deer is seen to divide into
parties, and to engage each other with great ardor. Each seems desirous
of gaining some favorite spot of the park for pasture, and of driving the
vauquished party inte the coarser and more disagreeable parts. Each

 

1 Corvus dama, Lr.
342 MAMMALIA—ROEBUCK.

of these factions has its particular chief, namely, the oldest and the strongest
of each herd. These lead on to the engagement ; and the rest follow under
their direction. Their combats are singular enough, from the disposition
and conduct by which their mutual efforts seem to be regulated. The~
attack with order, and support and assault with courage; they come to the
assistance of each other ; they retire, they rally, and never yield the victory
upon a single defeat. The combat is renewed: every day, till at length the
most feeble side is obliged to give way, and is content to escape to the
most disagreeable part of the park, where alone they can find safety
and protection. The fallow deer may easily be brought to live in stables
and seems to acquire an affection for the horse. One which was kept at
Newmarket, in England, used to delight in galloping round the course with
the racers while the jockeys were exercising them.

‘From the age of two years, till that of fifteen or sixteen, the fallow deer
is in a condition to produce, and, in fine, resembling the stag in all its
natural habits, the greatest difference we find between these two animals
isin the duration of their lives. From the testimony of hunters, it has.
been mentioned, that the stag lives to the age of thirty-five or forty; and,
on the same authority, it is asserted, that the fallow deer lives but about
twenty years; and as in size the latter is snaller than the stag, so it is
probable that in growth he is somewhat quicker.

Besides the nostrils, the fallow deer is furnished with two spiracula, o1
breathing places, one at the inner corner of each eye, communicating with
the nose. By this means it continues to breathe while drinking, which it
could not otherwise do, as it plunges its nose deep under water, and retains
it there for a considerable time. These spiracles, it is probable, may also
be useful to the animal when chased, by enabling it to respire more fully
and, easily.

THE ROEBUCK.!

Tue stag, as being the most noble among the tenants of the woods, inha
bits the most secret parts of the forest, where the spreading branches form
a lofty coyert. While the roebuck, as being of an inferior species, conter.
himself with a more lowly residence, and is seldom found but among the
thick foliage of young trees and shrubs. But, if this animal is less noble
Jess strong, and less elevated in stature, he is, however, possessed of more
grace, more vivacity, and even, more courage, than the stag. Though but.
a very small] animal, yet, when his young are attacked, he faces, even the
stag himself, and not unfrequently comes off victorious,

1 Cervus capreolus, Lin.
MAMMALIA—ROEBUCK. 343

So tleet is the roebuck, that it is nearly impossible to hunt him down;
and such are his strength and wind, that he can run unexhausted for several
hours. Shvuld he, however, be at length pressed too closely, he resorts ta
artifice. He retraces his footsteps, backwards and forwards, till fs turns
ings and windings have confused the scent; and, when this is accomplished,
he springs aside at one vast bound, and lies flat on his belly among the
grass and bushes, till the dogs have gone by; nor does he make the least
motion, even should they pass close to his nose.

The roebuck differs from the stag, not only in superior cunning, but alsa
in his natural appetites, his inclinations, and his whole habits of living.
Instead of herding together like the latter, the species of the former live im
separate families. The sire, the dam, and the young ones, form of them-
selves a little community, nor do they ever admit a stranger into it.
All other animals of the deer kind are inconstant in their affection.
The roebuck never forsakes his mate; and, as they have been generally
bred up together, the male and female furm for each other the strongest
attachment. .

The female of this species goes with young five months and a half, and
brings forth about the end of April, or the beginning of May. The hind
goes tnure than eight months; and this is a circumstance which alone suffi-
ces to prove, thet these animals are of a species so different, that they can
never intermix, nor produce together an intermediate race. The female
separates herself from the male, when she is about to bring forth, retiring
into the thickest part of the woods, in order to avoid the wolf, which is her
most dangerous enemy. At the expiration of about ten or twelve days, the
fawns, of which there are generally two at a birth, attain strength enough
to follow her. When she is threatened with any peril, she hides them in
some deep thicket, offers herself to the danger, and allows herself to be
chased in their stead.

:The fawns continue to foliow the buck and the doe eight or nine months
in all; and, upon separating, their horns begin to. appear, as these of the
stag, the first year, simple, and without antlers. These they shed at the
latter end of autumn, and renew during the winter.

In the stag, the fallow deer, and the roebuck, there are two bony eminen-
ces, on which their horas grow, which begin to shoot at the end of five or
six months, and which, in a little time longer, arrive at their full growth;
and, far from enlarging themselves as the animal advances in age, they
diniinish, and are even the most certain index for discovering, every year,
the advanced age of ail the species.

As the female goes only five months and a half with young, and as the
growth of the young roebuck is quicker than that of the young stag, so his
life is shorter, and does not appear to extend beyond twelve or fifteen years,
at the farthest. The reebucks remain in winter in the thickest coppices,
and live on briars, broom, heath, &c. In spring, they repair to the more
344 MAMMALIA—FALLOW DEER.

open groves, ard browse upon the buds and young fresh leaves of almost
every tree; and this warm food, fermenting in their stomachs, inebriates
them in such a manner, that they are then easily surprised.

The roebuck is the smallest of che British deer. The species is now
nearly extinct in England. They are somewhat more plentiful in the
highlands of Scotland.

THE VIRGINIA,OR AMERICAN FALLOW DEER:

 

Tuts is the smallest species known in America. It is found throughout
tbe country, from Canada in tLe north, and the banks of the Oronoco in
South America. It is remarkab‘e for the slenderness and delicacy: of its
form. Its long and slim neck, small body, and almost pointed head, give
the animal an air of feebleness, the impression of which is only to be coun-
teraclud by observing the animated eye, the playful movements, and admi-
rable celerity of its course when at full speed.

The Virginia deer is of great importance as an abundant source of food
and raiment. Vast numbers are annually destroyed for the sake of theit
flesh, hide, and horns. The flesh is justly considered an excellent article
of fuod, when killed in the proper season. The Indians and hunters feed
apon it at all seasons. The stomach of the deer, with its half digested

 

a sel

' Cervus Virginianus, Desm
MAMMALIA—AMERICAN ELK. 345

contents, is a very favorite dish with almost all the savages, especially
toward the north, where deer feed in a great degree on mosses and buds.

This species of deer has very, keen senses, especially of hearing and
smelling, upon which its safety particularly depends. [tis a very shy and
timid animal, and the slightest noise excites his attention, and if the cause
of alarm be continued, he exerts his strength, and dashes off in his swiftest
career. Itis said by hunters to evince a strong degree of animusity towards
serpents, and especially to the rattlesnake, of which it has an instinctive
horror. In order to destroy one of these creatures, the deer makes a bound
into the air, and alights upon the snake with all four feet brought together
in a square, and these violent blows are repeated till the hated reptile is
destroyed. The skins of this deer continue to form a very valuable article
of commerce, and furnish a material better adapted for the manufacture
of gloves and other articles, than the skin of any other animal with which
We are acquainted.

THE AMERICAN ELK, CANADA STAG,
OR WAPITI.

Tuts species is second in size to the moose alone. The size and appear-
ance of the elk are imposing; his air denotes confidence of great strength,
while his towering horns exhibit weapons capable of doing much injury
when offensively employed. It is not uncommon to see them four or five

 

feet in height, and it is said they are sometimes still higher. The elk has
atone period ranged over the greater part, if not the whole, of this conti-
aent. Hearne leaves no doubt of its existence as far north as fifty-three

 

1 Cervus major, Onp.

44
346 MAMMALIA—REINDEER.

degrees. They are occasionally found in the remote and thinly settled parts
of Pennsylvania, but the number is small. They are found in great num-
bers in the western wilds, where the forests supply them with an abundance
of buds and tender twigs. The elk is shy and retiring, and has very acute
senses. The moment the air is tainted by the odor of his enemy, his head
is erected with spirit, his ears rapidly thrown in every direction to eatch
the sounds, and his dark glistening eye expresses the most eager attention.
As soon as he discovers the hunter, he bounds along for a few paces, stops,
turns half round, and scans his pursuer with a steady gaze, then throwing
back his lofty horns, and projecting his taper nose forwards, he springs from
the ground and advances with a velocity which soon leaves the object of his
dread far out of sight. ‘

The flesh of the elk is highly esteemed by the Indians and hunters as
food, and the horns, while in a soft state, are also considered a deticacy ;
of their hides a great variety of articles of dress and usefulness are prepared.
The Indians form bows of the perfect horn, which are highly serviceable,
from their elasticity. These animals have been toa certain degree domes-
ticated, and might possibly be rendered as useful as the reindeer.

The caribon or American reindeer, and the barren ground caribon, inhabit
the northern parts of the continent; but are supposed to be only varieties
of the Lapland reindeer.

THE REINDEER.

 

Ir appears by positive testimonies, that the reindeer formerly existed in
Frayze, at. least in the high mountains, such as the Pyrenean; and, since
that time, has been. destroyed, like the stags, who were heretofure common.

” in that country. It is certain, that the reindeer is now actually to be found.
only in the mosi northern countries. We also know, that the clinate of
France was formerly mueh more damp and cold, vecasioned by the number
MAMMAL1A—REINDEER. 347

of woods and moriasses, which are no longer to be seen. Gaul, under the
same latitude as Canada, was, two thousand years ago, what Canada is at
the present time; that is, a climate cold enough for these animals to live
in. We find him in America, in the highest latitudes, because the cold is
greater there than in Europe. The reindeer can bear even the most exces-
sive cold. He is found in Spitsbergen ; he is common in Greenland, avd in
the most northern parts of Lapland. :

The reindeer is shurter and more squat than the stag; his legs are shorter
and thicker, and his feet wider; the hair very thickly furnished, and his
antlers much longer, and divided into a greater number of branches, with
flat terminations. The reindeer is become domestic among the enlightened
part of mankind. The Laplanders have no other beast. In this icy climate,
which only receives the oblique rays of the sun— where there is a season
of night as well as day —where the snow covers the earth from the begin-
ning of autumn, as well as spring, and where the verdure of the summer
consists in thebramble, juniper, and moss, could man form any idea but
of famine? The horse, the ox, the sheep, all our useful animals, find no sub-
sistence there, nor can they resist the rigor of the cold. He has been obliged
to search among the inhabitants of the forest, for the least wild and most
profitable animals. The Laplanders have done what ourselves should do:
if we were to luse our cattle, we should then be obliged to tame the stag
and ruebucks of forests, to supply their place; and I am persuaded we
should gain our point, and we should presently learn to draw as much utility
from ther, as the Laplanders do from the reindeer. We ought to be sensi-
ble, by this example, how far nature has extended her liberality towards us.
We do not make use of all the riches, which she offers. us; the fund is
much more immense than we imagine. She has bestowed on us the horse,
the ox, the sheep, and all our other domestic animals, to serve us, to feed
us, and to clothe us; and she has, hesides, species in reserve which would
be able to supply this defect, and which would only require us to subject
them, and to make them useful to our wants.

Man doves not sufficiently know what nature can do, nor what can be
done with her. Instead of seeking for what he does nut know, he likes
better to abuse her in what he does know.

In comparing the advantages. which the Laplanders derive from the tame
reindeer, with those which we derive from our domestic animals, we shall
see thal this animal is worth two or three of them. He is used as horses are,
to draw sledges and other carriages; he travels with great speed and swift-
ness; he easily goes a hundred miles a day, and runs with as mueli certain-
ty upon the frozen snow as upon. the mossy down. The female affords
milk, more substantial and more nourishing than. the cow; the fesh is very.
good to eat, the coat makes an excellent fur, and his dressed hide becomes:
a very supple and a very durable leather. Spoons are also made of his:
bones, buwstrings and thread of his tendons, and glue is manufactured trom.

8
318 MAMMALIA—REINDEER.

his horns. Thus, the reindeer alone, affords all that we desire from the
horse, the ox, and the sheep.

With from three to five hundred deer, a Laplander can live with tolerable
comfort; with two hundred, he may, by management, contrive to get on; but
with a hundred, his subsistence is precarious; and with onvy filly, he must
be content to be the partner, or rather servant, of some imore fortunate
individual.

His food, in the winter season, is a white moss, (lichen ran giferinus,\
which he finds under the snow, and whieh he ploughs up with his horns, o
digs up with his feet. When the snow is too deep for them to ol tain this
article, they resort to another lichen that hangs on pine trees; and in severe
seasons the boors often cut dawn some thousands of these trees, tu furnish
subsistence to their herds.

In summer, he lives upon the buds and leaves of trees, rather than herbs,
which his forward spreading anders will not permit him to browse on, with
facility. They lead them to pasture, and relead them to the stable, or shut
them up in packs during the night,.to shelter them fron the outrages of the
wolves. Many fruitless attempts have been made to introduce t:em into
England. There is at present, however, in the Zoological Gardens, one
specimen, which was placed there in 1828, and appears to be still in a
thriving condition. ‘The following figure represents this animal.

         
 

Paty,

Nang sate

The reindeers have, outwardly, many things in common with the stags3
and the formation of the interfor pasts is the same. The reindeer sheds his
antlers every year, like the stag; and, like him, is good venison. The
females, both of the one and the other species, go eight months with young,
and produce but one ata birth. The young reindeer follows its mother
during the first two or three years, and dues not attain his growth till about
MAMMALIA—REINDEER 349

?

the age of four or five. It is at this age that they begin to dress and
exercise them for labor. There are both wild and tame reindeer in Lap-
land; the wild males are more robust and stronger than the tame. The
issues of this mixture are preferred for the harness. These reindeer are not
so gentle as the others ; for they not only sometimes refuse to obey those who
guide them, but they often turn furiously upon them, and attack them with
their feet, so-that there is no other resource, than to cover themselves from
their rage by their sledge until the fury of the beast is subsided. This
sledge is su light that they can easily manage it, and cover themselves with
it. The bottom of itis lined with the skins of young reindeers; the hairy
side is turned against the snow, so that the sledge glides easily forward, and
recoils less on the mountains. The harness of the reindeer is only a thong
of the hide, with the hairs remaining on it attached to the head, whence it
descends towards the breast, passes under the belly, between the legs, and is
fastened toa hole which is-in the fore part of the sledge. ‘The Laplander has
only a single cord by which to guide the animal, and which he throws in-
differently upon the back of the beast, sometimes on one side, sometimes on
the other, according as he would direct him, to the right or left. They can
travel ten miles a’; hew; and it is not uncommon for them to make jour-
neys of a hundred and fifty miles in nineteen hours. At their utmost speed,
and for a short time, they can accomplish near twenty miles in the hour;
but the quicker the method of travelling is, the more it is inconvenient; a
person must be weil accustomed to it, and travel often, to be able to direct
the sledge and prevent it from turning over. They can draw three hundred
pounds, but the Laplanders usually limit the burthen to two hundred and
forty pounds.

The reindeers are all very spiritea, and very difficult to manage; they
choose the liveliest and the swiftest to draw their sledges, and the more
heavy, to travel with their provision and. baggage, at a slower pace. These
animals are treubled with an insect called the gadfly, during the summer
season, which burrowing under their skins the preceding summer, deposit
their eggs ; so that the skin of the reindeer is often so filled with small
holes, that an incurable disorder is brought on. So formidable are the
attacks of these insects, that in June, July, and August, the Laplancer is
compelled to migrate with his deer from the forests to the mountains; with-
aut which precaution, he would run the risk of losing the major part of bis
nerd. The reindeer are subject to elope, and voluntarily renew their natural
liberty; they must be closely attended, and narrowly watched ; they cannot
lead them to pasture, but in open places; and in case the herd are nume-
tous, they have need of many persons to guard them, to recall them, and to
run ufter them if they stray. They are all marked, that they may be known
again; for it often happens that they stray in the woods, or mix among
another herd. In short, the Laplanders are continually occupied in the
ere of their reindeer, which constitute all their wealth.
350 + MAMMALIA—REINDEER.

The reindeer is the only animal of this species the fernale of which has
horns like the male. Another singularity which we must not omit, and
which is common to the reindeer, and the elk, is, that when these animals
run or quicken their pace, their hoofs at every step make a crackling noise,
as if all the joints of their legs were disjointing. It is this noise, or perhaps
the scent, which informs the wolves of their approach, who run out to meet
and seize them; and, if the wolves are many in number, they very often
conjuer. The reindeer is able to defend himself against a single wolf, not,
as may be imagined with his horns, (for they are rather of a disservice to
him, than of use,) but with his fore feet, which are very strong; and with
which he strikes with such force, as to stun the wolf and drive him away ;
after which he flies with such speed, as ¢o be no ‘onger in any danger of
being overtaken. But he finds a more dangerous, though a less frequent
and less numerous enemy than the wolf, in the rosomas, or. glutton.

A tame reindeer lives only to the age of fifteen or sixteen years; but it
is to be presumed, that the life of the wild reindeer is of much longer dura-
tion. This animal, being four years before he arrives at his full growth,
must live twenty-eight or thirty years when he is in his natural state.

The mode in which the Dog-rib Indians kill the American reindeer, 1s
curious. The hunters go in pairs, the foremost carrying in one hand the
horns and part of the skin of the head of a deer, and in the other a small
bundle of twigs, against which he, from time to time, rubs the horns,
imitating the gestures peculiar to that animal. His comrade follows, tread-
ing exactly in his footsteps, and holding the guns of both in a horizontal
position, so that the muzzles project under the arms of him who carries the
head. Both hunters have a fillet of white skin round their foreheads,
and the foremost has a strip of the same round his wrists. They approach
the herd by degrees, raising their legs very slowly, but setting them Jown
somewhat suddenly, after the manner of deer, and always taking care to
lift their right or left foot simultaneously. If any of the herd leave off
feeding to gaze at this extraordinary phenomenon, it instantly stops and
plays its part, by licking its shoulders, and performing other necessary
movements. In this way the hunters attain the very centre of the herd
without exciting suspicion, and have leisure to single out the fattcst. The
hindmost man then pushes forward his comrade’s gun, the head is Jropped,
and they fire at nearly the same instant. The deer scamper off, the hunters
trot after them; in a short time the poor animals halt, to ascertain the
cause of their terror; their foes stop at the same moment, and having loaded
as they ran, greet the gazers with a second fatal discharge. The consterna-
tion of the deer increases, they run to and fro, in the utmost confusion, and

-gometimes a great part of the herd is destroyed in the space of a few hhun-
dred y ards
MAMMALIA—CAMELUPARD. 351

{HE GIRAFFE, OR CAMELOPARD®#

 

as one of tne tallest, most beautiful, and most harmless animals its satuce.
The enornous disproportion of its legs, (the fore legs being as long agaun as
the hinder ones,) is a great obstacle to the use of its strength. Its motion
is waddling and stiff; it can neither fly from its enemies in its free state,
nor serve its master in a domestic one. The species is not very numcrous,
and has always been confined to the central and southern parts of Africa.
M. le Vaillant, the first naturalist who had an opportunity of closely
examining the giraffe, gives a full and accurate description of it in his
Travels. ‘The giraffe chews the cud, as all horned animals with cloven
feetado. Like them, too, itcrops the grass; though seldom, because pas-
ture is scarce in the country which it inhabits. Its ordinary food is the leaf
of a sort of mimosa, called by the natives kaneap, and by the planters kamel
doorn. The tree being peculiar to the canton, and growing only there, this
may be the reason why it takes up its abode in it, and why it is not seen in
those regions of the south of Africa where the tree does not grow. This,
however, is but a vague conjecture, and which the reports of the ancienta
seem to contradict.

“Tis bead is unquestionably the most beautiful part of its body. Its mouth
ws small; its eyes large and animated. Between the eyes,.and above the
nuse, it has a very distinct and prominent tubercle. This is not a fleshy

' Camelopardalis giraffa, Desm. This is the only animal of the genus. It has eight
tower and no upper incisor: ; no canines; six upper and six lower molars on each side.

Head very long, with a bony tubercle on the forehead, and two osseous peduncles covered

with skin, and hairy, terminated by a tuft of bristles; upper lip entire; no lachrymal

sinuses; ears pointed; tongue rough, with corneous paptlle; eyes large; neck extremely

‘cng; w thers much elevated; legs slender; a callosity on ‘he sternum: four mammes.

 
352 MAMMALIA—CAMELOPARD,

excrescence, hut an enlargement of the bony part, the same as the two htttle
bosses, or protuberances, with which its occiput is armed, and which rise as
large as a hen’s egg, one on each side of the mane, at its commencement.
Its tongue is rough and terminates in a point. Each jaw has six grinders
on each side, but the lower jaw only, has eight cutting teeth in front, while
the upper jaw has none.

“The hoof is cloven, has no heel, and much resembles that of the ox. It
may be observed however, at the first sight, that the hoof of the fore foot is
larger than that of the hind foot. The leg is very slender; but the knee is
swelled like that of a stumbling horse, because the animal kneels down to
sleep. It has also a large callosity in the middle of the sternum, owing to
its usually reposing on it.

“Tf Il had never killed a giraffe, I should have thought, wich many other
naturalists, that its hind legs were much shorter than the fore ones. This
is a mistake; they bear the same proportion to each other as is usual in
quadrupeds. I say the same proportion as is usual, because in this respect
there are variations, even in unimals of the same species. Every one knows,
for mstance, that mares are lower before than stallions. What deceives ug
m the giraffe, and occasions this apparent difference between the legs, is the
height of the withers, which may exceed that of the crupper from sixteen te
twenty inches, according to the age of the animal; and which, when it is
seen at a distance in motion, gives the appearance of much greater length
to the fore legs. ;

“If the giraffe stand still, and you view it in the front, the effect is very
different. As the fore part of its body is much larger than the hind part, i
completely conceals the latter.

“Tts gait, when it walks, is neither awkward nor unpleasing; but it is
ridiculous enough when it trots; for you would then take it for a limping
beast, seeing its head perched at the extremity of a long neck which yever
bends, swaying backwards and forwards, the neck and head playing m ene
piece between the shoulders as on an axis. However, as the length of the
neck exceeds that of the legs at least four inches, it is evident that the
length of the head too taken into the account, it can feed without difficulty,
and of course is not obliged either to knee] down or to straddle with his feet,
as some authors have asserted. It is, besides, unnecessary for the animal
to kneel, as it feeds principally on the boughs of a species of acacia, which
it draws down to its mouth with its long and flexible tongue.

“Its mode of defence, like that of the horse and other solidungulous
animals, consists in kicking with the heels. But its hind parts are so light,
and its jerks so rapid, that the eye cannot follow them. They are even
sufficient to defend it against the lion, though they are unable to protect it
from the impetuous attack of the tiger. f

“Tts horns are never emplcyed in fight. I did not perceive it to use them
against my dogs; and these weak and useless weapons would seem but an
MAMMALIA—CAMELOPARD. 353

error of nuture, if nature could ever commit error, or fail im her designs.
In their youth, the male and female giraffes :ewurse cach cther in
their exterior, A knot of long hair then terminates their votuse horns;
this peculiarity the female preserves for some time, but at the age of three
years the male loses it. At first, the hide is of a light red, but it deepens 1p
color as the animal advances in age, and, at length, it is of a yellow brown
in the “e:rnale, and of a brown bordering on black in the male. The male
may, even at a distance, be distinguished from the female by this difference
ofcolor. As to the arrangement and form of the spots, the skin varies in
both sexes. The female does hot stand so high as the maie, and the frontal
prominence is less marked. She has four teats; and, according to the
account given by the natives, she has one young one ata birth, with which
she goes twelve months.”

Several have been carried to Europe. One was sent asa preseut to the
King of England by the Pacha of Egypt, and arrived there in 1827. It died
recently. J

“In one point all the observers of the European giraffes agree — that they
never make any noise whatever. Further, they appear to consider that the
auimal would be useless to man in a state of domestication. M. Acerbi hag
an aneciote illustrative of this point :—

“*When at Alexandria, I had one day ordered the two giraffes (a maie
and female) taken at Darfur, to be led up and down the square in front of
my house; among the crowd collected on the occasion were some Bedouins
of tue Desert. On inquiring of one of them whether he had ever seen
similar animals before—he replied that he had not; and J then asked him
in Arabic, ‘Taih di? Do they please you?’ To which he rejoined, ‘ Mustaib,’
or, ‘I do not like them.’ Having desired my interpreter to inquire the
gre'a.ds of his disapproval, he answered, ‘that it did not carry like a horse,
it did net serve for field labors like an ox, did not yield hair like a camel,
nor flesh and mitk like a goat ; and on this account it was not to his liking.’ *

This animal; though unknown to the Greeks, is described by Pliny anc
Oppian, and Julius Casar brought one to Europe in the year of Rome 708,
after which they were frequently used in the circus or triumphal proces-
sions. Its ancient denomination was zurapha, from which the modem
aamie of ciraffe is derived.

 

THE COMMON ANTELOPE)

In size 1t is rather smaller than the fallow deer. Its color is a dusky
trown, inixed with red; the belly, breast, and inside of the limbs, are white ;

 

} Antilope cervicupra, Desm. The genus Antil pe tas eight lower and no upper, inci-
sors; no canines; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Horns in both sexes or in tie
tones only, covering a solid Jong core, round, compressed, variously influted, and oftes,
marked by transverse annulations, or a projecting spiral ridge, sometimes bifurcated
muzzie parlly naked in the greater number; uiten lacirymal sinuses; ears large: legs
slender; two or four sera

>
354 MAMMALIA—ANTELOPE.

and on the head, back, and outside of the limbs, the hair is darker than on
any other part ; the orbits of the eyes are white, and there is a small patch
of the same color on each side of the forehead; the tail isshort.. The horns,
which are about sixteen inches long, are black, distinctly annulated almost
tu the top, and have three curves; the drachia, or sides of the lyre, were fre-
queotiy made of these horns, as appears from ancient gems. The female
19 destituta of horns, and may also be known by a white stripe on the flanks.

 

‘The race of antelopes is famous for the concretion known by the name ot
bezoar. This word is supposed to be derived from the Arabic language,
where it signifies antidote or courter-poison. It is found in the stomach and
mtestines of many animals, and brought over principally from the East
‘Indies. Like all other animal concretions, it is found to have a kind of
‘nucleus, or hard substance ‘within, upon which the external coatings are
formed; for, upon being sawn through, it seems to have layer over layer,
as an onion.

This nucleus is of various kinds; sometimes the buds of a shrub, some-
times pieces of flint, stones of plums, tamarinds, seeds of cassia, and some-
times a marcasite. The stone itself varies from the size of an acorn to that
of a pigeon’s egg; and the larger it.is, the more valuable it is reckoned -~ its
price increasing like that of a diamond. There was atime when a stone
of this kind, weighing four ounces, sold in Europe for above two hundred
pounds; but at present the price is greatly fallen, and they are in very little
esteem. The bezoar is of various colors, sometimes of a blood color, some-
times of a.pale yellow, and of all the shades between these two. It is
generally glossy, smooth, and has a fragrant smell, like that of amber.
gris. It has been given in vertigoes, epilepsies, palpitations of tle heart,
eolic, and jaundice; and in those places where the dearness, ard riot tne
value of medicines, is consulted, in almost every disorder incident to man.
{n all cases it is perhaps equally efficacious, acting only as an absorbent

i
MAMMALIA—SAIGA, 355

power, and possessing virtues not superior to common chalk, or crabs’
ciaws. Judicious physicians have, therefore, discarded it:-and this cele-
nyated medicine is now chiefly consumed in countries where the know.edzge
ot nature has been but little advanced. When this medicine was in ite
highest reputation, many arts were used to adulterate it; and many coun-
tries endeavored to find out a bezoar of their own.

 

THE SAIGA

‘Tne Scythian antelope, or saiga, is the only one of the species that is found
im Europe. The general form of its body very much resembles that of the
domestic goat; and, like that animal, it has a strong scent, and is fond of
salt; butits horns are those of the antelope, being marked by very promi-
tent rings, with furrows between; they area foot in length, the tips smooth
of a pale yellow color, and semi-transparent. During summer the hair is
very short, and of a gray hue, mixed with yellow; the cheeks whitish, fore-
nead and crown hoary, covered with long hairs; the under side of the neck
and body white. The winter coat is long and rough; the tail about four
inches long, ending with a tuft. It is equal in size to the fallow deer, and
the female is destitute of horns.

These animals inhabit all the deserts from the Danube and Dnieper to the
river Irtish, but not beyond; they are, therefore, found in Poland, Moldavia,
about Mount Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, and in Siberia, in the dreary
open deseris, where salt springs abound, feeding cn the salt, and the acrid
and aromatic plants of those countries. The females are in a state of gesta-
tion during the winter, and bring forth in May, in the northern deserts.
They have but one ata time; and the young are covered with a soft fleece
like a newly dropped lamb. They are regularly migratory; late in autumn,
in the rutting seascn, they collect in flocks of thousands, and retire into the
southern deserts ; in spring they separate into little flocks, and return north-
ward. They rarely all lie down at the same time, but by a providential
instinct, some are always kecping: watch; and when they are tired, they
seemingly give notice to those which have taken their rest, who instantly
arise and relieve the sentinels of the preceding hours; and thus they often
preserve themselves from the attacks of wolves and huntsmen. They are
exceedingly swift, and will outrun the fleetest horse or greyhound; yet,
partly through timidity, and partly on areount of the shortness of their
breath, they very soon become the prey of the hunter. If they are but bit-
ten by a dog, they instantly fall ‘down; nor will they even offer to rise
again. They are sometimes shot by the hunter; and are also taken by the

 

1 Antilope saiga, Desm.
356 MAMMALIA—GAZELLE

black eagle, which is trained for that purpose. In summer they are alnost
- parblind, which is another cause cf their destruction. This is occasioned
by the heat of the sun, and the splendor of the yellow deserts, where they
live in a wild state. They seem to have no voice, — yet when brought up
tame, the young utter a short kind of bleating, like the sheep.

 

THE GAZELLE

 

Or all the animals in the world, the gazelle has the most beautiful eye
extremely brilliant, and yet so meek, that all the eastern poets compare the
eyes of their mistresses to those of this animal. The epithet of gazelle-
eyed is considered the highest compliment that a lover can pay; and, in-
deed, the Greeks themselves thought it no inelegant piece of flattery to
compare the eyes of a beautiful woman to those of a cow.

The gazelle is, for the most part, more delicately and finely limbed than
even the roebuck; its hair is as short, but finer and more glossy. The
hinder legs of some of the species are longer than the fore ones, as in the
hare, which gives it greater security in ascending and descending steep
places. In swiftness it equals, if not surpasses, the roe, running and
springing with vast bounds, and leaping with surprising elasticity. It fre-
quently stops for a moment in the midst of its course to gaze at its pursuers,
and then resumes its flight. ‘Ihe fleetness of the antelope, indeed, was pros
verbial in the country it inhabited, even in the earliest times; hence the

- speed of Ashuel (2 Sam. ii. 18) is Deauuifully compared to the tzebi; and
the Gradites were said to be as swift as the antelopes (translated roes) upon
the mountains.

Most of these animals are brown on the back and white under the belly,
with a black stripe separating those colors. Their tail is of various !enzths,
but in al) is covered with rather long hair; and their ears are beantifyl, well
placed, and terminativg ina point. They all have cloven hoofs, hike the

* Antilope dorcas, Lin.
MAMMALIA—GAZELLE. 357

sheep; horns (as before observed) hollow, curiously curved, aunulated with
prominent rings or spirals, and not deciduous.

Thev bound with such swiftness, and are generally so very shv, that dogs
or men vainly attempt to pursue them. With ease and safety they traverse
those precipices which, to every other quadruped, are quite impracticable;
nor can some of them be overtaken by any animals but those of the winged
kind. Accordingly, in those countries where the fleetest are chiefly found,
they are pursued by falcons; and this admirable manner uf hunting furms
one cf the principal] amusements of the higher ranks of people all over the
East. The Arabians, Persians, and Turks, employ for this purpose that
kind of hawk called the falcon gentle, with which, when properly trained,
they go forth on horseback among the forests and the mountains, the falcon
perehing upon the hand of the hunter. Their expedition is conducted with
profound silence ; their dogs are taught to keep behind, while the men, on
the Heetest coursers, look round for the game. Whenever they spy a gazelle
at the proper distance, they point it out to the falcon, and encourage the
bird to pursue it. With the swiftness of an ariew the falcon flies to the
animal, which, conscious of its danger, endeavors, but too late, to escape.
The falcon soon coming up with its prey, fixes its talons, one into the
animal’s cheek and the ot:er in its throat, and deeply wounds it. On the
other hand, the gazelle attempts to escape, but is generally wounded toc
deeply to run far. The falcon clings with the utmost perseverance, nor ever
leaves its prey till it falls; upon which the hunters from behind approach-
jug wake up both, and reward the falcon with the blood ¢f the spoil. They
alsu acu the young birds, by applying them to the dead animal’s throat,
and accustoining them betimes to fix upon that particular part; for if it
should happen that the falcon fixed upon any other part of the gazelle, either
its hack or its haunehes, the animal would easily escape among the moun-
tains, and the hunter would also lose his falcon.

They sometimes hunt these animals with the ounce. This carnivorous
and fierce creature, having heen tamed and domesticated, generally sits on
horseback behind the hunter, and remains there with the utmost composure,
until the gazelle is shown, It is then that it exerts all its arts and fierce-
ness; st does not at once fly at its prey, but approaches slily, turning and
winding about until it comes within a proper distance, when all at once it
bounds upon the animal, and iustanily kills it and sucks its blood. If, on
the other hand, it misses its aim, it rests in its place without attempting te
pursue it any farther, seemingly ashamed of its own inability.

There is still another way of taking the gazelle, which seems not so cer-
tain nor so amusing as either of the former. A tame gazelle is trained for
this purpose, which is taught to join those of its kind wherever it perceives
then. When the hunter, therefore, sees a herd of these animals together,
he fixes a noose round the horns of the tame gazelle in such a manner, that
if the rest but touch it they are entangled; and thus prepared, he sends his
358° MAMMALIA—SPRINGBOCK~

gazelle among the rest. No sooner does the tame animal approach, than
the males of the herd instantly sally forth to oppose him; and in butting
with their horns, are caught in the noose, when both struggling for some
time, fall together to the ground; till at last the hunter comes up, disenga-
ges the one, and kills the other.

Upon the whole, however, these animals, whatever be the arts used to
pursue them, are very difficult to be taken; for, as they are continually
subject to alarms from carnivorous beasts, or from man, they keep chiefly
in the most solitary and inaccessible places, and find their only protection
from the dangerousness of the spot whither they retreat.

THE SPRINGBOK.

 

Tue predominant color of this animal is a pale yellowish brown; the belly
preast, and inside of the limbs, are white; as is also the head, excepting a
dark brown list, which passes from each corner of the mouth, over the eyes,
.o the base of the horns. From the tail, half way up the back, is a stripe
of white, bounded on each side by a dark brown list, and a stripe of the
same color extends on each side, from the shoulders to the haunches, form
ing a contrasting boundary between the snowy whiteness of the belly, and
the rusty color of the sides. The tail is very slender, not being thicker
than a goose quill at the lower part, which reaches to nearly the first joint
of the leg; the ears are of an ash color, tipped on the edges with fine light
gray hairs. The hair in general is short and fine; but the dark line which
borders the white consists of longer hairs, which the animal is able ta ev.
pand at pleasure, to the breadth of eight or nine inches, particularly when

 

| Antilope euchore, Desm.
MAMMALIA—HART-BEEST. 359

taking alieap. The height of this animal is about two teet and a hai,
the length of the horns, measuring them along the curvature, is nine
inches; théir distance at the base, where they are nearly three inches thick,
is not more than one inch; and they gradually widen from thence to the
distance of five inches, when they turn inwards, and nearly approach each
other at the tips. They are of a deep black color, annulated above half
way up, are smooth towards the top, and terminate in a sharp point.

This animal inhabits the Cape of Good Hope, and is there calied the
springbock, from the prodigious ‘vaps it takes when any person suddenly
appears. When pursued, it is pleasing and curious to see the whole herd
leaping to a considerable height over each cther’s heads; and they will
sometimes take three or four leaps successively. In this situation, they
seem suspended in the air, looking over their shoulders at their pursuers.
They are extremely swift, and it must be a good horse that can overtake
them. They migrate annually from the intericr of the country, in small
herds, and continue near the Cape for two or three months, and then retreat
towards the nortn in herds ut any tnousauus, covering the great plains for
several hours in their passage.

They are attended im these migrduons, by numbers of lions, hyenas, and
other wild beasts of prey, winch conimut great devastation among them.
They also make periodicai migrations, in seven or eight years, in herds
of many thousanas, trom the north, being probably co.npelled to leave their
haunts in tne Tera de Natal, by the excessive drought of that region,
where it sometimes happens that not a drop of rain falls for two or three
years. In these migrations, they spread over the whole country of Caffraria,
which they desolate, not leaving a blade of grass. Their flesh is excellent:
and, with other antelopes, they futnish the venison of the Cape.

THE HART-BEEST, OR CAPE STAG.

Tus animal is supposed to be the Bubalus of the ancients, and is the»
most common of all the larger gazelles known in Africa. Its height to the
top of the shoulders, is about four feet; the form of the body is a mixture
of the stag and heifer. The tail is rather more than a foot long, asinine,
and terminated by a tuft of hair; the horns are very strong, black, and
embossed with rings of an irregular form: they are almost close at the
base diverging upwards, and at the top bending backwards in a horizontal
direction, almost to the tips, which are distant from each other. Some
of these horns are eighteen inches long, and above ten inches in girth at

 

1 Antilope esama, Des.
3860 MAMMALIA—NYL-GHAU,

the base. The head is rataer large, resembling that of an ox; and ‘ne eyes
are placed very high. The general color of this animal] is a dark chinamon
except the rump and inner part of the thighs, which are white. The front
of the head is marked with black, as is likewise the fore part of the legs.
There isa pore about an inch below each eye, from which a matter is
Gistilled; this the Hottentots preserve as a rare and valuable medicine

 

The large head and nigh forehead, together with the asinine ears and tau
of this animal, reader it less handsome than many of the cribe of antelupes.
They associate in great herds; aad aithough they seemingly gallop with a
heavy pace, yet they run as iust as any ol’ the larger kinds; and when they
have once got ahead of their pursuers, hey are very apt to turn round and
gaze at them. Like the wood antelope and nyl-ghau, this animal drops
on ics knees to fight. ‘I'he fiesn is fine, anu ur au agreeable flavor, but dry.

THE NYL-GHAU.!

Most of these interesting animals, which have been brought to England,
have been obtained from Surat or Bombay ; and it is conjectured that they
are indigenous in the province of Guzerat. The nyl-ghau is larger than
any ruminant of that country, except the ox, it being of greater size than
tne decr, and rather smaller than the black cattle; and in its form there is
a very evident mixture of both. Its horns are seven inches long, six inches
round ae the tvots, tapering by degrees, and terminating ina blunt poinr,
the ears are large and beautiful, and spread to a considerable breadth: they

 

MAniilope puta, Desm. Ny. ghau, the Persian name of this animal, signines olue
cow.
MAMMALIA—NYL-GHAU 36

are white on the edge and on the inside, except where two black hands
mark the hollow of the ear with a zebra-like variety, The genera! color
of the animal is ash or gray, from a mixture of black hairs and white, most
ot which are half white towards the root, and half black. Al og the ridge
of tne neck and the back, the hairs form a short and thin upright mane,
at the throat’ is a shield-like mark of beautiful hair; and lower down, on
the beginning of the convexity of the neck, there 1s.a remarkable tuft of
long black hair. The height of the animal is about fuur feet one inch at
the shouk cr. The female differs from the male both in height and thick-
ness, she being much smaller, and in shape more resembling the deer, and
having no horns. ,

 

The nyl-ghau has six grinders in eacn jaw, and eight cutting teeth in the
ow-rone, It eats oats, is fond of grass and hay, and still fonder of wheaten
breav : when thirsty, it will drink two gallons of water. [1 is vicious and
fierce 14 the rutting season, but tame and gentle at other times; and should
it prove docile enough to de easily trained to labor, its great swiftness and
considerahle strength mioht be applied to valuable purposes, as it is evident
from evnerjence that span! breed in rhic eapetey Who phe males Soht,
mey prepare tor the attack ata distance frum each uther, oy lung down

46 %
362 MAMMALIA—GNU.

naon their knees: and in this artitnde they apnrnach. and wnen thev are
safticievtly near, spring and dart at each other with great violence.

In a state of confinement they often fall into that posture without doing
any mischief. They wiil, notwithstanding, attack mankind unprovoked.
A laborer, who was looking over some paies which inclosed several of them,
was alarmed by one of them flying at him with the quickness of lightning ;
but the wood-work which separated him from the animal, was the means
of his safety, as it dashed it to pieces and broke off one of its horns close to
the root. The death of the animal, which happened soon after, was suppose
ed to be owing to the injury it received from the blow.

In the days of Aurungzebe, they abounded between Delhi and Lahore, on
the way to Cachemir; and they were once objects of chase with thai
mighty prince, during his journey. They were inclosed in nets by his army
of hunters, which, being drawn closer and closer, at length formed a small
space ; into this the king, his omrahs, and hunters, entered, and killed the
animals with arrows, spears, or muskets; and sometimes in such numbers,
that Aurungzebe used to send quarters as presents to all his great people,
which proves that they are esteemed as enad ani delicious feo"

 

THE GNU.

 

Tue gnu is one of the swiftest beasts that ranges the plains of Africa,
Mr Barrows ‘says, “ The various descriptions that have been given of it, all
differing from each other, should seem to have been taken from report rather
than from nature, notwithstanding that one of them was for some time in

 

1 Antilope gnu, GEL.
MAMMALIA—GNU. 363

the menagerie of the Prince of Orange, at the Hague. Nature, though
regular and systematic in all her works, often puzzles and perplexes human
systems, of which this animal affords an instance. In the shape of its body
it evidently partakes of the horse, the ox, the stag, and the antelope.

“Tts head is about eighteen inches long, the upper part completely guard-
ed by the rugged roots of the horns, that spread across the forehead, leaving
only a narrow channel between them, that wears out with age, as in the
instance of the buffalo; the horns project forward twelve inches, then turn
m a short curve, backwards, ten inches: the space from the root to the
point is only nine inches. Down the middle of the face grows a sort of
black hai four inches in length; and from the under lip to the thruat
another ridge somewhat longer. The orbit of the eye is round, and sur-
rounded by long white hairs, that, like so many radii, diverge and forma
kind of star; this radiated eye gives to the animal a fierce and uncommon
look. The same sort of viprisse is thinly dispersed over the lips. The
neck is little more than a foot long: on the upper part is a mane extending
beyond the shoulders, erect, and five inches in length; the hair like bristles,
black in the middle, and white on each side. This mane appears as if it
had been cut and trimmed with nice attention. A ridge of black hair, from
six inclies to a foot in length, extends from the fore part of the chest, under
the fore legs, to the beginning of the abdomen. The body is about three
feet two inches long. The joints of the hip bones project high, and form
on the haunches a pair of hemispheres. The tail is two feet long, flat near
the root, where the hair grows only at the sides; this is white, bristly, and
bushy. The entire length, from the point of the nose to the end of the tail,
1s seven feet ten inches; and the height three feet six inches. The color is
that of a mouse, «" h a few ferruginous straggling hairs on the sides. Like
the mare, it has oly two teats; and all its motions and habits‘are equine.
Though a small animal, it appears of considerable size when prancing over
the plains. The gnu might be considered as an emblem of unbounded
freedom, with the means of suprorting it. It possesses, in an eminent
degree, strength, swiftness, weapons of defence, acute scent, and a quick
sight. When they happen to be disturbed, the whole herd begin to draw
together, and to butt each other with their horns, to bound, and play their
various gambols, after which they gallop off toa distance. Their motions
are extremely free, varied, and always elegant. Fierce and vicious as this
animal certainly is in its wild state, yet it probably might nut be very
difficult of domestication. No successful attempts, however, have yet been
made to tame it. The flesh is so like that of an ox, both in appearance and
taste, that it is not to be distinguished from it.”

There is another variety of the gnu, a male and female of which were
exhibited at Cross’s menagerie, in Pall-Mall East; and in their appear-
ance, partook rather more of the‘antelope tribe than the preceding. Me
Pringle, who had seen this variety in its native regions, observes, “that

f=
364 MAMMALIA—CHAMOIS.

the gnu forms a graceful link between the buffalo and the a1 telope ; pose
sessing the distinet features which, according to naturalists, are peculiar to
the latter tribe. The gnu exhibits at the same time, in his general aspect,
figure, mations, and even the texture and taste of his flesh, qualities which
partake very strongly of the bovine character. Among other peculiarities, I
observed, that, like the buifalo or the ox, he is strangely affected by the
sight of scarlet; and it was one of our amusements, when approaching
these animals, to hoist a red handkerchief on a pole and to observe them
taper about, lashing their flanks with their long tails, and tearing up the
groun" with their hoofs, as if they were violently excited, and ready to rush
down apon us; and then, all at once, when we were about to fire upor
them, to see them bound away, and again go prancing round ata safer
distance. When wounded, they are reported to be sometimes tather dan-
gerous to the huntsman ; but though we shot several at different times, I
never witnessed any instance of this. On one occasion, a young one, appa-
rently only a week or two old, whose mother had been shot, folluwed the
huntsmen home, and I attempted to rear it on cow’s milk. ina few days
it appeared quite as tame as a conimon eaif, and seermed to be thriving; but
afterwards, from some unknown cause, it sickened and died. I heard, how-
ever, of tore than one instance in that part of the colony, where the gnu,
thus caught young, had been reared with domestic cattle, and had become
so time as te go regularly out to pasture with the herds, without exhibiting
any inelinaticn to resume its natural treedam; but, in consequence of a
tendency whieh the farmers sav they evinced to eatch, and to communicate
to the cattle a dangerans infection, the practice of rearing them as curiosi-
ties has been abandoned,” ‘

 

THE CHAMOIS}!

 

Is of a fawn color in summer and brown in winter; a dark line passes
through each eye. Its horns are seven or eight inches long,.and hooked at

} Antilope ruficapra,
MAMMALIA—CHAMOIS. 865

tne end; the tail is short. This animal inhabits the mountains of Switzer-
land. It is about the size of a domestic goat, and resembles oue in many
respects. It is most agreeably lively, and active beyond expression. Its
hair is short, like that of the doe.

The young follows the dam for about five months, and sometimes longer
if the hunters or the wolves do not separate them. It is asserted that they
live between twenty and thirty years. The flesh of the chamois .s good ta
eat; and some of the fattest afford ten or twelve pounds of suet, which far
surpasses that of the goat in solidity and goodness.

The cry of the chamois is not distinctly known; if it has any, it is hut
faint, and resembling that of a hoarse goat. When they are frightened, or
are in danger of any enemy, or some other object not perfectly known to
chem, they warn the rest of the flock by a kind of hissing nvise. It is
observable, that the chamois has a very penetrating eye, and its hearing
and smell are not less distinguishing. When it finds an enemy near, it
stops for a moment, and then in an instant flies off with the utmost speed.
When the wind is in its favor, it can smell a human creature for more than
half a mile distance. When this happens, therefore, and it cannot see its
enemy, but only discovers his approach by the scent, it begins the hissing
noise with such force, that the rocks and the forests re-echo with the sound.
This hissing continues as long as the breath will permit. In the beginning
it is very shrill, and deeper towards the close. This animal then rests
a moment, after this alarm, to inspect further into its danger; and, hav-
ing confirmed the reality of its suspicion, it commences to hiss by inter-
vals, till it has spread the alarm to a great distance. During this time,
it is in the most violent agitation, strikes the ground forcibly with its
fore foot, and sometimes with both. It bounds from rock w rock; it
turns, and lodks round; it turns to the edge of the precipice, and when
it has obtained a sight of the enemy, flies from it with all its speed.
The hissipg of the male is much more acute than that of the female;
tt is performed through the nostrils, and is, properly, no more than a
very strong breath, forced through the nostrils by fixing the tongue to the
palate, keepmg the teeth nearly shut, the lips open, and a little lengthened.
Their agility is wonderful, as they will throw themselves down, across a
rock, which is:nearly perpendicular, and twenty or thirty feet in height,
without a single prop to support their feet. Their motion has, indeed,
rather the appearance of flying than of leaping.. The chamois feeds upon
the best herbage, and chovseg*the most delicate parts of plants, Huwers,
and the most tender buds. It is not less delicate with regard to several
aromatic herbs, which grow upon the sides of the Alps. It drinks but
very little while it feeds upon the succulens herbage, and rumimates,
aike the goat, in the intervals of feeding. Tonal is crowned with two
sma]! horns, of about half a foot long, of a Leautiful black, and rising from
the forehead, almost betwixt the eyes.. ‘Phese horns are often made use

é De

.
366 MAMMALIA—CHAMOIS.

of frr the heads of canes. The hides of these animals are very strong and
supple, and good warm waistcoats and gloves are made of them.

The hunting of the chamois is very laborious, and extremely difficult and
perilous. It is thus admirably described by Saussure: —“ The chamois
hunter seis out upon his ‘expedition of fatigue and danger generally in the
night. His object is to find himself, at the break of day, in the most elevat-
ed pastures, where the chamois comes to feed before the flocks shall have
arrived there. The chamois feeds only at morning and at evening. When
the hunter has nearly reached the spot where he expects to find his prey, he
yeconnoitres with a telescope. If he find not the chamois, he mounts still
higher; but if he discovers him, he endeavors to climb above him and to
get nearer, by passing round some ravine, or gliding behind some eminence
or rock. When he is near enough to distinguish the horns of the animal,

“(which are small, round, pointed, and bent backward like a hook, as
in the wood cut,) he rests his rifle upon a rock, and takes his aim with
great coolness. He rarely misses. This rifle is often double-barrelled.
If the chamois falls, the hunter runs to his prey—makes sure of him by
cutting the hamstrings—and applies himself to consider by what way he
may best regain his village. If the route is very difficult, he contents him-
self with skinning the chamois; but if the way is at all practicable with
a load, he throws the animal over his shoulder, and bears it home to his
family, undaunted by the distance he has to go, and the precipices he has
to cross. .

“But when, as is more frequently the case, the vigilant animal perceives
the hunter, he flies with the greatest swiftness into the glaciers, leaping
with incredible speed over the frozen snows and pointed rocks. It is parti-
cularly difficult to approach the chamois when there are many together.
The sentinel, who is placed on the point of some rock which commands all
the avenues of their pasturage, makes the sharp hissing sound already
mentioned; at the sound of which all the rest run towards him, to judge
for themselves of the nature of the danger. If they discover a beast of prey
or a hunter, the most experienced puts himself at their head, and they
bound along, one after the other, into the most inaccessible places.

“Tt is then that the labors of the hunter commence; for then, carned
away by the excitement, he knows no danger. He crosses the snows, with-
out thinking of the abysses which they may cover; he plunges into the mest
dangerous passes of the mountains; he climbs up; he leaps from rock to
ruck, without: considering how he can return. ¢The night often finds him
in the heat of the pursuit; but he does not give it up for this obstacle. He
considers that the chamois will stop during the darkness, as well as him-
self, and that on the morrow he may again reach them. He passes, then,
the night-—not at the foot of a tree, nor in a cave covered with verdure, as
does the hunter of the plain—but upon a naked rock, or upon a heap of
rough stones, without any sort of shelter. He is alone, without fire, without
MAMMALIA—IBEX. 367

aght. But he takes from his bag a bit uf cheese and some of the burlev
vread, which 1s his ordinary tood— bread so hard that he 1s obliged to break
It betveen two stones, or to cleave it with the axe, which he always carries
with him to cut steps which shall serve for his ladder up the rocks of ice
His frugal meal being soon ended, he puts a stone under his head, and
is presently asleep, dreaming of the way the chamois has taken. He is
awakened by the freshness of the morning air; he rises, pierced through
with cold; he measures with his eye the precipices he must yct climb tc
teach the chamois; he drinks a little brandy, (of which he always carries
a small provision,) throws his bag across his shoulder, and again rushes
furward to encounter new dangers. These daring and persevering hunters
often remain whole days in the dreariest solitudes of the glaciers of Cha-
mouni; and, during this time, their families, and, above all, their unhappy
wives, feel the keenest alarm for their safety.

“And yet, with the full knowledge of the dangers to be encountered, the
chase of the chamois is the object of an insurmountable passion. Saussure
knew a handsome young man, of the district of Chamouni, who was about
to be married; and the adventurous hunter thus addressed the naturalist: —
‘My grandfather was killed in the chase of the chamois; my father was
killed also; and I am so certain that i shall be killed myself, that I call this
bag, which I always carry hunting, my winding-sheet. I am sure thatI
shall have no other; and yet, if you were to offer to make my fortune, upon
the condition that I should renounce the chase of the chamois, J should
refuse your kindness.’ Saussure adds, that he went several journeys in the
Alps with this young man; that he possessed astonishing ski]! and strength,
but that his temerity was greater than either; and that, two years after-
wards, he met the fate which he had anticipated, by h's foot failing on the
brink of a precipice to which he had leaped.

“The very few individuals of those who grow old in this trade, bear on
their countenances the traces of the life which they have led. They have
a wild, and somewhat haggard and desperate air, by which they may be
recognized in the midst of a crowd. Many of the superstitious peasants
believe that they are sorcerers; that they have commerce with the evil
spirit; and that it is he that throws them over the precipices ”

 

THE IBEX!

Or wild goat, exactly resembles the domestic goat, in the conformation,
the organization, and the natural and physical habits. It only varies by

' Capra ther, Lin. The genus Capra has eight lower and no upper incssors: no
canines ; twelve appt and twelve lower molars. Horns common to both sexes, directed
upwards and backwards, striated transversely ; no muzzle; interva) between the nos-
trils naked; no lachrymal smus or inguinal pores ; ears pointed ; legs robust; tail short
chin bearrled.
368 MAMMALIA—IBEX.

wo slight differences, the one externally, and the other internally. The
horns of the ibex are longer than those of the he-goat; they have two longi-
tudinal ridges, those of the goat have but one. They have also thick knots,
or transverse tubercles, which mark the number of years of their growth;
while those of the goats are only marked with transverse strokes. The
ibex runs as fast as the stag, and leaps lighter than the roebuck. They are
liable to vertigos, which are common *. them with the chamois, as well as
the inclination to climb up rocks, 2nd still another custom, which is that
af continually licking the stenes, especially these which are strongly im-
pregnated with salt-petre, or common salt. In the Alps, there are rocks
which have been hollowed by the tongue of the chamois. These are com-
monly soft and calcinable stones, in which, as is well known, there is
always a certain quantity of nitre.

 

The male ibex differs from the chamois, by the length, the thickness, and
the form of the horns; itis also much more bulky, vigorous, and strong.
‘The female ibex has horns different from the male; they are also much
smaller, and nearly resembling those of the chamois. In other respects,
these two animals have the same customs, the same manners, and the same
country ; only the ibex, as he is endowed with more agility, and is stronger
than the chamois, climbs to the summit of the highest mountains, while
the chamois only lives in the second stage; but neither the one nor the
other is to be found in the plains. Both make their way on the snow; both
ascend precipices by hounding trom rock to rock; both are covered with a
firm anda solid skin, and ciothed, m winter. with a double tur, with very
rough hair outwardly, and a finer and thicker hair underneatu. Butn of
MAMMALIA—GOAT, 3869

then have a black stripe on the back, and hoth, likewise, have a tail nearly
of the same size, The number cf exterior reserblances is so great, in com-
parison with the differences, and the conformity of the exterior parts is so
complete, that if we reason in consequence of these accounts, we might be
led to believe, that these two animals are not really of a different species,
but that they are simply only constant varieties of one and the same species.
The ibex, as well as the, chamois, when taken young and brought up‘ with
domestic goats, is easily tamed; and, accustomed to domesticity, imbibe
the same manners, and herd together. The animal is five feet in length,
and inhabits the Alps, Pyrenees, and other mountains in Europe. :

 

THE DOMESTIC GOAT.

 

AxtHoucH the goat is a distinct species, and perhavs more distart from
that of the sheep than the species of tne ass 1s from that of the horse,
yet goats will willingly-couple with sheep, as the ass with the mare, and
are sometimes prolific; but they have never introduced any intermediate
species between the goat and the sheep. These two species are distinct,
remaining constantly separated, and always at the same distance from each
other, and have never been changed by this mixture, or produced any new
stock, or new breed.of intermediate anirmmais; for they have, at most, only
produced different individuals, which has no influence on the unity of each
primitive species, and which, on the contrary, confirms the reality of their
different characteristics.

The goat has naturally more understanding, and can shitt better for her-
self than the sheep; she comes voluntarily, and is easily familiarized ; she
is sensible of caresses, and capable of attachment; she is also stronger,
lighter, more agile, and less timid than the sheep; she is lively, capricious,
and lascivious. ;

Goats are fond of straying in solitary places, are fond of climbing up steep
piaces, sleeping on the tops of rocks, and on the brink of precipices. They
leav with ease and security among the most dreadful precipices; aau

 

Cupid nircue, In,

Aq
870 MAMMAL/JA—GOAT.

even when two of them are «used wether, chey. will leap in such perfect
concert as to reach in safety thé desired spot.

Lhe meonstancy of this animal’s nature is shown py the iregulanty
of her actions. She walks, stops short, runs, jumps, advances, retreats,
shows, then hides herself, or flies; and this all from caprice, or without
any other determinate cause than her whimsical vivacity. And all the
suppleness of the organs, all the nerves of the body, are scarcely suffi-
cient for the petulance and rapidity of these motions, which are all
natural to her.

That these animals are naturally fond of mankind, and that in uninhabit-
ed places they do not become wild, the following anecdote serves to contirm.
Tn 1698, an English vessel having put into harbor at the island of Bonavista,
two negroes presented themselves on board, and offered the English as
many goats as they chose to carry away. On the captain manifesting a
degree of surprise at this offer, the negroes observed there were but twelve
persons in all the island; that the goats multiplied so fast, that they became
troublesome; and that, far from having any difficulty in taking them, they
followed them with a kind of obstinacy, like domestic animals.

Goats go five months with young, aud bring forth at the beginning of the
sixth month; they suckle the voung ones tor abour a month or five weeks ; so
that it may be reckoned about six-and-twenty weeks trom the tune otf heir
coupling till the time that the young kid hezins.te -at. The goat generally
produces one kid, sometimes two, very :arely three, and never more than
four; and she brings forth young, from a year or eighteen months, to seven
years. The knobs in the horns, and their teeth, ascertain their age. The
number of teeth is not always the same in female goats; but they have
usually fewer than the male goat, which has also the hair rougher, and the
beard and the horns louger. These animals, like oxen and sheep, have four
stomachs, and chew the cud. This species is more diffused than the sheep,
and goats, like the European, are found in several parts of the world; only
in Guinea and other warm countries they are smaller, but in Muscovy and
other cold climates they are larger. :

ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT.I

Tus animal inhabits the most lofty peaks of the Rocky Mountains, se
dom descending so near the low country as the Rocky Mountain sheep
Their manners are said to resemble greatly those of the domestic goat.
The exact limits of the range of this animal have not been ascertained,
but it probably extends from the fortieth to the sixty-fourth, or sixty-fifth

* Capra montana, Orv.

 

 
MAMMALIA—GOAT. 871

degree of latitude. It is common on the elevated part of the range that
gives origin to the Mackenzie, Columbia, Nelson, and Missouri rivers.
The fine wool which the animal produces, grows principally on the baci
and hips, and is intermixed with long coarse hair. From the circumstance
of its bearing wool, it has occasionally been termed a sheep by the voyagers,

 

anj even by naturalists. Some little confusion has, therefore, crept into
the accounts of its habits, which have been published from the reports
of traders. Its flesh is hard and dry, and is little esteemed. The Indians
make caps and saddles of its skin. The Hudson’s Bay company have very
lately presented a perfect specirnen of the goat to the Zoological Society.
This animal is of the size of the domestic sheep, and is totally white, except
the horns, hoofs, lips, and margins of the nostrils. The horns are black
and shining.

 

‘THE ANGORA GOAT

\s found in Natolia in Asia Minor. It is distinguished from the European
goat, by the greater size of its ears, though it is only a variety of the same
species; they mix and produce together, even in our climate. The males
have horns almost as long as the common goat, but the circumference and
directions are very diderent, and they are of a dazzling white color; they
pre extended horizontally on each side of the head, and form spirals, some-
S72 MAMMALIA—SHEEP.

what likea worm The horns of the female are short, and first turn round
backwards, then oend down, and turn round before, so much, that they end
near the eyes: and in some their circumference and direction vary. The
male and female goat of Angora, which we have seen, are such as we have

 

described. These goats, like all the animals of Syria, have the hair very
long and thick, and so fine that stuffs have been made of it, almost as
handsome and glossy as our silks. It is, in fact, what is commonly termed
mohair. The stuffs made from the hair of this goat are known by the name
of camlet.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP!

Innrapit the lofty chain of mountains from whence they derive their name ;
from its northern termination in latitude sixty-eight, to about latitude forty
degrees, and most likely still further south. They also frequent the elevated
end craggy ridges with which the country between the great mountain
range ani the Pacific is intersected; but they do not appear to have advauced
further to the eastward than to the declivity of the Rocky Mountains, nor are
they found in any of the hilly tracts nearer to Hudson’s, Bay. They collect
in flocks, consisting of from three to thirty, the young rams and females
herding together during the winter and spring, while the old rams form
separate flocks. The ewes bring forth in June or July, and then retire with

 

¥ Ovis montana, Gzrorr, The genus Ovis has eight lower incisors; no canines;
twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Horns common to both sexes; sometimes want-
sng m the female, thick, angular, wrinkled transversely, pale colored, turned laterally in
a spiral form; ears smal) legs slender; hair of two kinds; tail more or less short; two
mamme. :
MAMMALIA—SHEEP, 873

their lambs to the most inaccessible heights. Mr Drummond informs us,
that in the retired parts of the mountains, where the hunters had seldom
penetrated, he found no difficulty in approaching the Rocky Mountain sheep,
which there exhibited the simplicity of characte: so remarkable in the
domestic species; but that where they had been often fired at, they were
exceedingly wild, alarmed their companions on the approach of Janger by
a hissing noise, and scaled the rocks with a speed and agility that baffled
pursuit. He lost several that he had mortally wounded, by their retiring
to die amongst the secluded precipices.

 

Their favorite feeding places, are grassy knolls, skirted by craggy rocks
to which they can retreat, when pursued by dogs or wolves. They are
accustomed to pay daily visits to certain caves in the mountains, that are
encrusted with a saline efflorescence, of which they are fond. These caves
are situated in slaty rocks. Mr Drummond says, that the horns of the old
fams altain a size so enormous, and curve so much forwards and down-
wards, that they effectually prevent the animal from feeding on level
ground. Its flesh is said by those who have fed on it, to be quite delicious
when it is in season, far superior to that of any of the deer species which
frequent the same quarter, and even exceeding in flavor the finest English
mutton.

The missionaries who first discovered the Rocky Mountain sheep, describe
it correctly as possessing the hair and the horns of the ram; and M. Geoffroy
bas alsv briefly characterized it as having the head of sheep, with the body
374 MAMMALIA- SHEEP.

of adeer. Several naturalists of eminence have considered it as forrning
but one species with the argali; and Cuvier supposes that it may have
crossed Bhering’s Straits on the ice. It resembles the argali indeed, per-
fectly in its manners, in the form of its bodv. and in the nature and colos
of its hairy coat; but it seems to be a larger animal, and to present 4
constant difference in the form of curvature in its horns.

THE ARGALI, OR WILD SHEEP,

 

is an inhabitant of rocky and mountainous regions, and is principally found
in the Alpine parts of Asia. Dr Pallas observed this species existing
throughout the vast chain of mountains extending through the middle
of that continent to the-Eastern Sea.

These animals have large horns, arched semicirculariy backward, and di-
vergent at their tips, wrinkled on their upper surface, and flattened beneath;
on the neck are two pendant hairy dewlaps. This creature is about the
size of the fallow deer. It is of a gray ferruginous brown color above, and
whitish beneath. The face is also of a whitish hue; and behind each of
the shoulders a dusky patch or spot is often discovered. In the European
variety, the legs are generally white. The head exhibits much resemblance
to the ram; but the ears are considerably smaller in proportion to its size.
The hody is large; but the neck and legs are slender, and ihe latter are
very strong. ‘The tail is very short, being seldom more that three inches
in length. The horns in the adult, or full grown animal, have muca the
appearance of those of the common ram. This animal has hair instead »
of wool, thus greatly differing from the general aspect of the sheep; but the -
tave, in winter, and especially that part about the tip of the nose, becomes
whiter; the back is of a more ferruginous cast: and the hair, which is close

 

1 Ovis ammon, Lin.
MAM MALILA~SHEEP. 375

in summer, like the deer, becomes somewhat wavy, a little curled, ana
rough, consisting of a kind of wool intermixed with hair, and its roots con-
cealed hy a fine woolly down. About the neck and shoulders, as well as
under the throat, the hair is considerably longer than elsewhere. The
female is much less than the male, and her horns neither so much -vrved
nor so large as those of the ram.

From spring to autumn the argalis feed in the little valleys among the
upper regions of the mountains, on the young shoots of the Alpine plauts,
and are said to grow very fat. As winter apprvaches, they descend lower,
and eat grass and other vegetables. They are fond of frequenting spots
of a saline nature, and will excavate the ground ‘in such places i in order to
get at the salt.

‘In Siberia, the argali is chiefly found on the summits of the highest
mountains, exposed to the sun, and free from woods. They generally travel
in small flocks; and seldom produce more than one, or sometimes two, at
a birth. The young lamb, when first born, is covered with a soft, gray, curl-
ing fleece, which graduaily changes into hair towards the end of summer.

These animals are very timid; and when closely pursued, they turn and
double like a hare, and do not run in a progressive course. They ascend
rocky mountains with great agility, passing over the narrowest and most
dangerous places with perfect safety, like the wild goat.

The males are said to fight frequently, and often precipitate each other
down the rocks in their contests. The chase of these creatures 1s extremely
dangerous and difficult, but isa most important object with some of the
’Asiatics, as this sheep supplies them with a great number of valuable and
necessary articles; the skin being used for clothing, and the flesh as food.
Pallas informs us, that “the flesh of the lamb is excellent; that of the old
animals is good; but more particularly when roasted.” :

The horns of ‘the argali grow to a vast size, and some have been found
to measure in their convolutions above two ells in length, and‘ to weigh
fifteen pounds each. Sometimes they are found broken off in such a man-
ner that the small animals of the forest creep into the cavity for shelter

 

THE CORSICAN ARGALI,

Or Moujlon of Buffon, is of a much darker color than the Asiatic. It is so
extremely wild, as to be seldom taken alive. Llowever, it is shot by the
hunters, who lie in ambush for it among the recesses in the mountains,
Like many other animals, the young ones, which are often taken when the
parent has been destroyed, are very easily tamed The various kinds of
domestic sheep aie ili Supposed io have sprung originaily from the argali.

 

1 Ovis musimon, Pair.
376 MAMMALIA—SHEEP,

THE DOMESTIC SHEEP.

 

Our domestic sheep is only to be met with in Europe, and some of' the
most temperate provinces of Asia and America, and if transported into
Guinea, loses its wool, and is covered with hair. It increases there but
little, and its flesh has no longer the same taste; it cannot also subsist in
cold countries.

In Iceland, a breed of sheep is to be found, who have many horns, short
tails, harsh and thick wool, under which, as in almost every animal in
the north, is a second lining of a softer, finer, and thicker wool. These *
animals are sometimes wintered in stables, but are generally left tc
provide for themselves in the open plains. Caves are their retreats in
stormy weather; but when they cannot reach such places of shelter, and
are involved in falls of snow, they place their heads near each other, with
their muzzles downward towards the ground. In this situation, they will
remain for several days, and hunger will sometimes compel them to gnaw
each other’s wool. They sield from two to six quarts of milk a day. Their
wool is not shorn, but loosens of itself, about the end of May, and is then
stripped off at once, like a skin.

In warm climates, some are covered with wool, others with hair, anda
third kind with hair mixed with wool. The first kind of sheep of those
tountrivs, is that commonly called the Barbary or Arabian sheep, which
entirely resembles the tame kind, excepting in the tail, which is very much
loaded with fat, is often more than a foot broad, and weighs upwards of
twenty pounds. As for external appearance, this sheep has nothing remark-
able but the tail, which he carries as if a pidow was fastened to his hinder
parts. Among this kind of broad tailed sheep, there are some whose tails
are so long and heavy, that the shepherds are obliged to fasten a small hoard
with wheels, in order to support them as they walk along. This tail, which
ts a substance between marrow and fat, is considered a great delicacy. In
the Levant, these sheep are clothed witha very fine wool. In the hottet

 

—— ee

' Ovis aries, Dem,
MAMMALIA—SHEEP, 3717

4 antries. as Madagascar and Tndia. they are clothed with Fair, The
superabundance of fat, which in our sheep fixes upon the reins, in these
sheep descends under the vertebra of the tail; the other parts of the body
are less charged with it than in our fat sheep. This variety is to be
attributed to the climate, the food, and the care of mankind; for these
broad, or long tailed sheep, are tame, like those of our country, and they
even demand much more care and management. This breed is much more
dispersed than ours; they are commonly met with in Tartary, ThiLet, Tur-
key, Persia, Syria, Egypt, Barbary, Ethiopia, and Madagascar ; and even as
far as the Cape of Good Hope. In Thibet, their fleeces, which are very
fine, are manufactured into shawls.

In the islands of the Archipelago, and chiefly in the island of Candia,
there is a breed of sheep, of which Belon has given the figure and descrip-
tion, under the name of strepsiceros. This sheep is of the make of our
common sheep. It is like that, clothed with wool; and only differs from it
by the horns, which are larger and rise upwards, but are twisted into
spirals. The distance between the horns of the ewe enlarges towards their

 

tops; those of the ram are parallel. This animal, which is commonly
salled the Wallachian sheep, is frequent in Austria and Hungary, where its
same is zackl.

In the hottest covntries of Africa and India, there is a breed of large
sheep, which has rough hair, short horns, hanging ears, and a kind of tuft
ander the tail. Leo Africanus, and Marmol, call it adamain; and it is
known to the naturalists by the name of the Senegal ram, the Guinea rain,
and the Angula sheep, &c. He is tame, like ours; and, like him, subject
to variety. These, though different in themselves by particular characters,
resemble each other so much in other respects, that we can scarcely doubt
that they are of the same kind.

A specimen of the male African sheen, is now in the Tower menagerie, to
which it was presented by Lord Liverpool. In temper, it is extremely
mild: bat itis an uncouth looking creature. Ttis high on the legs, narrow
in the loins, and its coat is rough and shaggy. Its horns are remarkably

48
378 MAMMALIA—SHEEP.

smail. and within their curve the ears are inclosed. Whenever the ears
escape from this seeming confinement, the animal exhibits much uneasi-
ness; and difficult as it is for him to replace them, he never rests till it is
accomplished. On his back and sides he is nearly black ; the shoulders ar

 

ot areddish brewn; th. ,22+.tior part of the body, the haunches, the hind
legs, the tail, the nose, au:! alse the ears, which are rather large, are white.
There is likewise a white spot ver each eye.

One of the curious modifications produced by cultivation, in the domestic
sheep, consists in the augmentation of the number of its horns; two, three,
or even four supplementary appendages of this description, boing occasion
ally procured in addition to the usual nuinber. Unier these circumstances,
the additional horns usually occupy the upper and fore part of the head, and
are of a more slender shape, and take a more upright direction than the
others; thus approaching in character to those of the goats, while the true
norns retain more or less of the spiral curve that distinguishes those of the
sheep. ‘There exists a strong tendency to the hereditary propagation of this
monstrosity, which is extremely fre went in the Asiatic races, but is also met
with in a breed that is common in the north of Europe, and is said to have
been originally derived from Iceland, and the Feroe islands. In the latter
case, it is unconnected with any other anomaly; but in the flocks of the
nomad hordes of Tartary, it is usually combined with an enlargement of
the tail and adjacent parts, by the deposition of fat, frequently to an
enormous) extent. Specimens of both varieties, separate and combined,
have formed part of the Society’s collection .a1 the farm on Kingston Hill,
to which most of the domesticated animals were removed during the sum
mer of 1829.
¢ MAMMALIA—BUFFALO. 379

The specimen figured beiow, is remarkable only for the number of its
horns. ‘Lhe lateral, or true homs, rise trom their usual poimt of attach-
went, ana describe a spiral curve round the animal’s ears. ‘i‘ne accessory

      

 
 
      

SSN
SHIM

horns, two in number, take their origin more internally, and between the
others, and pass almost directly upwards, inclining, as they advance, mm
a direction forwards and outwards.

 

THE CAPE BUFFALO.1

Tars animal is called by the Hottentots, guaraho. It has dark and rugous
horns, spreading horizontally over the summit of the heud, in the shape
of a scalp, with the heams bent down laterally, and the points turned up.
The animal is about nine feet in length, with a deep brown fur. They live
in smal] herds in brushwood, and open forests, in Catfraria, occasionally
uniting in droves upon the plains. They are excited to madness by the
sight of red colors, and swim with great force. Since the settlement 2f the
Cape of Goud Hope, they have become scarce in that neighborinuod.

 

 

--+-—- oO -

! Bos caffer, Desm. The genus Ros has eight tower incisors; no canines; twelve
upper and twelve lower molars =o: 0 ymom_e:. tre pg, head large; forehead straight;
muzzle square; eyes large; ears generally funnel shaped; a fold of the skin or dewla
on the under side of the neck ; four mammee; tail long and tufted ; horns simple Sone,
round, with different inflections, but often directed laterally, aud the pomts raised.

“ Ff
380 MAMMALIA—ARNEE...BUFFALO. :

TLE ARNEL

_ Tats animai, which is an inhabitant of various parts of India, north of
Bengal, far exceeds in size any of the cattle tribe that has huherw been dis
covered ; it oeing from twelve to fifleeen feet in height. The Yorns, wnich
are full two feet in length, are erect and semilunar, flattened, and annularly
wiitkled, with smooth, round, approaching points. The arnee is seldom
secn within the European settlements; but a very young one was picked
up alive, in the Ganges, some years ago, which was as big as an immensely
large bullock, and weighed nearly three quarters of a ton, A British officer,
who found one in the woods in the country above Bengal, describes it as a
bold and daring animal, and its form as seeming to partake of the horse,
the bull, and the deer. Some of the native princes are said to keep arnees
for parade, under the name of fighting bu!lucks.

 

THE DOMESTIC BUFFALU2

 

HE bullalo and the ox, although greatly resembling each other, votn
«ame, and often living under tue same roof, and fed in the same meadows;
vat, when brought together, and even excited by their keepers, have ever
refused to unite and couple together. Their nature is more distant than
that of the ass is from the horse; there even appears to be a strong antipa-
thy between them: for it is affirmed, that cows, will not suckle the young
buffalos; and the female buffalo refuses the same kindness to the other’s
calves. The buffalo is of a more obstinate nature, and less tractable than
the ox; he obeys wi:h great reluctance, and his temper is more coarse and
brutal. Like the hog. he is one of the filthiest of the tame animals, as he
shows by his .unwillingness to be cleaned and dressed: his figure is verv
tugmsy, aud torpidding ; his looks stupidly wild; he carmes lis tai in aa

 

2 Bus arnee, SHAW. % Bus oubstus, win.
MAMMALIA—BUFFALO. 38!

renoble manner, and his head m a very bad posture, almost always inclinea
towards the ground. His voice is a hideous bellowing, with atone much
stronger and more hoarse than that of the bull; his legs are thin. his tail
bare, and his physiognomy dark, like his hair and skin. He diflers exter-
ually from the ox, chiefly in the color of his hide; and this is easily per-
ceived under the hair, with which he is. but sparingly furnished. His body
is likewise thicker and shorter than that of the ox; his legs are longer, and
proportionably much less. The horns not so roynd, black, and partly
compressed, with a tuft of hair frizzled over his forehead; his hide is like-
wise thicker and harder than that of the ox; his flesh is black and hard,
and not only disagreeable to the taste, but to the smell; the milk cf the
female is not so good as that of the cow; nevertheless she yields a greater
quantity. In the hot countries of the eastern continent, almost all the
cheese is made of buffalo’s milk. The flesh of the young buffalo, though
killed during the suckling time, is not good. ‘The hide alone, is of
more value than all the rest of the beast, whose tongue is the only
part that is fit to eat. This hide is firm, light, and almost impenetrable.
As these animals, in general, are larger and stronger than the oxen, they
are very serviceable in the plough; they draw well, but do not carry bur-
dens; they are led by the means of a ring passed through their nose. Two
buffalos, harnessed, or rather chained, to a wagon, will draw as much as
four strong horses. ;

The form and thickness of the buffalo, alone, are sufficient to indicate
that he isa native of the hottest countries. The largest quadrupeds belong
to the torrid zone in the Old Continent; and the buffalo, for his size and
thickness, ought to be classed with the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the
hippopotamus. The camel is more elevated, but slenderer, and is also an
inhabitant of the southern countries of Africa and Asia; nevertheless, the
buffalos live and multiply ia Italy, in France, and in other temperate pro-
vinces. Those that are in the French king’s menagerie, have brought forth
two or three times. The female has but one ata time, and goes about
twelve months; which is another proof of the ditferenag between this
species and that of the cow, who only goes nine months. Mt appears, also,
that these animals are gentler and less brutal in their native country; and.
the hotter the climate is, the more tractable is their nature. In Egypt they
are more so than in Italy; and in India they are more so than in Egypt.
Those of Italy have also more hair than those of Egypt, and those of Egypt
more than those of India. Their coat is never entirely covered, because
they are natives of hot countries; and, in general, large animals of this
climate have either no hair, or else very little.

There are a great number of wild buffalos in the countries of Africa and
India, which are watered with many rivers, and furnished with large mea-
dows. These wild buffalos go in droves, and make great havoc in cultivat-
ed lands; but they never attack the human species, and will not run at
882 MAMMALIA—BISON.

them, unless they are wounded, when they are very dangerous; for they
make directly at their enemy, throw him down, and trample him to death
under their feet; nevertheless, they are greatly terrified at the sight of fire,
and are displeased at a red color.

The buffalo, like all other animals of southern climates, is fond of bath-
ing, and even of remaining in the water; he swims very well, and holdly
traverses the most rapid floods’ As his legs are longer thun those of the
ox, -he runs also quicker upon land. The negroes in Guinea, and the
Indians in Malabar, where the wild buffalos are very numervus, otten hunt
them They neither pursue them nor attack them openly, but, clirnbing
up the trees, or hiding themselves in the woods, they wait tor them and kin
them; the buffalos not being able, without much trouble, to penetrate these
forests, on account of the thickness of their bodies, and the impediment
of their horns, which are apt to entangle in the branches of the trees.
These people are fond of the flesh of the buffalo, and gain great profit by
vending their hides and their horns, which are harder and better than those
of the ox.

Although the buffalo is, at this present time, common in Greece, and

*tame in Italy, it was neither known by the Greeks nor Romans; for it
never had a name in the language of these people. The word duffalo, even
indicates a strange origin, not to be derived either from the Greek or Latin
tongues. In effect, this animal is originally a native of the hottest coun-
tries of Africa and India, and was not transported and naturalized in Italy
ull towards the seventh century. It is true, the ancients have spoken of an
animal, as of a different species from the ox, under the name of dubalus ¢ and
Aristotle has mentioned the wild ox of Paonia, which he has called bunasus,

THE AMERICAN BISON.

One of the earliest accounts we have of this animal, is by Hernandez,
and Recchus’ edition of his observations, or rather commentary upon them,
is illustrated by an engraving which seems to have been made from a rude
sketch of the bison, altered by the European artists to a closer resemblance
with the European ox. Hennepin, in the narrative of his discovery of
Louisiana, and his travels through that country, between the years 1660 and
1682, gives a very good description of the bison, together with a figure,
which is apparently a copy of that of Recchus. It does not appear to have
excited much attention in Europe until lately; when several specimens,
naving been imported into England, were exhibited under the attractive
tile of donasws, which, though described by the ancients, was asserted to

 

* bos Amerwanus, GMEL.
MAMMALIA—BISON. 863

have been lost to the moderns, until recognised in the American animal.
The American bison, has, in fact, much resemblance to the auruchs of the
Germans, (Bos urus, BoppzRt,), identified by Cuvier, with the dunasus of
Aristotle, the dison of Pausanias and Pliny, and the urus of Cesar; and
which, down to the reign of Charlemagne, was not rare in Germany, but
1s now nearly confined to the hilly country lying between the Caspian and
Black seas.

 

The bison wanders constantly from place to place, either from being
fisturbed by hunters or in quest of food. They are much attracted by the
soft tender grass, which springs up after a fire has spread over the prairie.
In winter they scrape.away the snow with their feet to reach the grass.
The bulls and cows live in separate herds, for the greater part of the year,
but at all seasons, one or two old bulls generally accompany a large herd
of cows. In the rutting season, the males fight against each other with
great fury, and, at that period it is very dangerous to approach them. The
bison is, however, in general, a shy animal, and takes to flight instantly on
winding an enemy, which the acuteness of its sense of smell enables it to
do, from a great distance. They are less wary when they are assembled
together in numbers, and will then often blindly follow their leaders, regard-
less, of, or trampling down, the hunters posted in their way. It is dange-
rous for the hunter to show himself after having wounded one; for it will
pursue him, and although its gait may appear heavy and awkward, it will
have no great difficulty in overtaking the fleetest runner.

‘Mr Finnan M’Donald, of the Hadson’s Bay Company’s clerks, was de-
ascending the Saskatchewan in a boat, and oneevewing having pitched hia
384 MAMMALIA—BISON

tent for the night, he went out in the dusk to look for game. It had become
nearly dark, when he fired at a bison bull, which was gatluping over a small
eminence, and as he was hastening forward to see if his shot had taken
effect, the wounded beast made a rush at him. He had the presence of mind
to seize the animal by the long hair on its forehead, as it struck him on the
side with its horn, and being a remarkably tall and powerful man, a strug-
gle ensued, which continued until his wrist was severely sprained, and his
arm was rendered powerless; he then fell, and after receiving two or three
blows became senseless. Shortly afterwards, he was found by his compa-
n.ons lying bathed in blood, being gored in several places; and the bison was
couched beside him, apparently waiting to renew the attack had he showa
any signs of life. Mr M’Donald recovered from the immediate effects
of the injuries he received, but died a few months afterwards. When it
contends with a dog, it strikes violently with its fore fect, and in that
way, proves more than a match for any Engush bull-dog. +.

The favorite Indian method of killing the bison is, by riding up to the
fattest of the herd on horseback, and shooting it. When a large party

 

of hunters are engaged in this way, on an extensive plain, the spectacle 1s
ery imposing, and the young men have many opportunities of displaying
seir skill and agility. The horses appear to enjoy the sport as much as
eir riders, and are very active in eluding the shock cf the animal, should
turn on its pursuer. The most generally practised plan, however, of
hooting the bison, is by crawling towards them from to leeward; and in
favorable places, great numbers are taken in pounds. When the bisor
runs, it leans very muca first to one side for a short space of time and then
to the other, and so on alternately.
The flesh of a bison, in good condition, is very juicy and well flavored;
much resembling that of well fed beef. The tongue is considered a deli-
cacy, and may be cured so as to surpass in flavor the tongue of an English
Vy

MAMMALIA-—BISON. : 3e5

vow. The hump of flesh covering the long spinous processes of the dursat
vertebra, is much esteerned. It is named des by the Canadian voyages,
and wig by the Orkney men, in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
The wig has a fine grain, and when salted and cut transversely, it is
almost as rich and tender as the tongue. The fine wool which clothes the
bison, renders its skin, when properly dressed, an excellent blanket. The
wool has been manufactured in England into a remarkably fine and beavt»
ful cloth; and in the colony of Osnaboyna, on the Red river, a warm and
durable coarse cloth is made of it. Much of the pemmican used by, the
voyagers attached to the fur companies, is made of bison meat, procured
at their posts.on the Red river and Saskatchewan. One bison cow in good
cundition, furnishes dried meat and fat enough to make a bag of pemmicar
weighing winety pounds.

The herds of bisons wander over the country in search of food, usually
led by a bull, most remarkable for strength and fierceness. While feeding,
they are often scattered over a great extent of country, but when they move
in mass, they form a dense and almost impenetrable column, which, once in
notion, is scarcely to be impeded. Their line of march is seldom interrupt-
ed, even by considerable rivers; across which they swim without fear ox

 

nesitation, nearly in the order that they traverse the plains. When flying
before their pursuers, it would be in vain for the foremost to halt, or attempt
to obstruct the progress of the main body; as the throng in the rear still
rushing onward, the leaders must advance, although destruction awaits the
movement. The Indians take advantage of this circumstance, to destrov
great quactities of this favorite game; and, certainly, no mode could be
resorted to, more effectively destructive, nor could a more terrible devasta-
tion be produced, than that of forcing a numerous |erd of these large
49
386 MAMMALIA—BISON.

animals, to leap together from the brink of a dreadful precipice, upon a rocky
and broken surface, a hundred feet below. ,

When the Indians determine to destroy bisons in this way, one of their-
swiftest footed and most active young men is selected, who is disguised in
a bison skin, having the head, ears, and horns adjusted on his own head, so
as to make the deception very complete; and thus accoutred, he stations
himself between the bison herd and some of the precipices, that often
extend for several miles along the rivers. The Indians surround the herd
as nearly as possible, when, at a given signal, they show themselves and
rush forward with loud yells. The animals being alarmed, and seeing no
way open but in the direction of the disguised Indian, run towards him, and
he, taking to flight, dashes on to the precipice, where he suddenly secures
himself in some previously ascertained crevice. The foremost of the herd
arrives at the brink — there is no possibility of retreat, no chance of escape;

_the foremost may for an instant shrink with terror, but the crowd behind,

 

who are terrified by the approaching hunters, rush forward with increasing
impetuosity, and the agzregated force hurls them successively into the
gulf, where certain death awaits them.

The Indians make a bison pound, by fencing a circular space of about
a hundred yards in diameter. The entrance is banked up with snow
sufficiently high to prevent the animals from retreating after they have
‘once entered. For about a mile on each side of the road leading to the
pound, stakes are driven into the ground at nearly equal distances, of about
twenty vards, which are intended to look like men, and to deter the animals
from endeavoring to break through the fence. Within fifty or sixty yards
of the pound, branches of trees are placed between the stakes, to screen the
Indians, who lie down behind them, to wait for the approach of the bison.
The mounted hunters display the greatest dexterity in this sort of chase, as
they are obliged to manwuvre around the herd in the plains so as to urge
them into the road-way, which is about a quarter of a mile broad, When
MAMMALIA—YAK...GAUR...GAYAL. 387

tnis is effected, the Indians raise loud shouts, and pressing closely on the
animals, terrify them so much, that they rush heedlessly forwards towards
the snare. When they have advanced as far as the men who are lying n
ambush, they also show themselves, increasing the consternation of the
bisons by shouting violently and firing their guns. The affrighted animals
nave vo aliernative but to rush directly into the pound, where they are
quick}y dispatched by guns or arrows. In the centre of one of these
pounds, there was a tree on which the Indians had hung stripes of bison
flesh, and pieces of cloth, as tributary or grateful offerings to the Great
Master of life. They occasionally place a man in the tree to sing to the
presiding spirit, as the bisons advance. He is obliged to remain there untu
all the animals that have entered the pound are killed.

The bison is about eight feet in length. The head, shoulders, and upper
part of the anterior extremities, are covered with a long, brownish, woolly
hair. ‘The tail is tufted with black. The horns are black, and turned
laterally and upwards.

 

¢

THE YAK.

Taxis animal has some resemblance to a buffalo in the shape of his head.
His size is various; and the tail of one in the British Museum, is six feet
long. The color is generally black, but many have white tails. They are
fond of mountainous countries, and keep on the southern declivities in
winter, and ‘the northern in summer. The species is hoth wild and domes-
ticated. The wild yaks abound in the mountains of Boot and Thibet.

THE GAUR?

1s a species of bison, which appears to be one of the largest now living. Tt
is six feet high at the shoulders, and twelve feet long. ‘Its head resembles
that of the common ox. Its most remarkable characteristic is a spinous
elevated process, on the neck and shoulders. They live in families of ten
or twenty. They are found in India.

 

THE GAYAL3

Is nearly the shape and size of a common bull. It has a sharp ridge over
the ‘shoulders. The general color is brown, and the tail is tufted. It
inhabits the forests east of the Burrampooter.

~

 

1 Bos g -unniens, Lin. 2 Bos gauras, SMITH. 3 Bos gaveus, SMITH,
388 MAMMALIA—OX.

‘

THE DOMESTIC ‘OX.

Turorcnour the different regions. of the world, the breed of oxen differs
in all external appearances, according to the nature of the climate, or other
circumstances. But the most remarkable difference is that which divides
them into two classes; viz. the aurecks, or ox without a hunch on its back,
and the dison, or hunched ox. All the tame oxen without hunches, have

_ proceeded from the aurochs, and all with hunches are issues of the bison.
In order to give a just idea of the varieties, we shall make a short enumera-
tion of these animals, such as they are actually found to be, in different
parts of the earth.

To begin with the north of Europe, the few oxen and cows which subsist
in Iceland, are without horns, although they are of the same kind as our
oxen. The size of these animals is rather relative to the plenty and quality
of pasture, than to the nature of the climate. The Dutch have often brought
lean cows from Denmark, which fatten prodigiously in their meadows, and
which give plenty of milk.. These Danish cows are longer than ours. The
oxen ana cows of Ukraine, where there is excellent pasture, are said to be
the largest in Europe; they are also of the saine kind as our oxen.

The breed of the bison, or hunched ox, fills al] the southern provinces, at
this present time. In the whole continent of India; the islands of the
South Seas; in all Africa, from Mount Atlas to the Cape of Good Hope, we
find, nothing but hunched oxen. And it even appears, that this breed,
which has prevailed in all the hot countries, has many advantages over
the others. These hunched oxen, like the bison, of which they'are the
issue, have the hair much softer and more glossy than our oxen; who, like
the aurochs, are furnished with but little hair, which is of a harsh nature.
These hunched oxen are also swifter, and more proper to supply the place
of a horse; at the same time that they havea less brutal nature, and are
not so clumsy and stupid as our oxen, they are more tractable, and sensible
which way you would lead them. The regard the Indians have for these
animals is so great, as to have almost degenerated into superstition., The
ox, as the most useful animal, has appeared to them the most worthy of
being revered ; for this purpose, they have made an idol of the object of
their veneration, a kind of beneficent and powerful divinity ; for we are
desirous of rendering all we respect, great, and capable of doing much
good, or much harm.

These hunched oxen, perhaps, vary again more than ours, in the colors
of the hair, and the figure of the horns. The handsomest are all white,
like the oxen of Lombardy. There are also some that are without horns;
there are others, who have them very much elevated, and others so bent

 

' Bos taurus, Lin.
: MAMMALIA—OX. 389

down, that they are almost pendent. It even appears, that we must divide
this first kind of bisons, or hunched oxen, into two secondary kinds; the
one very large, and the other very small. Both have soft hair, and a hunch
on the oack. This hunch does not depend on the conformation of the spine,
nor on the bones of the shoulder; it is nothing but an excrescence, a kind
of wen, a piece of tender flesh, as good to eat as the tongue of an ox. ‘The
wens of some oxen weigh about forty or fifty pounds; others have them
much smaller. Some of these oxen have also prodigious horns for their
size. There is one in the French king's eabinet, which is three feet and
a half in length, and seven inches in diameter at the base. Many travellers
affirm, they have seen them of a capacity sufficient to contain fifteen and
even twenty pints of water.

On the contrary, all the northern countries of Africa and Asia, and Europe
entirely, comprehending even the adjacent islands, to the Azores, are only
inhabited by oxen without a hunch, who derive their origin from the
aurochs.

Every part of South America is inhabited by oxen without hunches,
which the Spaniards, and other Europeans, have successively transported.
These oxen are multiplied, and are only become smaller in these countries.
Thus the wild and the tame ox, the European, the Asian, the American,
and the African ox, the bonasus, the aurochs, the bison, and the zebu, are
al] animals of one and the same species; who, according to the climates,
food, and different usage they have met with, have undergone all the varia-
tions we have before explained. The ox, as the most useful animal, is also
the most universally dispersed. He appears ancient in every‘climate, tame
among civilized nations, and wild in desert or unpolished countries. He
supports himself by his own strength when ina state of nature, and has
never lost the qualities which sre useful to the service of man. The young
wild calves, which are taken from their mothers in India and Africa, have,
ina short time, become as tractable as those which are the issue cf the
tame kind, and this natural conformity is another strikiug proof of the
Sdentity of the species.

The characters by which the strongly marked group of animals thus
associated together, are distinguished from the neigihering tribes, are, like .
most of those which serve to subdivide the great family of the ruminants,
of a very subordinate description. Their horns are common to both sexes,
simple in their form, curved outwards at the base and upwards towards the
point; and supported internally, by long processes arising from the skull,
having cavities within them corsmunicating with the frontal sinuses, which
are largely developed. Their muzzle is of large size;. the skin along
the middle of the neck and chest forms a pendulous dewlap of greater or
‘ess extent; and the general robustness of their make is strikingly con-
trasted with the lightness and elegance of form of some of the nearly
related groups.

,
890 MAMMALIA—OX. *

There can be little doubt that the zebu, or Indian ox, is merely a rariety
of the cummon ox, although it is difficult to ascertain the causes by which
the distinctive characters of the two races have been in the process of time
gradually produced. But whatever the causes may have been, their effects
rapidly disappear by the intermixture ‘of the breeds, and are entirely lost at
the end of a few generations. This intermixture and its :esulis wou'd

4
DN ee B Mapepys «
a o\ Neg CR.

Petr fA be

 

MN RARA

alone furnish a sufficient proof of identity of origin; which consequently
scarcely requires the confirmation to be derived from the perfect agreement
of their ternal structure, and of all the more essential particulars of their
external conformation. These, however, are not wanting; not only is
their anatomical structure the same, but the form of their heads, which
e‘ords the only zertain means of ‘distinguish'ag the actual species of this
genus from each other, presents no difference whatever. In both the fore-
head is flat, or more properly slightly depressed ; nearly square in its
outlines, its height being equal to its breadth; and bounded above by a
prominent line, forming an angular protuberance, passing directly across
the skul] between the basis of the horns. The only circumstances, in fact,
in which the two animals differ, consist in a fatty hump of the snoulders of
the zebu, and in the somewhat mure slender and delicate make of its legs.
Nurnerous breeds of this humped variety, varying in size from that of a
large mastiff dog, to that of a full grown buffalo, are spread, more or less
extensively, over the whove of southern Asia, the ‘islands of the Indian
Archipelago, and the eastern coast of Africa, from Abyssinia to the Cane
nf Good Hope. In all these countries, the zebu supplies the place of the
MAMMALIA—OX, 39)

ox, ooth as a beast of burthen and as an articie of food and domestic econo-
“my. In some parts of India, it executes the duties of the horse also; being
either saddled and ridden, or harnessed in a carriage, and performing in
this manner journeys of considerable length with tolerable celerity. Some

z Dy A Vip:

 

or the older writers speak of fifty or sixty miles a day, as its usual rate
of travelling; but the more moderate computation of recent authors doeg
not exceed from twenty to thirty. Its beef is considered by no means
despicable, although far from equalling that of the European ox. The
hump, which is chiefly composed of fut, is reckoned the most delicate part.
As might naturally be expected from its perfect domestication and wide dif-
fusion, the zebu is subject to as great a variety of colors as those which affect
the European racé: Its most common bue isa light ashy gray, passing into
a cream color or milk white; but it is not unfrequently marked with various
shades of red or brown, and occasionally it becomes perfectly black. Its
hump is sometimes elevated in a remarkable degree, and usually retains
its upright position ; but sometimes it becomes half pendulous, and hanys
partly over towards one side. Instances are cited, in which it bad atlained
the enormous weight of fifty pounds. A distinct breed is spoken of ag
common in Surat, which is furnished with a second hump. Among the
other breeds, there are some which are entirely destitute of horns; and
others, which have only the semblance of them, the external covering
being unsupported by bony processes, and being consequently flexible and
pendulous.

The whole of the breeds are treated with great veneration by the Hindoos,
who hold it sinful to deprive them of Life under any pretext whatever. But
they do not, in general, scruple to make the animals Jabor for their benefit

.
392 MAMMALIA—MANAT!,

although they consider it the height of impiety to eat of their flesh, A
select number are, however, exempted from all services, and have the priv’
lege of straying about the towns and villages, and of taking their foou
wheresoever they please, if not sufficiently supplied by the pinus contribu
ions of the devotces who impose‘on themselves this charitable offire.

ORDER X.—CETACEA.

Turse animals have a pisciform body, terminated hy a caudal appendage,
cartilaginous and horizontal; two anterior extremities formed like fins,
having the bones which form them, flattened and very. short; head joined
to the body by a very short, thick neck ; two pectoral or abdominal mam-
me ; ears with very small external openings ; brain large; pelvis and bones
of the pesterior extremities represented by two rudimentary venes lost in
the flesh.

THE MANATI1.!

Tats animal may be indiscrfminately called the last of beasts, or first o1
fishes. It cannot be called a quadruped; nor ‘can it entirely be termed a
fish. It partakes of the nature of the fish by its two feet or hands; but the
hind legs, which are almost wholly concealed, in the bodies of the seal and
morse, are entirely wanting in the manati. Instead of two short feet and a
small narrow tail, which is placed ina horizontal direction in the morse,
the manati has only a thick tail, spread out broad like a fan. Oviedo seems
to be the first author who has given any sort of history or description of the
manati; he says, “it is a very clumsy and misshapen animal, the head ‘f°
which is thicker than that of an ox; the eyes small, afd the twa feet or
hands are placed near the head, for the purpose of swimming. It has no
scales, but is covered with a skin, or rather a thick hide, with a few hairs
or bristles. It isa peaceable animal, and feeds upon the herbage by the
river sides, without entirely leaving the water, swimming on the surface
of it to seek its food. The hunters practise the following method to take
the manati; they row themselves in a boat or raft as near the animal as
possible, and dart a very strong lance into it, to the end ef which a very
long cord is fastened. The manati feeling itself wounded, instantly swims

ty

 

} Manatus Americanus, Desm. The gerus Vanatus has two upper incisors : no canines;
eighteea upper and eighteen lower molars. The incisors exists only in the foetus. and
the adults have ont> thirty-two teeth. feur of the inolars falling out in early age; molars
with two transverse cushions on their vrown; head not distinet from the body ¢ eyes: ver
small; tongue oval; vesuges of uaits on the margin of the pectoral fins; AG et
sertebra ; sixteen prir of thick ribs; mustaches composed ar a bundle of very strong
hairs, direrted downw-rds, and forming on each side a kind of corneous tsk,
MAMMALIA—MANATIL 393

away, or plunges to the bottum ; but the cord which holds the lance, has a.
cork or piece of wood fastened to the end of it, to serve as a buoy. When
the animal begins to grow faint and weak through the loss of blood, he
swims to shore; the cord is then wound up, and the animal drawn within
arm’s length of the boat, where they dispatch it in the water by strokes
of the oar or lance. It is so very heavy, as to be a sufficient load for two
oxen to draw; its flesh is excellent eating, and is eaten rather as beef tnan
as fish. Some of these animals measure more than fifteen feet in length, by
six feet in breadth. The body becomes narrower towards the tail, and then
spreads gradually broader towards the end. As the Spaniards give the
appellation of hands to the feet of quadrupeds; and as this animal has only
fore feet, they have given it the name of manatz, that is, an animal with
hands. The female has breasts placed forward, like those of a woman; und
she generally brings forth two young ones at a time, which she suckles.”

“The flesh and fat of this animal,” says M. de Condamine, “have a great —
reseinblance to veal. It is not, properly speaking, amphibious, since 1t
never entirely leaves the water; having only two flat fins, close to the head,
about sixteen inches long, and which serves the animal instead of arms and
hands. It only raises its head out of the water to feed on the herbage by.
the sea-side. The eyes of this animal have no proportion to the size of its
body ; the orifice of its ears is still less, and ‘only seems like a hole made
byapin. The manati is not peculiar to the Amazonian river; fur it is not
less common in the Oronoko. It is found, also, though less frequently, in
the Oyapoc, and many other rivers in the environs of Cayenne, and the
coast of Guiana, and probably in other parts.”

The female of this animal, from the position of the breasts, prohably gave
rise among mariners, to the fable of the mermaid. Columbus, when he
first saw these animals in the West Indies, called them sirens,

 

THE ROUND-TAILED MANATI1.1

Tuts animal frequents most of the great African rivers, fram Senegal to
the Cape of Good Hope, and also many cf the rivers on the eastern shore
of South America. Tt is often seen in the Amazons, nearly a thousand
leagues from its mouth. It prefers shallow waters near low land, and is a
froliesome creature, frequently leaping into the air to great heights. : The
natives of America are said frequently to tame it, and we are told that it
delights in music. The female, when struck by the harpoon, seems inseusi-
ble to her own sufferings, and only anxious to protect her young one, by
taking it under her fins or feet. The round-tailed manati is about six feet

 

1 Manatus Senegralensis, Desm.
50
394 MAMMALIA~DOLPHIN.

in length, and three or four in circumference. Its flesh is a white, well
tasted, and salubrious food. When the thicker parts of the skin are cul
into slices and dried, they become exceedingly tough, and form guod whips,
Of the thinner parts, which have more pliability, the Indians make thongs
to fasten tugether the sides of their canoes.

 

THE DOLPHIN!

 

Tis isa distinct animal from the small fish which sailors call by the
same name; and though so often painted as being of the shape of the letter
S, the dolphin is almost straighi, the back being very slightly incurvated,
and the body slender. The nose is long, narrow, and pointed, with a broad
transverse band, or projection of the skin on its upper part. From the
shape of the nose, the animal has been called the sea-goose. The mouth is
very wide, and has twenty-one teeth in the upper, and nineteen in the lower
jaw, somewhat above an inch long, conic at the upper end, sharp pointed,
and bending a lite in. They are placed ata small distance from each
other; so that when the mouth is shut, the teeth of both jaws lock into each
other. ‘fhe spout hole is placed in the middle of the head; the tail’is semi
lunar; the skin is smooth; the color of the back and sides dusky; the belly
whitish. It swims w’th great swiftness, and its prey is fish, but particularly
cod, herrings, and flat fish. The dolphin is longer and more: slender than
the porpoise, measuring nine or ten feet in length, and two in diameter.

All this species have fins on the back; and resemble each other in their
appetites, their manners, and conforrnation, being equally voracious, acuve,
and roving. No fish could escape them, but from the awkward position
of their mouth, which is placed in a manner under the head. Their own
agility is so great, as to prevent them from being often taken; and they
seldom remain a moment above water. Their too eager pursuit after prey
occasionally, however, exposes them to danger; as they will sometimes
follow the object of their pursuit even into the nets of the fishermen,

 

1 Delphinus delphis, Lin. The genus Delphinus has teeth vanable in neanber, ofa
canine form. sometimes compressed asd dentated on their cutting margips. from twe nuns
dred te none aval: jaws more or less advanced tn form of a heal sprfacles woth a rege
cent shaped aperture; an adipose, dorsal fin, er a lougitudinal fuld of the skin ; tail flate
tened horizontally, and bifurcated
MAMMALIA—PORPOISE, 395

A shoal of dolphins will frequently attend the course of a ship, for the
scraps that are thrown overboard, or the barnacles adhering to tneir sides.
A shoal of them followed the ships of Sir Richard Hawkins, upwards of a
thousand leagues. Their gambols and evolutions on the surface of the
water are often very amusing. A dolphin has been known to spring forward
more than twenty feet at a single bound. They inhabit the Auartice and
Pacific oceans. , -

The flesh, though tolerably well tasted, is dry and insipid; the best parts
are near the head. It is seldom eaten but when young ang tender. Dols
phins are said to change their color befure they die, and again alter they
are dead.

THE PORPOISE.

 

In its general form, the porpoise, or porpus, very much resembles the
dolphin. It is, however, somewhat less in size, and has a snout much
broader and shorter. It is’ generally from six to seven feet in length; its
oody is thick towards the head, but grows slender towards the tail, forming
the figure of acone. In each jaw are forty-four to fifty teeth, small, sharp
pointed, and moveable; and so placed that the teeth of one jaw lock into
those of the other. The eyes are small, as is the spout-hole at the top
of the head. In colors the back is black, and the belly whitish, but they
sometimes vary.

Porpoises are very numerous in the river St Lawrence, whee there ts a
white kind. They are seldom seen, except in, troops of six or seven to
thirty and upwards; and, like the dolphin, they are very agile and sportive.
In the most tempestuous weather, they can surmount the waves, and
pursue their course, without injury. Seamen have a superstitious detesta-
tion af them, because they believe their appearance to be ominous cf ap-
proaching storms.

These animals live chiefly on the smaller fish. At the season when
mackerel, herrings, pilehards, and salmon appear, the purpuise swarms,

 

4 Delphinus phocena, Lin.
396 MAMMALIA—GRAMPUS...SEA-UNICORN.

an suet. is its violence in pursuit of its prey, that it will follow » shoa,
of small fish upa fresh water river, fram whence it finds a difliva ty to
return. These creatures have been often taken in the river Thames, both
above and below London bridge; and it is curious to observe with what
dexterity they avoid their pursuers, and how momentarily they recover their
breath above the water. It is usual to spread four or five boats over the
part of the river where they are seen, and to fire at them the instant they
rise. One porpoise yields about a hogshead of oil, and therefore renders its
capture an object of consideration.

- Iv is said that, whenever a porpoise happens to be wounded, all the rest
of its companicns will immediately fall upon and devour it.

THE GRAMPUS!

Is about twenty-four feet in length. It is a clumsy, unsightly fish, dare on
the upper part, but very white below. The lower jaw is considerably wider
than the upper. The back fin sometimes measures six feet. The grampus
is an exevedingly voracious animal, which does not always spare even its
own kind. Packs of them are said to attack the Greenland whale, like bull
dogs, and tear off his flesh in masses. It, however, displays ‘the utmost
solicitude and affection for its young. Little oil is afforded by the grampus.
Jt floats deep in the water, and would seldom be caught, did not its eagere
ness for prey prompt it to rush into shailow waters, where it is killed, but
not ull it has made a desperate and formidable resistance.

THE NARWHAL, OR SEA-UNICORN,

Srtnom exceeds twenty-two feet in length. Its body is slenderer than
that of the whale, and its fat not so abuudant. But this great animal is
sufficiently distinguished from all others of the deep, by its tooth or teeth,
which stand pointing directly forward from the upper jaw, and are from nine
to ten feet long. In all the variety of weapons with which nature has
armed her various tribes, there is not one so large or so formidable as this.
This terrible weapon is generally fuund single; and some are of opinion
that the annual is furnished with but one by nature: but there is at present
the skull of a narwhal, at the Stadthouse at Amsterdam, with two teeth,
The tooth, or as sume are pleased to call it, the horn of the narwhal, is as

 

1 Delphinis grampus, Desm.
2 Monodan monoeeros. This is the only ane of the genus. The characteristics are one

of two large tusks im the upper jaw; general far analogous to the dulphin’s; orifice of
She spiracles umted on the top of the head; a lougitudimal dorsal crest.
MAMMALIA—WHALE. 397

straight as an arruw, about the thickness of the small of a man’s lec, wreathed
tH vt. + manner we sometimes see twisted bars of iron, It tapers to a sharp
poii and is whiter, heavier, and harder than ivory. It is generally seen
toring from the left side of the head, directly forward, in a straight line
with the body; and its root enters into the socket above a foot and a half.
Notwitli tanding its appointments for combat, this long and pointed tusk,
amazing strength, and matchless celerity, the narwhal is one of the most
harmless und peaceful inhabitants of the ocean. It is seen constantly and
inoffensiv :ly sporting among the other great monsters of the deep, no way
attempting, to injure them, but pleased in their company. The Greenland-
ers call th? narwha] the forerunner-of the whale; for wherever it is seen,
the whale is shortly after sure to follow. This may arise as well from the
natural passion for society in these animals, as from both living upon the
same food. The narwhal is much swifter than the whale, and would never
be taken ly the fishermen, but for those very tusks, which at first appear
to be its principal defence. These animals are always seen in herds of
several ata time; and whenever they are attacked, they crowd together
in such a manner, that they are mutually embarrassed by their tusks. By
these, they are often locked together, and are prevented from sitiking to the
bottom. Is seldom happens therefore, but the fishermen make sure of one
or two of th: hindmost, which very well reward their trouble.

é ‘

THE GREAT HEADED CACHALOT, OR
SPERMACETI WIIALE.!

 

ims tribe to not of such enormous size as the whale, properly so called, net
being above sixty feet long and sixteen feet high. In consequence of their
being more slender, they are much more active than the common whale;

! Physeter macrocephalus, Desm. The genus Physeter has eighteen to twenty tnree
inferior teeth on each side of the jaw; upper jaw broad, elevated, without teeth, or with
these short and concealed in the gum; lower jaw elongated, narrow, corresponding toa
furrow of the upper, and armed with thick and conical teeth, entering into corresponding
‘eavities of the upper jaw; spiracular orifices amited at the upper part of the snout; a dorsa
fin in some species, a simple emumence on others; cartUaginous cev lies in the superior
region of the bead, filled with oily mutter.
398 MAMMALIA—WHALE.

they remain a longer time at the bottom, and afford a smaller quantity
of oil. Asin the common whale, the head makes a third part of its bulk,
so in this species the head is so large as to make one half of the whole

Their throats are much wider than those of the common whale, as may be
judged from the fact, that the remains of sharks more than twelve feet long
have been found in their stomachs. The cachalot is as destructive among
the lesser fishes as the whale is harmless; and can at une gulp swallow a
shoal of fishes down its enormous gullet. Linnans tells us that this fish
pursues and terrifies the dolphins and porpoises so much, as often to drive
‘them on shore. o

But, how formidable soever this fish may be to its fellows of the deep, it
1s by far the most valuable, and the most sought afver by man; as it con-
tains two very valuable drugs, spermaceti and ambergris. The whole oil
of this fish is very easily convertible into spermaceti. This is performed by
boiling it with a ley of potash, and- hardening it in the manner of soap.
Candles are now made of it, which are substituted for wax, and sold much
cheaper.

As to the ambergris, which is sometimes found in this whale, it was long
considered’as a substance found floating on the surface of the sea; but time,
that reveals the secrets of the mercenary, has discovered that it chiefly
belongs to this animal. The name, which has been improperly given to
the former substance, seems more justly to belong to this; for the ambergris
is found in the place where the seminal vessels are usually situated in other
animals. It is found in a bag of three or four feet long, in round lumps,
from one to twenty pounds weight, floating in a fluid rather thinner than
oil, and of a yellowish color. There are never seen more than four at a time
in one of these bags; and. that which weighed twenty pounds, and which
was the largest ever seen, was found single. These balls of ambergris are
not found in all fishes of this kind, but chiefly in the oldest and strongest.

The blunt headed cachalot is fifty-fuur feet in length. Its greatest cir+
cumference is just beyond the eyes, and is thirty feet. The upper jaw is
five feet longer than the lower, which is ten feet. The head is abové one
third the size of the fish. The end of the upper jaw is blunt, and near nine
feet high; the spout-hole placed near the end of it. The teeth are placed
in the lower jaw, twenty-three on each side, all pointing outwards ; and, in
the upper jaw, opposite, are a number of holes to receive them when tne
mouth is closed. They are about eighteen inches long.

The spermaceti cachalot is found in greatest abundance in the Pacific
ocean, where large numbers of them are annually killed by the American
and other whalers, for the sake of their oi] and spermaceti.

The spermaceti cachalot is gregarious, and herds are frequently seen con-
taining two hundred or more individuals.

The mode of attacking these animals, is as follows: Whenever a number
of them are seen, four boats, each provided with two or three lines and
MAMMALIA—WHALE. 399

narprons, four lances, ard a crew of six men, proceed n pureuit, and, if
possible, each boat strikes or “fastens to,” a distinct animal and each crew
kills their own. When engaged in distant pursuit, the harpocuer generally
steers the boat, and in such cases the proper boat steezer occasionally strikes,
but.the harpooner mostly kills it. If one cachalot of a herd is struck, it
commonly takes the lead and is followed by the rest. The one which is
struck, sela>m descends far under water, but generally swims off with great
rapidity, stopping after a short course, so that the boat can be drawn up to
it by the line, or be rowed sufficiently near to Jance it. In the agonies
of death, the struggles of the animal are truly tremendous, and the gurface
of the ocean is lashed into foam bv the motions of the fins and tail. Tall
jets of bleod are discharged from the blow-holes, which show that the
wounds have taken mortal effect, and seeing this, the boats are kept aloof,
lest they should be dashed to pieces by the violent efforts of the victim.

When a herd is attacked in this way, ten or twelve of the number are
killed. Those which are only wounded are rarely captured. After the
cachalot is killed; the boats tuw it to the side of the ship, and if the weathei#
ve fine, and other objects of chase in view, they are again sent to the attack.

About three tons of oil are commonly obtained from a large cachalot;
from one to two tons are procured from a small one. A cargo, produced
from one hundred cachalots, may be from one hundred and fifty to two hua-
red tons of oil, besides the spermaceti, &c.

THE SMALL EYED, OR BLACK HEADED
SPERMACETI WHALE,)!

Is one of the most formidable monsters of the deep. It has an enormous
dark colored head, armed with twenty-one projecting teeth on each side
of the jaw. In a full grown specimen, these teeth are nine inches in length.
This whale is often more than fifty feet in length, and is uncommonly
active. Sharks, dolphins, and porpoises fall an easy prey to it.

 

THE COMMON WHALE?

Is the largest of all animals, being sometimes one hundred feet in lengtn.
It is commonly met with from sixty to severity feet. The head makes a

 

} Physeter microps, Lacrp.

2 Balena mysticetus, Lin. The venue Balena has no teeth; upper jaw keel-formed,
furnished on cach side with whalebone, or transverse horny lamin, slender, serrated,
and attenuated at the edges; orifices of the spiracles separated, and placed towards the
middle of the upper part of the head; a dorsal fin in some species ; nodos dies on the back
in others,
400 MAMMALIA—WHALE.

third of its bulk. The fins on each side are from five to eight feet, composed
of bones and muscles, and sufficiently strong to give speed and activity to
the great mass of body which they move.

The tail is about twenty-four feet broad; and, when the fish lies on one
side, its blow is tremendous. It is a curious piece of mechanism, consisting
of two lobes wholly made up of strong, tendinous fibres, connected with the
major part of the muscular structure of the body. Of those fibres there are
three distinct layers, of which the two external are in the direction of the
obes, and the internal in an opposite direction. This structure renders the
tail of the whale one of the most flexible of animal organs. It can move
all ways with equal ease; every part has its own individual motion.

The skin is smooth and black, and in some places marbled with white
and yellow; which, running over the surface, has a very beautiful effect.
The outward, or scarf skin of the whale, is no thicker than parchment; but
this removed, the real skin appears, of about an inch thick, and covering
he fat or blubber that lies beneath. This‘is from eight to twelve inches in
hickness ; and is, when the fish is in health, of a beautiful yellow. The
muscles lie beneath; and these, like the flesh of quadrupeds, are very red
and tough. ‘

The cleft of the mouth is above twenty feet long, which is near one third
of the animal’s whole length; and the upper jaw is furnished with barbs,
that lie, like the pipes of an organ, the greatest in the middle, and the
smallest on the sides. These compose the whalebone, absurdly called fins,
the longest spars of which are found to be not less than eighteen feet. The
tongue is almost immoyeably fixed to the lower jaw, seeming one great
luinp of fat; and, io fact, it fills several hogsheads with blubber. The eyes
are not larger than those ef an ox; and when the crystalline humor is dried,
it does not appear larger than a pea. They are placed towards the back
of the head, being the most convenient situation for enabling them to see
both befure and behind; as also to see over them, where their food is prine
cipally found. They are guarded by eyelids and eyelashes, as in quadru-
peds ; and they seem to be very sharp-sighted.

‘Nor is their sense of hearing in less perfection; for they are warned, at

great distances, of any danger preparing against them. We have already

observed, that the substance, called whalebone, is taken from the upper jaw
of the animal, and is very different from the real bones of the whale. The
real bones are hard, like those of great land animals, are very porous, and
filled with marrow. Two great, strong bones sustain the under lip, lying
against each other in the shape of a half-moon; some of these are twenty
feet long. They are often seen in gardens, set up against each other, and
are usually mistaken for the ribs.

The fidelity of these animals to each other, exceeds whatever we are told
of even the constancy of birds. Some fishers, as Anderson informs us,
aaving struck one of two whales, a male and a female, that were in com-
MAMMAL.A--WHALE, 4U1

pany together, the wounded fish made a long and terrible resistance; 1
struck down a boat with three men in it, with a single blow of the tail, by
which all went to the bottom. The other still attended its companion, snd
lent it every assistance; till, at last, the fish that was struck sunk under the
number of its wounds: while its faithful associate, disdaining to survive
the loss, with great bellowing, stretched itself upon the dead fish, and shared
his fate.

The whale goes with young nine or ten months, and is then fatter than
usual, particularly when near the time of bringing forth. The-young ones
continue at the breast fra year; during which time they are called by the
sailors, short heads. They are then extremely fat, and yield above fifty
barrels of blubber. Tue mother, at the sane time, is equally lean and
emaciated. At tue age of two years, they eze called stunts, as they do uot
thrive much ivamediately after quitting the breast; they then yield scarce
above twenty or twenty-four barrels of blubber. From that time forward
they are called skull fish, and their age is wholly unknown. The food
of the whale, isa small insect, which is seen floating in those seas, and
which Linneus terms the medusa. These insects are black, and of the size
of a small bean, and are sometimes seen floating in clusters on-the surface
of the water. They are of a round form like snails in a box, but they have
wings, which are so tender that it is scarce possible to touch them without
breaking. These, however, serve rather for swimming than flying. They
have the taste of raw muscles, and have ‘ve smell of burnt sugar. Inoffen-
sive as the whale is, it is not withoxzc enemies. There is a small animal.
of the sheil-fish kind, called the whale louse, that sticks to its body, as we
sce shells sticking to the foul bottom of a ship. This insinuates itself
chiefly under the fms; and whatever efforts the great animal makes, it still
Keeps its hold, and lives upon the fat, which it is provided with instru-
ments to arrive at.

The sword-fish, however, is the whale’s most terrible enemy. “At the
sight of this little anima!,” says Anderson, “the whale seems agitated in
an extraordinary manner, leaping from the water as if with affright; wher-
cver it appears, the whale perceives it at a distance, and flies from it in the
opposite direction. I have been myself, a spectator of their terrible encoun-
ter, The whale has no instrument of defence except the tail; with that
it endeavors to strike the enemy; anda single blow taking place, would
effectually destroy its adversary. But the sword-fish is as active as the
other is strong, and easily avoids the stroke; then bounding into the air, it
falls upon its enemy, and endeavors not to pierce with its pointed beak,
but to cut with its toothed edges. The sea all about is soon dyed with
blood, proceeding from the wounds of the whale; while the enormous
animal vainly endeavors to reach its invade™ and strikes with its tail
against the surface of the water, making us" at each blow Inuder than
the noise of a cannon.”

51 .
402 MAMMA.s.A1-WHALE.

There is sull anotner and more powerful enemy, called by tne fisherinea
of New England, the Aller. This is itself supposed to be a cetaceous
animal, armed with strong and powerful teeth. A number of these are
said to surround the whale, in the same manner as dogs get round a bull.
Some attack it with their teeth, behind; others attempt it before; until, at
rast, the great animal is torn down; and its tongue is said to be the only
part they devour when they have made it their prey. They are said to be
of such great strength, that one of them alone was known to stop a dead
whale, that several boats were towing along, and drag it from among them
to the bottom.

But of all the enemies of these enormous fishes; man is the greatest; he
alone, destroys more in a year, than the rest in an age, and actually has
thinned their number in that part of the world where they are chiefly
sought. At the first discovery of Greenland, whales not being used to be
disturbed, frequently came into the very bays, and were accordingly killed
almost close to the shore ; so that the blubber being cut off was immediately
boiled into oil on the spot. The ships in those times, took in nothing but
the pure oil and the whalebone, and all the business was executed in the
country; by which means, a ship could bring home the product of many
more whales, than she can, according to the present method of conducting
this trade. The fishery also was then so plentiful, that they were oblige:
sometimes to send other ships to fetch off the oil they had made, the quan-
tity being more than the fishing ships could bring away. But time and
change of circumstances, have shifted the situation ot this trade. The snips
coming in such numbers from Holland, Denmark, Hamburg, and other
northern countries, all intruders upon the English, who were the first dis-
coverers of Greenland, the whales were disturbed, and gradually, as other
fish often do, forsaking the place, were not to be killed so near the shore as
before; but are now found, and have been so ever since, in the openings
and space among the ice, where they have deep water, and where they ge
sometimes a great many leagues from the shore.

The whale fishery begins in May, and continues all June and July; but
whether the ships have good or bad success, they must come away, and get
clear of the ice, by the end of August; so that in the month of September
at farthest, they may be expected home. But a ship that meets witha
fortunate and early fishery in May, may return in June or July.

The manner of taking the Greenland whales is as follows: — Every ship
is provided with six boats, to each of which belongs six men for rowing the
boat, and a harpooner, whose business it is to strike the whale with his
harpoon. Two of these boats are kept constantly on the watch, at some
distance from the ship, fastened to pieces of ice, and are relieved bv others
every four hours. As soon as a whale is perceived, both the boats set out
in pursuit of it, and if either of them can come up before the whale finally
aescends, which is known by his throwing up his tail, the harpooner dis«
MAMMALIA—WHALE. 4023

eharges his harpoon at him. There is no difficulty in choosing the place
where the whale is to be struck, as some have asserted; for these creatures
only come up to the surface in order to spout up the water, or dlow, as the
fishermen term it, and therefore always keep the soft and vulnerable part
of their bodies above water. As soon as the whale is struck, the men set
up one of their oars in the middle of the boat, as a signal to those in the
ship. On perceiving this, the watchman alarms all the rest, witn the cry
of fall! fall! upon which all the other boats are immediately sent out to
the asviscance of the first.

 

The whale finding himself wounded, runs off with prodigious violence
Sumetimes he descends perpendicularly ; at others goes off horizontally at a
smail depth below the surface. The rope which is fastened to the harpoon
is about two hundred fathoms long, and properly coiled up, that it may
be freely given out as there is a demand for it. At first, the vesocity with
which this line runs over the side of the boat is so great, that it is wetted
to prevent its taking fire; but ina short time the strength of the whale
begins to fail, and the fishermen, instead of letting out more rope, strive as
much as possible to pull back what is given out already, though they always
find themselves necessitated to yield at last to the efforts of the animal, to
prevent his sinking their boat. If he runs out the two hundred fathoms
of line contamed in one boat, that belonging to another is immediately
fastened to the end of the first, and so on; and there have been iustances,
where all the rope belonging to the six boats has been necessary, though
half that quantity is seldom required. The whale cannot stay long below
water, but again comes up to blow; and Leing now much fatigued and
w unded, stays longer above water than usual. This gives another toat
lim. fo come up with him, and he is again struck with aharpoon. He
“A04 MAMMALIA—W HALE.

again descends. but with less force than before; and wnen he comes up
again, 1s generally incapable of descending, but suffers himself to be wound.
ed and killea with long lances, with which the men are provided for the
purpose. He is known to be near death when he spouts up the water deep-
ly tinged with blood.

The whale beingedead, is lashed along side the ship. They then lay it
on one side, and put two ropes, one at the head, and the other in the place
of the tail, which, together with the fins, is struck off as soon as he is taken,

 

9 keep these extremities above water. On the off side of the whale are
vo boats, to receive the pieces of fat, utensils, and men, that might other-
wise fall into the water on that side. These precautions teiig taken, three
or four men with irons at their feet, to prevent slipping, get on the whale,
and Legin to cut out pieces of about three feet thick and eight long, which
are hauled up at the capstan or windlass. When the fat is all got off, they
ent off the whiskers of the upper jaw, with an axe. Before they are cut, they
are all lashed to keep them firm; which also facilitates the cutting, and
prevents them-from falling into the sea. When on board, five or six of
them are bundled together, and properly stowed; and after all is got off,
the carcass is turned adrift, and devoured by the bears, who are very fond
of it. In proportion as the large pieces of fat are cut off, the rest of the
crew are employed in slicing them smaller, and picking out all the lean.
When this is prepared, they stow it under the deck, where it lies til the
fat of all the whales is on board; then cutting it still smaller, they put it
up in casks in the hold, cramming them very full and close. Nothing now
-emains but te sajl homewards, where the fat is to be boiled and mesied
dCwN mW train vu.
MAMMALIA--WHALE, 405
A late iinprovement has been made in the method of discharging the
harpoon, namely, by shooting it ou. of a kind of swivel or musquetoon; but

it does not appear that since this improvement was made, the whale fishing
ships aave had better success than before.

 

The flesh of this animal is a dainty to some nations; and the savages
af Greenland, as well as those near the south pole, are fond of it to distrac-
tron. They eat the flesh, and drink the oil, which isa first-rate delicacy
™ xe nnding a dead whale is an adventure considered among the fortunate

circumstances of their lives. They make their abode beside it; and seldom
remove wili they have left nothing but the bones.
CLASS SECOND—BIRDS.

ertebrated anumals with red and warm blood, respiring by lungs, and the
young of which are produced from eggs. Body covered with feathers, and
general conformation organized for flying.

Tue arrangement of birds into orders, has for its basis the conformation
of the bill and feet; which are adapted to their different modes of living
aud food. Birds of prey are characterized by a hooked bill, and feet armed
with strong and crooked nails. Climbers are those, the structure of whose
feet is calculated for motion on an inclined or vertical surface; and web-
footed birds are evidently adapted for swimming. Others, again, have the
legs very long and naked, for wading; and a large number, with the claws
short and feeble, live chiefly on insects. But though it be thus easy to
separate the more strongly marked groups into extended families, yet it
has been found extremely difficult to distribute them in subordinate groups,
su as to facilitate the knowledge of species in a class so widely extended.
In adopting the arrangement of Temminck, therefore, though his orders
are more numerous, than those proposed by Cuvier and Vieillot, yet the
families of the latter are in much greater number; and in an elementary
work, it has been judged proper to follow that system which involves the
east change of the established nomenclature, as likely to be most gene-
rally useful.

Birds support themselves, and direct their flight in the air, nearly in the
same manner as fishes do in the water. But they are also calculated for
motion on the ground; some families for motion on the surface of the
water, or even, to a certain degree, through a mass of the same element:
and their structure is varied to suit these different kinds of motion.

The part of the spine in birds which corresponds to the back, is immovs
able, and the only portions of the vertebral column capable of motion, are
the vertebre of the neck, and those of the tail. Their pectoral members,
or arms, are elongated to wings, proper only for flight. These members, or
wings, composed of one long finger and the vestiges of two others, are
furnished with long, stiff, but elastic feathers, disposed like a fan, which
follow the movement of the bone, and, when extended, occupy = large
surface. The wings are attached by a double clavicle, and are supported
by a broad sternum, carinated in front like the keel of a ship. This sternum
is formed of five pieces firmly joined together; and the greater or less
ossification of these. pieces, is always relative to the powers of the bird for
AVES 407

‘

flight. The long feathers attached to what may be termed the hand, gene-
rally to the number of ten, are termed primaries ; the secondaries, variable
in number, are those attached to the fore-arm; and the scapulars, are the
smaller feathers, which are attached to the humerus. In describing birds,
the terin remiges is also used, to denote the feathers of the wings, which
serve as oars; and rectrices, those of the tail, which have been considered
to act asarudder. The smaller feathers, which cover the base of the wing
and tail, are termed tectrices. The anterior extremities, desuined to support
them in flight, can neither be used for prehension nor support, and birds
thus take objects from the ground by their mouth. The neck is elongated,
and the body thrown forward, that the bill may easily reach the ground.
The pelvis is lengthened, to furnish an attachment for the muscles, which
support the trunk upon the thighs; and there is an arrangement of muscles
going from the pelvis to the toes, in such a manner that the weight of the
animal] bends the toes, and enables it to sleep perched upon one foot.

The bony part of the tail is short, but it carries a row of strong feathers,
which. spreading, contribute to support the bird. The number of these
feathers is generally twelve, sometimes fourteen, and in the galling eigh-
teen. The legs have a fermur, and a tibia, and the tarsus and metatarsus
are represented by a single bone. The toes are attached to the tarsus, and
are generally three before and a kind of thumb behind; which, however, is
sometimes wanting. In the swallow it is directed Rorwarde:, In the climb-
ers, on the contrary, the external toe and thumb are directed backwards.
The number of joints increases in each toe, counting from the thumb, which
has two, to the external toe, which has five. Birds with toes entirely free,
are adapted to walk or hop on a horizontal surface, such as the domestic
fowl. Others with two toes behind and two before, such as the parrot,
walk with difficulty, but climb with facility; and others again, such as
ducks and swans, with the toes united by a membrane, are chiefly calculat-
ed for motion in the water. The bill in birds is covered with a corneous
substance, and as these animals swallow their food without mastication,
they are not furnished with teeth. The upper mandible is formed chiefly
of the intermaxillary bones, prolonged behind into two arches, of which the
internal is composed of the palate bones, and the external of the maxillary
and jugal bones; and this mandible is united to the cranium by elastic
Jamine. The bill is constructed less for bruising the food than for seizing
and dividing it; and thus from the greater solidity and length of this organ,
the nature of the food may be inferred. The bill, or beak, is sometimes
furnished at its origin, with a fleshy or membranous caruncle, which is
called the cere; and sometimes the beak is prolonged upon the forehead
into a kind of horn or helmet, as in the calao. The two mandibles move-
able upon one another, through the medium of an intermediate bone, placed
at the articulation, is a distinguishing anatomical character, in the structure
of the jaws of birds. The quills and feathers are composed of a bearded or
408 AVES.

webbed stem, hollowed at its base; these webs or horizontal feathers are
again themselves webbed by still smaller ones; and the texture, strength,
lustre, and general forrn of these feathers are infinitely varied. The feathera
fall off twice a year, and this change of plumage is terined moultang. In
some species, the winter plumage differs from that of the suinmer; and in
the greater number the female differs from the male, in her colors being less
bright. The young generally resemble the female. The brain of birds nas
the same general characters as that of the other oviparous vertel:rated
auimals, but 1s distinguished by its proportionally greater volume, which
often exceeds that of the Mammalia. But this apparent magnitude is
caused by tubercles analogous to the corpora striata, and not by the hemis+
pheres, which are very small and without circumvolutions. The cerebel«
lum is of considerable size, without lateral lobes, and almost cumpletely
formed by the vermiform process. The trachea or windpipe, in birds, is
formed of complete rings. At its bifurcation, is a glottis, provided with
muscles, termed the inferior lerynx. This is the organ which produces the
voice of birds; and it is afterwards modified by the length, breadth, and
elasticity of the trachea, and its orifice in the throat. The upper larynx is
simple. The cavity of the thorax is not in birds separated by a fleshy
partition from the abdomen. The lungs adhere to the spine, and com-
municate with many membranous sacs, situate in the abdomen, under tne
axilla, and even in the cavities of the larger bones, the substance of the
bill, and in the fistulous portions of the quills. The great quantity of air
which birds respire, appears to have effect upon all their motions. They
respire, it may be said, as wel] by the branches of the aorta, as by those
of the pulmonary artery. Jt is believed that the temperature to which the
bodies of birds is raised in hatching, and the great muscular force which
they exert in almost continued flight for many days, depends upon the action
of the air upon the blood. Birds, like all the vertebrated animals, possess
five senses; but in this class, that of touch is least perfect. Their feathers
prevent them from receiving, by immediate contact, the impressions of the
object which they touch; and their feet are enveloped in corneous lamin,
or scales, which materially blunt sensation. All enjoy the organ of sight,
and bv a particular mechanism in the structure of the eye, they are enabled
to peiceive objects at a distance with the same facility as when near the
body. Besides the two ordinary eyelids, there is always a third semi-trans-
parent one placed at the internal angle of the eye, which, by the assistanze
of aremarkable muscular apparatus, may be drawn before the eye like a
curtain. The cornea is very convex. Although birds have no external
cartilaginous ear, all appear to enjoy the faculty of feeling. Some of the
nocturnal birds have the anditory opening surrounded by feathers. The
organs of smell are concealed in the base of the bill, and the breadth of the
nasal openings determine their form. The sense of smell in the vulture
and raven, is said to be so very acute, that they can smell carrion at a very
AVES. 409

great distan:e; but this, from recent observation, seems doubtful. The
tongue in birds, is supported by a production of the hyoid bone.

The taste is not very delicate. Digestion in birds is in proportion to the
activity of their life, and the quantity of their respiration. The stomach is
composed first of the crop, which is a dilatation of the w@sophagus at the
base of the neck. The food remains in this duct for some time, an! there
imbibes a fluid analogous to the saliva, which is secreted from the inside
of the canal. When softened by the action of heat and moisture, it passes
little by little into a muscular bag, called the gizzard, where the food is
triturated the more easily, that many species swallow little stones tu ine
creas2 the effect. The gizzard, it has been remarked, is strengest in we
birds which have slender bills, and which are of course unable to break
down tlieir food ; in those which feed on fish or flesh, the muscles are much
weaker, and the stomach is almost membranous. By the outlet of this
stomach, thé food, reduced to a species of chyme, flows through the remain-
der of the intestinal canal, where the nutritious parts are absorbed, and the
remainder expelled by a cloaca, an orifice common to the urinary and genital
organs. Birds, such as the partridge and common fowl, whose young are
able to walk and feed themselves on their departure from the egg, do not
generally live in pairs. One male serves many females, and the young are
eatirely trusted to the maternal care. The greater part of birds, however,
are blind and helpless at their birth, and their parents are therefore under
the necessity of providing for their subsistence. Pigeons disgorge half
digested grains, to feed their young; and linnets bring them larve of
insects, or the soft parts of other animals. These live always in pairs,
construct their nest with great care, and constantly in the same manner;
and each species appropriates for this purpose certain materials. All possess
a kind of instinct which leads them to choose the most convenient places
for their nests, such as best afford concealment, or which render them
mazcessible to their enemies. In birds the ova exist already formed in the
mother before fecundation; and it is nota rare occurrence to see eggs laid
without impregnation, similar in every respect to those which produce
young. Fecundatior, in most of the species, is accomplished by mere juxta-
position. The eggs of birds differ much in the color of their calcareous
covering. They have generally the form of an elongated ball, and one
of their extremities is thicker than the other. The fecundated eggs require
a certain heat, to be hatched; and the observation of this fact has led to
the practice in Egypt, and elsewhere, of hatehing large broods of chickens
by artificial heat. The class of birds, though not apparently so useful to
man as Mammalia, serve important purposes in the general economy of
nature. Those whose food is chiefly insects, check the excessive reproduc-
tion of insect races, and for this purpose migrate at certain seasons .o places
where their food abounds. The indiscriminate destruction of crows and
sparrows, in some districts, has accordingly been found to give rise to an

52
410 AVES.

infimtely mor. prejudicial multiplication of creatures, still more destructive.
Some families of birds destroy field mice, snakes, frogs, and lizards; and
others again, a-e led by choice to feed on carrion, or dead animal matter.
Birds, besides, tre extensive agents in the spread of vegetables and even
animals. It is well ascertained that wild ducks, in their emigrations, carry
impreguated spawn into remote ponds, and thus stock them with fish; and
many by swallowing seeds whole, and subsequently expelling them, are the
means of spreading vegetation over an extent of surface which scarcely
any other means could accomplish. A great portion of tlis class and
their eggs may be used as food; and the feathers of many, form an object
of commerce.

Nothing is more singular in the history of birds, than their periodical
migrations, That these are connected in some measure with the necessity
of a supply of food, and the impulse of reproduction, is almost demonstrated,
but the instinctive feeling which guides them, without compass,across seas
and continents, and enables them to migrate at certain periods, correspond:
ing with the production of their food in distant countries, can only be
referred 10 one Great Source.

Who bade the stork, Columhus-like, explore
Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown hefore ?
Who calls the council, states the certain day ?
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?

The flights of migratory birds have been noticed from the earliest periods;
“the stork in the heaven knoweth her aypointed times, and the turtle, and
the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming.” And, as
if their passage through the air, or the structure of their bodies made them
sooner perceive the incipient changes of the weather, the appearance and
cries of birds have long been considered to afford presages of the coming
storm, or the cessation of the tempest. The institution of a college of
Augurs, at Rome, may therefore be conceived to have reference to something
better than mere superstition; and though the flight of particular species
might, in the hands of interested individuals, be made to presage the wished
for result of a battle, or direct a march already determined on, yet, in the
absence of the harometer and thermometer, the appearance or disappearance
and cries of birds, were the signals for the husbandman to sow his fields or
secure his crop.

Jam veris prenuncia venit hirundo. — Ovid.
Now comes the swallow, harbinger of spring.

Tum cornix plena plurium vocat improha voce.—Virg.
The crow with clamerous cries the shower demands. — Dryd.

In this country, the great migrations of birds take place in spring and
autumao. Those which arrive in spring, come from warmer climates, and,
AVES. 4ll

after incubation, leave us im autumn; and another host, chiefly palmipedes,
from the arctic regions, arrive in autumn, pass the winter on our lakes and
sheres, and depart again in spring. Each species has a particular mode
of flight, in these annual journeys, and a certain period of arrival and
departure. Assembled in large flocks, the cranes cleave the air in the form
ef a long triangle; wild geese fly in angular lines; and the smaller birds
associate in less numerous families, and reach their destination in Jess con-
tinued flights. One of the most curious particulars connected with the
annual migrations of birds, is the circumstance of individuals returning for
a series of years to the same nestling places. Spallanzani having tied a
thread o1 red silk round the leg of a swallow, which built its nest in his
window, saw for three seasons the same stranger, with its progeny, annually
appear. Ekmark remarked a lame starling, which occupied the same nest
in the hole of an old alder, for a period of eight years; and similar instances
are on record, concerning many other species of migratory birds. This
wonderful direction of instinct, which divides the innumerable flocks of
birds in their progress northward, and leads particular families to seek the
protection of the same roof, or the same chimney top, which formerly
sheltered them, affords a subject not the least worthy of contemplation,
among the thousand instances of wisdom and beneficence which arrest the
student of nature, at every step of his progress. The flight of birds is very
rapid. Birds of pre. have been observed to fly at the rate of about twenty
leagues in an hour. A falcon belonging to Henry II. of France, escaping
from Fontainbleau, was found next day at Malta, a distance of thirteen
hundred and. fifty miles, and recognized from the ring on its leg Sir Hans
Sloane mentions that, at Barbadoes, the gulls came to feed, and returned
two-hundred miles the sarne day. And Mr Audubon relates of the migra-
tory pigeons of America, that they have been killed in the neighboihood
of New York with rice in their crops, collected in the fields of Georgia and
Carolina, the nearest points at which this supply could have been obtained.
Reasoning from the fact, that the food of pigeons is entirely digested in
twelve hours, Mr Audubon concludes that they must have travelled between
three and four hundred miles in six hours. Birds in general live long,
considering how early they arrive’ at maturity. Swans are said to live for
a hundred years; and the pelican arrives at a similar age. Carnivorous
birds, particularly the eagle, live to a very great age, perhaps beyond a
century: the raven fora still longer period: and parrots have been known.
to live trom sixty to eighty years. The life of gallinaceous birds, such as
the domestic fowl, the :pheasant, and the partridge, seldom exceed: twelve
or twenty years.
412 AVES—GRIFFON VULTURE.

ORDEP I.—RAPAUVES.

 

Birps of this order have the bill short and strong; upper mandible cover
ed at its base by a membrane or cere, compressed on the sifles and no ued
towards its extremity; nostrils open; legs strong, muscuir, sl.ort or
riedium length, feathered to the knee or toes; toes three before aud one
‘oehind divided, or united at the base by a membrane, rough below, armed
with powerful claws, sharp, retractile, and hooked. Nearly all these birds
live on an)mal food; the females are always larger than the males. The
number of their eggs seldom exceeds four.

THE FULVOUS, OR GRIFFON VULTURE

Tus noble species of vulture, which is one of the largest birds of prey
of the Old Continent, measuring from three feet and a half to four feet in
length, and more than twice as much in the expanse of its wings, is found
on thedofty mountain chains of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is not uncom-
mon during the summer, in the Alps and Pyrenees; but it is said to retreat
in winter, to the north of Africa, extending itself, according to Le Vaillant,
to the Cape of Good Hope.

The nest of the griffon vulture, is formed in the clefts of rocks. It lays
from two to four eggs, which are of a grayish white, with numerous spots

 

1 Vultur fulvus, Lin. The genus Vultur has the bill thick and short, deeper than
broad ; its base covered hy a cere; upper mandible straight, bent towards the point; un-
der mandible straight, rounded, and inclined at the point; head naked, or covered with &
short down; nostrils naked, latera!, opening diagonally tewards the edge of the cere;
legs strong, furnished with slightly bent claws ; the middle toe largest, aud united with
the exterior one at the hase.

Of the characters the most obvious, 1s the absence of feathers to a greater or less extent
on the head and neck, a mark of distinction which, like all the rest, is closely connected
with the habits of the birds. Thus a falling off, or thinning of the feathers, is the frequent
result of feeding upon flesh, especially when in a state of decay. The harrenness of these
parts in tae vultures, enables them, moreover, to burrow in the putrid carcasses on which
aA prey. without risk of soiling their plumage.

heir largely exiended nostrils, and the great internal developement of these organs,
would seem to be of manifest use in guiding the vultures to their prey, wnich they are
generally helieved to scent from a great distance. It has, however, been lately main-
tained by a most acute observer of the habits of birds, Mr Audubon, that this belief,
which has heen entertained from the earliest antiquity, is founded in error, and that the
vultures are directed to their prey by sight alone; the lofty pitch at which they fly, ana
the surpassing excellence of thelr vision, enabling them to detect it at an almost incon-
ceivable distance. Several of the experiments brought forward by that gentleman, in
support of his hypothesis, appear at first sight almost decisive of the question. But we
cannot consent to abandon the received opinion, corroborated as it is to the fullest extent,
oy the anatuinical structure of the organs of smell, until repeated experiments shall have
placed the fact heyond the possibility of doubt.

It is almost unnecessary to point out the great utility of the strong, deep curved bill
ct most of the vultures in tearing to pieces the carcasses on which they feed and consign
ing them in large masses to their maws. The nakedness of their legs may ve regurded
as cevensient cn the sume causes, and serving the same purposes as that of then heads
an! secks.
AVES—GRIFFON VULTURE. 413

of a very ight and diluted red. Like all the other birds of its tribe, it feeds
principally upon dead carcasses, to which it is frequently attracted in very
considerable numbers. When it has once made a lodgment upon its prey,
it rarely quits the banquet while a morsel of flesh remains ; so that it is not
uacommon to see it perched upon a putrefying corpse for several siiccessive
days It neverattempts to carry off a portion, even to satisfy its young; but
feeds thein by discharging the half digested morsel from its maw. Sometimes,
but very rarely, it makes its prey of living victims; and even then of such
only as are incapable of offering the smallest resistance; for n a contest
for superiority, it has not that advantage which is possessed by the falcon
tribes, of lacerating its enemy with its talons, and must therefore rely upon
the force of its beak alone. It is only, however, when no other mode of
fatiating its appetite presents itself, that it has recourse to the destruction
of other animals for its subsisience.

    

      

hen i
a my
Th

After feeding, it is seen fixed for hours in one unvaried posture, patiently
waiting until the work of digestion is completed, and the stimulus of hunger
is renewed, to enable and to urge it to mount again into the upper regions
uf the air, and fly abroad in quest of its necessary food. If violently dis-
turbed after a full meal, it is incapable of flight until it has disgorged tne
contents of its stomach; lightened of which, and freed from their debilitat
414 AVES—CONDOK.

wg effects, u 1s immediately in a condition to soar to such a pitch as, m
spite of its magnitude, to become invisible to human sight.

In captivity, it appears to have no other desire, than that of obtairwag its
regular supply of food. So long as that is afforded it, it manifests a perfect
indifference to the circumstances in which it is placed.

 

THE CONDOR.!

 

Tuat the vulgar opinion of the immense size and ferocity of this, the
largest of the American birds of prey, should have extended its influence over
the minds even of scientific zoologists, can scarcely be regarded as affording

 

1 Cathartes gryphus, TemMinck, The genus Cathartes has the beak long, compress-
ed, straight, bent towards the point; cere naked, covering more than half the beak; upper
mandible turned towards the ps head oblong, naked, as well as the upper part of the
neck; nostrils in the middle of the bili, near the ridge of the upper map le, longitndi
nally cleft, broad, sometimes surmounted by fleshy appendages; legs with tarsus naked.
more or less slender; middle toe long, and united to the exterior one at the base.
AVES—CONDOR. 415

just grounds of surprise, when we consider how very imperfectly the condos
was known to naturalists down to the commencement of the present cen.
tary. Twenty years ago, one or two mutilated specimens formed the only
memorials of its existence, in the cabinets of Europe; and all our knowledge
of the living bird was derived from the relations of travellers, fer the most
part but little conversant with natural history, many of whom merely
repeated, without examination, such stories as they found current; while
others, less scrupulous or more fanciful, drew on their invention for those
additional traits which they considered necessary to render the imaginary
likeness perfect. Thus, the condor of the Andes was compared to the febled
roc, of Eastern mythology; and this monstrous fabrication of ignorant
credulity was declared to be fully equalled, if not surpassed, by the stupen-
dous native of the western hemisphere.

But it was reserved for one of the most scientific of modern travellers,
the learned Baron Von Humboldt, completely to dispel the mist of prejudice,
which had so long enveloped the history of the condor, and to describe that
bird such as it really exists; to reduce its dimensions, its powers, and its
propensities, within their just and natural limits, and to exhibit a faithful
and highly interesting portrait in the place of an extravagant and grossly
exaggerated caricature.

The condor forms the type of a genus, a second species of which is the
king of the vultures, of British writers. They are both peculiar to the New
World, but approach, in their most essential characters, very closely to the
vultures of the Old Continent, differing from the latter principally in the
sarge fleshy, or rather cartilaginous caruncle, which surmounts their beaks;
in the large size of their oval and longitudinal nostrils, placed almost at
the very extremity of the cere; and in the comparative length-of their quill
feathers, the third being the longest of the series. The most important
of these differences, the size and position of their nostrils, appears to be
well calculated to add to the already highly powerful sense of smell possess-
ed by the typical vultures, and fur which these birds have been almost
proverbially celebrated from the earliest ages. There is also a third species,
the Californian vulture, rivalling the condor in bulk, and agreeing, in every
respect, with the generic characters of the group, except in the existence
of the caruncle, of which they are entirely destitute.

In size the condor is little, if at all, superior to the bearded griffin,
the lammergeyer of the Alps, with which Buffon was disposed conjecturally
to confound it, but to which it bears at most but a distant relation. The
greatest authentic measurement scarcely carries the extent of its wings
beyond fourteen feet, and it appears rarely to attain so gigantic a size.
M. Humboldt met with none that exceeded nine feet, and was assured by
many credible inhabitants of the province of Quito, that they had never
shot any that measured more than eleven. The length of a male specimen,
somewhat less than nine feet in expanse, was three feet three inches from
416 AVES-—-CONDOR.

the tip of the beak to the cxtremity of the tail; and its height, when
perching, with the neck partiy withdrawn, two feet eight inches. Its beak
was two inches and three quarters in length, and an inch and a quarter in
depth, when closed.

The beak of the condor is straight at the base, but the upper mandible
becomes arched towards the point, and terminates in a strong and well
curved hook. The basal half is of an ash brown, and the remaining por-
tion towards the point is nearly white. The head and neck’ are bare of
feathers, and covered with a hard, wrinkled, dusky reddish skin, on which
are scattered some short brown or blackish hairs. On the top of the head,
which is much flattened above, and extending some distance along the
beak, is attached an oblong, firm caruncle, or comb covered by a continua+
tion of the skin which invests the head. This organ is peculiar to the male.
It is connected to the beak only in its anterior part, and is separated from
it at the base m sucn a manner as to allow of a free passage of the air to
the large oval nostrils, which are situated beneath it at that part. Behind
the eyes, which are somewhat elongated, and not sunk beneath the general
suiface of the head, the skin of the neck is, as it were, gathered intoa
series of descending folds, extending obliquely from the back of the head,
over the temples, to the under side of the neck, and there connected an-
teriorly with a lax membrane or wattle, capable of being dilated at plea-
sure, like that of the common turkey. The neck is marked by numerous,
deep parailel folds, produced by the habit of retracting the head, in which the
vird indulges when at rest. In this position scarcely any part of the neck
4s visible.

Round the lower part of the neck, both sexes, the female as well as the
male, are furnished with a broad white ruff, of downy feathers, which forms
the line of separation between the naked skin above and the true feathers
covering the body below it. All the other feathers, with the exception.
of the wing coverts and the secondary quill feathers, are of a bright black,
generally mingled with a grayish tinge of greater or less intensity. In the
female, the wing coverts are blackish gray; but the male has their points,
and frequently as much as half their length, white. The wings of the
latter are consequently distinguished from those of the female by their large
white patches. The secondary quill feathers of both sexes are white on the
outer side. The tail is short and wedge-shaped. The legs are exces-
sively thick and powerful, and are colored of a bluish gray, intermingled
with whitisn streaks. Their elongated toes are united at the base bya
loose but very apparent membrane, and are términated by long, black
talons, of considerable thickness, but very little curved. The hinder toe is
much shorter than the rest; and its talon, although more distinctly curved,
jis equally wanting in strength ; a deficiency which renders the foot much
less powerful as an organ of prehension than that of any other of the large
virds of the raptorial order.
AVES—CONDOR. AL7

The condor has been observed throughout the whole range of that im-
mense chain of mountains which traverses the continent of South America,
from the Straits of Magellan to the seventh degree of north latitude. It
appears, however, to be much more common in Peru and Chili, than in any
other part of the chain, and is most frequently met with at an elevatiun
of from ten to fifteen tnousand feet above the level of the ocean. Here, in
the regions of perpetual snow, they may be seen grouped together to the
number of three or four, but never in the large troops in which the true
vultures sometimes assemble, on the bold points of the jutting rocks, many
of the most remarkable of which are designated by the natives with names
derived from the bird that haunts their pinnacles. It is only when driven
by hunger, that it descends into the plains, which it quits as soon as its
appetite is satiated, unable, as it would seem, to support for any great
length of time the increased weight of the atmosphere and the warmer
tem ature of the lower world. On such occasions, it rarely perches on
tne branches of the trees, but generally takes up a position on the ground,
for resting on which its comparatively straight talons are peculiarly fitted.
It is said that the female bird builds no nest, but deposits its eggs upon the
bare rock without protection of any kind. These eggs are stated to be
perfegtly white, and three or four inches in length. The female is also said
to remain with her young for a whole year.

The habits of the condor partake of the, bold ferocity of the eagle, and
of the disgusting filthiness of the vulture. Although, like the latter, it ap-
pears to prefer the dead carcass, it frequently makes war upon a living
prey; but the gripe of its talons is not sufficiently firm to enable it to carry
off its victim through the air. Two of these birds, acting in concert, will
frequently attack a puma, a llama, a calf, or even a full grown cow. They
will pursue the poor animal with unwearied pertinacity, lacerating it inces-
santly with their beaks and talons, until it falls exhausted with fatigue and
loss of blood. Then, having first seized upon its tongue, they proceed to
tear out its eyes, and commence their feast with these favorite morsels.

The intestines form the second course of their banquet, which is usualy
continued until the birds have gorged themselves so fully as to render them-
selves incapable of using their wings in flight. The Indians, who are well
acquainted with this effect of their voracity, are in the habit of turning :t
tu account for their amusement in the chase. For this purpose tney expose
the dead’ body of a horse or a cow, by which some of the condors, wnich
are generally hovering in the air in search of food, are speedily attracted.
As soon as the birds have glutted themselves on the carcass, the Indians
make their appearance, armed with the lasso, and the condors, being unable
to escape by flight, are pursued and caught by means of these singular
‘weapons with the greatest certainty. This sport is a peculiar favorite
in the country, where it is held in a degree of estimation second to that of a
bull-tight alone.

a3

/
418 AVES—VULTURE.

In tenacity of life the condor exceeds almost every other bird. M. Hum.
boldt relates that during his stay at Riobamba, he was present at some
experiments which were made on one by the Indians who had taken it
alive. They first strangled it with a lasso and hanged it on a tree, pulling
it forcibly by the feet for several minutes; but scarcely was the lasso re-
moved, when the bird ardse and walked about as though nothing had
occurred to affect it. It was then shot with three balls, discharged from a
pistol, at less than four paces, all of which entered its body, and wounded
it in the neck, chest, and abdomen; it still, however, kept its legs. Anotier
ball struck its thigh, and it fell to the ground. This was preserved by
M. Bonpland, for a considerable time, as a memorial of the circumstance.
Ulloa had previously asserted, that in the colder parts of Peru, the skin
of the condor was so closely covered with feathers, that eight or ten balls
might be heard to strike it without penetrating its body. M. Humboldt’s
bira did not die of its wounds until after an interval of half an hour.

The stories which have long been current, on the authority of cre ..ous
travellers, imputing to the condor a propensity to carry off young children,
and even to attack men and women, appear to have originated solely in
that common feeling which delights in regarding mere possibilities in the
light of positive facts. M. Humboldt declares that he never heardeof an
instance in which a child was carried off; although the children of th
Indians who collect the snow on the mountains for sale, are constantly lef
sleeping in the open air in the midst of these birds, and offer, of course, a
temptation which would be irresistible if not counteracted by some peculiar
instinct. With respect to the risk incurred by men, while he confesses that
two of these birds would be dangerous enemies for a single man to encoun-
ter, he states that he has frequently approached them within ten or twelve
feet, as they sat three or four together perched upon the rocks, and that
they showed no disposition to attack him. The Indians of Quito, moreover,
unanimously assured him that men have nothing to apprehend frum the
condors.

THE SOCIABLE VULTURE!

{s a bird of extreme rarity. It was first described by Le Vaillen in nus
“Travels in the Interior of Africa,” under the name of oricou ; {ancifully
derived from the folding of the skin around its ears, and along its neck. A
more detailed account of it was afterwards furnished by the same distin-
guished ornithologist, in his Oiseavx d’Afrique, where a full grown male is
very accurately figured. We do not find that it has since been observed by

 

1 Vultur auricularis, Daun.
AVES.-VULTURE. 419

any zoologist ; for all the accounts of it with which we havé met; are cupiea
from Le Vaillant.

In size, this gigantic bird is-fully equal to the condor; thé larger specimen
measuring, according to Le Vaillant, upwards of ten feet in the expanse
of cheii wings. The head, and greater part of the neck are of the color
a :dw jlzsh, and exhibit in their adult state no appearance of down ar

 

leathers, out only a few scarcely perceptible, scattered hairs. ‘I'he throat is
@overed with blackish hairs, and the lower part of the neck behind, wits a
kind of ruff of crisped and curled feathers of the same color ;, within which,
the bird withdraws its head while in a state of repose, especially after feed-
mg; an attitude which is common to most of the vultures.

As Le Vaillant is the only writer who has observed these birds in tneir
native state, our account of their manners must necessarily be derived frons
his work, which contains more detailed and authentic information relative
to the habits of birds, than any other publication with which we are
acquainted, excepting only Wilson’s admirable Ornithology. We shall.
therefore, make no apology for abstracting his history of the present specivs,
with which he has combined many particulars equally applicable to Wie
whole family. Like all the other vultures, he says, this is a bird of the
mountains, the sheltered retreats formed by their caves and fissures con-

-Mituting its proper habitation. In them it passes the right. and reposey
120 AVES -VULTURE.

after it has sated its appetite, during the day. At sunrise, large bands are
seen perched on the rocks at the entrance of their abodes, and sometimes a
continued chain of mountains exhibits them dispersed throughout the greater
part of its extent. Their tails are always worn down by friction against the
stones between which they thrust themselves, or on which they perch-
while the eagles, seldom walking and frequently perching upon trees, pre-
serve theirs more entire. Those of the vultures are moreover injured by the
soil of the plains, inasmuch as they cannot raise themselves into the air at
once, but only after running several paces forwards and by a forced con-
traction of the limbs. The flight of the vulture is nevertheless no less
powerful and lofty; they raise themselves to a prodigious height, and disap-
pear entirely from the sight.

It is scarcely to be conceived how these birds, which often cannot be dis-
tinguished in the air, can themselves perceive what is going on, on the
surface of the earth, discover the animals on which they feed, and fall upon
them the moment they are overtaken by death. When a hunter kills a
large animal which he cannot immediately remove, if he abandon it for an
instant, he finds on his return a band of vultures, where a quarter of an hour
before not one was to beseen. Our author gives the particulars of several
adventures of this kind that had befallen himself; and offers an explanation
of the manner in which the vultures are enabled to detect their prey, strictly
tm accordance with the theory of Mr Audubon, to which we have before ad-
verted. We quote this explanation at length, without, however, adopting
the hypotheses which it involves.

“Desirous of observing,” he says, “how so great a number of vultures
could congregate together in so short a space of time, I concealed myself one
day in a thicket, after having killed a large gazelle, which I left upon the
spot. In an instant a number ofravens made their appearance, fluttering
about the animal, and making a great croaking. In less than half a quarter
of an hour these birds were reinforced by the arrival of kites and buzzards,
and immediately afterwards I perceived on raismg my head, a flight of birds
at a prodigious height, wheeling round and round in their descent. These
I soon recognised to be vultures, which seemed, if I may so éxpress myself,
to escape from a cavern in the sky. The first comers fell immediately upon
the gazelle, but I did not allow them time to tear it in pieces. I left my
concealment, and they betook themselves slowly and heavily to flight, ree
joining their comrades, whose numbers continued to increase. They seemed
almost to precipitate themselves from the clouds to share the spoil but my
presence caused them speedily to disappear. Thus it is then, that the vul-
tures are ca'led upon to participate in their prey; the first carnivorous birds
that discover a carcass rouse the others which may happen to be in the
environs by their cries and motions. If the nearest vulture does not spy
che prey from the lofty region of the air in which he swims, by means of his
wide spread wings, he perceives the subaltern and more terrestrial birds of
AVES—VULTURE. 42)

‘

prey, preparing to take possession of it; but perhaps he has himseif a suffi-
cient power of vision to enable him to discover it. He descends hastily and
with a wheeling flight, and his fall directs the other vultures who witness
his evolutions, and who no doubt have their instinct sharpened with regard
to every thing that concerns their food. A concourse of carnivoruus birds
speedily takes place in the neighborhood of the carcass, sufficient to attract
the vultures of the whole district, nearly in the same manner as the dis-
turbance created by a number of men running along the streets of a crowded
town, attracts the whole population to follow in their train.”

The present species is not met within the vicinity of the Cape; but is
very common in the interior, especially in the country of Manaquas. It
builds its nest in the fissures of the rocks, and the female lays two or rarely
three eggs. During the time of incubation the male keeps watch at the
entrance of tne cavern, and thus renders their retreat easy of detection ; but
on the other hand it is always very difficult of access. The interior offers a
most disgusting spectacle, and is infected by an insupportable stench. Le
Vaillant had eaten of their eggs, which, to use his own expression, are good
enough to be made use of. As they live in formidable bands, a single
mountain sométimes conceals as many nests as there are cavities fit for
their reception. They appear to agree together exceedingly well, for two or
three nests are sometimes seen placed side by side in the same cavern.

KING OF THE VULTURES.!

Tuts is unquestionably one of the handsomest, although among the
smaller species of the vulture family. ‘The only other American vultures,
the turkey buzzard, and a second closely allied species, (the black vulture)
forin a distinct genus nearly related to this, but differing essentially in
several important points. It is no doubt in comparison with the two last
mentioned birds, that the present has obtained, in the language of all the
native tribes to which it is known, the appellation of king of the vultures;
for it is far inferior, both in size and strength, to the gigantic species which
are generically associated with it.

When fully grown, the king of the vultures measures about two feet and
a half in total length, and more than twice as much in the expanse of its
wings. The hues of its plumage are right, sharply circumscribed, and
strongly contrasting with each other. Round the base of the neck passes a
bread ruff of soft downy feathers of a deep ashy gray; the whole under
surtace is white, with an occasiunal tinge of flesh color; the back and tail
eoverts are of a bright fawn, which becomes lighter and lighter as the bire

we tee

1 Cuthartes Papa, Lin.
422 AVES—VULTUORE.

advances in ug ; aud the quill feathers of the wings and tail, together with
the larger coverts of the former, are glossy black.

The young bird of the first year, according to M. D’Azara, is entirely of a
dvep bluish tint, excepting the abdomen and lateral tail coverts, which are
white. In the second year it assumes a dusky hue, marked by long white
spots. Up to this peric!, the greater part of the head and neck is blackisb
violet. In the third year it assumes its adult coloring, with the exception
ofa few black feathers among the upper wing coverts.

pave!

AY 7
Renu

 

The sange of this fine species of vulture is rather extensive. M. Bona
pa:te enumerates it among the birds of the United States, and we believe it
is occasionally met with in Florida, which is prebally its northern limit.
Towards the south, M. D’Azara describes it as common in Paraguay, but
says that it does not pass the thirty-second degree of latitude. In the inter-
mediate countries it would seem to be extremely abundant. Many travel-
lers mention it as congregating in large flocks in various parts of Mexico,
where it appears to have been first noticed by Navarrete, and was .von after
uescribed by Hernandez under the native name of cozcaquaubtli. its more
usual name, however, in that country, seems to be tzopilotl, literally king
of the vultures. In Guiana it bears, according to Sonnini, a title exactly
synonymous ; and in Paraguay, according to D’Azara, that of iriburubicha,
signifying the same thing. This uniformity of appellation is evidently
derived from the universality of the belief, that the other vultures pay a
particular respect to this species, abandoning their prey to it, whenever it
makes its aymearance among them. But such a concession, as D’Azara
AVES -TURKEY BUZZARD. 124

justly remarks, 1m plies neither respect nor consideration ; butis the natura.
effect of its superiority in size and strength.

Like the other vultures, these birds perform a most important office in the
economy of nature, by the removing of dead, and putrefying carrion. heir
sight is wide and piercing, their sense of smell highly developed, and their
strength of wing sufficient to enable them to reach an extremely high pitch,
and to continue their flight for hours together. They endure the pangs of
hunger with extraordinary patience; and never attack the smallest bird or
the most feeble quadruped while it has life. In walking, their gait is slow
and heavy, and their body is maintained in a horizontal position. When
about to mount into the air, they are compelled to take several leaps before
they can accomplisn their purpose, and quit the ground with some little
difficuity. The-odor of their flesh is precisely the same with that of the
carrion on which they feed, and even the skins retain it fur many years.
Contrary to the habits of their family in general, they perch on the tallest
trees, l'ving solitary or in pairs, building their nests, as it is said, in the
hollows of the trunks, and laying only two eggs. They are little inclined
to become familiar with man, but on the contrary avoid his habitations, and
betake themszlves every where to the interior and unfrequented parts of the
country. In a deficiency of carrion they feed upon snakes and lizards, and
during the summer subsist, in a great measure, upon the putrid fish of the
lakes thut are dried up by the parching heat of the sun.

THE AMERICAN CARRION VULTURE, OR
TURKEY BUZZARD)

  

 

4
COMPO TT CRT TL Ter mre rater nce eene vee 2

1s found in vast flocks in parts of America, where it 1s of great utility i
destioying snakes and vermin, and in devouring dead and putrid :arcasses

 

1 Cathartes Aura, Lin.
424 AVES—TURKEY BUZZARD.

This bird is about the size of a turkey. The head and neck are bare of
feathers, and of a reddish color, and the sides of the head warted like those
of the turkey. The whole plumage is a brownish black, with a purple and
greenish gloss in different directions.

This species is well known throughont the United States, but is most
numerous in the southern section of the Union. In the northern and mid-
dle states, it is partially migratory, the greater part retiring to the south on
the approach of cold weather. But numbers remain all the winter in Mary-
land, Delaware, and New Jersey; particularly in the vicinity of the large
rivers and the ocean, which afford a supply of food at all seasons. The
female lays from two to four eggs in an old hollow tree or stump. If any
one approach the young, and attempt to handle them, they will immedi-
ately vomit such offensive matter as to compel the intruder to a precipitate
retreat.

The turkey buzzards are gregarious, peaceable, and harmless; never offer-
ing any violence to a living animal, nor depriving the husbandman of his
stock. Hence, though in consequence of their filthy habits they are not be-
loved, yet they are respected for their usefulness ; and in the southern states
where they are most needed, they, as well as the black vultures, are protected
by a law, which imposes a fine on those who wilfully deprive them of lite.
They generally roost in flocks on the limbs of large trees; and they may be
seen on a summer’s morning, spreading out their wings to the rising sun,
and remaining in that posture for a considerable time.

The sense of smell in the turkey buzzard is astonishingly exquisite, and
they never fail to discover carrion, even when at the distance of several
miles. When once they have found a carcass, if not molested, they will
remain in the place till the whole is devoured. At such times, they eat so
immoderately that frequently they are incapuble of rising, and may be caught
without difficulty ; but few that are acquainted with them, will have the
temerity to undertake the task. A man in the state of Delaware some years
since, observing some turkey buzzards regaling themselves upon the carcass
of a horse, which was ina highly putrid state, conceived the design of
making a captive of one, to take home for the amusement of his children.
He cautiously approached, and springing upon the unsuspecting group,
grasped a fine plump fellow in his arms, and was bearing off his prize in
triumph; when lo! the indignant vulture disgorged such a torrent of filth in
the face of our hero, that it produced all the effects of the most p< wertw
emetic, and forever cured him of his inclination for turkey buzzards.

On tie continent of America this species inhabits a vast range of te tritory.
running it 1s said from Nova Scotia to Terra de! Fuege, though it is cera
paratively rare in the northern states of the Union. They are numero is
the West Inilia islands,
AVES—VULTURE. 425

THE BLACK VULTURE!

 

Tis bird has sometimes been confounded with the turkey buz ard. But
taev are much darker in their plumage than the latter, and neve associate
with them. ‘Their mode of flight also diffe: from that of the turkey buz-
zard. The latter, though found in the vicinity of towns, rarely ventures
within them. It is not so impatient of cold as the former, and is likewise
less lazy. Unless pressed by hunger, it will not eat of a carcass until it
becomes putrid. The black vulture is not so fastidious, but devours animal
food without distinction. They are very indolent, and may be seen loitering
for hours together in one place. It is said that they sometimes attack young
pigs, and eat off their ears and tails; but those instances are rare. é

In the towns and villages of the southern states, they may be seen saunter-
ing about the streets; sunning themselves on the roofs of the houses and
the fences; or, if the weather be cold, cowering around the tops of the
chimneys to enjoy tie benefit of the heat, which to them is a peculiar grati-
fication. They are rrotected by law or usage; and may be said to be com-
pletely domesticated, being as common as the domestic poultry, and equally
faniliar. The inhabitants generally are disgusted with their filthy habits;
but notwithstanding, being viewed as contributing to the removal of the
dead animal matter, which, if permitted to putrefy during the hot season,
would render the atmosphere impure, they have a respect paid thein as sca-
vengers, whose labors are subservient to the public good. It sometimes
happens that after having gorged themselves, these birds vomit duwn the
chimneys, which must be intolerably disgusting, and must provote the ilk
will of those whose hospitality is thus requited.

 

1 Cathartes Vulturinus, Temm

54
426 AVES—VULTURE

The black vulture is seldom found on the Atlantic, to the northward of
Newbern, North Carolina; but inhabits the whole continent tu the southe
ward as far as Cape Horn.

 

THE LAMMERGEYER, OR BEARDED VULTURE!

 

In its a\titudes this bird resembles the eagles more than the vultures, its
confident and sprightly bearing strongly contrasting with the crouching and
suspicious postures of the latter. Like these, however, it generally retains
its wings in a state of half expansion when at rest, and its neck more oi
less retracted within its shoulders. Its food, as we shall presently see, is
more frequently sought in a living prey than on a putrefying carcass; and
for this reason it is not often found, like the vultures, assernbling in con-
sidera>le troops. The increased curvature of its talons also contributes to
the same object, by enabling it to carry off its prey, whether living or dead.
A careful comparison of their characters, or. what is far better, of the animals
themselves, as they exist side by side in tne menagerie, wil: show how
nearly this bird holds the middle station between the two large groups ts
which it is almost equally related.

Several nominal species were created by the naturalists on the clise ot
the last century, which appear now, by common consent, to have been
merged into one, the bearded vulture of ornithologists, or lammergeyer of
the Swiss and German Alps. Its range extends to most of the principal
mountain chains of the Old Continent, as it is found, with rnore or less fre

 

1 Gynatus barbatus, Cuv. The genus Gypetus has a Jong bill; upper mandible arched
Siri the point, and bent like a hook; nostrils oval, covered with suff ha.rs directed
forward; feet short; four toes, the three anterior united by a short membrane, the muddle
one very loug; nails slightly crooked ; wings long.
AVES—VULTURE. 427

quency, dut never in great abundance, in the Pyrenees, the Alps from Pied-
mont to Dalmatia, the mountains of Ghilan and Siberia, and those of E&ypt
and Abyssinia; occupying every where the loftiest and most inaccessible
cliffs, and frequently committing dreadful ravages in the neizhhoring plains.
In size it 1s the largest of European birds of prey, measuring, when fully
grown, upwards of four feet from beak to tail, and in the expanse of its wings
uo less than nine or ten. M. Fortis indeed asserts that he had seen an
individual in Dalmatia, the expanded wings of which measured twelve feet.

The general color of the upper part of this remarkable bird isa dull brown
with a mixture of gray; its wings and tail are of a grayish ash colur; the
upper part of its head is a dirty white; a black band extends back vurds
from the base of the beak across the eye, and joins a narrower stripe of tne
same that passes upwards to unite with its fellow on the back of the head
and the neck, breast, and under parts are white with a shade of redd.sh
brown or orange, which is deeper on the breast and throat, and gradually
becomes less distinct on the abdomen and legs. For the first two years, the
young birds are distinguished by the dusky brown of the head and neck; the
mottled gray of their under surfaces, the large white spots, or spots of a
lighter shade, ‘scattered over their back and wings; and the dusky black of
their quill feathers. Their iris is at first brown, and their toes of a livid
color ; but as they advance in age the former becomes of a bright red, and
the latter assume a leaden hue. At all times the beak, which attains a
length of four inches, is of an ashy gray with a flesh colored tinge; and t' e
bristles at its hase are deep black, as are also the talons.

In its habits this bird combines the audacity and cruelty of the eagles,
with the appetite for carrion which distinguishes the vultures. It seizes by
preference jiving victims, chiefly quadrupec 3, and especially those which are
incapable of making an effectual resistance, such as rabbits, hares, sheep
and lambs, or even young goats and calves; and thus proves an extremely
dangerous neighbor to the peaceful Hocks which graze on the declivities of
the mountains inhabited by it, or in the intervening valleys. Sometimes,
when rendered desperate by a long fast, it is said to attack the chamois, or
even man himself, choosing for the scene of its exploits the brink of a previ-
pice, and descending upon its victim with such an irresistible impetus as ¢3
precipitate him headlong into the abyss below. But such bold attempts as
this, although spoken of by many writers, are foreign to its usual habits,
and may rat.er be regarded as traditions handed down from generation to
generation, than as common or every day occurrences. In the same manner
it is probable that the stories current in the Alps, of children carried off by
vultures to be devoured, are rather the expression of a natural dread of what
might happen, than a relation of actual events. Weare not aware of any
authentic testimony in proof of the fact, which may therefore be classed
with the narratives of the same description with reference tu the condor
428 AVES—VULTURE.

It is from the character in which it is best known to t3em, as the spoiler
of the fold, that this bird has received from the natives of the German Alps
its title of lammergeyer, the lamb vulture. But although this 1s its food of
choice, it feeds also upon carrion; and as when in pursuit of a living prey, it
emulates the eayles by soaring alone or in company only with its imate, so
in its attack upon an unburied carcass it imitates the vultures by congre-
gating in bands upon the spoil. In such circumstances it dees not usually
descend from aloft, but sweeps slowly along the ground towards its expected
banquet. Bruce relates, in his Abyssinian Travels, a remarkable instance,
allustrative at once of its buldness and voracity. His servants were prepar-
mg for dinner on the summit of a Jofty mountain, when a bearded vulture,
attracted by the smell of the goat’s flesh, which they were cooking, slowly
made his advances towards the party, and at length fairly seated himself
within the ring which they had formed. The alfrighted natives started up
and ran for their lances and shields; and the bird, after an ineffectual
attempt to extract a portion of their meat from the boiling water, seized a
large piece in each of his talons from a platter that stood by, and carried it
off slowly along the ground as he came. After an interval of a few minutes,
the vulture returned for a second freight, but was shot by the traveller before
it could carry its purpose into effect. The manner of its flight in this
instance, as well as in many others, may be taken as an indication that this.,
species does not usually make its prey of birds, which it is rarely if ever
haown to attack.

Bruce remarks that on taking hold of this bird he was not a little surprised
to find his hands covered with a yellow powder, which appeared to be
produced from the breast feathers ; while those of the back and wings threw
off a similar dust, excepting that on them it was brown. He imagined that
this powder was contained in the tubes of the feathers, from which it was
emitted upon pressure; and that it was a peculiar provision of nature to
enable the birds of those Alpine regions to withstand the rigors of the cli-
mate. It is more probable, however, that this appearance, which has not
been noticed by any other writer, was merely the result of the change of
plumage which the vulture had just undergone; the pewder in question
being in reality nothing more than the original pellicle of the feathers sepa-
rating from them in minute particles, as is usual when they have oc a‘ned
their perfect growth.
»

AVES—VULTURE. 42

THE SECRETARY VULTURE)

 

Tus curious bird resembles the common falcon in its head, bill, and claws,
but its legs are so long that, when it stands upr@zht, it is not much unlike
the crane. After much hesitation, modern naturalists have arranged it in

the vulture order. When standing erect, it measures about three feet from
che top of the head to the ground., Itis a native of the interior of Africa,
Asia, and the Philippine Islands. The general color of the plumage isa
. bluish ash; the tips of the wings, the thighs, and the vent inclining to black.
On the back of the head are several long dark colored feathers, hanging
down behind, and capable of being erected at pleasure. This crest induced
the Dutch colonists at the Cape to give it the name of the secretary; the
Hottentots, however, style it the serpent eater, from the avidity with which
it catches and devours those noxious reptiles. The manner in which it
seizes them, displays great intelligence. On approaching them, it carries
forward the point of one of its wings, in order to parry their venomous bites,
and waits till it finds an opportunity of spurning or treading on its adversary,
or taking him on his pinions, and throwing him into the air. When he has
at last thus wearied him out, he kills and devours him at his leisure.

 

1 Gypogeranus serpentarius, Temm. This is the only individual of the genus. | Its
characteristics are—bill shorter than the head, thick, strong, hooked, bent from its origin,
furnished with a cere at its base, a little arched, compressed at the point; nostrils a little
separated at the base, lateral, pierced in the cere, diagonal, oblong, open; legs very long,

‘slender; tibia feathered; tarsus long, slenderer at its base than at its upper part; toes
short, warty below, the anterior united at the base; thumb articulated on the tarsus
wings long the first five wing feathers longest and almost equal; wings armed with
blurt spur.
430 AVES—FALCON.

M. le Vaillant witnesse] one of these combats. Finding itself inferior in
strength, the serpent endeavored to regain his hole, but the falcon, by a
single leap, got before him and cut off his retreat. On whatever side the
reptile stiove to escape, the enemy still faced him. The serpent then erect-
ed himself to intimidate the bird, and hissing dreadfully, displayed his me-
nacing throat, inflamed eyes, and ahead swoln with raye and venom.
Sometimes this produced a momentary suspension of hostilities; but the
hird soon returned to the charge, and, covering her body with one of her
wings as a buckler, struck her enemy with the bony protuberance of the
other. The serpent at last dropped, and the bird laid open his skull with
one stroke of her beak. :

This singular bird may be easily tamed, and it becomes very domestic
and familiar. Though, if severely pinched with hunger, it will devour
ducklings and chickens; yet, if well fed, it will live with the poultry on
amicable terms, and when it sees any of them quarrelling, will run to part
the combatants. Unlike ali the rest of the feathered race, these birds always
strike forward with their legs when they fight.

THE JER FALCON!

Ln size exceeds al] other falcons, for he approaches nearly to the magnitude
of the eagle. The top of the head is flat, and of an ash color, witha strong,
thick, short, and blue beak. The feathers of the beak and wings are marked
with black spots, in the shape of a heart. He is a courageous and fierce
bird, nor fears even the eagle himself; but he chiefly flies at the stork, the
heron, and the crane. He is mostly found in the colder regions of the north,
in Iceland, Denmark, and the north of Germany, but loses neither his
strength nor his courage when brought into the milder climates.

Falconry, which is now so much disused, was the principal amusement
of our European ancestors. A person of rank scarcely stirred out without
his hawk on his hand, which in old paintings is the criterion of nobitity.
The expense which attended this sport was very great; among the old
Welsh princes, the king’s falconer was the fourth officer in the state; Lut,
notwithstanding all his honors, he was forbidden to take more than three
draughts of beer from his horn, lest he should get drunk and neglect his
duty. In the reign of James the First, Sir Thomas Monson is said to aave
given a thousand pounds for a cast of hawks; and such was their value in

 

1 Falco Islandicus, Gmey. The genus Falco has the head covered with feathers; hill
nooked, generaliy bent from its origin ; a colored cere, more or less hairy at its hase;
maniibles sometimes notched ; 3 nostrils lateral, rounded or oval, pierced in the cere, open;
tegs with tarsi covered with feathers or scales; three toes hefore, one behind, the exterior
generally uniter at its base to the micdle toe ; ‘claws sharp, much hooked, retractile.
AVES—FALCON 43)

general, that it was made felony in the reign of Edward the Third to steal a
hawk. To take its eggs, even in a person’s own ground, was punishable
with imprisonment for a year and a day, together with a fine at the king's
pleasure.

Of many of the ancient falcons used for this purpose, we at this tire
know only the names. Of those in use at present, both in England and in
other countries, are the jer falcon, the falcon, the lanner, the sacre, the
hobby; the kestril, and the merlin. These are called the long winged
hawks, to distinguish them from the goshawk, the sparrow-hawk, the kite,
and the buzzard, that are of shorter wing, and either too slow, too cowardly,
too indolen’, or too obstinate, to be serviceable in contributing to the plea«
svve of th: field.

THE PEREGRINE FALCON,

 

in different stages of its growth the peregrine falcon has been known by
various English names. Its proper appellation among the falconers is the
slight falcon, the term falcon gentle being equally applicable .o all the spe-
cies when rendered manageable. The young bird of the year is called an
eyess, not, as has been imagined, from the German ey, an egg, but from the
French nias, which has the same signification as eyess, most of the terms
of falconry having been adopted from the French. Several other instances

1 Falco Peregrints, Lin
432 AVES—MERLIN.

occur in our fanguage, in which the initial n has detached itself from tos
substantive, and become permanently attached to the indefinite article. D,
the immature state this falcon is also called a red hawk, from the prevailing
color of its plumage. When full grown and in a wild state it is called +
haggard or passage falcon. The male is called a tierce, or terscl, to dis
tinguish it from the female, which, among birds of prey, is most commonly
one third larger than the male. Many of these terms are equally applicable
to the other species used in hawking, and are only employed by the profes-
sors of that art, which is now fast going to decay. The following passage
from Sir J. Sebright’s Observations on hawking, published in 1826, will best
illustrate its present condition.

“The village of Falconswaerd, near Bois le Duc, in Holland, has for many
years furnished falconers to the rest of Europe. I have known many falcon-
ers in England, and in the service of different persons on tlie continent ; but
[ never met with one of them who was not a native Falconswaerd. It has
been the practice of these industrious and sober men, to stay with their em-
ployers during the season for hawking, and to pass the remainder of the
year with their families at home.” ;

What is known in the United States by the name of the great footed on
duck hawk, is probably the same species known in Europe by the name ot
the peregrine falcon. It is said to attack ducks, and wild geese, striking
them down with the projecting bone of its breast. According to Mr Audu
bon, it is more common in this country than formerly. It flies with aston
tshing rapidity ; its nests are built in cedar swainps.

THE MERLIN}

 

Is in size little larger than the European blackbird, and is consequently the
smallest of the hawk kind. Its bill is blue; the cere and irides are yellow;
the head is of a rust color, streaked with black, and edged with ‘rust color;
the quill feathers are dark, tipped and margined in the inner webs with

 

1 Falco esalon, Tem
AVES—MERLIN. A33

reddish white ; the’ breast and belly are of a yellowish white, with streaks
of rusty brown pointing downwards; the tail is long, and marked with
alternate dusky and pale bars; the wings, when closed, do not reach quite
to the end of the tail; the legs are yellow, and claws black.

Small as it is, this bird is not inferior in courage to any of the falcon
tribe. It was formerly used for taking larks, partridges, and quails, which
it would frequently kill by a single blow, striking them on the breast, head,
or neck. It differs from the falcons, and all the rapacious kind, in the male
and femace being of the same size.

The courage of these creatures in general was such, that no bird, not very
much above their own size, could terrify them; their swiftness so great,
that scarce any bird could escape them; and their docility so remarkable,
that they obeyed not only the commands, but the signs, of their master.
They remained quietly perched upon his hand till their game was flushed,
or else kept hovering round his head without ever leaving him but when he
gave permission. The common falcon is a bird of such spirit, that, lixe a
conqueror in a country, he keeps al! birds in awe and in subjection to his
prowess. Where he is seen flying wild, the birds of every kind, that seem-
ed entirely to disregard the kite or the sparrow-hawk, fly with screams at his
most distant appearance.

Tn order to train up a falcon, the master begins by clapping straps upon
his legs, which are called jesses, to which is fastened a ring with the owner’s
name, by which, in vase he should be lost, the finder may know where to
bring him back. To these also are added little bells, which serve to mark
the place where he is seen, if lost in the chase. He is always carried on
the hand, and is obliged to be kept without sleeping. If he be stubborn,
and attennts to bite, his head is plunged in water. Thus, by hunger,
watching and fatigue, he is constrained to submit to having his head cover-
ed by a hood or cowl, which covers his eyes. This troublesome employ-
ment continues often for three days and nights without ceasing. Jt rarely
happens but at the end of this, his necessities and the privation cf light
make him lose all idea of liberty, and bring down his natural wildness.
His master judges of his being tamed when he permits his head to 4e covere
ed without resistance, and when uncovered he seizes the meat before him
contentedly. The repetition of these lessons by degrees insures success.
His wants being the chief principle of his dependence, it is endeavored to
increase his appetite by giving him little balls of flannel, which he greedily
swallows. Having thus excited the appetite, care is taken to satisfy it; anu
thus gratitude attaches the bird to the man who but just before had been his
tormenter.

When the first lessons have succeeded, and the bird shows signs of doci-
lity, he is carried out on some green, the head is uncovered, and, by flatter-
ing him with food at different times, he is taught to jump on the hand, and
to continue there. When confirmed in this habit, it is then thought time to

: 55 ’
434 AVES—EAGLE.

make him acquainted with thelure. This lure is only a thing stuffed like the
bird the falcon is designed to pursue, such as a heron, a pigeon, or a quail, and
un this lure hey always take care to give him his food. It is quite neces-
sary that the bird should not only be acquainted with this, but fond of it,
and delicate in his food when shown it. The use of this lure is to flatter
him back when he has flown in the air, which he sometimes fails to do;
and it is always requisite to assist it by the voice and the signs of the mas-
ter.” When the familiarity and the docility of the bird are sufficiently :on-
firmed on the green, he is then carried into the open fields, but still kept fast
by a string which is about twenty yards long. He is then uncovered ag
before ; and the falconer calling him, at some paces distance, till he comes at
last to fly to it. The next day the lure is shown him at a greater distance,
till he comes at last to fly to it at the utmost length of his string. He is
then to be shown the game itself alive, but disabled or tame, which he js
designed to pursue. After having seized this several times with his string,
he is then left entirely at liberty, and carried into the field for the purposes of
pursuing that which is wild. At that he flies with avidity; and when he
has seized it or killed it, he is brought back by the voice and the lure.

By this method of instruction, a hawk may be taught to fly at any game
whatsoever; but falconers have chiefly confined their pursuit only to such
animals as yield them profit by the capture, or pleasure in the pursuit. The
hare, the partridge, and the quail, repay the trouble of taking them ; but the
most delightful sport is the falcon’s pursuit of the heron, the kite, or the
woodlark. Instead of flying directly forward, as some other birds do, these,
when they see themselves threatened by the approach of the hawk, immedi-
ately take to the skies. They fly almost perpendicularly upward, while
their ardent pursuer keeps pace with their flight, and tries to rise above
them. Thus both diminish by degrees from the gazing spectator below,
till they are quite lost in the clouds; but they are soon seen descending,

. struggling together, and using every effort on both sides; the one of rapa-
cious insult, the other of desperate defence. The unequal combat is soon at
an end; the falcon comes off victorious, and the other, killed or disabled, is
made a prey either to the bird or the sportsman.

 

THE GOLDEN EAGLE!

{s one of the largest and noblest of all those virds that have received tne
name of eagle. The length of the female is three feet anda half ; the extent
of its wings, eight and a half; it weighs from sixteen to eighteen pounds
but the male seldom weighs more than twelve pounds. Its bill is th

' Falco fiulvus, Gmer,
AVES—EAGLE. “ASH

inches long, and of a deep blue; and the eye of a very brilliant hazel color.

“The sight and sense of smelling are very acute. The head and neck are
elothed with na.row, sharp-pointed feathers, of a deep brown color bordered
with tawny; but those on the crown of the head, in very old birds, turn
gray. The whole body, above as well as beneath, is of a dark brown; and
the feathers of the back are finely clouded with a deeper shade of the same.
The wings when clothed reach to the end of the tail. The quill feathers
are of a chocolate color, the shafts white. The tail is of a deep brown,
irregularly barred and blotched with an obscure ash color, ond usually white
‘at the roots of the feathers. The legs are yellow, short, and very strong,
being three inches in circumference, and feathered to the very feet. The
toes are covered with large scales, and armed with the most tormidable
el ws, the middle of which are two inches long.

     
 

    

ee
AG
De

;
"

i

     

This eagle inhabits the highest mountains of the north of Europe anu
America, and preys on fawns, lambs, hares, and large birds. It soars to »
prodigious height. An individual was kept at Vienna, which lived one
‘hundred and four years.

Jn general all eagles are found in the mountainous and ill peepled countries.
and breed among the loftiest cliffs. They choose those places which are
remotest from man, upon whose possessions they but seldom make their
depredations, being contented rather to follow the wild game in the forest,
-han to risk their safety to satisfy their hunger.

It requires great patience and much art to tame an eagle; and even
though taken young, and brought under by long assiduity, yet still it isa
daugerous domestic, and often turns its force against its master. When
brought into tue field for the purposes of fowling, the falconer is never sure
436 AVES—EAGLF.

of its attachment; tle innate pride, and love of liberty, still prompt it to
regain its native solitudes; and the moment the falconer sees it, when let
loose, first stoop towards the ground, and then rise perpendicularly into the
clouds, he gives up all his former labor for lost; quite sure of never beholding
his late prisoner more. Sometimes, however, they are brought to have an
attachment for their feeder ; they are then highly serviceable, and liberally pro-
vide for his pleasures and support. When the falconer lets them go from
his hand, they play about and hover round him till their game presents
which they see at an immense distance, and pursue with certain destruction.
They have, however, never been used in European falconry. It is only in
the east that they have been so employed.

Of all animals the eagle flies highest, and on this account he was called
vy the ancients the Bird of Jove. When M. Ramond ascended Mont Perdu,
in the Pyrenees, nearly three miles above the Jevel of the sea, he sawa
golden eagle far above h'm, dashing rapidly to windward against a strong
gale. Ofall birds, also, the eagle has the quickest eye; but his sense of
smelling is far inferior to that of the vulture. He never pursues, therefore,
but in sight; and when he has seized his prey, he stoops from his height,
as if to examine its weight, always laying it on the ground before he carries
it off. As his wing is very powerful, yet, as he has but little suppleness in
the joints of the leg, ke finds it difficult to rise when down ; however, if not
instantly pursued, he finds no difficulty in carrying off geese and cranes.
He also carries away hares, lambs, and kids; and ofte1 destroys fawns and
calves, to drink their blood, and carries a part of their flesh to his retreat.
Infants themselves, when left unattended, have been destroyed by these
rapacious creatures ; which probably gave rise to the fable of Ganymede’s
being snatched up by an eagle to heaven.

An instance is recorded in Scotland of two children being carried off by
eagles; but fortunately they received no hurt by the way; and, the eagles
being pursued, the children were restored unhurt out of the nests to the
.affrighted parents.

The eagle is thus at all times a formidable neighbor; but peculiarly so
avhen bringing up its young. Jtis then that the female, as well as the male.
exert all their force and industry to supply their young. Smith, in his
‘History of Kerry, relates, that a poor man in that country got a comfortable
subsistence for his family, during a summer of famine, out of an eagle’s
nest, by robbinz the eaglets of food, which were plentifully supplied by the
ald ones. He protracted their assiduity beyond the usual time, by clipping
the wings, and retarding the flight of the young.

It happened some time ago, in the same country, that a peasant resolved
«rob the nest of an eagle, that had built in a small island, in the beautiful
rake of Killamey. Heaccordingly stripped and swam in upon the island,
snue tle old ones were away; and, robbing the nest of its young, he was
yseparing to swim back, with the eaglets tied ina string; but, while he was
AVES—EAULE. 437

yet up to his chin in the water, the old eagles returned, and, missing their
young, quickly fell upon the plunderer, and, in spite of all his resistance
dispatched him with their beaks and talons.

In order to extirpate these pernicious birds, titere is a law in the Orgney
Islands, which entitles any person that kills an eagle, to a hen out of every
house in the parish in which the plunderer is killed.

The nest of the eagle is usually built in the most inaccessible cliff of the
rock, and often shielded from the weather by some jutting crag that hangs
cver it. Sometimes, however, it is wholly exposed to the wituls, as well
sideways as above ; for the nest is flat, though built with great labor. It is
said that the same nest serves the eagie during life; and indeed, the pains
bestowed in forming it, seem to argue as much. It is asserted, that as
soon as the young ones are somewhat grown, the mother kills the most
feeble or the most voracious. If this happens, it must proceed only from
the necessities of the parent, who is incapable of providing for their support,
and is content to sacrifice a part to the welfare of the majority. After a
male and female have paired, they remain together for life, and never change
their place of abode.

The plumage of the eaglets is not so strongly marked as when they come
to be adult. They are at first white; then inclined to yellow; and at last
light brown. Age, hunger, long captivity, and diseases, make them whiter.
It is said that they live above a hunured years; and that they at last die,
not of old age, but from the beak turniug inward upon the under mandible,
and thus preventing their taking any food. They are indeed equally
remarkable for their longevity, and for their power of sustaining a long
absence from fuod. One of this species, which was lately nine years in the
possession of Mr Owen Holland, of Conway, lived thirty-two years with the
gentleman who made him a present of it; but what its age was when the
latter received it from Ireland is unknown. The same bird also furnishes
a proof of the truth of the other remarks ; having once, through the neglect
of servants, endured hunger for twenty-one days, without any sustenance
wiiatever. But this is sti:] less extraordinary than an instance recorded by
Buffon, whe was assured, by a person of veracity, that one of these birds
being caught in a fox trap, existed for five entire weeks without aliment.
It showed no appearance of languor till the tast cight days, and it was killed
at length in order to deliver it from its sufferings. The eagle seldum drinks,
as its principal aliment is raw flesh, which contains in itself a sufficient
quantity of moisture.
138 AVES—EAGLE.

THE RING-TAILED EAGLE

 

{is probably the young of the golden eagle, though formerly considered a
distinct species. When young, the body is of a lighter color than that bird,
but deepens into a blackish brown as the eagle advances in age.

The tail feathers of this bird are highly valued by the various tribes of
American Indians, for ornamenting their calumets or pipes of peace. The
ring-tailed eagle is characterized as a generous spirited and docile bird. Its
solitary habits, the vast inaccessible cliffs to which it usually retires, united
with the scarcity of the species in those regions inhabited by man, all com-
bine to render a particular knowledge of its aabits very difficult to be ct tained.

~,

 

THE OSPREY EAGLE:!

Tins bird and the sea eagle have often been confounded with eacn other.
They are, however, very different. The osprey, both male and-female, is
much smaller than the sea eagle; the ¢arst vf the osprey are scaly and
naked, while those of the sea eagle are feachered part of the way; the
osprey may be trained to catch fish for its keeper, but the sea eagle will not
serve a master. (

 

4 Falco halietus, 3 in.
AVES—EAGLE. 439

This eagle is common in Europe, and is probably the same with the ind-
vidual known in the United States, by the name of the

AMERICAN FISHHAWK.

We sh7il therefore introduce in this place, the description which our natu-
ralists have given of the latter bird.

This is a formidable, vigorous winged, and we!l known bird, vhich sub-
sists altngether on the finny tribes that swarm in our bays, creeks, and
rivers; procuring his prey by his own skill and industry. It is doubtless
the vost numerous of all its genus within the United States. It penetrates
for unite the interior of the country, up our iarge rivers, and their head waters,
Ji wiry pe said to line the seacoast from Georgia to Canada.

 

The first appearance of the fish-hawk in spring is welcomed by the fishers
men, as the happy signal of the approach of those vast shoals of herring,
shad, &c., that enter our rivers in such prodigious multitudes. They see
it active and industrious like themselves; inoffensive tu the productions of
their farms; building with corfidence, and without the least disposition to
concealment, in the middle of their fields, and along their fences; and
returning regularly year after year to their former abode. ‘heir nests are
built of large sticks, corn-stalks, sea- weed, pieces of wet turf, and muller
stalks, lined with dry grass; the whole forming a mass very observable at
halfa mile’s distance, and large enough to fill a cart, and torm no incon-
siderable a load for a horse. These materials are all put strongly together.
During the time the female is sitting, the male frequently supplies her with
fish. On the appearance of the young, the zeal and watchfulness of the
parents are extreme. They stand guard, and go off to fish alternately ; one
parent being always within a short distance of the nest. On the near
appruaca of any person, the hawk utters a plaintive whistling note, which
440 AVES—EAGLE.

becomes snriller as she takes to wing and sails around, sometiraes making
a rapid descent, as if aiming directly for you, but checking her course, and
sweeping past at a short distance over head, her wings making a loud
whizzing in the air.

The flight of the fish-hawk, his manceuvres while in search of fish, and.
his manner of seizing his prey, are deserving of particular notice. In leav-
ing the nest, he usually flies direct till he comes to the sea, then sails around
in easy curving lines, turning sometimes in the air as on a pivot, apparently
without the least exertion, rarely moving the wings; his legs extended in a
straignt line behind, and his remarkable length and curvature or bend of
wing, distinguishing him from all other hawks. The height at whic: he
thus elegantly glides is various, from one to two hundred feet, sometimes:
much higher, all the while calmly reconnoitering the deep below. Suddenly
he is seen to check his course, as if struck by a particular object, which he
seems to survey for a few moinents with such steadiness, that he appears
fixed in air, flapping his wings. This object, however, he abandons, and he
ts again seen sailing around as before. Now his attention is again arrested,
and he descends with great rapidity; but ere he reaches the surface, shoots
off on another course, as if asha-ned that a second victim had escaped him.
He now sails at a short height above the surface, and by a zigzag descent;
and without seeming to dip his feet in the water, seizes a fish, which, after
earrying a short distance, he probably drops or yields up to the bald eagle,
and again ascends by easy spiral circles, to the higher regions of the air,
where he glides abcut in all the ease and majesty of his species.

At once from this sublime erial flight he descends like a perpendicular
torrent, plunging into the sea with a loud rushing sound, and with the cer-
tainty ofa rifle. In afew moments he emerges; bearing in his claws his
struggling prey, which he always carrics head foremost; and having risen
a few feet above the surface, shakes himself asa water spaniel would do,
and directs his heavy, laborious course directly for land. A shad was once
taken from a fish-hawk near Great Egg harbor, on which he had begun to
regale himself, the remainder of which weighed six pounds. Another hawk
at the same place was seen with a flounder in his grasp, which struggled.
and shook him so that he dropped it on the shore. The dounder was
picked up, and served a whole family for dinner. It is sirgular that the
hawk never descends to pick up a fish which he happens to drop either on
the Jand or on tle water.
AVES—EAGLE, 44)

THE GREAT SEA EAGLE,

 

JaL~ gD the erne in Scotland, is usually above three fect in lensth, and the
wings, when expanded, measure seven or eight feet. The bill, yellow at
the base, is generally of a bluish black color towards the extremity. A»
blackish brown, deeper above than beneath, is the common hue of the bird
which is relieved by numerous white spots on the breast and under parts
Of his wings the larger feathers are nearly black, but those of the tail have
aless-deep tinge. It is found in the northern regions of both continents,
even to the very margin of the polar ice, and in Asia as far to the south as
the Caspian Sea. Fishing is the sea eagle’s regular means of subsistence,
but, on occasion, it will pick up dead fish on the beach, and attack seals and
land animals. ‘ Few exhibitions in nature,” says the author of the British
- Naturalist, “are finer than the fishing of this powerful bird. Not adapted
for walking into the shallow water for prey like the heron, the sea eagle
courses over the surface. From her unapproachable haunt in the trees or
the crags, —the latter is, when she can obtain it, her most admired resi-
dence — she darts forth with the straightness and fleetness of an arrow, and
as she glides high in the air, scanning the expanse of miles with her clear
and unerring vision, one or two motions of her wings are sufficient to elevate
her almost above the reach of human eyes, or bring her down close to the

 

1 Falco albivilla, L ux
56
442. AVES -EAGLE.

surface cf the water. When her prey appears within her reach, she piuses
not an instant, but raising her broad wings upwards against the air, and
thus taking advantage of the elasticity of both, shoots down as if discha ‘gee
from a bow or an air-gun, makes the cliff echo to her cherup, and da: hes
upon the water with the same thunder and spray, as if a lightning-ent
fragment had been precipitated from the height. For an instant the colu nn
of spray conceals her, but she soon asvends, bearing the prey in her talo.ts,
and a brief space elapses before she is lost in the distance.”

As this eagle will eat carrion, it is used as a bait to catch him in Suther-
landshire. A minature house, or at least the wall part of it, is built on
ground frequented by-the eagle, and an opening left at the foot of the wall
sufficient for the egress of the bird. To the outside of this opening a bit of
strong cord is fixed, with a noose formed on one end, and the other end
returning through the noose. After al! this operation is finished, a piece
of carrion is thrown into the house, which the eagle finds out and perches
upen. It eats voraciously; and when it is fully satiated, it never thinks of
taking its flight immediately upwards, unless disturbed, provided it can find
an easier way to get out of the house; for it appears that it is not easy for it
to begin its Hight but in an oblique direction ; consequently it walks delibe-
rately out at the opening left for it, and the noose catches hold of and fairly
strangles it.

THE WASHINGTON EAGLE:!

Tue discovery of this noble American bird, we owe to Mr J. J. Audubon,
who considers it a new species, never before described by naturalists.
There are many, however, who regard it as the sea eagle of Europe just
described. Mr Audubon’s discovery is thus related in his own words.

“Tt was on a winter’s evening, in the month of February, 1814, that, for
the first time in my life, I had an opportunity of seeing this rare and noble
bird ; and never shall I forget the delight it gave me. Not even Hersenel,
when he discovered the famous planet which bears his name, could have
experienced more happy feelings. To have something new to relate, te
become yourself a contributor to science, niust excite the proudest emotions
of the human heart.

“We were on a trading voyage, ascending the Upper Mississippi, —the
“keen winter blasts whistled over our heads, and the cold from whieh I
suffered had, ina great degree, extinguished the deep interest which, at other
seasons, this river has been wont to awake in me. I lay stretched beside
our patroon ; the safety of the cargo was furgotten, and the only thing that

 

1 Falco Washingtonianus, Aupubon,
AVES—EAGLE. 443

zalled forth my attention was the multitude of ducks, of different species,
accompanied ty vast flocks of swans, which froin time to time would \ass
us. My patroon, a Canadian, had been engaged many years in the fur crade ;
he was a man of much intelligence, who, perceiving, that birds had engaged
my curiosity, seemed only anxious to find some new object to divert me.
The sea eagle flew over us. ‘How fortunate!’ he exclaimed ; ‘ this is what
I could have wished. “Look, Sir' the great sea eagle. and the on'y one 1
have seen since | left the Jakes.’ I was instantly on my feet, aad, havag
observed it attentively, concluded, as I lost it in the distance, that it was @

 

species quite new tome. My patroon assured me that such biras wera
indeed rare; that they sometimes followed the hunters, to feed on the entrails
of animals they had killed, when the lakes were closed by the ice, but, when
open, they would dive in the daytime after fish, and snatch them up in the
manner of the fishing hawk; that they roosted generally on the shelves of
the rocks, where they built their nests, of which he had discovered several
by the quantity of white exuvie scattered below. His account will be found
to accord with the observations which I had afterwards an opportunity of
making myself. Being convinced that the bird was unknown to naturalists,
I felt particularly anxious to learn its habits, and in what particulars it
444 AVES—EAGLE.

differed from the rest of its genus. Mr Wilson had confounded it with the
pald or white headed eagle, one of the young of which he has given the
figme of, to represent it. But Iam strongly inclined to believe, that he
never saw this bird; for it must be acknowledged that he was a very close
and accurate observer, and, had he met with it, could hardly have fallen
into so great an error, unless he was deceived by the near resemblance
which the young of these two species bear to each other in plumage,
although their difference in size is very great; but, in the old birds, the
likeness ceases to exist; both in habits and appearance they are totally
dissimilar.

“The sea eagle of America is full one fourth larger in size, than any
female specimen of the other kind I ever met with, old or young. In the
United States, from Massachusetts to Louisiana on the seaboard, or as high
as the mouth of the Missouri to the north-west, (I speak only of the extent
of country I have visited, and where I have seen them,) these birds are very
tare. This will appear to all, when I say that during my many long
peregrinations, more than eight or nine I never found, and only one nest.
The sea eagle of European naturalists, of which Mr Bewick has given a
description, and also a figure, in a smal] wood cut, is more like the species
in question, as to form and plumage, than any other. In mentioning this
gentleman, I cannot forbear expres sing the high estimation in which I hold
his splendid productions; [ have no hesitation in pronouncing him a most
elegant and faithful copier of nature, and the very best illustrator of English
ornithology. Mr Wilson’s figure is not so well done; it seems to be taken
from a stuffed specimen.

“My next meeting with this bird was afew years afterwards, whilst
engaged in collecting cray-fish, in one of those flats which border and divide
Green River, in Kentucky, near its junction with the Ohio, from the range
of high cliffs which, for some distance, follow the meanders of the stream.
I observed on the rocks, which, at that place, are nearly perpendicular, a
quantity of white ordure. — Thinking that owls resorted thither, I mentioned
it to my companions, when one of them, who lived within a mile and a half
of the place, told me that it was from the nest of the brown eagle; meaning
the young of the white-headed eagle, with which he was acquainted. I
assured him this could not be; and remarked that the old, as well as young,
of that species never built in such places, but always in trees. Although he
coald not answer my objection, he stoutly maintained that a brown eagle
of some kind, above the usual size, had built there; he udded that he had
discovered the nest some days before, and had seen one of the old birds dive
and catch a fish. This he thought strange, having, till then, always observ-
ed that brown and bald eagles provured this kind of food by robbing the fish-
aawks; but if I felt particularly anxious to know what nest it-was, I might
soon satisfy myself, as the old birds would come and feed their young with
fish; he had seen them do so before, In high expectation { seated myself
AVES—EAGLE. 445

‘

about ahundred yards from the foot of the rock. Never did time pass more
slowly; I could not help betraying the most impatient curios. ty, for my hopes
whispered it was a sea eagle’s nest. Two long hours had elapsed before
the old bird made his appearance, which was announced to us py ihe loud
hissings of the two young ones, who crawled to the extremity of the hole to
receive a fine fish. I had a perfect view of this noble bird as he held hiim-
self to the edging rock, his tail spread, and his wings partly so, and hanging
something like the barn, bank, or social swallow. I trembled lest a word
shouid escape from my companions; the slightest murmur had been treason
-from them; they entered'into my feelings, and, although little interested,
gazed with me. Ina few minutes the other parent joined her mate, wuich,
from the difference in size (the female being much larger,) we knew to be
the mother bird. She, also, had brought a fish; but, more cautious than
her mate, ere she alighted, she glanced her quick and piercing eye around,
and instantly perceived her procreant bed had been discovered; she dropped
her prey, with a loud shriek communicated the alarm to the mate, and,
hovering with him over our heads, kept up a growling, threatening cry, to
mtimidate us from our suspected design. This watchful solicitude I have
ever found peculiar to the female.

“The young having hid themse] ves, we went and picked up the fish which
the mother had let fall; it was a white perch, weighing about five and a
half pounds; the upper part of the head was broken in, and the back torn
by the talons of the eagle. We had plainly seen her bearing it in the man-
ner of the fish-hawk.

“This day’s sport being at an end, as we journeyed homewards we agreed
to return the next morning, being most anxious to procure both the old and
young birds; but rainy and tempestuous weather setting in, our expedition
was obliged to be postponed till the third day following, when, with guns
and men all in readiness, we reached the rock. Some posted themselves
at the foot, others upon it, but in vain. We passed the entire day, without
either seeing or hearing an eagle; the sagacious birds, no doubt, having
anticipated an invasion, had removed their young to fresh quarters.

“T come at last to the day I had so often and so ardently desired. Two
years had gone by since the discovery of the nex « ‘ruitless excurs.ons;
but my wishes were no longer to remain ungratitied. In returning ‘rom
the little village of Henderson, to the house of Dr R * * * * *, about a mile
distant, I saw one rise from a small inclosure nota hundred yards before
me, where the doctor had a few days before slaughtered some hogs, and
alight upon a low tree branching over the road. I prepared my double-
barrelled piece, which I constantly carry, and went slowly and cautiously
towards him; quite fearless he awaited my approach, looking upon me with
an undaunted eye. I fired, and he fell; before I reached him he was dead.
With what delight I surveyed this magnificent bird! Had the finestealnion
ever pleased him as he did me?—Never. Iran and presented him to my
446 AVES—EAGLE.

friend, with a pride which those only can feel, who, like me, have devoted
their earliest childl .0d to such pursuits, and have derived from them their
first of pleasures; to others, I must seem ‘to prattle out of fashion.’ The
doctor, who was an experienced hunter, examined the bird with much
satisfaction, and frankly acknowledged he had never before seen or hearé
of it. The name I chose for this new species of eagle, ‘ The Bird of Wash-
ington,’ may, by some, be considered as preposterous ahd unfit; but, teing
indisputably the ndblest of the genus known to naturalists, 1 trust it will be
allowed to retain it. To those, however, who may be curious to know my
teasons, I can only say, that, as the new world gave me birth and liberty,
the great man who insured its independence is next to. my heart; he had
such true nobility of mind, and honest generous feeling, as is seldom pos-
sessed ; he was brave, so was the eagle; and his name, extending from pole
to pule, resembles the majestic soarings of the mightiest of the feathered
tribe. |

“ During the month of January following, I saw a pair of sea eagles flying
over the Falls of the Ohio, one in chase of the other. The next day I saw
them again; the female had relaxed in her severity, had laid aside her coy-
ness, and to a favored tree they continually resorted. I pursued them
unsuccessfully for several days, when they forsook the place.

“The flight of this bird is very different from that of the white-headed
eagle, encircling more diameter than the latter; whilst sailing, keeping
nearer to the land and the surface of the water; and when about to dive for
fish, falling in acircuitous spiral manner, as if with an intention of checking
all retreating movement which its prey might attempt, and only when
within a few yaras darting upon it. The fish-hawk often does the same.
When rising with a fish they fly to a considerable distance, forming, in their
line of course and that of the water, a very acute angle, sometimes not
exceeding thirty degrees, when several hundred yards distant from the spot
emerged from. My last opportunity of seeing the sea eagle, was on the
15th of November, 1821, a few miles above the mouth of the Ohio; two
passed over our boat, moving down in easy flappings. In a letter froma kind
relation, Mr * **, dated ‘ Falls of the Ohio, July, 1819,’ containing particulars
relative to the swallow-tailed hawk (Falco furcatus,) he also says, ‘ Yes«
terday, for the first time, [had an opportunity of viewing one of those
magnificent birds, which you call the sea eagle, as it passed low over me,
whilst fishing ; I shall be really glad when I can again have the pleasure
of seeing your dra-ving of it.” The glands containing the oil, us:d for the
purpose of lubricating the surface of the plumage, were, in the specimen
here represented, extremely large ; the contents had the appearance o} hog’s
fat which had been melted and become rancid. This bird makes mora
cupious use of that substance than the white-headed eagle, or any of the
Falco genus, except the fish-hawk ; the whole plumage looking, upon close
exaniination, as if it had received a general coating of a thin clear dilution of
AVES—EAGLE. 447

gum arabic, and presenting less of the downy gloss exhibited on the vppef part
of the bald-headed eagle’s plumage. The male bird weighs fourteen and a
nalt pounds avoirdupois, measures three feet seven inches in length, and
ten feet two inches in extent.

‘““From the above account it will be seen that the bird nere described, and
faithfully figured from a fresh killed specir.en, is a very scarce species, cven
in those parts where it is a native; and that it is rarely met with, the few
opportunities I have had of seeing it, the dates of which I have generally
given, are a sufficient proof.”

WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE.

 

Turis distinguished bird has been long known to naturalists, beng ~ommon
‘to both continents, and occasionally met with from a very high northern
latitude, to the borders of the torrid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the
sea, and along the shores and cliffs of our lakes, and large rivers. Formed
by nature for braving the severest cold; feeding equally upon the produce
of the sea and of the land; possessing powers of flight capable of outstrippiug
even the tempests themselves; unawed by any thing but man; and from
the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking abroad, at one glance, on an
immeasurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and ocean deep below him,
he appears indifferent to the little localities of change of seasons; as ina
few minutes he can pass from summer to winter, from the lower to the
higher regions of the atmosphere, the abode of eternal cold; and thence

 

\ Falco leurocephatus, Lin.
448 AVES—EAGLE

descend at will to the torrid or the arctic regions of the earth. He 1s there-
fore found at all seasons in the countries he inhabits, but prefers such places
as have been mentioned above, from the great partiality he has for fisn.

In procuring these he displays, in a very singular manner, the genius and
energy of his character, which is fierce, contemplative, daring, and tyranni-
eal; attributes not exerted but on particular occasions; but when put forth,
overpowering all oppesition. Elevated on the high dead limb of some
gigantic tree, that commands a wide view of the neighboring shore and
ocean, he seems calmly to contemplate the motions of the various feathered
tribes that pursue their busy avocations below; the snow white gulls slowly
winnowing the air; the busy tring coursing along the sands; trains of
ducks streaming over the surface; silent and watchful cranes intent and
wading ; clamorous crows, and all the winged multitudes that subsist by
the bounty of this vast liquid magazine of nature. High over all these
hovers one, whose action instantly arrests ail his attention. By his wide
curvature of wing, and sudden suspension in air, he knows him to be the
jish-hawk, settling over some devoted victim of the deep. His eye kindles
at the sight, and balancing himself with half opened wings, on the branch,
ne watches the result. Down, rapid as an arrow from heaven, descends the
distant object of his attention, the roar of its wings reaching the ear as it
disappears in the deep, making the surges foam around! At this moment
the eager looks of the eagle are a‘l ardor, and levelling his reck for flight,
he sees the fish-hawk once more emerge, struggling with his prey, and
mounting in the air, with screams of exultation. ‘These are the signals for
our hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives chase, soon gains on
the fish-hawk, each exerts himself to the utmost to mount above the other,
displaying in these rencontres the most elegant and sublime evolutions. -
The unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reach-
ing his, opponent, when, with a sudden scream, probably of despair and
honest execration, the latter drops his fish; the eagle, poising himself for a
moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind,
snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten
booty silently away to the woods.

The predatory attacks and defensive manceuvres of the eagle and the fish-
hawk, are matters of daily observation along the whole of our seaboard,
from Georgia to New England, and frequently excite great interest in the
spectators. Syinpathy,,however, on this as on most other occasions, gene-
rally sides with the honest and laborious sufferer, in opposition to the
attacks of power, wnjustice, and rapacity; qualities for which our hero is so
generally notorious, and which, in his superior man, are certainly detesta-
ble.- As for the feelings of the poor fish, they seem altogether out of the
question. z

When driven, as he sometimes is, by the combined courage and perse-
verance of the fish-hawks, from their neighborhood, and forced to hunt for
AVES—EAGLE. 449

himself, he retires, more inland, in search of young pigs, of which he destroys
great numbers. In the lower parts of Virginia and North Carolina, where
the nbabitants raise vast herds of those animals, complaints of this kind
are very general against him. He also destroys young lambs in the early
part of spring ; and will sometimes attack old sickly sheep, aiming furiously
at their eyes.

HARPY EAGLE.

 

Tus noble bird, the most magnificent of the eagle tribe, is dist. guished
irom the other eagles, by the shortness of its wings, the extreme robustness
of its legs, and the more than ordinary curvature of its beak and talons.
Its upper mandible is remarkably thick at the base, from whence it is con-
tinued for some distance m a straight line, but suddenly curves downwards,
with a streng arch toward the point, which is extremely sharp; the lower
mandible is straight, short, and obtuse; the nostrils are transverse and oval ;
the wings do not reach when closed beyond the middle of the tail, which is
rounded at the extremity; the legs are only partially feathered, on the upper
part of their anterior surface, the remaining portion being naked and reticu-
lated ; and the talons are excessively powerful, the internal and the posterior
in particular attaining an almost disproportionable length.

 

1 Harpyia destructor, Cuvies
57
450 AVES—EAGLE.

, i

The harpy is so bold, according to Hernandez, that it does not scrupte te
attack the most ferocious beasts, and even man himself; but this attribute
is probably as much exaggerated as its docility, when he adds, that he may
be tamed and trained to hawk as readily as the rest of the accipitrine tribe
He states also that it is quarrelsome, sullen, and fierce, and preys not merely
upon birds, but upon hares, and other similar animals. Linaeus adds to this
account, probatly on the repurt of the keepers of the Spanish Menagerie
that it is capable of splitting a man’s skull with a single blow of its beak.
Mauduit states that he had been informed by travellers, that it commonly
feeds upon the two species of sloth which are found in the forests of Guiana,
and carries off in its talons fawns and other young quadrupeds. These
details are confirmed by Sonnini, who describes it as living perfectly solitary
in the depth and darkness of the thickest forests, where of course it is seldom
disturbed by the prying eye of curiosity. He himself observed it perched on
a lofty tree, on the banks of the Orassu, where it seemed altogether motion
less, and uttered no cry. His shot having only broken his wing, he fastened
it by one leg to his boat, in which position it remained for several days,
displaying no symptoms of mischievousness, but constantly refusing all
kinds of food. This was the specimen called by him aigle destructeur.

These scattered notices comprise all that is known of its history in its
natural state. In captivity there is little to distinguish its manners from
those of the other birds of its trive. An individual taken from the nest,
in possession of the elder Jacquin, became so tame as to suffer its head to
be handled and scratched ; but unfortunately this specimen was found dead
on its passage to Europe, having fallen a victim, as was supposed, to the
vengeance of the sailors, whose monkeys it had destroyed. These animals,
in their gambols, unconsciously approached too near its cage, and were
seized by its powerful talons; it devoured them with almost al] their bones,
but not without skinning them, an operation which it uniformly performed
previously to consigning them to its maw.

THE CHILIAN SEA EAGLE.

Tue beautiful species which we are about to describe, measures about two
feet in length, from the point of the beak to the extremity of “he tail, and
from four to five in the expanse of its wings. No other individual, except
that which is now in the Zoological Society’s Collection, has, we believe
ever been in Europe; and even in cabinets, the stuffed skin appears to be
of considerable rarity. It was first made known to science by M. D’Azara,
to whom we are indebted for the earliest descriptions of so many South

 

' Holietus aguia, Tomo.
AVES—EAGLE. 451

American animals, as well as for the most authentic details with respect to
their native habits. In the present instance he has unfortunately given uv
no such particulars ; and as no other zoologist has seen the living bird in a
state of nature, we can but judge from analogy that its manners are the same
with those of the best known species of its genus. A figure taken from a
preserved specimen, has been lately published by M. Temminck, in, his
splendid Planches Coloriées; and the description which accompanies it, is
the only original notice of the bird subsequent to that of M. D’Azara.

 

The latter author, or rather his French translator, names it Daigle
noiratre et blanc. He states, that it is found, but not frequently, in Para-
guay, and that it is generally seen in pairs. The feathers of the head, neck,
and upper part of the body, are, according to his description, of a blackish
blue, and, with the exception of those of the back, terminated by dirty white.
The tail is blackish, with small whitish spots scattered over its surface the
upper wing-coverts ash colored, with blackish stems and transverse lines of
the same ; and the large coverts, as will as the quill-feathers, of a deeper
ash, variegated with narrow black bands. The whole under surface is
beautifully white, with transverse blackish lines on the under tail-coverts,
and larger wing-coverts alone; the smaller wing-coverts having no other
part but their stems of this sombre tinge. The naked part of the leg is of a
hght yellow, with large fiat scales botn before and behind; tre cere is pale
yellow ; the beak black at its point, and blue at the base; and the iris of 8
very light hazel.
452 AVES—EAGLE.

THE WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE.

 

Tue shape of the tail of this bird is peculiar to the continent of New Hol+
land, to which country the wedge-tailed eagle appears exclusively to
belong. Its general color is of a deep dusky brown or dull black. It is
said to prey upon the emeus, and other large birds, and also on the young
kanguroos. There is a living individual now in the possession of the
Zoological Society, the only one that has been brought to Europe.

THE BRAZILIAN CARACARA EAGLE?

So named from its hoarse and peculiar cry, is of a blackish brown color,
with a light brownish gray neck, and the top of the head black. Accnrding
to D’Azara, the full grown bird is twenty-one and a half inches in length,

od

 

1 Falco fuscosus, Cuv. 3 Falco Braziliensis GmEu.
AVES—HAWK. 453

and fifty im the expanse of the wings. Its range extends over a great part
of South America, from Venezuela to Paraguay. It builds generally oa tne

 

tops of trees, but sometimes ina bushy thicket. It feeds on almost every
sort of living creature.

 

THE GOSHAWK.1

 

Tas bird 1s somewhat longer than the buzzard, but more slender and
beautiful, and is one foot ten inches in length. Its bill is blue, tipped with
black; the cere green; the eyes yellow; over each eye there is a whitish
line; the head and all the upper parts of the body are of a deep brown color,
aud each side of the neck is irregularly marked with white; the breast and

 

T

1 Falco palumbarius, Lin.
454 AVES--HAWK.

belly are white, with a number of wavy lines or bars of black; the tails
long, of an ash color, and crossed with four or five dusky bars; the legs are
yellow, and the claws black; the wings are much shorter than the tail. — It
feeds on mice and small birds, and eagerly devours raw flesh ; it plucks the
birds very neatly, and tears them into pieces before it eats them, but swal-
lows the pieces entire; and frequently disgorges the hair rolled up in small
pellets.

The goshawk is found in France and Germany; it is not very nunierous
in England, but is more frequent in Scotland, where it breeds in lofty trees,
and destroys large quantities of game. It is also common in Russia, and
Siberia. There is in Chinese. Tartary a variety which is mottled with
brown and yellow, and is used for sporting by the nobility.

THE SPARROW-HAWK.a

 

Tuts bird is somewhat larger than a common pigeon, the male being abo -
twelve inches in length, and the female fifteen. It has a short hooked blue
bill, with yellow cere, slender reddish legs, and rather a long tail. The
color of the eye is a bright orange. The plumage on the wings and upper
parts of the body is brown, spotted with yellowish dun; the lower parts in
some are whitish ; in others of a russet color.

The sparrowhawk is very numerous in various parts of the world, from
Russia to the Cape of Good Hope. The female builds in high rocks, lofty
ruins, or hollow trees, but will sometimes condescend to take up with the
old nest of a crow. Four or five is the number of eggs which she lays, and
they are marked with reddish spots at the longer end. The sparrowhawk
is more easily trained and made docile than most of the rapacious tribes,
and when domesticated it is susceptible of great attachment to its owner.
In its wild state it commits enormous havoc among the smaller race of birds.
and it is an object of particular dislike to the farmer, as it sometimes makes
destructive visits to the poultry yard, and is so daring that it is not to he
intimidated from the pursuit of its prey even by the presence of mankind.

 

1 Falco nisus, Lin.
AVES—HAWK. 455

Of tne puzzard, kite, and falcon kind, above seventy differeny species,
foreign and domestic, have been enumerated. Of all these the ne ure and
Properties are nearly the same, and the description we have given of the
jer-falcon, will apply to most of the hawk species, only differing in size and
other minuter particulars; and that of the buzzard to the kites in general,
with the same allowance.. Of the foreign birds of these species, some are
crested, and others have plumage differing from those of Europe.

THE AMERICAN SPARROW-HAWEK!

    

 

=

oe

»S a constant resident in almost every vart of the United States, particularly
fn the states north of Maryland. The habits and manners of this bird are
well known. It flies rather irregularly. It perches on the top of a dead
tree or pole'in the middle of a field; and sits there in an almost perpendicu-
lar position, sometimes for an hour at a time, frequently jerking its tail,
and reconnoitering the ground below, in every direction, for mice and
lizards, &c. It approaches the farmhouse particularly in the morning,
skulking about the barn-yard for mice or young chickens. It frequently
plunges into a thicket after small birds, as if at random, but always witha
particular and generally a fatal aim.

Though small snakes, mice, and lizards, be favorite morsels with this
active bird, yet we are not to suppose it altogether destitute of delicacy in
feeding. It will seldom or never eat of any thing that it has not itself killed;
and even that, if. not in good eating order, is sometimes rejected. A verv
respectable friend informs me, says Wilson, that one morning he observed

 

1 Falco sparverius, Lin.
456 AVES—HAWK.

one of these hawks dart down on thé ground, and seize a mouse, which he
carried to a fence post; where, after examining it for some titne, he lett it;
and a little while after pounced upon another mouse, which he instantly
varried off to his nest in the hollow of a tree hard by. The gentleman,
anxious to know why the hawk had rejected the first mouse, went up to it,
and found it to be almost covered with lice, and greatly emaciated! Here
was not only delicacy of taste, but sound and prudent reasoning. — “If I
carry this to my nest,” thought he, “ it will fill it with vermin; and hardly
be worth eating.”

Many writers have spoken of this bird as inhabiting the West India is’ands,
and especially Hispaniola, whence the species has been commonly known
by the name of Saint Domingo hawks. Cayenne is given as its habitat by
Brisson and Buffon; Paraguay, by D’Azara; and the Straits of Magellan, by
Captain King. In the United States it usually builds in a hollow tree, and
generally at a considerable distance from the ground, but in the south it is
said to be more sociable, and D’Azara asserts that it will even take up its
abode in churches and other old buildings. It lays from two to four or five
eggs; and the young when hatched are fed with small birds, grasshoppers,
and mice, the usual food of the parent birds.

The note of this bird is so exactly imitated by the blue jay, as to deceive
even those acquainted with them both; and, whether through fear or fascina-
tion, no sooner does he.make his appearance in their neighborhood, than the
jays swarm around him and commence insulting him with their imitative
cries. In return for this, as might naturally be expected, they fall frequent
victims to his appetite.

THE BLACK HAWK!

Is a native of North America alone. It is a remarkably shy and wary bird,
fo ud ost frequently along the marshy shores of large rivers; feeds on
mice, fiugs, aad moles; sails much and sometimes ata great height; has
been seen to kill a duck on the wing; sits by the side of the marshes ona
stake for half an hour ata time, as if dozing; flies with great ease, ana
occasionally with great swiftness, seldom flapping nis wings; is most
numerous with us in winter, and but rarely seen in summer; is remarkable
for the great size of its eye, length of its wings, and shortness of its toes.
The breadth of its head is likewise uncommon. We have no account of its
place or manner of breeding.

 

F. niger, Wiuson.
AVES—HAWK. 457

THE PIGEON HAWK! :

PossEssks great spirit and rapidity of flight. He is generally migratory mn
the middle and northern states, arriving in Pennsylvania eaily in spring,
and extending his migrations as far north as Hudson’s Bay. After building,
and rearing his young, he returns to the south early in November. Small
birds and mice are his principal food. When the reed birds, grak es, and
rell-winged black birds congregate in large flights, he is often obse: ved fol«
lowing in their rear, picking up the weak, the wounded, or the stragglers;
and frequently making a sudden and fatal sweep into the very midst of their
multitudes. The flocks of robins and pigeons are honored with the same
attentions from this marauder, whose daily excursions are entirely regulated
by the movements of the great body, on whose unfortunate members he
fattens.

Sometimes, when shot at and not hurt, he will fly in circles over the
sportsman’s head, shrieking out with great violence, as if highly irritated.
He frequently flies low, skimming a little above the field.

THE SWALLOW-TAILED HAWK?

 

Is a very elegant species, which inhabits the southern districts of the United
States in summer. It is very abundant in South Carolina and Georgia, and
still more so in West Florida, and the extensive prairies of Ohio and {[ndiana

1F’, columbarius, Lin. 2, furcatus, Lin,

53 39
458 AVES—BUZZARD.

They feed on locusts, and on a species of lizard which is very numerous
in that part of the country —and are said also to devour small green snakes.
The flight of this bird is easy and graceful, with sometimes occasional
sweeps among the trees.

 

THE COMMON BUZZARD,

 

Wutcu 1s one of the most widely known kinds of hawk in England, is about
twenty inches in length, and four feet and a half in breadth, when measured
across the expansion of the wings. The lower parts of the body are pale,
varied with brown; on the upper parts dusky bars of a darker hue, mark
the wings and tail, the latter of which is grayish beneath, and tipped with
dusky white. The legs are yellow, the claws black, and the bill lead-
colored, short, and hooked. ‘

Though strong and active, the buzzard is so cowardly that he will fly even
trom the sparrow-hawk, and, when he 1s overtaken, will allow himself to
be beaten, and cast to the ground, without making any resistance. His
indolence is equal to his cowardice, as he will sit perched on the same bough
during the greatest part of the day. Such is his laziness that he seldom
constructs a nest, but contents himself witn repairing the old nest of a crcw,
and lining it with wool and other soft materials. Rats, mice, and often all
sorts of carrion, are his articles of subsistence.

It is but fair, however, that justice shold be done to the good qualities of
the buzzard. He may be tamed ; and, in his domestic state, he manifests a,
very strong attachment to his owner. Buffon has given a highly amusing
account of one which was reclaimed from the wild state by the Rector of
St Pierre de St Belesme, and which displayed much of the sagacity and
affection of a dog. “ After having shut it up about six weeks,” says he, “I
segan to allow it a little liberty, taking the precaution, however, to tie both
the pinions of its wings. In this condition it walked out in my garden, and

 

1 Falco buteo, Lin.
AVES—RBUZZARD. 459

returned when I called it to feed After some time, when I judged that I
could trust to its fidelity, I removed the ligatures; and fastened a small bell,
an inch anda half in diameter, above its talon, and also attached to its
breast a bit of copper, having my name engraved on it. I then gave it
entire liberty, which it soon abused ; for it took wing, and flew as far as the
forest of Belestne. I gave it up for lost; but four hours afterwards, I saw i
rush into my hall, pursued by four or five other buzzards, which had con
strained it to seek again its asylum. Alter this adventure, it preserved its
fidelity to me, coming every night to sleep on my window.” It would also
sit by and caress him at dinner, and follow him when he was on horseback.
This bird had a remarkable antipathy to wigs, and particularly to red caps,
which it never failed to snatch from the wearers, and deposit in a very high
tree, that served as a store-house for its plunder. It is still more to the
credit of the buzzard, that it is a most kind and assiduous parent; and Ray
affirms that, should the female chance to be killed, the male will take charge
of the young ones, and rear them till they can provide for themselves. The
eggs of this bird are whitish, spotted with yellow.

THE MOOR BUZZARD.

 

Tuis bird is about twenty-one inches in length, with a black bill, and
yellow cere and eyes. The whole crown of the head is ofa yellowish white,
lightly tinged with brown; the throat is of a light rust color; the rest of the
plumage is of a reddish brown, with pale edges; the greater wing-coverts
are tipped with white; the legs are yellow; and claws black.

Rabbits, young wild ducks, and other waterfowl, are the prey of this bird,
which will likewise feed on fish, frogs, reptiles, andeven insects. Its haunts
are in hedges and bushes, near pools, marshes, and rivers that abound with
fish. It builds its nest a little above the surface of the ground, or in hillocks

 

1F rufus, Lin.
460 AVES—KITE.

covered with thick herbage; the female lays three or four eggs of a whitish
color, irregularly sprinkled with dusky spots. Though smaller, it is more
active and bold than the common buzzard, and when pursued, it faces its
antagonist, and makes a vigorous defence.

Birds of this kind differ much; in some the crown and back part of the
head being yellow; while some are uniformly of a chocolate brown, with a
tinge of rust color.

THE KITE!

 

Is distinguished by his forked tail, and slow sailing flight, in which he seems
perpetually on the wing. He is larger than the common buzzard. He has
large eyes, yellow legs and feet, and black talons. The head and back are.
of a pale ash hue, which is varied across the shafts of the feathers by longi-
tudinal lines. His neck is reddish ; the feathers covering the inside of the
wings are red, with black spots in the centre; and the lesser rows of the
wing feathers are party-colored black, red, and white. He lives only upon
accidental carnage, as almost every bird in the air is able to make good his
retreat against him. He may be, therefore, considered as an insidious thief,
who only prowls about, and, when he finds a small bird wounded, ora
young chicken strayed too far from the mother, instantly seizes the hour of
ealamity, and, like a famished glutton, is sure to show no mercy. His
hunger, indeed, often urges him to acts of seeming desperation. We have
seen one of them fly round and round for a while to mark a clutch of
chickens, and then ona sudden dart like lightning upon the unresisting
litle animal, and carry it off, the ken in vain crying out, and the boys
hooting and casting stones to scare it from its plunder. For this reason, of
all birds, the kite is the good housewife’s greatest tormenter and aversion.

 

4 Fulco milous, Lin
AVES—FALCON...KITE. 461

THE ROUGH-LEGGED FALCON,

Notwitustanpine its formidable size and appearance, spends the chief part
of the winter among our low swamps and meadows, watching for mice,
frogs, lame ducks, and other inglorious game. Twenty or thirty individuals
of this fumily have regularly taken up their winter quarters for several years
past in the meadows below Philadelphia, between the Delaware and
Schuylkill rivers, where they spend their time watching the banks like cats;
or sailing low and slowly over the surfaces of the ditches. Though rendered
shy by any attempt made to shoot them, they seldom fly far, usually from
one tree to another at no great distance, making a loud squealing as they
rise, something resembling the neighing of a young colt, though in a more
shrill and savage tone.

This bird is common during winter in the lower parts of Maryland, and
aumerous in the extensive meadows below Newark, New Jersey; and are
frequent along the Connecticut river. Their flight is slow and heavy.
They take their station at daybreak near a ditch, bank, or haystack, for
hours together, watching with patient vigilance for the first unlucky frog,
mouse, or lizard, to make its iippearance. The instant one of these is de-
scried, the hawk, sliding into the air, sweeps over the spot, and in an instant
has his prey grappled and sprawling in the air.

THE MISSISSIPPI KITE?

1 rinst observed, says Wilson, a few miles below Natchez, where I found
them in company with the turkey buzzard, whose flight it so exactly
imitates as to seem the same species, in miniature. It sails about in easy
circles, and at an immense height in the air. I observed numbers of this
lLawk sweeping about among the trees like swallows, in pursuit of the
locusts that were in swarms on the trees, so that insects, it would appear,
are the principal food of this species; but I do not doubt that mice, lizards,
snakes, and small birds, furnish him with an occasional repast. This hawk
is fourteen inches in length, and three feet in extent of wing. It is of an
ash color, with a white neck and head.

- — 3 —_—

1 BF, lagopus, Lin. 3, piundcus, UMEL,
39*
462 AVES—HAWK...BUZZARD.

THE MARSH HAWK!

Is, no doubt, the same species as the ring-tailed nawk of Kurope. They are
very common in New Jersey, where they are known by the name of mouse
hawk. Itis said, by Bonaparte, to be the young hen-harrier. They are
most numerous in extensive meadows and salt marshes, over which they
sail very low, making frequent circuitous sweeps over the ground, in
search of a species of mouse, very abundant in such situations. It is
said by European writers to build on the ground, or on the low limbs of
trees. It is found at Hudson’s Bay. Itis particularly serviceable to the
tice fields of the southern states, by the havoc it makes among the clouds of
rice buntings that spread so much devastation among that grain. The
planters consider one hawk to be equal to severa: negroes for alarming the
rice birds.

THE RED-TAILED HAWK, OR BUZZARD?

’ Iynapits the whole of the United States. Among the extensive meadows
that border the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers below Philadelphia, where
flocks of larks, and where mice and moles are in great abundance, many
individuais of this hawk spend the greater part of the winter. Others prowl
about the plantations, looking for vagrant chickens; their method of seizing
which, is by sweeping swiftly over the spot; and then, grappling them with
their talons, they bear them away to the woods.

THE AMERICAN BUZZARD3

ReEsEMBLFs the red-tailed hawk, in size and general aspect, but differs some-
what in color. It may perhaps on investigation be found to be the same.
It is more numerous than the latter, but frequents the same situationy
in the winter. One, which was shot on the wing, lived several weels,
but refused to eat. It amused itself by frequently hopping from one end of
the room to the other, and sitting for hours at the window, looking down
on the passengers below. At first, when approached by any one, he drew
back; but after some time, he became quite familiar, permitting himself to
be handled, and shutting h's eyes as if quite passive. Though he lived so
1ong without food, he was found on dissection to be exceedingly fat.

 

‘FE, cyaneus, Lin. 2 F. borealis, GMEL. 3 F’, buteoides, Norra
AVES—OWL. 463

THE EUROPEAN HORNED OWL, OR
EAGLE OWL,!

 

Ar first view appears as large as an eagle, though when he comes to be
observed more closely, he will be found much less, being but two feet in
length. His eyes are large and transparent, encircled with an orange
colored iris; his ears are large and deep; his plumage is of reddish brown,

. narked on the back with black and yellow spots, and yellow only upor the
belly. To its offspring it is very affectionate, and if they are taken from the
nest and confined, it will assiduously supply them with food. This, how«
ever, it accomplishes with such secrecy and sagacity, that it is almost
impossible to detect it in the act. This bird has been seen in Scotland, and
in Yorkshire, but is notcommon in England.

All birds of the owl kind have one common mark, by which they are
listinguished from others; their eyes, like those of tigers and cats, are
formed for seeing better in the dusk, than in the broad glare of sunshine.
The pupil, in fact, is capable of opening very wide, or shutting very close;
and, by contracting it, the brighter light of the day, which would act too

Strix bubo, Linx, The gents Strix has the bill bent from its origin; base sarrounaed
by a cere, covered wholly or in part by stifl’ hairs; head large, much feathered; nostrils
lateral, pierced in the anterior margin of the cere, rounded, open, concealed by hairs
directed forwards; eyes very large, orbits surrounded by feathers; legs feathered, often to
the claws ; three toes before and one behind, separate, the exterior reversible; the first
wing feathers dentated on their exterior burder, the third the longest.

 
464 AVES—OWL.

powerfully upon the sensibility of tae eye, is excluded; while, by dilating
the pupil, the animal takes in the more faint rays of the night, and thereby
is enabled to spy its prey, and catch it with greater facility in the dark.

But though owls are dazzled by too bright a daylight, yet they do not see
best in the darkest nights, as some have been apt to imagine.

The nights when the moon shines are the times of their most successful
plunder; for when it is wholly dark, they are less qualified for seeing and
pursuing their prey; except, therefore, by moonlight, they contract the hours
of their chase ; and if they come out at the approach of dusk in the evening
they return before it is totally dark, and then rise by twilight the next
morning, to pursue their game, and to return, in like manner, before the
broad daylight begins to dazzle them with its splendor.

Yet the faculty of seeing in the night, or of being entirely dazzled by day,
is not alike in every species of these nocturnal birds. The common white
or barn owl, for instance, sees with-such exquisite acuteness in the dark,
though the barn has been shut at night, and the light thus totally excluded,
that it perceives the smallest mouse that peeps from its hole; on the con-
trary, the brown horned owl is often scen to prowl along the hedges by day,
like the sparrow-hawk ; and sometimes with good success. The note of the
ow] is not unpleasant. “A friend,” says Mr White, “remarks that most
of his owls hoot in B flat; but that one went almost half a note below A. —
A neighbor of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, remarks that the owls
about this village hoot in three different keys, in G flat, or F sharp, in B flat
and A flat. He heard two hooting to each other, the one in A flat, and the
other in B flat.”

THE AMERICAN HORNED OWL}!

Tne great horned owl is fuund in almost every quarter of the United
States. ‘His favorite residence, however, is in the dark solitudes of deep
swainps, covered with a growth of gigantic timber; and here, as soon as
evening draws or, and mankind retire to rest, he sends forth such sounds,
as seem scarcely to belong to this world. Along the mountainous shores of
the Ohio, and amidst the deep forests of Indiana, alone and reposing in the
woods, this ghostly watchman has frequently warned me of the approach of
morning, and amused me by his singular exclamations; sometimes sweep-
ing down and around my fire, uttering a sudden Waugh O! Waugh O!
sufficient to have alarmed a whole garrison. He has other nocturnal solos,
no less no Jious, one of which very strikingly resembles the half suppress-

 

1 Strir Virginiana, Witson.
AVES—OWL. 465

ed screams of a person suffocated or throttled, and cannot fail of being
exceedingly entertaining to a lonely benighted traveller, in the midst of an
Indian wilderness.”

This species inhabits the country round Hudson's Bay; and according to
Pennant, (who considers it a mere variety of the eagle owl of [urope,) is
found in Kamtschatka, extends even to the Arctic regions, where it is found
white; and occurs as low as Astrachan. It has also been seen white in the
United States, but this has been owing doubtless to disease. It preys on

 

young rabbits, squirrels, rats, miee, partridges, and small birds of various
kinds. It has been often known to prowl about a farmhouse, and carry off
chickens from roost. The great horned owl is not migratory, but remains
with us the whole year. He is.very rarely seen abroad by day, and never
but when disturbed. The nest is generally placed in the fork of a tall tree
and is constructed of sticks piled in considerable quantity, lined with dry
-eaves and a few feathers. The female lays four white eggs, nearly as large
as those of a hen.

 

THE SNOWY OWL!‘

Is a native of the most northern regions of both continents, passing south-
ward in the old as far as the latitude of Astracan, and in the new to, that of

1 Strix nyctea, Lin,

59
466 AVES—OWL.

Pennsylvania, or more rarely even to the borders of Florida. Itis very
seldom, however, met with in Europe to the south of Sweden; while in
America it appears to oe most frequent in the latitude of Hudson’s Bay.
Bechstein mentions one or two instances of its appearance in the neighbor-
hood of Leipsic and of Dresden; and it has obtained a place in the British
Fauna, as an inhabitant of the islands of Orkney and Shetland, where it
was first detected by Mr Edmonstone, about eighteen or twenty years ago.
It seems probable, from that gentleman’s observations, that it is stationary in
the last mentioned locality throughout the year; but Wilson believes it to be
only an occasional visitant in the United States, except perhaps in some of

 

the more northern and inland parts, when it may remain during the summer
to breed: In the early part of the present year, (1832,) one of them was shot
onan island in Boston harbor, where he had been noticed lurking for several
days previous, feeding on clams, muscles, and other shellfish along the
shore.
The comparative length of wing and strength of the quill feathers, in this
eautiful owl, enable him to fly with much more swiftness, and to remain
suspended in the air for a much greater length of time, than any other bird
of the family, It flies avroad also in the daytime, as well as in the twilight,
aud in all these particulars, as well as in the nature of its food, evinces a
striking approach to some of the more strictly diurnal birds of prey. It feeds
almost indiscriminately on birds, quadrupeds, fishes, and even carrion; and
is stated by. Hearne to be extremely troublesome to the hunter, whom it will
follow for a whole-day, perching itself on the highest tree, and skimming
down, when a bird has been shot with such rapidity as to carry off the prize

/
AVES—OWL. 46?

before the sportsman can get within reach of it. ‘They are,” he adds, “so
great a hindrance to these employed in the hunting service, that the same
prenium is given for one of their heads as for that of the hawk.”

Wilson describes this bird as being particularly fond of frequenting the
shores and banks of shallow rivers, sailing slowly over the surface, or sitting
on a rock a little raised above the water, watching for fish, which it seizes
with a sudden and instantaneous stroke of the foot, seldom missing its aim.
It is capable of swallowing entire animals of considerable size, such as
grouse, and partridges, young hares, and rabbits. Mr Bullock mentions an
instance that came within his knowledge, in which a wounded individual
disgorged a whole rabbit. According to Hearne, the female makes her nest
upon the ground, and generally lays from three to four eggs, but seldom
hatches more than two. The young are unable to fly before September ;
and the parents never migrate in search of a more temperate climate, but
brave the coldest winters, even on the barren grounds, far from any shelter
that might be derived from the woods. In such situations they perch on
high rocks and stones, watching for their prey, their snowy plumage render-
ing them almost undistinguishable. Their voice is so dismal; that, as Pen-
nant observes, it adds horror even to a Greenland winter.

THE WHITE, OR BARN OWL|,

THouGH so common in Europe, is much rarer in the United States
than the preceding; and is only found here during very severe win-
ters. This may possibly be owing to the want of those favorite recesses in
this part of the world, which it so much affects in the Eastern Continent.
The multitudes of old ruined towers, castles, uunasteries, and cathedrals,
that every where rise to view in those countries, are the’ chesen haunts of
this well. known species. Its savage cries at night give, with vulgar minds,
a cast of supernatural horror to those ‘venerable mouldering files of anti
quity. This species being common to both continents, doubtless extends to
the arctic regions.

Tey feed eagerly upon the meadow mouse, which is found in the mea-
dows below Philadelphia, and on the marshes along the seashore. Another
tavorite prey of this owl 1s the hat.

 

\striz flammea, Lin.
468 AVES—OWL.

THE HAWK OWL!

ls a connecting link between the hawk and owl tribes. It has one strong
trait of the hawk tribe in flying and preying by day, contrary to the general
habit of owls. It is characterized asa po.d and active species, following
the fowler and carrying off his game as soon as shot. It is said to prey un
partridges and birds, and is very common in Hudson’s Bay. It is rare in
the soutmern parts of the United States. Its favorite range seems to he
along the borders of the arctic regions. Of their nest and manner of breed-
ing we have no account. It is an inhabitant of both continents.

It is worthy of remark, that in all owls that fly by night, the exterior
edges and sides of the wing quills are slightly recurved, and end in fine
hairs or points; by which means the bird is enabled to pass through the air
with the greatest silence, a provision necessary for enabling them the better
to securé'their prey. In the hawk owl, which dies by day, and to whom
this contrivance would be of no consequence, it is accordingly omitted, or at
least is scarcely observable. :

THE RED OWL®

 

5 :
Is well hnown by its common name of the little screech owl ; and noted for
its melancholy quivering kind of wailing in the evening, particularly towards
the latter part of summer and autumn, near the farmhouse. -On clear moon
.ight nights they answer each other from various parts of the fields o
zrchards; roost during the day in thick evergreens, such as cedar, pine, o

 

1 Strix funerea, Gmuev. 2S. asio, Lin.
AVES—OWL. 46S

juniper trees, and are rarely seen abroad during the sunshine. They con-
struct their nests in the hollow of a tree, often in the orchard in an old
apple tree.

I kept one of these birds, says Wilson, in a room for several weeks. It
was caught in a barn, and being unhurt, I had an opportunity of remarking
its manners. At first it struck itself so forcibly against the window as fre-
quently to deprive it, seemingly, of all sensation for several minutes; this
was done so repeatedly that I began io fear that either the glass, or the owl’s
skull must give way. Ina few days, however, it cither began to compre-
hend the matter, or to take disgust at the glass; for it never repeated its
attempts, and soon became quite tame and familiar. Those who have seen
this bird only in the day, can form but an imperfect idea of its activity and
even sprightliness in its proper season of exercise. Throughout the day it
was al] stillness and gravity ; its eyelids half shut, its neck contracted, and
its head shrunk seemingly into its body. But scarcely was the sun set and
twilight began to approach, when its eyes became full aad sparkling like
two living globes of fire; it crouched on its perch; reconnoitered every
object round with looks of eager fierceness; alighted and fed; stood on the
meat with clenched talons, while it tore it in morsels with its bill; flew
round the room with the silence of thought, and perching, moaned out its
melancholy notes with many lively gesticulations, not at all accordant with
the pitiful tone of its ditty, which reminded one of the shivering moaning
of a half frozen puppy.

THE LITTLE OWL}

Ts one of the least of its whole genus, 5ut, like many other little folks, maxes
up in neatness of general form and appearance for deficiency of size, and is
perhaps the most shapely of all our owls. It also possesses an eye fully
equal in spirit and brilliancy to the best of them.

This species is a general and constant inhabitant of the middle and north-
ern states; but is found most numerous in the neighborhood of the sea+
shore, and among woods and swamps of pinetrees. It rarely rambles mucn
during the day ; but if disturbed, flies a short way, and again takes shelter
from the light; at the approach of twilight it is all life and activity, being
a noted and dexterous mouse catcher. It is found as far north as Nova
Scotia, and even Hudson’s Bay, and is frequent in Russia. It builds its
nest in a pine tree. The melancholy and gloomy umbrage of those solitary
evergreens forms its favorite haunts, where it sits dozing and slumbering all
day. lulied by the roar of the neighboring ocean.

 

ae See
1S. passerina, WiLson.

40
470 AVES—OWL.

THE BURROWING OWL-

Dirrers essentially from all others in his habits and manners. Instead of
hiding his head in the daylight, he fearlessly flies abroad in search of rrey,
in the broadest glare of the sun; and far from seeking abodes of solitude and
silence, he lives in company with animals in the recesses of the earth, where
they all enjoy the pleasures of fellowship and good harmony. The mounds
of the prairie dog or marmot, which are thrown up in such numbers near
the Rocky Mountains, are about eighteen inches in height. The entrai.ce
is by a passage two feet in length, which terminates in a comfortable cell
composed of dry grass, where the marmot takes up his winter abode.
Around these villages, the burrowing owls may he seen moving briskly
about, singly or in small flocks. They seem to have very little fear of man,
either soaring to a distance when alarmed, or descending into the burrows,
where it is very difficult to come at them. In countries where the marmot
1s not found, this owl is said to dig a hole for himself. Their food appears
to consist entirely of insects. Its note is similar to the cry of the marmot,
which sounds like chef, cheh, pronounced in rapid succession.

The burrowing owl is nine inches and a half long. The general color ot
the plumage is a light burnt umber, spotted with whitish. The under parts
are white, banded with brown.

All this tribe of animals, Lowever they may differ in their size and
plumage, agree in their general characteristics of preying by-night; their
bodies are strong and muscular ; their feet and claws made for tearing their
prey; and their stomachs for digesting it. It must be remarked, however,
that the digestion of all birds that live upon mice, lizards, or such like food,
is not very perfect ; for though they swallow them whole, yet they are always
seen some time after to disgorge the skin and bones rolled up in a pellet, as
being indigestible.

As they are incapable of supporting the light of the day, or at least of then
seeing and readily avoiding their danger, they keep all this time concealed
in some obscure retreat, suited to their gloomy appetites, and there continug
in solitude and silence. The cavern of a rock, the darkest part of a hullow
tree, the battlements of a ruined, unfrequented castle, or some obscure hole
in a farmer’s outhouse, are the places where they are usually found; if they
be seen out of these retreats in the daytime, they may be considered as
having lost their way; as having by some accident been thrown into the
midst of their enemies, and surrounded with danger.

In this distress “hey are obliged to take shelter in the first tree or hedge
hat offers, there to continue concealed all day, till the returning durknes

 

1 Strix cunicularia, Bonap.
AVES_—OWL. 471

one more supplies them with a better plan of the country But it too ofter
happens, that, with all their precaution to concea) themselves, they are spied
out Sy the other birds of the place, and are sure to receive no mercy. The
blackbird, the thrush, the jay, the bunting, and the redbreast, all come in
file, and employ their little arts of insult and abuse. The smallest, the
feeblest, and the most contemptible of this unfortunate bird’s enemies, are
then the foremost to injure and torment him. ‘They increase their cries and
turbulence round him, flap him with their wings, and are ready to show tl:eir
courage to be great, as they are sensible that their danger is but small.
The unfortunate owl, not knowing where to attack, or whither to fly,
patiently sits and suffers all their insults. Astonished and dizzy, he only
rephes to their mockeries by awkward and ridiculous gestures, by turning
his head, and rolling his eyes with an air of stupidity. It is enough that an
owl] appears by day to set the whole grove intoa kind of an uproar. Either
the aversion all the small birds have to this animal, or the consciousness of
their own security, makes them pursue him without ceasing, while they
encourage each other by their mutual cries to lend assistance in their lauda-
ble undertaking. ‘

It sometimes happens, however, that the little birds pursue their insults
with the same imprudent zeal with which the owl himself had pursued his
depredations. They hunt him the whole day until evening returns; which
restoring him his faculties of sight once more, he makes the foremost of his
pursuers pay dear for their former sport; nor is man always an unconcerned
spectator here. The bird catchers have got an art of counterfeiting the cry
of an owl exactly; and, having before limed the branches of a hedge, they
sit unseen, and give the call. At this, all the little birds flock to the place
where they expect to find their well known enemy; but, instead of finding
their stupid antagonist, they are stuck fast to the hedge themselves. This
sport must be put in practice an hour before nightfall, in order to be success-
ful; for if it is put off till later, those birds which but a few minutes sooner
came to provoke their enemy, will then fly from him with as much terror a3
they just before showed insolence.

It is not unpleasant to see one stupid bird made in some sort a decoy to
deceive another. The great horned owl is sometimes made use of for this
purpose, to lure the kite, when the falconer desires to catch him for the
purpose of training the falcon. Upon this occasion, they clap the tail of a
fox to the great owl, to render his figure extraordinary; in which trim he
sails slowly along, flying low, which is his usual manner. The kite, either
curious o observe this odd kind of animal, or perhaps inquisitive to se:
whether it may not be proper for food, flies after, and comes nearer ar®
nearer. In this manner he continues to hover, and sometimes to desvend,
till the falconer, setting a strong winged hawk against him, seizes him ft
the purnose of training his young ones at home.
472 AVES—HORNBILL.

The usual place where the great horned owl breeds is in the cavern of a
rock, the hollow of a tree, or the turret of seme ruined castle. Its nest ig
near three feet in diameter, and composed of sticzs, bound together by the
fibrous roots of trees, and lined with leaves on the inside. It lays about

. three eggs, which are larger than those of a hen, and of a color somewhat
resembling the bird itself. The lesser owl of this kind never makes a nest
for itself, but always takes up with the old nest of some other bird, which it
aas often been forced to abandon. It lays four or five eggs; and the young
are all white at first, but change color in about a fortnight. The other owls
in general build near the place where they chiefly prey; that which feeds
upon birds, in some neighboring grove; that which preys chiefly upon mice,
near some farmer’s yard, where the proprietor of the place takes care to give
it perfect security. In fact, whatever mischief one species of ow] may do in
the woods, the barn owl makes a sufficient recompense for, by heing equally
active in destroying mice nearer home; so that a single ow] is said to be
more serviceable than half a dozen cats in ridding the barn of its domestic
vermin. “In the year 1580,” savs an old writer, “at Hallontide, an army
of mice so overrun the marshes near Southminster, that they ate up the
grass to the very roots. But at length a great number of strange painted
owls came and devoured all the mice. The like happened again in Essex
about sixty years after.”

ORDER II.—OMNIVOROUS BIRDS.

brrps of this order have the bill middle sized, robust, sharp on the edges;
the upper mandible more or less convex, and notched at the point; feet with
four toes, three before and one behind; wings of medium size, with the
quill feathers terminating in a point.

THE HORNBILL.!

Tne rhinoceros hornbill, or rhinoceros bird, is nearly as large as the
turkey; the bil] is ten inches long, and two and a half thick at the base.
On the upper part is an appendage as large as the bill itself, and turning
upwards, which measures eight inches in height. There is nothing else
remarkable in the bird, as the general color of the plumage is black. This
bird is found in most parts of the East Indies, where (like the raven) it feeds

 

1 Buceros rhinoceros, Linx. The genus Buceros has the hill convex, curved, sharp-
edged, of large dimensions, serrated at the margin, with a horny protuberance near the hase
of the upper mandible rising into a crest ; nostrils behind the hase of the bill cavered by a
membrane ; legs short, muscular; lateral toes equal, the external one united to the second

wivt: the first three wing feathers graduated, the fourth or filth longest.
AVES—HORNBILL...RAVEN. A73

upon carriun. It is said to chase rats and mice, and, after pressing them
flat with its Lill in a peculiar manner, toss them up in the air, and swajlew
them whole on their descent.

THE HELMET HORNBILL}

Is remarkable for having the same prominence of a conical form; and im the
Philippine Isles there is a species, the horn of which reaches backwards
beyond the eyes, ending in two angular points, which produce the effect of a
bird with two horns.

THE PIED HORNBILL, OR CALAO OF MALABAR.

Tue circumstance which distinguishes it from the rest of its kind, is, that
the breast, belly, and a part of the wings are white; the remainder of the
nody is, like the rest of these animals, black.

There are about twelve species of the hornbill in all, one of which is white.

THE RAVEN2

Tre raven is a bird found in every region of the world; strong and hardy,
he is uninfluenced by the change of the weather ; and when other birds seem
numbed with cold, or pining with famine, the raven is active and healthy,
busily employed in prowling for prey, or sporting in the coldest atmosphere.
As the heats at the line do not oppress him, so he bears the cold of the polar
countri2s with indifference. He is sometimes indeed seen milk-white, and
this may probably be the effect of the rigorous climates of the north. A
raven may be reclaimed to almost every purpose to which birds can be con-
verted. Te may be crained up for fowling like a hawk; he may be taught
to fetch and carry like a spaniel; he may be taught to speak like a parrot;
put the most extraordinary of all is, that 1e can be taught to sing like a man.
I have heard (says a modern writer) a raven sing the black joke wth grect
distinctness, truth, and humor.

andeed, when the raven is taken as a domestic, he has many qualities
chat render him extremely amusing. Busy, inquisitive, and impudent, ne

 

1 Buceros galeatus, LATHAM.

2 Corpus coraz, Lin. The genus Corvus has the hill straight at its origin, thie, eom-

ressed un the sides, bent towards the point, and edged; nostrils covered hy reflected
Bustle feathers ; legs and feet plaited ; toes three before and one betond, divided ; tarsus
longer than the middle toe ; wings acuminated, the fcurth feather longest.

60 Au*
y

474 AVES—RAVEN.

goes every where, affronts and drives off the dogs, plays his pranks on the
poultry, and is particularly assiduous in cultivating the good-will of the
cook maid, who seems to be the favorite of the family. But then, with the
amusing qualities of a favorite, he often also has the vices and defects. He
is a glutton by nature, and a thief by habit. He does not confine himself to
petty depredations on the pantry or the larder; he soars at more magnificent
plunder ; at spoils which he can neither exhibit nor enjoy ; but which, like
a miser, he rests satisfied with having the satisfaction of sometimes visiting
and contemplating in secret. A piece.of money, a tea-spoon, or a ring, are
always tempting baits to his avarice; these he will slily seize upon, aud, if
not watched, will carry to his favorite hole.

 

In his wild state, the raven is an active and greedy plunderer. Nothing
somes amiss to him. If in his flights he perceives no hope of carrion, (and
ais scent is so exquisite, that he can’smell it a vast distance,) he then con-
tents himself with more unsavory food, fruits, insects, and the accidental
desserts of a dunghill. This bird chiefly builds its nest in trees, and lays
five or six eggs of a pale green color, marked with small brownish spots.

Notwithstanding the injury these birds do in picking out the eyes of sheep
and lambs, when they find them sick and helpless, a vulgar respect is paid
for them as being the birds that fed the prophet Elijah in the wilderness.
This prepossession in favor of the raven is of very ancient date, as the
Romans themselves, who thought the bird ominous, paid it, from motives
of fear, the most profound veneration. One of these that had been kept in
the temple of Castor, as Pliny informs us, flew down into the shop of a
lailur, wuu took much delight in the visits of his new acquaintance. He
AVES—CROW. A735

taught the bird several tricks ; but particularly to pronounce the name of the
Emperor Tiberius and the whole royal family. The tailor was beginning
to grow rich by those who came to see this wonderful raven, till an envious
neighbor, displeased at the tailor’s success, killed the bird, and deprived the
tailor of his future hopes of fortune. The Romans, however, took the poor
tailor’s part; they punished the man who offered the injury, and gave the
raven al] the honors of a magnificent interment.

Birds in general live longer thun quadrupeds ; and the raven is said to be
one of the most long lived of the number. Some of them have Leen known
to live near a hundred years. This animal, indeed, seems possessed of
those qualities that generally produce longevity, namely, a good appetite,
and great exercise.

The raven is about two feet in length, and four in breadth of wing. Its bill
1s strong, and very thick at the base; it measures somewhat more than two
inches anda half in length, and is covered with strong hairs or bristles,
which extend above half its length, covering the nostrils; the general color
of the upper parts is a fine glossy black, reflecting a blue tint in particular
lights; the under parts are duller, and of a dusky hue. ‘

The raven is a general inhabitant of the United States, but is more com-
mon in the interior. It is a remarkable fact, that where they abound, the
eommon crow seldom makes his appearance.

THE CARRION CROW.1

   

2S taNe
foe

=n

  

Tuts bird is about eighteen inches in length; its breadth above tw: feet.
Crows are more numerous th in ravens, and as widely spread. They live
mostly in woods, chiefly in pai 3, and build their nests on trees: the
female lays five or six eggs much lke those of a raven. They remain ip
England all the year. They feed on putrid flesh of all sorts; likewise on
eggs, worms, insects, and various sorts of grain. Even pigeons, rabbits
ehickens, cud young ducks are not safe from their attacks. ‘Tne crowasa

 

1 Corvus corone, Lin.
476 AVES—ROOK.

bold bird; neither the kite, buzzard nor raven can approach its nest without
being driven away; and when it has young, 1t will even fall upon the
peregrine falcon, and bring it to the ground by a single stroke of the bill

11 is a very common bird in the United States, and is more familiar ip ite
habits in this country than in Europe.

 

THE ROOK!

 

Is about the size of the carrion crow, and, excepting its more glossy pto-
mage, very much resembles it. The base of the bill and nostrils, as far as the
eyes, is naked, in which it differs from all the rest, occasioned, it is said, by
thrusting its bill into the earth in search of worms: but as the same appear«
ance has been observed in such as have been breught up tame and unaceus-
tomed to that mode of subsistence, we are inclined to consider it an
original peculiarity. Rooks are useful in preventing a too great increase of
that destructive insect the chafer or dor-beetle, and thereby make large recoms
pense for the depredations they may occasionally commit on the corn-fields.
They are gregarious, and fly in immense flocks at morning and evening to
and from their roosting places in quest of food. During the breeding time they
live together in large societies, and build their nests on the tallest trees close
to each other, frequently in the midst of large and populous towns. These
rookeries, however, are often the scenes of bitter contests; the new comers
are frequently driven away by the old inhabitants, their half-built nests torn
in pieces, and the unfortunate couple forced to begin their work ancw in

 

1 Corvus frugilegus, Lin.
AVES—JACKDAW. AT?

some more undisturbed situation. But though bad neighbors, the males are
good husbands, as they begin to feed the hens before the latter commence
laying, and continue to do so through the whole season of incubation. The
rook is a bird of great sagacity. Dr Darwin remarks, that rooks are obvi-
ously more conscious of danger from mankind than most other birds are.
Whoever has paid the least attention to them, may perceive that they are
quite sensible of the danger being greater when a man is armed with a gun,
than when he has no weapon with him. If, in the spring of the year, a
person with a gun walk under a rookery, the inhabitants of the trees rise on
their wings, and scream to the unfledged young to cower into their nests
from the sight of the enemy. This uniformly occurs, and hence the country
people assert that rooks can smell gunpowder. This bird is not a native of
America.

THE JACKDAW.

 

Tus bird is considerably less than the rook, being only thirteen inches m
length. The head is iarge, and the bill long, in proportion to the body. The
eyes are white, and the hinder part of the head and neck are of a hoary gray
color; the rest of the plumage is of a fine glossy black ahove; beneath it
has a dusky hue: the legs are black. It remains in England the whole
-year, and in great flocks frequents churches, old towers, and ruins, and some+
times, though rarely, even chimneys, hollow trees, and rabbit burrows, where
it builds its nest: the female lays five or six eggs, paler than those of the
crow, and smaller. Jackdaws are easily tamed, and may be taught to pro-
nounce several words: they will conceal part of their food, and with it small
pieces of money or toys. They feed on insects, grain, fruit, and small pieces
of flesh, and are said to be fond of partridges’ eggs. They have also been
seen to catch fish.

‘

VCorvus monedula, Lin.
478 A VES—MAGPIE.

‘ There is a variety of this bird in Switzeriand, which has a white cottar
round its neck ; and in Norway and other cold. countries, they have been
found perfectly white. They are not found in America.

 

THE MAGPIE?

 

xs about eighteen inches in length. The head, neck, and breast are ofa
deep black, finely contrasting with the snowy whiteness of the under parts;
tne neck feathers are very long, and extend down the back, leaving only a
small space, of a grayish ash color, between them and the tail coverts, which
are black ; the plumage in general is glossed with green, purple, and blue,
which, catch the eye in different lights; the tail is very long and wedge-
shaped; the under tail-coverts, thighs, and legs, are black :-on the throat
and part of the neck, there is a kind of feathers, mixed with the others, re-
sembling strong whitish hairs. - Indeed, were its other accomplishments
equal to its beauty, few birds could be put in competition. Its black, its
white, its green, and purple, with the rich and gilded combination of the

' Corvus pica, Lin.
AVES—MAGPIE. 479

g-osses on its tail, are as fine as any that adorn the most beautiful of the
feathered tribe. But it has too many of the qualities of a beau, to depre-
ciate these natural perfections: vain, restless, loud, and quarrelsome, it isan
unwelcome intruder every where; and never misses an opportunity, when it
finds one, of doing mischief. It is a common bird in Europe and Asia, and
in the western territories of the United States. It is remarkable that at
the point where these birds are first encountered, in proceeding west, the
blue jays disappear.

The magpie bears a great resemblance to the butcherbird in its bill, which
has a sharp process near the end of the upper chap, as well as in the short-
ness of its wings, and the form of the tail, each feather shortening from the
two middlemost. But it agrees still more in its food, living not only upon
worms and insects, but also upon small birds, when they can be seized. A
wounded lark, or a young chicken separated from the hen, are sure plunder;
and the magpie will even sometimes set upon and strike a blackbird.

The same insolence prompts it to seize the largest animals when its insults
can be offered with security. They are often seen perched upon the back
of an ox or a sheep, picking up the insects to be found there, chattering and
tormenting the poor animal at the same time, and stretch out their necks for
combat, if the beast turns its head backward to apprehend them. They
seek out also the nests of birds; and, if the parent escapes, the eggs make
up for the deficiency. The thrush and the blackbird are but too frequently
robbed by this assassin, and this in some measure causes their scarcity.

No food seems to come dmiss to this bird; it shares with ravens in their
carrion, with rooks in their grain, and with the cuckoo in their eggs: but it
seems possessed of a providence seldom usual with gluttons; for when it is
satisfied for the present, it lays up the remainder of the feast for another
occasion. It will even in a tame state hide its food when it has done eat-
ing, and after a time return to the secret hoard with renewed appetite and
vociferation.

In all its habits it discovers a degree of instinct unusual to other birds, its
nest is not less remarkable for the manner in which it is composed, than for
the place the magpie takes to build itin. The nest is usually placed conspicu-
ous enough, either in the middle of some hawthorn bush, or on the top of
some high tree. The place, however, is always found difficult of access;
for the tree pitched upon usually grows in some thick hedgerow, fenced by
brambles at the root; or sometimes one of the higher bushes is fixed upon
for the purpose. When the place is thus chosen as inaccessible as possible
to men, the next care is to fence the nest above, so as to defend it from all
the various enemies of the air. The kite, the crow, and the sparrow-hawk
are to be guarded against: as their nests have been sometimes plunderec
by the magpie, so it is reasonably feared that they will take the first oppor
tunity to retaliate. To prevent this, the magpie’s nest is built: with surpris
mg labor and ingenuity.
480 AVES—JAY.

The body of the nest is composed of hawthorn branches; the thcrns
sticking ,outward, but well united together by their mutual insertions
Within, it is lined with fibrous roots, wool and long grass, and then nicely
plastered all round with mud and clay. The body of the nest being thus
made firm and commodious, the next work is to make the canopy, which is
to defend it above. This is composed of the sharpest thorns, woven togeth
er in such a manner, as to deny all entrance except at the door, which is
just large enough to permit egress and regress t. the owners. In this
fortress the male and female hatch and bring up their brood with security,
sheltered from all attacks but those of the climbing schoolboy, who often
finds his torn and bloody hands too dear a price for the eggs or the young
ones. The magpie lays six or seven eggs, of a pale green color, spotted
with brown.

This bird, in its domestic state, preserves its natural character with stric
propriety. The same noisy, mischievous habits attend it to the cage that
marked it in the woods; and being more cunning, so it is a more docile biré
than any other taken into keeping. Those who are desirous of teaching i
to speak, have a foolish custom of cutting ‘ts tongue, which only puts tha
poor animal to pain, without improving its speech in the smallest degree.
Its speaking is sometimes very distinct; but its sounds are too thin an{
sharp to be an exact imitation of the human voice, which the hoarse rave
and parrot can counterfeit more exactly.

THE EUROPEAN JAY!

Is one of the most beautiful of the British birds. The forehead is white,
streaked with black ; the head is covered with very long feathers, which it
can erect into a crest at pleasure; the whole neck, back, breast, and belly,
are of a faint purple, dashed with gray; the wings are most beautifully
barred with a lovely blue, black and white; the tail is black, and ihe feet
of a pale brown. Like the magpie it feeds upon fruits, will kill small birds,
and is extremely docile. The voice of the jay is harsh, grating, and un-
pleasant. Upon seeing the sportsman, he gives, by his cries, the alarm of
danger, and thereby defeats his aim. The jay builds in woods, and makes
an artless nest of sticks, fibres, and tender twigs; the female lays five or
six eggs, of a grayish asn color, mixed with green, and faintly spotted with
brown. ;

Like the magpie, the jay is talkative, and ready to imitate sounds. One
of them has been known to mimic so exactly the noise made by the action
of a saw, as to induce passengers to believe that a carpenter was at

 

1 Corvus glandarius. Lin.
AVES—JAY. 481

work in the house. Another had learned, when cattle approached, to set a
eur dog on them, hy whistling and calling him by name. The.poor jay,
however, at last paid dearly {oz his mischievous tricks. Having set his
quadruped associate upon a cow which was big with calf, the cow was much
burt, he was complained of as a nuisance, and his owner was obliged te
destroy him.

THE AMERICAN BLUE JaYua

 

Tis elegant bird is peculiar to North America, and is distinguished as &
find of beau among the feathered tenants of our woods by the brilliancy of
his dress; and, like most other coxcombs, makes himself still more cunspicu-
ous by his loquacity and the oddness of his tones and gestures. Ile is al-
most a universal inhabitant of the woods, frequenting the thickest settle-
ments as well as the deepest recesses of the forest, where his squalling
voice often alarms the deer, to the disappointment of the hunter. In the
charming season of spring, when every thicket pours forth harmony, the
part performed by the jay always catches the ear. He appears to be among
his fellow musicians, what the trumpeter is tn a band, some of hi; notes

‘ Corvus cristatus, Lim.

61 4}
482 AVES—JAY.

bearing no distant resemblance to the tones of that instrument. These ne
has the faculty of changing through a great variety of modulations. When
disposed for ridicule, there is scarcely a bird whose peculiarities of song he
cannot tune his notes to. When engaged in the blandishments of love, they
resemble the soft chatterings of a duck, and are scarce heard at some paces
distant; but no sooner does he discover your approach, than he sets upa
sudden and vehement outcry, flying off and screaming with all his might.
His notes, a stranger might readily mistake for the repeated creakings of an
ungreased wheelbarrow. All these he accompanies with various nods, jerks,
and other gesticulations, for which the whole tribe of jays are so remarka-
ble.

The blue jay builds a large nest on a cedar or apple tree. His favorite
food is chesnuts, acorns, and Indian corn. He sometimes feeds on bugs and
caterpillars, and often plunders orc. rds, cherry’ rows, and potato patches,
He spreads alarm and sorrow around him, by robbing the nests of other
‘birds; sucking the eggs, and frequently devouring the young. In times
of great extremity, he will devour any animal substance that comes in his
way.

Of all birds, he is the most bitter enemy to theowl. No sooner has he
discovered the retreat of one of these, than he summons the whole feathered
fraternity to his assistance; who surround the glimmering solitaire, and attaclr
him from alJl sides, raising such a shout as may be heard half a mile off:
the ow] meanwhile returning every compliment with a broad goggling stare,
The war becomes louder and louder, and the owl, at length forced to betake
himself to flight, is followed by the whole train of his impudent persecutors,
until driven beyond their jurisdiction. The jayis not only bold and vocife-
rous, but possesses considerable talent for mimicry, and seems to enjoy great
satisfaction in mocking and teazing other birds, particularly the sparrow-
hawk, imitating his cry whenever he sees him, and squealing out as if
caught. This soon brings a number of his tribe around him, who all join
in the frolic, darting about the hawk, and feigning the cries of a bird sorely
wounded ; but this ludicrous farce often ends tragically. The hawk sing-
ling out one of the most insolent and provoking, sweeps upon him in an
unguarded moment, and offers hira up a sacrifice to his hunger and resent-
ment. In an instant the tune is changed; all their buffoonry vanishes, and
loud and incessant screams proclaim their disaster.

A blue jay which was brought up in the family of a gentleman in South
Carolina, had all the tricks and loquacity of a parrot; pilfered every tning
he could conveniently carry off, and hid them in holes and crevices ; answered
‘to his name with great sociability when called on, could articulate a numver
of words pretty distinctly: and when he heard any uncommon noise or loud
talking, seemed impatient to contribute to the general festivity, by a display
‘of all the oratorical powers he was possessed of.
AVES—JAY. 483

This tird ts eleven inches in length: his head is ornamented with a cres*
of light blue or purple feathers, which he can elevate or depress at pleasure.
Whole upper parts light blue or purple, a collar of black passes down each
side of the neck, and forms a crescent on the upper part of the breast,
The under parts are white. The tail is long, and light blue, tipped with
black.

CANADA JAY.

Tats species inhabits the country from Hudson’s Bay to the river St. Law-
rence; also in winter,’the inland parts of the state of Maine, and northern
parts of the states of Vermont and New York. When the season is very
severe with deep snow, they sometimes advance farther south ; but generally
return purthward as the weather becomes mild. The didrecter of this bird
by the people of those parts of the country it inhabits, is, that it feeds on
black moss, worms, and even flesh; when near habitations or tents, it pilfers
every thing it can come at — is very bold, and comes even to the tents to eat
meat out of the dishes ;— watches the hunters while baiting their traps for
martens, and devours the bait as soon as their backs are turned; that they
breed early in the spring, building their nests on pine trees, forming them
of sticks and grass; that they fly in pairs; lay up hoards of berries in hol-
low trees; are a kind of mock-bird; and when caught, pine away though
their appetite never fails them. They are, we are informed, detested by the
natives.

The Canada jay is eleven inches long, of a dull leaden gray color; the
under parts are brownish white. The whole plumage on the back is lnng
oose, and in great abundance.

 

STELLER’S JAY.

Turs elegant bird is more than twelve inches long. The head, neck, ana
crest, and part of the back, are of a brownish black,’the throat grayish, and
the rest of the plumage of a beautiful blue. The feathers on the front of the
head are tipped with blue. One specimen of this bird was shot near
Columbia River, and another of more brilliant plumage, in Mexico. Of its
habits little or nothing is known. It inhabits the western territories of the
United States, beyond the Rocky Mountains; and is known on the coast of
America, from California to Nootka Sound.

 

1 Corvus Canadensis, Lin. 2 Corvus Stelleri, GmEn.
AS4 AVES—JAY...NUTCRACKER.

FLORIDA JAY!

Tuis bird is eleven inches anda half long. The‘head, neck, wings, and
tail are bright azure; the front bluish white, the back yellowish brown.
The lower parts are yellowish gray. The Florida jay is not confined to that
country, but is found in Louisiana, and extends northward to Kentucky. It
is very abundant in East Florida, where it is found at all seasons in low
bushes. Their notes are varied greatly, and resemble those of the thrush
and blue jay. M. Ord, who has studied this species, says that they are
quarrelsome, active, and noisy, and construct their nests in thickets. Their
eggs he has not seen.

 

THE COLUMBIA JAY

Tuis is the most splendid of the whole tribe of jays. It is thirty-one
inches long, and twenty-six in the extent of wings. Its general culor is
bright blue, with purple reflections. The fore neck and anterior rart of the
neck are black, and the rest of the under parts white. The tail is very
long, and the feathers of the head elongated intoa crest. The individual
from which Mr Audubon’s drawing was made, was taken on the Oregon
river. Nothing is known of its habits.

Many of the foreign birds of the jay kind are exceedingly beautiful. The
Chinese jay is of two kinds, the red billed and that with a bluish bill. They
are both elegant birds, their plumage being finely varied with patches of a
fine velvet black, particularly about the head and throat. The Peruvian jay
is of a tender green, which, by insensible shades, assumes a bluish cast in
different parts of the body. The brown jay of Canada, and the Siberian jay
are less remarkable. At Cayenne there are two other remarkable species,
one of which has three white spots on each side of the head; and the other,
which is called the yellow bellied jay, is further distinguished by a gulden
streak upon the crown of the head.

THE NUTCRACKERS

fs by some naturalists considered as of a distinct genus, by others it is
classed with the crow; though in its manners it most resembles the jay,

 

1 Corvus Floridanus, Avpuson. 2 Corvus Bullockit, AUDUBON.

3 Nucifraga Caryocatactes, Lin. This is the only individual of the genus; tt is charac-
teriged by abil long, straight, narrowed at the point, upper mandible rounded, longer than
the under, both terminated in an obtuse and depressed point; nostrils basal, round, open,
couvealed hy hairs directed forward; three toes hefore and one behind; tarsus wnger than
the middle toe ; wings acuminated; fourth quill feather the longest.
AVES—CHOUGH...ROLLER. 485

laying up a store of nuts and acorns, and inhabiting the pine forests like
that bird. It is of the size of a magpie, and the general color of its plumage
is a rusty trown, marked with triangular white spots. They are very
plenty in Germany, and are rarely seen in England.

 

THE RED-LEGGED CROW, OR CORNISH CHOUGH)

Is like a jackdaw, but larger, and almost the size of a crow. The feet and
iegs are long, like those of a jackdaw, but of a red color; and the plumage
is of a purplish black all over. It frequents rocks, old castles, and churcnes,
by the seaside, like the daw, and with the same noisy assiduity. It is
only seen along the western coasts of England. It is attracted by glittering
objects, and has been known to take lighted pieces of wood from the dre.
By tearing holes in the straw with its long’bill, it does much injury to
thatched houses.

 

THE ROLLER#

 

Tue garrulous roller, so called from its chattering noise, is the only
species with which the inhabitants of Europe are acquainted. It is of the
size of a jay, and is exceedingly beautiful. The head, neck, and breast are
of a light bluish green ; the upper part of the body of a reddish biown; the
tail is forked, and of a light blue; tlie legs are remarkably short. Itisa
bird of passage, common in Germany, but it seldom visits England.

 

1 Pyrrhocoraz graculus, Temm. The genus Pyrrhocorax has the hill of medium size,
slender, compressed, hent, slightly nite ied or smooth; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid,
entirely concealed ; legs strong; tarsus Jonger than the middle toe; toes almost wholly
separated ; claws strong and bent; cuneated ; the fourth and fifth feathers longest.

2 Coracias garrula, Lix. The genus Coracias has the bill compressed, higher than
broad, straight; the upper ands hent wowards the point; nostrils linear, lateral; le
short, stout, and formed for walking; three toes before and one behind, entirely divided >
wings long, with the first q1ill somewhat shorter than the second. .

41*
486 AVES—URIULE.

The Chinese, the Cayenne, and the Abyssinian rollers, are all distingu: sheu
by the brilliancy of their plumage, but differ little in any material respect
“om the preceding.

 

THE ORIOLE.

OF the oriole there appears to be only one species known in Europe, tnat
1s by some termed the Golden Oriole.'! It is the size of a thrush, and has
been called the golden thrush and the witwal. The head and whole body
of the male is of a rich yellow; the bill red; from that to the eye a black
line; the wings black, marked with a bar of yellow, as are the ends of the
feathers. The tail is black, with the end yellow. The body of the female
is a dull green, with dusky wings and tail. The nest of this bird is of the
shape of a purse, and rests upon the outermost twigs of tall trees. It is
common in France, but has very rarely visited England.

 

THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE?

 

From the singularity of the nest of this species, from its bridiant colo,
and its preferring the apple trees, weeping willows, walnut, and tulip trees

 

1 Oriolus galbula, Lis. The genus Orwrus has a bill in the form or a lengthened cone,
horizontally compressed at the hase, and edged; che "pper ma.dible surmounted -y a
ridge notched at the point; nostrils hasal, lateral, pated, and horizontally pierced ina
large membrane; tarsus shorter than, or of the san. length as the middle toe, which is
‘oined to the exterior one; wings with the first quill». short, tue third the longest.

2 Oriolus Baltimore, W11s0n.
AVES—ORIOLE. 4387

to build on, it is generally known; and is as usual honored with a variety
of names, such as hang-nest, hanging-bird, golden robin, fire-bird, é&c., but
more generally the Baltimore bird. Few of the American orioles equal
this in the construction of their nests; he gives them, in a superior degree,
warmth, convenience, and security. He generally fixes on the high bending
extremities of the branches, fastening strong strings of hemp or flax roun(
two forked twigs; with the same materials he fabricates a strong, firm kind
of cloth, not unlike the substance of a hat in its raw state, forms it into &
pouch six or eight inches in depth, lining it substantially with soft sub-
stances well interwoven with the outward netting, and lastly finishes with
a layer of horse hair; the whole being shaded from the sun and rain by a
natural pent-house, or canopy of leaves. :

The birds of this species have all a common form of building, but they. do
not build in exactly the same manner. Great difference will be found in the
style, neatness, and finishing of the nest. Some are far superior work-
men to others. So sulicitous is the Baltimore to procure proper mate-
rials for his nest, that the women in the country must narrowly watch the
thread that may be bleaching ; and the farmer must secure his young grafts,
as this bird will carry off the former, and the strings that tie the latter, to
serve his purposes in building.

The principal food of the Baltimore consists of beetles, caterpillars, and
bugs, particularly one of a brilliant glossy green. His song is a clear
mellow whistle, repeated at short intervals, as he gleans among the branches.
There is in it a certain wild playfumess and naiveté extremely interesting.
It is not uttered with the rapidity of our eminent songsters, but with the
pleasing tranquillity of a careless ploughboy, whistling merely for his own
amusement. When alarmed by an approach to his nest, he makes a kind
of rapid chirruping very different from his usual note. He inhabits North
America, from Canada to Mexico, and is found as far south as Brazil. It is
seven inches long; the head, throat, upper part of the back and wings are
black ; lower part of the back, and whole under parts are bright orange,
deepening into vermilion on the breast; the back is also divided by a band
of orange, the tail is black and orange. The plumage of the female is
lighter and deer than that of tae male. These birds are several years
completing t.eir plumage.
488 AVES—CROW BLACKBIRD.

ORCHARD ORIOLE.

Tus bird has been described under a variety of names; as the spurious
oriole, bastard oriole. It is a distinct species from the preceding, and Jiffers
from it in size, being less and more slender; in its colors, which are differ-
eut; in the form of its bill and tail; in its notes, which are neither so full
nor so mellow, and uttered with much more rapidity ; in its mode of build-
ing, and the materials which it uses; and, lastly, in the shape and color of
the eggs. Many mistakes have been occasioned by the change of color
which these birds undergo, as they do not receive their full and perfect
plumage till the fourth year. The young birds are easily raised from the
nest, and soon become agreeable domestics. One which I reared and kept
through the winter, whistled with great clearness and vivacity at two months
old. It had an odd manner of moving its head and neck slowly, regularly,
and in various directions, when intent on observing any thing, without stir-
ring its body. This motion was as slow as that of asnake. When, at
night, a candle was placed near its cage, it seemed extremely well pleased,
fed and drank, drest, shook and arranged its plumage, sat as close to the
light as possible, and sometimes chanted a few irregular notes, as I sat read-
ing or writing beside it.

é
CROW BLACKBIRD?

Tus noted depredator is well known to every farmer of the northern and
middle states. In March, these birds come from the south; fly in loose
flocks, frequent swamps and meadows, and follow in the furrows after the
plough ; their food at this season consists of worms, grubs, and caterpillars,
of which they destroy prodigious numbers as if to recompense the husband-
man beforehand for the havoc they intend to make in his crops of Indiaa
corn. They build on tall cedar and pine trees in company ; sometimes ten
ar fifteen nests being on the same tree. These are five inches in diameter;
composed outwardly of mud, with long stalks and roots of grass, and lined
with horse-hair.

The trees in which they build are near the farmhouses and plantations.
From them they issue over the neighboring fields, and make their depreda-

 

1 Griolus mentatus, Witson.

2 Icterus versicolor, Aupuson. The genus Icterus has the bil] longer than the head, or
as long, straight, like an elongated cone, pointed, sharp, a little compressed, without
distinct ridge or notch, the base covered by feathers; margin of the mandibles more ot
less hent inwards; nostrils hasal, lateral, and covered bya hairy rudiment; tarsus as long
as, or longer than the middle toe; wings long; third and fourth feathers longest.
AVES—CROW BLACKBIRD. 489

nons, As soon as the blade of corn begins to make its appearance, the
trow blackbirds hail it with screams of satisfaction, and descend on the
fields, and begin to pull up and regale themselves on the seeds, scattering
the green blades around. While thus eagerly employed, the vengeance of
ine gun sometimes overtakes them; but those

** __who live to get away,

Return to steal another day.”

In the early times of New England, it was customary, in some towns, to
fequire each inhabitant to kill a certain number of these birds year y, a
fine being imposed upon such as did not destroy and exhibit the . equisite
aumber. {

When the young ears are in a milky state, they are attacked with redoubled
eagerness by the grakles and red-wings. They descend on the corn like
e blackening and sweeping tempest; dig off the external covering of the
teaves, and having laid bare the ear, leave little behind to the farmer but the
cobs and shrivelled skins. Whole acres of corn have been thus more than
nalf ruined. During these depredations, the gun makes great havoc among
them, which has no other effect than to send the survivors to another field.
This system of plunder and retaliation continues till November, when they
sheer off to the south, where they collect and darken the air with their
numbers, which sometimes amount to a hundred thousand. They rise from
the fields with a noise like thunder, and descend on the roads and fences;
and when they rise and cover the high timbered trees, then destitute of
leaves, they produce a most singular and striking effect; the whole trees
seeming as if hung in mourning, their notes and screams, meanwhile, re-
sembling the sound of a distant cataract, but in more musical cadence,
swelling and dying away on the ear, according to the fluctuation of the
breeze. 2

These birds are called by the farmers crow blackbirds, and are universally
droaded and detested. But if they do destroy the corn, they do nearly as
much good as evil, by devouring numbers of noxious worms, grubs, and
caterpillars, that infest the fields, which would, if not destroyed, desolate
the country! The purple grakle is easily tamed, and sings in confinement.
They have been taught to articulate several words. These birds are allowed
by the fish-hawks to build in the interstices of his nest, where they all hatch
their young, and live together in perfect harmony.

It is twelve inches long; on a slight view, it appears wholly black, but
placed near, it appears of a rich, glossy steel blue, violet and green. The
bill 1s more than an inch long, the upper mandible Leing very sharp. The
female is of a sooty brown color.

62
490 AVES—STARLING...BIRD OF PARADISE.

THE STARE, OR STARLING.

Tuene are few birds better known in Europe, than that unler our coasis
deration. It has a nearer relation with the European blackbird than with
any other; but it is as distinguished from that genus by the glossy green of
its feathers, in some lights, and the purple in others. It breeds in hollow
trees, the eaves of houses, towers, ruins, cliffs, often in high rocks over the
sea. It lays four or five eggs, of a pale greenish ash color, and makes its
nest of straw, small fibres of roots, &c. Its voice is rough; but what it
wants in the melody of note, it compensates by the facility with which it is
taught to speak. So fond is it of society, that it will join not only its own
kind, but will also associate with redwings and fieldfares, and even with owls,
jackdaws, and pigeons. In the winter season these birds fly in large flocks,
and may be known at a great distance by their whirling mode of flight. M.
de Buffon compares it to a sort of vortex, in which the whole collective body
performs a uniformly circular revolution, yet progressively advances at the
same time.

The principal food of starlings is snails, worms, and insects; but ‘hey
will eat grain, seeds, and fruit, and are said to be exceedingly fond of oer
ries. When confined, they will eat raw flesh cut small, or bread soaked in
water. They are accused, we know not-how truly, of getting into pigso.
houses, to suck the eggs, and it is certain that they do great damage ta
Lincolnshire, by roosting in myriads on the reeds, which are used for th ss he
Ing in that country, and which they break down by their weight.

 

THE BIRD OF PARADISE.

Tuts bird has been more celebrated for the false and imaginary qailives
which are attributed to it, than for its real and truly remarkable prop.rces,
1t has been reported of it, that the egg is produced in the air by the s-male,
and hatched by the male in an oritice of its body; that it never tou .tes the
ground; that it has no legs; that it hangs itself by the two long fe:.thers to
a tree when sleeping; and that it is naturally without legs, and subsists
entirely upon vapors and dew; with a variety of other assertions, equally
false and ejually ridiculous. There are about eight different species of

 

' Sturnus vulgaris, Lin. The genus Sturnus has the bill straight, in the form of an
elongated cone, depressed, slightly obtuse; hase of the upper mandible projectine on the
forehead; the pomt much depressed, and without a notch; nostrils basal, lneral, ‘half
clgsed by an arched membrane; wings long, the first quill very short, the second and third
ongest; three toes before, and one behind, the exterior Jomed at its base ty tne middle one,
AVES—BIRD OF PARADISE. A491

mese birds ; hut tlat which is best known is the greater paradise bird,! which
appears to the eye of the size nearly of a pigeon, though in reality the body
is not much larger thar that of a thrush. The tail, which is about six inches,
is as long as the body ; the wings are large compared with the bird’s other
dimensions. The head, the throat, and the ueck, are of a pale gold erlor
The base of the bill issurrounded by black feathers, as also the side of the
head and threat, are as soft as velvet, and changeable like those of the neck
of a mallard. The hinder part of the head is of a shining green, mixed with
gold. The body and wings are chiefly covered with beautiful brown, purple,
and gold feathers. The uppermost part of the tail feathers is of a pale
yellow, and those beneath are white and longer than the former; for which
reason the hinder part of the tail appears to be all white. But what chiefly
excites curiosity are two long naked feathers, which spring from the upper
art of the rump above the tail, and which are usually about two feet lung

 

«

Thesc are bearded only at the beginning and the end; the whole shaft, fo
abou: one foot nine inches, being ef a decp biack, while the feathered ex.
tremity is of a changeable color, like the mallard’s neck.

This bird is a native of the Molucca Islands, but found in greatest num-
vers in thatof Arou. The inhabitants are not insensible of the pleasure
they afford, and give them the name of Gou’s birds, as being superior to a_
that he has made. They live in large flocks, and at night generally perch
upon the same tree. They are called by some, the swallows of Ternate
from their rapid flight, and from their being continually on tie wing in pur
suit of insects, their usual prey.

 

1 Paradisea apoda, Las. The genus Paradisea has the bill of medium size, straight,
quadrangular, pointed, a little convex above, compressed: ridge hetween the feathers of
ihe forehead , nostrils basal, marginal, open, hut entirely concealed by the featl ers; legs
short; tarsus longer than tae middle toe; lateral oe unequal, the internal one united to
the second jomt; back toe longer than the others, robust; wings with the five long
veathers staged ; the sixth or seventh Jongest.
492 AVES—BIRD OF PARADISE.

As the country where they are bred has its tempestuous seasoa,. wher
rains and thunders continually disturb the atmosphere, these birds are then
but seldom seen. The natives, who make a trade of killing and selling
these birds to the Europeans, generally conceal themselves in the trees where
they resort, and having covered themselves up from sight in a bower made
of the branches, they shoot at the birds with reedy arrows; and, as they
assert, if they happen to kill the king, they then have a good chance for
killing the greatest part of the flock. The chief mark by which they know
the king is by the ends of the feathers in his tail, which have eyes like those
of a peacock. When they have taken a number of these birds, their usual
method is to gut them, and cut of their legs. This has given rise to the
fable above quoted; and the reason of this operation is, that the birds are
used in that country as aigrettes, and for other ornaments of dress; and that
being the case, it is usual to cut off the useless and less brilliant parts. They
then run a hot iron into the body, which dries up the internal moisture; and
filling the cavity with salts and spices, they sell them to the Europeans fora
perfect trifle.

THE KING BIRD OF PARADISE!

Is about the size of a lark. The upper parts of the plumage are of a
bright red, and the breast is a blood red color, with a broad green bar. The
wing feathers are a little mottled with white and green, and the whole plu-
mage has a fine gloss like satin. The tail is remarkably short, and from it
spring two naked feathers, like those in the former species, except that
they coil ina spiral manner at the end. It is supposed to breed in New
Guinea, where there is also a species, the predominant color of which is
Iwack,

THE MAGNIFICENT BIRD OF PARADISE?®

Is superior to all the preceding in the beauty of its plumage. It is the
size of a blackbird. The crown of the head is a deep chesnut. At the
back part of the neck a tuft of yellowish feathers arises, each of which is
marked near the tip with a black spot; beneath these, springs another tuft

 

1 Paradisea regia, Lin. ‘ 2 Paradisea magnifica, SHAW
AVES—MISSEL THRUSH. 493

still larger and of a straw color. The back and tail are of a bright red
brown. Down the middle of the throat, neck, and breast, the color is blue
green, which is encircled by a gorget (as it were) of black with a green shade.
The long feathers from the tail are without tufts at the end, but are fur-
nished with very short green webs on one side.

Besides these, there is the gurget bird of paradise, and some other species
of less note.

ORDER III.INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS.

Brrps of this order have the bill middle sized, or short, straight, rounded,
slightly edged or awl-shaped; upper mandible curved and notched at the
point, most frequently furnished at the base with some coarse hair, pointing
forward; feet with three toes, before and behind, articulated on the same
level, the exterior united at its base, or to the first joint of the middle toe.

THE MISSEL THRUSH}

1s eleven inches in length, and weighing near five ounces. It differs
scarcely in any other respect from the throstle, except that the spots on the
breast are larger. It builds its nest in bushes, or on the side of some tree,
as all of this kind are found to do, and lays four or five eggs in a season. Its
song, which it begins in spring, sitting on the summit of a high tree, is not,
however, so fine as that of the throstle. It is the largest bird of all the
feathered tribe that has music in its voice; the note of all greater birds being
either screaming, chattering, or croaking. It feeds on insects, holly, and
misseltoe berries; and sometimes sends forth a very disagreeable scream
when frightened or disturbed. It is very common in England, but is not
found in America. While breeding, it is fierce and pugnacious, driving
with great fury to a distance all birds that approach its nest. No jay,
magpie, or blackbird, must enter the gar'en which is his haunt.

 

1 Turdus viscivorus, Lis. The genus Turdus has the bill middle sized, sharp edged,
tip compressed, and recurved; upper mandible notched near the point; detached hain
at the opening of the mandibles; nostrils basal, ovoid, lateral, half concealed by a naked
membraue ; tarsus longer than the middle toe, to which last the outer is united at the bas-.
491 AVES--FIELDFARE.

' THE FIELDFARE!

 

Is known by his yellowish bill, by the dark color of his legs, and ly hs
head being ash color, spotted with black. In the south of Europe they are
insipid, tuneless birds, flying in flocks, and excessively watchful to preserve
the general safety. All their season of music and pleasure is employed in
the more northern climates, where they sing most delightfully, perched
among the forests of maples, with which those countries abound.

The fieldfare is only a visitant in England, making its appearance about
the beginning of October, in order to avoid the rigorous winters of the north,
whence it sometimes comes in great flocks, according to the severity of the
season, and leaves England about the latter end of February, or the begin-
ning of March, and retires to Russia, Sweden, Norway, and as far as Siberia
and Kamtschatka. They breed in Sweden and Norway. They build their
nests in high trees, and sit on trees during the day, but always roost on the
ground. During the winter they feed on haws and other berries; they like-
wise eat worms, snails, and slugs.

Fieldfares are sometimes seen singly, but, in general, form very numerous
flocks, and fly in a body; and though they often spread themselves through
the fields in search of food, they seldom lose sight of each other, but, when
alarmed, fly off, and collect together upon the same tree.

There is reason, says Mr Bingley, to suppose that the flocks of these rds
keep a kind of watch to remark and announce the appearance of danger.
On any person approaching a tree that is covered with them, they continue
fearlcss, till one, at the extremity of the bush, rising on its wings gives a
loud and peculiar note of alarm. They will then fly away, except one
other, which continues till the person approaches still nearer, to certify as it
were the reality of the danger, and afterwards he also flies off, repeating
the note of alarm. ;

The Roman epicures held these birds in such esteem, that they fattened
them with crumbs of bread mixed with minced figs, and their flesh is still
esteemed a delicacy.

 

1 Turdus pilaris, Tan.
AVES—THRUSH. ‘ A95

THE THROSTLE, OR LONG THRUSH!

Is about eleven inches in length. . The bill is dusky, the base of the lower
bill yellow; the eyes are hazel; the head, back, and lesser coverts of the
wings are of a deep olive brown, the latter tipped with white; the lower
part of the back and rump are tinged with yellow; the cheeks are of a yele
lowish white, spotted with brown, as are also the breast and belly, which
are marked with larger spots of a dark brown color; the quills are brown
with pale edges; the tail feathers the sanve, the three outermost tipped with
white; the legs are yellow; the claws biack.

It begins to sing very early, often on the turn of the year, in blowing,
showery weather, whence in some places it is called the storm cock, and its
song is heard during nine months. Its note of anger is very loud and harsh,
between a chatter and a shriek, which accounts for some of its names. Its
usual strain, however, is among the sweetest of the grove, and is often kept
up for hours without cessation. When brought up from the nest with the
woodlark or the nightingale, it will adopt their song. It subsists on various
sorts of berries, and likewise on caterpillars and several kinds of insects,
with which it also feeds its young.

This bird is found in various parts of Europe, and is said to be migratory
in some places, but continues in England the whole year, and frequently has
two broods. It builds in woods or orchards, and not seldom in thick hedges -
‘near the ground. Fine and soft moss, interwoven with dried grass or hay,
forms the outside of the nest, and the inside is curiously plastered with cow
dung. In some districts of Poland, thrushes are caught in such numbers
that the inhabitants export them in ship loads.

 

THE THRASHER, OR BROWN THRUSH.

.: the largest of all the American thrushes, and is a well known and
distinguished songster, and from the tops of hedge-rows, apple or cherry trees,
be salutes the opening morning with his charming song, which is loud,
emphatical, and full of variety. At that serene hour, you may plaiasly dis-
tinguish his voice at half a mile’s distance. These notes are not imitative,
but solely his own. Early in May, he builds his nest, choosing a thorn-bush,
low cedar, thicket of briers, or cluster of vines for his situation. It is con-
structed of small sticks, dry leaves, and fine fibrous roots. He often attacks
the black snake in defence of his young, and with success, as his bill 1s strong
and powerful. His food consists of worms, caterpillars, beetles, and berries,

 

1 Turdus musicus. Lin, 2 Turdus rufus, Lin,
496 " AVES—MOCKING-BIRD.

He also destroys vast quantities of grubs, which he scratches from the ground.
He is an active and vigorous bird, flying generally low from one thicket to
another, with his long broad tail spread out like a fan; he has a single note
or chuck when you approach his nest. He inhabits North America, from
Canada to Florida. They are easily reared, and become very familar ‘r
confinement.

 

The thrasher is eleven inches and a half long; the whole upper parts are
of a bright reddish brown; lower parts yellowish white; the breast and
sides are marked with pointed black spots, running in chains. The wings
are crossed with two white bars.

THE MOCKING-BIRD.1

Tuts extraordinary bird is peculiar to the new world, inhabiting a consi-
derable portion of both North and South America. A warm climate and
low country seem most congenial to their nature; they are therefore much
more numerous in the southern than the northern states. The berries of
the red cedar, myrtle, holly, gum berries, gall berries, and a profusion of others,
with which the luxuriant swampy thickets of those regions abound, furnish

 

1 Turdus polygizttus, Lin.
AVES—MOCKING-BIRD. 497

them with a perpetual feast. Winged insects, also, which abound there
even in winter, form a favorite part of their food.

The mocking-bird builds his nest in different places, according to the lati-
tude in which he resides. A solitary thorn bush; an almost impenetrable
thicket; an orange tree, cedar, or holly bush, are favorite spots. Always
ready to defend, but never over anxious to conceal his nest, he very often
builds within a small distance of a house; and not unfrequently in a pea:
or apple tree, rarely higher than six or seven feet from the ground. The
nest is composed of dry twigs, weeds, straw, wool, and tow, ingeniously put
together, and lined with fine fibrousroots. During the time when the femaie
is sitting, neither cat, dog, animal, or man, can approach the nest without
being attacked. But the whole vengeance of the bird is directed against his
morta! enemy, the black snake. Whenever this reptile is discovered, the
male darts upon it with the rapidity of an arrow, dexterously eluding its

 

Lite, and striking it violently and incessantly against the head, where tt ta
very vu'nerable. The snake soon becomes sensible of his danger, and secks
to escape; but the intrepid bird redoubles his exertions, and as the snake’s
strength begins to flag, he seizes and lifts it up from the ground, beating it
with his wings, and when the business is completed, he returns to his nest,
mounts the summit of the bush, and pours out a torrent of song in token of
victory.

The plumage of the mocking-bird has nothing gaudy or brilliant in it;
but that which so strongly recommends him is his full, strong, and musical

63 40%
498 AVES—MOCKING-BIRD.

voice, capable of almost every modulation, from the mellow tones of the
wood thrush, to the savage screams of the bald eagle. Inhis native groves,
mounted on the top of a tall bush, in the dawn of a dewy morning, while
the woods are already vocal with a multitude of warbles, his admirable song
rises pre-eminent over every competitor. The ear cari listen w iis music
alone. Nor is the strain altogether imitative. His own native notes are
bold and full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They consist of short
expressions of two, three, or five and six syllables, generally .nterspersed
with imitations, all of them uttered with great emphasis and rapidity; and
continued for an hour at a time with undiminished ardor. His expanded
wings and tail, glistening with white, and the buoyant gaiety of his action,
arresting the eye, as his song most irresistibly does the ear. He sweeps
round with enthusiastic ecstasy,—he mounts and descends as his song
swells or dies away —and as Mr Bartram has beautifully expressed it, “He
bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recall his very
soul, expired in the last elevated strain.” While thus exerting himself, a
bystander would sugpose that the whole feathered tribes had assembled
together on a trial for skill—so perfect are his imitations.

The mocking-bird loses little of the power and energy of his song by con-
finement. In his domesticated state, when he commences his career of
song, it is impossible to stand by uninterested. He whistles for the dog,
Cesar starts up, wags his tail, and 1uns to meet his master. Hesqueaks out
like a hurt chicken, and the hen hurries about with hanging wings and bris-
tling feathers, clucking to protect her injured brood. The barking of the
dog, the mewing of the cat, the creaking of the passing wheelbarrow, follow
with great truth and rapidity. He repeats the tune taught him by his mas-
ter, though of considerable length, fully and faithfully. He runs over the
quiverings of the canary, and the clear whistlings of the Virginia nightin-
gale, or red-bird, with such superior execution and effect, that the mortified
songsters feel their own inferiority, and become silent, while he seems to
triumph in their defeat by redoubling his exertions.

This excessive fondness for variety, however, in the opinion of some,
injures his song. His elevated imitations of the brown thrush, are frequent-
ly interrupted by the crowing of cocks; and the warblings of the blue-bird,
which he exquisitely manages, are mingled with the screaming of swallows,
cor the cackling of hens; amidst the simple melody of the robin, we are
suddenly surprised by the reiterations of the whippoorwill; while the notes
of the kildeer, blue jay, martin, Baltimore, and twenty others, succeed with
‘such imposing reality, that we look round for the originals, and discover,
witn astonishment, that the sole performer in this singular concert is the
admurable bird before us. Both in his native and domesticated state, during
the soieran stillness of night, as soon as the moon rises in silent majesty, he
begins his delightful solo, and serenades us the livelong night with a full
AVES—ROBIN. 499

display of his vocal powers, making the whole neighborhood ring with his
inimitable medley.

The mocking-bird is nine and a half inches long. The upper parts ef the
head, neck, and back, are a dark brownish ash; the uncer parts are of »
brownish white. His figure is well proportioned, and handsome.

 

THE ROBIN.!

 

Tuts well known bird is familiar to almost every body. Innumerable
thousands of them are seen in the lower parts of the whole Atlantic states,
from New Hampshire to Carolina. They migrate to avoid the deep snows,
from north to south and from west to east. The robin builds a large nest
on an apple tree, plasters it with mud, and lines it wich fine grass. His
principal food is worms, berries, and ceterpillars. When berries fail, they
disperse themselves over the fields, and along the fences, in search of worms
and other insects.

The robin is one of our earliest songsters; even in March, while snow yet
dapples the field, some few will mount a post or stake of the fence, and
make short and frequent attempts at a song. His notes, in spring, are uni-
versally known, and as universally beloved. They are, as it were, the pre-
lude to the grand general concert that is about to burst upon us, {rom woods,
fields, and thickets, whitened with blossoms, and breathing fragrance. By
the usual association of ideas, we therefore listen with more pleasure to this
vheerful bird, than to many others of far superior powers, and much greater
variety. Even his nest is held more sacred among school-boys than that of
some others; and while they will exult in plundering a jay’s or a cat-bird’s,

 

1 Turdus migratorius, Lux.
500 AVES—THRUSH.

a general sentiment of respect prevails on the discovery of a rcbin’s. He
possesses much suavity of manners; and almost always seeks shelter for his
young in summer, and subsistence for himself in the extremes of winter
near the habitations of man.

The robin goes by several names at Hudson’s Bay; some people calling
him the red-bird ; some the black-bird; and others the American fieldfare.
They inhabit the whole of North America, from Hudson’s Ray to Nootka
Sound, and as far south as Georgia. ‘They are too well known to require
further description.

THE WOOD THRUSH.! -

Tuts sweet and solitary songster inhabits the whole of North America,
from Hudson’s Bay to Florida. With the dawn of morning, mounting to the
top of some tall tree that rises from a thick shaded part of the woods, he
pipes his few, but clear and musical notes in a kind of ecstasy, the prelude
to which strongly resembles the double-tonguing of a German flute, and
sometimes the tinkling of a small bell; the whole song consists of five or
six parts, the last note of which is in such a tone as to leave the conclusion
evidently suspended ; the finale is finely managed, and with such charming
effect, as to soothe and tranquillize the mind, and to seem sweeter and mel-
lower at each successive repetition. ‘Those who visit our woods, will be at
no loss to recognize, from the above description, this pleasing musician.
Even-in dark, wet, and gloomy weather, when scarcely a single chirp is
heard from any other bird, the clear notes of the wood thrush thrill through
the dropping woods, from morning till night; and it may be truly said, that
the sadder the day, the sweeter the song.

The favorite haunts of this bird are low, thick shaded hollows, through
which a small brook or rill meanders, overhung with alder bushes that are
mantled with wild vines. Near such a scene he generally builds his rest,
in a laurel or alder bush, composed of dry leaves, grass, roots, and mud.
Berries, beetles, and caterpillars are his principal food. The wood thrush
measures eight inches in length. The whole upper parts are of a bright
fulvous color, brightening into_reddisl un the head; the throat and breast are
white

en |

'Turdus mustelinus, GMEt.
AVES—CAT-BIRD. 501

THE CAT-BIRDJ

 

Tms 1s a very common and numerous species in the United States: and
one as well known to all classes of people, as his favorite bicars, or black-
berry bushes. In spring or autumn, on approaching thickets of brambles,
the first salutation you receive is from the cat-bird; and a stranger, unac-
guainted with his note, would instantly conclude that some vagrant orphan
kitten had got bewildered among the briers, and wanted assistance, so exactly
‘does the call of the bird resemble the voice of that animal. He is unsuspi-
cious, and extremely familiar; for whether in the woods or in the garden,
where he frequently builds his nest, he seldom allows you to pass without
paying his respects to yon in the usual way. The nest is composed of dry
leaves, weeds, small twigs, and fine dry grass, lined with fibrous roots. The
birds show no great solicitude for concealment, though few are more
interested for the safety of their nest and young. The eggs are four or five
of a bluish green color.

The cat-bird is one of our earliest songsters, beginning generally before
break of day, and hovering fromi bush to bush with great sprightliness, when
there is scarcely light enough to distinguish him. His notes are more
remarkable for singularity than melody. They consist of short imitations
of other birds, and other sounds ; but his pipe being rather deficient in clear-
ness and strength of tone, his imitations fail where these are requisite; yet
he is not discouraged, but seems to study certain passages with great perse-
verance, uttering them at first low, and as he succeeds, higher, and more
free ; no ways embarrassed by the presence of a spectator, even within a few
yards of him. On attentively listening to him for some time, you can per-
ceive that he introduces into his performance al] the odd sounds, and quaint
passages he has been able tv collect. Upon the whole, he merits a place
among the most agreeable of our general performers. ’

Few people in the country respect the cat-bird. On the contrary, it 13
generally the object of dislike; and the boys of the United States entertain

1 Turdus lividus, Wi.son.

 
502 AVES—THRUSH.

great.prejudice and contempt for this bird, its nest, and young. The princrs
pal cause of this dislike, seems to be some similarity of taste, and clashing
of interest, between the bird and the farmer. The cat-bird is fond of large
ripe garden strawberries; so is the farmer, for the good price they bring in’
market. The cat-bird loves the best and richest early cherries; so dues the
farmer, for they are sometimes the most profitable of his early fruit. The
cat-bird has a particular partiality for the finest ripe mellow pears; and these
are also particular favorites of the farmer. But the cat-bird has frequently
the advai.tage of the farmer, by snatching off the first fruits of these deli-
cious productions; and the farmer takes revenge, by shooting him down with
his gun, as he finds old hats and scare-crows are no impediments in his way
to these forbidden fruits, and nothing but this resource can restrain his
visits. The boys are now set to watch thecherry trees with guns; and thus
couimences a train of prejudices and antipathies, that commonly continue
through life.

The cat-bird measures nine inches in length; at a small distance he
appears nearly black; but it is of a deep slate color, and the tail-coverts ara
deep red. The female differs little from the male.

WATER THRUSH.

Tuts bird is remarkable for its partiality to brooks, rivers, shores, ponds,
and streams of water; wading in the shallows in search of aquatic insects,
wagging the tail almost continually, chattering as it flies. It is exceedingly
shy, darting away on the least attempt to approach it, and uttering a sharp
chirp, as if exceedingly alarmed. The cane-brakes, swampy river shores
and deep watery sulitudes of Louisiana, Tennessee, and the Mississippi terri-
tory, possess them in abundance; there they are eminently distinguivhed by
the loudness, sweetness, and expressive vivacity of their notes, which begin
very high and clear, and at last are hardly articulate. At these times, the
musician is perched on the middle branches of a tree over the brook or river
bank, pouring out his charming melody, that may be distinctly heard for
nearly half a mile. The voices ou this little bird is exquisitery sweet and
expressive.

 

—-— «ee

- Turdus aquaticus, Witsum.
AVES—MENURA...SHRIKE. 503

THE SUPERB MENURAAM

T:ug singular bird is a native of New Holland. It is about the sie of
the hen-pheasant; its length is three feet and a half from the point of the
beak to the longest tail feather; the genera] color is brown; the tail consists
of sixteen feathers, twelve of which are very curiously webbed.

¢
TITE SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER-BIRD2

Tne habits of the butcher-bird seem to correspond with its confer-
mation, and it lives as well upon flesh as upon insects, and thus partakes in
some measure of a double nature. Its appetite for flesh, however, is the
most prevalent; and it never takes up with the former when it can cbtain
the latter. This bird, therefore, leads a life of continual combat and oppo-
sition. As from its size it does not much terrify the smaller birds of the
forest, so it very frequently meets birds willing to try its strength, and it
never declines the engagement. In Russia it is trained for catching small
birds, like a falcon. ‘

It is wonderful to see with what intrepidity this little creature goes to
war with the pie, the crow, and the kestril, all above four times larger than
itself, It not only fights upon the defensive, but often comes to the attack,
and always with advantage, particularly when the male and female unite to
protect their young, and to drive away the more powerful birds of rapine
At that season, they do not wait the approach of their invader; it is suffi-
cient that they see him preparing for the assault ata distance. It is then
that they sally forth with loud cries, wound him on every side, and drive
him off with such fury, that he seldom ventures to return to the charge. In
these disputes they generally come off with the victory; though some-
times happens that they fall to the ground with the bird they have su tiercely

 

1 Menura superba. This is the only one of the genus. It is characterized hy a hill
at its base broader than deep, straight, and somewhat slender, inclined at the point,
which is notched, and furnished at the base with setaceous plumes, pointing forwards
lower mandible shortest; nostrils oval, large, covered with a membrane, and situated ir
the middle of the bill; claws as long as the toes, broad, convex above, obtuse; wings
short, concave. :

2 Lanius excubitor, Lx. The genus Lanius has the bill middle sized, robust, straight
from its origin, and much compressed; upper mandible strongly hent towards the tp,
which ts hooked, the hase destitute of a cere, and furnished with rough hairs pointin,
forwards ; nostrils basal, lateral, almost round, half closed by an arched membrane, and
often partly concealed by hairs; tarsus longer than the middle toe; three toes betore and
one behind, separate ; the third and fourth wing feathers longest.
504 AVES—SHRIKE.

fixed upon, and .. e combat ends with the destruction of the assailant as well
as of the defender.

For this reason, the most redoubtable birds of prey respect them; while
the kite, the buzzard, and the crow, seem rather to fear than seck the en-
gagement. Nothing in nature better displavs the respect paid to the claims
of courage, than to see tnis little bird, apparently so contemptible, fly in
company with the lanner, the falcon, and all tne tyrants of the air, without
feaving their power or avoiding their resentment.

As for smal] birds, they are his usual food. He seizes them by the throat,
and strangles them 'n an instant. His name of nine-killer he derives from
the popular belief that he catches small birds to the number of nine, and
tmpales them on a thorn,before he begins to tear them to pieces to satisfy
his hunger. The fact is, that he pays no such attention to the regularity of
number, but, being a bold bird, capable of killing much bigger birds than
himself, he hangs his prey on a thorn, asa butcher does a beast on a hook,
that he may dissever it with more convenience to himself.

Durzing summer, such of them as constantly reside here, (for the smaller
red butcher-bird migrates,) remain among the mountainous parts of the
country; but in winter they descend into plains and nearer human habita-
tions. The larger kind make their. nests on the highest trees, while the
lesser build in bushes in the fields and hedge-rows.. They both lay about
six eggs, of a white color, but encircled at the larger end with a ring of
brownish red. The nest on the outside is composed of white moss, imter-
woven with long grass; within, it is well lined with wool, and it is usually
fixed among the forking branches of a tree. The female feeds her young
with caterpillars and other insects while very young; but soon after accus-
toms them to flesh, which the male procures with surprising industry. ‘Taeir
nature also is very different from other birds of prey in their parental care ; sor,
so far fromdriving out their young from the nest to shift for themselves, -hey
keep them with care; and even when adult, they do not forsake then., but
the whole brood live in one family together. Each family lives apar', and
is generally composed of the male, female, and five or six young ones; these
al] maintain peace and subordination among each other, and hunt in cone«rt.
itis easy wv listinguish these birds at a distance, not only from their going
m companies, but also from their manner of flying, which is always up and
down, seldom direct or sideways.

Ur these birds there are above forty different kinds, foreign and domestic,
but the great cinereous butcher-bird is the least known in Europe. The little
butcher-bird, or red-backed shrike,! which is caJled a flusher, is abou the
size of a iavk, and has a large head. The back and upper side of his v .ag3
are of a rusty color; the throat and breast white, with red spots, ana .he
head and rump ci: e.0°s.

‘\ Lanius collurio, GMEL.
AVES—SHRIKE. 505

The woodchat resembles the former, except in the color cf the back which
is brown, and not red, as in the other

THE GREAT AMERICAN SHRIKE.

 

Tue form and countenance of this bird bespeak him full of courage and
energy ; and his true character does not belie his appearance, for he possesses
these qualities in an eminent degree *tis not yet decided whether it be the
same as the cinereous shrike of Linnwus; its habits and manners appear te
be the same.

This bird frequents the, deepest forests » builds a large, compact nest, of
dry grass and moss, in the upright fork of 1 small tree. In his manners he
has more resemblance to the pies than to birds of prey, particularly in the
habit of carrying off his surplus food, as if to hoard it for future exigencies;
with this difference, that the pies conceal theirs at random in holes and
crevices, where perhaps it is forgotten ; while the shrike sticks lis un thorns
and bushes, where it shrivels in the sun, and soon becomes useless to the
hoarder. One of these birds had once the temerity tv pursue a snow-bird
into an open cage which stood in a garden ; and, befure any one could arrive
to its assistance, had already strangled and scalped it, though he lost his
liberty by the exploit. In confinement, he sticks up not only insects, but
flesh, and the bodies of such birds as are thrown to him, on nails and sticks
fixed up fur the purpose.

The character of the butcher-bird is entitled to no small degree of respect.
His activity is visible in all his motions; his courage and intrepidity beyond
every other bird of his size, (the king-bird excepted,) and in affection for bis
young, he is surpassed by no other. He assuciates with them, the whula
family hunting in company. He attacks the largest hawk or eagle in then

64 43
506 AVES—FLYCATCHER.

defence, witn a resolution truly astonishing, so that all of them respect him,
and on every occasion decline the contest. As the snows of winter approach,
he descends from the mountainous forests and from the regions of the north
to the more cultivated parts of the country, hovering about vur hedge-rows.
orchards, and meadows, and disappears again early in April.

THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER.

Tue tribes of flycatchers are so named from living on insects. The spotteg
flycatcher, however, eats fruit, and is on that account called, in some parts of
England, the cherry sucker. It is, in general, of a mouse colur, the head
spotted with black, and the wings and tail edged with white. Of all the
European summer birds it is the most mute and the most familiar; it also
appears the last of any. It builds in a vine or a sweet-brier, against the
wall of a house, or in the hole of a wall, or on the end of a beam or plate,
and often close to the post of a door where people are going in and out all
day long. This bird does not make the least pretensions to song; but uzes
a little inward, wauing ncte, when it thinks its young in danger from cats
or other annoyances. It takes its stand on the top of some stake or post,
from whence it springs forth on its prey, catching a fly in the air, and hardly
ever touching the gruund, but returning still to the same stand, for many
times together.

THE PIED FLYCATCHER2

Tus bird is about five inches long. It hasa black beak, hazel eyes, aad
white {urehead; the top of the head, the back, tail, and legs, are black ; the
camp is deshed with ash color; the wing-coverts are dusky, and the greater
coverts are tipped with white; the exterior sides of the secondary quill, are
white, as are also the outer feathers of the tail, and all the under parts, frou -
the bill to the tail. The female is much smaller than the male, but has a

 

1 Mussicapa grisola, Lin. The genus Musricapa has a hill strong, angular, denressed
5 ch> base, compressed towards the port, whieh is curved and much notched 5 base furs
aisued with Jong and stiff hairs; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, partly covered by haus

tarsus as long as the nuddle tue; lateral toes almost equal.
% Musvicapa albicollis, Tam
AVES—#LiCATCHER, 507

‘longer tail; is brown where he is black; and has not the white spot on the
forehead. They are most plentiful in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Derby-

 

shire “Their nests are built in holes of trees. The parent birds incessantly
feed their young with small flies, which they catch very expertly.

THE KING-BIRD, OR TYRANT FLYCATCHEB,!

 

Sometimes called the field marten, is a well known bird m the Unitea
States. The name king, as well as tyrant, has been bestowed on this vird fer
its extraordinary behavior in breeding time, and for the authority it assumes
over all other birds. His extreme affection for his mate, nest, and young,
makes him suspicious of every bird that comes near his residence, so that he
attacks every intruder without discrimination ; his life at this season is one
continued sceneof broils and battles; in which, however, he generally comes
off conqueror, Hawks and crows, the bald eagle, and the great black eagle,
al equally dread a rencontre with this merciless champion, who, as svon as
he perceives one of these last approachiag, launches into the air tu meet

 

1 Muscicapa tyrannus, Bonar.
508 AVES—FLYCATCHER.

him, mounts to a considerable height above him, and darts down on his
back, sometimes fixing there to the great annoyance of his sovereign, who,
if no convenient retreat be near, endeavors, by various evolutions, to rid
himself of his merciless adversary, but the king-bird is not so easily dis-
mounted. He teazes the eagle incessantly, sweeps upon him, and remounts,
that he may descend on his back with greater violence; al! the while keep-
ing up a shril] and rapid twittering. The purple marten, however, is some-
times more than a match for him; and the red-headed wood-pecker is seen
‘ec amuse himself with the violence of the king-bird, and play bo-peep
with liri round a rail, while the latter, highly irritated, makes every attenipt
to strixe him, but m vain.

He annoys the farmer very much by his partiality to bees. He plants
himself on a post of the fence near the hives, and makes great havoc among
these industrious insects. But the cultivator may be assured that this bird is
greatly his friend, in destroying multitudes of insects and their larvee, which
prey on the harvests of his fields. He often takes his stand in fields of
pasture, on the tops ef mullen and other rank weeds, near the cattle, and
makes sweeps after passing insects, particularly the large black gadflies, so
terrifying to horses and cattle. His eye moves restlessly about him, traces
the flight of an insect, then that of a second, and even a third, till he sees
one to his liking, when with a shrill sweep he pursues it, seizes it and re-
turns to the same spot, to look out for more. He hovers over the river for a
considerable time, darting after insects, snatching them from the surface of
the water, and diving about in the air like a swallow; for he possesses, at
will, great powers of wing. His flight is much like that of a hawk. Beside
insects, he feeds on various sorts of berries, particularly blackberries, of
which he is extremely fond.

The general color of this bird is a dark slaty ash; the throat and lower
parts are pure white ; the plumage on the head, though not forming a crest,
is frequently erected, and discovers a rich bed of orange color, called by the
country people his crown; when the feathers lie close, this is cuncealed.

THE GREAT-CRESTED FLYCATCHER!

Is not so well known as the preceding, being chiefly confined to the woous
There, his harsh syueak, (for he has no song,) is heard above most others
He also visits the orchard, is equally fond of bees, but wants the courage
ond magnanimity of the king-bird. He builds his nest in a hollow tree
jeserted by the blue-bird or woodpecker. The materials of which this is

1 Muscicapa crinita, Lin,
AVES—FLYUATCHER. 508

tormed, are somewhat scantier. It is formed of a little loose hay, featners
of the Guinea fowls, hogs’ bristles, pieces of cast snake skins, and dogs’ hair
Whether he surrounds his nest with the snake skin by way of terrorem, ta
prevent other birds or animals from entering, or whether it be that he finds
its silky softness suitable for his young, is uncertain; the fact, however, is
notorious. It feeds on whortleberries, while they last.

It is eight inches and a half long; the upper parts are dull greenish olive,
the feathers on the head are pointed, and form a sort of cist; the throat
and breast ash color; the rest of the lower parts a sulphur yellow.

THE PEWIT FLYCATCHER!

{s one of our earliest spring visitants. Its notes, like those of the blue-
bird, are pleasing, not for any melody they contain, but for the ideas of spring
and returning verdure, with all the sweets of this lovely season, which are
associated with his simple but lively ditty, which is nothing but pewée,
pewittitee, pewée, for a whole morning. It begins to build in March, on some
projecting part uuder a bridge, in a cave, in a well, often under a shed
in the low eaves of a cottage, and in such places. The nest is composed
of mud mixed with moss, lined with flax ard horse-hair, and is generally
large and solid. This bird is six inches anda half in length; the upper
parts are dusky olive; whole lower parts a pale delicate yellow; the plu-
mage of the head is loose and crested.

THE SMALL BLUE-GRAY FLYCATCHER?

lr it were not for the length of the tail, would rank next to the humming-
bird in magnitude. It is four inches and a half long; the plumage atove
is of a light bluish gray; below, bluish white; the wings brownish black.
[ts motions are quick ; he seems always on the look-out for insects; darts
about from one part of the tree to another with hanging wings, and erected
tail, making a feeble chirping ¢tsee, tsee, no louder than a mouse. ‘Though
so small, it is ambitious of hunting on the highest branches, and is seldom
seen among the humbler thickets. It fixes its nest among the twigs on the
top of a high tree; this is formed of the stems of old leaves, the husks of
buds, the withered blossoms of weeds, coated with dry lichen, and lined with
horse-hair. Yet in this frail receptacle does the female cow-bird venture to
deposit her egg; and to the management of these pigmy nurses, leaves
the fate of her helpless young.

 

\ Muscicapa phebe, Latu. 2 Muscicapa coerulea, WiLson
: 43%*
510 AVES—FLYCATCHER.

THE RED-EYED FLYCATCHER!

Is the inost distinguishable of all the warblers of our forests; it has a
loud, lively, and energetic song; which it continues sometimes for an hour
without intermission, as it hunts among the thick foliage. Its notes are in
short emphatical hars, of two, three, or four syllables. In Jamaica, where
this bird winters, it is called whip-tom-kelly, from an imagined resemblance
of its notes to these words.

This bird builds a neat, pensile nest, between two twigs of a young dog-
wood, or other young sapling. It is hung by the two upper edges, and formed
of pieces of hornets’ nests, some flax, fragments of withered leaves, slips of
pine bark, and bits of paper, all glued together by the saliva of the bird and
the silk of caterpillars; lined with fibrous bark, grass, and hair. These
nests are very durable, and selected by the cow-bird as one of the numerous
receptacles for her egg ; the red-eyed flycatcher showing as much solicitude
for the young foundling as if it were her own. This bird is five inches and
a half long; the plumage is yelluw olive above; the under parts are white;
the crown is ash, bordered with black. The iris of the eye is red.

The red-eyed flycatcher is common throughout the United States, and is
an inhabitant of the city as well as the forest. On a fine summer’s day,
his lively notes may be heard among the branches of the elms on Boston
common.

THE YELLOW-THROATED FLYCATCHER?

Ys found chiefly in the woods, hunting among the high branches; and has
an indolent and plaintive note, which it repeats with some little variation
every ten or twelve seconds, like preeo, preea, &c. It is often heard in com-
pany with the preceding; the loud, energetic notes of the latter, mingling
with the soft, languid warble of the former, producing an agreeable effect,
particularly during the burning heat of noon, when almost every other
sungster but these two is silent. Its nest is built on a tree, and comyosed
o* strips of bark, of grape-vines, moss, lichens, &c., and lined with fibres,
Winged insects are its principal food.

This bird is five inches and a half long; the head and back of a fine yellow
olive; the throat and breast a fine lemon color; the under parts are silky
white; wings almost black, crossed with two white bars.

1 Muscicapu olivacea, Lin. 2 Muscicapa sylvicola, WiLs0N. =
AVES—FLYCATCHER...REDSTART., 511

THE WHITE-EYED FLYCATCHER!

(s another of the cow-bird’s adopted nurses; a lively, active, and sociable
little bird, possessing a strong voice for its size, and a great variety of notes,
and sings during the whole summer. It probably winters in Mexico and the
West Indies. It builds a very neat little nest in the igure of an inverted
cone ; it is suspended by the upper edge of the two sides on the circular bend
of a prickly vine that generally grows in low thickets. It is constructed ot

: bits of rotten wood, fibres of weeds, and pieces of paper, commonly news-
papers. Fron this circumstance it is sometimes called the Politician. It
makes a great ado when any one comes near the nest; looking down and
scolding with great vehemence. It is five inches and a quarter long; the
upper parts are fine yellow olive; those below white, exceat the sides of the
breast, which are yellow.

 

THE SWALLLOW-TAILED FLYCATCHER?

Is a very rare and beautiful bird, a specimen of which was shot, on the Ar-
kansas river, by the exploring party under Major Long. It is as audacious
as the king-bird, attacking with unhesitating intrepidity, and turving the flight
of the most powerful of the feathered tribe. Its notes consist of a chirping
something like ésch, tsch, much resembling that of the prairie dog, by which
it deceived the members of Long's party into a belief that they were ap-
proaching one of the villages of this animal.

To the above may be added the Arkansas, Say’s, Bonaparte’s, Selby’s, and
Traill’s Flycatchers, all of which belong to the United States.

THE AMERICAN REDSTART3

Has been classed among the warblers, yet it has all the characteristics of
the flycatchers, and is in fact one of the most expert of its tribe. It will
pursue a party of flies from the tops of the tallest trees, in an almost yer-
pendicular, but zigzag direction, to the ground, while the clicking of its ‘ill
is distinctly heard; and 1 drubt not but it often secures tena or twelve of
these in three or four seconds. Its notes or twitter, though animated and
sprightly are not deserving the name of song; sometimes they are wéese,
wéese, wéese, repeated every quarter of a minute, as it skips among the
branches ; at other times this twitter varies to several other chants, which we

 

1 Muscicapa cantatriz, Wi.son. 2 Muscicapa forficata, GMEL.
3 Muscicapa ruticilla, Lin.
512 AVES—FLYCATCHER...NIGHTINGALE.

ean instantly distinguish in the woods. It is sure to be seen in the interio
af forests, the borders of swamps, and meadows, and in deep glens covered
with wood, and wherever flying insects abound. It is very generally found
in the United States.

The name redstart has been given to it from its supposed resemblance to
the redstart of Europe. It builds in low bushes; the nest is built of flax
moistened with saliva, and lined with soft down. The male is extremely
anxious for its preservation, and on any one’s approaching the place, will flit
about within a few feet, seeming greatly distressed. ;

This bird is five inches long; the general color above is black, glossed
with blue; the sides of the breast, part of the wings and tail, of a fine orange,
and the under parts white.

THE NIGHTINGALE!

 

Vistrs England in the beginning of April, and leaves it in September. Itis
found but in some of the southern parts of that country, being totally un-
known in Scotland, Ireland, or North Wales. They frequent thick hedges
and low coppices, and generally keep in the middle of the bush, so that they
are rarely seen. It is not by the beauty of his plumage that this universally
admired bird has become a general favorite, and the theme of almust every
poet; for he is one of those warblers which are the most humbly attired.
He is about six inches long, and the upper part of his body is of a rusty

 

1 Sylvia luscinia, Latu. The genus Sylvia has the hill straight, slender, awl-shaped,
the base deeper than broad ; au of the upper mandible frequently notched, the under
one straight; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, partly covered by a membrane; tarsus longer
than the middle toe; the exterior toe joined at its hase to the middle one; first quill
fextner very short, or none ; second scarcely exceeding the third ; great wing-coverts much
shorter than the quill feathers. 5
!

AVES—BLAUK-CAP. 513

brown, tinged with olive; the under parts are of a pale ash color, almos

wate at the throat and belly. But in his song he surpasses all the choristers
of the air, his notes being exquisitely varied, soft, and harmonious, and ren-
dered still more pleasing by..their being poured forth in the night, when the
other warblers are all silent. They begin their song in the evening, and
generally continue for the whole night. For weeks together, if undisturbed,
they sit upon the same tree; and Shakspeare rigntly describes the nightin

gale, sitting nightly in the same place. In a calm evening, he may be hearst
to the distance of more than half a mile.

In the beginning of May, the nightingale prepares to make its nest, which
1s formed of the leaves of trees, straw, and moss. The nest, heing very
eagerly sought after, is as cunningly secreted ; so that but very few of them
are found by the boys when they go upon these pursuits. It is built at the.
bottom of hedges, where the bushes are thickest and best covered. While
the female continues sitting, the male, at a good distance, but always within.
aearing, cheers the patient hour with his voice, and, by the short interruptior
of his song, often gives her warning of approaching danger. She lays tour
or five eggs; of which but a part, in England, come to maturity.

The delicacy, or rather the fame, of this bird’s music, has induced many
to abridge its liberty, to secure its harmony. Its song, however, in captivity,
is not so very alluring; and the tyranny of taking it from these helges,
where only it is most pleasing, still more depreciates its imprisoned eflurts.
Gesner assures us, that it is not only the most agreeable songster in a cage
but that it is possessed of a most admirable faculty of talking.

 

THE BLACK-CAP.!

 

Tuis bird is rather more than five inches in length, and is of the titmou-e.
kind. The upper mandible is of a dark horn color, the under one light
blue, and the edges of both whitish ; the top of the head is black, from whieh
circumstance it derives its name; the sides of the head and back of the neck
are ash color; the back and wings of an olive gray ; the throat and breast.
of a silvery gray; the belly white; the legs are of a bluish color, inclining
© prown; the claws black. The head of the female is of a dull rust coler

 

1 Sylvia atricapilla, Latu.
65
a

614 AVES—REDBREAST.

The black-cap visits England about the middle of April, and retires ir
September; it is common in Italy, but in England it is rather a rare bird
it fr: zaents gardens, and its nest, which it builds near the ground, is com
pose. of dried grass, moss, and wool, and lined with hair and feathers. The
female lays five eggs, of a pale reddish brown, sprinkled with darker colored
spots. During the time of incubation the male attends the female, and sits
by turps ; he likewise procures her food, such as flies, worms and insects.
‘This bird sings sweetly, and so like the nightingale, that in Norfolk it is
talled the mock-nightingale. Black-caps feed chiefly on flies and insects, and
not unfrequently on ivy, and other berries.

THE REDBREAST.!}

Tuovcn the redt:reast 1s generally admired for his song, he is still more ad-
mired for his attachment to, and confidence in, mankind. In_-all cuuntries,
he is a favorite, and has what may be called a pet name. The inhabitants
of Bornholm call him Tommi Liden, the Norwegians, Peter Ronsmed, the
Germans, Thomas Gierdet, and in England he is known as Robin Redbreast

- or by the still more familiar appellation of Bob. Buffon describes, with his
usual elegance, the winter manners of this bird. “In that season,” says he,
“ they visit our dwellings, and seek the warmest and most sheltered situa-
tions ; and if any one happens stil] to continue in the woods, it becomes the
eompanion of the faggot maker, cherishes itself at his fire, pecks at his
bread, and flutters the whole day round him, chirping its slender pip. But
when the cold grows more severe, and thick snow covers the ground, it ap-
proaches our houses, and taps at the windows with its bill, as if to entreat
an asylum, which is cheerfully granted; and it repays the favor by the mos
amiable familiarity, gathering the crumbs from the table, distinguishing
affectionately the people of the house, and assuming a warble, not indeed so
‘rich as that in the spring, but more delicate. This it retains through all the
‘rigors of the season, to hail each day the kindness of its host, and the
‘sweetness of its retreat.” The bill of the robin is slénder and delicate; its
-eyes are large, dark, and expressive, and its aspect mild ; its head and all the
wpper parts of its body are brown, tinged with a greenish olive; the neck
and breast are of a fine deep reddish orange ; a spot of the same color marks
its forehead ; its belly is whitish, and the legs and feet of a dusky black. It
‘is near six inches in length, from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail; the
former being about half an inch, and the latter two inches and a half.

This bird, m England, has the sweetest song of all the feathered tr’ke:
the notes of other birds are, indeed, louder, and their inflections more ca-
pricious , but the redbreast’s voice is soft, tender, and well suppurted; and
the more to be valued, as we enjoy it the greatest part of the winter.

 

1 Sylvia rubecola Latu.
AVES—REDSTART. 515

During the spring, the robin haunts the wood, the grove, and the garden-
and retires to the thickest and shadiest hedge-rows to breed in, where its nest
is usually placed among the roots of trees, in some concealed spot near .e
ground. In winter it endeavors to support itself, by chirping round the
wurm habitations of mankind, and by coming into those shelters where the
tiger of the season is artificially expelled, and where insects are found in the
greatest numoeis, attracted by the same cause. The female lays from five
to seven eggs, of a dull white color, diversified with reddish streaks. In-
sects and worms are the principal food of the redbreast. The latter it very
dexterously renders fit to be eaten, by taking hold of the extremity of ore in
its beak, and beating it against the ground till the inside comes away, and
then repeating the operation with the other end, till the outer part is entirely
cleansed. 3

 

THE REDSTART.!

 

Tuts bird measures rather more than five inches in length. Its bill and
eyes are black; its forehead is white; the cheeks, throat, fore part, and sides
-of the neck, are black, which color extends over each eye; the crown of the
‘head, hinder part of the neck, and the back, are of a.deep blue gray ; insome
subjects, probably old ones, this gray is almost black; its breast, ramp, and
sides are of a fine glowing red, inclining tu orange color, which extends to
-all the feathers of the tail, excepting the twe middle ones, which are brown,
the belly is white; the feet and claws are biack. The female difftrs consi-
derably from the male; her colors are not so vivid; the top of her head and
back are of a gray ash color, and the chin is white.

The redstart is migratory’; it appears about the middle of April, and de-
parts in the latter end of September, or beginning of October; to what
country it retires is not known ; it frequents old walls and ruinous edifices,
where it makes its nest, composed chiefly oi moss, lined with hair and
feathers. lt is distinguished by a peculiar quick shake of its tail from side
to side, on its alighting on a wall or other place. Though a wild and timo-
rous bird, it is frequently found in the midst of cities, always choosing the

 

 

 

 

1 Sylvia phenicurus, Laru.

4
616 AVES—BLUE-BIRD.

most difficult and inaccessible places for its residence; it likewise builds in
forests, in holes of trees, or in high and dangerous precipices. The femaie
iays four or five eggs, not much unlike those of the hedge-sparrow, but
somewhat longer. Should she discover that they ‘have been touched, she
immediately forsakes them. These birds feed on flies, spiders, the eggs of
ants, small berries, soft fruits, and such like. If taken when old, it is im-
possible to tame the redstart, but if caught young, and kept warm during
the winter, it may be domesticated, and will pour forth its song, by night as
well as by day, with great sweetness and freedom.

THE BLUE-BIRD.1

Tue blue-bird is one of the first messengers of spring, and meets with a
vearty welcome from every body. He appears as early as February, and 1s
seen with his mate reconnoitering the leaf in the garden, and the hule in the
apple tree, the cradles of some generations of his ancestors. They then
begin to clear out the old nest, and to prepare for the reception of their
future offspring. Soon after this, another sociable little pilgrim arrives from
the south, and finding such a snug birth pre-occupied, shows his spite bv
watching a convenient opportunity, and, in the absence of the owner, pops
in and pulls out the sticks; but takes especial care to make off as fast as
possible.

‘Their principal food is insects and beetles, and sometimes spiders. In the
tall they feed on berries, fruits, and seeds. The usual spring and summer
song of this bird, is a soft, agreeable and oft-repeated warble, uttered with
open quivering wings, and is extremely pleasing. In his motions and charac-
ter he resembles the redbreast of Pritain, and like him he is known to
almost every child. He is of a mild and peaceful disposition, seldom quar-
telling with other birds. His society is courted in the country, and few
farmers neglect to provide for him, in some suitable place, a snug litthe
summer-house, ready fitted and rent free. For this he more than sufficiently
cepays them by the cheerfulness of his song and the multitude of injurious
insects which he destroys. Towards fal], his song changes to a single plain-
tive note, as he passes over the yellow and many-colored woods; and its
melancholy air recalls to our minds the approaching decay of the face of
nature. Even after the trees are stripped of their leaves, he still lingers
ever his native fields, as if loth to leave them. Indeed he appears scarcely
ever totally to forsake us, as with every return of mild and open weather,
we hear his plaintive note amidst the fields, or in the air, seeming to deplore
te devastation of winter.

The blue-bird is six inches and three quarters long; the wings are remar-

 

' Sylvia sialis, Wits0n.
AVES--WARBLER. 517

Kably full and broaa, and dusky black at the tips; the whole upper parts
are rich sky-blue, with purple reflections; under parts chesnut culor and

white

THE BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER!

Vistrs us from the south; haunts thickets and shrubberies, searching the
branches for insects ; is fond of visiting gardens, orchards, and willow trees,
of gleanmg amung blossoms and currant bushes; and is frequently found in
very sequestered woods, where it generally builds its nest. It is in the form
of an inverted cone, the bottom thickly bedded with dry beach leaves; the
sides formed of the dry bark of weeds, and lined with grass. This species
is five inches and a half long; back is rich green olive; crown and front
orange yellow; whole lower parts yellow.

THE BLUE-EYED YELLOW WARBLER?

Js a very common bird, and appears almost always actively employed
among the leaves and blossoms of the willows, snowballs and poplars,
searching after smali green caterpillars, which are its principal food. It has
a few shrill emphatic notes, not deserving the name of song. It is a very
sprightly, unsuspicious, and familiar bird; is often seen in and about gardens,
among the blossoms and fruit trees; and, on account of its color, is very no-
ticeahle. Its nest-is built with great neatness in the fork of a smal] shrub.
It is composed of flax or tow, strongly twisted round the twigs, and lined
with hair and the down of fern. This interesting little bird will feign lare-
ness to draw you from its nest, fluttering feebly along, and looking hack to
see if you follow him. It is five inches long. The upper parts are greenish
yellow; crown, front, and whole lower parts, rich golden yellow ; breast aud
sides streaked with dark red.

THE GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER?

Is another spring passenger through the United States. Its habits rartake
very much of those of the titmouse, and in their language and actir as very
much resemble them. It darts actively among the young leaves and
opening buds, and is rather a scarce species. It is five inches long; the
crown is golden yellow; the wings yellow; the rest of the upper parts asb
or olate color.

 

1 Syma solitarva, WiL80N. 2 Sylvia cestiva, LaTH.
3 Sylvia chrysoptera, Latn.
44
518 AVES—WREN.

THE GOLDEN CRESTED WREN.!

Tuts is the smallest of all British birds, is very beautiful, and has an
extremely delicate and pleasing note, somewhat Jess loud than that of the
common wren. In winter it may be distinguished by its shrill squeak,
which somewhat resembles the cricking of a grasshopper. It is very agile,
and is almost constantiy in motion, either fluttering from branch to branch,
creeping on all sides of the trees, clinging to them in all ways, and often
hanging with its back downward, like a titmouse. Insects and their eggs,
small worms, and various kinds uf seeds, constitute its food. The female
lays from ten to eighteen eggs, which are scarcely larger than peas; and
the nest is frequently formed amongst the leaves at the top of the branch of
a fir tree, where, in high winds, it swings like a pendulum.

Of this wren the head and upper part are of a deep reddish brown; the
oack, and the coverts of the wings and tail, are marked with slender trans-
verse black lines; the quill feathers are barred with black and red; the belly
and sides are crossed with narrow, dusky and pale reddish brown lines; the
tail is crossed with dusky bars; the throat is a yellowish white; and there
is a stroke of white above each eye.

THE EUROPEAN WREN2

Tus illiputian songster is a native of every part of Europe. It weighs
only three drachms, is but four inches in length, from the point of the bill te
the end of the tail, and is admired for the loudness of its note, compared
with the little body whence it issues. It will carol forth its strains uncon-
cerned during a fall of snow. Even when confined in a cage, it has some-
times been known to sing as strong as when in its native fields, and
with equal freedom and meliowness of song. It commonly creeps about
hedges or trees, in the vicinity of farmyards, and sings very late in the
evening, though not, like the nightingale, after the landscape is enveloped
with darkness.—The female lays from ten to eighteen eggs, which are very
small, white, and sprinkled with red spots.

The wren constructs its nest in a very curious manner. Unlike other.
birds, it does not begin first at the bottom, If the nest be placed against a

_bank, it commences the fabric at the top; .f against a tree, it at the outset

 

1 Regulus auricapillus, Sersy. The genus Regulis has the bill straight. slender,
deeper than broad, compressed, the edges heuding inwards; nostrils basal, with bristles
directed forwards; wings with the first quill short, the second shorter than the turd, .
which is tne longest ; tarsus longer than the middle toe.

£ Trogiodytes Furopeus, Cov. The genus Troglodytes has the bill slender, ana
ughtly compressed. curved, emanginated ; nostrils basal, half covered by a naked mers.
rane; wings short and rounded ; fourth and fifth feathers of equal length aud longest ;
ail shont, rounded, erect; tarsus the length of the middle toe.
AVES—WREN, 519

‘races the outline on the bark, and closes the sides and top in succession.
When it builds against a hayrick, the exterior of the nest is of that material;
when it is on the side of a tree covered with white lichen, or green moss,
the tabric 1s of one or.other of those substances ; but the interior is uniform=
ly lined with feathers.

 

THE AMERICAN HOUSE WREN:}

 

Tue house wren is a well known and familiar bird, who builds his nest,
sometinies under the eaves, or in a hollow cherry tree; but most commonty
in smal] boxes fixed on a pole, for its accommodation. He will even put up
with an old hat, and if even this is denied him, he will find some hole or
crevice, about the house or barn, rather than abandon the dwellings of man.
A mower once hung up his cvat, under a shed near a barn; two or three
days elapsed before he had occasion to put it on; thrusting his arm up the
sleeve he found it completely filied with some rubbish as he expressed it,
and on extracting the whole mass, found it tc be the nest of a wren, com-
pletely finished and lined with a large quantity of feathers. In his retreat
he was followed by the forlorn little proprietors, who scolded him with
great vehemence, for thus ruining the whole’ economy of their domestic
affairs.

The immense number of insects which this sociable little bird removes
from the garden and fruit trees ought to endear him to every cultivator ;
and his notes, loud, sprightly, and tremulous, are extremely agreeable. Its
food is insects and caterpillars, and while supplying the wants of its young,
it destroys, on an average, manv hundreds a day. It is a bold and insolent
bird against those that venture to build within its jurisdiction ; attacking
them without hesitation, though twice its size, and compelling them to
decamp. I have known him to drive a pair of swallows from their newly
formed nest, and take immediate possession of the premises. Even the
blue-bird, when attacked by this little impertinent, soon relinyuishes the
contest ; with those of his own species, also, he has frequent squabbles.

The aouse wren inhabits the whole of the United States. It is four
mehes and a half long; the whole upper parts are a deep brown; the

m7
throat, breast, and cheeks, clay color; the under parts mottled.

 

1 Troglodytes fulvus, Bonar.
520 AVES—WREN...WHEAT-EAR

THE MARSH WREN!

18 verv numerous along the tide-water of the'rivers in. Pennsy.vamua, wnere
they frequent the reeds and splatter docks, to search for flying insects, and
green grasshoppers, which are its principal food. To such places it limits
its excursions As to its notes, it would be mere burlesque to call them song.
It builds a durable and warm nest of rushes and mud, which it suspends
among the reeds. Its size, color, and habit of erecting its tail, give it some-
thmg the appearance of the house wren. It is five inches long, and of a
dark brown color.

 

s

THE GREAT CAROLINA WREN?2

Woutp at first sight be called a wren, but this and the preceding are de-
cidedly creepers. It is found only in the southern states, where it is at-
tached to cypress swamps, deep hollows, among decaying timber, and coves
near rivers and creeks. It has all the jerking manner of the wren, skipping
about with great nimbleness, hopping into caves, and disappearing into holes
and crevices like a rat, for several minutes, and then reappearing ia anof’ er
yuarter. It occasionally utters a loud, strong, and singular twitter, resem-
‘bling the word chirrup, dwelling long and strongly on the first syllable. It
has also another chant, rather more musical, like * Sweet William, Sweet
William,” much softer than the former. Its food seems to consist of those
insects and their larve that frequent low damp caves, piles of dead timbei
pld roots, projecting banks of creeks, &c. It is five inches and a quartes
long, and of a reddish brown color.

 

THE WHEAT-EAR.

Tuts bird weighs upwards of an ounce, and has a slender blacs bill, avout
half an inch long; the tongue is cloven or slit, and the inside of the mouth ’
black; the eyes are of a hazel color, above which there is a white line pass-
ing towards the hinder part of the head ; and below them, a large black one,
which cxtends itself from the corners of the mouth to the ears. The head
and back appear of a cinereous color, with a mixture of red. The -ump ia

 

1 Troglodytes palustris, Bon ap. 2 Troglodytes ludovicianus, Rosar.

4 Saricola enanthe, Becnat, The genus Saricola has the bill straight, slender, shyhtly
vannated, and advancing upon the forelead ; the top of the under mandible a litue bent
and emarginated ; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, partly concealed by 8 membrane; tarsus
considerally longer than the middle toe; the outer toc joined at its base to the nuadle
me; third and fourth quill feuthers the longest,
AVES—WHEAT EAR. 52.

generally white, from whence, by some, it has the name of white-tail; the
velly is white, tinged with yellow, dashed faintly with red; the breast and
throat are more deep; the coverts and quills are black, with their extreme

 

edges white, tinctured with a dusky red: the tail is sometiung more than
two inches Jong, and the upper half of it is black, the lower, white. The
female wants the black mark across the eyes; the bar of white across the
tail is narrower thao that of the male; and the general colors are more
dull.

The wheat-ear visits England annually in the middle of March, and leaves
tn September. The females come first, about a fortnight before the males;
and they continue to come till the middle of May. In some parts of Eng-
land they are found in vast plenty, and are much esteemed. About East-
bourne, in Sussex, they are taken in snares made of horse-hair, placed
beneath a long turf. As they are very timid birds, the motion even of a
cloud, or the appearance of a hawk, will immediately drive them int the
traps. These traps are first set every year on St. James’s day, (July 25°; )
soon after which, they are caught in astonishing numpers, considering that
they are not gregarious, and that more than two or three are searc ely ever
seen flying together. The numbers annually ensnared in the district of
Eastbourne alone is said to amount to nearly two thousand dozen, One
shepherd has caught eighty-four dozen of them in a day. The birds caught
are chiefly young ones, and they are invariably found in the greatest number
when an easterly wind prevails ; as they always confe against the wind,

It is:supposed, that the immense swarms of these birds which are found
on the downs about Eastbourne, are occasioned by a species of fly, their fa-
vorite food, that feeds on the wild thyme, and abounds in the adjacent hills.
In England they are held in as much estimation as the ortolaa is on the eon-
tinent. A few of these birds breed in the old rabbit-burrows there. The
nest is large, and made of dry grass, ralhit’s down, a few feathers, an¢ horse-
nar The eggs are from six t> sight, and are of 2 hg’ t color.

«6 ah #
522 AVES—WAGTAILL.

THE WHITE WAGTAILe

 

Tis is an elezant, slender-hodied bird, and, next to the rohin and the
sparrow, is the most.familiar with man. It weighs about six drachms, and
is about seven incnes and a half from the tip of the bill to the end of the
tail, and about eleven between the point of each wing, when extended. {t
has a slender, straight, sharp bill, of a black or dusky color, upwards of an
inch Jong; the circles of the eyes are brown, or hazle colored, with a large
white spot encirclingjeach eye, and another or two underneath it, on each
side of the throat; the top of the head, and the fore part of the neck, or
throat, and the upper part of the back, are all black. Some of the tips of
the quill feathers are white, which form a small white line upon the wing,
and another is also formed by the white edges of some of the rows of the
covert feathers; the lower parts of the breast and belly are both white.
The tail is about three inches long, and is almost continually in motion,
wagging up and down, from whence it is supposed to derive the name of
wagtail; the cuter feathers are chiefly white, the rest black. This motion
is supposed to be intended to make the tai) act as a kind of lever or counters
poise, to balance the body on the legs. The claws are sharp poirted, aad
pretty long, of a dusky or blackish color.

These birds are frequently seen about the brinks of rivers, ponds, and
small pools of water, and also amongst the low grass in dewy mernings,
where they feed upon flies, worms, beetles,,and other small insects. They
particularly haunt streams where women come to wash their linen, the
insects being attracted thither by the froth of the soap. From this cireums
stance the French call them davandiéres. They build under the eaves of
houses, and in holes in the walls of old buildings; laying four or five eggs.

1 Motacilla alba, Lin. The genus Motacilla has the bill slender, straight, sul ulate,
engular between the nostrils ; edges of the lower mandible compressed; nostrils hesaly
Jateral, oval, partly concealed hy a naked membrane: tarsus cousiderably lonzes han
the middle toe; exterior toe joined to the middle one at the base: hind claws strong aed
somctimes long; tail very long, equal, horizontal; one of the larger coverts 4s long as tne
wing feathers.
AVES—SKYLARK. 523

YRDER IV.—GRANIVOROUS BIRDS.

Bus of this order have the bill more or less conical, short, and strong;
tidge nure or less flattened, advaneing upon the forehead; mandibles
generis without notches; three toes before and one behind, the anterior
ones ca.acly divided; wings of medium length,

THE SKYLARK!

 

ts one of the most esteemed of the European song birds. It is found
throughout the whole of Europe, many parts of Asia, and the north of
Africa. [ts song is begun early in the spring, and continued during the
greater part of summer. Jtrises perpendicularly iaa spiral flight, singing as
it rises, till it frequently soars heyond the reach of vision. On the approach
of winter, the larks begin to collect in immense flocks, quitting the more
elevated parts of the country, and resorting to the coasts; at this period they
are fat, and vast numbers are taken for the table. The lark is six inches in
length ; its color is reddish, with the under parts yellowish white.

The lark builds its nest upon the ground, beneath some turf, that serves
to hide and shelter it. The female lays four or five eggs, of a dusky hue, io
color somewhat like those of a plover. [tis while she is sitting, that the
male usually entertains her with his singing; and while he is risen to an
imperceptible height, yet he still has his loved partner in h.s eye, nor once
loses sight of the nest, either while he ascends or is descending. This

 

Y Alanda arvensis, Lis, The genus Alauda has the bill subeonic, short, with the
mandibles of eqnal length. and the upper one slightly convex; nostrils basal, lateral
partly concealed by refle-ted feathers; claw of the hind toe much produced. and aearly
straight: wings wich tn first quill short or wanting, the third the longeyt; coronal teath.
ers general y produced,
524 AVES—TITMOUSE.

harmony continues several months, beginning early m the sp:ig, on pairing,
In winter they assemble in flocks, when their song forsakes them, anJ the
bird-catchers destroy them in great numbers, for the tables of the luxurious.
The common food of the young larks is worms aad insects; butafter they
are grown up they live chiefly on seeds, herbage, and most other vegetable
substances
* There are many other larks found in Europe, the most noted cf which,
next to the skylark, is the woodlark, which surpasses the skylark in rch

ness, though not in variety of song

 

THE BEARDED TITMOUSE!

1s ahout six inches long, and distinguished by a tuft of black feathers under
each eye, resembling a mustachio. It is common in the marshes near
London, and has erroneously been classed among the butcher-birds. The
titmouse, which is also called the tomtit, bluecap, and nun, is about four
inches and a half in length, and has a straight black bill, about half an inch
long, pretty thick. The crown of the head‘is of a fine blue color; from the
bill to the eyes there is a black line; and the forehead and chceks are white.
The latter color descends as low as the shoulders and middle part of the
back, where it appears more shaded with a glossy green; the rump is ofa
fine blue. The quill feathers have some of their tips white, some blue,
others green ; the covert feathers by their white tips make a small trans-
verse white line upon each wing. The breast, belly, and thighs are yellow,
with a broad black line passing from the throat down the midWe of the
breast to the vent. The tail is about two inches and a half long, of a black
color, except the outward edges of some of the feathers, which are blue.
The legs and feet are a sort of lead color.

These birds feed on insects, seeds, and fruit. They often excite alarm mm
the owners of gardens, under the idea that they are destroying the buds,
while, in fact, they are engaged in the beneficial opezation of seeking for the
caterpillars that infest them. They are very prolific, laying from fourteen
to twenty eggs ata time. If tke eggs be touched, the female forsakes her
nest, and. builds again. Titmice will venture to assault birds that are
twice or thrice their own bulk, and in this case they direct their aim chiefly
at the eyes. They often seize upon birds that are weaker than themselves;
which they kill, and having picked a hole in their skull, eat out their brains.

 

1 Parus biarmicus, Lin. The genus Parus has the hill short, straight, strong, coneal, com:

ressed terminating in a point, base with simalk hairs; nostrils basal, rounded, concealed
be projecting feathers ; legs stout; toes divided to their origin, nail of the hind one
strongest and gost bent; wing feathers the first of medium .ength, or almost deficient, the
fourth and fifth the longest. ‘
AVES—TITMOUSE 525

They are very fond of flesh, vast admirers of suet, and frequently pick bones
from durghills and other places. This bird is distinguished above the rest
of its kind, by its rancor against the owl.

There are many European varieties of this bird; the greater titmouse is
about five inches in length. The nests of almost every kind are constructed
with the must exquisite art, and with materials of the utmost delicacy; such
as inoss, hair, and the web of spiders, with which the whole is strongly tied
together.

BLACK-CAPT TITMOUSE.!

Turs is one of our American birds, active, noisy, and restless, hardy beyond
any of his size, braving the severest cold of our continent, as far north as the
country around Hudson’s Bay, and always appearing most lively in the
coldest weather. The males have a variety of very sprightly notes, which
cannot indeed be called a song, but rather a lively, frequently repeated, and
often varied, twitter. They are most usually seen during the fall and winter,
when they approach nearer to the scenes of cultivation. They begin to
build in April, choosing the deserted hole of a squirrel or woodpecker, and
sometimes, with incredible labor, digging one out for themselves. They tra-
verse the woods from tree to tree, tumbling, chatting, and hanging from the
extreinities of the branches, examining about the roots of the leaves, buds,
and cievices of the bark, for insects and their larve. They also visit the
orchards, the sides of the barn, and barn-yard, in the same pursuit.

These birds sometimes fight violently with each other, and are known to
attack young and sickly birds that are incapable of resistance, always direct-
ing their olows against the skull. ,

The crested titmouse is also an inhabitant of the United States, but 1s
More common in the northern parts.

 

1 Parus bicolor, Lin.
§

526 AVES—-yELLUW-HAMMER...ORTOLAN...BOB-O-LINK.

THE EUROPEAN YELLOW-HAMMER|

Tr is larger than the sparrow. A greenish yellow, spotted with brown, is
the hue of its head; the throat and belly are yellow; the breast and sides,
under the wings, are mingled with red; and the tail is of a flesh color. It
builds on the ground, feeds on insects and seeds; and has a soft note, not
unlike that of the linnet. ‘

THE ORTOLAN?

Ts somewhat Jess than the yellow-hammer. The plumage on the upper
parts is brownish chesnut, mixed with black ; the under parts are pale rufous.
These birds are common in France and Italy, but are not found in England
They are caught in numbers to fatten for the table. This is done by includ
ing them in a dark room, and feeding them with oats and millet. By this
process they become so fat that they would die from that cause alone, were
they not killed for sale. In this state they will sometimes weigh three oun-
ces, and are accounted the most luxurious repast of the epicure, being, as
it were, one lump of exquisite fat.

 

THE BOB-O-LINK, OR RICE BUNTING,3

CaLLep also reed bird in some of the southern states, and hutter bird in
Jamaica. He is seven anda half inches long. This is one of the most
common birds in the United States, and is familiar to every schoolboy from
the lively jingle of his note. The plumage of the male is an odd mixture
of white and black in the spring and early part of the summer—he changes
to a yellowish brown late in the season. The female is of a dusky brown.
In the eastern states the arrival of this bird is welcomed with pleasure, as
he is highly esteemed and his habits are comparatively harmless to the
crops. In the southern states he is more annoying to the husbandman and
the sportsmen of those parts, who show the rice birds no mercy, as his flesa
is excellent. They do great damage to the early wheat and barley in Virginia,
and eagerly devour young ears of Indian corn. They feed also on grubs,

 

! EXmberiza citrinella, Lin. The genus Hmberiza, or Bunting, has the hill short, coni-
cal, compressed, sharp edged: the upper mandible narrower than the under, the edges of
both bent inwards; nostrils, basal, rounded, surmounted and partly corered hy the feath-
ers of the forehead ; toes divided, the posterior with a short aud bent claw; tail forked
or slightly rounded.

4 Eimberiza hortulana, Lx. 3 Emberiza oryzivora, Witson.
AVES—COW-BUNTING. 527

flies, and caterpillars. They pour down upon the oat fields in a torrent, and
resort to the shores of the Delaware and Schuylkill in immense numbers, to
feed upon the reeds or wild oats. Atthis time they are extremely fat. Their
1ote is a single chink, and is heard overhead with little intercession from
inorning to night. These are halcyon days for our gunners, and many a

 

lame and rusty gun-barrel is put in requisition for the sport. The report of
musketry along the reedy shores of the river is almost incessant, resembling
arunning fire. The markets of Philadelphia at this season exhibit proofs-of
the prodigious havoc made a:ong the birds. In the fall, they swarm in the
tice fields, and devour great quantities of that grain.

4

THE COW-BUNTING.

Tye cow-bunting has a most remarkable character, which is the unace
countable practice it has of dropping its eggs into the nests of other birds,
instead of building and hatching for itself; and thus entirely abandons its
‘amily to the care and mercy of strangers. I have often found the young
cow-bunting in the nests of small birds; and have seen these last followed
by the young foundling, calling out clamorously for food; and I once took a
very tine one trom the nest or the Maryland yellow throat, where it was
fostered with great care. ,

\ Emberiza pecoris, WiLs0n.
528 AVES—COW-BUNTING.

The migrations of these birds extend very iar north. On ter way
they frequently stop in June, and are observed loitering singly, among
thickets, reconnoitering no doubt for proper nurses, to whose care they may
commit the hatching of their eggs, and the rearing of their helpless orphans
Among the birds selected for this duty are the red-eyed and white-eyed fly
catchers, the chipping sparrow, the golden-crowned thrush, the blue-bird,
the small blue gray flycatcher and and the yellow throat. The yellow
throat and the red-eyed flycatcher, appear to be particular favorites; and
the kindness and affectionate attention which those two little birds pay to
their nurslings, fully justifies the partiality of the parents. What reason
nature may have for this extraordinary deviation from her general practice,
is beyond my comprehension.

These birds often frequent corn and rice-fields; but are more commonly
found accompanying the cattle, feeding on the seeds and worms, &c., which
they pick up amongst the fudder, &c. Hence they are called cow-birds,
zowpen birds, and crow black-birds. They are generally found associated
with the red-winged black-birds, which they in many respects resemble.

In the month of July, says Wilson, I took from the nest of a Maryland
yellow thrvat, a young male cow-bunting, which filled and occupied the
whole nest. I took the bird home with me, and placed it in the same cage
with a red-bird, who at first and for several minutes after examined it closely
and seemingly with great curiosity. It soon became clamorous for food, and
from that moment the red-bird seemed to adopt it as his own, feeding it wita
all the assiduity and tenderness of the most affectionate nurse. When he
found that the grasshopper he had brought it, was too large for it to swal-
low, he took the insect, broke it into sniall pieces, chewed them a little to
soften them, and then with all the delicacy and gentleness imaginable, put
them separately in his mouth. He often sper.t several minutes looking at
and examining it all over, and in picking off any particles of dirt that he
found on its plumage. In six months the cow-bird was in complete plu
mage, and repaid the affectionate services of his foster-parent, with ¢ frequent
display of his musical talents; these it must be confessed are far from ravishing,
yet for their singularity are worthy of notice. He spreads his wings, swells
his body into a globular form, bristling every feather in the manner of a
turkey-cock, and with great seeming difficulty utters a few low sputtering
notes; always on these occasions strutting in front of the spectator with
great consequential affectation. To see the red-bird, who is himself so ex-
cellent a performer, silently listening to all this guttural sputter, reminds
one of the great Handel, contemplating a wretched violin scraper!

The cow-bunting is seven inches long; the head and neck is a silky drab.
the upper part of the breast a deep changeable violet; the rest of the bird is
black, glossed with green. ;
AVES—BUNTING...GRUUND ROBIN. 529

TITE PAINTED BUNTING

Ts found n Lower Louisiana, where it is universally known among the
Frenci inhabitants, and called by them “ Le Rapei,” and by the Americans
the Nonpareil. Its gay dress andsdocility of manners have procured it many
admirers; for these qualities are highly attractive, and always carry their
own recommendation along with them. The low countries of the southern
states, in the vicinity of the sea and along the borders of our large rivers,
narticularly among the rice plantations, are the favorite haunts of this ele-
gant little bird. A few are seen in North Carolina; they are more numerous
in South Carolina, and still more so in Georgia. Their notes very much
resemble those of the indigo bird, but want their strength and energy.

These birds are domesticated at New Orleans, and is the most common
cage bird they have. Six of these birds, says Wilson, which I brought with.
me from New Orleans by sea, soon became reconciled to the cage. In good
weather, the males sung with great sprightliness. They were greedily fond
of flies, which accompanied us in great numbers during the whole voyage;
and many of the passengers amused themselves with catching them, and
giving them to the nonpareils; till at length, the birds became so well ac-
quainted with the amusement, that as soon as they saw any of the people
attempting to catch flies, they assembled at the front of the cage, stretching
out their heads evidently much interested in the issue of their success.

They build their nests in orange trees, and sometimes in blackberry bushes.
They are formed of dry grass, and the silk of caterpillars, and lined with
hair and fine rvots. The plumage undergoes great changes, not being per-
fect till the fourth:season. The head and neck of the male is of a rich
purplish hue, the chin and lower parts are vermilion; back glossy yellow,
stained with green and sometimes with red; wings red, edged with green.
Itis seven inches and three fourths long. The female is of a green oliy e;
the lower parts are light yellow. It is five inches and a half long.

The food of the painted bunting consists of rice, insects, and various kinds
of seeds, among which are the seeds of ripe figs. They frequent gardens,
and chant occasionally during the whole summer. In the fall they retire tu
the south. ;

THE TOWHEE-BUNTING, OR GROUND ROBIN

Tuus bird is also called chewink and swamp robin. , It generally keeps close
to the ground, and frequents thickets and sheltered spots, scratching among

 

1 Emberiza erythrophthalma, Witson.
67
530 AVES—TANAGER.

the leaves for worms and larve. It is quite a familiar bird, and will suffer
a person to walk round the bush or thicket, where it s at work, without
betraying any signs of alarm, and when disturbed, uttering the notes ¢ou-he,
repeatedly. Attimes, the male mounts a small tree, and chants his few
simple notes for an hour ata time. They are loud, but not unmusical. He
is fond of thickets near streams of water, and is found generally over the
United States. The nest is placed on the ground among the dry leaves, and
is large and substantial. He shows great affection fur his young, and is
remarkable for the cunning with which he conceals his nest, sometimes
nearly covering it with dry grass. In Virginia he is called the bulfinch.

This bird is eight inches and a half long; of a black color above, and
white below. The eye changes in color; the iris being sometimes white,
aad often red.

There are various others of the bunting genus, natives of the United
States, as the white-crowned bunting, the bay-winged bunting, the black-
throated bunting, Henslow’s buntitg.

THE SCARLET TANAGER!

 

Is one of the most beautiful of American birds, having a plumage of tne
richest scarlet, with wings of jet black. He is spread over the United States,
and is tuund even in Canada, and South America. He rarely approaches

 

VLunagra rubra, Lis, The genus Tanagra has the hill short, strong, trianguiar at
the base, carinated,’much compressed at the point, which is hent; upper mandible longer
than the under, anc notched; edges of tne mandibles hent inwards; under mandible
straight, and somewhat gihlous toward the middle; nostrils basal, lateral, rounded, partly
soncealed by projecting feathers; tarsus the length of the middle toe; the external tue
toined +t its base; the internal free; wings with the second and third quills longest.
AVES—REv-BIRD. 531

the habiiations of man, unless perhaps to the orchard, where he sometimes
builds; o1 to the cherry trees in search of fruit. The depths of the woods
are his favorite abode. There, among the thick foliage of the tallest trees,
his simplc, and almost monotonous notes of chip, churr, repeated at intervals
in a pensive tone, may be oceasiunally heard, which appear to proceed from
a considerable distance, though the bird be immediately above you ; a faculty
bestowed upon him by the beneficent Author of nature, no doubt for his
protection, to compensate in a degree for the danger to which his glowing
color would often expose him. Besides this usua! note, he has, at times, a
more musical chant. His food consists of large winged insects, such as
wasps, hornets, and humble bees, and also of fruit. His nest is built on the
horizontal branch of a tree, sometimes an apple tree, and is but slightly put
together ; stalks of broken flax, and dry grass, so thinly woven together, that
the light is easily perceivable through it, from the repository of his young.
His manners are modest, easy, and inoffensive. He commits no depreda-
tions on the property of the husbandmam; but rather benefits him by the
daily destruction of many noxious insects; and when winter approaches, he
is no plundering dependant, but seeks in a distant country that sustenance
which the severity of the season denies to his industry in this. He isa
striking ornament to our rural scenery, and none of the meanest of our rural
songsters. Such being the true craits of his character, we shall always
with pleasure welcome this beautiful stranger to our orchards, groves, and
forests.

Wha you approach the nest, the male keeps cautiously at a distance, as
if feae’ul of being seen; while the female hovers round in the greatest
_agita'.on and distress. When the young leave the nest, the male parent
take- a most active part in feeding and attending them, and is then altogether
in? (rent of concealment.

THE SUMMER RED-BIRD.!

1 5r. changes of color which this bird is subject to, during the first year,
“eve deceived European naturalists so much, that four different species of
tanay., have been formed out of this one. The female differs much m color
from t's: male. The food of this bird consists of various kinds of bugs, and
large ick beetles. During the season of whortleberries they seem to live
um». mtirely upon them. In Pennsylvania they are rare, but in New
lere»s hey may he generally found. The note of the male is a strong and
ou ».s whistle, resembling a loose trill or shake on the notes of a fife,

 

\Tanagra estiva, WiLson.
532 AVES—CROSSBILL.

frequently repeated; that of the female is rather a kind of chatterng,
approaching nearly to the rapid pronunciation of chicky-tucky-tuck, when she
sees any person approaching the neighborhood of her nest. She is, how-
ever, rarely seen, and usually mute, and scarcely to be distinguished from
the color of the foliage at a distance; while the loquacity and brilliant red
of the male make him very conspicuous; and when seen among the green
leaves, he has a most beautiful and elegant appearance. =

The summer red-bird delights in a flat sandy country covered with wood,
and interspersed with pine trees, and is more numerous on the shores of the
Atlantic than in the interior. In both the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida
they are numerous; in the northern states they are very rare.

THE AMERICAN CROSSBILL.|!

Tuis species is a regular inhabitant of almost all our pine forests situated
norta of forty degrees, from September to April. The Great Pine Swamp
in Pennsylvania appears to be their favorite rendezvous. They then appear
in large flocks, feeding on the s-eds of the hemlock and white pine; have a
loud, sharp, and not unmusical note; chatter as they fly; alight during the
prevalence of the deep snows before the door of the hunter, and around the
aouse, picking off the clay with which the logs are plastered, and searching
in corners where any substance of a saline nature had been thrown. At
such times they are so tame, as only to settle on the roof of the cabin when
disturbed, and a moment after, descend ‘vu feed as before. They are then
easily caught in traps. When kept in a cage they have many of the habits
of the parrot, often climbing along the wires, and using their feet to grasp
the cones in, while taking out the seeds.

This bird has hitherto been considered a mere variety of the European
species, but it differs in several respects. I have therefore separated it from
the grosbeaks. Itis subject to many changes of color. The male is five
inches and three fourths long. The general color of the plumage, when
perfect, is a red-lead color ; the tail is forked and edged with yellow. The
female is less than the male; the plumage is of an olive yellow.

 

1 Loxia curmrostra, Lin. The genus Lovwia has the bill rather long, strong, much cora-
pressed, the two mandibles equally convex, and crossing each other at the points when ag
Test; nostrils round, basal, and lateral, concealed hy reflected bristly feathers; the anterior
toes entirely divided; wings with the first quill feathers longest; tail forked.
AVES—GROSBEAK. 533

THE CARDINAL GROSBEAK'!

 

Tue cardinal grosbeak is one of our most common cage birds, and 1s very
genera.ly known both in America and Europe. Numbers of these have
been carried over to France and England, in which last country they are
ealled Virginia nightingales. They have great clearness and variety of
tones; many of them resemble the clear notes of a fife, and are nearly as
loud. They begin in the spring at the first appearance of dawn, and repeat
a favorite stanza or passage, twenty or thirty times. His sprightly figure
and gaudy plumage, his vivacity, strength of voice, and the little expense
with which he is kept, will always make him a favorite.

This species inhabits America from New England to Carthagena. In the
southein states they are the most numerous. They love to reside in the
vicinity of fields of corn, a grain that constitutes their chief and favorite
food. The seeds of apples, cherries, and many other sorts of fruit, are eaten by
them ; and they are accused of destroying bees. They build their nests in
a holly, cedar, or laurel bush. It is constructed of twigs and weeds. They
are hardy birds, easily kept, sing six or eight months in a year, and are
most lively in wet weather. They are known by the names of red-bird,
Virginia ved-bird, Virginia nightingale, and crested red-bird.

1 Loxia cardinalis, Lin.

 

45*
534 AVES—BULFINCH...LINNET,

The others of this genus in the United States are the pine grosheak, the
biue grosnbeak, the rose-breasted grosbeak, the evening grusbeak, and tne
spuiled grosovak.

 

THE BULFINCH}!

48 one of the most common of European birds. When at its full growth it
measures, from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, six incles, of
which the tail is two. It has a short black bill, very strong and crooked,
the upper part hanging over the under side, like that of a hawk ; the tongue —
is short, and the eyes of a hazel color; the head and neck in proportion to
the body are larger than in the generality of small birds, from which, most
probably, they derived their name. In some places they are called ropes;
in others, thick-bills, and in some red-hoops, or tony-hoops, probably froin
their wild hooping kind of note.

The bulfinch makes its nest of an ordinary mean fabric, in bushes, in
which the female lays four or five eggs of a bluish color, with dark browa
and reddish spots. The nest so closely resembles the surrounding foliage in
color, that it is not easily to be discovered. In the summer it mostly fre-
quents woods, and the more retired places; but in winter it approaches
gardens and orchards, where in spring it makes great havoc among the budg
of trees. It is probable, however, that it attacks the buds for the sake of
‘the included insects.

The cock ts in size equal to the hen, but has a flatter crown, and excels
ner in the beauty of his colors. Jn a state of nature, this bird has but three
cries, all of which are unpleasant; but if man designs to instruct it metho-
dically, and accustoms it to fine, mellower, and more lengthened strains, it
will listen with attention, and the docile bird, whether male or female,
without relinquishing its native airs, will imitate exactly, and sometimes
even surpass, its master. It also learns to articulate words and sentences.

 

THE EUROPEAN LINNET#2

Tris favorite bird, which is universally admired for the melody of ity
voice, is in length, from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, five

 

1 Loria vulgaris, Lin.

2 Fringilla cannabina, Lin. The genus Fringilla has the hill short, stont, straint,
and conical; apoer meindble gibbous, depressed above. a litte iacned at the point
nostrils basal, roan lL, placed sear the forehead. and paruially concealed by the feathers ia
front; tarsus shorter than the middle toe, and the fore tues ‘entirely divided; wings short,
the third aud fourth quills the longest; tail of varied form.
AVES—CANARY FINCH. 533

mches snd a half: the bill is a bluish gray; the eyes are hazel; the upper
parts of the heac, neck, and back, are of a dark reddish brown, the edges.
of the feathers pale; the under parts are of a dirty reddish white; the breis:
is deeper than the rest, and in spring becomes a very beautiful crimson
except in the female, whose breast is marked with only stripes of brown;
the sides are spotted with brown likewise; the tail is brown, with white
edges, except the two middle feathers, which have reddish margins; it is
somewhat forked; the legs are brown.

The linnet is so much esteemed for the sweetness of his singing, that, by
‘many persons, he is thought to excel ali small birds. He has certainly a
curivus fine note of his own, little inferior to the most celebrated birds, and
may he taught likewise to pipe or whistle the song of any other bird; but,
as his own is so good, that trouble is unnecessary. He is, however, very
apt in learning, and if brought up from the nest, will take the woodlark’s or
canary bird’s song to perfection. In some instances he has been said te
pronounce words with great distinctness.

The cock linnet may be known, either old or young, by two marks; first,
the feathers on his back are much browner than those of the hen ; secondly,
by the white on the three or four longest feathers of the wing; if it appear
clear, bright, and broad, and reach up to the’ quills, it is a true sign of a
cock hird, for the white in the wing of the hen is much less, fainter, and-
narrower. In spring, too, as we have already mentioncd, the breast of the
cock is crimson.

These birds commonly build in a thick bush or hedge, and sometimes
among furze, bushes, &c., making a small, pretty nest ; the outside of bents,
dried weeds, and straw, and the bottom all matted together; the inside of
fine soft wool, mixed with down stuff, gathered from dried plants, with a
few horse-hairs, made exceedingly neat and warm; on which she lavs four,

-and sometimes five, white eggs. with fine red specks, especially atthe blunt
end; and has young ones by the middle of April or beginning of May.
They are particularly fond of linseed, from which, it is supposed, they denve
their name.

THE CANARY FINCH.

Tus well known bird came origmally from the Canary Islands, where
they are stiil found in a wild state, as well as at the Cape Verd and Madeira
Islands. In its native islands, a region equally noted for the beauty of its
landscapes and the harmony of its groves, the canary bird is of a dusky:
gray color, an] so different from those usually seen in Europe, that some

 

 

1 Fyingilla Canaria, Lin
536 . AVES—LINNET.

have even doulted whether it be of the same species. With us, they have
that variety of coloring usual in all domestic fowls ; some white, some mc t-
ded, some beautifully shaded with green; but they are more esteemed for
their note than their beauty, having a high, piercing pipe, as indeed all those
of the finch tribe have, continuing it for some time in one breath without
mtermission, then raising it higher and higher by degrees, with great variety
The canary will breed freely with the goldfinch and linnet, and the produce
is a beautiful bird, called a Mule.

The .canary finch is a social and familiar bird, and is capable of con
tracting an attachment for the person to whom it belongs. It will perch or
the shoulder of its mistress, and peck its food from her hand or her mouth
It is also capable of being taught still more extraordinary feats. In 1820, a
Frenchman exhibited four and twenty Canary Birds in London, many of
which, he said, were trom eighteen to twenty-five years of age. Some of
these balanced themselves, head downward, on their shoulders, having their
legs and tails in the air. One of them, taking a slender stick in its claws,
passed its head between its legs, and suffered itself to be turned round, as if
in-the act of being roasted. Another balanced itself, and was slung back-
ward and forward on a kind of slack rope. A third was dressed in military
uniform, having a cap on its head, wearing asword and pouch, and carrying:
a firelock in one claw; after some time sitting upright, this bird, at the word
of command, freed itself from its dress, and flew away to the cage. A fourth
suffered itself to be shot at, and falling down, as if dead, to be put intoa
little wheelbarrow, and wheeled away by one of its comrades; and several
of the birds were at the same time placed upon a little firework, and con-
tinued there quietiy, and without alarm, till it was discharged.

 

THE AMERICAN LINNET, OR PURPLE
FINCH.

Tuts bird, owing to its change of color, has been described frequently as
a different species. It is six inches in length. All the upper parts of the
male are dark crimson. The femule is of a brown olive color, streaked with
black and white. The young are of the same color with the female, but
the males gradually attain their full crimson plumage. These birds come 9
us in large flocks from the north, and feed on the seeds of poplar, but‘on-
woud, juniper, and cedar trees. When the season is very severe, they pro-
eced to the south as far as Georgia. In the spring they feed on apple and
therry blossoms.

The song of the purple finch is uncommonly sweet and voluble, sur-
passing even that of the European linnet. It is remarkable that the nest

 

1 Fringilla purpurea, GmEL.
AVES—SPARROW. 537

of this oird has never yet been seen by any naturalist, although they breed in
the United States. Mr Audubon saw them feeding their young, who could
not have Leen more than a few days old. The same author informs us that
they frequently associate with the common crossbills.

 

THE SONG SPARROW.!

THE song sparrow is the most generally diffused over the United States,
and is the most numerous of all our sparrows; and. it is far the earliest,
sweetest, and most lasting songster. Many of them remain during the whole
winter in close sheltered meadows and swamps. It is the first singing hird
in spring. Its song continues through the sumer and fall, and is sometiines
heard even in the depths cf winter. The notes or chant are short but very
sweet, and frequently repeated, from a small bush or tree, where it sits chapt-
ing for an hour together. It is fond of frequenting the borders of rivers,
meadows and swamps; and if wounded and unable to fly, will readily take
to the water, and swim with considerable rapidity.

The song sparrow builds in the ground under a tuft of grass; the nest is
‘ormed of dry grass and horse-hair. It sometimes also builds in a cedar
free, five or six feet from the ground. It is six inches and a half long, and
‘s of a chesnut color, marked and streaked with dirty white; the breast is
spotted with pointed spots of chesnut.

 

THE CHIPPING SPARROW?

Is, perhaps, more generally known, and more familiar and domestic even,
than the preceding species. He inhabits the city in summer, building in the
branches of the trees in the streets and gardens, and gleaning v.» crumbs
from the yard and door. This sociable habit, which continues chi-fly during
summer, is a singular characteristic. Towards the end of the summer, he
takes to the fields and ledges, unti] the weather becomes severe, when he
departs for the south. The chipping bird builds his nest most commonly in
a bush, and lines it with cow hair. This little bird is five inches and a
quarter long, the frontlet is black, crown chesnut, the upper parts are varie-
gated with black and chesnut, and the under parts pale ash,

 

4 Fring ia melodia, W sun. 9 Fringulu sociais, Wits0N.

48
538 AVES—SPARROW...GOLDFINCH.
i

THE FIELD SPARROW!

Is the smallest of all our sparrows, and frequents dry fields covered with
long giacs bunds a sinal, nest on the ground at the foot of a vush, and lines
it with harse-hair. Tt has no song, but a kind of chirruping not much diffe.
rent from the chirpings of a cricket. There are multitudes of these litte
birds in North and South Carolina and Georgia. When disturbed, they tuke
to the bushes, clustering so close together that a dozen may be shot ata cime.
This bird is five inches and a quarter in length ; the upper parts are chesaut
and black.

THE INDIGO EIRD?

fs numerous in the middle and eastern states, and in the Carolinas and
Georgia. [It is also known in Mexico and Nova Scotia. — Its favorite
haunts are about gardens, fields of clover, borders of woods, and roadsides,
where it is frequently seen perched on fences. In its manners it is extreinely
neat and active, and a vigorous and pretty good songster. It mounts to the
tops of the highest trees, and chants for half an hour ata time. — [ts song is
not one continued strain, but a repetition of short notes, commencing loud
and rapid, and falling by slow gradations till they seem hardly articulate, as
if the little minstrel were quite exhausted ; but after a pause of half a minute,
it commences again as before. He sings with as much animation under the
meridian sun in July as in the month of May, and continues his song till
August. His usdal nute when alarmed, is a sharp chip. It feeds on insects
and seeds.

Notwithstanding the beauty of his plumage, the vivacity of his song, the
indigo bird is seldom seen domesticated. Tts nest is built in a low bush,
among ra ‘k grass, grain, or clover; suspended by two twigs, one passing up
each side, . nd is composed of flax, and lined with grass. This bird is five
inches long, the whole body of a rich sky biue, deepening in color toward
the head, and sometimes varying to green.

 

THE YELLOW-BIRD, OR GOLDFINCH3

Bears a great resemblance to the canary, and tn song is like tne goldfinch
of Britain, but it is in general so weak as to appear to proceed trom a diss

 

- Pringilla pusilla, Wirson, 2 Fring illa cyanea, Wiraon,
3 Fringilla tristis, Lin.
AVES—GOLDFINCH...HONEY GUIDE. 539

tance, when perhaps the bird is perched ona tree over your head. T have
however heard them sing in cages with great animation and energy. In the
spring, they associate in Hucks, to bask and dress themselves in the morning
sun, singing in concert for half an hour tugether ; the confused mingling of
their notes forming a kind of harmony not at all unpleasant. Their fight
is not direct, but in alternate risings and sinkings, twittering as they fly at
each successive impulse of the wings. They search the gardens in nume
ers, in quest of seeds, and pass by various names, such as letuce-bird,
sallad-hird, thistle-bird, yellow-bird, &e. They are very easily tamed.

The yellow-bird is four inches and a half in length: the male is of a tich
lemon color. The wings and tail are black, edged with white. In the fall,
this color changes to a brown olive, which is the constant color of the fe
male. They build a nest in the twigs uf an apple tree, neatiy formed of
lichen and soft downy substances. :

The other individuals of the tinch or sparrow tribe, which inhabit the
United States, are too numerous for us here w particularize.

 

THE EUROPEAN GOLDFINCHEH!

Is the most beautiful bird which inhabits Europe, and is also one of the most
docile and harmonious. It is of a gentle nature; soon becomes reconciled
to the loss of freedom; and, as few birds are more intelligent and obe-tient,
it may be taught a variety of entertaining tricks. When confinea, it delights
to view itself in a mirror, Fromcits fondness for thistle seeds, it 1s some-
times called the thisuefinch. The female builds an admirably ccnstructed
and warm nest, generally in fruit trees, and lays five eggs.

 

‘

ORDER V.—ZYGODACTYLOUS BIRDS

Birns of this order have the bill of various forms, more or less curved, of
much hooked, and often straight and angular; feet always with two tces
before, and two behind, and the exterior hind toe frequently reversible.

THE HONEY GUIDE#

Tus remarkable bird is a native of Southern Africa, and has the facuity
of pointing out to man, and to the quadruped called ratel, the nests of the

 

» Fringilla carduelia, Lan.

* Indicator major. The genus Indicator has the bill short, eee, diluted on the
aides, a lide bent and notched at the pont: rule distiner; nasal furrow herge , nostals
tasal.a litle tubalars tarsus shorter than the ex ernal tue; the aulerior ues uniled at the
Gast jot; wings with the third feather tne louge +t.

 
640 AVES—CUCKOO.

wild bees. It is exceedingly fond of honey and of the bee magguts, and its
services are generally rewarded by leaving it asmal! portion of the spoil. In
its external appearance it differs not much from the common sparrow, except
in being somewhat larger, and of a lighter color. It hasalso a wa tz spot on
each shoulder, and its tail feathers are dashed with white. The morning
and evening are its principal meal times; at least, it is then that it shows
the greatest inclination to come forth, and with a grating cry of cherr, cherr,
cherr, to excite the attention of the ratel, as well as of the Hottentots and
tolcnists. Somebody then generally repairs to the place whence the sound
proceeds; when the bird, continually repeating its cry of cherr, cherr, cherr,
flies on slowly, and by degrees, towards the quarter where the bees have
taken up their abode. The persons thus invited,accordingly follow; taking
care at the same time not to frighten their guide by any unusual noise, but
rather to answer it now and then with a soft and gentle whistle, by way of
letting the bird know that its call is attended to. When the bees’ nest is at
some distance, the bird often makes long stages of flight, waiting for its
sporting companions between each flight, and calling to them again to come
on; but flies to shorter distances, and repeats its cry more frequently and
with more earnestness, as they approach nearer to thenest. When the bird
has sometimes, through its impatience, got too far ahead of its followers,
but particularly when, from the unevenness of the ground, they have not
been able to keep pace with it, it has flown back to meet them, and with
redoubled cries has denoted still greater impatience, as though reproaching
them for being su tardy. When it comes to the bees’ nest, whether in the
cleft of a rock, the hollow of a tree, or a cavity in the earth, it hovers over
the spot for a few seconds; after which it sits in silence, and for the must
part concealed, in some neighboring tree or bush, in expectation of what
may happen, and with a view of receiving its share of the booty.

 

THE EUROPEAN CUCKOO.

Ts singular bird is about fourteen inches in length, shaped somewhat
hike a mag ie, and distinguished from all other birds by its round pro-
minent nostrils. The head, neck, back, and wing-ccverts are of a dove
color; the throat is a pale gray; the breast and belly are white, crossed with
wavy lines of black; the tail consists of ten feathers; the two middle ones
olack, with white tips; the others dusky, and marked with alternate spots
ot white on each side of the shaft. The legs are of a yellow color, and the

 

1 Cuculus canorus, Lix. The genus Cueu/us has the hill as long as the head, com
pressed, and slightly curved ; nostrils basal, pera inthe margin of the mandible, and
surrounded by a naked and prominent membrane; legs feathered below the knee- fore
toes united al the hase; hind toes divided, the exterior reversible ; tail long, more or less
graduated ; the third quul feather the longest.
% AVES—CUCKOO. BAT

claws white. The plumage of the young birds is chiefly brown, mixed wita
a ferruginous ive and black. Having disappeared all the autumn and win-
ter, it discovers itself in our country, early in the spring, by its well known
cau Its note is heard earlier or later, as the season seems to be more or
less torward, and the weather more or less inviting. From the cheerful
voice of this bird, the farmer may be instructed in the real advancement of
the year. His note is pleasant, though uniform; and, from an association
ot ideas, seldom occurs to the memory without reminding us of the sweets
of summer. There is a popular superstition, that he who hears the cuckoo
before he has heard the nightingale, will be unsuccessful in love. To this
idea Milton elegantly alludes in his Sonnet to the Nightingale.

It was once doubted, whether these birds were carnivorous; but Reaumur
was at the pains of breeding up several, and found that they would feed

 

upon bread or corn; but flesh and insects were their favorite nourishment.
Their gluttony is not to be wondered at, when we consider the capacity
of their stomach, which is enormous, and reaches from the breast-bone to
the vent.

The female cuckoo, in general, makes no nest of her own. She has,
however, been known to rear her own young. But, usually, she repairs for
that purpose to the nest of some other bird, generally the water-wagtail or
hedge-sparrow, and having devoured the eggs of the owner, lays her egg in
the place. She usually lays but one, which is speckled, and of the size of a
blackbird’s. This the fond, foolish bird hatches with great assiduity, and
when excluded, finds no difference in the great ill looking changeling from
aer own. To supply this voracious creature, the credulous nurse toils with
uausual labor, no way sensible that she is feeding up an enemy to her race,
aud one of the most destructive robbers of her future progeny.

This intrusion often occasions some disorder, for the hedge-sparrow, at
intervals, while she is sitting, not only throws out some of her own eggs,
but sometimes injures them in such a manner that they become addled ; so
that it frequently happens that not more than two or three of the parent
bird’s eggs are hatched; but it has never been observed that the egg of the
cuckoo has either been thrown out or injured. The newly hatched cuckoo
itselt, also contrives to raise up the young, and throw them out of the nest,
and nature seems to have provided for its doing so, by giving to it a broad

46 ~
‘B42 AVES—CUCKOO. 4

back, with a considerable di pression in the middle; which shane it loses as
soon as it has no longer any use for it. When the hedge-sparrow has set
her usua] time, and disengaged the young cuckoo and some of her own
offspring from the shell, her own young ones, and any of her eggs that re-
main unhatched, are turned out of the nest. The young bird generally con-
tinues three weeks in the nest before it fies; and the foster parent-feeds it
more than five weeks after this period. és

All the little birds of the grove seem to consider the young cuckoo as an
enemy, and revenge the cause of their kind by their repeated insults. They
pursue it whenever it flies, and oblige it to take shelter in the thickest branches
of some neighboring tree. Al] the smaller birds form the train of its pur-
suers ; but the wryneck, in particular, is found the most active in the chase;
and thence it has been called, by many, the cuckoo’s attendant and provider.
But it is very far from following with a friendly intention; it only pursues
as an insulter, or a spy, to warn all its little companions of the cuckoo’s
depredations.

Such are the manners of this bird while it continues to reside, or to be
seen amongst us. But in the first week in July, the old ones quit this coun-
try, and the young ones follow in succession; and as its new abode is not
known, there are conflicting opinions on the subject. Some suppuse that it
lies hid in hollow trees; and others that it passes into warmer climates.
Which of these opinions is true is uncertain, as there are no facts related
on either side that can be totally relied on. To support the opinion that
they remain torpid during the winter, at home, Willoughby mtroduces the
following story, which he delivers upon the credit of anotner :—“‘ The ser-
vants of a gentleman in rhe country, having stocked up, in one of their
meadows, some old dry rotten willows. thought proper, on a certain occa-
sion, to carry them home. In heating a steve, two logs of this timber were
put into the furnace beneath, and fire applied as usual. But soon, to the
great surprise of the family, was heard the voice of a cuckoo, singing three
times from under the stove. Wondering at so extraordinary a cry in winter
time, the servants ran and arew the willow logs from the furnace, and in tne
midst, one of them saw something move; wherefore, taking an axe, they
opened the hole, and thrusting in their hands, first they plucked out nothing
tut feathers; afterwards they got hold of a itving animal; and this was the
cuckoo that had waked so very opportunely for its own safety. ‘It was,
indeed,” continues our historian, “brisk and lively, but wholly naked and
bare of feathers, aud without any winter provisiun in iitshole. This cuckoo
the boys kept two years afterwards, alive in the stuve; but whether it re-
paid them with u second song, tke author of the tale has not thought fit to
inform us.”

The most probable opinion on this subject is, that as quails and wood-
cocks shift their habitation in winter, so also does the cackoo; but to what
AVES—CUCKOO...TOUCAN. 543

country it retires, or whether it has been ever seen on its journey, are ques
tions that we are wholly incapable o1 resolving.

Or this bird there are many kinds in various parts of the world, not onty
differing in their colors but their size. Latham make no less than forty
species. There is a large spotted cuckoo in the south of Spain; and at the
Cape of Good Hope there is a black-crested species. Only the common and
spotted cuckoo have been seen in Europe.

THE AMERICAN CUCKOO!

Is sometimes called the cow-bird, from its note; and it is also catiet -o
Virginia, the rain crow, from being most clamorous just before rain. A
traveller in our woods, in May or June, will sometimes hear, as he traverses
the borders of deep, retired, high timbered hollows, an uncouth guttural
sound or note, resembling the words kowe, kowe, howe, howe, kowe, beginning
slowly, but ending so rapidly that the notes seem to run into each other,
and vice versa. He will hear this frequently, without being able to discover
the bird or animal from which it proceeds; as this bird is shy and solitary,
seeking always the thickest foliage for concealment. It breeds all over the
United States, from Boston to the Mississippi, preferring the borders of soli-
tary swamps and apple orchards. The nest is usually fixed in an apple tree,
and sometimes on a thorn in the woods. It is almost flat, and composed of
twigs and weeds. When you approach the nest, the female throws herself
on the ground, and feigns lameness to draw you off. They feed on caterpil-
lars and insects. They are accused also of sucking the eggs of other birds,
and sometimes eat berries.

This bird is thirteen inches long; the whole ypper parts are drab, or quaker
celor, with greenish reflections. The under parts are pure white. The bill
ts vellow, and the legs and feet light blue.

 

THE TOUCAN.

®r this extraordinary bird there are about fifteen species. We shall only
deszribe the red-beaked toucan.2 It is about the size of, and shaped like
a jackdaw, with a large head to support its monstrous bill; this bill, from

 

1 Cuculus Carolinensis, Witson.

2 Ramphastos toco, LatH. The genus Ramphastos has the hill cellular, thin, transpa-
rent, hroader than the head at the hase, convex above, serrated at the edges. and a little
incurvated at the tip; nostrils vertical, concealed behind the corneous maw, surrounded
by a membrane ; tarsus as long as the external toe; the two anterior toes united at the
second joint ; tail short :
544 AVES—TOUCAN.

the angles of the mouth to its point, is six inches and a half; and its breadta
in the thickest part is a little more than two. Its thickness near the head is
one inch and a quarter; and it is a little rounded along the upper chap, the -
under side being rounded also; the whole of the bill extremely slight, and a
little thicker than parchment. The upper chap is of a bright yellow, except
on each side, which is of a fine scarlet color; as is also the lower chap,
except at the base, which is purple. Between the head and the bil] there is
a black line of separation all round the base of the bill; in the upper part
of which the nostrils are placed, and are almost covered with feathers, which
has occasioned some writers to say, that the toucan has no nostrils. Round
the eyes, on each side of the head, is a space of bluish skin, void of feathers,
above which the head is black, except a white spot on each side joining to

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the base of the upper chap. The hinder part of the neck, the back, wings
tail, belly, and thighs, are black. The under side of the head, throat, and
the beginning of the breast, are white. Between the white on the breast,
and the black on the belly, is a space of red feathers, in the form of a new
moon, with its horns upwards. The legs, feet, and claws, are of an ash
color; and the toes stand like those of parrots, two before, and two behind.

This bird is easily tamed, and will become very familiar, and eat almost
any thing offered to it; in general it feeds on fruits. In its wild state, it isa
noisy bird, and is perpetually moving from place to place, in quest of food,
going northward or southward, as the fruits ripen. Grapes, however, seem
to be one of its most favorite articles of food. If these are plucked from the
stalk, one by one, and thrown to it, the toucan will catch them with great
flextertty before they fall to the ground.
AVuS—PARROT. 545

These birds when in flocks, on retiring to rest, generally appoint one tc
watch during the night. While they are asleep, he sits perched at the top
of a tree, above them, and makes a continual noise, resembling ill aiticulat-
ed sounds, moving also his head, during the whole time, to the right and
left. For this reason the South Americans give to the toucan the name of
preacher toucan.

The toucan builds its nest in the holes of trees, that are either formed by
itself, or that from accident it meets with, and lays two eggs; and no Lird
better secures its young from external injury. It has not only birds. mea,
and serpents to guard against, but a numerous train of monkeys, still more
prying, mischievous, and hungry, than all the rest. The toucan, however.
sits in its hole, defending the entrance with its great beak; cad if the nion-
key venture to‘offer a visit of curiosity, the toucan gives him sucha welcome
that he is svon glad to make his escape.

This bird is a native of Guiana and Brazil, and is said to be in great re-
quest in South America; both from the delicacy of its flesh, and on account
of the beauty of its plumage, particularly the feathers of the breast. The
skin of this part the Indians pluck off, and, when dry, glue to their cheeks,
and this they consider as an irresistible addition to their beauty.

THE PARROT.)

Tuts bird is said to have been first introduced into Europe, by Alexander
the Great. It is equally remarkable for its beauty and its docility. But its
chief attraction is to be found in its ability to utter articulate sounds, a gift
which it possesses in far greater perfection than any other bird. Its voice
also is more like a man’s than any other; the raven is too hoarse, and the
jay and magpie too shrill, to resemble the truth; but the parrot’s note is of
the true pitch, and capable of a variety of modulations. For this it is
indebted to the form of its bill, tongue, and head. ‘Its bill, round on the
outside and hollow within, has in some degree the capacity of a mouth, and
allows the tongue to play freely; and the sound, striking against the
circular border of the lower mandible, is there modified as on a row of teeth,
while the concavity of the upper mandible reflects it like a palate; hence
the animal does not utter a whistling sound, but a full articulation. The
tongue, which modulates all sounds, is proportionably larger than in man,
and would be more voluble, were it not harder than flesh, and invested with »

 

 

The genus Psittacus, which includes parrots, maccaws, cockatoos, &c., has the bili
short, thick, gibbous, very strong, convex aliove and below, much bent and hooked at the
pent; lower mandible short, obtuse ; base of the bill within a cere; head large, nostrils
orbicular, pierced in the cere, open; legs short, rolust; tarsus shorter than the external
tne ; the interior tues united at their base ; tail of varred form.

69 46*
546 AVES—PARROT

a strong horny membrane.” In addition to the talent of speech, the parrot
1s endowed with a strong memory and a high degree of sagacity.

The bill is fashioned with peculiarities; for the upper chap, as well as the
lower, are both movable. Ia most other birds the upper chap is connected,
and makes but one piece with the skull; but in these, and in one or two
species of the feathered tribe more, the npper chap is connected to the bone
of the head by a strong membrane, placed on each side, that lifts and de-
presses it at pleasure. By. this contrivance they can open their bills the
wider; which is not a little useful, as the upper chap is so hooked and so
overhanging, that, if the lower chap only had motion, they could scarce.y
gape sufficiently to take any thing in for their nourishment.

The parrot, though common enough in Europe, will not, however, breed
‘there. The climate is too cold for its warm constitution; and though: it
bears our winter when arrived at maturity, yet it always seems sensible of
its rigor, and loses both its spirits and appetite during the colder part of ine
geason.

The sagacity which parrots show in a domestic state, seems also natural
to them in their native residence among the woods. They live together in
flocks, and mutually assist each other against other animals, either by their
courage or their notes of warning. They gencrally breed in hollow trees,
where they make a round hole, and do not line their nest within. If they
find any part of a tree beginning to rot from the breaking off of a branch, or
any such accident, this they take care to scoop, and to make the hole suffi-
ciently wide and convenient; but it sometimes happens that they are content
with the hole which a woodpecker has wrought out with greater ease before
them ; and in this they prepare to hatch and bring up their young. The
female lays two or three eggs, about the size of those of a pigzon, and
‘marked with little specks. The natives are very assiduous in seeking their
nests, and usually take them by cutting down the tree. By this ineaus,
‘indeed, the young parrots are liable to be killed ; but if one of them survive,
it is considered as a sufficient recompense. The old ones are shot with
heavy arrows headed with cotton, which knock them down without killing
them. The food commonly given to these birds consists of hemp-seed, nuts,
fruits of every kind, and bread soaked in wine; they would prefer meat, but
that kind of aliment has been found to make them dull and heavy, and tc
cause their feathers to drop off after some time. It has been observed that
they keep their food in a kind of pouch, from which they afterwards throw
‘t up, in the same manner as ruminating animals.
AVES—PARROT. GAT

‘

THE CAROLINA PARROTY.I

 

Tuis is the only species found native within the territory of the United
States. The vast luxuriant tracts lying within the torrid zone, seem to be
the favorite residence of those noisy, numerous, and richly plumaged tribes
The Carolina parrot innabits the interior of Louisiana, and the shores of the
Mississippi, and Ohio, east of the Alleghan.es. It1is se.dom seen north of
Maryland. Their private places of resort are low, rich alluvial bottoms along
the borders of creeks; deep and almost impenetrable swamps filled with
sycamore and cypress trees, and those singular salznes or licks, so interspersed
over the western country Here, too, is a great abundance of their favori.e
fruits. The seeds of the cypress tree and beech nuts, are eagerly sought
after by these birds,

The flight of the Carolina parrot is very much like that of the wild
pigeon, in close compact bodies, moving with great rapidity, making a loud
and outrageous screaming, like that of the red-headed woodpecker. Their
flight is sometimes in a direct line, but most usually circuitous, making a.

 

1 Psittacus Carolinensis, Lin.
548 AVES—COCKATOO.

great variety of elegant and easy serpentine meanders, as if for pleasure.
They generally roost in the hollow trunks of old sycamores, in parties of
thirty or forty together. Here they cling fast to the sides of the tree, hold-
ing by their claws and bills. They appear to be fond of sleep, and often
retire to their holes during the day, probably to take their regular siesta.
They are extremely social and friendly towards each other.

They build in companies in hollow trees. This bird is thirteen inches
long; the forehead and cheeks are orange red; down and round the neck a
rich and pure yellow; the shoulder and bend of the wings also edged with
tich orange red. The general color of the rest of the plumage is a tright
yellowish silky green. with light blue reflections. It is altogether supe-
rior in elegance of figure, and beauty of plumage, to many of the foreign
parrots. It is docile and sociable, and soon becomes perfectly familiar, but
vannot be taught to speak. These birds are rapidly diminishing. Accord»
ing to Mr Audubon, very few of them are to be found north of Cincinnati
and there are not, at present, half the number along tle Mississippi, that
existed there fifteen years ago.

THE COCKATOO!

 

1s distinguished from the parrot, by its head >eing adorned with a crest os
Joug feathers, which is capable of being erected and lowered at will, and
gives the bird a strikingly fine appearance. It isa native of the Molucca
[:lands, and other parts of the East Indies, where it is frequently known to
tuild on the tops of houses. Like the rest of the parrot kind, it is capable
of uttering sea phrases and sentences, with equa] propriety of tone and
volubility. It derives its name from its frequent ‘epetition of the syllables
cock-a-too. It delights‘in damp and marshy situations, and usually dwells
near rivers or brooks, where it indulges in frequent bathing. In bathing,
medeed, it feels a particular pleasure, even when a captive. Vegetable sub-

 

| Psittacus cristatus, Lin
AVES—MACCAW. 54S

stances, chiefly seeds, supply its food, in the wild state. When domesti
cated, it lives on hemp-seed, the outer covering of which it detaches with
much dexterity Of pastry and sweetmeats it is very fond.

 

THE MACCAW.1

Tre maccaws are characterized by their very broad and powerful beaks;
“ie nakedness of the face, sometitnes quite bare, at other times partially
wvered with lines of short and scattered feathers; and the tail, which sur-
peases the body in length, is regularly graduated and terminates in an acute
opea. All of them are natives of America, inhabit the tropical regions, and
ai+a-markable for their vivid coloring. They subsist on fruits and seeds.
Of i'.- latter, they prefer such as have a hard and shelly covering, and from
these chey extract the contents very skilfully.

THE BLUE MACCAW

 

Innasrts Brazil. It is entirely of a deep and brilliant blue color; with
black back, legs, and claws. Round each of the eyes isa naked circle of
bright yellow, and the cere is of the same hue. A specimen in the
Tower, measirestwo feet four inches, from the top of the head to the
extremity of the tail. Its upper mandible is five inches long; its lower
is two.

 

1 Psittacus macao, Lin. 7
55) AVUS—PARROQUET...WOODPECKER.

THE PARROQUET.

Tans bird has a longer tail than the common parrot, and is less in size
It also speaks with less facility, and is even more easily tamed. The
handsomest species is the ring paroquet, which has a red circle encompassing
the back of the neck, and ending under the lower chap of the bill. Its
head and body are green, but of a fainter hue on the neck, breast, and whole
of the under side; the belly being of so slight a green as to seem almost
yellow.

The parroquet tribe in Brazil are most beautiful in their plumage, and the
most talkative birds in nature.

THE WOODPECKER!

Brros of this tribe subsist for the most part upon worms and insects, con-
tained in the trunks and branches of trees. For this purpose they are fur-
nished with a straight, hard, strong, angular, and sharp bill, made for piercing
and boring. They have a tongue of a very great length; round, ending in
a sharp, stiff, bony thorn, dentated on each side, to strike ants and insects
when dislodged from their cells. Their legs are short and strong, for the
purposes of climbing. Their toes stand two forward, and two backward;
which is particularly serviceable in holding by branches of trees. They
have hard stiff tails, to lean upon when climbing. They feed only upon
insects, and want that intestine which anatomists call the ccecum; a cir-
eumstance peculiar to this tribe only.

Of this bird there are more than fifty species, with many varieties. They
form large colonies in the forests of every part of the world. They are
found from the size of a jackdaw to that of a wren, and differ greatly in
color and appearaficé; and agreeing only in the marks above-mentioned, or
m those habits which result from so peculiar a conformation. All these
species feed upon insects, and particularly on. taose which are found io
decaving trees. When a woodpecker, by its natural sagacity, finds a hollow
or decayed tree where there are worms, ants’ eggs, or insects, it immediately
prepares for its operations. Resting by its strong claws, and leaning on the
ten hard, stiff, and sharp-pointed feathers of its tail, it begins to bore with
its powerful beak, until it'discloses the whole internal habitation. It then

 

''The genus Picus, which embraces the family of woodpeckers, has the hill long ot
med um size, straight, angular, wedge-shaped at the tip; nostrils hasal, open, covered by
seta eous feathers; tongue ,round, vermiform; legs stroug; two toes belore and two be
hind, rarely one behind ; anterior toes joined at their base, the posterior divided ; tail of
twelve feathers, the lateral very short.
AVES—WOODPECKER. 561

sends forth a Youd cry, upon which the whole insect tribe are thrown mw
sonfusion, and run hither and thither seeking for safety; while the invader
luxuriously feasts upon them at leisure, darting in its long tongue, a.id de-
vouring the whole brood.

The woodpecker, however, does not confine its depredations solely to trees,
but sometimes alights upon the ground, to try its fortuae at an ant-hill. It
first goes to their hills, which it pecks, in order to call them abroad; it then
thrusts out its long red tongue, which being like a worm, and resembling
their usual prey, the ants come out to settle upon it in great numbers; ho v-
ever, the bird, watching the properest opportunity, withdraws its tongue at
a jerk, and devours the devourers. This stretagem it continues, till it has
alarmed their fears, or till it is quite satisfied.

As the woodpecker is obliged to make holes in trees to procure food, so it
1s also to make cavities still larger to form its nest and to lay in. This is
performed, as usual, with the bill; although some have affirmed that the
animal uses its tongue asa gimlet, to bore with. But this is a mistake;
and those that are curious, may often hear the noise of the bill making its
way in large woods and forests. The woodpecker chooses, however, for
this purpose, trees that are decayed, or wood that is soft, like beech, elm,
and poplar. In these, with very little trouble, it can make holes as exactly
round as a mathematician could with compasses. One of these holes the
bird generally chooses for its own use, to nestle and bring up its young in;
but as they are easily made, it is delicate in its choice, and often makes
twenty before one is found fit to give entire satisfaction.

The woodpecker takes no care to line its nest with feathers or straw; its
eggs are deposited in the hole, without any thing to keep them warm, except
the heat of the parent’s body. Their number is generally five or six ; always
white, oblong, and of a middle size. When the young are excluded, and
before they leave the nest, they are adorned with a scarlet plumage under the
throat, which adds to their beauty.

 

THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKERI!

Is one of the most remarkable of American birds. Its tri-colored plumage,
red, white, and black, is so striking and characteristic, and his predatory
habits in the orchards and corn-fields, added to his numbers and fondness for
hovering along the fences, so very notorious, that almost every child is ac-
quainted with the red-headed woodpecker. Towards the mountains, par-
ticularly in the vicinity of creeks and rivers, these birds are extremely
nbundant, especially in the latter part of the summer. Wherefer vou travel

1 Picus erythrocephalus, Lin.
652 AVES—WOODPECKER.

wn the interior at that season, you hear them screaming from the adjoining.
woods, rattling on the dead limbs of trees, or on the fences, where they are
perpetually seen flitting from stake to stake on the roadside before you.
Wherever there are trees of the wild cherry, covered with ripe fruit, there

 

you see tnem busy among the branches; and in passing orchards, you may
easily know where to find the earliest, sweetest apples, by observing those
trees on or near which this bird is skulking; for he is so excellent a con-
noisseur in fruit, that wherever an apple or pear is found broached by him,
it is sure to be among the ripest and best favored. When alarmed, he seizes
a capital one by sticking his open bill deep into it, and bears it off to the
woods. When the Indian corn is in its ripe, succulent, and milky state, he
attacks it with great eagerness, opening a passage through the numerous
folds of the husk, and {ceding on it with voracity. The girdled or deadened
timber, so common among the corn-fields in the back settlements, are his
favorite retreats, whence he sallies out to make his depredations. He is
for.d of the ripe berries of the sour gum, and pays regular visits to the cherry
trees, when loaded with fruit. Towards fall, he often approaches the barn
or farmhouse, and raps on the shingles and weather-boards. He is of a gay
and frolicsome disposition ; and half a dozen of the fraternity are frequently
sern diving and vociferating round the high dead limbs of some tree, pure
suing and playing with each other, amusing the passenger with their gam
bols. Their note or cry is shrill and lively, and so much resembles that of.
a species of tree-frog, which frequents the same tree, that it is sometimes
difficult to distinguish the one from the other.
Thovgh this bird occasionally regales himself on fruit, yet hie natura
AVES—WOODPEUKER, 553

and most useful food is insects, particularly those numerous and destructive
species that penetrate the bark and body of the tree, to deposit their eggs and
larve, the latter of which are well known to make iinmense havoc. [n fact,
insect: form at least two thirds of his subsistence. He searches for them
with a dexterity and intelligence, | may sately say, more than hunian; he
perceives by the exterior surface of the bark where they lurk below ; when
h: is dubious, he rattles vehemently on the outside with his bill, and his
acute ear distinguishes the terrified vermin skrinking within to their inmost
retreats, where his pointed and barbed tongue soon reaches them. ‘Tne
masses of bugs, caterpillars, and other larva which I have taken from the
stomachs of these birds have often surprised me. These larve, it should be
remembered, feed not only on the buds, leaves and blossoms, but on the very
vegetable life of the tree,—the newly forming bark and wood; the conse-
quence is, that whole branches and trees decay under the sileut ravages of
these destructive vermin. It must therefore be allowed, that the services of
this useful bird more than compensate for his petty thefts on apple and cherrv
trees.

These birds build their nests in the body or large limbs of trees, taking in
no materials, but smoothing it within to the proper shape and size. The
female lays six eggs. Notwithstanding the care which this bird takes to
place its young beyond the reach of enemies, yet there is one deadly foe
against whose depredations there is no security. This is the black snake,
who frequently giides up the trunk of the tree, and, like a skulking savage,
enters the woodpecker’s peaceful apartment, devours the eggs or helpless
young, in spite of the cries and flutterings of the parents; and if the place
be large enough, cvils himself up in the spot they occupied, where he will
sometimes remain several davs; and often terrifies the eager schoulboy,
who thrusts his arm into the cavity after the callow brood. Several adven-
tures of this kind have come to my knowledge.

This bird is nine inches and a half long; the head and neck are deep scare
Jet; the back, wing-coverts, and tail, black; the lower part of the back, and
whole under parts are white.

 

THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKE?RN.!

In strength an magnitude, stands at the head of the whole class of woud-
peckers hitherto discovered. He may be called the king or chief of his tribe
and nature seems to have designed him a distinguished characteristic, in the
superb carmine crest and bill of polished ivory with which she has orna-
mented him. His eye is brilliant and daring, and his whole frame adinira-
bly adapted for his mode of life. His manners have also a dignity in thern

 

1 Picus principalis, Lux.

70 47
554 AVES—WOODPECKER.

superhir to the common herd of woodpeckers. The royal nunter befcre us,
scorns the humility of searching for prey in trees, shrubbery, orchards, rails
and old prostrate logs, and seeks the most towering trees of the forest; seem-
ing particularly attached to those prodigious cypress swamps, whose crowdea
giant sons stretch their bare and blasted, or moss-hung arms midway to the
skies. In these almost impenetrable recesses, amid ruinous piles of Je-
caying timber, his trumpet-like note and loud strokes resound throngb
the solitary savage wilds, of which he seems the sole lord and inhabitant
Wherever he frequents, he leaves numerous monuments of his industry
behind him. We there see enormous pine trees with cart-loads of bark
lying around their roots, and chips of the trunk itself in such quantities as
to suggest the idea that half a dozen axe-men had been at work there Ue
whole morning. But examine the tree clusely where he has been at work,
and you will soon perceive, that it is neither for amusement nor mischief
that he slices off the bark, or digs his way into the trunk. The sound and
healthy tree is not the least object of his attention. The diseased, infested
with insects and hastening to putrefaction, are his favorites ; there the deadly
crawling enemy have formed a lodgment between the bark and tender wood,
to drink up the very vital part of the tree. :

This bird is not migratory: it breeds in the Carolinas, and builds a large '
and capacious nest in a cypress tree. It is called by the natives the large
Logeock. Its food consists entirely of insects and larve. Its common note,
repeated every three or four seconds, very much resembles the tone of a
trumpet, seeming to be near at hand, though perhaps one hundred yards off.
This it utters while mounting along the trunk, or digging into it. At these
times it has a stately and novel appearance, and his note instantly attracts
the notice of a stranger.

The ivory-billed woodpecker is twenty inches long; the general color is
black, glussed with green; fure part of the head black ; the rest of the crest
of a most splendid red, spotted at the bottom with white; the beak is of the
color and cunsistence of ivory, prodigiously strong, and elegantly Huted.

at ——_

THE PILEATED WOODPECKER!

Is the next in size, and may be styled the great northern chief, though hs
range extends from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, over the whule cange of
the Unit-d States. In Pennsylvania and the northern states he is called
the black woodcock; in the southern states, the lesser loycock. He is very
numerous in all the tracts of high timbered forests, in the neighborhood of
large rivers, where he is noted for making a loud and incessant cackling be

 

wa

1 Picus pileatus, Lin,
AVES—WOODPECKER. . 556

fore wet weather, making the woods echo to his outcry. Almost cvery trunk
in the forests bears the marks of his chisel. Whether engaged in digging,
flying, or climbing, he seems perpetually ina hurry. He is extremely hard
to kill, clinging close to the tree alter he has received his mortal wound ; nor
yielding up his hold but with his expiring breath. He can rarely be recon-
ciled wo confinement.

This bird is nét migratory, but hears the extremes of both the arctic and
torrid regions. Neither is he gregarious, for itis rare to see more than one
or two in company. Their nest is built in the hole of a tree, dug out by
themselves: it is eighteen inches long; the general color is a dusky brown-
ish black ; the head is ornamented with a conical cap of bright scarlet; the
chin is white, with two scarlet mustaches; the upper part of the wings is
white, the lower part black, but the white is never seen except when the bird
is flying.

THE YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER!

Is one of our resident birds. It visits our orchards in the fall in great num
bers, and is occasionally seen during the whole winter and spring; but seems
to seek the depths of the forest to rear its young in; for during the summer
it is rarely seen. [1 inhabits the continent from Cayenne to Virginia. They
are common in Kentucky and Ohio, ard have been seen near St. Louis.
The only nest of this bird which I have met with was in the body of an old
pear tree. The hole was almost exactly circular, smal! for the size of the
bird, so that he crept in and out with difficulty; but suddenly widened by a
small angle, and then running downwards about fifteen inches. On the
smovth solid woud were four eggs. The principal food of these birds is
insects; and they seem particularly fond of frequenting orchards, boring the
trunks of the apple trees in their eager search for them. In the morning
they are extremely active. Their cry cannot be described by words.

 

THE HAIRY WOODPECKER#2

Is, like the former, a haunter of orchards, and borer of apple trees, an eager
hunter of insects in old stumps and rails, and rotten branches and crevices
of the bark. In the spring, he retires into the wuods and seeks out a branch
already hollow, or cuts out an opening for himself. In the latter case he
digs horizontally first, and then downwards, carrying up the chips witn his
bul,and seraping them out with his feet. They sometimes breed in an

 

3 Picus varius, Wirson. # Picus villosus, Lin,
556 AVES—WOCDPECKER.

orchard, or dig a hole in an old stake of a fence. They frequently approach
the farmhouses and skirts of the town. In Philadelphia, they frequent the
old willow and poplar trees. Their ery is strong, shrill, aud wemulous
they have alse a single note or chuck, which they often repeat in ap cager
manner as they hop about and dig in the crevices of the trees. They inhabit
the continent from Hudson’s Bay to Carolina and Georgia. This bird is
Bine inches long; the hind head is scarlet mixed with black ; under the bill
£re long hairs thrown forwards and upwards. The back is blark, divided
by a strip of white, the feathers of which resemble hairs; wings black, spotted
with white, the under parts are pure white. The great mass of hairs that
caver the nostril appears to be designed as a protection to the lront of the
nead, when the bird is engaged in digging holes in the woud. In Might thesa
birds sink and rise alternately, uttering a loud tremulous scream as Liey set
off and alight. They are hard to kill.

 

THE DOWNY WOODPECKER!

Ts the smallest of all, and exactly resembles the former in tints and mark
ings, and in alimost every thing but its diminutive size. Its principal
characteristics are diligence, familiarity, anda strength and energy in the
head and neck, which are traly astonishing. Mounted on the infected
branch of an old apple tree, where insects have lodged between the bark and
the wood. he labors sometimes for half an hour incessantly at the same spot,
ull he has succeeded in dislodging them. At these times you may walk
pretty close to the tree without in the least embarrassing him: the strokes
of his bill are distinctly heard several hundred yards off; and [ have known
him to work for two hours together on one tree. He has a single note or
chink, which he frequently repeats: and when he flies off, he utters a rather
shriller cry, quickly reiterated. Of all our woodpeckers, none rid the apple-
trees of so many vermin as this; digging off the moss, and probing every
srevice. His industry is unequalled, and almost incessant.

 

TIS PED-BELLIED WOODPECKER?

Possesses all the restless and noisy habits of its tribe. Tt is more shy than
the red-headed one. It is also more solitary. It prefers the largest, highs
dimbered woods and tallest decayed timbers of the furest; seldom Appearing
near the ground, on the fences, or in orchards; yet where the trees have
been deadened in fields of Indian corn, it is pretty numerous, and it feeds

 

} Picus pubescens, Lin. ; 3 Picus Carolinus, Lan.
AVES—WOODPECKER. 557

eagerly on that grain. Its voice is hoarser than any of the others and its
usual note, chow, has often reminded me of the barking of a litle lap-
dog. It is a most expert climber, possessing extraordinary strength in
the muscles of its feet and claws, and moves about the body and hori-
zontal limbs of the treesy with equal facility in all directions. It rattles
like the rest of its tribe on the dead limbs with such violence, as to be heard
in still weather for more than half a mile; and listens to hear the insects it
has alarmed. It digs its nest in the lower side of some lofty branch,
the male aud female working together.

This bird is ten inches in iength. The upper part of the head, neck, and
vack are of a brilliant, golden, glossy red; the breast is ash, and the belly
bloody red. The back is black, crossed with bars of white. It eee a
large extent of country.

 

THE GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER!

 

1s wel cnown to our farmers and junior sportsmen, who take every oppors
tunity o¢ destroying him; the former, for the supposed trespasses he commits
on vheir Indian corn, or the trifle he will bring in market; and the latter, for
the mere pleasure of destruction, and perhaps for the flavor of his flesh,
which isin general esteem. Early in April these elegant birds begin to
prepare their nests, which is built in the hollow body of branch of a tree,
sometimes in an old apple tree. The male and female work together, and
encourage each other by mutual caresses. They employ themselves in hol-
owing vhe tree for several days, and may even be heard late in the evening

 

. 1 Picus auratus, Lin
47*
558 AVES—NUTHATCA.

thumying like carpenters. They carry in no materials for their nest. Their
food varies with the season. As the common cherries, wild cherries, and
berries of the sour gum ripen, he regales plentifully on them ; but his chief
food is wood-lice and the young and larve of ants. He is very fund of cora,
and visits the farmer’s grounds too frequently to,remain unpunished, as the
farmer destroys him on every opportunity.

This bird has the back and wings of a burnt umber, marked with streaks
of black ; the breast is ornamented with a broad crescent of deep black ; the
belly is light yellow, spotted with innumerable round spots of black; the
avner side of the wings and tail are of a beautiful golden yellow. They
inhabit America from Hudson’s Bay to Georgia, and have been found on the
‘North-West coast. They arrive at Hudson’s Bay in the spring:

 

ORDER VI.—ANISODACTYLI.

Birps of this order have the bill more or less arched, often straight, always
subulate and slender; feet with three toes before and one behind, the exte-
rior united at the base to that in the middle, the hinder one generally long,
and all provided with long and bent claws.

THE NUTHATCH!

 

Weicms near an ounce, and is five inches and three quarters in length. The
bill is strong and straight, and three fourths of an inch long. The ipper
part of the plumage is of a fine bluish gray; a black stroke runs frem the
mouth to the eye. The cheeks are white, and the breast and belly of aduli
orange color. This bird runs up and down the bodies of trees like the wood-
pecker. It feeds on insects and nuts, which it stores in the hollow parts of
the tree. It is a pretty sight, says Willoughby, to see her fetch a nut out

 

' Sitta Europea, Lis. The genus Sitta has the bill straight, cylindrical, slightly com-
pressed, tip acuminated, nostrils basal, rounded, partly concealed hy reflected bristles »
tongue short, horny ; three toes before, the exterior jomed at its base to the muddle ones
tind tue very long, with a long huused claw; tail composed of twelve feathers.
AVES—NUTILATCH. 559

ot her hoard, place it in a chink, and then, standing above it, striking it with
all its force till it breaks the shell and catches up the kernel. Doctor Plot
says, that this bird, by putting its bill into the crack of a tree, can produce
a violent sound, as if it was rending asunder, which may be heard, at least
one hundred and twenty yards. In some countries this bird, from the
noise which it produces in the manner above stated, is called the logger-
head.

.

-WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH.!

Tne white-breasted nuthatch is common almost everywhere in.the woods
of North America; and may be known ata distance by the notes quank, quank,
frequently repeated, as he moves up and down in spiral circles around the
body and branches of the tree, shelling off pieces of bark in searcn of spi
ders, ants, insects, and their larve. He rests and roosts with his head
downwards, and appears to possess a curiosity not common to birds; fre-
quently descending very slily within a few feet of the root of a tree where
you happen to stand, stopping head downwards, stretching out his neck in a
horizontal position, as if to reconnoitre your appearance, and, after several
minutes of silent observation, wheeling round, he again mounts with fresh
activity, piping his orisonsas before. Strongly attached to his native forests,
he seldom forsakes them, and in the rigor of the severest winter, his note is
still heard in the bleak and leafless woods.

This bird builds its nest in the hole of a tree, in the hollow rail of a fence,
and sometimes in the wooden crevice under the eaves. The male is ex-
tremely attentive to the female while sitting, and supplies her regularly with
sustenance, calling her and offering her whatever he has brought, with the
most endearing tenderness. Sometimes he stops merely to inquire how she
is, and to lighten the tedious moments with his soothing chatter. When
both are feeding on the same tree, he is perpetually calling to her; and from
the momentary pause he makes, it is evident that he feels pleased to hear
her reply.

There are two or three species of the nuthatch besides the above, found in
America. 2

1 Sitta Carolinensis, W ason,
560 AVES—CREEPER...HUMMING-BIRD

THE CREEPER!

Is the smallest of European « 1s, if we except the crested wren, and weighs
only five drachins. The bi 3 aooked like a sickle. The upper part of the
body is variegated with bros: 2+? Slack, and the breast and belly are of
a silver white. This bird is v-ry soumnoa in England, though, from its
extreme agility in eluding the eye of the spectator, it is less frequently seen
than other common birds. It feeds upon insects, and builds in the holes of
trees. ‘The nest is formed of grass, lined with feathers. Along the stems
of trees it runs readily in every direction. ;

Nearly eighty species, foreign and domestic, have been enumerated of this
bird. The color of the foreign species is in general olive green. It inhabits
the Sandwich Islands, and is one of the birds, whose plumage the natives
~~ka vce of for their feathered garments.

 

THE HUMMING-BIRD?

 

Or this chirming little animal there are not less than sixty species, trom
the size of a small wren down to that of a bee. An European could never
have supposed a bird existing so very small, and yet completely furnished
with a hill, feathers, wings, and intestines, exactly resembling those of the
largest kind. A bird not so big as the end of one’s little finger, would pro-
bably be supposed but a creature of imagination, were it not seen in infinite
numbers, and as frequent as butterflies ina summer’s day, sporting in the
fields of America, from flower to flower, and extracting their sweets with its
litle bill.

 

1 Certhia familiaris, Lin. The genus Certhia has the hill long, or of medium length,
more or less curved, triangular, compressed, slender; nostrils basal, naked, pierced hori-
zontally, and half’ closed hy a membrane ; three toes hefore, the outer united at its hase to
the intermediate one; claws much hooked, that on the hind toe longest; tail graduated
with stiff pomted shafts fourth quill feather longest.

2The genus Trochilu« -*1ich embraces the humming-hird, has the bill long, straight, or
arcuated, tubular, very s. «7der, base depressed, acuminated ; upper mandible alinost con-
cealing the lower; tongre long, extensible, bifid, and tubular ; nostrils open before,
covered hy a broad memlrane; legs very short; tarsus shorter thun the middle toe the
hree anterior tues nearly divided; wings graduated, the first feather longest.
AVES—HUMMING-BIRD. 561

The smallest humming-bird is about the size of a bee, and weighs no
more than twenty grains. The feathers on its wings and tail are violet
brown, but those on its body and under its wings are of a greenish brown;
with a fine red cast or gloss, which no silk or velvet can imitate. T)e Lil)
is black, straight, slender, and of the length of three lines and a half.

There are almost all colors of these beautiful animals, crimson, green,
emerald, white breasted, and spotted. Some of them with and some
without crests. The eyes of most of them are very small, and as black
as jet.

It is inconceivable how much these add to the high finishing and beauty
of a rich luxurious western landscape. As soon as the sun is risen, the
humming-birds of different kinds are seen fluttering about the flowers, with-
out even lighting upon them. Their wings are in such rapid motion, that it
is impossible to discern their colors, except by their glittering. They are
never still, but continually in motion, visiting flower after flower, and ex-
tracting its honey. For this purpose they are furnished with a forked tongue,
that enters the cup of the Hower, and extracts its nectared tribute. Upon
this alone they subsist. The rapid motion of their wings brings out a hum-
ming sound, whence thev have their name.

The nests of these birds are not less curious than the rest; they are su
pended in the air, at the point of the twigs of an orange, a pomegranate, or
&@ citron ree; sometimes, even in houses, if they find a small] and convenient
twig for the purpose. The female is the architect, while the male gues in
quest of materials, such as cotton, finc muss, and the fibres of vegetavies.
The test is about the size of a hen’s egg cutin two. They lay twe eggs
et a time, and never more, about the size of small peas, and as white as
snow. with here and there a yellow speck. ‘The time of incubation con-
linnes twelve days; at the end of which, the young ones appear, and are
wuch about the size of a bluebottle Gv.

It is a doubt whether or not these birds have a continued note in singing.
All travellers agree that, beside the humming noise produced by their wings,
they have a little interrupted chirrup; but Labat asserts, that they have a
most pleasing melancholy melody in their voices, though small and propor-
tioned to the organs which produce it. It is very probable that, in dilferent
places, their notes are also different; and as there are some that continue
torpid all the winter, there may likewise be some with agreeable voiccs,
thougn tne rest may in general be silent.

Small as the humming-bird is, it has great courage and violent passions,
If it find that a flower has been deprived of its honey, it will pluck it off,
throw it on the ground, and sometimes tear it to pieces; and it often fighta
with a desperate fury which is astonishing in a creature of such diminutive
size. It will even allow a man to come within two yards of it, before it will
take to flight. Humming-birds are caught by blowing water on them from
a tube, or shooting at them with sand,

71
562 AVES—HUMMING-BIRD.

THE HUMMING-BIRD OF THE UNITED STATES.

Turs little bird is remarkable for its beauty, minuteness, want of song,
and manner of feeding. There are upwards of seventy species in America
and te ailjacent islands, one only of which is found in the United States,
This is found in Canada in great numbers, where it arrives from the south,
[tas wonderfui how such a little creature ean make its way over such exe
tensive regions of lakes and forests. But its very minuteness, the rapidity
of its flight, and its admirable instinct and courage, are its guides and pros
tectors.

The nest of this little bird is fixed on the upper side of the branch of a
tree. Instances have been known of its building on an old moss-grown
trunk, or on a strong weed in the garden; but these cases are rare. This
nest is about an inch in diameter, an inch deep, formed of lichen, wings of
certain flying seeds, and of a downy substance from the great mullein. The
eggs are two, of a pure white. If any one approaches the nest, the little
proprietors dart around with a humming sound, frequently passing within a
few inches of your head. His only note isa single chirp, not louder than
that of a cricket or grasshopper.

The humining-bird is extremely fond of tubular flowers, particularly of
the blossoms of the trumpet flower. When arrived before a thicket of these,
that are full blown, he suspends himself on wing for the space of two or
three seconds, so steadily, that his wings become invisible, or only likea
mist; the glossy goldeh green of his back, and fire of his throat, dazzling in
the sun, form altogether an interesting spectacle. When he alights, he
prefers the small dead twigs of a bush where he dresses and arranges his
plumage with great dexterity. He is one of the few birds that is universally
beloved. His flight from flower to flower greatly resembles that of a bee,
but is infinitely more rapid. He poises himself on the wing, while he thrusts
his long slender tongue into the flowers in search of food. He sometimes
enters a room by the window, examines the bouquets of flowers, and passes
out by the opposite door or window. It has hitherto been supposed to subs
sist entirely on the honey which it extracts from flowers. But they are
&nown t) feed on insects, being seen for half an hour ata time, darting at
little greups of insects with the dexterity of the flycatcher.

The humming-bird is three inches anda half in length, aud of a rich
golden green color, while the feathers round his throat are black, crimson,
and orange, mingled together, giving him a very brilliant appearan ‘e.

——_—_——-

 

’ Trochilus colubris, Lin.
AVES—HOOPOE,. 563

THE HOOPOE.

 

Or this bird there are only two species known to Europeans, one of which
1s, however, dilfused over the whole of the Old Continent. It weighs about
twelve ounces, and is twelve inches in length, the extent of its wings being
nineteen incHes across. The bill is long, black, and somewhat curved.
The neck is pale reddish brown; the breast and belly white; the lesser
coverts of the wing light brown; the back, scapulars, and wings crossed
with black and white, the rump white, and the tail white, marked with
black in the form of a crescent. But the distinguishing character is a beau-
tiful crest of about two inches high, which is of a pale orange tipped with
black, and which the bird can erect at pleasure. The food of this bird is
insects. It is a solitary bird, two of them being seldom found together. In
some places it is accounted good eating.

ORDER VII.—ALCYONES.

Birps of this order have the bill middle sized or long, pointed, almost
quadrangular, and either slightly arched or straight; tarsus very short
three tues before, united, and one behind. These birds Hy with great ce-erity.
Their movements are quick and abrupt, and they neither walk nor climb
They seize their food on the wing, and often fror: the surface of the water,
and nestle in holes on the banks of rivers. They moult only once a year,
and the females and young are not very dissimilar from the males and
mature birds.

 

’ Upupa epops, Lin. The genus Upupa tas the bill very long, slightly arched, slender
iangular, compressed ; nostrifs basal, fateral, overd, open, and surmounted with feathers:
‘n front; taree toes before, the exterior uutted to che middle one to Use first jot; one be-
rind ; tail square, of ten feuthers,
564 AVES —BEE-EATER...EUROPEAN KINGFISHER.

THE BEE-EATER!

¥s well known on the continent of Europe, though it has never been seen in
England. It is about ten inchesinlength. The forehead is of a blue green ;
the top of the head, and upper part of the back, chesnut and green; the
throat is yellow ; and the under parts of the body blue green. Flocks of
these birds are seen in Germany. It feeds chiefly upon insects, and is good
food. There are about twenty different species, foreign and domestic.

The Indian bee-eater is about the size of a common blackbird. Its bill is
nearly two inches long, and its eyes are of a fine red; on each side of the
head extends a black stroke, which begins at the corners of the mouth, and
passes beyond the eyes. The base of the upper chap, and under the chin, is
covered with bright pale blue feathers; the upper and back part of the head
are of a dusky yellow; the back and wings of the same color, only shaded
pretty strongly with a green; the tips of the quill feathers brown, the breast
and belly green; the thighs and under part near the vent, of a pale yellow,
with a small green mixture. The tail consists of about twelve feathers; the
outermost on each side are of a green and yellow mixture, about three
inches in length, the two middlemost twice that length, ending in sharp
points, of a brown or dusky color; the legs and feet black.

They principally feed on bees, beetles, grasshoppers, and other insects.
They build in hollow places or caverns five or six feet deep, and lay six or
seven eggs.

THE EUROPEAN KINGFISHER?

Tis kingfisher is not much larger than a swallow; its shape is compact;
the legs, however, are disproportionably small, and the bill disproportionably
long; it is two inches from the base to the tip; the upper chap black, and
the lower yellow; but the colors of this bird atone for whatever is inelegant
in its form; the crown of the head, and the coverts of the wings, are of a
deep blackish green, spotted with bright azure; the back and tail are of the
most respiendent azure; the whole under side of the body is orarge c.lored;
4 broad mark of the same passes from the bill beyond the eyes; beyond thar
is a large white spot; the tail is short, and consists of twelve feathers of a

) Merops apiaster, Lis. The genus Merops has the bill sharp edged, pointed, shghtly
curved; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, concealed by hairs directed forwards; tarsus short
three front toes united, the exterior to the secoud joint, the interior to the first joint of the
midd]: toe; hind toe broud at its base ; the second wing feather the longest.

 

 

2 Alcedo ispida, Lin. The genus Alcedo has the bill long, straight, quadrangular,
pointed, edged, and very rarely depressed; nostrils basa, lateral, pierced obliquely,
almust wholly closed by a naked membrane; legs short, naked above the knee; exteriur
we united to the second joint and the interior to the first josnt of the middle toe.
AVES—BELTED KINGFISHER. 565

nch deep blue; the feet are of a reddish yellow, and the three joints of the
utmost toe adhere to the middle toe, while the inner toe adheres only by one.

From the diminutive size, the slender short legs, and the beautiful colors
of this bird, no person would supposé it one of the most rapacious little
animals that skims the deep. Yet it is forever on the wing, and feeds on
fish, which it takes in surprising quantities, when we consider its size and
figure. It chiefly frequents the banks of rivers. There it preys on the
smaller fish, and sits frequently on a branch projecting over the current;
there it remains motionless, and often watches whole hours to catch the
moment when a little fish springs under its station ; itdives perpendicularly
into the water, where it continues several seconds, and then brings up the
fish, which it carries to land, beats to death, and then swallows; but it
afterwards throws up the undigestible parts. When this bird cannot find a
projecting hough, it sits on sume stone near the brink, cr even on the gravel;
but the moment it perceives the fish, it takes a spricg upward, of twelve or
fifteen feet, and drops perpendicularly from thatheight. Often it is observed
to stop short in its rapid course, and remain stationary, hovering like a
hawk, over the same spot for several seconds. Such is its mode in winter,
when the muddy swell of the stream, or the thickness of the ice, constrains:
it to leave the rivers, and ply along the sides of the unfrozen brooks. In
this way it traverses many leagues. While it remains suspended in the air,
ina bright day, the plumage exhibits a beautiful variety of the most dazzling
and brilliant colors.

The kingfisher builds its nest by the river-side, in a hole which it burrows
out itself, or in the deserted hole of a rat. In these holes, which, from the
remains of fish brought there, are very foctid, the kingfisher is often found
with from five eggs to nine. There the female continues to hatch, even
though disturbed ; and though the nest be robbed, she will again return and
lay there. The male, whose fidelity exceeds even that of the turtle, brings
her large provisions of fish while she is ihus employed ; and she, contrary te
most uther birds, is found plump and fat at that season.

 

THE BELTED KINGFISHER!

Tims is a general inhabitant of the banks and shores of all uur fresh water
rivers from Hudson's Bay to Mexico, and is the only species of its tribe
found within the United States. This last circumstance, and its characte~
ristic appearance, make it universally known here. Like the love-lorn
swains, of whom poets tell us, he delights in murmuring streamsand falling
waters; not however merely that they may svoth his ear, but for a gratificae

—

 

: ' Aleedo alcyon, Lin.
43
566 AVES—BELTED KINGFISHER.

tion somewhat more substantial. Amidst the roar of a catavact. or over tne
foam of a torrent, he sits perched upon an overhanging buugh, glancing his
piercing eye in every direction below for his scaly prey, wnich, with a
sudden circular plunge, he sweeps from their native elemcat and swallows
in an instant. His voice, which is not unlike the twirling of a watchman's
rattle, is naturally loud, harsh, and sudden, but is softened by the sound of
the brawling streams, and cascades, among which he generaily rambles.
Ve courses along the windings of the brook, or river, ata small height above
the surface. Sometimes suspending himself by the rapid acto. o” lus

 

wings, ready to pounce on the prey below; now and then settling on an ola
dead overhanging limb to reconnoiwe. Mill-dams are particularly visited
by this feathered fisher ; and the sound of his pipe is as well known to the
miller, as the rattling of his own hopper.

Rapid streams, with high perpendicular banks, particularly if they be of a
hard clayey or sandy nature, are also favorite places of resort for this birt;
not only because in such places the fish are more exposed to view, but
because those steep and high banks are the chosen situations for his nest.
Into these he digs with his bill horizontally, sometimes four or five feet.
The nest is built of few materials. They are very tenacious of their haunts.
breeding for several successive years in the same hole, and do not readily
forsake it, even though it be visited. Many fabulous stories have been
related by the ancients, of the nest and manner of hatching of the kingfisher
AVES—SWALLOW. . 667

This bird is twelve inches and a half long; the whole upper parts are a
bluish slate color, round thy uech ts a collar of pure white; the head is
large, and crested; the feathers are long, and generally erect; the breast is

blue and brown, the under parts white.
7 ‘

 

ORDER VIII.—_CHELIDONES.

Brrns of this order have the bill very short, much depressed, and very wide
at the base ; the upper mandible curved at the point; legs short, three ‘oes
before, either entirely divided, or connected at the base by a short mem-
brane, the hinder often reversible; claws much hooked; wings long. The
flight of these birds is rapid and abrupt, their sight piercing; neck short;
throat wide, bill broad, and often gaping for the reception of insects, which

constitute their only food.
THE SWALLOW.

Tue swallow tribe is very numerous. These birds have a peculiar twit-
tering voice, fly with extreme rapidity, scarcely ever walk, and perform all
their functions while they are on the wing er sitting. Their plumage is
glossed with a rich purple.

To the martens, and other small birds, the swallow announces the ap-
proach of birds of prey. By a shrill alarming note, he summons around
him all his own species and the martens, as soon as an owl or hawk appears.
The whole band then pursue and strike their enemy till they expel him from
the place; darting down on his back, and rising in a perpendicular line with
perfect security. The swallow will also strike at cats while they are climbs
ing the roofs of houses.

Early in the spring, when the solar beams begin to rouse the insect trihes
from their annual state of torpidity, the swallow is seen returning from its
long migrations beyond the ocean ; and in proportion as the weather grows
warmer, and its insect supply increases, it gathers strength and activity.
The breed of the swallow ought to be cherished, as the bird is of infinite
service to mankind, by destroying myriads of vermin which would prove
fatally prejudicial to the labors of the husbandman.

Of the swallow tribe, all the birds have been observed to drink while in
their flight, sipping the surface of the water. It is, however, generally

 

1The genus Hirando, which embraces most of the swallows, has the bill short. triangu-
far, broad at the base, depressed, cleft near to the eyes: upper mandible slightly hooked
atthe tips nostrils basal, oblong, partly closed by a membrane, surmounted by feathers in
front; legs short. with slender toes and claws; three toes before, the exterior united to the
first jount of the middle one: one Lehind ; wings long; the first quill the longest; taal of
twelve feathers, mostly forked.
568 AVES—MARTEN.

speaking, only the swallow that washes on the wing, ly making many suc
cessive dips into a pond. Swallows will attend horsemen for miles, over
wide downs, to collect such insects as are aruused- by the trampling of the
horses’ feet.

THE PURPLE MARTEN!

Is a general inhabitant of the United States, and a particular favorite wher
ever he takes up his abode.

This bird, like the rest of his tribe, is migratory. His summer residence
is universally among the habitations of man, who, having no interest in his
destruction, is generally his friend and protector. Whenever he comes, he
finds some hospitable retreat fitted up for his accommodation. Some people
have large conveniences formed for the martens, with many apartments,
which are fully tenanted, and occupied regularly every spring. Even the
solitary Indian seems to have a particular respect for this bird. The Choes
taws and Chickasaws cut off all the top branches of a sapling near their
cabins, leaving the prongs a fout or two long, on each side of which they
hang a gourd or calabash, hollowed out for their convenience. On the
Mississippi the negroes stick up !ong canes, with the same species of aparte
ment, in which the martens regularly breed. They begin their nest about
the middle of April. It is formed of a quantity of willows, slender straws,
feathers, and hay. When the female is sitting, she is frequently visited by
the male, who occupies her place while she takes a short recreation abroad
He sits on the outside of the apartment where she is, dressing and arranging
his plumage, occasionally passing to the door, as if to inquire how she is.
His notes at this time seem to have a peculiar softness, and his gratulations
are expressive of much tenderness.

Conjugal fidelity seems to be faithfully preserved by these birds. A male
and femaie marten once took possession of a box in Mr Bartram’s garden. A
day or two after, a second female made her appearance, but from the cold
reception she met with, being frequently beat off by the male, she finally
abandoned the place, and set off no doubt to seek a more sociable cum-
vanion.

The flight of the purple marten unites in it all the swiftness, ease, rapidity
of turning. and gracefulness of notion of its tribe. His usual note peo,
peun, peuy, 1s loud and musical; but is frequently succeeded by others that

— ———

 

 

afd ands purpured, Lin,
AVES—SWALLOW 569

are low and guttural. Wasps, bees, and large beetles, seem to he his favo-
rite food. He is eight inches long, and of a rich deep purplish blue, except
the wings and tail, which are brownish black.

 

THE BARN SWALLOW,

 

TocetTHer with its whole tribe, are distinguished fern the rest of small birds,
by their sweeping rapidity of flight, their peceiiar aerial evciutions of wing
over our fields and rivers, and through eur streets frem morning to night.
The light of heaven itself, the sky, ine trees, or any other common objects
of nature, are not better knowa than the swallows. The wonderful activity
displayed by these birds, forms a striking contrast to the slow habits of other
animals. Let a person take bis stand on a summer evening by a field,
meadow, or river shore, fix nis eye on one of these birds, and follow for a
wh..... all its circuitous windings ; its extensive sweeps; its sudden, rapidly
Teiterated zigzag excursions, Jive inferier to the lightning itself —and then
attempt to calculate the length of the various lines it describes.

‘On the east side of the great range of the Alleghany, they are dispersed
very generally over the country. Early in May they begin to build, and it
takes nearly a week to complete the nest. It is in the form of an inverted
cone, and placed up against a rafier ina barn. It is formed of mud, mixed
with hay; itis then stuffed with fine hay, anda handful of downy geese
feathers. It is not uncommon for twenty or thirty pair to build in the same
barn, and some nests are within a few inches of each other; yet the most
perfect harmony prevails in this peaceful and affectionate community.
When the young are able to leave the nest, the old enes entice them out by
fluuering backwards and forwards, twittering and calling te them cone
stantly. As soon as they leave the barn, they are conducted to the trees
and bushes, by the pond or river shore, where their proper food is abundant,

In August they all prepare for departure. They assemble en the roofs io
great numbers, dressing and arranging their plumage, and making occae

 

1 Hirundo Americana, Wi.s0Nn.

72 48*
670 AVES—SWALLOW...MARTEN.

‘sional essays, twittering with great cheerfulness. Their song is a sprightly
warble, sometimes continued for a considerable time. They then pass along
to the south in great numbers; sumetimes severa} hundreds pass within
sight in a quarter of an hour. Itis highly probable that they winter in
Mexico and South America. They are easily tamed, and soon become gen-
tle and familiar. ;

The barn swallow is seven inches long; the upper parts are stcel blue;
the front, chin, and under parts are chesnut; the wings and tail are black,
the latter greatly forked.

 

THE BANK SWALLOW, OR SAND MARTEN:

Arpgars to be the most sociable with its kind, and the least intimate with
man of all our swallows, living together in conimunities of three or four
hundred. On the high sandy banks of a river, they scratch out holes for
their nests, running them in a horizontal direction to the depth of two or
three feet. At the extremity of this hole, a little fine dry grass, with a few
large downy feathers, form the nest. The voice of this speries is a low
mutter. ‘They are particularly fond of the shores of rivers; they likewise
visit the seashore in great nuinbers, previous to their departure. It is the
same species as the European.

The bank swallow is five inches long; the nyper parts are mouse colored;
tne lower are white, with a band of brown across the upper part of the
breast.

 

THE REPUBLICAN, OR CLIFF SWALLOW?

Js found in the western states. These birds build their nests in clusters, or
associations, and deferd them with spirit and pertinacity. They generally
build on the sides of perpendicular clufs, but sometimes under the eaves of
houses. There are several others of the swallow tribe inhabiting the United
States.

 

THE EUROPEAN MARTEN.

Tuts bird, “ the temple-haunting martlet,”as it is denominated by Shaks
’ > y

peare, is inferior in size to the swallow, and its tall is much less forked.

The plumage, however, is nearly the same; the upper part of the hody,

 

1 Mirunde rivarva Lin 2 Hirundo fulva, Bonar. 3 Hirundo urbica, Lin.
AVES—SWIFT. 571

wings, and tail being black, glossed with purple; and the under parts white.
They are much less agile than the chimney swallow, and have a placid, easy
motion. These birds sometimes build against the sides of cliffs that over-
hang the sea; but more frequently under the eaves, in the corners of win.
dows, or under cornices. The materials of the nest are earth, tempered and
mixed with straw, and lined with small straws, grasses, and feathers. The
little architect builds only during the morning, and allows the fabric to
harden during the rest of the day. The same nest is often inhabited for
several years.

THE SWIFT.

‘Tats is the largest of the swallow kind known in England, being often
eighteen inches long, though the entire weight of the bird is not more than
one ounce. The whole plumage is of a sooty black, except the throat, which
is white. The feet, which are so smal] that the actions of walking and
rising from the ground seem very difficult, are of a particular structure, al}
the toes standing forward. For this reason, the swift never settles on the
ground, unless by accident. They have, however, a strong grasp with their
feet, which enables them to clingfto walls. It spends more of its time on
the wing than any other swallow, and its flight is more rapid. In summer
it keeps on the wing at least sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. It
breeds under the eaves of houses, in steeples, and other lofty buildings; ‘and
makes its nest uf grass and feathers. 11 has but one brood in the summer,
and never more than two young ones at a time.

The voice of the swift is a harsh scream; yet there are few ears to which
itis not pleasing, from an agreeable assesiation of ideas, since it is never
heard but in the most lovely summer weat er.

These birds visit England the latest, and retite the earliest, of rll their
tribes; as they withdraw from that country before the middle of A gust,
generally by the tenth, and nota single straggler is to be seen Ly tLe
twentieth. This early retreat is totally unaccountable, as that time is often
the most delightful in the year. But, what is yet more extraordinary, they
begin to retire still earlier in the most southerly parts of Andalusia ; where
they can by no means he influenced by any defect of heat, or even of food,

 

1 Cypselus murarius, Temm, The genus Cypselus has ‘the bill very short. triangular,
bend at the bise. inconspienous, depressed ; gape as far as under the eyes, epperdandis
ble hooked atthe tip; nostrils cleft longitudinally. at the upper part of the ball, Ga and
the raised margias furmshed with small feabhers; legs very shert. wath the fore toes
directed forwards, and quit’ divided ; three tues, aud claws short aud thick ; wings very
long, tail with ten feathers.
6572 AVES—SWALLOW...GOATSUCKER.

THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW!

Is strongly distinguished from the other American swallows, by its figure,
flight and manners. It is dispersed all over the country wherever there are
vacant chimneys, that are convenient for their accommodation. In_ the
western forests they build in the hollows of large trees. ‘The nest is of sine
gular construction, being formed of small twigs, fastened together by a sort
of glue from two glands in the head. With this glue, which becomes hard,
the nest is thickly besmeared. It is attached to the side of the wall, and is
destitute of any soft lining. The young are fed at intervals during the
night. The noise which the old ones make in passing up and down the
funnel, has some resemblance to distant thunder. When there are long and
heavy rains, the nest is sometimes precipitated to the bottom; but the young
sometimes scramble up the chinmeys, clinging like squirrels to the side. In
this situation they are fed for a week or more.

This bird is four inches and a half in length, of asooty brown color. When
it flies, it utters the sounds érip, (rip, trip, tree, tree, in a hurried manner
When roosting, the thorny extremities with which its tail is furnished are
thrown in for its support. Ttis mever seen to alight but in hollow trees or
chimneys; and is always most gay and active in wet and gloomy weather.

 

THE GOATSUCKER®?

Is nearly allied to the swallow, both in form and manners. Like the
swallow, it is remarkable for the wideness of itsgape; like it, it feeds upon
insects ; like it, collects its food upon the wing; indeed, by some authors, it
has been termed the nocturnal swallow, for it preys entirely in the night, or
rather in the dusk of the evening, when the other swalluws are retired to
rest.

There is only one species known in Europe,3and this is considerably
larger than the swallow, being ten inches and a half in length, and in weight
two ounces and a half. The ground of the plumage is almost black, but it
is beauutully diversified with ash color and white in different parts; and it

 

1 Cypselus pelasgicus, Tem.

2The genus Caprimulgus, or goatsuckers, so named, from the erraneous notion that
they sucked the teats of goats, has the bill slightly curved, very suiall, and depressed at
the hase ; mouth extremely wide, nostrils basal. wade, closed by a iemlinnie surneanted
by feathers; tail round, or forked, af ten feathers | legs short, the anterior toes autted: te
the first yoint; middle claw long, aud serrated on the edge, but simuvt! in sume of the
species ; hind toe reversible.

3 Cuprimulgus Europeus, Lin.
AVES—GOATSUCKER. 573

has, like ul the kind, a uumber of bristles ‘about the bill. It makes nonest,
but lays ats eggs on the bare ground, or some loose crag, without any seem-
ing care whatever. It is a great destroyer of cockchatfers and beetles; and’
its note resembles the noise of a spinning wheel. From its nocturnal habits

it has been called the night hawk, and the churn owl. It visits Englanu
about May, and returns in August. There appears to be no other ground
for the ridiculous story of its sucking the goats, but the width of its mouth

which is to be accounted for on much more rational principles. “The
country people (says Mr White) have a notion that the fern owl, or :hurn
owl, or eve jar, which they call a puckeridge, is very injurious to wi ani g

 

calves, by inflicting, as it strikes at them, a fatal distemper, known to cow-
leeches by the name of puckeridge. Thus does this harmless, ill-fated bird,
fall under a double imputation, which it by no means deserves —in Italy,
of sucking the teats of goats, whence it is called caprimulgus, and with us,
of communicating a deadly disorder to cattle. The least observation and
attention would convince men that these birds neither injure the goatherd
nor the grazier.” Mr Waterton, also, has pointed out, that the “striking
at the cattle,” as the sapient rustics call it, is, in fact, the leap which the bird
makes at the nocturnal flies which are tormenting the herd ; and that, with
more good sense than their masters possess, the cattle are aware of, and
grateful for, the service which the bird thus renders to them.
574 AVES—NIGHT HAWKE

THE NIGHT HAWK.}

 

Tnis bird is called a bat in some of the southern states. It is ty many
supposed to be the same bird as the whip-poor-will; but on comparing the
two birds, the difference between them will be easily observed, and their
manners also are strikingly dissimilar. The night hawk lays its eggs on
the bare ground, in an open space in the woods, or in the corner of a field,
where the color of the leaves and ground may resemble the general tint of
the eggs. The male and female are constantly near the nest during the day.
They sit lengthwise on the branch of a tree, instead of crosswise, like most
other birds, their legs and feet being too slender to grasp the branch firmly.
While the female is sitting, the male keeps a most vigilant watch around.
He plays about in the air, mounting by several quick vibrations of the wing,
uttering all the while a sharp harsh squeal, till, having gained the highest
point, he suddenly precipitates himself head foremost, and with great
rapidity, down sixty or seventy feet, wheeling up as suddenly; at which
instant is heard a booming sound, resembling that produced by blowing
strongly into the bunghole of an empty hogshead; and which is doubtless
produced by the sudden expansion of his capacious mouth, while he passes
through the air. This singular habit belongs only to the male. The female
never descends in the manner of the male. When she is approached, she
mores in such a fluttering tumbling manner, and appearance of a lame and
wou.ided bird, as nine times in ten to deceive the person, and induce him to
pursue her. When the young are first hatched, it is difficult to distinguish
them from the surface of the ground; they sit so fixed and squat as to be
mistaken fur a slight moulding on the earth.

These birds are seen abroad at all] times of the day; but their most favo-
rite time is from twu hours before sunset till dusk. They are very numerous

 

Caprimulgus Americanus, W1Ls0N
AVES—WHIP-POOR-WILL 675

gear salt-marshes, skimming over the meadows in the manner of swallows.
Their chief food seems to be insects. When wounded and taken, they at-
tempt to intimidate you by opening their mouth to its utmost stretch, throw-
mg the head forward, and uttering a kind of guttural whizzing sound,
striking violently with their wings, which seem to be their only offensive
weapons. In August they steer for the south in vast multitudes, darting
after insects as they advance. They are often accompanied by twice their
number of swallows.

The night hawk is nine inches and a half long; the upper parts are deep
brown; the whole body is spotted and sanded with cream color and red-
dish.- The tail is handsomely forked, and there are no bristles about the
sill.

THE WHIP-POOR-WILL.!

 

Tis 1s a very singular and celebrated species, universally known over the
United States, for its favorite call in spring; yet, personally, he is little
nown. The notes of this solitary bird, seem like the voice of an old friend,
and are listened to by almost all with great interest. At first they issue
from sorte retired part of the woods, the glen, or mountain; in a few eve-
aings, perhaps, we hear them from the adjoining coppice—the garden
fence — the road before the door, and even from the roof of the dwelling-
house, long after the family have retired to rest. He is now a regular ac-
quaintance. Every mo.omg and evening his shrill repetitiuns are heard

 

§ Caprimulg-us vociferus, WiLs0N,
576 AVES—CHUCK WILL’S WIDOW.

from the adjoining woods, and when two or more are calling at the same
time, the noise, mingling with the echoes of the mountains, ts really sur-
prising. These notes serve pretty plainly to articulate the words, whip-
poor-wilJ, the first and last syllables being uttered with great emphasis
When near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. Tos
wards midnight they generally become silent, unless in clear moonlight.
During the day, they sit in the most retired, solitary, and deep shaded parts
of the woods, where they repose in silence. Their food appears to be large
moths, grasshoppers, and such insects as frequent the bark of old rotten and
decaying timber.

The nest is built like that of the night hawk, on the ground; the young
have very much the same appearance, though the eggs are much darker.
When disturbed, the whip-poor-will rises and sails low and slowly, through
the woods, for thirty or forty yards, and generally settles on a low branch or
on the ground. Their favorite places of resort are on high and dry situa-
tions; in low marshy tracts of country they are seldom heard; in this they

- differ from the night hawk, which delights in extensive sea marshes. Their
flight also is vert dissimilar. The whip-poor-will has ranges of long and
strong bristles on each side of the mouth; the night hawk is entirely desti-
tute of them. The bill of tae whip-poor-will is twice the length of that of
‘he night hawk. The wings of the whip-poor-will are shorter by mure than
two inches than those of the night hawk. The tail of the latter is forked,
that of ihe former is rounded. The two species differ also in size and color.

 

THE CHUCK WILL’S WIDOW.

 

nts solitary bird is rarely found north of Virginia and Tennessee. 1t has
sometimes been confounded with the whip-poor-w.!l. It has derived its

 

T
Caprimulgus Carolinensis, Witson.
AVES—PIGEON. 577

name fro.a its notes, which seem exactly to articulate those words. It
commences its singular call generally in the evening, soon after sunset, and
continues it with short occasional interruptions for several hours. Towards
morning these repetitions are renewed. This note instantly attracts the
attention of a stranger, and is strikingly different from that of the whip-
poor-will. In sound and articulation it seems plainly to express the words
which have been applied to it, pronouncing every syllable leisurely, and
distinctly, putting the principal emphasis on the last word. In a sill
evening it may be heard at the distance of nearly a mile; the tones of its
voice being stronger, and more full, than those of the whip-poor-will, whe
atters his with much greater rapidity. 3

The flight of this bird is slow, skimming about the surface of the ground,
frequently settling on old logs, or on the fences, and from thence sweeping
around in pursuit of various insects, that fly in the night. Like the whip-
poor-will, it prefers the declivities of glens, and other deeply shaded places,.
making the mountains resound with echoes the whole evening.

 

ORDER IX.—COLUMBE.

Brros of this order have the till of moderate dimensions, compressed ;
base of the upper mandible ce ered with a soft skin, in which the nostrils,
are perforated, the tip more or lvss curved; feet with three toes in front,
quite divided, and one behind. This order contains but one genus, but is
uumerous in species, and these are very widely dispersed over the world

THE AMERICAN WILD PIGEON,

Catep also the passenger pigeon, is the most remarkable of this whole
order of birds. It is about the size of the common domestic pigeon. The
head, throat, and upper parts of the body are ash colored; the sides of the
neck are of a glossy variable purple; the fore part of the neck and kreast
are vinaceous; the under parts of a similar color, but paler; and there is a
erimson mark round the eyes. These Lirds visit the different parts of North
America, in such immense flocks, that we may justly apply to them Miltcn’s
expression of “numbers numberless.” Their habits and migrations, and
the manner in which they are pursued by man and beast, are thus described
by Mr Audubon. ‘ The most important facts connected with the habits of
these birds, relate to their extraordinary associations and migrations. No

 

1 Columba migratoria, Lis. The characteristics of the genus Columba, are, bill of
mediums size, straight, compressed, arched, tip curved ; base of the upper mandible covered
with u soft skin, more or less inflated; nostrils in the middle of the membrane; legs
generally red; three toes before, entirely divided, one hehind, articulated on the heel s,
wings with the second quill feather longest.

73 49
678 AVES—PIGEON.

other species known to naturalists, is more calculated to attract the atten
tion of either the citizen or the stranger, as he has opportunity of viewing
both of these characteristic habits, while they are passing from north tc
south, east and west, and, wee versa, over and across the whole extent of
the United States of Arnerica.

“The remarkable migrations are owing entirely to the dire necessity of
providing food, and not merely to escape the severity of a northern lati-
tude, or seek a southern one for the purpose of breeding. They, conse
quently, do not take place at any fixed period or season of the year. Indeed
it happens sometimes that a continuance of a sufficient supply of food it
one district will keep these birds absent from another for years.

   

EN

“1 know, at least, toa certainty, that in Kentucky they remained for
several years constantly, and were no where else to be found. They all
disappeared one season suddenly when the mast was exhausted, and thus
did not return fora long period. The same facts have been observed in
other states.

“Their great power of flight enables them, when in need, to survey and
pass over an astonishing extent of country ina very short tinie. This is
proved. by, facts known to the greater number of observers in America.
Pigeons, for example, have been killed in the neighborhood of New York,
with their crops still filled with rice, collected by them in the fields of Geor-
gia-and Carolina, the nearest point at which this supply could possibly have
been obtained; and, as it is well ascertained, that owing to their great power
af digestion, they will decompose food entirely in twelve hours, they must
AVES—PIGEON. 579

nave travelled between tree and four hundred miles ‘n six hours, making
their speed at an average about one mile in a minute, and this would enable
one of these birds, if so inclined, to visit the European continent, as swal-
lows are undoubtedly able to do, in a couple cf days.

“This great power of flight is seconded by as great a power of vision,
which enables them, as they travel at that swift rate, to view objects below,
to discover their food with facility, and thus put an immediate end to their
journey. This I also have proved to be the case, by having observed the
pigeons, when passing over a destitute part of the country, keep high in air,
and in such an extensive front, as to enable them to survey hundreds of
acres at once. But if, on the contrary, the land is richly covered with food,
or the trees with mast, they will fly low, in order to discover the portion
most plentifully supplied, and upon these they alight progressively.

“The form of the bodies of these swift travellers is an elongated oval,
steered by a long well-plumed tail, furnished with extremely well set and
very muscular wings for the size of the individual. If a single bird is seen
gliding through the woods and close by, it passes apparently like a thought;
and on trying to see him again, the eye searches in vain — the bird is gone!

“Their multitudes in our woods are astonishing ; and, indeed, after hav-
ing viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances, for years, and,
I may add, in many different climates, I even now feel inclined to pause,
and assure myself afresh that what Iam going to relate is fact. ThatT
have seen it is most certain; and I have seen it all in the company of bun-
dreds of other persons looking on, like myself, amazed, and wondering if
what we saw was really true.

“Tn the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks ot
the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. Having met the pigeons flying from
north-east to south-west, in the barrens of natural wastes, a few miles be-
yond Hardensburgh, in greater apparent numbers than I thought I had ever
seen them before, I felt an inclination to enumerate the flocks that would
pass within the reach of my eye in one hour. I dismounted, and, seating
myself on a tolerable eminence, took my pencil to mark down what I saw
going by and over me, and made a dot for every flock which passed.

“Finding, however, that it was next to impossible, and feeling unable ‘o
record the flocks, as they multiplied constantly, I rose, and, counting the
dots then put down, discovered that one hundred and sixty-three had been
made in twenty-one minutes. I travelled on, and still met more the farther
I went. The air was literally~filled with pigeons; the light of noonday
became dim, as during an eclipse; the pigeon’s dung fell in spots, not unlike
melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz of their wings over me had
a tendency to incline my senses to repuse.

“ Whilst waiting for my dinner at Young's inn, at the confluence of Salt
river with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, 1mmense legions still going by.
with a f-ont reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west, and the beech-woud
5SU AVES—PIGEON.

forests directly on the east of me. Yet nota single bird would alhghit; for
not a nut or acorn was that year to be seen in the neighborhood. They
consequently flew so high, that different trials to reach them with a capital
rifle proved ineffectual, and not even the report disturbed them in the least.
But I cannot describe how beautiful their aerial evolutions were, if a black
hawk appeared in their rear. At once, like a torrent, and with a thunder-
like noise, they formed themselves into almost a solid compact mass, press-
ing each on each towards the centre; and when, in such solid bodies, they
xigzagged to escape the murderous falcon, now down close over the earth
sweeping with inconceivable velocity, then ascending perpendicularly, like a
vast monument; and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within
their continued lines, resembling the coils of a gigantic serpent.

“ Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardenburgh fifty-five
miles, where the pigeons were still passing, and this continued for three
days in succession.

“The people were indeed all up in arms, and shouting on all sides at the
passing flocks. The banks of the river were crowned with men and chil.
dren, for here the pigeons flew rather low as they passed the Ohio. This
gave a fair opportunity to destroy them in great numbers. For a week or
more, the population spoke of nothing but pigeons, and fed on no other flesh
but that of pigeons. The whole atmosphere during this time was strongly
impregnated with the smell appertaining to their species.

“Tt is extremely curious to see flocks after flocks follow exactly the very
evolutions performed by a preceding one, when they arrive at the place
where these mancuvres were displayed. If a hawk, for instance, has chanc-
ed to charge on a portion at a certain spot, no matter what the zigzags,
curved lines, or undulations of lines might have been during the affray, all
the following birds always keep the same track; so that if the traveller hap-
pens to see one of those attacks, and feels a wish to have it repeated, he
may do so by waiting for a short time.

“Tt may not, perhaps, be out of place to attempt an estimate of the num-
ber of pigeons contained in those mighty flocks, and the quantity of food
consumed by its members. The inquiry will show the astonishing bounty
af the Creator in his works, and how universally this bounty has been
granted to every living thing on the vast continent of America.

“ We shall take, for example, a column of one mile in breadth, which is iar
below the averaye size, and suppose it passing over us without interruptivn
fur three hours, at the rate mentioned above, of one mile per minute. This
will give us a parallelogram of one hundred and eighty miles by one, covering
one hundred and eighty square miles, and allowing two pigeons to the square
yard, we have one billion one hundred and fifteen million one hundred and
thirty-six thousand pigeons in one flock; and as every pigeon consumes fully
half a pint of food per day, the quantity must be eight million seven hundred
and twelve thousand bushels per day, which is required to feed such a flock
AVES—PIGEON. 581

“ As soon as these birds discover a sufficiency of food to entice them to
alight, they fly round in circles, reviewing the country below, and at this
time exhibit their phalanx in all‘ the beauties of their plumage; now
displaying a large glistening sheet of bright azure, by exposing their
hacks to view, and suddenly veering, exhibit a imass of rich deep pur-
yle. They then pass lower, over the woods, and are lost among the
foliage for a moment, but they reappear as suddenly above; after whic.
they alight, and, as if affrighted, the whole again take to wing, with a :oar
equal to loud thunder, and wander swiftly through the forest to see if danyer
is near. Impelling hunger, however, soon brings them all to the ground,
and then they are seen industriously throwing up the fallen leaves to seek
for the last beech-nut or acorn; the rear ranks continually rising, passing
over, and alighting in front, in such quick succéssion, that the whole still
bears the appearance of being on the wing. The quantity of ground
thus swept up, or, to use a French expression, mozssonnée, is astonishing, and
so clean is this work, that gleaners never find it worth their while to follow
where the pigeons have been. On such occasions, when the woods are
thus filled with them, they are killed in immense numbers, yet without any
apparent diminution. During the middle of the day, after their repast is
finished, the whole settle on the trees to enjoy rest, and digest their food ;
bu: as the sun sinks in the horizon, they depart en masse for the roosting
place, not unfrequently hundreds of miles off, as has been ascertained by
persons keeping account of their arrival and of their departure from their
curious roosting places, to which I must now conduct the reader.

“To one of those general nightly rendezvous, not far from the banks of
Green River, in Kentucky, I paid repeated visits. It was, as is almost al-
ways the case, pitched in a portion of the forest where the trees were of
great magnitude of growth, but with little underwood. I rode through it
lengthwise upwards of forty miles, and crossed it in different parts, ascer-
taining its average width to be rather more than three miles. My first view of
it was about a fortnight subsequent to the period when they had chosen this
spot, and I arrived there nearly two hours before the setting of the sun. Few
pigeons were then to be seen, buta great number of persons, with Lorses
and wagons, guns and ammunition, had already established different camps
on the borders. Two farmers from the vicinity of Russelsville, distant more
than a hundred mi'es, had driven upwards of three hundred hogs to be fat-
tened on pigeon-meat, and here and there the people, employed in pick'ng
anJ salting what had already been procured, were seen sitting in tne centre
of large piles of these birds, all proving to me that the number resorting
there at night must be immense, and probably consisting of all those then
feeding in Indiana, some distance beyond Jeffersonville, not less than one
hundred and fifty miles off. ‘he dung of the birds was several inches deep,
covering the whole extent of the roosting place like a bed of snow. Many

49*
582 AVES—PIGEON.

trees, two feet in diameter, I observed, were broken at no great distance from
the ground, and the branches of many of the largest and taliest so mucu 80,
that the desolations already exhibited, equalled that performed by a furious
tornado, As the time elapsed, I saw each of the anxious persons about to
prepare for action; some with sulphur in iron pots, others with torches of
pine knots, many with poles, and tle rest with guns, double and treble
charged. The sun was lost to our view, and nota pigeon had yet arrived;
but, all of 2 sudden, I heard a genera! ery of ‘ Here they come!’ The nuise
which they made, though distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea. passe
ing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As the birds arrived, and
passed over me, I felt a current of air that surprised me. Thousands were
soon knocked down by the polemen. The current of birds, however, kept
increasing. The fires were lighted, and a most tnagnificent as well as won-
derful and terrifying sight was before me. The pigeons, coming in by mil-
lions, alighted every where, one on the top of another, until masses of them,
resembling hanging swarms of bees as large as hogsheads, were formed on
every tree in all directions. These heavy clusters were seen to give way, as
the supporting branches, breaking down with a crash, came to the ground,
killing hundreds of those which obstructed their fall, forcing down other
equally large and heavy groups, and rendering the whole a scene of woroar
and of distressing confusion. I found it quite useless to speak, or even to
shout to those persons nearest me. The reports even of the different guns
were seldom heard, and I knew only of their going off by seeing the owners
reload them.

“No person dared venture within the line of devastation, and the hogs
had been penned up in due time, the picking of the dead and wounded suf-
ferers being left for the next morning’s operation. Still the pigeons were
constantly coming, and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease
in the number of those that arrived. The uproar continued, however, the
whole night; and, as I was anxious to know to what distance the sound
reached, | sent off a man, who, by his habits in the woods, was able to tell
me, two hours afterwards, that at three miles he heard itdistinetly. Towards
the approach of day, the noise rather subsided; but, long ere the objects
were all distinguishable, the pigeons began to muve off in a direction quite (ifs
ferent from that in which they had arrived the day before, and at sunrise
none that were able to fly remained. The howling of the wolves now
reached our ears, and the foxes, the lynxes, the cougars, bears, racoons,
opossums, and polecats, were seen sneaking off the spot, whilst the eagles
and hawks of different species, supported by a horde of buzzards and care
rion crows, came to supplant them, and reap the benefits of this night of
destruction.

“It was then that I, and all those present, began our entry amongst the
dead aid wounded sufferers. They were picked up in great numbers, unti.
AVES—PIGEON. 58%

each had as many as could possibly be disposed of; and afterwards the hogs
and dogs were let loose to feed on the remainder.

“ Persons unacyuainted with these birds must naturally conclude, that such
dreadful havoc must soon put an end to the species; but this is very far from
being the case, for by long observation | have satisfied tnyself. that, as they
not unfrequently quadruple their numbers yearly, always, at least, duuble it,
nothing but the gradual diminution of our {orests can accomplish their de-
crease. In 1805, I have seen schooners loaded in bulk with pigeons caught
up the Hudson River, cuming into the wharf at New York, and those birda
sold for a cent a piece. I knewa man in Pennsyly na «ho caught and
killed upwards of" five hundred dozen in a clap-net in a day, sweeping some-
times twenty dozen or more at one haul.

“T have also seen the negroes at the United States’ Salines, or salt-
works, of Shawnee Town, wearied with killing pigeons, as they alighted
to drink water issuing from the.leading pipes, for weeks at times; and yet,
in 1826, in Louisiana, I saw congregated tlucks of those birds as numerous
as ever I had seen them before, during a residence of nearly thirty years in
the United States.

“The breeding of the wild pigeons, and the places chosen for that pur-
pose, are points of great interest. As 1 have said before, the time set apart
for this is not influeuced by climate or season, but generally takes place
where an when food is most plentiful and most attainable, and always at a
convenient distance from the water, and in high timbered forests. The spot
generally chosen is not, like that above described, a scene of confusion and
death, but one where, it is no exaggeration to say, the tenderest affection
seems to prevail. To this place these countless myriads of pigeons fly and
settle to coo, and, with parental care, begin their nests in general peace and
harmony. On the same tree, from fifty to one hundred nests may be seen,
formed of slizht materials, being only composed of a few dried twigs, cross-
ed in different ways, supported by suitahie forks in the branches from the
lowest to the highest, and each mate partakes in the task of incubation.
The females lay two white eggs each, proportioned to the size of the bird,
and, as they sit the greater portion of tnis precious time, the males feed
them from bill to bill, with amorous tenderness and care.

“The young are hatched, and would grow and leave tne nest in course of
tim3, diJ not man discover the place, and commence his work of devasta-
tion. Atmed with axes, their enemies reach the spot, to seize and destroy
all they can. The trees are felled, and are made to full in such a way, that
the cutting of one causes the fall of one ur two more, er shakes others a
such a manner, that the squabs, or young pigeons, are violently hurried te
the ground.”
584 AVES—PIGEON.

THE CAROLINA PIGEON,

 

Caren also the turtle-dove, is a general inhabitant, in the summer, of tne
United States, from Canada to Florida, and from the seacoast te the Missis«
sippi, and far to the westward. ‘They pass the winter in great numbers at
North and South Carolina. It is a favorite bird with all those who love to
wander among the woods in spring, and listen to their varied harmony
They will hear many a singular and striking performance, but none so
mournful as this. Its notes are four; the first is somewhat the highest and
preparatory, seeming to be uttered with an inspiration of the breath, as if the
afflicted creature were just recovering its voice from the last convulsive notes
of distress ; this is followed by three long, deep, and mournful moanings,
that no one can listen to without sympathy. A pause of a few minutes
ensues, and then again the solemn voice of sorrow is renewed as before.

There is, however, nothing of real distress in all this; quite the reverse.
The bird who utters it, wantons by the side of his beloved partner, or invites
her, by his call, to some favorite, retired, and shady retreat. It is the voice
of love, of faithful connubial affection, for which the whole family of doves
are so celebrated; and among them all, none more deservedly so, than the
species now before us. The flight of this bird is quick, vigorous, and always
accompanied by a peculiar whistling of the wings. They fly with great
swiftness, alight on trees, fences, or on the ground, indiscriminately; are
exceedingly fond of buck-wheat, hemp-seed, and Indian com; feed on
several kinds of berries and small acorns, They devour large quantities of
gravel, and have a great regard for peas.

The nest is very rudely constructed, generally in an evergreen, among the
thick foliage of a vine, tn an orchard on an apple tree, and sometimes on the

 

' Columba Curctinensis, Lin.
AVES—PIGEON, 585

ground. It is composed of trees and rvots, making an almost flat nest.
The flesh of this bird is considered superior to that of the wild pigeon. Jt 1g
twelve inches long; it has a.beautiful glossy black eye. The general color is
a fine slate blue, reflecting in some part the most vivid tints of green, gold,
and crimson. The legs and feet are red, seamed with white.

THE GROUND DOVE!

Is one of the least of the pigeon tribe, and has a very timid and innocent
appearanee. It is a native of North and South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida,
and the West Indies. They are numerous on the seacoasts of Carolina and
Georgia, fy in Hocks of fifteen or twenty, seldom visit the woods, and are
almost constantly on the ground. They feed on rice, seeds, and berries. It
is six inches and a quarter long. The upper partsare of a cinereous brown;
the throat and breast of a pale purple; the iris of the eye orange red, and
the legs and feet yellow.

In the United States are found, also, the white-crowned pigeon, the band-
tailed pigeon, and the zenaida dove.

 

THE DOMESTIC PIGEON,

e

Wirt all its heautiful varieties, is said to derive its origin from the stock-
dove,” the English name, implying its being the stock, or stem, whence the
other domestic kinds have been propagated. This bird, in its natural state,
is of a deep bluish ash color; the breast dashed with a fine changeable green
and purple; its wings marked with two black bars; and the tail barred near
the end with black. These are the colors of the pigeon in a state of nature;
and trom these simple tints, has man, by art, propagated a vat ety, that
words cannot describe, nor even fancy suggest. However, nature still per-
severes in her great outline; and though the form, color, and even the
feeundity of these birds may be altered by art, yet their natural manners and
inclinations continue still the same. The stockdove usually builds in holes
of rocks, or in excavated trees. Its murmuring note at morning, and dusk,
is highly pleasing.

The dovehouse pigeon, as is well known, breeds every month; it lays twe
white eggs, which, most usually, produce young ones of different sexes,
From three or four o’cluck in the evening, till nine the next day, the female
sits on the eggs; she is then relieved hy the male, who takes his place from
ten ull three, while his mate is feeding abroad. In this manner they sit

 

1 Columba passerina, Witson. 2 Columba enus, Lin.

74
586 AVES—PIGEON.

alternately till the young are excluded, which is from eighteen to twenty
days, according to the warmth of the season.. If, during this term, the
female delays to return at the expected hour, the male follows, and drives
her to the nest; and should he in lis turn be dilatory, she retaliates with
equal severity.

The hen pigeon is, however, so constant to her eggs, that one, whose legs
were frozen and dropped off, continued to sit, notwithstanding the pain
which she endured with the loss of her limbs, till her young were hatchel.
Eler legs were frozen by the nest being too near the entrance of ue duvecote,
and consequently exposed to the cold air.

The young ones, when hatched, require no food for the three first days,
only wanting to be kept warm, which is an employment the female takes
entirely upon herself. During this period shé never stirs out, except fora
few minutes, to take a little food. From this they are fed for eight or ten
days, with corn, or grain, of different kinds, which the old ones gather ia
the fields, and keep treasured up in their crops, whence they throw it up

again into the mouths of their young ones, who very greedily demand it.
So great is the produce of this bird in its domestic state, that near fifteen
thousand may, io the space of four years, be produced from a single pair.

Most birds drink by sipping at intervals; the pigeon takes a long continued
draught, like a quadruped.

Those pigeons which‘are called carriers, and are used to convey letters,
are easily distinguished from all others, by thetr eyes, which are compassed
about with a broad circle of naked white skin, and by being of a dark blue
or blackish color. It is from their attachment to their native place, and
particularly where they have brought up their young, that these birds are
emploved in several countries as the most expeditious carriers. They are
first brought trom the place where they were bred, and whither itis intended
to send them back with information. The letter is tied under the bird’s
wing, and, after feeding it well, iest it should stop by the way to eat, it is
let loose to return. The little animal uo sooner finds itself at liberty, than
its passion for its native spot directs all its motions. Itis seen, upon these
occasions, flying directly into the clouds to an amazing height; and then,
with the greatest certainty end exactness, directing itself by some surprising
instinet towards home, which lies sometimes at many miles distance. [t
is said, that, in the space of an hour and a half, they sometimes perform a
journey of forty miles.

The varieties of the tame pigeon are so numerous, that it would be a vain

attempt to mention them all.
f
AVES—PEACOCK. 58”

ORDER X.—GALLINEA.

Binns of this order have the bill short, convex, in some genera covered by
Q cere; upper mandible bending from its base, or only at the point; nostis
lateral, covered by a membrane, naked or feathered ; tarsus long, three toes
before, united at their base by a membrane; bind toe articulated on the
tarsus above the junction of the anterior toes.

1.HE PEACOCK!

 

Came originally fram the East Indies; and we are assured that tney are
still found in vast flocks, in a wild state, in the islands of Java and Ceylon.

 

1 Paro eristatus, Lin. The genus Pavo has the bill naked at the hase, convex above,
thickened. bent down towards the tip: nostrils open: cheeks partially denuded ; tay
coverts very long; tail of eighteen feathers. elongated, broad. capable of hemg expanded
like a e aud ocellaied; tarsus longer than the middle toe, with a comcal spur; head
creste
588 AVES—PEACOCK.

To describe, in adequate terms, the dazzling beauties of this elegant bird
would be a task of no small difficulty. [ts head is adorned with a tuft,
consisting uf twenty-four feathers, whose slender shafts are furnished with
webs only at the ends, painted with the most exquisite green, mixed with
gold; the head, throat, neck, and breast, are of a deep blue, glossed with
green and gold; the greater coverts and bastard wings are of a reddish
biown, as are also the quills, some of which are variegated with black and
green; the belly and vent are biack, with a greenish hue: but the distin-
gnishing character of this singular bird is its train, which rises just above the
tail, and, when erected, forms a fan of the most resplendent hues; the two
iaiiddle feathers are sometimes four feet and a haif long, the others gradually
diminishing un each side; the shafts, white, and furnished from their origin
nearly to the end with parted filaments of varying colors, ending in a flat
vane, which is decorated with what is called the eye. The real tail consists
of short, stilf, brown feathers, which serve as a support to the train. When
pleased or delighted, and in sight of his females, the peacock erects his train,
and displays all the majesty of his beauty: all his movements are full of
dignity; his head and neck bend nobly back; his pace is slow and solemn,
and he frequently turns sluwly and gracefully round, as if to catch the sun-
beams in every directien, and produce new colors of inconceivable richness
and beauty. accompanied at the same tine With a hollow murmuring voice
expressive of desire. The cry of the peacock, at other times, is often repeat-
ed, and very disagreeable. The plumes are shed every year, and, while
moulting them, the bird, as if humiliated, retires from view.

The peacock has, in some countries, been esteemed as an article of luxu-
ry; but whatever there may be of delicacy in the flesh of a young peacock,
it is certain an old one is very indifferent eating. Its fame for delicacy, how-
ever, did not continue very lung; for we find, im the time of Francis the
First, that it was a custom to serve up peacocks to the tables of the great,
with an intention not to be eaten, but only to be seen. Their manner was
to strip olf the skin; and then preparing the body with the warmest spices,
they covered it up again in its former skin, with all its plumage in full dis-
play, and nu way injured by the preparation. The bird, thus prepared, was
often preserved fur many years without corrupting ; and it is asserted of the
peacock’s flesh, that it keeps longer unputretied than that of any other ani
mal. To givea higher zest to these entertainments, on wedding particularly,
they filled the bird’s beak and throat with cottun and camphor, which they
set on fire to amuse and delight the company. Peacocks were high!y
esteemed by the Romans, and the Bible mentions them among Solomon’s
importations from the East. In the days of chivalry, also, they were in such
great repute as to be the subject of a knightly oath,

Like other birds of the poultry kind, the peacuck feeds upon corn; but its
chief predilection is for barley. There is, however, searevly any food that it
will not at times covet and pursue. In the indulgence of these capricious
AVES—COCK. 58¢

pursuits, walls cannot easily confine it; it strips the tops of houses of thei
tiles or thatch, it lays waste the labors of the gardener, roots up his choicest
seeds, and nips his favorite flowers in the bud. Thus its beauty ill recom-
penses for the mischief it occasions ; and many of the more homely looking
fowls are very deservedly preferred before it.

The peahen seldom lays above five or six eggs in this climate before she
sits. Aristotle describes her as laying twelve; and it is probable, in her
native climate, she may be thus prolific: for it is certain, that, in the forests
where they b eed naturally, they are numerous beyond expression. The
bird lives about twenty years; and not till its third year has it that beautiful
variegated plumage that adorns its tail.

 

THE DOMESTIC COCK.

 

Or all birds, the cock seems to be the oldest companion of mankind, to
have Leen first reclaimed from the forest, and taken to supply the accidental
failure of the luxuries or necessaries of life. Ashe is thus longest under
the care of man, so perhaps he exhibits the greatest number of varieties,
there being scarcely two birds of this species that exactly resemble each
other in plumage and form.

It-is not well ascertained when the cock was first made domestic in
Europe; but it is generally agreed that it was first brought there from the
kingdom of Persia. It came to America with the early European settlers.
The cock is found wild in the island of Tinian, in many others of the Indian
ocean, and in the woods on the coasts of Malabar; his plumage is black and
yellow, and his comb and wattles are yellow and purple. There is another
peculiarity also in those of the Indian woods; their bones, which, when

 

1 Gallus domesticus, Temm. This genus has the bill of medium size, strong, bise
naked ; upper mandille arched, convex, bent towards the pomt; head surmounted by a crest
or pluie; ears uaked 5 three toes before, uted to the first yoint; the hind toe raised from
the ground; tarsus with a loug and bentspur; nuiddle feathers of the wil urched> wings

. 50
590 AVES—COUCK.

boiled with us, aie white, as every body knows, in those are black as ebony,
Whether this tincture proceeds from their food, as the bones are tinctured
red by feeding upon madder, we leave to the discussion of others: satisfied
with the fact, let us decline speculation.

In their first propagation in Europe, there were distinctions then that now
subsist no longer. The ancients esteemed those fowls whose plumage was
reddish, as invaluable ; but as for the white, it was considered as atierly unfit
for domestic purposes. These they regarded as subject to become a prey to
rapacious birds; and less fruitful than the former. No animal in the world
has greater courage than the cock, when opposed to one of his own species
and in every part of the world, where refinement and polished manners have
not entirely taken place, cock-fighting is a principal diversion. Jn China,
India, the Philippine islands, and all over the East, cock-fighting is the sport
and amusement even of kings and princes. In England it is déclining
every day; and it is to be hoped it will, in time, become only the pastime of
the lowest vulgar. It is the opinion of many persons there, that they have a
bolder and more valiant breed than is to be found elsewhere; but the truth
is, they have cocks in China as bold, if not bolder than the English cocks.
Nor is it against his own species alone that the cock displays courage. , One,
of less than a year old, has been known to dart on a sparrowhawk, throw
him down, and detain hit till a person came to secure the plunderer.

To his females the cock is assiduously attentive. He keeps them always
in his sight, prevehts them from straggling, and defends them from aggres-
sion. Whatever strange cock appears within his bounds is instantly attack-
ed. His jealousy is as strong as his gallantry, and has been said to prompt
him to take vengeance on the female. Dr Percival relates an instance, in
which some patridges’ egg» having been hatched under a hen, the cock, as soon
as he saw the brood, fell turiously upon the unfortunate foster-mother, and
killed her before any help could be afforded to her.

The hen seldom clutches a brood of chickens above once a season, though
instances have been known in which they have produced two. The number
of eggs a domestic hen will lay in the year is above two hundred, provided she
be well fed, and supplied with water and liberty. It matters not inuch
«hether she be trodden by the cock or not; she will continue to lay, although
all the eggs of this kind «an never by hatching be brought to prolce a
hving animal.

As soo: as an egg is laid, it begins to transpire, and loses, in a little time,
sont grains of its weight. If it continues exposed to the air, the inside
hardens, and contracts a bad flavor; but, to prevent this effect, it is only
necessary to cover the outside of the shell with a varnish, or with oily matter,
which shields it from the air. It is obvious, however, that the varnish must
be removed if the eggs are designed for hatching.

The hen makes her nest without any care, if left to herself; a hole
scratched in the ground, among a few bushes, is the only preparation she
AVES—COCK. 591

makes for this season of patient expectation. Nature, almost exhausted by
its own fecundity, seems to inform her of the proper time for hatching,
which ske herself testifies by a clucking note, and by discontinuing to Jay
Tf left entirely to herself, the hen would, seldom lay above twenty eggs in
the same nest, without attempting to hatch them. While she sits, she
carefully turns her eggs, and even removes them to different situations ; till
at length, in about three weeks, the young brood begin to give signs of a de-
sire to burst their confinement.

The formation of the embryo is curious. During the first day’s incubation
and even when the egg has Leen under the hen a few hours, the heal of the
ehicken may he seen gradualiy uniting itself to the spine of the back. On
the second day the first process of the vertebra may be discerned, like so
many small globules disposed on each side of the spine. The first com-
mencement of the wings and the umbilical vessels may also be distinguish-
ed by their dark color.’ The neck and breast also show themselves, and the
head continues toincrease in size. The third day, the whole is more distinct
and enlarged; and the heart, which is suspended at the opening of the
breast, is observed to beat; veins and arteries may also be perceived about
the brains, and the spinal marrow begins to extend itself through the spine.
The eyes are considerably formed on the fourth day. The pupil and the
crystalline and vitreous humors may be distinctly seen. The wings increase,
the thighs appear, and the whole body begins in some degree to be covered
with Hesh. The fifth day, the body is covered with a glutinous, or unctuous
flesh, the heart is retained within a very fine membrane, which also extends
itself all over the breast. The sixth day, the spinal marrow, in two divisions,
continues to advance along the trunk; the liver, which at first was whitish,
becomes of a darker hue; both ventricles of the heart beat, and the body of
the chicken is covered with skin, in which may be already discerned the
points of the feathers. The beak may be discovered on the seventh day, and
the brain, the wings, the thighs and even the feet, have acquired a perfect
form. The lungs appear at the end of the ninth day; their color is whitish,
On the tenth, the muscles of the wings begin to form, the feathers continue
to shoot out. It is not till the eleventh day that the arteries, which before
were separate, unite to the heart. The rest of the process consists only in
an increase and more perfect development of the several parts, till they
acquire sufficient vigor to break the shell.

The strongest and best chickens generally are the first candidates for
liberty; the weakest come behind, and some even die in the shell. When
all are produced, the hen leads them forth to provide for themselves. Her
affection and her pride seem then to alter her very nature, and correct her
imperfections. No longer voracious or cowardly, she abstains from all] food
that her young can swallow, and flies boldly at every creature that she thinks
is likely to do them mischief.

Ten or twelve chickens are the greatest number that a good hen can rear
592 AVES—PHEASANT.

and clutch at a time; but as this bears no proportion to the number of her
eggs, schemes have been imagined to clutch all the eggs of an hen, and thus
turn her produce to the greatest advantage. The contrivance we mean is
the artificial method of hatching chickens in stoves, as is practised at Grand
Cairo; or in a chemical laboratory, property graduated, as has been effected
by Mr Reaumur. At Grand Cairo, they thus produce six or seven thousand
enickens at a time; where, as they are brought forth in their mild spring,
which is warmer than our summer, the young ones thrive without clutching.
But it is otherwise in our colder and unequal climate; the little animals
may, without much difficulty, be hatched from the shell; but they almost |
all perish when excluded. Recent attempts have been made to apply steam
to the purpose of hatching fowls. The cock is a short-lived animal; but
how long these birds live, if left to themselves, is not yet well ascertained
by any historian. «

THE PHEASANT.

Tue pheasant is the bird of Phasis,a river of Colchis, in Asia Minor
whence they were first introduced into Europe.

Next to the peacock they are the most beautiful of birds, as well for the
vivid color of their plumes as for their happy mixtures and varieties. It is
far beyond the power of the pencil to draw any thing so glossy, so bright, or
points so finely blending into each other. We are told that when Croesus,
king of Lydia, was seated on his throne, adorned with royal magnificence,
and all the barbarous pomp of eastern splendor, he asked Solon if he had
ever beheld any thing so fine? The Greek philosupher, no way moved by
the objects befure him, or taking a pride in his native simplicity, replied,
that after having seen the beautiful plumage of the pheasant, he could be
astonished at no other finery.

In fact, nothing can satisfy the eye with a greater variety and richness of
ornament than this beautiful creature. The iris of the eyes is yellow; and
the eyes themselves are surrounded with a scarlet color, sprinkled with small
specks of black. On the fore part of the head there are blackish feathers
mixed with a shining purple. The top of the head and the vpper part of the
neck are tinged with a darkish green that shines like silk. In some,
the top of the head is a shining blue, and the head itself, as well as the upper
part of the neck, appears sometimes blue and sometimes green, as it is diffe-

 

1 Phasianus Colchicus,Lrx. The genus /hasianus has the bill short, thickened, naked
at the hase; hent towards the tip; nostrils basal, lateral; cheeks naked, warty; ears
covered ; three toes before, united to the first joint, and one benind; tarsi furnished with
apr in the males + tail elongated cuneiform, aud composed of eighteen feathers ; wings
short.
AVES PHEASANT. 593

rently placed ro the eye of the spectator. The feathers of the breast, the
shoulders, the middle cf the back, and the sides under the wings, have a
dlackish grouad, with edges tinged of an exquisite color, which appears,
sometimes black and sometimes purple, according to the different lights it ig
placed in; under the purple there is a transverse streak of gold color. The
tail, from the middle feathers to the root, is about eighteen inches long, ; the
legs, the feet, and the toes are of the color of horn. There are black spurs
on the legs, shorter than those of a cock; there is a membrane that connects
two of the toes together; and the male is much more beautiful than the
female,

The wings of the pheasant are short, and not calculated for a protracted
flight. On this account, the pheasants on the island called Isola Madre, in
the Lago Maggiore, in Italy, as they cannot fly across the lake, are impri-
soned. Those which attempt to cross are almost always drowned.

This bird, though so beautiful to the eye, is not less delicate when served
up to the table. Its flesh is considered as the greatest dainty; and when
the old physicians spoke of the wholesomeness of any viands, they made
their comparison with the flesh of the pheasant. In the woods the hen
pheasant lays from eighteen to twenty eggs in a season; but in a domestie
state she seldom lays above ten. Its fecundity when wild is sufficient to
stock the forest; its beautiful plumage adorns it; and its flesh retains a
higher flavor from its unlimited freedom.

The pheasant, when full grown, seems to feed indifferently upon every
thing that offers. Jt 1s said by a French writer, that one of the king’s
gportsmen shuvling ata paieel ol crows that were gathered round a dead
carcass, to his great surprise, upon coming up, found that he had killed as
many pheasants ascrowz. It is even asserted by some, that such is the
carnivorous. disposition vf this bird, that when several of them are put
together in the same yard, if one of them happens to fall sick, or seems to
be pining, all the rest will fall upon, kill, and devour it.

 

THESGOLDEN PHEASANT!

Or al! the species of pheasants which are met with in our preserves ana
im our aviaries, the golden pheasant is the rarest and the most beautiful,
The male bird, when in perfect plumage, measures nearly three feet in
length, of which the tail alone forms abvut two thirds. The feathers of the
fore part of the head are very long, silky, and of a bright yellow; and con-
siderably overhang those of the hinder part, which are of a brilliant orange,
marked with transverse black rays. These last are elongated and extended

 

1 Phasianus pi-tus, Lin.

7 , 50%
594 AVES—WILD TURKEY.

backwards over the sides of the neck, and may be raised or depressed at will,
A few minute hairs are scattered over the cheeks, which are of a livid come
plexion. The feathers of the back of the neck are tinged with a mixture of
green and gold and bordered with black, those of the back and the upper tail-
coverts are bright yellow, the latter terminating in a crimson border.

 

These magnificent birds are natives of China; and it was warmly main
tained by Buffon, in accordance with his theory of the degeneration of ani-
mals, that they were merely a variety of the common pheasant, which has
assumed a more splendid plumage, in consequence of the superior fineness
of the climate in which they dwelt. Unfortunately for this hypothesis, the
common pheasant is also widely spread throughout the same region, in
which it preserves all the characters by which it is distinguished in Europe,
and never produces in its wild state a mixed breed with its supposed variety.
No naturalist since Buffon has imagined such a transformation possible.

TUE WILD TURKEY.

Tnis elegant bird is the original stock from which all the common domes-
tic turkeys have been produced. It is a native of America, and is found ip
all the western parts of the United States and North America, from Lake
Superior to the Isthmus of Panama. They abound in the forests and uns

 

\Meleagris gallopavo, Lin. The genus Meleagris has the bill short and thick, hase
covered with a naked skin: head and upper part of the ueck invested with a naked, tuber
culated skin; a louse caruncle on the upper part of the bill; throat with a longividina’
vendulous, and carunculated wattle; tarsi of the mele with an obtuse and weak spur
wings short; tail of eighteen feathers spreading int. «ircle.
AVES—WILD TURKEY. 595

settied parts of the Union, but are not numerous in Florida, Georgia, or the
Caronas. They are very rare in the northern and eastern parts of the
United States. They were formerly abundant in Canada, but as their places
of resort become settled and thickly peopled, they retire and seek refuge in
the remotest recesses of the interior. In New England it appears to have
been destroyed many vears ago, but they are still found in the eastern parts
of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. i

These birds do not confine themselves te any particular food, but eat corn.
berries, grapes, barley, tadpoles, young frogs, and lizards. Their favozita

 

luod, however, is the pecan nut, and acorn. Where there is an abundant
crop of acorns, there numerous flocks of turkeys may be expected. In the
fall, they direct their courses in vast numbers to the rich lands on the bor-
ders of the Ohio and Mississippi. The males and females travel separately,
lut all in the same direction, Before crossing a river, they assemble on the
highest eminences, and remain there as if in consultation for a day or twa,
At length, after due preparation, the leader gives a signal note, and they al!
wing their way to the opposite shore. Some of the young and weak fall
nto the water, and are obliged to swim for their lives, using all the means
in their power, and the most vivleny exertion, to reach the shore. Many,
596 AVES—WILD TURKEY.

‘however, perish in the attempt. It 1s observed that, after these journeys, tne
turkeys are so familiar, that they fearlessly enter the plantations in search
af food. Great numbers are killed at this time, and kept in a frozen state
ay be sent to distant markets.

They begin to build in April; the nest is very simple in construction, being
only composed of a few dried leaves. The female lays sometimes twenty
out more usually nine or fifteen eggs, which are white, spotted with brown.
Wild turkeys are very tenacious of their feeding grounds, as well as of the
trees on which they have once roosted. Flocks have been known to resort
{o ore spot for a succession of years, and to return after a distant emigration
in search of food. They roost on a point of land jutting inio a river where
there are large trees in great numbers. When they are all quiet for the
night, they are very easily shot; and an experienced hunter may secure near-
ly the whole Hock, as the turkeys, fancying themselves secure when at
‘raost, are not alarmed by either the sportsman or his gun.

 

The flesh of the wild turkey is of excellent flavor, being move delicate and
juicy than that of the domestic turkey; the Indians value it so highly, that
dey term it, when roasted, “the white man’s dish.”

The male of the wild turkey is nearly four feet in length; the female is
ly three feet and a quarter long. The plumage of the male is very bril-
Yiant, and of a variety of hues; that of the female is not as beautiful. When
‘strutting abroad and displaying himself, this bird has a very stately and
handsome appearance, and appears to be quite sensible of the admiration he
uxcites.

A new species, called the ocellated turkey, has been discovered in Hondu-
ras, which is of a smaller size and of more brilliant plumage than the turkey
of the Waited States. ¥ It has smal! ocellated spots on the tail.

*
AVES—GUINEA HEN. 697

THE PINTADO, OR GUINEA HEN,

 

Is aoout the size of a common hen, but, as it is supported on Jonger legs, 11
locks much larger. It has a round back, with a tail turned downwards like
apartridge. The head is covered with a kind of casque; and the whole plu-
mage is black or dark Grey, speckled with white spots. It has wattles under
the bill, which do not proceed from the lower chap, as in cocks, but from
the upper, which gives it a very peculiar air; while its restless gait, and
odd chuckling sound, distinguish it sufficiently from all ether birds what-
ever.

It is well known al! over Europe and America, and we find it in different
countries called by different names, from the place whence they had it. We.
chave given it the name of that part of-Africa from whence probably it was
first brought, and where it is still found in a wild state. Among the Ro
mans they were in high repute for the table, and, being scarce, were sold at
a great price.

In many parts of their native country they are seen in vast flocks together,
feeding their young, and leading them in quest of food. All their habits are.
like those of the poultry kind, and they agree in every other respect, except
that the male and female are so much alike, that they can hardly be distin-
guished asunder. The principal distinction is in the wattles; those of the
cock being of a bluish cast, while those of the fmale incline to red. Their
eggs, like their bodies, are speckled; in our climate they lay but five or six
in a season ; but they are far more prolific in their sultry regions at home.

‘There is a species of this bird with a very beautiful crest. There are also
sume other varieties, which it would be tedious to describe. i

 

T

Numida meleagris, Lis. The genus Numida has the bill short, thick, arched, the
base covered with a warted membrane, and a carwieulated wattle hanging from the under
mandible ; sostrils situated in the cere, divided by a cartilage, head naked or feathered,
the crown with a callous horn or crest; tarsus smooth; the three fore toes united by mem
branes; inud toe joined on the tarsus ; tail short; bent down,

| «
398 AVES—WOOD GROUSE.

THE WOOD GRCUSE!

   

  
       

 
  
  

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v

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at x
ca . SALE “
CRN : AW AN
AN ANN
aN RANA ‘

Si wy PERU

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oh Sant
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{fe about the size of a turkey, and frequently weighs near fourteen pounls,
but the female is much smaller. The head and neck are ash color, crossed
with black lines; the body and wings chesnut brown, and the breast of a
very glossy blackish green. The legs are strong, and covered with brown
teathers. The plumage of the female differs from this description, it being
ved about the throat, and having the head, neck, and back, crossed with red
and black bars; the belly barred with orange and black, with the tips of’ the
feathers white, as are also the tips of the shoulders. :

The cock of the wood, when in the forest, attaches hirnself principally to
the oak and the pine tree; the cones of the latter serving for his food, ana
the thick boughs fora habitation. He feeds also on ants’ egos; which seem

 

'Tetrao urogallus, Lin. -The genus fefrao has the bill short, thick, arched ahove
convex, hent downwards towards the tip, base naked ; nostrils basal. half closed, with an
arched scale anove, and connected hy small feathers ; eyebrows naked, with scarlet warts -
tarsi feathered ; three toes’ before and one behind, united to the first jut; one toe bebink
niargined with asperities.
AVES—WOOD GROUSE. 599

a high delicacy to all birds of the poultry kind; cranherrics are likewise
often found in his crop. The female is much less than her mate, and en-
urely unlike him in plumage, so that she might be mistaken for a bird of
another species. She seldom lays more than six or seven eggs, which are
white, marked with yellew, of the size of a common hen’s egg. She gene-
rally lays them in a dry place and mossy ground; and when she is obliged,
during the time of incubation, tw leave ‘her nest in quest of food, she covers
them up so artfully with moss or dry leaves, that it is extremely difficult to
discover them

As soon as the young ones are hatched, they are seen running with ex-
treme agility after the mother, though sometimes they are not entirely dis-
engaged from the shell. They soon come to perfection; they are a hardy
bird; their food lies every where before them, and it would seem that they
should increase in great abundance. But this is not the case; their nums
bers are thinned by rapacious birds and beasts of every kind, and still more
by their own salacious contests. At sunrise and setting, during this season,
the male may be seen extremely active upon one of the largest branches of
a pine tree; his tail saised and expanded like a fan, his wings drooping, his
neck streiched out, and his head swoln and red. His cry upon this occasion
is a kind of loud explosion, followed by a noise like the whetting of a scythe.
While under this induence, they fight each other like game-cocks; and are
so inattentive to their own safety, that it often happens that two or three of
them are killed ata shot. It is proiable that, in these contests, the bird
which comes off victurious takes possession of the female scraglio, as it is
certain they kave no faithful attachments. This species was once not un-
common in the Highlands of Scotland. It is now extinct in England, as
wellas in Ireland. The last Scotch specimen is said to have been killed
al out fifty years ago; and Ireland had previously ceased to possess the cock
of the wacd.
600 AVES—BLACK GROUSE.

THE BLACK GROUSE, OR BLACK COCK,!

Is much more common. It is found in many parts of Europe, and 10 most,
of the moors in the north of England, Wales, and Scotland. Its name
almost furnishes its description, since the whole body is black, which, how-
ever, is iridescent, and in some positions of the light, it shows a beautiful
purple; but it has another remarkable characteristic, which is, that its tail
is forked. It is rather larger than a cominon fowl, and is in length from
twenty-four to twenty-eight inches. -At the breeding season their cuntests
are so furious, that in Courland, Livonia, &c., it is a common method of

taking them, to assemble them together, by irsitating the crowing of a black
ock, and by having a figure prepared to imitate that animal in all its mo-
nons. The grouse, being collected in vast numbers from all parts, enter

 

into, a-bloody contest; when the combatants are so intent upon each other's
destruction, that they fall an easy prey to their pursuers, and may even be
knocked down with a stick. There isa variety of this species with a plain
tail. *

 

1 Tetruo tetriz, Lin.
AVES—RED GROUSE...RUFFED GROUSE. 601

YAHE RED GROUSE, OR MOOR COCK,

 

{ls also abundant in Great Britain, where are also found the plarmagan, ot
white grouse. The Aazel and pintatled grouse are found in different parts of
Eurupe.

 

THE RUFFED GROUSE.

 

Tums well known American bird is called partridge, in the New England
states, and pheasant at the south, a'though neither the partridge nor phease

eee tere ban —

 

' Tetrao umbellus, Lin.
76 ol*
602 AVES—RUFFED GROUSE.

ant is found in America. The ruffed grouse is known in almost every quai
ter of the United States, and appears to inhabit a very extensive range of
country. Its favorite places of resort are high mountains covered with the
balsam, pine, hemlock, and such like evergreens. Unlike the pinnated
grouse, it always prefers the woods ; is seldom or never found in open plains;
but loves the pine sheltered declivities of mountains near streams of waiter,
In the lower parts of Georgia, Carolina, and Florida, they are very seldom
observed ; but as we advance iniand to the mountains, they again make
their appearance.

The manners of the ruffed grouse are solitary; they are seldom found in
coveys of inore than four or five together, and more usually in pairs or singly.
They leave the woods early in the morning, and seek the path or road, to
pick up gravel, and glean among the droppings of the horses. If the weather
be foggy or lowering. they are sure of being found in such situations. They
generally move along with great stateiiness, their broad fan-like tail spread
out. The drumming, as it is generally called, of the pheasant, is another
singularity of this species. This is performed by the inale alone. Itisa
kind of thump, like that produced by two full blown ox bladders being struck
together; the strokes at first are low and distinct, but gradually increase in
rapidity ull they ran into each other. This may be heard half a mile off,
and is produced in the following manner.—The bird standing on an old pros-
trace log, lowers his wings, erects his tail, contracts his throat. elevates the
two tufts of feathers on his neck, and inflates his,whole body somewhat in
the manner of the turkey cock, strutting and wheeling about with great
stateliness. After a few manceuvres of this kind, he begins to strike with
his stiffened wings in short and quick strokes, which become more and
more rapid as has been described. This is most common in the morning
and evening; and by this means the gunner is led to the place of his re-
treat.

The bird springs within a few yards, with a loud whizzing sound, and
flies with great vigor through the woods beyond reach of view before it
alights. They are exceedingly fond of the seeds of grapes, and eat chesnuts,
blackberries, and ants. In the fall they feed on whortleberries and partridge
herries, the lazt of which give their flesh a peculiar and delicate flavor.
During winter they eat the buds of the alder and laurel. At this time their
fiesh is unwholesome.

The ruffed grouse is eighteen inches long. The upper parts of the nody
are of a bright rust color, marked with spots of white. The under parts are
white, and the tail beautifully marked with black. «There is a tuft of large
black feathers on eavh side of the neck, which it vccasional'y raises.
AVES--PINNATED GROUSE. 603

VHUR PLNNATED GROUSH, OR HEATH HEN?
f

 

Ts the ind:v.!ual known by the general name of grouse in New England.
Open dry plains, thinly interspersed with trees, or partially sveryiown with
shrub oaks, are his favorite haunts. Accordingly he is fousda on tne plains
in New Jersey, in the barrens of Kentucky, on the bushy plams of Long
Island, and in similar situations in Pennsylvania, Indixna territury, and
Upper Louisiana ; and, according to the late Governor Lewis, on the vast
plains of the Columbia. They dislike marshes and watery places. Their
great inducement in frequenting these plains, is probably t.e small acorn of
the shrub oak, the strawberries, whortleberries, and partridge berries, with
which they abound, and which constitute their principal ivod.

The most remarkable circumstance relative to these Lirds, is the two
extraordinary bags of skin which mark the neck of the male, and which no
writer has yet described. These appear to be formed hy an expansion of
the callet, and the outer skin of the neck, which hang loose when the bird
‘sul rest or Bying. But whe. these are inflated, they very much resemble
afully ripe orange. By means of these, he is enabled to produce a booming
sound, which consists of three notes, similar to those pruduced by the night
hawk. While uttering these, the bird exhibits all the gesticulations of the
turkey cock; erecting and fluttering his neck wings, wheeling and pasting
before the fernales, and close before his fellows, as. in defiance. Now and
then are heard some rapid cackling notes, not unlike that of some person
tickled to excessive laughter; in short, no one can listen to them without
feeling disposed to laugh.

Fresh ploughed fields are sure to be visited by these birds everv morning.
On one of these, says Wilson, I counted seventeen males, niaking such a

 

1 Tetrao cupido, Lin.
604 AVES—DUSKY- GROUSE.

continusd noise, as might have been heard a mile off. When snow cones,
they become half domesticated, visit the barns, and farmhouses, and mix
with the poultry. Great numbers are then taken in traps. ‘Their nests are
built on the ground, formed with little art, and few materials.

The pinnated grouse is nineteen inches long, and, when in good order,
weighs three pounds and a half. There are sinall wings on each side of the
neck, whose upper parts are mottled transversely, with black, brown, and
vvhite. Over the eye isa semicircular cemb of rich orange. The breast
ind belly are white, marked with brown.

 

. THE DUSKY GROUSE!

In size and color, may he compared with the black grouse of Europe. A
specimen was killed by an exploring party under Major Long, in 1820, on a
mountain of the chain which divides the Mississippi from the waters which
flow toward the Pacific. When the bird flew, it uttered a cackling note,
somewhat like that of the domestic fowl. The general color of the plumage
in the female is blackish brown ; that of the male is entirely blaek.

’

 

THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE?

 

Was first met with by the lamented Governor Lewis, on the upper waters
of tne Misseuri. [tis said to be the inhabitant of the great plains of the
Columbia, The expedition under Major Long brought a specimen, now ia
the museum at Philadelphia, This bird is never seen in any of the Atlantie

 

1 Tetrao obscurus, Say. 2 Tetrao phusianel/us, Lin.
AVES—PARTRIDGE. 605

states, though nt.merous in high northern latitudes. It inhabits the unculti-
vated lands. near the southern parts of Hudson’s Bay. It is sometimes found
near Lake Superior in the spring,

The sharp-tailed grouse is very shy and solitary in summer, but lives in
flucks during winter. Their favorite places of resort are the juniper plains,
where the buds of juniper bushes constitute their favorite food. Tee fre-
quent the woods as well as the plains; sometimes feeding 2a Jermies, and
sometimes on the tops of evergreen, poplar, and birch trees. They brced on
the ground, near low bushes; the nest is composed of grass and lined with
feathers. Their flesh is excellent eating. One of these birds will some-
umes weigh upwards of two pounds. The general color of the plumage is
a mixture of white and rusty on a glossy blackish ground; the feathers of
the head and neck are tipped with white.

‘The other American birds of this family are, the spotted grouse, and the
sock of the plains.

THE PARTRIDGE.

 

Tus bird is about thirteen inches in length. The general color ef its
vlumage is brown and ash, elegantly mixed with black; each feather is
streaked down the middle with. buff color; the sides of the head are tawny:
‘the eyes are hazel, and under each eye there is a small saffron-colored spot,

 

) Perdizx cinerea, Latn. The genus perdiz, has the hill short, compressed, stout, hase
aaked ; upper mandible arched, convex, strongly curved towards the tip; nostrils hasal,
lateral, half closed by an arched and naked membrane; the three anterior toes united by
membranes to the first joint ;-tail composed of eightcen, or of fourteen feathers, short,
rounded and slanting downwards; wings short.

ol*
606 AVES—EUROPEAN QUAIL.

which has a granulated appearance, and between the eye and the sar isa
naked sk.n of a bright scarlet, which is not very conspicuous but in old
birds; un the breast there is a crescent of a deep chesnut color; the tail is
short; the legs are of a greenish white, and are furnished with a smal] knob
behind. The bill is of a light brown. The female has no crescent on the
breast, and her colors in general are not so distinct and bright as those of
the male. There are generally froim ten to fifteen in a covey; and if .nmo-
tested, they live from fifteen to seventeen years.

This bird is found in nearly every part of Europe. The manners of the
partridge, in most circumstances, resemble all those of poultry in general;
but their cunning and instinct seem superior to those of the larger kinds.
Perhaps, as they live in the very neighborhoed of their enemies, they have
more frequent occasion to put their little arts in practice, and*learn, by
habit, the means of evasion or safety. The affection of the female for her
young is peculiarly strong and lively; she is greatly assisted in the care of
rearing them by her mate; they lead them out in common, call them
together, point out to them their proper food, and assist them in finding it,
by scratching the ground with their feet. ‘They frequently sit close by each
other, covering their young with their wings, like the hen; in this siiuation
they are not easily flushed ; but when, at length, they are compelled tc move,
the male employs many interesting stratagems, such as fluttering along the
ground, hanging his wings, and feigning to be weunded, in order to attract
the pursuit of the enemy, and afford to the female an opportunity to escape

~With her infant brood. Partridges, though tamed when young, will almost
invariably return'to the wild state.

 

THE EUROPEAN QUAIL!

Ts about half the size of a partridge. Its flesh is a great delicacy. The
feathers of the head are black. edged with rusty brown; the breast is of a
pale yellowish red, spotted with black; the feathers on the back are marked
with lines of pale yellow, and tne legs are of a pale hue.

The quail is by all known to be a bird of passage ; and yet, if we ecnsider
its heavy manner of flying, and its dearth of plumage, with respect to its
corpulence, we shall be surprised how a bird so apparently ill quaiified for
migration should tuke such extensive journeys. Nothing, howev :r, is more
certain. ‘When we sailed from Rhodes to Alexandria,” says Bellonius,
“about autumn, many quails, flying from the north to the south, were taken
in our ship; and sailing at spring time the contrary way, from the south ta
the north, | observed them on their return, when many of them were taken
wm the same manner.” This account is confirmed by many others; who

\ Perdix coturnis, LATH.
AVES—AMERICAN QUAIL. 607

aver, that they choose a north wind for these adventures; the south being
very unfavorable, as it retards their fight, by moistening their pluinage.
They then fly two by two; continuing, when their way lies over land, to go
faster by night than by day ;-and to fly very high, to avoid being surprised,
or set upon by birds of prey. On the western coasts of the kingdom of
Naples, and on the shores of Provence, such prodigious flights have appear-
ed that a hundred thousand have been taken in a day wi.hin the space of
four or five miles. It is now, however, asserted by some, tuat the quail
only migrates from one province of a country to another. For instance,
that in England they fly from the inland counties to those bordering on the
sea, and continue there all the winter.

These birds are much less prolific than the partridge; seldom laying more
than six or seven whitish eggs; marked with ragged, rust-colored spots.
Quail fighting was a favorite amusement among the Athenians; they ab-
stained from the flesh of this bird, deeming it unwhoiesome, as supposing
that it fed upon the white hellebore; but they reared great numbers of
them, for the pleasure of seeing them fight; and staked sums of money
upon them as we do with cocks, upon the successof the combat. Thesame
practice is at this day carried on in China and in some parts of Italy.

.

 

THE AMERICAN QUAIL,;!

CaLLeD partridge in the southern states, is an inhabitant of North America,
from Canada and Nova Scotia to Florida, and it has been seen in the interior
of Louisiana. These birds rarely frequent the forest, and are most nutne-
rous in the vicinity of well cultivated plantations, where there is plenty ot
grain. They however occasionally seek shelter in the woods, perching on the
branches, or secreting among the brushwuod; but are’ found most usually
in open fields or along fences sheltered by thickets of brier. In winter,
they approach the barns and sometimes mix with the poultrv. At this time
great numbers of them are shot and taken in traps.

The quail builds its nest on the ground, at the bottom of a thick *ift of
grass that shelters and conceals it. The materials are leaves and fine dry
grass. Itis well eovered above, and an opening left for entramce. The
young are guided by their mother’s voice, which resembles that of a young
chicken, and sheltered by her wings in the same manner as those of the
domestic fowl. In this situation, should the timid little family be. unexpect-
edly surprised, the utmost alarm and consternation instantly prevail. The
mother throws herself in the path, fluttering along and beating the ground

 

' Perdiz Virginiana, Latu
608 AVES—AMERICAN QUAIL.

with her wings, as if sorely wounded ; using every artifice she is mistress
of, to entice the passenger in pursuit of herself, uttering at the same time
peculiar notes of alarm well understood by the young, who dive separatels
among the grass, and secrete themselves til] the danger is over;-and the
parent, having decoyed the pursuer to a safe distance, returns bya circuitous
route to collect and lead them off.

In the fall, the quails associate in flocks or coveys, of four or five and
thirty. At this time the notes of the male are frequent, loud, and distinct.
Jlis common call consists of two notes, and is similar to the sound produced
oy pronouncing the words “Bob White.” This call may be imitated by
whistling, so as to deeeive the bird itself, and bring it near. While uttering
this, the bird is usually perched on the rail of a fence or 6n a low limb of an

 

apple tree, where he will sometimes sit, repeating, at short intervals, “ Bob
White,” for half an hour at a time.

The food of the partridge consists of grain, seeds, insects, and berries of
various kinds. Buckwheat and Indian corn are particular favorites. They
roost at nigh. in the middle of a field on high ground. They fly witha
loud whizzing sound, occasioned by the shortness, concavity, and rapid mo-
tion of their wings, and the comparative weight of their bodies. The flesh
is peculiarly white, tender, and delicate. .

The quail is nine inches long. It is of a red brown color, sprinkled with
black. The under parts are white, spotted with black, and the sides of the
neck spotted with white
AVES—QUAIL...SCREAMER. 609

THE CALIFORNIAN QUAIL.

 

Tue general color of the upper part of the body and wings in the Califor-
nian quail, is of a dusky brown, assuming a leaden or slaty tinge on the
tail, and on the fore part of the breast, upon which it advances in the form.
of a broad band. The fore part of the head is of a mixed ash gray, and the
hinder part blackish brown.

.

,

ORDER XI.-ALECTORIDES.

Bixps of this order have the bill shorter than the head, or the same lengtn,
strong, robust, upper mandible convex, and often hooked at the point; tarsus
long and slender; three toes before and one behind; the hind toe articulated’
higher up than those before. .

THE HORNED SCREAMER?

Ig a native of Brazil. This is a water-fowl ef the rapacious kind, and lig-
ger than a swan. The head, which is small for the size of the body, bears

 

Perdix californica, Latu.

2 Palamedea cornuta, LatH. The genus palamedea has the bill short, comico-convex
much curved at the pgint, compressed throughout its length; nasal furrow large; head —
small, covered with dent! and around with a slender flexible horn; nostrils remote from
the base of the bill, lateral, oval, open; legs short, thick ; toes very long, the lateral con-
portal with the intermediate by a short membrane; wirgs ample, and spurs op the
winglets. :

v7
, 616 AVES—OSTRICH.

a black bill, which 1s not above two inches long; but what distinguishes it
in particular isa horn growing from the forehead as lony as the bill, and
bending forward like that of the fabuluus unicorn of the ancients. This
horn is net much thicker than a crow-quill, as round as if turned in a lathe,
and of an ivory color. But this is not the only instrument of battle this
formidable bird carries ; it seems to be armed at all points; for at the fore-
part of each wing, at the second joint, spring two straight triangular spurs,
about as thick as one’s little finger; the foremost of these goads or spurs is
above an inch long; the hinder is shorter, and both of a dusky color. The
claws also are long and sharp; the color is a mixed black, gray, and white,
with’a little yellow in some plares; and they make a very loud noise, often
repeating the notes wyhu, wyhu. 'Ihey are never found alone, but always in
pairs; the cock and hen prow] t-gether ; and their fidelity is said to be such,
that when one dies, the other never departs from the carcass, but dies with
its companion, It makes its nest of clay, near the bodies of trees, upon the
ground, of the 'shape of an oven. There is another species of screamer,
which is crested and without the horn. :

ORDER XII.—CURSORES.

Brrns of this order have the bill middle sized, or short; legs iong, naked
above the knee; and with only two or three tues, directed forward. These
birds live always in the fields, and most frequently in desart places remote
from woods.

THE OSTRICH!

Is generally considered as the largest of birds, but its size serves to deprive
it of the principal excellence of this class of animals, the power of flying.
The medium weight of this bird may be estimated at seventy-five or eighty
pounds, a weight which would require an immense power of wing to elevate
into the atmosphere ; and hence all those of the feathered kind which ap-
‘proach to the size of the ostrich, such as the touyou, the cassowary, the
dode, neither possess, nor can possess, the faculty of fight. The head and
bill of the ostrich somewhat resemble those of the duck ; and the neck may
be compared to that of a swan, but that it is much longer; the legs and
thighs resemble those of a hen; though the whole appearance at a distance
‘Dears a strong resemblance to that of a camel; it is usually seven feet high

 

1 Struthio camelus, Lin. This is the only one of the genus. Its characteristics are—-
a bili obtuse, straight. depressed at the tip, which is rounded and unguiculated ; mandi-
‘bles equal and flexible; nostrils near the middle of the hill; legs very long, robust, and
muscular, with ouly two strong toes directed forward, but the inner much shorter than the
outer; the former provided with a large and blunt claw, the latter eluwiess; tia very
fleshy to the knee ; wings unfit for flight, being composed of long, soft, and flexible fea-
‘hers ard armed with a do ble spur.
AVES—OSTRICH. 61)

trom th? top of the head to the ground; but from the back it is only four;
so that the head and neck are above three feet long. Some reach the height
ot nine feet. From the top of the head to the rump, when the neck is
siretched out in a right line, it is six feet long, and the tail is about a foot
more. One of the wings, without the feathers, is a foot and a half; and
living stretched out, with the feathers, is three feet.

 

‘he plumage is much alike ia all; that is, generally black and white,
though some of them are said to be gray. The greatest feathers are at the
extremities of the wings and tail, and the largest are generally white. ‘The
next row is black and“white; and of the small feathers on the back and
belly, some are white and others black. There are no feathers on the sides,
nor yet on the thighs, nor under the wings. The lower part of the neck,
about half way, is covered with still smaller feathers than those on the belly
612 AVES—OSTRICAH.

and back ; and those, like the former, also are of different colors. ‘The heaa
and upper part of the neck are covered with hair.

At the end of each wing there is a kind of spur, almost like the quill ofa
porcupine. It is an inch long, being hollow, and of a horny substance.
There are two of these on each wing; the largest of which is at the ex-
tremity of the bone of the wing, and the other a foot lower. The neck
seems to be more slender in proportion to that of other birds, from ‘ts not
being furnished with feathers.

The thighs are very fleshy and large, being covered with a white skin,
inclining to redness, and wrinkled in the manner of a net, whose meshes
will admit the end of a finger. Some have very small feathers here and
there on the thighs; and others again have neither feathers nor wrinkles.
The legs are covered before with scales. The end of the foot is cloven, and
has two very large toes, which, like the leg, are covered with scales. These
toes ure of equal sizes. The largest, which is on the inside, is seven inches
long, including the claw, which is near three fourths of an inch in length,
and almost as broad. The other toe is but four inches long, and is without
a claw. Be

The ostrich is a native only of the torrid regions of Africa and Arabia,
and has never bred out of those countries which first produced it. Though,
however, the climate of France be much less warm than that of Barbary,
yet some ostriches have been known to lay in the royal menagerie at Ver-
sailles ; but the gentlemen of the Academy have in vain attempted to make
these eggs produce by an artificial process. This bird, so disqualified for
society with man, inhabits, from preference, the most solitary and. horrid
deserts, where there are few vegetables to clothe the surface of the earth,
and where the rain never comes to refresh it. The Arabians assert that the
ostrich never drinks; and the place of its habitation seems to confirm the
assertion. In these formidable regions ostriches are seen in large flocks,
which to the distant spectator appear like a regiment of cavalry, and have
often alarmed a whole caravan. There is no desert, how barren soever, but
is capable of supplying these animals with provision; they eat almost every
thing; and these barren tracts are thus doubly grateful, as they afford both
food and security. In Southern Africa they are exceedingly injurious to the
farmers, as they will destroy a field of wheat so effectually as not to leave
a single ear behind; and this operation they perform without danger to
themselves, as they are so vigilant and so swift, that it is almost impossible
to geta shot atthem. The ostrich is of all animals the most voracious. It
will devour leather, grass, hair, iron, stones, or any thing that is given.
Nor are its powers of digestion less in such things as are digestible. Those
substances which the coats of the stomach cannot soften, pass whole; so
that glass, stones, or iron, are excluded in the form in which they are de-
-voured. All metals, indeed, which are swallowed by any animal, lose a
‘part of their weight, and often the extremities of their figure, frem the
AVES—OSTRICH: 613

action of the juices uf the stomach upon their surface. A quartei pistole,
which was swallowed by a duck, lost seven grains of its weight in the
gizzard before it was voided ; and it is probable that a still greater diminu-
tion of weight would happen in the stomach of an ostrich. Considered in
this light, therefore, this anirhal may be said to digest iron; but such sub-
stances seldom remain long enough in the stomach of any animal to undergo
so tedious a dissolution. The ostrich lays very large eggs, some of them
being above five inches in diameter, and weighing above five pounds.
These eggs have a very hard shell, somewhat resembling those of the
crocodile, except that those of the latter are less and rounder. It is a curi+
ous fact, that these eggs often contain a number of small, exceedingly hard
oval-shaped pebbles, about the. size of a marrowfat pea, and of a yellow
color. They are sometimes set, and used as buttons. :

The season for laying depends upon the climate; in the northern parts of
Africa it is about the beginning of July; in the south, it is about the latter
end of December. These birds are very prolific, and lay generally from-
thirty to forty eggs in a season, and about twelve at one clutch. It has been
commonly reported that the female deposits them in the sand; and, covering
them up, leaves them to be hatched by the heat of the climate, and then
permits the young to shift for themselves. Very little of this however is.
true; no bird has a stronger affection for her young than the ostrich, and
none watches her eggs with greater assiduity. It happens, indeed, in those
hot climates, that there is less necessity for the continual incubation of the
female; and she more frequently leaves her eggs, which are in no fear of
keing chilled by the weather: but though she sometimes forsakes them by day,
she always carefully broods over them by night; nor is it more true that they
forsake their young after they are excluded from theshell. On the contrary, the
young ones are not evenable to walk for several days after they are hatched.
During this time, the old ones are very assiduous in supplying them with
grass, and very careful to defend them from danger; nay, they encounter
every danger in their defence. :

The strength and size of the ostrich has suggested to men the experiment
of using them as animals of burthen. The tyrant Firmius, who reigned in
Egypt about the end of the third century, was frequently carried by large
ostriches. Moore, an English traveller, relates that he had seen at Joar,
in Africa, a man travelling on an ostrich. And Vallisnieri speaks of a
young man, who exhibited himself upon one of these birds at Venice.
In fine, M. Adanson saw, at the factory at Podor, two ostriches, which
were yet young, of which the stronger went at apace which would have
distanced the fleetest English racehorse, with two negroes on its back.:
Whether this bird could be broken and tamed so as to carry its rider with.
the same safety and docility as a horse, is a different question; and, let it be:
rerrembered that, though tite ostriches above-mentioned ran fo1 a short time

52
614 AVES—OSTRICH.

faster than a tacehorse, there is no reason to believe they could hold out suv
long,

From ancient writers we learn, that whole nations have acquired the name
of Struthiophagi (ostrich-eaters) from the preference which they had manifest
ed for the flesh of this kird. Apicius has recofnmended a peculiar sauce fot
the ostrich, which shows at Jeast that it was eaten among the Romans, aid
ata single feast the emperor Heliogabalus was served with the brains of siz
Aundred of these animals. Even at this period, some of the savage nitions
of Africa hunt them not only for their plumage, but for their flesh also, whch
they consider asa dainty. They semetimes also breed these birds tame vo eat
the young ones, of whith ine female is said to be the greatest delicacy. The
skin of the ostrich is so thick, that it is used for leather by the Arabiaus;
and of the eggs drinking cups are made. The value of the plumage is well
known in most countries of Europe.

As the spoils of the ostrich are thus valuable, it is not to be wondered at
that man has become their most assiduous pursuer. For this purpose, the
Arabians train up their best and fleetest horses, and hunt the ostrich still in
view. Perhaps, of all varieties of the chase, though the most laborious, it is yet
the most entertaining. As soon as the huntercomes within sight of his prey,
he puts his horse to a gentle gallop, so as to keep the ostrich still in sight; yet
not so as to terrify him from the plain into the mountains. Upon observing
himself, therefore, pursued at a distance, the bird begins to run at first, bot
gently, either insensible of his danger, or sure of escaping. In this situae
tion he somewhat resembles a man at full speed; his wings, like two arms,
keep working with a motion correspondent to that of his legs; and his
speed would very soon snatch him from the view of his pursuers, but, unfors
tunately for the silly creature, instead of going o.f ina direct line, he takes his
course in circles; while the hunters still make a small course within, relieve
each other, meet hin at unexpected turns, and keep hisn thus still ermployed,
still followed, for two or three days together. At last, spent with fatigue and
famine, and finding all power of escape impossible, he endeavors to hide
himself from those enemies he cannot avoid, and covers his head in the
sand, or the first thicket he meets. So-netiines, however, he attempts to fice
his pursuers; and, though in general, the most gentle animal in nature
when driven to desperation, he defends himself with his beak his wings,
and his feet. Such is the force of his motion, that a man wou.d be utterly
unable to withstand him in the shock.

The Struthiophagi had another mode ot capturing these animals. They
disguised themselves in the skin of an ostrich, and putting one of their arms
through the neck, they imitated all its motions, By this means they are
said to have enabled themselves to approach and take them at pleasure.+ Ls
the same mamer the savages of America disguise themselves as a reebuck,
in oder to surprise that animal.
AVES—AMERICAN OSTRICH. 615

“Ostriches are sometimes bred in flocks, for they are easily tamed. In this
domesticated state they play and frisk about with vivacity, and are tractable
and familiar towards those who are acquainted with them. ‘To strangers,
however, they are often fierce, and will attack them with fury, making an
angry hissing noise, and having their throats inflated, and their mouths
open. During the night they frequently utter a discordant ery. whien nears
a resemblance to the distant roaring of a lion, or the hoarse tone of a bear
cr an ox when in great agony.

THE TOUYOU, OR AMERICAN OSTRICH.

It is chiefly found in Guiana, along the banks of the Oreonoko, in the
mland provinces of Brazil and Chili, and the vast forests tha: border on “he
mouth of the river Plata. Many other parts of South America were knuwo
to have them; but as man multiplied, these large and timorous birds either
fell beneath their superior power, or fled from their vicinity. It is said to be
found in Patagonia, and the n tives are represented as chasing it on horse-
back, and killing it with clubs when they approach sufficiently near.

The touyou, though not so large as the ostrich, is only second to it in
magnitude. It is by much the largest bird in the New Continént, and is
genera!ly found to be six feet high, measuring frorn its head to the ground.
lus !egs are three feet long. Its body is of an oval form, and appears entirely
round. It is covered fron the bach and rump with long feathers; these
feathers are gray upon the back, and white on the belly, and it has no other
tail. It goes very swiftly, and seems assisted in its motion by a kind of
tubercle behind, like a heel, upon which, on plain ground, it treads very
securely ; in its course it uses a very odd kind of action, lifling up one wing,
which it keeps elevated for a time; till letting it drop, it lifts up the other;
it runs with such swiftness, that the fleetest dogs ure sometimes thrown out
in the pursuit. One of them, finding itself surrounded by the hunters, darts
ed among the dogs with such fury, that they made way to avoid its rage,
and it eseaped, by its amazing velocity, in safety to the mountains. {t de»
fends itself with its feet, and calls its young by a kind of hiss.

Nieremberg relateg, that, during incubation, they generally make a-false
nest at some distance from the true one; in this they lay two eggs, which
are afterwards broken by the old bird, and by attracting a number of flies,

 

1 Rhea Americana, Temm — This is the only one o” the genus. Its characteristice ara
a bill strarght, short, soft. depressed at the base, a little compressed at the tip which as
obtuse; lower mandible much depressed, flexible, and rounded at the tip; nostrils on the
Jateral surface of the ill, large, ongitudinally cleft and open; legs Jong, with three toea
betore and a callosity Lehind; wings short, with feathers more or less strong, and term:
nasng ina sour,
616 AVES—AMERICAN OSTRICH.

beetles, &c., afford a rneans of sustenance to the young. This, however
may he considered as apocryphal.

When first hatched, the young ones are familiar, and follow the first per-
son they meet. I have been followed myself, says Wafer, by many of these
young ostriches, which at first are extremely harmless and simple; but, as
they srow older, they become more cunning and distrustful; and run so
swift, tuat a greyhound can scarcely overtake them. Their flesh, in general,

fit hal WN
" 4 AN
Neal Ze
Ys

 

     
 

vee

tans Sth

Sau
is good to be eaten, especially if they be young. It would be no difficult
matter to rear up flocks of these animals tame, particularly as they are
naturally so familiar; and they might be found to answer domestic purposes,
tike the hen or the turkey. Their maintenance could not be expensive, 1f,
a» Narbogough says, they live entirely upon grass. Like the ostrich, the
touyou is indiscriminately voracious; swallowing stones, iron, and other

hard substances.
AVES—EMEU. 617

VTHE NEW HOLLAND EMuua

 

Turs bird has been so scientifically described by Mr Bennett, from spec:=
raens in the Tower, that we cannot do better than to adopt his description.
“The distinctive generic characters of the New Holland emeu, which forms
part of the ostrich family, and is, with the sole exception of the ostrich, the
largest bird known to exist, consist in the flattening of its bill from above
downwards, instead of from side tg side; in the absence of the bony process
which crests the head of the cassowary, of the watiles which depend from
his neck, and of the long spurlike shafts which arm his wings; and in the
equal, or nearly equal, length of all his claws. The emeus, however, agree
with the cassowaries in the number of their toes, three on each foot, all of
them directed forwards, and extremely thick and short, the posterior toe,
which is common in most of the order, being in them entirely wanting; in
the excessive shortness of their wings, which do not even, as is the case
with the ostriches, assist them in running, much less in flight, of which, in
common with the latter, they are absolutely incapable; and in the structure
of their feathers, which are for the most part double, each tube being divid-
ed near its origin into two shafts, the barbs of which are soft, downy, and dis-

“tinct from each other, and assume at a distance rather the appearance of a
silky covering of hair, than that of the common plumage of birds.

““The New Holland bird has the head and upper part of the neck thinly
covered with slender black feathers; the space around the ears being alone
left bare, and exhibiting, as well as the neck and throat, which are but

 

1 Dromaius Nove Hollandia, Suaw. This is the only individnal of the genus. Ttw
characteristics are, bill straight, the edges greatly depressed, tp rounded ; bead ieathered
throat nalred ; feet three-toed, the toes placed before ; wings very short, ,

78 62*
618 AVES—BUSTARD.

partially concealed by the scattered plumage with which they are provided,
the blue tinge of the skin. The general color of the skin is grayish brown
above, with a more plentiful intermixture of the gray, and a consequently
lighter tinge beneath. The young are striped longitudinally with brown
and gray. ‘Their bill is black, and their legs are remarkably thick and of a
dull brown. The great length of the latter and of the neck, and the erect
attitude and quiet demeanor of these birds, which sometimes attain as much
as seven feet in height, give thei altogether a noble and imposing appear:
ance. They were formerly common in the neighborhood of Botany Bay
subsisting, like the rest of their tribe, upon vegetable substances, chiefly
fruits. They are extremely wild, and run with great swiftness when pure
sued; outstripping, it is said, the Heetness of che greyhound. Like the
kanguroos, they are sometimes hunted by the colonists as articles of food;
and their Hesh is stated to have much of the flavor of beef. The quantity
af provision supplied by one of these birds is by no means inconsiderable.”

THE GREAT BUSTARDI

Is the larg~st land bird that is a native of Surope. It was once much
more oumesoas than it is at present; but the increased cultivation of the
country, and the extreme delicacy of its Hesh, have greatly thinned the
species; so that the time may come when it may be doubted whether so
large a bird was ever bred there. It is probable that, long before this, the
bustard would have been extirpated, but for its peculiar manner of feeding.
[t inhabits only the open and extensive plain, where its food lies in abun-
dance, and where every invader may be seen at a distance.

The weight of this bird varies considerably ; some have been found of not
more than ten pounds, others have been found of twenty-seven and even
thirty. The fe:nale is not more than half the size of the male. The
bustard is distinguished from the ostrich, the touyou, the cassowary, and the
dodo, by its wings, which, although disproportioned to the size of its body,
yet serve wo elevate itin the air, and enable it to fly, though with sore
difficulty; they are generally at out four feet from the tip of one to the other.
The neck is a foot long, and the legs a footand a half. The head and neck
of the male are ash colored ; the back is barred transversely with black, and
oright rust color, The greater quill feathers are black, the belly white, and
the tail, which consists of twenty feathers, is marked with broad black
bars.

 

VOnis tardacvas. Phe genus Offs has the bil straight. coneal compressed ¢ up of
the upper manditle slightly arched: nostrils open, oval, approxumated, hat cenwde athe
base: legs long. nnked above the knees three toes before, short. united at their hase, and
bordered by a membrane + wings of medium leugth ; third quill feather lougest.
AVES—BUSTARD. 619

The bustard (according to Plutarch) was found in Libya, m the environs of
A.exandria, in Syria, in Greece, in Spain, in France, in the plains of Puitou
and Champngne; they are now and then seen in England, on the extensive
downs of Salisbury Plain, in the heaths of Sussex and Caimbrilgeshire, the
Dorsetshire uplands, and as far as East Lothian, in Scotland. In thos
extensive plains, where there are nov woods to screen the sportsman, no
hedges w ercep along, the bustards enjoy an indolent security. Their fove

 

18 composed of the berries that grow among the heath, and the large earth-
worms that appear in great quantities on the downs before suprising in
summer. They also eat green corn, the tops of turnips, and other vegetas
bles; and have even been known to devour frogs, mice, and young birds.
[It is in vain that the fowler creeps forward to approach them; they have
always sentinels placed at proper eminences, which are ever on the watch,
and warn the flock of the smallest appearance of danger. All therelore that
620 AVES—BUSTARD.

is left the sportsman, is the comforuess view of their distant security. He
may wish, but they are im safety.

It sometimes happens thai these birds, though they are seldom shot by
the gun, are run down by greyhounds. As they are voracious and greedy,
they often sacrifice their safety to their appetite, and feed themselves so
very fat, that they are unable to fly without great preparation. When the
greyhound, therefore, comes within a certain distance, the bustard runs off,
flapping its wings, and endeavoring to gather air enough under them to
rise; in the mean time the enemy approaches nearer, till it is too late for
the bird even to think of obtaining safety by flight; for just at the rise there
is always time lost, and of this the bird is sensible; it continues, therefore,
on the foot until it is taken.

As there are few places where they can at once find proper food and secu-
rity, so they generally continue near their old haunts, seldom wandering
above twenty or thirty miles from home. As their food is replete with
moisture, it enables them to live upon these dry plains, where there are
scarcely any springs of water, a long time without drinking. Besides this,
nature has given the males an admirable magazine for their security against
thirst. This is a pouch, the entrance of which lies immediately under the
tongue, and capable of holding near seven quarts of water. This is proba-
bly filled upon proper occasions, to supply the hen when sitting, or the
voung before they can fly.. The bustard also makes use of its reservoir to
defend itself against birds of prey; which it effects by ejecting the water
with such violence as often to arrest the progress of its enemy.

They form no nest, but only scrape a hole in the earth, and sometimes
line it with a little long grass or straw. They lay two eggs only, almost of
the size of a goose egg, of a pale olive brown, marked with spots of a darker
color. They hatch for about thirty days, and the young ones run about as
soon as they are out of the shell.

It is said that when the persecuted mother is apprehensive of the hunters,
and is disturbed from her nest, she takes her eggs under her wing, and
transports them to a place of safety. The fact is, however, that following
the instinct of all other birds of this kind, they generally make their nests in
the corn, where they are almost certain of remaining undisturbed.

The bustard isnot known in America. Besides the delicacy of their flesh,
the quills are valuable, as they make excellent pens, but they are stil] more
esteemed bv anglers, who use them as fluats; for, as they are spotted with
black, tne notion is, that these black spots appear as flies to the fish, which
they rather allure than drive away by their appearance,
AVES—BUSTARD....PLOVER. 621

THE LITTLE BUSTARD!

DirFrers only from the preceding in being of a smaller size, being not .arger
than a pheasant, or about seventeen inches in length. This species is found
in many parts of Europe. It is, however, by no means common in France
and has only been met with three or four times in England.

 

: |
ORDER XIII.—GRALLATORES.

Bins of this order have the bill of various forms, but most frequently
straight, in the form of an elongated cone, and compressed, more rarely de-
pressed or flat; legs slender, long, more or less naked above the knee, three
toes before and one behind, the posterior one jointed at the level of those be-
fore, or more elevated. These birds frequent the margin of the sea, or the
banks of lakes and rivers, feeding on fish, worms, or insects. They are
almost all semi nocturnal.

{1K LONG-LEGGED PLOVER2

 

furs sv.gvits bird, we might perhaps justly say, most singular of wiras,
whabit, “ue «rath of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, but very rarely
visits Engis .i.. Chance alone seems to drive it to that country. It hasa
slender, blz sill, two inches and a half in length; the irides are red; the
forehead, revad the eye, and all the under parts, are white; the back, the
crown of the s ead, and the wings, are glossy black ; the hind part of the
neck is ma’r-d with dusky spots; the rump is white; the tail the same,
inclining t. s.. y; the outer feathers are quite white, the legs -ed; and the
outer and ww.ile toes connected at the hase.

 

1 Ofis tel av, Lin,

® Himantopus melanopterus, Mever. ‘The genus Himantopus .as the bill long, slen-
der, cylindrical, flattened at the base, compressed at the pains mundibles laterally chan-
nelled to the half of their length ; nostrils waterel, linear, long; legs very long and slender,
with three toes hefore, of which the intermediate is united to the outer hy a broad mem
bran, and to the inner by a rucimentary one; claws very small and flat; wings very
Jong; the first feathers much longer than the others.
6:22 AVES—PLOVER.

But the circumstance which rakes this bird differ from all others, is une
astonishing and seemingly preposterous length of its legs. Mr White has
given a very pleasing description of this natural curiosity.

“ These birds might with propriety be called the stilt plovers. My speci-
men, when drawn and stuffed with pepper, weighed only four ounces and a
quarter, though the naked part of the thigh measured three inches and a hat.
Heuce we may safely assert, that these birds exhibit weight fur inches, and
have incomparably the greatest length of legs of any known bird. The fla-
mir go, for instance, is one of the most long-legged birds, and yet it bears no
manner of proportion to the himantupus, as this bird is denominated by
naturali.ts; for a cock flarzningo weighs, at an average, about four pounds
avoirdupvis; and his legs and thighs measure usually about twenty inches.
But four pounds are fifteen and a fraction times more than four ounces and
a quarter; and if four ounces and a quarter have eight inches of legs, four
pounds must have one hundred and twenty inches and a fraction of legs, or
somewhat more than ten feet; such a monstrous disproportion as the world
never saw. ‘f we try the experiment in still larger birds, the disparity will
increase.

“It must be matter of great curiosity to see the stilt plover move; to ob-
serve how it can wield such a length of lever with such feeble muscles as
the thighs seem to be furnished with. At best, one would expect it to bea
bad walker ;’ but what adds to the wonder is, that it has no back toe ”

 

THE GOLDEN PLOVER|:!

Tue golden, or green plover, is a well known Dir, and is found in small
flocks, in the winter time, on all our moors, heaths, &c., where it feeds chief-
ly on worms. It is remarkable for the whole of its plumage being elegantly
variegated with a fine, yellowish green. From its spots somewhat resem-
bling those of a leopard, the ancients called it pardalis. It may be enticed
within gunshot, by a skilful imitator of their voice, and is esteemed asa
delicacy. It is eleven inches in length, weighs nine ounces, and is found in
France, Switzerland, Italy, and most parts of England.

 

1 Charadrius pluvialis, Lis. The genus Charadrius has the bill shorter than the
head, slender, straight, compressed ; mandibles gihbous toward the tip; nostrils longitu
dinally cleft. in the large membrane which covers the nasal furrow; legs slender, with
three tes before. the outer connected with the middle one by a short membrane, and the
inner divided ; tail slightly rounded or even; wings middle sized the second quill fearber

ongest.
AVES—DOTTEREL....PLOVER....LAPWING, 623

THE DOTTEREL!

 

'

{s about ten inches in length, and weighs four ounces. The bill is shorter
than that of the majority of this genus, being only an inch long. The head
is black, spotted with white, and a white stroke runs over each eye, meeting
behind. The upper parts of the plumage are grayish brown, margined with
a dull, deep yellow. The breast is a dull orange, and across it is a streak of
white, margined above with black. The colors of the female are less vivid.
It is esteemed a very fuolish bir’ ; and was believed to mimic the actions of
the fowler, to stretch out a wing when he stretched out an arm, &c., regard-
less of the net which was spreading for it. They appear in England in smal]
flocks, from April to September.

 

THE RINGED PLOVER.2

Tue ringed plover is seven inches and a half long, though it weighs but
two ounces; the bill is half an inch long, and from it to the eyes runs a black
line. The upper part of the neck is encircled with a white collar, the lower
part with a black one. The back and wings are light brown, the breast and
belly are white, the legs yellow. They frequent the shores of England in
summer, and are sometimes known by the name of the sea lark. They
are also common in America.

 

THE LAPWING.3

Tue lapwing, or bastard plover, is about the size of a common pigeon, and
1s covered with very thick plumes, which are black at the roots, but of diffe-

 

1 Charadrius morinellus, Lin. « *Charadrius hiaticula, Lix.

3 Vanellus cristatus, Mever. The genus Vanellus has the bill short, slender, straight,
compressed, tip gibhous; nostrils lateral, longitudinally cleft; legs slender, with threa
toes before and one behind; the middle one connected with the outer hy a short membrane
and the hinder one almost obliterated, or very short, not touching the ground; wings
elongated.
624 AVES—LAPWING.

rent color on the outward part. The feathers on the belly, thighs, and uns
der the wings, are most of them white as snow; and the under part on the
outside of the wings white, but black lower. The back is ofa dark green,
glossed with blue shades. The head and crest are black, and the latter,
which is composed of unwebbed feathers, is almost four inches in length,
It has a great liver, divided into two parts, and, as some authors affirm, no
gall. ;
Lapwings-are found in most parts of Europe, as far northward as Iceland,
In the winter they are met with in Persia and Egypt. Their chief food is
worms; and sometimes they may be seen in flocks nearly covering the low
marshy grounds in search of these, which they draw with great dexterity
from their holes. When the bird meets with one of those little clusters of
pellets, or rolls of earth that are thrown out by the worm’s perforations, it
first gently removes the mould from the mouth of the hole, then strikes the
ground at the side with its foot, and attentively waits the issue; alarmed by
he shock, the reptile emerges from its retreat, and is instantly seized. In the
evening they adopt ancther mode. They then run along the grass, and feel with
their feet the worms which the dampness of the atmosphere has hrought forth

 

These birds make a great noise with their wings in flying, and are called
peewits, or tewits, in the north of England, from their particular cry. They
remain there the whole year. ‘Phe female lays two eggs on the dry ground,
near some marsh, upon a little bed which she prepares of dry grass. ‘T'hese
are olive-colored, and spotted with black. She sits about three weeks; and
the young, who are covered with a thick down, are able to run within two
or three days after they are hatched. .The parent displays the fondest
attachment to them, and employs innumerable interesting stratagems to
avert approaching danger from them. ‘She does not wait the arrival of”
her enemies to the nest, but boldly pushes out to meet them. When she
has approached as near as she dare venture, she rises from the ground with
a loud screaming voice, as if just flushed from hatching, though probably she
is not at the time within a hundred yards of her nest. She now flies with
great clamor and apparent anxiety; winding and screaming round the inva-
ders, striking at them with her wings, and sometimes fluttering as if she
was wounded. To complete the deception, she becomes still more clamo-
AVES—URANE 626

rous as she retires from the nest. If very near, she appears altogether
unconcerneu ; and her cries cease in proportion as her fears are augmented.
When approached by dogs, she flies heavily, at a litule distance before tnem,
as if maimed; still vociferous, and still bold, but never offering to move
towards the quarter where her young ones are stationed. The dogs pursue,
m) expectation every moment of seizing the parent, and by this means actu.
ally lose the offspring ; for the cunning bird, having thus drawn them off to
a proper distance, exerts her powers, and leaves her astonished pursuers to
gaze at the rapidity of her flight.” The lapwing may be domesticated, and
it then becomes uncommonly familiar and confiding.

THE CRANE!

fi

 

Is a tall, slender bird, with a long neck and long legs. The top of the read
is covered with black bristles, and the back of it is bald and red, which sitf
ficiently distinguishes this bird from the stork, to which it is very nearly
allied in size and figure. The plumage, in general, is ash colored; and there
are two large tufts of feathers that spring from the pinion of each wing.

 

1 Grus cinerea, Becust. The genus Grus has the bill as long as, or longer than the
head, strong, straight, compressed, oltuse towards the tip; lateral base of the mandible
deeply suleated ; ridge elevated; nostrils in the middle of the bill closed hehind by a
membrane; region of the eyes and base of the bill naked and papillons, or covered with
feathers; legs long, with a large naked space ahve the knees; the middle fore toe united
to the outer by a rudimentary membrane, the inner divided ; hind toe articulated higher on
the tarsus,

79 53
626 AVES—CRANE.

These, which bear a resemblance to hair, and are finely curled at the ends
the bird has a power of erecting and depressing at pleasure. Gesner says
that these feathers, in his time, used to be set in gold, and worn as ornas
ments in caps.

The crane is a very social bird, and they are seldom seen alone. ‘heir
usual mode of flying or sitting is in flocks of fifty or sixty together; and
wnile a part feed, the rest stand lixe sentinels upon duty. It for the most
part subsists upon vegetables, and is known in every country of “Europe,
except England. As they are birds of passage, they are seen to depart and
return regularly at those seasons when their provision invites or repels them.
They generally leave Europe about the latter end vf autumn, and return in
the beginning of summer. In the inland parts of the continent, they are
seen crossing the country, in flocks of fifty or a hundred, making from the
northern regions towards the south. In these migrations, however, they are
not so resolutely bent upon going forward, but that, if a field of corn offers in
their way, they will stop a while to regale upon it; on such occasions they
do incredible damage, chiefly in the night; and the husbandman, who lies
down in joyful expectation, rises in the morning to see his fields laid entirely
waste, by an enemy whose march is too swift for his vengeance to overtake.

The cold arctic region seems to be this bird’s favorite abode. They come
down into the more southern parts of Europe, rawer as visitants than
inhabitants.

In their journeys, it is amazing to conceive the heights to which they
ascend when they fly. Their note is the loudest of all birds; and is often
heard in the clouds, when the bird itself is entirely unseen. As it is light
for its size, and spreads a large expanse of wing, it is capable of floating, at
the greatest heights, where the air is lightest; and as it secures its safety,
and is entirely out of the reach of man, it flies in tracks which would be too
fatiguing for any other birds to move forward in.

In these aerial journeys, though unseen themselves, they have the distinct-
est vision of every object below. They govern and direct their flight by
their cries; and exhort each other to proceed or descend, when a fit opportu-
nity offers for depredation. As they rise but heavily, they are very shy
birds, and seldom let the fowler approach them. Corn is their favorite food;
but there is scarcely any other that comes amiss to them. Redi, wl o opened
several, found the stomach of one full of the herb called dandelion; that of
another was filled with beans; a third had a great quantity of clover in its
stomach; while those of two others were filled with earth-worms and bee-
tles; in some he found lizards and sea-fish; in others, snails, grass, and
pebbles, swallowed perhaps for medicinal purposes.

In general, it is a peaceful bird, both in its own society, and with respect
to those of the forest. It 1s an animal easily tamed.
AVES—CRANE. 627

THE BALEARIC CRANE,

 

for a long time continued unknown, till we became acquainted with che
birds cf tropical climates, when one of the crane kind with a topping was
brought into Europe, and described by Aldrovandus as Pliny’s balearic crane.
It is remarkable for the lightness and elegance of its proportions, and the
gracefulness and variety of its attitudes. Its forehead is covered by a thick
tuft of short velvety feathers of a soft and brilliant black. The bill and
legs are of the same hue. The long, slender feathers, descending on the
neck, and the broader ones with which the upper and under surface of its
body are clothed, are black, with a slight tinge of lead color; the primary
wing feathers are black; the secondary, reddish brown; the wing-coverts
white. The naked cheeks and temples are of a delicate rose color; and the
yellow filaments of its crest terminate in blackish pencils. This bird comes
from the coast of Africa and the Cape de Verd Islands. It grows to the
height of four feet. As it runs, it stretches out its wings, and goes very
swiftly, otherwise its usual motion is very slow. In their domestic state,
they walk very deliberately among other poultry, and suffer themselves to be
approached by every spectator. They never roost in houses; but about
night, when they are disposed to go to rest, they search out some high wall,
on which they perch in the manner of a peacock. Indeed, they so much re-
semble that bird in manners and disposition, that some have described them
by the name of the sea peacock. But though their voice and roosting be
simiiar, their food, which is ee greens, vegetables, and barley, seems tu
make some difference!

'Grus pavonina, Trem.
628 AVES—HERON.

THE HERON.

 

Tae common heron is remarkably light in proportion to its bulk, searce y
weighing three pounds and a half, yet it expands a breadth of wing which
s five feet from tip to tip. Its bill is very long, being five inches from the
point to the base; its claws are long, sharp, and the middlemost toothed like
a saw. Yet, thus armed as it appears for war, it is indolent and cowardly,
and flies even at the approach of a sparrow-hawk. When driven to ex-
tremity, however, it shakes off its timidity, and displays both courage and
skill. When its antagonist succeeds in rising above it, which is not easily
done, the hero doubles his neck backward under his wing, and turns his
‘bill upward, like a bayonet. In this manner, ‘he sometimes contrives to
transfix even the powerful seu eagle.

Of all birds, this commits the greatest devastation in fresh water; and
Ahere is scarcely a fish, though ever so large, that he will not strike at and
wound, though unable to carry itaway. But the smaller fry are his chief
subsistence; these, pursued by their larger fellows of the deep, are obliged
+o take refuge in shallow waters, where they find the heron a still more for-
midable enemy. His method is to wade as far as he can go into the water,
and there patiently wait the approach of his prey, which, when it comes

 

! Ardea cinerea, Lata. The genus Ardea has the bill as long as, or longer, than the
head, strong, straight compressed, pointed ; upper mandible slightly sulcated, ridge round-
ec; nostrils lateral, placed almost at the base of the hill, longitudinally cleft in a groove

nd half closed by 1 membrane; orbits and lores naked; legs long and slender, with a
naked space above che knee; the middle toe connected with the outer by a: hort mem-
hrane ; claws long, compressed. that of the middle toe dentated interiorly.
AVES—HERON. 628

within sight, he darts upon with an inevitable aim. In this manner he is
found to destroy more in a week than an otter in three months. “I have
seen a heron,” says Willoughby, “that had been ‘shot, which had seventeen
carps in his belly at once, which he will digest in six or seven hours. I have
seen a carp,” continues he, “taken out of a heron’s belly, nine inches and a
half long. Several gentlemen who kept tame herons, to try wnat quantity
one of them would eat ina day, have put several smaller roach and dace
in a tub; and they have found him eat fifty in a duy, one day with another..
In this manner a single heron will destroy fifteen thousand carp in *
single half vear.”

But though in seasons of fine weather the heron can always find a plent
ful supply, in cold or stormy seasons his prey is no longer within reach; the
fish that before came into shalluw water now keep in the deep, as they find
it to be the warmest situatiun. l'rogs and lizards, also, seldom venture
from their lurking places; and the heron is obliged to support himself upon,
his long habits of patience, and even to take up the weeds that grow upon
the water. At those times he contracts a consumptive disposition, which
succeeding plenty is not able to remove; so that the meagre glutton spends
his time between want and riot, and feels alternately the extremes of famine
and excess. Hence, notwithstanding the ease with which he takes his
prey, and the amazing quantity he devours, the heron is always lean and
emaciated ; and though his crop be usually found full, yet his flesh is scarce
sufficient to cover the bones.

Though this bird lives chiefly among pools and marshes, yet its nest is
Euilt on the top of the highe:* trees, and sometimes on cliffs hanging over
the sea. They are never in flocks when they fish, committing their depre-
dations in solitude and silence; but in making their nests they love each
other’s society ; and they are seen, like rooks, building in company with
flocks of their kind. Their nests are made of sticks, and lined with wool:
and the female lays four large eggs, of a pale color. The observable indo-
lence of their nature, however, is not less seen in their nestling than in
their habits of depredation. Nothing is more certain, and we have seen it
a hundred times, than that they will not be at the trouble of building a nest
when they can get one made by the rook, or deserted by the owl, already
provided for them. ‘This they usually enlarge and line within, driving off
the original possessors, should they happen to renew their fruitless claims.

The heron is said to be a very long-lived bird ; by Mr Keysler's account, it
may exceed sixty years; and by a recent instance of one that was taken in
Holland, by a hawk belonging to the Stadtholder, its longevity is again con-
firmed, the bird having a silver plate fastened to one leg, with an inscription,
importing that it had heen struck by the elector of Cologne’s hawxs thirty-
five years before.

53*
630 AVES. -EGRET...HERON

THE LITTLE EGRET!

Is the size of a fowl. The hind head is crested, and two of the feathers,
which are five inches in length, hang gracefully behind. The whole plu-
mage is cf a beautiful white, and the ele zance of the bird is much increased
hy the long, loose feathers which cover and hang over the rump; their flesa
is said to be excellent. It is conjectured that both the crane and egret were
formerly inhabitants of Great Britain; but this can hardly be said of them
at present, notwithstanding a solitary instance or two of thir having been
shot there In America tere are egrets found of a reddish, anu some of a
black color; but they differ in no other respect from the European.

THE NIGHT HERON?

 

Is found in Europe and America. In the United States it is known by the
name of qua bird, and breeds usually in the most solitary and deeply shaded
parts of a cedar swamp. The males regularly direct their course every
evening at twilight towards the marshes, uttermg ina hoarse and hollow
tone, the sound gua. At this hour, also, all the nurseries in the swamps are

3 Ardea garzetta, Lin. ? Ardea nycticorax, Lin.
AVES—HERON. 631

emptied of their inhabitants, who disperse in quest of food. On entering
one of these swamps, the noise of the old and young would almost lead one
to suppose that two or three hundred Indians were choking each other. The
instant an intruder is discovered, the whole rise in the air in silence, and
remove to the tops of the trees, in another part of the woods; while par-
ties of from eight to ten make occasional circuits over the spot to see what
is going on. :

The food of the night heron, or qua bird, is chiefly composed of small fish,
which it takes at night.

THE GREAT EGRET HERON!

ls often seen in summer in our low marshes and inundated meadows; yet,
on account of its extreme vigilance, it is very difficult to be procured. It is
found from Guiana, and probably beyond the line, to New York. It enters
the territories of the United States late in February. The high inland parts
of the country it rarely or never visits. Its favorite haunts are vast inun-
dated swamps, rice fields, the low marshy shores of rivers, and such like
places; where, from its size and color, it is very conspicuous even at a dis--
tance. The food consists of frogs, lizards, small fish, insects, and small
water snakes, &c. They will also devour mice and moles. The plumage
of this elegant bird is of a snowy whiteness; the bill of a rich orange yel-
low; and the legs black.

THE GREAT HERON?

e

Is a constant inhabitant of the Atlantic coast, from New York to Florida,
They breed in the Carolinas and New Jersey, in the gloomy solitudes of
cedar swamps, where, if unmolested, they will annually breed for many
years. Their nests are constructed on the tallest trees. These are large,
formed of sticks; each occupies the top of a single tree. The principal
food of this bird is fish, for which he watches with unwearied patience, and
seizes them with surprising dexterity. At the edge of a river, pond, or sea-
shore, he stands fixed and motionless. But his stroke is as sure as fate to
the first fish that comes in his way. He is also an excellent mouser, and
feeds eagerly on grasshoppers and various winged insects.

Tke heron has great powers of wing, flying sometimes very high, and to;a

 

drdea egretta, WiLson. 8 Arcea Herodias, Lin.
:
632 AVES—HERON...BITTERN.

great distance; his neck doubled, his head drawn in, and his long legs
stretched vut in a long line behind him, appearing like a tail, and probably
serving the same rudder-like office.

THE BLUE HERON!

Is properly a native of the warmer climates of the United States, migrating
thence in winter to the tropical regions; being found in Cayenne, Jamaica,
and Mexico. On the muddy shores of the Mississippi, these birds are free
quently met with. Though in the northern states they are found chiefly in
the neighborhood of the ocean, they are yet particularly fond of fresh water
bogs on the edges of the salt marsh. Thése ‘it often frequents, wading about
in search of tadpoles, lizards, various larva of winged insects, and mud
worms. It moves actively about in search of these, sometimes making
a run at its prey, and is often seen in company with the little white heron.

There are also found in the United States, the little white heron, the green
heron, the Louisiana heron, and the yellow-crowned heron.

THE BITTERN2

 

I'nost who have walked in an evening, by the sedgy sides of unfrequented
rivers, must remember a variety of notes from different waterfowls. But
of, all those sounds, there is none so dismally hollow as the booming of the

 

1 Ardea ceerulea, Lux. 2 Ardea stellaris, Lin.
AVES—BITTERN. 633

bittern. It is impossible for words to give those who have not heard this
evening call, an adequate idea of its solemnity. Ttis like the interrupted
bellowing uf a bull, but hollower and louder, and is heard ata mile’s dis-
tance, as if issuing from some formidable being that resided at the bottom
of the waters.

The bird, however, that produces this terrifying sound is not su hig as a
heron, with a weaker bill, and not above four inches long. It differs trom
the heron chiefly in its color, which is, in general, of a palish yellow, spote
ced and barred with black. Its windpipe is fitted to produce the sound for
whicn it is remarkable; the lower part of it dividing into the Inngs, is sup.
plied with a thin loose membrane, that can be filled with a large buuy of air,
and expluued at pieasure. These bellowing explosions are chiefly heard
from the begiuning of spring to the end of autumn; and, however awful
they may Seer to us, are tue calls to courtship, or connubial felicity.

This bird, though of the neron kind, is yet neither so destructive, nor so
voracious. It is a retired, timorous animal, concealing itself in the midst
of reeds and marshy places, and living upon frogs, insects,- and vegetables ;
and though so nearly resembling the heron in figure, yet differing much in
maimers and appetites. It lays its eggs in a sedgy margin, or amidst a tuft ~
of rushes, and composes its simple habitation of sedges, the leaves of water-
plants, and dry rushes. It lays generally seven or eight eggs of an ash-
green color, and in three days leads its little ones to their food. The bitterns
defend their young with such courage, that even the hawk does not often
venture to attack their nest.

At the latter end of autumn, however, in the evening, the wonted indo-
lence of the bittern appears to forsake it. It is seen rising in a spiral ascent
till it is quite lost from the view, and makes at the same time a singular
noise, very different from its former hoomings.

The flesh of the bittern is greatly in esteem among the luxurious. For
this reason, it is as eagerly sought after by the fowler as it is shunned by
the peasant ; and as it is a heavy rising, slow-winged bird, it does not often
escape him. Indeed, it seldom rises but when almost trod upon; and seems
to seek protection rather from concealment than flight.

When wounded by a sportsman, this bird often makes severe resistance.
It does not retire; but waits the onset, and gives such vigorous pushes with
its bill, as to wound the leg through the boot. Sometimes it turus oa its
pack, like the rapacious birds, and fights with both its billand claws. When
surprised by a dog, it is said always to throw itself into this pusture and
defend itself so vigorously, as to compel th? assailant to retire. The eyes
of its antago ist are the object at which it chiefly suikes.

80
634 AVES—BITTERN...STORK.

THE AMERICAN BITTERN!

Is common tv all our sea and river marshes, though no where numerous;
it rests all day among the reeds and rushes, and, unless disturbed, feeds and
flies only during the night. In some places it is called the Indian nen. On
the seacuast of New Jersey, it is known by the name of dunkadoo, a word
probably imitative of its note. It utters sometimes a hollow guttural note,
among the reeds; but has nothing of that long booming sound for which
the European bittern is so remarkable. When disturbed, they rise with a
hollow éwa, and are then easily shot down, as they fly heavily. Like most
other night birds, their sight is most acute during the evening twilight; but
their hearing is at all times exquisite. They make their nests in swamps,
laying four eggs in the long grass.

THE LEAST BITTERN?

1s the smallest known species of the whole tribe. It is commonly found
in fresh water meadows, and rarely visits the salt marshes. In the
meadows of Schuylkill and Delaware below Philadelphia, a few of these
birds breed every year; making their nests in the thick tussocks of grass in
swampy places. When alarmed they seldora fly far, but take shelter among
the reeds or long grass. They are scarcely ever seen exposed, but skulk
during the whole day; and, like the preceding species, feed chiefly at night.
This little creature measures but, twelve inches in length. °

4

ao

THE STORK.

Tse most remarkable of this tribe is the white eek, the length of which
is about three feet. The bill is nearly eight inches long, and of a fine red
color. The plumage is wholly white, except the orbits of the eyes, which
are bare and blackish ; some of the feathers on the side of the back and on
the wings are black. The skin, the legs, and the bare parts of the thighs
are red.

The white stork.is semi-domestic; haunting towns and cities, and m
many places stalking unconcernedly about the streets, in search of offal and

 

1 Ardea minor, Wiison. 2 Ardea exilis, GME.

3 Ciconia alba, Bettow. The genus Ciconia has the hill long, straight, stout, eylindr
. me . 1 7 ¢ . BP ge wee HD Se a teed wey palit” salen bi ieee
AVES—STORK. 635

other food. They remove the noxious filth, and clear the fields of serpents
and reptiles. On this account they are protected in Holland, held in high
veneration by the Mahometans; and so greatly were they respected in times
of old by the Thessalonians, that to kill one of these birds was a crime
expiable only by death. The ancients, indeed, ascribed to it the virtues of
temperance, conjugal fidelity, and filial and paternal piety.

The disposition of this bird is mild, neither shy nor savage; it is 2asily
tamed, and may be trained to reside in gardens, which it will clear of
imsetts and reptiles. It has a grave air and a mournful visage; yet when
roused by example, it shows a certain degree of gaiety; for it joins in the
frolics of children, by imitating them. Dr Herman tells us, that he saw &

 

same one in a garden, where the children were playing at hide and seek, ant
that it run its turn when touched, and so well distinguished the chile whose
turn it was to pursue the rest, as to be perfectly on its guard. Nor do they
lightly feel or inadequately revenge an injury. A wild stork, having been
beaten by a tame one, has been known, after an interval of four months, to
come back with three other storks, and kill the former victor.

Storks are birds of passage, fand obser ze ‘great exactness in the time of
their autumnal departure from Europe to more favorite climates. ' They
are seldom seen farther north than Sweden; and though they have scarcely
ever been met with in England, they are so common m Holland as to build
every where on the tops of the houses, where the inhabitants provide boxes for
them to make their nests in, and are careful that the birds suffer no injurv
636 AVES—STORK

always resenting this as an offence committed against themselves. Storks
are also common at Aleppo, and in plenty at Seville, in Spain. At Bagdad,
hundreds are said to be seen about the houses, walls, and trees; and av Per-
sepolis, or Chilmanar, in Persia, the remains of the pillars serve them to
build on, every pillar having a nest on it.

This bird bestows much time and care on the education of its young, and
does not leave them till they have strength sufficient for defence and support.
When they begin to flutter out of the nest, the mother bears them on her
wings; she protects them from danger, and will sometimes perish rather
than forsake them. :

In autumn they retire into Egypt, and the marshes of Barbary, where
they enjoy a second summer, and bring up a second brood. Their migra-
tion is performed in immense companies. Dr Shaw saw passing over
Mount Carmel three flocks of them, each of which was half a mile in
width, and they were three hours in going by. Bellonius informs us, that
storks visit Egypt in such abundance, that the fields and meadows are
white with them, and that the natives are pleased with their arrival,
as the birds deliver them from innumerable swarms of frogs, and also
devour serpents. Between Belbeis and Gaza, in Palestine, they perform a
similar service, by destroying innumerable rats and mice. .

In the northern countries of Europe there are storks, of which the plu-
mage is black. 7

 

MARABOU STORK.

Tue marabou stork appears to inhabit nearly the whole of tropical Africa.
extending southward, according to M. Temmick, to the neighborhood of the
Cape of Good Hope, where, however, it is hy no means common. M.
Rippel observed it on the banks of the Nile, Major Denham in the neigh-
borhood of the large towns in the interior, and Smeathman on the western
coast. The plumes imported into Europe are bruught chiefly from Senegal.
In its habits this bird bears a close resemblance to the white stork of
Evrope, but becomes stil) more familiar, and, in consequence of its larger
size, renders more essential service in the removal of carrion, offal, and other
nuisances. This important office, like the adjutants of Calcutta, it shares
with the vultures ; and both birds are universally privileged frora all annoy-
ance, in return for so meritorious exertion of their natural propensities.
They seem to be constantly attracted by the heaps of offensive substances
collected in the villages and towns, which they devour without scruple, and
in immense quantities.. The mode in which the Indian bird performs the

 

1 Ciconia marabou, Temm.
AVES—STORK. 637

tanctions of a scavenger has been repeatedly described by travellers and
Major Denham mentions his having frequently been a witness of the vora-
cious and omnivorous habits of the African. Nothing seems to cume amiss
to its voracious appetite, for when carrion is scarce, it attacks reptiles, smal!
birds, and even the lesser quadrupeds, which it usually swallows entire.
These birds are so peaceable in their manners, and so inclined to became
familiar, that there is little difficulty in taming them. Dr Lathan: gives.an
amusing account, derived from Smeathman, of the behavior of a young in li
viduai, which had been brought up in a state of domestication in the part of
Africa where that traveller resided. This bird always took its place ac
_linne* time, in the great hall, behind its master’s chair, where it remainec
\

 

in expectation of its usual share in the meal. The servants had some Iifh-
culty in protecting the dishes from its attacks previously to the arrival of the
guests; they carried switches for the purpose, but it would frequently watch
its opportunity and snatch some favorite morsel before they were aware of
it. In this way it had been known to swallow an entire boiled fowl ata
single mouthful. It was permitted to fly at large about the island, and
roosted very high among the silk-cotton trees, from the tops of which, even
o4
638 AVES—FLAMINGO.

at the distance of two or three miles, it would espy the servants carrying
the dishes across the yard, and dash down among them as they entered
the hall.

The attitudes of these birds are particularly curious, and frequently not a
little ludicrous. At rest, they either stand upon one leg, with the neck
withdrawn and the bill brought forwards towards the breast, or sit upon the
ground with one or both legs directed straight before them. But when excited,
they elongate their necks, and stand at their full height, menacing with
their large bills, which are, however, toc light to inflict any serious injury,
even had the birds courage enough to attempt it.

THE FLAMINGO?

Is, perhaps, the most remarkable of water-fowl ; it is one of the tallest and the
most beautiful. The body, which is of a beautiful scarlet, is no bigger than
that of a swan; but its legs and neck are of such an extraordinary length,
that when it stands erect, it is six feet six,incheshigh. Its wings, extendec
are five feet six inches from tip to tip; and it is four feet eight inches trem
tip to tail. The head is round and small, with a large bill, seven inches
long, partly red, partly black, and crooked like a bow. The legs and thichs,
which are not much thicker than a man’s finger, are about twa feet eight
inches high; and its neck near three feet long. The feet are feeble, and
united by membranes, as in those of the goose. Of what use these mem-
branes are does not appear, as the bird is never seen swimming, its legs and
thighs being sufficient to bear it into those depths where it seeks for prey. |

This extraordinary bird is now chiefly found in America, but was once
Known on all the coasts of Europe. It is still uecasiunally met with on the
shores of the Mediterranean. Its beauty, its size, and the peculiar delicacy
of its flesh, have been such temptations to destroy cr take it, that it has long
since deserted the shores frequented by nan, and taken refuge in countries
that are as yet but thinly peopled.

When the Europeans first came to America, aud coasted down along the
African shores, they found the flarringos on several shores on either conti-
nent gentle, and no way distrustful of mankind. When the fowler had killed
one, the rest of the flock, far from att :mpting to fly, only regarded the fall of
their companion in a kind of fixed astonishment; another and another shot
was discharged; and thus the fowle- often levelled the whole flock, before
one of them began to think of escaping.

 

1-Phenicopterus ruber, Lin. This is the orly one of the genus. Its characteristics are
a bill thick, strong, deeper than broad, denta-ed, naked at the base; upper mandible bent
over the under at the tip; the under broader than the upper; nostrils longitudinal in the
middle of the hill, covered by a membrane; l:gs very long, with three toes hefore, und a
very short one articulated high on the tarsus behind; the fore toes connected with the
claws; wings middle sized.
AVES—FLAMINGO 639

But at present it is very different in that part of the world; and the fla-
mingo is not only one of the scarcest, but one of the shyest birds in the
world, and the most difficult of approach. They chiefly keep near the most
deserted and inhospitble shores; near salt water lakes and swanpy islands.
When seen by mari’ ers in the day, they always appear drawn up in a long

 

t.ose line of two or three hundred together ; and, as Dampier tells us, nresent
at the distance of half a mile, the exact representation of a long brick wall.
This line, however, is broken when they seek for food; but they alwavs
appoint one of the number as a watch, whose only employment is to observe
and give notice of danger while the rest are feeding. As soon as this trusty
sentinel perceives the remotest appearance of danger, he gives a loud
scream, with a voice as shrill as a trumpet, and instantly the whole cohort
are upon the wing. The flesh of the old ones is black and hard, though,
Dampier says, well tasted; that of the young ones is better. But, of all
delicacies, the flamingo’s tongue is the most celebrated. In fact, the
Roman emperors considered them asthe highest: luxury; and we have an
accountof one of them, who procured fifteen hundred flamingos’ tongues
to be served up in asingle dish The tongue of this bird, which was so
640 AVES—AVOSET.

much sought after, is a good deal larger than that of any other bird what
ever. The bill of the flamingo is like a large black box of an irregular
figure, and filled with a tongue which is black and gristly.

Their time of breeding is according to the climate in which they reside,
in North America they breed in summer; on the other side of the line, they
take the most favorable season of the year. They build their nests in exten-
sive marshes, and where they are in no danger of a surprise. The nest is
not less curious than the animal that builds it: it is raised from the surface
of the pool ahout a foot and a half, formed of mud scraped up together, and
hardened by the sun, or the heat of the bird’s body: it resembles a truncated
cone, or one of the pots which we see placed on chimneys; on the top it is
Lollowed out to the shape of the bird, and in that cavity the female lavs her
eggs, without any lining but the well cemented mud that forms the sides of
the building. She always lays two eggs, and no more; and, as her legs are
immoderately long, she straddies on the nest, while her legs hang down, one
on each side, into the water. The young ones are a long while before they
are able to fly; but they run with amazing swiftness. They are sometimes
caught; and, very different from old ones, suffer themselves to be carried
home, and are tamed very easily.

THE AVOSET!

Is easily distinguished from all other birds by the form of its bill, which 1s
very thin, slender, and bends considerably upwards. The scooping avoset is
about the size of the lapwing, or eighteen inches long; the bill is three
inches and a half in length. The top of the head is black, the rest of the
head, neck, and all the other parts of the body white, except the inner sca-
pulars, the middle of the wing-coverts and outer webs, and ends of the quills,
which again are black. The legs are long, and of a bluish gray, and the
toes have a connecting membrane It weighs about thirteen ounces, and is
frequent, in the winter, on most of the seacoasts of Europe, as well as in the
fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridge, &c in England. It feeds cn worms and
insects, which it scoops out of the sand with its bill.

 

1 Recurvirostra avocetta, Lin. The genus Recurvirostra has the hill very long, slen-
der, feeble. depressed throughout its length, flexible and turned up at the ooint, the u per
mandible channelled on its surface, the under I:wterally; nostrils linear anc long ; legs long
and slender; the three fore toes united as far as the second joint hy a nembrane ; tha
tund toe placed high up und very short; wings acuminate, (ne first quill k age st.
AVES—AV OSET....SPOONDILL. 641
AMERICAN AVOSETA

Tuts species, from its perpetual clamor and flippancy of tongue, is caiied
by the inhahitants of Cape May, the lawyer. Wilson found these birds, as
well as the long-legged avost, in the salt marshes of New Jersey on the 20th
of May. The; flew around the shallow pools, uttering the sharp note of
click, click, alighting on the marsh, or in the water, fluttering their louse
wings, and shaking their half-bent legs, as if ready to tumble over, keeping
up a continual yelping note. The nest was built among the thick tufts oa
grass, of sea-weed, dry grass, and twigs, and raised to the height of seve=
tal inches.

THE ROSEATE SPOONBILL?

 

Tins stately and elegant bird inhabits the seashores of America from
Brazil to Georgia. It also appears to wander up the Mississippi sometimes

 

1 Recurvirostra Americana, LATH.

2 Platalea ajaja, Lys. The genus Platalea has the hill very long, much flattened, dilat-
ed towards the extremity, and rounded like a spoon or spatula ; upper mandible channeled
and transversely sulcated at the base ; nostrils approximated. oblong, open, bordered with

meibrane; face and head wholly or partially naked ; legs long ; the three antector toes
conzected to the second joint by deeply cut membranes ; the hinder one long, aud beariug
on the ground.

81 54*
642 AVES-—IBIS.

an summer. It is however rarely seen to the northward of Altamaha river,
and even along the peninsula of Florida is a rare bird; in Jamaica and
several other of the West India islands, Mexico, and Guiana, it is more com-
mon, but confines itself chiefly to the seashore and the mouths of rivers.
it wadés about in quest of shell-fish, marine insects, small crabs, and fish.
In pursuit of these, it occasionally swims and dives.

This bird is of a beautiful pink color, with a mixture of black at the lower
part of the neck. The most common species, however, is that which bears
the name of the white spoonbill,! from its plumage, save that in some rare
exceptions it is entirely white. This bird is about the size of a heron, but
somewhat shorter in the neck and legs. The bill is more than half a foct
long. and has the shape of a spoon.

THE IBIS2

 

Tue Egyptian ibis, so famous in history and mythology, is larger than the
stoik, measnring from thirty to forty inches in length. The bill is seven

 

1 Platalea nivea, Cuv.

2 Ibis religiose, Cuv. The gems Ibis has the bill long, slender, arched, broad at the

base, tip depressed, obtuse, and rounded; upper mandible deeply furrowed in its whole

-engsth; nostrils near the hase at the upper part of the bill, oblong, straight and performed

4n the sembrane which covers the furrow ; the face, and fre uently a part of tne hcad and

neck, naked; legs naked ahove the knee; the fore toes uuited as far as the first joint; te
toe long, and reaching the ground.
AVES—IB18 643

inches long, is slightly curved, and ends in a blunt point. The plumage is
a reddish whites most inclining to red on the back and wings. Itis found m
great numbers in Lower Egypt, in places just freed from the inundations of
the Nile, where it is of signal service in destroying insects, reptiles, &c.
This bird is frequently found in the sepulchres along with the mummies, and
was formerly held sacred by the Egyptians.

 

WoopD IBIS.!

Tuts bird is found in the southern parts of the United States, and also
extends as far as Cayenne, Brazil, and various parts of South America. Its
favorite haunts are watery savannahs, and inland swamps, where it feeds
on fish and reptiles. The French inhabitants of Louisiana esteem it good
eating. |

The following account is given by Mr William Bartram. “This solitary
bird does not associate in flocks; but is generally seen alone, commonly
near the banks,of great rivers, in marshes or meadows, especially such as
are covered by inundations, and also in vast deserted rice plantations. He
stands alone, on the topmost limb of tall, dead cypress trees, his neck con-
tracted or drawn in upon his shoulders, and his beak resting like a tong
scythe upon his breast; in this pensive posture and solitary situation, they
look extremely grave, sorrowful, and melancholy, as if in the deepest
thought. They are never seen on the seacoast, and yet are never found at
a great distance from it. They feed on serpents, young alligators, frogs,
and other reptiles.”

The whole body, neck, and lower parts of this bird, are white; the bill is
nearly nine inches long.

THE SCARLET IBIS2

Tins beautiful bird is said to be eommon in most parts of America within
the tropics, and in almost all the West India islands. Of its manners, litue
more has been collected, than that it frequents the borders of the sea, and
shores of the neighboring rivers, feeding on small fry, shell-fish, sea-worms
and crabs. It is said frequently to perch on trees, sometimes in large Hocks
put to lay its eggs on the ground, or a bed of leaves. The young whe

 

' Jbis loculator, Lin. 2 Ibis rubra, VigiLL.
644 AVES—CURLEW...SANDPIPER.

hatched are black, soon after gray, then white, and gradually assume thei
red color; at the third year, their plumage is complete. They have tres
aently been domesticated.

 

THE CURLEW'!

 

Is a well known bird, which in winter frequents seacoasts and marshes,
feeding chiefly on frogs and marine insects. In summer they retire to the
mountainous and unfrequented parts to breed. Their flesh is rank and fishy.
Curlews differ much in size, some weighing thirty-seven ounces, and some
not twenty-two; the length of the largest is twenty-five inches. Its bill is
long, black, and much curved. The upper parts of the plumage are of a pale
orown; the breast and belly white, marked with dark oblong spots. The
female is somewhat Jarger than the male, which is commonly called the
jack curlew, and the spots with which she is covered almost all over are
more inclining toa red. Latham enumerates about eleven species, foreign
and domestic.

 

THE SANDPIPER2

Gr the sandpiper, properly so called, there are about twelve species known
w Europe, from the size of a thrush to that of a hedge-sparrow. The coms

 

- Numenius arquata, Latu. The genus Numenius has the hill long, slender, arched,
compressed, point hard, and see obtuse ; upper mandihle projecting wyond the lower,
rounded at the bud, and channelled through three fourths of its length; nostrils lateral,
linear and pierced in the furrow; face feathered; legs slender; naked ahove the knee;
the three fore toes united hy a membrane to the first Joint; the hinder articulated to the
tarsus, and touching the ground, ;

2The genus Tringa or sandpiper, has the bill middle-sized or long, very slightly arched,
carved or straight at the tip, soft and flexible through its whole length, compressed at the
base, depressed, dilated, and obtuse at the point; both mandibles channelled to near their
extremities ; nostrils lateral, conical in the membrane which covers the ansal Carrow; legs
slender, naked above the knee; the three fore toes quite divided; but ina few species the
middle and outer toe are connected by a membrane; the hinder articulated tv the tarsus,
AVES—SANDPIPER. 645

mon sandpiper, which is a solitary bird, is in weight about twe ounces; the
head is brown, streaked with black, the back and coverts brown, mixed with
glussv green; the breast and belly pure white. Its note is louder and more
piping than others of this genus. It frequents rivers, lakes, and meres, and
is never found near the sea.

THE RED-BACKED SANDPIPER!

Iynazirs both the old and new continents, being known in England by the
name of Dunlin; and in the United States, along the shores of New Jersey,
by the name of red-back. They frequent the muddy flats and shores of the
salt marshes a1 low water, feeding on small worms and other insects which
abound in such places. It has not till now beer recognized by naturalists
ds inhabiting this part of North America.

THE SOLITARY SANDPIPER?

Innanrts the watery solitudes of our highest mountains during the summer,
from Kentucky to New York, but is nowhere numerous, seldom more than
one or two being seen together. It takes low, short flights; runs nimbly
about among the mossy margins of mountain springs, brooks, and pools,
occasionally stopping, looking at you, and perpetually nodding the head.
It is so unsuspicious as to permit one tou approach within a few yards of it,
without appearing to take notice, or to be the least alarmed.

THE RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER

Is commonly called the gray back, or brown back. on our seacoasts. It isa
particular favorite aincng gunners, being generally a very plump, tender, and
excellent bird for the table. They usually keep in small flocks, alight on
the sand-flats in a close body, where they search for small bivalve shells.
On the approach of the sportsman, they frequently stand fixed and silent for
some time; do not appear to be easily alarmed, neither do they run about
m the water as much as some others, or with the same rapidity, but appear
more tranquil and deliberate. They retire to the south in November.

The other indiviluals of this family, both American and foreign, are toa
numerous to be particularized.

 

cs ;
1Tringa alpina, (uN. 2T'ringa solitaria, Witson. —  T'ringa rufa, WiLsom,
1
646 AVES—WOODCOCK.

THE WOODCOCK.!

 

Tue woodcock of the old continent inhabits and breeds in the northern
tgions during summer; but on the commencement of the frost, ‘t begins
to migrate southward. The greater part of them leave England at the cluse
of February, or the beginning of March, after having paired; but they ara
sometimes detained for a while longer by the wind being adverse.

The woodcock is about as large as a pigeon, with a bill three inches long.
The crown of the head and back of the neck are barred with black, and a
black streak runs from the bill to the eyes. It flaps its wings with somy
noise when it rises, and its fligut is pretty rapid, but neither high nor long.
and its descent is so sudden that it seems to fall like a stone. It flies very
straight in a wood of tall trees, but in a copse it is often obliged to wind.
and frequently drops behind bushes, to conceal itself from the eye of the
fowler. It principally feeds on worms and insects, which it draws out ot
the mud with its long bill; and its flesh is universally admired. The female
builds a rude nest on the ground, and generally lays four or five eggs. Sl.e
is remarkably tame during incubation.

THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK,

In its general figure and habits, greatly resembles the woodcock «{ Europe,
bul is considerably less, and very differently marked. This bird is univer

 

§ Scolopax rusticola, Lix. The genus Srofopar has the bill long, straight, compressed
slender, soft, with the tip turned; hoth mandibles channelled the half of their leugta, the
tip of the upper, pro elie heyond that of fhe under, and the turned portion beg hook

; nostrils lateral, basal, longitudinally cleft near the edges of the mandible, and covered
by a membrane; legs slender, with a very small naked space above the knee; tle three
fore toes quite divided, or rarely the outer and middle united. 8

® Scolopar minor, WitsoN.
AVES-—SNIPE, 647

sally known to ou. sportsmen. During the day they keep to the woods and
thickets, and at the approach of evening seek the springs and open watery
places to feed in. They soon disperse themselves over the country, to breed.
In the hot weather, they descend to the marshy shores of our rivers, their
favorite springs and watery recesses inland, being chiefly dried up. ‘To the
former of these retreats they are pursued by the merciless sportsmen, flush-
ed by dogs, and shet down in great numbers. ‘Lie woodcock is properly a
nocturnal bird, feeding chiefly at night, and seldom stirring about till after
sunset; at such times he rises by a kind of spiral course to a considerable
height in the air, uttering at times, a sudden quack, till having gained his
utmost height, he hovers round in a wild, irregular manner, making a sort
of murmuring sound, then descends with rapidity as he rose. When utter-
ing his note on the ground, he seems to do it with difficulty, throwing his
head towards the earth, and frequently jetting up his tail. Their food con-
sists of larvae and other aquatic worms, for which, during the evening, they
are almost continually turning over the leaves with their bill, or searching
in the bogs. Their flesh is reckoned delicious and prized highly.

The head of the woodcock is of singular conformation, and the eye is
fixed ata remarkable distance from the bill, and high in the iiead. This
construction was necessary to give a greater range of vision, and to secure
the eve from injury, while the owner is searching in the mire. The flight
of this bird is slow.

THE SNIPE.

 

Swipes are migratory lirds, which are supposed to breed chiefly in the
lower lands of Germany and Switzerland. They visit England in autumn,
and retire in the spring. Many, however, remain there the whole year, and
make their nests of dried grass and feathers, in the most inaccessible parts
of marshes. Our common snipe, usually called the English snipe, cif-
fers but little, if at all, from the European snipe. They are most difficult
to shoot, of all our birds, as they fly very rapidly, in zigzag lines. ‘They

 

1 Scolopar gallinago, Lin.
648 AVES—SNIPE.

are very eagerly suught after by our gunners. Their food consists of small
wornis, slugs, and the larve of insects. During the breeding season, while
it plays over the moors, this bird makes a pleasing, humming, and pip.og
sound. Their flesh is justly reckoned among feathered dainues.

From the point of the bill, to the end of the tail, the snipe measures about
twelve inches, and from the point of each wing, when extended, about fif-
teen or sixteen; the head is divided longwise by a pale red line, parallel to
which on each side, is a black line, and over the eyes there runs another line
pretty much of the same color as that on the middle of the head. The
feathers that spring from the shoulders reach almost as far as the end of the
tail, the outward half from the shaft being of a pale red.

 

THE WILLET, OR SEMIPALMATED SNIPE)

Is peculiar to America, and is one of the most noisy and noted birds that
inhabit our salt marshes in summer. Its common food is willet. It arrives
from the south on the shores of the middle states, about the beginning of
May; and from that time till the last of July, its loud and shrill reiterations
of pill-will-willet, pill-will-willet, resound almost incessantly along the
marshes, and may be distinctly heard at the distance of more than a mi'e
Their nests are bui't on the ground among the grass of the marshes, and are
voniposed of wet rushes and coarse grass.

The anxiety and affection manifested by this bird fori its eggs and young,
ure truly interesting. A person no sooner enters the marshes, than he is
beset by the willets flying around and skimming over his head, vuciferating
with great violence their common cry of pill-will-willet ; and uttering at
times a loud clicking note as he approaches nearer to their nest. As they
occasionally alight, and slowly shut their long white wings speckled with
black, they have a mournful note, expressive of great tenderness. They
chiefly subsist on smal] shell-fish, marine worms, and aquatic insects. They
have a summer and also a winter dress, in its colors differing so much in
these seasons, as scarcely to be known as the same species.

There are other individuals of this tribe, common in the United States,
which we have not room to describe.

 

1 Scolopur semipaimata, Wi.gon.
5 AVES—OUZEL. 649
in

THE WATER RAIL, OR OUZEL,)

 

Is a bird well known in the British islands. It is a large slender bird, with
a i‘ack bill, one inch and three quarters long. Its weight is four ounces
ane a half. The upper parts of the plumage are black, edged with olive
brown, the lower parts ash colored. This bird frequents the banks of springs
or brooks, which it never leaves; preferring the limpid streams, whose fall
is rapid, and whose bed is broken with stones and fragments of rocks. The
habits of the water ouzel are very singular. Aquatic birds, with palmated
feet, swim or dive; those which inhabit the shores, without wetting their
body, wade with their tall legs; but the water ouzel, which, it must be re-
membered, is neither a wader nora diver, but one of the passerine birds,
walks quite into the flood, following the declivity of the ground. It is ob-
served to enter by degrees, till the water reaches its neck; and it still advan-
ces, holding its head not higher tnan usual, though completely immersed.
It continues to walk under the water; and even descends to the bottom,
where it saunters as on dry land. M. Herbert, who watched one immersing
itself in the lake of Nantua, and who communicated the fact to M. de
Buffon, says, ‘‘I perceived several tines, that as often as it waded deeper
than the knee, it displayed its wings, and allowed them to hang to the
ground. I remarked, too, that, when I could discern it at the bottom of the
water, it appeared enveloped with air, which gave it a brilliant surface, like
that on some scrts of beetles, which in water are always inclosed in a bubble of
air. Its view, in dropping its wings on entering the water, might be to confine
this air, it was certainly never withuut some, and it seemed to quiver.” It
is a curious fact, that even the young ones, before they are quite feathered,
are able wo make their way under water, the same as the older birds.

These birds are tound in many parts of Europe. The female makes her
nest on the ground, in some mossy bank near the water, of hay and dried
Sbres, lining it with dry oak leaves, and forming to it a portico or entrance

 

1 Rallus aquatieus, Lin. The genus Pallus has the bill longer than the head, slender
shghily arched, or straight, compressed at the base, eylindrieal at the la ad mandi-
ble channelled ; nostrils Ar eaylciucantabilly cleft inthe furrow, half closed by as iemt
brane; legs long and stout. with a small naked spur above the Knee; the three anterior
toes divided ; the posterior articulated on the tarsus; wings rounded, the third and towth
feathers longest. a

82 55
650 AVES—RAIL.

of moss. The nest is in its color so closely similar to that of the surround:
ing objects, that it is almost impossible to discover it except when the bird is
entermg. The eggs are five in number; white, tinged with a fine blush of
red. It will sometimes pick up insects at the edge of the water. When
disturbed, it usually flirts up its tail, and makes a chirping noise. Its song
in spring is said to be very pretty. In some places it is supposed tu be
migratury.

THE AMERICAN RAIL}

 

Arrorps the sportsman a most agreeable amusement, anda delicious repast
In Virginia, it is called sora, and in South Carolina, the coot. Its history is
mvolved in profound mystery. No one can detect the first moment of arri-
val; yet, all at once, the reedy shores, and grassy marshes of our large
rivers, swarm with them, thousands of them being sometimes found within
the space of a few acres. These, when they do venture on the wing, seen: to
fly so feebly, and in such short Huttering flights among the reeds, as to render it
highly improbable to most people that they could possibly make their way
over an extensive country. Yet on the first smart frost that occurs, the
whole suddenly disappear, as if they had never been.

When the reeds along the shores of the Delaware have attained their full
growih, the rail resort to them in great numbers to feed on the seeds of this
plant, of which they are immoderately fund. As you walk along the em.

 

1 Rallus carolinus, Lin.
AVES—COOT, 651

bankment of the river at this season, you hear them squeaking in every
direction like young puppies; if a stone be thrown among the reeds, there
is a general outcry, and a reiterated Auk, kuk, kuk, something like that of a
guinea fowl. Any sudden noise, or the discharge of a gun, produces the
same effect. In the mean time, none are to be seen, unless it be at high
water; for whea the tide is low, they universally secrete themselves among
the reeds, and you may walk past and even over them, without seeing a
single individual. Their flight through the reeds is exceedingly low; and
shelter being abundant, is rarely extended far. They swim and dive with
great rapidity, and sometimes when wounded, they dive, and rising under the
gunwale of the boat, secrete themselves there, moving round as the boat moves,
until they have an opportunity of escaping unnoticed. They are feeble and de-
licate in every thing but the legs, which seem t possess great vigor and energy,
and their bodies being so remarkably thin, as to be less than an inch anda
nuarter through transversely, they are enabled to pass between the reeds like
rats. When seen, they are almost constantly getting up the tail.

These birds are also numerous near Detroit, in the lagoons, where another
species of reed grows of which they are fond. In New Jersey, where there
are no reeds, they are never to be found; but wherever the reeds are, there
the rails are sure to be in great numbers.

In the United States are also found, the Virginian rail and the clapper
rail.

ORDER XIV.—PINNATIPEDES.

Binos of this order have the bill middle-sized and straight ; upper mandi-
ble slightly curved at the tip; legs of medium size; tarsi slender or com-
pressed; three toes before and one behind, with rudiments of webs along
the tues; hind toe articulated interiorly on the tarsus.

THE COOT!

Is a well known bird. It weighs from twenty-four to twenty-eight ounces
Wilson is inclined to believe that the American coot is a different species
from the European, trom the circumstance that the membrane in the former
is of a chesnut color, instead of white; though in other respects they seem
to be the same. In Pennsylvania it is called the mud-hen. The bald part

 

1 Fulica'atra, Lin, The genus Fidicu has the bill middle-sized, strong, eomeal, broad
at the base; the ridge projecting in front. and dilated inte a naked plate; both mandibles
of the sane length, the upper slightly curved, and reduced at the hae the lower form.
ing an angle; nostrils lateral, in the middle of the bill, longuudinally cleft, hall closed by
a tembrane ; legs long, slender, naked above the knee, all the toes very long, connected
at heir base, and furnished along their sides with scalloped membranes.
652 AVES—CRESTED GREBE

of the head, which in the water-hen is red, in the coot is white. The upper
parts of its plumage are black, the breast and belly white. As the cout isa
larger bird than the water-hen, which it much resembles, it is always seen
in larger streams, and more remote from mankind. It there makes a nest
of such weeus as the stream supplies, and lays them among the reeds, float-
ing on the surface, and rising and falling with the water. The reeds among
which it is ouilt keep it fast, so that it is seldom washed into the middle of
the stream. But if this happens, which is sometimes the case, the bird sits

 

in her nest, like a mariner in his boat, and steers, with her legs. her cargu
into the nearest harbor; there, having attained her port, she contnues to
sit in great tranquillity, regardless of the impetuosity of the current; and,
though the water penetrates her nest, she hatches her eggs in that wet
condition. The coot is by no means a rare bird in Britain, where it resides
permanently, though with the seasons it changes its residence. It is rather
a timid bird, very inert, and feeds in the evening, upon fishes, insects, seeds,
and herbage. In Madagascar there is a cout with a red comb likea cock.

THE CRESTED GREBE.!

Tuts bird is about the size of a duck. Its bill, that part especially
tewards the head, is of a reddish color, and is somewhat more than two
inches in length. On the top of the head and neck is a beautiful crest
of feathers, those on the neck appearing likea collar or ruff, and seeming a
good deal bigger than they really are; those on the top of the head are black,
those on the sides of the neck are of a reddish or cinereous color; the baek

1 Podi eps cristatus, Latn. The genus Podiceps has the bill middle size, straight,
hard, compressed, in the form of an elongated and pomted cone ; tpoof the npper mandi-
ble shghtly melined; nostrils lateral, concave, oblong, closed hehind hy a Tanne open
in front ane pervions; jegs long, placed far backwards; tarsi much compressed ; hid
toes mich depressed, connected at their base, and furnished with a simple lobe; hind toe
compressed and scalluped; claws broad, much depressed ; no tail; wings short.
AVES—CUTWATER, 653

and wings are of a darkish brown, pretty much inclining to black, except
some of the exterior elges of the, wing feathers, which are white. The

 

oreast and belly are of alight ash color; it has no tail; the legs and toes are
broad and flat. It has an unpleasant cry, and will occasionally, when
angered cr pleased, raise or fail the feathers of its crest.

PALMIPEDES.

 

ORDER XV.

Brrns of this order have the bill of various forms; legs short, placed more
or less backwards; the anterior toes partially or wholly connected by webs,
and in some families all the four toes united by one membrane; the hinder
toe interiorly articulated to the tarsus, or, in some genera, wanting.

THE SKIMMER, OR CUTWATER,

Ts twenty inches in length, and in breadth three feet seven inches. The
bill is‘of a very singular structure, the upper chap, or mandible, being above
an inch shorter than the under, and the upper shuts into it, as a razor into
fts handle. The base of the bill is red, the rest black; and on the sides are
several furrows. The forehead, chin, and all the under parts, are white;
tne upper parts of the plumage black, with a bar of white across each wing.

 

1 Rhynchops nigra Lax. The genus Phynehops has the bill long, straight, flattened inte
a. blade, fncoed al the apex; upper mandible niuch sherter than the under; nostrils
lateral, marginal, remote from the hase; legs slender, tarscs larger than the uddle toes
the fore toes united by a membrane; hind wwe jomed on the tarsus; tail furked, ana

shorter than the wings. 53%
654 AVES—TERN.

The tail is short and forked. It inhabits all America; is common y or the
wing, and skims along the surface to catch the small fish on which it teeds,
it is frequently known by the name of the razur-bill.

 

THE GREAT TERN!

   

=
an “au

aa. AAA MANY SO

 

Is about fourteen inches long, and weighs four ounces and a quarter. The
bill and feet are a fine crimson; the former is tipped with black, and very
slender. The back of the head is black; the upper part of the body a pale
gray, and the under part white. These birds have been called sea swallows,
as they appear to have all the same actions at sea that the swallow has at
land, seizing every insect which appears on the surface, and darting down
upon the smaller fishes, which they seize with incredible rapidity.

THE LESSER TERN?

Wercus only two ounces and five grains. The bill is yellow; and frem tae
eyes to the Ill is a black line. In other respects, it almost exactly resemn-
bles the preceding. j

 

1 Sterna hirundo, Lin. The genus Sterna has the hill as long as, or longer than the
head, almost straight, compressed, slender, edged, and_poiuted; inandihles of equaa
length, the upper slightly sloping towards the tip; nostrils in the middle of the bill longi-
tudinally cleft and pervious; legs small, naked above the knee; tarsus very short, the
three auterior toes connected hy a membrane, the hindvr detached; tail more or less
forked ; wings very long, and pointed. ‘ ;

2 Sterna minita, Lin.
AVES—NODDY...GULL. 655

Among the foreign birds of the tern genus, there are some found of a
snowy white; but the most singular bird of this kind is the striated tern,

Se

 

which is found at New Zealand. It is thirteen incnes in length. The hill
1s black, and the body in general mottled, or rather striped with black and
white.

THR NODDY!

Is about fifteen inches long. ‘The bill is black, and two inches !ong, and the
whole plumage a sooty brown, except the top of the head, which 1s white.
It is a very common bird in the tropical seas, where it is known frequently
to fly on board ships, and istaken with the hand. But though it be thus
stupid, it bites the fingers severely, so as to make it unsafe to hold it. It is
said to breed in the Bahama Islands.

 

THE GULL,

Anp al] its varieties, is well known to most readers. It is seen with slow
sailing flight hovering over r:vers, to prey upon the smaller kinds of fish;
it is seen following the ploughman in fallow fields to pick up insects; and

 

1 Sterna stolida, Lat.

2The genus Larus, which comprises most of the gulls has the hill long, or middle
sized, strong, hard, compressed, e ped, bent toward the tip; lower mandible angulated
gear the point; nostrils lateral, in the middle of the bill, longituanaily cleft, straight, and
servious ; legs slender, naked above the knee; tarsus long; three fore tues quite webbed,
the hinder free, short, piaced high on the tarsus; tail feathers of equal lengih; wings .ong.
656 AVES—GU u1.

when living animal food is not to be found, it has even been known to eai
carrion, and whatever else offers of the kind.

Of the gull there are about nineteen species. The largest with which we
are acquainted is, the black and white or black-backed gull.! It generally
weighs upwards of four pounds, and is twenty-five or twenty-six inches from
the point of the bill to the end of the tail; and from the tip of each wing,
when extended, five feet and several inches. The bill appears compressed
sideways, being more than three inches lang, and hooked towards the end,
fixe the rest of this kind, of a sort of orange color; the nostrils are of an
oblung form ; the mouth is wide, with a long tongue, and very open gullet.

 

The irides of the eyes are of a delightful red. The wings and the middle ot
the back are black; only the tips of the covert and quill feathers are white.
The head, breast, tail, and other parts of the body, are likewise white. The
tail is near six inehes long, the legs and feet are flesh-colored, and the claws
black. There are about twenty varieties of this tribe, which are all dis-
tinguished by an angular knob on the chap.

Gulls are found in great plenty in every place; but it is chiefly round the
tockiest shores, that they are seen in the greatest abundance; itis there that
the gull breeds and brings upits young; ‘it is there that millions of tnem are
heard screaming with discurdant nutes for months together.

 

1 Larus marinus, Lin.
iG AVES—PETREL. 657

THE PETREL

Tue whole genus of petrels are known by having, instead of a back toe,
only a sharp spur or nail; they have also a faculty of spouting from their
bills, to a considerable distance, a large quantity of pure oil, which they do,
by way of defence, into the face of any person who attempts to take them.

THE FULMAR PETREL!

 

Is the largest of the kind which is known in Europe. It is superior to the
size of the common gull, being about fifteen inches in length, and in weight
seventeen ounces. The bill is very strong, yellow, and hooked at the end.
The head, neck, and all the under parts of the body, are white; the back
and wings ash-colored, the quills dusky, and the tail white. It feeds on the

blubber of whales, which supplies the reservoir, whence it spouts, with a

constant stock of ammunition. This oil is esteemed by the inhabitants of
the north, as a sovereign remedy in many complaints, both external ani
internal. The flesh is also considered by them as a delicacy, and the bird
is therefore in great request at St Kilda. When a whale is taken, these
birds will, in defiance of all endeavors, light upon it, and pick out large
lumps of fat, even while it is alive.

 

! Procellaria glacialis, Lis, The genus Procellaria has the hil] as long as, or longer
than the head, very hard, edged, depressed, and dilated at the base; the tsp compressed,
and arched, both mandibles channelled, and abruptly inflected towards the extremity ;
nostrils prominent at the surface of the bill, united, and concealed in a tube which either
forins a single opening, or exhibits two distinct openings; legs middle sized, often long,
slender; the tarsi compressed; the three front toes entirely webbed and long, and the
hinder represented hy a pointed claw; wings long.

>
658 AVES—MANKS PUFFIN...FETREL

THE SHEARWATER, OR MANKS PUFFIN,

 

As itis called by Willoughby, is something emaller than the preceding
The head and all the upper part of the hody are of a sooty blackness; ano
the under part, and inner coverts of the wigs, white. These oirds are
found in the Isle of Man, and the Scilly isles. In February, they take a
short possession of the rabbit burrows, and theu disappear ull April; they
lay one egg, and in a short time the young are fit to be taken. They are
then salted and barrelled. During the day, they keep at sea, fishing, and
towards evening return to their young, whom they feed, by discharging the
contents of the stomach into their mouths.

THE STORMY PETREL?

 

is about the size of a house swallow. The general color of the piumag is
black, except about the rump, which 1s white. They are always to be found
on the shores of Britain, and seem to be diffused all over the world. They
soiuetimes hover over the water like swallows, and sometimes appear to

 

'Procellaria Anglorum, Tem. ® Procellaria pelagica, Lin.
AVES—~ALBATROSS., 659

run on the top of it, they are also excellent divers. It skims along the
hollows of the waves, and through’ the spray upon their tops, at the astonish-
ing rate of sixty miles in anhour. They are very clamorous, and are called
by the sailors Mother Cary’s Chickens, who observe they never settle or sit
upon the water but when stormy weather is to be expected. They are
found in most parts of the world; and in the Feroe islands, the inhabitants
draw a wick through the body of the bird, from the mouth to the rump,
which serves them as a candle, being fed by the vast proportion of oil which
this little animal contains.

Wilson supposed the American stormy petrel to be the same as that of
Eurcpe; but Charles Bonaparte has shown that it is a distinct species. It
breeds in great numbers on the shores of the Bahama and Bermuda isles,
and on the coast of East Florida and Cuba. This author enumerates four
species of the stormy petrel. \

THE ALBATROSS

 

[s one of the largest and most formidable birds of Africa and South America.
The largest, which is called the wandering albatross,! is rather iarger than

 

1 Diomedea exulans, Lin. The genus Diomedea has the bill very long, stout, edged,
compressed, straight, suddenly curved ; upper mandible channelled on the sides, and much
hooked at the point, the under smooth, and truncated at the extremity; nostrils lateral,
remote from the base, tubular, covered on the sides, and open in front; legs short, with
only three very long toes entirely webbed ; the lateral one margined ; wings very long and
narro ¥, with the primary quills short, and the secondaries long.
660 AVES—WILD GOOSE.

a swan, und its wings, when extended, ten feet from tip to tip. The bili
which is six inches long, is yellowish, and terminates in a crooked point.
The top of the head is of a bright brown; the back is of a dirty, deep spotted
brown ; and the belly, and under the wings, is white. The toes, which are
webbed, are of a flesh color.

This bird is an inhabitant of the tropical -limates, and also beyond them,
as far as the Straits of Magellan, in the South seas. It not only eats fish,
but also such small water-fowl as it can take by surprise. It preys, as the
gull kind do, upon the wing, and chiefly pursues the flying fish that are
forced from the sea by the dolphins. ,

The albatross seems to have a peculiar affection for the penguin, and a
pleasure in its society. They are always seen to choose the same places of
breeding ; some distant, uninhabited island, where the ground slants to the
sea, as the penguin is not formed either for flying or climbing. In such

’ places their nests are seen together, as if they stood in need.of mutual assist-
ance and protection. In the middle, on high, the albatross raises its nest on
heath, sticks, and long grass, about two feet above the surface; and round
this the penguins make their lower settlements, rather in holes in the
ground; and most usually eight penguins to one albatross.

There are about three other species of albatross, all of them smaller than
the preceding. The upper parts of the plumage are a dusky blue black,
and the rump and under parts white ; but what peculiarly distinguishes it
is, that the bill, which is four inches long, is black, all but the upper ridge,
which is yellow quite to the tip. It inhabits the South seas within the
tropics.

THE AMERICAN WILD GOOSEJ

Tuis is a bird universally known over the whole country, and whose regu
lar periodical migrations are the sure signals of returning spring, or
approaching winter. I have never yet visited, says Wilson, any quarter of
the country, where the inhabitants are not familiarly acquainted with the
passing and repassing of the wild geese. The general opinion here is, that
they are on their way to the lakes to breed; but the rus itente on the con-

 

l Anas canadensis, Lin. The genus Anas has the bill middle-sized, robust, straight,
more or less depressed, covered by a thin skin, often deeper than broad at the hase, which
as furnished with a fleshy tubercle, or smooth; always depressed towards the tip, which
ts obtuse and furnished with a nail; edges of both mandibles divided into conical or flat
Inmellated teeth; nostrils almost at the surface of the bill, at some distance from the hase
ovoid half closed by the flat membrane that covers the nasal furrow; legs short, feathered
two the knee, and placed near the abdomen; the three fore toes webbed ; the hinder detach-
ed, and either destitute of a web, or having only a rudimentary one.
&

. © AVES—WILD GOOSE. 601

fines of the great lakes are.equally ignorant with ourselves of the particular
breedinz places of these birds. There, their journey north is but commenc-
ing, and how far it extends it is impossible for us at present: to ascertain.
They were seen by Hearne in large flocks within the arctic circle, and were
then pursuing their way still: farther north. They have been seen, also, on
the dreary coast of pitsbergen, feeding on the water’s edge. It is highly
probable that they extend their migrations under the very pole itself, amid
the silent desolation of unknown countries, shut out from the eye of man by
everlasting barriers of ice. That such places abound with suitable food, we
cannot for a momer.t doubt. ee

 

The flight of the wild geese is heavy and laborious, generally in a straight
hne, or in two lines approximating to a point. In both cases, the van is led
by an old gander, who every now and then pipes his well known hows, as if
to ask how they come on; and the houk of ‘“all’s well,” is generally
returned by some of the party. When bewildered in foggy weather, they
appear sometimes to be in great distress, flying abuut in an irregular man-
ner, making a great clamor. On these occasions, should they alight on the
earth, as they sometimes do, they meet with speedy death and destruction.
The autumnal flight lasts from the middle of August to the middle of Octo-
ber; the vernal flight from the middle of April to the middle of May.

Wounded geese have frequently been domesticated, and readily pair with
tame geese. On the approach of spring, however, they discover symptoms
of great uneasiness, frequently looking up into the air, and attempting to go
aff. Some, whose wings have heen closely cut, have travelled on foot in a
northerly direction and have been found at a distance of several miles trom

56
662 AVES—WILD GOOSE. !

*

nome. They hail every flock that passes overhead, and the sa ute ts sure te
be returned by the voyagers, who are only prevented from alighting among
them, by the presence and habitations of man. The gunners sometimes
take one or two of these domesticated geese with them to those places over
which the wild ones are accustomed to fly; and concealing themselves, wait
for a flight, which is no sooner perceived by ihe decoy geese, than they %e-
gin calling aloud, until the flock approaches so near, that the gunners ue
enabled to make great havec among them with their musket shot.

The English at Hudson’s Bay depend greatly on geese, and in favorable
seasons kill three or four thousand, and barrel them up for use. They send
out their servants, as well as Indians, to kill them on their passage. They
mimic the cackle of geese so well, that many of them are allured to the spot
where they are concealed, and are thus easily shot. When in good order,
the wild goose weighs from ten to fourteen pounds, and is estimated to yield
half a pound of feathers. It is domesticated in numerous quarters of the
country, and is remarked for being extremely watchful, and more sensible
of approaching changes in the atmosphere than the common gray goose. In
England, France and Gerinany, they have been long ago domesticated.

Mr Platt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, being out shooting in one
of the bays which in that part of the country abound in water-fowl, wounded |
a wild goose. Being unable to fly, he caught it and brought it home alive.
It proved to be a female, and turning it into his yard with a flock of tame
geese, it soon became quite familiar, and in a little time its wounded wing
entirely healed. In the following spring, when the wild geese migrate to
the northward, a flock passed over Mr Platt’s barn-yard, and just at that
moment, their leader happening to sound the bugle note, our goose, in whom
its new habits and enjoyments had not quite extinguished the love ot liberty,
and remembering the well-known sound, spread its wings, mounted into the
air, joined the travellers, and soon disappeared. In the succeeding autumn,
the wild geese, as usual, returned from the northward in great numbers, to
pass the winter in our bays and rivers. Mr Platt happened to be standing
in his yard, when a flock passed directly over his barn. At that instant, he
observed three geese detach themselves from the rest, and. after wheeling
round several times, alizht in the middle of the yard. Imagine his surprise
and pleasure, when, by certain well remembered signs, he recognised in one
oi the three his long-lost fugitive. It was she indeed! She had travelled
many hundred miles to the lakes; had there hatched and reared her offs
spring ; and had now returned with her little family, to share with them the
nweets of civilized life.
AVES—WILD GOOSE...SWAN. 663

THE EUROPEAN WILD GOOSE?

Tue wild goose, or gray lag, always retains the same marks: the whole
upper part is ash colored; the breast and belly are of a dirty white; the bill
is narrow at the base, and at the tip it is black; the legs are of a saffron
color, and the claws black. It frequently weighs about ten pounds.

The wild goose is supposed to breed in the northern parts of Europe, and,
in the beginning of winter, to descend into more temperate regions. If they
come to the ground by day, they range themselves in a line, like cranes ;
and seem rather to have descended for rest, than for other refreshment.
‘When they have sat in this manner for an hour or two, we have heard one
of them, with a loud, long note, sound a kind of charge, to which the rest
punctually attended, and they pursued their journey with renewed alacrity.
Their flight is very regularly arranged; they either go in a line abreast, or in
two lines, joining in an angle in the middle.

The common tame goose is nothing more than this goose in a state of
domestication. The tame goose is sometimes white, and generally varies
between white and gray.

There are also the barnacle goose,? the brant goose,’ the bear goose 4 and
a variety of others.

‘

THE SWANS

‘

So much difference is there between this bird, when on land and in the
water, that it isthardly to be supposed the same, for in the latter, no bird can
possibly exceed it for beauty and majestic appearance. Wuen it ascends
from its favorite element, its motions are awkward, and its neck is stretched
forward with an air of stupidity; it has, indeed, the air of being only a
larger sort of goose ; but when seen smoothly gliding along the water, dis-
plays a thousand graceful attitudes, and moving at pleasure without the
smallest apparent effort, there is not a more beautiful figure in all nature.
Tn its form, we find no broken or harsh lines; in its motions, nothing con-
strained or abrupt, but the roundest contours, and the easiest transitions;
the eye wanders over the whole with unalloyed pleasure, and, with every
change of position, every part assumes a new grace. It will swim faster
than a man can walk.

‘this bird has long been rendered domestic; and it is now doubttu: whe-
her there be any of the tame kind in a state of nature. The color of the tame
swan is entirely white, and it generally weighs full twenty pounds. Under

 

1 Anas anser, Lin. 2 Anas lew.opsis, TemM. 3 Anas ber nicla, Lun.
* Anas segetum, GMEL. 6 Anas olor, Lan.

‘
664 AVES—SWAN.

the feathers is a very thick, soft down, which is made an artic’e of com
merce, for purposes of both use and ornament. The windpipe sinks down
into the lungs in the ordinary manner; and it is the most silent of all the
feathered tribe ; it cando nothing more than hiss, which it does on receiving
any provocation. In these respects, it is very different from the wild or
whistling swan.

  
     

: aa Wir
— we, rete

This beautiful bird is as delicate in its appetites as it is elegant in its form.
Its chief food is corn, bread, herbs growing in the water, and roots and seeds,
which are found near the margin. At the time of incubation, it prepares a
nest in some retired part of the bank, and chiefly where there is an islet in
ihe stream. This is composed of water plants, long grass, and sticks; and
the male and female assist in forming it with great assiduity. ‘The swan
lays seven or eight white eggs, one every other day, much larger than those
of a goose, with a hard, and sometimes a tuberous shell. It sits six weeks
before its young are excluded; which are ash colored when they first leave
the shell, and for some months after. It is not a little dangerous to ap-
proach the old ones, when their little family are feeding around them. Their
fears as well as their pride, seem to take the alarm, and, when in danger,
the old birds carry off the young ones 6n their back. A female has been
known to attack and drown a fox, which was swimming towards her nest;
toey are able to throw down and trample on youths of fifteen or sixteen;
and an old swan can break the leg of a man with a single stroke of its wing.

Swans were formerly held in such great esteem in England, that, by an
act of Edward the Fourth, none, except the son of the king, was permitted
to keep a swan, unless possessed of a freehold to the value of five marks a
year. By a subsequent act, the punishment for taking their eggs was im-
prisonment for a year and a day, and a fine at the king’s will. At present,
they are not valued for the delicacy of their flesh ; but numbers are stil! pr
AVES- SWAN. 665

served for their beauty. Many may be seen on the Thames, where they are
esteemed royal property, and it is accounteu felony to steal their eggs. On
this river, as far as the conservancy of it belongs to the city of London, they
are under the care of the corporation ; and at certain times the lord mayor,
alcermen, &c. proceed up the Thames, to what is commonly called the swan
hopping, to mark the young birds. The swan is a long-lived bird, and
sometimes attains the age of more than a hundred years.

 

THE WILD OR WHISTLING SWAN,

TnoveH so strongly resembling the tame swan in color and form, is yet a
lifferent bird; for it is very differently formed within. The wild swan is
‘ess than the tame, almost a fourth; for as the one weighs twenty pounds,
the other only weighs sixteen pounds and three quarters,, The color of the
tame swan is all over white; that of the wild bird is along the back and the
tips of the wings of an ash color; the tame swan is mute, the wild one has a
sharp loud cry, particularly while flying. But these are slight differences, com-
pared to whai are found upon dissection. The wild species is found m mcst
of the northern regions, in America, and probably in the East Indies.

 

THE BLACK SWAN.

 

New Holland, that country of animal wonders, presents us with a bira
wnizh the ancients imagined could not possibly have existence. The black

+ Anas cygnus, Lin.
84 " 56%
666 AVES—EIDER DUCK. ‘

swan is exactly siinilar in its form to the swan of the old world, but is sore-
what smaller in size. Every part of its plumage is perfectly black, with the
exception of the primary and a few of the secondary quill feathers, which
are white. The bill is of a bright red above, is crossed at the anterior part
by a whitish band; is of a grayish white on the under part; and, in the
male, is surmounted at the bdse by a slight protuberance. The legs and
feet are of a duli ash color. Black swans, in their wild state, are extremely
shy. They are found in Van Dieman’s Land, New South Wales, anid on
the western coast of New Holland; and are generally seen swimming on a
lake, in flocks consisting of eight or nine individuals. On being disturbed,
they nly off in a direct line one after the other, like wild geese.

THE EIDER DUCK!

 

Has a black, cylindrical bill, and the feathers or the forehead and cheeks 2d-
vance far into the base. In the male, the feathers of part of the head, -he
lower part of the breast, the belly and the tail, are black, as are also the
quili feathers of the wings; and nearly all the rest of the body ts waite.
The legs are green. The female issof a reddish brown, variously marked
with black and dusky streaks. It is principally found in the western isles
of Scotland, on the coasts of Norway, Iceland and Greenland, and in many
parts of North America.

The female lays from three to five eggs, (sometimes as many as eight,‘
which are large, smooth, glossy, and of a pale olive color. She generally

1 Anas mollisima, Lin
AVES—EIDER DUCK. 667

lays among stones, or plaats, near the sea, but in a soft bed of down, which
she plucks trom her own breast. Sometimes two females will lay thei
eggs in the same nest, in which case they always agree remarkably well.
As long as the female is sitting, the male continues on watch near the shore,
but as soon as the young are hatched, he leaves them. The mother, how-
ever, reniains with them a considerable time afterwards. It is curious te
observe her manner of leading them out of the nest, almust as soon as they
creep from the eggs. Going before them to the shore, they trip after her;
and, when she comes to the water-side, she takes them on her back, and
swims a few yurds with them, when she dives; and the young ones are !eft
floating on the surface, obliged to take care of themselves. They are sel-
drm seen afterwards on land.

Tn Iceland, the eider ducks generally build their nests on small islands,
not far from the shore; and sometimes even near the dwellings of the na-
tives, who treat them with so much attention and kindness as to render
them nearly tame. From these birds is produced the soft down, so well
known by the name of the eider, or edder down, which is so light and expan-
sive that a couple of handfuls will fill a down quilt, which, in cold countries,
is used instead of a quilt or blanket. In the breeding season, the birds pluck
it from their breasts tu tine their nests, and make a soft bed for the young
ones. When the natives come to the nests, they carefully remove the fe-
male and take away the superfluous down and eggs; after this, they replace
the female; she then begins to lay afresh, and covers her eggs with new
down, which she also plucks from her body; when this is scarce, or she has
no more left, the male comes to her assistance, and covers the eggs with his
down, which is white, and easily distinguished from that of the female.
When the young ones leave the nest, which is about an hour after they are
hatched, it is once more plundered. The most eggs and best down are got
during the first three weeks of their laying; and it has generally been ob-
served, that they lay the greatest number of eggs in rainy weather. One
female, during the time of laying, generally gives half a pound of down;
which, however, is reduced one half after it is cleaned. The Iceland com-
pany at Copenhagen generally export from Iceland about one thousand five
hun Ired or two thousand pounds weight of this down, besides what is p.i-
vately purchased by foreigners.

The Greenlanders kill these birds with darts; pursuing them in their lit-
ue buats, watching their course by’ the air bubbles when they dive, and
always striking them when they rise to the surface wearied. The flesh is
valued as food, aud their skins are made into warm and comfortable under
Barmeute,
668 AVES—TEAL....WIDGEUN,

THE TEAL2

 

Tuts 1s the smallest bird of the duck kind; it 1s common in England in
the winter months; and some imagine that it breeds there ‘as well as it does
in France. It does not usually weigh more than twelve ounces; and it
measures about sixteen inches from the point of the bill to the tip of the
tail, and from the extremity of each wing, when extended, nearly two feet.
The bill is of a dark brown color, the head is. considerably lighter, inclining
to a bay, with a large white stripe over each eye, bending downwards, to-
wards the back part of the head; the back and sides under the wings are
curiously varied with lines of white and black. ‘The breast is of a dirty
colored yellow, interspersed with dusky transverse lines; the belly more

4 bright, with yellowish brown spots; the quill feathers of the wings are
of a dusky brown, with white edges; the covert feathers appear of a
fine shining green, with their tips white; the scapular feathers are more
inclining to an ash color; the legs and feet are brown, the claws black.
These birds feed on cresses, chervil, and other weeds, and also on seeds
and some kinds of water insects. The flesh is a great delicacy, and has a
tess fishy taste than any other of the wild duck tribe.

Thc female constructs her nests of reeds interwoven with grass, and is
said to make it among rushes, that it may rise or fall with the varying
height of the water.

THE WIDGEON.2

Tus bird weighs about twenty-two ounces; it has a black nail at the
end of the upper mandible of the bill, the other part of which *, of a lead
color; the structure of the head and mouth very much resemb .s .he com-
mony witd duck, only the head does nct seein to be quite so lar. * + propore

1 Anas crecca, Lin. 2 Anas Penelope, Ly
AVES- WIDGEON. 669

tion to the body, which also appears of a finer'shape, and the wings longer.
The crown of the head towards the base of the bill is of a pale pink color,
inclining to a reddish white; the other parts of the head and neck are red;
the sides of the body and the upper part of the breast are tinctured with a
very fair, glossy, and beautiful claret color, with a few small transverse
iines of black. The feathers on the back are brown, the edges more pale
or ash colored; the scapular feathers, and those under the fore part of the
wings, are finely variegated with small transverse black and white lines,
beautifully dispersed like waves; the quill feathers are some of them brown,
with white tips, others have their outward webs of a blackish purple; cther
yarts, especially those beyond the covert feathers, of a lovely fine blue;
some of the exterior feathers have their outward webs inclining to black,
with a fine purple gloss upon the borders, on which there are a number of

 

small light colored spots; the rest of the wing feathers are of a beautifui
party-colered brown and white. The upper part of the tail is ash colured;
the under part, behind the vent, black. The legs and feet are of a dark lead
color, and the claws black. The youngf both sexes are gray, and this hue
they retain till February, when the plumage of the male begins to assume
its variegated tints. He is said to retain his bright colors till the end of
July, and then to becume dark and gray, so as scarcely to be distinguished
from the female. ‘

Widgeons are common in Cambridgeshire, England, the Isle of Ely, &c.,
where the male is called the Widgeon, and the female the Whewer.
They feed upon wild periwinkles, grass, weeds, &c., which grow at the
bottom of rivers and lakes Their flesh has a fine taste.
670 AVES—DUCK.

THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK!

 

Ts a very celebrated species, unknown in Europe. They appear in the Unit.
ed States about the middle of October, and great numbers of them are
found on the rivers near Chesapeake Bay. ‘he canvass-back, in the rich
juicy tenderness of its flesh, and its delicacy and flavor, stands unrivalled
by the whole of its tribe in, perhaps, any other part of the world. They
sometimes sell from one to three dollars a pair. Its length is about two
feet, and its weight two pounds.

The most obvious distinction between wild and tame ducks is in the colo.
of their feet; those of the tame duck being black; those of the wild duck
yellow. The difference between wild ducks among each other, arises as
well from their size, as the nature of the place they feed in. Sea ducks,
which feed in the salt water, and dive much, have a broad bill, bending
upwards, a large hind toe, anda long blunt tail. Pond ducks, which feed
in plashes, have a straight and narrow bill, a small hind toe, and a sharp
pointed train. The former are called in England, by the decoy-men, foreign
ducks; the latter are supposed to be natives of England. In this tribe, we
may rank, as natives of America, the velvet duck,? not so large, and with a
vellow bill; the scoter duck, or black diver,? with a knob at the base of a
yellow bill; the tufted duck," adorned with a thick crest; the scaup duck,3
less than the common duck, with the bill of a grayish blue color; the gol-
den eye,® with a large white spot at the corners of the mouth, resembling
an eye; the sheldrake,’ with the bill of a bright red, and swelling intoa
knob; the mallard,8 which is the stock whence the tame breed has probably

 

1 ‘nas valisneria, WiLs0n. 2 Anos fusca, Lin. 3 Anas nigra, Lin.
4Anas fuligula, Witson * Anas marila, Lix. 6 Anas clangula, Lin.
T Anas tadorna Iw 8 Anas boschas, Lin,
AVES—GOOSANDER...MERGANSER. 671

been produced; the shoveller,! which has a bill three inches long 2nd re-
markably broad at the end; the pintail,? with the two middle feathers of the
tail three inches longer than the rest; the long-tailed? duck, the general
color of whose plumage is deep chocolate, and the outer feathers of the tail,
which are white, four inches longer than the rest.

 

THE GOOSANDER*

 

Wersus about four pounds. The bill is red; the head very full of feathers
on the top and back part. The plumage is various and beautiful. The
head and upper parts are fine glossy black, the rump and tail ash color, and
the under parts of the neck and body a fine pale yellow. Its manners and
appetites entirely resemble those of the diver. It feeds upon fish, for which
it dives; it is said to build its nest upon trees, lil2 the heron and the cor-
vorant.

THE RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS

Is smaller, weighing only twopounds. The head and neck are black, gloss-
ed with green ; the rest of the neck and the belly white ; the upper part of the
back is glossy black: tle lower parts and the rump are striated with brown
and pale gray; on the wings there are white bars tipped with black, and

 

1 Anas clypeata, Lun. 2 Anas Labradora, GMEL. 3 Anas glacialis.

‘ Mergzus merganser, Lin. The genus Mergus has the hill middle-sized or long, slen- .
der, in the form of an elongated cone, and almost cylindrical; bas2 broad; tip of the up-
per mandible much hooked, and furnished with a nail; edges of hoth mandibles serrated
in a backward direction; nostrils lateral towards the middle of the hill; legs short, placed
beglewacns on the abdomen, the three fore tues completely webbed, the hind toe articulated
am the tarsus,

Mer gus serrator, Lin.
672 AVES—GOOSANDER.

the breast 1s reddish, mixed with black and white. The plumage of the
female is less splendid; and they differ in another respect, viz. that the male

 

has a very full and large crest, the female only the rudiment of one It is
common on the shores of the United States as well as in Europe.

THE SMEW, OR WHITE-HEADED GOOSANDER!

 

Mrasures eighteen inches from the point of the bill to the extremity. I
has a fine crest upon the head, which falls down towards the back part of
it, under which, gn each side of the head, is a black spot; the rest of the
nead and neck, and the under parts of the body, are white; the back and the
wings are a pleasing mixture of black and white. The tail is about three

 

4 Mergus albellus, Lin.
+ AVES—MERGANSER...PELICAN, 673

inches long, of a kizd of dusky ash color, the feathers on each side shortens
mg gradually. The female has no crest; the sides of the head red; the
wings of a dusky ash color; the throat is white. In other respects itagrees
with the male.

THE HOODED MERGANSER!

Is a native of North America, and peculiar to that country. It is common
on the coasts of New England, and breeds in the arctic regions. It is about
the size of a widgeon. The head and neck are dark brown; the former sui-
rounded with a large rcund crest, the middle of which is white. The back
and quills are black, the tail dusky ; and the breast and belly white, undu-
lated with black. The female is fainter in the color of her plumage, and
has a smaller crest.

THE PELICAN?

THE great white pelican of Africa? is much larger than aswan. Its four
toes are all welsbed together; and its neck, in some measure, resembles that
of a swan; but that singularity in which it differs trom all other birds, is in
the bill, and the great pouch underneath, which are wonderful, and demand
a distinct description. This enormous bill is fifteen inches from the point to
the opening of the mouth, which is a geod way back behind the eyes. The
base of the bill is somewhat greenish ; but it varies towards the end, being of
a reddish blue. ‘To the lower edges of the under chap hangs a bag, reaching
the whole length of the bill to the neck, which is said to be capable of con-
taining fifteen quarts of water. This bag the bird has a power of wrinkling
up into the hollow of the under chap; but, by opening the bill, and putting
one’s hand down into the bag, it may be distended at pleasure. It is nv..
covered with feathers, but a short downy substance, as smooth and soft as
satin. Tertre affirms, that this pouch will hold as many fish as will serve
sixty hungry men for a meal. Such is the formation of this extraordinary
bird, which isa native of Africa and America. It was once also known

 

' Mergus eucullatus, Lix.

2The genus Pelicanus has the hill long, straight, broad, much depressed ; upper man-
dible fattened, terminated by a nail, or very strong hook; the lower formed by two long
branches, which are depressed. flexible, and united at the tip; from these hranches is sus-

ended a naked skin, in form of a pouch; face and throat naked; nostrils basal, in the
form of a narrow longitudinal slit; legs short and stout; all the four tocs connected b7
a web.

3 Pelicanus onocrotalus, Lyx.
8

57
674 AVES—PELICAN.

m Europe, particularly in Russia; but it seems to have deserted those
coasts.

In the island of Manilla, the pelicans are of a rose color, and in America
they are brown. They are all torpid and inactive to the last degree, so that
nothing can exceed their indolence but their gluttony. It is only from the
stimulations of hunger that they are excited to labor; for otherwise they
would-continue always in fixed repose. When they have raised themselves
about thirty or forty feet above the surface of the sea, thev turn their head,
with one eye downwards, and continue to fly in that posture. As soon as

   

   
  
 
   
     

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they perceive a fish sufficiently near the surface, they dart down %,on it
with the swiftness of an arrow, seize it with unerring certainty, and store
it up in their pouch. They then rise again, though not without great labor,
and continue hovering and fishing, with their head on one side, as before.

This work they continue, with great effort and indusiry, till cheir bag is
full; and then they fly to land to devour and digest, at leisure, the fruits of
their industry. This, however, it would appear, they are not long perform-

g; for, towards night, they have another hungry call; and they again,
reluctantly, go to labor.

Sometimes, they are said to assemble in large numbers, to act in concert,
and to manceuvre with great skill, for the purpose of securing an abundant
prey. This they accomplish by formmg a circular line, and gradualiy uar-
AVES—CORMORANT. 675

N
rowing tie included space, till the fishes.are driven within a narrow com-
pass, ‘They then all plunge into the water at once, on a given signal, fill
their pouches with the spoil, and then return to the land, to enjoy themselves
at leisure.

Their life is spent between sleeping and eating. The female makes no
preparation for her nest, nor seems to choose any place in preference to lay
in, but drops her eggs on the bare ground, to the number of five or six, and
there continues to hatch them. Her little progeny, however, seem to call
forth some maternal affections ; for its young have been taken and tied by the
leg to a post, and the parent bird has been observed for several days to come
and feed them ; remaining'with them the greater part of the day, and spend-
ing the night on a branch of a tree that hung over them. By these means
they become so familiar that they suffered themselves to be handled; and
they very readily accepted whatever fish was given to them. These they
always put first into their pouch, and then swallowed them at leisure.

 

THE CORMORANT, OR CORVORANT,-

Is about the size of a large Muscovy duck. The head and neck of this bird
are of a sooty blackness, and the body thick and heavy, more inclining in
figure to that of the goose, than the gull. As soon as the winter approaches,
they are seen dispersed along the seashore, and ascending up the mouths of
fresh “water rivers, carrying destruction to all the finny tribe. They are
most remarkably voracious, and have a most sudden digestion. Their appe-
tite is forever craving, and never satisfied. This gnawing sensation may
probably be increased by the great quantity of small worms that fill their
intestines, and which their increasing gluttony contributes to engender.

This bird has the most rank and disagreeable smell, and is more foetid
than even carrion, when in ifs most healthful state. Itis seen as well by
land as sea; it fishes in fresh water lakes as well as in the depths of the
ocean ; it builds in the cliffs of rocks, as well as on trees; and preys not
only in the daytime, but by night.

lts indefatigable nature, and its great power in catching fish, were, proba-
bly, the motives that induced some nations to breed this bird up tame, for
the purpose of fishing. The description of their manner of fishing is thus
enlivened by Faber:

“When they carry them out of the rooms where they are kept, to the fish

 

1 Carbo cormoranus, Mever. The genus Carbo has the hill middle-sized, or long,
straight, cmpressed ; upper mandible much bent at the tip, the lower compressed ; base
of the bill involved ina membrane which extends to the throat ; face and thront naked
nostrils basal, linear and concealed ; legs strong, short, situated far behind; al] the toes
mceiuded in a’ web, and the middle claw serrated.
676 AVES—CORMORANT.

pools. they hoodwink them, that they may not be frightened by the way
When they are come to the rivers, they take off their hoods; and having ued
a leather thong round the lower part of their necks, that they may notswal-
low down the fish they catch, they throw them into the river. They pre-
sently dive under water; and there, for a long time, with wonderful swift.
ness, pursue the fish; and, when they have caught them, rise to the top of
the water, and, pressing the fish lightly with their bills, swallow them; till
each bird has, after this manner, devoured five or six fishes. Then thir

X

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keepers call them to the fist, to which they readily fly; and, one after
another, vomit up all their fish, a little bruised with the first nip given in
catching them. When they have done fishing, setting the birds on sorne
high place, they loose the string from their necks, leaving the passage to the
stomach free and open; and, for their reward, they throw them part of their
prey; to each one or two fishes, which they will catch most dexterously, as
they are falling in the air.”

At present, the cormorant is trained up in every part of China for the
same purpose. “It is very pleasant to behold with what sagacity they por-
ton out the lake or the canal where they are upon duty. When they have
AVES—GANNET, 677

found their prey, they seize it with their beak by the middle, and carry it
witnout fai! to their master. When the fish is too large, they then give
each other mutual assistance; one seizes it by the head, the other by the
tail, and in this manner carry it to the boat together. They have always
while they fish, a string fastened round their throats, to prevent them from
devouring their prey.” Such was formerly the practice in England; and as
late as the reign of Charles I., there was an officer of the household who
pore the tile of Master of the Cormorants.

THE GANNET, OR SOLAN GOOSE,}

 

Is of the size of a tame goose, but its wings much longer, being six feet
over. The bil] is six inches long, straight almost to the point. It differs
from the corvorant in size, being iarger; in its color, which is chiefly dirty
white, with a cinereous tinge; and by its having no nostrils, but in their
place a long furrow that reaches almost to the end of the bill. From the
corner of the mouth is a narrow slip of black bare skin, that extends to the
hind part of the head; beneath the skin is another that, like the pouch of
the pelican, is dilatable, and of size sufficient to contain five or six entire
herrings, which in the breeding season it carries at once to its mate or its
young. 3

These birds, which subsist entirely upon fish, chiefly resort to those unin-
habited islands where their food is found in plenty, and men seldom come
to disturb them. The islands to the north of Scotland, the Skelig islands
off the coasts of Kerry, in Ireland, and those that lie in the North sea off
Norway, abound with them. But it is on the Bass island, in the firth of

1 Sula alba, Mever. The genus Su/a has the bill long, stout, in the frm of an elon-
gated coue, very thick at the base, compressed towards the tip. which is obliquely curved ;
cleft beyond the eyes; edges of both mandibles serrated ; face and throat naked ; rostrils
basal, linear. and concealed ; legs short, stout, placed far behind ; all the toes connected
Jy a web; claw of the middle toe serrated ; wings long; tail conical, and composed of
twelve featners.

 

57%

ao
678 AVES—TROPIC BIRD...DIVER.

Edinburgh. where they are seen in the greatest abundance. “It is searcee
ly possible to walk there without treading on them; the flocks of birds upon
the wing are so numerous as to darken the air like a cloud; and their nvise
is such, that one cannot, without difficulty, be heard by the person next to
him.”

THE TROPIC BIRD!

Inciuves only three known species, which are all distinguished bya vedgee
like tail, the two middle feathers extending a vast length beyond the others

 

, THE COMMON TROPIC BIRD?

Is about the size of a widgeon. The length to the tip of the two long fea-
thers is nearly three feet. The bill is three inches long, and red; the head,
neck, and under parts of the body, are quite white; the upper parts of the
plumage white also, but marked with black lines. The two middle feathers
of the tail measure twenty inches, and project fifteen inches beyond the rest.
It takes its name from being chiefly found within the tropics. It frequently
flies very high, but generally attends upon the flying-fishes in their escape
from their watery enemies; and they have now and then been found in calm
weather, supinely floating on the backs of the drowsy tortoises. Their flesh
is not good, but is sometimes eaten by the hungry sailors.

THE,GREAT NORTHERN DIVER?

Is a very large bird, weighing sixteen pounds, and measuring three feet six
inches in length. The bill is strong, black, and above four inches in length,

 

1The genus Phaeton has the hill as long as the head, thick, stout, hard, sharp-edged
much compressed, pointed, slightly sloped from the hase; edges of the mandibles widen:
ed at the hase, compressed aud serrated in the rest of their length; nostrils basal,
lateral, covered above and near the base, by a naked membrane, and pervious; legs very
short, placed far hack, all the toes connected by a web; wings long; tail short, but the two
filamentous middle feathers very long.

2 Phaéton phenicirus, Lin.

3 Colymbus glaciclis, ix. The genus Colymbus has the hill of medium size, straight,
very pointed, compr ssed ; uostrils basal, lateral concave, oblong. half closed by a mem-
brane; legs placed far hehind; tarsi compressed ; the three fore toes very long and
webbed ; the hinder short, with a lnose rudimentary wel; wings short; tail very short
and rounded.
AVES—PUFFIN. 679

The head and neck are ve.vet olac, with a white crescent immediately
under tne tnroa*, and another behind. The upper parts of the plumage are
also black, spotted with white, and the breast and belly perfectly white.
Tunis bird is found in all the northern parts of Europe, and feeds on fish. It
breeds on the inaccessible rocks and steep cliffs in the Isle of Man, and
likewise in Cornwall, and several other places in England. The northern
diver lays exceedingly large eggs ; being full three inches long, blunt at one
end, and sharp at the other, of a sort ot bluish color, generally spotted with
some black spots or sirokes. It flies high and well. It is found on tle
coast of the United States, where it is known by the name of the don.

 

THE PUFFIN!

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Js the size of the teal, weighs about twelve ounces, and is twelve inches in
length. The bitl is much compressed ; the half next the poin: is red, that
next the base is blue gray. It has three furrows or grooves impressed in it;
one in the livid part, two in the red. The eves are fenced with a protube-
rant skin, of a livid color; and they are gray or ash colored.

The puffin, like all the rest of this kind, has its legs thrown so far sack,
that it can hardly move without tumbling. This makes it rise with diffi-
culty, and subject to many falls before it gets upon the wing; but as it is a
small bird, when it once rises, it can continue its flight with great celerity.

All the winter these birds are absent, visiting regions too remote for
discovery. At the latter end of March, or the beginning of April, a troop of
their spies, or harbingers, come and stay two or three days, as it were, to

 

1 Mormon fratercula, Temm. The genus Mormon has the bill shorter than the head,
deeper than long, and much compressed ; hoth mandibles arched transversely, furrowed,
and notched towards the tip; a e of the upper mandible elevated above the level of the
skull; uostris lateral, marginal, Jinear, naked. almost wholly concealed by a large naked
membrane; legs short, placed fir behind, furnished with only three toes all directed
forwards, and webbed ; claws much hovked ; wings short.
680 AVES—GREAT AUK.

view and search out their former situations, and see whether all be well
This done, they once more depart; and, about the beginning of May, return
again with the whole army of their companions. But if the season happens
to be stormy and tempestuous, and the sea troubled, the unfortunate
voyagers undergo incredible hardships; and they are found, by hundreds,
east away upon the shores, lean, and perished with famine.

The puffin, when it prepares for breeding, which always happens a few
days after its arrival, begins to scrape out a hole in the ground, not far from
the shore; and when it has penetrated some way into the earth, it then
throws itself upon its back, and with its bill and claws thus burrows inward,
ull it has dug a hole with several windings and turnings, fron eight to ten
feet deep. It particularly seeks to dig under a stone, where it expects the
greatest security. In this fortified retreat it lays one egg, which, though
the bird be not much bigger than a pigeon, is the size of a hen’s.

Few birds or beasts will venture to attack them in their retreats. When
the great sea raven comes to take away their young, the puffin boldly op-
poses him. Their meetings afford a most singular combat. As soon as the
raven approacees, the puffin catches him under the throat with its beak, and
sticks its claws into its breast, which makes the raven, with a loud screams
ing, attempt to get away; but the little bird still holds fast to the invader,
zor lets him go till they both come to the sea, when they drop down together,
and the raven is drowned; yet the raven is but too often successful, and,
nvading the puffin at the bottom of its hole, devours both the parent and
“ts family.

THE GREAT AUK!

fs distinguished peculiarly by the form of the bill, which is strong, convex,
compressed at the sides, in general crossed with several furrows, and in
some degree resembling the coulter of a plough.

lt is the size of a goose; its bill is black, about four inches and a quarter
in length, and covered at the base with short, velvet-like feathers. The
upper parts of the plumage are black, and the lower parts white, witha
spot of white between the bill and the eyes, and an oblong stripe of the
same on the wings, which are too short for flight. The bird is alsoa very
bad walker, but swims and dives well. It is, however, observed by seamen

 

1 Alea impenuis, Lin. The genus Alca has the bill straight, broad, compresseu, mneb
bent towards the tip, both mandibles half covered with feathers, and grooved near the
point, the upper hooked, the lower forming a salient angle; nostrils Tateral, marginal,
siear, situated near the middle of the hill. almost entirely closed by a membrane, ano
tovered with feathers; legs short, placed Jar behind, with three toes directed lurwaads,
end palinated; wings short. :
AVES--RAZORBILL...PENGUIN. 681

that it is never seen out of soundings, so that its appearance serves as an
infallible direction to land. It feeds on the lump fish, and others of tne same

 

size, andis frequent on the coasts of Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland
&ec. It lays its eggs close to the sea-mark.

 

THE RAZORBILLI

ts not above half the size of the preceding, which it resembles both in form
and plumage, except that it has the use of its wings, and lays its egg (for
each of these species lays but one) on the bare top of a precipice, and fastens
it by a cement, so as to prevent its rolling off. It is pretty common on the
coasts of England during the summer season.

THE PENGUIN.

Tre penguins seem to hold the same place in tne southern parts of the
world, as the auks do in the north, neither of them having ever been
observed within the tropics. The wings of the larger species do not enable
them to rise out cf the water, but serve them rather as paddles, to help
them forward when they attempt to move swiftly, and in a manner walk
along the surface of the water. Even the smaller kinds seldom fly by choice:
they flutter their wings with the swiftest efforts, without making way ;.and
though they have but a small weight of body to sustain, yet they seldom
venture to quit the water, where they are provided with food and protection,

 

4 Alca torda, Lin.

96
682 AVES—PENGUIN.

As the wings of the penguin tribe are unfitted for flight, the legs are stil]
more awkwardly adapted for walking. This whole tribe have all above the
knee hia within the belly; and nothing appears but two short legs, or feet,
as some would cai] them, that seem stuck under the rump, and upon which
the anima] is very awkwardly supported. They seem, when sitting, oz
attempt‘ng to walk, like a dog that has been taught to sit up, or to movea
minuet. Their short legs drive the body in progression from side to side;
and were they not assisted by their wings, they could scarcely move faster
than. a tortoise.

This awkward position of ‘the legs, which so disqualifies them for living
upon land, adapts them admirably for a residence in water; in that, the
legs, placed behind the moving body, push it forward with greater velocity ;
and these birds, like Indian canoes, are the swiftest in the water, by having
their paddles in the rear.

They are also covered more warmly all over the body with feathers, than
any other birds whatever; so that the sea seems entirely their element.

THE PATAGONIAN PENGUIN'!

Wercus about forty pounds, and is four feet three inches in length. The
bill measures four inches and a half, but is slender. The head, throat, and
hind part of the neck, are brown; the back of a deep ash color; and all the
under parts white. The Magellanic penguin is about the size of a guose;
the upper parts of the plumage are black, and the under white. These birds
walk erect, with their heads on high, their fin-like wings hanging down like
arms; so that to see them at a distance, they look like so many children
with white aprons. Hence they are said to unite in themselves the qualities
of men, fowls, and fishes. Like men, they are upright; like fowls, they
are feathered; and, like fishes, they have fin-like instruments, that beat the
water before, and serve for all the purposes of swimming rather than flying.

ORDER XVI.—INERTES.

Brnos of this order have the bill¢of different forms; body probably thick,
covered with down, and feathers with distant webs; legs placed much
behind; tarsus short; three toes before, divided to the base; hind we short

 

'Aptenodytes Patachonica, LatH. The genus Aptenodytes has the hill longer than the
head, slender, straight, inflected at the tip; upper mandible furrowed throughout its
whole length, the under wider at the base, and covered with a naked and smooth skin;
nostrils an the upper part of the Mull concealed by the feathers of the forehead. .egs ver
Short, thick, placed fee behind ; four toes directed forward, three of which are webbed,
and the fu arth very short; wings incapable of flight.
AVES—DODO. 683

articulated exteriorly, claws thick and sharp; wings improper for flight.
There are only two birds known of this order; the apteryx, a bird inhabiting
New Zealand, and the dodo

THE DODO.

 

Swir-ness is generally considered as the peculiar attribute of birds; tut
the dodo, instead of exciting that idea by its appearance, seems to strike the
imagination as a thing the most unwieldy and inactive of all nature. Its
body is massive, almost cubical, und covered with gray feathers; it is just
barely supported upon two short thick legs like pillars. ‘lhe neck, thick
and pursy, is joined to the head, which consists of two great chaps, that open
far behind the eyes, which are large, black, and prominent; so that the
animal, when it gapes, seems to be all mouth. The bill, therefore, is <f an
extrauidinary length, not flat and broad, but thick, and ofa bluish white,
sharp at the end, and each chap crooked in opposite directions. From all
this, results a stupid and voracious physiognomy; which is still more
increased by a bordering of feathers round the root of the beak, and which
give the appearance of a hood or cowl. The dodo is furnished with wings,
covered with suft ash-colored feathers; but they are too short to assist it in
flying. It is furnished with a tail, and with a few small curled feathers;

 

1 Pidus inepus, Lin. The characteristics of the genus Didus area bill long, stout,
broad, compressed; apper mandible bent at the point, transversely furrowed; lower
mandible straight, gibbors, bent upwards at the pomt; nostrils in the middle of the till,
placed obliquely in a frrow ; tarsus short; three toes before, divided, the hind we short,
tlaws short, bent; w.ngs incapable of flight.
684 AVES—DODO.

but this tail is disproportioned and displaced. Its legs are too short for
running, and its body too fat to be strong.

This bird was a native of the Isle of France; and the Dutch, wno nrst
discovered it there, called it in their language the nauseous berd, as well from
its disgusting figure, as from the bad taste of its flesh. However, succeed-
ing observers contradict this last report, and assert that its flesh is good and
wholesome eating. Jt is a simple bird, and is very easily taken. ‘Three or
four dodus are enough to dine a hundred men.

This bird, says Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, was original.y
found on the uninhabited islands in the Indian ocean, and in great numbers ;
but from various accounts it is supposed now to have entirely disappeared.
The dodo, or as it is sometimes called, the solitaire, was seen in numbers;
by Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese navigator, in 1497, and in 1614, on the
islands of Bourbon and Mauritius. He speaks of them as being very tame,
and not at all afraid of man.

Leguat, who visited the island of Rodriguez, in 1691, gives a long account
of the solitaire. Though generally represented as a clumsy and _ill-formed
bird, he speaks of it as graceful and dignified in its movements, and as
possessing great beauty. Though it would allow itself to be approached,
yet when caught, it was incapable of being tamed, and would refuse nourish-
ment till itdied. The nest was made of a heap of palm leaves, raised a
foot.and a half from the ground, in which one egg was deposited. When
the dodo finally disappeared from these islands is not known, but no traces
have been found of it since th2 commencement cf the eighteenth century.
CLASS THIRD—REPTILES.

Vertebrated animals with cold red blood, resmring by lungs; body naked or
covered with scales.

In reptiles, the heart is so disposed, that at each contraction, only a pore
\ion of the blood which it receives is conveyed to the .ungs; and from this it
tesults that the action of oxygen cn the blood is much less than in the mam-
miferous animals or birds, where all the blood is exposed to the action of the
air. As respiration gives the blood its heat, and muscular fibre its suscepti-
bility for nervous irritation, the temperature of reptiles is comparatively
lower, and their muscular strength weaker than that of quadrupeds, and
much less than that of birds. heir motions are chiefly confined to that of
crawling and swimming; and though many at times leap and run very
quickly, yet their general habits are sluggish, their sensations obtuse, their
digestion slow, and in cold or temperate countries they pass almost the
whole winter in a state of torpidity. The heart is composed, in frogs,of an
auricle and a ventricle; in serpents, of two auricles, and a ventricle of two
compartments ; and in the tortoises and lizards, of two auricles and a ventri-
cle of communicating cavities. The general resemblance in point of form,
which characterizes the two preceding classes, is not applicable to the pre
sent class; for while some, as the serpents, have no members at all, others
have two short legs; and the lizards, tortoises, and frogs, have four, adapted,
in the two last, to progression in the water and on land. Neither is there a
common external covering for the class, as fur for the quadrupeds, or feathers
for the birds. Their low temperature, not differing much from the medium
in which they live, renders such a covering to retain the heat unnecessary.
The skin is naked in frogs, scaly in lizards and serpents, and covered with a
shelly plate in the tortoises. The brain in reptiles is small, their nerves are
very solid, and the relation of their sensations to a common centre seems less
necessary to their animal] and vital functions than the higher classes. They
continue to live and possess voluntary motion for a considerable time after
the brain is removed, and even when their head is cut off. The connec‘:cn
of the nervous system with the muscular fibre is also less necessary to its
contraction; and their muscles preserve their irritability longer after being
separated from the body, than in the previous classes. Even in some'species,
the heart beats many hours after it has been taken from the body, and the
ovdy itself continues to move for a stall longer period, after the removal ot
this essential organ. ;

68
686 REPTILIA.

Reptiles possess five senses, but none of them in great perfection. Thus,
their sense of touch is obtuse, from the scales, plates, or shells of some
species; and even when the skin is naked, it is not adherent to the body, but
envelopes it like a bag, as is seen in a frog. Sometimes, as in the serpents,
their eyes have no eyelids, are often immoveable, and covered with a corne-
ous substance ; in some, three eyelids are to be distinguished ; while some
again appear to be destitute of sight. They have no cuchlea,and buta small
bone under the tympanum. Their nostrils are small, and their sense of
smell appears weak. Their taste is not delicate, for the greater number
swallow the prey whole; and in those which have the tongue soft and flexi-
ble, this organ serves chiefly for the seizre ‘of their food. Many species of
reptiles have no ribs, as the frogs; among others, as the serpents, these ribs
are free, and without a sternum; in the tortoises, they are all fixed together ;
and in the lizard family, the ribs are disposed nearly as in the birds. The
lungs are always included in the same cavity. The smallness of the pul-
monary vessels permits reptiles to suspend their respiration without stop-

‘ping the circulation of the blood; and thus they can remain for a long time
under water with ease. The cells of their lungs are few in number, and
generally large, and this organ has sometimes the form of simple sacs,
scarcely cellular. They are provided with a trachea and larynx, although
al] have not the faculty of uttering sounds. No species of reptile is possess-
ed ‘ef true fleshy lips. Some, as the tortoises, have a horny bill, like a
parrot ; others have teeth of various forms, not serving, however, in general
for the maceration of food, but for retaining their prey; while others, as
certain serpents, have hollow fangs, which are erected when the animal
opens its mouth to bite, and which insert an active poison into the wound
made by these teeth. Reptiles have but one opening, for rejected solid and
fluid matters, and for the organs of generation. The females have a double
ovary and two oviducts, and, though oviparous, none of the species hatch
their eggs. Those which couple, deposit eggs covered with a hard envelope;
and the eggs of those species which do not, are soft and glaring. The
greater part abandon their eggs after having deposited them in a convenient
place; though some species carry them about with them. The voung. on
quitting the ova, appear sometnmes in the form which they preserve through
life; but in other cases they are, at this period of their existence, organized
like fishes, are not fully developed till after a certain period, and undergo a
complete metamorphosis. Such are the tadpoles of the frog. Many spe-
cies of this class are used as articles of food in different counuies. The use
of others in the economy of nature, is apparent, m limiting the excessive
reproduction of insects and worms; while they themselves, on the other
hand, form the principal food of some families of birds. The poisonous spe-
cies are not very numerous, and their range is daily diminishing, as culuva:
tion and population increase.
we
REPTILIA—TORTOISE. 687

According to the arrangement of reptiles by M. Brogniart, and followed
by M. Cuvier, founded upon their organization, and which is adopted in the
following summary, they are divided as noticed above, into four orders, viz.
Chelonian reptiles, or tortoises; Saurian reptiles, or lizards; Ophidian rep-
tiles, or serpents; and Batrachian reptiles, or frogs.

ORDER I.—CHELONIA.

Rerties of this order heve a heart with two auricles ; body enveloped in
two plates or shields formed of the ribs and sternum ; four feet.

THE TORTOISE.

L'ORTOISES are usually divided into those that live upon land, and those that
subsist in the water ; and use has nade a distinction even in the name, the one
being called tortoises, the other turtles. However, Seba has proved that all
tortvises are amphibious; that the land tortoise will live in the water, and
that the sea turtle can be fed upon land. A land tortoise was brought to
him, that was caught in one of the canals of Amsterdam, which he kept for
half a year in his house, where it lived very well contented in both elements.
When in the water, it remained with its head above the surface; when
placed in the sun, it seemed delighted with its beams, and continued 1m-
moveable while it felt their warmth. The difference, therefore, in these
animals arises rather from their habits than their conformation ; and, upon
examination, there will be less variety found between them than between
birds that live upon Jand and those that swim upon the water.

All tortoises, in their external form, much resemble each other; their
outward covering being composed of two great shells, the one laid upen the
other, and only touching at the edges; however, when we ccme to look
closer, we shall find that the upper shell is composed of no less than thirteen
pieces, There are two holes at either edge of this vaulted body ; one tur a
very small heai, shoulders, and arms, to peep through; the other at the op
posite edge, for the feet and the tail. These shells the animal is never
disengaged froin; and they serve for its defence against every creature bu’
man.
688 REPTILIA—TORTOISR,

LAND TORTOISES!

 

Ang found of all sizes up to five fect in length from the end of the snout to
the tip of the tail; and to a foot and a half across the back. It has a small
head, somewhat resembling that of a serpent; an eye without the upper lid;
the under eyelid serving to cover and. keep that organ in safety. Ithasa
strong, scaly tail, like the lizard. Its head the animal can put out and
hide at pleasure, under the great penthouse of its shell; there it can re !.ain
secure from all attacks. As the tortoise lives wholly upon vegetable fouu, it
never seeks the encounter; yet if any of the smaller animals attempt to
invade its repose, they are sure to suffer. The tortoise, impregnably de-
fended, is furnished with such a strength of jaw, that, though armed only with
bony plates instead of teeth, wherever it fastens, it infallibly keeps its hold
until it has taken out the piece.

Though peaceable in itself, itis formed for war in another respect, for it
seems almost endued with immortality. Nothing can kill it; the depriving
it of one of its members is but a slight injury; it will live though deprived
of the brain; it will live, though deprived of its head. Tortoises are com-
monly known to exceed eighty years; and there was one kept in the arch-
bishop of Canterbury’s garden at Lambeth, London, that was remembered
above a hundred and twenty. It was at last killed by the severity of the
frost, from which it had not sufficiently defended itself in its winter retreat
which was a heap of sand at the bottom of the garden.

Though there is a circulation of blood in the tortoise, yet the animal is
capable of continuing to live without continuing to breathe. In this it
resembles the bat, the serpent, the mole, and the lizard; like them it takes
up its dark residence for the winter, and, at that time, when its food is no
longer in plenty, it happily becomes insensible to the want. But it must
not be supposed that, while it is thus at rest, it totally discontinues te
oreathe; on the contrary, an animal of this kind, if put into a close vessel,
without air, will soon be stifled; though not so readily as in a state of vigor
and activity.

 

1The genus Testudo has the upper shell gibhous, mupporied by a solid, hony frame, ane
joined through the greater portion of its sides to the under shell; feet with short wes unt
ed nearly to the nails, and capable, as well as the head, of being withdrawn within the
shell; fore feet with five nails, thuse behind with four, all thick and comcal,
REPTILIA—TORTO:SE...TURTLE. 68%

The eggs of all the tortoise kind, like those of birds, are furnishea with a
yolk and a white; but the shell is different, being somewhat like those scft
eggs that hens exelude before their time; however, this shell is much thicker
and stronger, and is a longer time in coming to maturity in the womb. The
land cortoise lays but a few in number, if compared to the sea turtle, wha
deposits from a hundred and fifty to two hundred in a season.

The amount of the land tortoise’s eggs we lave not been able to learn;.
but, from the scarceness of the animal, we are apt to think they cannot be
very numerous. When it prepares to lay, the female scratches a slight de-
pression in the earth, generally in a warm situation, where the beams of the
sun’have their full effect. There depositing her eggs, and covering thems
with grass and leaves, she forsakes them, to be hatched by the heat of the
season. The young tortoises are generally excluded in about twenty-six
days; but, as the heat of the weather assists, or its coldness retards, incu-
bation, sometimes it happens that there is a difference of two or three days.
The little animals no sooner leave the egg, than they seek for their provi-
sion, entirely self-taught; and their shell, with which they are covered from:
the beginning, expands and grows laiger with age. As it is composed of a
variety of pieces, they are all capable of extension at their sutures; and the
shell admits of increase in every direction.

It is common enough to take these animals into gardens, as they are
thought to destroy insects and snails in great abundance. We are even told
that, in hot countries, they are admitted into a domestic state, as thev are
great destroyers of bugs.

THE SEA TORTOISE, OR TURTLE,

As it is now called, is generally found larger than the former

 

THE GREAT MEDITERRANEAN TURTLE?

le the largest of the turtle kind with which we are acquainted. It is found
from five to eight feet long, and from six to nine hundred pounds weight -
but, u:luckily, its utility bears no proportion to its size, as itis unfit for food
and sometimes poisons those who eat it. The shell also, which is a tough
strong integument, resembling a hide, is unfit for all serviceable purposes,

1The genus Chelonia has the feet flattened into sealy fins; toes unequal, elongated,
scaly, and united by a membrane, with very small nails upon their exterior border, term. «
nated by scaly lamine.
£ Chelonia coriacea, Cuv.
87 5S*
690 REPTILILA-~ TURTLE.

One of hese anirnals was taken in the year 1729, at the mouth of the Luitc,
in France, in nets that were not designed for so large a capture. This tur
tle, which was of enormous strength, by its own struggles, involved itsclf
in the nets in such a manner as to be incapable of doing mischief: yet,
even thus shackled, it appeared terrible to the fishermen, who were at first
for flying; but, finding it impotent, they gathered courage to drag it on shore,
where it made a most horrible bellowing ; and when they began to knock
it on the head with their gaffs, it was to be heard at half a mile’s distance.
They were still further intimidated by its nauseous and pestilential breath,
which so powerfully affected them that they were near faintmg. ‘This
animal wanted but four inches of being eight feet long, and was about two
feet over; its shell more resembled leather than the shell of a tortoise ; and
unlike all other animals of this kind, it was furnished with teeth in cach
jaw, one rank behind another, like those of a shark; its feet also, different
from the rest of this kind, wanted claws ; and the tail was quite disengaged
from the shell, and fifteen inches long, more resembling that of a quadruped
than a tortoise.

These are a formidable and useless kind, if compared to the turtle carght
in the South seas and the Indian ocean. These are of different kinds; not
only unlike each other in form, but furnishing man with very different ad
vantages. They are usually distinguished by sailors into four kinds; the
trunk turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill, and the green turtle.

THE HAWKSBILL, OR IMBRICATED TURTLE

 

1s the least of the four, and has a long and small mouth, somewhat resem-
dling the bill uf a hawk. The flesh of this, also, is very indifferent eating;
but the shell serves for the most valuable purposes. This is the animal that
supplies the tortoise shell, ef which such a mee of beautiful trinkets are
made.

 

' Chelonia imbricata, Cuv.
REPTILIA--CROCODILE, 69.

But of al] animals of the tortoise kind, the green turtle! is the most noted
and the most valuable, from the delicacy of its flesh, and its nutritive quali-
vies, together with the property of being easily digested. It is generally
found about two hundred pounds in weight; though some are five hundred,
and others not above fifty. Dampier mentions one so large that a boy of:
ten years of age, the son of Captain Rock, went from the shore in the sheli
of it, as a boat, to his father’s ship.

This animal seldom comes from the sea but to deposit its eggs. Its chief
food consists of the mangrove, the blackwood tree, and other marine plants.
When the weather is fair, the turtles are sometimes seen feeding in great
uumbers, tike flocks of sheep, several fathoms deep upon the verdant carpet
below. They frequent the creeks and shallows, where they are usually
taken, but they are extremely shy of boats and men, and swim remarka-
bly fast.

ORDER II.—SAURIA.

Rertices of this order have the body elongated, covered with scales
generally with four feet; toes with claws, or at least, in part; tail more or
less lung; mouth armed with teeth.

 

THE CROCODILE.

Tus animal grows to a great length, being sometimes found thirty feet
long frum the tip ef the snout to the end of the tail; its most usual length,
however, is eighteen. One which was dissected by the Jesuits at Siam, was
eighteen feet and a half, French measure, in length ; of which the tail was
no less than five feet and a half, and the head and neck above two feet and
a halt. It was four feet, nine inches in circumference, where thickest. The
fore legs had the same parts and conformation as the arms of a man both
within and without. The hands, if they may be so called, had five fingers ;
the two last of which had no nails, and were of a conical figure. The
hinder legs, including the thigh and paw, were two feet two inches long,
the paws, from the joint to the extremity of the longest claws, were about
nine inches; they were divided into four toes, of which three were armea
with targe claws, the longest of which was an inch and a half; these tues
were united by a membrane, like these of a duck, but much thicker. The
head was lung, and had a little rising at the top; but the rest was flat, and

 

1 Chelonia mydas, Cuv.

¥
2The genus Crocodilus has the muzzle oblong and depressed; teeth unequal; legs
dentated, and feet palmated, the fuurth tooth in the lower jaw, on each side, lying along a
grouve in the upper,
692 REPTILIA—CROCODILRE.

especially towards the extremity of the jaws. It was covered by a skin,
which adhered firmly to the skull and to the jaws. The skull was rough
and unequal in several places. The eye was very small in proportion to the
rest of the body. The jaws seemed to shut one upon the other; and no-
thing ean be more false than that the aniinal’s under jaw is without motion;
it moves, like the lower jaw in all other animals, while the upper is fixed to
the skull, and absolutely immoveable. The animal had twenty-seven cut-
ting teeth in the upper jaw, and fifteen in the lower, with several void spaces
petween them. The distance of the two jaws, when opened as wideas they
could be, was fifteen inches and a half; this is a very wide yawn, and could
easily enough take in the body of aman. From the shoulders to the ex-
‘tremity of the tail, the animai was covered with large scales, of a square
form, disposed like parallel girdles. Tne creature.was covered not valy with

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these, but all over with a coat of armor; which, aowever, contrary to what
lias been commonly asserted, was not proof against a musket ball. It had
no bladder; but the kidney sent the urine to be discharged by the anus.
There were sixty-two joints in the back bone, which, though very closely
united, lad sufficient play to enable the animal to bend like a bow to the
right and the left; so that what we bear of escaping the creature by turning
out of the right line, and of the animal’s not being able to wheel readily after
ts prey, seems to be fabulous. :

The strength of every part of the crocodile is very great; and its arms,
both offensive and defensive, irresistible. Most naturalists have remarked,
from the shortness of its legs, the amazing strength of the tortoise; but
-what is the strength of such an animal, compared to that of the crocodile,
whose legs are very short, and whose size is so superior? Its principal in
REPTILLA—CROCODILE, 693

strument of destruc ion is the.tail; with a single blow of this, it has often:
pyerturned a canoe, and seized upon the poor savage, its conductor.

Though not sc powerful, yet it is very terrible even upon land. The
crocodile seldom, except when pressed by hunger, or with a view of deposit-
ing its eggs, leaves the water. Its usual method is to float along upun the
surface, and seize whatever animals come within its reach; but when this
method fails, it then goes closer to the bank. Disappointed of its fishy prey,
it there waits, covered up among the sedges, in patient expectaticn of some
land animal that may come to drink; the dog, the bull. the tiger, or man
himself. Nothing is to be seen of the insidious destroyer as the animal ap-
proaches; nor is its retreat discovered till it be too late for safety. It seizes
the victim with a spring, and goes at a bound much faster than so unwieldy
an anima! could be thought capable of; then, having secured the creature
with both teeth and claws, it drags it into the water, instantly sinks with it
te the bottom, and in this manner quickly drowns it.

The crocodile, brought into subjection, or bred up young, is used to divert
and entertain the great men of the East. [t is gften managed like a horse;
accurb is put into its mouth, and the rider directs it as he thinks proper
Though awkwardly formed, it does not fail to proceed with some degree of
swiftness, and is thought to move as fast as some of the most unwieldy of
our own animals, the hog or the cow.

Along the rivers of Africa, this animal is sometimes taken in the same
manner as the shark. Several Europeans go together in a large boat, and
throw out a piece of beef upon a hook and strong fortified line, which the
crocodile seizing and swallowing, is drawn along, floundering and struggling,
until its strength is quite exhausted; when it is pierced in the belly, which
is its tenderest part; and thus, after numberless wounds, is drawn ashore.
In this part of the world, also, as well as at Siam, the crocodile makes an
object of savage pomp, near the palaces of their monarchs. Phillips in-
forms us, that at Sabi, on the Slave Coast, there are two pvols of water near
the royal palace, where crocodiles are bred, as they breed carp in the ponds
in Europe.

There is a very powerful smell of musk about all these animals. Travel-
lers are not agreed in what part of the body these musk-bags are contained,
but the most probable opinion is, that this substance is amassed in glands
under the legs and arms. The crocodile’s flesh is, at best, very bad,
wugh eating; but, unless the musk-bags be separated, it is insupportable.
[he negroes themselves cannot well digest the flesh; but a crocodile’s egg
6 to them the most delicate morsel in the world.

_All crocodiles breed near fresh waters; and for this purpose the female,
when she comes to lay, chooses a place by the side of a river or some fresh
water lake, to deposit her brgod in. She always pitches upon an extensive
sandy shore, where she may dig a hole without danger uf detection from the
ground being fresh turned up. There she deposits from eighty to a hundred
694 REPTILIA—ALLIGATOR.

‘eggs, of the size of a tennis-hall, and of the same figure, covered with a
tough, white skin, like parchment. She takes above an hour to perform
this task ; and then covering up the place so artfully that it can scarcely be
perceived, she goes back, to return again the next day. Upon her return,
with the same precaution as before, she lays about the same number cf
eggs; and the day following also a like number. Thus, having «posited
her whole quantity, and having covered them close up in the sand, they are
soon vivitied by the heat of the sun; and at the end of thirty days. the young
ones begin to break open the shell. At this time, the female is instinctively
taught that her young ones want relief; and she goes upon land, to scratch
away the sand, and set them free. Her brood quickly avail themselves of
their liberty ; a part run unguided to the water; another pari ascend the
back of the female, and are carried thither in greater safety. But the moment
they arrive at the water, al] natural connection is at an end. The whole
brood scatters into different parts of the hottom ; by far the greater number
are destroyed; and the rest find safety in their agility or minuteness.

The open-bellied crocodite is furnished with a false belly, like the opos-
sum, where the young creep out and in, as their dangers and necessities
require. It is probable that this open-bellied crocodile is viviparous, and
fosters her young, that are prematurely excluded, in this second womb, until
they come to proper maturity.

THE ALLIGATOR, OR AMERICAN CROCO-
DILE,

Wutcu is called the cayman by the Indians, is closely allied to the preceding;
the principal difference between them being that its head and partof its neck
are much more smvoth than those of the latter, and that its snout is more wide
and flat, and more rounded at the extremity. The usua} length of the alli-
gator is seventeen or eighteen feet, but it sometimes exceeds this. This
animal is a native of the warmer parts of America, in some of which it is
astonishingly numerous. Its voice is loud and dreadful; and its musky
scent is sometimes so powerful as to be exceedingly offensive.

The habits of the North American alligator are described with great
accuracy, and in a very amusing manner, hy Mr Audubon. ‘One of the
most remarkable objects connected with the natura! history of America,
that attract the traveller’s eye as he ascends through the mouths of the

 

1 The genus Alligator has the muzzle broad, obtuse ; teeth unequal; the fourth tooth on
each side of the lower jaw entering a cavity in the upper; feet semi-palmated, and with
dentations.
REPITILIA—ALLIGATOR,. 695

mighty sea-like river Mississippi, is the alligator. There, along the muddy

shores, and on the large floating logs, these animals are seen lying stretched.

at full length, basking and asleep, or crossing to and fro the streaim in search
of food, with the head only out of the water. Itis here neither will nor
shy; gor is it the very dangerous animal represented by travellers. But, to
give you details that probably may not be uninteresting, I shall describe
their more private haunts, and relate what I have experienced id sven
respecting them in their habits. :

“Tn Louisiana, all our lagoons, bayous, creeks, ponds, lakes, and riveis,
are well stocked with them; they are found wherever there is a sufficient
quantity of water to hide them, or to furnish them with food; and they
continue thus, in great numbers, as high as the mouth of the Arkansas
river, extending east to North Carolina, and as far west as I have penetrated.

 

On the Red river, before it was navigated by steam vessels, they were sa
extremely abundant that, to see hundreds at a sight along the shores, or on
the immense rafts of floating or stranded timber, was quite acommon occur-
rence, the smaller on the backs of the larger, groaning and uttering their
bellowing noise, like thousands of irritated bulls about to meet in fight, but
all so careless of man that, unless shot at, or positively disturbed, they re-:
mained motionless, suffering boats or canoes to pass within a few yards of
them, without noticing them in the least. The shores are yet trampled by
them in such a manner, that their large tracks are seen as plentiful as thosa
696 REPTILIA—ALLIGATOR

of sheep in a fold. It wason that river, particularly, thousands of the largest
Bize were killed. when the mania of having shoes, boots, or saddle-seats
made of their nides. lasted. It had become an article of trade, and manv of
the squatters and strolling Indians followed for a time no other business.
The discoverv that their skins are not sufficiently firm and close-grained to
prevent water, or dampness Jong, puta stop to their general destruction,
which had already become very apparent. The leather prepared from these
skins was handsome and very pliant, exhibiting all the regular lozenges
of the scales, and able to receive the highest degree of polish and finishing.

“ The usual motion of the alligator, wnen on land, is slow and sluggish,
itis a kind of labored crawling, performed by moving alternately each leg,
in the manner of a quadruped when walking, scarce able to keep up their
weighty bodies from diagging on the earth, and leaving the track of their
long tail on tle mud, as if that of the keel of a small vessel. Thus they
emerge from the water, and go about the shores and the woods, or the fields,
in search of food, or of a different place of abode, or one of safety to deposit
their eggs. If, at such times, when at all distant from the water, an enemy
is perceived by them, they droop and lie flat, with the nose on the ground,
watching the intruder’s movements with their eyes, which are able to move
considerably round, without affecting the position of the head. Should a
man then approach them, they do not attempt cither to make away or attack,
but merely raise their body from the ground tor an instant, swelling them-
selves, and issuing a dull blowing, not unlike that of a biacksmith’s bellows.
Not the least danger need be apprehended ; then you may either kill them with
ease, or leave them. But, to give you a better idea of the slowness of their
movements and progress of travels on land, when arrived ata large size,
say twelve or fifteen feet, believe me when I tell you, that having found one
‘in the morning, fifty yards froma lake, going to another in sight, I have
left him unmolested, hunted through the surrounding swamps all the day,
‘and met the same alligator within five hundred yards of the spot, when re-
turning to my camp at dusk. On this account they usually travel during
the night, they being then less likely to be disturbed, and having’a better
<narre ww surprise a litter of pigs, or of land tortoises, for prey.

“The power of the aJligator is in Lis great strength ; and the cl :ef means
of his attack or defence is his large tail, so well contrived by nature to
supply his wants, or guard him from danger, that it reaches, wnen curved
mito half a circle, his enormous mouth. Woe be to him who goes within
the reach of this tremendous thrashing instrument; for no matter how strong
or muscular—if human, he must suffer greatly, if he escapes with life.
The :monster, as he strikes with this, forces all objects within the circle
tuwards his jaws, which, as the tail makes a motion, are opened to their full
‘stretcn, thrown a little sideways, to receive the object, and, like batter:
npig-ranis, to bruise :t shockingly in a moment.
REPTILIA—LIZARD. 697

“The alligator, when after prey in the water, or atits edge, swims so
siowly towards it, as not'to ruffle the water. It approaches the object side-
ways, body and head all concealed, till sure of his stroke; then, with a tre-
mendous blow, as quick as thought, the ehject is secured, as 1 described
before.”

 

THE LIZARD!

Tn color of these animals is very various, as they are found of a hun-
dred different hues; green, blue, red, chesnut, yellow, spotted, streaked, and
marbled. Were color alone capable of constituting beauty, the lizard would
often please; but there is something so repulsivé in the animal’s figure,
that the brilliancy of its scales, or the variety of its spots, only tend to give
an air of more exquisite venom, of greater malignity. The figure of these
animals is not less various; sometimes swollen in the belly, sometimes
pursed up at the throat; sometimes with a rough set of spines on the back,
like the teeth of a saw; sometimes with teeth, at others with none; some-
times venomous, at others harmless, and even philanthropic; sometimes
smooth and even; sometimes with a Jong, slender tail; and often witha
shorter blunt one.

But their greatest distinction arises from their manner of bringing forth
their young ; some of them are viviparous; some are oviparous; and some
bring forth small spawn, like fishes.

 

THE GREEN LIZARD&4

    
  

me

“Res

Is seen in its greatest brilhancy about the beginning of spring; when, after
having thrown off its old covering, it exposes its new skin, with all its bright
enamelled scales, to the genial warmth of the sun’s rays, which, playing on
the scales, gild them with undulating reflections. The upper parts of the

 

1The genns Lacerta has the palate armed with two rows of eth; acollar on the under
side of the neck, formed by a transverse row of iarge scales, separmtied from those of the
nelly by very sinall ones ; bone of the cranium projected on the temples and orbits,

2 Lacerta viri lis, Dauv,

se bP
698 REPTILIA—IGUANA.

body are of a beautiful green, more or less variegated with yellow, gray
brown, and even sometimes with red; the under parts being always more
ofa whitish color. The colors of this species are subject to variety, becom-
ing pale at certain seasons of the year, and more particularly after the death
of the animal. It is chiefly in the warm countries that it shines with all its
superb ornaments, like gold and precious stone. In those regions it grows
to a larger size than in more temperate countries, being sometimes found
thirty inches in length. The inhabitants of Africa eat the flesh of this
annnal. . It is a gentle creature, and, if taken when young, may be rendered
tame. If irritated, however, and driven to extremity, it will defend itself
ugainst a dog, and will fasten so firmiy on his muzzle, as to allow itself to
be killed, rather than forego its hold.

The green lizard is by no means confined to the warmest countries of both
continents; it is found likewise in temperate regions, though it is there
smaller and less numerous. It is not even unknown in Sweden, and in
Kamesehatka ; and in both countries, in spite of its beautiful «appearance, it
is looked on by the ifhabitants with horror, from some s.range superstitious
prejudices.

 

THE IGUANA

{fs about three feet long, and the body about as thick as o1e’s thigh. The
skin is covered with small scales, like those of a serpent; and the baca is
furnished with a row of prickles that stand up, like the teeth of a saw.
Both the jaws are full of very sharp teeth, and the bite is dangerous, though
not venomous. The male has a skin hanging under his throat, which
reaches down to his breast; and when displeased, he puffs it up like a
bladder; be is one third larger and stronger than the female though the
strength of either avails them little towards their defence. ‘The males are
ash colored, and the females are green.

The flesh of these may be considered as the greatest delicacy of Afri:a
and South America; and the sportsmen of those climates go out to hunt the
iguana, as we do in pursuit of the pheasant or the hare. In the beginning
of the season, when the great floods of the tropical climates are passed away,
and vegetation starts into universal verdure, the sportsmen are seen, with a
noose and a stick, wandering along the sides of the rivers, to take the
iguana. This animal, though apparently formed for combat, is the most
harmless creature of all the forest. i

 

+ Iguana rulgari-, Lix. The genus Jeuana has the body and tail covered with small
imbricated scales; a row of spines, or impressed and pointed scales along the back;
theoat with a pentent and inflated skin. compressed laterally ; femoral pores : head
diated; a row ‘ice yale tnangular and + errated teeth around Ue Jaws, and two little
tows on Lhe posterior wargin of the palate.
REPTILIA—CHAMELEON, 699

THE CHAMELEON;

 

LiKE the crocodile, this little animal proceeds from an egg; and italso nearly
resetnbles that formidable creature in form. It is found in all the warm
countries. hoth of the old and the new world.

The head of a large chameleon is almost two inches long; and thence to
the beginning of the tail, four and a half; the tail is five inches long, and
the feet two and a half; the thickness of the body is different at different
times; for sometimes, from the back to the belly it is two inches, and
sometimes but one ; for it can blow itself up, and contract itself at pleasure.
This swelling and contraction is not only of the back and belly, but of the
legs and tail.

The chameleon has the power of driving the air it breathes, over every
part of the body; however, it only gets between the skin and the muscles;
for the muscles theinselves are never swollen. The skin is very cold to the
touch; and though tne animal seems so Jean, there is no feeling the beating
of the heart. The surface of the skin is unequal, and has a grain not unlike
shagreen, but very soft, because each eminence is as smooth as if it were
polished. The color of all these eminences, when the chameleon is at rest
ir a shadv place, is of a bluish gray ; and the space between is of a pale red
and yellow.

But when the animal is removed into the sun, then comes the wonderful y<.t
of its history. At first, it appears to suffer no change of color, its grayisn
spots still continuing the same; but the whole surface soon seems to iutibe
the rays of light; and the simple @loring of the body changes into a variety
of beautiful ues. Wherever the light comes upon the body, it is of a tawny
brown ; but that part of the skin on which the sun does not shine, changes

 

IThe genus Chameleon has the hody shagreened with small scaly granules, compressed,
and the hack edged; tail round and prehensile ; five toes on all the feet, bat divided ‘nto
two sets. the one of three toes. the other of two. eaeh united by a membrane ty the aaa 3
tongue fleshy. cyliudrical, and extremely extensible; teeth tr-lobed ; eyes laewe but
almost covered hy skin, and with separate movements ; no external ear; ucciput pysviudal;
lungs very large.
700 ‘REPTILIA—BOA CONSTRICTOR.

into several brighter colors, pale yellow, or vivid crimson, which form spots
of the size of half one’s finger; some of these descend from the spine halt
way down the back ; and others appear on the sides, arms, and tail. Some-
times the animal becomes all over spotted with brown spots, of a greenish
cast. When it is wrapped: up in a white linen cloth for two or three
minutes, the natural color becomes much lighter, but not quite white, as
some authors have pretended; however, it must not hence be concluded
that the chameleon assumes the color of the objects which it approaches;
this is entirely an error, and probably has taken its rise from the continual
changes it appears to undergo.

When the chameleon changes place, and attempts to descend from an
eminence, it moves with the utmost precaution, advancing one leg very
deliberately before the other, still securing itself by holding whatever it can
grasp by the tail. It seldom opens the mouth, except for fresh air; and,
when that is supplied, discovers its satis‘action by its motions, and the fre-
quent changes of its color. The tongue is sometimes darted out after its prey,
which are flies; and this is as long as the whole body. The eyes are re-
markably little, though they stand out of the head; but the most extraordi-
nary part of their conformation is, that the animal often moves one eye,
when the other is entirely at rest; nay, sometimes one eye will seem to look
directly forward, while the other looks backward ; and one will look upwards,
while the other regards the earth.

ORDER III.—OPHIDIA.

Tue ophidia, or serpents, have a heart with two auricles ; hody much elons
fated, cylindrical, destitute of feet, generally covered with scales.

THE BOA CONSTRICTUR:

Tre ground color of the body of the great boa, which is the largest ana
strongest of the serpent race, is yellowish gray, on which is distributed,
along the back, a series of large, cliain-like, reddish brown, and sometimes
perfectly red variations, with other small and more irregular marks and
spots.

The great boa is frequeatly from twenty-five to thirty feet'in length, and
of a proportionate thickness. The rapacity of these creatures is often their
own destruction; for whenever they seize and swallow their prey, they
seem like surfeited gluttons, unwieldy, stupid, helpless, and sleepy. ‘They
at the same time seek for some retreat, where they may lurk for several

 

VThe genus Boa has the anus with a hook on each side; bady compressed, thickest ip
tne middle; tail prehensile; scales sniall,at least upon the posterior part of the bead,
REPTILIA—BOA CONSTRICTOR. 701

days together, and digest their meal in safety. The smallest effort will tnen
destroy them; they scarcely can make any resistance; and, equally un-
qualified for flight or opposition, even the naked Indians do not fear to assail
them. But it is otherwise, when this sleeping interval of digestion is over;
they then issue, with famished appetites, from their retreats, and with
accumulated terrors, while every animal of the forest flies from their
presence. One of them has bcen known to kill and devour a buffalo.
Having darted upon the affrighted beast, (says the narrator,) the serpent
instantly began to wrap him round with its voluminous twistings; and at
every twist the bones of the buffalo were heard to crack as loud as the report
of a gun. It was in vain that the animal struggled and bellowed; its
enormous enemy entwined it so closely, that at length all its bones were
crushed to pieces, like thos of a malefactor on the wheel, and the whole

 

body was reduced to one uniform mass; the serpent then untwined its
folds, in order to swallow its prey at leisure. To prepare for this, and also
to make it slip down the throat more smoothly, it was seen to lick *he
whole body over, and thus to cover it with a mucilaginous substance. It
then began to swallow it, at the end that offered the least resistance; and
in the act of swallowing, the throat suffered so great a dilatation, that it
took in at once a substance that was thrice its own thickness.

This animal inhabits India, Africa, and South America. With respect to
their conformation, all serpents have a very wide mouth, in proportion to
the size of the head; and, what is very extraordinary, they can gape and
swallow the head of another animal which is. three times as big as their
own.. Te explain this, it must be observed, that the jaws of this animal do not
open as oars, in the manner of a pair of hinges, where bones are applied to
bones, and play upoa one another; on the contrary, the serpent’s jaws are !.eld
together at the roots by a stretching muscular skin; by which means they
open as widely as the animal chooses to stretch them, and admit of a prey
much thicker than the snake’s own body. The throat, like stretching leas
702 REPTILIA—ANACONDA...RINGED SNAKE.

her, dilates to admit the morsel; the stomach receives it in part; and the
rest remains in the gullet, till putrefaction and the juices of the serpent’s
body unite to dissolve it.

 

THE ANACONDA!

 

Innazits Surmam. He is twenty feet in length, of a bright brown color,
with a double row of deep brown round spots along the back, and ocellated
spots un the sides. The name of anaconda has been popularly applied tv all
serpents of enurmous size.

THE BLACK, OR RINGED SNAKE?

Is the largest of English serpents, sometimes exceeding four feet in length,
The neck is slender, the middle of the body thick, the back and sides covered
with small scales; the belly with oblong, narrow, transverse plates; the
solor of the back and sides is of a dusky brown; the middle of the back
marked with two rows of small black spots, running from the head to the
tail; the plates on the belly are dusky; the scales on the sides are of a
bluish white; the teeth are small and serrated, tying on each side of the

 

1 Boa scytale, Lin.

* Coluber natriz, Lin. The genus Coluber has transverse plates on the belly, divided
ito two under the tail, or forming a double row; head flattened, with nine large plates;
teeth almost equal; no poison fangs. é
REPTILIA—BLACK SNAKE...RATTLESNAKE. 703

é
jaw, in two rows. The whole species is perfectly inoffensive, taking shelter
in dunghills, and among bushes in moist places; whence they seldem

 

remove, unless in the midst of the day, in summer, when they are invited
out by the heat, to bask themselves in the sun. i
‘This snake preys upon frogs, insects, worms, mice, and young birds.

 

THE BLACK SNAKE

Or the United States, which is larger than the above, and generally grows
to six feet long, takes a prey propertionable to its size—-squirrels and
small birds. It is sometimes found in the neighborhood of the hen-roost
and will devour the eggs, even while the hen is sitting unon them. But its
usual haunts are meadows and dry thickets. It may be often seen among
whortleberry bushes, waiting to make a prey of the oirds that are hopping
among them. Its color is a glossy black, sometimes tinged with blue. It
seizes its prey with great quickness, and kills it by eviling round the body
in the manner cf the boa constrictor.

 

THE RATTLESNAKE?

:s found in North and South America, and in no part of the old wvrld,
Some are as thick as a man’s arm, and six feet in length; but the most
usual size is from four to five feet long. In most particulars it resemlJes
the viper; it differs, however, in having a large scale, which hangs like a
penthouse over each eye. They are of an orange tawny, and blackish color
on the back; and of an ash color on the belly, inclining to lead. The male
may he readily distinguished from the female, by a black velvet spot on the

 

1 Crotalus horridus, Lin, The genus Crotalus has the head broad, triangular, and
flattened ; scales carinated ; tongue forked; a hollow behind the nostrils ; upper maaillary
pones with isolated fangs; plates, or transverse hands under the body and tail; extremity
of the tail with a rattle, formed of hollow, moveable and sonorous plates.

6aQ8
104 REPTILIA—RATTLESNAKE.

head, and by the head being smaller and longer. But that which, besides
their superior malignity, distinguishes them from all other animals, is their
rattle av instrument lodged in their tail, by which they make such a loud,
rattling noise, when they move, that their approach may readily be per-
ceived, and the danger avoided. This rattle, which is placed in the tail,
somewhat resembles, when taken from the body, the curb chain of a bridle,
it is composed of several thin, hard, hollow bones, linked on each other, and
rattling upon the slightest motion. It is supposed by some that the snake
acquires an additional bone every year; and that from this its age may he
precisely known ; however this may be, certain it is, that the youag snakes
of a year or two old, have no rattles at all; while many old ones have been
killed, th:.c had from eleven to thirteen joints each They shake and make

 

a aise with these rattles, with prodigious quickness when they are dis-
turbed; however, the peccary and the vulture are no way terrified at the
sound, but hasten at the signal, to seize the snake, as their most favorite
“rey.

Ivis very different with almost every other animal. The certain death
which ensues from this terrible creature’s bite, makes a solitude wherever it
is heard. It moves along most majestically; neither seeking to offend the
larger animals, nor fearmg their insults. If unprovoked, it never meddles
with any thing but its natural prey; but when accidentally trodden upon,
or pursued to be destroyed, it them makes a dreadful and desperate defence.
It erects itself upon its tail, throws back its head, and inflicts the wound in
a moment; then parts, and inflicts a second wound; after which, we are
told by some, that it remains torpid and inactive, without even attempting
to escape.
@
REPTILIA—HOOD&D SERPENT 705

‘Phe very instant the wound is inflicted, though small in itself, it appears
move painful than the sting of a bee. This pain, which is so suddenly felt,
far from abating, grows every moment more excruciating and dangerous;
the limb swells; the venom reaches the head, which is soon of a monstrous
size; the eyes are red and fiery; the heart beats quick, with frequent inter-
Tuptions ; the pain becomes insupportable, and sume expire-under it in five
or six hours ; but others, who are of stronger constitutions, survive the agony
,or a few heute longer, only to sink under a general mortification which
ensues and corrupts the whole body.

The usual motion of the rattlesnake is with its head to the ground,
When, however, it is alarmed, it coils its body into a circle, with its head
erect, and its eyes flaming in a terrific manner. But it cannot pursue rapid-
iy, aud has no power of springing on its enemy.

Rattlesnakes are viviparous, producing their young, generally about twelve
in number, in the month of June, and by September these acquire the length
of twelve inches. It has been well attested that they adopt the same mode
of preserving their young from danger as that attributed to the common
viper, receiving them mto their mouth and swallowing them. It is believed
by some naturalists to have the power of fascinating its prey by gazing at it, so
as to render it incapable of flight; but others are doubtful as to this being a
fact. The probability seems to be, that the victim is prevented from escap-
ing merely by the extreme terror which its formidable enemy inspires.

THE COBRA DE CAPELLO, OR HOODED
SERPENT,

(nrLicts the most deadly and incurable wounds. Of this formidable crea-
ture there are five or six different kinds; but they are all equally dangerous,
and their bive is followed by speedy and certain death. It is from thee to
eight feet long, with two large fangs hanging cut of the upper jaw. It lias
a broad neck, and a mark of dark brown on tne forehead ; which, when vic w-

 

Naia meres Lin. The genus Noia has plates lar ser on the body near the head; tae
fea covered with large plates, and hind head furnished with a hood; poisonuus faags i in
toe upper jaw.

89
706 REPTILIA—EGYPTIAN VIPER.

ed frontwive, looks like a pair of spectacles; but behind, like the head of a
eat. The eyes are fierce, and full of fire; the head is small, and the: nose

 

flat, though covered with very large scales, of a yellowish ash color; the sain
is white, and the large*tumor on the neck is flat, and covered with oblong,
smooth scales.

THE EGYPTIAN VIPER.

 

Tats is said to be the officinal viper of the Egyptians, and is, by some,
supposed to be the asp of Clropatra, by the bite of which that high-spirited
princess determined to die rather than submit to be carried to Rome in
oider to grace the triumph of Augustus. It is imported in considerable
quantities every year to Venice, for the use of the apothecaries in the com-
position of theriaca, and for other purposes. It is abundant in Egypt; and
is found in other parts of Africa as well as in Asia. It is from twenty

1 Naia haje, Lin.
REPTILIA—VIPER. 707

inches long to three feet.and upwards, variegated with rich chestaut brown
-spots or bands, on a lighter brown ground, the scales rerharkably short
close set, and hard; the eyes.are vertical; the head compressed, and covered
‘with very minute dark brown scales, and reddish stripes.

THE VIPER|.!

 

THE common viper? is a native of many parts of Europe; but the dry
stony, and in particular the chalky countries, abound with them. In the
East Indies, also, it is found, and varies very slightly from that which be-
longs to Europe. It can equally support the vicissitudes of very cold
climates, it being an inhabitant of Sweden, where its bite is nearly as
dangerous as in the warmer regions of Europe; and likewise of Russia, and
of several parts of Siberia, where it is very numerous, as the superstitions
of the people deter them from endeavoring to destroy this noxious reptile,
because that they conceive some terrible disaster will follow the attempt.
This animal seldom grows to a greater length than two feet; though some-
times they are found above three. The ground color of their bodies is a
dirty yellow; that of the female is deeper. The back is marked the whole
length with a series of rhomboid black spots, touching each other at the
points; the sides with triangular ones; the belly entirely black. It is
chiefly distinguished from the common ringed snake by the color, which in
the latter is more beautifully mottled; as well as by the head, which is
thicker than the body; but particularly by the tail, which, in the viper,
though it ends in a point, does not run tapering to so great a length as in
the other. When, therefore, cther distinctions fail, the difference of the tail
ean be discerned at a single glance. ,

The viper differs from most other serpents in being much slower, as also,
m excluding its young completely formed, and bringing them forth alive
The kindness of Providence seems exerted not only in diminishing the

 

\The genus. Vipera has scales on the head rough or granulated ; plates under sne Selly
divided into two under the tail ; poisonous fangs in the upper jaw.

2 Vipera Berus, Cuv
708 REPTILIA—HORNED VIPLR.

speed, but also the fertility, of this dangerous creature: They couple in
May, and are supposed to be about three months before they bring forth, and
have seldom above eleven eggs ata time. These are of the size of a black
bird’s egg, and chained together in the womb like a string of beads. Each
egg contains from one to four young ones; so that the whole of a brood may
amount to about twenty or thirty. They continue in the womb till they
come to such perfection as to be able to burst from the shell; and they are
said to creep from their confinement by their own efforts into the open air,
where they continue for severa] days without taking any food whatsoever.
When they are in danger, they retreat into the mouth of the mother.

The viper is capable of supporting very long abstinence, it being known
that some have been kept in a box six months without food; yet during the
whole time they did not abate of their vivacity. They feed only a small
part of the year, but never during their confinement; for if mice, their fa-
vorite diet, should at that time be thrown into their box, though they will kill,
jet they will never eat them. When at liberty, they remain torpid through-
out the winter; yet, when confined, have never been observed to take their
annual repose. :

Vipers crawl slowly at all times, and in general only attack such smaller
animals as are their usual food. They never -villingly assail man or the
larger animals, except when wounded, trampled on, or irritated, when they
become furious, and are apt to bite severely. From the firmer manner in
which their spine is articulated, they are unable to twist themselves round
so much as most other serpents. It is only the head that they can turn with
any considerable degree of agility; owing to this circumstance, they are
easily taken. For this purpose, some persons use a forked stick, to fix the
viper by the neck; and then, seizing it by the tail, throw it into a bag.
Others, holding down its head with the end of a stick, take it fast in the
left hand by the neck; and while the animal makes ineffectual efforts to
defend itself, with its mouth wide open, cut out its poisonous fangs with a
pair of scissors or a knife ; the viper, after this, is incapable of doing injury,
and may be handled with perfect safety. The English viper-catchers have
the boldness to seize them suddenly by the neck, or even by the tail, with
their hands; and holding them with a firm grasp, the animal is altogether
meapable of turning itself sufficiently to bite the hand that holds it fast.

THE HORNED VIPER.

Tur. cerastes, or horned viper, which commonly grows to the length of
about a foot or fifteen inches, but sometimes more than two feet, is distin-
guished by a pair of horns or curved, processes, situated above the eyes, and

 

1 Vipera cerastes, Cuv.
REPTILIA—AMPHISBENA. 70%

pointing forward ; these horns have nothing analogous in their structure te
the horns of quadrupeds, and are by no means to be considered in the light
of either offensive or defensive weapons ; they are mveable, and about one
sixth of an inch long.

The head of the cerastes is flattened ; the muzzle thick and short; the eye
yellowish green. The hind part of the head is narrower than the part of
the body to which it is attached. The scales of the head are of the same
size with those on the back, or only a little less; and all the scales are »val

 

witn a longitudinal ridge. The general color of the back is yellowish, with
irregular spots of different degrees of darkness, in form of transverse bands.
The under surface of the body is brighter. The cerastes inhabits the great-
est part of the eastern continent, especially the desert sandy part of it. It
abounds in the three Arabias, and in Africa. In Egypt, it appears to be par-
tially domesticated, as it will enter the houses when the family are at table,
pick up the scattered crumbs, and retire without doing injury to any one.
This animal can endure hunger and thirst much longer than most serpents;
some naturalists assert that it can exist five years without nourishment.

THE AMPHISBENA.

Tis genus grows usually to the length of one or two feet, of which the
tail never exceeds an inch, or an inch and a quarter. It is from the extremi-
ties of its body being of an equal thickness its being supposed to crawl in
both directions, that it derives its name. The eyes are exceedingly small,
and covered in such a manner by a ‘membrane, as to be hardly perceptible ;
from which circumstance it has been called the blind serpent. The top of
the head is covered by six large scales, in three rows of two each; and the
body is entirely covered with smooth scales of an almost square form, arrang-
ed in regular transverse rings. It has a hard skin of an earthy color.

 

1 The genus Amphisbena has the body surrounded with circular rows or quadrangular
scales; a row of pores before the anus; teeth not numerous, conical in the jaws only; om

parous.
60
710 REPTILIA—FROG.

This animal is found in India, particularly the isle of Ceylon ; and like-
wise in South America. Its habits are in a great measure unknown ; but it
feeds on earthworms, beetles, and various insects; it is particularly fond ot
devouring ants, which in numberless legions often destroy‘all before them,-
leaving every thing desolate as if destroyed’ by fire.. Having’the power of
advancing or withdrawing itself without injury, in‘ consequence of its‘strucs'
ture, this serpent is peculiarly fitted for penetrating into the subterrar.eous'
retreats of ants; worms, and other insects; and is able to dig deeper than
any other serpent, its skin being very hard, and its muscles very strong.
The amphisbena is not venomous;

ORDER- IV.—BATRACHIA.

Reptites of this order have’ a‘heart with one auricle; body covered with a
naked skin; lungs two when mature, but with bronchie like fishes in their
early stage.

THE FROG.

 

Tr we examine this animal internally, we shall find that it has very little
brain for its size; a very wide swallow; a stomach seemingly small, but
capable of great distention. The heart in the frog, as in all other animals
that are truly amphibious, has but one ventricle; so that’the blood can cir-
culate without the assistance’ of the lungs, while it keeps underwater. The’
lungs resemble a number of small bladders joined together, like the cells of
a honey-comb; they ate connected to the back by muscles, and can be dis-
tended or exhausted at the animal's pleasure. Neither male nor female have’
any of the external instruments of generation; the anus‘ serving for tnat™
purpose in both: Such are the most’ striking peculiarities in the anatomy’
ot a frog; and in these it agrees with the toad, the lizard, and the serpent.

 

1 The characteristics of the genus Rana, or frog, are a hody slender ; hind feet very lon:
mus.ular, and completely palmated; skin smooth; upper jaw furnished with a row o
amall téeth and an’ interrtpted transverse one in the middle of the palate; males with s
tuin membrane under the 2ar, which is inflated with air when they cry.
REPTILIA—PROG. 712

The female ‘is.impregnatéd neither, by the mouth, as’ some philosophers
imagine, nor by the excrescence at the thumbs, as was the opinion of Lin-
nus; but by the inspersion of the male seminal fluid upon the eggs as they.
proceed from the body. :

A-single female produces from six.to eleven hundred eggs at a time; and,
in general, she throws them all out together by a single effort; though some-
times she is: an hour in performing this task, It is generally in March that
she deposits the ova, or spawn.

‘When the spawn is emitted and inipregnated by the male, it drops to the
hottom. The eggs, which during the four first hours suffer no perceptible
change; begin then: to enlarge and grow lighter; by which means they
mount to the surface of the water. The twenty-first day, the egg is seen to.
upen alittle on one side, and the beginning of a tail to peep out, which be-
comes more and more distinct every-day. The thirty-ninth day, the little
animal] begins. to have motion; it moves at.intervals its tail; and it is per-
ceived that the liquor in-which it is: circumfused, serves it for nourishment.
In two days’ more, some of these little creatures fall to the bottom; while
others remain swimmingiin the fluid round them, while their vivacity and.
motion is seen to increase. Those which fall to the bottom remain there
the whole day; but having. lengthened themselves a‘little, for hitherto they
are doubled-up, they mount at-intervals to the mucus, which they-had quit-
ted; and’are seen to feed upon it with great vivacity. The next day they:
acquire their tadpole form. In three days-more, they are perceived to have
two little fringes, that serve as-fins, beneath the head; and these in four
days after-assume a more perfect form. It is then also that they are seen to
feed very greedily upon the pond-weed. When ninety-two days old, two
small feet are seen beginning to sprout near the tail; and the head appears
to -be separate from the body. In five days-after'this, they-refuse all vegeta-
ble-food; their: mouth-appears farnished with teeth; and their hinder legs:
are completely: formed: In this state it continues for about six or eight
hours; .and-then the tail dropping off by degrees, the animal appears in its*
most perfect form.

Thus the frog, in less than a day, having changed its figure, is seen ta:
change its appetites also. As soon as the animal acquires its perfect state-
from having. fed upon vegetables it becomes carnivorous, and lives entirely
upon wornis and insects: But, as-the water cannot supply these, it is oblig-
ed to quil its native element, and:seek for food upon land, where it lives by
hunting worms and taking.insects-by: surprise.

The frog lives- for the most: part out‘of the water; but when the cold
nights begin to set in, it returns to its native element, always choosing stag-
nant waters, where it can lie without danger, concealed at the bottom. In
this manner it continues torpid, or with but very little motion, all the win:
er; like the rest of the dormant race, it requires no food; and ‘the circula-
tio. is slowly carried ‘on, without any assistance from the air. In the
712 REPTILIA—FROG.

countries round Hudson’s Bay, it is often found frozen hard, in which state
it is as brittle as glass; yet, by wrapping it in warm skins, and exposing it
to a slow fire, it will return to life.

The difference of sexes, which was menfioned above, 1s not perceivable
in these animals, until they have arrived at their fourth year; nor do they
begin to propagate, till they have completed that period. By comparing
their slow growth with their uther habitudes, it would appear, that they live
about twelve years; but having so many enemies, both y land and water,
it is probable that few of them arrive at the end of their term.

Frogs live upon insects of all kinds; but they never eat any, unless they
have motion. They continue fixed and immoveable till their prey appears;
and just when it comes sufficiently near, they jump forward with great agili-
ty, dart out their tongues, and seize it with certainty. The tongue in this
animal, as in the toad, lizard, and serpent, is extremely long, and formed in
such a manner that it swallows the point down its throat; so that a length
of tongue is thus drawn out, like a sword from its scabbard, to assail its
prey. This tongue is furnished with a glutinous substance; and whatever
msect it touches infallibly adheres, and 1s thus held fast till it is drawn into
the mouth.

The croaking of frogs is well known, whience in some countries they are
distinguished by: the ludicrous title of Dutch nightingales. The large water
or bull frogs of the northern countries have a note as loud as the bellowing
of a bull; and, for this purpose, puff up the cheeks to a surprising magni-
tude. Of all frogs, however, the maie only croaks; the female is silent;
before wet weather, their voices are in full exertion; they are then heard
with unceasing assiduity, sending forth their call, and welcoming the ap-
proaches of their favorite moisture. No weather-glass was ever so true as
a frog, in foretelling an approaching change. This may probably serve te
explain an opinion which some entertain, that there is a month in the year,
called Paddock Moon, in which the frogs never croak: the whole seems to
be no more than that, in the hot season, when the moisture is dried away,
and consequently, when these animals neither enjoy the quantity of health
nor food that at other times they are supplied with, they show by their silence
4ow much they are displeased with the weather.

A+ frogs adhere closely to the backs of their own species, so it has been
found, by repeated experience, they will also adhere to the backs of tishes.
Few tha: have ponds, but know that these animals will stick to the backs of
carp, and fix their fingers in the corner of each eye. In this manner they
are often ca ight together; the carp blinded, and wasted away.
REPTILIA—FROG...TOAD. 713

THE EDIBLE FROG,

Whucu is considerably larger than the common species, is rare in England,
but is abundant in Italy, France, and Germany, where its hind quarters are
looked upon as a delicacy. It is of an olive green hue, marked with black
patches on its back, and on its limbs with black transverse bars.

THE TREE FRuG2

Yue tree frog is small, slender, and elegantly incde; green in all tne
upper parts, whitish in the abdomen, and reddish on the under surtace of ine
limbs. In summer it resides principally on the upper branches of trees,
where it feeds on insects, which it catches very dexterously. It is remarka-
ble fur its power of absorbing water. It is found in France, Germany, and
Italy, and other European countries, and in various parts of America, but
not in Great Britain.

 

THE TOADS

 

As the toad bears a general resemblance in figure to the frog, so also it
cesembles that animal in its nature and appetites. When, like the frog,
these anim ils have undergone all the variations of their tadpole state, they
forsake tne water, and are often seen in a moist summer’s evening, craving
up, by myriads, from fenny places, into drier situations. There, having

 

1 Rana esculenta, Lin.

2 Ayla arborea, Lin, The genus Hyla has the body slightly compressed, elongated,
smooth; tongue short and thick; the two fore feet furnished with four toes, the hinder
with five, all without claws, but terminated by lenticular tubercles; male with a gular
pouch, capable of inflation. i

3 Bufo vulgaris, Lin. The genus Bufo has the bndy thick, short, and broad, covered
shove with warts av papille, which exude a fend fluid ; a thick projection behind the ears,
no teeth; eyes lurge and protuberant; fore feet with four toes separate ; hind tet shurt
with five toes, generally palmated.

i 90 60*
714- -REPTILIA—TOAD.

found out a retrent, or having dug themselves one with their mouth and
hands, they lead a patient, solitary life, seldom venturing out, except when
the moisture of a summer’s evening invites them abroad. At that time the
grass is filled with snails, and the pathways covered with worms, which
make their principal food. Insects also, of every kind, they are fond of;
and we have the authority of Linnzus for it, that they sometimes continue
immoveable, with the mouth open, at the bottom of shrubs, where the but-
terflies, in some measure fascinated, are seen to fly down their throats.

The toad, contrary to vulgar prejudice, is a harmless, defenceless creature,
torpid and unvenomous, and seeking the darkest retreats, not from the malig-
nity of its nature, but the multitude of its enemies.

Like al of the frog kind, the toad is torpid in winter. It chooses then for
a-retreat either the hollow root of a tree, the cleft of a rock, or sometimes
tne bottom of a pond, where it is found in a state of seeming insensibility.
As it-is very long-lived, it is very difficult to be killed; its skin is tough, and
cannot be easily pierced; and, though covered with wounds, the animal
zontinues to show signs of life, and every part appears in motion. But
what shall we say to its living for centuries lodged in the bosom of a rock,
or cased within the body of an oak tree, without the smallest access on any
side, either for nourishment or air; and: yet taken out alive and perfect!
Stories of this kind, it would be as rash to contradict, as it is dificult to be-
lieve; we have the highest authorities bearing witness to their truth, and
yet, the whole analogy of nature seems to arraign them of falsehood.
Bacon asserts, that toads are found in this manner; Dr Plot asserts the
same; there is, to this day, a marble chimney-piece at Chatsworth, with the
print of the toad upon it, and tradition‘of:the manner in which it was found.
In the Memoirs of the Academy: of Sciences, there is an account of a toad
found alive and healthy in the heart'of:a-very thick elm, without the small-
est entrance or egress. In the yeat' 1781, there was another found near
Nantz, in the heart of an old oak, without the smallest issue to its cell ; and
the discoverer was of opinion, from the size of the tree, that the animal could
not have been confined there less than eighty or a htmdred years, without
sustenance and without air.

Of this animal there are several varieties; such as the water and the .and
tyad which probably differ only in the ground color of their skin.

“

 

THE SURINAM TOAD.

Tris animal is in form more hideous than even the common toad. The
body is flat and broad; the head small; the jaws, like those of the mole,

 

} Pipa Surinamensis, SHaw. The characteristics of this genus, are a body flattened
honzoually ; bead large and triangular: tongue wanting ; tympanum concealed under the
skin; eyes small, towards the margin of the upper jaw; toes of the fore feet cleft into
four small points; larynx of the male verv long. triangular.
REPTILIA~SALAMANDER. ' 715

ure extended, and evidently formed for rooting in the ground; the skin of
the neck forms a sort of wrinkled collar; the color of the head is of a dark
chesnut, and the eyes are small; the back, which is very broad, is of a light-
ish gray, and seems covered over with a numiber of small eyes, which are
round, and placed at nearly equal distances. These eyes are very different
from what they seem; they are the animal’s eggs covered with their shells,
and placed, there for hatching. They are generated within the female, who
drops then on the ground: The male then collects them, and deposits them
carefully on the back of the female, where, after impregnation, they are
pressed into the cellules, which close upon them. Tliese eggs are buried
deep in the skin, and in the beginning of, gestation but Just appear; and are
very visible when the young animal is about to burst from its confinement
They are of a-reddish, shining yellow color; and the spaces between then,
are full of small warts, resembling ‘pearls.

Jn this manner the pipa is seen ttavelling’ with her wondrous family on
ler back, in all the different stages of matirity. Some of the strange
progeny, not yet come to sufficient perfection, appear quite torpid, and as yet
without life in the egg; others seem just beginning to rise through the skin;
here peeping forth from the shell, and there having entirely forsaken their
prison; some are sporting at large upon their parent’s back; and others
descending to the ground, to try their own fortune below.

 

THE SALAMANDER.

Tne ancients have described a lizard that is bred from heat, that lives in
tne flames, and feeds upon fire, as its proper nourishment. It will be need-
less to say that there is no such animal existing ; and that, above all others,
the modern salamander has the smallest affinity to such an animal. The
fact is, that, when the animal is expused to fire, drops of milky fluid ooze
through all the pores of the skin. The same circumstance, however, occurs
whenever itis handled. This fluid appears to be of an acrid nature.

The salamander? best known in Europe, is from eight to eleven inches
long; usually black, spotted with yellow; and, when taken in the hand,
feeling cold to a great degree. There are several kinds. The black water
newt is reckoned among the number. The idle report of its being incon-
sumable by fire, has caused many of these poor animals to be burnt; but we

 

1The genus Salamandra has the hody elongated ; tail long, cylindrical, or fattened ; head
aepressed ; ears concealed, and with a small cartilagmous plate upou the openmg ; jaws
furnished with munerous small teeth, and two Vaterisudril rows of stintlar teeth on the
alate ; tongue short, thick, and fixed in the lower jaw; no third eyelid; feet four, with
‘our tues before and five behind,

% Salamandra terrestris, Lin,
716 REPTILIA—SALAMANDER.

cannot say as philosophical martyrs; since scarce any philosopher would
think it necessary: to make the experiment. When thrown into the fire, the
aniinal is seen to burst with the heat of its situation, and to eject its fluids.
We are gravely told in the Philosophical Transactions, that this is a method
‘he animal takes to extinguish the flames.

The whole of the lizard kind are so tenacious of life, that they will live
several hours after the loss of the head; they also sustain the want of food
in a surprising manner. One of them, brought from the Indies, lived nine
months without any other food than what it received from licking a piece of
earth, on which it was brought over; another was kept by Seba, in an
empty phial, for six months, without any nourishment; and Redi talks of
a large one, brought from Africa, that lived for eight months, without taking
any nourishment whatever. Indeed, as many of this kind, both salaman-
ders and lizards, are torpid, or nearly so, during the winter, the loss of their
appetite for so long a time is the less surprising. If wetted with vinegar,
however, or sprinkled with powdered salt, the animal soon dies ip convuls
sions. ;
717

CLASS FOURTH—FISHES.

Vertebrated animals with cold, red blood, respiring by gills, or bronchia, and
moving in the water by the aid of fins.

Tue form of fishes seems as admirably adapted for motion in the water, as
that of birds for flight in the air. Suspended in a liquid of nearly the same
specific gravity as their own bodies, they do not require extended members
for their support. Their general form is elongated, but thicker in the middle
than at their extremities; and the tail, the principal instrument in their
progressive motion, is always long, and terminated by a vertical fin, capable
of expansion and attraction like a fan. The organs of locomotion assume,
in this class, the form of fins, of which those named thoracic or pectoral, from
their situation on the body, have been considered as analogous to the fore
feet of quadrupeds ; and those placed further backwards, called abdomina: or
ventral fins, have been conceived to represent the hind feet of the first class
of vertebrated animals. The vertical fins on the back are termed dorsal
jins, and those on the under surface of the body, anal fins ; the fin by which
the tail is terminated, being termed the caudal fin. The membranes of these
fins are supported by rays or bands, more or less numerous; and those of
the pectoral and ventral fins, according to the supposed analogy between the
organs of fishes and quadrupeds, have been supposed to represent the toes
of the feet. Other rays placed at the extremity of the spinous processes,
support the rertical fins of the back, those under the tail, and atits extremity.
These radii, or rays, are of two kinds; those of a solid, bony, and pointed
form, sometimes flexible and elastic, are called spinous rays; and those
composed of a number of small joints, generally divided into branches at
their extremity, are.called soft, or articulated rays. In the number of the
members, as many varieties are observed among the fishes as among tne
reptiles; for, though generally speaking, the fishes have four, yet in some
farnilies, there are but two, and others want them altogether.

The greater part of fishes make their progressive motion in the water, by
means of their expanded tail, which, striking the water alternately from
right to left, impels them forward; and they change their direction by
striking more rapidly, or with greater force on one side than on another.
The fins, which are in pairs, appear to be intended, besides aiding in pro-
gressions, to maintain their equilibrium in the water, and to regulate the diree-
tion of their course. Some families, however, as the rays, swim chiefly by
means of these fins; but the particular form of the body must naturally
influence their medium of locomotion. Tlie greater part of fishes, besides
718 PISSES.

having their bodies admirably constructed for the liquid in which they
move, have in addition a singular apparatus, for rendering them specifi-
cally lighter or heavier than water. This consists in a membranous sac,
containing air, called the air-vessel, or swimming bladder, which is placed
under the spine, and by compressing or dilating which, they are supposed to
rise or sinl in the water. This vessel forms two compartments in the carp,
and often communicates with the intestines in fishes which inhabit lakes or
rivers. One of the chief differences in structure, which characterizes the
present class of animals, is their respiratory apparatus. Living in a fluid
_elernent, their respiration is necessarily adapted to the nature of that fluid.
‘This is accomplished by means of an apparatus named gills, or bronchi
placed on the sides of the neck or head. These bronchi consist of numer
ous lamin, suspended on arches attached to the hyoid bone, each compozed
of a great number of separate lamine, covered with a tissue of innumerable
blood-vessels. The water which they swallow passes between these
Jamine, and escapes by the bronchial openings. In its passage, the blood
which is sent from the heart to the gills is acted upon by the air contained
in the water. After undergoing this change, it is collected in an arterial
trunk under the spine, which, though resembling, in anatomical situation,
the aorta of animals with a double heart, performs the functions of a left ven-
tricle, and distributes it by numerous ramifications through the body, from
which it returns to the heart, by the veins. The bronchial openings are
covered either by an osseous moveable plate, which is termed the gill cover,
or operculum, or, by a simple membrane, with one or more openings.

The whole of blood in fishes is sent by the heart to the bronchial vessels,
and is then venous, or dark blood; but when it has been exposed to the air
in the water, it assumes the arterial, or red color, and passes into other ves-
sels, which unite in the great ;rterial trunk under the spine. Thus the
neart has but a single auricle, a single ventricle, and asingle artery; and itis
believed that the little portion of heat developed in this mode of respiration,
is owing to the small quantity of air to which the blood is at one time
exposed, in passing through the bronchie.

The vertebre of fishes are united together by concave surfaces, filled with
cartilage. In the greater number, these vertebre have long spinous pro-
cesses, which keep the body in a vertical position. The ribs are often joined
to transverse processes. Though the head in fishes varies more in pout
of form, than in any other class of animals, it always consists of the
same number of bones. The frontal bone is corhposed of six pieces; the
parietal, of three; the occipital, of five; the sphenoidal bone of five, and
each temporal bone of two pieces. The cranium forms but a small portion
of the head. The brain is enveloped by gelatinous matter, and forms many
ganglions or consecutive knots, as in the reptiles; and there are ganglions or
«nots, besides, at the base cf the olfactory nerve. A superficial nerve also
runs along the body, almost immediately under what is called the Jaterai
PISCES. 719

hne from the head to the tail. Sensation appears to be weak in almost all
the class, although some, as the-eel, possess irritability after being cut intu
small portions.

The nostrils in fishes are simple cavities or hollows at the point of the
suout, in the interior of which are disposed lamine in a radiated form.
These cavities are often divided into two compartments, and sometimes, as
in the lamprey, the two nostrils are unitedinto one. The eye is possessed of a
very flat cornea, with but little aqueous humor; but the crystalline lerz is
almost globular, and very hard. In general, the eyes of fishes are large n
proportion to their size, and they are destitute of eyelids. The pupil, or the
opening by which light penetrates into the eye, varies much in form. In
the greater part of the species of which the eyes are vertical, anatomists
remark a singular disposition of the pupillury orifice, which presents the
fringes of the iris arranged in such a manner, as to dilate or contract, in order
to weaken or augment the quantity of light which enters the eye. In the
Pleuronectes, both eyes are on the same side of the dorsal line. The ear
consists of a sac which represents the vestibule, in which are suspended
bones of a stony hardness, and of three semicircular, membranous canals,
situate rather in the cavity of the cranium, than in the substance of its
walls, except among the Chondropterygii. There is neither eustachian
tube, nor tympanum, and bones ; and the order Selachii have only an oval plate,
on a level with their head. It is. probable that the vibrations of the water
may communicate a sensation analogous to that of sound. The sense of
taste in fishes cannot be delicate, as their tongue is often osseous, and
furnished with teeth or other hard covering; they are destitute of salivary
glands, and the greater part swallow their food without maceratica.
Neither is the sense of touch very acute, as in most, the body is covered
with scales, and in all, the organs of prehension are wanting. The cirri, or
filamentous, fleshy processes of some families, may, perhaps, supply the im-
perfections of their organs of touch. In the greater number of fishes, the
intermaxillary bone forms the margin of the upper jaw, having behind it
the maxillary or labial bone. The palatine arch, composed of the palate
bones, the two pterygoid processes, the zygomatic process, the tymyanum,
and the squamous portion, forms, as in birds and serpents, a kind of interior
jaw, and furnishes behind, an articulation for the lower jaw, which has twe
pones on each side; but these pieces are reduced to the smallest number in
the Chovdropterygii. The teeth of fishes present many varieties. Some
have none at all, and in others the jaws are so hard that they form a kind
of solid beak ; in some, these teeth are pointed, edged, crenated, flat; and
in others, they are placed onthe lips, the jaws, the palate, the tongue, the
gullet, or in all these parts at the same time. The stomach is almost
always simple, and the intestinal canal short, as in carnivorous animals;
the liver is very large; and there is but one opening for rejected matters,
the nut o1 the male, and the ova of the female.
“20 PISCES.

The :exes in fishes are, in the greater portion, in separate individuais.
The ova are generally impregnated by the male after extrusion, and the
young are developed without the care of the parent. The male is known,
besides other distinctions, by the presence of the testes, or mili, and the
females by the ovary, or roe, which both occupy the same relative place in
the body of the animals. Those are said to be viviparous, in which the ova
ure matured, and the young developed before extrusion. In the develope-
ment of the embryo, the heart first appears, afterwards the spine, eyes, and
tail. Of the organs of motion, the pectoral fins first appear, followed in suc-
cession hy the caudal, dorsal, and anal fins. Among the oviparous fishes,
hermaphroditism was long considered as a rare and accidental circum-
stance. Baster noticed this occurrence in the whiting, Duhamel in the
carp; Haller gave his testimony to facts of the same nature; and Pallas
believed that the genus Syngnathus had no males. Lastly, Sir Everard
Home, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1815, states the same fact re-
garding the lampern or pride, and the Gastrobranchus cecus of Bloch.

The amazing reproductive powers of fishes are well known. In the ovary
of the ced in December, were formed three millions six hundred and eighty-
six thousand seven hundred and sixty ova; in the flounder in March, one
million three hundred and fifty-seven thousand and four hundred; in the
herring in October, thirty-six thousand nine hundred and sixty; and in the
tench, three hundred and eighty-three thousand two hundred and fifty-two.
And Bloch relates, as the result of an experiment, regarding the productive
power of the carp, that, in a pond of seven acres, in which were placed four
males and three females, the increase in one year was one hundred and ten
thousand young carp, a number too great for the size of the pond and the neces-
sary supply of food. But this astonishing eapability of increase is modified by
a thousand circumstances, which regulate the number produced to the supply
of food. Myriads of these ova form the food of different species; and myri-
ads more of the young may be supposed to be destroyed in an element
where almost all are destined to become the prey of one another. Notwith-
standing these deductions, however, the importance of this class as an
object of commerce, and as a supply of food, holds out an inexhaustible field
fur the enterprise of nations whose territories approach the sea. Of the
migrations of fishes, and the causes which prompt these annual influxes of
certain fishes, on certain coasts, little is with certainty known. Probably
they are regulated by the same causes which influence the migrations of
birds, to find food and proper places for reproduction; and the same instinc-
tive impulse which induces the salmon, at certain seasons, tu asvend rivers,
may bring myriads of fishes to the shores for a similar purpose Little is
known with regard to the comparative age of fishes. The carp has been
known to reach two hundred years, and the pike to two hundred and sixty ,
snd if whales be found of less size now than in former ages, when their
PISCES—LAMPREY. 721

fishery was but little attended to, it may be conjectured, that their age is
still more considerable.

SUB-CLASS I.—CARTILAGINOUS FISHES.

Tirs bones of the fishes of this division are essentially cartilaginous, and,
in geu:2ral, are never formed of bony fibres. The most general character
comcion to the cartilaginous fishes, and sufficient to distinguish them from
all others, is that of wanting entirely, or having only in a rudimentary form,
the maxillary and intermaxillary bones, the place of which is supplied by
bones analogous to the palatine ones.

 

ORDER I.—CYCLOSTOMI.

Fisues of this order have the jaw fixed in an immoveable ring; bronchue
fixed, and the openings numerous.

THE LAMPREY.

Tur lamprey much resembles the eel in its general appearance, butis of 9
-ighter color, and rather a clumsier make. It differs, however, in the
. mouth, which is round, and placed rather obliquely below the end of ine
nose. It more resembles the mouth of a leech than an eel; and the animal
nas a hole on the top of the head, through which it spouts water, like the
cetacea. There are seven holes on each side for respiration; and~the
fins are formed rather by a lengthening out of the skin, than any set of
bones or spines for that purpose. As the mouth is formed resembling that
of a leech, so it has a property resembling that animal, of sticking close to,
and suckiug any body it is applied to. It is extraordinary, the power they
have of adhering ta stones; which they do so firmly, as not to te drawn off
without some difficulty. We are told of one that weighed but three pounds
and yet it stuck so firmly to a stone of twelve pounds, that it remainea
suspended at its mouth; from which it was separated with no small diffir
culty. As to the intestines of the lamprey, it seems to have but one great
bowel, running from the mouth to the vent, narrow at both ends, and wide
in the middle. :

 

1The genus Petromyzsn has the maxillary ring armed with strong teeth; lips formed
fer suction ; tongue sith two rows of small teeth; a dorsal fiu before, and another behind

the anus,
91 61
722 PISCES—SHARK.

ORDER II.—PLAGIOSTOMI.

Fisnts of this order have the bronchie pectinated, the open mgs numercua,
without operculi or membranes; palatine and pustmandibulary bones armed
with teeth in place of jaws.

THE SHARK.

Tue white shark! is sometimes seen to rank even among the whales for
magnitude, and is found from twenty to thirty feet long. Some assert that
they have seen them of four thousand pounds weight; and we are told
particularly of one, that had a human corpse in his belly. The head is
large, and somewhat flattened; the snout long, and the eyes large. The
mouth is enormously wide, as is the throat, and capable of swallowing a
‘man with great ease. But its furniture of teeth is still more terrible. Ot
these there are six rows extremely hard, sharp pointed, and of a wedge-like
figure. It is asserted that there are seventy-two in each jaw, which make
one hundred and forty-four in the whole; yet others think that their number
is uncertain ; and that, in proportion as the animal grows older, these terri-
ble instruments of destruction are found to increase. With these the jaws
ooth above and below appear planted all over; but the animal has the power
of erecting or depressing them at pleasure. When the shark is at rest, they
die quite flat in his mouth; but when he prepares to seize his prey, he erects
all his dreadful apparatus, by the help of a set of muscles, that join them to
the jaw; and theanimal he seizes, dies, pierced with a hundred wounds, in
a moment.. :

Nor is this fish less terrible to behold as to the rest of his form; his fins
are larger, in proportion ; he is furnished with great goggle eyes, which he
turns with ease on every side, so as to see his prey behind him as well as
before; and his whole aspect is marked with a character of malignity; his
skin also is rough, hard, and prickly; being that substance which covers
imstrument cases, called shagreen.

No fish can swim so fast as the shark; he outstrips the swiftest ships,
Such amazing powers, with such great appetites for destruction, would
quickly unpeople even the ocean ; but providentially the shark’s upper jaw
projects so far above the lower, that he is obliged to turn on one side (not on
his back, as is generally supposed,) to seize his prey. As this takes some
small time to perform, the animal pursued seizes that opportunity to make
his escape. .

 

* Carcharias vuigaris, Cuv. The gents Carcharias has the snout prominent, conical
and depressed ; nostrils under its middle ; teeth in many rows, edged, pointed, and often
dentated on their margin; no spiracles; first dorsal fin before the ventrals, and the second
nearly opposite the anal fin; last openings of the bronchiz extending over the pectoral fins.
PISCES—SHARK. 723

Still, however, the depredations he commits are frequent and formicuble.
‘The shark is the dread‘of sailors in all hot climates, where, like a greedy
roboer, he attends the ships, in expectation of what may drop overbuard.
A. man who unfortunately falls into the sea at such a time is sure to perish..

The usual method by which sailors take the shark, is by baiting a great
hook with a piece of beef or pork, which is thrown out into the sea, by a
strong cord, strengthened near the hook with an iron chain. Without this
precaution, the shark would quickly bite the cord in two, and thus set
himself free. It is no unpleasant amusement to observe this voracious
animal coming up to survey the bait, particularly when not pressed by
hunger. He approaches it, examines it, swims round it, seems for a while
to neglect it, perhaps apprehensive of the cord and chain; he quits it fora
little; but, his appetite pressing, he returns again; appears preparing, ta
devour it, but quits it once more. When the sailors have sufficiently divert-
ed themselves with his different evolutions, they then make a pretence, by
drawing the rope, as if intending to take the bait away; it is then that the
glutton’s hunger excites him; he darts at the bait, and swallows it, hook
and all. Sometimes, however, he does not so entirely gorge the whole,
but that he once more gets free; yet even then, though wounded and bleed-
img with the hook, he will again pursue the bait until he is taken. When
‘he finds the hook lodged in his maw, his utmost efforts are then excited,
but in vain, to get free; he tries with his teeth to cut the chain; he pulls
with all his force to break the line; he almost seems to turn his stomacn
inside out, to disgorge the hook; in this manner he continues his formidable.
though fruitless efforts; till, quite spent, he suffers his head to be drawn,
above water, and the sailors, confining his tai] by a noose, in this manner
draw him on ship-board, and despatch him. This is done by beating him
on the head till he dies; yet even that is not effected without difficulty and
danger ; the enormous creature, terrible even in the agonies of death, stil}
struggles with his destroyers; nor is there an animal in the world that is
harder to be killed. Even when cut in pieces, the muscles still preserve
their motion, and vibrate for some minutes after being separated from the
body. Another method of taking him, is by striking a barbed instrument,
ealled a fizgig, into his body, as he brushes along by the side of the ship.
As svon as he is taken up, to prevent his flouncing, they cut off the tail w.th
an axe, with the utmost expedition.

This is the manner in which Europeans destroy the shark; hut some
of the negroes along the African coast take a bolder and more dangerous
method to combat their terrible enemy. Armed with nothing more than a
knife, the negro plunges into the water, where he sees the shark watching
for his prey, and boldly swims forward to meet him. Though the great
animal does not come to provoke the combat, he does not avoid it, ond
suffers the man to approach him; but, just as he turns upon [is side te
seize the aggressor, the negre watches the opportunity, plunges his knife
F224 PISCES—TORPED(C.

into the fish’s belly, and pursues his blows with such success, that he leaves
the ravenous tyrant dead at the bottom; he soon however returns, fixes the
fish’s head in a noose, and drags hii to shore, where he makes a noble
feast for the adjacent villages. .

Besides the above, there are also the blue shark,! long-tailed shark, basking
shark,2 hammer-headed shark,3 angel shark,‘ fox shark, porbeagle shark,§ and
others,

THE TORPEDO.’

 

Tne body of this fish is almost circular, and thicker than others of the
same genus; the skin is soft, smooth, and of a dusky brown above, and
white underneath; the eyes very small; the tail tapering to a point; and
the weight of the fish from a quarter to fifteen pounds. Redi found one
twenty-four pounds weight. The electrical rays are found in many parts
of the European seas. The fishermen often discover itin Torbay, and some-
times of eighty pounds weight. They are partial to sandy bottoms, in
about forty fathoms water, where they often bury themselves by flinging
the sand over them, by a quick flapping of all the extremities. They bring
forth their young in autumn. To all outward appearance, the torpedo is
furnished with no extraordinary qualities; yet such is the unaccountable
power it possesses, that, the instant it is touched, it numbs not only the
hand and arm, but somé@times also the whole body. The shock receiver,
resembles the stroke of an electrical machine; sudden, tingling, and painful.
I. is, in truth, electric. “The instant,” says Kempfer, “I touched it with
my hand, I felt a terrible numbness in my arm, andas far up as the shoulder.

 

1 Carcharias glaucus, Cuv. 2 Selache maximus, Cuv.
4§Zygena vulgaris, Cuv. 4 Squatina levis, Cov.
* Carcharias vulpes, Cov. § Samna cornubiensis, Cuv.

7 The characteristics of the genus Torpedo are a hady smooth, depressed, ohtuse betore
and nearly circular; anterior border formed by productions of the snout, which extend
along the sides te meet the pectoral fins; five bronchial openings on each side, beneath
electrical organs on the sides; teeth small, and pointed; tail short, and fleshy. |
PISCES—RAY. 725

Even if’ one treads upon it with the shoe on, it afldcts not only the ceg,
but the whole thigh upwards. Those who touch it with the foot, are seized
with a stronger palpitation than even those who touch it with the
hand. This numbness bears no resemblance to that which we feel
when a nerve is a long time pressed and the foot is ‘said to be asleep; it
rather appears like a sudden vapor, which, passing through the pores, in an
instant penetrates to the very springs of life, whence it diffuses itself over
the whole body, and gives real pain. The nerves are so affected, that the
person struck imagines all the bones of his body, and particularly those of
the limb that received the blow, are driven out of joint. All this is accom-
panied with a universal tremor, a sickness of the stomach, a general con-
vulsion, and a total suspension of the faculties of the mind.”

Reaumur, who made several trials upon this animal, has convinced the
world that it is not necessarily, but by an effort, that the torpedo numbs the
hand of him that touches it. He tried several times, and could easily tell

‘when the fish intended the stroke, and when it was about to continue harm-
less. Always before the fish intended the stroke, it flattened the back,
raised the head and the tail, and then, by a violent contraction in the oppo-
site direction, struck with its back against the pressing finger ; and the body,
which before was flat, became humped and round. ,

The electric or benumbing organs are placed one on each side of the gills,
reaching from thence to the semicircular cartilages of each great fin, and
extending longitudinally from the interior extremity of the animal to the
transverse cartilage which divides the thorax from the abdomen, and within
these limits they occupy the whole space between the skin of the upper and
under surfaces. Each organ is about five inches in length, and at the ante-
rior end, about three in breadth; they are composed of perpendicular
columns, reaching from the upper to the under surface, varying in length
acvording to the thickness of the parts of the body, from an inch and a half,
-o half an inch. The engraving displays the interior of the lower electric
yr galvanic organ.

Wheu the fish is dead, the whole power is destroyed, and it may be han-
ded or eaten with perfect security.

 

THE RAY.

Or this fish there are several species; as, the thornback, starry, sharp-
nosed, rough, stnall-eyed, and undulated rays.

 

1 The genus aia has a rhomboidal disc; five bronchial openings on each sile teneath
mouth below; tail slender, with two small dorsal fins near its extremity; teeth small
ercwaed, and in quincunx order; males with hooked spines on the pecturals.

61*
726 PISCHS—SKATE...STURGEON

THE SKATE!

 

Js the largest of the genus, as well as the best; the flesh being white, firm,
and of a good flavor. It is sometimes of an immense size. {t has a broad
flat body, brown on the back, and white on the belly. The principal diffe
rence between it and the thornback consists in its having sharp teeth, and a
single row of spines on the tail; whilst the latter has blunt teeth, and several
rows of spines both on the back and tail. The fernales produce their off
spring from May till September. Each of the young ones is inclosed in an
angular oblong bag, of a maroon color; a substance like thin parchment, or
leather, and having two horns at each end. ‘These, which are sometimes
cast ashore after storms, are called purses by the fishermen.

ORDER III.--STURIONES.

Tues fisnes have bronchial openings, much cleft, furnished with an ope
culum, but without rays in the membrane; bronchiz free.

THE STURGEON,

 

In its genera] form, resembles a fresh water pike. Formidable as this lange
‘and finely tasted fish is in its appearance, it is perfectly harmless; the body,
which is from six to eighteen feet in length, is pentagonal, armed from head

 

1 Raia batis, Lin.

* Accipenser sturio, Lix. The genus Accipenser has the hody elongated, nnd furnished
as well as the head, with rows of sao prominences ; mouth placed under the snout cylin»
drical, retractile, and without teeth; four cirri beneath the snout,
P SCES—HUSO. 79"

to tail with five rows of large bony tubercles, each of which ends in a strong
recurved tip; one of these is on the back, one on each side, and two on the
margin of the belly. The snout is long, and obtuse at the end, and has the
tendrils near the tip. The mouth, which is beneath the head, is somewhat
like the opening of a purse, and is so formed as to he pushed suddenly out
or retracted. The upper part of the body is of a dirty olive color; the luwer
parts silvery; and the tubercles are white in the middle. The .cndrils on
the snout, which are some inches in length, have so great a resemblance in
form, to earth-worms, that, at first sight, they might be mistaken for them.
By this contrivan::, this clumsy, toothless fish is supposed to keep himse“f
in good condition, the solidity of his flesh evidently showing him to be a fish
of prey. He is said to hide his body among the weeds near the sea coast,
or at the mouths of large rivers, only exposing his tendrils, which small
fishes or sea insects, mistaking for real worms, approach to seize, and are
sucked into the jaws of their enemy. He has been supposed by some to
root into the soil at the bottom of thé sea or rivers; but, if this were the
case, the tendrils above-mentioned, which hang from his snout over
his mouth, must be very inconvenient to.him. As he has no jaws, it is evi-
dent that he lives by suction, and, during his residence in the sea, marine
insects are generally found in his stomach.

A very great trade is carried on with the roe of the sturgeon, preserved in
a particular manner, and called caviar; it is made from the roe of all kinds
of sturgeon. This is much more in request in other countries of Europe
than in England. To all these high-relished meats, the appetite must be
formed by degrees; and though formerly, even in England, it was very much
in request at the politest tables, it isat present sunk entirely into disuse. It
is still, however, a considerable merchandise among the Turks, Greeks, and
Venetians. Caviar somewhat resembles soft soap in consistence ; but it is
of a brown, uniform color, and is eaten as cheese with bread.

THE HUSO, OR ISINGLASS FISH)

Is caught in great quantities in the Danube, from the months of October to
January; it is seldom under fifty pounds weight, and often above four hun-
dred; its flesh is soft, glutinous, and flabby; but it is sometimes salted,
which makes 11 better tasted, and then it turns red like a salmon. It is for
the commodity it furnishes that it is chiefly taken. The manner of making
it is this: they take the skia, the entrails, the fins, and the tail of this fish,
and cut ther into small pieces; these are left to macerate in a sufficient

 

1 Accipenser huso, Lin.
728 PISCES—SEA HORSE.

quantity of warm water, and they are all boiled shortly after with a slow fire,
until they are dissolved and reduced to a jelly; this jelly is spread upon in-
struments made for the purpose, so that in drying, it assumes the form of
parchment, and, when quite dry, it is then rolled into the form which we
see it in the shops. This valuable commodity is principally furnished frcm
Russia. ,

SUB-CLASS II.—OSSEOUS FISHES.

Tuis division includes the fishes with free bronchie, and of which the bones,
though varying in hardness, are always fibrous. The cranium is divided by
sutures.

ORDER IV.—PLECTOGNATHI.

Tuese fishes have the upper jaw formed by the intermaxillary bone, which
is immoveahly fixed upon the side of the maxillary; palatine arch fixed to
the cranium; bronchial cleft simple.

ORDER V.--LOPHOBRONCH1I1.

These fishes have the jaws complete; bronchi in the form of small,
round tufts, disposed in pairs along the bronchial arteries.

THE SEA HORSE!

Is a small fish of a curious shape. The length seldom reaches twelve inches;
the head bears some resemblance to that of a horse, whence originates
its name. A long back fin runs from the head to the tail, which is spirally
covered. The eggs of this fish are hatched in a pouch, formed by an expan-
sion of the skin, which in some 1s placed under the belly, and in others at
the base of the tail, and which opens to allow the young to get out.

This fish is often seen in cabinets and museums in a dried state.

 

1 Mppocampus vulgaris, Lin. The genus Hippocampus has the snont tubniar; trink
of the hody compressed laterally, and more elevated than the tail: joinings of the scales
raised into ridges, and the projecting angles spincus; no ventral fins ; bronchial operungs
on the nece.
PISCES—SALMON. 729

ORDER VI.—MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMI-
NALES.

Tuese fishes have the skeleton osseous ; jaws complete; bronchiz pecti-
nated; all the rays of the fins soft, except sometimes the first ray of the
dorsal, or pectoral fins ; ventral fins behind the abdomen.

THE SALMON!

 

Is distinguished from otner fish by having two dorsal fins, of which the
hindermost is fleshy and without rays; they have teeth both in the jaws and
the tongue, and the body is covered with round and minutely striated scales.
Gray is the color of the back and sides, sometimes spotted with black, and
sometimes plain. The belly is silvery. It is entirely a northern fish, being
found both at Greenland, Kamtschatka, and the northern parts of North
America, but never so far south as the Mediterranean. Salmon are now
scarce in all our rivers south of the Merrimac. In the Connecticut they
were once so abundant as to be less esteemed than shad, and the fishermen
used to require their purchasers to take some salmon with their shad. Within
the memory of persons living, they were taken in plenty even as far up as
Vermont. The Indians used to catch a great many of them, as they were
ascending Bellows Falls. It is supposed that the locks, dams, and canals
constructed in the river, have driven this valuable fish away. About the
latter end of the year, the salmon begin to press up the rivers, even for hun-
dreds of miles, to deposit their spawn, which lies buried in the sand till
spring, if not disturbed by the floods, or devoured by other fishes. In this
peregrination it is not to be stopped, even by cataracts. About March, the
young ones begin to appear, and about the beginning of May, the river is
full of the salmen fry, which are then four or five inches long, and gradually
proceed to the sea. About the middle of June, the earliest fry begin to
return again from the sea, and are then from twelve to fourteen inches long.
The growth of this fish is so extraordinary, that a young salmon being taken
at Warrington, and which weighed seven pounds on the seventh of Februa-

 

? Salmo salar, Lin. The genus Salmo has the greater part cf the upper jaw formed hy
the maxillary hones; mouth large and firahed with teeth; ventral fins oppasie the
middle of the first dorsal, and the adipose fin oppusite the anal; bronctual mermbraue
with more than eight rays.

92
730 PISCES—SEA-TROUT...TROUT.

ry, being marked with 2 scissors on the back fin, was again taken on the
seventeenth of March following, and was then found to weigh seventeen
pounds and a half.

THE SEA-TROUT, OR SALMON-TROUT;)

Micrates like the salmon up several of our rivers, spawns, and returns to
the sea. The shape is thicker than the common trout. The head and back
are dusky, with a gloss of blue and green, and the sides, as far as the lateral
line, are marked with large irregular spots of black. The flesh, when boiled,
is red, and resembles that of a salmon in taste.

 

THE TROUT?

 

Tuts is a fsh of prey, nas a short, roundish head, blunt nose, and wiae
mouth, filled with teeth, not only in the jaws, but on the palate and tongue;
the scales are small, the back ash ‘color, the sides yellow, and, when in sea-
son, it is sprinkled all over the body and covers of the gills with small beau-
tiful red and black spots; the tail is broad.

The colors of the trout, and its spots, vary greatly in different waters, a 1d
in different seasons; yet each may be reduced ‘to one species. In Llyndivi,
a lakein South Wales, are trouts called cochy-dail, marked with red and
black spots as big as sixpences ; others unspotted, and of a reddish hue, that
sometimes weigh near ten pounds, but are bad tasted,

In Lough Neagh, in Ireland, trouts are called baddaghs, which sometimes
weigh thirty pounds,

Trouts are common in all the mountainous farts of the United States
vast of tue Alleghany ridge.

 

1 Salmo trutta, Lin. £ Salmo fario, Lus. |
PISCES-.SMELT..:GRAYLING.” 73)

THE SMELT!

 

[nyapirs tne northern seas, and is never found so far south as the Mediter-
ranean. Its name is supposed to be a contraction of “smell it,” from its
very agreeable smell. The Germans, however, call it the stink-fish. Its
form is very elegant; it is of a silvery color, tinged with yellow; and the
skin is almost transparent. The largést we have heard of was thirteen
inches long, and weighed half a pound.

 

THE GRAYLING?

 

[s m general of a fine silvery gray, but when just taken it is varied slighty
with blue and gold. The scales are large; the first dorsal fin consists of
twenty-one rays; this fin is spotted; all the rest are plain; the tail is much
forked. It haunts clear and rapid streams, particularly those of mountain-
ous countries. In Lapland, where it is very common, the inhabitants use
(ts entrails, instead of rennet, to make their cheese from the milk of the
rein-deer. The stomach is so hard and thick, that to the touch it appears like
eartilage. The largest that has been heard of was taken near Ludlow; it
was half a yard long, and weighed four pounds six ounces. The ancienta
believed that the oil from them would obliterate freckles and smal] ar
marks.

 

1 Oxmerus eperlanus. Cuv. The characteristics of this genus ar» the mouth at the ex-
Iremity of the snout; head compressed; scales steely visible ; two dorsal fins; two
rows of scattered teeth on each palatine hone ; bronchial membrane with eight rays.

2 Coreyronua thymallus, Cov. This genus has the moh at the extremity of the snout
very little cleft; head compressed 3 scales large; two dorsal fins, of which the secoud ig
adipose, and without rays ; bronchial membrane with seven or eight rays ; teeth small.
732 PISCES—HERRING.

THE HERRING!

 

, Tne common herring is distinguished from the other fish of the sare
tribe, by the projection of the lower jaw, which is curved, and by having
seventeen rays in the ventral fin. The head and mouth are small, the
tongue short, pointed, and armed with teeth, the covers of the gills general-
ly have a violet or red spot, that disappears soon after the death of the fish,
wnicl survives a very short time, when taken out of its natural element.

Of all the migrating fish, the herring and the pilchard take the most ad-
venturuus voyages. Herrings are found in the greatest abundance in the
highest northern latitudes. In those inaccessible seas, that are covered with
ice for a great part of the year, the herring and pilchard find a quiet and
sure retreat from al] their numerous enemies; thither neither man, nor their
still more destructive enemy, the fin-fish, or the cachalot, dares to pursue
them, The quantity of insect food which those seas supply is very great;
whence, in that remote situation, defended by the icy rigor of the climate,
they live at ease, and multiply beyond expression. From this most desira-
ble retreat, Anderson supposes they would never depart, but that their num-
bers render it necessary for them to migrate; and, as bees from a hive, they
are compelled to seek for other retreats.

For this reason, the great colony is seen to set out from the icy sea about
the middle of winter ; composed of such numbers, that if all the men in the
world were to be loaded with herrings, they would not carry the thousandth
part away. But they no sooner leave their retreats, but millions of enemies
appear to thin their squadrons. The fin-fish and the cachalot swallow bar-
rels ata yawn; the porpus, the grampus, the shark, and the whole nume-
rous tribe of dog-fish, find them an easy prey, and desist from making war
upon each other; but still more, the unnumbered flocks of sea-fow! that
chiefly inhabit near the pole, watch the outset of their dangerous migration.
and spread extensive ruin.

In this exigence, the defenceless emigrants find no other safety, but by
crowding closer together, and leaving to the outmost bands the danger of
being the first devoured; thus, like sheep when frightened, that always run
together in a body, and each finding some protection in being but one of

1 Clupea harengus, Lin. The genus Clupea has the intermaxillary bones narrow
arched before, and divided longitudinally mto many pieces: mouth not entirely furnished
with teeth, and often edentate : belly compressed, carinated, the seules fornunga serrature
on the ridge ; ove dorsal fin, above the ventral ones.
PISCES—HERRING. 733

many that are equally liable to invasion, they are seen to separate into
shoals, one body of which moves to,the west, and pours down along the
coast of America, as far south as Carolina, and but seldom farther. In
Chesapeake Bay, the annual inundation of these fish is so great, that they
cover the shores in such quantities as to become a nuisance. Those that hold
more to the east, and come down towards Europe, endeavor to save them-
selves from their merciless pursuers, by approaching the first shore they can
find; and that which first offers in, their descent is the coast of Iceland, in
the beginaing of March. Upon their arrival on that coast, their plalinie,
which has already suffered considerable diminutions, is, nevertheless, of
amazing extent, depth, and closeness, covering an extent of shore as large
as the island itself. The whole water, seems alive; and is seen so black
with them at a great distance, that the number seems inexhaustible.

That body which comes upon the English coast, begins to appear off the
Shetland Isles, in April. These are the forerunners of the grand shoal
which descends in June; while its arrival is easily announced, by the num-
ber of its greedy attendants, the gannet, the gull, the shark, and the porpus.
When the main body is arrived, its breadth and depth is such, as to alter the
very appearance of the ocean. It is divided into distinct columns, of five or
six miles in length, and three or four broad; while the water before them
curls up, as if forced out of its bed. Sometimes they sink for the space of
ten or fifteen minutes, then rise again to the surface; and, in bright weather,
reflect a variety of splendid colors, like a field bespangled with purple, gold,
and azure. The fishermen are ready prepared to give them a proper recep-
tion; and, by nets made for the occasion, they take sometimes above twe
thousand barrels at a single draught.

Such has long been the received opinion with respect to the migration of
herrings, and it is so poetical that it is almost a pity to disturb it. But
science must listen only to the voice of truth. The author of the British
Naturalist has given a rude shock to the migratory theory. “Simply, then,
the story cannot be true, (says he,) because it is impossible. The herrings
do not come in myriads from the polar sea, beginning their progress in
January, because there are no means of projucing them there. Spawn has
not been found to animate in any place except floating near the surface, or
in shallow water, where both the sun and the air act upoa it; and while the
polar seas and shores are open to such action, the herrings are not there,
they are on our shores, the full grown and the young. But setting aside
the impossibility, the supposed emigration would be without an object ; they
would not come for food, as they are said to leave the north just when food
would be found there; and if they are annually produced in the north, they
sould not come to our shores for the purpose of spawning, even though they
are all obviously in preparation for such a purpose. Beside, there is no
anima] that migrates southward in the spring; and therefore the theory

wonld require one law for the rest af creation, and another for the herring;

62
TBA PISCES—SHAD.

that the latter should be chilled by the genial warmth of the sprmg, and
warmed by the polar frost. Now, so far is the production of fish from being
independent of the influence of heat, that, just as one would be led to infer
from the slow progress of the solar beams through the element in which
they live, they require the whole, or the greater part of our summer, to ma-
ture the germs of their countless broods. Nay, it appears that many, if not
most of the species, cannot mature their spawn in the depths of the ocean,
to which they retire to recruit their strength, but that they come to the
shores and shallows, where the heat of the sun can penetrate. to the bottom,
and be reflected by it, for the purpose of maturing, as well as depositing,
their spawn.

“The herrings come to the shores and estuaries to mature and propagate
their spawn, which they do over a greater range of the year than most other
fish; continuing the operation to the middle of winter, and retiring inte
deeper water after that is done. But there is no reason to conclude, that
they have much migration in latitude; or, that they ever move far from
those shores which they frequent in the season. The fry too are found on
the shores and in the bays and estuaries frequented by their parents; and
they do not go to the deep water till late in the season. They even appear
to go farther up the rivers than the old fish, for they may be taken in brack-
ish water, with a common trout fly.”

 

= ’

THE SHAD!

is taken in many rivers; those of the Severn are most esteemed in England,
and are distinguished by the London fishmongers by the French name of
alosse. The Thames shad is'a very insipid, coarse fish. The Thames
shad, when 1t visits the Severn, is called the twazte, and is held in great
disrepute.

The difference between the two kinds is as follows:—The true shud
weighs from four to eight pounds; the ¢waite from half a pound to wo.
The twaite may also be known from a small shad, by having one or more
'ack spots on the sides; when it has only one, it is always near the gill.

The shad of America is a very superior fish, and is abundant in all the
northern rivers. Those of the Connecticut are particularly esteemed, and,
when salted and barrelled, command a high price. These fish are chiefly
taken during the months of April and May. They ascend the rivers for
many miles, and formerly large numbers of them were caught in the Cun-
necticut, at the distance of two hundred miles from its mouth.

 

1 Clupea alosa, Lis,
PISCES—ANCHOVY...PIKE. 735

THE ANCHOVY}!

 

{fs about six inches and a half in length. The body is slender. but thicker
in propertion than the herring. The scales are large, and easily fall off.
The back is green, and semipellucid; the sides and belly si'very; and the
tail forked.

At different seasons it frequents the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean
sea, passing through the Straits of Gibraltar towards the Levant in the
months of May, June, and July. The greatest fishery is at Gorgona, a small
isle west of Leghorn, where they are taken at night in nets, int» which they
ire allured by lights fixed to the stern of the vessels. When cured, their
reads are cut off, their gall and entrails taken out, then salted and packed
in barrels. It scarce needs to be mentioned that, being put on the fire. they
dissolve in almost any liquor. They are well tasted when fresh. But ithas
been found by experience, that anchovies taken thus by torch light are
neither so good, so firm, nor so proper for keeping, as those which are taken
otherwise. From December to March, vast numbers are caught on the
shores of Provence and Catalonia, and during June and July in the English
channel, and in the environs of Bayonne, Venice, Rome, and Genoa. From
the anchovy the ancients prepared one of the liquids called garum, which
was in high repute among epicures, ‘

THE PIKE?

fs common in most of the lakes of Europe, but the largest are those taken.
in Lapland, which, according to Scheffer, are sometimes eight feet long.
They are taken there in great abundance, dried and exported for sale. The
largest fish of this kind which we have ever heard of in England, weighed
thirty-five pounds.

 

1 Engraulis encrasicolus, Cuv. The genus Engraulis has the ethmoid and nasal! Lames
‘orming a projecting point, below which the very small intermaxillaries are fixed ; maxal.
«ary bones straight and very long; jaws much cleft, and both furnished ‘vith teeth; bron
chial openings large.

2 Ksox lucius, Lis. The genus Esoz has the snout long, ohtuse, hroad, and depresset
long-pointed teeth on the sides of the lower jaw; the intermaxillaries, vomer, palate ana
tougue fucnished with small and crowdel teeth; one dorsal fin opposite the aaal one.
736 PISCES—PIKE.

According to the common saying, these fish were introduced into Engtano
in the reign of Henry the Eighth, in 1537. They were so rare, that a pike
was sold for double the price of a house-lamb, in February, and a pickerel
for more than a fat capon.

All writers who treat of this species bring instances of its vast veracious-
ness. We have known one that was choked by attempting to swallow one
of its own species that proved too large a morsel. Yet its jaws are very
loosely connected; and have on each side an additional bone like the jaw of
a viper, which renders them capable of great distention when it swallows its
prey. Itdoes not confine itself to feed on fish and frogs; it will devour
the water-rat, and draw down the young ducks as they are swimming about.

At the marquis of Stafford’s canal at Trentham, England, a pike seized
the head of a swan, as she was feeding under water, and gorged so much of
it as killed them both. The servants perceiving the swan with its head
under water for a longer time than usual, took the boat, and found both swan
and pike dead.

But there are instances of its fierceness still more surprising, and which,
irdeed, border a little on the marvellous. Gesner relates, that a famished

iE

oe ate
mI 9

  
       

pike in the Rhone seized on the lips of a mule, that was brought to water
and that the beast drew the fish out before it could disengage itself; that
people have been bit by these voracious creatures while they were washing
their legs ; and that they will even contend with the otter for its prey, and
endeavour to force it out of its mouth.

Pike spawn in March or April, according to the coldness or warmth of the
weather. When they are in high season, their colors are very:fine, being
green, spotted with bright yellow ; and the gills are of a most vivid and full
red. When out of season, the green changes to gray, and the yellow sputs
turn pale.

The head is very flat; the upper jaw broad, and is shorter than the lower;
the under jaw turns up a little at the end, and is marked with minute pune=
tures. The teeth are very sharp, disposed aot only in the front of the up-
per jaw, but in both sides of the lower, in the roof of the mouth, and often
the tongue. The slit of the mouth, or the gape, is wide; the eyes small.
The dorsal fin is placed very low on the back, and consists of twenty-one
rays; the pectoral, of fifteen; the ventral, of eleven; the anal of eighteen.
The tail is bifurcated.
PLSCES—-FLYING-FISH. 737

THE FLYING-FISH!}

 

Tue boly ot this fish is oblong; the head is almost three cornered ; the fin
covering the gills with ten rays ;, the pectoral fin placed high, and as long as
the whole body; the back fin at the extremity of the.back. The tail is
bifurcated. As it isa small animal, seldom growing above the size of a
herring, it is chiefly sought by the dorado. Nature has furnished each respec-
tively with the powers of pursuit and evasion. The dorado being above six
feet long, yet not thicker than a salmon, and furnished with a full comple-
menr of fins, cuts its way through the water, with amazing rapidity ; on the
other hand, the flying-fish is furnished with two pair of fins, longer than
the body, and these also moved by a stronger set of muscles than any other
This equality of power seems to furnish one of the most entertaining spec-
tacles those seas can exhibit. The efforts to seize on the one side, and the
arts of escaping on the other, are perfectly amusing. The dorado is seen,
upon this occasion, darting after its prey, which will not leave the water,
while it has the advantage of swimming, in the beginning of the chase.
But, like a hunted hare, being tired at last, it then has recourse to another
expedient for safety, by flight. The long fins, which began to grow useless
in the water, are now exerted in a different manner and different direction
to that in which they were employed in swimming; by this means the timid
little animal rises from the water, and flutters over its surface, for two or
three hundred yards, till the muscles employed in moving the wings, are
enfeebled by that particular manner of exertion. By this time, however,
they have acquired a fresh power of renewing their efforts in the water, and
the animal is capable of proceeding with some velocity by swimming; still,
however the active enemy keeps it in view, and drives it again from the
deep ; till at length, the poor little creature is seen to dart to shorter dis-
tances, to flutter with greater effort, and to drop down at las¢ into the mouth —
of its fierce pursuer. But not the dorado alone—all animated nature seems
combined against this little fish, which seems possessed of double powers,
only to be subject to greater dangers; fur, though it should escape from its

 

1 Exocetusevolans,Buocn. The genus Exocetus has the head covered with scales; ten
rays in the bronchial membrane; eyes large ; jaws furnished with small pointed teeth
and the pharyngeal Lones with flat ones ; prctoral fins as ‘ong as the body.

93 62*
738 PISCES—CARP

enemies of the deep, yet the tropic bird and the albatross are forever upon
he wing to seize it. Thus pursued in either element, it sometimes seeks
1efuge with a new enemy ; and it is not unfrequent for whole shoals of them
to fall on shipboard, where they furnish man with an object of useless
curiosity.

 

THE CARP.

 

Pottsn Prussia is the chief seat of the carp; they abound in the rivers
and lakes of that country, particularly in the Frisch and Curischhaff, where
tney are taken of a vast size. They are there a great article of commerce,
and sent in well boats to Sweden and Russia. The merchants purchase
them out of the waters of the noblesse of the country, who draw a good
revenue from this article. Neither are there wanting, among the English
gentry, instances of some who make good profits of their ponds.

The carp is a prodigious breeder; its quantity of roe has been found so
great that, when taken out and weighed against the fish itself, the former
thas been found to preponderate. From the spawn of this fish caviar is
made for the Jews, who hold the sturgeon in abhorrence.

These fish are extremely cunning, and on that account are by some styled
the river for. They will sometimes leap over the nets, and escape that
way; at others, will immerse themselves so deep in the mud, as to let the
net pass over them. They are also very shy of taking a bait; yet at the
spawning time they are so simple as to suffer themselves to be tickled and
caught by any body that will attempt it. It is so tenacious of life that it
may be kept alive for a fortnight in wet straw or moss.

This fish is apt to mix its milt with the roe of other fish, from which is
produced a spurious breed; we have seen the offspring of the carp and
tench, which bore the greatest resemblance to the fiast; we have also heard
o. the same mixture between the carp and bream.

 

1 Cyprinus carpio, Lin. The genus Cyprinus has three flat rays inthe bronchia mem-
brane; tongue aad palate smooth; dorsal fin long; secund ray of ‘he dorsal and anal fia
suinous aud deutated. ‘
PISCES--CARP...ROACH. 739

THE GOLDEN CARP

 

Tus is the common gold fish, which are now domesticated in ..1 aouses
and fisn ponds. They were originally brought from Southern Cnina, and
were not generally known in England or America, before the early part of
the last century.

In China, the most beautiful kinds are taken in a small lake in the province
of Che-Kyang. Every person of fashion keeps them for amusement, either
in porcelain vessels, or in the smal] basons that decorate the courts of the
Chinese houses. The beauty of their colors, and their lively motions, give
greal entertainment, especially to the ladies, whose pleasures, by reason of
the cruel policy of that country, are extremely limited.

In the form of the body, they bear a great resemblance toa carp. They
have been known in Europe to arrive at the length of eight inches; in
their native:place, they are said to grow to the size of our largest herring.

The nostrils are tubular, and form a sort of appendages above the nose;
the dorsal fin and the tail vary greatly in shape; the tail is naturally bifid,
but in many it is trifid, and in some even quadrifid; the anal fins are the
strongest characters of this species, being placed not behind one another,
like those of other fish, but opposite each otner, like the ventral nuns.

 

THE ROACH2

 

*Sounp as a roach,’ is a proverb that appears to be but indifferently found-
ed, tha: fish being not more distinguished for its vivacity than many others;
yet it is used by the French as well as the English, who compare people of

 

Cyprinus auratus, Lin.

* Lewciscus rutilus,Cuv. The genus Leuciscus has the dorsal ami ana. fins short, and
| destitute of spines and cirrhi.
740 PISCES—UOD.

strong health to the rouget, or roach. It is so silly a fish, that it is called
the water sheep.

It is a common fish, found in many of our deep still rivers, affecting, like
the others of this genus, quiet waters. It is gregarious, keeping in large
shoals: We have never seen them very large. Old Walton speaks of some
that weighed two pcunds. Ina list of fish sold in the London markets,
with the greatest weight of each, there is mention of one whose weight was
‘je pounds.

 

ORDER VII.—MALACOPTERYGII SUBRACHIATIL

Tuese fishes have the jaws complete; bronchie pectinated; ventral fins
placed either before the pectorals, between them, or a little behind.

THE COD.)

 

Tue cod seems to be the foremost of the wandering tribe of fishes, and
only found in the northern part of the world. Their principal food consists
of the smaller species of fish, worms, shell-fish, and crabs; and their
stomachs are capable of dissolving the major part of the shells which they
swallow. They grow to a great size. The largest that ever was seen,
was taken at Scarborough, England, in 1775. It weighed seventy-eight
pounds, and was five feet eight inches long. This animal’s chief place of
resort is on the banks of Newfoundland, and the other sand banks that lie
off Cape Breton. That extensive flat seems to be no other than the broad
top of a sea mountain, extending for above five hundred miles long, and
surrounded with a deeper sea. Hither the cod annually repair, in numbers
oeyond the power of calculation, to feed on the quantity of worms that are
to be found there in the sandy bottom. Here they are taken in such quanti-
ties, that they supply Europe and America with a considerable share of pro-
vision. The English have stages erected all along the shore, for salting
and drying them; and the fishermen, who take them with the hook and
line, which is their method, draw them in as fast as they can throw out.
An expert hand will sometimes capture four hundred in a day. This

 

' Morrhua vulgaris, Lis. The genus Morrhua has the head compressed ; eyes distant,
on the sides of the head; hody elongated, slightly compressed; three dorsal fins; twa
anal; ventral fins pointed; a cirrus at the point of the lower jaw.
PISCES—HADDOCK...HALIBUT...TURBOT. TAL

immense capture, however, makes but a very small diminution, when com-
pared to their numbers; and when their provision there is exhausted, or the
season for propagation returns, they go off to the polar seas, where they
deposit their spawn. Previous to the discovery of Newfoundland, the
principal fisheries for cod were in the Iceland seas, and off the western
isles of Scouand.

~

THE HADDOCK!

Is a well-known fish of this genus, which much resembles the cod, but is
smaller; it is also distinguished by a black mark on each side beyond the
gills, which superstition ascribes to the impression which St Peter left with
his finger and thumb, when he took the tribute money out of the fish’s
mouth, which tradition would have us believe to have been of this species.

THE HALIBUT?

Wercus from one hundred to three hundred pounds. The halibut is the
most voracious of fishes, and has been known to swallow even the lead which
seamen make use of for the purpose of sounding the depth. Its back isa
dusky color; its belly pure white. The flesh is very coarse and indifferent
food. tis the narrowest fish in proportion to its length of any of this
genus, except the sole.

 

THE TURBOTS?

Lrixr some others of the flat fish, grows to a great size. It has occasionally
been known to weigh from twenty-five to thirty pounds. In its gencral
‘form it is somewhat square. Flat fish swim sideways, on which account
they are styled pleuronectes by Linneus. The eyes of all of them are situs
ated on one side of the hend, those of the turbot on the left; and it is a curi-
ous circumstance, that, while the under parts of their body are of a brilliant
white, the upper parts are so colored and speckled, as, when they are half

 

3 Morrhua eglefinus, Lin.

2 Hippoglossus vulgaris, Buocn. This genus has the hndy oblong, compressed; the
jaws aud pharynx armed with slender pointed teeth; an interval between the dorsal and
anal fins and tail.

8Rhombus marimus, Cuv. This genus has the jaws and pharynx with numerous
slender pwinted teeth ; dorsal fin rising from the margin of the upper Jaw, and rnnung, ae
well as th: anal, alinost to the tail; eyes in the greater number saustral.
742 | PISCES—TURBOT.

unmersed in the sand or mud, to render themimperceptible. Of this resem
blance they are so conscioys, that, whenever they tind themselves in danger
they sink into the mud, and continue perfectly motionless. This is a cire
cumstance so well known to fishermen, that within their palings on the
strand, they are often under the necessity of tracing furrows with a kind of
iron sickle, to detect by the touch what they are not otherwise able to dis-
tinguish. But the turbot does not thus hide itself for security alone. It re-
sorts to this stratagem as an ambush for obtaining its prey, whence it pounces
forth on, the smaller kinds of fish that incautiously approach it.

The finest turbot in the world are found off the northern shore of Eng-
land, and some parts of the Dutch coast. The inanner of fishing for them
off the Yorkshire coast is asfollows: three men go out in each of the boats,
each man provided with three lines; every one of which is furnished with
two hundred and eighty hooks, placed exactly six feet two inches asunder.
These are coiled on an oblong piece of wicker-work, with the hooks buited,

 

and placed very regularly in the centre of the coil. When they are used,
the nine are generally fastened together so as to form one line with above
two thousand hooks, and extending near three miles in length. This is
always laid acruss thecurrent. An anchor and buoy are fixed at the end of
each man’s line. The boats for this purpose are each about a ton burthen,
somewhat more than twenty feet in length, and about five feet in width.

The general bait used for taking turbots is fresh herring cut into proper
sized pieces, at which they bite most readily; they are also partial to the
sivaller lampreys, pieces of haddocks, sand-worms, muscles, and limpets,
and when none of these are to be had, the fishermen use bullock’s liver,
They are so extremely delicate in the choice of their baits, as not to tauch a
piece of herring or haddock that has been twelve hours out of the sea; vl
wil] they touch any bait that has been bitten by another fish.
PISCES—SOLE...LUMP FISH. 743

THE SOLE)!

 

Tims well-known and delicious fish is remarkable for one extraordinary
circumstance ; they have been known to feed on shell-fish, although they
are furnished with no apparatus whatever in their mouth for reducing thent
to a state calculated for digestion. The stomach, however, has a dissolvent
power, which makes up for the want of masticating apparatus. But the

most usual food for soles is the spawn and young of other fish.

THE LUMP FISH, LUMPSUCKER, OR SEA OWLS

 

Is sixteen inches in length, and its weight about four pounds; the shape of
the body is like that of the bream, deep, and it swims edgewise, the back is
sharp and elevated, and the belly flat; the lips, mouth, and tongue of this
animal are of a deep red; the whole skin is rough, with bony knobs, the
largest row is along the ridge of the back; the belly is of a bright crimson
color ; but what makes the chief singularity in this fish, is an ov. aperture
m the belly, surrounded with a fleshy, soft substance, that seems ce. rded all
round; by means of this part it adheres with vast force to any thing it
pleases. If flung into a pail of water, it will stick so close to the bottom,
that on taking the fish by the tail, one may lift up pail and all, though it
hold several gallons of water. Great numbers of these fish are found along

 

1 Solea vulgaris, Cuv. This genus has the mouth twisted to the side opposite to the
eyes ; jaws desutute of teeth on the eye sile; body oblong; dorsal fin commencing at the
mouth, and running, as well as the anal fin, to the tail; lateral line straight.

2 Cyclopterus lumpus, Lun. This genus has the mouth large, with very small pointed
teeth in both jaws; pectoral fin, and large ventral fins united in the form of an oval and
concave disc brow:hial membrane with six rays; skin viscid and without scales
744 PISCES~—

the coast of Greenland, in the beginning of summer, where they resort to
spawn. Their roe is remarkably large, and the Greenlanders boil it toa
pulp for eating. They are extremely fat, but not admired in England, being
doth flabby and insipid.

 

ORDER VIII.—MALACOPTERYGII APODES.

Tuese fishes have the body elongated, with thick skin, and destitute of
ventral fins.

»

THE EEL.

Tue common ee] is a very singular fish in several things that relate to its
natural history, and in some respects borders on the nature of the reptile
tribe.

It is known to quit its element, and, during night, to wander along the
meadows, not only for change of habitation, but also for the sake of prey,
feeding on the snails it finds in its passage.

During winter, it beds itself deep in the mud, and continues m a state of
rest like the serpent kind. It is very impatient of cold, and will eagerly
take shelter in a wisp of straw, flung into a pond in severe weather, which
has sometimes been practised as a method of taking them. Albertus goes
so far as to say, that he has known eels to shelter in a hay-rick, yet all
perished through excess of cold.

The eyes are placed not remote from the end of the nose; the irides are
tinged with red; the under jaw is longer than the upper; the teeth are
small, sharp, and numerous; beneath each eye is a minute orifice; at the
end of the nose two others, sma!l, and tubular. This fish is furnished with

_a pair of pectoral fins, rounded at their ends; another narrow fin on the
back, uniting with that of the tail; and the anal fin joins it in the same
manner beneath. Behind the pectoral fins is the orifice to the gills, which
are concealed in the skin.

Eels vary much in their colors, from a sooty hue, to a light olive-green ;
and .nose which are called silver eels have their bellies white, anda remarkas
ble clearness throughout.

 

V Anguilla vulgaris,Cuv. This genus has the hodv rounded, elongated, smooth
bronchial openings lateral, placed under the a ctoral fius; pectoral fins large; dorsal dad
anal fins united, and forming a pointed caudal fin,

‘
PISCES—EEL. 745

THE CONGER EEL.

Tue conger eel grows to an immense size, and its fierceness is equal to
its magnitude; they have been taken ten feet and a half long, and eighteen
incizs in circumference in the thickest part. They differ from the common
ecl not only in their size, but in being of a darker color, and in the form of
the lower jaw, which is shorter than the upper. They are extremely vora-
cious, and prey upon other fish, particularly upon crabs, when they have cast
their shell. The fishermen are very fearful of the large congers, lest they
should endanger their legs by clinging round them; they therefore kill them
as soon as possible, by striking them on the navel. In April, 1808, one was
taken at Yarmouth, England, which knocked down its captor before it could
Le secured. On the coast of Cornwall, these fish constitute a considerable
article of commerce, where they are salted and dried, and afterwards ground
to powder, which is purchased by the Spaniards, for the purpose of th.cken-
ing their soups.

THE ELECTRICAL EEL?

 

Is common in South America. It is from three to five feet in length, and
ten or twelve inches in circumference in the broadest part of the budy; and
has the capability of swimming backward as well as farward. Their color
1s an olive-green, and the head yellow, mingled with red.- The head is flat,
and the mouth wide and toothless. From the point of its tail to within six
inches of its head, extends a fin about two inches deep, and whichis an inch
thick at its junction with the body. As there are several! annular divisions,
or rather ruge of the skin, across the body, it would seem that the fish

 

¥ Conger vulgaris, Cuv. The genus Conger has the dorsal fin commencing near the
pectoral fins, or over them; upper jaw louger than the under.

2 Gymnotus electricus, Lin. The characteristics of this genus are, bronchial spenlngs
in part closed by a membrane opening before the pectoral fins; anus placed tiuch forward,
the anal fin running along the greater part of the body; no dorsal fin; skin without per -
ceptible scales,

94 63
746 PISCES—WOLF FISH.

partakes of the vermicular nature, and can contract or dilate itself a
pleasure.

The electrical shock in conveyed either through the hand, or any metallic
conductor which touches the fish; anda stroke of one of the largest kind,
if properly appled, would prove instant death to even the human species.
This extraurdinary power is given to this fish, not only for defence, but
subsistence. For whenever small fishes or worms are thrown into the water,
they are first struck dead by the electric power of the animal, and afterwards
swallowed by him.

‘ORDER IX.—ACANTHOPTERYGII.

Tnese fishes have the first rays of the dorsal, ventral and anal fins sup-
ported by simple spinous rays.

THE WOLF FISH.

 

Tris animal seems to be confined to the northern seas, and sometimes is
found near the cvasts of Scotland. It grows to a very large size, being fre
quently taken of-the length of seven feet, and even more. It is a most
ravenous and fierce fish, and when taken, fastens upon every thing within
its reach. It is said even tu bite so hard, that it will seize upon an anchor,
and leave the marks of its teeth on it. It feeds almost entirely on shell-fish,
the hardest of which it easily crushes with its jaws. It has so formidable
and disagreeable appearance, that it is only eaten py the fishermen, who,
however, prefer it to halibut.

 

VAnarchicaz lupus, Lix. This genus has the body long, smooth; head thick and obtuse;
anterior teeth long andl conics; the others, hony tubercles, with small enamelled teeth on
their summuts ; six rays w .oe brunchial membrane.
PISCES—GILT-HEAD...MULLET. T47

THE GILT-HEAD!}

 

Taxesits name from its predominant color, the forehead and sides resemoling
gold, though the latter are tinged with brown. It has but one back fin,
which reaches the whole length of the body. In form, it in some degree re-
rembles the bream. -It is found in deep waters, on bold rocky shores; it
subsists chiefly on shell-fish, and some of the species grow to the weight
of ten pounds.

Besides the lunated, which is the most common, and takes its name from
a semi-lunar gold spot under the eyes, there are the red, and the toothed or
streaked gilt-heads, the last of which is distinguished by two canine teeth
on each side.

THE MULLET?

Was formerly much celebrated as a treat for the epicure, and frequent allu-
sions to it are found in the ancient satirists. It is a fish of an elegant form,
is generally found by the seashures, where it roots like a hog, in the sand

r mud, and it is so active, that it frequently escapes, by leaping out of the
fishermen’s nets. The head is almost square, and is flat at the top. It has
no teeth, only in the upper lip is a small roughness. The tail is much
forked. The color of the back is dusky, marked with blue and green. The
sides silvery, marked with dusky lines, reaching from the. head to the tail.
The belly is silvery.

1 Daurada auratus. The genus Nauwrada has the head compressed ; Jaws sfigntly
extensible, with four or six conival teeth in one row; the others flat.

 

2 Mugil cephalus, Lin. The genus Mugi! has the head depressed i and scaly;
ventral fins under the abdomen ; and two short dorsal fius; mouth with fleshy and erenu-
lated fps; lower jaw witha carmation in the nnddle, entermg in.oa corresponding grouve
in the upper; nu teeth; bronchial membraue with three rays.
748 PISCES—PERCH...MACKEREL.

THE PERCH!

 

Ts a gregarious fish, and loves deep holes, and gentle streams. It is a most
voracious fish and eager biter; if the angler meets with a shoal of them, he
is sure of taking every one. It isa common notion, that the pike will not
attack this fish, being fearful of une spiny fins which the perch erects on the
approach of the former. This may be true in respect to large fish; but it is
well known the small ones are the most tempting bait that can be laid for
the pike.

The perch is a fish very tenacious of life; we have known them carried
near sixty miles in dry straw, and yet survive the journey. These fish
seldom grow to a large size.

 

THE MACKEREL2

 

Tue mackerel emits a phosphoric light when fresh from the sea. When
taken out of the water, it soon dies, and even in the water, if it advance
with too much impetuosity against the net. It is caught with that instru-
ment, or with a hook baited with hits of red cloth, or small herrings, and
pieces of other kinds of fish or flesh. In some places it is taken by lines
from boats, as during a fresh gale of wind, it readily seizes a bait; it is
necessary that the boat should be in motion, in order to drag the bait alung
near the surface of the water. There is a great fishery for mackerel on
sume parts of the west coast of England. This is of such an extent, as to

 

1 Pe-ca fluviatilis, Lis. The genus Perea has a snont without scales, not advancing
seyond the fips; second dorsal fin not sensibly longer than the first; ventral fins on the
thorax ; prxe-opercul: dentated ; opercult spinous. :

2 Scomber scomber, Lin. The genus Scomber, or mackerel, has a projecting rndge on
each side of the tail, and a row of pointed teeth m each jaws anal and dorsal fins with
the posterior part divided into spurious fins; the second dorsal, distant froin the first.
PISCES--TUNNY...PILO1 FiSH 749

employ tn the whole, a capital of nearly two hundred thousand pounds. The
mackerel fishery «n the coast of New England is very productive. It is
carried op in small schooners of twenty or thirty tons.

THE TUNNY}

4

Rerarns not cnly the character, but the habits of the mackerel. They resort
in vast shoals to the Meditervanean, at certain seasons, and, from the carliest
periods of history, have constituted a considerable branch of commerce there.
Tne tunny, however, differs greatly from the mackerel in size. One which
Mr Pennant saw at Inverary in Scotland, weighed four hundred and sixty
pounds. It was seven feet ten inches in length, and the circumference in
ine largest part was five feet seven, and near the tail only one foot six. The
pieces, when fresh cut, appear like raw beef but when boiled turn pale, and
have something the flavor of salmon.

 

THE PILOT FISH?

 

.

Hy + and banded body, with four loose spines on the back; a com.
presse 3 '.ead, rounded off in front; a small mouth, the jaws of which are
of equal cength, end furnished with small teeth. The palate has a curved
row of teeth, and the tongue has teeth all along.

This species is found in the Mediterranean, Southern ocean, East Tadies,
and Cape of Good Hope. It grows toa foot and a half in length, and
derives its name from being commonly seen with the shark, to which it
appears to point out its prey. The circumstance of its guiding the shark,

 

VThynnus vulgaris, Cuv. This genus has a projecting ridge on each side of the tail,
and a row of pointed teeth in each jaw; anal and second dorsal fins subdivided ; first
dorsal fin prolonged almost to the second, and sumetimes touching it. ,

9 Centronotus ductor, Lacer. This genus has one corsal fin with spines before ; vertral
fins supporzed, as m general, hy some rays, the most of which are short; sides of the tail
cemnuted ; anal shorter than the dorsal fin, with sometimes free spines.

63%*
750 PISCES—DORADO...SWORD FISH.

was long a matter of doubt, but appears now to be an ascertained fact. M.
Geoffroy, when near Malta, in 1798, saw two of the pilot fish lead a shark
to a piece of bacon, which a seaman had let down by a line and hook.

 

THE DORY, OR DORADO?

Tue form of this fish is very disgusting. Its boay 1s oval, and muca
compressed at the sides. Its snout is long, and its mouth is wide. The
first back fin consists of ten spiny rays, with long filaments; the second of
twenty-four soft rays. The tail is round at the end. The color of the body
is olive, varied with light blue and white; while living, it has the appear-
ance of gilding, whence its name Dorée (gilt). It is found in the North
sea. the British channel. the Aulantic, and the Mediterranean.

 

THE SWORD FISH}

 

48 very common in the Mediterranean, and is much esteemed for food by the
Sicilians, who consider it as equal to the sturgeon. It is also found on the
coasts ef America. It grows to a very large size, upwards of twenty feet in
length. It is ofa long and rounded body, largest near the head, and taper-
ing by degrees to the tail. The skin is rough, the back black, and the belly
white. It hasone fin on the back, running almost its whole length. It
nas one pair of fins also at the gills. But the most remarkable part of this
fish is the snout, which, in the upper jaw, runs out in the figure of a sword,
sometimes to the length of three feet, and is of a substance like a coarse
qind of ivory. The under jaw is much shorter.

 

1 Zeus faber,Lin. This genus is characterized by a body oval, compressed ; jaws
strongly protractile; teeth crowded; spinous portions of the dorsal and anal tins sepa-
rated from the others by a deep notch; scales projecting, and spinous scales at the base
of the vertical fins, and between the ventral and anal fins.

2 Xiphias gladius, Lin. The genus Xiphias has the snout prolonged, resembling the
blade of a sword; strong asperities in the jaws, in the place oF teeth; hody elongated
rounded, with scarcely perceptible scales or projecting caring on each side of the U
peruiral Fite long and pomted; two or three anterior rays of the dorsal fin spinous; ns
ventral! fin.
PISCES—SWORD FISH. 761

The sword fish has wonderful strength. The Leopard man-of-war was
atruck by one of them; and though the animal was following the ship, and
consequently gave the blow with less force than it otherwise would have done,
yet the sword penetrated nearly a quarter of a yard through the sheathing
and timber, and was broken off by the shock. Eight or nine strokes from a
nammer weighing a quarter of a hundred weight, would be required, to drive
an iron pin the same depth into wood. In the British Museum there is also
a plank of a ship, through which a fish impelled the whole length of his
sword; not, however, without losing his life by the effort.

"The sword fish has an antipathy to the whale, and no sooner meets than
he assails him. Two will sometimes combine in the attack. The whale
can defend himself only with “his tail, which the activity of his adversary
generally enables him to evade. The whale dives in vain, for he is pursued

y his pertinacious tormentor, and he is at length compelled to take flight.
752

INVERTEBRAL ANIMALS.

é

THE animals destitute of a vertebral column and bony skeleton, form the
second, and, by far, the most numerous, group of living beings. in the system
of Linnzus, the invertebral animals were included in two great classes,
Insecta and Vermes. But subsequent investigations into their nature and
organization, have given rise to more numerous and better characterized
groups. Possessing little analogy in point of structure with the vertebral
animals, some are found with the body unprotected, except by a sort skin;
others are covered by a shell; while others have their members enveloped
in crustaceous plates. The circulating system in this division is also less
perfect than in the vertebral animals; and, with the exception of a few
groups, none have red blood. The nervous system appears also in a less
complete form ; and, instead of the.medullary mass of the brain and spinal
chord of the higher classes, they present only ganglions or knots in the ner-
vous thread. No class of invertebral animals possesses all the organs of °
sense; for while sorne are destitute of the organs of hearing, others seem
deprived of the faculty of smell and sight, and many appear to be guided
only by the sense of touch. The sexes, besides, are in many groups united
in the same individuals, and in others the species is continued in a process
analogous to the budding of vegetables.

The animals of this division are but feebly endowed with the functions
of relation. Many of them, indeed, almost deprived of locomotion, or
fixed to other bodies, have neither choice of situation or food, but remain
for the term of life in the places where they originally had their birth. But
the want of intelligence is largely made up to many classes of this division.
by their superior instinctive powers, which, ir as far as regard their subsis-
tence and reproduction, surpass that of the vertebral animals. In one
very large class, the insects, this instinctive intelligence is displayed in a
very striking manner, in the combination of individuals for one common pur-
pose, and in the wonderful subsidiary arrangements of their commonwealths.
{t has been observed, as a distinction between the vertebral and the inverte-
bral animals, that while in the former, the bones or hard parts are more o
less formed of phosphate of lime; the hard parts of the latter, such as the
shells of the mollusca and crustacea, and the stony matter of corals and
madrepores, are chiefly composed of carbonate of lime. The invertebral
animals, as noticed in the mtroduction, are arranged by Cuvier into three
great divisions. 1. Those which have no skeleton; in which the muscles
are attached only to the skin, which proves a soft contractile covering, in
INVERTEBRATA—MOLLUSCA. 753

which the nervous system, composed of scattered masses, is contained in
this general envelope; in which there is a complete circulating system, ~
particular organs for respiration, and organs for digestion and secretion, are
termed Motiusca. 2. The second division, including those animals in which
the trunk is divided transversely into a certain number of rings, and of
which the integuments, either hard or soft, have always the muscles attache
ed to their interior, is named ArticuLaTa. The nervous system in this divi-
sion consists of long threads, running along the belly, and thickened at
certain distances into knots or ganglions; and the body is, in most casea,
provided with jointed members, or legs, at the sides of the annular segments.
Their jaws, whenever they have any, are always lateral. 3. The third
great division includes all the animals known under the name ZooruyTEs,
to which Cuvier gives the name of Rapiata. In the preceding divisions, the
organs of movement and sensation are disposed symmetrically on the twa
sides of a common axis. In the present, they are arranged eircularly around
acommon centre. In this last division, too, the lowest in the scale of am:-
mated beings, the nervous and circulating system almost disappears, the
respiratory apparatus is almost always on the surface of the body; and in
the greater number, the intestinal canal presents ths appearance of a simple
sac without an outlet. The last families of this division present the ap-
pearance of a homogenous pulp, indistinctly perceived to possess animal.
life, from giving indications of motion and sensation.

 

CLASS I. MOLLUSCA.

Invertebral, soft, inarticulated animals, furnished with a more or less prominent
head at their anterior part.

Tue form of the body in the mollusca is extremely various. It is fre-
quently oval, more or less elongated, convex above, and flat beneath, as in
the genera Doris, Limax, &c. Itis, also, sometimes oval, and equally convex
above and below, as in the Sepia; elongated and cylindrical, as in certain
Lohgines ; globular, as in the Octopodes. It is often more or less compress
ed on the sides, as in the Scyllee. In very many cases, a large portion of
the body is rolled up ina spiral form. A considerable number of :huse
animals present a very distinct separation between the head and the rest of
the body, as in the Octopodes. This distinction is sometimes much less
marked, as in the genus Doris. The distinction of neck, breast, abdomen,
aud tail is still less obvious; the body forming only a simple mass. Itis
seldom that the body is furnished with organs of locomotion, properly so
cajied, although cutaneous expansions are sometimes remarked on the sides,
vhich are subservient to this purpose. ‘The nervous system consists of a

95
754 MOLLUSGCA.

central part or brain, situated above the intestinal canal; of ganglia for the
different orders of sense, as well as for the locomotive apparatus; of a tew
visceral ganglia, together with conducting filaments or nerves. The brain
consists of two similar parts, more or less connected, and situated above the
cesophagus. The ganglion of the organ of sight communicates with the
brain, as well as that of the organ of hearing, when it exists. Besides the
more or less immediate connection which exists between the two parts of
the brain, above the wsophagus, there is another which passes under the
tescphagus, thus forming a sort of ring. These visceral ganglia appear to
be only two in number. The principal one is commonly placed near the
stomach, and sends forth filaments to the intestinal canal, and others which
communicate with the brain, by means of, the cesophageal ring. For the
locomotive apparatus, and the organs of general sensation, there is but a
single ganglion on each side, which communicates with the brain, by a
chord. From this ganglion proceed the filaments that supply the musculo-
cutaneous envelope, and especially those which are subservient to general
locomotion, such as the foot of the Gasteropoda and Trachelipoda, the wings
of the Pt:ropoda, &c. The circulation is complete in the mollusca. The
heart is situated, in general, in the back, above the intestinal canal. It is
not contained in a true pericardium, but in a muscular cell of the imperfect
diaphragm, which separates the visceral cavity from that of the bronchial.
It consists of an auricle, sometimes double, anda ventricle. The auricle
varies in its forms, but is commonly oval, with very thin walls; afew mus-
‘cular cords, however, are observed to traverse itsinterior. It communicates
‘with the ventricle by a sort of contraction, frequently of considerable. length,
as for example in the genus Loligo, and by means of a narrow orifice, com-
‘monly transverse, situated between two folds of the inner surface of the
ventricle, but without valves. The ventricle is in general much larger, and
varies much in form and direction. Its walls are always much thicker than
those of the auricle, and the transverse, muscular fasciculi, of which it is
formed, are very distinct. From the extremity of the heart issues the
arterial system, commonly by a single trunk, but sometimes, also, by two.
There are no valves placed at the commencement of this vessel. Their
walls are thicker than those of the veins, and are possessed of great elasti-
city. Their distribution varies in a considerable degree, although there are in
general two trunks, an anterior and a posterior. The former furnishes
oranches to the head and its different parts, to the cesophagus, and even to
ihe organs of generation ; while the other sends ramifications to the stomach,
the rest of the intestines, the liver, and the secreting organs of generation.
‘The veins have their walls extremely thin, and frequently so confounded
with the tissue of the parts, as to be with difficulty distinguished. They
constitute only two systems, one which comes from ail parts of the bodv,
and the other from the respiratory organ, there being no system uf the vena
porte. The venous radicles of the general system of the body, afier repeat-
MOLLUSGA. 75b

ed.y uniting into trunks, arrive at the respiratory organ, where they are curs
verved into an arterial system, which ramities through its substance. From
the capillary extremities of the bronchial artery, arises the second venous
system. The veins unite into branches, which terminate in a large trunk,
pouring its contents into the heart. The color of the blood is white or
bluish ;

The organs of respiration vary considerably, not only in respect to their
foim, and the place which they occupy in the animal, but also with respert to
structure. In most of them they are true bronchiz, or receive the inflt ence of
the ambient fluid on their surface; while in some others, they form a sort of
cavity, into which it penetrates, as in the terrestrial mollusca. In the latter
animals, the bronchial cavity is always more or less oval; butin the aquatle
species, it is found simple or compound. ft consists of numerous ramifica
tions in the Tritonie, of tufts or lamine m other genera, of triangular pyra-
mids in the Loligines, &c. In many genera it is external, as in the Ptero-
poda ; while in others it is more or less internal. It is sometimes situate at
the upper and posterior part of the body, as in the genus Doris; atother times,
on each side of the back; most corhmonly, however, at the anterior and
superior part of the commencement of the back. The structure of the re-
spiratory organ has, in most species, a considerable resemblance to that of
fishes, consisting either of triangular lamine, like the teeth of a comb, or
of granulations, or tubercles, arranged along a common axis.

The mouth is in general armed with hard parts. In some it is shut, with
almost always two jaws ; in others it consists of a retractile proboscis, fur-
nished with small teeth at its internal orifice, and has no jaws. Those
which have jaws, have the mouth sometimes vertical, presenting two bony,
toothless jaws, hooked like a parret’s bill, sometimes placed under the head,
or almost at its anterior extremity, or very small. It presents itself under
the form of a longitudinai or transverse fissure, and terminates that part of
the head which extends from the base of the tentacule to the aperture of
the mouth, and which is named the snout. This snout is sometimes very
short, and sometimes so elongated as to assume the appearance of a
proboscis. In this latter case, however, it is always distinct from the true
proboscis, which has no jaws, and is retractilé. The two jaws of the kind
of snout just mentioned, are cartilaginous and very unequal. Among those
which are destitute of maxille, there are some which have, instead of them,
a kind of cylindrical tube, of great length, in certain species, but much
smaller in others. It is fleshy, muscular, contractile, and pliant. Its ex-
tremity is perforated by a round hole, margined by cartilaginous membrane,
and armed with very small teeth.

‘The proboscidiferous mollusca are carnivorous, making use of this organ
for perforating the shells of other animals, and sucking their flesh. Those
w'uch have the parrot beak, are also carnivorous. Those which have a
756 MOLLUUSCA.

snout and two jaws, of which one, at least, is furnished with small teeth,
are herbivorous or frugivorous.

The intestinal canal consists of an internal mucous membrane, cominon-
ly forming longitudinal folds, and a more or less distinct muscular layer
{t varies much in respect to its direction and enlargement. Sometinies
there is a long and narrow oesophagus, and sometimes that organ is very
large and wide. The stomach is frequently simple, but also divided into
several cavities or cells. The liver, composed of lohes and lobules, is situat-
el more or less behind the stomach, very frequently at the posterior part of
the body. The ducts unite into three or four canals, which empty them-
selves into the stomach or intestine. The intestinal canal varies still more
than the stomach in its diameter, the number and form of its circumvolutions,
in its direction, and in the point at which it terminates. The organs of
vision are largely developed in certain species, as in the genus lolivo; in
others, they are small and imperfect, and are borne at the extremity of a sort
of tentaculum, or are sessile. The sense is in general very obscure, and in
many species can scarcely be said to exist. The senses of hearing, of smell,
and taste, are equally obtuse. The skin which envelopes the body of the
mollusca, is peculiarly soft and spongy, and from its connection with the
subjacent muscles, slightly contractile. It is smooth or tubercular, and
generally secretes a large quantity of mucus. It obtains the name of man-
tie. Many species are naked; but Ly far the greater number are enveloped
in 2 calcareous covering, named the shell. Of those which are naked, some
are entirely soft in all their parts; while others contain internally, oue cr
more solid parts, which are sometimes merely cartilaginous or herny, or
cretaceous, and lamellar, without being really conchylifourm, and sometimes
constitute a true internal shell. Of the shells produced by the mollusva,
there are, therefore, some which are truly internal, not appearing at all ex-
ternally; in others, the shell is disclosed, in part, at the posterior extremity
of the animal; while in a great portion, the shell is entirely external, and
envelopes or covers the animal. The form of this, external shell is extreme-
ly varied. In general, it isspirally convoluted. ‘The principal parts which
it }resents, are the aperture or mouth, consisting of an inner or columellar
lip, and an outer lip; the body of the shell consisting of the last, and generat'y
tuntd turn, or whorl; the spine, formed of the convolutions, which are only
in part seen, because enveloped by the last turn; and the columella, or axis,
round which the shell is contorted. When the colume'la is hollow, its
opening is called the umbilicus. The shell consists of a mixture of calca-
teous matter, (carbonate of lime,) and gelatinous matter. This is frequently
vovered externally by a thin layer of the latter substance, forming what is
called the epidermis. It exhibits a great variety of coloring. The form of
the shell indicates that of the animal which inhabits it; and is used as furs
nishing the generic characters, the structure of the animals of this class not
being generally known. It also furnishes many of the specific characters;
MOLLUSGA. 757:

while the circumstance of its surface being smooth, or variously grooved,’
tuberculated, or marked with spines, supplies others: The immense variety’
m the coloring, also, affords obvious means of specific distinction. All the’
mollusca are oviparous. The reproduction is therefore necessarily effected
by sexual impregnation. In some of the orders of these animals, the sexes
Bre separate, as in the Sepiaria. These aniinals, however, do not copulate,
but the males shed a fecundating fluid upon the ova deposited by the females.
It appears that the other mollusca, such in particular as the Gasteropoda and
Trachclpoda, have the two sexes united in the same individual. Of these
hermaphrodites, some require a reciprocal copulation, while others appear to
fecundate themselves. ‘The ova of the mollusca are not in general hatched
until after they have been deposited. Some have acrustaceous covering like
the ova of birds and reptiles, as is the case with the helices; others are
sometimes surrounded with a sort of jelly, by which they are attached to-
gether, as in the planorbes, lymnee, &c., and others are contained in mem-
branous sacs, of very different, forms, sometimes solitary, but more commonly
in groups; each of the’ sacs containing several young individuals, which
issue from then: alive, with their shell already formed, as is the case with
the Buccuna, &c. The mollusca are in general aquatic animals. Many
species, however, are terrestria] ; and some appear to live almost constantly
under ground, such as the ¢estucedle, but this is rare. A great number are
found on the surface, such as the limaces, helices, &c.; while some are to a
certain degree amphibious, as the /ymnea. By tar the greater part, however,
\ive in water, fresh and salt. Of the fresh water kinds, some remain free at
the surface of the mud; others adhere to other bodies. Of the latter, the
circumstances, in this respect, are considerably varied. Some are found
only on the coasts, and are termed Jittoral species, as the genera patelia, turbo,
&c.; others appear to exist only at a distance from the shores, and in deep
water, whence they are called pelagic species; and the Sepiarza wander in
the depths of the ocean. With respect to their geographical distribution,
little is known, this subject not having been submitted to sufficient investi-
gation. They are found, however, jn all parts of the world, whether in the
seas, rivers, and lakes, or on land. “Certain tribes are confined to particular
zones, while others appear to inhabit all. Thus the Sepéaria occur in all
seas, while the nautilus and spirula are found only in the torrid zone. The
food of the mollusca consists of almost all sorts of substances, animal and
vegetable, in all states, living or dead, fresh or putrid; but each species 2s 10
general confined to Acertain kind. ‘The uses of the mollusca, in the econo-
my of nature, are varied and extensive. They afford food to numerous
animals, especially fishes and birds, and to man himself. The savage tribes
which live along the coast, in many parts of the world, employ them much
as an article of food. Even in civilized countries, the mollusca frequently
form a considerable portion of sustenance, although in general they are nei-
ther very pleasant nor wholesome. The cuttle-fish furnishes a fluid from.

64
758 MOLLUSCA—CUTTLE-FISH.

which tae pigment called China ink is procured; and the ancients extracted
the beautiful purple color, with which the garments of their princes aud
nobles were dyed, frum certain species of purpure inhabiting the coast sf
Tyre.

ORDER II.—CEPHALOPODA.

Trese animals are distinguished by having a mantle in the form of a dag,
containing the lower part of the body; head protruding trom the bag,
zrowned with inarticulated arms, furnished with cups or suckers, and sure
rounding the mouth ; two sessile eyes; mouth with two horny mandibles
three hearts; the sexes separate. :

THE GREAT CUTTLE-FISIH.

 

Tuis singular creature, which is about two feet long, has eight arms or
claws, furnished on the interior side with litle round serrated cups, by the
contraction of which the animal lays fast hold of any thing that comes ia its
way. Besides these eight arms, it has two tentacula, four times longer than
the preceding, and also pedunculated. When the suckers adhere to any
thing, it is very difficult to loosen their hold. The mouth is situated in the
centre, and is horny and hooked, like the bill ofa parrot. It is so strong
that the animal can break to pieces the shells of limpets and of other
marine, testaceous creatures on which it feeds. The eyes are below, and
surrounded with several silvery rings; they are as large as the eves ofa

zalf, but are very prominent, and rather resemble the eyes of acrab. The
=

1 Sepia officinalis, Lamarck. The genus Sepia has the body fleshy, depressed. cone
famed ina bag, whieh is obtuse behind, aad margined on cither side in its whole length,
by a narrow fin ; a free, calcareous, spongy, and opaque bone meluded ii the body near
the back ; mouth terminal, surrounded with ten arms furnished with cups, of which two
are pedunculate, ar 1 louger than the others : :

Bre

ae
MOLLUSCA—NAUTILUS. 759

poay is of a reddish brown color, nearly cylindrical. The belly below is
equal, soft, smooth, oblung-round, of an ash and faintly yellowish color;
about the middle of the upper part of the body, there is a fin like , those of
fishes, composed of a softish cartilaginous substance, spread out widely on
both sides, and decreasing towards.the tail, till it ends in a point, like the
broad fins of the ray fish ; by means of this fin, it moves itself in swimming,
having no other membrane for that purpose. From this pointed termina-
tion of the tail, the French call it the sea-spider, although it has scarcely
any resemblance to the spider; but rather, with respect to the head,
approaches to the shape of the star-fish. At any rate, they are very forraida-
ble animals. With their arms and trunks they fasten themselves, to resist
«ne motian of the waves. The females lay their eggs upon seaweed and
ylants, in clusters like bunches of grapes. Immediately after they are laid,
vhey are white, and the males pass over and impregnate them with a black
‘iquor, after which they grow larger and resemble black: grapes. On open-
ing one of the eggs, the embryo cuttle is found alive. The noise of a cuttle-
fish, on being dragged out of the water, resembles the grunting of a boar.
When the male is pursued by a sea-wolf, or other ravenous fish, he shuns
the danger by stratagem. He squirts ou a black liquor, by which the water
becomes as black as ink, and under sheiter of this, he baffles the pursuit of
his enemy. This black liquor is elaborated in a particular gland. The
Romans used it as ink; and it is said to be an ingredient in the composition
of Indian ink. There is a bone in this animal which is converted into that
useful article of stationary called pounce, and is also used by silversmiths to
form moulds. This fish was much esteemed by tlie ancients, and is still
eaten in the hot countries bordering on the Mediterranean.

THE NAUTILUS.1

Tits animal inhabits a shell which resembles that of a large snail, but 1s
generally six or eight inches across; within, it is divided into forty part
tions’ that communicate with each other by doors, if we may so call thei,
through which one could not thrust a'goose quill ; almost the whole internal
part of the shell is filled by the animal, the body‘of which, like its hubita-
tion, is divided into as many parts as there are chambers in 1ts shell; all the.
parts of its body communicate with each other, through the doors or open-
ings, by a long vessel, which runs from the head to the tail; thus the
body of the animal, if taken out of the shell, may he likened to a number of
soft bits of flesh, of which there are forty threaded upon a string. From this

 

1 Nautilus Poinpilius, Lix. Shell disciform, spiral, multilocular, with simple walls;
turns coutiguous, the last covering the rest; transverse septa, concave externa ly, perto-
rated in the disc; the margins entire.
760 MOLLUSCA—NAUTILUS.

extraordinary conformation, one would not be apt to suppose that the naut.
lus sometimes quitted its shell, and returned to it again; yet nothing
though seemingly impossible, is more certain. The manner -by which it
tontrives to disengage every part of i its body from so intricate a habitation—
by which it makes a substance, to appearance as thick as one’s wrist, pass
through forty doors, each of which would scarcely admit a goose quill—is
not yet discovered; but the fact is certain; for the animal is often found
without its shell; and the shell more frequently destitute of the animal.
It is most probable, that it has a power of making the substance of one
section of its body remove up into that which is next; and thus, by multi-
plied removals, it gets free.

But this, though very strange, is not the peculiarity for which the nautilus
has been the most distinguished. Its spreading the thin oar, and catching
the flying gale, to use the poet’s description of it, has chiefly excited human
euriosity. These animals, particularlarly those of the white, light kind,!
are chiefly found in the Mediterranean ; and scarce any who have sailed on
that sea, but must have often seen them. When the sea is calm, they are
observed floating on the surface; some spreading their little sail; some
rowing with their feet, as if for life and death ; and others still, foating upon
their mouths, like a ship with the keel upward. If taken while thus em-
ployed, and examined, the extraordinary mechanism of their limbs for sail-
‘ing, will appear more manifest. The nautilus is furnished with eight feet,
which issue near the mouth, and may as pruperly be called barbs; these are
connected to each other by a thin skin, like that between the toes of a duck,
but much thinner, and more transparent. Of these eight feet thus vapnesied,
aix are short, and these are held up as sails to catch the wind in sailing
the two others are longer, and are kept in the water; serving, like “alllles
to steer their course by. When the weather is quite calin, acid the animal
is pursued from below, it is then seen expanding only a part of its sail, and
rowing with the rest; whenever it is interrupted, or fears danger from
above, it instantly furls the sail, catches in al] its oars, turns its shel] mouth
downward, and instantly sinks to the bottom. Sometimes also it is seen
pumping the water from its leaking hulk; and, when unfit for sailing
deserts its shell enurely. The forsaken hulk is seen floating along, till it
dashes, by a kind of shipwreck, upon the rocks or the shore.

1 Argorauta Argo Lau

 
MOLLUSCA—SNAIL. 76)

THE SNAIL

 

Tis animal is furnished with the organs of life in a manner alrnost 49
complete as the largest animal ; with a tongue, brain, salival ducts, glands,
nerves, stomach and intestines, liver, heart, and blood-vessels; besides
these, it has a purple bag that furnishes a red matter to different parts of the
body, together with strong muscles that hold it to the shell, and which are
hardened, like tendons, at their insertion. i ,

But these it possesses in common with other animals. We must now
see what it has peculiar to itself. The first striking peculiarity is, that the
animal has got its eyes on the points of its largest horns. When the snail
is in motion, four horns are distinctly seen; but the two uppermost and
longest deserve peculiar consideration, both on account of the various mo-
tions with which they are endued, as well as their having their eyes fixed at
the extreme ends of them. The eyes the animal can direct to different
objects at pleasure, by a regular motion out of the body; and sometimes it

ides them, by 9 very swift contraction into the belly. Under the small
aorns is the animal's mouth; and though it may appear too soft a substance
Jo be furnished with teeth, yet it has not less than eivhtof them, with which
it devours leaves, and other substances, seemingly harder than itself; and
with which it sometimes bites off pieces of its own shell.

At the expiration of eighteen days after coupling, the snails produce their
eggs, and hide them in the earth with the greatest solicitude and industry,
These eggs are in great numbers, round; white, and covered with a soft
snell; they are also stuck to each other by an imnerceptible slime, like a
bunch of grapes, of about the size of a small] | ea.

The snail is possessed not only of a power of retreating into its shell, but
of mending it when broken. Sometimes these animals are crushed seem-
ingly to pieces, and to all appearance utterly destroyed; yet still they set
themselves to work, and, in a few days, mend all their numerous breaches.
The same substance by which the shell is originally made, goes to the re-
establishment of the ruined habitation.

 

} Helix, Shell orhicular, convex or covered, sometimes globular, with the spire shgntly
elevated ; aperture entire, broader than long, very ae contiguous to the aus of he
shell, Laving the margin disunited by the projection of the penult imate whorl.

96 64*
762 MOLLUSCA—CONCHIFERA.

As the snail is furnished with all the organs of life ‘and sensation, it is not
wondertul to see it very voracious. It chiefly subsists upon the leaves c’
plants and trees, but is very delicate in its choice. At the approach of
winter, it buries itse!( in the earth, or retires to some hole to continue in a
torpid state, during the severity of the season. It is sometimes seen ale,
bnt more frequently in company in its retreat ; several being usually fount
together, apparently deprived of life and sensation. For the purpose of con
tinuing in greater warmth and security, the snail forms a cover or lid to ae
mouth of its shell with its slime, which stops it up entirely, and thus pro-
tects it from every external danger. When the cover is formed too thick, the
snail then breaks a little hole in it, to correct the effect of that closeness
which proceeded from too much caution. In this manner, sheltered in its
hole from the weather, defended in its shell by a cover, it sleeps during the
winter; and for six or seven months, continues without food or motion,
until the genial call of spring breaks its slumber, and excites its activity.

The snail, having slept for so long a season, awakes in one of the first
fine days of April, breaks open its cell, and sallies forth to seek for nourish-
nent. Atfirst, it is not very difficult in the choice of its food; almost any
vegetable that is green seems welcome; but the succulent plants of -the
garden are chiefly grateful; and the various kinds of pulse are, at some
seasons, almost wholly destroyed by their numbers. A wet season is
generally favorable to their production; for this animal cannot bear very dry
seasons, or dry places, as they cause too great a consumption of its slime,
without plenty of which it cannot subsist in health and vigor.

CLASS II.—CONCHIFERA.
Animal soft, marticulated, destitute of head or eyes, and always fired ina valve
shell ; brunchie external ; circulation simple ; heart unilocular.

Tue animals of this class have no apparent head; and their mouth con-
cealed under the mantle, or at the junction of its two lobes, and destitute of
jaws or hard parts, appears to be as the orifice of a short esophagus. The
mantle or cloak which envelopes the body is large, in two lobes, and incloses
the trunk, like the cover ofc book. In some families, however, this mantle
is united before, and then forms a tubular covering, open at both ends.
The mantle, besides, often forms two tubes or syphons, of which one cun-
ducts the water to the bronchiz, and the other serves as a canal for dejec-
tions. This mantle is always furnished with a shell of two valves, united
by a hinge or ligament; ind strong transverse muscles, attached to the

 

‘

(} Mollusca avephalu, Cuv.)
MOLLUSCA—CONCHIFERA. 763

shell, enable the animal to open or shut it at pleasure. The nervous system
in this class is imperfectly developed, sensation very obtuse, and the brain,
if such it may be termed, is a ganglion over the mouth, formed by the junc-
tion of two nervous chords. Their chief sense seems to be that of touch.
Tn some familics, this sense appears to reside in tentacular filaments, which
horder the lobes of the mantle, or certain places of these lobes. These
tentacular threads, which appear very sensible, or at least irritable, are, “m
reneral, numerous, short, very fine, and move sometimes with extreme
quickness. The heart in the Conchifera is placed towards the back. It 1s
small, but provided with venous and arterial vessels. The liver is large,
embracing the stomach and a great portion of the alimentary canal. The
bronchi are external, and appear more particularly so in those in which the
mantle is open before. These bronchie are opposite, formed of large vascu-
lar leaflets, generally crescent-shaped, placed on each side under the cloak,
covering the beily of the animal, upon the sides of which they are attached
in pairs. These bronchi are formed of a tissue of smal! vessels, arranged
close together, like the pipes of an organ. At the sides of the mouth are
four triangular thin leaflets, the extreinities of two lips. All the Conchifera
have a testaceous covering of two principal pieces, most of them of two
alone. These pieces, named valves, are opposed to one another, and consti-
tute the proper shel] of the animal. The valves are united together near
their base, by an elastic coriaceous or horny ligament, and the point of union
is called the hinge. This hinge is distinguished by teeth, or protuberances
and hollows, which lock into each other when the shell is closed. When
the valves are unequal or dissimilar in size, the shell is said to be inegui-
valve ; and when, on the contrary, both resemble one another, in their
general form and size, they are said to be eywivalve. Among the equivalve
shells, however, are found some, which, when the shell is clused, have,
towards theiy lateral extremities, an opening or gape, more or less consi-
derable. In those in which this opening is large, it has been observed that
the mantle of the animal is almost always united before.

The ligament of the valves is sometimes exterior, and sometimes interior.
In both cases, it serves not only to fix the two portions of the shell together,
but to open them by its elasticity. When this ligament is exterior, if the
shel] be closed, itis then tense, the valves being held together by -he cons
traction of the internal muscle; but if this muscle is relaxed, the elasticity
of ‘he ligament alone separates the valves. When, on the contrary, the
liga ment is interior, it is compressed when the shell is shut, and the muscle
exerts its power, but throws open the valves when this power is relaxed.
Though the Conchefera never crawl ona ventral disc, or foot, like many
of the Mollusca, yet some possess a muscular, contractile organ, often cums
pressed and lamelliform, which the animal exerts or withdraws at w Il.
This muscular part serves some families as an organ of loromotion, by
enabling them to execute a sort of leap; in others, deprived of locormouon
764 MOLLUSCA—CONCHIFERA.

to attach their tendinous threads or byssus to rocks or marine bodies. As
the movements of this class are thus nearly reduced to those of their muscu-
iar attachment to the shell and their muscular cloak, these parts are much
devel-ped. The thickness of the muscle which attaches the oyster to its
shell and the’ amplitude of the mantle in all the Conchifera, are weu
kouwn. ‘he disposition of the first of these has afforded characters for
the determination of groups. In the oyster, for instance, there is but one
muscle, which traverses, in some measure; the whole body to attach it to
the valves of the shell. In others, such as the genera Venus and Tellina;
che muscles of attachment are two in number, and attached to the lateral
extremities of the shell; and in a third group, these muscles seem di-
vided, as in the Anodonta; into three or four muscles of attachment.
The n.uscles of attachment are generally thick, composed of straight
vertical fibres, and at their place of junction with the shell acquire
a remarkable hardness. Their use is to shut the valves by contrac-
tion; when they are relaxed, the ligament at the hinge suffices by its elasti-
city to open them. It is remarkable, that during the life of the animal,
these muscles really change their place, without ceasing, for an instant, to
attach the animal to the shell. They beconie obliterated, dried up, and
detached, by almost imperceptible degrees on one side; while on the other,
they increase by the addition of new fibres; and this is done in such a man
ner that they always preserve the same relative position ‘as the shell in-
creases in size from age. When the animal is removed from the shell, the
muscles of attachment always leave on its internal surface impressions
which show their situation, their number, and the displacement which they
have undergone. Among the Conchifera, the animal never has a shell, or
other hard part internally. The body is always soft, often oval, more or
less compressed, and the mouth is generally situate towards the lowest part
of the shell, on the left side of the hinge. All the Conchifera are aquatic:
Some races live in fresh water, and others in the sea. The greater part are
free; but some are fixed upon marine bodies by their shell, and others ate
tached by bony filaments, or a byssus. Lamarck divides the class Conchi-
fera into two orders, viz. Order first—Monomvaria. With but one muscle
of attachment; shel] marked interiorly with one subcentral muscular im-
pression. Order second—Dimvaria. With at least two muscles of attach+
ment; shell marked interiorly with two separate and lateral muscular im
pressions. It is not necessary to detail here all the arrangements proposed
for this class of animals. They were included by Linnus among his Vermes
testacea, and form the class of Mollusca acephata in the Régne Anmal of
M. Cuvier. The older naturalists, who arranged the testaceous animals as
me great family by the from of their testaceous covering, took their charac-
ters wholly form the shell; and this department of science, including the
lestaceous coverings of the preceding class, form the branch of science
termed Conchology.
MOLLUSCA-—-MUSCLE. 765

THE MUSCLE,!

As is well known, consists of two equal shells, joincd at the pack by a strong
muscular ligament that answers all the purposes of a hinge. By the elastic
contraction of this, the animal can open its shells, at pleasure, about a quar-
ter of an inch from each other. The fish is fixed to either shell by four
tendons, by means of which it shuts them close, and keeps .ts body firm
from being crushed by any shock against the walls of its own habitation,
It is furnished, like all other animals of this kind, with vital organs, though.
these are situated in a very extraordinary manner. It has a mouth furnishe
ed with two fleshy lips; its intestines begin at the bottom of the mouth,
pass through the brain, and make a number of circumvolutions through the
liver; on leaving this organ, they go on straight into the heart, which they
penetrate, and end in the anus; near which the lungs are placed, and
through which it breathes, like those of the snail kind; and in this manner
its languid circulation is carried on.

The multitude of these animals in some places is very great; but from
their defenceless state, the number of their destroyers is in equa] pro-
portion.

But notwithstanding the number of this creature’s animated enemies, it
seems still more fearful of the agitations of the element in which it resides;
tor if dashed against rocks, or thrown far on the beach, it is destroyed with-
out a power of redress. In order to guard against these, which are to this
animal the commonest and the most fatal accidents, although it has a power
of slow motion, which we shall presently describe, yet it endeavors to be-
come stationary, and {o attach itself to any fixed object it happens to be
near. For this purpose it is furnished with a very singular capacity of bind-
ing itself by a number of threads to whatever object it approaches; and
these Reaumur supposed it to spin artificially, as spiders their webs, which
they fasten against a wall. Of this, however, later philosophers have found
very great reason to doubt. It is, therefore, supposed that these threads,
which are usually called the beard of the ‘muscle, are the natural growth of
the animal’s body, and by no means produced at pleasure.

Its instrument of motion, by which it contrives to reach the object 2
wants to bind itself to, is that muscular substance resembling a tongue,
which is found long in proportion to the size of the muscle. In some, it is
two inches long; in others, not a third part of these dirnensions. This the
animal has the power of thrusting out of its shell; and with this, it is capas
ble of making a slight furrow in the sand at the bottom. By means of this
furrow, it can erect itself upon the edge of its shell; and thus continuing to

 

! Mytilus. Shell longitudinal, equivalve, regular, pointed at the hase, and adhering by
a byssus: beaks almost straight, terminal, and pointed ; hinge lateral, generally without
teeth; ligament marginal, subinterior; muscuar impression elonguted, clavate sub-
lateral. :
766 MOLLUSCA—OYSTER.

make the furrow im proportion as it goes forward, it reaches out its tongue
that answers the purpose of an arm, and thus carries its shell edgewise, as
in a groove, until it reach the point intended. There where it determines |
to take up its residence, it fixes the ends of its beard, which are glutinous,
to the rock or the object, whatever it be; and thus, like a ship at anchor,
braves all the agitations of the water. The beards have been seen a foot
and a half’ long; and of this substance the natives of Palermo sometimes
make gloves and stockings.

 

THE OYSTER!

 

Is formed with organs of life and respiration, with intestines which are very
voluminous, a liver, lungs, and heart. Like the muscle, it is self-impreg-
nated ; and the shell, which the animal soon acquires, serves it for its future
habitation. Like the muscle, it opens its shell to receive the influx of
water, and, like that animal, is strongly attached to its shells both above
and below. The oyster respires by means of gills. The water is drawn
in at the mouth, which is a small opening in the upper part of the body,
and proceeds thence down a long canal, constituting the base of the gills,
and so out again, the animal retaining such a portion of air as is necessary
for the functions of the body.

The oyster differs from the muscle in being utterly unable to change ‘ts
situation. It is entirely without that tongue which we see answering the
purposes of an arm in the other animal, but, nevertheless, is often attached
very firmly to any object it happens to approach. Nothing is so common
in the rivers of the tropical climates as to see oysters growing even amidst
the branches of the forest. Many trees, which grow along -he banks of
the stream, often bend their branches into the water, and particularly the
mangrove, which chiefly delights in a moist situation. To these the oys-

 

1 The genus Ostrea, or oyster, is characterized hy av adhering shell, inequivalve, irregu-
Jar, with heaks separated, and the upper valve advanced as the animal increases in age;
hinge without teeth; ligament half internal; the hollow of attachment and the beak ut
the lower valve increasing with age.
MOLLUSCA—PEARL OYSTER. 767

ters hang in clusters, like apples upon the most fertile tree; and in prcpor
uon as the weight of the ish sinks the plant into the water, where it stll
continues growing, the aumber of oysters increase, and hang upon the
vranches. This is effected by means of a glue proper to themselves, which,
when it cements, the joining is as hard as the shell, and is as diflicultly
broken. :

Oysters usually cast their spawn in May, which at first appears like drops
ef candle-grease, and sticks to any hard substance it falls upon. These ate
covered with a shell in two or three days; and in three years the animal is
warge enough to be brought to market. As they invariably remain in the
places where they are laid, and as they grow without any other sceming
food than the afflux of sea water, it is the custom where the tide settles in
marshes on land, to pick up great quantities of smal] oysters along the
shore, which, when first gathered, seldom exceed the size of a sixpence.
These are deposited in beds where the tide comes in, and in two or three
years grow to a tolerable size. They are said to be better tasted for being
thus sheltered from the agitation of the deep; and a mixture of fresh water
entering into these repositories, is said to improve their flavor, and to increase
their growth and fatness. Most of the oysters sold in Boston are taken in
some part of Long Island Sound, and kept a year at Cape Cod, where they
grow much larger, and are better than when first taken.

The oysters, however, which are prepared in this manner, are by no
means so large as those found sticking to rocks at the bottom of the sea,
usually called rock oysters. These are sometimes found as broad as a
plate, and are admired by some as excellent food. But what is the size of
these compared to the oysters of the East Indies, some of whose shells we
have seen-two feet over? The oysters found along the coast of Coromandel
are capable of furnishing a pientiful meal to eight or ten men; but it seems
universally agreed that they are no way comparable to ours for delicacy or
flavor. The oysters taken on the coast of England have a strong taste of,
copper, which they derive from the copper banks. They are, at first, very
disgusting to an American palate.

 

THE PEARL OYSTER!

fas a large, strong, whitish shell, wrinkled and rough without, and within
smooth, and of a silver color. From these the mother-of-pearl is taken,
which is nothing more than the internal coats of the shell, resembling the
pearl in color and consistence. There are a great number of pearl fisheries

 

1 Melengrina margaritifera. Lin. The genus Meleagrina has a shell subequivalve,
rounded, scaly without; a sinus at Hie eee hase of the valves for the passage of the
byssus, the left valve heing notched and narrow at this place; hinge linear withovt teeth:
igament marginal, elongated, almost exterior, dilated in the middle.
768 MOLLUSCA—PEARL OYSTER.

in America and Asia. The chief of these is carried on in the Persian guls
and at Ceylon.

The wretched people that are destined to fish for pearls, are either negioas
or some of the poorest of the natives of Persia. The divers are nut only
subject to the dangers of the deep, to tempests, to suffocation at the botton:,
to being devoured by sharks, but, from their profession, universally labor ur
der a spitting of bluod, occasioned by the pressure of air upon their lungs »
going down to the bottom. The most robust and healthy young men ar:
chosen for this employment; but they seldom survive it above five or si
years. Their fibres become rigid; their eyeballs turn red; and they usually
die consumptive.

It is amazing how very long they are seen to continue at the bottom
Some, as we are assured, have been known to continue three quarters of an
hour under water without breathing; and to one unused to diving, ten
minutes would suffocate the strongest. They fish for pearls, or rather the
oysters that contain them, in boats twenty-cight feet long; and of these
there are sometimes three or four hundred at a time, with each seven or
eight stones which serve for anchors. There are from five to eight divers
belonging to each, that dive one after another. They are quite naked, ex-
cept that they have a net hanging down from the neck to put their oysters
in, and gloves on their hands to defend them while they pick the oysters:
from the holes in the rocks; for in this manner alone can they be gathered.
Every diver is sunk by means of a stone, weighing fifty pounds, tied to the
rope, by which he descends. He places his foot in a kind of stirrup, and
laying hold of the rope with his left hand, with his right he stops his
nose to keep in his breath, as upon going down he takes in a very long in-
spiration. They are no sooner come to the bottom, but they give the signal
to those who are in the boat to draw up the stone; which done, they go to
work filling their nets as fast as they can; and then giving another signal,
the boats above pull up the net loaded with oysters, and shortly after the diver
himself to take a new inspiration. They dive to the depth of fifteen fathoms,
and seldom go deeper. They generally go every morning by break of day
to this fatiguing employment, taking the land-wind to waft them out to sea,
and returning with the sea-breeze at night. The owners of the boats usual-
ly hire the divers, and rest of the boat’s crew, as we do our laborers, at so
much a day. All the oysters are brought on shore, where they are laid in a
great heap, till the pear] fishery is over, which continues during the months
of November and December. When opportunity serves, they examine
every oyster; and it is accidental whether the capture turns out ad
vantageous.
*

MOLLUSCA—COCKLE.. PHOILAS. » 769

THE COCKLE!

OF the cardium, or cockle tribe, there are more than fifty speces: some
or other of which are to be procured on the sandy shores of all the knowa
seas. They are mostly found immersed a few inches deep in the sand. In
size, the ditferent species vary considerably, some heirg five or six inches
diameter, and others not more than half an inch. The cockle haya tolerz-
ble degree of locomotive power, in consequence of its triangular yellow fuot,
which is conspicuous on the shell being opened. With this feot it can alge
draw-into threads its glutinous matter, and thus in a manner anchor itself
on the spot that it has chosen for its residence. The opening of the shell
is protected by a soft membrane, which wholly closes up the front, except
in two places, at each of which there is a small, yellow, fringed tube.
Through these tubes the animal receives and ejects the water which conveys.
nutriment, to its body. es

 

THE CARDIUM EDULE, OR COMMON COCKLE,

Wuicn is the species most common in England, has a grayish shell, some-
what heart-shaped, with about twenty-eight flattish ribs, transversely striated,
with recurved imbrications. It isa wholesome and pleasantfood. Lobsters
and crabs lie in wait for an opportunity of thrusting in a leg ora claw,
when the cockle is open, in order to prey on the included animal; but it
often happens that the younger ones of those crustaceous animals, not bemg
sufficiently hard to withstand the violent snapping of the shells of the larger
species when they close, are deprived of the limb. :

 

THE PHOLAS?

Or all animals of the shelly tribe, the Pholades are the most won-
derful. These animals are found in different places; sometimes ciun-
ed in their proper shell, at the bottom of the water; sometimes com
cealed in lumps of marly earth; and sometimes Icdged, shell and alk

 

1The genus Cardium is charas terized by a shell equivalve, subcordiform, with protui e-
rant beaks; valves dentated, or plicated on their internal margin; hinge with four wees
in each valve, of which the two primary ones are approximated and oblique, and two iate-
ral distant oues.

2The genus Pholas has the shell hivalve, equivalve, transverse, gaping on each side
with several accessory pieces, either on the hinge, or below it; inferior margin of the
valves bent outwards; animak destitute of a thular sheath, projecting anteriorly, two
united tnhes, often surronnded by a comunon skin, and posteriorly, a short, thick, muscular
fot, flattened at its extremity. 85
.

v0 MOLLUSC A- -PHOLAS.

in the body of the hardest marble. In their proper shell they assume diffe-
rent figures; but, in general, they somewhat resemble a muscle, except that
tmeir shell is found actually composed of five or more pieces, the smaller
valves serving to close up the openings left by the irregular meeung of the
two principal shells. But their penetration into rocks, and their residence
there, makes up the most wonderful part of their history.

This animal, when divested of its shell, resembles a roundish soft pud-
ding, with no instrument that seems in the least fitted for boring into stones,
or even penetrating the softest substance. It is furnished with two teeth
indeed; but these are placed in such a situation, as to be incapable of touch-
ing the hollow surface of its stony dwelling; it has also’ two covers to its
shell, that open and shut at either end; but these are totally unserviceable
toitasaminer. The instrument with which it performs all its operations,
and buries itself in the hardest rocks, is onlv a broad fleshv substance, some-
‘what resembling a tongue, that is seen issuing Irom tne oottom of its sneu.
With this soft, yielding instrument, it perforates the most solid marble;
and having, while yet little and young, made its way, by a very narrow
entrance into the substance of the stone, it then begins to grow bigger, and
thus to enlarge its apartment. :

When it has buried its body in a stone, it there continues for life at its
ease; the sea-water that enters at the little aperture supplying it with luxu-
rious plenty. When the animal has taken too great a quantity of water, it
ig seen to spurt it out of its hole with some violence. Upon this seemingly
thin diet, it quickly grows larger, and soon finds itself under a necessity
of enlarging its habitation and its shell. The motion of the pholas is slow
beyond conception ; its progress keeps pace with the growth of its body;
and in proportion as it becomes larger, it makes its way farther into the
rock. When it has got a certain way in, it then turns from its former di-
rection, and hollows downward; till at last, when its habitation is completed,
the whole apartment resemblesthe bowl of a tobacco pipe; the hole in the
shank being that by which the animal entered.

But they are not only supplied with their rocky habitation ; thev have also
a shell to protect them; this shell grows upon them in the body of the rock,
and seems a very unnecessary addition to that defence which they have
procured themselves by art. These shells take different forms, and are often
composed of a different number of valves; sometimes six; sometimes but
three; sometimes the shell resembles a tube with holes at either end, cze
for the mouth, and the other for voiding the excrements.
MOLLUSCA—TUNICATA. 771

CLASS II].—TUNICATA.

Gelatinovs, or coriaceous, biforous, bitunicated anzmats, isolated, in gt aups, oF
often joined together in a common mass.

Tue place which the animals of this class ought to occupy in the arrange-
ment corresponding to their organization, has not been satisfactorily ascer-
tamed. Cuvier places them among his molluscous animals, in the class
Acepha'a, and makes them the second order of this class, under the .itle o1
acephaluus animals, without shells; while Lamarck arranges them between
the Echinodermata and worms. Latreille places them after the Entozoa,
and they form the fourth order of Blainville’s class, Acephalophora, under
the name of Hetervbranchiata. In point of fact, there seems to be, both
among the vertebral and invertebral animals, more than one series of forms
and structure, which, either in the descending or ascending scale, where the
most nearly-allied groups, in point of structure, are arranged in sequence,
will always interfere to disturb any continuous or subordinate arrangement.
The existence of these parallel groups presents formidable difficulties to the
classification of animals in one unbroken series; but the establishment of
closely connected groups into natural families,a plan which has been. largely
adopted, by the recent writers on the classification of animals, renders the
-arbitrary limitations of systematic writers, of objects in themselves unlimit-
ed, a matter of less consequence. We have, therefore, followed M. Cuvier
in placing the class Tunicata, under the general head Mollusca.

The animals of the class Tunicata have an ublong, irregular body, as if divid-

ed interiorly into many cavities. They have no head; possess no distinct
organs of sensation; and no symmetrical or similar parts in pairs. Some
tubercles and threads, discovered in their body, are presumed to form the
aervous system. The-body is besides composed of muscular fibres, and dis-
tinct blood vessels; the alimentary tube is open at both ends, and a mass of
gemm~ or ova, either solitary or together, in a common envelope, seem to
form the ovaries. The respiratory organ in this class is always interior,
formed of two membranous, reticular leaflets, sometimes constituting a
sort of sac, sometimes forming two bands of unequal length, united by one
end. None of these animals possess a retractile tube for locomotion. Their
body soft, or coriaceous, is generally fixed either by itself, or in connection
with others of the species, to foreign substances. No trace of sexual organs
has been discovered. Many of the animals of this class, from their union in
_a common mass, seem at first sight to form compound animals, like the
polypi; but this wide distinction is to be remarked between them and the lower
-families, in the zoological scale, that the aggregated Tunicata are independen
aud individual beings, each being provided with a mouth and an aperture for
772 MOLLUSCA—CIRRIPEDA.

digestion, applicable to their individual wants, and unconnected with the
general nutriuon of the common mass. Lamarck divides this class inte
two orders.

Order I. Ascrptarta.— Animals disunited, either isolated, or in groups,
without internal communication, and not forming essentially a common
mass. :

Order Il. Borryturarta. —Agglomerated animals, always united, and
constituting a mass with a common covering.

CLASS IV.-CIRRIPEDA.

Soft animals, destitute of head and eyes, covered with a shell, and fixed
body inarticulated, furnished with u mantle, and tentacular, cirrus, many-
jointed arms above. (

Tue class Cirripeda forming the genus Lepas, in the system of Linneus.
was instituted by Lamarck, in 1812, and has since been adopted by Cuvier,
Blainville, and other naturalists, as a distinct group of molluscous animals,
intermediate between them and the articulated groups. The body in this
class is always much shortened, immoveable, and inclosed in a shell, either
itself fixed to an extraneous body, or elevated on a tubular and moveable
pedancle, which permits some degree of motion. In the first case, the shell
adheres immediately to the marine hodies, upon which it is fixed; while in
the other shell, of which the valves are always distinct and moveable, and
inclosing the body more or less completely, is raised on a peduncle of greater
or less length. This foot-stalk or peduncle is tubular, tendinous, moveable,
more or less contractile, and fixed by its base; and it does not appear that
the animal has the power of changing its attachment, or shifting its place,
The tunic or mantle of the Cirripeda, in some cases, envelopes only a pur-
tion of the body, and forms the external coat of the peduncle in those which
have a foot-stalk. In others, as in the genera Otion and Cineras, the tunic
envelopes all the body, leaving only an anterior opening for the arms. In
none is this tunic divided into two lobes, as in the Conchifera and Mollusca..

The jaws in the Cirripeda are lateral, and along the belly are numerous fila-
ments named cirri, disposed in pairs, and composed uf a great number of
sinall joints. These cirri forming a kind of arms or fins, vary in number;

_sometimes there are twenty-four, or twelve pairs on each side. They are
long, slender, unequal, an1 ciliated, with a horny skin. The longest ure
found at the summit of the body, and they gradually diminish, in such a
manner that the shortest are nearest the mouth. In repose, they are rolled
up in a spiral form. These cirri or arms have no analogy with the tentacula
MOLLUSCA—CIRRIPEDA. 3

vf the mollusza, and seem a species of antennz; but as the animal has no
head, M. Lamarck considers them as arms.

The heart in this class is situate towards the back, and the bronchia on
the sides. Their nervous system forms a series of knots, or ganglions under
the belly. The animals are placed in their shell in stich a manner that the
bead is below, and the cirri towards the orifice. Between these is a long,
fleshy tube, at the base of which, towards the back, is the anal opening. In
the interior is the stomach, with a number of small cavities in its walis
which appear to fulfil the functions of a liver; a simple intestinal canal;
a double ovary; anda double winding canal for the passage of the ova,

The shell of the Cirripeda isalways multivalve, or composed of a nuinter
of separate pieces. In a great portion of the class, however, where the
shell is fixed immediately to other bodies, the shell appears univalve, its por-
tions, six in number, being generally joined together at the sides. This
shell is conical or tubular, fixed by its base, truncated and open at the sum-
mit. In the opening, which is terminal, are two or four moveable valves,
which the animal opens and shuts at will, and which form what is termed
the operculum. But in that portion of the class raised on a tubular pedun-
ele, which supports the body and shell, the shell is distinctly multivalve, and
of a different character from the sessile species. In the greater number, this
shel] consists of five unequal pieces, which form, when the shell is shut, a
cone compressed on the sides; in one genus, besides these five principal
‘pieces, are found others much smaller, termed sccessory pieces; and in
others, the pieces of the shell are isolated or much separated, and do not en-
tirely cover the body. But, however great the difference between the shells
of the pedunculated and the sessile species of this class, the animals are
analogous in point of structure or organization ; and, the shells of both, simply
attached to the body, or fixed on the sum.nit of the peduncle, are ‘essen-
tially different froyn those of the bivalve, where the two pieces of the
shell are connected by aligament and hinge. The animals of this class are-
hermaphrodite, and all marine. Lamarck divides the class Cirripeda into.
two orders. ;

Order [. Pepuncutata.—Body supported by a tubular moveable peduni Je,
of which the base is fixed upon marine bodies ; mouth alinost inferior.

Order (1. Sessiuta.—Body destitute of peduncle, and fixed by the shell
unon marine bodies; mouth superior and anterior.

. 6a*
174 : pPMewUeTA ARR ELIDES:

DIVISION III.—ARTICULATA.

Tue third great division of the animal kingdom consists of animals whicn
have their budy ar members composed of segments or articulated rings, to
the interior of which the muscles are attached. The nervous system cons
sists of. two long chords extending along the belly, and swelled out at inter-
vals into knots or ganglia. The first of these placed upon the cesophagns,
tnough but little larger than the others, is considered as analogous tu the
orain in the higher animals. The teguments of the body are sometines
hard, sometimes soft; and the trunk has often at its sides articulated mem-=
bers, though in some groups these are wanting. As formerly observed, it ig
in this division of the animal kingdom, that the transition of the circulation
in closed vessels tu nutrition by imbibition is observed ; and the correspond.
ing transition from respiration in circumscribed organs, to that performed
by trachea, or air vessels distributed through the body. The organs of
movement and sense are disposed symmetrically on the sides of a common
axis. The senses of taste and sight seem most distinct; and their jaws,
when they have any, is always lateral. This division of the animal kingdom
contains five classes, viz :-- ANNELIDES, CRUSTACEA, ARACHNIDES, MYRIAPUDA,
and INSECTA. ®

 

CLASS V.—ANNELIDES.

Body soft, more or less elongated, naked or inclosed in a tube, and divided into
a number of segments; bluod red.

Tue animals of this elass are the only invertebral ones which have red
blood, circulating in a double system of complicated vessels. Their body is
naked or inciosed in a tube, formed of segments, or transversely wrinkled,
and often without a head, eyes, or antenne. They are destitute of articu-
tated feet ; but the greater portion have in their place, setiferous, retractile
vapille disposed in lateral rows. The mouth is nearly terminal simple,
ervicular, or labiated, or in the form of a maxil\ary proboscis. The ana‘: mie
eal structure of the animals of this class has been investigated by Cuvier,
Montegre, Spix, and Savigny; and the result of their observations has led to
their arrangement in a separate group. ‘The animals of this group, it may
be remarked, formed part of the class Vermes, of Linnus.

The head of these species which are provided with one, is a slight an‘erior
thickening, distinct from the first segments of the body, and upon which are the
antenne andeyes. The antenne are articulated filaments, sometimes short
and thick, inserted on the head, and of which the number exceeds hve.
The wyes, to the number of two or four, are also upon the head, behind the

\
ARTICULATA—ANNELIDES, V5

antennz, and between them ance the first segment of the body. The tenta-
cula are either inarticulated filaments on the head or anterior part of the
body, or papille more or less elongated into filaments at the orifice of the
mouth. The proboscis is fleshy and contractile, composed sometimes of one,
and sometimes of two rings, inclosing the jaws; and the jaws are bony or
ealcarcous, inclosed in the proboscis, in number at least two, and sombtimez

to the number of seven or nine. When this is the case, they «re in two
rorvs, one above the other. The body of the Annelides is in some naked, or
without hairs or bristles; in others, furnished with bristles withuul papilla,
ur with rows of setiferous papitle. The bristles which are found without
papille, are not retractile, while the setiferous mamille are zenerally so.
These papille, or mamille, are fleshy sheaths, which inclose each a bundle
of subulate bristles. The sete traverse the papille, and are a-tached to the
muscles under the skin. M. Savigny gives the name of foot o each pair
of setiferous papilla, and he divides each foot into two bran: 1.es, one supe-
rior or dorsal, and one inferior or ventral. The ventral brawh is the most
projecting, and they are best organized for progressive nivtion. At cach
branch are observed tubular, subaruculated, generally contractile cirri,
analogous to antenne. These are the antenne of the budy. Those of the
dorsal branches are generally longest. ‘The bristles of each branch, or
the subulate bristles, are hard, stiff, opaque, and shine with metallic lustre.
They form at each branch a moveable tuft, which the animai has the power
of erecting or withdrawing at will. Besides, the subulate bristles are dis-
tinguished from others, which are thicker, straight, conical, and very sharp,
inclosed in a particular sheath, and generally one in ¢ach branch, those of
the ventral branches being commonly the strongest. In some genera, how-
ever, these acicular bristles are wanting. Some of the Annelides possess a
third kind of bristles, which M. Savigny terms hooked bristles. These are
flattened and armed below wigh sharp hooks. They are also retractile, and
concealed in the thickness of the skin in repose. The ¢entacular cirri are those
of the first pair of feet, and often those of the two or three following pairs,
which are sometimes destitute cl! bristles, and have only cirri. In this case, the
cirri acquire a greater developement, and take the appearance of tentacula.
The last pair of feet constitute, by an analogous transformation, the iwo
filaments which terminate the body posteriorly, in certain species. ‘The first
segment of the budy, either alone or uuited to some of the followiig ones,.
often furms a ring Jarger than the others, more apparent than the heud ; and
in the last segment is a plicated, anai aperture, turned upwards. All the
Annelides respice by bronchi, and live in water, mud, sand, or moist earth.

These bronchi vary much in situation, size, and form. In some, they are
distributed along the body, partially or wholly, and in others, they are found
at one extremity, chiefly the anterior. The intestine is straight, generally
contracted into rings, and the anus terminal. The organs of circulation
consist of lateral, dorsal, and central vessels, extending the length ot tne
176 ARTICULATA—EARTH WORM

body... What are termed eyes in some species, are but ocular points. whica
‘are not conceived to give the faculty of sight. ‘The Annelides are either
naked, or construct tubes or sheaths for themselves, more or less solid, in
which they remain without attachment. These tubes, or sheaths, are in
some, membranous or horny, incrusted exteriorly with grains of sand, or
fragménts of shell, in others solid, caleareous, and homogenous. The greater
part of the Annelides are carnivorous, sucking the blood of other wnimals,
They are hermaphrodite, but require mutual impregnation. Cu. er divides
the class of Annelides into three orders :—1. Tusicos, those in vhich the
ronchia are in the form of tufts, attached to the head or anterior part of the
body, and generally inhabiting tubes. 2. Dorsiprancuiz, where the bronchie
are toward the middle of the body, or along the sides. 3. ABRANCHIZ, where
the bronchie are not apparent externally. Lamarck, on the other hand
divides the class into three orders, from other considerations, viz. :

Order I. SEpENTARLE.—Destitute of antenna, eyes, and jaws, and inhabit
ing tuhes.
* Order IT, Anrennate£.—Head with antenne and eyes, and a protractile
proboscis often armed with jaws.

Order III. Apopres.—Destitute of feet or setiferous papilla, and antene
nated head.

THE EARTH WORM!

 

fas a power of contracting or lengthening itself at will. There is a sprrai
muscle, that russ sund its whole body, from the head to the tail, sunewhat
resembling a wire wound round a walking-cane, which, when slipped off,
and one end extended amd held: fast, will bring the other nearer to it; in
this manner the earth worm, having shot out or extended its body, takes
hold. oy the slime of the fore part of its body, and so contracts and brings

 

‘ Lumbricus terrestris, Lin. The order Apodes to which the earth worm belongs, are
destitute of feet, without setjferous and as Lronchiz, when known, uisposed
inteniorly along the body ; no antenniferous head.
ARTICULA TA—LEECH. 777

torward the hinder part; in this manner it moves onward, not without great,
eflort; but the eceasions for its progresssive motion are lew.

As it is designed for living under the earth, and leading a life of obscurity
so it seems tolerably adapted to its situation. lts body is armed with small,
stilt, sharp burrs or prickles, which. it can erect or depress at pleasure; under
the skin there lies a slimy juice, to be ejected as oecasion requires al certain
perforations, between the rings of the muscles, to lubricate its body, and
faci‘!tate its passage into the earth. Like most other insects, it has bieath-
ing holes along the back, adjoining each ring; but it is without Loneg,
without eyes, without ears, and, properly, without feet. Jt has a mouth,
and also an alimentary canal, which runs along to the very poini uf the
tail. In some worms, however, particularly such asare found ia the bodies
of animals, this canal opens towards the middle of the belly, at some dis-
tance from the tail, The intestines of the earth worm are always found
filled with a very fine earth, which seems to be the only nourishment these
animals are capable of receiving.

The animal is entirely without brain; but near the head is placed the
heart, which is seen to beat with a very distinct motion, and round itare the
spermatic vessels, forming a number of tittle globules, containing a milky
fluid, which have an opening into the belly, not far from the head; they are
also eften found to contain a number of eggs, which are laid in the earth, and
are hatched in twelve or fourteen days into life, by the genial wanuth of
their situation,

When the eggs are laid in the earth, which, in about fourteen days, as has
been said, are hatched into maturity, the young ones come forth very small,
but perfectly formed, and suffer no change during their existence: how long
their life continues is not well known, but it certainly holds for more than”
two or three seasons. During the winter, they bury themselves deeper in
the earth, and seem, in some measure, to share the general torpicdity of the
insect trike. In spring, they revive with the rest of nature, and on those
occasions a moist or dewy. evening brings them forth from their retreats, for
the universal purpose of continuing their kind. They chiefly live in a light,
rich, and fertile soil, moistened by dews or accidental showers, but avoid
those places where the water is apt to lie on the surface of the earth, or
where the clay is too still for their easy progression under ground.

THE LEECH,

:

From its uses in medicine, is one of those insects that man has taken care
io propagate , but, of a great variety, oie kind only is considered as services

98
778 ARTICULATA—LEECH.

able. The hoise leech,! which is the largest of all, and grows te fut
inches in length, with a glossy black surface, is of no use, as it wil. not
stick to the skin; the snail leech is but an inch in length; ard though it
will stick, is not large enough to extract a sufficient quantity of 5'ood from
the patient ; the broad-tailed leech, which grows to an inch amta half in
length, with the back raised into a sort of a ridge, will stick but on very
few occasions; it is the large brown leech? with a whitish belly, thac is
made use of in medicine, and whose history best merits our curiosity.

The leech has the general figure of a worm, and is about as lung as one’s
middle finger. Its skin is composed of rings, by means of which it is poss
sessed of its agility, and swims in water. It contracts itself when out of
water, in such a manner that, when touched, it is not above an inch long.
It has a small head, and a black skin, edged with a yellow line un each
side, with some yellowish spots on the back. The belly also, which is of a
teddish color, is marked with whitish yellow spots. But the most remarka-
ble part of this animal is the mouth, which is composed of two lips, that
taxe whatever form the insect finds convenient. When at rest, the opening
is usually triangular; and within it are placed three very sharp teeth, capa-
ble of piercing sot only the human skin, but also that of a horse or an ox.
Still deeper in the head is discovered the tongue, which is composed of a
strong fleshy substance, and which serves to assist the anima: in sucking,
when it has inflicted its triple wound; for no sooner is this voracious crea+
ture applied to the skin, than it buries its teeth therein, then closes its lips
round the wound which it has made; and thus, in the manner of a cuppings.
glass, extracts the blood as it flows to the different orifices.

The leech is viviparous, and produces its young one after the other, to the
number of ferty or fifty at a birth. ‘It is probable that, like the snail, each
insect contains the two sexes, and that it impregnates, and is impregnated,
in the same manner. The young ones are chiefly found, in the month of
July, in shallow running waiers, and particularly where they are tepified by
the rays of thesun. The large ones are chiefly sought after ; and, being put
into a glass vessel filled with water, they remain for months, nay, for years,
without taking any other subsistence. But they never breed in this confines
ment; and, consequently, what regards that part of their history still
remains obscure.

Jn England, they. seldom grow to above four inches; but in the East,
they are found from six to seven. Their pools abound witn them in sich
numbers, that it would be dangerous bathing there, if from no other consi-

 

1 Hirudo sanguisuga, Lis. The genus Airudo has the body oblong, blunt, slihtly
Acpressed, widenod posteriorly, composed of numerons contractile segments, and woh the
posterior extrenuly lerminated 7 a broad prehensile dise; mouth naked, ditatble
armed ineriorly with three teeth or horny jaws; no eyes; anus superiur, near the
posterior disc,

* Hi-udo medialis, Lin.
CRUSTACEA. 779

deration The English sailors and soldiers, who were obliged to walk in those
countries through marshy grounds, talked with terror of the number of leeenes
that infested them on their march, Even in some parts of Europe, they
increase so as to become formidable. Sedelius, a German physician, relates,
that a girl of nine years old, who was keeping sheep near the city of Bomst,
in Poland, perceiving a soldier making up to her, went to hide herself ina
neighboring marsh, among some bushes; but the nuniber of leeches was so
great in that place, and they stuck to her so close,.that the poor creature
expired froma the quantity of blood which she lost by their united efforts.
Nor is this much to be wondered at, since one of these insects, cf a large
size, will draw about an ounce of bluod.

CLASS VI.—CRUSTACEA.

Invertebral animals, with a crustaceous, and more or less harny covering, pro=
vided with articulated members, distinct organs of circulation, and respiring
by bronche. ;
Tue animals of this class were known to the Greeks under the name of

fohuxootouwxos, as designating marine animals, of which the exterior envelope
was much less solid than that of the testaceous, and much more so than the
covering of the native Mollusca. Among the Romans, this designation was
signified by the terms of Crustata and Crustacea, the last of which forms the
present name for the class. The earliest modern naturalists, like the more
ancient writers, arranged the Crustacea between the fishes and the mollusca ;
and Linneus placed them in his class Jnsecta, along with the apterous
insects, including the spiders in the same class. Brisson was the first who
formed them into a separate group.

The Crustacea in one view ought certainly to occupy a more elevated
place among the invertebral animals, than has been assigned to them, —-
above those, for instance, which are destitute of articulated members ard
eyes, and where the sexual organs are in the same individual; but on tie
other hand, to place them between the Cephalopodous and Gaster’ podous
Mollusea, which would seem to be their place in the series, would break the
ehain of connection which unites this great class. It became necessary,
therefore, either to place the Crustacea before molluscoys animals, or after
them, and this last alternative has heen adopted by modern zoologists. The
Crustacea, besides the characters they have-in common with the two follows
ing classes, possess some peculiar to themselves. They respire by bronchie,
or by bronchial lamina generally annexed to’ their feet, or to their jaws
They havea distinct heart, provided with circulating vessels; feet w the
780° CRUSTACEA.

number of five or seven pairs; a head, sometimes not distinct from the.
trunk, with two or four antenna, and two moveable, compound, ana ofter
peduneulated eyes. The organs of generation are at the base of the feet,.
or at the extremity of the body. The Crustacea are, in general, to be ree.
cognised from their solid envelope, which is sometimes extremely hard, as
when the calcareous matter of the covering predominates over the mem-
branous portion; but, according to the families and genera, the calcareous.
portion diminishes in quantity, and the corneous material becomes predo-
ininant, ull at last the covering seems simply membranous.

The antenne in this class are jointed, setaceous, and generally four in
number. In some, the head is intimately united to the thoras, or is indis-
tinguishable as a separate organ. The shield in this case forms a large
covering over the thorax, which is called the shell. In others, where the
head is distinct, the body is divided into seven segments, to which the feet
are attached below. The body is often terminated posteriorly by a tail com-
posed of many segments. The feet, in general, are from ten to fourteen,
and with six articulations, the two natural fcet, and sometiines the twu ot
four following ones, being terminated in a kind of forceps; at other times, in
siinple hooks; and in some, the termination of the feet seems adapted only
for swimming.

The Crustacea have two eyes, in some species elevated on moveable
peduncles, in others sessile. These eyes are, in general, compound or reti-
culated ; but in some, both eyes are united into one. The mouth is provided,
in general, with two mandibles, a latzwm below, and from three to five
pairs of jaws. To the first pair, or the first three pairs of these, the name
of the feet-jaws has been applied, as being formed by the two or six anterior
feet of the animal, modified by their position near the mouth, and not proper
for locomotion. The branchie are exierior in the Crustacea, although often
concealed, and placed at the sides, feet, or under the tail. They are, how-
ever, generally at the base of one part of the feet, and are composed of
pyramidal lamina, or tufted filaments. :

The nervous system in this class is very similar to that of the arachnides
and insects. It consists principally of a ganglion or brain, placed before and
aoove the intestinal canal, and of an elongated double chord, with ganglions
or knots, placed on the lower surface of the body, sometimes extending its
whole length, at others forming towards the middle, a medullary circle, with
ridiated elongations. The Crustacea enjoy the faculty of sight; many of
them, that of hearing ; and they possess the senses of smell and taste; but
their sense of touch is obscure, from their calcareous or horny covering.

The class Crustacea is divided by Latreille into five orders, founded upon
the difference in structure and form of the branchia, the manner in which
the head is connected with the trunk and the organs of mastication. The
first three were included by Linnivus in his genus Cancer; the fourth forme
ed the genus Onsscus, of that author,
CRUSTACEA--LOBSTER. 738)

Order I Decaropa.— With palpi at the mandibles, moveable eyes, and
the head not distinct from the wunk; bronchi# pyramidal, in leatlets or
plumes, placed at the exterior base of the feet-jaws, and the feet properly
so called, and concealed under the lateral margins of the shell.

Order Il. Sromaropa.— With palpi at the mandibles, and moveahle
eyes. but the head distinct from the trunk, and divided into two portions,
of which the anterior bears the antenne and eyes; bronchize plumose, suse
pended under the tail.

Order III, Ampatropa.—Palpi at the mandibles, and eyes immovea-
ble, head distinct from the trunk, and in one piece; bronchie vesicular,
and placed at the interior base of the feet, with the exception of the c.aterior
pair.

Order IV. Isopopa.— Mandibles without palpi, and the moutn aways
composed of many jaws, of which the two undef ones resemble a lip with
two palpi; bronchiz generally under the abdomen; feet simple, and only
proper for locomotion or prehension; head for the most part distinct; no
shell; and the eyes granulated.

Order V. Brancutopopa.— Mouth in the form of a beak, sometimes
composed of many jaws; feet in the form of fins, and the bronchi attach-
‘ed between them. Body generally covered with a shell, not distinct from
the head.

The Crustacea are generally carnivorous, feeding on dead, or decomposed
animal matters. Some are constantly fixed on cetaceous animals, aquatic
reptiles, and fishes. The greater portion live in the sea, at different depths,
and in localities proper to their various habits; others are found in fresh
water, or on land. These which have fin-like feet, swim on their side or
back, and the greater part of the others walk sideways or backwards. Some
cun with extreme rapidity, and others are constructed for climbing trees.
Many species afford an agreeable food, and are taken for this purpose, in
numbers, or for bait. The members of the Crustacea, when injured or disa-
bled, are speedily reproduced, and they change their crustaceous covering
annually,

THE LOBSTER.

Tne lobster is an animal of so extraordinary a form, that those who first
see it are apt to mistake the head for the tail; but it is soon discovered that

 

1 Astacus marinus, Lin. The genus Astacus has four unequal antenne, i the same

transverse line, the two intermediate shortest, and deeply bifid, the lateral ones simple,
_and longer than the hedy, and the peduncle with squamiform teeth; exterior feet-jaws
Jong, the two first joint furnished with stiff hairs, and small spines on the mternal side ;
body oblong, subcytindrical, and the shel! with a projecting heak; tail ternunated ty a
fan-shaped fin; the lateral pieces divided in two ; six anterior legs didactyle, the first paw
verv long and thick, with the head more or less tuberculous, and spinous,

46
7382 CRUSTACEA—LOBSTER.

the animal moves with its claws foremost; and that the part which plavs
within itself by joints, like a coat of armor, is the tail. The mouth, like
that of insects, opens the long way of the body, not crosswise, as with man,
and the higher race of animals. It is furnished with two teeth in the
mouth, for the comminution of its food; but as these arc not sufficient, it
has three more in the stomach; one on each side, and the other below.
Between the two teeth there is a fleshy substance, in the shape of a tongue.
The intestines consist of one long bowel, which reaches from the mouth to
the vent; but what this animal differs in from all others is, that the spinal
marrow is in the breast bone. It is furnished with two long feelers or horns,
that issue on each side-of the head, that seem to correct the dininess of the
sight, and apprize the animal of its danger, or of its prey. The tail, or that
jointed instrument at the other end, is the grand insuwrument of motion;
and with this it can raise itself in the water. Under this, we usually see
lodged the spawn in great abundance; every pea adhering to the next bya
very fine filament, which is scarcely perceivable. Every lobster is an her-
maphrodite, and is supposed to be self-impregnated. The ovary, or place
where the spawn is first produced, is backwards, towards the tail, where a
red substance is always found, and which is nothing but a cluster of peas,
that are yet too small for exclusion. From this receptacle there go two

 

canals,.that open on each side at the jointures, of the shell, at the bel'y; ana
through these passages the peas descend to be excluded, and placed under
the tail, where the animal preserves them from danger for some time, until
they come to maturity. They are then dropped in the sand, where they are
soon hatched. Between twelve and thirteen thousand eggs have been vount-
ed in one lobster.

When the young lobsters are produced, they immediately seek for refuge
in the smallest clefts of rocks, and in such like crevices at the bottom of the
sea, where the entrance is but small, and the opening can be easily defend-
ed. There, without seeming to take any food, they grow larger in a few
weeks’ time, from the mere accidental substances which the water washes
to their retreats. By this time, also, they acquire a hard, firm shell, which
furnishes them with both offensive and defensive armor. They then begin
to issue from their fortresses, and boldly creep along the bottom, in hopes of
CKUSTACEA—LOBSTER. 783

meeting with diminutive plunder. ‘The spawn of fish, the smaller animals
of their own kind, but chiefly the worms that keep at the bottom of the sea,
supply them with plenty They keep in this manner close among the rocks,
busily employed in scratching up the sand with their claws for worms, or
surprising such heedless animals as fall within their grasp; thus they have
litle to apprehend, except frem each other; for in them, as among fishes
the large are the most formidable of all enemies to the small.

But this life of abundance and security is soon to have a most dangerous
interruption ; for the body of the lobster still continuing to increase, while
its shell remains unalterably the same, the animal becomes too targe for its
habitation, and imprisoned within the crust that has naturally gathered
round it, there comes on a necessity of getting free. The young of this kind,
therefore, that grow faster, as we are assured by the fishermen, change their
shell oftener than the old, who come to their full growth, and who remain in
the same shell often for two years together. In general, however, all these
animals change their shell wace a year; and this is not only a most painful
operation, but also subjects them to every danger. Just before vasting its
shell, it throws itself upon its back, strikes its claws upon each other, and
every limb seems to tremble; its feelers are agitated, and the whole body is
in violent motion ; it then swells itself in an unusual manner, and at last
the shell is seen beginning to divide at its junctures. It also seems turned
inside out; and its stomach comes away with its shell. After this, by the
same operation, it disengages itself of the claws, which burst at the joints;
the animal, with a tremulous motion, casting them off as a man would kick
off a boot that was too big for him.

Thus, in a short time, this wonderful creature finds itself at liberty; but
in such a weak and enfeebled state, that it continues for several hours mo-
tionless. Indeed, so violent and painful is the operation, that many of them
die under it; and those which survive are in such a weakly state for soine
time, that they neither take food nor venture from their retreats. Immedi-
ately after this change, they have rot only the softness, but the timidity of a
worm. Every animal of the deep is then a powerful enemy, which they
zan neither escape nor oppose; and this, in fact, is the time when the dog-
fish, the cod, and the ray, devour them ‘by hundreds. But this state of da
fenceless imbecility continues for a very short time; the animal, in less than
two days, is seen to have the skin that covered its body, grown almost as
hard as before; its appetite is seen to increase; and, strange to behold! the
first object that tempts its gluttony, is its own stomach, which it so lately
was disengaged from. This it devours with great eagerness; and, sore
time after, eats even its former shell. In about forty-eight hours, in propor-
tion to the animal's hgalth and strength, the new shell is perfectly formed,
and as hard as that which was but just thrown aside.

When the lobster is completeiy equipped in its new shell, it then appears
now much it has grotvn in the space of a very few days; the dimensions
784 CRUSTACEA- LOBSTER.

of the old shel! being compared with those of the new, 1t will be tound that
the creature is increased a'ove a third in its size; and, like a boy that has
outgrown his clothes, it seems wonderful how the deserted shell was able to
contain so great an animal as entirely fills up the new.

The creature thus furnished, not only with a complete covering, but also
a greater share of strength and courage, ventures more boldly among the
animals at the bottom; and nota week passes that in its combats it does not
suffer some mutilation. A joint, or even a whole claw, is sometimes snap-
ped off in these encounters. At certain seasons of the year, these animals
never meet each other without an engagement. In these, to come off with
the loss of a leg, or even a claw, is considered as no great calamity: the
victor carries off the spoil to feast upon at his leisure, while the other reures
from the defeat to wait fora thorough repair. ‘This repair it is not long in
procuring. From the place where the joint of the claw was cut away, 1s
seen in a most surprising manner to bourgeon out the beginning of a new
claw. This, if observed, at first, is small and tender, but grows in the space
of three weeks, to be almost as large and as powerful as the old one. Wesav
almost as large, for it never arrives to the full size; and this is the reason
we generally find the claws of lobsters of unequal magnitude.

Of this extraordinary, yet well-known animal, there are many varieties.
with some diflerences in the claws, but little in the habits orconformation. It
is found above three feet long; and, if we may admit the shrimp and the
prawn into the class, though unfurnished with claws, it is seen not above an
inch. These all live in the water, and can bear its absence but fora few
hours. The shel] is black when taken out of the water, but turns red by boil-
ing. The most common way of taking the lobster is ina basket, or pot, as the
fishermen call it, made of wicker work, in which they put the bait. and
then throw it to the bottom of the sea, in six or ten fathom water. The
lobsters creep into this for the sake of the bait, but are not able to get an
again.
CRUSTACEA—CRAB 785

THE CRAB.

 

As the crab is found upon land as well as m the water, the peculianty
of its situation produces a difference in its habitudes, which it is proper te
describe.

THE COMMON, OR BLACK-CLAWED CRAB,

Has three notches on the front; five serrated teeth on each side; the claws
alevated ; the next joint toothed; the hind feet subulated; the color a dirty
green, but red when boiled. It inhabits almost all shores, and lurks and
burrows under the sand.

It changes its shell once a year, generally between Christmas and Easter,
and while it is performing this operation, it retires among the cavities of
rocks, and under large stones. The crab is an exceedingly quarrelsome
animal, and when it has seized on its antagonist, it is not easily compellec
to forego its hold. In this situation, the captive has no resource but to re-
linquish the limb, and nature has provided it with the power of accomplish-
ing this in a very curious manner. It stretches the claw out steady, the
claw suddenly gives a gentle crack, and the wounded limb drops off, not,
as we might be led to infer from reasoning, at the joint, but in the smoothest

part.

 

1 Cancer pagurus, Lin. The genus Cancer, or crabs, have the exterior antennz 8° ort, in
verted between the inner canthus of the eye and front, and the intermediate ones, n smat
furrows in the centre ; third joint of the anterior feet-jaws, almost square, with a notch ay
the internal angle of the summit; anterior feet largest, with the forceps unequal; shell
short, transverse, narrowed posteriorly ; the anterior margin semicircular, often dentated
on the sides, with the later angle obtuse; eyes ona short peduncle,

99 66*
‘
"86 CRUSTACEA—CRAB.

THE LAND CRAB

ts found in some of the warmer regions of Europe, and in great abune“nce
in all the tropical climates in Africa and America. They are of var ous
kinds, and endued with various properties; some being healthfu, delici. as,
and nourishing food; others poisonous or malignant to the last degree; sc ae
are not above half an inch broad, others are found a foot over; some are £
a dirty Lruwn, and others beautifully mottled

\

 

THE VIOLET CRAB,

Or the Caribee Islands, is the most noted, both for its shape, the delicacy of
its flesh{ and the singularity of its manners. It somewhai resembles two
hands cut through the middle and joined together; for each side looks like
four fingers, and the two nippers orclaws resemble the thumbs. All the rest
of the body is covered: with a shell as large as a man’s hand, and
bunched in the middle, on the fore part of which there are two long eyes of
the size of a grain of barley, as transparent as crystal, and as hard as
horn. A little below these is the mouth, covered with a sort of barbs, under
which there are two broad, sharp teeth, as white as snow, They are not
placed, as in other animals, crosswise, but in the opposite direction, not
much unlike the blade of a pair of scissors. With these teeth they can
easily cut leaves, fruits, and rotten wood, which is their usual food. But
their principal instrument for cutting and seizing their food is their nippers,
which catch such a hold, that the animal loses the limb sooner than its
grasp, and is often seen scampering off, having left its claw still holding fast
upon the enemy. The faithful claw seems to perform its duty, and keeps
for a wea minute fastened upon the finger, while the crab is making off.
In fact, it loses no great matter by leaving a leg or an arm, for they soon
grow again, and the animal is found as perfect as before.

This, however, is the least surprising part of this creature’s history; and
what we are going to relate, were it no! as well known and as confidently
confirmed as any other circumstance in natural history, might well stagger
our belief. These animals live not only in a kind of society in their retreats
in the mountains, but regularly once a year march down to the seaside in a
body of some millions ata time. As they multiply in great numbers, they
choose the monthsof April or May, to begin their expedition ; and then sally
out by thousands from the stumps of hollow trees from the clifts of rocks
and trom ‘the hules which they dig for themseives under the surface of the
earth. At that time, the whole ground is covered with this band of adven-
turers; there is no setting down one’s ‘oot without treading upon them.
CRUSTACEA—CRAB. 787

The sea is the place of destination, and to that they direct their march,
with right-lined precision. No geometrician could send them to their
destination by a shorter course; they neither turn to the right nor left,
whatever obstacles intervene; and even if they meet with a house, they will
‘attempt to scale the walls to keep the unbroken tenor of their way. But
though this be the general order of their route, they upon other occasions are
com led to conform to the face of the country ; and if it be intersected by
tiv.rs, they are then seen to wind along the course of the stream. The
procession sets forward from the mountains with the regularity of an army
under the guidance of an experienced commander. ‘hey are commonly
divided into three battalions ; of which the first consists of the strongest and
voldest males, that, like pioneers, march forward to clear the route and face
the greatest dangers. These are often obliged to halt for want of rain, and
go into the most convenient encampment till the weather changes. The
main body of the army is composed of females, which never leave the
mountains till the rain is set in for some time, and then descend in regular
battulia, being formed into columns’of fifty paces broad, and three miles
deep, and so close that they almost cover the ground. Three or four days
after this, the rear-guard follows; a straggling, undisciplined tribe, cunsisting
of males and females, but neither so robust nor so numerous as the former.
The night is their chief time of proceeding; but if it rains by day, they do
not fail to profit by the occasion; and they continue to move forward in
their slow, uniform manner. When the sun shines, and is hot upon the sur-
fare of the ground, they then make a universal halt, and wait till the cvol
of the evening. When they are terrified, they marth back ina confused,
disorderly manner, holding up their nippers, with which they sometimes
tear off a piece of the skin, and then leave the weapon where they inflicted
the wound. They even try to intimidate their enemies; for they often
clatter their nippers together, as if it were to threaten those that come to
disturb them. But though they thus strive to be formidable to man, they
are much more so to each other; for they are possessed of one most. unsocial
property, which is, that if any of them by accident is maimed in such a
manner as to be incapable of proceeding, the rest fall upon and devour it on
the spot, and then pursue their journey.

When, after a fatiguing march, and escaping a thousand dangers, for they
ure sometimes three months in getting to the shyre, they have arrived at
their destined port, they prepare to cast their spawn. The peas are yet
within their bodies, and not excluded, as is usual in animals of this kind,
under the tail; for the creature waits for the benefit of the’sea water to help
the delivery. For this purpose, the crab has no sooner reached the shore
than it eagerly goes to the edge of the water, and lets the waves wash over
its hody two or three times. This seems only a preparation for bringing
their spawn to maturity; for without farther delay they withdraw to seek a
lodging upon land; in the mean time, the spawn grows '‘arger, is excluded
788 CRUSTACEA—CRAR.

out of the body, and sticks to the barbs under the flab, or more properly the
tail. This bunch is seen as big as a hen’s egg, and exactly resembling the
roes of herrings. In this state of pregnancy, they once more seek the
snore for the last time, and shaking off their spawn into the water, leave
accident to bring it to maturity. At this time, whole shoals of hungry fish
are at the shore, and about two thirds of the crabs’ eggs are immediately
devoured by these rapacious invaders. The eggs that escape are hatched
under the sand; and soon after, millions at a time of these little crabs are
scen quitting the shore, and slowly travelling up to the mountains.

The old ones, however, are not so active to return; they have become so
feeble and lean, that they can hardly creep along, and the flesh at that time
changes its color. Most of them, therefore, are obliged to continue in the
flat parts of the country till they recover, making holes in the earth, which
they cover at the mouth with leaves and dirt, so that no air may enter.
There they throw off their old shells, which they leave as it were quite
whole, the place where they are opened on the belly being unseen. At that
time they are quite naked, and almost without motion for six days together,
when they become so fat as to be delicious food. They have then under their
stomachs four large white stones, which gradually decrease in proportion as
the shell hardens, and when they come to perfection are not to be found. It
ts at that time that the animal is seen slowly making its way back; and ali
this is most commonly performed in the space of six weeks.

The descent of these creatures for such important purposes, deserves our
admiration; but there is an animal of the lobster kind that annually de-
scends from its mountains in Jike manner, and for purposes still more im-
portant and various. Its descent is not only to produce an offspring, but to
provide itself a covering; not only to secure a family, but to furnish a
house. The animal in question is the Soldier Crab, or Hermit Crab,! which

 

nas some similitude to the lobster, tf divested of its shell. It is usually -
about four inches long, has no shell behind, but is covered down to the tad
with a rough skin, terminating 1n a point. It is, however, armed with
strong, hard nippers before, like the lobster; and one of them 1s as thick a»

' Pagurus Bernhardus. Li.
CRUSTACEA—CRAB. 789

a man’s thumb, anJ pinches most powerfully. It is, as was said, without a
shell to any part except its nippers; but what nature has denied to this ani-
mal, it takes care to supply by art; and taking possession of the deserted
shell of some other animal, it resides in it, till, by growing too ‘arge for its
habitation, it is under a necessity of change. It is a native of the West
India Islands; and like the former, it is seen every year descending from the
mountains to the seashore, to deposit its spawn, and to provide itself with
anew shell. This isa most bustling time with it, having so many things
to do; and, in fact, very busy it appears. It is very probable that its first
care is to provide for its offspring before it attends to its own wants; and it
is thought, from the number of little shells which it is seen examining, that
it deposits its spawn in them, which thus is placed in perfect security till
the time of exclusion.

It is very diverting to observe these animals when changing the shell.
The little soldier is seen busily parading the shore along that line of pebbles
and shells which is formed by the extremest wave, still, however, dragging
its old incommodious habitation at its tail, unwilling to part with one shell,
even though a troublesome appendage, till it can find one more convenient.
It is seen stopping at one shell, turning it and passing it by; going on to
another, contemplating that for a while, and then slipping its tail from its
old habitation to try on the new: this also is found to be inconvenient, and
it quickly returns to its old shell again. In this manner, it frequently
changes, till at last it finds one light, roomy, and commodious; to this it
adheres, though the shell be sometimes so large as to hide the body of the
animal, claws and all.

Yet it is not only after many trials, but many combats also, that the
soldier is completely equipped ; for there is often a contest between two of
them for some well-looking, favorite shell for which they are rivals. They
both endeavor to take possession; they strike with their claws; they bite
each other, till the weakest is obliged to yield, by giving up the object of
dispute. It is then that the victor immediately takes possession, and pa-
rades in his new conquest three or four times backward and forward upon
the strand before his envious antagonist.

When this animal is taken, it sends forth a feeble cry, endeavoring to
seize the enemy with its nippers; which, if it fastens upon. it will sooner
die than quit the grasp. The wound is very painful, and not easily ‘cured.
For this reason, and as it is not much esteemed for its flesh, it is generally
permitted to return to its old retreat to the mountains in sarety. There it
continues till the necessity of changing once more, and the desire of produ-
eing an offspring, expose it to fresh dangers the year ensuing.
70 CRUSTACEA—SHRIMP.

THE SHRIMP!

 

Surimrs possess long, slender feelers, and between thern two thin, projest-
ing lamina: the claws have a single hooked, moveable fang; they have
three pair of legs; seven joints in the taii; the middle caudal fin subulated,
the four others round and fringed; a spine on the exterior side of each of
the outmost. These animals, which are of a delicate flavor, inhabit the
shores of Britain in vast quantities, ascend the rivers, and even find their
way into the ditches and ponds of salt marshes. Those caught in the sea
are, however much better than those of the rivers. They are also found in
the United States. 2

 

THE PRAWN2

Tue prawn is not unlike the shrimp, but exceeds it in size, being at least
three times as big; and is more pleasing in color, it having, when boiled,
the most heautiful pink tint all over its body. The flesh is better tasted than
that of the shrimp. It has a long horn in front of its head, compressed
vertically. which bends somewhat upward, and is serrated both above and
below. Seaweeds, and the vicinity of rocks near the shore, are the haunts
of the prawn, which, unlike the shrimn, seléom enters the mouths of rivers.
It usually swims on its back, but when in danger it throws itself un one
side, snd springs backward to a considerable distance.

 

1 The genus Crangon, or shrimp, has the anterior part of the legs largest, with a come
pressed femodarty, Haan : the second and third purts more slender; the fourth and fAfth
thicker; ext ror antenne setaceous, the length of the body; the intermediute divided
into two filanients; shell thin, semi-transparent, with a short rostrum before. :

3 Palwmon serratus, Les cu.
ARACHNIDES 791

CLASS VII.—ARACHNIDES.

Oviparsus animals with articulated members, and not undergoing a metamore
phosts ; respiration tracheal or branchval, the openings for the admassion of
the air sttgmatiform ; no antenne.

Tue animals of this class were arranged by Linnzus in the last order of
his class Jnsecta, but were formed into a separate class by Laimarek, in 1800,
under Arachides, from egaxrys, a spider, as denoting arimals which can-
not properly be included either among the Crustacea or insects. ‘They differ
from the Crustacea in having their respiratory organs always in the interior
ot the body ; and from the insects, in not undergoing a metamorphosis.

The head in the Arachnides is not distinct from the trunk; the eyes are sim-
ple, and vary in number from two to eight. Some have two jointed mandi-
bles or forceps at the posterior extremity of the trunk, such as the scorpions; in
cthers, these parts take the form of the sucker. The Arachnides are also
destitute of a labium, or under lip, as in the inserts ;\the part designed under
this name being a dilatation of the space between the fore feet, which some-
tames forms part of the sucker. The mouth is generally accompanied by
rwo palpi. The number of feet in the animals of this class is eight; al-
though some have six, and the females of others have two additional ones
for the purpose of carrying their ova. These feet are arranged around the
sides of the breast, and are composed of seven joints; the first two forming
the haunch, the third corresponding to the thigh; the two next to the leg,
and the last two to the tarsi. The feet are terminated by two hooks, gene-
tally dentated or pectinated below; and a smaller simple one in the middle.
The trunk of the body, except in one family, is soft, and without apparent.
divisions; the envelope being a kind of bag or sack, including the organs of
zirculation, respiration, and intestines, and the secreting vessels of the mat-
ters which forms their web. The heart is a large vessel running along the
oack, with tranches on each side. The respiratory organs, two in numoer,
and composed of minute lamin, are contained in the interior walls of two
sacks, situated at the lower part of the belly, one on each side, and covered
by a membranous operculum. A transverse cleft affords a passage for the
external air, and two yellowish or whitish spots gencrall) mdicate the place
of these organs. The intestinal canal is short, with two dilatations, the last
surrounded oy the liver. The vessels containing the matter of the ~veb,
generally’ six in number, extend on each side internally, are of a tortuous
furm, narrowed abruptly towards their extremity, and terminate in a straight
filament ending at the membranous papille from which the threads are
exuded. The generative organs of both sexes are placed at the base of the
belly, and are double in all the pulmonary Arachnides. Some of the Arach-
niges live on land; others in the water; and a third group are parasitical
792 ARACHNIDES—SCORPION.

on different animals. In general, they are carnivorous, and suck tht lvod
of their prey or animals. A small number only feed on vegetable n_ tters
Many have mandibles which exercise the office of a sucker; and others have
an isolated sucker, often, however, joined with mandibles and palpi. The
terrestrial species are in general solitary animals, and of a forbidding aspect,
and many of them shun the light, and live in concealment. Several of these
are poisonous, and their bite dangerous. Lamarck divides the class of Arch-
nides into three orders, viz: First, Those destitute of antenna, furnished
with >ranchial sacs for respiration, and with six to eight eyes. Second,
Those destitute of antennz, with branched trachea for respiration, and with
two or four smooth eyes. Third, Those with antenne and gangliated tra
chia for respiration; while Latreille arranges the class :nto two orders, ac-
cording to the characters of their branchial apparatus.

Order I. PutmMonariz.—With pulmonary sacs for respiration; a hears
“ and distinct vessels.

Order II. TracnEart#.—Respiring by trachee, and the organs of cir
culation indistinct.

THE SCORPIONAI

 

There are four principal parts distinguishable in this animal; the head,
the breast, the belly, and the tail. The scorpion’s head seems, as it were,
joined to the breast; im the middle of which are seen two eyes; and a little
more forward, two eyes more, placed in the fore part of the head; these
eyes are so small, that they are scarcely perceivable; and it is probable the
animal has but little occasion for seeing. The mouth is furnished with two
jaws; the undermost is divided into two, and the parts notched ‘nto each

 

} The genus Scorpio has two large palpi in the form of arms, the ast joint thickest,
and in the form of fakes: mandibles short, narrow, and didactyle ; Jaws short, rounded ;
eyes six or eight; body oblong, divided into many segments, with a long, knotty, tail ter-
munated in an arched’ sting; two pectinated and moveable plates under the belly at the

base of the abdomen ; four spiracles on each side; eight feet. .
ARACHNIDES~SCORPION. 793

other, which serves the animal as teeth, and with which it breaks its food,
Pina thrusts it into its mouth; these the scorpion can at pleasure pull back
into its mouth, so that no part of them can be seen. On each side of the
nead are two arms, each composed of four joints; the last of which s large,
with strong muscles, and made in the manner of a lobster’s claw. Below
the breast arc eight articulated legs, each divided into six joints; the two
hindmost of which are each provided with two crooked claws, and here and
there covered with hair. The belly is divided into seven little rings; from
the lowest of which is appended a tail, composed of six joints, which are
aristly, and formed like littie globes, the last being armed with a crooked
sting. This is that fatal instrument which renders the insect so formida-
ble; it is long, pointed, hard, and hollow ; it is pierced near the base by 1wo
small holes, through which, when the animal stings, it ejects a 4rcp of
poison, which is white, caustic, and fatal. The reservoir in which this
poison is kept, is a smal] bladder near the tail, into which the venom is dis-
tilled by a peculiar apparatus. If this bladder be gently pressed, the venom
will be seen issuing out through the two holes above mentioned; so that it
appears, that when the animal stings, the bladder is p-essed, and the venom
issues through the two apertures into the wound.

There are few animals more formidable, or more truly mischievous, than
the scorpion. As it takes refuge in a small place, and is generally found
sheltering in houses, so itcannot be otherwise than that it must frequently
sting those among whom it resides. In some of the towns of Italy, and in
France, in the province of Languedoc, it is one of the greatest pests that
torment mankind; but its malignity in Europe is trifling, when compared
to what the natives of Africa and the East are known to experience. In
Batavia, where they grow twelve inches long, there is no removing any
piece of furniture, without the utniost danger of being stung by them.

Bosman assures us that, along the Gold Ccast, they are often found
larger than a lobster; and that thei sting is inevitably fatal. In Europe,
the general size of this animal does not exceed two or three inches; and its
sting is very seldom found to be fatal. Maupertuis, who made several

experiments on the scorpion of Languedoc, found it by no means so invaria-

bly dangerous as it had till then been represented.

From his experiments, indeed, it appears that many circumstances, which
are utterly unknown, must contribute to give efficacy to the scorpion’s
venom; but whether its food, long fasting, the season, the nature of the
vessels it wounds, or its state of maturity, contribute to or retard its malig-
nity, is yet to be ascertained by succeeding observers.

The scorpion of the tropical climates being much larger than the former,
is probably much more venomous. Helhbigius, however, who resided many
years in the East, assures us, that he was often stung by the scorpion, and
never received any material injury from the wound ; a painful tumor genes
tally ensued; but he always cured it by rubbing the part with a piece of iron

100 67

‘
794 ARACHNIDES—SPIDER.

or stone, as he had seen the Indians practise before nim, unt the flesh be»
caine insensible. Seba, Moore, ana Bosman, however, give a very differ-
ent account of the scorpion’s malignity; and assert that, unless speedily
relieved, the wound becomes fatal.

It is certain that nu animal in the creation seems endued with such an
irascible nature

THE SPIDER!

 

Has two divisions in its body. The fore part, containing the head ana
breast, ix separated from the hinder part or belly by a very slender thread,
through which, however, there is a communication from one part to the:
other. The fore part is covered with a hard shell, as well as the legs, which
adhere to the breast. The hinder partis clothed with a supple skin, beset”
al! over with hair. They have several eyes all round the head, brilliant and
acute; these are sometimes eight in number, sometimes but six; two
behind, two before, and the rest on each side. Like all other insects, their
eyes are immoveable; and they want eyelids; but this organ is fortified
with a transparent horny substance, whieh at once secures and assists their
vision. As the animal procures its subsistence by the most watchful atten-
tion, so large a number of eyes was necessary to give it the earliest informa-
tion of the capture of its prey. They have two pincers on the fore part of
the head, rough, with strong points, twothed like a saw, and terminating m
claws like those ofa cat. A little below the point of the claw there is a
small hole, through which the animal emits a poison, which, though harm
less to us, is sufficiently capable of instantly destroying its prey. This is
the most powerful weapon they have against their enemtes, thev can open
or extent these pincers as occasion may require; and when they are undis«
turbed, they suffer them to lie one upon the other, never opening them but
when there is a necessity for their exertion. They have all erght legs,
joined like those of lobsters, and similar also in another respect; for if a leg

 

 

IT he order of Araveides or spiders has pape tn the torm of small feet, terminated by 6
little hook. the last jomnt bearing (Qe sexual ergs i. ue male; four tu siz web-spiuning
momille situate near the anus, aud im Luth sexes.
ARACHNIDES—SPIDER. 795

be torn away, or a joint cut off, a new one will quickly grow in its place,
and the aniinal will tind itself fitted for combat as before. At the end of
each leg there are three crooked maveable claws; namely, a small one,
placed higher up, like a cock’s spur, by the assistance of which it adheres to
the threads of its web, There are two others larger, wh’ch meet together
like a lobster’s claw, by which they can catch hold of the smallest depres-
sions, walking up or down very polished surfaces, on which they cau tind
inequalities that are imperceptible to.our grousser sight. ,But when they
walk upon such budies as are perfectly smouth, as looking glass or polished
marble, they squeeze a little sponge, which grows near the extremity of
their claws, and thus diffusing a glutinous sunstance, adhere to the surface
until they make a second step. Besides the eight legs just mentioned, these
animals have two others, which may more properly be called arms, as they
do not serve to assist motion, but are used in holding and managing their
prey. ‘

. The spider, though thus formidably equipped, would seldom prove suc-
cessful in the capture, were it not equally furnished with other instruments
to assist its depredations. [1 is a most experienved hunter, and spreads. its
nets to catch such animals as it is unable to pursue. The spider’s web is
generaliy laid in those places where fies are most apt to shelter. There
the litle animal remains (or days, nay, weeks together, in patient expecta-
tion, seldom changing its situation though ever so unsuccessful.

For the purposes of making this web, nature has supplied this animal
with a large quantity of glutinous matter, and tive dugs or teats for spinning
it into thread. This substance is contained in a little bag, and at first sight
resembles soft glue; but when examined more accurately, it will be found
twisted into many coils of an agate color, and upon breaking it, the contents
may easily be drawn out into threads, from the tenacity of the substance,
not from those threads being already formed. Those who have seen the
machine by which wire is spun, will have an idea of the manner in whick
this animal formns the threads of its little net, the orifices of the five teats
above mentioned, through which the thread is drawn, contracting or dilating
at pleasure. The threads which we see, and appear so fine, are, notwith-
standing, compused of five jained together, and these are many uiues doubled
when the web is in formation.

When a house spider proposes to begin a web, it first makes chewe ai
some commudious spot, where there is an appearance of plunder anw secue
rity. The animal then distils one litte drop of its glutinous liquor, which is
very tenacious, and then creeping up the wall, and joining its threads as It
proceeds, it darts itself in a very surprising manner to the opposite place,
where the other end of the web is to be fastened. The first thread thas
formed, drawn tight, and fixed at each end, the spider then runs upon it
backward and forward, still assiduvusly employed in doubling and strengthens
ing it, as upun its force depend the strength and stability of the whule. The
796 ARACHNIDES—SPIDER.

scaffolding thus completed, the spider makes a number of threads parallel to
the first, in the same manner, and then crosses them with others; the
clammy substance of which they are formed serving to bind them, when
newly made, to each other.

The insect, after this operation, doubles and trebles the thread that bor-
ders its web, by opening all its teats at once, and secures the edges, so as to
prevent the wind from blowing the work away. The edges being thus for-
tified, the retreat is next to be attended to; and this is formed like a funnel
at the bottom of the web, where the little creature lies concealed. To this
are two passages or outlets, one above and the other below, very artfaly
contrived, to give it an opportunity of making excursions at proper seasons,
of prying into every corner, and cleaning those parts which are observed to
be clogged or encumbered. Still attentive to its web, the spider, from time
to time, cleans away the dust that gathers round it, which might otherwise
clog and incommode it; for this purpose, it gives the whole a shake with
its paws; still, however, proportioning the blow so as not to endanger the
fabric. It often happens also, that from the main web there are several
threads extended at some distance on every side; these are, in some mea-
sure, the outworks of the fortification, which, whenever touched from with-
out, the spider prepares for attack or self-defence. If the insect impinging
be a fly, it springs forward with great agility; if, on the contrary, it be the
assault of an enemy stronger than itself, it keeps within its fortress, and
never ventures out till the danger be over. Another advantage which the
spider reaps from the contrivance of a cell, or retreat behind the web, is,
that it serves for a place where the creature can feast upon its game with
all safety, and conceal the fragments of those carcasses which it has picked,
without exposing to public view the least trace of barbarity, that might
create a suspicion in any insects that their enemy was near.

The female generally lays from nine hundred to a thousand eggs ina
season. These eggs are large or small in proportion to the size of the
animal that produces them. In some they are as large as a grain of mustard
secd; in others, they are scarcely visible. The female never begins to
lay till she is two years old.

When the number of eggs which the spider has brought forth have
teiained for an hour or two to dry after exclusion, the little animal then
prepaies to make them a bag, where they are to be hatched, until they leave
the shell. For this purpose. she spins a web four or five times stronger
than that made for catching flies; and, besides, lines it withinside with down,
which she plucks from her own breast. This bag, when completed, is as
thick as paper, is smooth withinside, but rougher without. Within this
they deposit their eggs; and it is almost incredible to relate the concern and
industry which they bestow in the preservation of it. They stick it by
means of their glutinous fluid to the end of their body; so that the animal,
when thus loaded, appears “s if she had one hody placed behind ano:her.
ARACHNIDES—TARANTULA. 797

If this bag be separated from her by any accident, she employs all her assi-
duity to stick it again in its former situation, and seldom abandons her
treasure but with her life. When the young ones'are excluded from their
shells, within the Lag, they remain for some time in their confinement, until
the female, instinctively knowing their maturity, bites open their prison,
and sets them free.. But her parental care does not terminate with their
exclusion ; she receives them upon her back for some time, until they have:
strength to provide for themselves, when they leave her, never to return, and
each begins a separate manufactory of itsown. The young ones begin to
epin when they can scarcely be discerned ; and prepare for a life of plunder
before they have strength to overcome.

Of this animal there are several kinds, slightly differing from each other
either in habits or conformation. The water spider! is the most remarka-
ble of the number. This insect resembles the common spider in its appear-
ance, except that its hinder part is made rather in the shape-of a ninepin
than a ball. They differ in being able to live as well by land as water, and
in being capable of spinning as well in one element as the other. Their
appearan:e under water is very remarkable; for, though they inhabit the
bottom, yet they are never touched by the element in which they reside, but
are enclosed in a bubble of air, that, like a box, surrounds them on every
side. This bubble lias the bright appearance, at the bottom, of quicksilver ;
and within this they perform their several functions of eating, spinning, and

sleeping, without its ever bursting, or in the least disturbing their operations.
\

THE TARANTULA?

 

Is a native of Apulia, in Italy. Its body is three quarters of an inch long,
and about as thick as a man’s little finger; the color is generally an «live
pruwn, variegated with one that is more dusky; it has eight legs and erght

 

1 Argyroneta aquatica, Lat. * Lycosa tarentula, Lat.
67*
798 ARACHNIDES—SPIDEK.

eyes, tike the rest, and nippers, which are sharp and serrated; between
these and the fore legs there are two little norns, or feelers, which it is
observed to move very briskly when it approaches its prey. It is covered
all over the body with a soft down; and propagates, as other spiders, by
laying eggs. In the summer months, particularly in the dog-days, the
tarantula, creeping among the corn, bites the mowers and passengers; but
in wiuter it lurks in holes, and is seldom seen.

Thus fur is true; but now the fable begins; for though the bite is attend-
ed with no dangerous symptoms, and will easily cure of itself, wonderful
stories are reported concerning its virulence. At first, the pain is scarcely
felt; but a few hours after, a violent sickness is said to come on, with diffi-
culty of breathing, fainting, and sometimes trembling. The person bit,
after this, does nothing but laugh, dance, and skip about, putting himself
into the most extravagant postures; and sometimes also is seized witha
most frightful melancholy. At the return of the season in which he was
bit, his madness begins again; and the patient always talks of the same
things. Sometimes he fancies himself a shepherd, sometimes a king; these
troublesome symptoms sometimes return for severa] years successively, and
at last terminate in death. But so dreadful a disorder has, it seems, not
been left without a remedy, which is no other than a well-played fiddle.
For this purpose the medical physician plays a particular tune, famous for
the cure, which he begins slow, and increases in quickness as he sees the
patient affected. The patient no sooner hears the music than he begins to
dance ; and continues so doing till he is all over in a sweat, which forces ont
the venom that appeared sodangerous. Such are the symptoms related of the
tarantula poison; but the truth is, that the whole is an imposition of the
peasants upon travellers who happen to pass through that part of the country,
and who procure a trifle for suffering themselves to be bitten by the tarantula.
Whenever they find a traveller willing to try the experiment, they readily
offer themselves ; and are sure to counterfeit the whole train uf symptoms
which music is said to remove.

THE GREAT AMERICAN SPIDER.

ats is one of the largest species of the tribe. Its back is covered with a
hard, thick. brown coat, hullowed at the sides, and cleft transversely across
the middle, as if it had a hole in that place. The head is small, and with
difficulty distinguishec from the corslet. The mouth is furnished with
hrown, hard, crooked teeth; the body is large and round, growing out into

—

 

- Mygale avicularia, Lar.
MYRIAPODA. 799

two parts. Except the hack, the whole hody and the feet are covered wrth
long bushy hair. The extremities of the feet are smouth and large, like the
toes of a dug.

This hideous»species of the spider tribe preys principally on small birds:
in doing of which, it tears them to pieces to get at their bloud, and after
wards sucks their eggs.

CLASS VIIIL.—MYRIAPODA.

Head distinct, with two antenna ; mandibles simple, incisive ; feet on ail or most
of the segments of the body.

Tue animals of this class were arranged among the apterous insects by
Linnezus, under the generic appellations of Scolupendra and Julus. Fabricius
placed them asa division of his class Arachnides; and Dr Leach, in the
Edinburgh Encyclopedia, fixed their characters as a distinct class, in which
he-has been followed by Latreille and the later writers.

The Myriapoda, allied to the two preceding classes in their general
structure, approach the insects in the organization of their respiratory appa-
ratus. This consists of two principal trachea or air tubes, extending longi-
tudinally and parallel to one another, the whole length of the budy, which
receive the air hy numerous lateral spiracles. Their sexual organs are also,
as in these, single. The feet, indefinite in number, but always more than:
six, are inserted by single cr double pairs on the segments of the body, and
increase in number as the bedy is elongated from age. From their great
number of feet, the animals of this class have been designated by the term
Millepedes. The Myriapoda, in general, have the form of small serpents or
worms, with an elongated body of numerous segments, and of the same
thickness, and crowded with feet along its whole length. Their head is fur-
nished with two short antenna, composed of seven joints. They have two
granulated eyes, formed by the junction of numerous and smaller smooth
ones; two dentated mandibles, proper for bruising or cutting their food, and
divided transversely by a suture; and a labium or lip without palpi, formed
of united portions. The two or four anterior feet, joined at their base, are
analogous to the pedipalpi of the crustacea. The stigmata or air vessels
are often very small, and exceed in number those of insects. The nervous
system in the Myriapoda is composed of a series of ganglia, one in each
segment of the body, communicating by a longitudinal chord. The animals
ai this class are found under stones, the bark of trees, &c., and feed on
800 MYRIAPODA-SCOLOPENDRA...GALLY-WORM.

vegetable or animal substances. Laitreille divides the class of Myriapoda inte
two orders, viz. "

Order I. CurtocnatHa.—Antenne filiform, of seven joints; mouth com
posed of two mandibles, and a lip divided by sutures; two or four anterior
feet united at the base.

Order [I]. CuiLopopa.—Antenne setaceous, of fourteen joints and up.
wards ; mouth composed of two mandibles, a multifid tip, two palpiform
feet, and a second pair of feet united at their base, with a perforated hook.

THE SCOLOPENDRA,! AND GALLY-WORM.

Or these hideous and angry insects we know little, except the figure and
the noxious qualities. Though with us there are insects somewhat resem-
bling them in form, we are placed at a happy distance from such as are
really formidable. With us they seldom grow above an inch long; in the
tropical climates they are often found above a quarter of a yard.

The scolopendra is otherwise called the centipes, from the number of its
feet; and it is very commion in many parts of the world, especially between
the tropics. Those of the East Indies, where they grow to the largest size,
and are sometimes more than a foot in length, are of a ruddy color, and as
thick as a man’s finger; they consist of many joints, and from each joint is
a leg on each side; they are covered with hair, and seem to have no eyes
but there are two feelers on' the head, which they make use of to find out
the way they are to pass; the head is very round, with two small, sharp
teeth, with which they inflict wounds that are very painful and dangerous.
A sailor that was bit by one on board a ship, felt an excessive pain, and hia
life was supposed to be in danger; however, he recovered by the application
of three roasted onions to the part, and was soon quite well. Of this anima]
there are different kinds; some living, like worms, in holes in the earth;
others under stones, and among rotten wood; so that nothing is more dan-
gerous than removing those substances in the places where they breed.

The gally-worm? differs from the scolopendra, in having double the
number of feet; there being two on each side, to every joint of the body.
Some of these are smooth, and others hairy ; some are yellow, some black,
and some brown. They are found among decayed trees, between the wood
and the bark; as also among stones that are covered with moss. They all,
when touched, contract themselves, rolling themselves up into a circle.
Whatever may be their qualities in the tropical parts of the world, in

» Europe they are perfectly harmless ; having been often handled and uritated
without any vindictive consequences.

1 Scolopendra morsitans, Lin. 3 Julus.

 
INSECTA. 8v1

All these as well as the scorpion, are produced perfect from the
parent, or the egg; and to undergo no changes after their first expulsion
They are seen of all sizes; and this isa sufficient inducement to suppose
that they preserve their first appearance through their whole existence. It
4s probable, however, that, like most of this class, they often change their
skins; but of this we have no certain information.

CLASS [X.—INSECTA.

Articulated animals with six legs, respiring by means of trachea; head distinet
from the thorax ; two antenne.

Tuis branch of science named Entomology, (from evtouoy, an insect, and
Joyos, discourse,) including the most numerous class of organized beings,
has but lately risen into merited consequence. The use of insects, indeed,
in the economy of nature, was not likely to be estimated by men in the in-
fancy of society, to whos¢ wants or conveniences they were apparently little
calculated to afford any addition. To some tribes, however, attention must
have been early directed, « . account of the ravages their united myriads
enabled them to perpetrate ; and others were early noticed as the industrious
collectors of a species of food which man has long converted to his use.

The term Insecta is derived from the Latin zn, into, and seco, I cut, from
the body having the appearance of being cut or divided into segments; and
a term of the same meaning, evtoua, (ev and te“yw,) was used by the
Greeks.

Linnaus, whose powerful genius enabled him, in this, as in other branches
of natural history, laid the foundation or arrangements, from which all that
has since been done has emanated.

The characters upon which Linneus founded his arrangement, were
chiefly the wings, and hence his system has been called the alary system
The class Insecta, of Linneus, however, as it stands in the twelfth edition
of his Systema Nature, included the crustacea and arachnides. He div dos
the whole into seven orders, viz.

I. Coteoprera, (from xodeds, a sheath, and xregdv,a wing.) Wings four,

the upper ones crustaceous, with,a straight suture. ’

Il. Hemiptera, (from %uov, half, and mtegdv.) Wings four, semicrusta-
ceous, incumbent.

LI. Lerwortera, (from Aes, a scale, and mtegdv.) Wings covered with
imbricated scales.

‘V. Nevrorrera, (from vévgor, a chord or string, and mregd.) Wings
membranous, with ribs or nerves: anus unarmed.

101
a2 INSECTA.

V. Hymenorrera, (from iuyy, a membrane, and ategovy ) Wings mem-
branous; anus aculeate.
VI. Dirrera, (from duw, two, and ategdv.. Wings two, with pcisers in
place of the posterior pair.
VII. Aprena, (from «, without, and mtegdv.) Destitute of .wings or elytra.

Fabricius, a pupil of Linneus, proposed an arrangement of insects, found-
ed on their instruments of manducation. De Geer had, indeed, in the
majority. of his classes, added the characters derived from the mouth, te
those afforded hy the wings; but Fabricius carried the principle much fare
ther, and made the Trophi, or Instrumenta Cibraria, as he termed them, the
basis of al] his divisions. To the labors of Fabricius, entomology is deeply
indebted ; for independently altogether of the merit of his arrangement, as
an artificial system, it had the effect of directing the attention of his suce
cessors to parts indicating a corresponding difference in the character and
structure of the animals. Subsequent writers have proposed various sys-
tems, combining the characters of Linneus and Fabricius. The most pro-
minent of these is that by P. A. Latreille, who, in 1796, in his Précis des
earactéres génériques des Insectes, limited the definition of the class, and
whose object in his subsequent writings has been to divide his orders into
natural groups. Cuvier; Lamarck, and others have also done much to in-
crease the anatomica] and general knowledge of insects, and to facilitate
their study by appropriate arrangements; and Mr Macleay has suggested a
very ingenious classification, founded on the quinary system, by which it
appears that the groups, when arranged in circles of five, seem mutually
connected together. Latreille divides the class of insects, as now restricted,
into eleven orders.

J.—APTERA.

Order 1, Trysanoura. Order III. Sypuonaprera.
“ TI. Parasira.

II.—ALATA.

Order TV. CoLEoPpTEerRa. Order VIII. Hymenoprera.
st V. OrrHopTera. be IX. Lepiworrera.
§ VI. Hemrrtera. X. Ruirrerera.
6 VIL Nevroprera. fe XI. Dirrera.

Ihe ody of insects is divided into three principal parts, the head, the
thorax, and the abdomen. The head, of which the surface bears many
names, a:cording to the position of its parts, such as the vertex, the fores
head, the nose, the hood, and the cheeks, supports the antenne, the eyes, and
the mouth. The antenne vary much in théir composition and form. The
apterous insects, wnicn form the first three orders, and the coleoptera, have
INSECTA. 803

never more than one kind of eyes; but many of the other orders, besides
their compound eyes in facets, possess minute smcoth ones (ocelli) in the
form of brilliant points, sometimes to the number of two, generally three,
disposed in a triangular form, on the top of the head. These organs are
always immoveable. The mouth is composed of six principal pieces, of
which four are ]iteral, disposed in pairs, and moving transversely ; two other
parts, opposed to one another, and filling up the space between these, being
placed, the one above the upper pair, and the other under the lower

Tn insects-which feed on solid substances, the four lateral pieces are cone
sidered as jaws, and the other two pieces as lips. The two upper jaws,
generally horny, or scaly, similar to strong teeth, and withvut an articulated
appendage, have been distinguished by Fabricius under the name of mandi-
bles, (mandibule,) the two lower only preserving the name of jaws; (mazille),
On the back of these are one or two jointed fiiarnents, called antennule, but
oftener palpi —a character which distinguishes them from the mandibles.
They are’ generally narrow, elongated, compressed, horny or scaly, till near
the origin of the palpi, with the upper extremity membranous or coriaceous,
in the form of a reversed triaugle, ciliated or hairy, and accompanied often
on the internal side, by a smaller piece, named the internal jobe or division.
The part or lobe forming the upper extremity of the jaw, sometimes appears
in the form of a small palpus, of two joints, which is termed the internal
maxillary palpus ; in others it forms a vesicular, naked, vaulted appendage,
ealled by Fabricius, from its form, galea. In both these cases, the extremity
of the jaw, or the portion covered by the internal palpus or galea, is always
horny, pointed, in the form of a hook or tooth, or armed with dentations o
spines. These insects are always carnivorous or gnawers. When the jaws
have neither internal palpus, or galea, are entirely horny, and armed with
teeth, the insects may be considered as very voracious. The number of the
exterior maxillary palpi varies from two to six. The two pieces opposite
to these lateral parts have been terined lips; the upper one being generally
termed labrum (labium superius). The under one, termed the ladium, or
labium inferius, is formed of twe parts; one inferior, generally horny or
coriaceous, is the chin, (mentum,) the other membranous, sometimes entire,
sometimes notched, or trifid, and bearing the palpi, is termed ligula. Taese
palpi have from two to four joints, and are called labial. They are generale
ly shorter than the exterior maxillary palpi. The piarynz is situate »etween
the jaws and the lip. The interior of the mouth in the Orthoptera, and
some other insects, has a fleshy caruncle in the forth of a tongue, or epigiot-
tis. In the Hymenoptera, the pharynx is formed by a triangular process,
named epipharynx or epiglossus, by Savigny. In this order, also, the jaws
form small, compressed valves, and the chin becomes a kind of cylindrical
or conical tube.

All these parts, as well as the labium, are often much elongated, and com
puse tugether a species of trunk or proboscis, which LIlliger names pr«musets,
804 INSECTA,

and wai-h Latreille calls a spurious proboscis ; and in regard to this organ
Lamarck considers the Hymenoptera as intermediate between the gnawers
and suckers. Among the insects which feed on fluics, or which extract their:
food by suction, the organs of manducation appear under two modifications
In the first, the mandibles and jaws are replaced by minute laming, in the
form of sete, composing by their union, a kind of sucker (haustedlum) which
ts received into a sheath, the substitute for a lip, either cylindrical, conical},
or jointed, termed the rostrum or beak in the Hemiptera, or membranous
and fleshy, terminated by two lips, termed the trunk or proboscis, in the
Diptera. The labium is triangular or conical, and covers the base of the
sucker. In the second modification, the mandibles are excessively small,
and in the form of a tubercle, more or less triangular, furnished with ciliz
on the internal margin; the lip is only distinguished by the presence of
palpi; the jaws acquire an extraordinary length, and unite to form a probos-
cis or tongue, (Zingua,) rolled up in a spiral form. Interiorly, this tongue is
provided with three canals, of which the intermediate is the conduit of the
nutritive juices; and at the base of the filaments isa minute palpus. The
mouth of the Lepidoptera is an instance of this construction.

The trunk or thorax is that part of the body which unites the head to the
abdomen, and to which ave attached the organs of locomotion. It is form:
ed of three segments, each with a pair of feet; but in the winged insects
the apper sides of the last two segments also, form points of attachmens
for the wings. The term thorax has been given to the upper surface of thu
trunk, and that of breast, to the opposite face below. The middle part of
the breast between the feet, is the sternum, and the portion between the at-
tachment of the wings, generally triangular, and sometimes very large, is
named the shield, or scu¢ellum. The anterior segment of the thorax, ina
yreat many winged insects, is much larger than the other segments, and
separated from the second, by a very marked articulation; in others it is
extremely short, and has the appearance of a collar, while the two follow-
ing segments, of greater size, are internally united, and form a rounded mass,
distinct fram the abdomen. In both these cases, the large naked portion
receives the name of therag.

The insects of the first three orders have but one species of locomouve
organs, and only proper for walking; others have, also, wings to the number
of four; and the posterior extrenyity of the thorax is furnished, in those
which have only two wings. with two appendages, one on each side, termed
poisers or balancers, (Adéteres,) and often other appendages in the form of
spoonlike scales, (sguamule,) or winglets.

The wings (ale) are membranous, elastic, gererally transparent, and
attached to the upper sides uf the thorax. The ribs or nerves, more
or less numerous, which run through them, form sometimes a net-work,
sometimes anastomosing veins. In wasps and bees, these wings, four
im number, are naked and transparent; in butterflies, they are cover
ed with minute scales, resembling fine powder, and embellished with
INSECTA. 805

the liveliest colors. The scales are, imbricated, each has a peuuncle,
and they form in conjunction, a kind of mosaic work, exhibiting the charac-
teristic figures and colorings of this part. In the large class of Coleoptera,
in place of upper or anterior wings, two large scales or plates, opaque, more
or less thick and solid, and which open and shut longitudinally, forms for
the membranous wings, coverings which are called wing-cases, or elytra,
(involucra). In the greater part of the Orthoptera, these wing-cases, or upper
‘wings, become thick and solid, and are furnished with ribs; in the Hemip-
tera, they are in a great part membranous; and the gradual transition from
erusticeous coverings, to membranous and transparent organs, indicate that
the wing-cases in the Coleoptera, though scarcely contributing to the action
of flight, are modified wings. The form and disposition of the wings is
much varied. In some they are straight and extended, or folded longitu-
dinally like a fan, in repose; in others, they are folded transversely, as-in
the Coleoptera; and in others again, as the earwig, while one portion of the
wings is folded transversely, the other takes the fan-like fold. The wings
vary also in their place of position. In some insects, they are found inclined
or sloped like a roof; in others they are placed horizontally, lying or crossed
over one another, or sometimes separated; some, as the butterflies, raise
their wings vertically in repose; and small hooked sete placed along the
side of the upper wings, serve to retain the lower ones in their position.
In the nocturnal Lepidoptera, this is effected by a stiff, scaly, and pointed
bristle. Among: the insects with four wings, the form and relative size of
these wings vary much. By their rapid motion, they often produce a hum-
ming sound ; and among the males of some Orthoptera, a stridulous noise,
which has been called their syng. This sound is produced by the friction
of the margins of their elytra upon one another, or by the rubbing of the
posterior feet against the wings, and is conceived to be produced for the pur-
pose of calling their females. ;

The feet in insects are composed of the hip or coxa, of two joints; the
thigh, (femur,) the leg, (¢idza,) and the toe, (¢arsus,) divided into many
phalanges. The number of joints in the tarsi is constantly five in some
orders; but in others it varies from one to five, and sometimes even the pos
terior tarsi have a joint less than the anterior ones. Upon the difference in
these members the principal divisions of the Coleoptera are established. ‘The
last joint of the tarsi is simple, or divided into two lobes, almost always
terminated by two claws or hooks, between which, in many, are remarked
trom one to three membranous cushions or suckers. In the form of the
feet, and particularly the tarsi, there are certain modificativns, correspond-
ing to the habits of the insects. The two anterior ones have sometimes the
under part of the thighs grooved, and armed with slight dentations; and
their legs or tarsi, in this case, terminated by a strong spine, fold with
facility on the side of the thighs, and form an organ of prehension. The
insects which have the anterior feet disposed in this manner, us? them for

68
806 INSECTA.

seizing their prey, and are termed raptoriz. Others have the tarsi com-
pressed and ciliated or even hairy, demonstrating their aptitude to be usea
as oars, or for swimming, and these are called natatorii. In the family of

bees, the legs and the first joint of the tarsi are formed in such a manner

as to brush off and carry away the pollen or dust from the stamina of flowers,
and the tarsi and anterior legs in other species are sometimes broad, fur-
nished with dentations or small spines, and calculated for digging in the
earth (pedes fossorit.) These feet also in some are not subservient *: io-°
tion, as in many Papilionides, and they differ in others according to the sexes,

The abdomen, forming the third and last part of the body, includes the
viscera and the sexual organs. It is composed of from six to nine seg-
menis, each divided into two semicircles or plates united laterally, the
under portion being termed the belly. The organs of generation are situ-
ated at the posterior extremity; and hooks or forceps of different forms
accompany these parts in the male. The oviduct of many females is pro-
longed beyond the termination of the abdomen, sometimes in form of an
articulated tube; sometimes as an ovipositor or auger (terebra,) composed of
plates or filaments often dentated at the end. This oviduct terminates in a
sting (aculews) in the females and neuters of many hymenoptera. The exte-
rior envelope of insects, which is more or less solid, serves the double pur-
pose of outward protection and internal support. Less complicated than
the skin of higher classes, it seems to consist of but two layers, the epidermis
or outer skin, and the mucous tissue. Detached from the mucous tissue, the
epidermis of insects is almost peliucid, or semi-transparent, and colorless.
From its manner of growth, and the great proportion of gelatine in its com-
position, the substance of the outer envelope is of a horny consistence, more
flexible than the coverings of the crustacea, when the phosphate of lime pre-
dominates over the animal matter.

The body of a caterpillar, deprived of the epidermis, presents the same
colors as before; and it is conceived that the growth of the epidermis, being
stopped by the layers which grow successively below, destroy the functions
of the envelope, and occasion the change of covering observed to take place
in the animals at this stage. The appendages of the skin consist of spines,
hairs, and scales; the first two being merely prolongations of the epidermis.

The solid soft parts of insects are of two kinds. The first, termed muscles,
are formed of soft fibres, disposed in bundles, capable of producing motion
by their contraction in the parts to which they are affixed. These muscles
are always attached to the harder parts by a tendon of a horny consistence.
The other soft parts, formed also of muscular fibre, constitute the interior
organs, which, with the fluids, perform the necessary functions of vitality.
There are generally two muscles concerned in the motion of each part.
The muscles which move the head are situate within the thorax, and the
principal ones serve to raise or lower it. Within the thorax likewise are
placed the muscles whicn move the wings and feet; and besides these are
INSECTA. 807

sone strong muscles approaching the dorsal or ventral portions, which
appear intended to give to the breast a movement of compression or dilatation.

‘Tne abdomen in insects is composed of many imbricated rings, of which
the one nearest the breast passes over the second, the second over the third,
&c The muscles which move these parts extend along the anterior margin
of one segment, to the posterior margin of that which precedes it, and give
more or less motion upwards or downwards, according to the structure and
junction of the séparate parts. The feet are provided with flexor and exten-
sor muscles at every articulation. When the thigh is slender and cylindri-
cal, the motion is confined to walking; when thick and tnmid, to give room
for the requisite muscles, the motions indicated are leaping and swimming.
The muscles of insects in general are extremely numerous, very irritable,
and many of them extremely minute. In the caterpillar of one species,
(Cossus ligrniperda) Lyonnet reckoned upwards of four thousand different mus-
cles, while those of the human body do not exceed five hundred and twenty-
nine; and the strength of these muscles is such, that some caterpillars are
able to suspend themseives horizontally in the air for hours, supported by
their posterior feet on a vertical surface. a

The nervous system of insects is the same as in the anneilides, the crusta-
cea and arachnides. From the brain, or what is considered equivalent tu
the brain, the nervous matter in the head, originate threads, which extend
to tne eyes, to the antenna, and to the mouth. From its posterior extremi-
ty arise two chords or one pair of nerves, which, forming a collar, embrace
the esophagus, and, uniting below in a ganglion, give off filaments to the
surrounding parts. Two chords more or less approximated, often united,
are prolonged from thence along the under part of the body, forming at in-
tervals other ganglions, varying in number, till the filaments reach the anal
extremity. What is called the brain differs but little from the other ganglia,
and is distinguished by this appellation, only because the nervous threads of
the head seem to be derived fromit. Many consider these ganglia ‘or knots,
as so many little centres of nervous energy, and thus explain why, when an
insect is cut into small portions, it displays for some time marks of sensation.

In insects, two kinds of eyes occur, the first compound, or composed of facets,
the others simple and smooth. These eyes are immoveable, and destitute
of ciliz, or eyelids. The optic nerve, at some distance from its origin, is
extended to form the retina, and divided into a number of hexagonal threads,
which, passing through the network of a circular trachea, go to a mem-
brane, generally cellular, called the choroid coat, and after having traversed
the posterior part of the cornea, are applied against the facets 01 multiplied
fares of the external eye, take their figure and become individual retine.
Tnose species which shun the light are destitute of the choroid coat. The
pigment which covers the upper surface, and that which covers the opposite
ride of the cornea iz opaque, slightly fluid, and adheres strongly. The cornea
1s composed of a rard elastic membrane, with the surface reticulated or
808 INSECTA.

divided by small hollow lines, often furnished with hairs. and a numter of
hexagonal facets. Lewenhveck has counted three thousand one hundred
and eighty-one in the cornea of a beetle, and eight thousand in wat of a
moth. ° The butterfly has seventeen thousand two hundred and thirty-five.
Each facet may be considered as a crystalline lens, concave within anil con-
vex without.

The organ of hearing is not manifest in insects, although most of them
possess this faculty to a certain extent; for in the coupling season, inanv
males have the power of producing a noise to call the females, as in the
grasshopper and cricket. The sense of smell is more evidently manifest-
ed both in their larva and perfect state, frem their instantly discovering and
crowding to places where their food is to be found, or to substances proper
for the deposition of their ova; and where they were not previously scen.
The seat of this faculty some naturalists are inclined to believe ig in the
antenne, while others, as M. Dumeril, suppose it to be at che entrance of the
trachee or stigmata. On the other hand, Brunnich, Olivier, and Marcel
je Serres are of opinion that the sense of smell resides in the palpi; and
experiments on bees have rendered it probable that the chief sensations are
communicated by the mouth. From the proboscis being more or less de-
veloped, as the palpi are minute or wanting, M. Lamarck considers this
supposition the correct one. The organs of touch have been generally cun-
sidered to be those named antennae or feelers; and insects destitute of them
use their palpi and the tarsi of the anterior feet for the same purpose. The
covering of the body being generally corneous, can communicate but feebly
the sense of touch.

In insects, distinct absorbing or circulating vessels have not hitherto beeu
discovered. A dorsal vessel, or long transparent canal, reaches indeed frora
the head to the posterior extremity of the body; and this has been conceived
to be equivalent to the heart and blood-vessels of the higher classes. But
this vessel, though nariowed at intervals, corresponding to the segments of
the body, and having an undulatory contraction and dilatation from the head
to the posterior extremity, possesses none of the characters of a true heart or
circulating system ; and it is considered to be the only chief reservoir of the
principal fluid in insects, filling and emptyingitself by absorption and exuda-
ton. M. Carus, however, has discovered in the caudal laine of some
jJarve, and in the rudimentary wings, an excurrent and incurrent motion of
fluid in distinct tubes, which he conceives tobe a true circulation ; a circuras
stance which has escaped the penetration of Lyonnet, who always found the
undulatory motion of the dorsal vessel to proceed invariably from the head
to the tail. As this circulation, or double motion, however, has only beeu
observed in one stage of existence, it is rather to be regarded as a phenome-
non connected with the passage of the animal into a different state, than as
a circulation analogous to that of animals, with two distinct sets of vessels

Respiration in insects is effected hy means of two tubes, one un each side of
INSECTA. , 805

the hody. and running along its whole length, named !rachee@. From these
tracheal vessels are derived a great many ramifications or bronchi, the num-
ber of whic. 1s more or less considerable, as they belong to parts enjoying
more or less vital energy. The trachea communicate with the external air by
means of openings called stzgmata, of which the number varies, placed on
each side of the body. In caterpillars, the number of stigmata is gencrally
eighteen. These stigmata are marked in the skin of the insect hy a small
scaly j-late, open in the centre, and furnished with membranes or filaments
to protect the entrance. The larve of many species which live in water
have on the sides of their body, filaments or appendages in the form of
lamina, upon which are spread vessels communicating with the bronchi ana
trachee.

Though insects have no lungs, and are destitute of voice properly so
called, yet they possess the means of producing sounds. Thus the male
grasshopper makes a noise to attract the female. The males of the cicade.
and the crickets nossess the same faculty. In all these insects, however,
the means by which the sound is produced, is similar to that by which a
stringed instrument or drum is sounded. The males of the locust and
‘grasshoppers have a portion of the internal margin of their elytra formed of an
elastic, transparent membrane, like talc, provided with strong projecting
ribs, separated by large hollow spaces. Itis a kind of violin, of which the
ribs represent the strings; and the sharp, disagreeable sound by which these
insects are distinguished ata distance, is produced by rubbing the elytra
over one another. In the cricket, the thigh, furnished with projecting lines,
serves as the bow, and the longitudinal ribs of the elytra the strings. In
the cicade, the organ which produces the sound is more complicated. It is
a species of drum, and is peculiar to themale. The abdomen, which is coni-
cal, is provided below and near the base, with two large semicircular scales,
whicl: cover an empty space, in which is a delicate, tense membrane, equiva-
lent to the skin of the drum, and below this membrane, at the bottom of the
cavity, are other parts, which, striking against it, produce the sound. The
stridul »us noise which is heard when the SpAinz atropos is touched, is occa-
sioned by the air escaping rapidly by the trachee at the sides of the base of
the abdomen, and which is closed in the state of repose by a bundle of stellat-
ed hairs. Many coleoptera produce a plaintive and interrupted sound by
subbing the peduncle of the base of the abdomen against the interior walls
of the thorax ; and the extremity of the head in others produces a cimilar
sound. The rapid vibration of the wings is the chief cause of the humming
noise which most insects produce when flying.

Insects feed on all kinds of matters, vegetable and animal; and there is
scarcely any production in these two divisions of nature, which does not serve
as the food of some insect. Each insect, besides, has a particular food upon
which 1t lives in preference, and which it is endowed with the puwer of dis.
cevering and procuring. Many in their perfect state live on fuod quite dif

102 68*
810 INSECTA.

ferent from that upon which they subsisted when im the state of larve ; and
yet, notwithstanding of this, they instinctively deposit their ova upou the
peculiar matters necessary for the food of the young. Thus the lepidoptera,
svhich in the perfect state, suck the honey of flowers, never fail to place tneir
<va on or near the plants, the leaves of which are proper for the nourisnment
ef the caterpillar; and thus it happens that the culices, whose larve are des-
tied to live and find their subsistence in water, drop their ova on its surface.

Among the insects which live in society, there are some, as the bees,
which are under the necessity of making choice of a dwelling for the pur-
pose of storing up a supply of provisions for unfavorable seasons, which
would prevent the acquisition of a daily supply. Others, such as the ants,

unite and work in common, to procure not only their own subsistence, but
food for their larve, which are totally incapable of seeking it for them-
selves,

Many insects seem confined to one species of food, and never vary in
neir taste. Such are a great number of caterpillars, which feed on certain
eaves, and if these fail, they die. The herbivorous insects besides, eat often,
and almost continually ; while those living on prey, like the carnivorous
animals of the higher classes, are capable of considerable abstinence. Certain
species of insects subsist on the leaves of trees, such as the larve of the
epidoptera, and many of the coleoptera and hymenoptera; others suck the
juices of the leaves and stems, as the cicade, and the aphides: some feed
on the vegetable excrescences, named galls, and many on the buds of trees.
Fruits of all kinds are the subsistence of many insects and weir larve;
while others prove powerful destroyers of the different species ov grain.
Even the solid matter of trees becomes the food of many larve, which perfo
rate the timber in all directions, reduce it to powder, and devour the parti
sles. A food more delicate is necessary for some insects, and this is found
in that part of flowers termed by botanists the nectary. From these necta-
ries the bees collect the fluid, which, after having undergone some prepara-
tion in their bodies, forms the substance termed honey; and the ants seek
with avidity the saccharine fluid which is exuded from openings in the
abdcmen of the aphides, caressing them till this evacuation, so necessary to
them, is produced.

A crowd of insects, both in the larve and perfect state, are found in the
dung of animals; and dead animal matter of all kinds, particularly that of
quadrupeds, birds-and fishes is equally sought after by numerous sp wies.
The flesh-fly is well known to deposit its ova in butcher's meat exy used;
and the feeding of these minute animals within the meat, accelerates putre-
faction and dissolution. Even the dried flesh of animals, and their skins

preserved in museums, are the prey of small coleopiera of the genera
Dermestes Ptinus, &c.; and these minute animals likewise destroy the most
valuable furs. Other inseets attack living animals, and feed on uuir solid
and fluid parts. Que larva in particular, belonging to the genus Cistes
INSECTA. 811

lives on the back and under the skin of horned-cattle, and feeds on the pua
which is formed by the tumors occasioned by their residence. Other larvee
uf the same genus are found in the stomach of the horse, around the pylorus,
and sometimes in the intestines ; and sheep, horses, and oxen feed the larvee
of another species of estrus in their frontal sinuses,cn the fluid which
exudes from the nose. In short, no animal seems free from the depreda-
tions of insects; and some larve live even in the interior of the body of
other species, as the large family of the ichneumons, the cznips of Geoffroy,
and the spher of Linneus.

The organs of deglutition, in insects, present nothing very remarkable.
The esophagus is a straight canal, passing between the brain and the first
nervous ganglion. It is surrounded by the nervous matter which joins the
two principal organs of sensation. This part of the esophagus is perhaps
the seat of the organs of taste. In the gnawing insects, the alimentary
matters, after having been cut and reduced to small portions by the action
of the mandibles, are carried to the pharynx. In the suckers, the nutritive
Huids are carried there by the pressure of the sucker.

The organs of digestion comprise the stomach and the intestinal canal,
[hese are, according to M. Marcel de Serres, formed of three membrares.
The stomach presents great variety in point of form, and has been distin-
guished by Latreille, into three kinds, which he distinguishes as simple,
double, and multiple. The stoinach of the first form occurs in -the greater
part of the insects. In some it is simply membranofs; in others it is mus-
cular; and ina third group it is not evident, that is, the esophagus is not
dilated. Those which: have the stomach membranous and dilated, live
generally on the nectar of plants, such as the bees, butterflies, &c.; those in
which the stomach is muscular, are chiefly the hemiptera ; and those in which
this viscus is not dilated, feed commonly on leaves or roots, which they
gnaw and eat. The insects which have a double stomach are the coleoptera
which feed on living piey, such as the hydrocanthari, the cicindelele and the
carabide. The greater part of the orthoptera are remarkable for the appa-
rent multiplicity of their stomachs. The mole cricket of gardens has four.
This insect and others analogous have been considered as 1 iminating
insects, or as having the faculty of returning again to their mouth the ali-
ments in their organs of digestion. Jn insects, it is to be remarked, there
often exist great diiferences in the structure of the intestinal canal, properly
so called, in the state of larva, and in the perfect insect. Thus, in the
caterpillar of the butterfly there is an cesophagus dilated abruptly to form a
sylindrical stomach, with three transverse rows of ccecums totally diflere.t
from the form of the same parts in the perfect insect. Similar differences
nave been observed in the larva of the bee, and indeed occur‘in many
groups. This change of structure is necessary for the accommodation of
the animal to its changes of foud; but when the larva: and the perfect insect
feed on the same materials, this alteration in organization dues not take place.
B12 INSECTA.

Besides tne secreting organs proper to nutrition and generation, others are
found in certain insects for secreting fluids, either calculated for detence, ur
for protecting them from variations of temperature during their transforma-
lions. The acrid and fetid fluids with which some insects defend tiem
selves, are produced by small tortuous tubes, and accumulated in two vesicles
near the anus.

The Carabi and the Dytiscz secrete acid fluids which redden vegetable blue;
Cie Brachint discharge an acid vapor, which gives considerable pain; a spe-
cies of Blaps produces a brown fetid oil, which swims upon water ; the
sila-worm possesses organs for secreting a silky matter of which the threads
of silk.are formed ; and in the Hymenoptera, such as wasps, bees. sphexides,
&c., the extremity of the abdomen incloses a sting, calculated for attack or
defence. This sting is a hollow canal furnished with muscles, of which the
contraction or dilatation projects, or withdraws it at the will of the animal.
At the base of this hollow tube is found a gland which secretes the acid or
poisonous fluid. The sexes in insects are always in separate individuals,
male and female, and coupling takes place at certain seasons, as in the
h’gher animals. The ‘only exception to this rule occurs in some genera of
the order Hymenoptera, where, besides the males and females, a third kind
of individuals occur called neuwters. These, from what has been observed in
the economy of the bees, who, when a new queen is wanted, rear one of
the larve of the neuters for this purpose, and conceived to be imperfectly de-
veloped females. The males are distinguished from the females, by their
reproductive organs, by their smaller size, and in general more brilliant co-
lors; by the form of their antenna, and sometimes by their having wings,
while the females are apterous. Reproduction takes place in the last or per-
fect state; and after impregnation. the females, with instinctive sagacity,
deposit their ova, of various forms, on objects or places where the young
animal, when hatched, may find its appropriate food.

Insects are in general oviparous animals; for though a few, which have
been termed ovo-viviparous, bring forth living larve, as the flesh-fly, or as
the /ippobosca equina, produce their young in the pupa state; yet, generally
epeaking, the whole class may he considered as oviparous. The ova are of
two kinds; some with a membranous covering like those of reptiles, and
the others crustaceous like the eggs of birds. The variety, however, in
point of form, among these ova, is almost incredible; nearly equal, it may
be said, to the number of the species. Some are round, elliptical, lenticu-
lar, cylindrical, pyrarnidal, flat, and even square; some are smooth, others
figured or grooved; and in point of color every shade is employed, some
shining with the lustre of pearls, and others with the hue of gold. And
these ova'are all deposited with the most unerring instinct in places where
the future anima] may find its proper food without the parent’s care.

The number of ova deposited by particular insects is extremely various,
nut in general it may be remarked that the fertility of insects exceeds that
INSECTA. ‘812

of bisds, and is only surpassed by the almost unbounded reproductive powers
of fishes. Lewenhoeck found that a single fly could produce in three months
seven hundred and forty-six thousand four hundred and ninety-six flies, simi-
“lar.to itself; the silk-worm moth deposits about five hundred ova; the tiger-
ruoth sixteen liundred. And in insects living in societies like the wasp and
bee, whose manners have been more the subject of observation, the repro-
ductive powers are still greater. The female wasp deposits at least thirty
thousand, and the queen bee from forty to fifty thousand. But all these are
left far behind by a species of the white ant (Termes fatale), the female of
which deyosits not less than sixty ova in a minute, three thousand six hun+
dred in an hour, or eight hundred and sixty-four thousand in a day !

The most remarkable feature in the history of insects, is the transformations
the same individuals undergo during the different stages of their existence.
These transformations, more wonderful than the fabled metamorphoses of the
pagan mythology, have been adduced in proof of the argument for the existence
of design in the conduct of the universe. But to the student of nature, even
this instance, however striking, is not wanted to establish proofs of design
the most admirable, and beneficence the most unbounded, in the structure
and preservation of the almost infinitely numerous tribes of organized be-
ings; since every portion of nature exhibits facts of the same kind, impos-
sible to be explained without reference to Infinite Wisdom and Almighty
Power.

The transformations or metamorphoses of insects embrace three states
m which the animals appear, and which form as many great periods of their
fife. In the first, they have no wings, and somhe even possess no organ of
movement; in the second, the animal falls into a state of torpor or apparent
lethargy, for a longer or shorter period, during which its future organs are
completed; and the third displays the perfect insect in the full possession of
of all its members and animal faculties.

In the first state, the animal, under the form of a small worm, is
termed the larva, or caterpillar. These larve appear in two states; 1.
Those which, in general form, more or less resemble the perfect insect; 2.
Those which are wholly unlike the perfect insect. The first cf these in+
cludes, with the exception of the crustacea, nearly the whole of the J.in»
nean orders, Aptera and Hemiptera; the second comprises, with few ex+
ceptions, the whole of the Linnzan orders, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenops
tera, Diptera, and the greater portion of the Newroptera. Previous to their
change, the larve exhibit appearances of the greatest anxiety and restlessness.
They cease to eat, wander about with instinctive care, seeking for holes in
the earth, chinks in trees, crevices in walls, and other places for their temyo-
rary repose. Many penetrate the ground to the depth of scveral inches;
the grubs of the gad-fly creep out of the backs of the cattle, and drop upon
the ground, or are carried by the animal, licking itself, into its mouth and
through its intestincs; and the various aquatic larve leave the water for an
814 INSECTA.

element nore suited to their future existence. The coceenef/e and others fix
themselves by the anus under leaves or twigs; others suspend themselves hy
a silken thread; and a very great number enclose themselves in cases or
cocoons composed of silk and other materials, to. undergo their final chinge.
The second form in which insects appear is the pupa or nympha state. In
this, the number of the exterior organs of the animal is augmented or
developed anew. Linneus presents the forms under which insects appear
in this state under five heads. The whole, however, may be reduced under
two heads: first, those in which the transformation is partial ; and secondly,
those in which it is complete.

The influence which the partial metamorphosis exercises on the body is not
sufficiently powerful to destroy the typical form proper to.the species, and is
modified only by slight alterations. An experienced eye which has seen the
animal in its first stage of life, can still recognise the individual. The prin-
cipal change takes place in the exterior members, and particularly in the
organs of locomotion; but the animal retains its habits and activity. In
the perfect or complete transformation, on the contrary, the larva is sc
different from the perfect animal, that nothing but ocular evidence of the
change can convince of its identity. The pupe of this metamorphosis
although their forms are shortened, and somewhat similar to those whicr
they are to acquire in their last change, take no food, remain immoveable
and give no external sign of life. The term chrysalis is applied by manr
writers to insects in the pupa state. The period insects continue in thc
pupa state is various. Some species remain only a few days und:r thix
form, others 4s many months, or even years. Each, however, has in gene
ral a stated period, which is seldom or never exceeded. As Lamarck ha-
observed, there seems between the insect races and the vegetable kingdon
a correspondence of developement. The larve are produced from the ove
whenNhe food of many, the leaves of plants, begin to appear; and the per
fect insect from the same larve, as in a great portion of some orders, appears
in its changed form, when food adapted to the animal is prepared in the nec-
taries of the expanded flowers. The duration, however, of the pupa state,
may be prolonged in certain cases, beyond the average term. ‘Thus it has
been found, that according as the insect becomes a pupa at an earlier or
later period of the season, it will remain in this state for a few weeks ot
several months, according to circumstances.

The caterpillar of the Papil:o machaon, one of those which have a ‘oulle
brood in the year, if it becomes a pupa in July, the butterfly will appear in
thirteen days; if not until September, it will not make its appearance unti
June, in the following year. The same is the case with a vast nuniber of
other insects, and their developement has been thus discovered to depend
much un the temperature of the season, or, which is the same thing, on the
developement of plants destined to afford them protection and suppurt. To
the month of January Reaumur placed several of the pupa of moths and
INSECTA. 815

butterflies, which would not naturally have been developed till the following
May, in a hot-house, and the result was, that the perfect insects made their
appearance in a fortnight, in the depth of winter; and by other experiments
he ascertained that ia this high temperature the change was accomplished in
tive or six days, which would have required as many weeks in ordinary
circumstances. The converse of this experiment equally succeeded; fur by
keeping pupe in an ice-house during the whole suthmer, the prodaction of
the fly was retarded a full year beyond the ordinary period. And it is a fact
well ascertained that the pupa state sometimes continues for years —thus
providing for the continuance of the species, should adverse seasons th ‘eaten
to destroy the inclosed animals before they had carried through the great .
purpose of nature by reproduction. The mode in which insects break’
through their prison-house or coccoon, and assume the perfect form, is vari-
ous. Previous to this period, the color of the pupa undergoes an alteration:
the golden or silver tinge in many vanishes, and those which are transpa-
rent usually permit the form and colors of the insect within and the motions
of their limbs to be seen. In the obtected pupa, the struggles of the included
butterfly or moth first effect a longitudinal slit down the middle of the thorax,
where there is usually a suture for the purpose, and the insect gradually
withdraws itself from its case. The members are also withdrawn from a
a series of inner membranous sheaths, which separately include them like a
glove. In the coarctate pupa, where the outer case is generally more mid
and destitute of sutures, a lid or operculum is found at the anterior end which
the animal is enabled to push off; and the coleopterous insects, whose tem-
porary dwelling is under ground, await the progress of the developement,
and hardening of their elytra, before mining upwards to the open air. In
other families, the coccoon is ruptured by the inclosed insect; or in cases
where the portions of the cases have been glued together, that glue is dis-
solved by a solvent fluid, and the animal left free to escape ; and among the
ants, the working class not only feed the young previously, but at their
period of transformation cut the minute threads of the coccoons when the
insect is ready to appear. Inthe gnat, which undergoes its change on the
surface of the water, the pupa-case splits like a little boat, and the animal
raises itself from the horizontal to the vertical position, extricates its mem-
bers from their confinement, rests for a moment on the water till its wings
are unfolded, and ties away.

The last stage of the life of insects is termed the imago or perfect state.
In this state all their parts are fully developed, and it.is only in this stage
that they are qualified for the great purpose of reproduction. Immediately
upon their exclusion, insects are generally weak, soft, and languid; and
some short space of time is required for the expansion uf the members, ca.
culated fur action in a lifferent situation or in a different me‘tium. The
elytra assume their brilhant colors; the wings expand to their p,-oper size,
and assume their various workings ; and what seemed a few minutes before
816 INSECTA.

but an manimate half-formed mass, is now transformed into an anima
decked with the most vivid colors, and rejoicing in its new existence. The
operation of expanding their wings in by far the greater number of insects
occupies only a few minutes; in some butterflies, half an hour or an hour:
and some species of sphynx require several hours or even a day for this ope-
ration. In certain ¢ipule and the ephemera, however, this process is almos:
instantaneous ; and in some speeies of this last genus, the insects, after be-
ing released from the puparium, and making use of their expanded wings
for flight, undergo a slight and further metamorphosis. They fix themselves
by their claws in a vertical position upon some object ; withdraw every part
of the body, even the legs and wings, from a thin pellicle which covered
*them like a glove; and so perfect is the resemblance of this exuvie to the
insect, as to be at first sight mistaken for it.

When the developement of the perfect insect is thus fully completed, it
immediately begins to exercise its new powers in their destined functions.
It walks, runs, or flies, in‘search of food, or of the other sex of its own spe-
cies if it be a male, that the great purpose of its existence in this state may
be fulfilled, the continuation of the species; and so unerring are its intuitive
perceptions of the food which is proper, and the protection which it requires,
that the new-formed being becomes at once a free denizen of the air, distin-
guishing with more than botanical skill the plants and their juices which
arenecessary for its wants; and guided at once to results which in other be-
‘ings are only acquired by the slow lessons of experience or education The
duration of insect life in thezmago or perfect animal is subject tu some vari-’
ations, but in general concludes when reproduction is perfected. There is
not, as in the larger animals, a duration of a medium period, only liable to
be shortened by accident or disease; but a conditional one, dependent on
the earlier or later fulfilment of a particular function. The general law
regarding this pcricd among insects seems to be, that a few days, or at most
a few weeks, after the union of the sexes, and the deposition of the ova by
the female, both individuals perish. The period of effecting this is longer or
shorter according to the species. Some, as several ephemera, live only a few
hours, and never enjoy the enlivening light of the sun, appearing only to
fulfil the great purpose of nature after sunset, and having finished thts in the
enursé of a few hours, by cropping their ova on the surface of their native
waters, perish before the dawning of another day. Others, as flies, motns,
butterflies, and indeed the greater part of insects, take a few days or weeks,
to accomplish the same purpose. A comparatively small number, such as
some of the larger coleoptera, orthoptera, é&c., exist from six to nine, twelve,
and even fifteen months; and some instances have been recorded of partucu
lar species, when kept and fed, having their existence prolonged considerably
beyond this term. But these are exceptions to the general rule. | And it is
to be remarked further, that insect life seems to follow a different law from
that which prevails among vertebrated animals, where the duration of
INSECTA. 817

existence is generally observed to be in relation to the period of their at taining
maturity—that is, that an animal is long or short lived, in proportion as it ats
tains puberty in a longer or shorter period. Among insects, this analogy
does not hold; for while the larvae of the goat-moth (cossus ligniperda,) is
three years, and that of the cabbage butterfly, not three months in attaining
maturity, yet the perfect insect in both lives equally long. The Medolon-
tha vulgaris, wh ch exists four years in its preparatory stages, lives only.
eight or ten days as a perfect insect; some ephemerw, whose larve have
enjoyed two years of preparatory existence, scarcely live beyond an hour;
while the common flesh-fly, whose larve have attained to maturity in threw
or four days, exists several weeks. It is worthy of remark, as connected
with this subject, that although the general rule seems to be that insects die
immediately or soon after the period, when the continuance of the species
is provided for by their coupling, and the deposition of the ova, yet if the
junction of the sexes be prevented, such individuals seem exempted from
the general law. It is probable that some of the instances related of insects
naving been kept for long periods in the perfect state, have been individuals
who had not by the sexual junction fulfilled one important purpose of their
being. Gleditsch asserts, that by keeping apart the sexes of the grasshopper,
their lives were prolonged to eight or nine weeks, in place of two or three,
the general period of their existence; and under similar circumstances,
Ephemera, which naturally perish in one day, may be kept alive for seven or
eight.

The associations among insects for a common purpose are temporary or
continued. The temporary ones owe their origin to a female who has sur-
vived the winter, and who lays the foundation of the colony, of all the mem-
bers of whiéh she is the common mother. Such are the associations among
wasps and hornets. The female queen begins the edifice, and deposits ova
in the first formed cells, which are destined to produce assistants, to people
and complete the colony. The insects first developed are all neuters, ov
workers. To these, all the labors of the family are committed. In certain
communities of Termes, or white ants, the neuters form a body of soldiers
ready to defend the commonwealth from enemies, or to make regular war
on rival communities, with all the precision and detail of military ope-
rations. i

All insects which live in society, with the exception of the Termes. wn-
deigo a complete metamorphosis. Among the Termes, the young difler nut
little from the full-grown insect, except im point of size, the absence a1
shortness of wings, and other distinctions of shght importance. Among
the ants, the neuters are deprived of wings; but in all the other societies,

_the three kinds of individuals have wings. The instincts of these societies
are modified according to their organic differences. Deprived.of wings,
the neuters or workers among the ants form their dwelling in clefts of trees,
wats, or under ground. The wasps and bees, on the ae whose wings

103
818 INSECTA.

enable them tu enlarge the sphere of their industry, have a greater choice of
material and wider range of action. Thus the dwellings«f the hornet are
formed of a light papyraceous substance, admirably adapted in the light-
ness of the material for being suspended in the air, and as wonderfully con-
structed within, for the number of its inhabitants; while the bees collect a
resinous substance, inpermeable to moisture, and capable from its ductility,
of being moulded into any form.

In the societies of insects which exist in a mixed form, that is, where there
are workers of one or two other species, the internal economy anil arranges
ments are so wonderful, that, unless the fact had been witnessed and related
by such naturalists as Humboldt and Huber, it would scarcely have com-
manded belief. The workers of different species found in these warlike
communities, taken by force in their early age, from neighboring ant-hills,
become in their perfect state the auxiliaries of the captors or their slaves. But
all the neuters of these communities have neither the same form nor func-
tions; for some which M. Huber distinguishes by the name of Amazons, have
long, narrow, arched mandibles without dentations, which, from their form,
are neither proper for carrying nor preparing the materials of their habita-
tion, and are evidently rather constructed as arms, for offence and defence,
than as tools for mechanical arts. These individuals are, therefore, intend-
ed by nature for warriors; to fight seems their strongest predilection ;
and the rearing of their young, the most general instinctive feeling of
animais, is in their case committed to the care of strangers whom they have
taken captive. The other working ants do not take a part in the predatory
excursions, unless driven to it by extreme want. The Amazonian ants, at
a certain hour, quit their dwelling, and march in close column, more or less
numerous, according to circumstances, towards the ant-hill previously recon-
noitred — fight their way to its recesses, in spite of opposition — sieze in
their mouths the larve and pupz of the neuters or workers, and, putting
themselves again in marching order, return with their captives to their own
capitol. It is upon the species named F. fusca, that they chiefly exercise
their power. M. Huber, ted hy a very striking analogy, compares the cap-
tured ants, retained as workers by these warlike hordes, to the Helots of the
Greeks and Romans, or to the negro slaves of modern Europeans.

The Formica sanguinea affords an instance where all the workers are of sin
ilar forms, and engage in the same labors; and, though they do not seem to
have a kind of standing army among them, like the Amazonian ants. follow
*he same warlike propensities. M. Huber has detailed the tactics o1 these
xual animals from observations made in the cantons of Switzerland, where
the species is common, and demonstrated that the scourges of war and
sravery ate not confined alone to human beings. The bee, however, presents
instinctive faculties of a more amiable nature. It has no carnivorous pre
pensities ; and while some of the other insects which live in societies, sup
stst hy rapine and destruction, this interesting animal pursues its peaceful
-

INSECTA. 819

labors, collecting honey and wax from sources inaccessible to human means,
and presents a model of industry and fcresight which has often been held up
by moralists as instructive to man.

The migrations of insects, or rather their appearance in certain countries,
at certain periods, laying waste whole territories hy destroying the crops,
and eating up every green leaf and blade of grass, do not seem referable to
the same causes as the migration of birds and fishes. The appearance of
locusts (Gryllus migratorius, Lin.) in Barbary, Egypt, and Tartary, and their
occasional irruptions into the south of Europe, are rather to be attributed to
the excessive multiplication of the species, from -causes favorable to repro-
duction, than to any periodical, instinctive impulse; and their occasional
dispersion, in countless numbers, over the neighboring countries, may origi-
nate in the necessity of finding a supply of food. The direction ‘of their
flight, in their migration, is generally regulated by the blowing of the wind.
In places visited with this scourge, the inhabitants eat these insects, either
using them when recent, or drying and grinding them as a substitute for
bread. Since the year 1749, though certain parts of Russia, Poland, and
Hungary are occasionally visited by fights of locusts, Europe has been free
from any very alarming influx of these animals. In that year, they carried
destruction over the fairest provinces of Germany, and even extended their
flight across the Baltic to Sweden. The temperature of the bodies of insects
is very nearly thet of the atmosphere, and thus many of these animals, and
above all the larve, pass the winter in a state of torpor.. In those which
live in society, however, such as bees, the temperature of the hive is always
somewhat higher than the external air. But the temperature which is neces-
sary to develope one species, is not necessary to all, and hence the distribu-
tion of insects over the world, in every variety of climate. Jt has been observed
that where the empire of Flora terminates, there also terminates the domain of
Zoology ; for animals which feed on vegetables cannot live in places totally ste-
rile; and those which are carnivorous must be equally deprived of subsistence.
Those countries richest in vegetable productions, are therefore the most pr‘ lifie
in insects; and as vegetation diminishes, the number of insects decreases. But
the proper limits of the different insects in geographical positions, are far from
being ascertained; and all that is generally known is, that there are tnbes
peculiar to the warmer regions of the globe, and others that belong to the
temperate latitudes; that some are extremely local; and that others feed on
vegetalles of extensive dissemination. M., Latreille is of opinion, that, if
the geographical range of insects were well known, and the species usce>
tained, a connection between the vegetable productions of the soil, and the
animals, might be traced; and a clue might be thence procured for ascer+
taining from their- insect inhabitants, to what portions of the newest con-
tinents the multitude of islands in the Asiatic ocean originally belonged.

There is no data for ascertaining with any degree of accuracy the actuar
number of insects distributed over the surface of the globe. In reference to
820 INSECTA.

the plants upon which they feed, Decandolle conjectures, that sixty thousand
species being already known, the total number of plants may extend from
one hundied and ten thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand. And
Messrs K rby and Spence, reasoning on this calculation, and that several
insect inhabitants are often found upon the same_plant, conjecture that four
hundred thousand insect species may exist on the surface of the globe 1nd,
proceeiling on the same data with regard to the plants of that country, that the
insects indigenous to Great Britain may be estimated at ten thousand. In-
cluding the Arachnides and Crustacea, one hundred thousand species arc
computed already to have a place in cabinets.

The slew progress of the science of entomology has left to be discovered
‘by ruture inquirers, many of the uses of insects in the economy of nature.
From what is known, however, of certain races, the analogical inference,
regarding the whole, may be deduced, as equally proofs of Divine wisdom
and beneficence. Myriads of these small and incessant workers, by their
feeding on dead, decayed, or excrementitious matters, not only preserve the
atmosphere in purity, but themselves enjoy the blessings of existence.
Some furnish an agreeable food, and others are employed in medicine and
the arts. Many form the chief or only subsistence of quadrupeds, birds, and
reptiles, and the silk-worm furnishes one of the most beautiful materials of
dress. It has been remarked that from the study of entomology, many use-
ful arts might have been derived. Thus the hornets composed their dwell-
ing of a species of paper, long before the manufacture of that invaluable
article was stumbled on by human ingenuity; the Tenthredines or saw-flies,
cut the branches of trees with their serrated instruments, long before the use
of the saw was discovered in the arts; and their small but powerful instru-
ment has still this advantage over the mechanic’s tool, that it combines the
properties of a rasp and file, along with that of a saw. The wood-boring
bee and the ichneumons are possessed of an apparatus for boring, from
which even human ingenuity may improve their implements destined for
similar purposes. A small animal of the size of the common ant, (the
termes,) builds in an incredibly short space of time, in Africa and Asia, a
dwelling of fifteen or sixteen feet in height, upon which the pick-axe makes
no impression ; and finally, the organs with which the butterflies, the cuiices,
and the common flivs pump up the juices upon which they feed, might pos-
silly afford hints for miprovement in instruments used for a similar purpose
in the arts. ‘ These animals,” says Latreille, “are often.so minute, that one
cannot eveu discover their forms without ‘the aid of the microscope; but to
the eye of the philosopher, the mass or volume of an object is a matter of
ittle consequence. The wisdom of the Creator never appears with more effect
than in the structure of those minute beings, which seem to conceal them-
selves from observation, and Almighty power is never more strikingly exe
hibited than in the concentration of organs in such an atom. On giving life
to this atom, and constructing in dimensions so minute, so many organs,
\
INSECTA—LOUSE. 821

susceptible of different sensations, my admiration of the Supreme Intelli-
Bence is much more heightened than by the contemplation of the structure
of the most gigantic animals.” “ We attach, and wit! reason,” says Reau-
‘mur, “a kind of consequence to the knowledge of the faults and perfections
of the productions in the fine arts, such as poetry, music, painting, sculp-
ture, and architecture; but of the works of the Lord of nature, of this
Master of masters, we scarcely think, or that there is any thing wonderful
in their structure. There can indeed be no room for criticism, where there
is nothing but what is admirable, and where the most perfect finite intelli-
gences, the more they study such objects, the more they discover of their
wonders. Yet this knowledge, so well calculated to elevate the mind, and
lead it to the contemplation of the source frony which all these wonders pro-
ceed, is regarded by many as frivolous, or of little importance. But he who
looks upon an insect as merely a particle of moving wood, or putrid matter,
and who has no idea of the marvellous organs of these minute animals, is
in a state of ignorance far more gross and blameable, than the man who
should confound the most finished productions in the fine arts, with the most
rude and shapeless masses.”

 

THE LOUSE.

~N examining the human louse with the microscope, its external deformity
first strikes us with disgust ; the shape of the fore part of the head is some-
what oblong; that of the hind part somewhat round; the skin is hard, and,
being stretched, transparent, with here and there several bristly hais; in
the fore part is a proboscis or sucker, which is seldom visible; on each side
of the head are antennz or horns, each divided into five joints, covered with |
bristly hair; and several white vessels are seen through these horns; behind
these are the eyes, which seem to want those divisions observable in other
msects, and appear encompassed with some few hairs; the neck is very
short, and the breast is divided into three parts; on each side of which are
placed six legs, consisting of six joints covered also with bristly .airs; the
ends 9. the legs are armed with two smaller and larger ruddy claws, serving
those insects as a finger and thumb, by which they catch hold of such ob-
jects as they approach; the end of the body terminates in a cloven tail,
while the sides are all over hairy; the whole resembling clear archmeat,
and, when roughly pressed, cracking with a noise.

When we ‘ake a closer view, its white veins, and other i.ternal parts,
appear; as likewise a most wonderful motion in its intestines, from the

 

’ Pediculus humanus, Lis. The order Parasita, under which this genus comes, has
six feet and no wings; abdomen destitute of articulated and moveable appendages ; twu
or four small eyes; mouth in a great many, interior, presenting externally, either a snout
or nipper, inclosing a retractile sucker, or two membranous lips wits lisaked mun‘lihles

f
822 INSECTA—FLEA.

transparency of its external covering. When the louse feeds, the blood 1s
seen to rush, like a torrent, into the stomach; and its greediness is so great,
that the excrements contained in the intestines are ejected at the same ume,
to make room for this new supply.

The louse has neither beak, teeth, nor any kind of mouth. In the place
of all these, it has a proboscis or trunk: or, as it may be otherwise called,
a pointed hollow sucker, with which it pierces the skin, and sucks the human
blood, taking that for food only. The stomach is Judged partly in the breast
and back; but the greatest portion of it is in the abdomen. When it is
enipty, it is-colorless; but when filled, it is plainly discernible, and its mo-
tion seems very extraordinary. It then appears working with very strong
agitations, and somewhat resembles an animal within an animal. Superf-
cial observers are apt to take this for the pulsation of the heart ; but ifthe ani-
mal be observed when it issucking, it will be found that the food takes a direet
passage from the trunk to the stomach, where the remainder of the old aliment
will be seen mixing with the new, and agitated up and down on every side.

There is scarcely any animal that multiplies so fast as this unwelcome
intruder. It has been pleasantly said, that a louse becomes a grandfather
in the space of twenty-four hours. This fact cannot be ascertained ; but
nothing is more true than, that the moment the nit, which is no other than
the egg of the louse, gets rid of its superfluous moisture, and throws off its
shell, it then begins to breed in its turn. Nothing so much prevents the in-
erease of this nauseous animal, as cold and want of humidity; the nits must
be laid in a place that is warm, and moderately moist to produce any thing.
That is the reason that many nits laid on the hairs in the night time, are
destroyed by the cold of the succeeding day, and so stick for severa] months,
till they at last come to lose even their external form. So numerous were
the disgusting vermin in Mexico, that the ancient monarchs of that country
endeavored to rid the subjects of them by imposing an annual tribute of a
certain quantity. Bags full of lice were found in Montezuma’s palace, by
the Spanish invaders

THE FLEA.!

Ir the flea be examined with a microscope, it will be observed to have a
sma!) head, large eyes, and a roundish body. It has two feelers, or horns
which are short, and composed of four joints; and between these lies its

 

Pulex irritans, Lis. The order Syphonaptera, under which this genus comes, hus the
body cumpressed mouth with a sucker of two pieces, inclosed between two articulated
lamin, which united, form a rostrum or proboscis either cylindrical or conicai, and

which the hase is covered with scales.
‘
INSECTA—GLOW WORM...BEETLE. 823

wink, which it buries in the skin, and through which it sucks the blond in
large quantities. The body appears to be all over curiously adored witha
suit of polished sable. armor, neatly joined, and beset with multitudes of
sparp pins, almost like the quills of a porcupine. It has six legs, the juints

 

ot which are so adapted, that it can, as it were, fold them up one within aa-
other; and when it leaps, they all spring out at once, whereby its whole
strength is exerted, and the body raised above. two hundred times its own
diameter.

THE GLOW WORM.

No two insects can differ more than the male and the female of this
species from each other. The male is in every respect a beetle, having
cases to its wings, and rising in the air at pleasure; the female, on the con-
tary, has none, but is entirely a creeping insect, and is obliged to wait the
approaches of her capricious companion. The body of the female has eleven
joints, with a shield breast-plate, the shape of which is oval; the head is
placed over this, and is very small, and the three last joints of her body are

“of a yellowish color; but what distinguishes it from all other animals, is
the shining light which it emits by night, and which is supposed by some
philosophers to be an emanation which she sends fourth to allure the male to
her company.

 

THE BEETLE?

Or the beetle there are various kinds; all, however, concurring in one
common formation of having cases to their wings, which are the more

 

1 Lampyris noctiluca, Lin.
* The order Coleoptera has four wings, of which the two up er ones are in the form of

sases; micudihles and jaws for mastication; under wings folded across ; elytra crustace
vus ard the suture straight.
S824 INSECTA—CUOCKCHAFER.

necessary to those insects, as they often live under the surface of the earch
in holes which they.dig out by their own industry. These cases prevent
the various injuries their real wings might sustain by rubbing or crushing
against the sides of their abode. These, though they do not assist in flight,
yet keep the internal wings clean and even, and produce a loud buzzing noise
when the animal rises in the air.

If we examine the formation of all animals of the beetle kind, we +hall
find, as in shell-fish, that their bones are-placed externally, and their muse eg
within. These muscies are formed very much like those of quadrupeds, and
are endued with such surprising strength, that, bulk for bulk, they area
thousand times stronger than those of a man. The strength of these
muscles is of use in digging the animal’s subterraneous abude, where it is
most usually hatched, and to which it most frequently returns, even after it
becomes a winged insect capable of flying.

Besides the difference which results from the shape and color of these
animals, the size also makes a considerable one; some beetles being not
la-ger than the head of the pin, while others, such as the elephant beetle,
are as big as one’s fist. But the greatest difference among tiem is, that
some are produced ina month, and ina single season go through all the
stages of their existence, while others take near four years to their produc-
tion, and live as winged insects a year or more. To give the history of all
these animals, that are bred pretty much in the same way, would be in-
sipid and endless ; it will suffice to select a few from the number, the origin
of which may serve as specimens of the rest. We will therefore begin by
offering the history of the may-bug to the reader’s attention; premising,
that most other beetles, though not so long lived, are bied in the same
manner.

THE COCKCHAFER,I

 

May-sus, or dor beetle, as some call it, has, like all the rest, a pair » cases
to 1s wings, which are of a reddish brown color, sprinkled with o whitish

_:

 

) Melolortha vulgaris, Lin,
INSECTA—COC KCHAFER. 8235

dust, wich easily comes off. In some years their necks are seen covered
with a red plate, and in others with a black; these, however, are distinet
sorts, and their difference is by no means accidental. The fore legs are
‘very short, and the better calculated for burrowing in the ground, were
this insect makes its retreat. It is well known wo children by its evening
buzz; but still more formidakly introduced to the acquaintanre of hus-
bandmen and gardeners; for in some seasons it has been found to swarm in
such num y:s as to eat up every vegetable production.

Thic two sexes in the cockchafer are easily distinguished from each ather
by the superior length of the tufts, at the end of the horns, in the male.

In about three months after the eggs have been deposited in the earth, tne
contained insect begins to break its shell, and a small grub or maggot crawls
forth, and feeds upon the roots of whatever vegetable it happens to be near-
est. All substances of this kind seem equally grateful; yet it is probable
the mother insect has a choice among what kind of vegetables she shall
deposit ber young. In this manner these voracious creatures continue in
the worm state for more than three years, devouring the roots of every plant
they approach, and making their way under ground in quest of food with
great despatch and facility. They thus become one of the greatest nuisances
of the farmer; as, when numerous, they will destroy whole fields of grass
Atlength, they grow to above the size of a walnut, being a great, thick, white
maggot with a red head, which is seen most frequenly in new turned
earth, and which is so eagerly sought after by birds of every species.

When largest, they are found an inch and a half long, of a whitish yellow
color, with a body consisting of twelve segments or joins, on each side of
which there are nine breathing holes, and three red feet. The head is large
in proportion to the body, of a reddish color, with a pincer before, anda
semicircular lip, with which it cuts the roots of plants, and sucks out
their moisture. As this insect lives entirely under ground, it has no occa
sion for eyes, and accordingly it is found to have none, but is furnishea
with two feelers, which, like the crutch of a blind man, serve to direct its
motions. Such is the form of this animal, that lives for years in the worm
state under ground, still voracious, and every year changing its skin.

1t is not till the end of the fourth year that this extraordinary insect pre-
pares to emerge from its subterraneous abode; and even this is not eflictea
but by a tedious preparation.

Wherever an attentive observer then walks abroad, he wil, see them
bursting up before him in his pathway, like ghosts on a theatre. He will
see every part of the earth, that had its surface beaten into hardness, perfo-
rated by their egression. When the season is favorable for them, they arc
seen by thousands, buzzing along, hitting against every object that inter-
cepts their dight. The mid-day sun, however, seems too powerful for thet
constitutions; they then lurk under the leaves and branches of some shady
tree ; but the willow seems particularly their most favorite fuod; there they

104
R26. INSECTA—CANTHARIS...TUMBLEDUNG.

lurk iu cfusters, and seldom quit the tree till they have devoured all ita
verdure.

Their duration, however, is but short, as they never survive the season.

Of all the beetle kind this is the most numerous, and therefure deserves
the chief attention of history. Like them, all other beetles are bred from
the egg, which is deposited in the ground, or sometimes, though seldom, in
the barks of trees; they change into a worm; they subsist in that state
by living upon the roots of vegetables, or the succulent parts of the baik
around them.

THE CANTHARIS!

Is of the beetle kind, whence come cantharides, well known in the shops by
the name of Spanish flies, and for their use in blisters. They have feelezs
like bristles, Hexible cases to the wings, a breast pretty plain, and the sides
of the belly wrinkled. Cantharides differ from each other in their size,
shape, and color; those used in the shops also do the same. The largest in
these parts are about an inch long, andas much in circumference ; but others
are not above three quarters of an inch. Some are of a pure azure color,
others of pure gold, and others again have a mixture of pure go!d and azure
colors; but they are all very brilliant, and extremely beautiful. These:
insects, as is wel] known, are of the greatest benefit to mankiad, making a
part in various medicines conducive to human preservation. They are
chiefly natives of Spain, Italy, and Portugal; but they are to be met'with
also about Paris in the suinmer time, upon the leaves of the ash, the poplar,
and the rose-trees, and also among wheat, and in meadows.

THE TUMBLEDUNG!

Particu.arLy demands our attention; it is all over of a dusky black,
rounder than those animals are generally found tobe, and so strong, though
pot much larger than the common black beetle, that if one of them be put
onder a brass candlestick, it will cause it to move backwards and forwards,
as if 1. were by an invisible hand, to the admiration of those who are not
accustomed to the sight; but this strength is given it for much more useful
purposes than those of exciting human curiosity, for there is no creature
more laborwwus, either in seeking subsistence, or in providing a proper retreat

 

§ Cantharis vesicatoria, Lan. 3 Aleuchus volvens, Lim,

v
INSECTA—ELEPHANT BEETLE. 827

for its young. They are endowed with sagacity to discover subsistence by
their excellent smelling, which directs them in flight to excrements just
fallen from man or beast, on which they instantly drop, and fall unanimously
to work in forming round balls or pellets thereof, in the middle of which
they lay an egg. ‘hese pellets, in September, they convey three feet deep
tn ine earth, where they lie till the approach of spring; when the eggs aie
hatched, the nest bursts, and the insects find their way out of the earth.
They assist each other, with indefatigable industry, in rolling these globular
pellets to the place where they are to be buried. This they perform with
the tail foremost, by raising up their hinder part, and shoving along the ball.
with their hind feet. They are always accompanied with other beetles of a
larger size, and of a more elegant structure and color. The breast of this is
covered with a shield of a crimson color, and shining like metal; the head
is of the like color, mixed with green, and on the crown of the head stands
a shining black horn, bended backwards. These are called the kings of:
the beetles; but for what reason is uncertain, since they partake of the
same dirty drudgery with the rest.

THE ELEPHANT BEETLE!

Is the largest of this kind hitherto known, and is found in South America,
particularly Guiana and Surinam, as well as about the river Oroonoko. It
is of a black color, and the whole body is covered with a very hard shell,
full as thick and as strong as that of a small crab. Its length, from the
hinder part of the eyes, is almost four inches, and from the same part to the
end of the proboscis, or trunk, four inches and three quarters. The trans-
verse diameter of the body is two inches and a quarter, and the breadth of
each elytron, or case for the wings, is an inch andthree tenths. The anten-
ne, or feelers, are quite horny; for which reason the proboscis, or trunk, is
moveable at its insertion into the head, and seems to supply the place of
feelers. The horas are eight tenths of an inch long, and terminate in
points. The proboscis isan mech and a quarter long, and turns upwards,
making a crooked line, terminating in two horns, each of which is near a
quarter of an inch long; but they are not perforated at the end like the
proboscis of other insects. About four tenths of an inch above the head, or
that side next the body, is a prominence, or small horn, which, if the rest
of the trunk were away, would cause this part to resemble the horn of a
rhinoreros. There is indeed a beetle so called; but then the horn or trunk
has nu fork at the end, though the lower horns resemble this. The feet are
all forked at the end, but not like the lobsters claws. —

 

1 Scarubaus Hercules Lin.
INSECTA—COCKROACH.

THE GIGANTIC COCKROACH -

 

Tu above insect is the largest of its species, and is almost the si7e ot a
hen’s egg. It isa native and plague of the warm parts cf Asia, Alrica, and
South America. This, and indeed all the other species of cocn:oaches, are a
race of pestiferous, beings, equally noisome and mischievous w natives or
strangers. These filthy and voracious insects fly out in the everiug, plunder
and defile all kinds of victuals, dressed and undiessed, and damage all sorts
of clothing, every thing made of leather, books, paper, and various other
articles. They fly into the flame ef candles, and sometimes into the dishes;
and they are very fond of ink and of oil, into which they are apt to fall and
perish. In this case, they soon turn most offensively putrid, so that a man
might as well sit over the putrid body of a large animal, as write with the
ink in which they have died. They often fly into the faces or bosoms of per-
sons, and their legs being armed with sharp spines, the pricking excites a
sudden horror not easily repressed. In olc houses they swarm by myria's,
making indeseribably nasty every part where they harbor, which in the day
time is in dark corners, behind all sorts of clothes, in trunks, boxes, and in
short every place where they can lie concealed. In old timber and deal
houses, when the family is retired at nizht to sleep, this insect, among its
other disagreeable properties, has the power of making a noise which very
much resembles a pretty smart knocking with the knuckle upon wainscote
ing; in the West Indies, it is therefore frequently known by the name of
the drummer.

 

1 Blatta gigantea. The order Orfhaptera, to which this genus belongs, has elytra
coriaceous, the nvargin of the one covering the margm of the otter; mouth wih mandi
bles; wings folded longitudinally, and sometimes behind transversely ; meta srpuosis

vemucomplete,
t
INSECTA—GRASSHOPPER 829

THE GRASSHOPPER.

 

Trar animal which is called the grasshopper with us, differs greatry trom
the cicada of antiquity; for, as our insect is active enough in hopping
through the long grass, whence it has taken its name, the cicada had not
this power, but either walked or flew. The little hissing note also of our
grasshopper is very different from the song of the cicada, which was louder
and far more musical.

Of this variegated tribe, the little grasshopper! that breeds in such plenty
in every meadow, and that continues his chirping through the summer, is
oest known to us; and, by having its history, we shall be possessed of that
of all the rest. This aniqal is of the color of green leaves, except a line of
brown which streaks the back, and two pale lines under the belly, and
behind the legs. It may be divided into the head, the corselet, and the velly.
The head is oblong, regarding the earth, and bearing some resemblance to
that of a horse. Its mouth is covered by a kind of round buckler jutting
over it, and armed with teeth of a brown color, hooked at the points
Within the mouth is perceivable a large reddish tongue, fixed to the lower’
jaw. The feelers, or horns, are very long, tapering on to a point, and the
eyes are like two black specks, a little prominent. The corselet is elevated.
narrow, armed above and below by two serrated spines. The back isarmea
with a strong buckler, to which the muscles of the legs are firmly bound
and round these muscles are seen the vessels by which the animal breathes,
as white as snow. The last pair of legs are much longer and stronger than
the first two pair, fortified by thick muscles, and very well formed for leap»
img. It has four wings; the anterior ones springing from the second pair of
legs, the posterior from the third pair. The hinder wings are niuch finer
and more expansive than the foremost, and are the principal instruments of
its flight. The belly is considerably large, composed of eight rings, and
terminated by a forky tail, covered with down, like the tail of a rat. When
examined internally, besides the gullet, we discuver a small stomach; and
behind that a very large one, wrinkled and furrowed withinside; lower
down there is still a third; so that it is not without reasun that al! the

 

§ Acridium.
7
830 INSECTA—GRASSHOPPER.

\

animals of this order are said to chew the cud, as tiey so much resemble
ruminating animals in their internal conformation.

A short time after the grasshopper assumes its wings, it fills the meadow
with its note which, like that among birds, is a call to courtship. The
male only of this tribe is vocal; and upon examining it at the base of the
wings, there will be founda little hole in its body, covered with a fine
transparent membrane. This is thought by Linneus, to be the instrument
it employs in singing; but others are of upimion, tae sound is produced by
rubbing its hinder legs against each other, however this may be, the note
of one male is seldom heard, but it is returned by another; aud the two
little animals, after many mutual insults of this kind, are seen to meet and
fight desperately. The female is generally the reward of victory; for, after
the combat, the male seizes her with his teeth behind the neck, and thus
keeps her for Several hours.

Towards the latter end of autumn, the female prepares to deposit her
burthen ; and her body is then seen greatly distended with her eggs, which
she carries to the number of a hundred and fifty. In order to make a pro-
per lodgment in the earth for them, nature has furnished her with an instru-
ment at her tail, somewhat resembling a two-edged sword, which she can
sheathe and unsheathe at pleasure; with this she pierces the earth as deep
as she is able; and into the hole which her instrument has made, she de-
posits her eggs, one after the other.

Having thus provided for the continuation of her posterity, the animal
nerself does not long survive; but, as the winter approaches, she dries up,
seems to feel the effects of age, and dies from a total decay. Some, how-
ever, assert, that she is killed by the cold ; and others, that she is eaten by
worms; but certain it is, that neither male nor female are ever seer
to survive the winter. In the mean time, the eggs which have been
deposited continue unaltered, either by the severity of the season, or the

etardation of the spring. They are of an oval figure, white, and of the con-

sistence of horn; their size nearly equals that of a grain of anise; they are
enveloped in the body within a covering, branched all over with veins and
arteries; and when excluded they crack, on being pressed between the
fingers; their substance within is a whitish, viscous, and transparent fluid.

Generally, about the beginning of May, every egg produces an insect,
alout the size of a flea. These at first are of a whitish color; at the end cf
two or three days they turn black; and-soon after they become of a reddish
brown. They appear, from the beginning, like grasshoppers wanting
wings; and hop among the grass, as soon as excluded, with great agility.

Yet still they are by no means arrived at their state of full perfection;
alth gh they bear a strong resemblance to the animal in its perfect form.
They want, or seem to want, the wings, which they are at last seen te
assume ; and can only hop among the grass, without being able to fly. The
Wings however, are not wanting, but are concealed within tour little
INSECTA—GRASSHOPPER. 83

bunches, that seem to deform the sides of the animal; there they he rolled
up in a most curious manner, and occupying a smaller space than one could
conceive. Indeed, all insects, whatever transmutations they seem to uu-
dergo, are yet brought forth with those very limbs, parts, and wings, which
tney afterwards seem to acquire. In the most helpless caterpillar, there are
still to be seen the rudiments of that beautiful plumage which it afterwards
expands when a butterfly; and though many new parts seem unfolded to
the view, the animal acquires none but such as it was from the beginning
possessed of.

The grasshopper, that for above twenty days from its exclusion, has con-
tinued without the use of its wings, which were folded up to its Ludy, at
length prepares for its emancipation, and for a life of greater liberty and
pleasure. To make the proper dispositions for the approaching cnange, it
ceases from its grassy food, and seeks about for a convenient place, neneath
some thorn or thistle, that may protect it from an accidental snower. The
same laborious writhings and workings, heavings and palpitations, which
we have remarked in every other insect upon an approaching change, are
exhibited in this. :

At length, the skin covering the head and breast is seen dividing above the
neck; the head is seen issuing out first from the bursting skin; the efforts
still continuing, the other parts follow successively; so. that the little animal
with its long feelers, legs and all, works its way from the old skin, that re-
mains fixed to the thistle or the thorn. It is, indeed, inconceiveable how
the insect thus extricates itself from so exact a sheath as that which covered
every part of its body.

The grasshopper, thus disengaged from its outer skin, appears in its per-
fect form; but then so feeble, and its body so soft and tender, that it may be
moulded like wax. It is no longer of that obscure color which it exhibited
before, but a greenish white, which becomes more vivid as the moisture on
the surface is dried away. Still, however, the animal continues to show no
signs of life, but appears quite spent and fatigued with its labor for more
than an hour together. During this time, the body is drying, and the wings
unfolding to their greatest expansion ; and the curious observer wil: perceive
them, fold after fold, opening to the sun, till at last they become longer than
the two hinder legs. The insect’s body also is lengthened during this ope-
rattoa, aua it becomes much mor? beautiful than before.
832 INSECTA—LOCUST.

THE LOCUST!

ee eo
MP. 9 ERAN Em
a ee

Ee sitll

 

Ts about three inches long, and has two horns, or feelers, an inch in length
The head and horns are of a brownish color; it is blue about the mouth, as
also on the inside of the larger legs. The shield that covers the back is
greenish ; and the upper side of the body brown, spotted with black, and the
under side purple. The upper wings are brown, with small dusky spots
with one larger at the tips; the under wings are more transparent, and of
a light brown, tinged with green; but there is a dark cloud of spots near
the tips.

There is no animal in the creation that multiplies so fast as this, if the
sun be warm, and the soil in which their eggs are deposited be dry.

The Scripture, which was written in a country where the locust made a
distinguished feature in the picture of nature, has given us several very
striking images of this animal’s numbers and rapacity. It compares an
army, where the numbers are almost infinite, to a swarm of locusts; it de-
scribes them as rising out of the earth, where they are produced; as pursu-
ing a settled march to destroy the fruits of the earth, and co-operate with
divine indignation..

When the locusts take the field, as we are assured, they have a leader at
their head, whose flight they observe, and pay a strict attention to all his
motions. They appear ata distance, like a black cloud, which, as it ap-
proaches, gathers upon the horizon, and almost hides the light of the day.
It often happens, that the husbandman sees this imminent calamity pass away
without dving him any mischief; and the whole swarin proceed onward to
settle upon the labors of some less fortunate country. But wretched is the
district u. n which they settle; they ravage the meadow and the pasture
ground; strip the trees of their leaves, and the garden of its beauty; the
visitation of a few-minutes destroys the expectations of a year; and a
famine but too frequently ensues. In their native tropical climates, they
are not so dreadful as in the southern parts of Europe. There, though the
plain and the forest be stripped of their verdure, the power of vegetativn ig

 

1 Acridium migratorium, Lat.
INSECTA--CRICKET. 833

80 great, that an in erval of three or four days repairs the calamity; but in
the north of Europe, the verdure is the livery of a season; and when lost,
the inhabitants must wait ti the ensuing spring repairs the damage. Be-
sides, in their long flights to this part of the world, they are famished by the
tediousness of their journey, and are therefore more voracious wherever they
happen to settle. But it is not by what they devour that they do so much
damage, as what they destroy. Their very bite is thought to contaminate the
plant, and to prevent its vegetation.’ To use the expression of the husband-
man, they burn whatever they touch, and leave the marks of their devasta-
tion for two or three years ensuing. But if they be noxious while living,
they are still more so when dead; for wherever they fall, they infect the air
in such a manner, that the smell is insupportable,

 

THE CRICKET!

 

Very much resembles the grasshopper in its shape, its manner of ruminat-
ing, its. voice, its leaping, and methods of propagatiun. Jt differs in its
color, which is uniformly of-a rusty brown; in its food, witch is more vari-
ous; and in its place of residence, which is most usually in the warmest
chinks behind a country hearth. They are, in some measure, obliged to the
bad masonry employed in making peasants’ houses for their retreats. The
smallest chink serves to give them shelter, and where they once make their
abode they are sure to propagate. They are of a most chilly nature, seldom
leaving the fireside ; and if undisturbed, are seen to hop from their retreats
to chirp at the blaze in the chimney. The wood cricket is the most timorous
animal in nature ; but the chimney cricket, being used to noises, disregards
them. Whether the voice of this animal is formed in the same manner
with that of the grasshopper, is not yet ascertained ; nor do we well know
the use of this voice, since anatomical inspection has not been able to discover
the smallest organs of hearing. Still, however, we can make no doubt of
their power of distinguishing sounds, though probably not in the same man-
ne with the more perfect ranks of nature. Certain it is, that they have been
often heard to call, and this call is as regularly answered by enother, al-
though none but the males are vocal.

1Gryllus domesticus, Lr.

15 70*
834 INSECTA—LANTERN FLY

They are very voracious little animals, and will eat oread flour, meat,
and scummings of pots, but are particularly fond of sugar. ‘Ihey are a
thirsty race, and show a great predilection for liquids, being oftea found
drowned in pans of water, milk, or broth. Whatever is mvist the, affect,
and therefore frequently gnaw holes in wet woolen stockings ana «prons
that are hung to the fire.

THE GREAT LANTERN FLY.

 

Tuts is undoubtedly one of the most curious of insects; it is of a very
considerable size, measuring nearly three inches and a half from the tip of
the front to that of the tail, and about five inches and a half from wing’s
end to wing’s end, when expanded ; the body is of a lengthened oval shape,
roundish or subcylindric, and divided into several rings or segments; the
length is nearly equal to the length of the rest of the animal, and is oval
inflated, and bent slightly upwards; the ground color is an elegant yellow
with a strong tinge of green in some parts, and marked with numerous
bright red, brown variegutions, in the form of stripes and spots; the wings
are very large, of a yellow colur, most elegantly varied with brown undula-
tions and spots, and the lower pair are decorated by a very large eye-shaped
spot on the middle of each, the iris or-border of the spot being red, and the
centre halt red and half semi-transparent white; the head or lantern is paie

 

1 Fulgora laternaric. Lin. The order Hemiptera has two wings covered by elytra;
mouth formed for sucuon, the rostrum composed of a tubular articulated sneath, include
ing four scaly sete, in place of mandibles and jaws; elytra in some crustaceous, with the
posterior extremity membranous; in others almost sumilar te wings, but more extended,
thicker and colored.
INSECTA—COCHINEAL. 835

yellow, with longitudina: red stripes. ‘This beautiful insect is a native of
Surinam and many other parts of South America, and during the sight
diffuses so surong a phosphoric splendor from its head or lantern, that it may be
employed for the purpose of a candle or torch; and it is said that three o°
four of these insects tied to the top of .a stick, are frequently used by travel
lers for that purpose. A single one gives light enough to enable a person to
read.

THE COCHINEAL.

Tus insect is of an oval form, of the size of a small pea, with six feet,
ind a snout or trunk. It brings forth its young alive, and is nourished by
ucking the juice of the plant. Its body consists of several rings; and
when it is once fixed on the plant, it continues immoveable, being subject to
10 change. Some pretend there are two sorts, the one domestic, which is
west, and the other wild, that is, of a vivid color; however, they appear to
ve the same; with only this difference, that the wild feed upon uncultivated
tees, without any assistance; whereas, the domestic is carefully, at a stated
s-ason, removed to cultivated trees, where it feeds upon a purer juice. Those
wo take care of these insects, place them on the prickly pear-plant, in a
ce. tain order, and are very industrious in defending them from other insects; .
fo. if any other kind comes among them, they take care to brush them off
wisn foxes’ tails. Towards the ead of the year, when the rains and cold
wecther are coming on, which ure fatal to these insects, they take off the
leaves or branches, covered with the cochineal that have not attained their
utmort degree of perfection, and keep them in their houses till winter is past.
These leaves are very thick and juicy, and supply them with nourishment
while they remain within doors. When the milder weather returns, and
these animals are about to exclude their young, the natives make them
nests, like those of birds, but less, of tree-moss, or soft hay, or the down of
cocoa-nuts, placing twelve in every nest. These they fix on the thorns of
the prickly pear-plant, and in three or four days’ time they tz.r g -orth their
young, which leave their nests in a few days, and creep upcn the branches
of the plant, till they tind a proper place to rest in.

When the native Americans have gathered the cochineal, they put them
into holes in the ground, where they kill them with boiling water, and after
=e dry them in the sun, or in an oven, or lay them upon hot plates
Ftom the various methods of killing them, arise the different colors whict
they appear in, when brought to us. While they are living, they seem t
be sprinkled over with a white powder, which they lose as soon as the boil

1 Coceus cacti, Lin
836 INSECTA—TERMITES.

ing water is poured upon them. Those that are driec upon hot plates are
the blackest. What we call the cochineal are only the females, for the
males are a sort of fly. They are used both for dyeing and medicine, and
are said to have much the same virtue as the kermes, though they are
now seldom used alone, but are mixed with other things for the sake of the
color.

TERMITES, OR WHITE ANTS.|!

Or this curious insect, Mr Smeathman has given, in the Philosophical
Transactions, so full and interesting an account, that we cannot do better
than quote from it. ‘“ Of a great many curious parts of the creation, (says
he,) which I met with in Guinea, the termites, or white ants, seemed most
worthy of minute attention.

“ The size and figure of their buildings have attracted the notice of many
travellers, and yet the world has not hitherto been furnished with a tolerable
description of them, though, when we come to consider the wonderful order
of these insects, and of their subterraneous cities, they will appear foremost?
on the list of the wonders of the creation.

“These insects are known by various names. They belong to the termes
of Linneus, and other systematic naturalists.

“ By the English, in the windward parts of Africa, they are called bugga
bugs. In the West Indies, wood lice, wood ants, or white ants. By the
French, at Senegal, vague vagues. In the West Indies, poux de bois, or
fourmis blanches. By the Portuguese in the Brazils, coupée, or cutters,
from their cutting things in pieces. By this latter name, and that of piercers
or eaters, and similar terms, they are distinguished in various parts of the
tropical regions.

“Of every species of the termites there are three orders; first, the work-
ing insects, which I shall call laborers ; next, the fighting ones, or soldiers,
wa.ca do no kind of labor; and, last of all, the winged ones, or perfect in-
gect:s, which are male and female, and capable of propagation. These might
very appositely he called the nobility or gentry, for they neither labor nor
light, being quite incapable of either, and almost of self-defence. These
only are capable of being elected kings or queens; and nature has so order-
ed it, taat they emigrate within a few weeks, after they are elevated to
this state, and either establish new kingdoms, or perish within.a day orjwo.

“The termes bellicosus, being the largest species, is best known of the
coast of Africa. It erects immense buildings of well-tempered clay or earth,

 

1 The order of Neuroptera have four naked, reticulated, transparent wings; mouth pro-
per fcrmastication; Jaws and lips straight, extended ; joints of ihe tarsi various, generally
entire
INSECTA—TERMITES. 837

which are contrived with such art, that we are at a loss to say, whether they
are most to be admired on that account, or for their enormous magnitude ana
solidity. They not only build larger and more curious nests, but are also
more numerous, and do infinitely more mischief to mankind than other
species. When these insects attack such things as we would uot wish to
have injured, we must consider them as most pernicious; but when they
are employed in destroying decayed trees and substances which only enicum-
ber the surface of the earth, they may be justly supposed very useful. It is
apparent to all, who have made observation, that they contribute more to
the quick dissolution of putrescent matter than any other. They are su
necessary in all hot climates, that even in the open fields, a dead animal or
smal] putrid substance cannot be laid upon the ground two minutes, be-
fore it will be covered with flies and their maggots, which instantly enter-
ing quickly devour one part, and perforating the rest in various directions,
expose the whole to be much sooner dissipated hy the elements. In a few
weeks, these insects destroy and carry away the bodies of large trees, with-
out leaving a particle behind, thus clearing the place for other vegetables,
which soon fill up every vacancy ; and in places, where two or three years
before, there has been a populous town, if the inhabitants, as is frequently
the case, have chosen to abandon it, there shall be a very thick wood, and
not the vestige of a post to be seen, unless the wood has been of a species
which, from its hardness, is called iron wood.

“The nests of the termites bellicosi are so numerous ali over the island
of Bananas, and the adjacent.continent of Africa, that it is scarce possible
to stand upon any open place, where one of these buildings is not to be seen
within fifty paces, and frequently two or three are to be seen almost close to
each other. In some parts near Senegal, as mentioned by M. Adanson,
their number, magnitude, and closeness of situation, make them appear like
the villages of the natives. These buildings are usually termed hills, from
their outward appearance, which is that of little hills more or less conical,
and about ten or twelve feet in perpendicular height above the common sur-
face of the ground.

“These hills continue quite bare until they are six or eight feet high; but,
m time, the dead barren clay, of which they are composed, becomes ferutiz-
ed by the genial power of the elements in these prolific climates; and in
the second or third year, the hillock, if not overshaded by trees, becomes
almost covered with grass and other plants; and in the dry season, when
the herbage is burnt up by the rays of the sun, it is not much unlike a very
large haycock.

‘Every one of these buildings consists of two distinct parts, the exterior
and the interior. The exterior is one large shell in the manner of a dome.
large and strong enough to shelter the interior from the vicissitudes of the
weather, and the inhabitants from the attacks of natu:al or accidental ene-
mies. It is always, therefure, much stronger than the interior building,
838 INSECTA—TERMITES.

which is the habitable part, divided with a wonderful kind of :egularity and
contrivance, into an amazing number uf apartments for the residence of the
king and queen, and the nursing of their numerous progeny; or for maga-
zines, which are always found well filled with stores and provisions.

“ These hills make their first appearance above ground by a little turret or
two in the shape of sugar-loaves, which are run a foot high or more. Soon
. after, at some little distance, while the former are increasing in height «ad
size, they raise others, and so go on increasing the number and widening
them at the base, till their works below are covered with these turrets, which
they always raise the highest and largest in the middle, and by filling up the
‘atervals between each turret, collect them as it were into one dome. They
are made very solid and strong, and when by the junction of them the dome
is completed, for which purpose the turrets answer as scaffolds, they take
away the middle ones entirely, except the tops (which joined together make
the crown of the cupola,) and apply the clay to the building of the works
within, or to erecting fresh turrets for the purpose of raising the hillock still
higher; so that no doubt some part of the clay is used several times, like the
beards and posts of a mason’s scaffold.

“« When these hills are at their ful] height, they answer excellently as places
to look out. Ihave been with four men on the top of one of these hillocks.
Whenever word was brought us of a vessel in sight, we immediately ran to
some bugga bug hill, as they are called, and clambered up to get a good view,
for upon the common surface it was seldom possible to see over the grass or
plants. -

“The interior parts of these buildings are disposed nearly as follows:

“The royal chamber, which I call so on account of its being occupied by
the king and queen, is situated at about a level with the surface of the ground,
at an equal distance from all the sides of the building, and directly under the
apex of the hill. :

“Tt is on all sides, both above and below, surrounded by what I should
call the royal apartments, which have only laborers and soldiers in them,
aud can be intended for no other purpose than for these to wait in, either to
guard or serve their common father and mother, on whose safety depends
the happiness, and, according to the negroes, even the existence, of the whole
community. These apartments compose an intricate labyrinth, which ex
tends a foot or more in diameter’from the royal chamber on every side.
Here the nurseries and magazines of provisions begin, and, being separated
by smal] empty chambers and galleries, which go round them or communi+
cate from one to the other, are continued on all sides to the outward shell,
and reach up within it two thirds or three fourths of its height, leaving an
2pen area in the middle under the dome, which very inuch resembles'the nave
of an oid cathedral: this is surrounded by three or four very large Gothie
shayed arcnes. which are sometimes two or three feet high next the front of
the urea, but diminish very rapidly as they .ecede from thence like the arches
INSECTA—TERMITES. 839

of aisles in perspective, and are soon lost among the innumerable cham-
bers and nurseries behind them.

“All these charrbers, and the passages leading to and from them, being
arched, they help to support one another ; and while the interior large arches
prevent them falling into the centre, and keep the area open, the exterior
building supports them on the outside.

“T have observed before, that there are of every species of termites tree
otders. Of these, the working insects, or laborers, are always the most nu-
merous. In the termites bellicosus, there seem to be at least one hundred
laborers to one of the fighting insects or soldiers. The laborers are about
one fourth of an inch long, and twenty-five of them weigh about a grain;
so that they are not so large as some of our ants. From their external habit
and fondness for wood, they have heen very expressively called wood lice.
They resemble them, it is true, very much‘at a distance ; but they run faster
than any other insects of their size, and are incessantly bustling about their
affairs.

“The second order, or soldiers, have a very different form from the labor-
ers, and have been by some authors supposed to be the males, and the former
neuters: but they are, in fact, the same insects as the foregoing, only they
have undergone a change of form, and approach one degree nearer to the
perfect state. They are now much larger, being half an inch long, and equal
in bulk to fifteen of the laborers. .

“There is now, likewise, a most remarkable circumstance in the form of
the hedd and muuth; for in the former state, the mouth is evidently caleu-
lated for gnawing and holding bodies ; but in this state, the jaws being shaped
just like two very sharp awls a little jagged, they are incapable of any thing
but piercing or wounding, for which purposes they are very effectual, being

 

as hard as a crab’s claw, and placed in a strong, horny head, which is of a
nut-brown color, and larger than all the rest of the body together, which
seenis to labor under great difficulty in carrying it: on which account, per-
paps, the animal is incapable of climbing up perpendicular surfaces.

“The third order, or the insect in its perfect state, varies its form still
more than ever. The head, thorax, and abdomen, differ almost entirely from
the same parts in the laborers and soldiers ; and, besides this, the animal is
now furnished with four large, brownish, transparent wings, with which itis
at tae time of.emigration to wing its wavy in search of a new settlement.
840 INSECTA—TERMITES.

In snort, 11 differs so much from its form and appearance im the other twa
slates, that it has never been supposed to be the same animal, but by these

 

who nave seen it in the same nests: and some of these have distrusted the
evidence of their senses. It was so long before I met with them in their
nests myself, that I doubted the information that was given me by the natives,
that they belonged to the sarne family. Indeed we may open tweuty nests
without finding one winged one, for those are to be found only just befere
the commencement of the rainy season, when tbey undergo the last change,
which is preparative to their colonization.

“Tn the winged state, they have also much altered their size as well as
form. Their bodies now measure between six or seven tenths of an inch in
length, and their wings above two inches and a half from tip to tip, and
they are equal in bulk to about thirty laborers, or two soldiers. They are
now also furnished with two large eyes placed on each side of the head, and
very conspicuous. If they have any before, they are not easily to be distin-
guished. Probably in the two first states, their eyes, if they have any, may
be small like those of moles; for as they live like these animals always un-
der ground, they have as little occasion for these organs, and it is not to be
wondered at that we do not discover them; but the case is much altered
when they arrive at the winged state in which they are to roam, though but
for a few hours, through the wide air, and explore new and distant regions
In this form the anima] comes abroad during or soon after the first tornado,
which, at the latter end of the dry season proclaims the approach of the
ensuing rains, and seldom waits for a second or third shower, if the first, as
is generally the case, happens in the night, and brings much wet after it.
The quantities that are to be found the next morning all over the surface of
tae earth, but particularly on the waters, is astonishing ; for their wings are
only calculated to carry them a’ few honrs, and after the rising of the sun
not one in a thousand is to be found with four wings, unless the morning
zontinues rainy, when here and there a solitary being is seen winging its
way from one pla-e to another, as if solicitous only to avoid its numerous
enemies, parucul: rly various species of ants which are hunting on every
spray, on every leaf, and in every possible place, for this unhappy race, of
which probaly not a pair in many millions get into a place of safety, fulfil
the frst law of nature, and lay the foundation of a new community.
\

INSECTA—GALL INSECTS. 84.

“Not only all kinds of ants, birds, and carnivorous reptiles, as well as in-
sects, are upon the hunt for them, but the inhabitants of many countries,
and particularly of that part of Africa where I was, eat them. At the time
of swarming, or rather of emigration, they fall into the neighboring waters,
when the Africans skim them off with calavashes, bring: large kettles full of
them to their habitations, and parch them in iron pots over a gentle fire,
stirring them about as is usually done in roasting coffee. In tat state,
without sauce or any other addition, they serve them as delicious fuod ; and
they put them by handsfull into their mouths, as we do comfits. I have
eaten them dressed this way several times, and think them both delicate,
nourishing, and wholesome; they are something sweeter, but not so fat and
cloying as the caterpillar or maggot of the palm tree, snout-beetle, curculio
palmarum, which is served up at all the luxurious tables of West Indian
epicures, particularly of the French, as the greatest dainty of the western
woud.”

 

THE GALL INSECTS!

Ant bred in a sort of bodies adhering toa kind of oak in Asia, which differ wita
regard to their color, size, roughness, sinoothness, and snape, and which we cali
galls. They are not fruit, as some have imagined, but preternatural tumors,
owing to the wounds given to the buds, leaves, and twigs of the tree, by a
kind of insect that lays its eggs within them. This animal is furnished with
an implement, by which the female penetrates into the bark of the tree, or
into that spot which just begins to bud, and there sheds a drop of corrosive

fluid into the cavity. Having thus formed a receptacle for her eggs, she’

deposits them in the place, and dies soon after.

The juice or sap of the plant, thus turned back from its natural course,
extravasates and flows round the egg; after which it swells and dilates by
the assistance of some bubbles of air, which get admission through the pores
@? the oark, and which run in the vessels with the sap.

This little ball receives its nutriment, growth, and vegetation, as the other
parts of the tree, by slow degrees, and is what we call the gall-nut. The
worm that is hatched under this spacious vault, finds in the substance of the
bail, “hich as yet is very tender, a subsistence suitable to its nature ; gnaws
and digests it til] the time comes for its transformation to a nymph, or chry-
salis. and from that state of existence changes into a fly. After this the in-
sect, perceiving itself duly provided with all things requisite, disengages
itself soon from its confinement, and takes its flight into the open air. The

 

1 Cynipide. The order Hymenoptera has four naked veined wings of unequal size;
mouth composed of jaws, mandibles, and two lips; hip tubular at its base, termite ted by
a Jaluum, ether doubled or folded in, and forming a kind of sucker; females with a com
pound ovipositor, or sting at the anus.

106 7

‘
842 INSECTA—ANT.

case, nowever, is not s milar with respect to the gall-nut that grows m
autunn. The cold weather frequently comes on before the worm is trans-
formed into a fy, or before the fly can pierce through its enclosure. The
nut falls with the leaves, and although you may imagine that the fly which
lies within is lost, yet in reality it is not so; on Ahe contrary, its being coy-
ered up so clase is the means of its preservation. Thus it spends the winter
in a warm house, where every crack and cranny of the nut is well stopped
up; and lies buried, as it were, under a heap of leaves, which preserve it
from the injuries of the weather. This apartment, however; though so com.
modivus a retreat in the winter, is a perfect prison in the spring. The fly
roused out of its lethargy by the first heats, breaks its way through, and
ranges where it pleases. A very small aperture is sufficient, since at this
time the fly is but a diminutive creature. Besides, the ringlets whereof its
budy is composed, dilate, and become pliant in the passage.

 

THE ANT.

THE common ants of Europe! are of two or three different kinds; some
red, some black, some with stings, and others without. Such as have stings
inflict their wounds in that manner; such as are unprovided with these
weapons of defence have a power of spurting, from their hinder parts, an
acid, pungent liquor, which, if it lights upon the skin, inflames and burns it
like nettles.

The body of an ant is divided. into the head, breast, and belly. In the
head the eyes are placed, which are entirely black, and under the eyes there
are two small horns, or feelers, composed of twelve joints, all covered with
2 fine silky hair. The mouth is furnished with two crooked jaws, which
project outwards, in each of which are seen incisors, that look like teeth.
The breast is covered with a fine silky hair, from which project six legs, that
are pretty strong and hairy ; the extremities of each armed with two small
claws, which the animal uses in climbing. The belly is more reddish than
the rest of the body, which is of a brown chesnut color, shining as a glass,
and covered with extremely fine hair.

As svon as the winter is past, on the first fine day in April, the ant-hill,
that before seemed a desert, now swarms with new life, and myriads of these
josects are seen just awaked from their annual lethargy, and preparing for
“the pleasures and fatigues of the season. For the first day they never offer
to leave the hill, which may be considered as their citadel, but run over everv
part of it, as if to examine its present situation, to observe what tnjuries it
has Sustained during the rigors of winter, while they slept, and to meditate
and settle the labors of the day ensuing.

 

1 Fornicarie.
INSECTA—ANT., 843

At the first display of their forces, none but the wingless tribe appears,
while those ‘furnished with wings remain at the bottom. These are the
working ants that first appear, and that are always destitute of wings; the
males and females, that are furnished with four large wings each, are more
slow in making their appearance.

Thus, like bees, they are divided into males and females, and the neutral
or working tribe. These are all easily distinguished from each cther; the
females are much larger than the males; the working ants are the smallest
of all. The two former have wings, which, however, they sometimes are
divested of; the latter never have any, and upon them are devolved all the
labors that tend to the welfare of the community. The female als» may be
distinguished by the color and structure of her breast, which is a little more
brown than that of the common ant, and a little brighter-‘than that of the
male.

The neuters exercise al] the ordinary offices necessary for the existence
and welfare of the community to which they belong; it is they who collect
supplies of food, who explore the country ‘for this purpose, and seize upon
every animal] substance, whether living or dead, which they can lay hold of,
and transport to the common abode of the tribe. It is they who construct
every part of the dwelling place, who attend the hatching of the eggs, the
feeding of the larvae, and their removal to different situations, as occasion
may require, and who conduct all the operations both of offensive and defen.
sive warfare; in fact, all the laborious and perilous duties of this singuar
commonwealth. There is every reason, however, to believe that the helots
and females of tiis tribe of insects are originally and substantially of the
same sex, and that the developement of the sexual organs in the latter is
the consequence of some difference in the circumstances in which the larva
is placed during its growth. In all the features of internal structure, the
supposed neuters agree with the female, and in the number of articulations
composing the antenne. Thus we find thirteen in the male, twelve only in
the female, and twelve in the neuter. In the male ant, the abdomen his
seven rings, in the female and neuter only six. In the two latter classes,
the head is broader, and the mandibles very large and powerful, compared
with those of the male, and furnished with serrated edges, and a sharp and
often hooked point. The external sexual organs of the female and uv the
neiier are so nearly similar in appearance, that Latreille declare- that he
was unzhle to perceive the least difference between them. On the other
hand, it is to be observed, that in the neuter the principal deviation from the
model of the female consists in the absence of wings; a circumstance which
may be conceived to be connected with a certain condition of the sexual
organs, as are the horns of deer and the beard of men.

Ants certainly possess a greater share of muscular strength, than almost
any other insect of the same size. Of this we are witnesses from childhood
in the incessant toil which they undergo, and the great loads they are seen
844 INSECTA—ANT.

to carry, often exceeding ten or twelve times their own weight. This appa-
rently is connected with a corresponding share of sensation, seen in their
great susceptibility to all changes of temperature, to moisture, and other
conditions of the atmosphere. In the perfection of their sight they are alsa
remarkable; the males and females being provided with both the descrip-
tions of eyes peculiar to this class, namely, the composite and the simple
eyes. The laboring ants, indeed, who never fly, are frequently destitute of
the latter kind.

Many erroneous opinions are prevalent with regard to the food of ants,
which have often been supposed to consume corn, and to do great injury to
plants by devuuring their roots or stems. The truth is, that they are chiefly
carnivorous insects, preying indiscriminately on all the softer parts of ani-
mals, and especially the viscera of other insects, whom they will often attack
when alive, and overpower by dint of numbers, upon which they devour
their victim on the spot, or drag him prisoner into their nests; or if the
game should be too bulky to be easily transported, they make a plentiful
meal, and exert like the bee a power of disgorging a portion, and of impart-
ing it to their companions at home. It appears that they are even able to
retain at pleasure the nutritious juices unchanged for a considerable time
The rapidity with which they consume, and in fact anatomize, the carcasses
of any small bird or quadruped that happens to fall in their way, is well
known, and furnishes an easy method of obtaining natural skeletons of
«ese animals, by placing their dead bodies in the vicinity of a populous ant-
hill. In hot climates, where they multiply to an amazing extent. their vo-
racity and holdness increase with their numbers. Bosman, in his descrip-
tion of Guinea, states that in one night they will devour a sheep, leaving it
a fine skeleton; while a fowl is for them only the amusement of an hour,
In these situations they will venture to attack even living animals of con-
siderable size. Rats and mice often become their victims. The sugar ants
of Grenada cleared every plantation which they visited of rats and other
vermin, which they probably effected hy attacking their young. Poultry, or
other small stock, could not be raised without the greatest difficulty ; and
the eyes, nose, and other emunctories of the bodies of dying or dead animals
were instantly covered with them.

The fecundation of the ant js effected very generally during the flight of the
females, in which they are accompanied by the males; both appearing to be
provided with wings chiefly for this object. A certain number of impreg-
nated females are also, by the assistance uf their wings, enaoled to reach
distant situations, where they become respectively the founders of new colo
nies; while the males, having fulfilled the office for which nature had des-
tincd them, are left to perish on the spot where they descend, being removed
froin those who formerly administered to them food, and being destitute of
the means of procuring subsistence for themselves. Swarms of ants, of im-
mense size, ure occasionally met with: some have been recorded of such
INSECTA—WASP. 845

piodigious magnitude as to darken the air like a thick cloud, and to cover
the ground where they settled to a considerable extent.

THE WASP!

 

Is well known to be a winged insect with a sting; to be longer 1n propore
tion to its bulk than the bee; to be marked with bright yellow circles round
its body ; and to be the most swift and active insect of all the fy kind. On
each side of the mouth, this animal is furnished with a long tooth, notched
like a saw, and with these it is enabled to cut any substance, not omitting
meat itself, and to carry it toits nest. Wasps live like bees in community,
and sometimes ten or twelve thousand are found inhabiting a single nest.

Of all insects, the wasp is the most fierce, voracious, and most dangerous,
whenenraged. They are seen wherever flesh is cutting up, gorging them-
selves with the spoil, and then flying to their nests with their reeking prey.
They make war also on every other fly, and the spider himself dreads their
approaches.

Every community among bees is composed of females or queens, drones
or males, and neutral or working bees. Wasps have similar occupations;
the two first are for propagating the species, the last for nursing, defending,
and supporting the rising progeny. Among bees, however, there is seldom
above a queen or two in a hive; among wasps there are above two or three
hundred.

As soon as the summer begins to‘invigorate the insect tribes, the wasps
are the most of the number, and are diligently employed either in providing
provisions for their nest, if already made, or in making one, if the former
habitation be too small to receive the increasing community. The nest is
one of the most curious objects in natural history, and contrived almost as
artificially as that of the bees themselves. Their principal care is to seek
outa hole that has been begun by some other animal, a field mouse, a rat,
or a mole, to build their nests in. They sometimes build upon the plain,
where they are sure of the dryness of their situation; but most commonly

 

1 Vespa vulgaris, Lin.

71*
846 INSECT A—WASP.

on the side ofa bank, to avoid the rain or water that would otherwise annoy
them. When they have chosen a proper place, they go to work with won-
derfui assiduity. Their first labor is to enlarge and widen the hole, taking
away the earth, and carrying it off to some distance. To prevent the earth
from falling down and crushing their rising city into ruin, they make a sort
of roof with their gluey substance, to which they begin to fix the rudiments
of their building, working from the top downwards, as if they were hanging
a bell, which, however, at length, they close up at the bottom. The materi-
als with which they build their nests, are bits of wood and glue. The wood
they get where they can, from the rails and posts which they meet with in
the fields, and elsewhere. These they saw and divide into a multitude of
small fibres, of which they take up little bundles in their claws, letting fall
upon them a few drops of gluey matter, with which their bodies are pro-
vided, by the help of which they knead the whole composition into a paste,
which serves them in their future building. When they have returned
with this to the nest, they stick their load of paste on that part where they
make their walls and partitions; they tread it close with their feet, and
trowel it with their trunks, still going backwards as they work. Having
repeated this operation three or four times, the composition is at length
flatted out until it becomes a small leaf of a gray color, much finer than
paper, and of a pretty firm texture. This done, the same wasp returns to
the field to collect a second load of paste, repeating the same several times,
placing layer upon layer, and strengthening every partition in proportion to
the wants or convenience of the general fabric. Other working wasps come
quickly after to repeat the same operation, laying more leaves upon the
former, till at length, after much toil, they have finished the large roof which
is to secure them from the tumbling in of the earth. This dome being
finished, they make another entrance to their habitation, designed either for
letting in the warmth of the sun, or for escaping in case one door be invaded
by plunderers. Certain, however, it is, that by one of these they always
enter, by the other they sally forth to their toil;-each hole being so small
that they can pass but one at a time. The walls being thus composed, and
the whole somewhat of the shape of a pear, they labor at their cells, which
they compose of the sate paper-like substance that goes to the formation of
the outside works. Their combs differ from these of bees, not less in the
composition than the position which they are always seen to retain. The
honeycomb of the bee is edgewise with respect to the hive; that of the
wasp is flat, and the mouth of every cell opens downwards. Thus is their
habitation contrived story above story, supported by several rows of pillars
which give firmness to the whole building, while the upper story is flat-
roofed, and as smooth as the pavement of a room laid with squares of mar-
ble. The wasps can freely walk upon these stories between the pillars to
do whatever their wants require. The pillars are very hard and compact
being larger at each end than in the middle, not much unlike the columns
INSECTA—HORNET. 847

ofa building. All the cells of the nests are only destined for the reception
of the young, being replete with neither wax nor honey.

Each cell is, like that of the bee, hexagonal; but theré are two sorts, the
one larger, for the production of the male and the female wasps, the other
less, for the reception of the working part of the community. When the
females are impregnated by the males, they lay their eggs one in each cell,
‘and stick itin with a kind of gummy matter to prevent its falling out.
From this egg proceeds the insect in its worm state, of which the old ones
are extremely careful. But the wasp community differs from that of the
bee in this; that among the latter, the working bees take the parental luties
upon them, whereas, among the wasps, the females alone are permitted to
feed their young, and to nurse their rising progeny. For this purpose the
female waits with great patieuce till the working wasps have brought in
their provisions, which she takes from them, and cuts into pieces. She
then goes with great composure from cell to cell, and feeds every young one
with her mouth. When the young worms have come toa certain size, they
leave off eating, and begin to spin a very fine silk, fixing the first end to the
entrance of the ceil ; then turning their heads, first on one side, then on the
other, they fix the thread to different parts, and thus they make a sort-of
door which serves to close up the mouth of the cell. After this, they divest
themselves of their skins after the usual mode of transformation; the aurelia
by degrees begins to emancipate itself from its shell; by little and little it
thrusts out its legs and wings, and insensibly acquires the color and shape
of its parent.

 

THE HORNET!

 

Ie one of the largest and most remarkable species of the wasp. 1t 1s twice
as large as the common wasp, and is also distinguished by a black breast,

 

1 Vespa crabro, Lin.
848 INSECTA—BEE.

and double black spots on the belly; the head is also longer and slenderer
and the eyes somewhat resembling a half moon. It is extremely bold an¢
venomous. Its predominant passion is for flesh, and, when hungry, two or
three of them will seize upon a small bird, kill it, and devour its flesh. Nay
it has even been said, that singly, it will attack and conquer a sparrow.

THE BEE.

 

Queen. Working Bee. Drone.

_ Tue domestic bee differs in a variety of particulars from most other ani
mals, and admits a threefold description, under its various characters ot
queen bee, drone bee, and working bee; for though this last kind is, strictly
speaking, the only honey bee, yet asall the three kinds are found, and seem to
be necessary, in every community or hive of bees, they go under the same
general name of apis mellifica, while at the same time they differ so much
from each other, (more indeed than some different species of the same genus
of other animals,) that a particular and separate description of each is neces-
sary. The drones may easily be distinguished from the common or work
ing bees. They are both larger and longer in the body. Their heads are
round, their eyes full, and their tongues short. The form of the belly differs
from those of both queen and common bees; and their color is darker than
either. They have no sting, and they make a much greater noise when
flying than either the queen or the common bees; a peculiarity of itself suf-
ficient,to distinguish them. Other writers on this subject have asserted,
that the dissection of the drone gives as great proof of its being the male, as
that of the queen does of her being female.

The queen is easily distinguished from all the other bees in the hive, by
the form, size, and color of her body. She is considerably longer, and her
wings are much shorter, in proportion to her body, than those of the other
bees. The wings of both common bees and drones cover their whole bodies,
whereas those of the queen scarcely reach beyond the middle, ending about
the third ring of the belly. Her hinder part is far more tapering than those
of the other bees; her belly or legs are yellower, and her upper parts of a

 

1 Apis mellifica, Lin.
INSECTA—BEE. 849

much darker color than theirs. She is also furnished with a sting, though
some authors assert that she has none, having been induced to form this
opinion because she is extremely pacific; so much so indeed, that one may
handie her, and even tease her as much as he pleases, without provoking her
resentment. The omniscient Governor of nature has wisely ordained this
majestic insect to be of a pacific disposition ; for, were she otherwise, were
she like the other bees, of so irritable a temper as to draw her sting on every
occasion, and to leave it in the body of her antagonist, it would prove of
dangerous and often fatal consequence to the whole hive; for every bec,
after losing her sting, dies within a day or two at the utmost. The queer
bee is solemn and calm in her deportment. A young queen is a great deal
smaller in size than a full-grown one; being not much longer than a com-
mon hee, and is therefore not so easily observed when sought for. When
only three or four days old, she is very quick in her motions, and runs very
fast; but when pregnant with eggs, she becomes very large, and her body is
heavy.

The working or common bee is smaller than either the queen or the drone
bee; and, as well as these, consists of three parts, viz. the head, which is
attached by a narrow kind of neck to the rest of the body; the breast or
middle part; and the belly, which is nearly separated from the breast by an
insection or division, and connected with it by another narrow neck or junc-
tion. There are two eyes in the head, of an oblong figure, black, transpa-
rent, and immoveable. The mouth and jaws, like those of some species of
fish, open to the right and left, and ‘serve instead cf hands, to carry out of
the hive whatever encumbers or offends them. In the mouth there is a long
proboscis, or trunk, with which the bees suck up the sweets from the flowers.
They have four wings fastened to their middle part, by which they are not
only enabled to fly with heavy loads, but also to make those well known
sounds and hummings to each other that are supposed to be their only form
of speech. They have also six legs fastened to their middle. The two
foremost of these are the shortest, and with these they unload themselves
of their treasures. The two in the middle are somewhat longer; and the
two last are longest. On the outside of the middle joint of these’ last, there.
is a small cavity in the form of a narrow spoon, in which the bees collect ly
degrees those loads of wax they carry home to their hives. This hellow
groove is peculiar to the working bee. Neither the queen nor the dioncs
have any resemblance of it. The tibie of the hind legs are ciliated, and
transverse.y streaked on the inside. Each foot terminates in two Looks,
with their poirits opposite to each other; in the middle of these hooks there
is a little thin appendix, which, when unfolded, enables the insects to fasten
themselves to glass, or the most polished bodies. This part they likewise
employ for transmitting the small particles of crude wax, which they find
upon flowers, to the cavity in their thighs. The belly is ornamented witk
six rings ; and contains, besides the intestines, the honey-bladder, the venom-

407
850 INSECTA-—BEE.

bladder, and the sting. The honey-bladder isa reservoir, into which is
tleposited the honey that the bee sips from the cups of the flowers after it has
passed through the proboscis, and through the narrow pipes that connect the
head, breast, and belly of the bee. This bladder, when full, is of the size
of a smail pea, and is so transparent, that the color of the honey can be dis-
tinguished through it. The sting is situated at the extremity of the belly
and the head or root of: it is placed contiguous to the small bladder that con-
tains the venom, connected to the belly by certain small muscles, by means
of which the bee can dart it out and draw it in with great force and quick-
ness. In length it is about the sixth part of an inch. These working bees
may be said to compose the whole community, except in the season of the
drones, which hardly lasts three months. During all the other nine months.
there are no other bees in the hive except them and the queen. The whole
labor of the hive is performed by them. They build the combs, collect the
honey, bring it home, and store it up in their waxen magazines. They
rear up the eggs to produce young queens, common bees, and drones; they
carry out all incumbrances that are in the hives; they defend the community
against enemies of every kind, and kill all the drones.

‘When the bees begin to work in their hives, they divide themselves into
four companies; one of which roves in the fields in search of materials;
another employs itself in laying out the bottom and partitions of their cells;
a third is employed ‘n making the inside smooth from the corners and an-
gles; and the fourth company brings food for the rest, or relieves those who
return with their respective burdens. But they are not kept constant to one
employment; they often change the tasks assigned them; those that have
been at work being permitted to go abroad, and those that have been in the
fields already take their places. They seem even to’ have signs by which
they understand each other; for when any of them want food, it bends
down its trunk to the bee from whom it is expected, which then opens its
noney-bag, and lets some drops fall into the other’s mouth, which is at that
lume open to receive it.

Honey is originally a juice digested in plants, which sweats through their
pores, and chiefly in their flowers, or is contained in reservoirs in which na-
ture stores it. The bees sometimes penetrate into these stores, and at other
times find the liquor exuded. This they collect in their stomachs; so that,
when loaded with it, they seem, to an attentive eye, to come home without
any booty at all. Besides the liquor already mentioned, which is obtained from
the flowers of plants, another substance, called honey dew, has been disco-
vered, ot which the bees are equally tond. From whatever source the bees
have collected their honey, the instant they return home, they seek cells in
which they may disgorge and deposit their loads. They have two sorts of
stores; one of which consists of honey laid up for the winter, and the other
of honey intended for accidental use in case of bad weather, and for such
bees as do not go abroad in search of it. Their method of securing each of
INSECTA—BEE. 851

these is different. They have in each cell a thicker substance, which is placed
over the honey to prevent its running out of the cell; and that substance is
raised gradually -s the cell is filled, till the bees, finding that the cell cannot
contain any more, close it with a covering of wax, not to be opened tilf
times of want, during the winter.

When a hive is become too much crowded by the addition of the young
brood, a part ef the bees think of finding themselves a more commodious
nabitation, and with that view single out the most forward of the young
queens. A new swarm is, therefore, constantly composed of one queen at
least, and of several thousand working bees, as well as of some hundreds of
drones. The working bees are some old, some young. Scarce has the
colony arrived at its new habitation, when the working bees labor with the
utmost diligence to procure materials for food and building. Their principal
aim is not only to have cells in which to deposit their honey, but a stronger
motive seems to animate them; they seem to know that their queen is in
haste to lay her eggs. Their industry is such, that in twenty-four hours
they will have made combs twenty inches long, and wide in proportion.
They make more wax, during the first fortnight, if the season is favorable,
than they do during all the rest of the year. Other bees are at the same time
busy in stopping all the holes and crevices they find in the new hive, in order to
guard against the entrance of insects which covet their honey, their wax-or
themselves; and also to exclude the cold air; for it is indispensably neces-
sary that they be lodged warm. When the bees first settle in swarming;
indeed, when they at any time rest themselves, there is something very par-
ticular in the method of taking their repose. It is done by collecting them-
selves in a heap, and hanging to’each other by their feet. They sometimes
extend these heaps to a considerable length. It would seem probable to us,
that the bees froin which the others hang must have a considerable weight
suspended to them. All that can be said is, that the bees must find this to
be a situation agreeable to themselves. They, perhaps, have a method of
distending themselves with the air, thereby to lessen their specific gravity ;
as fishes do, to alter their gravity compared with water. When a swarm
divides into two or more bands, which settle separately, this division 1s a
sure sign that there are two or more queens among them. One of these
clusters is generally larger than the other. The bees of the smaller cluster,
or clusters, detach themselves by little and little, till at last the whole, to-
gether with the queen, or queens, unite with the larger cluster. As soon as
the bees are settled, the supernumerary queen or queens must be sacrificed
to the peace and tranquillity of the hive. ‘This execution generally raises a
¢onsiderable commotion in the hive; and several other bees, as well as the
ijueen or queens, lose their lives. Their bodies may be observed on the
ground near the hive. The queen that is chosen is of a more reddish color
than those which are destroyed ; so that fruitfulness seems to be a great mo
852 INSECTA—BEE.

uve of preference in bees ; for the nearer they are to the time of laying their
eggs, the bigger, redder and more shining are their bodies. |

The balls which we see attached to the legs of bees returning to the
nives, are not wax, but a powder collected from the stamina of flowers, not
yet brought to the state of wax. The substance of these balls, heated in
any vessel, does not melt as wax would do, but becomes dry, and hardens ;
it may even be reduced to a coal. If thrown into water it will sink, whereas
wax swims. To reduce this crude substance into wax, it must first be di-
gested in the body of the bee. Every bee, when it leaves the hive to collect
this precious store, enters into the cup of the flower, particularly such-as
seem charged with the greatest quantity of this yellow farina. As the ani-
mal’s body is covered over with hair, it rolls itself within the flower, and quick-
ly becomes quite covered with the dust, which it soon after brushes off with
its two hind legs, and kneads it into two little balls. In the thighs of the
hinder legs there are two cavities edged with hair; and into these, as into a
basket, the animal sticks its pellets. Thus employed, the bee flits from
flower to flower, increasing its store, and adding to its stock of wax, until
the ball on each thigh becomes as big as a grain of pepper; by this time
having got a sufficient load, it returns, making the best of its way to the
hive. After the bees have brought home this crude substance, they eat it by
degrees ; or, at other times, three or four bees come and ease the loaded bee,
by eating each of them a share, the loaded bee giving them a hintso to do.
Hunger is not the motive of their thus eating the balls of waxy matter, es-
pecially when a swarm is first hived; but it is their desire to provide a
speedy supply of real wax for making the combs. At other times, when
there is no immediate want of wax, the bees lay this matter up in reposito-
ries to keep it in store. When this waxy matter is swa!lowed, it is by the
digestive powers of the bee converted into real wax, which the bees again
disgorge as they work it up into combs; for it is only while thus soft and
pliant from the stomach, that they can fabricate it properly. That the wax
thus employed is taken from their stomach, appears fiom their making a
considerable quantity of comb soon after they are hived, and even on any
tree or shrub where they have rested but a short while before their being
hived; though no balls were visible on their legs, excepting those cf a
few which may be just returned from the field. This is farther confirmed
by what happened in aswarm newly hived; fortwo days together, from the
tme of their quitting their former home, it rained constantly, insomuch that
not one bee was able to stir out during that time; yet, at the end of two
days, they had made a comb fifteen or sixteen inches long, and thick in pro-
portion. The crude wax, when brought home to the bees, is often of as
different colors as are the flowers from which it is collected; but the new
combs are always of a white color, which is afterwards ghanged only by
the impurities arising from the steam, &c., of the bees. Bees collect crude
wax, also, for food; for, if this was not the case, there would be no want of
INSECTA—BEE. 853

wax after the combs are made; but they are observed, even in old hives, to
return in great numbers loaded with such matter, which is deposited in
particular cells, and is known by the name of bee-bread.

When a queen is removed from a hive, the bees do not immediately per-
ceive it; they continue their labors, “watch over their young, and perform
all their ordinary ocenpations. But, in a few hours, agitation ensues; all
appears a scene of tumult in the hive: asingular humming is heard; the bees
desert their young, and rush over the surface of the combs with a delirious
impetuosity.” They have now evidently discovered that their sovereign is
gone; and the rapidity with which the bad news spreads through the hive,
to the opposite side of the combs, is very remarkable. On replacing the
queen in the hive, tranquillity is almost instantly restored. ‘The bees, it is
worthy of notice, recognise: the individual pergon of their own queen. If
another be palmed upon them, they seize and surround her, so that she is either
suffocated or perishes by hunger ; for it is very remarkable, that the workers
are never known to attack a queen bee with their stings. If, however, more
than eighteen hours Lave elapsed before the stranger queen be introduced,
she has some chance to escape ; the bees at first seize and confine her; but
less rigidly ; aud they soon begin to disperse, and at length leave her te
reign over a hive in which she was at first treated as a prisoner. If twenty:
four hours have elapsed, the stranger will be well received from the first
und at once admitted to the sovereignty of the hive. In short, it appears that
the bees, when deprived of their queen, are thrown into great agitation ; that
they wait about twenty hours, appareutly in hopes of her return; but that,
after this interregnum, the agitation ceases; and they set about supplying
their loss by beginning to construct royal cells. It is when they are in this
‘temper, and not sooner, that a stranger queen will be graciously received;
and upon her being presented to them, the royal cells, in whatever state of
forwardness they may happen to be, are instantly abandoned, and the larve
destroyed. Reaumur must, therefore, have mistaken the result of his own
experiments, when he asserts, that a stranger queen is instantly well receiv:
ed, though presented at the moment when the other is withdrawn. He had
seen the bees crowding round her at the entrance of the hive, and laying‘
their antennae over her; and this he seems to have taken for caressing. The
structure of the hives he employed prevented him from seeing further ; had
he used the leaf-hive, or one of similar construction, he would have perceiv-
en that the apparent caresses of the guards were only the prelude of actual
‘fhaprisonment.

After the season of swarming, it is well known, a general massacre of the
drones is commenced Several authors assert that the workers do not sting
the drones to death, but merely harass them till they be banished from the
live and perish. M. Huber contrived a glass table, on which he placed
severa' hives, and he was thus able to see distinctly what passed in the bot-

72
R54 INSECTA—BEE.

torn of the hive which is generally dark and concealed ; he witnessed a real
and furious massacre of the males, the workers thrusting their stings so
deep into the bodies of the defenceless drones, that they were obliged to
turn on themselves as on a pivot, before tney could extricate them. The
work of death commenced in all the hives much about the sametime. Itis

ot, however, by a blind or indiscriminating instinct that the workers are
impelled thus to sacrifice the males; for if a hive be deprived of its queen,
no such massacre takes place in it, but the males are allowed to survive the
winter.

A farm, or a country, may be overstocked with bees, as with any sort of
animal; for a certain number of hives always require a certain number of
flowers to subsist on. When the flowers near home are rifled, then are
these, industrious insects seen taking more extensive ranges, but their abili-
ties may be overtaxed ; and if they are obliged, in quest of honey, to go too
far from home, they are overwearied in the pursuit, they are devoured by
birds, or beaten down by the winds and rain.

From a knowledge of this, in some parts of France and Piedmont, they
have contrived a kind of floating bee-house. They have on board one barge
threescore or a hundred bee-hives, well defended from the inclemency of an
accidental storm; and with these, the owners suffer themselves to float
gently down the river. As the bees are continually choosing their Howery
pasture along the banks of the stream, they are furnished with sweets before
unrifled ; and thus a single floating bee-house yields the proprietor a consi-
derable income.

The bees are nearly alike in all parts of the world, yet there are diffe-
rences worthy ournotice. In Guadaloupe, the bee is less by one half than the
European, and more black and round. They have no sting, and make their
cells in hollow trees, where, if the hole they meet with is too large, they
form a sort of waxen house, of the shape of a pear, and in this they lodge
and store their honey, and lay their eggs. They lay up their honey in
waxen vessels of the size of a pigeon’s egg, of a black or deep violet co«
lor; and these are so joined together, that there is no space left between
them. e

The honey never congeals, but is fluid, of the consistence of oil, and the
color of amber. Resembling these, there are found little black bees, without
a sting, in all the tropical climates; and though these countries are replete
with bees, like our own, yet those form the most useful and laborious tribe
in that part of the world. The honey they produce is neither so unpalata-
vle, nor so surfeiting as ours; and the wax is so soft, that it is only used
for medicinal purposes, it being never found hard enough to form into can-
dles, as in Europe.

Of insects that receive the name of bees, among us, there are several ;
which however differ very widely from that industrious social race we have
INSECTA—BEE. 855

Just been describing. The humble bee! is the largest of all this tribe, being:
as large as the first joint of one’s middle finger. These are seen in every

field, and perched on every flower. They build their nest in holes, in the

ground, of dry leaves, mixed with wax and wool, defended with moss from.
the weather. Each humble bee makes a separate cell, about the size of a

small nutmeg, which is round and hollow, containing the honey in‘a bag.

Several of these cells are joined together, in such a manner, that the whule

appears like a cluster of grapes. The females, which have the appearance

of wasps, are very few, and their eggs are laid in cells, which the rest soon

cover over with wax. Itis uncertain whether they have a queen or not;

but there is one much larger than the:rest, without wings, and without hair,

and all over black, like polished ebony. This goes and views all the works,

from time to time, and enters into the cell, as if it wanted to see whether

every thing was done right; in the morning, the young humble bees are

very idle, and seem not at all inclined to labor, till one of the largest, about

seven o’clock, thrusts half its body from a hole designed for that purpose,

and seated on the top of the nest, beats its wings for twenty minutes suc-

cessively, buzzing the whole time, till the whole colony is put in motion.

The humble bees gather honey, as well as the common bees; but it is

neither so fine, nor so good, nor the wax so clean, or so capable of fusion.

Beside the bees already mentioned, there are various kinds among us, that
have much the appearance of honey makers, and yet make only wax. The
wood bee, or carpenter bee,? is seen in every garden. It is rather larger
than the common queen bee; its body of a bluish black, which is smooth
and shining. It begins to appear at the approach of spring, and is seen fly-
ing near walls exposed to a sunny aspect. This bee makes its nest in some
piece of wood, which it contrives to scoop and hollow for its purpose. This,
however, is never done in trees that are standing, for the wood it makes
choice of is half rotten. The holes are not made directly forward, but turn-
ing to one side, and have an opening sufficiet t» admit one’s middle finger,
whence runs the inner apartment generally twelve or fifteen inches long.
The instruments used in boring these cavities are their teeth; the cavity is
usually branched into three or four apartments; and in each of these they
lay their eggs, to the number of ten or twelve, each separate and distinct
from the rest. The egg is involved in a sort of paste, which serves at once
for the young animal’s protection and nourishment. The grown bees, how--
ever, feed upon small insects, particularly a louse, of a reddish brown éolor,
of the size of a small pin’s head.

Mason bees? make their cells with a sort of mortar made of earth, which
they build against a wall that is‘exposed to the sun. “The mortar, which at
first is soft, soon becomes as hard as stone, and in this their eggs are laid.
Each nest contains seven or eight cells, an egg in every cell, placed regular-

‘Bombus, *Xulocopa. » 3 Odynerua,
856 INSECTA—CATERPILLAR.

ly one over the other. If the nest remains unhurt, or wants but little repairs
they make use of them the year ensuing; and thus they often serve three
or four years successively. From the strength of their houses, one would
think these bees in perfect security ; yet none are more exposed than they.
A worm with very strong teeth is often found tobore into their little fortifica-
tions, and devour their young.

THE CATERPILLAR.

 

Tuoven the caterpillar is not a perfect insect, but only a form in wnich
an insect appears in one stage of its existence, and is always destined tw
assume some other form, yet it is sufficiently interesting to us in this state,
to warrant some particular notice of its characteristics.

The body of the caterpillar, when anatomically considered, is found com-
posed of rings, whose circumference is pretty near circular or oval. They
are generally twelve in number, and are all membranaceous; by which
caterpillars may be distinguished from any other insect that nearly reseme
bles them in form. The head of the caterpillar is connected to the first ring
by the neck, which is generally so short and contracted that it is scarcely
visible. Al! the covering of the head in caterpillars seems to consist of shell;
and they have neither upper nor under jaw, for they are both placed rather
vertically, and each jaw armed with a large thick tooth, which is singly
equal to anumber. With these the animals devour their food in such
amazing quantities ; and, with these, some of the kind defend themselves
against their enemies. Though the mouth be kept shut, the teeth are
always uncovered; and while the insect is in health, they are seldom with-
out employment. Whatever the caterpillar devours, these teeth serve to
chop’ into small pieces, and ‘render the parts of the leaf fit for swallowing.
Many kinds, while they are yet young, eat only the succulent part of the
leaf, and leave all the fibres untouched ; others, however, attack the whule
veaf, and eat it clean away. One may be amused, fora little time, in observ-’
wng the avidity with which they are seen to feed; some are seen eating the
whole day: others have their hours of repast; some choose the night, and
others the day. When the caterpillar atacksa leaf, it places its body in such
a manner, that the edge of the leaf shall fall between its feet, which keeps
INSECTA—CATARPILLAR. 837

it steady while the teeth are employed in cutting it; these fall upon the
reaf, somewhat in the manner of a pair of gardener’s shears; and every
morsel is swallowed as soon as cut. Some caterpillars feed upon leaves sa
ver; narrow, that they are not broader than their mouths; in this case, the
animal is-seen to devour it from the point, as we would eat a radisn.

As there are various kinds of caterpillars, the number of their feet is
various; some having eight, and some sixteen. Of these feet, the six fore-
most are covered with a sort of shining gristle; and are therefore called the
shelly legs. The hindmost feet, whatever be their number, are soft and
flexible, and are called membranaceous. Caterpillars also, with regard to
their external figure, are either smooth or hairy. The skin of the first kind
is soft to the tou.h, or hard, like shagreen; the skin of the latter is hairy,
aud, as it were, thorny; and generally, if handled, stings like nettles.

Caterpillars, in general, have six small black spots placed on the circum-
ference of the fore ring, and a little to the side of the head. Three of these
are larger than the rest, and are convex and transparent; these Reau-
rour takes to be.the eyes “of the caterpillar; however, most of them
aave very little occasion for sight, and scem only to be directed by their
feeling.

But the parts of the caterpil.ar’s hody which most justly demand our atten-
tion are the stigmata, as they are called; or those holes on the sides of its.
body, through which the animal is supposed to breathe. All along this in-
sect’s body, on each side, these holes are easily discoverable. They ara
eighteen in number, nine on a side, rather nearer the belly than the back ,
a hole for every ring, of which the animal’s body is composed, except the
second, the third, and the last. These oval openings may be considered as
so many mouths, through which the insect breathes; but with this aimer-
ence. that as we have but one pair of lungs, the caterpillar has no less than
eighteen. 1t requires no great anatomical! dexterity to discover ilese iuags
in the larger kind of caterpillars; they appear, at first view, to be hullow
cartilaginous tubes, and of the color of mother-of-pearl. These tubes are
often seen to unite with each other; some are perceived to open inte the
Intestines ; and some go to different parts of the surface of the body. That
these vessels serve to convey the air, appears evidently from the famous
experiment of Malpighi; who, by stopping up the mouths of fhe stigmata
with oil, quickly suffocated the animal, which was seen todie convulsed the
iastant after. In order to ascertain his theory, he rubbed oil upon other
parts of the insect’s body, leaving the stigmata free; and this seemed to
have no effect upon the animal’s health, but it continued to move and eat as
usual ; he rubbed oil on the stigmata of one side, and the animal underwent
a partial convulsion, but recovered soon after. However, it ought to be
observed, that air is not so necessary to these as to the nobler ranks of ani
wals, since caterpillars will live in an exhausted receiver for ‘several days

108 72%
858 INSECTA--CATERPILLAR

together; aud though they seem dead at the bottom, yet, when taken out
yecover, and resume their former vivacity.

If the caterpillar be cut open longitudinally along the back, its intestines
will be perceived running directly in a straight line from the mouth to the
anus. They resemble a number of small bags opening into each other,
and strengthened on both *sides by a fleshy cord, by which they are united.
These insects are, upon many occasions, seen to cast forth the internal coat
of theit intestines with their food, in the changes which they so frequently
undergo. But the intestines take up but a small part of the animal’: body,
if compared to the fatry substance in which they are involved. This suk-
stance changes its color when the insect’s metamorphosis begins to approach ;
and from white it is usually seen to become yeilow. If to these parts we
add the caterpillar’s implements for spinning (for all caterpillars spin at one
time or another,) we shall have a rude sketch of this animal’s conformation,

The life of a caterpillar seems one continued succession of changes; and
it is seen to throw off one skin only to assume another; which also is di-
vested in its turn; and thus for eight or ten times successively.

How laborious soever this operation may be, it is performed in the space
of a minute; and the animal, having thrown off its old skin, seems to enjoy
new vigor, as well as to have acquired coloring and beauty. Sometimes it
happens that it takes a new appearance and colors very different from the.
‘old. Those that are hairy still preserve their covering, although their
ancient skin seems not to have lost a single hair ; every hair appears to have
been drawn, like a sword from the scabbard. The fact, however, is, that
a new crop of hair grows between the old skin and the new, and probably
helps to throw off the extérnal covering.

The caterpillar having in this manner continued for several days feeding,
and at intervals casting its skin, begins at last to prepare for its change into
an aurelia or pupa.

Preparatory to this important change, the caterpillar most usually quits
the plant or tree on which it fed; or at least attaches itself to the stalk or
the stem, more gladly than the leaves. It forsakes its food, and prepares, by
fasting, to undergo its transmutation.

Those of them which are capable of spinning themselves a weh, set about
this operation; those which have already spun, await the change in the best
manner they are able. The web or cone, with which some cover them-
selves hides the aurelia contained within from the view; but in others,
where it is more transparent, the caterpillar, when it has done spinning,
strikes in the claws of the two feet under the tail, and afterwards forces in
the tail itself by contracting those claws, and violently striking the feet one
against the other. If, however, they be taken from their web at this time,
they appear in a state of great languor; and, incapable of walking, remain
am that spot where they are placed. In this condition they remain one or
two days, somewhat in the manner they made preparations for changing
tNSECTA—BUTTERFLY. 853

there skin. They :hen appear with their bodies bent into a bow, watch they
now and then are seen to straighten; they. make no use ‘of their legs; but.
if they attempt to change place, do it by the contortions of their body

THE BUTTERFLY.

Tue number of these beautiful animals is very great; and though Lit.
reus has reckoned up above seven hundred and sixty different kinds, the
eatalogue is still very incomplete. Every collector of Eutierflies can show
undescribed species ; and such as are fon’ of minute discovery, can here pro-
duce animals that have been examined only by himself. In general, how-
ever, those of the warmer climates are larger and more eautiful than such
as are bred at home.

The wings of butterflies, as was observed, fully distinguish them trom
flies of every other kind. They are four in number; and though two of
them be cut off, the animal can fly with the two others remaining. They
are, in their own substance, transparent ; but owe their opacity to the beau-
tiful dust with which they are covered ; if we regard the wing of a butterfly
with a good microscope, we shall perceive it studded over with a variety of
little grains of different dimensions and forms, generally supported upon a
footstalx, regularly laid upon the whole surface. The wing itself is com-
posed of several membranes, which render the construction very strong.
though light; and though it be covered over with thousands of these scales
or studs, yet its weight is very little increased by the number. The animal
ts with ease enabled to support itself a long while in the air, although its
flight be not very graceful. When it designs to fly toa considerable dis-
tance, it ascends and descends alternately; going sometimes to the right,
sometimes to the left, without any apparent reason. Upon closer examina-
tion, however it will be found that it flies thus irresularly in pursuit of its
mate; and as dogs bait and quarter the ground in pursuit of their game, so
these insects traverse the air, in quest of their mates, whom they can dis-
cover at mor than a nile distance.

This tribe of insects has been divided into diurnal and nocturnal flies; <1,
more properly speaking, into butterflies and moths; the one flying only-by
day, the other most usually on the wing in the night. They may he easily
distinguished from each other, by their aatenne or feelers; those .of the
butterfly being clubbed, or knobbed at the end; those of the moth, tapering
finer and finer to a point. To express it technically, the antenne of butters
flies are clavated; those of moths are filiform.
860 INSECTA—BUTTERPFLY.

THE SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY,

 

1s reckoned the most superb of the British species. It is nut widely diffused,
but occurs in the New Forest, and near Beverly and Bristol. The wings
are tailed, with both surfaces alike; yellow with a brown border, in which
are yellow lunules; the angle of the tail is fulvous. The larve feed on
umbelliferous plants; the caterpillar is green, banded with black, marked
with a row of red spots. There are two broods, of which the first appears in
May, having all the winter_been in the pupa state; the second comes forth
in August.

THE PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLY?

Is a species not very common. In some seasons, these insects appea) 1
considerable numbers, and then again are not seen for several years. In
point of beauty, this has the highest claim of all; its wings are indenced,

 

————

1 Papilio machaon, Lin. 2 Vanessa urtice, Law
INSECTA--SPHINX CAROLINA, 861

orange above, variegated with black and white beneath; four eyes on the
pesteriur-pa.r. Its larva feeds on nettles, thistles, docks, and other herbage

 

by the sides of ditches, and changes its state about the middle or latter end
of Juiy.

THE SPHINX CAROLINA.

 

Tue larva of this moth is green, with lateral spiracles on every seg
ment, surrounded bya purple ring; and the caudal spine is of the same
color. When full grown, they are thickest in the middle; their horn or
tongue is generally curled; and they have two feelers. Their wings are
clouded, entire, and the posterior margin is dotted with white; the abdomen
has five pairs of fulvous spots.

‘In America, they are sometimes distinguished by the name of tobacco
moths, on account of their feeding entirely on that plant.

”

es
862 INSECTA—MOTH.

THE DEATH’S HEAD MOTH.

 

* Tuts beautiful insect is one of the rarest of the moths, and is found culy
m warm places. It alights on particular flowers, among which are the
jasmine, the potato, and the wild solanums. Of its four wings, the feath-
ers of which are particularly fine and glossy, the upper pair are of a rich dark
gray, marked with white and orange; while the under pair are of a glowing
orange, with irregular black bands. The upper part of the abdomen is
orange, barred with black. The most remarkable part of this insect, haw-
ever, is a sort of representation of a death’s head, which appears on the
superior portion of the thorax. .This is formed by a large irregular gray
patch, having two black dots near the middle.

THE SILK-WORM MOTH2

 

Tne silk-worm came originally from the northern provinces of China
Before the introduction of the animal into Europe, silk was sold for more
than its weight in gold. The Greek missionaries in the reign of Justinian
transported the ova of the silk-worm in reeds, for the first time, to Constan
tinople. The cultivation of this useful animal was thus extended to Southern

 

8 Acherontia atropos, Lin. 2 Bombyx mori, Lin
RADIATA. 863

Europe, and was afterwards introduced into Spain and Africa, by the Arabs,
in the time of the Crusades, the insect passed from the Morea into Sicily
and Calabria. From Calabria, the ova and the mulberry were brought to
France by some of the followers of Charles VIII., on his conquest of Naples,
and the cultivation of this insect was afterwards encouraged and patronized
by Sully, as an important branch of national industry. -

The mode of feeding and managing the silk-worm, and procuring its deli-
cate web, is detailed in nurnerous works both scien*ific and. economical.
Tae caterpillar feeds upun the leaves of the mulberry. After remaining in
this state about six weeks, during which the caterpillar changes its skin four
times, the animal ceases to feed, and begins to form an envelope or cocoon
of silken fibres in some convenient spot, producing the minute threads, till it
has formed an oval, yellow case or ball,’ abeut the size of a pigeon’s egg, in
which it changes toa chrysalis. In this state it remains for about fifteen
days, when the perfect insect is produced. This, however, is not allowed to
happen when the animals are reared for the sake of the silk, from its being
observed that the animal before leaving its cocoon, discharges:a colored
fluid, which injures the quality. ‘The cocoons are therefore exposed to such
a degree of heat, as to kill the inclosed animals, a few only being saved to
keep up the breed.

 

fhe moth, when produced, is very short lived, breeding soon after the
exclusian, and perishing after the deposition of the ova. The length of the
silken tnread when unrolled, is said to be from three hundred to five hun-
“drea yards in length, and this thread is composed of two united threads
agglutinated together.

a

DIVISION IV.—RADIATA.

Tuts division of the animal kingdom comprehends a great number of he-
ings, of organization more simple than the preceding classes. However
different otherwise in their structure or form, they seem (according to Cuvier)
to correspond, in the character of having all their parts disposed around a
¢dmmon axis, in two or more rays, or in two or more lines extending from
‘one extremity to the other. Even the intestinal worms have at least two

‘
864 ie RADIATA.

a

tendimous lines or nerveus threads, arising {from a circle round the mouth,
many have four suckers around a prominence, in the form of a proboscis,
and, notwithstanding some irregularities, there is always found in the ani

mals arranged under this division, traces ofa radiated form, indistinctly marked
in some, but in others, such as the Asteria, the Echini, and the Polypi, stril:-
ingly perceptible. The nervous system in the animals of this division is
never very evident ; and of acirculation by vessels, asin the previous classes,
there is no trace. The Holothurie have two vascular appendages, one at-
tached to the. intestines, and corresponding to the organs of respiration,
and the other serving for the inflation of organs analogous to feet. The
last of these only appears distinctly in the Echini and the Asteria; in the
gelatinous substance of the Meduse are seen tubes more or less complicated,
connected with the intestinal canal; but none of the appearances are con-
ceived to have any strong analogy with the circulating vessels of the higher
animals. Some genera, such as the Moluthuria Echinus, and many intestina]
worms, have a mouth and anus, with a distinct intestinal canal; others have
an internal pouch, with only ome opening, serving the purposes of a mouth
and anus; but in the greater number there is only to be discovered a hollow
cavity in the substance of the body, opening sometimes by many suckers or
pores. Finally, in the lowest races of the animal kingdom, even this sim-
ple organization disappears, and nutrition seems to be accomplished by ab-
sorption, in the manner of vegetables. In regard to their reproduction, sexes
have been observed in many of the intestinal worms ; others are hermaphro-
dite and oviparous; and some seem to be reproduced by genune, or buds, o1

simply by a division of their parts. The conglomerated or compound ar-
rangement of animals, of which some examples occur among the Mollusca,
is a common circumstance among the Radiated animals, particularly among
those named Polypi; and from their aggregation and expansion into trunks
and branches of various forms, joined to the simplicity of the organization
in the greater number of the species, originated the term Zoophyta, or ane
mal plants. The radiated disposition of their organs, like the petals which
form the corolla of a flower, seems also to have led to this idea. Indeed, the
boundary line between the animal and vegetable kingdom seemsat first view
to ve but indistinctly drawn ; and there are objects in both which even acea-
rate observers are scarcely able to decide, whether they belong to the one or
the other. In the simplest being, however, the globular form, as Carus ob-
serves, is the characteristic of animality ; and minute microscopical investi-
gation detects in the lowest of the animal races a semifluid mass, composed
vf minute globules suspended in slimy fluids while in the organization, the
cellular texture always predominates. To this characteristic form, the most
imperfect ani>iated beings add a sensibility to the faintest impressions, tnat
of light, for example, the power of voluntary motion either in the animal or
its parts, and the absorption of food into an internal cavity. In the more
perfect animals, the osseous skeleton serves to cover and protect the centra
EVHINODERMATA 865

nervous masses, and to support the organs of motion, but in the simple struc
ture of the lower animals, the franie wirk serves only the last of the pur-
poses, being either external to the animal substances, as in the Tué:pore and
Sponges, or internal, as in the Sertularze, Gurgomea, &e. The animals of this
division have been arranged in five classes, viz.

3 Ecwinopermata, or animals with a crustaceous covering, distinct intes-
tinal canal, and organs for generation, respiration, and partial circulation

LI. Enrozoa, or intestinal worms ; elongated and depressed animals, which
have no organs for respiration or circulatiun.

II]. Acaterna. Animals of a circular and radiated form, and destitute
of circulating and respiratory organs.

IV. Pouyri, or Zoophytes; comprehending all those small, gelatinous,
and compound or aggregated animals which have a mouth surrounded by
tentacula, and conducting into a simple stomach.

V. The Lnrusoria, or those smaller beings only known through the me-
dium of the microscope, which are found in stagnant waters. ‘he greater
part of these have a gelatinous body, and are destitute of viscera, though:
some of the species possess visible crgans of movciuent, and a stomach.

t

CLASS X.—ECHINODERMATA.

Body suborbicular, with a coriaceous or crustaceous covering, radiated, deste~
tute of head, eyes, and articulated feet ; mouth inferior, semple or multiform 4
organs of digestion compound ; exterior tubes or pores for respiration.

Tue animals of this class were arranged by some of the older naturalists
among the testaceous Mollusca; by others among the Zoophytes; while
others considered them as allied to the Crustacea. The more modern wri-
ters, however, founding their divisions on the comparative structure of the
animals, as well as their external characters, have placed the animals of this
group in a separate class, Cuvier making them the first class of his great
division of Zoophytes, or animals with prehensile and retractile tentacula,
ad Lamarck placing them also in a separate class, under the utle of Radi-
aria. In this class the radiated structure, both externally and internally,
forms a distinctive character. The body is generally orbicular, covered with
a skin, or a crustaceous or calcareous covering, and often armed with tuber
cies or jointed and moveable spines. The interior cavity is provided with
distinct viscera, and a kind of vascular system maintains a communication
with the different parts of the intestine, and with the organs of respiration.
These organs consist in pores or orifices, or exterior tubes for the passage of
the water, The animals of this class are destitute of head, eyes, and arty

109 73
866 ECHINODERMATA-—SEA STAR.

culate ‘cet; their nervous system is indistinctly traced ; and their organs of
motion are extremely imperfect. The Echinodermata are all marine am
mals, and have the faculty, like many other of the more imperfect animals,
of speedily regenerating parts of their bodies which have been broken or
separated. Lamarck divides the class into three sections, viz. Fistulides,
Echinides, and Stellerides, while Cuvier arranges jit into two orders, the first
including those which possess numerous membranous tentacula, serving as
organs of motion, and the second those which are destitute of these organs.
Latreille makes two classes of the same animals, under the names of Hui o-
thurida and Echinoderma. The arrangementof Lamarck is chiefly followel;
but we have added a fourth section, comprising, under the title of Crinoida,
given. to them by Mr. Miller, the animal remains known by the name of
ncrinites..

THE SEA STAR,

 

‘Catren also the star-fish; these curious animals inhabit the sea, and are

’ generally found on the sand, or among rocks, considerably below low water
mark. They are covered with a coriaceous crust, and have five or more
rays proceeding from a centre, in which is situated the mouth. A prodigious
number of tentacula, or short fleshy tubes, which seem at once calculated
to eatch prey, and to anchor the animal to the rocks, proceed from each ray.
The mouth is armed with long teeth, for the purpose of breaking the shells
on which the animals feed. The animal breathes by means of gills. The
common, or five-rayed star-fish,! which is the species here represented, has
five angular rays, with prickly protuberances at the angles. When alive, it
+s usually of a brownish white color. In one of these, which he kept for
some time alive, Mr. Bingley observed more than four thousand tentacula,
on the under sides of the rays.

 

' Asterias rubens, Lim.
ENTOZOA. 867

In sunmert, When the water of the sea is warmed hy the heat of the sun:
they fluat upon the surface, and in the dark they send forth a kind of stining
light, resembli_g that of phosphorus.

They are often seen fastened to the rocks and to the largest sea shells, ag
if tc derive their nourishment from them. If they be taken and put intd
spirit of wine, they will continue for many years entire; but if they be left
to the influence of the air, they are, in less than four and twenty hours,
melted down into limpid and offensive water.

In all of this species, none are found to possess a vent for their excre+
ments, but the same passage by which they devour their food serves for thé
ejection of their feces. These animals, as was said, take such a variety of
figures, that it is impossible to describe them under one determinate shape $
but, in general, their bodies resemble a truncated cone, whose base is applied
to the rock to which they are found usually attached. Though generally
transparent, yet they are found of different colors, some inclining to green;
some to red, some to white, and some to brown. In some, their colors apé
pear diffused over the whole surface; in some, they are streaked, and in
others often spotted. They are possessed of a very slow, progressive motion,
and, in fine weather, they are continually seen stretching out and fishing fot
their prey.

CLASS XI.—ENTOZOA.

Body soft, elongated, naked in almost all, without head, eyes, or feet ; mouth
formed of one or many suckers ; no tentacula or organs of respira.ton ; in-
testenal canal in some scarcely perceptible.

Tue intestinal worms are remarkable for existing and propagatng only
an the interior of animals.- There is scarcely an animal in which there are
not found some species of parasitical worm ; and they occur not only in the
alimentary canal and the vessels which communicate with it, such as the
hepatic vessels, but even in the cellular tissue, in the liver, and the brain,
The difficulty of conceiving how they appear in these parts, joined to the
observation, that they are never found but in living bodies, had led some
naturalists to suppose that they were engendered spontaneously. It is,
however, now ascertained, not only that the greater part produce ova or
living young, but that many have separate sexes, and couple as ordinary
animals. These worms or ova, however, must be of extreme minuteness to
be able to pass through channels so narrow.

The intestinal worms being destitute of trachea, bronchi or any other
organ of respiration, must necessarily receive oxygen through the r medium
868 ACALEPHA.

of the animals which they inhabit. No trace of circulating vessels hasbeen
detected ; and the vestiges of nerves are so obscure, that many naturalists
have doubted their existence. When these characters are found in an ani-
mal similar in form to those of this class, it is arranged along with this
division, though it does not inhabit the interior of another species.

Linnzus arranged this group of animals ina division of his great clas3
Vermes, including the genera Lumbéricus, Sipunculus, Fasciola, Gordtus,
Ascaris, Hirudo, and Myzine. Subsequent writers, such as Pallas, Muller,
Blumenbach, Bloch, and Geeze, established new genera, or added new spe-
cies; and more lately, Cuvier, Lamarck, Rudolphi, and Bremser, from more
detailed examination of the animals, and a more intimate knowledge of theit
structure, have proposed arrangements better suited to the present state of
the science.

M. Lamarck divides the class into three orders, viz. Hispide, Rigidula,
and Mollasse, the last of which is subdivided into three sections. In the
method of Cuvier, the class forms two orders, Les Cavitaires, and Les Paren-
chymateaux, according to the structure of their body. And Rudolphi, in
his work, entitled Entozoruym, sive Vermium Intestinorum Historia Naturalis,
‘arranges them into five orders, viz. 1. Nematvides; body elongated, cylin-
drical, elastic. 2. Acanthocephaius; body cylindrical, slightly elastic, with
anterior simple or compound, prolongation covered with a series,of bentand
retractile spines. 3. Trematodes; body flattened, or slightly cylindrical,
soft, and provided with ‘pores for suction. 4. Cestoidea; body elongated,
flattened, soft, of one or many pieces. 5. Cisticorus; body terminated by
or adhering to a vesicle. This arrangement includes besides, three isolated
genera, which would not admit of being placed under the previous heads.
Latreille, in his Fumilles du Régne Animal, disposes the intestinal worms
chiefly after the methods of Rudolphi and Cuvier; combining in his sketch of
tne class, the general views of these excellent naturalists. As the method
of Latreille is here followed with one exception, it is not necessary to repeat
the characters of the. subdivisions. That branch of natural science which
treats of intestinal worms, is generally termed Helnunthology.

CLASS XII.—ACALEPHA.

Gody gelatinous, circular, and radiated, with the skin soft ana transparent,
susceptible of contraction and dilatation.

Tne class Acalepha of Cuvier embraces the Radiaires, Medusaires and Ano-

males of Lamarck, and besides includes the geaus Actinza, which the fatter
POLYPI. 869

author had placed in a division of his Echinodermata. The animals of this
class are either fixed by a base, or float freely in the ocean, and many are
suspended in the water by the specific lightness of some of their parts, or
bv tie air contained in their bodies. Their substance is gelatinous, without
apparent fibres, though susceptible of contraction and dilatation. The sort
of vessels, found in. some, are merely canals in the gelatinous substance,
connected with the stomach; none of their movements seem connected with
muscular action ; there is no proper cavity for containing organs; the moutn
or the suckers, or tentacila in the centre of the inferior surface is unpro-
vided with hard parts; and the stomach, or the organ of digestion, and
nutrition, is a simple sac without outlet. Between this sac and the external
is a complicated but obscure organization. The Acalepha shine during the
night with a luminosity. Many species are ornamented with lively colors.
They are common inal] seas. Cuvier divides the class into two orders, viz.
1. Those where the body is fixed by a base either permanently or occasion-
ally; and 2. Those which float freely in the ocean.

CLASS XIII.—POLYPI.

Gelatinous animals with elongated, contractile body, and an alimentary sac with
one opening ; mouth distinct and terminal, surrounded with tentacula or radi=
ated lubes ; the greater number adhering together, and forming compound
‘animals.

Tue class of Polypi or Zdophytes, is one of the largest and most singular
of the Animal Kingdom. ‘

Nearly at the lowest step in the animal scale, many of them have the
form of plants, accompanied by the simplest organization of parts for a liv-
ing being capable of reproduction. Destitute of lead and eyes, and having no
organs for circulation, respiration or locomotion, the body of the Polypus tp-
pearsonly asa homogeneous substance, constituted of gelatinous and irritable
cellular tissue, in which the fluids essential to life move sluggishly. Allare,
however, furnished with an internal cavity or stomach, with .faint traces in
some of hollow canals and ovaries. The body is generally cylindrical or
conical, gelatinous or transparent; and the mouth surrounded by tentacula,
varying in number and furm, serves also for arms. Many of the polypi have
the principle of life so diffused in their structure, that portions cut from the
individual soon acquire, in the proper element, all the characters of the fer-

73%
870 POLYPI.

fect animal. Most of the same species, besides, form co:1:pound animals
adhering 10 one another by lateral appendages, or by their] osterior extreini :
“ty, and participate in a common life without ceasing to enjoy their indivi.
dual and independent existence. The mode of reproduction in many
mdividuals of this class is unknown. In general, it may be remarked, that
many are conceived to be gemmiferous, or to extend the race by buds in the
manner of plants, while others propagate the species by means of ova. In
the lowest of the races, the distinctive characters of animal life are so faintly
drawn, that with difficulty can many of these be distinguished from the
Cryptogamic families of the Vegetable Kingdom. Many of the Polypi have
the faculty of forming fixed envelopes, more or less solid, in which they re«
side. The singular diversity of this envelope, in its own substance inur-
ganic and calcareous, and its accumulation in immense masses in the seas
of warm countries, by the combined operation of these animals, is not the
least interesting fact in their history. They appear in these countries to
multiply with such facility, and in such great abundance, as to become puw-
erful agents in the modification of the surface occupied by the ocean. Isl-
ands are reared, and coasts extended, by the incessant multiplication of
these animals. M. Lamarck conjectures ihat even the calcareous mountains
and strata of the present surface of the globe may have been formed in the re-
volution of ages by Polypi; and that future changes in this surface, and in
the level of the ocean, are in course of preparation by these minute animals.
The animals of this class were regarded by the older naturalists as stony
vegetables, or vegetating stones, and a number of theories were framed to
explain their formation and growth. Their animal nature was first conjec-
tured by Imperati, in 1699, proved in 1727, by: Paysonnel, and confirmed in
1740, by the observations of Trembley upon the Hydra. From this period,
the true knowledge of these animals continued to increase, chiefly through
the researches of Ellis. Marsigli, Baster, Donati, Boccone, Degeer, Reau-
mur, Jussieu, and Cavolini, followed in the path traced out by Ellis and
Linnzus, with the same success which attended his investigations of the’
other objects of nature, arranged the whole in his class Vermes, making
them au order under the name of Lithophyta. The classification of this
great naturalist, who fixed the characters of the divisions, and described the
greatest number of species, forms the basis of what hassince been done by
Pallas, Bruguieré, and Lamarck. Cuvier, in his Réyne Animal, divides the
Polypi into two orders — the first comprehending the naked Poiypi; and the
second those which live in polypiferous masses, formed by their united!
iabors. Thesecond order is further subdivided into many families. Lae
marck, whose system regarding these animals is followed in the present:
work, divides the class of Polypi into five orders.
-I. Potyer Natantes. — Tentaculated polypi, united in a common fleshy
hody on an axis, free, and floating in the water.
INFUSORIA. 871

Il. Ponyer Tustrerr.—Tentaculated polypi, united in a cominon fleshy
budy, destitute of solid internal axis, and covered with tubiform cylindere |

Ill Potyr: Vacinatt.— Tentaculated polypi, constantly fixed in an or-
ganic covering, and forming, in general, compound animals.

IV. Porver Denupati.— Tentaculated polypi, not forming a common
envelope, fixed either constantly or spontaneously.

V. Pouyer Ciniati.— Polypi destitute of tentacula, but with vibratile
silie, at or near the mouth. ;

The habitations of the polypi, or the common masses formed by their
anited labors, are more or less calcareous or stony, from the madrepores, of
e substance as consistent as shells, to the fibrous or membranous horny
envelope of the sponge. Between these extremes are found every variety
of consolidation and consistence; but all are formed by animals approach-
ing to cne another in their general organization. Polypi are reproduced by
ova or a separation of parts, natural or accidental. Their food is chiefly
animal, derived, in the case of the smaller species, from the infusory ani-
malcule which inhabit the waters.

CLASS XIV.—INFUSORIA.

Microscopic animals, gelatinous, transparent, polymorphous, and contractile ;
no distinct mouth, nor constant or determinable interior organ; generation
Sissiparous or gemmiparous.

Tue Infusory Animals, or those animalcules which have been observed in
infusions of different plants, or in waters, more or less corrupted, and which are
generally so minute as to require the aid of the microscope to discover them,
form the last series of beings in the animal scale. The greater portion of
these appear to have a gelatinous body, of extreme simplicity ; but cyste-
matical writers have, also, arranged in this class, many animals much more
complicated in appearance, and which resemble them only in their extreme
minuteness. Of animals so minute, the organization is but imperfectly
known. Destitute of a distinct mouth, and internal organ of digestion, they
seem to receive nourishment by absorption in all parts of their body. They
are, however, capable of contraction and voluntary motion, and their repro-
duction is effected by a separation of parts. Lewenhveck and Muller first
introduced these animals to the notice of naturalists, under the name of
Infusoria. In Lamarek's system, they compose the first class of his Inver:
tebral Animals; Dumeril arranges them as the fourth family of his Zouphy-
tes; and Cuvier makes them the fifth class of Zouphytes or those animals
87: INFUSORIA.

°
which he has arranged as the fourth great division of the Animal Kingdom
Lamarck divides the Infusoria into two orders:
s- 1. Inrusorta AppenpicuLaTa.— With projecting parts at their exterior, as
hairs. horns, ora tail.
Il. Inrusonia Nupa, or naked Infusoria. — Destitute of exterior appen-
dages. :
873

GLOSSARY.

Accipitres ; the Rapacious class of birds, according to the V.innean system.
Ambulatory: a inbe of walking birds, with three distinet tugs before, and one sebind
Anal: in fishes, a name apphed to the fin near the anus.
Anseres ¢ the class of swimming birds.
Antenne: the horns of an insect,
Apodal; au order of tishes with bony gills and no ventral fins.
Aptera ; an order of insects without wings, "i
Belluce; an order of mammnalia, having obtuse teeth in each jaw, and undivided hoofs.
Birairve: a shell consisting of two parts, counected by a hinge,
Branchie; the gills of a fish.
Brufa: an order of mammatlia, entirely destitute of front teeth.
Canine teeth; two sharp-poimed teeth im each jaw, in man, called the eve-leeth.
Ceccums one of the lower intestines.
Carunele ¢ a fleshy protuberance.
Carinated ; rulged like the keel of a ship.
Cere; the membrane covering the bill of a bird.
Ciliary: belonging to the eyelids.
Claricle; the collar bone. ;
Coleoplerous; a vame applied to insects with crustaceans coverings to their wings.
Corerts; wa bird, the feathers lying about the base of the wing.
Crustaceous ; covered with a horny shell
Cuneiform; wedge-shaped.
Cuspid ¢ ending ma point,
Dentated s \armshed with teeth,
Digitated ; (urmshed with fingers or toes,
Diptera: a class of msects with two wings.
* Disticho-is¢ disposed in two rows.
Emarginate; wotehed at the end,
Elytra : the erustaceous coverings to the wings of caleapterans insects,
Futomostraca sv Uribe of animals inhabiting the water, and wluch une tie characters
of the mseet and the oyster.
Eruria ; the slough or cast skin of a reptile.
Femur: the thish,
Fere: a class of mammalia with six front teeth in each jaw, and one canine tooth cn
each side in both puws,
Filiform; \read-shaped. :
Gallinavcous ¢ a wae applied to those birds akin ta the domestic fowl,
Glires 2a class of imaimiialia with two long front teeth tn each jaw, and no canine teeth,
Grafle s the tribe of tards whieh wade in the water, but do not swin,
Gressorials aterm apphed to the feet of walking birds, which have the fore toes con

  

sected. but wuhont a membrane,
Hemiptera sa tnbe of insects half crustaceous. half membranous.
Hyaline s resembling glass.
Imbricated 5 a over each other like the tiles on a roof,
874

Incise.s: the front or cutting teeth,

Inguinal; stiuated near the orgaus of generation.

Invertebrated & without a backbone. ‘

Tris the colored ring of the eyebail

Larrea i a tern applied to one ef tbe incipient stages of an aunad..

Lepidopterous ? insects are Lepidopierous which have four wings covered with fine
szales, apparently like powder or meal.

Lithophyte: a stony substance which has a vegetable appearance.

Lore; a bare streak on the sic2 of a bird’s head, from the beak to the eye.

Lobated + having the toes or claws furmshed with a slitted membrane,

Lunated : shaped fike a half-moon, :

Mammalia ; that class of aunnals which suckle their young.

Mamme i the breasts,

Mandible; the yaw or bill,

Marsupials furnished with a hag or pouch on the belly, like the opossum,

Marillarys Welouging vo the jaw.

Molar; the large or grinding teeth,

Molluscous ; a term appled to those animals whose badies are soft, without an interna,
skeleton, or aruculated covering.

Neuropterous ¢ a vecin applied to insects ssh have membranous, transparent’ wings
an which the membranes cross each other like network,

Oceipul; the hind head,

Ocellated ; marked with spots resembling little eyes. ‘

Operculum ; a hid or cover,

Palmated ; webbed or having the shape of a band.

Palpi; the teelers of an insect.

Paputous; vovered with fleshy warts or points,

Passerine; an order of birds comprising unose which sing,

Pectinated ¢ shaped like the teeth of a comb.

Pectoral; pertamiug to the breast.

Pelvis ; whe cavity comprising the lower part of the alhdomen.

Pinnated ; having the toes or claws separate, but furnished wath Jateral mempranes.

Pisciform; having the shape of a fish,

Prehensile; havig the power of seizing or taking hold.

Primary feathers; the outer feathers of the wing.

Provess: a flesty or corneous protuberance.

Protractile; capalle of heme stretched forward.

Pupa: the chrysalis of an insect.

Rapucious ; an orde comprising the birds of prey,

Retructite; having the power of drawing anwards,

Sagittal; arrow-shaped,

Scapulars ; the shoulder feathers of a bird.

Sebaceous; (aly.

Setuceous ; brstly.

Secondaries; the middle feathers of the wine,

Speeutum ; a colored spot ou the back of the wing.

Sternuim ; the breast bone,

Subcaudal ; under the tail.

Subulate; curved ike a shoemaker’s awl,

Tarsus: (10 ornithology.) that yart of the leg between the thigh and the claw. -

Tentucula; the teelers of au usect.
875
o

Testaccous; pertaining to the festacea, or animals covered with a hard shell like the

tortoise ‘ ; &

Tertiaries; the interior feathers of the wing, or those next the body.

Tetr utactyle; furnished with four toes ur claws.

Triquetrous ; three-sided,

Univalve ; a shell complete in a single piece.

Unguiculated; furmshed with nails or claws,

Vent; (in tirds,) the under part of the rump,

Ventral; belonging to the belly.

Waders ; those birds which frequent the shore, hut do not swim.

Wattles; the loose red flesh hanging about the neck of the turkey and some otost
' eds. .

Zoophyte; a body partaking of the nature of animals and vegetables.

Zygodactylous + having ‘he toes disposed in pars.
A.
ACALEPHA, .

Agout, .
Albatross, .
Atcyones, s
ALEcTuRIDES,
Alligator, .

Ampuisia, «.
Ampinsbena,
Anaconda, .
Anchovy, «

ANISODACTYLI,

ANNELIDES, .
Ant, . .
“ white .
Ant eater, .
Antelope, .
Apes,.

ARACHNIDES, .
Argali, .

“Corsican

Armaiuillo,
Arneo, .
ArticuLaTa,
Ass, fe LS
Auk, great

Aves,. . .
Avoset,
“amu .

B.
Babiroussa, .

Bahoon, pig-faced
= ptg-tailed
Badger, European

“

Ba, . .
“spectre, .

BaTRACHIA,.
Bear, black.
“Bornean

American

Page.
863
262

659
563
609
694
203
709
702
733
558
774
84
836
art
353

66
791
374
375
269
380
774
317
630
406
640
641

nn

299
81
79

118

120
91
92

710

107

1i2

 

INDEX.

Bear, brown...
“ grizzly.
© — jarge-lipped
“©  Thibet.
« white .
Beaver, . .
Bee, ae. OE
Bee eater,.
Beetle, . 2.
Bengal Loris, .

Birps, ar ee

Bison, ie)
Bittern, . «le
a American

" least.

_ Black cap,. .

Blackbird, 2.
Blood-hound, .
Blue-bird, 2.
Boa constrictor,
Bob-o-link, 24
Buffalo, cape.

“domestic
Bulfinch, 2.
Bulldog, .
Bunting, cow.

es painted .

” rice.
towhee .
Bustard, great .

a little =.
Butcher bird,
Buuerfly, .  .
Buzzard, .

ie American
Moor .

« turkey .

Cc.
Cabim .

382
632
634
634
513
483
iio
516
700
526
379
3sn

139
527
529
526
529
613
621
503
B59
458
462

‘459
423

260

 

Cachalut, .

Cainel, Se © te

Camelopard,
Canary bird,
Canthans,
Caracal, ..
Carnivora, .
Carp,. .
“ golden .
Cat, tiger...
. “© domestic
Cathird, . .
Caterpillar, .
Cavy, spotted .
CerHacopuva,
Ceracea, . .
Chameleon, .
Chainois, .
Creirnoprera,
CHELIboNES,
CuHELoNiA,
Chetah, .  .
Chimpansé, .
Chinchilla,
Chlainyphorus,
Chough, . f

Chuck WilPs Widow,

Cinruipepa, .
Cive, .  .
“ Javanese
Coaita, .

Coat, brawn, .

{

Cobra de Capello,

Cochmeal, «
Cock, domestic
Cockatoo, .e
Cockchaler, .
Cockle, 2. 4
Cuckrvach,

Page.
397
32)
35]
538
826
97
102
738
739
199
200
501

263
7598
392
699
364

1
667
687
192

68
242
277
486
576
272
158
157

83
117
708
835
589
548
8x4
769
828
Cod, '
Corunsn
- Concuirena,
' Condor, .
Coot,. .
Cormorant, .
Cougar, .  .
Crab, 2 we
“land. .
“ violet. .
Crane, ee %
“ balearie .
Creeper, .
Cricket...
Crocodile, a
Crossbill, .  .
Crow, carrion .
_ © red-legged .
Crustacea, :
» Cuckou, European
ey tt American
ont
-“Curlew,. 2.
Cursones, . .
_ Cuttle fish, 2.
_ Cutwater,. .
Cycosrom, ge
D.
Death's head moth,
Deer, fallow.
« Indian stag .
‘ Mouse.
© pein. oe
© roebuck .
“ pusa .  .
“stag ¥
« Virginian .
Diver, northern
Dodo, . 2.
Deg, . se
%, & Altrican
“Australian
“© blood-hound .
© bull 2.
«  Esquimaux .
« greyhound 7
“ hurmer .
“ hyeno.
Dog,mastiff. .
“ Newfoundland
“  pomter .
shepnerd’s

862
34
340
332
345
342
339
334
344
678
683

141
139
140
139
135
132
13
141
138
138
134
140

>

 

INDEX.

Dog, spaniel ..
Dog, terrier .
Dolphin, . .

Dormouse, .  .
Dory,. . 2
Dotterel, .
Dove,. . . .
Dromedary, ..
Duck, eider . {..
“  canvass-back
E.
Eagle, bald .
“ Brazilian.
« — Chilian sea
« harpy 2
« golden
“ osprey .
«  ring-tailed
6G. «
Washington
«  wedge-tailed
Earth worm, #
EcHtnovermaTa,
EventaTa, .
Eel, g 4% 8
* econeer « «
“ electrical 2.
Egret, great...
“* little 2.
Elephant, .  .
Elephant beetle, .
Elk, American.
“European.
Emeu,  * «
Entozoa, i, SO 3
Ermine, . . .
F.
Falcon, jer +e
peregrine .
« ~ rough-legged
Fennec, . . .
Fer, * * #
Ferret,. *
Fiellfare, .  .
Fisues,. . .
Fish hawk, ..
Flamingo,. . «
Flea, 2 « &

Flycatcher, blue gray ,

“ crested.
“  pewit .

Page.
133
138
394
235
750
623
585
321

865

745
745
631
630
279
827
345
322
617
867
124

430
431
461

154]

96
123
44
717
439
638
822
509
508

609].

 

877

Flycatcher, tied
ity

ted-eyed =,
® spottea .

Page
506
510
506

©  swallow-tailed 511

“ tyrant.
 white-eyed .

507
511

yellow thruated 510

Flying fish, .  .
Foxy, i «# %
«American
“Arctic is
“ silvery .
Frogy,. «we
“ edible. .
“ tree .
G.
Gall Insects, é

GaLLiNna,. . .

Gally worm, . .
Gannet,. 2.
Gaur,. . . .
Gayal, . wl
Gazelle, . .
Genet, .
Gibbon, . 2.
Gilthead, .  .
Giraffe, . .

Gunes, . Ǥ +

Glow worm, . .
Glossary, f  .
Gat; ss os
Goa . .

“ Angora. .

Rocky mountain
Goatsucker, .
Goldfinch, .  .

a European
Goosander, .  . ,
Goose, American wild

“European .

« solani. .
Gopher mole, .
Goshawk,. .

GRALLATORES, é

Grampus,. .

Granivora,

Grasshopper,
Grayling, .

Grehe, crested .
Greyhound, .  .
Grufon 1

737
150
153
152
153
710
713
713

841
587

677
387
337
356
158
76
747
351
223
823
872
362
369
371
371
572
538
539
71
660
663
677
102
4&3
621
396
623
829
73t
652
132
412
878

Grosheak, cardinal
Grouse, black .
«dusky.
« red
«ruled
«  pinuated
«  sharp-tailed
“© wood. .
Guinea hen,.  .
“pig, se
Gul, . . .
H.
Haddock, ~ *

Halibut, .
- Hainster,
Hare, European
American
Harrier, :
Hart heest, .
‘Hawk, black
“

fish ©

marsh

red-tailed

sparrow

swallow-tailed

Heath hen,
Hedgehog,
Herning, .

Heron, .
“

“

ots

blue
great
night

.

.

Hippopotamus,
Hog, . .

Indian

Mexican
Honey guide,
Hovpoe, .
Hornbill, .
Hornet, .

Horse, .
Humzning-bird,
Huso,.
Hyzua, spotted
striped

1.

Ibex, .
Ibis,

scarlet
wood .

.

Page.
533
600
604
601
601
603
604
5938
597
261

655

741
741
240
254
257
134
359
456
439
462
462
454

457]

603

97
732
628
632
631
630

297)

299
300
539
563
472
847
310
560
727
16!
160

367
64
643

w

643

 

INDEX.

Ichneumon,

Iguana,

indigo bird,
INERTES,
InFusuria,
Insecta,
InsecTivora,
INVERTEBRATA,

J

J ackal,
Jackdaw,

Jagua
Jay, b
“

Yr,
lue

Canada
Coluinbia
“European

© Florida
“ Steller’s
Jerboa, .

Kanguroo,

K.

Kingbird, ._
Kinghsher, belted

o

Kite,

‘“* Mississippi

European

r
aa

Lammergeyer, .
Lamprey,
Lantern Ay,
Lapwing,
Leech,

“

“

Lion,

Lemming,
Lemur, red and Llack

o

slow.
Leopard,
Linnet, American

European

.

«Bengal

“ Cape

Lizard,
Llama, .
Lobster,

Locus

hy

LoruosRaNcuil, .

Louse

Lumpfish, .

Lynx,

bay

Page.
158

698)

538
682
871
801

96
752

148
477
185
431
483
484

48] -

484
483
243

219
507
565
564
460
461

426
721
834
623
777
235

89
191
536
534
163
1°8
169
697
328
781
832
728
821
742
195
197

Lynx, (ana Ja
M.

} Macauco . .
‘Maccaw,
Mackerei,.
Magpie. *
-Magot, 2. 6
Manmnon,

MALAcoPTERYGII, «
Malbrouck, —.

Mammauia, .

Man, . . «

Manati,.. .  «

Mandrill, .

Manis,

Marinose,, .

Marmol, .

«Lapland
i Maryland
s Parry’s .

Marsupiatia, .
Marten, pine...
ie purple.
es European
Mastif,. . .
Menura, .  .
Merganser, hooded

rg

190

87
649
748
478

79

79
723

P28

3L
392

82
275
218
244
233
247
247
213
125
563
570
138
503
673

a red-breasted 671

Merlin, . «©
Mocking-bird, .
Mole, . .
“gopher .
“shrew. .
Mo.iusca, .
Mongous, . .
Monkey, . .
Moorcock, .
Moose, . .
Morse, . «oe
Mouse, . .

“field . 4

«jumping
Mule, .
Mullet, .
Muscle, . .

Musk, Thiber .
Muskrat, .
Mesqvash
Myziarora,
N

 

Na. wom,

.

452
496

99
102
101
754

88

be
601
332
216
239
232
244
329
747
765
331
230
230
799
Nantilvs, ..
Night Hawk,
Nightngale, .
Ninekiller, .
Noddy .
Nutcracker, .
Nuthatch,. .
Nyl Ghaw .
Oo.
Ocelot, . .
Omnivoza, .
Opxipia, .

wll
Opossum, Mexiean ..
murme

.

s Virginian

Orang Outang, .

Onole, Baltimore .

“ orchard .

Ortolan,.
Ostrich, 2.

«American .

Otter, Canada .
« common
« sea.

Page.
759
574
5t2
503
655
434
558
360

193
472
700
218
218
213
69
486
487
526
610
615
128
127
130

“ South American 129

Ouistiti,. .
Ounce, oe &
Ouzel, 2.

86
192
649

Owl, American horned 464
“European horned 463

© bam. .
“burrowing
© hawk .

** jittle

“red. .

* snowy .
Ox, « . .
Oyster, .

P.

Paca, . «
PACHYDERMATA,
Paco, .
Patmipepes,
Pangolin, .
Panther, 2.
Paradise bird,
Parroquet, .
Parrot, eT)
Partridge,

. Peacock, .  .

467
470

766

263
278
330
653
275
188
491
- 550
545
605

 

INDEX.

Pearl-oyster, .
Peveary, Ye

Pelican, 2. 2. e

Penguin, .
“Patagonian
Perch, a? Ge
Petrel, . 1
“stormy .
Phatagin, .  .
Pheasant, .
«golden .
Pholas, .  .

Pigeon, American wild 577

Carolina
« domestic .
Pike,. . .
Pilot fish, .  .
PINNATIPEDES, .
Pintado,. .
PLaciostomMa, .
Platypus, .  .
Plover, golden .
« — long-legged
«ringed .
Pointer... . .
Folecat, . .
Potvel, . 2
Porcupine,. .

" Brazitian

Canada
Porpoise, . .
Prawn, . .
Puffin, .  .
Puma, ae

Q.
QuapRUMANA, .
Quagga, ._
Quail, American

“ Californian
« European

R.
Rabbit,. . .
Raccoon, .
RapiaTa, is
Rail, American
“ water. .
Rat, black...
Rapaces, aS
“ lemmmng .
“ Norway .
“ water. .

 

879

Page. Pige.
767] Rattlesnake, . . 703
300] Raven, . 473
673] Ray, . . . 726
68!) Razorbill, . 68)
682} Redbird, . . . 531
748} Redbreast, . . 614
657| Redstart, .  . 515
658 sS American 611
275| Reindeer, - « 346
592] Reprives, . 685
593} Rhinoceros, 303
769] Roach, . . . 739
Robin, «© 6 6 499
684 “grounds, 529
585| Roebuck, . . « 342
735{ Roller, .  . 486
749| Rook,, «© . «. 476
651{ Rougette, . . 92
697| Roussette,. . . 92
722|RoMINANTIA,. 320
278 Ss.
622) Sable . . + 126
621] Saga, . . « 356
623} Salamander,. .  .715
134) Salmon, . . . 729
122 “trout. 730
868! Sandpiper, . . 644
260 “ red-hacked . 645
252 fe red-Lreasted 645
253 “solitary 646
395'Sauria, . . « 691
790) Scolopendra,. . 800
673) Scorpinn, «we 792
176] Screamer, horned 609
Sea bear, .  . . 209
66 “ horse, . . 728
317 “ lion, » +» « 208
607 «owl, rar) 743
609 “ otter, - . «© 130
606 «star, ee. 866
“ unicom, . + 395
256] Seal, . . « 203
115 “ elephart . . 208
863 Greenland . 206
650] “ honded . . 209
649 “ ursme . . 209
238] Shad,. . 734
412) Shark, . 4 +22
233| Shearwater, « 658
237] Sheep, domestic . 376
231 “Rocky Mountain 372
880

Sheep, wild 2.
Shrew mole,.  .
Shrew mouse °
SHHKE, « « w
Shrimp...
Siamang, . 2.
Silk-worm, ..
Skate, ery Aart is
Skimmer, .  .
Skunk, « -« x
Skylark, oo.
Slolh,. . 2.
Smew, . .
Smelt)’ 2.
Snail, 2. e,
Snake, black .
~ hovded .
Snipe, ain Vaan He
“ semi-palmated
Sole fish, .  «
Spanel, . 2.
ss water.

Sparrow, chipping .
“field
“« song. -

Sphinx,. . .
Spier, 2. 6
Spoonbill, 2.
Spriughok, ee
Squirrel, af
a fat .
me flying.
me grey .
Stag, . «© |
“ Canada. .
* Cape « «
« Indian. ef
Starling, oo.
Swat,. 2. © -
Stork « « «
* Marabou ‘
Sturgeon, . «
Srurniones,. 2 «
Swallow, .  «
«bank...
# harm.
chimney
« cliff .
Swan,, . . -
“ whistling .
* blak . .

Page.

74
101

98
505
790

~
7

862
726
653
126
523
264
672
731
761
702
705
647
648
743

133!

537
533
537
86!
794
641
358
243
235

249
334
345
359
340
489
124
634
636
726
726
567
670
569
672
57)
663
665
665

 

INDEX.

Swift,

Sword fish, .

T.

Tamandua, .

Tamanoi
Tanager,
Tapir,

Fj) te %

Tarantula,.  .

Teal,

Termites, .  .
Tern, greater .
“ lesser.

Terrier,

Thrasher, .
Throstle, .
Thrush, brown.

long .

ee missel .
es walter.

Tiger, .

wood .

« black os
Titmouse, bearded
black-cap'

“

Toad, .

“Surinam.

Torpedo,
Tortoise,
Toucan,
Touyou,

. .

Tropic bird, .
Trout, 2. 6

Tumbled

ung, .

TunicaTA, « +

Tunny,
Turbot,
Turkey,

Turkey Buzzard,

Turtle,

Urson,

Vampire
Viper,

v.

<

bat.

“Egyptian
« horned

Vulture;

“
“

Lad

bearded
black.
carrion
fulvoas .

654
654
138
495
495
495
495
493
502
500
179
188
524
525
713
714
724
6387
543
615
678
730
826
77

749
7Al

594
423
689

92
707
706
708
426
425
423
412

 

Page.

Vulture, kingof . 428
«secretary 429

« sociable . 418

Ww.

Wagtail, white - 522
Walrus,. . 210
Wapiti, . . . 348

Warbler, blue-eyed = -£i7
 blue-wineed 517
«  golden-winged 517

Wasp, 6 6) «(845
Watriwaou,. . 273
Weasel, . 6 « 123

“pine... 125
Whale, . . . 399

«  spermaceti 397
Wheatear,, . . 520
Whip-poor-will.. 575
Widgeon, .  « «668
Wild cat, American 197
Wille, .  . 648
Wolf. . .« « 142

“American . 145

© clouded black = 145

“prairie « 147
Wolf fish,.  . 74G
Wolverine, . 121
Wofnbach,  . . 222
Woodchuck,. . 247
Woodcock, « « 646

Woodpecker, —. 55!
“ dbwny . 556
golden-wing 55

« hairy a «55!

«ivory billed 6&3
“ pileated . 654
“ yed-hellied 556
 red-headed 551

«  yellow-bellied 555

Wren, Carolina 520

© European . B18

« house .  . 519

“ gold-crested 519

“marsh .  . 620
Y.

Yak, . . «© « &87

Yellow bird, . 538

Yellow hammer, . 636
Z.

Zebra, - 6 « Oa
 

. ee
+
. h z . H - fe :
~ .
} .
. a ~ :
;
F 5