THE MODERN NATURALIST; COMPRISING THK ftnlngtj of ttje Cngliajr ROBERT HASELL NEWELL, B.D. RECTOR OF LITTLE HORMEAD, HERTS. AUTHOR OF " REMARKS ON GOLDSMITH, " AND " LETTERS ON THE SCENERY OF WALES." Eontion : J. S. LINGHAM, CKOSS STREET. TO J. E. GRAY, ETC. ETC., KEEPER OF ZOOLOGY IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS FRIENDLY AND VALXTABLE SERVICE. A 3 2091 1 51 PREFACE. To correct some zoological errors in English poetry by a comparison with the writings of modern Naturalists, is the design of the follow- ing compilation. The Poets are early read, and hence the er- roneous notions imbibed from them are deeply fixed, and long retained; from the very cir- cumstance, too, of the medium which conveys, and the authority which supports them: the utility, therefore, of the application of natural history to the present purpose is obvious. False representations of natural objects can never be necessary : the beautiful features of Nature are inexhaustible, and a faithful de- lineation of them is capable of being set off by the hand of Genius and Taste with all the graces of poetry. Neither are the poets always re- A 4 Vlll PREFACE. sponsible for their inaccuracies ; they took the subjects most suitable to their purpose, as they were generally known and believed at the time they wrote, and as they were defended by clas- sical authority. But though fictions of some kind are justly regarded as the soul of poetry, there are two cases in which false descriptions of natural ob- jects do not seem to be allowable. To apply natural history to a moral purpose is the highest use of the science; and illustrations of the existence and attributes of the Deity, or pious and moral sentiments drawn from that source, should surely be founded on truth. For this we have the example of Sacred Writ : nowhere else are to be found such exalted praise and admiration of the works of Nature; nowhere are they applied so powerfully, and with such simple and affecting truth, in teaching and enforcing precepts of piety and virtue, and in displaying the perfections of their Divine Author. PKEFACE. IX In poetry purely descriptive an adherence to truth seems equally necessary. Here the very intention of the poet is to inform and instruct : to represent nature falsely, therefore, is to de- ceive the reader, to deprive him of the know- ledge which he expects, and, as in the former case, to derogate from the honour due to the Author of Nature. The present improved state of natural his- tory has corrected many former mistakes, as well as the extravagant and unnatural fables of the ancient poets: and, as the science ad- vances, a wider and more accurate acquaintance with its discoveries will prevent a trite repe- tition of the same images ; objects will be viewed in new lights ; new properties and qualities will be known ; and the poets be thus enabled to spread through their works faithful descriptions in boundless variety, sublimity, and beauty. In forming this collection some popular su- perstitions have been included, the inaccurate passages occasionally contrasted with true de- X PREFACE. scriptions, a few illustrative engravings added from the old naturalists, and some brief zoologi- cal notice of such subjects as did not appear generally known. The corrections have been given throughout, as nearly as possible, in the words of the authors, in a spirit of candid cri- ticism, and with the sole wish of increasing the interest and usefulness of natural knowledge, by making it more correct. ALPHABETICAL TABLE AUTHORS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK. AIDROVANDTTS (Ulysse). Natural History. 14 vols. folio. From 1599 to 1640. BAKER (Henry). Employment for the Microscope. 1 vol. 8vo; London, 1753. BEWICK (Thomas). History of Quadrupeds, also of British Birds. 2 vols. 8vo ; Newcastle, 1797. BISGLEY (Rev. R.). Animal Biography. 3 vols. 8vo ; London, 1805. BBOWN (Sir Thomas). Pseudodoxia Epidemica ; or, In- quiries into Vulgar and Common Errors. 1 vol. 4to ; London, 1672. BUFFON (George Louis Leclerq, Comte de). Histoire Naturelle,Generale,et Particuliere ; aveclaDescription du Cabinet du Roi. 36 vols. 4to ; Paris, 1749 1789. BUTLER (Samuel). The Feminine Monarchic; or, a Treatise on Bees, and the due ordering of them. 1 vol. 4to; Oxford, 1631. COSTA (Emanuel Mendez da). Historia Naturalis Testaceorum Britanniae. 2 vols. 4to ; London, 1778. CUVIER (Le Baron). The Animal Kingdom arranged Xll ALPHABETICAL TABLE in uniformity with its Organisation ; with Supplement- ary Additions. 17 vols. 8vo; London, 1827. GESNER (Conrad.). Opera Tigurini. 3 vols. folio, 1558. GROSE (Francis). Provincial Glossary ; with a Collection of Local Proverbs and Popular Superstitions. 1 vol- 8vo; London, 1787. HUBER (Francis). New Observations on Bees. 1 vol. 8vo. ; Edinburgh, 1809. HCBER (Peter). Recherches sur les Moeurs des Fourmis Indigenes. 1 vol. 8vo; Paris et Geneve, 1810. JACKSON (Thomas). Cornucopia; or, divers Secrets, wherein are contained the rare Secrets of Man, Beasts, Fowls, Fishes, Trees, Plants, Stones, and such like ; most pleasant and profitable, and not before com- mitted to be printed in English. Newlie drawn out of divers Latin Authors into English. 1 vol. 4to ; 1596. KIRBT and SPENCE (William). Introduction to Ento- mology. 3 vols. 8vo; London, 1815. LATHAM (John). General Synopsis of British Birds; with Supplement. 3 vols. 4to; London, 1782, et seq. LISTER (Martin). Historia Animalium Anglia?, Trac- tatus tres ; scilicet de Cochleis Terrestribus et Fluvia- libus, de Araneis, et de Cochleis Marinis. 1 vol. 4to ; London, 1678. MONTAGUE (George). Ornithological Dictionary; or, Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds. 2 vols. 4to ; London, 1781. PENNANT (Thomas). History of Quadrupeds. 2 vols. 4to ; London, 1781. British Zoology. 3 vols. 8vo; London, 1776. RAT (John). Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation. 1 vol. 12mo ; London, 1691. SHAW (George, Dr.). General Zoology; or, Systematic OF AUTHORS REFERRED TO. Xlll Natural History. 8vo, vol. 1, &c. Naturalists' Mis- cellany: Zoological Lectures. London, 1800 1809. TOPSEL (Edward). Collection from the Writings of Conradus Gesner and others. 1 vol. folio ; London, 1658. TRANSACTIONS of the Linnaean Society. 4to, vol. 1, &c. ; London, 1791, et seq. TRANSACTIONS of the Royal Society. 4to, vol. 1, &c. ; London, 1665, et seq. WHITE (Rev. Gilbert). Natural History of Selborne. 2 vols. 8vo ; London, 1802. WOOD (William). Zoography ; or, the Beauties of Nature displayed. 3 vols. 8vo; 1807. YARRELL (William). History of British Birds. 3 vols. 8vo; London, 1843. ZOOLOGICAL INDEX. INSECTS. Page Ant - 3 Glowworm Bee - 10 Gossamer Blighters - 16 Lady-bird Death-Watch - - 19 Nut-Maggot Gadfly - - 25 BIRDS. Barnacle - - 57 Peacock - Bittern - - 61 Pelican - Bullfinch - 63 Redbreast Cuckoo - - 65 Rook Fieldfare - - 72 Swallow - Night-Raven - - 76 Wild Swan Ostrich - - 79 REPTILES. Basilisk - - 115 Salamander Chameleon - 118 Slow-worm Common Snake - 122 Toad Cerastes - - 124 Page 30 36 48 53 83 85 88 93 102 108 126 128 130 XVI ZOOLOGICAL INDEX. MAMMALIA. Bear Jackal Hyaena Lion Page - 137 Mole Page - 147 - 139 - 141 Porcupine River-Horse - 151 - 153 - 144 Whale - - 157 INSECTS, ANT. (FORMICA.) THE natural history of Ants has been involved in much error. The accounts of the ancients are more fabulous than true ; and those even of some modern naturalists are not entirely to be depended upon. Ants were long, and generally, supposed to subsist on corn, and celebrated for their industry in collecting it an error occasioned by the resemblance of their pupa?, on a cursory view, to grains of wheat, and by their care in removing them to greater or smaller elevations, according to the state of the atmosphere.* They were also anciently believed to bite the germ of the corn which they collected, in order to stop its vegetation, and to store it up for winter provision, f Our poets, drawing their information from * Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. vi. pt. 2. p. 352. f This opinion of Pliny (1. xi. c. 30.) was considered a fiction by Ray, as far back as 1691. (Ray's Wisdom of God, p. 99.) B 2 4 THE ANT. these fabulous sources, or sheltering them- selves under classical authority, have followed each other in the self-same track of error, and by the introduction of these faults have dis- figured many of their beautiful descriptions and illustrations of industry, sagacity, and foresight. First crept The parsimonious emmet*, provident Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd ; Pattern of just equality perhaps Hereafter, join'd in her popular tribes Of commonalty. MILTOX. Par. Lost, b. vii. 1. 484. Tell me, why the ant In summer's plenty thinks ofivinter's want ? By constant journey careful to prepare Her stores, and bringing home the corny ear, By what instruction does she bite the grain ? Lest, hid in earth, and taking root again, It might elude the foresight of her care. PRIOR. Poems: Solomon. They don't wear their time out in sleeping or play ; But gather up corn in a sunshiny day, And/or winter they lay up their stores : * Strictly speaking, the Formica fuliginosa is the emmet. Cuvier, vol. xv. p. 444. THE ANT. O They manage their work in such regular forms, One would think they foresaw all the frosts and the storms, And so brought their food within doors. AVATTS. Hymns: The Emmet. The sage industrious ant, the wisest insect, And best economist of all the field : For when as yet the favourable sun Gives to the genial earth th' enlivening ray, All her subterraneous avenues, And storm-proof cells, with management most meet, And unexampled housewif 'ry, she frames ; Then to the field she hies, and on her back Burden immense! brings home the cumbrous corn : Then, many a weary step, and many a strain, And many a grievous groan subdued, at length Up the huge hill she hardly heaves it home : Nor rests she here her providence, but nips With subtle tooth the grain, lest from her garner In mischievous fertility it steal, And back to daylight vegetate its way. SMART. On the Omniscience of God. Solomon's lesson* has been generally adduced * " Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise : AA'hich, having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." Proverbs, vi. 6, 7, 8. " The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in summer." Ch. xxx. v. 24. B 3 b THE ANT. as a strong confirmation of the ancient opinion: it can, however, relate only to the species of a warm climate, the habits of which are probably different from those of a cold one. So that his words, as commonly interpreted, may be per- fectly correct and consistent with nature, and yet be not at all applicable to the species which are indigenous in Europe. These words may very well be interpreted simply to mean, that the Ant, with commendable prudence and foresight, makes use of the proper seasons to collect a supply of provisions sufficient for her purpose. There is not a word in them implying that she stores up grain, or other pro- vision. She prepares her bread, and gathers her food, viz., such food as is suited to her, in summer and harvest, that is, when it is most plentiful ; and thus shows her wisdom and prudence by using the advantages offered her. The words thus interpreted, as they may be without any violence, will apply to our Euro- pean species, as well as to those which are not indigenous.* * Kirby and Spence, Entom. vol. ii. p. 47. 1st edit. THE ANT. 7 It is now clearly ascertained that Ants are almost entirely carnivorous. They have no skill to construct magazines, and fill them with provisions, and cannot, like bees, draw nourish- ment from cells without going abroad. Those which are occupied at home depend for their subsistence upon the workers, which go abroad to forage, and bring them back small insects, or bodies of such as they have dissected on the spot ; then each attacks the prey, which is soon dispatched. But when they meet with ripe fruit, or very delicate game, such as worms, lizards, and other small dead animals, they drink out their juices, and thus never fail to come back to their nest plentifully stored with liquid food, which at their return they disgorge into the mouths of their .companions.* The honey dew also, the secretion, in the form of liquid sugar, from the Pucerons, Aphides, or Blighters, forms a principal nourishment of ants. They have the art of obtaining this liquor from the insects at pleasure, and a supply of them is always found in or near the nest of one species * Les Kecherches par P. Huber, p. 177. B 4 8 THE ANT. (les fourmis jaunes). The gall insect also affords them a similar food. * It is further certain that European Ants have no need of winter stores, since they are torpid during great part of that season, in extreme cold ; but when the season is not very severe, the depth of their nests shelters them from the frost. They do not become torpid till the ther- mometer sinks to 2 (of Reaumur) below the freezing point. At that temperature they would be exposed to the misery of famine, if they were not provided with a resource against this tem- porary revival ; and this is no other than the Pucerons, which, by a wonderful agreement of circumstances not to be attributed to chance, are torpid exactly at the same degree of cold with the Ants, and revive too at the same time with them ; and thus are always to be found when there is a demand for them. Ants, which have not the art of collecting these insects within their habitations, are at least acquainted with their retreats ; they hunt them out at the foot of trees and roots of shrubs which they * Linn. Trans, vol.vi. p. 75. ; Huber, p. 180 197. THE ANT. before frequented. At the first thaw they glide along the hedges and paths, which conduct them to their providers, and bring back to the republic a small quantity of their honey, for a very little is sufficient to support them in winter.* * Huber, p. 202. 10 BEE. (APIS MELLIFERA.) FEW of the insect tribe have more frequently attracted the attention of poets than the Bee ; yet their descriptions are often vague and general, and given with more regard to poetical embellishment than to accurate delineation. Many circumstances too in this insect's eco- nomy have, till lately, been imperfectly known. Milton adopted the opinion of his time, that the working Bee is the female.* Swarming next, The female bee, that feeds her husband drone Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells With honey stored. Par. Lost, b. vii. 1. 489. * He probably gained his information from a Treatise on Bees by C. Butler, entitled, " The Feminine Mon- archic," published in 1631. That author says, "Reason and sense agreeing, do show, that the honey bees are the females, by whom the bees of both sexes, first the males, then the females, are bred." Ch. iv. p. 54. THE BEE. 11 Modern researches, especially those of M. Huber, prove decidedly, that the working Bees, which form the mass of the population, are mules, or neuters, that the drones (as they are usually called) are the males, and that the queens, of which there is generally but one in a hive, are the females* In the two following passages, the epithets 11 honied *," and " waxen" are entirely poetical, as recent observations have fully shown : Hide me from day's garish eye, While the bee with honied thigh, That at her flowery work doth sing. MILTON. Penseroso, 1. 141. The honey bags steal from the humble bees, And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs. SHAKSPEARE. Mids. Night's Dream, act iii. sc. 1 . When the stomach of the Bee is filled with nectar, it next, by means of the feathered hairs with which its body is covered, pilfers from the flowers the fertilising dust of the anthers, or * Huber's New Observations on Bees, p. 77. Cuvier, vol. xv. p. 530. These authors have shown that the working Bees are capable of being converted mtofemales, and thus supply the loss of a queen. 12 THE BEE. pollen, which is equally necessary to the society with the honey, and may be named the ambrosia of the hive, since from it the bee-bread is made, serving as food both for old and young. When the body of the Bee is covered with the farina, with the brushes of its legs, especially of the hind ones, she wipes it off, not as we do our dusty clothes, to dissipate it in the air, but to collect every particle of it, and then to knead and form it into two little masses, which she places, one in each of the baskets formed by the hairs on her hind legs. When the Bee, laden with it, arrives at the hive, she sometimes stops at the entrance, and very leisurely detach- ing it by piecemeal, devours one or both the pellets on her legs, chewing them with her jaws. Sometimes she enters the hive, and walks upon the combs, and whether she walks or stands >still, keeps beating her wings. By the noise thus produced, which seems a call to some of her fellow-citizens, three or four go to her, and, placing themselves around her, begin to lighten her of her load, each taking and de- vouring a small portion of her ambrosia : this they repeat, if more do not arrive to assist them, THE BEE. 13 three or four times, till the whole is disposed of. This bee-bread is generally found in the second stomach and intestines, but the honey never, which induced Reaumur to think, but he was mistaken, that the Bee elaborated wax from it.* Mr. Rogers, in his elegant poem, supposes the bee to be conducted to the hive by retrac- ing the scents of the various flowers which it had visited. Hark ! the bee winds her small but sullen horn, Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn ; . O'er thymy downs she bends her busy course, And many a stream allures her to its source. "Pis morn, 'tis night ; that eye, so finely wrought, Beyond the reach of sense, the soar of thought, Now vainly asks the scenes she left behind, Its orb so full, its vision so confin'd! Who guides the patient pilgrim to her cell ? Who bids her soul with conscious triumph swell? With conscious truth retrace the mazy clue Of varied scents, that charmed her as she flew? Hail, memory, hail ! thy universal reign Guards the least link of beings' glorious chain. Pleasures of Memory, Pt. 1. Tliis idea, however, is more poetical than accurate, Rees flying straight to their hives from * Kirby and Spence, Entomol. vol. ii. p. 181 185. 14 THE BEE. great distances. The poet might have employed with as much effect the real fact of Bees dis- tinguishing their own hive out of numbers near them when conducted to the spot by instinct. This recognition of home seems clearly the result of memory.* A more intimate acquaintance with the natural history of this insect, which modern discoveries have so much enlarged, would sup- ply the poet with many interesting facts less trite and common than those usually adduced, and equally adapted to his purpose. The Bee is, of all the social insects, the one whose in- stinct is most perfect, the only one whose habits are not carnivorous, and whose existence is one of the blessings of nature. . The others are born for destruction ; she, on the contrary, appears to have been made to secure the fecundation of vegetables, by transporting from one to another the pollen of their flowers, which the winds alone could not as certainly have propagated. Our domestic Bee can live in every climate ; it can brave the wintry breath of Siberia, and * Kirby and Spence, Entomol. vol. ii. p. 181 185. THE BEE. 15 the heats of the torrid zone.* We may close our remarks on this wonderful and useful insect with the following general description, the most vigorous and energetic, perhaps, in our language. The hive is up in arms ! expert to teach, Nor proudly to be taught unwilling, each Seems from her fellow a new zeal to catch, Strength in her limbs, and on her wings dispatch : The bee goes forth ! from herb to herb she flies, From flower to flower, and loads her lab'ring thighs With treasur'd sweets ; robbing those flowers, which, left, Find not themselves made poorer by the theft ; Their scent as lively, and their looks as fair, As if the pillager had not been there : Ne'er does she flit on Pleasure's silken wing, Ne'er does she, loit'ring, let the bloom of spring Unrifled pass, and on the downy breast Of some fair flower indulge untimely rest ; Ne'er does she, drinking deep of those rich dews Which Chemist Night prepar'd, that faith abuse Due to the hive, and selfish in her toils, To her own private use convert the spoils ; Love of the stock first call'd her forth to roam, And to the stock she brings her booty home. CHURCHILL. Gotham, b. 3. 16 BLIGHTERS. (APHIDES.) THIS interesting genus of insects is the cause of blights in plants: they feed entirely on vegetables, which they destroy by exhausting the juices for their own support : for this pur- pose, they are furnished with a long hollow- pointed proboscis or trunk, which, when not in the act of feeding, folds under their breast. The substance termed honey-dew* is the excre- ment of the Aphis. Their natural enemies are the Coccinella (lady-bird), Ichneumon Aphi- dum, Musca aphidivora, the Earwig, and some of the soft-billed birds ; they are capable of re- sisting the effect of immersion in water a great length of time. Hitherto the smoke of tobacco has alone been found adequate to their de- struction, f * Or mildew, probably a corruption of melidew, from the Greek ^Xi, meZ, honey, N. f Curtis, Linn. Trans, vol. vi. p. 75. BLIGHTERS. 17 Thomson has fallen into the error, common in his time, that these insects are brought by an easterly wind ; and he has confounded the mis- chief of caterpillars with those of the Aphis. For oft, engendered by the hazy north, Myriads on myriads insect armies warp, Keen in the poison'd breeze, and wasteful eat Through buds and bark into the blackened core Their eager way. A feeble race ! Yet oft The sacred sons of vengeance, on whose course Corrosive famine waits, and kills the year. , Seasons: Spring, 1. 120. We are fully aware (observes Mr. Curtis) that certain gregarious insects may, at particu- lar times, rise up in the air, and, if small and light, be impelled by any wind that may chance to blow at the time ; and on this principle we account for the shower of Aphides described by White to have fallen at Selborne. But certainly this is not the mode in which these insects are usually dispersed over a country. The pheno- menon is too unusual; the distribution would be too partial; for Aphides, while at their greatest height of multiplication, do not swarm like bees or ants, and fly off, or emigrate in large bodies, but each male or female Aphis, at c 18 BLIGHTERS. such periods as they arrive at maturity, marches or flies off, without waiting for any other. Yet it may happen, that from a tree or plant thickly beset with them, numbers may fly off or emi- grate, being arrived at maturity, at the same moment of time : detaching itself from the plant, each pursues its route, intent on the great busi r ness of multiplying its species, and settles on such plants in the vicinity as are calculated to afford nourishment to its young.* * Curtis, Linn. Trans, vol. vi. p. 75. 19 DEATH-WATCH. (PTINUS FATIDICUS.) AMONG the popular superstitions which the almost general illumination of modern times has not yet been able to obliterate, the dread of the Death- Watch may well be considered as one of the most predominant, which, though nothing more than a small insect, continues to disturb the habitations of rural tranquillity with groundless fears and absurd apprehensions. This, like various other superstitions, has found its way into poetry. The wether's bell, Before the drooping flock, tolTd forth her knell ; The solemn death-watch clicKd the hour she died. GAY. Pastoral 6. A wood-worm That lives in old wood, like a hare in her form ; With teeth or with claws it will bite or will scratch, And chambermaids christen the worm a dearie* watch: Because, like a watch, it always cries click ; Then woe be to those in the house w ho are sick ; C 2 20 THE DEATH-WATCH. For, as sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost, If the maggot cries click, when it scratches a post. SWIFT. The Wood-ivorm, v. 7. p. 322.* It is chiefly in the advanced state of the spring that this alarming little being com- mences its sound, which is no other than the call or signal by which insects of this species usually attend to each other ; and which may be considered as analogous to the call of birds f, though not owing to the voice of the insect, but to the beating on any hard substance with the shield or fore-part of its head. The prevailing number of distinct strokes which it beats is from * Edit. 1784. f It is observable that Sir Thomas Brown includes the death-watch in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, and compares its noise to that made by the woodpecker in the spring, which is now known to be a similar signal, produced in a somewhat similar manner. The learned author thus concludes his observations : " Few ears have escaped the noise of the death-watch ; and though this is conceived to be an evil omen or prediction of some person's death, wherein, notwithstanding, there is nothing of rational presage or just cause of terror unto melancholy and meticulous heads ; he that could extinguish the terrifying apprehensions hereof might prevent the passions of the heart, and many cold sweats in grandmothers and nurses, who, in the sickness of children, are so startled with these noises." P. 109. THE DEATH-WATCH. 21 7 to 9 or 1 1 ; which very circumstance may perhaps add, in some degree, to the ominous character, which it bears among the vulgar. These sounds or beats are given in pretty quick succession, and are repeated at uncertain inter- vals ; and in old houses, where the insects are numerous, may be heard at almost every hour of the day, especially if the weather be warm. The insect is of a colour so nearly resembling that of decayed wood, viz. of an obscure greyish brown, that it may for a considerable time elude the search of the inquirer : it is about a quarter of an inch in length, and is moderately thick in proportion, and the wing shells are marked with numerous irregular variations of a lighter or greyer cast than the ground colour. It belongs to the class of coleopterous insects, or such as have horny or shelly sheaths defending their wings ; for it is a winged insect, though rarely seen in flight. We must be careful not to confound this insect, which is the real death- watch of the vulgar, (emphatically so called,) with another insect, which makes a sound like the ticking of a watch, and which continues its sound for a long time without intermission : it c 3 22 THE DEATH-WATCH. belongs to a totally different tribe, and is the Termes pulsatorius of Linnaeus.* The following observations still further eluci- date this curious subject. There is often heard in a chamber, and when one is alone and a pro- found silence prevails, a small continued noise like the ticking of a watch. It ceases the moment any motion is made, and does not re- commence till the return of silence. Some have attributed this noise to a small species of spider, others to a very little insect designated by Lin- naeus under the name of Termes pulsatorius, and under that of Hemerobius pulsatorius by Fabri- cius. Rolandes pretends that this sound is pro- duced by the female of this same termes, by giving its head reiterated blows on the wood. Geoffrey believed that it was occasioned by a species of Anobium, which strikes with re- doubled blows the old wood for the purpose of piercing it, and thus procuring itself a lodging. The spider, of which mention has been made, possesses no instrument of sufficient hardness and * Shaw, Nat. Miscell. vol. iii. pi. 104. The death-watch most noticed by British observers is the Anobium tes- sellatum. Kirby, Entom. vol. ii. p. 376. THE DEATH-WATCH. 23 strength for the production of such a noise. The termes, equally unprovided with similar means, is, moreover, too small to produce a sound of so much strength. Geoffroy was un- doubtedly right when he attributed this pheno- menon to a species of the genus now under consideration. This fact has been confirmed by the observations of M. Latreille, who, more- over, justly claims the exclusive merit of having discovered the cause, or rather the design, of this ticking. The two sexes, striking reitera- tedly the wood with their mandibles, call each other reciprocally, approximate, and finish by a union. Analogy would lead us to incline to the opinion of M. Latreille, that this noise is in- tended to facilitate the approximation of the sexes and the reproduction of the species. At the same time it is probable that further obser- vations are necessary for the complete elucida- tion of this interesting phenomenon. Superstition, which has availed itself of every thing for the purpose of painting its terrors and strengthening its tyranny over the human mind, has not suffered this little phenomenon to escape it. The vulgar name of Death- Watch, given to c 4 24 THE DEATH-WATCH. this insect, sufficiently announces the popular prejudice respecting it ; and there can be little doubt, that the fate of many a nervous and superstitious patient has been accelerated by listening, in the solitude and silence of nighi, to this imagined knell of his approaching dis- solution.* * Cuvier, Anim. King. vol. xiv. p. 380. 25 GADFLY.* (CEsTRus Bovis EX EQDI.) THE CEstrus (breeze, brize, or gadfly) is not a gregarious or social, but a solitary insect, ap- pearing singly and not in a flight or swarm.^ This is a mistake which Thomson was probably led into from the celebrated passage in Virgil, which he seems to have closely imitated.^ Light fly his slumbers, if perchance a flight Of angry gadflies fasten on the herd, That startling, scatters, from the shallow brook, In search of lavish stream ; tossing the foam, * Or goad- fly, from Goad, in Saxon jab, and fly. Johnson. f In a letter from my late friend Rev. W. Whitear, he writes, " Early in May, Mr. and Mrs. Kirby made us a visit. I asked him your question respecting gadflies. He said he was not aware that they ever flew in flocks" N". j Plurimus Alburnum volitans, cui nomen asilo Romanum est, Graii oestrum vertere vocantes, &c. Georg. b. iii. 1. 147. Yet perhaps Virgil is not chargeable with this error. For may not plurimus (not plurimi) have the force of the English very many a one, or be translated, very frequent f N. 26 THE GADFLY. They scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plains, Through all the bright severity of noon. Seasons : Summer, 1. 498. Other poets describe this insect as a single one. Thus Spenser, in " The World's Vanitie" He has also armed it with a sting : A breeze, a little scorned creature, Through his fair hide his angry sting did threaten ; And vext so sore, that all his goodly feature, And all his plenteous pasture, nought him pleas'd. c. ii. 1. 20. Shakspeare also twice; and in the latter pas- sage he seems to allude to a curious particular mentioned by Mr. Bracey Clark in his admirable history of this genus : The herd hath more annoyance by the brize Than by the tyger. Troil. and Cress., act i. sc. 3. Cleopatra, The breeze upon her, like a cow in June, Hoists sail and flies. Anthony and Cleop., act iii. sc. 8. Hurdis notices the same with his usual accu- racy : What time the cow stands knee-deep in the pool, Lashing her sides for anguish, scaring oft, With sudden head reversed, the insect swarm THE GADFLY. 27 That bask and prey upon her sunny hide Or when she flies, with tufted tail erect, The breeze-fly's keen invasion, to the shades Scampering madly. far. Vill. p. 33. The CEstrus Bovis is a rare, and also the largest and most beautiful of the European species. It deposits eggs, with apparently severe pain to the animal, in the skin of the backs of horned cattle, between it and the cel- lular membrane, where its larva is hatched ; from thence, at its full growth, it falls to the ground, and, seeking a convenient retreat, becomes a chrysalis : in this state it continues from about the latter end of June to about the middle of August, before the fly appears. Although its effects on cattle have often been remarked, yet the fly itself is rarely seen or taken, as the attempt would be attended with considerable danger. The pain it inflicts in de- positing its egg is much more severe than in any of the other species. When one of the cattle is attacked by this fly it is easily known by the extreme terror and agitation of the whole herd: the unfortunate object of attack runs bellowing from among them to some dis- 28 THE GADFLY. tant part of the heath, or the nearest water; while the tail, from the severity of the pain, is held with a tremulous motion straight from the body in the direction of the spine, and the head and neck, are also stretched out to the utmost. The rest, from fear, generally follow to the water, or disperse to different parts of the field ; and such is the dread and apprehension in the cattle of this fly, that one * of them has been seen to meet the herd when almost driven home, and turn them back, regardless of the sticks, and stones, and noise of their drivers, nor could they be stopped till they reached their accustomed retreat in the water. The whole of this genus of insects appear to have a strong dislike to moisture, since the ani- mals find a secure refuge when they get into a pond or brook, where the Tabani, Conopcs, and other flies, follow without hesitation, but the CEstri rarely or never; and in cold, rainy, or windy weather they are not seen.f * The same is true of the (Estrus Tarandi (Lapland Gadfly), which infests the reindeer. Pennant, Hist. Quad. vol. i. p. 186. f Linn. Trans. No. 26. p. 289. THE GADFLY. 29 There is a popular error respecting the (Estrus Equi (hcemorrhoidalis), which Shakspeare has followed, and which has been judiciously ex- plained by Mr. Clark. Shakspeare makes the carrier at Rochester observe : " Peas and oats are as dank here as a dog, and that's the next way to give poor jades the bots" Henry IV., act iv. sc. 1. The larva? of this insect (says Mr; C.) are mostly known among the country people by the name of wormals, wormuls, warbles, or more properly lots. And our ancestors erroneously imagined that poverty or improper food engen- dered those in horses. The truth seems to be, that when the animal is kept without food the bots are also, and are then, without doubt, most troublesome ; whence it was very naturally supposed that poverty or bad food was the parent of them.* * Linn. Trans, ibid. 30 GLOWWORM. (LAMPTEIS NOCTILUCA.) THE Glowworm has till lately been incorrectly described, and some of the most pleasing facts in its economy unobserved or unknown. Shakspeare, in his Midsummer Night's Dream, has fallen into an error which his own observa- tion might have easily corrected. The honey-bags steal from the humble bees ; And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs, And light them at ihefary glowworm's eyes, Act iii. sc. 1. He might have observed that the light pro- ceeds from the tail, and not from the head of the insect. The passage is faulty also in another point, not so obvious, nor indeed known in his time ; for late experiments have shown that the substance affording the light, and here poetically employed in lighting fairies' tapers, is incapable THE GLOWWOEM. 31 of inflammation if applied to the flame of a candle or red-hot iron.* In Hamlet he again introduces this insect, but, as it should seem, incorrectly. The glowworm shows the matin to be near, And 'gins to pale his ineffectual fire. Act i. sc. 3. The fading of its light at the approach of day contradicts a curious fact related by White, that by observations made on two Glowworms brought from the field to a bank in the garden they appeared to put out their lamps between eleven and twelve, and shine no more for the rest of the night, f He has also mistaken the sex of the insect here ; for the Glowworm we are accustomed to admire is the female insect, about three quarters of an inch in length, of a dull, earthy-brown colour in the upper parts, and beneath more or less tinged with rose- colour, with the two or three last joints of the * Philosoph. Trans. 1801. p. 281. f Nat. Hist. Selborne, edit. Markwick, vol. ii. p. 289. This fact is denied neither by his editor, nor by Kirby and Spence, who mention it in their Entomology, vol. ii. p. 211. edit. 1. 32 THE GLOWWORM. body of a pale, whitish, sulphur colour, with a very slight cast of green, and from this the phos- phoric light proceeds. It is emitted from the larva and pupa also, though strongest from the complete insect.* The licence of using natural objects in either sex is generally allowable in poetry, except per- haps in such as is strictly descriptive. Thom- son, therefore, is scarcely justifiable in saying, Along the crooked lane, on every hedge, The glowworm lights his gem, and through the dark A moving radiance twinkles. Summer, 1. 1682. The male glowworm is smaller than the female, and is provided both with wings and wing-sheaths. It is but rarely seen, and it seems even at present not very clearly deter- mined whether it is luminous or not. The general idea among naturalists has been that it is not, and that the splendour exhibited by the female is ordained for the purpose of attracting the male f , a provision full of wonder and beauty, and well adapted to the graces of poetry. * Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. vi. pt. 1. p 76. f Ibid. THE GLOWWOKM. 33 Warm on her mossy couch the radiant worm, Guard from cold dews her love illumin'd form ; From leaf to leaf conduct the virgin light ; Star of the earth, and diamond of the night. DARWIN, Econ. Veget. c. 1.1. 192. When evening closes Nature's eye, The glowworm lights her little spark, To captivate her favourite fly, And tempt the rover through the dark. Conducted by a sweeter star Than all that deck the fields above, He fondly hastens from afar, To sooth her solitude with love. MONTGOMERY. Poems, v. 2. The colour of the light emitted by the glow- worm, the " viridis lux " of Lucretius *, is another peculiar beauty, which has been thus happily described, Nor travels my meand'ring eye The starry wilderness on high ; Nor now with curious sight, I mark the glowworm, as I pass, Move with green radiance through the grass, An emerald of light! COLERIDGE. Poems, p. 119. * Grandes viridi cum luce smaragdi. b. 4. L 1120. 34 THE GLOWWORM. Luminous insects* have often attracted the notice of poets ; their brilliancy, variously tinted light, and connection with the evening and night scenery of the fairest seasons, affording subjects for beautiful, though sometimes inaccurate, de- scription. " The fire-flies of the West Indies" (observes Edwards) " are far more luminous than the Glowworm, and in the mountainous and interior parts of the larger islands they are innumerable; at night filling the air on all sides like so many living stars, to the great as- tonishment and admiration of a traveller unac- customed to the country.f A beautiful one, the fire-fly of St. Domingo (Elater Noctilucus), has been confounded by Southey, in his poem of Madoc, with quite a different insect, the Lantern -bearer of Madame Merian (Fulgora Lantenaria). f * The glowworm is not the only luminous insect in our country : there is a species of Scolopendra which cer- tainly is so : " The luminous appearance also on oyster- shells, in the dark, is said to be produced by three sorts of animalcula, which have been discovered on them." Baker on the Microscope, p. 399. f Edwards, Hist. West Indies, vol. i. p. 8. Kirby and Spence, Entom. vol. ii. p. 417. THE GLOWWOIIM. 35 She beckoned, and descended, and drew out, From underneath her vest, a cage, or net It rather might be called, so fine the twigs Which knit it ; where, confined, two fire-flies gave Their lustre : By that light did Madoc first Behold the features of his lovely guide. MADOC. The Deliverance, sect. 17. In another passage of the same poem he de- scribes the Domingo fire-fly faithfully and ele- gantly : - Sorrowing we beheld The night come on ; but soon it did display More wonders than it veiled : innumerous tribes From the wood-cover swarmed, and darkness made Their beauties visible ; one while they streamed A light blue radiance upon flowers that closed Their gorgeous colours to the eye of day : Now motionless and dark, eluded search, Self-shrouded ; and anon, starring the sky, Rose like a shower of fire. Darwin has a similar description : So shines the glow-fly, when the sun retires, And gems the night air with phosphoric fires. Loves of the Plants, c. 4. L 51. And Thomson has noticed an Oriental phe- nomenon of this kind in the kingdom of Siam. From Menam's orient stream, that nightly shines With insect lamps. Seasons : Summer, 1. 826. D 2 36 GOSSAMER INSECT. SEVERAL strange and mistaken notions have prevailed respecting the substance termed "Gossamer;"* nor was its real nature ascer- tained till about a century and a half ago. One of the most fanciful opinions, perhaps, was that of Hook, though a learned man, and good natural philosopher, and one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society. "Much re- sembling a cobweb," says he, "or a confused lock of these cylinders, is a certain white sub- stance, which, after a fog, may be observed to fly up and down in the air. Catching several of these, and examining them with my micro- scope, I found them to be much of the same form ; looking most like to a flake of worsted prepared to be spun, though by what means * It was formerly supposed to cause the rot in sheep, Bailey, Diet., art. Gossomer. Edit. 1730. Derived from Gossipium, low Latin. Johnson. THE GOSSAMER INSECT. 37 they should be generated or produced is not easily imagined. They were of the same weight, or very little heavier, than air. And it is not unlikely but that those great white clouds that appear all the summer may be of the same sub- stance."* But the more general idea, and one which our early poets contributed to spread and preserve, was, that it was formed from dew evaporated, or rather condensed, by the sun's heat into threads, like those which may be drawn from resinous juices. As light and thin as cobwebs that do fly In the blue air caused by th' autumnal sun, That boils the dew, that on the earth doth lie ; May seem this whitish rag then is the scum ; Unless that wiser men mak't the field-spider's loom. HENRY MORE.J And now autumnal dews were seen To cobweb every green. QUARLES. Emblems, p. 375. How part is spun in silken threads, and clings, Entangled in the grass, in gluey strings. BLACKMORE. Prince Arthur. * Micrographia, p. 202. f Quoted in the Athenseum, 5. 126. D 3 38 THE GOSSAMER INSECT. More subtle web Arachne cannot spin ; Nor the fine nets, which oft we woven see, Of scorched dew, do not in th' ayre more lightly flee. SPENSER. Fairy Queen, b. 2. c. 12. s. 77. How still the breeze ! save what the filmy threads Of dew evaporate brushes from the plain. THOMSON. Seasons: Summer, 1. 1209. Gossamer is now well known to be the web of spiders. The power of these insects to dart out their webs has been supposed to be alluded to by Aristotle* and Pliny, though the ancients are silent upon another curious particular in their history their power of flight, f This was first observed by Hulse, about the year 1 668, and soon after comfirmed by Ray and Lister. This power is chiefly exercised by those of less advanced age, and seems possessed but in an inferior degree by those which are full grown. It is principally * Aristot. Hist. An. 1. 9. c. 39. Pliny, 1. 11. c. 24. f Dryden appears to be mistaken in making Virgil ac- quainted with it ; when upon the scholiast's authority he translates the line, Tenuia nee lanse per coelum vellera ferri. Gear. b. 1. 1. 387- The filmy Gossamer now flits no more. For the poet is here giving a sign of serene weather, when Gossamer is usually seen. N. THE GOSSAMEK INSECT. 39 in the autumnal season that these diminutive ad- venturers ascend the air, and contribute to fill it with that infinity of cobwebs which are so pecu- liarly conspicuous at that period of the year. When inclined to make their aerial excursions, the spider ascends some slight eminence as the top cf a wall, or the branch of a tree, and turning itself with its head toward the wind, ejaculates with great force from the papillae of its abdo- men several threads, and, rising from its station, commits itself to the gale, and is thus carried far beyond the loftiest towers*, and enjoys the pleasun of a clearer atmosphere. During their flight r. is probable that spiders employ them- selves in catching such minute winged insects as may lappen to occur in their progress, and, when satisfied with their journey and prey, * Dr. Lster, in a letter to Mr. Ray, Jan. 20. 1670, speaking o' the height to which spiders are able to fly, says, " The last October I took notice that the air was full of webs : I forthwith mounted to the top of the highest steeple on :he Minster (York), and could thence discern them, yet exceeding high above me. Some, which fell and ware entangled upon the pinnacles, I took, and found them to be lupi ; which kind seldom or never enter hous'S, and cannot be supposed to have taken their flight fron the steeple." Rays PhilosopJi. Letters, p. 95. 40 THE GOSSAMER INSECT. they suffer themselves to fall by contracting their limbs, and gradually disengaging them- selves from the thread which supports them.* * Shaw, Nat. Miscell. vol. ix. Plate 308. Several of the facts here stated closely agree with the following curious account given by Dr. Lister in his Tractatus de Araneis, published in the year 1678. " Ad mediam Oc- tobrem, in agro Cantabrigiensi, cum croci flores colligunt ; sumina serenitate, ut itidem in illis diebus aliquardo ac- cidit, supra fidem est, quantum multitudinem hrum *, prseter alia araneorum genera, adverti, in aere velificantium. Ha3C interim mihi de hac re maxime notabilia occurrebant ; eos interdum singular! aliquo filo contentos, hterdum plurima siinplicia fila, velut totidem micantes radios ad cometae caudam, ejaculates fuisse ; deinde, haec eadem fila, proxime ab ejaculatione, purpureo quodam splendore mirum in modum micasse ; neque illud silenduil putavi ; hos araneos cum singularibus filis se exerceant ea modo abrumpere, modo in exiguos glomerulos niveos ncolligere ; prioribus scilicet pedibus supra capita celeriter circumactis modo secommittere leni aura?, ascensumque inaerem per summos nubes moliri. Illud verissimum est, eos