Smithsonian Institution 
SJibraries 


Alexander Wetmore 
1946: dixth Secretary DCE 


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NATURAL HISTORY; 


CONTAINING 


SCIENTIFCI AND POPULAR DESCRIPTIONS 


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MAN, QUADRUPEDS, BIRDS, FISHES, REPTILES AND INSECTS; 
CHIEFLY COMPILED FROM THE VARIOUS WORKS OF 


CUVIER, GRIFFITH, RICHARDSON, GEOFFREY, LACEPEDE, et) 
BUFFON, GOLDSMITH, SHAW, MONTAGUE, WILSON, LEWIS AND CLARKE, 


AUDUBON, AND OTHER WRITERS ON NATURAL HISTORY ; 


ARRANGED 
ACCORDING TO THE CLASSIFICATION OF STARK, 


ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. 


BOSTON: 
CARTER, HENDEE, & CO. 
BRATTLEBORO’: 
PUBLISHED BY PECK & WOOD. 


1834. *y 
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STEREOTYPED AT THE 
LANCASTER TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 
’ LANCASTER, MASS. 


* 


PREFACE. 


. » . Tue study of Natural History has become so extensive 


as to call 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 
continued to be reprinted, and was probably the mstrument 
of disseminating nearly as much 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 accu- 
racy. In the present volume, the editor has attempted to 
compile from these a more complete and compret ensive 
system of popular and scientific Zoology than has hereto- 
fore appeared, in any form accessible to common readers. 

The work is arranged according to the classification of 
Stark, which being based upon that of Cuvier, we believe 
is more generally approved than any other. Although the 
work 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. We 
regard the subject of Zoology as one of great utility, and 
desiring that it should be extensively read, we have sought 


; ” 
iv PREFACE. 

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 of animals; and we 
have been indebted to a large number of books of 
travels, for many illustrative traits. 

Jt 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 gen- 
tleness, refinement, and virtue.” This we believe to be 
strictly true, and if the present volume shall be instrumen- 
tal 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. 


ELEMENTS 


oF 


NATURAL HISTORY. 


i INTRODUCTION. : 


Tue object 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 creation, 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 
individual 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 
NaturaL Puitosopuy, 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., offer 
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 Oprics: the changes 


‘that take place in the atmosphere, as they are perceived by the senses, 


or indicated by instruments, is the object of Mrrgorotoey: and it is 
the province of CxuEmistry, another great branch of Physical Science, 
2 


x INTRODUCTION. 


to investigate the mutual agencies of the elementary principles of mat- 
ter upon one another, their composition, and the laws by which they 
are regulated. 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- 
namics is a science chiefly of calculation, and Chemistry of experi- 
ment, the basis of this science rests chiefly on 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 names 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 properties 
of things are investigated to discover their names, and which reverses 
the usual order of such works, where the names are indicated as de- 
tailing the qualities of the things named. 

But though method and arrangement form the first step to the know- 
ledge of the numerous objects which claim the attention of the Natu- 
ralist, Natural History is by no means confined to a list of names. If 
the method be a good one, and the subdivisions arranged conformably 
to the fundamental and natural connections of bodies, the very arrange- 
ment and classification of names of beings which have something in 
common, leads to the knowledge of their connection and dependence 
upon one another, and to their comparative importance in the 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 connected 
with that order than with all 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. xi 


characters sufficiently uniform, and, at the same time, easily cogniza- 
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 who 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 
the 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 
INORGANIC 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 Animat— the VeceTaBsLE—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 such 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, advan- 
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 


” 


wt 


xii INTRODUCTION. 


between the highest of the lower animals and Man, of all beings, alone’ 
endowed with the power of reason and the faculty of speech, a dis- 


‘tance still more incalculable. 4, 


Animals have been defined to be organized bodies, which have life 
and sensation, and are capable of voluntary motion ;— Vegetables, 
organized bodies, endowed with a vital principle, but wanting sensa- 
tion ;—and Minerals, unorganized bodies, without life, and, of course, 
without 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 senses in an uncombined shape ; 
and it is only from its effects on material substances, that its existence 
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 
lives; when the movement is stopped beyond recall, the body dies. 
After death, the elements which composed it, delivered to 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. Xiii 


Or ganization pre-supposes life, and the organization of each being, 
implies 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 power 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 vegetable life, by the power of 
locomotion 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. Animal 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 funetions 
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 animal 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 purpose. 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, 
_ into an internal organ of digestion. Sometimes this internal canal, or 
" digestive cavity, has the form of a tube with two orifices; the one for 


ted, 


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. 2 


xiv INTRODUCTION. 
4 ‘ us 


the entrance 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 afew which are found i 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 
internal fluids, now 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 awricle. 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, mto 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 
even 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 by 
which this is accomplished is called respiration. The organ which 
performs this service is the Zwngs, through which the blood is forced 
by the action of the heart. In animals doomed by their organization 
to live constantly in water, respiration is effected 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 no true circulation, there 
exists another mode of respiration, by trachew, or air-vessels, by which 

“the air is conveyed through the body in elastic canals; and in these 


¥ r 
hy, os 


INTRODUCTION, vas 


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 separa- 
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 generation. These organs distinguish the males from the 
females. In the greater part of animals, the sexes’ are distinct and 
separate, in two different individuals of the same species; but in some 
classes, the individuals are at once males and ene Saas 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. Vivtparous 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. en 

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, some 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 beimg 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 
medium. ‘These animals undergo, in the course of their limited ex- 
istence, many organic transformations, or successive metamorphoses. 


re 


— 


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 fibre, which is formed of filaments of ex- 
cessive tenuity, capable of contraction, and of moving the parts upon 
which they are fixed. These fibres are distributed over the body, and 
produce al] its exterior and interior motions. When they are united 
in a bundle, of which the mass co-operates in the same action, this 
bundle is 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 less solid; some- 
times under the form of crusts or sheaths, in the interior of which the 
muscles 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 fulcrum for their muscular coverings. These parts are the dones 
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 spine, of which the pieces, more or less 
solid and numerous, are termed vertebre. Among those which are, 
on this account, named Vertebrated Animals, the column is terminated 
at one end by the cranium, a bony cavity, inclosing the mass of cere- 
bral matter which gives sensation, and is the seat, generally, of four 
organs of sense. In the head is also placed the mouth, an instru- 
ment 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 action 


INTRODUCTION. . XV 


ef 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 satisfactarily 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 
tisswes, 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 cells, 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 
lamine, extended like a web, and various in structure and uses. The 
cutaneous membrane envelopes the superficies of the body, and per- 
mits absorption and exhalation. It is formed of many layers, and 
produces 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 "a 


og 


Y 


sis INTRODUCTION. 


tinuous, membranous, branched tubes, to receive, contain, and direct the 
nutritive juices, from the organs where they are prepared, till they are 
required for the purposes of nutrition, respiration, or the secretions. 
5. The glandular tissue includes those secreting organs which pro- 
duce fluids for internal use, or to transmit them out of 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 nervous 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 


i through the medium of volition, and connects all the parts of the body 
“> 
an | 


by a mutual sympathy. 

The animal flwids are found in the body under the form of gases, or 
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 
hereafter detailed, in the descriptions of the individual species, whose 
manners have been most accurately observed. It is sufficient, in this 
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 Veceraste Kinepom is sufficiently distinguished from the 
animal, as before remarked, by its passive character, by the want of 
spontaneous motion, and of sensation. Vegetable life is, therefore. 
supported by absorption ; and its functions, like those of animals, are 

é 


INTRODUCTION. | Xix” 


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 reproduction is 
performed through the medium of sexual organs. These organs are 
protected by the corolla, 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 Jussieu, 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. wt 
The Minerat 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 lamelle, 
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 kingdom 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 else- 
* 


7 


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> 


XX INTRODUCTION. 


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


CLASS FIRST—MAMMALIA. CLASS FOURTH —PISCES. 
Orver’ I. Primates, Orver I. Apodes, 
¢ II. Bruta, ve II. Jugulares, 
ee TET. Feree, “TI. Thoracici, 
cow 1V. ‘Glires, « TV. Abdominales. 
e V. Pecora, 
“ VI. Belluz, CLASS FIFTH — INSECTA. 
“VII. Cete. Orver I. Coleoptera, 
i Il. Hemiptera, . 
CLASS SECOND— AVES. IG Ill. Lepidoptera, 
Orper I. Accipitres, «IV. Neuroptera, 
& Tl. Pice, & V. Hymenoptera, 
TTT. Anseres! &< VI. Diptera, 
SomiViGralle, 0 VII. “Aptera. 
x V. Galline, 
6 Vib. Paeweres: CLASS SIXTH—VERMES. 
Orver_ I. Intestina, 
CLASS THIRD— AMPHIBIA. “ II. Mollusea, 
Orver I. Reptilia, - Ill. Testacea, 
a II. Serpentes, « IV. Lithophyta, 
pig tll.: Nantes. a4 V. Zoophyta. 


r THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM 

is divided into twenty-four classes, according to the number and _posi- 
tion of the stamens; the greater part of the orders, from the number 
of pistils in the 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 class of cryptogamic plants, or plants 
without conspicuous flowers, form four orders, divided into Filices, 
Musci, Alge, and Fungi. 

sw 


THE MINERAL KINGDOM 


is divided into three classes, viz: I. Perrm; II. Miers; III. Fosstria; 
and numerous subdivisions. But, as the mineral kingdom had attract- 
ed but little of the attention of Linnzus, and the progress of chemistry 


* Systema Nature, ed. 12. Holmiz, 1765, 


4 
Ls 4 


INTRODUCTION. XXi 


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 number- 
less existences which people the earth, the air, and the waters, there 
is a constant harmony between the means of existence and the existing 
beings. 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 approaches 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 its Great Author. 


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; »FIRST—THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 


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Accorpine to Cuvier, there are four principal forms, after which all living 
beings 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 visibte, the muscular fibre 
also ceases to be distinct, and the organs of digestion are reduced to’a 
simple cavity in the ita stereo 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 forms, 
which results from the arrangement of the organs of motion, from the dis- 
tribution 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 im bony cases; the first called the cranium, the 
second the vertebr. 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 inte 
action, and the viscera are inclosed in the head and trunk. Animals of this 
form are called VERTEBRATED Animas, (Animalia Vertebrata.) 

They have all red blood, a muscular heart, a mouth with two horizontal 
jaws, distinet 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. A 

On a close examination of any of the characters of this leading division, 
some analogy of conformation is always found, even in the species the most 


—< 


> h PJ 
at ge \ 


94 THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. ee 


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

In the second conformation, peculiar to animals, there is no internal 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, 


a with the viscera, included in this general covering, and is composed of many 


h 


* 


scattered masses, united by nervous threads. The principal of these, placed 
4 upon the @sophagus, is denominated the brain. Of the senses, properly so 
called, the organs tc 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 Motiuscous. ANIMALS, 
(Animalia Mollusca.) 

The third general form is that which is observed in insects, worms, &Xc. 
Their nervous system consists of two long cords, extending along the belly, 
swelled out at intervals, and uniting into knots, or ganglia.. The first of 
these, placed upon the csophagus, 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 
portionggof the trunk, but it is also frequently destitute of those organs 
of movements. To ese animals, Cuvier has given the name of Arricu- 
LATED Anmrats, (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 respira- 
tion performed through the medium of trachew, or air-vessels, dispersed 
through the body. The organs of taste and sight, are very evident in the 
Mimals 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 usually 
known by the name of Zoopnytes. 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 bodies.. The intestines of the greater number consist merely in a 


DS] 


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Nye we . 
J2& VERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 95 


cavity, 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 divisions, 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 RaprateD AnIMAats, 
(Animalia Radiata.) 

The term Zoology, includes the whole of the Animal kingdom ; besides - 
which, difl rent departments have received particular names; such as Orni- 
thology, or the birds; Ichthyology, for the fishes ; Enda y, for insects 
and Conchology, for the testaceous Mollusca. 


” 


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wht PIRSE- 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 
cranium, 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 vertebree 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 paws is — sometimes both. 
According to the motions to which these limbs are ined t subser- 
vient, the anterior ones assume the form of hands, feet, wings, or fins: the 
posterior, of feet or fins. 

The blood of the vertebrated animals is always red, and seems, by its 
composition, adapted to sustain energy of sensation and 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 vertebre, 


and terminate in two medullary masses, in the cranium, the volume of 

which is generally proportion: od to the extent of the inte feoeat ae 
There are always two jaws, an upper and under one. “The principal 

motion exists in the lower, which has the power of elevation or depression. 


4 


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916) VERTEBRAT TED ANIMALS. 
ia 
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 of secretion. The jaws of one entire class, however, (that 
of birds,) and the 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 


-— recei ves 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 eland, the liver. In the passage of the fvod through the 
alimentary canal, the part of it adapted to the purposes of nutrition, 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 arterial 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 lamin, 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 substance. 

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 resem- 
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 quantum of 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 g 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. 


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sate MAMMALIA. P DT 

The organs of circulation may be double, so that all the blood conveyed 
by the veins from the different parts, must undergo a process of circulation, 
before it ean be returned by the arteries; or they may be simple, in which 
case, only a portion of the blood which at rns 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- 
tion of blood, returned at each pulsation, into the lungs. 

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

In the Mammalia, the circulation is double, and the respiratory process 
simple. The quantity of their respiration is superior to.that of reptiles and 
fishes. But the quantity of respiration in birds is still greater than that 
of quadrupeds, because they also respire by various other cavities, as well 
as the lungs. 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 formed for walking and running, and their predominant 
characteristic is vigor. Birds, whose respiratory system is more extensive, 
: a the lightness and strength of muscles necessary to support them in 
their flight. Reptiles, which respire more feebly, creep upon the earth, and 
many of them pass more or less of their existence in a state of torpor. And 
fishes, which move ina 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. 


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CLASS FIRST_MAMMALIA™ 


& 

‘Vertebrated Animals, with red and. warm blood, breathing through lings, vivi- 
parous,, and suckling their young with milk formed in their breasts, or 
mamme. ee 
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 because the Mammalia enjoy the most numerous faculties, 
the most delicate sensations, and the most varied powers of motion. As the 
quantity of respiration is in mammiferous animals moderate, they are 
generally formed for walking, and, in consequence, all the articulations of 
their frame have defined forms, which determine their motions. 7 


me wie * Tach 
" nt Pg ; % 5 
tk » #egF ‘ 3 
28 MAMMALIA. 
#, Some of the Mammalia, however, can raise themselves in the air, by 


means of elongated limbs cannceted by extensible membranes; others have 
their limbs so much shortened, that they can move with Beale only in 
water; but these cireumnstances by no means exclude them from the class 
to ae they are allied, by other essential characters. 

1 the Mammalia have the upper jaw fixed to the cranium; the lower 
is composed of two pieces, articulated by a projecting condyle to a fixed 
temporal bone. The neck is composed of seven, and, in one species, of nine 
vertebre. The angeme ribs are attached to a sternum, formed of a number 
of pieces, placed vertically. Their anterior extremity commences at the 
scapula, which is not articulated to any other bone, but simply suspen) din 

_ the muscular attachments, and often resting on the sternum, by an in erme- 
: diate bone, denominated the clavicle. This extremity is continued 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 zliwn, which is attached to the vertebral column; the os 
pubis, Which forms the anterior part; and the zschiwm, 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- 

es, of ' bones, the “dia and the fibula, This extremity is terminat 

ich is composed of parts analogous to the hand, viz; a a 
ee tora a toes, 

gi apt be head, in the Mammalia, is always artionlaed by two condyles, upo 

al Ta as, or first vertebra. The brain is composed of two hemispherell 

united by a medullary lamina, called the corpus callosum, and contains two | 
ventricles, inclosing four pairs of tubercles, called corpora striata, the thalami 
aptict, nates, and testes. Between the thalami optici is a third ventricle, com- ae 
runicating with the fourth, situated beneath the cerebellar. The crura © 

‘ of the cerebellum form always under the medulla oblon gata, a “transverse 


prenzinence, called pons Varolii. a vl i 
The eye, always lodged in its orbit, is protected by two eyelids, and at 
, vestige of a third. Its crystalline lens is fixed by the ciliary processes, iy ee 


a i its cellular sclerotic coat. * ey 
Me: ‘a 


hs In the ear there is always found a cavity, shut up bya membrane, ms, 
- the tympanum, with four little bones ; a vestibule, at the entrance of w 
one of these bones is placed, and whieh communicates with three sem: it if 
cular canals ; gh a spiral canal, termed the cochlea, which terminates 
by one of its canals in the tympanal eavity, and by the other into the vesti- 
bule. The cranium is divided into three compartments. The anterior part 
is formed of the two frontal bones and the etht oid; the intermediate, by the 
parietal and af sphenoid RF: and the posterior, by the omit e. 


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MAMMALIA. 29 
Between ‘ee occipital, the parieta Renna the sphenoid, are inserted the tem- 
poral bones, which, to a certain extent, belong to the face. Sag 

In the foetus the occiput is vided 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, &e. 
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 the 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. _ ae 

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


‘e 


iving on the earth’s surface, as do the greater part 0 the I ammalia, — be 
tie 


ay are exposed to alternations of heat and cold, and th 


ave, in 
conse yuence, a covering of hair, which is thicker in the c 


ler, and more 


e the warmer regions. The Cetacea, which inhabit. reall. 


a 


Mis ‘ 


sive, 


wai 


owever, totally destitute of this covering. 

eC paissinel canal of the mammiferous animals, is suspended by a fold 
of the peritoneum, called the mesentery, which contains numerous con- 
globate gonds for the Jacteal vessels. Another production of the perito- 
neu ed the epiploon, hangs before and beneath the intestines. 
” “The generation of the Mamunalia is essentially viviparous. ‘The feetus, 
after conception, descends into” the uterus, to the inner surface of which it 
is attached by means of an arrangement of vessels, termed the placenta, 


through the medium of which, nourishment is derived. The young, for 
some time after birth, are nourished by a particular secretion of the mother, Mie 


fs 
| ‘ 


(milk,) produced in the mammiferous animals, after parturition, and drawn 
young from mamme, or teats. It is fa this last character that the 
te nv 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 -. distinction. — The essential characters of the Mammalia are 


taken the organs i “and the organs of mastication. On the 
pad the i i iprity of the pe andi from the second, 
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30 “ MAMMALIA. ah r ‘ik. 

4 * day! 


may be deduced the nature of its food, and the consequent structure of ie 
digestive apparatus. On these characters are founded the division of mam- 
miferous animals, into orders. i ; 2 

The degree of perfection of the organs of touch, may be estimated accord- 
ing to the number and mobility of the fingers, and accor g 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 cme 
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 ty 
like a saw, and the jaws to close vertically, like scissors. . To bruise grains F : 
or roots, it is requisite that the molars have a flat crown; that the jaws” 

i i ehovla 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. a 

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- 

d of it, and which multiplies or greatly varies their modes of action. This ~ 
pnesiacnlty of opposing a thumb to the other fingers, and of thus being 
enabled to seize with facility the most minute objects. 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 oa Le 
in whom alone the anterior extremities are free. ; 

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


v 


ioe 


' Orver I. BIMANA, Orver, VI. GLIRES, i gS 
«Il. QUADRUMANA, » «VIL, EDEBTATA, ia se 
i, ule CHERIROPTERA, « VII. PACHYDERMA). “e* 
4 « W. FER, e IX. RUMINANTIA, © | 
* ANP ig ie -MARSUPIALIA, “* X. CETACEA. , 


The total ernie 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, belo to 
the order Quadrumana, are one hundred erévone,—Challing ll 
Ed "e ty” 
sat 
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. 


= 


> 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. 7 


ORDER FIRST—BIMANA.! 
* MAN.2 


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


* The order Bimana embraces animals with teeth of three kinds; the posterior extre- 
mities proper for walking ; the anterior furnished with hands; nails flat; body vertical ; 
two pectoral mamme ; stomach simple; orbital and temporal fossz distinct. 

2 Homo sapiens. The genus Homo has four upper and four lower incisor teeth; two 
upper and two lower canines, one on each side; molars, five above and five below, on 
each side. . The whole number of his teeth, thirty-two. 


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32 - ‘MAMMALIA—MAN. 


other classes of animated beings, and distinguished by reason and the power 


of speech, 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 unalloyed 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 all 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 Preseryer 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 in a considerable 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 toa 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 imferior animals, in most of their 
operations, essentially different from any thing like human intelligence, is 


“ai “call ed instinct. This wonderful faculty, surer in its limited aims than rea- 


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on, ears, however, no proportion to the general intelligence of the animals 
which exercise it; for it has been remarked, that those in whom the in- 
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 other 
portions of the mammiferous class. But these variations, in form and pro- 
yortion, are neither so prominent, nor so totally different in character, from 
the other animal structures, as to account for the superiority which he enjoys. 
Destined to be nourished on substances used in common with other animals, 

a mechanism of his frame must so far correspond with theirs, as to be 


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i MAMMALIA~—MAN. | 33 


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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 
make 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 mind 
with matter, or thought with organic structure. 
_ The. structure of the human frame, however, is wonderfully adapted to 
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 
control 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. te ; 
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 sophia ‘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 too 
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 other 
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 of the visual x. 
tion. Of all animals, he can best distinguish the various degrees of so 
and he appears to be the only creature whose sense of smell is sufficie 
delicate to be affected by unpleasant odors. 

Fruits, roots, and succulent vegetables, appear to be the natural food of 
man. His hands afford him facility in procuring these, and his short an 


comparatively weak jaws, his canine teeth, scarcely projecting beyond the — 
line 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 . 


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to it, the other will probably become weak; both eyes ought, therefore, to 


34 MAMMALIA—MAN. 


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

The vertebral column, or spine, is composed of thirty-two vertebra, seven 
of which are denominated cervical, twelve dorsal, five lumbar, five sacral, 
and three coccygeal. Of the ribs, seven pairs are attached to the sternum, 
or breast bone, by cartilaginous productions, 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 mvrant 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 is 
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 to 
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 ; 

“ot they were not able to move a single joint. Nations which we 
cal 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 chilaven always seek the light, and if only one eye be directed 


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 on 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 
later, 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 cold than 


‘ MAMMALIA—MAN. _ 385 


during any other season of life. The pulse is certainly strong, and it is 
therefore fair to conclude, that the internal heat is considerable. ‘Tull 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 
one 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 sound 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, baba, mama, papa, 
are the first words that children learn. Some children pronounce distinctly 
in two years, though the generality do not talk for two years and a half, 
_and frequently not so early. 


Some 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 ope they shoulder 
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. 2 
There is little known exactly with regard to the proportions of the human 


figure ; and the beauty of the best statues is better conceived by observation — 


than by measurement. Some, who have studied. after the ancient masters, 
7, 
divide the body into ten times the length of the face, and others into eight. 
They tell us that there is a similitude of proportion in different parts of the 
body: thus, that the hand is the length of the face; that the thumb is the 
length of the nose; that the space between the eyes is the breadth of the 
eye; that the breadth of the thickest part of the thigh is double that of the 
thickest part of the leg, and treble the smallest; that the arms extended 


are as long as the figure is high. 4 itd 
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56 MAMMALIA=MAN. 


The strength of man is very considerable, when 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 
man, 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 be still farther estimated by the continuance 
of his labor, and by the agility of his motions. Men who are exercised in 
running, 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 tired, 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 as a 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 rire 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, if 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 
Switzerland, hae furnished more instances of extreme longevity, than the 
plains of Hollan Flanders, of Germany or Poland. In general, however, 

| the period of human existence may be said to be the same in every country. 
If not cut off by a accidental diseases, man is found to live to the years of 
ninety or a hundred. Beyond that date our ancestors did not live; nor has 
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 
qeowne table has been made out, of the probable duration of human life. — 


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MAMMALIA—MAN. , tan 


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, 

is UN 0 Be ee a Oe it Oe, ap tle 3 
17} 83 0 30)"|>28 petal ease il 8 
2°38 0 B18 127 6 JT EQh ate Nel a SO 

3 | 40 0 32 26 11 Hh OF 10 6 ‘ 

4} Al 0 33 26 3 i|. 62 10 0 
7) 41 6 34 25 7 63 9 6° 
*6 | 42 a0) 35 25 0 64 9 0 
% 42 3 36 24 5 65 8 6 
8 41 6 37 23 10 66 8) ap 0 
9 40 10 38 23 3 }| 67 a 6 
10 40 2 1°39 22 8 68 7 0 
1 39 6 40 22 ne 69 6 7 

12 38 9 41 21 6 70 6 2 4 
« 13 38 1 42 20 il 71 5 8 
14 37 5 43 20 4 72 Oo aame . 4 
15 | 36 9 44 19 9 73 5 0 
16 | 36 0 45 19 3 74 4 9 
ey 39 4 || 46 18 9 75 4 6 
18 | 34 8 AT 18 2 76 4 3 
19 BA ita 0 48 17 8. 77 4 1 

20 Ff meni i 49 17 2 78 3 11 oi 

21 32 11 50 16 7 79 3 9 
22 32 4 51 16 0 80 3 a 
23 3l 10 52 15 6 81 3 5 
24 3l 3 53 15 0 82 3 3 
25 30 9 54 14 6 83 3 2 
26 30 2 55 14 0 84 3 1 

a7 | 29 Pant | Ne) Sa te 5 85 3 0 ie 

28 29 0 |. 57 12 10 | y 


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. he 
Ideas of external things are conveyed to the soul of man by means of the 
five Senses for secing, 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 thatare double, these are the soonest produc- 
ed; and it is observed from the eggs of several sorts of birds, as well i 
fiom those of lizards, that the eyes are much larger and more early in then ' 


“ 


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 ‘body 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 him 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 from 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 
imperfect, 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 posséssed 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 picture resembled a solid body, about two months elapsed. Till 
then, he only considered it as a surface, diversified by a variety of colors: 
but when he began to perceive that these shadings actually represented 
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 


s 


MAMMALIA—MAN. 39 


then shown a miniature portrait of his father, which was contained in 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 small quantity 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, tltan he was transported 
beyond measure ; and he declared that every new object was a new source 
of delight to him; that his pleasure was so great, he had not language 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 
white, 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 distinguish 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 looking 
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, is a fact, of which I was afterwards con- 
vineed, 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 does 
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, often 
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. Al 


celebrated German bookseller, and member of the Royal Society of Berlin. 
It is related by himself. Nicolai had for years been subject to a cofgestion 
in 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 circumstance occurred which irritated me extremely. 
At ten o’clock in the forenoon, my wife and another person came to console 
me; 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 at it, 
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 length 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 I 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 description. 

“In 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 apartment of my wife, to whom I related it. But 
thither, also, the figure pursued me. Sometimes it was present, sometimes 
it vanished; but it was always the same standing figure. A little after six 
o’clock, several stalking figures also appeared ; but they had no connection 
with the standing figure. Ican assign no other reason for this apparition 
than that, though much more composed in my mind, I had not been able so 
soon entirely to forget the cause of 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 after dinner, at the time when the diges- 
tion just begins. 

“At length I became more composed, with respect to the disagreeable 
incident which had given rise to the first apparition ; but though I had used 
very excellent medicines, and found myself in other respects perfectly well, 
yet the apparitions did not diminish, but, on the contrary, rather increased 
in 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 of indisposition ; 
on the contrary, I endeavored as much as possible to preserve my com- 
posure of mind, that I might remain distinctly conscious of what passed 
within me. I observed these phantoms with great accuracy, and very often 


6 


a 


AQ 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 I thought] had made a dis- 
covery, especially in the latter period AS visions ; but, on the whole, I 
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, similar 
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 themselves 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 distances 

“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 externally ; 
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, though 
they certainly had their origin internally; and, at the same time, I was 
always able to distinguish with the greatest precision phantasms from 
phenomena. Indeed, I never once erred in this, as ] 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 opened, and any person came in. 


MAMMALIA—MAN. 43 


“Tt 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 daylight 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 IJ shut my eyes, sometimes 
the figures disappeared, sometimes they remained, even after ] had closed 
my eyes. If they vanished in the former case, on opening my eyes again 
the same figures appeared 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 m@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, I 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 | saw amongst them persons 
on horseback, and dogs and birds; these figures all appeared to me in their 
natural 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 
of 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—some 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- 
tained any thing disagreeable. Intelligent and respected friends often 
appeared 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 I 
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 body 
and mind, and had become so very familiar with these phantasms, 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 o’clock in the fore- 
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 minutes they lost more and more of their intensity, without any 
alteration 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 on other occasions. In this insfance 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. J was even surprised by 
this 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 distinct 
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 receive information from some other sense, we can never distinctly tell 
whether the sound be a great ora small one.. It is not till we have, by 
experience, become 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 in 


* The strokes of a bell give no sound, when it is placed under the receiver of an air- 
pump, 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 sim- 
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 toneyhow 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, it 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, and 
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 
péreeived 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 js double the former, or, in other words, the 
octave to the preceding tone, will among all others be the most pleasing 
harmony. The next to that, which is as two to three, or, in other words, the 
third, 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 
diffused, Like light, it also admits of reflection. The laws of this reflec. 


46 MAMMALIA—MAN.. 


tion, it is true, are less distinctly understood than those of light: all we 
know is, that sound is principally reflected by hard bodies, and that their 
being hollow also sometimes increases the reverberation. ‘he 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- 
bly proceeds from the failure of the nerves, in the labyrinth of the ear. 
This disorder also proceeds sometimes from 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 bad ear. Buffon made 
many trials on persons thus cireumstanced; 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 itch more necessary sense toa 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- 
ampled instance of a young man, who, being born deaf; was restored, 
at the age of twenty-four, to perfect hearing. The account, which is given 
in the memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, 1703, page 18, is in substance 
as follows: 

‘“A young man of the town of Chartres, between the age of twenty-three 
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. 
He gave them to understand that, about three or four months before, he had 
heard 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 beard perfectly well with both. During these three months 
he was sedulously employed in listening, without saying a word, and accus- 
toming himself to speak softly, so as not to be heard, the words pronounced 
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 him con- 
cerning 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 kneel down, and to assume all the grimaces of a man in the 
act of devotion. But he 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 it ever enter into his mind. 
He led a life of pure animal instinct; and though entirely taken up with 
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 
born 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; that 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 or 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, which, in effect, give us the ideas of their form and of their size. 

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


48 MAMMALIA—MAN. 


sense —that it is in effect the principal organ of feeling; on the contrary, 
we can say, that there are parts more sensible, and 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 
are 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 of 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, if 
we reflect upon it, amuse ourselves in a different method, in doing, or in 
seeking to do, any thing that is new. 

Of the senses of sMELLING and TasTING, there is little to be said worthy 
of observation. Itis 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 distinct, viz: the white, or Caucasian; the yellow, or Mongo- 
lian; and 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 subdivided 
these as their family characteristics were more or less marked. 


MAMMALIA—MAN. 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 ; forehead 
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 ; 
facial angle seventy-five degrees; oblique and narrow eyes; hair gard, 
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 
beard. ; 

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 geographical 
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 upon the snow with 
impunity with the thermometer at forty degrees below zero, the natives of 
Sierra Leone suffer, unhurt, the heat of a vertical sun, with the thermometer 
above one hundred degrees. And as the physical powers and intellectual 
resources of man enable him to oecupy the whcle 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 natural 
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 searcity of those gregarious animals on 
which man subsists in 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 north, we find in Lapland, and in the northern parts of Tartary, a race 


(! 


% 


50 MAMMALIA—MAN. 


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

The Larianpers, 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 
bones 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 
18, 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 are utter 
strangers. The women of Nova Zembla have their nose and their ears 
pierced, 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. 
Dazzied 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 Tarrar country, taken in general, comprehends the greatest part of 
Asia, and in fact extends from Russia to Kamtschatka. All the Tartar 
mations have the upper part of the visage very large and wrinkled, even 


MAMMALIA—MAN. 51 


while yet in their youth. Their nose is short and flat, their eyes are little, 
and sunk in the head; their cheek bones are high; the lower 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 appearance 
there seems to be something frightful. They are all wanderers; and their 
only shelter is that of a tent made of hair or skins. Their food is horse- 
flesh and camel-flesh, either raw, or a little sodden between the horse and 
the saddle. 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 Curnese 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 well 
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 Jaranesr 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 is little more than perceptible. They are haughty, fond of war, 
full 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 their grimaces, in 
eating, are numerous and uncouth. They are laborious, 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 cf 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 Mocuts, (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 Persia, 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 Araprans have, for the 
most part, remained in a state of independence, which implies a contempt 
of laws. 

The Eeyrrian 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, and 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 Turcomans, 
with the Arabians, the Egyptians, and even the Europeans, it is hardly possi- 
ble to distinguish the native inhabitants of Asia Minor, of Syria, and of the 
rest 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 Muscovites 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 
to a 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 Necrors of Senegal and of Nubia, some in the neighbor- 
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 Erutorrans. 
Marmol says, that the Ethiopians, {Abyssinians,) are absolutely black, that 
their visage is large, and their nose flat; and im 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 olive-colored, like that of the southern Arabians, from whom, it 


ea MAMMALIA—MAN. 


is probable, they derive their origin. In stature they are tall; the features 
of their countenance are strongly marked; their eyes are large and beauti- 
ful; their nose is well proportioned ; their lips are thin; 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 is 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 Horren- 
Tots, 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 eyebrows are thick ; their 


MAMMALIA—MAN. 55 


head is large; their body is meagre; their limbs are slender. They seldom 
live longer than forty years; and of this short duration of life, the causes 
doubtless 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 nourishment 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, 
once 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 
supposed, 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 comparison 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 to a 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 meet with another species of men, tall, well made, tolerably 
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, like 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, vigorous, 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 hardy, indefati- 
gable walkers, and very nimble runners. They are alike unaffected by 
excesses of hunger, and of repletion; they are by nature bold and fierce, 
grave and sedate. So strongly, indeed, do they resemble 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 
of Mexico 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 long and very black. 

In surveying the different appearances which the human form assumes 
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 solely from varieties in the mode of living. All the 
Tartars, for 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 no towns, no 
fixed habitations; that they sleep upon the earth, and in every respect live 
coarsely and savagely. These circumstances alone, are sufficient to render 


vent 


; 


MAMMALIA—MAN. 51 


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 the 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 it is 
a quality of which intense cold is 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 behold 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 ihe form they are prodigious. Food which is gross, unwholesome, or 
badly prepared, 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 neighboring valleys, compare them together, and we shall find that the 


ne 


58 MAMMALIA—MAN. 


former are active, nimble, well shaped, and lively; the women commonly 
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 distempers, as 
also from the intermixture, varied ad infinitum, of individuals more or less 
resembling each other. 

Of AccIDENTAL VARIETIES IN THE HUMAN sPEcIEs. Besides those great 
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, 
oY 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 eyelashes 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 the 
island of Dominica, in the year 1759. Her father and mother were brought 
from the Gold Coast in Africa, and were perfectly black. Genevieve was 
white in every part of her body. She was about four feet eleven inches 
high, 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. Her skin in general was of a tallow color; when she 


MAMMALIA—MAN. 59 


approached the fire, however, there was a slight tinge of red appeared in 
her cheeks. Her head was well covered with wool of about an inch and a 
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. She 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; the 
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 which 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 account 
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 almost 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 third 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 months, though a very puny child. 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 bad; he frequently complains of a dull pain in his 
forehead ; his skin is exceedingly 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 
eyelids are in constant motion, and he is incapable of 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 
frem 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 most 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 porcupine 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 extraordinary, they dropped off every 
winter, and were renewed in the spring. In other respects the man enjoy- 
eda 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 moderns, 
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 


wg ROE 
“ee 


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 spectator of their animosity. 

' Tt was in 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 from 
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 marriage 
of a pigmy 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; 
and at two years he was able to walk alone. He was then fitted with 
shoes that were about an inch and ahalf 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, 


> 


"Sy 


62 MAMMALIA~MAN. 


e 


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 alteration 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, decrepid, 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 burthen 
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 in 
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 


e 


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 modern 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 altetnately, 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. Borulawski accor- 
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 memotrs. 

Of Grants 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 
the 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 clouds, 
a man of enormous stature, dancing and singing, and putting dust upon his 
head, 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 
broad, his color brown, and painted over with a variety | of chi’; ; each cheek 
had the resemblance of a heart drawn upon it; his hair was approaching to 
whiteness ; he was clothed in skins, and sehnad 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 ina 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 years of age Judith was affected with a palsy on the left side; and 
though afterwards she appeared cured, she always retained a strong impres- 
sion of that malady, and her mind 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 ; but 


aa. a ae... on 


* The soberer 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 the 
individuals of this tribe. 


ba. 


> 


MAMMALIA—MAN. 65 


they had other maladies or indispositions separately: for Judith was subject 
toa cough and a fever; Helen, on the contrary, enjoyed good health. When 
they were nearly twenty-one years of age, Judith took a fever, fell into a 
lethargy, and died; the unfortunate Helen was obliged to follow her lot. 
Three minutes i fore the death of Judith, she fell into an agony, and died 
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 
is 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 natural form, is that of face to 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 those 
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 more 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 


9 


” 


% 
bs 


66 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 forehead, 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 ‘Jusus 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, had 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, whieh had evidently been formed out of 
those of two subjects. 


ORDER SECOND—QUADRUMANA| 
Tue order Quadrumana is divided into two families, the Simiz or Apes, 
and the Lemures. 
: APES2 
’ Ir the conformation of the body always implied corresponding intellectual 
attributes, the apes should approach the nearest 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 sepzrate from the other fingers, 
and more or less opposable to them; fingers long and flexible; two or four pectoral 
mammze ; clavicles complete; bones of the arm and leg distinct, and susceptible of the 
motions of pronation and supination; male organs of generation external ; stomach mem- 
branous, simple; intestines of medium length; a small cxcum; orbital and temporal 
fosse distinct. 

_ 2 This family is distinguished by a form approaching more or less to that of man; four 
inclined incisors in each jaw; nose more bees prominent; nostrils more or less sepa- 
rated from one another; two pectoral mamme ; orbital and temporal fossz distinct. 


ie yi 
} ma 


MAMMALIA—APES. i 


this is not found to be the case: and though the family of apes have, like 
man, their anterior hands free, and their thumbs opposable, 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 
body 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 general 
to live in wandering troops, for the purposes of mutual protection. 

The whole structure of apes marks them as essentially formed for climb- 
ing trees, and it is in forests, accordingly, that they are chiefly found. Their 
gait on the ground, and on all fours,'as quadrupeds, 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 assuring 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 arash their tele- 
scopes, planting signals, running to the pendulum, taking the pen to write, 
and imitating all the actions of these learned astronomers. Their intelli- 
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 from 
five to seven months, according to the species. The females carry their 
young in their arms or upon their backs, offer them suck, amuse 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, and 
they are only found under the tropics in both hemispheres, : 


at 


a= & 


ir 


68 -MAMMALIA—CHIMPANSE. 


FPnah 


THE CHIMPANSE.! 


AT 


Cuvrer thus describes this remarkable species of ape. “It is covered 
with black or brown hairs, less thickly in front. If we can trust to the 
relations 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—constructs 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- 
Wes. Naturalists have constantly confounded this animal with the 
orang outang. In a domesticated state, it becomes gentle enough to be 
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 also 
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 T'roglodytes comprises Simiz with four incisor teeth 
above, and four below; two canines above, and two below; ten molars ahove, and ten 
below—in ali, thirty-two teeth. Canines little projecting: contiguous to the incisors and 
molars, as those of man; head rounded; muzzle little projecting; superciliary ridge 
prominent; facial angle, fifty degrees; arms almost proportioned to the legs, reaching to 
the bottom of the thighs; thumbs long and opposable; no tail, cheek pouches, intermaxil- 
lary bones, nor callosities on the buttocks. 


ts 


‘ MAMMALIA—ORANG OUTANG. 69 

yt . 
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 any mental 
acuteness, surpassing that found in most of the species of the quadrumanous 
race in general.” This animal has been frequently taken, on the coast 
of Africa, and carried to Europe. 


THE OR ANG OU LT AON G 


The body is covered with coarse red hairs. The forehead equals in height 


1 Pithecus Satyrus. 'The genus Pithecus embraces Simi, with four incisor teeth above 
and four below; canines two above, and two below; molars ten above, and ten below. 
Canine teeth a little longer than the others; molars more square than in man, with tuber- 
cles more prominent ; head rounded; no superciliary ridge, at least in young individuals ; 
facial angle fifty to sixty-five degrees; arms excessively long; thumbs pretty short; no 
tail, or cheek pouches; callosities on the buttocks in some species; ears rounded, similar 
to those of man. 


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,) 
I 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 much 
that of the canine species. Camper has discovered, and ably described, two 
membranous sacs, which produce a thickness and hoarseness in the voice; 
but he was wrong in believing that the nails are always wanting on the 
hinder thumbs. 

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

“The hair of the orang outang is of a brownish red color, and covers his 
back, arms, legs, and outside 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 directed 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 of the hands and feet are quite 
naked. : 

“The prevailing color of the animal’s skin, when naked, 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 openings are narrow and oblique. The mouth is 
very projecting, and of a roundish mammillary form. Its opening is large, 
and when closed is marked by little more than a narrow seam. The lips 
are very narrow, and scarcely 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 


wrt} 


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 
resembling 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 heel, 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 beyond 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 accomplished by placing his bent fists 
upon the ground, and drawing his body between his arms: moving in this 
manner, he soul resembles a person decrepit in the legs, supported on 
crutches. Ina 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 force 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 obviously pass from one branch of a 
tree to another, through a much greater interval. In sitting on a flat 
surface, 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 others of the mon- 
key tribe.” 

The individual described by Dr Abel, ‘on his arrival in Java from Bata- 
via, was allowed to be entirely at feet till within a day or two of being 
put on board the Cesar 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 bamboo 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 
under the observation of the persons of the ship. Once, indeed, he openly 
attempted to throw a small cage, containing three of them, overboard, be- 
cause, 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 day 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 


which bounded 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 sirangers, he would sit for hours with his hand upon 
‘his head, looking pensively at all around him; and when much incommoded 
by their examination, would hide himself beneath any covering that was at 
hand. His mildness was evinced by his forbearance under injuries, which 
were grievous 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 possible to their persons, would take their hands between his lips, 
and fly to 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 to the boatswain, [ was, perhaps, his most intimate acquaintance. 
He would always follow me to the mast-head, whither I often went for the 


10 


a 


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 watch my 
movements. 

“His favorite amusement in Java, was in swinging from the branches of 
trees, in passing from one to another, and in climbing over the roofs 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 
it over his body. Sometimes I pre-occupied 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 he 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 violently 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 milk 
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. I 
seldom came upon deck without sweetmeats or fruit in my pocket, and 
could never escape his vigilant eye. Sometimes I endeavored to evade him 
by ascending 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. 15 


himself by one foot on the rattlings, and confine my legs with the other and 
one of his 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 
tae drop suddenly upon me. Or if, perceiving his intention, I attempted 
to descend, he would slide down a rope, and meet me at the bottom of the 
shrouds. Sometimes 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. After being several times foiled in endeavoring to 
obtain it by direct means, he 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 jerking the rope, he would, at 
first, seem quite in despair, relinquish his effort, and rush about the rigging, 
screaming violently. But he would always return, and again seizing the 
rope, disregard the jerk, and allow it to run through his hand till within 
reach 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, looking 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, 181 


(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 death, 
his piteous appearance, which seemed to bespeak his entreaties to those 
about him for relief, did not fail to excite the feelings of all who witnessed 
them; an excitement evidently heightened by the recollection of human 
suffering under similar circumstances, which the sight of this animal so 
strongly brought to mind, He was shedding his teeth at tthe period of his 
death, which was probably promoted, if not caused by it. * 4 


¢ 


i 


»" 
* 


be 


ith, 


16 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 Batayia, 
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. It 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 one at the 
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 thumb 
of the hinder hand has no nail, and it seems that in nine cases mentioned 
by Dr Abel, the same fact existed. Two instances to the contrary, how- 
ever, are cited; one by Tilesius, the other by Cuvier. We also remarked 
that the thumb is placed nearly at right angles to the hand, inclining a little 
toward the wrist. 


x 


» 


| 
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 
t was fed on bread, fruit, almonds, &c., and calmly received 


e gibbons, of which there are several, have the long arms of the orang, 
the low forehea the chimpansé, and callosities on the buttocks. They have no tail or 


cheek pouch, 


' ¢ 


MAMMALIA—SIAMANG. T7 


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 
of Coromandel, Malacca, and the Molucea Islands. 


THE SIAMANG.! 


TueEse animals are black all over, and have two naked folds of skin on 
the neck, which are occasionally inflated. The hair is long and soft. They 
are very common in Sumatra. They are generally found assembled in large ~ 
troops, conducted, it 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. Ai 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 
of 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 


1 Pithecus syndactylus. 


78 ' 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. ° 


i THE MALBROUCK.! 


TuEse animals are found in Bengal,* where travellers 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 other 
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 
highest 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 
the 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 


1 Cercocebus cynosurus. The Cercocebus is a sub-genus of the Cercopithecus, which 
includes Simiz with four upper and four lower incisors; canines, two upper and two 
lower ; molars, ten upper andl 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 fifty degrees ; ears sometimes rounded, sometimes slightly angu- 
lar; thumbs distinct, more or less approaching to the fingers ; cheek pouches ; callosities 
on the buttocks, with the exception ay one species; tail as long at least as the body, often 
turned up on the back. ' 

* Some later naturalists are of opinion, that the malbrouck is not a native of India, 
but of Africa. 


* . 
a 


MAMMALIA—MAIMON...MAGOT. 79 


its posteriors ; 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, approaching 
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 half long, 
from the snout to the insertion of the tail. 


LHE MAIMON, OR PIG-TAILED BABOON,! 


Wuicnw 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, MAG ONT, ORSBAR BAR Y,, A PUE.? 


Tuis 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 summer 
it remained 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 apaet and ten lower molars. Canine 
teeth very strong, above all in the males; the first and second molars have two tubercles 
on their crown ; thegthree 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-genus of the Macacus, characterized by having a 
simple tubercle, in place of a tail. 


hs 


80 MAMMALIA—MAGOT. 


' 


chained, for, notwithstanding its long subjection, it was neither civilized, 
nor fond of its keeper; apparently, it had been but badly educated, for I 
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 rengembrance 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- 


# 
MAMMALIA—BABOON. 81 


ing itself by biting those who were near it, which obliged us to bind our 
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 feetin 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 
shelter in the woods. The victors then quietly fall to, upon their hard- 
earned meal. * 


%, 


THE PIG-FACED BABOON.!. 


5 iy i ) 


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


1 Cynocephalus porcarius. The genus Cynocephalus comprises Simie, with four upper 
and’ four lower incisors ; two upper, and two lower canines; ten upper, and ten lower 
molars. Canines very strong; last molar of the under jaw on each side with a heel; 
head and muzzle much elongated; nostrils placed at the extremity, like the dog; facial 
angle, thirty to thirty-five degrees ; superciliary, sagittal, and occipital ridges, much de- 
veloped ; orbit hollow; maxillary bone much produced; face wrinkled, with longitudinal 
striz ; ears flat and angular; cheek pouches; members of nearly equal length, and very 
robust; large callosities. 


11 


= 


82 MAMMALIA—MANDRILL. 


of the Cape of Good Hope. It is a proper baboon. Its general color isa 

dusky hue, bordering upon black. The body is from two to three feet in 

length, 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 depressed; the nose is much prolonged. 
| The voice of the pig-faced baboon has a near resemblance to the bark 
# of a dog. 


# os 


THE MANDRILL 


Se 
ae 


Tuts baboon, which also bears the name of the ribbed-nosed baboon, is 
an ugly, disgusting animal. It is found on the Gold Coast, and in other 
southern provinces of Africa, where the negroes call it boggo, and the Euro- 
peans, mandrill. This animal is the largest of the as 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 ery like the human species; that they have a violent passign for the 

female sex ; that they never fail to overcome them if they come within 
their reath. ioe 

This animal is equally remarkable for its variety of color, its singularity 
of appearance, its immense strength, and its unconquerable savageness. 


1 Cynocephalus mormon. 


*. 


MAMMALIA—COAITA. 83 


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 hu 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 at water, and appeared 
to understand every look and gesture of his keeper. He had a very con- 
tented ook, and passed under the name of “ Happy Jerry.” 

When standing upright, the mandrill is in height from three feet anda 
half to five feet. It is to be found on the Gold Coast, in severa ther parts 
of Africa, and also in the East Indies and the Indian Achille 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 COAITA2 


‘> 


“ Next to the warine, and the alouato, the coaita, or four-fingered monkey, — 


is the largest of the sapajous.* There was one ‘alive at the Duke of Bouil- 
lon’s, where, by its familiarity 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 
untameable. It also differs from them in having but four fingers, and no 
thumb to the fore paws: by this character alone, and its holding tail, it is 


1 Ateles paniscus. The genus Afeles 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, conical; molars with blunt crowns, as those of d round; 
face perpendicular; facial angle, about sixty degrees; ears hardened; ext very long 
and slender; the anterior ones, generally tetradactyle; thumb, none, or only replaced by a 


wart, or extremely short, and armed with a little sharp nail; posterior pentadactyle ; nail, 
convex and short; tail extremely long, strongly prehensile, having a part without, hair, 
and covered with a delicate skin toward its extremity. 


hy, 
* "The sapajous are apes peculiar to the American continent, having long, prehensile 


tails. i ‘A, vt , 


i 


\ 


84 MAMMALIA—HOWLING MONKEY. 


easily distinguished from the monkey kind. “In the use of their tail these 
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 elephant 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 

of Oke general food, and they grow fat ween it is ripe, when, it is said, their flesh 
ee is good and exquisite eating. 

‘The coaita is about a foot and a half long, and its tail is longer than the 
pte head a 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 exces- 
sive noise which they make, they have obtained the name of the howling 
monkey. regrave informs us, ‘that every morning and evening the warines 


1 Mycetes seniculus. The genus Mycetes has four upper and four lower incisors ; two 
Bp er and two lower canines; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Canines well de- 
eloped, triquetrous ; head py vramidal ; countenance oblique ; facial angle, thirty degrees ; 
Heard bone ventricose, pppatens externally, and cavernous. Four extremities pentadac- 
tyle ; tail very long; strongly prehensile, 3 under its extremity ; nails convex and short. 


& ’ i s 
ig “ i P 


- "j 4 be ” n P80 
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P ’ . i e 
in, " © ee ae a 


MAMMALIA—WEEPER. 85 


and the elouaios assemble in the woods; that one among them seats himself 
on an elevated 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, at a 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 color as the female, and only differs 
from it in being a little larger. The females carry their young on their 
backs, and thus loaded 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 “a 
live only on fruit, grain, and some insects, their flesh is not bad eating. 

is hike that of the Baie, but a little sweetish, for which reason a good ee 
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, fantasticdl in their tastes and affections: they 
seem 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, rou.” 


LHE SAT 2O8 “WEE PER? 


¥ ; : 
‘TRAVELLERS have described these animals by the name of howlers, from 
their plaintive moan. Others have called them musk monkeys, from their » 


eee 

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 
inferior; 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 behind ; 
facial angle, about sixty degrees; ears rounded ; hyoid bone, not projecting ; tail prehen- 
sile, but entirely covered with hair. 


~ 


ai!) i 


me 


ta 


e 


‘ 


ty 


86 MAMMALIA-OUISTITI. 


having, like the macaque, that peculiar smell. They belong to the sapajou 
family, as they have a holding tail; they have only two teats, and bring 
forth but one or two atatime. They are gentle, docile, and so timorous, 
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 in 
their native country of Brazil, they chiefly live upon grain, and the wild 
fruit they pluck from trees, whence they very seldom descend till they have 
stripped their habitation of its treasure. 


THES TREATED \ MONK EY; OR OURS @ ipa 


Tue name of this animal is taken from the sound of its voice. It is 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 at a 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 upper and 
two lower canines; six upper and six lower molars. Incisors and canines variable in their 
dimensions. Molars with a crown, furnished with sharp tubercles; head round, muzzle 
short ; occiput Porioent, tail longer than the body, soft, and entirely covered with hair; 
feet pentadactyle; thumb of the anterior hands not opposable ; nails very long, compressed, 
arched, and pointed. 


a & 


§ 


MAMMALIA—MACAUCO.! 87 


her back or shoulders; when she is weary of carrying them, she 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, 
hissing 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, terminated by a sharp, turned-up nail; two or four pectoral mamme ; 
tail, when it exists, not prehensile. ° 


* 
THE MACAUCO.! 


THE macauco, (which is the ring-tailed lemur of Shaw,) is a beautiful 
animal, remarkable for the largeness of its eyes, and the length of the 
hinder legs, which by far exceed those before ; by its beautiful and long tail, 
which is continually elevated and in motion, and upon which are upwards 
of thirty rings, alternately black and white, all very distinct and separate 
one from the other. It is gentle; and, although it greatly resembles the 
monkey in many particulars, it is not so malicious in its nature. It isa 
gregarious 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 legs of the animal 


are very long. The hair is soft, and stands upright. 
o 


1 Lemur catta. The genus Lemur is characterized by four upper and six under incisors. 
One canine on each side, in both jaws; molars five above and four below, on each side. 
Superior incisors, united in pairs, inferior, inclined, long. ‘Superior canines, long, com- 
pressed, crossing the inferior ones before; inferior canines, or first molars, compressed, 
triangular ; molars with blunt, tuberculous crowns ; two pectoral mamme; head, long 
and triangular; muzzle slender; ears short and rounded; fourth toe of the feet largest; 
tail longer than the body, covered with hair, not prehensile ; hair soft and woolly. 


# 


88 MAMMALIA—MONGOOS. 


PHE: MONG OOS?! 


THE moneo0s is less than the macauco; but its hair is, like that, of a 
short and silken nature, but a little curled; the nose is also thicker. Buffon 
had a mongoos in his possession for several years; its coat was of a brown 
color, 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 
in the neighborhood, and would make free with fruit, sugar, sweetmeats, &c. 5 
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. 


TE D> AND BielaA CK; Tn ONE i Rae 


fOr ger 


Tis is not only one of the most beautiful of the group to which, it 


1 Lemur mongooz. 2 Lemur ruber. 


W 


MAMMALIA—LEMUR. 89 


belongs, but it also possesses the additional recommendation of being 
unquestionably the rarest known species. Very little was known of it tilla 
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 long, soft, and woolly. The eyes are 
lively and expressive. From the nose to the root of the tail, it measures 
about sixteen inches, and the tail itself is still longer. 


THE SLOW LEMUR, OR BENGAL LORIS. 


Tus animal is so sluggish in its motions, that some have been errone- 
ously induced to consider it asa sloth. It is about the size of a small cat, 
and has a flattish face, a nose rather sharp, and extremely prominent eyes ; 
it 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 of the same color. 
During the greatest part of the day it sleeps, or at least lies without motion. 


1 Nycticebus Bengalensis, Geoff. Lemur tardigrada, Lin. The genus Nycticebus has 
two or four upper, and six lower incisors; two upper and two lower canines ; twelve upper 
and ten lower molars. Intermediate incisors separate; lateral, small or none; anterior 
molars with one point; those at the bottom with a large crown, hollow in the centre, and 
tubercles at the angles; body thick; members robust; head round; muzzle short, not 
turned up; eyes very large, approaching, and directed forward; ears short and hairy; 
two pectoral mamme ; a very short tail; bones of the leg and arm distinct ; tibia longer 
than the femur; tarsus and metatarsus of equal length. Inhabits Bengal, Ceylon, and 
Java. 

12 


90 MAMMALIA—LEMUR. 


One of these animals is described by the late Sir William Jones, in the 
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 
he clearly distinguished from others, he was at all times grateful ; but when 
T disturbed him 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 always 
quick; and when he was unseasonably disturbed, he expressed a little re- 
sentment, by an obscure 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 approaching day, licking 
and dressing himself like a cat; an operation which the flexibility of his 
neck and limbs enabled him to perform very completely : he was then ready 
for a slight breakfast, after which he commonly took a short nap; but 
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 not 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 lasted, 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 for that 
of holding his food, he used all his paws indifferently as hands, and frequent- 
ly grasped with one of them the higher parts of his ample cage, while his 
three others were severally engaged at the bottom of it; but 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 for many 
minutes, playing on the wires with his fingers, and rapidly moving his body 
from side to side, as if he had found the utility of exercise in his unnatural 
state of confinement. 


' 
ee 
€ 
MAMMALIA—BAT. 91 


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

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

ge 


ORDER. THIRD—-CHEIROPTERA. 


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


kal Sng Da 3 NP 


Aw animal, which, like the bat, is balf quadruped and half bird, and which, 
in fact, is neither the one nor the other, is a 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 body of the animal: they 
are, in a word, parts which have rather the appearance of a capricious and 
accidental, than a regular and determined production. 

To these incongruities, these disproportions of tne hody and members, 
may be added the still more striking deformities of the head. In some 
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 a1z as long as the 
body, or else the face is twisted into the form of a horse-shoe, and the nose 
covered with a kind of crust. Averse, likewise, to the society of all other 
creatures, they shun the light, inhabit none but dark and gloomy places, to 
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, till night 
again approaches. 


4 


om 
92 Vy 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 struggles, and in 
an awkward manner. ‘They raise themselves from the ground with difficul- 
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 
direction ; and in passing along they do not fail to seize all the gnats, moths, 
and other nocturnal insects that come in their way. These they swallow 
entire; 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. e 

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 flight. 

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 dy. 
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 hunger than 
cold, and can even subsist a number of days without food, they yet belong 
to the number of carnivorous animals; fer, when opportunity serves, they 
will devour bacon, and meat of all kinds, whether raw or roasted, whether 


fresh or corrupted. 
"% 


ro VAMPIRE BATS. 


te 
THE BOUSSET TE] TAE BOUGE Aaa AND 
THE SPECTRE, BATS 
Tur roussette and the rougette seem to form two distinct species, which, 


however, are so full of resemblances to each other, that they ought not to 
be presented asunder. The Jatter differs from the former solely in the size 


1 Pteropus vulgaris,Gsorr. The genus Pteropus has four upper and four lower incisors; 
two upper and two lower canines ; ten upper and twelve lower molars. Molars with the 
erown truncated obliquely, and marked with a longitudinal furrow; head, long and 
conical; ears short, simple, with auricles; no crest or nasal appendage; tail short,or none; 
interfemoral membrane sloped off. An additional phalanx and nail on the index finger 
of the wings; tongue papillous. 


2 Pieropus stramineus, Grorr. 


3 Phyllostoma spectrum, Lrx. The genus Phyllostoma has four upper and four lower 
incisors ; two upper and two lower canines ; ten chs and ten or twelve lower molars. 
Lateral incisors very small, the intermediate ones broader; head, long and conical; nose 
with two nasal crests, one like a leaf, the other of a horse-shoe form; ears large, naked, 
not united. Auricle internal, dentated ; eyes small and lateral ; tongue rough with horny 
papille ; tail and interfemoral membrane more or less developed. 


m 


MAMMALIA—BAT. 93 


of the body and the colors of the hair. The roussette, whose hair is of a 
reddish brown, 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 of Bourbon, in Ternate, in the Philippine and other islands of the 
Indian Archipelago, where, indeed, they seem to be more common than in 
the neighboring continents. 

The smell of these creatures is 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 squamosus, 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, ge the nose is very round, and nearly in like that 
of adog. Of the spectre, on the contrary, the nose is more elongated ; the 
aspect is as hideous as that of the ughest 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 
from those of the roussette and the rougette. It is an animal not less mis- 
chievous than it is deformed ; it is the pest of man, the torment and destruc- 
tion 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 horses, 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 


94 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. owls and small animals are 
the objects of their destructive fury; they even attack men, and bite their 
faces most cruelly. 

All these bats are animals carnivorous, voracious, and possessed of an 
appetite for every thing that offers. In a dearth of flesh 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 neighborhood of their retreat 
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, 


The tongue of the spectre I have not had an opportunity to observe ; but 
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 
exceeding 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 some 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 to 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 fi pportunity 
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 eatit. He would also bring into the loft 
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 to 
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 the 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 be seen in the forest, hanging head downwards from the branch of a 
tree. 


96 MAMMALIA—BAT. 


“The vampire has a curious membrane, which rises from the nose, and 
gives it a singular appearance. There are two species of vampire in Guiana, 
a larger and a smaller. The larger sucks men and other animals; the 
smaller seems to confine himself chiefly to birds. I learnt from a gentleman 
high up on the river Demerara, that he was completely unsuccessful with 
his fewls 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 gentleman, 
by name Tarbet... We hung our hammocks in the thatched loft of a planter’s 
house. Next morning, | heard this gentleman 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 I 
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 
how these infernal imps have been drawing my life’s blood!’ On examin- 
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 oozing 
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—FERZ&. 


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


FAMILY I.—INSECTIVOREA. 


Turse 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 tuber- 
cles; canines sometimes very long, sometimes very short; incisors variable 
in number; body covered with hair or prickles. ° 


MAMMALIA—HEDGEHOG, 97 


. 


° TRE: HEDGE O.G.1 


Tuts animal varies in length from six to ten inches; and has the power 
of 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, and of presenting from every 
part of its body a poignant weapon of defence. Even from its fear this 
animal obtains another engime 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 hedgehog, 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 
no 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. 
They 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 now con- 
verted to ‘any use, though the ancients used it for the purpose of a clothes 
brush. m » 

‘The hedgehog may be rendered domestic, and in that state is very useful 
in destroying cockroaches and beetles, which he pursues and devours with 
great activity. He is believed also to destroy mice, nearly if not quite as 
well asacat. A hedgehog belonging to the proprietor of an inn at Felton, 
in Northumberland, Eng., was taught to perform perfectly the duty of a 
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 a border 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 


1 Hrinaceus Europeus, Lin. The genus Hrinaceus 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 
prickles above and stiff hairs below, capable of rolling up into a ball; muzzle pointed ; 
ears medium size, or very short and rounded; toes armed with strong nails; tail short or 
none; ten mamme, six pectoral, and four ventral; no cecum ; clavicles complete, 


13 


v 


Ny 
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 sitwa- 
tion until 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. 
He would also eat snails 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 out 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 would 
go into the house. If meat was put near the mouth of his shed in the day 
time, he would sometimes pull it in and eatit. As the weather became 
colder, he carried 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 from the 
severity of the weather.” 


THE SHREW: MOUSE! 


Is 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 shrew mouse, yet they will not eat its flesh, ike 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- 
bute 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 arancus, 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 
small, but perceptible ; tail more or less long, often angular; feet with weak toes, sepa- 
rated, furnished with crooked nails; teats six or eight ; sebaceous glands on the sides. 


at 


« 


MAMMALIA—MOLE. 99 


flesh. It is likewise 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 
holes 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- 
ness 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)! ‘ 
ty 
Wirxouvt 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 
for itself; or extending it, and of obtaining, Without the necessity of relin- 
quishing it, an abundant subsistence. 

The mole sbuts 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 is 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 with 
insects and worms, of which, indeed, its principal nourishment consists. 


. 
1 Talpa 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 button ; eyes very small ; no external 
ears ; pentadactylous; fore feet very large, with toes united to the nails, which are strong 
and slightly arched. 
* 


a 


100 MAMMALIA—MOLE. 


In skinning the larve of insects, which it always does before it eats them, 
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 stronger 
than themselves. The chief calamity which befals them is an inundation ; 
and when this happens, they are seen in numbers attempting to save them- 
selves by swimming, and using every effort to reach the higher grounds. 
The greater part, however, perish, as well as the young, which remain 
behind 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 
keeping out the rain, let it be never so violent. As the hillock, in which the 
apartment is thus formed, is raised above ground, the apartment itself is 
consequently above the level of the plain, and therefore less subject to acci- 
dental slight inundations. The place being thus fitted, she procures grass 
and 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 supplies 
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 
her 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 
badger sleep 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 inhabit 
America. 


THE SHREW MOLE! 


Ts 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 in any 
direetion. 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 Scalops Canadensis. The genus Scalops has two incisors above and four below; 
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 tubercles; muzzle prolong- 

and cartilaginous; eyes very small; external ears, none; feet short, pentadactyle, the 
anterior very broad; nails long, flattened, proper for digging; tail short. 


%. 7 


102 MAMMALIA—MOLE...BEAR. 


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


f 


- 


THE: GOPHER MOLE, OR CAMAS RAT. 


Tus animal is found on the Columbia and Missouri rivers. It lives 
beneath the surface of the earth, and eats roots. The head appears large 
and clumsy, owing to its cheek pouches. The root of the camas plant is 
its favorite food, from which it derives its name. It is said by Schoolcraft, 
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 
time 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 on their crown; 
canines very strong. . 


THE:BROWN BEAR. 


Tue bear is not only a savage, but a solitary animal; he takes refuge in 
the most unfrequented parts, and the most dangerous precipices of 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 breught forth her young. 


1 Ursus arctos. 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- 
cisors of the lower jaw on the same line; posterior molars very strong, with a square crown 
and blunt tubercles; feet pentadactyle, armed with strong nails; body thick; tail short; 
mamume six; two pectoral and four ventral. 


¢ 


MAMMALIA—BEAR. 103 


That the latter should not only be able to subsist, but even to nurse her 
offspring, without receiving herself any food for such a length of time, 
is highly improbable. 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 fetus of the bear appears at the first glance unformed, it is 
merely because there is a want of proportion in the body and members even 
of the grown bear, and because, which is well known to be the case in all 
animals, the fetus, or the new-born animal, is always more disproportioned 
than the grown animal. 


26a 
mas ery Pe eel 
<< Z ——D 
Le tle OEE 
SS 


The voice of the bear is a 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 mild he may appear before his master, and even obedient when 
tamed, he ought still to be distrusted, still treated with circumspection; 
nor, on any account, must he be struck on the tip of the nose, or touched on 
the parts of generation. 

e 


- 


* 
9 * 
| 
ai es 


104 MAMMALIA—BEAR. 


This animal is capable of some degree of instruction. There are few who 
have 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 toga 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 time 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, compared with 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 them 
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 is 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 
indebted for his scanty knowledge of physic and surgery, which he acquires 
by noticing what herbs the animal applies to his wounds, or eats when he 
is laboring under disease; and to the bear, too, he owes all his ideas of 


#, 


cd * 
MAMMALIA—BEAR. 105 


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

The brown bear is upwards of four feet long. He inhabits Europe and 
the temperate parts of Asia. 


THE GRIZZLY. BEARA 


Te 


Tuts animal inhabits the northern part of America, and is, perhaps, the 
most formidable of all bears in magnitude and ferocity. He averages twice 
the bulk of the black bear, to which, however, he bears some resemblance 
in 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 all 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 animal 
to a convenient spot, where he digs a pit for its reception.. The Indians 


1 Ursus ferox, Lewis & CLarKkeE. 
14 £ 


¥ 


» 
106 MAMMALIA—BEAR. 


regard him with 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 a small 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 
weunds, 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 closely 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 trayellers met with the largest 
bear of this species they had ever seen; when they fired he did not attempt 
to attack, but fled with a tremendous roar, and such was his 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 John Dougherty, a very experienced and respectable hunter, who 
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 
Jooked 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 call 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 ani- 
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 


: 


MAMMALIA—BEAR. 107 


again wounded the bear, and saved Mr D. from further 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 :—Having killed 
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 for its 
reception. 


Turis 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 less shaggy than in 
most other species. The forehead has a slight elevation, and the muzzle 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 becoming a deep black. ° 

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


1 Ursus Americanus, Desm,. 


f 


108 MAMMALIA—BEAR. 


When these resources fail, he will attack small quadrupeds, and even ani- 
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 assiduous 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 hand he holds 
his gun, and in the other a torch, which he darts into the cavity. Frantic 
with rage and terror, the bear 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 weods 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 former chases ; 
and fresh invocations to the spirits of the deceased bears conclude 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 
crackle and shrivel up (which it is almost sure to do,) they accept this as 


MAMMALIA—BEAR. 109 


a good omen; if not, they consider that the spirit of the beast is not 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 hyena, and, except at feeding times, was on good 
terms with his companion. A piece of meat, however, would occasionally 
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 bear would moan most piteously, in a tone somewhat like a 
sheep bleating, while the hyena devoured the remainder of his dinner.* 


of WE 
THE WHITE, OR POLAR BEAR: 


Tue polar bear is distinguished by his tremendous ferocity. It some- 
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 along the Atlantic. Many adventures with them took place, some of which are 
esate 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 nature, and 
wolves and bears were not afraid of bemg 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 
on a beam above ; when the bear, mounting the log, sat down with his rump towards the 
saw, which was in operation, and commenced 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 bear then whirled about, and throwing his paws around the 
saw, held on till he was mangled through ont through, when he rolled off, fell through 
into the flood, and bled to death. jl 


1 Ursus maritimus, Lux, 


110 MAMMALIA—BEAR. 


lengthened than that of the brown bear, and the body is longer in proportion 
to its bulk: In the Polar seas it may literally be said toswarm. There, it 
is seen not only on the land and fixed ice, but on floating ice several leagues 
out at sea. In the latter manner, white bears are sometimes conveyed to 
Iceland, where they are so much dreaded by the inhabitants 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 
other 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, on a female being killed, come and put his 
paws over her, and rather suffer himself to be shot than abandon her. 

“While the Carease 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 crew 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 old 
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 
from any but unfeeling minds, to have marked the affectionate concern ex- - 


MAMMALIA—BEAR. qu 


pressed by this poor beast in the last moments of her expiring young ones. 
Though she was herself dreadfully wounded, and could but just crawl to 
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, and endeavored to raise them up. When 
she found she could not stir them, she went off, and when she had got to 
soine distance, she looked back and moaned. Finding this to no purpose, 
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, wiih 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 rousket 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 thé 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 


Tuts animal, which was first brought from India about forty years ago, 


was at first ee the five-fingered, or ursine sloth. It has, however, 


1 Ursus labiatus, Desm. 


ne MAMMALIA—BEAR. 
4 


nothing in common with the family of the sloths, but is a genuine bear. 
This curious quadruped is said to have been brought from the interior part 
of Bengal, where it burrows in the ground. It is covered with black, shag- 
gy hair, which on the back is twelve inches long, where it divides and 
forms a kind of bunch. The hair on its head is short, and the snout is 
of a yellowish white. The tail is so short as to be scarcely visible. Its 
lips are thin and very long, and furnished with muscles, by which 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 claws, 
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, 
it appears rather lively, and utters a kind of short, abrupt roar. 


THE BORNEAN BEAR. 


| 


: 
ill 


—— 


q 


| 
il 
SS 


In 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 has a long, narrow, extensile tongue, 
which the owner can protrude nearly a foot, and then curve spirally in- 
wards ; a process which it frequently performs. The claws are very long, 


1 Ursus malaianus, Horsr. * 
é 


MAMMALIA—BEAR. q 


. 


’ ee 
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. From 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 in early life, and its manners in confinement greatly 
resembled those of the Malayan bear, observed by Sir Stamford Raffles, 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 apartment, 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 smal] distance 
beyond its reach, it would thrust forward its upper lip as a proboscis, in a 
most ludicrous manner, 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, and bring it in successive 
portions to its mouth, When craving for food, and also while consuming it, 
it emitted’ 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 
patted and rubbed, even by strangers; but violently resented abuse and ill 
treatment. Its principal food was bread.” 


15 


yi 
>] 


ee 


114 MAMMALIA—BEAR. 


‘ 


THE THIBET BEAR. 


Tus species, unless Cuvier and others are in error, is also to be found in 
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 
half 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, and 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 or 
cooked. 


1 Ursus thibetanus, Cuv. 


MAMMALIA—RACCOON. 115 
rad 


THE RACCOON. 


Tue raccoon is a native of most parts of North America; but it has 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 hundred 
skins are procured annually, by the Hudson’s Bay Company. If there is 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 
natives of Cook’s river, in latitude sixty degrees; and skins supposed to be 
of 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 ; two 
upper and two lower canines; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Lower incisors on 
the same line ; the three posterior molars tuberculous ; feet pentadactyle; nails sharp ; 


muzzle pointed ; ears small; tail long; six ventral mamme. 


16. MAMMAZIA—RACCOON. 


and Clarke expressly state that the raccoon, at the mouth of the Columbia, 
is 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 being 
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. 
At low 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 Linnwus 
to give it the specific name of lotor. 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 without difficulty, and is then very good-natured and 
sportive, but is as mischievous as a monkey, and seldom remains at rest. 
Of ill treatment 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 eame 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 ef him, I allowed him to walk about with his chain on, and he 
expressed 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 themselves with him.by par- 
taking of his food; nor was it until he had induced them to feel in perfect 
security, that he would seize a fowl and tear it in pieces; he also killed 
kittens in the same manner. 

“Tf the raccoon be not very grateful for favors received, he is 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 tewards 
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 the stable, but often preferred passing the night in the 
open yard.” 


THEY BROWN COATT. 


Tus 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, 
its 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 incisors; 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 strong 
nails ; nose much prolonged and moyeable ; tail long; six ventral mamme. 


118 MAMMALIA—BADGER. 


white spots; its hair 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. 

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 
move with ease in any direction.* 

As for the coati in other respecis, it'ls an animal of prey, which subsists 
on flesh and blood, which, like the fox, destroys small animals and poultry, 
hunts for the nests of little birds, and devours their eggs; and it is probable 
from this conformity of disposition, that some authors have considered the 
coati as a species of small fox. It inhabits the woods of South America. 
In pursuit of its prey, it climbs trees with much agility. When tamed, 
which it easily is, it is fond of being caressed, but does not become much 
attached to its owner. 


THE EUROPEAN BADGER}! 


\ 
Na taN AY ‘ 
Dax OSS 


mp) 


ANH 


+ >> — : a 

ae GE 
eo A\\ aul 
SSN" 


Is a lazy, distrustful, solitary animal, that retires far from the appreach of 


* Godman says, “It has been considered very wonderful that this animal should eat its 
own tail, which certainly appears to be the fact. The extreme length of its tail, in which 
the blood circulates but feebly, exposes it to the influence of the cold or frost; and the 
exceedingly tormenting irritation produced thereby, leads the animal to gnaw and scratch 
the tail to relieve the excessive itching. The disease spreads, and the anguish induces 
the coatimundi to gnaw more furiously, and eventually his life is destroyed by the exten- 
sion of the inflammation and irritation to the spine, &c.” 


1 Taxus vulgaris. The genus Tarus has six upper and six lower incisors ; two upper 
and two lower eanines ; ten upper and twelve lower molars. The first molar very small, 


MAMMALIA—BADGER. 119 


man, and digs a subterraneous residence, where it spends, at least, three 
fourths 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 
and compact. The hole which it thus forms often proceeds to a great depth 
below the surface of the earth, and the Bagenee to itis 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 detente 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 Sea they know, and from whom 
they receive fhicie food; but the old ones, in spite ef every effort, still remain 
wild. They are we 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, eee 
butter, bread, fish, fruit, nuts, roots, &e. 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 man her milk, and afterwards with such petty prey 
as she can surprise. She seizes young rabbits in the warren, robs 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 large; body low upon the legs; pentadactyle; nails robust; tail short; an anal 
pouch, containing a fetid secretion. 


ee 


ow 


120 MAMMALIA—BADGER® 


be met with; and carries all to her expecting brood, which she frequently 
brings 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 tail 
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- 
Jars for dogs, and trappings for horses. The hair is used for painters’ 


brushes. 
ie 


b 


ig 
THE AMERICAN BADGER. 


Tue American badger, as compared with the euco is generally less 
m 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 peinaPeablyy 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 wattted by the Missouri, but its exact southern range 
has not, as far as I know, been defined by any traveller. The sand prairies, 
in the neighborhood of Carltcn-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 i in that climate it, passes the winter from the 
pee of November ‘April, ina torpid state. Indeed, as it obtains 
the small animals on w hie rit ‘feeds by eepysins them in their burrows, it 


. v4 Taxus Labradorica. 
‘ “¥ 


Fail" 


ee 


oye” 


MAMMALIA—WOLVERENE. 121 


és 


has little chance of digging them out at a time when the ground is frozen 
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. ie 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 
to, when pursued; and as it makes its way through the sandy soil with the 


rapidity of a mole, it soon places itself out of the reach of danger. The 


strength of 1 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 thélllBoles ; 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 nadradaere been eat- 
ing some vegetable matters. — Richardson. * 


pi 


i 


i ¢ 


. THE WOLVERENEL 


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


1 Gulo arcticus. The genus “Gullo has six upper a six lower incisors ; two upper 
f 
and two lower canines; ten or eight u anc twelve lower molars. ‘The three first 


molars in the upper and the four i wer Jaw w small, succeeded by a large carnivorous 
tooth, and a small tuberculous or e back; body low; head moderately elongated ; 
ears short and round ; tail short ; i ci toes with crooked nails ; no anal pouch. 
16 
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‘ am Sy 
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+= 


a 


122 MAMMALIA—POLECAT. 


Sf 

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- 


‘lishing 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 


aie i is built, and then carries off the bait. It feeds also on meadow mice, 


marmots, and other rodentia, 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 the 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. 


% 


4e 


wTHE POLECGAT! * 


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 lives in woods, thick brakes, 
or rabbit warrens. His 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 do a 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, a and are frequently known, 


1 Mustela putorius, Lix. The genus Mustela has six upper and six lower incisors; two 

Buper and two lower canines ; eight or ten upper and ten or twelve lower molars. Bod y 

ngated ; head small and oval ; ears short and round; legs short; feet pentadactyle, 
armed with sharp, hooked claws, N o anal pouch. | 


a 


os 


" re nee. . 123 


in winter, to attack the hives, and drive away the bees. Rabbits, 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- 
bly, this is done by them only when other food is not attainable. This 
animal is not a native of America. 


THEFERRET.1 


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 one before, it 
_ springs at it, and tears it with fury; if it be a living. one, it seizes it by the 
. ae and nose, and instantly begins to suck its blood. When the ferret is 
et 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 Blatt 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 
more 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: WEASEL2 » 


THE common weasel is as frequent in temperate and in hot countries, as 
it is scarce in cold ones. 

The weasel is the smallest of the class to which it belongs, and is anactive 
and handsome little animal. Exclusive of the tail, it is not seven inches in 
length ; and its height is not more than two andahalf. 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 


1 Mustela furo, Lin. ‘ 2 Mustela vulgaris, Lin. 


ae 


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124 MAMMALIA—ERMINE. " 


belly. The eyes are small and black ; the ears short and roundish ; and the 
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 
old 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 ene end, 
through 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 yowag among the hay or straw. During this 
time, the weasel makes war with the rats and mice, with more success than 
- the cat, since, following them into all their holes, it is next to an impossi- 
bility for them to escape. It also climbs up to 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. A 
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; ORAS TOA 


Tne weasel with a black tail is called the ermine when it is white, and 
the stoat, when it is red or yellowish. Though it is a 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. 


ah 


1 Mustela erminea, Desm. 


ve 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 Saskatche- 
wan river. 


THE PINE MAARTEN; OR PINE WEASEL, 


he ea, ’ 


Onricrnatty a native of the north, is in a manner peculiar to that climate, 
where it is so numerous, that the quantity of furs produced from this animal __ 
alone, and carried into foreign countries, is actually astonishing. In tem- ~ 
perate climates, on the contrary, itis 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 

is 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 to be 
sometimes victorious, even over the golden eagle, when that bird pounces 
on it as its prey. It seizes the aggressor by the throat, and the loss of blood 
soon brings down the eagle lifeless from its ‘‘ pride of place.” 

Its neck is yellow, whereas that of the beech marten is white; and its 
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 

; \ 7" 


1 Mustela martes, Lin. 


ey 


126 MAMMALIA—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 hellow places of trees, from which 
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 govern- 
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. 


“a 


- 


Si THE SKUNK? 


Tis 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 
otherwise than as varieties of a single species, and of these varieties he 
enumerates fifteen. 


EIN Mn YS 
1 Mustela zibellina, PALuAs. 


2 Mephitis Americanus, Desm. The genus Mephitis has six upper and six lower incisors ; 
two ppper and two lower canines; eight upper and ten lower molars. Body elongated, 
arched ; 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. The 
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. It also 
does much mischief in the poultry yard. 


THE+sOTTER? I 


: a 


» 


Tue common otter is of a deep brown color, and is usually about two feet 
in length 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 
tail broad at the insertion, but tapering off to a 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 placed as to be capable of being brought into a 
a line with the body, and performing the office of fins; and each foot is 
furnished with five toes, connected by strong, broad webs, like those of 
water fowl. a 

Accurately considered, the otter cannot be pronounced an amphibious 
animal. We even find them drowned, when they happen to have been 
entangled 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 bark 
of aquatic trees ; and in spring it will eat new grass. 


s 


1 Lutra vulgaris, Lix. The genus Lutra has six upper and six lower incisors; two 
upper and two lower canines; ten upper and ten lower molars. Head large and flatiened ; — 
ears short; body long; low upon the legs; toes webbed ; nailscrooked; tail long, flattened 

Pier 


horizontally. . 


ot 


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. I, makes the en- 
trance under water, burrows upwards, provides several cells to retire to in 
case of floods, and opéns on the surface a small orifice for the admission of 
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 the 
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 will 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 occasionally “‘ 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 im posse comitatus, 
beat the banks with dogs, hedge in a space with nets, and assail the otter 
vith 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 sports, except 
angling. , 


THE CANADA OD TER. 


THE Chonda otter resembles the European species in its habits and food, 
but it may be distinguished from it, by the fur of its belly being of the same 


1 Tatra Canadensis, DEsm. 


‘ 


MAMMALIA~—OTTER. 129 


« 
shining brown 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 obstmacy. It inhabits the Mackenzie and other rivers nearly to 
the Arctic Sea, and the western parts of the United States. 


THE SOUTH AMERICAN OTTER 


Tux color of the South American otter is different from that of the 
European: the latter is much darker; and the male is still darker than the 
female, 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 rejects the head, and will not 
use it, although pressed by hunger. In Buenos Ayres there is one quite 
domesticated, which will invariably bring home what it gets in the river: 
but tame habits make it lazy and indolent; it is vicious co 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 month of May, the parties assemble by previous arrange- 
ment, composed principally of the chief inhabitants and their relatives or 
clans, and visiters, male slaves, 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 appoint 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 ther tongue; what this is owing to, whether custom or saga- 
city, I know not, but it is certainly the 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 


1 [utra Braziliensis, GMEL. 


17 


130 MAMMALIA—OTTER. ak 

“ye n 
chorus with their huntsman, until they arrive near the Calle Pero, or otter 
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 
_ to dive after him, and will relieve each other in this task: as soon 
as 1 UMP, down goes the other, while the hounds keep up the cry in the 
water ata iM 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 
Fe him until Saistiedl when they again return to depopulate this 

le commonwealth of otters. 

In their abode the heads, tails, fins, and fragments, of several species of 
fish will be seen. As he 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. 


é 


THE SE Ay 0 WT ERA 


PG 
ee 


SSS am... =U STAT . 

Tuts harmless, playful, and interesting animal is bchettly 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 to 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 spot 
where their offspring were destroyed. 


1 Lutra marina, Desm. 


—) 


ee « MAMMALIA—DOG, 131 
‘if ‘ mt 
DA Ee, BrOre te 
* 

A RGENESS of the frame, elegance of the form, strength of the body, free- 
aciigeane motions, and all the. exterior qualities, are not the noblest pro- 
perties in an animated being; and, as in mankind, understanding is preferred 
to figure, courage to strength, and sentiment to beauty, so interior 
qualities are those which we esteem most in animals; for these 
that they differ from the automaton; it is by these they are raised above 
the vegetable, and: made to approach nearer to ourselves; it is their sens 
which ennobles their being, which regulates, which enlivens it, whiel 
mands the organs, makes the members active, gives birth to desi 
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 to 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 tamed; 
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, 
notwithstanding this long space of time, retained, at least in part, their 
primitive form, and travellers report that they resemble our greyhound.* 


1 Canis familiaris, Lry.. The genus Canis has six upper and six lower incisors; two 
upper and two lower canines; twelve upper and fourteen lower molars. The three first 
molars in the upper jaw, and the four in the lower, small edged; the great carnivorous tooth 
above bicuspid, with a tubercle on the inner side; two tuberculous teeth Iehind exch of 
the large carnivorous ones; muzzle elongated; tongue soft; ears erect; fore feet penta- 
dactylous ; hind feet tetradactylous; teats inguinal and ventral. 

*TIt must not be understood that the dog is not an original inhabitant of America. 
Godman remarks that the people of the northern parts of America and Asia, have, for 
ages heyond the memory of man, employed dogs as beasts 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 breed apparently intermediate to the wolf and fox. 


132 MAMMALIA—DOG. 

‘ a h 
These wild dogs, however, are extremely thin and light; and as the grey- 
hound does not differ much from the cur, or from the dog which we 
will call the shepherd’s dog, it is natural tothink, 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. 


“i : eh : mat Yaa -~\ ri 
; 5 E Z ’ qr CET 
2g : 4 47 (iy 


— ane 
reretiiri/ 


MAREN 


Tus elegantly formed animal was once held in such estimation, that it 
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 mouth, sharp and very white teeth, little ears, with thin 
gristles in them, a straight neck and fuil 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 Naeiael for 
the chase when twelve months old. It courses by sight and not by scent, 
as other hounds do; and is sppposed to outlive all the dog tribe. Buffon 


"* Canis emule’ 2 eraius. : 


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 


Tuts beautiful animal is of Spanish extraction, whence it derives its 
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 performance of this task, are worthy of 
admiration. 


THE WATER SPANIEL 


Or all the dog kind, this animal seems to be the most 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, &e. Watching the stroke of the piece and per- 
ceiving the game that is shot, he instantly swims after it, and brings it to 


1 Canis fam. extrarius. 2C.f. aquaticus. 


134 MAMMALIA—DOG. ‘ 


his master. He will fetch and carry at command, and will dive to the 
bottom 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. It 
is ardent in the chase, and frequently outstrips the fleetest 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 SPAN DS POL NT ho 


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» which 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 than the 
English pointer of enduring fatigue. It is chiefly employed in finding 
partridges, pheasants, &c. 


1C, Gallicus. 2 C. avicularis. 


MAMMALIA—DOG. 135. 


Pies S Out Welw x "DOG.! 


Tuis 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 toa 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 head to the commencement of the tail, is two 
feet three inches. His coat is long and furry, and 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 seal skin, going round the neck by one 
bight, and another for each of the fore legs, with a single thong leading over 


1 C, Borealis. This animal is a native of America, and is considered by 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 descent from the same stock of the wolf, residing in the vicinity, and do not appear 
to be distinctly removed from that species, however Jong they may have been in the 
service of man. 


136 MAMMALIA—DOG. 


the back, and attached to the sledge asa 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 downto 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 lash 
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. 

“In 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. Ona beaten track, or even where a single 
foot or sledge mark is occasionally discernible, there is not the slightest 
trouble in guiding the dogs: for even in the darkest night, and in the 
heaviest snow-drift, 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 stopped, 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 altogether 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 
them, 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 
left behind by them. 

“With heavy loads, the dogs dfaw best with one of 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 mouth, 
and then making the motion of cutting it with a knife and throwing it on 
the snow, when the dogs, mistaking it for meat, hasten forward to pick it 
up. The women also entice them from the huts ina 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 road, 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. 


Tuis 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 wood 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 
so 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, aimost 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 
good temper, has justly rendered it a universal favorite. 


THE MASTIFF.2 


Tuis species of dog is peculiar to England. It is nearly of the size of a 
Newfoundland dog, strong and active, possessing great sagacity, 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 mastiffs and a lion, in which the 
king of beasts was compelled to seek for safety in flight. 


THE TERRIERS? 


Ts 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. 2 C. 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. Nor is it excelled by 
any dog in the quality of courage. It will encounter even 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 foreing 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! 


Tuts 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 been known to leap on the back of an ass, which was not saved from it 
without considerable difficulty. 


THE BULL-DOG? 


Txoven much less in size than the mastiff, the bull-dog is nearly equal to 
him in strength, and superior to him in fierceness. Those of the brindled 
kind are accounted the best. No natural antipathy can exceed that of this 
animal against the bull. Without barking, he will naturally fly at and 
seize the fiercest bull ; running directly at his head, and sometimes catching 
hold of his nose, he will pin the bull to the ground; nor can he, without 


1C. f. Australasia. 2 C. Molossus. 


cH 
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 fer a bear, and four for a lion. 


THE SHEPHERDS DOG! 


Tms dog is distinguished by his upright ears and sharp muzzle. His 
body 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 BLOODHOUND 


wh EE ees 
LLM N NG Ne 


Is a 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 and acuténess 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. 


1 C. domesticus. 


MAMMALIA—DOG. 141 


THE AFRICAN BLOOD-HOUND. 


NN 
Ne 


yer: : ee PE ee 
iin easels 


Two males anda female of this species—a species which is remarkable 
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. 


PELE ay Aa Aa DO, Gat 


Tuis 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, 
but it is less daring with respect to the horse and the ox, and, accordingly, 


1 Canis pictus, DesM. 


142 MAMMALIA—WOLF. 


it 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 body, 
and on the legs, in large patches of intermingled black and white. From 
its 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 eyen its feeder did not dare to lay his hand upon it. 


THE WOLF! 


= ee “bac 2 ow LES y 


Tue wolf, as well externally as internally, so nearly resembles the dog, 
that 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; and 
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 
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 devours 
his prey ; the dog, on the contrary, is more generous, and contents himself 
with his victory. 

The dog, even in his savage state, is not cruel ; he is easily tamed, and 
continues firmly 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—WOLF. 143 


gives a remarkable instance, in which a wolf manifested for his master all 
the devoted attachment of a dog. The gentleman who brought him 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 scon as the wolf heard 
the well known voice in the gardens of the menagerie, he displayed the 
most violent joy, and, on being set at liberty, he hastened to his friend. An 
absence of three years next took place, and the wolf was again disconsolate. 
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 
discover a project for attacking some great animal, 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 does 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 nine, at 
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. They 
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 
courage from her example, she declines all future care of them, being again 
engaged in bringing up a new progeny. These animals require two or 


ood 


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 weargihike those of 
most other animals, by using. He Meese 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, 
insthe 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 letting 
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 
to quite 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 hard 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 than a 
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 cere 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 of 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 


be 


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. 


RHEE LO. UD De Ee vo W) Ob Fu 


THis animal is a native of the extreme northern regions of America. It 
isa much nobler looking creature than the common species, and is also 
much larger 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 AMER TOAN “WOLF. 


Tue common wolf of America is considered to be the same species as the 
wolf of Europe, and, in regard to habits and manners, gives every evidence 
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 comparatively 
Jong 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 America :—common gray wolf, white, pied, dusky, black, and 
prairie. There is little reason to doubt that all the wolves of America are of one species ; 
and the variations of size, color, and habits, are to be referred to diversities of climate 
which have been gradually impressed upon these animals. 


19 


an" 


- y@ 


146 MAMMALIA—WOLF. 


Like all the wild animals of the dog kind, they unite in packs to hunt 
down animals which individually they could not master, and, during their 
sexual season, engage in the most furious combats with a ive 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 
yery fearful of the human race, but are destructive to the Indian dogs, and 
frequently sueceed 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 play 
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, the 
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 devoured. 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 


, 


T Hobee Rh ALR DEY. OR BAM KT NG: WO. F.} 


sly hy nh 
=, 1 


1 
U 


Tus wolf frequents the prairies or natural meadows of the west, where 
troops or packs, containing 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 dog 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 kinds 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. 


” 


% 


« Ms Fad % 
Nagy 


, 


148 MAMMALIA—JACKAL. 
mae 
tracks of different size were observed about the trap. This procedure would 
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! 


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


1C. aureus, Lr. 


f. 
MAMMALIA—JACKAL. 149 
, 


inhabits the warmer parts of the old continent, and seems to occupy the 
place of the wolf, which is not 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 his 
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 ; his 
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 
is 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, as 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 in 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 carcasses of men 
and animals. The natives are obliged to cover the graves of the dead with 
large 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 doleiul cry; and, when they are once 
accustomed to feed on dead bodies, they run from country to country, follow 
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 constant and so vehement, that the driest leather is sa- 
vory to them; and skin, flesh, fat, excrement, or the most putrefied animal, 
is alike to their taste. 


150 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, he carries 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 
manne7z, 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 rabbits, 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 partridge and the quail, and seizes the mother while 
sitting. , 


1 C. vulpes, Lin. 


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 like- 
wise sometimes known to eat. In vain does the 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 stuck to his skin: he then returns to the charge, 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 is 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 ery of the 
peacock. 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 
yvooden and even iron bars are necessary to be forced between his jaws. 

The fiesh 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 ; 
and, in winter, good furs are made of his skin. He sleeps so sound, that, 
however closely approached, there isno 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, 

pf all wild animals, the fox is most subjected to the influence of climate, 
za 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 tail is white, 
Jn 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 
isso 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 

rctie 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 gam- 
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 smali value in commerce.” 


1 C. lagopus, Lry. 


MAMMALIA—FOX. 153 


THE STLVEER VY FO xX. 


Tus 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 sometimes 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- 
blance to it. 


THE AMERICAN FOX? 


ZENER 


i, 


saat 


a 
—-—~-> 


Tue 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 


1 C. argentatus, Dssat. 2C. fulvus, Desm. 


20 


154 , MAMMALIA—FENNEC. 


is of a bright red color on the head, back, and sides ; on the throat and neck 
of a dark gray; and pale red on the under parts of the body. It bears a 
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 
than 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. 


Tuts 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 general at Algiers. Bruce kept it alive for 
several months. Its favorite food was dates, or any 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 from 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 showed no symptoms of preparing for any defence. Bruce never 


Ac 


1C. Brucei, Burr. 


MAMMALIA—CIVET. 155 


heard 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 rest 
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; 
but Denham and Clapperton, on their return from Central Africa, brought a 
skin of the animal, and thus placed its existence beyond doubt. 


THE CIVET! 


Is 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 
can 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, Lis. The genus Viverra has six upper and six lower incisors; two 
upper and two lower canines ; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Three false 
molars in the upper jaw, conical and compressed, a large carnivorous bicuspid tooth, and 
two tuberculous ones; in the lower, four false molars, one bicuspid and one tuberculous ; 
ae long muzzle pointed; feet pentadactyle; claws semiretractile ; anal pouch more 
or less 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 shoulders 
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 
perfume of the civet we must not confound with musk, which is a sanguine- 
ous humor, ebtained from an animal altogether different from either the 
civet 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 small 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 employed 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 obtained, is put into a vessel, and every 
care is taken to keep it closely shut. 

The quantity which a single animal will afford, depends greatly upon its 
appetite, and the quality of its nourishment. It yields more in proportion 
as it is more delicately and abundantly fed. Raw flesh hashed small, eggs, 
rice, small animals, birds, young fowls, and particularly fish, are the food 
in which the civet most delights. 

As to the rest, the civet is a wild, fierce animal, and, though sometimes 
tamed, is yet never thoroughly familiar. Its teeth are strong and sharp; 
but its claws are feeble and blunt. It is light and active, and lives by prey, 
pursuing birds, and other small animals, which it is able to overcome. It 
generally attacks at night, and by surprise. They are sometimes seen 
stealing into yards and out-houses, like the fox, in order to carry off poultry. 
Their eyes shine in the night; and it is very probable that they see better 
by night than by day. When they fail of animal food, they are found to 
subsist upon roots and fruits. They very seldom drink; nor do they ever 
inhabit humid ground; but in burning sands, and in arid mountains, they 
cheerfully remain. There is another animal called 


74 
4 


MAMMALIA—CIVET. i 157 


sr 


THE ZIBET, 


Wnuicn differs from the civet, in having a body longer and less thick, a snout 
flatter, more slender, and somewhat concave at the upper part; its hair is 
much shorter and softer ; it has no mane, no black under the eyes, or upon 
the cheeks. All these characteristics are peculiar to, and very remarkable 
in, the civet. 


THE JAVANESE CIVET? 


Dirrers considerably from the common civet. The body, narrow, com- 
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 is a 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 
neck above is occupied by a deep, longitudinal black line, and, below, there 
is a second, which is more obliquely placed. The head is grayish, and has 
no spots; and the legs are externally black. 


1 V. zibetha, Li. 2 V. Rasse, Horsr. 


i 

: ie f 
hil > 
7 } 


ie 
158 


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 tamed. It is a native of Spain, Africa, 
and the south of Asia. 


LHE. LCHNEUMON?Z 


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 
base, the tail is very thick ; it tapers gradually towards the point, which is 


| 1 V. Genetta, Lin. 

2 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, small 
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 mottled 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 instinct 
are much stronger and more extensive than 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 scon as it begins to feel the impressions of their venom, it 
immediately goss 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. It 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 ‘& 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 
more tame, obedient, and affectionate than a cat. 


160 MAMMALIA—HYZENA. 


TBE) SPR LP-EeD, a Yue NALS 


So striking, and even so singular, are the characteristics of the hyena, 
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: like 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 hyzna 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 
undergthe earth. It lives by depredation, like the wolf; but it is a stronger 
animal, and seemingly more daring. It sometimes attacks man, carries off 
ttle, follows the flocks, breaks open the sheepcotes by night, and ravages 
ha 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 ery 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; eyes projecting; ears large; a glandular pouch at the anus. 


is ph} 


vm oe 


MAMMALIA—HYZENA. 161 


but, according to Kempfer, who 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 SPOT TE Dir H yy Nae 


Tuts animal is a native of Southern Africa, and abounds in the neighbor- 
hood 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 hyzna, the spotted species has 
jaws of enormous strength, with which it easily breaks to pieces the hard- 
est bones. sie 

It isa common but erroneous idea, that the hyena is wholly savage and. 
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 FH]. capensis, Desm. 
21 


~ 


t 


162 MAMMALIA—HYENA. 


natural aversion to close confinement, and when exhibited, as he generally 
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 hyena was undoubtedly 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 ina cave at Kirby 
Moorside, in Yorkshire. 

The depredations of the hyzna 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, “at 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 home, 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 extremely 
ravenous, that a good large village, where 1 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 by 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 carry off any unfortunate animal that they could find in 
the streets.” 

_ With this strong desire for food, approaching to the boldness of the most 
desperate craving, the hyena, 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 tent, and, 
retting up from his bed, saw two large blue eyes glaring upon him. It 
ne. 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 
the 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 
resident, and increases the sense of desolation by ee of his 


habits. At Ptolemeta, where there are many remains offormer architectural 


, + 
: 


hi 


MAMMALIA—LION. 163 


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 hyena 
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 never 
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 hyena 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 as 
fierce as it is obstinate. 


THE LION 


Tue outward form of the lion seems to speak the superiority of his in- 
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 Leo, Lis. The genus Flis has six upper and six lower incisors; two upper and 
two lower canines ; eight or six upper and six lower molars; five toes on the fore feet; 
hind feet tetradactyle ; Mails retractile; head short ; four molars on each side of the upper 
Jaw, the last tuberculous and very small; three in the lower jaw ; ears pointed. 


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 lastly, 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, 
he mast live seven times three or four years, that is, about twenty-five years. 

fT: is usually supposed that the lion is not possessed of the sense of smell- 
inz nsuch perfection as most other animals of prey. It is 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 
ereuches 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 patient 
expectation, until his prey comes within a proper distance; and he then 
springs after it with such force, that he often seizes it at the first bound. If 
he misses the effort, and in two or three reiterated springs cannot seize his 
prey, he continues motionless for a time, seems to be very sensible of his 
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 


hunger a very long time; but thirst he cannot support in an equal degree, 
his temperament being extremely hot. He drinks as often as he meets 
with water, lapping like a dog. He generally requires about fifteen pounds 
of 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 
exercise, he approaches the habitations of man, tc whom, and to domestic 
animals, he then becomes amore dangerous enemy. It is observed, how- 
ever, that when he sees men and animals together, it is always on the latter, 
never 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 instantly 
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 tillthey have received the assistance of their tusks, he easily 
dispatches, when unprotected by the dam; nor are there any animals able 
to oppo e 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 fastened 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 may easily 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 goed qualities, and particularly the courage and magnanimity of 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 upon them from his ambush, like the veriest tom-cat; having feeble 
sight, and being unfit for the chase, he follows the wild dogs and chacals, 


166 MAMMALIA—LION. 


which run 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 animals, be- 
cause it is not in his power to catch them, he is then called clement ; while 
in virtue of his great strength, dreadful claws, horrid teeth, and awful roar, 
he is considered as altogether royal. Yet this king of quadrupeds has 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, no match 
for the great tiger of Asia, which, in ferocity, savage daring, audacious de- 
structiveness, unconquerable and unappeasable hatred to mankind, is infi- 
nitely more royal, and a more consistent emblem of a great number of 
human kings, who have aided, in various ages and countries, to retard the 
progress of improvement and the march of mind,” 

‘“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.” Mr Barrow also brands him with the 
character of cowardly and treacherous. 

“His forbearance and generosity,” says Mr Bennett, “if the facts be care- 
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 com- 
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 
unguardedly, 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 him tremble there: 


MAMMALIA—LION. 167 


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

It appears, however, to be a well authenticated fact, that neither the lion 
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 Bechuano 
chief, 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, 
but was yet desirous of springing upon him unawares. Ifa person, in such 
circumstances, attempts eithér to fight or to fly, he incurs the most immi- 
nent peril; but if he have sufficient presence of mind coolly to confront 
him, without appearance of either terror or aggression, the animal 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, Lam perfectly satisfied of the fact; and an anecdote related to me 
a few om 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 him behind. 
The officer turned constanily upon the tiger, which still continued to shrink 
from his glance ; but darting into the thicket, and again issuing forth ata 
different quarter, it persevered for above half an hour in this attempt to 
catch him by surprise; till at last it fairly yielded to the contest, and left 
the gentleman to pursue his pleaswre walk. The direction he now took, as 
may be easily believed, was straight to the tents, at double quick time.” 


at. 


Py , 


168 MAMMALIA—LION. 


THE BENGAL TELON. 


4 


Tue uniformity of his color is one characteristic which distinguishes the 
lion 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 level with the line of her back, which gives her a 
sullen and downcast look. The period of gestation is a hundred and eight 
days. The young are born with the eyes open; but the ear does not be- 
come completely erect for two months. The lion arrives at maturity in 
five years, and is then nearly eight feet long. 


MAMMALIA—LION. 169 


THE CAPE) LION. 


THERE we two varieties of this species, which, from their color, particu- 
larly of the manes, are designated by the settlers, as the pale and the dlack 
lion. The latter of these is the larger and 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 the Cape colony. “One 
night,” says he, ‘‘a lion, that had previously purloined a few sheep ont of 
my kraal, came down and killed my riding horse, about a hundred yards 
from the door of my cabin. Knowing that the lion, when 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 speedily as possible. In 
an hour, every man of the party, (with the exception of two pluckless tel- 
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 
or herdsmen,—an aetive and enterprising, though rather an unsteady, race 

99 


MX 


170 MAMMALIA—LION. 


of men. Our friends, the Tarkaboors, many of whom are excellent lion 
hunters, were all too far distant to assist us, our nearest neighbors residing 
at least twenty miles from 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 
by a few of the Hottentots, on foot. Commencing from the spot where the 
horse was killed, they followed the spoor, (track,) through grass, and gravel, 
and brushwood, with astonishing ease and dexterity, where an inexperienc- 
ed eye could discern neither foot print nor mark of any kind,—until at 
length we fairly tracked him into a large bosch, or straggling thicket of 
brushwood and evergreens, about a mile distant. 

“The next object was to drive him out of this retreat, in order to attack 
him 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 i. 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 all the party are not men of courage, coolness, 
and experience. The frontier boors are, however, generally such excellent 
marksmen, and, withal, so cool and deliberate, that they seldom fail to shoot 
him dead as soon as they get within a fair distance. 

“In 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, 
firmg into the spot where the dogs were barking round him, but without 
effect. At length, after some hours spent in thus beating about the bush, 
the Scottish blood of some of my countrymen 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 roots of a 


MAMMALIA—LION. 171 


large evergreen bush, with a small space of open ground on one side of it ; 
and they fancied, on 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 block 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 
in their volley upon him, instantly turned and fled helter-skelter, leaving him 
to do his pleasure upon the defenceless Scots ; who, with empty guns, were 
tumbling over each other, in their hurry to escape the clutch of the rampant 
savage. In a twinkling he was upon 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 
noble and imposing that can be conceived. It was the most magnificent 
thing 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 calmly 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 tufts of grass, and, abandoning the jungle, retreated 
towards the mountains. 

“After ascertaining the state of our rescued comrade, (who fortunately 
had 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 had dashed him to 
the ground,) we renewed the chase with Hottentots and hounds in full ery. 
In a short time we again came up with the enemy, and found him standing 
at bay under an old 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 taking a circuit between him and the moun- 
tain, crossed the stream, and took a position on the top of a precipice 
overlooking the spot where he stood. Another party of us occupied a posi- 
tion on the other side of the glen; and placing the poor fellow thus between 


L172 MAMMALIA—LION. 


two fives, which confused his attention and prevented his retreat, we kept 
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 hands; and his neck, breast, and limbs appeared, when the 
skin was taken off, a complete congeries of sinews.” 

Major Denham furnishes us with the following anecdote: ‘‘The skin of a 
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 four slaves, and was at last taken by the following stratagem; the inha- 
bitants assembled together, and, with loud eries 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 ef 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 ¢earried to 
some distance. On their quitting the spot, and the noise ceacille the lion 
returned to his haunt, and was observed watching his trap for seven or eight 


hours—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, 
when they intend to kill lions, they generally notice where the spring-bucks 


MAMMALIA=—LION. 173 


are grazing 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 powerful, 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 Burchell furnishes us with the following lively description :— “The 
day was exceedingly pleasant, and not a cloud was to be seen. For a 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 the 
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 the 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 well 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 by 
their violent and resolute barking. The courage of these faithful animals 
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 
noisy attempts, and kept his head turned towards us. At one moment, 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 imprudence, for, without discomposing the majestic and steady attitude 
in which he stood fixed, he merely moved his paw, and at the next instant 
I beheld two lying dead. In doing this, he made so little exertion, that it 


174 MAMMALIA—LION. 


was scarcely perceptible by what means they had been killed. Of the time 
which we had gained by the interference of the dogs, not a moment was 
lost; we fired upon him; one of the balls went through his side just be- 
tween the short ribs, and the blood immediately began to flow, but the 
animal still remained standing in the same position. We had now no 
_ doubt that he would spring upon us; every gun was instantly reloaded; but 
~ happily we were mistaken, and were not sorry to see him move ijaiailiy 
away ; though I 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, to 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 dlack lion, 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 lion. 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 with a 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 action, by 
their keen sight and acute scent; and they would remove to some distant 
part before 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 noi 
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, and ‘uttering a half stifled growl, by which means the 
noise 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 fly 


MAMMALIA—LION. 175 


in all directions ; they rush into the very danger which they seek to avoid. 
This fearful sound, which the lion utters, is produced by 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 is 
necessary, therefore, that he should have peculiar organs of vision. In 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 possesses, has always appeared a subject of 
mystery ; and it is natural 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 covert 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 absolute 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.”—Notes to 
Blumenbach’s Comp. Anatomy, by Lawrence and Coulson, 1827. 


¥ 


aa 


176 MAMMALIA—COUGAR. 


Qe E, POM A, OB oC OU,G ARs? 


Tar 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 
small rounded head, a bread 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 has 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 
Yvorld, 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 all 
cowards, he is sanguinary, If he find a flock of sheep unprotected, he will 


1 Felis concolor, Lin. 

* Tt is not now common, in any part of the United States, except the unsettled districts. 
It is usually called the panther, or painter, by the common people. It is also called the 
catamount, 


MAMMALIA+COUGAR. 177 


destroy the whole, merely that he may enjoy the luxury of 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 bushes, conceals itself in ditches, or assumes a fawning appearance. 
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 its 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 Catskill 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 body 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 hunter 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 
present when it was received. Mr Herse being unarmed, was apprehen- ~ 
sive that an attempt would be made to rob him at the camping ground, and _, 


23 


178 MAMMALIA—COUGAR. 


expressed his apprehensions to a single fellow-traveller, who was also un- 
provided with arms. Jn 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. In 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 

hane believed by the same cougar.” | 


» 


MAMMALIA—TIGER. 179 


TH EY’ Pier hs 


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 Jess tyrannical than the inferior classes, 
which, denied so full an exertion of authority, abuse the powers entrusted 
to them. , 

More, therefore, than even the lion, the tiger is an object of terror. He 
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 limbs 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. 
The 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 
of 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 motion, 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 

his 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, and much less general- 
ly diffused, than that of the lion. Like the lioness, nevertheless, the tigress 
produces four or five young ones at a birth. From her nature she is fierce 
at all times; but when surrounded with her infant progeny, and in the 


. ®, 


MAMMALIA—TIGER. : 181 


smallest 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 
he 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 power, 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 whole 
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 magnified, 
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 
between 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 
requires, however, but little consideration to teach us that the broad distine- 


182 MAMMALIA—TIGER. 


tion which has been drawn, cannot by possibility exist; and the recorded 
observations of naturalists and travellers, both 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 so 
striking and so prepossessing in the aspect of the lion. But, on the other 
hand, it will readily be granted, that in the superior lightness of his frame, 
which allows his natural agility its free and unrestricted scope, and in the 
graceful ease and spirited activity of his motions, to say nothing of the 
beauty, the regularity, arid the vividness of his coloring, 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. 

“Tn 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 itoff 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. 

“Tt 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 but 
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 convincing proof. “A 


MAMMALIA—TIGER. 183 


beautiful 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 asa kitten. It frequently 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 
return for this indulgence, it would, however, now and then steal their 
meat. Having one day stolen a piece of beef from the carpenter, 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 eat; 
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. 

‘In the year 1801, one day after this tiger had been fed, his keeper put 
into the den to him, a small, 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 expréssed the 
greatest symptoms of delight, always welcoming its arrival by gently lick- 
ing oyer 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 fora 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 companion, 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 diminutive crea- 
ture the tiger would suffer to play with him, with the greatest good-nature. 
I 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 out of its mouth, and 
seemed otherwise heedless of its 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 them. 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 eat, and in no 
respect attempted to injure him. The man remained there two or three 
hours; and he at last began to fancy there would be some difficulty in 
getting out 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 instances 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, inasmuch 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 TAS BR, 


Wuicn 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 he 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 so 
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 prominent. 

“These differences of form,” says Mr Bennett, “are accompanied by 
differences in color and markings equally decisive. The general appearance 
is, at the first glance, the same in both; but the open roses of the leopard are 
scarcely more than half the size of those of the 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, 
intermixed with a few black spots of small size and roundish form; that of 


1 Felis onca, Lin. 


24 


186 MAMMALIA—JAGUAR. 


ae » 


the jaguar, on the contrary, is marked by one or two regular longitudinal 
lines of broad, elongated deep black patches, sometimes extending several 
inches 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 had 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 all their attempts to shoot it, 
and would, doubtless, have carried off any individual who might have un- 
guardedly exposed himself. 

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 isa stronger stimulus, viz. that killing seven jaguars, 
or six tigers, will give him the title of gwapo, 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 
he eats them; others, that he hugs them to death. However this be, she 


MAMMALIA—JAGUAR. 187 


3 


never suffers him to approach the jungle, if I may be allowed to call it so, 
until they are 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 
is seen hovering instinctively about the place where she is crouched at 
noontide. When the Llanero perceives this, he envelopes himself in a 
jaguar’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 
body 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 ery of the beast, which by some is said to be like a cat, or 
like hogs crouching in a sty; the latter is what I would compare them to, 
as I have seen them mustering by night previous to hunting. As soon as 
the male pérceives 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 Llaneros, 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 jaguar 
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 subtle 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 misfortune of being wounded in a ren- 
' e 


188 MAMMALIA—TIGER...PANTHER. 


contre, was so much ashamed of acknowledging it, that he suffered a morti- 
fication sooner than expose the wound, although he was well aware the 
women possessed a salve that would cure him. 


THE BLACK ATG i Rt 


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. 


q 
e 9% 
N\ Sys 


ew 


AN 


. 


Vwi 


Resemstes 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 circles 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 Guinea. 


1 Felis nigra, a variety of the preceding. 2 Felis pardus, Lin. 


MAMMALIA—PANTHER. 189 


It must be observed, 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 fromm 
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 just 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 rolled over, broke the spear, and bounded off with 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 of a young kid it will sometimes devour; but when any full grown 
animal falls a prey to its ferocity, it sucks the blood alone.” 

The following narrative of an encounter with a panther, which is copied 
from the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, will abundantly prove the 
formidable nature of the panther, even when the animal is not of its 
largest size. 

“T was at Jaffna, at the northern extremity of the island of Ceylon, in the 
beginning of the year 1819,” says the writer, ‘‘ when, one morning, my ser- 
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 different things 
By the way, there are no real tigers in Ceylon; but leopards and panthers 


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 then 
reached Ceylon from the continent, came to my door, the.former armed with 
a fowling-piece, and the two latter with remarkably blunt hog spears. 
They insisted upon setting off without waiting for my gun, a proceeding 
not 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 tothe 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 from 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. I 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 
ef 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 cocoa-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 he thrust appa- 
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 was; and, in so 
doing, the knife 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 before; 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; for Jaffna stands on a 
peninsula on which there is no jungle of any magnitude.” 


DHE }L EQ) PA RD 


Tuis formidable and sanguinary animal is found nearly throughout the 
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, Lr. 


& 


192 MAMMALIA—OUNCE. 


ings. These consist of numerous rows of large rose-like spots, passing 
along his sides, each formed of the confluence of several smaller black 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 
line 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, separated 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 
in the Tower is extremely 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 can 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) CHE TAH OR OUN CE! 


~ SSS SS SS Se 
lS = 


Tris animal, which is called the youze in Persia, the chetah in India, and 
to which Pennant gave the name of the hunting leopard, is a native of Africa 


1 Felis uncia, GMELIN. 


* 


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 bedy 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 im- 
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 anterior 
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 deseribmg the ocelot, serious mistakes have been committed by Buffon 
and other naturalists. It is to Mr Bennett that we are indebted for the 


“ 


1 Felis pardalis, Li. 


25 


194 MAMMALIA—OCELOT. 


latest and most accurate description of this animal. ‘ Nearly equal in 
size to the lynx 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 tailrather 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, to 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, surrounding 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 probability, 
been shortened by some accident.” 

The animal in the Tower was sent from Trinidad, under the name of 
the Peruvian tiger. It is extensively \spread over the American conti- 
nent, being found in the widely separated regions of Mexico and Para- 
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 active 
climber, it follows the birds even to their nests. ‘‘It is easily tamed,” says 
Mr Bennett, “but seldom loses all trace of its natural ferocity. D’Azara, 
however, speaks of one which was so completely domiciliated, as to be left 


at perfect liberty ; it was strongly attached to its master, and never attempt- 
ed to make its escape.” 


MAMMALIA—LYNX. 195 


mun LYN x! 


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 
caracal, 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 this imaginary one, the 
existence of which Pliny himself does not seem disposed to believe, since 
he speaks of it only as an extraordinary 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- 
ble 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 it over 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 of the fox. The 
ears are erect, and are tipped with a long pencil of black hair. The fur, 


1 Felis lynx, Lin. 


* * 


196 MAMMALIA—LYNX. 


which is long and thick, is of a pale gray color, with a reddish tinge, and 
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 beautifally 
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 other 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, hes 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 sueks 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 animals the lynx has the 
shortest memory. The skin of this animal changes its color according to 
the season and the climate. In winter it is in 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.11 


Tus is 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. It is 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 Cervier. 
The French Canadians now term it indifferently La Chats, or Le Peshoo. 
Pennant considered it as identical with the lynx of the Old World; Geoffroy 
St Hilaire named it as a distinct species ; and Temminek has again, under the 
name of Felis Borealis, described the species as the same in both hemispheres. 


1 Felis Canadensis, Desm. 
vw 


“ “ 


MAMMALIA—SIYA-GUSH. 197 
‘by 4 2 


BAY LYNX, OR AMERICAN WILD CAT! 


“1 

a IQDM» > we ; 

= SS v — =a (9 dong ee i 

a rs RE Wow A 1s 
WW , or Sau Ly ) i 

—— = Ms TT} > eT (ae ¢ 

a tL > ee Movies seasah§ngy ert: , 

Sis UWS f meas 

soa? ey At 

is WAS : 


Tue 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 small 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 have sprung from the 
domestic cat. 


> 


THE CARACAL,.: OR ST Vie US i a 


‘THouen the caracal resembles the lynx in size, in the formation of the 
body, and the aspect of the head; and though, like that animal, it seems to 
have the peculiar, and almost singular characteristic of a stripe of black 


1 Felis rufa, GMEL. 2 Felis caracal, Lin. 


® 
198 MAMMALIA—CARACAL, 
hair-at the extremity of the ears; we do not scruple, nevertheless, from 
their disagreement in other respects, to treat of them as a ls of different 


species. 

The caracal is not spotted like the lynx ; it gh! 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 i 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 the lion, who, when the 
immediate cravings of his appetite are gratified, is of a disposition altogether 
unhostile. om 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 
large 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 to the 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 caracal is ever thus employed. In captivity it is extremely 
sulky, and stares fiercely whenever it is noticed. 


ae 


a 


MAMMALIA—TIGER CAT. 199 
« * oe 


THE TIGHE®@ CAT OF AFRICA, OR CAPE CAT. 


Tuis 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.” e 

The specimen of the cape cat to which we have referred, was certainly 
one of the most beautiful animals we have ever seen. Its motions were 
exceedingly quick and graceful, and its countenance mild, lively, and pleas- 
ing. Its form was very slender; the head and body not being larger than 
those of a domestic cat; yet its height and length were nearly twice as great. 


1 Felis capensis. 


niy* 


200 MAMMALIA—CAT. 
. # 


a THE DOMESTIC, CATS 


TuoucH an animal of prey, is a useful domestic. It is neither wanting in 
sagacity nor sentiment; but its attachments are stronger to places than to 
persons. The form of its body corresponds with its disposition. The cat 
is 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 sceat, which in the dog is an eminent 
quality, is far from being good, and therefore they do not pursue animals 
which they no longer see; they do not hunt, but wait and attack them by 
surprise. ; 

The most zmmediate 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, and 
“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 and 
round, becomes, in broad day, long and narrow like a line; and for this 
reason, these animals see better during the night than during the day, the 
form of the pupil being always round when it is not constrained. During 
the day, there is a continual contraction ir: the eyes of the cat, and it is only 
by effort, as it were, that he sees in a stromg 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, 'py possessing qualities analogous to, 
those of the antenne of insects. 


1 Felis ca tus, Lin. 


~ *MAMMALIA-—CAT. 201 


Cats seem to have a natural dread of water, cold, and bad smells. They 
are very fond of perfumes, and gladly suffer themselves to be taken and 
caressed by persons who use them. The scent of valeran 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 
surround 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 themselves 
to a change of houses; but we have watched the process by whic. 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 to a 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 aroom which a eat 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 of vainly attempting such a passage. 

The memory of a cat must be very strong, to enable it to understand this 
great variety of /ocal circumstances, after a single observation. The same 
power of memory leads this animal, 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 of 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 herself 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 master, 
(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 
comméncez, 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 his task was not always an easy one. 

“At Elford, near Litchfield, in Fngland, the Rev. Mr Sawley had taken 
the young ones from a hare which had been shot. His cat, which had just 
lost her own kittens, carried them away, as it was supposed, to eat them ; 
but it presently appeared that it was affection, not hunger, which incited 
her, as she suckled them and brought them up as their mother.” 

Wild cats, from whence all the domestie varieties have been derived, have 
been 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 to 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, it is about four feet in length. A larger head, more vividly sparkling 
eyes, and a more agile and daring demeanor, distinguish it from the domes- 
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 is a 
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 to 


*< 
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 of 
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. m.. 


FAMILY III—AMPHIBIA. 


THESE animals have the feet short, enveloped in the skin, in form of fins ; 
the posterior in the direction of the body; number of incisors variable, often 
six, and sometimes four above, more generally four, and sometimes two 
below. 


THE SEAL 


LL AS 
4 o> 
The 


Tus animal has its head round, like that of the human species; its snout 
is broad, like the otter’s; the eyes, large and elevated ; little, or no external 


_ } Phoca vitulina, Lry. The genus Phoca has six or four upper and two or four lower 
incisors ; two upper and two lower canines ; ten or twelve upper and ten or twelve lower 
molars. Molars all cutting or conical; five toes on all the feet; tail short; eyes large; 
nostrils closing at the will of the animal; head round; external ears wanting; four ab- 
dominal mamme. . 


’ Pet ™ 
264 MAMMALIA—SEAL. sul 


signs of ears, only two auditory passages in the sides of the head; it has 
whiskers about its mouth, and its teeth somewhat resemble those 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 membranes, 
like hands, with five toes, terminated by as many claws. These mem- 
branes, which have the appearance of hands, are only larger and turned 
backwards, as if designed to unite with its very short tail, which they 
accompany on both sides. The body is thickest where the neck is joined 
to 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 more 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 withit. 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 fetus, 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 their 
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- 
pent, but lies like a lump on the earth, and by grasping whatever it finds 
in 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 changes, 
and even its shape. e 

The females of these animals bring forth in winter, and rear their 
young upon some sand bank, rock, or small island, at some distance from 
the continent. When they suckle their young, they sit upon their hinder 
legs, 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 num- 
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 immediately 
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 the head. 


t ’ 


206 MAMMALIA—SEAL. 


a 


THE GRBENLAND SEAL 


THeEsE 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 scarcely 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, Mutu. 


ae 


4 


MAMMALIA—SEAL. - 209 


the distance with accuracy, he flings the dart, and never fails to strike. 
The seal, terrified and wounded, dives in the greatest terror; but a float 
being attached to the dart by a leathern line, he is soon forced up again 
and 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 placed, 
they raise a simultaneous shout, at which the ailrighted animals rush out 
in great confusion, and are dispatched with wonderful quickness, by a single 

low 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 flensed. 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 sealers, 
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 seamen perished. 


£ 
208 MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT SEAL. 


THE:;@E TID SEAL 


Tus seal, when full grown, is about four feet anda 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. 


TE pSihiaA> L hOwW (0 R~ EoLEyP- Aes Ea 


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. It is 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 
all round 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 aclaw. 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 
in 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 senti- 


1 Phoca fetida, Mvit. 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 powerful 
efiect on those who approach within their reach. 


Tee TH OLO;D Hyd) Soi vA Tt 


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 be inflated, 
or elevated and depressed, at the pleasure of the animal. It is covered with 
short black hairs. The use of this hood has not been ascertained.— Godman. 


THE. URSINE SEAL, OR SEA BEAR. 


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. These animals 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 only frequent that 
part of it which lies towards Kamtschatka. 

Ursine seals live in families, each male being surrounded by 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 gene- 
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 members, 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 


1 Trichecus rosmarus, GmM=L. 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, 
deciduous ; 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 feet like fins, with five toes; hind feet horizontal ; 
toes enveloped in the skin, 


MAMMALIA—MORSE. Q11 


whole body 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 
resembles 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 proportionable 
girth ; whereas the largest seals are no more than seven or eight 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- 
boring 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 resem- 
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 
in 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 
compact and harder substance. The mouth of this animal is like that of 
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 of 
morses towards Spitzbergen, and the profit that is derived from their teeth 
and fat fully repays the trouble of taking them, for tlie 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 eyes: the animal, 
obliged by this motion to turn its head, exposes its breast to the hunter, 


212 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 lance 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 teeth, 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. But they 
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 would follow and come close up to the boats; but the flash of a musket 
in the pan, or 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, we must suppose it to be upwards of nine 
months. It cannot continue in the water fora long time together, and is 
obliged to 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 of 
their bedy. They are said to feed upon the shell-fish which are at the 
bottem of the sea, and to grub them up with their strong tusks. Others 


MAMMALIA—OPOSSUM. 213 


say, 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 oil; and the 
skin is capable of being manufactured into a strong and elastic leather. 


ORDER FIVE—MARSUPIALITIA. 


Animats of this order have teeth different in the different genera. The 
young are brought forth prematurely, often into a pouch formed by a fold of 
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 VIR GINDAN OF OS $U Mt 


Tue opossum is found in Brazil, Guiana, Mexico, Florida, 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, PENN. The genus Didelphis has ten upper and eight lower inci- 
sors ; two upper and two lower canines ; twelve or fourteen upper an fourteen lower molars. 
Two superior intermediate incisors larger than the others; Jower incisors equal; canines 
strong, compressed 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, 
rounded and almost naked; five toes on all the feet; nail+ longand bent; hind feet ass 
grade with the thumbs opposable, but destitute of nails; tail long, scaly, mostly de- 
prived of hair. . 


= 


214 MAMMALIA—OPOSSUM. 


The young opossums stick to the paps of the mother till they have acquir- 
ed strength enough, and a sufficient growth to move easily. 

Tke latest and fullest 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 
opposable thumbs; which, together with the prominences in the palms of 
these posterior hands, enable the animal to take firm hold of objects which 
no one would think could be thus grasped. An opossum can cling by these 
fect hands, to a smooth silk handkerchief, or a silk dress, with great securi- 
ty, and climb up by the same. In like manner, he can ascend by a skein 
of silk, 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 at the same time. 

“In speaking of the more obvious peculiarities of the opossum, we, may 
advert to the thinness and membranous character of the external ears, which 
may remind us, in some degree, of what has been heretofore said relative to 
the perfection of the sense of touch possessed by the bat, in consequence 
of the delicacy of the extended integument 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 doubt, very sensitive. On the sides 
of the nose, or rather on the upper lip, 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 
angle with the head. When the elongated conical form of the opossum’s 
head is recollected, together with its nocturnal habits, we cannot avoid re- 
marking, that all these arrangements appear to have immediate reference 
to the safety of the animal, furnishing the means of directing its course, and 
warning it of the presence of bodies which otherwise might not be discover- 
ed until too late. 

“The mouth of the opossum is very wide when open, yet the animal does 
not drink by lapping, but by suction. The wideness of the mouth is ren- 
dered very remarkable, when the female is approached, while in company 
with her young. She then silently drops the lower jaw to the greatest dis- 


a 


MAMMALIA—OPOSSUM. 215 


tance it is capable of moving, retracts the angles of the lips, and shows the 
whole of her teeth, which thus present a formidable array. She then utters 
a muttering kind of snarl, but does not snap, until the hand, or other object, 
be brought very close. If this be a stick, or any hard or insensible body, 
she seldom closes her mouth on it after the first or second time, but main- 
tains the same gaping and snarling appearance, even when it is thrust into 
her mouth. At “dis 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 leng, 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 wool which is wrought into coarse hats. 

“The opossum is a nocturnal and timid animal, depending for his safety 
more on cunning than strength. His motions are slow, and his walk, when 


o16\e 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, either with the hands or the extremity of the tail. This 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 
opossum 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. 
It preys upon birds, various small quadrupeds, eggs, and, no doubt, occasion- 
ally 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 
circumstance, 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 the 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 to a 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 near the tree, this 


Me: ry 
MAMMALIA—OPOSSUM. go SSBF 


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 carefully observed the spot where it 
fell, his labor is often in vain. This circumstance, however, is generally 
attended to, and the opossum derives but little benefit 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 be heard, the opossum 
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 usual 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 considerable 
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 root 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, 
bitmg with much keenness and severity, for which her long canine teeth 
are well suited. 

“Tf 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- 
plain 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 in 
captivity ; 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 


28 


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 CA YOPOLDLUN OR ‘ALEX LCAN OPOS s U M,! 


Is a small animal, a little larger than a rat, very much resembling 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 transpa- 
rent ears; the belly, the legs, and feet white. The young, when they are 
frightened, embrace the mother, who lifts them up on the trees. This spe- 
cies has been found on the mountains of New Spain. 


1 


THECMARM OSE, OR MURINE: OF 0 SS.0 te 


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 is 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 still four more 
paps. It is probable that these animals bring forth a few days after concep- 
tion. The young are then fetuses only, which are not come to the fourth 
part of their growth. 


1 Didelphis cayopollin, Lux. 2 Didelphis murina, Lr, 


MAMMALIA—KANGUROO. 219 


THE KANGUROO! 


THERE 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 
head and neck are very small, while the lower parts 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 erect on 
the whole length of the hind feet, supporting itself by the base of the tail; 
which is occasionally used as a weapon of defence, and is of such prodigious 
strength as to be able to break the leg of a man atasingle blow. The 
female seldom produces more than one young one at a birth, which, when 
first brought forth, is not above an inch long, and is received into an 


1 Kangurus labiatus, Georr. The genus Kangurus has six upper and two lower in- 
cisors ; no canines; ten upper and ten lower molars. Ears large, pointed; eyes large ; 
fore legs very short, with five toes, and strong nails; hind legs long, robust, with four 
toes ; the two internal, united and small; the central large, with a strong claw, like a 
hoof, plantigrade ; tail very strong, with powerful muscles, not prehensile, but serving 
for locomotion; an abdominal pouch. 


220 MAMMALIA—KANGUROO. 


abdominal pouch, that the female is furnished with, which 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 valuable 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 making most delicious stews and steaks, the favorite dish being what 
is called a steamer, composed of steaks, 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, close fur, of a reddish color (resembling considerably in fin®- 
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 fours, pulling 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 them 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; and 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 ta face him, and pushing him off 
with the fore 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 will 
tear out the bowels at a single kick; and a large kanguroo is, on this ac- 


ah 


MAMMALIA—KANGUROO. 291 


count, very dangerous even for a man to approach, when set at bay. The 
kanguroo hunters immediately hamstring them when thrown, to prevent 
injury 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 large nerves supplying these parts pass out there. The 
kanguroo has only one 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 so 
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 
be said to be born, yet still continuing inside ef 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 isamazing tosee 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 it is pitiful to see the tender 
sympathetic looks they will sometimes cast back at the poor little helpless 
creatures they have been forced to desert. From this singular mode of 
gestation, you may handle the fetus in 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 crawl out, 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 huntthem. 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 you can 
readily keep sight of till it reaches the others, otherwise you may lose all 
your sport, as few of our dogs give tongue either in the chase or at the 


rit 


222 MAMMALIA—WOMBACH. 


death. If there is a river or pond near, the. kanguroos 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 to. stand 
on the firm bottom, while the dogs are obliged to swim ; and in this way a 
ficht 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 victim, 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 
again; the dog paddles forthwith towards shore, shaking his ears and 
looking most piteously, with no inclination to venture in a second time, 
notwithstanding all the halloos and cheerings with which you urge him.” 

The kanguroo may be domesticated. ‘One of the largest tame kangu- 
roos I have seen in this country,” says Mr Cunningham, “is domesticated, 
and a mischievous wag he is, creeping and snuffing cautiously towards a 
stranger, with such an innocently expressive countenance, that roguery 
could never 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, raisiag himself suddenly upon his tail, administers 
such a well put push with his hind legs, that it is two to one but he drives 
you heels over head! ‘This is all done in what he considers facetious play, 
with a view of 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 
got; and if the door is a-jar, he will gravely take his station behind your 
chair at meal time, like a lackey, giving you an admonitory kick every now 
and then, if you fail to help him as well as yourself.” 


THE WOMBACEH.! 


Tus animal is a native of New South Wales, and was discovered in the 
year 1798. It is about the size of a badger, a species of which it was sup- 
posed to be, from its dexterity 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 has a large head, a broad forehead, a 


1 Phascolomys wombat. This animal is me only one of the genus. It has two upper 
and two lower incisors ; no canines; ten er and ten lower molars. Incisors strong 
and thick; molars with oval crown Nagin! y a furrow; body thick; head large, flat : 
ears short; eyes much separated ; feet with five toes, the anterior armed with crooked 
and robust nails for digging ; thumb of hind feet very small, nailless; tail scarcely appa- 
rent; an abdominal pouch f in the female. 

d 


ij 


MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 223 


face tapering to the nose, which is a hard gristly substance, well adapted 
for 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. From 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 runs so awkwardly that a man could easily over- 
take it. Its posteriors differ from most other animals, by falling down in a 
sloping direction, commencing at the hip joint, and descending to the knee 
joint of the hind legs; its tail is so short that it is 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 by 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; mammez 
variable in number; stomach simple ; intestines very long. 


THE BEAVER? 


Tue beaver seems to be now the only remaining monument of that kind 
of intelligence in brutes, which, though infinitely inferior, as to its princi- 


Oar eer Lin. The genus Castor has two upper and two lower incisors ; eight upper 
and eight lower molars. Molars composed ofa flat crown, with sinuous and complicated 
ridges of enamel; five toes on each foot, the anterior short and close, the posterior longer 


and palmated ; tail broad, thick, flattened horizontally, of an oval form, naked and cover- 
ed with scales. 


224 MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 


ple, to that of man, supposes, however, certain common projects, certain 
relative ends in view, projects which, having for their basis society, in like 
manner suppose some particular methed of understanding one another, and 
of acting in concert. 

It is allowed, that the beaver, far from having an absolute superiority over 
.ihe ether animals, seems, on the contrary, to be inferior to some of them as 
to its qualities‘merely as an individual. It is an animal tolerably mild, 
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 elephant, 
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 has 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 food 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 July, 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 of 
their dwellings, but if in a lake or pond, 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., cut at a distance from the water, they drag with their 
teeth to the stream, and then launch and tow them to the place of deposit. 


MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 935 


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 
the 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. When 
straw or grass is mingled with the mud used by them in building, it is an 
accidental circumstance, owing to the nature of the spot whence the latter 
was taken. As soon 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 its progress, has led to the absurd idea of their using the tail asa 

29 


226 MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 


trowel. The habit of flapping with the tail, is retained by them in a 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 
er other iron instruments, to be broken open. The laborious nature of such 
an undertaking may easily be conceived, when it is known that the tops of 
the houses are generally from four to six feet thick at the apex of the cone.” 

It is near their habitations, that they establish their magazines of fresh 
bark and soft wood; and to each hut or cabin, there is one allotted, of a size 
proportioned to the number of its inhabitants, to which they have all a com- 
men right; nor do they offer to plunder their neighbors. 

Hamlets, so to express them, have been seen, composed of twerty, 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 
rearing 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 conveniences 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 not 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 their 
mutual 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 into the water, or conceals 
himself 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 anima] 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- 
ing 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. 227 


from 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 much pleasure, that they seem unable, as it were, 
to live without frequent immersions in it. Sometimes they go to a con- 
siderable distance under the ice; and then they are easily taken, by attack- 
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 inch, 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 
them, 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 in it. 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 woods. 

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, no 
longer employ theinselves but to satisfy their immediate and most urgent 
wants, no longer retain those faculties and qualities which they eminently 
possess in a state of society. 5 

To capture beavers residing on a small river or creek, the Indians of 
America find it necessary to stake the stream across, to prevent the animals 
from escaping, and then they try to ascertain where the vaults or washes 
in the banks are situated. This can only be done by those who are very 
experienced in such explorations, and is thus performed:—The hunter is 


228 MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 


furnished 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 with 
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 
Missouri and Mississippi, take the beavers principally by trapping, and are 
generally supplied 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 (castoreum,) 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 Louisiana, 
not far fram the Gulf of Mexico; whilst Say mentions the confluence of the Ohio and 
pba as as their limit, which is about seven degrees further to the northward. Their 
most northern range is, perhaps, on the banks of the river Mackenzie.—Richardson. 


MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 229 


to decrease. Thesame 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 
river 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 into 
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 down 
for the purpose of finding him, than he returned, and allowed himself to be 
taken without making the smallest resistance. 

He is an animal 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 ease. In several instances he has been completely domesticated, and 
become as docile as a dog. When he sleeps, which he does very often, 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 comes 
near; and it was found necessary to line with tin the tun in which he was 
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 ccn- 
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. f 

There are two kinds of hair on the skin of the beaver; that next the skin 
is short, and as fine as down; the upper coat is more scanty, thicker, and 


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 
and Rochelle, amounted to upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand ; and 
there is reason to suppose that a considerable additional quantity was at 
that period introduced illicitly into Great Britain. In 1827, the importation 
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 smell, that 
it will suffer no filth, no bad stench, to remain near it. When kept too long 
in confinement, and under the necessity of voiding its excrement, it drops it 
near the threshold of its prison, and when the door is opened, is sure to 
push it out. 


THE ONDATRA, MUSQUASH, OR MUSKRAT,1 


Tus animal is closely allied in form and habits to the beaver, and is 
found in the same parts of America as that animal, from thirty to sixty-nine 
or 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 sitting 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 to great distances, and 
do extensive injury to farms, by letting in the water upon the land. 


1 Fiber zibethicus, Desm. The genus F%ber has two upper and two lower incisors; 
six upper and six lower molars. Molars with a flat crown and scaly angular zigzag 
plates of enamel; fore feet with four toes and the rudiment of a thumb; posterior with 
five, edged with stiff and close bristles; tail long, compressed laterally, naked except a 
few scattered hairs, and granular. 


MAMMALIA—WATER RAT. . 931 


In some situations, these animals build houses of a conical form, re- 
sembling those of the beaver, formed of mud, grass, and reeds plastered 
together. They feed upon the roots and tender shoots of aquatic plants, and 
on the leaves of grasses. They are excellent swimmers, dive well, and can 
remain for a long time under water. Itis 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 animal is common in the Atlantic States, and its fur being valuable 
for hats, it is much hunted. The Indians kill them by spearing them 
throuch the walls of their houses. Between four and five thousand skins 
are annually imported into Great Britain from North America. 

The ondatra is of the size of a small rabbit, and of the form of a 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. 


Tee OW AT ER OR AT 


t 


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, or 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 head 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 incheslong. The fur has an astonishing 
power of resisting water. Like the otter, it flies from large rivers, or rather 
from those which are 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 no certain information. Their flesh is not absolutely bad ; and, in 


7 


1) Arvicola amphibius, Lys. The genus Arvicola has two upper and two lower incisors ; 
six upper and six lower molars. Molars with a flat crown and angular plates of enamel ; 
ears large; anterior toes with nails; tail round, hairy, almost the length of the body. 


- 


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 extremities 
of the north excepted. In Holland it is devoted to destruction, as one of the 
most dangerous enemies of the country, in consequence of its burrowing in 
the dikes. 


a # 

“er THE FIELD MOUSE! 

Is 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 
length, 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. 

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 
than a 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 
tailed kind, and is found almost every where ; in woods, in meadows, and 
even ‘In gardens. Mp. 


1 Arvicola ee 
ee te ; 
4 ma 


P 
eo 


MAMMALIA—LEMMING RAT. 933 


THE LEMMING RAT! OR LAPLAND MARMOT, 


Is of the shape of a mouse, but has a shorter tail; its body is about the 
length of 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 scarcely 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 little 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. If a 
lake or a river happens to interrupt their progress, they all together take 
the water and swim over it; a fire, a deep well, or a torrent, does not turn 
them out of their straight lined direction ; they boldly plunge into the 
flames, or leap down the well, 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, in others four toes, proper 
for digging ; tail short and hairy. ' 

30 + ’ 


» @ 


# 
934 MAMMALIA—LEMMING RAT. 


sides ; and the boatmen, who know how vain resistance would be, calmly 
suffer the living torrent to pass over, which it does without farther damage. 
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 furiously flies up at its opponent, and barking some- 
' what like a puppy, wherever it fastens it does 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 uninhabitable, 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, along the coasts of the larger lakes and rivers. The Lapland- 
ers, who observe them thus drawn up to fight, instead cf 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 known 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, so 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, as 
they do not know whence such numbers proceed, that they fall with the rain. 


. z 
MAMMALIA—LEMMING...DORMOUSE. 935 


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 too little consistence to be serviceable. 


HUDSON’S BAY LEMMING. 


Tus 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 sea, visited by Captain Parry. Its habits are still imperfectly 
known. In summer, 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 DORMOUSE2 


Or 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 without pro- 
priety, that the term sleep has been applied to the state of these animals 


1 Lemmus Hudsonius, Desm. - 

2 Myoxus glis, Lyx. The genus Myoxus has two upper and two lower incisors; eight 
upper and eight lower molars. Molars simple, with transverse projecting lines; fore 
feet with four toes, and the rudiment of a thumb; tail very long, round, with hair tufted 
or depressed. 


236 MAMMALIA—DORMOUWSE. 


during tne winter. They are not in 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. Their internal 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 it 1s 
well 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 
wonder 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 
happens 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 torpor 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 little, rarely descends to the ground, and, unlike the squirrel, 
which is easily tamed, remains always wild. The species is very generally 
diffused 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- 
tar, they are exceedingly destructive. They climb up pear, apricot, and 


1 Myoxus nitela, Desm. 


MAMMALIA—DORMOUSE...RAT. 237 


other trees; and in a scarcity of other fruit, they eat almonds, nuts, and 
even leguminous plants. These they carry in great quantities to their 
holes, 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 in 
one place, all in a state of torpor, all huddled together, 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 is to be 
found in all the temperate climates of Europe. 


THE COMMON DORMOUSEl 


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 
finds 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 be not unknown even in the northern climates ; but it 
does not appear to be an English animal; for Ray, who had seen it in Italy, 
observes, that the small dormouse which is found in England, is not red upon 
the back, like the Italian, and that it probably belongs to another species. 

The dormouse becomes torpid by the cold, and rolls itself up in a ball; it 
revives in mild weather, and hoards up nuts and other dry fruits, for future 
sustenance. It forms its nest in trees, like the squirrel, though generally in 
a lower situation, among the branches of a nut tree, ina bush, &c. The 
nest is composed of interwoven moss, leaves, and grass ; is about six inches 
in diameter; has no aperture but at the top, and contains three or four 
young ones. 


THE NORWAY RAT2 


Tuts well known animal came originally from Persia or India, and was 
not known in England, previous to 1730. It is now naturalized in all the 
countries of Europe and America. 


1 Myoxus avellanarius, Desm. 


2 Mus decumanus, Desm. The genus Mus has two upper and two lower incisors ; 
canines, none; molars, three above and three below, on each side. Molars with tubercu- 
lous crowns ; four toes, and rudimentary thumb on the fore feet; hind feet with four 
unguiculated toes; ears oblong or round, naked ; tail long, naked, and scaly; fur 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 much thicker, and whiskers like those of 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 neighborhood 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 atatime. 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 immediately 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. 


THs Bara OKs BiAstt 

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 tvood, 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 
times in the year, though mostly in the summer season; and they usually 
produce five or six at a birth. 

‘Jn 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, en account of their immense swarms; and, even now, 
they are a severe scourge to it, 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. 


} Mus rattus, Lin, 


MAMMALIA—MOUSE. 239 


Sers, 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 
seem to disappear of a sudden, and sometimes for a considerable 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 animal, 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 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 
much 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 lirabs 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, Li. 


«3 
. % 
940 a MAMMALIA—HAMSTER. 
+ 
red eyes; but whether they be a permanent kind, or only an accidental 
variety, cannot well be determined. 

But for its immense 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) 


Tuts 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 each 
side of its mouth. These are not conspicuous externally, when empty ; 
but, when distended, they resemble a pair of tumid bladders, with a smooth, 
veiny surface, which the fur of the cheeks conceals. The pouches of one 
ch Dr Russel dissected, were found stuffed with French beans, arranged 
ngthways, in such compact and accurate order, that it was exceedingly 
; ult to conceive how they had been so placed. When loosely laid on a 

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 resembled 
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 that 


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 particularly that of collecting corn, &c., and making great maga- 
zines in their holes.” 


1 Cricetus vulgaris, Desm. The genus Cricetus has two upper and two lower inci- 
sors ; no canines; six upper and six lower molars. Crown of the molars with blunt 
tubercles ; fore feet with four toes, and a rudimentary thumb; hind feet pentadactyle, 
with strong nails; tail short and hairy; cheek pouches. 


ta i " 
MAMMALIA—HAMSTER. a 


The habitations of the coleans are different, according es 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 is a 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 us 
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 hole 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 Y 
this oblique passage. * . 

The hamster commonly gets in its winter provisions ‘at the * eal 
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 oblique 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 fraubie: 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 autumn, he seldom fails of finding two good bushels of 
corn in each of their habitations; and he draws great profit from the skins 
of the 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 


as 


242 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 
numbers 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 in a 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 
numbers; 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 most 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 
to 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 will 
quit his hold. 


hie ag THE CHINCHILLA. 
“Clee Se 
i 
—— = op = 
Se, 
Tus interesting animal, which produces the fur which passes under its 
x 


name, is a species of field mouse, and is 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 body. It sits upon its haunches, and takes its food in its fore 
paws like a squirrel. It feeds chiefly upon bulbous roots. 


1 Cricetus laniger, Desm. 


’ _MAMMALIA—JERBOA. 243 


i LHtE JER BOAL 


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 mouth 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. ae , is 

leaping, the jerboa stretches out its tail, but while standing or wall ae 

carries it in the form of an S, the lower part touching the ground. wi ee 
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 Dipus gerboa, Desm. The genus Dipus has two upper and two lower incisors; no 
canines ; six Or eight upper, and six lower molars. Molars simple, with tuberculous 
crowns; eyes large; ears long, pointed ; posterior extremities much elongated, with the 
number of toes variable, but having only one metatarsal bone; tail very long, tufted. 


P + ee oS 
mae 
° v@ #5 


* AA J MAMMALIA—MARMOT. — 


* ‘ i 

tamed beyond a certain limit. They burrow like rabbits, and in Riuch less 
time. The excavations which it forms are many yards long, oblique, and 
winding, but not more than half a yard from the surface of the ground. It 
is 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 
close in hay, with its head between its thighs. It sleeps during winter, 
without nutriment. The Jerboa breeds several times in the summer, and 
usually brings forth seven or eight young ones at a litter. The flesh is 
reckoned one of the greatest of delicacies by the Arabs. They are found in 
Syria, Pheenicia, Barbary, &c. 


Is found in the fur countries as far north as Slave Lake. Its color is brown 
above, and white beneath. 


THE MARMOT? 


THERE seems 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 of 
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 


4 1 Gerbillus Labradorius, Sanixe. The genus Gerbillus has two upper and two lower 
incisors ; no canines; six upper and six lower molars. Molars tuberculous ; posterior 
extremities very long, with five toes, each with its proper metatarsal bone; tail long, 
covered with hair. 


, 2 Arctomys marmotia, Desm. The genus Arctomys has two upper and two lower 
incisors ; no canines ; ten upper and eight lower molars. Incisors very strong; molars 
with ridges and blunt tubereles; body thick and heavy; head large; no cheek pouches ; 
ears short and rounded ; eyes large; feet robust, those before with four toes and a rudi- 
mentary thumb; those behind with five toes, the nails strong, compressed, and crooked. , 


mn MAMMALIA—MARMOT. ‘y 245 


ears. The color of its hair on the back is reddish brown. On the belly it 
is reddish, but so! and shorter. Its voice resembles that of a little dog, 
when it is played with or “caressed; but when it is irritated or frightened, it 
raises a loud and shrill cry, highly aensve 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- 
ble food, did it not constantly retain somewhat of a disagreeable smell. 
This animal, which delights in the regions of ice and snow, and is never 
found but on the highest mountains, is, nevertheless, most liable to be be- 
numbed by the cold. From the end of September, or the beginning of 
October, the marmot generally retires to its hole, and appears not again till 
about the beginning of April. The place of its retreat is formed with pre- 
caution, and finished with art. It is rather wide than long, and very deep, 
so that it is capable of containing several, without being under a necessity 


of crowding each other, or injuring the air they breathe. Their feet andy 


claws are formed as if they were designed to dig; and, in fact, they bur- — 


« 


TA 


row into the ground with amazing celerity, scraping up the earth, and — hss iat 


threwing back what they have loosened behind them constantly as they pro- y 


ceed. Still more wonderful i 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 whole 
family, in which they void their excrements, and through which the mois- 
ture of the place finds aneasy passage. The other branch, on the contrary, 
slopes upward, and serves them as a 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, and 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 
better 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 ak, their trusty sentinel perceive a man, an eagle, a 


dog, or any other enemy, than he gives notice to the rest by a kind of 
whistle, and is himself the last that takes refuge in the cell. 
They make no provision for the winter, foreseeing probably that such a 


wy: 


4 


af 


246 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 Wi 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 
i -y fat, and some of them are found to weigh twenty pounds. In 
ht 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 covered 
with hay. In this state they seem entirely lifeless; they may be taken 
away, and even killed, vithout their testifyimg any sense of pain ; and those 
who find them in this nanner earry home the fat ones for food, and the 
_ young ones for breeding 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. é 

When taken young, the marmot is more capable of being 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 boldly 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 
Pike 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 hill than down; it climbs trees, and runs up the clefts of rocks, 
or the contiguous walls of houses, with much facility; so much so, 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. wie 
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 
thefts than the cat, they are yet never better pleased than when they obtain 
access to the dairy. ‘ ‘ Ae 


~ 
g 
ech 


+ 


. 


* 


MAMMALIA—MARMOT, QAT 


4 


THE MARYLAND MARMOT, ‘ORR WOODCHUCK.! 


Tuis 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 chambers. Here 
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 4 dark brown color. 


PARR Y’S MARMOT? 


a 


Ts animal has a blunt snout, and short ears, with a long tail Piped 
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. > 


} Arctomys monaz, Lin. 324 2 Arctomys Parryi’s, RicHarpson. 


¥ ™ 
= 


; a ; =p 
MAMMALIA—SQUIRREL. ; 

Pie 

"eH eE SQUIRRE.! ae! 


THe common squirrel of Europe is a beautiful little animal, which is only 
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, beech-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 furnished 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 
feur-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 by its 
lightness and activity ; like them, it rests upon the branches 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 cross 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 Sciurus vulgaris, 


Lix. The genus Sciurus has two upper and two lower incisors ; 


no canines; ten upper and ten lower molars. Inferior incisors compressed laterally ; 


molars tubercular ; 


ody elongated; head small; ears erect, rounded; eyes large; fore 


feet with four long toes, with compressed crooked nails and a tubercular thumb ; hind 


feet very large, with 


five toes; tail long, often with hair disposed in two rows; two 


pectoral and six ventral mamme. F 


i 


ye ae 7% 
oe 249 

nuts during the summer, which it deposits in the hollow part of pome old 
tree, and to these has recourse for provision in winter; and ‘such is the 
Pe cility of its body, that it will, in an instant, climb a beach tree, let its bark 


Ky 


be ever so smooth. ode Me 


THE, AMER PC AN, GaAY S'OUTLR REL! 


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 feeds on nuts, and lays upa hoard for the winter. They construct their 
nests with care on the tops of tall trees, and seldom leave them during the 
cold weather. They 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 of a fine bluish gray, mingled with a golden color. 
” 


AMBRICAN FRYING SQUIR RE Ge 


yt 

THE common flying squirrel is very abundant in the United States, and is 
much admired for the softness of its fur, and the gentleness of its disposi- 
tion. The skin of the sides is extended from the fore to the hind limbs, so 
as to form a sort of sail, which enables it to descend swiftly from a great 
height, in the easiest and most pleasant manner, often passing over a con- 
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. 


1 Scturus cinereus, Desm. 

2 Pteromys volucella, Desm. The genus Pteromys has two upper and two lower inci- 
‘sors; no canines; ten upper and eight lower molars; head round; ears rounded; eyes 
large ; fore feet with four negated | toes, with compressed sharp claws and the rudi- 
ment of a thumb; hind feet with five toes much divided; tail tae, hairy, sometimes 
mee ; skin of the sides extended, formir gepand of parachute. 
32 


’ 


‘% ‘ 


‘he 


a 


250 MAMMALIA—PORCUPINE. 


ean’ 
We — 


. 
y 


ee == 
‘The Severn River flying squirrel is much larger than the species described 
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 except at night. It resembles the Severn River 
flying squirrel in form, though its limbs and tail are larger. It is of a 


yellowish brown color. 


CF 


¥ Lae, POR CU Pri NES 


Some Li 
ESN teeters 
(SZ = 


se 


Ta ie tO WS QS 


Is generally about two feet in length, from the head to the extremity of the 
taily The body is covered with spines, from ten to fourteen inches long, 


1 Hystrix cristata, Lin. The genus Hystric has two upper and two lower incisors ; 
no canines; eight upper and eight 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 thumb; hind feet pentadactyle ; 
spines more or less long, on the body, sometimes intermixed with hairs; tail sometimes 

»prehensile. 9” 3 


« ey ¥ 


MAMMALIA—PORCUPINE. 251 


resembling 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 heg, but when the animal is irritated, 
they rise and stand upright. ' 

Travellers and naturalists have almost unanimously declared, that this 
animal has the faculty of discharging its quills, and wounding its foes at an 
immense distance; that these quills have the extraordinary and particular 
property of penetrating farther into the flesh, of their own accord, as soon as 
ever the point has made an entrance through the skin. These stories, 
however, are all purely imaginary, and without the smallest foundation or 
reason. 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 ama pellicle, they easily { 
off; or from his sometimes shaking off his quills to a considerable distance | 
elie 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 number 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 a pernicious quality in the quills; which renders it 
difficult to cure the wounds inflicted by them. 

The porcupine, although a native of the hottest chmates of Africa and 
India, lives and multiplies in colder countries, such as Persia, Spain, and 
Italy. Agricola says, that the species were not transported into Europe 
before the last century. They are found in Spain, but more commonly 
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 fore teeth, which are sharp and strong, like those of the 
beaver, it easily cuts through a wooden prison. It is also known, that it 
feeds willingly on 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, &c. It becomes fat, ' 


like most other animals, towards the end of summer ; andits flesh, although 
insipid, is tolerable eating. 


ee 


Whe 


952 MAMMALIA—PORCUPINE. 


a 

When the form, substance, and organization of the prickles of the porcu- 
pine are considered, they are found to be true quills, to which only feathers 
are wanting to make them exactly resemble those of birds. They strike 
together with a noise as the animal walks; and it easily erects them in the 
same manner 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. 


at Bi 
THE COUANDO, OR. BRAZILIAN PORCUPINE. 


Tuis animal is much smaller than the porcupine of the Old Continent; its 
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 

‘the night. It climbs up trees, and hangs in the branches by its tail, which 
the porcupine cannot do. All travellers agree that its flesh is very good 
eating. It is easily tamed, and commonly lives in high places. These 
animals are found over all America, from Brazil and Guiana, to Louisiana, 
and the southern parts of Canada. While the porcupine is only to be found 
in the hottest parts of the Old Continent. 

In transferring the name of porcupine to the couando, they have supposed 
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. 


1 Hystrix cuandu, DesM. 


oe 


MAMMALIA—PORCUPINE. 253 


TERS ONS OR) CANADA PORCUPINE 


Tuts animal, placed by nature in the desert part of North America, to 
the east of Hudson’s Bay, exists independent of, and far distant from, man. 
The urson might be called the spiny 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, or felt, 
which is still softer or smoother. In the young ursons, the prickles are 
proportionably larger, more apparent, and the hair shorter and scarcer than 
in the adults. 5 

This animal dislikes water, and is fearful of wetting himself. He makes 
his habitation under the roots of great hollow trees, sleeps very much, and 
chiefly feeds upon the bark of juniper. In 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 séasons 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 m 
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, but use 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 
with one or more turns of a porcupine quill. When they wind the quill — 


1 Hystrix dorsata, DEsM. 


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 buta 
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 most 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. 


p 


AED \\ Ze 
yl pret 


ABZ 
Vy 
Y Uppy 


: pul ag it 
fi SSS sien ecsneet wine l(c 

Up s——— Shits jt 

= “tery __———. 


=o = 


Hares are universally and abundantly spread over the face of the whole 
earth; and rabbits, though they originated only in particular climates, do 
yet multiply so prodigiously in almost every place to which they are trans- 


1 Lepus timidus, Lix. The genus Lepus has four upper and two lower incisors ; no 
canines; twelve upper and ten lower molars. Centre upper incisors large and wedge- 
shaped, with a longitudinal furrow in front, lower incisors square ; molars crowned with 
transverse lamine 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; 
cecum very large. 


MAMMALIA—HARE. 955 


ported, 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 
migratory. They move, in flocks of five or six hundred, and often to a great 
distance, in search of food. 

In those districts in England, 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 mother 
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 find a 
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- 
lashes, and seem to have but bad eyes. The eyes, however, are so promi- 
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 within 
their mouths. 

Hares live not above seven or eight years. They pass their lives in 
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, &e. 

Hares may be domesticated, and they then display sagacity, affection, and 
no small share of curiosity. Cowper, the poet, has given an amusing 
account of three of them, which he kept for some years. 


. 
+ 


/ 


256 MAMMALIA—RABBIT. 


THE "RAB 


Tuovex the hare and the rabbit are, externally as well as internally, 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 to a 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 sagecity. 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 remains 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. Q5T 


thirty-one days, and will produce five, six, and sometimes seven or 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 superfcetations 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 from their bellies, and 
make a kind 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 it and 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 them 
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 shall 
next describe, 


THE. AMERICAN. .H.AR E.} 


Tris 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 
statement of Hearne, “they are not plentiful in the eastern parts of the 


northern Indian country, not even in those parts that are situated among 
Pag Ped 


~ : 
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 is 
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 
nurseries, and by cutting valuable plants. 

The flesh of the American hare, though of a dark color, is much 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 estrus, 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 on the twigs of the 
pime and fir, and are fit for the table throughout the season. The Indians 
eat the contents of their stomachs, notwithstanding 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 to 
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 will 
do the same, under similar circumstances, though in their natural condi- 
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. It has been said that this animal also occasionally ascends 
trees, which must be understood solely of its going up within the trunks of 
hollow trees, which it effects by pressing with its back and feet against 


MAMMALIA—AMERICAN HARE. 259 


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 common hare of Europe, bound- 
ing along with great celerity, and would no doubt, when pursued, resort to 
the 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 
four or six at a litter. 

In general, the hare is not devoid of the instinct necessary for its pre- 
servation, 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 is 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. ‘TI have seen,” says Du Fouilloux, “a hare so cunning, that, 
as soon 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. 
I 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 which the 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 the door, and remained among the cattle. I 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 in 
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. ay 


260 ~ MAMMALIA—CABIAI. 


THE CABIAT! 


WN NS . 
. Y WS “ 
SQ WWNG 


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, can 
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 
to 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 ery 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 ; the 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 quarrelsome 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 molars. Molars composed of lamin ; 
eyes large; ears rounded ; fore feet with four, the hinder ones with three palmated toes ; 
no tail ; two mamme ; hair scattered and bristly. 


+. . 
MAMMALIA—GUINEA-PIG. 261 


THE GUINEA-PIG! 


Tuovucu originally a-native of the warm climates of Brazil and Guinea, 
lives, however, and breeds in temperate and even cold countries, provided 
it is properly taken care of. Its skin is of little or no value; and the flesh, 
though people may, and actually do eat it, is very indifferent food; a cir- 
cumstance which might, in some measure, be removed, were they to be 
reared in warrens, where they might have air, space to 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 
patches. 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 expirations 
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 
only 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 astonishing. 
In one year a thousand might be obtained from a single couple, did they 
not frequently destroy each other, and perish from the cold 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, little ata 
time, but very often. It whines somewhat like a young 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 Cavia cobaya, Desm. The genus Cavia has two upper and two lower incisors; no 
canines ; eight upper and eight lower molars. Body thick; muzzle short, compressed ; 
eyes large; ears round; legs short, four toes on the fore feet, three on the hind feet, not 
palmated ; no tail; two ventral teats. é 


262 MAMMALIA—AGOUTI. 


oo 


latter chance to be dirtied, the mother will never again suffer them to come 
near her. If kept in a room, it seldom crosses the floor, 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 situation are frequently found dead. 


THE AGOU TT! 


Tuts animal is about the size of a hare, and has’ been considered, errone- 
ously, as a kind of rabbit, or large rat, by the generality of nomenclators. 
As it has the hair of a hog, so also it has the voracious appetite of that 
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 fall from the trees in autumn, It uses its 
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 itand 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 Dasyprocta has two upper and two lower inci- 
sors; no canines; eight upper and eight lower molars. Head rather elongated ; fore- 
head flat; muzzle thick; eyes large and projecting; fore feet with four toes and a rudi- 
mentary thumb; hind legs longer than those before, with three toes and strong nails; 
sole of the foot naked and callous, 


MAMMALIA—CAVY. 263 


and conducts the smoke in such a manner that it fills the whole cavity. 
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 the 
utmost extremity. 

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 PAGA, JOR. SPiO-@ 72. Di) CA Yt 


Is an animal of the New World, who digs a burrow like a rabbit, to which 
he has been compared, though there is scarcely any likeness between these 
two animals ; he is much larger than the rabbit, and even than the hare; 
he has a round head, 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 ; but 
is lighter on the sides, which are beautifully marked with lines of hite 
spots, 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 Calogenys has two upper and two lower 
incisors ; no canines; eight u per and eight lower molars. Five toes on all the feet; the 
external and internal toe behind being nearly rudimentary; nails conical, strong, for 
digging; cheek pouches; a naked tubercle in place of a tail; two pectoral and two 
inguinal mamme. 


' 264 MAMMALIA—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 good 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. 


AntmaAts of this order have no incisors in either jaw ; sometimes canines 
and molars, or molars only; often no teeth at all; extremities terminated 
with toes, in number variable, armed with strong nails; orbital and tem- 
poral fosse united. 


THE UNAU,? AND “THE: At2 OR Sb OH. 


TuEseE 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 also in the hair. 
As for its interior, its viscera are both formed and situated differently ; 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, is a kind of excess or 


1 Bradypus didactylus, Lr. 


2 Bradypus tridactylus, Lix. The genus Bradypus has two upper and two lower 
canines ; four upper and six lower molars. Canines higher than the molars, Pyragedal 
and pointed; molars cylindrical; head small, rounded ; muzzle truncated ; neck short ; 
nostrils at the extremity of the muzzle; anterior extremities longer than the posterior, 
with two or three united toes, terminated by very long, robust nails ; fur thick and harsh, 
with the hair of the fore arms directed upwards; stomach membranous, divided into 
many sacs; intestines short; no cecum. 


& 


MAMMALIA—SLOTH. 265 


error in nature; for, even in the largest animals, and those whose bodies 
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, &c. 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 external differences are nothing in comparison with the internal 
ones, which are the causes of the others. These animals inhabit South 
America, and are especially numerous in Brazil and Guiana. 


© 

Waterton gives the following account of the sloth: “This singular animal 
is destined by nature to be produced, to live, and to die, in the trees; and, to 
do justice to him, naturalists must examine him in his upper element. He 
is a scarce and solitary animal, and, being good food, he is never allowed to 
escape. He inhabits remote and gloomy forests, where snakes take up 
their abode, and where cruelly stinging ants and scorpions, and swamps, 
and innumerable thorny shrubs and bushes, obstruct the steps of civilized 
man. Were you to draw your own conclusions from the descriptions which 
have been given of the sloth, you would probably suspect that no naturalist 
had actually gone into the wilds with the fixed determination to find him 
out and examine his haunts, and see whether nature has committed any 
blunder in the formation of this extraordinary creature, which appears to us 
so forlorn and miserable, so ill put together, and so totally unfit to enjoy the 

o4 
ihe 


266 MAMMALIA—SLOTH. 


blessings which have been so bountifully given to the rest of animated 
nature; for, as it has formerly been remarked, he has no soles to his feet, 
and he is evidently ill at ease when he tries to move on the ground ; and it 
is then that he looks up in your face with a countenance that says, ‘Have 
pity on me, for I am in pain and sorrow.’ 

“It 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 not been 

penned down with the slightest intention to mislead the reader, or give him 
an exaggerated history, but that these errors have naturally arisen by 
examining the sloth in those places where nature never intended that he 
should be exhibited. 

‘“‘ However, we are now in his own domain. Man but little 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 
him in his proper haunts. His fore legs, or, more correctly speaking, his 
arms, are apparently much too long, while his hind legs are very short, and 
look as if they could be bent almost 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 as your body would be were you to throw yourself on all fours, and try 
to support it on the ends of your toes and fingers—a trying position. Were 
the floor of glass, or of a polished surface, the sloth would actually be quite 
stationary ; but as the ground is generally rough, with little protuberances 
upon it, such as stones, or roots of grass, &c., 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 thus 
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 
situation; and, asa sigh every now and then escapes him, we may be 
entitled to conclude that he is actually in pain. 

“‘Some years ago I kept a sloth in my room for several months. I often 
took him out of the house, and placed him upon the ground, in order to 
have an opportunity of observing his motions. If the ground were rough, 
he would pull himself forwards by means of his fore legs, at a pretty good 


“ 7 oo 


¥ 


‘MAMMALIA—SLOTH. 267 


pace, and he invariably shaped his course towards the nearest tree. But 
if I put him upon a smooth and well trodden part of the road, he appeared 
to be in trouble and distress ; his favorite abode was the back of a chair; 
and, after getting all his legs in a line upon the topmost part of 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 inconveni- 
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 under 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 different formation from that of any other known 
quadruped. 

“Hence, his seemingly bungled conformation is at once accounted for ; 
and, in lieu of 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 forma- 
tion and singular habits are but further proofs to engage us to admire 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 the same branch; so 
that all four are ina line; he seems perfectly at rest in this position. 
Now, had he a tail, he would be at a 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 a tail, scarcely exceeding an inch and a half in length. 

‘““T 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 singu- 
larity in his hair, different from that of all other animals, and, I 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 is 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 lower than the shoulder-blades ; on each side 
of this black hair there is a space of yellow hair, equally fine; it has the 


%, m3, 7 


a 


Le tt 


£ , 


268 MAMMALIA—SLOTH. 


appearance of being pressed into the body, and looks exactly as if it had 
been singed. If we examine the anatomy of his fore legs, we shall imme- 
~ diately perceive by their firm and muscular texture, how very capable they 
are of 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 food, and entirely strip 
it of its leaves. During the many years I have ranged the forests, I have 
never seen a tree in such a state of nudity; indeed I 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 calm 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 at a good 
round pace; and were you to see him pass from tree to tree, as I 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, 
deterred by difficulties and local annoyances, have not paid sufficient atten- 
tion to him i in his native haunts; and, secondly, they have described him in 
a situation in which he was never intended by nature to cut a figure, I 
mean on the ground. The sloth is as much at a loss to proceed on his 
journey upon a smooth and level floor, as a man would be who had to walk 

| mile in stilts upon a line of feather-beds. if * 

“One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo, I saw a large two-toed 
sloth on the ground upon the bank; how he got there nobody could tell; 
the Indian said he had never surprised a sloth in such a situation before ; 
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 him an easy 
and safe access to it. Be this as it may, though the trees were not ane 
twer Yards from him, he could not make his way through the sand, 

Es ‘to escape before we landed. As soon as we got up to him, he 

hrewil iimself on his back, and defended himself in a gallant style with his 

ye. 


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; Vl 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, fare 
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 forest ; I 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 | never saw a sloth take to his heels in such earnest; 
but the expression will not do, for the sloth has no heels.” a 


4 


THE ‘SIX-BANDED ARMADILLO 


Uwnper the general name of armadillo, we may reckon several : 
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 flanks, 


Ss 
’ 


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 * 
breast, and the belly, which’ 


sheltered by this buckler, are the throat, the bi 
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 
whieh are of the same substance as the crust. This crust is, however, not 


i 


1 Dasypus sexcinclus, Lix. The genus Dasypus has two upper and four lower inei 0 
sometimes none ; molars varying in the several species from twenty-eight to sixty t, 
simple, cylindrical, separate, without enamel on the inner side; hi jong; mouth ind 


* 


eyes small; body enveloped in a hard scaly shell in three compartments covering the » 
head, body, and tail, with moveable transverse bands between them; five toes on thehi 
feet; four or five on the fere feet, with long nails for digging. y, ¥. 
* . 
I 


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w 


T 


; 
, 


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aes 


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 num- 

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 num- 

ber. Father d’Abbeville has distinguished six species of the armadillo, but | 
the principal difference between them consists in the number of bands 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 will eat melons, potatoes, pulse and roots. 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 soon 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 


put 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. If he finds himself on the brink of a 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 to 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 put a short stick down it. 
Now if, on introducing the stick, a number of musquitoes come out, the 


¥ 


“ 
, 
MAMMALIA—ANT-EATER. 3a 
% 
Indians know to a certainty that the armadillo is in it; whenever there are 
no musquitoes in the hole, there is no armadillo.” oy 


These animals are fat, and very prolific; the female brings forth, asiit is 
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 
inhabit 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 TAMANOIR, THE TAMANDUA, AND THE 
FOURMILEWER, OR ANT-EATER. 


Soutn America produces three species of animals, with a long snout, a 
small mouth, and no teeth; their tongues, of a 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 e 
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-EATERS | ; 


* a 
Tuis 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 ace 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 otithe 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 


om 

' Myrmecophaga jubata, Lin. Animals of the genus Myrmecophaga are utterly tooth- 
less; they have the head elongated; muzzle tapering toa point; tongue long, protractile ; 
toes ‘united, four before and five behind, or two before and four hehind, armed with strong 
nails ; two ‘pectoral and two ventral mamme ; tail long; sometimes prehensile. 
we 
Me 


i a 


272 MAMMALIA—ANT-EATER. oe 


‘ 


fore feet are armed with four cl: io two middle ones are the 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 covers 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 body 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 it 
hangs 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 feet 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 
Micon the extremities of the snout to the rump; his head is five inches long, 
sl his snout crooked, and underneath flat and long; he has.a tail ten inches 
* _ long, without hair at the end; his ears are erect, and about an inch in 
length; 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 is 
that which the naturalists of Guiana call 


1 Myrmecophaga tridactwa, Lin. 


MAMMALIA—ANT-EATER. 273 


THE WATER GMBA OU! 

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 is nar- 
row, long, and flat; his neck is almost bare; the head is large in proportion 
to the body ; his eyes placed low, at a 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 him- 
self by the extremity of his tail. 

These three animals, so 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 
some 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 lies : 3 


on his back to use his hind legs, and in this situation he is almost invinci- 
ble; 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, anda very thick skin; besides, his flesh 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, Lx. 
35. 


"on 


o 


274 MAMMALIA—ANT-EATER. 


Amongst the foremost of these stand the three species of ant-bears. The 
smallest is not much larger than a rat; the next is nearly the size of a fox; 
and the third, 2 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 fatal 
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 animal 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-bear. The 
length and curve of his claws cannot 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 ; 
ihe claws collected into a point, and going under the foot. In this 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 dog, which would inevitably be the case, did their 
points come in actual contact with the ground; for his claws have not the 


” 
MAMMALIA—MANIS. 275 


retractile power which enables animals of the feline species to 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 naturahsts 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 the ground. On the contrary, 
the inner side of the bottom of his foot is soft and rather hairy. 

“There is another singularity in the anatomy of the ant-bear. He has 
two very large glands situated below the roof of the tongue. From these is 
emitted a glutinous liquid, with which his long tongue is lubricated when 
he puts it into the ants’ nests. These glands are of the same substance as 
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 is a 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, PAN GOLDUNT AND §2-EvA PT AGIDN;2. O-Reo THE 
SHORT AND LON G-TATI-ED: MANTS. 


TuesE 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 the phatagin 
are viviparous quadrupeds. 


1 Manis crassicaudata, GEorrF. 


* Manis longicaudata, Grorr. 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 long; tongue protractile ; feet with five toes, formed for 
digging ; tail long. 


276 MAMMALIA—MANIS. 


All the lizards are wholly covered, even under the belly, with a sleek 
speciled skin, resembling scales; but the pangolin and the phatagin have 
no scales under their throat, on the breast, or the belly; the phatagin, tike 
the 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 all 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; it 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 devour 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 a 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 
body, 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 his 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 is 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 phatagin 
live chiefly upon ants; they have also a very long tongue, a narrow mouth, 
and without apparent teeth ; their body and their tail are also very long, and 
the claws of their feet very near of the same length and the same form, but 


MAMMALIA—CHLAMYPHORUS. Qt 


equal in number. Like the ant-eater, the pangolin is also 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 quogelo. 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, harmless, 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 CHLAMY PHORUM S+ 


Has been discovered only within the last five years. From the tip of the 
nose to the root of the tail, it measures but five inches and a quarter; its 


1 Chlamyphorus truncatus, Hartan. 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 behind, with compressed nails ; tail short, turned downward. 


978 MAMMALIA—PLATYPUS. 


height at the shoulder is only one inch and three quarters, and the length 
of its tail is oneinch. This is rather less than half the size of the three 
banded armadillo. It is a native of South America. 


THE DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS.! 


New Hotranp is the country that produces this anomalous animal, one 
of the strangest sports of nature, as it combines the bill of a bird with the 
usual characteristics of a quadruped. So singular is this union, that it was 
at first supposed to be the trick of some person, for the purpose of imposing 
on collectors. When the creature was first discovered, it received the allu- 
sive name of ornithorynchus paradoxicus ; but it has since been denominated 
the platypus anatinus, or duck-billed platypus. It has a depressed body, 
somewhat resembling that of an otter in miniature, which is covered with a 
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 in a broad web, 
which on the fore feet extends to a considerable distance beyond the claws; 
but 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 ef 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 3 and that its food consists of aquatic plants and animals 

is 


we? 


ORDER EIGHTH.—PACHYDERMATA. 


Animats 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 ; 
no clavicles; organs of digestion not disposed for ruminating. This order 
commences the series of hoofed quadrupeds. 


1 Platypus anatinus. This genas, which comprises only two individuals yet known, 
has four upper and four lower molars, the teeth are fibrous, and fixed only in the 
gum; a horny beak resembling a duck’s bill; nostrils contiguous, opening at the end 
of the upper mandible ; check pouches; feet webbed, pentadactyle; with a spur on the 
hind ones in the male ; tail short, broad at the base. 


MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 279 


PAMLIAY 1.—PROBOSCIDEA. 


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. 


TH E,BLE PRAN TA 


Tus human race excepted, the elephant is the most respectable of ani- 
mals. In size, he surpasses all other terrestrial creatures, and in under- 
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 wisdom, 
and the beaver is enly 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 beaver, 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 not work in common, 
it is, 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 longe- 
vity. We must not forget his arms, or his defence, with which he can pierce 
through 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 


1 The genus Elephas, 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 ina crust of enamel; molars composed of vertical and trans- 
verse lamin covered by enamel ; five toes on all the feet; nose elongated into a cylindri- 
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; body large and massive; tail short, tufted at the end; two 
mamme. , . 


280 MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 


of his body he makes a breach in a wall; that being terrible by his 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 animals; he is belov- 
ed by 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 forests and solitary places, but still keeping 
at such a moderate distance from each other, as to be able to give mutual 
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 under 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 all 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 at a great distance, and could easily follow 
him 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 
4 


MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. Q81 


s 

them. They cannot support cold, and suffer equally from excessive heat; 
for, 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 otlfer 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 of 
them finds abundant pasture, he calls the others, and invites them to come and 
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 acs..oy 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 of 
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 turn back. 

The female elephant goes two years with young; she only brings forth 
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 chesen, and encircled with palisadoes; the strongest trees of the forest 
serve instead of stakes, to which cross pieces of timber are fastened, 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 which is shut behind him. To bring him 
to that inclosure, he must be enticed by a tame female, ready to take the 
male; 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 
immediately, and begins his march to join her: she repeats her call now 


36 


282 MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 


and then, and arrives first to the first inclosure, where the male, following 
her track, enters through the same gate. As soon as he perceives himself 
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 him; they 
fetter his legs and his trunk, they bring two or three tame elephants, led by 
dexterous men, and try to tie them with the wild elephant, and at last, by 
dint of dexterity, strength, terror, and caresses, they succeed in taming him 
in a few days. 

The elephant, ence tamed, becomes the most tractable and the most sub- 
missive of all animals; he conceives an affection for his leader, he caresses 
him, and seems to guess whatever can please him. Ina little 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 of dis- 
like, provided he is not insulted by unseasonable correction ; and provided 
his driver seems to be thankful for the spontaneous exertion of his strength. 
His 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 
inhim. 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 
governor. 

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 old, 
each couple brings forth forty young in that space of time. Besides, having 
nothing to fear from other animals, and little even from men, who take 
them with great difliculty, 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 soon to those mon- 


MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. QSz. 


sters of war; they opened their ranks to let them go though; they did not 
attempt to wound them, but threw all their darts against their leaders, who 
were forced to 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, 


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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 festival 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- 
tions 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 on 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 rather 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 proboscis in the air with 
‘a loud roar, and from it cast such a volume of sand, that, unprepared as I 
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 destroy 
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 all directions, and my man Columbus was. so alarmed, that 
he 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 his 
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 
him another spear, which flew off his teugh 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 appeared 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 éuda, were perched upon the backs of the elephants; these resemble 
a thrush in shape and note, and were represented to 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.” } 


at 
P * 


THE ASIATIC ELBPHANT.1 


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LD sal 


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In general, the elephants of Asia are of a larger size, and superior in 
strength to those of Africa; in particular, those of Ceylon, who exceed in 
courage 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 ef the African being round and convex in all its parts. 
The teeth of the former are composed of transverse vertical lamin of equal 
breadth, while those of the latter form rhomboidal or lozenge shaped divi- 
sions. 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 to 
his legs, and no more than three toes are visible on his posterior extremi- 
ties.” The individual, which is the subject of the wood cut, is believed to 
be little more than three years old. 

The elephants of the Indies easily carry burdens of three or four thousand 
weight ; the smallest, that is, those of Africa, lift up freely with their trunks 


)} Elephas Indicus, Cvv, 


aii! 


° 


286 MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. ‘ 


burdens of two hundred pounds weight, and place them on their shoulders ; 
they take in this trank 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 
their strength by their agility, considering at the same time the bulk of their 
body; they walk as fastasa small horse on the trot, and when they run, 
they can keep up with a 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 
2 day ; and whep 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 oes 1681, and lived only thirteen years in the 

nenagerie Gat ecsailles, where he was treated with care and tenderness, 

and fed with profusion. He had every day four pounds of bread, twelve 
ie of wine, two buckets of porridge, with four or five pounds of bread, 
two buckets of rice 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 a kind 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 ofa reddish color. 

The elephant has very small eyes, compared with his enormous size, but 
they are sensible and lively; and what distinguishes them from all other 
animals, is their pathetic, sentimental expression. He seems to reflect, to 
think, and to deliberate ; and never acts till 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 
appearance of his interior affections. Hin 


MAMMALIA—RLEPHANT. gg 


He has a quick ear, and this organ is outwardly, like that of smell- 
ing, more marked in the elephant than in any other animal ; his 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. He 
delights in the sound of instruments, and seems to like music; he soon 
iearns 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 
is passionately fond of perfumes of all sorts, and of fragrant flowers; he 
selects them one after another, and makes nosegays, which he smells with 


eagernes§, and then carries them to his mouth as if he intended to taste 
them, 


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i oe 


nN 


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 capable 
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 is 
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, 


jee 


288 MAMMALIA—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 in the creation; no other animal 
having either the head, the feet, the nose, the ears, or the tusks, Made or 
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 thé 
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, hard 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 elephant, it is only fastened by some points, like two quilted stuffs one 
above the 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 his natural 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. He 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 animals; the fore legs seem to be higher than 
those behind, yet the hind legs are the longest; 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 ground: 
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 


the number 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 more than four, or even 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 and as strong as wire; and a man cannot break 
them with his hands, as they are elastic and pliant. This tuft of hair is an 
ornament which the negro women are particularly fond of; and they attri- 
bute to it some particular virtue, according to their superstitious notions ; 
an elephant’s tail is sometimes sold for two or three slaves ; and the negroes 
often hazard their lives to cut and snatch it from the 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 2 
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 animal 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 of his 
cornac by killing him. His wife, witness of this catastrophe, took her two 
children and threw them to the feet of the animal, still furious ; telling him, 
Since thou hast killed my husband, take also my life, and that of my children. 
The elephant stopped short, grew calm, and, as if he had been moved with re- 
gret and compassion, took with his trunk the largest of the two children, placed 
iton 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- 
cherry, 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, be~ 
come sober, was struck with terror to lie under an animal of this enormous 
bulk. The elephant, who, no doubt, perceived his consternation, caressed 
him with his trunk, to remove hie fears, and made him understand that he 
might depart freely. * 

The elephant falls sometimes into.a sort of a frenzy, which deprives him 
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 him 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 distene when any person made a fool of him; 
and he remembered the affront to be revenged of it the first sapataneet 
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- 
tion; and, 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 
intended for his design.” 

He made less use of his strength than of his dexterity, which was such, 
that he untied, with great facility, a double leather string which fastened his 


MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 291 


leg, with his mouth untying it from the buckle’s tongue, and after this buckle 
had a small string twisted around it, with divers a untied them all, 
without breaking any thing. One night, that he thus disentangled 


himself from his leather strings, he broke open so dexterously the door of. 


his lodge, that his governor was not waked by the noise. He went thence 
into divers yards of the menagerie, breaking open doors that were shut, and 
pulling down the stone work, when the passage was too narrow for him; 
and thus he went into the lodges of other animals, terrifying them to such a 
degree, 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 some facts, extracted from the most credible authors. 

“Of five elephants,” says Tavernier, ““which hunters 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 foct 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 this and eat it. They had small bundles of hay, bits of black sugar, or 
rice boiled in water, with pepper. When the wild elephant refused to do 
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 does 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 shert, 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 dispatch 
these wretches soon, 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 suffer torments as 
cruel as those ef the wheel.” 


292 MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 


The celebrated white elephant, which is the only one in the possession of 
the king of Ava, is of a cream color, and has no appearance of disease or 
debility. It was taken in 1806, when young, in the forests of Pegu, and is 


about twenty-seven years old. Both the court and people consider it pecu- 
liarly inauspicious to want a white elephant; hence the repute in which 
they are held, and the anxiety to obtain them. ‘The capture of a white 
elephant is consequently highly rewarded. 


1 hy 


It has been asserted by Buffon and others, that the young elephant sucks 


MAMMALIA—HIPPOPOTAMUS. 293 


with its trunk. It is now ascertained that it sucks with its mouth like other 
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 small mound of 
earth, about six or eight inches high, for the young one to stand on, and thus 
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. 


THLE HiPPeoroTraA Mus. 


Arrnover this animal has been celebrated from the earliest ages, it was, 
notwithstanding, but imperfectly known to the ancients. It was only 
towards the sixteenth century that we had some precise indications on the 
subject. e 

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 rhineceros; but his fore legs are much shorter. His 
liead is short, and thick in proportion to the body.. He has no horns, neither 
on the nese, like the rhinoceros, nor on the head, like ruminating animals. 


His ery, when hurt, approaches as near to the neighing of the horse, as the 


1 Hippopotamus amphibius, Lix. 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; body very thick and heavy; legs 
short, with four toes on the feet; eyes and ears small; tail short; two ventral mammz ; 
skin very thiek, almost without hair. 


we a ea ae 
? 


ro 
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 name 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-like wolf. The 
incisive teeth of the hippopotamus, and especially the two canine teeth of 
the lower jaw, are very long, very strong, and of so hard a substance, that 
they strike fire with a piece of iron. This is probably what has given rise 
to the fable of the ancients, who have reported that the hippopotamus 
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 than 
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 rhinoceros’s hide. : 

The male hippopctamus is about six feet nine inches Jong, from the 
extremity of the muzzle to the beginning of the tail; fifteen feet in circum- 
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 cight 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 commonly moves slowly on the land, 
but, on the contrary, when he has been injured, he has been known to pur- 
sue persons for several hours, who escaped with great dificulty. He swims 
quicker than he runs, pursues the fish, and makes them his prey. Three or 
four 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 the 
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 bottom as 
well as he does in the open air. When he quits it 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, as 


Ce ee all i 


% 
MAMMALIA—HIPPOPOTAMUS. 295 


" 
he is more timid upon earth than in the water, he is very easily driven 
away; and, as his legs are short, he cannot save himself well by flight, if he 
is far from any water. His resource, when he finds himself in danger, is to 
plunge himself 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 with great fury, rushes against the 
boats, seizes them with his teeth, often tears pieces out of them, and some- 
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. Ihave seen another lying by the side of the sea-shore, upon 
which the waves had driven a shallop heavily laden, which remained upon 
his 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 canonly bite. Once, when our shallop was 
near shore, I saw one of them get underneath it, lift it above water upon 
his back, and overset it with six men who were in it; but fortunately they 
received no hurt.” od 

“‘ We dare not,” says another traveller, “irritate the hippopotamus in he 
water, since an adventure happened, which was near proving fatal to three 
men. They were going in a small canoe, 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 custom, they wounded him with a long lance, 
which so greatly enraged him, that he rose immediately to the surface of the 
water, regarded 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 be 
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 analogy appears more certain than all 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 Thunberg notices as a remarkable instance 
of pure instinct. Major Denham furnishes us with the following amusing 
account : — 


“Tt 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 
a great delicacy. On the morrow we had a full opportunity of convincing 
‘ourselves that these uncouth and stupendous animals are very sensibly 
attracted by musical sounds, even though they should not be of the softest 


kind; as we passed along the borders of Lake Muggaby at sunrise, they 
followed 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. 
T 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 instant.” 

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 caught by 
the natives, by means of huge pitfalls dug in the paths frequented by them, 
when they issue from the floods, to browse on the wooded banks. The 
eapture of one of those enormous animals must be an event of rejoicing to a 
whole horde of half starved Bushmen or Koranas, sufficient to banish hunger 
and heaviness for months to come. The hippopotamus, though timid on 
shore, is sometimes a dangerous antagonist in the water. Mr Moffat in- 
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 Jakes and rivers ef Africa, from the Cape of 
Good Hope to 15’ north latitude. 


«.% MAMMALIA—HOG. 297 


° THE HOG 


Or all quadrupeds, the hog appears the most rough and unpolished. His 
voraciousness apparently depends on the continual necessity which he has» 
to 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 to blows. Mice have been known to lodge in 
their backs, and eat their fat and their skin, without their seeming sensible 
of it. Their other senses are good; and the huntsmen know that wild 
boars both see, hear, and smell, at a great distance; since, in order to sur- 
prise them, they wait in silence during the night, and place themselves 
under the wind, to prevent the boars perceiving their smell, of which they 
are sensible at a great distance, and which always immediately makes them 
change their road. 

Their imperfection in the sense of touch is still more augmented by a 
distemper which is called the measles, and which reifders them almost ae 
lutely insensible. This disorder proceeds in general from the coarseness 0 
their food; for the wild boar, which usually lives on corp, 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. ry 

Voracious and uncleanly as he is, the hog has some good qualities. If 
one of his own kind utters a ery of distress, every hog within hearing in- 
stantly hurries to his assistance. When teased by a dog, they have been 
known to hem him round, and kill him. Ifa male and female are brought 
up together when young, and the Jatter loses her companion, she begins 
immediately to decline, and probably dies of a broken heart. 

Nor is the 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 France, 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 serofa, Lix. The genus Sus has four or six upper and six lower incisors; two 
upper and two lower canines; fourteen upper and fourteen lower molars. Canines bent 
upwards and laterally; molars tuberculous; lower incisors bent forward ; four toes.on all 
the feet, the two middle ones only touching the ground, armed with strong hoofs ; nose 


elongated, cartilaginous ; body covered with bristles; twelve teats, 


38 


298 | MAMMALIA—HOG. 


. 
found. <A recent French writer on the noble science of gastronomy ludi- 
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 night 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 dogs designed for the stag and the goat; for this” 

- hunting spoils their scent, and teaches them to go slowly. The oldest only 4 
should be ae and these are easily known by their traces; ayoung. 
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 is 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 thickest 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 so among 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 cutting them 
out, all the flesh would be infected; and in an old wild boar the head only 
is good to eat; instead of which, the flesh of the young wild boar 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 blood, the bowels, the viscera, the feet, and the tongue, 
when properly prepired, 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 Africa, 
and in Asia, was not, however, found on the continent of the New World. 
It was transported by the Spaniards, who have carried black hogs to the 
continent. and to almost all the large islands of America ; they are multipli- 


™* 


MAMMALIA—BABIROUSSA. 299 
4. 

ed, and become 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 all black like wild boars. 
The fecundity of the hogis very great; instances are known of individuals 
producing three hundred and twenty-five young in twenty litters, and two 
hundred and five in twelve litters. The English variety of the hog some- 

times weighs twelve hundred pounds. There are many other varieties. 


*® ‘ 
a * 


THE BABIROUSSA, OR INDIAN HOGA 


ieee Te ee . : 
, — a ra ei TS a 
ALL naturalists have regarded this animal as a kind of hog, though it has 
neither the head, s! ape, 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 
shot 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 endrmous 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 riten 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 quadruple and enormous tusks give these animals a very formida- 
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 flesh, which is 
very good food, putrefies in a very short time. As their hair is fine, and 
their skin delipate, it is soon penetrated by the teeth of the dogs, who hunt 


ry ! Sus babyrussa, Lin. 


“« 
300° MAMMALIA—MEXICAN HOG. 


them in preference to wild boars, and sooner accomplish their purpose. The 
babireussa strikes its upper tusks into the branches of trees, to rest its head, 
or to sleep standing. This habit it has in common 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 
boar, 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 on 
the other ; these walk quicker, and have a very fine scent. They often fix 
themselves against a tree, to keep off the hunters and their dogs. When 
they are pursued for a long time, they make towards the sea, and, swimming 
with great dexterity, very often escape their pursuers ; for they swim for a 
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, 


D:rrers from the common hog in a number of characteristics, both external 
and internal. Its head is shorter 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 Dicotyles 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 project- 
ing from the mouth, the other teeth like thugs of the hog; four toes before, three behind, 
only two of which lean upon the ground; a glandular opening on the back, from which 
exudes a fetid humor; no tail. 


* 


MAMMALIA—MEXICAN HOG. 301 © 


isa 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 
upon 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 has 
pretty nearly the same habits and natural inclinations. It feeds upon the 
same aliments; and its flesh, though more dry and lean than that of a 
hog, is not unpalatable. The female, however, breeds only once 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 3 


THE. COLLARED: PECCARY,! AND THE.WHITE- 
LIP.P ED {PE OCA RY 2 


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. 
It is the smallest of the two species, seldom measuring three feet in length, 
or weighing more than fifty pounds. Its general 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 
unfrequently reaches a length of three feet and a half, and a weight of a 
hundred pounds. It is thicker and stouter in its proportions, 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 Society, ‘‘ congregate in numerous bands, 
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 labiatus, Cuv. 


308 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 
he is so unwise as to neglect his only chance of escape, which consists in 
climbing a tree, and thus getting fairly out of their reach. The smaller 
bands are by no means equally courageous, and always take to flight at the 
first attack. : 

“MM. Sonnini relates that he was often, in the course of his travels in 
Guiana, surrounded by a troop of peccaries infuriated with the havoc made 
by 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 conquerors. 
These days of victory over the peccaries, he adds, are always days of 
abundance for the traveller in those immense forests, who has no other re- 
source except the chase. An enormous gridiron is immediately constructed 
with sticks fixed in the earth, and three feet in height, over which a quantity 
of small branches are placed in a transverse direction. On these the pecca- 
ries are deposited, after being cut in pieces, and are cooked by a slow fire, 
which is kept up during the whole night.” 

In its native country, the peccary is rather fond of the mountainous parts, 
than 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 all the serpent kinds with which the uncultivated 
forests of the New Continent abound. 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 tamed, 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—RHINOCEROS. 303 


~ 


the sty, and donot quarrel among each other, except when they happen to 
be 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 of 
Guiana, tells us that the Macoushi Indians are accustomed to kill birds and 
other game, with arrows dipped in poison called wourali. 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 poison. It is 
remarkable that the flesh of creatures 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. 


Arter the elephant, the rhinoceros is the most powerful of ali quadrupeds. 
He is at least twelve feet in length, from the extremity of the snout to the 


1 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 sometimes 
none, sometimes two, and sometimes four upper and the same number of lower incisors ; 
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 small, lateral; ears long, narrow; tlivee toes on all the feet; one 
or two horns Rees on the nose, above 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 much 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 natural 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 all 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 to him. 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 rhinoceros 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 does 
not feel the sting of flies; he cannot contract his skin; it is only folded by 
large 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 
only 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 lengthened six or seven 
inches ; it is terminated by a sharp edge, which enables this animal, with 
more facility than other quadrupeds, to gather branches and 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. 305 


body ; they are the only hairy parts of it. The end of the 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 up his head, and ‘gave attention till the 
noise had ceased. y 

It is certain that some rhinoceroses have but one horn on the nose, and 
others two. In the two-horned rhinoceros, one of the horns is smaller than 
the other, and is situated above it. When the animal is quiescent these 
horns are loose, 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 diameter at the base; there are also double horns 
which are but two feet in length. Commonly, 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 sometimes 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 ferment and run 
over the top. 

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 
rivers. 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 rhino¢eros 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 fetus. 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 be 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, or a remedy against several diseases; 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 solitary, and perhaps more difficult 


br 


MAMMALIA—RHINOCGEROS. 307 


to be hunted and subdued. They never attack men unless provoked; but 
then they become furious, and are very formidable. The steel of 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 flat upon his 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; so 
that huntsmen, instead of attacking this animal standing, follow him at a 
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 fetus of a 
rhinoceros, which was sent from the island of Java, and extracted from the 
body of the mother. It was said, in a memorial which accompanied this 
present, that twenty-eight huntsmen had assembled to attack this rhinoce- 
ros. They had followed her far off for some days, one or two men walking 
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 had very much the air and manners of a hog. It betrayed no fear 


y ¥ j 
{ 
i] 


308 MAMMALIA—RHINOCEROS. 


or shyness, but seemed constantly intent upon getting something to eat. 
It fed upon hay, potatoes, and grain, and so greedy was its appetite, that 
nothing 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 smelling in perfection ; but it is pretended he has not a 
good eye, and sees only before him. His eyes are so small, 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 figure was drawn from life, by Mr Melville, and conveys an 
accurate representation of the species, which abounds most in the Bechuana 


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 small as to be scarcely perceptible at a little distance. 


‘my 


MAMMALIA-—TAPIR. 309 


Penola hye OR LE AN T A. 


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. His 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 incisors shorter than the exterior; nose terminating in a moveable little proboscis, 
but not by a kind of finger, like the elephant; eyes small; ears long and moveable; 
fore feet with four toes, the hind ones with three, with short, round hoofs; tail very 
short; two inguinal mamme. 


Pe, 
: 
*% Whit 


y 


» 
310 ° -MAMMALIA—HORSE. 


and seldom goes far 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 till he has got toa great 
distance, 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. To be assured of this, there needs no more than 
to compare the description we have now recited, with that of the hippopota- 
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 wpon sugar-canes, grasses, the leaves of shrubs, 
and various kinds of fruit; and does not make use of what nature has 
armed him 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. This animal is commonly found in Brazil, Para- 
guay, Guiana, and in all the extent of South America, from the extremity 
of Chili to Columbia. 

__ Avspecies of tapir, which has recently been discovered, is very common 
im 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 proboscis 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 
tapir, must have been more than equal to the elephant in magnitude. 


THE HORSE 


Tur horse is not known in its pristine state. The natural disposition 
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 them 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 Equus caballus, Lin. The genus Equus has six upper and six lower incisors; two 

“upper and two lower canines, or sometimes none in the females; twelve upper and twelve 
lower molars. Molars furrowed on each side, with flat crowns and several ridges of enamel; 
a void space between the canines and molars ; upper lip capable of considerable motion ; 
eyes large ; ears rather large, pointed, erect, and moveable; feet terminating in a solid 
hoof; tail with long hair, or a tuft at its extremity; two inguinal mamme. 


a » 


* 


TAMMALIA—HORSE. 3ll 


not fearful of, but 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 
never make war with them, nor with each other. They never quarrel 
about their food, they have no occasion to ravish the prey of another, the 
ordinary source of contentions and quarrels. 


The astonishment and fear which the inhabitants of Mexico and Peru 
expressed at the sight of horses and their riders, convinced the Spaniards 
that this animal was entirely unknown in those countries. They therefore 
earried thither a great number, as well for service and their particular 
utility, as to propagate 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 of the 
Buccaneers, says, that, in the island of St Domingo, horses may sometimes 
be seen in troops of upwards of five hundred, all running together ; and that as" 
soon as they see a man, they will all stop. That one of them will approach 
to a certain distance, snort, take flight, and then all the rest willgfollow 


him. To catch them, they make use of nooses made of ropes, whieh they? 


spread and hang in places which they know they frequent. But if™hey az 
caught by the neck they strangle themselves, unless the hunter comes in 
time 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 make them tract - 
ble, and in time they become as much so as if they had never been v ild. 
And even if by chance they ever regain their liberty, they never beco me $0 


again, but know their masters, and suffer them to catch them again with 
out trouble. 


ah 


» 


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, se 
to the ideas 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 descend- 
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 saddle. 

It is in England chiefly, however, that the cultivation and education of 
the horse has been carried to its greatest refinement, and in France are 
local races, admirably adapted to the different purposes which agriculture, 
or commerce, or luxury may 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 stock; and in the quality of speed it is not 
probable that it can ever be exceeded. The next 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 


Ke ; 
_ immense power of draught can scarcely be surpassed, are the produce 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 
Arab 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, 


ire 4 


MAMMALIA—HORSE. ole 


The Arabs divide their horses into two races. The first, which they call 
kochlani, 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 kadischi, 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 always 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 


SSS 
a SSS SS — 


Wy 


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 been 
almost eradicated in that quarter. They are not known to exist in a wild 
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 them 
with the lasso. ; 


40 


ay 


314 MAMMALIA—ZEBRA. 


tao DZATEG G'TALAOR WILD ASS 


Exuisits in its natural, or wild state, an appearance very far superior, both 
in point of beauty and vivacity, to the horse. It is a native of Asia, living, 
like the rest of 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 some- 
times called the wild ass, has been no doubt confounded with this animal. 
The color of the wild ass is gray, or brownish yellow, with a brown dorsal 
stripe, and one or two bands across the shoulders. 

The food of this animal consists chiefly of saline or bitter plants. It is 
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 off with the utmost rapidity on the sight of mankind. 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 .ZEBR A? 


I oat 
Sas SSM * 
Se ee OOD ge 


Is, 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. 2 Equus zebra, Lin. 


MAMMALIA—ZEBRA. 315 


a striped robe of black and white alternately disposed with so much regula- 
rity and symmetry, that it seems as if nature had made use of the rule and 
compass 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 stuff; 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, at a 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- 
nately black 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, less than the horse, and larger than the ass; and, although 
it has often been compared to those two animals, and called the wild horse 
and the striped ass, it is a copy neither of the one nor the other; and might 
rather be called their model, if all was not eq@ally 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 fine mouse color, with a black cross 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 is 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. It 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 transported thither from Africa; 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 from the Cape ef Good Hope. This point of Africa is 
their true climate, their native country, and where the Dutch have em- 
ployed all their care to subject them and to render them tame, without 
having been hitherto able to sueceed. That which has served for the 
subject of our description, 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 


1 : . . . . . fi ‘ 
men held the bridle, while a third was upon him. His mouth is very © 


hard; his ears so sensible, that he winces whenever any person goes to 
touch them. He is restive, like a vicious horse, and obstinate as a mule; 
but, perhaps, the wild horse and the onagra are not less intractable; and 


. . ts oc 
there is reason to believe, that if the zebra was accustomed to obedience 
‘i 


* 


c 


¢ 


316 MAMMALIA—ZEBRA. 


and 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 
Exeter Change. It would allow young children to be put upon its back, 
and was once ridden from the Lyceum to Pimlico; but it was bred and 
reared in Portugal, from parents half reclaimed. In several other cases, 
zebras have attempied 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. 


DEE ZEBRA OF THE, PLATNS2 


Tue zebra which we have just described, is confined to the 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 haunches and 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 not 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 
bands. 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 


1 Equus montanus, BurcHELu. 


MAMMALIA—QUAGGA...ASS. : 317 


frequently allowed to run loose through. the Tower, with a man by her side, 
whom she does not attempt to quit, except to run to the canteen, where she 


is occasionally indulged with a draught of ale, of which she is particularly 
fond. 


THE. QOUAGG At 


THE quagga, which till lately has been confounded with the zebra, is 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 ferruginous 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? 


Ts 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 to 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 he eats, and does not put his nose in the water, through fear, as some 


1 Equus couagga, GMEL. 2 Equus asinus, Lin. 


+4 


Pes 
wee, 
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 he takes of him. 
For he does not paddle about in the mud and in the water; he even fears 
to wet his feet, and will turn out of his road to avoid the mud. His legs are 
also drier and cleaner than the horse; he is susceptible of education, and 
some have been seen sufficiently disciplined to be made a show of. 


In their earliest youth they are sprightly, and even handsome. They 
are light and genteel ; but either from age or bad treatment, they soon lose 
their beauty, and become slow, indocile, and headstrong. Pliny assures 
us, that, when they separate the mother from the young one, she will go 
through fire to recover it. The ass is also strongly attached to his master, 
notwithstanding he is usually ill treated; he will smell him 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 excellent, which has also contributed to 
his being numbered among timid animals, all of which, it is pretended, have 
the hearing extremely delicate, and the ears long. When he is overloaded, 
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 dis- 
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 down 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 horse; but all his motions are smaller, 
and much slower: notwithstanding he 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 hard pressed, he is soon fatigued. 


ce sib 


its a 
MAMMALIA—ASS. 319 


The ass is three or four years in growing, and lives twenty-five or thirty 
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, or fol- 


lowed with the samevattention; but we cannot doubt that they came all ori- b 


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 
in 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 circumstance is the reason that they 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 


into Germany, England, and lastly into Sweden, &c.; for they are, in fact, 


weak and small in proportion to the coldness of the climate. They are 
said to have been introduced 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 gommon ; 
in the West Indies, Mexico, and South Ameriea, 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 
requires 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 
the 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 circum- 
stances riding 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, like some other animals, and some birds, possesses in great per- 
fection the power of finding his way home, when lost at a great distance. 
An instance of this is recorded by Kirby and Spence, in their excellent Intro- 
duction to Entomology. In March, 1816, an ass, the property of Captain 
Dundas, R. N. then at Malta, was shipped on board the Ister frigate, 
Captain Forrest, bound from Gibraltar for that island. The vessel having 
struck on some sands off the Point de Gat, at some distance from the shore, 
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 left the 
ship was lost. A few days afterwards, however, when the gates of Gibral- 
tar were opened in the morning, the ass presented himself 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. 

Gn 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 his way 
from Point de Gat to Gibraltar, a distance of more than two hundred 
miles, through a mountainous and intricate country, intersected by streams, 
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, to which the 
persons flogged were tied. 


THE MULE 


is 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.* 


Anmmats 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 in 
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 
food may enter into either of them. Their food is invariably vegetable, and they are 
widely distributed over both continents. 


MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 3821 


THE CAMEL! AND DROMEDARY? 


Tue 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, (which 
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, Lr. 


2 Canelus dromedarius, Lis. The genus Camelus, of which these two are the only 
individuals, has two » er and six lower incisors ; two upper and two lower canines ; two 
upper and two lower false molars ; ten upper and ten lower true molars, Inferior incisors 
in the form of cutting wedges ; the superior, lateral ; canines conical, erect and strong; false 
molars on each side in the interdentary space ; toes united below; head long; neck very 
long; upper lip cleft; nostrils slit obliquely; eyes projecting; ears small; back with 
fatty bunches ; callosities on the breast and flexures of the extremities; four ventral mam- 
mez; hair wooly; tail of medium length. 


41 


all 


Re 


322 MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 


being seldom found in any other place than in Turkey, and in some other 
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. 


WV) 

us me A ie Heda 
Wri Cat Wi Wee x ) 
Gi u co A ( 


AN 


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 
is 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 axe 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 and 
soft, is renewed every year, and serves them to make stuff for their clothing 
and their 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 
all the armies in the world would perish in the pursuit of a troop of Arabs. 
Let any one figure to himself a country without verdure, and without water, 
a burning sun, a sky always clear, plains covered with sand, and mountains 
still more parched, over which the eye extends, and the sight is lost, with- 


wer 


MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 323 


out 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 him, 
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 render 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 departs 
with them, arrives unexpectedly at the borders of the desert, stops the first 
passenger he sees, pillages the straggling habitations, and loads his camels 
with his booty. If he is pursued he is obliged to expedite his retreat; and 
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 often 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 than half a mile 
before they come to it. Thirst now makes them redouble their pace; and 
then they drink enough for all the time past, and for as long to come; for 


324 MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 


ad 


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 car- 
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 
~camels 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. In 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 
exceed 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 effect 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 
to contain a great quantity of liquor, where it remains without corruption, 
or without the other aliments being able to mix with it. When the animal 
is pressed 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; the 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 and 
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 them, and in that cramped posture 


MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 325 
My 


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 their 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 scon 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 until 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 have a great plenty of milk, which is thick, and nourishing even 
for the 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 diminish, and are reduced almost even, and 
the eminences are only discovered by the height of the hair, which is always 
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 to bring 
him up so as to make him strong and robust, they leave him at liberty to 
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 foriy 
or fifty years. 

The camel is not only of greater value than the elephant, but perhaps’ 
not of less than the horse, the ass, and the ox, all 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 nota part of them, even to their excrements, from which some 


LY 


326 4 MAMMALIA—CAMEL. 


profit is not drawn; for sal ammoniac is made from their urine. Their 
dung, when dried 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 ef the vulgar (be they 
the high or the low vulgar,) of all countries; and the lion fights of the 
savage Romans, the bull fights of Spain, the bull and badger baitings and 
cock fights of England, and the camel fights of Asia Minor, are equally 
indications 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: —“ One 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 attextion 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 cf 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- 
right earnest. Two huge rivals broke away from the string, and set to in 
spite of their drivers. They bit each other furiously, and it was with great 
difficulty the devidgis succeeded in separating these, at other times, affec- 
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 rela’ an interesting story, which beautifully illustrates the 
surprising instinet of the camel. It was told to him by a man who had 
himself suffered all the pangs of death :— j 

“In the month of August, a small caravan prepared to set out from Ber- 
ber to Daraou. It consisted of five merchants and about thirty slaves, with 

* 


MAMMALIA—CAMEL. ™ 327 


a proportionate number of camels. Afraid of thé 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 of 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 signal that he desired to be left 
to his fate. ‘The survivor then continued his route ; but such was the effect 
of thirst upon him, that his 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 
to 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 hastily 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 trouble. My 
informer, a native of Yembo, in Arabia, was the man whose camel discover- 
ed the spring; and he added the remarkable circumstaneg, that the youngest 
slaves bore the thirst better than the rest, and that, while the grown up 
boys all died, the children reached Egypt in safety.” 


328 MAMMALIA—LLAMA. 


THE LLAMA 


Tue height of this animal is about four feet; its body, comprehending the 
neck and head, is five or six feet long; its neck alone is near three feet. 
The head is small and well proportioned, the eyes large, the nose somewhat 
long, the lips thick, 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 
inches long, small, straight, and a little turned up at the end. It is cloven 
footed, 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 
rugged 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; some are white, others black, but most of them brown. The engrav- 
ing was drawn from a white llama, in the Zoological Gardens. 

The growth of the llama is very quick ; and its life is but of short dura- 
tion. This animal couples so early as at three years of age, and remains 
strong and vigorous till twelve; after which it begins to decline, and 
oO 

1 Aachente glama, Lix. The genus Auchenia has two upper and six lower incisors ; 
two upper and no lower canines; two upper false molars; ten upper and ten lower true 
molars. Teeth resembling those of the camel; muzzle little protuberent ; upper lip cleft; 
neck slender; eyes large; ears long, pointed, and moveable; feet aon by two toes 


furnished with little crooked nails, with a callous sole; callosities on the breast and 
knees ; tail short; two mamme. 


Bes? 


a 


MAMMALIA—LLAMA. 329 


becomes entirely useless 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 
llama sleeps, like the camel, with its feet folded under its belly, and rumi- 
nates in that posture. When overloaded or fatigued, it falls on its belly, and 
will not rise, though its driver strikes it with his utmost force. 


Peru, according to Gregory de Bolivar, is the true and native country of 
the llamas; they are conducted into other provinces, as New Spain, &c. 
But this is rather for curiosity than utility. But in Peru, from Potosi to 
Caraccas, these animals are in great numbers, and male 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 
they are capable of carrying heavy loads in the most rugged and dangerous 
ways. The strongest of them will travel with two hundred or two hundred 
and fifty pounds weight on their backs. Their pace is but slow, and their 
journey is seldom above fifteen miles a day; but then they are sure, and 
descend precipices, and find footing among the most eraggy rocks, where 
even men can scarcely accompany them. They commonly travel for five 
days together, when they are obliged to rest, which they 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. 


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 wool supplies them 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 they drink; as their mouths are .continually moistened 
with saliva, which they have in a greater quantity than any other animal. 
The natives hunt the gwanaco, which is the llama ina 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 dogs are obliged to desist in their pursuit. 

The llama is in general a timid and docile animal. If teased, or ili 
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. 


TAE PACO!1 


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 as 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 wool, but also form 
it into quilts and carpets, which bring a higher price, and exceed those 
of the Levant. 

The pacos also resemble the llamas 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 flocks, and run very swift; and as soon as they perceive a 
stranger, they take flight, driving their young before them. The ancient 
monarchs of Peru rigorously prohibited the hunting of them, as they multi- 
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. 331 


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 are so 
intimidated at these rags agitated by the wind, that they stop, and, crowd- 
ing together in a heap, the hunters kill great numbers of them with the 
greatest ease. Butif there are any guanacos among the flock, which are 
less timid than the pacos, they leap over the rope with great agility. The 
example is immediately followed by the whole flock, and they escape the 
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 from 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 might 
climb and attain to the region that most agrees with their nature. 


THE ' -THIBET’ MUSK 


Tue size and general appearance of this animal resembles, in some 
degree, that of the roebuck. It is about three feet four inches in length, and 
about two feet eight inches in height, 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 brown 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, Lis. The genus Moschus has eight lower incisors, no upper 
ones ; two upper canines, no lower ones; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Canines 
wanting altogether in the females ; superior canines large in the males ; ears long, point- 
ed; body slender ; feet with hoofs, separated and enveloping the last phalanges ; tail very 
short; two inguinal mamme. 


Ce 


ooe MAMMALIA—ELK. 


These animals are found in the Alpine mountains of Asia, Tonquin, and 
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 covered 
with pines, where they delight to wander in places the most difficult of 
access. The flesh of the males is much infected with the taste of musk; 
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 powerful 
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. It 
has been knewn 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 for a 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 one 
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 EL KO Rew OO SE} 


Is a much larger, anda much stronger animal than the stag and the rein- 
deer. It is usually larger, both in height and bulk, than the horse. His 
hair is 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 alces, Lin. The genus Cervus has eight incisors below; canines none, or 
two above; molars twelve above and twelve below. Canines compressed and bent back ; 
head long, terminated ly a muzzle; eyes large, pupils elongated transversely ; a lachry- 
mal sinus in most; ears large and pointed; tongue soft ; body slender; four inguinal 
mamme ; horns solid, deciduous, palmated, branched, or simple in the males; females, 
with one exception, without horns. 


MAMMALIA—MOOSE. 333 


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 when 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 epilep- 
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 the American quadrupeds have been found precisely similar to 
their European representatives, ought to excite doubts of the identity of the 
moose and Seandinavian 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. 
quite a solitary animal. It has the sense of hearing in very great perfection, 
and 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 moose hunter is mest 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 keep 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 the animal, till by the marks on the snow he discovers that 
he is very near to him. He then breaks a twig, which, alarming the moose, 
it springs up and prepares to start. The hunter now fires, and seldom fails 
in killing him. 

In the spring, when the snow is very deep, the hunters frequently chase 
them on snow shoes. Notwithstanding the lengthened chase which the 


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. The same author says, that, in summer, moose 
deer are often killed in the water by the Indians, as when they are crossing 
the rivers 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, no animal could appear more majestic or imposing, 


THE STAG! 


Ts one of these mild, tranquil, innocent animals, which seem as if they were 
ereated solely to adorn and animate the solitude of the forests, and to occupy, 


1 Cervus elaphus, Lin. 


, 
MAMMALIA—STAG, 335 


remote from man, the peaceful retreats of nature. His light and elegant 
form ; his flexible, yet nervous limbs; his head rather adorned, than armed, 
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 rest 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 in 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 they 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 


336 MAMMALIA—STAG. 


against the trees, in order to clear them from the seurf with which they 
are covered. 

The hinds, or females, carry their young eight months, and a few days. 
They are not all prolific; and one sort there is in 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 
has 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, ‘‘Cesar 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 assumed 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 the 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. 


a 


MAMMALIA—STAG. 3937 


The most common color of the stag is yellow, though there are many 
found of a brown, and many of ared color. White stags are much more 
uncommon, and seem to be stags become domestic. The 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 ue, and disagreeable to the eye. 

This animal seems to have good eyes, an exquisite smell, and an excel- 
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 a 
full view around him, and then snuffs up the wind, in order to try whether 
he 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 fromra 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 to the shepherd’s pipe, or flageolet ; and the hunters, 
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 
leisure, though the act of rumination he 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 
drinks 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 fleetness, 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 bounds 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 


ie 
- : 
s- 


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 force 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 
them ; and upon this large tract neither man, woman _ child, sheep, nor 
oxen are allowed to trespass, with the exception of those parties who are 
permitted 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 Highlanders, carrying spare rifles, and leading the deer hounds. The 
party is preceded 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 hearing, 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 
inequalities of the ground, preserving the strictest silence. It frequently 
happens, that the sportsmen are obliged 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 as 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. 
The 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 hunter to be very cautious in approaching 
him when at bay, and always to keep him down the stream, from where he 
stands; for if he breaks his bay, he is very likely to attack his pursuer, gore 
him with his horns, or trample him to pieces with his feet.” 


MAMMALIA—DEER. 339 


¥ 
* 


} 
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 
light fawn, intermixed with dirty white, on the inside of the limbs. His 
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 front. His 
nose, which is black, is enveloped in an extensive muzzle; his ears are nearly 


ae 
“ 


\ 
\ 
\ 


POAAINIWOR . \\ 
( RUAN WAS A\\ Ss 
Co oe 


\ 
EW 
a 


i) 


naked on the inside, and marked by a patch of dirty 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 ; anda dise 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 
crown, consist of a broad burr, from which the pointed basal antler rises 
almost perpendicularly to the extent of nine or ten inches; 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 branch, however, being shorter than the stem, and not exceeding five 
or six inches in length. The entire length of the horns is about two feet ; 
they are of a dark color, very strong, and deeply furrowed throughout. 


——— 


2 Cervus equinus, Cuv. 


340 MAMMALIA—DEER. 


THE) INDIANS TA Gat 


THe axis, or Indian stag, is of the small number of ruminating animals 
who wear horns, like the stag. He has the shape and swiftness of the fallow 
deer ; but what distinguishes him from the stag and fallow deer is, that his 
body is marked with white spots, elegantly disposed, and separated one 
from another, and that he is a native of hot countries, Hindostan, and parti- 
cularly Bengal; while the stag and deer have their coat of a uniform color, 
and are to be met with in greater numbers, in cold countries and temperate 
regions, than in hot climates. 

The axis appears to be an intermediate mixture between the deer and the 
stag. He resembles the deer in the size of his body, the length 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 nearly 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. 


1 Cervus axis, Lin. 


MAMMALIA—DEER. 3Al 


THE FALLOW DEER1 


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 small 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 forests 
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. 

The horns of the buck, like those of the stag, are shed every year, and 
take nearly the same time for repairing. S 

It frequently happens, 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 
vanquished party into the coarser and more disagreeable parts. Each 


1 Cervus dama, Lin. 


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. They 
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, 
is in 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 smaller 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, or 
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,! 


THE 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 covert. While the roebuck, as being of an inferior species, contents 
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, 
less 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, Lr. 


MAMMALIA—ROEBUCK. 343 


So fleet 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. Should he, however, be at length pressed too closely, he resorts to 
artifice. He retraces his footsteps, backwards and forwards, till his turn- 
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 also 
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 in 
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 form 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 more than eight months; and this is a circumstance which alone sufli- 
ces to prove, that 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 follow the buck and the doe eight or nine months 
in all; and, upon separating, their horns begin to appear, as those 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 horns 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 
diminish, and are even the most certain index for discovering, every year, 
the advanced age of all 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 roebucks remain in winter in the thickest coppices, 
and live on briars, broom, heath, &c. In spring, they repair to the more 


, 


Wh, 
344 MAMMALIA—FALLOW DEER. 


és 


open groves, and browse upon the buds and young fresh led¥es 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 the 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. 


Cy 


RW: 
AW. 

TES 
S 


= 


SS5— 


Tus is the smallest species known in America. It is found throughout 
the country, from Canada in the north, and the banks of the Oronoco in 
South America. It is remarkable 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- 
teracted 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 their 
flesh, hide, and horns. The flesh is justly considered an excellent article 
of food, when killed in the proper season. The Indians and hunters feed 
upon it at all seasons. The stomach of the deer, with its half digested 


1 Cervus Virginianus, DEsM. 


Bs 
MAMMALIA—AMERICAN ELK. ; 845 


contents, * 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. It is 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. It is said by hunters to evince a strong degree of animosity towards 
serpents, and especially to the rattlesnake, of which it has an instinctive 
horror. {n 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 ELE; CANADA. STAG, 
ORS WAP LT it 


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 
at one period ranged over the greater part, if not the whole, of this conti- 
nent. Hearne leaves no doubt of its existence as far north as fifty-three 


1 Cervus major, Orv. 


di 


7 ie * 


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 catch 
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 
feed, and the horns, while in a soft state, are also considered a delicacy ; 
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 to a 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 
France, at least in the high mountains, such as the Pyrenean ; and, since 
that time, has been destroyed, like the stags, who were heretofore common 
in that country. It is certain, that the reindeer is now actually to be found 
only in the most northern countries. We also know, that the climate of 
France was formerly much more damp and cold, occasioned by the number 


* *¥ 


*" a ** : 
MAMMALIA—REINDEER. 347 


of woods and morasses, 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, and in 
the most northern parts of Lapland. 

The reindeer is shorter 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 the bramble, 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 mest 
profitable animals. The Laplanders have done what ourselves should do: 
if we were .to lose our cattle, we should then be obliged to tame the stag 
and roebucks 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 them, 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, besides, 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 does not sufficiently know what nature can do, nor what can be 
done with her. Instead of seeking for what he does not 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 that 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 much certain- 
ty upon the frozen snow as upon the mossy down. ‘The female affords 
milk, more substantial and more nourishing than the cow; the flesh 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, bowstrings and thread of his tendons, and glue is manufactured from 


Ay we 


348 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 only fifty, he must 
be content to be the partner, or rather servant, of some more fortunate 
individual. 

is food, in the winter season, is a white moss, (lichen rangiferinus,) 
which he finds under the snow, and which he ploughs up with his horns, or 
digs up with his feet. When the snow is too deep for them to obtain this 
article, they resort to another lichen that hangs on pine trees; and in severe 
seasons the boors often cut down some thousands of these trees, to furnish 
subsistence to their herds. 

In summer, he lives upon the buds and leaves of trees, rather than herbs, 
which his forward spreading antlers 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 from the outrages of the 
wolves. Many fruitless attempts have been made to introduce them 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. 


The reindeers have, outwardly, many things in common with the stags; 
and the formation of the interior parts 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 does not attain his growth till about 


i 


i, 


” 
# 


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 so light that they can easily manage it, and cover themselves with 
it. The bottom of it is lined with the skins of young reindeers ; the hairy 
side is tumed 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 to a 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 an hour; 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 well 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 spirited, 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 troubled 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. Se formidable are the 
attacks of these insects, that in June, July, and August, the Laplander is 
compelled to migrate with his deer from the forests to the mountains; with- 
out which precaution, he would run the risk of losing the major part of bis 
herd. 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- 
rous, they have need of many persons to guard them, to recall them, and to 
run after 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 
care of their reindeer, which constitute all their wealth. 


a 


- 


350 MAMMALIA—REINDEER. 


The reindeer is the only animal of this species, the female 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 
conquer. 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 to be no longer 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 rosomak, 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, is 
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 down 
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 fattest. The 
hindmost man then pushes forward his comrade’s gun, the head is dropped, 
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 


sometimes a great part of the herd is destroyed in the space of a few hun- 
dred yards. 


¥ 
MAMMALIA—CAMELOPARD. 351 


THE GIRAFFE, OR CAMELOPARD,) 


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PND rari TN me 


Is one of the tallest, most beautiful, and must harmless animals in nature. 
The enormous disproportion of its legs, (the fore legs being as long again 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 serye its master in a domestic one. The species is not very numerous, 
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 
feet do. 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 ancients 
seem to contradict. 
“Tts head is unquestionably the most beautiful part of its body. Its mouth 

is small; its eyes large and animated. Between the eyes, and above the 
nose, it has a very distinct and prominent tubercle. This is not a fleshy 


1 Camelopardalis giraffa,Desm. This is the only animal of the genus. It has eight 
Jower and no upper incisors; no canines ; six upper and six lower molars on each side. 
Head very long, with a bony tubercle on the foread, 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 papille ; eyes large; neck extremely 
long ; withers much elevated; legs slender; a callosity on the sternum; four mamme. 


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352 | MAMMALIA—CAMELOPARD. — 4 


excrescence, but an enlargement of the bony part, the same as the wwe little 
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 apoint. 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 T had never killed a giraffe, [ should have thought, with 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 animals of the same species. Every one knows, 
for instance, that mares are lower before than stallions. What deceives us 
in 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 to 
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. 

_ “Tf 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, it 
completely conceals the latter. 

“Its 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 never 
bends, swaying backwards and forwards, the neck and head playing in one 
piece between the shoulders as on an axis. However, as the length of the 
neck exceeds that of the legs at least our 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 kneel 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. , 

“Tts horns are never employed in fight. I did not perceive it to use them 
against my dogs; and these weak and useless weapons would seem but an 


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. ‘MA MMALIA—CAMELOPARD. 353 
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error ofenataxe) if mature could ever commit error, or fail in her designs. 
In their youth, the male and female giraffes resemble each other in 
their exterior. knot of long hair then terminates their obtuse 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 in 
color as the animal advances in age, and, at length, it is of a yellow brown 
in the female, 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 
of color. As to the arrangement and form of the spots, the skin varies in 
both sexes. The female does not stand so high as the male, and the frontal 
prominence is less marked. She has four teats; and, according tothe 
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 present to the 
King of England by the Pacha of Egypt, and arrived there in 1827. It died 
recently. ° 

“Tn one point all the observers of the European giraffes agree — that they 
never make any noise whatever. Further, they appear to consider that the 
animal would be useless to man in a state of domestication. M. Acerbi has 
an anecdote illustrative of this point :— é 

“<*When at Alexandria, I had one day ordered the two giraffes (a male 
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 the Desert. On inquiring of one of them whether he had ever se 
similar animals before—he replied that he had not; and I then asked him 
in Arabic, ‘ Taib di? Do they please you?’ To which he rejoined, ‘ Mustaib,’ 
or, ‘I do not like them.’ Having desired my interpreter to inquire the 
syounds of his disapproval, he answered, ‘that it did not carry like a horse, 
it did not serve for field Jabors like an ox, did not yield hair like a camel, 
nor flesh and milk like a goat ; and on this account it was not to his liking.’” 

This animal, though unknown to the Greeks, is described by Pliny and 
Oppian, and Julius Cesar 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 moder. 
name of giraffe is derived. 


a 
PE £:0MM ONVAN TE LOPE 
In size it is rather smaller than the fallow deer. Its color is a dusky 
brown, mixed with red; the belly, breast, and inside of the limbs, are white ; 


1 Antilope cervicapra, Desm. The genus Antilope has eight lower and no upper inel- 
sors; no canines; twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Horns in both sexes or in the 
males only, covering a solid long core, round, compressed, variously influted, and often 
marked by transverse annulations, or a projecting spiral ridge, sometimes bifurcated ; 
muzzle partly naked in the greater number; often lachrymal sinuses; ears large; legs 
slender; two or four mamme. 


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45 ae 


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 
to the top, and have three curves; the drachia, or sides of the lyre, were fre- 
quently made of these horns, as appears from ancient gems. The female 
is destitute 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 of 

zoar. ‘This word is supposed to be derived from the Arabie language, 
where it signifies antidote or counter-poison. It isfound in the stomach and 
intestines 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 cnion. 

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 the heart, 
colic, and jaundice; and in those places where the dearness, and not the 
value of medicines, is consulted, in almost every disorder incident to man. 
In all cases it is perhaps equally efficacious, acting only as an absorbent 


MAMMALIA-—SAIGA. 355 


power, and possessing virtues not superior to common chalk, or crabs’ 
claws. Judicious physicians have, therefore, discarded it: and this cele- 
brated medicine is now chiefly consumed in countries where the knowledge 
of nature has been but little advanced. When this medicine was in its 
highest reputation, many arts were used to adulterate it; and many coun- 
tries endeavored to find out a bezoar of their own. 


THE SAIGA.! 


Tue Scythian antelope, or saiga, is the only one of the species that is found 
in 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- 
nent 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- 
head 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; tlf€y are, therefore, found in Poland, Moldavia, 
about Mount Caucasus and the Caspian Sea, and in Siberia, in the dreary 
open deserts, where salt springs abound, feeding on 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 season, 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 keeping 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 account 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, Drsm. 


356 MAMMALIA—GAZELLE. 


black eagle, which is trained for that purpose. In summer they are almost 
purblind, which is another cause of their destruction. This is occasioned 
by the heat of the sun, and the splendor of the yellow deserts, where they 
live ima 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: 


Og 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 @hat 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. The fieetness of the antelope, indeed, was pro- 
verbial in the country it inhabited, even in the earliest times; hence the 
speed of Ashuel (2 Sam. ii. 18) is beautifully compared to the tzebi; and 
ihe 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 lengths, 
but in all is covered with rather long hair; and their ears are beautiful, well 
placed, and terminating in a point. They all have cloven hoofs, like the 


1 Antilope dorcas, Lin. 


MAMMALIA—GAZELLE. oo8 


sheep; horns (as before observed) hollow, curiously curved, annulated with 
prominent rings or spirals, and not deciduous. 

They bound with such swiftness, and are generally so very shy, 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 of hunting forms 
one of 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 
perching 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 fleetest 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 arrow the falcon flies to the 
animal, which, conscious of its danger, endeavors, but too laie, to escape. 
The falcon soon coming up with its prey, fixes its talons, one into the 
animal’s cheek and the other im its dirogt, and 4ecply wounds it. On the 
other hand, the gazelle attempts to escape, but is generally wounded too 
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- 
ing, take up both, and reward the falcon with the blood of the spoil. They 
also teach the young birds, by applying them to the dead animal’s throat, 
and aceustoming 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 back or its haunches, 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 been 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; it 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 instantly kills it and sucks its blood. If, on 
the other hand, it misses its aim, it rests in its place without attempting to 
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 
them. 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 


7 


358 MAMMALIA—SPRINGBOCK. 


gazelle among the rest. No sooner does the tame animal approach, than 
the malesof 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. 

Upen tke 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 dzngerousness of the spot whither they retreat. 
& ; 


THE SPRINGBOK. 


fuss 


. Tue predominant color of this animal is a pale yellowish brown; the belly, 
breast, 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, 
to 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 to ex- 
pand at pleasure, to the breadth of eight or nine inches, particularly when 


ne 


1 Antilope euchore, Desm. 


MAMMALIA—HART-BEEST. 359 


taking a leap. The height of this animal is about two feet and a half; 
the length of the horns, measuring them along the curvature, is nine 
inches; their 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 pomt. 

This animal inhabits the Cape of Good Hope, and is there ~~ the 
springbock, from the prodigious leaps it takes when any person sud ay 
appears. When pursued, it is pleasing and curious to see the wh ole 
leaping to a considerable height over each other’s heads ; and - hey will 
sometimes take three or four leaps successively. In this situation, they 


. . . . . ” 
seem suspended in the air, looking over their shoulders at their pursueis. 


They are extremely swift, and it must be a good horse that can overtale: 
them. They migrate annually from the interior of the country, in _ 
herds, and continue near the Cape for two or three months, and then retre 
towards the north in herds of many hone , covering the great plains for 
several hours in their passage. 

They are attended in these migrations, by numbers of lions, hyenas, and 
other wild beasts of prey, which commit great devastation among them. 
They also make periodical migrations, in seven or eight years, in herds 
of many thousands, from the north, being probably compelled to leave their 
haunts in the Terra de Natal, by the excessive drought of that region, 
where it sometimes happens that nota 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 furnish the venison of the Cape. 


THE HAR T-BEES To OR! CAPE Sa G., 


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 caama, DresM. 


/» 


360 MAMMALIA—NYL-GHAU. 


the base.. The head is rather large, resembling that of an ox; and the eyes 
are placed very high. The general color of this animal is a dark cinnamon, 
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 
distilled; this the Hottentots preserve as a rare and valuable medicine. 


The large head and high forehead, together with the asinine ears and tail 
of this animal, render it less handsome than many of the tribe of antelopes. 
They associate in great herds; and although they seemingly gallop with a 
heavy pace, yet they run as fast as any of the larger kinds; and when they 
have once got ahead of their pursuers, they are very apt to turn round and 
gaze at them. Like the wood antelope and nyl-ghau, this animal drops 
on its knees to fight. The flesh is fine, and of an 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 
the deer, 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 at the roots, tapering by degrees, and terminating in a blunt point ; 
the ears are large and beautiful, and spread to a considerable breadth: they 


1 Antilope picta, Desm. Nyl ghau, the Persian name of this animal, signifies blue 
cow. 


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od 


é * ‘4 Hh 


’ 


- 


* are white on’ the edge and on the inside, except where two black bands 


5. 


7” 


mark the hollow of the ear with a zebra-like variety. The general color 


of the animal is ash or gray, from a mixture of black hairs and white, most 
of which are half white towards the root, and half black. Along the ridge 
of the 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 isa remarkable tuft of 
long black hair. The height of the animal is about four feet one inch at 
the shoulder. 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. 


rm 
ms 


The nyl-ghau has six grinders in each jaw, and eight cutting teeth in the 
lower one. It eats oats, is fond of grass and hay, and still fonder of wheaten 
bread ; when thirsty, it will drink two gallons of water. It is vicious and 
fierce in the rutting season, but tame and gentle at other times; and should 
it prove docile enough to be easily trained to labor, its great swiftness and 
considerable strength might be applied to valuable purposes, as it is evident 


from experience, that it will breed in this country. When the males fight, . 
they prepare for the attack ata distance from each other, by falling dave? 


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MAMMALIA—NYL-GHAU. 36" 


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362 MAMMALIA—GNU. | 


upon their knees ; and in this attitude they approach, and when they are 
sufficiently 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 will, notwithstanding, attack mankind unprovoked. 
A laborer, who was looking over some pales 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 suppos- 
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 that 
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 good and delicious food. 


eh 


ES 


THE 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 y 
than from nature, notwithstanding that one of them was for sometimein ~~ 


1 Antilope gnu, GMEL. . 


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. 

“Its 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 
in 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* hair four inches in length ; and from the under lip to the throat 
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 form a 
kind of star; this radiated eye gives to the animal a fierce and uncommon 
look. The same sort of vibrisse 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 inches 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, 
is seven feet ten inches; and the height three feet six inches. The color is 
that of a mouse, with a few ferruginous straggling hairs on the sides. Like 
the mare, it has only 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 supporting 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 
PP 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 not 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. Mr 
-—"° who had seen this variety in its native regions, observes, “that 


364 MAMMALIA—CHAMOIS. 


the gnu forms a graceful link between the buffalo and the antelope; pos- 
sessing the distinct features which, according to naturalists, are peculiar to 
the latter tribe. The gnu exhibits at the same time, in his general aspect, 
figure, motions, 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 buffalo 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 
caper about, lashing their flanks with their long tails, and tearing up the 
ground with their hoofs, as if they were violently excited, and ready to rush 
down upon us; and then, all at once, when we were about to fire ‘Upon 
them, to see them bound away, and again go prancing round at a safer 
distance. When wounded, they are reported to be sometimes rather 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, followed the 
huntsmen home, and I attempted to rear it on cow’s milk. In a few days 
it appeared quite as tame as a common calf, and seemed to be thriving ; but 
afterwards, from some unknown cause, it sickened and died. I heard, how- 
ever, of more 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 tame as to go regularly out to pasture with the herds, without exhibiting 
- any inclination to resume its natural freedom; but, in consequence of a 
tendency which the farmers say they evinced to catch, and to communicate 
to the cattle a dangerous 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 


1 Antilope ruficapra. 


% | 


* 


“ki 


a), 
MAMMALIA—CHAMOIS. . ‘gee 


the end; the tail is short. This animal inhabits the mountains of Switzer- 
land. It is about the size of a domestic goat, and resembles one 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 is good to 
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 but 
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 
them, they warn the rest of the flock by a kind of hissing noise. 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, ull 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 to rock; it 
turns, and looks 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 hissing of the male is much more acute than that of the female; 
it 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, keeping 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 chooses the most delicate parts of plants, flowers, 
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 succulent herbage, and ruminates, 
like the goat, in the intervals of feeding. Its head is crowned with two 
small horns, of about half a foot long, of a beautiful black, and rising from 
the forehead, almost betwixt the eyes. These horns are often made use 


a he 


cae 


< 


‘ ; 9 * = 


366 MAMMALIA—CHAMOIS. 


of for 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 sets 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 
reconnoitres 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, 
(whieh 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 a chamois falls, the hunter runs to his prey—makes sure of him by 
ng 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 
ora hunter, the most experienced puts himself at their head, and they 
bound aise one after the other, into the most inaccessible places. 

“Tt is then that the labors of the hunter commence ; for then, carried 
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 most 
dangerous passes of the mountains; he climbs up; he leaps from rock to 
rock, 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 shelier. He is alone, without fire, without 


q 


>... | - 


MAMMALIA—IBEX. 367 


light. But he takes from his bag a bit of cheese and some of the barley 
bread, which is his ordinary food—bread so hard that he is obliged to break 
it between 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 yet climb to 
reach the chamois; he drinks a little brandy, (of which he always carries 
a small provision,) throws his bag across his shoulder, and again rushes 
forward 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, eal 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 srrentdaaier 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 that I 
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, I should 
refuse your kindness.’ Saussure adds, that he went several journeys in the 
Alps with this young man; that he possessed astonishing skill 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 his 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 ee 
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 


1 Capra iber, Lrx. The genus Capra has eight lower and no upper incisors ; no- 
canines ; twelve ds and twelve lower molars. Horns common to b sexes, directed 
upwards and backwards, striated transversely ; no muzzle; interval between "the nos- 


trils naked; no lachrymal sinus or inguinal pores ; ears pointed ; legs robust ; tail short ; 
chin bearded. 


i 


a* 


é -* 4 a 
‘ ‘ % ‘“ 
368 MAMMALIA—IBEX. 


two 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 to them with the chamois, as well as 
the inclination to climb up rocks; and still another custom, which is that 
of continually licking the stones, especially those 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. 


nn 


is) 
i OA 

The male ibex differs from the chamois, by the length, the thickness, and 
the form of the horns; it is 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 bounding from rock to rock; both are covered with a 
firm anda solid skin, and clothed, in winter, with a double fur, with very 
rough hair outwardly, and a finer and thicker hair underneath. Both of 


MAMMALIA—GOAT. 369 


cad vl 
them have a black stripe on the back, and both, likewise, have a tail nearly 
of the same size. The number of exterior resemblances is so great, in ae! 
parison with the differences, and the conformity of the exterior parts - 
complete, that if we reason in consequence of these accounts, we might he 
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 DOMES TI @ig¢ 0.A TH 


AttHoucH the goat is a distinct species, and perhaps more distant from 
that of the sheep than the species of the ass is 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 animals; 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 shift 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. — fy 

Goats are fond of fering in solitary places, are fond of climbing up steep 
places, sleeping on the tops of rocks, and on the brink of precipices. wee 
leap with ease and security among the most dreadful precipices ; and 


1 Capra hircus, Lin. 
47 


; 


a 


, ? ‘® 


370 ‘ MAMMALIA—GOAT. " ‘ 


% 


even when two of them are linked together, they will leap in such perfect — 


concert as to reach in safety the desired spot. 

The inconstancy of this animal’s nature is shown by the ee wre 
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 confirm. 


In 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, ey from having any difficulty in takin them, they 
followed them with a kind of obstinacy, like domestic animals. 

Goats go five months with young, and bring forth at the beginning of the 
sixth month; they suckle the young ones for about a month or five weeks; so 
that it may be reckoned about six-and-twenty weeks from the time of their 
coupling till the time that the young kid begins to eat.. The goat generally 
produces one kid, sometimes two, very rarely 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 longer. 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. r 


ty 


—————— 
= ~ 


* 


ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. oe 
Tuis animal inhabits the most lofty peaks of the Rocky Mountains, sel-_. 


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 
a RUN EG “Se 


v 


: Capra none 
Lal ~ . 


a 


oe 


P j . 
e 4 MAMMALIA—GOAT. : 371 


. degree of latitude, It is common on the ativatcl 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 back 
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, 


NY, me A 
: \ Kes oy i 
“gee 


¥ 


* 


and 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 specimen 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. 
» tis 


. THE ANGORA GOAT 


Is 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 dane. even in our climate. The males 
have horns almost as long as the common goat, but the circumference and 
directions are yery different, and they are of a dazzling white color; they 
are extended horizontally on each side of the head, and form spirals, some- 


m . “ wt ” 


7 


as | 


372 MAMMALIA—SHEEP. * 
i% 

what like aworm. The horns of the female are short, and first turn round 

backwards, then bend 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 


% 


«at 


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 
mohar. 'The stuffs made from the hair of this goat are known by the name 
of camlet. 


~ 


aa ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP! 


Tynazir 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 
and craggy ridges with which the country between the great mountain 
range and the Pacific is intersected; but they do not appear to have advanced 
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 


1 Ovis montana, Georr. The genus Ovis has eight lower incisors; no canines; 


twelve upper and twelve lower molars. Horns common to both sexes; sometimes, want- 
ing in the female, thick, angular, wrinkled transversely, pale colored, turned. laterally in 
a spiral form; ears small; legs slender; hair of two kinds; tail more or less short; two 
mamme. ‘ 


ec? & 


ite 


MAMMALIA—SHEEDP. 373 


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 character 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 danger 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. 


Ni ANN ey, EU) Riese 
‘. ia — 
eet iE Lay MS SS 


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 
rams attain 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 
has also briefly characterized it as having the head of sheep, with the body 


& 
74 MAMMALIA—SHEEP. 


of adeer. Several naturalists of eminence have considered it as forming 
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 body, and in the nature and color 
of its hairy coat; but it seems to be a larger animal, and to present a 
constant difference in the form of curvature in its horns. 


THEVA RG A La Ou Wo) DS Hak B Pet 


ee 14 ff 


an = : 
ay df Vo Pes 


SUN 4 oie 
Se Ne Gm Passes 


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 semicircularly backward, and di- 
_vergent at their tips, wrinkled on their upper surface, and flattened hen oat. 
“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 body is large; but the neck and legs are slender, and the 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 much 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 
face, 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 Qvis ammon, Liy. 


«é 
MAMMALIA—SHEEDP. 375 


in summer, like the deer, becomes somewhat wavy, a little curled, and 
rough, consisting of a kind of wool intermixed with hair, and its roots con- 
cealed by 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 curved 
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 plants, 
and are said to grow very fat. As winter approaches, 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 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 gradually 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 ina 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 is 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. 


PH ECO RS T CAN VARGA T-1.! 


Or Mouflon of Buffon, is of a much darker color than the Asiatic. It is so 
extremely wild, as to be seldom taken alive. However, 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 are all supposed to have sprung originally from the argali. 


1 Ovis musimon, PALL. 


— 


376 MAMMALIA—SHEEP. 


fH EDO MES TiC" S A Eee 


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 to 
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 yield 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, and a 
third kind with hair mixed with wool. The first kind of sheep of those 
countries, 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 pillow 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 board 
with wheels, in order to support them as they walk along. This tail, which 
is a substance between marrow and fat, is considered a great delicacy. In 
the Levant, these sheep are clothed with a very fine wool. In the hotter 


1 Ovis aries, Desm. 


MAMMALIA—SHEEP., 3717 


countries, as Madagascar and India, they are clothed with hair. The 
superabundance of fat, which in our sheep fixes upon the reins, in these 
sheep descends under the vertebre 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, Thibet, 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 
called the Wallachian sheep, is frequent in Austria and Hungary, where its 
name is zack. 

In the hottest countries of Africa and India, there is a breed of large 
sheep, which has rough hair, short horns, hanging ears, and a kind of tuft 
under 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 ram, 
and the Angola 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 sheep, is now in the Tower menagerie, to 
which it was presented by Lord Liverpool. In temper, it is extremely 
mild; but it is an uncouth looking creature. It is high on the legs, narrow 
in the loins, and its coat is rough and shaggy. Its horns are remarkably 


48 


378 MAMMALIA—SHEEDP. 


small, 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 are 


a Nes le : — 
ss sD = \ X 


/, 
as 8 : 3 WY ES 


of a reddish brown; the posterior part of the body, the haunches, the hind 
legs, the tail, the nose, and also the ears, which are rather large, are white. 
There is likewise a white spot over 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, being occasion- 
ally procured in addition to the usual number. Under 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 
horns 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 frequent 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 at 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 below, is remarkable only for the number of its 
horns. The lateral, or true horns, rise from their usual point of attach- 
ment, and describe a spiral curve round the animal’s ears. The accessory 


horns, two in number, take their origin more internally, and between the 


others, and pass almost directly upwards, inclining, as they advance, in 
a direction forwards and outwards. 


THE CAPE BUFFALO 


Tus animal is called by the Hottentots, guaraho. It has dark and rugous 
horns, spreading horizontally over the summit of the head, in the shape 
of a scalp, with the beams bent down laterally, and the points turned up. 
The animal is about nine feet in length, with a deep brown fur. They live 
in small herds in brushwood, and open forests, in Caffraria, 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 of the 
Cape of Good Hope, they have become scarce in that neighborhood. 


1 Bos caffer, Desm. The genus Bos has eight lower incisors; no canines; twelve 
upper and twelve lower molars. Body members strong; 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 mamme; tail long and tufted ; horns simple, conical, 
round, with different inflections, but often directed laterally, and the points raised. 


380 MAMMALIA—ARNEE...BUFFALO. 


THE ARNEE. 


Tuts animal, which is an inhabitant of various parts of India, north of 
Bengal, far exceeds in size any of the cattle tribe that has hitherto been dis- 
covered; it being from twelve to fifteeen feet in height. The horns, which 
are full two feet in length, are erect and semilunar, flattened, and annularly 
wrinkled, with smooth, round, approaching points. The arnee is seldom 
seen 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 bullocks. 


THE DOMESTIC BUFFALO2 


a ee 
1 a 


Tue buffalo and the ox, although greatly resembling each other, both 
tame, and often living under the same roof, and fed in the same meadows ; 
yet, 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 with 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 very 
clumsy, and forbidding; his looks stupidly wild; he carries his tail in an 


1 Bos arnee, SHAW. 2 Bos bubalus, Liy. 


MAMMALIA—BUFFALO. 381i 


ignoble manner, and his head in a very bad posture, almost always inclined 
towards the ground. His voice is a hideous bellowing, with a tone much 
stronger and more hoarse than that of the bull; his legs are thin, his taik 
bare, and his physiognomy dark, like his hair and skin. He differs exter- 
nally 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 round, 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 of the 
female is not so good as that of the cow; nevertheless she yields a greater 
quanti‘y. 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 in 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 difference between this 
species and that of the cow, who only goes nine months, It 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 


Aen 
a 


382 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 aye 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 boldly 
traverses the most rapid floods. As his legs are longer than 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 numerous, often hunt 
them. They neither pursue them nor attack them openly, but, climbing 
up the trees, or hiding themselves in the woods, they wait for them and kill 
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 buffalo, 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 
till 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 bubalus ; and 
Aristotle has mentioned the wild ox of Peonia, which he has called donasus. 


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 1669 and 
1682, gives a very good description of the bison, together with a figure, 
which ts apparently a copy of that of Recchus. It does not appear to have 
excited much attention in Europe until lately, when several specimens, 
having been imported into England, were exhibited under the attractive 
title of bonasus, which, though described by the ancients, was asserted to 


1 Bos Americanus, GMEL. 


MAMMALIA—BISON. 333 


have been lost to the moderns, until recognised in the American animal. 
The American bison, has, in fact, much resemblance to the auwrochs of the 
Germans, (Bos urus, Bopprt,) identified by Cuvier, with the bonasus of 
Aristotle, the dison of Pausanias and Pliny, and the wrus of Cesar; and 
which, down to the reign of Charlemagne, was not rare in Germany, but 
is now nearly confined to the hilly country lying between the Caspian and 
Black seas. 


heals 


The bison wanders constantly from place to place, either from being 
disturbed 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 
creat 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 wil} 
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 Hudson’s Bay Company’s clerks, was de- 
scending the Saskatchewan in a boat, and one evening having pitched his 


384 MAMMALIA—BISON. 


tent for the night, he went out in the dusk to look for came. It had become 
nearly dark, when he fired at a bison bull, which was galloping over a small 
eminence, and as he was hastening forward to see if his shot had taken 
effect, the wounded beast made arush 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- 
nions lying bathed in blood, being gored in several places; and the bison was 
couched beside him, apparently waiting to renew the attack had he shown 
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 feet, and in that 
way, proves more than a match for any English 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 


LAA : 
ZA 


SN 


Ww 


of hunters are engaged in this way, on an extensive plain, the spectacle is 
very imposing, and the young men have many opportunities of displaying 
their skill and agility. The horses appear to enjoy the sport as much as 
their riders, and are very active in eluding the shock of the animal, should 
it turn on its pursuer. The most generally practised plan, however, of 
shooting the bison, is by crawling towards them from to leeward; and in 
favorable places, great numbers are taken in pounds. When the bison 
runs, it leans very much 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 


MAMMALIA-—BISON. 385 


cow. The hump of flesh covering the long spinous processes of the dorsal 
vertebre, is much esteemed. It is named bos by the Canadian voyagers, 
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 beauti- 
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 
condition, furnishes dried meat and fat enough to make a bag of pemmican 
weighing ninety 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 
motion, is scarcely to be impeded. Their line of march is seldom interrupt- 
ed, even by considerable rivers; across which they swim without fear or 


hesitation, 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 cilie, 
rushing onward, the leaders must advance, although destruction awaits the j 
movement. The Indians take advantage of this circumstance, to ae 
great quantities 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 herd 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 aggregated 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 yards, 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 manceuvre 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 


a 


gy 


MAMMALIA—YAK...GAUR...GAYAL. 387 


this 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 in 
ambush, they also show themselves, increasing the consternation of the 


- bisons by shouting violently and firing their guns. The affrighted animals 


have no alternative but to rush directly into the pound, where they are 
quickly 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 until 
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 tumed 
laterally and upwards. 


THE YAM? 


Tus 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 both wild and domes- 
ticated. The wild yaks abound in the mountains of Bootan and Thibet. 


EE ee Au 2 


Is a species of bison, which appears to be one of the largest now living. It 
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 GAYAL? 


Ts 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 grunniens, Lin. 2 Bos gauras, Situ. 3 Bos gaveus, SMITH. 


a 4 


388 MAMMALIA—OX. 


RoE EY | DO) Vi Bae ie) Oe Xo 


TuRovenour 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 aurochs, 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 pre 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 and cows of Ukraine, where there is excellent pasture, are said to be 
the largest in Europe ; they are also of the same kind as our oxen. 

The breed of the bison, or hunched ox, fills all the southern provinces, at 
this present time. In the whole continent of India; the islands of the 
Sou 1 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 have a 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, i 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 


i 


ee 


1 Bos taurus, Lin. 
ft, - ‘ti 


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 back. 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 cabinet, 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 
all 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 are useful to the service of man. The young 
wild calves, which are taken from their mothers in India and Africa, have, 
in a short time, become as tractable as those which are the issue of the 
tame kind, and this natural conformity is another striking proof of the 
identity of the species. 

The characters by which the strongly marked group of animals thus 
associated together, are distinguished from the neighboring 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 communicating 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 
less 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. 


¥ 


390 MAMMALIA—OX. 


There can be little doubt that the zebu, or Indian ox, is merely a variety 
of the common 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 results would 


Wy 


1) 
My 
Yipy 


> 


Let EA te SU 


alone furnish a sufficient proof of identity of origin ; which consequently 
scarcely requires the confirmation to be derived from the perfect agreement 
of their internal 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 
affords the only certain means of distinguishing 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 skull between the basis of the horns. The only circumstances, in fact, 
in which the two animals differ, consist in a fatty hump on the shoulders of 
the zebu, and in the somewhat more slender and delicate make of its legs. 
Numerous 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 whole of southern Asia, the islands of the Indian 
Archipelago, and the eastern coast of Africa, from Abyssinia to the Cape 
of Good Hope. In all these countries, the zebu supplies the place of the 


MAMMALIA—OX. 391 


ox, both as a beast of burthen and as an article 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 


of 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 does 
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 fat, 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 these which affect 
the European race. Its most common hue 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 hangs 
partly over towards one side. Instances are cited, in which it had attained 
the enormous weight of fifty pounds. A distinct breed is spoken of as 
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 labor for their benefit 


¥ 


392 MAMMALIA—MANATI. 


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 privi- 
lege of straying about the towns and villages, and of taking their food 
wheresoever they please, if not sufficiently supplied by the pious contribu- 
tions of the devotees who impose on themselves this charitable office. 


ORDER X.—CETACHA. 


TueEseE animals have a pisciform body, terminated by 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 posterior extremities represented by two rudimentary bones lost in 
the flesh. 


- 


THE MANATI.1 


Tuis animal may be indiscriminately called the last of beasts, or first of 
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 in a 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 of 
which is thicker than that of an ox; the eyes small, and the two 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 of which a very 
Jong cord is fastened. The manati feeling itself wounded, instantly swims 


1 Manatus Americanus, Desm. The genus Manatus has two upper incisors ; no canines ; 
eighteen upper and eighteen lower molars. The incisors exists only in the foetus, and 
the adults have only thirty-two teeth, four of the molars falling out in early age; molars 
with two transverse cushions on their crown; head not distinct from the body ; eyes very 
small; tongue oval; vestiges of nails on the margin of the pectoral fins; six cervical 
vertebre ; sixteen pair of thick ribs; mustaches composed of a bundle of very strong 
hairs, directed downwards, and forming on each side a kind of corneous tusk. 


MAMMALIA—MANATI. 393 


away, er plunges to the bottom ; 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 isso very heavy, as to be a sufficient load for two 
oxen to draw; its flesh is excellent eating, and is eaten rather as beef than 
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 manati, that is, an animal with 
hands. The female has breasts placed forward, like those of a woman ; and 
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 
-resemblance to veal. It is not, properly speaking, amphibious, since it 
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 
bya pin. The manati is not peculiar to the Amazonian river; for 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, probably gave 
rise among mariners, to the fable of the mermaid. Columbus, when he 
first saw these animals in the West Indies, called them szrens. 


THE ROUND-TAILED MANATI2 


Tuis animal frequents most of the great African rivers, from Senegal to 
the Cape of Good Hope, and also many of the rivers on the eastern shore 
of South America. It is often seen in the Amazons, nearly a thousand 
leagues from its mouth. It prefers shallow waters near low land, and is a 
frolicsome 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 insensi- 
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 Senegalensis, 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 cut 
into slices and dried, they become exceedingly tough, and form good whips. 
Of the thinner parts, which have more pliability, the Indians make thongs 
to fasten together the sides of their canoes. 


THE DOL PALILN. 


Tus is a 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 
8, the dolphin is almost straight, 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 little in. They are placed at a small distance from each 
other; so that when the mouth is shut, the teeth of both jaws lock into each 
other. The 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 with 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 conformation, being equally voracious, active, 
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, Lis. The genus Delphinus has teeth variable in number, of a 
canine form, sometimes compressed and dentated on their cutting margins, from two hun- 
dred to none at all; Jaws more or less advanced in form of a beak; spiracles with a cres- 
cent shaped aperture; an adipose, dorsal fin, or a longitudinal fold of the skin; tail flat- 
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 their 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 Atlantic 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 and tender. Dol- 
phins are said to change their color before they die, and again after they 
are ‘dead. 


DH Ey POR Pow Ss i. 


——== z 
SSS. SE 
ae Se 


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 
body 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, where there is 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 of them, because they believe their appearance to be ominous of ap- 
proaching storms. 

These animals live chiefly on the smaller fish. At the season when 
mackerel, herrings, pilchards, and salmon appear, the porpoise swarms; 


1 Delphinus phocena, Lin. 


¢ * 
Me 
4 aft 


i 


ey 


> ¢ oT 


‘ ts 
396 MAMMALIA—GRAMPUS...SEA-UNICORN. 


and such is its violence in pursuit of its prey, that it will follow a shoal 
of small fish up a fresh water river, from whence it finds a difficulty 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 


ih 


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. 
It is said that, whenever a porpoise happens to be wounded, all the rest 
of its companions will immediately fall upon and devour it. : 


THE-GRAMPUS! 


is about twenty-four feet in length. It is a clumsy, unsightly fish, dark 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 exceedingly 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. 
It floats deep in the water, and would seldom be caught, did not its eager- 
less for prey prompt it to rush into shallow waters, where it is killed, but 


- not till it has made a desperate and formidable resistance. 


“sh bu : Ws 


ye 


SP THE NARWHAL, OR SEA-DNICORN? 
ie 


SeLpom exceeds twenty-two feet in length. Its body is slenderer than 
that of the whale, and its fat not so abundant. 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 found single; and some are of opinion 
that the animal 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 some are pleased to call it, the horn of the narwhal, is as 
aah But 


eee 
l Delphinus grampus, Desm. 
2 Monodon monoceros. This is the only one of the genus. The characteristics are one 


or two an tusks in the upper jaw; general form analogous to the dolphin’s; orifice of 


ihe spiracles united on the top of the head; a longitudinal dorsal crest. 
iy : 


# 


é 


Pa 


2 


. ‘ KT P ¢ 
" Sage ee 
. * Ne Res & at , . * 


. MAMMALIA—WHAULE. 397 


Straight as an arrow, about the thickness of the small of a man’s leg, wreathed 
in the manner we sometimes see twisted bars of iron. It tapers to a sharp 
point; and is whiter, heavier, and harder than ivory. It is generally seen 
to spring 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 hal 
Notwithstanding its appointments for combat, this long and pointed tusk, 
amazing strength, and matchless celerity, the narwhal is one of the most 


harmless and peaceful inhabitants of the ocean. It is seen constantly and 


inoffensively sporting among the other great monsters of the deep, no way 
attempting to injure them, but pleased in their company. The Greenland- 
ers call the narwhal 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 by 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 sinking to the 
bottom. It seldom happens therefore, but the fishermen make sure of one 
or two of the hindmost, which very well reward their trouble. 


4 7 


THE GREAT HEADED CACHALOT,9OR ~y% 
SPERMACETI WHALEL 44 “>” 


. 


* #508 

: oe 4 he oy 

Tus tribe is not of such enormous size as the whale, properly sdlealieaitot 
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; 


3+ 


: heya + by hay 

1 Physeter macrocephalus, Desm. The genus Physeter has eighteen to twenty-three 
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 to a 
furrow of the upper, and armed with thick and conical teeth, entering into corresponding) ae 
cavities of the upper jaw; spiracular orifices united at the upper part of the snout; a dorsa 
fin in some species, a simple eminence on others; cartilaginous cavities in the superior 
region of the head, filled with oily matter. a Rag ; 


. ‘ » 


# » aan % of 
398 MAMMALIA—WHALE. x: Fay 
3 
they remain a longer time at the bottom, and afford a smaller quantity 
of oil. Asin the common whale, the head ses 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 one gulp swallow a 
shoal of fishes down its enormous gullet. Linneus tells us that this fish _ 
pursues and terrifies the dolphins and ai so much, as often to drive 
them on shore. ‘ 

But, how formidable soever this fish may be to its fellows of the deep, it 
is by far the most valuable, and the most sought after 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 witha 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. Itis 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-four feet in length. Its greatest cir- 

cumference is just beyond the eyes, and is thirty feet.. The upper jawis —_ 
five feet longer than the lower, which is ten feet. The head is above 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 ghia the 

mouth is closed. They are about eighteen inches long. 

‘The spermaceti cachalot is fodhia in greatest abundance in the Pacific 
ocean, where large numbers of them are annually killed by the American 
and Biber whalers, for the sake of their oil 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, two 


k 


. a 


Pm _  MAMMALIA—WHALE. 399 


harpoons, four lances, and a crew of six men, proceed in pursuit, and; if 
possible, each boat strikes or “fastens to,” a distinct animal, and each crew 
kills their o When engaged in distant pursuit, the harpooner generally 
steers the boat, and in such cases the proper boat steerer 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, seldom 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 lance it. ‘In the agonies 
. of death, the struggles of the animal are truly tremendous, and the surface 
- of the ocean is lashed into foam by the motions of the fins and tail. Tall 
jets of blood are discharged from the blow-holes, which show that the 
wounds have taken mortal effect, and seeing this, the boats are. kept aloof, y 
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 tow it to the side of the ship, and if the weather 
be 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 ere procured from a small one. A cargo, produced 
from one hundred cachalots, may be from one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
.. dred tens of oil, besides the spermaceti, &c. — 


* wit ‘ v4 


THE SMALL, EYED, OR. BLACK HEADED 
"ie * SPERMACETI WHALE,! é 


- Ts 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 


Bs 


®e 


active. Sharks, dolphins, and porpoises fall an easy prey to it. ‘ 
& , ¥ | ; ’ r . pa 
# § & , » po 

te THE COMMON WHALE? 


tC) 


. Is the largest of all animals, being sometimes one hundred feet in length. 
It is commonly met with from sixty to seventy feet. The head makes a 


——_——— 


1 Physeter microps, Lacep. 

* Balena mysticetus, Lrx. The genus Balena has no teeth; upper jaw keel-formed, 
furnished on each side with whalebone, or transverse horny lamine, slender, serrated, 
and attenuated at the edges; orifices of the spiracles separated, and placed towards the 
middle of the upper part of the head; adorsal fin in some species; nodosities on the back 
in others. 

»* 4 


-) * é 


A400 MAMMALIA—WHALE. 


third of its bulk. The fins on each side are from five to eight feet, conipasae 
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 
lobes, 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 
the fat or blubber that lies beneath. ‘This is from eight to twelve inches in 
thickness ; 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. f 

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 immoveably fixed to the lower jaw, seeming one great 
lump of fat; and, in fact, it fills several hogsheads with blubber. The eyes 
are not larger than those of 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 before and behind; as also to see over them, where their food is prin- 
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, 
having struck one of two whales, a male and a female, that were in com- 


MAMMALIA—WHALE. AOL 

‘ 
pany together, the wounded fish made a long and terrible resistance; it 
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, and 
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 for a year; during which time they are called by the 
sailors, short heads. They are then extremely fat, and yield above fifty 
barrels of blubber. The mother, at the same time, is equally lean and 
emaciated. At the age of two years, they are called stunts, as they do not 
thrive much immediately 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, is a 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 the smell of burnt sugar. Inoffen- 
sive as the whale is, it is not without enemies. There is a small animal, 
of the shell-fish kind, called the whale louse, that sticks to its body, as we 
see shells sticking to the foul bottom of a ship. This insinuates itself 
chiefly under the fins ; 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 animal,” says Anderson, “the whale seems agitated in 
an extraordinary manner, leaping from the water as if with affright ; wher- 
ever 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 invader, and strikes with its tail 
against the surface of the water, making a report at each blow louder than 
the noise of a cannon.” 


51 


AQ2 MAMMALIA—WHALE. 


There is still another and more powerful enemy, called by the fishermen 
of New England, the filler. 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 
last, 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 obliged 
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 of this trade. The ships 
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 go 
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 by 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 
descends, which is known by his throwing up his tail, the harpooner dis- 


MAMMALIA—WHALE. 403 


charges 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, with the cry 
of fall! fall! upon which all the other boats are immediately sent out to 
the assistance of the first. 


The whale finding himself wounded, runs off with prodigious violence. 
Sometimes he descends perpendicularly ; at others goes off horizontally at a 
small 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 velocity 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 contained in one boat, that belonging to another is immediately 
fastened to the end of the first, and so on; and there have been instances, 
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 being now much fatigued and 
wounded, stays longer above water than usual. This gives another boat 
time to come up with him, and he is again struck with aharpoon. He 


te 


A404 MAMMALIA—WHALE. 


r 


again descends, but with less force than before; and when he comes up 
again, is generally incapable of descending, but suffers himself to be wound- 
ed and killed 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 being dead, 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, 


to keep these extremities above water. On the off side of the whale are 
two boats, to receive the pieces of fat, utensils, and men, that might other- 
wise fall into the water on that side. These precautions being taken, three 
er four men with irons at their feet, to prevent slipping, get on the whale, 
and begin 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 
cut 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 frem 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 till 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 
remains but to sail homewards, where the fat is to be boiled and melted 
down inte train oil. 


oe ¥ : is . 
“MAMMALIA—WHALE. 405 


A late improvement has been made in the method of discharging the 
harpoon, namely, by shooting it out of a kind of swivel or musquetoon ; but 
it does not appear that since this improvement was made, the whale fishing 
ships have had better success than before. 


The flesh of this animal is a dainty to some nations; and the savages 
of Greenland, as well as those near the south pole, are fond of it to distrae- 
tion. They eat the flesh, and drink the oil, which is a first-rate delicacy. 
The finding a dead whale is an adventure considered among the fortunate 
circumstances of their lives. They make their abode beside it; and seldom 
remove till they have left nothing but the bones. 


e 


CLASS SECOND—BIRDS. 


Vertebrated animals 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 
and 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 gro 
So as to facilitate the knowledge of species in a class so widely extended 
In adopting the arrangement of Temminck, therefore, though his ord 
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 
least 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 immov- 
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 a 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 


“a 


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ie 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 term 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 as arudder. The smaller feathers, which cover the base of the wing 
and tail, are termed tectrices. The anterior extremities, destined 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 galline 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 
si metimes wanting. In the swallow it is directed forwards. Tn 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 ona 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 
lamine. 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 
m4 the jaws of birds. The quills and feathers are composed of a bearded or 


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webbed stem, hollowed at its base; these webs or horizontal feathers are al 
~ again themselves webbed by still smaller ones; and the texture strength, 
lustre, and general form of these feathers are infinitely varied. Th feathers 
Sh, wr: 7 . 5 te 
% fall off _twice a year, and this change of plumage is termed moulting. In |. 


J 


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'. seme species, the winter plumage differs from that of the summer; and in 


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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 has 
the same general characters as that of the other oviparous vertebrated 
animals, but is 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 completely 
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 larynx. 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 the 
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 well by the branches of the aorta, as by those 
of the pulmonary artery. It 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 lamina, 
or scales, which materially blunt sensation. All enjoy the organ of sight; 
and by a particular mechanism in the structure of the eye, they are enabled 
to perceive 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 assistance 
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 auditory 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 ~ 


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were im weve. ne s 409 
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“great distance ; but this, from recent observation, seems Be OTe : ‘ 


tong pirds, is supp pported by a production of -_. bone. 
ic rds 


The t tas is not very d ate., Digestion in is in proportion to the 


) activity / of their life, and the quantity of their s pet atioggbe stomach is 


composed first of the crop, which is a dilatation of the 
base of the neck. The food remains in this duct for some time, and there 
imbibes a fluid analogous to the saliva, Ww yhich. ist ede 

of the canal. When softened by the Bi of heat and moisture, it passes _ 
little by little into a muscular bag, called the gzzzard, where the food is 
triturated the more easily, that many species swallow little stones to in- 
crease the effect. The gizzard, it has been remarked, is strongest in the 
birds which have slender bills, and which are of course unable to break 
down their food ; in those which feed on fish or flesh, the muscles are much 
weaker, and aie stomach is almost membranous. By ‘the 4 of thi 
siominels the food, reduced to a species of chyme, flows through the rem 
der of the intestinal canal, where the nutritious parts are absorbed, and t 


i 
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 youn 

entirely trusted to the maternal care. The greater part of birds, howev A 
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 


inaccessible to their enemies. In birds the ova exist already formed in the 


mother before fecundation; and it is not a rare occurrence to see eggs laid 


without | impregnation, similar in every respect to those which oie 


youn Fecundation, in most of the species, i is accomplished by mere ju 
position. The eggs of birds differ much in the color of their cal 
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 hatching 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 hose food is chiefly insects, check the excessive reproduc- 
tion of insect races, and for this purpose migrate at certain seasons to places — 
where their food abounds. The indiscriminate destruction of crows and 


sparrows, in some distriets, has accordingly been found to give bs to an — 


52 ” - 


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infinitely more prejudicial multiplication of creatures, still more destructive. 


Some families of birds destroy field mice, snakes, frogs, and lizards ; and 
others again, are led by choice to feed on carrion, or dead animal matter. 
Birds, besides, are extensive agents in the spread of vegetables and even 
animals. It is well ascertained that wild ducks, in their emigrations, carry 
impregnated 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 this 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 to one Great Source. 


+ Who bade the stork, Columbus-like, explore 
, Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before ? 
¥ 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 appointed 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 barometer and thermometer, the appearance or disappearance 
and cries of birds, were the signals for the husbandman to sow his fields, or 
to secure his crop. 


Jam veris preenuncia venit hirundo. — Ovid. 
Now comes the swallow, harbinger of spring. 


Tum cornix plena plurium vocat improba voce.—Virg. 
The crow with clamorous cries the shower demands.— Dryd. 


In this country, the great migrations of birds take place in spring and 
autumn. Those which arrive in spring, come from warmer climates, and, 


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after incubation, leave us in autumn; and another hosi, chiefly palmipedes, 
from the arctic regions, arrive in autumn, pass the winter on our lakes and 
shores, 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 
of a long triangle; wild geese fly in angular lines; and the smaller birds 
associate in less numerous families, and reach their destination in less 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 of 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 prey have been observed to fiy at the rate of about twenty 
leagues in an hour. A falcon belonging to Henry Il. 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 same day. And Mr Audubon relates of the migra- 
tory pigeons of America, that they have been killed in the neighborhood 
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 for a still longer period; and parrots have been known 
to live from sixty to eighty years. The life of gallinaceous birds, such as 
the domestic fowl, the pheasant, and the partridge, seldom exceeds twelve 
or twenty years. 


s 


mM, 
ao 
412 AVES—GRIFFON VULTURE. 
' ' 
ORDER I.—RAPACES. * 
Brrps of this order have the bill short and strong; upper mandible cover- 
ed at its base by a membrane or cere, compressed on the sides and hooked 
towards its extremity; nostrils open; legs strong, muscular, short or 
% medium length, feathered to the knee or toes; toes three before and one 


behind, 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 animal food; the females are always larger than the males. The 
~ number of their eggs seldom exceeds four. 


THE FULVOUS, OR GRIFFON VULTDURE 


Tuts noble species of vulture, which is one of the largest birds of prey 

ef the Old Continent, measuring from three feet and a half to four feet in 

wyensth, and more than twice as much in the expanse of its wings, is found 

on the lofty mountain chains of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is not uncom- 

mm ' 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, Lix. The genus Vultur has the bill thick and short, deeper than 
broad ; its base covered by a cere; upper mandible straight, bent towards the point; un- 
der mandible straight, rounded, and inclined at the point; head naked, or covered with a 
short down; nostrils naked, lateral, opening diagonally towards the edge of the cere; 
legs strong, furnished with slightly bent claws ; the middle toe largest, and united with 
the exterior one at the base. 

Of the characters the most obvious, is 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 barrenness of these 
parts in the vultures, enables them, moreover, to burrow in the putrid carcasses on which 
they prey, without risk of soiling their plumage. i 

Their largely extended nostrils, and the great internal developement of these organs, 
would seem to be of manifest use in guiding the vultures to their prey, which they are 
generally believed 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 been 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, and 
the surpassing excellence of their 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, ppp 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, 
by the anatomical structure of the organs of smell, until repeated experiments shall have 
placed the fact beyond the possibility of doubt. : 

: It is almest unnecessary to point out the great utility of the strong, deep curved bill 
of 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 be regarded 
as 6 aaa on the same causes, and serving the same purposes as that of their heads 
and necks. j 


4 


cal 
“‘? 


ty 


AVES—GRIFFON VULTURE. 413 


of a very light 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 
uncommon to see it perched upon a putrefying corpse for several successive 
days. It never attempts to carry off a portion, even to satisfy its young ; but 
feeds them 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 offermg the smallest resistance; for in 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 
satiating its appetite presents itself, that it has recourse to the destruction 
of other animals for its subsistence. 


Vn 
Ae 


: we \ ~ ‘ 


© eau, 


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 
of 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_ the 
contents of its stomach ; lightened of which, and freed from their debilitat- 


Ai4 AVES—CONDOR. 


ing effects, it is immediately in a condition to soar to such a pitch as, in 
spite of its magnitude, to become invisible to human sight. 4 

In captivity, it appears to have no other desire, than that of obtaining 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. 


PrrECON DOr 


SSS 


ae 


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INNS NN UIE 
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= Dee il, 
ORM 


le: 


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 point; head oblong, naked, as well as the upper part of the 
neck ; nostrils in the middle of the bill, near the ridge of the upper mandible, longitudi- 
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. AIS 


just grounds of surprise, when we consider how very imperfectly the condor 
was known to naturalists down to the commencement of the present cen- 
tury. 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, for 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 fabled 
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 
large 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 for 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 extremity of the tail; and its height, when 
perching, with the neck partly 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 ates but the upper mandible 
becomes arched towards the point, and terminates ina 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 in such 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 
surface of the head, the skin of the neck is, as it were, gathered into a 
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 parallel folds, produced by the habit of retracting the head, in which the 
bird indulges when at rest. In this position scarcely any part of the neck 
is 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 whitish streaks. Their elongated toes are united at the base by a 
loose but very apparent membrane, and are terminated 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, 
is 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 
birds of the -raptorial order. 


AVES—CONDOR. 417 


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 elevation 
of from ten to fifteen thousand 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 
temperature of the lower world. On such occasions, it rarely perches on 
the 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 
perfectly 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 disgus‘ing filthiness of the vulture. Although, like the latter, it ap- 
pears to preter 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 usually 
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 it 
to account for their amusement in the chase. For this purpose they expose 
the dead body of a horse or a cow, by which some of the condors, which 
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-fight alone. 

53 


r 1d 


¥ p a , 
4 ‘! bs red 
 * ¢ 
418 AVES—VULTURE. 


In “ee 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 arose 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. Another 
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 
bird 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 credulous 
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 heard of an 
instance in which a child was earried off; although the children of the 
Indians who collect the snow on the mountains for sale, are constantly left 
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 recks, and that 
they showed no disposition to attack him. The Indians of Quito, moreover, 
unanimously assured him that men have nothing to apprehend from the 
condors. 


THE :-SOCIABLE (Vi Uda RE} 


Ts a bird of extreme rarity. It was first described by Le Vaillant, in his 
“Travels in the Interior of Africa,” under the name of oricou; fancifully 
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 Oiseaux 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, Daup. 


AVES—VULTURE. 419 


any zoologist; for all the accounts of it with which we have met, are copied 
from Le Vaillant. 

In size, this gigantic bird is fully equal to the condor; the larger specimen 
measuring, according to Le Vaillant, upwards of ten feet in the expanse 
of their wings. The head, and greater part of the neck are of the color 
of raw flesh, and exhibit in their adult state no appearance of down or 


Fig’ 


WTA 


feathers, but only a few scarcely perceptible, scattered hairs. The throat is 
covered with blackish hairs, and the lower part of the neck behind, with 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- 
ing; an attitude which is common to most of the vultures. 

As Le Vaillant is the only writer who has observed these birds in their 
native state, our account of their manners must necessarily be derived from 
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 species, 
with which he has combined many particulars equally applicable to the 
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- 
stituting its proper habitation. In them it passes the night, and reposes, 


aa 


¥ 


*. zz : e 
+ “. 
-y 
4 
420 - 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 be seen. 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 
in 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 raising my head, a flight of birds 
at a prodigious height, wheeling round and round in their descent. These 
T soon recognised to be vultures, which seemed, if I may so express 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, re- 
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 called 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 
the 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 


* 


rn 


AVES—VULTURE. 421 


prey, preparing to take possession of it; but perhaps he has himself 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 carnivorous 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 with in 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 the 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 sometimes 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 


THis 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) 
form 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. my 

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 bright, sharply circumscribed, and 
strongly contrasting with each other. Round the base of the neck passes a 
broad ruff of soft downy feathers of a deep ashy gray; the whole under 
surface is white, with an occasional tinge of flesh color; the back and tail 
coverts are of a bright fawn, which becomes lighter and lighter as the bird 


1 Cathartes Papa, Lin. 


al 


—" 


Sap. 


422 AVES_VULTURE. 


advances in age; and 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 
deep 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 period, the greater part of the head and neck is blackish 
violet. In the third year it assumes its adult coloring, with the exception 
of afew black feathers among the upper wing coverts. 


The range of this fine species of vulture is rather extensive. M. Bona- 
parte enumerates it among the birds of the United States, and we believe it 
is occasionally met with in Florida, which is probably 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 soon after 
described by Hernandez under the native name of cozeaquauhtli. 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 appearance among them. But such a concession, as D’Azara 


* 


= 
e 
= 


< = 


AVES—TURKEY BUZZARD. 423 


justly remarks, implies neither respect nor consideration ; but is the natural 
effect of its superiority in size and strength. 

Like the other vultures, these birds perform a most important eee § in the 
economy of nature, by the removing of dead, and putrefying carrion. Their 
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 
difficulty. The odor of their flesh is precisely the same with that of the 
carrion on which they feed, and even the skins retain it for many years. 
Contrary to the habits of their family in general, they perch on the tallest 
trees, living 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 themselves 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, ina great measure, upon the putrid fish of the 
lakes that are dried up by the parching heat of the sun, 


THE AMERICAN. CARRION VULTURE, OR}: 
LURKEY BUZZARD; 


~, 
VPLELLS Lor errreereresss 7) 


Is found in vast flocks in parts of America, where it is of great utility m 
destroying snakes and vermin, and in devouring dead and putrid carcasses. 


1 Cathartes Aura, Lin. * 


sa 


Se ay 


” 


” 
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 throughout the United States, but is most 
numerous in the southern section of the Union. In the northern and mid- 
die 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 life. 
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 incapable 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 powerful 
emetic, and forever cured him of his inclination for turkey buzzards. 

On the continent of America this species inhabits a vast range of territory, 
running it is said from Nova Scotia to Terra del Fuego, though it is com- 
paratively rare in*the northern states of the Union. They are numerous in 
the West India islands. 


AVES—VULTURE. 425 


THE BLACK VULTURE. 


Tuts bird has sometimes been confounded with the turkey buzzard. But 
they are much darker in their plumage than the latter, and never associate 
with them. Their mode of flight also differ 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 inone place. It is said that they sometimes attack young 
pigs, and eat off their ears and tails; but those instances are rare. 

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 the benefit of the heat, which to them is a peculiar grati- 
fication. They are protected by law orusage; and may be said to be com- 
pletely domesticated, being as common as the domestic poultry, and equally 
familiar. The inhabitants generally are disgusted with their filthy habits ; 
but netwithstanding, 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 them as sca- 
vengers, whose labors are subservient to the public good. It sometimes 
happens that after having gorged themselves, these birds vomit down the 
chimneys, which must be intolerably disgusting, and must provoke the ill- 
will of those whose hospitality is thus requited. 


1 Cathartes Vulturinus, TeEm™. 


54 


t * 


426 AVES—VULTURE. 


The black vulture is seldom found on the Atlantic, to the northward of 
Newbern, North Carolina; but inhabits the whole continent to the south- 
ward as far as Cape Horn. 


THE LAMMERGEYER, OR BEARDED VULTURE] 


In its attitudes 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 or 
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, assembling in con- 
siderable 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 the menagerie, will show how 
nearly this bird holds the middle station between the two large groups to 
which it is almost equally related. 

Several nominal species were created by the naturalists on the close of 
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 more or less fre- 


1 Gaps barbatus, Cuv. The genus Gypetus has a long bill; upper mandible arched 
towards the point, and bent like a hook; nostrils oval, covered with stiff hairs directed 
forward; feet short; four toes, the three anterior united by a short membrane, the middle 
one very long; nails slightly crooked; wings long. 


ae s , 


AVES—VULTURE. 427 


quency, but never in great abundance, in the Pyrenees, the Alps from Pied- 
mont to Dalmatia, the mountains of Ghilan and Siberia, and those of Egypt 
and Abyssinia; occupying every where the loftiest and most inaccessible 
cliffs, and frequently committing dreadful ravages in the neighboring plains. 
In size it is 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 
no less than nine or ten. M. Fortis indeed asserts that ke had seen an 
individual in Dalmatia, the expanded wings of which measured twelve feet. 

The general color of the upper part of this remarkable birdvisa dull brown 
with a mixture of gray; its wings and tail are of a grayish ash color; the 
upper part of its head is a dirty white ; a black band extends backwards 
from the base of the beak across the eye, and joins a narrower stripe of the 
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 reddish 
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 base 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 living victims, chiefly quadrupeds, 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 flocks 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 preci- 
pice, and descending uponits victim with such an irresistible impetus as to 
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 rather be regarded as traditions handed down from generation to 
generation, than as common or every day occurrences. Inthe 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 to the condor. 


i 


=e. bil 


428 . AVES—VULTURE. 


It is from the character in which it is best known to them, 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 is its food of 
choice, it feeds also upon carrion; and as when in pursuit of a living prey, it 
emulates the eagles by soaring alone or in company only with its mate, so 
in its attack upon an unburied carcass it imitates the vultures by congre- 
gating in bands upon the spoil. In such circumstances it does not usually 
descend from aloft, but sweeps slowly along the ground towards its expected 
banquet. Bruce relates, in his Abyssinian Travels, a remarkable instance, 
illustrative at once of its boldness and voracity. His servants were prepar- 
ing for dinner on the summit of a lofty 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 affrighted 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 
known 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 powder 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 obtained 
their perfect growth. 


AVES—VULTURE. ‘ 429 


. 


“ 
THE SECRETARY VULTURE) 


Tuis curious bird resembles the common falcon in its head, bill, and claws; 
but its legs are so long that, when it stands upright, 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 
the 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 is a 
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. Cn 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 were him out, he kills and devours him at his leisure. 


1 Gypogeranus serpentarius, TemmM. This is the only individual of the genus. Its 

aracteristics 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 tha 
blunt spur. 


% 
© 


A30 AVES—FALCON. 


M. le Vaillant witnessed 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 strove 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 rage and venom. 
Sometimes this produced a momentary suspension of hostilities; but the 
bird 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 all the rest of the feathered race, these birds always 
strike forward with their legs when they fight. 


THE JER FALCON! 


In size exceeds all other falcons, for he approaches nearly to the magnitude 
of the eagle. The top of the head is flat, and of an ash color, with a 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 breught 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 nobility. 
The expense which attended this sport was very great; among the old 
Welsh princes, the king’s faleoner was the fourth officer in the state; but, 
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 have 
given a thousand pounds for a cast of hawks; and such was their value in 


1 Falco Islandicus, GMeu. 'The genus Falco has the head covered with feathers ; bill 
hooked, generally bent from its origin ; a colored cere, more or less hairy at its base ; 
mandibles sometimes notched ; nostrils lateral, rounded or oval, pierced in the cere, open; 
legs with tarsi covered with feathers or scales ; three toes before, one behind, the exterior 
generally united at its base to the middle toe ; ‘claws sharp, much hooked, retractile. 


AVES—FALSON. A381 


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 anda day, together with a fine at the king’s 
pleasure. : 

Of many of the ancient falcons used-for this purpose, we at this time 
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 indolent, or too obstinate, to be serviceable in contributing to the plea- 
sure of the field. 


THE PEREGRINE FALCON 


Iw different stages of its growth the peregrine falcon has been known by 
various English names. Its proper appellation among the falconers is the 
slight faleon, the term falcon gentle being equally applicable to all the spe- 
cies when rendered manageable. The young bird of the year is called an 
eyess, not, ashas 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 Faleo Peregrinus, Lin. 


%- ae . = 


432 AVES—MERLIN. 


¢ 


occur in our language, in which the initial n has detached itself from the 
substantive, and become permanently attached to the indefinite article. In 
the immature state this falcon is also called a red hawk, from the prevailing 
color of its plumage. When full grown and ina wild state it is calleda 
haggard or passage falcon. The male is called a tiercel or tersel, 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 Faleonswaerd, 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 the continent ; but 
I 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 thé 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 or 
duck hawk, is probably the same species known in Europe by the name of 
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- 
ishing rapidity ; its nests are built in cedar swamps. 


THE MERLIN} 


Ts 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. 433 


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 female 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, like a_ 
conqueror in a country, he keeps all 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. 

In 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 case he should be lost, the finder may know where io 
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 attempts 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. It rarely 
happens but at the end of this, his necessities and the privation of 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 be cover- 
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; and 
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 

59 


A34 AVES—EAGLE. 


make him acquainted with the lure. 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 


on this lure they 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 econ- 
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 as 
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 is 
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 whichis 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 faleoners 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 faleon’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 faleon comes off victorious, and the other, killed or disabled, is 
made a prey either to the bird or the sportsman. 


THE GOLDEN’EAGLE! 


Ts one of the largest and noblest of all those birds that have received the 
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 three 


1 Falco fulvus, GMEL. 


AVES—EAGLE. A435 


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 
clothed with narrow, 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, and 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 formidable 
claws, the middle of which are two inches long. 


This eagle inhabits the highest mountains of the north of Europe and 
America, and preys on fawns, lambs, hares, and large birds. It soars to a 
prodigious height. An individual was kept at Vienna, which lived one 
hundred and four years. 

In general all eagles are found in the mountainous and ill peopled 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, 
than 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 
dangerous domestic, and often turns its force against its master. When 
brought into the field for the purposes of fowling, the falconer is never sure 


436 AVES—EAGLE. 


of its attachment; the 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. hen 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 
by the ancients the Bird of Jove. When M. Ramond ascended Mont Perdu, 
in the Pyrenees, nearly three miles above the level of the sea, he saw a 
golden eagle far above him, 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, he 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 often 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 
when bringing up its young. Itis 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 robbing the eaglets of food, which were plentifully supplied by the 
old 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 
to rob the nest of an eagle, that had built in a small island, in the beautiful 
lake of Killamey. Heaccordingly stripped and swam in upon the island, 
while the old ones were away; and, robbing the nest of its young, he was 
preparing to swim back, with the eaglets tied ina string; but, while he was 


A VES—EAGLE. mee 24 


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, there is a law in the Orkney 
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 i in the most inaccessible cliff of the 
rock, and often shielded from the weather by some jutting crag that hangs 
over it. Sometimes, however, it is wholly exposed to the winds, as well 
sideways as above; for the nest is flat, though built with great labor. It is 
said that the same nest serves the eagle 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 ae 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 hundred years; and that they at last die, 
not of old age, but from the beak turning 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 food. 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 §.. 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 
whatever. But this is still less extraordinary than an instance recorded by 
Buffon, who 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 last eight days, and it was killed 
at length in order to deliver it from its sufferings. The eagle seldom drinks, 
as its principal aliment is raw flesh, which contains in itself a sufficient 

-stity of moisture, 


438 AVES—EAGLE. 


THE RING-TAILED EAGLE 


a 
5h 
Lay 


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 habits very difficult to be obtained. 


THE O'S PREY, ewe tet 


Tuis bird and the sea eagle have often been confounded with each other. 
They are, however, very different. The osprey, both male and female, is 
much smaller than the sea eagle; the tarsi of the osprey are scaly and 
naked, while those of the sea eagle are feathered part of the way; the 
osprey may be trained to catch fish for its keeper, but the sea eagle will not 
serve a master. 


1 Falco halietus, Lin. 


AVES—EAGLE. 439 


This eagle is common in Europe, and is probably the same with the indi- 
vidual known in the United States, by the name of the 


AMERICAN FISH-HAWK. 


We shall therefore introduce in this place, the description which our natu- 
talists have given of the latter bird. 

This is a formidable, vigorous winged, and well known bird, which sub- 
sists altogether 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 most numerous of all its genus within the United States. It penetrates 
far into the interior of the country, up our large rivers, and their head waters. 
It may be said to line the seacoast from Georgia to Canada. 


The first appearance of the fish-hawk in spring is welcomed by the fisher- 
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 to the productions of 
their farms; building with confidence, 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. Their nests are 
built of large sticks, corn-stalks, sea-weed, pieces of wet turf, and mullen 
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 form 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 
approach of any person, the hawk utters a plaintive whistling note, which 


440 AWES—EAGLE; - 


becomes shriller as she takes to wing and sails around, sometimes 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 which 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 moments with such steadiness, that he appears 
fixed in air, flapping his wings. This object, however, he abandons, and he 
is 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 ashamed 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 
carrying 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 about 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. Ina few moments he emerges; bearing in his claws his 
struggling prey, which he always carries head foremost; and having risen 
a few feet above the surface, shakes himself as a water spaniel would do, 
and directs his heavy, laborious course directly for land. A shad was once 
taken from afish-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 flounder was 
picked up, and served a whole family for dinner. It is singular that the 
hawk never descends to pick up.a fish which he happens to drop either on 
the land or on the water. 


AVES—EAGLE. 4AL 


Ca.ep the erne in Scotland, is usually above three feet in length, 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. Itis 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 aninials, ‘ 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 albicilla, Lin. 


56 


aap AVES—EAGLE. 


7 


surface of the water. When her prey appears within her reach, she pauses 
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 discharged 
from a bow or an air-gun, makes the cliff echo to her cherup, and dashes 
upon the water with the same thunder and spray, as if a lightning-rent 
fragment had been precipitated from the height. For an instant the column 
of spray conceals her, but she soon ascends, bearing the prey in her talons, 
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 all this operation is finished, a piece 
of carrion is thrown into the house, which the eagle finds out and perches 
upon. 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 flight 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 WASHRING TON VE AGL E 


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 Herschel, 
when he discovered the famous planet which bears his name, could have 
experienced more happy feelings. To have something ney to relate, to 
become yourself a contributor to science, must 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 which I 
suffered had, ina great degree, extinguished the deep interest which, at other 
seasons, this river has been wont to awake in me. [ lay stretched beside 
eur patroon; the safety of the cargo was forgotten, and the only thing that 


1 Falco Washingtonianus, AvpuBON. 


AVES—EAGLE. 443 


called forth my attention was the multitude of ducks, of different species, 
accompanied by vast flocks of swans, which from time to time would pass 
us. My patroon, a Canadian, had been engaged many years in the fur trade ; 
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 only one t 
have seen since I left the lakes.’ I was instantly on my feet, and, having 
observed it attentively, concluded, as I lost it in the distance, that it was a 


species quite new tome. My patroon assured me that such birds were 
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 


ae 


Add AVES—EAGLE. 


differed from the rest of its genus. Mr Wilson had confounded it with the 
bald or white headed eagle, one of the young of which he has given the 
figure 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 
rare. 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 small wood cut, is more like the species 
in question, as to form and plumage, than any other. In mentioning this 
gentleman, I cannot forbear expressing the high estimation in which I hold 
his splendid productions; I 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. 
T 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 
could not answer my objection, he stoutly maintained that a brown eagle 
of some kind, above the usual size, had built there; he added 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 procured this kind of food by robbing the fish- 
hawks; 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 thcir young with 
fish; he had seen them do so before. In high expectation, I seated myself 


s. 
. 


her prey, with a loud shriek communicated the alar 


AVES—EAGLE. 445 


about a hundred yards from the foot of the rock. Never did time pass more 
slowly; I could not help betraying the most impatient curiosity, 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 by the 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 him- 
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 
should 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, watch, 
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 arene she glanced her cuore and piercing eye around, 
and instantly perceived her procreant bed had been dis ed; she dropped 
¥. the mate, and, 
hovering with him over our heads, kept up a growling, threatening cry, to 
intimidate us from our suspected design. This watchful solicitude I have 
ever found peculiar to the female. 

“The young having hid themselves, 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 "aa man- 
ner of the fish-hawk. 

‘“‘ This day’s sport being at an end, as we journeyed homewa 1 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. 

“TI come at last to the day I had so often and so ardently desired. Two 
years had gone by since the discovery of the nes : ‘ruitless excursions; 
but my wishes were no longer to remain ungratied. In returning from 
the little village of Henderson, to the house of Dr R * * * * *, about a mile 


/ distant, I saw one rise from a small inclosure not a 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 finest salmon 
ever pleased him as he did me?—Never. I ran and presented him to my 


ite 


- 


® 


446 * AVES—EAGLE. é 


4 ee 
friend, with a pride which those only can lie, like ee have devoted 
their earliest childhood 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 heard 
of it. The name I chose for this new species of eagle, ‘ The Bird ash- 
ington,’ may, by some, be considered as preposterous and unfit; bu it, being 
indisputably the noblest of the genus known to naturalists, L trust it wail be 
allowed to retain it. To those, however, who may be curious to know my = 
reasons, I can only say, that, as the new world gave me birtha tart, 
the great man who insured its independence is next to my heal e had 
such true nobility of mind, and honest generous feeling, ci ee pos- | 
sessed; he was brave, so was the eagle; and his name, extending from pole” 
to pole, resembles the majestic soar igs of the mightiest of the feathered 
tribe. 4 . 

“During the month of January following, ‘thei 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 pritetieaded 
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 im acircuitous spiral manner, as if with an intention of checking 
all retreating movement which its prey might attempt, and only when 
within a few yards darting upon it. The fish-hawk often does the same. 
When rising with a fish they fly to a considerable distance, forming, in their ~ ve 
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; 
passed over our boat, moving down in easy flappings. In a letter from gingee * 
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, I 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 rlessuae 
of seeing your drawing of it.’ The glands containing the oil, used for the 
purpose of lubricating the surface of 1) e plumage, were, in the ane rcoa * 


s 


here represented, extremely large ; the contents had the a appearance of hog’s 
fat which had been melted and become rancid. This bird makes more 
copious use of that substance than the white-headed eagle, or mae of the 


Falco genus, except the fish-hawk ; the whole plumage looking, upon close 
examination, as if it had received a general coating of a thin clear dilution of 


a 


* ' ¥ 
AVES—EAGHE: AA7 


gum arabic, and presenting less of the downy gloss exhibited on the upper part 
of the bald-headed eagle’s plumage. The male bird weighs fourteen and a 
nalf pounds ae aiillibois, measures three feet seven inches in length, and 
ten feet two inches in extent. | 

“ From the ik account it will be seen that the bird here described, and 
faithfully figure from. a fresh killed specimen, is a very scarce species, even 
in tho 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.” " 


Tite Sate SS i 
r4 mi 4 dl 


‘WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE. 


alle oS 


Tuis distinguished bird has been long known to naturalists, being common 
to both | continents, and occasionally met with from avery high northern 
aaa ‘to the borders of the torrid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the 
sea, and al 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 outstripping 
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 min he can pass from summer to winter, from the lower to the 


high er regions of the atmosphere, the abode of eternal cold; and thence 


< a 1 Falco leucocephalus, Lin. 
° 


4 


* 


é ;*” : 
448 AVES—EAGLE. bi " 


o . J aie 


descend at will to the torrid or the arctic regions of the earth. He is there- 
fore found at all seasons in the countene 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- 
cal; attributes not Koerted but on particular occasions; but wh put. forth, 
overpowering all opposition. 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 tringe 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 
fish-hawk, settling over some devoted victim of ‘the deep. His eye kindles 
at the sight, balancing himself with half opened wings, on the branch, 
he 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 all ardor, and levelling his neck 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 renconires 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 maneuvres 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. Sympathy, however, on this as on most other occasions, gene- 
rally sides with the honest and laborious sufferer, in opposition to the 
attacks of power, injustice, and rapacity ; gualities for which our hero is so 
generally notorious, and which, in his superior man, are certalnias detesta- 
ble. As for the feelings of the poor fish, they seem altogether out of the 
question. 4 

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 


* 


Ohi 


a ane 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 inhabitants 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 eye We ie 
"> tet 


9 


WARP Y3BAGLE ES w 


Tuis noble bird, the most magnificent of the eagle tribe, is distinguished 
from 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 in a straight line, but suddenly curves downwards, 
with a strong 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, Cuvier. 


57 'S 


e . 


450 AVES—EAGLE. > 


The harpy is so bold, according to Hernandez, that it does not scruple to 
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. Linnzus adds to this 
account, probably on the report 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 tribe. 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 all their bones, 
but not without skinning them, an operation which it uniformly performed 
previously to consigning them to its maw. 


*/ 


THE CHILIAN SEA EBAGLEL 


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 the 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 


Pa 
am 


1 Halietus aguia, Tem. 


AVES—EAGLE. A51 


American animals, as well as for the most authentic details with respect to 
their native habits. In the present instance he has unfortunately given us 
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 froma 
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. 


a 
ithe 


iB 


The latter author, or rather his French translator, names it l’aigle 
noiratre et blanc. He states, that it is found, but not frequently, in Para- 
guay, and that it is generally seen inpairs. 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 well 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 ofa 
light yellow, with large flat scales both before and behind; the cere is pale 
yellow ; the beak black at its point, and blue at the base; and the iris of a 
very light hazel. 


* 


452 AVES—EAGLE. 


THE WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE.l 


Ga 
\ 7 AAW INN 


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 BRAZYLIAN CARACARA EAGLE,? 


So named om MaMoarse and peculiar ery, is of a blackish brown color, 
with a light brownish gray neck, and the top of the head black. According 
to D’Azara, the full grown bird is twenty-one and a half inches in length, 


Falco fuscosus, Cuv. 2 Falco Braziliensis, GmEL. 


AVES—HAWK. 453 


and fifty in the expanse of the wings. Its range extends over a great part 
of South America, from Venezuela to Paraguay. ‘It builds generally on the 


tops of trees, but sometimes ina bushy thicket. It feeds on almost every 
sort of living creature. 


THE GOSHAWK.} 


os 


$s 


Tuts bird is 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; 
and each side of the neck is irregularly marked with white; the breast and 


ore 
1 Falco palumbarius, Lr. : 


ay 


AY he y = 
. my rye am, 


454 AVES—HAWK. 


belly are white, with a number of wavy lines or bars of black; the tail is 
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. — 
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. i 

The goshawk is found in France and Germany; it is not very numerous 
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. 

J 


‘ THE SPARROW-HAWK. 


Tuis bird is somewhat larger than a common pigeon, the male being about 
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 ofa 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 havoe 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 be 
intimidated from the pursuit of its prey even by the presence of mankind. 


1 Falco nisus, Lin. 
°Y 


“ere 


a, ¥ 
« i ** 
» : 


AVES—HAWK. A55 


Of the buzzard, kite, and falcon kind, above seventy different species, 
foreign and domestic, have been enumerated. Of all these the nature and 
properties are nearly the same, and the description we have given of the 
jer-faleon, 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. 


\ o 


THE AMERICAN SPARROW-HAWK! 


Is a constant resident in almost every part of the United States, particularly 
in 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 Be ky 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 thatit has not itself killed ; 
and even that, if not in good eating order, is sometimes rejected. A very 
respectable friend informs me, says Wilson, that one morning he observed 


1 Falco sparverius, Lin. 


% 


- hes ie 
e buy i“ we 
¥ tge™ 
- * 


* F 


456 AVES—HAWK. 


one of these hawks dart down on the ground, and seize a mouse, which he 
carried to a fence post; where, after examining it for some time, he left it; 
and a little while after pounced upon another mouse, which he instantly 
carried 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 islands, 
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 inice, 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 
eries. In return for this, as might naturally be expected, they fall frequent 
victims to his appetite. 


EE) BAC Ka AswWiket 


Is a native of North America alone. It is a remarkably shy and wary bird’ 
fornd most frequently along the marshy shores of large rivers; feeds on 
mice, frogs, and moles; sails much and sometimes at a great height; has 
been seen to kill a duck on the wing; sits by the side of the marshes on a 
stake for half an hour ata time, as if dozing; flies with great ease, and 
occasionally with great swiftness, seldom flapping his 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. 


7) 


F'. niger, Wi1son. 


oe ae oe 
AVES—HAWK. ADT 


THE PIGEON HAWK! 


PossEssEs great spirit and rapidity of flight. He is generally migratory in 
the middle and northern states, arriving in Pennsylvania early 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, grakles, and 
red-winged black birds congregate in large flights, he is often observed 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 HAW K? 


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 Indiana. 


1 FE’, columbarius, Lr. ot 2 F". furcatus, Lin. 


58 39 


“hy -. 


A58 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} 


Wuicn is 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 
from the sparrow-hawk, and, when he is 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 with repairing the old nest of a crow, 
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 should 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 
began 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—BUZZARD. 459 


returned when I called it to feed. After some time, when I judged that I 
could trust to its fidelity, [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 Belesme. I gave it up for lost; but four hours afterwards, I saw it 
rush into my hall, pursued by four or five other buzzards, which had con- 
strained it to seek again its asylum. After 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 snateh 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 ull they can provide for themselves. The 
eggs of this bird are whitish, spotted with yellow. 


TE Ee WhO ORS. B UZ ZAR Di) 


Tus bird is shone twenty-one inches in length, with a black bill, and 
yellow cere and eyes. The whole crown of the head is of a 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 


1. rufus, Lin. 


+ 


m , 


A460 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 
ae 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. 


a i 
BHE KITE! 


&« 
2 


Pon, ee 

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 
ye 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 sirayed too far from the mother, instantly, seizes the hour of 
4 calamity, 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 
nickens, and then on a sudden dart like lightning upon the unresisting 
Je animal, and carry it off, the hen 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. 


& 1 Falco milvus, Lan. ey’ 


* 


AS te} ” a o 
is ! 7 
AVES—FALCON...KITE. A61L 


} . 


THE ROUGH-LEGGED FALCO}S 


of the winter among our low swamps and meadows, Vv vatching for mi 
frogs, lame ducks, and other inglorious game. Twenty or thirty individua 
of this family 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 


Norwitustanpine its formidable size and appearance, spends the chief S Me. 


_ shy by any attempt made to shoot them, they seldom fly far, usually from 


v8 
e 


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 
numerous in the extensive meadows below Newark, New J ersey 5 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 appearance. The instant one of these is ae 
scried, the hawk, sliding into the air, sweeps over the spot, and in an instant 
has fie prey grappled and Sone in the air. 


. ¢ ‘ i 
%,: + ae 
i : 
THEY MLS Sis Sle PL kh T b 
% vi 
I First observed, says Wilson, a few miles below Natchez, where Tfound , 


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 a 
hawk 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 a! 
sth, oa 


ash color, with a white neck and head. Pm ar + 
¥' 
1’, lagopus, Lin. 2 F* phimbeus, Gun. ‘tip 
bs tg | 
sh. ail 


Sar = , “a o e 


1 ; * ie, , 
“462 AVES—HAWK...BUZZARD. 
aps. “THE MARSH HAWK! 


Ts, no doubt, the same species as the ring-tailed hawk of Europe. They are 
very common in New Jersey, where they are known by the name of mouse 
hawk. It is 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 
irees. It is found at Hudson’s Bay. Itis particularly serviceable to the 
rice 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 several negroes for alarming the 
rice birds. — 


~ 


THE RED-TAILED HAWK, OR BUZZARD? 


Innasits 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 
val individuals of this hawk spend the greater part of the winter. Others prow! 

out the plantations, looking for vagrant chickens; their method of seizing 
which, is by sweeping swiftly over the spot; and en, grappling them with 
their talons, they beat them away to the woods. 


% 


5 al , Dine AM ERT COwsN: BUZZ AR Ds 


ReseEMBLEs 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 situations 
ins the winter. One, which was shot on the wing, lived several weeks, 
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 ; ae some time, he became quite familiar, permitting himself to 
BP handle and shutting his eyes as if quite passive. Though he lived so 
long without food, he was found on dissection to be exceedingly fat. 


~ 


» 
1 FY. cyaneus, Lin. 2 F’. borealis, GMEL. 3 FE’. buteoides, Nutra... 


* 


4 “4. oad 4 * 
* “ae df, 
AVES—OWL. * 463 


THE EUROPEAN HORNED OWL, OR 
. EAGLE OWL 


= £ 


—— 
ean 


* 


Ar first view appears as large as an eagle, though when he comes t 
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, 
marked on the back with black and yellow spots, and yellow only upon th 
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 
distinguished 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 


= me, 

1 Strix bubo, Lis. The genvs Strix has the bill bent from its origin; base surrounded — 
by a cere, covered wholly or in part by stiff 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 beft d one behind, separate, the exterior reversible; the first 
wing feathers dentated on tele exterior border, the third the longest. 


a 


oh 


a % . Fa iy. 
ai 


464 AVES—OWL. \ 


powerfully upon the sensibility of the 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 
a 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 seen to prowl along the hedges by day, 
like the sparrow-hawk ; and sometimes with good success. The note of the 

is not unpleasant. “A friend,” says Mr White, “remarks that most 
a 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 


a and A flat. He heard two hooting to each other, the one in A flat, and the 
z ther in B flat.” ” 
+ ’ + 
~” = | 
te we. {Ns G1 AMERICAN HORNED OWL. 


_ THE great horned owl is found in almost every quarter of the United — 
» States. “His favorite residence, however, is in the dark solitudes of deep 
swamps, covered with a growth of gigantic timber; and here, as soon as 
evening draws on, 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 
tif sialids, this ghostly watchman has frequently warned me of the approach of 
aa morning, and amused me by his singular exclamations; sometimes sweep- 
ing down and around my fire, uttering a sudden Waugh O! Waugh O! 
ev iicient to have alarmed a whole garrison. He has other nocturnal solos, 
no less melodious, one of which very strikingly resembles the half suppress- 


+ 1 Strix Virginiana, W1ison. “ie 


a 


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 Europe,) 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, mice, partridges, and small birds of va ‘ious 
kinds. It has been often known to prowl about a farmhouse, and carry 
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 
leaves anda few feathers. The female lays four white eggs, nearly as large 
as those ofa hen. 


. 


* 


ECE, S.NOay Vv. OW tA 
wi 


Is a native of the most northern regions of both continents, passing so 
ward in the old as far as the latitude of Astracan, and in the new to that of 


; ; a 
FS 1 Strix nyctea, Lin. 


59 


- 


ry 


a 


~~ 466 AVES—OWL. 


Pennsylvania, or more rarely even to the borders of Florida. It is very 
‘seldom, however, met with in Europe to the south of Sweden; while in 
America it appears to be 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 
. + 


42 


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 
on an island in Boston 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 
beautiful owl, enable him to fly with much more swiftness, and to remain 
suspended in the ir for a much greater length of time, than any other bird 
of the family. Tt flies abroad also in the daytime, as well as in the twilight, 
and 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 
fellow 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, 


‘ 
é 


: 


Petes 


AVES—OWL. 467 


before the sportsman can get within reach of it. , “‘ They are,” he adds, (80 
great a hindrance to those employed in the ee service, that the Brie 
premium 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 medetHeuistai le. Their voice is so dismal, that, as Pen- 
nant observes, it adds horror even to a Greenland winter. 


THE MWMHET EO Rap ARN. O:W Lt 

THoucH so common in Europe, is much rarer in the United sides 
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, monasteries, and cathedrals, 
that every where rise to view in those countries, are the chosen haunts af 
this well known species. Its savage cries at night give, with vulgar minds, 
a cast of supernatural horror to those venerable mouldering piles of anti- 
quity. This species being common to both continents, doubtless extends to 
the arctic regions. 


They feed eagerly upon the meadow mouse, which is ae in Poe mea- — 


dows below Philadelphia, and on the marshes a ‘een 
favorite prey of this owl is the bat. 


1 Strix flammea, Lin. 


& # 
ae 


* 


7 
ca 
<2 
~ 
x 
. 


468 AVES—OWL. 


THE HAWK: OWL! 


* 
Ts 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 bold and active species, following 
the fowler and carrying off his game as soon as shot. It is said to prey on 
partridges and birds, and is very common in Hudson’s Bay. It is rare in 

nit the southern parts of the United States. Its favorite range seems to be 
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 secure their prey. In the hawk owl, which flies 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? 


ic 


! 


i 

Ts well known 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- 


light nights they answer each other from various parts of the fields or 
orchards; roost during the day in thick evergreens, such as cedar, pine, or 


ta + 


1 Strix funerea, GMEL. 2S. asio, Lin. 


. 


iy 


Te as 


” AVES—OWL. 469 


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 to fear that either the glass, or the owl’s 
skull must give way. Ina few days, however, it either 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 all 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 and 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. 


a THE Lire HOw tL. 


Is one of the least of its whole genus, but, like many other little folks, makes 
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 much 
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, lulled by the roar of the neighboring ocean. 


e 


4 


é 
. 


1S. passerina, WILson. 


Bm 


q 


AQ 


% 3 


ie 


sak 


id 


‘is ] 


ATO, AVES—OWL. * 


THe BURROWING OWL! 


DirrEers essentially from all others in his habits and manners. Instead of 
hiding his head in the daylight, he fearlessly flies abroad in search of prey, 
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 
y all enjoy the pleasures of fellowship and good harmony. The mounds 
prairie dog or marmot, which are thrown up in such numbers near 
ocky Mountains, are about eighteen inches in height. The entrance 
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 be 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 tocome at them. In countries where the marmot 
is 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 cheh, cheh, pronounced in rapid succession. 

The burrowing owl is nine inches and a half long. The general color of 
the plumage is a light burnt umber, spotted with whitish. The under parts 
are white, banded with brown. 


All this tribe of animals, however 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 afier 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 atleast 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 continue 
in solitude and silence. The cavern of a rock, the darkest part of a hollow 
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 they are obliged to take shelter in the first tree or hedge 
that offers, there to continue concealed all day, till the returning darkness 


1 Strix cunicularia, Bon ap. 


. * AVES—OWL. A71 


once more supplies them with a better plan of the country. But it too often 
happens, that, with all their precaution to conceal themselves, they are spied 
out by 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 


urbulence round him, flap him with their wings, and are ready to show thi 
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 oan 


replies 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 ae 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 ave 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, wil! then fly from him with as much terror as 
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 rim he 
sails slowly along, flying low, which is his usual manner. The kite, either 
curious to observe this odd kind of animal, or perhaps inquisitive to see 
whether it may not be proper for food, flies after, and comes nearer and 
nearer. In this manner he continues to hover, and sometimes to descend, 
till the falconer, setting a strong winged hawk against him, seizes him for 


_ the purpose of training his young ones at home. 


472 1) AV Be“ ORNBILL. . ' 
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 some ruined castle. Its. nest is 
near three feet in diameter, and composed of sticks, 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 
; ii 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 owl may do in 
the woods, the barn owl makes a sufficient recompense for, by being equally 
" active in destroying mice nearer home; so that a single owl is said to be 
more serviceable than half a dozen cats in ridding the barn of its domestic 
vermin. ‘In the year 1580,” says 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.” 


he 


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. 


, PME HOR N Bate! 


Tue rhinoceros hornbill, or rhinoceros bird, is nearly as large as the 
turkey ; the bill is ten inches long, and two and a half thick at the base. 
On the ypper 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 


bit 
x Biles rhinoceros, Lin. The genus Buceros has the bill convex, curved, sharp- 
edged, of large dimensions, serrated at the margin, with a horny protuberance near the base 
of the upper mandible rising into a crest; nostrils behind the hase of the bill covered by a 
membrane; legs short, muscular; lateral toes equal, the external one united tothe second 
joint ; the first three wing feathers graduated, the fourth or fifth longest. 


‘ ie 
u 


‘ \ AVES -HORNERUEU CRAVEN. A73 


upon Garrion. It is said to chase rats and mice, and, after pressing them 
flat with its bill in a peculiar manner, toss them up in the air, and swallow 
them whole on their descent. 


THE HE DM ET oH ORIN Bill tt 


Is remarkable for having the same prominence of a conical form ; and in 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. 


» 


DHE. PIED BORN BEL L,, OR CALAO OF MALABAR. 


THE 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 


_ body is, like the rest of these animals, black. 


There are about twelve species of the hornbill in all, one of which is white. 


1H Beh a EN, 2 


Tue 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 
countries with indiflerence. . 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. He may be trained 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; 
but the most extraordinary of all is, that he can be taught to sing like a man. 
I have heard (says a modern writer) a raven sing the black joke with great 
distinctness, truth, and humor. 

Indeed, when the raven is taken asa domestic, he has many qualities 
that render him extremely amusing. Busy, inquisitive, and impudent, he 


1 Buceros galeatus, LATHAM. 


2 Corvus corax, Lin. The genus Corvus has the bill straight at its origin, thick, co’ 
ressed on the sides, bent towards the point, and edged; nostrils covered by reflec 
Pristly feathers ; legs and feet plaited ; toes three before and one behind, divided ; tarsus 
longer than the middle toe ; wings acuminated, the fourth feather longest. 


60 bid A0* 


\ 


+ 


474 | AVES—RAVEN. 


goes every where, afironts 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 net 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, and, if 
not watched, will carry to his favorite hole. 


In his wild state, the raven is an active and greedy plunderer. Nothing 
comes amiss to him. If in his flights he perceives no hope of carrion, (and 
his 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 fe ie 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” 
tailor, who took much delight in the visits of his new acquaintamce. He 


ce Se 
* ‘@ 


a 
PEATE Wey 


wy 


. 


* 


° 


%, 
AVES—CROW. A75 


tanght 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 all the honors of a magnificent interment. 

Birds in general live longer than quadrupeds ; and the raven is said to be 
one of the most long lived of the number. Some of them have been 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 
is strong, and very thick at the base; it measures somewhat more than two 
inches and a 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 
common crow seldom makes his appearance. 


THE CARRION CROW.11 


— Es 


Tus bird is about eighteen inches in length; its breadth above two feet. 
Crows are more numerous than ravens, and as widely spread. They live 
mostly in woods, chiefly in pairs, and build their nests on trees: the 
female lays five or six eggs much like those of a raven.. They remain in 
England all the year. They feed on putrid flesh of all sorts; likewise on 
eggs, worms, insects, and various sorts of grain. Even pigeons, Bi 
chickens, and young ducks are not safe from their attacks. The crow isa 


« 


1 Corvus corone, Lin. 


Ys ge 
ie : 


A476 AVES—ROOK. 


M 


bold bird; neither the kite, buzzard nor raven can approach its nest without 
being driven away; and when it has young, it will even fall upon the 
peregrine falcon, and bring it to the ground by a single stroke of the bill. 

It is a very common bird in the United States, and is more familiar in its 
habits in this country than in Eure 


ThE ER OOK! 


Is about the size of the carrion crow, and, excepting its more glossy plu- 
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 
ihrusting its bill into the earth in search of worms: but as the same appear- 
ance has been observed in such as have been brought up tame and unaccus- 
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 recom- 
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 peaveng driven away by the old inhabitants, their half-built nests torn 
in pieces, and the unfortunate couple forced to begin their rite ine 


1 Corvus frugilegus, Lin. . ““ 
6S b) 


" ts ‘ges 


t. 


AVES—JACKDAW. AUT 


some more undisturbed situation. But Hovis neighbors, the males are 
good husbands, as they begin to feed the hens before the latter commence 
laying, and continue to do so through tl ole 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 manis 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. Pt 


THE JACKDAW.! 


Tuts bird is considerably less than the rook, being only thirteen inches in 
length. The head is large, 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 above; 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 rsmall 
pieces of money or toys. They feed on insects, grain, fruit, and small pieces 
of flesh, cals said to be fond of partridges’ eggs. They have also been 


a a catch fish. 


sd 1 Corvus monedula, Lr. 
® 


478 AVES—MAGPIE. 


There is a variety of this bird in Switzerland, which has a white collar 
und its neck; and in Norway and other cold countries, they have been 
found perfectly white. They are not found in America. 


Is about eighteen inches in length. The head, neck, and breast are of a 
deep black, finely contrasting with the snowy whiteness of the under parts ; 
the 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- 

¢ sha ; 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 codeine cal 

ts beauty, few birds could be put in competition. Its black, its ~ 

white, its green, and purple, hee ae and gilded combination of the 


i * 


1 Cervus pica, Li. 


by the magpie, so it is reasonably feared that they will take the 


AVES-MAGPIE. .' A79 


glosses 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 ei 
ciate these natural perfections: vain, restless, loud, and quarrelsome, it isan 
unwelcome intruder ev ery 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 shor tening 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 amiss 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 appetl and 
vociferation. ‘i 

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 nestis 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 "~ upon 
for the purpose. When the place i is thus chosen as inaccessible as sible 
to men, the next care is to fence the nest above, so as to defend it all 

various enemies of the air. The kite, the crow, and the spa ow-hawk, 

e to be guarded against: as their nests have been sometim 


unity to retaliate. To prevent this, the mag pie’s nest is built with surpris- 


ing labor and ingenuity. 4 d 


a 


480 AW BS_dWy. “ie 


x ‘The body of the nest is composed of hawthorn branches; the thorns 
al sticking outward, but well united together by their mutual insertions. 
in, 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- 
erin such a manner, as to deny all entrance except at the door, which is 
just large enough to permit egress and regress to 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 
ls 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 strict 
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 bird 
than any other taken into keeping. Those who are desirous of teaching it 
to speak, have a foolish custom of cutting its tongue, which only puts the 
poor animal to pain, without improving its speech in the smallest degree. 
Its speaking is sometimes very distinct; but its sounds are too thin and 
sharp to be an exact imitation of the human voice, which the hoarse raven 
and parrot can counterfeit more exactly. 


"THE EUR OPREAM TAY! 


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 the 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 sees ash 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. 


ods ai m 
: 


AVES—JAY. ASI 


work in the house. Another had learned, when catile approached, to set a 
cur dog on them, by whistling and calling him by name. The poor jay, . 
however, at last paid dearly for his mischievous tricks. Having set his 
quadruped associate upon a cow which was big with calf, the cow was much 
hurt, he was complained of as a nuisance, and his owner was obliged to 
destroy him. 


LHE AMERICAN BLUE JAY. 


am 


Tus elegant bird is peculiar to North America, and is distinguished as a 
kind of beau among the feathered tenants of our woods by the brilliancy of 
his dress; and, like most other coxcombs, makes himself still more conspicu- 
ous by his Joquacity and the oddness of his tonesand gestures. He 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 disappoivtment 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 in a band, some of his notes 


1 Corvus cristatus, Lux. 


61 4l 


A482 AVES—JAY. 


bearing no distant resemblance to the tones of that instrument. These he 
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 orchards, 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 the owl. 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 attack 
him from all sides, raising such a shout as may be heard half a mile off; 
the owl meanwhile returning every compliment with a broad gogeling 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 him 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 thing 
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 number 
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. 482 


This bird is eleven inches in length: his head is ornamented with a crest 
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 bre ast. 
The under parts are white. The tail is long, and light blue, tipped with 
black. 


. 


CrAy N As Di As idl Yoek 


Tus 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 northward as the weather becomes mild. The character 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 long, 
loose, and in great abundance. 


Mi 
* 
STELLER’S: IA Vv? 


Tus elegant bird is more than twelve inches long. The head, neck, and 
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, GMEL. 


484 AVES—JAY...NUTCRACKER. 


FLORID Av dy) AY, 


we 
Tuis bird is eleven inches and a 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 
couniry, 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. 


PEE (CvO', OME Bares SAW 22 


Tuars 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 color is 
bright blue, with purple reflections. The fore neck and anterior part 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 into a 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 golden 
streak upon the crown of the head. 


THE NUDCRACKMER?S 


Is 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, AUDUBON. 2 Corvus Bullockit, AuDuBon. 


3 Nucifraga Caryocatactes, Lin. This is the only individual of the genus; it is charac- 
terized by a bill 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, 
concealed by hairs directed forward; three toes before and one behind; tarsus longer 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 brown, marked with triangular white spots. They are very 
plenty in Germany, and are rarely seen in England. , 


#h 


THE RED-LEGGED CROW, OR CORNISH CHOUGH;! 


Is like a jackdaw, but larger, and almost the size ofa crow. The feet and 
legs 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 churches, 
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 fire. 
By tearing holes in the straw with its long bill, it does much injury to 
thatched houses. 


THE) BO fae he 


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 brown; the 
tail is forked, and of a light blue; the legs are remarkably short. Itisa 
bird of passage, common in Germany, but it seldom visits England. 


1 Pyrrhocorax graculus, Temm. The genus Pyrrhocoraz has the bill of medium size, 
slender, compressed, bent, slightly notched 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, Lis. The genus Coracias has the bill compressed, higher than 
broad, straight; the upper mandible bent towards the point ; nostrils linear, lateral; legs 
short, stout, and formed for walking ; three toes before and one behind, entirely divided ; 
wings long, with the first quill somewhat shorter than the second. 

41* 


we 


486 AVES—ORIOLE. 


The Chinese, the Cayenne, and the Abyssinian rollers, are all distinguished 
by the brilliancy of their plumage, but differ little in any material respect 
from the preceding. i 


THE ORIOLE. 


Or the oriole there appears to be only one species known in Europe; that 
is by some termed the Golden Oriole.t 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 brilliant color, 
and its preferring the apple trees, weeping willows, walnut, and tulip trees 


1 Oriolus galbula, Lis. The genus Oriotus has a bill in the form of a lengthened cone, 
horizontally compressed at the base, and edged; the upper mandible surmounted hy a 
ridge notched at the point; nostrils basal, lateral, naked, and horizontally pierced ina 
large membrane; tarsus shorter than, or of the same length as the middle toe, which is 
joined to the exterior one ; wings with the first quill very short, the third the longest. 


2 Oriolus Baltimore, Wi.son. 


AVES—ORIOLE. 487 


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, &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 round 
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 a 
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 solicitous 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 playfulness 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 tailis black and orange. The plumage of the female is 
lighter and dv’‘er than that of the male. These birds are several years in 
completing tueir plumage. 


%, 


488 AVES—CROW BLACKBIRD. 


-ORCHARD ORLOLE! 


Tuis bird has been described under a variety of names; as the spurious 
oriole, bastard oriole. It is a distinct species from the preceding, and differs 
from it in size, being less and more slender; in its colors, which are differ- 
ent; 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 a snake. 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. 


CROW BLACKBIRD. 


Tis 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 Indian 
corn. They build on tall cedar and pine trees in company ; sometimes ten 
or 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- 


x 
1 Oriolus mentatus, WiLson. vf 


2 Icterus versicolor, Aupuson. The genus Jcterus has the bill 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 or 
less bent inwards; nostrils basal, lateral, and covered by a hairy rudiment; tarsus as long 
as, or longer than the middle toe; wings long; third and fourth feathers longest. 


AVES—CROW BLACKBIRD. A89 


tions. As soon as.the blade of corn begins to make its appearance, the 
crow 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 
the 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 
require each inhabitant to kill a certain number of these birds yearly, a 
fine being imposed upon such as did not destroy and exhibit the requisite 
number. 

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 
a blackening and sweeping tempest; dig off the external covering of the 
leaves, 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 
half 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. 

These birds are called by the farmers crow blackbirds, and are universally 
dreaded 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 is more than an inch long, the upper mandible being very sharp. The 
female is of a sooty brown color. 


62 


* 


% y 
490 AVES—STARLING...BIRD OF PARADISE. 


ie Eis S.T ARE, .O Regs AB L ANG 2 
yw 

Tuere are few birds better known in Europe, than that under our consi- 
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 Bufion 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 they 
will eat grain, seeds, and fruit, and are said to be exceedingly fond of cher- 
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 pigeon 
houses, to suck the eggs, and it is certain that they do great damage in 
Lincolnshire, by roosting in myriads on the reeds, which are used for thatch- 
ing in that country, and which they break down by their weight. 


THE, BERD OF PA RACs i. 


Tuts bird has been more celebrated for the false and imaginary qualities 
which are attributed to it, than for its real and truly remarkable properties. 
It has been reported of it, that the egg is produced in the air by the female, 
and hatched by the male in an orifice of its body; that it never touches the 
ground; that it has no legs; that it hangs itself by the two long feathers 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 equally ridiculous. There are about eight different species of 


1 Sturnus vulgaris, Lin. The genus Sturnus has the bill straight, in the form of an 
elongated cone, depressed, slightly obtuse ; base of the upper mandible projecting on the 
forehead, the point much depressed, and without a notch; nostrils basal, lateral, half 
closed by an arched membrane ; wings long, the first quill very short, the second and third 
longest; three toes before, and one behind, the exterior joined at its base to the middle one, 


* 


“ os 
AVES—BIRD OF PARADISE. 491 . 


these birds ; but that 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 than 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 neck, are of a pale gold color. 
The base of the bill is surrounded by black feathers, as also the side of the 
head and throat, 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 Jonger 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 
part of the rump above the tail, and which are usually about two feet long. 


These are bearded only at the beginning and the end; the whole shaft, for 
about one foot nine inches, being of a deep black, 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- 
bers in that of Arou. The inhabitants are not insensible of the pleasure 
they afford, and give them the name of God’s birds, as being superior to all 
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 the wing in pur- 
suit of insects, their usual prey. 


1 Paradisea apoda, Lin. The genus Paradisea has the bill of medium size, straight 
alr Sear pointed, a little convex above, compressed: ridge between the feathers of 
the forehead ; nostrils hasal, marginal, open, but entirely concealed by the feathers; legs 
short; tarsus longer than the middle toe; lateral toe unequal, the internal one united to 
the second joint; hack toe longer than the others, robust; wings with the five first 
feathers staged ; the sixth or seventh longest. 


492 ' AVES—BIRD OF PARADISE. 


As the country where they are bred has its tempestuous season, when 
rains and thunders continually disturb the atmosphere, these birds are thea 
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 for a 
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 in a 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 


black. 


PoE MAGNIFICENT SIRS OF PARADES Ee 


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. A93 


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. nid 
Besides these, there is the gorget bird of paradise, and some other species 

of less note. ie 


A,” 


vi b 
Ry “bs pss ‘ 
sad “ . oh, 


ORDER III—INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 


Birps 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. ‘" 


TALE MESS bb Pn US! 


Is eleven inches in length, and weighing near five ounces. It differs 
searcely 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 garden which is his haunt. 


a 
1 Turdus viscivorus, Lin. The genus Turdus has the bill middle sized, sharp edged, 
tip compressed, and recurved; upper mandible notched. near the point; detached hairs © 
at the opening of the mandibles ; nostrils basal, ovoid, lateral, half concealed by a naked 
membrane; tarsus longer than the middle toe, to which last the outer is united at the base. 


42 


+ 


é 


* 
a 
A94 AVES—FIELDFARE. 
Rand: 18 THE FIELDFARE! 
¢ 


Is known by his yellowish bill, by the dark color of his legs, and by his 


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 birds 
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 
fearless, 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. 


1Turdus pilaris, Lin. 


as 
AVES—THRUSH. 


” 
TRE THOS TLE, OR LONG, THRUSH 
: sg * ; 

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 yel- 
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 same, the three outermost tipped with 
white; the legs are yellow; the claws black. Y 

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. ae 

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. 


Be 


PE THRASHER, OR BROWN THRUSH® 


Ir is 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, 
he salutes the opening morning with his charming song, which is loud, 
emphatical, and full of variety. At that serene hour, you may plainly 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 is strong 
and powerful. His food consists of worms, caterpillars, beetles, and berries. 


1 Turdus musicus, Lin. 2 Turdus rufus, Lin. 
P) ry 3 


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 familiar in 
confinement. 


¢ 


iw ° 


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, MOC KdgN G-BIR D.! 


 Tuis extraordinary bird is peculiar to the new world, inhabiting a consi- 
able 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, anda profusion of others, 
with which the luxuriant swampy thickets of those regions abound, furnish 


1 Turdus polyglottus, Lin. 


tes 


= 


" , ° " 
so 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 pear 
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 fibrous roots. During the time when the female 
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 
mortal enemy, the black snake. Whenever this reptile is discovered, the 
male darts upon it with the rapidity of an arrow, dexterously eluding its 


bite, and striking it violently and incessantly against the head, where it is e 
very vulnerable. The snake soon becomes sensible of hisdanger, andseeks 
. to escape; but the intrepid bird redoubles his exertions, and as the rakes tae 

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 


a 63 42% 


2 


is 


Ps 


: h 5 \ i 
ri. a 7 Ah 
* - A eg 
498 AVES—MOCKING-BIRD. ’ 


é 


voice, capable of almost every modulation, from the mellow tones of t 
wood thrush, to the savage screams of the bald eagle. In his native gre 
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 preeminent over every competitor. The ear can listen to his music 
alone. Nor isthe strain altogether imitative. His own native notes are 

ld and full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They consist of short 
expressions of two, three, or five and six syllables, generally interspersed 
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 suppose 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 runs 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, 
or 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, 
with astonishment, that the sole performer in this singular concert is the 
admirable bird before us. Both in his native and domesticated state, during 
the solemn stillness of night, as soon as the moon rises in silent majesty, he 
begias 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. 

he mocking-bird is nine and a half inches long. The upper parts of the 
head, neck, and back, are a dark brownish ash; the under parts are of a 
brownish white. His figure is well proportioned, and handsome. 


We 


#) 


THE WOB TN 


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 with fine grass. His» 
principal food is worms, berries, and caterpillars. 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, from woods, 
fields, and thickets, whitened with blossoms, and breathing fragrance. By 
the usual association of ideas, we therefore listen with more pleasure to this 
cheerful 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 . ye 
+ Turdus migratorius, Lin. 


, 


4 ' * 


500 |” AVES—-THRIUSH. 


a general sentiment of respect prevails on the discovery of a robin’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 Bay to Nootka 
Sound, and as far south as Georgia. They are too well known to require 
further description. 


7 


THE WOOD THR We 


Tuts sweet and solitary songster inhabits the whole of North Amevica, 
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 
moantled with wild vines. Near such a scene he generally builds his nest, 
in a laurel or alder bush, composed of dry leaves, grass, roots, and mud. 
Berries, beetles, and eine are his principal food. The wood thrush 
measures eight inches in length. The whole upper parts are of a bright 
fulvous color, brightening into reddish on the head; the throat and breast are 
white. 


1Turdus mustelinus, GMEL. 


» 


aoe © 


3 + 
4 . AVES—CAT-BIRD. + ie 501 
° 


THE CAT-BIRDI 


Tus is 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- 
quainted 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 you in the usual way. The nest is composed of dry 
leaves, weeds, small twigs, and fine dry grass, lined with fibrous reots. 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 eat-bird is one of our earliest songsters, beginning generally before 
break of day, and hovering from 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 all the odd sounds, and quaint 
passages he has been able to 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 is 
generally the object of dislike; and the boys of the United States entertain 


1 Turdus lividus, Witson. 


502 + AVES—THRUSH. 
rma 


great prejudice and contempt for this bird, its hest, and young. The princi- — 
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 does the 
farmer, for they are sometimes the most profitable of his early fruit. The 
ceat-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 advantage 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 seare-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 the cherry trees with guns; and thus 
coniuences 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 are 
deep red. The female differs little from the male. 


v my 


WATER THRUSH. 


Tus 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 solitudes of Louisiana, Tennessee, and the Mississippi terri- 
tory, possess them in abundance; there they are eminently distinguished 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 voice of this little bird is exquisitely sweet apd 
expressive. 


———n, 


1Turdus aquaticus, W1LsoN. 


er 


= By me 

* " 

he AVES—MENUBA...SHRIKE: 503 
a “sm 

THE SUPERB, MEN UR At 


Tuis singular bird is a native of New Holland. It is about the size of 
the hen-pheasant; its length is three feet and a half from the point of the 
beak to the longest tail feather; the general color is brown ; the tail consists 
of sixteen feathers, twelve of which are very curiously webbed. 


THE SHR ES OR BU T CHE R-b Pk Di 


Tue habits of the butcher-bird seem to correspond with its confor- 
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 obtain 
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. Jn 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 at a 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 it some- 
times happens that they fall to the ground with the bird they have so fiercely 


1 Menura superba. This is the only one of the genus. It is characterized by a bill 
at its base broader than deep, inion 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 in 
the middle of the bill; claws as long as the toes, broad, convex above, obtuse; wings 
short, concave. 


® Lanius eaxcubitor, Lix. The genus Lanius has the bill middle sized, robust, straight 
from its origin, and much compressed; upper mandible strongly bent towards the tip, 
which is hooked, the hase destitute of a cere, and furnished with rough hairs pointin 
forwards ; nostrils basal, lateral, almost round, half closed hy an arched membrane, an 
often partly concealed by hairs; tarsus longer than the middle toe; three toes before and 
one behind, separate; the third and fourth wing feathers longest. 


‘y® 


504 AVES—SHRIKE.@ 
re: ’ 
fixed upon, and the combat ends with the destruction of the assailant as well 


as of the defender. 


Por this reason, the most redoubtable birds of prey respect them; while 
the kite, the buzzard, and the crow, seem rather to fear than seek te en- 
gagement. Nothing in nature better displays the respect paid to the claims 
of courage, than to see this little bird, apparently so contemptible, fly in 
company with the Janner, the falcon, and all the tyrants of the air, without 
fearing their power or avoiding their resentment. 

As for small birds, they are his usual food. He seizes them by the throat, 


‘and strangles them in an instant. His name of nine-killer he derives from 


the popular belief that he catches small birds to the number of nine, and 
impales 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, as a butcher does a beast on a hook, 
that he may dissever it with more convenience to himself. 

During 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, inter- 
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. Their 
nature also is very different from other birds of prey in their parental care ; for, 
so far from driving out their young from the nest to shift for themselves, they 
keep them with care; and even when adult, they do not forsake them, but 
the whole brood live in one family together. Each family lives apart, and 
is generally composed of the male, female, and five or six young ones; these 
all maintain peace and subordination among each other, and hunt in concert. 
It is easy to distinguish these birds at a distance, not only from their going 
in companies, but also from their manner of flying, which is always up and 
down, seldom direct or sideways. 

Of a 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 called a flusher, is about the 
size of a lark, and has a large head. The back and upper side of his wings 
are of a rusty color; the throat and breast white, with red spots, and the 


head and rump cinereous. * “- 
ie. 


7 
1 Lanius collurio, GMEL. 


¥ 


* 


ae * a . ane 
e 


AM AVES suRixe. iB 505 
* ~ 

¥ The woodchat resembles the former, except in the color of the back, which 
is brown, and not red, as in the other. Ng 
= we 

; af } oy 
* 
be *® 


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. It is not yet decided whether it be the 
same as the cinereous shrike of Linneus; its habits and manners appear to 
be the same. 

This bird frequents the deepest forests ; builds a large, compact nest, of 
dry grass and moss, in the upright fork of a 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 a we 

‘erevices, where perhaps it is forgotten ; while the shrike sticks his on thorns 
and bushes, where it shrivels in the sun, and soon becomes useless to the 
hoarder. One of these birds had once the temerity to pursue a snow-bird 
into an open cage which stood in a garden; and, before 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 for the purpose. 2 

The character of the butcher-bird is entitled to no small degree of respélt ’ 
His activity is visible i all his motions; his courage and intrepidity beyond 
every other bird of his size, (the king-bird excepted,) and in affection for his 
young, he is surpassed by no other. He associates with them, the whole 
family hunting in company. He attacks the largest hawk or eagle in their 

* 64 43 


# 


$4 


_ 


506 AVES—FLYCATCHER. 


defence, with 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 our hedge-rows, 
orchards, and meadows, and disappears again early in April. 


THE SPOT TED ‘FLY CA iC oki. 


Tue tribes of flycatchers are so named from living on insects. The spotted 
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 color, 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 uses 
a little inward, wailing note, 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 ground, but returning still to the same stand, for many 
times together. 


THE PIED) Fb Ye AYO rar? 


ves 


Tuis bird is about five inches long. It has a black beak, hazel eyes, and 
white forehead; the top of the head, the back, tail, and legs, are black ; the 
rump is dashed with ash color; the wing-coverts are dusky, and the greater 
coverts are tipped with white; the exterior sides of the secondary quills are 
white, as are also the outer feathers of the tail, and all the under parts, from 
the bill to the tail. The female is much smaller than the male, but has a 


1 Muscicapa grisola, Lrx. The genus Muscicapa has a bill strong, angular, depressed 
at the base, compressed towards the point, which is curved and much notched ; base fur- 
nished with long and stiff hairs ; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, partly covered by hairs ; 
tarsus as long as the middle toe; lateral toes almost equal. 


2 Muscicapa albicollis, Tem. 


" , e »® ' wy 
AVES—FLYCATCHER. ~ 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 FLYCATCHER,! 


Sometimes called the field marten, is a well known bird in the United 
States. The name king, as well as tyrant, has been bestowed on this bird for 
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 scene of broils and battles; in which, however, he generally comes 
off conqueror. Hawks and crows, the bald eagle, and the great black eagle, 
all equally dread a rencontre with this merciless champion, who, as soon as 
he perceives one of these last approachiag, launches into the air to meet 
1 Muscicapa tyrannus, BonaP. 
* ‘ 
- 
. ‘ ¥ 


an 
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 ; all the while keep- 
ing up a shrill and rapid twittering. The purple marten, however, is some- 
times more than a match for him; and the red-headed wood-pecker is seen 
to amuse himself with the violence of the king-bird, and play bo-peep 
with him round a rail, while the latter, highly irrifated, makes every attempt 
to strike him, but in 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 larvae, which 
prey on the harvests of his fields. He often takes his stand in fields of 
pasture, on the tops of 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 concealed. 


* DLE GRE A T-CR ES DE Di gh vue AT CH ERA 
# 

Ts not so well known as the preceding, being chiefly confined to the woods. 

There, his harsh squeak, (for he has no song,) is heard above most others. 

He also visits the orchard, is equally fond of bees, but wants the courage 

and magnanimity of the king-bird. He builds his nest in a hollow tree 

deserted by the blue-bird or woodpecker. The oaterials of which this is 


1 Muscicapa crinita, Lin. 


AVES—FLYCATCHER. 509 


formed, are somewhat scantier. It is formed of a little loose hay, feathers 
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, to & 
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 crest; the throat 
and breast ash color; the rest of the lower parts a sulphur yellow. 


EE) SER Wel Do WoC RANT Cine 


Is 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 under a bridge, ina 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 and 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. 


> 


TE Ss SPA EA BS LEG ae err ve AOR mR? 


Ir 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 above 
is of a light bluish gray; below, bluish white; the wings brownish black. 
Its 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 ¢see, ¢see, 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 th 
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. 


1 Muscicapa phebe, Latu. 2 Muscicapa cerulea, Wi1LsoN. 


43* 


a CL sail 


7 


510 + AVES—FLYCATCHER. § © | - 


THE RED-EYED FLY@ATCHERI). 


Is the most 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 bars, 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 yellow 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-THEREOATED FLYCATCHER? 


Is 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 
songster but these two is silent. Its nest is built on a tree, and composed 
of 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. 


“me 1 Muscicapa olivacea, Lin. 2 Muscicapa sylvicola, Wiison. 


“fee 


¥ 


= - 


_AVES—FLYCATCHER...REDSTART. 511 


THE WHITE-EYED FLYCATCHER! 


Is 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 varicty 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 figure 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 of 
bits of rotten wood, fibres of weeds, and pieces of paper, commonly news- 
papers. From this circumstance it is sometimes called the Politicran. 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, except 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 turning 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. 


{ 


TIE AIWE WECAN: REDS PAR Ts 


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 per- 
pendicular, but zigzag direction, to the ground, while the clicking of its ill 
is distinctly heard; and | deubt not but it often secures te. or tweive ef 
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 th 

branches ; at other times this twitter varies to several other chants, which we 


‘4 ~ VMuseicapa cantatriz, Witson. 2 Muscicapa forficata, GMEL. 
é' 3 Muscicapa ruticilla, Lin. 


% x 


512 AVES—FLYCATCHER...NIGHTINGALE. 


can instantly distinguish in the woods. It is sure to be seen in the interior 
of 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. _- ; j ps 

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} 


Visits England in the beginning of April, and leaves it in September. It is 
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 almost 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, Lara. The genus Sylvia has the bill straight, slender, awl-shaped, 
the base deeper than broad ; pote 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 base to the middle one; first quill 
feather very short, or none ; second scarcely exceeding the third ; great wing-coverts much 
shorter than the guill feathers. 


AVES—BLACK-CAP. 513 


brown, tinged with olive; the under parts are of a pale ash color, almost 
white 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 rightly describes the nightin- 
gale, sitting nightly in the same place. In a calm evening, he may be heard 
to the distance of more than half a mile. : 

In the beginning of May, the nightingale prepares to make its nest, which 
is formed of the leaves of trees, straw, and moss. The nest, being 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 
hearing, cheers the patient hour with his voice, and, by the short interruption 
of his song, often gives her warning of approaching danger. She lays four 
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 hedges, 
where only it is most pleasing, still more depreciates its imprisoned efforts. 
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 titmouse 
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 which 
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 
to brown; the claws black. The head of the female is of a dull rust color. 


1 Sylvia atricapilla, LATH. 
65 


514 AVES—REDBREAST. 


The black-cap visits England about the middle of April, and retires in 
September; it is common in Italy, but in England it is rather a rare bird. 
It frequents gardens, and its nest, which it builds near the ground, is com- 
posed 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 turns; he likewise procures her fuod, such as flies, worms and insects. 
This bird sings sweetly, and so like the nightingale, that in Norfolk it is 
ealled the mock-nightingale. Black-caps feed chiefly on flies and insects, and 
not unfrequently on ivy, and other berries. 


THE RE DBR EAST. 


‘Toucu the redbreast is generally admired for his song, he is still more ad- 
mired for his attachment to, and confidence in, mankind. In all countries, 
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 still to continue in the woods, it becomes the 
companion 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 most 
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 slender and delicate; its 
eyes are large, dark, and expressive, and its aspect mild; its head and all the 
upper 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, in England, has the sweetest song of all the feathered tribe: 
the notes of other birds are, indeed, louder, and their inflections more ca- 
pricious ; but the redbreast’s voice is soft, tender, and well supported; and 
the more to be valued, as we enjoy it the greatest part of the winter. 


1 Sylvia rubecola, LATH. 


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 the 
ground. In winter it endeavors to support itself, by chirping round the 
warm habitations of mankind, and by coming into those shelters where the 
rigor of the season is artificially expelled, and where insects are found in the 
greatest numbers, 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 one 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. 


TALE) BeBe DiS TAs Rik I 


7 


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, rump, and 
sides are of a fine glowing red, inclining to orange color, which extends to 
all the feathers of the tail, excepting the two middle ones, which are brown; 
the belly is white; the feet and claws are black. The female differs 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 of moss, lined with hair and 
feathers. It 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 


? Sylvia phenicurus, LatH. 


516 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 female 
lays four er 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 
swell 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 
‘hearty welcome from every body. He appears as early as February, and is 
seen with his mate reconnoitering the leaf in the garden, and the hole 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, by 
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 
fall 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 Britain, and like him he is known to 
almost every child. He is of a mild and peaceful disposition, seldom quar- 
relling with other birds. His society is courted in the country, and few 
farmers neglect to provide for him, in some suitable* place, a snug little 
summer-house, ready fitted and rent free. For this he more than sufficiently 
repays them by the cheerfulness of his song and the multitude of injurious 
insects which he destroys. Towards fall, 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 
over 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 
the devastation of winter, 

The blue-bird is six inches and three quarters long; the wings are remar- 


1 Sylvia sialis, Witson. 


a 


'AVES—WARBLER. 517 


kably full and broad, and dusky black at the tips; the whole upper parts 
are rich sky-blue, with purple reflections; under parts chesnut color and 
white. 

M8 


THE BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER! 


Visits us from the south; haunts thickets and shrubberies, searching the 
branches for insects ; is fond of visiting gardens, orchards, and willow trees, 
of gleaning among 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? 


Is a very common bird, and appears almost always actively employed 
among the leaves and blossoms of the willows, snowballs and poplars, — 
searching after small 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- 
ticeable. Its nest is built with great neatness in the fork of a small 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 lame- 
ness to draw you from its nest, fluttering feebly along, and looking back 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 and 
sides streaked with dark red. 


THE GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER? 


Is another spring passenger through the United States. Its habits partake 
very much of those of the titmouse, and in their language and actions 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 ash 
or slate color. 


1 Sylvia solitaria, Witson. 3 2 Sylvia cestiva, Latu. 
3 Sylvia chrysoptera, Latn. 
44 
* 


ahi 


a 


€ 


515 ‘ AVES—WREN. 


THE GOLDEN CRESTED WREN1 


Tuts is the smallest of all British birds, is very beautiful, and has an 
extremely delicate and pleasing note, somewhat less 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 constantly 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 of 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 
back, 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. 


THEVEUR OP LAN WR EN 


Turs lilliputian 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 to 
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 mellowness of song. Jt 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; if against a tree, it at the outset 


} Regulus auricapillus, Sersy. The genus Regulus has the bill straight, slender, 
deeper than broad, compressed, the edges bending inwards; nostrils basal, with bristles 
directed forwards; wings with the first quill short, the second shorter than the third, 
which is the longest ; tarsus longer than the middle toe. 


2 Troglodytes Europeus, Cuv. The genus T'roglodytes has the bill slender, and 
lightly compressed, curved, emanginated ; nostrils basal, half covered by a naked mem- 
brane; wings short and rounded ; fourth and fifth feathers of equal length and longest ; 
tail short, rounded, erect; tarsus the length of the middle toe. 


AVES—WREN. 519 


traces 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 fabric is 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, 
sometimes under the eaves, or in a hollow cherry tree; but most commonly 
in small 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 coat, 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 filled with some rubbish as he expressed it, 
and on extracting the whole mass, found it to 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, many 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. Ihave 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 relinquishes the 
contest ; with those of his own species, also, he has frequent squabbles. 

‘The house wren inhabits the whole of the United States. It is four 
inches and a half long; the whole upper parts are a deep brown; the 
throat, breast, and cheeks, clay color; the under parts mottled. 


1 Troglodytes fulvus, Bonar. 


520 AVES—WRENw.WHEAT-EAR. 


2) ee MA BS Ey wR EN? 


Is very numerous along the tide-water of the rivers in Pennsylvania, where 
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- 
thing the appearance of the house wren. It is five inches long, and of a 
dark brown color. 


THE GREAT CAROLINA WREN? 


Wout 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 in another 
quarter. 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 timber, 
old roots, projecting banks of creeks, &c. It is five inches and a quarter 
long, and of a reddish brown color. 


THE WHEAT-EAR. 


Tuts bird weighs upwards of an ounce, and has a slender black bill, about 
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 extends 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 rump is 


1 Troglodytes palustris, BoNAP. 2 Troglodytes ludovicianus, Bone. 

3 Sazicola enanthe, Becust. The genus Savicola has the bill straight, slender, slightly 
earinated, and advancing upon the forehead; the top of the under mandible a little bent 
and emarginated ; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, partly concealed by a membrane; tarsus 
considerably longer than the middle toe; the outer toe joined at its base to the middle 
one; third and fourth quill feathers the longest. 


AVES-WHBAT-EAR. 52t 


generally white, from whence, by some, it has the name of white-tail; the 
belly 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 something more than 
two inches long, 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 than that of the male; and the general colors are more 
dull. . 

The wheat-ear visits England annually in the middle of March, and leaves 
in 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 into the 
traps. These traps are first set every year on St. James’s day, (July 25;) 
soon after which, they are caught in astonishing numbers, considering that 
they are not gregarious, and that more than two or three are scarcely 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 inaday. The birds caught 
are chiefly young ones, and they are invariably found in the greatest number 
when an easterly wind prevails ; as they always come against the wind. 

It is supposed, that the immense swarnis 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 ortolan is on the con- 
tinent. A few of these birds breed in the old rabbit-burrows there. The 
nest is large, and made of dry grass, rabbit’s down, a few feathers, and horse- 
hair. The eggs are from six to eight, and are of a light color. 


66  AAx 


522 AVES—WAGTAIL. 
THE WHITE WAGTATIL: s 


Tus is an elegant, slender-bodied bird, and, next to the robin and the 
sparrow, is the most familiar with man. It weighs about six drachms, and 
is about seven inches 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. It 
has a slender, straight, sharp bill, of a black or dusky color, upwards of an 
inch long; the circles of the eyes are brown, or hazle colored, with a large 
white spot encircling each 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 ae 

wagtail; the outer feathers are chiefly white, the rest black. This motion 
is supposed to be intended to make the tail act as a kind of lever or counter- 
poise, to balance the body on the legs. The claws are sharp pointed, and 
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 mornings, 
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 circum- 
stance the French call them Javandiéres. They build under the eaves of 
houses, and in holes in the walls of old buildings ; laying four or five eggs. 


cy > 

1 Motacilla alba, Lrx. The genus Motaciila has the bill slender, straight, subulate, 
angular between the nostrils ; edges of the lower mandible compressed ; nostrils basal, 
lateral, oval, partly concealed by a naked membrane; tarsus considerably longer than 
the middle toe ; exterior toe joined to the middle one at the base; hind claws strong and 
sometimes long ; ; tail very long, equal, horizontal; one of the larger coverts as long as the 
wing feathers. 


f 


Be ‘ 


AVES—SKYLARK. 523 


ORDER IV.—GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 


Brrps of this order have the bill more or less conical, short, and strong; 
ridge more or less flattened, advancing upon the forehead; mandibles 
generally without notches; three toes before and one behind, the anterior 
ones entirely divided; wings of medium length. { 


aE SC Va 


Is 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. Its song is begun early in the spring, and continued during the 
greater part of summer. Itrises perpendicularly ina spiral flight, singing as 
it rises, till it frequently soars beyond 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, in 
color somewhat like those of a plover. It is 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 his eye, nor once 
loses sight of the nest, either while he ascends or is descending. This 


1 Alauda arvensis, Lin. The genus Alauda has the bill subconic, short, with the 
mandibles of equal length, and the upper one slightly convex; nostrils basal, lateral, 
partly concealed by reflected feathers ; claw of the hind toe much produced, and nearly 
Straight; wings with the first quill short or wanting, the third the longest; ronal feath- 
ers generally produced. ; 

% 


~~ 


§24 AVES—TITMOUSE. 


harmony continues several months, beginning early in the spring, on pairing. 
In winter they assemble in flocks, when their song forsakes them, and the 
bird-catchers destroy them in great numbers, for the tables of the luxurious. 

The common food of the young larks is worms and insects; but after they 
are grown up they live chiefly on seeds, herbage, and most other vegetable 
substances. 

a are many other larks found in Europe, the most noted of which, 
next to the skylark, is the woodlark, which surpasses the skylark in rich- 


ness, though not in variety of song. 


THE: BEARDED .TIDTMOUS Et 


Isyabout 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 cheeks 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 of a 
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 middle 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 in 
the owners of gardens, under the idea that they are destroying the buds, 
while, in fact, they are engaged in the beneficial operation of seeking for the 
caterpillars that infest them. They are very prolific, laying from fourteen 
to twenty eggs ata time. If the 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 bill short, straight, strong, conical, com- 
Ui aeg terminating in a point, base with small hairs; nostrils basal, rounded, concealed 

Vy projecting feathers ; legs stout; toes divided to their origin, nail of the hind one 
strongest and most bent; wing feathers the first of medium length, 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 dunghills 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 most exquisite art, and with materials of the utmost delicacy ; such 
as moss, hair, and the web of spiders, with which the whole is ptronelygaed 

together. 


BLACK-CAPT. TITMOUSE..! 


Tuts 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 weathers 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 
extremities of the branches, examining about the roots of the leaves, buds, 
and crevices 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 blows against the skull. 
The crested titmouse is also an inhabitant of the United States, but is 
more common in the northern parts. 


1 Parus bicolor, Lin. 


"7 


a 4 ‘ 


t 4 
526 AVES—YELLOW-HAMMER...ORTOLAN...BOB-O-LINK. 
é 


; 


ry 


THE EUROPEAN YELLOW-HAMMER} 


Ir 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, aie 
unlike that of the linnet. 


THE ORTOLAN2 ? 


Is somewhat less 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. 


‘ny 


* THE BOB-O-LINK, OR RICE BUN BING,3 


CatLtep also reed fird in some of the southern states, and butter bird in 
Jamaica. He is seven anda half inches long. This is one of the most 
common birds inthe 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 flesh 
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, 


1 Emberiza citrinella, Lrx. The genus E’mberiza, or Bunting, has the bill 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 covered by the feath- 
ers of the forehead; toes divided, the posterior with a short and bent claw; tail forked 
or slightly rounded, 


ri *# Emberiza hortulana, Li. 3 Emberiza oryzivora, WILSON. 


we j ' 


; 


* a 
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 Schuyl|kill in immense numbers, to 
feed upon the reeds or wild oats. Atthis time they are extremely fat. Their 
note is a single chink, and is heard overhead with little intercession from 
morning to night. These are halcyon days for our gunners, and many a 


5 


att 


* 


Jame 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 
a running fire. The markets of Philadelphia at this season exhibit proofs of 
the prodigious havoc made among the birds. In the fall, they swarm in the 
rice fields, and devour great quantities of that grain. ’ 


THE COW-BUNTING.! 


Tue cow-bunting has a most remarkable character, which is the unae- 
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 
family 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 fine one from the nest of the Maryland yellow throat, where it was 

° 


v 


fostered with great care. 


1 Emberiza pecoris, WiLson. 


fr. 


f cs 


Be 


(y 


Bak) 
Arie 
4 ‘! 

; 


v 
ee, 


» 
oF 


528 AVES—COW-BUNTING. 


The migrations of these birds extend very far north. On their. 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 fodder, &c. Hence they are called cow-birds, 


7 cowpen 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 ayralson! I took frem the nest of a Maryland 
yellow throat, 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 s soon became clamorous for food, and 
from that moment the red-bird seemed to adopt it as his own, feeding it with 
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 small 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 spent 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 a 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 
wkey-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 Beacon dls violet ; the rest of the birdi is 
black, glossed with green. 


tee. 


“ 


: % 
a * m — t 
4 ‘ ’ gs 
AVES—BUNTING...GROUND: ROBIN. 529 
D2 * s , ¥ 
¥ THE PAINTED BUNTING 


Is found in Lower Louisiana, where it is universally known among the =» 
French inhabitants, and called by them “ Le Rapei,” and by the Americans 
the Nonpareil. Its gay ‘dress and do ility of manners have procured it many 
admirers ;, for these ‘qualities are highly attractive, and always carry their 
own Focoranceiancen along with them. The low countries of the southern 
states, in the vicinity of the sea and along the borders of our large rivers, 
particularly 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 
a 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 Peenuied to the cage. In good. 
weather, the males sung with great sprightliness. They were greedily ‘ond 
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 peoples” 
attempting to catch flies, they assembled at the front of the cage, stretching 
out their heads widen tly 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 roots. 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 wit green and sometimes with red; wings eat edged with green. 
It is seven inches and three fourths long. The female is of a green olive; | 
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 oecasionally during the whole summer. In the fall they retire to 
the south. " ‘ 


* 4 
P Se ¥ 


7 


. THE TOWHEE-BUNTING, OR GROUND ROBIN.! 


~  Tuus bird is also called chewink and swamp robin. It generally keeps elose 


to the ground, and frequents thickets and sheltered spots, scratching among, 
t 


1 Emberiza erythrophthalma, Witson. ae ee 
67 y * 45 Te ” ie 


fod 


A 


F ae States. The nest is 


a 


ft 


or a -* 


; “he. ee ee . * ae 
* x , ? : 
; @ * wy ¢ 5 
530 of AVES—TANAGER. 
ae , 


the ves for worms and larve. It is quite a familiar bird, and will suffer 


a person to walk round the bush or thicket, wh e it is at work, without 
betraying any signs of alarm, and when disturbed, Wittering the notes tow-he, 
repeatedly. At times, the male mounts a small tree, and chants his few 
simple notes for an hour at a time. They are loud, but not unmusical. He 
is fond of thickets near streams of water, and is found generally over the 

Weed on the ground am ong the dry leaves, and 
s large and substantial. He shows great affection for 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 bemg sometimes white, 
and often red. east 

There are various others of the bunting genus, natives of the United 
States, as the white-crowned bunting, the bay-winged bunting, the black- 


(are throated bunting, Henslow’s bunting. 
» ee 
ps * Pr af) ¥ e: 
oe - THE SCARLET TANAGER!} 
ish 


* 4 


¥ 


‘ 
* ys 


Ts one of the most beautiful of American birds, having a plumage of ®. 
richest scarlet, with wings of jet black. Heis spread over the United States, 
and is found even in Canada, and South America. He rarely approaches 


1Tanagra rubra, Lix. The genus Tanagra has the bill short, strong, triangular at 
the base, carinated, much compressed at the point, which is bent; upper mandible longer 
than the under, and notched; edges of the ae 3 bent inwards; under mandible 


straight, and somewhat gibbous toward the middle ; nostrils basal, lateral, rounded, partly 


concealed by projecting feathers; tarsus the length of the middle toe; the external toe 
joined at its base; the internal free; wings with the second and third quills longest. 


~~. +, 
& 


*": 


® 


U bd . 
+ * he oe fs ” 
i ied 531 : 
, * 
the habitations of ess perhaps to the orchard, where he sometimes — 


builds; Or 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, © al 
his simple, and ‘almost monotonous notes of chip, churr, repeated at intervals 

in a pensive tone, may be occasionally 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 usual note, he has, at times,a 


wasps, hornets, and humble bees, and also of fruit. 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 tenia He commits no depreda- ~~ 
tions on the property of the husbandman; 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 susten 
which the severity of the season denies to his industry in this. He 
striking ornament to our rural scenery, and none of the meanest of ourr 
songsters. Such being the true traits of his character, we shall always _ 
with pleasure welcome this beautiful stranger to our a ‘al 
forests. ait ™ 
When you approach the nest, the male ees cautiously at a distaste: as 
if fearful of being seen; while the female hovers round in the greatest 
agitation and distress. When the young leave the nest, the male parent . 
takes a most active part in feeding and attending them, and is then altogether 
indifferent of concealment. — * 


‘more musical chant. His food consists of large ae insects, such as 


| i Swat ag 


‘ * 
s s 


ba ¥ 
a THE SUMMER eee P 


E changes of ¢ fot which this bird is subject to, during first year, 
h e deceived Eurc ean naturalists so much, that a different species of 
tanager have been formed out of this one. The female differs much in color 
from the male. The food of this bird consists of various kinds of bugs, and 
large black beetles. During the season of whortleberries they seem to live 
almost entirely upon them. In Pennsylvania they are rare, but in New 
Jersey they may be generally found. The note of the male is a strong and 
sonorous whistle, resembling a loose trill or shake on the notes of a fife, 


* ‘ *. 
; Tanagyra estiva, WILSON. 


, : «% mm " 


> 
= 2 
> 


ae 


‘ a 


a 


ew 
532 AVES -CROSSBILL. 


frequently repeated; that of the female is rather a kind of chattering, 
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 ries 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 inters) ersed 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 
north 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 seeds of the hemlock and white pine; have a 
loud, sharp, and not unmusical note; chatter as they fly; alight during the 
ence of the deep snows before Ae door of the hunter, and around the 
picking off the clay with which the logs are plastered, and searching 


house, 


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 to 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. 

| a bird has hitherto been considered a mere variety of the European 
i es, but it differs in several respects. I have therefore separated it from 
the grosbeaks. It is subject to many changes of color. The male is five 
inches and three fourths long. The general color of thes ‘plumage, wh 
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 curvirostra, Lix. The genus Lovia has the bill rather long, strong, much com- 
pressed, the two mandibles equally convex, and crossing each other at the points when at 
rest; nostrils round, basal, and lateral, concealed by reflected bristly feathers; the anterior 
toes ‘entirely divided; wings with the first quill feathers longest; tail forked. 


a 
% ra 
> ei : 
il . u » 4 " , & # 
wi  » 1 
- om es ~ a 


ee 


? 


-s 
AVES—GROSBEAK. 533 


ba | 


a ” 


THE CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 


Tne cardinal grosbeak is one of our most common cage birds, and is very 
generally known both in America and Europe. Numbers of these have 
been carried over to France and England, in which last country they are 
called 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 me 


and gaudy plumage, his vivacity, strength of voice, and the little expen 
with which he is kept, will always make him a fayorite. 

This species inhabits America from New England to Carthagena. In the 
southern 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 red-bird, Virginia nightingale, and crested red-bird. 


1 Loxia cardinalis, Lin. 


45* 


=> 


Re 


534 AVES—BULFINCH...LINNET. 


The others of this genus in the United States are the pine grosbeak, the 
blue grosbeak, the rose-breasted grosbeak, the evening grosbeak, and the 
spotted grosbeak. 


THE BULFINC HA 


Is 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 inches, 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 from 
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 brown 


© 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 buds 
of ees. It is probable, however, that it attacks the buds for the sake of 
the included insects. . 

The cock is in size equal to the hen, but has a flatter crown, and excels 
her in the beauty of his colors. Ina 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. 
“ ‘ ‘ 


PA] 
THE\EVROPEAN VEIN NET? 


Tuts favorite bird, which is universally admired for the melody of its 
voice, is in length, from the point of the bill to the end of the tail, five 


1 Loxia vulgaris, Lin. 


2 Fringilla cannabina, Lix. The genus Fringilla has the bill short, stout, straight, 
and conical; upper mandible gibbous, depressed above, a little inclined at the point; 
nostrils basal, round, placed near the forehead, and partially concealed by the feathers in 
front; tarsus shorter than the middle toe, and the fore toes entirely divided; wings short, 
the third and fourth quills the longest; tail of varied form. 


AVES—CANARY FINCH. 535 


inches and a half; the bill is a bluish gray; the eyes are hazel; the upper’ 
parts of the head, neck, and back, are of a dark reddish a the edges 
of the feathers pale; the under parts are of a dirty reddish white; the breast 
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 
curious fine note of his own, little inferior to the most celebrated birds, and 
may be 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 to 
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 bird, for the white in the wing of the hen is much less, fainter, and 
narrower. In spring, too, as we have already mentioned, the breast of the 


cock is crimson “oe 
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 lays four, 
and sometimes five, white eggs, with fine red specks, especially at the 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 derive 


their name. F 


OE B.C AN AGE. Vice. IN, C.H.2 


Tuis well known bird came originally from the Canary Islands, where 
they are still 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, and so different from those usually seen in Europe, that some 


1 Fringilla Canaria, Lin. 


536 AVES={LINNET. 


have even doubted whether it be of the same species. With us, they have 
that variety of coloring usual in all domestic fowls ; some white, some mot- 
tled, 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 
intermission, 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 on 
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 from 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 ies 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 into a 
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 quietly, and without alarm, till it was discharged. 


THE AMERICAN LINNET, -OR PURPLE 
FPINC HA 


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 female 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 to 
us in large flocks from the north, and feed on-the seeds of poplar, button- 
‘wood, juniper, and cedar trees. When the season is very severe, they pro- 
ceed to the south as far as Georgia. In the spring they feed on apple and 
cherry 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. 


a» 


= 


“— 


ye i. 


AVES—SPARROW. 537 
. 


of this bird 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 been more than a few days old. The same author informs us that 
they frequently associate with the common crossbills. 


THE SONG SPARROW.! 
‘i 

Tue 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 singin 
in spring. Its seng continues through the summer and fall, and is s 
heard even in the depths of winter. The notes or chant are short bu 
sweet, and frequently repeated, from a small bush or tree, where it sits chant- 
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 
formed of dry grass and horse-hair. It sometimes also builds in a cedar 
tree, five or six feet from the ground. It is six inches and a half long, and 
is of a,chesnut color, marked and streaked with dirty white; the breast is 
spotted with pointed spots of chesnut. ' 


DHE CHP PING SPAR ROW? 


a 


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 up crumbs 
from the yard and door. This sociable habit, which continues chiefly during 
summer, is a singular characteristic. Towards the end of the summer, he 
takes to the fields and hedges, until 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. 


1 Fringilla melodia, Witson. 2 Fringilla socialis, W1Lson. 
5) (=) 


68 . 


i Me Sie 


538 AVES—SPARROW...GOLDFINCH. 
~ 


THE FIELD SPARROW! 


Is the smallest of all our sparrows, and frequents dry fields covered with 
long grass, builds a small nest on the ground at the foot of a bush, and lines 
it with horse-hair. It has no song, but a kind of chirruping not much diffe- 
rent from the chirpings of a cricket. There are multitudes of these little 
birds in North and South Carolina and Georgia. When disturbed, they take 
to the bushes, clustering so close together that a dozen may be shotat a time. 
This bird is five inches and a quarter in length ; the upper parts are chesnut 


Me adblack. 


THE INDIGO BIRD2 


Is 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 extremely 
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 at a time. Its 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 usual note 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. Its 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 blue, deepening in color toward 
the head, and sometimes varying to green. 


THE YELLOW-BIRD, OR GOLDFINCH? 


BEARS a great resemblance to the canary, and in song is like the goldfinch 
of Britain, but it is in general so weak as to appear to proceed from a dis- 


1 Fringilla pusilla, W1Lson. ? Fringilla cyanea, W1Lso0n. 
3 Fringilla tristis, Lin. 


" : 


PES. le re 539 


, , 


“4 
tance, when perhaps the Dird is perched on a tree over your head. I have 
however heard them sing in cages with great animation and energy. In the 
spring, they associate in flocks, to bask anddress themselves in the morning 
sun, singing in concert for half an hour together ; the confused mingling of 
their notes forming a kind of harmony not at all unpleasant. Their flight 
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 num- 
bers, in quest of seeds, and pass by various names, such as lettuce-bird, 
sallad-bird, thistle-bird, yellow-bird, &c. They are very easily tamed. 

The yellow-bird is four inches and a half in length: the male is of a rich 
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 of an apple tree, neatly formed of 
lichen and soft downy substances. 

The other individuals of the finch or sparrow tribe, which inkl the 
United States, are too numerous for us here to particularize. 


* 


THE EUROPEAN GOLDFINCH! 


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 obedient, 
it may be taught a variety of entertaining tricks. When confined, it delights 

_ to view itself in a mirror. From its fondness for thistle seeds, it is some- 
times called the thistlefinch. The female builds an admirably constructed 
and warm nest, generally in fruit trees, and lays five eggs. 


ORDER V.—ZYGODAGCTY LOUS) BIRDS. 


Birps of this order have the bill of various forms, more or less curved, or 
much hooked, and often straight and angular; feet always with two toes 
before, and two behind, and the exterior hind toe frequently reversible. 


THE HONEY GUIDE2 


” 
Tuts remarkable bird is a native of Southern Africa, and has the faculty 
of pointing out to man, and to the quadruped called ratel, the nests of the 


1 Fringilla carduelis, Lin. 

2 Indicator major. The genus Indicator has the bill short, depressed, dilated on the 
sides, a little bent and notched at the point; ridge distinct; nasa furrow large ; nostrils 
basal, a little tubular; tarsus shorter than the external toe ; the anterior toes united at the 
first joint ; wings with the third feather the longest. 


. ¥ , 

540 AVESSCUCKOO. 

wild bees. It is exceedingly fond of honey and of the bee maggots, and its 
services are generally rewarded by leaving it a small 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 white’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 
colonists. Somebody then generally repairs to the place whence the sound 
proceeds; when the bird, continually repeating its ery 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 the nest. When the bird 
has sometimes, through its impatience, got too far ahead of its followers, 
but particularly when, frem 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 deneted still greater impatience, as though reproaching 
them for being so 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 most 
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 EVROPEAN CUCKOO. 


Tuis singular bird is about fourteen inches in length, shaped somewhat 
like a magpie, and distinguished from all other birds by its round pro- 
minent nestrils. The head, neck, back, and wing-coverts 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 
black, with white tips; the others dusky, and marked with alternate spots 
of white on each side of the shaft. The legs are of a yellow color, and the 


4 Cuculus canorus, Lin. The genus Cuculus has the bill as long as the head, com- 

de pressed, and slightly curved ; nostrils basal, pierced in the margin of the mandible, and 

- surrounded by a naked and prominent membrane; legs feathered below the knee; fore 

‘toes united at the base ; hind toes divided, the exterior reversible ; tail long, more or less 
graduated ; the third quill feather the longest. J 


git 


* 
AVES—CUCKOO. 5A1 


claws white. The plumage of the young birds is chiefly brown, mixed with 
a ferruginous hue and black. Having disappeared all the autumn and win- 
ter, it discovers itself in our country, early in the spring, by its well known 
call. Its note is heard earlier or later, as the season seems to be more or 
less forward, 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 
of 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 
her own. To supply this voracious creature, the credulous nurse toils with 
unusual labor, no way sensible that she is feeding up an enemy to her race, 
and 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 
itself, 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 


Lo 


te 


* 


BRN 


+ ® - * 


542 AVES=CUCKOO. 


‘ea. 

back, with a considerable depression in the middle; which shape it loses as 
soon as it has no longer any use for it. When the hedge-sparrow has set 
her usual 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, eam out of the nest. The young bird generally con= 
tinues three weeks in e nest before it flies; and the foster parent-feed 
more than five weeks after this period. 

All the little birds of the grove seem to consider the young cue 
enemy, and revenge the cause of their kind by their repeated insults. 1 
pursue it whenever it flies, and oblige it to take shelter in the thickest branches 
of some neighboring tree. All the smaller birds form the train of its pur- 
suers ; but the wryneck, in particular, is found the most active in th Se ; 
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 euckoo’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 suppose 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 introduces the 
following story, which he delivers upon the credit of another :—‘‘ The ser- 
vants of a gentleman in the 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 stove, 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 drew the willow logs from the furnace, and in the 
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 
but feathers; afterwards they got hold of a living animal; and this was the 
cuckoo tha a, so very opportunely for its own safety. “It was, 
indeed,” continues our historian, ‘“ brisk and lively, but wholly naked and 
bare of feathers, and without any winter provision in itshole. This cuckoo 
the boys kept two years afterwards, alive in the stove; but whether it re- 
paid them with a second song, the author of the tale has not thought fit to 
yom us.” . 

The most probable opinion on this subject is, that as quails and wood- 
cocks shift their habitation in winter, so also does the cuckoo; but to what 


‘ . | : ’ é " ** * 
: ; % 
' nes ce 
AVES—CUCKOO.4TOUCAN. 543 


+ 
country it retires, or whether it has been ever seen on its journey, are ques- 
tions that we are wholly incapable of resolvin 
Of this bird there are many kinds in various parts of the world, not only 
differing in their colors but their. size. Latham make no less than forty 
species. There isa large spotted cuckoo in the south of Spain; and at the 
Cape of Good Hope there is a black-crested mS the common and 
a cuckoo have been seen in Europe. ia 
oo ° 


> ’ Pp 


wey ® THE AMERICAN CUCKOOT® 


Teysometimes called the cow-bird, from its note; and it is also called in 
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, kowe, kowe, 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. ot 

This bird is thirteen inches long; the Heber parts are drab, or quaker 
color, with greenish reflections. The under parts are pure white. The bill 
is yellow, and the legs and feet light blue. 


THE TOUCAN. at * 
« ' t ¥* 

Or this extraordinary bird there are about fifteen species. Ve shall only 
describe 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, WiLson. * 


2 Ramphastos toco, Laru. The genus Ramphastos has the bill cellular, thin, trap 
rent, broader 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 ; the external toe; the two anterior toes united at the 


second joint ; tail short. 


: ae 
as be 


544 AVES—TOUCAN. 


the angles of the mouth to its point, is six inchesand a half; and its breadth 
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 bill 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 


oft 


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 is a 
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 
dexterity before they fall to the ground. 


AVES—PARROT. 5A5 


These birds when in flocks, on retiring to rest, generally appoint one to 
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 articulat- 
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 bird 
better secures its young from external injury. It has not only birds, men, 
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; and if the mon- 
key venture to offer a visit of curiosity, the toucan gives him such a welcome 
that he is soon 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. 


LEE \P AR ROT! 


Tuis 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 


1The genus Psittacus, which includes parrots, maccaws, cockatoos, &c., has the bill 
short, thick, gibbous, very strong, convex above and below, much bent and hooked at the 
point ; lower mandible short, obtuse ; base of the bill within a cere; head large, nostrils 
orbicular, pierced in the cere, open; legs short, robust; tarsus shorter than the external 
toe ; the interior toes united at their base ; tail of varied form. 


69 46* 


® 


\ 


sl TS | ry te as a, Te an ac 


546 AVES—PARROT. + 


a strong horny membrane.” In addition to the talent of speech, the parrot 
is 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. In 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 upper 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 scarcely 
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 the 
season. 

he 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 generally 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 sufii- 
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 pigeon, 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 means, 
rode il 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 widen 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 to 
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 
it up, in the sa anner as ruminating animals. 


A 


AVES—PARROT. 5AT 


} ; 
_CAROLINA PARROT.! 


Tuts is the only species found native within the territory of the United 
States. The vast luxuriant tracts lying within the torrid zone, seem tobe 
the favorite residence of those noisy, numerous, and richly plumaged tribes. 
The Carolina parrot inhabits the interior of Louisiana, and the shores of the 
Mississippi, and Ohio, east of the Alleghanies. It is seldom 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 salines or licks, so interspersed 
over the western country. Here, too, is a great abundance of their favorite 
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 


a 


1 Psittacus Carolinensis, Lx. 


- 


“ 


/ 

548 © AVES—COCKATOO. a 
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 svesta. 
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 
rich orange red. The general color of the rest of the plumage is a bright 
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 
cannot 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 mumber along the Mississippi, that 
existed there fifteen years ago. 7a 


THE COCK ATO oO! 


is distinguished from the parrot, by its head being adorned with a crest of 
long feathers, which is capable of being erected and lowered at will, and 
gives the bird a strikingly fine appearance. It is a native of the Molucca 
islands, and other parts of the East Indies, where it is frequently known to 
build on the tops of houses. Like the rest of the parrot kind, it is capable 
of uttering sea phrases and sentences, with equal propriety of tone and 
volubility. It derives its name from its frequent repetition 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, 
indeed, it feels a particular pleasure, even when a captive. Vegetable sub- 


1 Psittacus cristatus, Lx. 


~~ 
v 


$ : : 


? 


*, 


AVES—MACCAW. 549 


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 MAC GAW? 


Tur maccaws are characterized by their very broad and powerful beaks ; 
the nakedness of the face, sometimes quite bare, at other times partially 
covered with lines of short and scattered feathers; and. the tail, which sur- 
passes the body in length, is regularly graduated and terminates in an acute 
apex. All of them are natives of America, inhabit the tropical regions, and 
are remarkable for their vivid coloring. They subsist on fruits and seeds. 
Of the latter, they prefer such as have a hard and shelly covering, and from 
these they extract the contents very ges) fully. 


THE;/BLUE MACCAW * 


+ / (ii 
4 
Innasits Brazil. It is entirely of a deep and brilliant blue BP isn 
black back, legs, and claws. Round each of the eyes is a naked circle of 
bright yellow, and the cere is of the same hue. A specimen in the 
Tower, measurestwo 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. 
cs 
1 Psittacus macao, Lin. 


e | 


® 


4 


‘ti 


550 AVES—PARROQUET...WOODPECKER. 


THe PARROQUET. 


Tuts 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. 

“gh The parroquet tribe in Brazil are most beautiful in their plumage, and the 
most talkative birds in nature. 


THE WOODPECKER. 


Birps 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 cecum; a cir- 
curmstance 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 appearance; and agreeing only in the marks above-mentioned, or 

\ in those habits which result from so peculiar a conformation. All these 
species feed upon insects, and particularly on those which are found in 

* decaying 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 
Pe 


1 The genus Picus, which embraces the family of woodpeckers, has the bill long or 

medium size, straight, angular, wedge-shaped at the tip; nostrils basal, open, covered by 

7 setaceous feathers; tongue round, vermiform; legs strong; two toes before and two be- 
hind, rarely one behind; anterior toes joined at their base, the posterior divided ; tail of 

twelve feathers, the lateral very short. ¥ mm 


AVES—W OCODPECKER. 551 


sends forth a loud ery, upon which the whole insect tribe are thrown into 
confusion, and run hither and thither seeking for safety; while the invader 
luxuriously feasts upon them at leisure, darting in its long tongue, and 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 fortune 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; how- 
ever, the bird, watching the properest opportunity, withdraws its tongue at 
a jerk, and devours the devourers. This stratagem 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 
is 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 as a 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 lumage under the 


— 


throat, which adds to their beauty. ‘ 


THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER! 


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 bers and fondness for 
hovering along the fences, so very notorious, that almost every child is ac- 
quainted with the red-headed woodpecker. Towards the mount par- 
ticularly in the vicinity of creeks and rivers, these birds are extremely 
abundant, especially in the latter part of the summer. Wherever you travel 


a 1 Picus erythrocephalus, Lr. 


552 AVES—WOODPECKER. 


in 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. #., 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 them 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 flavored. 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 feeding 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 
fond 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 
seen diving and vociferating round the high dead limbs of some tree, pur- 
suing and playing with each other, amusing the passenger with their gam- 
pols. Their note or ery 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. 

Though this bird occasionally regales himself on fruit, yet his natural 


AVES—WOODPECKER. 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 
larvee, the latter of which are well known to make immense havoc. In fact, 
insects form at least two thirds of his subsistence. He searches for them 
with a dexterity and intelligence, I may safely say, more than human; he 
perceives by the exterior surface of the bark where they lurk below ; when 
he 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 scon reaches them. The 
masses of bugs, caterpillars, and other larve 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 silent ravages of 
these destructive vermin. It must therefore be allowed, that the services of 
this useful bird more fhan compensate for his petty thefts en apple and cherry 
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 glides 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, coils himself up in the spot they occupied, where he will 
sometimes remain several days; and often terrifies the eager schoolboy, 
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 sear- 
let; the back, wing-coverts, and tail, black; the lower part of the back, and 
whole under paris are white. 


Laken OoR Y-BiIL LE pew OO PECK E R* } 


In strength and magnitude, stands at the head of the whole class of wood- 
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 admira- 
bly adapted for his mode of life. His manners have also a dignity in them 


1 Picus principalis, Li. 


70 4? 


‘ 


e 


-s ’ ‘ v 
lp F we. 
554A AVES—WOODPECKER. 


superior to the common herd of woodpeckers. The royal hunter before 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 swaraps, whose crowded 
giant sons stretch their bare and blasted, or moss-hung arms midway to the 
skies. In these almost impenetrable recesses, amid ruinous piles of de- 
caying timber, his trumpet-like note and loud strokes resound through 
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 the 
whole morning. But examine the tree closely 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 nést in a cypress tree. It is called by the natives the large 
Logcock. 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, glossed with green ; fore 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 consistence of ivory, prodigiously strong, and elegantly fluted. 


THE PILEATED WOODPECKER! 


Is the next in size, and may be styled the great northern chief, though his 
range extends from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, over the whole range of 
the United States. In Pennsylvania and the northern states he is called 
the black woodcock ; in the southern states, the lesser logcock. 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- 


1 Picus pileatus, Lin. 


¥ 
. a e “ 
AVES—WOODPECKER! _ 885 


fore wet weather, making the woods echo to his outery. Almost every 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 after he has received his mortal wound ; nor 
yielding up his hold but with his expiring ae He can rarely be recon- 
ciled to confinement. 

This bird is not migratory, but bears the extremes of both the .arctic and 
torrid regions. Neither is he gregarious, for it is 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. It inhabits the continent from Cayenne to Virginia. They 
are common in Kentucky and Ohio, and 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, small 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 
smooth solid wood 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. 


PEAR AIR VY “WOODPEC KE 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 woods 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 with his 
bill, and scraping them out with his feet. They sometimes breed in an 


1 Picus varius, Witson, 2 Picus villosus, Li. 
. 


Vi Ne a 


556 AVES—WOODPECKER. ‘> 
f ” 

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 cry is strong, shrill, and tremulous; 
they have also a single note or chuck, which they often repeat in an eager 
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 
nine inches long; the hind head is searlet mixed with black ; under the bill 
are long hairs thrown forwards and upwards. The back is black, 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 
cover the nostril appears to be designed as a protection to the front of the 
head, when the bird is engaged in digging holes in the wood. In flight these 
birds sink and rise alternately, uttering a loud tremulous scream as they set 
off and alight. They are hard to kill. 


THE DOWN Yi W,0.0'D.P EC KE Rt 


Ts the smallest of all, and exactly resembles the former in tints and mark- 
ings, and in almost every thing but its diminutive size. Its principal 
characteristics are diligence, familiarity, and a strength and energy in the 
head and neck, which are truly 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, 
till 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 I 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 ery, quickly reiterated. Of all our woodpeckers, none rid the apple- 
trees of so many vermin as this; digging off the moss, and probing every 
crevice. His industry is unequalled, and almost incessant. 


THE RED-BELLIED WOODPECKE R? 


PosstssEs all the restless and noisy habits of its tribe. It is more shy than 
the red-headed one. It is also more solitary. It prefers the largest, high- 
timbered woods and tallest decayed timbers of the forest; 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 


1 Picus pubescens, Lin. » 2Picus Carolinus, Lin. 


a A 
% 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 little 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 trees 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 and female working together. 

This bird is ten inches in length. The upper part of the head, neck, and 
back 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 inhabits a 
large extent of country. 


THE GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER! 


Is well known to our farmers and junior sportsmen, who take every oppor- 
tunity of destroying him; the former, for the supposed trespasses he commits 
on their 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 is in general esteem. Early in April these elegant birds begin to 
prepare their nests, which is built in the hollow body or 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- 
lowing the tree for several days, and may even be heard late in the evening, 


1 Picus auratus, Lin. 


47* ‘se 


t 


ie : " 
558 . AVES—NUTHATCH. 


thumping 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 fond of corn, 
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 
inner 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.—ANISODACTYILII. 


Birps of this order have the bill more or less arched, often straight, always 
subulate 2nd 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. 


LHE:NU THA TCH?! 


WEIcHs 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 upper 
part of the plumage is of a fine bluish gray; a black stroke runs from the 
mouth to the eye. The cheeks are white, and the breast and belly of a dull 
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 


1 Sitta Europea, Lin. The genus Sifta has the bill straight, cylindrical, slightly com- 
pressed, tip acuminated, nostrils basal, rounded, partly concealed by reflected bristles ; 
tongue short, horny ; three toes before, the exterior joined at its base to the middle one; 
hind toe very long, with a long hooked claw; tail composed of twelve feathers. 


: | “ffi 


AVES—NUTHATCH. e 559 


of 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?2 


Tue 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 search 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. 


1 Sitta Carolinensis, W ctson. ; 


“¢ 


560 AVES—CREEPER...HUMMING-BIRD. 


THE CREEPER 


Is the smallest of European birds, if we except the crested wren, and weighs 
only five drachms. The bill is hooked like a sickle. The upper part of the 
body is variegated with brown and black, and the breast and belly are of 
a silver white. This bird is- very common 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 
make use of for their feathered garments. 


THE HUMMING-BIRD2 


Or this charming little animal there are not less than sixty species, from 
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 bill, 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 buta 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 
little bill. 


“1 Certhia familiaris, Lix. The genus Certhia has the bill long, or of medium length, 
more or less curved, triangular, compressed, slender; nostrils basal, naked, pierced hori- 
zontally, and half closed by a membrane ; three toes before, the outer united at its base to 
the intermediate one ; claws much hooked, that on the hind toe longest; tail graduated 
with stiff peinted shafts; fourth quill feather longest. 


2The genus T'rochilus which embraces the hamming-bird, has the bill long, straight, or 
arcuated, tubular, very slender, base depressed, acuminated ; upper mandible almost con- 
eealing the lower; tongue long, extensible, bifid, and tubular; nostrils open before, 
covered by a broad membrane; legs very short; tarsus shorter than the middle toe; the 
three anterior toes 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. The bill 
is black, straight, econ and of the length of three lines anda half. © 

There are almost all colar of these beautiful animals, crimson, green, 
emerald, white breasted, and spotted. Some of them eer and some 
without crests. The eyes cf most of them are very small, and as black 
as jet. m 

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 flower, and extracts its nectared tribute. Upon 
this alone they subsist. The rapid motion of their wings brings out a hum- 
ming sound, whence they have their name. " 

The nesis of these birds are not less curious than the rest; they are sus-_ 
pended i in the air, at the point of the twigs of an orange, a pomegranate, or 
a citron tree; sometimes, even in houses, if they find a small and convenient 
twig for the purpose. The female is the architect, while the male goes in 
quest of materials, such as cotton, fine moss, and the fibres of vegetables. 
The nest is about the size of a hen’s egg cut in two. They lay two eggs 
at 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- 
tinues twelye days; at the end of which, the young ones appear, and are 
much about the size of a bluebottle fly. 

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 wi NES y0 
they have a little interrupted chirrup ; but Labat asserts, that they havea 
most pleasing melancholy melody in their voices, though small and propor- 
tioned to the ergans which produce it. It is very probable that, in different 
places, their notes are also different; and as there are some that continue 
torpid all the winter, there may likewise be some with agreeable voices, 
though the 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 fights 
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. 


iis! 


2 


¥ 


tn 
’ 


562 AVES—HUMMING-BIRD. 


THE HUMMING-BIRD OF THE UNITED STATES.! 
. I 


Tuts little bird is remarkable for its beauty, minuteness, want of song, 
and manner of feeding. There are upwards of seventy species in America 
and the gdjacent 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. 
It is wonderful how such a little creature can make its way over such ex- 
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 pro- 
tectors. e 

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 
w inches of your head. His only note is a single chirp, not louder than 
t of a cricket or grasshopper. 
‘he humming-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 like a 
mist; the glossy golden 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 sub- 
sist entirely on the honey which it extracts from flowers. But they are 
known to feed on insects, being seen for half an hour at a time, darting at 
little groups of insects with the dexterity of the flycatcher. 

The humming-bird is three inches anda half in length, and of a rich 
golden green color, while the feathers round his throat are black, crimson, 
and orange, mingled together, giving him a very brilliant appearance. 


— 


ae 


“ 1 Trochilus colubris, Lin. 


AVES—HOOPOE. 563 


THE HOOPOE.! 


Or this bird there are only two species known to Europeans, one of which 
is, however, diffused 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 crossec 


with black and white, the rump white, and the tail white, marked wit “ 


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. 
* 

Brrps of this order have the bill middle sized or long, pointed, almost 
quadrangular, and either slightly arched or straight; tarsus very short; 
three toes before, united, and one behind. These birds fly with great celerity. 
Their movements are quick and abrupt, and they neither walk nor climb. 
They seize their food on the wing, and often from 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, Lix. The genus Upupa has the bill very long, slightly arched, slender, 
triangular, compressed ; nostrils hasal, lateral, ovoid, open, and surmounted with feathers 
in front ; three toes before, the exterior united to the middle one to the first Joint; one be- 
hind ; tail square, of ten feathers. 


- > 4 


ile. 


/ 


564 AVES—BEE-EATER...EUROPEAN KINGFISHER. 


‘ 


THE BEE-EATER! 


Is 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? 


a 

Tuts kingfisher is not much larger than a swallow; its shape is compact; 
the legs, however, are disproportionably small, and the bil! disproportionably 
long; it is two inthes 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 resplendent azure; the whole under side of the body is orange colored ; 
a broad mark of the same passes from the bill beyond the eyes ; beyond that 
is a large white spot; the tail is short, and consists of twelve feathers ofa 


1 Verops apiaster, Lux. The genus Merops has the bill sharp edged, pointed, slightly 
curved; nostrils basal, lateral, ovoid, canessied by hairs directed forwards; tarsus short, 
three front tees united, the exterior to the second joint, the interior to the first joint of the 
middle toe ; hind toe broad at its base; the second wing feather the longest. 


2 Alcedo ispida, Lix. The genus Alcedo has the bill long, straight, quadrangular, 
pointed, edged, and very rarely depressed; nostrils basal, lateral, pierced obliquely, 
almost wholly closed by a naked membrane; legs short, naked above the knee; exterior 
toe united to the se joint, and the interior to the first Joint of the middle toe. 


AVES—BELTED KINGFISHER. 565 


” 
rich 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 suppose it one of the most rapacious little 
animals that skims ihe 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 ; it dives 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 bough, it sits on some stone near the brink, or even on the gravel ; 
but the moment it perceives the fish, it takes a spring 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, 
in a 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 fetid, 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 thus employed ; and she, contrary to 
most other birds, is found plump and fat at that season. 


THE BEL TE DiiGiG, his eh! 


Tuts is a general inhabitant of the banks and shores of all our 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 sooth his ear, but for a gratifica- 


1 Alcedo alcyon, Lin. 
48 


566 AVES—BELTED KINGFISHER. 


tion somewhat more substantial. Amidst the roar of a cataract, or over the 
foam of a torrent, he sits perched upon an overhanging bough, glancing his 
piercing eye in every direction below for his scaly prey, which, with a 
sudden circular plunge, he sweeps from their native element 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 generally rambles. 
He courses along the windings of the brook, or river, at a small height above 
the surface. Sometimes suspending himself by the rapid action of his 


wings, ready to pounce on the prey below ; now and then settling on an old 
dead overhanging limb to reconnoitre. 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 bird; 
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. 567 


This bird is twelve inches and a half long; the whole upper parts area 
bluish slate color, round the neck is 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. 


ORDER VIII—_CHELIDONES. 


Birps 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 toes 
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. 


TH. ES) WALL, OW, .2 


THE 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 or 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 climb- 
ing the roofs of houses. 

Early in the spring, when the solar beams begin to rouse the insect tribes 
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 Hirundo, which embraces most of the swallows, has the bill short, triangu- 
lar, broad at the base, depressed, cleft near to the eyes ; upper mandible slightly hooked 
at the tip; 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 joint of the middle one; one behind; wings long; the first quill the longest; tail of 
twelve feathers, mostly forked. 


é 


568 4 AVES—MARTEN. 


Mixing: only the swallow that washes on the wing, by making many suc- 
cessive dips into a pond. Swallows will attend horsemen for miles, over 
wide downs, to collect such insects as are aroused 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 Choc- 
taws and Chickasaws cut off all the top branches of a sapling near their 
cabins, leaving the prongs a foot 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 long canes, with the same species of apart- 
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 female 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 com- 

anion. 

The flight of the purple marten unites in it all the swiftness, ease, rapidity 
~ of turning, and gracefulness of motion of its tribe. His usual note peuo, 
peuo, peuo, is loud and musical; but is frequently succeeded by others that 


1 Hirundo purpurea, Lin. 


¥ 
wa 


e, 


AVES—SWALLOW ‘ 569 


are low and guttural. Wasps, bees, and large beetles, seem to be his favoe 
rite food. He is eight inches long, and of a rich deep purplish blue, except 
the wings and tail, which are brownish black. 


x 


THE BARN SWALLOW, 


ToGeTHER with its whole tribe, are distinguished from the rest of small birds, 
by their sweeping rapidity of flight, their peculiar aerial evolutions of wing 
over our fields and rivers, and through our streets from morning to night. 
The light of heaven itself, the sky, the trees, or any other common objects 
of nature, are not better known 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 his stand on a summer evening by a field, 
meadow, or river shore, fix his eye on one of these birds, and follow for a 
while all its circuitous windings ; its extensive sweeps; its sudden, rapidly 
reiterated zigzag excursions, little infericr'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 rafter ina barn. It is formed of mud, mixed 
with hay; it is 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 ones entice them out by 
fluttermg backwards and forwards, twittering and calling to them con- 
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 on the roofs in 
great numbers, dressing and arranging their plumage, and making occa- 


7 


1 Hirundo Americana, Wison. 


72 48% 


570 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; sometimes several 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 steel blue ; 
the front, chin, and under parts are chesnut; the wings and tail are black, 
the latter greatly forked. 


LHE BANK SWADLOW, ,OR. SAND. MARE Nt 


Appears to be the most sociable with its kind, and the least intimate with 
man of all our swallows, living together in communities 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 species is a low 
mutter. ‘They are particularly fond of the shores of rivers; they likewise 
visit the seashore in great numbers, previous to their departure. It is the 
same species as the European. 

The bank swallow is five inches long; the upper parts are mouse colored ; 
tne lower are white, with a band of brown across the upper part of the 
breast. 


DAE. REPUBLICAN, OR CLIFF S WAL L Owe 


Is found in the western states. These birds build their nests in clusters, or 
associations, and defend them with spirit and pertinacity. They generally 
build on the sides of perpendicular cliffs, but sometimes under the eaves of 
houses. There are several others of the swallow tribe inhabiting the United 
States. 


DHE, EUROPEAN SALAR TEN? 


Tus bird, “ the temple-haunting martlet,” as it is denominated by Shaks- 
peare, is inferior in size to the swallow, and its tail is much less forked. 
The plumage, however, is nearly the same; the upper part of the body, 


1 Mirundo riparia, Li. 2 Hirundo fulva, Bonar. 3 Hirundo urbica, Lr. 


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. 


T RES Wel et 2 


Tunis 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 small that the actions of walking and 
rising from the ground seem very difficult, are of a particular structure, all 
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 cling to 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 of grass and feathers. It 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 
it is not pleasing, from an agreeable association of ideas, since it is never 
heard but in the most lovely summer weather. 

These birds visit England the latest, and retire the earliest, of all their 
tribes; as they withdraw from that country before the middle of August, 
generally by the tenth, and nota single straggler is to be seen by the 
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 be influenced by any defect of heat, or even of food, 


1 Cypselus murarius, Temm. The genus Cypselus has the bill very short, triangular, 
broad at the base, inconspicuous, depressed ; gape as far as under the eyes; upper mandi- 
ble hooked at the tip; nostrils cleft longitudinally, at the upper part of the bill, open, and 
the raised margins furnished with small feathers; legs very short, with the fore toes 
directed forwards, and quite divided ; three toes, and claws short and thick; wings very 
long, tail with ten feathers. 


572 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 sin- 
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 chimneys, 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 browncolor. When 
it flies, it utters the sounds trip, trip, trip, tree, tree, in a hurried manner. 
When roosting, the thorny extremities with which its tail is furnished are 
thrown in for its support. Itis never seen to alight but in hollow trees or 
chimneys; and is always most gay and active in wet and gloomy weather. 


, 
* 


THE GOATSUCKER? 


ts 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 swallows are retired to 
rest. 

There is only one species known in Europe, and 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 beautifully diversified with ash color and white in different parts; and it 


1 Cypselus pelasgicus, TEMM. 


2The genus Caprimulgus, or goatsuckers, so named, from the erroneous notion that 
they sucked the teats of goats, has the bill slightly curved, very small, and depressed at 
the base ; mouth extremely wide, nostrils basal, wide, closed by a membrane surmounted 
by feathers; tail round, or forked, of ten feathers ; legs short, the anterior toes united to 
the first joint; middle claw long, and serrated on the edge, but smooth in some of the 
species ; hind toe reversible. 


3 Caprimulgus Europeus, Lin. 


AVES—GOATSUCKER. 573 


has, like all the kind, a number of bristles about the bill. It makes no nest, 
but lays its eggs on the bare ground, or some loose crag, without any seem- 
ing care whatever. It is a great destroyer of cockchaffers 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 England 
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 churn 
owl, or eve jar, which they call a puckeridge, is very injurious to weaning 


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 HAWK. 


THE, ..N TG ee AWK et 


‘Pais bird is called a bat in some of the southern states. It is by 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 ¢00 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 bhogshead; 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 
moves in such a fluttering tumbling manner, and appearance of a lame and 
wounded 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 for 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 two hours before sunset till dusk. They are very numerous 


} Caprimulgus Americanus, WiLson. 


AVES—WHIP-POOR-WILL. 575 


near 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- 
ing 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 
bill. 


THE WHIP-POOR-WILL.! 


Tuts is a very singular and celebrated species, universally known over the 
United States, for its favorite call in spring; yet, personally, he is little 
known. 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 some retired part of the woods, the glen, or mountain; in a few eve- 
nings, 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 morning and evening his shrill repetitions are heard 


1 Caprimulgus vociferus, WILSON. 


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, is really sur- 
prising. These notes serve pretty plainly to articulate the words, whip- 
poor-will, the first and last syllables being uttered with great emphasis. 
When near, you often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. To- 
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 wocds, 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- 
‘ions; 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 very 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 the whip-poor-will is twice the length of that of 
the night hawk. The wings of the whip-poor-will are shorter by more than 
two inches than those of the night hawk. The tail of the latter is forked, 
that of the former is rounded. The two species differ also in size and color. 


THE CHUCK WILL’S WIDOW. 


Tuts solitary bird is rarely found north of Virginia and Tennessee. It has 
sometimes been confounded with the whip-poor-will.. It has derived its 


1 Caprimulgus Carolinensis, WiLsoN. 


* AVES—PIGEON. 577 


name from its notes, lich Poem 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 t 
attention of a stranger, and is strikingly different from that of the w 
poor-will. In sound and articulation it seems plainly to express the wor 
Wieck have been applied to it, pronouncing every syllable leisurely, and 
_ distinctly, putting the principal emphasis on the last word. In a still 
7 _ 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 whins poor-will, who 
*1tters his with much greater rapidity. 

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 I1X.—COLUMBE. “ 


Birps of this order have the bill of moderate dimensions, compressed ; 
base of the upper mandible covered with a soft skin, in which the nostrils 
are perforated, the tip more or less curved; feet with three toes in front, 
quite divided, and one behind. This order contains but one genus, but is 
numerous in species, and these are very widely dispersed over the world. 


THE AMEBAGCAN WILD. PIGEON; 


» Catrep 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 breast 
are vinaceous; the under parts of a similar color, but paler; and there isa 
crimson mark round the eyes. These birds visit the different parts of North 
America, in such immense flocks, that we may justly apply to them Milton’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, Lix. The characteristics of the genus Columba, are, bill of 
medium size, straight, compressed, arched, tip curved ; base of the upper mandible covered 
with a soft skin, more or less inflated; nostrils in the middle of ihe membrane; legs 
generally red ; three toes before, entirely divided, one behind, articulated on the heel ; 
wings with the second quill feather longest. Sd 


We ‘ 49 
* 


ow i i’ 
i” 
‘ ly 
578 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 to 
south, east and west, and, vice versa, over and across the whole extent of 
the United States of America. 

“The remarkable migrations are owing entirely to the dire necessi 
providing food, and not merely to escape the severity of a northern la 
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 in 
one district will keep these birds absent from another for years. 


“T know, at least, to a 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 for along 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 time. This is 
" Biovea 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 
of digestion, they will decompose food entirely in twelve hours, they must 


ig? 


WES. 


e fe 
AVES—PIGEON. 579 


have travelled between three and four hundred miles in 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 of 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, 
t cover 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, | even now feel inclined to pause, 
and assure myself afresh that what Iam going to relate is fact. That I 
have seen it is most certain; and I have seen it all in the company of hun- 
dreds of other persons looking on, like myself, amazed, and wondering if 
what we saw was really true. 

“In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of 
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 im 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 to 
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 unli 
melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz of their wings over me had 
a tendency to incline my senses to repose. 

“Whilst waiting for my dinner at Young’s inn, at the confluence of Salt 
river with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense legions still going by, 
with a front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west, and the beech-wood 


~ 


= < 
580 AVES—PIGEON. 


forests directly on the east of me. Yet nota single bird would alight; for 
not a nut oracorn 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 
zigzagged to escape the murderous falcon, now down close over the earth 
sweeping with inconceivable velocity, then ascending perpendicularly, like a 
7 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 manceuvres 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 
of 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 far 
below the average size, and suppose it passing over us without interruption 
for 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. 


is aa 


ao 


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 
backs to view, and suddenly veering, exhibit a mass of rich deep pur- 
ple. They then pass lower, over the woods, and are lost among the 
foliage for a moment, but they reappear as suddenly above; after which 
they alight, and, as if affrighted, the whole again take to wing, with a roar 
equal to loud thunder, and wander swiftly through the forest to see if danger 
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 succession, 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; 
but 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 | arrived there nearly two hours before the setting of thesun. Few 
pigeons were then to be seen, but a great number of persons, with horses 
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 miles, had driven upwards of three hundred hogs to be fat- 
tened on pigeon-meat, and here and there the people, employed, in picking 
and salting what had already been procured, were seen sitting in the 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. The dung of the birds was several inches deep, 
covering the whole extent of the roosting place like a bed of snow, Many 


49% 


dy 


od 
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 tallest so much so, 
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 the rest with guns, double and treble 
charged. The sun was lost to our view, and not a pigeon had yet arrived; 
but, all of a sudden, I heard a general cry of ‘ Here they come!’ The noise 
which they made, though distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea, pass- 
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 magnificent 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 uproar 
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 | was anxious to know to what distance the sound 
reached, I 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 it distinctly. Towards 
the approach of day, the noise rather subsided; but, long ere the objects 
were all distinguishable, the pigeons began to move off ina direction quite dif- 
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 car- 
rion crows, came to supplant them, and reap the benefits of this night of 
destruction. 

“Tt was then that I, and all those present, began our entry amongst the 
dead and wounded sufferers. They were picked up in great numbers, until 


% 


Cz 


AVES—PIGEON.. 583 


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 unacquainted 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 I have satisfied myself, that, as they 
not unfrequently quadruple their numbers yearly, always, at least, double it, 
nothing but the gradual diminution of our forests can accomplish their de- 
crease. In 1805, I have seen schooners loaded in bulk with pigeons caught 
up the Hudson River, coming into the wharf at New York, and those birds 
sold for a cent a piece. I knewa man in Pennsylvania, who 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 flocks 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 I have said before, the time set apart 
for this is not influenced by climate or season, but generally takes place 
where and 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 vellind 
harmony. On the same tree, from fifty to one hundred nests may be seen, 
formed of slight materials, being only composed of a few dried twigs, cross- 
ed in different ways, supported by suitable 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 this precious time, the males feed 
them from bill to bill, with amorous tenderness and care. 

“The young are hatched, and would grow and leave the nest in course of 


time, did not man discover the place, and commence his work of devasta- 


tion. Armed with axes, their enemies reach the spot, to seize and destroy 
all they can. The trees are felled, and are made to fall in such a way, that 
the cutting of one causes the fall of one or two more, or shakes others in 


such a manner, that the squabs, or young pigeons, are violently hurried to 
the ground.” 


; 
he 
* 


584 AVES—PIGEON. 


eal 


CALLED also the turtle-dove, is a genera! inhabitant, in the summer, of the 
United States, from Canada to Florida, and from the seacoast to the Missis- 
» sippi, and far to the westward. They pass the winter in great numbers at 
~Nerth 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 corn; 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, in an orchard on an apple tree, and sometimes on the 


1 Columba Carolinensis, Lin. 


AV ES—PIGEON. 585 


ground. It is composed of trees and roots, making an almost flat nest. 
The flesh of this bird is considered superior to that of the wild pigeon. It is 
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 
appearance. 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, fly in flocks 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 parts are of a cinereous brown; 
the throat and breast of a pale purple; the iris of the eye orange red, and 
the fe 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, 


Wirz all its beautiful 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 from these simple tints, has man, by art, propagated a variety, 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 
fecundity 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 two 
white eggs, which, most usually, produce young ones of different sexes. 
From three or four o’clock in the evening, till nine the next day, the female 
sits on the eggs; she is then relieved by the male, who takes his place from 
ten till three, while his mate is feeding abroad. In this manner they sit 


t 


1 Columba passerina, WiLson. 2 Columba enas, Lin. 
) 2 


74 iy 


ia * .” ) ab * 
‘- - 


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 his 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 hatched. 
Her legs were frozen by the nest being too near the entrance of the doyecote, 
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 she never stirs out, except for a 
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 in 
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, in the space of four years, be produced from a single pair. 

Most birds drink by sipping at intervals; the pigeon takes along continued 
draught, like a quadruped. 

Those pigeons which are:called carriers, and are used to convey letters, 
are easily distinguished from all others, by their 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 
employed in several countries as the most expeditious carriers. They are 
first brought from 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, lest it should stop by the way to eat, it is 
let loose to return. The little animal no 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 and exactness, directing itself by some surprising 
instinct towards home, which lies sometimes at many miles distance. It 
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. 


i 


* 4 


AVES—PEACOCK. 587 


* 


ORDER X.—GALLIN &. 


Brrps of this order have the bill short, convex, in some genera covered by 
a cere; upper mandible bending from its base, or only at the point; nostrils 
Jateral, covered by a membrane, naked or feathered ; tarsus long, three toes 
before, united at their base by a membrane; hind toe articulated on the 
tarsus above the junction of the anterior toes. 


THE PEACOCK! 


Came originally from the East Indies; and we are assured that they are 
still found in vast flocks, in a wild state, in the islands of Java and Ceylon. 


1 Pavo cristatus, Lin. The genus Pavo has the bill naked at the base, convex above 
thickened, bent down t s the tip; nostrils open; cheeks partially denuded ; tail 
coverts very long; tail of eighteen feathers, zipieated: broad, capable of Tone expanded 
like aan, and ocellated ; tarsus longer than the middle toe, with a conical spur; head 
crested. 


588 AVES—PEACOCK. 


To describe, in adequate terms, the dazzling beauties of this elegant bird 
would be a task of no small difficulty. Its head is adorned with a tuft, 
consisting of 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 
brown, as are also the quills, some of which are variegated with black and 
green; the belly and vent are black, with a greenish hue: but the distin- 
guishing 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 
middle feathers are sometimes four feet and a half long, the others gradually 
diminishing on 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 reai tail consists 
of short, stiff, 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 slowly and gracefully round, as if to catch the sun- 
beams in every direction, and produce new colors of inconceivable richness 
and beauty, accompanied at the same time with a hollow murmuring voice 
expressive of desire. The ery 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 long; for we find, in 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 off 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 no way injured by the preparation. The bird, thus prepared, was 
often preserved for many years without corrupting ; and it is asserted of the 
peacock’s flesh, that it keeps longer unputrefied than that of any other ani- 
mal. To giveahigher zest to these entertainments, on weddings particularly, 
they filled the bird’s beak and throat with cotton and camphor, which they 
set on fire to amuse and delight the company. Peacocks were highly 
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 peacock feeds upon corn; but its 
chief predilection is for barley. There is, however, scarcely any food that it 
will not at times covet and pursue. In the indulgence of these capricious 


AVES—COCK. 589 


pursuits, walls cannot easily confine it; it strips the tops of houses of their 
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 breed 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.1 


Or all birds, the cock seems to be the oldest companion of mankind, to 
have been first reclaimed from the forest, and taken to supply the accidental 
failure of the luxuries or necessaries of life. As he 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, base 
naked ; upper mandible arched, convex, bent towards the point ; head surmounted by a crest 
or plume; ears naked ; three toes before, united to the first joint; the hind toe raised from 
the ground ; tarsus with a long and bent spur; middle feathers of the tail arched; wings 
short. 

50 


590 AV BS COCcK: 


boiled with us, are 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 Fides 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 utterly 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. In 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 declining 
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 him till a person came to secure the plunderer. 

To his females the cock is assiduously attentive. He keeps them always 
in his sight, prevents 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’ eggs having been hatched under a hen, the cock, as soon 
as he saw the brood, fell furiously 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 much 
whether she be trodden by the cock or not; she will continue to lay, although 
all the eggs of this kind can never by hatching be brought to produce a 

living animal. ‘ 

As soon as an egg is laid, it begins to transpire, and loses, in a little time, 
some 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 she herself testifies by a clucking note, and by discontinuing to lay. 
If 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 ef the embryo is curious. During the first day’s incubation, 
and even when the egg has been’ under the hen a few hours, the head of the 
chicken may be seen gradually 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 flesh. 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 


di 


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, properly graduated, as has been effected 
by Mr Reaumur. At Grand Cairo, they thus produce six or seven thousand 
chickens 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. PA EAS AN T:,! 


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 Creesus, 
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 philosopher, no way moved by 
the objects before 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. 

Tn 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 upper 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, Ly. The genus Phasianus has the bill short, thickened, naked 
at the base; bent towards the tip; nostrils basal, lateral; cheeks naked, warty ; ears 
covered; three toes before, united to the first joint, and one behind; tarsi furnished with 
spurs in the males ; tail elongated cuneiform, and composed of eighteen feathers ; wings 
short, 


AVES—PHEASANT. 593 


rently placed to the eye of the spectator. The feathers of the breast, the 
shoulders, the middle of the back, and the sides under the wings, have a 
blackish ground, with edges tinged of an exquisite color, which appears 
sometimes black and sometimes purple, according to the different lights it is 
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 Jays from eighteen to twenty eggs in a season; but in a domestic 
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. It is said by a French writer, that one of the king’s 
sportsmen shooting at a parcel of crows that were gathered round a dead 
carcass, to his great surprise, upon coming up, found that he had killed as 
many pheasants as crows. It is even asserted by some, that such is the 
carnivorous disposition of 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. 


THE GOLDEN IPH EASAN T.3 


Or all the species of pheasants which are met with in our preserves and 
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 
Jength, of which the tail alone forms about 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 pictus, Lin. 


75 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 com- 
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. 


> 


D teparastt 
Sanat a0, 
a 


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. 
wk 0 naturalist since Buffon has imagined such a transformation possible. 


$ 


THE OW LL D) TUuRs ee 


Tuis 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 in 
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 un- 


1 Meleagris gallopavo, Lix. The genus Meleagris has the bill short and thick, base 
covered with a naked skin; head and upper part of the neck invested with a naked, tuber- 
culated skin; a loose caruncle on the upper part of the bill; throat witha longitudinal, 
pendulous, and carunculated wattle; tarsi of the male with an obtuse and weak spur; 
wings short; tail of eighteen feathers spreading into a circle. 


AVES—WILD TURKEY. 595 


settled parts of the Union, but are not numerous in Florida, Georgia, or the 
Carolinas. 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 years ago, but they are still found in the eastern parts 
of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 

These birds do not confine themselves to any particular food, but eat corn, 
berries, grapes, barley, tadpoles, young frogs, and lizards. Their favorite 


. Ate \: 
WINS ' aN 
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food, 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, 
but 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 two. 
At length, after due preparation, the leader gives a signal note, and they all 
wing their way to the opposite shore. Some of the young and weak fall 
into the water, and are obliged to swim for their lives, using all the means 
in their power, and the most violent exertion, to reach the shore. Many, 


— 


596 AVES—WILD TURKEY. 


however, perish in the attempt. It is observed that, after these journeys, the 
turkeys are so familiar, that they fearlessly enter the plantations in search 
of food. Great numbers are killed at this time, and kept in a frozen state 
to 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, 
but 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 
to one 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 into 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 flock, as the turkeys, fancying themselves secure when at 
roost, are not alarmed by either the sportsman or his gun. 


The flesh of the wild turkey is of excellent flavor, being more delicate and 
juicy than that of the domestic turkey; the Indians value it so highly, that 
they term it, when roasted, “the white man’s dish.” 

The male of the wild turkey is nearly four feet in length; the female is 
only three feet and a quarter long. The plumage of the male is very bril- 
Nant, 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 
iMandsome appearance, and appears to be quite sensible of the admiration he 
excites. 

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 
ef the United States. It has small ocellated spots on the tail. 


- 


AVES—GUINEA HEN. 597 


THE PIN TAD O, ORVGUILNE A’ HEN, 


Is about the size of a common hen, but, as it is supported on longer legs, it 
looks much larger. It has a round back, with a tail turnéd downwards like 
a partridge. 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 other birds what- 
ever. 

It is well known all over Europe and America, and we find it in different 
countries called by different names, from the place whence they had it. We 
have 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 female 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 
some other varieties, which it would be tedious to describe. 


1 Numida meleagris, Lix. The genus Numida has the bill short, thick, arched, the 
base covered with a warted membrane, and a carunculated wattle hanging from the under 
mandible ; nostrils 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 ; hind toe joined on the tarsus; tail short; bent down, 


598 AVES—WOOD GROUSE. 


LHE' WOOD GROUSE} 


Ny 


; YE 5 


yy DY 


Is about the size of a turkey, and frequently weighs near fourteen pounds; 
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 
feathers. The plumage of the female differs from this description, it being 
red about the throat, and having the head, neck, and back, crossed with red 
and blaek 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 himself principally to 
the oak and the pine tree; the cones of the latter serving for his food, and 
the thick boughs fora habitation. He feeds also on ants’ eggs; which seem 


1Tetrao urogallus, Lix. The genus fetrao has the bill short, thick, arched above, 
convex, bent downwards towards the tip, base naked; nostrils basal, half closed, with an 
arched scale above, and connected by small feathers ; eyebrows naked, with scarlet warts; 
tarsi feathered ; three toes before and one behind, united to the first Joint; one toe behind, 
margined with asperities, 


AVES—WOOD GROUSE: 599 


a high delicacy to all birds of the poultry kind; cranberries are likewise 
often found in his crop. The female is much less than her mate, and en- 
tirely 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 yellow, 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, to 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 num- 
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 raised and expanded like a fan, his wings drooping, his 
neck stretched out, and his head swoln and red. His ery upon this oecasion 
is a kind of loud explosion, followed by a noise like the whetting of a scythe. 
While under this influence, 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 probable that, in these contests, the bird 
which comes off victorious takes possession of the female seraglio, as it is 
certain they have no faithful attachments. This species was once not un- 
common in the Highlands of Scotland. It is now extinct in England, as 
well as in Ireland. The last Scotch specimen is said to have been killed 
about fifty years ago ; and Ireland had previously ceased to possess the cock 
of the wood. 


600 AVES—BLACK GROUSE. 


LAER LACK  4GROUSE ORB LA CK € OG KoA 


Is much more common. It is found in many parts of Europe, and in 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. Itis rather larger than a common fowl, and is in length from 
twenty-four to twenty-eight inches. At the breeding season their contests 
are so furious, that in Courland, Livonia, &c., it is a common method of 
taking them, to assemble them together, by imitating the crowing of a black 
cock, and by having a figure prepared to imitate that animal in all its mo- 
tions. 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 Tetrao tetrix, Lin. 


S&S 


AVES—RED GROUSE...RUFFED GROUSE. 60] 


THE ED) GROUSE OR MOOR -CO.GK, 


{s also abundant in Great Britain, where are also found the ptarmigan, or 
white grouse. The hazel and pintailed grouse are found in different parts of 
Europe. 


THE RUFFED GROUSE.! 


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Tuts well known American bird is called partridge, in the New England 
states, and pheasant at the south, although neither the partridge nor pheas- 


™ 1 Tetrao umbellus, Lin. % > 
ao 
76 51 * 


: 


y 


’ 


7 


602 AVES—RUFFED GROUSE. 


ant is found in America. The ruffed grouse is known in almost every quar- 
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 water. 
In the lower parts of Georgia, Carolina, and Florida, they are very seldom 
observed; but as we advance inland to the mountains, they again make 
their appearance. 


The manners of the ruffed grouse are solitary; they are fiir found ‘ne af 


coveys of more 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 stateliness, 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 male 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 till they run 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- 

ite 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 mancuvres 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, andants. In the fall they feed on whortleberries and partridge 
berries, the last 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 
flesh is unwholesome. - 

The ruffed grouse is eighteen inches long. The upper parts of the body 


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 each side of the neck, which it occasionally raises. er 


ad 


4 


AVES—PINNATED GROUSE. 603 


PHE..PINNATED GROUSE, OR HEAT Hy cen? 


AN 


0 


Is the individual known by the general name of grouse in New England. 
Open dry plains, thinly interspersed with trees, or partially overgrown with 
shrub oaks, are his favorite haunts. Accordingly he is found on the plains 
in New Jersey, in the barrens of Kentucky, on the bushy plains of Lon 
Island, and in similar situations in Pennsylvania, Indiana territory, ae 
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 the small acorn of 
the shrub oak, the strawberries, whortleberries, and partridge berries, with 
which they abound, and which constitute their principal food. 

The most remarkable circumstance relative to these birds, 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 by an expansion of 
the gullet, and the outer skin of the neck, which hang loose when the bir 
is at rest or flying. But when 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 produced 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 passing 

before the females, 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 every morning. 
On one of these, says Wilson, I counted seventeen males, making such a 


1 Tetrao cupido, Lin. 


- J 


604 AVES—DUSKY GROUSE. 


contint ed noise, as might have been heard a mile off. When snow comes, 
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 small wings on each side of the 
neck, whose upper parts are mottled transversely with black, brown, and 
white. Over the eye isa semicircular comb of rich orange. The breast 
and belly are white, marked with brown. 


LH EV DUS KY GRO Us: ht 


In size and color, may be 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 black. 


THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE? 


wW 


Was first met with by the lamented Governor Lewis, on the upper waters 
of the Missouri. It is said to be the inhabitant of the great plains of the 
Columbia. The expedition under Major Long brought a specimen, now in 
the museum at Philadelphia. This bird is never seen in any of the Atlantic 


1 Tetrao obscurus, Say. 2 Tetrao phasianellus, Lin. 


o 


” 
we 
, *. 


er Aa 
dia AVES—PARTRIDGE. 605 


states, though numerous in high northern latitudes. It inhabits the unculti- 
vated lands near the southern parts of Hudson’s Bay. Itis sometimegiand 
near Lake Superior in the spring. ¥ 

The sharp-tailed grouse is very shy and solitary in summer, but lives in 
flocks during winter. ‘Their favorite places of resort are the juniper plains, 
where the buds of juniper bushes constitute their favorite food. They fre- 
quent the woods as well as the plains; sometimes feeding on berries, and 
sometimes on the tops of evergreen, poplar, and birch trees. They breed 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- 
times 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 
cock of the plains. 


THE) PAR DRIDG Es 


Tus bird is about thirteen inches in length. The general color of its 
plumage 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 safiron-colored spot, 


1 Perdix cinerea, LATH. ape genus perdiz, has the bill short, compressed, stout, base 
naked; upper mandible arched, convex, strongly curved towards the tip; nostrils basal, 
lateral, half closed by an arched and naked membrane; the three anterior toes united by 
membranes to the first joint; tail composed of eighteen, or of fourteen feathers, short, 
rounded and slanting downwards; wings short: 


51* 


606 AVES—EUROPEAN QUAIL. af 


which has a granulated appearance, and between the eye and the ear isa 
naked skin of a bright scarlet, which is not very conspicuous but in old 
birds; on 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 small 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 from ten to fifteen in a covey; and if unmo- 
lested, 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 neighborhood 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 im 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 situation 
they are not easily flushed ; but when, at length, they are compelled to move, 
the male employs many interesting stratagems, such as fluttering along the 
ground, hanging his wings, and feigning to be wounded, 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 QUATL! 


Is 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 the legs are of a pale hue. 

The quail is by all known to be a bird of passage ; and yet, if we consider 
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 qualified for 
migration should take such extensive journeys. Nothing, however, 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 
im our ship; and sailing at spring time the contrary way, from the south to 
the north, I observed them on their return, when many of them were taken 
in the same manner.” This account is confirmed by many others; who 


1 Perdix coturnis, LATH. 


ia AVES—AMERICAN QUAIL. 607 


aver, that they choose a north wind for these adventures; the south being 
very unfavorable, as it retards their flight, by moistening their plumage. 
They then fly two by two; continuing, when their way lies over land, to go 
faster by night than by “et ; 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 within the space of 


four or five miles. It is now, however, asserted by some, that 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 unwholesome, 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 nume- 
rous in the vicinity of well cultivated plantations, where there is plenty of 
grain. They however occasionally seek shelter in the woods, perching on the 
branches, or secreting among the brushwood; 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 poultry. 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 tuft of 
grass that shelters and conceals it. The materials are leaves and fine dry 
grass. Itis well covered above, and an opening left for entrance. t\The 
young are guided by their mother’s voice, which resembles that of a oung 
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 


1 Perdix Virginiana, Latu,. 


hey, v 


7 


608 & AVES—AMERICAN QUAIL. Kea 


m, mM s £,. 
i) 


. vf i 
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 separately 
among the grass, and secrete themselves till 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. sila 

Tn the fall, the quails associate in flocks or e0 eys, of four or five and 
thirty. At this time the notes of the male are frequent, loud, and distinct. 
His common call consists of two notes, and is similar to the sound produced 
by pronouncing the words “Bob White.” This call may be imitated by 
whistling, so as to deceive the bird itself, and bring it near. While uttering 
this, the bird is usually perched on the rail of a fence or on a low limb of an 


Pts 
Fags 


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 night in the middle of a field on high ground. They fly witha 
Joud 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. 


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®, AVES—QUAIL...SCREAMER. 4 609 
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‘f THE CALIFORNIAN QUAIL. © 


eh! 

THE 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 _ 
tail, and on the fore part of the breast, upon which it advances in the form 
of a broadband. The fore part of the head is of a mixed ash gray, and the 
hinder part blackish brown. 


ORDER XI.—ALECTORIDES. 


* 

Birps of this order have the bill shorter than the head, or the same length ; 
strong, robust, upper mandible convex, and often hooked at the point; tarsus 
long and slender; three toes before and one bebind; the hind toe articulated 
higher up than thoze before. 


THE HORNED SCREAMER? 


Is a native of Brazil. This is a water-fowl of the rapacious kind, and big- 
ger thana swan. The head, which is small for the size of the body, bears 


1 Perdix californica, Latu. 

2 Palamedea cornuta, Lara. The genus palamedea has the bill short, conico-convex, 
much curved at the point, compressed throughout its length; nasal furrow large; head 
small, covered with down, and around with a slender flexible horn; nostrils remote from 
the base of the bill, lateral, oval, open ; legs short, thick; toes very log, the lateral con- 
nected with the intermediate by a short membrane; wings ample, and spurs on the 
winglets. 


77 


610 *. SA VBS—OS DRICH. i 


a black bill, which is not above two inches long; but what distinguishes it 
in particular is a horn growing from the forehead as long as the bill, and 
bending forward like that of the fabulow™ unicorn of the ancients. This 
horn is not 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 places; and they make a very loud noise, often 
repeating the notes wyhu, wyhu. ‘They are never found alone, but always in 
pairs; the cock and hen prowl together ; and their fidelity is eo be such, 
that when one dies, the other never departs from the carcass, but dies with 
its compa 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. 


& 
* r ORDER. XP1.—CUR SORES. 


4 


Birns of this order have the bill middle sized, or short; legs long, naked 
above the knee; and with only two or three toes, directed forward. These 
birds live always in the fields, and most frequently in desart places remote 
from woods. i 


PAE Os LR Pe 1 


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 
dodo, neither possess, nor can possess, the faculty of flight. The head and 


4 


at Sa 


bill of the ostrich somewhat resemble those of the duck ; and the neck ey 


be compared to that of a swan, but that itis much longer; the legs and 
thighs resemble those of a hen; though the whole appearance at a distance 
bears a strong resemblance to that of a camel; it is usually seven feet high 


1 Struthio camelus, Lix. This is the only one of the genus. Its characteristics are— 
a bill obtuse, straight, depressed at the tip, which is rounded and unguiculated ; mandi- 
bles equal and flexible; nostrils near the middle of the bill; legs very long, robust, and 
muscu with only two strong toes directed forward, but the inner much shorter than the 
outer; the former provided with a large and blunt claw, the latter clawless; tibia very 
fleshy to the knee ; wings unfit for flight, being composed of long, soft, and flexible fea- 
thers, and armed with a double spur. 


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‘ AVES—OSTR@CH. a 611 


from the 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 
of nine feet. From the top of the head to the rump, when the neck is 
stretched 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 
being stretched out, with the feathers, is three feet. 


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The plumage is much alike in 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 

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612 ; AVES—OSTRICH. es 
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aaa back ; and these, like the former, also are of different colors. — ‘tes head 
and upper part of the neck are covered with hair. 

At the end of each wing there is a kind of spur, almost like. = 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 its 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 are of equal sizes. The largest, which is on the inside, is seven inches 
jong, 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. 

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 i injurious to the 


Wh 


~ farmers, as they will destroy a field of wheat so effectually as not to leave 


aa 


a single ear behind; and this operation they perform without cong to 
themselves, as they are so vigilant and so swift, that it is almost imp sible 


» to geta shot atthem. The ostrich is of all animals the most a oa It 
will devour leather, grass, hair, iron, stones, or any thing that S$ given. 


Nor are its powers of digestion less in such things as are di e. Those 
substances which the coats of the stomach ¢ cannot soften, ass s whole; so 
that elas , stones, or iron, are excluded i in the form in which they are de- 
voured. Al metals, indeed, which are “swallowed by any animal, lose a 
part of their weight, and often the extremities of their figure, fom the 


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eB AVES—OSTRICH. ° 613 


action of th juices of the stomach upon their surface. A quarter pistole, 
swallowed by a duck, lost seven grains of its weight in the 

efore it was voided ; and it is probable tk ne a still greater diminu- 
dan of i 2 would happen in the stomach o an ostrich. Considered in 
this light erefore, this animal may be said t digest i iron; but such sub- 


stances seldom remain long enough in the stomach of any siitaatal 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 
being 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 the shell. On the content he 
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 th | with 
grass, and very careful to defend them from danger; nay, he counter 
every danger in their defence. ’ 4 ’ 

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. Me e, an English traveller, relates that he had seen at Ton 


in Africa, | ) man travelling on an ostrich. And Vallisnieri speaks of a 
youn ;taan, who exhibited himself upon one of these birds at Venice. 
In fine, M. ae _ saw, at the factory at Podor, two ostriches, which 
were y: ‘you! ng, of which the stronger went at apace which would have 
distanced nglish racehorse, with two negroes on its back. 
Whether aking ld 

the same safety and docility as a horse, is a different question ; and, let it be 
remembered that, though ‘the ostriches above-mentioned ran for a Dior time 


’ ’ 52 
4 ae 


e rifle and tamed so as to carry its rider with - 


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o14 * AVES—OSTRICH. #! oe 
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faster than a racehorse, there is no reason to believe they could hold out so 
long. ie, bi 

From ancient writers we learn, that whole nations have ro name 
of Struthiophagi (ostrich-eaters) from the preference which they had manifest- 
ed for the flesh of this bird. Apicius has recommended a peculiar sauce for 
the ostrich, which shows at least that it was eaten among the Romans, and 
at a single feast the emperor Heliogabalus was served with the brains of six 
hundred of these animals. Even at this period, some of the savage nations 
of Africa hunt them not only for their plumage, but for their flesh also, which 
they consider asa dainty. They sometimes also breed these birds tame, to eat 
the young ones, of which the female is said to be the greatest delicacy. The 
skin of the ostrich is so thick, that it is used for leather by the Arabians; 
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 labor us, itis yet 
the most entertaining. As soonas the hunter comes within sight of his prey, 
he puts his horse to a gentle wile, so as to keep the ostrich stillin sight ; yet 
not so as to terrify him from ‘the plain into the mountains. Upon oiserpide 
himself, therefore, pursued at a distance, the bird begins to run at first, but 
gently, either insensible of his danger, or sure of escaping. In this situa- 
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, unfor- 
tunately for the silly creature, instead of going off ina direct line, he takes his 
course in circles ; while the hunters still make a small course within, relieve 
each other, meet Him at unexpected turns, and keep him thus still employed, 
still followed, for t two or three days together. At last, spent with fatigue and 
famine, and findi ng 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 thieket he meets. Sometimes, however, he attempts to face 
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. | ae is the force of his motion, that a man would be utterly 
unable to withstand him in the shock. 
» The Spruthtophaggbadjanother mode of. 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 
Waid to have enabled themselves to approach and take them | at pleasure. In 
the same manner the savages of Amerita, disguise themselves as a roebuck, 


who 
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in order to surprise that animal. ' re 
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AVES—AMERICAN OSTRICH. 615 
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Once sometimes bred in flocks, for they are easily tamed. In this 


domestica ec 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 th with fury, making an 
‘angry hissing oise, and having their throats in ated, and their mouths 
open. During the night they frequently utter a discordant cry, which bears 
a resemblance to the distant roaring of a lion, or the hoarse tone of a bear 
or an ox when in great agony. 


“~ 


LEE, BOUCY OV, OR (AMER! CAN OSTRICH. 
~~ Ne 

Ip is chiefly found in Guiana, along the banks of the Oroonoko, in the’ 
inland provinces of Brazil and Chili, and the vast forests that border on the 
mouth of the river Plata. Many Ser parts of South America were known! 
to have them but as man multiplied, these ‘ge and timorous birds either 
fell beneath their superior power, or fled from their vicinity. It is said to be 
found in Patagonia, and the natives are represented as chasing it on horse- 
back, and, ie 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 lariest bird in the New Continent, and is 
‘generally found to be six feet high, measuring from its head to the ground. 
Its legs are three feet long. Its body is of an oval form, and appears entirely 
round. It is coveredarvt the back and rump with tee 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, lifting up le wing, 
which it keeps elevated for a time; till letting it drop, it lifts up the othe 
it runs with such swiftness, that the fleetest dogs are ek thrown t 
in the pursuit. One of them, finding itself surrounded by the hunters, dart- 
ed among the dogs with such fury, that they made - to avoid its rage; 
and it escaped, Sy its amazing velocity, in safety to mountains. It de- 
fends itself with its feet, and calls its young by a kind of hiss. 

Nieremberg relates, that, during incubation, they gen lly make a false 
nest at some distance from the true one; in this they Jay two eggs, which 
are afterwards broken by the old bird, and by attracting a number of flies, 


1 Rhea Ami deit a,Temm. This is the only one of the te: Its characteristics a 
a bill straight, short, soft, depressed at the base, a little compressed at the tip, which 
obtuse ; lower mandible much dep pressed, flexible, and rounded at the tip; nostrils on the 
lateral surface of the bill, Bird: tc ngi idinally cleft and open; legs long, with three toes 
before, and a callosity behind; wings short, with feathers more or less strong, and term1- 
nating in a spur. 
e* 


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616 AVES—AMERICAN OSTRICH. 


o 


beetles, &c., afford a means of sustenance to the young. This, however, 
may be 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 grow older, they become more cunning and distrustful; and run so 
swift, that a greyhound can scarcely overtake them. Their flesh, in general, 


Yi 
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= — 
— i AANA eee ii h —= 


ig good to be eaten, especially if they be young. It would be no difficult 

matter torear up flocks of these animals tame, particularly as they are 

naturally so familiar; and they might be found to answer domestic purposes, 

like the hen or the turkey. Their maintenance could not be expensive, if, 

as Narborough says, they live entirely upon grass. Like the ostrich, the 

touyou is indiscriminately voracious; swallowing stones, iron, and other 
~ hard substances. 


be 


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AVES—EMEU. 617, 


/ THE NEW HOLLAND EMEU. 


Tus bird has been so scientifically described by Mr Bennett, from speci- 
mens 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 to side; in the absence of the bony process 
which crests the head of the cassowary, of the wattles 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 Hollandie, Suaw. This is the only ‘individual of the genus. Its 
characteristics are, bill straight, the edges greatly depressed, tip rounded ; head feathered ; 


throat naked ; feet three-toed, the toes placed before ; wings very short. 
78 o2* 
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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 them 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 pur- 
' sued; outstripping, it is said, the fleetness\of the greyhound. Like the - 
kanguroos, they are sometimes hunted by the colonists as articles of food; 
and their flesh is stated to have much of the flavor of beef. The quantity 
of provision supplied by one of these er 4 by no means inconsiderable.” 
ek, 


ts 


THE GREAT BUSTARD! 


Is the largest land bird that is a native of Europe. It was once much 
more numerous than it is at present; but the increased cultivation of the 
country, and the extreme delicacy of its flesh, 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. 
It 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 female 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 to elevate it in the air, and enable it to fly, though with some 
difficulty; they are generally about four feet from the tip of one to the other. 
The neck is a foot long, and the legs a foot anda half. The head and neck 
of the male are ash colored; the back is barred transversely with black, and 
bright 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. il 


fot tarda, Lin. The genus Otis has the bill straight, conical, compressed ; tip of 
_ the upper mandible slightly arched; nostrils open, oval, approximated, but remote at the 
by base ; es long, naked above the knee; three toes before, short, united at their base, and 
bordered by a membrane ; wings of medium length ; third quill feather longest. 


+i 


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lig # 
AVES—BUSTARD. 619 


The bustard (according to Plutarch) was found in Libya, in the environs of 
Alexandria, in Syria, in Greece, in Spain, in France, in the plains of Poitou 
and Champagne; they are now and then seen in England, on the extensive 
downs of Salisbury Plain, in the heaths of Sussex and Cambridgeshire, the 
Dorsetshire uplands, and as far as East Lothian, in Scotland. In those 
extensive plains, where there are no woods to screen the sportsman, nor 


hedges to creep along, the bustards enjoy an indolent security. Their food 
yey, 


is composed of the berries that grow among the heath, and the large earth- 
worms that appear in great quantities on the downs before sunrising im 
summer. They also eat green corn, the tops of turnips, and other vegeta- 
bles ; and have even been known to devour frogs, mice, and young 
It isin 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 therefore that 


es 


620 AVES—BUSTARD. 


is left the sportsman, is the comfortless view of their distant security. He 
may wish, but they are in safety. 
It sometimes happens that 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 
young 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 is not known in America. Besides the delicacy of their flesh, 
the quills are valuable, as they make excellent pens, but they are still more 
esteemed by anglers, who use them as floats; for, as they are spotted with 
black, the notion is, that these black spots appear as flies to the fish, which 
they rather allure than drive away by their appearance. 


i 


AVES—BUSTARD....PLOVER. 621 | 


THE- LITTLE pws TAR D! 


Dirrers only from the preceding in being of a smaller size, being not larger 
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. 


s 


: , 

Birps 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. 


THE LONG-LEGGED ‘PLOVER. 


Tuis singular bird, we might perhaps justly say, most singular of birds, 
inhabits the south of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, but very rarely 
visits England. Chance alone seems to drive it to that country. It hasa 
slender, black bill, two inches and a half in length; the irides are red; the 
forehead, round the eye, and all the under parts, are white; the back, the 
crown of the head, and the wings, are glossy black ; the hind part of the 
neck is marked with dusky spots; the rump is white; the tail the same, 
inclining to gray; the outer feathers are quite white, the legs red; and the 
outer and middle toes connected atthe base. 


1 Otis tetrax, Lin. 


2 Himantopus melanopterus, Mrver. The genus Himantopus has the bill long, slen- 
der, cylindrical, flattened at the base, compressed at the point; mandibles laterally chan- 
nelled to the half of their length ; nostrils lateral, linear, long; legs very long and slender, 
with three toes before, of which the intermediate is united to the outer by a broad mem- 
brane, and to the inner by a rudimentary one; claws very small and flat; wings very 
jong; the first feathers much longer than the others, 


622 'AVES—PLOVER. ! 
’ 
But the circumstance which makes this bird differ from all others, is the 


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 half. 
Hence we may safely assert, that. these birds exhibit weight for inches, and 
have incomparably the greatest length of legs of any known bird. The fla- 
mingo, for instance, is one of the most long-legged birds, and yet it bears no 
manner of proportion to the himantopus, as this bird is denominated by 
naturalists; for a cock flamingo weighs, at an average, about four pounds 
avoirdupois; 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. If we try the experiment in still larger birds, the disparity will 
increase. 

‘‘Tt 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 ployer, is a well known bird, 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, Lix. The genus Charadrius has the bill shorter than the 
head, slender, straight, compressed ; mandibles gibbous toward the tip; nostrils longitu- 
dinally cleft in the large membrane which covers the nasal furrow; legs slender, with 
three toes 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 feather 
longest. hs 


wer 


AVES=DOTTHREL...PLOVER...LAPWING. . 623 


THE: DO TARE L} 


Is 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, anda 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 foolish bird; 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 small 
flocks, from April to September. 


THE RINGED PLOVER.? 


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.9 


Tue lapwing, or bastard plover, is about the size of a common pigeon, and 
is covered with very thick plumes, which are black at the roots, but of diffe- 


1 Charadrius morinellus, Lr. * Charadrius hiaticula, Lx. 


3 Vanellus cristatus, Mever. The genus Vanellus has the bill short, slender, straight, 
compressed, tip gibbous; nostrils lateral, longitudinally cleft; legs slender, with three 
toes before and one behind; the middle one connected with the outer by 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 un- 
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 of a 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. 
My Lapwings are found in most parts of Europe, as far northward as Iceland. 
ae 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 
the shock, the reptile emerges from its retreat, and is instantly seized. In the 
evening they adopt another mode. They then run along the grass, and feel with 
their feet the worms which the dampness of the atmosphere has brought 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. The female lays two eggs on the dry ground, 
near some marsh, upon a little bed which she prepares of dry grass. These 
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—CRANE. 625 


rous as she retires from the nest. If very near, she appears altogether 
unconcerned ; and her cries cease in proportion as her fears are augmented. 
When approached by dogs, she flies heavily, at a little distance before them, 
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, 
in 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. ’ 


LH EE CRAN EE 


Is a tall, slender bird, with a long neck and long legs. The top of the head 
is covered with black bristles, and the back of it is bald and red, which suf- 
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, obtuse towards the tip; lateral base of the mandible 
deeply sulcated; ridge elevated; nostrils in the middle of the bill closed behind by a 
membrane; region of the eyes and base of the bill naked and papillous, or covered with 
feathers; legs long, with a large naked space above 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 


“ 
a 


’ 2. 


¥ ay) 


um * 
626 AVES—CRANE. 


__ These, which bear a resemblance to hair, and are finely curled at the ae 
- 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 orna- 


ments in caps. 

The crane is a very social bird, and they are seldom seen alone. Their 
usual mode of flying or sitting is in flocks of fifty or sixty together; and 
while a part feed, the rest stand like 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 of 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, rather 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 searcely any other that comes amiss to them. Redi, who apeded 
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 is an animal easily tamed. 


a 


| | ¥ * 


AVES—CRANE. 627 


THE BALEARIC CRANE} 


For a long time continued unknown, till we became acquainted with the 
birds of 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 
similar, their food, which is entirely greens, vegetables, and barley, seems to 
make some difference. 


1Grus pavonina, TEMM. 


Pons 


? 


628 AVES—HERON. 


THE HERON. 


Tue common heron is remarkably light in proportion to its bulk, scarcely 
weighing three pounds and a half, yet it expands a breadth of wing which 
is 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 heron 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 sea eagle. 

Of all birds, this commits the greatest devastation in fresh water; and 
there is scarcely a fish, though ever so large, that he will not strike at and 
wound, though unable to carry it away. But the smaller fry are his chief 
subsistence; these, pursued by their larger fellows of the deep, are obliged 
to 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 


1 Ardea cinerea, LAru. The genus Ardea has the bill as long as, or longer, than the 
head, strong, straight, compressed, pointed ; upper mandible slightly sulcated, ridge round- 
ed; nostrils lateral, placed almost at the base of the bill, longitudinally cleft in a groove, 
and half closed by a membrane; orbits and lores naked; legs long and slender, with a 
naked space above the knee; the middle toe connected withthe outer by a short mem- 
brane ; claws long, compressed, that of the middle toe dentated interiorly. 


AVES—HERON. 629 


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. “TI 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 what 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 day, one day with another. 
In this manner a single heron will destroy fifteen thousand carp in a 
single half year.” r 

But though in seasons of fine weather the heron can always find a plenti- 
ful supply, in cold or stormy seasons his prey is no longer within reach; the 
fish that before came into shallow water now keep in the deep, as they find 
it to be the warmest situation. Frogs and lizards, also, seldom venture 


from their lurking places; and the heron is obliged to support himself upon ‘i. 


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 | 
suceeeding 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. : 4 

Though this bird lives chiefly among pools and marshes, yet its nest is 
built on the top of the highest 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 Jess seen in their nestling thah in 
their habits of depredation. Nothing is more certain, and we havé 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 been struck by the elector of Cologne’s hawks thirty- 
five years before. 


53% 


"e 


630 AVES—EGRET...HERON. 


OBE. Ta LT Tila BGR, Be Ts} 


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 of a beautiful white, and the elegance of the bird is much increased 
by the long, loose feathers which cover and hang over the rump; their flesh 
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 their having been 
shot there. In America there are egrets found of a reddish, and some of a 
black color ; but they differ in no other respect from the European. 


THE NIGHT .HERON?2 


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, uttering in a hearse and hollow 
tone, the sound gua. At this hour, also, all the nurseries in the swamps are 


Se 


1 Ardea garzetta, Lin. 2 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. 


TEE“GR EAT EGRET. HE RON? 


Is 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 mun- 
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? 


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. 

The heron has great powers of wing, flying sometimes very high, and to a 


1 Ardea egretta, WILson. 2 Ardea Herodias, Lin. 


632 AVES—HERON...BITTERN. 


great distance; his neck doubled, his head drawn in, and his long legs 
stretched out 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 fre- 
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 
begs on the edges of the salt marsh. These it often frequents, wading about 
in search of tadpoles, lizards, various larve 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. 


of 


THE BITTERN2 


‘Tuost who have walked in an evening, by the sedgy sides of unfrequented 
rivers, must remember a variety of notes from different waterfowls. But 
‘f all those sounds, there is none so dismally hollow as the booming of the 


1 Ardea cecrulea, Lin. . 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 sclemnity. It is like the interrupted 
bellowing of a bull, but hollower and louder, and is heard at a 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 so big as a 
heron, with a weaker bill, and not above four inches long. It differs from 
the heron chiefly in its color, which is, in general, of a palish yellow, spot- 
ted and barred with black. Its windpipe is fitted to produce the sound for 
which it is remarkable ; the lower part of it dividing into the lungs, is sup- 
plied with a thin loose membrane, that can be filled with a large body of air, 
and exploded at pleasure. These bellowing explosions are chiefly heard 
from the beginning of spring to the end of autumn; and, however awful 
they may seem to us, are the calls to courtship, or connubial felicity. 

This bird, though of the heron 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 
manners 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 boomings. 

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 turns on its 
back, 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 posture, and 
defend itself so vigorously, as to compel the assailant to retire. The eyes 
of its antagonist are the object at which it chiefly strikes, 


50 


634. ~ AVES—BITTERN...STORK. 


THE CAME RLCAN BHT. TERN? 


Ts common to 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 hen. On 
the seacoast 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 /wa, 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 PEAST BITTER N2 


Is 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 »veed every year; making their nests in the thick tussocks of grass in 
swampy places. When alarmed they seldom 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. 

oe ie 


Tat B.S: TOR Ky 


Tue most remarkable of this tribe is the white stork, 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 in 
many places stalking unconcernedly about the streets, in search of offal and 


1 Ardea minor, Witson. 2 Ardea exilis, GMEL. 


3 Ciconia alba, Betton. The genus Ciconia has the bill long, straight, stout, cylindri- 
eal, in the form of an elongated pointed cone; ridge rounded, of equal height with the 
head; under mandible slightly bent upwards; nostrils longitudinally cleft in a groove of 
the horny substance; eyes surrounded with a naked space; legs long; the three anterior 
toes united to the first joint, the hind toe jointed on the same level as the others; wings 
of moderate size. 


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 easily 
tamed, and may be trained to reside in gardens, which it will clear of 
insects and reptiles. It has a grave air anda 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 a 


tame one in a garden, where the children were playing at hide and seek, and 
that it run its turn when touched, and so well distinguished the child 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, and observe 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 in 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 injury, 


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 at 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 fiutter 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 im 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. 


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 by no means common. M. 
Riippel 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 brought chiefly from Senegal. 
In its habits this bird bears a close resemblance to the white stork of 
Europe, but becomes still more familiar, and, in consequence of its larger 
size, renders more essential service in theremoval 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 from 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 


2 SK) * . 
, 1 Ciconia marabou, Temm. 


» 
“* 


- 08 


* 


x AVES=STORK. 637 


functions 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 come amiss 
to its voracious appetite, for when carrion is scarce, it attacks reptiles, small 
birds, and even the lesser quadrupeds, which it usually swallows entire. 
These birds are so peaceable in their manners, and so inclined to become 
familiar, that there is little difficulty in taming them. Dr Latham gives an 
amusing account, derived from Smeathman, of the behavior of a young indi- 
vidual, 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 at 
dinner time, in the great hall, behind its master’s chair, where it remained 


in expectation of its usual share in the meal. The servants had some diffi- 
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 
54 


, a 


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. 


Mw 


THE FLAMINGO? 


‘ 


Is, perhaps, the most remarkable of water-fowl ; itis 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, extended, 
are five feet six inches from tip to tip; and it is four feet eight inches from 
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 thighs, 
which are not much thicker than a man’s finger, are about two 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 occasionally 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 or take it, that it has long 
since deserted the shores frequented by man, and taken refuge in countries 
that are as yet but thinly peopled. 

When the Europeans first came to America, and coasted down along the 
African shores, they found the flamingos 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 attempting to fly, only regarded the fall of 
their companion in a kind of fixed astonishment ; another and another shot 
was discharged; and thus the fowler often levelled the whole flock, before 
one of them began to think of escaping. 


1 Phenicopterus ruber, Lin. This is the only one of the genus. Its characteristics are 
a bill thick, strong, deeper than broad, dentated, 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 bill, covered hy a membrane; legs very long, with three toes before, and 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 inhospitable shores; near salt water lakes and swampy islands. 
When seen by mariners in the day, they always appear drawn up in a long 


close line of two or three hundred together ; and, as Dampier tells us, present 
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 always 
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 
account of one of them, who procured fifteen hundred flamingos’ tongues 
to be served up in asingle dish. The tongue of this bird, which was so 


7 


+ 


ee 


2 
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 about 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 
hollowed out to the shape of the bird, and in that cavity the female lays 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 straddles 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 is 
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 on worms and 
insects, which it scoops out of the sand with its bill. 


1 Recurvirostra avocetta, Lin. The genus Recurvirostra has the bill very long, slen- 
der, feeble, depressed throughout its length, flexible and turned up at the point, the upper 
mandible channelled on its surface, the under laterally; nostrils linear and long; legs long 
and slender ; the three fore toes united as far as the second joint by a membrane ; the 
hind toe placed high up and very short; wings acuminate, te first quill longest, ; 


> 


AVES—AVOSET...SPOONBILL. 641 


AMERICAN AVOSET.1 


We 

Tus species, from its perpetual clamor and flippancy of tongue, is called 
by the inhabitants 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. They flew around the shallow pools, uttering the sharp note of 
click, click, alighting on the marsh, or in the water, fluttering their loose 
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 of 
grass, of sea-weed, dry grass, and twigs, and raised to the height of seve- 
ral inches. 


THE ROSEATE SPOONBILL? 


= SINS = 


Tus 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, LAtu. 


® Platalea ajaja, Lys. The genus Platalea has the bill 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 
a membrane; face and head wholly or partially naked ; legs long; the three anterior toes” 
connected to the second joint by deeply cut membranes ; the hinder one long, and bearing 
on the ground. 


81 54* i 


¥ 


s ~ 


— # hy 

642 . AVES—IBIS. 

in 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 wades 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 foot 
long, and has the shape of a spoon. “- 


THE IBIS-2 


Tue Egyptian ibis, so famous in history and mythology, is larger than the 
stork, measuring from thirty to forty inches in length. The bill is seven 


By 


) 


? 


1 Platalea nivea, Cuv. ’ 


- 2 Ibis religiosa, Cuv. The genus Zbis has the bill long, slender, arched, broad at the 
hase, tip depressed, obtuse, and rounded; upper mandible deeply furrowed in its whole 
length; nostrils near the base at the upper part of the bill, oblong, straight and perforated 

an the membrane which covers the furrow; the face, and frequently a part of the head and 
ta neck, naked; legs naked above the knee; the fore toes united as far as the first Joint; te 
_ + hind toe long, and reaching the ground, 


oo" Ww 


” i 


‘ * # 


AVES—IBIS. 643 


inches long, is slightly curved, and ends in a blunt point. The plumage is 
a reddish white, most inclining to red on the back and wings. It is found in 
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 sepulehres along with the mummies, and 
was formerly held sacred by the Egyptians. 


WOOD IBIS.11 


Tus 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 Bariram. “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 long 
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, lice 
and other reptiles.” 

The whole body, neck, and lower parts of this bird, are white; the bill i is 
nearly nine inches long. 


” 


THE SCARLET [BIS 


Tuts beautiful bird is said to be common in most parts of America within 
the tropics, and in almost all the West India islands. Of its manners, little 
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 flocks; 
but to lay its eggs on the ground, or a bed of leaves. The young when 


1 Ibis loculator, Lin. 2 Ibis rubra, ViEILL. > it ww 

¥ ¢ i 

* By oy Von! 
— * 
om 
‘ x 
ty Ba 
¥.. 2 
# ‘ 


¥' 


644 AVES—CURLEW...SANDPIPER. 


hatched are black, soon after gray, then white, and gradually assume their 
red color; at the third year, their plumage is complete. They have fre- 
quently been domesticated. 


THE CURLE W! 


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 
brown; the breast and belly white, marked with dark oblong spots. The 
female is somewhat larger 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 Ss ASN DUP Pa Re 


Or the sandpiper, properly so called, there are about twelve species known 
in Europe, from the size of a thrush to that of a hedge-sparrow. The com- 


1 Numenius arquata, Lara. The genus Numenius has the bill long, slender, arched, 
compressed, point hard, and slightly obtuse ; upper mandible projecting beyond 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 above the knee; 
the three fore tces united by a membrane to the first Joint; the hinder articulated to the 
_ tarsus, and touching the ground, 


_ ?The genus 7'ringa or sandpiper, has the bill middle-sized or long, very slightly arched, 
curved 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 nasal furrow; legs 
slender, naked above the knee ; the three fore toes quite divided; but in a few species the 
yaiddle and outer toe are connected by a membrane; ihe hinder articulated to the tarsus. 


ae 


ft 


bY 


AVES—SANDPIPER. 645 


mon sandpiper, which is a solitary bird, is in weight about two ounces; the 
head is brown, streaked with black, the back and coverts brown, mixed with 
glossy 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 SARDPIPER! 


Inwazits 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 at low water, feeding on small worms and other insects which 
abound in such places. It has not till now been recognized by naturalists 
as inhabiting this part of North America. 


THE SOLITARY SANDPIPER? 


Inuabits 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 to approach within a few yards of it, 
without appearing to take notice, or to be the least alarmed, 


DHE RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER? 


Is commonly called the gray back, or brown back, on our seacoasts. It isa 
particular favorite among 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 
in 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.’ i 

The other individuals of this family, both American and foreign, are too 
numerous to be particularized. 

na 
: : fines i bi 
1Tringa alpina, Lix. *Tringa solitaria, Witson. 3 Tringa rufa, WiLs0N, 
“df. 


Fd 


# &* 


‘ns 


a. 


646 AVES—WOODCOCK. 


THE WOODCOCK! 


= 


Tue woodcock of the old continent inhabits and breeds in the northern 
regions during summer; but on the commencement of the frost, it begins 
to migrate southward. The greater part of them leave England at the close 
of February, or the beginning of March, after having paired; but they are 
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 some 
noise when it rises, and its flight 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 of 
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. She 
is remarkably tame during incubation. “ 


THE AMERICAN  W.O.0OM COC K 2 


In its general figure and habits, greatly resembles the woodcock of Europe, 
but is considerably less, and very differently marked. This bird is univer- 


1 Scolopax rusticola, Lis. The genus Scolopax has the bill long, straight, compressed, 
slender, soft, with the tip turned; both mandibles channelled the half of their length, the 
tip of the upper, projecting beyond that of the under, and the turned portion being hook- 
oil 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 ; the three 
fore toes quite divided, or rarely the outer and middle united. 


2 Scolopax minor, WiLson. 


‘ AVES—SNIPE. 647 


sally known to our 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 shot down in great numbers. The 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 larve 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 at a remarkable distance from the bill, and high in the head. This 
construction was necessary to give a greater range of vision, and to secure 
the eye from injury, while the owner is searching in the mire. The flight 
of this bird is slow. 


a THE SNIPE. 


Ps 


Snipes are migratory birds, 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, dif- 
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. 


; , 4 ; & Aol 
648 AVES-SNIPE. 


are very eagerly sought after by our gunners. Their food consists of small 
worms, slugs, and the larve of insects. During the breeding season, while 
it plays over the moors, this bird makes a pleasing, humming, and piping 
sound. Their flesh is justly reckoned among feathered dainties, 

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 te 
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 WILLE T, 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 mile. 
Their nests are built on the ground among the grass of the marshes, and are 
composed of wet rushes and coarse grass. 

The anxiety and affection manifested by this bird for its eggs and young, 
are truly interesting. A person no sooner enters the marshes, than he is 
beset by the willets flying around and skimming over his head, vociferating 
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 small 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 Scolopax semipalmata, WILSON. 


* 
P| 


AVES—OWZEL. 649 


DEB WAT ER) :R Aaa OR. 0.0 ZB) 


sh 


Ts a bird well known in the British islands. It is a large slender bird, with 
a black bill, one inch and three quarters long, Its weight is four ounces 
and 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 itsneck; and it still advan- 
ces, holding its head not higher than 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 times, 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 sorts 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 without some, and it seemed to quiver.” It 
is a curious fact, that even the young ones, before they are quite feathered, 
are able to make their way under water, the same as the older birds. 

These birds are found in many parts of Europe. The female makes her 
nest on the ground, in some mossy bank near the water, of hay and dried 
fibres, lining it with dry oak leaves, and forming to it a portico or entrance 


a 

1 Rallus aquaticus, Lix. The genus Rallus has the bill longer than the head, slender, 
slightly arched, or straight, compressed at the base, cylindrical at the tip; u per mandi- 
ble channelled ; nostrils lateral, longitudinally cleft in the furrow, half closed by a mem- 
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 fourth 
feathers longest. 

82 a3) 


ki. 


650 oO  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 
entering. 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 to be 
migratory. 


THE AMERICAN RATLI 


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 
involved 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, seem to 
fly so feebly, and in such short fluttering 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 
growth, the rail resort to them in great numbers to feed on the seeds of this 
plant, of which they are immoderately fond. As you walk along the em- 


¥ 
1 Rallus carolinus, Lin. & 


eA . * 7 y" 
? , . h ft 
° » a *% y 
. re * 
‘ AVES—COOT. “a 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 kuk, 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 when 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 to possess great vigor and energy, 
and their bodies being so remarkably thin, as to be less than an inch anda 
quarter 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 
ral. 


ORDER XIV.—PINNATIPEDES. 


Biros 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 toes; hind toe articulated interiorly on the tarsus. a 


TH Ey, ©O @:r1 


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, from 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 
ee a ee Re _ CER Ie ere ee ee «Ce 


1 Fulica atra, Lix. The genus Fulica has the bill middle-sized, strong, conical, broad 
at the base; the ridge projecting in front, and dilated into a naked plate; both mandibles 
of the same length, the upper slightly curved, and reduced at the hase, the lower form- 
ing an angle; nostrils lateral, in the middle of the bill, longitudinally cleft, half closed by 
a membrane ; legs long, slender, naked above the knee; all the toes very long, connected 
at their base, and furnished along their sides with scalloped membranes. 


od 


: # 
652 AVES—CRESTED GREBE. 


of the head, which in the water-hen is red, in the coot is white. The upper 
%. of its plumage are black, the breast and belly white. As the coot is a 
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 weelely 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 built 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 cargo 
into the nearest harbor; there, having attained her port, she continues 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 coot with a red comb like a cock. 


THE CRESTED GREE? 


Tuts bird is about the size of a duck. Its bill, that part especially 
towards 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 back 


1 Podiceps cristatus, LatH. The genus Podiceps has the bill middle size, straight, 
hard, compressed, in the form of an elongated and pointed cone ; tip of the upper mandi- 
ble slightly inclined; nostrils lateral, concave, oblong, closed behind by a meni braie) open 
in front, and pervious; legs long, placed far backwards; tarsi much compressed ; fore 
toes much depressed, connected at their base, and furnished with a simple lobe ; hind toe 
compressed and scalloped ; claws broad, much depressed ; no tail; wings short. ~ 


get , 


" wg 
io 


AVES—CUTWATER. 653 


and wings are of a darkish brown, pretty much inclining to black, except 
some of the exterior edges of the wing feathers, which are white. The 


breast and belly are of a light ash color; it has no tail; the legs and toes are 
broad and flat. It has an unpleasant ery, and will occasionally, when 
angered or pleased, raise or fall the feathers of its crest. 


ORDER XV.—PALMI@EDES. 


Birps 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 ©.U TW Art Em 


Is 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 
its 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; 
the upper parts of the plumage black, with a bar of white across each wing. 


1 Rhynchops nigra, Lin. The genus Rhynchops has the bill long, straight, flattened into 
a blade, truncated at the apex; upper mandible much shorter than the under; nostrils 
lateral, marginal, remote from the base; legs slender; tarsus larger than the middle toe; ~ 
the fore toes united by a membrane; hind toe joined on the tarsus; tail forked, and 
shorter than the wings. 53% 


, 


654. AVES—TERN. 


The tail is short and forked. It inhabits all America; is commonly on the 
wing, and skims along the surface to catch the small fish on which it feeds. 
It is frequently known by the name of the razor-bill. 


THE GREAT. TERN! 


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?2 


Weicus only two ounces and five grains. The bill is yellow; and from the 
eyes to the bill is a black line. In other respects, it almost exactly resem- 
bles the preceding. 


1 Sterna hirundo, Lix. The genus Sterna has the bill as long as, or longer than the 
head, almost straight, compressed, slender, edged, and pointed; mandibles of equal 
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 anterior toes connected by a membrane, the hinder detached; tail more or less 
forked ; wings very long, and pointed. 


a" 
2 Sterna minuta, Lin. 


A 


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 a kind is the striated tern, 


which is found at New Zealand. It is thirteen inches in length. The bill 
is black, and the body in general mottled, or rather striped with black and 
white. 


THE NODDY! 


Is about fifteen inches long. The bill is black, and two inches long, and the 
whole plumage a sooty brown, except the top of the head, which is white. 
It is a very common bird in the tropical seas, where it is known frequently 
to fly on board ships, and is taken 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. 


ig 


THE GULL 


Anp all its varieties, is well known to most readers. It is seen with slow 
sailing flight hovering over rivers, 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, LATH. 


2The genus Larus, which comprises most of the gulls has the bill Jong, or middle- 
sized, strong, hard, compressed, edged, bent toward the tip; lower mandible angulated 
near the point; nostrils lateral, in the middle of the bill, longitudinally cleft, straight, and 
pervious ; legs slender, naked above the knee; tarsus long; three fore toes quite webbed, 
the hinder free, short, placed high on the tarsus; tail feathers of equal length; wings long. 


%* 


% 


656. AVES—GULL. 


when living animal food is not to be found, it has even been known to eat 
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 meee The bill appears cornififssed 
sideways, being more than three inches long, and hooked towards the end, 
like the rest of this kind, of a sort of orange color; the nostrils are of an 
oblong 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 of 
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 inches 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 
rockiest 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 them are 
heard screaming with discordant notes for months together. 


2 Larus marinus, Lin. 


¥ 


il i 
AVES—PETREL. 657 


‘ THE PETRA. 


Tue whole genus of petrels are known by having, instead of a back toe, 
only asharp 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 SUL MAR PER ee 


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 and 
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. 


1 Procellaria glacialis, Lix. The genus Procellaria has the bill as long as, or longer 
than the head, very hard, edged, depressed, and dilated at the base; the tip 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 
forms 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 by a pointed claw; wings long. 


83 


* . 


658° © AWES—MANKS PUFFIN...PETREL. 


MlHE SHEARWATER, OR MANKS PUFFIN} 


% id 


As.it is called by Willoughby, is something smaller than the preceding. 
The head and all the wpper part of the body are of a sooty blackness; and 
the under part, and inner coverts of the wings, white. These birds are 
found in the Isle of Man, and the Scilly isles. In February, they take a 
short possession of the rabbit burrows, and then disappear till 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. rs 


THE: S FOR MY: PET RE Le 


Is about the size of a house swallow. _ The general color of the plumage is 
black, except about the rump, which is white. They are always tobe found 
on the shores of Britain, and seem to be diffused all over the world. They 
sometimes hover over the water like swallows, and sometimes appear to 


1 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 
Europe; 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. 


TAPE AL BAT. RO.S'S 


LSS * 
> == 


Is one of the largest and most formidable birds of Africa and South America. 
The largest, which is called the wandering albatross,! is rather larger than 


1 Diomedea exulans, Lix. 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 
narrow, with the primary quills short, and the secondaries long. 


660 AVES—WILD GOOSE. 


a 
a swan, and its wings, when extended, ten feet from tip to tip. The bill, 
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 climates, 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 GOOSE.! 


Tus 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 inhabitants on the con- 


1 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 base, which 
is furnished with a fleshy tubercle, or smooth; always depressed towards the tip, which 
is obtuse and furnished with a nail; edges of both mandibles divided into conical or flat 
lamellated teeth; nostrils almost at the surface of the bill, at some distance from the base 
ovoid, half closed by the flat membrane that covers the nasal furrow; legs short, feathered 
to 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. 661 


4 
fines of the great lakes are equally ignorant with ourselves of the particular 


breeding 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 Spitsbergen, 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 moment doubt. 


# 


The flight of the wild geese is heavy and laborious, generally in a straight 
line, 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 howk, 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 about 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 
off. Some, whose wings have been closely cut, have travelled on foot in a 
northerly direction, and have been found at a distance of several miles from 

56 

‘“ 

¥ 


4 a 


% 


: 
662 AVES IWILDNG oO SH. 


home. They hail every flock that passes overhead, and the salute is sure to 
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 the decoy geese, than they be- | 
gin calling aloud, until the flock approaches so near, that the gunners are 
enabled to make great havoc 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 Germany, 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 of 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, alight in the middle of the yard. Imagine his surprise 
and pleasure, when, by certain well remembered signs, he recognised in one 
of 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 off- 
spring ; and had now returned with her little family, to share with them the 
sweets of civilized life. 


ae 


oe 
AVES—WILD GOOSE....SWAN. 663 


5 
: 


THE EUROPEAN WILD GOOSEA 
Jf 4 i 


Me; : 
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 lime 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. 


LEE Sw ANS 


So much difference is there between this bird, when on land and in the 
water, that it is hardly to be supposed the same, for in the latter, no bird can 
possibly exceed it for beauty and majestic appearance. When 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. 
In its form, we find no broken or harsh lines; in its 1otions, 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 doubtful whe- 
ther there be any of the tame kind ina 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 leucopsis, TemM. 3 Anas bernicla, Lin. 


4 Anas segetum, GMEL. 5 Anas olor, Lin. 


i 


“ 


¥, “ 
4 


664 / AVES—SWAN. 


the feihers is a very thick, soft down, which is made an article of com- 

merce, for purposes of both use and ornament, 7 1e windpipe sinks down 
into the Taal : in the ordinary manner; and it is th - most silent of all the 
feathered tribe ; it can do nothing more than hiss, ‘which it does on receiving 


any pone ibn: In these respects, it is very different from the wild ora” 


whistling swan. 


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 

the 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, «nd, when in danger, 
the old birds carry off the young ones on their back. A female has been 
known tovattack and drown a fox, which was swimming towards her nest; 

they 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 Bele 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 still pre- 


*: 
AVES—SWAN. 665 


served for their beauty. Many may be seen on the Thames, where they are 
esteemed royal property, and it is accounted 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, 
aldermen, é&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 WHISBLING SWAN) 


m THouGH so strongly resembling the tame swan in color and form, is yet a 
different bird; for it is very differently formed within. The wild. swan is 
Jess than the tame, almost a fourth ; for as the one Tuictllkec ctr ie 
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 what are found upon dissection. The wild species is found in most 
of the northern regions, in America, and probably in the East Indies. 


THE. BLAGK) SWAN.” 29m 


New Holland, that country of animal wonders, presents us with a bird 
which the ancients imagined could not possibly have existence. The black 


oe * 
1 Anas cygnus, Lin. 


84 56* 


666 AVES—EIDER DUCK. 


swan is exactly similar in its form to the swan of the old world, but is some- 
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 base bya slight protuberance. The legs and 
feet are of a dull ash color. Black swans, in their wild state, are extremely 
shy. They are found in Van Dieman’s Land, New South Wales, and 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 fly off in a direct line one after the other, like wild geese. 


THE EIDER DUCK! 


Has a black, cylindrical bill, and the feathers of the forehead and cheeks ad- 
vance far into the base. In the male, the feathers of part of the head, the 
lower part of the breast, the belly and the tail, are black, as are also the 
quill feathers of the wings; and nearly all the rest of the body is white. 
The legs are green. The female is of 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 plants, near the sea, but in a soft bed of down, which 
she plucks from her own breast. Sometimes two females will lay their 
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, remains with them a considerable time afterwards. It is curious to 
observe her manner of leading them out of the nest, almost 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 yards with them, when she dives; and the young ones are left 
floating on the surface, obliged to take care of themselves. They are sel-_ 
dom seen afterwards on land. 

In 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 to line 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 
fergie, 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 
hundred or two thousand pounds weight of this down, besides what is pri- 
vately purchased by foreigners. 

The Greenlanders kill these birds with darts ; pursuing them in their lit- 
tle boats, 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, and their skins are made into warm and comfortable under 
garments. 


} 


568 AVES—TEAL....WIDGEON. em 


. PH ET Bae 


Tris is the smallest bird of the duck kind; it is 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 y, 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 
bright, with yellowish brown spots; the quill feathers cf the wings are 
of a dusky brown, with white edgés; 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 
less fishy taste than any other of the wild duck tribe. 

The female constructs her nests of reeds interwoven with grass, and is 
said to make it among rushes, that it may rise er fall with the varying 
height of the water. 


THE WIDGEON? 


Tis 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 is of a lead 
color; the structure of the head and mouth very much resembles the com- 
mon spilt duck, only the head does not seem to be quite so large, in propor- 


a 


gh 
a 


4 Anas crecca, Lin. 2 Anas Penelope, Lix. 


a %.. , 


tiated uN ’ ’ | { al 


a : 


# 


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 
lines of black. The feathers on the back are brown, the edges more pale 

i, or ash colored ; the scapular feathers, and those under the fore part of the ) 

y ings, are fil variegated with small transverse black and white lines, i, 
beautifully dispersed like waves; the quill feathers are some of them brown, 

. ii with white tips, others have their outward webs of a blackish purple; other 
“parts, 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 


4 


small light colored spots; the rest of the wing feathers are of a beautiful 
party-colored brown and white. The upper part of the tail is ash colored; 
the under part, behind the vent, black. The legs and feet are of a dark lead 
color, and the claws black. The young of 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 tll the end of 
July, and then to become 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 riversand lakes. Their flesh has a fine taste. 


670 AVES—DUCK. 


THE CANVASS-BACK DUCK! 


Is 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. The 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 color 
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, and a 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 witha 
yellow 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, 
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 into a 
knob; the mallard,® which is the stock whence the tame breed has probably 


1 /nas valisneria, WILSON, 2 Anas fusca, Lin. 3 Anas nigra, Lin. 
4 Anas fuligula, Wiison, 5 Anas marila, Lin. 6 Anas clangula, LIn. 
7 Anas tadorna, Lin, 8 Anas boschas, Lin. 


AVES—GOOSANDER...MERGANSER. 671 


» 
been produced; the shoveller,! which has a bill three inches long, and re- 
markably broad at the end; the pintail,? with the two middle feathers of the 
tail three inches longer than the rest; the long-tailed3 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* 


af 

R " 

Weicus 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 blaek, 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, like 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; the 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, Lin. 2 Anas Labradora, GmEL. 3 Anas glacialis. 


4 Mergus merganser, Lin. The genus Mergus has the bill middle-sized or long, slen- 
der, in the form of an elongated cone, and almost cylindrical; base broad; tip of the up- 
per mandible much hooked, and furnished with a nail; edges of both mandibles serrated 
in a backward direction; nostrils lateral towards the middle of the bill; legs short, placed 
peerage on the abdomen, the three fore toes completely webbed, the hind toe articulated 
on the tarsus. r 


“> Mergus serrator, Lin. 


9 


672 AVES—GOOSANDER. 


the breast is 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,! 


Measures eighteen inches from the point of the bill to the extremity. It 
has a fine crest upon the head, which falls down towards the back part of 
it, under which, on each side of the head, is a black spot; the rest of the 
head 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 


® Mergus albellus, Lin. 


_AVES—MERGANSER...PELICAN. 673 


inches long, of a kind of dusky ash color, the feathers on each side shorten- 
ing 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 it agrees 
with the male. 

4) 


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 sur- 
rounded with a large round 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. 


; 


1) AVE 2 Eee ANG 


Tue great white pelican of Africa is much larger than a swan. Its four 
toes are all webbed together ; and its neck, in some measure, resembles that 
of a swan; but that singularity in which it differs from 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 good 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 no. 
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 fora meal. Such is the formation of this extraordinary 
bird, which isa native of Africa and America. It was once also known 


1 Mergus cucullatus, Lin. 


2 The genus Pelicanus has the bill long, straight, broad. much depressed ; upper man- 
dible flattened, 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 branches is sus- 
pended a naked skin, in form of a pouch; face and throat naked; nostrils basal, in the 
Sod a narrow longitudinal slit; legs short and stout; all the four toes connected by 
a web. 


3 Pelicanus onocrotalus, Lin. 


out 


674 AVES—PELICAN. 


in 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, they turn their head, 
with one eye downwards, and continue to fly in that posture. As soon as 


they perceive a fish sufficiently near the surface, they dart down upon 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 industry, till their 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- 
ing ; for, towards night, they have another hungry call ; and they again, 
relasenie go to labor. 

Sometimes, they are said to assemble in large numbers, to act in concert, 
and to mancuvre with great skill, for the purpose of securing an abundant 
prey. This they accomplish by forming a circular line, and gradually nar- 


AVES—CORMORANT. 675 


rowing the 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 TOR: CORVORAN T;! 


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 fcetid 
than even carrion, when in its most healthful state. It is 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. 

Its 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 bill middle-sized, or long, 
straight, compressed ; upper mandible much bent at the tip, the lower compressed ; base 
of the bill involved ina membrane which extends to the throat; face and throat naked ; 
nostrils basal, linear and concealed ; legs strong, short, situated far behind; all the toes 
included 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 tied 
a leather thong round the lower part of their necks, that they may not swal- 
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 their 


itunes cra =e 


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 some 
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 ach which they will catch most dexterously, as 
they are falling in the air.” ‘ it 
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- 
‘tion out the lake or the canal where they are upon duty. When they have 


ie 


"' 


AVES—GANNET. ° 677 


found their prey, they seize it with their beak by the middle, and carry it 
without fail 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 whe 
bore the title of docaentlh the Cormorants. 


THE GUNN ET: OR SOLAN "GOORS Bn! 


Is of the size of a tame goose, but its wings much longer, being six feet 
over. The bill is six inches long, straight almost to the point. It differs 
from the corvorant in size, being larger; 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. 

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, Meyer. The genus Sula has the bill long, stout, in the form of an elon- 
gated cone, very thick at the base, compressed towards the tip, which is obuaney curved ; 
cleft beyond the eyes ; edges of both mandibles serrated ; face and throat naked ; nostrils 
basal, linear, and concealed ; legs short, stout, placed far behind; all the toes connected 
by a web; claw of the middle toe serrated; wings long; tail conical, and composed of 
twelve feathers. 


1 


ds o7* 


4 $ 


678 e AVES—TROPIC BIRD...DIVER. 


Edinburgh, where they are seen in the greatest abundance. “It is scarce- 

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 noise 

is such, that one cannot, without difficulty, be heard by the person next to 
him.” 


Tee 2 ROPRTe BIRD? 


IncLuDEs only three known species, which are all distinguished by a wedge- 
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 ‘DIVERS 


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. 


1 The genus Phaeton has the bill as long as the head, thick, stout, hard, sharp-edged, 
much compressed, pointed, slightly sloped from the base; edges of the mandibles widen- 
ed at the base, compressed and 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 back, all the toes connected by a web ; wings long; a short, but the two 
filamentous middle feathers very long. 


2 Phaeton phenicurus, Lin. 


3 Colymbus glacialis, Lin. The genus Colymbus has the bill of medium size, straight, 
very pointed, compressed ; nostrils basal, lateral concave, oblong, half closed ‘by a mem- 
brane ; legs placed far behind; tarsi compressed; the three ibe toes very long and 
webbed sithe der short, with a loose rudimentary web; wings short; palace short 
and rounded. 


AVES—PUFFIN. — 679 


The head and neck are velvet black, with a white crescent immediately 
under the throat, and another behind. The upper parts of the plumage are 
also black, spotted with white, and the breast and belly perfectly white. 
This 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 of bluish color, generally spotted with 
some black spots or strokes. It flies high and well. It is found on the 
coast of the United States, where it is known by the name of the Joon. 


THE PUFFIN! 


Is the size of the teal, weighs about twelve ounces, and is twelve inches in 
length. The bill is much compressed; the half next the point 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 eyes 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 back, 
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 isa 
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 ; both mandibles arched transversely, furrowed, 
and notched towards the tip ; ridge of the upper mandible elevated above the level of the 
skull; nostrils lateral, marginal, ita naked, almost wholly concealed by a large naked 
membrane; legs short, placed far behind, furnished with only three toes, all directed 


forwards, and webbed ; claws much hooked ; 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 thew incredible hardships; and they are found, by hundreds, 
cast 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, 
till it has dug a hole with several windings and turnings, from 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 scream- 
ing, attempt to get away; but the little bird still holds fast to the invader, 
nor 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, 
invading the puffin at the bottom of its hole, devours both the parent and 
its family. 


THE, GREAT, AUK! 


is 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. 

It 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, with a 
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, Lrx. The genus Alca has the bill straight, broad, compressed, much 
bent towards the tip, both mandibles half covered with feathers, and grooved near the 
oint, the upper hooked, the lower forming a salient angle; nostrils lateral, marginal, 
inear, situated near the middle of the, bill, almost entirely closed by a membrane, and 
covered with feathers; legs short, placed far behind, with three toes directed forwards, 
and palmated; wings short. 


4 


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 the same 


size; andis frequent on the coasts of Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland, 
&e. It lays its eggs close to the sea-mark. 


THE RAZORBILL! 
% 
2 
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. 


TEE Bee GU abuNe 


THE penguins seem to hold the same place in the 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 of 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. 


1 Alca torda, Lux. 


682 AVES—PENGUIN. " 


As the wings of the penguin tribe are unfitted for flight, the legs are still 
more awkwardly adapted for walking. This whole tribe have all above the 
knee hid within the belly; and nothing appears but two short legs, or feet, 
as some would call them, that seem stuck under the rump, and upon which 
the animal is very awkwardly supported. They seem, when sitting, or 
attempting to walk, like a dog that has been taught to sit up, or to move a 
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. PA TAGONTAN PENGUIN! 


Weicus 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 goose; 
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. 


Birps 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 toe short 


1 Aptenodytes Patachonica, Latu. The genus Aptenodytes has the bill longer than the 
head, slender, straight, inflected atthe tip; upper mandible furrowed throughout its 
whole length, the under wider at the base, and covered with a naked and smooth skin ; 
nostrils in the upper part of the bill concealed by the feathers of the forehead; legs very 
short, thick, placed far behind; four toes directed forward, three of which are webbed, 
and the funk 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 DED} 


Swirtness is generally considered as the peculiar attribute of birds; but 
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, and covered with gray feathers; it is just 
barely supported upon two short thick legs like pillars. The 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 of an 
extraordinary 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 soft 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 Didus ineptus, Lx. The characteristics of the genus Didus are a bill long, stout, 
broad, compressed; upper mandible bent at the point, transversely furrowed ; lower 
mandible straight, gibbous, bent upwards at the point; nostrils in the middle of the bill, 
placed obliquely in a furrow; tarsus short; three toes before, divided, the hind toe short, 
claws short, bent; wings incapable of flight. 


i 


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, who first 
discovered it there, called it in their language the nauseous bird, 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. It is a simple bird, and is very easily taken. Three or 
four dodos are enough to dine a hundred men. 

This bird, says Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, was originally 
found on the uninhabited islands rae 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 it died. 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 the commencement of the eighteenth century. 


a 


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et 


CLASS THIRD—REPTILES. 


Vertebrated animals with cold red blood, respiring by lungs ; body naked or 
covered with scales. 


In reptiles, the heart is so disposed, that at each contraction, only a por- 
tion of the blood which it receives is conveyed to the lungs; and from this it 
results that the action of oxygen on the-blood is much less than in the mam- 

_ miferous animals or birds, where all the blood is exposed to the action of the 
Rs 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, andl 
much less than that of birds. Their 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, offers % 
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 toa 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 connection 
; of the nervous system with the muscular fibre is also less necessary to its 


r 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 


body itself continues to move for a still longer period, after the removal of — 
this essential organ. 


68 


+ 


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* 


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 ina 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 cochlea, and but a 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 seizure 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 
all have not the faculty of uttering sounds. No species of reptile is possess- 
ed of 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 
ereater part abandon their eggs after having deposited them in a convenient 
place ; though some species carry them about with them. The young, on 
quitting the ova, appear sometimes 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 


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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 1.—GHELONIA. 


Reptites of this order have a heart with two auricles ; body euclopeal in 
two plates or shields formed of the ribs and sternum ; fur feet. 


DEE" LOR EODS SE. ‘ 


es 


Torrotses are usually divided into those that live upon land, and those that — 


subsist in the water ; and use has made a distinction even in the name, the one 
being called tortoises, the other turtles. However, Seba has proved that all 


tortoises 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 im- 
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 land and those that swim upon the water. 


2h % 


All tortoises, in their external form, much resemble each other ; their 
outward covering being composed of two great shells, the one laid upon the 
other, and only touching at the edges; however, when we come 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 for a 
very small head, 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 from; and they serve for its defence against every creature but 
man. ’ ; f > a oe 


i 9 


ts , 
688 REP TILIA~TORTOISE. 


LAND TORTOISES! 


Are found of all sizes up to five feet 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. It hasa 
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'remain 
secure from all attacks. As the tortoise lives wholly upon vegetable food, 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. x 

Though peaceable in itself, it is 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 
ove 2 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 to 
breathe; 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. 


_ 1 The genus Testudo has the upper shell gibhous, supported by a solid, bony frame, and 
joined through the greater portion of its sides to the under shell; feet with short toes unit- 
ed nearly to the nails, and capable, as well as the head, of being withdrawn within the 


shell; fore feet with five nails, those behind with four, all thick and conical. 


REPTILIA—TORTOISE...TURTLE. 689. 


The eggs of all the tortoise kind, like those of birds, are furnished with a 
yolk and a white; but the shell is different, being somewhat like those soft 
eggs that hens exclude 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 tortoise lays but a few in number, if compared to the sea turtle, who 
deposits from a hundred and fifty to two hundred in a season. 

The amount of the land tortoise’s eggs we have 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 them 
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 larger 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 they are 
great destroyers of bugs. 


THE SEA TORTOIS®, OR TURTLE ae 


As it is now called, is generally found larger than the former. 


We) vile 
THE @REAT MEDITERRANEAN TURTLE 


Is 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, unluckily, 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 scaly fins; toes unequal, elongated, 
scaly, and united by a membrane, with very smal] nails upon their exterior border, termi- 
nated by scaly lamine. 

2 Chelonia coriacea, Cuv. 


87 58%* " 


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690 RBPTILIA-WURTLE. ¥, 


One of these animals was taken in the year 1729, at the mouth of the Loire, 
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 itself 
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 fainting. 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 each 
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 caught 
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, 


Die A WKS BILLS GR: IMBRICATED, TURTLE! 


Is the least of the four, and has a long and small mouth, somewhat resem- 
bling the bill of 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, of which such a variety of beautiful trinkets are 
made. 


1 Chelonia imbricata, Cuv. 


ae 


7 ' REPTILIA—CROCODILE. 691 

But of all 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- 
ties, 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 shell 
of it, as a boat, to his father’s ship. j 

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 
numbers, like 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. 


v 


ORDER I1I.—SAURIA. 


Reptites 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 long; mouth armed with teeth. 


THE, CROCODILE , 


Tuis animal grows to a great length, being sometimes found thirty feet 
long from the tip of 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 half. 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 armed 
with large claws, the longest of which was an inch anda half; these toes 
were united by a membrane, like those of a duck, but much thicker. The 
head was long, 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 fourth tooth in the lower Jaw, on each side, lying along a 
groove in the upper. 


= 


set 


‘ * U hp r 
692 ‘i REPTILIA—CROCODILE. 
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 yery small in proportion to the 
rest of the body. The jaws seemed to shut one upon the other; and no- 
thing can be more false than that the animal’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 s] ices 
between them. The distance of the two jaws, when opened as wide as 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 animal was covered with large scales, of a square 
form, disposed like parallel girdles. The creature was covered not only with 


M , 


these, but all over with a coat of armor; which, however, contrary to what 
_ has been commonly asserted, was not proof against a musket ball. It had 
- mo 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 
emited, had sufficient play to enable the animal to bend like a bow to the 
right and the left; so that what we hear of escaping the creature by turning 
eut of the right line, and of the animal’s not being able to wheel readily after 
By its prey, seems to be fabulous. 
_ gl The strength of every part of the crocodile is very great; and its arms, 
4 : 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- 


a 


a} +f W 

lla mm 
REPTILIA—CROCODILE. 693 

‘ if 
strument of destruction is the tail; with a single blow of this has often 
overturned a canoe, and seized upon the poor savage, its conductor. 

Though not so powerful, yet it is very terrible even upon land. The 
crocodile seldom, except when i Soactl! by hunger, or with a view of deposit- _ 


oh 
ing its eggs, leaves the water. Its usual method is to float along upon 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 expectation of some 

Jand animal that may come to drink; the dog, the bull, the tiger, or man 

himself. Nothing is to be seen of ee 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 animal 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 
to 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. It is often managed like a horse; 
acurb 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, eich 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 
obi ECE of savage pomp, near the palaces of their monarchs. Phillips in- 
forms us, that at Sabi, on the Slave Coast, there are two pools of water near 
the royal palace, where crocodiles are bred, as they breed carp in the ponds 
in Europe. 

There is a very powerfu] 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 slantl 
under the legs and arms. The crocodile’s flesh is, at best, very bad, 
tough eating; but, unless the musk-bags be separated, it is insupportable. ; 
The negroes themselves cannot well digest the flesh; but a crocodile’s’ egg 


r 


is to them the most delicate morsel in the world, 7 


All crocodiles breed near fresh waters; and for this purpose the female 


water lake, to deposit her brood in. She always pitches upon an extensive 


sandy shore, where she may dig a liole without danger of detection from the — 


ground being fresh turned up. There she deposits from eighty to a hundred 


Nik Wor, 
> 
when she comes to lay, chooses a place by the side of a river or some fresh 


$e 


» 


this task; and then covering up the place so artfully that it can searcely be 


gee. PR Pe a es ‘ 
Pe v “ % %, , er 4 . ’ 4 
n ’ : po & yy a se mn 
‘ +. ‘ 
694 R ILIA— -ALLIGATOR. F: 


’ + Saee 5 
eggs, of the size of a enue, and of the same eure covered with a 
tough, white skin, like parchment. She takes above an hour to perform 


perceived, she goes back, to return again the next day. Upon her return, 


Se 


~ ones begin o break open the shell. At this time, the female is instinctively 


’ 


. 
ie 


,: 


with the same precaution as before, she lays. about the same number of 


eggs; the day following also a lke number, Thus, having deposited 
her whole e quantity, and having covered them close up in the sand, they are 
soon vivil y the heat of the sun; and at the end of thirty days, the young 


taught that her young ones want relief; and she goes upon land, to scratch 
a ay the sand, and set them free. Her brood quickly avail themselves of 

their liberty ; a part run unguided to the water; another part ascend the 
back of the female, and are carried thither in greater safety. But the moment 
Negi arrive at the water, all natural connection is at an end. The whole 
brood scatters into different parts of the bottom ; by far the greater number 
are destroyed; and the rest find safety in their seiliey or minuteness. 

The open-bellied crocodile 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 ALLIGA@®OR!] OR AMERICAN CROCO- 
DILE, 


~ Watc# 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 smooth than those of the latter, and that its snout is more-wide 
and flat, and more rounded at the extremity. The usual 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 


w+ . . . 
_ scent is sometimes so powerful as to be exceedingly offensive. 


® 


Wyo tt 


The habits of the North American alligator are described with great 
accuracy, and in a very amusing manner, by Mr Audubon. ‘One of the 
most remarkable objects connected with the natural 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 j jaw entering a cavity in the upper ; feet semi-palmated, and with 
a 


ies 
es 0% 


WS ee \_ ioe af 4 wy oa hae ~” a 
Me al . giles” tide 


1h » i Si, by Be | » he 
rN sgh 4 
a ; , “ 
OREPTILIA—ALLIGATOR, 695 ws 


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 stream in search . 
ef food, with the head only out of the water. It is here neither wild nor 
shy; nor 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 and seen _ 
respecting them in their habits. Se a ne ; 
Tn Louisiana, all our lagoons, bayous, creeks, ponds, lakes, and rivers, 


are well stocked with them; they are found wherever there is a sufficient — ies 
quantity of water to hide them, or to furnish them with food; and they nem 
continue thus, in great numbers, as high as the mouth of the Arkansas 
river, extending east to North Carolina, and as far west as Ihave penetrated. 

Ab 8 


e 


On the Red river, before it was navigated by steam vessels, they were so ~ 
extremely abundant that, to see hundreds at a sight along the shores, or on 
the immense rafts of floating or stranded timber, was quite a common 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 those 


se 


696 REPTILIA—ALLIGATOR. 


3), 


of sheep in a fold. It was on that river, particularly, thousands of the largest 


size were killed, when the mania of having shoes, boots, or saddle-seats 


made of their hides, lasted. It had become an article of trade, and many of 


the squatters and strolling Indians followed for a time no other business. 


The discovery that their skins are not sufficiently firm and close-grained to 
prevent water, or dampness long, 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. 

v The usual motion of the alligator, when on land, is slow and sluggish ; 
it is a kind of labored crawling, performed by moving alternately each leg, 
in the manner of a quadruped when walking, scarce able to keep up Reir 
weighty bodies from dragging on the earth, and leaving the track of their 
long tail on the 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 either to make away or attack, 
but merely raise their body from the ground for an instant, swelling them- 
selves, and issuing a dull blowing, not unlike that of a blacksmith’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 
char-e tu surprise a litter of pigs, or of land tortoises, for prey. 

“The power of the alligator is in his great strength ; and the chief 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, when curved 
into 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 
towards his jaws, which, as the tail makes a motion, are opened to their full 
stretch, thrown a little sideways, to receive the object, and, like batter- 
ing-rams, to bruise it shockingly in a moment. 


a» 


‘REPTILIAW@LIZARD. 697 


“The alligator, when after prey in the water, or at its edge, swims so 
slowly 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 object is secured, as I described 
before.” 


DHE, LIZARD! 4 


Tue 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 repulsive 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 long, 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? 


Is seen in its greatest brilliancy 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 


1 The genus Lacerta has the palate armed with two rows of teeth; a collar on the under 
side of the neck, formed by a transverse row of large scales, separated from those of the 
belly by very small ones ; bone of the cranium projected on the temples and orbits. 

2 Lacerta viridis, Daun. 


88 59 


Mash 


n> 


= 


698 REPTILI@—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 
of a 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 
animal. 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 
‘against a dog, and will fasten so firmly 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 
Kamtschatka ; and in both countries, in spite of its beautiful appearance, it 
is looked on by the inhabitants with horror, from some strange superstitious 
prejudices. ' 

* 


MEE. TG AUN Al 


Is about three feet long, and the body about as thick as one’s thigh. The 
skin is covered with small scales, like those of a serpent; and the back 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 bis throat, which 
reaches down to his breast; and when displeased, he puffs it up like a 
bladder; he 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 Africa 
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. 


1 Iguana vulgaris, Lix. The genus Jguana has the body and tail covered with small 
imbricated scales; a row of spines, or impressed and pointed scales along the back ; 
throat with a pendent and inflated skin, compressed laterally; femoral pores; head 
plated ; a row of compressed triangular and serrated teeth around the jaws, and two little 
rows on the posterior margin of the palate. 


REPTILIA—CHAMELEON. €99 


THE CHAMELEON; 


Like the crocodile, this little animal proceeds from an egg; and it also nearly 
resembles that formidable creature in form. It is found in all the warm 
countries, both of the old and the new world. 

The head of a large chameleon isalmost 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 anda half; the thickness of the body is different at different 
times; for sometimes, from the back to the belly it is two inches, and i 
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 themselves are never swoilen. The skin is very cold to the 
touch; and though the animal seems so lean, 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 
in a shady 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 part 
of its history. At first, it appears to suffer no change of color, its grayish 
spots still continuing the same; but the whole surface soon seems to imbibe 
the rays of light; and the simple coloring of the body changes into a variety 
of beautiful hues. 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 


1 The genus Chameleon has the body shagreened with small sealy granules, compressed, 
and the back edged; tail round and prehensile ; five toes on all the feet, but divided into 
two sets, the one of three toes, the other of two. each united by a membrane to the nails; 
tongue fleshy, cylindrical, and extremely extensible; teeth tri-lobed; eyes large, but 
almost covered by skin, and with separate movements ; no external ear; occiput pyramidal ; 
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 half 
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 satisfaction 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. 


My 


ORDER‘ III.—OPHIDIA. 


Tue ophidia, or serpents, have a heart with two auricles ; body much elon- 
gated, cylindrical, destitute of feet, generally covered with scales. 


TE EAB Ov: C.0 NS R-DOTiORe ” 


Tue ground color of the body of the great boa, which is the largest and 
strongest of the serpent race, is yellowish gray, on which is distributed, 
along the back, a series of large, chain-like, reddish brown, and sometimes 
perfectly red variations, with other small and more irregular marks and 
spots. 

The great boa is frequently 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 


1The genus Boa has the anus with a hook on each side; body compressed, thickest in 
the middle; tail prehensile; scales small, at least upon the posterior part of the head. 


REPTILIA—BOA CONSTRICTOR. 7O1 


days together, and digest their meal in safety. The smallest effort will then 
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 been 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 those 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 the 
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. To explain this, it must be observed, that the jaws of this animal do not 
open as ours, in the manner of a pair of hinges, where bones are applied to 
bones, and play upon one another; on the contrary, the serpent’s jaws are held 
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 lea- 


702 REPTILIA—ANACONDA...RINGED SNAKE. 


ther, 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. 


Innasits Surinam. 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 on the sides. The name of anaconda has been popularly applied to all 
serpents of enormous size. 


THE: BE AC K,.OR RIN GED) SAK E2 


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 
color 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 ofa 
bluish white; the teeth are small and serrated, lying on each side of the 


1 Boa scytale, Lin. 


? Coluber natrix, Lis. The genus Coluber has transverse plates on the belly, divided 
into two under the tail, or forming a double row; head flattened, with nine large plates; 
teeth almost equal; no poison fangs. 


== 


? 
REPTILIA—BLACK SNAKE...RATTLESNAKE. 703 


jaw, in two rows. The whole species is perfectly inoffensive, taking shelter 
in dunghills, and among bushes in moist places; whence they seldom 


remove, unless in the midst of the day, in summer, when they are invited 
out by. the heat, to bask themselves in the sun. 
This snake preys upon frogs, insects, worms, mice, and young birds. 


THE BLACKS NARS 


Or the United States, which is larger than the above, and generally grows 
to six feet long, takes a prey proportionable 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 upon 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 birds 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 coiling round the body, 
in the manner of the boa constrictor. 


THE RATTLESNAKE! 


{s found in North and South America, and in no part of the old world. 
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 resembles 
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 be readily distinguished from the female, by a black velvet spot on the 


1 Crotalus horridus, Lix. _The genus. Crotalus has the head broad, triangular, and 
flattened ; scales carinated ; tongue forked; a hollow behind the nostrils ; upper maxillary 
bones with isolated fangs; plates, or transverse bands under the body and tail; extremity 
of the tail with a rattle, formed of hollow, moveable and sonorous plates. 


59* 


704 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 an 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 be 
precisely known ; however this may be, certain it is, that the young snakes 
of a year or two old, have no rattles at all; while many old ones have been 
killed, that had from eleven to thirteen joints each. They shake and make 


a noise 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 
prey. 

itis 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 
Jarger animals, nor fearing 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 then 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—HOODED SERPENT. 705 


The very instant the wound is inflicted, though small in itself, it appears 
more 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- 
ruptions ; the pain becomes insupportable, and some expire under it in five 
or six hours; but others, who are of stronger constitutions, survive the agony 
for a few hours 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- 
ly, and 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 into 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 CMPELLO. OR HOODED 
SERPENT) 


Inriicts 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 bite is followed by speedy and certain death. It is from three to 
eight feet long, with two large fangs hanging out of the upper jaw. It has 
a broad neck, and a mark of dark brown on the forehead ; which, when view- 


1Naia vulgaris, Lry. The genus Naia has plates larger on the body near the head; the 
head covered with large plates, and hind heaa furnished with a hood; poisonous fangs in 
the upper jaw. 


89 


796 REPTILIA—EGYPTIAN VIPER. 
| 


ed frontwise, looks like a pair of spectacles; but behind, like the head of a 
cat. 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 skin 
is white, and the large tumor on the neck is flat, and covered with oblong, 
smooth scales. 


TAL EB EGY PT AON VDP mt 


41HIs is said to be the officinal viper of the Egyptians, and is, by some, 
supposed to be the asp of Cleopatra, by the bite of which that high-spirited 
princess determined to die rather than submit to be carried to Rome in 
order 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 Egyy'; 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 chestnut brown 
spots or bands, on a lighter brown ground, the scales remarkably short, 
close set, and hard; the eyes are vertical; the head compressed, and covered 
with very minute dark brown scales, and reddish stripes. 


DB) Vi Pee 


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 fram 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, other distinctions fail, the difference of the tail 
can be discerned at a single glance. 

The viper differs from most other serpents in being much slower, as also, 
in excluding its young completely formed, and bringing them forth alive. 
The kindness of Providence seems exerted not only in diminishing the 


1 The genus Vipera has scales on the head rough or granulated ; plates under the belly 
divided into two under the tail; poisonous fangs in the upper Jaw. 


2 Vipera Berus, Cuv. 


the 


708 REPTILIA—HORNED VIPER. 


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 several 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, 
yet 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 willingly 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. Itis 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 
incapable of turning itself sufficiently to bite the hand that holds it fast. 


THE HORNED VIPER. 


Tue 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, Cuy. 


# a 


REPTILIA—AMPHISBENA. 709 


- 


pointing forward ; these horns have nothing analogous in their structure to 
the horns of quadrupeds, and are by no means to be considered in the light 
of either offensive or defensive weapons ; they are moveable, 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 oval 


with 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 AMPHISBEANA) 


TuIs 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 issentirely covered with smooth scales of an almost square form, arrang- 
ed in regular transverse rings. It hasa bard skin of an earthy color. 


1 The genus Amphisbena has the body surrounded with circular rows of quadrangular 


seales ; a row of pores before the anus; teeth not numerous, conical in the Jaws only; ovi- 


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 of 
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 struc- 
ture, this serpent is peculiarly fitted for penetrating into the subterraneous 
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. 


LEE ER OG! 


Ir 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 Jungs, while it keeps under water. The 
lungs resemble a number of small bladders joined together, like the cells of 
a honey-comb; they are 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 that 
purpose in both. Such are the most striking peculiarities in the anatomy 
of 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 body slender; hind feet very long 
muscular, and completely palmated; skin smooth; upper Jaw furnished with a row of 
small teeth and an interrupted transverse one in the middle of the palate; males with a 
thin membrane under the ear, which is inflated with air when they cry. 


REPTILIA—FROG. 2 711 


The female is impregnated neither by the mouth, as some philosophers 
imagine, nor by the excrescence at the thumbs, as was the opinion of Lin- 
neus; 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 impregnated by the male, it drops to the 
bottom. The eggs, which during the four first hours suffer no perceptible 
change, begin then to enlarge and grow iighter; by which means they 
mount to the surface of the water. The twenty-first day, the egg is seen to 
open a little 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 swimming in 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 furnished 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 to 
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 worms and insects. But, as the water cannot supply these, it is oblig- 
ed to quit 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- 
ter; like the rest of the dormant race, it requires no food; and the circula- 
tion is slowly carried on, without any assistance from the air. In the 


7i2 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 mentioned above, is 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 other habitudes, it would appear, that they live 
about twelve years; but having so many enemies, both by 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 
insect it touches infallibly adheres, and is thus held fast till it is drawn into 
the mouth. 

The croaking of frogs is well known; whence 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 male 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 to 
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 ai other times they are supplied with, they show by their silence 
how much they are displeased with the weather. 

As 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 fishes. 
Few that have ponds, but know that these animals willstick to the backs of 
carp, and fix their fingers in the corner of each eye. In this manner they 
are often caught together; the carp blinded, and wasted away. 


REPTILIA—FROG...TOAD. iis 


DME. EB DVB. Da R,O.G 


Whicn 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 FROG? 


Tue tree frog is small, slender, and elegantly made; green in all the 
upper parts, whitish in the abdomen, and reddish on the under surface of the 
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 for 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. 


TH ee OA D8 


As the toad bears a general resemblance in figure to the frog, so also it 
resembles that animal in its nature and appetites. When, like the frog, 
these animals have undergone all the variations of their tadpole state, they 
forsake the water, and are often seen in a moist summer’s evening, crawling 
up, by myriads, from fenny places, into drier situations. ‘There, having 


1 Rana esculenta, Li. 


2 Hyla arborea, Lix. 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. 


3 Bufo vulgaris, Lux. The genus Bufo has the hody thick, short, and broad, covered 
above with warts or papilla, which exude a fetid fluid ; a thick projection behind the ears; 
no teeth; eyes large and protuherant; fore feet with four toes separate ; hind feet short, 
with five toes, generally palmated. 


90 60* 


ms, REPTILIA—TOAD. 


found out a retreat, 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 Linneus 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 all 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 
the 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 
continues 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 difficult 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 year 1731, 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 hundred years, without 
sustenance and without air. : 

Of this animal there are several varieties; such as the water and the land 
toad, which probably differ only in the ground color of their skin. 


THE SURINAM TOAD. 


Tus animal is in form more hideous than even the commontoad. The 
body is flat and broad; the head small; the jaws, like those of the mole, 


1 Pipa Surinamensis, SHaw. The characteristics of this genus, are a body flattened 
horizontally ; head 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 very long, triangular. 


REPTILIA—SALAMANDER. 715 


are 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 number 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 them 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. ‘These 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 confinernent. 
They are of a reddish, shining yellow color; and the spaces between them 
are full of small warts, sudiobkiay pearls. 

In this manner the pipa is seen travelling with her ‘wondrous family on 
her back, in all the different stages of maturity. 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! 


Tue ancients have described a lizard that is bred from heat, that lives in 
the 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 exposed 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 


1 The genus Salamandra has the body elongated ; tail long, cylindrical, or flattened ; head 
depressed ; ears concealed, and with a small cartilaginous late upon the opening ; jaws 
furnished with numerous small teeth, and two (REE rows of similar teeth on the 

alate ; tongue short, thick, and fixed in the lower j jaw; no third eyelid; feet four, with 
our toes before and five behind. 


2 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 
animal 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 
the 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 in convul- 
sions. 


717 


CLASS FOURTH—FISHES. 


Vertebrated ammals with cold, red blood, respiring by gills, or bronchie, 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 abdominal 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 
fins, 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 vertical fins of the back, those under the tail, and at its extremity. 
These radii, or rays, are of two kinds; those of a solid, bony, and pointed 
form, sometimes flexible and elastic, are called spynous 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 the 
reptiles; for, though generally speaking, the fishes have four, yet in some 
families, 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 direc- 
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. The greater part of fishes, besides 


718 ‘ PIS IES. 


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 sink 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 
element, their respiration is necessarily adapted to the nature of that fluid. 
This is accomplished by means of an apparatus named gills, or bronchie, 
placed on the sides of the neck or head. These bronchie consist of numer- 
ous lamine, suspended on arches attached to the hyoid bone, each composed 
of a great number of separate lamin, covered with a tissue of innumerable 
blood-vessels. The water which they swallow passes between these 
lamin, 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 arterial trunk under the spine. Thus the 
heart has but a single auricle, a single ventricle, and a single 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 vertebree of fishes are united together by concave surfaces, filled with 
cartilage. In the greater number, these vertebrae 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 point 
of form, than in any other class of animals, it always consists of the 
same number of bones. The frontal bone is composed 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 
knots, besides, at the base of the olfactory nerve. A superficial nerve also 
runs along the body, almost immediately under what is called the lateral 


PISCES. 719 
¥ 


line 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 into 
small portions. 

The nostrils in fishes are simple cavities or hollows at the point of the 
snout, 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 united into one. The eye is possessed of a 
very flat cornea, with but little aqueous humor; but the crystalline lens is 
almost globular, and very hard. In general, the eyes of fishes are large in 
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 pupillary 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 Chondropterygu. There is neither eustachian 
tube, nor tympanum, and bones ; and the order Selachz have only an oval plate, 
on a level with their head. Itis 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 maceration. 
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 tympanum, 
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 two 
bones on each side ; but these pieces are reduced to the smallest number in 
the Chondropterygii. 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 on the 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 milt of the male, and the ova of the female. 


720 PISCES. 


The sexes in fishes are, in the greater portion, in separate individuals. 
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 melt, 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 
are 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 by the caudal, dorsal, and anal fins. Among the oviparous fishes, 
- hermaphroditism was long considered as a rare and accidental cireum- 
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 cod 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, ina 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 capability 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 
for 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, to ascend 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 ; 
and if whales be found of less size now, than in former ages, when their 


PISCES—LAMPREY. 721 


fishery was but little atténded to, it may be conjectured, that their. age is 
still more considerable. 


SUB-CLASS I.—CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 


THe bones of the fishes of this division are essentially cartilaginous, and, 
in general, are never formed of bony fibres. The most general character 
common 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; bronchie 
fixed, and the openings numerous. 


THE LAMPREY.! 


Tur lamprey much resembles the eel in its general appearance, but is of a 
lighter color, and rather a clumsier make. It differs, however, in the 
mouth, which is round, and placed rather obliquely below the end of the 
nose. It more resembles the mouth of a leech thar an eel; and the animal 
has ahole 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 sucking any body it is applied to. It is extraordinary, the power they 
have of adhering to stones ; which they do so firmly, as not to be 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 remained 
suspended at its mouth; from which it was separated with no small diffi- 
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 Petromyzon has the maxillary ring armed with strong teeth; lips formed 
for suction ; tongue with two rows of small teeth; a dorsal fin before, and another behind 


the anus. 
91 61 


722 PISCES—SHARK. 


ORDER II.—PLAGIOSTOMI. 


Fisues of this order have the bronchi pectinated, the openings numerous, 
without operculi or membranes; palatine and postmandibulary 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. Of 
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 
both 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 
lie 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 
instrument 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. 


1 Carcharias vulgaris, Cuv. The genus 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 dersal fin before the ventrals, and the second 
nearly opposite the anal fin; last openings of the bronchi extending over the péctoral fins. 


PISCES—SHARK. 723 


Still, however, the depredations he commits are frequent and formidable. 
The shark is the dread of sailors in all hot climates, where, like a greedy 
robber, he attends the ships, in expectation of what may drop overboard. 
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 for a 
little ; but, his appetite pressing, he returns again; appears preparing to 
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- 
ing 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 stomach 
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 tail 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, still 
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, 
called a fizgig, into his body, as he brushes along by the side of the ship. 
As soon as he is taken up, to prevent his flouncing, they cut off the tail with 
an axe, with the utmost expedition. 

This is the manner in which Europeans destroy the shark; but 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, and 
suffers the man to approach him; but, just as he turns upon his side to 
seize the aggressor, the negro watches the opportunity, plunges his knife 


724 - PISCES—TORPEDO. 


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 him 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, hammer-headed shark,3 angel shark,’ fox shark, porbeagle shark, and 
others. 


THE TORPEDO.’ 


Tue 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 it in 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 sometimes also the whole body. The shock received 
resembles the stroke of an electrical machine; sudden, tingling, and painful. 
Itis, in truth, electric. ‘The instant,” says Kempfer, “I touched it with 
my hand, I felt a terrible numbness in my arm, and as far up as the shoulder. 


1 Carcharias glaucus, Cuv. 2 Selache maximus, Cuv. 
3 Zygena vulgaris, Cuv. 4 Squatina levis, Cuv. 
5 Carcharias vulpes, Cov. 6 Samna cornubiensis, Cuv. 


7 The characteristics of the genus Torpedo are a body smooth, depressed, obtuse before, 
and nearly circular; anterior border formes 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. 


PISC E'SRiMyY. 725 


Even if one treads upon it with the shoe on, it affects not only the leg, 
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 
according to the thickness of the parts of the body, from an inch and a half, 
to half an inch. The engraving displays the interior of the lower electric 
or galvanic organ. 

When the fish is dead, the whole power is destroyed, and it may be han- 
dled or eaten with perfect security. 


EL ER Yo 


Or this fish there are several species; as, the thornback, starry, sharp- 
nosed, rough, small-eyed, and undulated rays. 


1The genus Raia has a rhomboidal disc; five bronchial openings on each side beneath ; 
mouth below ; tail slender, with two small dorsal fins near its extremity f teeth small, 
. crowded, and 1 in quincunx order; males with hooked spines on the pectorals. 


61* 


e 


726 PISCES—SKATE...STURGEON. 


THE, SHAT EB! 


Is 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. It 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 females 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. 


TuEse fishes have bronchial openings, much cleft, furnished with an oper- 
culum, but without rays in the membrane; bronchiz free. 


THE STURGEON? 


In its general form, resembles a fresh water pike. Formidable as this large 
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 body elongated, and furnished, 
as well as the head, with rows of bony prominences ; mouth placed under the snout, cylin- 
drical, retractile, and without teeth; four cirri beneath the snout. 


PISCES—HUSO. 727 


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 be pushed suddenly out 
or retracted. The upper part of the body is of a dirty olive color; the lower 
parts silvery; and the tubercles are white in the middle. The tendrils 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 contrivance, this clumsy, toothless fish is supposed to keep himself 
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 the 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 is at 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: HUS.O,, ORAQISINGLAS SS B1LS8,! 


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 it 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 skin, the entrails, the fins, and the tail of this fish, 
and cut them 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 itin the shops. This valuable commodity is principally furnished from 
Russia. 


SUB-CLASS II.—OSSEOUS FISHES. 


Tus 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. 


TueseE fishes have the upper jaw formed by the intermaxillary bone, which 
is immoveably fixed upon the side of the maxillary; palatine arch fixed to 
the cranium; bronchial cleft simple. 


ORDER V.—LOPHOBRONCHII. 


Turse fishes have the jaws complete; bronchie in the form of small, 
round tufts, disposed in pairs along the bronchial arteries. 


THE SE A.-H0 Ris Et 


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 is 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 Hippocampus vulgaris, Linx. The genus Hippocampus has the snout tubular; trunk 
of the body compressed laterally, and more elevated than the tail; joinings of the scales 
raised into ridges,, and the projecting angles spinous ; no ventral fins; bronchial openings 
on the neck. 


PISCES—SALMON. 729 


4%, 


ORDER, VI.—MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMI- 
NALES. 


TueseE fishes have the skeleton osseous ; jaws complete; bronchie 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 other 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 
Pe 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 m 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 salmon 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 seyenth of Februa- 


2 Salmo salar, Lin. The genus Salmo has the greater part of the upper jaw formed by 
the maxillary bones; mouth large and furnished with teeth; ventral fins opposite the 
middle of the first dorsal, and the adipose fin opposite the anal; bronchial membrane 
with more than eight rays. 


92 


730. PISCES—SEA-TROUT...TROUT. 


ry, being marked with a 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-TROUL OR SAL MON-T ROU T,! 


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? 


Tuis is a fish of prey, has a short, roundish head, blunt nose, and wide 
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, and 
in’ different seasons; yet each may be reduced to one species. In Llyndivi, 
a lake in 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 buddaghs, which sometimes 
weigh thirty pounds. 

Trouts are common in all the mountainous parts of the United States, 
east of the Alleghany ridge. 


1 Salmo trutta, Lin. 2 Salmo fario, Lin. 


PISCES—SMELT...GRAYLING. 731 


- THE SMELT! 


Innasits the 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 largest we have heard of was thirteen 
inches long, and weighed half a pound. 


THE GRAY LING? 


Is in general of a fine silvery gray, but when just taken it is varied slightly 
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 
its 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 
cartilage. The largest that has been heard of was taken near Ludlow; it 
was half a yard long, and weighed four pounds six ounces. The ancients 
believed that the oil from them would obliterate freckles and small pox 
marks. 


? Osmerus eperlanus, Cuv. The characteristics of this genus are the mouth at the ex- 
tremity of the snout; head compressed; scales scarcely visible; two dorsal fins; two 


rows of scattered teeth on each palatine bone ; bronchial membrane with eight rays. 
, 


2 Coregonus thymallus, Cuv. This ye has the mouth at the extremity of the snont, 
very little cleft ; head compressed ; scales large; two dorsal fins, of which the second is 
adipose, and without rays ; bronchial membrane with seven or eight rays; teeth small. _ 


¥ 


732 PISCES—HERRING. 


THE HERRING! 


Tr common herring is distinguished from the other fish of the same 
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, 
which 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- 
venturous 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 all 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. a 

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 rnillions of enemies 
appear to thin their squadrons. The fin-fish and the cachalot swallow bar- 
rels at a 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-fowl 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 

owding 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, Lry. The genus Clupea has the intermaxillary bones narrow, 
auped efore, and divided longitudinally into many pieces ; mouth not entirely furnished 
with teeth, and often edentate ; belly compressed, carinated, the scales forming a serrature 


on the ridge ; one dorsal fin, above the ventral ones. 


“ 


wut 


PISCES— HERRING. 733 
‘o 


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 beginning of March. Upon their arrival on that coast, their phalanx, 
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 two 
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 almosta 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 producing 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 upon it; and while they 
polar seas and shores are open to such action, the herrings are not there ; ; 
they are on our shores, the full grown and fe 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 
could not come to our shores for the purpose of spawning, even though they 
are all obviously in preparation for sucha purpose. Beside, there is 
animal that migrates southward in the spring; and therefore the neal 
would require one law for the rest of creation, and another for the herrings " 

62 


734 PISCES—SHAD. 


that the latter should be chilled by the genial warmth of the spring, 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 into 
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! 


: 
Ts 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 it visits the Severn, is called the twazte, and is held in great 
disrepute. 

The difference between the two kinds is as follows:—The true shad 
weighs from four to eight pounds; the twaite from half a pound to two. 
_ The twaite may also be known from a small shad, by having one or more 
black 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 Con- 
necticut, at the distance of two hundred miles from its mouth. 


ai 


1 Clupea alosa, Lin. 


PISCES—ANCHOVY...PIKE. 735 


aE A NCE Ow ¥ 1 


Is about six inches anda half in length. The body is slender, but thicker 
in proportion than the herring. ‘The scales are large, and easily fall off. 
The back is green, and semipellucid; the sides and belly silvery; 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, into which they 
are allured by lights fixed to the stern of the vessels. When cured, their 
heads 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 it has 
' 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? 


Is 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 bones 
forming a projecting point, below which the very small intermaxillaries are fixed ; maxil- 
lary bones straight and very long; jaws much cleft, and both furnished with teeth ; bron- 
chial openings large. ‘ 


2 Esox lucius, Lis. The genus Esozx has the snout long, obtuse, broad, and depressed; 
long-pointed teeth on the sides of the lower jaw; the intermaxillaries, vomer, palate, and 
tongue furnished with small and crowded teeth; one dorsal fin opposite the anal one. 


736 PISCES—PIKE. 


According to the common saying, these fish were introduced into England 
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 vyoracious- 
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. It does 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, 
indeed, border a little on the marvellous. Gesner relates, that a famished 


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 spots 
turn pale. 

The head is very fiat; 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 punc- 
tures. The teeth are very sharp, disposed not 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 ef twenty-one 
rays; the pectoral, of fifteen; the ventral, of eleven; the anal, of eighteen. 
The tail is bifurcated. 


PISCES—FLYING-FISH. 737 


THE FLYING-FISH.! 


Tue body of this fish is oblong; the head is almost three cornered ; the fin 
covering the gills with ten rays; the pectoral fin placed high, andas long as 
the whole body; the back fin at the extremity of the back. The tail is 
bifurcated. As it is a 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- 
ment 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 Igave 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 
thé 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 last 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; for, though it should escape from its 


1 Exocetusevolans, Biocn. The genus Erocetus has the head covered with scales; ten 
rays in the bronchial membrane; eyes large ; jaws furnished with small pointed teeth, 
and the pharyngeal bones with flat ones ; pectoral fins as long as the body. 


93 62* 


738 PISCES—CARP. 
’ 


enemies of the deep, yet the tropic bird and the albatross are forever upon 
the wing to seize it. Thus pursued in either element, it sometimes seeks 
refuge 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 J/CAR P,2 


PouisH 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 
they 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, whef taken out and weighed against the fish itself, the former 
has 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 aye 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 first; we have also heard 
of the same mixture between the carp and bream. 


1 Cyprinus carpio, Lin. 'The genus Cyprinus has three flat rays in the bronchial mem- 
brane; tongue and palate smooth; dorsal fin long; second ray of the dorsal and anal fin 
spinous and dentated. 


% 


PISCES—CARP...ROACH. 739 


THE GOLDEN CARP! 


Tus is the common gold fish, which are now domesticated in our houses 
and fish ponds.. They were originally brought from Southern China, 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 small basons that decorate the courts of the 
Chinese houses. The beauty of their colors, and their lively motions, give 
great entertainment, especially to the ladies, whose pleasures, by reason of 
the cruel policy of that country, are extremély 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 other, like the ventral fins. 


THE ROACH 


‘Sounp as a roach,’ is a proverb that appears to be but indifferently found- 
ed, that 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 


1 Cyprinus auratus, Lin. 


® Leuciscus rutilus, Cuv. The genus Leuciscus has the dorsal and anal fins short, and 
destitute of spines and cirrhi. “ 


> 


740 PISCES—COD. 


strong health to the rouget, or roach. Itis 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 pounds. Ina list of fish sold in the London markets, 
with the greatest weight of each, there is mention of one whose weight was 
five pounds. 


ORDER VII.—MALACOPTERYGII SUBRACHIATI. 


Tuese fishes have the jaws complete; bronchie pectinated; ventral fins 
placed either before the pectorals, between them, or a little behind. 


<HE..GiO:D).2 


THe cod seems to be the foremost of the wandering tribe of fishes, and is 
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 

beyond 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 


1 Morrhua vulgaris, Lin. The genus Morrhua has the head compressed ; eyes distant, 
on the sides of the head; body elongated, slightly compressed ; three dorsal fins; two 
anal; ventral fins pointed; a cirrus at the point of the lower jaw. 


PISCES—HADDOCK...HALIBUT...TURBOT. 7AL 


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 Scotland. 


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. 


LEE HA LTB. TA 


Weicus 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. It is the narrowest fish in proportion to its length of any of this 
genus, except the sole. 


DEE: TUR BiO.T 3 


Like 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 general 
form it is somewhat square. Flat fish swim sideways, on which account 
they are styled plewronectes by Linneus. The eyes of all of them are situ- 
ated on one side of the head, 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 


1 Morrhua eglefinus, Lr. 


_ 2 Hippoglossus vulgaris, Biocu. This genus has the hody oblong, compressed ; the 
jaws and pharynx armed with slender pointed teeth; an interval between the dorsal and 
anal fins and tail. 


3Rhombus maximus, Cuv. This genus has the jaws and pharynx with numerous 
slender pointed teeth ; dorsal fin rising from the margin of the upper jaw, and rnnning, as 
well as the anal, almost to the tail ; eyes in the greater number s.nistral. 


742 PISCES—TURBOT. 


immersed in the sand or mud, to render them imperceptible. Of this resem- 
blance they are so corsscious, that, whenever they find themselves in danger, 
they sink into the mud, and continue perfectly motionless. This is a cir- 
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 manner of fishing for them 
off the Yorkshire coast is as follows: 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 baited, 


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 across 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 
smaller 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 touch a 
piece of herring or haddock that has been twelve hours out of the sea; nor 
will they touch any bait that has been bitten by another fish. 


PISCES—SOLE...LUMP FISH. 743 


THE SOLE! 


Tuts 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 them 
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 OWL? 


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 erimson 
color ; but what makes the chief singularity in this fish, is an oval aperture 
in the belly, surrounded with a fleshy, soft substance, that seems bearded 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 destitute of teeth on the eye side; body oblong; dorsal fin commencing at the 
mouth, and running, as well as the anal fin, to the tail; lateral line straight. 


* Cyclopterus lumpus, Lin. 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 ; bronchial membrane with six rays; skin viscid and without scales. 


TAA PISCESBEL: 


the coast of Greenland, in the beginning of summer, where they resort to 
spawn. Their roe is remarkably large, and the Greenlanders boil it to a 
pulp for eating. They are extremely fat, but not admired in England, being 
both flabby and insipid. 


ORDER VIII.~MALACOPTERYGII APODES. 


Tuese fishes have the body elongated, with thick skin, and destitute of 
ventral fins; 


THE EEL. 


Tre common eel 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. 

Itis 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 in 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, small, 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 those which are called silver eels have their bellies white, anda remarka- 
ble clearness throughout. 


1 Anguilla vulgaris, Cuv. This genus has the body rounded, elongated, smooth; 
bronchial openings lateral, placed under the pectoral fins; pectoral fins large; dorsal an 
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 
inches in circumference in the thickest part. They differ from the common 
eel 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 
be 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 thicken- 
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 body; and 
has the capability of swimming backward as well as forward. Their color 
is 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 which is 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 


1 Conger vulgaris, Cuv. The genus Conger has the dorsal fin commencing near the 
pectoral fins, or over them; upper jaw longer than the under. 


2 Gymnotus electricus, Lix. The characteristics of this genus are, bronchial openings 
in part closed by a membrane opening before the pectoral fins; anus placed much 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 at 
pleasure. 

The electrical shock in conveyed either through the hand, or any metallic 
conductor which touches the fish; and a stroke of one of the largest kind, 
if properly applied, would prove instant death to even the human species. 
This extraordinary 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. 


Tuese fishes have the first rays of the dorsal, ventral and anal fins sup- 
ported by simple spinous rays. 


THE WOLF FISH! 


Tuts animal seems to be confined to the northern seas, and sometimes is 
found near the coasts 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 to 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 by the fishermen, who, 
however, prefer it to halibut. 


1Anarchicas lupus, Lin. This genus has the an long, smooth; head thick and obtuse ; 
anterior teeth long and conical ; the others, bony tubercles, with small enamelled teeth on 
their summits ; six rays in the bronchial membrane. 


PISCES—GILT-HEAD...MULLET. TAT 


THE GILT-HEAD! 


Taxes its name from its predominant color, the forehead and sides resembling 
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 seashores, where it roots like a hog, in the sand 
or 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 Daurada has the head compressed; jaws slightly 
extensible, with four or six conical teeth in one row; the others flat. 


2 Mugil cephalus, Lix.. The genus Mugil has the head depressed, broad, and scaly ; 
ventral fins under the abdomen ; and two short dorsal fins; mouth with fleshy and crenu- 
lated lips; lower jaw witha carination in the middle, entering into a corresponding groove 
in the upper; no teeth; bronchial membrane with three rays. 


os 


748 PISCES—PERCH...MACKEREL. 


THE. PERCH! 


Is 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 is a common notion, that the pike will not 
attack this fish, being fearful of the 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 MACKEREL. 


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 bits 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 along 
near the surface of the water. There is a great fishery for mackerel on 
some parts of the west coast of England. This is of such an extent, as to 


1 Perca fluviatilis, Lry. The genus Perca has.a snout without scales, not advancing 
beyond the lips ; second dorsal fin not sensibly longer than the first; ventral fins on the 
thorax ; pre-operculi dentated ; operculi spinous. 


2 Scomber scomber, Lix. The genus Scomber, or mackerel, has a projecting ridge on 
each side of the tail,and a row of pointed teeth in each jaw; anal and dorsal fins with 
the posterior part divided into spurious fins ; the second dorsal, distant from the first. 


PISCES—TUNNY...PILOT FISH. 749 


employ in the whole, a capital of nearly two hundred thousand pounds. The 
mackerel fishery on the coast of New England is very productive. It is 
carried on in small schooners of twenty or thirty tons. 


THE TUNNY! 


RetTAarns not only the character, but the habits of the mackerel. They resort 
in vast shoals to the Mediterranean, at certain seasons, and, from the earliest 
periods of history, have constituted a considerable branch of commerce there. 
The tunny, however, differs greatly from the mackerel in size. One which 
Mr Pennant saw at Inverary in Scotland, weighed four hundred and sixty 
pounds. Jt was seven feet ten inches in length, and the circumference in 
the largest part was five feet seven, and near ihe 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 EIS.H? 


Has a long and banded body, with four loose spines on the back; a com- 
pressed head, rounded off in front; a small mouth, the jaws of which are 
of equal length, 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 Indies, 
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, 


' Thynnus 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 sometimes touching it. 


2 Centronotus ductor, Lacep. This genus has one dorsal fin with spines before ; ventral 
fins supported, as in general, by some rays, the most of which are short; sides of the tail 
carinated ; 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 body is oval, and much 
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 Atlantic, and the Mediterranean. 


THE SW ORDYETS 14 


Is 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 of America. It grows to a very large size, upwards of twenty feet in 
length.. It is ofa Jong 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 has one fin on the back, running almost its whole length. It 
has 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 
kind 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 fins 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; body elongated, 
rounded, with scarcely perceptible scales or projecting carine on each side of the tail; 
petiorsi fins long and pointed; two or three anterior rays of the dorsal fin spinous; no 
ventral fin. 


PISCES—SWORD FISH. 751 


The sword fish has wonderful strength. The Leopard man-of-war was 
struck 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 
hammer 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 
by his pertinacious tormentor, and he is at length compelled to take flight. 


752 


INVERTEBRAL ANIMALS. 


Tue 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 Linneus, the invertebral animals were included in two great classes, 
Insecta and Vermes. But subsequent investigations into their mature 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 bya soft 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 some 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, in as far as regard their subsis- 


tence and repreduction, 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. 
it has been ebserved, as a distinction between the vertebral and the inverte- 
bral animals, that while in the former, the bones or hard parts are more or 
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 
anadrepores, are chiefly composed of carbonate of lime. The invertebral 
animals, as noticed in the introduction, 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 


I 


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 Monuusca. 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 attach- 
ed to their interior, is named Articutata. 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 cases, 


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 ZoorHyTEs, 
to which Cuvier gives the name of Rapiata. In the preceding divisions, the 
organs of movement and sensation are disposed symmetrically on the two 
sides of a common axis. In the present, they are arranged cireularly around 
acommon centre. In this last division, too, the lowest in the scale of ani- 
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 th? 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, 


Cia SS To WOmE y Siew: 


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 Sepre; elongated and cylindrical, as in certain 
Loligines ; 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 these 
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, 
and tail is still less obvious; the body forming only a simple mass. It is 
seldom that the body is furnished with organs of locomotion, properly so 
called, although cutaneous expansions are sometimes remarked on the sides, 
which are subservient to this purpose. ‘The nervous system consists of a 


95 


754 MOLLUSCA. 


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 few 
visceral ganglia, together with conducting filaments or nerves. The brain 
consists of two similar parts, more or less connected, and situated above the 
esophagus. 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 
esophagus, 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 w@sophageal 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 Pieropoda, &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 frem 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; a few mus- 
cular cords, however, are observed to traverse its interior. 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 
branches to the head and its different parts, to the cesophagus, and even to 
the 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 all parts of the body, 
and the other from the respiratory organ, there being no system of the vena 
porte. The venous radicles of the general system of the body, after repeat- 


MOLLUSCA. 755 


edly uniting into trunks, arrive at the respiratory organ, where they are con- 
verted 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 
form, and the place which they occupy in the animal, but also with respect to 
structure. In most of them they are true bronchia, or receive the influence 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 aquatic 
species, it is found simple or compound. It consists of numerous ramifica- 
tions in the Tritonia, of tufts or lamine in 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; at other times, 
on each side of the back; most commonly, 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 parrot’s bill, sometimes placed under the head, 
or almost at its anterior extremity, or very small. It presents itself under 
the form of a longitudinal 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 retractile. The two jaws of the kind 
of snout just mentioned, are cartilaginous and very unequal. Among those 
which are destitute of maxilla, 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 
which have the parrot beak, are also carnivorous. Those which have a 


756 MOLLUSCA. 


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, common- 
iy forming longitudinal folds, and a more or less distinct muscular layer. 
It varies much in respect to its direction and enlargement. Sometimes 
there is a long and narrow csophagus, 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 lobes and lobules, is situat- 
ed 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 loligo ; 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- 
tle. Many species are naked ; but by far the greater number are enveloped 
in a calcareous covering, named the shell. Of those which are naked, some 
are entirely soft in all their parts; while others contain internally, one or 
more solid parts, which are sometimes merely cartilaginous or horny, or 
cretaceous, and lamellar, without being really conchyliform, and sometimes 
constitute a true internal shell. Of the shells produced by the mollusca, 
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 presents, 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 generally 
tumid 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 columella is hollow, its 
opening is called the umbilicus. The shell consists of a mixture of calca- 
reous matter, (carbonate of lime,) and gelatinous matter. This is frequently 
covered 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 fur- 
nishing the generic characters, the structure of the animals of this class not 
being generally known. It also furnishes many of the specific characters ; 


<> 
. 


MOLLUSCA. 757 


while the circumstance of its surface being smooth, or variously grooved, 
tuberculated, or marked with spines, supplies others. The immense variety 
in 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 
are separate, as in the Sepiaria. These animals, however, do not copulat 
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 
Trachelipoda, 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 a crustaceous 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 planordes, 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 them alive, with their shell already formed, as is the case with 
the Buccina, &c. The mollusca are in general aquatic animals. Many 
species, however, are terrestrial; and some appear to live almost constantly 
under ground, such as the ¢estacelle, 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 lymnee. By far the greater part, however, 
live 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 littoral species, as the genera patella, turbo, 
&c. ; others appear to exist only ata distance from the shores, and in deep 
water, whence they are called pelagic species; and the Sepiaria 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, in 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 Sepzaria 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 is in 
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 ‘ 


fb é 


753 MOLLUSCA—CUTTLE-FISH. 


which the pigment called China ink is procured ; and the ancients extracted 
the beautiful purple color, with which the garments of their princes and 
nobles were dyed, from certain species of purpure inhabiting the coast of 
Tyre. 


ORDER II.—CEPHALOPODA. 


TueEsE animals are distinguished by having a mantle in the form of a bag, 
containing the lower part of the body; head protruding fr the bag, 
crowned with inarticulated arms, furnished with cups or suckers, and. sur- 
rounding the mouth ; two sessile eyes; mouth with two horny mandibles; 
three hearts; the sexes separate. 


THE GREAT CUTTLE-FISH 


Tus singular creature, which is about two feet long, has eight arms or 
claws, furnished on the interior side with little round serrated cups, by the 
contraction of which the animal lays fast hold of any thing that comes in 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 eyes ofa 
calf, but are very prominent, and rather resemble the eyes of a crab. The 


1 Sepia officinalis, Lamarck. The genus Sepia has the body fleshy, depressed, con- 
tained in a bag, which is obtuse behind, and margined on either side in its whole length, 
by a narrow fin; a free, calcareous, spongy, and opaque bone included in the body near 
the back; mouth terminal, surrounded with ten arms furnished with cups, of which two 
are pedunculate, and longer than the others 


%? 


“» % 
MOLLUSCA—NAUTILUS. 759 


body is of a reddish brown color, nearly cylindrical. The belly below is 
equal, soft, smooth, oblong-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 formida- 
ble animals. With their arms and trunks they fasten themselves, to resist 
the motion of the waves. The females lay ‘their eggs upon seaweed and 
plants, in clusters like bunches of grapes. Immediately after they are laid, 
they are white, and the males pass over and impregnate them with a black 
liquor, 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 out a black liquor, by which the water 
becomes as black as ink, and under shelter 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 the ancients, and is still 
eaten in the hot countries bordering on the Mediterranean. ‘ 


THE NAUTILUS.1 


Tus animal inhabits a shell which resembles that of a large snail, but is 
generally six or eight inches across; within, it is divided into forty parti- 
tions, that communicate with each other by doors, if we may so call them, 
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 habita- 
tion, is divided into as many parts as there are chambers in its 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 be likened to a number of 
soft bits of flesh, of which there are forty threaded upon a string. From this 


} Nautilus Pompilius, Lys. Shell disciform, spiral, multilocular, with simple walls; 
‘turns contiguous, the last covering the rest; transverse septa, concave externa ly, perfo- 
rated in the disc; the margins entire, 


760 MOLLUSCA—NAUTILUS. 


extraordinary conformation, one would not be apt to suppose that the nauti- 
lus sometimes quitted its shell, and returned to it again; yet nothing, 
though seemingly impossible, is more certain. The manner by which it 
contrives to disengage every part of 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. x 

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 
curiosity. 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, floating 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 properly 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 connected, 
six’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 paddles, 
to steer their course by. When the weather is quite calm, and 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 all its oars, turns its shell 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 entirely. The forsaken hulk is seen floating along, till it 
dashes, by a kind of shipwreck, upon the rocks or the shore. 


ik a 1 Argonauta Argo, Lam. 


MOLLUSCA—SNAIL. 761 


. 


THE SWALh.? 


Tuts animal is furnished with the organs of life in a manner. almost as 
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. 

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 
hides them, by a very swift contraction into the belly. Under the small 


horns is the animal’s mouth; and though it may appear too soft a substance 
y app , 


to be furnished with teeth, yet it has not less-than eight of 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 
shell; they are also stuck to each other by an imperceptible oie, like a 
bunch of grapes, of about the size of a small pea. 

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 enich the shell is originally made, goes to the re- 
establishment of the ruined habitation. 


1 Helix. Shell orbieular, convex or covered, sometimes globular, with the spire slightly 
elevated ; aperture entire, broader than long, very oblique, contiguous to the axis 0 of the 
shell, having the margin disunited by the projection of the penult i imate whorl. 


96 64* 


a , 
® 
762 MOLLUSCA—CONCHIFERA. 


As the snail is furnished with all the organs of life and sensation, it is not 
wonderful to see it very voracious. It chiefly subsists upon the leaves of 
plants and trees, but is very delicate in its choice. At the approach of 
winter, it buries itself in the earth, or retires to some hole to continue in a 
torpid state, during the severity of the season. It is sometimes seen alone ; 
bnt more frequently in company in its retreat; several being usually found 
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 the 
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 sheil 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- 
ment. At first, 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 II1.—CONCHIFERA.! 


Animal soft, inarticulated, destitute of head or eyes, and always fixed ina valve 
shel ; bronchie@ external ; circulation simple ; heart unilocular. 


THE 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 of z 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 con- 
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; and strong transverse muscles, attached to the 


Ne a eke oe Ro a gl A 
(1 Mollusca acephala, Cuv.) 


as 


+ 


MOLLUSCA—CONCHIFERA. 763 


shell, enable the animal to open or shut it atpleasure. 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. 
In some families, this sense appears to reside in tentacular filaments, which 
border the lobes of the mantle, or certain places of these lobes. These 
tentacular threads, which appear very sensible, or at least irritable, are, in 
general, numerous, short, very fine, and move sometimes with extreme 
quickness. The heart in the Conchzfera is placed towards the back. It is 
small, but provided with venous and arterial vessels. The liver is large, 
embracing the stomach and a great portion of the alimentary canal. The 
bronchie are external, and appear more particularly so in those in which the 
mantle is open before. These bronchi are opposite, formed of large vascu- 
lar leaflets, generally crescent-shaped, placed on each side under the cloak, 
covering the belly of the animal, upon the sides of which they are attached 
in pairs. These bronchie are formed of a tissue of small vessels, arranged 
close together, like the pipes of an organ. At the sides of the mouth are 
four triangular thin leaflets, the extremities 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 shell 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 deeth, 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 inequi- 
valve ; and when, on the contrary, both resemble one another, in their 
general form and size, they are said to be eqguivalve. Among the equivalve 
shells, however, are found some, which, when the shell is closed, have, 
towards their 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 
shell be closed, it is then tense, the valves being held together by the con- 
traction of the internal muscle ; but if this muscle is relaxed, the elasticity 
of the ligament alone separates the valves. When, on the contrary, the 
ligament 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 Conchifera never crawl ona ventral disc, or foot, like many 
of the Mollusca, yet some possess a muscular, contractile organ, often com- 
pressed and lametliform, which the animal exerts or withdraws at will. 
This muscular part serves some families as an organ of locomotion, by 
enabling them to execute a sort of leap; in others, deprived of locomotion, 


e ie 
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- 
lar attachment to the shell and their muscular cloak, these parts are much 
developed. The thickness of the muscle which attaches the oyster to its 
shell, and the amplitude of the mantle in all the Conchifera, are well 
known. The 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, 
the 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 muscles 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 become 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 at- 
tached by bony filaments, or a byssus. Lamarck divides the class Conchi- 
fera into two orders, viz. Order first—Monomyaria. With but one muscle 
of attachment; shell marked interiorly with one subcentral muscular im- 
pression. Order second—Dimyaria. 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 Linneus among his Vermes 
éestacea, and form the class of Mollusca acephala in the Régne Animal of 
M. Cuvier. The older naturalists, who arranged the testaceous animals as 
one great family by the from of their testaceous covering, took their charac- 
ters wholly form the shell; and this department of science, including the 
testaceous 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, joined at the back 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 its 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 furntsh~- 
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 equal 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 ; 
for 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 to 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 it 
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 dimensions. This the 
animal has the power of thrusting out of its shell; and with this, it 1s capa- 
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 te 


1 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; muscular impression elongated, clavate sub» 
Jateral. . 


766 MOLLUSCA—OYSTER.. 


make the furrow in 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 its 
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 the 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 by an adhering shell, inequivalyve, irregu- 
jar, with beaks 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 in 
the lower valve increasing with age, 


nee 


MOLLUSCA—PEARL OYSTER. 767 


ters hang in clusters, like apples upon the most fertile tree; and in propor- 
tion as the weight of the fish sinks the plant into the water, where it still 
continues growing, the number of oysters increase, and hang upon the 
branches. 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 difficultly 
broken. 

Oysters usually cast their spawn in May, which at first appears like drops 
of candle-grease, and sticks to any hard substance it falls upon. These are 
covered with a shell in two or three days; and in three years the animal is 
large enough to be brought to market. As they invariably remain in the 
places where they are laid, and as they grow without any other seeming 
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 small 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 plentiful 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. 


2 EP Eee) Ov isk EB Ret 


Has 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 


ie 
1 Meleagrina margaritifera. Lis. The genus Meleagrina has a shell subequivalve, 
rounded, scaly without; a sinus at the posterior base of the valves for the passage of the 
byssus, the left valve being notched ane narrow at this place; hinge linear without teeth ; 
ligament marginal, elongated, almost exterior, dilated in the middle. 


Sy 


768 MOLLUSCA—PEARL OYSTER. 


in America and Asia. The chief of these is carried on in the Persian gulf 
and at Ceylon. 

The wretched people that are destined to fish for pearls, are either negroes 
or some of the poorest of the natives of Persia. The divers are not only 
subject to the dangers of the deep, to tempests, to suffocation at the bottom, 
to being devoured by sharks, but, from their profession, universally labor un- 
der a spitting of blood, occasioned by the pressure of air upon their lungs in 
going down to the bottom. The most robust and healthy young men are 
chosen for this employment; but they seldom survive it above five or six 
years. Their fibres become rigid; their eyeballs turn red; and they usually 
die consumptive. i 

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-eight 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 aday. All the oysters are brought on shore, where they are laid ina 
great heap, till the pearl 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. 


te 


MOLLUSCA—COCKLE...PHOLAS. 769 


THE COCGK'LE 1 


Or the cardium, or cockle tribe, there are more than fifty species; some 
or other of which are to be procured on the sandy shores of all the known 
seas. They are mostly found immersed a few inches deep in the sand. In 
size, the different species vary considerably, some being five or six inches in 
diameter, and others not more than half an inch. The cockle has’a tolera- 
ble degree of locomotive power, in consequence of its triangular yellow foot, 
which is conspicuous on the shell being opened. With this foot it can also 
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. poe oe 


THE CARDIUM EDULE, OR COMMON COOKLE, 


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 pleasant food. 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 being 
sufficiently hard to withstand the violent snapping of the shells of the larger 
species when they close, are deprived of the limb. : 


TH By Pee @. Gt S14 


Or all animals of the shelly tribe, the ‘Pholades are the most won- 
derful. These animals are found in different places; sometimes cloth- 
ed in their proper shell, at the bottom of the water; sometimes con- 
cealed in lumps of marly earth; and sometimes lodged, shell and all, 


1The genus Cardium is characterized by a shell equivalve, subcordiform, with protube- 
rant beaks; valves dentated, or plicated on their internal margin; hinge with four teeth 
in each valve, of which the two primary ones are approximated and oblique, and two late- 
ral distant ones. 


2The genus Pholas has the shell bivalve, equivalve, transverse, gaping on each side 
with several @ijessory pieces, either on the hinge, or below it; inferior margin of the 
valves bent outwards; animal destitute of a tubular sheath, projecting anteriorly, two 
united tubes, often surrounded by a common skin, and posteriorly, a short, thick, muscular 
foot, flattened at its extremity. ; 


97 65 


“i, 


. y 
770 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 
their shell is found actually composed of five or more pieces, the smaller 
valves serving to close up the openings left by the irregular meeting 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 
to itasa miner. ‘The instrument with which it performs all its operations, 
and buries itself in the hardest rocks, is only a broad fleshy substance, some- 
what resembling a tongue, that is seen issuing from the bottom of its shell. 
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 
is 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 

a 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 resembles the 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 ; they 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, one 

v for tee enouth, and the other for voiding the excrements. 


v 


MOLLUSCA—TUNICATA. ri! 


« 


CLASS I11.—TUNICATA. % 


Gelatinous, or coriaceous, biforous, bitunicated animals, asolated, in groups, or 
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- 
tained. Cuvier places them among big molluscous animals, in the class 
Acephala, and makes them the second order of this class, under the title of 
acephalous 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 Heterobranchiata. 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 cf 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 Twnicata, under the general head Mollusca. : 

The animals of the class Tuncata have an oblong, 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 
nervous 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 
gemme or ova, either solitary or together, ina common envelope, seem to 
form the ovaties. 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 independent 
and individual beings, each being provided with a mouth and an aperture for 


112 MOLLUSCA—CIRRIPEDA. 


digestion, applicable to their individual wants, and unconnected with the 
general nutrition of the common mass. Lamarck divides this class into 
two orders. 

Order I. Ascrprarra.— Animals disunited, either isolated, or in groups, 
without internal communication, and not forming essentially a common 
mass. i 

Order I. © Borryitiaria. — Agglomerated animals, always united, and 
constituting a mass with a common covering. 


a . 


sCLAS SLV; CC LRIR MT Prk Di A. 
i a 
Soft animals, destitute of head and eyes, covered with a shell, and fixed ; 
body inarticulated, furnished with a mantle, and tentacular, cirrous, 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 
peduncle, which permits some degree of motion. In the first case, the shell 
adheres immediately to the marine bodies, 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 Czrripeda, in some cases, envelopes only a por- 
tion of the body, and forms the external coat of the peduncle in those which 
have a foot-stalk. In others, as in ie 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 of a great number of 
small 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, and ciliated, with a horny skin. The longest are 
found at the summit of the body, and they gradually diminish, in such a 
raanner 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. 773 


of the mollusca, and seem a species of antenne; 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 bronchie on 
the sides. Their nervous system forms a series of knots, or ganglions under 
the belly. The animals are placed in their shell in such a manner that the 
head 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 walls, 
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 is always multivalve, or composed of a number 
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- 
cle, 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 
shell 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 accessory 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 summit of the peduncle, are essen- 
tially different from those of the bivalve, where the two pieces of the 
shell are connected by a ligament and hinge. The animals of this class are 
hermaphrodite, and all marine. Lamarck divides the class Cirripeda into 
two orders. 

Order I. PepuncuLata.—Body supported by a tubular moveable peduncle, 
of which the base is fixed upon marine bodies ; mouth almost inferior. 

Order Il. Sersstn1a.—Body destitute of peduncle, and fixed by the shell 
upon marine bodies; mouth superior and anterior. 


65* 


174 ARTICULATA—ANNELIDES. 


DIVISION II1I.—ARTICULATA. 


Tue third great division of the animal kingdom consists of animals which 
have their body or members composed of segments or articulated rings, to 
the interior of which the muscles are attached. The nervous system con- 
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 wsophagus, 
though but little larger than the others, is considered as analogous to the 
prain in the higher animals. The teguments of the body are sometimes 
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 is 
in this division of the animal kingdom, that the transition of the circulation 
in closed vessels to 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, MYRIAPODA, 
and INSECTA. 


CLASS V.—ANNELIDES. 


Body soft, more or less elongated, naked or inclosed in a tube, and divided into 
a number of segments ; blood red. 


Tue animals of this class are the only invertebral ones which have red 
blood, circulating in a double system of complicated vessels. Their body is 
naked or inclosed in a tube, formed of segments, or transversely wrinkled, 
and often without a head, eyes, or antenne. They are destitute of articu- 
lated feet ; but the greater portion have in their place, setiferous, retractile 
papille disposed in lateral rows. The mouth is nearly terminal, simple, 
orbicular, or labiated, or in the form of a maxillary proboscis. The anatomi- 
cal 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 Linneus. 

The head of these species which are provided with one, is a slight anterior 
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 five. 
The eyes, to the number of two or four, are also upon the head, behind the 


ARTICULATA—ANNELIDES. 775 


antenne, and between them and the first segment of the body. The tenta- 
cula are either articulated filaments on the head or anterior part of the 
body, or papilla 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 
calcareous, inclosed in the proboscis, in number at least two, and sometimes 
to the number of seven or nine. When this is the case, they are in two 
rows, one above the other. The body of the Annelides is in some naked, or 
without hairs or bristles ; in others, furnished with bristles without papille, 
or with rows of setiferous papille. The bristles which are found without 
papille, are not retractile, while the setiferous mamille are generally so. 
These papille, or mamille, are fleshy sheaths, which inclose each a bundle 
of subulate bristles. The sete traverse the papille, and are attached to the 
muscles under the skin. M. Savigny gives the name of foot to each pair 
of setiferous papilla, and he divides each foot into two branches, one supe- 
rior or dorsal, and one inferior or ventral. The ventral branch is the most 
projecting, and they are best organized for progressive motion. At each 
branch are observed tubular, subarticulated, generally contractile cirri, 
analogous to antenne. These are the antenne of the body. 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 animal 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 each 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 with sharp hooks. They are also retractile, and 
concealed in the thickness of the skinin 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 of 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 two 
filaments which terminate the body posteriorly, in certain species. The first 
segment of the body, either alone or united io some of the following ones, 
often forms a ring larger than the others, more apparent than the head ; and 
in the last segment is a plicated, anal aperture, turned upwards. All the 
Annelides respire by bronchie, and live in water, mud, sand, or moist earth. 
These bronchie 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 of the 


776 ARTICULATA—EARTH WORM. 


body. What are termed eyes in some species, are but ocular points, which 
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 
fragments of shell, in others solid, caleareous, and homogenous. The greater 
part of the Annelides are carnivorous, sucking the blood of other animals. 
They are hermaphrodite, but require mutual impregnation. Cuvier divides 
the class of Annelides into three orders :—1. Tusicou#, those in which the 
bronchi are in the form of tufts, attached to the head or anterior part of the 
body, and generally inhabiting tubes. 2. Dorstprancuim, where the bronchi 
are toward the middle of the body, or along the sides. 3. ABRANCHI@#, where 
the bronchie are not apparent externally. Lamarck, on the other hand, 
divides the class into three orders, from other considerations, viz. : 

Order I. SepENTARIZ.—Destitute of antenne, eyes, and jaws, and inhabit- 
ing tubes. 

Order Il... AntEnNaT#&.—Head with antenne and eyes, and a protractile 
proboscis often armed with jaws. 

Order III]. Avopes.—Destitute of feet or setiferous papille, and anten- 
nated head. : 


THE EARTH WORM! 


Has a power of contracting or lengthening itself at will. There is a spiral 
muscle, that runs round its whole body, from the head to the tail, somewhat 
resembling a wire wound round a walking-cane, which, when slipped off, 
and one end extended and held fast, will bring the other nearer to it; in 
this manner the earth worm, having shot out or extended its body, takes 
hold by the slime of the fore part of its body, and so contracts and brings 


1 Lumbricus terrestris, Lis. The order Apodes to which the earth worm belongs, are 
destitute of feet, without setiferous and retractile papille ; bronchiz, when known, disposed 
interiorly along the body ; no antenniferous head. 


a“< 


- 


., ARTICULATA~—LEECH. Th 


forward the hinder part; in this manner it moves onward, not without great 
effort; but the occasions for its progresssive motion are few. 

As it is designed for living under the earth, and leading a life of obscurity, 
so it seems tolerably adapted to its situation. [ts body is armed with small, 
stiff, sharp burrs or prickles, which it can erect or depress at pleasure ; under 
the skin there lies a slimy juice, to be ejected as occasion requires at certain 
perforations, between the rings of the muscles, to lubricate its body, and 
facilitate its passage into the earth. Like most other insects, it has breath- 
ing holes along the back, adjoining each ring; but it is without bones, 
withou eyes, without ears, and, properly, Tunout feet. It has a mouth, 


_and also an alimentary canal, which runs along to the very point of de 


tail. In some worms, AS particularly such as are found in the bodies 
ef 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 it are 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 often 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 warmth 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 torpidity of the 
insect tribe. In spring, they revive with the rest of nature, and on those 
occasions a moist er 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 soi!, 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 stiff fer their easy progression under ground. 


THE BEECH; 


From its uses in medicine, is one of those insects that man has taken care 
to propagate ; but, of a great variety, one kind only is considered as service- 


98 


778 ARTICULATA—LEECH. 


able. The horse leech,! which is the largest of all, and grows to four 
inches in length, with a glossy black surface, is of no use, as it will not 
stick to the skin; the snail leech is but an inch in length; and though it 
will stick, is not large enough to extract a sufficient quantity of blood from 
the patient ; the broad-tailed leech, which grows to an inch and a half in 
length, with the back raised into a sort ef a ridge, will stick but on very 
few occasions; it is the large brown leech? with a whitish belly, that is 
made use of in medicine, and whose history best merits our curiosity. r 
The leech has the general figure of a worm, and is about as long as one’s 
middle finger. Its skin is composed of rings, by means of which itis pos- 
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 on each 
side, with some yellowish spots on the back. The belly also, which is of a 
reddish 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 
take 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 not 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 animal 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 | 
‘yound the wound which it has made; and thus, in the manner of a cupping- 
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 forty 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, 
inthe same manner. The young ones are chiefly found, in the month of 
July, in shallow running waters, 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 confine- 
ment; and, consequently, what regards that part of their history still 
remains obscure. ; 
In England, they seldom grow to above four inches; but in the East, 
they are found from six to seven. Their pools abound with them in such 
numbers, that it would be dangerous bathing there, if from no other consi- 


a 


1} Hirudo sanguisuga, Lix. The genus Hirudo has the body oblong, blunt, slightly 
depressed, widened posteriorly, composed of numerous contractile segments, and with the 
posterior extremity terminated by a broad prehensile disc; mouth naked, dilatable, 
armed interiorly with three teeth or horny jaws; no eyes; anus superior, neaf the 
posterior disc. 


2 Hirudo medicinalis, Lin. 


CRUSTACEA. 119 


deration. The English sailors and soldiers, who were obliged to walk in those 
countries through marshy grounds, talked with terror of the number of leeches 
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 in a 
neighboring marsh, among some bushes; but the number of leeches was so 
great in that place, and they stuck to her so close, that the poor creature 
expired from the quantity of blood which she lost by their united efforts. 
Nor is this much to be wondered at, since one of these insects, of a large 
size, will draw about an ounce of blood. 


’ 
CLASS VI.—CRUSTACEA. 


Invertebral animals, with a crustaceous, and more or less horny 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 
| wahaxooteaxos, 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 Insecta, 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 and 
eyes, and where the sexual organs are in the same individual; but, on the 
other hand, to place them between the Cephalopodous and Gasteropodous 
Mollusea, which would seem to be their place in the series, would break the 
chain of connection which unites this great class. It became necessary, 
therefore, either to place the Crustacea before molluscous animals, or after 
them, and this last alternative has been adopted by modern zoologists. The 
Crustacea, besides the characters they have in common with the two follow- 
ing classes, possess some peculiar to themselves. They respire by bronchiz, 
or by bronchial lamine generally annexed to their feet, or to their jaws. 
They have a distinct heart, provided with circulating vessels; feet to the 


“ 


: | tf 


780 CRUSTACEA: 


number of five or seven pairs; a head, sometimes not distinct from the 

trunk, with two or four antenne, and two moveable, compound, and often 
pedunculated 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 re- 
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- 
minant, till 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 thorax, 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. feet, and sometimes the two or 
four following ones, being terminated in a kind of forceps; at other times, in 
simple 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 labium below, and from three to five” 


pairs of j 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 exterior 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 lamine, 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 
above 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 
radiated 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 branchie, the manner in which 


the head is connected with the trunk and the organs of mastication. The 
first three were included by Linneus in his genus Cancer ; the fourth form- 
ed the genus Oniscus, of that author. 


ih 


/ 


ty 


CRUSTACEA—LOBSTER. 781 


Order I. Decapropa.— With palpi at the mandibles, moveable eyes, and_ 
the head not distinct from the trunk; bronchie pyramidal, in leaflets on 
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. one.” 
Order Il. Sromaropa.— With palpi at the mandibles, and moveable 
eyes, but the head distinct from the trunk, and divided into two portions, 
of which the anterior bears the antenne and eyes; bronchie plumose, sus- 
pended under the tail. 

Order II}. Ampuieopa.—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 anterior 
pair. 

Order IV. Isopopa.— Mandibles without palpi, and the mouth always 
composed of many jaws, of which the two under ones resemble a lip with 
two palpi; bronchie 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. Brancnropopa.— Mouth in the form of a beak, sometimes 
composed of many jaws; feet in the form of fins, and the bronchie attache 

_ed between them. Body generally covered with a shell, not distinct from 
the head. . 
bh sf ‘! 
fh The Crustacea are generally carnivorous, feeding on dead, or decomposed * 
animal matters. Some are constantly fixed on cetaceous animals, aquatic be 

reptiles, and fishes. The greater portion live in the sea, at different depths, 14. 
and in localities proper to their various habits ; others are found in fresh Pps 
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 

run 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. 


Tue 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, in the same % : 
transverse line, the two intermediate shortest, and deeply bifid, the lateral ones simple, 

and longer than the ‘anig © and the peduncle with squamiform teeth ; exterior feet-jaws 

long, the two first joint furnished with stiff hairs, and small spines on the internal side ; 

body oblong, subeylindrical, and the shell with a projecting beak; tail terminated by a 
fan-shaped fin ; the lateral pieces divided in two ; six anterior legs didactyle, the first pair 
very long and thick, with the head more or less tuberculous, and spinous. 


782 GCRUSTACEA=LOBSTER? 


‘the animal moves with its claws foremost; and that the part which plays 
within itself by joints, like a coat of armor, is the tail. The mouth, like 
that of insects, opens the long way of the b dy, 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 are 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 dimness 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 instrument 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 by a 
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 belly; and 
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 count- 
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 cen 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 


CRUSTACEA—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 
little to apprehend, except from 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 large 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 once a year; and this is not only a most painful 
operation, but also subjects them to every danger. Just before casting 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 some 
time, that they neither take food nor venture from their retreats. Immedi- 
ately after this change, they have not only the softness, but the timidity of a 
worm. Every animal of the deep is then a powerful enemy, which they 
can 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 de- 
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, some 
time after, eats even its former shell. In about forty-eight hours, in propor- 
tion to the animal’s health and strength, the new shell is perfectly formed, 
and as hard as that which was but just thrown aside. 

When the lobster is completely equipped in its new shell, it then appears 
how much it has grown in the space of a very few days; the dimensions 


SA aie ees ee 
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itt " iN us by f “iy - aM hi. . 
784  GCRUSTACEA—LOBSTER. ' 


of the old shell being compared with those of the new, it will be found ‘a ‘ihe 


the creature is increased above a third in its size; and, like a boy that 
outgrown his clothes, it seems wonderful how the deserted:shell was able 
contain so great an animal as entirely fills up the new. ~ *) ; ey 
The creature thus furnished, not only with a complete covering, but ie 
a greater share of strength and courage, ventures more boldly among 
animals at the bottom; and nota week passes that in its combats it does: “ef 
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 
x, ihe 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 retires 
from the defeat to wait for a thorough repair. This repair it is not long in 
procuring. From the place where the joint of the claw was cut away, is 
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. We say 
____ 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. 4 
Of this extraordinary, yet well-known animal, there are many varieties, 
with some differences in the claws, but little in the habits or conformation. 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 for a few 
hours. The shell is black when taken out of the water, but turns red by boil- 
ing. The most common way of taking the lobster is in a basket, or pot, as the 
fishermen call it, made of wicker work, in which they put the bait, and 
be then throw it to the bottom of the sea, in six or ten fathom water. The 
_ lobsters creep mto this for the sake of the bait, but are not able to get out 
we” _ again. 


Mi 


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Wy 


As the crab is found upon land as well as in the water, the peculiarity 
of its situation produces a difference in its habitudes, which it is proper to 
describe. 


THE COMMON, OR BLACK-CLAWED CRAB, ‘ 


Has three notches on the front; five serrated teeth on each side; the claws +i 
elevated ; 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 compelled 
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, Se c 
as we might be led to infer from reasoning, at the joint, but in the smoothest a 
part. ‘ 


1 Cancer pagurus, Lin. The genus Cancer, or crabs, have the exterior antenne short, in- 
verted between the inner canthus of the eye and front, and the intermediate ones, in small 
furrows in the centre ; third joint of the anterior feet-jaws, almost square, with a notch at 
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 lateral angle obtuse; eyes on a short peduncle. y 


99 66* si 


2 


786 CRUSTACEA—CRAB. 


TEE LAN DiC RA B 


Is found in some of the warmer regions of Europe, and in great abundance 
in all the tropical climates in Africa and America. They are of various 
kinds, and endued with various properties; some being healthful, delicious, 
and nourishing food; others poisonous or malignant to the last degree ; some 
are not above half an inch broad, others are found a foot over; some are of 
a dirty brown, and others beautifully mottled. 


LH EE) VilOL ED, CR ACB, 


Or the Caribee Islands, is the most noted, both for its shape, the delicacy of 
its flesh, and the singularity of its manners. It somewhat resembles two 
hands cut through the middle and joined together; for each side looks like 
four fingers, and the two nippers or claws 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 above a 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 not 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 atatime. As they multiply in great numbers, they 


choose the months of 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 from the holes which they dig for themselves 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 foot 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 
compelled to conform to the face of the country ; and if it be intersected by 
rivers, 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. They are commonly 
divided into three battalions ; of which the first consists of the strongest and 
boldest 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 . 
battalia, 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, consisting 
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- 
face of the ground, they then make a universal halt, and wait till the cool 
of the evening. When they are terrified, they march 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 
are sometimes three months in getting to the shore, they have arrived at 
their destined port, they preparg 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 body 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 larger, is excluded 


t 


¥, 
788 CRUSTACEA—CRAB. 


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 
shore 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 hatehed 
under the sand; and soon after, millions at a time of these little crabs are 
seen 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 tl:ey 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 
is at that time that the animal is seen slowly making its way back; and all 
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 like 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 


' Pie , we 

has some similitude to the lobster, if divested of its shell. It is usually 

about four inches long, has no shell behind, but is covered down to the tail 

with a rough skin, terminating in a point. It is, however, armed with 

strong, hard nippers before, like the lobster; and one of them is as thie 
ee 


y “ 5 
Pie NS 


vce 1 Pagurus Bernhardus. Lin. 


CRUSTACEA—CRAB. 789 


a man’s thumb, and pinches most powerfully. It is, as was said, without 2 
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 large 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 


iar 


old habitation to try on the new: this Ae is found to be inconvenient, and. sH 


it quickly returns to its old shell again. In this manner, it frequent 
changes, till at last it finds one light, roomy, and commodious; to this it 
adhe 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 ecbinbetg also, that the 
soldier is completely equipped ; for het 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 micty. There it 
continues till the necessity of changing once more, and the desire of produ- 
cing an offspring, expose it to fresh dangers the year ensuing. 


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70 CRUSTACEA—SHRIMP. © 


DHE Of RLM Ps 


we Sunms possess long, slender feelers, and between them two thin, project- 

ing lamine; the claws have a single hooked, moveable fang; they have 
three pair of legs; seven joints in the tail; 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. 


VEY PRAWN 2 


THE 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 beautiful 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 shrimp, seldom enters the mouths of rivers. 
It usually swims on its back, but when in danger it throws itself on one 
side, and springs backward to a considerable distance. 


7 


_ 17he genus Crangon, or shrimp, has the anterior part of the legs largest, with a com- 
pressed monodacty, hand ; the second and third parts more slender ; the fourth and fifth 
thicker; exterior antenne setaceous, the length of the body; the intermediate divided 
into two filaments; shell thin, semi-transparent, with a short rostrum before. 


2 Palemon serratus, LEAcu. 


ARACHNIDES. 791 


Bae 


CLASS VII.—ARACHNIDES. 


Oviparous animals with articulated members, and not undergoing a metamor= 
phosis ; respiration tracheal or branchial, the openings for the admission of 
the air stigmatiform ; no antenne. 


Tne animals of this class were arranged by Linneus in the last order of 
his class Insecta, but were formed into a separate class by Lamarck, in 1800, 
under Arachnides, from egaxvys, a spider, as denoting animals 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 
of 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 
others, these parts take the form of the sucker. The Arachnides are also 
destitute of a labium, or under lip, as in the insects; the part designed under 
this name being a dilatation of the space between the fore feet, which some- 
times forms part of the sucker. The mouth is generally accompanied by 
two 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- 
rally 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 
circulation, respiration, and intestines, and the secreting vessels of the mat- 
ters which forms their web. The heart is a large vessel running along the 
back, with branches on each side. The respiratory organs, two in number, 
and composed of minute lamine, 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 generally indicate the place 
of these organs. The intestinal canal is short, with two dilatations, the last 
surrounded by the liver. The vessels containing the matter of the web, 
generally six in number, extend on each side internally, are of a tortuous 
form, 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- 
nides live on land; others in the water; and a third group are parasitical 


fax 
a > 


792 ARACHNIDES—SCORPION. 


on different animals. In general, they are carnivorous, and suck the blood 
of their prey or animals. A small number only feed on vegetable matters. 
Many haye 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 
a" ~ are poisonous, and their bite dangerous. Lamarck divides the class of Arch- 
: nides inte three orders, viz: First, These destitute of antenne, furnished 
with branchial sacs for respiration, and with six to eight eyes. Second, 
Those destitute of antenne, with branched trachea for respiration, and with 
twi ‘or four smooth eyes. Third, Those with antenne and gangliated tra- 
ch a for respiration ; while Latreille arranges the class into two orders, ac- 
cording to the characters of their branchial apparatus. 
Order I. Purmonarr#.—With pulmonary sacs for respiration; a heart 
and distinct vessels. 
Order Il. TracnEarr#.—Respiring by trachex, and the organs of cir- 
culation indistinct. _ 


EREYS CORPION 


yi n 


ath _ There are four principal parts distinguishable in this animal; the head, 
# La’ the breast, the belly, and the tail. The scorpion’s head seems, as it were, 
Fi joined to the breast; in the middle of which are seen two eyes; and a little 

iy HOR 2 rward, 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 into each 


; 7 
1 The genus Scorpio has two large palpi in the form of arms, the last joint thickest, 
and in the form of forceps ; mandibles short, narrow, and didactyle ; jaws short, rounded ; 
eyes six or eight; body oblong, divided into many segments, with a ine: knotty, tail ter- 
minated in an arch Bears two pectinated and moveable plates under the belly at the 


base of the abdomen ; ur spiracles on each side; eight feet. 


ie 


ji 
ie 
ous 


tr 


adh 


‘ 


“ 


+ it pm 4 
hn, ARACHNIDES—SCORPION. 793 


other, which serves the animal as teeth, and with which it breaks its food, 
gna 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 is large, 
with strong muscles, and made in the manner of a lobster’s claw. Below 
the breast are 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 
bristly, and formed like little globes, the last being armed with a crooked 

sting. This is that fatal instiment which renders the insect so formida-_ 

ble ; it is long, pointed, hard, and hollow; it is pierced near the base by two , | 
small holes, €itough which, when the teres stings, it ejects a drop. of 
poison, which is white, caustic, and fatal. The reservoir in which this 
poison is kept, is a small 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, andin | 
France, in the province of Languedoe, it is one of the greatest pests that 
torment mankind; but its malignity in Europe is trifling, when con upared 
to what the natives of Africa and the Hast are known to experience. In 
Batavia, where they grow twelve inches long, there is no removing any ( 
piece of furniture, without the utmost danger of being stung by them. ‘i 

Bosman assures us that, along the Gold Coast, they are often found 


‘) larger than a lobster ; and that their sting is inevitably fatal. In Europe, Bi aga ata 

the general size of this animal does not exceed two or three inches ; and its hf 

; fe aoe 
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. ie 
From his experiments, indeed, it appears that many circumstances, whighh bak 
are utterly unknown, must comment to give efficacy to the scorpion’s, 
venom; but whether its food, long fasting, the season, the azure of the 
vessels it wounds, or its state of maturity, Mantras to or retard insane 
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. Helbigius, 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 gene- 
rally ensued; but he always cured it by rubbing the part with a piece of iron - 
100 6 hs Saat 67 " 


794 ARACHNIDES—SPIDER. 


or stone, as he had seen the Indians practise before nim, until the flesh be- 
came 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 no animal in the creation seems endued with such an 
irascible nature 


THE SPIDER! 


ee. 


Has two divisions in its body. The fore part, containing the head and 
breast, is 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 part is clothed with a supple skin, beset 
all 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 eachside. Like all other insects, their 
eyes are immoveable; and they want eyelids; but this organ is fortified 
with a transparent horny substance, which 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, toothed like a saw, and terminating in 
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 enemies ; they can open 
or extend 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 eight legs, 
joined like those of lobsters, and similar also in another respect; for if a leg 


_1 The order of Araneides or spiders has paip1 in the torm of small feet, terminated by a 
little hook, the last joint bearing *4e sexual organs i:. .ie male; four to six web-spinning 
mamillz situate near the anus, and in both sexes. 


tgif ARACHNIDES—SPIDER. 795 


be torn away, or a joint cut off, a new one will quickly grow in its place, 
and the animal will find itself fitted for combat as before. At the end of 
each leg there are three crooked moveable 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, which 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 can find 
inequalities that are imperceptible to our grosser sight. But when they 
walk upon such bodies as are perfectly smooth, as looking-glass or polished 
marble, they squeeze a little sponge, which grows near the extremity of 
their claws, and thus diffusing a glutinous substance, adhere to the surface 
until they make a second step. Besides the eight legs just mentioned, these 
a 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. It is a most experienced hunter, and spreads its 
nets to catch such animals as it is unable to pursue. The spider’s web is 
generally laid in thosé places where flies are most apt to shelter. There 
the little animal remains for 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 five 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 which 
this animal forms 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, composed of five joined together, and these are many times doubled 
when the web is in formation. 

When a house spider proposes to begin a web, it first makes choice of 
some commodious spot, where there is an appearance of plunder and secu- 
rity. The animal then distils one little 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 thus 
formed, drawn tight, and fixed at each end, the spider then runs upon it 
backward and forward, still assiduously employed in doubling and strengthen- 
ing it, as upon its force depend the strength and stability of the whole. The 


af 


796 _ ARACHNIDES—SPIDER. 


scatfoldine 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 artfully 
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 fiy, 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 
seed; 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 mm 
remained for an hour or two to dry after exclusion, the little animal then 
_ prepares to make them a bag, where they are to be hatched, until they leave 
the shell. For this ee 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 as if she had one body placed behind another. 


¥ 


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 bag, 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 its own. The young ones begin to 
spin 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 
appearance 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 has 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 olive 
brown, variegated with one that is more dusky; it has eight legs and eight 


1 Argyroneta aquatica, Lat. __ 2 Tycosa tarentula, Lar, 
" 67% 


a 


pote «6 


798 | ARACHNIDES—SPIDER. 


eyes, like the rest, and nippers, which are sharp and serrated; between 
ls and the fore legs there are two little horns, 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 winter it lurks in holes, and is seldom seen. K. 

Thus far 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 with a 


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 several 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 out 
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 of symptoms 
which music is said to remove. 


TRE GREAT *CAMERIC AW SPIDER. 


Tuis is one of the largest species of the tribe. Its back is covered with a 
hard, thick, brown coat, hollowed 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 distinguished from the corslet. The mouth is furnished with 
brown, hard, crooked teeth; the body is large and round, growing out into 


: - Mygale avicularia, Lt. 


MYRIAPODA. 799 


two parts. Except the back, the whole body and the feet are covered witb 
long bushy hair. The extremities of the feet are smooth and large, like the 
toes of a dog. 

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 blood, and after- 
wards sucks their eggs. 


CLASS VIII.—MYRIAPODA. 


Head distinct, with two antenneé ; mandibles simple, incisive ; feet on all or most 
of the segments of the body. 


THE animals of this class were arranged among the apterous insects by 
Linneus, under the generic appellations of Scolopendra 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 body, which 
receive the air by 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 or double pairs on the segments of the body, and 
increase in number as the body 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 wholelength.. Their head is fur- 
nished with two short antenne, 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 crusiacea.. 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 
of this class are found under stones, the bark of trees, &c., and feed on 


Foal ohn 


at 
mS F = 
800 MYRIAPODA—SCOLOPENDRA...GALLY-WORM. 


Pciivie or animal substances. Latreille divides the class of Myriapods into 
two orders, viz. vee 

Order I. Cumocnatna.—Antenn@ filiform, of seven Hoints: mouth com 
posed of two mandibles, and a lip divided by sutures; two or four anterior 
feet united at the base. % t 

Order Il. Cuxitrorpopa.—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. 


ES & 
Pe 


+k 


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 common 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 his 
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 animal 
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 irritated, 
without any vindictive consequences. 


1 Scolopendra morsitans, Lin. 2 Julus. 


. 


eibee ie 


INSECTA. Sot 


All these as weil as the scorpion, are produced perfect from— the 
parent, or the egg; and to undergo no changes after their first exclusion. 
They are seen of all sizes; and this isa sufficient inducement to suppose 
that they preserve their first appearance through their whole existence. It 

as probable, however, that, like most of this class, they often change their 
skins; but of this we have no certain information. 


§ 
ny 
, 


] 


CLASS [X.—INSECTA. 


Articulated animals with six legs, respiring by means of trachea ; head distinct 
from the thorax ; two antennae. 


Tuts branch of science named Entomology, (from évro“oy, an insect, and 
4oyoc, 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 int the in- 
fancy of society, to whose 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 Jnsecta 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, evrowa, (ev and teuryw,) was used by the 
Greeks. 

Linneus, 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 divides 
the whole into seven orders, viz. 


I. CoLeortera, (from xodedc, a sheath, and zrre90”,a wing.) Wings four, 

the upper ones crustaceous, with a straight suture. 

Il. Hemierera, (from juov, half, and ategdv.) . Wings four, semicrusta- 
ceous, incumbent. ' 

HI. Lerworrera, (from Aezic, a scale, and wtegdy.) Wings covered with, 
imbricated scales. 

IV. Nevrorrera, (from vévgov, a chord or string, and 7teQ03'.) Wings, 
membranous, with ribs or nerves ; anus unarmed, 


101 


7 on Ps i ay Veo SS 
ea ae Po See an a 
* » 24 ; a 
, 


” 
‘ 


802 — INSECTA. 
; 4 
V. Hymenoptera, (from ijuyy, a membrane, and ntegdv.) Wings mem- 
branous; anus aculeate. 
VI. Dirrera, (from duw, tvo, and mtegdy.) Wings two, with poisers in 
place of the posterior pair. 


VIL. Aprera, (from &, without, and zregdv.) Destitute of wings or elytra. 


Fabricius, a pupil of Linnzus, 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, to 
those afforded by the wings; but Fabricius carried the principle much far- 
ther, and made the Trophi, or Instrumenta Cibraria, as he termed them, the 
basis of all 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 suc- 
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 


caractéres 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 anatomical 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. * 


‘ ts, 
I.—APTERA. 7 


Order I. Trysanoura. Order III. SypHonarTera. 
6° II. Parasrra: 


II.—ALATA. 


Order IV. CoLEOPTERA. Order VIII. HyMENoPTERA. 
gs V. OrtHorTera. “© «IX. Leprporrenra. 
«VI. Hemirtera. de X. RuIPIPTERA. 
“VII. Nevrortera. “ XI. Dierera. 


The body of insects is divided into three principal parts, the head, the 
thorax, and the abdomen. The head, of which the surface bears many 
names, according to the position of its parts, such as the vertex, the fore- 
head, the nose, the hood, and the cheeks, supports the antenne, the eyes, and 
the mouth. The antenne vary much in their composition and form. The 
apterous insects, which form the first three orders, and the coleoptera, have 


< 


ica a i, * 4 Qs : 
e - F ” : 
* , 
INSECTA. 803 


never more than one kind of eyes; but many of the other orders, besides 
their compound eyes in facets, possess minute smooth 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 lateral, 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. 

In insects which feed on solid substances, the four lateral pieces are con- 
sidered as jaws, and the other two pieces as lips. The two upper jaws, 
generally horny, or scaly, similar to strong teeth, and without 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 filaments, 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 triangle, ciliated or hairy, and accompanied often 
on the internal side, by a smaller piece, named the internal lobe 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, 
called 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 or 
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 termed lips; the upper one being generally 
termed labrum (labium superius). The under one, termed the labium, or 
labium inferius, is formed of two parts; one inferior, generally horny or 
coriaceous, is the chin, (mentwm,) the other membranous, sometimes entire, 
sometimes notched, or trifid, and bearing the palpi, is termed ligula. These 
palpi have from two to four joints, and are called labial. They are general- 
ly shorter than the exterior maxillary palpi. The pharync is situate between 
the jaws and the lip. The interior of the mouth in the Orthoptera, and 
some other insects, has a fleshy caruncle in the form of a tongue, or epiglot- 
ius. 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- 
pose together a species of trunk or proboscis, which Illiger names promuscis, 


7) 


= 
« 


804 INSECTA. 


and which Latreille calls a spurious proboscis ; and in regard to this organ, 
Lamarck considers the Hymenoptera as intermediate between the guawers 
and suckers. Among the insects which feed on fluids, 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 lamine, in the 
form of sete, composing by their union, a kind of sucker (Aaustellum) which 
1s received into a sheath, the substitute for a lip, either cylindrical, conical, 
or jointed, termed the rostrwn or beak in the Hemiptera, or membranous 
and fleshy, terminated by two lips, termed the trunk or prodoscis, 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, (éngua,) 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 is a 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 are attached the organs of locomotion. It is form- 
ed of three segments, each with a pair of feet; but in the winged insects, 
the upper sides of the last two segments also form points of attachment 
for the wings. The term thorax has been given to the upper surface of the 
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 scutelluwm. The anterior segment of the thorax, ma 
great 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 greatersize, are internally united, and form a rounded mass, 
distinct from the abdomen. . In both these cases, the large naked portion 
receives the name of thorax. ° 

The insects of the first three orders have but one species of locomotive 
organs, and only proper for walking; others have, also, wings to the number 
of four; and the posterior extremity of the thorax is furnished, in those 
which have only two wings, with two appendages, one on each side, termed 
poisers or. balancers, (halteres,) and often other appendages in the form of 
spoonlike scales, (sguamule,) or winglets. “ha he 

The wings (ale) are membranous, elastic, generally transparent, aut 
attached to the upper sides of 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 


a 


‘ 4 ¢ niet 
oo se 
INSECTA. 805 


the liveliest colors. The scales are imbricated, each has a peduncle, 
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, 
8 (involucra). Tn the greater part of the Orthoptera, these wing-cases, or upper 

te 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 
crustaceous 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- 

umerly like a-fan, in repose; in others, they are folded transversely, as in 
Sy oleoptera; and in others again, as the earwig, while one portion of the 
wings i 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 song. ‘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 is pur- 
pose of calling their females. 

The feet in insects are composed of the hip or cowa, of two joints; the 
thigh, (femur,) the leg, (t:dbig,) and the toe, (tarsus,) 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 
jast joint of the tarsi is simple, or divided into two lobes, almost always 
terminated by two claws or hooks, between which, in many, ave remarked 
from one to three membranous cushions or suckers. , In the form of the 
feet, and particularly the tarsi, there are certain modifications, correspond- 
ine: to the habits of the insects. The two anterior ones have sometimes the 


ee 


——— a 


ae 


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, use them for 


68 


: ae 


m 


S06 INSECTA. 


seizing their prey, and are termed raptorw. Others have the tarsi com- 
pressed and ciliated or even hairy, demonstrating their aptitude to be used 
as oars, or for swimming, and these are called natatorw. 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 fossorii.) These feet also in some are not subservient to mo-— 
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- 
ments, 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 (aculeus) 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 pellucid, 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 which move the wings and feet; and besides these are 


INSECTA. S07 


some strong muscles approaching the dorsal or ventral portions, which 
appear intended to give to the breast a movement of compression or dilatation. 

The 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 separate 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 tumid, 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 ligniperda) 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 themselves horizontally in the air for hours, supported by 
their posterior feet on a vertical surface. 

The nervous system of insects is the same as in the annelides, the crusta- 
cea and arachnides. From the brain, or what is considered equivalent to 
the brain, the nervous matter in the head, originate threads, which extend 
to the eyes, to the antenne, 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 anumber 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 or multiplied 
faces of the external eye, take their figure and become individual retine. 
Those species which shun the light are destitute of the choroid coat. The 
pigment which covers the upper surface, and that which covers the opposite 
side of the cornea is opaque, slightly fluid, and adheres strongly. The cornea 
is composed of a hard elastic membrane, with the surface reticulated or 


808 INSECTA. r 


divided by small hollow lines, often furnished with hairs, and a number of 
hexagonal facets. Lewenhoeck has counted three thousand one hundred 
and eighty-one in the cornea of a beetle, and eight thousand in that of a 
moth. The butterfly has seventeen thousand two hundred and thirty-five. 
Each facet may be considered as a crystalline lens, concave within and 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, many 
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, from 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 seen. 
The seat of this faculty some naturalists are inclined to believe is in the 
antenne, while others, as M. Dumeril, suppose it to be at the entrance of the 
trachee or stigmata. On the other hand, Brunnich, Olivier, and Marcel 
de 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 con- 
sidered to be those named antenna 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 been 
discovered. <A dorsal vessel, or long transparent canal, reaches indeed from 
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 narrowed 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 emptying itself by absorption and exuda- 
‘tion. M. Carus, however, has discovered in the caudal lamine of some 
larvee, and in the rudimentary wings, an excurrent and incurrent motion of 
fluid in distinct tubes, which he conceives to be a true circulation ; a circum- 
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 been 
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 by means of two tubes, one on each side of 


“ 


rs 


rie) 
: 


INSECTA. “809 
Aw 
the body, and running along its whole length, named trachee. From these 


tracheal vessels are derived a great many ramifications or bronchi, the num- 
ber of which is more or less considerable, as they belong to parts enjoying 
more or less vital energy. The tracheee communicate with the external air by 
means of openings called stigmata, of which the number varies, placed on 
each side of the body. In caterpillars, the number of stigmata is generally 
eighteen. These stigmata are marked in the skin of the insect by a small 
scaly plate, open in the centre, and furnished with membranes or filaments 
to protect the entrance. The larve of mahy species which live in water, 
have on the sides of their body, filaments or appendages in the form of 
lamin, upon which are spread vessels communicating with the bronchi and 
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 possess 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 tale, provided with strong projecting 
ribs, separated by large hollow spaces. It is 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 the male. The abdomen, which is coni- 
cal, is provided below and near the base, with two large semicircular scales, 
which cover an empty space, in which is a delicate, tense membrane, equiva- 
Jent 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 
stridulous noise which is heard when the Sphinx atropos is touched, is occa- 
sioned by the air escaping rapidly by the trachew 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 
rubbing 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 simila 
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 upen 
which it lives in preference, and which it is endowed with the power of dis- 
covering and procuring. Many in their perfect state live on food quite dif- 


102 68* 


810 INSECTA. 


ferent from that upon which they subsisted when in the state of larvee; and - 
yet, notwithstanding of this, they instinctively deposit their ova upon the 
peculiar matters necessary for the food of the young. Thus the lepidoptera, 
which in the perfect state, suck the honey of flowers, never fail to place their 
ova on or near the plants, the leaves of which are proper for the nourishment 
of the caterpillar; and thus it happens that the culices, whose larve are des- 
tined 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 
their taste. Such are a great number of caterpillars, which feed on certain 
leaves, 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 
lepidoptera, 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 their larve ; 
while others prove powerful destroyers of the different species of 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- 
cles. 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 
abdomen 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 species. 
_ The flesh-fly is well known to deposit its ova in butcher’s meat exposed ; 
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 coleoptera of the genera 
Dermestes, Ptinus, &c.; and these minute animals likewise destroy the most 
valuable furs. Other insects attack living animals, and feed on their solid 
and fluid parts. One larva in particular, belonging to the genus Cistrus, 


r 


sd 


“i 


INSECTA. 811 


lives on the back and under the skin of horned cattle, and feeds on the pus 
which is formed by the tumors occasioned by their residence. Other larve 
of 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 larve 
of another species of estrus in their frontal sinuses,on 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 cinzps of Geoffroy, 
and the sphex of Linneus. 

The organs of deglutition, in insects, present nothing very remarkable. 
The w@sophagus 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 
fluids are carried there by the pressure of the sucker. 

The organs of digestion comprise the stomach and the intestinal canal. 
These are, according to M. Marcel de Serres, formed of three membranes. 
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 stomach of the first form occurs in the greater 
part of the insects. In some it is simply membranous; 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 prey, such as the hydrocanthari, the cocindelete 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 ruminating 
insects, or as having the faculty of returning again to their mouth the ali- 
ments in their organs of digestion. In insects, it is to be remarked, there 
often exist great differences in the structure of the intestinal canal, properly 
so called, in the state of larve, and in the perfect insect. Thus, in the 
caterpillar of the butterfly there is an @sophagus dilated abruptly to form a 
cylindrical stomach, with three transverse rows of ccecums totally different 
from the form of the same parts in the perfect insect. Similar differences 
have 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 food; but when the larve and the perfect insect 
feed on the same materials, this alteration in organization does not take place. 


ahi 


812 INSECTA. 


Besides the secreting organs proper to nutrition and generation, others are 
found in certain insects for secreting fluids, either calculated for defence, or 
for protecting them from variations of temperature during their transforma- 
tions. The acrid and fetid fluids with which some insects defend them- 
selves, are produce . by small tortuous tubes, and accumulated in two vesicles 
near the anus. 

The Carabiand the Dytiscz secrete acid fluids which redden vegetable blue ; 
the Brachini discharge an acid vapor, which gives considerable pain; a spe- 
cies of Blaps produces a brown fetid oil, which swims upon water; the 
silk-worm posses: es organs for secreting a silky matter of which the threads 
of silk are foretiieena in the Hymenoptera, such as wasps, bees, sphexides, 
&e., the extremity of the abdomen incloses a sting, vee 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 
higher 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 newters. 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 antenne, 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 Hippobosca equina, produce their young in the pupa state; yet, generally 
speaking, the whole class may be 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- 
Jar, cylindrical, pyramidal, 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 animal may find its proper food without the parent’s care. 

The number of ova deposited by particular insects is extremely various ; 


but in general it may be remarked that the fertility of insects exceeds that 
7 


&: me 


INSECTA. 813 


of birds, 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- 
moth sixteen hundred. 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 deposits not less than sixty ova in a minute, thr thousand six hun- 
dred in an hour, or eight hundred and sixty- -four teusahdlttia a day! 

The most mendarieable 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 
in which the animals appear, and which form as many great periods of their 
life. In the first, they have no wings, and some 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 of these in- 
cludes, with the exception of the crustacea, nearly the whole of the Lin- 
nean orders, Aptera and Hemipiera; the second comprises, with few ex- 
ceptions, the whole of the Linnean orders, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymendp- 
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 tempo- 
rary repose. Many penetrate the ground to the depth of several 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 intestines; and the various aquatic larve leave the water for an 

: ‘ 


814 INSEC TA. 


element more suited to their future existence. The coccinelle and others fix 
themselves by the anus under leaves or twigs; others suspend themselves by 
a silken thread; and a very great number enclose themselves in cases or 
cocoons composed of silk and other materials, to undergo their final change. 
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. Linnus 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 partzal 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 so 
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 which 
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 many 
writers to insects in the pupa state. The period insects continue in the 
pupa state is various. Some species remain only a few days under this 
form, others as many months, or even years. Each, however, has in gene- 
ral a stated period, which is seldom or never exceeded. ‘As Lamarck has 
observed, there seems between the insect races and the vegetable kingdom 
a correspondence of developement. The larve are produced from the ova 
when the 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 or 
several months, according to circumstances. 

The caterpillar of the Papilio machaon, one of those which have a double 
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 until 
June, in the following year. The same is the case with a vast number of 
other insects, and their developement has been thus discovered to depend 
much on the temperature of the season, or, which is the same thing, on the 
developement of plants destined to afford them protection and support. In 
the month of January, Reaumur placed several of the pupe 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 
five or six days, which would have required as many weeks in ordinary 
circumstances. The converse of this experiment equally succeeded ; for by 
keeping pupe in an ice-house during the whole summer, the production 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 threaten 
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 odtected 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 rigid 
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 flies away. 

The last stage of the life of insects is termed the zmago 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 of the members, cal- 
culated for action in a different situation or in a different medium. The 
elytra assume their brilliant colors; the wings expand to their proper size, 
and assume their various workings ; and what seemed a few minutes before 


‘ 


€ 


ieee ' am « 


816 INSECTA. 


but an inanimate half-formed mass, is now transformed into an animal 
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 éipule and the ephemera, however, this process is almost 
instantaneous ; and in some species 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- 

ishing with more than botanical skill the plants and their juices which 
are necessary 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 the zmago or perfect animal is subject to 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 period 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 ephemere, 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 this in the 
course of a few hours, by dropping their ova on the surface of their native 
waters, perish before the dawning of another day. Others, as flies, moths, 
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, &c., exist from six to nine, twelve, 
and even fifteen months ; a and some instances have been recorded of particu- 
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 


} » 
ws 


oe ae gales 


INSECTA. 817 


existence is generally observed to be in relation to the period of their attaining 
maturity—that is, that an animal is long or short lived, in proportion as it at- 
tains puberty in a longer or shorter period. Among insects, this analogy 
does not hold; for while the larve 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 Melolon- 
tha vulgaris, which exists four years in its preparatory stages, lives only 
eight or ten days as a perfect insect ; some ephemere, 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 three 
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 
having 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 exisfence; and under similar circumstances, 
Ephemere, which naturally perish in one day, may be kept alive for seven or 
eight. ek 

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 which 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, or 
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. 

All insects which live in society, with the exception of the Termes, un- 
dergo a complete metamorphosis. Among the Termes, the young differ but 
little from the full-grown insect, except in point of size, the absence or 
shortness of wings, and other distinctions of slight 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, 
walls, or under ground. The wasps and bees, on the contrary, whose wings 
103 69 
” , 
rh 


Bad 


i ee ee ye 


' » 
818 ; INSECTA. 


; 


enable them to enlarge the sphere of their industry, have a greater choice of 

' material anda wider range of action. Thus the dwellingsof 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 ina mixed form, that is, where there 
are workers of one or two other species, the internal economy and arrange- 
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 fune- 
tions; for some which M. Huber distinguishes by the name of Amazons, have 
jong, narrow, arched mandibles without dentations, which, from their form, 
are neither proper for carrying mor 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 

animals, is in their case committed to the care of strangers whom they have 
__ taker’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. Itis upon the species named F’. fusca, that they chiefly exercise 
their power. M. Huber, led by 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 sim- 
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 
‘the same warlike propensities. M. Huber has detailed the tactics of these 
“small animals from observations made in the cantons of Switzerland, where 

the species is common, and demonstrated that the scourges of war and 
_ slavery are not confined alone to human beings. The bee, however, presents 
os instinctive faculties of a more amiable nature. It has no carnivorous pro- 
___ pensities ; and while some of the other insects which live in societies, sub- 
_ sist by rapine and destruction, this interesting animal pursues its peaceful 


of. 


ry 


#4" 
op 


x 
4 ‘7 


~~ ‘ 
INSECTA. 819 
labors, collecting honey and wax from sources inaccessible to human means, a 


and presents a model of industry and foresight which has often been held up © 
by moralists as instructive to man. on 
The migrations of insects, or rather their appearance in certain countries, f 
at certain periods, laying waste whole territories by 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 flights 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 that of the atmosphere, and thus many of these animals, and 
above all the larvee, pass the winter in a state of torpor. In those which — #, 
live in society, however, such as bees, the temperature of the bive is always oy 
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- 1 
tion of insects over the world, in every variety of climate. It has been observed {m 
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 prolifie ~~ 4 
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 tribes. 
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 
vegetables of extensive dissemination. M. Latreille is.of opinion, that, if . 
the geographical range of insects were well known, and the species ascer= 
tained, a connection between the vegetable productions of the soil, andthe 
animals, might be traced; anda clue might be thence procured for ascer- Kit 
taining from’ their insect inhabitants, to what portions of the newest con- 
tinents the multitude of islands in the Asiatic ocean originally belonged. Py, 
There is no data for ascertaining with any degree of accuracy the actual 


number of insects distributed over the surface of the globe. In reference to bs 
. t 


a . 


‘ 


; 


’ 


4 


820 bi 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 hundred and ten thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand. And 
Messrs Kirby 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; and, 


proceeding on the same data with regard to the plants of that country, that thi 
insects indigenous to Great Britain may be estimated at ten thousand, 
cluding the Arachnides and Crustacea, one hundred thousand species are 
computed already to have a place in cabinets. 

The slow progress of the science of entomology has left to be discovered 
by future 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 
iermes,) 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 culices, 
and the common flies pump up the juices upon which they feed, might pos- 
sibly afford hints for improvement in instruments used for a similar purpose 
in the arts. ‘‘ These animals,” says Latreille, “are often so minute, that one 
cannot even 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 . 


little 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 ex- 
hibited than in the concentration of organs in such anatom. On giving life 
to this atom, and constructing in dimensions so minute, so many organs, 


ee 


+ 


INSECTA—LOUSE. 821 


susceptible of different sensations, my admiration of the Supreme Intelli- 
gence is much more heightened than by the contemplation of the structure 
of the most gigantic animals.” “ We attach, and with 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 
i 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 from 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.” 


TEE: C0. 0. S.E.t 


In 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 hairs; in 
the fore part is a proboscis or sucker, which is seldom visible; on each side 
of the head are antenne 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 
insects, 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 hairs; the 
ends of 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 parchment, 
and, when roughly pressed, cracking with a noise. 

When we take a closer view, its white veins, and other internal parts, 
appear; as likewise a most wonderful motion in its intestines, from the — 


l Pediculus humanus, Liy. The order Parasita, under which this genus comes, has 
six feet and no wings ; abdomen destitute of articulated and moveable appendages ; two 
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 with hooked mandibles. 


69% 


4 - 


829 INSECTA—FLEA. 


transparency of its external covering. When the louse feeds, the blood is 
séen to rush, like a torrent, into the stomach; and its greediness is so great, 
that the excrements contained in the intestines are ejecied at the same time, 
to make room for this new supply. " 

The louse has neither beak, teeth, mor 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 lodged partly in the breast 
and back; but the greatest portion of it is in the abdomen. When it is 
empty, 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. Superfi- 
cial observers are apt to take this for the pulsation of the heart ; butif the ani- 
‘mal be observed when it issucking, it will be found that the food takes a direct 
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- 
crease 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 several 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 
small head, large eyes, anda roundish body. It has two feelers, or horns, 
which are short, and composed of four joints; and between these lies its 


1 Pulex irritans, Lrx. The order Syphonaptera, under which this genus comes, has the 
body compressed ; mouth with a sucker of two pieces, inclosed between two articulated 
laminz, which united, form a rostrum or proboscis, either cylindrical or conical, and of 
which the base is covered with scales. * 

® 


ey 


INSECTA—GLOW WORM...BEETLE. 823 


trunk, which it buries in the skin, and through which it sucks the blood in 
large quantities. The body appears to be all over curiously adorned with a 
suit of polished sable armor, neatly joined, and beset with multitudes of 
sharp pins, almost like the quills of a porcupine. It has six legs, the joints 


of which are so adapted, that it can, as it were, fold them up one within aie 


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)! ae 


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- 
trary, 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 forth 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. 


2 The order Coleoptera has four wings, of which the two meyer ones are in the form of 
cases; mandibles and jaws for mastication ; under wings folded across ; elytra crustace- 
ous and the suture straight. 


vm 


i ai: Sa 


sinh 


824 INSECTA—COCKCHAFER. 


necessary to those insects, as they often live under the surface of the earth, 
in holes which they dig out by their own indusuy. 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. aN 

If we examine the formation of all animals of the beetle kind, we shall 
find, as in shell-fish, that their bones are placed externally, and their muscles 
within. These muscles are formed very much like those of quadrupeds, and 
are endued with such surprising strength, that, bulk for bulk, they are a 
thousand times stronger than those of a man. The strength of these 
muscles is of use in digging the animal’s subterraneous abode, 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 ize also makes a considerable one; some beetles being not 
larger 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 them 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 bred in the same 
manner. 


THE COCKCHAFER} 


a 


May-suc, or dor beetle, as some call it, has, like all the rest, a pair of cases 
to its wings, which are of a reddish brown color, sprinkled with a whitish 


1 Melolontha vulgaris, Lin. 


We Bae ma 


INSECTA—COCKCHAFER. 825 


dust, which easily comes off. In some years their necks are seen covered 
with a red plate, and in others with a black; these, however, are distinct 
sorts, and their difference is by no means accidental. The fore legs are 
very short, and the better calculated for burrowing in the ground, where 
this insect makes its retreat. It is well known to children by its evening 
buzz; but still more formidably ‘introduced to the acquaintance of hus- 
bana and gardeners; for in some seasons it has been founll to swarm in 
such numbers as to eat up every vegetable production. ' 

The two sexes in the cockchafer are easily distinguished from each other 
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, the 
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 vesq@jables she shall 
deposit her 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 frequently 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 joints, 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 io have none, but is furnished 
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. 

It is not till the fe of the fourth year that this extraordinary insect pre- 
pares to emerge from its subterraneous abode; and even this is not effected 
but by a tedious preparation. 

Wherever an attentive observer then walks abroad, he will 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 are 


seen by thousands, buzzing along, hitting against every object that me " 
’ 


cepts their flight. The mid-day sun, however, seeme too powerful for the 

constitutions; they then lurk under the leaves and branches of some shady 

tree ; but the willow seems particularly their most favorite food; there they 
104 _ 


# / 


By 


~s 


5 4 


fark in clusters, and seldom quit the tree till hs have devoured all its 
verdure. ra ie 

Their duration, however, is but short, as they never survive the season. 

Of all the beetle kind this is the most numerous, and therefore 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 

living upon the roots of vegetables, or the suceulgit parts of the bark 

around them. 


EC AUN TD PA RLS 


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 feelers 
like bristles, flexible cases to the wings, a breast pretty plaim, 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 well known, are of the greatest benefit to mankind, 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 summer time, upon the leaves of the ash, the poplar, 

the rose-trees, and also among wheat, and in meadows. “4 

% 


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THE TUMBLEDUNG! 


ParticuLarLy demands our attention; it is all over of a dusky black, 
rounder than those animals are generally found tobe, and so strong, though 
not much larger than the common black beetle, that if one of them be put 
under a brass candlestick, it will cause it to move backwards and forwards, 
as if it 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 laborious, either in seeking subsistence, or in providing a proper retreat 


™* 3 us 
1 Cantharis vesicatoria, Lin. 2 Ateuchus volvens, Lin. 


“ , h 


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. These pellets, in September, they convey three feet deep 
in the earth, where they lie till the approach of spring ; when the eggs are 
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 witha 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! 4 


° ; 
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 ofa 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 anda quarter, and the breadth of 

each elytron, or case for the wings, is an inch and three tenths. The anten- ” 
ne, or feelers, are quite horny ; for which reason the proboscis, or r trunk, j is 
moveable at its insertion into the head, and seems to supply the place of 

feelers. The horns are eight tenths of an inch long, and terminate in 

points. The proboscis isan inch anda 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, er 

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 

rhinoceros. There is indeed a beetle so called; but then the horn or trunk 

has no fork at the end, though the lower horns resemble this. The feet are 

all forked at the end, but not like the lobster’s claws. 


t au 


1 Scarabeus Hercules, Lin. af 
: 


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828 INSECTA—COCKROACH. 


THE GIGANTIC COCKROACH} 


vl 
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a ee 
ty a ‘ 
Rie 
ow . ° re . pa 
’ THE above insect is the Taest of its species, and is almost the size of a 


hen’s egg. It i is a native and nlaane of the warm parts of Asia, Africa, and 
South America. This, and indeed all the other species of cockroaches, are a 
ace of pestiferous beings, equally noisome and mischievous to natives or 
strangers. These filthy and voracious insects fly out in the evening, plunder 


~ and defile all kinds of victuals, dressed and undressed, and damage all sorts 


‘of clothing, every thing made of leather, books, paper, and various othe 
articles. They f into the flame of candles, and sometimes into the dishes; 
and they are very fond of i 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 aval sit over the putrid body of a large animal, as write with a 
ink in which they have died. They often fly into the falls or bosoms of 
sons, and their legs being armed with sharp spines, the pricking ro, 2 a 
sudden horror not easily repressed. In old houses they ae myriads, 
making indescribably 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 
tine when the family is retired at night to sleep, this insect, among its 
“a other disagreeable properties, has the power of making a noise which very 
» ~~ much alles a pretty smart knocking with the knuckle upon wainscot- 
Me ing; in the West Indies, it is therefore frequently known by the name of 
the drummer. _ 
ee ita gigantea. The oriict Orthoptera, to which this genus belongs, has elytra 
coriaceous, the margin of the one covering the margin of the other; mouth with mandi- 


bles ; wings folded “longitudinally, and sometimes behind transversely ; metamorphosis 
A, semicomplete. 
mi 


Ms 


& 


Aa 


» 
my 


; “ 
INSECTA—GRASSHOPPER 829 
THE GRASSHOPPER,.. * 
Rus 
Ww 44 “ 
ES ee fT aed = a a 
Tuat animal which is called the grasshopper with us, differs greatly from 7 


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 
best known to us; and, by having its history, we shall be possessed of that 
of all the rest. This animal is of the color of green leaves, except a line of 
brown which streaks the back, and two pale lines under the belly, and 

4 behind the legs. It may be divided into the head, the corselet, and the belly. 

_ Thehead 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 y 
eyes are like two black specks, a little prominent. The corselet is elev: ed, gh 
narrow, armed above and below by two serrated spines. The back isarmed ’ 
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, fs 
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- — 
ing. It has four wings; the anterior ones springing from the second pair of F 
legs, the posterior from sie third pair. The hinder wings are much finer wf 
and more expansive than the foremost, and are the principal instruments of 
its flight. The belly is considerably large, composed of eight rings, and a 
terminated by a forky tail, covered with down, like the tail of a rat. When 
examined internally, besides the gullet, we discover a small stomach; and 
behind that a very large one, wrinkled and furrowed withinside; lower P 
down there is still a third; so that it is not without reason that all the 


B 


1 Acridium. ¥ 


70 * 


2 
t 


° 


3 
830 INSECTA—GRASSHOPPER. 


animals of this order are said to chew the cud, as they 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 found a 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 opinion, the 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; and 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 
__ herself 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 seen 
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 
retardation 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, 
about the size of a flea. These at first are of a whitish color; at the end of 
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 ; 
although 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 to 
assume ; and can only hop among the grass, without being able to fly. The 
wings, however, are not wanting, but are concealed within four little — 


% 7 ‘ 
INSECTA—GRASSHOPPER. S3t 


bunches, that seem to deform the sides of the animal; there they lie rolled 
up in a most curious manner, and occupying a Paalter space than one could 
conceive. Indeed, all insects, whatever transmutations they seem to un- 
dergo, are yet brought forth with those very limbs, parts, and wings, which 
they afterwards seem to acquire. In the most helpless caterpillar, there are 
sull 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 body, at 
length prepares for its emancipation, and for a life of greater liberty and 
pleasure. To make the proper dispositions for the approaching change, it 
ceases from its grassy food, and seeks about for a convenient place, beneath 
some thorn or thistle, that may protect it from an accidental shower. 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 will 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- 
ration, and it becomes much more beautiful than before. 


832 INSECTA—LOCUST. 


THE LOCUST! 


Is 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 doing him any mischief; and the whole swarm proceed onward to 
settle upon the labors of some less fortunate country. But wretched is the 
district upon 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 vegetation is 


1 Acridium migratorium, Lav. 


INSECTA—CRICKET. 833 


so great, that an interval 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 till 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 “CRICK ET! 


Very much resembles the grasshopper in its shape, its manner of ruminat- 
ing, its voice, its leaping, and methods of propagation. It differs in its 
color, which is uniformly of a rusty brown; in its food, which 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- 


ner 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 another, al- 
though none but the males are vocal. 5 


1Gryllus domesticus, Lin. 
” 105 70* 


834 INSECTA—LANTERN FLY. 


They are very voracious little animals, and will eat bread, flour, meat, 
and scummings of pots, but are particularly fond of sugar. They are a 
thirsty race, and show a great predilection for liquids, being often found 
drowned in pans of water, milk, or broth. Whatever is moist they affect, 
and therefore frequently gnaw holes in wet woolen stockings and aprons 
that are hung to the fire. 


v 


THE: GREAT. DAN TERN. FLY, 


Tuis 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 variegations, in the form of stripes and spots; the wings 
are very large, of a yellow color, 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 half red and half semi-transparent white; the head or lantern is pale 


1 Fulgora laternaria, Lin. The order Hemiptera has two wings covered by elytra; 
mouth formed for suction, the rostrum composed of a tubular articulated sheath, includ- 
ing four scaly set, in place of mandibles and jaws; elytra in some crustaceous, with the 
posterior extremity membranous ; in others almost similar to wings, but more extended, 
thicker and colored. 


INSECTA—COCHINEAL. 835 


yellow, with longitudinal red stripes. This beautiful insect is a native of 
Surinam and many other parts of South America, and during the night 
diffuses so strong a phosphoric splendor from i its head or lantern, that it may be 
employed for the purpose of a candle or torch; and it is said that three or 
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 cuoueh 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, 
and a snout or trunk. It brings forth its young alive, and is nourished by 
sucking 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 
no change. Some pretend there are two sorts, the one domestic, which is 
best, and the other wild, that is, of a vivid color; however, they appear to 
be the same; with only this difference, that the wild feed upon uncultivated 
trees, without any assistance; whereas, the domestic is carefully, at a stated 
season, removed to cultivated trees, where it feeds upon a purer juice. Those 
who take care of these insects, place them on the prickly pear-plant, in a 
certain order, and are very industrious in defending them from other insects; 
for if any other kind comes among them, they take care to brush them off 
with foxes’ tails. Towards the end of the year, when the rains and cold 
weather are coming on, which are fatal to these insects, they take off the 
leaves or branches, covered with the cochineal that haye not attained their 
utmost 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 den 
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 bring forth their 
young, which leave their nests in a few days, and creep upon the branches 
of the plant, till they find 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- 
wards dry them in the sun, or in an oven, or lay them upon hot plates. 
From the various methods of killing them, arise the different colors which 
they appear in, when brought tous. While they are living, they seem to 
be sprinkled over with a white powder, which they lose as soon as the boil- 


1 Coccus cacti, Lin. 


yd ee 


836 INSECTA—TERMITES. 


ing water is poured upon them. Those that are dried 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, 
which do no kind of labor; and, last of all, the winged ones, or perfect in- 
sects, which are male and female, and capable of propagation. These might 
very appositely be called the nobility or gentry, for they neither labor nor 
fight, 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, that they emigrate within afew weeks, after they are elevated to 
this state, and either establish new kingdoms, or perish within a day or two. 

“The termes bellicosus, being the largest species, is best known on the 
coast of Africa. It erects immense buildings of well-tempered clay or earth, 


1 The order of Neuroptera have four naked, reticulated, iranspern wings; mouth pro- 
per for mastication; jaws and lips straight, extended ; joints of the tarsi various, generally 
entire, 


INSECTA—TEBMITES. 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 and 
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 not wish to 
have injured, we must consider them as most pernicious; but when they 
are employed in destroying decayed trees and substances which only encum- 
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 6o 
necessary in all hot climates, that even in the open fields, a dead animal or 
small 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 by 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 all 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, 
in time, the dead barren clay, of which they are composed, becomes fertiliz- 
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 natural or accidental ene- 
mies. It is always, therefore, much stronger than the interior building, 


Pe, 
% s ‘th, 
838 INSECTA—TERMITES. 


which is the habitable part, divided with a wonderful kind of regularity and 
contrivance, into an amazing number of 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 and 
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 
intervals 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 
boards and posts of a mason’s scaffold. 

““ When these hills are at their full height, they answer excellently as places 
to look out. I have 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 uoon the common surface it was seldom possible to see over the grass OY 
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. P 

“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, 
and 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 small 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 
open area in the middle under the dome, which very much resembles the nave 
of an old cathedral: this is surrounded by three or four very large Gothic 
shaped arches, which are sometimes two or three feet high next the front of 
the area, but diminish very rapidly as they recede from thence like the arches 


: oe 
awe 
INSECTA—TERMITES. 839 


of aisles in perspective, and are soon lost among the innumerable cham- 
bers and nurseries behind them. 

“ All these chambers, 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 three 
orders. 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 been 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 head and mouth; 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 
seems to labor under great difficulty in carrying it: on which account, per- 
haps, 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 the time of emigration to wing its way in search of a new settlement. 


840 INSECTA—TERMITES. 


In short, it differs so much from its form and appearance in the other two 
states, that it has never been supposed to be the same animal, but by those 


who have 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 same family. Indeed we may open twenty nests 
without finding one winged one, for those are to be found only just before 
the commencement of the rainy season, when they undergo the last change, 
which is preparative to their colonization. 

“In 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 animal 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 
the earth, but particularly on the waters, is astonishing ; for their wings are 
only calculated to carry them a few hours, and after the rising of the sun 
not one in a thousand is to be found with four wings, unless the morning 
continues rainy, when here and there a solitary being is seen winging its 
way from one place to another, as if solicitous only to avoid its numerous 
enemies, particularly various species of ants which are hunting on every 
“spray, on every leaf, and in every possible place, for this unhappy race, of 
which probably not a pair in many millions get into a place of safety, fulfil 
the first 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 calabashes, 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 that state, 
without sauce or any other addition, they serve them as delicious food ; 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 
world.” 


Pe GA oe TN SE Gis! 


“Ane bred ina sort of bodies adhering toa kind of oak in Asia, which differ with 

regard to their color, size, roughness, smoothness, and shape, and which we call 
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 
imto 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 
of the bark, 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 
ball, which as yet is very tender, a subsistence suitable to its nature ; gnaws 
and digests it till 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 


i: : ; a. 
1 Cynipide. The order Hymenoptera has four naked veined wings of unequal size ; 


mouth composed of jaws, mandibles, and two lips; lip tubular at its base, terminated by 
a labium, either doubled or folded in, and forming a kind of sucker ; females with a com- 
pound ovipositor, or sting at the anus. 


106 71 


# 


bd 842 INSECTA—ANT. 


case, however, is not similar with respect to the gall-nut that grows in 
autumn. The cold weather frequently comes on before the worm is trans- 
formed into a fly, 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 the contrary, its being cov- 
ered up so close 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- 
modious a retreat in the winter, isa perfect prison in the spring. The fly; 
Toused 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 
ume the fly is but a diminutive creature. Besides, the ringlets whereof its 
body is composed, dilate, and become pliant in the passage. 


ar 


AL EL BS AEN 


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 
a 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 soon 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 

"insects 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 every 
part of it, as if to examine its present situation, to observe what injuries it 
has sustained during the rigors of winter, while they slept, and to meditate 

and settle the labors of the day ensuing. 


1 Formicarie. 


* 


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 other; 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 also 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 all 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 larve, 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 singular 
commonwealth. There is every reason, however, to believe that the helots 
and females of this 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 has 
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 of the 
neuter are so nearly similar in appearance, that Latreille declares that he 
was unable 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 ef 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 


i 
> 
Yi 


® 


ag 


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 also 
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 devouring 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 
these 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 boldness 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 by 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 is effected very generally Sirsa 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 of their wings, enabled 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- 
tined them, are left to perish on the spot where they descend, being removed 
from 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, are occasionally met with; some have been recorded of such 


INSECTA—WASDP. 845 


prodigious 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 in propor- 
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 fly 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 toils 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 
out a 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. 
; “1* = 


a? 


sy 


* 


846 INSECT A_WASP. 


on the side of a bank, to avoid the rain or water that would otherwise annoy 
them. When they havechosen a proper place, they go to work with won- 
derful 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 buildmg. 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 smal] 
that they can pass but one atatime. 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 same paper-like substance that goes«to the formation of 
the outside works. Their combs differ from those 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 
of a 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 there 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 duties 
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 patience 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 to a certain size, they 
leave off eating, and begin to spin a very fine silk, fixing the first end to the 
entrance of the cell ; then turning their heads, first on one side, then on the 
other, they fix the thread to different parts, and thus they make a aa 
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! 


ici 


i. a 


4 


Is one of the largest and most remarkable species of the wasp. It is 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 and 
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 of 
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. 


i 


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 
handle 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 bee, 
after losing her sting, dies within a day or two at the utmost. The queen 
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 bee, 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 janc- 
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 of 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 by 
degrees those loads of wax they carry home to their hives. This hollow 
groove is peculiar to the working bee. Neither the queen nor the drones 
have any resemblance of it. The tibie of the hind legs are ciliated, and 
transversely streaked on the inside. Each foot terminates in two hooks, 
with their points 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 with 
six rings ; and contains, besides the intestines, the honey-bladder, the venom- 


107 


850 INSECTA—BEE. 


bladder, and the sting. The honey-bladder isa reservoir, into which is 
deposited 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 small 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 materia 
another employs itself in laying out the bottom and partitions of thei re 
a third is employed in 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 
honey-bag, and lets some drops fall into the other’s mouth, which is at that 
time 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, of which the bees are equally fond. 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 


ity 


oo 


i 


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 as 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 till 
times of want, during the winter. 

When a hive is become too much crowded by the addition of the young 
brood, a part of the bees think of finding themselves a more commodious 
habitation, 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, * the season is favorable, 


ba they do during all the rest of the year. Other bees are at the same time 


usy in stopping all the holes and crevices they find in the new hive, in order to 
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 from 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 is 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 
considerable commotion in the hive; and several other bees, as well as the 
queen 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 INSEC TA—BEE. * 


tive 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 
hives, 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, uae 
the ball on each thigh becomes as big asa 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 hint so 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 swallowed, 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 from 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 of a 
few which may be just returned from the field. This is farther confirmed 
by what happened in aswarm newly hived; for two days together, from the 
time 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 changed 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 


~ a ae 


ny 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 remoyed from a hive, the bees do not immediately per- 
ceive it; they continue their labors, “watch over their young, and perform 
all their ordinary occupations. 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 person 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 

» never known to attack a queen bee with their stings. If, however, more 

n eighteen hours have elapsed before the stranger queen be introduced, 

1e has some chance to escape ; the bees at first seize and confine her; but 
_ less rigidly ; and they soon begin to disperse, and at length leave her to 
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, 
and 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, apparently 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 antenne 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- 
ed that the apparent caresses of the guards were only the prelude of actual 
imprisonment. 

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 

hive and perish. M. Huber contrived a glass table, on which he placed 

several hives, and he was thus able to see distinctly what passed in the bot- 
72. 


854 INSECTA—BEE.: 


tom 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 they could extricate them. The 
work of death commenced in all the hives much about the same time. — Itis 
not, 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 flowery 
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. 

The honey never congeals, but is fluid, of the consistence of oil, and the 
color of amber. Resembling these, there are foundlittle 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- 
ble, 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 here 


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 whole 
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 sufficient to 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 color, 
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- 


1Bombus. 2 Xylocopa. 3 Odynerus. 


856 «INSECT A—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 dais 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 to bore into their little fortifica- 
tions, and devour their young. 
a 


“THE CATERPILLAR, 


‘di 


Tuoucn the caterpillar is not a perfect insect, but only a form in which 
an insect appears in one stage of its existence, and is always destined to 
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 resem- 
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. All 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 witha 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 
salways uncovered; and while the insect is in health, they are seldom with- 
out employment. Whither 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 whole 
leaf, and eat it clean away. One may be amused, fora little time, in observ- 

ing 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 betmcem its feet, which keeps 


¢€ 


é 


INSECTA—GATERPILLAR. 857 


it steady while the teeth are employed in cutting it; these fall upon the 
leaf, somewhat in the manner of a pair of gardener’s shears; and every — 
morsel is swallowed as soon as cut. Some caterpillars feed upon jeavelll 

very 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 radish. 

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 touch, or hard, like shagreen; the skin of the latter is hairy, 
and, 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- 
mur takes to be the eyes of the caterpillar; however, most of them 
have very little occasion for sight, and seem only to be directed by their 
feeling. 

But the parts of the caterpillar’s body 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 are 
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 differ- 
ence, that as we have but one pair of lungs, the caterpillar has no less than 
eighteen. It requires no great anatomical dexterity to discover these lungs 
in the larger kind of caterpillars; they appear, at first view, to be hollow 
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 into 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 the stigmata~ 
with oil, quickly suffocated the animal, which was seen to die convulsed the 
instant 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- 


mals, since caterpillars will live in an exhausted receiver for several days 
“ 


‘ 


108 P 79% 


858 , ; INSECTA—CATERPILLAR. 


together; and though they seem dead at the bottom, yet, when taken out, 
recover, and resume their former vivacity. 

Tf 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 their intestines with their food, in the changes which they so frequently 
undergo. But the intestines take up but a small part of the animal’s body, 
if compared to the fatty substance in which they are involved. This sub- 


~ stance changes its color when the insect’s metamorphosis begins to approach ; 


and from white it is usually seen to become yellow. 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 external 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 web, 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 
on that spot where they are placed. In this condition they remain one or 
two days, somewhat in the manner they made preparations for changing 


+ 


‘ INSECTA—BUTTERFLY. ' 859 


Yeir skin. They then appear with their bodies bent into a bow, which 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 Lin- 
neus has reckoned up above seven hundred and sixty different kinds, the 
catalogue is still very incomplete. Every collector of butterflies can show 
undescribed species ; and such as are fond 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 beautiful than such 
as are bred at home. 


The wings of butterflies, as was observed, fully distinguish them from - 


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 
footstalk, 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 
is with ease enabled to support itself a long while in the air, although its 
flight be not very graceful. When it designs to fly to a 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 irregularly 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 more than a mile distance. " 

This tribe of insects has been divided into diurnal and nocturnal flies ; or, 
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 be easily 
distinguished from each other, by their antenne or feelers; those of the 
butterfly being clubbed, or knobbed at the end; those of the moth, tapering 
finer and finer toa point. To express it technically, the antenne of butter- 
flies are clavated ; those of moths are filiform. 


*%, 


*& 


= 


y@ 


a, 
* 


dy * “$s 
860 INSECTA—BUTTERELY. 


THE SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY) 


Ts reckoned the most superb of the British species. It is not 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. 


Tee PALIN TED LA DY: BU eee LY ~ 


Is a species not very common. In some seasons, these insects appear in 
. a . 

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 indented, 


1 Papilio machaon, Lin. 2 Vanessa urtice, Lin. 9 


“me 


“> ey hy 


wy v ies 
INSECTA—SPHINX CAROLINA. 86; 


orange above, variegated with black and white beneath; four eyes on the 
rosterior pair. Its larva feeds on nettles, thistles, docks, and other herbage, 


ta & 


: : 
by the sides of ditches, and changes its state about the middle or latter end 
of July. * 


& 
» 


——_— -—° 


THE SPHINX CAROLINA. 


Tue larva of this moth is green, with lateral spiracles on every seg- 
ment, surrounded by a 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. 


ei: 
. 

ce 
ee 


862 INSECTA—MOTH. 


THE DEATH’S HEAD MOTH. 


Tuis beautiful insect is one of the rarest of the moths, and is found only 
in 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, how- 
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 


Vn QL Mie 


= 


Tue 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 + 


+ 


1 Acherontia atropos, Lin. 2 Bombyx mori, Lin. 


' RADIATA. * "R63 
Europe, and was afterwards vei 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 numerous works both scientific and economical. 
The caterpillar feeds upon 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 a only being saved to 
keep up the breed. 


The moth, when produced, is very short lived, breeding soon after the 
exclusion, and perishing after the deposition of the ova. The length of the 
silken thread when unrolled, is said to be from three hundred to five hun- 
dred yards in length, and this thread is composed of two united threads, 
agglutinated together. 


DIVISION IV.—RADIATA. 


Tus division of the animal kingdom comprehends a great number of be- 
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 
common axis, in two or more rays, or in two or more lines extending from 
ane extremity to the other. Even the intestinal worms have at least two 


> 


a¢ 


864. ‘ RADIATA.* 


tendinous lines or nervous 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- 
oe arran ged under this division, traces ofa radiated form , indistinctly marked 
in some, but in others, such as the Asterze, the Echini, and the Polypi, strik- 


ingly perceptible. The nervous system in the animals of this division is 


ever 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 cerresponding 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 Asterie; 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 Holuthuria Echinus, and many intestinal 
worms, have a mouth and anus, with a distinct intestinal canal; others have 
an internal pouch, with only one opening, serving the purposes of a mouth 
and anus; but in the greater number Hes 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 gemine, or buds, or 
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 ani- 
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 seems at first view 
to be but indistinctly drawn ; and there are objects in both which even accu- 
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 
of minute globules suspended in slimy fluids while in the organization, the 
cellular texture always predominates. To this characteristic form, the most 
imperfect animated beings add a sensibility to the faintest impressions, that 
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 central 


ms 


ECHINODERMATA. S65. 


7 « 


nervous masses, and to support the organs of motion, but in the simple struc- 
ture of the lower animals, the frame work serves only the last of the pur- 
poses, being either external to the animal substances, as in the T'uhipore and 
Sponges, or internal, asin the Sertularia, Gorgonie, &c. The animals of this 
division have been arranged in five classes, viz. 

I. EcumoperMAaTA, or animals with a crustaceous covering, distinet intes- 
tinal canal, and organs for generation, respiration, and partial circulation. 

Il. Enrozoa, or intestinal worms ; elongated and depressed animals, which 
have no organs for respiration or Secnladan: 

III. Acaterna. Animals of a circular and radiated form, and destitute 
of circulating and respiratory organs. 

IV. Potyer, 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 Inrusoria, or those smaller beings only known through the me- 
dium of the microscope, which are found in stagnant waters. The greater 
part of these have a gelatinous body, and are destitute of viscera, though 
some of the species possess visible organs of movement, and a stomach. 


CLASS X.—ECHINODERMATA. 


= 
Body suborbicular, with a coriaceous or crustaceous covering, radiated, desti- 
tute of head, eyes, and articulated feet ; mouth inferior, simple or multiform ; 


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, 
and Lamarck placing them also in a separate class, under the title 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- 
cles 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 arti- 


109 73 


866 ECHINODERMATA—SEA STAR. 


. . . ' . . . ae ® 
culated feet; their nervous system is indistinctly traced ; and their organs of 


motion are extremely imperfect. The Echinodermata are all marine ani- 
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 it 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 Holo- 
thurida and Echinoderma. The arrangement of Lamarck is chiefly followed ; 
but we have added a fourth section, comprising, under the title of Crinoide, 
given to them by Mr. Miller, the animal remains known by the name of 
Encrinites. 


THE § Ba SAB, 


Cat.eD 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 catch 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 
is 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. 


wt 


1 Asterias rubens, Lin. 


ENTOZOA. 867 
wi 


In summer, when the water of the sea is warmed by the heat of the sun, 
they float upon the surface, and in the dark they send forth a kind of shining 
light, resembling that of phosphorus. 

They are often seen fastened to the rocks and to the largest sea shells, as 
if to derive their nourishment from them. If they be taken and put into 
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 exere- 
ments, but the same passage by which they devour their food serves for the 
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 ap- 
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 for 
their prey. . 4 


Es 


i CLASS XI.—ENTOZOA. 

t 
Body soft, elongated, naked in almost all, without head, eyes, or feet ; mouth 
formed of one or many suckers ; no tentacula or organs of respiration; in- 
testinal canal in some scarcely perceptible. 


% 


Tue intestinal worms are remarkable for existing and propagating only 
in 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, bronchie or any other f 
organ of respiration, must necessarily receive oxygen through the medium 


° : 


7 


et 


wm 7 " 
oe Kh * 


865 ACALEPHA. 


of the animals which they inhabit. No trace of circulating vessels has been 
detected ; and the vestiges of nerves are so obscure, that many naturalist 
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. 

Linneus arranged this group of animals in a division of his great class 
Vermes, including the genera Lumbricus, Sipunculus, Fasciola, Gordius, 
Ascaris, Hirudo, and Myxine. 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 their 
vee have a arrangements better suited to the present state of 
the science. n 


M. Lamarck divides the class into three orders, viz. Hispide, Rigidule, 


and Mollassie, the last of which is subdivided into three sections. In the 
_ method of Cuvier, the class forms two orders, Les Cavitaires, and Les Paren- 


w 


_ after the methods of Rudolphi and Cuvier ; combining in his sketch of 


chymateaux, “according to the structure of their body. And Rudolphi, in 
his work, entitled Hntozorum, sive Vermium Intestinorum Mistoria Naturalis, 
arranges them into five orders, viz. 1. Nematoides ; body elongated, cylin- 


drical, elastic. 2. Acanthocephalus ; 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 Familles du Régne Animal, disposes the intestinal worms 


the 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 Helminthology. 


+* 


CLASS. XII.—ACALEPHA. 


w 
Body gelatinous, circular, and radiated, with the skin soft and transparent, 
susceptible of contraction and dilatation. 


ne, Tue class Acalepha of Cuvier embraces the Radiaires, Medusaires and Ano- 


i 


& 


as 


males of Lamarck, and besides includes the genus Actinia, which the latter 


% ys 


e oP A » fs 
POLYPH. 869 


* 4 . ation ‘ ; ; . 5 
author had placed in a division of his Echinodermata. The animals of this 


ies 


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 
by the 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 mouth 
or the suckers, or tentacula 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 in all seas. Cuvier divides the class into two orders, viz. 1y 


1. Those where the body is fixed by a base either permanently or occasi 
ally; and 2. Those which float freely in the ocean. ae: 


b a 


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 lobes ; the greater number adhering together, and forming compound 
animals. ~ ; 


Tue class of Polypi or Zoophytes, is one of the ‘pase and most i 
of the Animal Kingdom. 4 

Nearly at the lowest step in the animal eral 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 head and eyes, and having no 
organs for circulation, respiration or locomotion, the body of the Polypus ap- 
pears only as ahomogeneous substance, constituted of gelatinous and irritable 
cellular tissue, in which the fluids essential to life move sluggishly. Allare, 
however, nee 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 form, 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 per- 


73* * “ 


Sl 


870 POLYPI. y 


fect animal. Most of the same species, besides, form compound animals, 
adhering to one another by lateral appendages, or by their posterior extremi- 
ty, and participate in a common life without ceasing to enjoy their indivi- 
dual and independent existence. The mode of reproduction in many 
individuals 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 inor- 
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 pow- 
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 that 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 Hydre. 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 
Linneus, with the same success which attended his investigations of the 
other objects of nature, arranged the whole in his class Vermes, making 
them an 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 has since been done by 
Pallas, Bruguieré, and Lamarck. Cuvier, in his Régne Animal, divides the 
Polypi into two orders — the first comprehending the naked Polypi; and the 
second those which live in polypiferous masses, formed by their united 
labors. Thesecond order is further subdivided into many families. La- 
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 
body on an axis, free, and floating in the water. 


aye 


Ro. e INFUSORIA. S71 


Il. Poryrr Tustrert.—Tentaculated polypi, united in a common fleshy 
body, destitute of solid internal axis, and covered with tubiform cylinders. 

Ill. Potyrr Vanemva tt. ‘Tentavulated polypi, constantly fixed in an or- 
ganic covering, and forming, in general, compound animals. 

IV. Ponyr: Denupati.— Tentaculated polypi, not forming a common 
envelope, fixed either constantly or spontaneously. 

V. Potyrr Critati.— Polypi destitute of tentacula, but with vibratile 
cilie, at or near the mouth. 

The habitations of the polypi, or the common masses formed by their 
united labors, are more or less calcareous or stony, from the madrepores, of 
a 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 one 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 
fissiparous or gemmiparous. 


THE 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 syste- 
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. Lewenhoeck and Muller first 
introduced these animals to the notice of naturalists, under the name of 
Infusoria. In Lamarck’s system, they compose the first class of his Inver- 
tebral Animals; Dumeril arranges them as the fourth family of his Zoophy- 
tes; and Cuvier makes them the fifth class of Zoophytes, or those animals 


ba 
| 872 INFUSORIA. 


_ which he has arranged as the fourth great division of the Animal Kingdom. 
Lamarck divides the Infusoria into two orders: a 
I. Inrusoria ApPpENDICULATA.— With projecting parts at their exterior, as 
hairs, horns, ora tail. © f : e 
i . m4 Nupa, or naked Infusoria. — Destitute of exterior appen- 
ges. ° we 


’ : 7 & 


873 4 
7 
q ” 
“k ‘ 
2 GLOSSARY. i 
. al ch Pe a 4 
rR ‘5 Mm p . . 


* ‘ 
Accipitres ; the Rapacious class of birds, according to the Linnzan system. % 

Ambulatory ; a tribe of walking birds, with three distinct toes before, and one behind, 

ss Anal; in fishes, a name applied to the fin near the anus. 

Anseres ; the tlace of swimming birds. 


Antenne; the horns of an insect. " & - ; 
Apodal; an order of fishes with bony gills and no ventral fins. 

Aptera ; an order of insects without wings. La of 
Bellu ; an order of mammalia, having obtuse teeth in each j jaw, and ivided cae 


Bivalve ; a shell consisting of two parts, connected by a hinge. « 
Branchie ; the gills of a fish. ¥ 
Bruta; an order of mammalia, entirely destitute of front teeth. 
Canine teeth ; two sharp-pointed teeth in each jaw, in man, called the eye-teeth. 
Cacum; one of the lower intestines. ri 
Caruncle ; a fleshy protuberance. 
Carinated ; ridged like the keel of a ship. 4 
Cere ; the membrane covering the bill of a bird. 
Ciliary; belonging to the eyelids. j % 4 
Clavicle ; the collar bone. 2 nae 
Coleopterous; a name applied to insects with crustaceous coverings to their wings. 
Coverts ; in a bird, the feathers lying about the base of the wing. an 
Crustaceous ; covered with a horny shell. 
Cuneiform; wedge-shaped. 
Cuspid ; ending in a point. 
Dentated ; furnished with teeth. 
Digitated; furnished with fingers or toes. 
Diptera; a class of insects with two wings. 
Distichous ; disposed in two rows. . 
Emarginate ; notched at the end. ; 
Elytra; the crustaceous coverings to the wings of coleopterous insects. e 
Entomostraca ; a tribe of animals inhabiting the water, and which unite the characters 
of the insect and the oyster. 
Exuvie ; the slough or cast skin of a reptile. 
Femur ; the thigh. 
Fere; aclass of mammalia with six front teeth in each jaw, and one canine tooth on 
each side in both jaws. 
Filiform; thread-shaped. 
Gallinaceous ; a name applied to those birds akin to the domestic fowl. ‘* 
Glires ; a class of mammalia with two long front teeth in each jaw, and no canine teeth. 
Gralle ; the tribe of birds which wade in the water, but do not swim. 
Gressorial; a term applied to the feet of walking birds, which have the fore toes c n- 
nected, but without a membrane. re + 
Hemiptera; a tribe of insects half crustaceous. half membranous. : 


Hyaline ; resembling glass. -  % 
Imbricated ; lying over each other like the tiles on a roof. . 
110 
. 4 
““ 
& 
¥? 


ri 


874 
Incisors; the front or cutting teeth. 
Inguinal ; situated near the organs of generation. ' . 
Invertebrated ; without a backbone. 
Tris ; the colored ring of the eyeball. wR 


Larve ; a term applied to one of the incipient stages of an animal. 


Lepidopterous ; insects are Lepidopterous which have four wings covered with fine 


scales, apparently like powder or meal. 
Lithophyte ; a stony substance which has a vegetable appearance. 
Lore; a bare streak on the side of a bird’s head, from the beak to the eye. 
Lobated ; having the toes or claws furnished with a slitted membrane. 
Lanated ; shaped like a half-moon. 
Mammalia ; that class of animals which suckle their young. 
‘Mamme ; the breasts. 
Mandible; the jaw or bill. 
Marsupial; furnished with a bag or pouch on the belly, like the opossum. 
Mazillary ; belonging to the jaw. 
Molar ; the large or grinding teeth. 


Molluscous ; a term applied to those animals whose bodies are soft, without an internal 


skeleton, or articulated covering. 


Neuropterous ; a term applied to fuisaets which have membranous, transparent wings 


in which the membranes cross each other like network. 
Occiput ; the hind head. 
Ocellated ; marked with spots resembling little eyes. * 
Operculum ; a lid or cover. 
Palmated ; webbed or having the shape of a band. 
Palpi; the feelers of an insect. 
Papillous ; covered with fleshy warts or points. 
Passerine ; an order of birds comprising those which sing. 
Pectinated ; shaped like the teeth of a comb. 
Pectoral ; pertaining to the breast. 
_ Pelvis ; the cavity comprising the lower part of the abdomen. 


innated ; having the toes or claws separate, but furnished with lateral membranes. 


Pisciform ; having the shape of a fish. 
Prehensile; having the power of seizing or taking hold. 
Primary feathers; the outer feathers of the wing. 
Process ; a fleshy or corneous protuberance. 
Protractile ; capable of being stretched forward. 
Pupa; the chrysalis of an insect. 
Rapacious ; an order comprising the birds of prey. 
Retractile ; having the power of drawing inwards. 
Sagittal ; arrow-shaped. % 
Scapulars ; the shoulder feathers of a bird. 
Sebaceous ; fatty. 
Setaceous ; bristly. 
Secondaries ; the middle feathers of the wing. 
Speculum ; a colored spot on the back of the wing. 
Sternum; the breast bone. 

— Subcaudal ; under the tail. 
Subulate ; curved like a shoemaker’s awl. 
Tarsus ; (in ornithology,) that part of the leg between the thigh and the claw. 
Tentacula; the feelers of an insect. 


875 ee 


Testaceous ; 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. 


- _Tetradactyle ; furnished with four toes or claws. 
Triquetrous ; three-sided. 
Univalve ; a shell complete in a single piece. $ Spe 
Unguiculated ; furnished with nails or claws. . * 
Vent; (in birds,) the under part of the rump. 
Ventral ; belonging to the belly. 
Waders ; those birds which frequent the shore, but do not swim. 


_ Wattles; the loose red flesh hanging about the neck of the turkey and some other 


birds. 
Zooplyte; a body partaking of the nature of animals and vegetables. 
 Lygodactylous ; a the toes disposed in pairs. ry 


” 
v 


Be ; ’ 


* .,” " 


ag 


A. 


ACALEPHA, 
Agouti, . 
Albatross, . 

ALCYONES, 

ALECTORIDEs, 
Alligator, 

AMPHIBIA, 
Amphisbena, 
Anaconda, . 
Anchovy, — 

ANISODACTYLI, 

ANNELIDEs, 
Ant, > ‘ais \ 
“ white 
Ant eater, . 
Antelope, 
Apesj™) ... 

Au, 
Argali, 


Corsican 
Armadillo, 
Arneo, 
ARTICULATA, 
Ass, 
Auk, great 
AVES, . 
Avoset, 

“amu 

B. 

Babiroussa, .. 
Baboon, pig-faced 

fe pig-tailed 


Badger, European . 


6 


Baty . f 
‘spectre, . 


_ American 


~ BaTRACHIA,. 


Bear, black . 
Bornean , 


=e 


ra 


Bear, brown . 
“grizzly 
large-lipped 
ee mbabet 
“white 
Beavers. @.. 
Bee, , 
Bee eater, . 
Beetle, . 
Bengal Loris, 


Birps, 


Bittern. 42 
American 
sf least)" *. 
Black cap, . 
Blackbird, 
Blood-hound, 
Blue-bird, 
Boa constrictor, 
Bob-o-link, 
Buffalo, cape 
ud domestic 
Bulfinch, 
Bull dog, 
Bunting, cow 
rs painted . 
6 rice 
vf towhee . 


Bustard, great. . 


re little 
Butcher bird, 
Butterfly, 
Buzzard, 
“American 
Cy moor 
«turkey 
C. 


Cabiai, 


: 


* P 
* 

ey ¥ 

» 
3 
Page 
Cachalot, 397 
Camel, . 321 oo 

Camelopard, 351 
Canary bird, 535 
Cantharis, 826 
Caracal, 197 
CaARNIVORA, . 102 
Carp, . 738 
Ss 1golden s.r» c 739 
Cat, tiger . 199 
“* domestic 200 
Catbird, 501 
Caterpillar, 856 
Cavy, spotted 263 
CEPHALOPODA, 758 
CETACEA, 392 
Chameleon, . 699 
Chamois, 364 
CHEIROPTERA, 91 
CHELIDONEs, 567 
CHELONIA, 687 
Chetah, -* 192 
Chimpansé, . 68 
Chinchilla, 242 
Chlamyphorus,, . 277 
Chough, - 485 
Chuck Will’s Widow, 576 
CirrHIPEDA, 772 
Civet, 155 
“ Javanese 157 
Coaita, 83 
Coaiti, brown, . 117 
Cobra de Capello, 705 

Cochineal, 835 
Cock, domestic 589 
Cockatoo, . 548 
Cockchafer, . 824 
Cockle, 769 
Cockroach, 828 

r 


ae 


Cod, P 
CoLuMBR, 
ConcHIFERA, 

Condor, . 

Coot, . 

Cormorant, 

Cougar, 

Crab, 

& land . 
“ violet 

Crane, 

«  palearic 

Creeper, 

Cricket, . 

Crocodile, 

Crossbill, 

Crow, carrion . 

“ yed-legged . 
CrusTACEA, 
Cuckoo, European 


of American . 


Curlew, . 
Cursores, 

Cuttle fish, 

Cutwater, . 
CycLostom}, 


D. 
Death’s head moth, 
Deer, fallow 

“  Tndian stag . 

«moose 

“rein 

«  yoebuck 

“usa 

< ‘stag. 

“ Virginian 
Diver, northern 
Dodo, 

Dog, 
“African. . 
«Australian 
“ blood-hound . 
“ball 
‘< Esquimaux 
“greyhound 
“harrier 

‘ hyzna 

Dog, mastiff . 
“ Newfoundland 
«pointer 
“  shepherd’s 


TNE. 


Dog, spaniel 
Dog, terrier 
Dolphin, 
Dormouse, . 
Doryeics give 
Dotterel, 
Dove, . 
Dromedary, 
Duck, eider : 
“  canvass-back 
E. 
Eagle, bald 
« Brazilian 
“ — Chilian sea 
«  harpy 
«golden 
sf.) OS prey, 
“ —_ying-tailed 
spb Sea: 


«Washington 


{S.. wedge-tailed 
Earth worm, : 


EcHINODERMATA, 
EDENTATA,. 


Eel, 
“ conger 
«electrical 
Egret, great . 
Ore little 
Elephant, 
Elephant beetle, 
Elk, American 
“European 
Emeu, 


ENTOozOA, . 


Ermine, 
F. 
Falcon, jer 
peregrine . 
“rough-legged 
* 
Fennec, ages Te 


Ferx, 


Ferret, 
Fieldfare, 


FisHgs, . 


Fish hawk, 
Flamingo, . 
Flea, é : : 
Flycatcher, blue gray 
* erested 
«  pewit 


877 


Page. Page- 
133| Flycatcher, pied 506 
138 “  red-eyed 510 
394 “spotted 506 
235 * swallow-tailed 511 
750 « tyrant 507 
623 ‘“« white-eyed . 511 
585 *  yellow-throated 510 
321] Flying fish, 737 
666] Fox, 150 
670 “© American . 153 
“Arctic 152 
447 «silvery 153 
452| Frog, . 710 
450 “edible 713 
449 Sree 713 
434 & 
438] Gall Insects, 841 
438] GaLLIN”, . 587 
441|  Gally worm, 800 
442! Gannet, . .: 677 
452) Gaur, . @& : 387 
776) Gayal, + 387 
865} Gazelle, 356 
264; Genet, .  .- 158 
744| Gibbon, : 76 
745! Gilt head, . | 747 
745| Giraffe, . 351 
631)Girres, . ae 223 
630| . Glow worm, 28238 
279) Glossary, 873 
827! Gnu, . 362 
345, Goat, 369 
322 « Angora 371 
617 “ Rocky mountain 371 
867} Goatsucker, 572 
124; Goldfinch, 538 
MG European 539 
430, Goosander, 71 
431| Goose, American wild 660 
461 “European . 663 
154 a solan | 677 
96| Gopher mole, 102 
123| Goshawk, . 453 
494|GRALLATORES, “621 
717| Grampus, . 396 
439|GRANIVORA, 522 
638| Grasshopper, 829 
822} Grayling, 73 
509| Grebe, crested | 632 
508| Greyhound, 132 
509! Griffon, . 


oo 


878 


Grosbeak, cardinal 
Grouse, black .  . 
«dusky 
fe wedsr i: 
Se TUHed oy ia. 
“  pinnated 
“ sharp-tailed 
cy wooden. 
Guinea hen,. . 
7 pig PS. 
ee) hse 


H. 


Haddock, 
Halibut, 
Hamster, 
Hare, European 

“American . 
Harrier, 

Hart beest, 
Hawk, black 

Sa otis ht 

«marsh 

“ — yed-tailed 

“sparrow 

*  swallow-tailed 
Heath hen, 
Hedgehog, . 
Herring, 

Heron, 

“blue 

“great. 

“ night 
Hippopotamus, . 
Hog, . 3 

“Indian 

« Mexican 
Honey guide, 
Hoopoe, 
Hornbill, 
Hornet, 

Horse, 

Humming-bird, 

Huso, . 

Hyena, spotted 
striped! 


if 
Ibex, 
Ibis, 
© scarlet 
“ wood . 


Page. , 
533 


600 
604 
601 
601 
603 
604 
598 
597 
261 
655 


INDEX. 


Ichneumon, 

Iguana, . 

Indigo bird, ; 
INERTES, . 
InFusoria, 
INsEcTA, 
INSECTIVORA, . 
INVERTEBRATA, . 


x J. 
Jackal, 
Jackdaw, 
Jaguar, 

Jay, blue 
Canada 
“Columbia 
“* European 
“Florida 
“ Steller’s 

Jerboa, 


K. 


Kanguroo, 
Kingbird, 
Kingfisher, belted 
oy European 
Kite, : 
‘“ Mississippi 
L. 
Lammergeyer, . 
Lamprey, 
Lantern fly, 
Lapwing, 
Leech, 
Lemming; 
Lemur, red and black 
« slow . 
Leopard, . 
Linnet, American 
_ “ — Kuropean 
Lion, 
“ Bengal 
“ Cape 
Lizard, 
Llama, 
Lobster, 
Locust, . 
LopHoBRANCHH, . 
Louse, 
Lumpfish, . 
Lynx, 
Me’ bay . 


4 


Lynx, Canada . 


Macauco . 
Maccaw, 
Mackerel, . 
Magpie , 
Marot, . .. @ 
Maimon, . | 
MALAcopPpTrerRyGI, . 


Malbrouck, . . 


MammMattia, 
Man, 
Manati, . 
Mandrill, 
Manis, 
Marmose, . . 
Marmot, 
«Lapland 


“Maryland . 


a3 


Parry’s 
Marsvpiaia, 
Marten, pine . 
* purple . 
ss European 
Mastiff, . 
Menura, 
Merganser, hooded 


673 


ct red-breasted 671 


Merlin! <j. 
Mocking-bird, 
Mole, 
“ gopher 
“ shrew 
Mo .vsca, 
Mongoos, 
Monkey, 
Moor cock, 
Moose, 
Morse, 
Mouse, 
“field. 
“jumping 
Mule, 
Mullet, 
Muscle, 
Musk, Thibet 
Muskrat, 
Musquash, . . 
Myriapopa, 


N. 
Narwhal, 


432 
496 
99 
102 
101 
753 
88 
66 


, 


n” 


Nautilus, the 


| Night Hawk, 
Nightingale, 


Ninekiller, 
Noddy, 
Nutcracker, . 
nue ; 
Nyl Ghau, 


WT 4 0. 

Ocelot; °°." 
OMNIVORA, . 
Opuipia, 

Opossum, Mexican 
& murine 
ce 

Orang Outang, . 

Oriole, Baltimore . 
“ ~ orchard . 

Ortolan, . 

Ostrich, 
“American . 

Otter, Canada . 

« common 


« sea 


“ South American 


Ouistiti, . 
Ounce, 
Ouzel, 


Owl, American horned 
“European horned 


« barn . 
“burrowing 
«hawk 
“little 
(Cy ed: 3: 
« snowy 
Ox te: 
Oyster, 


P. 


Paca, 
PACHYDERMATA, 
Paco, 
PALMIPEDES, 
Pangolin, 
Panther, 
Paradise bird, 
Parroquet,. 
Parrot, 
Partridge, 
Peacock, 


Virginian 


605 | 
587 | 


Peccary, 
Pelican, 
Penguin, 


“ 


Perch, 

Petrel, 

“stormy - 
Phatagin, 
_ Pheasant, 


~’Patagonian 


ae 


fe golden . 


Pholas, 


Pigeon, American mad 577 


“ Carolina 


« domestic - 


Pike, 

Pilot fish, 
PINNATIPEDES, 

Pintado, . 
PLAGIosTOMA, 
Platypus, : 
Plover, golden . 


119 


“ ringed . 


Pointer, . 

Polecat, 
Potyrt, 
Porcupine, . 


a“ 
Porpoise, 
Prawn, 
Puffin, 
Puma, 


Q. 
QUADRUMANA, 
Quagga, 
Quail, American 

“  Californisn 


«European 


Rabbit, . 

Raccoon, 
RapiaTA, 
Rail, American 

“ water 
Rat, black . 
RaAPACEs, 

“  Jemming 
“Norway 
“water 


long-legged 


Brazilian 
Canada . 


769 


584 
585 
735 
749 
651 
597 
722 
278 
622 
621 
623 
134 
122 
869 
250 
252 
253 
395 
790 
679 
176 


hy 


879 
Page. 
Rattlesnake, . . 703 
Raven, 473 
Ray, . . 725 
_ Razorbill, 681 
Redbird, 531 
Redbreast, 514 
Redstart, oe OLS 
ca American 511 
Reindeer, . . . 346 
REPTILEs, . 685 
3] Rhinoceros, 303 
Roach, j 739 
Robin, Si operat o 
“ground 529 
Roebuck, 342 
Roller, ee Te 485 
Rook, . 4 476 
Rougette, 92 
Roussette,. 92 
RoMINANTIA, . 320 
Ss. 
Sablesi” <cahas 0 126 
Saiga, 355 
Salamander, . 715 
Salmon, . 729 
trout 730 
Sandpiper, 644 


‘ red-backed 645 
a red-breasted 645 


solitary 645 
Savuria, 691 
Scolopendra, . 800 
Scorpion, . 792 
Screamer, horned 609 
Sea bear, 209 
“horse, 728 
«  jion, 208 
“owl, 743 
“otter, 130 
* star, Ay Foe, 866 
unicorn, 396 
Seal, ; 203 
“ elephant . . '208 
“ Greenland . 206 
“ hooded 209 
“ ursine 209 
Shad, : 73 
Shark, 722 
Shearwater, . . 658 
Sheep, domestic 376 


e 


Rocky Mountain 372 
a 


N 


&, 


880 


Sheep, wild 
Shrew mole, . 
Shrew mouse 
Shrike, 
Shrimp, . 
Siamang, 
Silk-worm, 
Skate, 
Skimmer, 
Skunk, 
Skylark, 
Sloth, . 
Smew, 
Smelt, 
Snail, 
Eyalee) black 
= hdbded ” 
Snipe, on ts 
“  semi-palmated 
Sole fish, 
Spaniel, 
m water 
Sparrow, chipping . 
“field 
- song . 
Sphinx, 
Spider, 
Spoonbill, 
Springbok, 
Squirrel, 
fate |i. 
a flying 
“ grey 
Stag, 
“ Canada 
“Cape 
“Indian 
Starling, 
Stoat, . 
Stork, 
“ Marabou 
Sturgeon, 
STURIONES, 
Swallow, 
bank . 
“f barn 
+ chimney 
ce cliff 
Swan, . : 
“whistling 
« black 


Page. 
274 
101 

98 
505 
790 

77 
862 
726 
653 
126 
523 
264 
672 
731 
761 
702 
705 
647 
648 
743 
133 
133 
537 
538 
537 
861 
794 
641 
358 
248 
235 | 
249} 
249 
334 
345 
359 
340 
489 
124 
634 
636 
726 
726 
567 
570 
569 | 
572 
570 
663 
665 
665 


INDEX. 


Swift, 
Sword fish, 

T. 
Tamandua, 
Tamanoir, 
Tanager, 
Tapir, 
Tarantula, . 
Teal, 

Termites, . 
. Tern, greater 

“lesser 
Terrier, . 
Thrasher, . 
Throstle, 
Thrush, brown 

long 

ae missel 

water . 

Se wood 
Tiger, . : 

black. 
Titmouse, bearded . 

ss black-capt 

Toad, . 

“ Surinam 
Torpedo, 
Tortoise, 
Toucan, 
Touyou, . 
Tropic bird, 
Trout, 
Tumbledung, 

TuNICATA, 
Tunny, 
Turbot, 
Turkey, 
Turkey peeaeh 
Turile, 5 

U. 
Urson, 


V.. 


Vampire bat 
Viper, 
“ Egyptian 
*« horned 
Vulture, bearded 
* black 
“carrion 
“ fulvous . 


Vulture, king of 
“secretary 
cc. ‘sociablelm 
Wi: 
Wagtail, white 
Walrus, - ae 
Wapiti, gt “.- 
Warbler. blue-eyed 
«  blue-winged 


Page. 
421 
429 
418 


522 
210 
345 
517 
517 


“  golden-winged 517 


Wasp, ute 
Watiriwaou, . 
Weasel, 

**) wapime?. 
Whale, 
““ spermaceti 

Wheatear, . 

Whip-poor-will 

Widgeon, . 

Wild cat, American 

Willet, 

Wolf, . 
“American 
“clouded black 
“prairie 

Wolf fish, 

Wolverine, 

Wombach, 

Woodchuck, . 

Woodcock, 

Woodpecker, 

« downy 

“  golden-wing 
«“ hairy 
“ivory billed 
“  pileated .* 
“ — red-bellied 
“  red-headed 


845 
273 
123 
125 
399 
397 
520 
575 


554 
556 
551 


“  yellow-bellied 555 


Wren, Carolina 
“© European . 
“house 
«  gold-crested 
“marsh 
Me 
Yak, 
Yellow bird, . 
Yellow hammer, 
Z. 


Zebra, ee 


520 
515 
519 


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