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THE BRIDGEWATER TREATISES
ON THE POWER WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF GOD
AS MANIFESTED IN THE CREATION
TREATISE VII
ON THE HISTORY HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS
BY THE REV. WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL II
[SECOND EDITION]
" c'lvST, LA BIBLE A LA MAIN, QLE i\OUS DEVON'S ENTHEH DANS
LE TEMPLE AUGUSTE DE LA NATUUE, POUll BIEN COMPKENDllE
LA VOIX DU CREATEUR." GAEDE.
m
Plate XV
4
C.M.Cjurti^ dd
Md^<La Utk
ON THE
POWER WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF GOD
AS MANIFESTED IN THE CREATION
OF ANIMALS AND IN THEIR HISTORY HABITS
AND INSTINCTS
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A. F.R.S. etc.
RECTOR OF BARHAM.
VOL II
ALDI
LONDON
WILLIAM PICKERING
1835
/
/
■-^RtMlfc
6'
C. VVHiTTlNfJHAM, TOOK.S COURT, CHANCERY LANh.
CONTENTS
OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
Pasre
o^
Explanation of Plates vii
Chap. XIII. Functions and Instincts. Cirripedes and Cri-
noideans 2
XIV. Entomostracan Condy lopes , 16
XV. Crustacean Condy lopes. ,. . 36
XVI. Myriapod Condy lopes .... 63
XVII. Motive, locomotive and prebensory organs. . 92
1 . Rotatory organs 96
2. Tentacles 99
3. Slickers 1 14
4. Bristles 127
5. Natatory organs 131
6. Wings 144
7. Steering organs 161
8. Legs 165
XVIII. Instinct in general 220
XIX. Functions and Instincts. Arachnidans,Pseu-
darachnidans, and Acaridan Condy lopes . 281
XX. Insect Condy lopes 310
XXI. Fishes 371
XXII. Reptiles 409
XXIII. Birds 435
XXIV. . Mammalians 475
XXV. Man 518
Conclusion 525
VOL. II.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
VOLUME II.
PLATE IX. Entomostracans
Page
Fig. 1 — 5. States of Adheres Percarum 25
1 . Foetus in Egg.
2. further developed.
3. Larve.
4. Pupe ?
a. Antennse.
h. Unguiculate thoracic legs.
c. Natatory, sub-abdominal ditto.
d. e. Cast skin.
5. Imago.
a. a. Maxillary legs.
h. b. Antennse.
c. c. Two posterior pair of thoracic legs confluent^
so as to form one organ, and to each of which
the sucker (c?) is hooked, by which the animal
fixes itself immoveably.
e. Abdomen, shewing the eggs in the ovaries.
/ /• ^Z?> pouches.
5. a. Natural size of the animal.
PLATE X. Crustaceans.
Fig. 1 . Birgus Latro 48
2. Pagurus clibanarius 45
a. «. a. Adhesive organs at the tail.
t «
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. Vll
Pag:?
h. b. c. c. Two last pairs of thoracic legs, by
which it also adheres to the shell it inhabits.
d. d. Egg bearers.
e. e. Forceps, in this species both of the same
size.
3. Phyllosoma brevicorne 59
PLATE XI. Arachnidan and Insect Condylopes.
Fig. 1. Mormolyce phyllodes 359
2. Aranea notacantha 299
3. Portion of an honey-comb, to shew that every
cell stands, as it were, upon three 337
PLATE XI. B. Arachnidan Condylopes.
Fig. 1 . Cteyiiza fodiens 287
2. Nest and tube of do.
a. Lid or trap-door, b. Tube.
3 Cteniza nidulans 292
4. Nest of do.
a. Trap-door. b. Tube.
PLATE XI. C. Insect Condylopes.
Fig. 1. — 3. Myrmica Kirbii 340
4. Nest of do.
PLATE XII. Fishes.
Fig. 1 . Callicthys 142
2. Pectoral bony ray of a Silurus, found in digging
at Blakenham parva Rectory, in Suffolk .... 140
PLATE XIII. Fishes (continued).
Fig. 1 . Malthe Vespertilio 137
2. Lateral view of the head of do.
3. A species o^ Jishhicj frog from China 138
• • •
VIU EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
Paae
PLATE XIV. Reptiles.
Fig. 1. Proteus anguinus, vol. i. 35 418
a. Gills.
2. Anterior leg of the Charnccleon |^
3. Posterior do S
PLATE XV. Birds.
Fig. 1 . Sylvia cisticola 467
2. Nest of do.
3. Portion of do. to shew the stitching of the
leaves.
PLATE XVL Quadrupeds.
Chlamyphorus truncatus * 207
Plate IX
I.
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THE
HISTORY, HABITS, AND INSTINCTS
OF ANIMALS.
Chapter XIII.
Tiinctiofis and Instincts, Cirripedes and
Crindideans,
CIRRIPEDES.
1 HERE is a class of animals defended by multi-
valve shells, separated from the Molluscans not
only by the more complex structure of their
shells, but also by very material differences in
the organization of the creatures that inhabit
them. These Linne considered as forming a
single genus, which he named Lepas, a word
derived from the Greek lexicographers, and
explained by Hesychius as meaning a kind of
shell-fish that adheres to the rocks. In this
country these animals are known by the general
name of Sarnacles. Lamarck, I believe, was
the first who regarded them as entitled to the
VOL. II. ^ 15
2 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
rank of a class, which he denommated Cirr-
hipeda, not conscious, that by the insertion of
the aspirate, he made his term, hke Monoculus,
half Greek and half Latin : later writers who
have adopted the class, to avoid this barbarism,
have changed the term to Cirrhopoda, but as
this gives a different meaning to the word,
changing fringed or tendril-legs^ very happily
expressing the most striking character of the
animals intended, into yellow-legs^" which does
not indicate any prominent feature, I shall,
after Dr. Leach and Mr. W. S. Mac Leay,
omitting the aspirate, call them Cirripeda^ or
Cirripedes.
These animals have a soft body, protected by
a multivalve shell. They are without eyes, or
any distinct head ; have no powers of locomo-
tion, but are fixed to various substances. Their
body, which has no articulations, is enveloped
in a kind of mantle, and has numerous tenta-
cular arms, consisting of many joints, fringed on
each side, and issuing by pairs from jointed
pedicles : their mouth is armed with transverse
toothed jaws in pairs, which, like the mandibles
of the Crustaceans, are furnished with a feeler ;
they have a knotty longitudinal spinal chord ;
gills for respiration ; and for circulation, a heart
and vascular system.
1 Lat. Cirri. - Gr. ki
ppog.
CIRRIPEDES. 3
This class is divided into two Orders.
1. The first consists of the LepaditeSy or
Goose-barnacles/ the species of which are dis-
tinguished by a tendinous, contractile, and often
long tube, fixed by its base to some solid marine
substance, supporting a compressed shell, con-
sisting of valves united to each other by mem-
brane, and by having six pairs of tentacular
arms. They are usually found in places ex-
posed to the fluctuations of the waves. One
genus ^ appears to perforate rocks to form a
habitation. These animals roll up and unroll
their arms with great velocity, thus creating a
little whirlpool, that brings to their mouth an
abundant supply of animalcules, an action
which Poli compares to fishermen casting a net.
Some species, instead of shell, are covered by
a membranous sac, having occasionally very
minute shelly valves.^
2. The second Order of Cirripedes consists of
the Balanites, or Acorn-barnacles, which are dis-
tinguished from the Lepadites by a shelly, in-
stead of a tendinous tube, the mouth of which
is closed by an operculum, usually consisting of
four valves. The animals of this Order are
commonly regarded as sessile ; but, if Lamarck
is right in considering the valves of the shell of
the Lepadites as analogous to the operculum of
^ Anatifa. Pentelasmis, &c. - Lithotrya.
^ Anatifa coriacea et leporina.
4 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the Balanites, as it seems to be, and their tendi-
nous tube as really a part of the body of the
animal — as its being organized, living, and mus-
cular, seems to prove — then it must be analogous
to the shelly tube of the latter, and both must
be considered as elevated by a footstalk. This
tube, in the Balanites, consists usually of six
pieces, soldered, as it were, together ; and in
several species, as in the common sea-acorn,^ of
a triangular shape, and having their acute
angle alternately at the base and at the mouth of
the tube. The base of the tube generally takes
the form of the bodies upon which it is fixed,
and is sometimes composed of shell, sometimes
of membrane, and sometimes it is incomplete.
The animal, in this Order, has twenty-four ten-
tacular arms, shorter than those of the Lepadites,
consisting of two sorts, namely, six pairs of
large similar ones, but unequal in size, placed
above ; and as many smaller pairs, dissimilar
and unequal, and placed below. One pair of
these is much larger than the others. In the
water they keep these tentacles^ in perpetual
motion, and thus arrest, or, by producing a cur-
rent to their mouth, absorb the animalcules,
which constitute their food. They not only fix
^ Balanus Tintinnabulum.
2 These organs, though called tentacles, from their use, seem
rather analogous to the antenn(£ and other jointed organs of
Condy lopes.
CIRRIPEDES. 5
themselves upon inanimate substances, such as
rocks, stones, the hulls of ships, &c. but also
upon various marine animals and plants. Thus
some are found on Zoophytes, as sponges and
madrepores ; others attached closely to each
other on shell-fish, especially bivalves, so closely
that the point of a pin cannot be thrust between
them. One species takes its station on the shell
of the turtle ;* others plant themselves in the
flesh of the seal ; and others bury their tube in
the unctuous blubber of the whale.
If we compare the animals of the above Orders
with each other, we shall find that they are fitted
by their Creator to collect their food in different
ways. The Lepadites, by means of their long
contractile flexible tube, can rise or sink, and
bend themselves in different directions, so as, in
some sort, to pursue their prey ; their tentacles,
also, from their greater length, seem to further
this end : these, according to Poll's metaphor
above alluded to, they can throw out and draw
in laden with fry, as a fisherman does his net.
When their prey is in their mouth, it is subjected
to the action of their toothed jaws, which seem
more numerous and powerful than those of the
Balanites ; and as the valves forming the shell
are more numerous and connected by membrane,
and the whole shell more compressed than the
operculum of the last named animals, we may
^ Coronula testudinaria.
6 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
suppose that they are capable of a more varied
action, and one that may perhaps add to the mo-
mentum of the masticating organs. Hence we
may conjecture that the animals destined to
form their nutriment, may be larger, so as to
require more exertion and force, both to take
and to masticate.
In the other Order, the structure of the Sa-
lanites seems to indicate merely the protrusion
and employment of their tentacles ; and being
usually attached to floating bodies, such as the
hulls of ships, or parasitic upon locomotive ani-
mals, riding as they do upon the back of the
turtle, the dolphin, and the whale, they may visit
various seas in security, and feast all the while,
with little trouble and exertion, upon animal-
cules of every description, the produce of arctic,
tempeirate, and tropical seas.
With respect to their place in nature, it seems
not quite clear whether they should be regarded
as leading from the Molluscans, with which
Cuvier arranges them, towards the Crustaceans,
and they certainly seem to have organs bor-
rowed from both ; their shells and mantle in
some degree from one, and their palpigerous
mandibles and jointed organs, proceeding in
pairs from a common footstalk — like the interior
antennae of the lobster — and knotty spinal chord
from the other : but with respect to their jointed
organs, I must observe that they still more
CIRRIPEDES. 7
closely resemble those of some of the Encri-
nites/ like them being fringed on each side,
though not with organs of that description. A
learned naturalist, Mr. W. S. Mac Leay, is of
opinion that the Echinidans, or sea urchins, ex-
hibit some approximation to the Balanites.^ If,
indeed, we compare the genus Coronula with an
Echinus, we shall discover several points in
which their structure agrees. We learn from
Lamarck, that the pieces of the so called oper-
culum, which close the mouth of the former
shell, are affixed rather to the animal than to
the shell. Thus the operculum, in some sort,
represents the jaws of an Echinus, though con-
sisting of fewer pieces, and the tube appears
divided into alleys, like the crust of that animal.
These circumstances seem to prove some affinity
between the Cirripedes and Radiaries; they
appear also to have some points in common with
Savigny's Nereideans, especially Amphitrite,^
Weighing all these circumstances, I have thought
it best to place the Cirripedes immediately be-
fore the Entomostracan Crustaceans.
But what if these Cirripedes should at last
prove to be, not the guides to the great Crusta-
cean host, but its legitimate progeny ? This has
been asserted, at least partially, by a modern
zoologist, who has assigned his reasons for this
1 See Plate III. B. Fig. 1.
2 Hor. Ent. i. 312. ^ Ibid.
8 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
singular and startling opinion. I will not say
the thing is impossible — for with God all things
are possible — but it certainly appears in the
highest degree improbable. That a Zoea should
become a crab is sufficiently extraordinary, and
an opinion, as Latreille remarks, which, if it be
not erroneous, has great need of support from
experiment :^ but that a locomotive animal,
gifted with eyes and legs, should, by an extraor-
dinary metamorphosis, in its perfect state, be-
come a barnacle, without head, eyes, or locomo-
tive organs, can never be admitted till confirmed
by repeated experiments of the most able and
practised zoologists, so as to place the matter
beyond dispute. I by no means, however, mean
to assert that Mr. Thompson did not think he
saw what he has stated, in both cases, to take
place, but he was probably deceived by appear-
ances in some such way as he states Slabber to
have been.*
A single fact, observed by Poli, is sufficient to
overturn this whole hypothesis. This illustrious
conchologist relates that he had an opportunity
of examining the immense fecundity of the
sessile barnacles. ** In the beginning of June
he found innumerable aggregations of them,
covering certain boats that had been long sta-
tionary, which, when closely examined, were so
Cours D'Entomologie, i. 385.
Zool. Research. No. i. 7.
CIRRIPEDES. ^
minute, that single shells were not bigger than
the point of a needle ; and that from that time
they grew very rapidly, and arrived at their full
size in October." These very minute ones must
have been hatched from the egg, and not pro-
duced from larves.
With regard to the functions and instincts of
these Cirripedes, very little has been observed.
We see from the above account of them, that,
like many other animals amongst the lowest
grades of the animal kingdom, they are fur-
nished with particular organs adapted to the
capture of animalcules and other minor inhabi-
tants of the deep, which they help to keep
within due limits. Probably they act upon the
substances to which they attach themselves, and
promote the decomposition of shells, and other
exuviae of defunct animals, and also of the rocks
and ligneous substances on which they take their
station. Of this we are sure, that they work
His work who gave them being, and assigned
them their several stations in the world of
waters.
CRINO'lDEANS.
In the deepest abysses of the ocean, it is
probable, lurks a tribe of plant-like animals, to
judge from its numerous fossil remains, abound-
ing in genera and species that are very rarely
10 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
seen in a recent state, and which, from a sup-
posed resemblance between the prehensory
organs or arms, surrounding the head or mouth of
several species belonging to the tribe, when their
extremities converge, to the blossom of a liliaceous
plant, have been denominated Encrinites and
Cri7ioideans} It was not my original intention,
as little or nothing was known with respect to
the habits and station of the few recent ones that
have been met with — except that one has been
taken in the seas of Europe, and three in the
West Indies, namely, near Martinique, Bar-
bados, and Nevis — to have introduced them into
the present work, but having subsequently seen
fragments of a specimen, taken either in the
Atlantic or Pacific, I am not certain which, and
upon examining it under the microscope, finding
evident traces of suckers on the underside of
its fingers, and of the tentacles that form its
fringes,'^ a circumstance I found afterwards men-
tioned by Ellis, and which throws some light
upon their economy, I felt that I ought not to
pass them wholly without notice, and finding in
the Hunterian Museum a very fine specimen
which does not appear to have been figured, for
the figure given by Ellis seems to have been
taken from Dr. Hunter's specimen, now at Glas-
gow, and Mr. Miller's from a specimen of Mr.
Tobin's, now in the British Museum, by the kind
' From Kptvov, a lily. ^ Plate III. B. Fig. 2.
CRINOIDEANS. 11
permission of the Curators of the Museum in
Lincoln's Inn Fields, I was allowed to have a
figure of it taken by my artist, Mr. C. M. Curtis.^
Lamarck has placed the Crino'ideans, led pro-
bably by their plant-like aspect, in the same
Order with his Floating Polypes^ not aware that
the majority are evidently fixed, but Cuvier
and most modern zoologists consider them, with
more reason, as forming a family of the Stelleri-
dans, from which the way to them is by the genus
Comatula, remarkablefor its jointed rays fringed
on each side. The Marsupites, as Mr. Mantell,
after Mr. Miller, has observed, form the link
which connects the proper or pedunculated
Crino'ideans with the Stelleridans. If we com-
pare them again with the class last described,
the CirripedeSy especially the Lepadites, we shall
find several points which they possess in common.
In the first place both sit upon a footstalk, though
of a different structure and substance ; the animal
in both, in its principal seat, is protected by
shelly pieces or valves ; the head or mouth in
both, is surrounded by dichotomizing articulated
organs, involuted, and often converging at the
summit, and fringed on each side, in the Crino'i-
deans, with a series of lesser digitations, and in
the Cirripedes with a dense fringe of hairs. If
the opinion of Mr. W. S. Mac Leay, stated above,
^ Plate III. B. Fig. 1. ^ Polypi natantes.
12 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
that some of the Echinoderms exhibit an ap-
proximation to some of the Cinipedes, is cor-
rect, as it seems to be, the Crindideans, though
still far removed, would form one of the links
that concatenate them ; or if their connection is
thought merely analogical, the JBalanites would
be the analogues of the Echinidans and of the
sessile Crinoideans, and the Lepadites of the
pedunculated ones.
The following characters distinguish the Pen-
tacrinites, to which Tribe all the known recent
species belong.
Animal, consisting of an angular flexible
column, composed of numerous joints, articula-
ting by means of cartilage, and perforated for
the transmission of a siphon or intestinal canal,
and sending forth at intervals, in whorls, several
articulated cylindrical branches, curving into a
hook at their summit ; fixed at its base, and sup-
porting at its free extremity a cup-like body,
containing the mouth and larger viscera, consist-
ing of several pieces, terminating above in five
(or six) dichotomizing, articulated, semi-cylin-
drical arms, fringed with a double series of
tentacular jointed digitations, furnished below
on each side with a series of minute suckers :
these arms, when expanded, resemble a star of
five (or six) rays, and when they converge, a
pentapetalous or hexapetalous liliaceous flower.
The whole animal, when alive, is supposed to be
CRINOIDEANS. 13
invested with a gelatinous muscular integu-
ment.
In the specimen figured by Mr. Ellis, and that
in the Hunterian Museum, there appear to be
six arms springing from the so-called pelvis, but
the natural number appears to hejive^ correspon-
ding with the pentagonal column. Mr. Miller
seems to be of opinion that the species described
by M. Guettard, and that which he has himself
figured, are the same species, and synonymous
with the Isis Asteria of Linne and the Encrinus
Caput Medusce of Lamarck, but to judge from
the figures of the first in Parkinson,^ and of the
other in Miller,^ compared with that which is
given in this work,^ the last seems to differ
from both, as well in the pelvis, as in the dicho-
tomies, and length of the arms; its suckers
likewise appear to be circular,* and not angular
as they are described by Mr. Miller under the
name of plates.^ If this observation turns out
correct, I would distinguish the last species by
the name of Pentacrinus Asteria,
The stem of the Crinoideans consists of nu-
merous joints, united by cartilages, which exhibit
several peculiarities ; in the first place the upper
and under side is beautifully sculptured, so as to
represent a star of five rays, or a pentapetalous
* Organic Remains j ii. t. x'lx.f. 1. * Crinoidea, 48. t. 1.
3 Plate III. B. Fig. 1. * Ibid. Fig. 2.
^ Ubi supr. 54. t. \\.f. 6.
VOL. II. B 7
14 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
flower; the Creator's object in this structure
appears to be the attachment of the cartilage
that connects them, and, perhaps, to afford means
for a degree of rotatory motion, as well as to
prevent dislocations, and also to increase the
flexure of the stem according to circumstances,
and the will of the animal. For the transmission
of the siphon, whether a spinal chord, or intes-
tinal canal, or both, each joint of the column is
perforated, the aperture being round in some,
and floriform in others. The whole stem, with
its whorls of branches, exhibits a striking resem-
blance to that of the common horse-tail.^ The
entire structure seems calculated to enable the
animal to bend its stem, which appears very
long, in any direction, like the Lepadites, and
thus as it were to pursue its prey; we may
suppose that the branching arms, fingers, and
their lateral organs, when they are extended
horizontally and all expanded, must form an
ample net, far exceeding that of the Cirripedes,
which, when they have their prey within its
circumference, by converging their arms, and
closing all their digitations, and employing their
suckers, they can easily so manage as to prevent
the escape of any animal included within its
meshes.
With regard to their functions, and what ani-
^ Equisetum arvense.
CRINOIDEANS. 15
mals their Creator has given a charge to them
to keep within due Umits, little can be known by
observation ; as nothing like jaws has been dis-
covered in them, in which they differ from the
Cirripedes, it should seem that either their food
must consist of animalcules that require no mas-
tication, or, if they entrap larger animals, that
they must suck their juices, which seems to be
Mr. Miller's opinion/ This idea is rendered not
improbable by the vast number of suckers by
which their fingers, and their lateral branches
or tentacles as they are called, are furnished ; by
these they can lay fast hold of any animal too
powerful to be detained in their net by any
other means, and subject it to the action of their
proboscis.
From the gr^at rarity of recent species of
these animals, it should seem that the metropolis
of their race is in the deepest abysses of the
world of waters. " It appears," says Bosc,-
" that the species were extremely numerous in
the ancient world, perhaps, those actually in
existence are equally so, for I suspect that all
inhabit the depths of the ocean, a place in which
they may remain to eternity without being-
known to man."
Naturalists very often, too hastily, regard
species as extinct, that are now found only in
' Crinoidea, .54. '^ N. D. D'Hisf. Nat. x. 224.
IG FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
a fossil state, forgetting that there may be many
stations fitted for animal or vegetable life, that
are still, and, perhaps, always will be inaccessible
to the investigator of the works of the Creator,
where those mourned over as for ever lost, may
be flourishing in health and vigour.
Chapter XIV.
Entomostracan Coiidylopes,
We are now arrived at a great branch of the
animal kingdom, which, in its higher tribes, ex-
hibits Divine Wisdom, acting, in and by the
instincts of creatures, small indeed in bulk, but
mighty in operation, in a way truly admirable,
indicating, in a most striking manner, the source
from which it proceeds.
Some modern zoologists do not regard this
vast and interesting branch as forming a group
by itself, but have associated with it, under a
common name, several of the preceding classes.
Cams, in his Class of Articulated Animals,^ in-
cludes Lamarck's Worms and Annelidans; and
Dr. Grant, in his Sub-kingdom, bearing the
same appellation, adds to these the W/ieel-
animalcules,^ and Cirripedes,^
1 Articulata. 2 Rotifem. ^ Cirrhopoda.
ENTOMOSTUACAN CONDYLOPES. 17
I cannot help thinking, however — taking the
whole of their organization and structure into
consideration, particularly their powers and
means of locomotion and prehension— that it is
best to regard those animals having jointed legs,
and, mostly, a body formed of tivo or more seg-
ments, as constituting a separate Sub-kingdom.
This is the view that my late illustrious and
lamented friend, Latreille, has taken of this
great group, named by him, from the above cir-
cumstance, Condylopes,^ which term, since that
oi Annulose animals," sometimes used, is syno-
nymous with Annelidans, I shall adopt in the
present work.
The distinctive characters of this great group,
or Sub-kingdom, maybe given in few words :
Animal, not fixed by its base, but locomotive.
IBody, in the great majority, consisting of two
or more segments.
Legs, jointed.
The first of these characters distinguishes the
Condylopes from the last class, the Cirripedes,
which are fixed by their base, whereas the pre-
sent tribe are more free in their motions than
most of the animals of the preceding groups ; and
the two last from the Annelidans, which, though
annulated, are not insected, and have no jointed
legs.
1 Condylojm, from kovIvXoi, joints, and ttovc, a foot.
2 Annulosa.
VOL. II. C
18 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Cuvier, Latreille, and most other zoologists,
consider this section of the animal kingdom as
subdivided into three great Classes^ — Crustaceans,
Arachnidans, and Insects: Dr. Leach, taking the
respiratory organs for his guide, also begins with
three primary Sections, those, namely, which
have gills, those which have sacs, and those
which have tracliece, for respiration ; and out of
these he forms jive Classes, viz. Crustaceans,
Araclinoidans, Acarines, Myriapods, and Insects.
The first and last of these Classes he further
subdivides, each into two Sub-classes : the Crus-
taceans into Entomostracans and 3Ialacostracans ;
and Insects into Ametabolians and Metabolians,
or those that do not undergo a metamorphosis,
and those that do. So that according to his
primary Section his system is ternary ; accord-
ing to his secondary it is quinary ; and according
to his tertiary it is septenary. I shall mostly
follow him in each of these last subdivisions.
Having made these remarks upon the Condy-
lopes in general, I must now proceed to one of
the Classes above enumerated : but here, at first,
it seems difficult to ascertain which ought to be
regarded as forming the first step in an ascend-
ing series, — a difficulty, indeed, which often
arrests the course of the student of the works of
his Creator, for, when any one, in a philosophic
spirit, after a careful survey, sits down to trace
the paths by which Divine Wisdom seems to
ENTOMOSTRACAN CONDYLOPES. 19
have passed in the creation, and the arrange-
ment and connection of the various groups of
organized beings, he is lost and bewildered in a
most intricate and mazy labyrinth, in which
paths intersect each other at every angle, and
when he thinks he is travelling in a straight
road he often comes to branches leading off from
it, which render it uncertain in which direction
he ought to proceed, in order best to attain the
object he is pursuing.
Such indeed is the perplexity of animated
nature, that it is impossible to see clearly the
arrangement of the objects that constitute either
the vegetable or the animal kingdom ; and in
order to get any tolerable notion of them, as
God has placed them, when we have reached a
certain station we are often obliged to retro-
grade, and begin a branch, from the point of its
divergement, far removed from that to w^hich we
have arrived.
Latreille, in the last edition of the Rhgne Ani-
mal, divides his Crustaceans into two Sub -classes,
the first of which, after Aristotle, he denominates
Malacostracans ;^ and the second, after Miiller,
JEntomostracans :^ these, on account of a connec-
tion which seems to exist between them and the
King-crah,^ he places immediately before the
Arachnidans. I agree with this learned entomo-
' Malacostraca. ^ Entomostraca.
^ Limulus Polyphemus.
20 rUNCTlONS AND INSTINCTS.
legist, in considering them as inferior to the
proper Crustaceans, and shall therefore begin
the Condylope group with some account of
them. Like the infusory animalcules, they
form a kind of centre, sending forth rays to dif-
ferent points, some inclosed in a bivalve shell,
seeming to tend towards the Molluscans ;'^ others
assuming more of the Crustacean form ; " a third
looking to the Arachnidajis ;^ and a fourth to the
Thysaiiuran, or Sugar-louse tribe ;^ with other
forms that might be enumerated, some of which
are perfectly anomalous, so that it appears almost
indifferent where they are placed. As there is,
however, evidently some affinity between the En-
tomostracans and the Cirripedes, not only in both
being furnished with jointed organs for their
motions, but also in some of the former being-
inclosed in shells, and in others by the brisk
agitation of their legs, producing a current in
the water to their mouths, as De Geer states of
the Water-flea : ^ this furnishes a further argu-
ment for placing them next to the latter tribe.
It is difficult, and next to impossible, to fix
upon any characters that are common to the
whole of this remarkable Class. Generally
speaking, but not invariably, they are covered,
not by a calcareous and solid, but by a horny
and thin integument. They vary considerably
• Cypris, &c. ^ Branchipus. " Limulus.
* Cyclops. ^ Daphnia Pulex. De Geer^ vii. 453.
ENTOMOSTRACAN CONDYLOPES. 21
in the number of their antennae and legs, the
former often branching, and being used as oars,
and the latter usually being connected with
their respiration, evincing an analogy between
these legs and the cilise of the Rotatories, and
tentacles of the Polypes;^ in the majority these
organs are not calculated for prehension. One
group of them lives by suction, and is parasitic
upon other aquatic animals : the great body,
however, masticate their food, but without the
aid of maxillary legs. Their eyes are generally
sessile, and a considerable number of them have
only one, or rather two eyes enveloped by a com-
mon cornea.^
Latreille, in his Coiirs T>' Eutomologie, divides
this Class — regarded by Linne as forming one
genus, which he named Monocuhis — into six
Orders; but it will be sufficient here to adopt
his division of them in the R^gne Animal,
into tivo, which, as separating the fresh-water
from the marine genera, is more simple, and
better suited to my purpose. These Orders he
names Branchiopods and Poecilopods.
1. The BrancMopods are all very minute, and
several of them microscopic animals. Their
mouth consists of an upper lip, two mandibles, a
tongue, and one or two pairs of maxillae. Their
legs are natatory, connected with their respira-
1 See above, Vol. I. p. 154, 164. 2 Rogct, B. T. ii. 493.
VOL. II. G 3
22 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
tion — whence their name of JBranchiopods, or
gill-bearing legs — often branching, varying in
number from six to more than a hundred.
2. The Pcecilopods differ from the preceding
Order by the different structure and uses of their
legs, which are not branching, and all of them
in some, and part of them in others, are prehen-
sory and ambulatory, in some part are also
branchial and natatory. They differ likewise
by not having the ordinary mandibles and max-
illae, which are sometimes replaced by the spiny
hips of the six first pairs of legs, and, in one
tribe, by a mouth and oral organs proper for
suction.
There is a tribe of parasitic animals, which
neither Cuvier nor Latreille have included
amongst the Entomostracans, but which Audoin
and Milne Edwards conjecture are of a Crusta-
cean type. I am speaking of the Lerneans of
the author first mentioned, which he has placed,
but not without hesitation, in his first order,^ of
Intestinal Worms.^ Dr. Nordmann, however,
has made it evident that they undergo a meta-
morphosis little differing from that of the first
Order of the Entomostracans, the Branchiopods,
especially Cyclops; and he is of opinion, that, in
a system, they would follow that genus. Their
resemblance is indeed striking in their prepa-
^ Intestinaux cavitaires. ' Entozociy^nd,
ENTOMOSTRACAN CONDYLOPES. 23
ratory states, but in their last or perfect state,
they differ, and like the Pcecilopods, are para-
sitic ; many of them are furnished with a very
conspicuous organ, which I shall afterwards
describe, for fixing themselves ; and their form
is very different, their body consisting of two
segments, like that of the Arachnidans,^ though
attached to their abdomen, like many of the
Branch] opods, they have two egg-pouches.^ In
fact the Lerneans seem scarcely more anomalous
amongst the Entomostracans, than the King-
crab, and other Pcecilopods. All things consi-
dered, perhaps, they may be regarded as forming
an osculant group between the two Orders.
The animals of the first Order mostly frequent
stagnant waters, moving about with great ra-
pidity. They are generally regarded as preda-
ceous, and are stated to make the infusory
animalcules their prey, but some are supposed
to be herbivorous, and they abound particularly
in waters in which plants are vegetating. As
the places that they frequent are very subject to
be dried up in the summer-time, it seems pro-
bable that a kind Providence has fitted them for
this event, by giving them, as well as the Infu-
sories, powers of reviviscence. Latreille thinks
that those of them, which, for the protection of
1 Plate IX. Fig. 5. ' Ibid. f. f.
24 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
their slender and frail branching antennee and
legs, are enclosed in shells, have the power, after
drawing in all their organs, of hermetically seal-
ing their shells till the return of moisture.
These little animals differ from the Molluscans,
and the other preceding Classes, by the changes
of their integument ; they do not, like them, when
their advance in growth requires it, add to their
shells ; but, fixing themselves to some substance
at hand, they move their limbs, and the valves
of their old shells, new ones being already formed
underneath, and thus loosening their exuviae, in
a short time they cast those of the whole body ;
of all their limbs, hairs, plumes, even those that
are invisible to the naked eye. Amongst these
exuviae may be detected, not merely the cast skin
of the external parts, but that of the internal
also. These moults follow each other at an
interval of five or six days, and it is not till after
the third that the animal has acquired the repro-
ductive faculty.
In the antecedent classes of the animal king-
dom, which were almost all inhabitants of the
water, we have seen no instances of animals
casting their skins, or undergoing any metamor-
phosis — either in the number or form of their
parts — in their progress to their adult state.
Some few shell-fish, indeed, are stated to cast
their shells, and form others,^ but a degree of
1 See above, Vol. I. p. 300.
ENTOMOSTRACAN CONDYLOPES. 25
doubt rests upon the fact. In the Branchiopods,
however, a kind of metamorphosis, as well as
the moult just described, has long been noticed
and recorded.
The young ones of the Cyclops, the animal
before mentioned as an analogue of the sugar-
louse, when first hatched have only four legs,
their body is nearly round, and has no tail,
which led Miiller to mistake them for species of
a different genus ;^ soon afterwards another pair
is acquired, which the same author regarded as
a second genus,^ and so it proceeds till it assumes
the perfect form of its kind. Nordmann has
given figures of a very remarkable Lernean
parasite,' which infests the perch, representing
its whole progress, from the egg to the perfect
insect,^ which, like the Cyclops, does not acquire
all its organs, except at its last metamorphosis.
Our progress upwards, as far as w^e have at
present proceeded, has been a gradual advance,
form after form appearing upon the stage of
animal existence, each distinguished by cha-
racters indicating an elevation as to rank and
station. But in the animals amongst which the
law^ in question obtains, we see the same indi-
vidual, at different periods of its existence, assu-
ming a higher tone of character, and often endued
^ Amymone. ^ Nauplius. ^ Adheres Percarum.
* Plate IX. Egg, Fig. 1, 2. Larva, Fig. 3. Pupa,
Fig. 4. Imago, Fig. 5.
26 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
with organs that fit it for a more extended range.
Sometimes from being purely aquatic, it becomes
a denizen of the earth and the air — or of earth,
air, and water at once — and, with this change of
character and organs, its Creator wills it to
undertake a new charge in the general arrange-
ment of functions and duties.
It will be recollected that a very considerable
portion of the food of the higher creatures,
especially the birds, is derived from animals that
undergo a metamorphosis ; and, that the majority
of these in their first state, are more bulky, and
contain more nutritive substance than they do
when arrived at their last, and, therefore, even in
this view, circumstances important to the general
welfare may arise from this disposition, and
variety of food may also be produced, and more
enjoyment to the various animals who are des-
tined to live by the myriad forms of the insect
world.
Whether the higher Orders of Crustaceans
undergo a real metamorphosis has not been
satisfactorily proved. They are known to change
their shells annually, but it has not been observed
that this moult is attended by any change of
form, or by the acquisition of new locomotive or
other organs. Insects, we know, after their last
change do not increase in size ; the Crustaceans
are found, however, to vary very much in this
respect. Whether a different law obtains amongst
ENTOMOSTRACAN CONDYLOPES. 27
them, from what takes place in insects, and they
follow the Batrachian reptiles, which, after they
have exchanged the tadpole for the frog, grow
till they have arrived at the standard of their
respective species, I cannot certainly affirm ; but
reasoning from analogy, it seems more probable
that the crustaceans should follow the law of
animals most nearly related to them, and belong-
ing to the same primary group, than that they
should copy the reptiles, animals far removed
from them, and of a completely different organi-
zation.
There is another point in which this subject
of animal metamorphoses may be viewed. Do
not these successive changes in the outward
form, functions, and locomotions of so many
animals, preach a doctrine to the attentive and
duly impressed student of animal forms, and
their history — do they not symbolically declare
to him, that the same individual may be clothed
with different forms, in different states of exist-
ence, that he may be advanced, after certain
preparatory changes, and an intermediate inter-
val of rest and repose, to a much more exalted
rank ; with organs, whether sensiferous or loco-
motive, of a much wider range ; with tastes more
refined ; with an intellect more developed, and
employed upon higher objects; with affections
more spiritualized, and further removed from
gross matter ?
28 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
The multiplication of these creatures, which,
like the Aphides, are oviparous at one time, and
viviparous at another, is sometimes prodigious,
and only exceeded by that of the Infusories.
A female Cyclops, the animal before alluded to,
in the space of three months, after one fecundation
which serves for several successive generations,
lays her eggs ten times, and it has been calcu-
lated that from only eight of these ovipositions,
allowing forty for each, she might be the progen-
itrix, incredible as it may seem, of four milliards
and a half, or four thousand five hundred mil-
lions ! ! ^ Another animal belonging to a genus of
the present order,^ was observed by Captain
Kotzebue in such myriads that the sea exhibited
a red stripe, a mile long, and a fathom broad,
produced by a species, individually viewed,
scarcely visible to the naked eye. How astonish-
ing is the reflection, that in so short a space, in
the case of the Cyclops, a single individual
should be gifted by its Creator to fill the waters
with myriads of animated beings, supposing a
single impregnated female at first to have been
the surviving inhabitant of any given pool or
ditch. Conjecture is lost when we meditate
upon the mysterious subject. How can life, as
originally imparted, at the interval of a few
months be so multiplied and subdivided, as, that
' h^ixQ\\\Q Cours D'Entomolo(jie/\. A2\. * Calanus.
ENTOMOSTRACAN CONDYLOPES. 29
such infinite shoals of beings shall each have a
share in the wonderful bequest. But, when we
reflect that an Omnipresent Deity is every where
mighty in operation, working all in all, and that
he guideth all the powers of nature, as the rider
guideth the horse upon which he sitteth, to answer
the purposes of his providence ; ^ we may easily
conceive, that under his superintendence the
thing may be accomplished, though how it is
accomplished, must always remain an unfathom-
able mystery.
These powers of multiplication are, however,
given to these creatures for a wise and beneficent
purpose. They themselves afford a supply of
food to a variety of creatures — to numerous
aquatic insects, even polypes and worms; and
to many fishes and birds, by whom their numbers
are hourly and greatly diminished. As the stag-
nant waters likewise, in which they abound, are
apt to be dried up in the summer season, many
of them probably perish ; but, in some, anima-
tion may be suspended till the places they in-
habit are again filled with water. I have found
the little animal described by Dr. Shaw, in the
Linnecm Transactions, as the Cancer stagnalis of
Linne, in horse-hoof prints, in the spring, then
filled with water, but which had been previously
quite dry.
1 1 Cor. xii. G. Ps. Ixviii. 4, 33.
30 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
The finny tribes of the world of waters seem
more particularly exposed to the invasion of pa-
rasitic foes ; as far as they are known there is
scarcely a fish that swims that is not infested
by more than one of these enemies ; even the
mightiest monsters of the ocean, the gigantic
whale, the sagacious dolphin, the terrific and
all-devouring shark, cannot defend themselves
from them. Where they abound they doubtless
generate diseases, and are amongst the means
employed by a watchful Providence to keep
within proper limits the inhabitants of the
waters ; and probably there are other benefits
which our imperfect knowledge of their history
prevents us from duly appreciating, that are con-
ferred, through these animals, upon the oceanic
population. Their prevalence upon the preda-
ceous fishes, as was before observed, may tend
to diminish their ravages by lessening their acti-
tivity ; while to those of a milder character,
within certain bounds and under certain circum-
stances, they may be beneficial rather than inju-
rious.
Of this description is the tribe of Lerneans,
above alluded to as intermediate between the
Branchiopod and Poecilopod Entomostracans ; of
which I cannot select a more interesting spe-
cies to exemplify the adaptation of the structure
to the instinct and functions, than one described
and figured by Dr. Nordmann, under the appro-
ENTOMOSTRACAN CONDY LOPES. 31
priate name of Adheres Percarum,^ or Pest of the
Perch.
This animal, like the Branchiopocls, is found
in fresh water, where it attaches itself to the
common, and another species of the perch
genus,^ and takes its station usually within the
mouth, fixing itself, by means of its sucker, in
the cellular membrane, so deeply that it cannot
disengage itself, or be extracted by external
force, without rupturing the so called arms, that
are attached to the sucker, and leaving it be-
hind. The animal often fixes itself to the pa-
late, and even to the tongue. The arms^ take
their rise at the base of the cephalothorax — as
the part consisting of head and thorax, not
separated by a suture, is called — where they
are very robust and thick, but they taper to-
wards the other extremity, a single sucker,*
common to both, being, as it were, hooked
to them. These arms are bent nearly into
a circle, surrounding the cephalothorax, and the
sucker is in front of the head : their substance is
cartilaginous, and they repose in the same plane
with the head ; whence we may conjecture that
the animal, when fixed and engaged in suction,
lies close to the part where it has taken its
station. When we consider that these preda-
ceous fishes often gorge their prey, swallowing
^ Ax6r)pr)Q, Annoying. 2 p crca Jluviatilis and P. lucioperca.
3 Plate IX. Fig. .5. c,c. ^ Plate IX. Fig. 5. </.
32 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
it entire, we see how necessary it was that our
parasite should be thus fitted to fix itself firmly,
and root itself, as it were, that it may be enabled
to withstand the pressure and violent action of
the bodies that pass over it, for the palate and
tongue of a Perch must be a perilous station.
This purpose seems further aided by a quantity
of saliva, usually formed around it.
These pests of the perch are themselves sub-
ject to the incursions and annoyance of animals
still more minute than themselves. A small
species of mite ^ makes them its prey, and when
the saliva just mentioned is removed, they are
often found quite covered by a species of Infu-
sory belonging to the genus Vorticella.
The next Order, including all the jnarme En-
tomostracans, will not detain us long. The first
section consists of a single, but very remarkable,
genus, the type of which is the Monoculus Poly-
phemus of Linne.^ In the West Indies it is
called, by way of eminence, the King-crab, and
is found in the seas both of the East and West,
from the equator to the 40th deg. of latitude.
The species are few, and near to each other.
They differ widely both in their characters and
form from every other Crustacean tribe. Like
the Cirripedes, they have no distinct head : their
1 Gamasus scabriciilus. " Limulus. — Mlill.
ENTOMOSTRACAN CONDYLOPES. 33
crust is divided into two portions, tlie anterior
embracing the posterior, and being terminated,
like the Rays, to which they present an ana-
logy, by a long angular tail. They have both
compound and simple eyes ; the first are situated,
one in the middle of each lateral ridge, usually
under the spine on the outer side ; the second, or
simple eyes, are on each side of the intermediate
ridge, where it begins : these last are very mi-
nute, and not easily discoverable. The under
side of the shield, or anterior portion of the
crust, is deeply hollowed for the reception of the
body, and the cavity is marked out anteriorly
by an emarginate ridge, which gives it some-
thing the appearance of the hooded serpent.
Some of them attain to a large size, the species
found near the Molucca Islands being sometimes
two feet in length.
The head in them, as in the Arachnidans,
seems suppressed, or to merge in the thorax,
which also, as in that Class, bears the eyes, the
outer pair corresponding with those of certain
Crustaceans in which they are sessile, and the
inner pair being like those of the Arachnidans,
but they have neither the oral organs nor the
legs of the Class just named. In fact, these
animals seem to stand in much the same posi-
tion amongst the Entomostracans, that the
Cephalopods do amongst the Molluscans, and
moreover as giants amongst pigmies. Time will
VOL. II. D
34 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
probably throw more light upon these singular
works of the Creator.
Their most remarkable organ is their tail,
which is probably of considerable service to
them in their locomotions. It is shaped like a
stiletto, and is so extremely sharp at the ex-
tremity, that it will easily pierce the flesh, and
may perhaps be used by the animal as a weapon,
as it is said to be by the Indians ; it is so articu-
lated with the posterior piece of the crust as to
move with more ease upwards and downwards
than laterally. Comparing the small body with
the vast volume and levity of the crust which
covers and protects it, and considering that the
animal, as M. Latreille has remarked, passes the
night with its anterior half out of the water, we
may conjecture that, by the depression of the
tail, it may be elevated in part above the water,
and remain stationary. By a slight inclination
on either side it probably also helps to steer
it, and as it is ciliated at the base, like the
natatory legs of a Dyticus, it may be of some use
in swimming. The legs are all armed with pin-
cers, like those of a crab, from which it seems
evident that it is predaceous, and, from their small
size, that its prey must consist of minute animals.
The whole of its structure appears calculated
to give the king-crab more than usual buoyancy,
the reasons of which, when its history is better
known, will be more fully understood ; and the
ENTOMOSTRACAN CONDYLOPES. 35
Power, Wisdom, and Goodness that every wliere
flash upon us, when we consider animal struc-
tures and their adaptation to their habits and
instincts, when fully investigated, will be duly
appreciated. It is said that this creature,
amongst the ancient Japanese, was the symbol
of the zodiacal sisfn Cancer.
The animals belonging to the second section of
the Poecilipods differ from all the rest, by the
manner in which they take their food. They
are parasitic upon Cetaceans, fishes, some rep-
tiles, and Crustaceans, whose juices they imbibe
by suction. They are often fixed to the gills of
these animals, but nothing further interesting is
known of their history. Some have two long
jointed tails, like ephemerae,^ and others are
distinguished by a remarkable lateral elongation
of the thorax." Some fix themselves to their
prey by means of suckers, terminating their first
pair of legs,^ which the remainder have not.
The observation of Dr. Von Baer, quoted in a
former part of this work,^ that the lowest grades
of the animal kingdom exhibit the leading types
of the various organizations it contains, for rea-
sons before alluded to, would almost justify the
zoologist in assigning to the Entomostracans a
place amongst the Infusories. But the subject
of centres, in that kingdom, sending forth, as it
* Caligiis. 2 Nicothoe.
^ Arguliis. * Vol. I. p. 320.
30 IINCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
were, rays in different directions, and leading to
varions forms, requires very deep and minute
investigation, and abundant proof, before it will
be safe to adopt it as a principle.
Chapter XV.
.'•»
Crustacean Candy lopes.
We are now arrived at a Class of animals, in
which the organs of locomotion assume a new
and more perfect form, corresponding in some
measure with those of many of the vertebrated
animals. The advance, in structure, hitherto,
from a mouth surrounded by organs like rays,
serving various distinct purposes, and by dif-
ferent means contributing to the nutrition, respi-
ration, and motions of the animal, has been, by
certain inarticulate organs, more generally dis-
tributed over the body, but still in a radiating
order ; as for instance, the tentacular suckers of
the Stelleridans and Echinidans, which they use
in their locomotions, and for prehension, as well
as the purposes just named. In the Entomos-
tracans, as we have seen, the legs, though
jointed, are very anomalous, assume various
forms, and are applied to sundry uses : in the
CRUSTACEAN CONDY LOPES. 37
sole instance of the king-crab, they take the
articulations of those of the Crustaceans, in which
we may trace the general structure of the legs of
the other Classes of Condylopes.
But as I shall have occasion, in a subsequent
chapter, to give a concentrated account of the
gradual developement of the organs of locomotion
and prehension, from their first rudiments in the
lowest grades of the animal kingdom to their
state of perfection in the highest, I shall not
here, therefore, enlarge further upon the sub-
ject, than by observing, that, in most of the De-
capod Crustaceans, the anterior legs are become
strictly arms^ terminating in a kind of didactyle
hand, consisting of a large joint, incrassated
usually at the base, and furnished on its inner
side with a smaller moveable one, constituting
together a kind of finger and thumb, with which
it is enabled to seize firmly and hold strongly any
object that its inclinations or fears point out to it.
This hand we call the chela or claw, or more
properly pincers, of the lobster or crab. We
find it also in the scorpion and book-crab,*
which on shore are in some sort analogous to
the long- tailed and short-tailed Crustaceans, or
lobsters and crabs of the waters. This structure
of the hand, in these creatures, is particularly
fitted to their wants and situation. A hand like
I Chelifer,
38 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
ours, consisting of a quadruple set of fingers
and an opposite thumb, to be of sufficient power
for their purposes, must be so disproportioned to
their size, as to be an incumbrance rather than a
useful instrument of prehension ; but as now
constructed, it has the requisite strength for the
purposes of the animal, without being dispropor-
tioned to its size, and inconvenient for its use.
Thus we see how nicely every thing is calculated
and adjusted by Supreme Wisdom, to the nature
and circumstances of every animal form.
But these great claws are by no means uni-
versal amongst the Crustaceans. In some the
claws are very small, but the loss is often made
up to these by an increase as to number, so that
if they cannot lay hold of large animals, they can
seize, at the same time, several small ones. We
have seen that in the king-crab all the legs
have these prehensory claws, and they vary in
number in many of the smaller Crustaceans, as
the shrimp,^ prawn, ^ pandle,^ &c. The fore-
leg of some of these has prehensory claws, that
are formed like the mandibles or cheliceres of
spiders and the arms of the Mantis — whence
they are called mantis-crabs. Instead of a for-
ceps, consisting of a finger and thumb, the
claw that arms the extremity of the leg is folded
down, and received into a channel of the shank,
^ Cruiigon vulgaris. " PalcBmon scrralus. ^ Pandalus.
CRUSTACEAN CON DY LOPES. 39
and kept from dislocation by a tooth, or spine, at
the base : this structure may be seen in the
shrimp.
There is another circumstance, distinguishing
the decapod and stomapod Crustaceans, that is
peculiar to them, their eyes are placed upon
jointed footstalks, so that when they want to ex-
plore and examine what passes around them,
they can immediately erect these organs, and so
greatly enlarge their sphere of vision, but when
they have retired to their retreats in the cavities
of the rocks, or to burrows that they have
formed, they can place them in repose, in a
cavity provided for them by their Creator, in the
head.
Any person, who casts an eye over these
creatures, will be struck by repeated analogical
forms, representing some terrestrial animals of
the same Sub-kingdom. Thus a large number of
those distinguished by the shortness of their
tails, the crabs, present, both in their retrogres-
sive and lateral motions and general aspect, an
astonishing resemblance to many Arachnidans ;
some imitating spiders, and others phalangians:^
and, amongst the long-tailed tribe the lobsters,
one^ very accurately represents a scorpion, and
another a mantis.^
1 Macropodia Phalamjium. '^ Thalassinu Scorpioides.
3 Squillu Mantis.
40 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
We have seen the same tendency in the An-
iielidans to approach or imitate terrestrial forms,
as if the marine and aquatic animals were
anxious to quit their fluid medium, and to be-
come inhabitants of the dry land. The animal
living on shore and in the woods at St. Vincent,
taken for a MoUuscan by Mr. Guilding,^ appears
almost like a creature that had succeeded in
such an attempt.
All these resemblances and approximations
show, that the great Creator embraced at one
view all the forms to which he intended to give
being, and created no individual without fur-
nishing it with organs which give it some re-
lation to others ; or so moulding its outward
form, as to cause it to represent some others to
which it is clear it is not brought near by any
characters, common to both, that indicate af-
finity. What can more evidently and strongly
manifest design, and that of a mind compre-
hending simultaneously the whole world of cre-
ated beings, than thus to concatenate all link to
link and wheel within wheel, through all their
intricate revolutions and ramifications connect-
ing and connected, and all the while reflecting
others of a higher or a lower grade with mimic
features? this shows the hand, the art, the wis-
dom, the power, and the goodness of that un-
1 Vol. I p. 347. Plate VIII. Fig. 1.
CRUSTACEAN CONDYLOPES. 41
fathomable depth and immeasurable heighth of
Deity, which comprehends all things and is
comprehended by none ; and to whom all things
owe their being, and their form, and their
organs, and their several places and functions.
The general characters of the present class
are —
Body apterous, covered by a calcareous crust,
divided into segments. Legs jointed, 10 — 16.
Mouth composed of a lip^ tongue^ a pair of man-
dibles^ often bearing a feeler, and two pairs of
maxillcE, covered by maxillary legs. Spinal
chord knotty, terminating anteriorly in a small
brain, A heart and vessels for circulation. Res-
piration by gills.
These are divisible into five orders.
1. Decapods, Gills situated under the sides
of the shell. Ten thoracic legs. Eyes on a
jointed footstalk.
2. Stomapods, Gills attached to five pairs of
appendages, or spurious legs, under the ab-
domen. Eyes as in the Decapods.
3. Lceynipods. No abdominal appendages.
Eyes sessile.
4. Amphipods. Head distinct. Eyes sessile.
5. Isopods, Head distinct. Eyes sessile.
Legs simple, equal.
1. Decapods. This order naturally resolves
itself into two sections, viz. The short- tailed
42 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Decapods or Crabs,^ whicli have their abdomen
folded under the trunk : and the long-tailed
Decapods or Lobsters, Cray-Jish, &c.*^ whose ab-
domen is always extended.
Writers on the Crustaceans usually begin with
the short-tailed, and then proceed to the long-
tailed Decapods, and this arrangement seems
natural, when the transit is to those with sessile
eyes, such as the locust-crab ;^ but yet when we
consider how nearly related to the spiders the
former animals are, and that in the latter,
though the head is not formed b}^ a distinct
suture dividing it from the thorax, yet its contour
is strongly marked out externally by an im-
pression, and internally by a ridge, at least in
the lobster and cray-fish, — it seems as if the two
tribes should form two parallel lines, and pro-
ceed, side by side, towards the Arachnidans and
Myriapods.
I shall, however, follow the usual plan, and
give now some account of the crabs. Of these,
none are more remarkable than what have been
denominated land-crabs, from their usually living
on shore, and making for the sea only at certain
seasons. Of the most noted species of these I
have already given a full account,'' but I shall
here notice some others, having the same habits,
that will interest the reader. Aristotle, long ago,
1 Brachyari. - Macrouri.
^ Orchcsia litterea. * Vol. I. \). 124.
CRUSTACEAN CONDYLOPES. 43
noticed a crab of this description, found in
Phoenicia, under the name of the Horseynan,^
which he says runs so fast that it is not easy to
overtake it.^ Olivier found this account true
of those he saw on the coast of Syria ; and Bosc
observed a species^ in CaroHna, which he had
some trouble to overtake on horseback and shoot
with a pistol. These horsemen crabs are found
only in warm climates, where they inhabit sandy
spots near the shore, or the mouths of rivers.
They make burrows in the sand, to which they
retreat when alarmed, and in which they pass
the night.
Another kind of land-crab* is distinguished
by the extraordinary disproportion of its claws ;
one of them, sometimes the left and sometimes
the right, being enormously large, while the
other is very small, and often concealed, so that
the animal appears single-handed. This forma-
tion, however, is not without its use, for, when
retired into its burrow, it employs this large
claw to stop up the mouth of it, which secures it
from intrusion, and this organ is in readiness to
seize such animals as form its food and come
within its reach. They have the habit of hold-
ing up the great one, as if they were beckoning
some one; bvit this doubtless is an attitude of
1 iTTTvevQ. Gr. ^ Hist. Auim. 1. iv. c. 2.
-^ Ocypode Hippeus, probably Cancer Cursor. L.
■* Gelasiiiius vocans.
44 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
defence. These crabs live in moist places, near
the shore. They attack, in crowds, any carrion,
and dispute the possession of it with the vul-
tures ; they do not willingly enter the water,
except when they lay and hatch their eggs, and
it is conjectured that their young are for some
time entirely aquatic. One kind of them,' which
forms numerous burrows, remaining in them
during three or four months in the winter,
usually stops them up, so that the animals are
obliged to reopen them when the warmth of the
vernal sun bids them come forth again from
their winter quarters. They are devoured by
numerous animals, — otters, bears, birds, tor-
toises, and other reptiles, all prey upon them,
but their multiplication is so excessive, that
there seems no sensible diminution of their
numbers.
The next tribe of Decapods are the long-
tailed onesy which do not fold their abdomen
under their body. This part is usually furnished
at the extremity with several plates, which the
animal expands so as to form a fan of five or six
leaves ; they are easily seen in the common
lobster ;^ like the tail of birds, they are usefid to
the animal in its passage through an element
that requires to be moved by organs of a firmer
K
^ G. PiKjillator. - AsLacus Gammarus.
CRUSTACEAN CONDYLOPRS. 45
consistence than feathers. The lateral ones in
the species just named, having a kind of articu-
lation, so that they can be partially depressed,
and push against the plane they are moving
upon ; they do not, like the crabs, quit the
water, and are some of them, as the cray-fish,*
fresh-water animals.
I shall begin with a tribe which, in some
degree, connects the crab with the lobster, these
are what are denominated Hermit-crabs,^ whose
abdomen being naked, and unprotected by any
hard crust, their Creator has given them an
instinct, which teaches them to compensate this
seeming defect, by getting possession of some
univalve shell, suited to their size, which becomes
their habitation, and which they carry about
with them as if they were its proper inhabitants.
These crabs are particularly formed for the
habit that distinguishes them. Their naked tail
has a tendency to a spiral convolution, fitting
them to inhabit spiral shells, which they usually
select for their mansion, though, from recent
observations, it has been found that any univalve
will answer their purpose. Their tail is termi-
nated by an apparatus of moveable and hard
pieces,^ which appear intended to enable the
animal to fix itself more firmly in the spire of
1 Astacus Jluviatilis. ~ Pagurus, Plate X. Fig. 2.
' Jhid. 2. «, «, a.
46 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the shell. Usually the right hand claw, which
is disengaged from the shell, is double the size
of the other which is not, and is that which is
most employed ; but in narrow-mouthed shells,
such as the volute, in which Freycinet found
one,^ both claws are disengaged, and are of equal
size. The reason of this formation is jevident.
The fourth and fifth pairs of legs^ are much
smaller and shorter, than the anterior ones, they
have, below the claw, a piece resembling a
rasp, which appears formed to assist them in
moving in the shell, whether they wish to move
outwards or inwards, and, on one side, they have
a series of egg-bearing appendages.^ This whole
structure proves that they are formed with this
particular view of inhabiting the shells of a very
different tribe of animals. Some of these hermit-
crabs, for there are several species of them, may
be called terrestrial, while others are aquatic.
In some of the Indian isles, the shores are co-
vered with them. When the heat is most intense,
they seek the shelter of the shrubs, and when
the freshness of the evening breathes, they run
about by thousands, rolling along their shells in
the most grotesque manner, jostling each other,
stumbling, and producing a noise by the shock
of their encounters, which announces their ap-
' Pagurus clibanarius. See Plate X. Fig. 2.
- Ibid, b by c c. ^ Ibid, d, d, dy d.
CRUSTACEAN CONDYLOPES. 47
proach before they appear. When they perceive
any danger, they hastily conceal themselves in
any ready made holes they meet with, or under
the roots, or in the trunks of decayed trees, seldom
making for the sea, how near soever they may
be. At Guam, a very large species frequents
forests more than a mile from the sea ; and in
Jamaica, another species, called there the soldier,^
has been found in great quantities on elevated
ground, more than four leagues from it.
The common species^ is aquatic, and usually
inhabits the whelk ; it is stated annually to leave
its shell, at the time of its moult, and after this
great crisis is over, to seek another suited to its
increased magnitude. Aristotle, Belon, and
others affirm that these animals quit their shell
to seek their prey, and that when danger
threatens them, they retreat to it backwards,
but observations have not been made by modern
authors which confirm this statement. Their
sexual intercourse, however, could not take place
without their first leaving their mansion.
Why our, so called, hermits are gifted with
this singular instinct, is not easy to conjecture.
Many other creatures make use of houses that
they had no hand in erecting, as the bees, the
cuckoo, and sometimes the bear, &c. ; but I do
not recollect any that, as it were, clothe themselves
* Pagurus Diogenes. ^ P. Bernhardus.
48 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
with the cast garments of other animals. Pro-
vidence, besides the defence of their otherwise
unprotected bodies, has no doubt some object of
importance in view in giving them this instinct.
Perhaps they may accelerate the decomposition
of the shells they inhabit, and cause them sooner
to give way to the action of the atmosphere ; and
as all exuviae may be termed nuisances and de-
formities, giving to these deserted mansions an
appearance of renewed life and locomotion, re-
moves them in some sort from the catalogue of
blemishes. By this physical hypocrisy, of as-
suming the aspect of a different animal, which
is known as not having powerful means of de-
struction, these creatures may deceive the un-
wary, and make them their prey, which if they
wore the livery of their own tribe, would be on
their guard and escape them. •
Next to the Hermit-crabs, or rather Hermit-lob-
sters,^ comes a very interesting genus, which might
be denominated Tree-lobsters, from the singular
circumstance of their quitting the sea, like the
Climbing-perch,^ and in the night ascending the
cocoa-nut, and other palm-trees, for the sake of
their fruit. The species which manifests this re-
markable instinct is gigantic, and must exhibit a
striking spectacle when engaged in ascending the
stem of a cocoa-tree ; but Mr. Cummings ob-
> Bir(jus Latro. Plate X. Fig. 1. 2 Vol. I. p. 123.
CRUSTACEAN CONDYLOPES. 49
served its proceedings in the Polynesian Is-
lands, where he saw it ascending the pahn-trees
and devouring their fruit. I have, in a former
chapter,^ stated that the Climbing perch ascends
the fan-pahn in pursuit of certain Crustaceans,
perhaps related to the Birgus, which frequent it.
Freycinet observed these crabs, in the Marian
Islands, and says that their claws have wonder-
ful strength, for when the animal has seized a
stick, an infant may be suspended from them.
They are very fond of the fruit of the cocoa-
palm, and may be fed with it for months without
suffering from want of water. Whether, like the
land-crab, they have a reservoir capable of
containing a sufficient quantity of that fluid to
keep the gills moist, has not been ascertained :
probably they have.
Amongst the larger species of the long-tailed
Section, there is one of a most ferocious aspect,
having its head, the base of its long antennoe,
and its thorax, beset with sharp spines. This is
called in the London market the Thorny lobster,^
and is stated sometimes to be nearly a yard in
length : it is also called the Cray-Jish, and by
the French, who esteem it highly, the Langouste:
it is, however, far inferior to the common lobster,
from which it is distinguished by having no
pincers, its legs terminating in a strong simple
1 Vol. 1. p. 126.
2 Palinurus vulgaris, Leach. Malacostr. Podophth. t. xxx.
VOL. II. E
50 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
claw, set with bunches of bristles, a circum-
stance indicating a clifFerent mode of taking its
prey. From the amplitude of their fan-like tail,
and from their natatory plates, these lobsters
seem formed for rapid motion in the water.
The next species that I shall mention is of
much more importance to us, and has been cele-
brated by epicures from ancient times. Instead
of unarmed hands and legs, the Lobster,^ as
every one knows, has the former armed, often
with an enormous pair of claws, which must be
of vast power, and, besides, the two anterior pairs
of their legs are furnished with small pincers. It
is observable that the moveable finger of the claw
of the hands is on their inner side, while, in these
two pairs of legs, that on the outside is move-
able. Aristotle's Carahus'^ is generally referred
to the thorny lobster ; but in one place he ex-
pressly mentions its using its pincers to catch
and carry its food to its mouth, which could not
apply to that animal, though it agrees well
with the common lobster ; yet in another place,
under the same name, he appears to mean the
other.^ It is not known exactly to what use
these smaller pincers are applied ; it must be
observed, however, that if the legs are regarded
as naturally pointing towards the head, as in
Dr. Leach's figure of Nephrops, the moveable
1 Astacus Gnmmarus,
2 Gr. Kapapog, Hist. Anim. 1. viii. c. 2. ^ Ibid. 1. ii. c. 2.
CRUSTACEAN CONDYLOPES. 51
thumb in all is on the same side. The antennae
in this genus are about the length of the body.
The pincers of the hand are very powerful and
tubercular ; they are used by these animals both
to seize their prey and for self defence, and they
contain very powerful muscles. When in the
water the lobster seizes anything presented to it,
and holds it so strongly that it is impossible to
extricate it without breaking the claw.
All Crustaceans cast their crust annually. At
first it seems wonderful how this can be accom-
plished. With insects, in whom it takes place
only in the larves, and whose form and sub-
stance are usually adapted to it, a longitudinal
fissure of the skin of a soft caterpillar, or grub,
when the animal grows too big for it, w^e can con-
ceive to be no difficult task : but with animals
covered with a hard crust, and in whom not
only the covering of the head, trunk, and abdo-
men is to be cast, but also that of the legs and
other organs, it seems an operation infinitely
more arduous. But He who gave them this
defence, instructs them also how to rid them-
selves of it when it grows too strait for them,
and has moulded their structure accordingly.
These animals are not, like most insects, li-
mited to an existence, terminated within the
period of one revolution of the earth round the
sun, but sometimes witness several ; and some
are said even to live tiventy years, and keep
52 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
growing during the greater part of their life.
But this would be impossible, since it is inca-
pable of extension, unless they could give room
for the expansion of their body, by occa-
sionally rejecting the case which incloses it.
At a certain time of the year, about the end
of the spring, when food is plentiful, they begin
to feel themselves ill at ease : they then pro-
bably seek the clefts of the rocks, and other
close places, in which they can undergo, in con-
cealment and security, a change which exposes
them, in a defenceless state, to danger.
But we should have known nothing of the
manner in which this great work is effected,
had not the illustrious French naturalist, Reau-
mur, adopted methods which enabled him to
ascertain their mode of proceeding. In the
spring, in boxes pierced with holes, which he
placed both in the river, and in an apartment,
he put the fresh-water cray-fish,^ of the same
genus with the lobster. He observed that when
one of these was about to cast its crust, it rubbed
its feet one against the other, and gave itself
violent contortions. After these preparatory
movements, it swelled out its body more than
usual, and the first segment of its abdomen
appeared more than commonly distant from the
thorax. The membrane that united them now
burst, and its new body appeared. After rest-
* Astacus Jiuviatilis.
CRUSTACEAN CON DY LOPES. 53
ing for some time, it recommenced agitating
its legs and other parts, swelling to the utmost
the parts covered by the thorax, which was
thus elevated and separated from the base of
the legs ; the membrane which united it to the
underside of the body burst asunder, and it only
remained attached towards the mouth. In a few
minutes, from this time, the animal was entirely
stripped except the legs. First the margin of
the thorax was seen to separate from the first
pair of legs ; at that instant, drawing back its
head, after reiterated efforts, it disengaged its
eyes from their cases, and all the other organs
of the anterior part of the head ; it next uncased
one of its fore legs, or all or part of the legs of
one side, which operation is so difficult that
young ones sometimes die under it. When the
legs are disengaged, the animal casts off its
thorax, extends its tail briskly, and pushes off
its covering and that of its parts. After this
last action, which requires the utmost exertion
of its remaining vigour, it sinks into a state
of great weakness. Its limbs are so soft that
they bend like a piece of wet paper; but if
the back is felt, its flesh appears unexpectedly
firm, a circumstance arising, perhaps, from the
convulsive state of the muscles. When the
thorax is once disengaged, and the animal has
begun to extricate its legs, nothing can stop its
progress. Reaumur often took them out of the
54 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
water with the intention of preserving them half
uncased, but they finished, in spite of him, their
moult in his hands. Upon examining the
exuviae of these animals, we find no external
part wanting ; every hair is a case which covers
another hair. The lower articulations of the
legs are divided longitudinally at a suture which
separates during the operation, but which is not
visible in the living animal.
When we consider this apparently arduous
and complex operation, we see the most evi-
dent proofs of design^ and that the Creator
has so put together the different parts of the
animal's structure, that there is no occasion to
divide the crust itself in order to liberate it.
Instead of a solid tube, he has inclosed the leg-
in joints that are furnished with the means of
dividing longitudinally, upon sufficient expan-
sion of the included limb, and so opening a way
for its liberation. In the whole body all the
segments and parts are so united by a mem-
brane which can yield to the expansive efforts of
the animal, that the entire liberation of it from
the armour that encases it, is accomplished with
infinitely more ease than we should expect, even
after a careful investigation of it. Besides
membranous ligaments, so arranged by the Wis-
dom of the Creator as to yield to the efforts of
these creatures to liberate themselves from their
too strait giirment, he has also furnished them.
CRUSTACEAN CONDYLOPES. 00
as Reaumur remarks, with a slimy secretion,
which moistens the interval between the old and
new shell, and facilitates their separation.
The time requisite for hardening the newly
acquired crust, according to its previous state, is
from one to three days. Those animals that are
ready to moult have always two stony substances
called crabs'-eyes, placed in the stomach, which,
from the experiments of Reaumur and others,
appear destined to furnish the matter, or a
portion of it, of \vhich the shell is formed, for if
the animal is opened the day after its moult,
when the shell is only half hardened, these sub-
stances are found only half diminished, and if
opened later they are proportionably smaller.
Thus has Creative Wisdom provided means for
the i3rompt consolidation of the crust of these
creatures, so that it is soon rescued from the
dangers to which, in its naked state, it is exposed.
Reaumur measured several cray-fish, before, and
after their moult, and found that their augmen-
tation amounted to about one-fifth, this amount
probably decreases as they approach nearer to
their adult state. From a chemical analysis of
the crust of the lobster it has been ascertained
that it consists of gelatine united to calcareous
earth ; it differs from the shells of Molluscans in
having a much greater proportion of gelatine,
whereas in the latter the calcareous earth greatly
predominates.
56 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
It is asserted that birds, and other animals in
tropical countries, have two moults within the
year, after the two rainy seasons are passed, and
two broods ; whether this is the case with Crusta-
ceans heis not been ascertained. Most other
Condylopes do not survive the laying of their
eggs, but the Crustaceans are evidently exempted
from this law, and emulate the higher animals
in the duration of their existence.
It may be observed that the moult of Crusta-
ceans differs in one respect from that of birds,
which only change their feathers, and that of
quadrupeds who only change their fur, since
they disengage themselves from their whole
external skin with all its appendages, whether of
fur, or any other substance. Their moult re-
sembles rather that of trees, whose outer skin,
under the form of bark, peels off annually, and
is succeeded by another formed under it, as is
particularly evident in the birch, plane, &c.
It is to the researches of the same learned, and
patient, and penetrating experimenter and natu-
ralist that we are indebted for what knowledge
we possess of the means employed by nature for
the reproduction of the mutilated organs of
Crustaceans. Having cut off the legs of some
crabs and lobsters, and placed them in covered
boats, communicating with the water, and des-
tined to keep fishes or Crustaceans alive, at the
end of some months, he saw that the mutilated
CRUSTACEAN CONDYLOPES. 57
legs had been replaced by new ones, perfectly
resembling the old, and almost as large. The
time necessary for this reproduction was not
fixed, but depended upon the warmth of the
season, and the supply of food furnished to the
animal, and likewise upon the part in which the
mutilation took place. The point of uriion of
the second and third joints, is the part of the
leg where a fracture is most easily made, and the
reproduction is most rapid. At this point there
are many sutures which appear distinct from
articulations ; it is in these sutures, particularly
the intermediate one, that the separation usually
occurs, and many Crustaceans, if they are
wounded in some other part of their leg, cast the
remainder off at this suture to facilitate the
reparation of their loss. So much only is re-
produced in each leg as is necessary to render it
again complete.
When a leg is mutilated in the summer, if
examined a day or two after the experiment,
the first circumstance observable is a kind of
covering membrane of a reddish hue ; in five or
six days more this membrane becomes convex ;
next it is protruded into a conical shape, and
keeps gradually lengthening as the germinating
leg is developed ; at last the membrane is rup-
tured and the leg appears, at first soft, but in a
few days it becomes as hard as the old one ; it
now wants only size and length, and these it
58 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
acquires in time ; for at every moult it augments
in a more rapid proportion than the legs that
have their proper size. The antennae, maxillae,
&c., are reproduced in the same manner, but if
the tail is mutilated, it is never reproduced, and
the animal dies. When attacked. Crustaceans,
as well as some of their analogues, the grass-
hoppers, often cast their legs as it were volun-
tarily.
"When we reflect on this history, we cannot
help admiring and adoring the goodness of the
Creator, and his care over the creatures he has
made, in giving to these animals, which, both
from the multiplicity and exposure of their legs,
and other organs, and their numerous enemies,
are particularly liable to mutilations, a power
that enables them, in a short period, to pursue
the course directed by instinct, with undimi-
nished or little diminished powers.
The Stomapods, or mouth-legged Crustaceans,
so named because the maxillary legs do not
differ materially from the thoracic ones, form
the second Order of the Class, and the species
belonging to it, on account of their general
resemblance to the orthopterous tribe forming
Linne's genus Mantis, are called Sea-Mantises.
One of them,^ in its anterior legs, accurately
1 Squilla Mantis.
CRUSTACEAN CONDY LOPES. 59
represents that genus. But the most remarkable
animals belonging to the Order are the Phyllo-
somes^ of Dr. Leach, which in some respects are
analogues of the Spectres,^ not having the rap-
torious fore leg of the Squillge, but their thorax,
which consists of two segments, the first very
much dilated, approaches nearer to that of 3Iantis
strumaria.^ It has been taken in several tropical
seas, and when living, it is said to be as trans-
parent as crystal, except its eyes, which are
sky-blue.
The subsequent Orders of the Crustaceans,
called by the general name of Malacostracansy
are distinguished from the preceding by having
sessile eyes, imbedded in the substance of the
head, and though they contain many singular
creatures, we know little of their habits and
history.
Many of the animals belonging to Latreille's
Lcernodipods, or throat-footed Crustaceans, which
begin the sessile-eyed tribes, have very slender
bodies, and their legs are separated by a con-
siderable interval, like those of geometric larves
or ioopers amongst insects, whose motions they
also imitate. One remarkable creature is in-
cluded in this Order, which is parasitic upon the
whale,* and by its hooked claws is enabled to
* Plate X. Fig. 3. P. hrevicorne?
2 Phasma. ^ StoU. Specfr. t. xl./. 4'2.
* Cyamvs CpH.
VOL, 11. E 6
60 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
maintain its station amidst the fluctuations of
the waves. This animal, like the king-crab, has
both compound and simple eyes.
Next to these succeed the Order of Amphipods,
including a number of genera, consisting usually
of minute animals ; many of them, like the grass-
hoppers, and several other insects, are gifted
by their Maker with the faculty of leaping.
When one meets with a heap of sea-weeds upon
the beach, recently left by the tide, if we turn it
over we shall often see under it myriads of little
animals belonging to this Order, jumping about
in all directions, which are thus enabled, either
to find shelter under another mass of moist sea-
w^eed, or perhaps to reach their native waves in
safety. Whether these Crustaceans, like their
analogues on shore, feed on vegetable substances,
has not been ascertained ; there may be herbl-
vorons species amongst the Crustaceans, as well
as in almost every other class of animals.^
The last Crustacean Order is called by La-
treille, Isopods, from their legs being usually of
the same length ; though a large proportion of
these are aquatic animals, yet the Order termi-
nates in those that are terrestriaL Several of the
former are furnished with one or more pair of
didactyle legs, but the terrestrial ones never
have these prehensory organs.
Amongst the Crustaceans, Latreille has in-
1 See Vol. I. Appendix, Note 27.
CRUSTACEAN CONDYLOPES. Gl
eluded the Trilobites, a remarkable tribe of
animals, at present found only in a fossil state,
and like the chitons, certam wood-lice,^ and the
armadillo,^ rolling themselves up in a ball.
They may form part of a branch connecting the
Crustaceans and Molluscans, but I leave the
discussion of this point to abler hands.
Thus have we at length arrived at animals,
the majority of which are terrestrial, at least in
thek perfect state, for many terrestrial Condy-
lopes have aquatic larves and pupes, but few, or
none, I believe, inhabit salt water, except per-
haps some species of bugs/
The great Crustacean host, of which probably
we do not know half the species, is certainly a
most valuable gift to mankind, as well as to the
various inhabitants or frequenters of the waters,
especially of the ocean, varying as they do in
size, from the great thorny lobster to the minute
tribes of Entomostracans ; they probably become
the prey of many sea animals, besides the Ce-
phalopods, which are stated to make such havoc
among them.* When we further consider their
powers of infinite multiplication, we see that
however great the consumption of them, there
appears no diminution of their numbers, so that
one kind of animals, by the will of Him who
1 Armadillo vulgaris. ^ Dasypus.
3 Salda Zostarce. F. &c. * See above, Vol. I. p. 314.
62 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
created all things, and who gave a law to each
species, which regulated their numbers, and the
momentum of their action, doing or suffering, is
made to compensate for another, and the law of
preservation to act as an equipoise to the law
of destruction.
When we look, however, at these animals, es-
pecially the larger kinds, and survey their offen-
sive organs and weapons, and the coat of mail
that defends them, we feel convinced that tliey
also are employed to keep down the numbers of
other inhabitants of the ocean, more especially
as the great body of them are evidently pre-
daceous : and this, on such a survey, seems to
us their primary function. God numbers and
weighs them both with those they destroy and
those that destroy them ; his bridle is in their
mouth, and they go as far as he permits them :
and when he gives the word— Peace, be still — the
mutual conflict relaxes, or, in some parts, is inter-
mitted, till the general welfare calls for its revival.
It may be observed with regard to this con-
stant scene of destruction, this never universally
intermitted war of one part of the creation upon
another, that the sacrifice of a part maintains
the health and life of the whole ; the great doc-
trine of vicarious suffering forms an article of
physical science ; and we discover, standing
even upon this basis, that the sufferings and
death of one being may be, in the Divine
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 63
counsels, and consistently with what we know of
the general operations of Providence, the cause
and instrument of the spiritual life and final sal-
vation of infinite hosts of others. Thus does the
animal kingdom, in some sort, preach the Gos-
pel OF Christ.
Chapter XVI.
Functions and Instijicts. Myriapod Condylopes.
There are two Classes of Condylopes, extremely
dissimilar in their external form and the number
of their legs, and yet in some respects related to
each other, at each of which we may be said
now to have arrived ; both are almost exclu-
sively terrestrial, and both remarkable for their
ferocious aspect ; the one the analogue of the
crab^ and the other apparently related to the
Isopod Crustaceans, the oniscus and armadillo.
It will be easily seen that I am speaking of the
AracJinida7is and 3Iyriapods.
Regarding, therefore, the long-tailed Decapod
Crustaceans as leading, by the Order of Isopods
which we last considered, towards the 3Iyriapods,
and the short-tailed ones or crabs, as tending
towards the Araclmida7is. I shall give a brief
account of the former of these Classes in the j^re-
sent chapter, and I am the more induced to
64 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
assign them precedency because of their evident
connection with certain Annelidans, which indeed
Aristotle, and other ancient Naturalists, thought
was so close, that they considered them as be-
longing to the same genus,^ and it is worthy of
remark that, in the Class just named, the repre-
sentatives, if they may be so called, of the
Myriapods, are, like them, divided into two
tribes, one with a cylindrical and the other with
^Jiat body.^
The Myriapods exhibit the following general
characters.
Animal undergoing a metamorphosis by ac-
quiring in its progress from the egg to the adult
state several additional segments and legs. Body
without wings, divided into numerous pedigerous
segments, with no distinction of trunk and ab-
domen. Head with a pair of antennae ; two
compound eyes ; a pair of mandibles ; under-lip
connate with the maxillae.
The class naturally divides itself into two
Orders, distinguished both by their form and
habits.
1. Chilognatkans,^ Body generally cylindri-
1 Aristot. Hist. Animal. 1. ii. c. 14. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. ix.
c. 43.
2 See Vol. I. p. 347, and Plate VIII. Fig. 1. 4.
^ Chilor/natha, so called because their lip is formed of the
jaws, from Gr. ^(^EiXog, a lip, and yvadog, a jaw.
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. (35
cal ; segments half membranaceous and half
crustaceoiis, each half bearing a pair of legs ;
antenncB seven-jointed, filiform, often a little
thicker towards the end. These are called Milli-
pedes, Juliis L,
2. Cliilopodans} Body depressed ; segments
covered by a coriaceous plate, bearing each only
a single pair of legs ; antermce of fourteen or
more joints, setaceous. These are called Centi-
pedes. Scolopendra L.
1. Very little is known with respect to the
habits and instincts of the animals belonging to
either of these Orders, except that they frequent
close and dark places, being usually found under
stones, under bark, in moss, and the like.
Latreille names the three families into which
he divides the Jirst of them, Onisciform, Angiii-
forni^ and Penicillate ; one^ resembles a wood-
louse, like the mammalian armadillo, the tri-
lobites, and chitons, when alarmed, rolls itself
up into a spherical ball ; besides the ordi-
nary dorsal and ventral segments, these have,
on each side underneath, between the lateral
margin and the legs, a series of rounded plates,
which Latreille conjectures may be related to
the organs of respiration, which seems to give
them some further affinity to the Trilobites.
1 CMlopoda^ so called because their lip is formed of the foot^
from Gr. yeCKoQ, a lip, and •khq, a foot.
2 Glomeris,
VOL. II. F
66 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
They are found mostly under stones, and creep
out before rain.
Another/ in its cylindrical body, gliding mo-
tion, and coiling itself up spirally, presents a
striking resemblance to a snake. Some species^
emit, through pores, that have been mistaken
for spiracles, a strong and rather unpleasant
odour.
The penicillate family, of which only a single
species is known,^ is remarkable for several pen-
cils or tufts of long and short scales, which dis-
tinguish the sides of the body. These are found
principally under the bark of trees.
The myriapods belonging to this order De
Geer describes as very harmless animals. They
appear to feed upon decaying vegetable or
animal matter. The author just named thinks
that the common Julus,^ or Gaily worm, feeds
upon earth ; one that he kept devoured a con-
siderable portion of the pupe of a fly ; other
species are stated to eat strawberries and en-
dive ; and Frisch fed one, that he kept a long
time, upon sugar.
2. The Chilojwdans or Centipedes, which con-
stitute the second order, Latreille divides into
two families, which he denominates I?iceqnipedes
and jEquipedes. The IncEquipedes, so called be-
* Jiilus, &c. • J . fcetidissimns.
' Pollyxenus laguriis. ■* /, terrestris.
MVRIAPOD CONDVLOPES. 67
cause the six last pairs of legs are suddenly
longer than the rest, belong, as at present
known, to a single genus,^ which being less
depressed than the other Centipedes, seems to
connect the two Orders. They are not found in
England, but in France they are stated to fre-
quent houses and outbuildings, where they con-
ceal themselves during the day, between the
beams and joists, and sometimes under stones ;
but w^hen night comes they may be seen running
upon the walls, with great velocity coursing
their prey, which consists of insects, woodlice,
and other minute creatures ; these they puncture
with their oral fangs, and the venom they instill
acts very quickly, thus enabling them easily to
secure their victim.
The JEquipedes, so called because all their legs,
except the last pair, are nearly equal in length,
are sub-divided into several genera, the most
remarkable of which is distinguished by the
ancient name of Scolopendra, Some species of
this genus grow" to an enormous size ; a specimen
of the giant centipede^ in the British Museum
is more than a foot long. The arms of the ani-
mals of the present Order are more tremendous
than those of the Millipedes, for their second
pair of legs terminates in a strong claw,'^ which
' Cermatia. lUig'. Leach. Scutigera. Lam. Latr.
" Sc. Gigas. ^ Introd. to Ent. t. vii./!. 13. U.
G8 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
is pierced at the apex for the emission of poison ;
in this family the first or hip-joints of these legs
are united and dilated so as to form a lip/ In
warm climates, the centipedes are said to be very
venomous.
As the anguiform Chilognatlians represent the
living and moving serpent, so the family 1 am
now considering, the equipede Chilopodans, may
be regarded as representing the skeleton of a
dead one. The head, with its poison-fangs, the
depressed body, formed of segments representing
vertebral joints, and the legs curving inwards,
and resembling ribs, all concur to excite the
above idea in the mind of the beholder.
Like the last family, these also frequent close
places, and sometimes creep into beds ; they
devour insects, and similar small animals, which
Latreille found the puncture of their envenomed
fangs arrested, and killed instantaneously ; and
it is sometimes attended with serious inconve-
niences to man himself. One species,^ in some
parts of the West Indies, goes by the name of
the Mischievous ; ^ and the pain caused by the
bite of the Giant Centipede, though it is never
mortal, is greater than that produced by the
sting of the scorpion.
Some centipedes emit a phosphoric light ; of
this description is one distinguished by the name
' Introd.to Ent. PL vii./. \\.d,b.
' Scolopendra Morsitans. ^ Malfaisante.
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 09
of the pJiospJioric,^ which is stated by Liiine to
have fallen from the air upon Captain Ekeberg's
vessel in the Indian Ocean, a hundred miles
from land. But the light-giving centipede best
known is the electric,'^ which is remarkable for
emitting a vivid phosphoric light in the dark ;
this is produced by a viscid secretion, which, as
I have observed, when adhering to the fingers,
gives light independently of the animal. This
species also frequents beds. Its object in this
may, perhaps, be to search for bugs and other
insects that annoy our species during repose.
The function which the Creator has devolved
upon the Myriapods of the first Order, seems to
be that of removing putrescent vegetable and
animal matter from the spots that they frequent ;
and that of the second to keep within due limits
the minor inhabitants, especially the insect, of
the dark places of the earth. Viewed in this
light, however disgusting they may seem to us
in their general aspect, we may regard them as
beneficial, and as contributing their efforts to
maintain in order and beauty the globe we in-
habit.
It is w^orthy of remark that the great Hebrew
Legislator, amongst the unclean animals which
it was unlawful for the Israelites to eat or to
S. jjhosphorea. ' Geophilus electricus.
70 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
touch, enumerates those which multiply feet}
In the common version it is translated, Hath
more feet ; but the marginal reading is nearest to
the Hebrew," and seems to allude to a circum-
stance upon which I shall hereafter enlarge,
namely, that these animals increase the number
of their legs with their growth. As a subject
intimately connected with Zoology in general,
and leading to a very profitable study of the
animal kingdom in a moral point of view, it will
not be foreign to the object of the present treatise
if I add here a few remarks upon the distinction
of animals into clean and unclean, observable in
many parts of Holy Writ. This distinction was
originally to indicate those which might or might
not be offered up in sacrifice, and, afterwards,
when animal food was permitted, to signify to
the Jews those that might and those that might
not be eaten. When Noah was commanded,
Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by
sevens, the male and his female; and of beasts that
are not clean, by two, the male and his female.^ — it
is evident that the distinction was familiar to the
Patriarch. The uncleafi animals, with respect to
their habits and food, belonged to two great
classes, namely Zoophagons animals, or those
which attack and devour living animals ; and
Necrophagous animals, or those which devour
^ Levit. xi. 42. ^ D'Vjn n2"iD ' Genes, vii. 2.
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 71
dead ones, or any other putrescent substances.
Of the first description are the canine^ and feline^
tribes amongst quadrupeds; the eagles"' and
hawks* amongst birds; the crocodiles^ and ser-
pents^ amongst reptiles; the sharks'^ and pikes^
amongst ^shes ; the tiger-beetles^ and ground-
beetles^^ amongst insects; and to name no more,
the centipedes in the class we are treating of.
With regard to the necrophagous tribe, I do not
recollect any mammalians that are exclusively of
that description, for the hycena^^ anA glutton^^ are
ferocious, and eagerly pursue their prey, they
will, however, devour any carcassesthey meet with,
and even disinter them when buried ; but the
vulture amongst the birds will not attack the
living when he can gorge himself with the dead ;
the carrion croiv belongs also to this tribe ;
amongst insects, the burying, ^^ carrion,^* and dis-
secting beetles^^ the flesh-fly, and many other
two ivinged flies, feed upon putrescent flesh ; and
numberless others satiate themselves with all
unclean and putrid substances, whether animal
or vegetable. In the present class, the millipedes
belong to the necrophagous tribe.
' Canis. 2 Pelis. ^ Aquila.
* Falco. ^ Sauria. ^ Ophidia.
7 Squalus. 5 JEsox, 9 Cicindela.
^^ CarabuSy Harpalus, &c. ^^ Canis Hycena, L.
12 Gulo. 13 Silpha. i* Dermestes.
1^ Sarcophuffrt curnaria.
VOL. 11. r 4
72 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
A third description of animals, appearing to
be intermediate between the clean and unclean,
and partaking of the characters of both, was
added to the list — for instance, those that are
ruminant and do not divide the hooJ\ as the camel,
which, though it has separate toes, they are
included in an undivided skin ; and those that
divide the hoof, but are not ruminant, as the swine.
It appears clear from St. Peter's vision, recor-
ded in the Acts of the Apostles,^ that these
unclean animals were symbolical, and in that
particular case represented the Gentile world,
with whom it was not lawful for the Jews to eat
or associate,*^ doubtless, lest they should be cor-
rupted in their morals or faith, and seduced into
Idolatry, and its natural consequences, with
regard to morality, by them. In other passages
of Scripture, unclean animals are employed to
symbolize evil and unclean spirits as well as meuy
as the serpent, the dragon, or crocodile,'^ the
lion,* and the scorpion.^
By way of corollary to the present short
chapter, I shall devote a few pages to a very
interesting subject, intimately connected with
the animals whose history and habits I have just
described, and which marks out the plan upon
which the wisdom, power, and goodness of the
1 Acts, X. 10—15. 2 Jifid, ver. 28. 3 Revel xx. 2
* 1 Pet. V. 8. 5 Luke, x. 19.
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 73
Creator have been manifested in animal struc-
tures. I allude to what has been named the
conversion of organs, by which term is meant,
not only in particular instances, multiplying the
.functions of any given organ, as, for instance,
when the tail of an animal is employed like a
hand, to take hold of the branch of a tree, and
so assist in locomotion, as in the chameleon, and
certain monkeys ; ^ and the tongue is also made
to subserve to prehension, as in the case of the
giraffe ; but likewise when the organ is con-
verted from one use to another, as when the
anterior leg is taken from locomotion, and given
to prehension, as the liuman hand ; or as when
all the ordinary organs of locomotion in one
tribe are in another converted into oral organs,
either to assist in mastication, or to discharge
the office of a lip, as in the Crustaceans and cen-
tipedes. In the investigation of this curious and
interesting subject, the class of Myriapods affords
an example, if I may so speak, of the gradual
conversion of locomotive organs into auxiliary
oral ones. Something of this kind I have before
stated,^ is discoverable in certain Annelidans,
either related to those animals or their analogues.
In the Introduction to Ento^nology it is ob-
served, with respect to the larves of many
Hexapod Condy lopes, that their progress towards
^ Ateles. 2 See above, Vol. I. p. 346.
74 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
what is called their perfect state, is by losing
their spurious legs or prolegs, and by acquiring
organs of flight ; whereas in the 3Ii/riapods, the
reverse of this takes place ; instead of losing legs
and shortening their body, some of them when
lirst hatched, have only six legs, representing
the six legs of Hexapods, and all in their pro-
gress to their adult state acquire a large number
of what may be denominated spurious legs, which
support many additional segments.
As the C/iilognathans, in their young state,
come nearest to the insect or hexapod tribes, I
shall beghi by stating the changes they undergo.
In the most common species,^ according to De
Geer's description and figure, the animal is
divided into three principal parts, as in Hexa-
pods ; first, there is a head with antennae, and
the usual oral organs, though a little aberrant in
their structure ; next, there is a trunk, consisting
of three segments, each bearing a pair of legs ;
and lastly, there is an abdomen, divided into five
segments, without legs.- With regard to their oral
organs, they correspond with those of Hexapods,
both in number and kind, for in the mouth,
above is a representative of the upper-lip ; below
this is a pair of mandibles or upper-jaws; next
follows a lower-lip, consisting of three pieces
united together, the two lateral ones analogous
1 Julus terrestris. 2 De Geer, vii. 583. t. xxxvi./. 20, 21.
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 75
both to the lower-jaws of Hexapods, and the
first pair of maxillae of Crustaceans ; and the
intermediate one, resolvable into two pieces,
representing the lip of the former and the second
pair of maxillae, according to Savigny, of the
latter, from his figures,^ the maxillary and labial
feelers appear to have their representatives ; yet
though he has figured he does not notice them
as feelers.^
The six original or natural legs of the lulus
are its first organs of locomotion, which when
the animal is arrived at its complete develope-
ment, as to number of legs and segments, — are
said still to maintain their original function,
although probably diminished in energy ; the
two first pairs are, however, as it were, applied
to the mouth, the segments that bear them being
very short. The sciatic joint or hip" of the first
pair forms a single piece ; those of the second
are also united and more elevated ; but those of
the third are distinct : so that in this Order of
the Myriapods we see the first tendency towards
employing what in Hexapods wear the form and
perform the functions of legs as auxiliaries of
the mouth, and of the locomotive function being
devolved upon organs which have no represen-
' Anim. sans Vertehr. Mem. ii. t, \. f. 1. o. 2. o.
~ He says that the pieces forming the labium are Denuees dcs
palpes. Ibid. p. 44.
^ Coxce.
76 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
tative in Hexapods, except in their incipient
state.
To proceed next to the C/nlopodcms — it has
not yet been ascertained what changes they
undergo in the progress of their growth, save that
the number of legs and segments increases till
they have arrived at their full size/ nor is it known
how many they have when first hatched, but,
from their structure, it seems evident that the
analogues of the two first pair of legs of the
Chilognathans, can never be employed in loco-
motion ; and further, that not only is their first
or hip-joint united with its fellow, so as to form
a kind of auxiliary lij), but the other articulations
are converted into prehensory organs, instead of
a locomotive one, in the first pair armed at the
end with a minute forceps, and in the second
with a fang resembling the tooth of a serpent,
having a pore at the extremity for the emission
of poison, connected with an loterinm or poison
bag.
Here then, in these two Orders of the Myria-
pods, we have a regular conversion of organs :
those that in the Millipedes are used for loco-
motion, in the Centipedes, exchange that function
for that of prehension, both agreeing in being
auxiliary, at their base, to mastication, but the
latter with a greater momentum.
The reason of this change in the functions of
' De Geer, vii. 562.
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 77
these organs we shall readily see when we con-
sider the habits and food of these respective
Orders. The Chilognathans deriving in gene-
ral their nutriment from putrescent substances
whether animal or vegetable, have no resistance
to overcome, and therefore require not the aid of
additional prehensory organs to enable them to
execute their offices ; while the Chilopodans,
having to contend with living animals, must put
them Hors de combat^ either by killing them, or
deadening their efforts, before they can devour
them. In this last Order we find that though
the two first pairs of legs have a new office, the
third pair are still used for locomotion.
From the oral organs and their auxiliaries of
the Myriapods to those of the Crustaceans, the
interval is not very wide ; and amongst the latter
the Isopods, especially the terrestrial ones, as
might be expected, approach the nearest to
them. De Geer observes that the common
wood-louse,^ which in its adult state has fourteen
legs ; when it first leaves the egg, has only six
pairs and six segments;^ thus doubling the
number of the Hexapods and Julus ; and in this
animal and its relation, Ligia, the thoracic legs
are all used in locomotion ; but when we ex-
amine the aquatic, especially the marine, genera
of this Order, as Idotea, Stenosoma, &c., Ave find
' Oniscus Asellus. ' vii. 551.
78 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
that the first pair of thoracic legs is taken from
that function, and made auxiliary to the organs
of the mouth.
Leaving the Isopods, if we ^o to the Decapods,
amongst those with a long tail/ which from their
cylindrical form and other circumstances, are
nearer to the Chilognathan Myriapods than to
the Chilopodan, taking the lohster for our type,
we find the organs analogous to the six legs of
Hexapods, exhihiting a new character : for from
the outer side of their basal joint issues an organ
which is peculiar to these legs. The organ I
allude to is called, by M. Savigny, ?i flag rum or
whip ; and, by M. Latreille, ^ flagelliform palpus
or feeler ; it usually consists of two parts, an
elongated exarticulate base, representing the
handle of the whip; and an annulated or jointed
part generally forming an angle with it, repre-
senting the lash: the mandibles also have
feelers of the usual structure. The organs above
alluded to, shew that all the representatives of
the legs of Hexapods in the lobster, are con-
verted to a new function — whether precisely
analogous to that of feelers is not clear.
In the lobster the basal joints of the first pair
of maxillary legs are dilated, and the whole
organ may be regarded as maxilliform ; but in
the second it is palpiform, and in the third it
resumes the joints and appearance of a crus-
' Macrouri.
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 79
taceous leg, and is densely ciliated, which seems
to indicate that it is used in swimming.
In the common crab,^ amongst the short-tail
Decapods,' the legs in question seem all taken
from locomotion, and the second pair does not
differ from those of the lobster; but the last,
though consisting of the same number of joints,
is very different, the two intermediate joints
being dilated, and the two legs together forming
as it were a pair of folding-doors, which close
the mouth externally, the three last joints re-
sembling those of the legs. These animals,
therefore, in some sort, the flatness of their
body and this double auxiliary lip considered,
present the same analogy to the Chilopodan My-
riapods, that the lobster does to the Chilogna-
than. In both we see, by their feelers, there is
a further conversion of these organs into instru-
ments connected with the mouth ; so as to bring
them nearer to the nature and use of maxillae or
under jaws, and of a labium or under-lip.
It appears from the experiments and observa-
tions of Rathke^ that the long-tailed Decapod
Crustaceans do not change the form, or increase
the number of locomotive organs, that distin-
guish them when they issue from the egg.*
' Cancer Pagitrus. ^ Brachyuri.
3 Recherclies sur le developement des Ecrevisses. Abstract
o^ Ann. des Sc. Nat. xix. 44'2.
4 Ibid. 463.
80 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Once residing a few weeks on the northern coast
of Norfolk, where the sea, at low water, retires
to a considerable distance from the high water
mark, I had an opportunity of witnessing the
proceedings of a species of crab very common
there,^ and varying greatly in size, some, if my
memory does not deceive me, scarcely exceeding
the size of a pea, others being three or four
inches in diameter, and all exactly correspond-
ing in every particular ; so that it seems pro-
bable that the short-tailed tribe also undergo no
change, except of size, though, as we have seen
above, the terrestrial Isopods acquire additional
legs in their progress to maturity. The legs,
however, of these Crustaceans cannot be re-
garded as analogues of the legs of Hexapods, but
rather of the acquired legs of the Myriapods.
In order to form a clear notion of the object of
Providence in thus, as it were, taking certain
organs from locomotion, and forming a new set
for that purpose, and multiplying those con-
nected with the seizing and mastication of the
food of the animals in which this metamorphosis
takes place, it would be necessary to watch their
proceedings in their native element, the water,
^ Cancer Mcenas. L. Mr. Westwood, in a letter received
since this went to press, expresses his conviction that Crustaceans
do not undergo any metamorphosis. Besides a variety of other
arguments which he will himself bring forward in due time, he
lately met with young specimens of this crab at Conway, in N.
Wales, only -^^ of an inch in lengthy which did not differ from
adult ones.
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 81
to ascertain the nature of their food, their mode
of taking it, and other circumstances connected
with its conversion into a pulp proper for diges-
tion ; but as few can have an opportunity of
doing this, we can only conjecture that this
multiplicity of organs is rendered necessary by
the circumstances in which they are placed, and
the element they inhabit; for, as we have seen,
no such conversion occurs in the terrestrial Crus-
taceans ; probably the denser medium requires a
more complex structure and more powerful action
in the instruments connected with the nutriment
of the animal.
Having considered these instances of the legs
of Hexapods being, as it were, metamorphosed
into organs more especially connected with nu-
trition, I shall next mention, more briefly, some
cases in which the oral oroans themselves are
modified to discharge other functions than what
is usually their primary one.
To begin with the Arachnidans or spiders.
In these the two-jointed mandibles or cheliceres,
as Latreille calls them, are not organs of masti-
cation solely ; for though, from the vast strength
and power of the first joint and its flat internal
surface, we may conjecture that it assists in
pressing the juices out of their prey, yet at the
extremity of the second is a poison fang, being
furnished, like the tooth of a viper or centipede,
VOL. II. G
82 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
with a pore for emitting venom, which though
not easily discovered in the smaller species, is
visible under a lens in the larger ; with these
fangs, which communicate with a poison vesicle,
the spider dispatches the insects struggling in his
toils, which otherwise he could not so easily
master, and having sucked out their juices casts
away the carcase. The fang, by folding upon
the apex of the basal joint of the organ we are
considering, which is toothed on each side, and
has a channel to receive it when unemployed,
can be formed into a forceps, resembling that
which arms the anterior thoracic leg of the shrimp,
or that of the mantis, and which is probably, in
some circumstances, used for prehension.
The subject of poison-fangs affords a striking-
example of the adaptation and modification
of different parts and organs to the discharge
of the same or similar functions, according to
the circumstances in which an animal is placed ;
the viper, the centipede, and the spider have
their sting in their mouth, or in its vicinity;
the scorpion and the bee and wasp have it at the
other extremity of the body ; while the male of
the Ornithorhynchiis, or Duck-bill, and Echidna,
or New Holland Porcupine, have it in their hind
legs. Considering the evident affinity between
these last animals and the hirds, their poison -
spur seems evidently analogous to the spur that
distinguishes the males of many gallinaceous
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 83
birds; and, reasoning from analogy, we may
conclude that this organ is given to the males of
the 3Ionotremes as a weapon to be used in their
mutual combats.
Whoever examines the underside of a spider
will find the feelers and the eight legs arranged
nearly in a circle, with their first hip-joints
parallel; with some this joint in the feelers is
dilated, but in others it is of the same shape with
the analogous joint of the legs, only a little
longer. It forms the maxilla or under-jaw, and
between the first pair is the under-lip. The
function of the maxillae is to assist the, so called,
mandibles, in pressing out the juices of the flies
and other insects submitted to their action, and
the analogous and parallel joints in the eight
legs add some momentum to it.
The Palpi, or feelers — which in some cases
emerge from the side of the maxilla, and appear
a distinct organ, and in others are merely a
continuation of it — in one sex undergo a sin-
gular conversion, and discharge a function con-
nected with reproduction ; and in the other, the
female, are said sometimes to assist in supporting
the egg pouch, which many of these creatures
carry about with them, and guard with maternal
solicitude.
It has been made a question by physiologists
what the mandibles, and maxillae with their
palpi, of the Arachnidans really represent ;
i)4 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
whether they are the analogues of organs bear-
ing the same name in Hexapod Condy lopes, or
of others to be found in the Crustaceans or
Myriapods. Latreille, in his latest work, regards
the pieces immediately following the upper lip
as analogues of the same parts in the Crus-
taceans, namely, a pair of palpigerous man-
dibles, two pairs of pediform maxillae, and two
pairs also of maxillary feet, analogous to the four
anterior feet of insects/ Of the above organs,
the mandibles and two pairs of maxillae may be
regarded as having their prototype in the Hexa-
pods ; for the second pair of maxillae of the
Crustaceans, in the Chilognathans, is the piece
that represents the labium, or under-lip, of the
first named animals.
Savigny, however, is of opinion that the auxi-
liary maxiUce, or, according to LatreiJle, maxillary
feet, of the crab, except the first pair, become
the mandibles and maxillce of the spider ; and
that the thoracic legs of the same animal, with
the same exception, become also its amhulatory
legs :^ thus accounting for the reduction of the
number of the latter from ten to eight, perhaps
he was induced to adopt this opinion, with re-
spect to the oral organs, by considering the man-
dibles of the spider as analogous to the poison-
' Latr. Cours D'Entomologie, 167.
^ Am7n. sans Vertebr. ii. 57, Note a.
MYRIAPOD CON DY LOPES. 85
fang which arms the second pair of auxihary
feet of the Scolopendra.
I feel, however, rather inclined to adopt the
opinion of the former learned entomologist, from
the consideration of an Arachnidan, which seems
evidently to lead towards the Hexapods. The
animal I allude to is one of ancient fame, of
which, once for all, I shall here give the history.
^lian relates that a certain district of ^Ethi-
ojiia was deserted by its inhabitants in conse-
quence of the appearance of incredible numbers
of scorpions, and of those Phcdangians which
are denominated Tetragnatha, or having four
jaws. An event mentioned also by Diodorus
Siculus and Strabo.^ Pliny likewise alludes to
this event, but calls the last animal Solpuga,'^ a
name which, in another place,^ he says was used
by Cicero to designate a venomous kind oi ant.
The epithet Tetragnatha, applied by ^lian,
&c. to the animal which, in conjunction with
the scorpion, expelled the Ethiopians, as just
stated, from the district they inhabited, seems
clearly to point to the Solpuga of Fabricius,
for any person, not skilled in natural science,
would, when he saw the expanded forceps of
their mandibles, pronounce that they had four
1 Bochart. Hierozdic. ii. 1. iv. c- 13.
2 Hist. Nat. 1. viii. c. 29. This name seems derived from
the Greek, Heliocentris.
3 L. xxix. c. 4.
80 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
jaws ;^ and the animals of this genus, in their
general form and aspect, exhibit no small re-
semblance to an ant, so that it is not wonderful
that Pliny should regard them as a kind of ve-
nomous ant. It seems, therefore, almost certain
that the ancient and modern Solpuga are syno-
nymous. Pliny, indeed, mentions a certain kind
of spider — one of which he describes as weaving
very ample webs — under the name Tetragnathii;
but these appear to have no connexion with the
Plialangia tetragnatha of iElian, &c.
Olivier was the first modern naturalist who
described the animals now before us, to which
he gave the generic appellation of Galeodes ; but
if, as the above circumstances render very prob-
able, they are really synonymous with the an-
cient Solpuga, that name, revived by Fabricius,
should be retained.
Whether these animals are really as venomous
and maleficent as they were said to be of old,
and as their terrific aspect may be thought to
announce, seems very doubtful. We learn from
Olivier that the Arabs still regard their bite as
mortal, and that the same opinion obtains in
Persia and Egypt ; and Pallas relates several
facts, which, he says, he witnessed himself, which
appear to prove that, unless timely remedies are
applied, they instill a deadly venom into those
1 L. Dufoiir. AnnaL Gener. des Sc. Nat. iv. t. Ixiv. f. 7, a.
MYRIAPOD CON D\ LOPES. 87
they bite. Oil is stated to be the best applica-
tion. On the other hand, Olivier, who found
these Arachnidans common in Persia, Mesopo-
tamia, and Arabia, affirms that every night they
ran over him, when in bed, with great velocity,
without ever stopping to annoy him ; no one
was bitten by them, nor could he collect a single
well-attested fact to prove that their bite was
so dangerous : to judge by the strong pincers
with which the mouth is armed, he thought it
might be painful, but he doubts whether it is
accompanied by any infusion of venom. The
mandibles have clearly no fang with a poison-
pore, like those of the spiders.
To return from this digression. I principally
mentioned this tribe of animals, because, as was
long ago observed by Walckenaer,^ and the ob-
servation was repeated by L. Dufour,^ the head,
in them, is distinct from the trunk ; and, as well
as Phrymis and ThelypJiomis, it has only six
thoracic legs : so that, as the latter writer re-
marks, though its physiognomy and manners
arrange it naturally with the Arachnidans, these
characters exclude it from them.^ Latreille,
indeed, seems to regard the head and trunk of
this animal as not distinct, but as forming toge-
ther what he names a ceplialothorax, or head-
thorax ; yet he admits that the three last pairs
1 Tableau des Araneid. \. " Ubi siipr. \S.
3 Ibid. 20.
88 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
of legs are attached to as many segments of the
trunk/ which certainly infers the separation
above aUudecl to.
Savigny says, with respect to the feelers of
Solpuga, that they, and the two anterior legs,
so closely resemble each other, that they may
either be called feelers or legs ; but in the spe-
cies described by L. Dufour,^ and another in
my cabinet,"^ this is not altogether the case, for
the feelers, though pediform, are not terminated
by a claw, but by a membranous vesicle, from
which issues, when the animal is irritated, an
apparatus probably used as a sucker, and which
gives them a prehensory function ; Avhile the
organs that represent the anterior pair of legs of
the other Arachnidans, at the base of their
maxillary or sciatic joint, are soldered, as it
were, to the corresponding joint of the feelers,
with which they agree in the number and kind
of their articulations, except that they do not
protrude a sucker ; neither are they armed with
a claw like the other legs, but are probably
simply tentacular, or exploratory. There seems
no slight analogy between these united maxillae
and what Savigny denominates the first and
second pair of maxillae of the millepedes, also
united, which appear to me to represent the
lower-lip and maxilioe of the hexapods, and in
' Cours D' Entomolog . 548. ^ Qaleodcs intrepidus-.
^ Solpuga fatalis^ . .
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOPES. 81)
this case the two pair of feelers that issue from
the coxo-maxillse, as they are sometimes called,
or sciatic joints in the SoJpuga, may be regarded
as representing the labial and maxillary feelers
of the hexapods ; the second pair |are also ana-
logous, both in their place and their function, to
the first pair, or tentacular legs of Thelyphonus
and Phrynus. In the Solpuga, the labium, or
under-lip, of the spiders, is represented by a
bilobed organ, which Savigny calls a sternal
tongue.
From the consideration of this animal we
seem to have obtained the elements, or type, in
reference to which the oral, prehensory, and
locomotive organs of the Arachnidans were
formed ; that their mandibles, maxillae, and
feelers ; their second maxillse, and the, so called,
anterior legs emerging from them, are analogous
to the mandibles, labium and labial feelers, and
maxillge and maxillary feelers of the hexapods ;
and the remaining three pairs of legs, of their
six legs; the sternal tongue, so called by Sa-
vigny because it is a process of the sternum, w^ill
thus be an organ siii generis, unless it may be
regarded as, in some sort, the analogue of the
prosternum of insects. If this view is correct,
we have here various conversions, as of maxillce
and palpi into legs; a labium into maxillco; and
a prosternum into a labium. In the Pedipalps —
with the exception of the scorpions,— e. g. in
90 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Thelyphomis and Phrynus, especially the latter,
the first pair of legs of Octopods seem to wear
the form, and in some measure to discharge the
functions of antennce.
In the shepherd- spiders^ all the legs, in some
degree, imitate antennae, especially in their tarsi,
which sometimes consist of more \h2i\\Jifty joints,
rendering them very flexible, so as to assume
any curve, and fits them, as their long legs do
the crane-fly,'^ to course rapidly over and among
the herbage and the leaves of shrubs, &c. When
reposing upon a wall, or the trunk of a tree, this
animal arranges its legs so as to form a circle as
it were of rays around the body, the thigh forming
a very obtuse angle with the rest of the leg, and
so, though the body is so small, they occupy a
considerable space ; but, if a finger, or any
insect, &c. touches them, it elevates these angles
into very acute ones, so as to form a circle of
arcades round the central nucleus or body, under
which any small creature can pass, but if this
does not succeed, it makes its escape with a
velocity wonderful for an animal furnished with
legs more than ten times the length of its body.
In the scorpioji and the hook-crab,^ as well as
the shepherd-spider, the mandibles, which are
short, have a moveable joint, and are converted
into a forceps, like the anterior legs of the crab or
1 Phalanyium. ^ Tipula. ^ Chelifer, Obisium, &c.
MYRIAPOD CONDYLOrES. 91
the lobster ; their feelers also, which are very
long, terminate in the same way, and form an
organ by which they can catch their prey ; the
former being armed besides with a long jointed
tail, furnished at the end with a sting, which
they can turn over their back, and thus, either
annoy their assailants, or dispatch any captive
whose resistance they cannot otherwise easily
overcome.
To what a variety of uses are analogous organs
applied in the diversified instances here adduced ;
and in all these variations from a common type,
how apparent are the footsteps of an intelligent
First Cause, taking into consideration the in-
tended station and functions of every animal,
and how the structure may be best adapted to
them, not only in general, but in every particular
organ.
As far as we can lift up the mystic veil that
covers the face of nature, by means of observa-
tion and experiment, we find that every iota and
tittle of an animal's structure, is with a view to
some end important to it ; and the Almighty
Fabricator of the Universe and its inhabitants,
when he formed and moulded, ex prcBJacente
materia^ the creatures of his hand, decreed that
the sphere of locomotive and sentient beings
should be drawn together by mutual attraction,
and concatenated by possessing parts m common,
02 LOCOMOTIVE AND
though not always devoted to a common use ;
thus leading us gradually from one form to ano-
ther, till we arrive at the highest and most distin-
guished of the visible creation ; and instructing
us by his works, as well as by his word, to cul-
tivate peace and union, and to seek the good of
the community to which we belong ; and, as far
as our influence goes, of the whole of His
creation.
Chapter XVII.
Motive, locomotive, and preliensorij Organs of
Animals considered.
The remarkable circumstances noticed in the
last chapter with regard to the legs of Crusta-
ceans and Myriapods, and their employment in
aid of manducation, sheds no small light upon
the subject of locomotive organs in general, and
their primary function ; it will therefore not be
out of place, if, in the present chapter, I consider
those organs, as far as they are external, accord-
ing to their several types, as exhibited in the
entire sphere of animals ; upon which, indeed,
the due accomplishment of their various functions,
and the exerciseof their several instincts — which
in most of the succeeding classes assume a new
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 1)3
and more developed character — mainly depend.
This is a wide field, but one full of interest, and
which, studied as it deserves, conspicuously illus-
trates the higher attributes of the Deity.
We are placed in a world full of motion ; of all
motions, none fall more immediately under our
notice than those of the various members of the
animal kingdom ; and the external organs by
which they are effected, attract every eye both
by their infinite diversity, and the adaptation of
their individual structure to the occasions and
wants of the animal in whom they are found, so
that they may, in the best and safest manner,
effect such changes of place as are necessary for
their purposes.
Nutrition may be stated as the primary object
of the motions and locomotions of the members
of the animal kingdom in general. No sooner is
the foetus or embryo so separated from its parent
stock, as not to imbibe its food from it, than it
begins to employ instinctively its prehensory
and motive organs in collecting it. And, whether
we descend to the foot of the scale of animals,
or mount to its summit, we shall find that their
— Daily Bread — is the principal object that in
every Class sets the members in motion.
The motive organs may be divided into tico
classes, those that are employed by an animal
in locomotion, and those that are used for prehen-
sion ; but as many of the locomotive organs are
94 LOCOMOTIVE AND
also prehensive, and prehension is often in aid
of locomotion — as in climbing and burrowing —
it will not be easy to consider the motive organs
separately with regard to these functions, I shall
therefore consider them generally, according to
certain types or kinds, under which they may
be arranged, and which present themselves very
obviously, when, with this view, we survey from
base to summit, or rather from pole to pole,
the entire sphere which constitutes the animal
kingdom.
Generally speaking, in this survey, as well as
in the peculiar motions of the various groups of
animals, we have no trouble in ascertaining what
are the external organs by which the Creator has
enabled and instructed each animal to accomplish
them ; but there is one anomalous tribe, or,
perhaps, it might be denominated, Sub-hmgdom,
in one Class of which, at least, this is not so
obvious. I allude to Ehrenberg's Tribe of Plant-
animals,^ particularly his first or polygastric
Class,- in which the organs of their various loco-
motions, enumerated in a former part of this
work,^ remain unknown, and some, as those that
have an oscillatory movement, one might almost
suspect were moved by an external cause. The
little Monad, parasitic on the eye- worm of the
perch,* which alternately spins round like a top,
1 Pkytozoa. 2 See Vol. I. p. 156.
^ Ibid. 153. ■* Diplostomum volvans.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 95
and then darts forward like an arrow/ seems as
if, like a watch, it required to be wound up
before it could go.
Before I confine my observations to those
motive organs which are local and planted in
certain parts of the body of an animal, as legs,
wings, fins, &c., I shall first mention those mo-
tions in which the whole body is concerned. Of
this description is the alternate expansion and
contraction of some, as the Salpes and Pyrosomes
and other Tunicaries ;^ the annular motion pro-
pagated from one extremity of the body to the
other, as in the earth-worms,^ geometric cater-
pillars, and many other larves ; the undulating
movements of the flexile bodies of many aquatic
animals, as fishes, particularly the serpentiform
ones ; and the gliding motion of serpents them-
selves over the surface of the earth as well as
their undulations. Many of the animals here
alluded to are provided with subsidiary organs —
as the earth-worm with lateral bristles ;^ the
geometric larves, with legs at each extremity of
their body; the leach with suckers; which,
however, would be of little use without the ex-
pansion and contraction of its body ;^ and the
fishes with tins : but if we consider the form and
' Vol. I. Appendix, p. 354. 2 See Vol. I. p. 223, 227.
3 Ihid. p 340. 4 Ibid.
5 Ibid. p. 336.
00 LOCOMOTIVE AND
circumstances of all these animals, we shall see,
in each case, the design and contrivance of
Supreme Wisdom. Without the power of con-
traction and expansion, by which the Salpes,
Pyrosomes, &c., alternately attract and repel
the waters which they inhabit, they might in-
deed, from their absorbent structure, be saturated,
but nutrition could not take place. The earth-
worm again, a subterranean animal, but which
occasionally emerges, by the annular motion of
its body can much more easily wind its sinuous
way without obstruction when it seeks again its
dark abode under the earth. The denser medium
compared with air, through which the aquatic
animals pass, renders great flexibility a very
important quality, to enable them to overcome
the resistance it opposes to their progress.
Having premised these observations on motions
produced by the action of the whole body, or
successively propagated from one extremity to
the other, I shall now proceed to consider those
external organs, which are its obvious instru-
ments in the great majority of animals, beginning
with those that are found in the lowest groups.
1. Rotatory Organs. In some species of In-
fusories, even in Ehrenberg's first Family of his
polygastric Class, the oral aperture is friyiged
with a circlet of bristles, but whether the animal
by their means creates a vortex in the water, or
whether they are analogous to the tentacles of
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 97
the polypes, and are employed in collecting its
food, seems not to have been clearly ascertained.
Lower down in this Class, and approaching the
Rotatories, we find a singular animal,^ with
bristles, by their position, simulating legs, which,
as was before observed,^ revolve with wonderful
rapidity. But it is in the Class of Rotatories
that these revolving organs are most conspicuous.
They are described as shaped like a tunnel,
the tube of which terminates in a deep-seated
pharynx armed with jaws, and the external
dilated orifice fringed with fine hairs or bristles,
to which the animal communicates a very raj)id
rotation, whence they are called ivlieel- animals.
Some, as the vorticels,^ the w^ieel-animals by way
of eminence, appear to have two wheels, others
tliree^ or eyeTifoiir : Lamarck is of opinion, from
the observations of Du Trochet, that what are
taken for two or more wheels, are only one, bent
so as to form partial ones ;* but in some they
are certainly distinct organs.^ The object of the
rapid gyration of this wheel or wheels is to
1 Discocephalus Rotator, Plate I. A. Fig. 6.
2 Vol. I. Appendix, p. 350.
3 Vorticella. Miill. They constitute chiefly the Roiifera of
Lamarck, and are divided by Ehrenberg into numerous genera.
His genus Vorticella, the type of which is V. convallaria, Miill.
is placed in his Polygastric Class, in a section of his fourth
Family ( Anopisthia), which section he names Vorticellina.
* See Baker On the Microscope, i. 91. t. viii./. 5.
* Ibid.f. 6.
VOL. II. H
98 LOCOMOTIVE AND
create a vortex in the water, whose centre is the
month of the animal, a little charybdis bearing
with it all the animalcules or molecules that come
within its sphere of action, and by this remark-
able mechanism it is enabled by its Creator, as
long as it is encircled by a fluid medium, to get
a due supply of food. These wheels are merely
foraging organs, for on a surface the locomotions
of these singular animals resemble those of the
leech described in another pi ace. ^
In surveying the organs by which animals
procure their food, we are struck by the wonder-
ful diversity and multiplicity of means by which
the same end is attained, and yet, through all
this diversity, a series of approximations may be
traced, proving that the same hand directed by
the Wisdom, Power, and Love of one and the
same Infinite Being fabricated the whole host of
creatures endowed with powers of voluntary
motion. What care does it manifest, and atten-
tion to the welfare of these invisibles, and what
contrivance, that they should be fitted with an
organ, by means of which, when they are
awakened from a state of suspended animation,
and from a long fast perhaps of months, or even
years, by water coming in sufiicient contact
with them, they can start up into life, and by
the gyrations of their wheels immediately begin
to breathe, and to procure a sufiicient supply of
' See Vol. I. p. 336.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 99
food for their sustenance, while they continue
animated.
2. Tentacles. Nearly related to these bristle-
crowned rotatory appendages of the mouth of
some animalcules are what are named Tentacles,
so called probably from their being usually ex-
ploring organs. In its most restricted sense,
this term is understood to signify organs, ap-
pendages of the mouth, which have no arti-
ciilations,^ but, in a larger sense, the term has
been applied also to all jointed organs in its
vicinity, and used for a similar purpose, which
indeed are the precursors of feelers and an-
tennae. The structure of the first -mentioned,
or proper tentacles, and the means by which
they perform their motions, and fullil their
functions, have been before explained.- It is to
these organs, as well as for their food, that the
polypes are indebted for what constitutes their
principal ornament, that resemblance which,
though born to blush unseen, even in the depths
of the ocean, their Creator has enabled them to
assume, of a plant or shrub in full blossom
adorned with crimson or orange-coloured flowers.
In the jixed polypes, the tentacles are the
only motive organs, but in those that can shift
their quarters, as the Ilydra,^ they move by
fixing each extremity like the leech, probably
1 See Savigny Syst. des Annelides, iii. 4.
2 See Vol. 1. p. 164. ^ Jbid. 173.
100 LOCOMOTIVE AND
by means of something analogous to suckers.
As the former, like their analogues in the vege-
table kingdom, are fixed by their base, and
consequently cannot move from place to place
in search of food, Divine Goodness has com-
pensated this to them, and they obtain all the
advantages of locomotion by the progressive
multiplication of their oscida or mouths, each
surrounded by a coronet of tentacles, so that
they have, on all sides, and at all heights, num-
berless sets of organs constantly employed in
collecting food from the fluid they inhabit ; some,
it is stated, by creating a vortex, like the wheel
animals, and the majority, probably, by means
of minute suckers, or some viscid tenacious
secretion. What each individual collects does
not merely serve for its own nutriment, but also
contributes something to that of the whole com-
munity,^ so that though some may contribute
more to the common stock and others less, yet
the deficiency of one is made up by the redun-
dancy of another.
The tentacles of the fresh- water polypes
forming the locomotive genus Hydra, are not, as
those of the fixed marine ones, shaped like the
petals of a blossom, but are long hair-like flexile
arms, somewhat resembling the branches of a
chandelier,- which explore the waters around
' See Vol. I. 171.
" Lasser. L. Theologie des Ins. i. t. n.fr. 28 — 32.
PREHENSOUY ORGANS. 101
them, and lay strong hold of any small animals
or substances they come in contact with/ so that
they seem to throw out lines, fitted with hooks,
to catch their prey.
Amongst the Radiaries, in the Order of Gela-
tines,^ tentacles exist in some genera and not in
others, and, where they do exist, their functions
and situation are not clearly ascertained. In
the Pelasgic Medusa there are four broad flexible
arms, and round the margin eight narrow ten-
tacles, as they are called, both of which the
animal is stated to employ in seizing its prey, so
that both may be entitled in this view to the de-
nomination of tentacles, yet one may be respira-
tory organs and the others merely prehensory.^
But the Medusidans vary greatly with regard to
these organs, some having neither arms nor ten-
tacles;* others having tentacles but no arms ;^
others again arms but no tentacles ;^ and lastly,
others both these organs/
In the two first sections of the Order of Echi-
moderms, consisting of the Stelleridans and
Echinidans, the mouth has no coronet of ten-
tacles, but, instead, is armed with five pieces,
which, in the latter particularly, assume the form
and function oi mandibles ;^ but the Fistulidans
1 See Vol. I. 165—170. 2 p. 195.
3 Carus. Comp. Anat. i. 47. * Eudora. Lam.
* Equorea. Lam. ^ Cassiopea. Lam.
7 Aurelia. Lam. ^ Plate IIL Fig. 9—11.
102 LOCOMOTIVE AND
present again a floriform coronet of tentacles,
not simple but expanded, and branching at their
extremity, with which they seize their prey. In
the Holothnria, besides these, the month is
armed with five teeth or mandibles.
Tentacles, but not conspicuously, surround the
mouth of only some of the Tunicaries, it will
therefore be sufficient merely to mention them,
and proceed to certain oceanic animals amongst
the Annelidans whom their Creator has adorned,
if I may so speak, with rays of glory, which,
when expanded, surround their head, or rather
mouth, with a most magnificent coronet. The
animals I allude to constitute the genus Aniphi-
trite of Lamarck, and the Sahella of Savigny ;
this coronet, in some species, is formed by nu-
merous tentacles, called, by the authors just
named, Branckice, or gills ; but as they are stated
to be employed in collecting their food, as well
as in respiration,^ they seem in this respect per-
fectly analogous to the tentacles of the polypes,
and wheels of the rotatories, which are also
respiratory organs. The great difference seems
to consist in their being divided into two fan-
like organs in the Amphitrites, in Vthich the
digitations or tentacles proceed from a common
base, and which together form the coronet. In
some the digitations, like the sticks of a fan, are
1 Lamarck, Anim. sans Vertebr. v. 355.
PREHENSOUY ORGANS. 103
connected by an intervening membrane, thus
resembling two expanded fans ;^ in others, this
pair of organs forms two bunches, set, as it were,
with numerous spirally convoluted plumes ;- in a
third each bunch of plumy tentacles is convo-
luted, but not spirally ;^ but the most magnifi-
cent species of the genus, if indeed it belongs to
it, is that figured in the fifth volume of the
Transactions of the Linnean Society ^^ under the
name of Tubularia magnijica. I say, if indeed it
belongs to it, because, if the figure quoted is cor-
rect, which 1 am not aware there is any reason
to doubt, the gills or tentacles, call them w^hich
we will, are not, as in the other species, divided
into two fasciculi or bundles, the rays of which
sit upon a common base ; but form one glorious
and radiant coronet, whose rays are beautifully
annulated with red and white ; there appears
indeed to be a double circle or series of these
rays, the interior ones shorter than the exterior ;
but there is not the least appearance of their
division into tivo bunches, each forming a semi-
circle. The rays differ little from those of many
of the polypes, except in being more numerous
and longer, for the diameter of the circle, when
the rays are all expanded, is nearly six inches,
and it is not stated that the figure is magnified.
1 Amphitrite Infimdibulum. Linn. Trans, ix. t. viii.
^ A. volutacornis. Ibid. vii. t. vii.y. 10.
^ A. vesiculosa. Ibid. xi. t.v.f.l. * Ibid. t. ix. f. 1 — o.
104 LOCOMOTIVE AND
Whenever the animal is alarmed it withdraws
this gorgeous apparatus of respirato-prehensory
organs within its tube, and the tube itself into its
burrow in the living rock, as a safe refuge from
its enemies. Whoever compares the above figure
of this expanded animal-blossom with the nec-
taries of some species of passion-flower, will be
struck by the resemblance they exhibit to each
other,^ and by the analogy that evidently exists
between them. As prehensory organs, the prin-
cipal object of their unusual length and num-
bers may probably be their capturing, as in a
net, a quantity of rock animals, or animalcules,
sufficient for their support, and perhaps their
very beauty may be a means of attraction and
bring them within their vortex.
With these splendid animals we bid farewell
to those whose oral organs seem analogous to
the blossoms of vegetables, and also to those in
whom the organs of prehension and respiration
are united ; or in which the same organs collect
food and also act the part of gills.
Though tentacles are not henceforth employed
in respiration, yet they still exist in several other
classes of animals as exploratory, prehensory,
and locomotive organs. But in none are they
more remarkable, both for their structure and
uses, than in the Cephalopods or cuttle-fish. In
' See Linn. Trans, ii. t. iii./. a. b.
PREHEXSORY ORGANS. 105
these animals they are used, as we have seen, as
arms for prehension, as legs for locomotion, as
sails for skimming the surface of the ocean, as
oars for passing through its waves, as a rudder
for steering, and as an anchor to fix themselves.
These organs, like the tentacles of the po-
lypes, surround the mouth ; in some genera, as
the poulpe,^ and sepiole,^ besides eight shorter
arms,^ there is a pair of very long ones, which
are usually denominated tentacles, by way of
eminence, which the animal probably uses, and
for which purpose a claw arms their extremity,^
to lay hold of prey at a distance. The means
by which the tentacles perform the locomotions
of these animals, and enable them to seize their
prey, I shall advert to under another head.
But though, in the great body of the Cepha-
lopods, the tentacular organs do not exceed ten,
we find, from Mr. Owen's admirable memoir on
the Pearly Nautilus,^ that, in that animal, they
are extremely numerous, and strikingly different
in their structure. The mouth and its appen-
dages are retractile within the head, which
forms a sheath for them, the orifice of which is
anterior. The proper tentacles are of two kinds :
1. Brachial ones, finely annulated, emerging
from thirty-eight three-sided arms, disposed ir-
1 Octopus. 2 Sepiola.
3 Plate VII. Fig. 3. a. * Ibid. b.
* Nautilus Pompilius.
TOO LOCOMOTIVE AND
regularly, nineteen on each side, all directed
forwards, and converging towards the orifice of
the oral sheath. 2. Labial ones, similar to the
others in their structure, and emerging from four
broad flattened processes, arising from the inner
surface of the sheath, and more immediately
embracing the mouth and lip : from each of
these processes emerge twelve tentacles, ra-
ther smaller than the brachial ones. Besides
these two descriptions of tentacles, there is a
pair, one on each side, emerging from two ori-
fices in the inner part of the hood or foot, ar-
ranging with the arms, and perhaps to be reck-
oned with the brachial tentacles, thus making
up the whole number of tentacles of a similar
structure eighty-eight. It is to be observed that
neither the parts that sheath them, nor the ten-
tacles themselves, are furnished with any aceta-
bula or suckers.^
Besides the tentacles, this animal has four
analogous organs of a different structure, one
before and one behind each eye, which Mr.
Owen likens to antennae, and which are lamel-
lated, or composed of a number of flattened cir-
cular disks, appended to a lateral stem ;^ a cir-
cumstance indicating a variation in their func-
tions.
From their being retractile, it should seem
1 Owen's Memoir, &c. 13, t. i. n. ^ jf^^^ J4
PREKENSORY ORGANS. 107
that in this animal the tentacles are not in con-
stant use, as they are in the naked Cepha-
lopods, and that they require protection ; from
their finely annulated structure they appear to
be flexible and easily applicable to any surface,
but whether they are tentacular or prehensory
organs, or both, is unknown. In the account of
the LoUgopsis, a species of cuttle-fish, by the
able pen of that eminent zoologist Dr. Grant,
the part apparently analogous to the labial ten-
tacidiferous processes of the Nautilus, is called
the outer-lip, and is stated to send out a mus-
cular band to the base of each army^ which
seems to indicate that the arms of the naked
Cephalopods are analogous to the labial tenta-
cles of the animal we are considering. The
labial processes, with their tentacles, present
some resemblance to a many-fingered hand,^
and from their situation immediately next the
mouth maybe conjectured to be most concerned
either in the capture or transmission of its food :
but whether either set of tentacles is used in its
locomotions, as they are in the naked Cephalo-
pods and the Argonaut, seems very problema-
tical.
As far as its locomotion on a surface is con-
cerned, in its hood;, it appears to be furnished
with an expansile foot, approaching that of the
' Trrms. of Zool. Soc. T. i. 23.
■^ Owen, ubi supr. t. iv.y, i i, g y.
108 LOCOMOTIVE AND
Gastropods,^ so that its tentacles seem not ne-
cessary to transport it from place to place on the
bed of the ocean ; by what means it elevates
itself, as it is known to do, to the surface, and
floats upon the waves, has not been ascertained.
In comparing the organs that surround the
mouth of the Nautilus with those of other Cepha-
lopods, we see that a vast change has taken
place. They are no longer the principal organs
of locomotion, that function being transferred to
an expansile foot ; their number is increased in
nearly a tenfold ratio : being deprived of suckers,
they seem destitute of any powerful means of
prehension and retention, and so are scarcely
able to overcome the resistance of the larger
Crustaceans. As their principal organ of loco-
motion is one that seems to preclude all idea of
rapid motion in pursuit of their prey, it is most
probable, as their mandibles are fitted for crush-
ing crust or shell, that certain MoUuscans, ani-
mals which must be equally slow in their mo-
tions, and can scarcely resist them, are their
destined food.
We may further observe, that, regard being
had to the organs which surround the moutli, a
very wide interval separates the great body of
the Cephalopods, known in a recent state, from
the animal now before us ; even the Spirula,
which Mr. Owen conjectures may belong to the
' Owen's Memoir, &c. 12, t. i. n.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 109
same Order, in this respect is formed upon a
very different type, precisely that of those Ce-
phalopods/
This animal, in the above respect, being so
completely insulated, it seems, as if in its means
of entra Plying its prey it was formed upon a plan
not connected with that of any other Molluscan,
but quite sui generis: probably, were we ac-
quainted with the animals belonging to what are
deemed fossil Cephalopods, we should find the
hiatus vastly narrowed.
In this instance we see clearly that adaptation
of means to an end which distinguishes all the
works of the Creator ; the striking variation
which this creature exhibits from the oral appa-
ratus of its Class, is evidently connected with the
kind and circumstances of the animals which it
is commissioned to keep within their proper
limits ; its mandibles, or beak, indeed, resemble
those of the other Cephalopods, indicating that
its prey are covered with solid integuments, re-
quiring great force to crush them ; but the other
oral organs, and its snail-like foot, as we see,
indicate that they are not of a kind that can
easily escape from their assailants.
Two objects seem to have been principally in
the mind of the Almighty planner of the uni-
verse of beings : one seems to have been the
concatenation of all subsistences, seriatim and
1 Plate IV. Fig. 2.
] 10 LOCOMOTIVE AND
collaterally, into one great system ; and the
other, so to order and vary the structure of each
individual that it may be duly fitted to answer a
certain end, and produce a certain effect upon
such and such points of that system, and this in
such a way that these effects, though diverse,
might not be averse, but proceed, if I may so
speak, in the same direction. Thus, in the
subject before us, the general commission given
to the Cephalopods, is to assist in reducing
the armed population of the ocean within certain
limits, and to all are given instruments and
organs, varying indeed in their structure, but
proper to enable them to effect this purpose ;
all, hovv^ever, concurring to bring about a common
and connected object, and one taking one de-
partment and another another.
The tentacles of the Univalve BloUuscans, for
the headless animal of the JBivahes hns no such
organ, are neither used for locomotion nor pre-
hension, and therefore seem to have no claim
to a place in the present chapter. But as they
are clearly the analogues of the tentacles of the
animals we have been considering, and though
not prehensory, are certainly exploring and sensi-
ferous organs, which are probably connected
with prehension, I shall make a few observations
upon them. They vary in their number, some
having none,^ others only two ;^ others again
' Chiton. ^ Cijiircea. Valuta. Plate VI. Fjg. 1. b.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. Ill
four ;^ and lastly, others six.^ They are without
articulations, though they sometimes exhibit an
annulated appearance:^ they are also often re-
tractile, and in the snail and slug they form a
hollow tube, which can be inverted like the
finger of a glove ; in others they appear to be
composed of longitudinal fibres, intersected by
annular ones, which render them capable of
great extension. In form they are either fili-
form, setaceous, or conical ; but in the remark-
able genus Lcqjlysia, or the Sea-hare, the upper
pair are shaped like the ears of the animal from
which they take their name. Their sense of
touch is much more delicate than that of the rest
of the body. They are intimately connected with
what are usually deemed the organs of sight of
the Univalve Molluscans, which in some genera
they seem to inclose. Some of these eyes are
placed, in the form of a black pupil, at the sum-
mit of the tentacle, which surrounds them as the
iris does the pupil of the perfect eye ; in others
they are imbedded in the middle of that organ,
and in others at its base ; in some, as in the Sea-
ear,* they are seated in a separate footstalk.
In many of the carnivorous species the pupil is
' Helix. Limax.
^ Clio. The tentacles in this genus are retractile, and when
retracted form two tubercles, which make the head appear bi-
lobed.
' Vohita jEthiopica, Plate VI. ' Haliotis.
112 LOCOMOTIVE AND
surrounded by an iris/ which seems to indicate
that the tentacles perform, in some sort, the
functions of that part of the eye. The upper
pair of tentacles in the Molluscans seem ana-
logues of the nntennce of Condylopes, and the
lower pair of their feelers ; and the functions for
which the Creator has formed and fitted both
are probably not very dissimilar. The extreme
irritability of the tentacles of snails and slugs is
evident to every one who observes their motion :
at the approach of a finger they are immediately
retracted ; they therefore give notice to the ani-
mal of the approach of danger, so as to provide
against it, and when necessary to withdraw
itself into its shell : the eyes, from their situation
in many of them, supposing them to have a greater
range and power of vision than they appear to
have, cannot direct them in the choice of their
food, in these their lower tentacles may have this
office. Snails and slugs, we also know, issue
forth from their places of concealment when the
earth is rendered moist enough, by showers,
for them to travel easily over its surface ; so
that they must be endued with some degree of
aeroscepsy, of which probably these delicate
organs are the instruments.
Whether the barbs appended to the mouths of
many fishes, as the barbel, the Siluridans," and
' Plate VI. Fig. 1, a. " Plate XII. Fig. 1.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 113
the Fishing-frog/ may be regarded as a kind of
tentacle cannot be certainly affirmed, but from
their proximity to the mouth, it seems most pro-
bable that they exercise some function connected
with the procuring of its food. Cuvier regards
them as a kind of tactors, and they also present
some analogy to antennae and palpi.
In many of the Annelidans, tentacles of the
present description are found not only in the
vicinity of the mouth, but also upon the pedi-
gerous segments of the body, and appear to be
equally used in exploring objects."^
I shall next consider some tentacular organs,
which differ from those we have been considerino-
in being more or less jointed. These, on that
account, have been considered as a different
class of organs, and by many have been deno-
minated cirri or tendrils, or more properly, by
Savigny, tentacular cirri. I have before des-
cribed organs of this kind in my account of the
Cirripedes^ by which it appears that they are
employed for the same purposes as the tentacles
of the polypes. Under this head also the an-
tennae of Crustaceans and insects may be noticed,
which seem, as I have lately observed, analogous
to the tentacles of the Molluscans, and the barbs
of fishes ; in some instances, indeed, they are
' Lo-pliius. Plate XIII. Fig. 2.
^ Fn. Groenland, 294. ^ See above, p. 2.
VOL. II. I
114 LOCOMOTIVE AND
used instead of the fore legs.^ The reason why
their structure differs from the soft, inarticulate
tentacles above described, at least in most cases,
appears to be the different nature of the integu-
ments of the animal, which being incased in a
kind of coat of mail, it seems requisite that both
its locomotive and oral organs should be similarly
defended, and in this case, unless they had been
jointed, they would have lost their flexibility,
and so could not have exercised the functions
assigned to them by their Creator. It may,
perhaps, be objected that the shell of the snail is
nearly as hard as the crust of the lobster ; but
when we consider that the former, when moving,
can thrust forth the greatest part of its soft body,
as it were from a house, while the crust of the
other is really its skin, this objection seems to
vanish.
Suckers. — The organs I am next to consider,
acetahula, or suckers, are, in many cases, so inti-
mately connected with tentacles, as to form the
most essential feature of them, without which
they can be of no use. In fact, in the Cepha-
lopods, they bear the same relation to the organ
just named that the hand or foot do to the arm
or leg, or the fingers and toes to the hand, in
higher animals : they are the part by which the
' Introd, to E?it. ii. 308.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 115
animal takes hold of what it wants to seize ; and
by the alternate fixing and unfixing of which,
upon a solid substance, it moves from place to
place. A sucker ^ may be defined — An organ by
which an animal is enabled to create a vacuum
between it, (the organ,) and any surface on
which it rests, so as to produce a pressure of the
atmosphere upon its upper part, and thus causing
it to adhere firmly.
Cuvier, speaking of the suckers of the Cepha-
lopods, thus describes their action. When the
animal approaches one or more of its suckers to
a surface, in order to apply it more intimately,
it presents it flattened ; when it is fixed to it by
the perfect union of the surfaces, it contracts its
sphincter, which produces a cavity, in the centre
of which a vacuum is formed. By this mechan-
ism, the sucker attaches itself to the surface with
a force proportioned to its diameter, and to the
weight of the column of water or of air of which
it is the base. This force, multiplied by the
number of suckers, gives that with which the
whole or part of the legs attaches itself to the
body, so that it is more easy to tear the legs,
than to separate them from the object which the
animal wishes to retain.-
In some cases, the action of the suckers, as
* Suckers are denominated scientifically Acetabula, and
Cotyl(B, or Cotyloid processes.
^ Anat. Comp. i. 410. Roget, B. T. i. 260.
no LOCOMOTIVE AND
suckers, seems not sufficient for the animars
purposes, and claws are superadded. This struc-
ture is to be found in the suckers of the animal
that fixes itself to the gills of the bream, the
Diplozoon, before described/ and to those of
some Cephalopods a stout claw is added.
When we consider the nature and predatory
habits of those Cephalopods whose tentacles are
furnished with suckers, often pedunculated, on
that side which is prone when the animal
moves, we shall at once see the reason that this
change from the more common MoUuscan struc-
ture of an expansile foot, took place, for had
their principal locomotive and prehensory organ
been of this description, or different from what
it is, their motions must necessarily have been
so slow, and their powers of prehension so weak,
that they could never have overtaken and cap-
tured, and maintained their hold of the well
defended and formidably armed Crustaceans,
which are their destined prey. Uncouth,
therefore, and misshapen, and monstrous, as
these animals, at the first glance, appear, we see
that in these organs, and doubtless in all others,
they are exactly fitted to answer the end, and
fulfil the purposes of Divine Providence in their
creation.
The suckers of the Diplozoon exhibit a com-
' Vol. I. Appendix, p. 358.
PREHENSORY ORGvVNS. 117
plex structure in aid of its powers of suction, not
easily developed and understood. Dr. Nord-
mann supposes, that though the animal could
attach itself strongly by these organs, additional
means were necessary to render its attachment
sufficiently firm ; and that, therefore, while it is
fixing itself by the suckers, it requires the aid of
the apparatus of hooks, or claws and arches,
to keep itself from being misplaced.^
The Class of Amielidans exhibits a great va-
riety of locomotive organs, amongst the rest, in
the last Order, we find suckers, these being the
principal organs for motion of the Hirudineans
or leeches, the animals of which Order, however,
M. Savigny is disposed to think are essentially
distinct from the rest of the Annelid ans, on
account of their want of setc& or lateral bristles.
The 07'al sucker of that division of the animals I
am considering, to which the common leecli^
belongs, is distinguished from the anal one by
being formed of many segments, whereas the
latter consists of only one. Their motions, by
means of these suckers, and the annular struc-
ture of their bodies 1 have before sufficiently
described.^ Their suckers also enable them to
lay hold of any aquatic animals that come in
1 See Nordmann, i. 61 . t. v./". 3, 4, 5.
" Sanguisur/a medicinalis. Sav.
3 Vol. I. p. 336.
118 LOCOMOTIVE AND
their way, especially the oral one, which once
fixed they soon make an entry and begin to
imbibe its blood.
We see, in this, the reason why their Maker,
instead of bristles for locomotion, has given them
organs by which they can not only move from
one place to another, but also fix themselves
firmly to their prey.
I shall next advert to a kind of sucker which
really becomes both the hand and foot of the
animals that bear them. I allude to those of the
Echinodenns, described on a former occasion,^ in
which the ampullaceous part within the shell
presents the first outline of a shoulder or thigh,
the exerted extensile part that of an arm or
leg, and the dilated part with which the animal
seizes its prey or walks, the hand or foot ; the
two first constituting the tentacle, and the last
the sucker.
I have, on a former occasion, given some
account, under the name of the Perch-pest," of a
singular animal, belonging to the Lerneans,
whose history has been given by Dr. Nordmann,
and which is distinguished by a sucker common
to tivo legs. Several other Lerneans have similar
suckers.^
1 See Vol. I. p, 202, 208. Plate III. Fig. 5.
" See above, p. 22, 31.
3 See Nordmann, t. vii. viii.
PREHENSOUY ORGANS. 119
Amongst insects are a variety of animals
which are known to walk against gravity, we see
the common flies, and other two-winged and four-
winged insects, walk with ease npon the glass
of our windows, and course each other over the
ceilings of our apartments, without, in either
case, falling from their lubricous, or seemingly
perilous station. Writers on the subject are not
agreed as to the means by which this is effected,
some supposing that it is by atmospheric pres-
sure, produced by suckers ;^ while others main-
tain that it is by a thick-set brush, composed of
short bristles, on the underside of the foot, or by
certain appendages at the apex of the claw joint
of that organ.^ Probably both these causes are
in action, for though the pulvilli or foot-cushions
of flies may adhere by mechanical means, those
of some Hyinenoptera and Orthoptera seem evi-
dently furnished with suckers.^ In both cases
the design of an Intelligent Cause is apparent ;
His wisdom, which, under different circum-
stances, contrives different means to attain the
same end ; His power, which gives effect to that
purpose and contrivance ; and His goodness,
which causes every varied mean to subserve to
1 Philos. Trans. 1816. 322. t. xviii. Introcl. to Ent. ii. 322.
White's Selborne, ii. 274. Ed. Markw.
2 Blackwall in Linn. Titans, xvi. 487.
^ Philos. Trans, ubi sup. t. xix. xxi.
120 LOCOMOTIVE AND
the more convenience and comfort of the ani-
mals in which each obtains. Could we trace
exactly the history and habits of every group of
animals, nay, of each individual species, we
should discover that the slightest variation was
to answer a particular end ; and that even its
very hairs and pores were all numbered with
reference to special uses, foreseen by Divine
Wisdom.
Amongst other purposes for which suckers
were given to the Class of Insects, one bears re-
lation to the intercourse of the sexes. This is
particularly observable in the males of the pre-
daceous beetles,^ especially the aquatic ones.
In the terrestrial ones^ indeed something of the
kind takes place, for the males may be known
by having the three or four first joints sometimes
only of the anterior tarsi, and sometimes of the
intermediate, more or less dilated and furnished
underneath with short bristles, intermixed, it
should seem, with very minute suckers, and in
some with transverse ones.'^ But these organs
are most conspicuous in the male of our most
common water-beetles,^ in which the three first
joints of the anterior tarsus form a dilated orbi-
* Carnivora. Lat.
2 CicindelidcE, HarpalidcE, CaixibidcB, &c.
3 E. G. Harpalus caliginosus. F.
4 Dyticifs marginalis, &c. Philos. Trans, iibi supr. t. xx.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 121
cular shield, covered with minute suckers, sitting
on a tubular foot-stalk, with two exceeding the
rest greatly in size. The intermediate legs also
have the three first joints thickly set with minute
suckers.
Leaving the invertebrated animals the oc-
currence of suckers becomes very rare ; very
few instances are upon record, in the whole Sub-
kingdom of vertebrated animals, of this kind of
formation, two in the Class of fishes and the
other in that of reptiles, namely the lump-fishes,^
the sucking-fishes,^ and the Gecko lizards."^
Under the name of lump-fishes I include all those
whose ventral fins unite to form a disk or sucker
by which they are enabled to adhere to the
rocks, constituting Cuvier's family of Discoboles.
But the most celebrated of this tribe, in ancient
as well as modern times, are the sucking-fishes
or Echeneis, which Pliny says were so called
from their impeding the course of the vessels to
which they adhered. On the back of their head
they have an oval cotyloid disk fitted with
numerous transverse laminae denticulated at their
posterior edge, forming a double series ; by the
aid of this apparatus, which appears to ad-
here by means of the teeth of its laminae as
* Cyclopterus Lumpus, &c.
^ Echeni'is.
3 Gecko. Daud. Stellio. Schn. Ascalabotes. Cuv.
122 LOCOMOTIVE AND
well as by suction, this animal attaches itself
to the whale, the dolphin, the shark, the turtle,
and other inhabitants of the waters, and even
to vessels that are sailing, and thus organs,
which at first sight appear to stop all locomotion
in the animal, are the means which enable it,
like certain barnacles,^ to traverse half the globe.
The fins of this animal do not permit it to swim
with ease and velocity ; and therefore this must
be regarded as a compensating contrivance, by
which it can the more readily fulfil its functions
and instincts. Though they are disengaged with
difficulty by human force from the vessel to
which they are fixed, they very easily detach
themselves, and swimming on their back, pursue
any object that attracts their attention or excites
their cupidity.
It is singular to remark that in the case of
two such animals, as the barnacle amongst the
Cirripedes, which has naturally no locomotive
powers and organs ; and the Echeneis amongst
the fishes, in which they are insufficient to trans-
port it far from its native rocks and haunts, such
means should be afforded by a kind Providence
of visiting in safety the most distant oceans.
These animals, though they may be called para-
sitic, from their adhering to other animals, yet,
' See above, p. 5.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 123
as they do not appear to imbibe any mitriinent
from them, the design of this singular instinct
seems to be merely their transport, for purposes
not yet fully ascertained.
But there are other fishes whose mouth is a
suctorious organ, analogous to that of the leech,
by which they suck the blood of the aquatic
animals they adhere to ; of this description are
the Lamprey^ and the Hag^ but upon these I
shall not further enlarge.
The other sucker-bearing vertebrated animals,
which I mentioned, were those Saurians which
form the genus Gecko, and the object of this
structure, in them, is to enable them to walk
against gravity, that thus they may be em-
powered to pursue the insects, possessing the
same faculty, up perpendicular or along prone
surfaces. These suckers,^ consisting of trans-
verse laminae, occupy the terminal part of the
underside of the toes. By aid of these organs
they can mount the smooth chunam walls of
houses in India. Another Saurian genus,* the
Gecko, of the West Indies, has a similar organ,
by means of which it climbs up trees, as well as
the walls of houses, in the pursuit of insects.
The adhesion of suckers and their relaxation.
1 Petromyzon. ^ Myxine.
3 Philos. Trans. 1816. t. xvii./. 2. * Anolius.
124 LOCOMOTIVE AND
especially in locomotion, in order to answer the
end for which they were given, must be as per-
fectly dependent upon the will of the animal, as
our steps on the plane we are moving on are
upon ours ; and yet in some instances, as in the
perch-pest,^ the animal, when once fixed, can
scarcely disengage itself ; but in this case,
having attained its ultimate station, this is of
no importance.
If we study the individual cases of all the
sucker-bearing animals, we shall find that this
kind of organ was necessary, and all its modifi-
cations, to enable them to fulfil effectually their
several instincts, and to do the work appointed
them by their allwise Creator. For instance, in
vain would the Cephalopods pursue and en-
deavour to seize and devour the crab or the
lobster, if, instead of tentacles set with numerous
suckers, they had the paws and retractile claws
of the Feline race : or how would the Gecko be
enabled to overtake its insect provender, if its
feet were like those of the rest of its class ?
As supplementary to this account of suckers,
I may mention a locomotive organ, given to a
very numerous tribe of invertebrated animals,
which, as I observed on a former occasion, ap-
pears in some degree to partake of the nature
* Achtheres Percaru7n. See above, p. 118.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 125
of a sucker, and which is eminently adapted to
the structure, circumstances, and wants of the
animals that are provided with it. I mean the
expansile foot of the great majority of Mollus-
cans : these animals are the only instance of a
nnipede structure in creation, but this one foot
answers every purpose of a hand or leg ; it
spins for the bivalves their byssus,^ is used by
others as an auger,- by others as a trowel,^ and
by others for other manipulations, and is gene-
rally their sole organ of locomotion : from its soft
and flexible substance it can adapt itself to the
surfaces upon which it moves, and by the slime
that it copiously secretes lubricates them to
facilitate its progress. In very dry weather,
however, it cannot move with ease over the arid
soil, but when humid from rain, the whole ter-
restrial Molluscan army issues forth, naked, or
in various panoply, each according to its kind,
covering the face of the earth, so that it is not
easy to avoid crushing them.
The most careless observer of God's creatures
must be struck by the correspondence between
this foot, and the animal to which it is given ;
had its locomotions been by means of an organ
of a solid substance, or by means of several such
organs, the harmony of structure Avliich now
1 Vol. I. p. 251. 2 Ji^i^, p. 246. ^ Ibid. p. 289.
126 LOCOMOTIVE AND
strikes us, and relationship between its different
parts would be done away, and we should think
we beheld a mongrel monster engendered by
strange mixtures of animals, rather than a
creature harmoniously moulded by the hands of
an allwise Creator.
I may also mention here a few other organs
which seem to present some analogy to suckers,
and which, though aiding in locomotion, are not,
strictly speaking, locomotive organs, or those by
which locomotion is effected. I allude to the
spurious legs, or prologs of the larves of insects.
These are usually retractile fleshy organs,
analogous to the bristle-armed protuberances
of the Annelidans, rendered necessary by the
length of these animals, and supporting them as
props, and which usually, by means of a coronet
or semicoronet of hooked spines or claws, and by
applying their prone surface to the plane of
position, take strong hold of it : these legs do
not step; the six anterior jointed legs, where
they exist, are the walking legs ; but these
organs having been fully described in another
joint work of Mr. Spence and myself,^ I must
therefore refer the reader for further information
on the subject to that work.
What are called the pectiues or comb-like
1 Intro, to Ent. iii. 134.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 127
organs of scorpions, and those pedunculated
ones which are attached to the hind legs of the
Solpuga or Galeodes, are conjectured by M.
Latreille to be connected \v4th the respiration of
these animals. Amouroux seems to regard the
former as a kind of sucker, but no actual obser-
vations have as yet ascertained their real nature,
except that the author last named, states that he
has seen the animals use them as feet.
4. Setce or Bristles. Having fully considered
suckers and their analogues, I shall next advert
to a species of locomotive organ, principally
confined to the Annelidans, animals whose loco-
motions are chiefly produced by the contraction
and expansion of the rings of their body, but
which are also furnished with lateral setiform
organs, which assist them in their motion, by
pushing against the plane of position.
The majority of these animals are aquatic,
and some of them grow to a great size ; I have a
specimen, which I purchased from the collection
of the late lamented Mr. Guilding, which is more
than a foot long, and as thick as the little finger :
it has a double series of what may be denomi-
nated its legs, each furnished at its extremity
with a bunch of very fine retractile bristles,
and those of the dorsal series having besides a
branchial organ or gill on each side, consisting
VOL* II. I 8
128 LOCOMOTIVE AND
of numerous threads. This remarkable animal
appears to belong to Savigny's genus Pleione,
and is probably his P. pedmiculata, and the
Nereis gigantea of Linne. The bristles in these
legs seem not calculated for pushing on a solid
surface, but are rather organs of natation, ana-
logous, in some degree, to the branching legs of
the Branchiopod Entomostracans. In the earth-
worms^ the lateral bristles are simple, and used
to assist their motions, either on the surface, or
when they emerge from the earth, or make their
way into it.
At first sight, one would not suppose the
bristles of the Annelidans to be analogues of
jointed legs, or preparatory to their appearance
in the great plan of creation ; but when we
reflect upon the approach which many of the
Nereidans of Savigny make to the Myriapod
Condylopes,' and that these bristle-bearing legs,
in Mr. Guilding's genus Peripatus,^ begin to
assume the appearance of articulations, and are
armed at their apex with claws ;* it seems clear
that the bristles of the Annelidans, and the base
within which they are retractile, are really legs,
and lead the way to the jointed ones of the Con-
dylopes.
I have before noticed the conversion of legs
1 Lumhricus.
2 See Vol. 1. p. 346. Plate VIII. Fig. 1, 4.
3 Ibid. Fig. I. * Ibid. Fig. 2. c. c.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 129
into oral organs, or their use as auxiliaries
to them in the case of the Myriapods/ Mr,
Savigny, in his description of an animal,- which
seems the analogue of the electric centipede,^
observes that its four anterior legs are converted,
into tentacular cirri, affording an additional
argument for the ancient opinion that the marine
Myriapods, as they might be denominated, have
some affinity with the terrestrial, since, at least
in this instance, the same number of legs are
used as auxiliaries to the mouth.
The great majority of the Annelidans inhabit
the water, and the tufts of bristles, sometimes
forming fans, issuing in many cases from a
dorsal and ventral conical protuberance, deno-
minated by Savigny oars, and occasionally ex-
panding so as somewhat to resemble them, seem
in some degree analogous to the branching legs
of the Branchiopod and Lernean Entomostra-
cans,* and are probably natatory as well as
ambulatory organs, and means by which their
Creator has fitted the locomotive ones to make
their way through the matted sea-weeds and the
mud, when creeping after their prey, as well as
to row through the water like a stately bireme.
These oary feet, emulating in number those of
the terrestrial Myriapods, and foiming moreover,
' See above, p. 76.
^ Lycoris cBgyptia. Pl. VIII. Fig. 4.
^ Geophilus electricus. * Plate IX. Fig- 3,
VOL. II. K
130 LOCOMOTIVE AND
as was before stated, both a dorsal and ventral
series, must enable them to move with con-
siderable rapidity : those indeed that have ob-
served their proceedings, describe them as both
swimming and running with admirable ease and
speed. ^
There is a Class of vertebrated animals, the
Ophidians or serpents, which exhibit consider-
able analogy to many of the Annelidans, not
only by their form and undulating movements,
but also by the organs which effect their pro-
gressive motions, not indeed by means of bristles,
but of parts that, pushing against the plane of
position, propel the animal in any direction ac-
cording to its will.
But the way in which this is effected having
been clearly and most ably explained by an
eminent and learned physiologist," I need not
here enlarge upon it, but only observe that the
motion of one tribe of the Myriapods, though
produced by legs, exactly imitates that of the
Ophidians, though produced by ribs; and very
amusing it is to see the propagation of it from
one extremity to the other in the Milhpedes,
like wave succeeding wave in the water : a still
more striking analogy, as has been already re-
marked,^ is exhibited by the larger centipedes,
1 See Otho Fabricius Faun. Groe7idland, 289, 298, &c.
2 Dr. Roget.
^ See above, p. 65.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 131
which seem ahiiost models of the skeleton of
a serpent.
Serpents thus can move not only horizontally,
but also up the trunks of trees, probably in a
spiral direction, and some are said to have the
power of darting from one tree to another. As
these animals are not annulated, like the An-
nelidans, and cannot originate and continue mo-
tion by the alternate contraction and extension
of the rings or segments of their body, which
the nature of their integuments, their vertebral
column, and muscular fibre probably preclude,
the wisdom of their Creator has subjected their
ribs to their will, so that they can use them as
motive organs.
Natatory Organs. — The spurious bristle- armed
legs of the Annelidans, especially those of Peri-
patus,^ have as it were led us to the mighty
host of animals furnished with articulated loco-
motive or prehensory organs, or real legs and
arms, varying in number — but as these will best
finish the subject, I shall first consider those
external instruments of motion which are pecu-
liar to animals inhabiting the water, or moving
through the air, beginning with the first, or
those distinguished by natatory organs. I have
already mentioned some of this description, as
1 Plate VIII. Fig. 1, 2.
132 LOCOMOTIVE AND
the oars of the paper nautilus^ and Annelidans,^
and also the sails expanded by the former
animal and several MoUuscans.^ Before I con-
sider the organs in question, where they are
most conspicuous, in the fishes, I must give
some account of those to be met with amongst
the invertebrated animals, particularly the Con-
dy lopes. Several of the Cephalopods and Ptero-
pods, and other Molluscans, have natatory ap-
pendages ; in the former, as to many species,
looking like little wings, often nearly round,
attached to the lower part of the mantle that
envelopes them ;* and in the latter assuming the
shape and station of the dorsal and other fins of
fishes,^ though totally different in their structure,
not being divided into jointed rays as in the
animals just named.
Having mentioned these, I shall next advert
more fully to the organs by which the great
Sub-kingdom of animals with articulated legs
move in the waters, whether they always inhabit
them, or occasionally visit them. They may be
divided into three distinct kinds. 1. Jointed
legs dilated towards their extremities, as in the
common whirl- wig, ^ the little beetle that forms
• See Vol. I. p. 312. 2 See above, p. 129.
3 See Vol. I. p. 264. * Plate VII. Fig. 1.
^ Plate V. Fig. 6, 7, 8. ^ Gyrimis.
PREHRNSORY ORGANS. 133
circles in the water, and in the tribe of crabs
termed swimmers/ these I would call Pediremes.
2. Jointed legs, that terminate in a fasciculus of
setiform branches, and are also connected with
the respiration of the animal, these might be
denominated Br anchir ernes, and are found in
the Branchiopod Entomostracans.^ 3. Those in
which the inner side of the jointed leg has a
dense fringe of hairs, called by Linne, by way of
eminence, pedes natatorii, such as are found in
many diving^ and other aquatic beetles, these
might be named Setir ernes. As the spurious
legs to which the eggs are attached, observable
on the underside of the abdomen of the female
lobster, cray-fish, and other long-tailed Crus-
taceans, are used also as natatory organs, they
are ciliated for that purpose, and belong to this
tribe. The same observation will also apply
both to maxillary legs, and other legs of several
animals of that Class. The velocity with which
the diving-beetles move in the water by the
action of these legs, and their suspension of
themselves at the surface, by extending them so
as to form a right angle with the body, when
they come up for air, and the weather is fine
and the water clear, affords a very interesting
spectacle.
' Nayeurs. Lam, ^ Plate IX. Fig. 4. c. ^ Dyticus.
134 LOCOMOTIVE AND
Amongst natatory organs I must not overlook
the tails of the long-tailed Decapod and several
other Crustaceans, which terminate in a power-
ful natatory organ, consisting usually of five
plates, densely ciliated at their apex, the inter-
mediate one formed of the last segment of the
abdomen, and the lateral ones articulating with
a common footstalk giving them separate mo-
tion, the outer consisting sometimes of two arti-
culations, as in the common lobster, and some-
times of only one, as in the thorny lobster ; the
intermediate plate, as in Galatliea, sometimes
consists of two lobes ; these laminse when ex-
panded form a most powerful natatory organ,
which, if we consider the weight of their body,
must be necessary to keep them from sinking,
and by its vertical motion to enable them to rise
or sink in the water. But natatory organs are
not confined to those of the trunk and abdomen,
even those of the head sometimes assist in this
kind of motion. Thus in Cypris, an Entomos-
tracan genus, resembling a muscle, the man-
dibles and first pair of maxillse have branchial
appendages used also in swimming, and their an-
tennae are likewise terminated by a fasciculus of
threads, which, according to Jurine, the animal
developes, more or less, as it wants to move faster
or slower.^
' Latr. Cours D'Eat. i. 430.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 135
But the most important natatory organs are
those which enable the vertebrated inhabitants
of the waters, from the giant whale to the pigmy
minnow, to make their way through the waves ;
it will be interesting to trace the analogies of the
fins of these animals to the locomotive organs,
whether wings or legs of other animals, es-
pecially Mammalians. Some we shall find sui
generis, and calculated particularly for the cir-
cumstances in which the Creator has placed
the great Class of fishes and the rest of the ma-
rine animals ; and others, in the course of our
analysis, we shall observe gradually assuming
the character and uses of an arm or leg.
The fins of fishes are membranes, usually sup-
ported by osseous or cartilaginous rays, which
can open or shut, more or less, like a fan, but in
some instances they consist of membrane with-
out rai/s, and in others of rays without mem-
brane. The rays are usually divided into two
kinds ; those which consist of a single joint,
usually less flexible and pointed, whence they are
called spini/ rays, and those which consist of nu-
merous small articulations, generally branching
at their extremity, which are called jointed rays,
these jointed rays may be regarded as precursors
of the phalanxes of fingers and toes in the hands
and feet of the terrestrial vertebrated animals.
The first pair of fins, which are seldom wanting,
130 LOCOMOTIVE AND
and answer to the fore-legs or arms of those
animals, are called pectoral, and are usually
placed on the side behind the gill- covers. The
second pair, supposed to be analogous to the
hind-leg, are called ventral, and are placed under
the abdomen. Besides these, there is often a
fin along the back, sometimes subdivided, named
the dorsal fin ; another under the tail, called the
anal, and the tail itself terminates in a fin, one of
the most powerful of all, which is named the
caudal, and in some respects may also claim to
be regarded as the analogue of the legs.
The, so called, fins of Cetaceans, are not pro-
perly fins, but legs adapted to their element as
marine animals, the anterior pair having all the
bones proper to those of mammiferous animals,
covered with a thick skin, and wearing the ap-
pearance of a fin. In the sea-cow there are
rudiments of nails in their pectoral fins, and they
use them, both for crawling on shore, and for
carrying their young, on which account they are
called Manatins,^ of which Laniantins, their
French name, is probably a corruption. The
tail also of the Cetaceans, which is in the shape
of the caudal fin of fishes, and somewhat forked,
but placed horizontally, contains some bones,
which appear like rudiments of those of legs,
thus, for their'better motion in an element they
1 Manatus Americanus.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 137
never leave, covered by their Creator Avith a ten-
dinous skin, and enabling them by an up and
down motion to sink to a prodigious depth, or to
rise from the bottom to the surface of the ocean.
If we go from the Cetaceans to the Amphibians,
we see a further metamorphosis of the organs of
motion. The pectoral fins of the former are now
become arms, with phalanxes of fingers, claw-
armed, but still connected by skin for natatory
purposes, and their caudal fin is converted into
rudimental legs, with a very short intervening
tail, and these legs are still of most use in the
water. These circumstances induce some suspi-
cion, especially when we consider that the caudal
fin of fishes is their most powerful locomotive
organ, that it is the real analogue of the hind-
legs of the terrestrial mammalians.
The ventral fins sometimes seem to change
place with the pectoral ones. This is the case
with the fishing-frog tribe, in which the former
are nearest to the head, and seem analogous to a
pentadactyle hand, while the pectoral ones re-
semble a leg and foot, and the creature looks
like a four-footed reptile.^ The Rays,^ in a
system, are placed at a wide distance from these,
and yet they possess several characters in com-
mon, particularly in having the hinder part of the
1 See Plate XIII. Fig. 1, 3. Lophiadcs. Lophius. L.
2 RaiadcE. Raia. L.
138 LOCOMOTIVE AND
body attenuated into a tail more or less slender,
and the enormous mouth and gullet of others^
are armed, as in the sharks, with a tremendous
apparatus of teeth. Cuvier observes of one of
them,^ that it can creep on the earth by means
of its fins, like small quadrupeds, and that their
pectorals discharge the function of hind-legs;^
so that there seems some ground for thinking
that they are a branch diverging from the Sela-
cians towards the Reptiles.
Fins, and their analogues, were given to aquatic
animals, it should seem, solely for locomotion ;
and could we witness the motions of their different
tribes, each in its place, and observe the play of
these appendages, we should find them all so
located in the body of the fish, and so nicely mea-
sured with regard to volume and weight, as to
suit exactly the wants of the animal in its sta-
tion, and to act as a mutual counterpoise, so that
it should not be overswayed by the preponder-
ance of one organ over another ; every thing
proving that the momentum and action of each,
both independently, and in concert with the rest,
had been nicely calculated before its creation,
by one whose Wisdom knew no bounds, whose
Will was the well being and well doing of his
creatures, each in its place, and whose Power
1 Plate VIII. Fig. 3.
2 Chironectes.
^ Rerjne Anim. ii. 2.51. Last Ed.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 139
enabled him to give being to what his Wisdom
planned, and his Will decreed.
Nothing is more graceful and elegant than
the motions of fishes in their own pure element.
Not to mention the shifting radiance of their
forms, as they glance in the sunbeam ; their
extreme flexibility, and the ease with w^hich
they glide through the waters, gives to their
motions a character of facile progress which has
no parallel, unless, perhaps, in the varied flight
of the wing-swift swallow, amongst their ana-
logues, the birds. How rapidly do they glide,
and are lost to our sight by a mere stroke of
their tail ! at another time, less alarmed, how
quietly do they suspend themselves, and cease
all progressive motion, so that we can discover
them to be alive only by the fan-like movement
of their pectoral fins, an action which seems, in
some sort, connected with their respiration ; for
they move them, as I have observed, more rapidly,
wdien, in sultry w^eather they seek the surface,
and their muzzle emerges. These fins, the
analogue, as has been before observed, of the
hand or fore foot, except in a few instances, may
be regarded as usually the first pair of oars that
propel the vessel. Some fishes, in front of these,
have another locomotive organ and weapon,^ not
intended, however, for motion so much in the
ivater as on the earth; this is a powerful, and,
• Plate XII. Fig. 1. a. 2.
140 LOCOMOTIVE AND
usually, serrated bone/ articulating with the
shoulder bones, and is to be found in the Silu-
ridans, with the exception of the electric species,
which its Creator has fitted with other arms.
The second pair of fins, as they most commonly
occur, are the ventral, but sometimes, where
fishes have a large head, they are placed for-
warder, and in general they are under the most
bulky part of the body ; by this arrangement, we
may gather that they are intended to counteract
the force of gravity, as well as to act as oars.
These fins are wanting in all the fishes called,
on that account, apodes, or footless, to which the
eels, and other serpentine fishes belong, some of
which also have no pectorals.
The caudal or tail fin, which directs the loco-
motions of fishes as a rudder, and gives to them
the chief part of their force and velocity, in the
majority of real fishes is vertical, but in flat-fish,
which have no natatory vesicle, it is horizontal,
as it is likewise in the Cetaceans and Amphi-
bians ; in all these, its motion is vertical.
The dorsal is also a powerful fin, consisting of
spiny rays ; in some tribes, as the perch, though
wanting in others, it is sometimes divided into
two or three fins. By its various undulations,
and by the differently inclined planes which it
^ N. B. The figure of the bone (2) in the Plate was taken
from one dug up in this neighbourhood in forming a manure
heap, which Mr. Owen informed me belonged to a Silurus.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 141
presents to the water, this fin augments the
means of fishes to move in any direction, and
adds much to the speed with which those last
named pursue their prey : it counterbalances the
effect of the caudal fin in cross-currents ; but, if
the animals could not depress it, it might occa-
sionally destroy the equilibrium, and overset
them.
The anal fin seems, in many fishes, intended
as an antagonist to the dorsal, to prevent the
above effect and maintain the fish in its due
position.
But fins were given to fishes not only to be
the instruments of motion in their own element,
but likewise in that of terrestrial animals ; to some
they were given to enable them, under particular
circumstances, to vie with the birds in their
aerial flights ; to others, that like quadrupeds,
they may undertake excursions upon Terra
firma; and to a third description, amongst other
means, to assist them in climbing the trees in
quest of their food. Every body knows that the
pectoral fins of the different species of flying
fishes are very long ; that by them, when leaping
out of the water to avoid the pursuit of their
enemies, the bonito,^ and other rapacious fishes,
they are supported in the air for a short time ;
but the action is really not flying, since they use
these fins merely as an aeronaut, in descending,
* Scomber Pelami.
142 LOCOMOTIVE AND
uses a parachute, for a support in the air ; in
fact, flying from aquatic enemies, they are soon
attacked by aerial ones, and the frigate,^ and
other marine birds, make them their prey — so
that they take short flights, as well as short voy-
ages — and though they swim rapidly, they are
soon tired, which is the means of saving those
that escape from their numerous enemies, and
preventing the extinction of the race. Besides
the common flying-fish,"^ the Pegasus,^ a small
fish, inhabiting the Indian ocean, when pursued,
leaps out of the water, and takes a short flight.
I mentioned on a former occasion,* the terres-
trial excursions of the Hassar, and from the
statement of Piso, in his Natural History of the
Indies, published in 1658, and from that of
Marcgrave, of Brazil, quoted by Linne in the
Amosjiitates Academicce ^^ it appears that the
Callicthys^ migrates in the same way. Dr.
Hancock mentions a fish, perhaps a Loricaria,
which has a bony ray before the ventral as well
as the pectoral fins, and which creeps on all
fours upon the bed of the rivers, perhaps even
when they are dry. These little quadruped
fishes must cut a singular figure upon their four
stilts.
' Tachy petes Aquila.
~ Exoccetus exiliens in the Mediterranean, and E. volitans in
the ocean, but doubts are said to rest upon this species.
3 P. Draco, volans, &c. ^ Vol. I. p. 120.
' I. 500. f. xi./. J. ' Plate XII. Fig. 1.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 14
o
I have given a full account of a climbing fish
amongst the migratory animals/ and shall there-
fore now take my leave of the finny tribes.
Perhaps the fins of the Cetaceans and Am-
phibians, above described, inasmuch as they are
enveloped not in a membrane, like the fins of
fishes, but are real feet adapted to their element,
may be regarded as more analogous to what are
called paddles, by which term the natatory ap-
paratus of the Chelonian reptiles, and of the
marine Saurians, hitherto found only in a fossil
state, are distinguished. These in the former,
the turtles, are formed by the legs and toes
being covered by a common skin, so as to form
a kind of fin, the two first toes of each leg being
armed with a deciduous nail. The coriaceous
turtle," the parent of the Grecian lyre, which
presents no small analogy to the Amphibians,
has no scales either upon its body or feet, but
both are covered with a leathery skin, even its
shell resembling leather, and therefore it con-
nects the paddles of the Chelonians with those
of the marine Mammalians. It may be defined
as a natatory organ, formed of several jointed
digitations, covered by a common leathery or
scaly integument. In the fossil Saurians the
paddle appears to be formed of numerous bones,
arranged in more than five digitations, but it is
shorter and smaller, and seems better calculated
' Vol. I. p. 123. ^ Sjohargis coriacea.
144 LOCOMOTIVE AND
for Still waters and a waveless sea than to con-
tend with the tumultuous fluctuations of the
open ocean/
Next to the paddles of the Turtles, and fossil
Saurians, come the palmated or web-foot of the
aquatic tortoises, and of numerous oceanic birds,
in which the toes are united by a common
skin. In the paddle the leg and toes together
form the natatory organ ; in the palmated, or
lobed foot, the toes. Thus from fins we seem to
have arrived at digitated legs.
Wings, — Turning from the denser medium of
water, we must next inquire what organs have
been given to animals by their Creator to enable
them to traverse the rarer medium of air, to have
their hold upon what to the sight appears a non-
entity, and to withstand the fluctuating waves of
the atmospheric sea, and the rush of the fierce
winds which occasionally sweep through space
over the earth. The name of ivings has by ge-
neral consent been given, not only to the fea-
thered arm of the bird, but also to those filmy
organs extended, and often reticulated, by bony
vessels — the longitudinal ones in some degree
analogous to the rays of the fins of the fishes,
especially of the flying fishes — which so beauti-
fully distinguish the insect races ; as well as to
the rib-supported membrane forming the flying
1 See Philos. Trans. 1816. t. xvi. and 1819. t. xv.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 14.5
organs of the dragon; and those hand-wings
by Avhich the bats with so much tact and such
nice perception steer without the aid of their
eyes through the shrubs, and between the
branches of trees ; those also of other mammi-
ferous animals, such as the flying squirrel and
flying opossum use in their leaps from tree to
tree.
Savigny is of opinion that certain dorsal
scales, in pairs, observable in two of the genera^
of his first family of Nereideans,^ are analogous
to the elytra and wings of insects : this he infers
from characters connected with their insertion,
dorsal position, substance and structure, but not
with their uses and functions ; for, as he also
states, they are evidently a species of vesicle,
communicating by a pedicle with the interior of
the body, which, in the laying season, is filled
with eggs,^ a circumstance in which they agree
with the egg-pouches of the Entomostracans ;
and therefore Baron Cuvier's opinion, that there
is little foundation for the application of this
term to these organs* seems to me correct.
Wings may be divided into organs oi fligJit
and organs of suspension. The first are found in
insects, in which they are distinct from the legs ;
1 Halithea and Poly noe. See Aphrodita Clava. Montague
in Linn. Trans, ix. 108, t. vii.y. 3.
2 Apliroditce. ^ Syst. des AnneL27.
■* Regn. Anim. iii. 206.
VOL. II. L
140 LOCOMOTIVE AND
ill birds, in which the anterior leg of quadrupeds
becomes a wing ; and in hats and vampyres, in
which both the anterior and posterior legs sup-
port the wing.
The second kind of wings is found in the
^flying cat, the flying squirrel, and the flying
opossum ; and, under a different form, in the
flying dragon of modern zoologists.
The wings of insects differ materially from
those of birds, and of certain Mammalians : for
instance, the bats and vampyres, since in them
they are not formed by skin or membrane, at-
tached to the fore leg, or both legs, but are
distinct organs implanted in the trunk, usually
leaving the animal its classical number of legs,
for its locomotions on terra flrma. These organs
are composed of two membranes, closely ap-
plied to each other, and attached to elastic
nervures issuing from the trunk, and accompanied
by a spiral trachea or air-vessel. These nervures
vary in their number and distribution : in some
insects the w^ing has none except that which
forms its anterior margin,^ and in others the
Avhole wing is reticulated by them ;^ the longi-
tudinal ones often give an inequality to the sur-
face, and form it into folds, which probably, in
flight, it can relax or contract according to cir-
* Psilns, &c. See Jurine IJymenopt. t. v. and xiii. G. 48.
♦ LibcllulincE,
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 147
cumstances. In some genera^ the wing is folded
longitudinally in repose, and in others also trans-
versely.^ In the higher animals the wings never
exceed a single pair ; but in insects the typical
number is four ; and though some are called
Dipterous, or two-winged, yet even a large pro-
portion of these have, in the winglets,^ the rudi-
ment of another pair. The anterior pair, called
elytra, &c. in the beetles, and some others, are
principally useful to cover and protect the wings
when unemployed, still they produce some effect
in flight, and they partake in a reduced degree
of the motion of the wings, those of the cock-
chaffer* describing an arc equal to only a fourth
part of that of the latter organs.
M. Jurine, in which he is followed by M.
Chabrier, has regarded the primary wing of in-
sects as analogous to the wing of birds ; but
though this may hold good in some respects, it
does not in its main feature. If we consider
that the wing of birds is really the analogue of
the fore-leg of quadrupeds, and replaces it ; and
also that insects have a representative of that
leg fixed to the anterior segment of the trunk,
thence called the 3Iamtruuk, in contradistinction
to the Alitrunk, which bears the wings ; it seems
not probable that the anterior leg, and the ante-
rior wing which belong to different segments,
1 VespidcB.
2 Coleoptera.
^ AlulcE.
4 Melolonthii vulgaris.
TOL. II.
T '^
14B LOCOMOTIVE AND
should be analogues of the same organ. The
first pair of wings, or their representatives, the
elytra, are connected w^ith the hip-joint,^ by an
intermediate piece called the scapular ;^ and the
posterior wings are connected with the same
joint of the posterior legs by the imrapleura^^ so
that in some sort, the wings of insects may be
regarded as appendages, — not of the fore-legs,
or arms, which are the real analogues of the
fore-leg of quadrupeds, and wing of birds, — but
the first pair of the mid-legs, and the second of
the hind-legs.
Some winged insects, especially the dragon-
flies, like the crabs and spiders on terra Jirma, can
retrograde in their flight, and also move laterally,
without turning; thus they can more readily pur-
sue their prey, or escape from their enemies. The
situation of their wings is usually so regulated in
the majority with respect to their centre of gravity,
as to enable them to maintain nearly a horizontal
position in flight ; but in some, as the stag-
beetles,* the elytra and wings have their attach-
ment in advance of that point, so that the head,
prothorax, and mandibles do not fully counter-
poise the weight of the posterior part of their
body, occasioning this animal to assume a nearly
vertical position when on the wing.
The apparatus and conditions of flight in birds
1 Coxa. See Introd. to Ent. iii. 661.
2 Scapulare. Ibid. 561. ' Ibid. 575. * Lii<:anus.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 149
and insects are very different, varying according
to the functions and structure of the animal.
In birds a longer and more acute anterior ex-
tremity distinguishes the wing, by which their
Creator enables them to pass with more ease
through the air ; but in insects that extremity
is not a trenchant point that can win its own
way, but usually is very blunt, opposing either
the portion of a circle, or a very obtuse angle to
it ; hence perhaps it is that the common dung-
beetle,^ which is a short obtuse animal, " wheels
its droning flight" in a zig-zag line, like a
vessel steering against the wind, and thus it
flies, as every one knows, with great velocity as
well as noise. This also may be one reason
why insects have usually a greater volume of
wing than birds, and that a very large number
are fitted and adorned with four of these organs,
which can sometimes hook to each other, by
a beautiful contrivance,'^ and so form a single
ample van to sail on the aerial waves, and bear
forward the bluff-headed vessel. The motions,
in the air, of numerous insects are an alternate
rising and falling, or a zig-zag onward flight, in
a direction up and down, as all know who have
observed the flight of a butterfly, or a kind of
hovering in the air, or a progress from flower to
flower, or backwards and forwards and every way
' Geotrujjes stercorarius, &c. '■^ Mon. Ap. Anrjl. i. 108.
150 LOCOiMOTlVE AND
in pursuit of prey, — how admirably has their
Creator furnished them to accomplish all these
motions with the greatest facility and grace.
And though their wings are usually naked, with-
out any representative of those plumes which so
ornament the wings of birds, and give them as it
were more prise upon the air, yet in one numer-
ous tribe,^ the moths and butterflies, they rival
the birds, and even exceed them, both in the
brilliancy of the little plumes, or rather scales,
which clothe the wings, and the variety of the
pattern figured upon them, and likewise of their
forms and arrangement. So that every one, who
minutely examines them in this respect with an
unbiassed mind, can hardly help exclaiming, —
I trace the hand and pencil of an Almighty
Artist, and of one whose understanding is infi-
nite, and who is in himself the architype of all
symmetry, beauty, and grace !
The wings of a variety of insects, though few,
save the Lepidoptera, are ornamented with scales,
are planted with little bristles, more or less
numerous or dispersed ; these Chabrier thinks,
as well as the scales now alluded to, amongst
other uses, are means of fixing the air in flight,
as well as augmenting the surfaces, and points of
arrest, in each wing.^ They also strengthen the
wing and add to its weight, and doubtless have
' Lepidoptera. - Sur le Vol des Ima. 24.
PREHENSOUY ORGANS. 1»51
other uses not so easily ascertained. Hair, in
scripture, is denominated power, and probably
those fluids, which we can neither weigh nor
coerce, find their passage into the body of the
animal, or out of it, by these little conductors ;
and thus the various piligerous, plumigerous,
pennigerous, and squamigerous animals, may
offer points and paths not only to the air, but
to more subtile fluids, either going or coming,
w^hose influences introduced into the system,
may add a momentum to all the animal forces,
or, which having executed their commission and
become neutralized, may thus pass oft' into the
atmosphere.
But of all the w^inged animals which God has
created and given it in charge to traverse the
atmosphere, there is none comparable to the
great and interesting Class of birds, which emu-
lating the insects on one side by their diminutive
size and dazzling splendours, on the other vie
wdth some of the Mammalians in magnitude and
other characters. Here we have the humming-
birds of America, scarcely bigger than the
humble-bee; and there the savage condour of
the same country, whose outstretched wings
would serve to measure the length of the giant
elephant or rhinoceros. Though we cannot
mount into the air ourselves, yet every one, from
the peasant to the prince, that is able to follow
the flight of the birds with his eyes, is delighted
152 LOCOMOTIVE AND
with the spectacle of Ufe that they exhibit in the
aerial regions, and we should scarcely miss the
beasts of the earth and all the creatures that are
moving in all directions and paces over its
surface, than we should the disappearance of the
birds of every wing from the atmosphere. And
therefore the prophet in his sublime description
of the desolation of Judah, makes the disap-
pearance of the birds of heaven the most
striking feature of his picture. / heheld the
earth, says he, and to, it was without form and
void : and the heavens^ and they had no light ;
I beheld the mountaijis, and lo, they trembled, and
all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and lo, there
ivas no man, and all the birds o/' the heavens ivere
fled}
The wing of these animals, in many cases, so
powerful to bear them on through the thin air,
and counteract the gravity of their bodies ; to
take strong hold of that element which man
cannot subdue like water, to move through him-
self, and so to push themselves on, often with the
swiftness of an arrow, through its rushing winds
or almost motionless breath : the wing of birds
is in fact the foreleg or arm adapted and clothed
by Supreme Intelligence, for the action it has
to maintain, and for the medium in which that
action is to take place, and consists of nearly
' Jerem. iv. 23 — 25.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 153
the same parts as the fore-leg in Mammalians, for
there is the shoulder/ fore-arm," and the hand,^
with the analogue of a thumb, called the wing-
let,* and of a finger.^ The ten primary quill
feathers are planted in the hand, and the secon-
daries, varying in number, on the fore-arm,
these quill-feathers, being very principal instru-
ments of the wing in flight, are also named the
remiges or rowers of the vessel. The primary
feathers usually vary in length, the external
ones being the longest, so as to cause the wing
to terminate in a point ; those that cover the
shoulder are called scapulars; and those short
ones that cover the base of the wings above and
below are called coverts.^ Wings usually curve
somewhat inwards, are convex above and con-
cave below, and are acted upon by very power-
ful muscles. Wonderful is the structure of the
feathers that compose them, and each is a
master-piece of the Divine Artificer. In general
it is evident that each has been measured and
weighed with reference to its station and func-
tion. Every separate feather resembles the
bipinnate leaves of a plant ; besides the obvious
parts, the hollow quill, and solid stem bearded
obliquely on both sides with an infinity of little
plumes ; each of these latter is also formed with
' Humerus. - Cubitus.
3 Carpus and Metacarpus. * Alula.
^ Digitus. ^ Tectrices.
lo4 LOCOMOTIVE AND
a rachis or mid-rib set obliquely with plumelets,
resembling hairs, and exactly incumbent on the
preceding one, and adhering, by their means,
closely to it, thus rendering the whole feather
not only very light, but, as it were, air-tight. In
the goose, the mid-rib of the plumelets of the
primary feathers is dilated towards the base into
a kind of keel, so that each plumelet at the
summit looks like a feather, and at the base like
a lamina or blade.
By the use of very fine microscopes of garnet
and sapphire Sir David Brewster succeeded in
developing the structure of the plumelets ; he
discovered a singular spring consisting of a
number of slender fibres laid together, which
resisted the division or separation of the minute
parts of the feather, and closed themselves
together when their separation had been forcibly
effected.^
If we examine the whole wing, and the dis-
position and connection of the feathers that
compose it, we shall find that one great object
of its structure is to render it impervious to the
air, so that it may take most effectual hold of it,
and by pushing, as it were, against it, with the
wing, when the wing-stroke is downwards, to
force the body forwards. A person expert in
swimming or rowing, may easily get an idea
1 Lit. Gazette, Oct. II, 1834, 690.
prf:hensory organs. 155
how this is effected, by observing how the pres-
sure of his arms and legs, or of his oars, against
the denser medium, though not in the same
direction, carries him, or his boat, forwards. In
the case of the bird, the motion is not back-
wards and forwards, but upwards and down-
wards, which difference, perhaps, is rendered
necessary by the rarer medium in which the
motion takes place.
To facilitate the progress of the bird through
the air, the head usually forms a trenchant point,
that easily divides it and overcomes its resis-
tance ; and often to this is added a long neck,
which, in the case of many sea-birds, as wild
geese and ducks, is stretched to its full length
in flight ; while in others, where centre of
gravity requires it, as in the heron, ^ bittern,*^
&c., it is bent back.
The swiftness of the flight of some birds is
wonderful, being four or five times greater than
that of the swiftest quadruped. Directed by an
astonishing acuteness of sight, the aquiline tribes,
when soaring in the air beyond human ken, can
see a little bird or newt on the ground or on a
rock, and dart upon it in an instant, like a flash
of lightning, giving it no time for escape. But
though some birds are of such pernicious wing,
there are others of the most gigantic size, for
^ Ardea clnerca. - A. stellarls.
156 LOCOMOTIVE AND
instance the ostrich,^ emu," &c. that have only
rudiments of wings, and which never fly, and for
their locomotions depend chiefly upon their legs,
to which the muscles of power are given, instead
of to the wings.
Amongst the terrestrial animals that give suck
to their young, there is a single Family which
the Creator has gifted with organs of excur-
sive flight, and these aflbrd the only example of
the third kind of those organs mentioned above.
These cannot, like insects and birds, traverse the
earth upon legs, as well as flit through the air
upon iviiigs; for the analogues of the legs of
quadrupeds, not solely of the anterior pair, as in
birds, but of both pairs, form the bony structure
by which the wing is extended and moved, and
to which it is attached. It will be immediately
seen that I am speaking of the hats and vam-
pyres. These animals, which form the first
Family of Cuvier's Order of Carnivorous Mam-
malians,^ are denominated Cheiroptera, or hand-
winged, because in them the four fingers of the
hand, the thumb being left free, are very much
elongated so as to form the supports and ex-
tensors of the anterior portion of the membrane
of which the wing is formed ; while the hind leg
and the tail, in most, perform the same office for
the posterior portion of the wing : so that two
1 Struthio. ~ Cusuarius. ^ Les Carnassicrs.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 157
wings appear to be united to form one ample
organ of flight. The membrane itself, which
forms the wing, is only a continuation of the
skin of the flanks : as in the wings of insects, it
is double, very fine, and so thin as to be semi-
transparent ; it is traversed by some blood-
vessels, and muscular fibres — doubtless accom-
panied by nerves — which when the wings are
folded form little cavities placed in rows, re-
sembling the meshes of a net. As bats are not
provided with air-cells, or air in their bones, like
birds, and their flight is unassisted by feathers,
these wants are compensated to them by wings
four or five times the length of their body.
Their flight is of a difierent character from that
of birds, resembling rather the flitting of a
butterfly ; when we consider that the peculiar
function of bats is to keep within due limits the
numbers of crepuscular and nocturnal insects,
especially moths, we see how necessary it was
that they should be enabled to traverse every
spot frequented by the objects their instinct
urges them to pursue and devour. For this
purpose their wings are admirably adapted not
only by their volume, but by their power of con-
tracting them, and giving them various inflections
in flight, so that their speed is regulated by the
object they are pursuing.
When we further reflect that their eyes are
small and deep-seated, we may conjecture that
VOL. 11. I. 1
158 LOCOMOTIVE AND
it requires extraordinary tact and delicacy of
sensation in some other organs to supply this
defect in their sight. Spallanzani found that
blind bats fly as well as those that have eyes ;
that they avoided most expertly threads of fine
silk which he had so stretched as just to leave
room for them to pass between them ; that they
contracted, at will, their wings, if the threads
were near, so as to avoid touching them, as well
as when they passed between the branches of
trees ; and also that they could suspend them-
selves in dark places, such as vaults, to the pro-
minent angles. He deprived the same indi-
viduals of other organs of sensation, but they
were equally adroit in their flight, so that he
concluded they must have some sensiferous
organs different from those of other animals to
enable them to thread the labyrinths through
which they ordinarily pass.
Dr. Grant observes on this subject — ** Bats
are nocturnal, but, contrary to what is generally
the case with nocturnal animals, their eyes are
minute and feeble, and indeed, comparatively
speaking, of minor importance, for so exquisite
is the sense of feeling difl'used over the surface
of their membranous wings, that they are able
to feel any vibration of air however imperceptible
by us ; they can tell, by the slight rebound of
the air, whether they are flying near any wall,
or opposing body, or in free space though their
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 159
eyes be sealed or removed/'^ A similar obser-
vation was long ago made by Mr. Bingley."
We see in the circumstances here detailed a
remarkable instance of the Power, Wisdom, and
Goodness of the Creator, in compensating for the
absence or imperfection of one or more senses,
by adding to the intensity of another, and in
establishing its principal seat in organs so nicely
adapted to derive most profit by the information
communicated.
An animal nearly related to the vampyres, the
cat-ape,^ commonly called the flying cat, and
by some the flying dog, though nearly related to
the bats, and included by Cuvier in the same
Family, differs essentially from them, in being
furnished with organs formed by the skin of the
flanks connected with the legs of each extremity,
which are calculated for suspension rather than
flight, being used, as Cuvier remarks, merely as
a parachute, and thus belong to the second kind
of wings, mentioned above. This animal, which
climbs like a cat, vaults from one tree to another,
by the aid of the above skin, which supports it
in the air. The petaurists,^ or flying squirrels,
and the phalangists,^ or flying opossums are
similarly equipped, and for a similar purpose.
1 Quoted in Lit. Gaz. Feb. 9, 1834.
2 Mem. of Brit. Quad. 34. ^ Galeopitliecus.
4 Petuurus. * Phalamjista.
IGO LOCOMOTIVE AND
The common squirrel^ using its tail as a rnclder,
leaps with great agility from tree to tree, without
the aid of this kind of parachute, the force of
its spring being sufficient to counteract that of
gravity. Providence has evidently added an
organ of suspension, in the case of the three
former animals, either because their vaults were
necessarily longer, or because the greater weight
of their bodies required it.
The dreaded name of dragon, attached to the
monsters of fable, has excited in our imagination
ideas of beings clothed with unwonted terrors,
from our earliest years, so that when we find the
only animal that inherits their name is an insig-
nificant lizard, not more than eight inches
long, we are tempted to exclaim, Parturiunt
mantes. This little animal, under the name of
wings, is furnished with two dorsal appendages
independent of the legs, formed of the skin, and
actually supported by the six first short ribs,
which, instead of taking their usual curvature,
are extended in a right line. These organs are
not used to fly with, but to support the animal
in its leaps from branch to branch, and from
tree to tree.
We see in this instance, how exactly the
means are adapted to the end proposed. This
animal walks with difficulty, and consequently
1 Sciurus vulgaris.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. IGl
seldom descends from the trees. It is there-
fore enabled to move from one part of a tree to
another, not by its legs, but by an organ formed
out of its 7'ibs! How various and singular, in
this instance, as well as in that of serpents,
before alluded to,^ are the means adopted by a
Being, who is never at a loss to answer the fore-
seen call of circumstances by wise expedients.
Steering Organs,^ — But wings are not the only
organs of flight with which the Creator has fitted
those animals, to which he has assigned the air
as the theatre of their most striking and interest-
ing locomotions. They would be like a ship at
sea without a rudder, and be altogether at the
mercy of every wind of heaven, had they no
means to enable them to steer their vessel throuo-h
the fluctuations of the viewless element assigned
to them. The eagle and the vulture would be
gifted in vain with the faculty of seeing objects
at a great distance, had they no other organ
than their sail-broad vans to direct them in their
flight. The same remark will apply as well to
the insect as to the bird, which would in vain
endeavour to discharge its functions, unless it
could steer its course according to the direction
of its will and the information furnished by its
senses. But, upon examination, we shall find
' See above, p. 130. ' Guhernacula.
VOL. II. M
1C2 LOCOMOTIVE AND
that God hath not left himself without witness
in this department, but hath furnished every bird
and insect with such an organ of steerage as the
case of each required ; nay, even amongst the
beasts and the reptiles we may discover similar
means of directing their motions, especially when
they leap, whether from the ground, or from
tree to tree.
The caudal Jin, or tail of fishes, may be
regarded as belonging in some degree to this
head ; but as this is also their principal organ
of locomotion, I thought it best to consider it
with the other fins.
The abdoineii of many insects seems to serve
them as a rudder, being composed of several
inosculating rings formed each of a dorsal and
ventral segment; it is capable of considerable
flexion in almost all directions ; it can be ele-
vated or depressed, and turned to either side, so
that it seems, in a great degree, calculated to
enable insects to change the course of their
flight according to their will. But besides this
important organ — which by the air it is constantly
inspiring adds force also to the internal impulse,
and to the air-vessels in the wings — insects have
other auxiliaries to keep them in their right
course. Whoever has seen any grasshopper
take flight, or leap from the ground, will find
that they stretch out their hind legs, and, like
certain birds, use them as a rudder. The tails
PREHENSORV ORGANS. 103
also of the day-flies^ seem to be used by them as
a kind of balancer m their choral dances up
and down in the sun's declining beam.
But the most interesting and beautiful organ
for steering animals in the air, is that formed by
the tail feathers of birds, called by ornithologists,
rectrices, or governmg feathers, because they
are used to direct their course ; these are feathers
planted in the rump,^ usually twelve in number —
but in some amounting to nearly twenty — con-
stituting tv/o sets of feathers of six each, and
forming together a kind of fork like the caudal
fin of some fishes; the inside of each feather is
set with much larger plumelets than the outside,
so that there is a double series of corresponding
feathers beginning one on the right side, and
the other on the left ; the middle feathers in
each series differ sometimes from the five ex-
terior ones, being more acute, and wearing a
different aspect. In flight the tail-feathers ap-
pear to be expanded, and probably the bird, by
giving an impulse to either series, can turn this
way or that ; or by their depression or elevation,
judging from their analogy with the caudal fin
of fishes, rise or fall. The rudder-tail here de-
scribed is that of the male bull-finch ;^ in many
birds of the Gallinaceous Order, as the common
cock and peacock, these feathers form a glorious
' Ephemera. * Uropygium. ' Loxia jjyrrhula.
164 LOCOMOTIVE AND
ornament, but seem to lose their use as a steer-
ing apparatus. In the black game^ the two sets
of feathers of the tail turn outwards, one on each
side, and so form a fork ; and, in our domestic
poultry, these sets of feathers, when not ex-
panded, fold upon each other. Some of the
waders,^ the tail-feathers of which are short, use
their long legs, like the grasshoppers, as a
rudder in flight, stretched out straight behind
them.
Many of the web-footed birds,^ as the goose
and duck tribes, also have these feathers very
short, which seems a convenient provision for
aquatic birds, but whether their legs assist in
directing their course seems not to have been
ascertained. Some of them, however, as the
pin-tail duck,"^ have the middle feathers of the
tail elongated, as they are in many other birds ;
in the swallow tribe,^ and the sea-swallow,^ the
external feathers of the tail are elongated, as
these birds are frequently turning when in the
air, and flying backwards and forwards ; their
Creator has thus equipped them for their ever
changing evolutions. Some birds, as the
thrushes,''^ magpies,^ and other crows, have all
the tail feathers long, which gives great power
to them in flight.
* Tetrao Tetrix. ^ Grallatores. ^ Palmipedes.
* Anas acuta, ^ Hirundo. ^ Sterna.
' Turdus, ^ Corvus Pica.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 165
The tails of quadrupeds, both oviparous and
viviparous, appear, in many cases, to act in
some degree as a rudder. They are not only
useful to those lately mentioned, that by the
assistance of a kind of parachute, leap from
tree to tree ; but likewise to the feline race, when
they spring upon their prey ; the tail is then
extended stiffly in a right line, as if to guide
them through the air straight to the object they
have been watching from their lair. The long
tail also of many lizards may, in their sinuous
windings, serve some purpose connected with
their locomotion related to the one under dis-
cussion, though we have not data sufficient to
speak positively on the subject.
Legs, — We are now arrived at organs that are
the most perfect instruments of locomotion and
prehension, organs which are found in their
greatest perfection in the highest animals, arti-
culated legs and arms^ terminating in the most
perfect instrument, upon the due employment or
misemployment of which the weal or woe of the
whole human race, as far as second causes are
concerned, depend.
The legs of animals may be considered gene-
rally as to their iiumher, composition, and adap-
tation to their functions.
As to their 7iumber, taking the legs of verte-
brated animals, which may be regarded, being the
ItiG LOCOMOTIVE AND
most perfect, as a standard to measure others by,
we may assume that four is the most perfect
number. Thus, m man, the highest animal,
there are two for locomotion, and two principally
for prehension. Taking, therefore, man for the
ultimate point to which all tend, let us see how,
in this respect, the scale is formed.
We observed in certain tribes of the Anneli-
dans, an approach to jointed legs, and it should
seem a link, connecting, in some degree, that
Class with the Myriapods; with these last,
therefore, we may start in our consideration of
articulated locomotive organs, and here we find
a long body moved by numerous legs, gradually
acquired, as we have seen, with its increasing
length. We may observe, that in the superior
tribes of animals, the four legs being planted in
pairs at each extremity of the body, the gradual
increase of stature did not require additional
props, but only the proportionate growth of the
existing or natal legs and arms ; but in the Myri-
apods, where the great increase of the body in
length is not between the original extremities,
but beyond them, additional supports were requi-
site, so that as the body increased in length, its
Creator, in his goodness willed — that it might not
draw its slow length along like a wounded snake
— that it should be furnished at the same time
with a proportionate increase in the number of
its locomotive organs. These animals then, with
PREHENSORV ORGAN'S. \67
respect to number of legs, may be regarded as
at the foot of the scale, and are the furthest
removed from man.
From the Myriapods, we go to the great Crus-
taceau host, in which, including the maxillary
legs, the real analogue of the legs of Hexapods,
the typical number is sixteen ; and from these,
the transition is naturally to the spiders, which
have half that number, and from them to the
insect tribes, walking only upon six legs. Having
arrived at a hex apod type, we may observe that
one pair of the legs has a direction towards the
head, and are located in the anterior segment of
the trunk ; and that the other two pairs have
a direction the contrary way, towards the ab-
domen, and are located in that part of the
trunk which bears the wings, and of these,
the last pair may be regarded as the represen-
tatives of the legs in man, and of the hind legs
of quadrupeds.
As to the composition of legs, if we take the
arm and leg of man for the type or standard
with which to compare all the articulated organs
of locomotion and prehension with which ani-
mals are gifted, we shall find a considerable,
though not an entire, correspondence between
them. Anatomists usually divide the arm, or
anterior extremity, into four principal portions,
namely, the shotdcler-hlade,^ the shoidder,- the
^ Scapula. ^ Humerus.
168 LOCOMOTIVE AND
fore-arm,^ and the handf but the leg only into
three — the thigli^ the slimik,^ and the footl"
The first of these, however, the thigh, inoscu-
lates with the lower part of a bone, called the
nameless hone^ which in very young subjects
forms three, named the haunch^ the share-
hone^ and the hip-bone :'^ now this bone ap-
pears evidently the analogue of the shoulder-
blade in the anterior leg or arm, and thus, ad-
mitting this, both extremities in the number of
principal parts correspond with each other.
As the vertebrated animals, for the most part,
agree with their prototype in the greater articu-
lations of their anterior and posterior extremi-
ties, though much modified in particular in-
stances and for particular uses, I shall now only
compare the legs of the great sub-kingdom of
Condylopes, or invertebrated animals with jointed
legs, with those of man, and other Mammalians,
and inquire how, in the above respect, they con-
sist of analogous parts.
The remarkable distinction which separates
the vertebrated from the invertebrated animals,
namely, that, in the former, the muscles have no
external points of attachment ; and, in the latter,
* Cubitus, including two parallel bones, the Ulna and Radius.
^ Manus. ^ Femur,
'* Cms, including also two parallel bones, Tibia and Fibula,
^ Pes. ^ Os iyinominatum. "^ Os ilium.
^ Os pubis. 9 Os ischium.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 169
with a few partial exceptions, no internal ones —
must produce a marked difference in all parts of
their several structures, and, amongst the rest,
between their organs of locomotion and prehen-
sion : and therefore it is not to be expected that
they will be perfectly analogous in their compo-
sition. Thus in the invertebrates the parts cor-
responding with the fore-arm and shank of the
vertebrates do not consist of two parallel bones ;
the hand and the foot also are essentially dif-
ferent ; and the parts by which the extremities
in one case articulate with the vertebral column
towards its summit and base, and in the other
with the trunk of the animal at various points,
are usually extremely dissimilar : in several
beetles, however, the basilar joints, especially of
the hind legs, assume something of the character
and form of the shoulder-blade of Mammalians ;
and in certain water-beetles ^ the posterior pair
are immoveable. In quadrupeds, usually, the
thighs are remarkably clothed with muscle,
especially towards their base ; but, in the Con-
dylopes, with the exception of some beetles and
jumping insects, where a powerful muscular
apparatus was requisite, they are not conspicu-
ously incrassated, so as to contain muscles of
great volume.
From these circumstances I am induced to
' Dytiscus. L.
170 LOCOMOTIVE AND
confine my observations to the numerical com-
position of the locomotive and prehensory organs
of Condylopes, and animals that give suck to
their young.
In order to perceive clearly how far they agree
or disagree in this respect, it will be adviseable
first to inquire whether these organs in Condy-
lopes themselves can be reduced to a common
type.
The Crustaceans and Arachnidans, including
under the latter denomination all regarded by
Latreille as belonging to the Class, at the first
inspection of the organs in question, appear to
have one joint more than insects. This super-
numerary joint is the fourth, in 2116 Introduction
to Entomology named the Epicnemis,^ which is
there regarded as an accessory of the shank.
But from further observation, and from a compa-
rison of this joint of the Arachnidans with an
analogous one in the Crustaceans, in which it is
longer and more conspicuous, I feel convinced
that, short as it is in them, it is really the shank
in that Class, and that the long joint usually re-
garded as the shank is analogous to the first,
often dilated and elongated,^ joint of the tarsus
in insects. That this joint belongs to the tarsus
or foot will be further evident from the following
circumstance. If we examine the anterior leg, or
' Vol. iii. f^;68.
- E. G. Ill the Bees and many other Hyvienopicru,
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 171
arm, of the lobster or crab, we shall find that the
joint in question, which is the fifth of the leg,*
is what is called the metacarpal joint, a process
of which forms the index or finger of the didac-
tyle hand or forceps of these animals, and the
succeeding and terminal joint the opposing
thumb. It is evident, therefore, that this joint
belongs not to the shank or cubit, but to the
foot ; and that consequently a Crustacean or
Arachnidan leg or arm numerically corresponds
in its greater articulations with that of an insect.
Having proved, I hope, to the satisfaction of
the reader, that the legs of Condylopes, with
regard to the number of their principal articula-
tions are reducible to one type, — unless we may
except some of the Acaridans, or mites, and the
J3ranchiopod Eiitomostracans, which appear re-
ducible to no general rule — I shall next endea-
vour to show that the Condylope leg does not
usually differ numerically from that of the quad-
ruped or mammalian ; and that the former con-
sists of oialy four principal articulations as well
as the latter, and it will not require many words,
or any laboured disquisition, to prove this. The,
so called, trochanter is, with great propriety, con-
sidered by M. Latreille as being a joint of the
thigh, as it really is, and in many cases, espe-
cially in Coleopterous insects, has no separate
^ Plate X. Fig. 1.
172 LOCOMOTIVE AND
iDotion ; consequently if this opinion be ad-
mitted, the number of articulations, both in the
Condylopes and Mammalians, will be the same.
Animals that are built upon a skeleton, or in-
cased in an external crust or rigid integument,
in order to have the power of free locomotion
and prehension, must necessarily be fitted with
jointed organs, whose articulations are more
numerous at the extremity, where the principal
action is, that those parts may so apply to sur-
faces as to enable the animal to take sufficient
hold of them for either of the above purposes.
There is a circumstance connected with the
legs of insects which, at first sight, seems to
throw some doubt upon this conclusion. The
shank has often at its apex, and sometimes
the cubit, certain little moveable organs, which
have been called spurs, but which really appear
to aid the animal in its locomotions,^ and in
some they even terminate in suckers f as these
organs are co-ordinate with the jointed tarsus,
they seem in some sort a kind of auxiliary di-
gitation. In the mole-cricket^ the structure is
still more anomalous, the cubit terminating in
four strong digitations or claws, opposed to
which is the, so called, tarsus, which seems ana-
logous in some sort to a jointed thumb, so that
the whole represents a pentadactyle hand. A
^ Introd. to Ent. iii. 674.
2 Philos, Trans. 1816, t. xix./. 8. 9. ^ Gryllotalpa.
PREHENSORV ORGANS. 173
similar anomaly distinguishes the posterior pair
of legs of one of the Entomostracans, the Icing-
crab : in these, besides the tarsus armed with
two claws, there are four moveable digitations/
Though the Creator has evidently connected
the sphere of animals by some organs or cha-
racters common to the whole, and generally
speaking, in the tribes that we are comparing,
has formed the organs which I am considering,
as to their articulations, upon a common type ;
yet occasionally we see departures from a strict
adherence to the likeness, as in the cases here
specified, where the circumstances and functions
of an animal reqviired such departure.
Adaptation of Legs. — It is by the adaptation
of its legs to the circumstances of an animal, and
to the functions which it was created to exercise,
that the design of an Intelligent Cause is appa-
rent, and the power, wisdom, and goodness of
the Creator manifested.
The well known adage, Natura 71011 facit
saltus, is exemplified in the passage, with respect
to their locomotive organs, from the expansile
Annelidans to the rigid Condylopes ; for in num-
berless instances, we have in the larvae of insects
a kind of intermediate animal, in some degree
expansile, some of which move like the leech ,^
and others are apodes, like worms, moving by
' Savigny, Anim. sans Vertebr. i. t. viii.y*. 1. k.
2 The Geometric caterpillars or loopers.
174 LOCOMOTIVE AND
the contortions of their bodies, a large proportion
at the same time having the jointed legs of their
Class when arrived at perfection, and in their
spurious legs imitating, in some sort, the locomo-
tive organs of the Annelidans.
The principal offices of legs are to enable the
animal to procure the kind of food which its
nature requires ; to be employed in operations
connected with the continuation of its kind ;
and to be instrumental in its escape from danger
and from the pursuit of its enemies ; and the
means by which these ends are accomplished
are the comparative length of its legs ; their
volume, either in whole or in part ; the struc-
ture of their extremity, either for locomotion
or prehension ; or where the extremity of the
legs is not adapted to the latter function, certain
compensating contrivances calculated to supply
that want.
To enable some animals to come at their food,
sometimes a great difference, as to measure,
between their anterior and posterior extremities,
is necessary. At the first blush, and before we
were acquainted with its habits, should we
chance to meet with a giraffe,^ so striking is the
seeming disproportion of many of its parts, that
we should be tempted to take it for an abortion
in which the posterior parts were not fully de-
^ Camelopardalis Giraffa.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 175
veloped. Observing its length of neck and ele-
vated withers, the apparently unnatural declivity
of its back, and the comparative lowness of its
hind quarters, we should conclude that such
must be the case. But if we proceeded to in-
quire into the nature of its food, and were told
that it subsisted by cropping the branches of
certain trees which thus it was enabled to reach,
the truth would flash upon us, we should imme-
diately perceive the correspondence between its
structure and its food, and acknowledge the de-
sign and contrivance of a benevolent Creator in
this formation.
A similar idea would perhaps occur to us the
first time we saw a jerboa,^ or a hangnroor
Hasselquist says of the former — that it might be
described as having the head of a hare, the
whiskers of a squirrel, the snout of a hog, the
body, ears, and fore-legs of a mouse, hind-
legs like those of a bird, with the tail of a
lion ; and an ancient zoologist would have made
a monster of it that might have rivalled the
chimsera. The kanguroo also would have met
with a similar fate. Though the jerboa is not a
marsupian animal like the kanguroo, yet they
have many characters in common. They both
have very slender fore- quarters, and short and
slender fore-legs ; their hind-quarters, on the
contrary, are remarkably robust and incrassated,
^ Dijms, ~ Macropifs.
17G LOCOMOTIVE AND
and they sit erect, resting upon them like a hare ;
both have a long powerful tail, which they use
as a fifth leg. The object of this formation, at
the first glance, so at variance with all ideas of
symmetry, appears to be a swifter change of
place, and more ready escape from annoyance
or violence. The jerboa is stated to take very
long leaps, and those of the kanguroo are said to
extend from twenty to twenty-eight feet, and
they rise to an elevation of from six to eight feet.
When they leap they keep their short fore-leg
pressed close to their breast, and their long and
robust tail, having first assisted them in their
leap, is extended in a right line. A double end
is answered by their peculiar structure ; sitting
on their haunches, they can leisurely look
around them, and if they spy any cause of
alarm make off by the means just stated. Their
attenuated fore-quarters and short fore-legs ren-
dering it much more easy for them, overstepping
every obstacle, to dart into the air ; their centre
of gravity is then removed nearer the hind
quarters, so that the tail can act as a counter-
poise to the anterior part of the body.
The jerboa also, like the kanguroo, when
alarmed, springs into the air. When ready to
take flight, it stands, as it were, on tip-toe, sup-
porting itself by its tail. Its fore-legs are then
applied so closely to the breast as to be in-
visible, whence the ancients called it Dipus, or
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 177
biped ;^ having taken their spring they alight
upon their fore-feet, and elevating themselves
again, they are off so rapidly, that they seem
to be always, so to speak, upon the wing.
They use their long tail to support themselves
when they recover from their leaps, giving it the
curvature of the letter S reversed, thus, if} .
When their tail has been shortened at different
lengths, it has been found that their leap is
diminished in the same proportion ; and when
it was wholly cut off they could not leap at all.
We see, in one Order of the Birds,'^ the
Waders, a remarkable disproportion of the legs
to those of the rest of the Class ; they look as if
they walked upon stilts, whence the name of the
Order, so disproportionally long are their legs to
those of the generality of birds. I have before
noticed the use of these legs to them in flying,^
but the principal object of this structure is to
enable them to prey upon aquatic animals,
fishes, worms, and the like. Whoever is in the
habit of frequenting estuaries, and other waters,
will generally see some of these birds, as
herons and bitterns, standing in them, where
^ Herodot. Melpom. § 192. Ed. Reizii.
2 It is to be observed in general, with respect to the Class of
BlrdSy that the conspicuous part of their legs is not the shanky
which is chiefly covered by muscle and feathers, but is formed
of the tarsal and metatarsal bones united into one.
' See above, p. 164.
VOL. II. N
170 LOCOMOTIVE AND
shallow, and ever and anon dipping their heads,
and then emerging swallow their capture. The
design of this structure must be obvious to every
eye, namely, to qualify these birds of prey to
assist in keeping within due limits the popula-
tion of the various waters of our globe, which
other predaceous animals cannot come at.
Another tribe of long legged birds, which
Cuvier considers as belonging to the present
Order, though their habits and habitat are al-
together different, and which constitute his
family of short-winged waders,^ is that to which
the Ostrich" and Emu^ belong, but in these the
object of this structure is to fit them not for
standing in the water, but for running in the
sandy desert ; and such is the velocity of the
ostrich that it can outstrip the fleetest Arabian
courser when pursued.
Other birds are remarkable for the shortness
and strength of their legs ; of this description
are the aquiline race, which are thus fitted by
their Creator for seizing and holding fast any
prey which their piercing sight discovers.
There is one, and a very elegant bird, belong-
ing to this Order, the secretary-bird,^ the legs
of which are so long, that many ornithologists
have arranged it with the waders. It is, how-
• Echassiers brevipennes* " Struthio Catnclus.
3 Casuarius Emeu. ^ Ophloiheres cristatas. Veill.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 179
ever, very properly placed amongst the predace-
ous birds. Its long legs are given it to enable
it to pursue the serpents, which form its food.
We see, in this instance, a departure from one
of the typical characters of its own tribe, and
those of another adopted in order to accommo-
date the animal to the circumstances in which
it was the Divine will to place it, and to fit it for
the function which it was there to exercise.
Amongst the Reptiles there is little diversity,
as to the relative proportions of the organs we
are considering, and their parts ; in the Batra-
chians, or frogs and toads, which are mostly
leaping and swimming animals, the hind legs
are elongated to accommodate them to those
kinds of locomotion ; and in some of the Sauri-
ans or lizards, which are approaching to the
Ophidians or serpents, the legs are very short,^
and sometimes reduced to a single pair ;- even
in some serpents rudiments of a pair of legs have
been discovered, particularly in the Boa.^
Some insects are remarkable for the vast
length of their anterior pair of legs ; what may
be the obiect of this formation has not been
discovered except that, in one instance,* it is
found only in one sex. The animal I allude to
belongs to the tribe of Capricorn beetles,^ and
> E. G. in Seps. - As in Bipes. ^ Zool. Jouru. iii. 253.
'* Acrocinus lonfjimanus. ^ Cerarnbyx. L.
180 LOCOMOTIVi: AND
seems not to be uncommon in Brazil. The fore
legs of the male are more than twice the length
of the body, while those of the female, though
longer than the others, are scarcely half so
long.
Many insects are formed, in some degree,
after the pattern of the kanguroo and the jerboa,
in order to enable them to transport themselves
by leaping beyond the reach of their enemies.
The thighs of their hind legs are incrassated so
as to afford a box capable of containing muscles
sufficiently powerful, by their action, to send
them through the air to an almost incredible
distance. If we examine the structure of the
posterior legs of any common grasshopper, we
immediately see, both from the position of the
joints with respect to each other, and the shape
and volume of the elongated thigh, that they are
made for leaping. The shank, when the animal
prepares to leap, forms an acute angle with the
thigh, so that being suddenly unbent, it springs
forward, often to the distance of two hundred
times its own length. Many carriages are set
upon springs made to imitate the position of
this insect preparing to leap, which are known
by the name of grasshopper springs.^
Several beetles rival the grasshoppers in their
leaps, and have their posterior thighs much
1 See Introduction to Entomology, ii. 310.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 181
disproportioned to the bulk of their bodies,
which allow space for a sufficient muscular ap-
paratus, to send them, like an arrow from a bow,
to a great distance. If a finger be held to a leaf
covered by the turnip jiea^ in the twinkling of
an eye, all skip off and vanish. We may hence
imagine with what expedition they disappear at
the approach of any insectivorous bird. Thus
their Creator, who cares for the meanest of his
creatures, has furnished them with means of
escape, to prevent their annihilation, and to
preserve them in such force, as may best answer
his end in creating them.
But besides partial modifications of the struc-
ture of these organs for particular uses, others
are more general and affect the whole leg.
Every one is aware how well adapted, by their
fieetness, some of the Ruminant Mammalians
are to make their escape from their ravenous
pursuers, the most adroit and the most ruthless
of which is the mighty hunter, man.
If we look at the legs and hoofs of the deer
tribe," the former long, slender, and elastic ; and
the latter calculated for sure footing ; and if we
consider besides the quickness of their senses of
seeing and hearing, we see at once that their
structure is the effect of desigfi, and that the
* Haliica oleracea, Nemorwrn, Sfc. - Cervus. L.
182 . LOCOMOTIVE AND
deepest intellect presided at its first fabrication/
Though man, as well as every ferocious beast,
pursues these beautiful and elastic animals, it is
only because he is Gulce deditus, seldom with any
view to seek their alliance, or to turn them to
his purposes. There are some, however, as well
as the rein-deer,^ cherished by the Laplander
as his principal treasure, but pursued by the
American savage only to be devoured, which
probably might be employed with advantage, as
well as the dog, in countries not suited to our
beasts of burthen ; and it has been supposed
that the Wapiti^ might be trained and rendered
useful, I am ignorant, however, whether any
steps have ever been taken to ascertain this.
But the legs, as well as instruments of flight
and escape, are adapted in fiercer animals to
the pursuit and prehension of their prey, and in
this, and many other respects, their hand or
foot is the part principally interesting. This is
used for so many various purposes, that perhaps
it will be best to take a summary survey, in this
respect, of all the Classes of animals with arti-
culated legs, and briefly point at their different
structures and their uses.
As I have already given an account of the
two kinds of forceps of Crustaceans,^ I shall
^ See Roget, B. T. i. 506. " Cerviis Tarandus.
3 C. Stongylocerus. * See above, p. 37, 38.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 183
begin with the legs of the Arachnidans, or
spiders. Every one who examines the web of a
common spider, whether it is formed of con-
centric circles supported by diverging rays, or
whether it imitates any finely woven substance,
will be convinced that she must be furnished
with a peculiar set of organs to effect these
purposes : that she must have something like
a hand to work with. Amongst the small things
that are wise upon earth, Solomon mentions
the spider ; and the way by which he tells
us she shews her wisdom is by her prehen-
sory powers — she takes hold ivith her hands}
And truly what Arachne does with her hands
and her spinning organs is very wonderful, as I
shall have occasion hereafter to shew ; I shall
now only make a few observations upon the
organs by which she takes hold.
Spiders are gifted with the faculty of walking
against gravity, even upon glass, and in a prone
position. According to the observations of Mr.
Blackwall, this is not effected by producing
atmospheric pressure by the adhesion of suckers,
but by a brush formed of " slender bristles
fringed on each side with exceeding fine hairs
gradually diminishing in length as they ap-
proach its extremity, where they occur in such
profusion as to form a thick brush on its inferior
1 Pro-d. XXX. 28.
184 LOCOMOTIVE AND
surface."^ These brushes he first discovered on
a living specimen of the hird-spider,^ and the
same structure, as far as his researches were
carried, he found in those spiders which can
walk against gravity and up glass. This is one
of the modes by which they take hold with their
hands, and thus they ascend walls, and set their
snares in the palace as well as the cottage.
Whoever examines the underside of the last
joint or digit of the foot of this animal with a
common pocket-lens, will see that it is clothed
with a very thick brush, the hairs of which,
under a more powerful magnifier, appear some-
what hooked at the apex ; in some species this
brush is divided longitudinally, so as to form
two.
But the organs that are more particularly con-
nected with the weaving and structure of the
snares of the spiders are most worthy of atten-
tion. Setting aside the hunters,^ and others
that weave no snares to entrap their prey, I
shall consider those I intend to notice, under
the usual names of iveavers"^ and retiaries,^
Before Mr. Blackwall turned his attention to
the proceedings of these ingenious and indus-
trious animals, it had not been ascertained, in
what respect their modes of spinning their
' Blackwall in Linn, Trans, xvi. 481. t. xxxi.f. 5.
^ My gale avicularia. ^ Aranece. venato?ice,
* A. textoricE. * A. retiaricB.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 185
webs, and the organs by which they formed
their respective manufactures differed. But Mr.
Blackwall, whose observations were principally
made upon one of the weavers^ which frequents
the holes and cavities of walls, and similar
places, observes that it spins a kind of web of
different kinds of silk, the surface of which has
a flocky appearance, from the web being as it
were ravelled.
This web is produced, he observes, by a
double series of spines, opposed to each other, and
planted on a prominent ridge of the upper-side
of the metatarsal joint, or that usually regarded
as the first joint, of the foot of the posterior legs
on the side next the abdomen. These spines
are employed by the animal as a carding ap-
paratus, the low series combing, as it were, or
extracting, the ravelled web from the spinneret,^
and the upper series, by the insertion of its
spines between those of the other, disengaging
the web from them.^ By this curious operation,
which it is not easy to describe clearly, the
adhesive part of the snare is formed, thus large
flies are easily caught and detained, which the
animal, emerging from its concealment, soon
despatches and devours.
The organs by which the retiary spiders form
their curious geometric snares have generally
* Clubiona atrox. ^ Mammulce,
^ Blackwall, ubi sujj. 473.
186 LOCOMOTIVE AND
been described as three claws, the two upper-
most armed with parallel teeth like a comb, and
the lower one simple and often depressed ; but
Mr. Blackwall found, in a species related to
the common garden spider,^ eight claws, seven
of which had their lower side toothed.^ The
object of this complex apparatus of claws simple
and pectinated, is to enable these animals to take
hold of any thread ; to guide it ; to pull it ; to
draw it out ; to ascertain the nature of any thing
ensnared, whether it be animate or inanimate ;
and to suspend itself. In fact the Creator has
made their claws not only hands but eyes to
these animals.
Besides these organs, scattered moveable
spines or spurs are observable upon the legs, es-
pecially the three last joints, which I consider as
forming the foot, but sometimes also upon the
thighs of spiders, which, as they can be elevated
and depressed at the will of the animal, pro-
bably are used as a kind of finger, when occa-
sions require it.
In the multiform apparatus of these ingenious
animals, as far as we understand its use, we see
how they are fitted for their office, by contri-
buting to deliver mankind from a plague of
flies, which would otherwise, like those which
' Epcira Diadema. The species examined by Mr. B. was
E. apoclisa.
" Blackwall, uhi siqi. 476.
PKEHENSORY ORGANS. 187
swarmed in Egypt, annoy us beyond toleration,
and corrupt our land.
If the spider taketli hold ivith her hands, and
spreads her snare in kings' palaces, what shall
we say of the hee, who with her hands erects
herself her storied palaces, each story consisting
of innumerable chambers, far more durable,
and built of a material infinitely exceeding
the flimsy webs of Arachne. Her Creator
hath instructed her, and fitted her with the
means, to gather from every flower that blows
a pure and sweet nectar, from which, received
into her stomach, she elaborates the beautiful
and important product of which her wondrous
structures are formed ; and from the same source
she is also instructed to load herself with a fine
ambrosial dust, which, kneaded by her into a
paste, constitutes the chief subsistence of herself
and the young of the community to which she
belongs.
Almost every organ, implanted in her frame
by her beneficent Creator, is employed by this
symbol and exemplar of virtuous industry as
a hand in her several works and manipulations.
Her antenncB, those still mysterious organs, in-
form her in what flowers she may find honey,
and which to pass by ; they plan and measure
her work, and by them she examines whether
all is right ; she also uses them to converse with
her associates, and for various other purposes ;
VOL. II. K 6
188 LOCOMOTIVE AND
her tongue is likewise an instrument equally
useful to her ; it can assume Yarious shapes as oc-
casions demand ; it collects the honey from the
nectar-organs of the flower ; it tempers the wax
for building and prepares it for the action of the
mandibles. With these last organs she works
up the w^ax till it is fit for use. The plumy liairs
of her body, especially in the humble-bees, are
useful in detaining the dust of the anthers. Her
legs, more particularly the posterior pair, though
not used immediately in her structures, are ex-
tremely important organs, both for preparing
her food and the material with which she builds
her palace. At the junction of the shank, with
the first joint of the foot of this pair, a kind of
forceps is formed, by the angle at the apex of
the former and the base of the latter, with which
the bee takes a plate of wax from the wax-
pockets under her abdomen, and delivers it to
the anterior pair of legs, by which it is sub-
mitted to the action of the mandibles. The
shanks of the posterior legs likewise on their
upper side have a cavity surrounded with hairs,
which form a kind of basket, in which the dili-
gent labourer carries a mass of pollen, kneaded
by the aid of the comb at the end of the
shank into a paste, which is deposited in the
cells, and contributes to form the family store of
provision.
What a number of compensating contrivance&
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 189
does this single animal exhibit, and how wonder-
fully and admirably has Supreme Wisdom and
Goodness contrived for her, and Almighty
Power given full effect to what they planned !
Nothing is superfluous in her, every hair and
every angle has its use ; so that well may we
adore Him who created the honey-bee, and, at
whose bidding, and by whose instruction, she
erects those wonderful edifices that have been
the admiration of every age.^
Instinct directs many animals, as well as
traversing the surface of the earth, to seek a
subterranean abode within its bosom. Amongst
insects, though there are many that burrow,
none is more remarkable than the mole- cricket."
The most superficial observer, when he looks at
this creature, must see at once from its structure,
especially that of its fore-legs, what its function
is. If he compares other crickets with it, a
singular change will strike him, the bulk of the
posterior thighs, far exceeding that of the same
joint in the other legs, will appear to be chiefly
transferred to the anterior pair of legs, which,
the size of the creature considered, are as power-
ful instruments for excavating the earth as can
be found in any animal now in existence : all
the joints of this leg are very much dilated,
especially the haunch and the thigh, which con-
' See Bochart Hierozoic. ii. 515. a. ' Gryllotalpa.
190 LOCOMOTIVE AND
tain the powerful muscles that move the appa-
ratus for burrowing. This consists of a trian-
gular joint, the analogue of the shank of the
other legs, but assuming the form of a hand with
the palm turned outwards, as in the mole, and
terminating in four strong claw-like digitations ;
on the side next the head these fingers, in the
middle, are longitudinally elevated and naked ;
while the sides are longitudinally excavated and
hairy, which give this part some resemblance to
the foot and claws of burrowing quadrupeds.
The thigh is hollowed out underneath, evidently
to receive the joint just described, and over-
hanging this cavity, at the base, is a stout tri-
angular tooth, which probably is employed to
clean the hand when necessary ; on the outside
opposed to the hand is the analogue of the tarsus
consisting of three joints, the two first large and
triangular, with the upper edge curved and the
lower straigiit and hairy at the base, the other
is of the ordinary form, and armed with two
straight claws. These teeth, as well as those of
the shank, have a trenchant edge on the straight
side, and together are supposed to act the part
of a pair of shears, and to cut any roots that may
interfere with its progress. Rosel, however,
thinks, the use of these teeth of the tarsus is
merely to clean the burrowing hand, which it
may also do. It is to be observed that the
trenchant edge is opposite in the teeth of the
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 191
shank and tarsus, as in a pair of scissors, which
favors the idea that they are used sometimes for
cutting. The position of the shank is vertical,
with the teeth next the ground, so that the
animal, when disposed to burrow, has nothing to
do but to plunge these claws into the soil and
push outwards, and then extracting her arms
proceed in the same way till she has accom-
plished her object. The apex of the shanks, of
the two posterior pairs of legs, is armed with
several spines which probably assist either in
making progress, or, when necessary, to retro-
grade.
" It might, I think, be asserted," observes Dr.
Kidd, in his valuable and interesting memoir
0}i the anatomy of the mole-cricket^^ " without
fear of contradiction, that throughout the whole
range of animated nature, there is not a stronger
instance of what may be called intentional
structure, than is afforded by that part of the
mole- cricket (the anterior leg), which I am now
to describe." And certainly, we see and own
without hesitation, as even the most sceptical
would scarcely refuse doing, that this arm was
planned, and all its various parts, dependent
upon and mutually aifecting each other, by a
calculating Mind, which framed and put the
whole together to answer a particular purpose.
1 Phllos. Trans. 1825, 217.
192 LOCOMOTIVE AND
The Class of reptiles affords no very striking
instances of the adaptations we are considering,
except in the case before noticed of the gecko
lizards, and the tree-frogs,^ which, by means of
suckers, are enabled to support themselves and
walk against gravity. Like Mammalians, rep-
tiles are usually furnished, but not invariably,
with four legs, and a pentadactyle foot.
In an animal of this Class, celebrated from of
old, the Chameleon,^ a remarkable modification
of this structure is observable. It is stated with
respect to this animal, that it moves very slowly,
that it will sometimes remain whole days on the
same branch : and it is only with great circum-
spection, and after taking great care to get firm
hold with its prehensile tail, that it ventures to
set a few steps : it may be expected, therefore,
that its principal organs of locomotion should be
adapted to give it secure footing on the branch
it selects for its station.
Aristotle, in his account of this animal,^ ob-
serves that " each of its feet is divided into two
parts, an arrangement resembling that of our
thumb, opposed to the rest of the hand ; and a
little short of this,* each of these parts is divided
into certain fingers ; in the fore-legs the internal
• Hyla. ^ Chamceleo africanus, &c.
^ Aristot. Hist. Anim. 1. ii. c. 11.
** Gr. Etti /3/)ax;£t. Meaning, I suppose, that the toes are not
so long as the primary division of the foot.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 19
•»
ones being three, and the external two,^ but
in the hind the external fingers are three, and
the internal two,- and these fingers have crooked
claws." By this structure of the feet, and ar-
rangement of the fingers or toes, the three-toed
lobe is on one side of the branch at the anterior
extremity of the animal, and on the other at the
posterior, and by this counteraction of each
other's pressure, enable it to maintain its position
against any force that may be likely to disturb
it. The lobes are longer than the fingers, and
thus by their means it can hold very firmly, and
watch the flies and insects which form its food,
and are entrapped by the gluten with which its
long tongue is besmeared.
The analogue of the fore -leg of quadrupeds
in birds, as we have seen, is converted into an
organ of flight, and cannot be employed as an
organ of prehension ; sometimes, indeed, in their
combats, it is used to annoy their opponents, and
is occasionally armed with a spur, but the pre-
hensory faculty is transferred to the beak and
the remaining pair of legs ; with these latter the
eagles and other birds of prey usually seize the
animals that they devour ; with these also fructi-
vorous birds, as the parrots, paroquets, &c. hold
the fruit while they eat it, and the Gallinaceous
1 Plate XIV. Fig. 2. « Ibid. Fig. 3.
VOL. II. O
194 LOCOMOTIVE AND
Order scratch the earth to find food for them-
selves and chicks ; the foot of birds is most
commonly tetradactyle, with one toe or thumb at
the heel and the other three in front ; in one
Order/ the birds forming which have occasion
to fix themselves firmly on their perch, the
thumb and the external toe both point back-
wards, so as to form a cross with the others
and the rest of the leg. In the emu the foot
consists of three toes, and in the ostrich of
only two, there being no thumb in either.
Many of the aquatic birds have the toes con-
nected by membrane, and so forming oars for
swimming ; and in some each toe has a margin
of membrane, which is usually notched, these
last are called lobed feet.
But the absence of the fore-leg in birds is
admirably compensated by the heah ; with this
they generally collect, as well as devour their
food. Some indeed employ their tongue in this
service. Of this description is the woodpecker^
and the humming Bird ;^ the former using it to
catch insects* and the latter to imbibe the nectar
of flowers, for which purpose these little gems
amongst the birds have a long slender tongue,
somewhat resembling that of a butterfly, and
moved by an apparatus, in some degree, like
1 Scansores. ^ Picus.
^ Trochilus. * See Dr. Roget, B. T. ii. 132.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 1 Do
that of the woodpecker.^ The beak of birds is
uniformly constructed with respect to their food,
and varies ad infinitum. Perhaps in none is
it more remarkable than in those of Cuvier's
two last Orders, the waders and web-footed
birds. These, especially the last, can use their
legs only for locomotion, either on shore or in
the water, and therefore their beaks have the
whole function, not only of taking, but of hunt-
ing for food devolved upon them, and accord-
ingly are fitted for it by their structure.^ Gene-
rally speaking, they may be stated to be of two
kinds. Beaks for catching luorms, and beaks for
catching fishes ; of the first description are those
of the woodcock,^ snipes,* and numerous other
waders ; and of the last, amongst the most re-
markable, are those of the spoonbilP and peli-
can.^ The former — which the French, perhaps
with more propriety, call the spatula-bill,"^ as its
beak resembles a spatula rather than a spoon —
dabble with their bill in the mud, for which it is
well calculated, and thus capture small fishes,
shell-fish, reptiles, and other aquatic and am-
phibious animals, which the tubercles within it
are also calculated to retain and crush. But the
» See Vieillot. IS!. D. D'Hist. Nat. vii. 342. t. B. 38.
" Roget, B. T. ii. 391. ^ Scolopax rusticola.
* Sc. gallinago, and gallinula. ^ Platalea leucorodia.
^ Pelecanus Onocrotalus. 7 Sjiatule.
HK> LOCOMOTIVE AND
latter, the pelican, has the most remarkable
organ for taking its food, and is a bird known
and celebrated from the earliest ages. The
lower mandible is fitted with a kind of sac,
formed of the dilated skin of the throat, which
Vieillot says can be so expanded as to contain
between two and three gallons of water/ When
fishing these birds, sometimes, rise to a pro-
digious height, at others they skim the surface
of the water, or hover, at a moderate elevation,
that they may more readily precipitate them-
selves upon their prey. The sudden fall of so
powerful an animal, the whirling round, the
boiling which the great extent of its wings occa-
sions in the water, so astounds and stuns the
fishes that few escape. Then rising again and
again descending, it continues this manoeuvre
till it has filled its pouch. When this is accom-
plished it retires to some rocky eminence where
it devours what it has caught, which sometimes,
Vieillot says, will amount to as many fishes as
would satisfy six men.~ It presses its pouch
against its breast when it feeds its young, in
order to disgorge the fishes, whence probably
arose the fable of its feeding them with its own
blood.
But the beak is not only used by birds in
collecting their food, some also it assists in
' N. D. D'Hist. Nat. xxv. 139. ' Ubi supr. 138.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 197
climbing ; parrots are remarkable for this, and
also employ their tail for the same purpose.
Truly, when we examine and compare all
these organs of prehension as well as manduca-
tion, and the infinite modifications of them, to
suit the peculiar kind of food and circumstances
of every tribe, we cannot help exclaiming — God
is here, we behold the evident footsteps of in-
finite wisdom, power, and goodness. Well
might our Saviour say, JBelwld the fowls of the
air ; for they soiv not, neither do they reap, nor
gather into hams; yet your Heavenly Father
feedeth them}
The legs of Mammalia7is, with respect to their
extremity, may be considered as divided into
those that have powers of prehension, more or
less, and those that have only powers of loco-
motion. I shall begin with the latter.
1 . These consist of Baron Cuvier's seventh and
eii^hth Orders of the Class above mentioned ;
namely, the Pachyderins, or thick skinned
beasts, and the Ruminaiits, or those that chew
the cud.
The great man, just named, considers the
horse and ass, constituting the equine genus,"
as forming a Family of the first of these Orders,
to which he has given the ancient appellation of
1 Matth. vi. 26. « Equus.
198 LOCOMOTIVE AND
Soliped,^ or whole-hoofed. He originally re-
garded the Solipeds as forming a separate Order,
and, indeed, comparing them with the other
Pachyderms, as the elephant, rhinoceros, hip-
popotamus, hog, &c., the horse genus seems
scarcely to belong to the same Order. Illiger,
who altered the name, but without sufficient
reason, to Solidungula, considers them as dis-
tinct.
Though the speed of the deer, except in a
single instance, on account of their usually slight
form and slender limbs, has not been applied by
man to his purposes, and to add to the velocity
of his progress, yet in the soliped race, es-
pecially in that noble quadruped the hoise, we
have an animal endowed with equal speed and
greater strength, and by their undivided hoof,
where speed as well as strength is required, cal-
culated, with much more advantage and less in-
jury, to traverse — both as beasts of burthen and
draft, and as adapted peculiarly for the con-
veyance of man himself — not only soft and
verdant prairies, but hard and rocky roads.
Hence this animal has been employed by man
from a very early period of society. We do not
indeed know whether the mighty hunter, Nim-
rod, went to the chase of man and beast on
horseback, though it is not improbable ; but both
^ Ctf. Movvl,, Aristot.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 199
the horse and the ass were common in Egypt in
Joseph's time/ the latter was used by Abra-
ham to ride upon/ and asses are enumerated
amongst his possessions when he went up from
Egypt fifty years before/
The sole organs of prehension of this tribe are
their mouth and upper lip. Every one knows
how adroit the horse and ass often become in
the use of these organs, not only in gathering
their food, but in opening gates that confine
them to their pastures.
In the genuine Pachyderms the foot begins to
show marks of division. In the rhinoceros there
are three toes, in the hippopotamus four, and in
the Proboscidians of Cuvier, including the ele-
phant and Mastodon, or fossil elephant, there
are five toes, three of the nails of which only
appear externally, and four on the hind-foot of
the Asiatic species.^
The Sivine family divide the hoof like the Ru-
minants; it consists of two intermediate toes,
large, and armed with nails or hoofs, and two
lateral ones much shorter and not touching the
ground ; in this respect also resembling many
Ruminants. In hilly and mountainous districts
these upper toes are probably useful in loco-
motion.
The prehensory organ of the animals here
' Genes, xivii. 17. - xxii. 3. ^ xii. 16. •* E. uidlcus.
200 LOCOMOTIVE AND
enumerated is usually the snout, with this the
hog^ turns up the ground in search of roots or
grubs, often doing great injury to pastures. The
male is armed with a defensive and offensive
weapon in his tusks.
That hideous animal of this tribe, the JEthi-
opian boar," is armed with four tusks, two pro-
ceeding from the upper jaw, which turn upwards
like a horn, sometimes nine inches long and five
inches in circumference at the base ; the other
pair issuing from the lower jaw, projecting not
more than three inches from the mouth, flat on
the inside, and corresponding with another plain
surface in the upper tusks. The Boshies men,
Sparrman relates, say of this animal, ** We had
rather attack a lion in the plain than an African
wild boar ; for this, though much smaller, comes
rushing on a man as swift as an arrow, and
throwing him down snaps his legs in two, and
rips up his belly before he can get to strike at it,
and kill it with his javelin."^ They inhabit
subterranean recesses ; and turn up the earth
very dexterously, probably by the aid of their
tusks, in search of roots, which form their food.
The Sabironssa* or Babee rooso, a name which
signifies Hog-deer, given to this animal probably
on account of its longer legs and slender form, is
distinguished by a pair of long tusks from the
* Sus scrofa. ^ Phascochcerus Africanus,
^ Voyage, ii. '23. * Sus babyrussa.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 201
upper jaw, which rising above the head, then
turning down, form a semicircle, and have the
appearance of horns, for which they have been
mistaken. They are only found in the male,
which is stated to use them as hooks to suspend
himself to the branches of trees, thus resting his
head, so as to sleep upright. As the animal
feeds upon the leaves of the Banana and other
trees, it is not improbable that these tusks may
be used to pull down the branches.
The Rhinoceros is said to use its horn for
digging up the roots of plants, which compose
the principal portion of its food. I am speaking
of the two-horned rhinoceros of Sparrman. The
Hottentots and the colonists assert that this ani-
mal uses only its second or shortest horn for
digging up roots, which appeared to him worn
by friction, marks of which the anterior one
never exhibited. When engaged in that em-
ployment it was stated to turn that horn on one
side ' out of the way.
But one of the most wonderful compensating
contrivances and structures of Divine Wisdom,
Power, and Goodness, and which has excited
the admiration of every age, is the proboscis of
the elephant. The weight of the enormous head
of this animal is such as to preclude its being
employed, if it terminated in a common mouth,
1 .Sparrnuvii. Voyar/e, ii. 98.
202 LOCOMOTIVE AND
either to break the boughs of trees, or to crop the
grass, for it could not easily be either elevated or
depressed for these purposes; in its proboscis,
however, it is supplied with an instrument that
amply compensates this deficiency. Almost every
one is aware that this beautiful organ, beautiful I
mean for its structure,^ answers a variety of pur-
poses ; that it is given by its Creator to this mighty
animal to be to it an instrument almost of sight,
of most delicate touch, of scent and breathing, of
prehension as adroit as that of a hand ; added to
this, that by the extraordinary flexibility with
which he has endowed it, it can not only be
inflected inwards to carry things to its mouth,
but be bent upwards, downwards, or laterally, to
lay hold of things above, below, or on each side
of it, and that by the assistance of a single finger
at its extremity, it can take hold of any thing as
readily as we do by the assistance of four fingers
and a thumb. As the brain of these gigantic
animals, compared with their bulk, is very
small, it is thought, by modern zoologists, that
their intellect has been exaggerated, and that it
does not surpass that of dogs, and many other
carnivorous animals. Others have imagined
that their sagacity is wholly the result of their
being provided with so wonderful an organ ; but
this organ would be of very little use without
' Roget, B. T. i. 520.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 203
the nervous apparatus by which it is moved
according to the will of the animal.
Amongst the Rmninants, — which appear to
connect with the Pachyderms in two points, by
the swine tribe and Solipeds, the latter possess-
ing several characters in common with the Gmi^
which seems between them and the bovine
genus ;^ and the former approaching them by
their common character of dividing the hoof, —
there is another animal, which may be considered
as the horse of the desert, exhibiting in some
degree a union of characters not found in the
remainder of the Order ; it chews the cud, but
does not actually divide the hoof. I am speaking
of the Camel, but though not actually, the hoof
is superficially divided. Considering the deserts
of loose and deep sand that it often has to
traverse, a completely divided hoof would have
sunk too deep in the sand ; while one entire
below would present a broader surface not
so liable to this inconvenience. Boys, when they
want to walk upon the muddy shores of an
estuary at low water, fasten broad boards to
their feet, which prevent them from sinking in
the mud ; I conceive that the ivhole sole of the
camel's foot answers a similar purpose : its
superficial division probably gives a degree of
pliancy to it, enabling it to move with more ease
1 Cdtoblepas Gnu. ~ Bos.
204 LOCOMOTIVE AND
over the sands ; upon which these animals often
trot with great rapidity, travelling sometimes
twelve miles within the hour ; its common amble,
which is exceedingly easy, is nearly six ; this
pace, if properly fed every evening, or in cases
of emergence, only once in two days, the camel
will continue uninterruptedly for five or six
days : with these qualities, so suitable to barren
and sandy deserts, what a valuable gift of Provi-
dence was this, especially to the descendants of
Ishmael ; who, according to the prophecy,
have maintained undisturbed possession of their
deserts and their necessary accompaniment,' the
camel, from the time of their progenitor to the
present day, a period of between three or four
thousand years. They have been wild men,
always assailing and assailed, and yet maintain-
ing their ground. But the time will assuredly
come, when The flocks of Kedar, and the rams of
Nebaioth,^ shall forsake their deeds of spoliation
and robbery and be gathered to the church.
Though the Ruminants, in general, by the
structure and division of their hoof, are calcu-
lated for sure footing, so as to enable them best
to exercise their several functions ; as the camel,
the ox, and the rein-deer at the bidding of their
master man ; and others, as the chamois and
the goat, for the ascent of mountains and pre-
Isai. Ix. 7.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 205
cipices, seemingly inaccessible, where they can
laugh at their pursuer ; and others again, as the
deer and antilope tribes for speed that almost
mocks pursuit ; yet with respect to prehension
these organs are of no use to them. Their mouth
and lips, and tongue, are the only means by
which they can help themselves to their food ;
they have no tusks like the Pachyderms in
general, nor nasal horns like the rhinoceros, to
cut or dig with ; but as their food is most com-
monly the herbage that covers the earth, these
are fully sufficient to enable them to supply
themselves with Food convenient for them. The
camel and dromedary differ from the other
Ruminants, not only in their long neck, which
probably is useful to them in gathering their
food, but also in having a cleft lip, which doubt-
less, adds to the prehensory powers of that
organ. The lofty neck is still more striking in
the Camelopard, the long tongue of which is
also used by them as a hand to pull down the
branches of the mimosa, from which they derive
their subsistence.
2. I shall now consider those Mammalians,
whose legs are more or less prehensory, next
above the Pachyderms and Ruminants. Cu
vier's sixth Order consists of a tribe of animals
which he denominates Edentate^ because they
1 Edentes.
206 LOCOMOTIVE AND
have no fore-teeth. The Monotremes form the
last Family of the Order, and precede the Pachy-
derms. In many points they seem connected
with the birds ; one genus ^ having a mouth
resembling the bill of a duck, and being almost
web-footed ; it has also been stated to be ovipa-
rous;^ the male, as I before observed,^ is armed
with a sting, like a serpent. The other genus,
Echidna, approaches nearer the pangolins,'^ and
anteaters^ having, like them, an extensile viscid
tongue, by means of which they entrap and
devour the ants. The other animals of the
Order are remarkable for their great nails,
almost approaching to hoofs ; in the Family
which precedes the Monotremes'' they are often
used for burrowing.
Next above the Echidna is a singular animal,
wearing the outward aspect and scales of a
Saurian, the pangolin, which rolls itself up like
an armadillo, and is the ant-eater of the old world.
It is singular that a real lizard, the chameleon,
should have the same instinct of catching its
insect prey by means of a long tongue be-
smeared with slime. In the new world the
pangolin is replaced by the ant-eaters, which
have the same habits, and the same mode of
* Ornithorhynchus. ^ Cuv. Regne Anim. i. 234, note 2.
3 See above p. 82. ** Manis.
^ Myrmecophaga. ^ EdentCs ordinaires. Cuv.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 207
procuring their food. With the long nails of
their fore-feet they penetrate the nests of the
white ants and common ants, and inserting their
long tongue, besmeared with a viscid saliva, into
these nests, retract it covered with game ; and
this with such velocity, that the eye can scarcely
follow them. Their nails, which require to be
kept sharp, for the operation just mentioned,
when not employed, are folded inwards, so as to
prevent their being blunted. In one species^ in
the fore-foot there are only two nails.
Amongst the animals that are clothed in
armour, in this Order, the most remarkable is
the Chlamyphoriis^ whose feet are armed with
five long and sharp nails, especially the anterior
ones, which must enable it to excavate its sub-
terranean abode very rapidly. From the forma-
tion of its foot and these nails it does not appear
to dig with them laterally, but in a line with
the body ; its singular clubbed tail therefore
would be a very useful organ, if, as Mr. Yarrell
supposes, it is used in removing backwards the
loose earth accumulated under its belly by the
action of the fore-legs.^ This animal, which is a
native of Chili, is reputed to carry its young
beneath the scaly armour attached principally
to the spine, which covers it loosely like a cloak.
* M. didactylas. ^ Plate XVI. •'' Zool. Journ. iii. 551.
208 LOCOMOTIVE AND
The last family, as we ascend, in the present
Order, is very well distinguished by the name
of Tardigrades, from the excessive slowness of
their motions. Their nails are enormously long,
compressed, and crooked, and exactly calculated
for laying strong hold, so as to enable them to
maintain their station on the trees, whose leaves
and buds form their food. Their English aj)pel-
lation, the Sloth,^ indicates their character ; when
they have satisfied their appetite, like most of
the other Edentates, they can roll themselves
up and take a long and reckless sleep. But I
need not enlarge further upon this tribe, since
Dr. Buckland has excellently — Justified the nays
of God to man, — and, in the present instance, de-
monstrated, by most convincing arguments, that
these animals, instead of being an abortion, im-
perfect, misshapen, and monstrous, are exactly,
and in every respect, adapted for the station
which God has assigned to them, and for the
work which he has given them in charge.^
Next above the Edentate Mammalians is an
Order, \he fifth of Cuvier, consisting of a greater
number of Genera and Subgenera than any
other in the Class, which, instead of having no
front teeth or incisives, have very conspicuous
ones, rendered more so by being separated by a
1 Bradyjms. " Linn. Trans, xvii. 17.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 2VfO
void space from the grinders. From these teeth,
which are neither calculated to seize or lacerate
their food, but merely to nibble and gnaw it,
they have received their name of Nibblers or
(Tiiawers}
The great majority of this Order are grega-
rious, and live in burrows, or common habita-
tions, which they excavate or fabricate them-
selves. Like the Hymenopterous Class of
insects, many are noted for the sagacity and
skill which they manifest in their united labours
for the good of the community, and also for the
organs by which they are enabled to answer the
bidding of instinct.
One of the most remarkable of these is the
Beaver ;^ this animal has tive toes on all its
feet, which in the hind pair are connected by
membrane ; those of the fore-leg, which it uses
as a hand to convey its food to its mouth, are
very distinct. They carry also with these hands
the mud and stones which they mix with the
wooden part of their buildings. But their incisor
teeth are their principal instruments, with these,
as Dr. Richardson states, they cut down trees as
big or bigger than a man's thigh ; when they
undertake this operation they gnaw it all round,
cutting it sagaciously on one side higher than
on the other, by which it is caused to fall in the
1 Rodeniin. " Casta)- Fiber.
VOL. II. P
210 LOCOMOTIVE AND
direction they wish ; they use these powerful
organs not only to fell the trees they select, but
also to drag them to the place where they want
them. It is said, that a beaver, when at its full
strength, can at one stroke bite through the leg
of a dog.
It has been affirmed that beavers employ
their tail both as a trowel to plaster their houses,
and as a sledge to carry the trees that they
fell ; but both these assertions seem to be built
upon conjecture rather than observation, and
are not credited by those who have had the best
opportunities of observing their manners, as
Hearne, Cartwright, and Dr. Richardson. The
fabrics they are taught by their Creator to erect,
and impelled by the instinct he has implanted in
them, are sufficiently wonderful without having
recourse to fiction to exaggerate it. Their tails,
probably, are useful to them in the water as
natatory organs.
There is a very singular animal discovered by
M. Sonnerat, in Madagascar, called the Aye-
Aye,^ which seems, in some degree, to approach
the Quadrumanes. The fore-feet have five ex-
cessively long fingers, and what is singular, the
middle one is much slenderer than the rest. In
the hind feet there is a thumb opposed to the
other fingers, by which structure it is enabled to
1 Cheiromys.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 211
take firmer hold of the branches of trees. It is
said to use the slender finger of its hand for the
same purpose that the wood-pecker uses its
barbed tongue, to extract the grubs from the
trees.
The squirrels, which form the first genus in this
interesting Order, are known to use their fore-
legs for prehension, which indeed is the case
with the majority of animals included in it.
They are also, at least a large proportion, re-
markable for sitting, when at rest, upon their
haunches, and also for their ready use of their
fore-legs.
Having before noticed the most remarkable
animal in CnVievs fourth Order, the 3Iarsiipians,
which suckle their young in a pouch, I shall
only mention one other animal belonging to it,
the Koala,^ a New Holland quadruped, in some
respects resembling the bear ; like the chame-
leon, it has the five toes or fingers of the fore-
foot divided into two groups, the thumb and
fore-finger forming one, and the three remaining
fingers the other; the object of this structure is
evidently to enable it to take firm hold of the
branches of the trees on which it passes part of
its life ; this is of the more importance to it, as
it carries its young upon its back. It some-
' Livui'us.
212 LOCOMOTIVE AND
times, probably in the night, retires to burrows
which it excavates at the foot of the trees.
We have now arrived at the foot of Baron
Cuvier's tJilrd Order, containing the predaceons
Mammalians, which, though a very compre-
hensive group, will not detain us long, as the
first and last family, the Bats and Seals, have
been noticed in another place.^ The rest of the
Order consists of the insectivorous and car-
nivorous Mammalians ; the latter is further sub-
divided into two tribes, which are denominated
the Plantigrades and the Digitigrades..
Those last mentioned usually walk more upon
their toes, and consist of the feline, canine, and
several other tribes, all swift in their locomo-
tions, and making use of their paws or fore-foot,
either for scratching and burrowing, or to seize
their prey, and they have all, I believe, five
toes.
The Plantigrades are so called because they
walk, like man, upon the whole foot, and consist
of the bear,^ the glutton,^ and similar animals.
This structure enables the former to rear itself
on its hind feet, and walk erect ; and their fore-
foot will grasp a staff like a hand ; it is armed
with long claws, with which they scratch up
roots which form part of their subsistence, exca-
* See above, p. 137, 156. - Ursus. ^ Gulo.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 213
vate burrows, climb the trees, and seize their
prey.
These armed paws are fearful weapons, both
in the lion and the bear, to which few would
like to be exposed ; but an heroic youth, beloved
of God and man, regarded them not when, as
a faithful shepherd, he rescued a lamb of his
father's flock from their grasp and voracity.
The two most remarkable animals in the
insectivorous tribe of predaceous Mammalians are
the mole,^ and the harmless, though persecuted
hedgehog,^ but they are both too well known,
the former for its piquants, and the latter for
its hand turned outwards and moved by an
enormous apparatus of muscles, to enable it to
excavate its subterranean habitation.
We are now arrived, in our progress up-
wards, at Cuvier's second Order of Mamma-
lians, which he names Quadrumane, or four-
handed, and which consists of apes,^ baboons,'*
and monkeys,^ whose hind as well as fore-foot
is usually furnished with a thumb opposite to
the fingers, so that they can use all their feet for
prehension : the object of Providence by this
structure is to enable these animals to move
about amongst the branches of the trees, which
are their usual habitations, and to fix themselves
' TaljXL. 2 ErinaceiiS. ^ Simla, &c.
* Cynocejjhulus, &c. ^ LemuVy &c.
214 LOCOMOTIVE AND
securely upon them, so that they can use their
hands to gather fruit or any other purpose.
Thus also they can perambulate the trees with
as much ease and safety as we do our houses ;
and run up and down the branches with as
much celerity as we do our staircases : but they
cannot make equal progress on the earth, or a
plane surface, whether they go on four feet or
two.
Even man himself, though he ordinarily can-
not use his toes for prehension, yet is sometimes
placed in such circumstances, as to acquire the
power of doing so. I remember, when a boy,
going to see a girl who was born without arms,
and was exhibited by her parents to the public.
She could use her toes as fingers; could hold
scissors, cut out watch-papers, sew, and even
write. An account was given in the St. James's
Chronicle, not long ago, of a youth similarly
circumstanced, who being cruelly turned out by
his father, but patronized by his sister, learned
to draw with his toes. In India they are used
as fingers, and are sometimes called foot-fingers.
The Hindoo tailor twists his thread with them,
and the cook holds his knife while he cuts fish,
vegetables, &c., the joiner, weaver, and other
mechanics all use them for a variety of pur-
poses ; and I am told by a friend, who has often
been in India, that they can even pick up pins
with them.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 215
We are now arrived at man himself, who, as
we see, takes his particular denomination from
the hand. He is the only Simmie.
The physiology and anatomy of the Human
Hand, that Monderful organ, have been ex-
plained and reasoned with great ability in a
separate treatise, by the eminent comparative
anatomist to whom that subject was assigned ; I
shall not, therefore, here say any thing on its
structure and its uses : but as it has not been
treated of as a moral organ ; as being in
intimate connection with the heart and affec-
tions ; as their principal index and premon-
strator ; and as the mighty instrument by which
a great part of the physical good and evil which
befalls our race is wrought, I may be permitted
to make a few observations upon it as far as
these are concerned.
God made the body in general a fit ma-
chine, not only to execute the purposes of its
immaterial inhabitant the soul ; but, in some
sort, he made it a mirror to reflect all its bear-
ings and character ; to indicate every motion of
the fluctuating sea within, whether its surges lift
themselves on high elevated by the gusts of
passion ; or all is calm, and tranquil, and sub-
dued. None of the bodily organs, by its struc-
ture and station in the body, is so evidently
formed in all respects for these functions as the
Hand. The eye indeed is, perhaps, the most
210 LOCOMOTIVE AND
faithful mirror of the souFs emotion ; yet though
it may best portray and render visible the in-
ternal feeling, it can in no degree execute its
biddings ; but the hand is the great agent and
minister of the soul, which not only reveals her
inmost affection and feeling, and, in conjunction
with the tongue — and these two in connection
are either the most beneficent or maleficent of
all our organs — declares her will and purpose ;
but is also employed by her to execute them»
Thus Heart and Hand, the principle and the
practice, have been united, in common parlance,
from ancient ages. The earliest dawn of reason
in the innocent infant is shown by the signs it
makes with its little hands ; by them it prefers
its petitions for any thing it desires, and, in
imitation of this, God's children are instructed
to lift up holy hands in prayer.^ Love, friend-
ship, charity, and all the kindly affections of our
nature, use the hands as their symbol and organ ;
the fond embrace, the hearty shake, the liberal
gift, are all ministered by them. Joy, gladness,
applause, welcome, valediction, all use these
organs to represent them. Penitence smites her
breast with them ; resignation clasps them ; de-
votion and the love of God stretches them out
towards heaven.
But the hands are not employed to express
1 1 Tim. ii. 8.
PRIiHENSORY ORGANS. 217
only the kindly affections of the soul. Those of
a contrary and less amiable character nse them
as their index. Anger threatens, and more
violent and hateful passions destroy by them.
They are indeed the instruments by which a
great portion of the evil, and mischief, and
violence, and misery, that our corrupt nature
has introduced into the world, are perpetrated.
The hand also, on some occasions, becomes
the spokesman instead of the tongue. The fore-
finger is denominated the index, because we use
it to indicate to another any object to which we
wish to direct his attention. By it the deaf and
dumb person is enabled to hold converse with
others so as not to be totally cut off from the
enjoyment of society ; and by it we can like-
wise mutually communicate our thoughts when
separated by space however wide, even with our
Antipodes.
The Deity himself, also, condescends to con-
vey spiritual benefits to his people by means
of the hands of authorized persons, as in Con-
firmation and Ordination ; and the Blessed
Friend, and Patron, and Advocate and Deli-
verer of our race, when he was upon earth,
appears to have wrought most of his miracles of
healing by laying on his hands ;^ in benediction
also, when children were brought unto him he
1 Mark, viii. 23—25.
218 LOCOMOTIVE AND
laid his hands on them ; and at his ascension
he lifted up his hands to bless his disciples.^
To enumerate all the modes by which the in-
ternal affection of the soul is indicated by the
hand would be an endless task. I shall there-
fore only further observe, that the greater part of
the instances I have adduced are natural, and
not conventional or casual modes of expressing
feeling, as is evident from their being employed,
with little variation, in all ages, nations, and
states of society.
How grateful then ought we to be to our
Creator for enriching us with these admirable
organs, which more than any outward one that
we possess, are the immediate instruments that
enable us to master the whole globe that we
inhabit, not merely the visible and tangible
matter that we tread upon, and its furniture and
population, but even often to take hold as it
were of the invisible substances that float around
it, and to bottle up the lightning and the wind,
as well as the waters. Thus by their means do
we add daily increments to our knowledge and
science, and consequently power ; to our skill in
arts and every allied manufacture and manipu-
lation ; to our comforts, pleasures, and every
thing desirable in life.
If now — having arrived at the most perfect
1 Mark J X. 16. Luke, xxiv. 50.
PREHENSORY ORGANS. 219
instrument, as to its uses, and the most im-
portant to the happiness and welfare of the
Human race, whether it be considered as an
instrument of good or evil — we turn back and
review this long train of organs for every kind of
motion, and every kind of operation, and con-
sider moreover the animal to which each belongs
with respect to its place and station, connection,
powers of multiplication, relative magnitude,
form, composition, structure, functions, and at
the same time take into further consideration the
theatre upon which each is destined to appear,
the medium in which it is to move and breathe,
and the beings, whether vegetable or animal,
with which it is to come in contact, and upon
which it is to act — When I say, we take this re-
view, what an infinite diversity in every respect
bewilders our thought, and we are unable to form
any distinct idea of the general effect and har-
mony that we know to be produced, nor how all
these instruments, dove-tail, as it were, so as to
form the whole into one great fabric or sphere of
agents, all contributing to fulfil the purposes of
the Great Being who fabricated it, and promoting
the general health and welfare of the whole
system. But this we can understand that the
Fabricator of this sphere must have taken a si-
multaneous survey of all the circumstances here
mentioned ; must have calculated the momentum
of each individual, have weighed and measured
VOL. TI. P 6
220 INSTINCT.
it, so that it should not exceed a certain stan-
dard ; must have seen at once all that it wanted
to fit it for its station ; must, before he made it,
have formed a correct estimate of all the requisite
materials, whether gaseous, aquiform, or solid,
so as to put together the whole harmonious com-
pages without failing in a single atom ; and give
full accomplishment to his will.
He who could effect all this could only be
one whose Understanding is infinite, and whose
Poiver mid Goodiiess are equally without bounds.
Chapter XVIII.
On Instinct.
There is no department of Zoological Science
that furnishes stronger proofs of the being and
attributes of the Deity, than that which relates
to the Instincts of animals, and the more so,
because where reason and intellect are most
powerful and sufficient as guides, as in man,
and most of the higher grades of animals, there
usually instinct is weakest and least wonderful,
while, as we descend in the scale, we come to
tribes that exhibit, in an almost miraculous
INSTINCT. 221
manner, the workings of a Divine Power, and
perform operations that the intellect and skill of
man would in vain attempt to rival or to imitate.
Yet there is no question, concerning which the
Natural Historian and Physiologist seems more
at a loss than when he is asked — what is In-
stinct? So much has been ably written upon the
subject, so many hypotheses have been broached,
that it seems wonderful so thick a cloud should
still rest upon it. It must not be expected, where
so many eminent men have more or less failed,
that one of less powers should be enabled to
throw much new light upon this palpable obscure,
or dissipate all the darkness that envelopes
the seco7idary or intermediate cause of Instinct.
Could even the bee or the ant tell us what it is
that goads them to their several labours, and
instructs them how to perform them, perhaps we
mio-ht still have much to learn before we should
have any right to cry with the Syracusan Mathe-
matician, 'Eu^r^/ca, I have unveiled the mystery.
Still, however unequal to the task, I cannot duly
discharge the duty incumbent upon me, who
may be said to be officially engaged to prove the
great truths of Natural Religion from the Instincts
of the animal creation, to leave the subject of
Instinct, considered in the abstract, exactly as
I found it ; a field, in which whoever peram-
bulates, may v/ander " in endless mazes lost."
222 INSTINCT.
I will, therefore, do my best to make the way,
in a small degree, more level, and less intricate,
than it has hitherto been.
But, before I proceed, lest the reader should
feel disposed to accuse me of contradicting the
opinions on this subject stated in the Introduction
to Entomology, I beg to direct his attention to
the following paragraph in the advertisement to
the third volume of that work. '' It will not be
amiss here to state, in order to obviate any charge
of inconsistency in the possible event of Mr.
Kirby's adverting in any other work to this
subject, that, though on every material point,
the authors have agreed in opinion, their views
of the theory of Instinct do not precisely accord.
That given in the second and fourth volumes is
from the pen of Mr. Spence."
It is not without considerable reluctance that
the author of this essay takes the field, in
some degree, against his worthy friend and
learned coadjutor, but as he is thus left at liberty
to do it, and the nature of his subject requires
it, he will state those views, which seem to
himself most consistent with nature and truth,
and most accordant with the general plan of
creation. It is doubtfid whether the ancients
had any distinct idea of that impulse upon ani-
mals, urging them necessarily to certain actions,
which modern writers have denominated instijict.
INSTINCT. 223
Aristotle, indeed, in a passage of his physics
quoted by Bochart,^ alhides to certain writers
who doubted whether spiders, ants, and similar
animals were directed in their works by intellect,
or by any other faculty. The Stagyrite himself
resolves the causes of motion into intellect and
appetite,^ but I have not been able to discover
that he has recorded any opinion as to what cause
the, now called, instincts of animals, whether
to appetite or intellect, are to be attributed : he
says much on the subject of the hive bee, but it
is merely a history of its proceedings, unaccom-
panied by a single syllable from which we
might conjecture that he attributed any part of
these proceedings, wonderful as he must have
thought them, to any faculty distinct from intel-
lect, and what seems more extraordinary, without
any expression of admiration at the expertness,
and art, and skill, so evident in all that this little
creature almost miraculously accomplishes. On
another occasion, indeed, he observes, that
"Some of the animals that have no blood, have
a more intelligent soul than some of those that
have blood, as the bee and the ant genus. "^ A
much later Greek writer has asked the question,
** Who taught the bee, that ivise tvorkman, to act
1 Hierozoic. ii. 599, b.
2 De anima, 1. iii. c. 11.
3 De Part. Animal. 1. ii. c. 4.
VOL. II. p 8
224 INSTINCT.
the geometer, and to erect her three-floored houses
of hexagonal structures?''^ And this is the ques-
tion I shall now endeavour to answer.
When we consider the infinite variety of in-
stincts, their nice and striking adaptation to the
circumstances, wants, and station of the several
animals endowed with them, of which numerous
instances will be given hereafter, we see such
evident marks of design, and such varied atten-
tion to so many particulars, such a conformity
between the organs and instruments of each ani-
mal, and the work it has to do, that we cannot
hesitate a moment to ascribe it to some power
who planned the machine with a view to accom-
plish a certain purpose, and when we further
consider that all the different animals combine to
fulfil one great end, and to eSect a vast purpose,
all the details of which the human intellect can-
not embrace, we are led further to acknowledge
that the whole was planned and executed by a
Being whose essence is unfathomable, and whose
power is irresistible.
I must here previously observe, that in consi-
dering this mysterious subject, we must avoid, as
much as possible, building our theories upon
facts which, if properly interpreted, are extra-
^ Tte Tr]v fjieXiTTav, rrjv GO(pr]v Tr]v epyariv
TeiOfxerpELV nreiaEj Kat Tpiiopo(piig
Olkhq tyeipeiv t^ayojvivy KTiafiaTiOV. PlSlQlus.
See Appendix to Vol. i. note 28.
INSTINCT. 225
neous to the subject, and wear such an aspect of
the marvellous, as to appear out of the regular
course of nature, and the ordinary proceedings
to which its instinct urges any animal. The
cases here alluded to, if true, to the full extent
of the statements concerning them, would rather
indicate a particular interposition of Divine
Providence, either to prevent some calamity, or
to produce some blessing or benefit to the indi-
viduals concerned. Thus the account of Sir H.
Lee's dog, mentioned by Mr. French,^ which
saved its master's life, by taking and maintaining
its station, which it had never before done, under
his bed ; and that given by Dr. Beattie, of a dog,
who, when his master was in a situation of the
most imminent peril, after fruitlessly attempting
to save him, ran to a neighbouring village, and
by significant gestures at last prevailed upon a
man to follow him, and saved his master's life.
These and many more such cases, can scarcely
be regarded as belonging to the ordinary instinct
of the species, for if it did, more murderers would
be disappointed of their intended victim by the
agency of his or her dog. I knew myself an
instance, in which a most valuable life was saved
by a dog, which, being condemned to the halter
by a former master, and escaping from those
' Zool. Journ. i. 7.
VOL. II. Q
226 INSTINCT.
appointed to dispatch him, at last established
himself, after repeated expulsion, in my friend's
family, and afterwards, there is every reason to
believe, by the sacrifice of his own life, prevented
his master from being drowned/ These cases
are remarkable, but they do not appear to
belong to instinct, but rather to the doctrine of
a particular Providence.
Some cases upon record, v/ith respect to dogs
and other animals, belong to intellect and me-
mory rather than instinct. M. Dureau de la
Motte, in a memoir on the influence of domes-
ticity in animals, mentions a dog, which being
shut out, would use the knocker of the door ;"
and I had myself a cat, which indicated its
wish to come in or go out, by endeavouring
with its fore paws to move the handle of the
door-latch of the apartment ; and used every
morning to call me by making the same indi-
cation at the door of my bed-room : other cats
have attempted to ring the bell. But the most
remarkable instance, is one related, by the writer
just named, of a very intelligent dog, which was
employed to carry letters between two gentle-
men, and never failed punctually to execute his
commission — first delivering the letter, which
was fastened to his collar, and then going to the
kitchen to be fed. After this, he went to the
* Annul, des Sc. Nuturel. xxi. 2 Hjid, 52.
INSTINCT. 227
parlour window, and barked, to tell the gentle-
man he was ready to carry back the answer/
The remarkable case of the ass Valiante,- and
of other animals that find their way to their old
quarters from a great distance, may be attributed,
I think, rather to natural sagacity and memory,
than to any instinctive impulse. The animal
just alluded to might have sagacity enough to
keep near the sea, or a concurrence of accidental
circumstances might befriend her.
Divine Providence has at its disposal the
whole animal creation, and can employ all their
instincts and their faculties to bring about its own
purposes, both with respect to individuals and
mankind in general. Man, who may be called,
under God, the king of the visible creation,
makes a similar use of the creatures that are
placed at his disposal ; of some, as the horse and
the ox, he employs the physical powers ; of
others, as the bee and the dog, he avails himself
of the instinct. Some he instructs how they are
to do his work ; others, betakes as he finds them.
So the Deity, it may be presumed, with a secret
hand, guides some to fulfill his will, instructing
them, as it were, because their unaided instinct
would not alone avail, in the decree they are to
execute, while others, merely by following the
bent of their nature, do the same. In many
' Annal. des Sc. Naturel. QQ.
2 Iiitrod. to Ent. ii. 496, Note a.
•228 INSTINCT.
cases, also, he may be supposed merely to direct
them to the field in which he means they should
labour, and then leave them to their instincts to
accomplish his purposes. In the case of the
dog who saved his master from intended assas-
sination, a supernatural impulse might carry
him to his chamber and cause him to maintain
his station there, and when the hour of danger
arrived, his natural instinct would suffice for
the defence and liberation of his master from
the threatened danger.
When we consider the work that animals have
to do in this globe of ours, each, in a particular
department, and to a certain extent, it seems
absolutely necessary that, on many occasions,
the interference of a Supreme Power should take
place, to say to each, " Hitherto shalt thou come
and no further,'" and only an Omnipresent Being,
infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness, could
check the further progress of any body of his
workmen when he foresaw it would be noxious,
exceed his intentions, and derange his plans.
*' Nee Deus intersitf nisi dignus vindice nodus
hiciderit,"
was the dictum of a poet, who had as much
judgment, and good sense, as he had genius;
and it is only where ordinary means are evi-
dently insufficient to account for any fact, that
we are at liberty to ascribe it to the extraordinary
interposition of the Deity ; or to any intermediate
INSTINCT. 229
supernatural agency employed by him to pro-
duce it : and no class of facts so loudly pro-
claim their Great Author as those which are
the result of the nice balancing of conflicting
energies and operations observable in the dif-
ferent departments of the animal kingdom.
We may observe, however, that when our
Saviour says to his disciples concerning spar-
rows — One of them shall not fall to the ground
ivithout your Father, Sut the very hairs of your
head ai^e all numbered ; ^ — the observation implies
that nothing escapes the notice, or is too mean,
or insignificant, to be below the attention and
care of Him who is all eye, all ear, all intellect ;
who directeth all things to answer his purposes,
according to the good pleasure of his will^ which
is the universal good of his creatures.
Having premised these general observations,
I shall now proceed to inquire into the proxi-
mate cause of instinct; admitting, as proved,
that every kind of instinct has its origin in the
will of the Deity, and that the animal exhibiting
it, was expressly organized by Him for it at its
creation.
The proximate cause of instinct must be either
metaphysical or physical, or a compound of both
characters.
1 . If metaphysical, it must either be the im-
1 Matth. X. 29, 30. 2 Ej^hes. i. 5.
230 INSTINCT.
mediate action of the Deity, or the action of
some intermediate intelligence employed by him,
or the intellect of the animal exhibiting it.
2. If jj/iT/sical, it must be the action or stimulus
of some physical power or agent employed by
the Deity, and under his guidance, so as to work
His will upon the organization of the animal,
which must be so constructed as to respond to
that action in a certain way ; or by the exhibi-
tion of certain phenomena peculiar to the indi-
vidual genus or species.
3. If compound or mixed, it will be subject
occasionally to variations from the general law,
when the intelligent agent sees fit.
1. With respect to the first Hypothesis, one of
the principal promulgators and patrons of which
is Addison,^ it nearly amounts to this, as that
amiable writer confesses, that " God is the soul
of brutes." It is contrary, however, to the
general plan of Divine Providence, which usually
produces effects indirectly, and by the interven-
tion and action of means or secondary causes,
to suppose that it acts immediately upon insects
and other animals, and is so intimately con-
nected with them as to direct their instinctive
operations ; such an action, it should seem,
would be infallible, and never at fault, whereas
1 See Spectator, ii. p. 121,
INSTINCT. 231
observation has proved that animals are some-
times mistaken, where their instinct should
direct them. For, if God were their immediate
mstructor, would it be possible for the flesh-fly,
as I have seen that she does, to mistake the
blossom of the carrion -plant ^ for a piece of flesh,
and lay her eggs in it ; or for a hen to sit upon
a piece of chalk, as they are stated to do,^ in-
stead of an e^g ? Still all instincts are from
God, He decreed them, and organized animals
to act according to that decree, and employed
means to impel them to do so.
Other arguments might be adduced proving
that this Hypothesis does not rest upon a sound
foundation ; but as I shall hereafter advert to
some of these, I shall now proceed to consider
whether instinct be the action of some inter-
mediate intelligence, employed by the Deity,
upon the animal exhibiting it.
An ingenious and acute writer, Mr. French,
is the author of this Hypothesis, which appeared
in the first number of the Zoological Journal.
He infers, " That the Divine Energy does in
reality act, not immediately, but mediately, or
through the medium of moral and intellectual
influences, upon the nature or consciousness of
the creature, in the production of the various,
and in many instances, truly wonderful actions
1 Stapelia hirsuta. " Spectator, ii. n. 120.
232 IJSSTINCT.
which they perform ; that brutes are governed
by such agencies, good and evil, but under the
control of Providence ; and that such agencies
act by impressions upon their conscious nature,
but unperceived by it in a moral or intellectual
sense." ^ He thus opens the way to his theory.
** If it be asked by what intermediate agency
the operations of brutes are thus directed ; — I
reply that it is generally admitted by a large
class of mankind, at least, that superior (yet
intermediate) powers of some kind, are in actual
connection with the human mind."^
From the passages here quoted, it seems
evident (though the author declares that he will
not even " venture a suggestion as to the nature
of the superior powers here alluded to,")^ that
he had in his mind those good and evil intelli-
gencies that are generally acknowledged to be
in actual connection with the human mind ; or,
to use the common phraseology. Angels and De-
mons. The former being the cause of the bene-
Jicefit, and the latter of the ferocious instincts of
animals.
When he further observes — *' Upon these
principles the mixed natures of some animals
are satisfactorily explained ; — as in the instance
of the Phoca iirsina, the males of which species
manifest the most singular tenderness towards
1 Zool. Jour. i. 5, 6. ^ Ibid. ^ Ibid. 6.
INSTINCT. 233
their young progeny ; and, at the same time, a
savage and persecuting disposition towards their
females."*
From this passage it would seem that the
author was of opinion that the same animal was
subject to the agency both of good and evil
intermediate intelligences, the one producing its
affection, and the other its ferocity.
When our Saviour denominates serpents and
scorpio7is the power of the enemy, ^ it may per-
haps be thought that he affords some counte-
nance to this opinion, especially as the evil
spirit actually made use of the serpent, as his
organ and instrument, when he accomplished
the fatal lapse of our first parents from the
original rectitude of their nature. But, if we
pay due attention to the context, we shall find
that, in this passage, as often in other parts of
scripture, the symbol is put for the thing sym-
bolized. '* / beheld Satan, as lightning, fall
from Heaven^' says our Lord. " JBehold, I give
unto you poiver to tread on serpefits and scorpi-
ons, a?id upon all the power of the enemy, —
Nevertheless iri this rejoice not that the spirits
are subject to you,''^ The treading therefore
on serpents and scorpions was treading upon the
spirits of which they were figures.
If we duly reflect upon the incongmity of an
1 Zool. Journ. i. 7. - Luke, x. 19. ^ Jhid. 18 — 20.
234 INSTINCT.
angel and a demon influencing the same animal,
in so far as it exhibits instincts partly benevolent
and partly ferocious, we shall be convinced that
this hyj)othesis, pursued to all its consequences,
cannot stand. Intermediate agents between the
Deity and the brute are as much in the place of
a soul to the latter, as the Supreme Intelligence
would be if his action upon them were imme-
diate, so that the same irrational animal would
be alternately a machine impelled by a good or
evil intelHgence. According to this hypothesis,
the bee, that symbol of wisdom, when she sets
out upon her beneficent errand of collecting
honey and pollen, is acted upon by the good
angel ; but, if she meets with any thing that
excites her fear or her anger, she is stimulated
to take vengeance upon the object of her dis-
pleasure, and to make him feel the puncture of
her poisoned dart, by the evil one.
This can never be admitted. The same ob-
jection too lies against this hypothesis as against
the last, that it does not account for the mistakes
sometimes made by the animal when endeavour^
ing to accomplish its instinct. It cannot be
supposed that, in the case before mentioned, the
intelhgent intermediate agent would stimulate
the flesh-fly to deposit her eggs upon the blos-
soms of the carrion plant, where the young must
inevitably perish from hunger, instead of upon
real flesh.
INSTINCT. 235
I am next to consider whether instinct be
the result of the intellectual powers of the
animal itself that exhibits it. If we survey
the different tribes of the animal kingdom,
we shall find a vast difference between them
with respect to intellect. That wonderful pulp,
which of all substances is alone able to respond
to incorporeal agency : to receive and store
up the information collected by the organs of
sensation, that it may be ready for future use,
and which is the seat of the intellectual faculties,
that wonderful pulp appears under very dif-
ferent circumstances in the different Classes of
animals ; but it has not been made evident that
the acuteness of the intellect, though in some
instances it seems to do so,^ depends altogether
upon the comparative volume of the brain ; for
that of the mouse, compared with its size, is
greater than that of the half-reasoning elephant.^
Man indeed, generally speaking, has the largest
brain of all animals, but it seems a singular
anomaly that persons of very weak intellects
have often disproportionately large heads, indi-
cating a great volume of brain. When we leave
the vertebrated animals, we find the nervous
1 The brain of the elephant is five times the size of that of the
rhinoceros, being as 182 to 35. The space for the brain is
smaller in the parrot than in any other bird. Lit. Gaz. May 28,
1831. Fhilos. Trans. 1822. 42.
2 Cuv. Anat. Comp. ii. 148.
236 INSTINCT.
system, in most, materially altered and de-
graded, so that more power is given apparently
to instinct and less to intellect. In other ani-
mals, as we descend, the nervous system be-
comes more and more dispersed, so that in those
at the foot of the scale we discern no traces of
intellect, and very few of instinct ; and only so
much apparent sensation as is necessary for the
purposes of nutrition and reproduction. I have
made the above observations because they bear
in some degree on the question now before us.
For if we pay due attention to the proceedings of
animals, we shall find that those whose nervous
system is cerebral usually exhibit the most
striking proofs of intellectual action, are most
capable of instruction, and are less remarkable
for the complexity and intenseness of their in-
stincts ; while those of the next grade, whose
nervous system is ganglionic, as far as we know
them, though not devoid of intellect, are endued
with a much smaller portion of it, while their
instinctive operations are all but miraculous, and
that where the nervous system is still less con-
centrated both are greatly weakened, till at the
bottom of the scale they almost disappear.
From hence it seems to follow that extraordi-
nary instinctive powers are not the result of
extraordinary intellectual ones.
But when we reflect further, that even in
cases where the instincts are most complex and
INSTINCT. 237
wonderful, the animal practises them infallibly,
without guide or direction, and is as expert at
them when it first emerges into life, as when it
has been long engaged in the practice of them ;
it follows that it must be instructed in them
from the first moment of its existence in the
state in which it exercises them, by an infallible
teacher. The bee, the moment it emerges from
the pupa, begins to collect honey and pollen,
and to perform all the other manipulations that
belong to her instincts.
In the higher animals the case is somewhat
different. When they emerge into life, from
the womb, or from the egg, it is usually in a
state of helplessness, in which at first they can
do little or nothing for themselves but suck, or
receive food from, their dam. As their organiza-
tion developes they gradually gain new powers,
till they arrive at their acme, or age of puberty.
The young beaver generally remains with its
parents till it is three years old, when they
couple, and build a cabin for themselves and
offspring. The unfledged bird remains quietly
in its nest, and is content to receive its food and
warmth from its parents, but no sooner are its
feathers grown, and its beaked prow and plumy
oars and rudder fit it to win its way, in the
ocean of air, than, incited by parental exhorta-
tions, it makes the attempt, and henceforth is
equal to support itself, and to fulfill the biddings
238 INSTINCT.
of instinct as well as of intellect and appetite-
This storge stimulates the parent animal while
its care of its young is necessary to them and
then ceases. This is therefore chiefly instinc-
tive ; but in the most intellectual of all animals,
where instinctive love ceases, rational love be-
gins ; and care and anxiety for the welfare of
our oflspring, and affectionate regard for their
persons, continues after they cease to have any
need of our help and attention.
It is not always easy in this tribe of animals
to distinguish those actions that are purely in-
stinctive from those that are not so, and writers
on this subject, as was before observed, often
ascribe to instinct actions that are produced by
other causes. Animals of the higher grades, by
means of their organs of sensation, acquire ideas
upon which they in some sort reason, by com-
paring one with another ; thus they get ex-
perience, and as they grow older literally grow
wiser. Hence we see old ones often very
cunning and expert in removing obstacles, find-
ing their way, and the like.
With regard to truly instinctive actions, they
invariably follow the developement of the or-
ganization ; are neither the result of instruction,
nor of observation and experience, but the action
of some external agency upon the organization,
which is fitted by the Omniscient Creator to
respond to its action.
INSTINCT. 239
Indeed, if intellect was the sole fountain of
those operations usually denominated instinctive,
animals, though they sought the same end,
would vary more or less in the path they seve-
rally took to arrive at it ; they would require
some instruction and practice before they could
be perfect in their operations ; the new born
bee would not immediately be able to rear a cell,
nor know where to go for the materials, till some
one of riper experience had directed her. But
experience and observation have nothing to do
with her proceedings. She feels an indomitable
appetite which compels her to take her flight
from the hive when the state of the atmosphere
is favourable to her purpose. Her organs of
sight — which though not gifted v/ith any power
of motion, are so situated as to enable her to see
whatever passes above, below, and on each side
of her — enable her to avoid any obstacles, and to
thread her devious way through the numerous
and intertwining branches of shrubs and flowers ;
some other sense directs her to those which con-
tain the precious articles she is in quest of.
But though her senses guide her in her flight,
and indicate to her where she may most
profitably exercise her talent, they must then
yield her to the impulse and direction of
her instincts, which this happy and industri-
ous little creature plies with indefatigable dili-
gence and energy, till having completed her
240 INSTINCT.
lading of nectar and ambrosia, she returns to the
common habitation of her people, with whom
she unites in labours before described,^ for the
general benefit of the community to which she
belongs.
More reasons might be adduced to prove that
intellect is not the great principle of instinct, but
enough seems to have been said to establish
that point. It should be borne in mind, however,
that though intellect is not the great principle,
yet it must be admitted that all animals gifted
with the ordinary organs of sensation, more or
less employ their intellect in the whole routine
of their instinctive operations, as I shall show
under another head.
2. But if no metaphysical power can be satis-
factorily demonstrated to be the immediate cause
of instinct, then it seems to follow that it must
be either a physical one, or one partly physical
and partly metaphysical.
In the former case, it must be the action of
some physical power or agent, employed by the
Deity, and under his guidance so as to work his
will, upon the organization of the animal ; which
must be so constructed as to respond to that
action in a certain way, or by the exhibition of
certain phenomena peculiar to the individual
genus or species.
1 See above, p. 187, and Introd. to Ent. ii. 173.
INSTINCT. 241
Mr. Addison has observed — '' There is not, in
my opinion, any thing more mysterious in na-
ture than this mstinct in animals, which thus
rises above reason, and falls infinitely short of
it. It cannot be accounted for by any properties
in matter, and at the same time works after so
odd a manner, that one cannot think it the
faculty of an intelligent being. For my own
part, I look upon it as upon the principle of
Gravitation in bodies, which is not to be ex-
plained by any known qualities inherent in the
bodies themselves, nor from any laws of me-
chanism, but according to the best notions of
the greatest philosophers, is an immediate im-
pression from the First Mover, and the Divine
Energy acting in the creatures."^
I have quoted this passage not as if Addison
intended to patronize the hypothesis now before
me, but to refer to his illustration of instinct by
comparing it with Gravity. If Gravity be the
result of physical agency, and not an immediate
impression of the First Mover, so may Instinct
be likev/ise. Reasoning from analogy it seems
inconsistent with the customary method of the
Divine proceedings with regard to man, and this
visible system of which he is the most important
part — for a being that combines in himself
matter and spirit, must be more important than
' Spectator, ii. n. 120.
VOL. IT. K
242 INSTINCT.
a whole world that does not combine spirit with
matter — to act immediately upon any thing but
spirit, except by the intermediate agency of
some physical though subtile substance, em-
powered by him to act as his vicegerent in
nature, and to execute the law that has received
his sanction.
If we consider the effects produced by the
great physical powers of the heavens, by what-
ever name we distinguish them : that they form
the instrument by which God maintains the
whole universe in order and beauty ; produces
the cohesion of bodies; regulates and supports
the motions, annual and diurnal, of the earth
and other planets ; prescribes to some an ec-
centric orbit, extending, probably, into other
systems;^ causes satellites to attend upon and
revolve round their primary planets ; and not
only this, but by a kind of conservative energy
empowers them to prevent any dislocations in
the vast machine ; and any destructive aberra-
tions arising from the action of these mighty
orbs upon each other. If we consider further
what God effects both upon and within every
individual sphere and system, throughout the
whole universe, by the constant action of those
viceregal powers, if I may so call them, that
rule under him, whatever name we give them ;
1 La P/«ce. E. T. ii. 337. 341.
INSTINCT. 243
I say, if we duly consider what these powers
actually effect, it will require no great stretch of
faith to believe that they may be the inter-agents
by which the Deity acts upon animal organiza-
tions and structures to produce all their varied
instincts.
An eminent French zoologist^ has illustrated
the change of instincts, resulting from the modi-
fication of the nervous system, which takes
place in a butterfly, in the transit to its perfect
or imago state from the caterpillar, by a novel
and striking simile. He compares the animal
to a portable or hand organ, in which, on a
cylinder that can be made to revolve, several
tunes are noted ; turn the cylinder and the tune
for which it is set is played ; draw it out a notch
and it gives a second ; and so you may go on
till the whole number of tunes noted on it have
had their turn. This, happily enough, represents
the change which appears to take place in the
vertebral chord and its ganglions on the meta-
morphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly,
and the sequence of new instincts which result
from the change. But if we extend the com-
parison, we may illustrate by it the two spheres of
organized beings that we find on our globe, and
their several instinctive changes and operations.
We may suppose each kingdom of nature to be
' Dr. Virey.
244 INSTINCT.
represented by a separate cylinder, havin
noted upon it as many tunes as there are species
differing in their respective instincts — for plants
may be regarded, in some sense, as having their
instincts as well as animals — and that the con-
stant impulse of an invisible agent causes each
cylinder to play in a certain order all the tunes
noted upon it : this will represent, not unaptly,
what takes place, with regard to the develope-
ment of instincts, in the vegetable and animal
kingdoms ; and our simile will terminate in the
enquiry, whose may be that invisible hand that
thus shakes the sistrum of Isis,^ and produces
that universal harmony of action, resulting from
that due intermixture of concords and discords,
according to the will of its Almighty Author, in
that infinitely diversified and ever moving sphere
of beings which we call nature.^
What, if the powers lately mentioned, and
which, in the Introduction to the present work,
I hope I have made it appear, are synonymous
with the physical Cherubim of the Holy Scrip-
tures, or the heavens in action which under God
govern the universe ; what, if these powers —
employed as they are by the Deity so universally
to effect his Almighty will in the upholding of
the worlds in their stated motions, and prevent-
^ The Sistrum of Isis symbolized the elements,
^ ^vcric TTCivaioXt].
INSTINCT. 215
ing their aberrations, — should also be the inter-
mediate agents, which by their action on plants
and animals produce every physical develope-
raent and instinctive operation, unless where
God himself decrees a departure that circum-
stances may render necessary from any law
that he has established ?
With regard to the vegetable kingdom, con-
sisting of organized beings without sense or
voluntary motion, few would deny that they are
subject to the dominion of the elements, and
respond to the action of those mysterious powers
that rule, under God, in nature. But when the
query is concerning the animal kingdom, most
of the members of which to organization and life
add a will and powers of voluntary motion, and
many have a degree of intelligence residing
within them which governs many of their actions,
we hesitate as to the answer we shall return to it.
It will furnish a presumptive proof that those
actions which are instinctive in animals are the
results of the action of those intermediate powers
to which I have just alluded, if it can be shewn,
that there is any thing in plants at all analogous
to the instincts of animals, for if there be, one
can scarcely suppose that they are produced
by a different cause. Let us, therefore, now
leaving the animal kingdom, — which to us
perhaps appears the sole theatre in which in-
stincts manifest themselves, — and turning our
246 INSTINCT.
attention to the vegetable, inquire whether any-
thing analogous to these springs of action is
discoverable there.
One remarkable distinction, between the ani-
mal and the vegetable is in the difference of the
principles that form their pabulum. The former
does not become the nutriment of the latter till
it is chemically decomposed ; whereas the latter
becomes the food of the former, either in its
green, or ripe state, and is not decomposed and
turned to nutriment till it is passed into its
stomach, and is subject to various actions of
various organs, or their products, so that, though
the food of both is decomposed in order to be
assimilated, yet with regard to the vegetable
this happens before it enters it, but to the animal
after it enters it, the decomposing powers being
without the plant and within the animal. In
the former case it is the action of the atmosphere
unassisted by the organization of the plant — in
the latter it is the same action assisted by the
organization of the animal.
Another thing may be here observed — that as
the most remarkable instincts of animals are
those connected with the propagation of the
species, so the analogue of these instincts in
plants is the developement of these parts pecu-
liarly connected with the production of the seed
■ — so that the expanded flower and the operations
INSTINCT. 247
going on in it is the analogue of the reproduc-
tive instinct of the animal : this is all produced
by physical action upon the organization of the
plant. Now if we consider the infinite variety
of plants, and the wonderful diversity of their
parts of fructification, and that these are all
produced in their several seasons and stations
by the action of some physical powers upon
their varied organization, and by means of the
soil in which they are planted, we shall think
it nearly as wonderful and unaccountable as the
instinctive operations of the various creatures
that feed upon them. That the same action
should unfold such an infinite variety of forms
in one case and instincts in the other is equally
astounding and equally difficult to explain. —
Compare the sunflower and the hive-bee, the
compound flowers of the one, and the aggregate
of combs of the other — the receptacle with its
seeds, and the combs with the grubs.
Again, as all plants have their appropriate
fructification, so they have other peculiarities
connected with their situation, nutriment, and
mode of life, corresponding in some measure
with these instincts that belong to other parts of
an animal's economy. Some with a climbing or
voluble stem, constantly turn one way, and some
as constantly turn another. Thus the hop
twines from the left to the right, while the bind-
248 INSTINCT.
weed goes from right to left ; ^ others close their
leaves in the night, and seem to go to sleep ;
others shew a remarkable degree of irritability
when touched ; the blossoms of many, as the
sunflower, follow the sun from his rising to his
setting ; some blossoms shut up, as in the
anemone, till the sun shines upon them ; others
close at a certain hour of the day, as the goats-
beard;^ another, Hedysaniyn gi/rans, slowly re-
volves. The same physical action upon a pecu-
liar organization produces all these effects.
We may further observe that the great majority
of plants send forth radicles which presenting
their points to the sources of vegetable life and
nutrition on all sides, absorb each its portion,
and convey it to the stem from which they
issue ; analogous, in this respect, to the polypes,
which unfold and expand their tentacles for a
similar purpose. Ivy planted against a wall or
trunk of a tree supports itself by innumerable
radicles, but I once saw a plant reared as a
standard which sent forth none. This seems
analogous to some animal instincts, which, de-
pending upon circumstances, may be called
conditional; as when, in the case of a sterile
queen, the bees do not, as usual, massacre the
drones.^
' See Wilkl. Princip. of Botany, § 18. n. 51. «. b. Plate ii.
/. 32, 25.
^ Tragopogon. ^ Introd. to Etit. ii. Lett. xx.
INSTINCT. 249
There is another parallelism between the plant
and the animal, especially the insect, which
appears to prove that their instincts are ruled by
the same physical agent, I mean their liyher-
nation. In extratropical countries, or a great
proportion of them, as the year declines, and the
amount of heat, received from its great fountain,
is diminished by the shortening of the days, the
deciduous trees and shrubs cast their leaves,
plants of every description cease more or less
their growth, and all vegetable nature seems to
become torpid. At the same period, and under
the influence of the same cause, the decrease of
the amount of caloric, several of the higher ani-
mals, all the reptiles, as well as nearly the whole
world of insects, retire from the exercise of their
wonted instincts, and conceal themselves, some
under the earth, and others under bark, under
stones, in crevices, moss, and similar hiding
places, where they take their winter's sleep, till
a more genial temperature whispers to them —
Awake — and they return to their several employ-
ments. This effect in both the plant and the
animal, seems to spring from the same physical
cause — the periodical lowering of the tempe-
rature ; so that heat appears to be the plectrum,
and the organization of the animal, the strings
it touches, which cause it to exhibit the pre-
scribed sequence of its instincts. Whoever has
been in the habit of attending to the motions of
250 INSTINCT.
i?isectswil[ find them most alert in sultry weather,
especially in an electric state of the atmosphere
before a thunder storm. Heat and electricity
also accelerate the growth of plants, if duly sup-
plied with moisture.
It is remarkable, and worthy of particular
observation, verifying the old adage that extremes
meet, that an approach towards the maximum
of heat produces sometimes the same effects
upon organized nature that an approach towards
the minimum does. In tropical countries they
do not divide the year into winter and summer,
but into the rainy and dry seasons ; as to tempe-
rature, the former would, perhaps, be judged to
correspond with our winter, and the latter with
our summer, but with respect to the state of
animals and vegetables, the reverse would ap-
pear to be most consistent with facts. The
great rains, according to M. Lacordaire,' ** begin
to fall in Brazil about the middle of September,
when all nature seems to awake from its peri-
odical repose ; vegetation resumes a more lively
tint, and the greater part of plants renew their
leaves ; the insects begin to reappear : in Oc-
tober the rains are rather more frequent, and
with them the insects ; but it is not till towards
the middle of November, when the rainy season
is definitively set in, that ail the families appear
' Annul, dcs Sc. Natur. xx. Juin. 1830. 193.
INSTINCT. 251
suddenly to develope themselves ; and this
general impulse that all nature seems to receive
continues augmenting till the middle of January,
when it attains its acme. The forests present
then an aspect of movement and life of which
our woods in Europe can give no idea. During
part of the day we hear a vast and uninterrupted
hum, in which the deafening cry of the tree-
hopper^ prevails ; and you cannot take a step, or
touch a leaf, without putting insects to flight.
At 1 1 a. m. the heat is become insupportable,
and all animated nature becomes torpid— the
noise diminishes — the insects, and other animals
disappear — and are seen no more till the evening.
Then, when the atmosphere is again cool, to the
matin species succeed others whose office it is to
embellish the nights of the torrid zone. I am
speaking of the glow-worms^ and fire-flies ;^
whilst the former, issuing by myriads from their
retreats, overspread the plants and shrubs ; the
latter crossing each other in all directions, weave
in the air, as it were, a luminous web, the light
of which they diminish or augment at pleasure.
This brilliant illumination only ceases when the
night gives place to the day.
As during our winters, some part of the insect
population occasionally appear and dance in the
sunbeam, so in Brazil, according to M. Lacor-
^ Tettigonia, Cicada, &c. " Lamjjyris. Pygolampis. K,
^ Elater noctilucus, &c,
VOL. II. 11 fi
2/)2 INSTINCT.
(laire, during the months of May, June, July,
and August, the season of great drought, when
all nature is embrowned, and consequently
affords no proper food for perfect insects ; the
caterpillars of Lepidoptera are those mostly to be
met with, while in the rainy season those only
that live in society occur.
The great object of the Creator appears to be
the employment of the various tribes of animals,
to do the work for which he created them at its
proper season ; and where the object is parti-
cularly to keep within due limits the growth of
plants, or to remove dead or putrescent substances
before they generate miasmata, we may conjec-
ture, that when their services are not wanted,
they would be allowed a season of repose, so
that during winter with us, when there is little
or no vegetation of the plant, and a hot sun does
not cause putrescent substances to exhale un-
wholesome effluvia, the great body of labourers
in these departments, we may say, are sent to
bed for a time, till their labours are again ne-
cessary. So also in tropical countries, where
drought and heat united are sufficient to do the
work of nature's pruners and scavengers, by
stopping vegetation, and immediately drying up
animal and other substances, before putridity
takes place, they then abstract themselves, and
retreat to their winter quarters ; but when the
rainy season revives the face of nature, they
INSTINCT. 253
return, each to exercise his appointed function,
at the bidding of his Creator.
All these circumstances indicate an analogy
between certain phenomena observable in the
history of plants, and some of the instincts of
animals: and tend to prove that the proximate
cause of both may be very nearly related ; and
that as the immediate cause of the vegetable
instinct is clearly piti/sical, so may be that of the
animal. With regard to all actions, in the
latter, which are the result of intellect, the}^ of
course, are produced by some principle residing
within, as when the senses guide it, or it exer-
cises its memory ; and these aid it in following
the impulse of instinct. The greatest of modern
chemists has observed, with respect to some
such agent, " that the immediate connection
between the sentient principle and the body
may be established by kinds of etherial matter,
which can never be evident to the senses, and
which may bear the same relation to heat, light,
and electricity, that these refined forms or modes
of existence bear to the gases." ^ I may observe
upon this passage, that the farther any matter is
removed from our knowledge and coercion, the
more powerftd it really is. Thus liquids are
more powerful than solids, gases than liquids,
imponderable fluids than gases, and so we may
* Consolations in Travel, 214.
2o4 INSTINCT.
keep ascending till we approach the conifines of
spirit, which will lead us to the foot of the throne
of the Deity himself, the Spirit of spirits, the
only Almighty, the only All-wise, and the only
All-good.
Dr. Henry More, a very eminent philosopher
and divine of the seventeenth century, under the
name of the Spirit of Nature, speaks of a power
between matter and spirit, which he describes
as — " A substance incorporeal, but without sense
and animadversion, pervading the whole matter
of the universe, and exercising a plastical power
therein, according to the sundry predispositions
and occasions in the parts it works upon, raising
such phenomena in the world, by directing the
parts of matter and their motion, as cannot be
resolved into mere mechanical powers — which
goes through and assists all corporeal beings,
and is the vicarious power of God upon the
universal matter of the world. This suggests to
the spider the fancy of spinning and weaving
her web ; and to the hee of the framing of her
honey-comb ; and especially to the silk-ivorm of
conglomerating her both funeral and natal clue ;
and to the bii^ds of building their nests, and of
their so diligent hatching their eggs."^
This Spirit of Nature of Dr. More seems not
very different from the Etherial Matter of Sir
' On the Immortality of the Soul, B. iii. c. 12, 13.
INSTINCT. 255
H. Davy ; and it is singular, that Dr. Paris, in
his interesting life of our great chemist — speak-
ing of a monument to be erected to his memory
at Penzance — should thus express himself. *' It
was to be erected on one of those elevated spots
of silence and solitude where he delighted, in
his boyish days, to commune with the elements,
and where the Spirit of Nature moulded his
genius in one of her wildest moods." ^
But — to return from this digression to Sir H.
Davy's etherial matter bearing the same relation
to heat, light, and electricity, that they do to the
gases — I would ask, if such may be the powers
by which the soul moves the body, and produces
those actions that are in our own power to do or
not to do, depending upon the will, does it seem
incongruous that light, heat, and air, or any
modification of them, upon which every animal
depends for life and breath, and nutrition and
growth, and all things, should be employed by
the Deity to excite and direct them, where their
intellect cannot, in their instinctive operations?
That their organization, as to their instruments
of manducation, motion, manipulation, 8cc. has a
reference to their instincts every one owns ; can
we not, therefore, conceive that the organization
of the brain and nervous system may be so
varied and formed by the Creator, as to respond,
1 Life of Sir H. Davy, 4to. edit. 517.
250 INSTINCT.
in the way that he wills, to pulses upon them
from the physical powers of nature ; so as to
excite animals to certain operations for which
they were evidently constructed, in a way ana-
logous to the excitement of appetite? The new-
born babe has no other teacher to tell it that its
mother's breast will supply it with its proper
nutriment ; it cries for it ; it spontaneously ap-
plies its mouth to it ; and presses it under the
bidding of appetite resulting from its organi-
zation. When it arrives at the age of dentition,
it as naturally uses its teeth for mastication ; it
wants no instructor to inform it how they are to
be employed to effect that purpose ; and so with
respect to other appetites which the further
developement of its organs produces.
It may, perhaps, be urged, in the case lately
alluded to, of the infant growing up to puberty,
that the instinctive operations that take place
under the bidding of appetite fall under the
general law of instinct ; but it must be admitted
that the gradual developement of the organi-
zation is the consequence of the action of phy-
sical powers in the processes going on in the
body. Or, as a learned writer on the subject
asks, — " In eifect is instinct any thing else, but
the manifestation without of that same wisdom
which directs, in the interior of our body, all oiu'
vital functions."^
1 Dr. Virey. N. D. D'Hist. Nat. xvi. 293.
INSTINCT. 257
Having rendered it probable that those in-
stincts, which result evidently from what are
called bodily appetites, are the consequences
merely of physical action upon an organization
adapted to respond to it, I shall next inquire
whether this may not be the case in instances
which are not to be regarded in that light.
We may divide instincts into three general
heads : —
a. Those relating to the multiplication of the
species, especially the care of animals for their
young both before and after birth.
/3. Those relating to their food.
y. Those relating to their Hybernation.
a. The pairing of animals usually begins to
take place in the spring, when the winter is
passed, the earth is covered with verdure and
adorned by the various flowers that now expand
their blossoms, in proportion as the great centre
of light and heat more and more manifests his
power over the earth ; the birds sing their
love-songs ; the nightingale is now — *' Most
musical, most melancholy ;" — the cuckoo repeats
his monotonous note ; and every other animal
seems to partake of the universal joy. All this
appears the result of a physical rather than a
metaphysical excitement.
As to their care of their future progeny, a
great variety of circumstances take place. Vivi-
VOL. II. s
258 INSTINCT.
parous animals have generally to give suck to
their young for a time ; oviparous ones either to
construct a nest to receive their eggs, and, after
hatching, to provide them with appropriate food
during a certain period, or to deposit their eggs
where their young progeny, as soon as hatched,
may infallibly find it. But first, I must say
something of that Storge, or instinctive affection,
which is almost universally exhibited by females
for their progeny both before and after par-
turition ; a feeling of affection not generally
common to the males, or rather only in a few
instances, as where the male bird assists the
female in incubation. Yet this instinctive fond-
ness, as soon as it ceases to be necessary,
vanishes ; except, as was before observed,^ in the
human species ; a fact that seems to prove that
it is not the result of the association of ideas,
but of an impress of the Creator interwoven with
the frame. But that this impress is by means
of a physical interagent, seems to follow from
this circumstance — that the hen shows the same
instinctive attachment to the young ducklings
that have been hatched under her, that she
would do to chickens, the produce of her own
eggs ; and if the new-born offspring of any
mammiferous animal is abstracted from her, and
another substituted, even of a different kind,
1 See above, p. 238. :,
INSTINCT. 259
the same affectionate tenderness is manifested
towards it, as its own real offspring would have
experienced. Now was it a metaphysical, and
not a physical, impulse, surely this would not be
the case. This is only one of many instances,
which prove that instinct is not infallible : and,
in truth, with regard to the higher animals, many
associations may take place between the child
and parent that help to endear the former to the
latter. In the first place, the very circumstance
of its being the fruit of her own bowels, and
fed with milk from her own breast must bind
it to her by the tenderest of ties ; especially as,
at the same time, it relieves her from what is
troublesome. There is something also in infant
helplessness, and infant gambols, calculated to
wdn upon the doting mother. The subsequent
alienation and estrangement of the female from
her young, which takes place in all animals
except man, appears, in the first instance, to be
produced by their becoming troublesome and
annoying to her ; which, in some degree, may
account for her desire to cast them off. Exa-
mining the subject, therefore, on all sides, in the
highest grades of animals, and those in whom
maternal affection appears most intense, intellect
and associations may be a good deal mixed with
instinct in producing it. As we descend in the
scale, the intensity of the feeling seems much
reduced; and, in numerous tribes, is confined
260 INSTINCT.
solely to the circumstances of parturition. So
that the Storge, and its cessation, do not appear
altogether so extraordinary and unaccountable
as a cursory view might tend to persuade us.
The 31a7umaliaus, in general, appear to have
recourse to very few striking preparatory actions
previously to bringing forth their young, since
they have usually no nest to prepare for their
reception. Cats, however, it may be observed,
search about very inquisitively for a snug
and concealed station ; and burrowing animals
naturally retire to the bottom of their burrows,
when their feelings tell them their hour is come,
and there are relieved of their precious burthen.
Several others of the Rodentia, or gnawers, as
the dormouse, make beds of their own hair to
receive their young. In most cases that fall
under our daily observation, the young are
dropped where the mother happens to be when
the pains of labour overtake her. The animals
we are speaking of have at hand immediately a
plentiful supply of food for the nutriment of
their new-born offspring ; they have not, like
the birds, to search for provision for them, but,
from their own bodies, furnish them with a
delicious fluid suited to their state, which forms
their support till they are able to crop and digest
the herbage, when they are left to shift for
themselves. Some are born more independent
of maternal care than others ; thus domestic
INSTINCT. 201
animals, as the calf, the lamb, and the young
colt, can move about almost as soon as they are
born, and can immediately use their organs of
sight ; whereas the progeny of beasts of prey
usually come into the world blind, and some
time elapses before they can run about, so that
the dam, if she wishes to remove them, must
carry them herself, which she generally does, in
her mouth.
As the proper food of herbivorous quadrupeds
is almost every where abundant, they are soon
tempted, without the intervention of the mother,
to browse upon the herbage : but the pre-
daceous beast whose food must be pursued and
captured, takes more pains to instruct her
young how to maintain themselves ; thus the
cat lays the mouse or bird, that she has caught,
before her kittens ; and it is laughable to
observe how they are excited, and with what
resolution and ferocity the little furies endeavour
to keep possession of the prey their dam has
brought to them.
But of all classes of animals the birds are the
most remarkable for the labours they undergo
preparatory to laying their eggs. In those that
migrate a long aerial voyage is previously to be
undertaken, the stimulus to which, in the swal-
low, appears to be altogether physical,^ and is
1 Vol. I. p. 102. See Jenuer, Philos. Trans. 1824, 20.
V () L . 1 1 . S3 •
262 INSTINCT.
probably so in other migrators. But what is it
that directs them in their flight, and enables
them to return to the countries from which
they had migrated? Did the swallow^ steer her
course within sight of land, it might, perhaps,
be supposed that her memory was her director :
but these birds are often found at sea, hundreds
of miles from any shore,^ where, one would
think, there could be no index either in the
clouds or the ocean to instruct them which way to
steer their adventurous course. The only atmos-
pheric phenomenon affecting them would be the
change of temperature as they went northward.
But we can only conjecture in this case — obser-
vation, as well as scripture, tells us, indeed.
The storJc in the heaven knoiveth her appointed
times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the
swallow observe the time of their coming,^ but,
God, who decrees the end, appoints the means,
which often remain amongst his Secret Things.
Yet, though the immediate agent that guides
the swallow over the expanse of water, from the
torrid to the temperate zone is latent, we may
still inquire, when she has made the shores of
Britain, what is it that urges her to seek her old
vicinity, and to build her nest in the very spot
where she herself first drew breath, as Dr. Jen-
ner's experiments prove that swallows do ?^
1 Hirundo rustica. ^ Philos. Trans, ubi supr. 13.
^ Jerem. viii. 7. "* Philos. Trans, ubi supr. 16.
INSTINCT. 203
Here may we not conjecture that her mtellect
and memory become her guides ? She recog-
nizes the spot in which she committed herself
to the sea breeze ; and there, probably, again
flies inland, and will have no great difficulty in
pursuing the line of country which leads to her
native village, and to the very roof under the
eaves of which she was born.
But of all the instincts of the feathered. part
of the creation, there is none more remarkable,
more varied, and more worthy of admiration
than that which directs them in the situation
and structure of their nests.— One nidificates
upon the ground;^ another under ground, or in
the sand ;^ some select the chimney or eaves of
houses for their clay-built structures;^ those
gelatinous nests, which the Chinese epicures
and orators so highly prize, are formed in
caverns and dark places by the little bird* whose
work they are. The great majority, however,
nidificate in trees and bushes, and where they
are within reach their nests are carefully con-
cealed.
The structure and materials of nests are also
infinitely various, and may be considered to
result, as well as all the proceedings of animals
with regard to their young, from an excitement
analogous to that which Dr. Jenner first noticed
i Motacilla Troglodytes. ^ Hirundo riparia.
3 H. rustica et urbica. ^ H. esculenta.
264 INSTINCT.
in the swallow;^ upon which he observes—
" The economy of the animal seems to be regu-
lated by some external impulse which leads to
a train of consequences,"^ and w^hich does not
cease its action till it has accomplished the end
for which it was given ; namely, the procreation ;
oviposition preceded by nidification ; incubation ;
hatching, or birth ; nutrition and education of
the young progeny of each individual kind,
according to the general law of the Creator.
We know very little of the proceedings of the
remaining Classes of Vertebrates — which are
distinguished by having cold blood — the Rep-
tiles, namely, and the Fishes ; except that they
do not feel that instinctive love for their young,
after birth, exhibited by the quadrupeds and
birds. They, however, are invariably instructed
by the Creator to select a proper place in which
to deposit their eggs where they can be hatched
either by artificial or solar heat. Those of some
Ophidians, as snakes, are buried in sand, and
not seldom even in heaps of fermenting manure ;
while those of venomous ones are hatched in the
womb of the dam, and come forth in the ser-
pentine form. The Saurians also select a pro-
per place for their eggs, and then desert them ;
the crocodile buries hers in the sands near the
river ; where many, however, are devoured by
» Philos. Trans. 1824. 20. ' Ibid. 26.
INSTINCT. 2G5
the ichneumon, and its other enemies, and are
even relished by man. In the Batrachian Order
one species of salamander^ commits a single egg
to a leaf of the Persicaria, which it protects by
carefully doubling the leaf, and then, proceeding
to another, repeats the same manoeuvre, till her
oviposition is finished :^ the toads miid frog s lay
their eggs in the water, the former producing
two long strings resembling necklaces, formed,
as it were, of beads of jet, inclosed in crystal;
while those of the latter consist of irregular
masses of similar beads. This gelatinous or
transparent envelope forms the first nutriment
of the embryo. The nuptial song of the Reptiles
is not, like that of birds, the delight of every
heart, but is rather calculated to disturb and
horrify than to still the soul. The hiss of ser-
pents ; the croaking of frogs and toads; the
moaning of turtles ; the bellowing of crocodiles
and alligators,^ form their gamut of discords.
With regard to the Class of Fishes, the general
object of those that migrate appears to be the
casting of their spawn ; this it is that causes the
different species of the salmon genus to leave the
sea for the rivers ; for this the herring travels
southward, and the mackarel seeks the north ;
all of them guided by the law of the Most High,
shewing itself by an indomitable instinct, to
^ Salamandra platycauda.
^ Edinh. Phil. Journ. ix. 110. ' See Vol. I. p. 32.
260 INSTINCT.
seek those stations for oviposition that are best
suited to the aeration, hatching, and rearing of
their spawn ; — but as no very striking traits are
upon record with regard to the oviposition of
fishes, I shall merely refer the reader, with
respect to the instinct of the migrators, to a
former part of the present work, where that
subject is discussed more at large. ^
Under this head I shall only further notice
the numerous tribes of the iJisect world, which
have all their seasons, varying according to their
several destinies, for fulfilling the great law of
nature, and to which the organization of each
species is adapted : and when the period for
laying their eggs is arrived each is directed to
place them where their young, when disclosed,
may find their appropriate nutriment. From
the instance of the flesh-fly, above related,^ we
learn that it is their scent that directs insects to
a proper station for their eggs. When we re-
collect that every plant, almost, is the destined
food of some peculiar insect, we may conjecture
that the sense of smelling must, in them, be far
more nice than in the higher animals, so as to
enable them to distinguish from all others the
appropriate nutriment of their own descendents.
Where the parent, as is sometimes the case,
feeds upon the same plant with the children,
' See Vol. I. p. 107. 2 g^e above, p. 231.
INSTINCT. 2(J7
she requires no such guide, but with respect to
the majority of insects, especially the infinite
host of Lepidoptera, — which, after they arrive
at their perfect state, never touch what forms
their nutriment while they are larves, — some
such guide is absolutely necessary.
|3. Another Class of Instincts relates to the
different modes by which animals procure their
food. Nothing affords a more striking proof of
Creative Wisdom, and of the most wonderful
adaptation of means to an end, than the diver-
sities of structure with a view to this particular
function. If we consider the infinite variety of
substances, animal and vegetable, produced from
the earth, which form the nutriment of its in-
habitants — some solid and not easily penetrable ;
others soft and readily severed and comminuted ;
others again fluid, or semi-fluid ; — we may con-
ceive what a vast diversity of organs is necessary
to effect this purpose. To render solid food, of
any kind, fit for deglutition and digestion, the
same mouth must be furnished with several
kinds of teeth, some for incision, others for
laceration, others again for grinding and mas-
tication — while those that only absorb liquids
merely require an organ adapted for suction,
though often, at the same time, fitted to pierce the
substance from which the nutritive fluid is to be
derived. How various, also, must be the organs
268 INSTINCT.
for swallowing, and digesting the food according
to its nature ; others for elaborating it, and
abstracting from it all those substances that are
required by the several systems at work in the
body, and conveying them to their proper sta-
tions ; and the means also for rejecting from the
body the residuum after the secernment for the
above purposes of the finer life-supporting pro-
ducts. Here are a variety of organs, admirable
in their structure, and fitted for action in an
infinity of ways ; some at the bidding of the will
stimulated by the appetite ; others independent
of the will, such are the distillations, percola-
tions, chemical and electrical processes, con-
stantly going on in the body of every animal,
to separate all the products that its nature and
functions require, all speak of a mechanical
agency at work within, not independent in its
operation, but fulfilling a law which must be
obeyed.^ It has been found that Galvanic action
will supply the place of the icill upon the nerves
and muscles, for by it the eyes can be opened,
and other muscular movements be produced in
a dead body.^ Sir H. Davy was of opinion that
the air inspired carries with it into the blood a
subtile or ethereal part probably producing
animal heat, since those animals that possess
1 See Dr. Roget's excellent statements on these subjects,
jB. T. ii. chap. iii. — ix.
2 See Dr. Wilson Philip in Philos. Trans. 1829. 271, 278,
INSTINCT. 269
the highest temperature consume the greatest
quantity of air, and those, that consume the
smallest quantity, are cold blooded/
The herbivorous Mammalians are generally
not remarkable for any artificial means of pro-
curing their food. Providence has spread a
table before them, and invites them to partake
of it, without any other trouble, than bending
their necks to eat it ; but the carnivorous ones,
— as their destined pabulum is endued with
locomotive powers, which enable it often to
escape from them, and disappoint their expec-
tations, — must have recourse to stratagems, and
lie in wait for their prey ; these, however, consist
chiefly in concealing themselves and sjDringing
suddenly upon it. The fox, of all quadrupeds,
is the most celebrated for his stratagems and
finesse in entrapping his game, and his patience
is equal to his craft. Some have doubted
whether this animal can fascinate poultry, as
has been often asserted, but I know one in-
stance which fully confirms it. A friend of
mine one night hearing a noise, upon looking
out in its direction, saw a fox under the hen-
roost, peering up at the hens, which both he
and his wife, who told me the story, saw, as they
did also the fox running away, in spite of their
shouting, with one in his mouth. Indeed, on
^ Consolations in Travel, 196, 197.
270 INSTINCT.
any other principle we cannot account for his
depopulating the hen-roosts in the night.
The birds are less noted, than even the quad-
rupeds, for their stratagems, or any remarkable
means of providing food for themselves or their
young. Those of prey boldly attack and seize
their destined food wherever they find it ; the
owls, indeed, like the cats, their analogues,
seem to use artifice as much as strength to
attract the mice. The carrion -feeders, as the
vultures and crows, soon discover the carcasses
of dead animals.^ Some of the sea-birds, espe-
cially the gulls, indicate the approach of bad
weather, by leaving the coast, and seeking the
interior ; and, during the intense frosts of a
severe winter, the web-footed birds and waders,
quitting their summer stations in the more
northern regions, fly to the south and seek the
unfrozen springs and waters of the inland dis-
tricts, where they find a supply of food. All
these physical actions seem to arise from a phy-
sical cause, and easily to be accounted for, with-
out having recourse to any other.
With regard to the cold-blooded animals, the
fishes and reptiles, we know but little of their
habits in this respect, or of any particular
stratagems to which they have recourse to pro-
cure their food. Some of the predaceous fishes,
as the pike and perch, appear to lie in wait in
1 Roget, B. T. ii. 407.
INSTINCT. 271
deep water, and so dart upon their prey ; others,
as the shark, with open mouth pursue and devour
them ; the fly-catching ones, as the several
species of the carp and salmon genus,^ are
equally upon the watch, but nearer the surface,
to seize a may-fly^ or ephemera ; the fishing-
frog^ hangs out its lines in the sea to catch
other fishes ; the serpents are said to fascinate
the birds ; the enormous boa lies in wait for the
antelopes and other quadrupeds, and coiling
itself round them in mighty folds, crushes them
to render them more fit for deglutition ; the
Batrachians, Chelonians, and numerous Saurians
are on the alert after insects and small game ;
while the vast and ferocious crocodiles and alli-
gators, looking like trunks of trees, lie basking
near the surface of the water, ready to spring
upon any large fish, or even man, that may
chance to come within reach.
Of all animals, insects afford the most nume-
rous instances of instinctive proceedings with
this sole end in view ; the pit-falls of the ant-
lion;^ the webs and nets of the various sorts of
spiders spread over the face of nature ; and
many more, furnish instances of stratagems to
secure their daily food ; while an infinity of
others acquire it, aided only by their senses and
natural weapons. Let any one look at the pro-
1 Cypriyius and Salmo. ^ Phryganea.
^ Lophius. * Myrmelcon.
•272 INSTINCT.
minent eyes, tremendous jaws, and legs and
wings formed for rapid motion on the earth or in
the air of the tiger-beetles,^ and he will readily
see that they want no other aid to enable them
to seize their less gifted prey : and numerous
other tribes both on the earth and in the water
emulate them in these respects. The pacific or
herbivorous insects also are mostly fitted with
an extraordinary acuteness of certain senses to
direct them to their appropriate pabulum. The
sight of the butterfly and moth invariably leads
them to the flowers, to suck whose nectar
their multivalve tubes are given them. The
scent of the dung-beetles and the carrion-flies
allures them to their respective useful, though
disgusting, repasts. A very numerous tribe of
those that derive their nutriment from other
animals, neither entrap them by stratagem, nor
assail them by violence; but, as the butterfly
and the moth deposit their eggs upon their
appropriate vegetable, so do these upon their
appropriate animal food. Every bird almost
that darts through the air, every beast that
walks the earth, every fish that swims in its
waters, and almost all the lower animals, and
even man himself, the lord of all, are infested in
this way.
Upon the food of the Crustaceans, Molliiscans,
and all the lower grades of animals, I have
1 Cicindela.
INSTINCT. 273
before sufficiently enlarged ; I need not, there-
fore, here resume the subject.
Thus we see the Almighty and All-wise mani-
fests his goodness, as well as his wisdom and
power, in providing for the wants of all the
creatures that he has made ; fitting each with
peculiar organs adapted to its assigned kind of
food, both for procuring it, preparing it, digest-
ing it, assimilating it, and for rejecting the
residuum of all these operations. A physical
action upon each of these organs and systems,
fitted by him to receive and respond to it, is all
that the case seems to require in the majority of
instances : in those, however, that depend upon
artifice and stratagem for their food, the exciting
cause is less obvious. These, indeed, belong to
the higher instincts considered under the first
head.
y. That class of Instincts which relates to the
hyhernatiofi of animals having been considered
in another place, ^ I shall only observe here, that
the action of a physical cause is in no de-
partment of the history of animals more evi-
dently made out.
My learned friend and coadjutor, Mr. Spence,
has, in the Introduction to Entomology, pro-
duced several facts, as not easily reconcilable
to the hypothesis with respect to the cause of
1 See above, p. 248.
VOL. II. T
274 INSTINCT.
Instinct which I am now considering ; and pro-
bably a great many more might be brought for-
ward ; but my object here is merely to consider
the general principle ; it would, indeed, be need-
less and endless to discuss particular cases, and
fully to account for all aberrations, which, in the
present state of our knowledge, it would not
be possible to do.
But there is one circumstance of a less con-
fined nature, and upon which a good deal of the
question hinges, to which it will be proper to
advert. I mean the change that has been ob-
served in the nervous system of some insects in
their passage from one state to another. It is
contended that this change has nothing to do
with any alterations that then take place in their
instincts, but only with those in their organs of
sense or motion.^ In confirmation of this opinion
it is further affirmed, that in three whole Orders,^
the structure of the nervous chord is not altered,
and yet they acquire new instincts.
But though no change has been noticed to
take place in the number of ganglions of these
Orders, there must necessarily be a develope-
ment in those that render nerves to the wings
and reproductive organs ; so that, though some
ganglions may not become confluent, as in
the Lepidoptera, yet the range of their nerves
1 Introd. to Ent. iv. 27, 28.
2 Viz. Orthoptera, Hemiptera, and Neuroptera.
INSTINCT. 275
is increased. In this respect, they are in
much the same situation with the higher
animals, though their nervous system, as to its
organization, undergoes no material change, yet
from the period of their birth, it is gradually
more and more developed till they arrive at the
age of puberty, when new appetites are expe-
rienced and new powers acquired, not by meta-
pJiysical, but by physical, action upon their
several systems. In the three Orders referred
to by Mr. Spence, there is not that difference
between the different states of the insects that
compose the majority of them, that there is
between those whose pupes are not locomotive.
The larves of the locust, for instance, are stated
to emigrate, as well as the perfect insect, and
live upon the same food ; the only difference
is in the locomotive and reproductive powers of
the latter, both of which, as I have just said,
must be connected with some change in their
nervous system, operated gradually by a phy-
sical agent.
From what has been stated, with respect to
these several classes of instincts, it appears, that,
as far as can be judged from circumstances,
they have their beginning in consequence of
the action of an intermediate physical cause
upon the organization of the animal, which cer-
tainly renders it extremely probable that such
is the general proximate cause of the phenomena
27G INSTINCT.
in question. I would, however, by no means,
be understood to assert this dogmatically, but
merely that it appears to me the most probable
hypothesis, and most consistent with the analogy
of the Divine proceedings in this globe of ours,
as well as with his general government of the
heavenly bodies ; and though I have mentioned
heat, electricity, and other elements as con-
cerned in the production of these phenomena,
yet I do not assert that other physical principles
may not be commissioned to have a share in it.
This field is open both to the speculatist and
experimenter; they may each assist the other
in traversing and exploring it, and the well
known adage. Dies diem docet, be verified more
and more by their united efforts.
Some may still feel disposed to ask, — Is it
within the sphere of probability, or even pos-
sibility, that by the mere action of physical
powers, however subtile, upon the brain and
nerves of an animal there should be produced
such a wonderful sequence of actions and mani-
pulations as we know to be exhibited by the
beaver, the bee, the spider, and the ant ? Actions
confessedly above the range of their intellect.
But to this I would answer, we know that with
God all things are possible that do not imply a
contradiction ; and His Wisdom, Power, and
Goodness, may be as evidently, and more
evidently, manifiested, by the infinite varieties
INSTINCT. 277
ill the organization necessary to excite the
appetite for such and such instinctive employ-
ments and operations ; and to stimulate animals
always to run the same prescribed routine of
action from day to day, and year to year ; than
if he did it by his oivn immediate action upon
them, or that of his ministervigy or other, spirits.
When we examine a time-piece contrived by
a skilful artist, containing within it various
wheels and other movements, all acted upon by
one main spring or pendulum ; by means of
which, influencing all, seconds, minutes, and
hours are indicated as they pass ; and the
latter are struck successively, and repeated if
required : we admire the work, but more the
art and hand that contrived and executed it ;
but our admiration would be much diminished
if, instead of these effects being produced by
the action of a main spring or pendulum upon
its organization, if I may so call it, it was
necessary that the maker of the machine, or
one of his operatives, should always be present
to move the hands or strike the hours. So it
seems most to magnify the Power and Wisdom
of the Creator, if we suppose him to act by
physical means in all cases above the intellect
of the animal. If he governs the physical uni-
verse by such means, is it much to suppose,
that by the same he moves a bird, or a bee, to
glorify him by their admirable instincts ? Where
278 INSTINCT.
action is indeed from the Deity upon spirit, as
upon the soul of man, in a certain sense, it is
hy spirit; either immediately as by the Holy
spirit ; or mediately as by an angelic nature ;
but below spirit, it is surely most consonant to
every thing that we see and know, that it should
be by an agent below spirit.
3. I am now arrived at the last supposition
or hypothesis — that the cause instinct may be
compound or mixed — in some respects physical,
in others metaphysical. In this case it will be
subject occasionally to variations from the gene-
ral law when the intelligent agent sees fit.
But upon this head I shall not be very long,
and I only introduce it here, to shew that the
Deity sometimes dispenses with the general law
of instinct, or permits it occasionally to be in-
terfered with by the will of the animal, or other
agency. All animals that exercise instinctive
operations, have in their several organs of sen-
sation, certain guides given to enable them to
fulfil those instincts so as to bring about the
purposes of Providence.
Sight, hearing, scent, taste, touch, perception,
influence the will, and direct each animal to the
points in which its instinctive actions are to
commence ; and so far instinct is, as it were,
mixed with intellect. I have seen it somewhere
observed — that instinct in conjunction with a
INSTINCT. 279
principle of limitation, — the intellectual faculties^
— rules the actions of all sentient and oroanised
c5
beings ; just as gravity with the principle of
counteraction — repulsion — determines the place
and composition of all inorganic bodies.
With regard to the Deity, he retains in his
hands the power of suspending or altering the
action of the laws that have received his sanc-
tion ; and permits other metaphysical essences
to do the same. When females overcome that
storge or instinctive love for their offspring,
either from the dread of shame, or worse motives,
and destroy them, in common parlance, we say
that they were tempted by an evil spirit to com-
mit the crime. Mr. Bennet, in his interesting
Wanderings in New South Wales, c^c., relates
that it is common for the females of the abo-
riginal tribes, if they experience much suffering
in their labour, to threaten the life of the poor
infant, which when born they barbarously de-
stroy.^ This is a fearful counteraction of instinct
flowing from an evil source.
The Deity himself, doubtless when there is
— Dignns vindice nodus — sometimes suspends the
action of an instinct. It is related in the Holy
Scripture, that when the ark of God was taken
by the Philistines, in order to ascertain whether
the plagues that were sent upon them were from
1 I. 122.
280 INSTINCT.
God, they yoked two milch kiiie that had calves
to the cart in which it was sent to Bethshemesh,
and the kine went straight to that place, their
instinct being mastered by a strong hand, though
they went lowing after their calves all the way/
Here the Deity ruled the instinct. God inter-
feres with the instincts of animals also when he
prescribes their course and sends them in any
particular direction to answer his purpose : as in
the case of the prophet Jonah.^ Properly speak-
ing% those interpositions of the Deity by which
the law of instinct is suspended, to answer a
particular purpose of his Providence, like that
just related, must be regarded as miraculous ;
but yet, though unrecorded, they may happen
oftener than we are aware in the course of his
moral government ; sometimes perhaps also to
remedy some jihysical evil. This appeared there-
fore a proper place to advert to them.
1 1 Sam. vi. 7. 12. ^ Vol. I. p. 263.
281
Chapter XIX.
Functions and Instincts. Ai'achnidan, Pseuda*
vachnidan^ and Acaridan Condylopes.
Having wandered long enough, perhaps too long,
in a wide and mazy field, but fertile everywhere
in proofs of the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness
of the Creator, it is time to return to the high
road from which we diverged.
The Class of animals which led me into this
digression were the Myriapods, concerning which
I observed, when I commenced my accomit of
them, that on quitting the Crustaceans, the way
seemed to branch off from the long-tailed Deca-
pods by them, and from the short-tailed ones
by the Arachnidans. We are now then to give
a history of the latter Class.
Latreille, in which he has been followed by
most modern Arachnologists, in his work in aid
of Cuvier's last edition of the Rtgne Animal,^
divides his Arachnidans into two Orders, Pid-
monaries, or those that breathe by gills, and
Trachearies, or those that breathe by spiracles in
connection with tracliece. In his latest work,*
Les Crustaccs, les Arachnides, et les Insectes.
" Cours D' Entomologie.
282 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
which he did not live to finish, he added a third
Order, including some parasites, infesting marine
animals, such as tJie whale louse/ These, from
their having no apparent respiratory apparatus,
he named, Aporobranchians .
As the pulmonary Arachnidcms of Latreille
differ from the Trachearies, &c., not only in
having their body divided into two sections, but
likewise both in their respiratory organs and
those of circulation, I have always regarded
them as forming a distinct Class.^
The following characters distinguish this
Class :
Body covered by a coriaceous or horny in-
tegument, divided into two segments. Head
and trunk confluent so as to form a single
segment, denominated the Ceplialotliorax,
Eyes, 6 — ^8. Legs^S. Spinal chord, }s.notty, A
heart and vessels for circulation. Respiration by
gills. Sexual orgajis, double.
This Class consists of two Orders.
1. Araneidans. Integument cori'dceous. Man-
dibles, also called cheliceres, consisting of a
single joint, armed with a claw, perforated
near the apex for the transmission of venom,
and when unemployed folding upon the end
of the mandible. Gills, 2—4. Abdomen
* Nymphon fjr'vssipes. * Introd. to Ent. iii. 19. 24.
ARACHNIDANS. 283
united to the trunk by a foot-stalk. A7111S
furnished with 4 — 6 spinning organs.
2. Pedipalps.^ Integument horny. Feelers
extended before the head, armed with a
forceps or didactyle claw. Abdomen sessile.
Gills, 4—8.
1. Araneidans, or spiders.
No animals fall more miiversally under ob-
servation than the spiders; we see them every-
where, fabricating their snares or lying in wait
for their prey, in our houses, in the fields, on
the trees, shrubs, flowers, grass, and in the earth;
and, if we watch their proceedings, we may
sometimes see them, without the aid of wings,
ascend into the air, where, carried by their web
as by an air-balloon, they can elevate themselves
to a great height. The webs they spin and
weave are also equally dispersed ; they often
fill the air, so as to be troublesome to us, and
cover the earth. M. Mendo Trigozo^ relates,
that at Lisbon, on the 6th of November, 1811,
the Tagus was covered, for more than half an
hour, by these webs, and that innumerable
spiders accompanied them which swam on the
surface of the water. I have in another place ^
' Manipalps would be a more proper term, as the feelers are
used for prehension, not for walkmg.
^ Latr. Cours. D' Ent. i. 497. ^ See above, p. 183.
284 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
given an account of the instruments by which
they weave them ; and shall now say a few words
upon those by which their Creator has enabled
them to produce the material of which they are
formed.
At the posterior extremity of the abdomen,
formed usually by a prominence, is the anus,
immediately below which, planted in a roundish
depressed space, are four or six jointed teat-like
organs, of a rather conical or cylindrical shape.
The exterior pair is the longest, consisting of
three joints ; but these have no orifices at their
extremity for the transmission of threads : the
other four^ consist each of two joints, and are
pierced at their extremity Mdth innumerable
little orifices, in some species amounting to a
thousand from each, from which their web issues
at their will, or bristled with an army of in-
finitely minute biarticulate spinnerets,^ each
furnishing a thread at their extremity. These
teats are connected with internal reservoirs,
which yield the fluid matter forming the thread
or web. These reservoirs in some species
consist of four, and in others of six vessels folded
several times, and communicating with other
vessels in which the material that forms their
web is first elaborated.^
' MammulcB, Introd. to Ent. iii. 391. ^ Fusi, ibid. 392.
^ Latr. Cours D'Ent. i. 496.
ARACHNIDANS. 285
Such are the organs which furnish the ma-
terial of those wonderful and diversified toils
which the spiders weave to entrap the animals
that form their food.
The threads, after they issue from these
organs, are united, or kept separate, according
to the will or wants of the animal ; and it is
stated, that from them certain spiders can spin
three kinds of silk.^ Their ordinary thread is
so fine, that it would require twenty-four united
to equal the thickness of that of the silkworm.
These threads, fine as they are, will bear,
without breaking, a weight sextuple that of the
spider that spins them. They employ their web,
generally, for three different purposes ; in the
construction of their snares, of their own habi-
tations, and of a cocoon to contain their eggs.
Spiders were divided by the older Arach-
nologists, after Lister, into families according to
the mode in which they entrap or seize their
prey. More modern writers^ on the subject,
have taken their respiratory organs as regulating
the primary division of the Order : upon this
principle, the spiders are formed into two tribes,
those that have two pairs of gills ;^ and those
that have only one pair.^ M. Walckenaer, who
^ Blackvvall, in Linn. Trans, xvi. 479.
2 L. Du Four. Latreille.
3 Tetrapneumones. Latr. Theraphosa, &c. Walck.
* Dipneumones. Latr. Aranea. Walck. excluding Dysdera.
286 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
has studied the Order more than any man in
Europe, has not only divided the above two
tribes into genera, &c., from characters taken
from their form and organization ; but has also
considered them with respect to their habits,
and under this head, divides them into four
sections :
1 . Hunters, wandering incessantly to entrap
their prey.
2. Vagrants, watching their prey, concealed
or inclosed in a nest, but often running
wdth agility.
3. Seclentaries, forming a web in which they
remain immoveable.
4. Swimmers, swimming in the water to catch
their prey, and there forming a web,
To the first tribe, those, namely, with four
gills, some spiders belong, the instincts of which
are very remarkable. One of the largest, and
most celebrated, is the bird-spider.^ It forms
the tube which it inhabits of a w^hite silk like
muslin, which it fixes amongst leaves, and in
any cavities, and there w^atches its prey ; it is
accused by some of destroying even birds, w hence
its name, especially the humming-bird :" but
this rests upon questionable authority ; and
waiters are not agreed as to its general habits.
Probably several species are confounded under
' Mygale avicularia. ' TrocJiilus.
ARACHNIDANS. 287
the same name. I shall not therefore enlaro:e
further on its history ; I mention it merely as
the largest spider known.
The proceedings of those called the trap-door
spiders^ are better authenticated, as those of the
mason-spider by the Abbe Sauvages,^ and those
of another species very recently, in the annals
of the French Entomological Society, by M. V.
Audoin, one of the most eminent of modern
entomologists, under the name of the pioneer f"
of his interesting memoir, I shall here give a
brief abstract.
Some species of spiders, M. Audoin remarks,
are gifted with a particular talent for building :
they hollow out dens ; they bore galleries ; they
elevate vaults; they build, as it were, subter-
ranean bridges : they construct also entrances to
their habitations, and adapt doors to them, which
want nothing but bolts, for witliout any ex-
aggeration, they work upon a hinge, and are
fitted to a frame.*
The interior of these habitations, he continues,
is not less remarkable for the extreme neatness
which reigns there ; whatever be the humidity
of the soil in whicli they are constructed, water
never penetrates them ; the walls are nicely
' Cteniza. 2 Ct. Sanvagesii. ^ Ct. fodiens.
* The French word is feyurc, which I cannot find in the
dictionaries, but it means, the circular frame of the mouth of the
tube which receives the door.
288 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
covered with a tapestry of silk, having usually
the lustre of satin, and almost always of a
dazzling whiteness. He mentions only four
species of the genus as at present known. One
which was found in the Island of Naxos ;^ another
in Jamaica \" a third in Montpellier ;^ and a
fourth, that which is the subject of his Memoir,
in Corsica ; to which I may add a fifth species,
found frequently by Mr. Bennett, in different
parts of New South Wales.^
The habitations of the species in question
are found in an argillaceous kind of red earth,
in which they bore tubes about three inches in
depth, and ten lines in width. The walls of
these tubes are not left just as they are bored,
but they are covered with a kind of mortar,
sufficiently solid to be easily separated from the
mass that surrounds it. If the tube is divided
longitudinally, besides this rough cast, it appears
to be covered with a coat of fine mortar, which
is as smooth and regular as if a trowel had been
passed over it ; this coat is very thin, and soft to
the touch ; but before this adroit workman lays
it, she covers the coarser earthy plaster-work
with some coarse web, upon which she glues her
silken tapestry.
All this shews that she was directed in her
1 Cteniza ariana. ^ Ct. nidulans. ^ Ct. ccementaria,
* Wanderings in N. S. Wales, ^c. i. 328.
ARACHNIDANS. 289
work by a Wise Master ; but the door that
closes her apartment is still more remarkable
in its structure. If her well was always left
open, she would be subject to the intrusion of
guests that would not, at all times, be welcome
or safe ; Providence, therefore, has instructed
her to fabricate a very secure trap-door, which
closes the mouth of it. To judge of this door by
its outward appearance, we should think it was
formed of a mass of earth coarsely worked, and
covered internally by a solid web ; which would
appear sufficiently wonderful for an animal that
seems to have no special organ for constructing it :
but if it is divided vertically, it will be found a
much more complicated fabric than its outward
aspect indicates, for it is formed of more than
thirty alternate layers of earth and web, em-
boxed, as it were, in each other, like a set of
weights for small scales.
If these layers of web are examined, it will
be seen that they all terminate in the hinge, so
that the greater the volume of the door, the
more powerful is the hinge. The frame in which
the tube terminates above, and to which the door
is adapted, is thick, and its thickness arises from
the number of layers of which it consists, and
which seem to correspond with those of the
door; hence, the formation of the door, the
hinge, and the frame, seem to be a simul-
taneous operation ; except that in fabricating
VOL. II. u
290 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the first, the animal has to knead the earth, as
well as to spin the layers of web. By this
admirable arrangement, these parts always cor-
respond with each other, and the strength of the
hinge, and the thickness of the frame, will
always be proportioned to the weight of the
door.
The more carefully we study the arrangement
of these parts, the more perfect does the work
appear. If we examine the circular margin of
the door, we shall find that it slopes inwards, so
that it is not a transverse section of a cylinder,
but of a cone, and on the other side, that the
frame slopes outwards, so that the door exactly
applies to it. By this structure, when the door
is closed, the tube is not, distinguishable from
the rest of the soil, and this appears to be the
reason that the door is formed with earth.
Besides, by this structure also, the animal can
more readily open and shut the door ; by its co-
nical shape it is much lighter than it would have
been if cylindrical, and so more easily opened,
and by its external inequalities, and mixture of
web, the spider can more easily lay hold of it with
its claws. Whether she enters her tube, or goes
out, the door will shut of itself. This was proved
by experiment, for though resistance, more or
less, was experienced when it was opened, when
left to itself, it always fell down, and closed the
aperture. The advantage of this structure to
ARACHNIDANS. 291
the spider is evident, for whether it darts out
upon its prey, or retreats from an enemy, it is
not delayed by having to shut its door.
The interior surface of this cover to its tube
is not rough and uneven like its exterior, but
perfectly smooth and even, like the walls of the
tube, being covered with a coating of white silk,
but much more firm, and resembling parchment,
and remarkable for a series of minute orifices,^
placed in the side opposed to the hinge, and
arranged in a semicircle ; there are about thirty
of these orifices, the object of which, M. Audoin
conjectures, is to enable the animal to hold her
door down, in any case of emergency, against
external force, by the insertion of her claws into
some of them.
The principal instruments by which this
little animal performs her various operations,
are her mandibles or cheliceres, and her spinners.
The former, besides the two rows of tubercles,
between which, when unemployed, her claw, or
sting, is folded, has at the apex, on their inner
side a number of strong spines.- As no one has
ever seen her at work upon her habitation, it
cannot be known exactly how these organs, and
1 Plate XI. b. Fig. 2. a.
2 Observations sur le nid d'une Araignee lu d, VAcad. des
Sc. Ze 21 JuiUf 1830, par M. Victor Audoin; and Ann. de
la Soc. Ent. de France, ii. 69.
292 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
probably her anterior legs, are employed in her
various manipulations.
I have, in my collection, a tube or nest of the
Jamaica trap-door spider,^ consisting merely of
the web, which is much larger than that just
described, being more than six inches long, and
three quarters of an inch in diameter in the
narrowest part, but near the mouth more than
an inch. In this species the trap-door is semi-
circular, having a sloping margin ; it is lined,
as w^ell as the upper part of the tube, with a
strong close web, resembling parchment. I can
detect in it no series of orifices, but I see here
and there little holes where the claws appear
to have been inserted. This door is entirely
formed of layers of web, without any inter-
mixture of earth.
Mr. Bennett, in his Wcmderings, Sfc.^ gives
some interesting particulars of the species dis-
covered by him in New South Wales. He
describes the tube, as about an inch in diameter
at the mouth, and the lid as formed of web
incorporated with earth, and exactly fitting the
mouth of the tube, in this resembling the pioneer.
He heard of a person who used to amuse himself
w ith feeding one of these insects : when its
meal was finished, it would re-enter its habi-
tation, and pull down the lid with one of its
' Plate XI. b. Fig. 4. ^ j. 303.
ARACHNIDANS. 293
claws. He further observes, that to discover
their habitations when the lid is down, from its
being so accurately fitted to the aperture, was
very difficult.
Though the particulars I have here stated,
of the history and habits of these subterranean
spiders, demonstrate, in every respect, as far
as we know them, the adaptation of means to
an end, far above the intelligence of the animal
that exhibits them ; yet fully to appreciate the
Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness, that fabri-
cated her, and instigated her to exercise these
various arts, and to employ her power of spinning
webs, in building the structures necessary for
her security, as well as for the capture of her
prey, we ought to be witnesses to all her pro-
ceedings, which would probably instruct us
more fully why she forms so deep a tube, and
one so nicely covered with a peculiar tapestry
from the mouth to the bottom. One of these
ends, is, doubtless, to keep her tube dry.
2. Various are the modes of capturing their
prey, exercised by the second Tribe of spiders,
which have only tivo gills, some fabricating
webs of various kinds for that purpose, and
others lying in wait for them, and catching
them by mere agility. The first of these are
called lueavers,^ and the last, hunters,^
Some of the former construct silken tubes of
* Arane'idce textorice. ' A. vetnatorUe.
294 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
an irregular texture, open at both ends, in which
they conceal themselves. Of this description is
one, remarkable for having only six eyes,^
which sits at the mouth of her tube, with her
four anterior legs out of it, reposing by their
extremity upon as many fine threads, which
diverge from the mouth of the tube as from a
centre, and probably contribute to form the
toils, or are connected with them, which De
Geer observed her to construct in front of her
den,^ and in which large flies are taken, which,
by means of her stout mandibles, she soon kills,
and then sucks their juices.^
Another species,* which spins a similar web
with diverging threads, forming so many snares,
is remarkable for the pertinacity with which
it clings to its tube. The most effectual way to
expel it, is to put in a live ant ; scarcely has
it entered, when the spider, in a violent agitation,
uses its vitmost efforts to frighten the intruder ;
if the ant disregards its menaces, it rushes out
precipitately, and does not stop till it is two or
three inches distant, when it halts to watch the
motions of the ant, which, usually, when dis-
engaged from the web, falls to the ground ;
upon this taking place, the former reenters its
tube backwards. This species, though driven
1 Ser/estria senoculata. ^ vii. 261.
^ Walck. AraneicL de France. 195. "* Segestria perjida.
ARACHNIDANS. 295
from its habitation by so small an insect, will
fearlessly attack the largest flies, and it has
been seen even to seize a very active wasp/
The webs of the retiary or geometric spiders,
which belong to another division of the weavers,
are so well known that it is not necessary to
give a very detailed account of their proceedings ;
but as Mr. Black wall, in a very interesting
Memoir in the Zoological Journal,^ has added
much to our previous knowledge on this head,
I shall abstract, as briefly as I can, the main
features of his account, that it may be compared
with that given in the Introduction to Entomo-
logy.^ Having formed the foundation of her net,
and drawn the skeleton of it, by spinning a num-
ber of rays converging to the centre, she next pro-
ceeds, setting out from that point, to spin a spiral
line of unadhesive web, like that of the rays, which
it intersects, and to which she attaches it, and
after numerous circumvolutions, finishes it at the
circumference. This line, in conjunction with
the rays, serves as a scaflblding for her to walk
over, and it also keeps the rays properly
stretched. Her next labour is to spin a spiral
or labyrinthiform line from the circumference
towards the centre, but which stops somewhat
short of it ; this line is the most important part
1 Walck. Arane'id. de France^ 202.
2 V. 181. 3 i. 409.
VOL. II. U 3
296 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
of the snare. It consists of a fine thread,
studded with minute viscid globules, like dew,
which by their adhesive quality retain the
insects that fly into the net. The snare being
thus finished, the little geometrician selects
some concealed spot in its vicinity, where she
constructs a cell, in which she may hide herself,
and watch for game ; of the capture of which,
she is informed by the vibrations of a line of
communication between her cell and the centre
of her snare.
The insects that frequent the waters require
predaceous animals to keep them within due
limits, as well as those that inhabit the earth,
and the water-spider^ is one of the most re-
markable upon whom that office is devolved
by her Creator. To this end her instinct
instructs her to fabricate a kind of diving-bell in
the bosom of that element. She usually selects
still waters for this purpose. Her house is an
oval cocoon, filled with air, and lined with silk,
from which threads issue in every direction,
and are fastened to the surrounding plants ; in
this cocoon, which is open below, she watches
for her prey, and even appears to pass the
winter, when she closes the opening. It is most
commonly, yet not always, entirely under water ;
but its inhabitant has filled it with air for her
^ Argyroneta aquatica.
ARACHNIDANS. 297
respiration, which enables her to live in it.
She conveys tlie air to it in the following
manner : she usually swims upon her back,
when her abdomen is enveloped in a bubble of
air, and appears like a globe of quicksilver;
with this she enters her cocoon, and displacing
an equal mass of water, again ascends for a
second lading, till she has sufficiently filled her
house with it, so as to expel all the water. The
males construct similar habitations, by the same
manoeuvres. How these little animals can en-
velope their abdomen with an air-bubble, and
retain it till they enter their cells, is still one of
Nature's mysteries that have not been explained.
We cannot help, however, admiring and adoring
the Wisdom, Power, and Goodness manifested
in this singular provision, enabling an animal
that breathes the atmospheric air, to fill her
house with it under the water ; and which has
instructed her in a secret art, by which she can
clotlie part of her body with air, as with a
garment, which she can put off when it answers
her purpose. This is a kind of attraction and
repulsion that mocks all our inquiries.
Amongst the spiders called the hunters, and
the vagrants, some seize their prey like the lion
or the tiger, with the aid of few or no toils,
by jumping upon them, when they come within
their reach. I have often observed a white
r
298 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
or yellowish species of crab-spider^ — a tribe
so called because tiieir motions resemble those
of crabs — which lies in wait for her prey in
the blossoms of umbelliferous and other white-
blossomed plants, and can scarcely be distin-
guished from them, which when a fly or other
insect alights upon the flower, darts upon it
before she is perceived.
There is a very common black and white
spider,^ amongst the vagrants, which may always
be seen in summer, on sunny rails, window-
sills, &c. : when one of these spiders, which are
always upon the watch, spies a fly or a gnat
at a distance, he approaches softly, step by
step, and seems to measure the interval that
separates him from it with his eye; and, if
he judges that he is within reach, first fixing
a thread to the spot on which he is stationed,
by means of his fore feet, which are much
longer and larger than the others, he darts upon
his victim with such rapidity, and so true an
aim, that he seldom misses it. Whether his
station is vertical or horizontal is of little con-
sequence, he can leap equally well from either,
and in all directions. He is prevented from
falling, by the thread just mentioned, which acts
' Related probably to Thomisus citreus.
^ Salticus scenicus.
ARACHNIDANS. 299
as a kind of anchor, and enables him to recover
his station, when without such a help he would
be, as it were, driven out to sea.
We see in these latter instances, that though
the art and means of weaving snares to entrap
their prey have not been granted to these
hunters and vagrants, yet that their Creator
has endowed them with increase of agility, and
the power of moving, without turning round,
in all directions, which fully make up to them
for that want.
Before I conclude this history of spiders, I
must mention a very remarkable one, described
and figured by Freycinet, under the name of
Aranea notacantlia,^ but which appears to belong-
to no known genus of the Order. It is stated to
have at its posterior extremity a long cylindrical
tube, terminated by two eyes ! ! But this,
surely, must be a mistake. At the anterior part
of the thorax are four eyes, in a square, and one
on each side. The form of the abdomen and its
tube are very remarkable. This spider was
found in a small island near Port Jackson, in an
irregular web attached to the shrubs.
2. The Pedipalps, forming the second Order
of Arachnidans, will not detain us long. The
principal animals belonging to it, are the scor-
1 Plate XI. Fig. 2.
300 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
pions, which are not only remarkable for the
powerful organs by which they are enabled
to seize their prey, but also for their jointed
tail terminating in a deadly sting. Their aspect
alone, when they are moving with their open
forceps advanced before their head, and their
tail turned over it, is enough to create no
little alarm in the beholder ; and if he were
told that one genus of the tribe goes by the
name of man-killer,^ and should read in Aristotle,
that though some were harmless, the sting of
others was fatal both to man and beast,^ the
degree of his alarm would not be diminished.
But though the venom of these creatures, when
provoked and put upon self-defence, may some-
times prove fatal to man and the higher animals,
yet this is not the main purpose for which their
Creator has given them such means of annoyance.
Their food consists of various beetles and other
insects, arachnidans, and wood-lice ; many of
which they could not easily master and devour,
after they have seized them with their forceps,
without the aid of their tail and its sting ;^ this
they can turn over their head, and moving it
in any direction, immediately kill their prey,
1 Androctonus.
^ Hist. Animal. 1. viii. c. 39. Comp. N. D. D'Hist. Nat.
XXX. 431.
^ See above, p. 233.
ARACHNIDANS. 301
however strong and active, by the fatal venom
it instills.
Our Saviour alludes to the scorpion as one
of the symbols of the evil spirit: and as a
zodiacal sign with the Egyptians, it represented
Typhon, which seems to prove that our Saviour's
application of it was in conformity with a
current opinion.
The other Pedipalps,^ though one of them
has a jointed tail like the scorpions,^ are not
armed with a sting. Probably the animals
that they feed upon offer less resistance than
the prey of the latter.
With regard to the Arachnidans in general,
the object of their creation appears to have been
to assist in keeping within due bounds the
insect population of the globe. The members
of this great and interesting Class are so given
to multiply beyond all bounds, that were it
not for the various animals that are directed
by the law of their Creator to make them their
food, the whole Creation, at least the organized
members of it, would suffer great injury, if not
total destruction, from the myriad forms that
would invest the face of universal nature with a
living veil of animal and plant devourers. To
prevent this sad catastrophe, it was given in
• Phrynus, 8fc. ^ Thelyphonus.
302 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
charge to the spiders, to set traps everywhere,
and to weave their pensile toils, from branch
to branch, and from tree to tree, and even to
dive under the waters. And, more particularly,
to them we are mainly indebted for our de-
liverance from a plague oi flies of every de-
scription, which, if the spiders were removed,
of which they form the principal food, would
subject us to incredible annoyance.^
The scorpions, and other Pedipalps, are
found only in warm climates, where they are
often very numerous, and, like the centipedes,
creep into beds/ Insects multiply, beyond
conception, in such climates, and unless Provi-
dence had reinforced his army of insectivorous
animals, it would have been impossible to exist
in tropical regions. The animals we are speak-
ing of, not only destroy all kinds of beetles,
grass-hoppers, and other insects, but also their
larves, and even eggs.
Pseudaraclmidan Condy lopes.
This Class, which is formed from the Tracheary
Arachnidans of Latreille, differs from the pre-
ceding principally in the organs of Respiration
and Circulation,
Body coriaceous, or crustaceous. Spiracles
1 See above, p. 68.
ARACHNIDANS. 303
connecting with trachece for respiration. Circu-
lation obscure. Eyes 2 — 4. Legs 6 — 8. Sexual
organs single.
The Class consists of two Orders, perfectly
analogous to those of the Arachnidans, which
may be denominated, Pseudo- scorpions and
Phalangidans.
1. Pseudo-scorpions. Body oblong, divided
into several segments. Eyes 2- — 4. Legs 6 — 8.
2. Phalangidans. Body consisting of one
segment, with the analogue of the abdomen
consisting of folds. Eyes 2. Legs S, elongated.
1. I have already given an account of the
most interesting genus of this Order, the Sol-
puga, on a former occasion ;^ and there is little
known of the history of the book-crabs,^ except
that they are often found in books ; I have also
occasionally met with them in the drawers of
my insect cabinets, moving slowly on, with
their arms expanded, probably they were in
search of the mite that is so injurious to
specimens of insects ; they are also often found
npon flies. One genus,^ in this tribe, has four
eyes, all the rest of the Class have only two.
2. The most remarkable genus ^ of the second
Order of Pseudarachnidans is one described in
the Linnean Transactions,^ in which the posterior
• See above, p. 83. - Chelifer ^ Obisium.
* Gonyleptes. K. ^ xii. 450. t. xxii./. 16.
304 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
legs exhibit a raptorious character, and seem
fitted either to seize or retain their prey. The
common Phalangidans, or harvest-men, have
been treated of in another place. ^
The animals of this class seem to be univer-
sally insectivorous, though fabricating no snares.
Acaridaii Condylopes,
We are now arrived at a Class of Condylopes,
that, with respect to their food, have a much
more extensive commission than those which
we have lately considered, the Arachnidans,
and Pseudarachnidans. Under the name of
mites they are universally known, and when
some of our most essential articles of food, as
cheese and flour, get old, or in any degree
musty, they soon swarm with these minute
animals, which, wherever they are established,
multiply beyond conception ; mites also attack
not only decaying substances, but also living
ones; in man they are the cause of a most
revolting distemper;- under the name of ticks
they attack dogs and other animals, and few
insects altogether escape from their annoyance ;
and they not only infest the inhabitants of the
earth and air, but are also found swimming in
every pool ; so that their field of action seems
to be the whole creation of organized beings.
1 See above, p. 90. 2 gee The Lancet, i. 1834-5. 59.
ARACHNIDANS. ^05
The Class may be thus characterized :
Body without any insection or impression
marking out its parts, consisting of a single
segment, and without folds. Mouth and organs
various. Eyes 2. Legs 6 — 8, short.
Latreille has divided this Class, including in
it the preceding one, into seven Families ; but
perhaps it would be better to consider it as
divided into tivo Orders, mites,^ and ticks,'^
or those that do not suck their food, and those
that are fitted with an organ adapted to suction.
I shall select an instance or two from animals
of this Class, which shew the care of the
Creator, for these little beings apparently so
low in the scale of Creation ; His foresight of
every circumstance in which they would be
placed ; and His adaptation of their structure
to their assigned station.
This is particularly conspicuous in the case
of a species of bat-mite,^ which was first noticed
by one of our most celebrated microscopical
observers, Mr. Baker, and has since fallen under
the notice of M. V. Audoin, well known for his
acute investigation of the external parts of
Insects, who kindly sent me a memoir of his
on this and other Acaridans, extracted from the
Annales des Sciences Naturelles for the year
1832. H' we consider the animal that this mite
1 Acari. - Ricini. * Pteroptes.
VOL. II. X
306 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
inhabits, the bat, and that it affords mnch less
shelter than the birds, to any parasite that may
be attached to it, especially as the species that
I am speaking of is stated usually to fix itself
to the membrane of the wings, which being a
naked membrane, would seem to expose it to be
easily shaken off when the animal is flying :
we easily comprehend that it stands in need of
some particular provision to counteract this cir-
cumstance.
Like those of many other mites, its feet are
furnished with a vesicle which is capable of
contraction and dilatation, and which the animal
can probably use as a sucker to fix itself; but
if by any sudden jerk it is unfixed, to prevent its
falling, it is gifted with the power of turning
upwards, in an instant, two, four, six, or even all
its legs, according to circumstances, sufficiently
to support itself, and can walk in this position,
as it were upon its back, as well as it does in the
ordinary way with that part upwards ; it may be
often seen with four turned upwards while it
walks upon the other four,^ so that it is ready,
upon any accident, instantaneously to use them,
and to lay hold of the wing.
The bat is infested by another parasite, placed
by Dr. Leach at the end of the Acaridans, and by
Latreille, but not without hesitation, after the
1 Baker on Micr. ii. 407. t. xv.f. e. f. g.
ARACHNIDANS. 307
Dlptera, I may therefore be justified in intro-
ducing the animal in question here, since, in-
habiting the same subject, their proceedings will
serve to illustrate each other, and to demonstrate
the agency and design of the Supreme Cause in
the concurring structure of these parasites. The
one I here allude to may be called the hat-
loused Latreille, who has described very mi-
nutely a species of this genus,^ informs us that
their head is implanted in a singular situation,
the back of the thorax, between the middle and
the anterior extremity,^ immediately behind the
part to which the anterior legs are attached.
The middle of the back, in the common species,
presents a cavity, which terminates posteriorly
in a kind of pouch,^ so that the head can be
thrown back and its extremity received by it.
From this situation, it is evident that the animal
cannot take its nutriment from the bat in the
ordinary position, with the back upwards; it
must, therefore, necessarily stand with it down-
wards when engaged in suction. When under
the forming hand of the Almighty Creator, its
legs were planted, it was not on the loiver side of
the trunk, as they usually are in other hexapods,
but on the upper side or margin of that part.^
Colonel Montague observes, — ** So strange and
* Nycteribia, Lat. ^ N. Blainvillii.
^ See Montague. Linn. Trans, xi. t. iii./". 5.
* N. Verpertilionis. ^ N. D. DHist. Nat . xxxiii. 131, 132.
VOL. II. X 2
308 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
contradictory to experience is the formation of
this Insect, that were it not for the structure
of the legs, no one could doubt that the upper
was actually the under part of the body.^ From
the account given by the last acute and inde-
fatigable naturalist, the motions of this little
creature are so rapid as to be almost like flight,
and it can fix itself in an instant wherever
it pleases. Some being put into a phial, their
agility was inconceivable ; not being able, like
other Dipterous insects, to walk upon the glass,
their efforts were confined to laying hold of each
other, and during the struggle they appeared
flying in circles."*
Their head is furnished with antennae and
feelers, immediately below the insertion of the
former, on each side, is a sHghtly prominent
eye, so that they have sight to guide them in
their motions, which the hat-mite appears to be
without.
I may conclude this account with the pious
reflection of the worthy author lately mentioned.
The very singular structure of this insect, which,
at first, appears to be a strange deformity in
nature, and excites our astonishment, will, like
all other creatures, constructed by the same
Omnipotent hand, be found to be most ad-
mirably contrived for all the purposes of its
1 Linn. Tr, xi. 12. e Ibid. 13.
ARACHMDANS. 309
creation ; and the scrutinizing naturalist will
soon discover this unusual conformation to be
the character which at once stamps its habits
and economy.^
One of the most singular animals of this Class
is one called the vegetating mite.^ These are
fixed for a time, by an anal thread, to certain
beetles, by means of which, as by an umbilical
chord, they derive their nutriment from them.
After a certain time, they disengage themselves,
and seek their food in the common way of their
tribe.
It is difficult to say where Latreille's Order of
Aporobrcuichians^ should properly be placed.
Savigny considers them as leading from the
Crustaceans to the Arachnidans by Phalayigium.
If they are parasitic upon marine animals, as
there is reason to believe, might they not, in
some sort, be regarded as one of those branches,
which, without going by the regular road, form
a link between tribes apparently distant from
each other?* They seem, in some respects at
least, to present an analogy, if not an affinity,
to the Hexapod parasites, the bird-louse,^ &c.
I offer this merely as a conjecture.
1 Lhin. Tr. xi. 13. 2 JJropoda vegetans.
^ Nymj-ihon. Pycnogormm, &c. ^ See above, p. 18.
* Nirmus.
;3io
Chapter XX.
Fwictions and histincts. Insect Condylopes.
The animals of the class we are next to consider,
have been regarded by many modern zoologists,
especially of the French school, as inferior both
to Crustaceans and Arachnidans, on account of
their having only, as it were, a rudimental heart,
exhibiting indeed a kind of systole and diastole,
but unaccompanied by any system of vessels by
which the blood might circulate in them. A
learned and acute writer, and eminent zoologist,
amongst our own countrymen, has with great
force controverted the justice of this sentence of
degradation pronounced upon Insects ; an opi-
nion which has also been embraced by many
other modern writers on the subject, and consi-
derable doubt has been shown to rest upon the
main foundations upon which the illustrious and
lamented Baron Cuvier, who was the father of
the hypothesis, had built it.^
But the important discoveries of Dr. Cams,
who first proved that a circulation really exists
in various larves of Insects, and afterwards that
' Mac Leay, Hor, Entomolog. 304, 297.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 311
it is also discoverable in several perfect ones/
have placed the matter beyond all doubt. Tak-
ing, therefore, into consideration the nervous
system of Insects, as well as those of circulation
and respiration, as ought, in all reason, to be done
— for upon comparison of these three systems so
intimately connected with life and sensation,
surely the first place is due to that by which alone
the animal is conscious of its existence and that of
the world it inhabits, and is enabled to run the
race appointed by its Creator ; surely if even no
Cams had appeared to demonstrate the exist-
ence of a circulation in these animals, still the
perfection of their nervous system, compared
with that of the MoUuscans, in determining
their respective stations, would be a sufficient
counterpoise to a heart and vascular system for
circulation ; and if to this superiority we add
the number and nature of the several organs by
which this system acts, and the fruits of such
agency in the activity and various instincts of
the animals endowed with it, embodying the
moving will, the informing sense, the impelling
appetite, compared with the inertness and slug-
gish motions, and apathetic existence, and pau-
city of instinctive actions in the great majority
of the MoUuscans, — who is there that will hesi-
tate to conclude that He who created the Insect
^ Introd. to Comp. Anat. E, T. bij Gore, ii. 392. Act,
Acad. Cces Nat. Cur. xv. ii.
312 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
world, gifted them with so many and such won-
derful instincts, inspired them with such inces-
sant activity, fitted them with such various
organs for such a diversity of locomotions under
the earth, on the earth, in the air and in the
water, meant to place them far above the head-
less Oyster, with scarcely any organs of sensa-
tion, and scarcely any motion but that of open-
ing and shutting its shell, or even than the
Cuttle-fish, though furnished with eyes, and
even three hearts, and a very extraordinary
animal, yet destitute of many organs of the
senses and of locomotion found in Insects, and
most of those that they have not formed upon
the plan of the higher animals, but rather bor-
rowed from the confessedly lower Classes of
Polypes and Radiaries ? ^
With regard to the Crustaceans and Aiach-
nidans, setting aside the superiority of Insects in
their instincts, the single circumstance of the
reproduction of mutilated organs in the former
seems to prove an inferiority of rank and a ten-
dency towards the Polype.^
When we consider attentively these little
beings, the iniinite variety of their forms, the
multiplicity and diversity of their organs, whe-
ther of sense or motion, of offence or defence,
for mastication or suction ; or those constructed
' Vol. I. p. 303, 304. 2 Mac Leay, Eor.Ent, 206, 298.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 313
with a view to their several instincts, and the
exercise of those functions devolved upon them
by the wisdom of their Creator ; the different
kinds also of sculpture which is the distinction
of one tribe, and of painting, which ornaments
another, the brilliant colours, the metallic lustre,
the shining gold and silver with which a liberal
and powerful hand has invested or bespangled
numbers of them ; the down, the hair, the wool,
the scales, with which He, who careth for the
smallest and seemingly most insignificant w^orks
of his hand, hath clothed and covered them ;
when all these things strike upon our senses,
and become the subject of our thoughts and
reflection, we find a scene passing before us far
exceeding any, or all of those, that we have
hitherto contemplated in our progress from the
lowest towards the highest members of the ani-
mal kingdom, and which for its extent, and the
myriads of its mustered armies, each corps dis-
tinguished as it were by its own banner, and
under its proper leaders, infinitely outnumbers
all the members of the higher Classes, which
stand as it were between aquatic and terrestrial
animals, many of its tribes under one form inha-
biting the water, and under another the earth
and the air.
The following characters distinguish this great
Class :
314 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Body, covered with a horny or coriaceous
integument. Spinal chord knotty, terminating
anteriorly in a bilobed brain ; a heart and im-
perfect circulation, sometimes vascular, and
sometimes extra-vascular ; respirationhj trachece,
receiving the air by spiracles; /6'^5 jointed, in the
perfect insect always six.
The Class of Insects may be divided into two
Sub-classes,^ viz. Ametaholians, or those that do
7iot undergo any metamorphosis, and have no
wings ; and Metaholians, or those that undergo
a metamorphosis, and are usually fitted with
wings in their final state.
Sub-class 1. — Ametabolians are further subdi-
vided into two Orders, Thysanurans and Parasites.
Order 1. — The Thysanurans are remarkable
for their anal appendages, which consist either
of jointed organs resembling antennae, and
approaching very near to the caudal organs of
the cockroach,^ the use of which is not cer-
tainly known ; or of an inflexed elastic caudal
fork bent under the abdomen, which enables
them to leap with great agility. To the first
of these tribes belongs the common sugar-louse,^
and to the last the spring-tailsJ^
It must be observed, however, that this is not
' See above, p. 18. ^ Blatta.
3 Lepisma. ^ Podara. Sminthurus,
INSECT CONDYLOPES, 315
a natural Order, for there is no analogy between
the jointed tails of the sugar-louse, which some
have supposed to belong or approach to the
Orthoptera^ and the unjointed leaping organ of
the spring-tail. The latter animals, indeed,
seem to form an osculant tribe, without the pale
of the Class of Insects, and perhaps having
some reference to the Chilopodajis amongst the
Myriapods, with which they agree, in having
only siynple eyes, like spiders, on each side of
the head. Those of the spring-tails consist of
eight such eyes, arranged in a double series, and
planted in an oval space, in shape resembling
an Insect's eye. The Chilopodans have only
four on each side. The Insects of this Order
probably feed upon detritus, whether animal
or vegetable, their masticating organs being-
very weak, and fitted to comminute only pu-
trescent substances.
Order 2. — The Order of Parasites — consisting
of the most unclean and disgusting animals of
the whole Class, infest both man, beast, and bird,
and no less than four^ species, accounted by
Linne, &c. as varieties, being attached to the
former — may be divided into two sections, those
that live by suction, and those that masticate
their food. To the first of these belong the
^ Pediculus Capitis, Corporis, Nigritarum, and Phthirus
Pubis,
316 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
human and the dog-louse, and to the other the
various lice that inhabit the birds/ of which
almost every species has a peculiar one.
I have, on a former occasion, alluded to the
Order of Parasites, when speaking of punitive
animals f here I must observe, that like other
instruments employed by God to visit the sins
of mankind, they are intended to produce a
sanative effect, as well as to punish.^ It is
generally known that they abound only on those
whose habits are dirty, in whom they may pre-
vent the diseases which such habits would other-
wise generate, as well as stimulate them to
greater attention to personal cleanliness. The
hird-lonse is probably useful to birds in devour-
ing the sordes which must accumulate at the
root of their plumes.
Sub-class 2. — Metaholians, by most modern
writers on Insects, are considered, from their
oral organs, as constituting ttvo Sections, which
are denominated Haiistellate and I\Iandibulate
Insects. I may here observe that the instru-
ment of suction in a Haustellate mouth consists
of pieces, though differently circumstanced, pre-
cisely analogous to those employed in mastica-
tion in a Mandibulate one, which has been most
1 Nirmtis.
"" Vol. 1. p. 12. See Introd. to Ent. i. 83.
= Ibid, p. 253.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 317
satisfactorily demonstrated, and with great ele-
gance, by M. Savigny, in the first part of his
Animaux sans Vertthres}
As there are several Orders called Osculant,
that are intermediate between these Sections, I
shall arrange the whole in three columns.
OSCULANT ORDERS.
1. Aphaniptera.
2. Homaloptera.
3. Trichoptera.
4. Dermaptera,
5. Strepsiptera.
HAUSTELLATE ORDERS. MANDIBULATE ORDERS.
6. Diptera. 10. Hymenoptera.
7. Lepidoptera. 11. Neuroptera.
8. Homoptera. 12. Orthoptera.
9. Hemiptera. 13. ColeojJtera.
With regard to the characters of these
Orders :
Order 1. — The Aphaniptera (Flea, Chigoe) are
apterous and parasitic, but differ from the
Order of Parasites by undergoing a metamor-
phosis. They connect the Suctorious Parasites
with the Diptera,
Order 2. — The Homaloptera {Forest-fly, (^ c.)
called also Pupipara, because their eggs are
hatched in the matrix of the mother, where thev
pass their larve state, and are not excluded till
' t. i. — ^iv.
318 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
they have become pupes. Most of them have
two wings, but one genus is apterous :^ these
seem intermediate between certain Acaridans,
as the bat-mite, and the Diptera; they seem
also, in some respects, to connect with the
Arachnidans, whence they have been called
spider -files.
Order 3. — The Trichoptera iCaseworm-fiies)
have four hairy membranous wings, in their
nervures resembling those of Lepidoptera, the
under ones folding longitudinally. The mouth
has four palpi, but the masticating organs are
merely rudimental. Their place seems to be
somewhere between the saiv-fiies and those
moths whose caterpillars clothe themselves with
different substances.
Order 4. — The JDermaptera {Earwigs) have
two elytra and two wings of membrane, folded
longitudinally, and their tail is armed with a
forceps. They appear to be between the Co-
leoptera and Orthoptera.
Order 5. — The Strepsiptera {Wild beefiy,
Wasp-fiy), parasitic animals, that have two
ample wings, forming the quadrant of a circle,
and of a substance between coriaceous and mem-
branous, and two elytriform subspiral organs,
appendages of the base of the anterior legs.
Their place is uncertain, some placing them
' Melophagus, The Sheqy-louse.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 319
between the Coleoptera and Dermaptera; and
others between the Lepidoptera and Diptera.
Order 6. — The Diptera, (Tivo-winged Flies
and Gnats, &c.) as their name indicates, have
only ttvo membranous wings, usually accom-
panied by tivo ivinglets, representing the under
wings of the Tetrapterous Orders, and two
poisers, which appear connected with a spiracle.
Order 7. — The Lepidoptera (JButterJiies and
Moths) have four membranous wings, covered
with minute scales, varying in shape.
Order 8. — The Homoptera ( Tree- Locusts,
Frog- hoppers. Froth-hoppers) have four deflexed
wings, often of a substance between coriaceous
and membranous.
Order 9. — The Hemiptera (Bugs, &c.J have
four organs of flight, the upper pair being horny
or coriaceous, but tipped, in the generality, with
membrane, the lower pair being membranous.
Order 10. — The Hymenoptera, (Saw Flies,
Gall Flies, Ichjieumon Flies, Bees, Wasps, Ants,
&c.) which are the analogues of the Diptera,
have four membranous wings, and the tail of the
female is usually armed with a sting, or in-
strument useful in laying their eggs.
Order 1 1 . — The Neuroptera (Dragon Flies,
Lace-ivifiged Flies, Ephemeral Flies, White Ants,
&c.) have four membranous wings, usually reti-
3*20 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
culated by numerous nervures, but no sting or
ovipositor. They are analogues, especially As-
calaphus, of the Lepidoptera,
Order 12. — The Orthoptera (Cockroaches,
Locusts, Praying-insects, Spectres, Grasshoppers,
Crickets, &c.) have mostly two tegmina, or upper
wings, of a substance between coriaceous and
membranous, and two under ones, formed of
membrane, and folded longitudinally when un-
employed. These are analogues of the Homop-
tera.
Order 13. — The Coleoptera (Beetles) have two
upper organs, of a horny or leathery substance,
called elijtra, to cover their two membranous
wings, which are folded longitudinally and trans-
versely. These are analogues of the Hemiptera,
especially those with no apical membrane.
In considering the three descriptions of Orders
here eninnerated and characterized, it must be
recollected that we are not following the usual
order of arrangement in systems, that of de-
scending from the highest to the lowest ; but
that we are ascending in an inverse direction,
consequently that, in the above tables, the lowest
numbers indicate the lowest and not the highest
Orders.
I shall now make some remarks, as to their
functions and uses, upon the animals consti-
tuting these several Orders, enlivening them
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 321
occasionally with such histories, not before pro-
duced, or not well known, as may interest the
reader and answer the great end of this treatise,
the glory of God, as manifested in the history
and instincts of animals.
Before, however, I enter upon the separate
consideration of these Orders, I must premise
a few remarks upon the circumstance which dis-
tinguishes them from the preceding Sub -class,
their metamorphoses. I have, on a former oc-
casion,^ mentioned some beneficial effects re-
sulting from this law of the Creator; and its
action and the results of it have been so ably
explained and illustrated in another treatise,"
that it is quite unnecessary for me to enter
largely into the subject. The striking remarks
made upon the developements of the higher
animals, towards the close of the treatise alluded
to,^ merit particular attention.
It has been observed by an ingenious and
learned writer* on this subject — that every spe-
cies of plant, in the course of the year, exhibits it-
self in different states. First are seen the succu-
lent stems adorned with the young foliage, next
emerge the buds of the flowers, then the calyx
opens, and permits the tender and lovely blos-
soms to expand. The insects destined to feed
upon each plant must be simultaneous in their
1 See above, p. 25. ~ Roget. B. T. i. 302—316.
^ Ibid. ii. 631. * Dr. Viiey.
VOL. II. Y
322 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
developement. If the butterfly came forth be-
fore there were any flowers, she would in vain
search for the nectar that forms her food ; and if
the caterpillar was hatched after the leaves had
begun to fade and wither, she could not exercise
her function/ In another passage he thus illus-
trates this analogy between the metamorphoses
of the insect and the successive developements of
the plant. If we first place an egg, says he,
next to it its caterpillar, further on its chrysalis,
and lastly the butterfly ; what have we but an
animal stem, an elongation perfectly analogous
to that of the plant proceeding from its seed, by
its stem and its appendages to the bud, the
blossom, and the seed again ?^ For the different
kinds and forms of larves and pupes I must
refer the reader to another work,^ merely ob-
serving that, in their forms, the larves seem to
represent all the preceding Classes of Condy-
lopes, and also some Annelidans and Molluscans.
The great majority of pupes are not locomotive,
and take no food, while the rest are locomotive
and continue to feed. This circumstance some-
times exposes the former to the attacks of their
enemies, the ichneumons, and thus numbers are
destroyed which would otherwise escape ; but
though, in this state, they are thus more exposed
to the attack of one enemy, they are more ef-
1 N, D. D'H. N. XX. 348. 2 /^^^ 355.
3 Introd. to Ent. iii. Lett. xxx. xxxi.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 323
fectually concealed from those of another, the
insectivorous birds. Those that bury themselves
in the earth seem still more privileged from
attack.
Orders 1, 2, and 6. There is so close a connec-
tion between i\\e fleas, the pupiparous insects , and
the tivo'ivinged flies, that it will be best to consider
them under one head. The former of these, the
fieas,^ the mosquitos, or gnats,^ and the horse-
flies,^ all suck the blood of man, as well as that
of beast or bird.* The wonderful strength and
agihty of the flea are well known,^ and it ap-
pears to have been endowed with those faculties
by its Creator, to render its change of station
from one animal to another, and means of es-
cape, more easy ; and though the bite of mos-
quitos, and other blood-suckers, is, at certain
times of the year and in certain climates, an
almost intolerable annoyance;^ yet, doubtless,
some good end is answered by it ; with regard to
cattle, it is evident that, while they are suffering
from the attack of these blood-letters, their feed-
ing is more or less interrupted ; a circumstance
which may be attended by beneficial effects to
their health ; and probably even to man, the
torment he experiences may be compensated, in
1 Pulex. ~ Culex. ' Tabamis. Stomoxys.
4 Introd. to Ent. 1. 100, 109, 112, &c.
5 Ibid. ii. 310. iv. 195. ^' Ibid. 113.
324 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
a way that he is not aware of, on account of
which, principally, a wise Physician prescribed
the painful operation, and furnished his chiriir-
gical operators with the necessary and indeed
most curious knives and lancets.
Another group connecting the hat-mite and
hat-louse, and the Arachnidans, perhaps, with
the Diptera, are those two-winged insects, called
pupiparous or iiymphiparous, because their young
when extruded from the abdomen of the mother,
though appearing like eggs, are really in the
state of nymph or pupe. It is remarked of this
group, which is parasitic upon beasts and birds,
that its internal structure is particularly accom-
modated to tliis circumstance ; it is furnished
with a regidar matrix, consisting of a large
musculo-membranous pocket, and with ovaries
totally different from those of other insects ; but,
by their configuration and position, exhibiting a
considerable resemblance to those of a woman. ^
The reason of this singular aberration from the
gestation of other T>iptera, which, with few ex-
ceptions, are oviparous, seems connected with
their peculiar habits : in their perfect state they
are usually winged, and attach themselves ex-
ternally to horses, oxen, &c.; it may therefore
be the means of preserving the race from ex-
tinction, that they are supported in the womb of
* Latr. Crust. Arachn. et J?is. ii. 542.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 325
their mother, in some inscrutable way, during
their grub state, and only leave her when their
next change will enable them readily to attach
themselves to their destined food.
The gad-flies,'' though they do not, like the
forest flies, nourish their young in their own
womb ; yet their Creator instructs some of them
to deposit their eggs in a situation where means
are provided for their conveyance to a more
capacious matrix, ministering to them a copious
supply of lymph, which forms their nutriment,
in the stomach and intestines of the horse, for
this animal, with its own mouth, licks off the
eggs, wisely attached, by this fly, to the hairs of
its legs in such parts as are exposed to this
action ; and thus unwittingly, itself conducts its
foes into its citadel : others of the same genus
undermine the skin of the ox, of the sheep, and
in some countries, even of man himself. The
grubs, by their action in their several stations,
produce a purulent matter, which they imbibe,
and which is stated by those who have studied
them, to be beneficial to the animals they
attack.^ Another tribe of this Order, the Jiesh-
Jlies,^ lay their eggs on dead bodies, and soon
remove those nuisances, and the putrid and
1 (Estrus, Sfc.
a The species of gad-flies here aUuded to are Gastrus Equi,
and (Estrus Bovls, (E. Ovis and (E, Hominis.
^ SarchopJiaya.
32(j FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
pestilential miasmata which they occasion, from
the face of our globe. This function is of such
importance to the welfare of our species, that
some of the^ejlies, in order that no time may be
lost, are viviparous,^ and bring forth their young
in a state in which they can begin their work as
soon as they are born.
The aphidivorous Jlies- have another function,
in conjunction with the lace-iuinged flies, ^ lady-
birds,^ and some other insects, to reduce and
keejD within due limits the infinite myriads of
the plant-lice,^ which, in these climates, are the
universal pests of the garden, the orchard, and
the field. There are also fiies^ that lay their
eggs in the combs of Immble-hees, which, as it
were, wear their livery, for the hairs that clothe
their body are so disposed and coloured, as to
imitate that of the bee, whose nests they fre-
quent ; so that, probably, they are often mistaken
for members of the family, and efiect their mis-
chief unmolested .
Another tribe of flies, called hornet-flies^ with
some others related to them,^ like a hawk or
other predaceous bird, seize their prey with
their legs, or their beak,^ but it can only be with
1 Se-vivipara. - Syrpkus, 8^-c.
^ Hemerobius, ^ Coccinella.
^ Aphides. t' Volucella, ^^c.
'' Asilus. ^ Empis.
^ lutrod. to Eld. i. 274.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 327
the view of sucking its juices, as they have no
masticating organs.
Dipterous insects, however, are not confined to
animal food, whether living or putrescent, many
also subsist upon a vegetable diet. Mushrooms
and other agarics sometimes swarm with the
grubs of certain flies or gnats ;^ others pass their
first states in decaying timber ; the narcissus
and onion flies'- feast upon the bulbs from which
they take their name ; and a little gnat,^ when a
grub, feeds upon the pollen of the flowers of
the wheat.
To these may be added those flies, that in
their first state, may be regarded as purifiers of
stagnant waters, and other offensive fluids or
semi-fluids. The larves of the gnat or mosquito
are aquatic animals which may be seen either
suspended at the surface, or sinking in most
stagnant waters, compensate in some degree,
for the torment of their blood-thirsty attacks,
by discharging this function, and assisting to
cleanse our stagnant waters from principles that
might otherwise generate infection. A variety
of others contribute their efforts to bring about
the same beneficial purpose. Almost all the
Diptera, in their perfect state, even the blood-
suckers, emulate the bees, in imbibing the nectar
* Mycetophila, Sfc.
^ Eristalis Narcissi, and Scatophaga Ceparv?n.
^ Cecidomyia Tritici,
328 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
from the various flowers with which God has
decorated the earth, and thus assist in keeping
within due hmits, the, otherwise suffocating,
sweets that they exhale.
From the statement here given, we see that
the Creator has provided the members of this
Order with a very diversified bill of fare, and
that their efforts in their several states, and
various departments, are of the first importance,
as scavengers and depurators, to remove or miti-
gate nuisances, that would otherwise deform and
tend to depopulate our globe. What they want
in volume, is compensated for by numbers, for
perhaps the individuals of no Order are so nume-
rous. It is true, in particular periods, the locusts
and aphides seem to outnumber them ; yet, ordi-
narily, the two-winged race, are those which
everywhere most force themselves upon our
attention ; during nearly three-fourths of the
year we hear their hum, and see their motions,
in our apartments, and even in the depth of
winter, in sunny weather, by their myriads,
dancing up and down under every hedge, they
catch our attention in our walks.
Order 10. — If we next turn our attention to
the mandihidate Order, which stands most in
contrast with the Diptera, the Hymenojjtera
immediately occurs to us, in which we find a
variety of forms, which seem made to imitate
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 329
those of flies, or vice versa. Thus there are
flies^ that resemble saw-flies; others that simu-
late the ichneumonidan parasites ; others again
that resemble wasps, bees, and humble-bees.
Though the Insects belonging to this Order
are included in the mandibulate Section ; for
their mouth is furnished with mandibles and
maxillae ; yet they do not generally use them to
masticate their food, but for purposes usually
connected with their sequence of instincts, as
the bees in building their cells ;^ the wasps in
scraping particles of wood from posts and rails for
a similar purpose, and likewise to seize their
prey ; but the great instrument by which, in
their perfect state, they collect their food is
their tongue, this, the bees particularly have
the power of inflating, and can wipe with it both
concave and convex surfaces ; and with it they,
as it were, lick, but not suck, the honey from the
blossoms, for, as Reaumur has proved, this organ
acts as a tongue and not as a jmmp.^ In the
numerous tribes that compose this most interest-
ing of the Orders, the tongue is lambent, and
varies considerably in its structure, but in the
great majority it is a flattish organ, often divided
into several lobes.
Some entomological writers have bestowed
upon the members of the present Order the title
1 Aspistes, Meig. ^ See above, p. 188. " Me7n, &c. v. 322»
330 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
of Princlpes, as if they were the prbices of the
Class of Insects, and if we consider the con-
spicuous manifestation of the Divine attributes
of Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, exhibited in
the wonderful instincts of those of them that are
gregarious, we shall readily concede to them this
title. If superior wisdom and devotedness to
the general good are the best titles to rank and
station ; the laborious and indefatigable ant, and
the bee, celebrated from the earliest ages for its
wonderfid economy, its admirable structures,
and its useful products, are surely entitled to it,
though they cannot vie with the insects of many
of the other Orders in size, and in the brilliancy
and variety of their colours, and the pencil of
the Creator has not decorated their wings with
the diversified paintings which adorn those of
the butterfly.
The functions which are given in charge to
the several members of this Order are various.
Some, like the predaceous and carnivorous tribes
of the Diptera, appear engaged in perpetual
warfare with other insects ; thus the ivasps and
hornets seize flies of every kind that come in
their way, and will even attack the meat in the
shambles; the caterpillar-ivasp^ walks off with
caterpillars, the spider -ivasp'^ with spiders, and the
fiy-ivasp^ y^'\\}i\jiies. But the motive that influ-
' AfnmojjJtila. ^ Potnp'dus. ^ Bembcx.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 331
eiices them, will furnish an excuse for their
predatory habits. They do not commit these
acts of violence to gratify their own thirst for
blood, like many of the flies, but to furnish their
young with food suited to their natures. The
wasp carries the pieces of flesh she steals from
the butcher to the young grubs in the cells of her
j)aper mansion. The other wasps I mentioned
each commit their eggs to the animal they are
taught to select, and then bury it ; so that the
yoinig grub when hatched may revel in plenty.^
Some of the Hi/meuoptera prefer a vegetable
diet, and assist the Lepidoptera in their office.
The caterpillars which infest many species of
willow are hatched from the eggs of the saw-
Jiies;'^ one genus^ nearly related to them con-
fines itself to timber, to which it is sometimes
very destructive.
Another tribe affect plants in a very remark-
able manner. Their egg-placer, like a magi-
cian's wand, is gifted with the privilege, by a
slight puncture in the twig or leaf of any shrub
or tree, or the stalk of any plant, to cause the
production of a wonderful and monstrous ex-
crescence, sometimes resembling moss, as in the
Bedeguar of the rose, at other times, a kind
of apple, or a transparent berry, both of which
' See Introd. to Ent. i. 346.
' Cimbex, Tenthredo, Lyda, Sfc. See Introd. to Ent. i. "2 55.
^ Sirex,
33'2 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
seeming fruits, the oak, when touched by two of
these Httle gall-flies of different species, produces
as well as acorns: various other forms^ their galls
assume, which need not be here mentioned.
It is to be observed that the eggs of these gall-
flies grow after they are laid, and perhaps
these singular productions are more favourable
to their growth, being softer and more spongy
and succulent than the twigs themselves would
be. Even here Creative Power, Wisdom, and
Goodness are conspicuously manifested, in pro-
viding such wonderful nests for these little
germe-like eggs ; these excrescences, indeed,
instead of deforming the plants they are pro-
duced from, are often ornamental to them ; and
besides this are also, some of them, of the
highest utility to mankind — witness the Aleppo
oak-gall,^ to which learning, commerce, the arts,
and every individual who has a distant friend,
are so deeply indebted.
Another tribe is equally useful in a different
department ; I allude to those Hymenoptera
that are parasitic upon other Insects, parti-
cularly upon the destructive hordes of cater-
pillars that are often so injurious both to the
horticulturist and agriculturist. These insects
are denominated by Latreille Pnpivorous, not,
as some may suppose, because they devour
' Introd. to Ent. i. 446. ' Cynips Scriptorurn.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 33
o
insects in their second, or pupe state, but from
the classical meaning of the word, because they
devour them before they are arrived at their
perfect or adult state. This tribe may be con-
sidered as divided into two great bodies, one
represented by the proper Ichneumons of Linne,
which have, usually, veined wings, and the ab-
domen connected with the trunk by a footstalk ;
the other forming the 3Iimite Ichneumojis of that
great reviver of Natural History, distinguished,
usually, by having wings with few or no veins
on their disk, and by a sessile abdomen. These
attack eggs and chrysalises, as well as cater-
pillars. Though the latter are the principal,
yet they are not the only object of the great
Ichneumonidan host, for they attack insects of
every order indiscriminately ; they seem, how-
ever, to annoy beetles, grasshoppers, bugs, and
froghoppers, less than others. They may, with
great propriety, be called conservatives, since
they keep those under that would otherwise
destroy us.^ A little fly, before alluded to in
these pages,^ which appears very destructive to
ivheat when in the ear, is rendered harmless, by
the goodness of Providence, by not less than
three of these little benefactors of ourrace.^
Connected with the subject of parasites is a
singular history communicated to me by the
1 Introd. to Ent. i. 267. ^ gee above, p. 327.
^ Linn. Tra?is. v. 107.
334 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Rev. F. W. Hope, one of the most eminent
entomologists of the present day. In the month
of August, 1824, in the nest of a species of
tvasp,^ he found more than fifty specimens of
a singular little beetle, which may be called the
ivasp-beetle^ long known to frequent w asps' nests.
From their being found in cells which were
closed by a kind of operculum, he conjectures
that they lay their eggs in the grub of the wasp,
upon which they doubtless feed. Subsequent to
this, upon opening some of the cells, he was
surprised to find, instead of the beetles, several
specimens of an Ichneumon belonging to Jurine's
genus, Anomalon.^ Upon another examination,
some days after this, no more of these last in-
sects appearing, he discovered that they had
been pierced, in their chrysalis state, by a
minute species belonging to the family of Chal-
cididans, of which he found no less than twenty
specimens flying about in search of their prey.
" From the above facts," Mr. Hope remarks,
*' we have a convincing proof, if such were
wanted, of a Superintending Power which or-
dains checks and counterchecks to remedy the
superfecundity of the insect world." First the
wasp, a great destroyer of flies and various other
insects, and often a troublesome pest and an-
1 Vespa rufa. ~ Ripiphoj^us paradoxus.
'^ Latreille is of opinion that tiiis is not a natural genus. N.
D D'H. N. ii. 128.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 335
noyaiice to man himself, is prevented from
becoming too numerous, amongst other means,
by the wasp-beetle ; then, lest it should reduce
their numbers so as to interfere with their ef-
ficiency, this last is kept in check by the Ano-
rnalon, which, in its turn, that it may obey the
law. Thus far shalt thou come^ and no further,
becomes the prey of another devourer. Mr.
Hope observed, and the fact is curious, that the
specimens of the wasp-beetle obtained from the
female wasps were about one-third larger than
the others.
But of all the Hymenopterous, or indeed any
other Insects, there are none, as I before ob-
served, that illustrate the primary attributes of
the Deity more strikingly than those that are
gregarious y which build for the members of their
societies spacious colleges, if I may so call them,
capable often of containing many thousand in-
habitants, and which are remarkable for the
pains they bestow upon the nurture and educa-
tion of their young. There are three great tribes
in the present Order, distinguished by this in-
stinct, — the ivasps and hornets^ the hees and hum-
ble-hees, and the ants.
The ivasps and hornets are remarkable for the
curious papier-mache edifices, in the construc-
tion of which they employ filaments of wood, —
scraped from posts and rails with their own
jaws, — mixed with saliva, of which the hexa-
VOL. II. \' 8
o«'
36 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
gonal cells, in which they rear their young, are
formed, and often their combs are separated and
supported by pillars of the same material ; and
the external walls of their nests are formed
by foliaceous layers of their ligneous paper/
Latreille mentions a Brazilian species that
makes an abundant provision of honey.
In the book of Joshua we are informed* that
God, by means of some animal of this genus,
drove out the two kings of the Amorites from
before the Children of Israel. In the second
volume of Lieut. Holman's Travels — in whom
the loss of sight has been compensated by a
wonderful acuteness of mental vision — the fol-
lowing anecdote is related illustrative of this
fact.^
'' Eight miles from Grandie , the mu-
leteers suddenly called out *Marambundas, Ma-
rambundas!' which indicated the approach of
a host of luasps. In a moment all the animals,
whether loaded or otherwise, laid down on their
backs, kicking most violently ; while the blacks,
and all persons not already attacked, ran away
in different directions, all being careful, by a
wide sweep, to avoid the swarms of tormentors
that came forward like a cloud. I never wit-
nessed a panic so sudden and complete, and
really believe that the bursting of a water-spout
1 See Introd. to Ent. i. 501. ^ xxiv. 12.
' Quoted in Lit. Gazette, Jan. 3, 1835, p. 4.
INSECT^CONDYLOPES. .*>37
could hardly have produced more commotion.
However it must be confessed that the alarm
was not without a good reason, for so severe is
the torture inflicted by these pigmy assailants,
that the bravest travellers are not ashamed to
fly the instant they perceive the terrific host ap-
proaching, which is of no uncommon occurrence
on the CamiDos."
I shall now turn to those admirable creatures,
which though, as a wise man observes, they are
little awMug such as fly^ their fruit is the chief of
sweet things,^ those Heaven-instructed mathema-
ticians, who before any geometer could calculate
under what form a cell would occupy the least
space without diminishing its capacity, and be-
fore any chemist existed to discover how^ wax
might be elaborated from vegetable sweets, in-
structed by the Fountain of Wisdom, had built
their hexagonal cells of that pure material, had
closed them at the bottom with three rhomboidal
pieces, and were enabled, without study, so to
construct the opposite story of combs, that each
of these rhomboids should form one of those of
three opposed cells,- thus giving strength to the
structure that, in no other place, could have been
given to it. Wise in their government, diligent
and active in their employments, devoted to
their young and to their queen, they read a lec-
^ Ecclus. xi. 3. ' 2 Plate XI. Fig. 3.
VOL. II. Z
3;18 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
tiire to mankind that exemplifies their Oriental
name — she that speaketh} Whoever examines
their external structure, as has been before ob-
served,^ will find every part adapted to their
various employments.
These valued animals, so worthy of the atten-
tion of the sage, as well as the culture of the
economist, are almost the only ones of the
Order that are guilty of no spoliation, and
injure no one : they take what impoverishes
none, while it enriches them and us also, by
the valuable products which are derived from
their skill and labour— true emblems of honest
industry.
I shall merely mention the humble-bee,^ and
their subterranean habitations, which are of a
much ruder architecture than those of the hive-
bee : the cells, however, are made of a coarse
kind of wax, but placed very confusedly, nor ex-
hibiting the geometrical precision observable in
the latter.*
I may here observe that all insects of this
Order, in their perfect state, imbibe the nectar
from the flowers, but none, the hive and humble
bees and one species of wasp excepted, with the
view of storing it up for future use.
1 Heb. mm
2 See above, p. 187, and Introd. to Ent. i. 481 — 497, and ii.
Lett. xix. XX.
3 Ibid, Lett, xviii. * See Linn. Trans, vi. t. xxvii.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 339
The last Hymenopterous tribe ^ includes the
ants, and is almost equally interesting with the
preceding one, for the wonderful industry of the
animals just mentioned. They are universal
collectors ; every thing that comes in their way,
whether animal or vegetable, living or dead,
answers their j^urpose; and the paths to their
nests are always darkened with the busy crowds
that are moving to and fro. Their great func-
tion seems to be to remove every thing that
appears to be out of its place, and cannot go
about its own business. I have seen several of
them dragging a half-dead snake, about the size
of a goose-quill. They do not, however, like
the bees, usually store up provisions, but they
will imbibe sweet juices from fruits and also
from the plant-lice, which may be called their
cows.^ However, almost all their cares and
labour are connected with the nurture and sus-
tenance of their young.
I am indebted to the kindness of Lieutenant -
Colonel Sykes, of the Bombay army — well
known for the zeal and ability with which he
investigated the animal productions of the wes-
tern provinces of India — for some interesting
observations upon three species of ants, particu-
larly one, which, from making its nests on the
1 Heterogyna. Latr. See Introd. to Ent. i. 476 — 481. ii.
Lett. xvii.
' Ihvl, ii. 87—91.
340 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
branches of trees, is called the Tree-ant, singu-
larly exemplifying the extraordinary instincts of
these laborious and provident insects, and which
I have his permission to insert in this work.
The Tree-ant^ inhabits the Western Ghauts,
in the collectorate of Poena, in the Deccan, at
an elevation of from 2,000 to 4,000 feet from
the level of the sea. It is of a ferruginous
colour, two-tenths of an inch in length ; head of
the neuter disproportionably large ;^ the thorax
is armed posteriorly with two sharp spines.
When moving the insect turns the abdomen
back over the thorax,^ and the knotty pedicle lies
in a groove between the spines. The male is
without the spines.^
These ants are remarkable for forming their
nests,^ called by the Marattas moongeeara, on the
boughs of trees of different kinds ; and their
construction is singular, both for the material
and the architecture, and is indicative of admir-
able foresight and contrivance : in shape they
vary from globular to oblong, the longest dia-
meter being about ten inches, and the shortest
eight. The nests consist of a multitude of thin
leaves of cotv-dung, imbricated like tiles upon a
house, the upper leaf formed of one unbroken
sheet, covering the summit like a skull-cap. The
' Myrmica Kirbii. Sykes. ^ Plate XI. c. Fig. 1, 3.
' Plate XI. F
5 Ibid. Fig. 4.
' Plate XI. Fig. 3. * ibid. Fig. 2.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 341
leaves are placed one upon another, in a wavy
or scalloped manner, so that numerous little
arched entrances are left, and yet the interior is
perfectly secured from rain. They are usually
attached near the extremity of a branch, and
some of the twigs pass through the nest. A ver-
tical section presents a number of irregular
cells, formed by the same process as the exte-
rior. Towards the interior the cells are more
capacious than those removed from the centre,
and an occasional dried leaf is taken advantage
of to assist in their formation. The nurseries
for the young broods in different stages of deve-
lopement are in different parts of the nest. The
cells nearest the centre are filled with very
minute eggs, the youngest members of the com-
munity ; those more distant, with larger eggs,^
mixed with larves ; and the most remote, with
pupes near disclosure. In fact, in these last
cells only were found winged insects. The
female is in a large or royal cell, near the centre
of the nest : she is about half an inch long, of
the thickness of a crow-quill, white, and the
abdomen has five or six brown ligatures round it,
like the female of the white ants ; the head is
very small, and the legs mere rudiments : she is
kept a close prisoner, and incapable of motion in
her cell, a circumstance in which these appear
' It should stem iVom this that the eggs grow.
342 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
to approach the white ants, and which indicates
that they should form a distinct genus.
There was no store of provisions in the nests ;
they were indebted therefore for their support to
daily labour. We may gain some idea of their
perseverance when we consider that the mate-
rial of which the nest is formed — cow-dung —
must have been sought for on the earth, and
probably carried from a considerable distance
up the trees.
Colonel Sykes related to me another anec-
dote with regard to an Indian species of ant,
which he calls the large hlack ant, instancing,
in a wonderful manner, their perseverance in
attaining a favourite object, which was wit-
nessed by himself, his lady, and his whole house-
hold. When resident at Poona, the dessert,
consisting of fruits, cakes, and various preserves,
always remained upon a small side-table, in a
verandah of the dining-room. To guard against
inroads the legs of the table were immersed
in four basins filled with water ; it was re-
moved an inch from the wall, and, to keep off
dust through open windows, was covered with a
table-cloth. At first the ants did not attempt to
cross the water, but as the strait was very nar-
row, from an inch to an inch and a half, and the
sweets very tempting, they appear at length to
have braved all risks, to have committed them-
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 343
selves to the deep, to have scrambled across the
channel, and to have reached the object of their
desires, for hundreds we found every morning
revelling in enjoyment: daily vengeance was
executed upon them without lessening their
numbers; at last the legs of the table were
painted, just above the water, with a circle of
turpentine. This at first seemed to prove an
effectual barrier, and for some days the sweets
were unmolested, after which they were again
attacked by these resolute plunderers ; but how
they got at them seemed totally unaccountable,
till Col. Sykes, who often passed the table, was
surprised to see an ant drop from the wall,
about a foot above the table, upon the cloth that
covered it ; another and another succeeded. So
that though the turpentine and the distance
from the wall appeared effectual barriers, still
the resources of the animal, when determined
to carry its point, were not exhausted, and by
ascending the wall to a certain height, with a
slight effort against it, in falling it managed to
land in safety upon the table. Col. Sykes
asks, — is this instinct ? I should answer, no :
the animal's appetite is greatly excited, its scent
probably informs it where it must seek the object
of its desire ; it first attempts the nearest road ;
when this is barricaded it naturally ascends the
walls near which the table was placed, and so
344 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
succeeds by casting itself down, — all tlie while
tinder the guidance of its senses/
It is observed, in the Tntroductioii to Ento-
mology, that though ants, " during the cold
winters, in this country, remain in a state of
torpidity, and have no need of food, yet in
warmer regions, during the rainy seasons, when
they are probably confined to their nests, a store
of provisions may be necessary for them.^ Now,
though the rainy season, at least in America, as
has been stated on a former occasion,^ is a
season in which insects are full of life, yet the
observation, that ants may store up provisions in
warm countries, is confirmed by an account sent
me by Col. Sykes, with respect to another
species which appears to belong to the same
genus as the celebrated cmt of visitation,^ by
which the houses of the inhabitants of Surinam
were said to be cleared periodically of their
cock-roaches, mice, and even rats.^ The present
species has been named by Mr. Hope, the provi- .
dent ant,''' These ants, after long continued
rains during the monsoon, were found to bring
up and lay on the surface of the earth, on a fine
day, its stores of grass seeds, and grains of
Guinea corn, for the purpose of drying them.
Many scores of these hoards were frequently ob-
• See above, p. 239, 278, and Introd. to Ent. ii. 62.
2 Ibid. 46. 3 See above, p. 250. * Atta cephalotes.
5 De Geer. iii. 607. ^ A. provide as.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 345
servable on the extensive Parade at Poona.
This account clearly proves that, where the
climate and their circumstances require it, these
industrious creatures do store up provisions.
From these very interesting communications
we may remark how the functions of animals are
varied, the same function being often given in
charge to tribes perfectly different in different
climates. In temperate regions, the principal
agents in disinfecting the air by devouring or
removing excrement, belong to the Order of
beetles, but in India, where probably more hands
are wanted to effect this purpose of Providence,
the tree-ants are called in to aid the beetles, by
building their nests of this fetid mortar, and
thus clear the surface of innumerable nuisances,
w^iich probably soon dry and become scentless.
In Europe, again, no ants are found to verify
Solomon's observation, literally interpreted, but
in India we see, and probably it may also be the
case in Palestine, provision for the future is not
stored up solely by the bees, but the ants, where
it is necessary, are gifted with the same ad-
mirable instinct.
A circumstance here requires notice, which is
almost peculiar to the gregarious Hymeno[)tera
dwelling in a common habitation ; in all their
communities, besides one or more prolific fe-
males and males, there is an order of sterile
females, which have no connexion with the
346 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
other sex, and are solely employed in labours
and pursuits beneficial to the community at
large to which they belong, especially the care
and nurture of the young.
The wisdom and beneficial effects of this law,
by which the Creator has regulated their com-
munities, and prescribed to all their duties and
functions, must be evident to every one. It sets
free the majority of the community to give their
whole attention to those labours upon which the
welfare and existence of their several associa-
tions depend. Indeed, if they were all to be
prolific, their societies would soon be dissolved,
or destroyed by the evils attendant upon an
overabundant population ; or their increase
would be so rapid, that the whole earth would
soon be covered by them, to the great annoyance,
if not destruction, of the rest of its inhabitants.
Now I am upon this subject, I may add a few
remarks upon the kindred societies of white-ants,
which, though they belong to a different Order,
are, in many respects, analogous to those of the
true ants; and the differences observable be-
tween them arise from a marked diversity in the
nature of their metamorphosis ; namely, that in
the last named insects, both larves and pupes
are incapable of locomotion, and all the labours
of the society, as well as its defence and the care
and nurture of the young, are devolved upon a
description of its members that are not gifted
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 347
with the faculty of reproduction : whereas, in the
former, the white ants, the larves and pupes, in
conformity to the law which, in this respect,
regulates the Class to which they belong, are
locomotive and more active in those states than
in the last or reproductive one, and are therefore
fully qualified to act in all the working depart-
ments, and to transact the general business of
the society ; but as this, in their case, required a
conformation of the head and oral organs incon-
sistent with their use as offensive weapons,
another order was necessary to act as sentinels,
and to be entrusted with the defence of the nest
or termitary, as it is called, and its inhabitants.
That such an order exists, we learn from the
statements of Smeathman and Latreille, who,
both of them, had means of personal investiga-
tion, and the latter of whom brought to the
investigation the deepest insight into his subject,
and the most extensive knowledge of insects and
their history possessed by any man in Europe.
Upon tJie accuracy of his statements, therefore,
the most entire reliance may be placed. The
species^ he investigated was discovered by him-
self, in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, inhabit-
ing the trunks of firs and oaks, immediately
under the bark, where, without attacking the
bark itself, they formed a great number of holes
and irregular galleries. In these societies he
1 Termes lucifuga.
348 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
discovered, at all times, two kinds of individuals,
which were without wings, elongated, soft, of a
yellowish white, with their head, trunk, and
abdomen distinct ; they were active, furnished
with six legs, their head large, and the eyes very
small, or altogether wanting ; but, in one of these
kinds of individuals, which compose the bulk of
the society, the head is rounded and the man-
dibles not extended ; while in the others, which
form not more than one twenty-fifth of the popu-
lation, the head is much larger, elongated, and
cylindrical, and terminated by mandibles that
extend from it and cross each other ; these La-
treille always found stationed at the entrance of
the cavities where the others were assembled in
greatest numbers : towards the end of the winter
and in the spring, he discovered individuals ex-
actly resembling those first mentioned, but hav-
ing the rudiments of four wings, and in June,
the same individuals had acquired four ample
wings, had become of a blackish colour, and
consisted of males and females ; a month later
a few only were found in the termitary, which
had lost their wings, and eggs now begun to
appear laid up in certain labyrinths of the
wood/
It is clear from this account that those with a
round head and short mandibles are larves,
i Latreille in N. D. D'H. N. xxxiii. 90.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 349
which go through the usual metamorphosis of
their tribe, not changing their form, but ac-
quiring wings, first packed up in cases, and
afterwards developed. The second description,
with the elongated head and crossed mandibles,
never acquired wings, and therefore correspond
precisely with the neuters amongst ants, only
as Providence always economizes means, and
wills that nothing be lost or wasted, he has
decreed that these locomotive larves and pupes
should not live in idleness.
Order 7. — We now come to an Order, taking
their food by suction, which appear to have been
formed to deck our fields and groves with va-
rious beauty ; but which in their first state,
when they masticate their food, they mar and
destroy, often stripping the trees of their leaves,
and covering our hedges with their webs full of
crawling myriads of devastators. It will be seen
that I am speaking of the Lepidopterous Order,
consisting of three great phalanxes, the diurnal
fliers, or butterflies,^ the crepiiscidar fliers, or
hawkmoths,- the noctiinial fliers, or moths," each
divided into several genera. Their caterpillars
most generally feed upon the foliage of vege-
tables of every description ; but those of some
of the lower tribes'^ of moths devour animal sub-
stance, such as wool, fur, leather, grease, and the
1 Papilio. L. ~ Sphinx. L. •" Phalcena. L. 4 TineidcB.
350 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
like ; some even enter the bee-hive and devour
the combs, others the cabinet of the entomolo-
gist to prey upon his insects, others even attack
the books of the scholar. Their office seems to
be to keep in check too luxuriant vegetation,
and, in many of the latter instances, the remov-
mg of dead animal matter, and every thing
putrescent from the surface of the globe.
But this is not the vi^hole, they likewise help
to maintain, as has been before observed,^ half
the birds of the air, forming a principal portion
of their food ; and in some countries, as well as
the locusts and vrhite ants,^ they are eagerly
devoured by man himself. There is a certain
mountain, in New Holland, as we are informed
by Mr. Bennett,^ called Bugong mountain, from
multitudes of small moths, called Bugong by the
natives, w^hich congregate at certain times, upon
masses of granite, on this mountain. The months
of November, December, and January, are quite
a season of festivity amongst these people, who
assemble from every quarter to collect these
moths. They are stated also to form the prin-
cipal summer food of those who inhabit to the
south of the snow mountains. To collect these
moths, or rather butterflies,"^ the natives make
smothered fires under the rocks on which they
congregate ; and suffocating them with smoke,
1 See above, p. 26. » Jntrod. to Ent. i. 303, 307.
^ Wanderings, &c. i. 265. "* Euploea hamata. M'L.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 351
collect them by bushels, and then bake them by-
placing them on heated ground. Thus they
separate from them the down and the wings,
they are then pounded and formed into cakes
resembling lumps of fat, and often smoked,
which preserves them for some time. When
accustomed to this diet they thrive and fatten
exceedingly upon it.* Millions of these animals
were observed also, on the coast of New Holland,
both by Captains Cook and King.^ Thus has a
kind Providence provided an abundant supply
of food for a race that, subsisting solely by
hunting or fishing, must often be reduced to
great straits.
Orders 3 and 1 1 . — The masticating tribe, which
presents the most striking analogy to the scaly-
winged lepidopterous insects, is one of very
different habits ; mostly bold, rapacious, and
sanguinary, they are perpetually chasing other
insects, and devouring them, and this they do,
not in one, but in all their states. I am speaking
here of the Neuropterous Order, especially the
dragon flies, those insects of vigorous wing and
indomitable force. Every one who compares
these with the Heliconian butterflies, the wings
of which are sometimes, more or less, denuded
of their scales,"' will perceive that they are
' Bennett, ubi supr. 271. 2 /^,jc?^ 209, note*.
^ E. G. Heliconius Quirina, Hippodamia, &c.
VOL. \\. z 8
352 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
analogues of each other ; and one of this Order,
the Ascalaphus, resembles a butterfly so strik-
ingly, both by its wings and antennae, that it
has been described as one by a very eminent
entomologist/ The antlions, and lace-winged
flies, in the port of their wings, resemble several
moths ; and the Trichoptera, belonging to an
osculant Order, but still reckoned amongst the
Neuroptera by Latreille, in their habit of clothing
themselves with a case made of various articles,
imitate the clothes-moth, and others of that tribe,
which invest themselves with cases made of wool,
fur, and similar materials.
The dragon-flies in their two first states, by
means of their wonderful mask,^ destroy a vast
number of aquatic insects, and in their last an
equal number in the air.
The white ants,^ and some kindred insects,
like the ants devour every thing but metal, that
is exposed to their attacks, particularly timber.
A deserted African village is soon removed by
them, working under their covered ways ; and, in
tropical regions, a forest quickly springs up where
a busy population ran to and fro a few years
before. So that they are amongst the instru-
ments in the hand of Providence, by which the
places deserted by man are restored again to
the vegetable and animal races that were in
^ Scopoli, see N. D. D'H. N. ii. 580.
2 Introd. fo Ent. in. \25. ^ Termes.
INSECT CONDY LOPES. 353
possession before he cleared it for his own habi-
tation. The white ants seem to connect this Order
with the Hymenoptera by means of the common
ants ; which, however, as Colonel Sykes informs
me, bear the most rooted enmity to them, and
destroy them without mercy. In digging up
some white ants' nests, in his garden at Poona,
he once found two queens in one cell, a remark-
able anomaly in their history. In the course of
the present year I received a letter signed P. T.
Baddeley, inclosing a drawing and specimens,
of a singular species of white ant, with a head
precisely resembling that of an elephant, except
that there was no representation of the tusks.
The head, which is enormously large compared
with the size of the animal, terminates in a Ions:
proboscis. Mr. Baddeley found it in great
numbers about two years ago, under some teak
timber ; the only circumstance which he men-
tions of its habits.
Orders 8 and 9. — There are two Orders taking
their food by suction, the Homoptera and Hemip-
tera, which perhaps should rather be regarded
as Sub-orders, as Latreille considers them, and
which were included by Linne in the same Order
with the Orthoptera of modern entomologists, to
which, in fact, they are contrasted more or less.
I shall therefore consider them together.
The Homoptera are herbivorous, sucking the
VOL. II. A A
354 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
sap of trees and plants/ and the principal tribe
of them was celebrated of old, both by Grecian
and Roman bards, under the names of Tettix
and Cicada, for the far-resounding song of its
males.
This Order contains some of the most singular
monstrosities that the insect world produces;
animals armed with strange appendages and
horns, which in the majority, are processes of
the trunk; but, in the lautlioni- flies, of the head:
the latter have been regarded, as their name
imports, as a kind of lanthorn, given to the
animal to afford it light ; but considerable doubt
has been thrown upon the fact. The use of the
arms and processes of the trunk, which are
found chiefly in the male, as well as in many
male Lamellicorn beetles,^ has not been satisfac-
torily ascertained ; but probably, like the horns
of quadrupeds, and the spurs of male gallina-
ceous birds, they use them in their mutual
battles.
One of these animals, as producing the manna
of the Pharmacopeia, may be regarded as of
some use to mankind. And perliaps, in general,
the tribe, in their perfect state, in which they
imbibe the juice of plants and trees, if not too
numerous, are probably of use to trees that are
over vigorous, and full of sap. In their grub
* Phyfomyza, plant-suckers.
2 Dynastes, Onthophagus, Copris, &c.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 355
state, ill America, they are very injurious to
timber, and fruit trees, into which they introduce
their eggs by a remarkable organ or ovipositor.
The proper Hemiptera, so called because their
wing-covers at the base are of a substance
resembling horn or leather, and are mem-
branous at the tip, form the last suctorious
Order ; they are carnivorous, or more properly,
«?w"w2a/-suckers ;^ for though many of them are
found on particular trees and plants, it is not the
juices of these that they usually imbibe, but
those of the insects that frequent them ; there is
one, however, too well known in this country, the
bed-hiig,^ which is more ambitious, extending
its attacks, like the flea, to the higher animals,
being often found upon pigeons, upon rabbits,
and more commonly infesting man himself,
during his hours of repose. This Sub-order also
presents a great variety of forms, and the bite of
some is very venomous.
The functions of these are similar to those
of other Insects, that derive their nutriment
from the higher animals by sucking the blood
or juices; but the bugs, being generally Insect-
suckers, with their juices also suck away their
lives, and so are employed to diminish their
numbers. The water-hugs^ attack other aquatic
' Zoomyza. 2 Cimex lectularius.
^ Hydrometra, Notonecta, Nepa, &c.
Sod FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
animals as well as Insects, such as fishes, Mol-
luscans, &c.
Order 12. — The Orders that are placed as
parallels to the Homoptera and Hemiptera, are
the Orthoptera and Coleoptera. The former in-
cludes within its limits Insects of various habits,
which may be divided, respect being had to
t\\eiv food, into three tribes : — those that are her-
bivorous, those that are carnivorous, and those
that are omnivorous.
The first of these tribes includes all those
Insects known by the common name of grass-
hoppers, and locusts;^ several of those whose
wing-covers and wings resemble leaves or flow-
ers ;^ besides other kinds, which I need not
mention. The ravages of those first mentioned,
especially the locusts, are so well known, ^ that
I shall not enlarge upon them.
The second tribe consists of what, from the
posture they assume, have been called praying-
insects,^ some of which also resemble leaves.
These are as ferocious and cruel as any of the
insect tribes.^
The last tribe consists principally of the crickets^
and cock-roaches, '^ animals that make their ap-
1 Locusta. ^ Pterophylla. Stoll. Saut. t. i. 3.
3 See Vol. I. p. 89. * Mantis. Phyllium.
5 Introd, to Ent. i. 278. ^ Gryllus. Gryllotalpa, &c.
7 Blatta.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 357
pearaiice only in the ?ught, and feed both on
animal and vegetable substances. It has been
suggested to me by an eminent and learned
Prelate, that the Egyptian plague oi flies, which
is usually supposed to have been either a mix-
ture of different species, or a fly then called the
dog- fly, ^ but which is not now known, was a
cock-roach. His Lordship did not assign the rea-
son that led him to adopt this opinion, but the
Hebrew name^ of the animal, which is the same
by which the raven also is distinguished, fur-
nishes no slight argument in favour of it. The
same word also signifies the evening. Now the
cock-roach at this time found in Egypt ^ is Mack,
with the anterior margin of the thorax white, and
they never emerge from their hiding places till
the eveniuo'. both of which circumstances would
furnish a reason to the name given it ; and it
might be called the evening Insect, both from its
colour and the time of its appearance.
There appears to be a striking analogical
resemblance between the bulk of the Orthoptera
and Homoptera to the Reptiles, particularly the
Batrachian ; their leaping and song are the
principal points in which they agree, whence the
members of the latter Sub- order have usually
been called yVoo-hoppers, but in some of the
grass-hopper tribe there is also a singular coin-
cidence in their form.^
^ Gr. Kvini.(via. 2 -^p«^ 3 Stoli. Srmt. t. viii. l>./. 29,
358 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Order 4. — The earwigs^ form a truly osculant
Order, between the Orthoptera and Coleoptera,
and partaking of the characters of both, but
their habits are so well known that it is not
necessary to dwell upon them.
Order 13. — Of all the insect Orders which
God has created and employed to work his will
upon earth, by removing whatever deforms
or defiles the face of nature, there is none more
remarkable, both for its numbers, the diversities
of form and aspect that it exhibits, and of ar-
mour both defensive and offensive, and also of its
organs of various kinds, and for various uses,
than that of vv hich I am now, in the last place,
to give some account, the beetles, namely, form-
ing the Order Coleoptera.
The parallel to this Order amongst the sucto-
rious insects, appears to be the Hemiptera Sub-
order, the wing-covers of some of which,^ having
scarcely any membrane at their extremity, re-
present the elytra of the Order in question ;
indeed the substance of the base of these organs,
in the generality, also corresponds with that of
the beetles.
Of all the mandibulate Orders there is none
that appears to have so universal an action upon
every substance, both vegetable and animal,
^ Forficula. ' Lygceus apteruSy hrevipennisy &c.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 350
both living and dead, as the one before us, but
it is difficult to class them according to their
food without breaking up natural groups ; thus
in the great tribe of Lamellicorn beetles, forming
Linne's genus Scarabceus, we find insects that
feed upon a great variety of vegetable food, both
liquid and solid ; green and putrescent ; the
feces of animals ; and in a few instances, on
their flesh.
A very considerable number of this Order are
predaceous in their habits, and devour without
pity, any small animal they can seize and over-
power. Of this description is the whole tribe of
ground-beetles, called by old writers clocks and
dors, considered by Linne as forming one genus, ^
but now divided into more than a hundred.
One of the most remarkable of this tribe is the
spectre-beetle" described by Hagenbach, which
is found both in Java and China. In its general
aspect, though evidently belonging to the Cara-
bidans, it seems to represent the praying-insects,
and the spectres ;^ and, from its great flatness,
it probably insinuates itself into close places,
either for concealment or to lie in wait for its
prey.
The splendid tribe of tiger-beetles,'^ as they
indicate by their fearful jaws, have the same
^ Carabus. ^ Mormolyce. Plate XI. Fig. 1.
3 Phasma. * Cicuidela, Manticora.
TiGO FUNCTIOiNS AND INSTINCTS.
habits, adding a swift flight to the rapid motions
on foot which distinguish the other. The grubs
of these emulate spiders in some respects, lying
in wait for their prey in burrows in which they
curiously suspend themselves.^ In the waters
a considerable tribe of Beetles pursue various
aquatic insects, and by means of their oary hind
legs swim very swiftly, often suspending them-
selves at the surface by their anal extremity, near
which are two large spiracles for respiration, for
they do not respire the water like fishes and the
grubs of Dragon-flies. Their larves are armed
with tremendous sickle-shaped jaws, through
which they pump the juices from fishes as well
as insects.
Besides those that are indiscriminate de-
vourers, others confine themselves to particular
tribes or species. Thus one of the most splendid
of the, so called, ground-beetles, named the si/co-
pkcmt,^ ascends the trees and shrubs after the
caterpillars which are its destined food, and
probably other species of the genus have the
same commission. The rove-beetles^ bury them-
selves in excrement in order to devour the 2"rubs
that frequent it. I have before mentioned^ the
wasp-beetle ; there are others which, in the same
way, attack those of the hive and other bees.^
' Introd. to Ent. iii. 152. 2 Calosoma Sycophanta.
^ Staphylinus. L. * See above, p. 334.
^ Clems apiarius, and alvearius.
INSECT CONDVLOPES. 3fJl
Another has a more remarkable instinct, bv
which it is impelled to seek its nutriment in the
slimy snail/ There is an insect much resem-
ling a bird -louse that is parasitic on wild bees,
which has been thought to be produced from the
eggs of the great oil-beetle,^ but some doubt still
hangs on the fact.^
Another tribe of beetles have a different com-
mission from their Creator, and instead of living
ones, feed upon dead animals, of every description.
To this tribe belong the burying beetles, long cele-
brated for the manner in which they bury pieces
of flesh to which they have committed an egg ;^
other carrion beetles^ i^^^y be found in conside-
rable numbers of various species and kinds,
under every carcass ;^ even hones, after they are
denuded of the flesh, are attended by certain
insects of this Order, by whose efforts they are
completely stripped of every remnant of muscle.^
Some even find their nutriment in the inte-
rior of horns. ^
Lacordaire observes that the carcasses dry so
rapidly in South America, that few necrophagous
insects are found there : and that even in the
Pampas, and at Buenos Ayres, where animals
' Cochleoctonus. ^ Meloe.
' See Introd. to Ent. iii. 162. note 6.
■* Introd. to Ent. i. 352. 5 Silpha. L.
^ Dermestes. Byrrhus, &c.
7 Nitidula, &c. ^ Trox.
302 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
decompose as in Europe, there are but few of
these insects : but their place is supplied by
innumerable birds of prey. As soon as an
animal is killed, they fly in crowds from every
part of the horizon, though one before was not to
be seen. The most destructive beetles in these
countries are those that attack leather or skins.
Two species of the same genus ^ commit dreadful
ravages in the magazines of this article : and in
spite of the constant pains that are bestowed to
get rid of these insects and their grubs, great
losses are suffered.
Another unsightly substance is removed by
numberless beetles, whose office is that of sca-
vengers ; the celebrated Scarahceus of the Egyp-
tians," the symbol, as it is supposed, of the sun,
is of this description ; the pill-beetle also,^
equal in fame to the burying one, for trundling
its pills, each containing an egg, with the aid of
his co-species : many of a smaller type are like-
wise devoted to the same office.*
It is worthy of remark that all these feed only
on the excrement of herbivorous animals ; none
having been recorded, I believe, that feed on
that of carnivorous ones, except a single species ^
1 Derjnestcs cadaverinus et vulpinus.
2 Scarubceus sacer.
■^ Atetichus pilularius. IntrocL to Ent. i. 351.
■* Sphceridium, &c.
^ Hybosorus (jcminatas.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 363
that inhabits human excrement solely, but forms
no burrow under it.
Others of the order make a transition to the
vegetable kingdom, by attacking various kinds
of fungi, as agarics, Boleti, puff-balls, and the
like, which in fact seem to exhibit, in their
substance, some analogy to flesh. Fabricius
has given the name oi Agaric-eater^ to a genus
that is chiefly found in the Boletus; another
beetle, however, devours agarics, and is found, I
believe, in no other fungus ; ^ and the puff-ball
affords a favourite nutriment to others.^
Some beetles, or tribes of beetles, are both
predaceous, carnivorous, coprophagous, and
fungivorous. The Histers v,ill devour carrion,
dung, funguses, and putrescent wood : I once
found the autumnal dung-beetle* in considerable
numbers in a dead bird, and Lacordaire men-
tions others that are carnivorous : he says that
the habits of Trox approach those of the necro-
phagous beetles, it being always found under
half-dried carcasses, of which they gnaw the ten-
dinous parts. It is found also in the excrements
of man and herbivorous animals. Phanceus
Milon he observed principally under putrescent
fishes on the shores of the River Plate.^
* Mycetophagus. Boletaria. Marsh.
" Oxyjwrus maxillosus. ' Lycojjcrdlna.
* Geotrupes aiitimuialis.
^ Ann, des Sc. Nat. xx. 263. 265.
3G4 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
We have thus had a regular transition, with
regard to their food, leading the beetle tribes
through the animal to the vegetable world.
Vegetable feeders are innumerable amongst
them, the gold,^ tortoise,^ and flea beetles^ all
devour plants in both their active states, and
some of these are extremely injurious to the
farmer* and gardener. Many are destructive to
seeds, fruits, and roots, numbers of the weevil
tribe, and all the Bruchi are of this descrip-
tion.^
But of all the beetle tribes the timber-devourers
are the most numerous ; one of the most splendid
and brilliant of the whole Order, the Bupres-
tidans, belongs to this department, and the still
more numerous and more varied Capricorn
beetles,*^ though less refulgent with metallic
splendour, add a vast momentum in the inter-
minable forests of tropical regions, and must be
of the greatest use in gradually reducing trees
that have been uprooted by tornadoes, or any
other cause, to a state of putridity, and finally to
dust. Other beetles, of smaller dimensions, and
of a cylindrical form, which take their station be-
tween the bark and the wood, are instrumental
in separating them so as to let in the wet,^ and
1 Chrysomela, &c. 2 Cassida. ^ Haltica,
4 InirocL to Ent. i. 187. 207. ' Ibid, 172. 176, &c.
<5 Ccrambyx. L. ^ Introd. to Ent. i. 235. 260.
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 305
expose the timber more effectually to the action
of the elements.
The great majority, indeed, of this interesting
Order derive their nutriment, in their first and
last states, from the vegetable kingdom. The La-
mellicorns afford a conspicuous instance of this.
Even those of them that are coprophagous, feed
upon vegetable detritus in some degree anima-
lized ; and some are stated to feed indifferently
both on excrement and leaves.^ The giants of
the Order, the mighty Dynastidans,^ appear to
feed upon putrescent timber, burrowing in it as
well as in the earth. The Melolonthidans, in
their first state, devour the roots of grass, &c.,
whence one of the modern genera into which
they are divided is named the root-eater ;^ in
their perfect state, they emerge from their sub-
terranean dwellings, and attack the leaves of
trees and shrubs, and are sometimes very inju-
rious to them. Again, there are others, which,
as it were, disdaining such coarse food, devour
the blossoms themselves, whence Latreille calls
them Anthohians : and lastly, the lovely tribe of
Cetoniadans, to which the rose-beetle^ belongs,
imbibe the nectar of the flowers they frequent.
Many of the weevil tribes are very destructive
* Lacordaire, Ann. des Sc. Nat. xx. 260.
^ Dynastes. M'Leay. ^ Rhizotroyus.
* Cetonia aur^ata.
506 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
to stored grain ;^ and others equally so to certain
fruits.^
Though the Hymeuoptera and Neuroptera
Orders are most celebrated for the associations
which certain tribes instinctively form, this
principle does not act in them solely, other
Insects have their swarms at certain seasons, as
in the case of the New Holland butterflies before
noticed ; and the beetles afford several instances
of it. About the time of the summer solstice,
the solstitial beetle^ may be seen and heard
buzzing in vast numbers over the trees and
hedges, and a little earlier the cockchafer* does
the same, and many others of the same family.^
Lacordaire observed, in Brazil, that two species
of diamond hcetles^ clustered so on some kinds of
Mimosa, that the branches bent under the
vi'^eight of their glittering burthen.^
The same author mentions a curious distinc-
tion between the luminosity of the glow-worms
and fire-flies in Brazil, which has been confirmed
to me by a gentleman sometime resident in that
country. In the former, he says, the light
perpetually scintillates, but in the latter it is
' Calandra. 2 Cordylia Palmarum.
^ RJdzotrogus solstitialis. * Melolontha vulgaris.
^ Hoplia, &c. ^ Entimiis imjierialis, and nobilis.
7 Ann. des Sc. Nat. xx. 161.
INSFXT CONDYLOPES. 307
constant;^ the kind of glow-worm most common
in that part of America, belongs to a tribe in
which the shield of the thorax does not cover
the eyes, and the female is winged as well as
the male.^ Thus in these little illuminators of
tropical nights we have a kind of mimic stars
and planets, the former of which are so nume-
rous as to fill the air with their scintillations.
The immediate object of this faculty, in these
beetles, and in other insects, has not been
clearly ascertained ; as the females are usually
most luminous, it may be to allure the male; or,
as most insects fly to the light, it may also bring
their prey within their reach ; or, again, it may
be a defence from their own nocturnal enemies f
but whatever be its object with respect to the
animals themselves that are gifted with this
faculty, they give man an opportunity of glori-
fying his Creator, not only for the starry
heavens, but also for these little flying stars that
render night so beautiful and so interesting,
where they occur.
In considering the great Class of Insects with
reference to their office, the first thing that
strikes us is their infinite number, not only of
' Ann. des Sc. Nat. xx. 247.
^ In the Introduction to Enfmnology , (ii. 407) this genus is
named Pygolainpis, after Aristotle, Hist. Anim. 1. iv. c. 1.
3 Vol. I. p. 224.
363 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
individuals of the same species, but of different
species and even genera, and the vast variety of
forms and structures that they necessarily in-
clude. When we began the present subject,
and, dipping under the waves of ocean, visited
the vast world of waters, to survey their various
inhabitants ; even amongst those that can be
seen only by the assisted eye, we saw no traces
of such diversity ; the number of individuals, it
is true, were incalculable, but though they have
been the objects of research, with so many in-
quirers, and for so long a period, the number of
species known fall short of half a thousand, while
the number of Insects already in cabinets are
stated to be more than two hundred times that
number, and even, in our own country, more than
ten thousand have been enumerated and named.
The momentum of so vast a body of animals,
everywhere dispersed, and daily and hourly at
work in their several departments, must be incal-
culable ; and this momentum must be doubled
by the circumstance that so singularly distin-
guishes a large proportion of them ; I mean that
the different periods of their existence are passed
under different forms, during which they have
quite different functions assigned them, and are
fitted with different organs, being, when they are
first disclosed from the egg, masticators of solid
and grosser food, and in their last state imbibing
nectareous fluids. The connection of the first is
INSECT CONDYLOPES. 369
with the leaves of the plant, to them they are
committed by the mother as soon as they are
extruded from her matrix, and they supply them
with their earliest and latest food ; but when
she is disclosed in all her beauty, dressed as
it were in her bridal robes, the connection is
between her and the floiver, her lovely ana-
logue, from them she imbibes the sweet fluid
which their nectaries furnish, and now, instead
of a devourer, she abstracts merely what is
redundant, which, while it contributes to her
own enjoyment and support, in the case of
the bee, enriches man himself.
We behold, then, this immense army of de-
vourers, varying so infinitely in their instincts,
as well as their forms, supplying many animals
with the whole of their subsistence, and forming
a considerable portion of that of others, and feel
convinced that Providence has not placed them
in their position, and given them such a variety
of organs, except with the view to some great
general benefit to those animals amongst whom
he has placed them ; and this benefit is not
so much perhaps the reducing the numbers of
their own class within due limits, though that is
a most important object, as removing nuisances,
which would deform, or in any way infect the
earth and its inhabitants. For this the Insect
world is principally distinguished as to its
functions. It consists of the scavengers of
VOL. IT. B B
370 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the earth, and the primers of its too luxuriant
productions.
With respect to ornament and pleasurable
sensations, which were certainly the object of
our beneficent Creator, as well as our profit and
utility — next to the birds, nothing adds more to
the life of the scene before us, during the di-
urnal hours, and even sometimes the nocturnal,
than the vast variety of insects that are flying,
running, and jumping about in all directions, all
engaged in their several pursuits, — the bees
humming over the flowers ; the butterflies open-
ing and shutting their painted wings to the sun ;
the gnats, and gnat-like flies, rising and fall-
ing alternately in the sunbeams ; the beetle
wheeling his droning flight; others coursing over
the ground ; the grasshopper chirping in every
bank, — all adding to the general harmony, and
combining to make the general picture one of
life and Love ; and speaking, each in different
sort and manner, the praises of its Creator, and
calling upon man to join in the general hymn.
371
Chapter XXI.
Functions and Instincts. Fishes.
The animals we have hitherto considered have
been destitute of an internal jointed vertebral
column and its bony appendages ; and though
some, as the Cephalopods and some slugs/ have
a kind of internal bone, and in one Order of
Polypes^ the axis is sometimes articulated, yet
these, especially in the latter instance, merely
indicate an analogical relation, but no affinity.
In none of these instances is this internal bone
perforated for the passage of a spinal marrow,
as in a real vertebrated column ; we now, how-
ever, enter that superior section of the animal
kingdom, the individuals belonging to which,
with scarcely any exception, are built upon
the column in question, incasing a spinal mar-
row, and terminated at its upper extremity by a
bony casket, calculated to contain and protect
the most precious and wonderful of all material
substances, the cerebral pulp, by which the
organs of sense perceive ; the will moves the
members ; the mind governs the outward frame ;
• Vol. i. p. 305. 2 Ibid. p. 177.
*372 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
and, in the king of animals, an immortal spirit,
is enabled to seek and secure a higher destiny.
This change in the structure of animals was
rendered necessary by an increase in their hulh,
for though there are some of the invertebrated
Sub-kingdom, as the fixed Polypes and several
of the Cephalopods, that are of as large dimen-
sions, and a few of the vertebrated, as the
humming birds,^ and the harvest mouse,- that
are not so large as some insects ; yet the ge-
nerality of those distinguished by a vertebral
column form a striking contrast, as to magni-
tude, with those that are not. Besides this,
as these animals, by the will of their Creator,
were to be endowed as they ascended in the
scale, with gradually increasing intellectual fa-
culties, it was necessary that the principal seat
of those faculties should be differently organized.
A different organ of respiration also, as well as
of circulation, in the great body of vertebrates,
required an internal cavity defended from the
effects of pressure.
Having premised these general observations,
we are next to consider what animals form the
basis of the vertebrated Sub-kingdom. Most
modern zoologists appear to be of opinion that
the Fishes occupy this position, and, taking all
circumstances into consideration, this seems the
1 Trochilus. ~ Mus messorius.
FISHES. 373
station assigned to them by their Creator ; still
there are characters in some of the Reptiles that
seem to connect them more immediately with
the Insects. The metamorphoses, particularly
of the Batrachian Order, are of this description ;
as is likewise the carapace, or shell of the
Chelonians, of which the vertebral column and
ribs form the basis. Those extraordinary ani-
mals, the hag^ and the lamprey,^ half worms
and half fish, by means of the leech, evidently
connect the Fishes with the Annelidans.^ Per-
haps those butterflies of the ocean, the flying
fishes,^ with their painted wing -fins with
branching rays, may look towards the Lepi-
doptera amongst Insects, but there is no direct
connection at present discovered between the
two Classes.
The characters of the Class of Fishes are —
Body with a vertebral column, covered with
scales, and moved by fins. Respiration by per-
manent gills. Heart with only one auricle and
one ventricle; blood red, cold.
Fishes are distinguished from the other verte-
brated animals, especially birds and beasts, by
their mode of respiration ; the latter breathing
the atmospheric air, are furnished with lungSy
1 Gastrohranchus. (Myxine. L.) ^ Pteromyzon.
3 Sir E. Home, Philos. Trans, 1815, 265.
* Exocoetus volitanSf &c.
374 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
which receive that element, oxygenate the blood,
and again expel it in a different state ; while the
former, which must decompose the water for res-
piration, breathe by means of gills, found also
in many invertebrates ; these are usually long,
pointed plates, disposed like the plumules of a
feather, or teeth of a comb, in fishes attached to
bony or cartilaginous bows: each of them, accord-
ing to Cuvier, covered by a tissue of innumera-
ble blood-vessels ; but, according to Dr. Yirey,^
having a minute vein and artery. In the gill
of a cod-fish, which I have just examined
under a microscope, a vein and artery traverse
each plate longitudinally at the margin, which
appear to be pectinated, at right angles on each
side, with innumerable minute branches, and re-
semble, in this respect, the gills of Crustaceans.^
Thus the blood is oxygenated by the air
mixed with the water, and carried to the heart,
whence it is distributed to the whole body.
So that the aerated water produces the same
effect upon the blood in the branchial vessels,
as the air does upon that in our lungs.
We know, by experience, how soon an animal
that breathes by lungs, if it remains only a few
minutes under water, and is cut off from all
communication with the atmosphere, is suffo-
cated and dies ; and that all aquatic animals
' iV. D. D'lL N. iv. 330. ' Latr. Cours. D'Ent. t. 2./. 2.
FISHES. 375
that have not gills, or something analogous, as
all the water-beetles, the larves of gnats, &c. are
obliged, at certain intervals, to seek the surface
for res]3iration. Whence we may learn what an
admirable contrivance of Divine Wisdom is here
presented to us, to enable the infinite host of
fishes to breathe as easily in the water as we
do in the air.
When we sum up all the diagnostics of the
Class we are considering, we can trace, at every
step, so that, almost, he that runs may read^ In-
finite Power in the construction. Infinite Wisdom
in the contrivance and adaptations, and Infinite
Goodness in the end and object of all the various
physical laws, and in all the structures and orga-
nizations by which they are severally executed,
which strike the reflecting mind in this globe of
ours. What else cpuld have peopled the waters,
and the air, w ith a set of beings so perfectly and
beautifully in contrast with each other, as the
fishes and the birds. Sprung originally from
the same element, they each move, as it were,
in an ocean of their own, and by the aid of
similar, though not the same, means. The
grosser element they inhabit required a different
set of organs to defend, to propel and guide, and to
sink and elevate the fish, from what were requi-
site to effect the same purposes for the bird,
which moves in a rarer and purer medium ; yet
as both were fluid mediums, consisting of the
376 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
same elements, though differently combined ;
analogous organs, though differing in substance,
structure, and number, were required. For what
difference is there between swimming and fly-
ing, except the element in which these motions
take place ? The fish may be said to fly in the
ivater, and the bird to swim in the air; but
perhaps the movements of the aquatic animal,
from its greater flexibility and the number of its
motive organs, is more graceful and elegant than
those of the aerial. The feathers of the one are
analogous to the scales of the other ; the wings
to the pectoral ^/^5; and the tail of both acts the
part of a rudder, by which each steers itself
through the waves of its own element.
One distinctive character of fishes is taken
from the scales that cover and protect their soft
and flexile forms from injury. Scales, however,
are not peculiar to Jishes, since many reptiles, as
the Saurians, and some quadrupeds, as the
Pangolin,^ are armed by them. Scarcely any
species of fish is really without them. In some,
upon which when living they are not discover-
able under a microscope, when they are dead,
and the skin is dry, scales are readily detected
and detached. These organs vary greatly in
form : sometimes they resemble spines, at others
they are tuberculated ; but most commonly they
' Manis,
FISHES. 377
are plates, often carinated, and varying in shape,
some being round, others oval, others again
angular ; sometimes also they are finely denticu-
lated. In some fish they are separated, in
others they touch, often so as to form together
the resemblance of a beautiful piece of mosaic,
and in many they are imbricated.* In those
that rarely approach the shore, and are exposed
only to slight friction, they are fastened by a
smaller portion of their circumference ; but in
in-shore fishes they are more firmly fixed, and
covered partly by the epidermis, which, in
those that live and burrow in the mud, almost
entirely envelopes them. Some fishes set up
their spines like a hedgehog ; and most, when
alarmed, seem to have the power of erecting
them more or less. Had we the means of ascer-
taining the situation and circumstances of every
individual, we should find that, in every case,
the figure and connexion, and substance of the
scales, was ruled by them. A proof of this may
be seen in those fishes whose integument con-
sists of hard scales, united together so as to form
a tesselated coat of mail. I allude to the
Ostracioiis, whose organs of locomotion seem not
calculated to effect their escape when pursued ;
the want of speed, however, is compensated by
a covering that the teeth of few of their enemies
I Roget, B. T. i. 116.
378 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
can penetrate : the same remark applies to those
fishes that can inflate themselves into a globe/
in some of which the fins are so minute, as to
be scarcely discoverable. In these the scaly
spines, when erected, assist in preventing the
attack of enemies.
I have given a detailed account of the Jins of
fishes on a former occasion.^ I shall therefore
here only consider the motions of which they are
the organs, and their theatre.
Though the birds — if we consider the whole
atmosphere of the globe, whether expanded over
earth or sea, as their domain — may perhaps
have a wider range than the ^shcs, yet when we
further consider that, besides the whole extent
of the ocean, and the seas in connection with it,
with all its unfathomable depths and abysses,
and all the rivers that flow into it — all the innu-
merable lakes also, and other stagnant waters, on
mountains, and at every other elevation, that the
earth's surface contains, belong to the fishes,
and compare at the same time the greatest
depth to which they descend with the greatest
height to which birds ascend, we may conclude
that, with regard to its extent, their habitable
world may be nearly commensurate with that of
their rivals or analogues.
As to their motions, in their element, birds of
J Ro-et, B, T. i. 433. " See above, p. 135.
FISHES. 379
the most rapid and unwearied wing must yield
the pahn to them ; the eagle to the shark, and
the swallow to the herring and salmon. The
form of fishes, generally speaking, is particu-
larly calculated for swift and easy motion ; and
the resistance of the fluid in which they move
seems never to impede their progress. While
birds that undertake long flights are often
obliged to alight upon vessels for some rest and
renovation of strength, fishes never seem ex-
hausted bj^ fatigue, and to require no respite or
repose. Sharks have been known to keep pace
with ships during long voyages ; and, like dogs,
they will sport round vessels going at several
knots an hour, as if they had plenty of spare
force.^ The thunny darts with the rapidity of
an arrow, and the herring goes at the rate of
sixteen miles per hour. But though many
fishes thus pursue an unwearied course without
any intervals of repose, yet there are some that
often appear to sleep. Inflating its natatory ve-
sicle, our fresh-water shark, the pike, in the heat
of the day, rises nearly to the surface, and there
remains perfectly motionless and apparently
asleep : at this time he is easily snared, by
passing a running noose of wire over his tail, and
by a sudden jerk bringing him on shore.
The eye of fishes is like that of the higher
1 N. D, D'Hist. Nut. xxvii. 247.
380 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
animals, but of a substance that makes the
access of the water to it no more troublesome
than that of the air to terrestrial animals.
Generally speaking, it is protected by no eyelid
or nictitant membrane. One genus, however,
removed from the gobies,^ has t\\e former ; and a
species of hodian^ from the equatorial seas, has
a moveable membranous valve above each eye,
with which, at will, it can cover it, that seems
analogous to the latter. The eye of the eel, and
other serpentiform fishes, which are usually
buried and move about in the mud, is covered,
through the provident care of their Creator, by
an immoveable membrane ; and in several spe-
cies the organ can be withdrawn to the bottom of
the socket, and even concealed, in part, under its
margin. But the most singular kind of eye in
the Class, and that in which the forethought of
the Deity is most conspicuous, is that of the
Anahleps, a viviparous fish, inhabiting the rivers
of Surinam, and called by the natives the four-
eyed fish. If the cornea of this eye be examined
attentively it will be found that it is divided into
two equal portions, each forming part of an in-
dividual sphere, placed one above and the other
below, and united by a little narrow membranous,
but not diaphanous, band, which is nearly hori-
zontal when the fish is in its natural position ; if
1 Periophthalmus. 2 b. palpehratus.
FISHES. 381
the lower portion be examined, a rather large
iris and pupil will be seen, with a crystalline
humour under it, and a similar one with a still
larger pupil in the upper portion. The object of
Divine Wisdom in this unparallelled structure, if
we may conjecture from the circumstances of the
animal, is to enable it to see near and distant
objects at the same time — the little worms below
it that form its food, with one pupil and iris, and
the great fishes above it or at a distance, which
it may find it expedient to guard against, with
the other.
The senses of smell and hearing have no ex-
ternal avenue in fishes. The former is the most
acute of all their senses. Lacepede says it may
be called their real eye, since by it they can
discover their prey or their enemies at an im-
mense distance ; they are directed by it in the
thickest darkness, and the most agitated waves.
The organs of this sense are between the eyes.
The extent of the membranes on which the ol-
factory nerves expand, in a shark twenty-five
feet long, is calculated to be twelve or thirteen
square feet.
The teeth of fishes may be divided into the
same kinds as those of quadrupeds ; they have
their laniary, incisive, and molary teeth ; they
are differently distributed, according to the spe-
cies and mode of life ; some are almost immove-
ably fixed in bony sockets, others in membra-
382 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
nous capsules, by which means they can be ele-
vated or depressed at the will of the animal.
They not only have often many rows of teeth in
their mouth, but even their palate, their throat,
and their tongue are sometimes thus armed. ^
And this accumulation of teeth is not confined to
the fiercest monsters of the deep, but even some
herbivorous fishes have several rows of molary
teeth. An instance of this is afforded by a jaw
of some unknown fish, perhaps a Siluridan, in
my possession, in which there are six rows of
such teeth, the anterior ones being somewhat
conical. This specimen was found on the shore
of one of the lakes in Canada, and belonged to a
fish, which the friend who gave it to me stated
was much relished by the Indians.
Many of the organs of the members of this
Class are more independent of each other than
those of warm-blooded animals ; they seem less
connected with common centres, in this respect
resembling vegetables, for they may be more
materially altered, more desperately wounded,
and more completely destroyed, without any
mortal effect. Many of their j)arts, as the fins,
if mutilated, can be reproduced. Indeed a fish,
as well as a reptile, can be cut, torn, or dismem-
bered without appearing to suffer materially.
The shark, from which a harpoon has taken a
i Plate XIII. Fig. 3.
FISHES. 383
portion of its flesh, pursues his prey with the
usual avidity, if his blood has not been too much
exhausted. We see in this a merciful provision,
that animals so much exposed to injury should
suffer less from it than those which are better
protected, either by their situation or structure.
Fishes are amongst the most long-lived ani-
mals. A pike was taken, in 1754, at Kaisers-
lautern, which had a ring fastened to the gill-
covers, from which it appeared to have been put
into the pond of that castle by the order of
Frederick the Second, in 1487, a period of two
hundred and sixty-seven years. It is described
as being nineteen feet long, and weighing three
hundred and fifty pounds ! !
Though the animals of the Class under con-
sideration are not generally remarkable for their
sagacity, yet they are capable of instruction.
Lacepede relates that some, which for more than
a century had been kept in the basin of the
Tuilleries, would come when they were called by
their names ; and that in many parts of Ger-
many trout, carp, and tench are summoned to
their food by the sound of a bell.^
At the first blush it seems as if fishes took
little care or thought for their offspring ; but
when we inquire into the subject, we find them
assiduous to deposit their eggs hi such situations
1 Hist, des Poiss. Lntrod. cxxx.
384 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
as are best calculated to ensure their hatching,
and to supply the wants of their young when
hatched ; but sometimes they go further, and
prepare regular 7iests for their young. Two
species, called by the Indians, though of dif-
ferent genera,^ by the name of the flat-head and
round-head hassar, have this instinct, and con-
struct a nest, the former of leaves and the latter
of grass, in which they deposit their eggs, and
then cover them very carefully ; and both sexes,
for they are monogamous, watch and defend
them till the young come forth. General Hard-
wicke mentions a parallel instance in the go-
ramy,~ of the Isle of France, a fish of the size of
the turbot, and superior to it in flavour, culti-
vated in the ponds of that island.
It has been observed that some fishes, when
dead, emit a phosphoric light, I have particularly
noticed this in the mackarel, but others do this
when living. The sun-fish^ which sometimes has
been found of an enormous bulk,"^ when swim-
ming yields a light, which looks like the reflec-
tion of the moon in the water, whence it has also
been called the moon-fish — and the spectator in
vain searches for that planet in the heavens.
Sometimes many individuals swim together, and
1 Doras and Callicthys.
2 Osphromenus olfax. ^ Mola.
4 One is said to have been caught in the Irish sea twenty- five
feet long! ! — Lacep. Hist. 511.
FISHES. 385
by their multiplied luminous disks, generally at
some distance, compose a singular and startling
spectacle ; and if we take into consideration
the magnitude of these animals,^ we may con-
ceive the wonder and amazement that would
agitate the mind of any one when he first beheld
such an army of great lights moving through the
waters. For what purpose Providence has gifted
the sun-fish with this property, and how it is
produced, has not been ascertained. It may
either be for defence or illumination.
Few animals, with regard to magnitude, pre-
sent to the eye such enormous masses as some
fishes ; leaving the whales out of the question,
which though aquatic, belong to another Class,
what quadruped can compete with the shark,
which is also a phosphoric fish. That tribe
called by the French Tteqidns^ which is thought
to be synonymous with the Carcharias of the
Greeks, and one of which was probably the sea-
monster, mistranslated the whale, which swal-
lowed the disobedient prophet — are stated to
exceed thirty feet in length; another^ of a dif-
ferent tribe, is still larger, sometimes extending
to the enormous length of more thanybr/j/ feet ! !^
Next to the sharks, the rays, nearly akin to
them, exceed in their magnitude ; they are some-
' Hi&t. of Waterford, 271. Borlase, Cornw. 267.
~ Carclutrias. Cuv. ^ Squalus maximus.
-* N. D. D'H. N. xxix. 192. xxxii. 74.
VOL. II. C C
38G FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
times called sea-eagles, because in their rage and
fury they occasionally elevate themselves from
the water, and fall again with such force as to
make the sea foam and thunder. An individual
of a species^ of this tribe, called by the sailors the
sea-devil, taken at Barbadoes, was so large, as to
require seveti pairs of oxen to draw it on shore ! ! "
If we consider the vast tendency to increase of
the oceanic tribes, that where a terrestrial animal
gives birth to a single individual, a marine one
perhaps produces a million, we may conceive
that if no check was provided to keep their
numbers within due limits, they would so fill the
waters as to interfere with each other's and the
general welfare. The Cod-fish alone, which,
according to Leeuwenhoek and Lacepede,^ pro-
duces more than nine millions of eggs in one
year, if neither man, nor shark nor other preda-
ceous fish, made it their food, would so fill the
ocean in congenial climates, in the course of no
long period of time, that there would scarcely be
space for the motions or life of any other ma-
rine animal : the same may be said of almost ail
the migratory fishes. In these circumstances
we see the reason why such enormous monsters
were created that could swallow them by hun-
dreds, why their yawning mouth and throat were
1 Raia Banksiana.
- Lacep. Hist, dcs Poiss. ii. 116.
^ Leeuwenh. Epist. iii. 188. Lacepe. Hist. Ibid. 393.
FISHES. 387
planted with teeth and fangs of different descrip-
tions, fixed and moveable, arranged in many a
fearful row of bristling points, and why this
tremendous array has been mustered in the
mouth of animals of such never-sated voracity,
and of such unmitigated cruelty and ferocity.
Still though the scene is one of blood and
slaughter, yet He whose tender mercies are over
all his works, has fitted the creatures exposed to
it for their lot. Cold-blooded animals, as I lately
observed, do not suffer from the various dis-
memberments to which their situation exposes
them, like those of a higher and warmer tempe-
rature, whence we may conclude, that great pain
and anguish are not felt by them.
Another function of these tremendous animals
is to devour all carcasses, which, from whatever
cause, are floating in the water, thus they act
the same part in disinfecting and purifying the
ocean, that the hyaenas and vultures, their terres-
trial analogues, and other animals, do upon earth.
Another lesson may be learned from the exist-
ence of these terrible monsters ; for if God fitted
them to devour, he fitted them also to instruct.
The existence of creatures so evil, and such
relentless destroyers of his works in the material
world, teach us that there are probably analo-
gous beings in the spiritual world ; and what
occasion we have for watchfulness, to escape
their destructive fury.
There is nothing more remarkable in the Class
388 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
we are considering than the infinite variety and
singularity of the figures and shapes of fishes.
It has been thought that the ocean contains
representatives of every terrestrial and aerial
form. However this be, it may be asserted that
the forms of fishes are more singular and extra-
ordinary, more grotesque, and monstrous, than
those of any other department of the animal
kingdom ; but on this subject I need not enlarge.
Having made these general remarks upon
fishes, I shall next say something on their Classi-
Jication. Of all the Classes of animals, that of
Fishes, as Baron Cuvier observes, is the most dif-
ficult to divide into Orders. Linne considered
what have been usually denominated Cartilagi-
nous Fishes, as forming a section of his Amphi-
bians :^ but the former illustrious naturalist has
very judiciously arranged them with the fishes.
Ichthyologists in general agree with Cuvier in
dividing this Class into two Sub-classes — viz.
Osseans, in which the skeleton is boui/ and formed
of honyjibres ; and Cartilagineans, in which it is
cartilaginous and formed of calcareous grains,
Lacepede, the most eminent of modern Ichthyo-
logists, has observed that there is a striking
resemblance or analogy between certain points of
these two Sub-classes, of which he has given a
table drawn up in a double scries, which I shall
here subjoin.
N antes.
FISHES. 389
CARTILAGINEANS. OSSEANS.
Petromyzon. Gastrobranchus. . Cecilia. Murcena. Ophis.
Raia Pleuronectes.
Squalus Esox.
Accipenser Loricaria.
Syngnathus Fistularia.
Pegasus Trig la.
Torpedo. Tetrodon Gymnotus. Silurus.
Ciivier also remarks, with respect to the ani-
mals of the present Class, that they form two
distinct series,^ which in another place he says,
cannot be considered as either superior or
inferior to each other.
Many genera of the Cart ilagin cans, he thinks,
approach the Reptiles by some parts of their
organization, whilst it is almost doubtful whether
others do not belong to the Invertebrates.- He
has made no remark with respect to the connec-
tion of the Osseans with the above Class : though
his thirteenth Family consists of fishes that
have always gone by the name oi Jishing-frogs,^
from the resemblance which they exhibit to that
animal, and from their pectoral fins assuming
the appearance of legs.^ The species of one
genus^ resemble a fish with a lizard on its back,
the head being overshadowed by a conical
horizontal horn, in the sides of which the
eyes are fixed, so that the lower lobe simulates
' Regne Anim. ii. 128. 2 /^{j. 375.
3 Lophius. L. ^ Plate XIII. Fig. 1.
5 Malthus.
390 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the head of a fish, and the upper one that of a
lizard/ This family of fishes, as well as the
lump-Jjsh,^ in his Lectures on Comparative Ana-
tomy, Cuvier classed with the Cartilagineans.
It is not to be expected that I should be able
to thread my way through a labyrinth, in which
this great man confesses himself to be at a loss ;
and therefore I shall not attempt any alteration
of his system, though confessedly the reverse of
natural with respect to the Orders into which he
divides it, but leave the subject to an abler hand,
M. Agassiz, who is reported to have undertaken
it, and in the mean time, give a popular summary
of Baron Cuvier's Orders, as I find them in the
last edition of the Rhgne AnimaL
Sub-class 1 . — The Cartilagineans, which, as
allied to the Annelidans, I shall place first, are
divided by Cuvier into three Orders,^ viz. the
Cyclostomes, or suckers ; the Selacians ; and the
Sturionians,
Order 1. — The Cyclostomes, or suckers, with
regard to their skeletons, are the most imperfect
of all the Vertebrates, They have neither
pectoral nor ventral fins. Their hody, apparently
headless and eyeless, terminates anteriorly in a
1 Plate XIII. Fig. 2. ^ Cyclopterus.
3 Ubi supr. 128. where Cuvier arranges them in the Order
here adopted, but when he gives the details of the Sub-class, he
reverses it. Ibid. 378.
FISHES. 39 1
circular or semicircular fleshy lip, supported by
a cartilaginous ring. Their gills consist of
pouches instead of pectinated organs. By
means of their mouth, which, as well as the
tongue, is armed with teeth, they fix themselves
to fishes, and derive their nutriment from them.
The lamprey,^ lamperne^ and hag, &c. belong to
this Order.
Order 2, — The Selacians have gills, fixed by
their outer margin, and not disengaged as in the
Osseans, and they expel the water by lateral
openings. To this Order the sharks and the
rays belong.
Order 3. — The Sturionians agree with the
Ossean Fishes in their gills, but their skeleton
is cartilaginous. They have only a single ori-
fice, covered with an operculum. The sole
genera included in this Order are the Sturgeon^
and the Sea-ape,'*'
Sub-class 2. — The Osseans Cuvier divides into
four Orders, viz. Aca7ithopterygians, Malacop-
terygians, Lophobranchians, and Plectognathians.
These Orders, for reasons before assigned,^ I
shall reverse.
Order 1. (Cuv. 6.J — Plectognathiau Fishes.
Gill-covers concealed under a thick skin. Ribs
rudimental. Ventral fins wanting. To this Order
' PetroimjzonfinvialiSy Sic - P. branchialis?
^ Accipenser. * Chimcera monstrosa.
5 Vol. I. p. 145, and above, p. 320.
392 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
belong the Coat of Mail-fisli^ the Sun-jjsh,'^ and
the Bladder 'fish?
Order 2. (Cnv. 6,) — Lophohraiicliian Fishes.
So called because their gills are not pectinated,
but disposed in tufts, as is the case likewise
with some Annelidans ;* body ridged longitudi-
nally, covered with hard scales, united to each
other ; mouth elongated. To this Order belong
those singular animals — the dragonet,^ the horse-
head,^ or sea-horse, and the sea-needle J
Orders. (Cuv. 2.) — 3Ialacopte7 2/gian, or soft-
rayed Fishes. Mai/s not spiny, except some-
times the first of the dorsal or pectoral fins.
This great Order Cuvier divides into three
Orders, or rather Sub-orders, which I shall give
inversely.
Sub-order 1. (Cuv. 4.) — Apode 3Ialacoptery-
gians. JBody serpentiform, elongated; skin thick,
soft, and slimy. To this Sub-order belong tlie
common-eel,^ the conger-eel,^ and the electric-
eel,^^ which have many points in common with
the cylostomous fishes of the preceding Sub-
class, and with respect to their form seem to
look both towards the Annelidans, and more
especially to tlie Ophidian Reptiles.
' Ostrucion. ~ Mola.
^ Diodon. * See above, p. 127.
^ Pegasus. ^' Hipi^ocampus.
7 Syyignatlius. ^ Marcena Anguilla.
9 M. Conger, ^° Gymnotus.
FISHES. 393
Sub-order 2. (Cuv. 3J — The Suh-hracJiian
Malacopterygians. Ventral fins attached under
the pectoral. In this Order we find the sucking-
-fish,^ the lump-Jish,^ the flat -fishes, and the cod-
fish^ which seems an heterogenous mixture ;
the flat-fishes seem clearly entitled to rank as
an Order.
Sub-order 3. (Cuv. 2.) — Abdominal Malacop-
terygians. Ventral fins attached under the ab-
domen and behind the pectoral. Here, as we
ascend, we meet with the sprat, ^ the herring,^
the hassar,^ the salmon,'^ the anableps, the roach, ^
tench, ^ and carp.^^
Order 4. (Cuv. \.) — The Acajithopterygians, or
spiny-rayed Fishes. First rays of the doi^sal fin,
or of the first dorsal fin, spiny, or dorsal spines in
the place of dorsal fins. Under this vast Order
are arranged an infinity of families and genera,
which Cuvier seems to lament that he was
obliged to leave together.^^ The tobacco-pipe-
fish,^^ the rasor-fish^^ the fishing-frogs,^^ the lyre-
fish, ^^^ the Johji Dory,^^' the sword fish,^"^ the
' Echeneis. 2 Cyclopterus. ^ Gadus.
'^ Clupea Sprattus. ^ C. Harenyus.
^ Doras. Callicthys. 7 Salmo.
^ Cyprinus rutilus. 9 C, Tinea.
JO C. Carpio. "^i Rtgne Anim. ii. 131.
1" Fistularia. i^ CoryphcBna.
J"* Lophius. Malthus, Batrachus.
^^ Callionymus Lyra. ^^ Zeus Faber.
J 7 Xiphias. '
Q
94 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
mackarel,^ the gurnard," the mullets, ^ and the
percli,^ are amongst those that belong to this
Order.
It is impossible to consider the Orders of
Fishes as we have done those of Insects, and
give any satisfactory account of the functions
and instincts of the several families and tribes
that compose them. We cannot dip beneath
the waves, to visit the depths of the ocean, that
we may investigate their manners and history,
but, doubtless, we may conclude, that the same
Wisdom, Power, and Goodness, which we find
so visibly manifested in the structure and opera-
tions of all the animals that are under our
eyes and inspection, have equal place and are
equally conspicuous, when brought into view, in
the marine and other aquatic animals. We
know by experience that a large portion of them
are of the greatest benefit to mankind, and the
rest, from the gigantic shark to the pigmy min-
now, each in their place, and engaged in the
fulfilment of their several functions, are, we may
conclude, equally beneficial, though in a way
that we cannot fully appreciate.
I have had more than one occasion to enlarge
upon some of those parts of the history of fishes
' Scomber Scombrus. ^ Trigla Gurnardus.
3 Mullus. ■ * Perca.
FISHES. 395
with which we are acquainted/ I shall there-
fore only add here some particulars with respect
to the habits of a few individuals which may
throw some light upon their history.
Amongst the Cyclostomous Cartilagineans the
hag is distinguished by a singular means of
escape from its enemies. This animal adheres
to fishes by creating a vacuum by means of
its lips ; this effected, it lacerates them with
its teeth, without their being able to shake it off,
and then, like the leech, it sucks their blood and
juices ; but since, when thus fixed and em-
ployed, it might easily become the prey of
other fishes. Providence has enabled it to con-
ceal itself from them, by means of the excre-
ment which, when in danger, it emits, and
which remains for a time near it, detained by
the slime which exudes from its pores. This
is so abundant that Kalm, having put one in
a large tub of sea water, it became like a clear
transparent glue, from which he could draw
threads, even moving the animal with them.
A second water, upon its being again immersed,
in a quarter of an hour, became the same. Sir
E. Home was of opinion that these animals are
hermaphrodites.
Amongst all the diversified faculties, powers,
' Vol. I. 106—124.
390 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
and organs, with which Supreme Wisdom has
gifted the members of the animal kingdom to
defend themselves from their enemies, or to se-
cure for themselves a due supply of food, none
are more remarkable than those by which they
can give them an electric shock, and arrest
them in their course, whether they are assailants
or fugitives. That God should arm certain ^5//^^,
in some sense, with the lightning of the clouds,
and enable them thus to employ an element
so potent and irresistible, as we do gunpowder,
to astound, and smite, and stupify, and kill
the inhabitants of the waters, is one of those
wonders of an Almighty arm which no terrestrial
animal is gifted to exhibit. For though some
quadrupeds, as the cat, are known, at certain
times, to accumulate the electric fluid in their
fur, so as to give a slight shock to the hand that
strokes them, it has never been clearly ascer-
tained that they can employ it to arrest or
bewilder their prey, so as to prevent their es-
cape. Even man himself, though he can charge
his batteries with this element, and again dis-
charge them, has not yet so subjected it to
his dominion, as to use it independently of other
substances, offensively and defensively, as the
electric fishes do.
The fishes hitherto ascertained to possess this
power belong to the genera Telrodoii, Trichi-
FISHES. 307
nrus, Malapterurus, Gymnotus,^ and Rcda.^ The
most remarkable are the three last.
The faculty of the J^orpedo to benumb its
prey was known to Aristotle,^ and Pliny further
states/ that conscious of its power, it hides
itself in the mud, and benumbs the unsuspecting
fishes that swim over it. The Arabians, when
they cultivated the sciences so successfully,
had observed this faculty both in the Torpedo
and the Malapterurus, and perceiving an affinity
between the electric fluid of the heavens and
that of these fishes, called them Raasli,^ a name
signifying thunder.
The electric organ in the Malapterurus^ ex-
tends all round the animal, immediately under
the skin, and is formed of a mass of cellular
tissue, so condensed and thick as, at first, to
look like bacon ; closely examined, it is found to
consist of tendinous fibres, which are interlaced
together, so as to form a net work, the cells
of which are filled with a gelatino-albuminous
substance, the whole accompanied by a nervous
system, differing from that of the Torpedo and
Electric-eel, and similar to that of other fishesJ
1 The trivial name of the first four of these species is
electricus.
- R. Torpedo. ^ Hist. An. I. ix. c. 37.
4 Hist. Nat. L ix. c. 42. ^ Heb. ii^rn
6 Silurus. L. 7 (jeofl^. St. Hil. Ann. clu Mas. i. 402.
398 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
This organ is divided into two portions by a
longitudinal septum.
The Torpedo is the most celebrated of the
electric fishes. In this the organ of its power
extends, on each side, from the head and gills to
the abdomen, in which space it fills all the
interior of the body. Each organ is attached to
the parts that surround it, by a cellular mem-
brane and by tendinous fibres. Under the skin
which covers the upper part of these organs, are
two bands, one above the other, the upper one
consisting of longiiiidi?ial fibres, and the lower of
transverse ones. The latter continues itself in
the organ by means of a great number of mem-
branous elongations, which form many-sided
vertical bodies, or hollow polygonal tubes, some
hexagonal, others pentagonal, and others quad-
rangular ; each of these tubes is divided, inter-
nally, by a fine membrane into several dissepi-
ments, connected by blood-vessels. In each of
the organs, from two hundred to twelve hun-
dred of these tubes have been counted in in-
dividuals of different age and size, some regular
but others irregular, which may form electric
batteries. Each organ is also traversed by ar-
teries, veins, and nerves, in every direction,
which last are remarkable for their size. The
tubes, like those above mentioned, are also
found in the non-electric Rays, but these termi-
nate in por^s without the skin, which are so
FISHES. 399
many excretory organs of the matter contained
in their interior ; in the Torpedo, on the con-
trary, the tubes are completely closed, not only
by the skin which is no where perforated, but
further by the aponeuroses, or tendinous ex-
j)ansions of the muscles, which extend ail over
the electric organ ; the gelatinous matter not
being able to expand itself externally, is forced
to accumulate in these tubes, from whence
doubtless arises their size and their progressive
numerical increase. The two surfaces of the
electric organ are supposed to be one positive
and the other negative. Reaumur observed that
the back of the animal is rather convex, but
when about to strike its convexity diminishes,
and it becomes concave, but after the stroke
it resumes its convexity. These organs not only
affect the animals upon which they act, by
an agency imperceptible to the eye, but they are
also stated to emit sparks ; and they can strike
at some distance, as well as by immediate con-
tact. The author last named put a torpedo and
a duck into a vessel filled with sea water, and
covered it to prevent the escape of the latter,
which, after about three hours, was found dead.
These wonderful and complex organs, and their
many-phialed batteries, the effect of which has
attracted the notice of scientific men for so long
a period, were doubtless given to these animals
by their Creator, in lieu of the offensive and
400 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
defensive arms which enable the rest of their
tribe to act the part assigned to them, that they
might procure the means of subsistence, and to
defend themselves when in danger. Almost
always concealed in the mud, like most of
the rays, they can by this weapon kill the small
fishes that come within the sphere of their
action, or benumb the large ones ; if they are
in danger of attack from any voracious fish,
they can disable him by invisible blows, more to
be dreaded than the teeth of the shark itself.
The Gymnotus, or electric eel, is a still more
tremendous assailant, both of the inhabitants of
its own element, and even of large quadrupeds,
and of man himself if he puts himself in its
way. Its force is said to be ten times greater
than that of the torpedo. This animal is a
native of South America. In the immense
plains of the Llanos, in the province of Ca-
raccas, is a city called Calabozo, in the vicinity
of which these eels abound in small streams,
insomuch that a road formerly much frequented
was abandoned on account of them, it being
necessary to cross a rivulet in which many mules
were annually lost in consequence of their at-
tack. They are also extremely common in
every pond from the equator to the 9th degree
of north latitude.
Contrary to what takes place in the torpedo,
the electric organs of the Gymnotus are j^laced
FISHES. 401
under the tail, in a place removed from the vital
ones. It has yb?^r of these organs, two large and
two small, which occupy a third of the whole
fish : each of the larger organs extends from the
abdomen to the tail ; they are separated from
each other above by the dorsal muscles, in the
middle of the body by the natatory vesicle, and
below by a particular septum. The small
organs lie over the great ones, finishing almost
at the same point ; they are pyramidal, and
separated from the others by membrane. The
interior of all these organs presents a great
number of horizontal septa, cut at right angles
by others nearly vertical. John Hunter counted
thirty-four in one of the great organs, and four-
teen in one of the small ones, in the same indi-
vidual. The vertical septa are membranous,
and so close to each other that they appear to
touch. It is by this vast quadruple apparatus,
which sometimes in these animals is calculated
to equal one hundred and twenty-three square
feet of surface, that they can give such violent
shocks. Mr. Nicholson thought that the Gym-
notus could act as a battery of 1,125 square feet.
Humboldt says that its galvanic electricity
produces a sensation which might be called
specifically different from that which the con-
ductor of an electric machine, or the Ley-
den phial, or the pile of Volta, cause. From
placing his two feet on one of these fishes just
VOL. II. D D
402 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
taken out of the water, he received a shock
more violent and alarming than he ever expe-
rienced from the discharge of a large Leyden
jar ; and for the rest of the day he felt an acute
pain in his knees, and almost all his joints.
Such a shock, he thinks, if the animal passed
over the breast and the abdomen, might be
mortal. It is stated that when the animal is
touched with only one hand the shock is very
slight; but when two hands are applied at a
sufficient distance, a shock is sometimes given so
powerful as to affect the arms with a paralysis
for many years. It is said that females, under
the influence of a nervous fever, are not affected.
Humboldt gives a very spirited account of the
manner of taking this animal, which is done by
compelling twenty or thirty wild horses and
mules to take the water. The Indians surround
the basin into which they are driven, armed
with long canes, or harpoons ; some mount the
trees whose branches hang over the water, all
endeavouring by their cries and instruments to
keep the horses from escaping : for a long time
the victory seems doubtful, or to incline to the
fishes. The mules, disabled by the frequency
and force of the shocks, disappear under the
water ; and some horses, in spite of the active
vigilance of the Indians, gain the banks, and
overcome by fatigue, and benumbed by the
shocks they have encountered, stretch them-
FISHES. 403
selves at their length on the ground. There
could not, says Humboldt, be a finer subject for
a painter : groups of Indians surrounding the
basin ; the horses, with their hair on end, and
terror and agony in their eyes, endeavouring to
escape the tempest that has overtaken them ;
the eels, yellowish and livid, looking like great
aquatic serpents, swimming on the surface of
the water in pursuit of their enemy.
In a few minutes two horses were already
drowned : the eel, more than five feet long,
gliding under the belly of the horse or mule,
made a discharge of its electric battery on the
whole extent, attacking at the same instant the
heart and the viscera. The animals, stupified
by these repeated shocks, fall into a profound
lethargy, and, deprived of all sense, sink under
the water, when the other horses and mules
passing over their bodies, they are soon drowned.
The Gymnoti having thus discharged their
accumulation of the electric fluid, now become
harmless, and are no longer dreaded : swim-
ming half out of the water, they flee from the
horses instead of attacking them ; and if they
enter it the day after the battle, they are not
molested, for these fishes require repose and
plenty of food to enable them to accumulate
a sufficient supply of their galvanic electricity.
It is probable that they can act at a distance,
and that their electric shock can be communi-
404 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
cated through a thick mass of water. Mr. Wil-
liams, at Philadelphia, and Mr, Fahlberg, at
Stockholm, have both seen them kill from far
living fishes which they wished to devour :
Lacepede says they can do this at the distance
of sixteen feet. They are said also to emit
sparks.
Of all the Gymnoti the electric is the only
species in which the natatory vesicle extends
from the head to the tail ; it is in that species of
the extraordinary length of two feet five inches,
and one inch and two lines wide, but the dia-
meter diminishes greatly towards the tail : it
reposes upon the electric organs. It has been
asserted that this fish is attracted by the load-
stone, and that by contact with it it is deprived of
its torporific powers.^
It is singular that in the three principal
animals which Providence has signalized by this
wonderful property, the organs of it should differ
so much, both in their number, situation, and
other circumstances ; but as there appears to be
little other connection between them, it was
doubtless to accommodate them to the mode of
1 The authors from whom my information on the electric fishes
is chiefly derived are, Rudolphi, Anatomische Bemerkungen, &c.
1 826 ; GeofFroy, Ann. du Mas. i. ; Lacepede, Hist, des Poissons ;
Humboldt, Observations de Zoologie et d' Anatomie comparee ;
and Bosc, \n N. D. D'Hist. Nat. xii. xiv. xxxiv.
FISHES. 405
life and general organization of the fishes so
privileged.
There is another little fish, of a very different
tribe, M^hich emulates the electric ones, in
bringing its prey within its reach, by discharg-
ing a grosser element at them. It belongs to a
genus,^ the species of which are remarkable for
the singularity of their forms, the brilliancy of
their colours, and the vivacity of their move-
ments. The species I allude to^ may be called
the fly -shooter, from its food being principally
flies, and other insects, especially those that
frequent aquatic plants and places. These, as
Sir C. Bell relates,^ it, as it were, shoots with a
drop of w ater.
In a former part of this treatise I have given
an account of those American fishes, which,
when the water fails them in the streams they
inhabit, by means of a moveable organ, repre-
senting the first ray of their pectoral fin,* are
enabled to travel overland in search of one whose
waters are not evaporated. An analogous fact
has been observed in China, by a friend and
connection of mine/ who paid particular atten-
tion to every branch of zoology when in the East.
At Canton he informed me there is a fish that
* ChcBtodon. 2 (7, rostratus.
3 B. T. 200. •* Plate XII. Fig. 2.
5 Robert Martin, Esq. F.Z.S.
400 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
crosses the paddy fields from one creek to ano-
ther, often a quarter of a mile asunder. The
Chinese told him that this was done by means
of a kind of leg,
I shall close this history of Fishes with some
account of the tribe to which the Jishing-frog ^
belongs. I have before alluded to their connec-
tion with the Reptiles \" in some points also they
look to the rays and the sharks. The attenuated
tail of all/ and the enormous swallow of others/
give them this resemblance, especially to the
first, so that the French call theuijis/mig-rai/s.^
The best known of them is that called, by way
of eminence, the Jisking-frog. This is a large
fish, sometimes seven feet long ; it is found in all
the European seas, and is often called the sea-
devil. " This fish," says Lacepede, '* having
neither defensive arms in its integuments, nor
force in its limbs, nor celerity in swimming, is,
in spite of its bulk, constrained to have recourse
to stratagem to procure its subsistence, and to
confine its chase to ambuscades, for which its
conformation in other respects adapts it. It
plunges itself in the mud, covers itself with sea-
weed, conceals itself amongst the stones, and lets
no part of it be perceived but the extremity of
1 Lophius Piscator. ^ See above, p. 389.
^ Plate XIII. Fig. 1,3. * Ibid. Fig. 3.
^ Raie pcchercsse.
FLSHES. 407
the filaments that fringe its body, which it
agitates in different directions, so as to make
them appear like worms or other baits. The
fishes, attracted by this apparent prey, ap-
proach, and are absorbed by a single move-
ment of the fishing-frog, and swallowed by his
enormous throat, where they are retained by the
innumerable teeth with which it is armed.
Another animal of this tribe is furnished only
with a single bait, just above the mouth." ^
We see by this singular contrivance that
fertility of expedient by which the Beneficence,
and Wisdom, and Power of the Creator have
remedied the seeming defects which appear
incident to almost every animal form. If it
cannot pursue and overtake and seize its prey,
it is enabled, as in the case of the electric fishes,
ihefiy- shooter, and ihe fishing -frogs, in a way we
should not expect, to ensure its subsistence ; and
while it is doing this, discharging, if I may so
speak, its official duty, and acting that part, on
its own theatre, by which it best contributes to
the general welfare.
Doubtless the infinite forms of the Class we
are considering, that inhabit the, so called,
element of water, and of w^hich probably we
may still be unacquainted with a very large pro-
1 Multhus Vespertilio, Plate XIII. Fig. 1, 2, a.
408 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
portion, all bear the same relation to each other,
and are organized with a view to a similar action
upon each other, that we see takes place upon
the earth. There are predaceous fishes to keep
the aquatic population of every description within
due limits ; there are others whose office it is to
remove nuisances arising from putrescent sub-
stances, whether animal or vegetable ; and lastly,
there are others which, like our herds and flocks,
are peaceful and gregarious, and graze the
herbage of sea-weeds that cover the ocean's bed.
All these, in their several stations, and by their
several operations, glorify their Almighty Author
by fulfilling his will.
409
Chapter XXII.
Ftmctions and Instincts. Reptiles.
In the whole sphere of animals, there are none,
that, from the earliest ages, have been more
abhorred and abominated, and more repudiated
as unclean and hateful creatures, than the majo-
rity of the Class we are next to enter upon, — -
that oi Reptiles. One Order ^ of them, indeed,
consisting of the turtles and tortoises, and some
individuals belonging to another,- are exempted
from this sentence, and are regarded with more
favourable eyes ; but the rest either disgust us
by their aspect, or terrify us by their supposed
or real power of injury.
In Scripture, the serpent ; the larger Saurians,
under the names of the dragoii and leviathan ;
m\di frogs are employed as symbols of the evil
spirit, of tyrants and persecutors, and of the
false prophets that incite them.^
1 The Chelonians.
2 The Gecko, Monitor, ChamcEleon, &c. tunongst the Sau-
rians.
^ Job, xli. 34 ; Psl. xxvii. 1 ; Ezek. xxv. 3 ; Rev, xx. 2^
XV i. 13.
410 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Yet these animals exhibit several extraor-
dinary characters and qualities. They are
endued with a degree of vivaciousness that
no others possess : they can endure dismem-
berments and privations which would expel the
vital principle from any creature in existence
except themselves. Their life is not so concen-
trated in the brain, which with them is ex-
tremely minute, but seems more expanded over
the whole of their nervous system : take out
their brain or their heart, and cut off their head,
yet they can still move, and the heart will even
beat many hours after extraction ; it is also stated
that they can live without food for months, and
even years.^
But though gifted by their Creator with such
a tenacity of life, yet is that life often raised a
very few degrees above death. Many of them
select for their retreats damp and gloomy ca-
verns and vaults, shut out from the access of the
light and air. In allusion to this circumstance,
Babylon, the imperial city, she, who in ancient
times subjected the eastern world to her domina-
tion, was forewarned that she should become
heaps, and a dwelling -'place for dragons.^
Whether the many instances that have been
recorded in different countries, of toads found
1 Cuv. Rajn. An. ii. 1. 8. Lacep. Quad. Ovipar. i. 20.
2 Jercm. li. 37.
REPTILES. 411
incarcerated alive in blocks of stone or marble,
or in trunks of trees, are all to be accounted for
by supposing a want of accurate observation of
the concomitant circumstances in those that
witnessed their discovery, I will not take upon
me to say ; but they are so numerous, as to leave
some doubt upon the mind whether some of these
creatures may not have been accidentally in-
terred alive, as it were, when in a torpid state,
and continued so, till, their grave being opened,
and the air admitted to their lungs again, their
vital functions have been resumed, to the asto-
nishment of those who witnessed the seeming
miracle. Though so given to withdraw them-
selves into dark and dismal retreats, yet many of
them are fond also of basking in the sun-beam,
particularly the serpents and the lizards.
Zoologists seem not even yet fully to have
made up their minds with regard to the classifica-
tion of Reptiles, Linne placed them in the same
Class ^ with the Cartilaginous Fishes, of which
they form his first and second Orders ; but sub-
sequent zoologists, with great propriety, have
generally considered them as forming a Class by
themselves, under their primeval name of Rep-
tiles. This Class M. Brongniart divided intoyb?/r
Orders, viz. Chelonians, Saiirians, Ophidians, and
Batrachians: and Baron Cuvier has followed
1 Amphibia.
412 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
this arrangement in his Rlgne Animal, La-
treille, adopting the Group, has divided it into
two Classes, Reptiles and Amphibians. The
Reptiles he considers as forming two Sub-classes,
viz. Cataphracta^ containing the Chelonians, and
Crocodiles, and Squamosa, containing the re-
maining Saurians and tlie Ophidians. His se-
cond Class, the Amphibians, consisting of the
JBatrachians of Brongniart, with the addition of
the Proteus, Siren, &c. he divides into two
Tribes, viz. Caducibranchia, or the proper Sa-
trachians, and Perennibranchia, or the Proteus,
Siren, Axolot, &c. This classification is adopted
by Dr. Grant,^ except that he does not sub-
divide the Reptiles into two Sub-classes ; and
Latreille's two Tribes of Amphibians he pro-
perly denominates Orders.
That Reptiles, in the larger sense of the term,
form a natural Gvoxx^, will be generally admitted,
when it is considered that the salamanders, or
naked efts, evidently connect the Batrachians
with the Saurians, and were formerly considered
as a kind of lizard; it seems to me therefore
more consistent with nature to consider the
Reptiles as forming a single Class.
This opinion has received strong confirmation
from a circumstance communicated to me by
my kind friend Mr. Owen, well known as one of
1 Outlines of a Course of Lectures, &c. 14 — 16.
REPTILES. 413
our most eminent comparative anatomists. In
a letter received from him, since I wrote the
preceding paragraph, in reply to some queries
I had addressed to him, he says, — " I lose no
time in replying to your very welcome letter,
because I have a statement to make w^hich
justifies your disinclination to regard the Rep-
tilia of Cuvier as including two distinct Classes.
Not any of the Batrachia have a single auricle ;
for though the venous division of the heart has
a simple exterior, it is in reality divided inter-
nally into two separate auricles, receiving respec-
tively, the one, the carbonized blood of the
general system, the other and smaller, the
aerated, or vital, blood from the lungs. This I
have found to be the case successively in the
frog and toad, the salamander and newt, and
lastly, in the lowest of the true Amphibia, the
Siren lacertina, which in its persistent external
branchiae comes nearest, I apprehend, to the
Fishes."
By this statement it appears that those cha-
racters, which have been deemed sufficient to
warrant the division of the Reptiles into two
distinct Classes, exist only in appearance. I
shall consider them therefore as forming only
one, of which the following seem to constitute the
principal diagnostics.
414 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Reptilia. (Reptiles.)
Animal, vertebrated, oviparous, or ovovivipa-
rous. Eggs, hatched without incubation.
Heart, really biauriculate, though in some the
auricles are not externally divided. Blood, red,
partially oxygenated, cold.
Brain, very small ; vitality, in some degree,
independent of it.
Integument, various.
As the two Orders into which the Batra-
chians of Cuvier are divided by Dr. Grant,
differ from the rest of the Class not only in their
respiratory organs, but also in other important
particulars, indicating that they form a group of
greater value than the other three Cuvierian
Orders, I shall therefore consider the Class of
Reptiles as further divided into two Sub-classes,
which I propose to denominate, from the differ-
ence of their integument, Malacoderma and
Scleroderma,
Sub-class 1. — Reptilia Malacoderma. (Soft-
coated Reptiles). Heart, with two auricles,
externally simple, but internally divided. Inte-
gument, soft, naked. Eggs, impregnated, after
extrusion.
This Sub-class consists of the two Orders
called, by Latreille and Dr. Grant, as above
stated, Caducibranchia and Perennibranchia ; but
considering the Reptiles as forming a single
REPTILES. 415
Class, for the sake of concinnity of nomenclature,
I think it would be better to restore to the first
their old name of Batrachians ; and, as the
animals that form the second, as Cuvier observes,
are the only true Amphibians,^ to distinguish
them by the name that strictly belongs to them
alone.
Sub-class 2. — Reptilia Scleroderma, (Hard-
coated Reptiles). Heart, with tivo auricles.
Integument, hard, often scaly. Eggs, impreg-
nated before extrusion.
Orders.
Sub-class 1. Sub-class 2.
1. Amphibians, 3. Ophidians.
2. Batrachians. 4. Saurians.
5. Chelonians.
Order 1 . — Ajuphibians. (Siren, Proteus, A.v-
olot, &c.)
Respiration, double, by gills in the water, and
by pulmonary sacs in the air. Gills, permanent.
Legs, 2 — 4.
Order 2. — JBatrachians. ( Amphiuma, Triton
or Water-neivt, Salamander, Toad, Frog, &c.)
Respiration, at first by gills, and afterwards
by lungs. Gills, temporary. Ribs, rudimental.
Legs, four. Undergoes a metamorphosis.
1 Reyne Anim, ii. 117.
416 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Order 3. — Ophidians, (Snakes and Serpents.)
Body, covered with scales, without legs. Rihs,
moveable. Mouth, armed with teeth. Cast
their skin.
Order 4. — Sanrians. (Two-footed and four-
footed Lizards, of various kinds ; Crocodiles,
Alligators, &c.)
Body, covered with scales, or scaly grains, ter-
minating in a tail. Ribs, moveable ; mouthy
armed with teeth. Legs, 2—4.
Order 5. — Chelonians. (Turtles and Tor-
toises.)
Body, protected above by a carapace, or shield,
formed by the ribs, and below by a plastron, or
dilated sternum. Mouth, without teeth. Man-
dibles, rostriform. Legs or paddles, four.
Though the Malacodenn, or soft-coated Rep-
tiles, appear the legitimate successors of the
Fishes, yet there are some others in the higher
Orders that seem to lead off towards them also,
for the Ophidians and Apod fishes evidently
tend towards each other. The Coecilia, or blind
serpent, too, is almost uniauriculate, and has
only some transverse rows of scales between the
wrinkles of its skin.^
From this statement, it seems that the Class
of Reptiles is connected with the Fishes, not by
those at the top of the latter Class, but by those
1 Rcgne Avbn. ii. 99.
REPTILES. 417
at its base ; with the Osseans by the Apods, and
with the Cartilagineans by the Cyclostomes ; so
that they may be almost regarded as forming a
parallel line with them, instead of succeeding
them in the same series. Even the proper
Batrachians seem to tend to the Chelonians,
while the Salamanders look to the Saurians.
The great body of the Class are predaceous,
subsisting upon various small animals, espe-
cially insects, and some Ophidians upon large
ones ; but the Chelonians seem principally to
derive their nutriment from marine and other
vegetables, though some of these will devour
Molluscans, worms, and small reptiles : the
Trionyx ferox will attack and master even
aquatic birds, Cuvier says, after Catesby, that
the common Iguana subsists upon fruit, grain,
and leaves. Bosc states that it lives principally
wi^on insects ; and that it often descends from the
trees after earth-worms and small reptiles,
which it swallows whole. ^
Order 1 . — The Siren, or Mud-iguana, occupies
the first place in this Order, and seems to con-
nect with the Apod and Cyclostomous Fishes,
from which it is distinguished by its gills in
three tufts, and by having only one pair of legs.
It appears to be an animal useful to man, since
1 Regn. An. ii. 44. TV. D. D'H. N. xvi. 113.
VOL. IT. E E
418 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
it is stated to frequent marshes, in Carolina, in
which rice is cultivated, where it subsists upon
earth-worms, insects, and other similar noxious
creatures.
But of all the animals which God hath cre-
ated to work his will, as far as they are known
to us, none is more remarkable, both for its situ-
ation and many of its characters, than one to
which I have before adverted,^ as affording some
proof, that the ivaters binder the earth, and other
subterranean cavities, may have their peculiar
population. The animal I allude to is the Pro-
teus, belonging to the present Order, which was
first found thrown up by subterranean waters
in Carniola, as we are informed by the late Sir
H. Davy,^ by Baron Zois. Sir Humphry him-
self appears to have found them in the Grotto
of the Maddalena, at Adelsburg, several hundred
feet below the surface of the earth ; he also
states that they have been found at Sittich,
thirty miles distant, and he supposes that those
found in both places might be thrown up by
the same subterranean lake.^ In the year 1833
there w^ere two living specimens in the museum
of the Zoological Society, where I had the plea-
sure of seeing them ; and from one of them the
accurate figure at the end of this volume,* by
1 Vol. I. p. 35. " Consolat. in Trav. 187.
"^ Ibid. 183—188. * Plate XIV. Fig. 1.
REPTILES. 419
the kind permission of the Society, was taken
by Mr. C. M. Curtis.
When we look at these animals, there is some-
thing so different in their general aspect from the
tribes to which they are most nearly related, that
the idea strikes one that we are viewing beings
far removed from those that inhabit the surface
of our globe, and its waters; which, though
accidentally visiting these upper regions, may
be the outsetters of a population still further
removed from our notice, and dipping deeper
into its interior.
The Proteus is about a foot in length, or
something more, and about an inch in thick-
ness; the body is cylindrical, tapering to the
tail ; its colour is a pale red ; its skin is trans-
parent and slimy, so as easily to elude the grasp.
It has four short slender legs, the anterior pair
placed just behind the head, having three, and
the posterior pair, which are shorter, and placed
just before the vent, having only tivo toes with-
out claws. The head terminates in a flat, very
obtuse muzzle, somewhat resembling the beak of
a duck ; its maxillae are armed with teeth ; the
eyes are extremely minute, and scarcely dis-
cernible ; they are concealed, and apparently
rendered useless by an opaque skin ; but as this
animal is said to avoid the light, it is evident
that it produces some effect upon them ; behind
the head, on each side, is an opening like those
420 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
of fishes, over which are the gills, divided into
several branches.^ It has, besides, an internal
pneumatic apparatus, consisting of two vesicles,
below the heart. The tail is compressed, fur-
nished above and below with a caudal fin, ex-
tending to the posterior legs. Its legs, from
their having no claws, are, it is probable, prin-
cipally useful in walking upon the mud, and by
means of its caudal fin it can move like an eel
or fish in the water. From a small shell-fish
being found in the stomach of one, it seems to
follow that its food, at least in part, consists of
Molluscans inhabiting the same subterranean
caves and waters with itself, and probably
distinct from any of those to which the atmos-
phere has free access. Sometimes, elevating its
head above the water, it makes a hissing noise
louder than could be expected from so small an
animal.
Before quitting this subject, I may observe
that Baron Humboldt has given an account of a
wonderful eruption of subterranean fishes, which
sometimes takes place from the volcanos of the
kingdom of Quito. These fishes are ejected in
the intervals of the igneous eruptions, in such
quantities as to occasion putrid fevers by the
miasmata they produce : they sometimes issued
from the crater of the volcano, and sometimes
1 Plate XIV. Fig. l,a.
REPTILES. 421
from lateral clefts, but constantly at the elevation
of between two and three thousand toises above
the level of the sea. In a few hours, millions
are seen to descend from Cotopaxi, with great
masses of cold and fresh water. As they do not
appear to be disfigured or mutilated, they can-
not be exposed to the action of great heat.
Humboldt thought they were identical with
fishes that were found in the rivulets at the foot
of the volcanos. These fishes belong to a genus
separated from Silurus}
Order 2. — This Order begins with two genera,
the species of which havebeen supposed to breathe
by lungs only, no traces of gills having yet been
discovered in any individual belonging to them.
Cuvier thinks that they cast them sooner than
the salamanders. One of these is a large ani-
mal,^ being more than a yard in length ; it was
discovered by Dr. Garden, in South Carolina:
like the Proteus, its eyes are covered with a
thick tunic, and its toes have no claws. The
other,^ found in New York, comes near the
salamanders, and has been called by American
writers the giant salamander. Both are found
in fresh-water lakes, and similar places.
I have mentioned, on a former occasion, a
salamander that lays her eggs singly on the
1 Pimelodus. Humboldt names the species in question P,
Cyclopum. ZooL 22.
- Amphivma means. ^ Menopoma.
422 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
leaves of Persicaria, which she doubles down
over them,^ and which are kept folded by
means of the glue that envelopes the egg. Dr.
Rusconi, to whom we are indebted for this
history, observed the whole progress and de-
velopement of this animal, from its embryo
state in the egg. It is at first opaque, formed of
a soft homogeneous substance. Almost as soon
as it has escaped from its envelope, it becomes
gradually transparent, so that the successive
developements, both of its internal and external
organs, may be discerned — the heart, and its
systole and diastole ; the stomach, its form and
position ; the intestinal canal, which at first
extends in a straight line, from one end of the
abdomen to the other, and then begins to undu-
late, and ends by forming many convolutions :
next may be seen the liver, the developement of
which keeps pace with that of the stomach and
intestines '; and lastly appear the lungs, taking
their place and form, always filled with air, and
so transparent that one might believe the animal
has on each side of the trunk a bubble of air
gradually dilating and lengthening. When all
these organs have acquired the necessary deve-
lopement, the spectator beholds in the little
creature the beginning, as it were, of its animal
1 See above, p. 265.
REPTILES. 4*23
life. Its former life being merely organic, re-
sembling that of a vegetable, but now its mo-
tions are become the result of its sensations and
We see in this instance how exactly the rudi-
ments, as it were, of the organs of the future
animal, are fitted to respond to the action of the
elements upon them, how the germe of every
organ begins, if I may so speak, to vegetate, and
grows till it is fully developed, so as to become
either a fit instrument of the will or of the vital
powers, and adapted to carry the creature
through all its destined operations, and to en-
able and incline it to fulfil all its prescribed
functions. These observations, and this inte-
resting little history, will apply to man himself,
who, in his embryo state, is the subject of
similar developements ; and the words of the
divine Psalmist are a beautiful comment upon
this our embryo life : For thou hast possessed my
reins : thou hast covered me in my mother s ivomb.
My substance ivas not hid from thee, when I teas
made in secret, arid curiously wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my
substance yet being imperfect ; and in thy book all
my members were written, ivhich in continuance
1 Rusconi, in Edinb. Philos. Journ. ix. 110 — 113, on Sala-
mandru plafycauda.
424 1 UNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
tvere fashioned ^ ivhen as yet there ivas none of
them}
The salamander, as is reported, says Aristotle,
if it goes through fire extinguishes it r this is
repeated by Pliny, who adds, that it extinguishes
it like ice. It never appears, he further observes,
except in showery weather, and likewise that
it emits a milky saliva, which is depilatory.^
Salamanders, says Bosc, emit from their skin a
lubricating white fluid when they are annoyed,
and if they are put into the fire, it sometimes
happens that this fluid extinguishes it sufficiently
to permit their escape ; and again — when one
touches the terrestrial salamander, it causes to
transude from its skin a white fluid, which it
secretes more copiously than its congeners.
This kind of milk is extremely acrid, and pro-
duces a very painful sensation upon the tongue.
According to Gesner, it is an excellent depila-
tory. It is sometimes spirted out to the dis-
tance of several inches, as Latreille has observed,
and diffuses a particularly nauseous scent ; it
poisons small animals, but does not appear to
produce serious effects upon large ones/
I have introduced these ancient and modern
statements to show how little they differ, and in
confirmation of the truth of them I have a re-
1 Ps. cxxxlx. 13 — 16. '^ Hist. An. lil). v. chap. 19.
3 HUt Mai. 1. X. 67. 4 N. D. D'H. N. xxx. 58, 59.
REPTILES. 425
inarkable occurrence to relate, which I give
upon the authority of three ladies who witnessed
the fact, and upon whose accuracy I can rely.
They were residing at Newbury, where their
cellars were frequented by frogs, and a kind of
newt, or salamander, of a dull black colour.
Several of the frogs were caught one day, and
put into a pail ; and while the ladies were
looking at them they were surprised by ob-
serving the frogs one after another turn them-
selves on their backs, and lie with their legs
extended quite stiff and dead. Upon examin-
ing the pail they found one of these efts, as they
called them, running round very quickly amongst
the frogs, each of which, when touched by it,
died instantaneously, in the manner above
stated. They afterwards regarded these efts,
as may be supposed, with nearly as much
horror as they would a rattlesnake ; and a few
nights afterwards, finding one in the kitchen,
it was seized with the tongs, and thrown into a
good fire which was burning in the grate. The
reptile, instead of perishing, slipped like light-
ning through the coals, and ran away under the
fireplace apparently unhurt. The house, in
which these animals were found, was in a re-
markably damp situation.
If our northern salamanders are gifted with
such powerful means of offence or defence, we
know not how far those powers may be sublimed
426 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
in the species of warmer climates ; and the fire-
quenching and death- doing properties of tlie
Grecian or Roman salamanders may approach
nearer to the, supposed, fabulous descriptions of
Aristotle and PHny, than modern Herpetologists
seem willing to believe.
There appears no small analogy between these
properties considered as weapons, and means by
which these animals either secure their prey,
consisting of earth-worms, insects, and other
small game, or disarm and destroy their enemies,
and those, related in the last chapter, which
distinguish the electric fishes.
Spallanzani, by numerous experiments, has
discovered in this tribe of animals, the power
of reproducing lost or mutilated organs ; Bonnet
and others have confirmed his observations. So
that it seems proved, if their legs and tail are
cut off, and even their eyes plucked out, that in
a few months they will be reproduced ; and even
a limb thus renewed, if again cut off, will be
reproduced again.
In going upwards from the salamanders, at
first sight, we feel disposed to proceed next to
the other animals of a similar form, the lizards
and other Saurians, for this way their external
form leads us, but their internal organization is
nearer that of the frogs and toads. Upon these
last I shall not dwell : all know that they begin
life in the water like fishes ; that they are at
REPTILES. 427
first without legs, or any instrument of motion
but a tail, which by its undulations from side to
side steers the apparently disproportioned body
to which it is appended, and makes its way with
rapidity through its native element. Few are
ignorant that they first acquire a single pair of
legs ; and lastly, that, another pair being also
acquired, they leave the water by myriads, and
appear, without a tail, as four-footed, and, at
certain times, noisy reptiles.
Order 3. — The general function of the Ophi-
dians seems connected with almost the whole
animal kingdom. The insects, frogs, and other
reptiles, several birds and beasts, up as high
as the rimiinant and even the carnivorous tribes,
become the prey of various species. They act
the same part with land animals, that their ana-
logues, the eels and other apod and cyclostomous
fishes do with respect to those of the water.
Some are analogues of the lion and the tiger,
as the Oriental Python and the Occidental Hoa,
which sometimes exceed thirty feet in length,
and are as thick as a man's body ; while others
compete with the minor predaceous beasts in
the destruction they occasion amongst the lesser
quadrupeds. But while the predaceous quad-
rupeds, with the exception of the Hyena, leave
untouched the skeleton of the animals they
devour, the Ophidians swallow the entire ani-
428 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
mal, flesh and bone and skin, and thus com-
pletely remove it from the face of nature ;
whereas the others, where they abound and are
unmolested, make their domain like a charnel
house, and deform the earth with the ghastly
relics of their cruelty and voracity.
The mechanism of the mouth of these animals
is so contrived by Divine Wisdom, and the
pieces that form it so put together, as to enable
them to twist and distort and dilate it so enor-
mously that they can swallow animals bigger
than their own bodies.^ The vertebrae of the
great Boa are more numerous than those of
other serpents, which gives them a greater
power of surrounding and strangling their prey
with their dreadful voluminous folds, of crushing
it, and, with the help of their saliva, rendering
it fit for deglutition. With their tail, likewise,
they can lay strong hold of a tree, so as to
use it as a fulcrum, by which their powers of
compression are increased and rendered more
available where they have to contend with the
struggles of powerful animals.
Order 4. — The connection of the Smirians, or
the animals forming the next Order with the
Ophidians, is very intimate. Cuvier says that
many serpents under the skin have the vestige of
a posterior limb, which in some shows its extre-
1 Cuv. Anat, Comp. iii. 90.
REPTILES. 429
mity externally, in the form of a little claw/
Amongst the lizards is one that has only two
fore legs," and another that has only two hind
ones;^ and a third/ in which the legs are so
short and so distant, and the body so slender
and serpentiform, that they resemble a snake
with four legs rather than a lizard.
This Order is divided into numerous genera
and sub-genera. One of the most celebrated is
the Chameleon. I have already noticed some
of its peculiarities, and its mode of catching the
insects that form its food.^ The ancients were
of opinion that it lived upon air, led by the
power it has of swelling itself to twice its natural
size, by inflating its vast lungs, when its body
becomes transparent. Cuvier is of opinion that
it is the size of the lungs of these animals that
enables them to change their colour, not in order
to assume that of the bodies on which they
happen to be, but to express their wants and
passions. He supposes that the blood, being-
constrained to approach the skin, more or less,
assumes different shades, according to the degree
of transparency.^ The Rev. L. Guilding, how-
ever, mentions another genus,' the species of
which, when in search of prey, adapt their
colour to the green tree or dark brown rock on
1 Regit, An. ii. 71. - Chirotes. 3 Bvpes.
•* Seps. See Roget, B. T. i. 448./. 210.
5 See above, p. 192. ^ R^gn. An. ii. 59. 7 AnoUs.
430 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
which they lie in ambush/ As these animals
have the power of inflation, at least partially,
by assuming a degree of transparency, they
may appear of the colour of the substance they
are standing upon, a remark which may also
apply to the chameleon. The object of this may
be to conceal themselves from their enemies, as
well as from their prey.
The Guanas,^ also, are said to change their
colour ; they are remarkable, as well as the
Anolis, for the kind of goitre in their throat,
which when irritated or excited they can inflate
to a large size. These animals, though their
flesh is said to be unwholesome, in the countries
they frequent are highly prized for the table, and
are often hunted with dogs. Their eggs also are
in request.
The 3Io7iitors, or safeguards, as the French
call some of them, deserve notice, because one
species ^ is said to assist in the diminution of the
crocodile, since, like the ichneumon, it devours
its eggs, and even the young ones, on which
account it is supposed to be sculptured on the
monuments of the ancient Egyptians. This
name was given them because they were be-
lieved to warn people, by hissing, of the ap-
proach of the crocodile, or venomous reptiles.
1 Zool. Journ, iv. 165. ~ Iguana vulgaris.
^ M. niloticus.
REPTILES. 431
But the most celebrated of the Saurians, from
the earliest ages, is the Crocodile : its history,
however, is so well known that I shall only men-
tion a few circumstances, of less notoriety, con-
nected with it. There has been some difference
of opinion as to whether the crocodile can move
the upper or lower jaw. Aristotle observes, all
animals move the lower jaw, except the crocodile
of the river, for this animal only moves the
upper. ^ Denon says the same.^ Lacepede, on the
contrary, affirms that the lower jaw is the only
moveable one.^ I was assured by Mr. Cross,
when looking at two alligators in his menagerie,
then at Charing-cross, that they moved both
their jaws ; and my friend Mr. Martin has ob-
served the same thing in India. M. Geoffrey
St. Hilaire and Baron Cuvier nearly reconcile
the two opinions. The head, says the fonrier,
moves on the lower jaw like the lid of a snuff-
box, that opens by a hinge. By this mechanism
they can elevate their nostrils above the water,
which they do with great rapidity for conceal-
ment :^ and the latter observes, that the upper
jaw moves only with the whole head.^ So that
the fact seems to be that the lower jaw alone
has motion independent of the head, and the
upper one can only move with it: but when we
' Hist. Afi. lib. i. c. 11. ^ Voyage, &c. i. 185.
3 Hist. Ov. 194. * An. du Mus. x. 376.
5 Rcgn. An. ii. 18.
VOL. II. EE 8
432 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
consider that the lower one extends beyond the
skull, a condyle of which acts in an acetabulum
of that jaw, we can easily comprehend that the
upper jaw and head forming one piece, may be
elevated at any angle, according to the will of
the animal ; and thus the upper one acquires
additional power of action in attacking its prey
in the water and securing it.
The nostrils of this animal are at the end
of the muzzle, and this structure, by causing
the upper jaw to emerge a little, as the croco-
dile cannot remain under water more than
ten minutes, enables it to breathe without
exposing itself to observation. When on shore
it turns itself to the point from which the
wind blows, keeping its mouth open. Adanson
relates that he once saw in the Senegal more
than two hundred of these river monsters
swimming together, with their heads only
emerging, and resembling so many trees. Were
it not for the number of their enemies, great
and small, their increase would be so rapid
that they would drive man from the vicinity of
the great rivers of the torrid zone. The River-
horse^ attacks them and destroys many — Behe-
moth against Leviathan, — for though the Levia-
than of the Psalmist is clearly a marine animal
or monster,^ that of Job^ is as clearly the croco-
^ Hippopotamus. - Psl. civ. 26. '' Chap. xli.
Ri:i>riLi:s. 43.]
dile/ and they are stated to destroy many of
them ; even tlie feline race, in some countries,
contrive to make them their prey. Though the
scales that cover their back are impervious to a
musket ball, those on the belly are softer and
more easily penetrated ; and here the saw- fish,
and other voracious fishes, find them vulnerable,
and so destroy them. The Trionyx, also, a kind
of tortoise, devours them as soon as hatched.
Their eggs are the prey not only of the ich-
neumon and the lizard, before mentioned, but of
many kinds of apes ; and aquatic birds also
devour them, as Avell as man himself.
The crocodile has no lips, so that when he
walks or swims with great calmness, he shows
his teeth as if he was in a rage. When extieme
hunger presses him, he will swallow stones and
pieces of wood to keep his stomach distended.
The heron and the pelican are said to take
advantage of the terror which the sight of the
crocodile produces amongst the fishes — causing
them to flee on all sides — to seize and devour
them : therefore they are frequently seen in his
vicinity.
Order 5. — The Clielonians, as far as at pre-
sent known, seem far removed from the Sau-
rians. The turtles, indeed, in their paddles,
exhibit an organ which is common to them,
1 Vol. i. p. 30.
VOL. II. F F
434 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
and some of the fossil Saurians, as the Ictliyo-
saurus and Plesiosauriis. Cuvier places the
Trioiiyx next above the crocodiles ; but it agrees
with them only in its fierceness and voracity,
and the number of its clavi^s.
The importance of the highest tribe of this
Order to seamen in long voyages, is iiniversally
known and acknowledged, but otherwise there is
nothing particularly interesting in their history,
or that of the tortoises.
A singular circumstance distinguishes the ani-
mals of this Class, — very few of them have teeth
formed for mastication. The guana is almost
the only one amongst the existing tribes that
has them. The Chelonians, which seem almost
capable of living without food, have none. The
teeth of the predaceous tribes are fitted to re-
tain or lacerate their prey, but not to masticate
it ; so that the function of the great majority
appears to be the same with that of the Ophi-
dians before mentioned, the complete degluti-
tion of the animals their instinct compels them
to devour. Insects, which, of all minor animals,
are the most numerous, and require most to be
kept in check, form the principal part of the
food of a large proportion of them. Creatures
also that frequent dark and damp places, and
that take shelter under stones and similar sub-
stances, seem to be particularly appropriated to
them by the will of their Creator. Of this de-
scription are slugs, earth-worms, and several
others : these, therefore, they have in charge to
keep within due limits. And thus, in their
doleful retreats and hiding-places, they fulfil
each its individual function, instrumental to the
general welfare.
Chapter XXIII.
Functions and Instincts, lairds.
We are now arrived at the highest dejiartment
of the animal kingdom, the members of which
are not only distinguished by a vertebral co-
lumn, but also by ivann red blood, and a more
ample brain. This department consists of two
great Classes, viz. those that are oviparous, and
do not suckle their young ; and those that are
viviparous, which suckle their young till they
are able to provide for themselves. The first of
these Classes consists of the JBirds, and the last
of the Quadrupeds^ Whales, and Seals, called from
the above circumstance Mammalians. Man,
though physically belonging to the latter Class,
metaphysically considered, is placed far above the
whole animal kingdom, by being made in the
image and after the likeness of his Creator, re-
ceiving from him immediately a reasonable and
4t}6 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
immortal soul ; and entrusted by him with do-
minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl
of the air, and over every living thing that moveth
upon the earth.
Having, in a former chapter, given some
account of those animals, to which the waters of
this globe are assigned as their habitation and
scene of action, I am now to consider those
which their Creator has endowed with a power
denied to man, and most of the Mammalians —
that of moving to and fro in the air as the fishes
do in the water, which, on that account, though
they move also on the earth, are denominated,
in the passage just quoted, the fowl of the air.
The animals of this great Class are rendered
particularly interesting to man, not only because
many of them form a portion of his domestic
w^ealth, look to him as their master, and vary
most agreeably his food ; but because numbers,
also, strike his senses by the eminent beauty and
grace of their forms, the brilliancy or variety of
the colours of their plumage, and the infinite
diversity, according to their kinds, of their mo-
tions and modes of flight. But of all their en-
dowments, none is more striking, and ministers
more to his pleasure and delight, than their
varied song. When the time of the singing birds
is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our
land, who can be dead to the goodness which has
provided forr/Z/suchanunbought orchestra, tuning
BIRDS. 437
the soul not only to joy, but to mutual goodwill ;
reviving all the best and kindliest feelings of our
nature, and calming, at least for a time, those
that harmonize less with the scene before us.
I may here offer a few observations upon the
voice of animals, especially birds. A distinction
is made by physiologists between a voice and a
sound, and none but those that breathe by means
of lungs are reckoned to utter a voice; others,
whatever their respiratory organs, only emit a
sound. The voice also is from the mouth alone,
the sound from other parts of the body.^ The
vocal animals, therefore, are confined to the
three last classes of vertebrates — the Reptiles,
the Birds, and the Mammalians. In most of
these, also, the voice partakes, in some degree, of
the character oi speech ; it is intended to indicate
to another the wishes, emotions, or sufferings of
the utterer. The great organ of the voice is the
2vi?id-pipe, or tracheal artery, as it is often called,
and its parts, which by its bronchial ramitica-
tions is so intimately connected with the lungs
as to form part of their substance.
Birds, of all animals, are best organized
with regard to their voice. Besides the upper
larynx, or throat, which they have in common
with Mammalians, at the base of their wind-
pipe, w here it divides into two branches, render-
1 See Introd. to Ent. Lett. xxiv.
4.'J8 FUNCTiONS AiND INSTINCTS.
ing to each lobe of the hmgs, it has also another
larynx, forming a second vocal apparatus. This
is produced by a contraction of the organ fur-
nished with muscular fibres, or vocal strings,
which by their various tensions and relaxations,
modify greatly the tones of the voice ; ascending
also in the tube of the wind-pipe to undergo
another modification at the upper larynx, which,
as it were, adds the tube of the hoim to that of
the reed. Thus, if the head of a duck is cut ofi*,
it can produce sounds by means of its lower
throat, if I may so call it, which no quadruped
could do. Besides this, birds can, more or less,
shorten or lengthen the tube of their wind-pipe,
so as to modify the sounds they emit.
Though the upper larynx, in birds, has no
vibratory vocal strings, as in the Mammalians, to
modify the sounds, these modifications taking-
place at the lower larynx, still they can enlarge
or contract it, which may affect the air in its
exit, and so produce some diversity.
Besides all this, whoever casts an eye over
Dr. Latham's and Mr. Yarrel's figures of the
wind-pipes of various birds,^ especially wild-fowl,
will see that they vary greatly in their relative
length and volume ; that some are partially di-
lated, and others contracted, with other peculi-
arities that distinguish individual species, espe-
1 Linn. Trans, iv. t, ix. — xv. ; xv. t. ix. — xv. ; and xvi. t.
xvii. — xxi.
BIRDS. 4.39
cially in male birds. x411 these, no doubt, modify
the voice, and, by the will of Him who formed
them, cause them to utter such sounds, and speak
such a language, as are required by the circum-
stances in which they are placed. The cawing
of the rook, the croaking of the raven, the cooing
of the dove, the warbling of the nightingale and
the other singing birds, are all the result of their
organization according to the plan and will of
that Supreme Intelligence, infinite Love, Wis-
dom, and Power, which fabricated and fashioned
them with this view as well as others, to give
utterance to sounds that, mixed or contrasted,
would produce a kind of universal concert, de-
lighting the ear by its very discords.
It is said by a late writer, that the song of the
same individual species of birds, in different dis-
tricts, is differently modified. This, I should
think, must be occasioned by a difference in the
temperature, and other circumstances connected
with the atmosphere.
Of all animals, birds are most penetrated
by the element in which they move. Their
whole organization is filled with air, as the
sponge with water. Their lungs, their bones,
their cellular tissue, their feathers— in a word,
almost every individual part, admit it into their
interstices.^ Thus giving them a degree of spe-
1 N. D. D'Hist. Nat. xxiii. 352.
^40 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
cific levity that no other class of animals is
endowed with, which however does not render
them the sport of every wind that blows, for, by
means of their vigorous wings, formed to take
strong hold of the air ; of their muscular force,
the agility of their movements, and their powers
of steerage by means of the prow and rudder of
their little vessel, their head and tail, they can
counteract this levity ; and by these also, and by
their great buoyancy, they can ascend above the
very clouds, as well as descend to the earth ;
they can glide motionless through the air, or
skim the surface of the waters ; they can sport,
at will, in the vast atmospheric ocean ; they can
dart forward in a straight line, or like the butter-
fly, fly in a zigzag or undulatory one, and with
ease take any new direction in their flight that
fear or desire may dictate. Enveloped in soft
and warm plumage, they can face the cold of
the highest regions of the air ; and the denser
clad aquatic birds can also sail over the bosom
of the waters, or plunge into them, without being
wetted by them. All birds, especially those last
mentioned, have a gland secreting an oily fluid,
with which they anoint their feathers and repel
the moisture.
There is no part of the history of these ani-
mals, in which the care of a fatherly Providence
is more signally conspicuous than their love of
BIRDS. 441
their young, and their tender care of them till
they can shift for themselves. But as I have
already adverted to this subject,^ and shall here-
after have occasion to resume it, I shall now say
something on the classification of the feathered
race. It is singular that two Classes should be
placed in apposition to each other, seemingly so
opposite in their character and most of their qua-
lities, as the Reptiles and the Birds — the one the
most torpid and doleful and hateful of animals,
symbols of evil demons ; the other the most lively
and active, and beloved of all the creatures that
God has made, symbols of the angelic host, and
calling upon us to look upwards, and seek those
joys that are above us. But in spite of this
apparently striking contrast, still there is a real
affinity betw een the Birds and the Reptiles ; and
w hen we recollect that demons are fallen angels,
we may apprehend why God has placed their
symbols in the same series.
Zoologists are not altogether agreed as to
which of the Reptiles come the nearest to the
Birds : the beak, and some other characters of
the Chelonians, have been thought to indicate that
they are entitled to that distinction ;" and, by his
placing the latter immediately after the Birds,
this appears to be Baron Cuvier's opinion. Any
one, indeed, that looks either at the common,^ or
1 See above, p. 261—264.
2 Mac Leay. Hor. Ejitomol. 263. ^ T. Mydas.
442 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the hawk's bill, turtles/ or a good figure of them/
will see in them a striking resemblance of some
sea-bird, especially a penguin ; the anterior elon-
gated paddles imitating the ivings, and the pos-
terior dilated ones the icehhed feet of such birds.
There are other Reptiles, however, that dispute
this claim with the Chelonians. Amongst the
rest is a remarkable fossil genus, regarded as
extinct, which Cuvier has arranged with the
dragon of modern Herpetologists, under the
name oi PterodactyleJ^ The carpal and meta-
carpal bones, and the phalanges of the fourth
toe of the anterior leg are excessively elongated,
to which it is conjectured a membrane was at-
tached, forming a wing for flight. M, Sommer-
ing classes this remarkable animal with the
Mammalians, supposing its affinity to be with the
Cheiropteians, or Bats ; and Dr. Wagler con-
siders it as forming, with the Echidna and Or-
nithorhynchus, an osculant Class, which he dis-
tinguishes by the ancient name of Griffins^
But the wing in its structure appears to approach
nearer to that of birds, and therefore Blainville
seems right in considering it as a Saurian genus
leading to them.^ Professor Goldfuss, in his
' T. Caretta. 2 jsf, J). D'H.N. xxxiv. t. R. 8./. 1. 2.
•^ Pteroductylus. Ornithocephalus. Somm.
* Gryphi. Gray's Synops. Rcpt. 78.
5 N. D. D'H. N. xxviii. 226.
BIRDS. 443
description of a new species/ mentions having
fonnd upon it some impressions, looking like those
of feathers ; and though he thinks it flies like a
bird, seems to regard it as between the crocodile
and the monitor. The serrated beak of the
mergansers is not very unlike that of the common
pterodactyle,^ though that of the species de-
scribed by Professor Goldfuss has a few very
long dispersed teeth, of different lengths, like
those of the crocodile.^ The animals of the last
named genus, in the structure of their heart,
approximate most nearly to birds, and in their
general organization are at the head of the Class
of Reptiles.*
From these statements, it seems as if the
Class just mentioned sent forth several branches
towards the Birds ; but, all circumstances consi-
dered, the pterodactyle, especially if it has fea-
thers, or rather plumiform scales, appears to
come the nearest to them, and to prove that the
feathers of the Bird are a transition from the
scales of the Reptile.
^ Pt. crassirostris. Isis Heft. v. 553.
2 Pt. antiquus.
^ Isis. ubi supr. t. s\- f. vii.
* For these observations, with respect to the crocodile, I am
indebted to Mr. Owen.
444 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
AvES. (Sirds.)
Animal, vertebrated, oviparous, biped.
Anterior extremities, organized for flight.
Ifitegument, plumose.
Eggs, usually hatched by incubation.
Luni>s, fixed.
Respiration and circiilation, double.
Blood, red, warm.
Ornithologists appear at present undecided as
to the division of this great and interesting Class
into Orders, as the following synoptical table of
systems, differing in this respect, will show :
Nitzsch and Schoepss have only 3
Vieillot, Vigors, Mac Leay and Swainson . . 5
Linne, Cuvier, Dumeril and Cams 6
Illiger 7
Scopoli, Latham, Myers and Wolf 9
Temminck 13
Grant 16
SchoefFer 17
Brisson 28
Lacepede 38 ^
Orders.
One may truly say here, " the choice per-
plexes ;" and the young Ornithologist must be
puzzled to determine which of these systems he
ought to adopt, especially since the several
authors of them w^ere amongst the most eminent
zoologists of their time.
I am indebted to Mr. Owen for my know-
BIKDS. 445
ledge of the first of these systems, of which, as
at present it is little known in this country, I
w ill here Q'ive an abstract, without entering: into
its merits, except that its primary sections, or
Orders, form a very natural division of the
Class.
Orders. — I. Aerial Birds. Liiftvogeln.
Sub-orders. — A. Accipitrines.
B. Passerines.
C. Pies.
— II. Terrestrial Birds. Erdvogeln.
A. Columbines.
B. Gallinaceans.
C. Coursers.
— III. Aquatic Birds. Wasserv'dgeln.
A. Waders.
B. Anserines.
In this last Order he includes the Bustards,^
which surely ought to form a separate Sub-order.
On the present occasion I shall follow the
system of Linne, as improved by Baron Cuvier,
in the last edition of his Rhgne Animal, adopting
from Illiger his Order of Cursores, or runners,
which appears to be osculant between the galli-
naceous Order and that of the loaders.
That the series ought to begin with the iveb-
footed Birds, as approaching nearest to the
Reptiles, there is no doubt ; but which should
terminate it, seems not satisfactorily determined.
1 Otis.
446 FUNCTIONS ANO INSl'INCTS.
The hircls o^ prey appear naturally to connect witli
the beasts of prey, rather than with the Ceta-
ceans, next before which Cuvier has placed
them ; Cams ends the series with the Gallina-
ceans, which Linne contrasts with the Rnminants,
and Mr. W. S. Mac Leay connects with the
Gnawers/ and lUiger and Lacepede end with
the Psittaceans, which are analogues of the
Quadrumanes, but these are probably mostly
analogous forms ; there seems a more strict
affinity between the web-footed birds and the
Monotr ernes, the Ornithorhynclms, Echidna, &c.
wdiich, in some respects, appear to form an os-
culant Order, between the birds and the beasts.
In fact the Birds, though united into one group
with the Beasts by common characters, may be
regarded as forming a parallel series with the
latter rather than a continuous one, several of the
members of which, respectively, represent each
other, both as to many of their external features,
and their functions. Branches, like those of a tree,
seem indeed to issue from every natural series,
whether vegetable or animal, on all sides, and to
run in all directions towards those of other series,
so as to form together a perplexing labyrinth, to
thread which, although in many places there
appears an evident clue, in others it becomes
evanescent, and the investigator of nature seems
lost. But when we reflect that the Author of
^ Rodentia.
BiUDs. 447
Nature is infinite in his essence and attributes, we
must expect there will be something that indi-
cates their origin from such a Being ; though
not a real, there will be in them a seeming
infinity to finite minds. He who made them sees
them all at once, and in their several places, and
traces simultaneously every series through all
its numberless divarications or convolutions ;
whereas man sees only a part of the ways of his
Creator. He can have no simultaneous view of
things, and must be contented with adding, here
a little and there a little, to his stores of know-
ledge. To investigate the v> orks of his Creator
is a laudable exercise of his powers, and to aim
as much as possible to discover the system of
things that the God of Nature has established
by his Wisdom, and upholds by his Power, is
to aim at the discovery of Truth ; who w ill more
and more reveal herself to those that, using the
proper means, seek her in sincerity.
Orders.^
1. Swimmers. 5. Climbers.
2. Waders. 6- Perchers.
3. Coursers. 7. Raveners.
4. Scratchers.
1 The Latin names of the Orders are, —
1 . Natatores. 5. Scansores.
2. Grallatores. 6. Insessores.
3. Cursores. 7. Raptores.*
4. Rasores.
* Raptor milviiis. Phtfdr.
448 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Order 1. — Swimmers. (Web-footed, or Aqua-
tic Birds. This Order includes the Inertes,
Palmipedes, and Pinnatipedes of Dr. Grant's
catalogue.)
Body, closely covered with feathers, and
coated with a thick down next the skin. Legs,
placed behind the equilibrium. Toes, united by
membrane for swimming ; membrane sometimes
divided.
Order 2. — Waders. (Flamingo, Coot, Avocet,
Woodcock, Snipe, Ibis, Spoonbill, Jabiru, Sit-
tern. Heron, Crane, Stork, Oyster-catcher, Plover,
JBustard. — Grallatores. Grant.)
Legs consisting of very long tarsi, with the
apex of the tibia bare ; stretched out in flight.
Wings, long.
Order 3. — Coursers. (Apteryx, Ostrich, Emeu,
Cassowary, Dodo, &c. — Cursores. Grant.)
Wings, very short, not used for flying. Legs,
robust. Toes, 3 — 4. Beak, depressed or com-
pressed.
Order 4. — Scratchers. (Pigeon, Quail, Par-
tridge, Common Poidtry, Guinea-foivl, Pheasant,
Turkey, Peacock, &c. — Alectorides, Gallince, and
Columbce. Grant.)
Upper mandible, vaulted ; nostrils, pierced in a
membranous space at their base, covered by a
cartilaginous scale. Tail-feathers, 14 — 18.
Order 5. — Climbers. (Psittaceans, Toucan,
BIRDS. 441)
Cuckoo, JVrpieck, Woodpecker, &c. — Chelidoncs,
Alcyones, Anisodactyli, Zygodactyli, Grant.)
Feet with tv/o toes before and two behind.
Order 6. — Perchers. (King- fisher. Hoopoe,
Humming-hird, Tree-creeper, Nut-hatch, Bird
of Paradise, Crow, Magpie, Starting, Cross-
beak, Gross-beak, Gold-finch, Liiuiet, Sparroiv^
Titmouse, Lark, Goat-sucker, Swalloiv, Taylor-
bird, Nightingale, Red-breast, Fly-catcher, Black-
bird, Chatterer, Butcher-bird, &c. — Granivorce,
Jnsectivorce, and Omnivorce, Grant.)
Toes four : formed for prehension in nidi-
fication. External toe united at the base to the
internaL Three toes before and 07ie behind.
All other characters negative.
Order 7. — Haveners. (Oivl, Secretary-bird,
Buzzard, Kite, Spar roiv- hawk, Falcon, Harpy,
Eagle, Vulture, &c. — JRapaces. Grant.)
Beak robust, upper mandible, on each side,
armed with a tooth. Legs short, robust. Toes
armed with crooked claws.
Order 1 . —The sivimmers, or web -footed birds,
form a very important part of the feathered
race, both as furnishing man with food, and as
ministering greatly to his comfort, by their down
and feathers, when he retires to rest ; and also
by their action upon the inhabitants of the
waters both of the sea and rivers, which form
the principal part of their food. Cuvier remarks,
VOL. II. G G
450 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
that these are the only birds in which the neck
exceeds, and sometimes considerably, the length
of the legs. Swimming on the surface, they can
thus dip deeper to seize their prey. The same
remark may be extended to the Saurians, in
which, though the majority have a short neck,
one fossil animal,^ which appears to be the
analogue of the swan, has a very long one.
Other birds, as well as those of the present
Order, are distinguished by the length of the
neck ; as the peacock, the turkey, and several
other Gallinaceans, and the Ostrich and its
congeners are still more remarkable in that
respect. This structure is probably as useful
to them as to the web-footed birds, in enabling
them to secure articles of food that would other-
wise be out of their reach.
The birds at the foot of this Order, and indeed
of the whole Class, are the short-winged sivim-
merSf particularly the auJc'^ and the penguin;^
the one having its station in the northern, and
the other in the southern seas, reaching to
the antarctic circle. The northern one, the auk,
seems to rank above the penguin, for its wings
have those feathers which, from their office
being to propel birds when they fly, are deno-
minated roiving feathers,* and they can flutter
and flap their wings, while the pengnins have
1 Plesiosaurus dolickodeirns. ^ A lea.
2 Aptenodytes. ^ Remiges.
IJIRDS. 451
none of these featliers, and cannot use their,
so called, wings as such. The legs of the auk,
also, are not placed quite so near the tail as in
the southern bird, in which they are close to it,
though both stand nearly in a vertical position.
But though of no apparent use as ivings, their
short anterior appendages that go by that name,
are not given them by their Creator merely for
show, for when under water they use them as
Jins ; and when it is recollected that Captain
Beechy found them between three and four
hundred miles from any land,^ they seem to
have occasion for additional rowing organs.
One traveller, D. Pages, says that they also
sometimes use their wings as fore-legs, walking
on all fours. ^ Some of them burrow like rabbits,
but how they effect this has not been ascer-
tained. In general they are reckoned as the
most stupid and foolish animals in the whole
Class : in fact most of the web-footed birds
exhibit less of the life and spirit and gaiety that
distinguish so conspicuously those whose prin-
cipal theatre of motion is the air : belonging as
they do to two elements, they may be regarded,
in some sense, as half fowl and half fish ; and
when we call a man, not remarkable for sense,
a goose, we admit some such degradation in
aquatic birds.
1 Voyage, i. 16. 2 ^r. £, j)^ff ^ ^iii. 306.
452 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS,
But all sea-birds are not of this character ;
amongst these the frigate-bird^ and the alha-
tross" are most conspicuous, emulating the eagle
and the vulture amongst the terrestrial birds of
prey. Of all the oceanic birds, the frigate-bird
comes nearest to the eagle. Its keen sight, its
crooked beak, its short, robust, and plumy legs,
its sharp claws, the vast extent of its wings, and
its rapid flight, all show that it is the oceanic
representative of the king of birds. If the
peaceful flying-fish seeks a refuge from the
dorados^ and bonitos,"^ its aquatic enemies, by
elevating itself from the water into the air, the
frigate-bird darts upon it like a thunder-bolt
and devours it. If the booby ^ has caught a fish,
like the bald eagle ^ the frigate-bird often com-
pels it to let go its prey, and seizes it before it
reaches the water. Its extent of flight is won-
derful, and exceeds that of any other marine
bird ; for it possesses between the tropics a
domain of more than four hundred leagues, over
which it directs its course by day and by night;
for, as the plumage of the under side of its body
is not impervious to the water, it cannot continue
long upon it, but prefers to brave the wind and
1 Tachypetes Aquila. 2 Diomedea exulans.
^ Coryphcena hippurus. * Scomber Pelamis.
5 Sula Bassana.
^ Richardson, Fn. Boreal. Americ. ii. 15. Audubon.
Biogr, 162.
BIRDS. 45:5
the tempest, and to elevate itself above the
storm, and for repose retires to lofty rocks and
woody islets.
The albatross is the analogue of the vulture,
and the largest of the sea-birds, and his wings
expand sometimes to the extent of twenty feet ;
like his prototype, he is occasionally so gorged
with food as to lose the power of flying, and when
pursued, his only resource is to disgorge his over-
loaded stomach. Mr. Bennet has given a very
interesting account of the mode of flight of this
bird, to which I must refer the reader.^
I observed, in the last chapter, that one of the
short- winged family of this Order, the merganser,
appears to be connected with the Saurians by
its serrated beak ; but the penguhis, which are
at the foot of the same Family and of the Order,
seem connected with the Cheloniaiis, their rudi-
mental wings and their legs approaching the
paddles and webbed feet of the turtles and
some of the tortoises. Their plumage, when
not analyzed, resembles very much the fur of
a seal, or some quadruped.
Order 2. — I have already noticed several cir-
cumstances relative to the birds of this Order;"
1 shall not, therefore, in this place, enlarge
much upon them. Their general function is
not only to devour the smaller fishes, aquatic
1 Wanderings, &c. i. 45 — 47,
2 See above, pp. 177, 194.
454 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
MoUuscans, and other animals, as well as their
spawn, that inhabit the waters of the globe,
whether salt or fresh, but also those that are
found in their vicinity, as worms, small reptiles,
and insects in their different states ; and their
form is particularly adapted to their function :
very long legs and toes ; naked knees ; a long
sharp beak ; where they have to dip under water
for their food a long neck ; and as, on account
of their great length, they could not conveniently
double their legs in flight, their tail is usually
extremely short, so as to permit the legs to be
stretched out, and act in some degree as steering
organs. The body of these birds, generally
speaking, in shape, seems to approach that of
the Scratchers, but is rather longer, and not so
plump. The form of some of them is very
elegant and graceful ; the plumage of others,
especially of some of the scolopaceous tribe, is
beautifully mottled, but, generally speaking,
their colours are not brilliant.
There is one bird^ of this Order that is par-
ticularly interesting, not only on account of some
singularities in its structure, but likewise for its
amiable manners : this bird is described and
figured by Piso^ under the name oi Anhpuci, but
it is more commonly known by that of Kamic/n,
1 Palamedea cornnfa.
2 Hist, Nat. et Med, Ind. Occid, 91
BIRDS. 455
It is said to be larger than the peacock or even
the swan. Its wings are armed with two strong
spurs, which jDoint outwards when the wing is
folded ; but its most remarkable feature is the
long, slender, cylindrical, and nearly straight
horn which arms its forehead. One would sup-
pose a bird so fitted for combats was the terror
of the feathered race, delighting in battle and
bloodshed, but this is not the case, for it is one
of the most gentle and susceptible of birds. It
feeds upon grass, and attacks no birds that
approach it : at the time of pairing, however,
the males contend fiercely and sometimes fatally
for the females ; but the victory gained, they
become patterns of conjugal fidelity, never part-
ing, and like the turtle, if one outlives the other,
the survivor usually is the victim of its grief.^
Another South American bird of this Order^*^
if we may credit the accounts that are given of
it, is gifted by its Creator with an instinct still
more wonderful ; it seems to have a natural
inclination for the society of man, and seems
to occupy the same place amongst birds that
the dog does amongst quadrupeds. When taken
and fed in a house, it becomes attached to the
inmates. Like the dog it knows the voice of its
master, and will follow or precede him when he
1 Sonnini, in N. D. D'H. N. xvii. 21.
2 Psophia crepitans.
450 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
goes out, quits him with reluctance, and appears
delighted when it sees him again. Sensible of
his caresses, it returns them with every mark of
affection and gratitude : it seems even jealous of
his attentions, for it will peck at the legs of
those who come too near to him. It knows and
acknowledges also the friends of the family. It
sometimes takes a dislike to individuals, and
whenever they appear, attacks them, and en-
deavours to drive them away. Its courage is
equal to that of the dog, for it will attack animals
bigger and better armed than itself. Sonnini,
who relates the preceding anecdotes from his
own observation, was also told that in some parts
of America, these birds were entrusted with the
care of the young poultry, and even of the flocks
of sheep, which they conducted to and from
their pastures.^
The common Stork" seems equally attached to
man, and in return has generally met with pro-
tection from him, and in many nations has been
accounted a sacred bird that it is a sin to kill
or molest ; and they are entitled to these im-
munities not only on account of their philan-
thropic instincts, but likewise because they
destroy lizards, frogs, serpents, and other noxious
reptiles, which are a considerable annoyance in
low and marshy districts. The black Stork^ is
1 N.D.DH.N.l 190. 2 Ciconiaalba. ^ C.yiigra.
BIRDS. 457
of a less sociaj turn, and avoids the neighbour-
hood of man, and frequents solitary marshes
and thick woods, where it nidificates on old
trees.
Order 3. — We seem to enter this order — which
from the swiftness of the few animals that com-
pose it, is called the Order of Coursers^ — by one
of the most singular birds that is at present
known ; I mean the Apteryx aiistralis of Dr.
Shaw. As far as can be judged from the only
known specimen, which was brought from New
Zealand in 1812, one would think this bird
osculant between the Waders and the present
Order. Its legs, indeed, seem those of a galli-
naceous bird, with a tendency, as Mr. Yarrel
remarks, to the spurs of that tribe,^ but its beak
is related to that of the Ihis, and the lateral skin
of the toes is notched as in the Phaleropes.
The wings are shorter than in any other known
bird, quite concealed by the feathers, and termi-
nate in a claw ; a circumstance which seems to
indicate an approximation to some quadruped
form. These wings, though useless for flight,
were doubtless given by its Creator to this
animal to answer some purpose in its economy,
either as a weapon or a prehensive organ. With
the birds of the Order in which it is placed it
agrees in its general form and plumage, but in
^ Cursor cs. ^ See Zool. Trans, i. i. t. x. 74.
458 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
stature it falls below them, being of the size of
a small turkey. It is called by the natives
Kivi.
There is another insular bird, the Dodo, noticed
in a former chapter,^ which though classed with
this, to judge from its figure seems to connect
the Ostrich with the 7iext Order, the Scratc/iers f
but if we suppose the Order to form a circle,
these birds will meet, one still being conterminous
to the Order above it, and the other to that
below it. These two birds have /owr toes. Mr.
W. S. Mac Leay,^ as well as several other zoolo-
gists, is of opinion that the Ostrich Family,
meaning the typical members of it, both in
their internal as well as their external structure,
approach the nearest to Mammalians. Of the
Ostrich itself it is stated, amongst other charac-
ters, that its upper eyelid is moveable and
ciliated, and that its eyes are more like the eyes
of a man than those of a bird, and they are so
set as both of them to see the same object at the
same time ; that it is the only bird that dis-
charges urine, ^ with many circumstances which
I have no room to enumerate. Mr. Owen, how-
ever, whose accuracy as a comparative anatomist
can be fully relied on, has observed to me, that
the urinary bladder, sternum, and some other
1 Vol. I. p. 5.5. 2 Vigors in Linn. Trans, xiv. 485.
•^ Hor. Ent. 266. Linn. Trans, xvi. 43.
* N. D. D'H. N. iii. 85, 86.
BIRDS. 459
parts of these birds, are closer approximations
to the Chelonians than the Mmnmalians.
The animal of the latter Class, whose external
form approaches nearest to the Ostrich is the
Camel, a resemblance which has been so striking,
that from a very early period they have been
designated by a name which connects them with
this quadruped : ^ in many particular points, be-
sides general form, they also resemble it. The
substance and form of their two-toed feet, a
callosity on their breast and at the os pubis,
their flattened sternum, and their mode of re-
clining. It is singular that these birds associate
with beasts, particularly the quagga and zebra.^
The new world, which has a representative of
the camel in the lama, and of the hippopotamus
in the tapir, has also a peculiar ostrich of its
own, which is called the nandu;^ so that in
Africa, Asia,* Australia,^ and America, there is
a distinct genus of the present Order, each, as
at present known, consisting of a single species.
With respect to their Junctions, not much has
been observed : they are said to live a good deal
upon grain, fruit, and other vegetable substances,
and the nandu is fond of insects ; probably others
of them may also assist in restraining the in-
^ Struthio-camelus.
' B Lire hell's Travels in S, Africa, ii. 315.
^ Rhea americana. * Casuurius geleatus.
5 Dromaius ater.
460 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
cessant multiplication of these little creatures.
The ostrich may be said almost to graze, though
it is very eager after grain ; but its history is too
well known to require any further enlargement
upon it.
Order 4. — The birds of this Order are called
Scratchers, from an action common to many of
them, and more particularly observable in our
common poultry, that of scratching the ground
to turn up food, especially when followed by
their chicks. Of all the gifts of Providence,
there is none that more promotes our comfort
and pleasure than the majority of the animals
that compose this Order, for it includes almost
all our barn-door fowls, and the great majority
of the game pursued so eagerly by the sports-
man : birds not only valuable for the variety
and delicacy of the food, both flesh and eggs,
with which they supply our tables, but delighting
us by the beauty, the elegance, and stateliness
of their forms ; the diversity of their plumage,
especially the elongated or expansile tail feathers
of the males; and the rich variety and splendor
of their colours. The gorgeous peacock and the
graceful pheasant have scarcely a parallel in
the other Orders, except perhaps, as to splendor,
in those brilliant little gems, the humming birds.
I have mentioned, on a former occasion,^ the
numerous varieties of the common fowl, which
1 Vol. I. p. QQ.
BIRDS. 461
have probably been produced by climate and
cultivation. With regard to size, Sumatra ap-
pears to produce both the smallest and the
largest kind of poultry, the common feather-
legged JBantam, and the lago fowl,^ the cock of
which, Marsden says, he has " seen peck off
a common dining table ; when fatigued, they sit
down on the first joint of the leg, and are then
taller than the common breed." ^ Colonel Sykes
imported them into England in 1831 ; the hen
laid freely, and reared two broods of chickens.
Wild poultry are found both in the old world
and the new : the jungle-fowl,^ from which our
breeds are supposed by Sonnerat to have origi-
nated, are common in India ; and the Spaniards
are said to have found another kind in Peru
and Mexico, in which last country they were
domesticated, and called chiacchlalacca ; Par-
men tier states that he heard the crow of the
cock of this breed in the wildest forests of
Guiana, and that he had seen one of them.*
The Birds of this Order are granivorous, in-
sectivorous, or both, and the Hocco is stated to
subsist on buds and fruits. Some are gregarious,
* Gallus giganteus. ^ Su7natra, 2 Ed. 98.
^ Gallus Sonneratii.
* N. D. D'H. N. vii. 472. Modern ornithologists appear to
account all these breeds as well as those mentioned in a former
chapter (Vol. I. p. QQ) as distinct species. Linne, besides his
Phasianus Gallus a, or the common breed, has Var. /3, P. G.
402 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
as the pigeons; while others, as the partridge,
form coveys only for a time ; in spring those that
survive the sporting season pair off, and are soon
at the head of a numerous family.
Order 5. — Baron Cuvier has separated the
Climbers from Mr. Vigor's Order of Perchers, not
only on account of their having two toes behind,
as well as before, but also on account of differences
in their larynx, sternum, and ccecal appendages.
Amongst the Climbers, though there are some
armed with beaks of very extraordinary forms
and magnitude, as the toucan, there are none so
interesting and altogether so remarkable as the
Psittacean Family, or the Parrots, Parroquets,
Macaws, Cockatoos, &c. They seem complete
analogues of the Monkeys and other Quadru-
manes, which tliey exceed, in their faculty of
learning to articulate many words, for which
their lower larynx is particulary constructed,
and thus mimic the utterance of man, as the
former animals do his actions; a circumstance
which seems to have induced some ornithologists
to place them at the head of their CI ass, ^ in con-
trast with the latter animals.
cristatus, or the Polish breed ; y. P. G. ecaudatus, or the
Rumplet ; d. P. G. Morio, or the black- skinned breed ; e. P. G.
lanatus, or the silk breed ; i). P. G. crispus, or the Friesland
breed; and '(. P. G. pusillus, or the Bantam breed. There are
several more in Gmehn.
' lUiger, &c.
BIRDS. 463
There is a genus, belonging to this Order, found
in the southern parts of Africa, the species of
which are called hee-cuckoics^ and are remarkable
for indicating both to the honey-rateP and the
Hottentot the subterranean nests of certain bees,
which they do by a particular cry, morning and
evening, and by a gradual and slow flight towards
the quarter where the swarm of bees have taken
up their abode; the beast and the man both
attend to the notice, seek the spot, and dig up
the nest ; and to the share of the bird generally
falls, not the part stored with the honey ^ but that
in which the grubs are contained :^ so that the
bird, though it invites others to partake with it,
has its own subsistence, which it could not
otherwise readily come at, principally in view.
Both this animal and its companion, the ratel,
are fitted by Providence for their function, and
protected from the danger to which they are
exposed from the stings of the irritated bees
by a very hard skin. The bees, however, some-
times revenge themselves on the treacherous
bird by attacking it about the head and eyes,
and so destroying it.* It is singular, and affords
a most convincing proof of design, that two
animals that are so necessary to each other, the
* Indicator major, minor Vieill, &c.
2 Viverra mellivora,
•^ Sparrmanii, Voyage, ii. 181, 187.
■* Cuv. Regn, An. i. 455. Sparrmann, Voy. ii. 182.
VOL. J I. GG 8
464 * FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
one to indicate and the other to excavate their
common prey, should each be defended by the
same kind of armour, and each seek a different
portion of the spoil, suited to its habits.
Amongst the birds most remarkable for their
instincts, in the present Order, is the ivryneck}
It is a feathered ant-eater, and is organized by its
Creator to entrap its prey by the very same means
as the quadruped ones. Like them, it can protrude
its tongue to a very great length, which is not
owing to the structure of this organ itself, which is
not extensile, but to the peculiar mechanism of its
bones contained in a ligamentous sheath. Its sali-
vary glands are above an inch long, and shaped
somewhat like a teaspoon. The saliva they secrete
is so very viscid as to be capable of being drawn
into threads finer than a hair, and several feet in
length ; so that when the tongue is besmeared with
it, no insect that touches it can escape. Like its
analogues, it darts its tongue into an ant-hill,
or lays it on an ant-track, and draws it back
into its mouth laden with prey.^ It is singular
that the functions, in warm climates, given in
charge by Providence to quadrupeds, in tem-
1 Yunx torquilla.
2 I owe these observations on the wryneck principally to a
medical friend, George Helsham, Esq. of Woodbridge, in Suffolk,
a practical ornithologist, not only systematically and anatomi-
cally, but knowing birds also in their haunts, and conversant with
their habits and instincts. See Appendix to Vol. I. note 29.
BIRDS. 465
perate ones, in this instance, devolves upon
birds. The rapid increase of ants, in tropical
countries, probably rendered it necessary that
their devourers should be more numerous, and
act with a greater momentum.
The general functions of this Order, as they
are in most of those of the present Class, are
various. The food of some are roots, fruits,
and other vegetable substances ; ^ of others the
grubs of insects;- of others, again, principally
insects in general under every form;^ and
lastly, some to fruits or insects will add the
eggs and the nestlings of other birds. *
Order o. — The birds of this Order, the
Perchers, are distinguished from the last, not
only by the characters lately noticed, but like-
wise by a considerable difference in their habits
and manners. Amongst them we find all those
that delight us by their varied song ; they are
truly birds of the air, for they seem to have the
full command of that element ; many of them
moving gaily in every direction that their will
suggests, rising and falling, flying backwards
and forwards, or performing endless evolutions,
pro re nata, in their flight. These Perchers also
are the best nest-builders, not usually selecting,
like the Climbers, the interior of a hollow tree
1 The Psittaceans. ~ The Pies.
^ The Cucliows. * The Toucan,
VOL. II. H H
466 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
or similar situations, but most commonly inter-
weaving their nests between the twigs and
branches of trees and shrubs, or suspending
them from them, or even attaching them to
humbler vegetables ; some having even exer-
cised arts from the creation, which man has
found of the greatest benefit to him, since he
discovered them. These birds, indeed, may be
called the inventors of the several arts of the
weaver, the sempstress, and the tailor, whence
some of them have been denominated iveaver and
tailor-hirds.
The nest of the little Indian weaver-bird,^
though it has neither warp nor woof, being
formed by various convolutions of the slender
leaves of some grass, so intertwined and en-
tangled as to produce a web sufficiently sub-
stantial for the protection of the inhabitants of
the nest, is, nevertheless, a very wonderful
structure, but as it is well known - I shall not
further enlarge upon it, but proceed to the
tailor 'birds, whose nests are still more remark-
able.
India produces several species that are in-
structed by their Creator to seiv together leaves
for the protection of their eggs and nestlings
from the voracity of serpents and apes ; they
1 Ploceus Tex tor.
2 There are several of these nests in the museum of the Zoolo-
gical Society.
BIRDS. 467
generally select those at the end of a branch
or twig, and sew them with cotton, thread, and
fibres. Colonel Sykes has seen some in which
the thread was literally knotted at the end/
The Indian birds of this description form two
genera, separated from Sylvia by Dr. Horsfield.
The inside of these nests is lined usually with
down and cotton.
But these birds are not confined to India or
tropical countries ; Italy can boast a species
which exercises the same art : and I am indebted
to the kindness of one of our most eminent orni-
thologists^ for being enabled to give a figure of
this pretty and interesting bird, from a specimen
in his possession ;* and to the Zoological Society
for their permission to have a drawing made from
a nest in their museum.^ This little creature
was originally described and figured by M. Tem-
minck in 1820, but its singular instincts, as to its
mode of nidification, were afterwards given in
detail by Professor P. Savi. It is called by the
Pisans Becca moschi?io, and is a species of the
genus Sylvia.^
In summer and autumn it frequents marshes,
but in the spring it seeks the meadows and corn-
fields ; in which, at that season, the marshes
being bare of the sedges which cover them in
1 Catalogue of birds, &c. 16. ^ Prima and Orthotomus.
^ Mr. Gould. * Plate XV. Fig. 1.
5 Ibid. Fig. 2. ^ S. cisticola.
VOL. II. II H c
468 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the summer, it is compelled to construct its
nest in tussocks of grass on the brink of ditches :
but the leaves of these, being weak, easily split,
so that it is difficult for our little sempstress
to unite them, and so to form the skeleton of
her fabric. From this and other circumstances
the vernal nests of these birds differ so widely
from those made in the autumn, that it seems
next to impossible that both should be the work
of the same artisan.
The latter are constructed in a thick bunch
of sedge or reed, they are shaped like a pear,
being dilated below and narrowed above,^ so as
to leave an aperture sufficient for the ingress
and egress of the bird. The greatest horizontal
diameter of the nest is about two inches and
a half, and the vertical is five inches or a little
more.
The most wonderful thing in the construction
of these nests is the method to which the little
bird has recourse to keep the living leaves
united, of which it is composed. The sole
interweaving, more or less delicate, of homogen-
eous or heterogeneous substances forms the prin-
cipal art adopted by other birds to bind together
the parietes of their nests ; but this Sylvia is no
weaver, for the leaves of the sedges or reeds
are united by real stitches. In the edge of each
1 Plate XV. Fig. 2.
BIRDS. 469
leaf she makes, probably with her beak, minute
apertures, through which she contrives to pass,
perhaps by means of the same organ, one or
more cords formed of spiders' web, particularly
of that of their egg-pouches. These threads are
not very long, and are sufficient only to pass
two or three times from one leaf to another ;
they are of luiequal thickness, and have knots
scattered here and there, which in some places
divide into two or three branches.
This is the manner in which the exterior of
the nest is formed ; the interior consists solely
of down, chiefly from plants, a little spiders'
web being intermixed, which helps to keep the
other substances together. In the upper part
and sides of the nest, the two walls, that is the
external and internal, are in immediate contact ;
but in the lower part a greater space intervenes,
filled with the slender foliage of grasses, the
florets of Syngenesious plants, and other mate-
rials which render soft and warm the bed in
which the eggs are to repose.
This little bird feeds upon insects. Its flight
is not rectilinear, but consists of many curves,
with their concavity upwards. These curves
equal in number the strokes of the wing, and at
every stroke its whistle is heard, the intervals
of which corresj)ond with the ra[)idity of its
flight.
Perhaps of all the instincts of Birds, those
470 FUNCTIONS AND INSIINCTS.
connected with their nidification are most re-
markable ; and of all these, none are so wonder-
ful as those of the tribe to which the little bird
whose proceedings in constructing its nest I
have just described, belongs. In the Indian
tailor-birds, the object of their sutorial art is
stated above; and doubtless, in the case of the
Italian, the attack of some enemy is prevented
by her mode of fabricating her nest. Situated
so near the ground, her eggs, but for this
defence, might otherwise become the prey,
perhaps, of some small quadruped or reptile.
He who created the birds of the air taught every
one its own lesson, and how to place and con-
struct its nest as to be most secure from inimical
intrusion. I may observe here, that Professor
Nitzch's three Orders, or rather Sub-classes,
mentioned above, receive some confirmation
from the places selected by the individuals com-
posing them, to form their nests and deposit
their eggs in. The aquatic birds generally select
places in the vicinity of water; the terrestrial
make them on the groimd ; and the great body
of the aerial construct their nests in trees, shnihs,
and plants.
The birds of this Order as to their food leave
no vegetable or animal substance untouched, and
the humming-birds, with their butterfly-tongue,
imbibe the nectar of flowers. Of a vast number,
insects form the principal part of their food, and
BIRDS. 471
they are the chief check to their too great mul-
tiplication ; and sometimei^i, as in the case of
the locust-eating thrush/ they devote themselves
to a particular tribe of insects, but most of the
insectivorous birds will also eat grain.
Order 7. — The last Order of Birds, the
Haveners, includes those that are most perfect
in their form, and all are remarkable for their
predatory habits. Their power of wing, and
talon, and beak, distinguish them from all other
birds of the air; and though some of the ter-
restrial birds vie with them in magnitude, and
some of the aquatic ones, as we have seen,"
exceed them in extent of wing and untired
flight, yet none can come near them in the
union of all those qualities which constitute their
claim to the first rank amongst the birds ; and
the eagle has, as it were, been consecrated king
over them all, by being placed in the Holy of
Holies of the Jewish temple as one of the
symbols of those powers that rule under God in
nature.^
This Order is usually divided into two sec-
tions, which might be denominated Sub-orders,
the nocturnal birds of prey and the diurnal.
The first of the birds of these sections are distin-
guished by their large eyes, the enormous puj)!!
* Tardus fjryUivorus. ^ See Introd. Ixxii.
3 Ezek. i. 10; x, 1.
472 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
of which receives so many rays of light, that they
are dazzled by the glare of day ; but by it are ena-
bled to see in the night — they fly in the evening
and by moonlight. Thus they are fitted best to
fulfil their function, and to be very beneficial
to man, in keeping within due limits animals
that are often extremely detrimental to his pro-
perty, and commit their ravages more or less in
the night; on this account owls are often seen
in barns where mice and rats abound, and are
most valuable auxiliaries to the cats. The white
owP is said to destroy more of the murine race
than even these last animals. Had not the pro-
vident care of the Father of the universe created
these mouse - and - rat - destroying animals, the
tiller of the soil would often labour in vain.
The diurnal Section of the Haveners contains
all the birds of might and power. I have before
mentioned the secretary bird,^ created to dimi-
nish the number of serpents ; so similar to some
of the waders, as to have been classed with them
by several ornithologists; but Cuvier says, its
whole anatomical structure, as well as its beak
and other external characters, vindicate its claim
to be placed in the present Order.^
Another species belonging to it descends to
still lower food, and like the bee-eater,* devours
3
^ Strix Jiammea, - See above, p. 178.
Rcgnc J.W. i. 339. * Merops apiaster.
BIRDS. 473
bees and wasps and other insects, I allude to the
bee-falcon;^ but in general the aquiline race
attack vertebrated animals, reptiles, iishes, and
birds of every wing, and many quadrupeds, and
the giant vultures satiate their ravenous appetites
upon any carcases that their piercing sight, from
the great heights to which they ascend, can
discover. Humboldt says, that the Condor^
soars to the height of Chimborazo, an elevation
almost six times greater than that at which the
clouds that overshadow our plains are sus-
pended.^
In the book of Deuteronomy we have a very
animated and beautiful allusion to the eagle, and
her method of exciting her eaglets to attempt
their first flight, in that sublime and highly
mystic composition called Moses' Song ; in which
Jehovah's care of his people, and methods of
instructing them how to aim at and attain
heavenly objects, is compared to her proceedings
upon that occasion. As an eagle stirreth up her
nest^ flutter eth over her yoimg, spreadeth abroad
her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings :
so Jehovah alone did lead him. The Hebrew
lawgiver is speaking of their leaving their eyrie.
Sir H. Davy had an opportunity of witnessing
the proceedings of an eagle after they had left
it. He thus describes them.
1 Pternis apivorus. ~ Sarcorhamphus Gryphui>.
3 Zool. i. 29. See above, p. 155.
474 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
" I once saw a very interesting sight above
one of the crags of Ben Nevis, as I was going
on the 20th of August in the pursuit of black
game. Two parent eagles were teaching their
offspring, two young birds, the manoeuvres of
flight. They began by rising from the top of a
mountain in the eye of the sun ; it was about
mid-day, and bright for this climate. They at
first made small circles, and the young birds
imitated them ; they paused on their wings,
waiting till they had made their first flight, and
then took a second and larger gyration, always
rising towards the sun, and enlarging their circle
of flight so as to make a gradually extending
spiral. The young ones still slowly followed,
apparently flying better as they mounted ; and
they continued this sublime kind of exercise,
always rising, till they became mere points in
the air, and the young ones were lost and after-
wards their parents to our aching sight." ^
What an instructive lesson to Christian parents
does this history read ! how powerfully does it
excite them to teach their children betimes to
look toward heaven and the Sun of righteous-
ness, and to elevate their thoughts thither more
and more on the wings of faith and love ; them-
selves all the while going before them, and
encouraging them by their own example.
' Salmonia, 99.
475
Chapter XXIV.
—F^uneiimis eind Instincts. 31ammallans,
We are now arrived at the last and highest Class
of the Animal Kingdom, to which man himself
belongs, and of which he forms the summit: but
though he may be said to belong to it in some
respects, in others he stands aloof from it, as an
insulated animal, and one exalted far above it,
being created rather to govern its members, than
to be the associate of the highest of them.
This Class includes many animals which are
of the greatest utility to man, and without which
he could scarcely exist, at least not in comfort;
and others again that attack him and his pro-
perty ; and though the fear of him, in some de-
gree, still remains upon them, also often excite
that passion in his breast. But he of all animals
is the only one, that by the exercise of his rea-
soning powers and faculties, can arm himself
with factitious weapons enabling him to cope
with the superior strength, the fierceness, claws,
and teeth of the tiger or the lion, and to lay them
dead at his feet when in the very act of springing
upon him .
L
476 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
The animals of this Class, that are terrestrial,
are all quadrupeds,^ and are mostly covered with
fur or hair, longer or shorter, though in some,
these hairs become quills, as in the porcupine, or
spines, as in the hedgehog ; others, like the ser-
pents and lizards, are protected by scales, as the
Manis ; and some are incased in a hard coat of
armour, often consisting of pieces so united as to
form a kind of mosaic, as the armadillo, the Chla-
myphorus,'^ and probably the Megatherium,
In the aquatic Mammalians the legs are, more
or less, converted intoj^V^^, or means of natation.^
The whole body constituting the Class, though
sometimes varying in the manner, are all distin-
guished by giving suck to their young, on which
account they were denominated by the Swedish
naturalist, Mammalians. '^
The situation and number of the, usually protu-
berant, organs that yield the milk, vary in dif-
ferent tribes and genera. The Creator has dis-
tributed them according to the circumstances of
each kind. Physiologists divide them into pec-
toral, or those on the cliest ; abdominal, or those
on the abdomen ; and inguinal, or those on the
groin. In the human race, the Quadrumaues,
and the hats, and some others, these organs are
' TcrpaTTo^a TrjQyyjg. 2 Plate XVII.
3 See above, p. 126. 143.
'* Ciivier calls them Mamniifera, but tliere seems 110 reason
for altering the original term.
MAMMALIANS. 477
placed between the arms. For an erect animal
like man, it is evident that this situation for the
paps was the only convenient one for suckling an
infant, either when sitting or standing ; the mon-
key tribes also, which are always moving about
upon trees, and among the branches, could not
have exercised this maternal function, had their
lactescent organs been placed lower ; and the
bats, which carry and suckle their young during
flight, required that their nipples should be simi-
larly placed, to enable them to keep fast hold.
All the species of the above tribes have only a
pair of the organs in question, with the exception
of the lory, or sloth-ape,^ so called from the ex-
cessive slowness of its movements, which has
four, two of which Cuvier places in his abdo-
minal column, under the name o^ epigastric.
The animals which produce more than two at
a birth, as might be expected, have a propor-
tionable number of nipples differently distributed.
Thus the cat has four pectoral, and four abdo-
minal. The ten nipples of the swine are all ab-
dominal, and those of the other Pachyderms,
with the exception of the elephant, which has
only two pectoral nipples, are similarly situated.
The jerboa- has both pectoral and inguinal ones,
while the lemming^ has all three kinds; the
jRuminants, Solipeds, Amphihians, Caniivorous
' Stenops. • Dipus Sagitta. ^ Lemmiis.
478 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Cetaceans, have only inguinal dugs, with from
two to five nipples. This situation is evident-
ly best suited for suckling their limited num-
ber of young ones. Amongst the Marsupians,
whose young, immediately upon their birth, pass
into a second matrix as it were, almost the entire
skin of the abdomen forms a pocket, inclosing
the lactescent organs ; those of the opossum are
arranged, in Cuvier's table, in the inguinal co-
lumn ; but in the Kanguroo, which has four, they
appear rather to be abdominal. These variations
in the position and number of the organs furnish-
ing the sole food of the animals of the present
Class in their state of infancy, were evidently
planned and formed by the hand of a Being su-
preme in Wisdom, Power, and Goodness, who
adapted every organ to the circumstances in
which it was his will to place the diversified ani-
mals that compose it, and to their general struc-
ture. To those which produce not more than
two at a birth, only two organs for suction were
usually given, placed, according to the wants of
the animal, either between the anterior or poste-
rior extremities, in which latter case the posture
was never erect ; but where he decreed an ani-
mal should produce a more numerous progeny,
he planted them in greater numbers, and so dis-
tributed them that all belonging to the same
litter could suck at the same time. In the case
of the Kanguroo the members of ftvo litters are
MAMMALIANS. 479
sometimes sucking at the same time, which ac-
counts for their havingybi^r nipples, a fact which
shows how accurately every thing has been fore-
seen, w^eighed, and numbered, by a Provident
Intellect.
In the w^hole animal kingdom, except amongst
the Mammalians, there is no instance of the
young being supported by their parents with nu-
triment derived from themselves, nothing, there-
fore, affords a clearer character for a definition
of the Class than this most interesting one : the
Birds, indeed — with the exception of pigeons
which feed their nestlings from their crop — as
well as the bees, and several other Hymenop-
terous insects, provide their progeny with food
which they collect for them themselves ; but the
great majority of invertebrated animals, confine
their care for them, to placing their eggs, in a
situation in which, when hatched, they would
meet with their appropriate food, and this ap-
pears to be all that is generally done by the two
first classes of Vertebrates, the Fishes, and the
Reptiles.
Mammalia. (Beasts.)
Armnal verteb rated, ovoviviparous, or vivipa-
rous.
Extremilies ambulatory, or natatory ; in a few
organized for flight.
480 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
hitegument pilose; sometimes spinose, or armed
with hard scales or plates; and sometimes naked.
Young not hatched by incubation, but when first
extruded from the matrix, receiving their nutri-
ment by suction, till they can support themselves.
Circiilatiou double. Blood red, warm.
Respiration simple. Lungs thoracic.
Cuvier seems to have laboured under some
difficulty with regard to the Classification of
Mammalians, and to have regarded the Marsu-
pians and Monotremes as forming a clistinct
Class, divisible, for the most part, into Orders
analo2:ous to those into which the Class of com-
mon Quadrupeds is divisible.^ Subsequent ob-
servations have proved the general correctness of
this idea. Mr. Owen observes to me, in a letter,
" Dissections of most of the genera of Marsu-
pians have tended to confirm in my mind the
propriety of establishing them as a distinct and
parallel group, beginning with the Monotremes,
which I believe to lead from Reptiles, not birds.
A general simplicity in the structure of the brain;
a less perfect condition of the vocal organs ; some
peculiar dispositions of the great veins and ar-
teries, as the presence of two superior vence cavce,
and the absence of an inferior mesenteric artery,
are among the circumstances in which they, the
' Regn. An. i. 174.
MAMMALIANS. 481
Marsiipians and Monotremes differ from the true
viviparous Mammalians, and agree with the ovi-
parous Vertebrates. Recent opportunities of ex-
amining the impregnated uterus of the Kangii-
roo and Ornithorhynvlms have almost determined
that they are both ovoviviparous."
Under these impressions, confirmed and illus-
trated by the observations of so able a compara-
tive anatomist, I shall consider the Class of Mam-
malians as divisible into two Subclasses, viz. Ovo-
viviparous Mammalians, and Viviparous Mam-
malians.
It may be here observed, with regard to the
state of forwardness in which the different tribes
of Mammalians leave the matrix, a considerable
variation takes place, some requiring a longer time
than others, before they can be considered as at
all independent of maternal care and protection.
The young of the Ruminants, Pachyderms, and
Solipeds, come into the world with the organs of
the senses, and of locomotion, in a state to be
used immediately; they can see with their eyesy
and hear with their ears, and ivalk with their legs,
as soon as they are born ; whereas the Preda-
ceans and several others, when first born are
blind, and unable to walk, and do not attain
to the full use of their eyes and legs till a
considerable time after birth. In man, though
the infant is born seeing, yet a much longer pe-
VOL. II. II
482 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
riod, and the instruction of the mother or nurse,
are required before it can walk.
In the first case here noticed, that of the Ru-
minants and Pachyderms, the young animal
requires less care from the mother. She has
little to do besides suckling, and watching it
in order to protect it if danger threatens. But,
in the second case, she must prepare a kind of
nest, not exposed to the light, and removed from
observation, in which she can attend to her
young unmolested, till they can see and move
about upon their legs. Every one knows how at-
tentive feline animals are to these circumstances,
and the Rodents often excavate burrows in
which they bring forth and suckle their young.
The Marsupian Mammalians probably are ex-
posed to external circumstances, which render
it necessary that they should have a kind of
nidus formed of the skin of their own body, to
receive their young when they leave the matrix,
at which period they seem to be in a more help-
less state than any of the animals last alluded to.^
From this statement we see that the gramini-
vorous and omnivorous animals, whose food is
always at hand, come into the world the best
prepared for action ; while the carnivorous ones,
and those that must, if I may so speak, procure
their daily bread by the sweat of their brows,
' Owen in Philos. Tr. 1834. 344.
MAMMALIANS. 483
require to be in some degree educated for their
function,^ before they can duly exercise it. In
the instance of the OrnitJiorhynclms, a burrow-
seems to supply the place of the marsupial
pouch, which indicates some approach to many
of the Rodents.
Sub-class 1. Ovoviviparous Mammalians.
Chorion, or external membrane of the egg not
rendered vascular by the extension of the foetal
vessels into it. Embryo not adhering to the
uterus.
Only one passage out of the body.
3Iarsupial bones in all.
This Sub-class is divided into two Orders,
Mo7iotr ernes, and 3Iarsupia7is.
Order 1. — Monotr ernes (Ornithorliynchus;
Echidna.)
No marsupial pouch, Coracoid bones extended
to the sternum. Young suckled from a mammary
orifice : brought up in burroivs. Animal preda-
ceous.
Orders. — Marsiipians (Wombat; Koala;
Kanguroo ; Phalangist ; Flying and Common
Opossum, &c.)
A marsupial pouch receiving the young after
birth, in which they are suckled, by means of
nipples. Animal herbivorous, predaceous, or car-
nivorous.
' See above, p. 261. ^ Owen, uhi supr. 564.
484 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Snh-class 2. — Viviparous Mammalians.
Chorion, or external membrane of the ego;
rendered vascular by the extension of the foetal
vessels into it.
Ernhryo adhering to the uterus.
Young when brought forth not received into
a pouch ; suckled by a nipple.
This sub-class is divided into eioht Orders
thus arranged in an ascending scale,
1. Cetaceans. 5. Rodents.
2. Pachyderms. 6. Predaceans.
3. Ruminants. 7. Cheiropterans.
4. Edentates. 8. Quadrumanes.
Several of these Orders may be further divided
into Sub-orders, as will appear when I come to
treat of them. I have not adhered to Baron
Cuvier's arrangement, in placing the Kuminants
next to the Cetaceans, for it always appeared to
me incongruous to place at the foot of the scale,
animals on every account entitled to rank higher:
and I am happy to find my opinion backed by
Mr. Owen's judgment, which he informs me is
grounded on anatomical considerations. The
Hippopotamus appears to us both the proper
successor of the Cetaceans.
Order 1. — Cetacea7is. This Order may be di-
vided into two Sub-orders, the Jirst consisting
of those that form the great body of the Order,
which are predaceous in their habits; and the
second of those that are herbivorous. (To the
first belong the Whales; the Cachalots; tlie
MAMMALIANS. 485
NarivJials; the Porpoises; and the Dolphins,
&c. : and to the second, the Manatee ; the
Dug07ig ; and Rytina,)
This Order is principally distinguished from
the terrestrial Mammalians by having the hind
legs converted into a horizontal (so called) fin
moving up and down. They have little or no
neck, and their anterior extremities are covered
with a tendinous membrane, which enables the
animal to use them as fins.
The Predaceous Cetaceans are distinguished
from the Herbivorous by having their mammary
organs inguinal, and by their Jins not being
prehensory.
In the Herbivorous Sub-order, the mammary
organs are pectoral, and they can use their ante-
rior extremities, in some degree, as hands, to
carry their young, and in locomotion.^ They
are also armed with tusks, a circumstance which
appears to connect them with the Morse or
Walrus^ which is said, by Cuvier, to be both
herbivorous and carnivorous, and to differ con-
siderably from other amphibious Predaceans.
Order 2. — Pachyderms. The external cha-
racters which distinguish the Solipeds from the
typical Pachyderms are so striking, that they
seem almost entitled to be placed in a separate
Order. I shall, however, consider them as form-
ing a Sub-order. (To this Order belong the
1 See above, p. 136. ~ "Trichecus rosmarus.
VOL. II. 113
486 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Hippopotamus ; the Tapir ; the Swine tribe ; the
Rhinoceros; the Elephant; the Horse; and the
Ass, &c.) The principal characters of this
Order, are Feet armed with hoofs incapable
of prehension. In the typical Pachyderms the
hoof is divided more or less, but in the Solipeds
it is not.
Order 3. — Ruminants. The Camel ir\be seems
to form another Sub-order in the present Sub-
class, distinguished by the remarkable circum-
stance, mentioned upon a former occasion, that
its hoof, though superficially divided, has an
entire sole,^ and the males have no horns.
(This Order includes the Camel; Dromedary;
Lama; Giraffe; the Ox, and Sheep tribes; the
Goats; the Antelopes ; the Deers; mid the Elk.)
The principal character of the Order is that
which its name indicates, that the animals
belonging to it, chew the cud, that is, masticate
a second time the food that they swallow, which,
owing to the structure of their stomachs, they can
return to the mouth after the first deglutition.
Order 4. — Edentates. (This Order contains the
Pangolin; the Ant-eaters ; the Armadillos; and
the Sloths, &c.) Their distinctive character is
to have no fore teeth.
Order b.— Rodents, (Guinea-pigs; Hare and
Rabbit; Porcupine; Beaver; Mouse; Rat; Dor-
1 See above, p. 203.
MAMMALIANS. 487
mouse; Jerboa; Marmot; Squirrels; &c.) The
principal character of this order 'axe \i^ front or
cutting teeth; of these there are tivo in each
jaw, separated from the grinders by an interval,
so that they can neither seize any living prey>
or lacerate its flesh ; they cannot even cut the
aliments which form their subsistence, but they
can, as it were, file them, and by constant labour,
nibbling and gnawing, reduce them to frag-
ments proper for deglutition. They are con-
nected with the kanguroo, the ivombat, and
other Marsupiajis, and the beaver exhibits one
of the distinctive characters of the Monotremes,
it has only one passage by which the ex-
crements are ejected.
Order 6. — Predaceans or Zoophagans. Cuvier's
subdivisions of this Order may be regarded, for
the most part, as Sub-orders, but there, is one
tribe included in it by this great man, the Chei-
ropterans, which seems rather to form an Oscu-
lant Order, between it and the Quadrumanes.
(Walrus; Seals; Cat; Leopard; Panther; Tiger;
Lio7i; HycEua; Ichneumon, Civet-cat; Fox; Wolf;
Dog; Otter; Martin; Weasel; Glutton; Sear;
Mole; Hedgehog; Shrew; &c.) The animals of
this Order have three kinds of teeth, viz. ciitting-
teeth, canine teeth, and grinders ; their paivs are
armed with claivs ; their muzzle is often set
with tvhiskers, usually called smellers ; their
mammary organs are dispersed ; their intestines
488 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
are less vol ami nous than those of herbivorous
animals, a provision, the object of which is to
prevent the flesh which forms their food from
putrefying, by remaining too long in the body.
Order 7. — C heir oj)ter mis ( Bats; Vampi/res ; ^nd
Flying-cats). The animals of this Order are
distinguished by real organs for flight, formed
of the skin extended between the legs, as
described on a former occasion ;^ their mam-
mary organs, as in the Quadrumanes, are pec-
toral ; they are, in some points, connected with
the flying opossum, flying squirrels, &c.
• Order 8. — Quadrumanes. (Monkeys ; Apes;
Baboons ; Oran-outans.) The great character
that distinguishes this order is, a moveable thumb
on their lower extremities opposed to the Jingers,
so that they can use the carpus, metacarpus, and
phalanges of both extremities as hands. I have
more than once had occasion to observe," that
certain tribes in the animal kingdom seem occa-
sionally to form centres from which rays di-
verge towards difterent parts. The quadrumanes
afford another example of this disposition in
nature : the lory, for instance, looks towards
the sloths ; the baboon, the Cynocephalus of the
ancients, towards the dogs and bears ; the aye
aye, amongst the Rodents, also might be taken
^ See above, p. 156.
■ See Vol. 1. p. 275, and II. p. 20. 3.0.
MAMMALIANS. 489
for a quadruniane,^ and several oilier instances
occur.
Sub-class 1. Order 1. — The animals of this
Order have puzzled Zoologists to ascertain their
place and character. At first they were regarded
as oviparous instead of niammiferous quadru-
peds, and the OniythorhyncJiiis in particular, was
thought to be something between bird and beast.
The researches of Mr. Owen have almost proved
that the animal just named does not leave the
womb of its mother as an eg^, requiring her
incubation, to complete its birth ; but in the
form it is afterwards to maintain, in which case
it must necessarily derive its support from her,
by some lactescent organ, traces of which have
been discovered. Its beak resembling that
of a duck, and its webbed feet seem to con-
nect it, in some degree, with the first Order of
the Buds; but the entire scapular apparatus,
the developement of the oviduct and uterus
in both sides, the absence of the ligamentum
teres, its four legs, and reptant motions, shew
that it is most nearly connected with the Rep-
tiles. The Echidna, by its extensile tongue, its
food, and mode of taking it, approaches the ant-
eaters : it also rolls itself up like an armadillo.
The functions of the Order seem to be to keep
in check the numbers of small animals ; the
See Vol. U. \k 210.
4.90 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
Echidna, the aiits; and the Ornithorynchiis,
which frequents the waters, some that are
aquatic. But we know very little of their habits
and history.
Order 2. — The animals of this Order are partly
herbivorous, and partly carnivorous. The wom-
bat,^ the koala,^ the kanguroo,^ and other New
Holland species, are herbivorous ; thephalangist*
of the Moluccas, lives upon the trees, and devours
insects as well as fruits. The New Holland
opossums^ are very voracious, and devour car-
casses as well as insects : they enter into the
houses, where their voracity is very troublesome.
That most common in America,^ like the fox,
attacks poultry in the night, and sucks their
eggs. It is said to produce often sixteen young
ones in one litter, which, when first born, do not
weigh more than a grain each ! though blind
and almost shapeless, when placed in the pouch
they instinctively find the nipple, and adhere to
it till they attain the size of a mouse, which does
not take place till they are fifty days old, at which
period they begin to see ; after this they do not
wholly leave the pouch till they are as big as a
rat ! ! This statement is so extraordinary, that,
though apparently believed by Cuvier, on the
authority of Barton,^ it seems almost incredible.
1 Phascolomys. - Lqmrus. ^ Macropiis.
* Phalangista orlentalis. ^ Dasyurus.
'^ Didelphis virginiana. 7 Regu. An. I. 176.
MAMMALIANS. 491
It is strange, as the animal seems common in
America, that Say, or some other Zoologist of
that country, has not turned his attention to it.
I have mentioned, on another occasion,^ several
particulars of the history of the kanguroo and
koala, which I need not repeat here. Indeed
our knowledge of the history and instincts of
the Marsupian animals is very limited. Europe
produces none. New Holland, some of the
Asiatic islands, and North and South America,
are their principal habitations. As the young
of these animals leave the matrix of their mother
at so early a period,* and when, if they were
exposed to the atmosphere, they must inevitably
perish, it is evident that some such protection,
as that with which Providence has furnished
them, was necessary for the preservation of the
race. Doubtless some wise and beneficial end
is answered by the seeming premature nativity
of these little creatures.
The opossums are peculiar to America, and
are remarkable for having a greater number of
teeth than any other animal, amounting in all to
fifty ; they approach the Quadrumanes, by hav-
ing the thumb of their hind foot opposed to the
fingers, whence they have been called Pedi-
manes, but it is not armed with a nail. They are
usually stationed on the trees, where they pursue
1 See above, p. 175, 211.
4f)2 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
birds and insects, though, like the monkeys, they
often eat fruit, and by this structure of the hind
foot they can probably better support themselves
on the branches. Many of the animals of this
Order tend also to the Rodents, and others to the
Predaceans.
Sub-class 2. Order 1 . — At the foot of the pre-
sent Class are found the most gigantic animals
with which it has pleased God to people the
globe that we inhabit.
The destruction, however, at least in the Arctic
seas, of these animals, is so great, that it has
been supposed, they are iK>t suffered to live long
enough to attain their full dimensions ; but this
has been doubted. Mr. Scoresby saw none in
those seas that exceeded sixty-eight feet in
length ; but some are said to reach one hundred
and twenty feet. I saw one, which was ex-
hibited two years ago, in the King's Mews, the
length of the skeleton of which was more than
ninety feet. In the Antarctic seas, where the
cupidity of mercantile enterprise does not oc-
casion any great destruction of them, some are
said even to reach the enormous length of one
hundred and sixty feet. God has placed these
Leviathans' where their enormous bulk can have
full play, and their enormous a])petite be fully
satiated, in the vast and teeming depths of the
* See above, p. 432.
MAMMALIANS. 493
ocean, where, whether they move horizontally,
or, by the aid of that powerful organ, their forked
tail, seek the deep waters, there is space, and to
spare, even for them.
The carnivorous, or predaceous Cetaceans may
very conveniently be divided into sections by
characters which distinguish their inaxillan/
organs ; the common w hale,^ and the fin-whale,'^
have their jaws armed with no real teeth, but
only furnished with transverse plates, formed of
wdiat is called whalebone, consisting of a fibrous
horny substance, snfficient for the mastication
of their, for the most part, gelatinons food, which
swarms in such infinite myriads in the Arctic
and icy seas, that Scoresby calculates it would
require eighty thousand persons, constantly em-
ployed from the Creation, to count the number
of those existing simultaneously.
Animals of this section are further subdivided
into those that have, and those that have not a
dorsal fin. To the latter subdivision belongs
the animal commonly distinguished as the ivJiale
by way of eminence,^ and which is the principal
object of the whale fishery. The senses of seeing
and hearing in these animals, in the water, are
extremely acute ; and their eyes are so placed
that they can see behind as well as before and
above them, and for a great distance ; but when
' Bulcena. - Balceiiojitera. ^ Bahena Mysitcetus.
494 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the head emerges from the water, this activity of
sight and hearing ceases.
Their motions in the water are extremely rapid.
They will sometimes assume a perpendicular
position, with their head downwards, and rearing
aloft their tremendous tail, lash the water with
terrific violence, like the Indian god, churning
the sea into foam, and filling the air with vapour.
Sometimes by the motion of this organ, they
produce a thundering noise. They will dive to
the bottom of the ocean ; and when confined
in the shallows, these unwieldy monsters will
sometimes leap out of the water. Their brain,
compared with that of man, is very small.
The weight of the brain of an adult man is
often four pounds; that of a whale, nineteen
feet long, only three pounds and a half; yet
this is large compared with that of some other
animals.
The second section of Cetaceans consists of
those which have teeth only in their upper jaw.
To this tribe belongs the sea-uiiicom, or nar-
whal,^ distinguished by its long tusk, or tusks,
for there are sometimes two, extended in a hori-
zontal direction.
To the third section belong those that have
teeth only in their loiver^aw : of this description
are the spermaceti whales, or cachalots,^ remark-
1 Monodon Monoceros. ~ Physeter.
MAMMALIANS. 495
able for their enormous head, sometimes occu-
pying half the length of the body. Their teeth
are long, and numerous, and all point outwards ;
opposite to them, in the upper jaw, is an equal
number of cavities, in which the ends of the
teeth are lodged, when the mouth is closed.
These animals are said to grow sometimes to an
enormous length ; and to be very cruel and
dangerous.
The fourth and last section of carnivorous
Cetaceans consists of those that have teeth in
both upper and loiver jaws. To this the por-
poise,^ the grampus,' and the long celebrated
dolphin^ belong. These animals are more active
than the preceding Cetaceans, and have a brain
of greater volume. The common dolphin is gre-
garious, and remarkable for its frolicsome gam-
bols, often foretelling a storm, during which they
will leap entirely out of the water. They pursue
and devour the gregarious migratory fishes, and
will even eat offal and garbage. These animals,
in their tooth-armed mouth, often opening wide,
seem to exhibit some affinity to the aquatic
Saurians, as has been remarked with regard to
the Cetaceans in general.*
The end for which all these carnivorous Ceta-
ceans were brought into existence by the Creator
1 Phoccena. 2 Delphinus Orca.
•^ Delphinus Delphis. * See Vol. I. p. 30, 31.
490 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
of the universe, was evidently to keep within due
limits, those animals, inhabitants of the northern
and southern oceans, which were most given to
increase, and which, were it not for some such
check, might multiply to such a degree as would
interfere with the general welfare.^
But the veoretahle tenants of the ocean require
to be kept within due limits, as well as the ani-
mal, amongst other creatures to whom this pro-
vince is assigned, are some Cetaceans ; thus
preserving the general analogy observable in
the animal Kingdom, which, in almost every
Order, has its cattle, as well as its beasts of
prey. Only three genera have been hitherto
discovered to which this function is assigned,
and all of them consisting of animals now in
existence.
The Manatees,- belonging to this Sub-order,
on account of their carrying their young with
their tiappers or fin-like legs, and their breasts,
probably gave rise to the fable of the siren,
or mermaid.
One of the most remarkable of the herbivorous
Cetaceans, is the Diigong^, which is the only ani-
mal yet known that grazes at the bottom of the sea
usually in shallow inlets, which it is enabled to
1 See Vol. I. p. 199 — 202. " Manatus Americanus.
^ Hulicore Ditf/ong.
MAMMALIANS. 497
accomplish by its power of suspending itself
steadily in the water, and by having its jaws
bent down at an angle, in such a manner as to
bring the mouth into nearly a vertical direction,
so that it can feed upon the sea- weeds much in
the same manner as a cow does upon the herbage.
Ruppel, a traveller in Africa, discovered a
second species of Dugong in the Red Sea ; and
he is of opinion, that it was the skin of this
animal with which the Jews were commanded to
cover the tabernacle.^
Order 2. Whoever compares the genuine Pa-
chyderms with the Cetaceans, will find many
points in which they resemble each other. As
the latter Order contains the largest marine ani-
mals, so does the former the giants that inhabit
the earth. With respect to their integument,
the skin of both is nearly naked, except in the
case of the swine, the daman," the mammoth,
and some others ; a very small eye characterizes
all, and a short tail ; the blubber of the whale
seems to have its analogue in the fat that covers
the muscles of the swine. One of the most
remarkable animals of this Sub-order, is the
fossil one, which, on account of its enormous
tusks, is named Demotherium.^ It is found in
1 H. Tabernaculum. See Exod. xxvi. 14. Badgers' skins in
our Translation.
2 Hyrax.
3 From the Gr. deivogy terrible, and Srriptovy wild beast.
VOL. II. K K
498 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the north of Europe, and models of its powerful
jaws and tusks may be seen in the British Mu-
seum. From its lower jaw two powerful tusks
rise as in the Hippopotamus, to which Mr.
Owen regards it as approaching very near, and
as forming the link that unites the Cetaceans
to the Pachyderms. The herbivorous Cetaceans,
in common with the generality of the Pachy-
derms, are likewise armed with tusks ; so that
the interval that separates the Hippopotamus
and Deinotherium from the Dugong is not very
wide.
The grand function of the, for the most part,
mighty animals which constitute the tribe I am
speaking of, seems to be that of inhabiting and
finding their subsistence, in the tropical forest
of the old world ; both Africa and Asia have
each their own rhinoceros, and elephant, which,
by their giant bulk, and irresistible strength, can
make their way through the thickest forests or
jungles. Even the swine, from the thickness of
its skin, suffers nothing from pushing through
bushes and underwood in search of acorns ; and
most of these animals, by means of their tusks,
muzzle, or horns, can dig up the roots that form
their food. The hippopotamus seeks his pro-
vender in the African rivers, and by means of
the tusks with which the under-jaw is armed, —
in this differing from the dugong, in which the
tusks are in the upper jaw, — is enabled to root
MAMMALIANS. 499
up plants growing under the water. The tapir
acts the same part nearly in the New World
that the hippopotamus does in the old.
By the efforts of the Pachyderms, in general,
in pursuit of their own means of subsistence, a
way is often made for man more readily to tra-
verse and turn to his purpose forests and woody
districts, that would otherwise mock his efforts to
penetrate into them. When we consider the
vast bulk and armour of the rhinoceros, for
instance, and the violence with which he endea-
vours to remove obstacles out of his path, we may
in some degree calculate the momentum by
which he is enabled to win his resistless way
through the thickest and most entangled under-
wood.
I need not enlarge on the second Sub-order of
the Pachyderms, the Solipeds, the well-know^n
equine and asinine tribes ; every one must be
struck by the contrast that their structure and
characters exhibit to those of i\\e first Sub-order,
or typical ones. A fiery and intelligent eye ; a
7ieck clothed ivith thunder, to use the words of
inspiration ; a graceful form ; speed that often
outstrips the wind; are the distinctive characters
which the highest tribe of them exhibits; while
the other, though less beautiful, still has the
organs of sight and hearing singularly conspi-
cuous ; a long tail ; and its integument clothed
with a shaggy coarse fur : besides these charac-
e500 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
ters, the undivided hoof of both these tribes
forms also a most striking distinction. No ani-
mals, indeed, externally present characters more
diverse from each other than the soliped and
typical Pachyderms. God has given us these
animals, evidently, that we may employ them as
oiu' servants J and their great function is, to carry
ourselves and our burthens ; they also minister
in no small degree to our innocent pleasure and
amusemerits, as well as to our defence and
security.
Order 3. — Of all the different Orders of the
present Class, or indeed of all the Classes of ani-
mals, none are of so much importance to their
Lord as the Ruminants, which we are next to
consider; without them, hunger, cold, and
nakedness would beset him, or, at least, a large
portion of his comforts, with respect to articles
of food and clothing, must be cut off.
Cuvier divides this great Order into those that
liave horns, and those that have none, and we
may here adopt his division, considering these
two sections as forming two Sub- orders. The
first of them, being the beasts of burden of more
than one nation, may be regarded as succeeding
the solipeds ; these are the camels and drome-
daries, the lamas ; and perhaps what is called
the musk-deer, also wanting horns, may be
placed amongst them. So that we have thus
before us animals that may be regarded as
MAMMALIANS. 501
looking towards the Solipeds, in the camel genus;
towards the sheep by its fleece, in the lama; and
towards the antelope tribes in the musk.
All the other Ruminants, the males at least,
are armed wdth two horns, either simple or
branching ; either hollow, or solid ; either per-
sistent or deciduous. I feel disposed to consider
the giraffe, or camelopard, as an intermediate
form between the animals that are horned, and
those without horns, for its short, persistent,
solid horns, clothed with a velvet skin, seem
almost rudimentary. It may be regarded as
connecting, in some degree, the long necked
animals, the camel and lama, &c. with the deer
tribe.
These last, the most elegant and airy, both in
form and limb and motions, of the whole class,
placed in contrast with the clumsiness and bulk
of the Pachyderms, seem intended as one of
the principal ornaments of the globe we in-
habit, and originally to be amongst the peculiar
favourites of its king and master man. Now,
instead of the innocuous animals, he takes into
his alliance, as his most intimate associates,
those that are best fitted to pursue and destroy,
as the dog, and the cheetah; and thus with the
help of the horse, he overtakes these beautiful
creatures, and, instead of caresses, they receive
death at his hands.
The head of these animals, in some, as the
502 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
rein-deer^ in both sexes, but generally only in
the males, is ornamented, as it were, with a
branching forest,^ formed by its antlers, or horns,
which are solid, covered, as in the camelopard,
with a velvet skin, but only during the period
of growth, and annually deciduous ; these are
used by the males in their mutual combats.
Amongst these light and airy animals, however,
some of a larger and more robust stature are
thus fitted for the use of man, as the rein-deer.
The elk, or moose,^ the wapiti* and red deers,
emulate the horse in size, and are of great
strength, though not yet employed by man.^
Lastly, come the Ruminants, whose horns are
hollow and naked, but persistent. To these
belong the Anteloj)es, one species of which has
four horns,^' the goats, the sheep, and the bovine
tribes. The species of the two last of these great
families are particularly important to man, and
are generally so well known as not to require
to be treated of in detail. The bison,^ with his
shaggy mane, presents no slight analogy to the
lion, the so called king of beasts; and the gnu,
reckoned amongst the antelopes, seems to com-
bine characters borrowed from the ox and the
horse.
' Cervus Tarandus. ^ French. Bois. ^ C. alces.
* C. strongyloceras. ^ See above, p. 184.
^' A. Chickara. "^ Bos Urus.
MAMMALIANS. 503
The function of this great Order of Ruminants,
is not only to browse the herbage, and provide, by
constantly trimming, and as it were mowing it,
for its renewed verdure ; many of them are
employed also in pruning the trees, by feeding
upon their branches ; and there is not one that,
in its place, does not contribute its part to the
general welfare. The cattle on a thousand hills
are distributed by their Great Creator according
to certain laws, and by their actions in their
several spheres, to promote certain ends, which
neglected, or imperfectly provided for, would
produce derangements that might affect a wide
circumference.
Order 4. — Having, in a former part of the
present volume, given an account of the prin-
cipal tribes of this Order, I need not here do
more than mention it, except by observing, that
the members of it are principally inhabitants of
the 7iew world, the Manis and Ort/cteropus, being
the only genera it contains that are found in
the old.
Order 5.— The animals included in the Order
of Rodents, or gnawers and nibblers, as I have
before observed,^ seem to occupy the same station
amongst the Mammalians, that the Hymenoptera
do amongst Insects, since they are the most
1 See above, p. 209.
504 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
remarkable of any for the arts which Providence
has instructed them to exercise. This, as well
as the preceding Order, seems very slightly
connected Avith the great tribe of Ruminants :
the Patagonian hare,^ however, of the Pampas,
belonging to the Rodents, seems, in its light
and elegant form, to make the nearest approxi-
mation to that tribe.
Several of the animals of the Order before us
copy the members of the class of insects m one
of their most remarkable peculiarities ; during
the cold or winter season, they become torpid.
This is the case with the dormouse,^ the mar-
mots,^ the prairie-dog,"^ and many other Rodents,
as well as with many predaceous Mammalians,
especially the insectivorous ones, as the hedge-
hogs.^ The mole, and the bats, and even some
of the largest animals, as the bear, are subject to
the same law. When we consider the case of the
insectivorous animals of the present class, we see
at once the wisdom and goodness of the Lawgiver
in this enactment. The reduction of the tempe-
rature, and other causes, have driven the insects
from the theatre they usually frequent, to remain
for a time without motion under the earth and
1 Cavia patagonica. - Myoxus avellanariiis.
^ Arcto7nys.
^ Spermophilus ludovicianus. Faun. Boreal. Americ. i. 156.
^ Er'utaceus.
MAMMALIANS. 505
other places of security, where they are safe from
these their enemies ; it was, therefore a kind and
wise provision, that as their accustomed food was
beyond their reach, they themselves should also
be placed in a state not to require it. Many
other animals amongst the Rodents, though they
do not pass the winter in a state of absolute
torpidity, retreat to what may be called their
winter quarters, in which they have laid up a
store of provisions against the evil days of winter.
Of this description are many of the murine tribes,
particularly the hamster,^ which is furnished
with a pouch on each side of its mouth, that it
fills with grain to deposit in its burrow, for a
winter store. Some will thus carry as much as
three ounces at a time. The lemmings" also,
whose destructive ravages I have before noticed,^
especially that called the ecouomisty^ have similar
habits, storing up roots instead of grain.
Generally speaking, it is the lowering of the
temperature that induces Mammalians, as well
as cold-blooded animals, to hybernate, and brings
on a state of torpidity, or a cessation of the
usual stimulus to locomotion and action : in
which state, Mr. Owen remarks, ivarm-hlooded
animals become, as it were, cold-hloodecl. As a
watch not wound up remains without motion,
1 Cricetus. - Arvicola. Lemmus.
3 Vol. i. p. 91. * L. ceconomus.
500 FUiNCTIONii AM) INSTINCTS.
still retaining the power of resuming it, and
when the mainspring recovers its elasticity is
again enabled to act upon its wheels : so to ani-
mals heat is the key that winds up the wheels,
and restores to the mainspring its powers of
reaction. Hybernating animals have supernu-
merary cells, and generally become very fat in
autumn, and it has been said that this fat sup-
ports them in their torpid state; it is found, how-
ever, that there has been but little of it consumed
during the state of torpidity, but that it wastes
very fast immediately after that state is ended.
The Indians remark, with respect to the black
bear, that it comes out in the spring with the
same fat which it carries in in the autumn ; but
after the exercise of only a few days it becomes
lean.^ A state of periodical rest may be neces-
sary to the animals we are speaking of, not only
as a means of protection from the effects of a
low temperature, and on account of the impossi-
bility of procuring their usual means of subsist-
ence ; but since alternate rest and action are
necessary to most animals, so a longer period of
sleep may be required in some cases, by such
cessation of action to keep the machine from
wearing out too soon. Excess of heat we know
produces the same effect as excess of cold, it
disposes to sleep.^ The tenrec,^ a Madagascar
* Fi\ Boreal. Americ. i. 20.
2 N. D. D'H. N. xxxi. 387—390, ^ Seiiger.
MAMMALIANS. 507
animal, and the jerboa, fall into a kind of sum-
mer lethargy from that cause, which lasts some
months.^
From the numerous instances of remarkable
instincts exhibited by the animals of this Order,
which might be selected, I must confine myself
to one or two of the most singular. The hare
is only noticed for its extreme timidity and
watchfulness, and the rabbit for the burrows
which it excavates for its own habitation, and
as a nest for its young : but there is an animal
related to them, the rat-hare,^ which is gifted by
by its Creator with a very singular instinct, on
account of which it ought rather to be called the
hay-maker, since man may or might have learned
that part of the business of the agriculturist,
which consists in providing a store of winter
provender for his cattle, from this industrious
animal. Professor Pallas was the first who
described the quadruped exercising this remark-
able function and gave an account of it. The
Tungusians, who inhabit the country beyond the
lake of Baikal, call it Pika, which has been
adopted as its Trivial name.
These animals make their abode between the
rocks, and during the summer employ them-
selves in making hay for a winter store. Inhabit-
ing the most northern districts of the old world,
1 N. D, DH. N. xxxiii. 53. " Layomys.
508 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
the chain of Altaic Mountains, extending from
Siberia to the confines of Asia and Kamt-
schatka/ they never appear in the plains, or in
places exposed to observation ; but always select
the rudest and most elevated spots, and often the
centre of the most gloomy, and at the same time
humid forests, where the herbage is fresh and
abundant. They generally hollow out their bur-
rows between the stones and in the clefts of
the rocks, and sometimes in the holes of trees.
Sometimes they live in solitude and sometimes in
small societies, according to the nature of the
mountains they inhabit.
About the middle of the month of August
these little animals collect with admirable pre-
caution their winter's provender, which is formed
of select herbs, which they bring near their habi-
tation and spread out to dry like hay. In
September, they form heaps or stacks of the
fodder they have collected under the rocks or in
other places sheltered from the rain or snow.
Where many of them have laboured together
their stacks are sometimes as high as a man,
and more than eight feet in diameter. A sub-
terranean gallery leads from the burrow, below
the mass of hay, so that neither frost nor snow
can intercept their communication with it. Pal-
1 Mr. Daines Barrington presented to the Royal Society an
animal resembling the Pika ibund in Scotland, but probably a
different species.
MAMMALIANS. 509
las had the patience to examme their provision
of hay piece by piece, and found it to consist
chiefly of the choicest grasses, and the sweetest
lierbs, all cut when most vigorous, and dried so
slowly as to form a green and succulent fodder;
he found in it scarcely any ears, or blossoms,
or hard and woody stems, but some mixture of
bitter herbs, probably useful to render the rest
more wholesome. These stacks of excellent
forage are sought out by the sable-hunters to
feed their harassed horses, and the (Jakutes)
natives of that part of Siberia, pilfer them, if I
may so call it, for the subsistence of their cattle.
Instead of imitating the foresight and industry
of the Pika, they rob it of its means of support,
and so devote the animals that set them so good
an example to famine and death. ^ How much
better would it be if instead of robbing and
starving these interesting animals, they learned
from them to provide in the proper season a
supply of hay for the winter provender of their
horses.
But no animals in this, or indeed any other
Order of Mammalians, are so admirable for their
instincts and their results as the heavers,
I have more than once alluded to some
proceedings of these, seemingly, half-reasoning
animals, and shall now as briefly as possible
' N, D. D'H. N. xxvi. 407—410.
510 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
give some account of those fabricks in which
their wonderful instinct is principally manifested.
There are two writers who had great opportuni-
ties of gaining information concerning them ;
Samuel Hearne, during his journey to the North-
ern Ocean, in the years 1769, 1770, 1771, and
1772; and Captain Cartwright, who resided
nearly sixteen years on the coast of Labrador.
To them I am principally indebted for the par-
ticulars of the history here given.
From the breaking up of the frost to the fall
of the leaf, the beavers desert their lodges, and
roam about unhoused, and unoccupied by their
usual labours, except that they have the fore-
sight to begin felling their timber early in the
summer. They set about building some time in
the month of August. Those that erect their
habitations in small rivers or creeks, in which
the water is liable to be drained off, with wonder-
ful sagacity provide against that evil by forming
a dike across the stream, almost straight where
the current is weak, but where it is more rapid,
curving more or less, with the convex side
opposed to the stream. They construct these
dikes or dams of the same materials as they do
their lodges, namely, of pieces of wood of any
kind, of stones, mud, and sand. These cause-
ways oppose a sufficient barrier to the force, both
of water and ice; and as the willows, poplars, &c.
employed in constructing them, often strike root
MAMMALIANS. 511
in it, it becomes in time a green hedge, in
whicli the birds build their nests. Cartwright
says that he occasionally used them as bridges,
bat as they are level with the water, not without
wetting his feet. By means of these erections
the water is kept at a sufficient height, for
it is absolutely necessary that there should be at
least three feet of water above the extremity
of the entry into their lodges, without which,
in the hard frosts, it would be entirely closed.
This entry is not on the land side, because such
an opening might let in the wolverene, and other
fierce beasts, but towards the water.
Cuvier, in his table above alluded to,^ assigns
only four pectoral teats to the female beaver ;
but Dr. Richardson states that she has eight, and
the maximum of her young ones at eight or
nine.- The number inhabiting one lodge seldom
exceeds four old and six or eight young ones ; the
size of their houses, therefore, is regulated by the
number of the family. Though built of the
same materials, they are of much ruder structure
than their causeways, and the only object of
their erection appears to be a dry apartment to
repose in, and where they can eat the food they
occasionally get out of the water. It frequently
happens, says Hearne, that some of the large
houses have one or more partitions, but these are
1 See above, p. 476. - Fn. Boreal. Amer. i. p. 107.
512 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
merely part of the building left to support the
roof. He had seen one beaver lodge that had
nearly a dozen apartments under the same roof,
and, two or three excepted, none had any com-
munication but by water. Cartwright says, that
when they build, their first step is to make choice
of a natural basin, of a certain depth, near the
bank where there is no rock ; they then begin
to excavate under water, at the base of the bank,
which they enlarge upwards gradually, and so
as to form a declivity, till they reach the surface ;
and of the earth which comes out of this cavity
they form a hillock, with which they mix small
pieces of wood, and even stones : they give this
hillock the form of a dome, from four to seven
feet high, from ten to twelve long, and from eight
to nine wide. As they proceed in heightening,
they hollow it out below, so as to form the lodge
which is to receive the family. At the anterior
part of this dwelling, they form a gentle decli-
vity terminating at the water ; so that they enter
and go out under water. The hunters name this
entrance the angle. The interior forms only a
single chamber resembling an oven. At a little
distance is the magazine for provisions. Here
they keep in store the roots of the yellow water-
lily, and the branches of the black spruce,^ the
aspin,^ and birch, ^ which they are careful to
^ Abies nigra. • Populus tremula^ ^ Betula alba.
MAMMALIANS. 513
plant in the mud. These form their subsistence.
Their magazines sometimes contain a cart-load of
these articles, and the beavers are so industrious,
that they are always adding to their store.
There is a species of beaver found in the great
rivers in Europe — the Danube, the Rhine, the
Rhone, and the Weser, which has been regarded
as synonymous with the beaver of Canada, but
which, though it forms burrows or holes in the
banks of those rivers which it frequents, does not,
like them, erect any lodges, as above described.
Does this instinct sleep in them, and require a
certain degree of cold to awaken it, or are they a
distinct species? Linne mentions one in Lapland,
where the cold is sufficiently intense. Cuvier
seems uncertain whether they ought to be con-
sidered as distinct. Beavers seem formerly to have
existed in England ; the town of Beverley (^Bea-
ver-lac), in Yorkshire, seems to have taken its
name from them, and its arms are three beavers.
Such are the principal operations that these
wonderful animals, probably by the mixture of
intellect with instinct, are instructed and adapted
by their Creator to execute, that man, by study-
ing them and their ways, may acknowledge the
Power, Wisdom, and Goodness that formed and
guides them.
The functions of the numerous tribes of this
Order are various. The great majority may be
VOL. TI. L L
514 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
said to be granivorous, or nucivorous, or even
graminivorous ; but many live upon dried ve-
getable substances, and wood, and the aye aye^
which approaches the Quadrumanes, appears to
be insectivorous. Though many of them are
great plagues to man, yet, by exciting his vigi-
lance, they are useful to him, and they form the
food of many of the lesser predaceous animals.
Order 6. The connection between the animals
of which this Order consists, and the Rodents,
seems not easily made out. The lowest tribe,
the Amphibious Predaceans, which Cuvier has
placed immediately before the Marsupians, ap-
pears to have no connection with that Order, or
any of the Rodents ; and the morse, which forms
his last genus of the tribe in question, appears
evidently to look more towards the herbivorous
cetaceans, the manatee,^ &c. than to any other
animals ; the seals, indeed, may be regarded as
tending towards the feline tribe. Amongst the
other Predaceans, the hedgehog and tenrec pre-
sent, I apprehend, something more than an ana-
logy to the porcupines and some of the rats. The
bear seems to look towards the sloth ; and the
feline race, in their whiskers and feet, look to
the hares and rats.
The general functions of this Order are to
check the tendency to increase not only in their
1 Cheiromris.
MAMMALIANS. 515
own Class, the Mammalians, but in most of the
other Classes of animals, more particularly those
which man has taken into alliance with him, as
cattle, and poultry, and game of every descrip-
tion. But where his action is greatest, theirs is
usually least ; and the most powerful devastators
of the animal kingdom, the lions and the tigers,
are found in the warmest climates, where nature
is most prolific, and where man has not fully
established his dominion, in the trackless and
burning deserts of Libya, and in the impene-
trable forests and jungles of India.
In more northern regions, the bears, the foxes,
and other Mammalians, are employed in this
department, though the former also eat roots and
other vegetable substances,^ and thus in the wild
countries of the north supply the place of man,
and keep the animal population under, and at
a certain level, so that one may not encroach
upon another. If the matter is closely investi-
gated, we shall find that God has distributed
and divided these predaceous animals to every
country, in measure and momentum, as every
one had need.
The necrophagous Mammalians" also, or
those that devour dead carcases, such as the
hyaenas, dogs, and similar animals, are equally
useful in removing infectious substances, which
' Fn. Boreali Americ. i. 15, 23, 28. ' Carnivora. Cuv.
51G FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
in hot climates soon generate disease, and are
always disgusting objects, and exercise a very
important and beneficial function, devolved upon
them by their Creator ; for if all the animals
exercising this function were removed from the
earth, it would soon be depopulated, and a uni-
versal pestilence would destroy man, and all his
subject animals.
Order 7. The animals of this Order, though
evidently leading towards the Quadrumanes,
seems less nearly connected with the insectivo-
rous Predaceans of Cuvier, the hedgehog, mole,
&c., and to approach nearer to some Marsupians,
as the flying squirrel and the flying opossum.
I therefore consider them as forming an Osculant
Order, distinguished by their powers and organs
of flight before sufficiently noticed.^ They are
nocturnal animals, and live entirely upon in-
sects. In the winter, they become torpid, and
suspend themselves by the claw of the thumb of
the fore-foot, which is left free for this and other
purposes. ,x-~^.-„_
^_^- Order 8. Linne evidently degraded rnan when
N he placed him in the same Order with the monkey,
and even considered his genus Homo as consist-
ing of two species, advancing the Ouran Outan^
to the honour of being his congener, and a
* See above, p. 156.
' Written also Ourcmg Outang^ and Orang Otang.
MAMMALIANS. 517
second species of man. Cuvier has, with great
propriety, separated man, the heir of immor-
taUty, and whose spirit goeth upivard, from the
beast that perisheth, and ivliose spirit goeth doivn-
ward,^ and placed them in different Orders.
Man lias employed some animals in almost
every Order, or taken them under his care ; but
there is only a single instance of a Quadrumane
being so used. There is a kind of monkey,^ a
native of Madagascar, which, being of a gentle
disposition, the natives of the southern part of
that island take when they are young, and edu-
cate, as we do hounds, for the chase.^
The principal function of these animals is to
live and move in the trees, amongst the branches
in tropical countries, and they subsist upon
fruits, roots, the eggs of birds, and insects. One
object of their creation seems to be to hold the
mirror to man, that he may see how ugly and
disgusting an object he becomes when he gives
himself up to vice and the slave of his pas-
sions. In fact, in every department of the animal
kingdom, the moral instruction of his reasonable
creature seems to have been one of the objects of
Creative Wisdom : and the sloth and the glutton
may be added to the mandril and baboon as
equally calculated to cause him to view vice with
* Eccles. iii. 21. ^ Indris brevicandatus.
3 .Y. D. D'H. X. xvi. 171.
518 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
disgust and abhorrence ; as the bee, the ant,
and the beaver, to excite him to industry, and
prudence, and foresight ; or the dove to peace
and mutual love.
Chapter XXV.
Functions and Instincts — Man,
After traversing the whole Animal Kingdom
from its very lowest grades, and having arrived
at Man, who confessedly stands at the head,
and is the only visible king and lord of all the
rest, it will be expected that I should devote a
few pages to the world's master.
Baron Cuvier, with great propriety, places
him by himself in a separate Order, distin-
guished from that which succeeds it, in his
system, by the significant appellation of JBimane,
indicating that his two hands are the instru-
ments by which he subdues and governs the
planet that he inhabits ;^ by which also he is
enabled to embody his conceptions, and, as it
were, to convert his thoughts into material
subsistences.
I shall consider him both physically and me-
taphysically ; physically, as to his actual posi-
' 1 See above, p. 215.
MAX. 519
tioii, and as to his action upon his subjects and
property, whether vegetable or animal ; and me-
taphysically as to his connection with that world,
to which his mind or spirit belongs. When I
say that Man stands at the head of the creation,
I do not mean to affirm that he combines in
himself every physical attribute in perfection
that is found in all the animals below him ; for
it is manifest to every one, that many of them
far exceed him in the perfection of many of
their organs, and in their qualities of various
kinds. For sight, he cannot compete with the
eagle ; for scent, with the hound, or the shark ;
for swiftness, with the roe-huck ; for strength and
bulk, with the elephant: but it is in his mind
that his superiority lies. There is in him a
SPIRIT, an immaterial substance which consti-
tutes him the sole representative here on earth,
of the SPIRIT OF SPIRITS. He is the only member
of the Animal Kingdom that partakes both of
a heavenly and of an earthly nature, — that
belongs both to a material and an immaterial
, world : and on this account it was that God,
when he had created man, constituted him king
over the whole sphere of animals with which he
had peopled this globe that we inhabit. When
his unhappy /a// took place, the Divine Image
was impaired, and consequently the dominion
over those creatures, which formed a ])art of it,
was proportionably weakened, and reduced to
520 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
its present standard. Bat stiil, though weak-
ened, it is not abrogated ; his subjects have not
universally broken the yoke and burst the bonds
of his dominion — a large portion of them still
acknowledge him as their king and master ; and
those that he has not subdued so as to make
them do his bidding, still fear him and flee him :
and even of these, there is none so fierce and
intractable, that he has not found means to tame
and subdue. And this is the position in which
he now stands with respect to the animal king-
dom ; he has that within him that enables him
to master them, and apply such of them as are
of a convertible nature, if I may so speak, to
work his will and answer his purpose.
The functions of man, with regard to the
world in which he is now placed, are all in-
cluded in his action upon the sphere of animals
and vegetables, and in their re-action upon him.
If we survey all nature, wherever we turn our
eyes, or wherever we direct our thoughts, we
see the action of antagonist powers, a flux and
reflux, by which the Great Builder of the
universe supports the vast machine, and main-
tains all the motions that he has generated in it.
The same principle is at work in every descrip-
tion of beings in our own planet; every action
of man upon any object of the world, without
him, produces a reaction from that object, at-
tended often by important results.
MAN. 521
The action of man upon the world wifhout
him, is threefold. His first action upon ti.eni
is, that of the mind to contemplate them, so as
to gain a knowledge of their forms and struc-
ture- -of their habits and instincts — of then'
meaning and uses. His second action upon
them, having studied their natures, and dis-
covered how they may be made profitable to
him, is to collect and multiply such species as
he finds will, in any way, answer his purpose.
His third action upon them is to diminish and
keep within due limits those species that ex-
perience teaches him are noxious and prejudicial
either to himself, or those animals that he has
taken into alliance with him, which are prin-
cipal sources of wealth to him, and minister to
his daily use, comfort, and enjoyment.
If we consider the predaceous animals, we
shall find in them a greater tendency to multiply
than in those that content themselves with graz-
ing the herbage ; they generally produce more
young at a birth ; and their period of gestation is
often shorter, so as to admit of more than one
litter in the year ; so that, unless some means were
used to reduce their numbers within a certain
limit, the whole race of herbivorous animals
must perish. Hence arose the first kind of war.
Man armed himself to destroy such of his sub-
jects as had rejected his dominion, and even
contended with him for the possession of the earth,
5*22 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
and to have license to devour at will its more
pea :eful inhabitants. A similar cause generated
thfj other and more fearful kind of war, of man
with man. Whence come wars and fightings
amongst yoii, saith the Apostle ;^ come they not
hence, even of your lusts that ivar in your members /
The hiirhest view tliat we can take of man is
that which looks upon him as belonging to a
spiritual as well as a material world. The end
of the creation of the earth, says the father and
founder of Natural History, is the glory of God,
from the works of nature, by man only.'^ And,
as the same pious author observes, " How con-
temptible is man," if he does not aim at this end
of his creation, if he does not strive to raise
himself above the low pursuits that usually
occupy his mind !^ The heavens indeed declare
the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth
the work of his hands. Day unto day uttereth
speech, and night unto night sheweth know-
ledge.* The beasts of the field honour him, and
all creatures that he hath made glorify him.
But man must study the book open before him ;
and the more he studies it, the more audible to
him will be the general voice to his spiritual eai-,
' James, iv. 1.
^ Finis creationis tclluris est gloria Dei exopere natures per
hominem solum. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. Jntroit. i.
^ quam contcrnpta res est hojnce nisi supra humana se
erexerit. Ibid.
*Ps. xix. 1, 2.
MAN. 523
and he will clearly perceive that every created
thing glorifies God in its place, by fulfilling his
will, and the great purpose of his providence ;
but that he himself alone can give a tongue to
every creature, and pronounce for all a general
doxology.
But further, in contemplating them, he will
not only behold the glory of the Godhead re-
flected, but, from their several instincts and
characters, he may derive much spiritual in-
struction. Whoever surveys the three kingdoms
of nature with any attention, will discover in
every department objects that, without any affi-
nity, appear to represent each other. Thus we
have minerals that, under certain circumstances,
as it were, vegetate, and shoot into various forms,
representing trees and plants : there are plants
that represent insects, and, vice versa, insects
that simulate plants ; and the Zoophytes have
received their name from this resemblance.^
And as we ascend the scale, every where a series
of references of one thing to another may be
traced, so as to render it very probable that every
created thing has its representative somewhere
in nature. Nor is this resemblance confined to
forms ; it extends also to character. If we begin
at the bottom of the scale, and ascend up to
man, we shall find tico descriptions in almost
every class, and even tribe of animals : one,
' Vol. I. p. 149, 156, 169.
524 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
ferocious in their aspect, often rapid in their
motions, predaceous in their habits, preying upon
their fellows, and living by rapine and bloodshed ;
while the other is quiet and harmless, making
no attacks, shedding no blood, and subsisting
mostly on a vegetable diet.
Since God created nothing in vain, we may
rest assured that this system of represeiitatlon
was established with a particular view. The
most common mode of instruction is placing cer-
tain signs or symbols before the eye of the
learner, m hich represent sounds or ideas ; and so
the great Instructor of man placed this world
before him as an open though mystical book, in
which the different objects were the letters and
words of a language, from the study of w hich he
might gain wisdom of various kinds, and be
instructed in such truths relating to that spiritual
world, to which his soul belonged, as God saw
fit thus to reveal to him. In the first place, by
observing that one object in nature represented
another, he would be taught that all things are
significant, as well as intended to act a certain
part in the general drama ; and further, as he
proceeded to trace the analogies of character, in
its two great branches just alluded to upwards,
he would be led to the knowledge of the doctrine
thus syml^olically revealed— that in the invisible
world there are two classes of spirits — one bene-
volent and beneficent, and the other malevolent
MAN. 525
and mischievous ; characters which, after his
fall, he would find even exempUfied in indivi-
duals of his own species.
But after the unhappy fall of man, this mode
of instruction by natural and other objects used
symbolically, though it pervades the whole law
of Moses, and the writings of the prophets, as
well as several parts of the New Testament,
gradually gave place to the clearer light of a
Revelation, not by symbols, but by the words and
language of man, which he that runs may often
read ; yet still it is a very useful and interesting-
study, and belongs to man as the principal inha-
bitant of a world stored with symbols, to ascer-
tain what God intended to signify by the objects
that he has created and placed before him, as
well as to know their natures and uses. When
we recollect what the Apostle tells us, that the
ifivisible things of God from the creation of the
tvorlcl are clearly seen, being understood hy the
things that are made,^ and that spiritual truths
are reflected as by a mirror, and shewn, as it
were, enigmatically,^ we shall be convinced that,
in this view, the study of nature, if properly con-
ducted, may be made of the first importance.
In this enumeration and history of the prin-
1 Rom. i. 20. 2 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
526 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS.
cipal tribes of the Animal Kingdom, we have
traced in every page the footsteps of infinite
Wisdom, Power, and Goodness. In onr ascent
from the most minute and least animated parts
of that Kingdom to man himself, we have seen
in every department that nothing was left to
chance, or the rule of circumstances, but every
thing was adapted by its structure and organi-
zation for the situation in which it was to be
placed, and the functions it was to discharge ;
that though every being, or group of beings, had
separate interests, and wants, all were made to
subserve to a common purpose, and to promote a
common object; and that though there was a
general and unceasing conflict between the mem-
bers of this sphere of beings, introducing appa-
rently death and destruction into every part of
it, yet that by this great mass of seeming evil
pervading the whole circuit of the animal crea-
tion, the renewed health and vigour of the entire
system was maintained. A part suffers for the
benefit and salvation of the whole ; so that the
doctrine of the sufferings of one creature, by the
will of God, being necessary to promote the wel-
fare of another, is irrefragably established by
every thing we see in nature ; and further, that
there is an unseen hand directing all to accom-
plish this great object, and taking care that the
destruction shall in no case exceed the necessity.
MAN. 527
Well, then, may all finally exclaim, in the words
of the Divine Psalmist : —
O Lord, how manifold are thy tvorks, in
TFISD03I hast thou made them all; the earth
is full of thy riches ;
So is the great and wide sea also, wherein are
things creeping innumerable both small aiid great
beasts.
These wait all upon thee : that thou mayest give
them meat in due season.
When thou givest them they gather it: and
when thou openest thy hand they are filled ivith
good.
When thou hidest thy face they are troubled:
when thou takest away their breath they die, and
are turned aoain to their dust.
When thou lettest thy breath go forth they shall
be made : a?id thou shall reneiv the face of the
earth.
INDEX
Abyss, i. 24, 374
Acalepha, i. 195,402
Accipenser, i. 107
Acepliala, i. 237
Achatina, i. 291
Acorn barnacle, ii. 3
Acrita, i. 149
Acrocinus, ii. 179
Actberes, ii. 25, 31, 118, 124
Actinia, i. 244
Adatison, i. 147
Addison, ii. 241
A'Uian, ii. 85
Aeroscepsy, ii. 112
Agardh, i. 146
Agassiz, ii. 390
Agastria, i. 150
Aggregate animals, i, 220
Air, Introd. xcii
Albatross, ii. 453
Alca, ii. 450
Alcyonium, i. 157
Alcyon, i. 160
Alitrunk, ii. 147
Alligator, i. 32 ; ii. 431
Ambulacra, i. 203
American animals, i. 390
Ametabolians, ii. 314
Ammonites, i. 20, 315
Ammophila, ii. 330
Amoreux, i. 182
Amorpba, i. 147
Amphitrite, i. 345; ii. 103
Amphibians, ii. 137, 143
Amphiuma, ii. 421
Amymone, ii. 25
AnabJeps, ii. 380
VOL. II.
Anancbinia, i. 223
Ananchitis, i. 213
Anas, i. 104
Anas acuta, ii. 169
Anatifa, ii. 3
Androctonus, ii. 300
Anbyma, ii. 454
Animals and plants, i. 139,
206, 399 ; ii. 246
Animalcules, i. 149, 152 ; ii.
98
Annelidans, i. 332; ii. 127
Annulosans, i. 320
Anolius, Anolis, ii. 124, 430
Anomalon, ii. 334
Anser, i. 104
Ants' nests, ii. 340
Ants, ii. 330, 344
Ants of visitation, ii. 344
Ants, black, ii. 242
Antagonist powers. In trod.
Ixxxi. i. 142; ii. 520
Antilope Chickara, ii. 502
Antilope furcata, i. 97
Antilope rupicapra, i. 131
Antennse, ii. 112
Anthobians, ii. 365
Antichrist, ii. 394
Antipathes, i. 177
Ape, ii. 213
Aphaniptera, ii. 317, 323
Aphides, i. 92
Aphrodita aculeata, i. 348
Aphrodita magnifica, ii. 132
Aplysia, i. 305
Aporobranchians, ii, 282, 309
Aptenodytes, i. 134
M M
530
INDEX.
Apteryx, ii. 457
Aquila, ii. 71
Ara, i. 71
Arachnidans, ii. 81, 281
Aranea, ii, 284
Aranea, notacantha, ii. 299
Araneidans, ii. 28.'^
Ararat, i. 45
Arctomys, ii. 504
Argonauta, i. 136, 306
Argulus, ii. 35
Argyronauta, ii. 296
Aristotle, i. 175, 205, 253, &c.
Arm, ii. 267
Armadillo, i. 399 ; ii. 61
Arvicola, i. 92 ; ii. 505
Ascalabotes, ii. 121
Ascaris, i. 325
Ascidians, i. 218
Ass, ii. 499
Astacus Gammarus, ii. 44, 50
Astacus fluviatilis, ii. 44, 52
Asteria, i. 201
Ateles, ii. 73
Athanasius, Introd, xxxix,
xcviii
Audoin, i. 126; ii. 22, 287
Aurelia, ii. 101
Aye-Aye, ii. 210,488, 514
Azote, i. 147
Baboon, ii. 213, 517
Bacillaria, i. 350
Bacon, Friar, Introd. xlviii
Baculites, i. 20
Baddeley, ii. 353
Baker, ii. 305
Balsena, ii. 493
Balfienoptera, ii. 493
Balanites, ii. 3
Balanus, i. 277 ; ii. 4
Barnacle, ii. 1
Barbs, ii. 112
BarringtoH, ii, 508
Barton, ii. 490
Bat-louse, ii. 307
Bat-mite, ii. 305
Batrachians, ii. 179
Bauer, i. 150, 159, 342
Bdella, i. 336, 338
Beak of birds, ii. 195
Bear, ii. 212, 506
Beattie, ii. 225
Beaver, ii. 209,237,276,510
Beechey, 183, 185; ii. 454
Bee-cuckow, ii. 463
Beetles, ii. 180, 354, 359
Bellevue, i. 248
Bembex, ii. 330
Bennett, ii. 279, 288, 350,
453
Bimane, ii. 215, 518
Bipes, i. 121 ; ii. 179
Birds, i, 5, 99; ii, 5Q, \5\„
177, 261, 270
Birgus, ii. 48
Bison, ii. 502
Bivalve molluscans, i. 237
Blackwall, ii. 283, 295
Bladder-kelp, i. 294
Blatta, ii. 356
Boa, ii. 174, 427
Bochart, i. 297
Bodianus, ii. 380
Boerhave, i. 327
Boltenia, i. 230
Bones, ii. 361
Bonito, ii. 452
Bonnet, i. 13, 327; ii. 426
Booby, ii. 452
Borassus, i. 123
Bos americanus, i. 94
Bos urus, ii. 502
Bosc, i. 32, 122, 196, 291,
312, 336
Botryllus, i. 215
Botryocephalus, i. 324, 327
Brain-mite, i. 360
Branchiopod, i. 161 ; ii. 21
Branchipus, ii. 20
Branchiremes, ii. 133
Bray ley, i. 282
Bristles, ii. 133
Brongniart, ii. 411
INDEX.
531
Brown, i. 147, 399
Bruguiere, i. 155, 201
Buccinum, i. 274, 279
Buckland, i. 185; ii. 208
Bugon^, ii. 350
Buo;s, ii. 355
Bulimus, i. 291
Bulla, i. 274
Buligea, i. 274
Burrowing Molluscans, i. 241
Burying Beetles, ii. 361
Byssus, i. 238, 251, 254, 406
Cactus, i. 354
Calandra, ii. 366
Caligus, ii. 35
Callicthys, ii. 142, 384
Calosoma, ii. 360
Calyptrea, i. 274
Camel, ii. 203, 205, 500
Caraelopardalis, ii. 174, 501
Campagnol, i. 92
Campbell, i. 122
Cancer stagnalis, ii. 29
Cancer maenas, ii. 80
Canis, i. Q5', ii. 71
Carabus, ii. 71
Carcases, ii. 361
Cardium, i. 241
Carinaria, i. 307
Carlisle, i. 327
Carnivora, ii. 71, 515
Cartwriffht, ii. 210, 510
Cams, i. 207,244; ii. 16,311
Cassida, ii. 364
Cassiopea, ii. 101
Castor, i. 133; ii. 309, 510
Casuarius, ii. 156, 178, 459
Cat, i. 67, 72; ii. 260
Catcott, i. 50
Catoblepas, ii. 203, 502
Caucasian, i. 73
Cavia, ii. 504
Cavitaries, i. 319
Cellaria, i. 168
Cenomyce, i. 96
Centipedes, ii. ^5, 71
Centres, i. 275; ii. 20, 85
Cephalopods, i. 303; ii. 105,
115, 132
Cephalothorax, ii. 31, 87
Cerambyx, ii. 364
Cermatia, ii. 67
Cervus, ii. 181
Cetaceans, ii.136,143, 484, 492
Cetonia, ii. 365
Chabrier, ii. 147, 150
Chaetodon, ii. 405
Chalk eggs, i. 186
Chameleon, ii. 192
Chamois, i. 131
Charadrius ^gyptius, i. 339
Cheetah, ii. 501
Cheiromys, ii. 210, 514
Cheiroptera, ii. 156, 488, 516
Chela, ii. 37
Chelifer, ii. 90, 303
Chelonia, i. 134; ii. 143,484,
492
Cherub, Introd. Ixx
Cherubim, Inirod. Ivii, Ixi,
xcix ; ii. 244
Chilognathans, ii. 64, 74
Chilopodans, ii. Q5, 70
Chimaera, i. 1 12
Chirotus, ii. 429
Chiton, i. 270, 278
Chlamyphorus, i. 399; ii. 207,
209, 476
Chrysomela, ii. 364
Cicada, ii. 354
Cicindela, ii. 275, 359
Ciconia alba, ii. 456
Ciconia argula, i. 338
Ciconia nigra, ii. 456
Ciripedes, i. 235 ; ii. I
Clamp-shell, i. 251
Classification, ii. 480
Clausilia, i. 276
Claveliina, i. 215
Clio, i.268; ii. Ill
Clouds, Introd, Ixxxvii
Clupanodon, i. 115
Clu
pea,
i. 116
532
INDEX.
Cnide, i. 402
Coala, see Koala
Cocbleoctonus, ii. 361
Cockles, i. 245, 263
Cock-roach, ii. 356
Cod-fish, i. 110; ii. 386
Coluber, i. 131
Coleoptera, ii. 336, 358
Colymbus, i. 104
Comatula, ii. 11
Conchifers, i. 235
Concholepas, i. 274
Condor, ii. 251
Condylopes, i. 236; ii. 17,
132, 170
Coral, i. 177
Cordylia, ii. 366
Coronula, ii. 5
Crabs, ii. 39, 79
Crab-spider, ii. 298
Crangon, ii. 38
Cricetus, ii. 505
Crinoideans, ii. 9
Crocodile, i. 31 ; ii. 431
Crosse y ii. 431
Cteniza, ii. 287
Cuculus, i. 100
Culex, i. 134, 160
Cuvier, i. 193,206,292,307;
ii. 115,138
Cyamus, ii. 59
Cychrus, i. 104
Cyclops, ii. 20, 25, 28
Cyclopterus, ii. 121
Cyclostoma, i. 276
Cynocephalus, ii. 213, 488
Cyprea, i. 274, 300
Cyprinus auratus, i. 161
Cypriniis Brama, i. 355
Cypris, ii. 20, 134
Cypselus i, 100
Dactyle, i. 240, 405
Daldorf, i. 123
Dalyell, i. 152 321
Daphnia, ii 20
Darkness, Introd. xciii
Dasyurus, ii. 490
Davy, i. 35, 340; ii. 254,418
De Blainville, i. 150, 205
Deer, ii. 181, 198, 502
De Gear, ii. 20
Deinotherium, ii. 497
De la Matte, ii. 226
Delphinus, ii. 495
Deluge, i.25, 376
Denoii, ii. 431
Depurators, i. 159
Dermaptera, ii. 318
Dermestes, ii. 71, 362
Dcukelzoon, i. 115
Dhawalagiri, i. 25, 45
Dibranchiata, i. 306, 313
Didelphis, ii. 490
Didemnum, i. 215
Didus, i. 55
Digitigrades, ii. 212
Diomedea, ii. 452
Diplostomum, i. 330, 353
Diplozoon, i. 330, 335, 359 ;
ii. 116
Dipneumones, ii. 285
Diptera, ii. 319, 323
Dipus, ii. 175.
Discoboles, ii. 121
Discocephalus, i. 349 ; ii. 97
Distoma, i. 320
Dodo, i. 55 ; ii. 458
Doras, i. 121 ; ii. 384
Draco, ii. 160
Dragons, i. 30; ii. 409
Dragon-flies, ii. 148, 352
Draparnaudj i. 321.
Dromaius, ii. 459
Dromedary, ii. 205
Dufour, ii. 87
Dugong, ii. 496
Du Trochet, ii. 97
Dynastidans, ii. 365
Dytiscus, i. 134; ii. 121
Eagle, i. 70; ii. 471, 473
Ears, i. 60
Earthworm, i. 341 ; ii. 96
INDEX.
f):]3
Echeneis, ii. 122
Echidna, ii. 82, 206, 489
EchinococcLis, i. 324
Echinoderms, i. 195, 201 ; ii.
118
Echinus, i. 203 ; ii. 7
Edentata, ii. 205, 486, 503
Edwards, i. 126
Eg-gs of Frogs, ii. 265
Egg-placer, ii. 331.
Ehrenberg , i. 148
Elater, ii. 251
Electric-eel, ii. 402
Electric-fishes, ii. 396
Electricity, ii. 250
Elephant, ii. 199, 235, 498
Ellis, i.245; ii. 10
Elytra, ii. 145
Emu, i. 46; ii. 156
Enchelis, i. 153
Encrinites, ii. 10
Encrinus, ii. 13
Enhydra, i. 134
Entimus, ii. 366
Entomostracans, ii. 19, 36, 129
Entozoa, i.319, 352; ii. 22
Epeira, ii. 186
Ephemera, i. 127 ; ii. 163
Equorea, ii. 101
Erinaceus, ii. 213
Escallop-shells, i. 254
Esox, ii. 71
Eudora, ii. 101
Euplcea, ii. 350
Exocoetus, i. 122; ii. 142
Extinct animals, i. 16, 37
Eye of Fishes, ii. 379
Eye-worms, i. 353
Fabricius, ii. 85
Falco, ii. 71
Fasciola, i. 320, 324
Feathers, ii. 153
Feelers, ii. 112
Felis, ii. 71
Filaria, i. 324
Fills, ii. 135, 141
Fire, Inirod. xci
Fire-flies, ii. 351, 366
Firmament, Introd. Ixxxiv
Fishes, ii. 270, 371, 388
Fishing-frog, ii. 113, 389
Fistulidans, i. 201, 244
Flagrum, ii. 78
Flea, ii. 323
Flesh-fly, ii. 231, 325
Flight, ii. 155
Flight of Bats, ii. 156
Flight of Birds, ii. 155, 193
Flight of Insects, ii. 146
Fly-shooter, ii. 405
Fluke, i. 325, 352
Food of Animals, ii. 246
Forest-fly, ii. 317
Forficula, ii. 358
Fossil Animals, i. 387
Fox, ii. 269
French, ii. 225, 331
Freycinet, ii. 46
Frigate-bird, ii. 452
Frog-hopper, ii. 357
Fulica, i. 104
Furia, i. 361
Gad-fly, ii. 325
Gadus ^gelfinus, i. 1 1 1
Gadus Morhua, i. 110
Galathea, ii. 134
Galeodes, ii. 86, 88
Galeopithecus, ii. 159
Gallinago, i. 104
Gallinula, i. 104
Galls, ii. 331
Gall-flies, ii. 332
Gallus, ii. 461
Gaily- worm, ii. Q6
Gamasus, ii. 32
Garum, i. 112
Gaspard, i. 288
Gastropods, i. 267, 269; ii.
108
Gecko, ii. 121, 123, 192
Gecarcinus carnifex, i. 125
Gecarcinus Uca, i. 126
534
INDEX.
Gelasinuis pugillator, ii. 44
Gelasimus vocans, ii. 43
Gelatines, i. 195; ii. 101
Geoffroy^ ii. 431
Geophilus electricas, ii. 69, 129
Gills, ii. 374
Giraffe, ii. 174,501
Globulina, i. 162
Glomeris, ii. 65
Glow-worm, ii. 251, 366
Glutton, ii. 71
Gmelin, i. 108
Gnat, ii. 327
Gnu, ii. 203, 502
Goats-beard, ii. 248
Goby, ii. 380
Gods of the Heathen, Introd.
Ixxix. i. 365, 368
Goldfiiss, ii. 432
Gonyleptes, ii. 303
Gordius, i. 13
Gould, ii. 467
Grallatores, i. 106
Grant, ii. 16, 107
Grasshoppers, ii. 180, 356
Gravitation, ii. 241
Gray, i. 205, 347
Gregarious animals, i. 220
Ground-beetles, ii. 359
Gryllotalpa, ii. 172, 189
Guana, ii. 430, 434
Gubernacula, ii. 161
Guettard, ii. 13
Guilding,\. 271, 347; ii. 429
Guinea-worm, i. 352
Gymnotus, ii. 400
Gyrinus, i. 134
Haddock, i. 1 11
Hag, ii. 395
Hagenbachy ii. 359
Hair, i. 64, 370; ii. 151
Halicore Dugong, ii. 496
Halioore Tabernaculum, ii. 497
Halioti?, i, 274. 278; ii. Ill
Haltica, ii. 181, 364
Hamster, i. 20 ; ii. 505
Hancock, i. 122
Hand, ii. 215
Harpalus, ii. 71
Harris, i. 155
Hearing of Fishes, ii. 381
Hearne, ii. 210
Heat, ii. 250
Heavens, Introd. Ixxv. i. 336
Hectocotyle, i. 358
Hedgehog, ii. 213, 504
Hedysarum, i. 147 ; ii. 248
Heliconia, ii. 351
Heliocentris, ii. 285
Helix, i. 274,281 ; ii. Ill
Helix hortensis, i. 283
Helix pomatia, i. 283
Helminthologists, i. 15
Helsham, ii. 464
Hemiptera, ii. 355, 358
Hennas, i. 137
Hermit-crabs, ii. 245
Herodotus, Introd. Ixix. i. 336
Herring, i. 113
Herschel, i. 21
Hesychius, i. 338 ; ii. 1
Heteropods, i. 267, 301
Hexapods, ii. 74
Hexastoma, i. 358
Hippodamia, ii. 351
Hippopotamus, ii. 199, 498
Homdineans, i. 324
Hirudo, i. 334; ii. 117
Hirundo esculenta, ii. 263
Hirundo riparia, ii. 263
Hirundo rustica, i. 102 ; ii. 262
Hirundo urbica, ii. 263
Hister, ii. 363
Hive-bee, ii. 247, 337
Holman, ii. 336
Holothuria, ii. 102
Homaloptera, ii. 319, 323
Home, i. 244 ; ii. 395
Homoptera, ii. 319, 353
Hooke, i. 154
Hop, ii. 247
Hope, ii. 334
Hoplia, ii. 366
INDEX.
535
Hornets, ii. 335
Hornet-flies, ii. 357
Horns, i. 59 ; ii. 354
Horse, ii. 499
Horsfield, ii. 467
House-cricket, ii. 356
Humble-bees, ii. 188
Humboldt, i. 80 ; ii. 402
Humming-birds, i. 71
Hump, i. 62
Hurry, i. 338
Huso, i. 107
Hysena, ii. 71
Hyalsea, i. 268
Hybernation, ii. 249, 252
Hydatigera, i. 324
Hydatis, i. 329, 353
Hydra, i. 149, 166; ii. 100
Hydrargyra, i. 122
Hydrocampa, i. 134
Hydrophilidae, i. 134
Hydrophytes, i. 163
Hyla, ii. 192
Hymenoptera, ii. 209, 328,
335, 345, 504
lanthina, i. 291
Ichneumon, ii. 333, 368
Ichthyosaurus, i. 368
Idotea, ii. 77
Jenner, i. 99, 102; ii. 262
Jews, i. 81, 396
Iguana, i. 40 ; ii. 417
Iguanodon, i. 38, 40
Indicator, ii. 463
Indris, ii. 517
Infusories, i. 135, l49, 155,
401
Ink of Cuttle Fish, i. 309
Inoceramus, i. 20
Insects, ii. 316
Instinct, ii. 220,243, 245,253
Integuments, i. 399 ; ii. 476
Intellect, ii. 235, 358
Interagents, ii. 242
Invertcbrata, ii. 169
Johson, i. 32
Johnson, i. 321
Jones, i. 380
loterium, ii. 77
IrencEus, Introd. xcviii
Irradiation, Introd. xcvi
Isis, ii. 13, 244
Isopods, ii. 77
lulus, i. 348 ; ii. G5, 74
Jurine, ii. 147
Justin, M. Introd. xlviii
Ivy, ii. 248
Kanguroo, i. 46, 48; ii. 175,
478
Kamichi, ii. 454
Kircher, i. 21
Kidd, ii. 191
King, i. 154, 264
King-crab, ii. 19,23,32, 173
Koala, ii. 48, 211
Kotzebue, ii. 28
Kraken, i. 307
Lacepede, i. 1 15
La^ordaire, ii. 251, 361, 365
Lace-winged flies» ii. 357
Lagomys, ii, 507
Lamark, Introd. xxii. i. 150,
155,226
Langouste, ii. 49
Lanthorn-flies, ii. 354
La Place, Introd. xx. i. 21,
27
Laplysia, i. 270, 275, 305 ; ii.
Ill
Larvce, ii. 173
Latham, ii. 438
Latreille, i. 236; ii. 8,17,87,
&c.
Law, Introd. xxxviii. i. 302
Leach, ii. 306
Leather-devourers, ii. 362
Leech, i. 334 ; ii. 95
Le Clerc, i. 13
Leeuwenhoeck, i. 326
Legs, ii. 161, 172
Lemmings, ii. 505
53(i
INDEX.
Lemur, ii. 213
Lemmus amphibius, i. 133
Lemmus oeconomus, i. 91 ; ii.
505
Lemmus vulgaris, i. 91
Lepadites, ii. 3, 5
Lepas, ii. 1
Lepidoptera, ii. 319
Lerneans, ii. 22, 30
Le Sueur, i. 226, 264
Leucophrys, i. 153
Leviathan, ii. 409, 432
Libellulina, i. 134
Lice, i. 13, 371
Lightfoot, i. 9
Ligia, ii. 77
Limax, i. 274; ii. Ill
Limnia, i. 317
Limnoria, i. 243
Limulus, ii. 19, 32
Limpets, i. 272
Linguatula, i. 324
Linne, i. 15, 269
Lipurus, ii. 211, 490
Lister, ii. 285
Lithotrya, ii. 3
Lobster, common, ii. 50, 78
Lobster, thorny, ii. 49
Locusts, i. 89 ; ii. 356
Loligopsis, ii. 107
Lophius, ii. 137,389,406
Loricaria, ii. 142
Loxia, ii. 163
Lumbricinans, i. 334
Lumbricus, i. 13, 341
Lycoris, i. 347
Lyell, Introd. xxxii. i. 53
Mackarel, i. Ill
Mackenzie, i. 117
MacLeay, i. 319 ; ii. 2, 7
Macrocercus, i. 71
Macropodia, ii. 39
Macropus, ii. 175, 40
Mudox, i. 337
Madrepora, i. 179
Malacostracans, ii. 19, 59
Malte-Brun, i. 22, 51, 397
Malapterurus, ii. 397
Malthus, ii. 389, 407
Mammalians, ii. 260, 269, 476
Mammeiry organs, i. 476
Mammoth, i. 372
Man, i. 8; ii. 516
Manatee, ii. 136, 496
Manis, i. 399; ii. 206,476
Manitrunk, ii. 147
Mantell, i. 36, 38; ii. 11
Manticora, ii. 359
Mantis, ii. 356
Mantis-crabs, ii. 38
Marmot, ii. 504
Marsupians, ii. 211,478,487,
490
Marsupites, ii. 11
Martin, i. 339
Mastodon, i. 374
Matter, ii. 254
Medusa, i. 199; ii. 101
Megalosaurus, i. 37, 40
Megatherium, i. 399; ii. 476.
Meleagrina, i. 259
Melolonthidans, ii. 365
Menopoma, ii. 421
Mergus, i. 104
Merian, ii. 344
Metabolians, ii. 314, 316
Metamorphosis, ii. 26, 321
Migrations, i. 88
Millepedes, ii. 65, 71
Miller, ii. 10, 13
Mites, ii. 304
Mola, i. 358 ; ii. 384
Mole, ii. 213
Mole-cricket, ii. 172, 182, 356
Molluscans, i. 234, 265, 293 ;
ii. 125
Monas, i. 162, 354; ii. 94.
Mongol, i. 73
Monitor, i. 40; ii. 430
Monkey, ii. 213
Monoceros, i. 279
Monodon, ii. 494
Monoculus, ii. 2, 21
INDEX.
537
Monotbyra, i. 266
Mouotiemes, ii. 83, 206, 483,
489
Montague , ii. 307
Moongeeara, ii. 340
More, ii. 254
Mormolyce, ii. 359
Motion, ii. 93
Miiller, i. 155, 321, 356
Murex, i. 296
Muskdeer, ii. 501
Mycetophagus, ii. 363
Mygale, ii. 286
Myriapods, ii. 64, 74, 129
Myrmecophaga, ii. 336
Myrmica, ii. 340
Mytilus, i. 259
Myxine, ii. 123
Myoxus, ii. 504
Nais, i. 323
Nandu, ii. 459
Narwhal, ii. 494
Natatores, i. 106
Natatory Organs, ii. 131
Nature, Introd. xxxiii
Nauplius, ii. 25
Nautilus, i. 301 ; ii. 105
Necropliaga, ii. 70
Necrophagus, ii. 70
Necrophorus, ii. 71
Negro, i. 73
Nepbrops, ii. 50
Nereideans, i. 333, 346; ii. 128
Nereis, i. 348
Nerita, i. 274
Neritina, i. 274
Nests, Birds, ii. 263
Nests, Fishes, ii 384
Neuroptera, ii. 319, 351
Nibblers, ii. 209
Nicholson, ii. 401
Nipples, ii. 476
Nicothoe, ii. 35
Nirnius, i. 132
Nitrogen, i. 139
Niizch, ii. 470
Nordmann, i. 355 ; ii. 22
Numeniiis, i. 104
Nycteribia, ii. 307
Oak-gall, ii. 332
Obisium, ii. 90, 303
Ocypode, ii. 43
Ocythoe, i. 311
Octopus, i. 308 ; ii. 105
Oestrus, ii. 325
Olivier, ii. 43, 86
Oniscus, ii. 77
Operculum, i. 277,279
Ophidians, ii. 71, 130, 179,
264
Ophiotheres, ii. 178
Opossum, i. 37; ii. 491
Oppian, i. 312
Orbicula, i. 275
Orders, of Animals, Infusiories,
i. 156
Polypes, i. 166
Radiaries, i. 195
Tunicaries, i. 218
Molluscans, i. 237,267
Cephalopods, i. 306
Worms, i. 319
Annelidans, i. 333
Cirripedes, ii. 3
Entomostracans, ii. 21
Crustaceans, ii. 41
Myriapods, ii. 64
Arachnidans, ii. 282
Pseudarachnidans, ii.
303
Acaridans, ii. 305
Insects, ii. 317
Fishes, ii. 388
Reptiles, ii. 415
Birds, ii. 444
Mammalians, ii. 483
Orchesia, ii. 42
Ornithorliynchus, i. 48 ; ii. 82,
206, 489
Osculant Orders, ii. 317
Oscillatoria, i. 145, 162
Osier, i. 241, 247
538
INDEX.
Ospbronemus, ii. 384
Ostrich, i. 31; ii. 156,459
Ovibos, i. 95
Ovis Aries, i. 63
Owen, i. 207, 301, 310; ii.
105, 412, &c. &c.
Oxygen, i. 139, 147
Oxyurus, i. 325
Oyster, i. 257
Pachyderms, ii. 97, 485, 497
Paddles, ii. 143
Pages, ii. 451
PaguruSj ii. 45
Pagurus Bernhardus, ii. 47
Pagiirtis clibanarius, ii. 46
Pagurus Diogenes, ii. 47
Palsemon, ii. 38
Palamedea cornuta, ii. 454
Paley, i. 225
Palinurus, ii. 49
Pallas, I 107; ii. 86,507
Palpi, ii. 78, 83, 112
Pandalus, ii. 38
Papilio, ii. 349
Parasites, ii. 30, 315, 332
Parnassius, i. 131
Parrot, i. 71
Parts reproduced, ii. 382
Patella, i. 272
Pearls, i. 259
Pearl-fishery, i. 260
Pecten, i. 254
Pedimane, ii. 491
Pediculus, i. 13
PediculusNigritarum,i. 85,372
Pedipalps, ii. 299
Pediremes, ii. 123
Pegasus, ii. 142
Pelecanus, ii. 195
Pennant, i. 92
Pentacrinites, ii. 12
Pentacrinus, ii. 13
Pentelasmis, i. 278 : ii. 3
Perca fluviatilis, ii. 31
Perca lucioperca, ii. 31
Perca scandens, i. 123 ; ii. 48
Perch-pest, ii. 31
Perchers, ii. 465
Percival, i. 340
Periophthalmus, ii. 380
Peripatus, i. 347 ; ii. 128
Peron, i. 178, 224, 226
Periwinkle, i. 274
Petaurus, ii. 159
Petricola, i. 248
Phalangista, ii. 159, 490
Phalangium, ii. 90
Phalaropes, ii. 457
Phanseus, ii. 365
Phascochoerus, ii. 200
Phascolomys, ii. 490
Philo, Introd. Ixxxii, xcvii, i.
137
Phoca, i. 134; ii. 232
Pholas, i. 245, 250, 405
Phosphoric animals, i. 179, 190
Phrynus, ii. 87, 90
Phyllium, ii. 356
Phyllodoce, i. 347
Phyllosoma, ii. 59
Physalis, i. 198
Physsophora, i. 195
Phytomyza, ii, 354
Picus, ii. 194
Pika, ii. 507
Pileopsis, i. 274
Pimelodus, ii. 421
Pinna, i. 252
Pinnophylax, i. 253
Pinnotheres, i. 253
Pioneer-spider, ii. 289
Pisidius, ii. 224
Plague of flies, ii. 357
Planaria, i. 320, 353
Planorbis, i. 316
Plant-animals, i. 156; ii. 94
Plantigrades, ii. 212
Plants and animals, i. 139, 216 ;
ii. 246
Platalea, ii. 125.
Plato, i. 148
Plesiosaurus, i. 31, 36S
Plimj, i. 157, 253, 312
INDEX.
539
Ploceus, ii. 466
Plumier, i. 299
Poecilopods, ii. 22, 35
Poison-fangs, ii. 82
Poll, i. 249, 252, 257
PoUyxenus, ii. 66
Polygastrica, i. 156
Polypary, i. 173, 182
Polype, i. 5, 156, 166
Polypi natantes, i. 178
Polypi tubiferi, i. 168
Polypi vaginati, i. 173
Polystoma, i. 358
Pompilus, ii. 330
Pontoppidan, i. 307
Population, i. 397
Poulpe, i. 308
Poultry, i. 60.
Power y i. 154
Prairie-dog, ii. 504
Predaceans, ii. 212, 487, 514
Prehensory toe, ii. 214
Proboscis, ii. 201
Proteus, i. 35, 40; ii. 418
Protophyta, i. 145
Protozoa, i. 145, 156
Pseudoscorpions, ii. 203
Psophia, ii. 455
Pterodactylus, ii. 342
Pteromyzon, ii. 123
Pteropods, i. 267, 302 ; ii. 132
Pteroptes, ii. 305
Pulex irritans, ii. 323
Pulex penetrans, i. 13
Pulmonaries, ii. 281
Punitive animals, i. 12
Pupipara, ii. 317, 324, 332
Purple die, i. 29.J
Purpura, i. 298
Pygolampis, ii. 251, 367
Pyrites, i. 193
Pyrosoma, i. 178, 223; ii. 95
Python, ii. 427
Quadrumanes, i. 71; ii. 213,
488, 516
Quadrupeds, i. 5
Quagga, i. 99
Radiaries, i. 319
Raffles, i. 174
Rafinesque, i. 31 1
Raia, ii. 137
Ramond, i. 70
Ranatra, i. 134
Rat, i. 92
Rat-hare, ii. 507
Ratlike, ii. 79
Raveners, ii. 470
Rays, ii. 385
Razor-shell, i. 240
Reaumur, i. 246 ; ii. 52
Rectrices, ii. 163
Reiii-deer, i. 95; ii. 182
Reptiles, ii. 264, 271
Reptiles, system of, ii. 414
Requins, ii. 385
Rhea, ii. 497
Rhinoceros, i. 19,374; ii. 199,
498
Rhizostoma, i. 198
Rhizotrogus, ii. 365
Richardson, i. 63, 90, 94, 97 ;
ii. 209, 511
Ripiphorus, ii. 334
Rodents, ii. 209, 260, 485, 503j
514
Roget, ii. 130
Rosa, i. 180
Rosel, ii. 190
Rotatories, i. 150, 156; ii. 97
Rotifera, ii. 97
Rove-beetles, ii. 360
Ruminants, ii. 203, 486, 500
Rumphius, i. 180
Ruppel, ii. 497
Rusconi, ii. 423
Sabella, i. 343, 345
Salamandra, ii. 424
Salamandra aquatica, i. 134
Salamandra platycaula, ii. 265^
421
Salmo alpinus, i. 116
540
INDEX.
Salino eperlanus, i. 116
Salmo Hucho, i. 116
Sulmo Fario, i. 1 16
Salmo Salar, i. 1 1 6
Salmo thymallus, i. 116
Salmo Trutta, i. 1 16
Salpa, i. 222, 350 ; ii. 95
Sanguisuga, i. 334; ii. 117
Sarcophaga carnaria, ii. 71
Sarcophagus, ii. 325
Sarcoptes scabiei, i. 13
Sarcorhamphus, i. 131
Saurians, i. 31 ; ii. 143, 179, 264
Sauvages, ii. 287
Savicjny, i. 223, 228, 333, 336 ;
ii. 88
Saw-flies, ii. 318
Saxicava, i. 248
Say^ ii. 491
Scales of tisbes, ii. 376
Scales of wings, ii. 150
Scaphites, i. 20
Scarabseus, ii. 359, 362
Scheuchzer, i. 86
Scillsea, i. 269
Scolex, i. 338
Scolopax gallinago, ii. 195
Scolopax gallinula, ii. 195
Scolopax rusticola, ii. 195
Scolopenclra, i. 347; ii. 65, 67
Scolopendra phosphorea, ii. 69
Scomber Pelamis, i. 358
Scomber Scombrus, i. 1 12
Scomber Thynnus, i. 112
Scoresby, ii. 493
Scorpions, ii. 89, 90, 300
Scutigera, ii. 67
Sea-anemones, i. 244
Sea-devils, ii. 386
Sea-pens, i. 164
Sea-urchins, i. 186
Sea-unicorn, ii. 494
Segestria pertida, ii. 294
Segestria scnoculator, ii. 294
Sepia, i. 306
Sepiola, ii. 165
Seps, ii. 179
Seraphim, hit rod. c, note
Serpents, i. 32; ii. 130, 409
Serpula, i. 343
Serpuleans, i. 334
Sertularia, i. 168
Setiger, ii. 506
Setiremes, ii. 133
Shark, i. 31 ; ii. 379, 385
Shaw, ii. 29
Sheep, Guinea, i. 64
Sheep, Merino, i. 64
Sheep, Parnassiam, i. 65
Ship-worms, i. 243, 249
Siliquaria, i. 344
Silpha, ii. 71
Siluridans, ii. 140
Simia, ii. 213
Singing-birds, ii. 436
Siren, i. 31; ii. 413, 417
Sky, Introd. Ixxxi.
Sloths, ii. 208
Slugs, ii. 112
Snails (eyes), i. 282 ; ii. 11 1
Scent of fishes, ii. 381
Solen, i. 238
Soliped, ii. 192
Solomon's Ant, ii. 345
Solpuga, ii. 85, 88, 127
Sjyallanzcmi, i. 100, 151
Sparrman, i. 94 ; ii. 426
Spatangus, i. 213
Spe7icc,\, 101; ii. 222, 273
Spermophilus, ii. 504
Sphargis, i. 31 ; ii. 143
Sphinx, ii. 349
Sphodrus, i. 52
Spiders, ii. 183,271, 283
Spiders, retiaries, ii. 185, 295
Spiders, trap-door, ii. 288, 292
Spider's web, ii. 283
Spines, i. 205
Spirit, ascent to, ii. 254
Spirit, evil, ii. 387
Spirit of Nature, ii. 254
Spirula, i. 316 ; ii. 108
Spondylus, i. 256
Spongia, i. 167, 175
INDEX.
r)4i
Spoon-bill, ii. 195
Squilhi Mantis, ii. 39, 58
Sqiialus, maximus, ii. 385
Squirrel, common, ii. 163
Squirrel, flying, ii. 145, 159
Stag-beetles, ii. 148
Stapelia, ii. 231
Staphylinus, ii. 360
Sfau7iton, i. 397
Star-fish, i. 201
Stetchbury, i. 264
Stelleridans, i. 201, 235
Stenosoma, ii. 71, 143
Stone-borers, i. 239
Stone-eaters, i. 247
Storge, ii. 258, 279, 440
Stratyomis, i. 160
Strepsiptera, ii. 318
Strix, ii. 472
Strongylus, i. 324
Struthio-camelas, ii. 459
Subterranean-fishes, ii. 420
Succinea, i. 291
Suckers, i. 205, 335; ii. 114
Sula Bassana, ii. 452
Sun-flower, ii. 247
Sus Babyrussa, ii. 200
Sus Scrdfa. ii. 200
Swallow, i. 102; ii. 262
Swimmers, ii. 449
Swine, i. 61, 79; ii. 199,498
Sycophant-beetle, ii. 360.
Sykes, ii. 339
Sylvia cisticola, ii. 467
Symbols, i. 149
System, nervous, ii. 274
Systems, i. 234
Tabernacle, hitrod. Iv, Iviii
Tachypetes, aquila, ii. 452
Taenia, i. 324, 327
Tailor bird, ii. 466
Tails, ii. 165
Talpa, ii. 213
Tape worms, i. 326
Tapir, ii. 499
Tardigrades, ii. 208
Teeth of fishes, ii. 381
Tellina, i. 265
Tettigonia, ii. 257
Tettix, ii. 354
Temperature, connected with
torpidity, ii. 249, 506
Temple of God, Introd. Iv
Tenrec, ii. 506
Tentacles, Polypes, ii. 99
Tentacles, Annelidans, Cirri-
pedes, ii. 113
Tentacles, Cephalopods, ii. 104
Tentacles, Fishes, ii. 112
Tentacles, Molluscans, ii. 110
Tentacles, Radiaries, ii. 101
Tentacles, Tunicaries, ii. 102
Tenthredo, ii. 331
Terebratula, i. 262
Teredo, i. 238, 243
Termes lucifuga, ii. 346
Tethydans, i. 218
Tethys, i. 269
Tetrabranchiata, i. 306
Tetragnatha, ii. 85
Tetrao, ii. 164
Tetrapneumones, ii. 285
Thalassina, ii. 39
Thalydans, i. 218
Thelyphonus, ii. 87, 90
Theocritus, i. 338
Thompson^ ii. 8
Thunny, i. 112; ii. 379
Thysanura, ii. 314
Tiger-beetles, ii. 272, 350
Tiger-beetles, grubs of, ii. 360
Toads in marble, ii. 411
Todus, i. 339
Trachelipods, i. 267, 276, 295
Tree Ant, ii. 340, 345
Tree Lobster, ii. 48
Trembley/i. 165, 171
Trichechus, i. 134
Trichoptera, i. 134 ; ii. 318, 352
Trichocephalus, i. 325
Tridacne, i. 251
Trigonia, i. 263
Trigozo, ii. 283
542
INDEX.
Trilobites, ii. 61
Trionyx, ferox, ii, 417, 433
Tristoma, i. 358
Trochilus, i. 336, 337 ; ii. 194
Trochus, i. 280
Trox, ii. 363
Tubicinella, i. 277
Tubularia, i. 345
Tunicaries, i. 217
Turbo, i. 274
Turdus, ii. 474
Turdus gryllivorus, i. 92
Turdus pilaris, i. 104
Turtle, ii. 442
Twining plants, ii. 247
Two hands of Nature, Introd.
xxxix.
Typhon, ii. 301
Unclean animals, ii. 69
Univalves, i. 266
Unger, i. 146
Uropoda vegetans, ii. 309
Ursus, ii. 212
Ursus Americanus, i. 97
Varieties, i. 59
Vehicle for the soul, i. 369
Vellela, i. 195, 197
Vermetus, i. 344
Vertebrata, ii. 169
Verulam, Lord, Introd. xxxix,
xliii
Vespa, ii. 334
Vibrio, i. 150, 154, 159
Virey, i. 124; ii. 243
Volucella, ii. 326
Voluta sethiopica, ii. 1 1 1
Vou Baer, i. 3 20 ; ii. 35
Vorticella, ii. 32, 97, 350
Vultur barbatus, i. 69
Vultur percnopterus, i. 69
Wasps, ii. 335, 336
Waders, ii. 177
Walckenaer, ii. 87, 285
Weavers, ii. 293
Weaver birds, ii. 46
Web, spider's, ii. 283
Westwood, ii. 80
Whale, i. 30, 69, 157, 199; ii.
493
Wheel-animal, ii. 97
White ants, ii. 346, 352
White coral, i. 180
Windpipe, ii. 437
Wings, ii. 144, 152
Wings of insects, ii. 147
Wing-shell, i. 292
Wryneck, ii. 464
Xiphias, i. 358
Yarrel, ii. 438, 457
Yunx torquilla, ii. 464
Zebu, i. 68
Zoea, ii. 8
Zoobotryon, i. 351
Zoomyza, ii. 355
Zoophaga, ii. 70, 487
Zoophagous animals, ii. 70
Zoophytes, i. 54
FINIS.
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